Budget Proposals Take Different Approach to National Parks
By Rocky Thompson on March 15th, 2013
The sequestration is in effect, at least for now. This is the across-the-board budget cuts that affect all government institutions. One person compared this method of cost cutting to trying to lost 10lbs, but instead of concentrating on stomach fat you hire a surgeon to remove equal parts of every vital piece of your body.
Under Paul Ryan’s GOP proposal the Park Service would have to close “hundreds of national parks … for parts of the year” beginning in 2014. Under Patty Murray’s Democratic proposal, the cuts ordered by the sequester would be replaced with new revenues and spending cuts, but it would fail to immediately balance the budget, something Ryan’s proposal accomplishes.
Whether you’re a climber or just an outdoor athlete you may be able to run an ultra, or ski a double black…but pull-ups? Engineer (and climber) Kyle Hill argues that the physics of the pull-up indicate that not only can you train for it, but women, who often say they don’t have the upper body strength for it, are psyching themselves out. He says that especially long arms can make pull-ups more difficult and that really muscular men will struggle, but that lots of women climbers find that just climbing alone gives them the build to yank themselves up. The daunting part is patience; it often takes a year or so of steady work. Which is probably easier than training for an ultra. Via 
New Hampshire’s Whaleback is one of those small links to skiing that make it a family activity — not a “resort” activity. You know, brown bags in the lodge, duffels of street clothes left in the open in perfect safety, etc. Sadly the debt-laden hill, despite being a training ground to 47 school racing teams every week, is shutting down. Part of the struggle of any small ski area is financing the cost of snowmaking, an absolute necessity in the East, where Mother Nature is far too fickle for most mountains (except Mad River Glen) to rely solely on natural snow. For Whaleback the story is the same, though the operators hold out hope that a co-op model may work in the future. Via 
It’s just possible that on ancient Mars there was life. An analysis of a rock sample collected by NASA’s Curiosity rover shows Mars could have supported living microbes because that rock shows the chemical compounds of sulfur, nitrogen, hydrogen, oxygen, phosphorus, and carbon — some of the key chemical ingredients for life. Curiosity was looking in a fortuitous spot, near an ancient stream bed. The data indicate it was the end of an ancient river system or an intermittently wet lake bed that could have provided chemical energy and other favorable conditions for microbes. Scientists say even the interaction of the chemicals with the environment mimic conditions on earth, giving an even stronger indication that microbial life did once exist on the red planet. Via 
Nick
About a month ago, a San Mateo, California, judge made it pretty clear that a trespassing case against five surfers who tried to access Martin’s Beach, about halfway between Monterey and San Francisco, wasn’t just wrong, but that the road to the beach must be open to the public and the trespassing charge was 100 percent bogus. That’s in compliance with California’s Coastal Act that allows any citizen access to the ocean. Period. Or not quite period. Because now Surfriders Foundation has filed a suit claiming that the landowners weren’t just wrong to gate the road: They knowingly disobeyed the law, and have done so since 2009. That’s when a judge ruled that they had to “comply with the administrative process provided by the California Coastal Act.” The land owner never did a thing, and that, Surfrider says, is in contempt of the act. What’s the big deal? If a court finds in Surfrider’s favor the land owners could be in hock for millions in fines and restitution. Via 
Jeff Walker of Aspen has been missing in, presumably, Highlands Bowl, since Saturday and the family of the 55-year-old man has consulted psychics to help find him. Their advice could be a little more specific, however: They suggested to search skier’s right on the mountain, and anyone who knows Highlands Bowl knows it’s all “right”; the entire face runs in a series of fall-line chutes bisected by rock outcroppings and tight stands of aspen and conifers. But it certainly can’t hurt, as several hundred search and rescue members have been out looking for Walker since he was reported missing late Saturday. His pass was last scanned at a lift on the mountain around mid-day, and he was a noted aficionado of the Bowl, so it’s where the search has concentrated already. Unfortunately even though Walker’s jacket was equipped with a Recco beacon, a helicopter flyover using Recco detection equipment didn’t pick up any signal. Via 
You know that old saying that it’s better to be lucky than good? Well Lindsey Vonn is good, but right now one of her knees is busted and it still doesn’t matter, because Vonn won her sixth straight World Cup downhill title after Wednesday’s race in Lenzerheide, Switzerland, was canceled because of fog. The cancellation allowed Vonn to win the title by one point over Tina Maze of Slovenia.”OMG I won the World Cup Downhill title!!!!! 6 in a row with a bum knee! Everything in life comes back around,” Vonn tweeted after the race was canceled. Maze only needed to finish in the top 14 on Wednesday to seal the victory, but she was gracious about the loss, knowing that two years ago it was Vonn who was denied a fourth straight overall title when weather canceled the season-ending GS in Lenzerheide. That year Vonn lost by three points to Maria Hoefl-Riesch of Germany. Via 
Each generation rises higher. There was once a time that most basketball players couldn’t dunk…really. Oops…gotta go. My dinosaur is calling.