It was just a matter of time. climb_ca's favourite group, yes Poison. Anyway, some pretty amazing things going on at Everest. Yes, we all know about the Chi-knees and their antics, but apparently banners, obviously Tibetan, and including national flags are not to be flown and that's just the beginning. More here via K2Climb.net.

The flag affair Silvio Mondinelli reported that his team was instructed to avoid hanging (Italian) flags on top of their tents.

Doesn't stop there my friends.

First Everest climber down for Tibet A young, unguided American climber was kicked off the peak last week after police searched his backpack and found a Tibetan banner in it. The climber had little funds and bicycled around the area. He will now probably also lose the ten thousand US dollars in Nepali royalty fee he paid for the ascent.

China controlling Nepal’s air space? An increasing number of climbers report sketchy air flight situations. One who tried to rent a helicopter said that the Chinese are now in control of all of Nepali air space and only officially Chinese sanctioned flights are permitted. Another team reported, “we were supposed to fly to [Makalu] BC today, but we can’t get green light from Nepal’s government. Apparently, the Chinese are pressuring to avoid helicopters to charter foreigners to and from Everest and Makalu, located just 22 km, away.”

While I don't believe in mixing politics and ... well anything, a boycott of sorts for Beijing 2008 should be considered. Perhaps a day of media protest, i.e. no Bob Costas for a day, NBC pulling its coverage, dunno. The gross and blatant actions of the Chinese government shouldn't be tolerated, but they will be, as it is just a matter of time before the 1.6b person market opens up to worldwide corporate development; the Olympics, a few dead monks here and there, and squat toilets will be overlooked.

Well, it is green week, Earth Day, all that. The focus, as oil prices have reached almost $120, on alternative fuels is almost an obsession now, and rightly so. climb_ca and I joke about my Land Rover limited edition with 28s and Louis Vuitton interior, but the fact remains, it sits undriven, I drove a total of 2.2k miles last year and that's including a few trips to the Valley. Style, my friends, remains paramount for me. Enough about me, I wish we could find a better solution, but unfortunately the majority of the US feels entitled to a car, a gun, and tax payer subsidized home loans (uh, the government bailout of the banks that underwrote the CDOs and CLOs is being paid for by you, well more me because I'm loaded). Don't even bring up the stimulus check. The problem with bio-fuels is that they are incredibly inefficient to produce, what it takes to make ethanol is ridiculous, the fact that foodstuffs are used to make it even worse. As many parts of the world suffer from lack of food, does producing ethanol from potentially life saving corn make sense? Those jackasses in Nebraska would say yes, those of us on the coasts with further education would say no. More here about the moral implications of using food products for SUV juice.

Addiction, it is said, often blinds those so afflicted to the moral and ethical considerations of behaviors intent on satisfying their habits.

In our present oil addiction we so fervently have embraced corn ethanol as one solution to our petroleum dependency we have neglected to question the ethical and moral propriety of using food for fuel.

In 2005 we put about an eighth of the entire U.S. corn crop into our gasoline tanks. Those plump, golden kernels, once destined to become snack chips or cereals or tortillas or sweeteners, instead were converted into 4 billion gallons of ethanol and used as an additive to 150 billion gallons of gasoline consumed that year.

This year the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates farmers will plant a near-record 90 million acres of corn, the largest crop in 60 years and up 15 percent from last year, as the nation's farmers cash in on surging demand and prices.

Doing the math, the entire 2007 corn crop would produce about 36 billion gallons of ethanol, slightly more than a fifth of our annual gasoline needs. But gasoline accounts for less than half our daily minimum petroleum requirement of nearly 21 million barrels of oil per day of which 60 percent must be imported.

Most companies are green, that's all they think about, is the green. Get it? Zing High Five* Anyway, since this is becoming an issue for the 2008 Presidential race, and yesterday was Earth Day, and I just bought 10k shares each of Halliburton and Diamond Offshore today at a volume discount, let's look at this a bit more. Read more here via CNBC and some more here. Since this is an excrutiatingly boring topic for me, I'll throw in a racy picture. YAY. Teehee.

These days--and especially around Earth Day--companies want to be seen with an environmental halo.

But experts say many are guilty of "greenwashing" -- claims that mislead consumers, by words or image, about the environmenal impact of their products.

Consumers are catching on, however. And that could undermine the growing green movement in corporate America--and possibly invite government regulation.

“The timeframe for companies to get away with greenwashing is shrinking because the consumers are getting…much more skeptical of these kinds of these green claims,” says Scot Case, vice president of US operations for TerraChoice, an independent environmental marketing.

Well, tomorrow is Earth day, what does that mean? Well for the ladies, you can put down your shaver, unless you're from Berkeley which means it's still sealed; for the doods, you can grow out your pubes too, or engage in penis puppetry. Anyway, I will celebrate Earth day tomorrow by only buying environmental stocks like Schlumberger, Halliburton, Diamond Offshore, and Freeport Mining. My energy stocks have picked up enough this year to fund my suddenly manifest obsession of crotchless underwear, ask climb_ca, he knows my pain. Vividly. Honestly, I could care less about earth day, but for those who do, here's a nifty little blog to assist you on your way to a gluten free, non-hormone, cruelty free existence. Note, I didn't dangle the preposition on the last sentence, -10.

Have you heard of precycling before? I have to admit that I hadn’t heard of this term until a few weeks ago. Basically, precycling means reducing waste by avoiding purchasing items that will generate more waste.

Recycling is still something we should all do, as it helps reduce the amount of trash going int our landfills, but you should note that it requires a lot of energy to transport items, break them down and re-manufacture them.

Precycling is a way to stop waste before it even happens, allowing us to avoid the amount of stuff that gets sent to recycling centers and into landfills to begin with.

Well, seems like runout still can't figure out how to resize images.  Computers are a big step up from crayons.  Remember the greats of American running?  Frank Shorter, Bill Rogers, Alberto Salazar, and then ... no one for a while.  Little spurts here and there, but usually from naturalized Americans of African origin, not true corn-fed beef, whole milk drinking, knuckle-dragging Nebraskans.  Well my fellow Americans, wait no more, in that sport most emblematic of America - long distance running - we have a new king.  Well, at least a fast one.  More here via USA Today.

You can't call it an American record, since a marathon time depends on the course, conditions and so many other factors, but Ryan Hall's time of 2 hours, 6 minutes, 17 seconds in the London Marathon on Sunday was the fastest time ever for an American-born runner.

Hall, a 25-year-old who made his marathon debut in London last year with a 2:08:24, bettered his time on the same course by more than two minutes. For his efforts, Hall earns this week's USA TODAY Olympic Athlete of the Week award.

Wow, that's pretty fast.  Quick runout, do the math, that averages out to ... right, 2 minutes a mile*  Anyway, enough about me, indeed a fast time, let's see how he pans out and if, he enters the Pantheon of American running.