Nice Slender Pine

Climbed this in the sun this afternoon…

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On setting up I learned two things: 1) My big shot will just shoot a 14oz bag to the highest point my throwline will go over and still reach the ground. 2) My throwline is exactly the same length as my rope. Thus, my rig looked like this as I clipped in…..

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After that, though it was just a lovely ascent through the void… well, through the holly bush and creepers mucking up the bottom of the tree, and the many pine cones wanting to get into my t-shirt.

Surprisingly Tricky Beech

Too many limbs! And too many little pinch-point throwline-traps - one of which we found. Then just throwing turned out to be problematic as the bag kept bouncing into the TOO MANY limbs! Once up, just navigating a route is a challenge. But at the top - mmm-hmm - sunny views!

>35m Sprydon Sequoia

This is properly tricky as the first fifteen metres comprise only downward-sloping limbs… You can see Jos in the first picture having slid his anchor down the limb to the first fork during his ascent. The heavy rain in the morning and moss on the limbs made it ridiculously slippery. This needed some quite tricky re-jigging and it did feel a teeny bit precarious during that corrective operation.

Once that was done, though, the view - and the wind - was absolutely tremendous!

I climbed down to what I estimated was half-way and set a doubled-rope anchor with my 45m rope, which at the ground left me six inches spare….. I give it a conservative estimate of at least 35m high.

Monumental Coastal Douglas Fir

I just climbed this for a birthday treat, having checked it out last week on a beautiful sunny day when my gear was an hour’s drive away at home…. It is the largest Douglas Fir in Britain, described here as

“…believed to have been planted by the Earl of Portsmouth in the pinetum of Eggesford House from the first seeds sent to Britain by David Douglas. It was already the biggest known in Britain by 1867. Heavy low limbs suggest the site was quite exposed when the tree was young, but it is now deeply sheltered by Forestry Commission plantings now up to 51m tall all around it. It is just possible to thread the tape between the low limbs and to obtain a fairly meaningful girth.

The girth of the tree, measured at a height of 1.20 m, is 7.80 m (May 2013, TheTreeRegisterOwenJohnson). Its height is exactly 41 m (May 2013, Laser with Two-point measurement (e.g. Nikon Forestry 550/Pro) - sine method, TheTreeRegisterOwenJohnson).”

The top of the rope in this image shows where I was when I reached the end of my 42m rope coming down…

I’m proud of myself for climbing it very respectfully - using a tube cambium saver all the way up and all the way down again, and not breaking a single branch or twig.

There are a number of secondary growths from near the base that are each the size of mature firs, so you can climb them each individually or switch around in the canopy. It’s like an antique playground.

See the rest of the pics in the gallery below.

Dean Town

Look at this. Look at this because, a) Mandolin funk. Isn’t that enough…?! But over and above anything else, b) Joe Dart ladies and gentlemen. Joe Dart. Bass player with the world’s funkiest neck.

Gaelynn Lea

Christ this is beautiful.

Gaelynn Lea, the winner of NPR's second annual Tiny Desk Contest, makes music like nobody else. Her sounds are steeped in the deep melodies of great Irish fiddle tunes, but her performance and singing style aren't traditional.

A House Full of Women

Dad's penis would like it noted that it seems his family has taken again to leaving balled-up urine-soaked toilet paper stuck to the upper front surface of the toilet bowl, where said penis, being pendulous and dignified, mushes it's unsuspecting face when its owner sits on the toilet in the dark.

This is an unfavorable state of affairs.

Dad's penis would like it further noted that its owner NEVER leaves the seat up, and is thus in considerable lavatory credit, and therefore deserves empathy and respect.

So flush please. Or make sure the tissue goes into the bottom of the bowl.

We thank you.

Update:

 

Facebook hates you

Important Facebook-is-Evil news neatly summarised at BoingBoing. 

 

Summary of key issues from the Six4Three files

1. White Lists

Facebook have clearly entered into whitelisting agreements with certain companies, which meant that after the platform changes in 2014/15 they maintained full access to friends data. It is not clear that there was any user consent for this, nor how Facebook decided which companies should be whitelisted or not.

2. Value of friends data

It is clear that increasing revenues from major app developers was one of the key drivers behind the Platform 3.0 changes at Facebook. The idea of linking access to friends data to the financial value of the developers relationship with Facebook is a recurring feature of the documents.

3. Reciprocity

Data reciprocity between Facebook and app developers was a central feature in the discussions about the launch of Platform 3.0.

4. Android

Facebook knew that the changes to its policies on the Android mobile phone system, which enabled the Facebook app to collect a record of calls and texts sent by the user would be controversial. To mitigate any bad PR, Facebook planned to make it as hard of possible for users to know that this was one of th e underlying features of the upgrade of their app.

5. Onavo

Facebook used Onavo to conduct global surveys of the usage of mobile apps by customers, and apparently without their knowledge. They used this data to assess not just how many people had download ed apps, but how often they used them. This knowledge helped them to decide which companies to acquire, and which to treat as a threat.

6. Targeting competitor Apps

The files show evidence of Facebook taking aggressive positions against apps, with the consequence that denying them access to data led to the failure of that business.