The Post-World War II Origin and Evolution of Mountain Snowshoes and Mountain Snowshoeing in North America

The origins of mountain snowshoes can be traced back to the 1940s and 1950s, when small, maneuverable wooden frames were developed in the Adirondacks and Green Mountains. Fixed traction devices and forward hinge points originated in the Cascades in the late 1950s, enabling better access to steep terrain. The 1960s brought strong, lightweight aluminum-framed snowshoes from the Sierra Nevada. During this time, neoprene-coated nylon began to replace rawhide lacing and bindings in the Adirondacks, while neoprene-coated nylon decking was first used in the Cascades. Integrated plastic frame/decking snowshoes were a 1960s Rockies weight- and labor-saving innovation. From the Cascades in the early 1970s came hinged pivot bindings, with attached claws, that provided better traction and tracking. Integrated aluminum frame/decking snowshoes came from the Sierra Nevada in the 1980s. Fixed-pivot bindings and rear traction cleats for added maneuverability and stability originated in the Rockies and Sierra Nevada in the late 1980s and early 1990s. More substantial and user-friendly bindings also developed in the Green Mountains during this time. Further refined, integrated plastic frame/decking snowshoes from the Rockies came along in the 1990s. In the last decade, innovations from the Cascades and Rockies included integrated aluminum frame/traction snowshoes that further enhanced stability on steep slopes. Seventy years of research and development across North America has resulted in smaller, lighter, stronger, and more maneuverable mountain snowshoes. These innovations, and aggressive marketing initiated in the late 1980s, have helped snowshoeing become the fastest-growing winter sport in the U.S., with approximately five million participants

Cash, Credit or Cell Phone? How to Influence Public Preferences about Payment Systems

The paper examines how the government can influence the public’s choice of a particular payment system: not only existing systems like credit and debit cards, but innovative products such as stored value cards, electronic checks and electronic money. The success or failure of a new payment system can have a large economic impact, with shifts toward electronic payment options in particular having the potential to save up to one percent of a nation’s gross domestic product. For the United States, that translates to approximately one hundred billion dollars worth of savings. Whether a new payment system succeeds or fails depends upon social acceptance; that is, consumers and merchants have to simultaneously embrace the new payment option. Government action, both direct and indirect, can strongly influence consumer and merchant behavior. Whether and how the government affects payment preferences depends on whether the government is acting as fiduciary, seller, or law-maker; its precise goal; and the particular sort of payment system at issue. Depending on the situation, the government may (1) provide information that allows individuals to coordinate behavior, (2) pass legislation or adopt policies aimed at reducing concerns about a particular system, (3) provide incentives to induce individuals to adopt new payment systems, or (4) force change by eliminating or curtailing the older payment form. The paper suggests that in the realm of payments, governmental efforts to influence behavior will be most successful if they force change, not if they gently influence public preferences. This conclusion runs counter to the common wisdom in the social norms literature that law most effectively influences behavior when it promotes incremental advancement, not wholesale change. Because payment methods are poised to continue the massive evolution that has occurred over the past twenty-five years, advocates of new systems are increasingly likely to attempt to involve government in promoting their fledging payment mechanisms. The paper suggests that government intervention, although often successful, is usually unwise for at least three reasons. First, technology moves quickly and the government usually moves slowly. Second, with a bit of time, new payment systems that are sufficiently advantageous to the public are likely to flourish without governmental intervention. Third and finally, governmental intervention may have the unintended consequence of undermining the incentive to invest in new payment technologies in the first instance

The Moxee City (Washington) Mammoth: Morphostratigraphic, Taphonomic, and Taxonomic Considerations

A nearly complete, but highly fractured, proboscidean tusk was unearthed during parking lot construction near Moxee City in central Washington in May 2001. Schreger angle analysis revealed that the tusk was from a mammoth. AMS radiocarbon dating of the tusk established that the mammoth died 14,570 14C yr BP. The age, combined with the biogeography of proboscidean finds in the Pacific Northwest, suggests the tusk is from a Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi). The condition of the tusk and its association with basalt and crystalline erratics suggest that a locally derived tusk was swept up in the advancing flood and transported to ∼320 m elevation, where it was deposited in the sediments of the 3rd of 3 Missoula Floods that are preserved in the area. The tusk\u27s weathering indicates subaerial exposure prior to burial in the slackwater sediments. Slackwater deposits at the site are pale, ∼30-100 cm thick, calcareous, fine-textured strata that include occasional coarse basalt and crystalline sand and gravel. They are intruded by numerous clastic dikes. The sediments encapsulating the tusk lack rhythmites because of their deposition in the nearshore zone of an ephemeral slackwater lake. The first 2 floods inundated the site between 15,300 14C yr BP and 14,570 14C yr BP, stripping the A horizon from a well-developed soil formed in alluvial fan sediments sitting above an Ellensburg Formation pediment. The last flood to reach the site occurred later than 14,570 14C yr BP, as indicated by the presence of the dated tusk. Post-flood and post-MSH S tephra loess derived from the Yakima River floodplain mantles these slackwater deposits. The Warden soil is forming in the now-stable loess parent material

Stream Tables and Watershed Geomorphology Education

Watersheds are basic landscape units that are fundamental to understanding resource and environmental issues. Stream tables may be an effective way to learn about watersheds and the dynamic processes, factors, and landforms within. We review the copious stream table literature, present new ideas for assembling stream tables, and provide a watershed approach to stream table exercises. Our stream table\u27s compact size and low cost permits the purchase and use of multiple units to maximize active learning. The included stream table modules allow introductory students to experiment and observe the effects of factors-i.e., climate (Module A-Precipitation, Overland Flow, and Channel Initiation and Module B-Stream Discharge and Channel Formation), topography (Module C-Watershed Topography and Channel Formation), land cover (Module D-Watershed Cover Types and Channel Formation), and base level (Module E-Local Base Level Changes via Dams and Reservoirs) -on fluvial processes and landforms in a watershed. Course evaluations and exams show that students enjoy the stream table exercise more, and learn the concepts of fluvial geomorphology better, than via traditional topographic map and aerial photograph interpretation exercises

SB55-13/14: Divestment

SB55-13/14: Divestment. This resolution passed 17Y-9N on a roll call vote during the February 12, 2014 meeting of the Associated Students of the University of Montana (ASUM)

False Positives and False Negatives in Capital Cases

Symposium: Toward A Model Death Penalty Code: The Massachusetts Governor\u27s Council Report

False Positives and False Negatives in Capital Cases

Symposium: Toward A Model Death Penalty Code: The Massachusetts Governor\u27s Council Report

SB30-13/14: The Ryman Mall

SB30-13/14: The Ryman Mall. This resolution passed during the October 30, 2013 meeting of the Associated Students of the University of Montana (ASUM)

Comity & Federalism in Extraterritorial Abortion Regulation

On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court decided Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization and held that states may regulate abortion in whatever manner they wish. In the wake of Dobbs, commentators and laypersons have focused primarily on its implications for reproductive rights and other fundamental rights—such as gay marriage. Less often discussed are the questions that arise regarding state extraterritorial jurisdiction. Since Dobbs, a patchwork of laws has developed: pro-life states have placed greater restrictions on abortion, while pro-choice states have sought to expand abortion access. Questions have arisen regarding whether and to what extent states may regulate the out-of-state conduct of pregnant women who seek abortions, those who provide assistance to pregnant women seeking to terminate a pregnancy, and abortion providers. This patchwork has the potential to generate interstate conflict and creates new urgency for thinking about the legal and constitutional principles that constrain state extraterritorial legislative jurisdiction. This Article first outlines each states abortion laws, then explores state legislative jurisdiction, and the various barriers that constrain expansive legislative jurisdiction, and finally identifies why expansive legislative jurisdiction would be detrimental to both the Union and individual liberties. Ultimately, the current doctrine has gaps that create risks for comity among the states, and for individuals and businesses attempting to conform to the law of a given state. These gaps should be closed, and should be closed in a way that preserves horizontal federalism