Four days is a long weekend. I personally would welcome a forced vacation.
But if 1 piece of machinery really is that critical to your business, you'll have an identical standby ready to go when your primary one eventually craps out.
I've decided to let Apple handle inventorying my standby machine. I can walk into an Apple store and 5 minutes later be ready to go again. Then the high resale value of my old machine makes it easy to sell on craigslist.
Are they really a co-op any more, or has the organization been co-opted by executives?
Members can vote for board members, but only after they have been approved by the "Nominating and Governance Committee". Executive pay is also not disclosed.
REI used to offer a lifetime guarantee on every product they sold. Sadly, this was abused by many people which I believe left no other option than to limit it. This used to make up for paying full retail for everything. Backcountry.com soon followed suite by reducing their warranty accordingly.
As a climber, I've noticed their selection in that department has dwindled quite dramatically over the years.
Maybe these things aren't practical in today's world. For me, they are slowly transitioning from an amazing store I would plug every chance I got, to just another retailer.
If you're ever in Canada, be sure to check out MEC. They still have a lifetime guarantee and their house brand is top-notch and of exceptional value.
I was told by an REI employee that a large motivator for the change in return policy was the 2008 financial crisis. She mentioned a lot of people were returning decades old equipment. I personally feel a year is more than fair, and I have absolutely no reason to demand more from them in that regard.
From my view, the lifetime guarantee meant that REI's incentives were aligned with mine: stock only the highest quality items and have an extremely knowledgable staff to access my needs and pair me with said products.
I've had a couple instances were a product failed well outside of 1 year. I could have warrantied through the manufacturer, but REI handled it for me and I had a replacement in 5 minutes. That outstanding service is no longer.
No piece of equipment will last forever, though, and that lifetime guarantee wasn't sustainable.
Sure, if I take care of my boots they last a while. Should I get my money back or have them resoled for free if the glue fails 2x or 3x after the manufacturer said it was guaranteed? Probably not. If the DWR on my rain jacket can't be refreshed, or a plastic connector on an extendable hiking stick fails after a thousand miles in the mountains?
A year feels like a big change from "forever". Maybe 2 or 3 would have made a better headline, but again you've got people that will have learned about the program (I've been a member since 2003 and never knew about the lifetime guarantee...) and will pick stuff up with the express purpose of beating it up then getting it replaced or returned. That's not good to me as a co-op member, either, because it puts pressure on the company to raise prices to cover the cost of returns and repairs.
There are some products where a return period of greater than 1 year makes sense: Seasonal equipment that you can't use regularly. You may buy a snowboard or similar equipment, use it once, and then put it away until next season.
If on the second use (greater than 12 months later) they break, it would be nice to be able to return the equipment for being defective.
MEC is undergoing the same sort of changes, and becoming more of a regular big box retailer. It's distancing itself from its traditional backcountry outdoors focus and embracing urban recreation, such as running, cycling and yoga.
Open-net pen farmed salmon is done in the same water sources that wild salmon swim through. Farmed salmon have no natural predators so viruses are more readily transmitted to their wild counterparts. For more information: http://www.salmonconfidential.ca/
It sounds like he looped/threaded the midpoint of the rope around something and then rappelled on both strands. Once back in the building he could pull either end to retrieve the rope.
I recently watched DamNation [1] and was quite surprised at the shear number of dams located in the United States. The film claims that most have outlived their purpose. I can't recall the exact cost stated per fish to divert them around dams or raise them in a hatchery, but it was fairly high. The film's production quality was quite high and was fairly eye opening.
While doing a little googling, I found an article [2] claiming $7 million in fish ladder work after structural damage forced a reduction in water level. So perhaps this solution could be cost effective or quickly put in place in case damage occurs just before a run.
Per this comment, I checked out 'DamNation'. It was fascinating, thanks for the recommendation.
The number quoted as $9,000/'Snakeriver Sockeye' that made the 800 mile journey upstream to Redfish Lake, Idaho. In 1992, as they tell it, only one fish made it. But that apparently was the first year after the project began. Then again, only 243 made it 2011 [1]. Only ~1,500 made it back to Granite lake, which is 400 miles upstream [2]. So it's part of a larger problem in the area.
So the $40million spent equates to 222 fish per year on average.
I'm pretty sure the 'Fish Canon', however humane, can at least match the 1 fish every 36hrs rate of existing systems.
It's also worth noting the US Army Corp of Engineers ship large numbers of juvenile fish downstream on barges. Collecting them with the 'Fish Cannon' and then shipping them on barges back upstream (or furthest upstream lock) is just a budget/politics problem not one of technology.
Attempts to prohibit discrimination of sexual orientation and gender identity at the federal level (the same as sex, age, handicap, race, color, religion or national origin) via the Employee Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) have failed since 1994. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_Non-Discrimination_... for details.
I've been using Traveling Mailbox (travelingmailbox.com) for about a year and they've been great. First class customer support and very reasonable prices. My only complaint would be that using the NV satellite address introduces some lag as they forward items to NC for processing. Their web interface is functional and easy to use.
I used to be an ECM customer way back when, before they tripled their pricing as you mentioned.
But if 1 piece of machinery really is that critical to your business, you'll have an identical standby ready to go when your primary one eventually craps out.
I've decided to let Apple handle inventorying my standby machine. I can walk into an Apple store and 5 minutes later be ready to go again. Then the high resale value of my old machine makes it easy to sell on craigslist.