skategoat

Engage: http://ca.video.yahoo.com/video/play?vid=1523426&fr=&cache=1

I can say the *exact* same thing about fundamentalist Christians. Remember, the Scopes Trial was only 60 years ago and there are huge numbers of people in the West who believe in Intelligent Design. How stupid is that?

You guys ever hear of The Ten Commandments? #2 on the list is: You shall not make for yourself any idol, nor bow down to it or worship it. The Islamic law that forbids the rendering or depiction of the prophet Muhammad is based on that Commandment. You can call a person Muhammad but you can't call a teddy bear Muhammad because then you are creating an idol. This is a basic tenet of Sharia law. It takes about 5 minutes of research to understand this. I don't know how this person who lived and worked in Sudan would not understand this law. Would she sunbathe in a bikini in a local park? I mean, that's okay in London so why not?

To play devil's advocate, I'll point out that she was a guest in this country (Sudan) and she should have been aware of the local customs and laws. What do you think of this man's transgressions? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6440645.stm Are Thais a**holes and ***kers and whatever else Muslims have been called in this thread?

Very diplomatic of you. In other words, there are a lot of old farts on here.

I have a AWD 174 hand picked by Chris after a day of riding with him. I have a RaceCarve custom made by Bruce that's been my primary ride for 3 seasons. I don't own a Donek yet but if the U.S. dollar keeps sliding, I might have to order one. What I am saying is that the custom, high end boards are great but there is nothing wrong with Burton Factory Primes. I prefer my Coiler and Volkl to the FP but if I broke both and had to ride my Factory Prime, I don't think my riding would suffer one iota.

I owned a Madd 170 for about 2 weeks. Never liked it. I liked my FP160 and FP167 better. Sold the Madd quickly. Since then, I picked up a Volkl RT 168 which is a bit livelier than the FP but I could easily go back to the Burton and not feel like I'm missing anything. The FP160 is a great board for doing quick, short turns on a crowded or narrow hill. It's a like a little dart. Not all of us want to make big GS turns all the time.

A couple of years ago, a friend loaned me an FP167 and I was loving that thing. I was previously on a Prior 174 AWD and the narrower board was a revelation. Since then, I've owned a Madd, a Volkl RT and a Coiler and I would say that none of them were that much better than the Burton that I would ever dis the FP and call it a rock board.

That list keeps growing. The only restriction used to be Arc'teryx. I guess Canadian dealers got wind of SAC and started bitching. You can still get Mountain Hardwear.

I bought nothin. I saw about 3 items I sort of wanted but each time I was ready to pull the trigger, the item was gone. In other words, anything decent was gone. There was some real brutal chit during the sale. Did anyone buy this Oakley jacket?

I have used the same pair of Scott googles for 5 seasons. Great visibility, no fogging. I broke them last season and it took me a while to locate replacements. When I did, I ordered 3 pairs so I should be good for 15 more years. They are known as Scott Classic. Absolutely nothing fancy or high tech about these googles. Just good design.

How about: "Old Guys Rail" and you rip off the Old Guys Rule graphic but replace the surfboard with an alpine board.

Think of it this way, you're not slacking off at work, you're driving the economy.

In my email today: My goal this year is to do all my Christmas shopping in my pajamas. This kind of stuff helps.

Has anyone tried skiing with a lower back problem? It's gotta be a bit easier on the back than snowboarding, I would think. I have to do something this winter other than lying on the floor, posting on Bomber. I also have a traction device in the form of an inversion table. I haven't used it much but it definitely eases the pain by removing the effects of gravity. The only problem is, I have to reach down to put the inversion boots on and I can't do that when I'm having an acute episode. One thing I find really frustrating about a back injury is the non-linear nature of recovery. I feel like I'm on a roller coaster of pain. Up and down. One day, I'm feeling as spry as a 60 year old, the next day, I'm an 80 year old man again.

Luke...I am your father.

Bobby: You might want to try www.spine-health.com. There is a forum there to talk about back problems and personal stories. Warning - there are a lot of depressed people on that site. I stopped reading it because it was getting me down. HK

If you really want to save some cash and own bindings that are 3 hole compatible, consider a Burton Factory Prime 160. It's a slalom board, reasonably stiff. And wouldn't you know it, I happen to have one I'm looking to unload.

Nor are Macs the be-all and end-all of multimedia machines. In fact, I find the three weakest apps in the Mac lineup are the new iMovie '08, iPhoto and iTunes. The new iMovie '08 is absolutely horrid. iPhoto is not as good a Picasa. iTunes constantly locks up, creates duplicate songs and only works well if you leave it with default settings. That being said, a few pleasant surprises on the Mac platform. For one, the wealth of shareware and freeware apps. What the Mac arena lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality. Quicksilver, Rapidweaver, Little Snitch, Remote Buddy, Chicken of the VNC - just a few of the shareware apps I use all the time. Each one I paid $15-$30 for a license. The other thing I love is how hasslefree it is to connect external devices. With Windows, it was always a crapshoot as to whether my external drives would be recognized when I plugged them in. With Mac, it's 100% reliable. Finally, no BS with the operating system upgrades. You pay $100 and you get the one and only version of the OS. There's no Home, Premium, Super Duper Premium editions. I'm glad I switched. The only thing I miss is games.

I'm running Leopard on three Macs, even an old G4 iBook with 512MB RAM. No complaints. I didn't expect much from the iBook but Leopard has given it new life. It was a surprise given that I'm used to the Microsoft world where each iteration of Windows becomes more processor and RAM hungry. Legal copies of Leopard can be purchased on eBay for a lot cheaper than the Apple store.

I use foam pipe insulation to protect the edges. If you wrap all the edges, you don't really need a padded bag.

It was a bit of an inside joke because I've been bugging Bruce for years to update his site. He seems to be managing fine without an updated site but I think it would save him a lot of time in redundant emails and phone calls. One of my old customers, a Japanese auto company, used to have ten people answering phone calls, replying to letters, sending out brochures, etc. Five years after launching their website they were down to one person (don't worry, they all found jobs in other departments). You just can't beat the web for cost effectiveness and reach.

I'm usually an early adopter. I have a $1,800 Phillips CD player to show for my lack of patience. But in this case, I am holding off as long as I can. I have a 1080p TV and I'm itching for high-res DVD but I'm not gonna get stuck with a Betamax. It really irks me that the electronics industry did it again - two competing formats. I'm leaning towards HD-DVD just because I can add a sub-$200 drive to my Xbox 360. But then again, I can get a Sony PS3 with built-in Blu-ray and HDMI output for $400.

Ya Bruce, you gonna do anything about that site? HK

You're right. I didn't notice the expiry. Next time I'm at Sherway, I'll ask if there are any coupons for this year.