pm_wizard

Take it indoors! Intrawest has taken over the operation of "Parque de Nieve" an indoor snowdrome in Spain. This is probably the first toe into the water (so to speak) to let them learn how it works. Next watch for snowdromes in all your favouite warm locations! From where we ride in the northeast, a vertical of a few hundred feet is about right, so we could ride all summer too! Think of all those farmers' fields that could become snowdromes. John

I went into the Source on Yonge Street and they referred me to the website. You get a free wax http://www.sportinglife.ca/Programs/Stores/freehotwax/ Print off the coupon and take it in to the store. That easy, but no grind as far as I can see. John

I'll try to make it, but I have to go pick up my car from a service at 5PM out at Brown's Line and Lakeshore, so I will be a bit slow coming back in.... John

CarvCanada, It was good fun, we used to go out and rig the whole area with seismic sensors and then blow dynamite to measure the ground effect of the blast from firing the gun. The only scary part of it all was driving down the Eastern Townships autoroute with 50 sticks of dynamite and a case of blasting caps in the car! Dr. Bull was killed in a hotel room in Belgium (I think). It was always rumoured to be Israelis that did him in, trying to stop Iraq from using his weapon to drop nuclear warheads on Israel. Well, I guess they stopped him anyway! The gun he was building in Iraq was many times the size (calibre) of tehone we had in Barbados finally, and it is not clear that it would have survived the first shot! John

Tim, I don't know what that is, but in the late 60s I worked on the original HARP (High Altitude Research Program) program at the Engineering Faculty at McGill Univ with a launch site in the Quebec Eastern Townships and then in Barbados. That involved using an immense cannon to fire a satellite into an orbital position. It evolved (unfortunately) into a giant cannon for use in firing missiles, and was futher developed by Dr. Gerald Bull and ulimately sold to Saddam Hussein in Iraq, and was "retreived" in 1991.... What goes around comes around. I hope this hasn't been resurrected <grin> John

Cindy: Intrawest, who own more ski resorts than any other company out there are responding by diversifying into non snow related leisure activities. For a simple example, they purchased the local Ontario ski resort (Blue Mountain), and while they have spent money on more efficient snow making and similar items, the larger portion of their development expense has been focused on golf, bicycle trails, fitness facilities etc. However, they have also tried investing in ski areas that have higher elevations. There is a limited supply there of course. In the east resorts are responding simply by putting in more efficient snow making (to raise the minimum temperature below which they can make snow) so that they can respond to warmer periods when the snow gets eroded. Logically there is very little that a ski resort can do apart from the band aid type commitments to reduce the use of fossil fuels etc. Whistler Blackcomb has moved to eliminate wood fireplaces and stoves in existing and new buildings, but that is mainly an air quality issue, not a global warming initiative. John

Oh well, it helps to know what binding I own <grin>! How typical to get in the middle of something and have the wrong fundamentals. John

Nekdut: Not to quibble, but the heck, I'll quibble. My bindings have smooth discs attached to the board and I can tighten down the set screws anywhere I want. That seems to me to be infinitely variable. Now in fact, once I have tightened a few times, the disc is pitted, and the screws get forced back ito the old holes... so over time I have lost the infinite range. Perhaps the later (or earlier) bindings have holes drilled in them that allow small fixed increment movements. John

good thing I got my Coiler at the end of last season... now all I need is snow covered hills to try it out! Either that or I go back to working on wearing holes in the living room carpet! John

This may be a dumb question, but apart from styling, what do these have that my old ones don't. I already have infinite adjustment etc. etc., they are just scuffed and worn. John

Henry, I'll swing by the Yonge street shop (the Source) and see what they have available. I'm on all kinds of mailing lists with them (must spend too much money there), so maybe something will fall out of an envelope one day soon! John

Great, thanks very much for the info, this will save me at least one eveing in the basement! John

Here's another voice calling for logical reason: http://www.lomborg.com/ "The Skeptical Environmentalist". It is an amusing read, but he does make a careful effort at debunking a number of the arguments in favour of global warming. One of the problems faced by the human mind is the intellectual arrogance of believing we can discern cycles that may last thousands (or millions) of years using data that we "extrapolate" from a sample that is a best from a few hundreds of years. We may well be in the middle of a long period of global warming, and we may have helped contribute to its pace, but did we start it?, and can we stop it?, See intellectual arrogance above. How many people recall the two years of bitter cold winters in Canada and the northern U.S. following the eruption of mt St Helens? One such event contributes far more to climate change than our (albeit wasteful and selfish) use of cars or air conditioning. Wow, an uncharacteristic rant.... Cheers, John

It's pretty accurate, it got me over to the boundaries of my residential area, but way off the postal code. How does it decide where to stick the pin? This is a cool toy. John

Isn't this whole board filled with geeks! Of course some geeks drive big gas guzzling vehicles.... To each their own. John

I hired a BMW 118 diesel in Berlin last week. I put 486 km on it in two days, and it took 30.8 li (at Euro 1.05 I think) of diesel to refill the tank to brimming. On top of that I was travelling on the AVUS at 175 km/hr much of that mileage. A very impressive performer even with 4 adults in it. On the other hand, we already have the Smart car in Canada, and the B series MB is coming soon. John

The concern is for pedestrians, who don't hear it coming creeping behind them through an intersection. But just think of the possibilities (replete with irony) of a lumpy big block idle as you nudge a pedestrian through the cross walk! John

Back on sound (or lack of sound) with hybrids. The Feds are getting concerned about the possibility of pedestrians getting hit by the car they didn't hear coming, and are considering requiring a minimum sound level. To extend the idea, you would be able to choose the sound characteristics of your hybrid much like downloading phone ring tones. Hmmm, a hybrid that sounds like a 68 hemi or a Ferrari... Maybe you want that perfect dry clutch Ducati! John

Good luck Fin, I hope this accumulates enough to help! As a small business owner I know how much at risk we all are, and how important it is to have friends. John

So here's the dissenting view. I've got a BlackBerry 7100 and love it. It does everything well, particularly the adaptive spell checker that helps the 2 up keys work in the qwerty keyboard. I got really tired of the stylus and script in my old Palm, and the BB really answered all my needs. I forget whether it is tri band or quad, but the reception is great, it even works in my basement where no cell phone has ever worked before! I'm leaving for Stockholm, Copenhagen and Berlin tomorrow, so I'll see how it works there. Great way to stay connected to the office (yeah, I know, but it's how I get holidays). The only real drawback with the Treo as I understand it is that it can only get email that is forwarded from a desk top PC, rather than polling a server to be constantly on. With the BB I get email sent from the servers and it usually arrives at the BB before the desktop. Cheers, John

Gecko, You might be thinking of Mark Fawcett... he's a bit bigger that Jasey Jay... John

I'm a fixed income portfolio manager, and have a bit of an ego..... John

Go figure... I can browse and post in this forum but I can't send or receive email (not even webmail). The power outage just missed my office by a couple of blocks. Oh well, its more fun reading OT items than working. John

I don't know, I find just wandering the aisles of Walmart a good sampling of weird inventions, and they're in production, AND PEOPLE BUY THEM! Wow! John

I have a basic camelbak (1 - 1.5 li) and I find all I have to do is to take a sip every 10 - 15 min to keep the mouth piece from freezing. I then get a bit of slusshy water when I suck in the first time. Other than that, I do (definately) wear it under my jacket, and as Jack pointed out, it is a little awkward on the chairlift, especially first time up when it is full! I always take it when I am going to be any distance froma drinking water source. John