Alaskan Rover

I think it's become obvious to people on both sides of the political spectrum that our system ain't quite right anymore. Something's gone astray. The people we've chosen to drive the car are busying themselves with arguing semantics rather than DRIVING, plus they've been doing a REALLY lousy job of maintaining the car and haven't changed the oil or lubed the chassis in like a dozen years or more....and now the car is BROKEN. We need to fix it ourselves! One viable solution: TERM LIMITS for Senate and House of Representatives. Presently there are NO term limits. A Senator could basically be there for "life". It is well-known that long-term incumbants almost always have the upper-hand during elections, no matter how old or feeble-minded they become. Even when they aren't there for 40 years, they still spend an inordinate amount of time "electioneering". I think lack of term limits just increases pork-barreling, as the politicians add pork to their local causes so that they can continue to get elected. It's no secret that being a Senator is a sweet life. Limousine; two homes, one paid for by the government; fancy black-tie galas; lots of presumed power...who on earth would want to quit and go back to being Joe Smoe? But the reality is it's no good for getting things done, and lethargy eventually ensues, to OUR detriment. We need term limits, AND aggregate term limits, at that. But HOW??? I am not sure, but I think "terms" are written into the Constitution, and so any change would have to be by Amendment. The problem is who votes on Amendments? That's right....Congress. I think the only solution would be a nation-wide ballot initiative about term limits. But how does one INITIATE a ballot initiative??? I think such an initiative has to be first okayed by Congress before it is even put ON a nation-wide ballot. Or maybe (hopefully) I am wrong. If I am right, then that basically means we're screwed. Our hands our effectively tied. I heard someone say that we should all get together next election and vote AGAINST every single incumbant, be they repubs or dems. But you know as well as I do, that we can never 100% as a populace agree on ANYTHING, let alone something as altogether substantially progressive as THAT. Besides, without term limits, the people voted in to replace the incumbants would soon grow to like the power and priviledge and want to stay as well...decade after decade after decade. Any ideas on how to initiate a Term-Limit ballot initiative?`

So it seems what we need is a brand new "Energy Initiative" akin to the "space race" of the 1960's and 1970's. We need an "Energy Race" of that same scale. We need to vastly step up our research into fusion power; fast breeder reactors; nuclear waste reprocessing (and NOT into bombs, but into more fuel); cold-fusion; bubble-fusion; and develop new technologies that aren't even on the horizon yet: quark differential energy, etc. We need to invest in more alternative energy. Yes, I realize that we will not meet all our needs with solar, wind and tidal ONLY, but every bit helps. Personally, I'd rather look at a row of wind generators than a belching coal-plant. Mostly we need to re-structure our thinking on energy use. We have become a society used to cheap energy (highly subsidized....that's why it's cheap!!). We should cut those government energy subsidies, so that energy prices represent the TRUE cost, not some abnormally-small subsidized cost. We have been heavily subsidizing energy costs since the 1920's when we still had a "Wild West" mentality...where development of land and resources was the #1 issue, and conservation was a non-issue, and even thought of as un-American. If we had to pay the REAL, unsubsidized cost of energy, believe me...we'd use LESS of it. We need to start teaching our kids to use less energy...to conserve. To think about the energy they use every day, and don't just take it for granted. I used to live in a cabin in Ak, where all our electrical energy was 12 volt and came from the sun and the wind, and we lived WELL. And we most certainly didn't take energy for granted. We need to teach our kids the value of conserving energy sheerly for it's OWN sake, and to respect energy and know where it comes from and that it sometimes comes from very dirty sources and so it's good to use less of it. The last 60 years we've been a society of MORE MORE MORE......we need to become a society of LESS LESS LESS. "Less IS more!" Petrol: You said: no more light at night no more cool in the summer no more warm in the winter no more internet and certainly no more chair rides to the top It doesn't have to be "No, No, No, No..." Ever hear of Less? Less light at night: We don't need parking lots ablaze with light at 3am with nary a car in sight. Less cool in summer: Open the windows and install ceiling fans, you'dx be amazed what a good breeze can do. keep your air conditioner only for super hot days. No more warm in winter. Turning the heat down a few degrees ain't gonna kill you. Sweaters are good, even if you DO look like Mr. Rogers. :) No more internet: internet servers aren't HUGELY power-consumptive, just marginally. No more chair rides to the top: Split boards can be your friend, as can AT skis and skinz. :)

I like the Huffington Post...it gives a good counterpoint to the miasma of ultra-conservative web-rags out there on the net. I find it well-constructed, with thoughtful, germane points. I am mainly talking about it's political section, though. I must admit I find it's "front page" is beginning to look more and more like the 'New York Post'...and I find that a little off-putting. I mainly go directly to the political section as a matter of course. I like the Huff's "Palin Watch"....similar to 'Crime Watch'. I listen a LOT to Ms. Huffington on NPR. She usually makes a lot of sense.

I think the US has to get serious about nuclear power. I used to be against the idea of increased reliance on nuclear power, but I have definitely swung around when I began noting the safety record of nuclear power stations around the world. The safety record is FAR better than oil, coal or natural gas. There have been essentially TWO major nuclear accidents: Three Mile Island and Chernobyl. Three Mile Island was basically a fail-safe device malfunction in an essentially well-designed plant. Chernobyl, on the other hand, was basically a poorly engineered plant from MANY aspects...an accident waiting to happen. There have been an assortment of very minor incidents since then, but nothing major. Chernobyl is STILL a mess, and they say that failed core is still very "HOT"...twenty some odd years down the road. The rest of the fission nuclear plants around the world have excellent safety records. But even though the safety records are high, we STILL need to increase our research into alternative nuclear power initiatives. Fast-Breeder reactors show promise as long as more research is done as to their viability. The biggest technology we should be working on is commercial-scale FUSION power plants. The Tokamak-style fusion reactor has been online now for decades on a few different campuses....albeit, in a research mode, and not with a continous fusion reaction. Much more money and research must go into sustaining the fusion reaction. It is fairly a misnomer that fusion reactors beget NO nuclear waste at all, but present systems being tested produce FAR less waste and with a far shorter radioactive half-life. The fact that the fuel source, deuterium, is readily available in ocean water with NO mining needed, makes it especially approachable. While it is not really a "renewable" energy source, its potential is FAR closer to that model than any fission reaction. Other types of fusion must have more research, such as "cold fusion" and "bubble fusion" We also must do much more research on the re-processing of nuclear fission waste for further fission. Presently, no fusion plant produces more energy than is initially consumed and the first commercial fusion reactor isn't really speculated to go online for another forty years!! We MUST step up the research in this regard. While we DID form our technology and industry around oil and coal....we CAN re-form ourselves around a combination of fission and fusion nuclear power and wind, solar, geothermal, and tidal energy sources. To those supporters of natural gas, you must know that it would contribute to atmospheric warming to a fairly high extent if vastly stepped up. Not only is crude oil a nasty, dirty substance that should stay in the ground EXACTLY where it is, we are now finding with this ongoing Gulf saga, that at least environmentally, it is not nearly as cheap a source of fuel as we thought. When will we learn our lesson?

Photodad, What the HEEL movie was that clip from??? I'm just asking so that I'll know not to watch it. I know Stallone did some fantastically bad acting in his time, but that was probably among the worst acting I've seen. I think I only saw decent acting from Stallone in ONE movie, 'Tango and Cash'. He was nominated for Worst Actor award nine consecutive years from 1984 to 1992. He does deserve his 'star' on Hollywood Blvd, though...just for the original Rocky. He wrote the film himself, marched it around Hollywood, to quite a few closed doors, but persevered against almost every odd, just like his main character, and got it done. The film went on to win three Oscars including best picture, pushing him quickly to icon status. He deserves a star for that feat, alone...but NOT for his acting talent. In short, he ain't no Dustin Hoffman.

Check out this Arbortech Airboard. It's a hecka lot WIDER than I was thinking it would be. They were touting as being akin to the "airboard" that Michael J. Fox rode in Back to the Future. NOT!!!! It's basically a tiny hovercraft that you stand on like a commuter. I can't see it selling much, unless you can ride it on the roads....it's too wide for anything but an outdoor mall. Can't ride on grass, uneven terrain. Not exactly a "board." Looks fairly fast. In short I think it would be great for a great big mega-size air-hockey game, except people would be riding these things around on the rink, instead!! Also be really cool for "bumper cars"! :) Nonetheless, it'd be cool to try. But in general, my opinion of it is: "meh". Unless the thing flies or could be a LOT smaller and more manageable, it's too much like riding around on a lawnmower....more like a leaf-blower. It'd make a hellacious vacuum, though!! http://www.arbortech.com.au/view/airboard-downloads/airboard-video

It's funny how circular things are sometimes. When skateboarding started up in the fifties, it was largely influenced by the surfing world...basically it was surfers that started the skateboarding wave. Now, it skating moves that are influencing the surfing world, as boards get smaller, lighter and quicker. Meola surfs on 5'9 shorties. The smallest board I've ridden is a 6'7...but I'm 6'3". I feel better really, on something no smaller than a 7'6 or so and barely float that!(and that's out west!!)...but I'm no Meola!! NOTE: Anybody out there try one of those 5-fin Campbell shorties?? Here in Va, I mostly borrow 9'0 long singles for the 'small' va beach surf...and one sweet custom 9'3 tri-fin that I get to ride. :) I just wonder what this kid would be like on a snowboard??? I mean strapped onto a board, this kid would be like a hummingbird. Doing 2160s!!!! Getting air like a sky-boarder!!

WOW!! That kid is a surfing PRODIGY!!!! I think "Super-glue" would be a good name for this kid...he STICKS to that board!!! That kid makes Kelly slater look like a lame old dozer, and that's pretty hard to do. I mean Slater back in the day. I realize he IS an old dozer now, although he can still walk a board around pretty good. I don't think I've EVER seen another surfer do what Meola does!!! EDIT: I in know way meant to slander Kelly Slater...I mean he was World Champion again, what just two years ago. The guy is amazing, and contues to menace surfers everywhere! When I think surfing, I think of Slater, Fletcher, Curren all in the same breath....just now I have to put Meola in the picture, as well. Meola just hasn't breached into the non-surfing public psyche yet, but I think the kid is heading to a World Championship pretty soon....looks like this kid was BORN to surf!!

Nice single-speed, RWMaron....looks pretty tight!! I didn't see a spot for kayaking, rock climbing, rowing, rafting, fly-fishing, etc... But mostly, I didn't see a spot for what I love to do MOST in summer...SAIL:

That first video was pure H2O stoke!!! I surf, but mainly small wave stuff...never tried that big-wave Hawaiian-style surfing. That's a totally different world!!!! Never been to Hawaii, but I'd probably end up bonking and killing myself there for sure! And then there's that open-ocean surfing they do off Hawaii where they drop-in from a jet-ski or ski-boat towline. That's like the Valdez of surfing. I would like to be in the kind of shape that guy is in...I'm in good shape, but that guy makes me look like a white, pasty biologist!! I liked the surfin' sheep and rats, although I am sure they were terrified. The sheep didn't quite look terrified, though. Thanks 4 the vids.

Well, as far as waxing is concerned, I am not totally convinced that a heated base makes a HUGE difference in wax adhesion...as long as the base is 70 degrees or above. Back when I used to ski race a lot, I had four pair of skis that I'd use depending on the course. That's a lot of waxing. My friends on the team were in the same boat, so we'd often have 'waxing parties' before a heavy training day. You'd be surprised how well cheap Rolling Rock goes well with base-waxing, especially if it's kept ice-cold in the snowbank outside. Anyway, it was during these waxing parties that we thought that as with P-texing, maybe the wax would adhere better if we heated up the bases...so we went to work with our heat lamps on the bases before waxing. For waxing, we used dedicated waxing irons and regular household irons depending availability. To tell you the truth, we never really noticed a difference in adhesion between wax applied on a room-temp base opposed to wax applied on a heated base. Some people say it opens up the pores on the base more, allowing the wax to adhere, we just never noticed a difference. P-tex, as you know, actually forms a true bond with the base...whereas wax merely forms an overlay on top of the base, one that can easily be scraped off with a fingernail. For P-tex, heating the base is a big help in getting a better true bond. I don't know if there IS any chemical bond between the wax paraffin and the base at all. I might be wrong, but I don't really think the paraffin soaks into the base, just lays on top. If it DOES penetrate the base, it can't be by that many microns. They may be right about the 'pores' opening up, though. If you look at a base surface with an electron microscope, it would probably look like a lunar landscape. Take note, however, that our test was just performed using heat-lamps and NOT a dedicated hot box, so as they say, "results may vary." On race days, we'd always take our skis to the coach, who was also a ski-shop owner...he would do a machine-waxing, with much better results than our simple irons on training days. So, like I said, I am not sure if heating a base beyond room temperature really makes a difference in home-waxing. It certainly didn't seem to with our test. As long as the bases are at 70 degrees or so, you should be good to go. However, that hot-box might come in REALLY handy for bringing up the base-temperature quickly for P-texing! And as Lowrider mentioned, it might be a good place to keep pizzas warm while you prep boards. I wonder how many pizzas can fit on one hot-box? EDIT: I DID find this website on homemade hot-boxes if you wanna build a decent pizza-warmer. It is the link below: http://www.skinet.com/skiing/how-to/diy-/-maintenance/2008/12/diy-build-a-wax-box Sounds interesting. EDIT #2: I see in the instructions, they're talking about applying the wax as normal with a waxing iron and THEN putting the board/skis in the box @ 125 degrees for 12 hours....nope, never tried that. Still don't now if it makes a demonstratable difference, though. Seems easy enough to build, however.

I wonder why punitive taxation of non-renewable forms of energy WOULDN'T work??? It makes perfect sense. I think we have to realize, as many here have said before, that there are ADDITIONAL, hidden charges to relying on fossil-fuels. 1) It merely enforces a 'status quo" mentality, whereby if there continues lots of readily available fossil-fuel sources, there is a lessened need and desire to invest in and research alternative, renewable, ecologically-safe sources of energy. 2)The potential for environmental diasters is far greater with fossil-fuels. 3)Continuing to rely on cheaply available fossil-fuels has an additive, daily impact on our atmosphere, leading to aggregate particulate toxity syndromes in various heavily polluted cities due to continuously breathing smog; and problems with 'greenhouse' gassing and other atmospheric anomolies...not mention environmental degradation such as mountain-top removal mining and strip-mining, etc, etc. SURE...let's HAVE punitive taxation on non-renewable resource use. I'd LOVE to see it!...and yes, I would gladly pay more...and I would in turn, find ways to stop using so much fuel. As long as fossil-fuel remains CHEAP (comparatively)...the problems will never end, and the status quo will simply continue. I would also like to see homes and companies and stores TAXED on the WEIGHT of the garbage that they throw away. That alone, would go along way in quickly reducing the ever-increasing amount of packaging that is being used, and hence the amount of garbage we throw away. If we are TAXED on what we throw away, that would be great. Of course, I think people would then start dumping in the woods...so we'd have to make illegal dumping a felony. I'd be in favor of that, too.

I wasn't doing this fast to lose weight, I was doing it merely as a control exercise. I agree that multiple-day fasting can cause problems with insulin level consistency, and therefore inconsistencies with bodily glucose and glycogen levels, causing anomolies in fat conversion vs. fat storage. I was doing this because I figured if I can control my psychological urges of hunger, I can also control any psychological urge for junkfood when THOSE urges arise. I think urges for junkfood are more of an emotional or mind thing, whereas true hunger is more of a physiologic, metabolic, autonomic (how many more "ics" can I throw in??) response. I agree that one should not ignore physiologic/metabolic hunger implicitly, but one CAN and perchance SHOULD ignore emotional "hungers" for certain foods deemed unhealthy. I get an urge for a package of Hostess Suzy-Qs every now and then....I should ignore them, as they aren't true hunger urges. There are. however, many studies that quantify good results in humans of "Alternate-day fasting" (fasting 24 hours every other day). Good results not only in weight control, but also in decreased morbidity rates, and an actual INCREASE in general energy levels. Studies in mice to that affect have now been duplicated in humans...with parallel results. I think the main point for good, all-around general health is to be more physically active for longer periods of time and eat less junky, carbohydrate-laden foods. In essence, DO MORE....and EAT HEALTHIER foods....and LESS FOOD in general.

I know in this thread there has been much talk about food and how much of it we eat. I, for one, think that in this country and perhaps much of the first world, we have MUCH too high of a food/caloric intake. That is partly psychological, I guess, as eating makes most of us happy. And so sometimes we eat simply as a habit, or our MIND is telling us we should eat...not when our BODY is telling us to eat. I think the key then, is deriving where our "hunger" comes from. Is it from our body, telling us that we MUST eat now or we are going to fall over? Or is it coming from our minds, telling us that "boy, I would sure love a burger right now"? I think there is a distinct difference between actual physical hunger of food (your body giving you warning signs that you should now intake nutrients for reasons of metabolism) and emotional or mind-derived hunger of food. We must know which hunger pangs to obey and which pangs to ignore. In that regard, I just completed an interesting hunger test...whereby I've eaten really almost nothing except for 1 orange and 1 apple and one bowl of bran-flakes (at separate times) in the last 36 hours....and NOTHING in the last 10 hours. DID drink water, though...but not even much of that. I don't really have the least of any hunger pangs at all throughout this test, and yet have had PLENTY of energy, to boot. Weird. Anywhere between 36 and 48 hours is my limit...after that and I am just FAMISHED. I am basically skinny and through lots of kayaking, rowing and rock climbing, I keep a 'gymnast" body and find you can generally do that through lots of "playing", doing the things you LOVE, no gym needed...but I have always been interested in the ability to control one's hunger for long periods just as an extended mind/body exercise. I have found that you definitely CAN control your emotional/mind-derived pangs of hunger for DECIDELY longish periods of time. Ignore your MIND'S food hungers....and obey your BODY'S food hungers.

Maybe these words from Chief Dan George can put this gulf spill in perspective. They are true words...and they come from a man who knows. "I am a Native American. In the course of my lifetime, I have lived in two distinct cultures. I was born into a culture that lived in communal houses. My grandfather's house was an eighty foot long "smoke house, and it stood by the beach along the inlet. In all houses like that throughout the tribe, people learned to live with one another; learned to serve one another; learned to respect one another and the rights of others. My father was born into such a house,as was I, and we learned from infancy how to love people and be at home with them. Beyond this acceptance of one another, there was a deep respect for everything in nature that surrounded them. My father loved the earth and all its creatures. The earth was his second mother. The earth and everything it contained was a gift from the Great Spirit See-see-am...and the way to thank this great spirit was to use his gifts with respect. This then, was the culture i was borne into and for some years, the only one I really knew or tasted. this is why I find it hard to accept many of the things I see around me. I see people living in smoke-houses hundreds of times bigger than the one I knew. But the people in one apartment do not even know the people in the next, and could care less about them. It is also hard for me to understand the deep hate that exists among people. It is hard to understand a culture that justifies the killing of millions in past wars and is continually in preparation to kill even more. We natives had many battles amongst our tribes and nations, but we did not make an industry out of it. It is hard for me to understand a culture that spends more on wars and weapons to kill, than it does on education and health to help and develop. It is hard for me to understand a culture that not only hates and fights his brothers but even attacks nature and abuses her. I see my white brothers going about blotting out nature from his cities. I see him strip hills bare, leaving ugly wounds on the face of mountains. I see him tearing things from the bosum of mother earth as though she were a monster who refused to share her treasures with him. I see him throw poison in the waters, indifferent to the life he kills there; and I see him chokling the air with deadly fumes. My white brother does many things well, for he is more clever than my people in terms of science and building things, but I wonder if he really knows how to love well. I wonder if he has ever really learned how to love at all. Perhaps he only loves the things that are his own, but never learned to love the things that are outside and beyond him. And this of course, is not love at all...for man must love ALL creation or he will love none of it. My culture did not price the hoarding of private possessions, in fact to hoard was a shameful thing to do among my people. The Indian looked on all things in nature as belonging to him and he expected to share them with others and take only what he needed. Everyone likes to give as well as receive. No one wishes only to receive all the time. We have taken much from your culture...I only wish you had taken something from our culture...for there were some beautiful and good things in it. The only thing that can truly help us is genuine love. You must truly love us, be patient with us and share with us. And WE must, in turn, love you - with a genuine love that forgives and forgets...a love that forgives the terrible sufferings your culture brought to ours when it swept over us like a wave crashing along a beach...with a love that forgets and lifts up its head and sees in your eyes an answering love of trust and acceptance. This is brotherhood...anything less is not worthy of the name. I have spoken." Chief Dan George of the Salish Tribe of northwest Washington and British Columbia. Spoken 1974. also known as Chief Geswanouth Slahoot (Thunder coming up over the land from the water) amongst his people.

For anyone living near whichever ocean wanting to make their own sea-salt, it's pretty easy, and you actually get more salt than you would think. But I should have mentioned that she does boil the salt-water vigorously for a few minutes to kill any microorganisms. Then the key is a backyard with lots of sunlight and rolls of 3 ft wide black plastic. After the water has evaporated, you just crinkle-up the plastic, and the salt-crystals come right off into your container. i've tried it this way, myself...it works. A gallon of sea-water will get about 1/4 pound or so of salt. Salt is cheap...so it's not like you'd save money doing this, or anything. Sorta like making your own home-brew...just cool knowing you made it yourself from your own local ocean.

My sister and her family moved down to florida where she grows things like lemons, limes, pineapple, and even bananas. We've been down to visit many times and to this day I have not had a better margarita than i've had sitting on her back porch. Margaritas are actually my favorite drink, and pretty much the only mixed-drink I ever order, so I can make this judgement based upon a pretty good sized pool of candidates. While personal taste is exactly that...something personal, I think there are two reasons for these delicious margaritas: 1) The limes she grows are both organic AND actually a lemon/lime hybrid...borne of her own splicing of a lime tree and a lemon tree. The resultant fruit is an odd study of Mendelian principle. Sometimes these lemon/limes are half normal looking lemon, half normal looking lime; more often they are these strange polka-dotted variety...a diffuse mixture of the two fruits. It all depends upon which part of the tree they come from. I believe these hybrids are a primary reason for the unique and delicous margaritas and that tree is truly the "Goose that lays the golden egg" of lemon/lime "margarita trees"...and is the first tree protected during hurricanes. 2) She makes her own margarita salt from Atlantic ocean water that she dries in the hot sun. During the drying process, she sprinkles little amounts of juice from those same lemon/limes. Resulting in a very slightly lemony sea-salt, that the lips pick up on BEFORE the actual taste of the margarita itself. I keep telling her she should write a book on margaritas....she keeps telling me to have another margarita. I'll let her know about the nectar of agave. That may make an excellent margarita that much better. I've got two margarita glasses primed and ready for tonight's Cinco de Mayo!!!

Poetically said, boarderboy, poetically said. Your viewpoints on this pretty much mirror my own. The price we pay for gas and diesel is way more than mere dollars...at some point in the future, the bill is going to come due.

I've seen that kid Wesley on youtube before...he is getting quite famous on you tube as a young shredder. Previously I was amazed at this one video of Shawn White as an 11 yr uber-shredder....but now the bar just keeps getting higher and higher (or maybe "lower and lower" in these cases!!). The amazing thing about Wesley is that he shows hella good natural balance on a board...at 3!! I mean look at his stance!!! This kid looks like a miniture intermediate. What in the world is he going to be like at 14 or 15??? A shreddin' prodigy, me thinks! The little 1 year old was cute as a button! Imagine....a 1 yr old goofy rider!!!

I think blame and responsibility falls upon MANY different heads and on many levels. I may be mistaken on this, but I think in the North Sea, emergency remote shutoff devices are a requirement in order to get a permit to drill for oil. It may be voluntary, but since many of the same companies (Shell, BP, etc) over there, are the same companies as in the Gulf, and they certainly weren't ameniable to voluntary restriction in the gulf, I presume it is MANDATORY in the North Sea. A mandatory emergency remote device on that well-head would have prevented much of this catastrophy. The reason Gulf rigs do not have such devices is because the extremely powerful oil lobby has repeatedly pressured Congress NOT to instill mandates for such emergency devices. Their motive? Such well-head remote shut-off devices would have added many thousands of dollars to each well...even though they easily paid for such devices in the North Sea. Everyone knows, of course the Bush administration's willingness to dance to the song of the oil lobby, however even the Clinton Admin and now the Obama admin have been pressured NOT to have required such emergncy remote shut-offs on those wells. And these are admins that people would think would NOT be as friendly to oil wishes. That shows you JUST how powerful the oil-lobby really is in Wash DC. The American people are also complicit in this pending catastrophy through apathy. I believe it was collections of concerned citizens throughout the North Sea nations that pressured their respective governments to REQUIRE emergency measures such as remote shutoffs. These citizens realized the harm that would come to their environment if such undersea wellheads did go wrong...in turn, their governments also realized the the potential of damage and DID something about it through regulation. We need to listen MORE to our grass-roots organizations, our various NGOs that want to ensure that our country's environment is safe for future generations to enjoy as we do now. But instead, many of these organizations are ostracised as un-American...especially when it comes to speaking out against many unsafe practices that industries such as 'big-oil' use now. When prices are low, we forget and turn apathetic until the next industrial catastrophy. When prices are high we are maybe less apathetic but more willing to trade environmental safety for the potential of more oil in hopes of lessening prices. Either way, we lose. In this country (I can't speak for Canada), we seem so naturally opposed to governmental regulation of business that such is thought of as anathema. But without such enforced regulation of business, we wouldn't have lists of ingredients on our food containers; wouldn't have ANY Clean Air act; etc. Industry simply will NOT self-regulate, as much as Free-Marketeers think it does. The fact that Industry will NOT self-regulate can be seen in what's happening now in the Gulf. Maybe finally, this pending Gulf disaster will give the American people and our government some pause, before we yet again dance to industry's song without thought to our actions or lack of action. Ok...I'll step off the soap-box. Someone else can take their five minutes, now.

I heard about this guy on NPR yesterday. Sounds like damn good bread (oops, I fogot, this fellow did most of his bread making during that year in a monastery...so I'll say 'heavenly' good bread! He wrote a book called: " 52 Loaves: One Man's Relentless Pursuit of Truth, Meaning and the Perfect Crust". I LOVE peasant bread...it's the "richest" bread of all!! I came across the following written on a coffee cup in a Homer, Ak cafe. It was written in Chinese and then translated into English. I liked it so much, I copied it onto a napkin. It seems to impart a simple wisdom. TEN WAYS TO GOOD HEALTH 1. Less alcohol.......More Tea 2. Less meat..........More vegetables 3. Less salt............More vinegar 4. Less sugar.........More Fruit 5. Less eating........More chewing 6. Less words........ More action 7. Less greed.........More giving 8. Less worry.........More sleep 9. Less driving........More walking 10. Less anger........More laughter.

Thanks, Eric J for your intricate knowledge of bread and whole grains! we'll put some of your ideas to use for the next batch of loaves. The whole grains absorbing more water might very well be the largest part of the problem. Homemade bread NEVER gets old for me! I love making it, kneading it and most of all, eating it fresh out of the oven!! I do have to admit, though. that we do take short-cuts and often skip sifting. We add a LOT of additional ingredients to the bread in sort of haphazard fashion, like oatmeal; sprouts; seeds like sunflower,etc; flax; bran, molasses; honey and maple syrup sometimes replacing the sucrose. It's crunchy and a definite antidote to WonderBread. Great suggestion about the sourdough starter. Used to always have a starter going up in Alaska...one batch of starter was puportedly 50 or more years old that I got in Delta Junction. Haven't used sourdough lately, but would be great to start again! I agree that good nutrition is of primary importance to good health...and know that we ARE what we eat....sometimes I am a bag of corn Chips. But I think exercise plays a huge part to health, too!! I'd say 55% nutrition and 45% exercise...but knowing that one can't really quantify health. I think much of it is trying to just keep a good, clear outlook in any way one can.

I totally forgot about freeboards! I saw one once at a snowboard shop. Freaky looking, swiveling center wheels. But those trucks are definitely wide!! With the addition of that 1"thick plywood subboard, I will be able to have the trucks just before the rise of each tip, resulting in a better ride, I think. Unfortunately, the board is 325mm wide at these points. So, I'll now need all the truck width I can get. I wonder if you can put axle extensions on those freeboard trucks? Ha ha. I'm thinking extensions on an already super-wide truck might be recipe for axle breakage, so it'd be sketchy!! And on this aircraft carrier deck, I don't think I'll be doing any tight slalom!! I guess every solution begets other sets of problems! No...I think I'll keep the bindings OFF the board. I received enough injuries when I went grass skiing. Unless someone has a Michelin-Man suit they want to rent out. Bullwings: It goes back a ways, but I remember fooling around with trucks like Madrid something or other; Tracker??; Gullwing; and GT. And I can swear I remember a truck called Ideal. The trucks I actually put on that "gun" semi-longboard that I made were an old used pair of ACS some #. These I actually took to an industrial bushing manufacturer, and they were able to find a good set of bushings that had just the right compression and stiffness. I just remember they were bright orange, so that was cool. Things were alot different back then...no internet, no ebay, no craig's list and not as many skate shops around. So if you wanted a set of the right bushings, it was by mail. It was sometimes just faster to simply replace the trucks. Correct kingpins were even harder to find, unless you were in a "skate" area with lots of shops, although with some companies, I think I remember them being little more than your standard issue bolt anyway, but sizing was tough. I remember making a set of bushings using cut-down shock absorber bushings. They worked fair enough in a pinch. My absolute favorite board is a favorite purely for sentimental reasons...as it would not be considered a good board at all by today's standards, and is my fav because it was the first board I ever had when I was ten years old: A red polyurethane Grentech (GT) Banana board with those horrible ultra-wide, nearly clear, urethane wheels and GT trucks. I think Sears-Roebuck sold them. That board had it's faults, due mostly to those wheels (which we later ground down to more acceptable dimensions), but i loved that board. That plastic GT Banana board was also INDESTRUCTABLE!!!

Yep...I am pretty much the same way. If it is present, I WILL eat it...usually within minutes of buying it. I am like a wolf that way...I literally breath in food (well, maybe not literally). No...I am well past my twenties. I just inherited my dad's high metabolism, I guess. good thing, too...as I can be like a crack-head when it comes to certain junk foods. Not all the time, but I can and do fall off the "No junkfood Resolution Wagon". I DEFINITELY do feel better when I do replace junk food with fruits or sometimes dried fruits. Actually IU feel best when I really eat almost NOTHING. But I realize THAT causes problems too. I think you are correct that it is best to eat small meals but more often. We bake our own bread, and I HAVE noticed that the 100% whole wheat flower does not rise as well, so we mix in a little white flower and that helps. Weird. My favorite breads are very heavy anyway, so i don't mind the less-rising. Nothing better than fruit that comes in natures own wrapper!!!

Yeah, for me...I notice the difference right away. I couldn't get to the woods, today, so I did some street running...I just didn't feel as light and uplifted as I do in the woods. But I think that's probably a personal thing. Great Falls sounds very familiar. I biked various parts of the Harpers Ferry to DC Potomac River "canal" towpath trail, last fall. I think Great Falls is a National Park...this wasn't too far from the DC side of things. Nice area along the river and towpath....enjoyed it immensely! I had my Martin Backpacker guitar strapped to my back, and every few miles would stop and play whatever tune was in my head.