snuffy

And if you don't like it, complain to Orvis. They'll probably replace it. My buddy decided that the drag on his older model Battenkill LA wasn't smooth enough, so they sent him the new one, which is a great reel BTW.

The whole "fire control is altering net fire frequency" thing is a red herring. Simple fact is that the sort of fires that burn significant areas are impossible to contain. Generally, the best you can do is to save structures and even then only sometimes. Everyone in the field has known this for some time, with the notable exception of the lunatic running the controlled burn program in the parks. But then, this is the same guy who's had two close calls with burning down Banff town site. In any event, the ecological consequences of logging and fire are not comparable.

I think the whole buy local thing gets overplayed. I remember when I was working for a small business in Canmore and Starbucks came to town, the owner said, "I'd buy local if they'd stop treating their staff like $hit and train them to pull a decent expresso, but they won't. All they want is to make sure they stay the only game in town." That about sums it up for me. I buy my tying materials locally not out of loyalty, but because I generally find it more convenient and the price difference isn't worth worrying about. But if I can get a reel for $190 off ebay that'd cost me $285 at Country Pleasures, it's not a hard decision, especially after I made an emergency stop there in my fishing grubbies last summer and got condescended to by the staff. Over 20 years of spending a lot of $$ in that store - I won't be back.

I used to have Rudy as a sponsor and I'd still recommend them. They've had a promotion going for a while that gives you a free polarized lense: http://www.e-rudy.com/rudy-project-combo-details.php The racing red works well for fishing and is available on several models. From my perspective, the best thing about them is their lifetime replacement lense guarantee. They'll replace any lense you manage to scratch for $25, no questions asked.

Found this one in the related videos, pretty funny:

Calling this terrorism is not just the worst kind of knee-jerk, mouth-breathing populism, but an insult to the millions of people all over the world who legitimately worry if the market is going to explode when they go to buy bread. That said, PETA claimed responsibility. If we treat this, properly, as a crime, would their claim of responsibility not also be an admission to conspiracy? I say we extradite their board of governors, convict them of conspiracy, and then deport them with criminal records.

Am I alone in thinking that the Flames should trade Iginla while he's still worth something? I mean, they've gone through 10 wingers and God knows how many centres on his line, but they're still searching for the "right set-up guy for Iginla". Maybe it's time to question whether or not there really is such an individual.

Police Lamborghini Gallardo as the lead moto for a bicycle race I did in Italy. I'd show the pic, but I can't get it below 100K.

Yeah, I forgot about that. Man, that guy is screwed. I wish I could say I feel sorry for him.

I don't think he really thought the DA would go through with prosecuting him, nor did he do himself any favors. He confessed to both the 911 operator and the arresting officer, refused to plead out, and then recanted (and perjured himself) on the stand. I'll be interested to see how he gets to work again when he gets out of prison (and with the civil suits he'll be facing, he'll need to work). I doubt there's bus service in that neighborhood....he might need to buy a bike

I'm with rickr, you'd have to do some serious cherry picking to use that survey to do anything but confirm the scientific consensus that global warming is a real anthropogenic threat. That said, this will probably be the next climategate on Fox news. And by what fevered convulsion did this a left-wing, right-wing issue? It seems to me that it's more of a rational vs sticking your fingers in your ears and yelling "LALALALALALALAICANTHEARYOULALALALALA" issue. Comments keep appearing here about researchers and their massive research budjets. Someone needs to explain this to me, 'cause research budgets are anything but massive, and it would be a very, very rare PhD who made half as much as a sub-par landman downtown. If you're going to follow the money, it would be better to look into the multi-trillion dollar companies with a vested interest in getting CO2 out of the ground and into the atmosphere as quickly as possible.

....there's one less jackass on the road (too bad it's in LA): http://velonews.competitor.com/2010/01/new...ve-years_102274 The article fails to mention that the esteemed Dr. Thompson also received a lifetime driving ban.

Cool! (At least 99.99999% of the time....) They seem to be making a comeback. They've recolonized the Cypress Hills and I've recently learned that the area around Regina Beach is crawling with them.

Forgot all about that lake - thought it was winterkilling.

From a historical perspective, the landlocked tribes are doomed.

I'm glad someone pointed out the ad hominums. The truth of an argument has nothing to do who's making it. Regarding the poll, it's interesting for what it is, but what is that? I would wager that noone here knows anything more about the field of climatology than I do about seismic interpretation, namely nothing (though I like the pencil crayons). As technology makes us ever more specialized, perhaps we need to accept that are certain subjects on which our opinions are unqualified. Which brings us full circle to the climate change debate and hating on science that's raging on pretty much every active thread on this board. It comes down to the credibility of your sources and this is where I lose the tune because the choice is a stark one. One the one hand, you have the peer-reviewed literature in its entirety, and on the other you have the Glenn Becks and random bloggers who's claims are not subject to any kind of scrutiny. It seems to me that you'd have to be pretty desparate to believe the later over the former. Sundance - you keep claiming, in various ways, that the scientific community is a monolithic bloc united by politics and who's findings derive from such politics. But you're contradicting yourself, because, as your friend told you, science is a viciously competitive, backstabbing field. Given this, your claim is comparable to the GWB 911 conspiracy theory. If some post-doc out there, having just finished 5 years of 60+ hour weeks @24K/year to get his degree and now making the king's randsom of 40K, could make a name, and possibly a wage, for himself by blowing the whistle on this grand conspiracy, he would.

Nope - the fires that actually burn significant areas are too intense to fight. Generally, the best we can manage is to save structures. You'd have a better argument if you pointed at fragmentation. Now if only someone would get this through the thick head of the fool that runs the perscribed burn program in Banff, maybe he'd spare us another nearly-burning-down-Banff-townsite incident.

This is an impressive 11 pages of parochial bollocks you've managed to assemble here Sundance. Aren't you the same guy who refused to get the H1N1 shot because he didn't trust the science and then ended up bed-ridden for 2 weeks. What is it about science that you despise so much? Perhaps you could enlighten us as to what would motivate the scientific community to perpetuate what you refer to as a "hoax"? And don't say money again, cause there isn't any in science - none of the PhDs I know (and I know a lot of them) make as much as the average secretary downtown. Contrast that with the billions in your industry, which, faced with the venal threat of having to last a little longer, is pumping out misinformation on a biblical scale, all of which you swallow uncritically, because you have to.

Just to be clear, I was talking about studded bicycle tires, but you're right - they're the tits! Now that I know the difference, I'm starting to think that Quebec is onto something with their winter tire law. The difference is so dramatic! I'm aware of the counter arguments (not everone has the space or the capital for 2 sets), but 1. driving is a privledge, not a right, and 2. the same arguments could be made about child seats. Actually, it's even easier than that, since there are now such things as winter-rated all seasons. I was sceptical at first, but bought a set of these last winter: http://www.1010tires.com/tire.asp?tirebran...ance+TripleTred Awesome tires on snow and ice and they have a 130000km tread warranty. I'm probably giving up something in the summer, but not enough to notice. Besides, it's a Subaru, not a Lotus.

As I often do when a Chinook looks likely to collapse, I put the studs on my cross bike before I left for work. Rode home in slightly more than my usual 20 min. Took my GF, who works in the same building, almost an hour and a half to do the same.

It not so much the tying quality of most commercial flies that frosts my wagon, but the quality of the hooks. I mostly tie my own, but occasionally need something and end up buying from shops. Nearly every time, the hooks have straightened out on any half-way serious fish, the latest being a batch of #14 backswimmers from Fish Tales that kept straightening out even though I was using 4X. This has me wondering: do the shops have any wholesale suppliers available that don't use crappy hooks? 'Cause I've starting to think that the best tier in the world is a 90lb, hunchbacked Indonesian woman, all of who's products are fatally flawed.

Not my favorite fish of '09, but definitely the most memorable: I was having a so-so day fishing for cutts and bows on the Wigwam (I know that that's not why people go there, but I just don't like streamers much). Anyway, late in the evening what risers there were keyed in on Sallys, for which I had no decent imitations. So I started nymphing and was immediately rewarded with a 12ish" cutt. Naturally, I was still using my 4wt and didn't bother to switch off my 5X tippet. The bull that grabed him was a stubborn sort and proceeded to wander around the pool ignoring me. Several minutes later, I felt the hook slip, but to my surprise, the bull was still on. It turns out that the cutt had got off (and probably eaten), but the bull had been foul hooked near the mouth. It took a long time and a near ankle breaking run downstream when he remembered that tactic, but I eventually got him to shore. To my surprise after such a long fight, he took off pretty quickly. Ecology in action.

It was a while back, when this was annoying rather than illegal, but I once ran into a old bait fisher at the corner pool below Home Rd who had a 3 nice browns on a stringer. It wouldn't surprise me if he cleaned that pool out on his own, since he said he tried to make it down most mornings. Late this summer too, I watched some big browns rising just off the western tip of Prince's Island - too bad I was on my bike and not fishing.

I'm in the market too, having worn through the toes on mine. I'm wondering about the traction and durability of the new felt-less boots. The Simms come with Vibram soles, which sound good for durability, but not so much for traction. Patagonia has what they call "sticky rubber", which sounds good for traction, but the name reminds me of those Specialized Umma Gumma MTB tires from the '90s that wore out in just a few rides. Anyone have personal experience with these?