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Greenroome

SnowJapan Member
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Posts posted by Greenroome

  1. I agree with the apparent majority mindset of SJ'ers (as expressed on other enviro-threads here) that you should do what you can for the environment but still enjoy yourself. I actively avoid ski hills that make fake snow and have nighta, but I'm not prepared to miss out on the sport I love just because they use power for the lifts. I'm planning on spending a fair chunk of time this season sliding at Kamui Ski Links for just that reason.

     

    I've also got some un-used carbon credits that I bought earlier this year still under my belt.

  2. Here's an important one: Where the hell have all the bananas gone? There's usually a huge selection to choose from but for a couple of days the banana section has been bare.

     

    Of course there's a perfectly good notice explaining the situation, but my Japanese is light years from perfectly good. I did a bit of monkey-shrugging and eyebrow work at another disappointed punter but he wasn't forthcoming. confused

  3. Here's local Niseko meteorologist Brendon Eishold's call:

     

    In terms of what’s in store for the season, Eishold says it’s still crystal ball stuff but initial indicators were good.

     

    “One of the main indicators of whether it’s going to be a cold winter is snowfalls over Siberia in September and there’s pretty cold air over there currently with some reasonable snowfalls.â€

     

    He said for the coming week there should be more falls up high on Friday and in to the weekend, and possibly even a little lower down the mountain.

     

     

    clap You Be-Youtei!!!

  4. I went to the Autumn Festival last night and had Sri Lankan Soup Curry, a wagyu beef burger, a wagyu beef steak on rice (that she called 'steaky don') and an insanely fatty sausage thing constructed around a rib. It was all absolutely delicious and I washed it down with a big mug of keg whisky and soda with a wedge of lemon in it from the 7 chome bar. Heaps of fun and a great atmosphere, but I'm spewing I missed the 'Autumn Sweets Fantasy'.

     

    Ezorisu, if you dug the burger then you gotta get back down to the same stall for the Steaky-don. It's a very generous sized steak chopped up on rice with Kim-chi and a sensational chilli soy sauce. Only 800 yen, and you can try before you buy.

     

    Oh, and good work with the Momma Charry Sparkies - wicked.

  5. Spot on Rag-Doll, which is why I've (alarmingly) found myself pondering the idea of a board of scientists and economists making tough unpopular unilateral decisions based on fact not desire. Never thought I'd be considering dictatorship, but we're collectively too soft to make the tough moves required until it's way too late.

     

    Successive Australian governments have allowed the country's greatest/most productive river get to a deplorable state through overuse, and are only now buying back irrigators' water entitlements. They knew about El Nino/La Nina, periodical prolonged drought, and CC yet couldn't make the unpopular decisions needed.

  6. I completely agree with you Rag-Doll about the embarrassing scenes we see with politicians standing in front of anything from a bush fire to a child's destroyed sandcastle on the beach wringing their hands and blaming it on CC. My number one desire in all this would be to have the issue (a scientific one) removed entirely from the sphere of politics and handed over to scientists and economists. Effective solutions don't fit with short terms of office, and the issue is too open to political manipulation. I realize this is an impossible proposal but it illustrates the point that scientific problems should not be tackled by populists.

     

    I'm interested in scientific consensus without the baying crowd editing the story, and whilst natural El Nino / La nina events should be treated as such, the IPCC would be laughed out of their seats had they not taken them into account. Scientific peer review is incredibly thorough and stories de-bunking CC would sell just as many papers as CC itself. Actually, probably more.

     

    ps. Mooooo! (there we go, still on topic)

  7. Mama and BoC, if you've got wheels and you're looking for something a little different in Switzerland, Super Saint Bernard is an awesome ski hill. It's a low-key, isolated joint near the entrance of the San Bernardino tunnel. It's got about 1000m of vert, only costs about 4000 yen for the day, and if you want you can ski down into Italy on a 10km run.

     

    There's only a couple of lifts, but it's all about the central gondola that goes a km into the sky, into some the most breath-taking scenery you'll ever see. It's never crowded so you can keep traversing out to acres of fresh.

  8. Originally Posted By: coldcat

    Whenever someone base their argument on the consensus of a comunity, whether it be a comunity of scientists or a comunity of religious scholars, I am wary of the argument, since that "consensus" is usually quite subjective and more often than not is used to impose some idea or course of action on people.

    Anyway, I wouldn't want to start a debate on this, like I wouldn't want to debate with a Christian person about his religious beliefs because there is not going to be an end.


    Global warming data is derived directly from scientific research. General consensus about what the data means follows, and the overwhelming majority of scientists believe there is a link. To put the subjectivity of global warming consensus next to that of religion (a human invention for which no credible scientific research is possible) is like comparing the northern lights to ghost sightings.
  9. It sure is gay - in fact it's SUPER gay (I'm assuming that you're thinking of the 'happy and carefree' meaning of 'gay') Riding a Momma Charry is ace. Mine is British racing green with a faux leather seat and beige grips. It's got 'Precious' written on the frame. They sure got that right.

     

    I love my Precious, but I must admit I got a bit jealous the other day when I parked it next to one with 'Vigorous' written on it. I'll bet it does wicked endo's.

  10. Thursday's right. Don't write the k-word on the invite, but whip out the gear at 1am and you'll need security guards around the mic.

     

    I've got a funny/disturbing Korea karaoke moment permanently etched on my brain - a non-English speaking 60 year-old Mamma smiling, clapping and swaying along while a dodgy Aussie dude blazed out his rendition of a thoughtfully-chosen 'Rape Me' by Nirvana.

  11. Originally Posted By: tsondaboy


    I also did practice on the short board a few hours and I can now sit on the board! razz


    Good job! And judging by Pic 2, you've mastered the criminally-underrated 'poo-squat' move. It's what all the pros are doing in the shack at Pipe and Teahupo, trust me.
  12. Originally Posted By: Mamabear
    We were eventually flown home on a Merpati domestic plane, and despite being on an international route they allowed smoking - the boy almost died from an asthma attack! The flight had periods of electrical black out and occassionally dropped altitude, food was inedible. Landing was the worst I have experienced - but we got home safely.


    I know this is off-topic but I really want people to be aware of Indonesia's deplorable aviation standards. With the exception of its institutions, I absolutely love Indonesia. It's people are fantastic, its waves are insane (I once got three tubes on one wave), and its natural beauty is breathtaking (especially Sumatra).

    However their lack of proper transport regulation means they shouldn't be flying planes. I know they're not a rich country, and I can excuse their maritime and road transport standards (coz I can swim smile but they're not poor enough to excuse what happened in Yogykarta last year.

    22 people died when Garuda Flight 200 came in to land at 410kmh, twice the normal landing speed, and skidded into a big ditch at the end of the runway run-off and burst into flames. The run-off area was a quarter of the recommended length, and the emergency vehicles were unable to reach the burning plan in sufficient time.

    The investigation revealed that the wing flaps were not extended for landing, and pilots revealed that the reverse thrust of one engine had not been working prior to take-off. The pilot ignored 15 automated warnings from the plane and a number of requests from his co-pilot to go around and approach again.

    As for the 410kmh landing speed, "a Garuda Pilots' Association official has speculated that the pilot could have been trying to save fuel due to a new fuel conservation bonus scheme recently introduced by Garuda Airlines" (Wikipedia).

    This kind of stuff is not uncommon in Indonesia (or in other parts of S.E.A.). A laidback approach to coco-hut construction on the beach is one thing, but if you're gonna fly planes, you gotta do it right. I turned down the cheapest option for Perth - Tokyo (Garuda) earlier this year. We can all do our bit by boycotting dodgy carriers whenever possible.
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