Do you dig this Subaru?

Yesterday, I was done skiing and ready to head back home, when my glance was caught by that old Subaru Loyale with Colorado license plates, but much more importantly, sporting the complete and unblemished old “US Ski Team” official vehicle paint job, harking back to 1985.

Further, the little station wagon appeared to kept be in ultra-mint condition and seeing it was like being transported 33 years into my skiing past!

To the left of that antique Subie was a new one, and as I was about to leave the parking lot, its owner returned to his Outback, so I slowed down, rolled down my passenger window and shared my appreciation for the beautiful old car, plastered with ski memorabilia.

I said: “Great car, next to you, don't you agree!” He answered: “What's that?” (the man, about my age, seemed to be hard of hearing). I repeated my remark. The man heard it and grumbled: “I could care less about that car...”

Another unhappy man cruising the remainder of his life with an attitude!

Is a Facebook replacement in the cards?

With its lack of transparency and reluctance to face up the music, Facebook is opening the door to an alternative for a social media platform people could trust.

To succeed, this replacement would require some solid funding and credible self-rules required to give it credibility, protect its integrity and the security of its members.

Could Google or some wannabe like like Vero come up with a good replacement? Time will tell, but we should be ready to be surprised!

The 2018-19 Pass Quandary

For an Epic ski pass-holder like me, the next logical question for 2018-2019 would be: Which additional pass would make sense for me next winter season, to complement my Epic pass?

Well, two options are at my disposal in the newly minted Ikon Pass and the existing Mountain Collective Pass.

In comparing both, it would seem that, at least to try the concept of a second pass, the Mountain Collective is a better deal as it only costs $58.43 per day and adding a kid under 12 to it would only cost me $1.

In addition, there's no black-out day on that pass and there are plenty of days for me to do a “sampling” of other resorts combined to the plethora of destination available with the Epic pass...

When Facebook looses “face”

Mike Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg have names that rhyme, lie equally poorly and both are lackluster salesperson. In one word, both sound, look and smell like corrupted people.

More than 130 years ago, Lord Acton is said to have originated the quote "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

For the benefit of the Zuckerber-Sandberg team, I'd say “Money corrupt and too much of it corrupts absolutely.”

Anyone short-selling Facebook stock?

Are you happy where you are?

The 2018 World Happiness Report is out!

If you aren't too sure where you ought to be, or where your own state of happiness stacks again your country of residence's ranking, you can check among 156 different countries that have been ranked by the level of happiness they provide their residents.

This ranking is based on pooled results from Gallup World Poll surveys from 2015 to 2017. While Finland is the new leader, the countries in the top-ten remain pretty much the same.

Would I have the audacity, at my age, to move to Finland or another Scandinavian country? Probably not, but I might be open to moving somewhere north to British Columbia, Canada.

What about you; where would you move to?

Where does religious faith come from?

I have been wrestling with that subject for quite some time, since that feeling never came naturally to me and failed to stay in me. It was imposed on me as it happens to be forced on to the kids the world over, but faith never took roots within me.

Perhaps was I too much of a rebel or I had already discovered that the hidden power of a fertile imagination could invent almost anything that I needed to cope.

So my conclusion has been that faith is just a seed, invented by some creative and charismatic prophet and produced to be planted – in the hope that it could germinate – into the mind of an insecure, frightened person, that is woefully unable accept the grim reality of existence.

To increase its chances of success, it must be planted in young subjects and be kept jealously away from the light of reason, science and truth; in other words, any form of rational education.

The real cost of wider skis

In recent years, alpine skis have put on a lot of weight, and just like for humans, their “fat” is most obvious at their waist or under the foot to be more specific.

The original idea was to attain maximum “flotation” in powder, irregular, or challenging snows, but these situations are encountered by most skiers by less than 5 percent of the time. Yet, the concept “sells” very well to the masses that don't know any better or believe what the salesperson or the instructor tells them.

The problems with wide skis are quite simple and twofold. First they make the ski less quick and delay their response when frequent turns are needed, and they also add significant weight to the ski, increasing its moment of inertia and making it less maneuverable and less nimble. More material automatically also means that the ski will be more expensive to produce and to purchase.

So where's the sweet-spot when it comes to side-cut? Probably something in the order comprised between 80 and 85 mm under-foot.