March 15, 2011.

Click here to view the video version of this interview.
Have you heard the one aboot the Canadian who migrated to California for the summer? That’s right, our California & Oregon regional manager has come down to foster the camaraderie of a tight California rafting guide crew and wow everyone with his off-the-charts Karaoke renditions of Sinatra. Avoiding the bitter cold each winter, James Rodger escapes to Patagonia to raft the wild Class V whitewater of the Futaleufu River. Having started river guiding in 1996, Rodger has worked for O.A.R.S. now for seven years. He loves to cook a variety of local, organic dishes and enjoys casting a fly rod into a river or stream on his days off. He is known for his friendly personality, can crack a joke in any crowd setting and takes pride in his Canadian heritage – still watching the Canadian news at night. Rodger has the confidence you want on a river trip; he is always happy to share his knowledge about a given area, and goes out of his way to make sure that our guests have a trip of a lifetime.

1.  What made you fall in love with rivers and become a river guide?
I think it was 1981 or 1982, on a Sunday afternoon around 6:00 watching Walt Disney, and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer came on and I figured that would be a great way to live my life – floating down a river.
     2.  What have you been doing with yourself for the last few months leading up to the 2011 season?
I just got back from Chile, rafting down the Futaleufu (one of my favorite spots in the whole world). I was down there late November and just got back to get ready for the California season. In the winter time I like to be in other warm places on rivers where it’s sunny – chasing the endless summer.
     3.  What are you looking forward to this season?
2011 is shaping up to be a pretty wild season here in California we got lots of snow and there’s going to be lots of waves, lots of high water so we’re looking forward to a busy spring and getting all the guides back together. It’s a bit of a family and everybody has fun, so it will be nice to see everybody back and doing what we do best – floating down the river.
     4.  What is your favorite California river?
It’s sort of a toss up between North Fork of the Stanislaus and the Tuolumne River, I think. Again, the rivers in California all are pretty amazing and all have their charm. Actually, I think my favorite California river would be the one that I’m on that day.
     5.  What makes a good trip leader?
In my experience, the people that make the best trip leaders are the ones that have all the details and see the big picture, but at the same time they’re very detail oriented people. People that trust the crew that they’re working with to get things done. A good trip leader is one who knows when you run out of toilet paper, your water bottle is empty or you had a cold sleep – it’s someone who notices all those little things that we can fix to help make your trip better (and that’s all the guides at O.A.R.S.).
     6.  What are some examples of little things you’ve done for a guest to make sure they have a great experience?
Sometimes you need to get people to connect with the river and it takes a little bit extra effort like a hot water bottle in their sleeping bag if it’s cold outside, helping someone get their tent set up, or lending out our personal clothes. We always carry an extra fleece in case it gets cold out; I end up giving a lot of my clothing out to the guests.
     7.  What does adventure mean to you?
So when you get people out in an environment that they’ve never spent any time in or they’re not familiar with it, they’re out of their element and that’s an adventure. It sort of would be the same for me going to a big city for the first time. It’s an adventure because I haven’t spent a lot of time in a big city, and I think that people we bring out on the river who haven’t been there before, everything is new to them. When things are new, that’s what an adventure’s about. Even if things are familiar, rivers are always changing creatures. Every corner has a new adventure around it with endless opportunities to explore.
     8.  What is your favorite outdoor activity outside of rafting?
I’ve been bitten by the fly fishing bug lately, so if I’m not on the river on my days off, then I’ll be on a stream bank somewhere casting flies. Fly fishing is sort of my new thing I like to be doing when I’m not out and about.
     9.  We hear you love to cook, what is your favorite dish to share on the river?
Actually I think my favorite meal to cook on the river, the one that gets people the most, is a west coast eggs benedict with smoked salmon and homemade hollandaise sauce. That sort of gets people’s attention when they see that coming out in the morning on the river.
     10.  What part about you would you say is the most “Canadian?”
Well being resident alien in this country, sometimes I feel like Charlie Sheen; people should just realize that I really am a rockstar from Mars, but they don’t [laughs]. A couple things that give me away about being Canadian are my ‘outs’ and ‘abouts’ or my ‘house.’ I tend to throw extra ‘u’s’ in words that makes George and others upset, but probably the thing that makes me the most Canadian is that I wear a tuque and not a beanie. That’s a defining Canadian characteristic of mine, my tuques.
Click the play button to watch the video interview.

Written by Lauren de Remer O.A.R.S.’ Marketing Communications Coordinator & Waterblogged Editor

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The general in charge of enforcing the no-fly zone over Libya swears that he’s not actively aiding the rebels there. His pilots are just, um, blowing up Moammar Gadhafi’s tanks. Get your razor blade out, because it’s time to slice some answers mighty thin.
Gen. Carter Ham, head of U.S. Africa Command, told reporters at the Pentagon that he’s interpreting the United Nations Security Council mandate — ground Libyan aircraft; protect civilians — narrowly. He’s had “no official communication” with the Libyan rebels currently pushing west from Benghazi. “We do not provide close air support for the opposition forces,” he said, even though his planes have attacked pro-Gadhafi loyalists. “We protect civilians… We have no mission to support opposition forces if they should engage in offensive operations.”
But even Ham said it’s not always easy to distinguish those missions. Some in the opposition are the civilians that the United Nations resolution authorizing the no-fly zone protects — like those protecting “their homes, their families, their businesses.” Deciding who’s a rebel and who’s a bystander is entirely up to the coalition pilot flying overhead.
Ham conceded that it’s a “very problematic situation.” Pilots supporting the no-fly mission are advised to be “very judicious” in when they’ll fire on Gadhafi’s forces below — opening fire only when they’re sure civilians are under threat. “Sometimes these are situations that brief much better at a headquarters than they do in the cockpit of an aircraft,” Ham said.
That kind of murkiness sets up latitude for pilots to aid the opposition under the claim that there’s an imminent threat to Libyan civilians if they don’t fire their weapons. And that’s been the logic of the air campaign: after all, the Obama administration only came around to supporting military action against Gadhafi when it looked like he was about to wipe out the rebels.
Indeed, Ham said that if Gadhafi’s forces dug into a “defensive position” near civilian or rebel-held areas, they could become coalition targets — even if they don’t immediately attack any Libyans.
But if the opposition is looking to Ham to save them, they may have another thing coming. For one thing, he warned, it “can be very difficult” for coalition pilots or airborne surveillance to distinguish Gadhafi’s forces from the rebels. (Though presumably the visible routes that each take to get to a skirmish can clear things up.) “There is no intent to completely destroy the Libyan military forces,” he said.
And it “could be the case” that Ham’s mission ends with Gadhafi in power (even though the stated policy of the United States, as articulated by the President and the Secretary of State, is regime change). “I have a very discrete military mission, and so I could see accomplishing the military mission which has been assigned to me and the current leader would remain the current leader,” Ham said. “I don’t think anyone would say that is ideal, but I could envision that as a possible situation, at least for the current mission that I have. I would reiterate that I have no mission to attack that person, and we are not doing so.”
Ham said he doesn’t see his mission changing, and he said his focus over the coming days is extending the no-fly zone westward to Tripoli, covering about 1000 kilometers of Libyan territory. But his successor might have a different… interpretation of when Gadhafi forces become legit targets. Over the next several days, Ham will transition command to an as-yet-unspecified multinational command entity. The French and British are already more gung-ho about taking Gadhafi down than the U.S. is.
And even before the next command takes over, Ham said that “well over half” of the 70 to 80 sorties that coalition aircraft flew over Libya on Monday weren’t U.S. jets. Maybe those non-U.S. pilots draw less strict distinctions between rebel fighters and Libyan civilians.
Photo: Flickr/U.S. Africa Command


Jason Merritt/ Getty Images

By PAIGE FEIGENBAUM
March 16, 2011Meat dresses might just be the new black. Lady Gaga will receive the style icon award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America in a June 6 ceremony, according to The Associated Press.The “Born This Way” artist known to strut the streets in minimal clothing and arrive on the red carpet incubating in an egg is receiving the high honor for her one-of-a-kind fashion sense. CFDA President Diane von Furstenberg made the announcement at her studio on Wednesday.Lady Gaga even walked the runway during Paris Fashion Week for Thierry Mugler’s Autumn/Winter 2011-2012 collection earlier this month.Womenswear category nominees Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen attended the reception, along with Vera Wang, Anna Wintour, and Zac Posen. The lifetime achievement award will go to designer Marc Jacobs.
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Lady Gaga is using her massive popularity for a good cause. 
The queen of the "Little Monsters" has designed a prayer bracelet to sell, with all proceeds going to those suffering from the effects of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in Japan.
On Friday, Gaga twittered about her relief effort, urging fans to go to her online store to purchase the $5 red and white bracelet that reads "We pray for Japan."
"I Designed a Japan Prayer Bracelet," she wrote. "Buy It/Donate here and ALL proceeds will go to Tsunami Relief Efforts. Go Monsters."
Many other celebs have taken to their Twitter accounts to express their concern for the people of Japan, including Justin Bieber.
"Japan is one of my favorite places on earth… it’s an incredible culture with amazing people," the teen sensation wrote. "My prayers go out to them. We all need to help."
To do your part, the Red Cross asks that you "Text REDCROSS to 90999 to make a $10 donation to help those affected by the earthquake in Japan and tsunami throughout the Pacific."

Michael David Smith
Lead Blogger

In the video here, Las Vegas plastic surgeon Dr. Frank Stiles takes us inside the surgery he performed on former UFC fighter Phil Baroni. But as Stiles explains, operating on Baroni’s nose really wasn’t plastic surgery — he wasn’t just trying to make Baroni more handsome.Instead, Stiles was fixing what he called “a functional deformity,” and he said the surgery “will result in better breathing for Phil” and “enhance his ability to train.”In other words, this isn’t cosmetic surgery. This is performance-enhancing surgery. And it may become commonplace for mixed martial artists.
Jake Rossen has an interesting piece at Wired.com about how common “cosmetic” surgeries are becoming for MMA fighters who are getting the surgeries to help their ability to fight, not to make themselves look better. Nick Diaz had scar tissue removed from his face and replaced with tissue from a cadaver to make him less likely to have a fight stopped because of a cut. Marcus Davis and Wanderlei Silva have had similar procedures.But Rossen wonders where we’ll draw the line: Could a fighter have surgical enhancements to his elbow to make him less susceptible to an arm bar? Implants in his neck to make him less susceptible to a choke? Silicone around his jaw to act as cushioning?That sounds a little outlandish, but athletes will always search for new ways to enhance their performance. Who knows what kinds of performance-enhancing surgeries the future might hold?At the moment, however, I agree with Kid Nate at Bloody Elbow: These kinds of surgeries seem like the logical progression from procedures like arthroscopic knee surgeries that have helped athletes’ careers. If facial surgeries can help prevent superficial facial injuries from ending fights, that’s a step forward for MMA.