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You never said anything about the most common weapons, you said you don’t know anyone who wants to carry a stinger, but all you want is to be able to carry whatever weapon you want… So if someone like you wants to carry a stinger… Is that OK or not? Stop acting like a fucking gun nut. or is it just all about you?

Hard to believe I’ve been coming here to Speaker’s Corner for 20 years for my daily dose of enlightenment and aggravation. It’s really been the best place to hear a diversity of opinions from real people, a diversity I can’t encounter at work or the drop zone where it would be inappropriate to talk about so many of the topics we can kick around here. I’ve learned something from all of you, and I’ll really miss getting perspective from you even if sometimes it makes me gnash my teeth. So I’d like to wish all of you fair winds and following seas. Don

The other day; I asked Gemini to plan a 48 state motorcyle trip where I don't go through any state twice. I think I broke it.

The original suggestion came from employers of recent engineering graduates (not only ours) who identified a clear need for better communication skills. The Accreditation Commission (ABET) agreed. Of course, I'm sure YOU know better than members of the profession.

Personally, I miss the late 0’s to the mid-teens the most. It was more diverse, and most of the people, with some noticeable exceptions, had points that that wanted to make other than “lib bad/conservative good” or vice versa Wendy P.

He did not prioiritize humanites over engineering - in addiiton to. My suspicion is Kallend being a well-read scholar found Aristotle's model of liberal arts to be of value. To be more well-rounded in many subjects other than their major - For what is an engineer that cannot speak/present to a group other than engineers?

Hey! Be careful how you use that term "trailer trash." I was proud to become "trailer trash" when I moved out of my Volkswagen van and into a 30-year-old trailer in the Perris Valley "Ghetto" trailer park. A drug-dealer lived across the dirt street from me and another drug dealer lived behind me. It was the quietest and safest neighborhood I ever lived in. If you want to know more about how the USA oppresses poor white folks, read the book "White Trash, the 400 untold story about class in America" written by Nancy Isenberg. In short, the book tells us that American elite enjoy oppressing and exploiting the poorest and care little about the colour of their skin. The most perverse part of that is the thousands of poor whites who died defending the Confederacy only to find them competing economically with recently released black slaves after the American Civil War.

Engineers need to be able to write enough English to communicate with other engineers, upwards to executives and down to the mechanics who bend the wrenches. Just before Christmas I was joking with some of the engineers at work and one mentioned another engineer who is borderline autistic. He is very good at his software job, but prefers to work alone. They do not assign any apprentices/co-op students to work with him. He does have a sense of humour, but it is mostly in German. He jokes about the region where he grew up and where I served almost 40 years ago. The technical writers and maintenance instructors are far more cheerful and open to chat. Back when I wrote parachute packing manuals, I felt like I was translating from the designer (Manley Butler and Sandy Reid) down to simplified lingo that semi-literate riggers could understand. I tried to make my manuals a series of photographs illustrating the the key points in the packing process. Text was more to keep the lawyers at bay. Forget about writing instructions to riggers or technicians in legal "boilerplate" as none of them can read that obscure dialect. Hah! Hah! Thank you for reading my rant about the minimum level of communication skills required by engineers.

No. Just the prioritization of humanities over engineering in an engineering curriculum.

Mr. Hissone, Sir, you are a one jump wonder taking a chance at 15 minutes of fame on a soon to be dead skydiving blog. Show some respect, please. I haven't countered you because you do naught but spout the same I want my guns because I want my guns bullshit that comes non-stop from your sort. You were a 30 year cop but so what? Well, one so what is the comment you made where, when in a traffic stop where the citizen said they have a gun, your canned response was you keep yours where it is and I will too with mine (sic). I suppose that's because in By God South Carolina where everyone has a gun it's funny. In the real world it's sick. You are not only seriously wrong on the issues and statistics, you are also the absolutely wrong person to have been a cop. Please go back to your right wing cop blogs, you aren't getting any takers here at the Speakers Corner hospice.

I finally understand why I’ve been so warmly received as an immigrant.

That’s scary there. Anyone who thinks they’re destroying in God’s name is scary Wendy P.

The vast majority of white people who require intervention by child protection are druggies, ignorant and extremely abusive and think they know the law. Having to deal with some Karen who is refusing to allow her kid to be vaccinated because of Faucci and 5G, or the 14-16 year olds running away from home because the parents won’t let them smoke pot or drink. Or you can deal with situations where people don’t have the skills and knowledge on how to parent effectively and are desperate for help and guidance. Look into the effects of the stolen generation in Australia and you quickly see the lasting damage that was done. Australia has its equivalent of idiotic MAGA nuts, ignorant, racist, scream about immigrants etc and yet live off the state handouts while smoking crack.

Funnily enough my daughter is a child protection case worker and she now avoids working with whites due to their attitudes. She loves working with the remote communities and the indigenous people.

Back when I was a college dean, I insisted that all freshmen engineers had to pass written English at college level in order to move on, and pass more humanities than the engineering accreditation criteria called for in order to graduate.

And now, the end is near And so I face the final curtain My friend, I'll say it clear I'll state my case, of which I'm certain I've lived a life that's full I traveled each and every highway And more, much more than this I did it my way Regrets, I've had a few But then again, too few to mention I did what I had to do And saw it through without exemption I planned each charted course Each careful step along the byway And more, much more than this I did it my way Yes, there were times, I'm sure you knew When I bit off more than I could chew But through it all, when there was doubt I ate it up and spit it out I faced it all, and I stood tall And did it my way I've loved, I've laughed and cried I've had my fill, my share of losing And now, as tears subside I find it all so amusing To think I did all that And may I say, not in a shy way Oh, no, oh, no, not me I did it my way For what is a man, what has he got? If not himself, then he has naught To say the things he truly feels And not the words of one who kneels The record shows I took the blows And did it my way

From what I understand, DZ.com is going away. (I might be more up to speed if the lefty censors weren’t so enthusiastic). That said, I have enjoyed my time here and have even felt respect and admiration for some of my left wing foils (talking to you Joe, BillV, Skydecker, et al). Thank you guys and I wish the best for you. I know you are unhappy about the results of the last election, but this too shall pass. The ship of state has more momentum than any one term administration can significantly alter, it’s going to be ok. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Love you guys!

About 35 years ago I was a new skydiver, jumping at a tiny DZ on Long Island and dreaming about moving somewhere new. I spent some of my free time at work posting on rec.skydiving - a Usenet group that catered to skydivers. It was a different time back then. To be able to get to Usenet at all means you needed a modem and a computer, both pricey purchases, and you needed to be able to get them to work together, which meant you needed some tech experience. As a result, not many people were on Usenet - just me and a few other tech nerds. And there was hardly any spam! Slowly over the years more people figured it out and started joining. I remember TooyT, Barry Brumitt (wrote the first skydiving FAQ!) Lance Kirwin, Kevin O'Connell, Dave Appel and Jerry Sobieski. I also met Amy on there, which changed the course of my life in a big way. I moved to California in '94 both to escape a bad relationship and to skydive. And of course because I found a great company - Qualcomm - in San Diego. By that point Usenet was becoming a cesspool of Viagra ads and foreign bride offers, and filters had not gotten good enough yet to remove all that, so browsing it was painful. So when Willem announced he was starting DZ.com I felt a big sense of relief. He got in touch with me to see if I wanted to moderate S+T and Incidents, which I said yes to. We started with a complement of about a dozen moderators, some of which I got to know really well. I spent a day in San Diego with Andrea watching whales swim by the gliderport, and I spent a few days with Chuck and Katie at Raeford jumping. Derek once built me a tersh just because I was talking about how I needed one (thanks again Derek) and Remi, Karen and I would meet up whenever we were out at Eloy. Seven of us once got together at Eloy and did the now-infamous moderator jump, angled carefully so no one could see Willem's face on camera. I think Eric and Scott were on that one as well. I also met a bunch of other people from DZ.com in real life - Lisa, Keely, Gary, Winsor - and saw them at Perris and at boogies all the time. It grew my circle of friends from Socal jumpers to jumpers all over the US. And even the world; I met some people from the Irish Parachute Club and made a trip out there to jump with them. I recall a lot of drinking. Over time as moderators changed I took on moderation of a few more forums, but to me the S+T and Incidents forum were always the important ones. I got some sort of award - a "skydivers hall of fame" or something from Parachutist for running that, and got on a few podcasts talking about safety and incidents. One of my proudest moments during that time was reading an incident by a newer jumper flying a too-small canopy. He had read one of my many diatribes on "LEARN FLAT TURNS!" and had tried them once or twice. Then one day he found himself flying downwind by accident, and he tried to turn into the wind at 50 feet. He tried that flat turn he had heard about, but there was something off about it (he explained) because he landed hard, tore his jumpsuit and sprained his ankle. The fact that he was complaining about a sprained ankle after a turn at 50 feet under a heavily loaded canopy made me think that maybe this forum was actually doing some good. I learned a lot, too, mainly from the forums I wasn't moderating - forums like General and Gear and Rigging. Based on what I learned about wingsuiting here, for example, I bought a small wingsuit, taught myself how to fly it, started moving up in wingsuit sizes - then met Jari and became one of the first Birdman wingsuit instructors in the US. And over the years we lost people here too, of course. In some ways this place served as a memorial; you could go back and read what Shannon or Taz had posted while they were still alive, and remember them that way. Over the years traffic has started to fall off as people find more social-media options for skydiving, which is a natural evolution. I'm sorry that it will be disappearing sooner rather than later, but nothing lasts forever. It will be interesting to see what happens to the database; all these incident reports and threads on canopy flight have a lot of value (IMO) and I hope we can save some of it. Thanks to everyone who participated on this site over the decades it has been running, and thanks especially to all the moderators who I've worked with - Wendy, Lisa, Andrea, Chuck, Eric, Remi, Meso and all the others. And of course thanks to Willem for doing all the work to set up and maintain this site. See you out there.

Data analysis is not your thing either, nor is critical thinking. You ignore all the data that disagrees with your need to have killer toys; when challenged you only come up with a single suggestion, and that's one that's been proven not to work. You ignore all suggestions that are known to work from comparitive analysis between nations and from comparison between states in the USA. You are a hypocrite and a troll and not worth further engagement.

I doubt your regular cop is a professional criminologist or statistician.

Of course, this could also apply to active or retired police officers, and the business of policing...

Who did? Who did? Who did? 100% yes.

A discrepancy I've also been curious about. When there is a conflict, I try to always go with the earliest statement when there is no other corroboration. Tina's 302 says "he had another book of matches". It's hard to get "I got up and found him some more matches" from that statement. She also describes the matchbook. That likely wouldn't have been pertinent info to include if it was just a matchbook she supplied him with. Lastly, I go with the 302 because why would a heavy smoker like Cooper commit a hijacking with a mere handful of matches left in a single matchbook? Surely he was planning to smoke both on the plane and during his escape. Two matchbooks makes sense. I'll have to go through Tosaw's narrative again, but off the top of my head the matches contradict with the 302's and Cooper's drink order contradicts the 302's. I believe there are a few other things too. Oh, he has the passengers being moved up much too early. Tina says she only moved them up after they landed and were taxiing to the isolated runway.

You have suggested nothing in the way of concrete suggestions. All you care about is your access to your toys, despite everything you've written.

And the most DZ appropriate version of a performance of that classic:

Do you have any idea how stupid you come across?

Jump the main for a few to get re-oriented. Get an AAD. Reserve will be fine as long as the rigger doesn't ground it (for age or other reasons). My ground training after a nine year hiatus wearing the rig was, "What's that handle do? What's that handle do? What's that handle do? There's a plane with a slot on it, take it to 5k and do a HnP. Don't die." I heard. Have fun. Be safe.

So just to be clear - you're calling Jay closed minded? You're calling Brent closed minded? You're calling Bigun closed minded? ALL the right wingers here who disagree with me except you are closed minded... even though you largely share the same positions and arguments as them? Do you really think that's likely? Anyway, when do you think you've demonstrated openmindedness here? You've never even admitted that Trump was being a dangerous moron over his covid bleach comments that you so staunchly defended. It should be the easiest thing possible to admit for an openminded person, why not try walking the walk for once before this place is gone?

So you're disagreeing with the concept of college requiring some competency in the English language? Or just with the concept of Kallend actually having authority? Wendy P.

You weren’t replying to me.

The point is that this is neither gunzone.com or copzone.com. I think it fantastic that folks with a starting jump want to get more involved in skydiving but that is not what you are doing and is also why there is a bonfire thread. Seems to me that you just dropped in from nowhere in the sites final minutes to give us like 35 last minute posts about how we need stingers and fighter jets to protect ourselves from a tyrannical phantom government. Of course that is shop worn bullshit. And, be it my opinion, I absolutely think gun nut cops are a bad choice.

Pointing out your hypocrisy is not really agreeing still waiting for a definition of woke after hundreds of pages of woke threads if only you knew what you were all upset about….

DO NOT accept Cunningham's timeline, it is NOT correct. He is out by 2 minutes at the Columbia.. Do NOT let this misinformation become case evidence. This case is tough enough already. and the number of bills was estimated at 290/$5800, they did NOT find more bills they identified more serial numbers, that it NOT the same thing.. Originally they did not identify 280 complete bill numbers then find more. The estimated 280 bills, they were not all complete serial numbers. All they did was complete some of the unidentified serial numbers using fragments. They did not add to the 280. They did not account for all 300 bills. One packet was smaller. Likely some eroded but can't rule out a few were missing. Not likely, but possible. It is likely there were 3 packets of 100 bills each $2000 = $6000 but they did not account for all of them,, and did not fully identify all the (280) serial numbers. Also, the Skychef matchbook... Tosaw interviewed Tina and says in his book that she grabbed them from a cabinet when Cooper's matchbook ran out. While Tosaw does not get absolutely everything correct this may be the source of the Skychef matches and not Cooper. Weather.. There is no precise weather/wind data for Cooper's jump time and location,, we have general reports some distance and time away.. The FBI weather data was applied as a proxy, it was not precise. Best indication was the wind in the area was shifting between SSE to SSW around that time.

MSNBC and the NYT ‘woke is dead’

I presume you are aware that the USA is an outlier with respect to gun regulations and gun ownership among wealthy nations, and it is also an outlier with respect to shooting deaths of all kinds (murders, suicides, accidents) among the same group of nations. As one example, the USA has 46x the shooting death rate as the UK despite sharing a similar culture, language, legal system, etc. Do you think this is acceptable? And if not, what would YOU suggest is a way forward?

Pffft. I'm still waiting for your 'preponderance of evidence' that God exists.

Left. You are left all of the time as well. :)

That 97 is going to make your ass look big.

Hi H, Once again, it is all about you. Jerry Baumchen

You don’t know any people that are calling for Stingers but you just want to be able to carry whatever you want? we can fucking hear you here right?

Are you triggered that trailer trash white people can be worse people than non whites who come from disadvantaged backgrounds?

The actual issue becomes…. To which country do you deport US born citizens? Why would those countries accept people who are citizens of another country? the fall of birth right citizenship is not going to happen because it is unenforceable at any level just another trump lie and failed campaign promise that he can blame on the deep state

I didn't say it was. Statistically you are FAR more likely to get "just a warning" from a cop if you are white. Especially from cops who claim there's no racism on the force.

Or alternatively, the gun lobby convinced you of something utterly unconnected with reality. https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/kennesaw-gun-law/

MAGA idiot here now Jerry. better stated maga idiot from New Orleans, tell me what you know about loss brother. Please tell this maga idiot what I know about loss and what I had and lost and had again.

Yep! way better than voting for some communist

Yeah, he's got a lot going on 'in his mind'. Not a lot of it has anything to do with reality, but that's his problem.

As with so many other things in life, you get out of it exactly what you put into it. Good summation of your contributions though.

Nice guy Wendy P.