tbrown

I'm proud to call Mike a good friend. Knew him in the old days and the last five years as well. I'd jump with him any time, anywhere, no questions asked. Meeting up with Mike again five years ago, after not having seen him in something like 22 years was the best, it was like having a part of the old glory days back again. Mike's a character who has real character. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

A very popular sentiment, but unworkable under our Constitutional system of government. Because we are NOT a Parliamentary system, where the majority party forms a government, often by coalition with smaller parties if a true majority is out of their reach. In a Parliamentary system, Nancy Pelosi would be the PM, though only elected fron her district in Haight-Ashbury. American parties do change over time, but generally by realigning and co-opting populist movements. the last all new party was the Republicans, who started out as a populist farmer's party in the midwest, strongly opposed to slavery because Republican farmers in thhe free states couldn't compete with Southern slave labor. If there's any hope for either party, it's when the likes of a Roosevelt (TR or FDR) rises up and turns the party aristocracy on their heads and redefines their party. I can still remember when thhe Republicans were declared dead on arrival after the LBJ landslide buried Barry Goldwater in 1964. And don't forget it was only four years ago that the Republicans were talking about their "permanent majority". The fortunes of the parties go up and down, but don't count either of them out. And for better or worse, we're stuck with them. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Junior, for starters I'd recommend you go to the Home Page and look at the "5 Steps to Getting Started" articles (lower left corner of the page). these include an article on assessing the risks. I like to tell my friends that skydiving is a reasonably safe sport, but you can get seriously hurt - or killed. That doesn't happen very often to a first time jumper, but it can. Going jumping with your friends can be a lot of fun - but if you don't want to jump, don't let your friends bully you into it either. Jumping is NOT for everyone and nobody should ever jump unless they want to. Period. You can still have a good time if you go along and bring a camera or videocam. You can take pics or shoot vids of your friends on the ground as they suit up, board the plane, and after they land. It's your own private decision. But read up on those articles and see if they're any help. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Found a terrific FREE website for live music. Wolfgang's Vault contains decades of live performances by hundreds of musicians, many of the great & famous, some a little more obscure. It's all stuff that was produced by the late Bill Graham (whose real name was Wolfgang Grajonka, he fled Europe as a Jewish refugee in WW II). You do have to register, but it's free. Can't download either, but you can create your own account, with all your favorites. It's an absolute blast ! Right now I'm listening to Frank Zappa and the Mothers, as they sing the theme song from "Have Gun, Will Travel" at the Fillmore West, back in 1970. Check it out ! That's concerts.wolfgangsvault.com. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

As far as personal posession and use go, yes. Sales should only be through strictly licensed - and taxed - outlets, with sever penalties for illegal sales. Drug related conduct offenses, whether DUIs, or any other kind of robbery, violent assault, theft, etc, should be prosecuted fully. Drugs do not excuse unacceptable behavior anymore than alcohol. Owsley Stanley, the famous acid chemist wrote an interesting proposal at his website a few years back (do a search for "Bear"). He proposed a license for drug users. the license fees would then fund the education that would go with the license, as well as treatment for those drug users having problems and/or who want to stop. I think it's a basically sound idea. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Still have to get two daughters thru college first, but I'm dreaming again. Even with my present canopy sizes (188 main/193 reserve), I could go so much smaller and lighter with a new system that would include a Skyhook. Especially if the Pulse is like a Pilot that can actually shut down in no wind. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It might even be a silk or cotton fiber canopy. Why not put it on a test dummy and static line it ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Oh please......from WHO ??? Skydivers ??? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Wow....after all these years, you haven't aged a day ! Ah....the memories of misspent youth... Thanks for dropping in and hope "the real you" has been enjoying life all these years. (I wound up marrying a Beth myself, BTW). Blues ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I remember that square reserves were not as quickly accepted as you might think nowadays. Many of us had recently spent $300 - 400 on new, low porosity, steerable, diaper deployed round reserves and saw no reason to have to turn around again and drop another $600 or so on something new and experimental. Strong Enterprises capitalized on this with an ad they ran, giving ten reasons why a round was a safer bet than a square when a reserve was needed. Also remember seeing a guy make a canopy transfer below a grand to a round reserve, after his 7 cell main started to split in halfon him. the round acted as an anchor and the square main just sort of fell over in front and he easily chopped it, swinging backward and away from it under his reserve. That was all a long time ago. Like anything else new there were bugs to be ironed out. Today's square reserves are a much better design than the early pioneer models. But it really did take the acid mash scare to finally move everyone over to squares, like 'em or not. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Well, if intelligent life were to be discovered (or if they discovered us) elsewhere in the universe, would that change your religious beliefs any? Only if they were Baptists..... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

People have been pissing and moaning about the Constitution going away ever since the thing was signed. It's not a ticket to heaven and it's not like everyone walks around asking themselves if what they want is Constitutional or not. Hell, it not only allowed slavery, it counted Blacks as 2/3 of a person for the census, and actually had to be amended before women could vote in all fifty states. What the Constitution DOES is give us a a framework to keep working, or struggling at the things we think are worthwhile. The Constitution may "guarantee" our freedoms, but that doesn't stop all kinds of people with agendas from running roughshod all over us. What the constution DOES do is to give us the means to fight back. It gives the President, congress, and courts the means to step in and impose limits when one or the other of them tries to grab too much power to themselves. Not to sound trite, but it is what we make of it - and gives us the means to go about trying. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

That's part of the problem - I don't think kids that age really understand what killing someone actually means. They see it all the time on TV or computer games and think it's just a good way to blow off a little steam. The godawful mess it had to make must have taught him a thing or two. There are reasons for prosecuting kids as juveniles, they were already hashed out a century ago when juvenile justice systems and laws were created. They're based on the idea of at least TRYING to save and rehabilitate the life of a kid before it's completely and irreversably ruined. That and to protect the kid's little fannies from the adult inmates. The prosecutor says he doesn't want this kid on the street when he turns 21. I can understand that, and even agree. But I'm also not willing to throw an 11 year old kid's life on the trash heap, not yet anyway. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

All well and good, but I think too many people are throwing up their hands and saying the sky is falling because the new administration won't do EVERYTHING their way. And as far as the atmosphere of pessimism goes, it's real enough. I think it's time to at least recall FDR's inaugural speech about "Nothing to fear but fear itself". FDR went on at some length about "blind, unreasoning fear"and so forth and it's worth a listen and some pondering. Of course if Obama dared remind anyone of what FDR said, everybody would jump up and down screaming that he was trying to compare himself to Roosevelt. Because they want to find so much wrong with Obama that anything will do. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I hate when people say it's so selfish of someone to commit suicide because of the people they leave behind. To me it's selfish of the "people left behind" to think they're more important. If someone is truly in that much pain and chooses to die, they should have that option. Apart from people who are already terminal and going through a great deal of suffering (i.e. cancer, etc.) I honestly have to disagree with you. I once knew a woman at work whose father shot himself right in front of her and her sister when they were both young girls. He obviously had no right to subject his children to something like that. I have problems with depression myself and have been on one med or another for the last ten years. Counseling is no help, as I'm okay with meds and have nothing to talk about, and I'm horrible if I'm off the meds for more than a few weeks. In some of my darkest times, I've wanted to end my life, but I'm glad I haven't so far. I've got a wife and two daughters who would be devastated if I ever did something like that. And I watched my parents after my brother died of cancer and saw how that tore them apart. They're so much older now, I could NEVER make them have to deal with another one of their children dying, let alone through suicide. People think having rights gives us a blank check to do whatever we want. That simply isn't true, because everything we do, great or small, has consequences. We have rights, but we also have the obligation to consider the consequences of what we do. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

We just lost a very good skydiving friend last month who was only 27 years old. Then last summer the best friend I ever had shot himself up in Seattle. It's sickening and leaves you feeling helpless because there's just no fixing it - ever. The hard part are the ones you'd never expect if from, like my friend in Seattle. It's important to pay attention to our friends and those we love and to speak up or hold them close. But some of them never give the slightest warning and they're the real heartbreakers. I don't even know what to say about my friend Jim, I just wish I'd known and I wish he hadn't done it. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Totally. And tell your "friend" that nobody likes players - not the girls, not the guys either. Sooner or later the fun will come to an end and he'll have nobody who gives a crap about him either way. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

In point of fact, it was at one time an earned right. Only white male property owners could vote. Everybody agrees there are all kinds of people who shouldn't be voting. Problem is, we have different standards about who those people are and why they shouldn't be allowed to vote. It usually comes down to their not voting the way we think they should. The danger to enforcing any criteria beyond basic citizenship, age, and no felony convictions is that anything else is abused to prevent whole groups of the population from voting because they might just vote against the way things are being done. It's antithetical to the concept of a democracy. As basic a concept as "literacy" was used for many years to deny voting to blacks, who were turned away for being unable to read aloud and "interpret" sections of the U.S. Constitution. Not all of us have ever served in the military (I haven't). But my wife and I have worked hard all our lives, paid our taxes, and raised two children to be upright contributing adults. Nobody better start telling US we can't vote for not meeting their imagined standards for our "service". Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Tom Leykis is a fucking pig. I've heard just enough of his shit to excercise my consumer's freedom of choice and not listen to him for years. But I'm still glad to hear he's gone. The poor fucker will have to get a real job now. I hope he has to work for a woman too. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It just might have an attachment point. I recall the advertising said it could be either freebag OR diaper packed (like most round reserves were in those days). If this canopy was made with a diaper option, there should be an attachment point for a p/c. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Damned good thing it happened on the ground and not in flight ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

32/44 is "high" ? He's in the bottom 25% - where he belongs. He was an embarassment. And I'm a Democrat, who voted for Reagan in 1980. I think they got the Top 10, and especially the Top 5 right. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I started out with the regular military reserve container and 24' reserve canopy - with a pilot chute, but no AAD on mine. The dropzone put p/c's and Sentinels on their student/rental reserves. Then in 1977 I bought a Pop Top container and moved my reserve into it. Never had to actually use it, but it was really thin and comfy compared to the GI Joe model. And I had a really cool patch with Yosemite Sam, guns a-blazin', stitched onto the pilot chute cap. Kept that reserve 'til I bought a Hanbury rig, with a 26' reserve. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

For a kid with 179 jumps AND a southern accent, you show amazing talent ! I'd suggest you open your own bigway camp at some DZ that rhymes with "Blow Me". Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Wear one to work ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !