skydiver30960

Each AN-2 is capable of delivering ten soldiers, each soldier equipped with a tie-dyed rig, flashy jumpsuit, a GoPro strapped to their helmet, and a Chinese-knockoff iPod filled with dubstep and trance music. Their greatest threat to ground troops comes on landing, when these "mad skillz shock troops" frequently endanger the ground troops during their "swoop" style landings. Surely, allied forces quake in fear. Elvisio "at least it climbs slow so you can listen to the whole playlist" Rodriguez

I will give you that the government programs are necessary, and cannot simply be erased, if you will give that there is a HUGE amount of waste and abuse taking place. There are too many people who have lived (literally) their whole lives on assistance, and who have literally no motivation to change. You and I have worked all our lives, and could not imagine anything else, because that was the environment in which we were raised and now live. The idea of living day in and day out on welfare is just as foreign to us as the idea of a 40 hour work week is to many in the lower class, because they have no concept or need for it. The answer is not to tax (anyone) more. I agree with the need for tax equity. But I do not agree with the need to punish success. We need to figure out how to take the money already in the system, and use it BETTER. Set limits on handouts, while at the same time increasing the access to education (particularly for adults). The combination of impetus and availability will motivate many to improve themselves and their position. For those that CAN improve themselves but refuse to change: fuck 'em, they made their choice, let 'em live in squalor if they so choose. A lot of this is already in place: the U.S. community college system is AWESOME. I made more money on day one as a nurse with an Associate's degree than I did in my first job as an engineer with a B.S. and a B.A. The system is set up to give HUGE benefit to those who cannot afford a baccalaureate degree. The opportunity is there to those who want it. We need to INCREASE that opportunity while DECREASING the handouts, to make the move toward self-improvement both easier and more necessary. The biggest complaint I have with presentations like this: what the fuck am I supposed to do? He says we need to "wake up." Wake up and what? Yeah, I know: vote. I have done this, and that seems not to have helped us middle-classers much. We're getting it from both sides: the poor see us as the rich and want our money. The rich see us as below them: they protect their own money and let us foot the tab for what they would call "liberal" programs. So, honestly, how do I make a difference? How do I fix this? Elvisio "book smart, world weary" Rodriguez

This was my point exactly about them not reaching terminal velocity. They haven't reached their fastest falling speed, given their current configuration. Someone from the wingsuit forum should be able to help... Elvisio "moose and squirrel" Rodriguez

Are we to assume the flying squirrel makes it to terminal velocity jumping from one tree to the next? AND, are we talking about an African or European flying squirrel? Elvisio "Ni!" Rodriguez

Even without trying I can totally realize that one moment when I had a sock and shoe on one foot and NOTHING on the other would cause an absolute breakdown on my part. Elvisio "like tucking it to the other side: nothing's right until it's left" Rodriguez

Is it leaving contrails? They're spraying us! They're spraying us! Elvisio "turkey lurkey" Rodriguez

That is all. Elvisio "this PSA brought to you by a forgetful skydiver" Rodriguez

My all time FAV post from that thread, one that is in the first page of the thread and ends up being cited many times in the thread: "The Law of Inverse Value: the less you contribute to society, the greater the trauma you can sustain with minimal to no physical sequelae. " So true. Elvisio "have seen it in action" Rodriguez

I'm not saying someone SHOULD have shot his ass dead on the concrete. But if it HAD happened... Elvisio "tackled and shitkicked, at least" Rodriguez

No I haven't, but on the other hand I may not have been referring to the EU. The US isn't the center of the universe, true, but there are a LOT of places not under either of those umbrellas. Elvisio "anymore, the EU are the civilized ones" rodriguez

Funny that I'm typing this just before walking out the door to go spend 12 hours of clinical time at a local Labor/Delivery unit! For me, it's not Doc vs. Midwife. For me, it's that we have a system that tells women (and men, as their SOs) that ANYONE can have a baby, whenever they want, despite their own conditions. Moms are poppin' 'em out older and older (maternal age, not gestational age), and sicker and sicker (moms and kids alike). Kids we'd never consider even trying to save now get massive resuscitative efforts. In a lot of other countries, the resources we have aren't available, so the babies in question would have been miscarried at earlier gestation or not conceived at all. But here, in a way, our technology is the curse. Elvisio "if you drop the baby, pick it up" Rodriguez OR Elvisio "if you drop the baby, fake the seizure" Rodriguez

I'm ambivalent on this one. On one hand I've had "the talk" with my wife because I hate it when we have one of those "you can do everything right and still die" kind of skydiving incidents and everyone starts lawyering up. OTOH: it seems that, in this case, not one but TWO corporate entities had their heads COMPLETELY up their asses. In a situation like this, I might tend to look more favorably on reaching for the big guns. Elvisio "it's tricky" Rodriguez

.> Yeah, I think I agree. I don't use the majority of the stuff in the My Stuff menu, and I rarely access the site on portable devices. At least, nothing more portable than my laptop. SO, for me the biggest change seems to be that half my screen is wasted. S'OK. I won't whine too long or too loud. I know I'm in the minority in most of the points above. Elvisio "iz all goooood" Rodriguez

Tic Tac Toe ETA: Oh yeah also: waffle fries Elvisio "A strange game: the only winning move is not to play" Rodriguez

No sympathy from me. Well, that settles that if the above is true. It's just interesting how well this case proves that tragedies happen not because of just one failure, but often because of a series of failures in the system. So in this example, if the manufacturer had followed their procedures, or if the blades had been replaced on time, the disaster MAY have been averted. We can learn the same lesson: taking just a moment at the DZ to address a seemingly minor issue may make all the difference in the world. Asking a fellow skydiver "did you know your RSL is disconnected" or "did you notice this worn spot on your pilot chute bridle" might be all it takes. Don't just say "meh, they have lotsa jumps, I'm sure they know about it" and walk away. Elvisio "SPEAK UP!" Rodriguez

As an active member of EMS and Fire agencies and an RN, now a flight nurse, that thread is absolutely some of the best reading you can get, IMO. I had to "do my time" in the ICU to get ready for flight nursing. If/when I do leave flight, it will be to go back to the ED or prehospital environment, I'm done with the ICU. The workload in the ED sucks, but the stories are just too good to miss. Elvisio "you stuck WHAT, WHERE?" Rodriguez

Good guess. I didn't pay close enough attention to see if it was the first wreck, but he was out of the race pretty early... took a teammate with him didn't he? Elvisio "I just wanted to turn right, just this one time" Rodriguez

Anything out of the smoker. It takes most of a day, but a smoker is SO easy to work with and the results are mind blowing. I've never been a great cook, so it's a very new thing to have friends stand up in unison and HURRY to the table when the ribs and pulled pork hit the plate. If you are reading this, and you don't yet own a smoker but have been considering one, please PM me. They're very easy to use and the results are well worth the effort. Elvisio "Nitrates?" Rodriguez

Until it drags you to the bottom of the ocean by your arm... Elvisio "negative buoyancy" rodriguez

Tycho Magnetic Anomaly 1? Elvisio "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that right now" Rodriguez

Yeah, I could take your adaptation of my analogy and say there is no such thing as "just another mal" and that every one is different so you have to "wing it" for every one. BUT, even in a situation where I have to wing it my training gives me a good idea in which direction I should wing it. It would simultaneously point me away from and things that, while falling under the umbrella of "doing something for the sake of doing something," probably aren't going to help the situation, and may make things worse. IMHO, this is one of those things. Elvisio "I thought 3-out meant the end of an inning" Rodriguez ETA: clumsy sentence, didn't do much to help it.

Sounds an awful lot like a canopy malfunction. Or from other walks of my current and past life, a structure fire, or a code arrest. Why do we train so hard to deal with malfunctions? Why do we follow procedures (dare I say, "laws") that have been shown to best mitigate that malfunction? Because you are right: when the shit hits the fan, there isn't much time to think. The rules we set and the procedures we follow are determined in cooler times to keep us as safe as possible when we're too stressed or don't have time to think clearly. That's what the 4th is to me. Elvisio "scary situation" Rodriguez

Was that in Canada? How many times did you have to cut the yard during the two and a half weeks each year that it wasn't covered by snow? Elvisio "where 'June' is just another way of saying 'bad sledding weather'" Rodriguez

While I applaud your eco-sensibility, I notice that you aren't saving all that much money compared to a decent push mower... another hundred bucks gets you a respectable push mower. Another fact: even with the relatively decent city-house-sized lot I mowed when I was a kid, our Briggs and Stratton burned (maybe) a gallon of gas a year. So hey, cool to keep down the carbon emissions, but how many gallons of Jet A do we burn per jumper every time we jump? If you could get one for almost nothing, or if we measured our mowers' gas consumption in gallons per yard, I'd say go for it. But given the numbers as they are... FINALLY: is your old mower toast, or does it just need a tune-up? A once-a-year (every other year at the outside) tune up and sharpening of the blade will do wonders for a mower. Elvisio "SOOOOO glad all I have to do is spray Roundup on the rocks anymore" Rodriguez

My guess is that even though there are insane numbers of cameras out there, under normal circumstances there aren't enough people taking pictures of random locations to generate 3D of ANYWHERE at any time. However, when there is a focus of attention, like Boston last weekend, and suddenly the amount of crowd-source pictures and video in one place becomes more significant, then I could see it being easier to piece together. Elvisio "I'm sure the government's all over this already" Rodriguez