shaark

No matter what aircraft, what exit position, or what timing, it is not difficult for the suitably competent camera flyer to slide sideways, away from the tandem's relative wind track. It's not hard to understand where the drogue will go. Camera guy should have mentally briefed his body positions for the first seconds / fractions of a second; always watching the tandem, and being prepared to react to unforeseen occurrences after exit. Really just an application of never being above or below the tandem. Nobody is perfect, so as mentioned above teamwork is important. tanstaafl

I agree, as pride increases our perceived need for God decreases. And yes, there is nothing like a good personal disaster to reacquaint us with our humility and renew our ability to see the issues clearly. ... MaadMax, that's not like you. 434 did not mention pride at all. Increased wealth allows for more education; good education moves people to question more, and not blindly follow previously accepted mores; seems to result in a decrease in peoples perceived need for religion. Also, increased wealth brings increased comfort and less fear, thus less perceived need for religion. A far wiser man than either you or I, the Buddha, offered that mans' need for religion springs from fear and frustration. I find it hard to argue with that. He also declined to even speculate on the question of the existence of a god/gods. Maybe just to me, but your 'humility' comment seems patronizing and culturally biased. Just my opinion, but true humility is the acceptance of not knowing (re spiritual conundrums). A basic Taoist tenet is that if you think you know THE answer, then you don't. The eternal Tao is unknowable. The eternal Tao is not synonymous with the Christian God. The concept does not translate. But if the eternal Tao = the Christian God, then the eternal Tao would probably be agnostic, or maybe even atheistic. Quite Zen

Rather, any politicians who consider it vital to go to war, should -------- go to war! Give them weapons, and put them in the most hazardous, frontline positions. Let them lead by example. No exceptions, especially re age. tanstaafl

Does it not appear that Western type religions appear to be very authoritarian, rigid, patronizing, manipulative and even psychopathic? e.g. Judeo-Christian based cults offer 'commandments' --- Do this! Don't do that! As a positive, this overlay on and part progenitor of our civil codes helps our Western societies function, though not as well for some as for others. These religions also offer a little of a 'loving' philosophy, which is admirable, though so often in practice observed in it's breach. Even here, the posters in threads like this tend to exhibit the intolerance virtually predicated by their religious biases. Maybe not so surprisingly, some athiests in these threads often come across similarly. Probably because of the culturally inbuilt Judeo-Christian biases they have absorbed. It would be very interesting to see some input from individuals from non Judeo-Christian cultures, especially eastern ones. (Dare I posit that they are probably scratching their heads, thinking how weird are these people? Much better to stay well clear.) As in the West, all of the human condition is evident in the East also, yet when it comes to 'religions' --- especially the interplay of Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism and Shintoism etc., there is radically less conflict, both physical and intellectual. In fact, it is very common that an Asian individual subscribes to two or even three philosophies simultaneously, something a Westerner generally would find incomprehensible. In so many ways these eastern religions/philosophies are much more intellectually honest. Compare the vast amount of 'knowledge/facts' that Christians/Jews/Muslims offer about God, his desires, his deeds, his promises, etc., and the Taoist "if you know the Tao, then that is NOT the eternal Tao". Honest simplicity, simple honesty! Human. The concept of a life philosophy, and indeed a multiplicity of same, without the trappings of our types of religions, seems to me to be so much more benificial for both humanity and the individual. tanstaafl

Out of all the humans that ever lived, for the last few generations a large % of people can have a good life overall. However, while most everyone can experience some highs occasionally, skydivers can regularly experience being intensely alive for the $ price of a jump. Got to love that. The other price is the unforgiving nature of the sport. We mostly 'accept' that in a theoretical way, but stay jumping long enough and it becomes absolutely real. And that hurts. And for sure it can cause anxiety. Emotionally/mentally, if one needs to stop jumping, go for it. If you continue, then practical soul searching is maybe really useful. Human error in skydiving is ultimately the cause of fatalities. And there are very many humans involved: the designers, engineers, builders, maintainers and operators of aircraft, fuel systems, ATC, DZs, skydiving equipment, etc.; DZO's, S&TAs, instructors, other jumpers and you yourself. The more knowledge you have of everything involved when you skydive, and applying this knowledge in decision making, the less risk there will be. While it might not be practical to learn everything about, say, maintenance on a Twin Otter, and the many errors that can occur, overall the more you know, the better. What is absolutely possible, though, is to know your gear, know your procedures, know the people you jump with, know your experience limitations, etc. And work at learning more. That's basic. Just as important is to recognize that as a human you can screw up, no matter your experience level. . . . So know yourself. (I'm plagiarizing what's below from flight training.) >>>> Are you complacent? Sure, I've done this hundreds/thousands of times, everything will be fine. >>>> Are you impulsive? Sure, it's really gusty, but I've got to jump. >>>> Are you macho? Sure, this parachute doubles my wing loading . I'll show everyone I can handle it. >>>> Are you bulletproof? Sure, isn't the equipment state of the art? and I had great training, and I'm really competent. It will never happen to me. >>>> Are you resigned? Sure, everything will be fine, but if shit happens, well, shit happens. Nothing I can do. The trick is to recognize any of the above attitudes. Then one can apply corrective measures. Attitudes can change over time, for better or worse, so current awareness is vital. What about are you tired, hungover, distracted, etc? It's obviously best to be on your A game when you jump, but if you are not, at least recognize that, and build in more margins. Put it all together, make good decisions, and you minimize the risk of becoming a statistic. Hope I wasn't preaching too much. tanstaafl

Probably best to say nothing to the student initially. The student should have a few minutes to go over the dive in his/her mind. You should go over your observations with the instructors. Very definitely give them input as to the student's manner. Then standard student de-brief and remedial training; your input as required by the instructors. If they want to give a bowling speech, fine. If the instructors are ok with the situation, then I suppose that's it. If you really feel further input is necessary, talk to the instructors again, and the dzo, although that may call into question the instructors' judgement. Depends on the situation, I suppose. Where I learned to skydive, the dzo firmly believed he was NOT in the business of teaching everyone to skydive. If you did something in his opinion stupid, no matter your jump numbers, he had no problem in not letting you jump from his aircraft again. You could hang out and party, though. If it is really, really an issue for you, well, I don't know. Tough on you mentally if that person screws up on another jump and ends up dead, or kills someone else. Non skydiving, but years ago I arrived at a group of friends messing around. I kind of saw potential danger, but said nothing. Less than a minute later one of my friends was dead. I had to give useless cpr on his body for 20 mns until medical help arrived. I get to live with "if only I had --------" GLIDEANGLE above, well said! On balance, though, I do believe everyone is entitled to go to hell their own way. Try not to take me with you. tanstaafl

>For the life of me I can not understand why anyone would release the main and not immediately deploy the reserve but it happens. >Turn a quick series and build up a little speed...two skydives for the price of one! ____________________________________________ It was a very busy day for me, then had to chop on a video jump. I took an extremely refreshing 7 sec delay just to chill out. Time for a full series, but I wanted to relax. Not humming it either; reserve out above 2,500'. tanstaafl

I've always found that networking helps. Having found gear that suits in most ways, and having talked to the seller, (by phone so you can feel the person out), try and get your DZO or rigger involved. With a bit of luck they probably know some people at the seller's DZ. This can help vet the seller. If the DZO/rigger will act as a third party, that's good for you, and should reassure the seller. I normally set it up so that if the gear is as represented, the buyer is purchasing same. Minor gigs should not be a reason to refuse the deal, although you maybe could tweak the price a little. Seller pays for shipping to the DZO/rigger, buyer covers return shipping if necessary. Buyer pays after inspection; test jump if agreed ahead of time. (Who pays for loss/damage/repack if shit happens?) A reasonable seller should be ok with this. A reasonable buyer will not be frivolous. Buy the DZO/rigger a case of beer. If at all possible, try on a similar rig, similar sized rig at your DZ so that there will be no surprises. Check the stolen gear lists. Good luck. Tanstaafl

Many years ago in Canada a tandem pair ended up tangled in the main and reserve. The camera guy tried to clear the mess. Didn't succeed. At the last, he, seemingly intentionally, emeshed himself in their garbage and pulled his parachute (main, I think) in an attempt to prevent their certain deaths. The extreme load prevented his parachute from inflating. All died. Sad that the physics of the situation precluded a save, and my utmost admiration for the camera guy, who had to have known that at best he was going to get badly injured. I agree with Para5-0. Good pre-jump prep, TI with video guy, should be standard. Good communication on the ground, in the aircraft and in freefall is vital, on every tandem jump. Tanstaafl

My longest ride during a series of test jumps was 22 miles. Modified 300sq.ft canopy, loading it at about 0.55, canopy set in 3/5 brakes; hop and pop @ 15,000'. Medium wind day. The recording equipment showed an average 7'/second descent rate. So --- about 116,000' distance, 15,000' descent, about 33 minutes under canopy, totally dead legs for landing, ----- gives about a 7.7 - 1 glide ratio @ average 40mph ground speed. Not too shabby for a skydiving parachute. (The real in air glide ratio was probably 3:1)

Short article, with a very cool video. http://www.eso.org/public/outreach/press-rel/pr-2002/pr-17-02.html As good as it gets so far for black hole proof. Or it could be a SMGT* playing with it's toys. (*SuperMassiveGodThing)

Love that plane. Awesome character and atmosphere. But true, most that I jumped were pretty slow climbers. One, in Glivice, with a new engine, good pilots, 12 jumpers and a cool day got to 12k in 25 minutes. Very much the exception. I've been on s/l loads to 3k with 19 jumpers on board. No problem. Another time on a load to altitude a low time jumper popped his rig. Old round freefall rig with a belly reserve. We repacked the rig on the ride up. Can't do that in a C-182. And the door is, well, a DOOR, almost like a house door. Just open it inwards and step out. Often a rope was slung between the left side pilot's window and the side door. Very easy then to get a bunch of jumpers onto the wing. Between the guys on the wing, others on the rope, and the rest floating at the door you could pretty much have everyone outside, maybe one or two diving out. If you ever get the chance, jump one. Get a firm grip on something for take-off or you might end up in the tail. The acceleration is strong ---- 'till about 40 mph; then the ground drops away, and the plane plods on at about 50. True about emergency descents. I saw one crashed AN-2 in a forest. It arrived flat with an almost vertical descent. No broken trees except immediately around the wreck. Everyone walked away and left the plane there. Too much fun! tanstaafl

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/ Click on the above, go to general poker discussions, then poker legislation, then State of Ky ---- Very extensive thread, with in depth discussion. The posters do a lot better job than I could. (Skip to page 11 and on ---)

http://www.out-law.com/page-9462 Does this seem to be an incredible attempt to censor/control the internet? The Governor of Kentucky maintains that online poker is illegal in Kentucky (which it is not) and therefore a Kentucky court can seize any relevant Domain Names wherever they are registered, even outside the U.S. A similar censorship attempt was made by a Swiss bank some years ago. http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikileaks#Bank-Julius-Baer-lawsuit

Many years ago in Lahore. A restaurant. The front, open to the street, consisted of a concrete platform with charcoal in fire pits. The chef/cook sat behind the pits, stir frying lamb cutlets etc. in woks. Wearing just a loin cloth, he was using hands and feet interchangeably. Lifting, stirring, whatever, his feet were just as dexterous as his hands. Thirty minutes of watching in amazement, and then a really good meal inside. Wish I could have brought him to New York or London. We could have made a fortune.

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Maybe use a calling card. I use NobelCom.com to call Europe; about 2c/minute. Use your whatever regular phone, call a local access number for Nobel. I am considering getting a MagicJack dongle for my laptop, which gives free internal U.S. calls, so in effect a VOIP with the Nobel rate for international calls. I checked, and to a cell phone in Mexico 9-13c/minute; to a regular land line 2-3c/minute. Quality with Nobel is ok, sometimes bad, but can't beat the price. Initial Nobel card is $10-$20, so worth trying. Mexico to Mexico calls? Seemingly when you buy a MagicJack you get/choose a U.S. phone number. According to their info their system treats all calls from your computer as U.S. sourced calls, so I presume calling the U.S. Nobel access would work. Then your internal Mexico call would get routed through the U.S. back to Mexico at the above rates.

Euro-dollars have been around since the 60's. Loans and general financial transactions made by European (and other) banks denominated in Dollars. Huge amounts, as so much international trade and investment has been dollar based --- the international currency. No US government control on those dollars. The amount has lessened since the introduction of the Euro, especially in the last few years. In actual paper currency at least 66% is held overseas. Better hope the owners don't try to convert them into anything else. tanstaafl

Of course it's a trick question. The earth is an experiment paid for by the mice. I earnestly refer you to the holy writings of the great prophet Douglas Adams. All the facts are clearly stated. There can be no doubt. The alien contractors constructed the earth as a going concern. Kind of like the misguided creationism 'belief', so there is no chicken/egg first. The aliens put everything in place, then switched it on. As for the rest of the universe, and how it occurred, well, it really does not apply to us. We are just incidental crash test dummies. tanstaafl

One remarkable 'end of the world' cult, back in 1899, did the usual THE END IS NIGH thing; repent and you will be saved; have faith; believe in the lord; etc. New year's day 1900 arrived. (Should really be 1901, but who's arguing?) The world continued! The leader was asked WTF? His perfect answer was that the world HAD ended, but the non-believers were so blind that they never even noticed. (I wonder if the Heaven's Gate cultists got to that comet? They sure believed strongly enough.) tanstaafl

Maybe, but magnitude of the existing universe and all of the supporting physical laws coupled with the fact we don't know how any of it got here, should at least consider extra-dimensional contribution equally with spontaneous origins. Logically it would seem both avenues should be thoroughly pursued. _____________________________________________________________________________ Big bang, or any other theory, we are still left with the basic choice of spontaneous creation of the universe out of nothing, or creation caused by a 'god'. Our present science can describe some cases of spontaneous creation, e.g. pair-pair production, followed by instantaneous annihilation. But quantum uncertainty should occasionally allow some particles to escape annihilation and remain in normal space-time. This possible trickle of matter/energy might be the fuel for the increase in the rate of expansion of the universe, though I imagine the amount of energy needed should be so large as to be observationally apparent, which so far it isn't. Of course dark energy escapes our observation also. We have a lot to learn. The admirable thing is that human science allows for an ever increasing understanding of the remarkable construct that is our universe. Conversely we can postulate a 'god'. Now we have a problem. We are human. All our gods are anthropomorphic. They really cannot be anything else. Yet, by definition, a god should be unknowable. When humans presuppose a god, so often this necessitates 'religion'. All religions define their god, generally limiting the scope of any further exploration. Pretty much all the gods of our human folklore are suspect. We imbue our gods with human emotions. We describe them in human terms. We have them intimately interacting with us. We insist that they are concerned about us. We demand that they love us. We presume to know what they want of us. We honour ourselves that they should want something of us. We describe their realms as if we have first hand knowledge of such. We invite ourselves into their presence, into their supernatural world. I personally find all of the above a bit of a stretch. We should maybe ask ourselves not is there a god, but WHY is there a god? If we can come up with some logical answers maybe we can better tackle the question IS there a god? (If we can keep religion out of this endeavour so much the better.) Logic, of course, is suspect, as it is a human trait, and a god is not human, by definition. I kind of like the concept of the world turtle, carrying the earth on it's back. And you may ask: but on what does it stand? On mud, of course. And if you ask on what does the mud rest ------- Why, it's mud all the way down! tanstaafl