Dolph

Keeping good track of your altitude is a good thing. Especially at the beginning of the jumping career where the internal clock is not as well developed. Just gonna nitpick your post a little Usually I track for a bit, scanning to my sides and below, throw a quick glance at altimeter for verification, scan left-up/right-up and then throw the pilot chute if everything's clear. It's a good idea to check around while you track because for some unknown reason, some people just want to track in your direction

Check out the free chapters. You know who Brian is, right? He has done and continues to do a great deal for the sport. Given that the question of fear regularly pops up in this forum I don't think his post is an annoying ad. Good stuff Brian.The interviews on Skydive Radio were great - I hope the guys re-invite you, with this topic (fear) as part of the agenda.

As I said, not ideal. The healthcare bit I'm OK with. Having to pay for other people's kids - people with higher income than me - that I ain't ok with. Kids are a choice. Healthcare generally isn't. For me it depends on choice vs. necessity, as the health care/kid bit demonstrates. I don't mind giving some to have universal healthcare. I do mind that I have to help pay for Mr Average Family Guy's BabyWagon car. Because I can't afford one. For me it's about trying to keep my mind open and asking "is this fair?". Keeping nationalism out of it is a good idea, because the concepts should stand or fall on their own merit. Many people defend it not so much from a logical point of view, but rather out of some sort of national pride or because they directly benefit from it. The latter is fine - you vote for what is best for you. An accurate assesment. Here, the middleclass is by far the largest group (wealth redistribution, i.e taking from the rich and giving to the poor) ensures that. I really could use more money. Then again, I can get by on less than half of what I earn. However, I'm a bit atypical in the sense that I have very few expenses and live a relatively modest life. I simply cannot understand how others in my situation can get by and afford car, big apartment/house etc. Must be loans. As long as there is a slight benefit from having a job, I think most will work. Gives ya something to do. The thing is it's not just slackers who benefit - families with kids and retirees get a good amount of the redistributed wealth. The status quo is unlikely to change. I can move, but I like it here. If you could see through the socialist-capitalistic system and see the other side, I'm pretty sure you would too. It's pretty laid back, yet productive here. No real class differences compared to most other countries. We whine about very small things, because that's what we have to whine about. Fucking weather.

So name your price.

What if it wasn't money? What if it was the treatment of your brother who had a medical condition threatening his life that you otherwise couldn't afford? What if it wasthe promise of breaking all the trade barriers to third world countries? A deal between North Korea/Iran/the US about abolishing all nukes? The creation of hospitals for those without means, of orphanages, well staffed, compassionate and professional? Usually, if you spend enough time with someone, you'll find their price. Some don't have one and (since you brought up ethics/philosophy discussion in human nature class :D) one could argue such people are coldhearted bastards, if one presented a lucrative enough situation

Most Danes are productive citizens. And, as our democracy shows, most seem satisfied with current conditions. I'm not, but that's me. I think that if things were streamlined a little, I could pay 15-20% less in taxes while still maintaining many of the tax-sponsored benefits. The reason is that our system is absolutely great for middle income married people with kids, retirees and unemployed people. Those three groups constitute the majority of most western societies. For me it's not ideal. I'm single, so no tax-related breaks for being married. I have no kids, so no tax breaks + money per kid from the state. I'm relatively young, so I don't use the healthcare system much. I have no car, so road projects are more or less wasted money to me (it takes 3 hours to drive from the northernmost part to the southernmost part, I'd say our roads are good enough). I did benefit while I studied. Yet given that my parents are high income earners, it'd be a small task for them to save up the same amount - even with taxes as they are today. With corresponding lower taxes if 'free' tuition (free, yeah right) it'd been easier yet. I take offense at our system when an unemployed dude on benefits earn nearly as much as I do, and I work 60 hour weeks. If you have a lengthy education behind you, your motives are likely an interest in the field rather than monetary, as the way our tax system is constructed, you really won't see a huge increase in after-tax earnings from it. I take offense at the ease with which our welfare system can be abused. In some cases where two people have a couple of kids and both people are unemployed, if one of them were to get a job, their overall income would actually decline. And so on and so forth. All these grieviances I take with me when I vote. Once I have done that, I have the choice of accepting the democratic outcome and staying or accepting it and moving. It's just that things are pretty good here. And since I don't have car etc, I have money to jump for. If I moved, it'd be because of the weather. I guess it's a Danish trait to whine and complain a lot, then think things through and come up with Well, come to think of it, this *is* a pretty nice place after all..

100gig hard drive with a 66mhz CPU?

Got any good guns Jeff? I'll buy the ammo.

Well, you bastard, you posted about mine. Easter Boogie. Swoop pond. Ras. I hope there'll still be ice on it.

Probably a bit of a jab where such things aren't possible. But the main point of his post as I see it is: Denmark is a pretty nice little place. There's so far been little need for harder security measures and the authorities can be "talked to" and tend to be reasonable. The distance between people of various social strata is not very big, it's pretty safe and attitudes rather relaxed overall. Incidentally, the only power our royalty has is to spend some of our tax payer's money. It's a tradition thing, not a power thing. Being a Dane myself I won't object to a characterization as subjects and the tyrranny of our monarchy - I'll just say "sure, if you feel so" .

Nope. I'd try to kill you legally. Once you're captured or some such, I'll gently look the other way as your "interrogation" is outsourced to another nation. Yep, and if you do so illegally - your own may punish you. They might even kill you. Yet another point showing Yossarian from Catch-22 was right: the enemy is whoever is trying to kill you Doesn't matter what side he's on

Scoop I realize all these contraptions make your job a hell of a lot easier. My idea of freedom however includes not having the state track my every movement. If that makes your job harder, so be it. The Indians make my job harder, but you don't see us nuking them. It has been proven, time after time, that the government (or various lackeys at low levels) do have an interest in individuals "subjects". Historically, states have a record of treating subjects rather poorly. Add to that that information wants to be free. If you store it, people are going to use it. Some of those people weren't originally intended to use it or may be using it illegally, but they're using it nevertheless. I may have to arm myself to the teeth and flee to the hills with likeminded people. We'll see. The publics general acceptance of surveillance in every aspect of life is, to me, appalling. So far it's a democracy, so I vote. When that option is exhausted, perhaps me and Jeff will go plonk some cans in the Montana mountains.

Mr Bill's should not be taken lightly. Lotta things can go wrong. A friend of mine has done two - the first with an experienced jumper that went fine and then second with someone with less experience. The second one - both jump out, guy loses his grip, regains it on cutaway handle. Main goes away. Lots of potential dangers doing Mr Bills.

Don't underestimate the power of civil disobedience. If you were a policeman in Denmark and you tried to get a DNA sample from me without any cause, I'd have little choice but to fight you about it. The government would have to do it by stealth (which is easy enough). But there are consequences for the government. Many consider the government omnipotent and it does have lots of powers and lots of lackeys to carry out its will, for good and bad. Any society consists of a number of individuals who, once joined against a common foe, can be a formidable enemy to the state. Rebellions have happened before and will happen again. Our current governments are trying to erode our rights little by little rather than big steps at a time. Sooner or later people are gonna say "dude, WTF?".

Yes, I am sure you would be much happier if it was run as a US hostile theocracy instead. I'm unaware about how much you know about the internal political climate in Pakistan and the ethnic and religious/secular divisions. If you were I would like to think that'd you'd see Pervez as rather artistic and ingenious in the way he's managed to hold on to power and prevent it from devolving into a set of Islamic fiefdoms, divided amongst those with guns. Lots of things in the air at the same time.

Seeing as I would be dead, I wouldn't be able to object to anything at all. The worst I could do would be to rot in place and maybe some enemies would get diseases and stuff. To answer your question though; we have rather naeively implemented a series of laws detailing how we're supposed to fight wars. One such details for instance is that we're not supposed to be genocidal about it and try to destroy entire ethnic populations. Few administrations argue for "one of the Final Solutions - after all, we don't know what people we'd like to wipe out next". If you're not OK with this - then the US and allies were utter bastards for hanging those fine German national socialistic leaders who were merely doing their job - they were at war and in war you kill your enemies, internal and external alike. The International Jewery were aiding and abetting the enemy (and caused the second world war) and anyone supporting the armed forces of the enemy in any way whatsoever is an enemy - and therefore a legal target. In short, being at war doesn't mean you can kill me at your discretion. It doesn't even mean you can kill me when given direct orders to do so. The order has to be lawful. You know all this so there's little point in telling you. "Being at war" doesn't mean you can kill me in all situations.

My software doesn't lie! Well, it won't when I get about do make it. But doesn't it scare you a bit to have such options available to people that do not have your best interest at heart? If someone would pay me to make such a system, I'd do so. Only way to be sure there'll be a back door :D

Hey Ras. Jumped this weekend as well - as you know in close to identical conditions you were jumping in. On my normal canopy (Katana-97) I didn't experience any kind of longer opening - just the usual quick and snappy opening. Did have some funky off-heading openings but I attribute that to packing/body position. My friends Katana-107 had very soft opening compared to the -97. While I am sure air density is a factor, I'd think canopy design and packing are greater factors. Don't they remove snow from the runway at your DZ? They do it here . Unfortunately, our hangar doors had frozen solid and the snow was piled up high outside it. Took a while to get that removed. Then we had that layer of ice somewhere in the middle of the snow. Made for some interesting landings (i.e: don't drag your foot when you swoop ). Video coming up on the flying gnu soon.

Yes I would. Little guys should be beaten around and humiliated at school. It's one of those laws no one knows where's from but are very happy to either enforce, watch as it is enforced, silently approve of or silently disapprove of. So yes. Down with the little ones, the weird ones and the ones that doesn't wear the standard consumer uniform. I should probably expand on the criteria but you get my point. I don't make the laws, I just enforce them.

Welcome to DNAInfo.com. Enter nickname: Scoop Other criteria: Skydiving, dropzone, DNA Enter area of interest: medical 1 Match found. Details: 32% chance of heart problems 19% chance of depression 17% chance of alcoholism 87% chance, dependency personality 99% authoritarianism Select your option: Fire individual Hire individual Recommend indvidual for RFGP (Removal From Gene Pool) This person currently has 1123 votes for RFGP and has had his PoP (Priviledge of Procreation) withdrawn due to genetic deficiencies. Search again? Yes/No (c) DolphWarez 2007 Licensed to the British Government

That's kinda the point isn't it? We all flunked the test. There was nothing we could do but fail. Bear with me for a while - a bit of a rant here. Pretty sure the G-man will forgive me for it. The test wasn't even given to me. Instead, it was given to two people who had it all and weren't satisfied. Gullible, living a life of luxury, of opulance, free of pain and displeasure. And they just had to listen to that fuckn' snake eh? Doesn't it give ya an urge to want to slap Adam and Eve around a bit? All the suffering in the world - and there is a lot of it - just because they wanted what was forbidden for 'em - a temptation put there as much by God as by his fallen angel. Anyway, now *I* am a bad dude because my great^10 grandfather/mother messed up. And, scripture says, salvation can come through Jesus alone. So we have the situation: eternal damnation for deeds done by ancestors, unless you follow the commands. Free will becomes an academic question if the choice is between the fiery pits of hell and goodness abound in heaven. It's the equivalent to holding a gun to someone's head and say it's his choice whether to live or die - drop pants and bend over and live or don't and die. I don't particularly like being given such "choices". Then there's the argument itself. I wonder if Pascal was facetious when he wrote his Wager. It is so easily reversible. Of course, I gather you would argue that the Bible is the divinely inspired word of God. Problem is that unlike the Quran, most versions have been translated several times before the end product. And written not by eyewitness but by brothers who have this friend who has an aunt who...surfing an Islamic website I came across this: accuracy of the Bible text. Sure, to be taken with a grain of salt, but lots of good points about how mistakes can creep in. Now I know I come across as rather provocative and angry and it's not really my intent. Rather, it's founded in a big frustration caused by my own inability to discern the facts from the half-truths and lack of capacity for taking anything on faith. I'm glad you can. It must give a sense of purpose to actually believe in something in the sense of it being the Truth. I don't buy that we're flawed from the start. Or rather flawed yes, bad no. Whatever Creator/Universe made us, shaped us to be what we are. I feel it is such a tremendous cop-out to say salvation can only come from one source - Jesus. It fails so utterly on a personal responsibility level. Blind fath is uncritical, unthinking. We got these great brains, of a capacity never seen before in nature as far as we know and yet some argue that faith is a requirement for salvation. God must think it's pretty funny - I am utterly convinced it has a cool sense of humour, if it exists.

Too bad ya got banned. You got a sharp mind, a quick sense of humour. Gonna miss reading your posts in SC. Your own fault you got banned of course, but still.... I hope ya get an option for time off for good behaviour. No one knows the ways of the mysterious Great Sangiro.

The way I read it, the AFF student told the AFF instructor to jump in goggles rathern than sunglasses.. Might just be me reading it wrong. Of course sunglasses make eye-to-eye communication a bit harder and that alone is a good argument for using clear goggles as an AFF instructor. Oh that and true Pilot Ray Bans. Top Gun Style

Some maneuvers require smooth transitions, including backflying. I watched Niels Pedstrup doing some cool thing on a coach jump. Head down, then under me on his back, then some weird little rotation, then head down on other side. All in one fluid movement. I mean, I myself am much more "jerky", throwing myself around when I do transitions. Now I'm trying to do smooth eagles with my team mates, and doing it smoothly requires flying dynamically in positions that are not fully head up and not fully head down. When I go for tunnel training this summer, I'll focus on back flying and headup flying. HD is pretty hard to do well in a tunnel compared to sit/backfly from what I hear, so I'll do that on regular training jumps. Back flying/HU has the same priority as HD for me now. My thick head somehow managed to understand that I can't be a good flier without good backflying/HU skills.

Yes, it depends on the job. If you were a paper pusher in a major company, they'd want you to follow internal business rules, have a stable productivity, be dependable and predictable. if your job entails mostly standardised procedures, there's little need for fast thinking on your feet. The overall "skydivers are wild madmen/madwomen" stereotype will do you no good. They may not want too independent a person who can get injured or killed and who's likely to want weird days off to go to some strange thing called boogies. On the other hand, if you're applying for a job as a "firefighter" in a company, rushing out to fix hotspots in an ever changing environment where flexibility, reliance on good judgement and a good dose of personal responsibility is needed, mentioning skydiving might help. Heh, guess it's just one of those annoying "eeeehm, depends." questions