Dolph

Hm, imagine this kind of problem manifesting itself on a 360 degree turn swoop that is just a tad bit low. A little input to pull out of the dive - only one side of the canopy is slowed down...could turn something minor into something major.

While I agree with the opinions expressed by previous jumpers, I believe there is certain circumstances where "DZ whoring" can have negative connotations. I'm thinking club based DZs. Usually in any decent club, the members pull together and do the dirty work needed to keep jumping, be it maintenance on facilities, teaching students, packing tandem- and student canopies, staffing during boogies and so on. "DZ Whores" in these circumstances would be members who show up when the weather is good and the work is done, jumps, socializes and then bugs out. Next time some work needs to be done, they'll bail out and go to a neighboring DZ where they can jump their hearts out, not assisting there either. Which of course they're free to do, but not without some social consequences. Needless to say, this particular type of dz whoring isn't much appreciated by the "regulars" at club DZs in general. If one home DZ is a club DZ and one is a member, it creates a better environment if some contributions are made at home during the season. Other than that, travelling to other DZ has a very positive effect on the whole community IMHO.

I think one should not neglect that possibility that humans are a one extremely short time occurance in an almost infinitely huge universe spanning a immense amount of time. And that in the whole grander scheme of things, our morality, kindness, cruelty, all our deeds, are really of only very minor importance. Or maybe better to say; our general impact on the whole general mish-mash is almost insignificant. We're shit in space, an eruption of self awareness restricted in time and locality This may be relevant. Because to be blunt it'd mean on a greater scale than our local one, it really doesn't matter. It's a bit vain to ascribe so much value to the human experience when we know better. It is usually at this point I get an intense desire to go to the DZ.

Yeah, this is what I do. I'm a judgemental bastard and I'm comfortable this way. I'll call people sluts, man-whores, metrosexual pussies, attention whores and what have you, based on their appearance alone. It's my prerogative as a free person to judge others unfairly. Sometimes this little exercise in freedom cause problems for me; people have little tolerance for any negative thinking directed at them and some will violate my rights by attempting to modify my mind using physical means. It really depends what you mean with respect - respect of their individual human rights, certainly. That does not include a positive, all inclusive reception of others though. It's restricted to respecting their rights as free individuals and tolerating behaviour that for one isn't really any of my business and for another doesn't really affect me at all. Pretty much sums it up. Still, it's more dangerous to pull low, hook low without looking in turbulent weather etc. Kinda like me shooting my mouth about how that big bodybuilder dude at the bar really looks like a feminine sissy who spends too much time looking at his own reflection. In a range where he can hear it. That caused me a "matter over mind" situation and all I did was innocently expressing my shallow analysis of what that persons appearance lead me to think about him. The world is far from perfect and it is wise to consider the circumstances and the potentials of situations before acting. It may very well be that it's someone elses weakness that cause problems. Once the bad deed is done, who's too blame matters little for the consequences though. It's not that I disagree with your points as such, Michele. I just want to emphasise that we also got a right to judge people negatively at will as long as we do not infringe on their rights (as fundamentalists would do, by ordering them to modify their behaviour under threat of violence).

Hm, this reminds me of the cop that was speeding so he could get to his coffee break at the station in time. He hit a guy on a scooter. That person died. The investigation that followed indicated that had the policeman been driving within the speed limit, the braking distance would have been short enough that it'd been a minor "oops" and not a fatality. But there are perks to every job I gather.

Any kind of direct charge is likely to scare away a good deal of users. Eule had several good suggestions for handling bandwidth issues. Limited non intrusive advertising would be another way of covering costs.

This is probably one of the less orignial derailings of a subject I've seen on dz.com. To follow in this spirit: everyone knows that a couple (man and woman) cornholing one another is normal and those that believe in a creator are just plain nuts".. To be blunt; an asshole is an asshole, no matter what the gender the person it belongs to is. Having said that, there is a whole lot more evidence that lack of vitamins do weird things to the human physiology and mind than there towards Nirfur, God Of All Things Yellow And Furry And He Who Decides What Is Yellow And Furry exists. But that's beside the point coz, like, cornholers are like not really humans and stuff and that's a really good point against everything.

Dude, you have too much money. Ya couldda gone to the tunnel or jumped those $750 instead. Didn't see ya at Kolomna last year either. Do I have to go to Borki to see the Furry Skydiving Outfit (tm) in real life or what?

Tunnel time. Might as well get it right from the start so you don't have to re-learn it properly later. There's a lot more to head up flying than flying down the tube in a static position and the tunnel has the advantage of being very telling about what you do right and wrong.

While I appreciate the difference, actions speak louder than words. The road to hell is, as they say, paved with good intentions. In physical life, say skydiving as a good example - you're spanked for making mistakes. Your intentions may be the best in the world but it won't help you if you manage to get the bridle wrapped a few times around your neck as the main deploys. In the metaphysical Christian world, there is divine intervention preventing your from experiencing the consequences of your actions. As long as your intentions were good and honest, you're home free. Of course, this would probably mean heaven would be very crowded (most people I know are good people), so there's the added twist that you gotta be down with the dude that got you out of the dumb stuff you pulled - or else. No, I've been given one shot at life. I intend to go for it. Life is the big chance - micro choices within it are secondary. With so many competing organised religions to choose between, it's a hard one for someone who's not been more or less influenced by whatever prevailing religion exists in the immediate surroundings. One religion excludes the other. I go to hell seven times for each time I reach heaven, no matter my choice. Statistically speaking, it's a pretty lousy shot. What's the deal here? Why must we crawl like earthworms to satisfy this all powerful deity? It does not make sense. For a flawed god, like one from Asatru, such behaviour would be understandable. For an all loving, all knowing entity, it simply makes no sense whatsoever. Be humble - yes, understandable. Crawl like an unworthy maggot for having played with the chess pieces given - that game is rigged I do not fear the benevolent and omniscient because those two qualities ensures a just judgement. A being that requires me to shame myself to such a degree has neither.

For being a divinely imprinted sheet of music it's surprisingly easy to suppress, adapt, modify and mold to fit the current sociological conditions. God is into Open Source. I like 'im more and more.

The following is not directed at your Pajarito; see the use of "you" in generic terms. Wondering aloud: isn't that just morally utterly reprehensible, a total degeneration of personal responsibility and an ethical cop-out? The only thing it achieves it that someone GUILTY goes free. At the cost of an innocent. Whether that innocent accepts that or not doesn't matter. The facts remain. The guilty dude is just as guilty, only now he doesn't have to face the consequences of being such an ass. You get away with all your misdeeds and can sit there smugly grinning in heaven. The only thing you have to do is let this dude take the fall for all your failings, for your weaknesses, for your lack of character, determination and control. Of course he's already paid the price, so you could say "why not? It ain't like they're gonna crucify 'im again and we might as well milk it for what it's worth". A very pragmatic attitude, but not one worthy of Jesus or the Dalai Lama. As a sidenote, those two are probably the two individuals I'd most want to hang around for a bit, just so this post isn't entirely a-religious :). I don't do what I do to gain a reward (heaven) or to avoid being punished (hell). My actions are caused by what I believe is right, by failing to be strong enough to do what is right or by a general I-don't-give-a-shit apathy or interest/annoyance/anger etc. If I could talk to the God deity, I'd ask him to consider giving people a hard time about having been inconsiderate dumb selfish morons in life. Give 'em a chance to fix things and if that works out, give the dudes another shot.

Mm yes, a typical and socially mature response, taking full consideration to all circumstances. Your property (dog) trespasses on someone elses property (yard) and its behaviour is interpreted as threatening. Someone else neutralises the threat caused by your property being handled irresponsibly by you (i.e let out) and now you want kill the crap out of the other guy until he is positively dead. Yes, I can see how that would work.

I think as you get more time in the sport and more jumps, you'll find that there are a quite a few things you have mo, little or only partial control over in this sport. Many of these things can kill you. Some are from mother nature and most in this category is remedied by staying on the ground in questionable weather. Then there's all the human factors - pilots that give you the ride is one. Exit separation - you can control how much time you give the group in front of you, but you have no guarantee about the ones that leave after you. People will drift in freefall. Some, finding the "perfect head down" wasn't so perfect after all may invade your air space. Your own jump buddies may be too aggressive and give you a good boot to the head. And all the canopy related issues and on and on. I gather attempting to remain in control of as many factors as possible is a good thing. It's just not realistic to expect control of all. My point is that there are other things outside of your control that are more likely to kill you than an AAD misfire.

Ain't that the truth. You can start a new life every second. It's about just doing it. Every second is a "what if" in development. Whatever choices we make, we make because that's the one we thought was either most beneficial or would cause least harm on a short time or long time basis. Later on it's a matter of looking back, "good move/bad move" and learning from the experience. But there's preciously little gained from speculating on "what ifs" where the insight and experience has already been extracted. I guess every deicion is like jumping outta a plane. Once you jump out, you rely on yourself and what you have with you to get something meaningful out of it, knowing full well the risks involved. Damn the torpedoes. Full steam ahead.

Yup, and pretty quckly too. There are new regulations in Denmark this year. One of them is that to freefly, you gotta be "VFS certified" - basically have the safety aspects of freeflying verified by a VFS instructor before you start flailing about. And a minimum of 75 jumps. Not sure thisword is entirely appropriate in this context though. VFS = high skill and experience required, something a n00b is unlikely to have. But I guess it gets the point across.

Yup such acts are committed on both sides - even the one struggling to maintain a moral high ground. And it is at some level a loss of humanity and an ability to see other humans as fundamentally different. But that's what hate combined with (perhaps chosen)ignorance does, isn't it?

Yes, which makes taking a dead body, pour on fuel on it, light up and drag on field perfectly reasonable and acceptable behaviour.

Excellent idea. One thing you may or may not want to address: The team building bit would be limited (for student skydivers at least) to sharing an extraordinary experience - but one that is an individual achievement, rather than the result of the effort of the group as a whole. Student skydivers are taken through the course together but the actual jumping - and this is stressed enormously where I'm from - is an individual thing. The responsibility lies with the individual and the individual him- or herself face all the consequences of following the decision. It's not until later in the skydiving career that real team accomplishments are added to the mix. The sharing of such an experience will bring people closer - if it is enough compared to other team building activities where the result is dependent on cooperation under (often) physical hardships - well, another matter :).

Hm yes. Before Christ was born, died and sort of got himself living again, people thought murdering, raping and pillaging was generally a good idea and pretty moral overall. After Christ it was a different matter. Well, sort of. It took us a little while to get there with all the heathens being spread out over the world. The Vikings had laws about murder, incest and whatnot as well. Then around a thousand years ago, Christianity forced its entry. More laws were added, but the fundamental ones such as laws against murder, stealing etc. were already there. Seriously though - just which religions do these laws originate from? Rewarding/punishing certain behaviour in social groups have been around for a long time and with all probability predates human intelligence. If this codified into law or theology, that would require some set amount intelligence but that is not the same as to suggest this codified knowledge arrived before, well, the knowledge that was codified. And such behaviour seem to me to have been - up until very recently - directed internally in a group. Such restrictions have not applied for outside groups. If external, it has been quite OK to rape, plunder and pillage. Even if you were a Christian. I dunno - these claims "morality and laws all come from religion" seem to ignore some easily observable things, such as the behaviour we see in pack animals.

Try to be the HD flier. Accidental sole-to-groins are much more pleasant that way

Yeah, been plenty of free fall coaches both times I've been there, several whom spoken English. Don't go drinking with Crazy Doc though. He earned that nickname the hard way.

That's the question though - science has *always* invaded spiritual matters. Or, to be more exact, superstitious beliefs have been replaced by facts and sound, falsifiable theories. We know that diseases are biological matters now - not sorcery. There aren't many educated people who believe in witches not talking about the modern Wiccan types). My favourite gods have pretty much been shunned. Primarily due to aggressive Christian exploitation, but even so with todays religious freedom, only a few Danes elect to believe in Thor, God of thunder and lightning. Or my favourite: Freya, Goddess of fertility. Superstition has made claims that things that are rooted in the physical world really were in the domain of the metaphysical and impossible to examine by any earthly methods. Time and time again, such claims have been found baseless - and each time, there's been opposition to the new findings initially. So, skepticism definitely has a place - both with regard to science, which works with what it has now, the knowledge that currently exists, but also with metaphysical claims. It is, to me at least, fascinating to see the breakthroughs in understanding we as humans are making. There is nothing higher than knowledge. When the quest for more of that is tamed by ethics, morality and compassion, it far beats any claim of absolutism regarding just about anything. Just my take on it, your mileage may vary.

Sounds to me more like a psychosomatic-esque reaction. There's been studies documenting how attitude can affect the healing process and so on. About the word 'vibes' - when I used the word it certainly has no religious connotations. More of a "know I hope the best for you" statement which is a far cry from "I am trying to gather a favour from the almighty Christian God so that entitity will take action and help you with your current predicament". Your use may be different but it's fair to say the word has a rather wide range of meaning and application. I don't need prayer to admit that - it takes an extreme fool, even a crazy person, to think that everything is under control. It matches so poorly with reality that anyone holding such thoughts sincerely would be categorized as having hallucinations. More likely prayer to the believer states: "I know *I* am not in control - but *something else* is!". Then it's down to asking or begging this something to intervene. Nothing wrong with that in any way. Hope is extremely important and I do not really care where it comes from as long as it's there. I don't see it that way. If someone claims to be able to move a car by using Mind Rays(tm), scientists will be there to test that assertion. Prayer working is not so different from that - in fact it is even more complex, involving an outside actor who basically has to be omnipotent. What scientists are saying basically that the claim has little scientific basis, and here's why. Science has brought us out of the dark yeas of superstition and rid us of many of the evils of those times. And it's still doing its job. I'd rather have a surgeon fix a busted femur than having all the Christians in the world pray for me, asking for it to heal quickly and well. If there is an all powerful deity out there, it is already omniscient and certainly do not need the assistance of humans to know what shit is going down in his territory.

That's one well written article. Thanks for sharing.