PeterB

What TrophyHusband said. As long as it isn't affecting your grades or work it's not costing you a dime. But I guess that isn't the point. The point is you're doing hard work and she's just tagging along and getting part of the benefits. That ain't cool if it goes on for long. I'll let friends mooch as much as they want and I'll take the help they offer but unknown people is a different matter. There isn't a basic fundament of mutual respect already in place so different rules apply. Has talking to her about it had any influence on the situation at all?

A classical example of running tests in a different environment than the real life situation. Ran tests with some hardware that wasn't used on the raptor to save money. When they used the real thing the error could be reproduced. That said, with the millions of lines of code it's pretty amazing it works as well as it does. There was as an early crash landing caused by pilot induced oscillation but that's not unique to the raptor - happened on Sweden's 4th generation JAS-39 Gripen as well. Landing crash Stockholm crash Same pilot in both crashes. Survived.

100 jumps ain't shit. Have barely touched skydiving then At 500 I was still a n00b even though I didn't think so. At 1000 I realized that the people with the same number of jumps I considered really experienced weren't. They suck just as much as I do. Seriously, 100 jumps and a coach? That's like a one eyed dude with thick glasses leading the blind.

Plan is made on the ground before boarding. Target selection I do after canopy is open and I know where I safely can land. It's basically pretty dumb to have one plan and expect it to work every jump. Lots of variables in action so it's a good idea to have a set of plans or ideas that'll get you down safely and then adjust them as needed.

I really can't see any reason why I should withhold judgment. To perhaps prevent others from judging me - won't happen. From a philosophical perspective - arguments can be made that it's my moral duty not to. And so forth. As humans we do our part to advance whatever our causes are. The fundamentalists have different ones than I have and will work against my values. That's OK. I'll reciprocate. The means by which such a battle of ideals play out are very important. For me I'll stop short of forcing my values down someone elses throat by threat of force. Let others have their own way but don't expect me to be indifferent about it. National borders are as artificial and arbitrary as religious laws and it's just sad to see basic human freedoms repressed. Misognic, archaic and unnecessarily abusive Sharia law - ain't me and I object to it. States telling people what they can and can't do with their own bodies is not my cup of tea either. States hiring their citizens to spy on other citizens to preserve the purity of [communism] [Islam] [Christianity] [human rights] is way up on my moral/ethical fucked-up scale and I'm gonna pass judgement on it. That's my take on it.

Hey markharju. I have friends in the group you so dismissively describe. They've been in that shithole that's Iraq. Been shot at, seen their friends killed. Come back home as different and not better men. I'll let them know there are pro-military Americans who think they ain't shit and their sacrifice is a token one. I just hope they won't kick the crap outta me for it. Not every country has over 300 million people. Some have 5 and a small military force. Proportions, dude. The world don't expect the US to fix everything wrong with it. If anything, the world expected the US not to fuck things up more than they already were in the Middle East. When the US did these loyal friends still stood by despite international outcry and political pressure not to. And you deign to tell me that the sacrifice is worthless and just token. You may just be venting, but think of your post in this light; would you say what you wrote to the face of one of these men I mentioned? If you would do that you either got bigger balls than me or is one helluva fighter.

Then again as you gain time in the sport and travel to various DZs around the world.. "WTF is that dude doing here? I saw him in Spain last year and Sweden the year before". Or you meet some guy you think you know and it turns out that 5 years ago he was jumping on the same team as your current team mate. It's a small world and an even smaller community. A small portion of the active skydivers does a majority of the jumps worldwide, that's been my personal experience. And I ain't that active @1200 jumps and five years.

Of course European countries don't have troops in Afghanistan and Iraq directly assisting the US effort. I mean it's not like European soldiers have died in Afghanistan and Iraq. The attached pic does not show British (GB is not in Europe) and Danish (neither is Denmark) on joint patrol. The camo on the Geländerwagen hasn't even been repainted so it's easy to conclude that these soldiers must be setting themselves up to be shot so it reflects poorly on the US. C'mon dude. There are lots of countries in Europe and some have been in this whole ordeal from the start. You gotta look at the facts. Sure some of the Yuropeean furriners don't like the war and hate Bush. Some others go to help. Some fathers and mothers never see their kids again. It's shameful to not recognize this sacrifice and lump 'em all together into an america-hating-liberal-socialist-bunch-of-crybabies.

Jesus Fuckn' Christ people, you've lost all perspective. Sure, you're disgusted. Sure, this dude is just a disgrace for the human race. Tell me what torturing a criminal will do to breing the kid back to life? Tell me what it accomplishes in terms of honor or any other god damned good it would do to society if your plans were put into actions. I'll show you the side effects. One bullet if proven guilty. This is about removing a threat, not going high and macho as a 101st Fighting Keyboardist. Seriously dudes. I thought you were smarter than this.

Should be a pretty simple thing to get an experienced freeflyer to vouch for you. That's how we've done it in the past. Someone new to HD says he/she got the shit down, an experienced freeflyer goes for a few checout jumps with said person. Later at the bonfire, the truth comes out. Either that someone is full of shit and everyone knows or the person is legit and everyone knows. So far with the three people I've done this with I am 3-0. 3 bullshitters, 0 legit. Or maybe 2.5 - 0.5, one 150 jump guy did pretty well but I have to deduct some for all the sliding that took place when he eventually lost balance and "transitioned" to a "sit". So just ask a good freeflyer if he wants to act base for 3-4 jumps. Get it on video. Then you can avoid all the bitching and second guessing. Course you risk getting to know that maybe you ain't so shit hot after all. Go for that.

Hey John. From same article: Emphasis mine. You're an intelligent man so you'll know that perceptions aren't the same thing as hard statistics or facts. They're influenced greatly by culture. Perception in the UK is that guns are bad. I would not go as far as calling that a comprehensive argument suggesting that Americans should abandon their guns.

I've travelled a bit and have noted a connection between experience and what kind of eye-wear people use. Based on personal observation it seems the more jumps a person has the more likely he/she is to use simple cheap goggles such as Flex-Z. Makes sense. Flex-z's and its counterparts are cheap, extremely durable, comfortable, don't restrict vision and are easily replaceable. Can't say that about Gatorz. Gotta say they do look cooler but it's a bitch when you're flying in weird position and air hits at a strange angle and pushes a contact lens up somewhere it's not supposed to be. Flex-Zs don't have this disadvantage. The more you jump the higher the risk of breaking or losing stuff.

This is nothing to get even the slightest bit upset about. I mean there are developed, rich countries where this would score a .01 on the PC scale. Why make an issue out of something there's nothing to? Here comes the slippery slope fallacy...

You can pretty much exchange "arms" for "intent to kill". Don't need a handgun or even a weapon to do that. The tool itself is secondary. It may be a force multiplier but I see no reason why all this tying down freedom->right to bear arms have to be done. The points stand on their own without arms. We're each capable of taking life and death decisions without guns. Could use a car, golf club, our hands.

Luckily, chemistry is one of the hard sciences. Even if he tries to sabotage you he'll have a hard time if it's a written test. I think you'll do fine. You have the intelligence, you've studied. Worry is just interest on a loan you may not take so just do it

It's a business. Vote with your money, spread the word. Let capitalism do what it does best. This guy will have enough to do either way. People scared away by an occasional political rant (sometimes triggered by a student) will be replaced with other students who don't mind or even agree with the views. And as has been said, treat it as a little bit of introduction to the world of the private sector. Until you've proven your worth there and perhaps even after that your boss might be an arrogant idiot who goes on and on about issues that have nothing to do with work. It sucks but that's life. Gotta choose what battles to fight. If this is important then fight it and accept all the consequences. If it's more of an annoyance then it isn't worth making something out of.

Old, old news. This was first published in 2004. I'm thinking of a God very different from the God of the Christian and far and away from the God of Islam, because both are depicted as omnipotent Oriental despots, cosmic Saddam Husseins. He ain't a pal of Christianity for sure. Or Islam. He seems to be a deist, Spinoza kind of god. As for his 'conversion', it's a man who changed his mind. This in of itself gives no evidence either way, just as a pastor turned atheist doesn't lend atheism any more weight in itself. An old issue, an non issue, except that it may seem peculiar that a man changes beliefs when he's on the last few miles of his life journey. Really don't see much to comment on as there are no factual arguments being made. IIRC he made some update to a book he did in the 60s but didn't present an argument for deism, rather leaving us with some things to considerate when we think about whether there is or has been a god/first cause of supernatural cause.

Just anecdotally, does your weenie grow big when you're disgusted? I don't know. I don't have the equipment to measure.- What the researchers said (and I don't speak for them, just regurgitating their words) were that anxiety could produce the same result on the instrument used which then lead to disagreement amongst researchers as to what to conclude from the tests. They could be full of shit or they could be right. Whether A or B it'd be intellectually dishonest to not present the disagreement. Billvon, this type of instrument will record even very small changes - i.e a full blown erection is not necessary. A very small but measurable change is enough. I'll quote the authors on this issue: 'anxiety has been shown to enhance arousal and erection,' and so it is also possible that 'a response to homosexual stimuli [in these men] is a function of the threat condition rather than sexual arousal per se. These competing notions can and should be evaluated by future research.' What the authors are saying is that the experiment requires further verification and studies to rule out the anxiety bit. That's all I'm saying.

Yes, I've read one of those studies. I am not sure I entirely agree on your presentation of the results though. As far as I can remember, they had some measurements of 'arousal' but were unable to say whether it was an erotic arousal or a response to seeing something the subjects felt were repulsive or disagreed about (anxeity). Something along the line of both giving the same ruslts. Wikipeda has a very brief article discussing the 1996 study by Adams et al. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latent_homosexuality

Kallend is using the same argument as Johnrich. The philosophical implications aside, John says banning gun leads to more gun crime. Kallend says having gun leads to gun crime. Both have some data to support their view. If it comes to a surprise to anyone that there's a shitload of *other variables* in place it's kinda sad.

We got a C-182, wingtip extensions, 300hp engine. while it's possible to take 6 skydivers I really don't like it and have opted out of such loads. It's definiely doable though, if a little sardine-like. We're not having any performance problems. 20 minutes to 13k with 5 jumpers (not dwarvers I assure you). We did have a problem at a time but that was fixed after the pistons were replaced (loss of compression). Thin you might have had an issue with that? Bit slower on really hot days. It still manages around 1000ft/m up to about 3000 though. I like the big turbines for their speed and capacity but a C-182 isn't that bad if it's properly equipped and flown.

Check out this article and the comments. Basically it's using a service aimed at network admins to do naughty things to your machine http://slashdot.org/it/02/10/17/204235.shtml?tid=172 Details: http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,55795,00.html Your system has been compromised. I recommend a format of the HD, reinstall Windows and then installing a decent firewall or better yet, buying a hardware one. That's what ya get for porn surfing

Just wait. 27 jumps isn't a lot and I'm pretty sure if you keep jumping you'll have a OMFG-I-AM-GONNA-DIE-OMFG moment. Tends to be that way.

Hey. The key to keeping users interested (and coming back) is to enable them to participate, to be a part of the crowd so to speak. Dropzone.com has been pretty good at this, primarily in the forums. So, you need the basics of a portal. Login system, news (where authorized users can post), calendar (same thing), video- and picture gallery, preferrably with user feedback (comments, ratings), a simple forum. Localising stuff to the person and personalizing the website is pretty standard, too. Make sure these things figure prominently on the front page. The life of the website won't come from you primarily - the users will supply the content, so it's important that this is highlighted. Try to avoid design traps, such as hard coded font sizes, restricting screen size to some arbitrary value etc. I know it's tempting because design becomes much easier, but it's annoying when you got a decent computer and monitor. Sounds like a lot, but there are a number of free content management systems that come with all this out of the box - pm me if you want details. I have some links (including another skydiving portal) that might be helpful to ya.

When a "Shit" or "Fuck" is warranted, I use it. I'm a white-collar guy. Might not be professional but at least my clients know when trouble is up. Ya know, to be honest I've ran into many cases where the artificial atmosphere of 'professionalism' through PC-induced limitations on language have made real relationships with customers harder to attain. It becomes a bit fake somehow. It's all about juding the people you're around. Some people like it natural and others want to maintain that while we work we're always well behaved and civilized. Plus, it really shuckin annoys the crap outta me when people say "heck" or "shoot"