Machupo

So, any updates? I'll be heading there soon and want to know if it's worth it to bring the rig -- it would suck to take a year off from jumping! γνῶθι σεαυτόν

The whole concept of salvation through belief offers strength to those who doubt themselves γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Yeah, but again, it's not like the entire world wide media hasn't been punked recently. I wish there was some internet metadata associated with stories so you could track them back to their original source. Of course, that would also have horrible privacy implications for individuals, but at least we'd know where the news was coming from. If only there was some electronic system which scooped up all internet traffic to look at patterns and analyze them for source and interrelation data γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Any updates? C-130 going to make it? γνῶθι σεαυτόν

The only reason I work out is to eat whatever I want :D γνῶθι σεαυτόν

No one will want to perform the rectus configuration, and everyone will want to be on team sinister γνῶθι σεαυτόν

When I travel to that region, I only do so with more firepower than the locals. γνῶθι σεαυτόν

That is a bold wing loading, fwiw. I found myself in a similar (but not as pronounced) situation a while back. All my cash went into rental gear (1:1 WL) and some coaching... and I busted my ass on the treadmill for a bit. As was posted in here earlier, hospital bills can be much more expensive than gear. I'd go with the OP if I had to choose. γνῶθι σεαυτόν

OP, sounds like you just need to Cutaway.... γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Thought I recognized the park across the river :) Glad everything worked out - and good job recognizing it was time to stop fighting and get out. At least it was beer-light thirty! γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Some dude got all torqued up at me today on the way back from the DZ. Dashed yellow, guy was going 54 in a 55 (I wanted to go faster than that), so I passed (legally, with indicators, in good taste, etc). He jerks the car left into the oncoming lane, is screaming at me (with the window up), and flicks me off for the next 5 miles... he only stopped following me when I assume that he realized I had gone around the same block 4 times in a row and drove a diesel :p Some people just need to get laid, apparently. γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Rog. Thanks for your discretion. γνῶθι σεαυτόν

I didn't want to put this in the speaker's corner; primarily because of the prevalent absurd positional statements/posturing, but also because I think this is too important a topic to be reduced to a niche. First and foremost, this is not a discussion about any war/conflict or the use of military force, and I want it to remain independent of the political justifications of any international conflict. The linked article is a piece written by a former soldier of mine taking a look at a possible relationship between PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and the social maturation of the source populace (think 1st world vs. 3rd world) using Maslow's hierarchy. http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/a-tale-of-two-warriors-finding-belongingness-after-battle While a seemingly simple exploration of a basic philosophical/psychological concept, I think that it bares a few very real truths. There are unconscious expectations we, as a society, place upon those who would protect us from a societal "evil". Additionally, there are hard decisions which must be made when life is on the line, but the average individual has not encountered these decision (nor do they think they are necessary (Thankfully!!!)). This can lead to some difficult conscious/unconscious transitions upon return from a named area of operations. How can we as a society better empathize with the requirements for actual conflict? How can we better prepare ourselves for the (hopefully infrequent) eventuality that we must defend our chosen way of life with force? How can we ensure that those who have faced this sociological dichotomy can be returned to the fold, fully healed/reintegrated? γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Scattering and diffuse reflection are two pretty closely related terms (IIRC, it depends upon the depth in the material you are investigating... DR is slightly subsurface form of scattering). At any rate, it involves: - The chemical makeup of the surface, i.e. based upon the bonds between the atoms which make up your (sub)surface. This comes into play when you look at bond energies and the specific energy levels of electrons of the component atoms. Energy that can be absorbed by electrons (in order to excite them to higher energy levels) may do so, otherwise the light will be reflected based upon: - The physical makeup of the (sub)surface. The shape of the (sub)surface will direct the majority of diffuse reflection (in a sufficiently random surface, omnidirectional reflected light can be considered randomly "scattered") of the light. On the quantum scale, you're seeing emitted (if it can be absorbed) and reflected (if it cannot) light moving from atom to atom through the surface of the object until one of the reflection probabilities directs it back to your eye (with no other interactions along the way). Depending on how deep you need to go into the reasoning, there are various theories out there; quantum electrodynamics hurts my head, lol and it gets even weirder when you start looking at nanostructured metamaterials Caveat: I'm not a physics professor :D γνῶθι σεαυτόν

At that rate, she might not have been a virgin for long! γνῶθι σεαυτόν