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Anyone listen to Martin Andrade’s latest episode on The Cooper Vortex? He mentions that he’s looking at a new list of suspects based off Gunther’s book. I need to listen again, but it sounds like men born in Canada who moved to NJ and joined the military are no longer the exact group he is looking at. Martin, any plans for updates or will it be in the new version of your book? Thanks.

I feel so bad for this current generation who is growing up with their "image" being so public and on display and so easy to judge and criticise... We keep driving the message that people should be happy / grateful / positive / woke... And they should be these things ALL THE TIME. Ah, but they should also be "authentic" and vulnerable and flawed... Jesus... What a mind-fuck!! We are robbing people of the ENTIRE range of human emotions, which INCLUDES all the "ugly" ones like anger, envy, depression, frustration... These are not only normal, they are healthy!!! We can't be perfect all of the time. People are a hot mess of feelings, and that is a good thing! OBVIOUSLY we should practice gratitude for the things we have. OBVIOUSLY we should try not to be too self-absorbed / tone-deaf. OBVIOUSLY things could always be worse and/or someone *else* has it worse... No one is so unique that he/she is the first to experience whatever-it-is-he/she-is-going-through. But yeah. Nothing and no one is perfect. Spending all your time "faking" positivity seems to me like it's just as bad (if not worse) as dwelling on *only* the bad stuff... I know one thing... Last year I decided I sure as fuck was not going to pretend anymore that everything was always fine. Everything is NOT fine, and here's the real irony: giving myself the freedom to say so has meant that I have never been happier!! Some things in my life are super shitty, and that's ok! I'm working on it. Some days are bad... Some are good... I have profound moments of self-doubt and short bursts of joyfulness... But I am sooooooo DONE with faking it. Yesterday was a hard day. Today was better. I don't know about tomorrow... And that's fine. Not great. Not amazing. Not horrible. Just fine.

I wouldn't call any form of training "best". They each have their time and place. For the first jump, static line or IAD work well, and I would lean towards static line as it removes instructor skill out of the equation (IAD does give you less line twists which is better for the student, but it can also attach a student to the horizontal stabilizer of the Cessna, which is less fun for all involved). You (as a student) will have a canopy safely above you without having to do anything, and it will help you grasp the feeling that you are alone in the air. I remember my first jump (static line), it was so intense I barely knew which way was down. I would not like to ever have that feeling in freefall. Once people have put a couple of jumps in, and have a basic understanding of flying their canopy, AFF will help them learn freefall stuff faster and in a more controlled environment (or tunnel plus AFF if they can afford it). While you can learn freefall using conventional methods, having a competent instructor holding on to you for the first couple of freefalls decreases the chances of a terminal reserve deployment followed by a cutter replacement.

That ship sailed long ago.

In the immortal words of Gru: Jesus Titty-Fucking Christ

This one hurt. Mark was great jumper, fantastic pilot and an even better person. He is missed. More cowbell Mark.

Wow. A guy being paid a quarter of a million dollars to investigate voter fraud, who claims to have carried out an extensive investigation and surveillance, which leads him to hijack an air conditioning repair truck which turned out to be full of air conditioning repair tools. Leaving aside that this guy needs to go to prison for quite some time and his victim needs to get every penny of that fee and more - at what point does the wider Republican take ownership of this insanity and tell Trump to stop, tell their constituents there was no fraud and tell them that Joe Biden is not just the reported winner but the legitimate winner?

It would have been a way better move to use a slogan like "proud boys love gay kilts" for advertising purposes in lbgt-media

Dear obelixtim, Some DZOs narrow their focus to who pays the bills. Back when I started jumping (1977) static-line was the only way to make your first jump, so DZs focused on training large numbers of static-liners. Once the day's First Jump Course finished their class-room training, licensed jumpers were forced to wait until all the students had jumped, before they could resume fun-jumping. Then along came AFF and the emphasis changed to pumping out as many AFF students as possible. Then attention shifted to tandem, so DZs focused on tandems as a quick way to make a buck. Meanwhile, fun-jumpers sat on the ground until all the tandem students had jumped and gone home. A second advantage is that you rarely have to cut them out of trees after they wander off under canopy. The only advantage to AFF and tandem was that the airplane consistently climbed to full altitude and a fun-jumper or two could slip onto a high load if they bribed manifest with beer, sex or recreational drugs. Another

Just curious. While I'm more then happy about the election results, I have a hard time to see it as a overwhelming victory. I know, 7 million more in the popular vote sounds big, but ask Hillary what it is worth. I looked at the 4 states targeted in the infamous Texas lawsuit. Georgia, 16 EC, 8779 Pennsylvania, 20 EC, 80555 Michigan, 16 EC, 154188 Wisconsin, 10 EC, 20682 My math says that Biden won by the slim margin of 110.016 votes. GA, PE, WI Not a landslide in my book.

Canada seems to be losing people at about a rate 50% of the US. A reasonable place to compare to. It is hyperbolic to be blaming all the death on Trump. Much of the blame lies with state governments. But you also can't deny that the POTUS sets the tone and influences the response.

I haven't hit the boogie circuit in a few years, but I will remember Mark from many of the awesome trips I made when I was a newer jumper. He was welcoming, fun, an all around great guy. He was also one hell of a pilot, and he did a great job getting us to altitude. Blue skies.

Oh yeah. Rule #1 for gun owners with kids: Your kids know there are guns in the house. Your kids know where they are. Your kids are interested in them (forbidden fruit rule). There are ways to properly secure them. But just 'hiding them' in a 'good spot' is really foolish.