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San Diego has a large homeless population. (In some ways one wonders why more homeless people don't head to the places with the nicest weather.) There are of course as many reasons/types/explanations for the homeless people as there are homeless people, but a two very general categories are the people who live somewhere and the people who are vagrant. The former stake out a spot. Sometimes it's a tent on a sidewalk somewhere, sometimes it's a 1970's RV or trailer parked along a street, sometimes it's in a car. I see them all the time when I ride. The cops periodically roust them (usually because camping and/or long term parking where they are is illegal) but they always come back. Lately I've been noticing that the RV and tent homeless people are using more and more solar. They are almost always those foldable portable panels, but some use older (i.e. smaller) residential PV panels and some use the marine grade flexible panels (which are almost indestructible.) The trailer people will generally have them propped up outside against something or on the roof (identifiable by the two conductor 12-18ga zip cord coming down from the roof.) The tent people generally just prop them against their tent. I have little doubt that these are a mix of discarded, stolen and flea-market systems; none of them look new, and many have yellowed EVA and/or cracks. And I have no idea whether they are charging a trailer battery or some other battery or just being used directly to run something. But a small amount of energy - enough to run a light at night, or run a radio, or charge a cheapo cellphone - can make a lot of difference to some of these people. While waiting for a light down in Mission Bay I overheard two of them talking near one such setup. I didn't catch the whole conversation, but I did hear one of them say "if he's gonna charge his f*ing vape here, he's gonna pay me for it!" Which would imply that such energy might even get someone some $$. It's taken decades for that technology to trickle down that far, but now it's started. And for someone who can't get any sort of utility service it might represent the only sort of energy available to them.

One simply needs to remember that the closely related SARS-CoV-1 virus has a death rate of 11% but is far less contagious. The virus could be far worse than it currently is. As inconvenient as the past 18 months have been it could be and still could become far worse. A lot of us live in crowded cities and we travel a lot. Our complex bodies have been vulnerable in the past and certainly will be again. Thankfully we have prevention and treatment regimes that help. People like to compare the death toll to the 1919 flu epidemic. We did not have ventilators in 1919, without them and our ICUs we would have multiplied that amount of dying. For the life of me I just can not understand the current crop of anti-vaxxers. It is almost as though they believe that the herd needs thinning and they want to help the process along.

As more and more details about this man's attempt to stage a coup come out it is now clear to me that if he is not charged with for his crimes it will represent a huge failure of the US justice system.

This is not the For Sale Forum ... but I will give you a solid polite opinion on your 217 machine Head you are selling . ( looking at your Pic. ) and having owned 2, 217's and still have one set-up in shop and use regular . No Way you will get 500-$ for that old Head even if was set-up on a complete table Quick observation from your blurry photo. At Best, in the bad shape it's in, the buyer is receiving a machine ( for parts only ) sale . It does Not run/sew even if set-up on a table w/motor, is Rusty, Missing parts, and broken reverse lever . . .

Better yet ask Windsor, he’s studied that book extensively

Somehow reminiscent of "I am not a crook"; R.M. Nixon https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/09/14/how-supreme-court-justice-might-know-shes-political-hack/

We (100+) of us gathered @ Skydive PA in Pennsyltucky on Saturday Sep 18 to remember how Moe touched our lives. Cindy M created a wonderful audio-visual presentation. I won't link to it here since I'm not the creator, but if you sniff around on the evil FB, you'll find it. Craig

To date what has happened is that the existing vaccines have remained effective.

There have been several "joke" scifi stories about that. One was a guy who was trying to get his PhD, but they kept discovering new particles that required him to revise his thesis. Finally his adviser recommended he change to religious studies, and they gave him his degree right away.

Years ago I was watching a documentary about Quantum Mechanics, and when the topic of string theory came up, a physicist they were interviewing made a comment like: "At this point, until someone finds a way to conduct an experiment to prove or disprove it, string theory is indistinguishable from a religion."

Strings not relevant to solid state quantum mechanics which is (was) my discipline. Not sure they're relevant to anything at all. Turtles have about as much evidence, maybe more. I've seen turtles while diving.

I agree — a large part of why I didn’t add to the thread in the first place. It’s too easy for people to read what they want, and I for sure don’t know enough. Wendy P.

I actually had heard that before, too. Two factors: one is that a 20 sq ft reduction in size is a smaller percentage at the higher wingloading, and the other because canopies below about 150 sq ft have shorter lines, and therefore are more sensitive to inputs. But people can easily read what they want in there, and forget the “don’t hang your cap on this.” To the OP, this is a discussion between you and more than one instructor at your dropzone. More than one simply because that reduces the chance of relying on the judgment of a single point. Wendy P.

How many times did you vote for Obama?

OK, I think we've established enough. Please save the back-and-forth for new information. Wendy P.