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I have no problem with paying my taxes to support the nation. What I object to is that the ultra-wealthy have bought their way out of doing so.

Wendy makes some good points. RSL's and MARD's have definitely helped. Note that every year we record fatalities that would likely not have happened if the jumper used an RSL or MARD. There are jumpers who remain steadfast to their opinion that these devices are dangerous, but the data says otherwise by a big margin. More and better canopy training has been very effective in lowering our canopy injuries and fatalities by number, although the overall percentage of canopy-related fatalities each year has remained about the same for quite a while. About 50% of our annual fatalities come from flying parachutes into the ground, either from intentional low turns (swooping) or unintentional low turns (confusion, mis-judging recovery altitude, avoidance turns, etc.). By the way, the vast majority of intentional turn canopy fatalities involve male jumpers with less than 1,000 jumps and rapid downsizing. That pattern will only change when we change it. Better training doctrine and techniques have been effective. Drop zones take ongoing training more seriously than in the past, as do most jumpers. Students graduate from training programs with better skill sets these days and that leads to fewer mistakes. The same holds true with more and better information. I do think our changing demographic has contributed to better numbers. Skydivers are older on average than in the past, and that has probably led to fewer poor, testosterone-fueled decisions. Same goes for income. We are wealthier on average than we were years ago so more jumpers can afford state-of-the-art gear, audibles, training courses, etc. They can also afford to maintain their gear better - fewer mals means fewer EP errors. Looking at just about every calendar year, we are losing the bulk of our jumpers from the same causes. Flying fast canopies with too much ego and too little training Failing to utilize equipment that will save us when we can't or won't Performing EP's improperly or too slowly Not following landing priorities Just my 2 cents #projectzero

If you go farther back, the early 1980's brought a very significant decline in the number of fatalities in a very small period. It went from the high 40's/low 50's down into the 30's. That was probably a combination of things: Equipment: the vast majority of jumpers were using 3-rings by then; student programs were starting to use (slightly) higher-performance canopies (better steerability); some doubtful equipment was no longer made (plastic reserve handles, blast handles, belly band throw-out), and helmets became more accepted Training: a far larger number of dropzones followed more rigorous student programs, with defined goals. As well, the introduction of tandem and AFF brought a higher level of instruction as well And in general, skydiving was becoming a little more mainstream, which meant that it had to behave in a more mainstream manner. I'd say that in the last 20 years, RSLs have gone from a good idea to almost (though not quite) universal; likewise AAD's. Before the advent of the Cypres, failure to pull either the main or reserve accounted for a significant number of fatalities. In the last 20 years, canopy instruction has become an accepted and standard part of a skydiver's development. In addition, traffic rules and exit rules have become stricter across most dropzones. As canopies get faster, these become necessary, just as speed limits and roads became necessary as cars got faster. I'll ping Chuck Akers to weigh in on this as well. Wendy P.

Then stop. You don’t need it and we don’t need it. The fact that you think the solution to being unhappy when your friends are happy is to make your friends unhappy too speaks volumes about you. Baloney. You know that’s not the case, so why not speak honestly about the subject? The vast excesses of US military spending are completely unrelated to anything except domestic US politics. Your allies don’t need you to do it, you don’t need you to do it, it serves no real world purpose whatsoever. If you want to reduce the US military budget by a huge amount then by god please do it. That would be amazing. And it would leave absolutely zero slack for anyone else to take up.

My god, we’d only be able to talk to people who actually read their own sources. What torture.

Ulis gets it wrong,,, again He is looking for the hair sample,, thinks it is lost in Quantico.. Nope,, the very latest mention in the current FBI docs July 2002 has it going to Seattle FBI.

We are not talking about your or my word. We are talking about how nations behave. Specifically about the USA vs Canada. While we most likely have among the very best relationships that exist between nations anywhere there is no shortage of agreements broken between us. Your word is not your nations word and neither is mine. In the history of defense cooperation between our nations Canada has always been there when the cause was just and we could get behind you. But we don't blindly follow your lead for very good reasons. Canada will increase its defense budget in the current climate, but not to the absurd levels of the US. I believe this rant came because you feel you would like to pay less taxes. Again, get your own house in order.

Your kindness is

There is also the fact that since skydiving is often seen as a little more tame these days many of the jumpers who want greater thrills, challenge, and risk will go onto BASE jumping. The BASE fatality list currently contains 423 entries, 238 of them in the ten year period of 2012 to 2021. Almost two dozen per year average. Nearly all of these people were also skydivers. At one time riskier behaviors happened at DZs and while not encouraged there was more tolerance. Now more people go to where there are few if any rules and everyone is even more individually able to decide on their own level of risk exposure.

In 2018, he made $4 billion and paid zero in taxes. That's zero. That doesn't seem fair to the family of 4 who is struggling to get by, while paying thousands in taxes that they are unable to dodge. This year he paid taxes because he felt like it. That's the difference between the rich and everyone else. They pay whatever they want, whenever they want.

All good answers so far. Perhaps a minor additional factor is that I'm guessing that there are fewer dropzones overall, and they tend to be bigger. I still see new small DZ's open up, but what with land costs or availability of airports, the desire to have turbine aircraft, and a generally greater age of dropzones, those that are around tend to be larger. When there are more assets involved, drop zones become more conservative, more risk adverse, and more interested in having more rules. (Although that's also a function of cramming more skydivers at one time into the same patch of sky, as others have noted.) More and more DZ's these days like to shift the cost of safety onto skydivers, mandating AAD's, to minimize liability to themselves. Even though almost every skydiver prefers to have an AAD these days anyway, for most types of jumping. All that's combined with an increase in safety culture in society in general. (Although extreme sports are popular, and there are plenty of skydiving disciplines that have more hazards than just doing a belly 4-way.)

We are working on the 2% thing. I'll bet you we get there before you do.

That's because the wealth we have generated is insufficient to buy a lobbyist or even a congressperson. Something we have in common with the large majority of Americans.

I think you're assuming that if the overall level of defense spending in the world doesn't stay the same, things will destabilize. That might be true, and it might be false. But for sure, increasing it only has one outcome -- the "other side(s)" will ramp theirs up to match. Because threat. Since the world isn't stable anyway, maybe it is time to begin evaluating the overall amount of defense spending. Well, maybe after Putin dies... Wendy P.

Let's not forget that a large fraction of every NATO member's defense expenditures ends up in the pockets of Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, etc. and thus ends up in the USA.

Well then back to basics if you insist. From my point of view the problem is not that we spend too little. The problem is that you spend too much. You keep using the inane metaphor of splitting a dinner bill evenly. But you want a filet and a fine merlot. We want a burger and a Coke. We don't want what you want and we don't want to pay for what you want. Do you get it now?

The same basic reasons for the decline in automobile deaths per mile. Better equipment especially AADs and RSLs led to an acceptance among jumpers of using them. I'm not sure better training is a huge factor, but it is one for sure. And a big one is a change in culture to one that does not easily accept jumpers who take excessive risks.

"The drone operators were drawn from an air reconnaissance unit, Aerorozvidka, which began eight years ago as a group of volunteer IT specialists and hobbyists designing their own machines and has evolved into an essential element in Ukraine’s successful David-and-Goliath resistance." Interesting that the modern "drone" was first developed very inexpensively by model airplane hobbyists like Abraham Karem in Israel at a time when the big US contractors couldn't make them work despite spending $millions. A US model airplane company (Chicago based "Top Flight") used an Israeli modeler's flight controller in foam airplanes it sold to the US Army back in the 1980s. I was a beta tester for the controller, which weighed about 50 grams.

I fail to see why they ever agreed on %GDP. Rich countries are far better able to afford a large % than poor ones, just like Jeff Bezos can afford to spend a greater % of his income on charities than a homeless dude on the streets of LA.

Interesting story on the Ukraine drone operators: Guardian: The drone operators who halted Russian convoy headed for Kyiv

Who is going to inherit the Earth? America? On the list of the world's 50 largest defense contractors US corporations occupy 19 spots including the 5 top ones. You spend money like a drunken sailor, or more like a power mad politician. Yet you consistently come home with your tail between your legs. You start wars that you can not end pissing away resources that your hard working people keep shoveling into the furnace of corrupt greed. All the time sitting on enough WMD to attract the other side's attention with each of you parking missile submarines in hiding places so that both of you can be certain of each other's destruction. The meek will indeed inherit what is left of the Earth after your foolish pride ruins your part of it, and most likely my part as well.

Then perhaps... without folks like myself, brent, winsor, & whoever.. then members here might experience the same echo chamber monotone.

We are open, just need to be vaccinated. Was in Whistler on Sunday for probably the worst day of skiing...but such is Whistler.

Done. Starting April 1st as long as you are fully 2 dose vaccinated you no longer need to be tested. Welcome back.

We may not ever be needed on the ground in Ukraine. Reports are building that the Ukrainians just whacked the Russian elite 4th Guards Tank Division taking out up to 77 of their first line T80U tanks and sending the rest of the unit back to Russia licking their wounds.