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I just don't see it. The Republican party have shown time and again that they're more than willing to completely ignore any moral judgement or legal evidence if it protects their political power and interests, and Trump is still valuable to them.

I haven't posted or even lurked on these forums for a number of years, but I was inspired to share a quick note today. My name is Scott Miller. A couple of decades ago I started something called The Canopy School at Skydive DeLand, which became the Freedom of Flight Canopy School. Later, in collaboration with some awesome gentlemen from the PD Factory Team, that canopy school was transformed into Flight-1. I've been away from the skydiving world for a while, but I still stay in touch with some old skydiving friends and visit DeLand from time to time. I'm always impressed to see what Flight-1 has become thanks to all of the work that Ian, Shannon, and the rest of the crew have done. Back when I was teaching my canopy courses, students would always fill out a registration form at the start of the day. For all of these years, I've had all of those forms sitting in a couple of boxes in a closet. It always seemed worthwhile to keep them around, but yesterday I decided to run them through a scanner so I can finally get rid of the paper copies. Looking through all of those forms—almost 3,000 of them, from 8 years worth of canopy courses—brought back a lot of memories and emotions. It's hard to describe what it was like to look back at all of the DZs that I visited and to see some of the peoples' names on the forms. There was one feeling that percolated to the top, though. Above all else, I felt very, very grateful. I was, and still am, grateful for everyone who supported me and believed in what I was doing back then. I'm grateful for all of the jumpers who signed up and attended my courses. I'm grateful to the DZOs who invited me to come teach at their drop zones. I'm grateful for the local jumpers who did all of the planning, organizing, and coordinating to make the camps happen at their DZs. I'm grateful for the manifestors, managers, and everyone else who made all the moving parts fit together during the courses. I'm grateful for the pilots who flew extra passes at 5000' even though it's extra work, and who were willing to drop people way the hell upwind when we did the "long spot practice" jump at the end of the day. I'm grateful to Bob Hallett for supporting this whole project from the very beginning, and throughout. I'm grateful to all of the Relative Work School, Freedom of Flight School, and Flight-1 coaches with whom I had the honor of working and collaborating. I'm grateful to John LeBlanc for teaching me most of what I know about how canopies really, actually work. Gratitude is powerful. Taking a few moments to be grateful for someone or something—to think and feel a deep, genuine sense of gratitude—can bring so much joy into our lives and put things in a very different perspective. If I could go back in time, back to when I was a kid or even when I first started jumping, and pass myself a note, it would say, "be grateful for the people you have in your life and for the time that you have with them." That's why I'm here today. To share something that I'm very grateful for, and to pass you that note. Be grateful for what you have in your life. Be grateful for the people in your life and for the time that you have with them. Take some time every day to think about what you are grateful for: in skydiving, but also in other parts of your life. Practice a little gratitude every day, and watch it transform your life. Thank you for letting me share this with you today. BSBD Scott

It's dirty and there's a LOT about it I don't like. That said, I've said for a while that the democrats need to start playing the republicans at their own game because at some point turning the other cheek simply leaves you battered and abused. I'm hopeful that a short sharp shock of highlighting the hypocrisy of politicians will blunt that behavior, and the need for these distasteful tactics in the future. I doubt it, but that's my hope.

That doesn't mean it's not true.

Worked just fine.

None of the below is gospel, just my take on how I remembered things . . . It's been a while since I've seen the movie, which I liked a lot, however it wasn't exactly the film it started out to be. I first met Marah Strauch, who created and directed Sunshine Superman, many years earlier. She had come across a carton of old BASE VHS tapes her deceased Uncle had shot. His name was Mike Allen, and he was BASE 163. I'm not certain if she knew her Uncle in life as he was killed in a 1992 automobile accident. However, looking through the box of tapes and photographs she felt a connection to her Uncle, not through parachutes or jumping which she knew nothing about, but through photography which they both shared a love. Trying to find out more about her Uncle she found me, and others, who knew and jumped with Mike. And when she phoned it was always, “Hi, Uncle Nick,” as we all became defacto Uncles to her and she a Niece to all of us. She began attending Bridge Days and other BASE events, always with her cameras, and she became a fixture in the BASE community. Around this time she starting talking about a film on the history of BASE jumping. And, of course, I was all for that. And she came to my home a few times to interview me, and I passed on all I had learned about the history of the sport. And not just me, she did that with many others who jumped with Mike. And like I'm want to do I emphasized the part Carl Boenish played in the development of BASE jumping, and how there had been plenty of parachute jumps from objects made prior to Carl's time that registered on the world only as inconsequential stunts. It took a combination of Carl's talent as a film maker and the majestic scenery El Capitan provided in 1978 to lite the fuse that detonated the bomb that became BASE jumping as we know it today. And Carl did that in something he called a simple film poem using little to no words. Of course, you can't make a movie over night (although I haven't seen 'Hex' yet) and at least four years or so went by as Marah sought funding, gathered more materials and footage, and kept interviewing BASE jumpers. Then she met Jean Boenish, who up to that point had been very protective of her late husband's legacy. Maybe a bit overprotective. I interviewed her for my BASE magazine and prizing personal information out of her was difficult, even though I knew her fairly well. She'd even jumped on me (gently) for using one of Carl's photos in a story about him I wrote without her permission. And I told her once, all of Carl's films and other works should be in the public domain or people are going to forget him. And when Marah came along I think Jean saw a way to solve that problem. Something between Marah and Jean must've clicked and Marah realized she now had access to all of Carl's films, and that was something no one else had. And I don't fault Marah in the least for it, but that's how the focus of the film morphed from “The History of BASE Jumping” to the “Carl & Jean Boenish Story.” I'm actually very happy the movie turned out the way it did. Marah gave Carl Boenish a foothold in history with her movie in a way none of us who knew and revered him ever could. And I know Marah also did a lot of work preserving Carl's films for future generations. But, I will say this - the broader view of BASE jumping history – the nitty gritty nuts and bolts part of it, well, that film hasn't been made yet. And I really hope someone eventually does make that film.

Hominid always responded within one day on my emails. after looking further it was in 2019 that I last contacted him about the placard. I have sent multiple emails since about 2020 and got no response from him. I use to have his phone number but it's been so long ago I have no idea where it's written down, I think I had a flip phone while talking to him lol. If he did pass, he will always have a special place in my heart for the things he helped me with by going through hours of testing the simulator to insure it was able to do the task. many phone calls and emails during the testing, winds, speeds, stalls, timing, weight, flaps,etc. He had 3 different emails and no response from any of them. He lived in Ventura California.. Dave Update, I'm 99% sure I found his address in Ventura

lol LOL

Hello. My name is Oleksiy Sharadkin, I am the owner of SkyWideSystems company, and I have been a SOF operator since February 24. As you might know, on February 24 Russia attacked our country. Due to the differences in size, economies and human resources foreign military experts gave us a week ( the ruscists planned to hold a parade in Kyiv on the 4th day), but we have already been fighting for 4 month. We repulsed the offensive and drove the enemy back to the border in the Kiev, Chernigov and Sumy regions. You will find more information about the war on my FB page The situation is not so bad in a military sense thanks to the military assistance of the allies. We are no longer talking about the conquest of Ukraine. We are fighting in the east and in the south, reclaiming our land. The only one problem is that there are a lot of Russians, and elimination of them takes a lot of time. During this time they can cause irreparable harm to civilians in the occupied territories. You might have seen photos from Bucha. They are awful. The worst thing is that this is happening in all the territories that have been occupied. My subdivision liberated villages in the north of Ukraine - and I personally saw a raped and hanged 10-11 years old girl. In order to decrease the time of occupation, we need help. Not only the military (the situation here is not that bad, thank you), but also the economic one. I am asking the entire skydiving industry to stop all business with Russia. I am asking material manufacturers to stop selling any materials to Russia, and FOR Russia. Military equipment takes more than 80% of the turnover of Russian parachute manufacturers now! And given that the parachute industry is so small, it will be obvious to any rigger where these materials come from. You don't want to be considered suppliers of the Russian army, do you? I am also asking parachute equipment manufacturers to stop any sales of parachute equipment to Russia and FOR Russia. I am asking you to do this in order to cause the maximum possible damage to the Russian economy. The sale of parachute equipment is a high-margin business. It includes dropzones, shops, dealers, riggers. This is the money turnover and taxes, that help to finance Russian army and the genocide of Ukrainians. This is definitely not the vital kind of business. I'm asking you to do this because the skydive fraternity talks are not working any more. 76% of Russians support the war in Ukraine. It is more than it was in Nazi Germany! Given the size of Russia, and the amount of military equipment left after the Cold War, they will be destroying peaceful Ukrainians in the occupied territories for a very long time before we kill all of them. Therefore, I am asking you to strike at the Russian economy, to make them think about the food for their families, but not about the rape. To make them return to their home and leave Ukraine. You may ask: "what does the sale of one parachute mean for the economy"? Perhaps, nothing, or, perhaps, it might matter a lot. Such kind of letters are now written to all businesses operating in Russia. Those letters are already working against the Russian economy and are destroying it. Of course, one parachute sold will not destroy the Russian economy,but it will show your attitude towards the genocide in Ukraine. There are still some corporations that are trying to do business as usual with Russia or looking for workarounds. You can see them suffer reputational losses,because of that. Even one sold parachute will be noticed by the skydiving community in such a small industry The skydiving community will appreciate the side you took. Please choose the correct side. Help us defeat ruscism!

UK has that, and has higher median wealth per adult than the US. Pretty much all countries that have higher median wealth per adult than the US have higher gasoline and diesel costs than the US, they pretty much all have higher energy costs all around. You can dismiss that all as "theatre" whatever that means, but the facts remain.

No, just an attempt to get people going.

Yo, Brent, talk about a fit for you and the job is open!

that's what you add to this discussion? improving the odds somewhat? of course it wasn't much of a discussion i guess, not sure what i was thinking when i posted this, but for a brief time i actually thought i may be able to get a real discussion going about some solutions. then i realized the nature of this forum and what happens here that i had forgotten. once again i am actually doing something about it rather than argue semantics. in a week or two i should be conducting my first class in the program i came up with to help the problem by working with troubled youths in a juvenile detention center. i've even been collaborating with a couple of drs of psychology. but you carry right along with improving the odds and arguing. i'd rather try to stop school shootings entirely.

They are covering the attempted overthrow of American democracy. It's a complete horror that so many on the right think a buck less a gallon of gas and minority rule is more important.

Although AON2 is not a member of the PIA at the moment, we have stopped doing business with companies and individuals in Russia since the 23rd of February. Slava Ukraini!