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And then there's the 'workers must commit to working long hours at high intensity' email that just went out.... https://www.bbc.com/news/business-63648505 "Elon Musk has told Twitter staff that they must commit to working "long hours at high intensity" or else leave the company, according to reports." and " "This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade," he said. Workers were told that they needed to click on a link by 17:00 EST on Thursday, if they want to be "part of the new Twitter"." I used to work for a guy like this - an absolute workaholic. He thought because he had no life and was working 16 hour days then it was normal for everyone else to as well, and would get pissed if I wasn't answering phone calls at 4am. Musk is going to have people leaving Twitter in droves.

I've been jumping a Sabre 1 150 for nearly 20 years, and mine is older than 2001. Only be whacked 2 times, but both were due to packing errors, I pack for myself so I know. I have been psycho packing it pretty much the entire time, not sure if that effects the openings. I also packed it slightly different than most psycho packers and I always made sure the slider was nice and spread out, and a few other things. I weigh about the same as your customer and have always jumped a 150, so a 170 might open differently seeing it is weighed less than a 150. When I used to pack tandems and sports rigs I always packed psycho packed them and most said it was the best openings they had, but who knows.

That operates on the assumption that people will make an intelligent decision. In 2020, 74,223,975 voters chose 4 more years of a deranged moron as POTUS. So I have very little faith in the electorate making logical decisions.

Holy crap Brother, you're a real legend. Good on you and good luck.

December 2nd will be the 60th anniversary of the first of my 2000+ jumps. Like anyone in this sport I had my share of misadventures and was recently encouraged to chronicle them. I just completed Bad Decisions Make Great Stories and it appeared on Amazon yesterday in paperback. Skydiving is the focus of the book but my misadventures in ski racing, snowboard racing, unicycling, sailing, flying etc are featured as well. The Kindle version is forthcoming. If you got into the sport in the sixties or seventies, you'll be able to relate. Pat Moore D-1814

I went into the VA about two weeks ago and got the quadrivalent flu shot in one arm and the new and improved Moderna Covid booster in the other at the same time. No sore arms, no muscle aches, no tails growing outta my ass. Little tired the next day, but that could've been any number of factors. Anyway, if you haven't already, please get your shots. You may be a pain in the ass, but you're my pain in the ass.

We got ours before going to Alaska in September. Good job too, out of 11 people in our group all of whom tested negative at the start of the trip, six fell by the wayside with covid. The group previous to ours had 12 of 14 drop out.

Unfortunately the editorials in the conservative National Review are beyond the reading level of members of Trump's base" "A lesson of the midterms was that association with Trump and “stop the steal” were liabilities, and no one is more associated with both of those things than Donald Trump himself. Democrats helped choose MAGA candidates that were eminently defeatable in GOP primaries this year, and nominating Trump — whom Democrats are pining to run against again — in 2024 would replicate this experience on a much larger scale. "Needless to say, Trump is a magnetic political figure who has managed to bond countless millions of Republicans to him. Many GOP voters appreciate his combativeness and hate his enemies, who so often engaged in excesses in pursuit of him. Once he won the nomination in 2016, they understandably voted for him in 2016 and 2020, given the alternatives. But the primaries won’t present a choice between Trump and progressives with calamitous priorities for the nation, but other Republicans who aren’t, in contrast to him, monumentally selfish or morally and electorally compromised. (And it should be added, won’t be 78 years old if elected and ineligible to serve two terms.) "It’s too early to know what the rest of the field will look like, except it will offer much better alternatives than Trump. "The answer to Trump’s invitation to remain personally and politically beholden to him and his cracked obsessions for at least another two years, with all the chaos that entails and the very real possibility of another highly consequential defeat, should be a firm, unmistakable, No."

Shows just how out-of-touch with reality the demented fool is: Pew Research: Americans overwhelmingly say marijuana should be legal for recreational or medical use

Hi Wendy, Hang in there. I was at the Berlin Wall in the summer of '63. I knew it would come down one day, I did not think that it would come down in my lifetime. The glass IS half full. Jerry Baumchen

Seems like everyone has a reason to be angry, and right now the people pandering for power are playing to that anger. Each group’s hurt is made primary within that group, and sometimes denigrated by other groups, sometimes just ignored. The thing is that these are motivating, and at the moment it seems worst to me on the right. In the 60’s is was definitely worse on the left. But I have a feeling that part of why it seems that way to me is that I am more on the left. So I have an easier time understanding the anger of the marginalized minorities and women, I was raised with the idea that marginalization like that was wrong. What if I’d been raised in a more structured society? One where there was recognizable comfort in knowing my place? Especially if, say, I was a majority man, whose place was one of somewhat more respect? Or, maybe, if my nature was more compliant, and I liked knowing that I had the ability to get the ear of the most important alpha male? I have a feeling that the tearing down of that structure, with the perceived loss of relative power, as being a huge loss. And people by nature feel a loss more keenly than they feel an equivalent gain (look up Daniel Kahneman for evidence). And once you feel one loss, it’s so much easier to be reminded of others, because misery loves company. I have a feeling the only way out of this is through it, and that probably won’t happen in my time. Wendy P.

Not really. It was a huge victory. The number of times the party of the sitting president didn't have large losses in the midterms is very small. The 'mistake' would be thinking that this victory means there will automatically be future victories.

Murdoch rubs it in. LOL!

Good. I hate that particular strategy Wendy P.

I think his ego has grown to the point that Dunning–Kruger effect is taking over.

Thanks, Phil. But, IMO there's more propensity towards racism in MAGA, than in just Republican. There's plenty of racism in both parties and when we of that party see it, need to out it, not make excuses, or act as if it isn't there. or say the other side has more.

She did that on more than one occasion. And, her employer was a degreed social worker. I'm not suggesting any favor towards Kari Lake. I've made clear that Trump and his tribe of followers needs to dissolve. What I'm addressing is the hypocrisy of attitude towards Dems if the R's did the exact same thing.

There were a LOT of sources. Many of them left of center and in the end, she won $2.75 million. Now, imagine if she had an R after her name. The lot on here would be crucifying her with adjectives and a couple of nouns.

In the old days, FAA certificate numbers were Social Security numbers. Riggers put their Cert number on the packing data cards. Instructors put their Cert numbers in student logbooks. The FAA stopped doing that and issued new numbers once identity theft took off.

That container looks like it was jumped hard in the desert and put away wet. Start by paying a Master Rigger to inspect it. If he/she determines that it needs more than the (rusted) RSL rings replaced, it is probably not worth the cost of repairs. Those rusty rings scare me and compel any rigger to minutely inspect all the hardware, especially where that hardware is hidden by webbing. Any rust in the webbing usually requires replacing the webbing ... an expensive job. Then it needs a bath. The Cypres is old enough to retire. That Raven 181 can only safely be jumped by people who weigh in the 160 pound range ... for a total suspended weight of 181 pounds. Anyone foolish enough to load a Raven at more than 1 pound per square foot should ... invest heavily in medical insurance.

Have passenger hold you on the shoulders / rig, and use your hands to hold the passengers legstraps. Exit linked with this 4 point configuration, once stable belly to earth, place passenger on your bum where you want him/her to be, then open arms and fly. This works out of any side-door, tailgate etc. As long as you have these 4 points of contact, like a tandem, you can roll 6 times and still stay tight together and come out flying...

Most likely a means to an end. And most likely an expedient and also cowardly way to resolve a problem.