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As promised. Video about the Clara letter. It’s about 45 minutes. The first 30 are about Stylometry and how it refutes the claims that Barb is Clara. The last 15 are on Barb in general. You should be able to play it at 1.25 or even 1.5 to get through it quicker.

The agency follows whatever 'continuous improvement' guidelines/rules they are provided with by congress and legislation and within the boundaries of the funding they have to do just that. I am pretty sure that the majority of the problem is capitalism and the false belief (generally in the USA) that it has a solution for every problem. The goal should be healthcare, but the goal is not that, it is about money/costs and funding, much like the private system. We do not have a healthcare system in the US, we have a profit driven money making system that sometimes provides healthcare if you can afford it.

The Fitz boogie just ended. Great few days catching up with many long time dz.commers some who still lurk, some active and some who haven't logged in for years.

A significant number of democrats have said that if a motion to vacate does come up they will vote to keep Johnson. Apparently they have had enough. Leadership is signalling that they are willing to make a deal to continue to support him in exchange for an up or down vote on aid to Ukraine.

The Teflon Don has done it again. His media merger has gone ahead which puts $300 million cash into his Trump Media company and $3 billion in paper profits into his name. This on the same week where he was rewarded for: U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who is overseeing Donald Trump's classified documents case in Florida. "Some commentators have described Cannon’s order as 'unusual.' I would use words like wacko, crazy, loony, nutty, ridiculous, and outlandish, and my terms are probably understatements," Bennett Gershman, a Pace University law professor and former New York prosecutor, told Salon. Rewarded again for his partizan judicial appointments.

What kind of imbecile would donate money to a con-man to help with his penalty for committing fraud?

Not sure how that would work. Easy to balance a budget, much harder to balance the actuals.

To make a clicky: Go to the top portion of the "making your post" box and select the "chain link" icon (circled). That brings up a box which is utterly self-explanatory. If you just paste in the URL, the link itself shows up as clicky. If you paste some alternate text in the "link text" box, then you get something like this. (click the blue word) Wendy P.

Here's what I have, data from about 30 years back when I was new to the sport and a bit obsessed with collecting data and understanding the sport. 1. Two pages from I guess the Italian skydiving magazine in 1992 listing the early tandem fatalities in order. (Apparently there was also one on a European Galaxy rig sometime in that era, that isn't in those stats.) First tandem fatality is shown as the one with one snap not done up, TI spent entire jump trying to hook it up, without deploying anything (even the drogue). 2. An html file from UPT listing tandem fatalities and causes in order (but with no dates). From 2008, back when they listed that on their web site. 3. Scribbled pencil notes of mine from the early 1990s, where I listed a bit of the evolution of tandems (eg the date when Strong & Booth got their FAA exemptions to allow tandems), plus all the early fatalities and dates. I think most of the data on dates comes from an article in Parachutist,July 1989. (Which I can't find at the moment.) That list puts that first tandem fatality -- with the snap not done up -- as Oct 19, 1986. Back in those days people were wondering what the heck was going on with Vector tandems, as in the first dozen fatal accidents, there were 10 on Vectors, and 1 on a Galaxy, before there was 1 was a Strong Dual Hawk. There sure were a lot of different causes of accidents -- Stupid stuff we're not allowed to do with tandems now, main bags that much more easily came out of the container early, plus a lot more casual training and attitudes towards tandems. Which brought in the idea that 'it isn't just another skydive'. It also took a while to come up with the first tandem CYPRES, and eventually the idea of making one mandatory for tandems. (Wish I had the dates for those.) RWS tandem fatality list as of Feb08.htm

This, a thousand times this. Remember, if you're a minority, it takes one disqualifying thing to disqualify; if you're a majority (and in the case of national politics we're talking rich white men), then it takes one qualifying thing to qualify. Wendy P.

Biden was quite qualified. In fact, I don't think he added to his qualifications from 2016 to 2020. Cheney, while rather evil, was quite qualified. He'd been in fairly high government positions for a long time. SecDef under Bush 1 (during Desert Storm), House Minority Whip for a short time before becoming SecDef Chief of Staff under Ford. Many people also consider Cheney to be the 'real power' when Bush 2 was in office. I don't fully believe that, but he had a LOT more power and authority than a typical VP. Ford did ok. Not great, but he was given a really shitty deal when he took office. Johnson did pretty good. He was a pretty awful person, but he took Kennedy's legacy and kept some of it going (Civil Rights and the space program).

Biden is likely to outlive Trump, although both are likely to survive another four years. Biden's odds are 95.2%; Trump's odds are 90.3%. This is based on their age, their (visible) health profile and their family history. Trump, for example, has a family history of Alzheimer's; Biden does not. (In fact, Trump mocked and derided his father when he began to show signs of Alzheimer's.) This is based on just what we know publicly. If either candidate has significant additional medical problems that they have not disclosed, that estimate would go down. It is notable that Trump said this a few years back: “You always have to talk about health. You look like you’re in good health, but tomorrow, you get a letter from a doctor saying come see me again. That’s not good when they use the word again.” Thus there's a good likelihood that Trump has other health issues. https://today.uic.edu/new-study-finds-biden-trump-both-likely-to-be-super-agers/

I recieved this email this morning from Chris Needels Bill Ottley passed away at 6:24 a.m.(eastern time) this morning. His suffering has at last ended; and skydiving has lost an icon. Bill had asked for a small memorial service followed by a very big party. And a very big party he will have indeed. In the near term he will be cremated, at his request, with the spreading of his ashes at a later date, most likely in conjunction with the service and the party. We love you, Bill. ............. Blue Skies Mr. Ottley. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker