Marinus

Probably, but that doesn't make it any less funny. But maybe my taste in humour is piss poor.

Yes, of course, till death do us part!

JAY!!! http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=2704914069624298394 Anyway, that's what the topic title reminded me off. welcome...

WTF happened here? O well, what the heck, let's just marry and grow old together

Congaratulations! (I'm not late, I'm just from a different time zone)

You're welcome: You sounded like you needed one.

What quade said, with the addition that it only takes basic knowledge of European history to know that Muslims never ever came close of conquering Europe..

Anyone still believing that nonsense? Don't get me wrong, I'm not one of those people that thinks that Islam is peace. In fact I consider Islam as rather intolerant and violent and crazy when compared to most other religions. But Islam taking over Europe (or even the world for that matter)? Come on people.....

For some parts in the world this won't be that that long any more. AFAIK the adjective "Christian" can be left out when referring to most Western European countries. The official number of Christians is usually either a small majority, or a large minority, HOWEVER!, more often then not a lot of irreligious people are also counted as Christians. I've many friends and acquaintances that are non-believers, but that still count as Catholics because they were babtized when they were infants. So the official number of non-believers might be 40-45% but in reality this number is probably significantly higher. Amongst the official 40% Christians, there's a good lot that are really agnostics, pantheists, deists or something similar, some are even atheists (a survey among Dutch protestant clergy revealed 1 in 6 preachers is either an atheist or an agnostic, so go figure) Most other Christians adhere to a light version of Christianity that's really a form of spiritual humanism brought to us by a hippie from the sky called Jesus. Yes, we still have Right Wing Christians, but they make up around 5 % of the population or so. Along with the 2% Muslims that still take Islam too serious (the other 2/3 of Muslims, around 4% of the total Dutch population are mostly secular it seems) they can be a bit of a pain. In many other countries the situation is similar, in fact we're only averagely secularized. So yes, Christianity is on it's way out in some part of the world, and most notably in those cultures of the world that made Christianity a formidable force in the first place. It won't be too long before Europeans marvel at the beautiful Cathedrals, the same way they marvel at the Stonehenge, the Acropolis and the Pyramids now.

Thank you!

That's your opinion, while similarities are indeed interesting, differences are too. It's rather clear from the differences between religions and the geographical spread of those different religions, that religion is human cultural phenomenon. I'm not too familiar with Hinduism, but I've been a Christian for 21 years or so. I wouldn't call Christianity rationalized. At best it's less irrational than Hinduism.

or is it [delurk]Came across this phrase a couple of times now, and Google won't tell me what it means. You may all kick my a$$ for being off topic, now, but can someone please tell me what it means? Oh, and on topic, as far as I understand what swooping is, it's rather unlikely I'll ever do it[/delurk]

That source covers around a dozen mythical figures including a couple of gods. You know there's over 3000 gods/goddesses alone, right? There's many more mythical figures then that. Yes, of course some share similarities.....

Not only does your post contain four (4) words that are totally redundant, it also lacks any contend that's relevant to the discussion. "Look better" is a rather poor argument in most discussions.

Thermobaric weapons are always a win. Even if the footage isn't exactly of great quality: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpGQ-2hMjN4

Oh noes, boobies, there goes my innocence.....

01) Lightning: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kI1d7DMbco

There isn't even one common denominator that binds all the religions in the world. There isn't even a consensus whether god(s) exist or not. This lack of consensus is actually one of the major arguments against religion. OK, Judaism I, Judaism II and Judaism III are similar, but then again, Judaism, Christianity and Islam are closely related. If you compare those to for instance Shinto or Buddhism there's next to no similarities.

I've must have missed this post..... True that, It's almost a month ago now, and I'm rather sure I'm one of those people that got addicted after just one fix of skydiving. I can't stop thinking about it, I dream about it at night and I'm constantly thinking of new ways to liberate more money to go skydiving. I also spend way too much time lurking on DZ.com; people who think I spend most of my time posting in BF & SC should think again, I occasionally post there, 95% of my time I'm lurking in the skydiving related topics. I'm also watching tons of skydive vids on you-tube. Another point of interest is the fact that I try to hide it for my surroundings. I hardly talk about skydiving and when I'm (for example) browsing the web about skydiving at home, and the S.O. enters the room I've always another (more whuffo-ish) page ready to switch to. I'm not sure why I do that, I think part of me is still expecting me to snap out of it and doesn't want to look stupid when I finally realize that skydiving isn't my cup of tea. I'm still a bit in denial about it I think. Did I mention the fact that I rant a lot about skydiving on the interwebz lately? I'm not anti-social, but I'm rather shy and reclusive. I'm one of those people that doesn't simply walk in to their local DZ. But I did the 7th next best thing, I sent them an email this morning. I'll do my best to get there!

My bad, I misread the OP. Well, my general strategy when there's a possible health issue is "when you're in doubt, consult a physician". It of course depends on your health plan if that's painful to your wallet or not. A second option is to hang around and hope there's a skydiving physician on these boards, however internet consults generally aren't worth there weight in pixels.

I made the decision to make a tandem jump when I saw a YouTube vid of a tandem exit. The realization that I didn't have to jump from the plane myself, but that someone went along to (more or less) push me from the plane was the most decisive factor. Before that I was curious about skydiving, but I figured that the plane would probably run out of fuel before I would have scraped together enough courage to jump from it.

Bullocks. Men, on average, contribute 17 minutes of work and a teaspoon full of protein and carbohydrates to a pregnancy. I think they should have a proportionate say in the matter.

If you expect to be hooked, you'll probably will be. I only went for one tandem jump that happened to be on my bucket list, and now I'm trying to sell my kidneys to fund my AFF. Unless this popping is very uncomfortable and/or painful, it's normal to experience popping during flights. During flights the air pressure around you changes, while the pressure in the inner ear stays the same. This creates a difference in pressure, but whenever you swallow or yawn, the Eustachian tube ( a tube between the inner ear and the nasal cavity) is opened. This equalizes the difference in pressure and results in a popping sensation. If this mechanism doesn't work properly or doesn't work at all, pressure keeps building and this can result in severe pain and even damage to the ear. I'm not sure what kind of "popping issues" you've got, but it might be a good idea to visit a doctor if you're worried about it. Better safe then sorry... Edit: Oh, and welcome to the board! forgot my manners....

Regret can prevent you from making the same mistake twice. And while regret can be a manifestation of self pity, it isn't always that. If I regret something it's most often a manifestation of guilt, preferably if that what I regret can't be fixed. I think your remark is true for some cases, but certainly not all. Regret isn't a sign there's something wrong with you, just like the lack of regret isn't always a sigh you're unable to learn from your mistakes or that you lack conscience. As for myself: I don't have a lot of regrets, but I've some regrets. As far as I'm concerned I should regret those things. This doesn't mean that I let those regrets take over my life, but they hurt like they should.

So I'm the only one who actually has regrets? Wow.... At least I'm special