chemist

lol is it even possible to get banned from skydiving? I think the pilot got in trouble though.

You are correct. However, it became a non-denominational, in fact secular, organization because the purpose is to attain sobriety not to worship. Oh, and for millions of people world wide, it works. I'm sorry, how can anything about it be considered "secular" considering the 12 Steps? If you deny the 12 Steps exists, then maybe, but as long as it exists it's not secular. Over the past several years I have determined that your major intellectual conflicts are derived from a lack of understanding in specific field phraseology. This argument is pointless. Every time the 12 steps has been taken to court it has always, every time been ruled religious. You can't just say you have to believe in God but say 'oh but it's not really God', what do you think our founding fathers would think? you cannot redefine God because the entity by definition is the basis of religion.

So, what you're telling me is the 12 Steps which specifically mention the only way to become sober is to turn your life over to God, is the same thing as "nowhere"? http://www.aa.org/en_pdfs/smf-121_en.pdf Are you kidding me? Nope. If you read deeper, God can be substituted anytime and anywhere with the term "Higher Power." And that can be anything. Some choose God, Allah, Jesus, the "Great Spirit" or something similar. Professor Kallend has mentioned that he likes Thor and the Flying Spaghetti Monster. Both would fit the bill. Others choose a "non-deity" as their HP. The group itself is one. A doorknob is another (search "doorknob as higher power" to find out why, it's kind of cute). Others take the word "God" and turn it into "Good, Orderly, Direction." Their HP's will for them (step 11) is to do the "next right thing." The long version of step 2 is here: http://www.aa.org/twelveandtwelve/en_pdfs/en_step2.pdf Second page, third paragraph: "Alcoholics Anonymous does not demand that you believe anything." Edit to add: I just read Ryoder's link. Yeah. A lot of people in AA have a lot of different opinions. For anyone to force their opinion on another goes pretty strongly against the whole idea of the thing. That's why one of the more popular sayings is "Live and Let Live." But again, not everyone does it. Sorry bud, but God by definition is an entity of religion. The fact that they are unable to remove the word God from step 2 is just self fulfilling itself as religion. As the key characteristic of religion is inability to change.

I don't think those harnesses do anything to prevent the feared cutaway. I've been in one, seriously how hard is it to pull a red handle? Pretty easy. As someone pointed out it's all psychological, people are scared that the reserve will come out tangled if they are unstable, risking a malfunction with 'last chance' canopy, and trying one more second and then one more second to fix a 'slow' malfunction. These are all psychological things, and has nothing to do with not being able to physically pull on a red handle. Now, you say those hanging harnesses can help with the psychological fear of pulling? Maybe, it's not a bad idea to try it once but I highly doubt it does anyone any good. You're safe on the ground, it's impossible to recreate the fear of a real emergency situation. And it's in that moment of fear that you have to act.

My personal theory is the religion was partly a result of psychiatrists having exterminated 200,000 of their patients in early 40s Germany. I always had trouble with that. Also around that time the soviet union had begun abusing the field to control political opponents, they were doing lobotomies here int he US and elsewhere. It was prime time for LRH to start his religion. I think it was the combination of all this bad/evil stuff that the opportunity became prime. BTW I was being sarcastic about why they didn't choose to pursue the global obliteration of pediatrics or cardiology. EDIT: I want to make clear I'm not anti-psychiatry, I just think its dumb to automatically make fun of scientologists for some of their silly beliefs when there are some very serious problems that led to its creation.

AA is a religious group. You must believe in God, they don't collect data or change their standard of care based on results, and they have a ritual that stays the same for every meeting. Whereas science and medical treatments change accordingly as new data emerges. It is certainly religion, but is it Christian? That's tougher to argue. I don't know much about religions but my gut tells me its not since lots of religions believe in a 'God' not just Christianity

I will probably end up matching in psychiatry. I just don't get why they didn't choose pathology, or cardiology or something. Why not the global obliteration of pediatrics? Why psychiatry? Also, I wonder if there are many skydiving psychiatrists??

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfu7Sr50N7U Has anyone ever seen this video? It starts at 1m50s

Wow Billy, didnt really peg you as a narrow minded fuckwit. Traveling though many many Muslim states is easy peasy. act like you expect people visiting YOU to act. i.e. OBEY the law and customs, and dont be a twat. And what if you were female? Would you want to have to wear a scarf or a hijab? Or not be able to travel around without the escort of your brother, father, or husband? YES if that's the law and custom. I have traveled through a few Muslim states with Mrs Squeak and we dont ever have any issues. You expect people to follow our laws and customs when they visit our countries why you arrogant fucks not expect to do the same when you travel . Re Every law and custom, from Ryoders' post she wasn't charged with reporting a crime you're basing your opinion on ONE side of the argument from ONE Biased media source. If your laws are so draconian that you have to warn tourists about them because no rational person would ever think something like holding hands could be illegal, it might be you the arrogant fuck not the tourist. I bet if someone in the US was against gays kissing in public you'd call them ignorant bigots, yet if someone is against a year in prison for holding hands in Dubai somehow they are 'arrogant fucks'. Ya that makes a lot of sense.

Wow Billy, didnt really peg you as a narrow minded fuckwit. Traveling though many many Muslim states is easy peasy. act like you expect people visiting YOU to act. i.e. OBEY the law and customs, and dont be a twat. that's like saying the jews should have known the nazi laws or something. You can't just make dickwad laws like a year in prison for holding hands and then say you shoudl know them.

I heard that if you even think about a crime in Dubai you can go to prison for 4 years.

You had a cutaway on your 13th jump?! That's messed up man I hope you're not superstitious

Sorry if this has been posted before but what is the general view on students trying manuevers on solo jumps such as upside down flying, sitting in a chair position, flying on your back, etc... Once you get to AFF solos you realize nobody is watching and it is tempting to try some fun stuff but I wonder if it is frowned upon?? Does it vary with DZs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xCZPuc-c_6g It looks like this guy almost suffered the same fate as the girl that died on thursday. He can't be more than 100 feet above the ground when his reserve deployed, one more second and he would have been dead. He struggles too long before main cutaway, then for some reason he does not pull the reserve until like 100 ft above the ground. No one knows why it took so long for him to pull reserve but this is a valuable video for instructional purposes. PULL PULL PULL! I'd rather hit the ground at 10 mph unstable than 150mph unstable!

^ riding a motorcycle blows compared to skydiving

If it's any consolation, I am an AFF student. Never bailed out but I get similar feelings as you, that is on the climb up I'll think "This is the last skydive i'll ever do this is so stupid", or "I really don't want to do this". Of course afterwards it's like awesome! again, again! The key is to recognize these negative thoughts will pass rather quickly, just sit through them. It's pretty natural for your mind to start rationalizing it's way out of jumping out of an airplane. Just remember that the anxiety will go away once you get to the door. It's like public speaking, you're nervous before but once you start talking it goes away completely. Same with the plane ride up, you're nervous on the ride up but once you are walking towards the door all the anxiety goes away and turns into excitement.

yea but what if he know what he wants now?

I recommend NEW if you have the money. I just bought a new rig and can't wait for it. A 230 pulse canopy would be good for you at your weight.

I would get your A-License somewhere close to home then go on a trip to mexico to jump for fun. When you're a student you're going to be on weather holds a lot and whatnot. I just started AFF and I thought about getting my class A in Dubai and now am glad I didn't because it would have been a waste of a trip, the thing is you think you could do 5 jumps a day but the reality is not only will winds hold you back a lot (I imagine in Mexico especially) but also you need time to digest the jumps to get anything out of them, doing more than 3 a day probably is counter productive. And you'll also make new awesome friends who also are working on their AFF, in Mexico you probably aren't going to make such friends. Mexicans are awesome but you don't want to pass up an opportunity to make friends close to home who are at your level.

I don't understand why they would sell them, I know it was a huge reason I chose that DZ over any others and I'm sure it would attract a lot of newcomers. It is a wealthy drop zone operation though, everything over there is brand new.

Congrats! Personally, I would question that. Student gear gets beat all to hell. If you buy student gear, hve it thoroughly checked by a disinterested 3rd party....some rigger not associated with the DZ in any way. Is that saying the local rigger is dishonest? No, It's saying take the worry out of it. Keep asking questions. the gear is brand new, less than a month old. They said you can buy one, so I'm assuming 5K or so instead of 7K. Getting it checked anyways would be reassuring.

just did my 1st AFF jump. Everything went safe and awesome, it probably does make more sense to just buy one their used rigs and save $2000. When given advice at the DZ by the superiors I just keep my mouth shut and listen. It's a whole different perspective once you're actually there and doing it.

jumping this week by the way : ) I am sure I will start learning very quickly about stuff once I actually start doing this thing.

Money is not an issue in the sense that I can spend an extra $2000 for new rig vs. same thing used. Of course what parachute to get IS an issue. I just found out the DZ has all brand new parachutes for students where I want to get my license, so thats nice that I'll be able to use brand new stuff similar to what I want to buy. The plan is get the Class A license and buy then. I'll be able to use the brand of parachute I want, and I'll know what size canopies fit in it, and so on.

I don't understand this part. Would you explain? I'm just talking about the fire marshall bill types. They heavily criticize others yet they are always getting hurt themselves. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGGmUTUV2kM