riddler

Sure, I'm on the Do Not Call list, and I setup a separate temp email for everything I buy online, I tell every company I do business with that I do not, under any circumstances want them to contact me. Why do these companies that I choose to do business with, and explicitly tell them I don't want to be bothered STILL do it?? I've had this one credit card for 15 years. It expired, and they sent me a new one. THIS time, when I called to activate it, they redirected me to a sales person that tried to get me to buy insurance, join their spending program and enroll in frequent flyer mileage. I told her I didn't want to do anything except activate my card. Whatever happened to those automated systems that didn't try to get you to buy a whole bunch of other things? A friend of mine just went through this same process with a completely different card. You have to tell them no 5 or 6 times just to activate a card? Don't these companies know I'm irate enough to cancel service with them when they do this? Can't someone put me on the very irritable customer list? Today, my domain-name registration company called me just to tell me that one of my domains is going to expire. I already know this because I keep track, and also because of the five emails they've already sent me. When I told him that I never want them to call me (which I've already made clear before), he said he could only remove me from the sales list if I verify the last digits of my credit card. What the Hell? I know there's a percentage of people that will buy anything with enough sales pressure. I'm on the other end - I will cancel a service if they bother me. I tell these companies over and over I do not want them to contact me. Seems like it's gotten worse in the past year. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I have three women in the house - wife, daughter and nanny. We use TP faster than we use oxygen. For those that think "under", have you ever stayed in a hotel? It's over, so they can fold it in a neat little triangle after they clean the bathroom. Or are you saying that every hotel in the world is wrong? We can give a pardon to those that own cats Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Any further news on the Houston tunnel? Doesn't seem like the news has changed much in the last few years. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I respect companies that commit to good customer service - there are few of them left. I have a Jabra BT800 that's worked well for over a year. Until yesterday, when the earwire snapped off. Today I called them, expecting to pay $10-$15 for a new one. They seem to last a year for me, so it's cheaper than a new headset. I spoke with the service rep for about 3 minutes total, and he's sending me three new earwires for the unit, at no cost. Didn't ask me for original purchase information, proof of purchase, or anything else. I just gave him my name, address, phone. It's nice to see companies that care about their products and trust their customers. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Ultimately, I agree that electric cars are going to be the best long-term solution. I think that we need to be just as quick converting power sources (utilities). If there is a great increase in electric cars over the next 10-20 years, we are going to face increased pollution, since EVs pollute more if you are getting your electricity from the power company that's burning fossil fuels (about 70% of US power companies are still fossil fuel). If we can put an equal amount of effort into better power sources, while at the same time converting to EVs, we can accomplish a lot in terms of gas emissions. My neighbors are having solar panels installed at their own cost of about $30,000. You can also get hydrothermal heat if you're willing to pay about $15,000. The power companies are offering alternative power sources at an increased cost to consumers. If people demand this of the politicians, the politicians may eventually stop taking money from the power companies and start forcing them to convert. Nuclear power, although unpopular, may be the best option for clean electricity, but solar and wind farms can supplement, and maybe even replace them over a very long period. Even if we do none of those things, the government can mandate stricter fuel emissions on current fossil fuel sites. My point is that we have to do both. EVs plus cleaner power sources. Ask your local utility where they get their electricity. Maybe they freewheel the electricity, in which case, you have very little control. But if they get a large percentage from your local hydroelectric dam, you may be a good candidate for an EV (an an increased cost in water pollution). You may be able to do something now. Excel energy in CO offers electricity that comes only from wind power-plants at an increased cost. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

You may be waiting no matter who you order from. I just got a side mount for my video camera from Paragear, and it took three weeks. Some of them have 4 week wait times. I've heard the Boeing 787 is making it difficult to get carbon fibre, but I don't know if that's still true. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Give 'em time to figure it out. They did the "Best of the Muppets" originally, and it had Henson's dorky son doing an intro that showed the best parts before you watched it. Now they have the seasons with all the episodes, and they scrapped the stupid intro. Takes 'em a while to figure out how to make them right. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

That sign is from an old Korean Navy seaman's guide. It translates to mean "there's only one toilet, so it's reserved for women. Men should hang over the side of the ship with no pants on".

Try somethin' stupid. Doesn't work out. Keep trying until you perfect the stupidity. Pretty much describes skydiving Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I guess that's less democratic than having your brother rig the election for you. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Hmm, the aristocratically imposed King of one country tells the democratically elected leader of another country off, and the supposedly democratic Americans applaud. Probably a thread for Speaker's Corner. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

hack *Edit for computational linguistics. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I jump at a larger dropzone - Otter, King Air, Cessna, all turbine aircraft. Seems like for the last year or two, there have been a surplus of AFFIs at my dropzone. I remember two, three and four years ago, manifest pleading for any available AFFI to come help. But the last year or two, it seems like everyone has an AFFI rating - I see a lot of new people that have their rating, and there never seems to be a shortage of instructors for each student. I thought this was just my DZ, and it was unusual at that. But I heard from a friend that another major dropzone in another state has exactly the same issue. There's too many AFFIs there as well. She heard a new AFF Instructor there would be unlikely to get work. It makes me wonder how unusual this is. Is it hard for AFFIs where you jump to get work? Does it seem like there are more instructors than students? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Good memories of Cal-city. I was a fairly new jumper when I went there years ago. I didn't have a rig - they let me use one. I don't remember if they charged me for it, but if they did, it wasn't much (my home DZ charges $25 for every jump with a rental). This old guy packed my parachute for me, since I didn't even know how to pack. It was Van I had no idea who he was - I think I was even to new to know that you're supposed to tip the packers Soko(sp?) was very helpful in explaining tracking to me, and Smitty gave me a patch from his old Navy outfit. I landed in high winds, sprained my ankle, got dragged by the canopy and rescued by the tandem catchers. Then we all went to dinner at a local place, and I left all my gear there on accident. Next day, I had to make another 2-hour drive out there to retrieve my helmet and altimeter. Was I really this much of a doofus? And more importantly, am I still? Anyway, Cal-city seemed like a real dropzone, the way a dropzone should be. Not a tandem factory, not a lot of skygods, not about the almighty dollar. Just good times, good jumps. For a few years after, they still sent me newsletters in the mail, and I had a good time reading about the people I barely knew. Thanks to everyone that made it a great dz for my short time there. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Of COURSE I know what stars are. A few nights a year, when all the pollution is down, you can see both of them from downtown. One's called Venus, and the other's called the moon. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

As a city-dweller, I take insult that we don't know basic directions. It's easy - half our streets point north-south, and the other half point east-west 'Course the visitor coulda been from the suburbs, I guess Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

People always ask me if you can hit a bird skydiving - I have no idea where people come up with this stuff I tell them, no, birds don't normally fly too high - usually we're already under canopy when we see them. A few weeks ago, we had the door of the jump plane open, and a large white gull of some sort went flapping by at 7,000 feet I guess I can't really tell people they don't go high anymore. We jump close to the mountains, and one close mountain is a fourteener (14,000 feet). I guess probably some bird was coming down from the mountain along with the downsloping winds. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Mountain unicycling is starting to become a novelty in Colorado. These people are pretty amazing to watch go over difficult terrain. I'm starting to see more kids on them even in the parks in Denver. Good exercise, I guess. Other than that, they can't go much faster than on foot. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

What really fascinates me is why everyone in an entire country will do what the government tells them without questioning it too much. Most experts agreed that changing the dates of the switch wouldn't make any difference in energy savings, since the energy saved in the morning would just be used up at night. And the results so far prove that is the case. My theory is the government only did this to confuse Indiana. After decades of having their own time system, they finally started using the Federal DST system a few months ago, and suddenly we change the rules. I really doubt that can be a coincidence. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

FYI - Update. At this point, everyone believes it is and always was a scam. No one to date has reported receiving an actual laptop yet. Someday soon, we may see a price this low, but for now, it's just wishful thinking: http://www.medisonscam.info/ Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I guess all of this thread has been about canopies and lines, but I'm seeing the lacerations to your neck and how you said it looks like you hung yourself. That reminds me of a bad jump I had once. It was the chest strap that my neck ended up in, which crushed my throat a bit (my larynx was damaged, and I couldn't talk for a week). I had a laceration from ear to ear around my neck. I packed myself a hard pack job which caused the hard opening. I think that I probably managed to get one steering line around one of the line stows, because that line broke on opening. But the bigger problem was my container. It was too small for me. And it was older, and not so well maintained, so the leg straps didn't stay tight on the hard open. They slid almost all the way out - if it wasn't for the doubling at the end of the straps, they may have come off completely. That caused me to sink fast in the container, and my neck went right into the chest strap. A few months later, a jumper in Europe died from almost the same thing. The solution was my rigger sewed some extra material into the leg straps to keep the friction high enough that the legs straps no longer loosened on openings. The better solution was a new rig that fit me properly Make sure your container fits, and also that your leg straps don't loosen on opening. Make sure the friction adapters on your leg straps are in good condition. Now's a good time to start making friends with a rigger and learning as much as you can about your gear. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I'm using the Iomega StorCenter, which is well worth the very low entry price (around $150). The nice thing about it is that it backs up my Window$, Mac and Linux boxes nightly. Here's what sucks - if you want to restore data, then you have to do it in small amounts. There's no restore function - you have to use the windows drag-and-drop. If you try to grab a huge block of files that way, the network will crap out and lose it's attachment point. I'm currently trying to restore all the data from a 60-gig hard drive, and it's an endless task to take a few folders at a time. But at least all my data's there. Hopefully, the higher-end models and newer models (some of them look really cool, with removable disks in arrays) have a better restore function. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I'm sure you already guessed this, but: It's been done And they aren't using it on spiders Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

In the seventh and final book, it is revealed that Dumbledore and Grindelwald were childhood friends, who were planning on a "new order" with muggles subservient to wizards. They had a falling out with each other and Dumbledore's brother Aberforth, and in the ensuing fight, Dumbledore's sister Arianna was killed. After that, Dumbledore reconsidered his position, but Grindelwald remained steadfastly "evil". In later years, Grindelwald rose to power (in a bad way) and Dumbledore was obliged to remove him from power. It was considered one of the greatest modern duels between wizards. Grindelwald had previously built a prison in which he intended to incarcerate those who were against him, but instead, Dumbledore jailed Grindelwald in his own prison after Dumbledore beat him in the duel. There, Grindelwald remained to his dying day. Sorry if I get some facts wrong - this is all from memory. Now JK is alluding that Dumbledore was in love with Grindelwald when they were still young, although she hasn't mentioned if the love was requited by Grindelwald. None of it has any real relevance to the HP storyline, so it's not surprising that it was omitted. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Don't mean to sound like a grumpy old man (OK, maybe I do), but: In my day, when someone didn't like their dog, they frequently shot the dog. In my grandmother's day, dogs were sometimes part of the menu (especially young pups - it was the depression, after all). Seems like to me, if someone gives an animal they don't want to keep to a loving home, then who cares? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD