riddler

With faces only a mother could love Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

This is the Japanese television show that brought you Matrix Ping Pong, and features a blend of traditional Bunraku, Kurokos and popular culture. The skits are incredibly creative and showcase excellent props and choreography. Some of my favorites: Why is My Girlfriend Mad at Me? Scuba Diving Pole Vault When there are solo performers, the skits can get really funny. Breakout Traffic tunnel Any other fans of this show? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

What the heck is an electric 8-way? Keep in mind if there's ever jumps involving kiss-passes, I'm usually NOT invited Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

It's a fact that Fox is about the dumbest major media outlet in the US. Also, check out the quote from someone who supposedly lectures at MIT - does this make any sense at all? Why is he grouping delusional and self-destructive behavior together? Does he understand that there is NOT a fine line between these two unrelated things and business endeavors/hobbies (those two also being completely unrelated)? How can investors have an instinct for understanding how much of a personal risk taker another person is? Most people don't even understand the risks they take every day. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Albuquerque's kind of a bummer. Poor town with not much to do. They usually have a hot-air balloon fiesta every year, but you just missed it (ended two days ago). Santa Fe is only about 90 minutes away Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

My daughter was born at home last year. We had two midwives attending. She's been healthy and happy for the past year. There were seven couples in our birthing class. All but one were born at home, and all are healthy and in good spirits. The one that wasn't born at home was a breach birth. The family drove to the hospital, and baby was delivered via emergency C-section. This one baby out of seven that went to the hospital ended up contracting a antibiotic resistant strain of staph from the hospital. The family then had to spend 10 days in quarantine at a separate Children's hospital. Since then, the poor kid has had four trips to the emergency room with different ailments, but he is OK. Obviously, without the hospital, both mom and baby could be dead. Or the midwife, who has been practicing for 35 years and has had training from "old-school" doctors on delivering breach births may have been able to save them both. But at the same time, the hospital has dangers of it's own. There's no clear-cut answer. But yes, I really think the situation is going to get worse. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

N/A

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/2007/ Edit - sorry all - I'll just point everyone to Speaker's Corner now http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2977629;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

As an AFFI - no way in hell. Not for me, anyway. There are probably some AFFIs that have the skill to do it, but I don't know of any that do. Both my hands always seem busy on AFF - either holding the student or giving a hand signal (usually close to their face, which would be bad with a camera). I can't speak for tandems. My father-in-law does tandems with a hand-mount camera. He has about 9,000 jumps, too Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

From the CYPRES 1 User Manual: So I have this rig that's been sitting in a (climate controlled) closet for a couple of years. Batteries are due to be replaced May '08. CYPRES 1 has not been turned on in about 18 months (since the last battery replacement). Four-year service is also due June '08. The first time I go through the activation sequence, after the button is pressed for the last time, the display flashes 0 with down arrow for about 1/2 second, then the display turns off. The second time I go through the activation sequence, after the button is pressed for the last time, the display flashes 0 with down arrow for about 1/2 second, then the display turns off. The third time I go through the activation sequence, the display LCD looks like it's trying to do something, but all the numbers looks like flashing eights (i.e. all bars of the LCD digits are flashing). Then after about three seconds, the unit turns itself off. The fourth time I go through the activation sequence, the numbers cycle down normally, but the battery voltage indication reads 6000. I turn off the unit manually. The fifth time I go through the activation sequence, the numbers cycle down normally, and the battery voltage says 6080. I turn the unit off manually. The sixth time I go through the activation sequence, the numbers cycle down normally, and the battery voltage says 6140. I turn the unit off manually. The seventh and eighth time I go through the activation sequence, the numbers cycle down normally, and the battery voltage says 6180. I turn the unit off manually both times. Now, I'm pretty sure that this is just the "build-up of the internal protective layer". But what concerns me is the unit turning itself off the first three times, as well as the random LCD display on the third attempt. It seems to have enough power to turn on the red LED several times, so why can't it stay on? I just want to make sure this seems normal to people that understand the CYPRES batteries - I want to know that this is only a battery issue, and not something else. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

You didn't fall for that, did you? I have a buddy that used to tell girls that the guy they liked was secretly gay, so they would lose hope and he would have a shot with them. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Makes sense to me. Real fans and audiophiles will buy the CD to hear high-quality music at a 44.1 KHz sampling rate (better than human hearing can distinguish). People that just want the song as a low-def ringtone can download it free. More than a few will download the album and later decide they want better quality and buy it. I will always buy music I like direct from the artist, but I refuse to buy any new music that has an RIAA label. A simple death is too good for the RIAA - they need to be tortured some as well (Edit - grammatical error) Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

For me, the best thing is having a kick-ass coach standing right beside me and saying things like "move your left foot out three inches." Real-time training. The best skydiving coaching I've had involves a very good skydiver jumping with me, waiting until we get back to the packing hanger, by then we've both forgotten 90% of what happened. If I'm lucky, I got video, so we can say "oh yeah, you shouldn't have done that." I'm not a talented skydiver. There's only one reason why I was able to pass my AFFI evaluation jumps - tunnel + great tunnel instructors. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Granny driver here as well. Even on motorcycles. Skydive fast - drive slow. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Which DZ was the Caravan flying out of? (I am not asking for names of people, only the dropzone). Edit - looks like Kapow http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003936010_webplane09m.html Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

They're kinda picky about who they hire. I have a few friends that applied to become astronauts. They were no slouches! All were genius-level IQ, relatively good shape, etc. NASA takes a "don't call us, we'll call you" attitude. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

They add an odor (sulpheric) to Natural gas that you get from the gas company. That's exactly the point - you smell it before it kills you. (Edit to add that Natural Gas is not carbon monoxide - CO is a byproduct of burning NG). And on the same subject, be aware that many heater repairmen do run scams to "detect" gas coming from your heater in order to charge you for an expensive new heater or furnace. It's pretty easy to crank up those detectors to sniff out gas where there really is none. I would trust the CO detector from the store more than those guys. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Cool! Appreciate the sleep you get now, for it will soon seem a distant memory Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I did the Coach course, had no trouble with the the Ground part, failed one jump of the air evals, but passed the rest, and I passed the course. Doing actual coach jumps, the Ground part was still easy for me, and the jumps weren't bad at all. In fact, I thought the air evaluation jumps for the coach course were harder than any actual coach jumps I did. Then I did the AFFI course. It went about the same as the Coach course. I passed the Ground part with no trouble. I failed one evaluation jump, but passed the rest and I passed the course. Doing actual AFF jumps, in my experience, are much, much harder than any of the eval jumps I ever did. I'm still pretty new at this and have a lot to learn, so it's hard for me to say if the course is too easy or too hard. All I can say at this point is that it seems like, for me, the coach course was harder than the reality of coach jumps, while the AFF course was easier than the reality of AFF jumps. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Very true, but it doesn't stop us from calling Deutschland Germany Or nihon Japan. And those are the countries we like Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Congratulations. I also want to point out what a good guy NK is. I've met him and a few other "famous" camera guys, and he was super cool to me (when others were not). Patiently answered my questions - let me check out his camera helmet. I'm glad to see good guys get the recognition they deserve. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Myanmar? I've never even heard of that Wiki says Myanmar = Burma. At least I've heard of that one. Burmese python. Burma Shave? Where is the radio button for "don't get malaria"? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Hi there. We do jump all year at Mile Hi, including December. But it gets a bit chilly in December. Usually, we still have the Otter or King Air running on weekends year-round, but jumps are limited to getting enough jumpers. The worst time of year is usually January or February when it is brutally cold, and no one wants to jump. But in December, on a weekend, you stand a pretty good chance of having a nice day - clear skies and 50 to 60 Fahrenheit on the ground. If that's the case, then there will be at least a few loads - there are typically enough tandems to keep the planes running on weekends as long as the weather is OK. You will have amazing views of snow-capped mountains, and the cold air will help compensate for the faster canopy speeds at 5,050 foot landing elevation. Bring your full-face helmet (or a balaclava), wear some thermals underneath your jumpsuit, and heavier gloves. You may or may not need the colder weather gear, but it's good to have it. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Cool! I never had one of those when I was a kid either. Would be fun to try. Or are you just trying to piss off your downstairs neighbors? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I keep hoping that I'll find an old Fortune 100 company that has some huge program written in Atari BASIC. That should keep me going after the Java work dries up