riddler

And that, there, is the bottom line. Well, that, and do you have an extra 15K lying around? Are you going to be in your house for at least 10 more years? If not, then there's no break-even point. Assuming you're currently averaging $100/month just for electricity, and the price will increase moderately over the next 10 years, keeping in mind that the average panel has a life expectancy of 20-25 years, then you've got to decide how long you'll be living there. As a rule, there is no increase in resell value for a house that's solar equipped, and it can even shy some potential buyers away. If you're going to be there 10 more years, you'll probably save money, and if all you care about is saving the planet, then it's worth every penny Or if you're into apocalyptic end-of-civilization scenarios, but still want your 'fridge. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Maybe a better question is "why are there fewer USPA members than a year ago"? Just because there are fewer USPA members does NOT mean there are fewer skydivers. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Still really hoping this one happens, but have my doubts that it will. Too many aborted attempts already. I sincerely hope I'm wrong. Kudos to Fournier for not giving up! Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I've never understood this aspect of our law ... Edit - never mind - I did some checking, and it's about suing the government, not the people .... Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

But not if you had to go door-to-door. "Hello, I am the living Christ ... OW! Hey, don't slam the door on my foot, I'm wearing sandals here!" Other bad jobs: - Sewer diver - dive in sewers looking for cracks and holes to patch up. I knew a guy who did that, and he said it wasn't that bad because only one out of every eleven gallons comes from toilets - Bare-handed line repairman - Yes, they wear electrically insulated suits, and climb on the high-volatge wires while they are still ON, and attempt to repair them. Very high incidence of injury on this job. - Greenie. God, what a thankless job. Always moving threads around and trying to keep the herd of thankless dz.commers in line. I hear the only consolation is naked night in the greenie forum. Might be worth it to see pics of skymama Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

A really good movie - I think one of the reasons so many people like it is because it is well done in many aspects. The script is good. The acting is really good (by today's poor standards). The camera work is almost perfect. The sound is very good (for the time). So if you're someone who likes a good script, or good actors, or great visuals, or good sound, then you'll like the movie. Also, be sure to check out Treasure of the Sierra Madre. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

My personal experience: I failed the AFF level 3 (release) jump twice, after passing levels 1 and 2. After the second time I failed level 3, I drove to the wind tunnel in Vegas and spent an hour in there. When I came back, I passed 3,4,5,6,7 all in two days without failing any of them. I think even 30 minutes in the tunnel can significantly improve an AFF student's flying skills. Now if we just had a canopy tunnel ... Edit to add this: Also in my experience, no. Tunnels and jumping are still different enough for me that after spending an hour in the tunnel, I experienced no difference in my arousal level when making the next AFF jump. For me, the only thing that made me relax was getting more skydives. Maybe others have a different experience. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Rule of thumb - if you're from out of town, and it's the summer months in Colorado, watch the wind. If there's a bit of wind (5-10 MPH) on a hot day, expect the landing to be fast if you land into the wind. I mean pretty fast, like "wow, that was a fast landing!" If there's no wind ... well, consider not jumping If you do jump, you'll probably feel like you're landing a canopy that's at LEAST two sizes smaller than your own. This is fast, like "holy #@$%, there's no way I can run this out" fast. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Anyone seen the South Park Episode "The Passion of the Jew"? Funny how often those South Park kids are right. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

USPA might have more power here than you think. If the DZ is on a municipal airport, the airport often requires group membership for the DZ. If they lose their USPA group membership, they can't operate there. If they own their own airstrip, it's a different story. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I'd also like to know about how moisture affects Spectra vs. Dacron lines. No mention of what type of reserve lines yet, but probably Spectra or Micro? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

And to validate this with practical experience - I have a Neptune that is directly mounted to my glove (with four screws) for jumping. I use it in the tunnel too - usually, they make me take it off, but sometimes they are OK if I wear it. When I do, it usually reads "very slow climb", and the logbook will often read it as a 600 ft skydive for 40 to 50 minutes. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

They have a little batman suit for the kids that is pretty cool, too Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Funny - I liked The Village a lot - didn't like Signs that much. Personally, I like M. Knight movies, if only because they're different. I also think he takes time to build the audience's relationship with the characters, so that your feelings about events seem completely justified. He's definitely an artist when it comes to sound, even if he overdoes the boom camera shots a bit. M. Knight movies are almost always done with a comic-book feel, and if you don't go in expecting that, you may not like it. Lady was OK, I thought, but not one of his best. The most notable thing about the movie was the very accessible acting of Paul Giamatti. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Try once to shake him off. Then try twice to shake him off. You might try pointing at him. If all else fails, pull his reserve?? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Interesting philosophy - and I don't say that in a negative way. I'm curious, because I just got my AFF rating, and I'm finding that my home DZ wants me to do some additional jumps to make sure I'm good enough to do AFF there. It does make me curious. Many people feel that the USPA courses (Coach Course included) do not provide adequate testing to determine if someone can or should teach. I see the AFFI as a license to learn about AFF - I feel like I've already demonstrated that I have the ability to learn and the ability to save a new jumper's life if required. Now I just want to learn good ways to teach AFF. But why go through yet another process to prove I'm good enough? Wouldn't it be better to just raise the USPA standards? There are skydivers who feel that the standards for passing USPA courses aren't high enough. Well, if the majority of people feel that way, can't we change it? I would be interested to know if the majority really do feel that way? Maybe time for a poll I know that until last year, the AFFI rating standards were lower - 51% to pass the eval jumps and ground preps. Last year that was raised to 75%. So in some cases, we already have changed the requirements. And I've heard plenty of people say that they've made the jumps easier. At some point, I feel we've got to trust the course directors to make sure that only qualified people are given the rating. I know my Coach Course and AFFI course directors were both tough and fair, and I feel like I'm a much better skydiver for taking those courses. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

The Imax 3-D version was cool, but kinda annoying that only four scenes were 3-D. They flashed little glasses icons on the screen to tell you when to take off your glasses and put them on. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Often billboards and local magazine ads for dogfood where the kibble is being cut with a knife and fork are much more prevalent in cities with high elderly populations, such as Miami, Phoenix, etc. The reason is marketing - wet and/or "juicy" dog food and cat food sell more in urban areas with large elderly populations. You might conclude that elderly people have more dogs and cats, but statistics show that they don't necessarily own more, and might even own less pets in these areas. However social scientists are concerned that the real reason is because many elderly people are eating cat and dog food - much cheaper than human groceries, and elderly people's taste buds are often degenerated to the point that pet food is one of the few things strong enough to give them flavor. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Rammstein lyrics are fairly naughty ... if you speak German Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

It seems to me that it entirely dependent on the DZ. Some DZs have a "culture" of freeflying, in which students tend to go right from AFF to freeflying. Others have a culture of RW, with cleared-to-solo students gradually doing two-ways, then four-ways, etc on their belly. As far as anyone teaching coach course, if they can't belly fly, they won't pass the eval jumps. If they can belly fly, they'll pass and should be allowed to coach. I've only been coaching for three years, but my freefall experiences were mostly about falling straight down and observing people - it doesn't take much belly skill to be able to do that. I suppose if you've got video, then you'll have to be able to stay close enough to shoot video. But the biggest challenge for me was learning to establish the fall-rate. It might be nice to see more of that in the coach course. Coaching is a lot more than teaching belly flying. I had several students ask me to teach them to freefly, and I referred them to other freefly coaches, since I do RW. My own style of coaching involved working a lot on canopy stuff, since I think that's the most important thing to learn after AFF. Other students want to talk about video, etc. Some even are curious about swooping - of course I discourage them at an early age, but I do try to get them talking to the better swoopers so they at least have a path for learning and don't try to go off on their own and learn the hard way. Maybe there should be different coach ratings - canopy coach, RW coach, freefly coach, etc. I'd hate to see USPA charge fees for all these coach ratings, but it would be good for students to know what they are getting on a coach jump. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I used to like flying a lot, but after skydiving for a few years, I really don't like turbulence anymore (used to like it), and I hate landing. I'd rather land my canopy any day. Landing in a fully loaded jump-plane is one of my scariest experiences at the DZ. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Heck, ya! Deuce matters! Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Congrats to Morgan, and the rest of the ladies! Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

2:2:1 I don't normally partake in the beer ritual (don't drink), but I definitely owe this time Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Raisins The girls weren't quite old enough to have "hooters". Also, the Goth kids in that episode were hysterical. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD