murrays

That explains why the Spectre Tony Hathaway is/was selling in the classifieds has dacron lines...I never put 2 and 2 together. Thanks guys. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Don't think so.....check out Cam Cole's column in the National Post...and Colin Campbell's (of the NHL) comments. Hockey will stay a violent sport No punishment can curb game's emotion, adrenalin Cam Cole - National Post Friday, March 12, 2004 Colin Campbell is the National Hockey League's chief justice, and if I read him correctly, he sees his job as the same one he would like the striped-shirted constables on the beat to perform. They are out on the ice, in the heat of it, and he is in an office, most nights, in front of a bank of TV monitors. But the principle is the same. The idea is to keep a lid on hockey, but only just. The good referee is the one who understands that anarchy is bad, but something just short of it often produces the very best hockey. The good NHL senior vice-president of hockey operations, who usually inherits the mess only after a referee has accidentally let the pot boil over, has the same understanding. It comes from experience. From context. From knowing, as Campbell pointed out yesterday, that hockey is not more violent now than it was 10 years ago, or 25, or 50 -- a thing you would expect Canadians to know, but which we constantly seem to forget. Context comes from knowing that it has always been a bloody, brutal game and, in some ways, is less so now. That there always were, and always will be, wanton acts of lawlessness that would be outside the rules even if the rules prescribed lethal injection for high sticking or the gas chamber for drawing blood. Todd Bertuzzi is gone for the season and playoffs and maybe a little longer than that, and loses US$502,000 in salary, because what he did -- sucker-punching Colorado's Steve Moore from behind and leaving him in a pool of his own blood with chip fractures of two cervical vertebrae and a concussion -- was deplorable, and possibly criminal. And the Vancouver Canucks were fined US$250,000 more because they didn't "do enough to take the temperature down," as Campbell put it. But get this straight: Bertuzzi could have been ordered hanged by the neck in front of Denver city hall -- and it still would not stop, a year from now or three, the next overheated, under-disciplined boob from snapping and doing something utterly beyond the ability of any rule or code of behaviour to prevent. And that context seems to be the principal quality missing from the debate over Bertuzzi's unpardonable assault, and what caused it. As if something caused it other than a big lummox's misguided ideas of somehow helping his team by hurting an opponent. In the lust to see Todd Bertuzzi's head on a spit for what we all agree was an unconscionable assault, we seem to have got ourselves caught in an argument about post-game threats, and fighting's place in hockey, and whether we spend enough time teaching our kids skill, and too much teaching them hitting, or whether they get too much sugar in their diets. "If we didn't allow fighting in the game, he could still do this," Campbell said yesterday to one questioner. "So that's your answer? This had nothing to do with a fight?" Campbell sighed. Let me answer that: Yes. It had nothing to do with a fight. But we get swept up into this artificial hysteria, fuelled by the crime being replayed, over and over and over and over, all day and all night, on the 24-hour highlight reels, in a lot of places where hockey is not even on the radar screen unless it makes CNN for some oddball reason. This is not to say that the pictures lie. Bertuzzi's act was just as gruesome as it looked on the first viewing or the 32nd, as gruesome to Canadians as Americans. But oddly, for a country that grew up with the game, we seem a little too willing to believe the worst about hockey, and forget what we used to know about its decades of blood-stained history that came before Headline News. The Bertuzzi Affair isn't that complicated. He went miles over the line, everyone knows it, and yesterday the NHL slapped him down for it, using the Marty McSorley benchmark, to a 'T.' Simple, really. From McSorley's 23 regular-season games with a bullet -- meaning the possibility of more being tacked on later (which is what happened, four years ago) -- Campbell deducted a few games for the fact that the perpetrator, in this case, was not an acknowledged enforcer with a rap sheet as long as his arm. It deducted another smidgen for the fact that the assault weapon was not a hockey stick, but a gloved fist. It added a few for the fact that his victim was not another goon, as was McSorley's target, Donald Brashear, but a real hockey player, from Harvard, even. It added a few more for the extent of Moore's injuries, and left the punishment open-ended in case he didn't come back so well from the concussion. And, presto! Thirteen games, and as many more as the Canucks might play in the playoffs -- and if that doesn't feel like enough when next fall rolls around, well, commissioner Gary Bettman has the option to improvise. To his great credit, Campbell did not take Bertuzzi's teary-eyed televised statement of remorse into the equation. Not that Bertuzzi wasn't genuinely remorseful -- if I'd had a Kleenex handy, I'd have had to dab at my own eyes -- just that it was a little late for remorse. Nor did he allow himself to be influenced by the road rage of rush hour at the NHL's Toronto offices. He didn't look at the 24 camera crews and reporters jammed into every nook and cranny of the biggest conference room the league could find in its headquarters beside the Air Canada Centre, and say: "Wow, we better throw them some meat." Instead, he tried to put the crime into context, and not get dragged off-topic. "I hate to say this, but I've been around too long," said Campbell. "The other day, [hockey operations VP] Mike Murphy and I were discussing this lack of respect thing, and having played -- both of us -- in the '70s ... there is much more respect now among players than there was then, I can guarantee you that. Things go on in games that we don't like, but there were things that happened back then that would never happen today. I think you have to look at the coverage of hockey, and what gets seen, and what is hardly ever missed now. "In monitoring that particular game, when this happened ... it was wrong," said Campbell. "It wasn't anything else but wrong." As we knew would happen, there are large pockets of observers who believe the punishment was too lenient, and another large pocket who think it was too harsh. And we're not even sure of the full extent of the suspension, yet. Canucks GM Brian Burke, Campbell's predecessor as league disciplinarian, called the fine "despicable" and blamed everyone and everything for the severity of the penalties -- the media, society, the league, the lunar tides -- everyone but Bertuzzi, whom he stopped just short of nominating for sainthood. I think, at one point, he implied that Bertuzzi's good works in the community ought to get him off the hook for breaking Moore's neck. But that's Burke. He can be a "good of the game" guy when he wants to be, but in this context, he had to be a Canucks guy. And more than anything, he is an emotional, passionate Irishman with a permanent chip on his shoulder, who blows up and then, 10 minutes later, forgets why he was angry. This, I have a hunch, may take more than 10 minutes. But he should probably consider himself lucky that he and coach Marc Crawford weren't suspended, as well, for tacitly encouraging the poisonous atmosphere that resulted in Bertuzzi's rash act. If there's a contradiction that stands out a mile in the Campbell decision, that's it: the league's maddening refusal to hold coaches and managers -- including Ken Hitchcock and Bobby Clarke from last week's Philadelphia-Ottawa revenge-fest -- accountable for their teams' behaviour, as if they are a special class, above the players. "When it was 5-0 after the first period, [NHL director of officiating] Andy Van Hellemond made a call to the officials room [in Vancouver], which isn't normal, and I made a call to the officials' room. When the score is out of hand, as this one was early, you worry about what could happen," Campbell admitted. Why do you worry? Because that's when a coach lets loose the hounds. Campbell knows it, he just can't prove that Crawford said anything. "I'm not saying I accept it, but these things do happen, and when you play 1,230 games a year, and you have 700 players doing this, you may reach a point where one of those players -- and I'm sure it happens in all the leagues -- at one moment makes the wrong decision," said Campbell. "We're in a fast game that has hitting involved, and temperatures get raised. And when it happens, you deal with it. We feel we've dealt with it right here." Some will say, are saying, that they haven't done anything of the kind. That there will be more acts of violence, more injuries. And they're right. There will be. But not because the penalty wasn't severe enough. On that score, Campbell understands what all his johnny-come-lately critics seem to have forgotten: Anarchy, bad. Edge of anarchy, good. © National Post 2004 -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

2 words: Garage Band. But I guess in order to understand those words, you must first use this word: Macintosh OSX It's really a pretty cool program, and you can make just about anything. If you are even a mildly skilled musician, you double your quality. mh Check out this Wired article about Garageband and some of the links in the article. It's quite impressive what some people have done with it. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Deuce... Why dacron? CRW? -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Welcome to the sport I've been playing for 35 years. Based on these comments, I can only say one thing. You are a hockey player. Amen. The NHL has to get rid of the "Instigator Rule". All it has done is encourage more stick work and hits on star players ...with no fear of retribution it has become open season on team's skill players. A few years ago a hit on Bobby Clarke equated to a punchout from Dave "The Hammer" Schultz, a hit on Gretzky resulted in a beating from McSorley. If one of the Canucks had dropped the gloves and punched it out with Moore after the Naslund hit the situation likely wouldn't have festered and exploded in this ugly, ugly incident. The reason it didn't happen is because the Instigator gets penalized for protecting the star. What Bertuzzi did was way over the line. A chickenshit and cowardly cheap shot that should cost him more than the rest of this season...I think it should be a year's suspension and jail time while he sits out his suspension. I'm really disgusted by what he did. Just like a boxing match where the participants have consented to try and punch each other's lights out, the code in hockey respects rough, tough play and dirty play is countered with fists if it goes on long enough. Players accept that. When there is no fear of retribution players get slashed and hacked and crosschecked and hurt. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I'm pretty sure that was written by a Toronto area skydiver named Scott Smith. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I finally saw the video of this incident. It's sickening. Bertuzzi is 6'5" and 240-250, he sucker punches Moore from behind, lands on him..intentionally, I think...and I think tried to hit him again based on the video from the angle right in front of Moore. It was a cowardly chickenshit act. I think Bertuzzi should be suspended for a year....and if there is a lockout next season and I think there will be, that shouldn't count. So, I see him back on the ice in the fall of 2006 at the earliest....if he isn't in jail longer than that. Because I also think he should serve time. That totally crossed the line. Nothing I like better than a good hockey scrap but that was an assault, a vicious mugging and Bertuzzi should pay a very heavy price. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

If that's what your grandmother wants, that's what your grandmother gets. Take her up for a skydive on a beautiful day and release her. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I've never understood this advice. It's better, in my opinion, to learn how to control your canopy than it is to disengage a piece of safety equipment in the field (or in the air). Walk towards the canopy (it won't inflate if it doesn't have an anchor), reel in a brake line, anything. If it's so windy that the standard tricks don't work, you probably shouldn't be jumping. - Jim You don't always have warning that the winds are going to pick up. They can be reasonable when you take off and way over limits by the time you land. If you're caught in a situation like that, undoing your rsl is a reasonable step to take to prevent being dragged. Being dragged in high winds can be dangerous. Quite a few years ago several American paratroopers were killed from being dragged after being dropped in high winds during an exercise. I think it is good to tell new jumpers the things they can consider so that they know what their options are. If they are concerned about being dragged, undoing an rsl isn't difficult...and may save them a reserve repack if they do have to chop. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Kelly, You do flare...but not as much. If you bury the toggles the canopy catches air and will pretty much immediately pull you onto your back and start dragging you. As soon as your feet hit the ground, let go of one toggle, bury the other and run towards your canopy. I let go of the right toggle, bury the left and turn to the left....a habit ingrained from jumping in high wind locations for 20+ years. Undoing your RSL, as Dave suggested, is a good idea in case you do start getting dragged or get hurt and need to cut away. Knowing how to PLF is good. I learned on rounds and had many high speed backwards landings. I found that I didn't want to be facing directly into the wind as I got pulled over straight backwards and thumped my head a couple of times. I would be crabbing slightly so that it was easy to PLF on my side. My favourite side was my left...so this is where I developed the turn to the left habit I guess. Finally, you have to be observing and assessing the winds sooner than when you turn onto final. Turning onto final and discovering you are backing up is too late. Turn into the wind, keeping your eyes open for other traffic, while upwind of the landing area and assess your progress - or lack of it - over the ground. Look at any objects that give you wind strength clues...windsock, tall grass, smoke...whatever you may have at your dz....and if the wind seems to have picked up, stay upwind of your landing area. If you keep lots of open area behind you...the pucker factor will go way down. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I don't have any Star jumps that I can remember but I have 80-90 on a National Parachute knock-off called the Cobra 10. (Thank god I got divorced, sold the house and bought a Pegasus...that Cobra 10 was one hard opening canopy). I hope the Strato Star was a better parachute because the Cobra 10 really was a brutal introduction to square parachutes. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

How much did I spend? Not nearly enough. Although my wife says I waste money skydiving, I don't think I've never wasted a cent on jumping since I started 23 years ago. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

My wife had this done several years ago. If your friend is having back pains and her oversize rack is causing her problems like that then this surgery is likely a good idea.....Sorry for not saving the rack guys -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

A 28 year old photo of my oldest son with my ex-wife's parents. I had never seen this photo until a month or so ago. I have been scanning black and white negatives that I shot and never printed or even contact sheeted. I found this one a few days after Grandma died. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

The DVD Chapter markers feature is in iMovie 3 and 4. I am not sure how it works in FCP. I assume you have one of those versions. If you do, you move the playhead to where you want the chapter, click on the iDVD button, click on "Add Chapter" and type a name for the chapter. When done adding chapters in iMovie you click on "Create DVD Project" and it will open iDVD and set up a new project for you to tweak. You can also export the iMovie as full quality Quicktime dv and it will have the chapters in it. This allows you to have several movies on one disc with the "Play Movie"/Chapter Selection option for each one. You just create a different folder for each movie and drop the Quicktime file in it. Hope that helps...if not, give me more of an explanation of what you have tried and I'll see if I can help. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Ray, When did you receive the magazine? Is it the march issue? Last one I got was the February issue. Murray -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Mac users...Apple released an update to iDVD 4 yesterday. I installed it and it has helped speed up the program considerably. I wish it was faster but it is bearable now when editing your project. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Good answer! It's my choice. For the Windows PCs I have to take care of at work the solution is not to use them for e-mail....but use our Macs for e-mail. My boss however allows his kids to websurf on his laptop and they invariably load it up with spyware which I remove from time to time. I installed Panda AV on his laptop a while back and wound up with an unbootable computer. I am inclined to blame that on the fact that this laptop has Windows ME on it which I think most people would say is the worst OS Microsoft has ever released. I used Panda AV on my personal Windows laptop (Win 98) for about a year and really liked it. But, my primary defense is to use Mac OS X for all things internet and only use my Windows machine for the software that have no Mac alternatives. (Tax, Accounting, Insurance) I am now using Virtual PC on a new iBook and it works quite well. Very well integrated with the Mac OS..can drag and drop files from Mac to Windows and vice versa, it's nice to only use one machine and be able to avoid using a Windows machine on the internet. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Great shot Steve! (Steve e-mailed it to me and I shrank it a bit) Shot is attached here... -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I believe that even that might not work if the person is cold enough. Check out this article. Unfortunately for Horst, the people that were in the shelter didn't even know to do what you are saying. Severe hypothermia is difficult to treat. I learned some basic information when I was into ocean kayaking in British Columbia...enough to know that I never wanted to get that chilled....so I always wore protective clothing, learned to roll and so on to prevent myself from swimming in that cold ocean. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Exile on Main Street - Rolling Stones -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Or... Genius is 10% inspiration, 90% perspiration. ---Thomas Alva Edison Blue skies, -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

Bill, He died of hypothermia in July or August 1985 (I think)...in Auyuituq (sp) National Park on Baffin Island. Horst flew his Moonie up there...all by himself. he went hiking in the park...all by himself. Gutsy as hell. Nobody knows exactly what happened but it is assumed that he was fording a stream, fell in, lost all his gear and got extremely chilled. He came upon a group of French hikers in a shelter in the park. He was incoherent and severelt chilled. They put him in a sleeping bag to warm him up. He woke up once and complained of pain. He was given some aspirins. He went back to sleep and died in his sleep. I don't understand the physiology of hypothermia but I do know that when you get severe hypothermia you really need a Dr. or hospital. It's pretty difficult to treat in the middle of nowhere. He had planned this trip for several years....with his usual Austrian thoroughness....and although it came to a tragic end I can't think of a more majestic place to die. Horst was a great pilot and a great guy. Sad to lose him when he was in his early forties. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

I think that a Twin Beech firewalled close to the ground is the most awesome buzz job machine. The engines just seem louder and they just seem to be going faster than a DC-3...don't know if that's the case but that's how I always felt. Back in the 80's at Gananoque, Ontario when the Beech 18 was flying there a few of the pilots did some awesome buzz jobs. There is a row of trees along the road up to the hangar with a gap in the middle. The gap is about 10 feet wider than the wingspan on a Beech 18. Beyond the gap is a field with power lines and bush on the far side. They would line up at the south end of the airport and fly that thing about 10 feet off the ground as fast as it would go, just east of the packing area, shoot through the gap and immediately pull it back to clear the power lines and bush. They were just incredible. I heard that once when the grass was long that Horst Pfaus (who is dead now) had a couple of inches of prop in the grass but I never saw that with my own eyes. Haven't seen a buzz job for years now. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey

On a Mac, in iDVD, you set the preference to PAL and the program will create all subsequent DVD projects in PAL. When you've burned your project, you just switch it back. -- Murray "No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets." - Edward Abbey