mr2mk1g

I'd raise the limit on general damages for the small claims track from £1000 to £5000, effectively removing predictive costs from most RTA whiplash claims and EL/PL slip/trip cases, putting them into the fixed costs bracket. A small tweak I know, but I think it would go a long way to rein in our rising compensation culture.

Best meal I had was at Thornbury Castle, just North of my home. The Tranche of Foie Gras was unforgettable.

My cat sleaps lying on his back, legs in the air and one front leg folded over his eyes to keep it dark.

Lee? As in General Lee? Why wouldn't American's admire him? He was a great General. Quantrill on the other hand was a war criminal pure and simple...

Fosters is carbonated piss! Edit: Sorry, I meant to say "Fosters is badly carbonated piss!"

Pronounced "Newky"

At the end of the day though, unless your stapler spits out 80lb shaped charges it's still just for pussies and not a real "assault stapler".

I don't think you should worry about whether or not your cutter is field replaceable.

You're right - ban these new fangled hook turns!

No, they're not. They don't care what they're trying to buy, where it goes or if they ever get it. They make their money when the seller electronically sends them the excess from the overpayment.

Customs will stick 17.5% VAT on it. If it comes by post it should be accompanied by the appropriate invoices. Those invoices will be the basis for the tax you pay. If the rig is second hand they may try to charge based on the cost of a new item (how they expect to figure that out I have no idea). If the item is brought into the country in someone’s rig bag it must be declared to customs on entry and the appropriate tax paid at that point. Some terrible people break the law in a most heinous way by asking a friend to be their mule and illegally smuggle the rig into the country for them. I understand (from third parties of course) that the standard fee for this abominable crime is a crate of beer.

As far as I was aware “assault pistol” was a term invented by the Germans during WWII; the translation being "sturmpistole". Running out of ways to fight our endless supply of cheap crappy tanks, the Germans essentially took the warhead off their excellent panzerfaust and stuck it on the front of their anti-amour kampfpistole. Think of something which looks like a single shot Webley revolver with a grenade stuck out the front. There's some nice pics of them here but sadly the page is all in foreignish. http://www.pkymasehist.fi/kivkranaatit.html I think they were also called Gerwehrpanzergrenate or something like that... my German's rusty to say the least... still they do make it easy for us by just gluing loads of existing words together to make a new one. Thus an "assault pistol" is actually an anti-tank device... certainly nothing to do with anything that fires on fully auto as I think they’re trying to ban. There you go - my years of studying WWII can be of use to sticking two fingers up at the guns-are-evil lot. Next time you hear the phrase you can tell the prat on the other side that “assault pistols” (being something which fires an explosive charge) are already banned and that they can put their signs away and go home.

You're obviously hungry for info. Take a look at this: http://stuffo.howstuffworks.com/skydiving.htm It's not horribly innacurate. There are a few errors but in general its a fairly good overview. Remember nothing is a substitute for paying attention on a first jump course. Prior reading is a good thing... so long as it doesn't detract from you shutting up and listening hard to what your instructor has to say. There's few things more dangerous than a student who thinks they know everything because they've been reading up on things.

there aint no way I'm getting out of a plane with a pusher prop.

Simple answer is ram-air. There's a little bit of a debate about what's safer for first time jumpers but I think I'm ok saying most people would still recomend a ram-air reserve... most people. For the experianced jumper... definately it's ram-air all the way. Rounds have different wind limits - you'll find yourself stood down when everyone else is jumping. Rounds are have less directional range - you might find yourself low, over obsticles and unable to find a safe landing area with a round reserve. Have you ever been trained to use a round? They're a different canopy - they have different malfunctions and different ways of flying them... why would you jump something you've not been trained to use? Buy a ram air reserve.

Just got this in an email: Sounds like a nice little system.

I hear chickens come with a tail pocket as standard. Has anyone ever tried stowing anything in their chicken's tail pocket?

Never use Western Union.

Dearest Redneck Son, I'm writing this slow because I know you can't read fast. We don't live where we did when you left home. Your Dad read in the newspaper that most accidents happen within 20 miles of your home, so we moved. I won't be able to send you the address because the last Arkansas family that lived here took the house numbers when they moved so they wouldn't have to change their address. This place is really nice. It even has a washing machine. I'm not sure it works so well, though. Last week I put a load of clothes in and pulled the chain. We haven't seen them since. The weather isn't bad here. It only rained twice last week; the first time for three days and the second time for four days. About that coat you wanted me to send; your Uncle Billy Bob said it would be too heavy to send in the mail with the buttons on, so we cut them off and put them in the pockets. Bubba locked his keys in the car yesterday. We were really worried because it took him two hours to get me and your father out. Your sister had a baby this morning, but I haven't found out what it is yet so I don't know if you are an aunt or uncle. The baby looks just like your brother. Uncle Bobby Ray fell into a whiskey vat last week. Some men tried to pull him out but he fought them off and drowned. We had him cremated, he burned for three days. Three of your friends went off a bridge in a pickup truck. Butch was driving. He rolled down the window and swam to safety. Your other two friends were in the back. They drowned because they couldn't get the tailgate down. There isn't much more news at this time. Nothing much out of the normal has happened. Your Favorite Aunt, Mom

We're lucky in this sport to have built in escrow services. Send it to a riggers lofts or gear shop - always offer to pay a fee. Depending on what you're asking them to do it might be anything from nothing up to the cost of a full inspection and repack. They're reputable, they're known by both parties before the transaction commences, and they can confirm that an actual canopy arrived as opposed to just a bedsheet. They'll even confirm it's a Sabre2 170 in perfect condition with 50 jumps on it if you pay them to... no matter how reputable the whuffo escrow service is they're not going to be able to do that. I've read now a couple of times about how X bought a canopy which was supposed to be brand new only to have it turn up and find it's patched with a couple of hundred jumps on it. Using a rigger as a fee charging escrow service would have caught that one before any money was sent.

and they're UV proof.

If you were filming a tandem video for your DZ you might find you don't actually own the intellectual property rights to the video in the first place. It all depends on how your DZ runs its video pool.

The likelyhood is the bank will show the check a having cleared for the first day or two but will then later notify you that it has bounced. If you've sent gear during this period you're screwed. If in doubt walk away or use an escrow. Escrow's protect everyone.

If you're certain they're a scam and they don't have your details, you could always pass them on to 419 eater. They'll fuck with them in all sorts of ways. Better yet, have a go yourself. I'm grooming someone who contacted me to see if I can get them to send me a photo of them with the DZ.com logo or something.