mr2mk1g

8. Freefall at 1000ft

Want me to send you some Marmite?

I'm really mad that this government has spent so much time on an issue which the vast proportion of the population really couldn't give a damn about. When asked if they agree or disagree with hunting with a pack of hounds it is true that a majority will say 'disagree'. However, when a third option of "don't care" is provided the VAST majority go for it. [my half-assed memory of mori polls from last year]. Last year in a Radio 4 interview John Prescot impressed me for the first time in history (I had to park up for a while and catch my breath). He made what was essentially a classic Prescot booboo. The subject turned to fox hunting and he stumbled out with the fact that he couldn't see why there was all the fuss about such a little issue. The interviewer of course pounced, asking if he thought an issue which affected the lives of thousands of people and had spawned street protests could really be described as a “little issue”. Yes - he felt in the grand scheme of things, set against global warming, Iraq, international terrorism, the economy etc whether or not foxes are killed by a pack of hounds or killed by men with guns is a really trivial thing. For once I found myself agreeing with Fatty-Two-Jags. I also thought there was a kind of poetic justice in the fact that the day after the animal rights nuts got their way men went out and shot 128 foxes to demonstrate what a pyrrhic victory it was. On the other hand… if the huntsmen had just abided by the compromise agreement they’d worked out I think it’s likely they would have been able to keep their sport.

I pissed myself when I saw this... accidentally hit "s" when typing in "www.aol.com". Ended up with "www.asol.com". Someone's got a sense of humour.

hahahaha, the idiot. How do we write to this guy and tell him what a prat he is? You'd think he'd at least take 5 minutes to understand the very basics of what he's talking about given the breadth of his audience. Over here punitive damages are virtually unheard of - they exist to punish the worst of cases... but that's exactly the point - they're reserved for the very worst of cases.

so far... if things don't change our children will be talking lives though.

presumably during flight also given that the one in your pic. doesn't actually have any wings....

I pay about $7 per gallon of 'gas'. I choose to drive a sports car that gets relatively poor mpg (about 35mph if I'm steady - yes that's considered poor in the UK). I could choose to drive a car which gets 80mph such as a Lupo. I could choose to drive a diesel and pay more like $4 per gallon. If I couldn't afford to pay $7 a gallon for 'gas' I'd either buy a vehicle that’s cheaper to run, drive less or take more public transport. The concept that Americans wouldn’t do the same is odd – it already happens all over the rest of the world. The reason the US didn't sign up to Kyoto is that things would have to change - people would have to stop polluting so badly. I can understand not wanting to change – it’s a pain in the arse and it’s nice not having to give a damn about the consequences of your actions. I don't want to change my life either – it's a perfectly understandable position to take. The only odd thing about it is the collective refusal to admit that the stance is going to have a negative effect on the other 6 billion people in the world. If the people simply said – "yeah it's gonna fuck up the rest of you, and we appreciate you all trying to limit pollution for the greater good of the planet as a whole, but frankly I really can't be arsed", at least then I could have a little respect for the position. Take for example my choice to drive a car which is more harmful to the environment than say Billvon's car. I'm quite happy to admit that I could be better... but I really like my car – fuck you! Now that’s a stance I can at least get on with; much better than fannying about by saying – "but, but American cars are worse" or "there's nothing I can do about it – I need a sports car to survive". Bollocks! Have your politicians stand up and tell the truth - the US pollutes because it suits it to and it doesn't give a damn about the consequenses; just like I polute by going skydiving and I don't give a damn if some tree hugger thinks I should stop. At least be open about it.

er... dude - you may want to add something about not having anything rude or offensive etc... as it is at the moment someone could buy your forhead space and you're contractually bound to walk arround with a big drawing of a willy on your face. edit - ah too bad, people have already bid. hahahaha

I know this was suggested before - can't remember if there was a reason for it not happening. Could there be a page where we can find all the banners which randomly appear at the top of the page? I generally don't see them till I've clicked to the next page and then have to click back and forth, reloading random banners till I cycle back through to the one I'm trying to see. I've just done this for about 5 mins because I caught the Argus AAD add out of the corner of my eye and didn't click it before the page disappeared... sadly this one obviously doesn’t cycle round that often so I got bored and came here. If there was an advertisers page somewhere I could just go find their banner there and see what the add's about and I wouldn’t be bugging you guys. Or have I just missed some part of the site? But if there's a business reason why not - fair enough.

I can't tell if you're just joking about the Labour party (all well and good ) or actually misinformed about the 1975 referendum conducted by the Government in power, which just happened to be the recently elected Labour party...

You realise that's already happened right? All the way back in 1975...

Who said the US equipped an Afghan Government? Anyway, they had no government at the time beyond the Soviet controlled puppet govt... and they were equipped/backed by Soviet Military in any case. What the US did do was equip and train the Afghan Muhjadeen... ie the guys who took over as the Government when the soviets left. What’s so controversial about that? It seemed like a good idea at the time... well, kind of.

An hour each way to go 10 miles. I broke my radio last month fiddling with the amp.

As about a dozen single post posters have done so far, you’ve completely missed the point. People are pissed with Skyride because it is conducting illegal activities such as theft of copyrighted photographs, cloning copyrighted websites, lying about fictional DZ’s and stright out bait and switch selling. All this brings the sport into disrepute – that harms every jumper, not just those who lose business through skyrides law breaking. Similar companies to skyride exist, conducting themselves in a lawful and ethical fashion. They too act as mere intermediaries… no one’s going after them like they are skyride.

When put like that it reminds me of the South Park episode where they had to vote between a turd sandwich or a douche bag... Not like that was a policital commentary or anything.

No - the bets should be on how many votes he gets above the number of registered voters in his country... judging by the last lot of elections he ought to exceed his potential total by some way.

It's a shame the Monster Raving Loony Party is no more – it really is. Labour appear to run things by stealing Tory policies and doing them better than Torys could ever possibly do... this kinda leaves Michael Howard out on a limb because whatever good idea he comes up with Tony simply says, "ah, we’ve been planning that for ages, honest" and then goes on to announce it as Labour’s idea to the papers and all the tabloids adoringly lap it up. Howard is left to go home to cry that his great idea was just stolen. Overall Labour’s underhandedness just keeps on making the torys look like a bunch of buffoons... and at the end of the day I have to admit Labour aren’t screwing everything up. Still won’t vote for them though... probably. Then you have Charles, who seems like the guy you’d most like to hang out with at the bar. His campaign appears to be "hahaha – look at all those idiot politicians, you don’t want to vote for them, you want to vote for your mate... lets go down the pub together, mate". After them you’re left with the also-ran's... the KKK, er, I mean UKIP and their demonic spin off party led by that inexorable twit Kilroy, who will be forced to kick himself out of the country if he uses any more fake tan. And the Greens... who as Nac says are primarily there to waste paper. Now I am aware of a precedent involving a dead man running for office... sadly I think Screaming Lord Such will be out of luck in the end though as I’m pretty sure some bright spark made up a rule against it after the first attempt. Pity.

I swear I'd have a US "bird" permanently over my parents place if I was a teenager today... I used to make a nice bit of money ratting for local farmers. Best way to do it was stick a couple of fire bombs down their holes and stand back with a shotgun and my lurcher. Icing sugar and weed killer (with as high a content of potassium nitrate as you could find... given I was doing this for commercial farmers I could lay my hands on some pretty potent stuff) wrapped up in some newspaper. Very simple fuel and oxidant bomb... would shoot green flames 10ft out of the rat hole you stuffed it down and smaller flames out of all the other holes you hadn't yet found. Sublimely simple - the fire simply followed the tunnels; anything that got out alive would be finished by me or my dog. And that was just for pocket money... for fun I built a mortar tube and experimented with different kinds of warheads. Living in the country was far more fun than a city, I'm sure. Still - different times... and this was only a dozen years ago or so.

You. And me. And everyone else here... that's why I find it so odd that people keep bashing the UN. There are some MAJOR problems with the UN and the way things have been run in recent history. There needs to be a big, change - starting at the top. The problem with simply sitting here on line bashing the UN is that it's our own fault that things aren't changing. The UN is accountable to everyone here, if we don't like what's happening we need to put pressure on our domestic political institutions. They pass this pressure onto our national governments who are each represented in the UN. The UN is nothing more than the sum of its constituent parts. You and I are voting members of its constituent parts. If enough of us want something to change, it changes. The fact that nothings changing fast is testament only to people's ignorance of the method in which the UN is accountable.

Nope - it's degenerated into Python quotes... As with Godwin’s law and the mention of Nazi’s, when a thread turns to Monty Python quotes it’s over dude…

Plus vigil means to keep watch over... such as like an all seeing eye might keep... which in Greek is Pan Optes... which was the sirname given to Argus... At the end of the day though this all seems quite logical to me given the past links between the management of the respective companies. I certainly don't see anything sinister. Besides, the manner in which the partnership broke up would have been an um... 'unusual' marketing tactic to say the least if it were all planned. Maybe they simply share a love of Greak mythology?

Yup, I've seen loads of places use them. I'm looking forward to jumping some AN-28's later this year when I go to Russia... So the M28 is essentially a tweaked AN28 with bigger engines... sounds like a really good idea to me.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1258988#1258988 My thoughts a couple of months back together with a very informative link. If you search the pages here there are a couple of referrences to people having jumped them... but it's certainly a rare experiance so far.

And so, the Crimson Permanent Assurance was launched upon the high seas of international finance. "Full speed ahead, Mr. Cohen!"