mr2mk1g

Actually... that's pretty much where most of the blame is being directed... though it's usually phrased more generally as "the American sub-prime market". That is what caused the global credit crunch... There is of course some blame for it's spread round the globe being directed at financial institutions in other countries who were greedily buying into re-packaged dodgy loans originated by the US housing market, but when they're being (potentially negligently or fraudulently) rated as "A" grade there is at least a little understanding with their situation. But mostly... yeah – people are blaming American corporate greed for starting it all.

If his insurance says it's an act of god, that's his problem, not yours. That just means he has to pay your claim out of his pocket instead of having his insurer pay for him. You can still claim the repair costs from him, even though his insurers refuse indemnity on the claim. I can't comment further on the position in the US, but in England it's a pretty easy claim to bring. He would have to show that his roof was in a good state of repair and the standard he would have to reach is quite a high one. If there were any lack of repair or maintenance or any problems with the chimney that could be determined as being the cause of its failure... you'd be likely to see an award in your favour. For US rules... I can't comment save as to observe that often as not they're usually similar to in England... but not always. I'd do as Quade suggested. Claim through your car insurance. Yes, you'll pay the deductible, but they are then likely to claim back the full cost of your claim from your neighbour / his insurers. That should include the cost of your deductible, so you ought to get that back in the long run, (at least... you would in England).

I've been idly looking for a while now for a camera bag which has space to stow my camera helmet (FF2 in my case) along with my camera gear. Now my helmet bag has broken I'm looking with renewed interest. Over the last couple of years there's been a range of bags come out which are half rucksack/half camera bag and this is the sort of thing I'm after. Has anyone come across one / own one which would easily take both my helmet and have padded space for a DSLR, Sony mini-DV and a couple of lenses, tapes, batteries, bits and bobs etc? Closest I've found to date is this sort of thing: http://www.fotosense.co.uk/shop/Tamrac_Bags/Cases/Tamrac_5549_Adventure_9_Backpack_-_Camouflage.asp?productID=4732&tabID= but I'm gonna have to go look at one to see if the helmet fits. Ideas?

I did something similar a couple of years back. Vendor sent the unit direct to SSK with a note of what was going on. I asked SSK to confirm receipt of unit serial #(whatever it was). THEN I released payment (obviously this was agreed with the vendor before hand) and paid SSK for the service. Simple. No risk for anyone. Hopefully a genuine vendor will be happy to proceed on that basis (but I wouldn't rule out even a genuine vendor wanting payment even before sending to SSK). It worked for me though. Maybe check with SSK that this is cool with them... I think I did that when I did it... can't remember.

I'm with you twardo - I just don't get the whole 'not being able to deflate the canopy' thing. I fly it into the ground as you describe then step onto the bridle and walk towards the canopy. As you walk towards the canopy the PC attachment point becomes the part of the canopy closest to you and the whole thing is blown into a nice low-drag streamer tipe configuration. Grounding the canopy should be the least challenging element of jumping in high winds. If you can't ground the canopy, don't jump in high winds. It's a real bad idea to change the configuration of your gear (and thus your list of possible malfunctions and their remedies) from jump to jump. This is exactly what you do if sometimes you use an RSL and sometimes you don't. Pick an option and stick with it - then tailor the jumping you do to fit your choice of equipment configuration.

You can always buy one of those crappy "table top" camera tripods for 2.99 and smash it with a hammer. Did that yesterday - worked a treat. (there's a camera screw inside the plastic body in case it wasn't obvious)

Article of the day today on wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D._B._Cooper

The BPA Ops manual is not exactly the equivalent of the SIM... more like the BSR's. Definitely read it, but it won't help you with core skills or safety advice really. It merely lays out the rules which apply to you and which you must abide by. There's no real reason why you shouldn't read the SIM - safety advice is safety advice, no matter where you jump. Just be sure when reading you remember that any rules it mentions are US rules, not British rules. Also remember that advice in the SIM may conflict with BPA teaching, so always listen to your instructor over and above the SIM - in fact that goes for any advice you read, be that here, in the SIM or in a commercially available book.

No to "mental stress" as it's termed in the article. Maybe yes to "PTSD" as diagnosed in accordance with either ICD 10 or DSM IV. If demonstrably caused by direct enemy action, and diagnosed in accordance with recognised standards, and genuinely amounting to a psychological injury - possibly there is an argument for saying yes. Legal systems have now wised up to the fact that psychological damage can indeed be a genuine injury, with just as serious life effects as loosing your leg etc, so long as certain pre-requisites are met. I see no reason in principal why the military shouldn't also, so long as similar pre-requisites are met. And this coming from a staunch "defendant" lawyer who's first reaction to any claim for psychological injuries is that the claimant's just a lying arsehole, out to make money from a simply fender bender etc. and that they should jolly well just pull themselves together and stop acting like a whiney little nonce.

The UK has a problem with pikeys stealing lead roofing from churches. I say "pikeys" deliberately as it's almost universally "travellers" aka "gypsies" who are doing it... apparently. Causes the churches huge problems because they just don't have the budget to replace the roofing and after the second or third time the lead goes missing, their insurers are refusing to pay out.

Bristol, UK 112.9p / litre 3.79 litres to a US gallon = £4.24.10 per us gallon 1 GBP = 1.98651 USD therefore petrol here costs $8.50 per US gallon. And that's the cheep low octane stuff. What do I win?

Made the national 9 o'clock news on the radio this morning for some reason. (uk) Funny. I recall seeing a video of something almost identical happening in the US a couple of years back - most likely from skydivingmovies.com

hehe, and the top three most important foreign phrases to learn before travelling overseas are: 3) two beers please - eg "dos cervezas por favor" 2) I sorry, do you speak English? - eg "pardonnez-moi monsieur, parlez-vous Anglais?" 1) no, it's ok, I'm English - NOT an American - eg "niet niet, Inglitski!"

We have built in escrow service in this industry. Riggers. I've bought several items of gear from overseas and had the equipment sent to a loft both myself and the vendor know. The loft then e-mails to say they have the gear and that it is at least the item described (though I wouldn't expect them to be telling my anything else about the kit without charging for a full inspection at least). I then release payment. The vendor then e-mails the loft to confirm receipt of the payment and the item is mine. I can then organise shipping on from the loft by whatever means I wish. I've never been charged for this service (though it may have been done due to the riggers relationship with the vendor) but equally, if I was asked to make a payment I would be happy to do so and have always tried to track the rigger down for beer payment next time I was in town. You could even organise for the rigger to inspect the item and confirm if it is as described in the add - clearly though their fee would have to reflect this. It's a built in system for otherwise risky gear transactions, and for riggers it's another potential revenue stream! I'm not suggesting it's not potentially without risk for riggers, especially if they're getting involved with the certification of an item as being as described in a given add, but hell, their job is certifying gear and all they have to do is charge to reflect their exposure. It's better than the only other secure option - travelling to pick the rig up yourself. My mate sold his old rig to a Belgian jumper who would only conduct the transaction in person (fair enough). So the Belgian hopped a train to the UK and my mate went to meet them in London. The transaction was completed in Waterloo station, with my friend opening the main out for a full inspection in the middle of the station, then re-packing it on the floor right in front of thousands of commuters. Cash exchanged hands and both jumpers went on their way happy with the transaction.

Sorry man, but I got to "via Western Union" and quit reading. So should have you.

hehe, when I ordered my rig, I pulled a photo off the manufacturer's website and attached it to my e-mail to them saying something like "make it just like that one". I ripped off their design and was completely open about doing so.

My car makes 31mpg combined and it's considered a gas guzzler round these parts. It's all relative. You want a fuel efficient car round here and you're looking at something that gets 65mpg +

Are you hot? Post up your questions. You'll find people here are more than willing to stick and oar in, even when you don't want their input. You say "university", are you in the UK? What uni / where in the country are you? You could always go down your local DZ and chat to jumpers in their 'natural environment' - the DZ bar.

No tank or regulator. The compressor continues to run and the horns continue to sound until we pull the bathroom light pull-switch screwed to the roof of the car for a second time. It's 2am here. I leave in 6 hours. I'm gonna wing it with the doppler effect idea...

No regulator. 6v vs 12v - again, my mate swears blind he's bought the right kit. It's hooked to a 12v battery so my thinking all along has been that perhaps it was never designed for that power supply. I've even suggested we install a dimmer switch (lol) to see if we can fix it that way. This all kinda makes me think maybe it really is a 6v one... but then as I said, he's sure it was the right kit... Hell, maybe it was just packaged up wrong in china or wheverver the hell it was made. There's no markings on the compressor itself to assist.

I've just fitted a dixie air horn kit to this crappy old car we're about to drive down to Africa (as in, we set off tomorrow morning)... Trouble is, when we trigger the horn it plays the tune at about 100 times the speed it's supposed to, so it just sounds like a very very loud, obnoxious musical fart. And yes, before I get any comments about how lame the horn idea is - that's the whole point! Anyone know how we can slow the thing down? The kit was a small electrical compressor unit, a short length of hose and 5 horns. Each horn had to be hooked individually to a separate outlet on the compressor with a length of hose and we had to buy about another 6ft of hose to hook them all up where we'd fitted the horns. Is it the extra length of hose we added do you think? My mate swears blind he wired the electrics up correctly... and he has an electrical engineering degree so in fairness he's probably right... The installation leaflet doesn't give us any useful help and is written in Engrish in the first place anyway. Any ideas?

"PETA warns of legal challenge over Pentagon plans for new 'pilot-less' surveillance drone."

Meh, that's not unique to airlines - this time last year I was out in Perris for a couple of weeks and had a weather-hold day so we drove to Six Flags. One of the girls who came with me was refused entry because her clothes were apparently too revealing. We had to have a whip-round through the group to donate her some more clothes before they would let her in through the gates.

My PC-350 though has a hand strap I can remove and re-fit at will. First camera of... 4 (I think) where I can do that - the others all needed to be cut or otherwise butchered. When I use the camera in a non-skydiving environ it's nice to be able to put the strap back on.

I know what you mean - I've been somewhere similar myself and you tend to be just too busy for being scared to even spring to mind.