DrewEckhardt

Your cable company was granted a monopoly by the local government, and monopolies can do whatever they want. Satellite is often an option if you don't like those schmucks.

Since you don't see the importance of borders and laws, let's bring it a little closer to home. How would you feel if a truck load of Mexicans moved into your yard and set up camp, without your permission? I'd have no problems with them homsteading BLM land, buying the house next door, or renting my spare bedroom. Property rights and immigration are orthagonal issues.

The precision/bat/psycho-pack works well when the canopy is a good fit for the rig. I don't like it when the canopy is too small since you end up with a long skinny pack job that I think catches in the corners of the rig leading to off-heading openings. You can also make the top S-fold, bag that, and then add the left over at the end. The sequence keeps the canopy better under control than the contentional bottom S-fold first method and means bagging less fabric.

They're spending almost nothing on themselves. 4400 * 435 representatives = $1.9M, which is barely .00006% of the $3T annual budget. If they were C-level executives in a corporation spending their share of the budget ($7B) a year they'd be making piles more. While more than a lot of us make, it's nothing compared to the tens of billions in pork they slip into "essential" bills to say nothing of non-discretionary spending.

There are already laws and a system for them to enter this country legally. We need to enforce it, and they need to use. Problem solved. The laws have become substantially more restrictive than when my ancestors got here (and probably yours). Amnesty is more politically viable than a roll back.

There are already laws and a system for them to enter this country legally. We need to enforce it, and they need to use. Problem solved. America became the greatest nation on the planet when our immigration laws were that any white person was welcome without quotas or limits on employment. That should be extended to the Chinese and Mexicans who were previously excluded since there aren't real differences between them and us. Recently we've decided that we're here and want the land all to ourselves and closed down immigration. I can't defend that morally or see it changing the inevitable homoginization of wages, costs of living, and laws arround the globe. Amnesty for those who were motivated enough to get here is a more politically viable step back towards both what made our nation great and impending globalization.

I can't morally justify telling mostly brown people they can't stay when there were no legal impediments to my white ancestors showing up from Denmark, England, Germany, and Ireland. They may depress wages for the jobs they fill, although since they have to make enough to cover the cost of living in this country the effects are likely to be less than when we outsource the same jobs to places with labor costs 1/10th what they are here. A collision between our wages+cost of living and the developing world is coming and keeping the immigrants out isn't going to stop it. Few will pay their "fair" share of national expenditures, although few of us do. 3 trillion split 130 million ways is $23K per tax payer.

As long as the government legislatively blocks direct minority opinion access to the airwaves, free speech mandates other accomodations. Full-power licenses are no longer granted - the spectrum is sold at auction to the highest bidder which means a media conglomerate that must espouse the Republican and Democratic views of its listeners. Low Power FM is not an option in population centers because the congomerates lobbied for and got 600KHz of separation to full-power stations when 400KHz would be sufficient. Since no spectrum exists at that spacing, LPFM is not an alternative. The problem isn't "liberal" versus "conservative" - it's minority vs. majority. Randi Rhodes and Rush Limbaugh are both big radio who don't need to be given access to each others' stations. It's the Communists, Greens, Liberatrians, and Socialists that need protection.

If you're under 170 pounds in weight, the Clipper doesn't have more than a few hundred jumps, the price is very low (maybe under $900?) , you get decent landings on it after a few test jumps, and you can't afford a more modern main it might be a fine choice.

Sure. None of the 10 flights my wife or I have taken in the last year were on-time and we're not going to notice the difference when another reason gets added for the delays. OTOH, she did get stuck inside a plane which couldn't take off for hours and would have been a lot happier back at the terminal.

If the crew's timed out with no ETA for the replacement or the weather is bad with no ETA for clearing, it's better to be inside an airport restaurant eating real food and drinking (hopefully real) beer or back at a hotel where you can be comfortable than stuck in a tin can with no legroom, no food, lousy drinks, and crying babies.

After 600 jumps the outer D-lines on my Stiletto 120 have shrunk 6" versus under 1.5" for the inner lines and I added 6" total when I last replaced the lower steering and brake lines. Since the canopy opens mostly symetrically, pulls mostly symetrically on the slider during opening, and shrinkage comes from heat due to slider friction you'd expect symetry. The outer lines will have shrunk a lot more than the inner ones if it hasn't been relined; although you need the line trim sheet to verify this since the outer lines may have started out longer.

Hiring one lawyer is a lot less expensive than buying the relevant Senate and House commitee members.

Lived there for fifteen years and then made the mistake of selling my home and moving to Seattle. Allegedly the highest per-capita number of restraunts of anywhere, decent but not exceptional live music, not much theater, great outdoor activities (40,000 acres of openspace for 80,000 residents). Skiing 40 minutes away. Turbine DZ fifteen minutes outside city limits. Not very ethnically diverse (although there is a killer carniceria, exceptional sushi, decent vietnamese/thai/korean). Allegedly very liberal, although there's a trap range within city limits at the VFW and Boulder rifle club with almost weekly practical pistol shoots open to non-members (the waiting list is pushing a decade for membership). While not cheap compared to places you wouldn't want to live, it's a lot less pricey than places you would (subtract a million from Bay Area prices) and taxes are low (like 4.4% state income tax, $1500 in property taxes on a $275K townhouse and not allowed to increase beyond the rate of inflation). Global warming sucks there though. Too many days have been over 90 the last few years. It is a dry heat, but 99 degrees stinks anyways.

It is the most dangerous *legal* sport in existence. Hardly. Parachuting from cliffs in BLM and state lands is legal. 200-300' freefalls off sheer cliffs with no reserve has to be more dangerous than opening 3000' off the ground with a reserve and nothing near. Skiing or snowboarding steep narrow chutes with cliff drops has less room for error even without considering avalance potential.

The cross-bracing makes a stiffer wing with more of the individual cells' lift vectors pointing away from the ground which with all else equal gives you acceptable landings (without running or sliding) out of a smaller canopy than you otherwise would. The final landing speed on a 104 cross-braced canopy doesn't seem too different than a 120-135 square foot conventional elliptical or 150 rectangular planform. It allows the cells to be wider which means you can have fewer lines with less total drag for a given span (8 sets instead of 10). The efficiency appears to allow the use of thinner airfoils which have less lift (remember it's pointed in the right direction) and drag which allows the canopies to go faster especially in a dive, and retain that speed longer after planing out. Since smaller canopies which go faster and farther are ideal for swooping the other design characteristics are adjusted to better that goal, like steeper trim and a longer line set which causes the canopy to take longer to return to level flight after a speed inducing maneuver and build more speed in a dive. You could have a cross-braced canopy without those characteristics but there probably wouldn't be too many people willing to pay for the construction and pack volume when their conventional canopies already land acceptably.

It depends. You need to flare so that you have acceptable forward and vertical speeds before reaching the ground. Video and input from instructors are probably the simplest ways to achieve that. I have five parachutes varying in size from 105 to 245 square feet and doubt any land like what you're flying as a student. I have no clue how far 10' is off the ground or when I start flaring and doubt most other skydivers are that analytical. That said, flaring too soon (as long as you don't finish too early and stall) hurts less than flaring too late. A proper PLF hurts a lot less than trying to stand up a bad landing. Even those of us with a lot of jumps sometimes screw up - I sat down on an accuracy landing under my biggest parachute a few weeks ago. Get video. Get it analyzed.

It goes back a few thousand years more than that. God promised Abraham's descendants the mdidle east. By the time Abraham got to be 86 he still hand't made children so his wife Sarah had him try their servant Hagar with whom he sired Ishamel from whom Mohamed and the Palestinians descend. At 99, he and Sarah finally begat Isaac from whom the Jewish people are descended. We're still arguing over who gets Israel.

I am in a total agreement with you. But why then are so many people quoting jump numbers, years in sport, etc. as an agueing point on both sides of the table? Because we've seen plenty of "gifted" skydivers die, femur in, break their tibia/fibia, or fracture something less common. Annecdotally, people who follow Brian Germain's Wingloading Never Exceed formula (1.0 + .1/100 jumps with adjustments for small canopies and density altitude) seem to get broken and dead less often. I think that comes from learning enough judgement and skills to save yourself once statistics catch up before something goes wrong.

After 100-1000 jumps it's not a rush (you need to jump off a bridge or try tiny parachutes for that) and skydiving becomes a social sport like square dancing with no music, better scenery, and louder clothing. "We held hands in a circle, then alternating in a line..." It's a lot like driving or riding in a car. When you're 16 you just want to drive. When you're 30 and stuck in rush hour traffic you just hope there's something good on the radio, although a drive through the mountains is fun, and going to the race track and driving or taking a ride in a Porsche Cup car is still exciting.

The partying scene which follows skydiving and jumping itself are separate although both have sufferred in the last decade. More (tandem-oriented) dropzones don't have beer, bonfires, and camping after the beer light goes on. I don't have an answer for that, but think it's a small contribution to the social component of skydiving. It used to be that everyone not on a competive team did jumps together, sucessfully built formations, and had fun jumping. With 50 jumps you could fall straight down in a frog-man position and successfully complete larger (4, 8, 12 - pretty much whatever would fit in the plane) formations that weren't too complicated. People who couldn't dive would be in the base or float. That could be even more inclusive now that we have wind-tunnels - we threw my non-skydiving wife in the Arizona tunnel and felt she was doing better than our friend with 70 actual skydives on the first day. But skydiving got harder and/or competitive. With vertical freefall and people who won't fall flat we can have jumps that aren't even safe (let alone fun) with four figure average jump numbers. I'm not terribly good with over $30K in lift tickets and decade waiting for loads at dropzones. When difficulty makes a 2-4 way the biggest practical formation new jumpers don't get invited and jumping by yourself is a lot like masturbating - better than nothing but not what you want to be doing. With competitive jumping you jump with your team regardless of the discipline and any newcomers (who don't fill in for your camera flyer) are irrelevant. I don't think things are going to change until people embrace the greatest common denominator, fly flat (straight down or tracking, the later with or without a special suit), and have fun. Especially in places that aren't blessed with impecable weather and big fast planes running continuously. It's hard enough when you can jump every 30-60 minutes (jump, pack, wait, ride, repeat) every weekend you care to until money or time runs out.

Depends on the steak. Fresh tender steak is best raw, ground into tartare with a little raw quail egg to hold everything together. At the other end of the spectrum if it's been contaminated by E. Coli and ground into burger it's gotta be medium. In between rare to medium rare with a browned outside and bloody inside is nice. Tough meat needs to be slow cooked to get tender. I love meat. Antelope, beef, bunny, cabrito, deer, elk... We've been shopping at the international market lately and beef isn't what's for dinner. I made rabbit sandwiches with a little colby-jack, small hot-house tomatoes, and red onions on nice fresh baguettes last week, and this week goat stuffed poblanos are on the menu, YUM!

I could never hear any alarm on my Pro-track apart from the flatline and made more than a few jumps that I didn't hear my Skytronic after its batteries wore down a bit. Provided that you have formed the right visual references, looking at the ground is the only way of figuring out altitude that works in spite of equipment problems. Looking at a reasonably located (I'm pretty fond of my chest mount or some one else's chest mount on a flat formation) altimeter which can be observed to move (or not - I broke one) on the way down is the next best thing. Audibles often aren't and don't always fail in a deterministic manner (like the Pro-track's low battery beeps on the ride up).

Although they hold the presidency and both houses, the Republicans aren't doing anything to indicate they remember 9/11 either. Fifteen of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, four from the UAE, one from Egypt, and one from Labanon. We're currently at war in Iraq which was home to none of that set of terrorists.

Arrogant Bastard from Stone Brewery. It's both the tastiest AND named after me!