DrewEckhardt

Nope. In 2000, Al Gore had 50,996,116 votes versus 50,456,169 for George W Bush, thus "winning" the popular vote by 500,000 votes. The electoral college voted 271 Bush - 266 Gore. The electoral college is the least of our problems.

Oskar Blues Dale's Pale, a quite tasty brew from Lyons Colorado, is available in cans so that we may partake at swimming pools, parks, and shows that don't allow glass bottles.

Due to poor revenues the last company I worked for suspended their performance/cost-of-living based raises for over a year. I took a 6% pay cut when I changed jobs. Working for the government shouldn't exempt people from today's economic reality. Some careers don't pay well. Unfortunately "politician" isn't one of them. People need to acknowledge this and either accept the pay+benefit+work combination or look elsewhere.

I thnk it's safer and more accurate to consider the various high-performance ellipticals "different" rather than ranking them. While Stlettos don't stay in a dive as long as Extreme FXs and do return completely to level flight without control input, they're also a lot more sensitive to toggle input. The same thing holds to a lesser degree when you compare a Stiletto to a Cross Fire 1 (haven't tried the 2). When I changed from a Batwing 134 (elliptical) to a Stiletto 120 (also elliptical, but with a shorter controls troke), the Stiletto didn't always go in a straight line after plane-out due to pilot error, and I sometimes over corrected and crashed- at 600 jumps and a wing loading in the 1.6-1.7 range.

Yes. Things seem to happen much quicker as you increase your wing loading. You have 20% more energy to disipitate on landing. 100, per Brian Germain's Wingloading Never Exceed forumula. There are qualifiers: 1. Size is important too, since the canopy dimensions have more to do with its control sensitivity than the wing loading. A 165 pound guy (190 out the door) might find that a 190 loaded at 1:1 is an ideal first canopy, while a 115 pound woman (135 out the door) might not do well on a 135 at 1:1 until she's under her third canopy with a few hundred jumps. 2. You really want to have finished Bill von Novak's downsizing check list under the next size up.

Depends how irritated I am at life in general. Since my last enjoyable job ended it's been fairly constant.

No. My cat is usually on the bed with us.

Not using E-mail is the only way to avoid 100% of this. Bayesian filters will stop 99.5% of your spam. Challenge-response systems like Spam Arrest also do a good job now, although if they become popular spam hauses will start hiring people who work cheap in third world countries.

Unless you're still working on gaining enough BASE experience to jump the cliffs with more reasonable margins of safety and comfort. Vertigo recommends 30 jumps prior to the Turkey boogie. Confidence in your pack job, body position, ability to deal with off heading openings, and landing near obstacles is mandatory.

I stopped having open main-pin covers (probably not a good idea with wind blowing accross the bridle at 140-180 MPH) when I stopped letting other people check my main pin (I have no idea how you can fail to close the flap correctly - it's a standard shark-fin shaped tab that gets tucked under all the other flaps) The reserve pin and Cypres on my Reflexes are burried against the back pad and can't be checked with the rig on.

1. An aggregation of people like a country has the same rights its members have as individuals. No individual has the right to initiate force (including the threat of violence) against another. Forming a country and electing leaders doesn't give them the right to launch pre-emptive strikes against other nation states. Individuals and the countries they form are entitled to do everything else. 2. Rights are inherent in the condition of man whether or not legally recognized, including the right to self defense. Nuclear weapons are great for that because countries like the US don't invade nuclear powers. The US Constitution does not grant these rights, it merely limits infringement of these pre-existing rights.

Legalize all individual weapons with no license required, allow unlicensed concealed carry for all adults (as in Vermont), and adopt Colorado's home-defense laws (when a person is in your home illegally, you reasonably believe they have committed or will commit an additional crime, and reasonably believe they pose a threat to you no matter how slight you can use any level of force against them after which it's illegal for them or their family to sue).

I did 10 in one day at the convention packing for myself outside in the 90 degree heat, but six is a much more comfortable number.

Many European vehicles have governors with the limti set by the sort of tires they ship with. For example B5 Audi A4s won't go over 137 MPH with the stock computer. Flat out one night on the way to DZ, at night, 2 lane highway with a nice ess-bend. 'bout 200 kph (aka 'terminal velocity') in my 89 Civic Si. Not a soul around so I kept it flat out through the sweeper (I'm an ex-road racer). Suddenly, oncoming lights, and guess who it was. Eee-yup, I saw the brake lights come on (I don't think they got a lock on me) but I kept goin'. Conveniently, I was near the intersection to the dropzone and about a mile later there is a small country bar. I think they must have passed by while I was inside grabbing my case o beer for my "first" successful flight from "them". At night, at speed, I could have been anybody in a "small car". Speed doesn't do it for me - cornering does. Since Manitoba is flat and based on the mile road grid, I'm pretty safe here... I did average 104 mph on the way to Holister from SanFransisco in my sister's DelSol last summer though... (weeeeee

We do, but call them "photo radar" instead of "gatsos." Locally, it's only a $40 fine, doesn't go on your record, and no points are assessed towards license loss for less than 25 MPH over the limit.

Sleeping. I dreamed something had me by the foot and started kicking at it. Woke up screaming with blood on two walls and the vaulted ceiling because I put my foot through a 1/2" particle board shelf and glass candle. Couldn't wear shoes for weeks and it hurt to walk. When we went grocery shopping my fiancee pushed me arround on a kiddie cart. Bicycling. I learned that something is wrong with my big chain ring and that my bike shifts to the middle ring when the big cog in back is selected when I stood up, it shifted, and I went flying over the handle bars in spite of being on a dry, wide, flat, paved surface. Was blacking out in the back of the car that drove me home. Months later my left thumb doesn't bend as far as the left one and still hurts.

80-100 is a reasonable speed for most dividided highways whether the speed limit is 45 or 75. 65 is just too painfully slow without a portable DVD player or reading materials.

The optimum wing loading is about .7 pounds/square foot (as in 240 square feet for a 170 pound exit weight) so one probably won't fit in most experienced parachutists' personal rigs. It's still a fine idea. You'll need to use a slider. A sail slider will be the most comfortable. Rolling the nose will be more comfortable than not. There's an _enormous_ difference between consistantly landing in a 30' diameter pea gravel pit with no obstacles and substantially larger landing areas surrounded by obstacles. Dead end landing areas are _very_ intimidating. Sashays in the skydiving landing pattern are dangerous when there are other jumpers in the air so the setup for a skydiving landing happens over 1000 feet off the ground. With BASE you don't have a choice. More experience under canopy is always better, although it doesn't translate as well as you might expect.

Size 105 Color Royal blue, white, and black Signature series YES

I passed in seven jumps over 4 weekends (1, 1, 4, 1).

Does Go Fast energy drink have any effect on 0-3 CFM nylon as used in parachutes and/or require any sort of cleanup beyond a wet paper towel?

The pilot/DZO decided he could fly more loads if he put the tandems out at 10,000 feet although he loaded them in first. So, on the early jump run we ended up with six people behind the door. He cut the left (critical) engine, may have run out of elevator travel for the new weight distribution + lower speed, airspeed dropped even more to below Vmc, there was insufficient rudder/aileron to maintain level flight, and the plane yawed/rolled nose to the ground (the camera man outside came close to hitting the right wing). That's a Vmc roll. We lost about 7,000 feet in the maneuver and all but three skydivers bailed out.

Yup. It couldn't be any better. What we share during the 158 hours I spend each week not skydiving is a lot more important than what I might have with someone in the 10 hours I jump each week. We want each other to be happy, for me that means jumping off things, for her it means running. We accept what the other does by themselves and understand where it comes from.

That doesn't follow. It's about paying for what you believe in, not about not paying for what you don't believe in. Libertarians believe the government shouldn't be in the education business. People must be free to choose whether or not they want to reproduce and the level of education they will provide for their offspring. People should also free to donate towards others' education. I'd donate to a scholarship program that allowed indigent children to attend a Libertarian school that taught independant thinking. Various religious organizations would continue to subsidize schools that taught their viewpoint under such a system. Many people are also against what's taught in public schools - things like the second ammendment being a collective right which allows states to have militias, coaching to succeed on standardized tests, rote memorization as a replacement for thinking, support for Columbus day, Evolution as science, etc. I'd be much happier if the $6000 our district spends on each pupil went to schools of my choosing (or even the parents) than the public brain-washing facilities. There's a reason free public education is a Communist party platform.

King Air Vmc roll.