DrewEckhardt

Companies have been making rigs which rely on tuck-tabs to keep things closed (instead of velcro), are designed for non-belly to earth positions, and are configured for AAD installation for over 15 years.

1168 feet, overhung, nice landing areas.

These deaths don't count because 1) Cars and alcohol weren't designed to kill people 2) This is the price we pay for freedom Personally I worry more about nutters who drink and drive like this than the ones with guns since the former pose a statistically bigger risk to me as some one who avoids risk factors like involvement in the illegal drug trade and youth gangs but that's not what drives politics. (I felt the same way when I lived in a big city where I could hear gun shots, and still feel that way living across the street from a nutter neighbor who had the SWAT team in my front yard because he allegedly flashed a gun at the garbage men).

Once again you cannot produce any evidence that will show American public support for the Republicans on this issue. Oh the Al Queda ( the religious base of the right wing nutters) supports their position.. scorched earth... take away from the American people.. and give to the anti american corporations and their masters.. the 1% who owns almost everything Do you count Obama among the right wing nutters since 1) He continues to transfer more money from his citizens to wealthy defense industry companies than the rest of the world put together? 2) He pushed through legislation transferring more money from his citizens to the wealthy health insurance industry by requiring us to buy their product and for them to charge young healthy people no less than 1/3 the infirm elderly? 3) His federal reserve governors bought up piles of worthless debt transferring money from American citizens (indirectly, by way of devaluing the dollar) to wealthy bankers? Or do you reserve the term "right wing nutters" for politicians who use that spin to market themselves?

I'm not a doctor, of course, but that doesn't keep me from giving advice. I've found pain killers are only addictive if you're not taking them for pain. I and others I've known have taken them for extended periods for pain. When the pain lessened, so did the dosage. When the pain was gone, we quit taking them. No problem.

Mine did a lot. It hurt for a long time after walking on it. It sometimes hurt after I sat in the wrong position until I got my hardware out. You might have nerve damage too. I got stabbing electrical pains in my foot for a long time since according to the neurologist I stretched a nerve.

increase the value of labour by increasing the minimum wage. lower the value of capital (making money out of money) by taxing it effectively... Cost and value are separate issues, although once cost becomes unacceptably high for a given value/source combination people find other markets and market alternatives. Jobs are lost when that value is in the form of labor. In the garment and foot wear manufacturing industry Chinese labor has become too expensive so production has moved to lower cost places like Cambodia where the current industry minimum wage is only $61 / month. With US grocery worker labor costs increasing stores moved to self-service checkout lines where a single clerk can run four at a time.

America already has the most (with the top earning decile having both the highest tax share and ratio of tax to income shares) progressive income tax system out of the OECD 24. We're ahead of allegedly socialist places like Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, The Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, The Slovak Republic, Sweden, Switzerland, and The United Kingdom. We don't need to be any more progressive.

So do you , Drew, support the idea of just not paying Federal Income Taxes? Unfortunately starving the beast won't kill it and tax avoidance isn't practical for those of us in the working classes. The most viable course of action is probably to hang around here (since it's a fairly inexpensive and nice first-world country with high paying jobs) being a good tax paying citizen, accumulating wealth, moving into assets not denominated in dollars, and leaving as the government's excesses catch up with it. Making enough money that it just doesn't matter (retaining a fraction of the real value from a huge pile is still a large pile) is possible but unlikely since it generally depends too much other people (you join a promising company but are neither CEO nor a board member, the CEO insists the company can't make money off a product under development and cancels it, and you loose. You join a competitor making a very similar product that closes its A-round a year later, they have a positive liquidity event with a $1.5B market cap, and you win big with your percentage). Secession is interesting to consider (California would have the world's eighth largest economy if separated) but that would just be a temporary reprieve since the states' governments are too similar to what we have at the federal level. An underground economy with its own currency which exists independent of a malfunctioning federal government is neat too, although existing regulations concerning wage reporting and withholding would keep most of the population from living their lives within it.

I don't think we have seen all that much "excesses of the masses" over the last 30 years... real value of their dollars... has gone down... the excesses have all been upward to the 2% in a flood The masses who don't pay income tax (now 47% of households many of which have at least two working people) vote for political parties which favor big government with 38% of the tab picked up by the top 1%, 21% picked up by the next 4%, and 11% by the next 5% for 70% of income tax revenues from 10% of the population. The top 2% are going to come to regret just how well they are doing.... http://www.vanityfair.com/society/features/2011/05/top-one-percent-201105 Although a nice identifiable target for our Two Minutes Hate the 2% aren't the problem. The real problems are 1) Large corporations/industries (with big chunks owned by the 2%, unions' pension plans, etc), their lobbyists, and a corporatist/fascist federal government. Government sponsored entities buying or guaranteeing mortgages and assuming the risk while banks and investors profited from origination and servicing fees helped the housing bubble form with gullible buyers allowed to buy property at untenable prices with the rest of us dragged along and still paying prices 20% over their inflation-adjusted trend line which has been essentially flat since WWII. Special rules for health insurance like exclusion from the anti-trust act allow higher prices for bigger profits and more dollars stolen from consumers. Group plan tax treatment creates captive consumers from whom more money can be taken. The credit supply resulting from government student loans and lowering risk for private lenders by allowing their claims to survive bankruptcy is allowing education costs to balloon at 4X the rate of inflation. etc. 2) First-past-the-post elections with geographic districts. These inevitably result in two "parties" that are essentially alike with both supporting the corporatist status quo and disagreeing only on minor details like whether to spend more money for the Prison Guard's Union or Teacher's Union. Any one wanting to change that is unelectable because their support base is geographically diverse. 20% of the population supporting libertarian ideals end up with 0 US Senators and 0 US Representatives instead of 10 and 87 respectively. A move to proportional representation isn't going to happen because it would be too disruptive to the incumbents' re-election and politicians being promoted from state to national office on their promise of time at the federal feed bag. Pissing and moaning about how "The Wealthy" don't pay their fair share of a broken government is a big distraction from the fact that the government is not the sort of thing any of us should be spending money on.

I could never hear my audible's beeps for break-off and pull altitudes (just the final siren) so I skipped those and reserved it for recording jumps and just in case. I dropped my altimeter getting dressed, it never got above zero in the plane, and I jumped anyways. My pro-track indicated that I'd pulled within a couple hundred feet of where I normally would. At a familiar DZ where you know how big the runway, landing area, etc. look at various altitudes it's not a big deal.

I got You answered 31 out of 33 correctly ¿ 93.94 % because my mouse misfired and highlighted the wrong box Question: Under Our Constitution, some powers belong exclusively to the federal government. What is one power of the federal government? Your Answer: Establish standards for doctors and lawyers Correct Answer: Make treaties Obviously doctors and lawyers are licensed by the several states because that limits competition and keeps wages up, and the constitution forbids the states from making treaties. I did that well because I answered what I thought they wanted instead of answering honestly on questions like this: Free enterprise or capitalism exists insofar as: experts managing the nation¿s commerce are appointed by elected officials individual citizens create, exchange, and control goods and resources charity, philanthropy, and volunteering decrease demand and supply are decided through majority vote government implements policies that favor businesses over consumers where the correct answer is "government implements policies that favor businesses over consumers." For example health insurers are exempt from the anti-trust legislation so they can do things like divide up rural territories. Without competition they can jack up rates. Businesses benefit and consumers suffer. Where other countries tax their citizens to pay for health care directly we tax our citizens to pay for-profit companies to pay for-profit companies for health care with the net effect being spending as much per capita to cover 25% of our population as other countries do everyone. The private companies in the middle benefit. The consumers (tax payers) still need to pony up for their own insurance.

I don't think we have seen all that much "excesses of the masses" over the last 30 years... real value of their dollars... has gone down... the excesses have all been upward to the 2% in a flood The masses who don't pay income tax (now 47% of households many of which have at least two working people) vote for political parties which favor big government with 38% of the tab picked up by the top 1%, 21% picked up by the next 4%, and 11% by the next 5% for 70% of income tax revenues from 10% of the population.

I think that's exceedingly unlikely unless you take an engineering role that has other responsibilities that get you to a non-engineering position. Maybe you can become a team lead where you spend 75% of your time engineering and 25% on management and then get promoted into a more managerial role. In any other position you have less experience and worth to an employer. People with more experience are more attractive because they have more experience and people with a shorter path to the same experience are more attractive because they're used to less money and will generally be willing to work harder to prove themselves. Everything has its cost. My current boss tries to keep us as happy as possible, people can actually go on vacation for a few weeks at a time, my senior management team is the most competent I've worked with, I can ride my bicycle in the sun pretty much every day, it rarely gets over 80 in the summer, and the temperature is usually in the 50s over the winter. Assuming no positive liquidity event this year my total compensation will be less than half what it was if I'd stayed at my last big company, I live in a single bedroom apartment with my wife and cat instead of owning a luxury town home, and my car is 14 years old instead of just a decade. It's totally worth it. You may be happier with a short sale, few years of bad credit, and something that uses your MBA but only pays the starting salary that goes with that.

No. I bought my Cypreses at wholesale cost from a DZO who thought it was more important for jumpers to have AADs than to make a profit on the ones he sold. IIRC they were about $825 (the dollar was strong against the Deutsche Mark!) and $900 with retail prices running around $1200-$1300.

I didn't know they had any rates that high. What all does that include??? 8 DVDs or Bluray discs out at once plus streaming. 8 discs means that we almost always have something good on hand that we'd want to watch - - A few decent TV shows on disc like House, M.D. which don't take much attention and are fine for half an hour before bed-time - Longer movies for when we have a couple hours over the weekend with recent highlights including _Taxi Driver_ and _The Forbidden Planet_. - Things I want to watch which my wife doesn't, like _The West Wing_ which reminds her too much of the real world. - Films which my wife has enough estrogen to enjoy. Streaming takes care of us when that's not enough. Current queue lengths are 466 for discs and 311 for streaming.

Not me. They dropped my price from $64.99 to $60.98 and if I was on one of their lower priced plans it would still be piles cheaper than the cable/satellite package I'd need to replace it with to have something worth watching waiting for me when I wanted.

money being made up out of thin air. Sounds no different from conventional money. It's radically different from conventional money. Governments only require a pen stroke to create currency in a fiat monetary system like we supposedly have in the US (one can argue we've transitioned to a credit monetary system) so the money supply has no upper limit (although when they print too much it's value drops compared to commodities and other currencies, like the Canadian dollar trading at close to parity versus $.60 Canadian per US dollar a decade ago and the Euro which now costs $1.40 instead of $1 at its origination). The number of Bitcoins in existence is limited to about 21 million, with the rate of production unlikely to deviate from predicted values unless there's a radical change in computing technology (Moore's law stating that the number of transistors on a chip doubles every two years has held for the last 50 years and is expected to continue for the next few years followed by a slowing which stops as we're placing individual molecules on chips around 2020. This is also what limits speed, with less size allowing for higher clock speeds at the same thermal dissipation and light speed ultimately determining how fast electrons and holes move). Gold held as a commodity is similar (you don't take delivery of actual gold; although it's technically impossible with the Bitcoin. OTOH, you need to trade gold through an exchange which is subject to government monitoring in taxation although bitcoins don't need that). Physical gold is more similar (you can trade it without government intervention. Although the government could interfere with the internet, you can hide data in pictures via steganography or do your peer to peer transfers with avian transport).

You're right, we should be talking about the important things going on in Germany. BMW has a new M5 coming out this fall with a 578 HP biturbo V8 and the US model should be available with a conventional six-speed. [URL]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4vFDzpvnVU[/URL] [URL]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aTbyxc9Ko0&feature=related[/URL] And Audi has the RS3 [URL]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y3PUu2Vn6h0&feature=player_embedded[/URL] which recalls their illustrious history with small, powerful, 5-cylinder equipped small cars with all-wheel drive [URL]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ydjguQZORmU[/URL]

Find your place in the natural order of things. There will be people who exited after you who will be landing before you, by virtue of smaller canopy size, more aggressive landings, and/or just being Muppets with sawdust for brains. There may be people who exited before you that will be landing later - maybe they opened higher, maybe they're women small enough for you to date under relatively large canopies. You'll be more relaxed and have less risk of a canopy collision if you descend slower or faster so that the inevitable passing occurs at a higher altitude. There will also be people who exited before you with some combination of more speed and less altitude that should land before you, and ones who exited later with more altitude/less speed that should naturally land after you. Don't disturb that order. Getting closer to halfway between the landing times of people before and after you will give you more padding.

Less than it takes to drive to the next nearest DZ.

Switch to a canopy size appropriate for your limited jump numbers like a 210 and learn how to fly it landing up-wind, cross-wind, down-wind, up-hill, down-hill, in a turn, with a 90 degree flat turn starting at the tree tops, on concrete, etc. The 1.0 + .1 / 100 jump canopy size guideline comes from the practice and experience necessary to deal with those situations which you'll eventually find yourself in (if you don't break something with an attempted hard turn back into the wind instead). Learning those things with more square footage over your head is easier and hurts less. Nope, but your crashes would be faster and perhaps more entertaining for the rest of us. Get video, especially if you plan on trying the 150 in spite of other advice. Coaching from some one who understands both canopy flight and how to teach it would be prudent.

I believe this will happen BUT where do you draw the line John? People that have $XXX in retirement funds don't get all there S.S.? I think the only fair approach is to base it on income during peoples' working careers. People buying large homes and new cars every few years should be treated the same as other people with the same income who opted for yearly five figure retirement account contributions instead. 1. The government already does this by considering 401k withdrawals income and taxing Social Security payments as income crosses certain levels (currently 25K/34K for half the benefit to be taxable for single people/married couples and 34K/44K for Social Security to be fully taxable). 2. Retirement vehicles like the 401K and IRA can replace 100% of your pre-retirement income starting at age 59 1/2. For single high-earners Social Security replaces 1/3 of their pre-retirement income starting at age 70. Needing to work an extra decade after which you take a 2/3 pay cut doesn't sound like much fun to me.

Nope, it's worked fine for the last year. Just be sure what ever you get has DisplayPort (will run a 2560x1600 monitor) not HDMI (1920x1080) and opt for the largest battery.

7 minutes (that allows enough time to replace a worn/broken tube stow or two and I still neatly flake the canopy between line groups). Samurai 105, Stiletto 120, Monarch 135, Fox 245 in my Javelin J-7 for classic accuracy.