DrewEckhardt

Most gear is rated for a maximum of 254 pounds out the door. 230 pounds of you plus 30 pounds of gear don't fit under the legal limit. Some sport skydiving gear is rated for a maximum of 275 pounds. With a geared up weight of 260 pounds you'd be fine here even if you ate a big breakfast. For student training you'll need to call around for a DZ which has newer student gear with those sorts of weight ratings. Really heavy people have learned to skydive on modified tandem equipment but you're not that big. Tandem gear is tested and rated to higher limits, although modifications would be need to put it in a solo skydiving configuration.

Your neutral fall rate will be way slower than the people you'd want to jump with due to the increased drag. The best case is that you won't have as much fun on those jumps and worst case is you won't get invited back for not making it in to the formation.

At .0009% of the $660,000,000,000 US military budget such trivial sums are completely irrelevant. If you want to bitch about over-spending, bitch about the biggest socialist over-spending problem in the budget. Canada has the same land mass but more shoreline and does fine on 1/30th of that with $18.2B in 2008 and an expected $19B tab in 2009. Fixes here would net $500,000,000,000 savings not $6,000,000.

There isn't a simple equivalent. The forward speed is the same as any other 190 at a given glide angle. The opening sensitivity is unique. My Monarch 135 square is definitely more resistant to opening issues than a 170 Jonathan or 190 Diablo elliptical. A lot of the tendency to dive and control sensitivity comes from the shape. I briefly jumped a Diablo 190 after herniating a disc and could get it into a diving attitude faster than my Monarch 135. The control sensitivity which comes from size (line and chord length) and shape doesn't change too much with weight. I've flown my Stiletto 120 with suspended weights between 170 and over 300 pounds (Mr. Bill) and while the extra weight made it a lot faster it didn't seem twitchier like going from a 135 to a 120. It's not like a faster car or bike where you can avoid problems by not cornering too fast or giving it too much gas. Big bikes aren't easier to turn than small ones. Unlike elliptical parachutes, I've never had a car or bike turn when I didn't want it too and applying the brakes on a land vehicle doesn't cause it to stop flying.

If you manage to break yourself you could easily spend 10X what you saved to cover the difference between your salary and disability insurance pay-out, health insurance co-insurance, and health insurance deductible. The first and following jumps into a wide open field are not a big deal. You'll enjoy the responsiveness and flare power. The issue is that ellipticals are built to be significantly more responsive to control input so pulling too hard on one toggle will quickly point them at the ground whether or not that's what you want. You don't have the muscle memory from experience to avoid over-controlling it when something unexpected happens at low altitude, like some one "cuts you off" in the landing area or you don't notice obstacles when landing out until you're 50 feet off the ground. You have yet to develop important survival skills like 90 degree flat turns from 50', and the elliptical tendency to dive means a much greater penalty when you get that wrong (you and the canopy hitting the ground at the same time is a lot worse than any sort of landing where the canopy is still over your head where a PLF avoids a lot of injuries and the ones it doesn't tend to be in your leg bones that usually heal well). Plenty of people have unintentionally flown elliptical canopies into the ground. Ellipticals are also a lot more responsive at opening time and need to be flown through it. Bad body position or failure to deal with issues will produce line twists and a spinning malfunction. This is why people like Brian Germain forbid the use of their elliptical designs by people with fewer than 300 jumps regardless of wing loading. Other countries have such restrictions at a national level. Many elliptical parachutes have a minimum wing loading which you're under. The inherent roll axis instability can also make landing more difficult.

Just do it. Start with fewer degrees of turn so that you're less likely to run out of lift. Start with small inputs - as Brian Germain notes this is like ballet not boxing. If that scares you too much your parachute is too small so upsize until that doesn't limit you. Consider wearing pants over your leg straps so grass stains are more likely to end up there than on your rig and note that you better be sure your leg straps are tight and threaded correctly. If you're too afraid of getting dirt on your nice rig you now know why used gear is recommended for people learning to skydive.

I've personally digested raw beef, buffalo, and venison. The cooking is optional provided that the meat is fresh. For steak tartare you grind up raw beef. Mix in a raw egg. Serve with crostini. Garnish with scallions, red onions, capers, and diced hard-boiled egg. For carpaccio it gets thinly sliced or hammered flat. Condiments vary depending on where you are and can include mustard, olive oil, and lemon juice. I think just a little olive oil and slices of hard cheese like parmesan or romano work best. Raw clams and oysters are tasty too. You just need to shuck them. Raw shrimp has a nice sweet flavor but some people don't like the gummy texture.

Ft Meyers Beach, Fl: Best blue crab. We'd catch fish, eat them, throw the heads in the crab pot, and empty the contents of it the next day for lunch. Boulder, Co: Very good sushi at Sushi Tora. Unagi Shirayaki (fresh freshwater eel) and Sawagani (small river crabs that get fried) in Boulder flown in live from the Tsukiji fish market in Tokyo. Boulder, Co: The Porter Milkshake. It's beer. It's desert. It's tasty. Twin Falls, Id: Best aged steak ever. After eating my share of $50 steak-house cuts elsewhere and even strips of Wagyu seared with a blow torch I was shocked to find Rock Creek offering something better for less money. On a coffee farm with no running water or windows outside Aquismon in Mexico: Best chicken mole. We brought the chicken up from Aquismon and had the mother cook it up. San Francisco, CA: Best oysters from Cafe Zuni, and I actually ate my fill (dozens). I especially like Kumamatos that are both sweet and savory. San Francisco, CA: Best sushi overall (omakase) from Ryoko's. Madrid, Spain: Baby Squid in their Ink. First time I had squid ink. Yum! Las Palmas, Gran Canaria: Best desert ever. Some sort of orange flan which was surprisingly the best desert ever. Puerto de Mogan, Gran Canaria: The tastiest little pan fish and mishapen potatoes with garlic aioli. Yum! Seattle, WA: Best salmon. One of the sushi chefs fed us a couple species from several locations each and it made a surprising difference. Seattle, WA: Uni Ika Soma at Shiro's. Quail egg and sea urchin gonads on top strips of raw squid with a nice ponzu sauce. Yum! San Francisco, CA: first good bowel of Ramen at Tanpopo noodle shop. Yum! In the past I've been a Pho guy, but this was good.

and he still doesn't get it - he still thinks a deal where the other 49 states (48, since Nebraska is out) supplement his costs is a good deal until we all stop thinking like this (it's ok if someone else pays for it) - we'll go bankrupt As of 2005, California got back $.79 out of every $1.00 we sent to the Feds as taxes. Even if they kick back enough to cover the mandated Medicare spending increases we'll still be the "some one else" paying for the 32 states that get more than they give ranging from egregious like New Mexico at $2.03 to moderate like Nebraska at $1.10. California is also broke. We can't afford government mandated spending increases without additional funds to cover the bills. Where can I find that info? Federal spending to tax collection summary: http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/266.html A cursory web search doesn't turn up more recent data.

and he still doesn't get it - he still thinks a deal where the other 49 states (48, since Nebraska is out) supplement his costs is a good deal until we all stop thinking like this (it's ok if someone else pays for it) - we'll go bankrupt As of 2005, California got back $.78 out of every $1.00 we sent to the Feds as taxes. Even if they kick back enough to cover the mandated Medicare spending increases we'll still be the "some one else" paying for the 32 states that get more than they give ranging from egregious like New Mexico at $2.03 to moderate like Nebraska at $1.10. California is also broke. We can't afford government mandated spending increases without additional funds to cover the bills.

No. Here in Silicon Valley it's currently 56 F. Yesterday I rode my bicycle to work and back home at 11pm wearing just shorts and a T-shirt. (I started home with a jacket but got too warm). Usual daily highs are around 60 degrees this time of year with over-night lows about 40 degrees. The weather forecast is 58/40 today, 61/40 tomorrow, 61/41 Saturday, 63/43 Sunday. Quite pleasant. Average high temperatures in July are about 80.

Kroil penetrating oil (might be something like Aero Kroil in the can) The blue flame speed wrench. After that "non-destructive" is out of the question and it's about cutting out the inexpensive parts. A right angle grinder is cheap, versatile, and works well. A Milwaukee Sawzall with a good blade cuts through steel like a hot knife in butter. Neanderthals might try a nut-cracker or cold chisel on a nut, but when you're a dude anything involving power tools, flames, and/or sparks is inherently better. A Dremel tool doesn't make enough sparks to be a good choice, although if you do whimp-out using a fiberglass reinforced cut-off wheel reduces breakage. My Toyota Land Cruiser left the factory in October of 1969 a few years before I did. After I bought it in 1992 heroic measures were sometimes required. OTOH, it did take a while for the pieces of metal to disappear from my hands after I ground the front axle housings using my die grinder to accommodate the larger Birfield joints which went with my front disc brake conversion. You might tread lightly. Or just wear your welding gloves when grinding.

I agree that's very unpleasant, think it's inevitable, and pray enough people get their heads out of the sand and do something effective to minimize the impact when the inevitable happens. To summarize reality sucks. Reality sucks a lot. Here's why I think things are going to get screwed up based on first and second hand information. This has a lot to do with why I have six figures (American Dollars) in cash not American real-estate. I've sold my real-estate and aim to be out of dollars before the inevitable happens. I don't like renting with questionable neighbors (the SWAT team has only come for one though). While a completely inappropriate debate argument I hope that's a reasonable sincerity demonstration. This is more than an amusing intellectual debate and I really regret probably being right. In the past the first and third worlds have been very distinct places in terms of talent, capital, and culture. Those differences are nearly gone and the rate of closure is increasing. Talent comes from inherent abilities, education, and experience. I haven't seen anything to suggest that inherent talent respects national boundaries. That's after being great friends with successful foreign entrepeneurs, being friends with Asian/Eastern European/Middle Eastern (the common ground being low costs of living and labor costs) tech workers, and knowing other relevant people from Central America/Asia/Europe (there are a couple billion people there where the US is only 300 million). The IIT schools and Tsinghua are arguably on par with American universities. On-the-job training counts for a lot and is very possible off-shore now that American companies are getting a significant fraction of their work-force beyond our borders. Experience comes in less time when it's second or third-hand from some one who has put in a lot of effort and learned from others' experience. We have enough history in America of innovation and practical engineering application to do wonderful things. Any one experienced you'd want to hire has worked with people (or people who worked with people) with good technical insights or process experiences and picked up enough of the parts of that which worked well. I learned a lot more than I could have reading papers and theses having David Patterson (who invented RAID) as a technical advisor at one startup and working with a Digital Systems Research Center alumni (who also worked with Chandu Thekkath of Petal/Frangiapani and had at least had some influence from Leslie Lamport) at another. My minion of evil Haowei Li in China is progressing nicely as an engineer. Plenty of other companies are doing the same things, pairing American mentors with tier-1 experience to off-shore co-workers. Extended periods of American work-weeks with 3-4 hours 5 days a week of mentoring from experienced people should produce very competent workers in a short time frame. That leaves capital. American companies are now doing research and development in developing countries for cost reasons, whether to get more out of their venture capital/cash (an Indian software engineer costs 1/10th what an American one does, and those guys are over-priced) or to turn a profit without giving anything up to the vultures with off-shore labor making the difference. In practice the money for new development efforts is moving off-shore. My friends have lived full-time in Eastern Europe and have teams there implementing their startups. Friends are living less than half-time in China (being there more would have tax consequences) to do well in startups. While a lot of capital still flows from Sand Hill to American entrepeneurs, after the business plan and initial provisional patents/design an increasing number of companies are being built off-shore. More people are making their series-A and series-B go farther with off-shore development. More people are choosing to live in a developing country until a team is established (delegating the whole thing is currently a proven path to failure, although people will do a lot for millions (or hundreds of millions) in potential pay-offs), build a team there, and go to profitability while self-funded instead of selling half the company to people who do little and another quarter to the same people so they can stay alive until they actually make money. Although many new companies retain American C-level executives and middle management more of their other employees and their capital destination are elsewhere. Culture as it applies to explosive business success is mostly a corporate thing. Coming from a native culture with Brahmin and Sudra doesn't preclude joining a startup where ideas are judged on immediate and future business impact or a second one where you believe that. Some people would consider names for non-native speakers to be an issue, although my Chinese co-workers are adopting names like "Jack" and "Norman" so that's not an issue. Some people would consider bad accents to be an impediment although we've found that to be a non-issue when we use instant messaging. Working 11pm-3am on those conferences is sub-optimal, although I like owning a significant fraction of something which should turn into a billion dollar market cap with decent management and it doesn't impact sleep when the first in-person meeting in California isn't before 1pm. Beyond that I've observed an industry which has progressed (in the early nineties) from some large companies delegating a few perceptually unimportant tasks to off-shore resources and a few astute small ones (we increased our profit margins putting American condoms in our shipments to Russia where we got Russian PhD's for very little) doing more to new companies doing most of their work (in 2010) over there. It's coming, the result will suck in the USA, and we're not going to undo that. We should hope to make it suck less. Living in a tube apartment 5x5x8' alone or a normal sized apartment with cage subdivisions and 11 unrelated people would suck a lot. Living in a 1500 square foot row house with your family would suck less. Keeping your current home while commuting only periodically to a job in some other continent (via commercial air travel) may suck least. I really wish those weren't strong probabilities. I'd like to spend my time mostly doing interesting things (like turning a cool provisional patent into a product) with much of the rest reading neat papers instead of learning Hindi and/or Mandarin. Unfortunately that's not realistic.

They're coming back. White collar jobs are moving to the developing world for the cost benefits that caused manufacturing jobs to move: salaries and costs of living 1/10th what ours are. This holds for both established companies and new startups. If salaries (and costs of living) didn't come down, eventually we'd only have the jobs which needed to be done locally (like plumbing, construction, and medical care) and those guys would be out of business when the rest of us could no longer pay for their services. Instead developing world salaries + costs of living are going increasing more rapidly while ours are decreasing or increasingly slowly. Eventually we'll meet and jobs will go where the people and resources are.

When I was a boy scout they didn't let us use lighter fluid. Instead we built our charcoal cooking fires with chimneys made out of 1 pound coffee cans with the bottom cut out and holes in the side. Fill the bottom with loose newspaper, add wood kindling on top of the paper if you want insurance that it's going to start the first time, and put the charcoal on top. Use multiples for larger grills. Commercial models are available if you want something nicer. Even Walmart sells charcoal chimneys: http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=10879201&sourceid=1500000000000003260350&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=10879201 The last few HOAs have not allowed charcoal grills, so it's been a long time since I had to build a fire like that.

Incorrect. Correct. Nearly all BASE canopies are large, lightly-loaded (.7 is ideal), rectangular, low-aspect ratio (around 2:1) seven cells with wide open noses for positive inflation and trim so they open fast with Dacron lines that don't go out of trim. All of that is conducive to predictable on-heading openings. Modern skydiving canopies are relatively small and highly loaded (we recommend 1.0 pounds per square foot for a first rig and experienced jumpers exceed 2 pounds per square foot), tapered, higher aspect-ratio, and have partially closed noses to pamper skydivers with slow openings. Many have Spectra lines which go out of trim and make for weird openings. All of that leads to inherent variability and sensitivity to other things like body position. I've made over 100 BASE jumps with one opening over 90 degrees off-heading (only time I didn't pack for myself) and I can't recall anything over 45 degrees after I learned to relax. I might attribute that to better packing, although after having issues in a tight landing area I bought a used J7 and found that I liked casual classic accuracy using my BASE canopies (Fox 245, Dagger 244. The Fox has a real nice sink into a pea pit or onto your packing mat) with seven minute pack jobs. That didn't produce a noticeable change in heading control (I can't even remember anything 45 degrees off heading) or opening speed using mesh sliders and no D-bag. I could blame the D-bag, although my experience with skydiving canopies is that bigger, more square, and faster opening canopies are more consistent. While my ellipticals (Stiletto 120, Samurai 105) and square (Monarch 135, around a 3:1 aspect ratio) open on-heading most of the time, I wouldn't bet on it in the same way. Opening speed also has bigger random variations on the slow opening canopies. A more appropriate test is to buy a student sized rig (I picked up a Javelin J7 and Raven III for about $700; Sun Path claims it will hold a 288) and make a reasonable number (maybe 50? classic accuracy is fun) of hop-and-pops from a plane using your BASE canopy and skydiving main. In many cases the BASE canopies will be a lot more predictable in terms of both heading performance and opening time.

A conifer. Most are trees although a few are just shrubs. Oh, wait - that's when it's spelled cypress.

Many riggers will install a Cypres and re-close their own pack job for much less than the price of an air, inspect, and re-pack. Most of the AI&R time is spent inspecting every seam (which requires crawling inside every cell or half-cell) and bar-tack and doing the meticulous folding before it goes in the bag so many people will charge less just to re-close. Get it packed, jump, and get the Cypres installed by the same rigger when it comes back.

Get some warmer clothes, keep a snow shovel outside the door leading to your grill, and be quick about it. I lived in Colorado for fifteen years and rarely considered it too cold to grill.

Florida did something like that having license plates which identified rental cars. After Florida passed its shall-issue concealed carry law in 1987 crime went down. A murder rate 36% above the national average became 4% below by 1991. Criminals switched from violent crimes to crimes against property, except the ones who targeted people in rental cars who were presumably non-residents without concealed carry permits. Florida responded by getting rid of the special license plates and making it illegal for rental companies to put their logos on rentals and tourists were safe like the citizens.

I'm an engineer. I've spent most of my career at startups. Working 105 hours a week does not leave enough time to be both rested and do anything. Working a more typical and sustainable 60-80 hours a week allows plenty of time to do other things. For instance in 2003 I made 168 skydives, 30 BASE jumps, shot enough to achieve my all time best of 194-8X prone at 100 yards, built a pair of stereo speakers, and started dating my wife. It does not allow enough time to be an average American who watches 151 hours of television a month http://www.cnn.com/2009/SHOWBIZ/TV/02/24/us.video.nielsen/.

None of the above. Be an adult, say "this isn't going to work because of ZZZ" and move on. Don't hedge your bets and try something else at the same time (many of us won't respect you once we find out).

Nearly every one I know who decided to use their regular elliptical canopy for wingsuit jumps has had a cutaway (I chopped my Batwing, Jay jettisoned his Samurai, Grant got rid of his 104, etc.). Most of us have had the sense to switch to something better behaved on opening (I have a Monarch 135, Jay switched to a Spectre which he later replaced with a Sabre2). I think using an elliptical canopy for wing suit jumps is a bad idea and using a Stiletto is especially bad. You don't need two whole rigs - just an extra canopy and set of risers. Apart from that the Stiletto is a fine parachute. I put 600 jumps on my Stiletto 120 (Alan Lo's old canopy) and loved that thing. Didn't find anything I liked better until I tried the Samurai (which is trimmed steeper than you'd like).

Bicycle. Unfortunately, not very practical for most people that work long distances away from their homes or work in offices while wearing business suits. "Cheap" isn't always the best answer. 1. You don't need to wear the same clothes to bike that you work in. Most of the office buildings I've worked in have had shower facilities, where a formal dressing office worker could take their morning shower and change into something more business like. 2. Living far away from work is usually a choice. The alternative may mean a smaller home closer to business centers, or renting instead of buying where jobs aren't centrally located.

It doesn't need to be new, although it can't be so worn out the descent rate is high and you can't get a comfortable stand-up landing on hard ground flaring from 3/4 brakes. The best idea is to get a big skydiving rig (I have a J7) and put your usual BASE canopy in there. It'll land harder if you mess up with the extra 15 pounds of weight from skydiving gear but you're finishing in pea gravel so that doesn't matter. Classic accuracy is very different from flying modern skydiving canopies. Where modern parachutes flatten out with brake application and maintain essentially the same glide ratio (> 2:1) until just short of stalling, accuracy/BASE canopies get steeper with progressively more input (the classic accuracy approach is flown at about a 1:1 slope and 2/3 brakes increasing to straight down at 100% at the end with no flare; you stop at 3/4 brakes and flare BASE jumping since that's still comfortable on hard ground). With enough input they'll come straight down even in no-wind situations. This is something you need to master before BASE jumping into interesting landing areas, and is best learned from a plane (2000 feet not 200) into a pea gravel pit (you can come in too fast and not hurt yourself). The ideal wing loading for BASE and classic accuracy is about .7 pounds per square foot. It's high enough to keep the canopy responsive but will still give you a comfortable landing with a classic accuracy approach flaring from 3/4 brakes. If you assume about 15 pounds of gear for a single canopy setup and about 30 for a large skydiving rig (I've stepped on a scale in both cases; where my usual sport rig weighs 19 pounds the big Javelin is 29), a 220 might be a nice BASE canopy for some one who weigh 140 pounds or 130 pound person jumping classic accuracy. Some people would go larger in BASE using the rule of thumb naked weight + 100.