DrewEckhardt

The vast majority of illegal immigrants are in the lowest two income quintiles which -6.6 and -1.8% average income tax rates when people file and take advantage of their refundable tax credits. Poor people don't pay income tax.

How is my canopy going to react? It's going to fly like one 1 (winter) - 2 sizes (summer) smaller in terms of forward speed, stall speed, and altitude lost in turns.

There are no exemptions allowed for the 15.3% SS + medicare tax, making for 8.5 billion dollars a year that can't be matched up to a valid tax ID. Claiming 1 dependant or 10 doesn't change the tax with-held. With no valid social security number, illegal immigrants also aren't eligible for welfare, Social Security, or Medicare.

Milwaukee Sawzall, endorsed by Jeffrey Dahmer for man-sized jobs.

Being fully open at 200 feet leaves enough time to clear the brakes, make a 180 degree turn (which is always enough to face into the wind) and have a nice landing from full-flight. It does not leave enough time to be surprised and think about what's going on.

Not to take this a different direction, but if his AAD went off at 650 ft (who knows if that's accurate) either he had a monster p/c hesitation or one hell of a slow opening to actually check his descent so low that he broke both ankles. Or he was caught up in sensory overload instead of finding a safe place to land followed by an approach (with a practice flare or two mixed in somewhere) ending with the canopy in a level, un-accelerated configuration followed by well-executed flare and PLF to take care of residual energy. I've seen broken ankles from new skydivers who just didn't flare their rental gear when landing in a wide open grassy DZ following what was presumably an uneventful free fall and deployment above 3000 feet. The same thing is more likely to happen with a starting altitude at 650 feet, under a new canopy, probably landing off the DZ in less hospitable terrain.

Zero. Bags which hold just a rig, jump suit, helmet, and accessories are legal as air-line carry-ons, fit nicely on a motor cycle seat, and are a manageable 25 pounds. Combining them together would mean they get checked on planes (potentially over-sized), need a car to transport, and make them too heavy to drag around. When I need a second rig or clothes, I just take a second bag.

My experience has been that most "researchers" without commercial motivations are looking for facts which support their prejudices (and peer approval) instead of answers. It's sad that we live in a world where people can get PhDs without moving beyond their animal emotions and actually using their brains to actually think about facts.

While it makes arguments easier, correlation does not imply causality. Youth gang members get shot more. People committing felonies get shot more. I'd argue that's because they're gang bangers and felons, not because they carry guns more often than other people. Even under Democratic presidents the Justice Department National Crime and Victimization surveys show significantly lower injury rates when victims defend themselves against robbers using guns compared to complying with their attackers, running away, or any other armed or unarmed resistance.

ESPECIALLY now that health care is becoming nationalized. I don't want the government sending me to a concentration camp for fatties because I like to eat more deep dish pizzas than I should.

While painful and distrurbing to see something like ankle joint, knee joint, between joint? long bone shaft breaks without complications can be repaired to restore normal function. When the ends break, people end up with arthritis which isn't fixed with surgery. The thinner shaft of long bones like the tibia is a fuse that makes the repairable injury more likely. OTOH, with an IM nail the shaft may no longer be the weak point and re-injury could be much worse. I'll get my tibial nail out once the bone graft has time to heal for that reason.

Ultimately fuel economy is limited by front area and Cd on flat ground and weight in hilly environments. The Corvette is neither large, un-aerodynamic, nor heavy.

I'd rather police use the existing escalation of force standard without having new tools that are too easy to use and abuse.

Assuming the time involved in both cases is reasonable I'd take $10M, but a more realistic situation would be Would you rather make $100K/year working 40-50 hours a week for Big Company, Inc. or $100K/year with a potential $3.5M pay-off (which you can make more likely) working for Next Great Thing Venture Startup Co or You and Friends Want An Acquisition LLC which requires working 80-100 hours a week? With a 25% tax on the $3.5M I'd be likely to take that bet since I'd be left with $2.625M and could retire without having a change in cash flow. The $175K left with a 95% marginal tax rate wouldn't be enough to change my life in a way I'd consider meaningful and wouldn't be worth 40-50 hours a week of my time. At some point the work needed to earn (or potentially earn) each additional dollar is too much. I think Royd's original example would remove most of the motivation for starting new companies.

With Boulder, the turbine DZ is 15 minutes away. It is not unreasonable to detour by the DZ on a summer day after work to make just 1 or 2 loads. San Diego does have better breweries.

Yes, but not as much as I like cars which kill 42,000 people a year (115 people a day) or fattening food which probably kills at least 236,000 people a year (646 daily).

It's called distribution of wealth, it's necessary to keep a country healthy. It's not. Obsessions over "wealth distribution" are wasteful distractions from the real issues affecting lower earning individuals' quality of life. Bill Gates having just 84,000X my assets instead of 168,000X has nothing to do with my being able to have a home, transportation, decent food, some level of creature comforts, and the ability to retire once I get old and tired. Warren Buffet doing 124,000X better instead of 248,000X has nothing to do with my competitiveness in the global labor market where people in emerging markets with low costs of living do "the same job" for 1/5th my Salary. Real problems stem from "common-man" friendly government programs like buying up mortgages, thus insulating banks from risks and allowing artificially low interest rates which drive up the cost of real-estate so that we've gone from people paying half their salary for five years to 30-50% of their salary for 30 or 40 years to buy a home. Real problems stem from "common-man" friendly government programs like student loan guarantees, thus getting young people unaware of true debt service costs into loans with necessary secondary education cost increases far outpacing inflation so that we've gone from a part time job covering college with no debt to young people entering their adult life owing what they'd pay for half an artificially inflated house. Those same problems make the impending collision between first and third world costs of labor and living more severe than it has to be and amplify the pain of the people caught up in it.

Just like other toys including motorcycles. Streets should be reserved for CARS which protect their occupants when other drivers don't do a good job.

I got rid of my satellite connection in 2001 when I realized that I hadn't watched anything in six months (although I had rented a number of DVDs from the decent local video store). I don't miss it. The few things worth watching on TV will end up on DVD within a year and still be worth watching. For all the rest there are better things to do with the time.

Share hour long tunnel blocks with 3-4 other skydivers and don't be surprised if it takes six of them. That got me to the point I could dock on my back.

You're missing options including "not happy that Al Queda has won" and "happy that Al Queda has won." Given the state of liberties after 9-11, America isn't the same place it was before. I'm not happy about that.

Sounds fine to me. I had a nice 100% coverage, no-deductible policy. It cost my employer $1000 a month to cover my wife and I where a $500 per person deductible policy would be in the $700 range and high deductible closer to $600. You'd be best off with a high deductible plan to cover catastrophic things with the price difference going into a tax free health savings account until you have the out of pocket maximums covered. Health insurance is about getting the insurance company's negotiated rates so you're spending $12.50 on blood work instead of the full $300+ retail price. It's about having $40,000 in treatment for a broken leg covered so you don't get bankrupt. As long as you can pay with pre-tax money (HSA/FSA) you're better off paying for minor things out of pocket.

So your conclusion is that people who can't afford health insurance also choose to live unhealthy lifestyles? People without pre-existing conditions who can't afford health insurance also can't afford to live healthy life styles. Low income makes low-priced food attractive, where the lowest costs per calorie are found in "junk food" with low nutritional value. With satiety being a function of food volume, people eating such foods need to eat more calories to feel full and are therefore more likely to be obese. People who can't afford health insurance can't afford to own cars (or park them in urban areas), meaning low-income city dwellers are more likely to be stuck with convenience stores which only stock such foods. This is starting to become common knowledge http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/05/a-high-price-for-healthy-food/

Assuming people are roughly the same shape, weight is proportional to height cubed while surface area is only proportional to heigh squared. Since drag is proportional to surface area at a given speed and proportional to the square of velocity, big people must have a higher terminal velocity to produce 0 net force when drag meets their attraction to the planet due to gravity.

A month of lift tickets is usually less than $400. Two months is usually less than $400. The reason is that serious snow sports people get season passes. And pack a lunch (NOTE: carbonated sodas in cans can explode) so they aren't eating bad tasting $10 hamburgers. Most of the front range places you'd like to go (Winter Park, Loveland, the Summit resorts) have passes. You'll need to buy one in the fall, because they stop selling them (it's better when tourists pay full price for both food and lift tickets). Get your boots fitted. Superfeet? in-soles are must; they'll heat up the inserts and vacuum bag them with your feet. Custom molded bladders are great too. Between the two your boots will fit like gloves and not get uncomfortable when you crank things down. Get boot driers to use on your boots and gloves; it's less expensive than getting three pairs of each so you stay dry and way more comfortable than just being wet. Your outer layer needs to have minimal insulation and pit zips for ventilation. Otherwise you'll drown in your sweat unless its below 20 degrees. I like bib pants to keep snow out.