tbrown

Both our girls had the ear tubes and they helped a lot. Relax, things will be just fine - and a lot better. Then the older one just had her tonsils out last summer, going on 24. It's rougher on an adult, even a young one, but again, things are better now. Most kids just don't have their tonsils out anymore. I still remember when a lot of my friends had them out as a normal thing, though I never did myself. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I've heard them called "bald eagles". Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Chapter 11 has been good enough for better run companies than these three. It's good enough for them. Putting $$ into these companies has ZERO ROI for the taxpayer and in today's budgetary environs that is even more unacceptable than normal - and it's ALWAYS unacceptable. I disagree Vinny. Who would want to buy a car from a company in Chapter 11 ? Not me (I wouldn't anyway, after my disappointment with our Saturn I'm a rice-burner believer for life). It isn't just the people who work for any of the Big 3, it's all the connected and ancillary businesses, something I'm ver sensitive to working for an aerospace supplier to the big muckey-mucks. I have no soft spots in my heart for any of the Big 3, or the people who run them. President Obama (hell, we can only have ONE President at a time, and W is on a permanent vodka & vicodin vacation) has already stated publicly that the CEO at GM needs to step down. As right as your princples are, I am NOT willing to let things in the real world go to hell for them. America without an automotive industry ? You simply can't be serious. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Chapter 11 has been good enough for better run companies than these three. It's good enough for them. Putting $$ into these companies has ZERO ROI for the taxpayer and in today's budgetary environs that is even more unacceptable than normal - and it's ALWAYS unacceptable. I disagree Vinny. Who would want to buy a car from a company in Chapter 11 ? Not me (I wouldn't anyway, after my disappointment with our Saturn I'm a rice-burner believer for life). It isn't just the people who work for any of the Big 3, it's all the connected and ancillary businesses, something I'm ver sensitive to working for an aerospace supplier to the big muckey-mucks. I have no soft spots in my heart for any of the Big 3, or the people who run them. President Obama (hell, we can only have ONE President at a time, and W is on a permanent vodka & vicodin vacation) has already stated publicly that the CEO at GM needs to step down. As right as your princples are, I am NOT willing to let things in the real world go to hell for them. America without an automotive industry ? You simply can't be serious. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I grab my rears and make sure I'm opening on heading. I'm also taking a quick look around for other people, but there's not much I can do about them until I'm fully inflated. As soon as I am inflated I steer anywhere I need to on rears to be safe with other canopies. Then I collapse my slider, pop my brakes and do a quick controllability chack (SMALL left/right turns and one full flare). Then I fall into line with the pattern and head for the DZ. I find my slider is difficult to collapse after releasing my brakes, so I do that first (and easily) before taking the brakes off. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Skydiving is just to perfect to ever quit. I might have to cut back to 2 - 3 jumps a day, or even just once a month. But quit ? Not gonna happen. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

But this is absolutely the DUMBEST fucking thing I have ever heard of our government doing in my short lifetime. The concept of Treasury funds being expended on private corporations to extend their existence is utter insanity. What is the ROI for the taxpayer? NONE! CHAPTER 11 has been an avenue for years and is the avenue these companies should take. This is so moronic it defies description. Vinny, While I respect both you and Gawain's opinion and the rather obvious truths to which the two of you are speaking, I think you've lost sight of the bigger picture. This economic decline we're in could become so rapid and so catastrophic that it threatens the underlying social fabric. Can you say "Bosnia" ? These are the same sort of accusations that were thrown at FDR back in the thirties, when the upper classes thought Roosevelt was leading us down the road to Bolshevism (which by the way, never happened). The fact is that most national governments in the world today realize they must protect their manufacturing sectors in their own national interests. And so it is with the US. And not just the manufacturing sectors, but our entire economic and social fabric. Do we really want to see TOTAL economic and social collapse ? Do we really want to see rampant lawlessness, with violent crime as people prey on their neighbors ? I kid you not, it could happen. NOBODY in the world today is more than a year or two removed from becoming the next Somalia or Sarajevo. I'd REALLY rather not go down that road. I readily admit the US auto industry has more than eagerly dug their own graves, repeatedly, ever since at least the 1970's. Hell, we already bailed Chrysler out once before, back in the eighties. Detroit has made one stupid decision after another, trying to tell us what kind of cars we should buy, and then building shitty quality into them as well. Which is why our family owns a Honda and a Nissan.... But I'm not willing to let the US auto industry collapse, or the nation's economy with it and I will NOT take any smug satisfaction in its collapse, even if it is exactly what they deserve. Because the SUFFERING will be felt here at home. By all of us, and the last time I checked, we were all still Americans. It stinks, but we simply have got to do it, because the alternative is not just worse, it's the very worst that can happen, beyond imagining. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Well, I started in 1974, got a $35 price for my FJC because we had more than 15 people in our group (of college students). Money was always a struggle while in college, but I kept at it and was always devoted to the sport - it had been a dream of mine since I was 5 or 6 years old. The summer of '75 I finally got off student status with something like 37 jumps, got up to where I was doing 30 second delays, with turns and backloops, witnessed by a rated Jumpmaster. But my real "awakening" was the summer of '76, precisely on the 4th of July, at 60 jumps. That was the summer I had a job with the local Highway Dept and was making money for both school and jumping. $5 to 7500 ft. Did lots of 2 Ways with my fellow newbie friend Ron Plante. Was out to the dropzone all weekend, every weekend. And when I went back to school in the fall, I kept it up as founding President of my college's Skydiving Club. During the school year I didn't jump every weekend, but probably at least two Saturdays a month. And then for spring break we took a GLORIOUS trip to Z-Hills for the Easter Boogie, where a bunch of us had our first encounter with large loads and DC-3's, as well as some totally zoo behavior on the dropzone. It was truly memorable. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Smallpox is EXTREMELY contagious for starters. What's more, infected people become contagious a good day or two before they begin to get sick - so the disease would have a tremendous head start. And while the mortality is "only" something like 30%, the pain and suffering is terrible. The face and entire body are covered with excruciating sores. And finally, the survivors are disfigured for life. I've always thought it was a mistake for smallpox vaccinations to have ended. The last natural case was in 1977, but since the US and USSR/Russia have both hung on to their live weapon stocks for "research" purposes, I think people should be vaccinated. I had the series as a child and think I'll ask my doctor about getting another one sometime soon. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

If I knew for sure it was coming back to hit us, I'd stop making house payments and make a whole lot more skydives. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I knew Harry and jumped with him just a few times back in 1980, before taking a 22 year break from the sport and moving away from SoCal. Years later, in 1991 we crossed paths in Snohomish, WA when he was up for some 54 Way attempts from a Twin Otter and a small air force of Cessna 182s. We were happy to see each other again and I introduced my two children, who were just little girls at the time. When we moved back to SoCal in 2002, my wife and I decided to check out Perris one Sunday afternoon, just for "old times' sake". and wouldn't you know it, the first flesh & blood human we ran into was Harry, all geared up for a load. It was like instant old times again. That afternoon put the hook back in my gut and in just a few more months I was jumping again. Al Kreuger gave a very touching speech about Harry at his Long Beach Flying Club memorial, recounting how Harry probably saved skydiving in SoCal in the mid-1980's. Perris had closed in 1985, while Elsinore was flooded out for the second time. But Harry solicited some 900 subscriptions to form the Perris Valley Skydiving Society, re-opening the Perris dropzone as a private club. And he served on the Society's Executive Board as its Treasurer, struggling to pay the bills for aircraft, fuel, and use of the airport, until the Conatser family stepped back in and re-opened the place as a commercial dropzone in 1987. Harry wasn't just everyone's friend, he wasn't just a hell of a lot of fun to hang out with or jump with. He was all that for sure. But he also had the guts and the fortitude to step up and do what needed to be done at a desperate moment, with his professional skills as a commercial banker. He probably did save skydiving in SoCal, almost single handedly. For that, we all owe Harry a HUGE debt of gratitude. I don't think USPA has handed out a posthumous Lifetime Achievent Award yet, but Harry would be a good place to start. And that's a not-so-subtle hint. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

This entire thread is bullshit. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

The last I heard on NPR this morning, the count was getting up to 182 dead and rising. More interesting was the report on the way India seems willing to just blame Pakistan and slide back into their usually complacent groove. While the railroad station was still crawling with cops, they were paying no attention at all to young men with backpacks entering the station without any kind of check or search procedure. Guess if you believe in reincarnation it just doesn't matter, especially if you can blame the neighbors..... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Do they still make the "Chia Jerry" ? That would be Jerry GarChia.... I'd grow one of those. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

What, she didn't ask for your bank account number ? I'd be very suspicious of any chick who wouldn't ask for that. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Here's a really scary one. A good friend of ours had recently re-attached his risers to his harness, but incorrectly routed the closing loop. Instead of routing the loop all the way through the cable housing eyeltes, he'd run them through the grommet in the riser, then run the cables through the loops and left it at that. Somebody ON THE PLANE noticed that both his cable housings with the eyelets were hanging out loose, with the eyelets empty. It was fixed on the spot, in the plane. Our friend is no dummy, nor is he a newbie. A mistake like this could've killed him, perhaps by releasing a riser on final approach, or maybe on opening, and/or preventing a successful cutaway. As embarrassed as he was, he's made a point of telling people about it, because it just goes to show how easily people who think they've got it together can make a life threatening mistake. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I've NEVER liked The Eagles. Not then, not now. So there.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

That just sounds like a bad idea to me. Is there any reason you would ever wait for the CYPRES to fire after a malfunction or not being able to throw? For your next homework assignment, sit by the door or a good window on your next load. Pay close attention to your altimeter. Audibles don't count here, because on the ride up they won't even beep 'til you get to a grand, so you need to be watching a visual alti. When the needle is somewhere between 700 and 800 ft (actually somewhere between 500 - 900 ft, given the +/- 200 ft tolerance), take a GOOD look at the landscape. It should make you feel really queasy. Because that's where a functioning Cypres will release your pilot chute. And that's all it does. The rest is up to your gear, your body position, and the Good Lord above. At best you can hope for a canopy ride of perhaps 10 - 12 seconds. which still beats punching a crater any day, which is why so many of us wear them. Some other idiot recently posted with a question about how low he could open his reserve and still flare it for a good landing. Maybe you could look into that for extra credit, once your Cypres hopefully opens your reserve..... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

What about PD's new Storm canopy ? My friends who have demoed Storms tell me the flare is absolutely fantastic. It's a 7 cell, so shouldn't have too flat a glide, should fit into your container, and would still be a fun canopy to fly. It's worth considering. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I guess everybody's got their favorites and their reasons. I consider DS9 to be the Jewel In the Crown of the Star Treks. Rather than the usual roaming around and meeting the next "species of the week", the story line was confined to one section of the galaxy, and the wormhole into the next quadrant - and the beings who lived in and operated the wormhole ("the prophets"). The acting was by far the best and the story, plot, and character development were amazing. I'm so disappointed that it's never been carried any further with a movie, though I sorta dread what some film studio hacks might try to do with it... The coolest DS9 episode was when Cisco and his son Jake built a Da Vinci looking sailing ship that sailed on solar wind, and then they sailed it to Cardassia to prove an ancient legend was really true. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I've been known to spend Sundays at the dropzone, though more often than not I go to church, at least these days. I personally don't give a fuck about political candidates' religious beliefs. But when the right wing media makes such a stink about it, I can excuse any line of bullshit any candidate will throw out about their religion. Religion is nobody's business but their own. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

BUT this same website also has a listing for one Tandall Smith, explaining that he was released from Death Row, and eventually from prison. The reason for his release ? All this official website will say is,"Conviction reversed". My one correction: the guy's name is Randall Adams. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

BUT this same website also has a listing for one Tandall Smith, explaining that he was released from Death Row, and eventually from prison. The reason for his release ? All this official website will say is,"Conviction reversed". My one correction: the guy's name is Randall Adams. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I've been to this official Texas website and seen the pics of these people as well. Scary pictures of some really twisted looking people. I won't bother to argue that MOST of those people richly deserve to die for their crimes. BUT this same website also has a listing for one Tandall Smith, explaining that he was released from Death Row, and eventually from prison. The reason for his release ? All this official website will say is,"Conviction reversed". Mr. Smith is the subject of a book and documentary titled "The Thin Blue Line". He was not what I'd call a "role model" kind of guy. He was an aimless, pot smoking drifter who lived in motel rooms and worked at low wage jobs before moving on. He'd had several brushes with the law over misdemeanor typre offenses. And then one night he was hitchhiking and got a ride from some wild young kid, who he invited back to his room to get stoned. The kid then left the hotel, was pulled over by a cop, and shot the cop dead. On the testimony of the kid, who actually killed the cop, Randall Smith was arrested, convicted and sentenced to death. He was an easy target. He was not a likeable person. The authorities were outraged by the murder of a cop. And they were in such a hurry to get SOMEBODY that they took the word of the real killer without question and conemned an innocent man to death, inspite of too many contradictions in the killer/witnesses story. That's ONE reason why I don't TRUST the state to take anyone's life. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Not to mention the Pieta is just breathtaking. And that David's not bad either. And I'm not even religious! I once saw the Pieta at the New York World's Fair in 1964. I was 8 years old at the time, but I still remember how beautiful I thought it was. As far as religious goes, Michaelangelo used to put the faces of people he didn't like on devils, or burning in hell, so he had the last laugh on them. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !