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Plant lover. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

But haven't you heard ? Plants also "wave" to attract insects. They're like hookers when the fleet sails in. For pretty much the same purpose... That doesn't sound very dignified to me. If plants want to be treated with dignity, they can start by behaving themselves. And that's all I'm a-gonna say about it. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

So how about that gas tax holiday McCain & hillary are both proposing ? At first I thought it was just a weird idea created by a tired old Republican. Then things got a little surreal when Hillary, a supposed Democrat tax & spender, jumped on the McCain bandwagon. Guess it gave her another cheap shot at Obama, who has the integrity to call it for the pile of cowpoop it really is. But let's see, if I could save 30 cents a day, that would be $2.10 a week, so I could save me the price of one skydive in about 12 weeks. Aw heck, let's go for it !! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Besides, King James was a notorious HOMO (and I'm not making that up, he was a real terror with the young boys). Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Can't wait until we can get this Broun guy on video with "Kristin". That's all it should take..... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I can't see her dropping out either. It's all about her. this afternoon, I HEARD her say on NPR, "If we played by the Republican rules, I'd already have the nomination'> That's what she said. Well, Heil Hillary and fuck you. She disgusts me. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It doesn't matter so much what actually happens, or doesn't happen, to the dead. Your grandparents who are long gone are not going to suddenly become Mormons. If they are anything at all, they'll stay just as they are, whether that's Jewish, Catholic, or reincarnated as a giraffe (now a Mormon giraffe is something to think about...). But where the harm is done is in the complete disrespect and arrogance that is shown to the living communities the deceased belonged to. Especially in the case of the Jews, who were murdered by the millions for simply being who they were. It does nothing to the deceased, but is a slap in the face to the living. The Vatican is right to ban the Mormons from church records. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Well, he's a lame-duck president now with only a few months to go before he leaves office. Lame-ass is more like it, but he always has been, it's just taken a while for some of us to catch on. He's in a perfect sulk, hiding out in the White House and threatening to veto everything that doesn't let him have his way. I hope he does veto the bill and I hope Congress overrides his veto in a responsible and bipartisan manner. And then the little puke should be sent to his room without dinner. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Just to stay on topic, that is one fantastic book. My favorite character was the Spaniard "Pedro the Cruel", who made a Papal envoy literally EAT his excommunication bull - lead seal and all. If you like Barbara Tuckman, I strongly recommend her "Zimmerman Telegram" about German diplomatic intrigue in Mexico during World War I. The German plan was to try and get Mexico into the war, on their side. But their diplomat Zimmerman left the briefcase with the entire plan on a public streetcar (big oops...). The Americans had already broken the code, but didn't want to let on that the code had been broken, or else the Germs would change it again. Makes some great reading. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

One of her ladies also "committed suicide" back in February. I have to wonder if Dick Cheney was a client. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Sounds typical of the State of Kali-fornia, once again leading the nation with newer and stupider ideas. As a Kali resident, I have nothing but contempt for the state in general (the state govt, that is). They're always trying to tell us what to do in five different languages and then scolding us for how many trees had to die in order to mail the latest multi lingual edict. Sounds like the legislature just got a fresh sheet of blotter acid (again...). Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

R.I.P. Dr. Hoffman, and I hope you brought your bicycle and a good dose of Sandoz along for the ride. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Woodard, cleared of the 1980 murder of his girlfriend, became the 18th person in Dallas County to have his conviction cast aside. That's a figure unmatched by any county nationally, according to the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal center that specializes in overturning wrongful convictions. Overall, 31 people have been formally exonerated through DNA testing in Texas, also a national high. That does not include Woodard and at least three others whose exonerations will not become official until Gov. Rick Perry grants pardons or the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals formally accepts the ruling of lower courts that have already recommended exoneration. And Gov. George W. Bush signed off on something like 150 execution warrants that were carried out. He never worried about any of them, because he "knew they were all guilty". Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

"How do you know she's a witch ?" "She turned me into a newt !" "A NEWT ?" "Well.....I got better...." "Burn her ! Burn her !" "And if a duck floats on water, and she is lighter than a duck, then she is made of.....?" "Wood ?" "Right ! And what does wood do ?" "It burns." "Right, so if a duck floats and she is lighter than a duck, then she is made of wood, and therefore is a...." "A WITCH !! Burn her ! Burn her !" But then, that was just a movie, and a funny one at that. Remind me to never wear my wedding band in a Kinshasa taxi. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I think this is a cool way of taking the experiment one step beyond Adrian Nichols' accomplishment. It makes you wonder WHAT Leonardo was doing with his weekends, because his hang glider has also been tested and flown successfully. All they had to do to the hang glider was hang a kite-like tail on it and it flew beautifully. One other reconstruction I'd like to see would be Jacque Andre Garnerin's wooden parachute from 1793. Garnerin cut himself away from a balloon over Paris and successfully landed the thing. The only casualties were a number of ladies in the crowd who reportedly fainted from the excitement. Garnerin jumped his parachute something like five times before something went wrong and he went in (BSBD). Garnerin's canopy was said to be very unstable and to have oscillated wildly, so between that and wooden construction, it would definitely call for a cutaway rather than a planned landing. But it would be cool for some skydiving history buff to try. Beatnik ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Yeah, I was Albert Einstein. After all, he died the year I was born (1955), so who else could I be ? Certainly not some poor slob who worked as a rag picker in some Third World garbage dump.... My daughter knows this idiot who (get this) converted to Judaism, because (anong other things), he believes he was a Nazi SS officer in a past life and has to atone for it. By the way, if you haven't figured it out yet, this kid is completely full of shit, he just likes everything to be all about him, all the time. This reminds me of all the Shirley McLaine books that came out in the eighties, where she claimed to be a long string of whores and mistresses from the past, and I think she got her head whacked in the guillotine once or twice along the way, if I recall correctly (never read her books, but they got plenty of press). But to be honest, I HAVE always wondered where the life force in us goes when we die. Dead bodies are so completely inanimate, WHERE did the life force that only moments ago made them real people go ? I don't know the answer, I suppose it could re-incarnate just as well as go to heaven or hell (and in Hindu/Buddhist belief systems, heaven & hell are not eternal, they're just another reincarnation that may last for tens of thousands of years, but they too come to an end and another reincarnation). But at the end of the day, even if this hypnotherapist isn't a complete charlatan - which is a very likely possibility - this obsession with past lives is a distraction from getting done with the things we need to accomplish in this life. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

This is Hillary's third big lie, the other two being sniper fire in Bosnia and the woman and baby who supposedly died somewhere of something she would prevent from happening, or something like that. Obama had the good grace not to campaign in Florida, and even withdrew his name from the ballot in Michigan. But the bitch will take her votes wherever she can beg, borrow, or steal them. She thinks the White House is her birthright. If she wins/steals the nomination, first of all the black vote will mostly get pissed off, call it a white man's system and stay home, thus electing John McCain. And as much as McCain has NOTHING to offer except more of the same old shit and the vague hope that he will kick the bucket sooner rather than later, I'll probably vote for him over THE CLINTONS. Heil Hillary ? None for me thanks.... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I don't think he's that good. I don't think so either, but I wrote this one off the cuff on a 10 minute break at work. I think Bush belongs right up there with James Buchanan, who let the southern states walk out, leaving the mess for Lincoln. Bush has already said he's doing the same with Iraq (oh, thank you Mr. President, thank you...). The bigger problem is that even though Buchanan let the U.S. fracture and even if Lincoln had not been able to fix it, we still had the 19th century on our side. We'd have managed somehow. The world's become a lot more complicated since then, so I'd say Bush has done even more damage. I knew way back in 1998, when Bush called a press conference to mock Carla Faye Tucker ("Oh, please don't kill me"- and that's a quote) that the guy was a fucking sicko and that we'd be in deep shit if he ever got near the White House. Of course our darkest fears are never quite as bad as the real thing, at least not with this fucktard. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Saw on the front page of the L.A. Times this afternoon that Walmart, Target, and Costco stores in the greater L.A. area have imposed a 4 bag limit on rice sales, after apparent panic buying has nearly cleared the shelves. This is highly unusual for the U.S., to see a basic foodstock run like this. Of course there are rice shortages in Asia these days, and a large Asian population in So Cal. But this is getting spooky. The price of oil is about more than $4 or even $5 gas, and it's about more than $25 jump tickets. It's about the cost of keeping the basic economy going and that includes getting food to grow out of the ground and shipping it to the store, where you can buy it and take it home with you. This election is shaping up into a really serious one people. I can't remember an election where the world's been on the edge of such deep shit, and there's no deeper shit than hunger or food riots, which are already happening in some places. I have my own opinions about this election and who I will vote for, but all I'm saying here is to do more than think. SEARCH YOUR SOUL about who you vote for, because this one's going to stick with you all of your days, and your kids' days too. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Bush has ruined a lot more than the economy. He's ruined the respect America has long enjoyed from the rest of the world. He's alienated our friends and allies and has needlessly provoked the Middle East after ignoring its real issues. He's dangerously overburdened the ability of our military to effectively fight if any new trouble breaks out in the world. And at home he's trashed many of our basic rights and freedoms under the Constitution, while grabbing monarchical powers under his "Commander in Chief" theories. The guy's been nothing but a national and worldwide vandal. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

My brother was diagnosed in early 1991 and even then the cure rate for most types was above 90%. My brother's problem though, was that he went into denial at the obvious symptoms, self diagnosed and self medicated with over the counter antibiotics he bought in Mexico. By the time he could no longer ignore it and went in to see his doctor, the first thing his doc said was, "Holy shit Mike, how long have you had this !". By that time the cancer had spread throughout his upper body, with tumors in his chest and under his neck. I have some very strong feelings about this cancer because it eventually killed my brother and it was mostly because of his own damned stubborness to seek early treatment. The facts, as I learned them, are that testicular cancer almost always occur in only one nut and very rarely in both. The bad nut has got to go. But with just one nut you can still have sex, father children, or even shag Sheryl Crow, as someone has already pointed out. There is usually a chemo regimen to follow up the surgery. But the lymph node surgery is not for everyone. My brother had it, but mostly because he was such an advanced case, my understanding is that many patients don't need it or have it. As to metastasized cases, even here the odds have improved a great deal. In my brother's day the odds of surviving a metastasized case were something like 40%. Nowadays I'm hearing it's more like somewhere in the mid-eighties. Olympic gold medalist skater Scott Hamilton had a case that spread to his stomach sometime in the mid-late nineties and he's been doing just fine. What pisses me off about testicular cancer is that it seems like it's the last "polite cancer" to educate young men & boys about. I mean nowadays you can even see health films about women checking their boobs on television - which is a GOOD thing. But you almost never hear about teaching boys & young men how to feel up their own nuts every month. Which is what you should do and a nice hot shower is the place to do it, and you guys all know how loose a good hot shower makes your sack o' nuts feel. So get busy and chek 'em out. It is a young man's disease too, from onset of puberty to about the mid forties. After that, you can start worrying about your prostate.... As it sounds like you may have been diagnosed, all I can say is don't lose courage to get the job done. I know how lonely it feels to wait for the doctor in the examining room (as a brother of a victim, I am at higher risk and thought I had it about 5 years after his death, fortunately I didn't, but I did see a doctor right away). You can beat this thing just so long as you've got the will to do it. And the rest of you guys, get the word out to your friends and their sons. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Usually 4.5, 3.0, and 2.0 for most "average RW dives. On smaller loads I'll often throw it out before the 2nd alarm even goes off, if I'm well clear of everyone else. On bigways it depends what my assigned breakoff and pull altitudes are, I might set the first for 5.5 and remain in my track until the second goes off at 3.0. I like to leave the hard deck at 2.0. There's so little difference between 2.0 and 1.5, except for an extra 500 ft. And if I'm not open by 2 grand, I want to be reminded in every possible way. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I'm on the west coast and never knew Jennifer or Marnie. But this news is heartbreaking. I learned long ago that these things happen to us, but it only gets harder to see such beautiful young lives lost. My prayers go out from my heart to their families, their friends, and loved ones. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Skyvans are funny airplanes. I love them, but sometimes there's just something spooky about opening up the entire back end of the plane, it's almost like The Twilight Zone or something. They're always a gas to run out of, so I don't let it bother me. I figure it's just something deep inside the human psyche that doesn't like Skyvans... Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

May 12, 2003. Then: 47 years old, I'd just returned to the sport after a 22 year layoff mostly spent on raising the kids. Had an 18 year old daughter and an unhappy kid in Middle School. My wife was pissed off at me because I'd just quit a job that really sucked - the classic "take this job and shove it" scenario (everyone should try it just once). We'd just moved south from Seattle and were barely getting by, jumping or buying a rig seemed out of the question. Now: I'm 52, working at a very decent, but HARD working job. The younger kid is in college and loving it, the older kid is living with us and seriously studying at a community college - and making good grades. We finally bought a house in So. Cal (never thought that would happen). I own a nice rig, but have only been making 60 - 75 jumps a year, wishing I could somehow make 100. But I work at it and at Perris I get to make skydives I used to only be able to dream about in somebody else's life. My wife and I will be married 27 years in a few more weeks and we love each other dearly. But I worry all the time about her health, which is not as fortunate as mine. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !