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Everything posted by tbrown
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What is a "pulic school" ? Can anyone explain ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !
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What an utter pile of shit ! Is this the next wave of Clinton bashing that we the taxpayers are going to be dragged through until Hillary's retirement after two terms in the White House ? Witch hunts are the product of stark unreasoning fear and the Republicans are terrified that she just could win - twice. Try running against her and let the voters decide. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !
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I believe just about anybody can nominate just about anyone else. Theoretically I should be able to nominate dropzone.com and/or any or all of our favorite dot.commies for a Nobel. Mohammed Yunus is the kind of prize winner I really like to see. The guy started his own bank, to make small loans to impoverished people (91% of his lenders are single women in Third World countries), so they can get crooked moneylenders off their backs and start up small businesses. Talk about saving the world one person at a time..... He also understands a big little secret that the big banks refuse to admit - that the poor, while they have no collateral, are still the most reliable people for paying off their loans. Well done, for a Nobel to the kind of person who deserves it ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !
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So is that an Analog Activating Device ? Those work extremely well, down to about 750 ft, after that they may be too slow. And like anything else, they can fail if they're broken (it happens). Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !
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Plus, a lot of Washington skydivers make the trip down to So. Cal in winter to jump at Perris or Elsinore. This usually works, though occasionally they pick the wrong week and get rained out down here as well, a super bummer, but winter is OUR rainy season as well, though most of the time it's very jumpable. But if you're seriously into the big stuff, you will want to plan winter trips to Cali. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !
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The problem with crash mats is that the jumper has to be able to hit the thing on the ground. I think a more practical alternative would be a "panic suit", a jumpsuit with a gas cylinder inside that could be quickly inflated by yanking a cord. The suit would then inflate like a giant beachball. Now this suit won't do any good if it just bursts on impact, so it has to have a valve release mechanism for letting the air out. So after impact, the valve opens and lets the air out in a jet, blowing the jumper around in every direction until the air is all gone, sort of like in a Wiley Coyote cartoon. Don't knock it, this could become mandatory in our lifetime. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !
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Fear comes and goes. A lot of us will feel edgy on the first load of the day, especially if it's been a couple weeks since our last jump. Little things can happen or sometimes there's no explanation. People are complicated and we have all kinds of reasons and completely irrational things going on inside our heads. I'd like to encourage you because you went ahead with your first 3 AFF jumps inspite of feeling terrified. Most of the time our fears go away once we've left the airplane. So if it's any reassurance, your fears may never go completely away. But you will learn to understand them and handle them. And more important, you'll learn something about yourself and the stuff you're made of down inside. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !
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"Anything that could transmit disease" is not a good answer. Just because you can transmit some diseases through sex, I would hardly consider the common cold, flu, smallpox, ebola, or the bubonic plague to be sexual, even though I could pass them all to you just sitting in the same room. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !
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I just don't get why Bush has not been Impeached!
tbrown replied to goofyjumper's topic in Speakers Corner
Impeachment is a politically motivated act. On paper it exists for getting rid of bad officials (not just Presidents, a number of Federal judges have been impeached and removed). But it comes down to having a Congress that has the political will to go over the heads of the people and the Electoral College and remove a duly elected President, if they think they can get away with it. Only two Presidents have ever been impeached - Nixon was NOT impeached, he resigned his office when it was clear he would be impeached. Andrew Johnson was impeached because Congress didn't like his conciliatory Reconstruction policies in the south after the Civil War and because he fired his Sec'y of War Edwin Stanton (a major asshole). Bill Clinton was impeached for lying under oath about blowjobs. In both cases, a Republican Congress impeached a Democrat President. Both Presidents stood trial by the Senate and both were acquitted. In Nixon's case, a Democratic Congress would have done the impeaching and conducted the Senate trial. The point being that no President has ever been impeached by his own party when it controls the Congress. A Republican Congress is simply not going to impeach Bush. Forget the moral or legal arguments, it simply ain't gonna happen. And as much as I despise Bush, I'd just as soon not see him impeached, unless he really really fucks up and does something totally heinous, like cancel the 2008 elections or declare martial law or something like that (not ruling it out either...). But seriously, both times impeachment proceedings have been brought against a President, they have been clearly cynical and abusive manipulations of the process. I think it's brought impeachment into disrepute as a ploy to undermine the will of the electorate, rather than the safety valve it was intended to be. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity ! -
When they say toggles together durning flare!!!
tbrown replied to Bill_K's topic in Safety and Training
Looks like fun ! But you did walk away didn't you ? So lesson learned, no broken bones, and fresh scars to lure the chicks, so all in all a pretty good deal. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity ! -
My parents used to beat the shit out of us with anything handy. Frequently. Nowadays they could probably be arrested for it, but back then it was all part of good parenting. When I was fifteen I got into a full out brawl with my dad, fists were flying and I was getting the upper hand. Then I realized I could actually hurt him and I just stopped & let him beat the crap out of me. I knew I'd won and refused to hurt him, told him so while he was punching me out. That was the end of the physical stuff, they gave up on us after that. My brothers could've used a few more whacks, they got away with murder, I was the oldest and broke all the ground for them first. All the hitting and beating ever did for me was to convince me that my parents were unpredictable and dangerously nuts. But they've tirned into wonderful grandparents and we get along very well now and I love them both. My wife & I almost never spanked our kids. Only if they were doing something really dangerous, like walking in the street or stuff like that, we'd give them one really good hand swat across the butt. It happened so rarely they KNEW they were in real trouble. They both turned out really well too. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !
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Spinning mal on both canopies...yikes!!
tbrown replied to mattyblast's topic in General Skydiving Discussions
Relative Workshop issued Service Bulletin 20031203 almost 3 years ago. If your rigger has not caught an incorrectly-installed Skyhook by now ... you need a new rigger. Oh, most definitely. agree with you all the way. But I also work in quality control and know firsthand that "shit happens", sometimes even a problem everyone thought was cleared up long ago. All it would take would be to install a single component backwards. However it does sound a lot more like the release was tugged or not properly reattached to the riser. I would just want to make very sure of all the possibilities, if only in order to eliminate them as probable causes. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity ! -
It doesn't sound like the cops were any help at all, until they heard the shot. Even though they were supposedly looking for this guy. He probably was mentally ill and it's an unfortunate situation. But several years ago, also in downtown Seattle, a mentally ill man stabbed a guy to death in front of his wife and daughter as they were leaving a Mariners baseball game. It happened right around Pioneer Square. The unfortunate fact that a person is crazy and needs better treatment, though true, does not make them any less of a threat to life or limb. Once you've been knocked to the ground by someone who says they're going to kill you, it's a bit late to lament the lack of mental health care in the state. I'm just glad the guy had a gun. The cops would've probably turned the "poor whacko" loose, claiming "their hands are tied" by some arcane state law. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !
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1. - Northern Ireland? Northern Ireland is really a problem of British colonialism rather than religion. Religion has been used as a convenient excuse, since the native Irish are almost entirely Catholic, while the British are either Anglican or else Scots Presbyterians who were imported for the Ulster Colony in the 17th century. A lot of these Scots-Irish were fed up enough that they kept right on moving to the American colonies, where they settled the southern mountains and produced great Americans like Daniel Boone. And great American folk music. A lot of great Irish Republicans, like John Parnell, were in fact Protestants themselves of native Irish stock, who were dedicated to a free Irish state. But religion was still the quickest and easiest way to divide these virtually identical people against each other in every social, political, and economic way possible. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !
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Have your political views changed in the last four years?
tbrown replied to Jib's topic in Speakers Corner
There is absolutely no political party who would uphold all, hell even half of the views I hold. None. This is partly the result of the parties not doing their jobs. Well a lot of that's because we don't have a Parliamentary system, where the parties of any persuasion are held closely to their platforms. You can even get drummed out of a party for voting the "wrong" way, unless the leader okays "voting your conscience". But since we in the US won't be going Parliamentary either, we have two huge parties that go on absorbing popular and reformist movements into their fold. Neither the Dems or the Repubs of today look anything like their 19th century forebears, and yet they're still the same legal entities. Anyway, no matter kind of a party system we have, or anyone else has, everybody still has to give a little. The parties that are all about us usually end somewhere around the seventh birthday. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity ! -
I have always believed, and continue to believe, that as fellow oil men, George HW Bush and Saddam Hussein will yet golf together when all is said and done and W is confined to a mental institution where he belongs. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !
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This is why the PA State Police closed the roads and restricted air traffic over and around Nickel Mine, PA for the funerals and it appears the funerals were able to proceed in a dignified manner. Hats off to the State Police for providing their funeral escort with horseback mounted officers. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !
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"Jack Straw of Wichita shot his buddy down, Dug for him a shallow grave and laid his body down, Half a mile from Tucson , by the morning light, One more mile and another to go, My old buddy you're moving much too slow" Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !
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I've personally helped cart no fewer than 3 people off to the ER or the Pysch Ward for mental problems, mostly, though not entirely LSD related. Had a few of my own, thank God for Lexipro. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !
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However, and no disrespect intended, as she's not a guy, Kathy has negelected the following: Choking the Chicken Milking the Turkey Pounding the Duck or Playing Pocket Pool (special thanks to Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, RIP). Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !
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Spinning mal on both canopies...yikes!!
tbrown replied to mattyblast's topic in General Skydiving Discussions
RWS has had to recall a number of rigs for improper installation of Skyhooks. They were installed backwards, so that they would not stay attached to a cutaway (like they're supposed to) and would trap and effectively total the reserve PC if the reserve was used in a total nothing out situation (bummer). Please make sure you don't have that kind of a problem, though I'd think by now a rigger would've spotted something like that on your last repack. Consider using your hook knife to cut a balky reserve steering line ? Also a good reason to learn how to land on rear risers alone (must work on this myself). Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity ! -
Have your political views changed in the last four years?
tbrown replied to Jib's topic in Speakers Corner
Moving from Washington state back to Kalifornia changed them a lot. In WA it was easy to identify with the Dems, as Republicans were so off the wall they ran a scary whacko Jesus lady for governor ten years ago and made "the teaching of witchcraft in public schools" a major campaign issue (pause for Twilight Zone theme music). However, down here in Kali, the Dems are plainly tripping on blotter acid. That and the Republicans are still mostly the party of White Genetic Purity. Kind of makes it tough on those of us who just want to own a home, send the kids to college and maybe get the potholes filled.... But I went and voted for Arnold the Governator because he's just the kind of realist we need for an ungovernable state. And I'll vote for him again. I don't like or agree with everything he does, but I knew I wouldn't going in because he has tough choices to make by the thousands. I've come around completely on the issue of gun control, especially after the Hurricane Katrina floods in New Orleans. Even after the schoolhouse shooting in PA, which leaves me feeling sick and numb, I don't believe outlawing guns would have prevented it. Guns are already here, they're here to stay, so we might as well allow law abiding citizens to own them as well. So that's a complete 180 turnaround. Maybe it's just because I'm older and have a shorter temper. I'm NOT a Republican and never will be, but have bcome a much more conservative independent voter. And Bush still sucks. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity ! -
I'm sort of curious about where and how they intend to "test" their bomb and wouldn't rule out launching it on Seoul. It's easy to talk about bombing or nuking the NK's, but what the Koreans understand better than us is that another war between them would be like NYC going to war with New Jersey. They are that close together, with major populated cities within artillery range of the DMZ. So let's not be in too much of a hurry to offer up massive Korean casualties on both sides of the fence as a solution. Also, for historic perspective, Harry Truman was smart enough not to let Korea turn into a 3rd World War when MacArthur wanted to invade China and use nukes. But as our current president chooses to learn nothing at all from history, the hot button may well be his first choice. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !
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Depends on the season. Now that we're headed into fall, I'm liking the ales and stouts a lot and will all winter long. As spring turns to summer I go a lot more for pilseners. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !
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Penfield High School, Class of '73. Penfield is a suburb on the east side of Rochester, NY. I was also the President of Student Council. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !