tbrown

Bullshit. The Nazis were a small minority of German people. The Bolsheviks were a small minority of Russians. We in the west have been more than tolerant and understanding for years and all we get for it are train station bombings and hijacked airliners being flown into buildings. And a president of Iran who has publickly stated that he hates our culture - his words. And his Ambassador to the UN who says iran can cause great suffering to America and should get the ball rolling - his words, I heard him say that on NPR. I'm not prejudiced against people. I don't harass women who wear veils in public or any of that nast shit. I often shop at an Arab market in Orange County because they have the best meats I've ever seen anywhere. And I've always believed that the best way to cool off and relate to people as people is to do it around their food, whether shopping or eating. I see lots of nice people and families in that store. But I also have to wonder if some of those nice people are responsible for the death threats Dr. Sultan is receiving on her message machine here in So. Cal, USA. No man, it's not prejudice, there's a real problem going on, a real clash of cultural values. I don't care if somebody wants to hug a rug and pray to Mecca, but if they can't get along and show the respect to others that they demand, then they've got a problem. This ain't Berkeley down here. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

So tomorrow the jury goes back to work about what to do with Zacharias Moussaoui. Is he really a dangerous al Qaeda operative who held the secret to 9/11, or just a nutbag and an embarrassment even to the terrorists ? Since the govt won't let other al Qaeda prisoners testify, they've only had interrogation transcripts to read to the jury. They seem to indicate the guy was considered an annoying and unreliable pest. One al Qaeda honcho gave Moussaoui his cell phone number and told him only to call in case of an emergency. Moussaoui then called the guy repeatedly, several times a day, every day, until the guy had to get rid of his cell phone & get a new one. Now Moussaoui has taken the stand and said the he and Richard Wright, the nutbag shoe bomber, were supposed to hijack a 5th plane, just the two of them (and a 6 ft rabbit named el Harvey Jihad ?) and fly it into the White House. The govt would like the jury to believe it. They'd like the jury to believe Aunt Bee was involved if it diverts people's attention from the miserable way the FBI bungled the Moussaoui case from Day 1, before 9/11, when a search warrant might have actually found something helpful. I'm just not buying it. I think Moussaoui's guilty of something and I'm certainly not willing to see him walk free, but that's not going to happen anyway. I just have this thing about not wanting to execute the mentally ill. I think the guy's a sack of nuts and that executing mental cases is cruel and unworthy of this country of ours. There are plenty of terrorists who deserve a back alley bullet with no process at all, but not a certifiable nutjob like Moussaoui. Give the guy a coloring book and put him away. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I once paid for a regular repack and the rigger "didn't like" something about the diaper on my round reserve (this is another story from the old days, yawn...). But he packed it anyway, signed the data card with a "ha-ha funny" fake name, put a date on it that was already out of date and kept my $10 (which is what a round repack cost in those days). This sort of left me with my dick hangin' out at equipment check for a major boogie. So for once, I pencil whipped it. Used the name of a friend who had gone in under a streamered reserve. Even told the guy at equipment check. In fact, I did the pencil whip job AT equipment check, with the guy's pen. He thought it was funnier than hell and OK'd my rig. This really was the old days, see what you kids are missing ? As for the rigger, he never got another dime of my business and I was happy to warn people away from him, he had a shaky enough reputation already. But I think a rigger at the very least has the right to charge full price for every time his/her name is used. That plus a kick in the ass and maybe tell the fool to find a new rigger, or else charge an extra "just because" fee. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Now THAT'S got to be the "happiest place on earth" ! Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Science has brought us out of the dark yeas of superstition and rid us of many of the evils of those times. And it's still doing its job. I'd rather have a surgeon fix a busted femur than having all the Christians in the world pray for me, asking for it to heal quickly and well. Oh me too, I'm not into faith healing. But I wouldn't mind surgery AND prayer either. Science has made a huge difference in our lives. We wouldn't even have our sport without it - science is what gets us up AND down. But it has its empirical limits and when it attempts to intrude into other realms of the spirit, it suddnely becomes inadequate. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

No problemo. Anyway, Dr. Sultan lives here in Orange County, CA. And right here in the good old USA her telephone message machine has been filling up with death threats on a daily basis. Shows a solid Islamic understanding and appreciation of American values. They're plainly incompatable value systems, it seems evident one would have to choose. America may not be a "Christian nation", but it sure as hell isn't an Islamic one. And anyone who feels stronlgy enough about their Islamic beliefs to threaten to kill this woman - who is an American citizen by the way - should simply pack their bags and take their pick of which Islamic sewer state they would like to practice their religion in. By the way, Dr. Sultan gave up on Islam after witnessing some of "the faithful" barging into one of her classes in medical school and murdering the professor in front of the entire class. A religion based on murder as its core belief is an evil religion. We are already at war with these people and have been since the 7th century. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Try using a ball peen hammer, they'll do it every time. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Get back up and jump. As long as conditions aren't actually unsafe (very high winds, thunderstorms, an actual injury that can effect performance, etc.). I've borrowed rigs from friends so I could get back up and jump after a cutaway. Once or twice I was slammed hard enough thhat it was wise to wait until the next day. But such a huge part of skydiving is mental that you need to stay on top of it or else it can rattle your confidence and scare you away. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

The pics will show you a lot, and it takes most riggers a good hour or more to do a reserve. You should either sit well back and watch a reserve being packed, or perhaps watch BASE jumpers packing their rigs. BASE rigs have no reserve, or as they will tell you, they're jumping their reserve every time. anyway, BASE jumpers pretty much learn to pack their canopies like a reserve and they take all the time and care in the world with it - no 10 min. "throw it together & voila" packjobs like skydivers do. And yes, the fabric is different. It's a calendared low porosity ripstop that's generically called "F-111". There once was a real F-111 brand that has sonce gone out of business since the owner died (of natural causes). But F-111 was introduced around 1980 and was a real revolution in very strong lightweight fabric that could pack smaller than anything seen so far, even now. For most of the eighties, sport mains were also made of F-111. Then around 1990, zero prosity material came along, which is somewhat thicker and notoriously harder to pack, but has much greater longevity and permits radically better canopy performance over a longer lifespan. But reserves never (with one notable exception) went to Zero-P for a number of reasons. It isn't really necessary, as reserves are so seldom used, it packs much smaller, and according to some published articles, Zero-P has a more catastrophic failure mode than F-111. Apparently F-111 has more localized failures if it goes, but Zero-P can just blow all to hell if it goes. That's what I read at the PD website anyway & why they say they don't use it in PD reserves. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It's too intense to just be a hobby. If stepping out of an airplane 2 1/2 miles up isn't a sport, then I don't know what it. Besides, if you do it wrong it can kill you dead, so that definitely makes it a sport. I also collect a lot of bootleg live music recordings. That's a hobby. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Oh for Christ's sake, you know you first posted this funeral dirge back on March 9th. Which prompted me to get off my ass and get my renewal - online - taken care of. Well guess what, I managed to fuck up on some credit card information. And instead of emailing me back, USPA took the slow way and mailed me a postcard, which was sort of lame. But I still got the mess (which was MY fault) taken care of AND got my new membership card delivered in the mail on time by the end of the month. So inspite of my own fuckup and USPA's slow way of informing me there was a problem, I still haven't missed one single day of membership. The $49 only covers renewal, it doesn't include a fucking blowjob as well. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Being that I am so pathetic and not jumping I have to waste a saturday writing about something that nobody will read till monday at work LOL. Pity, by Monday it will be April 3rd. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

It makes sense for some to have a "negative effect". When it comes to overcoming sickness or injury, you can either fight or give up. If people are christian folk, they may "give up" or relinquish control of their situation to god, and they may stop fighting. I think it makes sense at least. ltdiver Christians, or people of faith don't for the most part give up and "let God do it". I'm sure there are some who do, but by and large believers are just as feisty a bunch as any other group of the population. Prayer can give them added encouragement and confidence to dig in their heels and fight, as well as peace about accepting what can't be changed. Besides, if a quick and relatively painless death is better than a long and hopeless drawn out death, couldn't that also be an unanticipated answer to prayer ? Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I thought the same. Then I did a search and found reference to this dating back to 2003. Hmmmm. Not to be a history bore, but I will anyway.... The only comparable situation I can think of would be the 1864 general elections, which many of Lincoln's political advisors urged the President to cancel. There was a Civil War on, the entire south was in rebellion and it was (and still is) the bloodiest conflict the nation had ever found itself in. The outcome was still not clear, although by 1864 it seemed to be tipping in favor of the Union. Lincoln rejected these suggestions out of hand. He realized that the war could not be won without his being re-elected in a free and fairly contested election. Lincoln insisted that the election would go forward and that he expected an opposition candidate who would be critical of his administration and the war. The Democrats nominated George B. McClellan, who had commanded the Army of the Potomac in the earlier years of the war. McClellan ran as a peace candidate, a general who had fought in this war and had turned against it (sound familiar ?). Lincoln for his part chose a DEMOCRAT for a running mate, Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee. Although Tennessee had succeeded and was fighting as a Confederate state, the succession was never recognized as legal and the Confederacy never recognized as a country. Since Tennessee was still legally a U.S. State, Senator Johnson kept his seat in the Senate and went to work every morning as a loyal U.S. Senator. Lincoln chose Johnson because he was both a Democrat and a loyal Southerner. Needless to say, Lincoln easily won re-election, largely due to write in ballots cast by Union soldiers. Bush could learn a lot from Lincoln, but unfortunately he doesn't read history or newspapers. I'm not even sure if he CAN read. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Before you sue, give it one more try. Turn the pilot light OFF (these things are only done correctly in a GAS oven, if you're using an electric oven you're doing it all wrong). Let the gas accumulate for about 10 min. Now take a deep breath and hold it, open the oven door, stick your head inside and light a match. There now, all done....fits perfect, don't it ? That's how I did mine. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

That's an interesting statistic, as it would seem to imply the dropzone let the situation to get bad enough to count that many malfunctions in the first place. I'd hate to have to defend a lawsuit on the basis of a waiver when an operation knew beforehand it was running a 5% malfunction rate on gear intended for tourists. So when the new main canopies arrived, where did the old ones go ? Into the reserve containers ? (If that sounds cynical, there are stories circulating about dropzones where ragged out mains have exactly been rotated out of sight as reserves.) It's just unacceptable to even get a rate like that high enough to count. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

This study smacks of the kind of Safety Nazism that was exhibited a few weeks ago in the AMA's solemn warnings about the dangers of Spring Break causing intoxicatin' and fornicatin'. But it goes even deeper than that. Prayer (or "vibes", as they are somethimes lamely called in these forums by those who are too embarrassed to admit they're praying) is something that can at least benefit the pray-er, if not (scientifically) the pray-ee. At the very least, even for non-believers, prayer is a way of admitting we're not in control of everything, least of all our own mortality, and gives us hope that in spite of the apparent facts of a case, we may yet see a cure or even a miracle. As to whether or not it actually works, that is a matter of faith. Those who pray will tell you that prayer is not always answered in the expected way. But what these assholes are trying to accomplish is to tell the rest of us that they possess ALL the answers and that prayer does not fit into THEIR neat little scheme of things, so we might as well knock it off and trust THEM to control every aspect of our lives THEIR way. Personally, I believe in the power of prayer (or even "vibes", ommmmm......). But I'm trying to present this argument from a secular point of view to point up the bleak and sterile world view of this medical establishment that not only cannot offer a cure, but would deny hope as well. Fuck 'em. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

More like starting out the month of April - I hope. It's just a little too close to possible. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Mine opens fast because it's a reserve Dactyl. That's correct, the Daftyl is TSO'd as a reserve. There were a few jumpers back in the seventies who jumped "double Dactyl" rigs, with main & reserve Dactyls. Bobby Gray at Deland was one. His rig was TINY. Nowadays it's not too uncommon to see a rig that looks like a kid's knapsack, with a 74 ft main and a 99 ft reserve, but back then a 5 cell Strato Star weighed about 13 lbs and even with a small round reserve a "light" rig was 26 or more lbs, so the double Dactyl was radically smaller, if you had the nerve or confidence to jump it. There was also a Double Keel Dactyl that came out at the end of the seventies. It had two keels that divided the canopy into thirds. The 1980 National 8 Way champion team Visions, from Perris jumped all Double Keel Dactyls that year (they went square with Pioneer canopies the following year). Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

(Flame on folks, you're never going to convince me otherwise. I still can't see any difference between this and a tracking dive.) Maybe it's the challenge of putting one over on a publication like Parachutist, though I'd say they should have waited for the April issue. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Absolutely! I think it's great! You better believe it's a fair trade off, especially if you have any ideas about living through the Avian Flu pandemic once it gets started. We'll have to kill all kinds of test animals before we get to a vaccine that can be of any help. Check out the National Geographic cover story from a few months back, there are some pics of people with this Avian Flu in Vietnamese hospitals. This is one terrifying mother of a flu, and it's coming. I don't care how many little piggies have to die if it helps. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Was this Ray Kirst ? Never knew Ray, but I do remember his name, He'd written an article or two in Parachutist and sounded like a guy on his way up in our sport, then I heard he'd gone in from a direct deploy malfunction. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

The color on the kill line is an AID, it's an ink mark on a line. Mine has run so badly that I don't even look for it anymore, I've tried making a new mark and it just doesn't seem to work. Look at the PILOT CHUTE when you pack, if the kill line is longer than the p/c center lines and you can wave the thing around and inflate it, then it's good. Then if somebody tells you they can't see the ink mark, you can tell them you KNOW it's good. Another reason I don't allow strangers to fuck with my gear on the plane. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

I once knew Rick back in '78 and still remember his birthday party when he reached that ancient and decrepit age of 30. It was not the best year of my life and I was having a few problems with some bad habits, but he was just a wonderful a friend to me. And across all the years and miles I miss him and can only wish the best to Hattie, with a lot of love. Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

Not with a wingsuit. That would be the "middle finger" exception to the above (and reliable) rule of thumb. If the guy has 20 min. of freefall he's not likely to be wingsuitin' it yet, just to keep things on the real side of the planet..... Be safe Ed Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !