muff528

POPS CYPRES HALO

[nitpick] WADR, none of those are acronyms ...initialisms maybe but not acronyms. [/nitpick]

I wouldn't want to be hanging around that thing for the next few days.

Well, I think that each of the varieties of Christians thinks that all the others are going to hell. Just remember: ~Never take a Baptist fishing with you. ...He'll drink all your beer! If you must, be sure to take two Baptists with you ...neither will drink any!~

Uh ...I think tourists are supposed to buy the baby seals and feed them to the sharks.

No, I don't think so. Buddhism and Christianity are two completely different things that both happen to be a religion ,,,,,,,,, Yes, but they are not the same (key word) religion. I think Pops is talking about, for example, Christianity having different flavors like Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist, Southern Baptist, 10th St. Baptist, East 10th St. Baptist, 9th St. Baptist, Main St. Baptist, New Beginning Interfaith Baptist, Eastern Orthodox, Pentecostal, Evangelical, Methodist, ..., Anglican, Episcopal, Adventist, Coptic, ..., (take a breath), Assembly of God, Church of Christ, Nazarene, etc., etc., ....all the same religion.

True. Lebanon: It wasn't me that threw the punch so why the hell are you punching me? You wanna punch me, big fella? Well, take this! That's when the fight really started. Well, you gotta give the Lebanese some credit for not throwing back at least. Then again, it doesn't take much smarts to realize that you may not want to piss of the 800lb gorilla. Maybe, instead of standing around and picking their asses, UNIFIL could work with the Lebanese government and come up with a plan to expel al-Q and the Iranian and Syrian backed fighters who are launching these attacks against a sovereign nation from their soil. I'm sure the peace-loving Lebanese government has not given these groups permission to use their country as a base of operations against Israel. I bet that if the attacks from Lebanese soil is stopped then the shelling from Israel would also stop.

Not to worry! ...the UN has, with it's even-handed authority, swiftly and efficiently resolved the matter for all those involved. While thrusting it's self-important and increasingly irrelevant finger into the air, "The UN force called for restraint from both sides." There! ...that should do it! I'm sure Rod Serling has got to be around here somewhere! (or maybe Alan Funt ...I dunno!)

Actually, it is shaped like a tie. So Vietnam is real "Tieland"?

True, but that doesn't establish what the subject is. When people say they wish the Obama Administration dies in the next election, do they really mean all Americans die after the next election? Using Skyrad's translation: "this regime occupying Jerusalem". Since Israel is a parliamentary democracy, the "regime occupying Jerusalem" can be interpreted to mean the government and the population that elects them. I agree that Hamas and Hezbollah are much more direct in the wording of their goal in Israel and did not use metaphors.

I think that "vanish from the pages of time" or "be wiped off of the map" or "wiped of the face of the earth" are all metaphors for "cease to exist". How the translation is nit-picked is really not that important. I don't think that anyone with any brains actually took any of the phrases literally. Sort of like when someone says "I'm gonna kick your ass" that is rarely what actually happens. Also - why would Iran use Iranians to attack Israel when there are still plenty of Palestinians in the Arab concentration camps left to do it for them. The stated goals of both Hamas and Hezbollah (and Iran) are the destruction of Israel and Jewish governance and the installation of Islamic government (or more accurately, Islamist rule).

I guess the answer is the same as I asked about flying planes. If I bounce down the runway, do I count all of the landings, or just the last one? Of course you can log all your landings ...as long as the airport can count each one as an "operation" for Federal funding purposes.

They should be allowed to have a nuke ...as long as they are prepared to accept the responsibilities and consequences of that decision. They don't care about the Palestinians (or any other Arabs for that matter) ...only the eradication of Jews and Israel. They have openly stated that goal, BTW. Iran is attacking Israel right now through their surrogates who are supported and supplied by Iran and exist only for the purpose of Israel's destruction. That purpose is clearly stated in their own charters.

So ...if you leave the plane and then go back inside, and then leave again do you log 1 jump or 2? Fantastic video!

WTF is wrong with that dog's eyes!?

YES. He is as much a part of Zhills as the firepit. He's part of the firepit!?

Most of 'em were at Zhills this past week!

Minihomer GPS on a altimeter pillow with (one of) my knife(s) Cool instrument! (I sure hope everyone else on my tracking team is looking at theirs while we're tracking through this cloud!)

Couple of interesting articles... http://activities.fit.edu/crimsons/?p=2253 http://www.nature.com/news/2011/111020/full/news.2011.605.html

Wow! Dead even!

Getting back to Dan's original conditions - plan is to break off and begin tracking with your team at 6500 and track until you are open at 4000 (I assume a pull around 4500 +/-). At some point during the tracking phase you are to accelerate to max track while separating from other team members. But you enter a cloud with your team at 6k. Do you follow the plan? My point is that even if everyone follows the plan the actual result, after tracking through 1500 feet of cloud, will be that no one is following that plan even if they think they are. Even moderating your tracking speed is dangerous. If one jumper decides to keep a conservative speed and is traveling at say 150mph, the guy behind may slow down to 180. That's 30 mph difference. Much slower speed differences are deadly, especially when you don't see a collision coming. Also, I doubt that most will be able to maintain a precise enough heading to avoid collision with team members for 1500 feet. Then there is the team behind yours. What are they doing? Following the plan? They may think they are, too. Next (if luck is with you) is the pull in zero visibility at 4500 to be at the planned "under canopy" altitude of 4000 ft, now thankfully below the cloud base. How many bodies are raining around you waiting for their AADs to fire? (OK that was a bit dramatic)

I seriously doubt that any of the folks who find themselves blindly tracking through 2500' of clouds are even close to maintaining their assigned radial or relative speed with the others ...I don't care how good they think they are. No one in the clouds will have to worry about where I am. I'm bugging out, straight down. I know where the cloud bases are because I always know where they are since that is part of my ritual during the climb and I always use cloud bases as "waypoints" during freefall. After I land and reprimand myself for being a lemming I will accept being booted from the dive. If I'm not kicked off I will insist on being replaced. And I will make a note for future reference to never jump with that idiot organizer again. I don't care how great this sport is, it is not worth dying for. (I'm pretty sure that "dying while doing something he loved" is not all that it's cracked up to be.) That's the point. An entire quadrant of dozens of jumpers tracking blindly through a cloud for a half mile is bad. Me leaving and diving straight down is bad. There is no "better" idea other than an organizer team that uses common sense and plans the entire dive safely. If that means aborting the attempt because of the possibility of clouds at critical points then so be it. Potentially an expensive decision but that's one of the difficulties in organizing these types of events.

I seriously doubt that any of the folks who find themselves blindly tracking through 2500' of clouds are even close to maintaining their assigned radial or relative speed with the others ...I don't care how good they think they are. No one in the clouds will have to worry about where I am. I'm bugging out, straight down. I know where the cloud bases are because I always know where they are since that is part of my ritual during the climb and I always use cloud bases as "waypoints" during freefall. After I land and reprimand myself for being a lemming I will accept being booted from the dive. If I'm not kicked off I will insist on being replaced. And I will make a note for future reference to never jump with that idiot organizer again. I don't care how great this sport is, it is not worth dying for. (I'm pretty sure that "dying while doing something he loved" is not all that it's cracked up to be.)

Well, first wave? Maybe stand up (or head down) till you clear the cloud and take it down to 2000-2500 and dump ...and hope no one else thought of it.

Looks like you would be tracking with your group in zero visibility for 15-20 seconds. Not only will you be unsure of whether you are maintaining your planned direction and speed, you also don't know where the others are or whether they are also lost. Further, you are being followed by another bunch of folks who not only can't see you but who will also soon lose their bearing. Are they trusting you to keep to the plan when you don't even know which way you are going and they can't be sure that they can maintain speed and direction after they enter the cloud? Best to wait and do the jump when clouds are not at critical altitudes. (I've never been on a jump bigger than 40-50 so I've got no experience with really large formations requiring these specialized break-off techniques ...not that that would make a difference tracking through clouds.)