champu

suppose we put a cat in a box (maybe) on the table and spin it - then we drop the table off a building - does the hypothetical cat land on its feet forever? for that matter, does the feet really exist until the box bursts open? I like the cut of your jib.

Indeed, it was rhetorical. It links back to my previous post cautioning not to confuse "for a really long time" with "forever". The concept of a perpetual motion machine is a pretty specific one. And while many of the probes and satellites we launch will be out there trucking along even after we (and quite possibly the human race) are gone, they simply don't qualify. In the meantime, they're a hell of a way to make a living.

Suppose I ask you to close your eyes, then I put a top on the table in front of you and spin it as fast as I can, then I ask you to open your eyes and look at it for a couple seconds and then close your eyes again. Now... is it a perpetual motion machine?

Well, on the bright side you've downgraded from "generally" to "often" in your blanket statements. Telling people they're being emotional in a discussion, however, could be construed as condescending which makes this pair of statements kinda funny.

No love for Pioneer 10 and 11...

"What!? By using this com-PUE-ter I'm using 'lectricity!? Not on my watch!*"

Satellites do NOT orbit perpetually. Don't confuse "for a really long time" with "forever".

Nah, "big" doesn't necessarily mean "long" it looks like a 300mm f/2.8

That thing is called a catchlight reflector. It is used when in bounce mode to reflect a little of the flash directly at the subject, and helps to get that "twinkle in the eye" of your subject. Related to an earlier post, this is one of the reasons I am thinking of getting an LED light for my video. Just to add a little light in the eyes of an interview subject who is lit with ambient light, or a standard 3-light set up. I don't think he's talking about the catchlight (which is the white card thing) he's talking about the translucent plastic diffuser that's built into a lot of speedlights (I have, and have only really used, a canon 580EX and it has both a built in diffuser and a catchlight card) I haven't used my flash much in freefall but on the ground I use either the catchlight card or a separate dome diffuser. I'm not a big fan of the built in flip down one.

Re-read my post #28. It doesn't matter if you're talking about EM, strong force, weak force, or gravity. Just because there are things we understand about the other three forces that we don't about gravity doesn't make it's any more productive to have fantastic musing about it.

But if you imagine such a device in terms of gravity the implications become pretty funny (in, as one might imagine, a nerdy sort of way.) In order to for the motion to continue you'd need to be sinking Higgs bosons (or whatever) out of the system. Surrounding matter would start getting heavier.

For me, and this is a personal preference, I like to avoid concepts such as "falling" or "flying" when it comes to describing orbits. They're so... terrestrial.

Well there's yer problem. You can't just "be in a field" and then wander along and suddenly "not be in a field" without passing through a boundry of some sort and incurring the effects of whatever is going on at that boundry.

That looks like someone retacked the housing after the repack... Didn't we loose a nationally known jumper a few years back because he tacked his wingsuit to the (still packed) main container and caught a few lines in the tackings? Unfortunately we keep having to relearn old lessons. JW IIRC it was a removable wind deflector that attached to the bottom of the container using a Lolon cable and loops similar to the system used to attach the wings to the body of the suit.

Maybe, but since its a tiny piece of bungie it wouldn't hurt ...unless someone reaches over and snaps it on you. But yeah, as someone mentioned, depending on your particular height, build, rig, and flying style nuances they may or may not help keep your legstraps in place. They don't really have any drawbacks that I can think of other than if you don't pay attention when gearing up the first time after installing one you might catch your second foot as you put your leg straps on and fall down. They are particularly helpful when a person is first learning to sitfly and is getting used to the correct core and leg exertion or when you get into the VFS scene and you find yourself transitioning head-down/head-up/head-down a dozen times a jump.

Because gravity is fairly weak and things generally either run into each other or swing by one another before they have a chance to get going that fast. By the way, the "orbital force" you're referring to is gravity. "Orbiting" just means that something is within the gamut of distances from and velocities relative to another object where the force of gravity keeps them nearby for a while.

I've also noticed something that goes along with that comment. It seems that in Otters when we're facing the rear on those foam straddle benches, we're always reaching behind us to get a seat belt. In other words, there's going to be a huge whiplash effect if we're ever actually in a crash, as we get snapped to the end of that seatbelt in the other direction. It seems like we ought to be reaching towards the rear of the plane to get a belt, so that they're already under tension if a crash occurs. Not invalidating your argument regarding a crash scenario, but it's hard enough on otters with benches and two-point belts (where your seat is painfully obvious) to get people to actually sit all the way forward in the plane. I can't imagine the production it would be every time loading an otter with no benches and single-point belts if you gave people slack in their seatbelt to move aft.

The secret is getting the protons talking about their common interests. An attraction will develop naturally from there.

Here are a few shots I processed using Tilt SHift Generator on the iPad. Great little App. Pretty snazzy. Does the app just have you draw a line through the image and it does the rest? I ask because that might make getting 3D (skydiving) scenes to look right somewhat difficult.

Neither actually. As I mentioned in my previous post, trying to set up a tilt lens for a particular shot on a skydive and then shoot without using the viewfinder (particularly for a shot like that tracking dive where I was flying atmonauti with my head turned 90deg over my right shoulder) would be extremely difficult and I wouldn't recommend it. Luckily, if you understand what tilt photography does to a scene and have some photoshop ingenuity (and a wacom tablet) you can achieve the same effect in post. Sorry if that ruins the mystique.

It's a fun effect for skydiving photos too. (no, I don't and would not actually recommend jumping with a T/S lens)

"To try and match the private sector" is the operative clause. There will come a time in every person's life when they don't make more money in a given year than they did the year before. You might even make less and [gasp] your world will not automatically come to an end. Much like one's first year of not going to school anymore it's a "welcome to real life" [/spaceballs] moment that people need to stop pretending that they're so special as to deserve immunity from it. It doesn't matter if you're a professional, a teacher, in the military, or a union worker. I fully agree that protectionist measures should be taken to get our working class and manufacturing base healthy again not just for them but for the overall economy as well. However, as I've said before, be careful of going too far down the "house, two cars, a dog, white picket fence, and 2.4 kids on one 9-5 no matter what career you pursue" road. There may have been a time when that seemed like the way things were, but don't assume that anything is sustainable just because it's a pleasant thought.

Well then you're not going to right restaurants.

Reminds me of the early days of the www. The joke was to have a form that said, "Enter your credit card info and we'll check if it's been stolen!"

This is an important note when considering the order you perform your housekeeping once you get under canopy. I would not, for example, recommend loosening your chest strap prior to pulling your slider down behind your head as you're at an elevated risk of introducing a control system malfunction as you do that. Depending, as others have said, on just how long your chest strap is the greater danger is probably in locating and being able to pull your reserve handle as compared to falling out of your harness. Keep in mind that not only is your handle not going to be where you're used to it being but pulling it may also be funky. The main lift web that your reserve handle is attached to may have a lot more freedom of movement than you are expecting.