champu

I had a pretty easy time with getting my four wisdom teeth out a few years ago. I was up and about within a day and back to eating food again in a couple days. I still took it easy for a week or so though and would recommend the same. When in doubt, sit it out. If you get bored you can always come by the dropzone and hang out. I know your new girlfriend would be disappointed if you didn't.

I've done 614 in the last 12 months which is the most for me in a season. All fun jumps or training jumps with my teams (which is also fun!)

I know. And those people sit at the far opposite, and equally unfortunate, end of the spectrum from those who believe that any action by authorities is justifiable so long as a claim is made that they are, "doing the best they can." You have to empower your security personnel to perceive and address threats. There can be very general protocols established for them to follow in doing so such that people don't have their rights violated, but you can't construct a leash out of checklists and procedures and tie it like a choker chain around their necks. That's why I feel it was right for this woman to be detained, questioned, etc. This profession employs people, not machines, and people make mistakes. If you give people the job of making decisions on the fly, you can only train them to get it right most of the time. Since the cost of not stopping someone when you should have is much greater than the cost of stopping someone when, in hindsight, you shouldn't have, I have no problem with security personnel making errors on the side of caution. However, it must be recognized by everyone involved (prosecutors... listen carefully to this part) that a system is being employed that errors on the side of caution. The errors are part of the system, not the direct fault of the person you stopped. To further hassle someone after you've discerned that they were not actually a threat despite raising your suspicions is not in any way productive. To me it is a simply a brutish display of frustration by those who work in the system over the fact that they are part of a system that isn't perfect. It is their inability to admit that the system can make mistakes (i.e. letting this woman go on her way) that leads to protests from those keen on protecting civil rights.

Well, a trigger might look something like the attached, if it were being planted somewhere and set off remotely. A personnel-borne IED trigger, which I understand is what people thought this woman had on her, would more than likely contain little or no electronics. As for the bomb itself, I'm sure you know it could take on any number of sizes, shapes, and appearances. I fall into the crowd that says, "stop her... check out the device... verify it's not a bomb that she was off to plant somewhere... maybe confiscate it if you're worried about other people seeing it and freaking out... send her on her way." Any further action is just silly. As a side note, suppose this really was a PBIED and she was a suicide bomber... what do you think she would have done the moment she was confronted by security?

There are quite a number of rights that, to me anyway, come before the hollow luxury of protection from being offending by another person's words or actions. Besides, what good could possibly come from barring his visit to the site?

I said it before and I'll say it again, "smart" weapon is a misnomer. This is why you see the term "precision-guided munition" more these days. The only thing a "smart" weapon knows that a "dumb" weapon doesn't is how to get to where a human (of undefined intelligence for the purpose of this discussion) told it where to go. While I personally avoid designing technology intended to kill people and break things, I support the development of any technology intended to focus lethality, be it a laser/gps guided bomb, or a snazzy communication system with pretty icons that tells you where the good people are and where the bad people are. These things both work to limit collateral damage when weapons are "properly" used and increase accountability when they are misused. (no excuses, it did exactly what it was told) The "blowing up soft civilian targets with IEDs is the only form of resistance they've got" argument may be true, but garners absolutely zero sympathy from me.

Do they at least come by and pick up all your teeth? Hey, I think Mark's tact is rather lacking too, but is that the best you can do to veil a personal attack? Why write something like that at the end of an otherwise insightful post?

On the (rare these days) occasions I shoot RW video I wear a camera wing suit with booties. When filming VRW I wear my "VRW suit" (basically just a tight-fitting freefly suit with grippers)

The pull test results were good news, but the pull direction wasn't what I was referring to. Since a picture is worth a 1000 words, see attachment for what I'm talking about. Note particularly: intended pin axis, force, displaced pin axis due to force, and pinch point I'm concerned about the lolon coating riding up the edge of the hole through which it passes on the back side of the pin and binding there. /edited to add: can you tell I'm a real blast to have around at parties? hahaha

Besides... if you get yourself killed getting the shot there's a good chance you'll break your camera as well... ...that's just not acceptable.

Better... I can't tell from the photos on the site if I like it or not though... My concern with that setup is that you have a Lolon coated cable passing through a hole in a metal pin. When a sheer force is applied to the head of the pin as you tighten the helmet, the pin will tilt and the edge of the hole the cable passes through will want to bite into the Lolon coating, locking the whole thing up. You can design the components so that this won't be an issue, but as I said I can't tell from the photos on the site if the manufacturers did so or not.

I'm hesitant to put much faith in cotter pin style cutaway systems. Orientation of the forces associated with the entanglement, orientation of the handle relative the pin direction, and even minor oxidation of the components over time can result in a pretty useless setup when the shit actually hits the fan. I have a feeling there simply aren't enough helmet entanglement incidents for any kind of meaningful statistics to be gathered. A two-ring release system is simply better in just about every way.

A valid point for sure. However, I think this could have come up for someone with 400 jumps or 800 jumps or even 1000s of jumps. The OP has done a good job evaluating what happened and why, which leads me to believe that his lack of jump experience was at most a minor factor. Kudos to him for that. The take-away here is to really be careful when counting the "factors" on any skydive you go on. Not all are applicable here, but new people, objects, cameras, boogie environments, new aircraft, number of people on the jump, new dropzone, type of jump, partying the night before, etc. These are the kinds of things people are talking about when they say "complacency kills."

I've been pressed against the starboard wall of the otter opposite the door on 16 way launches. They came out just fine. Then again just a few weeks ago I lost my footing on a 21 exit (4-way; IC) and clocked my knee on the floor on the way out. That friggin killed...

that would be -XT [cricket... cricket... cricket...] I said that would be minus XT...

This collection of edits reinforces that, just like most companies, even the CIA has desk jockeys that spend more time at work browsing the web than they spend doing their job. Even if you can "get your job done" quickly, if your job has you sitting at a computer all day, I'd wager there are ways to help out further (and maybe get ahead faster) that you are missing by sitting around editing wikipedia articles. This is especially true of large companies and organizations that get mention on the wired list. This kind of thing is also the biggest reason behind almost all major companies' restricted internet use policy. Bandwidth strains are nothing compared to bad press. That said, I'm out of here, I have to go get ready for work.

I don't necessarily rest any more easily knowing the TSA "has our back" either.

with a good 4-way team decent freeflyers hanging you can launch a 6-way with the hangers standing into the hill and turn points right out the door. Don't have any video handy but we played with this a bit last summer...

The Shi'a and Sunni have been bombing each others' mosques for years now in Iraq, it has proven to be an excellent way of inciting rage amongst the local population. This statement would essentially be a claim that, "Look out! we're completely out of our minds and ready to snap and over react to whatever someone does next!" which will make normal people rightfully terrified and make terrorists rightfully rub their hands together. Tancredo is batshit fucking loco.

Seconded on the FF2 comment. And the PC-1000 is an excellent camera.

The iris construction is incredible for a zoom lens (not that a qualification is really necessary.) Side-story: It's funny to think about people that do their first jump during a boogie (in this case Chicks Rock) and how that affects their perception of the sport. On her first jump she landed in front of a huge cheering crowd and chugged a beer with her tandem instructor.

A lot of money from all over the middle east and surrounding areas goes through banks in Dubai, so none of that is all that surprising. I wouldn't consider it to be particularly incriminating either.

If history repeats itself with Northrop acquisitions he'll be on the board of directors before long.

A bunch actually, but one of my favorites is this "hit-n-chug" landing, because it really pushed the lens (and because it's hilarious.) It's worth noting that photo was taken at dusk with no flash at 200mm.

12-20 a week.