champu

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Everything posted by champu

  1. champu
    I get it you didn't get it. Check out this guy, I can't imagine his insurance policy would really help there As Krisanne points out, there's insurance available for just about everything. I know what you're getting at, but I don't really like overly-constrained hypothetical questions because they're too leading. But this is Bonfire, not Speakers Corner, so whatever. I apologize for being a smart ass.
  2. champu
    If you had to get in a car accident during a civil war, which country would you want to have it in?
  3. champu
    If you're a non-exempt hourly employee "getting a day off" (i.e. unpaid leave) isn't really a huge perk.
  4. champu
    I don't find that to be ironic, at least not when stated in the general case as you have here. Perhaps there's some more specific details about the Nevada rancher case you need to work into your jab.
  5. champu
    In addition to "the checklist" I'd also recommend being as current as possible before, during, and after the downsize. That is to say, if your routine is to come out to jump every 2-3 weeks and make 6 jumps, consider budgeting time and money to dedicate 2-3 weekends in a row where you can get 30-40 jumps in. Every downsize is a learning experience, and learning is always easier (and more fun IMO) the more current you are.
  6. champu
    Interesting. Thanks for pointing that out.
  7. champu
    I would caution against making assumptions about the inner workings of software written by someone else based on what you or I might find to be prudent/reasonable. I'm much less concerned with clarification of the airborne mode behavior (which, if misunderstood when making activation alt. adjustments, could result in an individual's AAD not firing when they would have wanted it to... too bad for them) than I am with activation altitudes above arming altitudes and above altitudes where pressure changes routinely occur during aircraft operations (which, if misunderstood when making activation alt. adjustments, could result in an individual's AAD firing when they don't want it to... too bad for them... and you... and me... and anyone else in the plane.)
  8. champu
    Well, since this thread got bumped, here's an interesting bit in a letter from the Brady Campaign they sent in support of someone with the authority to do so intervening in the case. (you can see the whole letter at the case website I linked to in my last post.) So their argument amounts to... People who want to exercise their right to carry a concealed weapon (by attending classes, passing a background check, filing with the sherriff's office, etc.) because they are concerned for their safety, regardless of how personal or concrete their concern is for wanting to do so, they should not have that course of action available to them because the very existence of that course of action, whether or not it is exercised, increases the Brady members' level of apprehension in such a way that they change their behavior. ...well if that isn't one hell of a can of worms.
  9. champu
    Several have pointed that out... Yes, that was the joke.
  10. champu
    For a good chunk of my skydiving career I was racking up another 200 jumps every few months. And no, not instructing, coaching, or working for the dropzone, just fun jumping and jumping with my teams. The "young people" in this thread sound like a bunch of impatient cry-babies. [inline "whambulance.jpg"]
  11. champu
    Hey, has anyone in the thread told you this statement was wrong yet? No? 'Cause it's wrong.
  12. champu
    I am of the understanding that the deactivation (don't bother) altitude and the arming altitude after take off are one and the same for the Vigil. If that's the case, and you change your Vigil ground offset to make it fire at an altitude at or higher than the altitude where doors and windows get opened on the aircraft on climb up, then you are asking for your Vigil to "perform as designed" right into someone's face. Per my observation in post #22, it's not clear to me whether changing the firing altitude of a Cypres 2 (using the new adjustment, not the LZ offset) has the potential to introduce the same problem on that platform.
  13. champu
    You never know. Both my kids have blond hair and blue eyes. My ex-wife and I don't have blond hair or blue eyes. Our parents don't have blong hair or blue eyes. Our grand parents (maternal or paternal) don't have blond hair or blue eyes. My fiancee is Chinese. If our kids have blue eyes, my mother-in-law will have some 'splainin to do.
  14. champu
    Meh, so my kids won't have blue eyes... I'll get over it.
  15. champu
    Not a fair characterization of the situation considering Hanlon's Razor. This is simply giant gears of bureaucracy making a revolution a la the movie Brazil. sfzombie13 hit the nail on the head that just as a supposed mistake was found and "corrected" by the IRS (and I wonder how much it cost the IRS to do so) a similar expenditure of time and money on the part of Ms. Grice may allow her to get her money back if it was taken incorrectly. That said, Social Security is going bankrupt in much the same way the Titanic was sinking: slowly, inevitably, and despite people's continued assertions of how great it is and how unthinkable it would be for it to go under.
  16. champu
    Mitigative step... ...don't get a tax refund.
  17. champu
    We probably just work for a company you hate for some reason.
  18. champu
    I think if you toss out the commentary about the networks and just take the recommendations as generally applicable you end up with a more productive message. I think it's ironic that this article causes readers of it to get into arguments about this or that network or author.
  19. champu
    Just an observation... The Cypres 2 allows a user activation height offset of up to +900 ft or 1650 ft AGL. According to the manual, the Cypres 2 arms once you are 1500 ft above the higher of either the airfield or the selected landing zone offset, and there are some caveats about what not to do as a jump pilot or else you will confuse the units and cause them to fire low or not at all. There's no discussion of the 1500 ft arming altitude or the "important notes for jump pilots" and how they may be affected by this user setting that I could find in the manual.
  20. champu
    "Accurate" and "misleading" are not antonyms.
  21. champu
    More to the point of the thread though, I think "We the people" as individuals wield about as much power as we choose to, and that obviously varies greatly from person to person and over time. As I've lamented here like a broken record recently, I think we're in a phase where most people have been convinced by pundits and politicians to wield that power by voting as many of "their guys" into as many offices as they can and then to stop paying attention. When people succumb to this brand loyalty towards political parties and forget that their representatives have phone numbers and mailing addresses and public meetings you can go to rather than just a letter next to their name then they choose not to wield any meaningful power at all.
  22. champu
    I think the term should specifically not include being the unlucky first to experience a latent mode of failure in a particular design. That is to say, it's not simply enough that no one did anticipate the accident for it to be considered a "freak" accident, it has to be unreasonable for anyone to have predicted the accident even in hindsight.
  23. champu
    ...summing up the space industry and distasteful pornography in one sentence.
  24. champu
    It's not about the rich. It's not about gays, people who get abortions, oil companies, religious people, atheists, illegal immigrants, gun owners, muslims, or people in unions. It's about demanding change from a group of people you're not a member of after convincing yourself said change will improve the world... you can make a difference and all you have to do is bitch and vote for a politician who will stick it to that group.
  25. champu
    I don't even want to know how much it cost the producers of Transformers 3 to get the permits / insurance to jump base rigs out of a helicopter over downtown Chicago and fly wingsuits between buildings.