Douva

All of the big boys in the free fall cinematography game (Norman Kent, Joe Jennings, Tom Sanders, etc.) have helmet mounted 35mm motion picture cameras. Generally, it's some sort of modified MOS "gun" style camera. --Douva The Aaton A-Minima is the way to go for shooting film in freefall. It's 16mm, but it will get you way better quality than a GSAP any day. mh You may get away with blending 16mm and 35mm if you're end product is going to be on video, but if the end product is going to be projected, I don't think you'll ever make it work to your satisfaction. I've shot 16mm in free fall, and it looks nice, but it's not 35mm. --Douva I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

All of the big boys in the free fall cinematography game (Norman Kent, Joe Jennings, Tom Sanders, etc.) have helmet mounted 35mm motion picture cameras. Generally, it's some sort of modified MOS "gun" style camera. --Douva I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

As soon as I read your post, I had to check and see where you jump--My hunch was correct; you're at my DZ. We had a first jump course last weekend, so there probably won't be another until June. I'm sorry the timing isn't better. If you want to go somewhere else, I know Skydive Temple has FJC's every other week, and Skydive Houston has them pretty frequently, as well. If you want to continue your training at Skydive San Marcos, we would obviously prefer that you take your first jump course with us because it simplifies the training process (it's not just about revenues--different schools often teach different techniques, and switching between schools can present a few minor hurdles), but if you decide you can't wait, any of the above mentioned drop zones will provide you with quality training. If you decide you want to wait and take the FJC at Skydive San Marcos, we'll make sure you're well taken care of. Blue skies, Douva D-22772 AFF-I I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

Decibel, In case nobody has covered the DZ policy on naked skydives with the two of you, it has to be the first or last load of the day. Also, I'm sure management won't want you to be naked around any tandem students, so plan on taking shorts or something that you can take off in the plane after the tandems get out. Since there are often families on the DZ during daylight hours, I strongly suggest taking a pair of shorts or something else to put on after you land, and I suggest landing down at the end of the runway where you won't cause too much of a scene. Those are just a few variables to keep in mind. If there aren't any students or families around, I'm sure you'll have a free hand to do whatever you want. Blue skies, Douva I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

John McCain is another textbook example of one of the two big political machines nominating the "electable" candidate over the best candidate. If both parties would just nominate the most qualified, straight forward, no-nonsense candidates for the top office every four years, and quit turning the presidential race into a popularity contest, we as the American people would seldom, if ever, "loose" an election. --Douva I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

[useless skysurfing trivia] It was a dream sequence in which Hasselhoff and his buddy are both skysurfing. Hasselhoff was doubled by Troy Hartman, and his buddy was doubled by Rob Harris. Joe Jennings shot the aerial footage. [/useless skysurfing trivia] I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

I've always told people that if it happens to me I'm just going to give a big goofy smile and a thumbs up to everybody in the spectator area as I go by. --Douva I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

I usually reply to ALL with the debunkment when I get this crap. People learnnot to forward me this crap. I used to do the same thing, until it nearly cost me a good friend. One of my best friends sent me that same "gas out" email a few years ago, and I "replied to all" with a Snopes rebuttal. It went to his family and coworkers, and he was mortified. After that, I decided there are probably some things more important than the dissemination of the truth. --Douva I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

Any time somebody tries to tell me exactly what is or is not going to happen, regarding a draft, I take their words with a grain of salt. This is a serious issue with a lot of variables, from issues of national security to threats of civil unrest. It may or may not happen, but I've heard enough highly intelligent people speaking out on both sides of the issue to realize that anything is possible. For now, most of us will just have to wait for the issue to be formally placed on the table by our government. Those of us who fall within the draft age will just have to think twice before taking out any long term loans, for the next year or so. --Douva I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

Texas Tech University used to have a skydiving club (The Flying Raiders). If I recall correctly, the school reimbursed their travel expenses for certain organized trips and gave them like $100 a year for gear. I believe they bought a club altimeter with the money. It wasn't a lot of reimbursement, but it seemed to help. They also got to use school facilities for organized weekly meetings. There are probably still a few former members floating around somewhere, if you keep an eye out for them. Blue skies, Douva I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

I used to receive this stupid email all the time. I hadn't seen it in a few years, until a friend emailed it to me about a half hour ago. I think we should start a web page titled simply, "Dedicated to the Gullible," and list the names and email addresses of anyone who forwards it. --Douva I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

Claim: Participating in a one-day "gas out" will help bring the retail price of gasoline down. Status: False. Examples: [Collected on the Internet, 2004] IT HAS BEEN CALCULATED THAT IF EVERYONE IN THE UNITED STATES DID NOT PURCHASE A DROP OF GASOLINE FOR ONE DAY AND ALL AT THE SAME TIME, THE OIL COMPANIES WOULD CHOKE ON THEIR STOCKPILES. AT THE SAME TIME IT WOULD HIT THE ENTIRE INDUSTRY WITH A NET LOSS OF OVER 4.6 BILLION DOLLARS WHICH AFFECTS THE BOTTOM LINES OF THE OIL COMPANIES. THEREFORE MAY 19TH HAS BEEN FORMALLY DECLARED "STICK IT UP THEIR BEHINDS DAY" AND THE PEOPLE OF THIS NATION SHOULD NOT BUY A SINGLE DROP OF GASOLINE THAT DAY. THE ONLY WAY THIS CAN BE DONE IS IF YOU FORWARD THIS E-MAIL TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN AND AS QUICKLY AS YOU CAN TO GET THE WORD OUT. WAITING ON THIS ADMIINSTRATION TO STEP IN AND CONTROL THE PRICES IS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE REDUCTION AND CONTROL IN PRICES THAT THE ARAB NATIONS PROMISED TWO WEEKS AGO? REMEMBER ONE THING, NOT ONLY IS THE PRICE OF GASOLINE GOING UP BUT AT THE SAME TIME AIRLINES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES, TRUCKING COMPANIES ARE FORCED TO RAISE THEIR PRICES WHICH EFFECTS PRICES ON EVERYTHING THAT IS SHIPPED. THINGS LIKE FOOD, CLOTHING, BUILDING MATERIALS, MEDICAL SUPPLIES ETC. WHO PAYS IN THE END? WE DO! WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. IF THEY DON'T GET THE MESSAGE AFTER ONE DAY, WE WILL DO IT AGAIN AND AGAIN. SO DO YOUR PART AND SPREAD THE WORD. FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. MARK YOUR CALENDARS AND MAKE MAY 19TH A DAY THAT THE CITIZENS OF THE UNITED STATES SAY "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [Collected on the Internet, 2000] Last year on April 30, 1999, a gas out was staged across Canada and the U.S. to bring the price of gas down, and it worked. It's time to do something about it again. Only this time lets make it for three days instead of just one. The so-called oil cartel decided to slow production to drive up gasoline prices. Lets see how many Canadian\American people we can get to ban together for a three day period in April, NOT TO BUY ANY GASOLINE, during those three days. LET'S HAVE A GAS OUT. Do not buy any gasoline from APRIL 7, 2000, THROUGH APRIL 9, 2000. Buy what you need before the dates listed above, or after, but try not to buy any during the GAS OUT. If you want to help, just send this to everyone you know and ask them to do the same. We brought the prices down once before, and we can do it again. Come on North America lets stand together. WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!. Even if you receive this 100 times keep passing it around, this way you know everyone is being informed and no one will forget!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Origins: Although it went into hiding for several years, the one-day "gas out" craze is back — and with it a reminder that protest schemes that don't cost the the participants any inconvenience, hardship, or money remain the most popular, despite their dubious effectiveness. A one-day "gas out" was proposed in 1999, and a three-day-long event was called for in 2000, but both drew little participation and had no effect on retail gasoline prices because they were based on a flawed premise. By definition, a boycott involves the doing without of something, with the renunciation of the boycotted product held up as tangible proof to those who supply the commodity that consumers are prepared to do without it unless changes are made. What the "gas out" calls for isn't consumers swearing off using or buying gasoline, even for a short time, but for them to simply shift their purchases by one day. The same amount of gasoline will be run through the cars of the boycotters during the "gas out," and the same amount of gasoline will ultimately be purchased by motorists (albeit some of it a day earlier or a day later). Because the "gas out" doesn't call on consumers to make a sacrifice by actually giving up something, the threat it poses is a hollow one. Not buying gas on a designated day may make people feel a bit better about things by providing them a chance to vent their anger at higher gasoline prices, but the action won't have any real impact on retail prices. An effective protest would involve something like organizing people to forswear the use of their cars on specified days, an act that could effectively demonstrate the reality of the threat that if gasoline prices stay up, American consumers are prepared to move to carpooling and public transportation for the long term. Simply changing the day one buys gas, however, imparts no such threat, because nothing is being done without. Moreover, the primary effect of the type of boycott proposed in the "gas out" messages is to hurt those at the very end of the oil-to-gasoline chain, service station operators — the people who have the least influence in setting gasoline prices and survive on the thinnest of profit margins. As such, the "gas out" is a punch on the nose delivered to the wrong person. News accounts from across North America about previous "gas out" non-events have documented both their low level of participation and their ineffectiveness: Friday's gasoline boycott was an effort that sputtered, coughed, then died. Motorists continued to fill up gas-guzzling sport-utility vehicles and trucks alongside smaller vehicles despite a one-day protest aimed to pressure oil companies to lower gas prices. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The one-day boycott was loosely organized by World Wide Web surfers angry about gasoline prices in California. Fuel prices rose dramatically in March but stabilized [just before the boycott] and in some cases decreased. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Although a gasoline boycott that began as an electronic mail campaign kept some drivers nationwide away from the pump, dealers say they saw little, if any, effect on their traffic. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Seattle, there were so many cars waiting to get into [a] Texaco station . . . yesterday afternoon that it caused a backup five cars deep into [the] right-hand lane. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Reports indicated few motorists paid attention to a nationwide boycott touted initially by Internet e-mail and later by word of mouth. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A planned nationwide boycott protesting the high price of gasoline didn't have much effect on local gas stations. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "We were expecting something substantial," said Mark Johnson, the owner of a Chevron station. "We haven't really noticed much of a difference." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Irving stations in sunny Halifax said the boycott had no effect on business. "It's been busy as a bugger here," said Bruce Riley, manager of one station. "We haven't been busier in the last two weeks," added the manager at another Halifax outlet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gas stations [in Ottawa] reported "busier than ever" conditions at the pumps on the day of The Great Internet Gas-Out. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The owner [of a Chevron station near downtown Sacramento], Ross Relles, complained that gas stations are the wrong targets. "Whoever is promoting this idiotic day, all it's hurting is the small retailers like me." -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Independent gas station owners say they raise their prices to keep up with the rising prices from suppliers. "The high prices upset us, too, and the people usually get mad at us. But we have no control over it," said [service station owner] George Dekermenjian. And, contrary to the claims made in the latest "gas out" exhortation, shifting one's purchase of gasoline by a single day will not jam up stockpiles and thereby cost oil companies billions of dollars: [The "gas out"] was really sort of a hoot, because the initiative was so, well, American in that it didn't require sacrifice or inconvenience. Rather than urging a prolonged vehicle-use moratorium to emphasize consumer power, gas out organizers simply recommended not buying gasoline [on Friday]. This means overall consumption won't be affected, thereby accomplishing nothing. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "If no one bought gas today, half would have bought yesterday, and half would buy today," said Scott Espenshade, the Independent Petroleum Assn. of America's chief economist. "That doesn't change the demand, it just moves it to a different day." Oil companies, which run their inventories on a weekly basis, wouldn't even notice the change, he said. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The trouble is, experts say it won't work, short of repealing the laws of supply and demand. "It's all the same to the oil companies and OPEC whether you fill up on Thursday or Friday," says chief economist David Wyss of Standard & Poor's DRI in Lexington, Mass. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Despite all the publicity, many economists said the boycott would do little to ease gas prices. "It's a purely symbolic event that will have no real effect on the market," said Severin Borenstein, head of the Energy Institute at the University of California at Berkeley. Gasoline is a fungible, global commodity, its price subject to the ordinary forces of supply and demand. No amount of consumer gimmickry and showmanship will lower its price in the long run; only a significant, continuous reduction in demand will accomplish that goal. Unfortunately, for many people achieving that goal would mean cutting down on their driving or opting for less desirable economy cars over less fuel-efficient models, solutions they find unappealing. An event like a "gas out" can sometimes do some good by calling attention to a cause and sending a message. In this case, though, the only message being sent is: "We consumers are so desperate for gasoline that we can't even do without it for a few days to demonstrate our dissatisfaction with its cost." What supplier is going to respond to a message like that by lowering its prices? Last updated: 13 May 2004 The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/politics/business/nogas.asp Click here to e-mail this page to a friend Urban Legends Reference Pages © 1995-2004 by Barbara and David P. Mikkelson I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

Anybody who wrote this guy and called him a thief, without a shred of real evidence, needs to grow up. That is not the way a mature adult handles this kind of situation. --Douva Chill. I simply wrote this guy asking him if he knew where he got the canopy because evidence pointed towards it having been found in the woods. He said he knew nothing about it and the lines were all tangled up. Don't you think we should investigate when canopies such as this one appear on ebay? The guy actually very much appreciated the inquiries because he does not know if the people who brought the canopy to him had stolen it or not. Damn. Getting a little defensive, aren't you, Weegegirl? You said the guy claimed to have received "about 50 emails calling him a theif [sic]." My comment was directed at anybody who made those kinds of unsubstantiated accusations. I didn't say anything about you. Learn not to take everything so personally. --Douva "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." -- Hamlet (III, ii, 239) I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

Anybody who wrote this guy and called him a thief, without a shred of real evidence, needs to grow up. That is not the way a mature adult handles this kind of situation. --Douva I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

Big boy, you fill my tights every time I see you. I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

That's not what the coach course is supposed to be. Evaluators can still play the dumb student, but they're not supposed to set outrageous standards to pass the jumps. You shouldn't be required to stay with an expertly tracking student. The students who failed probably should have appealed the class to the USPA. --Douva I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

Anybody, regardless of jump numbers, who teaches the first jump course without a syllabus is not teaching as efficiently as they should. A good syllabus keeps you from forgetting anything. --Douva I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

My $0.02.... The coaches course is simple enough for anybody to pass because coaches can't really do much. All they are allowed to do is jump with and give basic relative work instruction to students who have graduated AFF but not yet obtained their "A" licenses. Most of us who've been jumping more than two years were doing that without any kind of rating, under the old system. Now the USPA simply has a plan to make sure the people making these types of jumps have a basic level of proficiency and a uniform approach to dealing with students. A coach can't pull for a student who forgets to pull. A coach can't re-dock and stabilize an unstable student. All a coach can do is 2-ways with low timers. The coaches course doesn't need to be a mini-AFF course. It just needs to make sure the first jumpers a student jumps with after AFF have reasonably competent skydiving skills and won't feed the student bad information. The AFF course does not simply issue ratings to anyone who pays the course fee--It's a tough course. Gone are the "ranger school" mind games that once turned good skydivers to mush, but the air skill standards are still there. The course has been greatly improved in the sense that the evaluators now teach before they test. The new course does substitute a pass/fail jump grading system for the old points system, but that doesn't make the jumps easier; it just simplifies the grading process and takes away the pressure of needing a "four point jump" to pass. There is still plenty of pressure. Fail your first jump, and those next three jumps are pure torture. Fail one of them, and you're going home. The changes in the course have lead to a higher pass rate, but I don't believe that means the new course is inferior. I found the course both very educational and very challenging, and I feel like I came out of it as twice the skydiver I went into it. --Douva I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

Yeah, these pampered 500 jump wonders make me sick. I wouldn't trust most of them on an SCR, much less an AFF jump. If you ask me....wait a minute....uh....never mind. --Douva D-22772 533 jumps AFF I (as of May 7) I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

The one thing that really bothers me about the proposal for updating selective service is the idea of drafting based on useful skills. It seems to me that young people might be deterred from pursuing studies in language or computers, if they feel such studies would make them more likely to be drafted. I'm not sure that dissuading America's youths from entering critical fields is the best way to strengthen our nation. The idea of extending the draft registration age to 34 also concerns me because I think an effective draft should be designed to interrupt people's lives as little as possible (allowing military service to fall just after high school or college, if possible), but simply keeping a registration of everyone under the age of 35 doesn't mean all age groups within that range would necessarily be drafted from. The government could keep a registration of everyone under the age of 35 and still only draft people under the age of 26, except under certain exceptional circumstances. It's easy for those of us young enough to be drafted to get caught up in thinking about how it would interrupt our lives, but a lot of young people don't realize that Elvis was drafted, and I'm pretty sure there was some other stuff going on in his life at the time. I do have some concern for young couples with children, and I would like to know how the new system would deal with those types of situations. I also want to know how the Selective Service System plans to close the loopholes that once allowed the wealthy and well connected (cough...cough...not mentioning any names) to avoid military service. I don't want to join the military--I have other stuff going on--but if they really need me, I'll probably enlist to make sure I get a good job. I'd rather spend four or five years doing something I kind of like than spend two or three doing something I really hate. --Douva EDITED FOR PUNCTUATION I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

I don't know if this ad has been mentioned yet, but if you haven't seen the T-Mobile ad with the two skydivers and the tandem pair hanging from the treetops, keep your eyes open for it. It's pretty funny. --Douva I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

My favorite line has to be "Online research shows that these babies can be quite expensive!!!" CLICKY I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

I wanted to get back into martial arts last year and was researching which style I wanted to study. The informality and straightforward, no-nonsense, practical approach of Krav Maga appealed to me, so I looked into it a little deeper. I ended up not taking it for several reasons. 1. All of the Krav Maga schools in Austin require a one year commitment and charge $80/month plus a $200 enrollment fee. This struck me as both extremely expensive and a little fishy. I talked to some other martial arts instructors online (nobody who was trying to get me to come to their school), and they agreed that I shouldn't trust anyone who wants me to sign a long term contract. It usually indicates that contracts are the only way they can keep students. 2. There is no sparring Krav Maga. All of that rhetoric about "every move being designed to inflict maximum damage" aside, most experts agree that it's really hard to master a fighting style if you can't practice it at full speed, with real opponents. One of the Krav Maga schools I looked into did mention that they had informal full-contact mixed martial arts sparring on Friday evenings (not really part of the formal training, just an after hours thing for whoever is interested), which sounded like a good alternative to in-class sparring, so if you do join a Krav Maga class, you might want to find one that has a similar setup. 3. A lot of people told me that Krav Maga is basically Brazilian Jujitsu light. I also heard some negative comments from experienced martial artists about some of Krav Maga's weapons disarm techniques. I had a lot of people tell me that I would probably be better off in a solid mixed martial arts (MMA) class. If you're really curious about Krav Maga, they have a short video series that will give you a good idea of the basic style. I got a copy off of eBay pretty cheap. I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

I don't know if anyone has pointed this out or not, but this list is bogus. http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/rape.htm Origins: This bit of codswallop began its Internet life in January 2000 as an enthusiastic e-mail penned by an employee at the St. Louis office of the public relations firm Weber Shandwick. The writer was among a group enrolled in a self-defense class taught by David Portnoy, an instructor who claims to have trained with actors Steven Seagal and Jean-Claude Van Damme. Portnoy refuses to give information about what he teaches in his classes or details of where he gained the information he passes along, preferring instead to sell it. (He demanded a $1,000 interview fee from a Denver Post reporter). If, however, this Weber Shandwick employee's e-mail describing what he teaches is accurate, Portnoy should be characterized as a fear merchant vending false information to those anxious to feel safe. If rapists choose their victims based on hairstyle and length of tresses, it's news to those in law enforcement; they've never noticed this trend. Rape victims have short hair, long hair, and no hair. They're also young and old, short and tall, fat and skinny, femininely dressed or looking like they just fell off the tractor, and all points in between. Likewise, the claim that rapists go after women wearing overalls because "the straps can be easily cut" is pure hogwash, as anyone who has ever tried to cut up an old pair can attest. Overalls are made of some of the most resilient fabrics known to mankind (denim and canvas, usually), and cutting these straps is made almost impossible because the fabric is doubled over and seamed at that point in the garment. If there's a pair of scissors that can snip through this, I've yet to wield them. Rape is also not always about getting sex quickly. Often it's an act of rage or punishment directed at a vulnerable person for perceived injustices done to the attacker by others. Getting a woman out of her clothes quickly isn't a factor in these rapes; terrorizing her and inflicting bodily harm is. If we take points one and two together, we're to believe rapists arm themselves with scissors for cutting overall straps (instead of just easing them off the shoulders or — heaven forbid! — undoing the fasteners) yet fail to think to equip themselves with rolls of duct tape to keep their victims subdued, preferring instead to grab hold of their hair and hang on. According to Denver Police Sgt. John Burbach, most rapes occur in the evening hours and into early morning, ending before dawn, not "between 5 and 8:30 a.m." as claimed in the e-mail. Statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice fully support him in this claim: The DOJ says "Approximately two-thirds of rapes/sexual assaults occurred at night — 6 p.m. to 6 a.m." As for the tidbit "The number one place women are abducted from/attacked at is grocery store parking lots. Number two is office parking lots/garages. Number three is public restrooms," Kathie Kramer, public relations coordinator at the Denver Rape Assistance and Awareness Program (RAAP) says, "Statistics in studies I've found don't support this idea about grocery stores or parking lots being especially unsafe." Location is important in a violent sexual assault, but there's nothing inherently dangerous about parking lots or public restrooms; what matters is their isolation. Areas heavily frequented by foot traffic are far less likely to be chosen by a rapist. Likewise, badly-lit, less-frequented places will be favored for this type of attack. The e-mail claims that only 2% of rapists (one out of every fifty) carries a weapon. That figure is seriously out of whack: 1995 U.S. Department of Justice statistics show that weapons were used in 30% of all rapes, meaning the chances that your rapist will be armed is just a little less than one in three. Battling an armed attacker while unarmed yourself is rarely a wise course of action to take, and misstatements such as the 2% figure could well incite an attacked woman to thrust herself into that dynamic because she figures her chances are far better than they actually are. "If you put up any kind of a fight at all, they get discouraged because it only takes a minute or two for them to realize that going after you isn't worth it because it will be time-consuming." That's great advice, provided you get the right rapist. And you've no way of knowing until it's too late. As comforting as it might be to believe there's only one sort of baddie out there and if you understand his mind you can stay safe, that just isn't the case. There is no one set of right answers, and e-mails of this ilk potentially put us at even greater risk by suggesting that there is. Around 1980, Nicholas Groth, director of Forensic Mental Health Associates, established a typology of rapists. Groth arrived at his conclusions by distilling his observations of more than 3,000 sex offenders over the course of 25 years of practice. (Most of his patients, Groth points out, were not sexually deprived at the time they committed rape, thereby exploding that most common of rape myths: that men rape because they're unable to get sex any other way.) In a general sense, rapists fall into three motivational types: anger, power, and sadism. In anger assaults, the rapist is getting even for "some wrong he feels has been done to him, by life, by his victim at the time. He's in a frame of rage and attacks someone sexually." The anger rape is usually unpremeditated and impulsive, but the impulse drives the rapist into excessive force: the victim is punched, choked, and kicked into submission. Most such offenders derive little pleasure from the act, says Groth, but "they want to degrade their victims, and sex is something bad, dirty, the worst thing you could do to someone. That reflects a lot of our values in society." An anger rapist could be discouraged by a potential victim who yells at him or puts up a physical struggle, thanks to the unpremeditated nature of the attack. Because the aggressor may not yet have fully decided to pursue this course of action, resistance may well change his mind. Here, even a half-hearted attempt might prove to be all it takes to end the assault. On the other hand, the rage the attacker is feeling might well be further fed by active resistance — this could be taken as yet another instance of one more person trying to deny him something he wants. Power rape, according to Groth, is a form of compensation, committed usually by men who feel unsure of their competence. Rape gives them a sense of mastery and control. Power rapists usually hunt for victims or seize opportunities that present themselves unbidden. A power rapist is unlikely to be discouraged by resistance because his whole self image is wrapped up in his attempt to prove mastery. A woman who chooses to fight one of these had better do a darned good job of it, because she could well end up fighting for her life. Groth defines his third type, sadistic rape, as eroticized aggression perpetrated by those whom the very act of forcible sex excites in ways that consensual sex can't. "If the anger components of aggression are eroticized," he explains, "then you see sadistic acts, such as deliberate sexual torture, using an instrument to rape the victim." A sadistic rapist is interested in inflicting pain and lasting harm. Any countering aggression on the part of the victim could well add to the attacker's enjoyment of the experience, prompting him to further acts of depravity in an effort to provoke further resistance. The question of to fight back or not is an age-old one, and there's no one right answer. Granted, one particular rapist might be sent running bloody-nosed by a swift right hook, but try that on another one and a horrific experience could be transformed into a fatal one. Resistance advice of the type being circulated in the e-mail in question creates the false impression that escaping unscathed from the clutches of a rapist is only a matter of knowing which self-defence tricks to employ. Reality, however, is far different. Not all rapists can be overcome. Does this then mean self-defence classes are a waste of time? Hardly. But they're also not the surefire protection they're too often touted to be, any more than a can of mace confers upon its wielder guaranteed safe passage through whatever mean streets and dark alleys lie in her path. Also, physical skills are only as good as recent training — someone who hasn't practiced a move in the three months since she took a course is only a tadge better prepared to fend off an attacker than someone who never had any training at all. Worst of all, such training can lead those who have aced their courses to develop a dangerous complacency about their own safety, inducing them into a state of overconfidence wherein awareness of their surroundings becomes a lost art, buried under the certainty that now bad things can't happen to them. Complacency kills. As always, the best defence to an attempted rape is not to be there when it happens — either avoid potentially dangerous situations (none of this "Oh, it's only a few blocks; I'll just walk" at 3 a.m.) or run like hell if you find yourself in one. Escaping your attacker is a far wiser course of action to strive for than attempting to do battle with him. Forget about his needing a good beating followed by a lengthy jail term; your first priority has to be your own safety. Leave the Wonder Woman stuff for Linda Carter and make like a track star vying for a gold medal in the 100m. The e-mail did contain one bit of valuable advice: Stay aware of your surroundings. Not only is it important to see trouble coming before it gets to you and avoid it, but an alert stance can help discourage a would-be attacker. Those looking to prey upon others — whether their aim is robbery, rape, or mayhem — generally choose as victims those who appear preoccupied or tentative in preference to those who exude a sense of purpose. Or, as I was told long ago, "Always look like you know exactly where you're going and move like you're expected to be there at exactly a certain time." Mooning about aimlessly can make you a statistic. So, to sum up, is avoiding a rape a matter of wearing your hair short and eschewing overalls? Hardly. And anyone who attempts to characterize it as such ought to be whomped over someone's knee. Barbara "big heap; big wampum" Mikkelson Last updated: 7 March 2001 The URL for this page is http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/rape.htm Click here to e-mail this page to a friend I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

If you're not familiar with Sirius, you obviously haven't been watching CNBC. It's been one of the most traded stocks on the NASDAQ for the past few months. I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.