NickDG

Here's a video of an AFF first jump course I taught . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGedo401QJs NickD

The folks at JPL explain its size by saying it's as big as a Mini Cooper. It's also ten times heavier than Spirit or Opportunity. NickD

>>Where did you ever find Julia?

There are no solar panels on Curiosity . . . NickD

Julia is a Phd in Aerospace Engineering but all the engineering fields are represented at JPL, electrical, mechanical, etc. Also all the sciences and I know there are many folks working there with only Masters degrees. NickD

They are test driving the new Mars rover "Curiosity" which is scheduled to be launched in November 2011. Testing will go until 3:30 Pacific time today. Julia is in one of those clean suits somewhere . . . http://www.ustream.tv/nasajpl NickD

>>She's almost as sexy as Skymama

I don't expect much for Nina's debutant show, just as long as we don't come in DFL (Dead Fooking Last) . . . LOL . . . But no matter what I'll get to meet some cool folks and have a bitchen day . . . . NickD

Went down to Kinkos and picked up the poster they made for 9ina's bike show singage . . . NickD

sandimascarshow.com NickD :)

I won't need it after a while, l'm just trying to get the seat of my pants synchronized. I forgot to mention Nina is entered in her first show on Sunday. It's the San Dimas Car, Truck, and Motorcycle Show. My paint job isn't really show worthy so I'm just hoping Nina can hold her own going up against all the billit barges, LOL! NickD :)

So I got a Droid X and it totally solved my lack of a speedometer. I tried it out on a trip to Best Buy to get a set of Skull Candy ear buds for the phone and it worked great! There's a bunch of different speedo applications you can d/l for the X so I'm trying a few out. Plus on the way home, 'cause I got the ear buds, I had the tunes cranking! NickD :)

>>I recall a recent incident where the 'unique' Racer RSL caused a reserve total malfunction.

I wasn't knocking Racers as besides one Wonderhog back in the 1970s they are all I've ever owned besides a Reflex. And not only because of the pop tops (although that's a big reason) but because almost every other modern reserve container is built totally wrong. Ever see these videos . . . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYIUjKGxagI&feature=player_embedded http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=889765176342&ref=mf NickD

>>I thought SST stood for "Struggle Struggle Thump"

Gee, anyone remember when it was so simple. Instructors taught students, Jumpmasters jumped with students, and the folks who helped you along after student status were, well, just your friends . . . NickD

For a container anything pre-Racer (when they were called a SST for Super Swooper Tandems.) Any canopy from Glidepath, except the Pegasus and Fury, as those were okay. But the Clipper or Nova were total widow makers. And somebody at Glidepath should have went to prison over the Nova. Secondary worst container would be anything with a frigging Dolphin on it, LOL . . . Reserve would be a five cell Para-Flite Safety Flyer which was absolute garbage! NickD

I've seen plenty of people show up at the DZ blindfolded for a surprise tandem or FJC. So "how'd they'd get him there?" isn't relevant. Of course for a FJC I'd make them remove the blindfold, safety first ya know . . . NickD

More so than para-sailing donkeys . . . http://www.vidmax.com/video/61695/Asshole_Friends_Trick_Man_Into_Thinking_He_is_Bungee_Jumping/ NickD

I was 15 years old and I recall thinking the first Moon landing was a very linear culmination of Alan Shepard's suborbital lob in in 1961. So it wasn't as amazing to me as it was to my parents. I grew up in a time when the Jetsons life seemed right around the corner and after a steady diet of classic 1950s sci-fi movies my watching Neil and Buzz walking on the moon seemed almost perfectly normal to me. Of course at the time I was ignorant of the politics of it all. I thought we went to the Moon simply because exploration was what we humans do. I didn't realize it was really all about kicking Russian ass. BTW, you can't have an intelligent chat about these things without including the politics. And I'd offer requiring us to limit our thoughts depending on what area of the board we're on is what makes this forum seem so antiquated. But I do disagree to some extent as I think NASA is doing amazing things right now that don't get much attention because they aren't as sexy as the early days of space flight. But we are doing all right. The international space station notwithstanding we've learned much more about the Universe since the termination of the moon missions with robotic probes, orbital telescopes, and ground based arrays. Voyager 1, launched in 1977, (under President Carter) to set to leave our solar system and enter interstellar space in the next five years or so, with Voyager 2 hot on its heels to enter interstellar space shortly after that. These two spacecraft are the very tip of our human foot print. But ask the average Joe on the street what Voyager is and unless they are Trekkies most will probably answer its a band or something. As for the overall number of boneheads walking the earth I don't believe there's much difference between the 1960s and today. I think it seems like we have more half-wits nowadays because we live in the info age which gives the morons among us a louder megaphone. I'm really afraid of one thing though. And that is the biggest lesson of space flight is lost on most of us. If you wrote a new book about it a good title would be, "How Astronauts Went to the Moon and Ended Up Discovering Planet Earth." That first human view of our beautiful blue planet magically hanging there in a black vastness of space should have taught us all a bit more about our place in the Universe. You don't see any borders or fences from space. You don't see any democrats or republicans from space. And you certainly don't see any human pettiness from space. I'm with the late Carl Sagen in thinking the Universe is teeming with life. It just doesn't make any sense it wouldn't be. And it's only our misplaced pride in ourselves that makes so many believe that space is simply there for us to gaze at during the night. The saving grace is going to be our first extraterrestrial contact. Be it living microbes or full blown walking and talking beings we might then get it through our thick skulls were not skydivers or whuffos, we're not whites, blacks, or latinos, we're not rednecks or hippies, we, all of us, are just Earthlings . . . NickD

Are you at the DMV right now? (Now serving number six millon at window number forty thousand!) My tandoom rating is uncurrent so I don't have to do those anymore, thank goodness! Hope they sort you out at the DMV. They actually sent me temp for real license plate like they said they would. The plate that says 9INA should arrive soon . . . NickD

Got room for me on your "trailer" LOL! NickD

LOL, I just yesterday found an exhaust gasket that rolled away into oblivion six months ago . . . NickD

Did Nina's 1st oil change today. She's starting to break in now, I can feel it, she's running better and better !!!

Looking damn good . . . And you did it fast too! NickD