Andrewwhyte

Well come on home then. The weather has been nice the last couple of days and should stay above -30, well except Saturday morning.

Yes. But not with Hillary. At least lampposts are viewed as unobtrusive and useful. I am starting to see that from the posting on here. The question is will the Dem establishment give a big F**k You to the voting members and use their 20% superdelegates to push her over the top against the will of the elected delegates? It looks like it may well come down to the supers.

You sure about that bro? If you have lived outside Canada most of the time for three consecutive years your permanent residency permit expires.

Yep. It would not be the first time the Dems have laid an egg when they had the GOP on the ropes; John Kerry and George McGovern come to mind. That said i am still not convinced that Clinton is unelectable. I think there is still a significant chance that the recession (assuming there is one) will be sharp and painful. Whether you blame B. Clinton for the 2000 slowdown or not, people still remember his tenure as good times. If the Dem machine can link the recession to the GOP rather than Bush personally, they can win with a lamp post.

3.2? Are you new to California or what? That's like Amazon jumping up and down over a 1/4" of rain.

I think this is the way it should be: There is a minimum weight for each seat purchased. Passenger and all bags are weighed. (X-kg)(Y$/kg) = ticket price. If you show up heavy your credit card is charged for your extra weight at 1.25Y (to encourage accurate estimating) and underweight is credited at 0.8Y.

So. Why not? It is the bonfire after all; this forum is specifically for non-skydiving, non-controversial topics.

I don't think the comment about the importance of US elections has much to do with transient internal social issues; it has more to do with the fact that the worlds markets are in turmoil due to the US housing crisis, the fact that US foreign policy decisions have led some countries into two wars, others into one that tend to have the governments offside with internal public opinion. The eventual winner of this race will have a huge impact upon things like the Doha round of the WTO discussions, the future of Islamic nation- Christian nation relations, and the progression of Capitalism.

In Canada we use a piece of paper and a pencil.

It's not free; It's just paid for differently.

I actually thought she did a good job. Far too often they get some country singer who has a sub 1 octave range so they have to keep changing key throughout.

Kraft dinner and canned salmon. Add hot sauce to taste

Well you should say yes on that matter; we need your help down there. One of the main reasons the UN is such an ineffective body is because countries commit soldiers to missions and then give them orders not to do anything that might smell of danger. Read "Shake Hands With the Devil" by Romeo Dallaire for a thorough account of how just those sort of provisions hobbled his forces in Rwanda when they might have been able to do some good. If some of the smaller, poorer members of NATO can only help in a rear-echelon capacity that's one thing. You people are the second largest country in the alliance; you need to help out more.

Host-country??? Care to explain? When discussing American politics from afar, one can be considered a guest. However, if one were discussing German politics, I would assume one would be hosted by Germany. But I thought we were all in this (the war on terror) together. So you would tell the German troops in Afghanistan that they are mercenaries for the Americans?

I think this is a result of your state government getting involved with what is in fact, a private matter; the Democratic Party is a club and do things the way they want. The primary is something the State government decreed, but it has no bearing on anything.

What is going on now is the nominating process for the candidates. In Parliamentary systems this is like a leadership contest and strictly within the party. However in US the voting is done state by state, and the party members elect delegates to go to the big convention. Each state subdivision of the party has their own particular rules about how they assign delegates. Some give all elected delegates to the team supporting the candidate who wins the primary vote, some do the same but divide the state into several smaller districts, others choose delegates by proportional representation. In most or all states some of the delegates are appointed by the party. Members of the national committee, US senators from that state, the governor, former candidates are examples of who get chosen as "superdelegates." The number of delegates a state gets is very complicated, but largely based upon population. On this coming Tuesday (Super Tuesday) California and New York are the big prizes. On Election day voters vote for the candidate of their choice. Each state is again an election unto itself and from this are chosen members of the "Electoral College." Some states are "winner take all" and others are "proportional representation." The number of electoral college votes per state is equal to the number of members of Congress each state has. This is the number of members of the House of Representatives as decided by population as closely as possible (minimum of 1), and the number of Senators which is two for each state. There is some accommodation for the residents of Washington DC which is not in any state, but I cannot remember the details. If there is no majority support for one candidate, there is a complex re-voting system within the electoral college and if necessary the House of Representatives rather than having a run off election as they do in other presidential systems. Simple huh?

I didn't know Niagra had a full time turbine. If so, there is more than one other. Pacific Coast in BC has one do they not? And isn't there also one in Quebec? Pacific Skydivers in Pitt Meadows (Vancouver): King Air Vancouver Skydivers in Abbotsford: Porter Eden North in Onoway AB (Edmonton): Caravan starting this spring. Niagara Skydiving Dunneville ON: King Air Burnaby Skydive Centre Burnaby ON: Twin Otter Nouvelle Air Farnham QC (Montreal): Twin Otter Voltige 2001 Lourdes de Joliette QC (Montreal): Grand Caravan. C.E.P. Atmosph Air St Jean Chrysostome QC (Quebec City): Caravan.

Yep. The problem with wind (solar too, but less so) is that it is not so predictable. Here in Alberta I can tell you with reasonable certainty that the wind will be above ten knots for X% of the time year over year. The problem is the system for putting power on the NA grid for auction needs to know how much I can give them tomorrow.

Have you read any John Locke lately? Damn! I didn't know he was a yank. Did you guys make him one posthumously? Is that kinda like the Mormons baptizing folks after they're gone? Did they do that to Locke after he got his citizenship?

True enough. Even in BC however electricity is produced on the margin via fossil fuels. To add a few buses is one thing, to fundamentally change our energy dependence toward electricity without adding massive hydro-electric capacity will probably not do much on the CO2 front. With the integration of the North American grid it could just mean selling less to Cali who then find new sources using fossil fuels. There have been some rumblings about a new BIG hydro project in northern BC, but the crown corp BC Hydro after making big profits for the last fifty years selling power to Cali seems to not have any money (something about politicians raiding the kitty every four years).

All machines are below parity energy out/energy in. From what I have learned the big problem with locomotive fuel cells is a) cost of production b) weight and c) endurance. The Greater Vancouver Regional District has ordered a new fleet of fuel cell buses, but I don't know whether this is still experimental/support of local business (Ballard Power) or whether they actually think the economics work. Vancouver and Chicago used three each about ten years ago; at that time they were deemed to be uneconomical.

'bout as much scientific evidence as there is for any other religious dogma.

H2 cells are a great way of removing local pollutants from the congested cities, but whether or not they are greenhouse gas producers depends entirely upon how the fuel cells are charged. The usual source of hydrogen is through electrolysis of water, which requires electricity, which currently is still produced largely through burning hydrocarbons. The other way I have heard of involves using natural gas directly, which still yields carbon dioxide. Perhaps we can produce the hydrogen using power made in power plants that burn biodeisel produced from the algae. That way we can put the plants in Canada or somewhere where no-one will notice the local pollutants. This will of course require the carbon credits earned in the desert to be transferred to the power plant.

Ever heard of the Hubble telescope?

I have only landed my Raven 150 (1.3:1) once but I found it to be very easy and predictable. Much better than the previous two reserve landings on my SAC 22'.