vpozzoli

You must be thinking of Bill Booth. He's brilliant, but I don't think he thinks of himself in such terms Vale

Are you implying that if they do not apologize than it's OK for Britain to do the same? Kind of like it's OK for the U.S. to torture Iraqis as they would expect the same treatment if the roles where reversed? Cheers, Vale

I know herbivores have a "sweet tooth" (so to speak) for salt, because they usually don't get much of it in their diet. Maybe dog piss is salty? I have never tasted it so I cannot say for sure, any volunteers out there? Cheers, Vale

I don't know, maybe politely asked them to stop instead of throwing them off the plane? Just an idea. Vale

Well, it depends on your definition of "far" Unfortunately there is a lot of out of date info around, for example Jeppesen's latest charts made specifically for glider pilots (it's a brand new product, released this year for the first time), report gliding and parachuting activity in Bresso, which is the closest non commercial airport to Milano and probably the one you heard about. I'm not sure about the exact dates but I think there has been no parachuting activity there for at least 15-20 years and no gliding for much longer than that Vercelli is the only one that has managed to keep operating with all the restrictions, but I hear they have to work hard to keep running, like having to operate with an active transponder all the time and not always getting as much altitutude as they'd like, and this is not easy for a Cessna only operation. I gather you might have problems regarding transportation (i.e. no car of your), if that's the case I can ask around and see if any of them can actually be reached using public transportation. Cheers, Vale

Depnds on your definition of "near" Most of the ones that were actually anywhere near Milano have closed down due mostly to restrictions imposed by having to operate inside Milano TMA (Terminal Area) The closest one is Vercelli, it's techincally in a different province but is still relatively close http://www.aeroclubvercelli.it/ The next closest one is Casale Monferrato http://www.accademiadiparacadutismo.it/ Feel free to PM me if you need more info (from a local). Cheers, Vale

Un-fucking-believable, isn't it? Vale

Substitute "tree" for "airplane" and "squirrel" for "man" and you would get someting like this: http://www.australianstamp.com/Coin-web/feature/nature/sqglider.htm For a creature that lives on trees it is definitely a desirable trait to be able to survive an accidental fall from a great height, those who die from the fall (obviously) stop reproducing, those who survive keep passing on their "improvement" to their offspring and so on and so forth. Cheers, Vale

As a matter of fact, they ARE NOT being prosecuted under the so called "Patriot Act". They are being prosecuted under Title 49, USC 46504, which is something else entirely: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode49/usc_sec_49_00046504----000-.html It clearly says so in the last page of the affidavit: http://news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/crim/uspersing91806cmp8.html The whole Patriot Act link is just more media BS and sensationalism, and once more shows that you cannot trust anything they say (well almost anything, they did not make the whole thing up ) Cheers, Vale

There had to be a reason why they invented GPS Vale

Weren't we talking about coffee? Nope, we were talking about Starbucks vs DD. It has nothing to do with coffee Ciao Vale

What about the Maori? It seems they approved of muder for vendetta purposes, and that often extended to innocent relatives, infants included. This was approved of by society in the sense that there was no law against it and no "punishment" was given out by society itself, it was left to the offended party/ies to exact further vengeance as a response, in an often endless cycle of violence. The trick to succesfull vendettas was simply to leave no surviving relatives or affiliates, as no third party would step into somebody else's vendetta, it was simply seen as "not their businness" and intervention was inconceivable. Incidentally, they also practiced cannibalism and turning your back on friends was common practice and not the least frowned upon, of course only if in order to carry out a vendetta. Here is some info on this topic, just scroll down to "Utu and mana" if in a hurry. http://www.maori.info/maori_society.htm Cheers, Vale

As I explained some posts ago there are/were cultures that have no concept of "property" and "theft". In that case they neither approve nor disapprove of something that for them is utterly meaningless. The idea of property itself is not "universal". Vale I'm sure even they had something they felt was theirs and not anyone elses, but if not, they would be a very rare exception to a moral that is pervasive throughout the world. You're right, they probably did not share their loincloths, but I guess that's more from an innate sense of hygiene and "personal space" than because of private property issues. But even if you were to take their loincloth they would just fashion themselves a new one out of available materials, they would feel no need to hunt you down in order to punish you for your "crime". BTW "universal" and "exception" are mutually exclusive, you cannot ask for a counter-example and then brush it off as an "exception", at least not when talking about absolutes. Cheers, Vale Edited for spelling

As I explained some posts ago there are/were cultures that have no concept of "property" and "theft". In that case they neither approve nor disapprove of something that for them is utterly meaningless. The idea of property itself is not "universal". Vale

Probably not, but there have been cultures where there is no concept of "property", be it private or communal. As a matter of fact some of them still survive (with a nice show of arrogance we like to call them "primitive"), usually they're hunter/gatherer cultures in temperate climate areas, where there is no need to stock food (it's everywhere, you only need to know how to catch it) or to have a shelter (the weather is always fine), and any tool you might need can easily be manufactured from available materials. In such cultures land cannot belong to anybody, more often than not things are seen the other way around (people "belong" to the land). Moreover, in such cultures any food that is caught is usually shared freely not necessaily just among family members, not even the fodd you have collected yourself "belongs" to you in the sense that we understand it. Without the concept of property there is no concept of "stealing", and you can't consider something that (for you) does not exist either moral or immoral. Therefore, this is not an example of a truly "universal" moral value. Cheers, Vale

They're not dead, but they sure as hell have gotten older You can only achieve so much rejuvenation with conventional make-up, and weight loss for Shatner would definitely require some heavy CGI [;) BTW is it me or does anybody else think that this "prequel" fad is getting a bit out of hand? Cheers, Vale

Nowhere do they say that their study is 'biased', they'd be killing their own credibility if they did and I'm sure they're not that stupid. What they say is that U.S' rating has dropped recently because recent scandals have unearthed a lot of corruption that was previously hidden, and that clearly would affect the perceived level of corruption, wouldn't it? Bias is something else entirely, these are plain facts. Of course it's much easier to denigrate other countries than to admit that the in the "Land of the free" lots of people feel "free" to steal and embezzle and expect to get away with it (lots actually do, I'm sure). Vale

miniDV is using compression too. According to the specs max data rate is 2Mbit/s. That's around 0,25 Mbytes/s. MiniDV is 3.36Mbytes per sec., roughly 13 times more. With that amount of compression, quality will be just a little bit lower Cheers, Vale

Nope. He's German, not American Vale

Or maybe not: Looks like they got what they were obviously after ($$$). Vale

Correct http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PG01&s1=%22booth+william+r%22.IN.&OS=IN/%22booth+william+r%22&RS=IN/%22booth+william+r%22 Ciao. Vale

I know some dedicated anglers that keep it that way. They say it helps them handle bait without specific tools. Cheers, Vale

Clearly, you have not met my ex wife. Clearly, I have. Vale BTW How you doing?

Hi, couldn't agree more with you re the wrist strap: Danish skydivers must have wrists the size of my bicep! As for the self zeroing feature, I did some tests at home and it looks like a couple of minutes are enough for the altitude to be reset to zero. If you're worried about it zeroing itself on the plane while holding at a constant alti, it's my understandig that the zeroing feature is disabled as soon as the Altitrack goes into airplane mode, which happens shortly after takeoff. As the Altitrack does not leave airplane mode until a jump is logged or five hours have elapsed without a jump being made, I think there is very little chance of it happening. Unless of course you turn it off by mistake but that's probably why they made it so complicated to turn off.

You're right. Praying to a misshapen lump of chocolate makes much more sense http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2389905;search_string=virgin%20mary%20chocolate Vale