ChasingBlueSky

OK, so your only objection to the Blacklist would be if a ethical gear seller ended up on this list. Right? How about this. Let's create the Blacklist now - that would give us a dozen or so names to put on the list for this year alone. Then, let's publish that Gear Sellers response or defense - this way if they were tricked into selling that gear, we can learn how it was done so the next guy can avoid it happening. How about that? _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

If Jesse and his gf are there, See, I always thought of it as TadBad/Karla and her BF. Hi Jess! haha Damn Rainbo - ever since you lost your job you let your avatar go to hell! _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Cross post from TalkBack in response to BendyWendy and Skybytch: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Reply To -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's up to those of us who've seen what can happen, who've attended funerals and hugged crying mothers, who've watched the life flight helicopter fly away with our friends hoping against hope that they survive... it's up to us to let novice jumpers know that they don't know jack shit yet, and it's up to us to limit the caliber of weapon they can fly, at least until they've got some more jumps and education under their belts. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can talk cold and hard all day long about the logic of buying a canopy, how the jumper is responsible, etc.....until you have witnessed what Lisa said above, you may not fully grasp the reality that Sport Death is, and the emotional pain that it can bring into your life. I know I took more chances than I probably should have when I first started, and people at my DZ were successfull at stopping me somewhat....and Lisa here also told me "NO!" when I came to her to purchase my first Stiletto. She earned my respect that day and caused me to question my purchase even more - to do more research, to talk to more JMs. It is possible she saved me from hurting myself. Then I watched my friends die (In fact, yesterday was the 2-year mark from when we lost Steve and Deb after a canopy collision, and this weekend will be the 2-year mark from when we lost Bruce). Then I had to bury them and go to their funerals. Then I had to do it again, and again. I've done it too many times and realize that I will one day most likely have to do it again. However, as I told Lisa via IM earlier, I'm still not sure a BSR is the best way to go - BendyWendy did a good job above of expressing the same thoughts that I have. BUT, after talking things over with Lisa and HeatherB today, I'm starting to think that a Blacklist is exactly what this sport needs. We NEED to change some perceptions in this sport. As skydivers, we tend to enjoy breaking the rules - it's part of the personality associated with us. Creating a new rule to break will increase the usage of downsizing too soon. Some of the biggest perceptions in this sport are "you aren't cool unless you can swoop, go fast, hook, wear a camera, freefly off of graduation, jump someting small, etc." Somehow people believe that you are a better skydiver if you jump the small stuff, the highend stuff and rush to get under a cross-braced canopy. This goes for A LOT of people on this forum. It's up to the community to make the change. Lisa does her part on the gear side. She refuses sales and keeps people safe. Not everyone in the industry does that, but more should take her lead. I'm part of a group called Team Funnel - our focus is on having fun while focusing on safety. As a group we are tired of losing friends, and we are doing our best to make sure that doesn't happen, WITOUT holding everyone's hands. How do we do that? We jump with the new grads free of charge and coach them, we recommend they stay away from bigger ways, etc.....instill the common sense that a newbie doesn't have yet. On those marginal wind days, we stay on the ground even thou we know we could jump and point out to the newbies that we have years and jumps on them, maybe they should pull themself from the load. In other words, the experienced jumpers are leading by example, changing the perceptions..... The people that don't care, that want to move/sell their gear no matter what...need to be held accountable and Blacklisted. Change the perception that it's not ok to do that.... Lead by example like Lisa does, like Team Funnel does. The sport will sort itself out and become safer in the long run. The dumb perceptions will change, and safe will become cool. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

You can talk cold and hard all day long about the logic of buying a canopy, how the jumper is responsible, etc.....until you have witnessed what Lisa said above, you may not fully grasp the reality that Sport Death is, and the emotional pain that it can bring into your life. I know I took more chances than I probably should have when I first started, and people at my DZ were successfull at stopping me somewhat....and Lisa here also told me "NO!" when I came to her to purchase my first Stiletto. She earned my respect that day and caused me to question my purchase even more - to do more research, to talk to more JMs. It is possible she saved me from hurting myself. Then I watched my friends die (In fact, yesterday was the 2-year mark from when we lost Steve and Deb after a canopy collision, and this weekend will be the 2-year mark from when we lost Bruce). Then I had to bury them and go to their funerals. Then I had to do it again, and again. I've done it too many times and realize that I will one day most likely have to do it again. However, as I told Lisa via IM earlier, I'm still not sure a BSR is the best way to go - BendyWendy did a good job above of expressing the same thoughts that I have. BUT, after talking things over with Lisa and HeatherB today, I'm starting to think that a Blacklist is exactly what this sport needs. We NEED to change some perceptions in this sport. As skydivers, we tend to enjoy breaking the rules - it's part of the personality associated with us. Creating a new rule to break will increase the usage of downsizing too soon. Some of the biggest perceptions in this sport are "you aren't cool unless you can swoop, go fast, hook, wear a camera, freefly off of graduation, jump someting small, etc." Somehow people believe that you are a better skydiver if you jump the small stuff, the highend stuff and rush to get under a cross-braced canopy. This goes for A LOT of people on this forum. It's up to the community to make the change. Lisa does her part on the gear side. She refuses sales and keeps people safe. Not everyone in the industry does that, but more should take her lead. I'm part of a group called Team Funnel - our focus is on having fun while focusing on safety. As a group we are tired of losing friends, and we are doing our best to make sure that doesn't happen, WITHOUT holding everyone's hands. How do we do that? We jump with the new grads free of charge and coach them, we recommend they stay away from bigger ways, etc.....instill the common sense that a newbie doesn't have yet. On those marginal wind days, we stay on the ground even thou we know we could jump and point out to the newbies that we have years and jumps on them, maybe they should pull themself from the load. In other words, the experienced jumpers are leading by example, changing the perceptions..... The people that don't care, that want to move/sell their gear no matter what...need to be held accountable and Blacklisted. Change the perception that it's not ok to do that.... Lead by example like Lisa does, like Team Funnel does. The sport will sort itself out and become safer in the long run. The dumb perceptions will change, and safe will become cool. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Wait, so were you agreeing with me or not - I honestly didn't get which issue you were refering to. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Right. Because a conservative person would never do such a thing. A republican web page or newspaper would never spin. whatever. Last week it was time for the Dems to look superior, now I guess its time for the GOP. And the merry-go-round of politics goes round and round. blah. Glad these are the people in charge of our country. There is a reason I am neither a democrat or a republican. Both parties are disgusting with their spin tactics, their lies, their conduct - concentration on smear campaigns and the lack of focus on issues and doing something about them. You have Davis and the Times with their BS about Hitler and half of the women in CA saying Arnold felt them up (just why did they wait all these years? 15 minutes anyone?). Then you have Rove and his tactics in the White House leaking info on CIA agents. NONE of it is acceptable. Ya know what, last time I checked we have many national, local and international issues that need some serious overtime work. Stop talking to the press, stop the spin and get back to work and do what you were voted into office to do. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Nice, sunny and blue here in Chicago today - 80F! Ya'll can thank me for it, I didn't get my car washed and I took the AC Units out the other day. On top of that I have the day off! Too bad I slept until Noon and I probably wouldn't make a load if I headed to the DZ. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Hmmm......Just wondering if Oren and the rest of the Bomb Squad will givve Cora the same "reception" they gave me last weekend? It's only fair, don't you think so Heather? _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

CORA! Nice! Good luck to both of you! I'll see you down there in a couple of weeks for Halloween at Zhills then Heather and I will be off to Sebastian on Nov 1. Wanna caravan it? Does this mean you two will be hanging with us for the Lovefest Boogie over Xmas? _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

NO, true Sox fan. Reminder - I cheer for two teams in baseball: The White Sox and whoever plays the Cubs. Go Fish! And yea, the Sox choked, I know since I was at the games. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

If the weather is good, I'll be out there. HeatherB will be in town that weekend as well! _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Yup, about four or five games before the Cubs are on the golf courses saying "wait till next year...." _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

My prediction is that I just became a Marlins fan. Go Fish! _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Addicted much? Did one jump this weekend, then had to work on Sunday. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Have to agree with Sunman on a few of those - Richards isn't the greatest and tends to emulate most of the better blues guitarists out there. I have a soft spot for BB King, but have to agree that Slash, Clapton, Eddie VanHalen, Satriani, Santana, Vai all could have taken some of the top spots. What about Winters? I also felt that Cliff Burton played the Bass much better than most six-stringers.... Edit to add - just looking over the list. The whole thing is a joke since they have Kurt Cobain on there. Any HS garage band can play as good as that guy did - he was nothing special. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994233 Messaging worms could infect at lightning speed 17:30 03 October 03 NewScientist.com news service A computer worm transmitted via instant messaging programs could, in theory, infect half a million computers within 30 seconds, simulations have shown. Instant messaging (IM) applications let users to type messages directly onto each others' computer screens via the internet. This has become a popular alternative to email among home users and office workers. So far, no-one has designed a computer worm to spread by IM. But computer security experts warn that it provides an obvious and potentially explosive target. Eric Chien and Neal Hindocha, researchers at US anti-virus company Symantec, set out to determine how quickly an IM worm could spread. They calculated the speed of spread based on the time required to send packets of information between the IM programs on users desktops, as well as the number of additional users in the average person's IM "buddy list". Network overload "We did a variety of simulations," Chien told New Scientist. "An average scenario would be about 30 seconds to infect 500,000 machines. Even in a best case scenario we're talking less than three minutes." A fast-spreading IM worm would use a software bug to breach a computer's security and carry out unauthorised commands. It could find other machines to infect almost instantly, from the contact list stored by each user's IM program. To date, around 60 vulnerabilities have been found in popular IM programs. But the news is not all bad. Chien and Hindocha say IM networks are designed in a way that could provide defence against worms. The networks have central servers that let users log on in order to chat. Sending massive amounts of traffic through these servers might simply cause them to crash, halting a worm's spread. These central systems could also be used to quickly patch vulnerabilities in end user software. Some networks already prevent outdated clients from connecting at all. "Even though it sounds extreme, [any worm] could be cleaned up very quickly," Chien says. Maximum speed Jonathan Wignall, a computer security consultant with the non-profit Security Research Council in the UK, points out a software bug that would allow such a worm to spread has yet to be found. "At the moment it would require users to accept a file," he says. Wignall also adds that all of a user's IM contacts would have to be online for the worm to spread with maximum speed. Computer worms that spread via email, such as Blaster, often plunder a victim's address book to find new users to infect. But email travels far more slowly than IM communications, so it can take hours or even days for this type of infection to reach many thousands of computers systems. Other worms, such as Slammer, rely on software bugs that can be exploited through ordinary network traffic. But these worms typically try to find vulnerable machines by scanning network addresses at random, again slowing the process of infection. Chien and Hindocha's results were presented at the Virus Bulletin conference in Toronto, Canada, on 26 September. Will Knight _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

See ya at the DZ Jim - I'm headed there in about 15 min _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Really? Damn, I figured I was safe with this one. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

http://www.electronicorphanage.com/neen/demo/clinger.swf Not as addictive as knocking down the teddy bears...but fun for a while. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Damn, they will allow anyone to make a sequel these days. The first Biosphere wasn't even Paulie Shore's best flick! I'd much rather see Encino Man 2 What about Coolidge? http://www.arizonaskydiving.com/ _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

actually a steer is is a male bovine that has been castrated... a cow is a bovine that has given birth before.... a bull would be a non castrated one and a heffer would be one that has not given biirth........ Hmm...you seem to know more about cows than Clay does about sheep. Makes ya think.... _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

You gonna buy everyone weight belts?

You know....if she wasn't so damned cute, I'd be miffed. Don't worry, I'll let you try it so you can find out what 120 feels like too. Dude, we are gonna need it at Zhills - they are slow and floaty there. I think the jump I was on this weekend was an average of 112! _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Eloy? What is this Eloy that they keep speaking of? Sounds sandy and cold. Don't worry, Bo. I'll definitely be at Z-Hills with my new Freefly, RW, and BirdMan suits in tow. I'm down for any kind of jumping we can think of. Mead Vikings Kick Ass!!! So, the Birdman will help you fall 120 finally? (hey, blame that one on Heather - she is the one that said it!) _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....

Look, Reach, Arch, Pull, CUTAWAY. There are no excuses, there are no good reasons. You cheat, you are single again - not too hard to understand. _________________________________________ you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me.... I WILL fly again.....