Casurf1978

Interesting point on it being consensual, but still it's not right IMHO. Sometimes I wonder what drives an adult to have sex with a kid. I just cant comprehend it and find it disgusting. There was a case in Sacramento a few years ago where a HS teacher had a relationship with one of his students. He was in his mid/early 20s and she was 17. The age gap was around 8 years. Any thoughts on such a case.

That's the stuff. I plan it so I pay a bit every year. Let the government wait for the money. I do the same thing. This year I will owe of few hundred bucks. To me getting a refund is like giving the gov an intrest free loan. Good advice too Ron. Too many people blow their refund on a new car or other things.

I'm a slow poke, SS 04 fuel 15. Get there shoot the shit with my friends, untagle the lines and then head out. I see you're in the UK how is it over there? Have you guys been banned from any beaches? Here in cali we cant kite a few during the summer months. Like you stated too many newbies get HP kites and end up hurting themselves or bystanders. I once saw a guy get lofted and sheer the top off a light post. Either way its an awesome sport.

flyingferret, I've been kitesurfing for 5 years this coming March. Best advice I can give you is find a reputable dealer in your area and go talk to them. Your gear has to be matched up to your wieght and the conditions where you will kite at. I picked up rather quickly since I've been surfing since I was 14 so the balance was there. It's not that hard physically since you have a harness where your are "strapped/hooked" to the kite. Me personally I like to ride un-hooked some of the time, I like feeling the power of the wind. Like stumpy said the control lines are way less than a normal skydiving canopy. In kiteboarding you have basically four lines: two to the leading edge and two to traling edge. All these lines are hooked up to your control bar. The kite is inflatable so it will take some time to set up on the beach. It takes me about 20-30 min to inflate, set up and then head out. I use to kite a lot more (skydivings more fun), but now when Elsinore or Perris are winded out like last weekend I just go kite.

Awesome. Just curious though, does that money get taxed. IMO it shouldn't.

Good question Rhino. If you reward a soldier for finding UBL then shouldn't we also offer police officers rewards if they catch any criminal on the FBIs most wanted list. If you notice most of these carry rewards from $1000 to $25M. On this note I would say no.

IMHO the played the right game to get him him. They didn't launch a conventional war to stop terrorism nor did they piss off nations that could help them with their fight against terrorist. There's a good book by John Follain called Jackal. It's really easy reading and Follain does a good job telling the Jackal's story.

The most infamous terrorist of that era was Carlos Ramirez aka The Jackal. He was basically the OBL for two or three decades, and unlike OBL they caught him and put him away for the rest of his life. Something which I doubt will happen to OBL even with the $50M this admin wants to put on his head.

Seriously start looking for a new job. She already has you on a list and its already documented. This can be used against you for future promotions and or raises. If you find a new job and decide to leave I would mention her in your exit interview.

You can say that again. I'm amazed at everything in this video. When he's handling the reserve it just looks like a ball of lines and nylon fabric. I find it incredible that it opened too.

IMHO this is one of those gray areas. Each situation will be different. The perfect example is when Israel took out Saddams nuclear plant or reactors in the early 80's. That in my view was justified. Of course Israel launched this attack after all avenues had been explored. The French built this reactor for Iraq and Israel begged the French to halt its efforts in helping Iraq. The French basically told them to f-off since Iraq was a major buyer of French military hardware. America also turned its back on Israel since I believe we did not grasp the threat a nuclear powered Iraq would pose. Of course back then we were buds with goog ole Saddam. After Israel attacked Iraq we and the rest of the World basically crucified them. We delayed shipment of weapons and aircraft to them. It was only some 10+ years later after Gulf War 1 that we and the world finally realized what they had done. I wonder what the outcome of that war would've been if Iraq had nukes.

Theres more to it than that. The prof who got shot for art only did this 'art' in front of a group of people in a safe and controlled environment where the audience knew what was going to happen, i.e., some was gonna get shot. This student basically went on stage pulled a gun out (prop or real doesnt matter) put a 'bullet' in it, put it to his head and then pulled the trigger. No one in the class nor the Prof knew what was going on. As an audience member how would you react if at a school art show someone walks up on stage precedes to pull a gun, load it, point it at his head, pull the trigger then runs off stage after which you hear what might sound like a gun shot. All this is going on w/o you knowing it was staged. More info on it. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-profs22jan22,0,2966361.story

First let me say I'm all for law abiding individuals having firearms, but if i was a prof I would be pissed as hell. One it's illegal to have any firearm on campus at UCLA and two what if the weapon was accidently loaded and this guy blew his head off. The latter is unlikely, but mistakes happen. Can you comprehend the legal shit storm UCLA would be in if an accident occurred.

Are you gonna be knocked out? If you are I would say for the whole deal around $4.5K, if not then like $3.2K.

LOL. I remember those last minute scrambles to read and finish off some other assignments. I specifically recall tearing up my room looking for books and calling friends to see if they remembered what the teachers assigned. I'll tell you one thing though. This kid aint gonna last in college. Wait till he has to read a couple hundred pages a week or pull all nighters.

Good contender for a Darwin award in the future.

The kid was in an honors course. I took them in HS and they required some summer homework. It goes with the territory. If he wanted his summers free then dont take honors courses.

Freedom is a good thing, but the people/nation that want it have to fight for it. It cannot be given away. I agree with Bush that we should support it, but by no mean should we invade a country on the simple notion of bringing freedom to them.

No desire to yet, ask me when I have over 1000 jumps. Even then, if I'm still in this sport, I might say ask me in another 1000 jumps.

It depends on the situation though. What's wrong with having a several generations living under the same roof. The Untied States is one of the few countries I know of that send off the older generations to nursing homes when they become a nuisance. You wouldn't see that in most Asian or Latin American countries where IMHO family ties are a lot stronger than here in the States.

Really good points wrongway. As an example I've been kiteboarding for a little over 4 years now. I can get decent air 20+feet and stay a loft for a good 10+ seconds in good wind 20-25+ knots. I've also done crazy shit in Cape Hatteras jumpng over small docks . Now that kiteboarding is going somewhat main stream I'm seeing a bunch of newbies yuppies and rich teenagers that dont have the training nor the respect kiteing deserves. It's nowhere near as dangerous as jumping out an airplane, but I saw this guy get lofted off the beach and shear the top of a light post off. Due to this new influx of newbies several beaches here in southern cali are closed to kiters. I use to kite in HB during the summer, well guess what. Not anymore. Also some beaches near my house are talking about banning us in the summer, this is mainly attributed to idiots who dont have the training to be safe.

Sports like BMX, surfing, skateboarding, soccer, basketball, football etc have more of a core market group than skydiving. Also they appeal of those sports is huge when compared to ours and barrier to entry is A LOT cheaper than skydiving. I mean how many teenagers can dish out $4K plus to get into a sport. Its easy for them to spend under $200 to get into skating and surfing, even less for basketball and football. You have to also take into account the spectator value of a sport too. When you go to a football, basketball game everythings going on in real time right in front of you. In skydiving you have to wait a bit to see the results. Most people really cant undestand skydiving too, try to explain to joe schmo on the street the first time you did a solo or did a three way. Then tell him that Koby scored x points in the last few seconds of the fourth quarter. Sponsorship is a huge deal too. I remember the first time I saw Rob Harris in the x-games on a skysurf board and I was like "screw the rest, thats what I wanna do." While most of my friends were going nuts over Tony Hawk doing 360s or 720s. Sponsors are going to go with the bigger market group in this case Tony Hawk and his appeal to the skater market.

Ok, I just got a used, new to me, Sabr2 170 from PD, great service BTW. Anyway, it's getting hooked up this weekend and when I dropped it off I skydiver I trust looked it over and said it was almost brand spanking new. PD did not know how many jumps were made on it but its in excellent condition and the lines are basically new with very little wear on them. The canopy still is a bit slippery BTW and has that crinkle to it. My question is since I've been renting Sabre2s 170s which have hundereds and hundred of jumps on them, so what can I expect from this fairly new canopy. I'm just curious as to any noticable difference newer and older canopies might have. This might sound like a stupid question but I'm just curious.

OH I got a good one. I doubt this has happened to anyone. Ok so I was in line at the water fountain at my gym and the lady at the fountain is drinking and talking on the phone at the same time. She stop talks on the phone and get's another drink. I thought it was very rude since she was there for well over a minute, but still funny.

Did you hear about the terrorist who highjacked a airplane full of lawyers? He threatened to release one every hour until his demands were met.