SethInMI

That sounds reasonable to me, but like I said earlier, whether that was done out of an abundance of caution / fear of a malpractice accusation, or just to make money is an open question. I think the former is more likely but can be just as wasteful. The flip-side of this is also USA medical legend, the tight-fisted insurance company that refuses to allow medically beneficial treatment.

That is my point. I know there is waste, but where that is occurring is difficult to tell. I would appreciate any anecdotes as opposed to blanket statements. What injuries got MRIs? Ankle sprain? Knee sprain? How does one tell what is necessary or what is excessive?

No. I have been to the ER because I needed stitches in my hand. Did I get an MRI? No. The hospital had one. Have people received unnecessary procedures? Sure. But just saying that happens every time ruins your credibility. Try to be more specific. I have been in hospitals many times for different issues, and only once had an MRI, for back pain on the advice of a neurosurgeon. To say MRIs are handed out like Tylenol is just silly.

That is overly cynical and overly simplistic. From my limited experience, most workers in a hospital don't have a good grasp on what any procedure will actually cost the hospital. They probably don't know the list price, and they probably don't know the actual negotiated price for the insurance company. If there are extra procedures, it is more likely due to the "abundance of caution" that can creep into a diagnosis. Having said that, I have heard from some people in the healthcare business that there is a LOT of waste. Device manufacturer's reps/trainers in the operating room ensuring that if there is a hint of sterile field contamination that all the one-time-use instruments are discarded and new ones opened was one I heard recently. The trainers/reps are incentivized to get as many instruments used as possible, and the surgeons and support staff don't have a strong dis-incentive to prevent that, so...viola wasted money.

What you experienced is not unusual. For one of my student jumps, I think it was jump 5 or 6, I drove to the dropzone, got out of the car, walked into the building through one door, walked past manifest and out the other door, got back in the car and drove home. Just too nervous. A week or so later I came back and picked up where I left off. In my experience, the 1st few jumps are easy, you just completely trust your instructors, and then as you take on more responsibility for the jump the stress goes up. It took probably until jump 40-50 to be comfortable with the basics. I have almost 500 jumps now, and still get a little bit of nerves when I get to the DZ but I hope that never goes away, it is part of the thrill of jumping.

I wondered that too, but the fact that he talked about swoop distance in meters made me think he was not from the USA, so he could be legit (are there any other countries with hard 18 year age limits like the USA?). He sure sounds like a teenager, so idk...

We are all skydivers. We value personal freedom, including the freedom to kill ourselves pursing a very selfish hobby. There are plenty of other examples I can all find where I think the desires of the individual can trump "society". Personal freedom vs societal obligation falls on a continuum from Marxism / Communism / Stat-ism to Libertarian-ism, and I am going to fall in a different place than you are, but it is not all or nothing for every situation. The decriminalizing of drugs could be a separate thread. I think decriminalization has some powerful arguments, and I also believe that drug rehab services should be available to those who need it regardless of ability to pay.

Well the USA based people haven't seen anything. The europeans are largely sleeping by now, so you will have to wait for that region, but no idea what the rest of the world sees...

Well, the government can get my money now. They can change the rules for 401k withdrawls, or raise taxes on my income bracket. They haven't because those measures would be unpopular. They also have been very cautious about fucking with SS because old people vote and stealing from grandma is also unpopular. For these reasons, I believe that SS will be "saved" through some minor benefit reductions, tax increases, and borrowing (passing the buck), but like UK Brexit and USA government shutdowns have demonstrated, politicians will need to have a figurative gun held to the heads to do the hard compromises that will be required to do the saving, so it will occur at the last minute (or just after that) So my interest in "expanding" SS would depend on the strength of that same social contract, and politicians fear of breaking it.

Apart from arguing with yobnoc, which I think has mostly run its course, this question of Social Security as an annuity vs. a savings account is an interesting idea. As you point out, the current system is an annuity based one, it "depends" on some people dying "early" to provide a decent lifetime benefit. One problem with a savings account is you can outlive your money. Only the grouped nature of an annuity can prevent that, but the trade-off is you don't get a say in what happens to your saved money once you die, it just goes back into the pool. I bring this up because I just saw a news story about a proposal to require / allow people to solve the "outlive your money" problem by giving the SS system a portion of their 401k, which would be used to fund an additional annuity with a lifetime benefit and no death benefit. The article I read focused on the require / allow question, with one economist saying it would only work if it was required, otherwise adverse selection would push down the benefit amount (the only people who would sign up are healthy and genetically pre-disposed to long lives). The advantage would be the annuity amount would be more generous than if a private insurance company offered it as there would not be a profit motive. It was an idea that piqued my interest, as I'm in the adverse selection group (my grandparents lived into their 90's), and have no desire to outlive my 401k. I can help myself by not taking SS until 70, but an additional way to shield very old me from destitution would be good.

As soon as I found out you were a libertarian, I kinda checked out of the conversation. I have a brother who is a card-carrying libertarian, and it is too difficult arguing with him. Personal freedom is paramount, even at the cost of a happier healthier society. You also seem to be willing to make that trade, society as a whole may suffer so you can feel better about your wide array of choices. Thankfully we are just shooting the shit on a forum, so no need to work toward something that could become law.

a little software developer humor

The circle of life. is fucked up.

I agree with what you said in your response, and how you said it. Don't give it another thought. Plenty of people do hop-n-pops without jumpsuits on, including putting students out, so it's not like it's a BSR violation. For reference, here is me getting ready for my clear and pull from 2002, rocking a, yes, t-shirt. And plenty of student jumpsuits are baggier than tight-fitting t-shirt would be.

I am not sure you fully do. Personally, I would be fine financially if SS disappeared suddenly. But I have friends and family that would not be ok. Would I say "tough shit" to people I care deeply about and let them die, even if they were responsible for their own problems? If you can do that to everyone you know, I pity you.

The problem isn't "you" specifically, but other people who will decide to "live for today" and opt-out, then get to age 70 and have nothing. Now society can say tough shit, but society doesn't. If a person of retirement age runs out of money, they can still get medicaid, which is covered by the rest of us. So society needs a mandatory safety net, because society has decided we won't let old people who are broke starve to death and die.

Instructor Assisted Deployment. It's a replacement for static line, so very similar in its process, but a free fall rig is used and the instructor throws the pilot chute as the student leaves the airplane.

From that angle you can't tell how loose you t-shirt is, but a jumpsuit is a good idea for free fall jumps for many reasons. Congrats on the clear-and-pull! I still remember mine back way back in 2002, I was shitting bricks getting ready for that jump, and so happy when my chute opened successfully.

I don't know where you would find an incident database with surface wind speed as a searchable value. I think most of what you will get in this thread are anecdotes and educated guesses. My educated guess is that fatalities don't correlate well with light to nil surface wind conditions.

I was applying for Australian citizenship and the interviewer asked, "Do you have any criminal history?" I said "No, is that still required?"

I think most likely when I get a car for just tooling around in, it will be an older / classic car or maybe a retro-kit car. The fun of not pulling the trigger on a purchase like that is you get to imagine yourself in any of your options, so plenty of daydreaming without actually having to spend any money.

A few weeks ago my friends and I were chatting about self driving cars, and the idea came up that more expensive cars will be able to self drive more aggressively due to a more sophisticated / powerful sensor suite that will allow them to detect and anticipate other cars movements more effectively. The logical conclusion was that in the future, BMW cars will still drive like assholes, even when the driver is a computer.

To me, a Corvette is a two seat single purpose sports car. The mid-engine concept fits just fine. That autocar article is the first I have seen to speculate about keeping both C7 and C8 in production at the same time, so I am not sure that would actually happen. I go back and forth about buying another sports car. It is hard for me to justify owning a car that can't be used as intended without breaking the law or at least driving like an asshole . I tracked my old sports car a few times and it was a lot of fun, but on the street it was often mildly frustrating to use only 20-30% of its capability. Plus I'm 46, and there is the cliche of owning a Corvette as an older white guy, but I can get over that.

I put up 8 of these in my workshop, they were very easy to install and light up the area just fine. The dimmer I wired them to can drive up to 150w of LED lights, so it was ok with 8. The dimmer was designed for LEDs, and was recommended on the lights, but event so it causes the light drivers to hum a noticeable amount. I think in a finished space with drywall up and even some insulation in the ceiling i can block the humming.

"Canyon shitter" I thought it was pretty funny. No idea what Austrians themselves think of it. What does the OP think?