bigtexan

First .. special thanks to Andréz and Pino!! The two of you were the highlight of my trip to SA! For the rest of you.. this DZ is very nice. Their facilities are great. They have a nice cafe and lounge, hanger and staff. Their attention to making sure I was qualified gave me much confidence in their operation. I basically showed up at their DZ out of the blue as I swore I would only be on vacation... :) They accommodated me with proper gear rentals at proper rates and with proper oversight and all that. Good stuff. The Dropzone was simple to get to on the Lobos bus at about 40 peso, US $10 from downtown Buenos Aires to Lobos... the bus was very comfortable and even had internet hotspot for the ride. Pino gave me a nice ride home to any place in BA for the same rate and was very fun to chat with on the way back! I would suggest calling the DZ for info several days in advance to work out a round trip with Pino as he has a very nice service. The landing area was open and large, easy to find at altitude. The scenery bliss :) In short, if they still sported an otter and were a tad bit closer, id go very often. ahighly recommended as it had that nice homey and family feeling I like at West Point VA, my home DZ. thanks guys !

I would say .. measure baters .. measure bater .. a person who is more concerned with the equipment than the application;

amen

I know this one... oh me me.. me ... Ok, it's like this; it's a bit hard to follow but your efforts will be rewarded. See, if you think real hard about it.. you probably remember something about... say .. atoms.. yea, those things. See where made of em; and the stuff that makes them by simple deduction. (Arguments with this statement?) Next, since were made of these atoms, and we know were made of these atoms (and the stuff that atoms are made from by 'very' simple deduction (have to keep it simple for those religous folks) .. this is important .. becasue if we don't know what atoms are made from does it really matter? since we know they have to be made of something so lets just stop at atom and resolve not to go any deeper, like quarks, gluons, or just plain simple energy as in E=mc2) .. ok, back to my though .. were made of atoms and we know were made of atoms so .. is it not so that that 'atoms know they make up people who are now thus aware of the atom itself and thus the atom is aware of itself .. ummmm interesting.. it's like the atom grew up and became aware of itself. So .. where did god come from.. well since were made in his image .. god came from atoms .. or just pure energy .. or whatever.. it's like energy is a dark driver .. finding a way to take charge of it's own destany .. maybe all this life around us is energy trying to find an outlet? just my random thought for the day .. (actually a theory .. now how to make predicitions to validate it?) loves.

no you cannot decide .. what ever you eat is what he planned .. so if you eat pancakes .. and you think he wanted you to eat eggs, he really wanted you to think you would eat eggs, but instead eat pancakes. he's just that way .. no logic in his master plan what so ever.

I would define a double malfunction as both shoots fail to function as would be expected.

I'm thinking .. Low Pull height .. malfunction .. too low to successfully cutaway with time for reserve to deploy. Good Pull Height .. malfunction .. took too long to cutaway and thus too low for reserve to deploy. To me, it is not a malfunction incident if the reserve would have deployed with out issue .. instead .. it is a low reserve pull issue. Malfunctions are when the both canopys fail to work correctly .. In the secton 'malfunctions', and some in 'no pull' seem to indicate the reserve was not deployed in time but would have worked most likely with a bit more altitude at the tme the reserve was pulled .. which means they spent too much time correcting a malfunction or simply pulled too low in the first place. For example, a low reserve pull after a collision when the collision happened too low would be a collision incident. However, a low reserve pull because the individual spent too much time working on a malfunction would be a low reserve pull incident .. but a individual who pulled too low to mange a malfunction in a timely maner would be a 'low pull' incident. Just thinking that the incident reports are a bit out of character with the root cause at times and that a better incident reporting classification breakdown may provide us with more insights as to how to prioritize our safty concerns.

In looking at the fatality reports .. low reserve pulls seems to have it's own pattern .. should we consider pulling those out of other categories and putting them in a category of their own.

Kenwood .. quite nice equipment. I am dissapointed with the sony I just bought and am tossing it .. want to buy it? I am gonna buy a Kenwood .. since the 2 I purchased before did not dissapoint.

Sorry Mock .. just your the last poster... There is absolutely no possible winner in this conversation/debate/exploration of the other sides mentality etc.... Religion and science simply do not mix and to try to find some common ground is simply un tennable. It will not happen. I reguard your disposition as unrational - you the same.. it cannot be reconciled. However.. I can enjoy your compaionship as though you were a brother... challenge you on your ideas... you on mine... etc... This is my belief ... the nature of man is inheirantly good. cheers and blues.. (my spelling is inheirantly bad -- can't we have a better spell check - like google mail? :( :))

If your not allowed to test it - then it is sure to be a fraud. I just cannot understand how you can wrap your mind around this ditty.. and then on top of this actually beleive it without question. I guess I am not gonna get it at all. And don't get me wrong - I would love to beleive in such a system; but I require some sound logic before I put my trust in anything. your a good guy - best wishes.

What does this comment say. . really .. what are you saying exactly. You should lie down and let us drive over you .. i mean your god should protect you and thus we would see the miracle first hand and thus we would beleive and you would have new converts into your religion and god would have new children in his heaven to serve his holieness. But I really want to run over ya in a way that your not protected by, say, all the stuff that explains how a this could occure without someone being injured. I know I or my children could survive anything should the protecton be provided by circumstance or or happenstance .. protection is protection ..

didn't we have this discussion a couple of weeks ago? Steve - your miracle incident. Mock -- this scripture reference. ?? It's like religious conversations go in circles - science conversations move forward into new understandings.

No.. not quite.. a physist deals with what is only in ones head as well - ie - what is in our head as to how we see the world or describe it. i can word this better. a physicist uses ideas that exist only in the realm of human consciousness to try and describe the physical world - ehh, I will reword this again later..

but if it can be explained without using devine intervention logic .. why can you not accept the possibility that maybe it was not devine intervention? I suspect you can see it both ways - yes? and the obvious reasons why I have problems with it as an example of a miricle. Why is this world so void of non-ambuigious evidence, things you can sink your teeth into sorta evidence, such that no one could possibly have any doubt about the origions of man if infact our origions are the result of a 'god' like entity. as a parent - whom god/jesus represents to us as I understand christianaty - i feel as though this religion can be summed up as follows. 1. Say you live in a house on a busy road. 2. Say you have ten children - all age 3. 3. Say in the morning you put them in the front yard and say 'stay out of the road'. 4. Say you open up the door in the evening to find that only 1 listened to you, the other 9 were run over.. and 5. you say to that one last child - come on in - your worthy of my love as you listened to me and beleived in what I said. -- here is my problem as a parent - I would not allow my children in harms way. Your christian god does this - and this is not what I would consider consistant with the claims that this god is loving etc.. all the good things. at best I see this god as ambiviliant and uncaring.. uninterested in its creation and possibly amused by the carnage they bring on themselves.

-reply to your miricle post... Steve - as a parent I understand the magnitude of this event. However, I can comprehend your most incredible good fortune with the simple idea of weight distribution. You would have a hard time convincing anyone this was a miracle except those whom cannot understand how this could just happen all by it's ownself (as my 4yo puts it).

no..

So you feel your not a fool because you are a christian and can quote this text. [rant] I think your a fool for being so gullible that you fall for this christian ideology. I think your a fool because you cannot understand that the environment that you were born into was a christian environment - not a Muslim, Jewish, (etc.. other) religion - thus I wonder why your a christian. Was it a free choice from the religious menu here on the planet.. or was it that christianaty was what your were handed and you just went - oh - OK - better do this or go to hell. Fools just follow the heard and this is what your doing as you show no independent thought with your argument. Quoting scripture as thought it were a 'global' truth from a pedestal of 'higher than thou' when most of the planet feels your beliefs are bogus is rather cultish and mind washed behavior. You were born into a christian culture thus this is the religion you were presented with and most likely to submit to. Sad as you really had no honest choice - it was taken from you at childhood by those whom feel it was their duty to indoctrinate you as soon as possible so you didn't get some other religion first - or none at all. One of the goals of your religion is to convert all their children into their religion before they have the knowledge of the wider world and or the ability to objectively reason and view the religion with an open mind..instead it is pounded in like the ABC's and at a young age (what christians child does not know of hell and the consequences of not believing in god etc...). This robbing children of their 'choice' by supplanting your religion before their ability to choose for themselfs is the single most disgusting thing I can think of. Your religion steals from people their freedom to be open minded by miss information and fear mongering at their most impressionable stages. Yet - your (the Christians) so close minded you think this is the right thing to do and cannot for the life of you see it otherwise. Thus your hopeless. [/rant]

It does provide strong evidence and argument against the validitiy and origon of this belief system though. IMO

Steve. Maybe you could over the next couple of weeks keep an online diary of your christ/god relationship and the things that happen on a daily basis that keeps your faith alive. karl

I cannot accept this concept of religion (christ/god etc.. ). Christians as I see them. (instill fear) 1. The single most important issue about 'human' life is to make it to heaven. It is not to beleive in god.. it is to make it to heaven - cause the alternative is to 'burn in hell'. (to gain control) 2. To acheive this goal you have to submit to the ideas, rules, etc - of the religion. ---------- this screams - typical control tatics -

sorry sorry - cant sleep - this thought is buggin me. ok - given the ballot option. Deny Religious people voting rites - yes - no -- I would vote no. I beleive all*(see next question) have the right to vote no. Ballot option - -- Require evidence that voter can be impartial; can be objective; and put societal interest as a whole above special interest before allowing voting rights - yes - no -- I would vote yes. - Voters have a responsibility to vote with impartiality - objectivity - and in the interest of society as a whole. Stevie baby Ballot option Allow gay marriage - yes - no ??? .. and why -- and .. zheesch .. why does this get under my skin so much.. don't know.

One last reply.. I support your religous freedoms. Have your boogie oggie revival. I like the songs at least.. off to bed..

I'm gonna give this one a rest. Vote as you please. This is your right. I would ask you put your personal beleifs aside and vote with reason instead of emotion. Whew.. your a tough cookie. Outt here.. smiles!

No - vote your conscious - this is what ameraica is about. Beleive me I do. However .. just know some of your votes and adjendas are self serving for your community alone - as well as some of my votes are the same - just don't fool your self that your not 'trying to force' your views on others' - as you are. For example - I don't like the idea of gay marriage - however - I can sympathize and find no reasonable grounds to deny those folks the same legal benifits my wife and I enjoy. I respect their right to have a different life style and feel their life style has no negative effects on society in general. therefore - I vote in their favor - even though personally - I don't understand their relationship - I don't deny their right to have it. I beleive religous folk try to deny their right to have a marriage based on what... their beleife it is simply wrong - however they cannot provide a sound reason why it is wrong - or should I say - good evidence why it would be bad for society in general. this is where we differ - I beleive in others rights to live their life as they choose - I feel I have a responsibility to support freedom of lifestyle, etc.. as long as it doesn't conflict with reasonable and sound reasons why it may be a bad idea for 'society in general' like why is it dissalowed to booby trap your home from burglars? why - because it is bad for society in general. We cannot have an environment with booby traps everywhere. This is a sound reason. What is a sound reason against gay marriage?