DanG

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Everything posted by DanG

  1. DanG
    Not sure if this is a serious question or not. I'll assume it is. Yes, I carry a hook knife. At 1000ft AGL, cutting lines was not preferable to flaring practice. I gave it a few good practice flares to get down the timing and amount of flare required from the different inputs. Trying to cut the stuck steering line and missing may well have killed me. At the time I had about 500 landings on ram air parachutes, and cut exactly zero lines with a hook knife. I put a lot more faith in my being able to land the parachute as it was than trying to in-air rig while in the landing pattern. - Dan G
  2. DanG
    Sigh. Let me explain it to you simply: Obama issued a memorandum on January 21, 2009 (his first day in office). On December 8, 2009 (today, which is why is was reported today) the principles of the memorandum were specified an an Executive Directive. The very first fucking sentence of the letter remarks on the date of the memo in the past tense. The March 2009 date refers to another, different but related action in response to the memorandum. Why be obtuse? You are coming off like someone blinded by the overwhelming need to bash Obama at any cost and for any reason. - Dan G
  3. DanG
    That's obviously a typo (2008 instead of 2009). An embarrassing one, and one that someone may lose their job over, but a typo nonetheless. Unless you think Bush knew that Eric Holder was going to be named Attorney General. - Dan G
  4. DanG
    I agree that landing with two toggles, or two risers is preferable, but there's no reason not to practice using one of each. If anything, you'll learn more about how your canopy flies. I was forced to land with one toggle and one riser once under a Spectre 150. I had a long spot, and foolishly waited until I was well under cutaway altitude to pop my brakes. My right brake was knotted up and wouldn't come undone. Being too low to cutaway, I had no choice but to land on one brake and one toggle. It worked out fine, but it wasn't ideal. That experience taught me two things: 1) even if your canopy looks good, do a full control check above your decision altitude, and 2) practice flying your canopy in lots of different ways because you never know what you might be faced with. - Dan G
  5. DanG

    Tazed again!

    DanG replied to normiss's topic in Speakers Corner

    Breaking the cycle? How about improve schools, create jobs, reduce gang violence, abandon the War on Drugs, reduce minimum sentencing guidelines for non-violent offfenders, improve access to pre- and post-natal care? All of those things will help reduce the cycle of poverty. Sterilizing people treats a symptom, not the disease. It is also morally questionable. - Dan G
  6. DanG

    Tazed again!

    DanG replied to normiss's topic in Speakers Corner

    I understand what you're getting at, but at some point you're punishing the kids, not the parents. The kids didn't ask to be born eighth in a poor family. Making it harder for Mom to feed them isn't fair to the kids. I also question permanent sterilazation for welfare recipients. The goal of welfare should be to help people survive long enough to get off welfare, not make getting welfare so onerous that people would rather turn to crime to make ends meet. Even temporary sterilization raises public health issues. If you force birth control on a large portion of the population, I'd be willing to bet the rate of STDs will rise, and they tend not to stay isolated. - Dan G
  7. DanG
    I am VERY disappointed in you. Do you know where you are? This is Speakers' Corner for God's sake. This even headed, well thought out nonsense will not be tolerated. - Dan G
  8. DanG
    I took it as a sarcastic comment on his belief in the underlying racism in the War on Drugs. If he was casually refering to black people that way, then yes, it would be racist. I don't think that's what he meant. Classy, not so much, but I found it rhetorically effective. - Dan G
  9. DanG
    So how do you split the lines? Are the right lines inserted into the band from the right, and vice-versa for the left lines? I'm having a hard time picturing this. I, too, jump Javelins. I route the lines out of the bag just to the right of the center grommet and stow the lines center, right, left. To the OP, you can download the container manual at the Sunpath website. Check it out. - Dan G
  10. DanG
    Do you use the center grommet, or just the two outer grommets to close the bag? - Dan G
  11. DanG
    Because without them, "Here is the church, here is the steeple..." wouldn't work? - Dan G
  12. DanG
    Maybe. I DID see a lot of sharks with laser beams on their heads in Kandahar. - Dan G
  13. DanG
    There is no oil in Afghanistan. There are some people who say we went there to secure Unocal a natural gas pipeline from Turkmenistan, through Afghanistan, to Pakistan. If you believe that, then you should be posting in the 9-11 conspiracy thread, not here. - Dan G
  14. DanG
    I taught a PE class at my school for a couple semesters. Grades were pass/fail, with the very odd exception of grad students from the Education School. I (an undergraduate) was required to give a letter grade which factored into their overall GPA. I only ran into this once, and really wanted to just give the girl an A, but she phoned it in pretty much every class, and ever worse during the practical final. I think I gave her a B+. Anyway, PE was not required, and you were only allowed to take two PE classes for credit (1 credit each). After that you could survey all the PE classes you wanted. I have no problem making PE mandatory, but to single out the fatties (and based on a bogus measurement like BMI) doesn't seem right. - Dan G
  15. DanG
    What was it? - Dan G
  16. DanG
    Starting to bring troops home is not the same as leaving. I took it to mean that mid-2011 was a goal for when drawdowns would begin, not that we'd just pack up and leave regardless of what's going on around us. - Dan G
  17. DanG
    A Skyvan bailed on us at the last minute at a boogie this year. It took about a year to line it up, so when it bails when the boogie is 3 weeks away, there is not much to be done. A least the aircraft owner provided an Otter to take the Skyvan's place. Not having the CASA must have sucked, did the DZ let people know ahead of time that it wasn't coming? We at least tried to put the word out so people wouldn't travel just for the Skyvan. - Dan G
  18. DanG

    Diablo 170

    DanG replied to f1racer696's topic in Gear and Rigging

    You have 76 jumps, and your DZO was okay with you jumping a Diablo but not a Sabre1? Get advice from someone else. The Sabre1 is fine, and more appropriate to your experience level. Size is a whole other issue. Why the desire to downsize so early? - Dan G
  19. DanG
    And a couple more (link in previous post). - Dan G
  20. DanG
    Exactly how far out are you going to find your "flat" claim? Do you go back further than 1880? Yes, I know the attached are from NASA GISS, so you'll ignore them as corrupted by the devil Hansen, but if you have a better source, please link to it. http://data.giss.nasa.gov/gistemp/graphs/ - Dan G
  21. DanG
    Take a look at the temperature record since 1982 and tell me again how we're in a cooling period. Or just ignore it as I expect you to. - Dan G
  22. DanG
    If you use the hottest year on record as your baseline, anything would be cooler. Take a look at trends since 1982 and tell me again how we are in a cooling period. Now who's cooking the data? - Dan G
  23. DanG
    Were the requirements for the old static line and IAD jumpmaster too easy? - Dan G
  24. DanG
    Unfortunately, you seem to be confusing the word 'norm' and the word 'ideal'. - Dan G
  25. DanG
    Your graph shows heating since 2000. Why do you think it shows otherwise? - Dan G