DSE

Good question, and I don't have an answer; someone else may. FWIW, I use catcrap for the spring/summer months, or when shooting an all-nighter in humid areas, it works great. I also keep a microfibre cloth in my helmet at all times, FWIW. It's probably got catcrap embedded in it.

The first rig I purchased (an Eclipse) had a corner in the pack tray where the riser tray wasn't fully sewn down. If I wasn't very careful about stowing lines, the lines would catch on this corner during deployment and twist every time. Took a couple dozen jumps and some help here on DZ.com before the actual problem was discovered.

That thinks BabyFirst TV is just plain wrong? A 24 hour a day television channel for babies. Maybe their slogan should be "Your babies watch us so you don't have to watch them." For just $5 a month, your kids can watch educational cartoons all day.

Most any NLE can do this. By using a broadcast filter, black restore/crush, a lot of the noise seen in this vid could be cleaned up and allow for more focus on the subjects. My company makes a tool called "Edge Detective" that not only creates this effect, but also adds posterization and flat color/remove grads to create the look of the "Charles Schwab"-style video. Adding a slight Glow to this sort of effect is also often very creative.

O dear, I suppose I'm not being clear. The *entire* FLDS church is involved in this practice of marrying young women to (usually) significantly older men. It's not just Warren Jeffs. He's merely their elected/appointed/anointed prophet after his father, who did exactly the same things. The *entire* FLDS religion (and its variants) run off young men if they aren't 100% on board with the religion by age 16. Ergo, the "Lost Boys." Google it, read the SL Trib or Deseret News. The discussion of the LDS faith came in when someone commented that the LDS faith is completely different than the FLDS faith, and outside this one issue they are identical.

~I doubt you'll find many more pro-American than I (Not to mention that I lean to the right on *most* issues) ~The majority of the LDS faith is neither white, nor American. ~Where in the thread does anyone discuss white Americans? ~we're not in Saudi, so I'm not clear how their underculture and Bahrain play into *this* discussion. This is America, and I'd submit that _generally speaking_, Americans and Europeans (Occidentals) agree that 14 year old girls being raped by or forceably married to 46 year old men in the name of religion is wrong. Tune in to local television, you can watch the trial. It's sickening to hear the 'reasoning' and to hear the victim's words (she isn't on camera) but her words are).

Matt....The cost of your helmet is so secondary to the experience you've had, the thought process that went into making it, and the stories you'll always have to tell about it. I think it's pretty cool, myself. Congrats. It looks great, too, except for the self-portrait. Couldn't you have found someone slightlly more photogenic? Hope to see it up close and personal one day.

When you begin skydiving, things like linetwists, stuck sliders, and slow spins seem like "o sh**" moments. Eventually some of it becomes a light sigh and you don't think twice. A woman at our DZ had _two_ cutaways in her first 20 jumps. One on jump 13 and the other on 19. She has line twists regularly (poor body position on deployment, IMO). She's still skydiving, and has worked out her problems. She's admired for her heads-up ability. You ran into a problem, you dealt with it clearly. In other words, you handled yourself and the situation, and IMO, that indicates you'll probably be a good skydiver. "one bad apple don't spoil the whole bunch," don't let a crappy packjob and cutaway ruin your journey.

I'm confused here....they're *all* subcults from "mainline" Christianity. Catholics consider themselves the original Christians, but today...Christians claim Catholics aren't Christian. Mormon leaders and authors have written hundreds of books in order to 'prove' to the world that Mormons are Christians. But Christians claim Mormons aren't Christian. So....are Catholics "mainline?" Are Mormons? Baptists? (and if so, are American Baptists, Northern Baptists, Southern Baptists mainline? Or just one of the three? Two of the three?) Are A of G "mainline?" Who gets to decide? Is it based on membership numbers? Date of origin? Thickest library? AWL71, it seems we agree that FLDS and LDS are *exactly* the same excepting that the FLDS think it's acceptable to marry 14 year old girls to grown men. This is true. In the LDS faith, the young woman must be at least 16, and it's not forced (so far as I know). FLDS practices in this life, what the current LDS church practices in the temple and spiritual life. Marrying multiple women to one man. Women are chattel to both groups. This is demonstrated in one small part by how the LDS faith requires the man to know his wife/wives spiritual name to bring her through the veil in the temple, but she is not permitted to know her husband's spiritual name. Women and children are property. Property to be cared for, to be sure, but still property. Other than the Roman Catholic church, did you know that members of the LDS faith have the highest arrest and conviction rate for child molestation and child pornography of any religion in the USA? Quite true (source, Utah State Attorney General's Office). So many that Anderson Cooper and CNN did a special story on the subject. This is due in part, to Utah citizens having the highest percentage of Internet connectivity of any state in the USA. In other words, what LDS church canons may say, and what their followers may do, are two very different things. Jeffs is no more a "self-proclaimed prophet" than Gordon B. Hinckley. Jeffs ascended to the throne in the exact way that Joseph Smith indicated it should be done; by blood, by inheritance, by birthright. Which is also how the Church of Christ (Formerly known as the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) have done it. Their prophet is a *direct* blood descendant of Joseph Smith. Joseph Smith's wife was never a "Mormon" and split from the current theology when her husband was killed. It was made *very* clear that the ascendancy to the presidency of the church should come from Smith's seed. Brigham Young just happened to be a better politician. But now we're way off topic, so to bring us back... Joseph Smith was convicted of having sex with a young girl (14 years of age). Joseph Smith is the founder of the current LDS faith, which has approximately 150 splinter factions of various sizes. Brigham Young, first leader after Smith of the current LDS Church, married two women younger than 16 years of age, both after he was past 50 years of age. So did John Taylor. So did Lorenzo Snow. So did Wilford Woodruff. So did Joseph F. Smith (who married his 14 year old cousin and had two mentally disabled children by her). In other words, had it not been for the Edmunds-Tucker Act, there would be no FLDS church, and 14 year old girls would still be wedding 50 year old men in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints even today. And...according to the Utah State Attorney General's office, at least 2.5% of those attending LDS services and practicing members of the mainstream LDS faith in Utah, are polygamists.

Congrats on membership, and if it makes you smile to have the card, that's all that counts, yeah? Nice they spell your name right. They haven't gotten my name right on a rating, ever.

You're a wingsuiter, batman....you'll never grasp the concept of hover. You actually have to master zero horizontal speed.

Not sure what you mean by "Jeffs is a deviant, irrespective of his faith." Jeffs is held as the prophet, seer, and revelator, president of the church, and CEO of the UEP, or United Effort Plan, which is the corporate arm of the church. He is not a deviant by their religious standards, only by the standards of general society. His followers herald him as the greatest man in the universe, superceded only by Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ, and God. As far as "this wouldn't have happened if they weren't white Americans..." This discussion would take place if Asians, Hispanics, African-Americans, Native Americans, or any other race/culture in America was marrying 14 year old girls to 40 year old men by force or religious influence. Do you believe it's acceptable for 14 year old girls to be taken to Mexico or Canada to be married to men older than 18? Is it acceptable for a religion to condone and encourage, even preach such activity in our society? I don't have a problem at all with polygamy, I am friends with many people engaged in the activity. I do have a problem with the religious implications and pressure placed on very young girls, and the banishment of young men for purposes of leaving young girls for the older men (Google "Lost boys, polygamy). There are a lot of unbiased/report-based articles found on RickRoss website. On that page, you'll find several stories going back over the years about young girls being forced into marriage.

Please define specifically and exactly how the FLDS faith and the LDS faith are different, excepting for the acceptance of the legal status of polygamy. Once that separation is explained, we'll address the issue of men being sealed to multiple women in the LDS temple even as I type this and you read it. Please cite specific scriptural differences, not ecclesiastical differences, because it's quite easy to say "Well, as members of the LDS faith, we believe Gordon Hinckley is a prophet, seer, and revelator and we know Warren Jeffs isn't." I assure you, the exact same comment is made by FLDS members about Jeffs. In fact, that was part of testimony in court just yesterday. So...opinions of ecclesiastical difference are fairly subjective, let's stick to facts, please. I'll gladly change the word "if" to "since" if it helps others make more sense of it.

This is the crux of much of the discussion, I think. The FLDS and LDS polygamists that have followed Rulon Allred, Ervil LeBaron, and now Warren Jeffs, follow the absolute, fundamental teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. They use the same books, the same prayers, same sacrament, same everything, except that they are frozen in time prior to the passage of the Edmunds-Tucker Act. For them, the law never existed. And most importantly, the LDS-dominated legislature in Utah has made it a loud point to not prosecute polygamy in Utah, except in very blatant cases such as when Tom Green (polygamist) went on Larry King and boasted of his three wives, and it was learned that he'd married and impregnated his second wife when she was 14. Green was just recently released from prison, but the charges weren't related to polygamy. In other words, the State of Utah, run *entirely* by the LDS faith (even the liquor commission is all LDS, none of them drink but they "advocate" for liquor laws and licenses), have chosen to not prosecute this crime. In silence, they've allowed and arguably encouraged the practice. Now, we're hearing more and more about young women being raped, forced into marriage at ages 12-16, and having children at ages 13-18. Depending on which side of the fence you're standing on, the girls are either "ok with it because God wills it" or they're being raped and forced. Given the violence between the sects, given the sheer number of women now coming forward, given that the entire legal forces in both Arizona and Utah polyg communities have been stripped of authority due to lack of response to calls of domestic abuse and violence...it's likely true that the leadership of the FLDS faith have been forcing young women into servitude. so that said...if the FLDS faith is identical to the LDS faith, and the LDS faith have chosen to not aggressively separate themselves from the FLDS practice of polygamy...aren't they really the same? That alone is frightening. Now consider that one of these people is running for President, with one of the largest owners of media distribution in the world at his side/supporting him. Conversely, maybe we'll see the Edmunds-Tucker Act repealed, and we can all have mass orgies.

Uh....Joseph Smith isn't a "member." He's the founding father. It's a "fact that he had the revelation." The only fact in dispute is whether it was a church revelation or a personal one. BYU says it was personal, church historians say it was church-related. Uh....Gordon Hinckley isn't "just a member" he's the current president (and alleged prophet." Did you catch his Larry King interview? BYU isn't just "some member of the church" but rather the church's official school, and historical keeper and researcher. They confirm this too. In other words, it's not just some "member of the church" saying this stuff, it's the hierarchy of the church. As far as polygamy...buddy, that's church scripture. It's not _my_ interpretation, it's what is taught in Gospel Doctrine every Sunday morning. If you're not aware of this, you're not attending. C'mon, I dare you. Factually dispute *any* aspect of my post. I used your scriptures....so you can't refute those. If you've been a member "all my life" then you've likely received a temple recommend at some point, and have gone through at least your own personal covenants where you've been promised wives in the next life. You are wearing garments, aren't you? If not, then you haven't been through the temple. Have you been told your wife's secret name that she is to speak to you in order to pass through the veil? You live in Georgia. That's a real-world place. I've attended church meetings in your area. They're tame n' lame compared to services in Utah. I live in the very bowels of the LDS faith, and read their newspapers every morning. All of my foster family are LDS, all of them bishops or higher. One is a GA. Seems I know more about your faith than you do. As a side note, did you see that after 150 years of denial, the LDS Church finally admitted culpability for the Mountain Meadow Massacre? Wow. They excommunicated a few dozen people for saying the Church was responsible, they killed John D Lee for saying the church was responsible, but now they've owned up to it, and apologized for it. Mormons have been taught for 150 years that the church wasn't involved. I wonder how quickly they'll change all those history books? Yes, I have an axe to grind with the LDS faith. Having an axe to grind does not mean that what I say isn't correct. Sometimes, there are axes that need to be ground in life; it keeps society sharp.

Umm... I do have my facts straight, Joseph Smith prophesied it in 1843. He prophesied that "one day American citizens would be denied their most basic rights and the U.S. Constitution would "hang like a thread as fine as a silk fiber." "A terrible revolution will take place in the land of America, such as has never been seen before; for the land will be left without a Supreme Government, and every specie of wickedness will be practiced rampantly in the land. It would then be up to the Mormon people, symbolized by a white horse, to ride in and save the republic from collapsing. I love the Constitution; it was made by the inspiration of God, and it will be preserved and saved by the efforts of the White Horse." Of course, all of this was part of a campaign preparation when Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon faith ran for president himself in 1844. The Salt Lake Tribune and Deseret News, both LDS Church-owned newspapers have had several stories on the prophesy, and professors from BYU (LDS college in Provo) have studied Smith's journals and original writing in the D&C (This prophesy is one of many removed from the original D&C) and determined that Smith meant exactly this; A Mormon would be in the White House to save the Republic. Church spokesman Mike Otterson pointed out that while it is not "official church canon" it is indeed a statement by the founder of the LDS faith. Orin Hatch used this prophesy when he started his run in 2000 in more than one radio interview in Utah. So did Mitt Romney's father George, when he ran in 68'. (My foster father ran George Romney's campaign in Iowa, FWIW, and is a high rank asshat in the LDS church in SLC, UT) Back to the prophecy; While the LDS historical watchdog made up of devout, but open-minded Mormons have felt that it was probably Smith riffing off in one of his frequent modes of braggadocio, they collectively agree that Smith intended it as a prophecy, although later edits of mormon doctrine left it out. "I believe it's true" says Jeff Hartley, executive director of the Utah Republican Party. Hartley goes on to say that Mormons believe in personal revelation as well as revelations for the world through the prophet, so it's unknown exactly what Smith's intent was. Apologists for the LDS faith believe that the story was proliferated by two men wanting to make money off of Smith's speech in the temple, and so they published a pamphlet to inspire westward dreams of early members of the faith. Ted Neilsen ran on this particular/peculiar position in more than one election. Now that we've hopefully disabused the notion that there isn't a prophecy....let's talk about polygamy.... The Edmunds-Tucker Act ended polygamy "officially" in Utah in 1887. The Utah Territory was forced to ratify the Act in order to get Washington to allow statehood to Utah. In spite of the Act, Mormons continued to practice polygamy very quietly, with the last official recorded marriages taking place in 1904, and the last "official" polygamist dying in 1958. Mormonism still believes, and talks of polygamy in the afterlife, men are 'sealed' to multiple women in this life for purposes of an eternal life' and the Doctrine and Covenants (official/canonized Church scripture) discusses this clearly and explicitly in section 132. Further, according to the Utah Attorney General's office and confirmed by researchers at BYU, approximately 2.5% of those found worshiping in LDS chapels today, are polygamists. Warren Jeffs is not being prosecuted for being a polyg. He's being prosecuted for money laundering, conspiracy to commit rape, malfeasance with taxed monies, and other mostly-financially related charges. Then there is the Mormon teaching that Christ was a polygamist... "I discover that some of the Eastern papers represent me as a great blasphemer, because I said, in my lecture on Marriage, at our last Conference, that Jesus Christ was married at Cana of Galilee, that Mary, Martha, and others were his wives, and that he begat children." (Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses 2:210) The grand reason of the burst of public sentiment in anathemas upon Christ and his disciples, causing his crucifixion, was evidently based upon polygamy, according to the testimony of the philosophers who rose in that age. A belief in the doctrine of a plurality of wives caused the persecution of Jesus and his followers. We might almost think they were 'Mormons'" (Jedediah M. Grant, Journal of Discourses, 1:346) The corporation of the LDS faith today disavows polygamy, trying to separate themselves from what they call "fundamentalist LDS people." They are about as fundamentalist as the US is a colony of Great Britain. Practicing polygs (did I mention that I have a poly family living down the street?) are the same as any member of the LDS faith, paying tithes, attending the same meetings, reading from the exact same four books of scripture. Finally...if you're truly LDS, then you'd know you aren't supposed to say you are "Mormon" but rather identify yourself as a member of the LDS faith, or of the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter-Day Saints." Or as we often refer to, "The Church of Cheese n' rice and Rattle-Day Snakes." Are my facts straight enough? [edited to add; if you're really in Lawrenceville, GA, chances are very, very good that my former wife is your children's LDS seminary instructor.]

Yeah, most of em' look the same. the coincidental twist to this story, is that some of the boys from this religion have spun off and two of them are regular skydivers, one of them an AFFI/TI, and a great friend. http://indiescribe.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/bountifu.jpg http://media.npr.org/programs/atc/features/2005/may/polygamy/rulonfull.jpg http://www.splcenter.org/images/dynamic/intel/report/31/ir117_holm_family.jpg http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2005/06/29/national/poly.184.4.fam.jpg The women almost invariably pile a huge bang on their forhead, symbolizing enlightenment. Their dresses are almost always very plain in public. little to no makeup, and often quite heavy. They are parasites on the State welfare system, and part of their religion encourages them to take as much as they can get. While the LDS church disavows a relationship with the FLDS and their corporate entity (UEP), it simply is a sham. Mormons still teach that they'll once again live in polygamy (and that prophecy is loosely tied to having a Mormon in the white house), and believe that men need many wives to perpetuate the religion, and bring to life those souls that still haven't made their way out of heaven. The midwife that testified this afternoon was pretty intense, telling of how the 15 year old "wife" had two miscarriages, and she didn't want the "father" (her cousin) to know she had gotten pregnant during one of the rapes.

Rightfully or wrongfully, at least you're thinking about it, and IMO, that's the most important aspect. Putting it into practice may be an entirely different matter, however.

I've since ordered a new suit from someone else, and thus far, their customer service has been fabulous, including a couple of phone calls from them, checking on measurements, colors, etc. I'm still gonna hafta wait til nearly Xmas, but they've promised I'll have it. I'm gonna believe in Santa Clause and hope they deliver.

Are you sure? Talk about a wild derailing...

Don't feel bad. I ordered a customized camera suit from a well-known manufacturer. It was gonna take about 5-6 weeks, according to them. I ordered right after PIA (Feb) When it arrived in August, not only were the sleeves too short, but the legs didn't have the zippers we'd agreed I needed so that I didn't have to remove my shoes when putting on the suit. Plus I wanted tight legs to make sitting more smooth. On top of that, the right wing had some serious mis-stitches all over it, looked like train tracks in the wing from where it had been mis-stitched and then unpicked. Huge double-tracks of stitching. When I contacted the manufacturer, I was very nice, in spite of my tremendous disappointment at having waited virtually the entire season to receive something that didn't fit, isn't what I ordered, and had flaws. I was willing to accept everything but the sleeves that were 2" too short, simply because I needed the suit. Their response? "We know how to make camera suits, and you don't. You think you know what you want, but we know better, so there it is." I'm still waiting on a refund after returning it. So until you have it in hand, and it fits....don't worry about it because it'll drive you nuts.

I'm one of the ones that said it's very difficult to perform a front riser full 180 at his wingloading. Hackish has indicated that his instructors (or someone) is requiring that he perform a full 180 degree turn via front risers in order to gain his A CoP. Front riser turns (Cat H) for an A license/CoP in the States may be waived in the event of insufficient strength (again demonstrating that it ain't so easy). I couldn't find any waiver, but that doesn't mean it can be waived, only that front/rear riser maneuvers are required. I'd find it very difficult to accept that a 180 on fronts is required of a student, depending on the wingloading. Then again, maybe it's different in Canada?

Some skydivers are like small children; they still believe in delivery dates and Santa Clause.

Like this?

Well...if you saw "Monte Python and the Holy Grail" or "Spamalot," then you know those lil' bastards with no arms are tough.