indyz

Shit. I've had a signed A card since July and I still haven't sent it in. I really need to do that one of these days.

It's a program with a virus in it.

Yeah, it's a troll. It's also a terribly done ripoff of NippLBoy from rec.skydiving. Read more of the original stuff here.

So, anybody want to start a pool on when a greenie will delete the attachment? I say 1:15 AM CST.

NippLBoy did it better. Edit: If you haven't read the rec.skydiving posts at the link above, do it. If you thought this hack's cheap knockoff was funny, just read the originals. Edit after the original was deleted: Ha! I win!

With Tigra or Phree's corrections, you could hand that out as rules, but don't use the word "waiver" and don't have people sign it unless it has been checked out by a lawyer, especially if the University of Florida and the University of Florida Board of Trustees haven't specifically approved it. If something happens and somebody sues, a signed waiver (if improperly written) has the potential to do more harm than good.

No offense, but this advice make absolutely zero sense to me.

I got 7 calls the other day from a company that wanted to give me a credit card. They told me who they were, I said "no, thanks," and hung up. The other six times I just hung up after they told me who they were.

Dude are you doing a demo on top of Pikes Peak??? I wanna run ground crew!! I'd do it for a dozen of those donuts that they make up there.

See here, the section titled "Evolution Among Lineages," or consult a college biology textbook, available at your local library.

That would be James Ussher, who 1640 calculated the year of the formation of the Earth to be 4004 BC (yeah, I had to look it up). Contrary to popular belief, he did not pick a specific day. I personally found it amazing that he thought that he was accurate enough to pick a specific year. Ussher did the calculations based almost entirely on the genealogies of the Bible, and he used the modern historic record (death of Christ onwards, mostly) to fill in the blanks. His calculations have been widely discounted, even by young-earth creationists. The scientific community's current best estimate 4.5 +/- 0.1 billion years.

Just to add: Whether abiogenesis happened or not does not invalidate evolution. Whether creation happened or not does not invalidate evolution. Creation and evolution evolution can coexist (see old-earth creationism). I don't buy into that, but plenty of people do. I would also argue that given the right stew of chemicals and lightning, self replicating molecules are not only possible, but likely. Given the scope of the universe, it was bound to happen somewhere.

Old, debunked arguments. And I would hardly call that man a scientist. Many of his claims are merely elaborate conjecture with no evidence. A few links to peruse: http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2437/ (Please excuse the "Darwin" fish. I don't much care for it either) http://vuletic.com/hume/cefec/ http://www.talkorigins.org/origins/faqs-qa.html (My favorite) I would also recommend just about anything written by Stephen Jay Gould.

Any good scientist will have to admit that it is possible that a god started the universe. You can't discount any possibility, no matter how unlikely it is. It is possible to make room for God in any theory involving evolution or the creation of the universe by interpreting the Bible, epsecially Genesis, to suit your needs. I know plenty of people who believe life as we know it was the result of God's work, whether it is because He set off the Big Bang, or He created the first organisms, or He is directing evolution, or He created the Universe 4000 years ago in a literal 7 days.

If you psycho pack a PD canopy you should consider yourself a test jumper. PD recommends a specific packing method based on their testing and experience. If you can get the canopy in the bag without too much trouble and are satisfied with the openings from a propack or flat pack, then there is really no need to psycho pack. Personally, I don't find that the psycho pack is faster or opens better than a pro pack, it is just much easier for me to bag. I also jump a Spectre and, for what it's worth, I have noticed that openings are a little bit squirrerlier than a pro pack, but it has gotten much better now that my packjob has gotten cleaner. As for the bridle extenstion, it goes from the bridal attacment point on the canopy to the end of the bridle, thus lengthening the part of the bridle that is inside the deployment bag. It makes it easier to bag the packjob and it helps keep a kill line PC from partially uncocking (I suspect that this caused me to have a PC hesitation once). The recommended length from PA is 6" (memory is hazy, don't take my word on this), and a rigger can make you one. If you can't find a rigger, I know Para Gear will also make them.

Me fail english? That's unpossible! My daddy shoots people!

The video part is hosed on my system (mplayer under linux), but that sounds like Deuce talking at the beginning.

Studying for my second right now. Had Theory of Computation, which is hard as hell but fascinating (16/100 for a C on the midterm? Non-deterministic finite automata, regular expression, Turing machines, oh my), yesterday. Data Structures (cake walk) and Analytic Geometry (tougher) tommorrow. Physics (E&M) Thursday. Ugh.

Experiments have shown that you can form amino acids by zapping primordial Earth's atmosphere with electricty. That could lead simple self-replicating molecules, then all they way to cells. I'm also open to the possibility that a "seed" microorganism somehow got to earth from the depths of space. I'm even open to the possibility that some being other than us placed extremely simple organisms on Earth (Edit: Notice that I didn't say "god" or "higher being." If life was placed on earth, it was done by somebody who obeys the same physical laws that we do). It's really, really, unlikely, but I'm open to the possibility. Regardless of how the first simple organism (or few organisms) got here, I am a firm believer in the theory that undirected evolution got us from then to now.

Dreams that are guided by the dreamer. Practice.

Wouldn't that be silk? That would be a very, very old round reserve. Silk canopies for the most part stopped being made towards the beginning of WWII. Plus, you have to get them repacked every 60 days in the US.

Secular humanism fits me pretty well. I used to say I was an atheist, but I decided that's like joining a club that gets together once a week to not dance. Added: Go here. Have fun.

She went in, wound up in a full body cast, unable to take care of the family. I usually like King of the Hill, but the aftermath episodes were just stupid.

0:2:0 Chili party, good times. Back to studying for finals now.

Ditto. As for the best packing method, that's like asking, "What the best way to pack a main," or, "What's the best container?" If you ask ten different skydivers, you'll probably get 10 different answers.