AndyMan

Statistics tell us that we'll have a malfunctioning main canopy that requires a cuttawa roughly around every 1000 jumps. There's a pretty good track record of data to back that up, too. We have absolutely no idea statistically speaking how often a reserve will fail. The isolated cases of it happening are so rare, that a statistical analysis is meaningless. People frequently make the mistake of assuming that a reserve failure occurs at the same frequency as a main failure. Of course, we know this is absurd, because of the care taken in inspecting and packing that reserve. We simply are unable to statistically analyse the failure rate of reserves. There are too few reserve rides, never mind reserve failures to do this. If we can not estimate the failure rate of reserves, then we can not estimate the failure rate of double malfunctions. We can't even guess. We can't extrapolate based on main malfunctions - there simply is no co-relation. We have no idea. We know its a small risk, but thats it. Secondly, ignoring all that.... What if we did do the impossible, and figured it out? Hypothetically, what if we decided that the rate is 1 in 50. Obviously this number is wrong, but lets use it. In this example, 1 in 50 skydives result in a double failure. If you have zero skydives, the odds of a double malfunction on your next jump is 1 in 50. On your second jump, the odds are still 1 in 50. On your tenth jump, the odds are STILL 1 in 50. Indeed, on your fiftieth jump, the odds are still 1 in 50. If we've analysed the risk properly and controlled all other variables, the risk on every jump is exactly the same. The risk does not increase the more jumps you do. For that reason, it is not the case that someone with 50,000 jumps is "due" for a double malfunction. The statistics only indicate the odds of it happening on his next jump. Thirdly, its important in skydiving that we be aware of the risks to us, in order to avoid them. On my list of fears, an "act of god" double malfunction is not very high on my list of priorities. I'm much more concerned about a double malfunction that I caused, such as by deploying my reserve into my malfunctioning main, an entangled main that won't cuttaway, etc. A review of recent fatalities shows precious few people going by way of "acts of god". Far too many people go in because they made poor choices, or responded poorly to a problem they could have fixed. I am much more concerned about the parts of skydiving that I can control, rather than those I can't. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

mine is about 4 gigs uncompressed. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I used the Microsoft Windows Media Encoder, available for download here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/9series/encoder/default.aspx I set it to VHS quality video and CD quality sound. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

That is correct. My bad. It's Peter Gabriel and AfroCelt Sound System, off an album of the latter group called "Volume 3: Further In Time". The song is called "When You're Falling". http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005ASHF/qid=1072108958/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_2/104-0022344-4059135 edited to fix the album name. Thanks craichead! _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

As for the muffins... What you see is what you get. Two jumpers name Rich and Amy thought it'd be silly to eat muffins in freefall. They were right. The next weekend, they took bowls of spaghetti with them, but I missed the video. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

yah. Same version, minus the shenanigans at the end. PM me for details, I'll get you a copy. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

At your weight, you won't be feel any difference between a 230 and a 210. This is one objection I've had to Bill's list - it doesn't adequately allow for students to learn on a reasonable size canopy. While I firmly believe in Bills list for experienced jumpers, it doens't work for students. For now, you can safely ignore it. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Dove, make sure to check out: http://www.apple.com/itunes/ and http://musicdownloads.walmart.com/ _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Yeah, it's tough to beat the compresion of the new microsoft codecs, so I use that pretty much exclusively. You can download it for free from http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/default.asp I also much prefer it over Real player and quicktime because it doesn't force you to watch any ads. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Here's my contribution to the endless stream of "year end videos". http://66.102.107.165/andrew/2003pgS.wmv Its roughly 30 MB, and 20 minutes long. It requires Microsoft Media Player version 9. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

And in another state, a student was actually expelled for saying the word "gay". At the time, the student was accurately describing the sexuality of his lesbian mother. What one school administator thinks the rules are, and what the rules actually say are two entirely different things. I do not know of any school with a policy like your friends'. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

That's fine, but not keeping a log book seems like the norm, rather then the exception in this part of the country. It seems like a pretty silly reason to have someone drive to the DZ down the road. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You have a very interesting idea of history. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

My video was 20 minutes, and took about two weeks of after hours editing, usually a few hours a night, 4 times a week. A good estimate for the editing was probably 15 hours. I wasted a few hours after that trying to get a good VCD burn, so it probably came close to 20 hours. Some people make their skydiving videos like they're ADD - with no clips longer then 3 seconds. I can see how this would hinder the editing process, but most of my shots are at least 30 seconds long. I'll post it when I re-edit for a family audience. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Don't forget the value of sitting on the sofa, cleaning the disasembled shotgun when your young daughters date to the prom comes by to pick her up... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

In the geek world, there's a term used when a website is completely flat-lined by traffic. generally its called "slashdotting", or the "slashdot effect". This is named after a popular website www.slashdot.org, which has a reputation for turning any website they link to into a smoldering pile of molten silicon goo. Aparently we now have the same effect. Call it the "dropzone effect". _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The Libiyan in question has family in San Francisco, so the arguement is "if any court has jurisdiction, its the local one". The way that I see it, some court, somewhere HAS to have jurisdiction. Locking people up without trials is something that has been historically limited to the most tyranical regimes, and not a tool of the free. If in fact its the case that American courts do not have jurisdiction, I hope its only a matter of time before a world body steps up to the plate. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Yeah, the NRC windtunnel at YOW - Ottawa International is a pretty cool thing to see if you ever get a chance. Regular visits was one of the perks of going to college in Ottawa. Very cool (and often funny) stuff. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

It came with the "Fully Synchronized" Graphex 135mm lens/shutter, with f stops 4.7 through 32 and a shutter speed of up to 1/400. I'm a bit concerned over the spring that drives the focal plane shutter, I'll have to find someone who can test that. The manuals say there's a regulator that forces a constant speed... but I'm a bit skeptical that its working properly. The "between the lenses" shutter seems to be working great, as does the range-finder. I'm absolutely amazed at the simplicity of the range-finder, especially how well it works in low light. I find it easier to focus then my Nikon. I have absolutely no idea how old it is. There is some rot on the leather casing, but the vinyl bellows are in great shape. A purely subjective guess, is a DOM of somewhere in the 50's. Now I just gotta go find some film... then some flashbulbs. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I doubt very much she will create a sonic boom. Nor will she "brake the sound barrier". Remember your physics. She goes faster because as altitude increases, air preasure decreases. This much is obvious. What everyone ALWAYS forgets is that as air-preasure decreases, the speed of sound increases! So... the thinner the air, the faster she'll fall. but also, the thinner the air, the faster the sound barrier actually is! So while she's going to go faster then the speed of sound at ground level, it does not actually break the sound barrier, because where she's at the sound barrier is a lot higher. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

We paid $135 for it, and we believe everything works. We're not sure where we're going to get bulbs for the flash, though. Actually, there's a lof of things we're not sure of... like how we're going to process the film as we don't have a darkroom. I've never played with medium-format, never mind large format, although I do have very high expectations in clarity. It will be an adventure... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I bought one of these last night at auction: http://www.photo.net/equipment/large-format/speed-graphic Craichead says I'm not allowed to even attempt to helmet-mount it. It will be a interesting toy... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I saw the show. The show was about people doing stupid things, and what the guy did was plainly stupid, no question. The real quesion is "why doesn't the public want to see good skydives?" The second question is "is this a bad thing?" The first answer is simple - they don't want o see normal skydives because their boring. There's no drama. Think back to the history of our sport. The true pioneers would jump from airplanes into public events like county fairs and exhibitions - the public would be in awe, desperately hoping to see someone burn in. It was morbid, but that's what people were secretly hoping for. People have never been interested in seeing succesfull normal jumps after the fact, its the anticipation of "will the nutcase live?" that enraptures everyone. When in fact the jumper does a perfect standup landing, a token applause from the secretly disapointed crowd. It's the same titlation that makes people want to see these skydives gone wrong - "will the nutcase live" applies to every bit of skydiving footage to ever hit "You Gotta See This:" or this latest TLC show. The public doesn't want to see a "normal" skydive because there's no drama, no tension, no relief when the guy lives. The only positive jumps to make mass-media are things like record attempts which usually get very good coverage. There *IS* drama in the record attemtps, for example - because nobody knows if they're going to get the formation. Is it a bad thing? I don't think so. The fact is that whatever way you cut it, skydiving is not a safe sport. In the publics eye, we ARE "daredevils", because we engage in a sport that is decidedly not safe. These shows spur the imagination of the "daredevils" who haven't jumped yet, and they inform those who think it's as safe as a drive down the highway that in reality it really isn't. It elevates those of us who do jump to a level that the couch potatoes at home will never be, and thats not such a bad thing. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Remind me to post mine. I need to make a PG version first, I'd be mutilated by a good friend if I posted it in its current form. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

from http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fubu fubu 43 votes (n) Hiphop clothing company founded in 1992. FUBU is an acronym for "For Us, By Us", referring to the founders purpose: clothes designed by African-Americans for African-Americans. Many items from the clothing line display the number "05", which stands for the five childhood friends from Queens who founded the company. In an interview with HarlemLive, Carl Brown and Keith Perrin of FUBU state: "There were five of us all out of Queens, we grew up together as friends and remained friends. With $5,000 seed money we were able to start our business." In 1999 FUBU reported an annual turnover of about $350 million. "Under the FUBU is a guru" -- Common (The 6th Sense 2000) The number 05 is a trademark of FUBU, and is otherwise meaningless. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.