AndyMan

There's no question the Red Cross is there... It's just that they're not saying very good things about what they find. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&q=red+cross+guantanamo&sa=N&tab=wn _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Also, from the AP: Box cutter case prompts air-safety vows - - - - - - - - - - - - By Leslie Miller Oct. 21, 2003 | WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration pledged Tuesday to move more aggressively against potential threats in the wake of an incident in which federal authorities said a young man boasted about successfully compromising airline security. From now on, a Transportation Security Administration official said, the agency will automatically single out for response any threatening communication and will seek to better train its employees on how to recognize such messages. "The system should have picked it up. If this highlights a flaw in the system, it could be relatively easily corrected," TSA spokesman Mark Hatfield acknowledged in an interview on ABC's "Good Morning America." His statement came a day after Nathaniel Heatwole of Damascus, Md., was charged in federal court in Baltimore with taking a dangerous weapon aboard an aircraft. The case against Heatwole, 20, followed discovery of bags containing box cutters, bleach and other prohibited items aboard two Southwest Airlines planes. The government says Heatwole spirited box cutters onto two airplanes and then told the TSA what he did. Premium Benefits Salon's latest music mix Listen to 16 tracks from artists like June Carter Cash, Warren Zevon and Steve Earle. Get Premium on your PDA or Wireless device One year subscription to Wired magazine Give the gift of Premium for only $20 $25 discount on your next ticket purchase from RazorGator.com Get a free month of Premium when you refer a friend Choose one of six best selling audio books like Jonathan Franzen's "How to Be Alone" 6 month subscription to Mother Jones magazine Get Salon's headlines delivered to your e-mail address But an FBI affidavit said it was more widespread. On Sept. 15, the document said, the Transportation Security Administration received an e-mail from Heatwole saying he had "information regarding six security breaches" at the Raleigh-Durham and Baltimore-Washington airports between Feb. 7 and Sept. 14. Hatfield conceded Tuesday that the TSA must help its employees become more capable of recognizing the threatening messages among some 5,700 complaints, queries, compliments and other comments that flow daily into the agency's Contact Center. Hatfield said layers of airline security have been added since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Even if a passenger got a forbidden item past a checkpoint, he said on NBC's "Today" show, there are other safeguards built in, such as strengthened cockpit doors and the presence in many instances of onboard air marshals. "We have a security system built on layers and the layer we call passenger screening, while it's vastly improved over the pre-9-11 era, it still has its limitations," Hatfield told NBC. The incident has produced calls in Congress for hearings into the performance of the TSA. After his court appearance Monday, Heatwole, a junior at Guilford College in Greensboro, N.C., was released without bail for a preliminary hearing Nov. 10. He faces up to 10 years in prison. Heatwole sent an e-mail to federal authorities in mid-September saying he had put the items aboard two specific Southwest flights as an act of civil disobedience to expose weaknesses in the security system, an FBI affidavit said. The objects were not found until last week, more than a month later. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, whose department includes TSA, said the agency gets a high volume of e-mails about possible threats and officials decided that Heatwole "wasn't an imminent threat." Heatwole's e-mail provided details of where the plastic bags were hidden -- right down to the exact dates and flight numbers -- along with Heatwole's name and telephone number. The TSA did not send the e-mail to the FBI until last Friday. FBI agents then located Heatwole and interviewed him. In response to the incident, Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee, said Monday he told TSA chief James Loy that the panel would review the agency's operations, including airline passenger screening. "Despite significant seizures of prohibited items from passengers going through TSA security checkpoints, this week's events highlight possible weaknesses in the system which need to be addressed," Davis said in a letter to Loy. Rep. Peter DeFazio, the top Democrat on the House Transportation aviation subcommittee, said someone should be fired because of the incident. But he said Loy, a former Coast Guard commandant, should stay if he owns up to what the agency's deficiencies are. "I'm still willing to give the admiral a chance to come clean with us," said DeFazio, D-Ore. "He's a political appointee under tremendous pressure by this administration to cut corners, make things look good, not upset the airlines and not upset the passengers." The incidents followed reports that aviation security still has substantial gaps more than two years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Significant weaknesses in testing and training TSA screeners were cited in recent reports by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general and the General Accounting Office, Congress's investigative arm. The inspector general's investigators recently carried knives, a bomb and a gun through Boston Logan International Airport's boarding procedures without being detected. Both hijacked airliners that crashed into the World Trade Center took off from Logan. __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Sure. On a cross-braced canopy, you tend to lose a lot of "digability" - once you're commited to a low turn you lose some ability to dig out of it. Also, the trim tends to be steeper so you dive quicker, again- reducing your outs. They seem to spin up at a higher frequency then other elipticals... at least at my DZ. My biggest objection though at this point is not safety - its' just wether its a wise choice or not. The biggest advantage to going crossbraced is not the steeper trim or the dive, it's simply its ability to withstand higher wingloads. I presume, at 450 jumps you're not jumping at a wingloading that would take advantage of the crossbracing. If you're looking for the trim, and the diving characteristics at a 1.4 - 1.8 wingloading, and insist on having something that dives like a bitch, then try something like the Big Air Sportz Samurai. Not only will it be a lot cheaper, but you'll actually be flying the canopy at a wingloading it was designed for. That said, I've not jumped a crossbraced, because I'm a fatass and they don't make one at a wingloading I'd be comfortable jumping. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

you're expecting them to replace your cam-eye with a new one for free every time Sony comes out with a different Camera? To me, that doesn't seem like a reasonable expectation. Instead, I would expect buyers to do research before buying, and find out which pieces of equitment work well togeather, and which ones don't. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

ooooh. my bad. ignore me. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Can you explain whats going on there? It's very cool... but I'm confused. Is it time lapsed? Two exposures on the same film? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

This only works for companies who've paid for that service to work. It also only works in Internet Explorer. That service is expected to be dropped in future versions of IE. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

If your profile is correct, and you indeed have 450 jumps, I would be choosing the non-crossbraced one. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Be careful out there guys. Unrelated, but today a 14 year old was killed while surfing a new york city subway. http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ie=ISO-8859-1&edition=us&q=subway+surfing&btnG=Search+News _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I most certainly do not have all the answers. That said, I am increasingly uncomfortable with the trend within schools to turn to the legal system for discipline problems. There are some cases where students are in need of the criminal system. Attacks with guns and knives, students clearly threatening others with weapons, or realistic physical harm are good examples. From reading what you've posted, while you're shocked I don't think you really felt your life was in danger. Nor does it seem like the student intended to harm you physically. She threw a pencil after all, not the desk. I don't have the answers, so I can't tell you what you should do. I think there's a major problem where schools in general just don't have the tools to deal with problem kids. While I personally applaud the move away from corporal punishment, there needs to be an answer thats stronger then "detention", but not suspention or criminal charges. I don't think that answer currently exists in most schools. I can't tell you what the answer should be... but I'm pretty sure the answer is not criminal. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

YAY! You rock trish! I wish I coulda been there to watch. I guess this means I'll have to pay for my own jumps now... As for me: !:0:1 I got married! Thats the first, and explains the first "number". _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

http://66.102.107.165/andrew/PiriyaAndyJump/ _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Our favorite wedding picture: __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Yeah, we planned it so that I only had to buy one gift. Thanks everyone! _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Actually, I think you'll find that given the number of jets parked in the desert right now, you can pick up a jet VERY cheaply. The numbers I heard were around 300,000 for a jet without a lot of hours left on it. Granted this isn't exactly cheap, but if you can keep your maintenance down (read: don't use it much) I can imagine that it's possible to break even. This is certainly the time to buy with so many jets rusting in the desert. It'd be smart for a DZ to buy now in cash, sit on it until the industry picks up, which conceivably could be next year, and the run then boogie circuit. I think with the big old planes, it's not as crutial that they run continuously. For example, Otters run less then Caravans. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I would NOT bet on AndyMan and craichead.... at least for a few years now. (crosses fingers) _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

THe DZ Account "required" email section seems to be spam-proofing my email address. Is this by design? I like it, but it seems contrary to it being 'required', and as you previously mentioned, valid. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Thank you so much! The festivities continue, but I'll take just a moment to post these: __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Well, I guess I"m lucky that's not the prevailing attitude. Downwind landing skills are important ones to have, and if the speed is an issue then jump in light winds or jump a larger canopy. The day that I was doing these downwind landings, the only person who made a comment much like the one above, was a guy who last year broke his leg on an unintentional down-wind. I don't think he saw the irony. Before somebody buys a canopy, they should be confident that they can handle it in the bad conditions just as much as the good ones. If you want to argue that you can have this confidence without actually DOING them, then I'd counter by pointing out that if you are so confident, then doing them is no issue. Shit happens. We have low cuttaways, we get cut off on final, we land off into tight spaces. These are important skills to have. It's odd. We tell our students to down-wind if necesary in every first jump course. Watching over the student landing area on a busy saturday sees at least a handful just off radio do this, too. At the other end of the spectrum, swoopers downwind at rediculously high wingloadings even more frequently then students do. They say it's fun to do, I say it's fun to watch. Why a phobia once people start to get experience? Swoopers do it and students do it. Why can't you? This is not a sport in which "prey and hope for the best" is a scenario I'm willing to plan for. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Mee Too. My laptop has one physical and logical drive, most of the time. While I don't know how well it would perform otherwise, it seems to work pretty well in this config for me. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

My main is a Stileto 150. Currently, my reserve is a Tempo 210. I'm planning on replacing my 210 with a PDR 143. I have a demo of the 143 which I was jumping last weekend. Last weekend had 20mph winds, and I landed it downwind 3 times. It was loaded at 1.6. I used the ENTIRE landing area. Don't ever get a reserve that you're not willing and able to land down-wind in 20 mph winds. If this thought scares you, don't jump it. I'm chosing to downsize because I'm vain, and I want a smaller container. I am not currently concerned about how the two canopies will "play" togeather, because having two canopies out is easy to avoid. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Coors Light has, and always will be "Rocky Mountain Donkey Piss". There is no legitimate excuse. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Under the old rules, it took me (guessing) around 27. It can be tough when the winter breaks up your season and you have to start over. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

OMG... we agree! _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Did you see the front page of the Sun Times? The largest headline since D-Day says "Curses", and a picture of That Guy(tm). Oh well. There's a loud sucking sound coming from wrigleyville tonight anyways. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.