AndyMan

Every time the discussion of frivolous lawsuits comes up, the example cited is ALWAYS the case of a person suing a corporation. Ever wonder about why all frivolous lawsuits are people against corporations? Answer: They're not. Most sucessful trial-lawyer consider marketing and "press management" a big part of their responsibility. Many corporate lawyers write the press releases that end up heavily quoted in articles like the this one. www.groklaw.org had a great article discussing this last week, but I can't get the clicky because they're down. Not surprisingly, any talk of "tort reform" tends to revolve around the issue of stopping people from suing companies. That disturbs me. If you ever dig into the issue of frivolous lawsuits, by far the worst cases are almost always businesses against businesses. Here's a great example, Allstate sues Kraft because a toaster strudel caught fire while being (over) heated, and did significant damage to the house... Because somehow Kraft is responsible for a dumb-assed person over-cooking a pastry. http://www.record-eagle.com/2003/mar/31toast.htm. Here's another one: Caterpillar sues the Walt Disney Company for portraying bulldozers in a negative light in their movie "George of the Jungle 2." http://www.boycottriaa.com/article/8472 A third: Mattel also sued the recording label MCA when musical group Aqua released the song "Barbie Girl." Mattel claimed that the song defamed Barbie becuase her name was used as a sexual innuendo. Both suits were dismissed. http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/ip/mattelmca72402opn.pdf I have no idea if this above lawsuit is merritted. I DO know that the press article attached would have been largely quoted verbatim from a press release written by the defending attorney. We, as consumers of media, are horribly ill-equipped to judge the merrits of the case. I do know that judges are very well equipped to "judge" the validity of the complaint. That's their job. Let's leave it to them to judge, then we can all arm-chair quarter-back after the game is over. Corporations are using the notion of "Frivolous lawsuits" to get out of very legitimate lawsuits every day, while launching countless ones of their own. A good primer on this notion is here http://www.atla.org/homepage/bizvsbiz03.aspx. __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

It is possible to jump the PDR and Smart reserve at very high wingloadings - I have a PDR loaded upwards of 1.6. That doesn't make it smart. At your experience level, you're exposing yourself to great risk by jumping a reserve that small. Also, you're definately overloading that Tempo. Tempo's do NOT handle overloading well. The worst case is that it'll self-destruct at opening, but much more likely is that won't get a good flare when it comes time to set down. You could expect broken legs, broken ankles, or worse. Tempo's are good canopies but should not be loaded much over 1.1. Definately get rid of it and replace it with something bigger. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Another such warning: http://www.skydivecsc.com/firsttime/consumer.php _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I use one you haven't listed - the Vector. It works well. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I would also drop a line to Ed Scott at USPA. At the very least, he'll probably make sure the employees are educated about proper procedures. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

To expand on this, I just read through the Functional Specification of the IBM/Hitachi Microdrive, and the operating altitude is limited to the range of –300 to 3048 meters. Page 21 of http://www.hitachigst.com/tech/techlib.nsf/techdocs/6EF902390528609A87256AC000679FD3/$file/dscm_sp40.PDF Microdrives are completely inappropriate for use in unpreasurized aircraft. Pushing these limits will cause media failure with loss of data. Knowing what I do of hard drive technology, I wouldn't expect this to change anytime soon. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Microdrives do not handle altitudes above 10,000 feet MSL at all. Any disk based system will not work for skydiving. They all have this same limitation. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The attached image is a joke. The image centered on the screen is a far-too-common Microsoft Windows error, commonly reffered to as "the blue screen of death". Suunto Observers do not have color screens, never mind the fact that they do not run Microsoft Windows. Cute, and a good joke - but not accurate. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I know you menat that as a joke, but I'll chime in here. Any altimeter - digital or analog can break or fail. I like the failure modes of digital because the most likely cause of failure is a dead battery. In this case the display goes blank, telling the user that clearly something is wrong. With an analog model a common malfunction is "sticking", at which point the altimeter may give you a "false high" reading during freefall - which in my mind is the worst possible scenario. That said, my Suunto wristwatch altimeter has been very reliable, providing ample warning to dead batteries. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

It was a cool show. It was neat to see PD's prodcution line. Bill, you gave a great mini-lecture on gear. I thought Bill Coe came off a bit dry... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

When I was last at Perris, they wanted to see my logbook. I walked over to square 1, bought a log book, "logged" two "jumps", signed them myself, and presented it. They accepted it without a second question. It's just dumb. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Fascinating story: Here's a book about the incident. http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0595196667/qid=1103392774/sr=8-1/ref=pd_csp_1/102-3985506-2898528?v=glance&s=books&n=507846 _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I just caught the tail end of "Dangerous Company" highlighting the death of Andrew Carter Thornton. In 1985 Drew Carter Thornton was found dead in a driveway beside his deployed reserve parachute. He was carrying a bag full of automatic weapons and cash, and had $15 million in cocaine strapped to his torso. They found a second unpacked used rig nearby, showing there was an unknown accomplice who jumped with him. The plane he had jumped from was found crashed into the smokey mountains in Tennessee. The victim was from Kentucky. Fascinating story. The only thing I could find was a brief link on a website for CourtTV http://www.kpitv.com/courttv.html - you need to scroll down. Anyone remember this ? What's funny is the recreations they're doing are using airplanes with Fayards color scheme... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I gave up logging a few hundred jumps ago. It's just too much of a pain in the ass, and I don't personally have much value in the data. If at some point I want more ratings, and the examiner refuses me because of logging issue, then the USPA would be loosing a qualified instructor for a pretty shitty reason. So far it hasn't been an issue. Logged jumps are a pretty crappy indicator of skill, and I would hope an examiner would agree. If it were to be an issue I supose I could ask the DZ to provide a record, it's all kept on file in JumpRun. Some people say the data has sentimental value, but like I said... I don't have much value in the data. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

No. That's the point. I'm being facetious. Aerodyne also got their website fixed after a similar set of problems when it first went live. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I'm confused. In another thread you found a Rebel "S". The rebel "S" Does take a switch... Do you have the Rebel "S" or the plain "Rebel" ? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

If you've got the original Canon EOS Rebel, then no - you can not plug a switch. That feature is available in every other model. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I disagree. You said it yourself: A company who farms out their corporate identity to the lowest bidder gets exactly what they paid for. As for the sites you mentioned, when I tried the first one all I got was a small green icon and text that says "click here to download plugin". Nothing wrong on my end either, I use Firefox 1.0, the most standard compliant browser there is! _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

So what? There will always be exceptions, and generally we don't codify rules to the exception. The idea that people need firearms to protect themselves is a myth. For the most part, people who "need" firearms only do so because it makes them feel "safer" - even though their safety was never really at issue. I struggle to understand how somebody so obsessed with safety could bear to drive to the DZ, never mind jump from an airplane... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You either have a very poor understanding of probability, or you didn't understand me. The fact that you found yourself in a sitution where you think you needed one does not change the odds. Likewise, the fact that you haven't had a kitchen fire does not change those odds, either. The odds are still pretty high of having a kitchen fire because they're quite common, and the odds of needing a gun are still low because violent crime is really quite low by any standard. Your personal experience is irrelevant to probabilities, unless your lifestyle choices affect those odds in any particular manner. Again, if its the case that your lifestyle makes gun violence a particularly relistic event, I'd recomend changing your lifestyle. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I made the same mistake. The original EOS Rebel does not have a jack for an external shutter release. Pretty much any other EOS Rebel , eg, the Rebel-S, -M, G, Ti, or whatever will work fine. The original Rebel - with no modifying letters does not. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

There's been talk of building a wind tunnel in Chicago as long as I've been living here, which is 5 years. First Roger was going to build one at SDC, as part of a restaurant complex he had planned. He never got financing for the restaurant, so the tunnel never happened. Then there was talk of Skydive Illinois (Morris) building one outside, but well known issues of mismanagement led to them getting kicked off the airport and the owners giving up. Last I heard was of a plan to build a recirculating wind tunnel up near Gurnee (six flags), but a lack of financing also killed this project. I have no doubt it'll eventually happen. I had thought the Gurnee one was likely to happen, perhaps it will some day. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

My bedroom doesn't have a door, never mind a lock. I frequently forget to lock the front door. I live in downtown Chicago. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

We already knew this, but the International Imaging Association has done a study with Sandisk doing actual realworld tests with TSA machines. http://www.dpreview.com/news/0412/04121602digitalfilmxray.asp _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

That's the thing with "odds" - they're never a guarantee. Of course there are exceptions. Fortunately they're few and far between. If being told that you're an exception is an insult, then you've got issues. Normal people (cops and soliders excepted, of course) who need to defend themselves with guns either a: look for the opportunity b: have very bad luck, or c: need to re-adjust their lifestyle. This country just isn't that dangerous. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.