AndyMan

In 15 years of driving, I've needed my seatbelt a few times, and airbags once. Never my fault. Plus, countless times I've braked hard enough that my passengers used their seatbelts. Odds of using seatbelts in a lifetime of driving approaches 1.0. Sadly, serious car accidents are a fact of life, especially in the city. In an average lifetime... it will end once. Odds of life insurance coming in handy is also 1.0 Dieing at some point most definately is a fact of life. I've had 3 kitchen fires in my life. Odds of me needing finding a fire extinguisher handy approach 1.0. FAR's require a reserve. Many people jump from objects without one, so you don't "need to lug" one. Skydiving is a choice. Very few skydivers find themselves never needing one. Odds of using one in a long skydiving career approach 1.0. whereas: Odds of you requiring a gun in your home for self defence are next to zero. I've lived in some of the nations worst cities, Cleveland, and Chicago, plus Canada's worst: Toronto. Not only has my home never been invaded, it's never been burglarized at all. Once, we had a car stolen, but a gun wouldn't have helped because we discovered it long after the fact. Not only have I never been a victim of violent crime, neither have any of my family, nor any of my friends, I'll even go so far as to say none of my aquiantences (as far as I know). Even in Chicago, where I sometimes walk through Cabrini Green on the way to Blockbusters. Violent crime is at an alltime low in the industrialized world. It is an exception: clearly not the rule. Never, has a handgun been necesary for my or my families defence. It might give someone piece of mind, and that's fine. That said, if the odds of that person actually needing it to protect themselves or their family are real, then there's something very wrong with that lifestyle. They would do much better to change their lifestyle than buy a gun. America is a country where you do not need to justify owning a gun. Don't try. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

What is it with manufacturers thinking Flash websites are a good idea?!?!? There's nothing more annoying... . _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Very cool. The people at Flite Suite are good folks. Good luck, _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I think his point is simple. Life would suck very much indeed if you felt the need to drag a parachute into every base-jumpable building, just in case you needed it. Likewise, Life would suck very much indeed if you felt the need to keep firearms in your house, just in case you need it. Keep your gun if you want, and indeed I really don't care if you keep buying more. Just don't try to justify it using false claims of required security. Even in the worst cities in America, life just isn't that dangerous. Since there are so many for whom they really think they need such a defence, you have my sympathies. Live must suck pretty badly. It's hard to believe we live in the same country. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Since you're in Toronto, Mountain Equipment Co-op, located (if I recall correctly), on King just East of Spadina, is a good place to buy one. www.mec.ca It's where I got mine, IIRC I paid about $80 less than the competition was charging. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Here's a series from a Toronto newspaper. I find many of them striking - even though one of them appears to be a drawing... http://www.thestar.com/bestphoto _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Can you cite a source for that? That number is about 3 times the size of one I usually see. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Jeeze, with that many people I'm surprised you didn't ask for an Otter or two to come pick you up at the airport! _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I use the Vector, which I believe is the cheapest. I liked the display the best... Many of the more expensive watches have displays that don't have much contrast, and I worry about them in certain lighting conditions. Also, some of the more expensive ones use a smaller font when in altimeter mode. I've found the Vector works really quite well. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I didn't offer that option because I wasn't trying to identify every different kind of Cypres activation. The sole intention of the poll was to determine what ratio of Cypres Fires result in two-outs. Of all the cypres fires, how many jumpers would have landed uneventfully under their main had the unit not fired? As your story shows, the poll options weren't perfect, but the results are still interesting. I would think (hope) that the situation you describe is rare... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Ensuring the cockpit door is unpenetrable seems like a much smarter choice of paths. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You know Aurora is a 20 minute drive from Chicagoland, don' you? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

What kind of class is this? Local community college? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

A visit from Queer Eye for the Death Guy? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

There used to be on in Toronto called (not surprisingly) Dueling Piano's. Not sure if it's still around. Craichead and I visited one in Chicago called 'Howling at the Moon". It was a whole lotta fun... Pretty much the only way to get a request played was with bribery. Bribing a request for Brian Adams with Canadian currency went over really well.... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

I'm guessing life without parole. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You do not need a sophisticated system to train students for spinning malfunctions. When I taught first jump students, I'd often just grab the harness and start spinning them. The harness was suspended by rope from the steel frame of the hangar. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

My biggest frustrations with the DZ reviews is not those penned by staff, but those by students. At least "staff" have been around the block a few times and actually know what makes a DZ good. It's when a 5-jump wonder posts "this is the best DZ ANYWHERE", only to later read that their 182 takes 45 minutes to 8 grand, and their "top of the line" student gear are Manta's in Sweethogs. If you eliminate the posts made by staff, then elminate those by clueless newbies, you're left with precious few actual reviews. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Way to show your impartiality. This reflects poorly not only on yourself, but also on your business. You'd do much better working for change. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

The SSSS code is a dead-givaway. We made light of it by speculating the acronym meant "Super Strip Search Security". We thought that was a joke... _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Really Simple Syndication RSS is a newsfeed. It's allows publishers to easily post their content onto other sites. An example, if DZ.com were to publish RSS feeds for the News Section, then you could go to my.yahoo.com or any other RSS agregator, and see dz.com news articles just as you would see articles from Reuters or AP. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/041209/ids_photos_wl/r841812655.jpg ??? __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

You're wearing Khaki to an interview? Do you not want the job...? _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

Since the question assumes the perp is actually guilty - and did do the act, if I were in that case I would think I'd take the plea. Of course it would depend on how strong their case against me is. A much more interesting discussion would be exactly the same, except that you're falsely accused. Much more relevant, since I can see myself being falsely accused far more easily than I can see myself doing something heinous. Take the plea, (which reduces your avenues for appeal), or roll the dice with the possibility of death (which eventually eliminates your ability to appeal)? _A, __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.

To quote from Shakespeare, "there's the rub". Yah, it's pretty easy to write your own webpage, but updating it is a pain in the ass. A good piece of software can really help manage things. Uploading images shouldn't be any more dificult or time consuming than... uploading photos. I'm still not finding exactly what I'm looking for, mostly on the fullfillment side. The open source package Gallery mentioned above looks really cool, but if there isn't an easy way to get my stuff printed then there's no point, I'll just stick with Shutterfly. I'm amazed that there isn't a service available for printing and fullfillment where I host the images, and just use an HTML form submission or Web-services transaction to get an order processed. Shutterfly does offer a service like this called C4P (click for print), but there's an $800 setup charge, which just makes it impractical. _Am __ You put the fun in "funnel" - craichead.