wolfriverjoe

Well, Susan Smith drowned both of her kids, then blamed a "black man who carjacked her". The list is pretty long.

Should we honor this mother? https://www.nbc26.com/news/local-news/three-adults-accused-of-abuse-that-caused-childs-death-in-two-rivers

And those two quotes make up a HUGE part of the 'belief in God' in a nutshell. People need explanations. An answer of "I don't know" for any question is generally not acceptable. So one of the biggest reasons to invent 'God' is to be able to answer that 'why?' Why did the tornado hit? God did it. Why did mom/dad/husband/wife/child die of a disease? God did it. Even today, an 'Act of God' is an insurance term. Answering the unanswered. Explaining the inexplicable. With the really funny part of that being that when science does find a rational and reasonable (and provable) explanation for something, the 'true believers' attack them. Creationists against evolution being the best example. "Where did we come from?" "God made us." "No, we can show we evolved over many millions of years, from single cell organisms, through various fish, them mammals, then primates." "YOU LIE!!!!!! God did it!!! You are going to burn in hell for denying God!!!" I'd be willing to take a good, close look at any 'evidence for the existence of God'. I looked for a long time and found zero. There was a fella a while back that showed up and claimed a "preponderance of evidence' for the existence of God. I asked repeatedly what that evidence might be. And got absolutely nothing. The idea that 'testimonials' are evidence is something of a joke. The only 'testimony' that includes actual interaction with "God" is a couple thousand years old. That would be thrown out of any 'evidential process' in court in a heartbeat. Any current or recent testimony that 'God touched me directly' is far more subjective than anything else. The coffee shop conversation in Pulp Fiction between Jules & Vince, discussing the 'miracle' that Jules witnessed and the 'freak occurrence' that Vince saw is a really good example (and some of the best dialog in modern film). I fully agree that any 'miracle' is when someone 'feels the touch of God in their life'. But there are a zillion ways to get that feeling. The actual presence or existence of 'God' isn't necessary. It's just a handy explanation. Scene from Pulp Fiction:

You could always put him on your 'ignore' list. You certainly wouldn't miss anything of substance.

Well, then given how much has leaked out of the White House, maybe he should move out of there, too.

Pfft. It's simple. A bunch of trolls on 4chan started posting 'mysterious' garbage that sounded like it was coming from 'deep insiders'. Gullible fools bought into it. As noted above, most people have decided that is wasn't real because they made 'date specific' predictions, NONE of which came even remotely close to being true. But there are still people out there, proving Barnum was right.

Got any data on the idea that not destroying the ozone layer increased global warming? Not being snarky, genuinely curious. It's pretty counterintuitive. Ozone blocks UV, which has far less heating effect than IR, which CO2 absorbs. The big issue with the ozone layer was the large increase in UV light reaching the surface. All sorts of interesting genetic mutations, not to mention skyrocketing skin cancer rates. I too, remember several significant, serious ecological/environmental issues. The CFCs destroying the ozone layer was one. We stopped using CFCs indiscriminately as a result. I think banning R-12 as a refrigerant was a bit excessive (it was the aerosol cans that were the big issue), but I understand why. I also remember the raptors basically disappearing due to DDT. Since that was banned (and a huge repopulation effort undertaken) hawks, eagles and other raptors have made an astounding comeback. From nesting pairs in the lower 48 numbering below 100 to where we are now, where I can see dozens of eagles wintering on the river near my home. I also remember the air pollution in major cities in the late 60s/early 70s. And the lead poisoning that was taking place just from breathing the air. Lots of things made an impact, but reducing car emissions was probably the biggest. The lead issue was taken care of because the catalytic converters couldn't run it, it would clog them up. The cost was significant, but the results were worth it (and cost savings in reduced health care for people no longer falling sick from lung diseases from the bad air more than made up for it). I also remember acid rain. It cost some to stop using high sulfur coal, but the idea of having fish and amphibians actually living in the lakes and rivers has a certain amount of appeal. It was only a few years ago that the last 'dead' lake was declared 'recovered'. I also remember when industrial plants used rivers as convenient toxic waste dumps. While I don't specifically remember the Cuyahoga river catching fire, I do remember when the Fox river in Wisconsin was pretty much dead. No fish but carp, and nothing caught was edible. No ducks because the fish were toxic, as was the water. You couldn't even swim in it. After the mills stopped polluting the river, it came back a long way. Fish were back and were somewhat edible (there were 'caution - Don't eat this fish more than xxx and not at all if you are pregnant' signs up at the popular locations). Ducks & geese came back, eagles came back too (in part because they were actually around, in part because the river wasn't toxic). There was subsequently a huge clean up, where the paper mills that polluted the river in the first place were sued to pay for it (long, drawn out suit - the mills lost). That had a significant cost (to the taxpayers as well as the mills) but having a river that isn't dead is worth it IMO.

The electoral college (as it was originally intended) should have rejected Trump's victory.

Well, above a certain level, CO2 is toxic. But the main reason for comparing CO2 to cigarettes is the Heartland Institute. They made a LOT of money off of the tobacco companies. Publishing 'research' that showed that cigarettes weren't dangerous. Or minimizing the dangers. These days, they make their money publishing 'research' that tries to deny climate change. Or that tries to present CO2 as 'not a danger'. Like the video posted a few pages back. They also funnel funding to denier websites. Like "Wattsupwiththat", one of Marc's favorites.

Tunnel is just the freefall. Skydiving is more than just the freefall. While tunnel is fun and educational, it's not the DZ and it's not jumping. General observations: Freefall (and freefly) skills are well up. Gear knowledge, airplane procedure knowledge and canopy skills are not. My DZ still has a good fun jumper base, although the freeflyers are becoming more prevalent. Finding other belly fliers can be challenging sometimes. A lot of this is dependent on the DZ and it's 'vibe'. The DZO where I jump is an active jumper (competes in vert at nationals) and the DZ sponsors several teams. The 'fun jumper community' is actively supported. Events, classes (instructional rating and canopy courses), even 'after hours' stuff, like potluck dinners and the annual chili cookoff. That sort of action by the DZ makes all the difference in the world.

Well, what fun is it if some people can't post vague and misleading statements? How can they then claim 'that's not what I meant' when it's pointed out how wrong they are?

For most people, paying yourself a huge salary that ends up bankrupting the company is considered "Embezzlement" too. For a government official to 'punish' someone for speaking out by denying them a security clearance that's worth considerable money in terms of future employment and salary is a pretty clear 'infringement of rights. The Mango Mussolini has yet to speak to Congress under oath, so he hasn't had a chance to lie to them yet. Considering the lies that come out every time he opens his mouth, I highly doubt he'll ever testify under oath.

Please, Professor. It's not 'Wind Turbine Cancer'. It's "Wind Turbine NOISE Cancer". The cancer isn't caused by the turbines, at least not directly. It's caused by the sound. Not sure if the tumors first show up in the ears or not, though.

Yeah, because the Republicans have never done any investigations of her. Is she that good? Or are the Republicans that inept?

Yeah, don't forget 'bribed at least two state's attorney's general to make criminal charges about the 'University' go away, bribed a New York DA to make felony real estate fraud charges against his kids go away, Likely laundered money for the Russian mob with his golf courses, cheated the municipalities where his golf courses are located out of property taxes by understating the value, while at the same time defrauding banks on loans by overstating the value. Racial discrimination as a landlord and as a boss, bankrupted multiple businesses, while pocketing huge salaries, the list is pretty long. HRC and her husband are pretty slimy folks, but their criminal activities are pretty minimal.

There was a 'youngest to...' craze in general aviation back in the mid-90s. It ended tragically when the desire to 'get there' overcame common sense and good judgement and killed a 7 year old girl, her father and the CFI who was the 'official' pilot in command. Search "Jessica Dubroff" for more. The problem with it is that any high skill, high risk activity takes experience and judgement. The old adage "You don't know what you don't know" is very applicable. Regardless of age, a JVX at 2.4 at 1200 jumps is 'aggressive' at best. I know too many 'titanium club' members to take HP canopy stuff lightly.

Well, there's no indication one way or another if this guy supported Trump, but he deliberately rammed his car into a crowd, thinking they were Muslim. According to this story, he was 'praising Jesus' as he was being led away in handcuffs. https://www.mercurynews.com/2019/04/26/teen-girl-clings-to-life-as-sunnyvale-crash-driver-set-for-arraignment/

It's normal. I will disagree to a certain degree with the 'walk away if your gut says no' part. What you are doing is dangerous (there's a thread going on this). If you aren't at least a little bit scared, then you don't understand the risks you are facing. I get that you had made a number of errors in the beginning of your day, and were 'off'. That's different than typical 'pre-jump jitters'. That part is a good reason to sit down. I learned a while back not to rush when getting ready. I can always scratch off the load and get on the next one.

First off, those are surface winds. Winds aloft are usually higher, sometimes a lot higher. While modern 'square' canopies have a fair amount of forward 'drive', it's not uncommon to get pushed backwards by a strong wind. For example, my Sabre2 170 (which is considered 'pretty big and slow') has a 'full flight' forward speed somewhere around 20 mph. I've been in lots of situations where I have little or no forward ground speed when pointed into the wind. We intentionally get out of the plane upwind so that we get 'blown back' to the landing area. Or we 'land out' and hitch a ride back to the DZ. There's also a jump called a 'cross country'. The jumper goes well upwind, gets out and pulls immediately. You then 'ride the wind' all the way back. Ten miles is a long one, but not unknown for the right wind conditions. Again, that's with a square that has decent forward speed, but for Cooper to drift 4 or 5 miles (presuming he pulled right away) isn't unrealistic. Here is the current winds aloft forecast for Green Bay. There isn't much wind up on top today, but some days, you can se 30 or 40 mph at 6k or 9k. http://www.usairnet.com/cgi-bin/Winds/Aloft.cgi?location=GRB&Submit=Get+Forecast&hour=06&course=azimuth

Yeah, because selling arms around the world, that are used to kill lots and lots of women and children is a good thing. It generates income for Trump's donors, so he gets lots of money. And the people being killed are mostly 'brown people' in 'shithole countries', so it doesn't matter. And it's also an entirely symbolic gesture. The Senate never ratified it, so the US was never a part of it. Also, it only regulates international trade. So the idea that it would affect US citizens obtaining arms inside the US is simply a lie.

Very true. My reply was mostly 'tongue-in-cheek'.

No. Not like those. The statement about McConnell can be backed up with facts, and McConnell's previous behaviors.

Oops. No. I hadn't read all of it. I didn't realize how many more pages had been posted. I was responding to the pic a few pages back of the document with the pic of the packing data card below it. So I missed a few things when I posted. Sorry about that. One of the things I hadn't seen was where you realized that the FBI mixed up the S/N (226) with the DOM (9/57). I can't understand how the reports are reading that they found two Pioneer back rigs on the plane (and it says the NG left one there? For how long?). The doc posted directly above my last post claims that the 24' Steinthal was an integral part of this parachute. That makes absolutely no sense. They describe two canopies, but only one container. Modern sport gear is like that. My personal rig (parachute) has both my main and reserve canopies (square ones) in one 'backpack'. But gear back then was not like that. And these were 'bailout' emergency rigs, which even today are 'single canopy' types (often rounds). Something to remember is that, even today, the 'Harness/container' (backpack) and "canopy" (parachute) are separate components. Each has it's own manufacturer, serial number and date of manufacture. For example, I jump an Infinity H/C, made by Velocity sports. I also jump a 170 square foot Sabre2, made by Performance Designs as a main canopy. There are a few companies today that make both H/Cs and canopies (Aerodyne is one). But most places only make one. I don't see any evidence of two complete, intact back rigs being found. What I think I see is evidence that the FBI knew very little about parachutes or their terminology and made a bunch of mistakes on the reports. From the report before my post, it's possible that it was a Pioneer H/C, S/N 226, DOM 9/57;with a Steinthal canopy, S/N 60-9707, DOM 7/60. My PDC shows different mfgs, S/Ns & DOMs for the Infinity H/C and the Sabre2 canopy. Also, on the modified NB-8 and Cossey only modifying one rig of Hayden's. My guess would be that the rig was modified some time in the past, prior to Hayden purchasing it. He needed a couple bailout rigs, to grudgingly meet the FARs. So he got a couple. One was a civilian, unmodified Pioneer, the other was the Military NB-8 that had the 'outboard pull' mod. It wasn't that Cossey modded it when he sold it, it was that he sold a modded rig. Edit to add: JJG78 posted: Yes. There was an earlier thread that got locked because people got stupid. If you go back to the beginning of this one, you will see Quade (who was a moderator) posted 'keep it civil'. If you read down, there is a link to the original thread in the first or second page. There's a ton of info, most of the 'known details' in that first thread or the beginning of this one. Larry Carr was an FBI agent, specializing in bank robberies, in the Seattle FBI office. IIRC, he's now on the east coast somewhere. He posted under the name Ckret for some time. He provided a fair amount of info that the FBI had, although he admitted he couldn't post everything he knew (his basic answer was 'go ahead and ask. If I have the info and am allowed to release it I will').

I did read the documents you posted. They reference a "24 foot long" parachute. (factual error - It's diameter). They also reference the packing card. Which shows the 26' and DOM of 1957. I am going to guess (and it is just a guess) that they screwed up the report. They got a few minor details mixed up. Everything I've come across says the FBI delivered 4 parachutes to Cooper. NB-8 & Pioneer (both back type bailout rigs), the 'good' reserve and the Training Dummy reserve (both 'belly wart' type). They found one back rig (the Pioneer) and the 'good' reserve (which had been opened and had lines cut off) on the plane when it landed. So Cooper jumped with the NB-8 rig and did something with the TDR. He may have used lines or canopy fabric or the container... Or he may have just tossed the whole thing out the back. Or he may have just put it too close to the back stairs and it fell out at some point. I'm not sure how much I'm willing to believe or toss out what Cossey has said. Lots of skydivers and 'airplane types' have a great deal of disdain for the press. The overall level of accuracy in most news reports of aviation incidents and accidents is pretty poor. The level of sensationalism is usually pretty high. So you get reporters saying crap like 'He fell 10000 feet and survived the impact' for a simple skydiving accident which should read "He was fine until he screwed up the landing." It's pretty juvenile and stupid, but giving reporters bad info to make them look bad is not uncommon. (remember the names of the Asiana Airline pilots who overran the end of the runway in San Fran?) So for Cossey to 'yank the chain' of the reporters wouldn't necessarily make me discount what he says elsewhere. But the FBI data is pretty clear that Cossey didn't own the back rigs. Which is what I was led to believe from previous info. And (operating off of memory until the search function gets usable), the NB-8 had a modification that moved the ripcord location. As I noted earlier, I think it was an 'outboard' location. Standard placement is on the inside of the main lift web (vertical strap from hip to shoulder). The handle normally is placed so that it points inward, towards the sternum. This mod puts it on the outside of the MLW, pointing towards the arm. My understanding is that this was done to place it further from a nervous student. It would make it a bit more 'snag prone', but experienced jumpers and jump pilots know to protect their handles from snags and inadvertent pulls. Apparently this was a known mod for bailout rigs used by jump pilots. But Hayden wasn't that. Sooooo... Was the NB-8 Cossey's? Was it a jump pilot rig? Or was it a former jump pilot rig that was modified before Hayden got it (because he had to) and he didn't really care about where the handle was because he never planned on using it?

I don't know a whole lot of details about TBIs, and I only know a bit about the guy and his injury, but I met a fellow last year who suffered a TBI while BASE jumping a few years back. He recovered well enough to jump again. My understanding is that he's on limited disability and mostly retired. So he travels around and jumps. PM me your contact info and I can try to put you in touch with him.