wolfriverjoe

The problem with those studies are twofold. One - Most are conducted by people with an anti-gun agenda. One of the few I know of that shows any different is the Lott study on defensive gun use. It has issues, as does the author. Professor Kallend will quickly point them out. But Lott started out thinking he'd find low numbers for DGU. He was very surprised to find the opposite. Two - I have yet to see any study on the danger of "guns in the home" that takes into account the huge numbers of homes with guns that don't have any incidents. There are hundreds of millions of guns in tens of millions of homes. Somewhere in excess of 99% of them have no accidents at all. The "Bumper Sticker" mantra that "Ted Kennedy's car killed more people than all my guns combined" applies to the vast majority of gun owners. I won't argue that a gun in the home adds danger. A chain saw in the garage adds danger (it's kinda hard to have an accident with one if you don't own one). The Amish have very low rates of accidental electrocution too. But if the added danger was all that great, wouldn't we see it? "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

To add to what others have said: Canopy course is a great idea. No matter what discipline you pursue, you still need to fly a pattern, deal with traffic and land a canopy at the end of the jump (unless you are wingsuiting and built a really big pile of boxes that is ). Gear knowledge, EPs, airplane procedures, spotting, overall "Knowing what you are doing" is what you want to develop. That's why there is an "experience level" requirement for advanced stuff. You can learn that stuff no matter what type of jumps you do. Or not. That's up to you. There are a few "heads up" jumpers that have learned this stuff fairly quickly. There are more than a few "head's up somewhere" jumpers who have hundreds of jumps that still haven't learned it. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

All three of those have some serious flaws with them. Philly NEJM The last one only counts defensive gun uses that result in a shooting. Reliable statistics are almost impossible to find, mainly because "non shooting defensive gun use" incidents are often not reported to the police. But numbers between 80% and 90% are often quoted. It's a repeat of the Brady Group's "43 times more likely" which has been thoroughly debunked. It also counts shootings "in or around" a residence. It doesn't seem to say if the guns used in the crimes were kept in the residence. I won't say guns aren't dangerous. And I think jbscout's ascertaition that he "won't get shot because he has his own gun" is ridiculous. Having a gun isn't a bulletproof shield. Nor is it a 'magic wand' that will fend off the bad guys. But it is a means of defense against them. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Wow. 26 pages (much of it the usual suspects perfecting their Pee Wee Herman imitations). Calling this guy "mentally ill" is a misnomer. Most mentally ill people aren't violent, most violent people aren't mentally ill. We went back and forth on the 'Crazy or Evil?' thing with the shooter in Norfolk (guy who shot the reporter on live TV). Something I haven't heard mentioned: Most of these types of shooters are typically male, youngish, loners, socially inept, and very angry. I'd love to see a comparison between them and the typical suicide bombers in the Middle East. I'd guess there are more similarities than differences. What would/should an armed civilian do? The concern about being accidentally shot by another armed citizen or the cops is very real. The lack of training is also a major concern. The usual training for a carry permit includes the repeated rejoinder "You are not the police. You are not the SWAT team. Do NOT play 'hero'. It will get you killed." The cops train in movement/portal entry, Friend/foe identification, covering each other, that sort of thing. The skills needed to enter and move and search and confront an active shooter. The average civilian shooter does not. But they don't need to. How many of these have had a situation where the shooter tries to enter a room, finds the door blocked by the occupants, shoots through the door and enters? So, if I was in this situation, I would try to get everyone away from the door and it's line of fire. Behind cover or concealment if at all possible (kids at Sandy Hook successfully hid in cupboards and survived). If unarmed, try to get the biggest, strongest people to hide next to the door. Let the shooter open it and then jump him. Yes, that will probably get someone shot. But if there are 4 or 5 people jumping him, the odds are that someone will take the gun away. And the people inside are likely to get shot no matter what they do. If armed, then again, get the rest of the people away from the door, and have the person with the gun take an "off axis" position, again behind cover if at all possible. Simply sit still and cover the door. If the shooter enters, ambush him. Don't go out and chase him, don't play hero. Shelter in place with the ability to defend yourself if the shooter enters. Again, Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech and Columbine had situations where this would have ended the shooting, if someone in a room had been armed. As it was, people in these locations were shot through the door trying to prevent the shooter from entering. Lastly, after each of these incidents, there is a hue and cry to "Do SOMETHING" The politicians want to appear that they are "solving the problem", regardless if the "solution" actually addresses it. The current mantra is "background checks." High cap mags and "assault weapons" are still up there, but have faded. So a lot of folks are proposing background checks on all transfers. Why? How would that address the issue? Which of the recent shootings would that have prevented? Loughner, Holmes, Cho, the guy in Norfolk and this guy all passed them. Lanza had reportedly passed the check, but was not willing to wait the 7 days that New York requires, he was afraid his mom would commit him before that. But he passed the check, IIRC. And killing someone and taking their stuff is generally considered "stealing", regardless of whether or not the stuff had been used with permission before. Roof in Charleston is an interesting case. The background check didn't come back in time. He shouldn't have passed, but the FBI couldn't coordinate it's information sources quickly enough (where have we heard that before?) and he got the gun. The "if you don't come back as a 'no' in three days then you get it" is a result of "creative" delays by anti-gun authorities. They would purposefully delay the completion of the check as sort of a 'back-door' gun control effort. So laws were passed to prevent that sort of abuse by the authorities. But what happened when the check came back saying Roof shouldn't get a gun? Did the authorities go to him and arrest him for falsifying his 4473? Did they go and confiscate the gun he shouldn't have acquired? No. They just ignored it, the same way they ignore almost all the failed background checks (the one where the gun is not acquired). Something like 60,000 denials. A handful of prosecutions. This came up after Sandy Hook, too. No real answers as to why not. I'm in favor of a solution. But I don't have one that will work. And I'm really, really against just "doing something" that will affect legal gun owners without having any effect on these shootings. In part because the anti-gun crowd will say "we did this and it didn't work, we need to do more", when everyone knew full well that the original "solution" wasn't going to do anything. I don't consider it "acceptable", but I don't see a way of stopping it. As was noted above, 30k people die in car crashes each year, and that's "acceptable." As was also noted, something like 3000 are killed by impaired (drunk or drugged) drivers each year. And that is acceptable too. We pay lip service to "don't drink and drive", but really don't do much. OWI is still a minor offense. First timers spend little or no time in jail. Even "homicide by intoxicated use" has minimal penalties compared to other types of murders. There was a case fairly local to me where the drunk driver got a year (yes, one year) in jail, plus serving a couple days each year for the next ten (Xmas, the day of the accident, the victims birthday and a couple more). The family of the victim was not too happy with the sentence. Want to stop it? Make an intoxilyser a mandatory piece of equipment on every new car. Make first offense OWI a felony, mandatory one year in prison (they do this in other places). But that's not going to happen. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

You think the cops are better with their guns than the bikers? I doubt that. I've seen cops train (a couple local departments train at the range I'm part of). The qualification requirements aren't very difficult. Given the wild sort of shooting that cops have been noted doing in the media recently, they aren't very good. Nine bystanders hit when the cops opened fire on one guy in New York, cop shoots kid in leg when trying to shoot a dog, sneaking up behind the old guy digging through his car, then opening fire when he jumps after being yelled at - two magazines emptied, three or four hits, none of them "good shots", The Diallo shooting in NYC, where several cops unloaded at a guy holding out his wallet. 41 shots, 19 hits. Very close range in a stairwell. Given that shooting a gun is a very, very small part of their job (many cops go an entire career without ever firing outside of training), it's not surprising that many have marginal firearms skills. OTOH, many of the bikers that I know are well aware that a gun is no good unless you can hit with it. They practice, and are pretty good. Interestingly, the "more outlaw" the biker, the more skilled they tend to be. They also tend to be good in a confrontation situation (cops are too), being able to keep cool during a fight situation is something they value. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Cool, I just love this stuff. Why we ever left the moon once we got there is beyond me. We would have a base on the moon right now having never left, if it we up to me. Money. NASA had planned up to Apollo 20. Budget cuts killed the last 3. And the fact that once we got there, there really wasn't much that was "sexy" (unless you were a geologist or an engineer). I love this sort of stuff too. And at the risk of getting it sent to SC, think about how much space stuff (or just about any other stuff) could have been done with the money we spent on the Iraq war. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

^This. Having a "business" that is open to the public means that you have to serve the public. The whole of the public. Offering the services only to a select group, say one's own church congregation or only to members of that particular faith would be one thing. But once somebody starts offering it to everyone except select groups (especially if one of those groups is a "protected class") is discrimination. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Ummm.... No. Her previous sins may well have been forgiven when she found Jesus. But no matter what was forgiven in the past, because she is formerly married (that part doesn't go away) she is still committing the sin of adultery by being married to her current husband. Unless she leaves him, every day, every minute she is with him as his wife, she is an adulteress. And so is he (well, he's an adulterer, not an adulteress). Hang on a minute, I need to go get some rocks. Big ones. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

You do realize that the above quote is from the family of the victim, right? Not exactly unbiased. Lots of families have wanted "justice" or "closure" through the death of someone who was later found to be wrongly convicted. I don't know enough about the case to have an opinion on his innocence or guilt. But I can see enough questions in the linked newspaper story that my general opposition to the DP on the grounds that someone wrongfully convicted cannot be brought back to life certainly applies here. LWOP would protect society, punish him if he's really guilty, but protect him if he's innocent. But it's Oklahoma. Which is right next to Texas. Both geographically and ideologically. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

I would hazard a guess its because these bikers are considered 1 percenters, and the public perception of them are harsh enough as it is. Bingo. It was headlines when it happened, but none of the 'citizens' care about it. The way the accused have been treated, the way the cops have basically whitewashed their part, the whole damned thing is appalling. But, sorta like how the shootings of black men by the police were ignored until Ferguson blew up, this isn't going to attract any mainstream attention. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Ummm.... Does your buddy know that the cops can pull a car over for having a headlight out? Really, they can. It's an equipment code violation. And I don't see any requirement for a safety inspection at all in GA. Emissions testing in some places, but that's it. Some states require an annual safety inspection, some don't. Wiki Clicky "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Life is full of choices. But all choices have consequences. Choose carefully. Know your emergency procedures and practice them on a regular basis. When you need them, you won't have time to think about it. You will have to react, react well, and react quickly. Don't make judgements based on appearances. The best rigger, instructor, airplane pilot, canopy pilot, belly flier, freeflier and wingsuiter that I know certainly don't look the part. (lots of other "best at" people in real life too). When (not if) you fuck up, own it. Learn from it, move forward and try not to repeat it. Trying to blame someone/something else doesn't work and everyone knows you are trying to avoid responsibility for your mistakes. Don't take yourself too seriously. Don't forget to have fun. The difference between looking at the world through a 1/4" piece of lexan as opposed to seeing it through the open door is immense. Don't just watch through a window. Get out there and do it. You can do things you thought were impossible. But you aren't as good as you think you are. Trying to find the balance between the two is a challenge. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

That is simply not true. Georgia has laws in place. And there are federal laws that apply also. The Atlanta metro area requires annual emissions tests. Your situation is that in your part of Georgia, there is no emissions testing. And the "black tape" fix is stupid. Evap issues are usually a disconnected or broken hose in the tank vent system. Simple and cheap to fix. But bad mechanics will tell ignorant owners that the Evap system is part of that "Stupid pollution control" and that "you don't need to worry about it." So when something serious goes wrong, the CEL is already on, but covered in black tape. So you don't know about it until something serious goes wrong (like the car dies on the side of the road or the engine blows up). The spoken truth, take it as gospel. Pfft... Taking anything I say (or anyone else says) as "gospel" is pretty stupid. Think critically, exercise "healthy skepticism", do your own research. For example, search "Check Engine Evap System". Or "Georgia Emissions Rules". Draw your own conclusions. Unfortunately, those skills are few and far between. Jumping to conclusions based on preconceived ideas, prejudices and just plain ignorance is far too common. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

That is simply not true. Georgia has laws in place. And there are federal laws that apply also. The Atlanta metro area requires annual emissions tests. Your situation is that in your part of Georgia, there is no emissions testing. And the "black tape" fix is stupid. Evap issues are usually a disconnected or broken hose in the tank vent system. Simple and cheap to fix. But bad mechanics will tell ignorant owners that the Evap system is part of that "Stupid pollution control" and that "you don't need to worry about it." So when something serious goes wrong, the CEL is already on, but covered in black tape. So you don't know about it until something serious goes wrong (like the car dies on the side of the road or the engine blows up). "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

I think that's something like what Professor Kallend did. Flew a grid pattern with the GoPro taking stills, then put the individual pics into a composite. Then search the picture (after the flight) to find the canopy. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

The comments are hilarious. Liquid gas, not napalm. So it's a bit less dangerous. And yeah, IBTM. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

FIFY "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

So if it's installed in the D-bag it would activate every deployment? What would that do to battery life? Bolding mine. It's not illegal to operate within 5 miles of an airport. You just have to notify the airport authorities. FPV also isn't illegal. It's perfectly legal to operate an R/C aircraft with FPV, as long as it remains within sight of the operator. Using "video goggles" as the sole means of seeing where the aircraft (without someone else on a "buddy box" maintaining visual contact) isn't legal. But that's not what was suggested. FAA Regs Don't kid yourself that movement is what breaks stuff. It's G-forces. No matter how 'tight' everything is, you give it enough G and something will break. And please don't misunderstand my criticisms and questions. I think it's a cool project. Actually getting one of these to work, at a reasonable cost, without interfering with the rest of the operation of the gear is a pretty admirable goal. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

No, it is people's willingness to swallow anything purely based on political ideology that caused this waste of money. People unwilling to listen to reason and logic based on heavily edited video that caused this waste of money. To a certain degree, yes. The level of hatred towards PP, to the point that the idiots are willing to believe anything negative about them, is disturbing. The fact that there is a pretty large contingent of people that continue to believe, despite the proof that the videos are lies is more disturbing. But using that logic, is a panic in a theater cause by someone yelling "FIRE!!!" the fault of the person doing the yelling? Or is it the fault of the people who panic and run without asking "Is there any smoke? Are there any flames? Is there really a fire?"? In the case of the PP videos, the dupes, idiots and easily swayed hold a certain amount of blame, but it was CMP that (figuratively) yelled "FIRE!!!" "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Well, keep in mind that it's a "representative republic." The lawmakers are supposed to vote what their constituency wants, not necessarily their own beliefs. Obviously, he is owned by the "religious right" and the "Law and Order" communites, who hate any sort of legalization. And the pharmaceutical industry, who don't want to see their profits eroded. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

The first link (for the Get It Back) is a device that was announced this year. It's the first one I know of that isn't terribly expensive. Cell based. Fits in the risers, activated similar to an RSL. Your idea of a simple walkie talkie as a receiver is better than the cell based signal. Assuming that you can get enough range to reach a plane flying around 1000'. You said "magnet activated". how would you plan on doing that if it was located in the D-Bag? (nevermind the G-forces) And Professor Kallend did this earlier this summer. The canopy had fallen between rows of fairly tall corn and was well hidden. But a couple of experienced "lookers" in a 182 can accomplish the same thing. I've done it a couple times. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

So how much taxpayer money has been wasted on all these investigations? CMP should foot that bill. It was their lies that prompted all this waste of time and money. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

Scream as you go out the door. Yes, I'm serious. It's not the "fast wind" that gives you trouble. It's a psychological effect that stops you from exhaling. You breathe in, breathe in some more, then try to breathe in more - but your lungs are full and you can't. So you think "I can't breathe." Screaming forces you to exhale, and once you get started breathing properly, you'll be fine. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

So she's only prejudiced against gays. The bible also forbids "inter-tribal" marriages too, doesn't it? Again, kind of funny how she picks and chooses which parts of the bible to follow. I used the quote from the Loving v Virginia decision to address the issue of marriage being a right. Man-Woman, Same sex, inter-racial, inter-faith, even inter-ethicity (how long ago was the idea of a "nice Irish girl" marrying an Italian guy totally unfathomable?). Doesn't matter who wants to marry whom. As long as both are consenting adults (or at least minors old enough and with parental permission, depending on state laws), then they have the right to marry. Or at least should have. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo

So how would you define "cult movie"? Some of them seem to be independent flicks, the the makers knew would never be big. Others seem to be 'legit' movies, that their makers intended to be mainstream. They just didn't make it big for a variety of reasons (some marketing, some cultural, some just because the movie stunk). And add "Dark City" to my list. Very strange, but very good. Critically acclaimed, box office dud. Saw that one in a theater with a date and we were the only ones there. Only time I've had that happen. Of course, it had to be a movie that was interesting enough that I spent the whole time watching it. "There are NO situations which do not call for a French Maid outfit." Lucky McSwervy "~ya don't GET old by being weak & stupid!" - Airtwardo