wolfriverjoe

The problem with this sort of 'bothsiderism' is that the facts don't support it. One group was protesting unarmed black men being murdered by the police. The other was protesting the blatant lie that the 'election was stolen'. One group had large scale protests across the country. Most were peaceful. The other group had one event that turned deadly. One group showed a fair amount of restraint. There were multiple instances of cops getting 'caught out' and being surrounded by the mob. When their lives were in danger, members of the protest surrounded the cop and protected him The other group used flags, fire extinguishers and various other improvised weapons to assault the cops. One cop was murdered. One group was repeatedly assaulted by the authorities. Chemical weapons (mace, pepper spray, ect) fire hoses, cops with clubs all went after the protesters. Many were arrested. Some were arrested without committing any crime. The other group was allowed to commit multiple crimes, including murder, then was allowed to leave. The arrests are happening, but didn't happen at the time. Lat, but not least, the violence associated with one group was largely committed by 'outside agitators'. The "Umbrella Man" in Minneapolis. The guy who torched the courthouse in Nashville. The guy who murdered the two cops in California. All were shown to be "Alt-right" types. Even here in Wisconsin, most of the idiots arrested for looting were white. There was even an incident where a mob of folks looted a Target store while the protests were going on. But the store was in the next town over, where there were NO protests. The other group proudly displayed their allegiance during the violence. Hats, flags, shirts, even the fool who proudly claimed that it was Trump supporters, not Antifa that stormed the Capitol.

Which one? That title (both of them) could apply to a LOT of Trump's toadies.

Quest (there's a LOT of 'Johnnys' out there)

Wow. I never considered the reduction in asymmetrical thrust. That could be huge.

Carson

The ones I've heard of use custom stuff. The one guy who I know of doing it made his himself.

There's a golden statue of him at a convention where the stage is laid out in the shape of a Nazi symbol. Trump took the stage, and gave a speech. Not surprisingly, that speech was full of shit. Take your pick: https://www.google.com/search?q=Trump+CPAC+Speech+lies&rlz=1C1CHBF_enUS910US910&oq=Trump+CPAC+Speech+lies&aqs=chrome..69i57.6264j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 To think he's simply going to go away is pretty silly. A And dangerous.

Well, lots of truly innovative ideas were branded 'impossible' when first proposed. I watched "14 Minutes From Earth" over the weekend. It's the documentary on Alan Eustace's high altitude jump. In the beginning, there are 'quickie' interview segments with a variety of people. One was a Google colleague, who freely admitted his first thoughts were that this was foolish, extremely risky and nearly impossible. But he temporized that by saying something to the effect of: (paraphrasing) But that's the Google philosophy. We make the impossible happen. However, there's a difference between 'fanciful and clever ideas that seem impossible' and 'woo'.

Ya think? Or link this thread and include the appropriate numbers.

A couple others: Load capacity (how many jumpers go up in a given day?) Availability of student gear (will there be a student rig available when you want it?) Quality of the student gear goes along side that. Not necessarily age, but what kind of shape is it in and how well is it taken care of? The 'open 7 days' will be a pretty busy DZ. That can be good, because you'll get more opportunity to jump. But it can also be bad because you might not get the level of personal attention you want. One of the bigger ones will be 'atmosphere' and 'comfort level'. How are you treated as a student? How are the other fun jumpers treated by the DZ? One of the things I love about the bigger DZ I jump at is the way the DZ & DZO treat the fun jumpers. We're a community. There are social events on a regular basis. Cookouts, musical events, just hanging out around the bonfire at night. The DZO has been quoted in an industry article that he wants that community. He wants a fun place for him, his wife and kids to jump. His 2 sons both jump and his wife is a pretty hardcore competition jumper (multiple medals in a couple events at a few different levels). The DZO has also said that any student who has made his/her first jump is now a part of the community and is welcome at any of the 'social stuff'. They are actively encouraged to hang out after jumping and join the shenanigans. Price & distance (as long as it's not 'stupid far') would be last. The cost of training is a rather small portion of what you're going to spend. I drive a half hour to the 'nearby' 182 place. Or two hours to the bigger one (mentioned above). I have no issues going that far, and typically take a tent and spend the whole weekend down there. I've done "Friday afternoon through Sunday night, come back Monday morning" a couple times. More often it's 'leave early Saturday morning, come back late Sunday night' though.

9 & 14. Maybe 13 too.

Oh yeah. I know it. The only way they can win an argument with anyone is to make up the side that they are arguing against. Classic gaslighting.

There's a fair amount of documentation on how the 'peace symbol' was formed. The fact that it's the same as the 3rd Panzer Division seems to be a coincidence. I'm not aware of any indications that Holtom was a Nazi or White Supremacist. Please share any you may have. Not a whole lot of people are familiar with unit markings down to the Divisional level. There are a few that are rather famous, but this isn't one of them. I'm a bit of a military buff, and I was totally unaware that the 3rd Panzer had a 'peace sign' on their gear. Kinda partial to the "Big Red One" and the 1st Cav "Horse Blanket" myself. OTOH, Trump and his minions have a fairly long and comprehensive history of pandering to racists and WS types. Note - your reply in post 26 just came across. It sure didn't read as sarcasm. Maybe I need to turn up the gain on my sarcasm detector. Or we need a 'sarcasm font'.

Do you even understand how science works? How theories are developed and advanced? It would appear not. Please point out where I even hinted that I know what 'answer I want'. As the knowledge and understanding progresses & grows, the theory will be proven correct, proven fundamentally sound but flawed or proven incorrect. The middle option is most likely. Also, please provide some backup for your proposal. A quick search found lots of info on the nebula/accretion disk theory. But nothing on "Venus Capture". Well, nothing but Velikovsky. Which would fall under the concept of 'less than nothing'.

^This. For this sort of thing, there are (or should be) people who's primary job is to look at these things to see if there are any 'mistaken impressions' that will be generated. They've done this too many times for me to believe it's 'just a coincidence'.

Gotta love how this type makes sure to point out the 'holes' in scientific theories, while simultaneously advocating a point of view that has zero validity. Sure the current models of how the Solar System formed has a lot of holes. As those holes get 'filled in', I'm pretty sure that the theory will get adjusted. Maybe a lot, maybe a little. Maybe it will be tossed and something completely new will replace it. But what sort of evidence, what sort of facts back up the idea that Venus was a 'stray' that was captured? What sort of models even show that it would be possible? This is little different from the people who say "evolution is just a theory" and then point to the Bible as support for their claims.

The problem is that many folks who are among the privileged refuse to see it. They seem to think that pointing out the privileges they get (through no fault of their own) is the same as calling them 'racist'. Of course, many who take that attitude ARE racist. And they resent being told that having privilege over minorities is a bad thing. They don't think that it's bad, they think it's how it's supposed to be. Not all of them, but many. I'm both surprised and disappointed at how many folks are turning out to be racist. Not blatantly, not openly, but racist none the less. "Black Lives Matter is a hate group just like the KKK" is one that's popped up lately. There are lots of others.

Fully agreed. Unfortunately, not everyone sees it that way.

So Trump calls Nazis & KKK 'very fine people'. He has people like Stephen Miller & Steve Bannon in his inner circle. His "America First" campaign has a logo very close to the Nazi eagle. BTW - "America First" was made popular by the KKK. They didn't originate it, but they used it a lot. He calls on the Proud Boys to "Step back and stand by". His lies about election fraud are a huge factor in the insurrection attempt. Now, the CPAC stage has a very close resemblance to another Nazi symbol. And Trump's little pet Josh Hawley calls for a "new nationalism". Coincidence?

Well, that's not strictly true. They care about demo jumps, especially ones that go bad and injure the public. They care about Tandem students getting injured or killed. The 'falling out of the harness' incidents from a while back really got their attention.

Thank you. As was noted, anonymous posters often have hidden agendas. I'm not accusing you of that, but it's something that comes up. Well, the TI was the son of the DZO. It's rather common for those kids to start early. It used to be legal, and now can be legal. Mike Mullen's sons all started very early, and are well respected in the community. I personally know 2 sons of a DZO that started early. One was before the age change, the other was after with a proper waiver. The process isn't all that hard. Both 'boys' (now adults) are highly skilled, heads up jumpers. Given who the parent/DZO is, I don't think getting a waiver for an underage child would have been an issue. As far as other 'rules', are they actual USPA BSRs? Or are they the requirements of the tandem manufacturers? I thought tandem CRW, camera rules, low turns, ect were mandated by the manufacturer. I could be wrong on that, and welcome correction if so. I actually thought that this was all a setup by the TV people. But it the TI got a tib/fib, then it may well have been real, and the TV crew just took advantage of it for dramatic effect. And as far as 'hurting our sport', please. It's been pretty well documented that accidents bring publicity and publicity brings customers. Even bad publicity results in an increase. The FAA doesn't care what we do to ourselves. Just what we do to the public. A TI getting hurt won't even show up on their radar.

Oh boy. I actually have a copy of this book. It was my dad's and I ended up with a lot of his books after he died. It's abso-fucking-lutely hilarious. No facts, no evidence, no nothing. Just 'comparative mythology', which is a fancy term for 'taking folk tales from all over and pretending that they match up'. Anything and everything he tried to present as 'fact' has been proven wrong. It was published in 1950, and there was a lot that was unknown about Venus at that time. Since then, we (scientists) have made a lot of discoveries about the size, composition, environment, ect of Venus. NONE OF IT matches. Interestingly, tucked inside my dad's copy of the book was a little newspaper article (maybe 2 or 3 column inches) that was about an announcement by the publisher that they were no longer going to publish the book. MacMillan published a lot of textbooks and the ludicrous claims in this one mad them look silly. Why am I not surprised that the so-called 'climate expert' spouting all sorts of ludicrous claims about global warming would be a 'true believer', agreeing with ANY of the crap Velikovsky spouted. Nor am I surprised that she has no clue about the mechanism that produces atmospheric pressure.

Well, back in the times when religion held great power over the masses, it was more 'ignorance' than 'lack of intelligence'. The "holy men" were able to convince the masses that they alone could explain all sorts of deep and puzzling questions. You know, the standard 'where did we come from, where do we go, why are we here' sort of thing. As science progressed, usually in direct opposition to the religious leaders, some of those questions were answered. And the answers uncovered by science NEVER were what the religions had claimed. As that knowledge becomes more and more prevalent, the 'fundamentalist teachings' become more and more ridiculous. But some folks still cling to them, and hang on stronger and stronger as more and more evidence that they are baseless and blatantly false come to light. Then, of course, those same folks claim to be 'persecuted for their beliefs' when what's really happening is that their lies are being exposed for what they truly are: Blatant lies used to control the masses and put the 'holy men' in positions of wealth, power and control (see Jerry Falwell Jr for a really current example).

There was a thread a while back that evolved into a discussion about how the Trump campaign had adopted a logo that was very similar to a Nazi symbol. That thread is now locked. https://www.dropzone.com/forums/topic/268840-trump-must-go/page/12/ Page 12, post 295 is where the logo showed up. At the CPAC conference, the stage has a rather peculiar layout. Wow. What an amazing coincidence that it's happened again.

Pets are not 'inanimate objects'. They are living beings. We can argue back and forth about their emotions and whether or not they love their owners, but they are NOT 'things'. There's a reason dogs have been called 'man's best friend' for a long time. OTOH, a dog or a cat is not a 'child'. I never expected my dog to grow up, go to college, get his own life, ect. I also would never have sent a 5 year old out the door into the back yard to take a dump.