korbin

Good old Carlin. Anyway, I personally believe that same view. We're talking about life here. There are millions of organic substances, cells, etc, that are living. Breaking it down to a human, well, isn't a sperm cell technically living? If you need to throw a line down on it, lets throw it at birth, where there is an easily definable method of determining if they are a human or not. And really, if we need to take it this far, the best argument IMO is to just mind your own business! If you don't like what someone else is doing, don't do it! As long as it is not affecting you, whats the problem?

Being 16, I can tell you that it would be pretty awful to be locked up like that. He is watching porn, playing video games, this and that. There are plenty of worse things he could be doing. You shouldn't be so concerned. but yeah, as the others said: too much drinking to do, too little time. (I liked the "can't find the scotch" comment)

Someone once told me that there are only 4 COBOL programs. The remaining 52 Billion (really, that many) lines of code are just copies with a few changes. If you look at the first 100 posts of the original locked thread, the contents of the first and second threads are just that same 100-post block repeated and repeated. 100% true about cobol, haha.

Silvia. btw the CEO of UFC is major kickass.. watch some of his blogs.

I'd be very interested in reading a up a bit more on that particular case. And anyway, everyone here is pretty right. DZs without insurance is kind of tough. The cases you do see about liability waivers typically have no insurance or practical reason to possess insurance. It'd be cool if there were fairly inexpensive insurance companies for DZs, but that might encourage the suits.

very nice.

This is called 'discover diving' or 'resort diving.' Can be as little as 15 minutes of prep, just like with tandems. And in Mexico, might end up on a sloping wall at 80ft (with thousands to go) with your 12yo daughter, one divemaster, and 4 sport divers. Just to solidify it before someone jumps in and screams "MEXICO!," explain the PADI situation in the USA, you probably can better than myself.

That's exactly right. If it is an issue due to honest negligence on the DZ or TMs part, they should be held liable. Skydivers who are licensed and jump fully understand the risks associated with it and wouldn't under normal circumstances take any action against a DZ for their own mistake. Or at least shouldn't.

In terms out of courtesy for the DZ and the sport, I don't think I'd use a fake ID on this particular cause. Just below me on this regard.

This wouldn't be what happened when the dude strapped into a separate rig midair, would it? (not jumped into a tandem rig)

You know my obvious issues with liability waivers from the ridiculously stretched out post somewhere else in this forum. Liability waivers are fairly necessary and do not hurt the sport in any way, this goes for all things that require them. They create exculpatory, solid evidence against claims caused by someones' neglect or mishap. Chris et al. are right, without waivers: There would be no skydiving I believe AAD Manufacturers, Gear manufacturers do not directly relate to your life. You choose the gear you use, buyer beware. Just like you choose cars, guns, foods, drinks, whatever you do in your daily life. The DZ is directly responsible for bringing you into a harmful situation, you are responsible (or your TM) for getting you out of that harmful situation. You are on their property, their time, with their policies. Granted you could probably file a claim against a company producing gear, the claim against a DZ because you didn't flare properly and "didn't know" you were supposed to wouldn't be very hard to hold up.

Right on. Anyway, about the Nancy Grace thing. She's a garbage reporter, and her so called "experience" gets her nothing but disgust from me and pretty much everyone I know. This Anthony thing has gone on long enough. She's guilty or she isn't. She's just another case. The evidence looks like she is, but, you really don't know. (For or against? I dont know) The OJ Trial at least provided entertainment (not joking), this is just annoying.

Oakley Thumps would do the trick here. Wear them under your goggles or wear retainers with them. They'd only work with a helmet, probably.

I spent about a week in DC. If youre into health food, check out "Just Fresh" 919 18th St NW Washington, DC 20006 (202) 822-4960‎ Salads, etc, was really good. If it's Pizza, check out Bertuccis. Chinatown has some cool stuff. Quite a few tourist trap bars around that town. Edit: It's a short a drive to VA, but, you'll want to check out Arlington, Iwo Jima statue, and certainly the Vietnam Memorial (breathtaking) (near Lincoln Memorial --which is insanely beautiful at night) Jefferson memorial is equally beautiful at night.

Oh you're absolutely right on that. AT does not have the best product (their ATH-W5000s are cool but overrated). There are quite a few high enders out there. I just never find myself in a situation where I don't have a high quality audio system around me and need to use serious headphones ("audiophile" quality). My tracks aren't CD rip unfortunately (160kpbs).. For nostalgic purposes my computer desk set is an Onkyo A7090 (1979) and some RTRs (classic) standard bookshelves. Sounds pretty nice. Totally off topic, but if you're into audio, check out some electrostats, utterly kickass highs and mids. Very unique, not so much DB.

Seems like it would be a distraction of a certain degree. Look at the issues people have with cameras. A good set of in-ear ones would be really nice under helmets. There are "muffs" specifically designed to hold headphones inside of helmets for motorcycles and other purposes, im sure they'd work for a skydiving specific helmet (they're pretty thin)

That's not what I was saying at all, I couldn't figure out what he was talking about, and so I kind of wanted to know. He said several different things that weren't really clear.

I did look back through the whole thread, and did not notice any post by you suggesting anything that would break a USPA suggestion. I use "suggestion" because they have very little enforceable authority. "Rule", or "Requirement" would suggest that they can back it up! You are very determined, and don't like to be told "no." I just thought you'd want to run your DZ without a bunch of know it all folks with USPA trying to tell you how to run your business. Therefore, why stop at allowing 16 year olds, why not 15? If 15, why not 14, and so on. Don't tell anyone at USPA, but my kids may skydive at 10. Shhhhh, I'm going to keep it a real tight secret. Oh, don't tell their mom either, I have to live with her! Martin I guess I don't know what you are implying by even mentioning the USPA.

ah, I didn't know what you meant by "Participation Agreement" (Thought you were referring to the agreements with the tandem manufacturers) And the USPA thing, I don't know if you've followed the thread all the way through but what are you referring to that you wouldn't be USPA? (Age....?) And on the edit thing, I was just laughing because I was replying and I got two or three different versions of the original post, had to modify a bit to keep up on the topic

From an analytical standpoint, this is not a very constructive post (You said so yourself on your second revision [of 3+, just can't find the right words?]). But from a business standpoint, sounds good. The only problem is that it wouldn't be good to jump into a business without any experience in it. And why forget the USPA? Participation agreements? Are we talking about Vector, Strong, et al tandem contracts? What about Static Line/AFF... All in all I appreciate the thought

I've been waiting to talk about this but I've got a dealer account with quite a few audio/video outlets (Dealer price on everything + Resale capability) Audio Technica's most recent product is damn good for your buck. (about 110 bucks dealer price.) -- Main thing, the quality is perfect and you CAN NOT hear anything outside of it (turbine, maybe). It was rated product of the year last year at Consumer Electronics Show. (If I can find a dz in Vegas this February, I will, everyone.. awesome show to go to) Bose is nice, but it's highly overrated in todays consumer market (You see quite a bit different stuff in showroom/performance audio), and I do sell it. (No highs, no lows, just Bose). Shure and Sennheiser make great product also. (I don't sell Sennheiser), but for the money, the ATs and the Boses are the ones you want to go with. The Bose have a bit better bass response IMO, but it really depends on the setting and where you are going to be with the product. They have about equal canceling capabilities. Bose are quite a bit more dealer/retail price.

The tattoo thing (mildly NSFW).. attached Can't believe it man.

The National Enquirer is where I get most of my news about what really matters in the world..

Yeah, I will agree with you there. The vacationing family market goes for quite a bit more in the marketplace. It's ridiculous that families will go for that. Now you are correct, eliminating a lot of the risk with SCUBA is the air situation, but if you're diving any sort of common depth. (60'-75', just a figure), there is quite a bit of education involved with it (A day or whatever it is, to the 15 minutes of Tandem Instruction.) edit: just saw this article: http://www.seasabres.com/%5CSafty-education%5Cage%20and%20diving.htm 2,600 scuba fatalities since 70. Haven't looked at skydiving.

Filling up to the tune of 2.84. I do hope we get 2 dollar gas again!