Newbie

I got my suit a couple of years back, a standard cut Flitesuit that i really like. However, compared to some of the stuff peeps are flying with today, i sometimes feel like i'm out of the 70's wearing a balloon suit! So what's the deal - has there been a marked move towards more streamlined, tighter suits in the last few years or is it just me? What's brought this about, if it is a common theme in the industry? Bigger formations = need for more speed and less drag perhaps? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I think i remember reading in the incident forum some time ago about a guy who noticed it in freefall, but merely reached over with his left hand, grabbed the right mudflap/webbing and pulled and was ok. Anyone else remember this? I could be wrong, but i have it in my head from a misrouted chest strap incident i read about in there. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

You mean every position in the military has access to weapons? Are you sure, or are you going on again before pausing for a second? I am under the impression that even people who are destined to be desk jockeys in the military still go through basic training and yeah, learn how to use weapons, and occasionally do live-fire training. Am I wrong? I have not been through military training, so I don't know for certain. I'm crazy? I'm ill-informed? Why not read the articles. He DID already actually murder someone -- a Turkish journalist in 1979. (He got a mere 10 years for that.) So yeah, the shitbag should've already been dead when he made his attempt on the pope. And more on your question: YEAH, I fuckin' want those who ATTEMPT murder out of society, too, and execution is a good way to do it. I heard a comedian make fun of this situation once (don't remember who it was); he questioned going easier on a would-be murderer just because he missed. Anything else? -Jeffrey I think what many feel is that the old saying "Two wrongs don't make a right" apply here. You can argue until you are blue in the face that it is not wrong to kill someone who has killed someone else - but as peaceful, tolerant and a kind species (in an ideal world) us humans should not resort to taking a life because some sociopath decides to do the same. Progression is not about bringing yourself down to the level of which another operates, and some feel capital punishment does that, and doesn't deter murderers anyway (another arguement people will quote). Personally i think an often quick and painless death (or less painful than the death they might have inflicted) is an easy way out anyway. Life without parole will give them the rest of their days to face the reality of what they did. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

If that were the case, there would be no convictions for murder, would there? In terms of criminal insanity, to be insane is to not know the difference between right and wrong. There are plenty of people out there who are sane. In fact, most murderers are pretty damned sane, aren't they? Thy know it's wrong and they do it, anyway. Unfortunately, there are millions of people who don't think like you do. There are millions who are sociopaths. "I'll allow it, sustained!" (as you guys would say) "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

At least something positive has come out of a SC post "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

From what i know and have heard - and can empathise with - is that no one (sane) wants to kill someone or pull a trigger on someone. I'm glad no innocents were injured or killed, but it's still not an ideal outcome for anyone - perp or otherwise. Ask any member of any kind of reputable police tactical team and they will say that the best way to end a job is to do it without a shot being fired. Sometimes criminals leave police with no option, as was most likely the case here. But at the end of the day, someone is dead and a cop has to deal with the psychological fall out of having to do something most of us dream we are never in a position to have to do ourselves. I wouldn't exactly be celebrating and joyous this tidbit of rather morose news frankly, or wishing that the cops had bagged the female accomplice while they were at it too. Just my thoughts. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Not obsessed? 1) Fast food nation 2) Did the US win WWII for the Europeans 3) I wish the price of Gas in the US would double overnight I would say that with these "subtle" threads you demonstrate a trend. What trend? That: a)i don't eat fast food, something that we have as much of here as you do there b)i want to know the role played by the US in the Second World War, because frankly i do not fully understand, and it was implied - by one of your country men - that had it not been for the US, and i quote "I would be speaking German". I wanted to know if there was substance to that. c)that thread was something of a generalisation and was merely posted as a means to try to get people who were complaining about a gas hike to $3 or $4 a gallon to realise they still actually, had it very good, compared with Europeans who are paying double that and have always paid 3 times what those there pay. And it wasn't posted as sour grapes, as many said, with me wishing "bad vibe" and "ill feeling" on anyone there, it was really posted (in an ineffective way, albeit) to say "um you guys really still can't complain about the price of gas there because it's still cheap. I understand now many have the problem not with the selling price, but the fact they now have to budget for the hikes, which is where the problem arises, something that i learnt from the post, and was productive. How is that being obsessed with the US? If you look at the posts here, many many posts are comparative across the US and the UK (crime, gun laws - or lack thereof, war related issues, terrorist related stuff, news articles) - why do you think i have some weird US obsession? I'm not trying to denigrate your country, and if it appears that way, maybe you are being too sensitive about things because no one else is taking it that way (with the aside of a few people in the gas price thread, but we have since buried the hatchet on that one). I think not, as I can be considered as one of those minorities, never had an issue with any authority, including when I got my Security Clearance. Go figure. Dude what are you talking about, EU standards? Look all i want is an American - someone who lives in America - to comment on what they think about Crash. It's that simple, i don't care if you just moved there and have some experience or lived there for generations. That's interesting, but i'm wasn't asking for a comparative study between the UK and US. I know there is rascism here, but i'm interested in the American model, how much Crash as a film truly reflects that (and whether it even does or doesn't). "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

word of mouth advertising is the best form of promotion around, don't cha know? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Oh why don't you just go kong your whopper!! "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

It's expensive food. The whole argument that poor people are "victimized" by the placement of fast food restaurants in their area is just bullshit. It's not as though the powers that be plant them there to the exclusion of also putting grocery stores there. Buy some penne pasta. Buy some fresh lean ground beef or turkey. Boil the pasta, brown the meat, and put some pasta sauce on it -- you have a wide variety of choices. Buy some inexpensive frozen spinach, broccoli, brussels sprouts. Stick that in a pot with a little water and in five minutes you have a vegetable side. This is not brain surgery. But woe, the poor are forced to eat fatty, non-nutritious fast food. -Jeffrey Although sidetracking from the original point of the post, i do agree with this. In this country a whopper meal is about £5, which is about $8. You can EASILY buy a meal for yourself for $8 worth of groceries either here or the US. It's the convenience for most people that draws them in, i feel. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Interesting thoughts, thanks "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Double cheese burgers are $2 at McDs I got an email from a friend that simple said "I konged my whopper yesterday, it was great!" http://www.visit4info.com/details.cfm?adid=27563 I have to admit, it salivates my insides! "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I like this post, it makes me happy inside!

If you read the book, it clearly sets out many of the victims - the poor, the marginalised, the recent immigrant, the young - and it's by showing you how they are affected that leads to the desire amongst many to stop greasing the wheel of the corporations who feel they can do what they want to these groups and get away with it. Anything "faddy" can be tagged with those who jump from one moral cause bandwagon to the next (and you don;t have to be rich to do that, trust me), but trying to maintain any sense of ongoing committment to these issues is not really a fad is it? This is where the moral conflict arises - if you are committed to a cause, is there any time when there is justification for backing out of it, or are you then just a bandwagon jumping moral crusader with no direction whatsoever? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I'd say Crash does take a serious look at the state of racism in our culture, but since EVERY actor in the film is portrayed as having some sort of problem, it doesn't really typify the situation if it leads the viewer to believe all Americans, regardless of race, are racists. I thought it was an entertaining and thought provoking film. Correct me if i'm wrong, but the Hispanic handyman didn't have any racial issues did he? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Are you calling me a trivial?! Seriously, the moral point of not eating fast food (or particularly from the bigger suppliers is way too detailed for me to get into fully but here is a brief synopsis from Amazon. It's an informative book, that is factually accurate (most importantly) and is really just an eye opening read, i highly recommend it. ____________________________________ On any given day, one out of four Americans opts for a quick and cheap meal at a fast-food restaurant, without giving either its speed or its thriftiness a second thought. Fast food is so ubiquitous that it now seems as American, and harmless, as apple pie. But the industry's drive for consolidation, homogenization, and speed has radically transformed America's diet, landscape, economy, and workforce, often in insidiously destructive ways. Eric Schlosser, an award-winning journalist, opens his ambitious and ultimately devastating exposé with an introduction to the iconoclasts and high school dropouts, such as Harlan Sanders and the McDonald brothers, who first applied the principles of a factory assembly line to a commercial kitchen. Quickly, however, he moves behind the counter with the overworked and underpaid teenage workers, onto the factory farms where the potatoes and beef are grown, and into the slaughterhouses run by giant meatpacking corporations. Schlosser wants you to know why those French fries taste so good (with a visit to the world's largest flavor company) and "what really lurks between those sesame-seed buns." Eater beware: forget your concerns about cholesterol, there is--literally--feces in your meat. Schlosser's investigation reaches its frightening peak in the meatpacking plants as he reveals the almost complete lack of federal oversight of a seemingly lawless industry. His searing portrayal of the industry is disturbingly similar to Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, written in 1906: nightmare working conditions, union busting, and unsanitary practices that introduce E. coli and other pathogens into restaurants, public schools, and homes. Almost as disturbing is his description of how the industry "both feeds and feeds off the young," insinuating itself into all aspects of children's lives, even the pages of their school books, while leaving them prone to obesity and disease. Fortunately, Schlosser offers some eminently practical remedies. "Eating in the United States should no longer be a form of high-risk behavior," he writes. Where to begin? Ask yourself, is the true cost of having it "your way" really worth it? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Have a read of this for a simple explanation: http://www.culturalsavvy.com/understanding_american_culture.htm So, you're an American - do you think (at least what you have experienced, and continue to do so where you live) that you are living in a "deconstructed salad bowl" culture? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Thanks for letting us know you're too cool for this thread. just a bunch of patting yourselves on the back about how pure your bodies are - put it in the Bonfire love fest It ain't about that (im actually less fit now then i was when eating fast food regularly, go figure). It's more about whether or not people who choose not to eat it from a moral point can justify eating it at any time (like i could imagine someone who morally doesn't like it, but gives in and takes their kids there to eat and they eat too etc as a simple example). "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I don't think i have any sort of "obsession" with the US, although i'm married to an American, so that might be why i'm naturally curious to learn and understand the country in greater detail. I understand it's a ficticious story, but it's meant to be seen as something as a social commentary on race relations (in LA), at least that's how i interpreted it. From what i have seen of major metropolitan areas in the US (and perhaps i should have made that clearer in the initial post) the film was not far from the mark, and in some cases, hit the nail on the head. I know the US is made up of what you could call "countries within countries" as in major differences between many different parts in all manner of socio and economic areas, but i think Crash does tell a fairly realistic tale, at least from what i have seen, of LA specifically, and major metropolitan areas in general. I was wondering if an actual American could let me know if they found this to be/not to be the case, and state examples from real every day life, rather than, as you say, just what we see in a ficticious film (even if it is a slice of life piece of viewing) "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Well the thing is, it doesn't so much put a moral argument forward, as let you make your own mind up about what you think the state of affairs is on fast food. If you have any sort of moral conscience (not you, but anyone i mean) you will find it hard to eat at the big fast food chains again, notably McDonalds but BK and others too. The book is basically quite simply, 5 years of research into the fast food chain, and the history of it, and it really is rivetting reading, i can highly recommend it if you want an insight into the development of the most well recognised (and perhaps notorious) global corporation and the effect it, and corporations like it, have on the lives of people around the world. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

LOL good to know im not alone "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

thanks for the comments. I think i should clarify - the reason im feeling bad is after reading FFN i made it a moral standpoint to avoid it if i could. I guess i'm feeling bad because i ate it twice in the last few months, not because of health considerations, but because i sort of feel i went against the whole reason i boycotted it in the first instance. Does anyone disagree with McDonalds or fast food on a moral level, but still occasionally eat it, is i guess what i'm wondering? And if so, how do you justify that? (genuine question there, not having a go) "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

No i'm fine thanks, I just don't want the thread derailed on the first reply, if possible. Go watch it tonight, see what you think and then i welcome any constructive comments you might have on the topic tomrrow.

I didn't ask what a "true American" was so stop trying to derail this thread please. I asked about the state of race relations in America and if the movie shed a true or otherwise light on this. Seeing as you are neither American and most likely have not seen the film, why not leave this post and go and reply to yourself again in the other thread i just put up on fast food. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

America, we hear time and time again, is the great melting pot of diversity. Then it becomes the great "salad bowl" where it's made up of unique ingredients that go together in the same place but don't necessarily mix. If you have seen the movie Crash, what do you think in terms of it accurately reflecting the TRUE state of race relations in the US? I thought it was a great and insightful film, and although i'm not American, i have spent enough time there to see a lot of what goes on in this film. Does anyone think that it typifies the state of affairs for race relations in the US? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts