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Everyone is entitled to their opinion, as is Victor Hanson (not HansEn). Personally i would rather hear it straight from the horses mouth as to why Islamic terrorists do what they do and you can do so here: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/79C6AF22-98FB-4A1C-B21F-2BC36E87F61F.htm Please note the references to many different factors in the reasoning for the attacks (or "excuses" as you might refer to them), notably the wars in Iraq. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I did not say it was the cause, i simply said 58% of adult Muslims believed the move into Iraq to have been a strong contributing factor to the attacks here - and i'm inclined to believe them, and why shouldn't we? It does not mean we have had the attacks solely based on going into Iraq, i do believe it's what has effectively been the straw that has broken the camels back however. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

The problem is the general public in the west who forgot about terrorism after Sept 11th? Is he for real?! Most of the people i know here in London have thought it's not IF we get hit but WHEN. Does he think us seeing stuff on the news about the emergency services preparing for a gas attack on the tube last year is somehting we are going to watch and forget about or not take seriously? Is he really insinuating that the problem is we forgot about the fact thousands of people got killed only 4 years ago in one of the worlds most awful events that transpired on live television around the world?! So, you do this by having your govt deny there is any connection between us going into Iraq, when a million people in London march against the war in the first place, when a poll asking adult Muslims if they feel that the UK going into Iraq has anything to do with the attacks and 58% feel it has "a lot" to do with them, and 21% think it has "a little" to do with it, and only 10% think it had nothing to do with it? (ICM poll http://www.icmresearch.co.uk/reviews/2005/Guardian%20-%20muslims%20july05/Guardian%20Muslims%20jul05.asp) This sounds like the ramblings of a politician wanting to be seen to be doing the right thing, because he knows he is a hairs breadth away from a public uprising over the public directing their attention back to his governments foreign policy that has had a direct impact on why people are blowing themselves up in our city. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Thanks for the informative post - both dogs and all the cats we have had have been rescue pets, so i'm not overly hot on buying a dog (i think we have plenty out there already that need loving homes) but i do like the idea of a chow. I had heard about their aggresive tendency, but i wasn't sure if that was entirely accurate. I would 100% never buy a dog from a pet store (you can't even buy puppies here, they don't sell them) and i have to admit, going into pet stores abroad to see puppies and kittens bundled into tiny cages irks me no end. If we were to get a specific breed like a chow, i would look to rescue centres first, then reknowned breeders, and like you say, make it clear what we were looking for - there is no way i would buy a dog on the basis it might not be a good fit for us and the animal itself, especially as one day we plan to have kids. I certainly don't take owning any animal lightly, least of all a dog/cat. Anyway thanks again for the good advice! "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Even to owners? Are they the sort of dogs that might growl if you put a hand near the food bowl at feeding time etc? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

LOL that's pretty cute. I heard they can be quite aggressive towards other dogs though, and not very sociable, which seems a shame if true - any truth in this, anyone know? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Man those things look so cute! Does anyone know what they are like as pets? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

LOL you just missed out dude - Sibson had it's annual UK freefly festival for 10 days this month - we had Rob Silver and Tim Porter coaching, as well as Yoav who is a great flier over from Arizona and used to compete with Alex Meacock some years ago. Alex is a great organiser (when he has time and isn't shooting tandem video) and has promised some more ff specific dives (he usually ends up organising tracking stuff for us). As Stu said, there is always some good ff guys around at the dz - unfortunately we are all waiting for the British summer to get it's arse back into gear and make another appearance but i'm not holding my breath right now "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Thanks for those links...the poll is now up in more detail... http://www.icmresearch.co.uk/reviews/2005/Guardian%20-%20muslims%20july05/Guardian%20Muslims%20jul05.asp Not sure where the Guardian got the figure of 1005 interviewees from - as far as i can make out, only 545 people were interviewed - 500 selected from previous interviews and 45 who had had their numbers passed on from that initial 500. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

After the attacks in London, i was curious to know if we would see polls from British Muslims about what they thought, whether it was justifiable etc etc, and this appears to be the first one of it's kind since the attack. I'm not sure if this is accurate or correct, but it is what i have interpreted from this ICM Poll: http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/story/0,16132,1536222,00.html The poll was actually examining the numbers of British Muslims who were considering leaving the UK, but it was other aspects of the poll that shocked me more. Out of 1005 British Muslims sampled (all adults, aged over 18 years of age) "5% said that more attacks would be justified" - and an undisclosed number (potentially running into the thousands, states the article) saying they supported the July 7th attacks in the first instance. With 1.1 million British Muslims aged over 18 residing in the UK, does that mean that you can assume about 5% of the total adult British Muslim population (i.e. 55,000 people) think more attacks are justifiable? If this is true, it's pretty scary to me, as it's a much larger number than i would have thought to be the case. While i certainly consider myself to not be one to be Islamaphobic, or to issue sweeping generalisations such as "Islam is a violent religion" etc etc and all that other junk you usually hear right wingers espousing, and i honestly feel that overwhelming majority of British Muslims abhor what has happened - i would be lieing if i thought these figures of what i have interpreted (namely, 55,000 support further attacks) as being what i had actually thought them to be - i guess maybe i felt a few hundred hardcore extremeists might say they supported the attacks and would feel more of the same was justified, but 55,000? Other stats from this survey show 9 in 10 British Muslims feel violence has "no place in a political struggle" - so does this mean 1 in 10 - or 110,000 think it does have a place?? Please correct me if i am reading this figures wrong. I'm certainly no great statistician and I know that there is only so much you can assume from polling 1005 people when you are dealing with a total of 1.1 million, but i do think polls can give a fairly good indication of larger demographics which is why i'm perturbed by this. Can anyone who knows polls/stats please explain just how much of a grain of salt you have to take when looking at things like this to help put this into perspective? Thanks "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Why do i love my FF2? * Because customer service is absolutely second to none. Constant email contant from the company, a courtesy call the day after my helmet arrived to make sure i had received it and was happy with it, follow up advice when i called them back on how best to fit my camera and lens set up, and above all, being told it will be 6-8 weeks to produce (it was peak season after all) and having them turn the entire thing around from order to delivery in just under 4! How can you fault that?? * The helmet itself - it's wonderful. Sure these things are expensive, but if you tot up a bonehead optik plus D box or similar, you are looking at the same price. What do you get with an FF2? Well, you get what you not only WANT (smooth, perfectly contoured lines, a perfect fit, easily accessible camera, a nice fat chin cup thats comfy and will hold the helmet to your head like a rock) and what you NEED (wonderful attention to detail, good instructions on how to set up the helmet (mine had the cutaway installed) so you are ready to go, expansion for stills at a later date with the flat top, double internal audible pockets, and a cutaway system that will work under pressure. I have to say, i have not jumped with any other camera helmet, and while i only have about 30 jumps with my FF2, i really am very happy i got it. I was weighing up the pros and cons of whether to go the cheaper route, get an L bracket and such like, but to be honest, i thought "whats the point in saving £50 or even £100 here or there if i have to cutaway my camera and lose £500 of hard earned cash?". Not to mention the fact that i'd rather not have lines tangled up there in the first instance! There is a lot to be said when putting on your helmet at 12k, waiting for the red light, ratcheting up the chin cup in 2 seconds for a nice snug fit, watching the door open and glancing at the cam eye to make sure you are good to go, hitting record and then not having to worry and just being able to concentrate solely on the jump ahead - in a way, and i know this sounds corny, but the helmet has actually bought me a peace of mind, that i think is very important just before you are about to jump, and to me, that's money well spent! Thanks Allie, Ram and Steve - you guys have one happy and satisfied customer on your hands! If you guys would like to see some pics of my FF2, you can check out this post here http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1715291;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread where, the Royal Lens i used was SO flush with the camera opening, i didn't think i had mounted it right! Yes, it truly is completely flush with the opening - nothing at all to protrude and snag.

Yeah i like that, nice find. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Well, you assume that everyone knows they will be working there for a longer-than-short-term period, and has the necessary means - financial or otherwise - to begin learning a foreign language and culture, when that's not something high on the list of what the company wants from them (i would assume sewing and textiles skills in this instance). "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

So you don't mind someone completely innocent was killed by the police? I wonder if you would be saying the same thing if they killed you close friend/cousin/spouse etc in the same circumstances. I certainly think, under the times we are living in, a justification for the police to use these extreme measures (shoot to kill, shoot for the head) are justified....in situations where they are 100% accurate and safe in the knowledge they have, however. They were NOT sure this guy was the guy they were meant to be tailing (he didn't even come out of the residence they had under surveilance, he came out of the same block of apartments but not the one they were watching), he was allowed to get on a bus before he was challenged (buses are active targets too, why was this allowed?) and he was then challenged directly outside the tube station with no one to bar him from entering, or at least to try to challenge him from entering with guns drawn etc. Why? There are too many unanswered questions of the events leading upto when he ran from the police. If this was a skydiving fatality, we would point to everyone single one of those links that led to this chain, starting with several links leading up to when he decided to take off and run as being the instigators into this incident. We would not just begin with him running from the police initially. Yes, he ran, and that caused the situation to perpetuate further, but if the police were acting on good intelligence, or even had better SOPs ("suspected suicide bomber is getting onto public transport - apprehend him before he can do so" or "suspected suicide bomber is heading towards tube station, apprehend him before he can enter") he would not be dead. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I guess if you don't already do it, seeing as it seems close to the landing area, you could walk them out there to help them visualise just how far it is from the top of the corn to the ground? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Apparently he had no explosive device on him "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

I was watching video of a really experienced jumper the other weekend, and his abilty to stay on heading, and then change heading to track in a spiral or change direction is incredible. He occasionally does a quick barrel roll but i have been on tracking jumps he has led where he never has to look down. How do back trackers keep such a tight heading control without relying on those in the formation to assist them (this guy doesn't do that, he knows how to navigate by himself somehow). Is it just practice or what? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

interesting - just combing the news sites but can't find anything on that - got a link please mate? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

lets just hope he wasn't some idiot fare dodger or something. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

The flying squad are all plain clothed. I would not be at all surprised if we now routinely have (and have had for some time) plain clothes members of SO19 on the tube waiting for a moment like this. Good on them is all i can say, at least it shows we have something of a line of defence set up. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Mate it was GREAT! I was expecting to see you up there, i haven't seen you at Sib for ages? Still saving up money for your trips and paying off the rig? The party on Saturday was fantastic, it was really a brilliant time mate, wish you had been there to share in it! Heading back up the weekend after this one (weather permitting) - really hope to see you up there soon Stu!

ok. More info on CNN here http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/07/21/london.tube/index.html "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

nail bomb wtf?! Where does it say that by the way? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

Whats going on? We have reports of 3 tube stations where police have been called, and one where a witness saw a mans backback explode, but not create a serious explosion? Wtf is going on? "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts

What he said. Someone with a happy, fun personality, not someone with the sort of attitute that is "above" you because you are just starting out and they are a lord of the sky, or whatever. Someone who makes it fun, as well as improving your learning and teaching you. Someone who explains things well - not just someone that says "rememer to breath" - tell us why it's important to do things, if possible, and demonstrate things on the ground. Someone that makes use of their own personal experiences to allow you to learn directly from the thousands or so jumps they might have accrued. Someone who is actively interested in seeing you progress for you, and not just in the coaching fee. Someone who uses video to debrief, pausing and playing back slowly and explaining what to concentrate on, not someone who just plays the video through quickly once or twice and gives a basic explanation. I know all of these aren't always possible as much as most of us would like but this is the sort of stuff i really thing makes for a great coaching experience. "Skydiving is a door" Happythoughts