TomAiello

This wording in the original text of article I clearly acknowledges slavery as a legal institution: It's the beginning of a section known as the "3/5 compromise" which is rather famous in US history. This text, known as Amendment XIII, also clearly shows that slavery, as an institution, was accepted by the original (unamended) document. If it had not been, no such amendment would have been necessary: -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Weird. When I go back and edit it, the preview from the edit does show the formatting. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

When I enter an event, the preview doesn't look like the finished version. The formatting of the text and punctuation does not show in the preview, but does show up in the finished version. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Also, if anyone would be interested in a "refresher" course, for those with limited BASE experience, email me or post here. After talking with several people, I'm considering offering such a course. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I will hold a BASE First Jump Course on October 29th, 30th and 31st (Friday, Saturday, Sunday) in Twin Falls, Idaho. Course will begin at 8am Friday and conclude at 6pm Sunday. There will be no charge for this instruction. The course will focus on basic BASE skills, with an additional emphasis on the history and ethics of BASE, and the teamwork necessary to many BASE jumps. I will also allow a maximum of two non-jumping auditors in the course. If you want to audit the packing and discussion segments, I will also ask you to help out with some of the other parts of the course (such as ferrying cars). Auditors should be people interested in BASE who have not yet sufficient skydiving experience. Course requirements: 1) Gear: I have some spare gear I can loan out, but it’s best if you can come with your own. Contact me for help finding gear, if you do not own it. 2) Mentoring: You must make a reasonable effort to find an experienced jumper local to you, who can help you with your jumping when you return home. You must provide me with contact information for this jumper, so that I can talk with them. If you cannot locate someone, I will assist you in doing so. This requirement will be waived for jumpers in an area where I am unable to locate a suitable mentor. 3) Skydiving prerequisites: You must have appropriate skydiving experience, as evaluated by me. I will ask for details of your experience when you contact me, as well as contact information for jumpers able to verify your experience. Course Syllabus: Day 1: Packing Discussion: The risks of BASE Exercise: Letter to family Packing Discussion: Differences between skydiving and BASE cultures Day 2: Exits Exit Training Discussion: Logging jumps Landing Area Preview Discussion: Jumps, landing, flight patterns PCA BASE jumps Discussion: BASE History Day 3: Deployment Discussion: BASE ethics BASE jumps: Hand held, delay nomination Discussion: BASE community BASE jumps: Delay nomination, stowed Space is limited, so I will accept the best prepared applicants. If you want to come, you must contact me via PM here or via email (tbaiello@mac.com). If you have any questions, post here, or PM or email me. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Truthfully, I think that Johnny's course is the best bargain of all the commercial FJC's. His students get more jumps, more of his time, and at a lower cost than almost anywhere else. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Sure it is. They intended for slavery to be legal, at least in some states, and for women not to have the right to vote. What's unclear about that? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Sounds like you guys may have some previous background? Regardless, any differences you may have are personal, and best dealt with in some other place than this public forum. It is a mistake to think these skills will have much bearing on BASE. If you are interested in low freefalls, a Dagger is definitely the wrong choice. Vertigo makes a canopy intended for these sorts of jumps called the Rock Dragon. You might also want to investigate the Blackjack, the vented Flik, and the Troll MDV. How are you packing now? In my opinion, 40 jumps is an inadequate sample size to draw any conclusions about the canopy. In addition, there are many factors that are far more important to your opening heading than the canopy (things like body position and wind spring immediately to mind). Freefalling 175 feet with either of the two canopies you mentioned (Cruislite or Dagger) is a huge mistake. I'd strongly urge you to hold off on that kind of thing until you have a canopy with bottom skin inlets. The lowest BASE jump I know of is 63'. You can see the video of this jump on Jason Bell's excellent "Fixed 2". Just "picking up" things is probably not going to be the best way to approach building jumps. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Actually, I was referring to his (faith based) beliefs that homosexuality is wrong, and that marriage ought to be a "one man-one woman" arrangement. I don't believe that any kind of meaningful research on childhood abuse and sexual orientation would be even remotely possible, as it would be incredibly fraught with political controversy. I personally don't think the two things are related, but I don't think that there is really any convincing evidence one way or another on the topic. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Ditto. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Sure. But by their nature, religious beliefs are usually based largely on faith. I can't demand that all my friends provide factual basis for things they believe on a moral level. That's why it's called faith. Sure. Want to talk about it? We can start a thread to discuss that, if you like. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Honestly, I don't really see much hate. Avery has his own set of values and morals. I'll definitely say those values are determined by himself, his personal beliefs (including religious beliefs) and what he feels is right, rather than being derived from the mass of society. I see this as a good thing. I don't happen to agree with him on this issue, and I don't share his religious convictions, but you have to respect someone who believes as they truly believe, and aren't afraid to say so, despite the condemnation of mainstream society. When someone does this with a complex set of personal beliefs, various of which fit into widely divergent places in the spectrum, it engenders even more respect. What I'm saying is that I know enough about him to know that he's following his own conscience--and that it probably leads him to conclusions both left and right of what is socially acceptable. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Hmmm. You don't know Avery, do you? You might also want to review the forum rules on personal attacks. If people like Avery ran the world, I've a feeling it'd be faaaar from uptight or boring. Have a look at his web site and tell me what on there looks uptight and boring. I've spent some time jumping with Avery. Uptight he is not. And if he's boring, the rest of us are pretty much comatose (especially those guys in Atlanta ). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

You missed the part where you don't get a vote. You're sitting around chatting at a nice party. If you don't like it here, you're always welcome to leave. But the rules of the party are made by the guy who owns the house--not by his guests at the party. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Somehow I doubt you would. In my opinion, you'd be unlikely to waste the (deserved) respect of your jumping peers. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

My wife went to the game. It sounded like UGA had a very good game, and LSU had a mediocre one. Still, I'd agree that UGA was the better team. Out of family loyalty, I must reply "woof!" When we moved to Idaho, my wife was amazed (and incredibly happy) that "UGADAWG" was not taken as an Idaho license plate. She'd only lived in Georgia and Alabama before (and good luck getting any combination like that in either of those places). Whoever wins the Georgia-Auburn game (which sounds like a pretty good guess for the SEC title matchup as well) is definitely going to be a strong contender for the national championship. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

There's a Brazilian BASE jumper in TF right now. We're everywhere! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I think that overall it went well. By sunday, everyone was doing unsupervised pack jobs that I'd be willing to jump off most objects. I was very happy to see that. There were a few snafus (notably my bungling while attempting to set up a free pendulator) that I hope to work out in the future. We had a couple of "exciting" jumps when we got to the point of looking down prior to deployment (which is a precursor to stowed deployment), but overall I was very impressed with the speed with which everyone picked things up. Perhaps some of the students can give a bit more impartial reports, though. Big thanks to everyone who made the trip. I had fun. Oh, and if anyone sees JP, can you help him find his wallet? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

An important difference. There are no governments (aside, perhaps from the Vatican, if you consider it such) that include the spread of christianity or imposition of christian law within their stated goals. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I wonder if anyone could locate the "un-root crew". Wouldn't they be awfully surprised if a bunch of BASE jumpers local to wherever they actually live showed up, large as life, on their doorsteps, fully equipped with tar and feathers? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Zenister, Tunaplanet, What's the point of a string of short posts just taking jabs at each other? Maybe you ought to consider taking those kinds of shouting matches somewhere private. Or better yet not having them at all. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Play the ball, not the player, please. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I think you'll see pretty much the same thing as if Bush wins. People going about their lives. Don't confuse "Republicans" with "people with conservative views who like to post a lot in Speaker's Corner". -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

[replyI'm a skydiver. If I registered as a Libertarian, how many votes do you think I'd get from the south? I dunno. But you'd probably get some from the Bay Area. Sunnyvale, California is the city in the US with the highest percentage of Libertarian voters. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Nope. I voted Libertarian because (a) I've done lots of research on the various parties, (b) I'm a registered Libertarian, (c) I often vote Libertarian even in "real life" when I am allowed to choose the Republican, and (d) I doubt that any of those other parties are going to be more Libertarian than the LP. Oh, did I mention that Badnarik is a skydiver? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com