TomAiello

That sounds a bit harsh. I'm assuming that was meant tongue in cheek? Can you elaborate a bit before the mean moderator decides that was a personal attack?

It's now called La Fiesta. It used to be part of the Cafe Ole chain, but I think it's now an independent (because I've not seen another La Fiesta). It's a great place for margaritas and beer. The food is ok, too. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

It's called Johnny Carinos. It's a chain from (I think) Texas. I like it quite a bit. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

In my opinion, Ameritel and Shilo are the most BASE friendly hotels. They both have conference rooms they'll open up to let jumpers pack, etc. They also both have nice indoor pools and hot tubs, and fresh cookies at the front desk. I believe they also both offer BASE jumper discounts, so you'll want to mention that. The restaurant scene in Twin isn't so great. Mostly it's the local incarnations of big chains. Outback, right by the bridge, does have BASE jumper happy hour 24 hours a day (second beer is a penny). The two best "local" restaurants, in my opinion, are the Garden (on Eastland? and Addison, by Kmart) and Prasai's Thai (on 2nd downtown or by the post office off North College). If you go to the Garden, try the chocolate potato (no joke) for desert. There's also supposedly a pretty good steak kind of place somewhere on Addison that Jimmy pointed me at, but I haven't had a chance to try it. Yo-Yo Cafe (on Addison, just east of Blue Lakes) is a pretty good spot, especially for lunch, but apparently it's changing hands soon (I semi-know the owners socially) so I'm not sure what it'll be like in the future. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Apologies. I wasn't trying to fixate. I read your entire post, and agreed with all of it except that bit. So I responded to that bit. I wasn't trying to start an argument. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I hadn't read any of this discussion as attacks. UncleCharlie did ask for discussion, and I think this thread has some pretty healthy discussion. For what it's worth, I expect this document to save lives in our sport--and not just a few of them. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I don't know which I'd take. Fortunately, I didn't have to make that choice when I made my first WS flights. Seriously, I'd rather that everyone have _both_. If all 200 BASE jumps were terminal BASE jumps (and they had 200 WS flights from a plane, too), they'd have much lower chance of accident. Heck, if we all had 1000 terminal BASE jumps and 1000 airplane wingsuit flights, we'd probably have very few accidents on first BASE flights. But we both know what the chance of that happening is. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Does he have the wingsuit mod for the Warlock? I can't tell, but it doesn't look like it. I'd strongly recommend it if he's making a lot of wingsuit jumps. Nice jump, by the way. I can't watch video like that without remembering standing on the _other_ road (the one on the far side of the valley), and watching Cold Steel pull above me head. edit: see this BLiNC thread for more discussion of the Warlock as a wingsuit container. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Legal A's are very rare in the US. There are a few "grey area" A's overseas, where the local people don't mind, but it's not strictly legal. If you were hard put, you could probably count the Moscow and KL events as A's to get your number, but you'd have to ask Rick what he thought of that. However, stay tuned, as I know of two separate groups of people currently working on setting up legal A "BASE DZ's" so I'd guess that you'll see that within the next several years. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

In a technical sense, yes. A canopy opening into the relative wind will pretty much open better/faster/cleaner than a canopy opening downwind. But in this case, I don't think that matters much, as the wind here almost always blows perpendicular to the span in one direction or the other. So both jumpers are likely opening in a crosswind (and not much of one, from the sound before exit). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Institutionally, this is probably true. But there are several low level NPS employees (read: rangers) who will turn and walk away if they see parachutes in the air. Build bridges, keep a low profile. It helps. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

The jumper with 200 slider down jumps is probably more capable of recovering stability (in or out of WS) after a bad launch. Unstable exit and inability to recover stability has resulted in wingsuit fatality in the past. I have seen many people who think that many wingsuit skydives will make for safe wingsuit BASE. Unfortunately, this is only one of the two major inputs. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I've responded on BLiNC. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I don't think it's really ideological. It's just that Nader swipes more votes from democrats than republicans, so the democrats are the ones most likely to try to keep him off the ballot. Same could be said for republicans vis-a-vis the Libertarian party. Politics as usual, I'm afraid. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I have successfully downloaded the .pdf, so if anyone wants it and can't get it off the link, send me an email and I'll forward it (it's too large to attach to DZ.com postings). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Hmmm. Third time was the charm. The second time I clicked the link I got this: Got it now, though. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I can't seem to get it... -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Four years ago I saw: George and Al make me want to Ralph! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

True. But should current voters have the right to take away future voters right to free elections? Say everyone in a certain country voted for you as absolute dictator. Twenty years on the populace has changed sufficiently that you wouldn't win that election. Were the voters 20 years ago within their rights to take away the rights of their successors? Even more interesting: What if 51% of a countries voters vote for a dictatorship? Are they within their rights, by virtue of their majority status, to overrule the 49% who desire to retain future free elections? The Rule of Law still has to trump the will of the people, in some (perhaps most) situations, or you end up with mob rule. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Just wanted to make sure everyone had seen this post from Sangiro. I figure it's the folks here who are most likely to need fair warning. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Have you seen "Swordfish"? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Kallend, PeacefulJeffrey, If you find yourself making a one line post more focused on a poster than the topic of discussion, perhaps you ought to refrain. Calling each other shrill is pretty silly. Discussing why you disagree is significantly more productive, educational and interesting. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I do. I also express opinions on wars I haven't fought in, government programs I haven't participated in, politicians I haven't met, and a whole load of other things that I have only garnered second (or third, or fourth) hand information about. Expecting people to only have opinions on things they have personally experienced kind of defeats the purpose of modern media and information technology. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I wonder if she inhaled? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Or perhaps Moscow 2002? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com