TomAiello

More semantics... ... That doesnt make the country more or less rural. You'd need to look at the % of people living in cities. In general I agree. You would have to look at population spread. Interestingly, the issue is even more complex than my representation above. For example, per capita, suburban areas tend to have both fewer firearms and less gun violence than urban centers. A lot depends on how you group the urban areas. Within a single large metro area, for example, you can see middle and upper class suburbs with low gun ownership and low crime, and lower income urban areas with moderate gun ownership and high crime. The point I was really trying to make was that the issue is far more complex than just "how many guns are in public hands." Things like education, income, population distribution, and culture all dramatically effect the numbers. Personally, I suspect that the higher violence numbers in the US are the result of cultural differences, and would exist with or without the prevalence of firearms. On the other hand, there are probably positives generated by the same cultural factors. It'd be an interesting discussion for another thread... -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I've never flown into CDG. It was more a general observation about airline/airport security screenings. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I've carried my hook knife on about 20 flights since 9/11. I've never been stopped for it. I think the screeners have a list of things to look for, and hook knife just isn't on it. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

If you compare gun violence figures in the US, you find that gun violence is greater in urban areas. This is interesting, because gun ownership (per capita) is actually lower in urban areas. In other words, them folks out in the country have _more_ guns, but they have _less_ gun violence (sorry peacejeff, just using the words as I know them). I theorize that this has to do with generally lower crime rates in rural areas, as well as more likelihood that children raised in rural areas were exposed to firearms in a more realistic setting (i.e. they saw their first gun at a hunter's safety class, rather than in a Terminator movie). The relevance to this discussion is: Australia is a vastly more rural nation than the US (approximately the same land area but something like one tenth the population). Perhaps there are other factors affecting this extremely complex issue (aside from just government regulations of ownership, I mean)? Just a thought... -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

No, he's not. That really is a rocket deployed parachute system. I believe base283 was involved in the development. Maybe he'll post here and answer questions about it (or you could PM him if you really had a burning curiosity). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Um, no. It's covered in the markup help, I believe. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

What are the dates? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I'm not sure I'm understanding this. Can you elaborate? It sounds like you sold a clapped out BASE canopy as skydiving gear, considering it un-BASEworthy, then the purchaser re-sold it as BASE gear? Presumably the reseller represented the canopy to the new purchaser as being fine for BASE? I'll sticky this for a couple days. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

It's also worth noting that last year at Bridge Day (which Red Bull had sponsored), Red Bull failed to live up to their promise to provide jumpers with vodka to mix with the Red Bull. Fortunately, a Go Fast jumper was on hand to save the day by dispensing vodka out of a brown paper bag in the hotel lobby.

I wonder if a note somewhere in classifieds saying "Classified's Moderated by Phreezone" or some such would be appropriate. That way folks who spotted an innapropriate ad would know who to PM about it. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I'd be happy to help, _if_ it's ok with Phreezone. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

What are the service areas like? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Lie Down With Lions. It was clearly his best. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Thanks everyone! Using another text line for what I had in mind made the sig too long. I guess I'm sticking with the standard for now. Sorry for the trouble. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Uh definately not. Have legally jumped my base canopy numerous times out of a otter in a skydiving rig. I think it depends on where you are. You guys are in different countries, with different governing bodies and different rules. In some countries, mains need to be approved as well. I don't know the rules for Switzerland. In the US, mains don't require approval, so you can use BASE canopies (or freakin' bedsheets, if you wanted to ). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Ah, well. Thanks anyway. Still, have a look at SkyMama's sig (example in this thread). There's got to be some way to achieve that... Perhaps she's just using text? Boy, I feel silly. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Thanks Andyman. I'm still not getting it. Can you just have a look at the sig that I've got now and see if you can tell what I'm doing wrong? Thanks! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Hey Perry, Do you have micro lines on that Troll? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Using exactly that puncutation (i.e. with the spaces as you have them)? I've been monkeying with it a bit and can't get it to work. Also, does the width go inside the brackets, or in a separate set (I'm assuming inside the same brackets). Thanks! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Hey, Can anyone tell me how to control the length of the line generated by the tag? I see that several people have sig line separators that only go partway across, or are aligned differently. Any help? AggieDave, where are you? I know you've got to have this one covered. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

The US, unfortunately. I know what you mean about the Euro-Fanta. It's quite different from the US version. Have you tried the Latin American version? It's a bit better than the US, in my opinion. And there are a variety of other, similar products marketed in Mexico. You can find some of them in the ethnic section of some supermarkets. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Perhaps you ought to have a "classified moderator"? Someone who reviews ads before they get posted into the classifieds, and gives a simple yes/no to each one (or, if you have more time, has the ability to edit/move them into the correct category)? I'm not sure how much workload that would be, but I'd volunteer to help out if it wasn't running more than 10 classifieds per day, or something like that. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I actually agree with sdgregory. The tastes are generally foul. I actually find Go Fast! quite nasty. 180 actually doesn't taste bad. It's kind of like thickened Orange Fanta. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

180 baby! As a BASE jumper, I just got to love the name. It'd be like an energy drink named "bag lock" for skydivers. I'm also a big fan of Go Fast! because of all the cool things they've done for skydiving (in general) and BASE jumping (in particular). For many of the same reasons, I've long had a certain distaste for Red Bull (sponsoring people to flagrantly violate BASE ethics just isn't so cool, in my opinion). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

The best/simplest method I know: 1) Pull the slider bumper up off the link. 2) Push the slider down onto the riser (below the link). 3) Pull the slider bumper back down onto the link. On 90% of BASE gear, this will trap the slider grommet on the riser, and it won't bang around during the opening, saving wear on all the parts (slider grommet, link, bumper). I'm not a fan of the various tie down systems available because (a) they put something else on the link that I might accidentally grab going for my dive loops, (b) they allow the slider to rock up and down during deployment and chew the bumpers, and (c) they just add more pieces to my gear, with no real benefit as far as I can see. Thanks to Mrs. Jarvis' handsome son for showing me this method! -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com