TomAiello

Some more info about the WS Xtreme that I've just gotten from Morpheus: • ws x-treme can be manufactured for up to a Troll or BR canopy 265 or 266, and a CR/Asylum canopy up to a 280. • It can also be purchased with 3-rings if a person so chooses and in Cordura for people who will be doing multiple types of jumps with it. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I'm assuming that's 41 BASE jumps. There are plenty of people on here who put the number of BASE jumps in the "jumps" category. Check out Slim's Profile, for example, and you'll see he hasn't included any of his skydives in his total jump numbers. My personal preference would be to go with a Blackjack with the ZP foreskin. However, you'll find that if you are going to be doing low stuff in Oz, you'll get a lot more help from locals if you're jumping a Flik, because they mostly have BR gear down under. The MDV Troll is also a good canopy choice. Be sure to get the MDV's though, as an unvented Troll is going to be a very poor choice for Australian jumping. If wingsuits are your thing, consider getting the WS Xtreme Gargoyle, as it converts to operate in the "standard" configuration, for non-wingsuit jumps. Be aware, though, that the last I heard, you couldn't get a WS sized for a canopy larger than 240, so that may not be the best choice for Aussie BASE unless you are very light. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Um, why did you decide this would be no problem? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Hnag on. It may come back up. There was some indication that Spiderman did not give permission for it to be uploaded to Skydivingmovies.com. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Somewhere about midway between the closest I've ever been to it and the farthest from it I've been. I'm about 4 1/2 years from my "qualifying" BASE jump (my 'A'). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Why not hook up one of the BASE canopies? Do you not have a skydive rig big enough somewhere on the DZ? -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

All I get is a bunch of random stuff that some dude wrote about parachute jumping off cliffs and such. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

No way. Serious? This will be the topic of discussion at my house tonight. My wife is a UGA alum, gives money, etc. In her words, she "bleeds red and black." Major vibes for you. Getting laid off sucks. Having to do it sucks, too. Do you have any details, or news links about layoffs at UGA? Thanks. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

At a different point for each person. Since I am personally not offended by hard core porn, the question of the JFTC calendar showing slightly more skin than a Southern Baptist minister might feel comfortable with does not bother me. BTW, did you look at the sample photos? That's hardly gratuitous, and definitely lands on the art side of the spectrum. I, personally, was a little disappointed not to see more obvious exploitation of sexuality. I'd like to see a hard core "Jump for the Boobies" calendar. I bet it'd raise more money, too. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Does he have a web site or information somewhere on line? I've been considering going and getting some real canopy coaching. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I definitely agree. I just thought I'd say so again here. Obviously, that's not news to Sangiro or other folks with access to the Team Room, since I keep harping on it so much I wonder if HH is going to ban me from that forum. Edit to add: It would be particularly useful in the BASE forum, as we've got people thinking "if he only has 130 skydives, why's he giving advice on BASE?" when a posters profile reads "jumps: 130" but he's really referring to BASE jumps. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

If you're in the mood for some good Heinlein reads, try Time Enough for Love which is truly his seminal work (I don't know why everyone focuses on Stranger), or The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Other good ones include Gulf (a novella) and the sequel Friday (a novel). I also highly recommend Methuselah's Children the prequel to Time Enough for Love. I'd have PM'd this to you, but I'm hoping someone else will read it and pick one of these books up, some time... -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Actually, Stranger is pretty much my least favorite of Heinlein's works. He definitely wrote some relatively non-philosophical stuff (like Starship Troopers), but some of his fiction is halfway between political theory and sci-fi--very entertaining _and_ very thought provoking. Have you read The Moon is a Harsh Mistress? Now there's a good bit of political theory. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Ah, the cult of the great got Mota? Heinlein is one of my favorite authors. I think I've read everything he wrote. My roommates used to refer to Time Enough for Love as the "Libertarian Manifesto", and claimed that early repeated exposure to Heinlein had brainwashed me into radical Libertarianism. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Mostly from participation/discussion in a various atheist groups while I was in college, perhaps 10 years ago. From The Secular Web (emphasis mine): edit to add: More from the same source: -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

If you have very little luggage, EasyJet and

I like to so much I'm writing the president and urging him to invade and annex it. Seriously. I've spent around six months total in Switzerland. I've visited most of the countries in Europe and North America, and a good bit of Asia. I've been to North Africa and the Middle East, but not sub-Saharan Africa or South America. Of the places I've visitied, Switzerland is absolutely my favorite. If the opportunity arose, I'd move there in a heartbeat and spend the rest of my life there. Switzerland, in a word, rocks. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Again, I'll try not to define you according to my definitions of "Christian" if you'll kindly refrain from trying to pigeonhole me into your definition of Atheist. In my personal nomenclature: Agnostic = I think there's something, but I don't know what, and I don't think any particular church is right on. Atheist = I'm not convinced there is anything. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I'll agree not to define you, if you'll agree not to define me. Deal? Most atheists use this definition: Atheist: One who believes there is insufficient evidence to conclusively support the proposition that a supreme being exists. It's generally the anti-atheists (usually deeply religious, evangelical types) who think that atheism implies a rejection of all possibility of a supreme deity. That's just not correct. Atheism means: I don't see proof (either way). Atheism does not mean: I have proof (either way). I thought I covered that. Because there is an "ideal" or "near-ideal" form for human affairs to be organized in. And we are evolving very slowly toward that, with all the twists and turns that evolution implies. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I don't think I agree with that either. The existence of an objective morality is supportive of neither the presence nor absence of a supreme being. Consciousness of an objective morality simply means that we have all learned how to play well with others. Some of us may choose not to, but in general, it's a survival trait for a human to do so. We learned this via thousands (or millions, or whatever) of years of evolution, plus a handful of years of personal experience. Our concept of objective morality could simply be part of the evolution of humans as social organisms. I'm an atheist. I still believe that there are objective morals. Why? Because the world works better, for all of us, if there are, and we all know that on some level. It is of course, equally possible that God (or Allah, or another deity of your choice) handed down those moral guidelines _because_ they were the best way for us to work together. Or even that he decreed that we would evolve them (sort of a moral equivalent to the theory of divinely guided biological evolution). -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Precisely. I definitely find Kerry's socialized medicine the worst on that list (probably because my wife is a doctor, and she still needs to make money to pay back the $200k she spent on getting there). With Kerry's Affirmative Action coming second, just a hair ahead of Bush's Bill of Rights (although, I might be able to field a good argument that Affirmative Action _is_ a trampling of the Bill of Rights). The church and state thing bugs me, but I don't see it really getting too far, so I'm not too concerned about it. Tuition vouchers? That one isn't even on my radar. And the environment? I guess I land closer to Bush than Kerry, so I don't see that as a negative for Bush--more of a negative for Kerry. Ah, what's an atheist Libertarian to do, these days? Perhaps I ought to just go jump off a building. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

I disagree with BillVon's (sorry kelpdiver, just replying to you because it was convenient) contention that Civil Rights = Civil Liberties. In some instances Civil "Rights" are diametrically opposed to Civil Liberties. I generally agree that Marshall was good for both Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. However, I think that when the two clashed, Marshall mostly landed on the side of Rights, to the detriment of Liberty. There is sometimes, oddly, a fine line between freedom and entitlement. I'd argue that administrations (or legislatures, or courts) that cross that line have detracted from civil liberty. Hmmm. Maybe the difference between Civil Rights and Civil Liberties would be a good thread to start... -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Yes. See my last post. The webmaster took all the videos off line because he was having to pay for traffic driven in from DZ.com. I've apologized, and promised to buy him beer or other recreational substances when next we meet. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Note: I said I don't skydive. I jump plenty. Alabama has something in the air that makes people not skydive. It's got towers, and buildings, sticking up into the air. -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com

Hey, don't sweat it. I don't skydive any more either. I keep telling myself I'll get out to the DZ, but somehow it just never happens... -- Tom Aiello Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com SnakeRiverBASE.com