nigel99

Jeez America home of the brave and free What a freaking joke, it appears from the video that the guy was just asking a long question - you don't really hear him being told to shut up... Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/6992936.stm Excuse the sensational title - it was specially done for JR as it seems to have been missed in his crime spotting from across the pond Seriously though I heard a little analysis on the radio and they were questioning how the police could be lying in wait and yet 2 people still died. Police shootings are pretty rare here, and it is probably unprecedented to have 2 fatalities. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

My reply was tongue in cheek simply because I feel that there isn't a solution that seems to stick, now that this can of worms has been opened. I don't make it a habit to grade dictators on their good points & strengths so I can't choose the type for you

As Squeak says you can use the first row as labels. If you are wanting to keep your heading visible you can "freeze panes" to keep the heading visible as you scroll down. Similar with printing you can repeat at the top of each page. Slightly updated with frozen pane to illustrate. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/ - Number of civilian deaths 72000+ (low figure) http://www.zmag.org/lancet.pdf Conservative figure of 100,000 high figure of 285,000 Iraqiyun Survey - 128,000 violent deaths (2005) Note that both the Lancet and Iraqiyun surveys are a few years old now and so I find the figure of 100k a realistic minimum, and would imagine that the upper figures from the Lancet (285k) are probably fairly accurate by now. I think that the people whos heads are in the sand are those claiming that any "progress" is being made in Iraq. The US strategy of surges only works locally - so there is an increase in troop strengths in Baghdad and deaths fall in the vicinity (possibly) however they rise elsewhere. It is a very complicated mess and I suspect that the only short term solution is to empower a dictator, with the necessary military strength to crush the insurgency bringing an end to the war lord type activities. In short Saddam sounds like an ideal candidate Sometimes it is better the devil you know... and maybe a few lessons that perhaps enforcing democracy through military might, doesn't really work. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

http://users.skynet.be/J.Beever/pave.htm This might be a repost - but it is of a similar theme. I would really like to see something like this... Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

With regards to people jumping once a month or so. I can relate to this. I started jumping when I was a student and my desire to jump was obsesive, but cash extremely limited. This meant that I could only jump once a month. I did static line progression and it was very slow. It took me over 30 dives to progress to free fall although I was cleared after the 5 or 6, because I lacked confidence and also I couldn't afford the 2 jumps in a day that were required (dummy rip & first free fall had to be on the same day). I eventually progressed rapidly when 2 or 3 fellow jumpers helped me out and gave me 10 jump tickets - this kickstarted me into freefall. As to performing reasonably, I was never any good at anything other than accuracy, but I always had a blast and do not regret my time jumping. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Pirana I am not parroting anyone on thermodynamics. I can appreciate that external forces can reduce local entropy (normally on a temporary timebase). Multiple species number millions/billions is not very local - but granted maybe if you accept a scale/relative point of view then accross the entire universe millions of species is "small" and localised. On a personal level (& I am not trying to be as you put it "artful at mangling meanings... etc). I see entropy at work - people age & die, machines & systems left alone decay and stop working. Pretty much everything that I know left to itself goes to its most stable state - stopped & flat on its back. Both you and Jakee has stated increases in order on a local scale - I wouldn't mind an example or 2? Is not a very tenant of evolution that "very small" populations interbreed to create a "new" species. A very simple example lets say that the white "race" was born out of 2 albino children long ago procreating. In order for this to propagate/solidify into a race mixing of their offspring can't occur as it will dilute the genetic makeup. It is on this basis that I make the statement. What about the lion populations out of interest? Finally I never said that there is evidence in Genesis - I was trying to separate my argument from the bible. What I said is that I am "open minded" about the problem - and do not put myself in either of the heavily defended "camps". Each of which has their thousands of "minds" at work. 5 pages added over a weekend I understand - what I don't is the working week how do people get work done? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Jakee - How do you say that evolution does not contradict the 2nd law of thermodynamics? - taken from Wikipedia - wiki explanation of entropy... Therefore entropy = chaos/unstructured behaviour and a tendency towards decay and the most stable state. A living form is not a "stable" entity - it is a highly complex and unstable organism. Evolution says that organisms increase their order, structure and complexity. In short you are easier to kill than a cockroach you are more complex than a cockroach and yet evolution says that you are a natural progression from a cockroach. Nothing that I have said here is based in creationism/the bible just good old science and statistical theory. without referring to religion you are welcome to explain why evolution does not contradict chaos/entropy. In-breeding - thorough breds/pedigrees often have problems with health more than "mongrels". Many of our laws relating to incest/marring your brothers and sisters are because the narrow gene pool causes problems. to be honest I don't know much about this at a scientific level - I am much more at home in maths and physics due to my job. Regarding EM/gravity we are constantly looking for refinements on EM theory. And as far as I know nobody really understands gravity and its causes. People research and look for the mathematical basis. Personally I see very little "mathematical" and scientific thought put into evolution - the ultimate objective of science (in my opinion) is to resolve everything to a mathematical form. Evolution is very far from this and so rather than being zealously followed I believe there should be more open "thought". I see parrallels in todays society attitude towards evolution as 200 years ago the "ether". I am not advocating that religion is right - just that evolution is to unfounded in science to be treated with the level of reveree that it is. Your point about people researching into evolution is true - but how many just like the religous zealots are thinking "inside the box". I see alot of information on people looking at Evolution through archialogical digs - on this basis I agree there are thousands of people. What I don't see is alot of analytical debate/questioning as to whether the theory itself is right. I believe that Darwin provided an initial theory that was accepted because science was growing rapidly at the time (Michael Faraday etc are from that error). As far as I know Darwin is the first "departure" from religous views and the first departure is not normally the right solution. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Thats pretty much where we were when the US decided to invade Iraq... As to if people ever learn - it looks like Mr Bush has learnt as I don't see any talk of troops - just bomb the place. I hope that he doesn't as the US is disliked enough without unilateral & illegal wars (I doubt it would get UN sanction). I also doubt that many EU countries (hopefully us in the UK included) would not give clearance for military aircraft through their airspace. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Bill Do you not agree that evolution is a theory and not a law of physics? If so should we not be looking to pick holes in the theory - look for evidence that supports/contradicts it? It amazes me the zealousness that evolution is defended with and just how quickly any God or evolution thread degenerates into an evolution thread with 100's of posts. My biggest problems in accepting evolution as fact/law is that it contradicts a number of scientific laws as opposed to theories (2nd law of thermodynamics is probably the biggest - where entropy and not order happen over time). Another aspect is "inbreeding" which is a central construct of evolution and yet we know that it causes terrible problems. We don't fully know how gravity and electromagnetics work. Take the speed of light - is it really a constant? Personally I do not think that Genesis 6 days is factual, however neither do I believe there is any more evidence that can reliably be called on to fully support evolution - as the origins of life & diversity as we see it today. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

"to be honest..." I have that saying even though I do it myself. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Sorry but that seems a bit unfair considering your president holds the same beliefs. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

This post is a bit of a rant having nearly been injured twice in a 1 week by Burka's! Instance 1 - woman crosses road about 50 meters from a pedestrian crossing, she didn't look and just plodded across the road with no visibility and not a care in the world. Fortunately my brakes were quite good, but I don't like emergency stopping the bike. 2 - Woman with the full kit and looking out of her little slit driving out of the local panel beaters (maybe thats a hint) nearly knocked me off the bike. Well I am pretty peaved by it right now and I doubt the local coppers would let any of us drive around with full face masks on in our cars without someone being charged with dangerous driving sooner or later - why the exemption? At least in islamic countries women are not allowed to drive so it isn't a factor. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

you could get a small adapter board madeup with through hole pins and a 1206 footprint on the board. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

why is the rain going up? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Please try and not throw out "trolling" lines. A good argument where we thrash out points is cool - but calling names justs detracts from the thread. I don't woship the US military - but I do find some of this distasteful - especially when your profile has occupation of "dissident" and references to bombing trains/burning flags etc. I think that there are a large body of us that question the moral authority of the US to "illegally invade" another sovereign nation and I also think that most accept that there are "bad apples" in the US military that break the law. I don't think that anybody can honestly call all US soldiers bad/scum. We can question the percentages and whether we feel that the US military has a higher rate of perpetration than other nations et. We can also question whether the US military tends to "cover up" incidents rather than outing the bad apples. Sorry for the long rant but you struck a nerve. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

In the interests of balance I wanted to post this link... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/6295460.stm I find it interesting that another person responsible for a friendly fire incident was promoted - however this time it was a member of the Black Watch (UK). Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I know New Zealand is anti-nuke as kiwi friends love bragging how NZ pissed off the US by not letting its navy into its waters - I didn't realise Aussie was the same. My point was however that IF countries like this wanted nukes I am sure the US would object given the argument that I responded to about "dilution of power". What I am not certain about is that Iran is any more likely to be irresponsible with Nukes than old GWB. I know that they posture and such, but so does your glorious leader. From an objective point of view what is the difference between "Allah told us that Israel is bad" and "God told me to take out Saddam"? Both sound pretty much like religous fundamentalism setting foreign policy. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Not everyone thinks that is a bad thing. Much of the world sees the US as abusing its power and diluting it would probably be beneficial. I sit somewhere in the middle here. I don't trust US politicians and I don't trust Iranians. I feel that the US has more potential to "harm" and probably more will to do so in the interests of protecting it status as world super-power. I would not like to see Iran have nukes - but I do have a problem with the US screaming about nuclear proliferation when they have the largest arsenel. What is wrong with other moderate countries having nukes (most of the EU, Australia and New Zealand for example) - they are all so called friendly democracies? Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I gave up jumping when I got married as my wife didn't like the crowd at my dz. After about 6 or 7 years I convinced her that as we were in a different country etc I would like to start jumping again. First visit to the dz there was a tragic accident (chance in a million) with 2 fatalities (person hit glider in free-fall). This didn't bother me as a personal risk. Second visit a few weeks later a person screwed up a low turn and died. This made me re-evaluate my position as firstly a person ended their life less than 10meters from my children. A major consideration was whether I wanted to spend weekend time without my family (no) or expose them to death at close quarters in an environment where statistically it is quite likely to occur (again answer was no). As I final consideration I had to acknowledge that while I personally have always been extremely conservative I can't assume that someone or something else won't mess up my life. As a result I chose to start tunnel flying which while it doesn't have the same thrills - certainly allows me to experience "flight" in a low risk environment. Perhaps when the kids are teenagers I will take it up again as I really loved the sport (hence my lurking here). Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

what you mean that it is not a "fact" that because men are taller than women they are polygomous? You got to be kidding me - polygamy is the root cause of all good and evil in that article Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Is it only me, but does the fact that the recipient of a stupid doctors presciption was a muslim, make this extra funny http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/surrey/6284688.stm Joking aside a pretty lousy thing to do to a patient. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

http://www.theonion.com/content/news/after_5_years_in_u_s_terrorist Best way to deal with terrorists in the west... Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

To be honest yes I can - however I don't see that an atrocity article should be laced with what I see as propaganda. Remembering that the task of a soldier is to protect civilians while meeting the needs of its country, I think you will find that much "praise" is given by ardent supporters where a simple they were just doing their job is more appropriate. Specific areas that I can say I see praise being due - 1) Supporting civilians above and beyond the call of duty. 2) "Heroic" action to save life either of fellow troops or civilians. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.