howardwhite

Jim Bates has been active in the skydiving community for 45 years -- as jumper, rigger, judge, historian, and prolific author. His wife, Marge, has asked me to share information about his current medical problems. === Jim has had a huge open heart surgery. He had an aortic valve replaced, mitral valve repaired and 3 by-passes,. Surgery went well, he developed pneumonia etc and has been in CICU since Dec. 11, 2006. He went into the hospital on Nov. 28....He is making very slow progress, he is extremely depressed, he can't talk because he has a temporary trach. Hope to have a talking valve in next week he has a feeding tube and is extremely weak. Mind is clear and alert when he is awake. He has a long road to go but the doctor tells me he expects Jim to walk out of the rehab hospital. So say a prayer.... Cards would be wonderful. He is in St Francis Hospital 114 Woodland Street Hartford CT 06105 Looking for these blue skies and warmer breezes. ====== Marge has given me phone numbers where she can be reached at most any time - she's staying in the hospital's hospitality suite. As I am reluctant to post phone numbers here, please PM me if you want numbers where you can call Marge. HW

This is a good place to look: http://www.engadget.com/ HW

Here's Ian's shot. HW

Maybe some places in Canada, but I know a guy from Massachusetts who got his Canadian B license at 17 and had ~150 jumps before he turned 18 this month. He jumped (and packed to support it) in Quebec. HW

I know a 16-year-old who went through AFF in 2006 at a USPA Group Member DZ and earned his A license. HW

Well, it seems like a great idea. You want to send a birthday cake to your old Italian aunt, and there's this bakery in upstate New York which can accept your order via email and just feed it into their computerized cake decorator and voila. HW

I prefer Open Office for the free word processor etc. http://www.openoffice.org You will need to install X11 from your Mac install disks -- it's not automatic. Open Office site explains how. Firefox should be your browser of choice; great add-ons. Get the weather one, and AdBlocker to stamp out the annoying ads. Assuming you have high-speed access, Google Earth, of course, and get the set of DZ-specific locations elsewhere on dz.com; they're fun to look at. Welcome to the Mac world. HW

This one is so old it's eligible for Medicare. See, e.g., http://www.parachutehistory.com/humor/quotes.html If you Google 'ripcord zipcode', you'll find that it has been a popular tidbit in Unitarian/Universalist sermons over the years. Seems the pastors are not above some creative borrowing from each other. HW

Apparently you missed this discussion: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2567193;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread as well as discussions elsewhere on dz.com.

Quick 'n dirty Photoshopped version. It's still Phil's picture and still copyrighted (but he knows where I live.)

Phil Roberson has one. See http://www.philroberson.com/LW07.html Third pic from left in second row. HW

That is one I already downloaded and tried to clean up in Photoshop and Illustrator. Unfortunately when you blow it up to the size he needs, the curves are unacceptably jaggy. HW

Why not? Just have her sign it off, cough up the bucks, and have the Regional Director send it in. Lots of states out there have no records -- start sending in those four-ways. HW

USPA started issuing "official" state records in 2006. The list is at http://www.uspa.org/competition/pg2/staterecordsbystate.htm HW

Long thread in the Bonfire: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2618100;search_string=my%20DZO;#2618100

Well, I'm a better person because I don't somersault when I skydive. And the world is a better place because of the end of juvenile delinquency and because those Russkies have been put in their place. HW

Art Buchwald, the syndicated columnist, died yesterday. While best known recently for his political humor, he lived for many years in France and wrote on a variety of subjects. Here (from the dusty archives) is a column he wrote in 1955, syndicated by the New York Herald Tribune and published all across the U.S. While probably not at the time intended to be funny, it is. HW ========= The United States will compete against Russia in the International Parachute Jumping Contests which will be held in Moscow next July. This fact, as well as many others, was brought to us by Jacques Andre Istel and Ray Young, who were the American delegation to the International Parachute Jumpers' Convention which was just held in Vienna. "This is the first time America will compete internationally," Mr. Istel said. "The United States Is entering a new era in the parachute sport. We have to change our whole way of thinking. In the United States competitive jumping was based on somersaulting. But in order to compete we are going to have to learn how to sky dive — that is, to dive toward the earth with our arms outstretched like a swan. The French have offered to teach us the method and we hope to have a team ready for the competition. We don't want to go to Moscow and make asses of ourselves." Mr. Young told us: "I've been jumping with the French for five years. The Russians and the French are the best jumpers in the world. There is a fantastic interest in the sport over there. The French provide training centers and encourage the sport." "In America," said Mr. Istel, "they've discouraged it. Almost every state has laws against jumping for sport. But I think it's loosening up a little. Vice-President Nixon said he was concerned about the health and stamina of American youth. Parachuting is a sport that will give youngsters stamina, self-confidence and a sense of responsibility. It is the answer to juvenile delinquency. Kids will be so tired from parachute jumping that they won't want to do anything else." "But American parents will have to be educated toward the sport," said Mr. Young. "As it stands now, most parents would probably rather have a delinquent child than a parachuting one." "I know this is a siliy question," we said, "but is parachuting safe?" "It's twice as safe as skiing," said Mr. Young, "and ten times as safe as motorcycling. The only deaths we've had in France were caused by parachutists on motorcycles going to and from the fields." "I now understand why our guys were being killed in America" said Mr. Istel. It was because we were somersaulting and the guys were misjudging how near they were to the ground. In sky diving you're always watching the ground and you know when to pull the chute." Mr. Istel is the third ranking parachutist in the United States. He said there are about 200 professional jumpers in America, "The Russians say they have a thousand, but we were told they have 800,000. There will be competitions for women as well as men at Moscow, but the United States won't enter any women. We don't have any yet. But once they hear about the sport I think they'll come flocking. The American woman is a natural sportswoman." As in all international conferences, said Mr. Istel, "the Russians tried to stack the decks against us. In the style jumping we wanted to judge by camera and they wanted to judge by sight. They said they had no one in Russia to judge by film. We told them that if we were going to learn an entirely new method of parachute jumping by July, they can learn how to judge films. Then they said they didn't have the cameras, and I told them I was a great admirer of Russian films and I was sure they could do a good filming job. They finally gave in on it and many other things that would have been advantageous to them. They want to win this thing badly. They keep their team in training 12 months out of the year. We have to practice in our spare time, usually only on weekends." Before leaving, Mr. Istel reiterated: "Once Americans realize that parachuting is a safe, exciting sport, the juvenile delinquency problem will be over." We told him we thought it was worth trying anyway.

From the April, 1965, Sky Diver. The caption says "Difficult skydiving, to say the least. Photo by Robert Hemm, N.Y.C." HW

I kind of like the "shine a flashlight on his chin" look. HW

I dunno about the rest of you slugs, but I've slogged my way into the top ten dz.commers (sorry, sjc) and am gunning for the top five. For those of you with an Intel-based Mac, there's a relatively new (still beta) client which really screams. HW

The X11 thing is a little application on your OSX install disks, but not installed by default. It allows you to run things under X Windows, a window and networking manager that came out of MIT in 1984. If you go to http://www.openoffice.org, you'll find everything you need to know about installing OpenOffice and X11 HW

Well, this is kind of old.... HW

Get OpenOffice. It's free, and will open MS Office, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. You can edit, print, etc., but the open format in which they are saved can't be then opened in MS office. (You do have to install X11 from your MacOS disks, but that's pretty painless.) HW

Well, we have (at last) two different movies here. One is "The Gypsy Moths," about three barnstorming jumpers traveling around the midwest and jumping out of a Howard. The "cape" (batwing) jump is the big thing in this movie. Carl Boenish was the lead freeefall camera guy. There is a "making of..." extra on the DVD. Watch the first and last 15 minutes of this 107-minute long movie -- the rest is a bore. The other is "Skydivers," from a Coleman Francis trilogy called "Mystery Science Theater 3000," and intended as a satire on bad movies. Part of the blurb on the VCR box... "... when the two meet, CRASH! Skydiver squishy. Our hero, Harry, owns a skydiving facility, He's messin' around with Suzie, who's totally hooked on him, but her young lover, Frankie, who used to be Harry's plane mechanic, is ticked. If that's not confusing enough, when Harry decides to romance with Beth, his wife, who's contemplating a move on Harry's best bud, Joe, Suzie and Frankie devise a plan to knock off Harry. Whew; The skydiving scenes are a crack up, When one of the dudes face is flapping around, Mike remarks, "Gosh! Glad he's not skydiving naked!" In another, one diver lights up a smoke stick, and Tom Servo can't resist saying, 'Sorry, I had Mexican for lunch." And, let's not forget Crow's classic, "Ah, roger tower, Which way is the sky?" A classic from the Coleman Francis troika."" If that seems funny, run out and buy it. (VCR box cover attached. The balloon speeches at the bottom are comments from the space aliens who are mocking the movie..) HW

Gee, no one mentioned "shelf" and "cover." I didn't teach that, but it was taught down the road a bit. It referred to pulling your knees up under your reserve to provide a "shelf" that was supposed to keep the canopy from dropping down between your legs. I guess just keeping your legs together might accomplish the same thing. HW