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Showing content with the highest reputation since 04/16/2024 in Posts

  1. 4 points
    I get all my power from solar. California now goes hours getting all its power from renewables for weeks on end - and all that is time we are not burning natural gas, thus saving that gas for the less developed parts of the US. As a result, natural gas prices are dropping, and air quality is improving. Solar fabrication equipment is one of the few things we export to China. US companies that make solar equipment are making billions and employing hundreds of thousands. So the citizens of the US will - and are already - benefiting from this. Jealousy is such an ugly emotion. Become a scientist or engineer, discover/invent something important and you too can be a millionaire! Only in your imagination. I am perfectly happy for you to think I am stupid. Like George Santos calling someone dishonest, or like Trump calling someone a liar. It's more a badge of honor than anything else.
  2. 4 points
  3. 4 points
    If the mandate of NPR is to report facts wouldn't republicans be excluded by definition?
  4. 3 points
    “A man came up to me - big man, strong man - with tears in his eyes”…..
  5. 3 points
    No shit, Sherlock. That’s the problem not the potential or viability of renewables. By that logic why fight crime at home when Haiti is so ridden with theft, drugs, and murder?
  6. 3 points
    1) He didn't fart 2) OK he farted but there's this explanation that it's not like regular gross farting 3) Obama did it first.
  7. 3 points
    Keep in mind that someone, somewhere also calculated the percentage of those that would not comply with the mask mandates, so additional mandates were added. At that time, we did not know what we were facing, how bad it was going to be, if it was natural or manufactured, nor could anyone forecast the extent up to and including the end of human and/or animal life. I had no issue with every arrow in the quiver being used to defend against whatever this "was" to be, mask mandates, social distancing, accelerated vaccines, and lockdowns and will still maintain that the lockdown was a month too short. I am not a science guy, so for those with advanced degrees - we rely on them to guide us. Which they did. Were mistakes made; yes. But, we had to try anything and everything. And, to this day; I look around and think, "We made it through it." ~MINO
  8. 2 points
    Is it? Particularly at smaller seasonal dropzones across the country? I really have no interest in freeflying or angles or tracking jumps. I'm unlikely to ever want to get into wingsuiting. I don't want to just go out and screw around playing freefall games or flying through hulahoops. I just want to find a few people who want to dedicate two or three weekends a month to turning some points, debriefing the video, and then doing it again to try to improve as a group. Apparently that just isn't what most people think of as fun anymore.
  9. 2 points
    Brent acknowledging reality, not happening
  10. 2 points
    Easier to toot the horn than to step on the accelerator. Apparently those just fall off.
  11. 2 points
    Yeah, the fact that there are only roughly 50 when 35 years ago there were 350 is irrelevant. And if I gain enough weight to be obese, but not super-obese, that means I'm not fat, right? Wendy P.
  12. 2 points
    I know Dan Cooper’s “grudge” - he had $200,000 less than he desired. The whole lay-offs thing, the “grudge” is too deeply read. It was a financially motivated crime. Darren had a lady on his podcast saying that he did it to show it could be done. If so, why not ask for a Mickey Mantle Baseball Card and four parachutes. Or a Monet and four parachutes. Both easier to transport. The guy was a greedy MF who wanted money. I like the whole CIA/Interpen Goon angle. I really do, but it’s what makes a better story and fiction can be more enjoyable than the fact that a lone middle aged man wanted money, got it, and was so unremarkable that he had nobody to tell or wasn’t missed if he slammed into the ground or took a swim.
  13. 2 points
  14. 2 points
    Skydiving first started at the Ovid Airport, D82, in August 1967. The original Parachute Jumping Center License from the New York State Department of Commerce Bureau of Aviation is hanging on the wall at manifest. The DZ moved to Seneca Falls, N.Y. in April 1972. I opened Finger Lakes Skydivers DZ in Ovid in May 1982 and operated until November 2015. The business was sold and new operators began in April 2016 under the name Skydive Finger Lakes. The business was sold again and the next operators took over in April 2018 and operated through October 2021. They sold their aircraft and moved out of the area. There was no skydiving business operation during the 2022 and 2023 skydiving season. There was occasional skydiving by invitation only for experienced jumpers during those summers. A completely new skydiving operation, Skydive Seneca Lake, skydivesenecalake.com, will begin on April 25, 2024 with a Cessna TU-206 and a C-182. They are in no way associated with any of the past operations. I purchased the Ovid Airport in 1989, it has a 2800 X 40 paved runway and 2200 X 60 turf runway, 20+ acres of landing area, heated and air conditioned clubhouse with kitchen, lounge, restrooms with showers, and indoor packing area. It is locate in the center of the Finger Lakes Region of New York State. You can see 7 of the finger lakes from jump altitude plus Lake Ontario and on a clear day you can see Canada. John King
  15. 2 points
    So, you're googlefu works to own the libs, but not for, "My iPad has stopped letting me copy and paste links." https://letmegooglethat.com/?q=My+iPad+has+stopped+letting+me+copy+and+paste+links
  16. 2 points
    Basically, there are a lot of assumptions in the Constitution that the majority of government actors are basically trying to do the right thing. Wendy P.
  17. 2 points
    Global energy investment in clean energy and in fossil fuels, 2015-2023 I'll spell it out for you. Worldwide green energy investments surpassed oil and gas by 75% or $750 billion last year. Start some more B.S. threads but this is from the IEA. Its no wonder that you identify so closely with the GOP. Facts don't mean squat with them either.
  18. 2 points
    Oh, no. They die. Then they get beaten some more. And more. And more. Brent never admits being wrong. Ever. Jakee never lets go. Ever. I'm usually good for a couple smartass comments. And eventually you have a 'horse smoothie'.
  19. 1 point
    Shit. Guess I'm gonna have to change my plan from "Social Media Influencer."
  20. 1 point
    At our small Cessna DZ we still do 4 way. But our average age is quite high and the younger jumpers we do have are not really very interested in it. Not yet dead but definitely dying.
  21. 1 point
    There's something called the Cloud Games, where newbie 4-way teams (with a ringer) compete at their own drop zones, using the video to compare times etc. It's one way -- yes, it means competition, but newbie teams are pretty laid back. Wendy P.
  22. 1 point
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Nyrop Nyrop, not Nypro.
  23. 1 point
  24. 1 point
    patently false. Solar is still being built at record rates across the country. wind installations are happening in dozens of states.
  25. 1 point
    And Galen is coming back.
  26. 1 point
    Gossip vs factual news ... the Moon could be cheese. Familiarity breeds contempt, or just sloppy reporting ? Geoffrey Gray now lives in Mexico and Galen is coming back - never left. Jo Weber was amazing and LD was an early suspect! 'Dorey' took over the case from Himmelsbach - Himms charged too much for his interviews and he lived in a palace (his wife had money). There is more ..... stay tuned! Galen is coming back . . . Jo Weber had connections nobody else had . . . there is probably plastic in your heart valves and arteries and brain .. . if you remote view Jo Weber's dreams backwards you will know everything about the DB Cooper case including all FBI 302s. Oh! And Galen is coming back . . .
  27. 1 point
  28. 1 point
    Anyone know where Newton was November 24, 1971? Did he smoke? Working with apples might explain some of those particles.
  29. 1 point
    Yes, I really, really don't like that narrative for the hijacking. It's especially nonsensical because the government did NOT want to be paying for airline security. The government wanted it to be the responsibility of the individual airlines to pay for additional security measures. So, saying the deep state was involved is silly to me because they had no incentive. This was a clever bank robbery, that's all. That said, I think there is a very, very real possibility that Cooper was CIA adjacent at some point in his life, likely through Air America. He fits the mold very well of their middle aged renegade pilots who flew in Vietnam. As I said in the show, I came across a news article from 1972 where a guy said the average age of Air America pilots was 43 years old. These guys were mercenaries. They risked their lives for profit. So, Cooper would have been used to this sort of dangerous game. The fact that Air America dropped men and material out of 727's with 15 degree flaps and gear down is almost too coincidental to believe.
  30. 1 point
    My first thought was the petrodollar. One of many problems I have with fossil fuels is that they are, by their very nature, finite. I agree that the people who want to 'simply' replace fossil fuels with sunshine and unicorn farts tend to be weak on the thermodynamics of scale involved, but that does not mean we can continue indefinitely down the road of plentiful and cheap fossil fuels shoring up our way of life. The point that the video missed is that the ROI on natural gas is only good until you use it up. Quite when is that point can vary as a function of efficiency and sundry wild cards, but that point is coming sooner than later. You may as well get in another few skydives and tear around in exquisite Italian cars and whatnot, because it will only slightly affect when the inevitable comes to pass. No long term gain from missing out. BTW, Lamborghinis are best rented, so the owner is stuck with it when the fuel pump runs dry. BSBD, Winsor
  31. 1 point
    Always enjoy Bruce, as well as these videos you are doing Ryan. I just find the narrative that the CIA/Deep State had to orchestrate this DB Copper Hijacking for the sole purpose to get more air port security a little silly, i.e. metal detectors in air ports or requiring more information from passengers to fly. Why on earth would they need to do this ? There were already so many hijackings, wouldn't those already be enough reason ? The government enacts laws and strong arms private industry all the time without the need for covert operations as trigger point.
  32. 1 point
    I was told that a picture of a 12-way made Skydiving, but no one has ever actually seen it in there. Taken from above, so not much but ass cheeks, backpacks, and one dangling dick are visible Wendy P.
  33. 1 point
    Regardless of this discussion, I am not convinced that Public Health should be solely science driven. At least not to the extent that if we don't know 100% sure yet, we should not advocate to do anything. Fauci standing at the microphone and stating: "We don't really know what's going on, or how the virus is spreading. Until we are 100% sure we are 100% correct, we ask the public to do nothing, go on with your life and please just ignore the bodies."
  34. 1 point
    Yeah, but you were being less than forthright on the cause and my suspicion as to why you didn't post the hyperlink to the Reuters' article. There were resource, logistical and regulatory issues for not meeting the financial goals - of which some day-traders will tuck and roll. It's a first quarter report.
  35. 1 point
    There are places in the world with higher compliance rates and lower death rates than those you witnessed.
  36. 1 point
    I think there is also a fairly large reduction in the number of people listening to radio - streaming is much better in many cases - especially the audio quality. NPR is hit and miss via streaming services - or those I'm familiar with I suppose.
  37. 1 point
    Funny thing in all of this is, that even with all this supposed liberal bias, NPR is still a much better source for factual reporting than anything with a supposed conservative bias. There are a fair number of right leaning media outlets, which one of them would you hold up as providing generally correct reporting? Yet many of those networks seem to be financially doing very well. Which leads me to my opinion, counter to Berliner, that the drop in consumers for NPR is likely more because they are NOT sensationalizing things, than because of diversity and inclusion or not posting Hunter Biden dick pics.
  38. 1 point
    USPS is controlled by Congress effectively and if they bothered, like so many other things, they could actually fix a lot of the issues. They effectively defunded the organization years ago by putting unfunded and unrealistic financial burdens on them to fund the pension program without figuring out the money that would be needed to make that happen. USPS stamps should be $0.80 and that would solve a lot of issues with their money problems. service comes by better fudning and the freedom to make decisions that work, as well as the DIRECTIVES to make it work Given that it is written into the Constitution, privatizing it is not actually an option, nor would I support that. The second you put profits at the forefront, the system will become corrupt overnight. It's not corrupt now, it is just shitty service. Privatizing it would ensure corruption AND shitty service. And agree with the earlier comment that it is being run by people that want to dismantle it, much like public schools all over the country. As long as we keep voting for idiots, this is what we will get
  39. 1 point
    So 70k people signed something (that, as pointed out, has nothing to do with masks). How many DIDN'T sign it. Somewhat like the "1000 engineers and architects" that signed the thing about the way the WTC towers collapsed being 'wrong', knowing how large the population is counts. And yes, I may not know about the subject, but I know how to apply critical thinking. I can usually do a decent job of sorting out 'real experts' from the frauds. Sources also help. I'm far more likely to believe an 'expert' on NPR/PBS or BBC vs one on Fox. Viruses travel within droplets, which are blasted out of the mouth. Masks reduce droplet expulsion. One of the earliest times I was seriously scared of Covid was when it was discovered there was pre-symptomatic transmission. That people could be contagious before they showed symptoms. There was a story that came out of the Pacific Northwest (Washington? Oregon?) where a church choir had a practice. 2 people were infected and contagious, but not yet symptomatic. 3/4 of the people present contracted Covid. A few died. Along a couple reports of that story was a silhouette picture of a singer. Strongly backlit, you could see the quantity of droplets being expelled. Masks help control that spread. Not 100%, not perfectly. Masking, along with distancing and handwashing, the spread was reduced. One of the best indicators of the effectiveness was the spread of influenza. With the mitigation practices in widespread practice, spread of the flu was sharply reduced. One strain of the flu is now believed to be extinct. Of course, the idiots refused to comply. I've heard the term "Defiant Oppositional Disorder", which is a fancy word for 'acting like a toddler who only says "NO!!!!"'. This was seen a few times when the idiots were refusing to believe that Covid was serious, that masks were effective and (of course) believing that Covid was a Chinese bio-weapon and that the vaccines were either deadly or contained 'tracking chips. My favorite was a schematic of these 'tracking chips' that went around. It was an effect pedal for an electric guitar. https://www.guitarworld.com/news/the-creator-of-the-covid-vaccineboss-metal-zone-pedal-hoax-reveals-all-there-aint-a-lot-of-sane-people-in-this-world Turns out it was a hoax, from a guy who wanted to make the conspiracy idiots look like... Idiots.
  40. 1 point
    Is that the one where you could put any name down and click the box that said you were a scientist? I heard Mr. Banana Rama's scientific accomplishments are very special. And, who isn't aware of the science behind the healing powers of Mongolian overtone singing? Do you not see the irony touting your scientific record and then hyping the validity of the Great Barrington Declaration based on the number of signatures?
  41. 1 point
    Doctors and dentists wear them to mitigate bacterial transmission. They are not PPE. Humans are constantly shedding skin cells and hair follicles that often contain bacteria. Ever work in a Class 100 clean room? Ever do any SEM or AFM imaging? It’s clearly visible. N95’s are designed to mitigate inhalation of particulates greater than 0.3 microns in size when fit tested and worn on a clean shaven face. They do not block mist. Both offer zero protection for the eyes. Virus was first postulated in the late 1800’s & directly observed in the 1930’s. So… nobody ever found out if masks worked until just now? Absurd. My training and experience was about 40 years at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Sandia Livermore National Laboratory, Dugway Proving Grounds, Ft Detrick. i am coauthor on 16 scientific journal papers, have several patents, an R&D 100 Award, was a principle developer on BioWatch Gen 2&3, a principal operative for field deployment, testing and incident response, and worked as a member of the NEST/ARG community. I also worked as a consultant for DHS & Northrop Grumman. I was responsible for personnel safety which included PPE selection and use appropriate to the hazards. if you still stand by your assessment, that’s fine with me, but you might look up Dunning-Kruger effect.
  42. 1 point
    One of the original Herd members and instrumental in bringing big planes to the United Parachute Club. Also organized the annual Herd boogie.
  43. 1 point
    USPS is being run by a man who wants to destroy it. I use it along with Canada Post whenever I have a choice of carriers.
  44. 1 point
    The first prototype that will be used by someone other than me :) I've pretty much settled on hardware configuration. There's still some space for optimization (like size for example) but that shouldn't affect the codebase too much. ENGO 2 indeed pretty good for this purpose. Although there was no SDK for ESP32, I was able to write some basic implementation using the documentation available. Still there's a lot of work to be done. In the sort term: * Complete "Competition mode' - UI tweaks, navigation, score computation * Implement data input - home DZ coordinates, altitude offset, target coordinates for competition, etc. * Stability overhaul In the long run it'd be good to have some smartphone app to manage all the settings, as well as create custom screen layouts, but there's still long road ahead
  45. 1 point
    Every time a GOP rep retires, they seem to suddenly see sense. What are they doing it for - performance art?!
  46. 1 point
    There you go! "A man can never have too much red wine, too many books, or too much ammunition"...Rudyard Kipling
  47. 1 point
    And Ed Mosher wearing No Cause For Panic. Can't mistake that hair for anyone else's. Hoop
  48. 1 point
    Googled from makeithappen.com: Nick Lucas, Dick Giarrusso, Ed Mosher, Mike Johnston, Mike Arbour, Greg Reisinger, John Sherman, Kevin Shea, Chris Price, Roger Nelson
  49. 1 point
    The first DZ to use a Twin Otter was Pepperell, MA, in April 1972. Mark Schmidt, D-21, was the pilot. It was written up in Parachutist a few months later. If you don't believe this, I'll sic Ted Strong D-16 on you. He was a co-owner of the DZ. HW
  50. 1 point
    What DZ or DZO was the first to bring turbines into the skydiving environment? Also does anyone know the first DZ to use an Otter? A Caravan? King Air? I imagine that was a huge risk on the first DZO's parts.. a lot of cost compaired to the older planes like Beechs and DC3's. Yesterday is history And tomorrow is a mystery Parachutemanuals.com
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