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I love it when you interject facts into perfectly good discussions... Wendy P.

Agreed. Just wish someone else would point out the disconnect publicly. Although I do applaud their attempt simply to ignore the train of thought, since those sentiments aren't really getting a lot of traction (unless I'm missing something -- I am out in the rural South Pacific!)

We have some truly remarkable people here in this forum.

Maybe you don't understand data.

To be fair, there is a HUGE difference in the security posture at Embassy Baghdad from Consulate Benghazi. They've had in place for years the required security measures/personnel/evac plans -- even before the example at Benghazi.

Highly doubt it. She's a political appointee, with some history with the GOP: https://pl.usembassy.gov/our-relationship/our-ambassador/

I was very uneasy with the amount of gun fire heard at midnight. People are fucking stupid...

NYT, 1/1/20 Sometimes it’s worth stepping back to look at the full picture. He has pressured a foreign leader to interfere in the 2020 American presidential election. He urged a foreign country to intervene in the 2016 presidential election. He divulged classified information to foreign officials. He publicly undermined American intelligence agents while standing next to a hostile foreign autocrat. He hired a national security adviser who he knew had secretly worked as a foreign lobbyist. He encourages foreign leaders to enrich him and his family by staying at his hotels. He genuflects to murderous dictators. He has alienated America’s closest allies. He lied to the American people about his company’s business dealings in Russia. He tells new lies virtually every week — about the economy, voter fraud, even the weather. He spends hours on end watching television and days on end staying at resorts. He often declines to read briefing books or perform other basic functions of a president’s job. He has aides, as well as members of his own party in Congress, who mock him behind his back as unfit for office. He has repeatedly denigrated a deceased United States senator who was a war hero. He insulted a Gold Star family — the survivors of American troops killed in action. He described a former first lady, not long after she died, as “nasty.” He described white supremacists as “some very fine people.” He told four women of color, all citizens and members of Congress, to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime-infested places from which they came.” He made a joke about Pocahontas during a ceremony honoring Native American World War II veterans. He launched his political career by falsely claiming that the first black president was not really American. He launched his presidential campaign by describing Mexicans as “rapists.” He has described women, variously, as “a dog,” “a pig” and “horseface,” as well as “bleeding badly from a facelift” and having “blood coming out of her wherever.” He has been accused of sexual assault or misconduct by multiple women. He enthusiastically campaigned for a Senate candidate who was accused of molesting multiple teenage girls. He waved around his arms, while giving a speech, to ridicule a physically disabled person. He has encouraged his supporters to commit violence against his political opponents. He has called for his opponents and critics to be investigated and jailed. He uses a phrase popular with dictators — “the enemy of the people” — to describe journalists. He attempts to undermine any independent source of information that he does not like, including judges, scientists, journalists, election officials, the F.B.I., the C.I.A., the Congressional Budget Office and the National Weather Service. He has tried to harass the chairman of the Federal Reserve into lowering interest rates. He said that a judge could not be objective because of his Mexican heritage. He obstructed justice by trying to influence an investigation into his presidential campaign. He violated federal law by directing his lawyer to pay $280,000 in hush money to cover up two apparent extramarital affairs. He made his fortune partly through wide-scale financial fraud. He has refused to release his tax returns. He falsely accused his predecessor of wiretapping him. He claimed that federal law-enforcement agents and prosecutors regularly fabricated evidence, thereby damaging the credibility of criminal investigations across the country. He has ordered children to be physically separated from their parents. He has suggested that America is no different from or better than Vladimir Putin’s Russia. He has called America a “hellhole.” He is the president of the United States, and he is a threat to virtually everything that the United States should stand for.

The Curate's Egg seems an appropriate reference for this thread. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curate's_egg

And homophobia, too! Awesome way to end 2019. Congrats on maintaining your party's agenda all the way to the end of the year.

Man, you're a sour little bitch. Take a break buddy..smile a little.

Both are in the desert, so yes, both have dirt................. Try both. You'll likely prefer on over the other/

Hard openings are no fun and more than one ended my day prematurely back when I first started packing my own chute. You problem might be in packing method and I would suggest getting with your rigger for some advice and filming some of your openings if you have sufficient jumps to mount a camera. I can't speak to a Safire, but a Spectre shouldn't be giving you hard openings and so would encourage a packing technique review. Packing technique can make the difference between a good day at the DZ and a bad one and each chute has slight peculiarities in method that a rigger can help you identify. Hard openings are something that you'll want to fix and quickly - before you get spanked sufficiently enough for an injury. See John Leblanc's videos on hard openings on You Tube. -JD-

This is the ultimate bicellular elliptic canopy. I tried Semi/fully elliptic canopies before (Crossfire 2, Stiletto, Sabre 2) and this X-Fire is quite the bomb compared to the previous ones. It has na absolutely incredible harness response. I really feel connected to the canopy and the fact it has no stabilizers provides a nice over steer. It's the very first canopy I feel I have full control on. It's a Schuemann Planform designed canopy meaning the leading edge is super elliptic while trailing edge is quite flat. I see it as a bicellular Leia. Rears are super powerful. Fronts are quite hard but nothing unmanageable. Toggle turns (yes I tried those) are super slow but those breaks have like an infinite resource while landing. Openings are very nice but not too slow. Almost always on heading and predictable. You can feel Icarus put some effort on this part! I jumped a stiletto for 400 jumps before the X-Fire so I might be biased . I think I might stick with an X-fire (I own a 102 for now) if I want more in a few hundred jumps instead of going to the cross braced realm.

No! Gary had contributed various articles to the site over the years, he was always looking to help bring knowledge to others and share his wisdom. Through all our correspondence he always seemed enthusiastic and friendly. We will definitely miss him on the site. I'd appreciate it if anyone close to Gary could drop me a PM so we can put together something on the site in his honor. BSBD sir.

Gary and I had worked together on several projects for Dan Poynter of ParaPublishing. We talked at least every couple of months so this was a total shock when I got called and informed of his passing. He was a good friend and will forever be in my thoughts.

The sport has lost a true ambassador as well a one hell of a nice guy. Blue Skies, Gary

In regards to the flipped D-Bag, I don't see an issue with it if your closing loop is mounted to your bottom flat as theres no snag hazards, and you're probably fine if you have a floor mounted closing loop but it could present a snag hazard (one reason they don't recommend flipping the bag that way). I have my bag normally oriented and have never had any issues though. One hazard that someone might be dumb enough to miss (like I did) is that you you can only flip the bag with bottomless corners! After having a few funky openings (probably poor technique) I was looking to make my older (J2 from '92) a bit more wingsuit friendly. I hadn't gotten around to cutting the corners but someone recommend I flip the bag. I figured why not, let's see if it helps anything, it made logical sense. First few jumps went fine but then I did a big flare before deploying so I was pitching at a lower airspeed and after a few seconds of nothing happening, I started to shake back and forth and it finally came out. looking at rear footage, the pin was popped before the PC even inflated (so no pinlock) but the bag was held in by the corners. Usually with the horizontal openings in a wingsuit, the bag gets rolled up and over the corners but since I had lower airspeed and the bridle was pulling straight back, it was pulling the bag deeper into the corners rather than rolling it out. It would be a non issue with bottomless corers as there would be nothing to trap it.