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It abdicated it's responsibility in order to gain power. Disenfranchising voters. Gerrymandering districts to gain unfair advantages (court rulings confirmed this). Outright voter fraud (funny that they used that as an excuse for the voter disenfranchising). Flat out refusing to do their job (hold confirmation hearings). Putting power before the country's well being (McConnell himself said so). Their embracing of a monster is not the problem, just a further symptom of the real problem.

HIPPI CHONKER ADVARNING Oof. This is a big topic. Hits me right in the chonkeratøs. When I was in my 30's I decided to tell the "fuck offs" to a well paid and "highly respectable" career path, went back to college, sold my city apartment and moved my shit back to my parents house. Wish there was some kind of training on this. There isn't. You want advice on how to determine the future. You can't have it. You won't know. You might do 100's more. You might do 1000's. Who cares. Just exit the fucking plane. Do what you enjoy. Feel it. Appreciate the sensation, the people you meet, the places you visit, and those you connect with. Tell them. Accept what you cannot control but take charge of what you can. And if you ever get caught up in a waterboarding situation, good luck with that.

Many people dont last 5 years, Very few last 10 years. On this site you'll find people who have been doing it a long time (18th year for me) but we are not the majority.

<s> Clearly no need for a Sarcasm tag in this thread. <\s>

" Level 17 above Top Secret " That's funny right there.

What? You "calling me out" for not joining the Turtlespeed-bashing parties? He can be brain-dead. And it's entirely possible his tongue is pressed firmly inside his cheek as he stirs the pot (he's much less of a troll than he used to be). But he can also question his own views, and change them. Maybe not all of them, and he still says stupid shit sometimes, but I wasn't born right all the time either. Wendy P.

That was lame, but no matter, I'm warming up to you somehow. I've unblocked you and given you a merit. The times they are a' changin'.

I took the argument to mean that if there is no god, then life is pure physics and thus concepts such as morality exist only in the perceived consciousness of the individual experiencing the perceived consciousness.

And they are correct. Atheism is at least as good a basis for morality as religion. That’s called begging the question. You may think consciousness is either an illusion or the inhabitant of a metaphysical realm beyond the knowable universe but you haven’t proved it. You can’t simply assume it is true and then use it as a ‘gotcha’ trap. You are, again, simply using a god of the gaps approach. And confusing the issue by pointlessly framing it as a morality discussion. It really is your fault that people weren’t getting your point.

In the 'Grand Scheme of Things', you are right. No action that I take has any real effect on the Universe. It's too big. The Total Perspective Vortex showed this. But to think that I can take any action, and it has no effect and because of that, 'morality' doesn't exist is a pretty disingenuous position to take. It has effect on other people. And those other people can then take action that affects me. That's called 'society'. And, not surprisingly, the mores of any given society dictate it's acceptable and unacceptable actions. As a fairly extreme example, would it be moral for me to kill someone? Reality says 'it depends'. In some societies, the level of 'acceptable' killings is quite strict. In others, its much more lax. There are societies that permit 'honor killings'. The murder of one's child because they brought 'disgrace' on the family. There are other's that frown upon killing, even in self defense. The laws in the US have relaxed a good bit in recent years, but even up until the 1990s, there were states that didn't permit 'self defense' killings unless the killer was defending himself, his family or his servants. And the killer had to show he had done everything possible to avoid the killing, including fleeing his own home at risk to himself (situations like jumping out of a second story window). "Morality" is an entirely human construct. As is religion. The former is necessary for society to function. The latter is a big aid in enforcing the former. The 'morality enforcement' that religion brings is one reason that religion flourished in early societies.

You kind of lost me there. While I'm not getting the subtleties, it feels like one is saying, "Everything is just atoms and sub-atomic particles... so nothing matters... everything we do is just movement of atoms or electrical signals and stuff... our existence and lives are all just irrelevant to the universe." Um yeah, that's all true. But that's doesn't make morality any less real as a concept. Religion or not, every society ends up trying to have some form of morality, which is a concept about fairness, justice, not causing harm, and whatnot. Pain may just be a mind's manifestation of electrical signals, but that still doesn't make it generally good for one human to torture another to death. (Whether or not a particular society suggests it as a reasonable punishment for some crime.) I think I can bow out here and leave anything more to deeper philosophers.

Do you have anything from anyone with a good reputation?

That's all fine and good but until someone can describe in joules the difference between a motherfucker and a puppy kicking motherfucker why stop?

Must . . .not. . .feed. . . the . . Troll.

The "generator" is actually used now for regenerative braking in electric cars. (disc brakes are now just a backup on electrics, so instead of having to change pads every 10-20,000 miles they last 100,000 or more, and there is much less brake dust in the air) IF things were 100% efficient, yes you would never have to recharge an electric car. But you have friction losses, air resistance and efficiency losses. But tech is getting better quickly - Tesla is actually buying the entire world's supply of SiC mosfets, a new type of transistor that's a lot more efficient than plain silicon. There's an electric aircraft thread in General Skydiving Discussions which is probably better for this topic :)

https://www.dropzone.com/forums/topic/10759-triple-risers%3F/

Referencing the bold: I don't know -- these are the people with whom he chooses to surround himself. Even after being accused/shown to have done this "really ugly stuff," he still has them on his payroll. In my mind, that makes him unfit (or at least wholly unqualified) for the office.

Skydiving came into my life when I officially turned 18 last year. I have a long way to go!

Here is a more appropriate representation!

You are so awesome. Also, you aren't the only person who has hired weird looking packers.

I made my first jump in 1980. still not sure if I like, so I better keep trying.

Yes, Brent. As a functional adult and professional, I make judgements based on obvious personality traits (i.e. advertised by the subject of my judgement). I would not hire someone who showed up to an interview wearing a death metal T-shirt and goth makeup based on the fact that they are advertising, through their choices of apparel and makeup, that they are unserious and unprofessional. In the same way, when I see someone wearing a MAGA hat, I categorize them accordingly.

Which reminds me - Anyone done any cat chasing lately? I used to throw my cutaway pillow at them in freefall to distract them so I could grab them without getting scratched. Sorry...

Going back to one of the original question: It is still better to have the opportunity to try to be moral, that be in the situation that some Christians seem to be in: They may crow about the morality built into their belief system (confusing as it may be). But sometimes it seems that their being moral is only because of fear of punishment -- "Don't do this or you'll be condemned to hell for eternity!" Which is kind of like a kid saying, "The only reason I don't beat up my little sister is that my big brother would beat me up!" Which is saying you would be a nasty bully except there's someone else there to bully you, God. As opposed to actually choosing to be moral and not a nasty bully. So if you can be a good person who is Christian.... you can also be a good person outside of those confines. And since Atheism isn't an organization with meetings or membership cards, I don't have to apologize if some Christian nutter says, "But whattabout that serial killer or that dictator... he was an atheist!" And there's the issue that some religions' morals are pretty messy and disputed, with reference to ancient and contradictory texts from which people have argued just about anything. But the same discussions over what is "right" could be made without references to some ancient book that refers to bizarre tales from thousands of years ago. I'm obviously thinking of Christianity here, what with the issues over the centuries of things like whether homosexuality or owning slaves is evil or not. Organized religions did serve some purpose in having shared goals for societies, but it didn't make their decisions on what is good or evil necessarily any better than the choices made by people within other religions or who were skeptical of the local religion.

Seriously? After all the jumper was dealing with, let's not encourage people to worry about their handles. Saving your life is more important.

I did not want to be limited to just one hand when I was trying to get out of the situation alive...

Thank you for this! These angles are not pics I'd seen before.

Entropy wins in the end.

Thanks for getting the sarcasm! It seems some did not, quite.

Is he also less of a racist than he used to be?

Blue ones all around! Have fun. I've been on the ground for 5 years now. Will likely not jump again until I move home again in 2021.

It's not a great picture, but here ya go!

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.

I tend to agree with you. I grab the Strong with a SET366 first because the majority of my tandem jumps have been on that exact setup, but I really like the Sigma 340 and that would always be my second choice. I don't like the A2's, I think they fly lousy in turbulence and I don't like the way they are prone to go through very pronounced unintended flight cycles. Too flat for my liking, and I think that is what contributes to the flight characteristics that I don't like.