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the religious right's numbers are decreasing every year, and they see it. They are like a wild animal backed into a corner..... it is hard to guess what bullshit they will try to pull as they desperately try to hang onto power..... Contraception is next. The leak of the draft states that there is no liberty nor privacy in the constitution and is using that as the basis for overturning Roe v Wade. sadly they still have a lot of power but until the nones, the atheists and agnostics stand up and speak out against the religious running the country, well, the religious will continue to run the country. We still have dozens and dozens of congress, Senators, and governors that believe the world is 6000 years old. That alone is a problem.

One problem would be the statute of limitations. If it was long enough ago, it's not prosecutable. Doesn't make it less of a crime. Doesn't make him any less appropriate to hold public office (not that that concept is really possible at this point). Doesn't make him less of a shitbag. But likely not prosecutable.

So ... win-win!

I could not believe that Joe Trinko had died then. He was an amazing gentleman who was good to me when we were doing the east coast big ways. He even got a US Golden Knights 8 way team picture framed and autographed and presented it to me at the 1999 Virginia State Record event. I even got to get the Queen of Freefall (her name escapes my memory at this time) and her friends to do a side jump with me and four of my fellow deaf skydivers that weekend. Fun times.

One thing I love about this place is when people ask a question that makes me go: "Hmmm... That's a good question. I wonder what the answer is." FAA site: https://www.faa.gov/about/office_org/headquarters_offices/agc/practice_areas/enforcement/enforcement_actions Not surprisingly, there's a process similar to a court proceeding. I know Bill Dause & his lawyers are pretty good at this one. But I never knew the exact process.

I don't think that the location of manufacture creates quality issues. I know lots of Americans who think that 'Slovenia' is some kind of third world sweatshop (it's not--I've been there) and yet some of the world's best canopies are made there. Parapex is a huge operation, and is very good at following instructions. I think that 'check that the trunk line isn't twisted before sewing in the branch lines' just wasn't on the instruction sheet when that canopy was made. I'm not sure if it is now or not. The major issues with Asian manufacturing are about communication, not quality. You have to be incredibly explicit about every single step in the process, to make sure they follow your exact procedures. I've spent many hours writing up spec sheets and then had products made that found every single possible way to screw something up that I hadn't explicitly specified. We tend to have this weird view that you can just send things off to Asia and get them made for nothing. But there is actually quite a lot of work involved with setting up that supply chain and maintaining it. The back and forth prototyping on a new product, especially if you aren't physically flying to the factory, is insanely tedious.

An excellent example. By reframing the Civil War as a "war of northen aggression" having nothing to do with slavery, whites in the south could avoid any residual feelings of shame associated with the position they took on slavery. They could instead take pride in their ancestors who stood up to an evil north, rather than trying to reconcile their heritage of slavery with a more modern view of civil rights. We are seeing the same thing happen today with the attempted cancellation of both CRT and the 1619 project. These studies of history make many white people feel bad, because it reminds them that a significant part of this country came from the labor of slaves. This make them feel - not bad, exactly, but like they cannot be as proud of their history as they otherwise could be. "Make America Great Again" doesn't work if those halcyon days included slavery (or enforced segregation, or redlining, or any of the other structural racisms that the early and mid US incorporated.) So they try to ban it. They realize that banning history is something of a bad look, so they dress up the ban in flowery language and mix in a few "won't someone please think of the children" memes. We've seen these a lot lately - "why are teachers teaching our children to hate themselves?" CRT teaches kids "to be ashamed that they are white." One theoretically real child tearfully asked her far-right mother "Why am I hated so much?" - and then supposedly needed therapy to overcome all the damage that CRT did. (How fortunate that that child did it just in time for Marsha Blackburn's political campaign.) Others spend thousands of words trying to define CRT to mean something other than CRT. It's an "unremitting attack on Western institutions." It teaches that "America is systemically racist and must be dismantled." It was created by Karl Marx to destroy democracy. It is a "monstrous evil" that gives black people "the whip handle" over white people. (That last was from Pat Robertson; what a fascinating metaphor to use when one is advocating ignoring what slavery did to the country.) Underlying all this blather is a simple belief common amongst the right - that education can and should be curtailed because it makes some people feel uncomfortable or threatened. We have seen several examples right here on this forum. George Orwell once said that "he who controls the past controls the future." Conservatives are trying to take control of the past and alter it to something that works better for them. The question is - will we let them?

It's a well understood risk, and something you should check for during assembly of the rig, and any time you open the links. If the canopy is assembled to the links properly, the lines will not twist unless you open the links. I don't think I've ever seen a suspension line with a sewn in twist. With traditional control line cascades, there is no risk of improper assembly, but the lines can twist during the jumping process (usually after landing), which is one of the reasons you should check your control lines for twists (and continuity) regularly--preferably on every pack job. So, no, definitely not a new idea. I think the first time I heard that twisted lines could cause tension knots was in the 90s, but I'm sure it was understood even before that--I just wasn't jumping in the 80s to hear about it.

Holy shit. That extra 10 minutes in the tunnel really sank in to grasp the meaning of a fluid environment. I get it now. Less about perfect body position and more reacting to the airflow with controlled movements. I still suck at flying but at least I can fly. Left 360s are fantastic. Right 360s are slow. Realized my body has a weird twist it wants to do naturally so I'll have to overcome that.

Yeah, someone that was pregnant got my grandma pregnant just by breathing on them, just like COVID.

Ok, so I did my 10 jump yesterday.. had two rough landings... one 5 feet from the runway, the other i landed on the runway and PLF’d on the grass right beside it... I have an exit weight of 210... I started on a 260, had standing landings, my instructor then moved me to a 240, had standing landings. This past weekend wind conditions were different than normal, changing up my usual flight plan, with low windspeeds. My instructor downsized me to a 220 and thats when the bad landings started. I purchased a rig with a Sabre 2 210, as my instructors said this was a good way of saving money, and staying out of student gear... my instructor wants to put me on a 200 next jump as it will be more comparable to the speed and sportiness of the rig I got. Ive been flying navigators.. and have not jumped my rig yet... my concern is moving down to a 200 since i had a rough time with landing on the 220. Any recommendation on how I should approach the situation? Trust my instructors or my fear? Go easy on me.. I’m a noob, appreciate all help and insight.

Who gives a shit where Hunter Biden's laptop came from? I don't remember him participating in any elections.

So what? Tinfoil much?

Wow the right is getting desperate. But her emails! And what about Vince Foster?

I have no evidence that they reduce tension knot risk. I have clear photos and video of a canopy with this style of control lines experiencing a tension knot. I have also seen some evidence that the use of a different line weight in the 'trunk' line focuses the force of opening more on the 'trunk' line attachment. I have seen three different canopies with this style of control line that experienced structural failures (tearing) at the line attachment point of the 'trunk' line. Basically, on this one I agree with Apex. I have no problem with personally jumping lines of either style though. Also be aware that the 'trunk and branch' style control line creates the possibility for a new problem with discontinuity of the control line. If you drop your toggle at landing and do not clear the control lines from canopy to toggle on each pack job, it's possible to have the toggle flip through an upper cascade and compress the canopy tail in flight, resulting in an apparent 'built in turn' until you correct the discontinuity. I have seen multiple jumpers who did not perform this check and complained of out of trim canopies until someone else corrected the problem for them and explained what to look for.

IMO you said it perfectly, you were good with the 240. So stick with the 240 until you get stand up landings every time and then downsize to your 210. Something to note, your Sabre 2 is going to be MUCH faster than your Student Canopy, I have the same exact canopy and the same progression, 280-260-240-210 (WL of 240 and 210 is the same due to loosing some weight.) Also make sure you understand how your Sabre 2 flares up high as it is different than most student canopies. I LOVE my sabre 2 and I am comfortable sticking at a 210 for a while longer.

I'll give it a try: You "downsized in two ways at once" -- both in canopy size, and by jumping in low wind conditions that you weren't used to. Maybe the instructor didn't realize the latter. (And instructors can never be sure how someone will handle whatever "next step" there is.) So my first instinct is to say just back off one notch to improve the landings. Don't try out the new-to-you 220 when the winds are really low, a situation you aren't yet used to. However, it sounds like this is more about your pattern. Missing the LZ and presumably hitting a non-grass runway, or almost doing so, is more concerning. So this is less whether you need to do a bit of a PLF because the landing might be a little tough on your ankles. Landing on a hard runway is not a big deal physically if you already have your landings dialled in to be soft, but you may not be at that stage to do so consistently. (What the DZ and any pilots think of landing there, is another matter, and depends on the DZ.) Maybe your DZ is tight, but in any case, you probably don't want to mess around with hard runways at this stage. So definitely back off -- even back to the 240 in normal winds -- and work on the pattern, making it consistent. At some point though, you will have to deal with different winds that change your whole pattern planning and descent angles. Saving some money is great, and it is nice to get off student and rental gear. But you know that you'll be spending plenty more on the sport in the future anyway. Not hurting yourself is more important than spending some extra while taking the downsizing slower.