happythoughts

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Posts posted by happythoughts

  2. Gore Vidal

    Quote

    I too have been a close observer of the doings of the Bank of the United States. I have had men watching you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the Bank. ... You are a den of vipers and thieves.
    —Andrew Jackson in 1834 on closing the Second Bank of the United States.[2]

  3. The success of Wall Street is not related to most Americans.

    Easy example ? The textile industry.
    The companies did well when sending 96% of the jobs
    to central America. Whole counties in the Carolina states
    lost 90% of their employment.

    Is Wall Street ok ? Sure.

    Is the life of 90% of Americans improving ? No.

    To Buffet, America is his rich friends. They'll be fine.

  5. people are categorizing the angry, selfish slut as a bad thing.
    someone has to be out there for the single people.
    shouldn't there be someone for everyone ?
    :ph34r:


    edited to add:
    after all, if everyone was married, nobody would be getting any.
    ;)

  7. Quote

    I prefer Crown Black or George Dickle thank you.

    And Andrea likes it when I smack her ass!

    B|


    instead of Cosmo, i read all the relationship articles in Penthouse.
    they seem to say the same thing. ;)

  10. Quote

    The canopy incident problem won't go away until we get serious about analyzing incidents. There is so much critical data that ISN'T collected about canopy incidents that a pattern of critical elements may never be established.

    Some of the industry's assumptions about the causes of canopy incidents and their cures might be quite different if a deeper fact extraction and analysis was performed.

    Bummer, but true.



    true. that is why i don't assume to have all solutions.
    i am just suggesting that each dz should solve this one.

    the idea that "this is complex, so let's not do anything"
    is a really bad decision.
    we don't need to fix everything, but we need to do something about the known things.

    if you watch someone do a 180 over the middle of 8 jumpers
    and get away with swerving through them, that is one
    problem that is easy to identify and solve. "stop doing that"

    second problem ? after Bob Holler died - how long until people went back to business as usual ?
    a month of anger and then... dropped.

    when we do bigways, "at 500 ft, you are on final,
    you are part of the 100+ person group, no stupid stuff,
    not even a 90"

    if we can create rules that allow 130 people to land safely,
    why not make a simple one for 9 people landing safely ?

    most dzs have rules, they just don't enforce them.

    some of the people who have died in canopy collisions
    have had more jumps/skills than 10 weekend fun jumpers.
    some people died just because they under the wrong careless turn.

  11. Quote

    Quote

    Ron, I went 12 years with out a drink..... then I turned 13.



    :DI haven't heard that one in a long time.

    Here's a challenge. If you drink regularly but do not consider yourself as having a problem, try going without alcohol for one year.


    You are saying that regular use equates to addiction.

    There are sex addicts.
    There are people who regularly enjoy sex.

    If you have had sex regularly this month, then you
    should quit for a year, to prove that you are not a sex addict.

    Thank you for playing the illogic game.

  13. Quote

    We teach it, does that mean that we have to do it every time???
    I swoop after almost every jump but I make sure my students know what to do different than what I am doing...
    When they grow up it is just like driving a car...some go faster than others and have wrecks...
    Don't hate on me for doing what I can safely...
    I know you ain't hatin' but it sure feels like dislike ;)
    If I see a someone driving too fast under canopy they get told about it..fer sure.



    the problem is solved by the swoopers.
    they don't go through the middle of the pattern.

    1- they can sit and wait, then go when the pattern clears.
    2- they can hop and pop, and enter a vacant landing area.

    there is no reason to downwind across the top of
    the main landing area (with other jumpers present)
    and then do a 180 into a populated pattern.

    if someone is zigzagging through 5 jumpers on final,
    that person survives because the person ahead of
    them is flying safely. one radical change and the unseen person behind will plow into them at 50 ft.

    there is a too-long list of jumpers (many experienced ones) who were killed by others in canopy collisions.
    being safe doesn't help if the person who hits you isn't.

    i am discussing recklessness flying and arrogant disregard for others. skill isn't a factor.

    each dz needs to a policy for this.

  14. things happen and then, for 2 months, people bitch about it.
    "yes, reckless. a tragedy. so sad. we should have rules. they should be enforced."

    we keep having canopy collisions.
    then people are angry and sad.
    then they stop thinking about it.

    a dz should have landing area rules.
    they should be enforced.

    if someone continuously does this, and no one mentions it to them,
    then those people are complicit in their actions and the results.
    if you don't take action, then you don't get to have
    some kind of righteous indignation when they put your
    friend in the hospital.
    mention it to your S&TA, that is their job.

    i don't care if they have Mad Skillz.
    i don't care if their buddies think they are Special-cool.
    no special privileges.

    fly the pattern.
    no 360s over the MLA.
    no 180s in a crowded pattern.
    follow the landing direction.

    the rules are there to protect others.

    a person who takes chances that endanger other peoples lives without care are just dicks. feel free to mention it to them.

  15. Instead of the two-party system, we should have one big wild party. Something similar to Saturnalia.

    The national party convention would involve skydiving.
    After 5 days of continuous drinking, anyone still sober enough to be interested
    in being president would be discounted as unqualified.

    (Perhaps that is how it is done now) ;)

  20. Quote

    You're a blone engineer, right?



    i am an engineer and a guy. that means i am required to take things apart
    and see how they work. all guys understand that is a standing rule.

  22. At Miami International, this is called "end of day bonus".

    A while back, 60 minutes did a show that captured people
    heading for the employee parking with half full trash bags.

    The TSA terrorism luggage-bomb prevention thought of the day should be,
    "if a person has 30 seconds to take a camera out of luggage,
    then they have 5 seconds
    to put something else into luggage."

    Anyone who wants to say, "we can't watch everything" should get fired and replaced with a Vegas casino security chief.

  23. Alien beings from a highly advanced society visited the Earth.
    I was the first human they encountered. As a token of intergalactic friendship,
    they presented me with the coolest thing ever.
    A small but incredibly sophisticated device that is capable of curing all disease,
    providing an infinite supply of clean energy, wiping out hunger and poverty,
    and permanently eliminating oppression and violence
    all over the entire Earth.

    I'm either going to give it to the President of the US
    or Secretary General of the UN soon.



    I should have taken better notes as I was taking it apart though. :)