Dantes

Blood products for hospitals is a $4.5B industry. A hospital will pay the blood bank ~$250 for every donation you make. Time = Money. In this case too. That said, it's a great thing to do. I myself donate when I can.

I'm not sure about that. I think history is going to be much more unkind to GWB. He oversaw two wars that he put on a credit card (one of which was a total sham), massive expansion of the MI complex, the erosion of rights/privacy on an unprecedented scale, and held office during a financial orgy that led to the worst economic crisis in 80 years. His administration has effectively dealt the death blow to the GOP. The GOP has pandered to the far-right for too long --- and will slowly be relegated to a regional party. This, combined with demographic shifts and I doubt that we will see another Republican President for a few decades. Obama really hasn't fucked up, at all. Increased government spending is a problem, but at least much of it is being spent domestically, rather than killing brown people. The Affordable Care Act was designed from the beginning to fail. He even said in a speech to a large union in Detroit that the ACA was an interim step to a single-payer system. In five years no one will even give a shit about whatever happened in Benghazi. So barring the whole immigration wild card, I'd say Mr. Obama is going to be celebrated by historians.

+1 Obama. Making an honest attempt at diplomacy in the Middle East, and taking a hands-off approach. Israel doesn't seem to be a fan of this approach, but it seems to be working...a more neutral stance benefits our country directly. I still shudder at the thought of John McCain singing,"bomb, bomb Iran."

I was hoping to get some feedback on the sport. As a Noob, I've always been fascinated by BASE jumpers. To me, BASE does not make sense. I was hoping that someone could explain their thought process, and possibly change my mind. All of us in the sport accept the relative risk of skydiving. The idea of danger is subjective. However, I almost feel that BASE jumping is too dangerous from an objective viewpoint...if that makes sense. I know that it sounds hypocritical. However, the most reliable numbers show that ~1/2500 BASE jumps end in a fatality and ~1/250 end in a non-fatal injury. Again, to me, that seems like there is almost pathological defect in one's self-preservation instincts. I know that Jeb Corliss stated that he got into the sport while he was suicidal. It seems that most of the BASE jumping videos have some tribute to a fallen jumper at the end. I am just curious...because I'd imagine if BASE jumping was more popular, BASE experts would be brought in front of congressional panels.

Absolutely. I am surprised that no one posted this: "But Rialto's randomised controlled study has seized attention because it offers scientific – and encouraging – findings: after cameras were introduced in February 2012, public complaints against officers plunged 88% compared with the previous 12 months. Officers' use of force fell by 60%." http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/04/california-police-body-cameras-cuts-violence-complaints-rialto Also, $400 for one high res camera per cop is a no brainer... http://www.taser.com/products/on-officer-video/axon-body-on-officer-video

Duly noted. I'll plug that into the ice cream coefficient.

I'm just messing around

I know that religion is always a sensitive topic, so lets keep this civil --- as in accordance with the sky-faring ladies and gentlemen that we all are. My hypothesis is that the skydiving community at-large is less religious than the general population. I intend to strengthen my hypothesis through the rigorous statistical analysis of an informal poll on a skydiving discussion forum. Update: From my reading, the best numbers for the US seem to come from a 2011 Gallup study. It indicated that 90% of Americans believe in god. This number declines to 70-80% when the participants were given the option to express uncertainty, such as belief in a universal spirit or higher power. For the EU: According to a 2010 Eurostat Eurobarometer poll, 51% of European Union citizens responded that "they believe there is a God", whereas 26% answered that "they believe there is some sort of spirit or life force" and 20% that "they do not believe there is a spirit, God, nor life force". Results were widely varied between different countries.

While I may be a noob to the sport...I am not one to statistics, as my job depends heavily on it. The article below summarizes the topic well. It touches on micromorts, which you should be using in your calculations. It covers skydiving, BASE, mountaineering, and SCUBA...activities that many people on this forum seem to enjoy. The idea of what is safe and what is unsafe is subjective anyway...so there is no sense arguing over it. Do what you can to mitigate the risks, and be honest with yourself... http://www.skydivemag.com/article/how-dangerous-is-skydiving

Curious about the details. Swoop? Mal?

BSBD. Do you have any details on the incident?

My vehicle is the NYC Subway I used to have a car, but $650/mo. for a parking space seemed pretty wasteful.

If you've never been there, you have no right to call it chicken shit. “The so-called ‘psychotically depressed’ person who tries to kill herself doesn’t do so out of quote ‘hopelessness’ or any abstract conviction that life’s assets and debits do not square. And surely not because death seems suddenly appealing. The person in whom Its invisible agony reaches a certain unendurable level will kill herself the same way a trapped person will eventually jump from the window of a burning high-rise. Make no mistake about people who leap from burning windows. Their terror of falling from a great height is still just as great as it would be for you or me standing speculatively at the same window just checking out the view; i.e. the fear of falling remains a constant. The variable here is the other terror, the fire’s flames: when the flames get close enough, falling to death becomes the slightly less terrible of two terrors. It’s not desiring the fall; it’s terror of the flames. And yet nobody down on the sidewalk, looking up and yelling ‘Don’t!’ and ‘Hang on!’, can understand the jump. Not really. You’d have to have personally been trapped and felt flames to really understand a terror way beyond falling.” -David Foster Wallace

There is a thread on Reddit about it. http://www.reddit.com/r/SkyDiving/comments/2cp8y6/zipline_base_jumping_249/

This could have purchased 500 Generation III AP1000 Nuclear Reactors. Near zero chance of meltdown. Millions of high-paying jobs. Almost no carbon, greenhouse gasses.

My AFF instructor did 13,000 with only one cutaway!

When in doubt, you PLF that shit. I'm a noob too and it has saved me more than once.

There are actually better odds that we live in a computer simulation. It sounds wacky, but do the research. If you want to invoke philosophy, I suggest that you check out Nick Bostrom's work. Personally, I think it is naive to think that we will ever understand The Question. The word 'God' is just a placeholder for something much more interesting than a bearded guy who gets jealous if you worship other gods or say bad things about him. If traditional religion's version god exists, and I get to meet him, I'm going to kick him in the nuts and make him apologize to humanity.

I'm torn on the issue. One one end, I think that there is Ebola hysteria going on right now. It's understandable because Ebola is new to people, has a high mortality rate, and horrible symptoms. However, people are comparing Liberia, a lawless 3rd world nation to the CDC Infectious Disease facilities. It could be valuable to CDC scientists to see the progression of the disease firsthand, and to be able to utilize experimental meds. This can be important should the disease become more virulent. On the other hand, the CDC seems to have mobile isolation pods and a specially-equipped private jet. One wonders why they can't fly specialists in, and provide treatment/collect data on the ground. Perhaps, they need access to advanced labs or something similar. So, I'm torn. While there is always a human element to isolating a sick patient, I think it will ultimately be a good thing in the long run, and the disease will stay contained in the facility. The whole world is watching. If you want a disease to actually worry about, it should be drug-resistant TB. Cases are exploding here in the US. The prevalence among illegal immigrants is high (that's a whole other barrel of monkeys). In areas of Russia and India there are FULLY resistant strains. Where the docs basically say, "pack up your shit and get ready to die." Scary.

***A former Navy SEAL was reportedly killed in a skydiving accident Sunday after his parachute became tangled in midair with another diver’s chute. Ex-military parachutist Frederick H. Platt Jr., 44, of Racine, was doing a solo jump when his parachute became tangled with the chute of another experienced jumper, 27-year-old Neil A. Kuhlman, in what officials call a “canopy collision,” according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Platt died after he plunged onto a road in the Town of Yorkville just west of Interstate 94 near the Sylvania Airport. Kuhlman landed in a tree roughly 100 yards away and suffered minor injuries. Both jumpers were reportedly skydiving through Skydive Midwest. The two chutes collided somewhere between 800 and 1,200 feet, Racine Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Daniel Adams told the Journal Sentinel. Canopy collisions, while avoidable, are most detrimental at heights below 1,800 feet because it leaves jumpers with little time to cut their main chute and deploy a back-up chute, officials said. Platt, who was in the Navy SEALs from 1988 to 2001, was working as a Navy reservist for the Department of Homeland Security at O’Hare Airport, his wife, Stacy Hux, told the Journal Sentinel. Officials said he done more than 2,000 jumps. Hux said the couple met while doing a tandem skydive jump and married last year. She is set to give birth to their first child later this year. Pratt was reportedly expected to appear in court regarding charges stemming from a domestic violence incident with his wife last year. Hux said the incident stemmed from a brain injury Pratt suffered in a motorcycle crash along with health problems following his service in the Navy SEALs. The Federal Aviation Administration and the Racine County Sheriff’s Department are investigating. Source: http://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/Former-Navy-SEAL-Killed-in-Skydiving-Crash-268121452.html#ixzz38LOkBzEN Follow us: @nbcchicago on Twitter | nbcchicago on Facebook

But of course.

Thanks for the warm welcome.

Hey guys, I've been following the forum for a while now. I just had my first tandem and finished ground school. Now it's off to the races to get my A. Quick bio: Male Late-twenties NYC resident Work in finance Noob who is eager to learn!