jerry81

Paid to take bullet thread- about 50 threads back, same heart-moving story with replies more on the patriotic and less on the propaganda-bashing side.

No, no, no, not really and no, again. But thanks for reminding me it's close. In my life, February 14th is the one time of the year when you can be sure that the pubs and clubs will be full of needy, single and desperate girls.

Everything is fine. In a matter of minutes, the lizard will merge with the cabinet and you'll be okay. Unless, of course, it starts talking to you- in that case, I advise you to cut down on your hallucinogenic drugs intake.

Check the forums for discussions on malfunctions and incidents, check the malfunctions in the pictures' gallery here on dz.com, also try and find some malfunction videos (there are few on ftp.skydivingmovies.com

Sure! Some sort of cuddly pink animated animal and lots of blood...

First of all, the term 'world's attention' can not be used for describing anything that happened more than 50-100 years ago. Before that, getting the attention of the entire world was simply impossible, because mass media which is the only means of getting such attention had not evolved far enough yet. It could be argued, of course, that Europe had been the center of civilization as we know it today for the last 500 years (or perhaps almost 2000, if we go back to the Roman Empire), but I think the conclusion of such arguments would be that we have simply been the best at imposing our views onto others- a practice we have since (hopefully) overgrown. a Power, mind you, begat by Europe itself. Perhaps we are trying to positively affect events. We have had more than a fair share (a lot more than your share, if that even needs to be pointed out) of wars, terrorism and other senseless acts of violence over here. Perhaps heeding the advice of your elders from time to time would not be a bad idea This goes both ways. USA is neither the (most important) part nor the world which you want us to be part of, even though it behaves as if it was one of these two. We are all parts of the world, no less and no more. I may be anti-american but I have nothing against Americans. Well...let's just leave it at that, shall we? Jerry

Man, that's sick stuff. And I'm a sick bastard for laughing at it...

I am so not red...

Go Europe! Ljubljana, Slovenia. Technically, we don't have any real dropzones here, so we just jump at any airport that tolerates people dropping from the sky.

Yeah, damn bellyfliers!!!

My excuse: It's 1 AM over here. But I was jumping 12 hours ago.

Nice! I had it in thirty minutes.

I'm sorry if I came on too strong. I have, after all, lived for the first ten years of my life in a country that was a federation made up of different nations, all living together in brotherhood. When I was ten, these former brothers started killing each other, which was at the time of my birth unimaginable. So I should know better than to just blurt out what you quoted. It was, however, blurted out mainly as a response to those who would see an attack on Iraq as a start of another world war. I will (reluctantly) agree with you that chances for an alliance against the US are not as small as I optimistically drew them, but will remain optimistic in pointing out two things; -a world war in this day and age would without doubt mean the use of nuclear weapons. I still believe that we have evolved to the point where no country with such weapons would use them knowing that it is very likely causing the end of civilization. -the last two world wars (as well as a lot of other wars here in Europe) were fought for land. Once again, I believe that the time when empires were based on the size of the territory they occupied is over. An empire based on economy and ideology rather than its size is hard to bring down with weapons- a much better way to fight it would be an economical alliance independent of the economy of the empire, with a different view of the world- the EU is, for example, at least partially successful at the latter. This way of fighting could, however, turn ugly if the empire decided it didn't like the independence it's economical/ideological colonies are achieving... As for behaving like a citizen of the world- I was hoping the US would learn something about this from the 9/11 attacks. Sadly, the reaction we have so far witnessed is that of a small child that has just been spanked for breaking rules that apply to other children (citizens, if you like) and goes to sulk in a corner. But even though this particular child has big guns and a bad temper to match, I still hope the right lesson will be learned eventually. And last but not least, regarding those who are away from home right now; I hope each and every one of you gets back alive! I will not ask any deity to bless you because I'm an agnostic and I will not thank you for protecting me because I sincerely don't feel that you are. Just be OK, alright? And I still hope you don't have to fight anyone...

Please excuse me if I say "Yeah, f$%#$ing right!" Using the biggest military force in the world to attack a far-away country can hardly count as a world war, even if it does cause some retaliatory terrorist attacks. IMO, the only way ww3 could start is if the rest of the world, namely Europe, Russia, China and some optional other countries at some point decided they are sick of United States' behaviour and formed an anti-USA alliance. And the chances for that happening are infinitesimally small, so please, if you do speak of a world war starting, try to explain why you feel it should be labeled as such. And on a closely related subject; exactly when is the State Of the Union address scheduled tonight? (time&timezone) It will be too late for tomorrows' papers to report it here, and I'm really interested in what GWB will say.

If we're going there... -What did the leper say to the prostitute? -Keep the tip, baby! -Whats one thing you don't do to a baby leper? -Got your nose! -What's the worse thing to happen to a leper!? -An epileptic fit. -How can you tell if a valentine is from a leper? -The tongue's still in the envelope. Just don't ask for more.

Greetings, brother! It's nice to hear there are other skydivers as flexible as me out there. (I can't dislocate my shoulders, but I can, however, pop out my shoulderblades, touch them together, touch the back of head with my hand the hard way, bend my fingers in too many directions, make funny noises with most of my joints and, occasionally, my spine, and bend so far backward/forward that my head almost touches the ground

Here's a link that Tom Aiello posted in a different forum a while back:http://homepage.mac.com/tbaiello/PhotoAlbum5.html . It's three pictures of a lineover on a base jump and a video of the same lineover. It was cleared by cutting the toggle off. When I asked what he would have done in a situation like this on a normal dive, he said that he would chop, which is probably the safest method unless you know you can clear the malfunction and have a lot of air beneath you. On a reserve lineover, however, the procedure I was taught was to use the hook knife to cut the line going over the canopy.

Two green cows are sitting in a tree knitting sweaters, when a crocodile comes flying past. "Well," says one cow to another; "now I've seen everything." That's one of the worst that I can remember. But if we're talking tasteless jokes, I bet I could get my virtual ass banned off this forum before you can say "dead baby abuse".

If you freefly, you could get a 'This side up' sign pointing down drawn on your chest or belly. Or perhaps 'Spock me, baby!' written upside-down on your forehead. Or you can go completely hardcore- get a full-sized rig tattooed on your back. Nothing says "I'm mad (about skydiving)" like a fully detailed container outline on your body. How big a tattoo are we actually talking about here?

I love it! A thing taken as seriously as organised religion definitely deserves to be made fun of.

Wow!! This is without doubt god's way of saying: "I do exist, the United States are my chosen land and all you foreign/unbelieving f#cks can kiss my infinitely big, omnipotent a$$!"

Well, that's UN. Too bad the US anti-Iraq propaganda is working in high gear;

Well, it's happened to me before, but it wasn't that bad, and I'm almost as blind as you are (-6 and -5.25). It certainly isn't fun- it screws up your dive and you spend the ride down thinking how you're going to land, but you should remember that it's quite impossible for both of your contacts to pop out at the same time, so you should have one good eye left. This might not be good enough for accuracy or swooping, but if you come in slow and concentrate you should be able to land standing up without a problem.

Definitely...the assasination may have been the lit match that set it off, but the fuse was already in place with lots of fires all around it. Great book that touches on this subject is The Radetzky March by Joseph Roth. Very much in the style of Tolstoy, but in my opinion, even better at character development. WWI occured because of the death of empires already in motion. That's also like saying the fuse was in place with the great depression when Hitler came to power. I was trying to simply cite the catalysts, which usually boil down to a single leader making a decision. True. But if a bomb goes off somewhere, we usually simply say it was a bomb blast, not a detonator-induced bomb blast

One warning call and if he doesn't stop- one shot in the hand holding the knife. I'm an expert, remember (and also liberal)