Lawndarter

You never fail to miss the point, do you buds?

For which, looking at other countries, you get absolutely nothing.

That's quite an honour to have made an impact so significant on him that he was sure to have the press release mention you. Well done!

Does it perhaps then make sense to think it's more important (or at least, to some degree important) to understand what's actually happening during the flare process (whether the stages are distinct or dynamic) as a means of coming to understand how a particular canopy flies for a particular pilot? It certainly seemed what once I'd done some coaching and read Germain that I had a much better grasp of what should and does happen.

In my (limited, granted) experience - there's a number of factors in play, and it takes some experimenting to figure out what works best. During my canopy course, we had a wide variety of wingloads and canopy types, and what worked for one person didn't work for another. I recently downsized from a 215 canopy WL ~1.12 to a 185 (~1.3). My immediate observations were expected - much quicker response, much more speed, and much more ability to fly horizontally. The canopies are both the same type - and the inputs to land them are dramatically different. The 215 I found planed out best with a sharp, fast first stage, and an almost as quick finish, enough to actually "pop up" a bit before shutdown - and a lot of the time I could not shut it down in low winds, so I slid a lot of landings. The 185 I can plane out more slowly and depending on the wind can sometimes shut down just by finishing in one smooth stroke. It took a few jumps, and a lot of playing with the canopy at altitude to figure that out.

Waiting this long is better than never getting to it at all. I was 35 when I made my first tandem, was instantly hooked as well, better late than never.

It would seem that it's in fact the butthurt snivelling little conservative snowflakes that do.

Grellfab chin mount is pretty much the solidest answer when it comes to KiSS helmets - simple cutaway and you can take it off when you get into the tunnel. That said, everywhere seems to be backordered on them right now.

You would believe something that dumb...

Mandatory licensing with psychological screening as a component, as is common in many countries. You finished yet?

Thirty two thousand dead Americans every single year would probably argue that something is severely broken, if they could.

No problem, it's not even remotely difficult to. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-34996604 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-u-s-gun-deaths-compare-to-other-countries/ https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/10/2/16399418/us-gun-violence-statistics-maps-charts https://globalnews.ca/news/2378037/gun-violence-by-the-numbers-how-america-canada-and-the-world-compare/ Just so you know, these comments still sound stupid to the grownups. Chicago's murder rate's actually not even that high. It's not in the top 30 American cities. https://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2017/02/daily-chart-3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_crime_rate And when we're talking about America's gun carnage, we're also talking about accidental shootings (lethal or not) and suicides. You reduce it to gang violence, but the people actually concerned with the problem don't. Ha. Sure you are. Not necessarily, but someone hording guns and ammunition should have been sending up a whole lot of red flags. But it didn't. Know what definitely didn't help? "More guns" and "good guys with guns", who are of course good guys right up until the moment they aren't.

All you can really do with insurers is wait.

http://www.theonion.com/article/gorilla-sales-skyrocket-after-latest-gorilla-attac-30860 Another Onion classic.

The premise is not false. No other civilized country is plagued by gun violence like America.

He bought at least some of them legally - and there's no indication any he had were illegal that I've seen - most came from stores in CA, AZ, NV, and I think UT.

The point I think is more that with anything else - trucks running people down, bombings, whatever, we start looking for ways to mitigate the risk of further attacks of the same or similar nature, while with guns, it immediately becomes "don't politicize this" and other nonsense to avoid discussing anything useful. I am still staggered that Americans are told to accept rampant gun violence as "the price of freedom" while the idea of universal healthcare is somehow just inconceivable. I feel like the only thing that will change it is those spewing stupidity like "the price of freedom" start paying a whole lot more of that price.

Not by whoffos...... Or whuffos.

The Harvard study pretty clearly sums up the impact of guns on suicide in the USA. He clearly did not read it.

And yet, IL is surrounded by more permissive states that supply ample amounts of firearms to it. Canada and Mexico bemoan the same problems - lots of the gun crime committed up here is with handguns readily available in the United States smuggled into Canada. It's even easier between states for fairly obvious reasons.

The Ranch has something - but I didn't get the chance to get much detail on it much less try it. You can fly the pattern in VR I think, as part of a DZ brief. It would definitely have some practical application to understanding canopy flight, potentially.

I think your cherrypicking has been thrashed out enough so I won't comment on that, but there's some points here I do want to pick up on. Correct. Also a scourge. Suicide is an impulse act, and ready access to firearms is a key driver of suicides. See a list of studies here: https://www.google.ca/search?q=access+to+firearms+and+suicide&rlz=1C1GGRV_enCA753CA753&oq=access+to+firearms+and+suicide&aqs=chrome..69i57.3615j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 The Harvard study here: https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/means-matter/means-matter/risk/ particularly highlights the impact and is one that disposes of the claim that "people will just choose other means". I was appalled as while American veterans I'm friends with were scrambling to help reduce the number of suicides amongst their friends and comrades that some idiot was up talking about how awful it was that the VA was trying to get guns out of the hands of veterans who were seeking treatment for mental health issues. I'm also not even joking about the monotonous regularity of children - including toddlers - killing people in the United States with guns. The literal rocket scientist in Utah (or was it Idaho?) who was killed in a Walmart by her two year old was the most shocking example, but hardly an isolated one. That also doesn't happen anywhere else.

At best you mean American society, this doesn't happen anywhere else in the civilized world. No evidence of that, yet anyhow. Normally that kind of thing becomes evident quickly. Yes - means like a saturation with guns and no means of keeping out of the hands of madmen. No. People want to live in a country where gun violence is not so routine that it barely makes them bat an eye. France has far less mass shootings than America, and far less gun violence. All of Europe does. Non sequitur. The stats are nothing compared to what happens every day in America. This is all a giant misdirection. And the Boston Marathon bombing was a shocking, single event. Over 32,000 Americans per year are killed by guns. Hell, America flips out about terrorism, but had to have rejoiced when the Pulse Nightclub massacre happened, because finally there was a year they could say that more Americans were killed by terrorism than by toddlers with guns! It's a whole lot harder for them to kill people in minutes if they don't have the ability to stockpile guns and ammunition with no scrutiny or oversight. There's a reason that this only happens in America with such regularity. And while everyone looked in horror at Las Vegas, how many Americans were killed by guns that day elsewhere? Statistics would suggest a lot. And they don't even make the news. https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/10/03/here-are-all-the-other-fatal-shootings-from-sunday-that-you-havent-heard-about-yet/?tid=sm_fb&utm_term=.5875a1b9f01e - 24 fatal shootings.

The means certainly matter. There's a reason this doesn't happen anywhere else. It strikes the rest of the world as nuts that Americans are told they must simply accept the level of carnage as the "price" of freedom that everyone else seems to enjoy without the bloodbath. I can only assume that you are joking. O'Reilly is not a smart man at all.

That's the point - they don't have a better life. You guys elected clowns like Reagan that put the middle class life many Americans aspired to permanently out to reach to many. Those of colour have to deal with racist bullshyte every single day without respite. The generation not far behind mine has to go enormously into debt to get an education to get a job that pays real wages far lower than what they could have been if wage growth hadn't stagnated, and can't even conceive of the standard of living that many enjoyed years ago. They have a right to be pissed off.