mr2mk1g

Roses are red, Violets are glorious, Don't try to surprise Oscar Pistorious. or Roses are red Violets are red Walls are red Floors are red Everythings red

Tesla's response. http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/most-peculiar-test-drive If they can back up what they say with the telemetry/gps tracks... this journo might have a few problems in the near future.

Yup - police now saying the intruder thing is news to them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-21455453 Developing news event. Initial reports indicate he mistook her for an intruder. Shot twice, arm and head. She died at the scene.

Can anyone translate the bit where she says her jewellery is worth "wickrolls" into English? I have no idea what the hell she's saying.

Just to back this up - chutingstar are a well known and respected intermediary for second hand gear sales with 3 brick and mortar stores. You can trust them to help you out.

Yup, and they get to sit at whatever end of the bus they want and only have to wear yellow stars if they think it'll make them look fabulous.

"MPs voted in favour of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill by 400 to 175, a majority of 225." http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-21347719

Lets start with the premise that stowless bags are significantly better and easier to use than bags with bungees. I'm not saying that's correct, but lets just assume they're miles better for a moment. Why then aren't all student rigs using them? 1) They've not been around for long. Student kit is usually old and battered. They would almost certainly have been bought before stowless bags were available. 2) Student kit, especially in the UK, is generally purchased by a risk averse community who like to stick to tried and tested methods. 3) They're a cost option. Student rigs are basic, with no bells and whistles as they are bought as part of a commercial operation. 4) Many DZ's who teach packing, especially military DZ's teach flat packing with check stages. It's easy as an instructor to leave a student to stow lines in bungees and disappear to check on other student's and come back when you're done to check. 1 instructor can teach 12 people. It would be harder to check that a stowless bag has been correctly stowed if you're not watching over a student. 1 instructor can teach 1 or 2 people. That impacts profitability. Now on to stowless vs bungee bags. A lot of people who have used them say that it actually takes longer to pack them than using bungees or at best there's no time advantage. That may or may not be true for all and may come down to familiarity. I'll refrain from commenting further because I don't use a stowless myself so can't give direct input. You're focusing on the use of bungees as being difficult because clearly you've had difficulty with them. I took your questionnaire and from that it's clear you found the bungees a problem. I don't think they're a problem at all. They take seconds. In fact, I wanted to rate bagging the canopy 4 and all the rest 1 but your quiz wouldn't let me. I teach packing courses a lot and most people have issues with bungees until shown the correct technique and then once they've had the opportunity to practice that technique a couple of times it's a doddle. Ever watch a girl put her hair in a pony tail? She was a wiz at it right? She's done it like a million times. It's exactly the same hand movements as taking a line bite in a bungee. By the way – I don't use bungees. I use tubestows, a slight variation on bungees. They're slightly tougher so you have to pull on them a bit harder than bungees but they still only take seconds. They wear out less quickly than bungees so I prefer them, in spite of many saying they represent a slightly increased risk. I joke that I'm trading safety for convenience. Most people find bagging the canopy the hardest bit. Now if you could address that you'd have something. In fact, I started reading this thread thinking, "great - someone's finally going to have a crack at a packing machine!" I'm guessing that you didn't have a problem with bagging the canopy as it's an old shagged out student canopy with an F111 bottom skin. Try a brand new ZP canopy and you'll discover a whole new world of hurt.

Overwhelmingly pro choice. By comparison to median feeling in the US, most of the rest of the developed world thinks you're right wing nutters.

Irrespective of when you buy (I would agree with the above comments for what it's worth) you would not want to jump that canopy if you weighed any more than about 160lb. It's an older design made from a material called F111. More modern canopies are made from a material referred to as ZP or "zero porosity". As a general rule, you do not want to load F111 canopies more than about 1lb per square foot of material. That's your weight plus clothes, gear, helmet etc. vs in this case a canopy of 195 square foot in size. Factor in about 30-35lb for gear and that means you're going to have to be either female or a pretty light guy to be wanting to jump that rig – 160lb or less. That essentially goes for any level of experience so those comments are without even getting in to how much you will want to load a canopy when just off student status.

PM meatbomb. He's done two trips, North West to Florida and then a year or two later North East to Cali. Each time passing through the centre of the skydiving universe that is the Lincoln Sport Parachute Club for a game of paragolf and going via pretty much every other DZ on the way. He might be happy to help with some useful tips.

Thing is though, under UK law, parliament is supreme. They cannot even bind themselves. If parliament passed a law tomorrow exiting the country from the EU, under UK law, the UK would have exited. EU laws only govern UK citizens and institutions because parliament says they can. If parliament says it can't... it can't. Yes, there are examples of countries or unions that have had breakaway parts attempt to secede and there have been attempts to stop that by force but really there is absolutely no prospect of that happening even if the EU had that power, which it doesn't. Article 50 of the EU Treaty states that any state can secede at any time. Lisbon provides for a 2 year negotiation period, but if no agreement within that 2 years on the practicalities of secession, it just happens anyway. It's all pie in the sky anyway. In the unlikely event of a vote I doubt the UK would vote out. Despite all the moaning and genuine problems the EU causes, people don't like change and people absolutely hate uncertainty. It's why the politicians got us in the way they did - put us in and then offer a referendum on coming out after the event - because it was easier to get a yes to Europe vote that way. Just look at the Scotland debate - the moment there was any suggestion that Scotland wouldn't automatically be part of the EU, desire for secession dipped dramatically and the NSP threw a fit desperately trying to demonstrate that they would have automatic membership. Cameron's suggestion of a referendum is partly domestic vote winning and partly holding a gun to the EU's head over reform. He's saying "give us what we want or we'll leave and start the unpicking of the whole EU project".

Please elaborate. You picked up on the "my sister and I had an experience when we were younger" bit too did you? Pervert! (Conundrum, do please free to go on though) To answer the OP - No, it's bollocks.

Admit it - this is your Jeep right: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fy6IHPriDQ&feature=player_embedded

They problably won't even know it's an American vehicle - all they will see is two oncomming lights that are blinding them so they think "fuck you then" [or Je t'encule or something] and blind you back. It's just different light patterns from the differing US vs EU headlights. You'll probably find the easiest fix is to buy UK to EU beam deflectors like these: http://www.totaltravelhire.co.uk/european-driving-essentials/headlamp-beam-deflectors_ID_1474630/ They're just stickers you put on your headlamps - instructions will be in the pack. Every UK motorist is supposed to put them on when travelling on the continent otherwise our headlights blind oncomming traffic as they're angled for driving on the [cough] correct side of the road.

Quick google turned up this - seems there might be a significant difference between the way your lights are aimed and how everyone eles's are. http://www.motivemag.com/pub/feature/tech/Motive_Tech_The_Difference_Between_US_and_European_Lights.shtml edit: wikipedia also has a short section on it with a graphic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Headlamp#Low_beam

Take your car to a garage and have the light pattern adjusted. They're clearly causing problems for other motorists and potentially represent a safety issue which may end up involving you in an RTA. I get this a lot the other way round - my car is extremely low (110mm front / 120mm rear) and I sit inside the chassis rather than on top of it so basically everyone dazzles me, esp via the rear view mirror. That's my problem though - I'm the one with the stupid car. If I were driving round blinding everyone though I'd get my car 'fixed' so that I didn't.

NO!

Hybrid's then - they have an F111 bottom skin and a ZP top skin. They are quite possibly de-tuned as well as Nav's are usually part of a DZ's student operation. In my opinion, you'll learn more and progress faster with your own kit, both in terms of your gear knowledge and in terms of the benefits of having consistency over all your jumps by flying exactly the same canopy.

Things are kicking off relatively spectacularly in the UK at the moment following some rule changes the BPA has introduced relating to the maximum age a pilot may be when flying jumpers. I'm far from an expert on the rules (new or old) but so far as I recall I'll summarise them as roughly being: Old rule - required class 2 medical and once over 70 years old required approval every 2 years from the BPA's safety and training committee. New - 65 is now the upper limit. Consideration for extending upper limit to 70 years old for those holding class 1 medical. No one over 70 may fly jumpers in any circumstances. Procedures will be brought in by the BPA to monitor pilot age and medical requirements. So far as I'm aware, these age limits are not CAA rules but rather they are specific to the BPA. Outside of sport parachuting, pilots of these ages would otherwise be able to continue flying commercial operations, (I'm not sure what, if any, age limits are provided for by the CAA). There are big arguments at the moment over certain procedural aspects relating to how this rule change was adopted. It is not my intention to see those arguments re-hashed here - that's an entirely separate argument over the BPA's own internal rules and procedures. All I was looking for here is input on whether there should be a max age limit for pilots flying jumpers, if so what and why, and perhaps input on what happens elsewhere in the world.

So, two days ago spent about half an hour in the tunnel working on my head-up flying. I can hardly lift my arms to type. Freaking agony. Anyone got some good tips for gym exercises to target the key muscle groups? Obviously my main problem is I'm flying with my arms too much but only yet more tunnel can cure that and I'm looking to make sure I get the most from my investment by targeting my gym work to ensure I can put the time in at the tunnel.

The UN ain't never getting our guns Mr Tibblesworth!

I want aware I argued anything. I just gave the OP additional info no one else had that there may be a link in place of a shackle.

Some manufacturers will build you a rig for any canopy configuration. Wings for example do (or at least did) and will let you pair a big reserve with a small main and build the rig to suit. At least, so I recall.