DrewEckhardt

While cancer often really sucks it depends. My butt hurt from the 40mm operating proctoscope they used to cleanup my stage 1 rectal cancer and I missed a few days of work, although that was far better than a heart attack. Being aware of your family's medical history and following accepted screening protocols makes getting treatment like that when you still have "Cancer Lite" a lot more likely. They found mine early due to a false positive occult blood test from the biggest red meat binge of my life the day before my regular checkup, but I don't recommend other people rely on luck like that.

It makes a lot of sense. Men approach their violent peak coming out of high school. In 2010 the FBI counted 395 murdering boys age 13 to 16, 1445 murdering men age 17 to 19, 2315 age 20 to 24, 1478 age 25 to 29, 971 age 30 to 34, 684 age 35 o 39, 529 age 40 to 44.... The ones which become spree killers are so rare they're not worth worrying about, although the one at a time killings that go with criminals and youth gangs are a big problem.

Single engined planes don't crash hard due to a Vmc roll after loosing an engine like this Queen Air twin (14 dead, dozens injured, 20 houses damaged) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YqmomTUVsAw Exactly, plus the plane will be rubber side down for the emergency landing.

43 didn't try to ban the most popular rifle in the country, didn't increase taxes on business wins 59% with a try for 100%, and didn't precipitate radically increased health care costs (although that was more a matter of opportunity - like Obama he also signed PhRMA supported legislation to funnel $1T of tax dollars a decade into industry pockets). Obama kills a lot fewer foreigners. Otherwise they're about the same - corporatists, for big government, against civil rights.

Unless it can be vented or pressurized to ambient pressure, like the air SCUBA divers breathe....

Including politicians who can be as dangerous to society as rogue police officers.

Around that time PD Sabres were placarded at 1 pound per square foot, and even at elevation worked great through 1.3-1.4. PD Stilettos were marked for 1.3, and even at elevation worked great through 1.6-1.7. Applying the same logic to Micro Ravens wasn't without precedent. All three weighed more than 175 naked. Plus the rig and the clothing will put them around 200 lbs out the door. Sure, although those micro-ravens are older than some of the riggers packing them and they might not know the history.

Get your blood checked for hormone and vitamin levels. Problems like low vitamin D levels can cause depression. Psychiatrists often don't look for things like that and vitamin levels aren't part of the usual CBC/metabolism panels so you may want to see an endocrinologist. See a psychiatrist and try different anti-depressants until you find one which works for you. Buproprion (Wellbutrin) is unique in limiting dopamine reuptake thus increasing your levels (like adventure sports, except as time release pills so your levels are always more normal). Get more exercise - at least an hour a day, preferably an hour and a half. Recommendations for a half hour a day may statistically reduce your chances for things like heart attack and diabetes but aren't enough to keep you healthy.

I know/knew four pilots who died at the controls. No one I know has died riding a motorcycle although that hobby is a lot more common among my friends and acquaintances. I'd bet currency plays a role. You can ride your bike every day between garage and office if you feel like it for less than it costs to drive your car. Flying takes getting to an airport, ends up being a two hour commitment for an hour in the air, and costs over $100 an hour when you go some place. Understandably people spend more time on bikes and are more current.

The two are effectively the same along the lines of court rulings that restrictions affecting a significant number of abortion-performing physicians (like requiring them to have hospital privileges) constitute an illegal ban on the procedure itself. Software engineers competent enough to cross the hiring threshold for companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Qualcomm rarely look for work because we usually don't need to. That holds for the overwhelming majority of companies doing software in a core capacity in the core (doing it better provides a sustainable competitive advantage) and context (you need to do it to be in business) paradigm popularized by Geoffrey Moore. To quote noted software engineer essayist Joel Spolsky When you agree not to recruit you're effectively agreeing not to hire the majority of competent software engineers and keeping them unaware of market conditions which they could leverage when asking for more money.

Too many poor people are in a bad financial situation because they lack the training to earn a decent living and don't have a family background which lets them believe they can overcome that. Some make a rational choice to commit crimes. For historical reasons a disproportionate fraction of those people are black.

You do need to learn classic accuracy approaches where 2/3 brakes yields a 1:1 glide scope with more brakes making it steeper (straight down is possible) and less flatter (about 2:1). Modern skydiving canopies don't do that regardless of cell count - more brakes flattens out the glide until you're just short of a stall. You do need to learn how to land in deep brakes. BASE wing loadings allow for comfortable hard-ground landings flaring from 3/4 brakes. At skydiving wing loadings that's less likely to work well. How much of that most people would want to do for the number of skydives that are prudent before BASE jumping (500-1000 are a much better idea than the 200 minimum some first jump courses accept) is a separate issue. While you definitely want to get reasonably proficient (land within a couple feet of your target, not a couple centimeters) with classic accuracy out of an airplane before needing to use those skills in a BASE environment, skydiving and BASE jumping are different sports. Skydive, learn about weather and winds, learn about gear and rigging, and enjoy it for years. If BASE jumping becomes inevitable (it really is a dumb idea which will probably mean spending time in a hospital) get a handle on classic accuracy and BASE canopy skills (practice things like flying backwards and stall recovery) starting thousands of feet up in an airplane with a soft pea gravel pit to land in before you need to do those things in the less forgiving BASE environment.

I got together with a fellow engineer after leaving one startup and married her two years later. Smart, sexy, funny, athletic, great cook, I couldn't have done better.

I was extremely disappointed by that article. I was expecting a shopping list to inspire future purchases and got that useless crap. OTOH, maybe their message is "buy them all?"

I'm sorry for your loss, although I'm glad he's not in my neighborhood soliciting donations from startup winners and technology company senior executives.

Robots.

Guns are easy to manufacture using 1940s (the Bridgeport vertical mill was introduced in 1938) technology and smuggle in (like the millions of pounds of illegal drugs America imports each year). Personally I'm _MUCH_ happier living in a country where criminals get $75 low-power pistols leaking from legitimate markets with their gunshot wounds fatal less than 25% of the time than where they buy locally made or import from the world market. Open bolt sub-machine guns are the simplest repeaters to make (they can use a fixed firing pin on the bolt, don't need a disconnector like a semi-automatic, don't have the precision machining that accurately times a revolver, and are big enough they can rely on bolt mass to contain cartridge pressure instead of a complicated locking mechanism). In the world market $70 buys a fully-automatic AK47 firing a rifle round and concealable options like the Krinkov exist. In Australia where handguns are very regulated and semi-automatic rifles banned criminals turned to locally manufactured illegal alternatives like these sub-machine guns using the P.A. Luty design from Expedient Homemade Firearms Volume II. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0GPPxGX8pdA Fast forward to the 1:00 mark to skip the boring bits and see some in action. The UK also has problems with yardies and sub-guns. This ignores the real issue which is that people in decent careers don't kill each other regardless of gun laws and what they own - whites in affluent areas surrounding Milwaukee are killed at lower rates than Belgians, Swedes who can own automatic weapons don't kill each other, and only two legally owned US machine guns (of which there are about 250,000) have been used in crimes since 1934 with the most recent incident involving a corrupt Ohio police officer who used his to murder an informant. Those on the loosing side of economic inequality who can't support themselves in a first-world middle class manner do even when you effectively outlaw guns, look for them with warrant-less searches, have secret trials, and throw people possessing them in prison like Jamaica did causing their murder rate to increase from 40 per 100,000 to 60

Yes because it's exceedingly rare, not like a car killing a pedestrian (4000/year).

It's on Netflix too. http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/70285637?sod=search-autocomplete I watched it in a hotel room (wifi + streaming beats their limited pay-per-view offerings) and found it OK.

I think you're going to have to define the term, "clear liquid diet" for me. I'm not understanding how Coke is a clear liquid. http://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-living/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/clear-liquid-diet/art-20048505 Apparently they're using the wikipedia version http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_diet#Clear_liquid_diet which "consists of transparent liquid foods, and doesn't contain any solid particulates. such as vegetable broth, bouillon (excepting any particulate dregs), clear fruit juices, clear fruit ices, clear gelatin desserts, and certain carbonated drinks such as ginger-ale and seltzer water. The colors red and purple are strongly discouraged as they can easily be mistaken for blood during a endoscopy or colonoscopy" and some color is transparent enough. Coke is listed as an approved soda on my list presumably because it's just sugar and flavor.

No alcohol allowed. Or red liquid. Or purple liquid. I discovered that men aged 40-64 should _never_ eat a pile of beef ribs for brunch and do the same for dinner the day before their annual physical exam, especially when they have a good cardio program and are married. Red meat causes false positives on low-cost fecal occult blood exams. As a take-home test you read the instructions, follow the 3-day restriction on red meat, and have no problems. As a guy over 40 that's not an option when your doctor pokes your prostate and tests what sticks to her finger. Fortunately I got a make up test, gathered six days of samples, and returned them when I bled for my annual blood panels. I was relieved the samples came up negative and my blood counts matched the last time I had a decent training plan. I was surprised to get a request to see a GI. Endurance training leads to increased plasma volume which lowers counts of things like red blood cells which are produced at a fixed rate and get diluted - about 5% for recreational joggers, 20% for elite endurance athletes, and 10% for me. Historically that wasn't a problem, although when doctors find heme in your stool and see anemia they suspect leaks and refer you to a GI. While GIs are known for roto-rooting back sides they also stick scopes down peoples' throats especially when the victim is too young for an increased colon cancer risk. I wasn't going anywhere near that especially for what were most likely a couple of false positives. I told my doctor I was skipping that referral without additional evidence of something more sinister. She ran an iron panel which came back normal and didn't bother looking at the age of my red blood cells. As a single guy I'd have stopped there, although with a family my risk tolerance is lower. I figured if I couldn't remember a GI's alien abduction experience it didn't matter and asked for a referral to a doctor who'd put me out completely instead of the prevailing conscious sedation BS. That went no where and I dropped the issue. My wife was a little more patient and offered to call around to locate a GI with heavier sedation. Apparently the three at our health clinic do that so she made an appointment then told me she wouldn't pressure me into anything I wasn't willing to do and meant it. I couldn't say no to that. I kept my GI appointment. His nurse took my blood pressure after asking what I was there for, so it came back 158/95 with a 135 pulse over double my resting rate. Unfortunately that wasn't enough to get me out of it - just an "are you anxious?" question where an honest "yes" yielded a re-measurement after my heart was only running 50% fast. I told the GI there was no way he was looking inside of me if I thought I might remember the experience. His response was that he'd have an anesthesiologist give me Propofol which was what killed Michael Jackson. I figured that was good enough stuff and moved on to my next concern. The bottom half experience requires recipients to drink a gallon of laxative mixture. I don't eat or drink anything offensive tasting - which wouldn't be a problem because the current mixture is tasteless. I was also very anxious about drinking a gallon of anything - at 40 I could handle a half gallon of beer a few special occasions a year like my birthday but I've moved beyond that. He said I could take my time and offered the anti-anxiety medication of my choice. I acquiesced and made a colonoscopy plus upper endoscopy appointment on the spot so I could get back to my normal stress level. Now I'm on the day-before clear liquid diet. Other highlights of my day will include: An Ativan appetizer followed by a 14 course liquid laxative "lunch." Officially it's supposed to take four hours of drinking, although you're allowed to stop for 30 minutes if you vomit and the doctor said I could dine at a more relaxed pace for less stress. Spending quality time atop my porcelain throne for a lot of the "6 to 10 hours" complete bowel cleansing can take. I hope to catch up on my reading.

Is it possible to eat/drink enough broth, jello, and cane sugar Coca-Cola to avoid hunger on a clear liquid diet?

***I am a level 5 aft and so far everything is going great except for my landings. I flare all the way and am pretty good with my plf but I'm affraid if I don't get this right soon I'm going to break something. Everyone at the dz says I'm starting my flare way to early. I was thinking of using a digital alti on my right to try and help. At what alti should I start my flare ? [/QUOTE] 1. Altimeters aren't accurate enough for that. 2. The altitude isn't too critical. To over-generalize you want to time things so that you finish pulling just before your feet reach the ground. If the ground is taking a while to arrive pull slower or even pause, if it's coming up quickly pull faster. If you can't pull any farther keep the toggles where they are and PLF because that will suck far less than letting them up which causes the canopy to surge forward and accelerate for an even harder landing This is the sort of thing you want people watching you to teach, like your instructors. Teaching styles and backgrounds vary so you might try a different one with more experience coaching canopy flight.

0.8 not my usual 1.8 (but not entirely bad - I was out of commission for the plane crash five weeks later)

It turns quickly and accelerates towards the ground when you pull on one toggle whether or not that's best for the situation A long final approach straight into the wind landing in a wide open grassy field is absurdly easy. It doesn't get difficult until you have to correct problems like making a low 90 degree turn to avoid power lines for a down-wind landing on an asphalt road on the sunset load after cute chicks flashed the pilot for extra altitude, some one in the group got hypoxic and caught their foot on a seatbelt for a long climb out and long spot, and with the low light the power lines went unnoticed until the last second. If you don't have a history making out landings with low turns to avoid obstacles you don't know how you'll do and shouldn't be jumping that canopy. If you do you have bad judgement and shouldn't be jumping that canopy. Expert advise here is Brian Germain's (xx,xxx skydives, designs parachutes, teaches canopy flight professionally around the world, studied psychology in school and writes about sports psych, etc.) 1.0 + .1 (about; there are adjustments for higher elevations) pound per square foot per 100 jumps Wingloading Never Exceed formula to provide time to learn skills, develop muscle memory, and have an acceptable psychological arousal level when dealing with problems. You've been making front riser landings (you can unintentionally add speed and need to be ready for it), 180 degree flat turns from 50 feet off the ground, steering around obstacles after plane-out, making cross-wind landings, landing down-wind, landing up and down-hill, etc? And done the same on each of the previous sizes before down-sizing? If the answer is "no" you aren't taking learning to fly that canopy very seriously at all.