DrewEckhardt

I don't know. I use adblock plus so I don't see any advertising on this site. I got fed up and installed it not long after dealing with my first moving pop-up ad.

Probably not. Parents these days who let kids play outside unchaperoned as we did in our formative elementary school years have Child Protective Services called on them. Only kids living in areas with parkour gyms will be doing it.

Hot dogs are disgusting so I don't eat them. Bratwurs and Italian sausage, are fine fillings for hot dog buns, although I'm beginning to feel sausage is better without bread.

He's still here, isn't he? Speaking from personal experience you can be stupid as long as you're lucky. You don't run into trouble until you combine dumb and not lucky.

I did that once and spent 3-4 hours covering the 80 miles between Seattle and Shelton. While better than the day it took my wife 3-4 hours to travel 13 miles from Bellevue to Seattle that was not an experience I was going to repeat.

***So Jeb Bush has released 33 years of tax returns which he claims is the most any presidential candidate has ever released: But if you look at the very first line of the very first return, there is something fishy going on. He reported just $4.57 in interest income in 1981. But interest rates were astronomical in 1981 (unlike today): something like 20% or so. Interest income of $4.57 would imply he only had about $25 or so in the bank. [/QUOTE] He probably kept his cash in money market and checking accounts. Before on-line banking it was easier to get good yields from money market accounts than savings accounts. Some of mine pay dividends not interest. Those are reported on form 1099-DIV not 1099-INT, and aren't included in interest income. Historically checking accounts didn't pay interest. I have one $25 savings accounts which goes with those because that was the minimum needed for an account with the institutions in question.

Like the rest of us you're suffering from a chronic case of life, which is a sexually transmitted disease with a 100% fatality rate. More seriously: Coach Joel Friel's bicycle racing weight at 60 something is still 154 pounds like it was when he was 18. I'm as lean as I was when last riding a lot in 1997 which is lighter than when I graduated from high school in 1991.

I'm a recovering fatty. I shrank from 205 pounds and 36" around to 138 and 26" doing that without ever staying hungry. My resting heart rate is 45. I'm usually as relaxed as when I had a few beers as a more sessile person. I'm well rested after 1-2 hours less sleep and my wife no longer pokes me to roll over and stop snoring. I sweat 1/2 to 1/3 as much as before. Fat people like your mother rationalize so they feel better about their lifestyle choices. The car-centric American culture, restaurant meals big enough for two, and snack food industry make growing big easy although absent chronic medical problems (like those that preclude exercise) ultimately people choose to be fat. Change in pounds of fat is (net calories in - calories out) / 3500 when you don't do imprudent things which catabolize muscle. Ignoring hunger and trying to loose more than a pound a week are imprudent. 1. Don't eat or drink anything with calories when you're not hungry. 2. Only eat enough you'll be sated 30 minutes after your last bite, because that's how long it takes for your appetite to catch up with what you've eaten. Go back for seconds and even thirds when necessary. I was surprised to find I could eat at least 1/3 less and be as satisfied. 3. Always eat when hungry so you don't get too ravenous to follow rule #2 or slow your metabolism down. 4. Average at least an hour of moderate aerobic exercise a day because higher intensities disproportionately increase your hunger ("runger") by depleting your glycogen stores. Some foods make that easier. Fat and protein provide longer lasting satiety and interact better with insulin production. Protein, carbs, and whole foods have higher Thermic Effect of Food so you net less of the energy in them. High bulk foods like greens make you feel full. Some foods help. Lower carb diets increase the fraction of your energy which comes from fat stores not glycogen especially at higher intensities.

It's dangerous because it makes you unpredictable and could lead to a canopy collision. Not planned situations. At drop zones you don't need to be that accurate. In tighter landing areas you're prudently jumping a rectangular seven-cell canopy and can adjust the glide ratio with brakes for much better accuracy than you could achieve with S-turns. When you screw up and land out you might need to.

No. The thin piece of spectra makes it harder to get the closing pin in than a pull-up cord, and decent technique closing each flap means tension on the pull up cord isn't high enough to require a better grip from a handle.

Road cycling, Tierra Bella 100k around Gilroy, CA That makes my total 1833 miles so far this year.

*** Vague rule of thumb on European kit is that it gets slightly smaller as country of origin gets further south. Scandinavian, German and Swiss is normal, French and Italian come up a bit small (and some aero Castelli is tiny). [/QUOTE] As a guy with low fat and the genetic build for climbing I disagree. Castelli's size chart allows a 12cm (4.7 inch) difference between chest and waist, but in practice they accommodate even more gelato. Their small aero jersey (36.2" chest, right in the middle of the Louis Garneau XS 35-37" range) fit me like a tent. Louis Garneau specifies 35-37" chest with a 29-31" waist with 6" between the two measurements but works with a smaller gut. Attached: Castelli small aero (they don't make XS), LG XS pro-fit, and LG XS aero. Description for people who don't want to see middle aged guys in lycra (I wouldn't): Castelli aero is looser than Louis Garneau standard fit. When you try to purchase a real aero jersey the sellers advise against it or tell you to buy a size or two bigger. Eye-safe lg_m_xs_fits-small.jpg: LG XS aero vs racer-fit and pro-fit. As a ludicrous example of size inflation the Castelli aero jersey is bigger around the middle than the casual euro-cut on the bottom. This season I'm training for my one-hour Mt. Diablo t-shirt.

I'm a guy and don't shop around. I need something, I buy it, and am done until it wears out. Having gotten back in shape and shrunk from 205 to 140 pounds (I planned on buying a Porsche 993 Turbo for my mid-life crisis, but it didn't fit my budget like riding the bicycle I already owned did) I need new clothes that don't feel like tents and thought it would work like that - apply tape measure, look at size charts, select the same inoffensive colors I've worn for 20 years, and be done. NO. Although men's clothes are sized in inches manufacturers lie so it's not that simple. Note the attached picture of two race-fit cycling jerseys sized for 35-37" chests, 29-31" waists, and 35-37" hips. The one on top is accurate. The one on the bottom is super-sized as is now typical. Slacks are worse. A web search turned up this http://www.esquire.com/style/mens-fashion/a8386/pants-size-chart-090710/ where Esquire found 36" pants varied from 37" around to a staggering 41". On top of that Dockers now has skinny tapered, slim tapered, slim, standard tapered, straight, classic and relaxed fits where they don't even bother with understated measurements like hip and thigh size. Manufacturers: please tell us how big your clothes really are. Let us use a tape measure (steel when we're feeling tough, cloth or plastic when we're in touch with our feminine sides) on ourselves and be done. Don't mislabel things so we don't feel so fat. I wonder if this is something I can sue over. If Levi Strauss hadn't marked my 39.5" dockers 36" I'd have been ashamed and lost weight sooner adding years to my life. That is the American way.

LDL cholesterol problems come from fatty livers which go with being super-sized. When I lost 15 pounds My LDL cholesterol dropped from 166 to 130, total from 244 to 185, and triglicerides 68 to 40. I didn't change what I ate - I just stopped eating more than I needed to avoid hunger and exercised more. It'll be interesting to see what the following 40 did. ( The rest of my weight loss plan is 10 hours of cardio each week; everybody else seems to loose interest once they hear that )

rifle: .308 pistol: .44 magnum by power, .45 ACP by bore diameter shotgun: 12 gauge

Felco. http://www.amazon.com/Loos-Cableware-Felco-Cable-Cutter/dp/B0038YY3QC

Get a computer science degree, move to Silicon Valley, work for tech startups which just closed a $10-$15M series-A, and early exercise your options for under $0.10 a share with an 83(b) election once you have sales traction but the 409(a) valuation has not gone up. At least 20% of the time (Kleiner Perkins has done better, with 200 IPOs on 700 investments) you'll do great, and you won't loose money on the real losers that don't start to scale. In case that doesn't work out or isn't in your future, invest in broad-market index funds.

The Stiletto was introduced with a 1.3 pounds/square foot placarded maximum, lthe Sabre 1.0, and non-students were still adapting from the pound per square foot limit which was prudent on aging F111 canopies. People were evenly split on whether I should jump a 190 or 210 for my first canopy although I only weighed 150 pounds, with the F111 9-cell PD190 the preferred canopy choice. A 190 allows a slightly large 220 pound guy to stay within the upper limit, or a 165 pound jumper the 1.0 lower recommendation. Yes. They're more responsive to toggle input than rectangular canopies which can be enjoyable. Approaching the original wing loading limit the reduced stall speed is nicer at high elevations on hot summer days. Those are reasons every modern skydiving canopy has a tapered or elliptical shape, called "semi-elliptical" for marketing purposes to indicate less aggressive performance. .

Absolutely. Democratic presidents are more likely to sign and agitate for gun bans and more punitive taxes. Republicans are more likely to restrict abortion and oppose gay rights. Otherwise they're about the same as you'd expect given first-past-the-post elections - for big government and the organized transfer of wealth to the corporatist interests paying to elect their parties. There's no conspiracy - it's just a natural side effect of the American political system. Corporate executives have a fiduciary duty to their companies and share holders which they satisfy by maximizing profits, and the returns on politics are great. The defense industry is the all time champion, sucking up more money than the rest of the world spends put together. The drug companies also do especially well with their PhRMA ( (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America) which passed $1T per decade tax to industry transfers with both Republicans (Medicare Part D) and Democrats (ACA - that took $100 million in advertising) running the show. I especially liked their soap-opera relationship with Representative Billy Tauzin - first he sold them memberships to pay for his hunting ranch, then they thank him for helping pass Medicare Part D with a seven figure job as their President and CEO (total compensation $11.6 million in 2010 when he closed the deal with Obama), and finally they turned on him for the drug discounts he gave in exchange for removing the re-import provision. There's also the National Association of Realtors RPAC, ranked first in campaign contributions to candidates for every election since at least 1998 which is where the opensecrets.org detailed data stops.

I manipulate the closing pin and pull-up cord so that the pull-up cord is beneath the metal pin and rubbing against it not the loop as I remove it.

Yes. The Stiletto is the most responsive canopy PD ever built. PD made all of the following canopies (Velocity, Katana) less sensitive to toggle input because John LeBlanc observed jumpers having problems with roll axis stability when landing their Stilettos. Small control inputs will quickly put the canopy into a steep dive that is not recoverable at low altitudes whether or not that's what you intend. Here's a Stiletto 150 fatality with just a 1.2 wing loading and 480 jumps: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3709212 The control sensitivity (especially with the brakes stowed) also makes the Stiletto more likely to spin up if you don't stay level during opening and deal with any problems immediately. No, because landing safely in a straight line doesn't predict a good landing when things go wrong like low turns to avoid unseen obstacles.

The same reason they're proud to be American - they were born that way.

No. Your main should be sized to land you anywhere when things are going well - you're not unconscious, not suffering from a concussion, did not dislocate your shoulder, did not break your leg, and eyes are not covered in blood from a scalp wound (I've seen all of those happen on exit or in freefall). Your reserve should be sized to land you safely under any condition. Early in your skydiving career the two should be the same size, although later the limit past which it's imprudent to down-size comes first with your reserve. For instance, I have a 105 main and 143 reserve. If I was current and jumping a cross-braced canopy a 95-97 would be fine, although an even bigger reserve would be most prudent. Single canopy reserve rides are much more common and less preventable than two-out situations and therefore the situation you want to optimize for.

Depends on size. Could be a T3-1/4 wedge-base package. Maybe a #194 4W bulb. We use the #555 6.3V flavor for pinball machines.

No. While you probably won't spend 100-200+ jumps a size you still want to spend time at each intermediate size (190, 170, etc.) practicing survival skills like low turns, cross/don-wind landings, etc. Canopy response to control input is largely a function of size so making incremental steps towards your target size still makes sense.