Fast

http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/futureoftech/us-representative-calls-outlawing-3-d-printed-gun-magazines-1B8035746 This is a stunning example of the people who run this country being out of touch with reality. There is no feasible or practical way of stopping people from doing this. Sure, it's one more thing that you could prosecute someone with who is already breaking the law, but most of the nut jobs kill themselves anyways or are already breaking a substantial number of laws. To me it demonstrates a lack of understanding what's reasonable or not. Efforts need to be focused on things that can be controlled. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Yes, it sorta does. Any thoughts about Nero? You're a professor. You have more options than everyone else. To be honest with you, I finally gave up on alternatives and am paying adobe monthly for access to the whole suite of products. I do too much with photoshop/illustrator/premiere to not have the latest versions and $2500 is too much every other year. So, I pay $50 a month for it cause I don't have access as a student/teacher. As an educator you can gain access to _everything_ adobe on 2 computers for $29 a month. ($348 a year) Edit: See the Adobe Creative Cloud ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Yes, awesome. Work smarter, not harder. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

When I was just starting out with video I had quite a bit of RW experience in a bootie suit so I went with a full camera suit. I think it helped me become good at shooting video quicker. These days with a couple thousand more jumps, I can shoot good video in shorts and a T-shirt - i don't have just a jacket, but I think it would be helpful at this point. It just gets too hot sometimes for a full camera suit. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/classifieds/page.cgi?g=Detailed%2F136631.html;d=1 ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

My personal opinion is that borrowing one to "scratch the itch" isn't going to help you that much. The canopies fly different. Someone I know who was going back and forth some between a velo and a katana just got messed up pretty good. He was complicating things with different canopies/risers/rigs and still trying to learn to do stuff. I dunno, just my opinion. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

That sounds like pure jealousy! That's likely, but it's also possible there are corporate liability issues for the DZO. To me, the issue would seem better solved by just not employing people who push the boundary lines while working. I dunno - people have a lot of reasons for doing the things they do. I've been told straight up that I'm a hater and to stop hating because I was honest with someone that I thought was in over their head. I personally don't have any jealousy issues going on, cause I only swoop for fun. I just don't like seeing / dealing with injured people. It's hard for people to understand that though. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Both of my current Ads are showing "Click here for website with more information" but I am not a premier member and can't post a website link. This is causing people to be confused. It's a bit frustrating for me as it makes me look unprofessional (in terms of ability to create an ad). I also can't seem to find any buttons for renewing my Ads anymore? ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

My experience is different, I didn't go to anything near as aggressive till substantially higher jump numbers, but I would agree with PD. I think that at the given wing loadings, the velocity is a substantially better flying parachute in all manners of flight except opening. If PD recommended the Velo, what makes you want to question that? ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

375 jumps at home which breaks down as: 255 Work Jumps 107 Sport Jumps 7 Load Organizer 7 Hop n Pop 1 Balloon Jump Add to that somewhere between 20 and 30 jumps between Summerfest and Couch Freaks which I have no idea of cause I don't log. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Alternative energy strategy is a long term investment in societal progress. I think that it would be hard for anyone to argue against the fact that in the short term, it is cheaper and easier to use some of the mentioned forms of traditional power generation. The benefit comes from the fact that research on these technologies is going to make long term sense. We can't abandon that kind of progress. Long ago someone said something akin to "why do we need airplanes, trains are a perfectly functional form of travel." I am glad they did because I like jumping out of them. Though these days I often find myself wishing that along the line someone would have said "planes are nice cause they are quick, but we need to maintain and expand our train infrastructure" because the economy there makes a lot of sense and would save us a lot of money that currently goes to oil companies. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

The segregation point, I think, bears some consideration. Here’s an analysis of six months of murders in Chicago (Jan. 2011 – June, 2011). http://crimeinchicago.blogspot.com/2011/08/chicago-murder-victims-and-offenders-by.html It’s a problem primarily with blacks. Secondarily with Hispanics. Whites aren’t getting killed much, and are killing even less. I cannot help but find some racial thing. They are just blacks and Hispanics getting killed, you know? Gang bangers. Other dark-skinned disposable elements of society. They’re keeping in their own neighborhoods, and the housing projects are their fenced in domains. (The efforts to secure the housing projects made them somewhat like fortresses and they are being torn down). I do think that murders in Chicago are a cultural issue. A subcultural issue, even. Unfortunately, it’s tough to get rid of it. Most of the people I know also pretty much go with "it's just gang bangers killin each other in the hood so who cares" and subsequently there isn't a huge push to fix the problem. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Chicago was the #5 ranked city in the country for segregation. The school system is terrible and people are very poor. Knowing people who lived in the city for a long time the basic rule of thumb was "stay out of the 'bad' neighborhoods because they are dangerous and the cops can't do much about it" It's a cesspool of problems that most people don't care to even think about. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

May I ask you how many jumps you have on XF2 and what WL ? I have about 600 on a XF2 139 @ 1.5. The canopy does recover on it's own and depending on what you're doing you can do very well working with that concept, but I was able to extend distance runs using rears vs natural recovery straight into toggles. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I agree. I mix up my routine a bit to keep things fresh and sometimes I do more pointing out the sights than teaching, but anyone who shows an interest in how the skydiving works or if they are on a second or subsequent tandem I do more to get them involved. We do turns in freefall, I make them fly the canopy, explain how wind works relative to which direction we are flying and the entire process of flying a landing pattern. I encourage most people who are enthusiastic and physically capable to choose AFF as their next jump if they have a couple of tandems. It just makes sense to move on at that point and learn the skills. Consider sitting the ground portion of the AFF course. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

http://fox6now.com/2012/12/26/newspaper-sparks-outrage-for-publishing-names-addresses-of-gun-permit-holders/ Your thoughts? ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

This is an interesting take on how data should be collected and a different way of looking at this stuff http://www.jsonline.com/news/milwaukee/treat-gun-violence-like-disease-medical-college-expert-says-la843qj-184351771.html ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

The logistics of that are very difficult. If no one reports the private sale transfer then how would anyone know to prosecute it? Transfer is recorded, in database. Gun checks required when you go to the range. No record, call police. This doesn't solve the problem. Not counting the other mentioned issues with this. Consider an un-recorded transfer for the purpose of committing mass homicide. The person isn't going to a gun range, they are going down to the town square to throw down. Sure, it's another crime you can charge the person with if they don't kill themselves. Both parties go to jail? You mean if the person doesn't check out? If you fail to record the transfer? This just isn't logical. It's hard to enforce and it has little gain. Also, this is akin to "show me your papers" which isn't something that is ever going to go over well in our society. It's unreasonable search and seizure. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I was reading this then wondering if my previous post was on topic and in a sense it is to me. I think that a large part of the solution to keeping guns away from crazy people is a change in early education. We need to teach people to cope with problems and fix the root of why we have so many crazy people. We also need to push people into more adverse situations when they are younger and less able to inflict wide scale harm. Finding out pre-teen that a person is predisposed to violence and anger as a problem solving tool allows for time to re-education in an attempt to fix the problem or remove that person from society. In many cases it does boil down to the fact that some of these people need to be removed from society. There is such a focus these days on inclusion, caring and making sure that everything is perfect and good for everyone that we have failed to realize that some people don't belong in society. They belong in an institution receiving professional care. It's falling to the the criminal justice/prison system to deal with a lot of these people after they go off the deep end. Short of making all guns illegal and then going door to door and collecting all the guns, the only practical way to keep them out of the hands of the mentally ill is to do a better job removing the mentally ill from the population or making sure that they are receiving the care that they need. Like all other things illegal their existence at all makes it possible and probable that an unstable person or criminal will find access should they choose to do so. So I guess my point is that, the priority should be on identifying and ensuring care for people who have demonstrated that they are not going to be compatible with society and a big part of that is generations of inattentive and improper parenting building on top of one another. So it's easy to say stay on topic, but the truth of the matter is in fact that we need less crazies running around because guns, knives, cars, bombs, whatever... the failure to identify and help these people is why they are getting their hands on guns in the first place. That doesn't mean we should be running around asking people for their papers though. It needs to be done through education of parents and teachers and such of what to look for and when to know that someone should receive this kind of help or evaluation. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I'm glad that this concept showed up here. The problem that I have with this round of gun control argument is that it doesn't address the real problem. Our society is fundamentally flawed. We have gotten to a point where people are with more frequency deciding that these types of things are the solution. The problem is with what's important to our society. Success is measured by fame and fortune. There is very little emphasis left in society for choosing to do what is honorable and moral. People frequently choose the less "right" action because it will garner more money or more notoriety. I personally feel that we need to emphasis consequences for actions. Children grow up now with so much one sided positive reinforcement that they never learn that life has downsides. When presented with this situation later in life they don't know how to deal with it. They act in a manner that will garner them what they want without care for others or any fear of consequences. We have become dependent on reactionary laws that are meant to punish people who don't do what's "right" but we aren't doing a good job teaching people ahead of time what that really is. In any game, there should be a winner and a loser and that's ok. We dont' do a great job teaching that concept anymore. I read an article some time ago when airport security was all the rage in the media. It was talking about the fact that at most major airports in the US you can be almost as effective of a terrorist by bombing the line to get through security. (Running kids over outside the school with a car). Taking guns out of someone's hand won't stop them from doing crazy stuff. It won't stop serial killers. It won't stop criminals. That to me is the problem with additional gun control laws. It's a band-aid on a much greater problem that is getting worse and worse. How many kid's committed suicide this year because they were bullied? This all comes down to people not being taught to take personal responsibility for their actions and understanding true consequences. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

And the world is only full of puppies and candy. At some point, some form of punishment ends up being used that someone doesn't tolerate. Time Outs and groundings and the like don't sound much different than imprisonment to me. What gives someone the right to lock up their own kids, the kid is a free person with rights as long as they aren't breaking the law. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

If you own your own tandem rig - it's like a printing press for money. Spend the little bit that it takes to keep the gear in good shape. That's my motto for the gear at my home DZ. (Replace the whole snap, master rigger, etc) ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Everyone seems to forget that the great life you have is in many cases because the government started manipulating things. Point in case: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Republic_of_the_Congo A recent documentary news broadcast I was watching described it as one of the areas of africa that has the most resources that it could take advantage of. The area is devastated as a result of a lack of control. Everything there comes down to who can take what they want and force others to deal with it. It's the concept of the bullies that has been brought up already in this thread. All of this stuff is subject to "everything within reason." I accept that a flat tax rate could be livable. The bottom line though is that there are going to be exceptions to every rule. Taxing someone who is in poverty, living on food stamps doesn't make sense, cause the money is going to be given back to them. It causes inefficiency which in the long run costs us more. The government has not kept up with the changing picture of the world. Using tax incentives, stimulus, etc to encourage social trends is a needed function of the government. The problem is that these things stay in place when the problem is solved. It's led to a very complex set of laws that are ripe for the picking by people who want to game the system. Things do need to be simplified, but adjustments for good social policy should come with it. It's not practical for us to say that the free market will do what it needs to, just tax everyone the same and hope for the best. People who have a demand for welfare to go away, super limited government, etc don't really ever want to admit the truth. Short of removing the people from society who are no longer able to take care of themselves or able to sustain life above poverty (imprison them, kill them, lock them up in ghettos) we have to do something. I have said this in other threads, life needs to be simplified, things need to be adjusted. There is so much inefficiency in what we are doing and how things operate that it's out of control. The definitive perfect solutions to a lot of these things are not happy and are not things people would ever be willing to do and involve taking away a lot of individual rights. I don't think that is where we want to go as a society. The first step is doing what we can to simplify the problems, tax code, laws, etc. Then from there work towards keeping that simplicity as things move forward. We need people that say "what does society as a whole need, lets make that happen", which I think is what these politicians are trying to do. The problem is that the politics of it all are kinda stupid. It's driven by money not by social responsibility. It's driven by corporations and capitalists who want to see ever increasing profits, politicians that want to stay in office rather than help people, greed. Solve that problem and the rest will follow. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

We're talking about high unemployment, homelessness, foreclosure, housing decline, wage reductions, benefit reductions, across the board. The recession we just lived through and then some. I think hurt like hell is an understatement, riots, etc. don't really seem that far outside of reality to me. I guess that point I was trying to make was that if people were to think a little more outside the box and let go of some of the very hard drawn lines, current ways of doing things and take it slow, the problem could be fixed without that. That's the part I don't think is feasible for society, fixing it in a reasonable manner without some kind of additional collapse. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

True, but I don't think the term "Royal Mess" really does a good job of grasping the magnitude of what you're talking about. All of this stuff is chicken vs egg. Cut government spending, raise taxes = reducing the economy which in turn lowers revenue and undoes what you just did. Spend more, lower taxes, grow the economy but push off a problem that will eventually come tumbling down. We're living in a house of cards. The only real way to start fixing these problems is slowly, but people (politicians and not) are not able to responsibly do it. Everyone wants it fixed now. Which is what society has been brought up and trained to be reasonable. The problem is, it's not feasible and the general mass of society isn't able to come to terms with that. Even on these forums, people are so bitterly entrenched in things that they are no longer able to act rationally. Continuing population growth (and in low income areas especially), uncontrolled spending, failure to manage net income levels, general world hostility and declining education are leading us to a very scary place. The crazy thing is, in America we still have it multitudes of times better than most of the areas of the world. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka