Mockingbird

OKAAAAY.

Is there a standard incident form that dzo's/s&ta's fill out for the USPA when an incident occurs? How detailed are the questions already on it? Could they be improved?

Near misses should be evaluated as well.

So sorry to hear this news.

I'm a late-comer to this thread and have only read the first page of it, but here's my answer. I believe what the authors of the 4 New Testament gospels and Paul said about Him:
1- that He's the Son of God who died for my sins in order to restore me to a relationship with God (or "reconcile" me to God)..., and
2- that He is God in human form (He said, "I and my Father are one" and "He who has seen me has seen the Father.").

Lloyd, you've got me wondering now... i don't wanna' waste my time or money at a tunnel that's not gonna' be beneficial. But Raeford costs almost twice as much, and it's pretty far away from where I'll be.

I wish other people who've been there would see this thread and chime in...

Hi, PhreeZone! I've been in touch with AAC already and they're running-- their winter hours are 9-5, Wednesday through Sunday, and they said they can run in practically any kind of weather.

OK now-- the example you gave is more along the lines of what I was thinking to begin with. As far as I can tell, at AAC there's no hourly rate-- it seems to be a straight $10 per minute. $300 for a half hour... $600 for an hour... In this case, sharing time with someone is of no benefit unless the other person is flying with you (a two way or whatever). Right?

OK. Thanks.

Have you ever flown at AAC? I'm going to be in that area in January and want to work on my body position and basic bellyflying movements.

What if you get someone to share time with and you're not really as good as the other person. Won't that turn out to be a waste of time and money for the other person and get them ticked off?

So you're saying that in order to share the time and cost, you have to fly WITH someone-- you can't just, by yourself, get some coaching, and then let the other person come in and do their thing while you wait your next turn?

THANKS, labrys. That answered my question!

OK, so once I get the experienced skydiver rate, which will be stated in terms of an HOURLY rate, do I need to find someone to share the hour with in order to get a sort of "discount" on the hour?

So if they advertise by the minute (or two minutes), I really need to write and ask them what exactly?

(I'm not referring to any one tunnel in particular--- I'm looking at various ones-- AZ, CO, NC, etc)

What if a tunnel doesn't advertise a cost per hour, but just says something like $50 per 2-minute flight?

Could someone fill me in on what it means to "share" tunnel time and what affect does it have on the cost of flying?

I've done a search of this forum, but can't really find a definition, per se, just people using the term a lot! I have an idea of what it means, but just not sure.

Thanks!

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It gets easier w/ more jumps you do, trick is to survive early jumps until you figure it out.

i love this. this has certainly been the way i've had to approach it!

i don't usually have a lot of trouble with the landing pattern, but i do have trouble with the speed and timing of my flare. i've survived all 84 of my landings and i still don't have it figured out. i've stood up about 15 of them. hopefully i'll keep surviving until i do figure it out.

Did you get hurt?

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•First: Non-Christian (and therefore objective, or at least not biased toward Christianity) sources mentioning Jesus, some of which could even be considered anti-Christian:
Josephus; Tacitus, the Roman historian; Pliny the Younger, a Roman politician; Phlegon, a freed slave who wrote histories; Thallus, a first-century historian; Seutonius, a Roman historian; Lucian, a Greek satirist; Celsus, A Roman philosopher; Mara Bar-Serapion, a private citizen who wrote to his son; and the Jewish Talmud. To read a complete listing of mentions of Christ from these sources, see Gary Habermas, The Historical Jesus, chap. 9.

•Second: Using these mentions of him by non-Christian sources, you can piece together his life:
1. Jesus lived during the time of Tiberius Caesar (the Roman emperor)
2. He was said to have lived a virtuous life
3. He was "a wonder worker"
4. He had a brother named James
5. He was hailed as the "messiah" or "christ" ("christ"= "messiah")(Note: the sources don't affirm that He WAS the Messiah; they simply affirm that he was hailed as such.)
6. He was crucified under Pontius Pilate (the Roman procurator/ governor in Judea under Tiberius Caesar)
7. He was crucified on the eve of the Jewish Passover
8. Darkness and an "earthquake" occurred at the time he died
9. His disciples believed he rose from the dead
10. His disciples were willing to die for that belief
11. Christianity spread rapidly as far as Rome
12. His disciples denied the Roman gods and worshiped Jesus as God.

Considering those references (again, by objective sources), it's unreasonable to claim He never existed. More importantly, they affirm the New Testament record about Jesus.

• Third, please check this out and let me know what you think: Rediscovering the Historical Jesus: The Evidence for Jesus by William Lane Craig, found here:
http://www.reasonablefaith.org/site/News2?page=NewsArticle&id=5207

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What is the earliest date of any of those sources you mention?

Flavius Josephus (AD 37-100) is the earliest Jewish (non-Christian) witness to the historicity of Jesus. Pliny the Younger (AD 62-113) is the earliest Roman (non-Christian) source referring to Jesus.

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When the universe's state of entropy reaches a maximum, how will it appear/feel/etc.?

That's the $64,000 question. No one knows for certain. Considering that for a given volume, a black hole has maximum entropy, it is certainly not unrealistic to consider a pre-Big Bang/Big Bounce/singularity type scenario.

So perhaps, dark? Cold? (The whole concept is hard to picture!) What do they say will happen after this maximum entropy occurs?

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There is virtually no credible evidence of a historical Jesus, and none of a resurrection.

(I can't figure out how to link back to an earlier reply I made , so I'll cut and paste something I want to reiterate.)

•First: Non-Christian (and therefore objective, or at least not biased toward Christianity) sources mentioning Jesus, some of which could even be considered anti-Christian:
Josephus; Tacitus, the Roman historian; Pliny the Younger, a Roman politician; Phlegon, a freed slave who wrote histories; Thallus, a first-century historian; Seutonius, a Roman historian; Lucin, a Greek satirist; Celsus, A Roman philosopher; Mara Bar-Serapion, a private citizen who wrote to his son; and the Jewish Talmud. To read a complete listing of mentions of Christ from these sources, see Gary Habermas, The Historical Jesus, chap. 9.

•Second: Using these mentions of him by non-Christian sources, you can piece together his life:
1. Jesus lived during the time of Tiberius Caesar (the Roman emperor)
2. He was said to have lived a virtuous life
3. He was "a wonder worker"
4. He had a brother named James
5. He was hailed as the "messiah" or "christ" ("christ"= "messiah")(Note: the sources don't affirm that He WAS the Messiah; they simply affirm that he was hailed as such.)
6. He was crucified under Pontius Pilate (the Roman procurator/ governor in Judea under Tiberius Caesar)
7. He was crucified on the eve of the Jewish Passover
8. Darkness and an "earthquake" occurred at the time he died
9. His disciples believed he rose from the dead
10. His disciples were willing to die for that belief
11. Christianity spread rapidly as far as Rome
12. His disciples denied the Roman gods and worshiped Jesus as God.

Considering those references (again, by objective sources), it's unreasonable to claim He never existed. More importantly, they affirm the New Testament record about Jesus.

• Third, please check this out and let me know what you think: Rediscovering the Historical Jesus: The Evidence for Jesus by William Lane Craig

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The question was, how was what that family believed different from what you believe.

My guess is that rynodigsmusic would take his child to the doctor if the child was sick, rather than relying on only prayer, and that is how his beliefs are different from that family's beliefs.(???)

Well, thank you, Shotgun. At least someone is reading his comments/replies.

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ENTROPY
NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. en·tro·pies
1. Symbol S For a closed thermodynamic system, a quantitative measure of the amount of thermal energy not available to do work. 2. A measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system. 3. A measure of the loss of information in a transmitted message. 4. The tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity. 5. Inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society.

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Is the general idea of entropy, as given by the American Heritage Dictionary, untrue?

None of them are very precise. One is the best of them, but the link JackC provided to you is much better than your American Heritage Dictionary. In what units does your dictionary tell you entropy is measured? That would be an important bit of information to know if one wanted to understand precisely what entropy was.

You know the glass of ice water in the room illustration? I have a question about this:

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Over time the temperature of the glass and its contents and the temperature of the room become equal. The entropy of the room has decreased as some of its energy has been dispersed to the ice and water. However, as calculated in the example, the entropy of the system of ice and water has increased more than the entropy of the surrounding room has decreased. In an isolated system such as the room and ice water taken together, the dispersal of energy from warmer to cooler always results in a net increase in entropy. Thus, when the 'universe' of the room and ice water system has reached a temperature equilibrium, the entropy change from the initial state is at a maximum. The entropy of the thermodynamic system is a measure of how far the equalization has progressed.

When the universe's state of entropy reaches a maximum, how will it appear/feel/etc.?

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Choosing to use a dictionary meaning of the word entropy instead of an actual explanation of the concept of entropy is an indicator that you really do not understand what entropy is.

That's pretty funny, jcd#####, since that's normally the main function of a dictionary. I used it to reduce the explanation to its lowest terms, understandable to all (especially me). Is the general idea of entropy, as given by the American Heritage Dictionary, untrue? Here it is again to refresh your memory:

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ENTROPY
NOUN: Inflected forms: pl. en·tro·pies
1. Symbol S For a closed thermodynamic system, a quantitative measure of the amount of thermal energy not available to do work. 2. A measure of the disorder or randomness in a closed system. 3. A measure of the loss of information in a transmitted message. 4. The tendency for all matter and energy in the universe to evolve toward a state of inert uniformity. 5. Inevitable and steady deterioration of a system or society.

Incidentally, I took a bit of time this evening to read about different models that attempt to explain the origins of the universe. It was interesting, but I found Hawking's comments on his version of the Quantum Gravity Model to be the most interesting... You know, the speculation of the different models avoiding the necessity of divine intervention.

I couldn't help but think of the story of the elephant and the blind Indians.

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Science doesn't have all the pieces, nor has anyone claimed they do. However, there is more evidence suggesting the possibility of a cyclic or oscillating universe than one created by a supernatural deity (for which there is zero evidence).

In other words, naturalism requires faith, too.

I don't have enough faith to be an atheist... or a naturalist.

On an altogether other note! I'm gonna' have to leave this thread for now. I hope you and others will be assured that I still care, but I'm in charge of a big project for my high school reunion that's coming up in less than a month, and I've got to stop hanging around the forum so much and concentrate on getting this project ready!! (If anyone has ever put together a reunion memory book for reunion attendees, I'd be happy to receive suggestions!) I'll check back and see if y'all are still at it in a few weeks.

Please take care!

See reply to jakee above.

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No thanks. Too technical for a non-scientist like me. How about a dictionary (American Heritage)?

Fuck me - you've looked it up in a dictionary and now think you're well versed enough to have an argument about it?

No thanks... at all!!! That's the worst offer I've had in a long time.

You don't like the ordinary definitions of words, do you? You like to be able to tweak them until they suit your argument, right? I never claimed being well-versed at anything more advanced than the basics... so yes, I can argue with you about the basic concept that things in nature move from order to disorder. I see it all around me--- if it occurs without exception in the little things (things I can see), I assume (and trust science which has validated my own experience) that it happens without exception on a large scale.

The universe which is material moves toward disorder and will finally come to an end. Therefore it had a beginning.

~~** And for the edification of my fellow Christians here:

"The heavens and the earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away." (-Jesus)

"The grass withers; the flower fades; but the word of our God will stand forever." (-Isaiah) **~~