gowlerk

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Everything posted by gowlerk

  1. Oh, there are still leather products sewn in US. But the leather is tanned overseas. Raw hides are brined at the packing plants, loaded into containers, and sent to India. There the hair is removed, the noxious chemicals and other treatments for the tanning process are done, and the usable leather is shipped to wherever fine goods are sewn. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  2. I've gotta disagree with this part only. Coal jobs are down for two reasons. Depressed prices due to competition from natural gas and increased mechanization. Coal can only be mined from where it is. While there is a lot of it in the world, America is "blessed" with huge reserves of cheap to mine coal. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  3. I get it. There are no country songs about solar power workers. Dozens about coal miners and their daughters. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  4. The first sentence: "In the last few months, we’ve discovered that Hillary Clinton and the Democratic National Committee funded a “dossier,” using sources connected to the Kremlin" Come on Ron. Even you don't believe that!! Taking into account what she and Obama did with Behghazi to get him reelected, of course I do. The most amazing part about you is that no matter how outrageous the lies that you post are, I know in my heart that you believe them. Your capacity for willful blindness is hard to accept. But over my time here I've come to understand that it is real. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  5. The tariffs are a start, but what we really need is an addition to our environmental laws that says that if this product was manufactured in a way that would be illegal in the US then you can't sell it here. Why pass all of these laws to protect the environment then import products that weren't made in responsible ways? As it is we're killing the planet and the US middle class at the same time. And I know that America is known for not being as geographically smart as other countries but still, do these people think China and India are another planet and all the poisons they'e just dumping won't affect us eventually? Why only this product then? Why not all products? Do you understand why rare earth metals are not produced in the US despite large reserves of the ore.? Do you understand where large amounts of your recycled trash is processed and why? Or how about your Iphone, do you know what it would cost you if it were made in Indiana? The US and other western countries have long outsourced their dirty work to third world countries. Do you like your leather motorcycle jacket? Tanning leather is very toxic. That's why we ship all our raw cowhide to India and have them poison their ground. Be careful what you wish for. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  6. I seriously doubt he will run again. I don't believe he enjoys the job. He hates to lose and his prospects look poor. And he is the kind of showman who understands it is better to leave on top. As you may know, I've been wrong about his chances before. But I still predict that sometime in early 2020 he will announce that the Trump revolution has attained it's goals and move on. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  7. If he can resist his impulsiveness, and has not committed crimes, that is what I believe will happen. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  8. Ron, there is an investigation going on. It's being conducted by a man chosen for his high degree of integrity. He will do his job honestly and to the best of his ability like the record shows he has always done. I really don't understand why people can't just accept those facts and wait to see the results. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  9. Huge bubble. The best bubble. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  10. Why do you say that? I would think the survival rate would have more to do with the circumstances. If the jumper is wearing a hard helmet and lands into the wind in an open field I would think the chances of survival are pretty good. No helmet, downwind, or into an obstacle and I'd say the chances drop dramatically. 2 cents After reading the replies here I now agree with you. The chances of survival are much greater than I thought.
  11. The actual number of AAD saves is pretty small. And most of them do not involve a loss of consciousness, just a loss of awareness. Of AAD fires involving unconscious jumpers many of them are dead anyway. From the replies to this thread it seems there are few unconscious reserve landings. But many more uncontrolled main or reserve landings for various other reasons. Many of these seem to be survivable with some degree of injury. There also seems to be a significant difference between uncontrolled but conscious and completely unconscious. In the end just plain luck seems to be the biggest factor.
  12. But you just said: Clearly the "deep state" is going use it's power to frame the poor innocent orange man. The poor guy won't even know what hit him. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  13. So, it is your belief that American justice is skewed against Trump? Sounds like maybe you should start a movement. Maybe you can call it "Orange Lives Matter". Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  14. He'll have to dispute that ticket or pay it. Just as Trump will have to dispute his potential charges. Don't worry yourself too much. America has a great justice system. The greatest justice system in the world. And Mueller is one of the finest investigators she has. If Trump did nothing wrong he will be fine. Why are you so concerned about it anyway? Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  15. Tariffs? Those are band-aid solutions weak nations use to prop up weak industries that have failed to make the needed investments to be competitive. Also sometimes called "choosing the winners". And almost always at the behest of a political benefactor. This is plainly a blatant attempt to raise the cost of renewable energy in America in order to slow down the bleeding from the dirty extractive companies that give a lot of support to the party currently in power. But it will not work because you can't stop progress. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  16. The student mode is designed for a situation where a student has a turning malfunction but is too overwhelmed to cut away. It happens sometimes apparently. Light students under large canopies can easily go slower than 45 MPH when this happens. Using a student AAD with these setting is going to cause too many two outs in my mind though. We do not use student AADs at our DZ for that reason. Others disagree. Again, you have to choose your compromises wisely.
  17. No. And if someone did and you bought one your rigger would probably send you away. Precision made a Raven with a zp topskin for a little while. It was called the dash MZ. Very had to pack it neatly and very hard to make it small. There is not really any advantage either. Reserves don't get used enough for the material to become porous.
  18. To add to the drama one of the tandems appears to be a paraplegic. With two pilots up front I would assume some training was going on. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  19. In other trade news mostly of interest to Canadians, Boeing lost it's fight with Bombardier/Airbus today. I did not see that coming. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  20. I guess I just think about this issue differently. I think of my wing as my glider. Like it is an aircraft. Because it is. I consider myself a pilot under it. Like any other aviator I accept a certain amount of risk when I leave the surface of the Earth and play in the sky. If I get into a situation where my aircraft is going to land uncontrolled I do not have a great expectation that I will survive. If somehow I do survive I fully expect to be badly injured. What other aircraft could save me in such a situation? I don't think that the manufacturer of my wing is responsible for making my wing so slow and boring as to prevent that. And I'm not willing to carry a large enough reserve wing to prevent it. A pilot emergency or bail out rig is also covered by the same rules. Most of them are rounds and most pilots have never flown a ram air parachute. If you want the largest chance of surviving an uncontrolled landing get a round reserve. But it is far more common, by a large factor, for skydivers to be in control of their reserves. Life is full of design compromises. You have to choose your own sometimes. I choose to play the odds that work for me.
  21. You keep saying that. You must know something everyone else doesn't. Let me guess, you watched Hannity and he told you the secret? Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  22. In an unconscious landing situation I'm not sure about anything. There would be a huge element of luck involved. What does survivable mean? Probably the difference between hitting a soft open field and a wall or a tree. I'm all in favour of larger reserves for anyone and everyone. I just don't think this is a major reason why.
  23. There has been a lot of talk about unconscious landings lately. My feeling is that in this situation you are in a world of trouble anyway. Ram air canopies are not forgiving of uncontrolled landings. You would be far better off under a round parachute than a ram air. But that is not practical in the skydiving world. One size larger or smaller is not going to make a big difference. If you want to feel safer in this rare circumstance you really should have at least a 250 sq ft canopy. And even then you are in trouble. In reality skydivers have given up trying to deal with this possibility in order to have small canopies with almost main like flaring power in the top of their containers.
  24. The NRA is mostly a bunch of guys sitting around figuring out how they can raise more money scaring their members. Great gig if you can get it. Always remember the brave children who died defending your right to bear arms. Freedom is not free.
  25. I have a hard copy of that. If I'm reading it correctly the average speed total velocity fully loaded is not to exceed 36 ft/sec with the brakes stowed. (24.5 mph) The descent speed is not to exceed 24 ft/sec. (16.4 mph) I can see no spec for speed in full flight. Probably because there is none.