dorbie

Not international waters, Iraqi waters and it's sounding like you now agree they weren't in Iranian waters but are still trying to spin things. You've spouted every line in defense of Iran here, including claiming Iran had already freed them. The fact is they're up to their old tricks of kidnapping and hostage taking. These are British troops in uniform. Are they prisoners of war? Does Iran want an overt war? Plausible deniability is threadbare. FYI Russians used to regularly sit spy vessels off UK and US coast and absolutely nothing was done about it. Your speculation and spin is rank bias and contradicts with the known facts.

If I'd said that you'd have a point, but I didn't. If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.

I don't, I pull, I've never needed an AAD, but I'm sick of these emotional arguments surrounding no-brainer decisions. There's a pile of corpses backing up the argument for AADs, and there's emotional and logical fallacies supporting claims that aren't even accurate about trusting your life to a $125 cutter. An AAD is a backup, nothing more. Go ahead jump without one, but if you persuade enough people to follow suit some of you WILL die as a result and all the hubris about your ability to pull cannot prevent that. You trust your life to s-links. How much do they cost? There are quite a few fatalities that a skyhook could have prevented, it's a more difficult case to make, but I consider some of the arguments against it as lamentable as the case against AADs.

Not getting out of the plane would have saved them too. Not pulling a handle in time is a mistake. Not having an AAD is not. Regardless of what you call it. A smart gear choice can make the difference between life and death in some circumstances where you fuck up. Nobody can guarantee they won't fuck up.

No they made a mistake in not pulling prior to impact and if a person believes ANYTHING else will save you from death, they're a retard. Ad hominem aside, they're now dead, a correctly set AAD would have saved them. I'm sure they planned on pulling, they certainly weren't complacent about pulling due to an AAD they didn't wear. Michael Kearns is alive, he has stated that he thinks his AAD fired just as he reached for silver, his closing loop was cut.

So insurance companies consider an injury like a broken leg a preexisting condition even if it's completely healed? What happens if I've broken a leg in the past and I've always been covered then my insurance lapses? Will I be excluded except for group plans if I can't show continuous coverage to the point where I sign up again?

That is a valid intelligent argument, saying someone who might be saved by a skyhook already screwed up too many ways to make it worthwhile is not.

Bollocks, such speeds are innately dangerous. The training merely mitigates the risk. If he was training on duty he should be let off, you can't expect these guys to magically attain & maintain these skills or familiarize themselves with a new vehicle on the first pursuit with it. It is rank hypocrisy though, In the UK you can get done for reckless doing 30 in a 5 mph in some places even with nobody around (and for all sorts of other bullshit and they WILL throw the book at you), the public is given no right to exercise descretionary judgement. So I'm not even going to play the world smallest viloin I have here. Traffic police in the UK are right thorough-going bar stewards.

True, but compared to a rig with a Collins lanyard and a lighter loaded main you're back to cutaway altitude, which IMHO is its primary advantage.

What analogy do you use for low pull contests?

...but perhaps one less mistake than the jumper who didn't invest in a skyhook. If you think not choosing a rig with a skyhook is a "mistake" then you've been reading too much advertising.. I don't, and I don't jump with one, but I will make that call when I get another rig. I just think it's ridiculous to discount the advantages in altitude or time of a safety device with bluster about mistakes that led up to that point. The fact is those mistakes have killed experienced jumpers in incidents where a skyhook might have saved them. It's no great leap of the imagination to see the danger zone in which the skyhook is particularly beneficial, or recount the past incidents where jumpers have gone in with reserves partially deployed. The same attitude greeted the advent of AADs. If you chop and go in with a streamering reserve and no skyhook, one of the decisions that led you to that point was gear choice now. Poor choices are easy to spot with 20/20 hindsight and can mislead (you don't see the other potential consequences), but you can call it what you like. Would you say the 3 guys who went in in Antarctica made a mistake by not jumping with AADs (Contrary to information I've seen posted, the surviving jumper's AAD did deploy for him)? Or are the decisions to be assessed limited exclusively to those made in the air. Decisions in skydiving start on the ground IMHO, and one of them is gear choice. You may only live to regret that decision for a fleeting second. Chances are most people with skyhooks will never need them a few will and even fewer will have problems because of them, this makes it a simple decision for me, when the time comes.

...but perhaps one less mistake than the jumper who didn't invest in a skyhook.

Have you been living in a cave or something? Maybe you just think everyone else has and you think you can pull yet another snow job. The left goes on a witch hunt, Libby is destroyed (nobody reporting this even mentions the real charges) and you expect people to testify before a committee of political vultures? Did you even bother to read the coments by the jury members in the Libby case or look at WHO they were? Are you aware of the restrictions the judge imposed on Libby presenting evidence? He lawyers were BARRED from making certain claims about his own workload. You don't even need to look at phoney politicians masquerading as good cops though, just look what they did to Martha Stewart. I wouldn't testify either, in fact from what I have seen of the American justice system I wouldn't talk to a federal agent of any kind, ever, PERIOD. I've never seen such a rapacious desire to get people at any cost. Stalin would be proud. http://apnews.myway.com/article/20070326/D8O434EO0.html

Get back to us after a few more jumps, if you don't keep it interesting you'll drift away too.

If there's a problem here I think you'll find at least part of it in the mirror.

"I am tired of all this sort of thing called science here... We have spent millions in that sort of thing for the last few years, and it is time it should be stopped." - Simon Cameron - U.S. Senator - 1861. The same guy said: "An honest politician is one who, when he is bought, will stay bought."

Yup, it's not such a biggie IMHO, sure it's a bad screwup but he's a student. The Lutz video enters a unique level of absurdity thanks to the commentary of the commentator and the skydiving Wylee Coyote himself. Branson's RSL worked so the similarity ended there, and to his credit Lutz did pull silver. If he'd admitted his screwup (OK and missed the powerlines) Lutz would have earned back some respect I think.

I want to believe................. any old shit! This guy PM'd me saying he's a 'qualified skeptical thinker' and and that's why he 'QUESTIONS EVERYTHING'.

Take a course on critical thinking and skepticism.

Sorry, you're trying to impress skydivers with a power off landing and telling them you almost died?

Try some chews with menthol in them. In the UK I'd say "TUNES" but they may not have them where you are.

I've heard of this but I hadn't seen it until now. So naturally I thought I'd share. It was his second jump. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=90yNsoCeORQ&mode=related&search= Unlike Lutz he didn't hit powerlines but his reserve was a round so he gets no points for that. But he does admit to being a wally, so you've got to respect that honest evaluation.

The methods used until now to detect extrasolar planets inherently select for very large and/or very hot candidates, so it's not very informative at this stage. It should improve with space based transit photometry. http://www.kepler.arc.nasa.gov/ You will have to multiply the finds by a large number to produce a true estimate since their ecliptic plane will have to approximately align with our solar system for a detection. This is easily the most interesting mission NASA is planning right now.

Nothing says you can't do both. I am of the firm opinion that you need to do both to ensure child welfare, but accountability is the last thing we'll see happen, your post exemplifies why.

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=4f6_1173888612 http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=f37_1173895695