riggerrob

Dear Bill, Would you cut gun owners any slack if they promptly reported a gun stolen from them?

On some DZs that is still the present tense. Some skydivers never mature and never grow beyond the recreational drugs that they consumed as teenagers or in their twenties. Back in my twenties, I developed an addiction to caffeine and have never been able to shake that addiction. The only difference now is that I drink my last cup of coffee before 13:00 in order to allow it filter out of my system and get a decent night's sleep. Back during my twenties I also smoked a little marijuana, tried hashish, tried speed, etc. but my only lasting drug problem was alcohol. Eventually I automatically picked up a beer every day at sunset. I knew that alcohol was aggravating my insomnia, but it had become a bad habit that was difficult to control. Eventually I was forced to decide between drinking with the boys on Friday evening versus getting up early enough to catch the first load Saturday morning. The first decision was admitting that I could only have one of those pleasures. I decided that the first load was more important and that decision helped me maintain a full-time skydiving career for 18 years. I have been sober for 26 years now. Every time I consider drinking again, I remember the three day long hangovers the last year that I drank. Sorry boys, but Ihave more important things to do than drink beers with you.

Some of those "orphans" were surrendered by their un-wed, teenaged mothers. In later years, some of those mothers were in better economic/marriage situations and tried to re-claim their children. They could not find their children due to poor record-keeping in communist-era Romanian orphanages.

My family believe in saying goodbye to loved ones before the funeral. I lost both parents to cancer. My Mon went first. I was scheduled to visit her in August, but got an urgent phone call in July, so travelled early and stood at the foot of her bed when she took her last breath. Her bed was surrounded by all 4 of her children, her brother and a sister-in-law. A dozen years late our Father was diagnosed with Altsheimers' leukemia, etc. I fle wto visit him in July. It was scary how much of his mid was missing. He died in August and I flew back for the funerla in October. Side note: during a visit with the Seagull Skydivers - in the Margaree River Valley - we spent a cloudy day touring part of the Cabot Trail.

Back when I started jumping (1970s) skydivers and "dirty bikers" often dressed and acted the same. They also "moved" similar recreational drugs.

Amusing how left-wingers and right-wingers can get so far away from the (political) center that they eventually meet on the far side of the circle! Why does some of this remind me of some of the things that George Orwell warned us about in his novel "1984?" I read the book back during the 1970s are was pleasantly surprized when it did not come true on schedule. Parts of the process came true in later years ... like post-communist Russia making friends with the west for a few years, but eventually reverting to adversaries. Lots of luck finding traditional American right wing "rights" - in Russia - like freedom of speech or freedom of religion or 2nd Amendment (gun ownership) or 5th Amendment (not being forced to testify against yourself out of fear that you might provide enough evidence to convict yourself), Miranda rights, freedom from arrest without evidence, freedom to a prompt trial, free medical and dental care in prison, freedom for lethal injection if convicted, freedom to move to another state, freedom to consume recreational drugs (in some states), freedom to same-sex-marry, etc. Hah! Hah!

There was also a recent news story about Romanian police arresting Chinese agents who were moving Ukrainian babies out of their homeland without the appropriate paperwork. Funny! 30 years ago I can remember Romanian orphanages selling babies to the west. Part of the problem -as explained by my Romanian-born colleague was poor record-keeping in Romanian orphanages meant that officials could not return orphans to their parents after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Waste of a perfectly good antique airplane. He deserves "lots of loving" in prison.

Looks good with a much higher compression ratio and fewer (consumable) seals. Three power pulses per rotation. Liquid Piston also claims better thermal efficiency than Wankels.

May I suggest that after USPA saw the third forged document, they told the non-conforming skydiver to "quit wasting our time." After the third forged document, no one will take you seriously.

This discussion about corruption reminds of Westerners questioning why Russian soldiers were looting washing machines during the early days of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Some attributed the thefts to conscript soldiers - from poor villages inside Russia - taking luxury goods home. I doubted if their superiors would allow them to transport those looted luxury goods all the way home. Later we learned that computer chips were being salvaged from those washing machines ... and being installed in newly-manufactured military missiles.

Smart immigrants know that the best way to avoid deportation is to stay out of the county jail. Hence the majority of immigrants quietly go to work, don't beat their wives, drive within the speed limit and avoid petty crime.

"Paddle out" sounds like a productive way to start a funeral/memorial service/celebration of life/ etc.

I just watched a www.youtube.com video about smuggling in Iran. "Shootis" drive their souped up Peugots at 200 km to move banned goods (e.g. alcohol) from one Iranian city to the next while "tbars" risk their lives smuggling diesel oil to Pakistan and foot porters (aka. sherpas) carry consumer goods (e.g. washing machines) through the Kurdish-controlled mountains of Northern Iran. Iran is just one step along the traditional Silk Roads (see books by Frankopan). Ukraine is just the Northern detour to deliver Afghan opium, etc. to markets in Western Europe. We already know that Prigozin (sp?) has been financing the African adventures of his Wagner Group of mercenaries by securing promises of mineral rights, etc. from aspiring African dictators. This causes us to wonder which coal-mining or natural gas drilling rights Prighozin has been promised in Eastern Ukraine. Or is Prighozin hoping to cash in on bribes paid by smugglers? Or is Mr. Poutine just being a bully by decimating the Ukrainian steel industry (see Mariupol) in hopes of limiting the worldwide supply of steel and thereby improve Russian steel mills competitive edge? This current war in Ukraine raises too many embarassing questions???????????

Excessive paranoia is a mental health problem.

The airshow announcer is speaking in Spanish, which suggests that the crash occurred in South America. The desert landscape suggests that it crashed in Chile or Peru.

As I suspected the current war in Ukraine is partially funded by drug smugglers. The latest issue of "THE ECONOMIST" outlines how the current war in Ukraine is interrupting traditional smuggling routes while opening up new opportunities. Traditionally, Afghan-grown opium moved towards Western European markets via the old Silk Roads (see books by Frankopan). Most of the Post-Cold War fighting has been along the traditional Silk Roads through China, Turkmenistan, Persia/Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey, the former Yugoslavia, etc. There is also an alternate Northern Silk Road through Ukraine and Poland. Back during the 1990s, I could not understand who was financing the civil war in the former Yugoslavia. Even with wealthy diasporas in Western Europe and North America funding private armies, it was difficult to understand who was financing the fighting in the former Yugoslavia. It only started to make sense when I read "Whistleblower" (book and feature film) written by an American femal police officer who went to the former Yugoslavia to train Yugo police on modern policing methods. She blew the whistle on how U.N. troops were knowingly and unknowingly abetting Serbians who were smuggling drugs and human sex slaves from Eastern Europe to Western Europe. In one case, a U.N. ambulance was used to move sex slaves across Serbian/Croatian lines. Most of those sex slaves were pretty young women born in Ukraine or Russia who were offered low-skilled jobs in Western Europe or North America, but they ended up as strippers (exotic dancers) or prostitutes. These are the "Ukrainian widows" that Slim sees advertised on the internet. Nowadays, fighting in the Eastern provinces/oblasts of Ukraine interupts traditional smuggling routes. It is difficult to move illicit goods Westwards past mine fields, trenches and trigger-happy artillerymen. Organized criminals are forced to develop new routes farther north or farther south. Some patriotic Ukrainian gangsters refuse to do business with Russian invaders, while others just see new opportunities for profits. Speaking of profits ... after the war .. when it comes time to rebuild Ukraine, organized criminals will see plenty of opportunities for graft, corruption, bribes, shoddy work, etc. We hope that Western donors will also send plenty of auditors and inspectors to keep Ukrainian construction companies honest.

There is no point to negotiating with armies that torture prisoners-of-war. It becomes a question of: "Would you prefer to be tortured today or tortured tomorrow?" The Geneva Convention bans torturing prisoners-of-war because the practice is ultimately unprofitable. First, victims will cheerfully tell you ANYTHING in hopes of stopping torture. Whether torture victims tell the truth is .... vague ... difficult to predict .... Secondly, if they expect to be tortured, soldiers are less likely to surrender. If they expect to be tortured, they will fight to the bitter end, long after hope is lost. Thirdly, if they have tortured prisoners-of-war, those subjugated people are more difficult to rule in the long run. Many centuries ago, Western European nobles figured out that if they only displace the ruling elite, it is much easier to convince peasants to return to their plows. Apparently Eastern Europeans are not bright enough to lean this lesson. They will need to mature a few more centuries before they understand the Geneva Convention.

When was the last time a Russian ruler cared about soldier casualties???????? Ukraine only hung on to Mariupol as long as they could inflict disproportionate casualties on Russian attackers. They will hang onto Bahkmut as long as they can inflict disproportionate casualties on Russian attackers. Ukraine is only defending Bahkmut because their well dug-in troops are inflicting heavy casualties during every Russian attack. Traditional logic says that attackers need 3 times as many troops, because well dug-in defenders can inflict heavy losses. When that defensive live becomes untenable, they simply pull back a few hundred meters to the next line of trenches and resume slaughtering attackers as those attackers try to pick their way through collapsed bridges, mine fields, ambushes, booby-traps, pre-planned artillery fire, etc. A well-conducted retreat is always bloody for attackers.

One of the problems with sending illegal immigrants back to their countries of origin is that they are often soon released because their home country is too poor to house/imprison them. Catch-and-release is the norm in many countries.

Is that the same Ed White who used to work at Perris circa 2000?

Perhaps the USA needs ordinances limiting the hours that you can shoot outside. Write the ordinances similar to hunting regulations that limit shooting between sun-down and sun-rise. These limited hours reduce the number of random "sound" shots and accidental shootings. They also discourage the use of bright lights to stun deer. Also consider that most municipalities have ordinances that forbid loud noises - outdoors - after "X" o'clock. Gun fire should be treated the same way. Finally, given the current gun culture in the USA current attitudes are so deeply entrenched that they cannot be changed within the lifetime of the current generation. We are going to have to wait until the current generation of gun owners die off - from natural causes - before you can make fundemental changes.

The larger federal labs keep small samples of all of the known pathogens. These samples are kept under three or four layers of security which limits access to tiny numbers of well-qualified scientists. Samples help them identify the newest threat. Samples also allow them to immediately start testing antidotes and vaccines. Most countries do this. The number of samples is determined by budgets. Even though the Canadian Army extensively tested bio-weapons during World War 2, we officially stopped those programs many decades ago, now our federal labs only keep small samples.

I remember the summer of 1974 at Canadian Forces Base Valcartier. Some hwo a live grenade got mixed in with a box of dummies that were being used during a lecture at the cadet camp down the hill. A cadet pulled the pin on the live grenade and it killed a few cadets. I knew a few of the cadets who were in the room at the time. Bottom line, live ammo should never be allowed in a classroom. Live ammo should only be allowed on a designated range.

Short Take Off and Landing competitions started in Valdez Alaska as a way for bush pilots to demonstrate and improve their skills for landing on rough, back country airstrips. Now STOL competitions are featured events at airshows, the Reno Air Races, etc. Try to think of STOL competitions as the "swooping" side of fixed wing airplanes because they can land close to the crowd, are easy for amateur spectators to guess the scores and they involve the ocassional crash. Those crashes are from so low and so slow that they rarely result int more that prop strikes and expensive engine overhauls. Federal Air Regulations require a full engine tear-down and detailed inspection (X-ray crank-shafts, etc.) after every prop strike.