gontleman

Despite the outcome... that video is hilarious.

Hah. Try again. With a drogue deployed, Kittinger's freefall lasted for about 5 minutes. Note that he was falling at around 600 mph at one point.

I personally get a little weak just visualizing myself in that position. Plus I hate the feeling of falling acceleration. Sure it would only last a few seconds and it would be an amazing thing to do... but I don't know if I wouldn't get sick from nervousness on the way up. That image is epic.

Given the correct preparation and training. Would you take the leap? http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/Kittinger-jump.jpg

USPA Licenses are not state specific.

Many Nissan's are made in mexico too :)

Last time I saw someone moving like that, we had just finished asphyxiating them {edit} and they were just regaining their vision. Yeah. Ya do dumb things when you're young.

Beat me to it.

It was a dream that got me to skydive initially. The cool thing about it was that despite having never done it, my brain replicated the experience with amazing accuracy. By the time I was actually standing with my feet at the edge of the door... I had no sense of nervousness because I felt as if I had already jumped before :) And just last night I had a dream that I was about to learn to pack. My brain new better than to let me go through with that though. The hell if I actually know how to pack. (Dream kept getting side-tracked everytime I was about to learn something) Falling is the "easy" part!

I guess expecting you to provide a link that specifically addresses this is out of the question. Here ya go, Sunshine. Have a good read: Hersh, Seymour M. (1972). Cover-up: the Army's secret investigation of the massacre at My Lai 4. Random House. ISBN 0-394-47460-0. http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0719068916&id=1wisoI-wP5MC&pg=RA2-PA32&lpg=RA2-PA32&ots=Cm2A9SOr1F&dq=the+Army%27s+secret+investigation+of+the+massacre+at+My+Lai+4&sig=DFtJ97Nv6RJXd3colbvkuUXrv74#PPP1,M1 Not the same book, but on the topic complete with cites from the book Kallend just mentioned.

The problem with that article is that it will queue most people to say "Well it's your fault you didn't go get a college degree." (Considering the article explicitly serves to show that degrees are definining line in whether you are on the side with the "new majority" or the other side which, as far as I can tell, are painted to be above the problems of the other side) Yet here I am thinking about all my friends who are going to college and those who are not and here's what I find. Essentially every friend that is going to college is getting a SIGNIFICANT level of support for this to be possible. The average college friend meets these criteria: - Works a part time job and is enrolled in at least 10 credit hours. Since the college schedule is horrendously unfriendly with "regular" full time (40 hour) work weeks, these people are working 20-30 hours per week in menial pay jobs which barely approach $6.50 per hour. - Receives the largest portion of their financial support from their families. If 40 hours of full time minimum wage work can barely cover the basic expenses it takes to have a remotely normal life (food, shelter, utilities) you can be damn sure 20 hours a week isn't going to cut it. As such, these kids are going to college with tuitions anywhere from $4,000-$8,000 per year if not more. (Working full time for $8/hr plus a $250 monthly bonus I made $16.6k taxable last year to put those costs in perspective) Not to mention cost of books. And ESPECIALLY not to mention cost of living expenses. They either live with their parents or their parents help them pay for their apartment/dorm etc. These are the two biggies. There are no magic scholarships that are paying for the bulk of the college-going community's expenses. So anyone using that as a basis for "You didn't try hard enough" is left with nothing but a cop out excuse. But the whole point of bringing this up is to squelch the notion that college degrees are something that come simply as the result of a choice to get one. The reality is that a kid just out of high school with little to know support from his parents who seeks to get a college degree while doing his best to be self-sufficient is in for an uphill battle that will take longer to reward him with a Bachelors than it will take the other end of the spectrum to achieve a PhD. And that's aggressive speculation. In my opinion, the minimum wage hike is most beneficial to the above mentioned individual. There is no reason a kid out of high school should have to work 80 hours a week just to approach the level of being able to live on their own with a decent standard of living. If you want them to go to college and get degrees... empower them to do so. A kid in such a situation who's parents househould bring home more than around $35,000 receives almost no government help with the cost of a degree until they are 24 years old. Until then, it's this country's obligation to provide that individual with the means to take care of themselves in such a way that they feel as though they are succeeding in at least that. Provided they are willing to work like the rest of us. The sad thing is, minimum wage doesn't allow for that. I make $10/hr working 40 hours a week and to afford medical insurance, a means of transportation to my job, insurance on that transportation, gas, food that transcends the level of cup ramen, and a place to live with at least a couple of the amenities that your typical middle class individual gets to enjoy (the only source of home entertainment my roommates and I have are computers with a broadband internet connection... [note that in countries like South Korea, it's virtually unheard of to NOT have a broadband internet connection] no TV here) requires just about ALL of my income and I live with 2 other people. I would not be capable of maintaining my current living situation on minimum wage. So unless minimum wage employees are given plenty of places (section 8) to live where they can be grouped up with other minimum wage employees to split bills... minimum wage will continue to be inadequate for accomplishing it's stated goal.

I thought most people did get along!? People are different though so you can't expect everyone to agree. The difference is how people handle their disagreements It would seem reading some of the SC content that maybe 2 or more individuals wouldn't do well in the same room... and that may be true sometimes... but I bet the actualities of things dictate that more often than not... people do get along

I've never received an e-mail from youtube and I've never noticed spam as a result. Rest easy

Clearly. If only it were true. I'd love to walk into the pharmacy in real life as I just did and hear those magic words. The problem has been that my current medical insurance hasn't covered the prescription (perhaps because its "new"ish) and the insurance itself sucks. I have 12 pills left and 3 months before I get my new insurance. I only take them when I really feel like I need them which is not how they are supposed to be taken. Just spacing it out as 1 per week. So I guess my mind is coming up with ways to make it possible! Yay for positive thinking.

A bottle of the only prescription I take is right around $300. Its a combo of two other meds.. olanzapine and fluoxetine. My dream had my brain imagining that if I were to get those 2 in seperate generic bottles... I would either pay $70 for both or around $70 for each. Surely I'm dreaming. God what a weird thing to dream about.

I'm an idiot. In my mind I was thinking "people with that particular helmet maybe aren't as concerned with impact protection." I hate when not quite everything you're thinking to type makes it into the post window.

No option for both. This poll is broken. To and fro here. I'm thorough.

BWAHAHAHAHAHA! ... ...... ... But seriously... how do you tell them apart? The liars aren't just flat out gonna tell ya they are liars. Regardless I knew this thread would deliver from the moment I saw the title.

My understanding is that the only protection most people are looking for is that of the face from wind.

That appears to be blaming all inflation on the minimum wage. The minimum wage has been stagnant for years but inflation hasn't stopped. Sorry, counselor, I don't buy that one. Our spread between the richest and the poorest Americans is just unconscionable. The Swedes have plenty of wealthy people, and they have a far lower poverty rate than us, longer life expectancy, lower infant mortality, and more redistribution of wealth. Perhaps I can get your opinion on this professor. In simple terms... would at least a significant portion of inflation be related to the fact that there is foreign money paying for our domestic funds and resources? If we have a national debt approaching 10 trillion dollars, then in my mind, that means we have 10 trillion dollars in resources (currency, goods, buildings whatever) that we don't own. If I have 3 dollars and Bob loans me 1, I then have 4 dollars. If I give you 1 of those dollars, in actuality I'm giving you 1 dollar that has a lien of 33 cents on it until I pay Bob his dollar back. EDIT: Since I owe Bob money, that "dilutes" the value of currency as it sits in my system. Sure I have $4 to my name but I'm really only worth $3. Am I over-simplifying this? I've been under the impression that our national debt is one of, if not, THE largest sources of inflation.

As I was watching the video, I was feeling compelled this way as well Logically... if you're faced with the choice between riser covers that are more likely to contribute to injury, or less likely...... I'll take "What's less likely to hurt me" for $1000 Alex.

Much like the tax breaks to people who make under $100k per year (and lack huge amounts of business assets and investment shares) are rarely what they seem. Doesn't stop Cletus from falling down at the feet of our current administration.

Your work environment is also not one comprised of minimum waged employees either, I imagine. But regardless... like I alluded to in my first post... if the goverment would stop pissing money away on the Middle-East... that would mean a lot more money available for supporting our own country before we buckle/implode under our own weight. Not that I've analyzed the pros and cons regarding the subject, but more government subsidization for employer insurance, at the surface, doesn't look like a bad idea at all. EDIT: Subsidized insurance = cheaper premiums for employers AND employees.

Some labor is of that sort and other labor isn't. I suspect you know that. You addressed that when you mentioned the labor associated with managing that employee (paper work, work space, etc) and I agree. Regardless... the whole flipside to the minimum wage increase is supposed to be tax benefits for those benefits that negate the minimum wage hike. Of course everyone can dig out their tin foil hat and show how this is yet another stealthy way of giving tax cuts to business which make Neo-cons more popular. I believe the tax cut portion of the minimum wage hike was tossed in there by conservatives if I remember correctly. Besides it wouldnt make sense for those crazy "tax and spend" liberals to give business tax breaks. Right?

I'll go even further. There are additional marginal costs associated with simply having another human being around: paper work, personnel management time, desks, tools, equipment, square footage, and general distraction. So having 9 employees might be cheaper than 10 even if the total wages are higher. Cheaper is not always better. Like I mentioned above... you have to walk the line between overworking and overpaying your employees carefully. If you are a fast food restaurant you have a set number of hours in the work day that need to be filled. You can't just replace 2 people with 1 and work that one less hours for higher pay and magically have your problems go away. You still need people there from 10am to 11pm or whatever. The only industry that's going to be directly hit by a minimum wage hike is an industry which exploits purely teenage labor or adults who can't/don't move up to other forms of employment. Fast food is a prime example of this and the businesses labor hour model for all of the business in that industry are pretty much subject to the same rules.