RMK

I’ve got to say what others are probably thinking.... SHENANIGANS http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SNxCvDYpmxE Near a 1000 posts in three months without a single skydive. This is either a school project on the sociology of web forums or a bet between some college students (I’ll guess the attempt for listing a jump# from falling down was for an extra case of beer). The picture of the young girl as an avatar is a clever ploy; is this a friend that lives in the dorm? For record keeping, all posts using hollow maxims count towards your total post numbers, but for fairness we must disallow all posts using only smiley emoticons without any text included. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

Your first action should be to remove the names of the company/division you noted in your original post. Companies regularly (or pay third-party companies) to monitor their web “footprint”. This would take all of 5mins to narrow this web post to you. Two, you’ll find good or bad people in both civilian or military roles – note the concurrently running thread on here re the US military covering up serial rapists. Spend your time/effort in making yourself better, not acting as the “school monitor” of others around you. If you have a problem with a person, deal with that person; don’t run off to “tell” on them; this merely brings you down. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

Yes, always great service with L&B. Only place for me for all my beeping/alti gizmos "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

I think we can discern the level of professionalism of the Utah Sheriff’s Assn by the Executive Director’s contact details – he uses a fucking Hotmail address on official letterhead ?? "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

John is correct. If you enter the US as an American Citizen how do know what it’s like to enter as a foreigner – in short it’s quite unpleasant. The television commercial with the sappy song “Land of Dreams” is made fun of here in Europe. There’s a large and growing number of people who just don’t care to visit the US anymore due to unpleasant treatment. The Grand Canyon is nice, but I would hold off on the magnanimous talk, there are a lot of great places to visit on the planet. If you want some international visitor stats here’s one; what’s the most visited country? It’s France; it actually gets over twice the numbers as compared to the US. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

agreed "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

I’m for a safe jump environment, but this UK rule of requiring a 40 year old to visit a doctor to start training or to do a tandem is absurd. In short, it’s a day pissed away for a doctors surgery visit, cost of £25 to £60 for him to pretty much say “you look OK” and sign and stamp your required BPA document. It’s not exactly like it’s a pilot’s JAA/EASA Class 2 medical or an FAA Class 3 medical (I have all of the above, so yes I know what’s entailed). At the least, they should up it to something reasonable like 60 years old; the present setup is from a time when life expectancy was in the 60’s. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

No. Be a real man and a real American and buy ketchup. ... or use the more dignified term "tomato sauce" with tomato pronounced as in the Queen's English. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

Stayed here on my last trip to Perris Valley. Very close to DZ. Holiday Inn Express Perris-East 480 South Redlands Avenue Perris, California 92570 +1 951 943 5577 Also, Elsinore is only about 15 miles away; you can easily jump both dropzones on the same day. USPA annual membership is only £62, you can call them and pay over the phone. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

Good while it lasted; did mine in 2004. A full day of training for $75 subsidised by Uncle Sam. Comparing notes at breaks, much of the class were private jet pilots, a few guys from Pratt & Whitney that needed to go up on a test bed plane and a mix of commercial aviation types. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

I've got a scanned copy of the class notes from a civilian-day training session at Andrews AFB. It's 77 pages and 7.5MB though. If someone would like to host a copy, I can upload/send it to share with others. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

... taken from Top 10 List of Things that are Always True Number 4: All golfers like women "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

What would be the pros/cons between a Canon USM 10-22 versus 17-40? I’m planning to buy an EOS 650D (Rebel T4i in North America). I’ll attach it to my TonFly CC1 with a ZKulls attachment. My usage will be general jumping with mates (wingsuit/freefly/etc), not doing any commercial tandem stuff. I’ve never jumped a DSLR, so a neophyte in this respect. Also any thoughts on bite/blow/tongue switch would be useful. Preferences seem quite random among DSLR flyers. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

I’ve hear of this quite often. The US are quite dicks in regards to some nationalities visiting. The owner of the salon where I get my hair cut (yes this isn’t macho storytelling, I don’t go to an old school barber) said he was recently refused a holiday visa for a short trip to Las Vegas with his wife due to them both being Brazilian. They didn’t seem to care that he was resident in UK, lived in London and had over £1m invested in his salon. He gave up on idea and went to Dubai instead. Said has no plans to visit US going forward – can’t blame him. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

It’s more talked up among the set that reads “The Sun” and watches “Jeremy Kyle” (US equivalent of reading National Enquirer and watching Jerry Springer). These numbers of people have votes too, so politicians will tell them what they want to hear. It is highly doubtful that we will have a yes/no vote on the EU. We have both Wales and Scotland wanting to be independent countries. Next we’ll have the county of Essex wishing to be their own country (US equivalent of Jersey Shore re culture). "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

Yes, you'll always be safe with some police training... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw-jTCNZSmY "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

Billvon is correct. The link you show is a table of what they call “real” rates which are inflation adjusted. You must understand there is a difference between nominal and effective interest rates (example 10yr bond pays 4% coupon, but there is 5% inflation which equates to an “effective” rate of -1%, however the US Govt is still paying a positive nominal rate and not taking payment just to hold your money). At present, only in Switzerland, due to an extremely strong currency, do we actually see the possibility of negative nominal rates. A skydiving website is no place for a macroeconomics discussion, but I’ll give some food for thought: There are two types of inflation: monetary and fiscal (research it if you wish). You can create more money supply from the central bank standpoint, but unless this is levered in the banking system (fractional reserve) you do not get a directly correlated rise in inflation. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

A good number don't care for him, however he's an entertainer and British television is pretty shit (excepting documentaries and period drama). However, if this in in reference to his US viewpoints re guns in America, then yes, he has has near unanimous support among the UK population. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

Europeans being envious of American cars is as likely as Europeans being envious of American cheese – its disdain, not envy. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

All European cars have a “dip” switch for the headlights; on low beam, you can adjust the beam up/down for city vs. motorway driving. They’re possibly assuming you won’t “dip” your lights, not just that they think you on high beams. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

Speaking of rednecks reminded me of this story of a gun mishap: ...Two local men were seriously injured when their pickup truck left the road and struck a tree near Cotton Patch on state Highway 38 early Monday morning. Woodruff County Deputy Dovey Snyder reported the accident shortly after midnight Monday. Thurston Poole, 33, of Des Arc, and Billy Ray Wallis, 38, of Little Rock, are listed in serious condition at Baptist Medical Center. The accident occurred as the two men were returning to Des Arc after a frog-giggin' trip. On an overcast Sunday night, Poole's pickup truck's headlights malfunctioned. The two men concluded that the headlight fuse on the older model truck had burned out. A replacement fuse was not available, but Wallis noticed that the .22 caliber bullet from his pistol fit perfectly into the fuse box next to the steering wheel column. Upon inserting the bullet, the headlights again began to operate properly and the two men proceeded on eastbound toward the White River Bridge. After traveling approximately 20 miles, just before crossing the river, the bullet apparently overheated, discharged and struck Poole in the right testicle. The vehicle swerved sharply to the right, exiting the pavement and striking a tree. Poole suffered only minor cuts and abrasions from the accident but will require surgery to repair the other wound. Wallis sustained a broken clavicle and was treated and released. "Thank God we weren't on that bridge when Thurston (shot his balls off) or we might have been dead," stated Wallis. "I've been a trooper for 10 years in this part of the world, but this is a first for me. I can't believe that those two would admit how the accident happened," said Snyder. Upon being notified of the wreck, Lavinia, Poole's wife, asked how many frogs the boys had caught. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

They wear certain colours and make funny hand signals which identify them as to which gang they’re from. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

I’ve lived in both the US and UK. In London, I’ve never once thought about someone pulling a gun on me. In my early twenties, in the US, I had someone try to carjack me with a handgun on busy on street?? Re the “London vs Chicago” thread, I lived in Chicago for five years and remember late one afternoon walking across an intersection north of the loop and a truck backfired nearby. About six guys around me hit the ground thinking the noise was a gunshot - do you really want to live somewhere where you think a loud noise is someone shooting at you ... or dress small schoolchildren in bullet-proof backpacks to go to school? No matter what your views, there is definitely something wrong "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

I meant to, but had already hit the enter button. Billvon is a voice or reason on many threads. "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

I hadn’t ever followed the “Speakers Corner” threads, but over the holidays had some spare time and have been following the numerous “gun crazy” threads. I’d like to thank our hosts: regulator, rushmc, et al. It’s been entertaining; in the way that you watch Fox News, for the spectacle, but you don’t really think of it as “real news”. A special thank you goes out to Kallend who keeps the party going by tirelessly interjecting some intelligence & reason into the discussions. For those joining the “regularly scheduled programme” late, the following video will bring you up to speed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLzo9pOXa-s If you wonder where the ideal America you remember from years ago has gone; this video will help your understanding (you’ll need a proxy server/viewer outside of US, but it’s pretty funny and worth the effort): http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-january-5-2010/even-better-than-the-real-thing I haven’t been watching the news today, so wonder what the outcome is to be. What is the proposed plan? Is evil Obama sending people around to pick up your guns or are there plans for everyone to meet up in the local Wal-Mart parking lot to turn them in? "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"