beowulf

I have had a dust devil partialy collapse my canopy. They are hard to see and there isn't much you can do about them but try to avoid them if you spot dust kicking up. I just didn't do much inputs on toggles and the half of the canopy that collapsed reinflated within a couple of seconds. I am not sure what else I could have done.

I have been very happy with my Sabre 2 150. It flies great. I get nice consistent openings and easy landings. In about 140 jumps I have never had line twists on it. Before this canopy I have had occaisonal minor line twists on student gear and rental gear.

ReiserFS coooool dz.com is linux shop

Skydiving scares the shit out of a lot of people. Many people give excuses rather then admit it scares them.

cool looking rig. I like the colors a lot.

Many Arabs still dislike the US and are against the war in Iraq. Mostly just because they dislike certain US foreign policys. But, here is an interesting view from one Arab. Maybe progress will be made in Arab US relations. This was taken from Arabnews.com Exclusive: ‘Saddam Did Not Fall Alone’ Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid, Editor in Chief, Asharq Al-Awsat LONDON, 10 April 2003 — Saddam Hussein didn’t fall alone yesterday. Along with him, more important things fell. The big lies that accompanied him and glorified him and cheered him fell. The minds that refused to refer to today’s truths and yesterday’s history and spoke for the Iraqi people falsely fell as well. In front of the whole world, the Iraqis clinched the truth themselves in their own capital Baghdad — about which it was said that if Basra was a passing city that cheered for the American and British soldiers, the capital would be the stronghold of the invincible regime. That is exactly why yesterday’s news shocked the Arabs more than the rest of the world. It shocked the Arabs from the utmost east in Kuwait to the utmost west in Morocco, and in all the cities in between. This is where the people had not been sleeping because of the demonstrations that were taking place continuously, led by people thinking that they were defending the Iraqi people whereas in fact they were defending Saddam himself. The news shocked the people of Cairo, where the fundamentalists, nationalists, leftists and the deceived headed numerous campaigns to declare their preparedness to defend Saddam’s Iraq. But by yesterday morning, the TV stations — including that advocated the campaign to defend Saddam and his regime — didn’t succeed in hiding the images of the happy people celebrating in the capital. That’s why yesterdays’ images, in which the people of Baghdad tore down their dictator’s pictures and pissed on them, overthrew the biggest lie in the contemporary history of the Arabic world. And I say with confidence that the collapse of Saddam and his regime was not an important event itself, because it was bound to fall sooner or later, caused either by the Americans and British missiles or by the Iraqis’ swords; but the real event was challenging Arab political and cultural certainties. This was one of the rare times that they were examined and then disappeared into thin air. The same media succeeded in ignoring what had happened in Basra and had described the rejoicing there as a matter of depredation. However, the picture was much bigger in the capital and it was not possible to conceal the truth, which was apparent to the whole world. The populist rejoicing in the capital over Saddam’s overthrow ridiculed the Arab regimes, which have been lying in the name of the people for 50 or more years. Until the last minute last night, the Arabic media kept whipping up stories about invading forces going after the Iraqis, the Arabs and even Arabic journalists. One of the correspondents there shouted saying that the American Army was targeting the Arab journalists to silence them after the killing of one of the TV journalists in Palestine Hotel. Apart from the fact that it was a sad story, its cause was incomplete for the Arab viewers. They were not told that only one Arabic journalist was killed but that 10 other Western journalists were also killed, some of them belonging to the countries of the coalition forces. This war divided the Arabs into two categories. The first pretended that the war was a battle of sovereignty, dignity and conspiracy. The other remained silent, especially the Iraqis themselves. They are exiled or oppressed within the country. The latter knew that it was a war of liberation, or at least a war to dispose of a corrupt regime the same way it came to power — by force.

some how wearing a jump suit while not being at the dropzone suddenly looks totally different

I bought an Odyssey last year and I have had no problems with it at all. It was fully inspected and assembled by a senior rigger.

Why are there bad people out there? I think that is what you were meaning to ask. because well just because!

The work that was done to end apartheid wasn't done be people sitting in chairs making arguements for each side and then one side saying "you know what you have a good point there. I guess I was wrong. Lets all have a vote and see what the majority of the people want." People did die to end apartheid. They need to be remembered.

Peace in this world is only bought with blood. Ironic but true

War can not be waged without civilian casualties. As hard as I can look, I still have not found any suggestion for disarming Saddam with out going to war. Expecting UN Arms inspectors to eventually find something and the destroy those weapons is unrealistic. Saddam will do what ever it takes to keep those weapons. War will kill people on both sides and people in the middle. There truely are no "rules of war". The reality is Saddam will do what ever it takes to make this a long and bloody war.

I don't have an AAD and am not against having one. I just don't have the cash laying around to buy one. I also don't consider it a high priority. If I did have the cash I am not certain that I would spend it on one. I am comfortable with out one. The only jumps that I have made with one are Tandem, AFF, and rented gear. It bothers me that there are people that wouldn't skydive at all with out an AAD. That seems to me that they put too much trust in device that can fail and not enough trust in their own ability. In this sport and other high risk sports I feel you need to really trust yourself to be able to react correctly in emergency situations.

OK, I agree with the principal here; I'm staunchly libertarian and I don't believe in government regulation... However, here's a real situation to make you think: A motorcylist not wearing a helmet is weaving in and out of traffic on a busy street. A car, not seeing him coming behind from a different lane, changes lanes in front of him. The motorcyclist strikes the car, and is thrown over it onto the road. He lands head first and is killed almost instantly by massive head trauma. So far, it's just a personal tragedy. The motorcylists' family sues the driver of the car for wrongful death. The jury sides with them, and the driver of the car is financially ruined by a million-dollar judgement against him, despite the fact that if the motorcylist had been wearing a helmet, he may well have survived the accident. Do you think the driver of that car, now bankrupt, is in favor of helmet laws? If the motorcyclist had survived, but required massive medical support and had no insurance, the taxpayers would have to pay his 10's or 100's of thousands in medical expenses. Did the motorcyclist 'not affect anyone but himself' by choosing to not wear a helmet that day? Now, how many dropzones have been forced to close because of lawsuits filed by the families of Skydivers killed in accidents? Admittedly, this seems to be getting better with the latest generation of waivers, but it does give one pause. My take is that they should not be required, but your family and estate also shouldn't be able to file a lawsuit because the dropzone didn't 'make' you wear one. Eliminating regulation requires some tort reform in our current system to be truly effective. Otherwise, I predict the number of DZ's requiring AADs (and helmets, and RSLs, etc) will increase... If it were up to me, and it definitly is not, I would throw the lawsuit out of court. But, lawyers being lawyers I could see this happening. I just hope it doesnt and the waivers keep holding up. The guy not wearing the helmet should make any wrongful death suit null since he was not in keeping with Basic Safety Requirements ie not Safety Mandates

My first jump at this unnamed dropzone somewhere in the US I had to rent a rig due to my reserve being repacked and it had a sabre 150 in it and I was used to a F111 9 cell 150. I thought I was going to land right in front of the hanger and have a short walk in to the packing area. I didnt account for the longer glide and stalled the canopy 5 feet off the ground to avoid hitting the hanger. Had a large audience witness that. Not a good idea for your first jump at a new DZ.

I am against the Gov requiring seat belts and helmets Its my business if dont use these things and no one elses. By not wearing them I ony harm myself, therefore its my business and no one elses. I dont need the Gov to wipe my ass for me. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I fully support seatbelt and helmet laws. These laws are in place to protect people who aren't smart enough to protect themselves. We also have bicycle helmet laws. A few years ago a teenage girl fell off her bike here at very low speed, hit her unprotected head on a curb, and died. A helmet would have saved her life. Ok let me amend my first statement. I am against the Gov. forcing people of legal age, who can legaly sign documents, to use seatbelts or helmets or any other safety devices. If I dont feel the need to use them, then thats my problem. Under age kids should use these devices since they are too young to make these decisions. That is what I was trying to say the first time.

I am against the Gov requiring seat belts and helmets Its my business if dont use these things and no one elses. By not wearing them I ony harm myself, therefore its my business and no one elses. I dont need the Gov to wipe my ass for me. same for AAD's

I dont think its just two rings. I think its two round rings and one oblong ring for the center ring.

Problem with that is if you wait too long and he just starts shooting and gets more then one person wounded or killed. If the planes that were flown into the World Trade Center had been intercepted and shot down before they hit the WTC people would be crying about the Gov. shooting down innocent civilian aircraft. Their argument would be how do you know they were going to fly it into the WTC or any other building. Maybe they were just going to ask for money and let everyone go. Preemtive strikes are good in concept but not good in politics. Too many people second guessing decisions. your damned if you do and damned if you dont.

If say Mexico were in the same position as North Korea. It would go down pretty similar to the Cuban missile crisis and that could have gone really bad. It probably would have with a loon like this guy in North Korea. I think the idea of a preemtive strike is a good idea as long its done very thorough. In other words when you are in fight for your life once you knock the guy down you never let him get back up

I say strike now, and I mean right now. While he is still whining about the US moving troops to get ready to attack him. Better for the US to strike first and destroy him before he can push any buttons.

Tanqueray and Tonic whisky sour - Jack Daniels or Makers Mark not too picky about beer a dry red wine

I havent jumped in 4 weeks. Thanks to missing Sat. as SD Dallas At least I dont have to work today due to all of this ice everywhere.

I would just back every thing up to CD's and format and reinstall everything with the latest drivers. I have had trouble with adding hardware to computers running Win2k. I havent tried adding hardware to a computer running WinXP but I wouldnt be suprised to have the same troubles with XP that I had with 2k

They forgot the red dots on Hiroshima and Nagassaki