Abedy

No. BTW: I would not call it "disfiguring" The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Sounds what happened to me, never needed any lotion etc... The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

AFAIK circumcision is practised very often for hygienic reasons or to prevent complications such as [ur "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phimosis"l]phimosis[/url] (ouch!) And, at least regarding to Muslims, it's not necessarily religiously required. There's no reference to it in the Quran , it's "only" a sunna. Most Jews - so I suspect - do it mainly for hygienic reasons. (Most Jews in Germany aren't that much religious, often called "3-day Jews" since they go to their synagogue only for the three highest holidays) and I suspect it isn't much different in the States... The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Huhu... reminds me of "To my embarrassment, I was born in bed with a lady" And you couldn't talk because you - hopefully - sucked on... OK, this is going too far... The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Bragger. You just lost few mm of needless skin. [...] That's why I think, too. The 60% thing is claimed by some of the folks who answered to the FAZ article (and the author writes sth similar IIRC...) The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

The value is also measured/given in litres per 100 km in Germany, Austria, Switzerland etc. When looking at displays at car dealers you'll find values for "city traffic", "out of city" (highways etc) and "mixed" but these values are - miraculously! - lower than day-to-day observations in real life BTW: At the moment CO2 emission (in grams per kilometre) are state of the art and required to be given. The EU set standards and goals to be achieved, let's wait what this will bring for the nature... The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

How could you possibly know what you may be missing? Right on this one. Hence I can only express my feeling that I haven't missed anything yet. I've been pleased with how "he" has worked so far But in the end it's a problem I can't solve 100%. Maybe it's pretty good so The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

I read a satirical article on a German-Jewish website today. It's in German, so to put it short: The (female) author pokes phun at a "brave" author who "dares" to stand up against a bloody religious ritual causing pain and lifelong trauma to poor boys who cannot oppose to what is done to them. Published in a quality paper, the FAZ (just like the Melbourne Age etc), have a look. Yeah, I'm biased. Mainly because the author gives a little thought to hygienic & medical aspects but mainly uses it to shine his light into the darkness of barbaric, archaic rituals committed by both Jews and Muslims. And doing so is such an act of BRAVERY nowadays that nobody with a sound mind dares to raise their voice against religious lunacy. (Yes, I'm exaggerating...) But the author also cites a shrink who muses about "genital trauma at the end of the Oedipal phase" - without any reliable data, even without any studies done whatsoever. (A study exploring all these aspects is being planned, the shrink is cited...) I read most of the many replies to the article and was appalled how many of them gave support to the authors "theses" and a lot of them with great zeal blustered about "time to take stand", "we gotta put an end to this barbaric practice" etc. To lay a foundation in English: You can find a lot of pros and cons at Wikipedia. Some of them are debated in the abovementioned article but biased etc. I consider the Wiki article at least sort of non-partisan and more or less reliable. I wonder: 1.: Where is this discussion going here in Germany? No, don't answer, I'm afraid I anticipate what's coming up... 2.: What do Americans (both male and female) say about this topic? Since circumcision is widely practised in the States I don't think it is a heavily debated topic and not even fashionable for do-gooders etc? Anyway, I'm interested in any comments. Hope it won't boil too much (and won't raise too many Beavis-and-Butt-Headish answers, huhuh...) P.S.: Yes, I am circumcised. So I do not know whether it's true I lost 60% or so of my penile functionality etc. I haven't missed anything yet and think my pecker works fine for both And I indeed think it's way more hygienic. And I think if circumcision is performed under local anaesthesia by an experienced physician the risks are almost zero and outweighed by its advantages. But again, that's my personal opinion The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

"You are a spinner" means something entirely different to me. Well, "Morning Mist" means something totally different to most Germans compared to what comes to an English native' mind. See: You cannot put a single word out of context and - more important - out of another language that simple The GERMAN word "Spinner" (note that the first letter is a capital) means first hand "fruitcake" or "dumbass" NOWADAY in GERMAN. The term itself has undergone considerable changes during the centuries. It indeed derives from "spinnen" which means to produce a thread or yarn by spinning wool fibres using a "Spinnrad". Terms like these were used in the fairy tales of the Grimm brothers, for example. But again: I wrote a proper German sentence and had the decency to translate it into English as properly as I could. If you want to tell me I wrote something wrong be assured it ain't so. If you, however, just made a funny remark, than please accept my apologies; I then missed the pun cause I looked for an explaining emoticon The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

I personally like the Celsius scale better. Maybe because I grew up with it, but I think it refers pretty well to day-to-day weather phenomena being rain, snow etc. And there we talk freshwater. Just because something comes in big numbers doesn't necessarily mean it matters most in any cases The vaporizing thing has been discussed to the boiling point

I hope you enjoyed what you really did in the bedroom. The learning thing wasn't that successful JFYI: It's more or less incomprehensible. If you want to tell "You are" you have to write "Du bist" - The t at the end of "bist" isn't that much important, however. (Especially with quite a number of German dialects that sort of grind down trailing t's to d's or even omitting them...)) What leaves me puzzled is the "Spinst". Did you mean "spinnen"? The correct form would be then "Spinnst Du?" = Are you bonkers? Or did you want to express "Du bist ein Spinner" = You're a fruitcake/ douche bag... The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

In Germany, they have gained all civil rights except a very few ones at the age of 18. The 21 year thing when it comes to court cases and sentencing is sort of a relict of the times of the German Empire and/or the Weimar Republic. That is why most people do not understand that cold-blooded killers who usually kill their victims by brutal beating, kicking or stabbing plead for "juvenile offender status" and are usually granted it Most of these 19,20,21-year old turds know very well what they did and usually have quite a list of crimes including assault and thus experience in being trialled and nevertheless they get away with juvenile law. The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

It's quite the opposite here in Germany. Not the violence thing, the age issue... We've had some really nasty cases of 20 or 21-year olds who beat people nearly or fully to their deaths or stabbed them etc. All of them f*ckers have their lawyers file for "juvenile offender status" which unfortunately can be granted until the age of 21 (and in some case even 21+) Much more sadly, this is usually granted! Quite often along with mollycuddling babble of youth workers about "being drunk", "had a bad childhood", "comes from a poor background"... In Germany, you're allowed to vote for the Bundestag at the age of 18. You can get drafted at that age. You can buy hard liquors at that age. You can sign contracts etc. But if you commit murder you are still considered "juvenile". I don't get it. Not that I want 14-year olds sentenced as "adults", but - as a 21-year old - getting away with a maximum of 10 years in a jail for juveniles (with lotta mollycuddle) and usually getting parole after half the time (for "behaving well") for cold-blooded murder, for beating an old man to death? That's wrong. The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Huhuh... I first thought: Wow, he & she should wear undies that match? In this case, it could only be the colour. And if you thought so: NICE THOUGHT! (BTW: I do not think about them "metrosexuals" who even wear their wives' thongs, you know...) I actually have a pair of briefs and an under shirt in bright orange that exactly match the colour of bra & panties I gave my wife as a present for her birthday last year. In fact, I just bought them because of their colour... our first "partner look" undies She got some more undies that match as presents from me. I like to watch her in beautiful lingerie, even after 28 years of marriage. Unfortunately, the ones I like don't seem to be the most comfortable / practical ones (guess why! ) so I don't have that "ogletunity" as often as I like to... The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

This video (attn: Soundtrack might be offensive, explicit language!), again: This video was mentioned on a German skydivers' forum as it should show someone vomiting in freefall. I got to admit that I didn't see any puke (mainly due to the poor video quality, not even in the slo-mo sequence at 1:26') OK, spinning like this might indeed provoke someone feeling green about the gills, especially after a generous breakfast (and maybe a couple beers the night before). Well, I also seriously doubt there's any "hard" video evidence for a freefall barf... The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Well, I'm not that much into rig bashing... IMHO the Teardrop is - at least in Germany - the one that offers best value for money. The new Viper comes with all the bells and whistles one likes to have. The Micron looks nice indeed. I had an eye on the Microns of the female Norway FS4 team in 2006 here and found them (the RIGS!) really stylish. But apart from the "low-force" 3-ring system and the magnetic riser covers I don't see much that's really different. And the riser cover thingy is debatable, if you browse several forums. Anyway, I see it the way Emporer FW II (Der Alte Fritz) put it: Jeder soll nach seiner Façon selig werden. The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Some years ago a TI at a DZ in Germany did (at about 150 m; 500 ft) a 180° turn, "rather quickly" as sources report with a passenger who already felt sort of queasy. Doing this manoeuvre right above a bistro patio resulted in a spectacular result as sources report. I dunno if it's true at all, but at least the "source" made all of us TI-to-be laugh... and think a little later. Some TIs here at my DZ got puked at and IIRC the ratio is roughly the same; about 750:1. Maybe it's a global constant The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

1st: Haven't had any pukers yet, but two guests I was happy to have gotten down as gently as possible so they didn't have to eat backwards But I haven't done that many tandems yet so I'm thankful for any hints @vanair: Sounds like you could have been my TIE 'cause he gave me the same tips. Except one thing - I only let them "help me steer" until about 500 m (~1600 ft) I found that the "help me steer"-thing works with all passengers regardless how strong or fit they are. It's not that they have to pull down the toggles like mad, it's just that they know what's gonna happen, to feel "in control". There were a few who didn't like to; so in these cases I also refrained from any abrupt turns etc. BTW: No matter what you will tell them, half of the passengers will try to slide their hands into my toggles but then realise that there's a second pair of toggles "just underneath my toggles" / "the lower pair of them" /"them toggles down there" and then happily grab them "Toggle-participation" and refraining from stomach-challenging manoeuvres (360s etc) really helps a lot as well as sliding their leg straps a little down so they can sort of "sit" - which also helps to prevent fainting (less pressure on major arteries in their thighs). BTW: In case of feeling nauseous: We have "puke bags" handy in a small pocket on the back of the passengers' harnesses. I grabbed some of these bags on my last two flights and ... well, other passengers nearby were rather puzzled. "I'm collecting these bags" seemed to be more appropriate than explaining tandem stuff... Using these bags is better than having them puke into their overalls; that's what I was told at least The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Ah, something for me. (OK, I should/could have asked my rigger, but anyway... :-) I thought the nickel-plated grommets were steel. BTW & anyway, I'll get my new Teardrop in a few weeks and looking forward to it. Should be with all the latest bells and whistles; including "modern" grommets. The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Additionally, rubber bands tend to sort of react with brass grommets. They become very sticky then and leave sort of black smear on the grommets. I found out when I returned after a six-week break and my DZO who's also the rigger told me to repack before I jump. It might have opened without need for a chop but chances for line dumps or other nasty things are higher if you do not replace the rubber bands under these circumstances. That is why my rigger does NOT pack my main after inspection in January. I dunno if this is an issue with steel grommets. But anyway, practising packing is always a good idea. The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Nice idea. Will tell it my students who are going to become dental assistants. But somehow I doubt it really works once the bur hits the pulp Anyway, Chancellor Merkel also hit the headlines when showing off in Norway: Dekolleté and did the same at Bayreuth. Her male neighbours tried their best to NOT be caught taking a glimpse... One (female) candidate (former GDR dissident) who ran for the Bundestag even tried to exploit this idea: Wir haben mehr zu bieten (We got more to offer) Didn't help much The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

I agree. Looks like the right-wingers look for every opportunity to play foul on the First Lady. I'm not that much a fashion freak but to me her dress looks nice. @Correece: The Chinese president - as all of his "comrades" do - may still pay lip support to "communism" but it's a matter of fact that China is more or less on its way to a capitalist country. Their economy already is, or at least most part of it. They just do away with democracy. So seen, they are not that much different from, say, Pinochet, Baby Doc or Mugabe. Understand me correctly, I do not like their system. In fact, I do not like them treating people like shit, polluting the environment etc. But I think they just hold up those red flags as a disguise for what already happened in Russia under Yeltsin: Former functionaries turning into Manchester capitalists... The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

We usually have a spare pair of goggles in the plane (in a pouch on the back of the pilot's seat). I did a few ones w/o goggles, not really a big deal as long as you are not on a video job If you wear glasses and especially if the glasses are not 70s style (granny glasses, the big ones ) the wind bothers even less. It's not really nice, but I've experienced stranger. The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

I just posted the article because I found it interesting and also quite remarkable. I am an atheist and think that the article is quite good a very short explanation why people invent the institution of a supernatural being. The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks

Unfortunately it is rather difficult to watch them here in Germany. Hope it will be aired one one of the channels available on Astra (satellite TV) here. And I do hope they will NOT dub it. That's horrible and it sucks, sucks, sucks :-) The sky is not the limit. The ground is. The Society of Skydiving Ducks