Bob_Church

Yep, that is what I do. I had cards printed many years ago, and have not yet run out of them. Unfortunately, so many riggers and dropzones now think that information besides that of the reserve must be present on the card, that I kind of have given up, and just use the preprinted cards available. I guess I'll design a new card whenever I run out. My favorite packing card is a hand made one from Kennedy Space Center. I bought a reserve from a man who worked there and he packed it on the same table as the Shuttle booster canopies. Speaking of futuristic, I really like the usb card that Strong provides along with the paper one. It's a great place to keep digital copies of everything. The one downside is that it's shaped in a way that fits into the reserve card pocket and it's so very tempting to keep it there. But I suspect that after one opening it would look like a saltine you stepped on. There are paper usb cards now, so can flexible digital cards be far off?

Not quite. Right-wingers once again win when it comes to upholding the constitution of this great country. The document that the Democrats and the leftist Socialist have come to despise.what is the exact wording again ? Isn’t it written something like: well organised militia ? Show us how the militia is organised then... I live close to the area where the UMWA was formed. When government sanctioned strike breakers and Pinkertons arrived to put people in their places they found a well armed citizenry ready for them. Otherwise, coal miners would have never been allowed to unionize and make a decent living for themselves and their families.

"However, if you are saying it's not strong AI, I agree. It's a form of "weak AI" that is intended as a limited assistant. Most AI over the next decade or so will take this form - an assistant for people both at home and at work to simplify their interface to the growing cloud of networks and devices around us. " This is all about taking what you have and twisting words to the point that they say it is what you want it to be. This explains a lot.

"Even so, AI has come pretty far, even running on Von Neumann/Harvard architecture machines. Imagine if you went back to 1983 and demo'd a device that you could plug in, then say "hey Alexa, play some early David Bowie" or "hey Alexa, what are the effects of tariffs on the economy?" or "hey Alexa, tell me a joke." It would have blown that CEO's socks off. " It still wouldn't be intelligence. It's a sensor system with a complex decision tree. A decision tree created for it, not by it. Pretending that it's AI or anywhere near it is like those guys who used to argue that a television was just one step away from a Star Trek transporter. When Alexa's descendant decides that it doesn't like Bowie and lies about having it available then we can talk intelligence.

"Part of the problem is that people STILL don't really understand what AI is. I've just spent a year working on a number of projects for the NHS looking at the use of AI. AI (and more specifically ML) is already better than humans at things like identifying cancerous moles, or recommending drug regimes for chronic illness based on a number of symptoms. " I think the biggest problem is that we're trying to create an artificial version of something when we still don't have a clue about the original version.

I did way too many clear and pulls, I'd look down and tumble. At Bidwell, in '78, they said they were considering putting me back on static line. But "putting you back on static line" was actually a euphemism for suggesting you find another sport. Then one day Kenny Bright was there helping out. Kenny had a lot of jumps and experience. A lot of the people running Bidwell were young and with a few hundred jumps. They were good, they knew what they were doing and all, but there was something about Kenny's older calmer style that really seemed to help. He took me up and I finally did a perfect c&p. Then he took me up for a five second delay and that went well. After that it all worked,the usual screwups now and then but no more "maybe back to static line." I still credit Kenny Bright for letting me become a skydiver.

Nice to see more people enslaved by giving them free money. We want universal health care, universal basic income and open borders. Yeh, that's gonna work.

Tell that to Elon Musk: https://qz.com/1261214/how-exactly-tesla-shot-itself-in-the-foot-by-trying-to-hyper-automate-its-factory/ It reminds me of the promise of AI in the 80s. "Yes sir, General, or CEO, or whoever's writing the checks. We have the concept of AI whipped we just don't have the hardware yet." Then we got the hardware and it suddenly got really quiet.

I saw an article awhile back that's saying the opposite. That is, outfits that were going to go with automation realized that if you move your factory to places where you can exploit your workers mercilessly then they're much cheaper than automation. After all, when they break down you don't have to fix them, just get more. I'll see if I can dig it up.

I had exactly the opposite experience but with the same conclusion. I tried Facebook for about a month early this spring. I found a lot of great people in the old skydivers section and great discussions. But it was still Facebook. I felt like I needed a shower every time I used it. Not that forum, but just Facebook. So I bailed. But I miss the people on there. What I'd like to do is get some or all (dream big) of those folks over here, but their arguments against coming are pretty much the opposite of why you left there. I try to convince them that a forum can be what its users make it, but they aren't interested in coming back. And it's a real shame.

It's hard to say. Unlike the US, Australia has a small population over a large land mass, but highly concentrated in coastal cities - led, by far, by Sydney (where I am) and Melbourne. I would've thought that domestic violence rates would be higher in the congested city areas, but the data (for NSW anyway, the eastern state where Sydney is capital) suggests that DV is worse out in the outback: http://crimetool.bocsar.nsw.gov.au/bocsar/ There seems to be a correlation between rates of assault and economic power across the state. Sydney and other NSW coastal hubs have seemingly lower rates of assault compared to more inland regions. In hindsight, this isn't terribly surprising. I think Bob, you may have seen a somewhat biased news report if your takeaway was that Australia's domestic violence rates are comparable to America's in the 1950s or so. The stats between Australia and America more recently are quite similar (https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/nisvs_report2010-a.pdf), so I assume there was a little sensationalism in the report you saw. That's why I was wondering about the regional thing. It wasn't clear if they were talking about Australia in general or specific places. We have places in the US that fit the same description, alcohol banned but smuggled in, sexual assault and violence epidemic, but while those things do happen everywhere not at anything like the rate in those places.

My first water jump was for the Sternwheel Regatta in Charleston Wv. I got paid $25, got my rig cleaned and repacked at no charge, a free t-shirt and best of all, had the local emergency crews waiting for me as I went into the water. Then to top it all off they let me swim from the motor boat to the dock. Swimming in that area is usually strictly forbidden with huge 'No Swimming' signs all over the place. Small things, but I had a great time. It was a good afternoon.

"It's not in this version of the story, but alcohol was reportedly involved (not terribly surprisingly). " This is very close to Oshkosh and I soon realized that if you were driving in Oshkosh and had a heart attack or something and lost control of the car you would drive into a bar or a carry out. Sorry, package store. And even in Neenah and Menasha the places in grocery stores where, around here, there would be a huge produce section they've got cases of booze piled up. And I'm not talking beer either. Cases of heavy duty booze. In the winter there are so many snow white faces with bright red noses that it looks like a Rudolph convention.

That's such a familiar sight. Not the bicycle falling through the bridge, but the bridge. My wife grew up in Neenah and I think that's the bridge she walked across to and from school each day, wondering if her ears would survive the trip. Those Wisconsin winters are cold and windy.

"Only penultimate? So who is the ultimate troll? " The ultimate troll is one that you don't even know is a troll. There is one poster that I can't decide about. Are these posts from a group of trolls using a faked account, a machine AI or just someone who actually talks like that? Based on the quickness of responses and their shortness I'm thinking the second, but I'm not sure if the technology is there yet. The responses are simple enough for some old AI counselor program but linking that to a forum is what I wonder about. But no matter what, the only sensible thing to do is never respond.

Yep, ABC, got those backwards. Thanks, They have good international reporting which I like. And I do enjoy local stories, like following a link about something odd to some town's local paper then reading the local news. About the domestic violence. Is it pretty much even throughout the population in Australia or particularly bad in some parts of the population?

" Help me out. Wasn't Obama that put out the blanket call to Central America to come on up?" I remember, and I remember the concern a lot of people had about it, as in "how can we do this?" But he did it anyway. Not that I expect too many people on this forum to acknowledge it.

I'm so glad my dating years are long gone. Now the first question you'd have to ask is "do you now, or have you ever, had a penis?"

My theory is that the population in general got too tired to keep watching out for itself so we started pretending that The Democrats are The Party of the People. That makes everything so much easier. No more watching out for the crap that all politicians pull, just vote Democrat and you've done your duty.

No matter how good you think it might be, it's better.

Emphasis mine This group you list are known to be highly left wing. With almost 95% of their political donations going to the Democrats. All credibility is lost after this point Back when I was at the phone company we were union, which was good, but something that pissed off more and more of us was the way they automatically gave the money to the Democrats. If you questioned them on it they'd just say "would you rather we gave it to the Republicans" and go back to ignoring us. What we wanted, but they didn't care, was to not give it to anyone. As it was the Democrats knew they were going to get our money so didn't give a shit about us and the Republicans knew they weren't going to get the money so they didn't give a shit about us. Why do they have to give it to someone? Why not bank it, create a list of things that the rank and file wanted from politicians and give it to those who did those things that helped us. They could have a committee that said "this guy passed that law, let's give him this amount". That sort of thing. But no. One guy, a guy who had a lot of clout in Athens among his fellow phone company employees, started making some real noise about this stuff once including where the hell is all the money going to, not just the political donations. Darrell wasn't just another loud mouth, people listened to him and he could make a difference. A car full of Union Officials drove from Cleveland out to his house in New Marshfield one night and after that he not only refused to talk about it but made a point of mentioning to everyone and anyone that he wasn't talking about it.

I'll give it a shot. The first episode of cartoon president is on HULU's subscription site. It's on Showtime's online site but that's so screwed up that I gave up on it. I'm subscribed to Showtime through Netflix but every singe time I try to use it through Roku it makes me sign back on. Again. And even that doesn't always work. It's the only network I have trouble with and I wish that if they don't want me to use it they'd just come out and say so.

There's an animated series on Showtime that's called "Our Cartoon President" and it's must see tv. Trump comes off badly because, well, he's Trump but they don't spare the reality on anyone. Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Shumer demonstrate how to make sure the Democrats never see the inside of the Whitehouse again.

While watching the cave drama I started reading ABS (Australian Broadcasting System) on a regular basis. They've got good news reports for around the world and of course Australia. But something that really caught my eye was the extent of domestic violence in Australia. And it doesn't really seem to be getting any better. DV is a serious problem in the US but after a major change in attitudes in the 80s or so it really has been getting better. But not so down under. It's like reading about rural US in the 50s. https://www.whiteribbon.org.au/understand-domestic-violence/facts-violence-women/domestic-violence-statistics/

Neil is known for his sense of humor, if you know what I mean, and one time a first jump student sitting behind the pilot kept edging as far away from the open door as possible. Neil casually said "watch that door, it pops open sometimes." Not a good idea.