nathaniel

Even if you could provide some reason that African Americans--to the exclusion of other "disadvantaged" groups--deserve better, why does cash have anything to do with it? I mean, sure it sounds nice, "Give me money please." What makes you think a lump-sum payment will have any positive consequences for African Americans as a group? You act like money will solve all problems. Have you ever studied public-sector economics? Sociology? If you just toss money at random people, what's to stop them from throwing it away on crap like expensive cars and TVs...this goes for average people of every denomination. Money without education and discipline is useless. Look how many twinks of all races, shapes and sizes blew their retirement accounts in the stock market in the last couple years. And that's earned money, not handouts. Talking about affirmative action in education is much more appropriate (NB: I do not endorse all forms of affirmative action in education) IMNSHO. At least that, in theory, could have some real positive impact. What would you do if all the good ole boys in Congress decided to pay up and it didn't do squat for African American social ills? What if it made things worse for the disproportionately imporverished by depleting the funds used for essential public services? Things like clinics, schools, water and sewage. Nathaniel My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

After we pay reparations for slavery, let's pay reparations to the heirs of the millions of Asian indentured servants who built the transcontinental railroad and who were frequently worked to death. And the European indentured servants that toiled below a living wage in New England sweatshops and were jailed if they didn't. And the relatives of all the mentally ill that were mistreated / tortured before the advent of modern psychiatry. Then let's sue the Anglican church for persecuting the Pilgrims and making them flee to the colonies. Farrakhan knows the idea of reparations is patently ludicrous, but he knows (some) people like it when you promise them free money. You can safely ignore him. Nathaniel My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

Life is an invariably fatal condition. Nathaniel My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

I graduated from AFF about a month ago... basically, you make like Elvis and stick your hips out in front of you. Keep your left and right sides symmetric and the wind will take care of the rest. Arching your back will actually take you out of whatever position you are in and make you fall belly-first, except maybe if you are stable on your back...but thats what your instructor is there for so don't sweat it. Your instructor physically won't let you get on your back on your first AFF jump. After a few jumps you'll just get the hang of it and it will come naturally. As you do more AFF levels you will get to feel the effects of changing your body shape: turns, forward and backward movement etc. Nathaniel My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_2044000/2044778.stm I don't know if I'd be willing to subject myself to a needle just to jump from 30k without a bottle. Nathaniel My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

I used to run snort on my linux boxes (debian, thank you) when I was in college. Its usefulness as an IDS depends on what you mean by IDS. Snort was very good for telling me the number of times I got portscanned / spammed with the IIS crack of the month, but didn't offer much in the way of network monitoring--ie, what's happening over there, not over here. For that you really need a bastion host(s) on your network. On the whole I'm rather skeptical of IDS's...I lump them together with AV software as intrinsically reactive. Running snort won't help you if you don't keep your fingerprints up to date...and some worms propagate faster than they get fingerprinted. There was a very good blackpaper about this circulated on Bugtraq a while ago...the researchers postulated that a well written worm could saturate the internet in as little as a couple minutes. And worse yet, there is the issue of the Halting Problem. For all you non-CS types, basically the only way to be absolutely sure what any piece of code (eg, is it a virus or screensaver?) does is to run it...and if it's a virus it's too late So the deck is stacked against IDS's imnsho. Don't get me wrong, IDS's and AV are very helpful in some circumstances (eg, dealing with hordes of clueless lusers), but I don't like them. Nathaniel My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

and after you put them on, don't skydive with them Nathaniel My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

Don't jump on a brand new pair of socks! fuzz Nathaniel My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

And whatever breed you get, take it to training. They call it dog training in the same sense that they call it parachute training...ie training is for the person not the canopy (dog). The earlier the better. Your life will be 80% easier if you can avoid teaching your dog bad habits. The bigger the dog, the more important this is... Good luck! Nathaniel My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

backward with respect to ground, yes. one windy day I sat it out till the surface winds died down in the evening and did one last jump...unfortunately the winds at altitude didn't slow down too. travelled about 1.2 miles backward along route 30 and landed in a field next to a tree farm My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

this one was loaded at 0.65:1 Nathaniel My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

ya the rub is that I had all day to line up but twisted instincts led me astray...didn't mean to suggest hook turns at 40' Nathaniel

Had a great saturday at CSD...making my way through AFF. Instructors say I've been good under canopy since day 1 (several weeks ago). I had some piloting instruction many years ago, and I think it contributes in some way to my ability to land peaceably. Anyway, second jump of the day, AFF 9 went great...mmm leg turns. I'm nice and tall so I get a good amount of leverage. 6000', do a 180 and track away. Count to 5, stop tracking, altitude 5000', hang out for a while until 4000, wave and pull, nice and smooth opening. Went a little long on the downwind leg, but it's OK with the corn only at about a foot and a half or so out in Hinckley, and winds are light. Turn into the base leg gradually. It seems like momentum is carrying me on a diagonal. Pilot training kicks in: landing sideways is bad. if you have wheels for legs, maybe. It's just fine for us bipeds, should have thought. But I didnt think that, so against better judgment I nudge myself more diagonal, but facing the direction of travel. By the time I'm down to 20' or so it's too late and the crosswind has got me going at a good clip...maybe 15 mph or so horizontal. Looks like I can run this one out, until I flare...zooom. That PLF thingie really works =) Rolled onto my butt and slid it out ass first. real graceful. When the dust settles I can wiggle my toes and fingers, no sprained angles, no bruises even. body made it out A-OK, even if ego didn't. Looking in front of me I saw a 8-10' swath of recently mowed corn =) Note to self: Land into the wind! duh hugs Nathaniel My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski?

hi let me start off by saying I'm a complete noob slowly (but surely) making my way through aff, so please ignore stupidty as appropriate anyway i work with computers day and night and i started wondering-- how much has skydiving changed in the last 20 years? i just bought an alti, analog, and the planes people jump out of were designed decades ago. about all i can see (shutters on) that is new is instant replay digital video i think i like skydiving because it is analog nathaniel

what's wrong with the World Wildlife Fund? Oh, you mean the WWE. hehe that still cracks me up

I think it helps calm me down when other people are more nervous than me - mostly tandems at this point tho.