Machupo

So, any updates? I'll be heading there soon and want to know if it's worth it to bring the rig -- it would suck to take a year off from jumping! γνῶθι σεαυτόν

The whole concept of salvation through belief offers strength to those who doubt themselves γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Yeah, but again, it's not like the entire world wide media hasn't been punked recently. I wish there was some internet metadata associated with stories so you could track them back to their original source. Of course, that would also have horrible privacy implications for individuals, but at least we'd know where the news was coming from. If only there was some electronic system which scooped up all internet traffic to look at patterns and analyze them for source and interrelation data γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Any updates? C-130 going to make it? γνῶθι σεαυτόν

The only reason I work out is to eat whatever I want :D γνῶθι σεαυτόν

No one will want to perform the rectus configuration, and everyone will want to be on team sinister γνῶθι σεαυτόν

When I travel to that region, I only do so with more firepower than the locals. γνῶθι σεαυτόν

That is a bold wing loading, fwiw. I found myself in a similar (but not as pronounced) situation a while back. All my cash went into rental gear (1:1 WL) and some coaching... and I busted my ass on the treadmill for a bit. As was posted in here earlier, hospital bills can be much more expensive than gear. I'd go with the OP if I had to choose. γνῶθι σεαυτόν

OP, sounds like you just need to Cutaway.... γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Thought I recognized the park across the river :) Glad everything worked out - and good job recognizing it was time to stop fighting and get out. At least it was beer-light thirty! γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Some dude got all torqued up at me today on the way back from the DZ. Dashed yellow, guy was going 54 in a 55 (I wanted to go faster than that), so I passed (legally, with indicators, in good taste, etc). He jerks the car left into the oncoming lane, is screaming at me (with the window up), and flicks me off for the next 5 miles... he only stopped following me when I assume that he realized I had gone around the same block 4 times in a row and drove a diesel :p Some people just need to get laid, apparently. γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Rog. Thanks for your discretion. γνῶθι σεαυτόν

I didn't want to put this in the speaker's corner; primarily because of the prevalent absurd positional statements/posturing, but also because I think this is too important a topic to be reduced to a niche. First and foremost, this is not a discussion about any war/conflict or the use of military force, and I want it to remain independent of the political justifications of any international conflict. The linked article is a piece written by a former soldier of mine taking a look at a possible relationship between PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) and the social maturation of the source populace (think 1st world vs. 3rd world) using Maslow's hierarchy. http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/a-tale-of-two-warriors-finding-belongingness-after-battle While a seemingly simple exploration of a basic philosophical/psychological concept, I think that it bares a few very real truths. There are unconscious expectations we, as a society, place upon those who would protect us from a societal "evil". Additionally, there are hard decisions which must be made when life is on the line, but the average individual has not encountered these decision (nor do they think they are necessary (Thankfully!!!)). This can lead to some difficult conscious/unconscious transitions upon return from a named area of operations. How can we as a society better empathize with the requirements for actual conflict? How can we better prepare ourselves for the (hopefully infrequent) eventuality that we must defend our chosen way of life with force? How can we ensure that those who have faced this sociological dichotomy can be returned to the fold, fully healed/reintegrated? γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Scattering and diffuse reflection are two pretty closely related terms (IIRC, it depends upon the depth in the material you are investigating... DR is slightly subsurface form of scattering). At any rate, it involves: - The chemical makeup of the surface, i.e. based upon the bonds between the atoms which make up your (sub)surface. This comes into play when you look at bond energies and the specific energy levels of electrons of the component atoms. Energy that can be absorbed by electrons (in order to excite them to higher energy levels) may do so, otherwise the light will be reflected based upon: - The physical makeup of the (sub)surface. The shape of the (sub)surface will direct the majority of diffuse reflection (in a sufficiently random surface, omnidirectional reflected light can be considered randomly "scattered") of the light. On the quantum scale, you're seeing emitted (if it can be absorbed) and reflected (if it cannot) light moving from atom to atom through the surface of the object until one of the reflection probabilities directs it back to your eye (with no other interactions along the way). Depending on how deep you need to go into the reasoning, there are various theories out there; quantum electrodynamics hurts my head, lol and it gets even weirder when you start looking at nanostructured metamaterials Caveat: I'm not a physics professor :D γνῶθι σεαυτόν

At that rate, she might not have been a virgin for long! γνῶθι σεαυτόν

I went from AT&T to Ting back in March, they are a reseller of Sprint airtime. (Here's a referral link if you decide to go that route, it's good for $25 off any device: https://z347k41ema2.ting.com/). My bill dropped from $135/mo w/ 2 devices to $54/mo with no issues in quality. Best part about the service I like is the online dashboard which gives you realtime usage and the ability to individually scale minutes/text/MBs each month. Oh, and if you don't break the barrier for the next notch down on any of those, they refund you the difference... no rollover BS, just rollover cash :p Might not be for everyone (especially people who burn up the internet), but take a look at your last couple bills/usage reports and compare (I was amazed when I did the math, myself). The devices are not subsidized, so they're expensive at the get-go, but no contracts/ETFs. γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Depending upon the object's surface conformations and chemistry, you could see a variety of colors/wavelengths. If an object is not directly emitting or reflecting a particular wavelength, the "color" perceived is based upon the relative amount of scattering among all of the visible wavelengths. Fluorescence is a little bit different (and rare), in that it is a function of particular molecular conformations (usually conjugated pi bonds / molecular orbitals) which have appropriate characteristics to absorb one wavelength (and thus bump an electron to a higher energy level) and then emit a different wavelength upon relaxation. γνῶθι σεαυτόν

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Krip, I'm fully acquainted with the concept of free speech, thanks :) Nothing that I say can in any way prevent you from saying whatever you want, and I'm o.k. with that. What I posted was merely a suggestion from my perspective: on a day dedicated to those who have gone on to Fiddler's Green, when I'm remembering brothers who died in my arms or as a result of my orders, the last thing I want is someone thanking me for *my* service; it was nothing compared to those who gave all. I'll be more than gracious on any other day of the year, but on this one day I just want a neat dram, some time to walk among the markers and let the ghosts out for a bit. As to the various proposals in the linked articles, I believe that a populace more involved in the day to day sausage-grinding which is "international relations by any means necessary" may make us more reluctant to hastily apply large-scale military force as the cure-all ;) (And conversely, if we have the social/political will to engage in a large conflict, everyone is truly behind it and mentally engaged). If anything, a draft is the antithesis of an effective personnel strategy during a persistent conflict :p γνῶθι σεαυτόν

Chuck, I didn't mean to give the impression that I was offended (or that I speak for anyone other than myself), sorry if I did. I've just noticed over my short years (especially since Memorial Day has become deeply personal over the past twelve years) that few have the time to reflect on the deeper reasoning behind this solemn day. I would humbly propose that the most effective way to honor fallen soldiers is simply to exercise those freedoms that were part of the original real-estate deal; perhaps taking a moment to spread the knowledge that to enjoy whatever activity we're enjoying, it may have been necessary for people to die. Personally, this Memorial Day reminded me that I can't just be a passenger, that I must take time out of my busy schedule to hold my representatives accountable for their decisions (or at least attempt to influence their future decision making process), because these decisions have more than abstract consequences. -Nick http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-05-24/opinions/39502742_1_soldiers-civil-war-junger γνῶθι σεαυτόν

No, please don't. I can't count how many people I had to stop mid-stream and politely describe the difference between Veteran's Day and Memorial Day. It's easy to become cynical (because being thanked for this particular job is a profoundly uncomfortable thing), and I'm trying really hard not to, because it's not your fault :) I drove my family down to Arlington to pay respects to a handful of close friends and a large "extended family"; Section 60 has grown immensely since the last time I was able to visit. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/27/opinion/americans-and-their-military-drifting-apart.html?hp γνῶθι σεαυτόν

We have a server and it's backed up on Carbonite also. Think that's enough? If you've got space on the server, might be useful to image your local machine to it (Acronis or some other software if you have server-specific stuff) so you can just go scorched earth and restore from the image when this happens again :) γνῶθι σεαυτόν

IIRC, that photo was of a Marine who used his teeth to crimp a detonator/cap to a fuse rather than a gunshot. γνῶθι σεαυτόν