Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Skydiving

I engage in a very misunderstood sport - I say so because of the images of danger which most people associate with falling from the sky. In the sport you will find a large percentage of participants are in their 30's, 40's, 50's and up. One individual I know personally is 70 years old and has been jumping since 1961 - with over 36,000 skydives logged.

The most common reason people get injured or killed in the sport is not a failure of the parachute to open - it is a sharp turn close to the ground with high wing loading. Wing loading is basically the ratio of total weight to the size of your parachute is square feet. Really big parachutes (like mine) are much safer than little ones.

Most people have a device on their reserve parachute which automatically deploys the reserve parachute if they do not deploy their main at a reasonable altitiude.

From my perspective - skydiving is much safer than many of the other activities I engage in - such as skiing, motorcycling, driving on I-95, etc.

I would never try to convince someone to try it - it is something you must seek out for yourself. All I ask is that people try to understand it more before they criticize it.

Saturday, September 16, 2006

Send 'em back

A recent raid has created a 'ghost town' in Georgia.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060915/ap_on_re_us/immigration_aftermath

Now, alot of people are crying 'Oh the humanity!' But I say "It's about damn time!" People compare the immigration law enforcers to Nazi's. According to Ann Coulter, thats the standard liberal accusation thrown at people who are enforcing the law. Personally, I'd rather compare the illegals to criminals - but they are, so why bother?

The plant they worked at ILLEGALLY has a shortage of workers now.
The store they shopped at has lost the business of the ILLEGALS.
A trailer park owner who catered to ILLEGALS has decided to fly an American flag upside down in protest.

Hopefully, Hazleton will win all the lawsuits thrown at it for enforcing the law.