Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!ncar!ames!dftsrv!mimsy!mobby.umiacs.umd.edu!jerrys
From: jerrys@mobby.umiacs.umd.edu (Jerry Sobieski)
Newsgroups: alt.suicide.holiday,rec.skydiving
Subject: Re: Parachute
Message-ID: <35574@mimsy.umd.edu>
Date: 13 Jun 91 14:12:12 GMT
References: <1991Jun11.114807.1@st1.vuw.ac.nz> <1991Jun11.233812.29102@neon.Stanford.EDU> <1991Jun13.120512.4482@doc.ic.ac.uk>
Sender: news@mimsy.umd.edu
Reply-To: jerrys@umiacs.umd.edu (Jerry Sobieski)
Followup-To: alt.suicide.holiday
Organization: UMIACS, Univ. of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742
Lines: 43

In article <1991Jun13.120512.4482@doc.ic.ac.uk> tb2@doc.ic.ac.uk (Timothy Brown) writes:
>In article <1991Jun11.233812.29102@neon.Stanford.EDU> ash@sumex-aim.stanford.edu (David Ash) writes:
>>In article <1991Jun11.114807.1@st1.vuw.ac.nz> strahd@st1.vuw.ac.nz writes:
>>>
>>>Could parachuting be considered attempted suicide...with a success
>>>being when the chute doesn't open?
>>>
>>At the risk of giving a more serious response to this than it deserves, if
>>the person really wanted to kill themselves, they would not even wear a
>>parachute.  Also, jumping with a reserve parachute tends to increase the
>
>I wanna fly a plane someday, and I would not let someone jump without a
>parachute, or at least a soft cusion to land on.  They'd probably
>take my licence away!
>

Without flaming anyone directly here, what is this?  Why do people constantly
believe jumping is "suicidal".  That is just plane (:-) garbage! 

Get this:  Skydivers do *NOT* have a death wish.  

They are confident, calculating, daring, generally intelligent, competitive
 individuals who like to go out and have some good physical fun. Just like 
waterskiers, rollercoaster riders, motorcycle riders, raquetball/tennis, 
football, blah blah blah.  And they are far more safety conscious than
damn near any other sport I've ever come across.  This myth has been 
promulgated for years by people who are too scared/lazy to learn about 
the sport (much less try it).

There are far easier ways to kill one's self.  Ask the 430,000 smokers 
who die *each year*.

(ok.. inhale, hold it, 1,2,3, ok now exhale,...there, much better...)
Hyperventalating is something that should occur at 14000' on jump run, NOT
at my workstation(:-)

Blue Skies
Jerry

--
Domain: jerrys@umiacs.umd.edu		     Jerry Sobieski
  UUCP:	uunet!mimsy!jerrys		UMIACS - Univ. of Maryland
 Phone:	(301)405-6735			  College Park, Md 20742