Skydiving Accident Leaves Security Guru Cedric 'Sid' Blancher Dead At 37 332
An anonymous reader points out The Register's report that Wi-Fi security expert Cédric 'Sid' Blancher has died as the result of a skydiving accident. "Among other things, the 37-year-old Blancher was a sought-after speaker on WiFi security, and in 2005 published a Python-based WiFi traffic injection tool called Wifitap. In 2006, while working for the EADS Corporate Research centre, he also put together a paper on how to exploit Skype to act as a botnet." Some of Blancher's skydiving videos are posted to Vimeo; clearly, it's something he was passionate about.
Security 101 (Score:3, Insightful)
Secure your common sense. Don't skydive.
Re: Security 101 (Score:5, Informative)
Skydiving is 7 micromorts per jump. That's equivalent to travlling 1600 miles by car.
Source [wikipedia.org]
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Skydiving is 7 micromorts per jump. That's equivalent to travlling 1600 miles by car.
That's really a distortion of how dangerous skydiving is. The vast majority of skydiving deaths aren't really accidents but rather someone doing something stupid under a perfectly good canopy. If you don't do hook turns on a 3:1 loaded canopy you're much less likely to get killed.
Hmmm...thinking about I guess you can say the same thing about driving also. With the caveat that a collision driving is much more likely to gather in someone not doing something stupid than in skydiving.
Re: Security 101 (Score:5, Insightful)
That's really a distortion of how dangerous skydiving is. The vast majority of skydiving deaths aren't really accidents but rather someone doing something stupid under a perfectly good canopy.
I don't see the distortion -- deaths caused by stupidity are just a real as any other kind of death. In that case, the risk is that you'll make a bad decision, rather than a risk of equipment failure, but it's still a risk.
Re: Security 101 (Score:4, Insightful)
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I want to know how much risk the activity has, and how much r
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the risk is that you'll make a bad decision
There is a huge difference between making a bad decision and something like doing hook turns with a high loaded canopy. To put it in terms you might be able to better relate to it's like the difference between driving a normal car reasonable close to the speed limit and riding 100 mph doing wheelies splitting lanes on a rice rocket. Surely you'll agree actions like that greatly increase your chance of death.
The thing with skydiving is a much higher percentage of the people are the ones riding 100 mph doing
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I think I read somewhere (citation needed) that some sports such as hang gliding and sky diving have a "negative learning curve" where people take more risks and they become more dangerous over time.
That could be what happened here.
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" from things that are either illegal (base jumping)"
WHOA! - B.A.S.E. jumping is NOT illegal - not everywhere, at least. As a matter of fact, in Twin Falls, Idaho, they let you jump off one of their bridges (Perrine bridge, over the Snake river) pretty much any time you want to. It's a big draw to their city.
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If you don't do something stupid, like drive while tired or intoxicated, your chances of a car crash a lowered too.
What's your point?
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Also: driving is usually necessary, skydiving rarely is.
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Titanic was a negligent act, not an "accident". "Accident" implies unforseeable. A good watch, quick reactions, and the Titanic wouldn't have sunk.
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But... how many of these were fatal to the fish vs fatal to the fisherman?
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I read that the rate of serious skydiving accidents (often fatal but not always) was 1:5000 jumps for experienced skydivers. Some of them are probably less careful than others.
But that's still pretty high. About the same as the broken leg/blow acl for skiers (about 1:6000).
Less people sky dive. Basically every skiing day- multiple people come down on stretchers with ruined knees and legs. You can mitigate that- but a friend had her knee blown when a reckless hot shot blindsided her.
Of course--- I'd cons
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While that may be a useful measurement for scientists, it isn't a very useful measurement for humans - a better one is about 1 in 142000 jumps (2010 numbers).
This is probably why one of my life insurance specifically prohibits skydiving and hang gliding (my work one has no prohibitions, but pays less money). It also prohibits SCUBA diving over (under?) 150ft, but I only recreational dive (less than 110ft).
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Like my father said, while I was in college - if I go skydiving, I'm risking his investment, and he'd cut me off from the portion I was borrowing from him. He was an engineer, designing systems for the nuclear missile throwing subs, with a deeply ingrained habit of weighing cost/benefit.
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7 micromorts = 7/1000000 change of mortality = 1 in 142,857.
Same number, different unit.
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Skydiving is 7 micromorts per jump. That's equivalent to travlling 1600 miles by car.
Source [wikipedia.org]
Or [understand...tainty.org]:
* (at an age of 37) twice as risky as getting out of bed in any given morning;
* 7 times less risky than giving birth in Sweden or 24 times less risky than giving birth in USA
(umm... looking at the numbers above and speaking for myself, I'd choose skydiving over giving birth at any time... of course, being a male does bear a trace of influence on the decision...)
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the correct question would be how many people die while skydiving compared to those who jump out of their vehicle at 120 MPH?
Re: Security 101 (Score:5, Funny)
They typically don't die while skydiving. It's right after they stop skydiving.
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Perhaps they should call it "Ground Splatting" instead.
That's a shame (Score:5, Interesting)
That's a shame. To go so young.
But I never have understood the sanity behind jumping out of a perfectly good plane. :(
A friend of mine was into sky diving years ago. Everyone warned him he was taking crazy risks and he'd die some time.
But in the end, he died flat on his back under a car that slipped from the jacks. Life can be so ironic...
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Perhaps if you survive things which are perceived as very dangerous, your risk awareness is skewed?
Re:That's a shame (Score:5, Interesting)
It was on my bucket list, wanted to try it to see what all the fuss was about.
I've had many amazing experiences in life. Getting married, the birth of my children, flying solo for the first time (in a helicopter with the doors off, quite an experience!).
About the only thing that compares... the birth of my first child... that is first on the list, skydiving would be second... above everything else...
There is simply nothing I can say to anyone who hasn't done it... stepping out of an airplane at 13,500 feet above the ground, parachute on your back, nothing but you, the sky, and God.
Well, ok, the pair of instructors with you, one per side. I did the accelerated free fall option, so I had my own chute, they fall with you to 5,000 ft, then you open and spend about 4 minutes by yourself under canopy (they fall another 1,000 ft to make sure your chute opens cleanly, then they open their own.)
I understand it, it is amazing, and I never need to do it again. :)
Re:That's a shame (Score:4, Insightful)
I expect it depends a lot on your physiology/psychology. I don't really get any kick at all out of extreme physical experiences, or anything material - and I've had lots of opportunity.
Solving a complex mathematical problem is an immense thrill for me, however. Or figuring out a clever algorithm.
Why yes, I am a nerd and a geek.
World's good with all different sorts, though :).
Re:That's a shame (Score:4, Insightful)
I've had lots of opportunity.
The question is, did you act on the opportunity? Did you really climb, jump, shoot the rapids, or whatever the opportunity was for? Many people have opportunities, not all take them. Besides ...
Nothing says a nerd and a geek
can't also be an adrenaline freak.
There are pleasures to be had from both intellectual achievement and testing one's physical courage.
“There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at with no result.” -- Winston Churchill
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if you're no living life to the extreme you're a waste of space
As matter of fact, most geniuses, scientists, professors are pretty rational, and they don't do anything stupid. Most of those who do are lightweights in the department of value to humankind. It's news (like this article) when these groups overlap.
I, personally, despise thrill - I have no use for risk. I have better things to do.
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And if it takes a space elevator for you to grudgingly admit Branson is a smart guy, you haven't been paying attention. If you think space tourism isn't going to advance space endeavors, you're just kidding y
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That's *hardly* the philosophy you claimed in your reply, "to each his own".
There is not necessarily a contradiction here. Don't you know of an activity that you personally do not approve and do not perform, but - out of tolerance for views of others - allow others to participate in? I may think that it is stupid to climb mountains, or drive in circles for hours for no good reason, and it fits the dictionary entry as "pointless; worthless" - as long as you do not assign any worth to the endeavor. Of cour
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I don't really get any kick at all out of extreme physical experiences, or anything material - and I've had lots of opportunity.
Solving a complex mathematical problem is an immense thrill for me, however. Or figuring out a clever algorithm.
I feel exactly the same way when it comes to that sort of stuff. That still didn't stop me from going skydiving with a group of friends when we were given an opportunity.
I definitely don't regret doing it, not so much for the thrill during the jump (I blacked out for a few seconds and had a bit of trouble walking after we landed due to the aftereffects of a terror fueled adrenalin crash), but for the ability to look back on it and say "wow, I did something that most people are completely terrified to do".
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I fly helicopters. With the doors off when it's hot. The first solo was... terrifying :)
Now it's the greatest thrill in my life.
Great post comparing the things that matter,
E
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Re:That's a shame (Score:4, Funny)
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Not my first choice. :)
I've never done full acrobatics in a helicopter (yes, some can), but I've had one 90 degrees over on its side, that's an experience. (AS350, it has a rigid rotor system so it can do it)
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There is simply nothing I can say to anyone who hasn't done it...
I've made several hundred jumps myself. When asked to explain it, I refer to Charles Lindbergh who put it into words better than I ever could:
"...when I decided that I too must pass through the experience of a parachute jump, life rose to a higher level, to a sort of exhilarated calmness. The thought of crawling out onto the struts and wires hundreds of feet above the earth, and then giving up even that tenuous hold of safety and of substance, left me a feeling of anticipation mixed with dread, of confiden
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Another favorite of mine is Richard Bach, Illusions remains one of my favorite books of all time.
"When you have come to the edge of all the light you have
And step into the darkness of the unknown
Believe that one of the two will happen to you
Either you'll find something solid to stand on
Or you'll be taught how to fly!"
Richard Bach
"Bad things are not the worst things that an happen to us.
NOTHING is the worst thing that can happen to us."
Richard Bach
"Here is a test to find whet
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There is simply nothing I can say to anyone who hasn't done it... stepping out of an airplane at 13,500 feet above the ground, parachute on your back, nothing but you, the sky, and God
If God was there, you could have tried it without the parachute.
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No, I would never tempt my maker that way. He gave us the invention of the parachute so that we'd use it.
It rather reminds me of the guy who was in a house that was about to be flooded out, a rescue team came by and said, "quick, get in the Jeep, we'll save you". The man replied, "no, it's ok, God will take care of me".
Then the flood waters rose, a boat came along, "quick, get in, we'll save you!". "No" the man replied, "God is with me".
Then the house was almost covered by water, a helico
Re:That's a shame (Score:5, Insightful)
A friend of mine was into sky diving years ago. Everyone warned him he was taking crazy risks and he'd die some time.
But in the end, he died flat on his back under a car that slipped from the jacks. Life can be so ironic...
Steve Irving (aka the crocodile hunter) always said "if I ever die during recording something then people will just laugh and say "the crocs finally got him"". In the end he died during recording due to a freak accident involving a stingray. Supposedly they just bumped into each other by accident and the tail went strait though his chest. Life is neither fair or predictable.
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Steve Irwin, not Steve Irving.
Re:That's a shame (Score:4, Informative)
This is a troll? I don't know the circumstances of his death
As far as I recall, this is exactly what killed him.
Re: That's a shame (Score:2)
Re: That's a shame (Score:2)
I went to airborne school in the us army
Jumping out of an airplane is safer than driving
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no, not if you count the number of deaths per 1000 trips.
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That calculation is completely flawed. You can't compare the lifetime chance of death for something that is done occasionally vs something that is done multiple times a day, and say that they are equally safe.
In 100,000,000 miles traveled, at least a few million trips were made, vs. 150,000 jumps. Clearly, getting into a car and driving to a destination is an order of magnitude safer than jumping out of a plane.
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For an equal probability you'd need to make 7.5 jumps per year, any more and Sky diving is higher risk
source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort [wikipedia.org]
Also, if the probability of death is purely random, you've got a 99.35% chance of dying if you jump 1200 times.
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It isn't zero, but you can moderate your risks in several ways, both in cars and jumping out of airplanes.
And sometimes... stuff happens, to everyone, at some point... sometimes it is doing what you love, sometimes it is something stupid...
Steve Fossett is a good example, there is someone who circled the Earth and a balloon, did a ton of other amazing things. What killed him? A simple easy airplane flight doing nothing
Re: That's a shame (Score:4, Informative)
People don't understand that most fatalities from skydiving involve stunts of some sort: hook turns, base jumping, wingsuits. The translation from the French article isn't all that great, but it looks like he was attempting a hook turn and didn't judge the distance well.
People who just jump out of a plane, open their chute, and drift to the ground rarely perish.
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Not necessarily [performancedesigns.com].
Re: That's a shame (Score:5, Informative)
In all that time, he has had to use his reserve chute 4 times, however all 4 uses were in the first 4,000 jumps, he hadn't had to use it in almost 20 years.
His comment was that due to modern chute designs and modern safety practices, if you're just "jumping out of the plane, opening the chute, and landing", the odds of dying are very low. If you do stunts, formations, or fly a sport chute, your risk goes way up.
He showed us a video of a reserve being used, we also carried an AAD (automatic activation device) and frankly, they have saved a lot of lives in skydiving.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_activation_device [wikipedia.org]
In short, depending on the model of course, but for a student, if you're falling more than 29 feet per second when you pass through 750 feet above the ground, it fires a wedge cutter that cuts the closing loop to the reserve chute, which is spring loaded so it will deploy even if you're upside down, tumbling, or whatever...
It takes no more than 250 feet beyond that to fully open a student chute and 250 feet beyond that to fully arrest your sink rate to just a few feet per second, so even if you're completely passed out, you'll live.
Over 1,000 people have had their lives saved via an AAD, and most jump zones require them for all jumpers.
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Everyone warned him he was taking crazy risks and he'd die some time.
Wonder what percentage of them were smokers...
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Probably not that ironic, he probably took stupid risks in the rest of his life as well, including how he set up those jacks.
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Probably not that ironic, he probably took stupid risks in the rest of his life as well, including how he set up those jacks.
Hello. Newly licensed n00b skydiver here.
Non-skydivers tend to overestimate the risks associated with skydiving. It's certainly an activity that deserves respect. You can't ignore procedures, and you must pay attention to what you're doing. The same thing can be said for lots of things people do every day, such as driving a car. Get distracted by something that places your attention somewhere other than the road, and you can get you and others killed.
Last year there were an estimated 3.1 million jumps
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I ever said that skydiving was over dangerous, but I still disagree with your statistics.
All of those dives were either done by seasoned professionals, or in the company of them, and I would bet that most were done simply by the professionals themselves.
Most drivers are horrible at driving, and most crashes involve really bad drivers.
I would argue that Skydiving is likely orders of magnitude more dangerous than the statistics show, as the statistics are biased based on who actually goes skydiving.
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I ever said that skydiving was over dangerous, but I still disagree with your statistics.
Well, the implication I took from the way you worded it was, "this guy chooses to do this inherently dangerous activity, so we can assume he brought the same attitude of disregard to danger to every aspect of his life." I meant to point out that skydiving isn't as risky as most people assume, and therefore some very cautious people participate in the activity. I count myself in that group, I am in no way an adrenaline junkie. If that's not what you meant by it, I apologize for the misunderstanding.
All of those dives were either done by seasoned professionals, or in the company of them, and I would bet that most were done simply by the professionals themselves.
Well,
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As Thom York said, "... gravity always wins".
It's a reproduction strategy (Score:2)
But I never have understood the sanity behind jumping out of a perfectly good plane. :(
Women bear the economic price of childbirth. As a consequence, they tend to be conservative and choosy in picking mates and men have to compete for access. In order to succeed, men have evolved to take risks - we see this when comparing the bell curves of women versus men: women tend to have lower standard deviations than men. More women are of average height for women, men tend to have more varied heights. More men are born than women because over the course of their maturity, more men will die from taking
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Given the condition of some of the jump planes I've jumped out of, jumping often seemed like a better option than landing with the plane - it probably wasn't statistically though. I've landed in small planes so few times (usually when the clouds were closing in and the pilot decided to abort the jump run before the hole in the clouds was gone as they were flying VFR) I always found it unnerving and felt much more comfort
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I've seen jack stands slip sideways under cars leaving the car to fall. Go one further and use something solid with a base wide enough that it's effectively impossible for it to tip over. Use a log, or some cinderblocks, or take off one of the car's wheels, even if you don't need to, or use an old wheel you have lying around and throw it under so that the car won't crush you even if it falls.
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You can jack up a car and then put the ramp under the car, then lower it until it rests on the ramp, or any other solid object that can support the weight of the car and is far more reliable than jacks or jackstands.
If at first you don't succeed... (Score:5, Funny)
...skydiving is not for you.
Quite an awkward headline (Score:2)
although I've seen this style used many times.
Why the anthropomorphism for a type of accident?
"Hi, my name is Skydiving Accident, but you can call me Skyak because it's like paddling upstream without a canoe, or a paddle, or even water and you're jumping from the top of the falls.
So, who wants to be left dead or disabled today??"
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By replying, would I be applying human characteristics to an AC?
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Like an AC??
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Or like the the pond scum hiding behind the mask of an AC and are too stupid to understand what I meant?
Hook turn maneuver (Score:5, Informative)
From the report, it sounds like Cédric performed a maneuver called "hook turn" -- it's a high speed turn in your final approach, 100' or less from the ground, considered deadly and stupid by USPA, the French Federation of Parachutism, and pretty much anyone who's been jumping for a while.
The rate of descent increased as a parachute (square, ram air canopy) banks. The sharper the turn, the faster the descent. The hook turn swings the jumper fast, like a pendulum, and an experienced jumper will guesstimate ending the swing at about the same time as his or her feet would touch the ground. The margin of error for a hook turn, by an experienced jumper riding a small canopy (the more experience the smaller the canopy), is between 5' and 10'.
Start the turn too soon, and you'll end up 3' to 10' above the ground, with a stalled parachute, falling straight down. On a good day, a few bruises or a parachute landing fall, a dirty jump suit, and teasing from your pals. On a bad day, a twisted or broken ankle, yet survivable.
Start the turn too late, and you'll slam the ground with enough force to kill you. And remember: too late is a difference of only about 5'.
Even if the turn starts fine, and the jumper is the king of experienced up jumpers, other factors may come into play. A little thermal near the ground may force the canopy up or sideways near the ground. Or a cold air pocket (e.g. flying over a small puddle, or a dark patch on the ground) may drop the canopy a few feet faster.
Most if not all drop zones since at least 1994 ban people caught doing hook turns because of the danger they present to the jumpers doing them and others around them. Every once in a while some hot shot with a few thousand jumps thinks he's above physics and chance, and does a bandit turn if nobody is watching.
Maybe Cédric ran out of air on final and thought that hooking the turn would help him land into the wind. Maybe he was just hot dogging. Regardless, if he was an up jumper and he did a hook turn, he should've known better and performed a different maneuver. Sad to loose him, but not feeling sorry about the accident itself. Stuff like this is what gives a bad reputation to skydiving in the eyes of people with little or no knowledge of the sport.
Cheers!
Re:Hook turn maneuver (Score:4)
Even if the turn starts fine, and the jumper is the king of experienced up jumpers, other factors may come into play
What would a gust of air from the blades of a silent black helicopter do?
friends. (Score:3, Funny)
Skydiving Stories (Score:2)
A recent skydiving accident story with a more cheerful outcome: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2487761/Wisconsin-skydivers-survived-mid-air-collision-said-extreme-sport.html [dailymail.co.uk]
Hook turn (Score:2)
Rich People problem's day (Score:4, Insightful)
Rich People problems day on Slashdot
- Skydiving Accident Leaves Security Guru Cedric 'Sid' Blancher Dead At 37
- Rigging Up Baby - the rise of extreme baby monitoring
Low Turn Most Likely (Score:2)
We all know the risks. The accident rate really isn't that high, around 1 jump in 100K results in a fatality. I feel safer jumping out of a plane than I do driving down to the city to train in the wind tunnel. The rewards are worth it. Everyone dies, not everyone really lives.
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And the notion that young people can't have routine isn't ageism?
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Call me paranoid
OK.
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Ok, hi paranoid! He did a hook turn all by himself into the ground. He looks like he was a pretty good flyer, but hook turns kill - they are VERY unforgiving
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http://www.skydivekansas.com/upjumpers/hookturns.shtml
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I would have think they probably used a SIGKILL rather than SIGINT for this task.
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But I'm not saying they're *not* co
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these people who appear "inconvenient" to the establishment seem to keep running into accidents, don't they?
I was just thinking .. if I was a security researcher, I'd give up skydiving.
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splat !
Your comment pretty mirrors the (currently) 19 comments on the reg site.
I suppose a lot of people deal with tragedy through humor, but I sure wouldn't want to be a surviving family member and read some of the comments posted so far.
At least you did it anoncowardly.
Re:look out below ! (Score:5, Funny)
I suppose a lot of people deal with tragedy through humor, but I sure wouldn't want to be a surviving family member and read some of the comments posted so far.
Seriously, it amazes me how people can fail to understand the gravity of this kind of situation.
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But if the opposite of gravity is comedy, then surely black holes must be the least funny things in the universe.
Re:look out below ! (Score:4, Insightful)
no... the impact is what killed him. We are all subject to the effects of gravity 24/7. Difference is how far off the ground you are when you start your freefall.
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I suppose a lot of people deal with tragedy through humor, but I sure wouldn't want to be a surviving family member and read some of the comments posted so far.
Seriously, it amazes me how people can fall in underestimating the gravity of this kind of situation.
FTFY
Re:look out below ! (Score:4, Insightful)
Someone dying by definition cannot be a tragedy to the rest of the word. Tragedy implies not just life as usual.
Though some philosophers maintain that life is a tragedy, so I guess they would disagree.
Personally, I love Seneca's sentiment: “What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.”
Besides that is a pretty epic way to die.
Re:look out below ! (Score:5, Interesting)
Personally, I love Seneca's sentiment: “What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.”
Besides that is a pretty epic way to die.
I'm more of a Mel Brooks guy:
"Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die."
Or maybe Hemmingway:
" . . . all stories, if continued far enough, end in death . . ."
Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
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relevant xkcd: (Score:2)
Re: look out below ! (Score:4, Insightful)
At least he died doing what he loved!
I'd rather die at 73 mowing the lawn than at 37 while skydiving or having hot sex.
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You jumped out of a perfectly good plane.
Translation: Hey, I'm just smarter than he was. It's not because I don't have any balls. Honest.
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CORD!