Some one searched for Chances of dying while skydiving and my blog came up as hit #2…

Then I wanderer about the link forest. looking for link trees and found this article. From “Living the Risky Life?” by Gene Charleton, beginning with this:

A Risky Day
Few of us think of ourselves as risk takers. Skydiving, bungee jumping or street luge are not in the vocabularies most of us use to describe our daily activities. Yet we live with risk all day, every day, without jumping out of airplanes or off bridges, or zipping down the street on our backs. Most risks we take are unseen among the minutiae of getting through the day. They’re there, but few of us spend a lot of effort thinking about them.

Most of us live our lives as if we could escape from risk by being careful. Engineers look at risk differently.

But…the money quote I like is:

Through the looking glass Risk is often in the eye of the beholder. Here’s an example:
which is riskier, skydiving or commuting to work? Here’s what the numbers say: About 350,000 sport parachutists make about three million parachute jumps each year in the United States. About 30 of them die in accidents. That works out to one death for every 100,000 jumps. If you make one parachute jump each year, your chances of dying are about 1 in 100,000.

On the other hand, more than 40,000 people die each year in traffic accidents. That’s 1.7 deaths for every 100 million vehicle-miles driven. If you drive 10,000 miles a year, your risk of dying in a traffic accident is about 1 in 6,000. You’d have to jump 17 times in a year before your odds of dying in a skydiving accident equaled your odds of dying in a car crash. So why do so many people consider skydivers to be danger junkies while these same people happily risk their lives on the way to the office? People’s perceptions of what is risky and what is not are colored by how they see themselves in relation to the risk.

Oh, and it you drive about 20K/year….think of the odds…

So, all of you ground pounding “legs” out there will get in your car, but think I’m crazy? The joke is on you: I know what it’s like to hurtle towards the earth with others, making formations while going 120+ mph, yet all reaching the ground safely to begin to concoct the “jump lies” we will tell while drinking the free beer from the first timers (name the “first” and someone had to buy a case or beer/soda) just after the sun sets and we pack gear up before heading home; To meet people from all over the world, just because they were in the area of the drop zone you’re at, and they came by to get some air time, not because it was a special event; To be able to say “I can trust them with my life” and really know you can and that you mean it. Yes, and there’s lots more interesting things I’ve had happen in the 28 years worth.

Come Oct, there will be some video posted of two big ways. No one got hurt and we made a record….

Just thought you might like to know…and here’s the USPA drop zone locating page.

CDR Salamander got a “G” rating….:(Something about using “shoot” got me in the have to be a little more mature bin….

Stumbling about in the link forest I came across an article discussing blogging and Federal law.

So…from Aviva Directory here are the twelve points discussed in “Blog Law”:

• Whether to Disclose Paid Posts
• Is Deep Linking Legal?
• The Legal Use of Images and Thumbnails
• Laws that Protect You From Stolen Content
• Domain Name Trademark Issues
• Handling Private Data About Your Readers
• Who Owns User-Developed Content and Can You Delete It
• The Duty to Monitor Your Blog Comments, and Liability
• Basic Tax Law Issues in Blogging
• Limited Liability Laws and Incorporating
• Spam Laws and Which Unsolicited Emails are Legal
• Are Bloggers Protected from Journalism Shield Laws?

I’ll have to take the time to read it closely. It certainly looks comprehensive and I strongly recommend you put down what you’re reading and get over there to see how Federal law may work for, or against you. In the meantime, I’d recommend we spread the word….

There’s a blog reader’s survey going around. I like to scan my sitemeter info to see who’s coming from where and what they are reading, but…if you’d like to take a few minutes to answer a few questions, this survey will provide some grist for my curiosity mill:

Please take my Blog Reader Project survey.

Thanks in advance!

MEGEN is no longer in a dark USPS box. MEGEN is far north, and has a busy schedule planned for this week, and arrangements have been made to be seen around some very memorable Navy related locations….

Plans are in the works for printable pictures of MEGEN, to be used to pose and be posed with, at the suggestion of Flag Gazer (who has a wonderful blog to memorialize those who have fallen).

Details to follow….as well as some OUTSTANDING! pictures next week – or sooner if it works out.

Stay tuned.

I’m glad you asked….especially you from the Marine, Army and Air Force ValOUR-IT Teams.

“MEGEN” (say it sort of like like a girl’s name) is the “Most Exhaulted Golden NotEbook,” the trophy for the 2006 ValOUR-IT fund drive. (H/T: SteelJaw Scribe for the name)

MEGEN is going to help set up the fund collection efforts for this coming October/November campaign. If you other teams had done better, you wouldn’t be getting snarked by Team Navy like this. So, here’s the deal: MEGEN is going on a trip to many places Navy, to pose for pictures and allow the escorts to tell the story of ValOUR-IT along the way.

Today, MEGAN was fortunate enough to pose for a picture with a person from Navy history, a crewman of the USS MASON (DE-529), a destroyer escort in WWII crewed by African-Americans. Ben Garrison was a Radioman 3/C and plankowner on that ship and therefore is one of the Navy’s icons.We, Team Navy, are going to make a point of getting in contact with many people with strong affiliation to the Navy in order to be ready to flood the coffers of ValOUR-IT right out of the starting gate. Names and emails will be amassed to make sure we smoke you all and then we can plan on a second tour for MEGEN in 2008.Now, just to see how we’ll will douse this wonderful trophy in naval settings, you’ll have to come back here and see what our evil plans are to rub it in for the next several months. We’re not telling in advance, but know the locations will be well picked for maximum PR and donation effect.For any readers, if you’d like to kick in a few bucks to a great project to help the wounded troops, click here! Money is needed all year around, not just near Veteran’s Day. Thanks for your support!And Matt and Jimbo, Cassandra and John, time to get your game on!

CPT Chuck Z is trying to raise the funds to go to the biggest conference there is: Blog Expo.

He, accompanied by Matt and Jimbo from Black Five, will be able to stand up for us MilBloggers, but more importantly, Chuck, as the ValOUR-IT “patient 0,” will get the opportunity to tell his story to a bigger audience and thereby get more funds moving in that direction.Got a few non-tax deductible bucks to chip in? Do it here.

It sure couldn’t hurt, dropping three manly men in the middle of the Kos Kids to get more “support the troops” fever going on….

He said what? Here’s why:

After effects of the Toby Keith concert: Wrote this country music song while driving around in my humvee. Maybe later I’ll work out the guitar part and record.

The result?

The Free and the Brave
[Greyhawk]

Over in America, home of the free
Land of unlimited opportunity
People in the streets protest whatever they can
While over in Iraq and Afghanistan

The brave, far from home, are standing tall
toeing the line, so they can have it all
Some like to complicate it but it’s simple to me
<b><i>They’re making noise, we’re making history.</i></b>
[…]

(Click here for the rest of the song)

He already “wrote” the words for one song, which a group, 3db Down, used the words from one of his posts of his for his prior trip to the sandbox (2005).

I think he may have a career planned for retirement!

Fess up, someone. Who forgot to invite William Arkin of the Los Angeles Times?

That’s what it’s all about. Step forward and apologize…then everything will be alright. In the meantime, some commentary and opinion editorializing:

While bemoaning the job security competition milbloggers in his article “If Only War Reporting Were More Like Sports Reporting”, William Arkin makes a blatant falsehood a pivot point for his discussion:

[…]
I’ve been wanting to write about the 2nd Annual MilBlog conference (I wasn’t invited),…
[…]

I suspect he may not have been graced with a gold foil engraved, leather invitation, secured with a silk ribbon, but then again, I didn’t get one either.

On top of that, he’s way behind the power curve in trying to say something that makes me believe he all of a sudden had equated the conduct of baseball to the conduct of war. I blogged about it some time ago, on several occasions, and I still like my analysis much better.

Soldier’s Dad has already chimed in and was the first to reply to Mr. Arkin at the WAPO site.

I left my version, too..something to do with how the registration was open for almost 6 weeks and at the bargain price of $40. I further went on to say his mis-stating of facts was exactly what makes people distrust them and his article further hurt the “cause.”

I’ve often thought if we could cover the military like sports, with transparency and intimate knowledge and a play-by-play that was both affectionate and unsparingly critical, we’d have a healthier debate. Interest and knowledge on the part of the typical American in foreign affairs and national security would actually increase.

This would go over much better is most people in the US actually had military experience, but even more importantly, an education that thought them how to critically think about such issues. Then, yes, we could have that rewarding debate Mr. Arkin desires.

But alas, it is the military, and whether it is the death of Pat Tillman or a war plan, the impulse of the institution is strategic defense. Secrecy, of course, is always justified on OPSEC grounds.

I’m guessing Mr. Arkin has not spent anytime being the potential target of an enemy, be they German, Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Russian, Soviet, Vietnamese, or many nationalities of Islamic jihadis. If so, he would not make such a flippant remark.

Using absolute words can absolutely get you into trouble now, or later, or maybe for a long time, like the rest of your life, when you make sweeping statements. People hang onto absolutes, because they are rare….or should be, but we cry “all” or “nothing” way too much anymore, just to get the gaze shifted to whoever wants attention.

And side note: Yep…OPSEC is the thing we do because stuff is secret.

Anyhow, it’s ironic, isn’t it, that a writer/editorialist can’t move his body around the country in order to even be a fly on the wall, let alone possible meet some MilBloggers in person and sit and chat. Think about it: There we were, in one place, at an appointed time slot on two sequential days. Good thing we haven’t had any attacks in country since 9/11….but, a wide range of bloggers filled the room and that’s only an annual event right now. Perfect timing for anyone who wants to save a lot of funding to get a lot of interviews. I’m sure his Editor would have sprung for the airfare and hotel bill, just on the hopes of a lot of out of context remarks they could quote later on.

And then, he makes it “our” fault for not letting him come to a conference that was open to everyone who wanted to sign up, up to 200 people.

H/T: Milblogs via Mrs Greyhawk

I enjoy reading the hisotry of military things, with an emphasis on Naval matters. Between several of the Navy bloggers, there’s plenty to do. EagleSpeak, CDR Salamander and SteelJaw Scribe all have great regularly scheduled posts on history.

I have been pondering covering ship classes for a while now, but recently began reading “Six Frigates” and have run across a laundry list of names that I have heard ships named after. I knew the history of some of modern day names ships have been named after, but never paid attention to those from a few centuries ago. I think it’s time, supported by the wonderful story Ian Toll tells, to connect those who put our Navy to sea in the 1790’s, and fought our first battles to the issues they faced in a new nation to the ships that were named in their honor. My pastor regularly says “Context is everything.” Here is a case in which this applies.

I’m not sure if I’ll make it “Ship History Saturday” or just pick a day and go for it, but watch for it soon.