Uh, that's a bummer. It was medicals for me, too. Type 1 diabetics couldn't fly power until the '90s; I don't recall my license status at the time. I hadn't flown power for five years but I had over 150 logged glider flights in the interim.
'Same for the SCCA. I tried again in 1983, after we had portable blood-glucose monitors and something close to real-time control. SCCA HQ was behind me but it was all at the discretion of the butthead medical examiner in Philadelphia, and he wouldn't budge. I had built a car for the ITC class (old junk driven by old men; I was 35 ) and I had to sell it.
It was the SORC berth that broke my heart. That wasn't licensing; it was the very real chance of a medical emergency and dying at sea.
Anyway, I've long since put it behind me. It sounds like it still eats at you. Again, I'm sorry for that.
I' ll be damned! The NRA reloading manuals that I use for teaching classes state that both single-base and double-based powders can be used as fertilizer to destroy it. I won't teach that anymore!
jon_banquer fired this volley in news:5b573731-d3a0- snipped-for-privacy@g5g2000pbp.googlegroups.com:
I don't know... It's an actual literary quotation from the 16th(??)century. I'll have to find the citation. It's sort of a mantra for all pyrotechnicians.
Jon, without the 'enslavement' to the art that the quotation infers, there'd be no way folks would work for (no, not three), but seven to ten days in the blistering sun to do a 20-minute show.
When our company did the Pepsi-400 show at Daytona (they still do, but I'm not with them now) it's almost two weeks of setup for a 20-25 minute blow- out at the end of the race. They shoot from 15-20 locations all around the track and infield, and from barges in the middle of Lake Lloyd (sorry, it really is named that!)
The pay ain't all that great. Every man-jack on the show is there for the joy of it.
Maybe a quotation from Bill Withrow, one of the founders of the Pyrotechnic Guild, International, would explain it better.
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"I often use the word "joy" when describing fireworks.
It is a considered word, deliberate in choice. Not just amusement, entertainment, or astonishment, but joy.
Our art makes us all into children again for awhile. We become one in our experience for the moment, lost in the sound and color and light. We see large forces, stronger than we could ever be, yet beautiful in their effects. Sometimes violent, sometimes restrained. Delicate beyond imagination at times, coarse and rude at others.
Deadly force, dangerous, dirty stuff. Crafted with sweat. Controlled by the artist. Bringing joy to many. Bringing joy.
To me the art encompasses all of life. Pain and work, plan and mistake, joy and tragedy. For all the pain, injury and failure we suffer, our efforts bring the joy - the magic - to thousands. Not a bad return.
Though very few ever recognize the effort, nearly all remember the result, and all have, for a few moments, the Joy.
The world is better for an instant. What more could one want?"
Tom Gardner fired this volley in news:TbGdnUQ0DY2W9e7MnZ2dnUVZ snipped-for-privacy@giganews.com:
Tom, sun (UV), moisture, and bacteria will decompose both single-based and double-based powders. Both nitrocelluose and nitroglycerine will decompose under those conditions, as will nitroguanadine -- the 'triple- based' third component.
They just make lousy fertilizer, tending to significantly lower the soil pH to levels dangerous for many plants. 'Might work on gardinias or camillias...
Too_Many_Tools fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@v10g2000yqv.googlegroups.com:
How is a statement of fact an 'agenda'? Those very reasons are why she got demoted from a senior division head in the bureau to field inspector of a one-person post in bum-f*ck nowhere. Instead of serving the industries she was sworn serve, she openly strove to destroy them; Hell... she put it in writing!
"Service" to the industries they regulate is in ATF's charter. Deliberately striving to destroy those same industries is not.
It wasn't my agenda, it was hers; because of it, she got fired.
Too_Many_Tools fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@v10g2000yqv.googlegroups.com:
Oh, I forgot.
You're a moron for saying something definitive about two activities you know nothing about. You've proven over and over that you don't know much about anything you comment on, so this isn't new behavior on your part.
At least I, or anybody I know has had powder to destroy. It will last forever (almost) if kept sealed and cool. For it to go skunky would mean improper storage or it's VERY old. I go through it too fast to worry about it, but I never have too much laying around, I've only got about 9 lbs in the cabinet. When I DO have a good quantity, I tend to burn it faster.
Huh? You mean, they're like the SEC, "servicing" the financial industry?
I don't see that anywhere in the related acts, describing what ATF is supposed to monitor and regulate (18 U.S.C.A. Chapter 40). Where is this charter?
Ed Huntress fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
Ok..."charter" was the wrong word. It's codified in their various mission statements they make to the public and the three industries they regulate and control.
For what it's worth, they really DO live up to that, too. I've only ever once met an ATF field inspector who had any purpose except to simply make sure that we knew HOW to comply with the regs, and subsequently did. They are not 'tyrants', but helpful and courteous in their work.
This woman safety chief I'm talking about was just the opposite. She publicly stated her objection to the whole industry's existance, and swore it as her mission to destroy it. And subsequent to that, BATFE destroyed her. Fitting. The industry didn't have to lift a finger. ATF didn't want her type representing them.
I've had one other inspector who demonstrated the same attitude she did. Not even our complying to the letter of the law was adequate for him -- he'd invent new 'regulations'on-the-fly in order to cite us for possible license revocation.
At the time, I was the GM of a small company that was the 4th largest producer of close-proximity pyro in the world, supplying the entertainment trade. We had a LOT to lose; millions.
I personally fought him for two years through letters and calls to the director's office, and personal visits to regional offices. I can proudly say I _personally_ got the bastard completely out of ATF. After I got done with excoriating him (and proving it through their own regulations and his own written statements), they demoted him, reduced his pay, and offered him a post similar to being exiled (they don't seem to be able to fire anyone, so that's their standard 'death-sentence') -- and he resigned his post.
So... yes... their 'charter' is to serve the industries they regulate, even if that's not in the congressional record.
Gunner Asch fired this volley in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
I cannot speak to that. I know that the same inspectors who inspect us, as explosives manufacturers, also do firearms and distilled spirits duties.
If I had to guess, I'd say that OUR inspectors (out of the Orlando and Jacksonville posts) would not be objectionable to work with on firearms. They are very pleasant in their explosives enforcement activities.
But I cannot speak to other posts. People are people, and no two are alike.
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