Last time I commented on this topic on HN, someone called Dean a "career criminal".
BASE is dangerous. Wingsuit proximity flying is super dangerous, whether from a helicopter or from an object.
However, humans have spirit and some much more than others. These people are generally awesome. I know a few of them. We should celebrate them, and mourn them. Maybe they aren't the Wright brothers or Chuck Yeager, but there are still frontiers out there and these guys are pushing them back.
OK, we would all like that, but if you are this personality type, trying to do push the boundaries of human flight, then you don't really consider that. You find the best place to do it and go for it. Sometimes the law is an ass.
If Dean had sat on his couch and ate himself into a 240kg shut-in, it would be legal, no-one would be commenting and objecting to the cost to society. I would like more Deans and less of the shut-ins. I think it's good for humanity. I think it's a shame when we denounce one and accept the other.
>If Dean had sat on his couch and ate himself into a 240kg shut-in, it would be legal, no-one would be commenting and objecting to the cost to society.
Except people do object to that cost to society. Indeed, I'd say there's a much large, more organized and effective political movement to end social security and welfare programs for the disabled than there are people who oppose BASE jumping in the national parks.
BASE is dangerous. Wingsuit proximity flying is super dangerous, whether from a helicopter or from an object.
However, humans have spirit and some much more than others. These people are generally awesome. I know a few of them. We should celebrate them, and mourn them. Maybe they aren't the Wright brothers or Chuck Yeager, but there are still frontiers out there and these guys are pushing them back.