24 thoughts on “Off The Air”

  1. Powerline is covering Mark Steyn’s testimony. I thought perhaps you might be there. Hopefully that joke of a lawsuit will end soon in your favor.

  2. Safe Travels Rand.

    SN11 just had a static fire. TFR’s for the next 3 days. Awaiting data review.

    Possible flight today.

  3. Safe travels, Rand. And here’s hoping any news about certain affairs in the DC courts goes well.

  4. If you get bored in STL, try the City Museum. Not actually owned by the city, it is an old shoe factory filled with the fascinating and the bizarre. Don’t know where they are on the pandemic nonsense, but the website says they are open.

  5. “Robert G. Oler DougSpace • 2 days ago
    ok I have to ask.. why is no one living on the ocean floor?”
    https://www.thespacereview.com/article/4144/1
    Why not posting over there- password DISQUS, I forgot it, Anyhow
    DougSpace basically give “correct” answer:
    “Because there is no market for undersea settlement not because the cost is too prohibited but because there is little interest. ”
    But it’s mostly because politicans are brain dead and evil.
    And no one can buy or sell ocean floor. Or lake floor.
    I think lake or ocean floor could be worth, say $500 per acre.
    But details matter, like how much property taxes would there be, and etc.
    So there is there is 247 acre per square km. And say, Lake Michigan is 57,753 square km. So only few billion dollars which not enough money for any politician to care about.

    Now, what better ocean surface settlements or ocean floor settlements? I haven’t given much thought ocean floor settlements, but it seems you kind of need both, rather than floor vs surface.
    Sort of like the Mars vs Moon thing.
    So for ocean surface settlements, the key seems to be having breakwaters. And it seems ocean settlement should close to coastal settlement {land settlements}. Or roughly there is lots of land places on Earth, where can get isolation and I don’t isolation is a big selling point.
    Now I think the isolation of Mars could be selling point in some ways, but more about political things. Political things are not a small issue, particularly if you like things like freedom. I tend to think freedom would be needed on Mars, or everyone on Mars, dies. So, that’s important aspect.
    For long time, I thought, we would get Mars settlements, which would then encourage such things as Earth ocean settlements.
    Or it seems best place to launch rockets is from the ocean and it seems consequence of doing stuff on Moon and Mars settlements is getting such things as Earth SPS.
    Anyhow, if living on ocean floor, it seems you want to able to go to different places, rather than just near you on Ocean floor. Of course one might have hyperloop near you on ocean floor, but that might come, later. So, to start, you go from ocean floor to surface, in order to visit someone for Thanksgiving or something. So ocean floor AND something at the surface of ocean.

  6. What I want to know is why Mr. Biden cannot keep his face mask from slipping off his nose. It is bad “optics” from someone insisting everyone wear a mask in public. What is he wearing for a mask, and is it even an effective type?

    Come to think of it, why does Mr. Biden even wear a mask? He has been vaccinated, no?

      1. C’mon man. Now you’re jsush shayin shuff. So sanyway as I was shaying. We shouldn’t shay, you know, suh shing. So you hold shear shings you care. And… Where wash I? So shoe shuff!

      1. Wearing a mask is an old Democratic tradition.

        Joe* wants to wear the one that’s been in his family for generations– the one that’s white with point on top that covers the whole face– but Dr. “Eleanor” Jill won’t let him for some reason.

    3. The thing I appreciate the most about President Biden is his unique ability to forget enough material to whittle a 20 minute speech down to only 3!

      For those of us who appreciate Dissociated Theater The Biden Administration is a godsend.

        1. “And further, before I go and just have one more thing to say, here I’ve had it written it down on this card here… Hotel Elephant November! No, no that’s not right, sorry wrong card, that’s the authentication card…. Here this one, Suit cleaning $35…. no wait… No, no. I don’t have it. Thank you all for being here…”

  7. I’d like to make a helpful non-political comment. If you or your loved ones are having trouble breathing while wearing mask, consider an easy fix via technology. There are products which blow air between your face and your mask. My favorite is the Broad Airpro. A box which holds a surprisingly small fan which you wear on a lanyard blows 2.3 cubic feet per minute of air into a flexible tube which attaches to any mask. It makes wearing an N95 quite comfortable, even in hot weather, for long periods of time.

    On the fan’s fastest speed, the rechargeable battery lasts for 4 hours, but it can be recharged while you’re using it by attaching it to a USB port, giving you unlimited run time which works well for long airplane flights.

    My father in law is fighting lung cancer – he can’t breathe comfortably while wearing a flimsy cloth mask but he has no problem wearing an N95 with the Airpro attached. I gave him one, but he complained when he saw the price. But after he used it for a day, he conceded that it was well worth the money.

    Many of you could rig up your own similar gizmo. Earlier in the pandemic, I messed around with various ways to create the positive pressure under my mask, so that I didn’t have to worry about aerosols leaking in. (I know, I know, you’re not worried about covid-19, but that’s beside the point.) Positive pressure is easily done with an impermeable mask, but of course, if you’re going to sleep on a plane, you might want to wear something permeable in case of power failure. Or maybe you want to rig up an alarm. Or just have sufficient battery capacity. So there are tradeoffs to think about – you might find it interesting to work on your own make-a-mask-comfortable solution.

    If you don’t want to wear a mask, I won’t argue with you here, but it is sad to hear people say here that they can’t comfortably wear a mask — of course, you can! You just need a little more tech to make it work. The Broad Airpro is sold on Broad’s website and on Amazon – take a look, just to copy the idea if nothing else.

    The readers of this blog are enthusiastic about living in space and on the Moon and Mars — rigging up an air supply for yourself should not sound as foreign as it might sound for other people. Ad Astra!

    2. Just because people don’t like it want to wear a mask doesn’t mean they don’t. You are right that there are many alternatives that vary in effectiveness that can be chosen based on your level of fear, concern about what people think if you, and your ability to use it correctly.

      I was visiting a hospital not too long ago and one of the nurses had a helmet with filtered air pumped in and I see people at the grocery store with just a face shield.

      1. You probably realize this, but just in case it wasn’t clear, my comment was a reaction to Michael S. Kelley’s comment here: http://www.transterrestrial.com/2021/03/23/mask-mandates/#comment-475796 I don’t agree with his conclusions about masks, but I have a heart, and I feel very sorry for his loss, and I feel sorry for his predicament regarding his feeling that he and his wife can’t fly, and at least for that for that latter problem, I think there are safe and easy technological fixes for this interim time when masks are mandatory in some circumstances.

  9. Just crossed paths with 60-Minutes/Scott Cooper doing Boston Dynamics. “Some of these will do 16 hours without a break”. Press release for series BD2.9: “Our machines can replace labor at 24 hours and 14 minutes per day”. “What? No, Feynman is not on our board.”

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