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<p>Nick -</p>
<p>I also found BART a bit challenging the first few times I went
under the bay... just *imagining* that volume of water over my
head! I'm guessing the chunnel could be much harder if I let it
be. <br>
</p>
<p>These days most people wouldn't even look up from their tiny
screens for the whole trip as long as you provide a good wifi
relay. They would never notice beyond being relieved to not have
sunlight on their screens?<br>
</p>
<p> As for decompression... I suspect we will have yet more improved
plague-doctor/pandemic masks to take care of THAT ?! <br>
</p>
<p>Actually, I was fascinated to see perfectly well educated people
retweet/repeat the idea that since underwear and pants don't stop
farts, that masks (even N95) aren't going to stop COVID
particles. A *single* COVID virus (composed of many
macromolecules) particle is a full micrometer in diameter (not
even assuming much *effective* transmission is through larger
liquid droplets with *many* virus particles involved). <br>
</p>
<p>The olfactory antagonists involved in your "decompression" event
are molecular (not macromolecule-complex) scale... Skatole,
Indole, H2S and even Methane are 4 orders of magnitude smaller.
Currently biogas scrubbers use chemical reactions to remove the
H2S (which yields caustic sulfuric acid in combustion processes),
but nanotech is providing somewhat more "mechanical" processes
which are more easily reversed to avoid requiring consumables such
as iron chloride. Methane is odorless and in small quantities
indole and skatole are more reminiscent of jasmine or orange
blossoms than their more familiar source. <br>
</p>
<p>I only know all of this because of my (somewhat stale) interest
in expanding the artificial sensorium beyond the
visual/aural/tactile... the olfactory is *much* harder to
stimulate (or more critically, to release for fresh stimulation)
than the others... no SmellOVision until a broader base of
nanotechnology is developed... conventional chemistry is just
not "selective" enough IMO...</p>
<p>If pandemics continue to threaten us (how can they not?) I
predict full-face snorkel-mask style headgear will be de-riguer
with scuba rebreather-style gear, at which will facilitate
synthetic vision and olfaction... as others noticed, wireless
earbuds already give pretty good localized sound if well
presented. In the spirit of Dave's prediction about "the end of
the Pandemic by mid-June": I predict that there will be a
significant adoption of "closed cockpit" sensoria in vehicles and
PPE as described above (by 2024?). <br>
</p>
<p>- Steve<br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
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<p class="MsoNormal">Steve, <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Back in the old days, when I could tolerate
Scientific American, there was a fascinating article on
Pendulum-pneumatic trains. You know, if you just dug deep
enough you could get from Boston to NYC in an hour, with a
push from the air behind you. Who needs windows! As a person
who first discovered his capacity for claustrophobia in the
BART tunnel under the Bay, shortly after it was constructed,
I am not sure I would be able spend an hour in a pneumatic
capsule no matter how fast it got me there. What would you do
if the guy in the seat behind you started decompensating when
you were several thousand feet under Middlebury CT? <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">HOOOO, boy! <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Nick <o:p></o:p></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">Nicholas Thompson<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Emeritus Professor of Ethology and
Psychology<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Clark University<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="mailto:ThompNickSon2@gmail.com"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span style="color:#0563C1">ThompNickSon2@gmail.com</span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a
href="https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/"
moz-do-not-send="true"><span style="color:#0563C1">https://wordpress.clarku.edu/nthompson/</span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
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<div style="border:none;border-top:solid #E1E1E1
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<p class="MsoNormal"><b>From:</b> Friam
<a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:friam-bounces@redfish.com"><friam-bounces@redfish.com></a> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Steve
Smith<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Thursday, August 13, 2020 12:00 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:friam@redfish.com">friam@redfish.com</a><br>
<b>Subject:</b> [FRIAM] Flight Training and Deprecated
Skills/Languages, etc.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p>I actually knew someone who lived near the Embry-Riddle
location in 2000/2001 where several of the 9/11 pilots learned
to fly well enough to do what they did. She had friends (go
figure) who worked at a strip-club who claimed these "boys"
were regulars there. It was pretty creepy 2nd order
connection. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p>My uncles were both pilots in WWII but the older was trained
up on the newfangled idea of a helicopter and proceeded to
become a test pilot for Sykorski. He was forced into
retirement (chief test pilot) to a desk at 65. Nobody wanted
to ground him, but "rules is rules" and in fact his health
degraded acutely and abruptly and he died just a few years
later. His family insists it was from "heartbreak" from being
grounded. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p>I have a "young" friend (now 40s) who was just finishing up
his commercial certification at Embry-Riddle Prescott on 9/11
and claims that the bottom not only dropped out for commercial
pilots for the next couple of years, but has "never recovered"
and he has been making a living as a bartender ever since.
Perhaps it is time for him to revisit. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p>My ex brother-in-law left his career in the Air Force to
become "a bus driver" and recently was retired (for age) from
Delta. Even 30 years ago things were incredibly automated.
I see no reason that airliners won't be entirely automated and
teleoperated in the next 20 years. The risk-profile of such
things is evolving as self-driving cars (and more aptly?
Semi-tractors?) emerge. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p>The hyperloop game is going to change long distance
rapid-transit eventually. I don't believe anyone is planning
for underground "ballistic-trajectory-velocities" quite yet,
but mag-lev-centered, evacuated tube, zero-grade velocities
could still be pretty impressive, and energy consumption as
well with magnetic (regenerative) braking. The earliest
days of railroading involved gravity-trains often with empty
return cars being towed by animal power. Yet others used
water from the high-side source as "ballast" and if the
up/down routes were mechanically coupled, the extra weight of
water plus load would allow the empties to be returned "for
free". <o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Regarding Dave's friend's drug conviction, Denzel
Washington's (one of a series of flawed) character in the
movie Flight is a drug-addled pilot who, by implication in the
story, actually achieves a heroic manouver *because* he's
still jacked on the cocaine he snorted to lift himself out of
his alcohol hangover. The setup is that a jackscrew
controlling horizontal stablizer breaks, forcing the nose of
the plane down with no recourse... Denzel's character quickly
recognizes the futility of the situation and the *opportunity*
of rolling the dive into an inverted orientation such that the
forced "nose down" is now "nose up".<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Popular Mechanics (of all places) had an article on the
plausibility of the Cocaine effects supporting the story
(rather than the mechanics of inverted flying).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>I suspect I could get work myself using my 40 year-stale
FortranIV experience on "mission critical" systems already old
at that time, but still in some sort of service. I did a huge
senior project on a FortranIV system for simulating exo-Terran
atmospheres (e.g. Mars) which might well be still be in
service? Fortunately my COBOL/RPG experience is so slim I'd
never be tempted to try that domain.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>I'd like to believe that the myriad "stale skill" job
opportunities (demands) we see today are going to be
yet-more-fully deprecated. I still have a coal-fired forge
and an anvil, both probably manufactured 100 years ago, that I
can shape and even temper iron and steel with (and aluminum if
I'm incredibly careful), but I do not and never will have the
skills required to do it well, and certainly not to replace
what modern industrial processes can achieve... barring a full
apocalypse, it is merely a quaint "hobby" that might afford me
the opportunity to turn out some rustic items others would
mistake for "art", or more often, repair the various related
tools I might *use*in my forge... though in most cases a
strap and some bolts or rivets makes more sense than trying to
re-weld a broken connecting rod, or lever.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Meanwhile, the discussion of how our "first programming
language" defines us, I believe that my earliest "programming"
experience was more "analysis" of the circuitry of pinball
(and vending) machines in my friend's father's workshop where
he repaired them, and there were always an array of pinball
machines in various states of repair, with all the guts open
for inspection while operating. Very much an analog/digital
hybrid system while the older vending machines were
essentially all "rod logic" (albeit simple). Later, at my
first employer (radio station) I learned the ins and outs of
automated infinite loop carousel "programming" which was a
hybrid of relay and mechanical (rod/gear/lever) logics. The
"programming" was really simplistic, involving inserting
"shorting pins" in matrices to define priorities and timing to
get the "right" mix of commercials, PSAs, and a diversity of
music played during any given period (usually a 4 hour
shift). I can't say how much it influenced my later
understanding of "computer programming" which I was being
introduced to simultaneously by our Driver's Ed teacher who
had somehow wrangled a PDP-x rack into a small room with a
teletype/paper-tape-punch. He didn't really have a clue, he
was learning BASIC along with us, following a simple set of
"sample programs" listed in what I think was the "owners
manual" for the machine.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p>Ramble,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p> - Steve<o:p></o:p></p>
<blockquote style="margin-top:5.0pt;margin-bottom:5.0pt">
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<div>
<p><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">Does
it include lessons on how to land the plane?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">—Barry<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p><span style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">On
12 Aug 2020, at 21:53, Frank Wimberly wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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<p><span
style="font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;color:#777777">I
just got an email from a flight training program
offering me a nine month<br>
course to get a multi engine commercial license.
They don't read the Friam<br>
listsrv, I hope. I'm too old in any case.<br>
<br>
---<br>
Frank C. Wimberly<br>
140 Calle Ojo Feliz,<br>
Santa Fe, NM 87505<br>
<br>
505 670-9918<br>
Santa Fe, NM<br>
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