Literally burying the 400 Billion would be better for the environment than the Biden* program. Better for freedom and the losers are the folk who Bribed Joe* to get giant contracts.
So, Oregon's higher death rate isn't from more freedom, it's narcoterrorism by Joe's* employers, the CCP & God King Xi.
On the one hand, I'm pleased that more freedom to ruin or run your own life doesn't support the Party myth that people are perpetual children who must be controlled, micromanaged, for their own good, and the Egos of The Elite.
Otoh, I'm unhappy with the most brutal, murderous regime in history murdering my fellow citizens, daily, as a plan to wreck western civilization.
On the gripping hand, the current regime is partner's with that mass murder, both in taking millions in bribes and quid pro quo actions to facilitate the fentanyl deaths, by violating immigration laws and border regulations, to speed the flow of drugs, criminals, and foreign military age male invaders. Oh, and giving access to the electronic spy division of the Chinese Secret Police, Huawei. And...
1. Airline air is dry and has high CO2. Low flow front front to back, where the exhaust is. ( really big planes like the Airbus 380 have multiple cabin exhausts ) Used to be better, but all American airlines banned smoking about the same time, and without the smoke to visually and olfactory show how polluted the cabin air is, they could turn down the bleed air feed from the compressor and save tons of fuel.
I did pity non smokers back when I first flew and a third of the plane lit up after takeoff. But the air was fresher in that blue fog of smoke and lung humidity.
2. OSHA requires training to use a N-95 mask at work. For a serious reason. Oxygen starvation and CO2 poisoning is probable if you aren't aware of the dangers, and breath too shallow too long. Plus the extra exertion of breathing through a restriction.
Sleeping on an airliner with a N-95 mask is basically asking to lower your IQ. Which seems to be amply demonstrated by this so called journo.
My sources are Federal Regulations and actual high altitude training by the U.S. Air Force. ( as a civilian skydiver, don't want to steal valor! ) Plus First Responder training, and using my own fingertip blood oxymeter on flights.
The progress in reading an unopened book by scanning for atoms is even more impressive when it's an ancient fried scroll of papyrus written in hand mixed ink.
They're closer to that than I'm comfortable with. It's probably going to be a phone app in a few years.
I'm not joking. Today it's reading electrical activity in the brain with pretty large equipment, but non contact. No leads on the skin, just a scanner... But there are already programs that can use a cell phone to detect micro tremors in your voice, and eyeball tracking for lie detection.
Worse, A phone in your pocket can hear breathing, heart rate and rhythm, and muscle tremors. I'm sure someone is working on a PET scanner or Neutrino imaging system on a chip that can be part of the iPhone whatever.
But it's possible that just using faint electrical signals will be enough with enough computing power and a slightly better understanding of how brains work.
Sure, that's paranoid, but is it paranoid enough? ( motto of the Submarine Service )
A buddy, Ace Mechanic, assembled a 2 stroke motor kit (80cc !!! ) on an old Schwinn Varsity. It's terrifying. Fun too.
He encouraged me to build one too. But none of my old bicycles had thick walled enough tubing to clamp a vibrating single to, and I decided to go Electric, because I have another friend who commutes with a home built E-bike.
Plus the Varsity is doomed. The primary reason, is the "cheapest possible way to clamp the sprocket on the spokes with zero consideration for longevity, reliability, safety, or sanity" technology common in those kits. The sprocket mount hammers the spokes and demolishes the rear wheel.
Plus the U bolt clamp engine mount is going to saw the frame in half on it's way to vibrating every atom in the bike apart.
They do make hubs with a left side sprocket mount, that cures the wheel issue, and prebuilt wheels. But that's as expensive or more than the kit, itself.
(He's aware how sketchy the thing is, and it amuses him. )
Nevermind I ended up buying a used bike to motor up, instead of using my full suspension mountain bike, ( That's covered in the E-bike thread ) it's the same electric hardware either way.
Iirc, his 2 stroke motor kit was about $250. ( Add $100-350 if you want the upgrades I think you really need to make it functional )
My "750" motor kit was $500 including brake levers with wiring/switches, the basic wiring harness, & (the better) Display/controller.
( I won't count here the $200 for extension cables and CNC'd mounts, specific to the recumbent bike )
But that... Doesn't include a Battery.
There's a range of sizes and prices, $250-750!!! And higher. Figure $500 for a 52 Volt, 19-20 Ah for longer range, so...
It's a thousand dollars project, vs. A $250 kit.
That's an unfair comparison at 4/1.
Figure double if you build a decent/deluxe 2 stroke engine install for $500.
Roman soldiers in camp in Africa, in the same deserts ( But 2000+ years greener ) that Rommel & Montgomery clashed, made ice for sorbet and drinks by using a pit in the sand, insulated with straw. ( horse and mule feed, and recycled back into the logistics ) Shallow pans of water are placed in the pit, covered with a tarp and straw in the day, opened to dump it's heat into space at night.
It's a technique that doesn't work in summer in Pennsylvania very well, lousy, actually. Too much water vapor acting as a Greenhouse gas, reflecting certain freqs of Infrared back to the ground. ( I know, I've tried it. Works great on really dry days in plains areas. )
The models are wrong, because it's Blasphemy to publish an accurate one, which wouldn't support the Cult's Core Belief. That Global Warming is the excuse for utter tyranny.
Oh, it's phrased "change the economic system", but that's just Marxist Speak for Impose Utter Tyranny.
Google turned down their racist settings, but are still adamant about erasing history they don't want to admit to.
Which reminds me, in both Japan & S. Korea, the best response to Chinese scammers is replying with "Tiananmen Square 4 June 1989" in Chinese, which causes the brutal dictatorship to automatically shut off the scammer's internet.
It wouldn't surprise me when the reply "Trump won in 2020" will get similar results here.
I haven't been following Rivian. I see I can get a Hundred Thousand Dollars SUV with skid pans, between 450+ & 800+ electric ponies* & nifty oval-ish running lights.
So, despite my wanting a replacement for my rusting out Caravan, I'm doubting I can afford another mortgage level loan. I quit before I finished adding options as the price approached my house.
And to be honest, the only reviews I've seen are from truck guys who were towing a trailer and watching the range counter go down faster than mile markers.
Full disclosure, the last time I towed a max load trailer was a 40' race car box with a Dodge Cummings diesel pickup, and the mileage wasn't much different no matter how much we loaded it.
But I do enjoy the Fast Lane Trucks guys who run a mountain pass as their real world metric.
I'm not endorsing a house priced truck here, but to be fair, I'm not buying any of the new pickups, and feel free to gag on the prices of gasoline versions, too.
*( electric ponies which may be measured by the same bad math that the EPA used to fake electric car mileage )
On a much tinier scale, my Catrike ( which I carry out the door and down stairs ) has regenerative mode for downhills, or if you get desperate, you can pedal power back in. I look forward to this Spring and some really big hills. I haven't yet seen my top speed going downhill ( 40+ mph so far ) because I switch to regen mode to save on braking & extend range. Mt. Washington is in the planning stages for this summer. ( top speed is a complex calculation of slope & cojones ) Cruising speed while pedalling on the flats is about 19 mph, limited by programming, and good enough for now. ( I am contemplating swapping motor systems around this summer )
I haven't seen the reviews, so I don't know what warts it has, or if the onboard computers go Skynet and slaughter their owners like a Stephen King movie.
I just auto reject at $74k for a baseline model, and quit looking. That may be unfair, as you can easily go that high with a Ford gasoline pickup, and the big SUVs are ridiculous.
Really starting to look like the time for me to start serious Van shopping. My Caravan runs fine, except for the AC, but every time I slam a door I hear rust falling underneath.
Used, 'cause, cheapskate. Long enough for my monster bicycle toys and volume/height enough for comfort in back for van camping/long trip naps. Big enough to carry motorcycles a plus.
My old SOP for cross country was, alternate van sleep with hotel showers and real beds. The alternating existential horror of "only hotel room left" & "small child asking why van is rocking" balances out and keeps hygiene and SO angst under control.
As fans of Buell know, having a great vehicle is a very small part of being a successful manufacturer. Rivian failed to make the leap from prototype to large scale production. They are losing huge sums of money with no solid plan to become profitable.
So... Decent product, but business model based on getting government money to compensate for losing money on every truck they sell? Alternative twist, can't make cars efficiently enough to make money. Disney twist, selling a product to a small market segment that's not nearly as big as imagined?
( for a real Disney twist, insult your customers, and accuse them of being such evil monsters that you don't want them to buy your product. )
The second. Cannot make their product for more than they have in them. Tesla, early on, decided to invest in the factory. Their goal is to out-manufacture everyone else.
Building a car is easy. Building the machine that build the car is hard. ~ Musk