Joe's 100-Billion Promise

 I sat and watched the Joe Biden 'townhall' from yesterday.  In the midst of this....he got onto some tirade about Covid-19 and schools, saying he wanted to spend 100-billion dollars on adequate ventilation for schools.

I sat and paused over the comment.

Being from Alabama (1970s era), ventilation (or the lack of ventilation) is a familiar topic.

Ventilating usually meant that you had a rotating fan that seemed to have the pitch or hum of a diesel dump truck.  

Ventilating usually meant that around nine AM, with the healthy diet of bacon/sausage or eggs....a gaseous 'fume' would be pushed around the entire room, and the teacher sat in agony. 

Ventilating usually meant that you pushed 95-degree air around the room....to every corner.

How would this Covid-ventilator work?  A 100-billion involved?  Some engineer is probably at work....building a fairly fake ventilator and filter system, and swearing that it'll remove 98-percent of the Covid virus from the air, but failing to mention that the filter has to be changed daily, and it cost $29 for each single filter (made in China of course). 

For some reason, I just don't see this promise going anywhere.

Seven Hours to Nowhere

 I tried to make sense out of this story.

Qantas, the Australian airline, will fly a passenger plane (Boeing 787) for a seven-hour flight....taking off and landing at the same airport.

Yes, a flight to nowhere.

What they are saying about this flight....it'll fly over the Northern Territory, Queensland, and New South Wales.  You are basically leaving Sydney, flying northward over the eastern section of the country.....coming to the north central region, and then doubling back.

That's it.

What do they mean by low-level?  That's not entirely explained.  Normally, the plane would be at 38k feet.  I might go and interpret this to mean a 5k foot flight.

Number allowed onboard?  ONLY 150 seats.  Cost?  $850 (US) for the economy seats and $1930 for the better seats....while maxing out at $4088 for the business class.

How long did it take to sell the tickets?  Ten minutes.  They were gone.

My humble guess is that they could have offer a dozen flights, one after another....150 on each plane, and still sold all the seats in less three hours.  

Why?  You are getting a totally different prospective from 5k feet.  If you were interested in the landscape....it's brings a totally different picture up.  

Now, I will admit....there's no way that I'd pay $850 for such a seat.  But with this....you probably get an outstanding meal, with drinks included free of charge.

The odds that this might catch on in other places?  Australia is different, and you can say with some confidence, there just aren't that many planes flying around in this north-center region region.  If you could forecast limited traffic in Canada or southern Africa....this might sell well there. 

The most nifty thing about this flight?  No bag drag, and no chance of your bags getting lost.