OK, today is flight prep and tomorrow is the flight to GRR airport in MI. I'm taking an old notebook computer so I'll probably be posting again sometime next week after the funeral. Don't know how much because I'll likely be tied up in paperwork and lawyers but we'll see.

Well, they're much farther apart than they appear...and yet, not far enough lol.
One of the reasons SFO has such horrendous weather delays is that the runways are JUST close enough together that the FAA does not currently allow for side by side instrument approaches to them in bad weather. So, what is a "two lane" airport suddenly becomes a "one lane" airport as soon as the fog, clouds, or stuff shows up. And then the delays become ridiculous

ALL you can drink?

This reminds me of those "all drinks are on us" cruises you see advertised on TV.

I mean, a thousand frat boys with an unlimited bar tab stuck on a boat with nothing else to do? Didn't anyone involved in this promotion see the videos of the Nickel Beer Night Riot in Cleveland? If they haven't, they really should, because the Nickel Beer Night Riot was the greatest thing to happen in the history of Western Civilization Assholery. I'm serious! If I had a time machine, screw going back to meet Jesus or killing baby Hitler: I'd grab me a ride to June 4, 1974, drop a dollar at the beer concession stand, then get hoot-chimp drunk and huck D-cells at the Texas Rangers until it was Penis Puppetry time at third base.

All-you-can-drink beer in Japan? That'd be like the Nickel Beer Night Riot, only with samurai and ninjas -- how fucking awesome would that be?! I'm half-way to the airport already!

God bless you, Japan!

Really? WE sponsored a VIOLENT coup? So you take the purely Russian viewpoint.
Wiki-
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Ukraine endured years of corruption, mismanagement, lack of economic growth, currency devaluation, and problems in securing funding from public markets.[38][39] Successive Ukrainian governments in the 2000s sought a closer relationship with the European Union (EU).[40][41] One of the measures meant to achieve this was an association agreement with the European Union, which would have provided Ukraine with funds in return for liberalising reforms. President Yanukovych announced his intention to sign the agreement, but ultimately refused to do so at the last minute. This sparked a wave of protests called the "Euromaidan" movement. During these protests Yanukovych signed a treaty and multibillion-dollar loan with Russia. The Ukrainian security forces cracked down on the protesters, further inflaming the situation and resulting in a series of violent clashes in the streets of Kiev. As tensions rose, Yanukovych fled to Russia and did not return.[44]

Russia refused to recognize the new interim government, calling the overthrow of Yanukovych a coup d'état, and began a military intervention in Ukraine. The newly appointed interim government of Ukraine signed the EU association agreement and agreed to reform the country's judiciary and political systems, as well as its financial and economic policies. The International Monetary Fund pledged more than $18 billion in loans contingent on Ukraine's adopting those reforms. The revolution was followed by pro-Russian unrest in some south-eastern regions, a standoff with Russia regarding the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol, and a war between the Ukrainian government and Russia-backed separatists in the Donbass.



The thing to remember about Crimea is it WASN'T PART OF RUSSIA, so no it didn't hold Russia's only black sea port not ice blocked in winter, it held a Ukrainian port Russia LEASED for use by it's black sea fleet from the Ukraine.
It's utter bullshit that Russia found a democratic way to invade and annex Crimea, they militarily invaded, seized and dissolved the democratically elected government by force, created and installed a new pro Russian sham government, then IT signed fake illegal treaties with Russia in violation of international laws and multiple binding treaties.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annexation_of_Crimea_by_the_Russian_Federation

Russian masked troops invade and occupy key Crimean locations, including airports and military bases, following Putin's orders.[2][3]
The head of Ukrainian Navy, Admiral Berezovsky, defects, followed later by half of the Ukrainian military stationed in the region.[4][5][6]
Russian forces seize the Supreme Council (Crimean parliament). The Council of Ministers of Crimea is dissolved and a new pro-Russian Prime Minister installed.[7][8]
The new Supreme Council declares the Republic of Crimea to be an independent, self-governing entity, then holds a referendum on the status of Crimea on 16 March, which results in a majority vote to join the Russian Federation.[9]
Treaty signed between the Republic of Crimea and the Russian Federation at the Kremlin on 18 March to formally initiate Crimea's accession to the Russian Federation.[10]
The Ukrainian Armed Forces are evicted from their bases on 19 March by Crimean protesters and Russian troops. Ukraine subsequently announces the withdrawal of its forces from Crimea.[11]
Russia suspended from G8.[12]
International sanctions introduced on Russia.

You sound distinctly Soviet or ridiculously ignorant in your misrepresentation of the situation. They militarily attacked, invaded, and seized their neighbor, so not a bit restrained, they were not invited in by the government and welcomed....or would you insist they are also exceptionally restrained for not attacking and retaking Anchorage Alaska, their only non winter ice bound port in North America, a port clearly more strategically important than Sebastopol and just as Russian?

*quality aspirations.
Sadly, i can't find a single example of a high rise building on a man made sand island. Even the international airports that have been built on some while amazing, are no where near the height of those shown and are built to withstand unpredictable but expected sinking, which would be quite difficult in a 50 story building. I think the animation might be a tad bit overreacting in it's grandeur.

I dunno ... he yelled at a friend of mine in an airport V.I.P. lounge once, so ... karma? I like to think so

Your video, How to Design Impenetrable Airport Security, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

This achievement has earned you your "Pop Star" Level 11 Badge!

At $667M per life, I suspect it would be vastly cheaper to fix our broken society, especially when you consider that those dollars only protect this one small facet of life. There are dozens or hundreds of other areas that are at least as vulnerable and hard-to-protect as airports.

Of course, the masters of the universe would have to agree to it, and it's not likely that they'd agree to funding anything that primarily benefits the peons.

I was really hoping this video was secretly about how fixing your broken society made airport security unnecessary in the first place.

We both knew who we were looking at when we were about 50 meters away, it was hard to miss the man, he was immense and even more "immenser" to a 10 year old. I think my sister got more of a kick out of Curious George and his green tongue.

We where walking out of the prop plane area and about to cross a checkpoint into the bigger part of the airport to grab our bags. Andre was chatting with the security guards.

Both of us were stand-offish at first but he caught our eye and extended a brief greeting, I had the sense that he and Curious George were about to catch a flight as he was wrapping up his conversation.

Can't forget that voice either, so deep but very calm and kind.

He immediately became my favourite wrestler from then on, even through the Hulk Hogan era.

When I was 10 I got to meet him very briefly at the Dorval Airport in Montreal. Picture an airport hallway, they are very big to accommodate all the people. Now imagine a man taking up the better part of said hallway. It was awe-inspiring to have shook his hand. Also George the Animal Steel was there and he stuck out his green tongue at my sister and I.

I agree for the most part, but with batteries, now becoming reasonable in size and price, it's not so hard to be totally off grid. Micro hydro can also be efficient power storage if properly designed with a dual reservoir system.
Granted, that seems to work best in small scale setups so far, but there is an island .....(https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2014/09/17/349223674/tiny-spanish-island-nears-its-goal-100-percent-renewable-energy)
...currently (since 2014) using this tech to be nearly 100% green.

Dismissing projections as unrealistic without fully examining them may doom our economy and planet.
That's what happened with solar, people just claimed it's expensive and unreliable, which meant those they convinced didn't know how wrong that is, and didn't buy systems or support solar farms. I ignored them and did some light math, and found that even an expensive high tech system with batteries, professionally installed, would pay for itself in about 8 years, with a 20 year expected lifespan (and I live in Humboldt county, with the foggiest airport in America, not Arizona). I'm damn glad I didn't listen. Even a 2 year delay would have cost me 1/2 my rebates, making the system take an extra 2+ years to pay for itself by costing me thousands upon thousands of dollars (instead of saving me thousands per year).

Edit: Also, here in Humboldt we just switched to choice in electricity, we can choose regular pge power (mostly old school generation), a mixture of up to 75% (I think, maybe higher) renewable for cheaper, or 100% renewable for more. All 3 now bill transmission (including voltage/frequency regulation) separately, so it's easy to see what generation alone costs. It's clear so far that mostly renewable is the best bet economically, and I assume it will become more renewable as new technologies become available.....at least I hope so.

A few years ago I had lunch at a restaurant with my extended family for some event (can't recall specifically), and as we were standing around talking in the parking lot afterwards, the AN-225 flew over us. We were pretty close to the airport and it was either landing or taking off, so it was quite low to the ground and surprised the hell out of us. We didn't have the slightest idea what it was, but the configurations of the landing gears and six jets made it clear it was damned unusual. Found out later that the beast was one-of-a-kind and a bunch of people were at the airport watching for it, which made it clear how lucky we were to randomly catch that.

I had no idea there was a propeller-based counterpart. I don't know enough about aerodynamics to understand how stacking the propellers like that makes any sense, so I'm just going to assume it's some sort of Soviet technomagic.