I’m thinking Mt Chimborazo in Ecuador…at over 20000 ft, it’s peak it the farthest from the center of the earth (while not being the highest above sea level thanks to the equatorial bulge).
Sure, it doesn’t remove air resistance or friction, but halving it, even cutting it by 1/3 is a massive leap in efficiency and negates much of the extreme engineering and materials needed to overcome the friction….plus, as you mentioned, there’s the rotational speed advantage from launching on the equator vs Florida.
Also, while extremely minor, there’s also a slight reduction in gravitational pull at those heights. A joule saved is a joule earned!

Using a mountainside might help with structural integrity, but it's not likely to give much air resistance advantage if I'm reading the math correctly. The 5 highest peaks in the US are all in Alaska and and range from just under 5km to just over 6km. Commercial jets using air resistance/density for lift fly at about 10km and even at 38km aerodynamic lift still carries 98% of the weight of the plane (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C3%A1rm%C3%A1n_line)

Air density is halved at 5km compared to sea level, but air resistance doesn't diminish as quickly (due to it being multiplied by velocity squared and drag coefficient), and only becomes irrelevant (for short-term purposes) around 100km at the Karman Line.

If we had a 5km peak in Florida, the lack of logistical costs might make the benefits worth it, and if we could build on one of Equador's 5km peaks, then there's the further advantage of equatorial location for optimal rotational advantage (part of the reason we launch from South Florida)

Fake news that walruses don't live further south than Alaska! I saw a bunch without tusks in Florida.

4,500 more Republicans than Democrats die of Covid in the US every week. The majority of those come from Texas and Florida right now.

Doesn't take too many weeks of that to start tipping some close races. Florida is already a swing state and Texas is flirting with the idea (and according to the Republican Attorney General would have already gone Democrat if not for vote suppression).

Just put him in gen pop ant tell them he's a violent chomo.

No videoing the children at schools, you pedo. That's another charge they need to add....and trespassing.

I hope he gets covid in prison....no masks there.

Side note, Florida courts just struck down the no school mask mandate order saying the state doesn't have the authority to determine school policies. Hopefully the new federal laws will stop idiot governors from trying that stupidity again.

Refusing a vaccine should be like smoking, being a heroin addict, or not wearing your seatbelt, a legal reason for insurance companies to deny coverage.

I heard some major multinational corporations are charging their employees who aren't vaccinated $200+ a month extra for medical benefits. A good start, but it should be more if not just a complete forfeiture.

In Florida doctors did a walkout this morning to protest the huge numbers of unvaccinated morons needing hospitalization, and how they've overwhelmed an already long term overworked and understaffed industry to the breaking point.

Being vulnerable is a choice, one with very expensive consequences. Those making the choice should pay their own bills...they're invariably the same people that scream about taking personal responsibility when it comes to others. 100% of hospitalization and deaths in the last months in my county have been unvaccinated people, and they're unable to treat anyone else because they're over capacity now.

It's FDA approved, it should be mandatory.

Imo, anti vaxers should be given fournier's gangrene in icu, then told there's no one available to treat it.

It totally agree, @eric3579. Who can be trusted? It's harder to know every day.

My take....
Jones is right about the science, false negatives imply you've never been exposed when you have been, so people believe they cannot transmit the virus when they may in fact be infectious, which can lead to reckless nondistancing behavior and infections because they assume they're "safe"... also even a good (not false) positive antibody test does not mean they have meaningful immunity nor does it mean they aren't infectious as this woman claims. It only means you've developed some detectable antibodies to the virus. Period. Both misconceptions are big concerns. "Which is bigger?" seems like a silly fight.

The problem is, no matter what the test says, people think it means they're safe to be around. A negative test...."I never had it so I can't spread it, gimme a kiss"...a positive test..."I had it but beat it so I'm now immune and can't spread it, gimme a kiss". Neither is correct.

I had the chicken pox twice. If a chicken pox antibody test existed, I would have tested positive after the first round and assumed I couldn't get it or transmit it afterwards, but that would have been wrong even though the results weren't a false positive. Instead, because people suck, my parents and teachers just assumed I was "safe" and sent me to school sick and may have caused an outbreak.

Both of her claims here rely on most people completely misunderstanding what the results really mean, and people completely ignoring the possibility of false results. Sadly that's proper to assume.

Interesting how she puts it, she says Jones wasn't asked to fudge any data, just maybe present it in a way that made Florida's public covid numbers look better in the run up to the election....or another way to say that is she was asked to fudge the data....if I recall she claimed she was instructed to hide large numbers of cases in categories not included in the public presentations with the intent to create a false perception of a major downturn in cases under the "open up and unmask" plan.

Wasn't the "private data" she's accused of handing to the press the unadulterated anonymous covid numbers....not really private as it's public data collected by the government for public health reasons... and not personal data as she implied. That's what I recall the charge being....maybe there's more.

The rest is unverifiable and /or personal tabloid stuff....like did they point the gun at her kids or just menace them with the guns, did she get pregnant with her student, etc. Not germane to her claims about Florida's verified misrepresentations, and inappropriate attacks against the messenger instead of the message, imo. Distasteful to me, but besides the point.

And another Trump terrorist plead guilty yesterday, this one admitted to trying to hire a hit man to kill his ex girlfriend, her sister, and her brother in law, and stage the crimes to blame BLM. This crime was thwarted last year in June.

This on top of the Trump terrorist who was just charged with murder, kidnapping, and terrorism along with about a dozen other white supremacists in Florida days after being released from a 6 month sentence for his part in Jan 6, Jan 6, Jan 6.

Earlier this week a pair of Trumpsters were stopped right before bombing the Democratic headquarters in Sacramento, caught with multiple bombs, multiple guns, and thousands of rounds along with written plans for their terrorist attack.

Seems like every day a few new terrorist plots by Trumpsters, usually white supremacist Trumpsters, are uncovered and stopped by the feds, who are also a main target. Just a heads up, you belong to an anti American fascist terrorist gang.

Florida is trying hard to catch up to China with near total deregulation in construction. It's so much better for businesses if they can build without buying materials and just use dirt and sticks instead of cement and rebar. No one is going to inspect it, and if it fails DeSantos will give the owners immunity.

That >1" thick rebar breaking with a mild smack was astonishing. Bamboo would actually be better.

*promote a *quality representation of what deregulation gets you.

I think the public has unreasonable expectations. In order for him to do his job he needs to protect himself. He is not there to protect you.

“Neither the Constitution, nor state law, impose a general duty upon police officers or other governmental officials to protect individual persons from harm — even when they know the harm will occur,” said Darren L. Hutchinson, a professor and associate dean at the University of Florida School of Law. “Police can watch someone attack you, refuse to intervene and not violate the Constitution.”
https://ehlinelaw.com/blog/do-police-have-a-duty-to-protect-me

Also: RadioLab No Special Duty - https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/no-special-duty

I am certain. Science doesn't lie, and I don't have to take someone's word, I can examine data, understand chemistry, and see short and long term trends. The data is undeniable, the only thing wrong with what the media tells you is they paint FAR too rosy a picture. You would think, based on media reports, that if we did stay at only 1.5C above pre industrial levels all is fine, that's nonsense. Truth is 1.5C is where they theorized we lose all control and skyrocket up from there to....nobody knows where, but hot. I think we are on track to 1.5C before 2030, and the feedback loops are already kicking in now. Does that mean we die in 2030? No, but it means our collective fate is sealed and completely out of our control.

I do plant trees, I already have solar, I drive well under 4000 miles a year, in fact I haven't driven anywhere but the grocery store in the wife's car in over 6 month when my car broke, and I don't miss it, I don't have AC, and yes, I need to get on my bike more, for my weight and blood pressure. My money IS where my mouth is, and I still was willing to put it on the line....you aren't.

A big difference is, if somehow I am wrong, what I do is still proper, cleaner, safer, and actually cheaper. Your ideas and ideals lead to detrimental, polluting, dangerous, and more expensive actions and processes even if miraculously they don't lead to our extinction this century.

Are you snatching up cheap uninsurable coastline in Florida and Louisiana? Are you selling off your water rights because they're a dime a dozen? Are you short selling produce and grains on margin? Are you doing anything to risk your money based on what you say?

Your turn.

Edit: I don't do mobs. I prefer people who think for themselves.

didnt the navy just cause an earthquake by exploding something off the coast of florida?

Well, it isn't looking good for the building management.

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/miami-florida-building-collapse-06-26-21-intl/h_d9466fb68e097da81c660ed6a197417c

They do have codes, Florida actually has some of the strictest building codes in the country. The building was actually being worked on and updated to meet additional local hurricane codes at the time of the collapse.

Every state has to meet the codes established by the ICC or one of the organizations that existed separately before they merged. The only city to ignore these codes and go completely by their own code is Chicago.


At the municipal level, the city can add more building codes to meet specific local hazards or weather. Miami/Dade has very strict hurricane codes that need to be met.

I suspect that we will find that the fault in this lies with the building owner failing to meet code or maintenance updates in a timely manner, as well as the fact that the building experienced subsidence in the amount of 12 cm between 1993 and 1999. This is not that unusual in structures built on barrier islands and it ceased sinking in 1999.