Jean-Francois Mezei

Trump will replace this text from Mr Kennedy with the Ferengi rules of acquisition.

Our office downtown had just gotten cable and a big TV in conference room so took a few minutes to watch the Space Shuttle launch and to my horror saw it explode. Not long after thatI had appointement to have a cast replaced and the folks at hospital didn't beleive me when I told then the shuttle had exploded. They didn't have any TVs at reception. Without evidence, NASA quickly said all crewmembers died instantly in explosion and this helped justify not sending search and rescue tothe debris zone in ocean. But once recovery began, it was done with upmost secrecy and the debris was eventually burried and encased in concrete so the evidence could never be uncovered. The thinking was that the crew cabin and crew survived the explosion but died when cabin hit ocean. Survival of cabin and crew would have contradicted NASA statements and this would explain why none of the debris was ever made public. Post Challenger, crews had launch suits, and emergency egress added to Shuttles.

Montréal to Varadero= 1384nm Air Canada uses Airbus 319 with range of: 3750nm (1876 each way) Air Transat uses A321 with range of 3995nm or 1997nm each way So if they check weight and don't waste any time, they could do Montréal Varadero-Montréal without needing fuel in Cuba. Assuming they are allowed overflight on direct line between Cuba and Montréal.

@DavidM_yeg@mstdn.ca @troy_frizzell@mstdn.social @elasticsoul@mastodon.social @su_liam@mas.to A plane can have a whole lot more equipment aboard that a disposable drone. (sensors, recorders, and one or 2 humans). Am not convinced a drone can truly replace planes, just as NSA and all they fancy electronic toys have not fully replaced human intelligence.

@EdwinG@mstdn.moimeme.ca @heliomass@mstdn.ca But Shirley SNC Lavalin knows how to lay standard gauge track, right? Oh wait, they have problems with that in Ottawa 🙂 Lack of transparency by isolating CDPQ from Pulsar from the actual companies doing work means we don't get to kow becayse CDPQ can claim it doesn't know.

@DavidM_yeg@mstdn.ca @su_liam@mas.to @elasticsoul@mastodon.social @troy_frizzell@mstdn.social What is the range of a drone? can it cover good protion of a cost? And fighter jets don't always fly at speed of sound. If your radar shows a ship in the arctic, being able to send a human in a jet to chekc out if friend of foe becomes valuable, and that is where getting there ASAP becomes important. Once you equip a drone with not only all the sensors/cameras etc needed, and also build the done and its engines to have carrying capacity and range for all of it, is the cost still that far below a jet? I agree thatTop Gun style of fighting is old style. But doesn't mean jets don't have roles. (and the F35 is still primarily for fighting , not those other roles).

Have been rather neutral on the sordid Trump-Epstein thing, but this interview based on the just released documents shows Trump did have unacceptable behaviour against 13 year olds (perhaps not sex, but inappropriate nonetheless). He allowed underage to gamble and drink alchool at his casinos and just paid the fines instead of preventing his underage "guests" from gambling. the TLDR: there are too many allegations by different people inthe FBI records to dismise this as just a disgruntled girl making false accusations. https://youtu.be/8E1DzfeB31g

Learned something new today: P-INT is an obscur error code in the Montréal métro. Indicates tire track sensor detected low tire pressure so train can't proceed. Wonder if itis just pressure gauge on the standard gauge track which detects the train is putting weight on steel rail instad of concrete tire path. viodeo at: https://youtu.be/bqdIUR99pZU (and @Milnoc@mstdn.ca learned this before I did 😠 )

USGS has produced a recap of S24E41 that happened an end of January atr Kilauea. S24E42 is expected this or next week. This episode had a lava fountain that behaved differently die to height and wind directly and dropped tephra all over inhabbited places. Nice images. https://www.usgs.gov/volcanoes/kilauea/multimedia/images (there is also a videos section).

@TechConnectify@mas.to To Sum up Maria Ressa: The conspiracies from your strange uncle used to be limited to the family dinner table at Thanksgiving. Now, they get amplified bny for-profit solcial media and used by politicians to help drive their anti-fact agendas. This is bigger than the current regime. Bush Jr (Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz/Cheney) used same technique to repeat lies on Iraq until people thought they were true. But your current regime has upped the ante by orders of magnitures to the population to support their agenda and anyone not supporting those lies labeled as anti patriotic (or domestic terrorist). Your videos have a goal of providing facts. Your current government has a goal of driving agenda with conspiracies and discredit any facts that are in the way of their agenda. This ad from Icelandair shows how the culture of conspiracies and not beleiving in facts has permeated US culture: https://youtu.be/nhHMsvfug24

@VE2UWY@mastodon.radio Lack of equipment: too many trains are in the shop for some sort of check and/or repair. (that is the case in Ottawa for a fair bit of time due to the bearing assemblies needing replacent, they can only do 2 axles per day, and each "car" has 10 axles, and they like to run 2 cars per train, but currently at 1 car per train. (photo from TSB report on Citadis Spirit failures).

@heliomass@mstdn.ca "They should so hire me." Just as was the case in Ottawa, the problems at the REM are likely deeply structural in the way the various companies are organised and interact with each other. (or don't interact). Once the structure of consortium was decided and contracts signed, it becomes very hard to fix it. This is one reason PPP projects fail as they are designed to shield the provider (CDPQ opr OC Transpo) from being responsible and just "forced" to just point to the "contractor (Pulsar or RTG)" who is contractually prevented from speaking out and the contractor itsel has broken out into different companies that blame each other. I am sure they have qualified people but they can't act because the structures above them won't allow this. If not in the contract, they can't do this. In a structure like the STM, the buck stops with the STM who is held responsible and can't blame anyone else.

@chris@mstdn.chrisalemany.ca I have no informed opinion so wont vote. But is it correct to state that Starmer himself has not had dealings with Epstein, only some of the staff Starmer hired, or have eitherresigned or fired?

@jarek@sunny.garden This lake is broken, there are cracks in the water. You may wish to call in a plumber to have it fixed 🙂