Transcript
…such as it is…
04_22_2016_+NASA+and+Beyond.mp3
Welcome, Mike Nelson here, Renaissance man. Hey, Mike, this is Dave. Hey, we got some new hardware in the in the studio and I'm I'm I'm hoping that it'll give us even just a little bit better quality edge than we've had in the past. Yeah. But it's good, isn't it? I'm real excited about it. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think it's gonna be good. And I'm I'm excited about it. So even though you aren't. Doesn't like new hardware, I. I like new hardware. It's good. But it was long time coming. I remember when I bought the laptop that I was using prior and everybody should know that it's totally possible and it's totally capable or laptops are totally capable to produce studio quality recordings on people. Do it all the time. You know, you can have your MacBook or even your surface or something like that. And people can you can produce legitimate studio quality. And it just so happens [00:01:00] that worry and my quote unquote office. And it's Holley's office, too, and it's cluttered with a bunch of paper which absorbs all the sound. So it might sound like we're actually in a studio, an NPR studio and NPR. NPR studio. Hello, my name is Pete Schweddy. No one can resist my sweating bullets. Inventor of the Schweddy the Schweddy Balls. Yeah. So, yeah, hopefully it'll give us a new edge. And I think between Dave and I, we kind of take pride in the audio quality. And if you go back and listen to those first ones, it's pretty rough because we were using software that we weren't used to and we were just using like a audio vox mikes and and we've kind of upgraded over time. Right. I think even I've I've listened to a couple of podcasts recently where the quality the audio quality is, I think we're above mediocre. The audio quality of these other ones that are very successful podcasts were insane, like just sound [00:02:00] bass around, just crinkles and crackle. I know this. I had a lot of chair sound in their last recording. Yeah. You were at your office. At home? Yeah. Studio North? Yeah. Studio North. I think that gives a little ambiance sometimes like. So actually it around it was really a complement because listener Justin called me and said he wanted to start his own podcast. And I kind of outlined the amount of work that it takes to actually do a podcast because it's not it. There are some situations where you can just drop a line, throw it up online and people will listen to it. But we I actually we you and I both sound edit these things. You do? I like that. No, we do. I mean, that's the part that I enjoy the most. Yeah. Other than the actual part of the podcast. And then I told him, you know, you for an hour of podcast, it's about three hours of sanity. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. No, you're right. And it isn't just save post kind of thing. Right. So there's actual work that goes into this, which is, you know, why we had it. Oh, speaking of which, this [00:03:00] is our third in a row. So we're officially back. I think we're back. I guess. Don't call it a comeback. Mark that. So anyway, I never quit. Listener Justin. You know, I tell him, you know, you're talking five hours a week, then that's not even including the setup. And then, you know, the thing that that listeners want that you and I know is that they want consistency, which we've failed. But you can't you can't be on top of it all the time. I call it a hiatus. A sabbatical. Sabbatical? Yeah. I had some other things I had to do. So but, you know, we're gonna try to be more consistent. And I think for me, it's actually funny because we weren't expecting to talk about this at all. But for me, like the idea that I could Monitise, it would be a plus. But there's a certain amount of like psychology with putting your hand on something and producing a product [00:04:00] that you think is acceptable. Yeah, absolutely. The whole process of getting better. I think it's it's very renaissance. Need to do one thing and then do it better and then figure out why it is better or worse than before. Yeah. If I mean, like. Yes. You know who. Who are the. The standard bearer for this? This whole topic is is Mike Rowe. Not only is micro awesome, but he's got a fantastic radio voice. Deep rich. Yes, I am. Next on Deadliest Catch, next on Dirty Job. Yeah, no, he did all the voiceovers for Deadliest Catch and Dirty Jobs. I think the word he was a big spokesman for Ford for a while. All right, so you're placed and ready to hang up. I'm ready to catch Mike. You ready to throw up? All right. Begin throwing up. And you know, the thing about him is, is he. He [00:05:00] went travel around the country and looked at people. And anecdotally, it's funny, we were talking about anecdotal evidence. He said the people that he founded that were the most happy were people that were doing what they wanted to do. Absolutely. Yeah. So we started doing this because we just enjoy it instead of coming at it from a let's do it for a business reason. So actually, while this podcast was because we like to do it, the other podcasts. That's right. We start out with business reasons and I think those are good boover good recordings and good content. But then in the middle of all those scripted content that we were trying to communicate something educational, we had all these goofy stories and we just spun that off. Yeah. And we don't do the scripted content anymore. Now I am working on another whole podcast stream because I'm interested in aviation and for a while now I've been trying to figure out how I can involve myself more and in the aviation in the northwest. And I realized that because [00:06:00] of the flying club that I fly out of, I have access to people that are highly professional, very personable aviators. And some of these guys and I'm not going to I'm not going to air any of them out because I haven't. Other than Tom Curran, we told this Thom Colonel Thom, I don't mean to put your blast beyond. So you had the best flight of all times. Other than Tom Curran, there are some people that I have access to that I think would be willing to share some of their stories and opinions in an aviation kind of structured format. There's a podcast if anybody else is interested in aviation. One of the other podcasts I listen to is called Aviation Geeks and they do double enders. I can tell they do double enders and then they did. They have short at the end of shows. Sometimes they have like blooper reels and they they spend a lot of time editing, but they've got probably two or three million listeners. Jeez. And they have people in UK, Europe and in the U.K. as part of Europe, Europe, part of the Europe. [00:07:00] OK, we've discussed this last time. No, no, look, I'm crossing my fingers. The United Kingdom is what? Yeah. The Commonwealth. Yes. Right. So don't let me forget the. Right. And Australia. And they have weekly contributors because aviation is very regionally specific. Unless you're flying an A380, you know, big commercial commercial. Right. So they have guys in Australia that contribute. They have guys from the UK that can contribute. Guys from Europe that contribute in it. And they talk about things that everything from general aviation all the way up to military aviation to commercial aviation. They have this segment called and it's aviation geeks, right. They have this segment called The Airplane of the Week. And the guy that does Airplane of the Week, as you can tell, is this is total like neckbeard nerd. Right. But he's frickin pro man. The guy is a pro and he's won all sorts of awards because of it's just unending knowledge about ridiculousness when it comes to aviation in specific airplanes. And he'll like get [00:08:00] into arguments with people. And there's this other guy that provides this little edgy. He's always like, you know, wink, wink, nod, nod kind of stuff. You like there's an aviation podcast and you can tell everybody else is like, OK. So anyway, the stream for me is I'm I'm going to attempt to build something that I can tap the northwest, because the region of the northwest is very specific when it comes to aviation for more than one reason. When it comes to general aviation, you're talking about a very, very varied A. How about if I take the extremeness word out there, a varied landscape like legitimately topography. OK. So in Colorado, you have Colorado mountains and stuff like that. And then it goes flat. Yeah. And then in the Pacific Northwest, you have at least in the Puget Sound area, you have unbelievable [00:09:00] mountains. Right. And three sides. Yeah. And there are times when you have to fly high enough to be able to glide to land, glide to land because you're over water. So like if you're flying over the Puget Sound, you've got to be high enough and calculate how high you are. If your engine craps out at top of climb that you can glide to get to land. Otherwise, you're gonna be in the middle of the Puget Sound. I see. So that's like a requirement or regulation. It's not a regulation. It's called a personal minimum. Right. Because frankly, forty two degrees and swimming does not cut it for me. I mean, I could do it for a few minutes, but I mean, you'd have about 10, 15 minutes, depending on how you were to be able to tell people where you were. But dependent give me, because I'll have four minutes after I hit the water. Right. Even if you have. Even if you have a vest on. Yeah. Right. So I mean you're gonna have to. The second that you land in the Puget Sound and you're not near land. You have to swim like you're running for your life. Otherwise, you will freeze. Hold on. Your [00:10:00] hardware. Still working the monitor. I got I got to put it on performance. So what happened was that I haven't set up my new hardware not to go to sleep and the screen stopped and I just wanted to make sure that we all panicked. Yeah, yeah. So Dave kept talking it. Yeah. So. Okay. So I'm gonna try and like professionally with with some scripting and some segments so that the show notes and segments are all can congruent, that the listeners can come and expect what they're gonna hear from the aviation podcast. The Northwest Aviation podcast. I'm gonna try and get experts in the field in both more consistent content. Yeah. It's not gonna be just shooting from the hip like we do. It'll be aviation specific, northwest specific. But I have access to some big guns, some guys that work for the AOPA, guys that work at Boeing, and that means the commercial side to have all the military contacts that I have. I think I think that I can rounded out specific to the north. Well, we've had [00:11:00] a couple of stories. Well, one of them was the C-17 pilot. Yeah. A rapid suburban sea descent. Yeah, into that. It was a combat descent and it was twenty thousand feet a minute. And we thought it was again with the zeros. We thought it was like 2000 or something. I don't know. Yeah. And then he actually he actually told us that they deploy thrust reversers while they're flying. That's right. Yeah. Now. Now I can't imagine doing that. It's crazy. And then Tom Curran, the F-15 pilot who went and stuck his wing in the eye of a Russian to you. Six bear. Right. Pretty awesome. So but I've secured the. So you can get a couple. I got the logit. Yeah. And the thing is, I think on my part it really is incumbent on me to be dependable in the sense that I have to have a schedule that's at least four months out and that's 12 podcasts, right or right. Because [00:12:00] if we're gonna get these people to participate. Yeah, we want the. They need to know, hey, you know, this is Ariel. Yeah. And we need I mean, I'm so kind of one of my things. And Dave, you can either tell me I'm full of crap or validate this, but like, let's start with that. Start with your full crap. Okay. The. My fingers crossed on the. One of the things that I try and do when I have people help me is make sure that everything's setup so that I'm not wasting their time. It's like going to somebody's house and they want you to help them move and have an impact. All right. And you're like, forget it, dude. I may be leaving or I'm just throw in China in a cardboard box. Right. So I think the latest example for me is when we poured the the the the South Southern Borders Initiative wall and mom and dad's. Thanks, listener Brian, for that. But the Southern Borders Initiative Wall and mom, dad's backyard, concrete, concrete. And I and I tried really hard to make it set up because I needed four or five other people there and kind of built a system and a team [00:13:00] so that it goes fast and we are done by noon. Right. Maybe maybe 1:00. So but I think in the sense of I've got people that are high powered executives at major corporations and major lobbying groups in the course of aviation. And I'm telling them that I want 90 minutes of their time. The one good thing is, is that these guys are pilots and they know that on the front side of a flight, it takes 15 to 25 minutes just to check the weather and pre-flight the plane. And on the backside of the flight, they still have to put the plane away. So if you can associate the process of making a recording to that process. Yeah, they'll understand. Yeah. And for four out of five of these guys have over 10000 hours of flight time. All all of them are. So put that in perspective. What does that mean as far as flight time? Because there's the the mythical Malcolm Gladwell 10000 hours makes you an expert. An expert. There's what, minimum regulations to be a pilot. You have to have how many hours. Yeah. So you can be [00:14:00] a private pilot with 40 hours of time, year, month for what? If you were motivated, you could do it in probably 45 days. Yeah, but there is a there's a balance. And pilots are all like jailhouse lawyers. They have all figured out what the balance of flying and education is because people do it for fun, because it's a challenge. But there is no point in my flying when I'm just out there. ho-hum. Yeah. You know, because it's I mean, frankly, it's dangerous and you mitigate that risk with. With preparation and practice. Right. But it doesn't eliminate the amount of mental stress that it takes. I'm sure that Eric, the guy that I fly with who is a consummate professional, does not exhibit the same type of stress that I do when I when I'm flying. But he's specifically putting me in stressful situations. That's his job. And I've got probably 200 hours now, the longest friggin private [00:15:00] pilot hours. It's just ridiculous how much time my first entry, my logbook is in the year 2000. But, you know, keep on trucking. Yeah. So you keep you know, there is a lot of fortitude there. And you have to like have a lot of perseverance because life happens. And when life happens, there is no extraneous money that you can just throw at flying because it's not cheap, you know? You know, when you get to your private pilot and then you're part of a flying club, you can't be cheap. So. Or it can be less expensive. I won't say cheap, but Eric has eight thousand hours in type. So it is in tight me. It means in a Cessna 172 eight thousand. So that's a little more than just that flavor around for a week. Well, he is also an instructor. Yeah, he is my flight instructor, but he's only been an instructor for a year to eight thousand hours. So you guys set up you're trying to set up a podcast? Yeah. I need your help. Oh, OK. Seems like I might have somebody around here that that can do it. But I'm not trying to [00:16:00] copy anybody else's content or format. But the aviation geeks is very good because they're varied. I'm not a commercial pilot. I'm not a military pilot. And I still listen. Is aviation geeks. That's another podcast. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. And to be honest with you, they're cool enough that if I produced probably five episodes, I could probably I could probably get a spot on there getting out or they don't do ads now, but they they would probably say I could do a write in and just be like, hey, I got the Northwest Aviation podcast in the blah, blah, blah, blah, you know. And then ultimately, you know, there's like aviation shows and flight shows and stuff like that to kind cool to set it up so that you could go there to a, you know, the AOPA flight show in Bremerton or whatever and have a tent. I'd be cool. So they're not not necessarily if you're a lobby or anything like that. Well, you focus on the region. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. There's four or five specific content. It seems like a pretty vibrant community around here anyways. Yeah [00:17:00] it is. And then you know, there's probably four or five air shows that you could hit a year here with very little cost and then you could just kind of develop it that way. So I can see an arc is a long shot. That's a long shot arc. But I'm hoping to have content posted. So I'm going to I'm going to do some back content like we did the first time with redmen. I'm going to do some back content and I hope to have some content posted by July 1. Sweet. So anyway, I don't know how we got into that. Now my fingers are crossed because of the word the I was driving home from the airport the other day, the airport. And there is a sign up that I don't I don't even know. It's a it's a billboard right in Fife as you turn left to go north on I-5. Rae, because you're headed you're headed east. It's still I-5 north, but you're actually physically headed east. And then at five you turn left and go north. And [00:18:00] I don't know what the billboard is for. But it caught my eye because it said something, something as slow as the I-5. Well, we've discussed this right about that's a California thing. And I was like, oh, you get all five. You don't know your audience. There isn't anybody in state awash in the state of Washington that calls it the I-5. Maybe there are now maybe there's enough people from the California. Are you California apologist? No, I'm just saying maybe we're outnumbered now or the balance is tipped. Well, they need to adapt. That's how California words. Yeah, I don't think so. Chalo Washington. Chalo, Washington. You know, there's that there's a point like there's a point where there's enough people who have moved in from some other place that they now that the normal people in a in an area sort of like vaguely familiar. What does that view? Ads kind of say [00:19:00] that a lot. Let me tell you a story. Sometimes the sun comes up little regularly, a long, long time ago. There is this ship, people that just showed up. Well, at some point, like the Sonics will probably Seattle probably at a basketball team someday. Now, we'll hang on there at some point. There are already there already people in their 20s now who don't remember when the Sonics were here. Right. And for that for Seattle to get a team would be a brand new thing. Thing and they're not jaded and old curmudgeons like me who are like, oh, why do we want them? They don't want us out. Right. Like Barky and Grumpy about the fact that they might come back like they'd been dissing us the whole time. But there's a whole generation people like, well, I'd be great to have a team here. Also, why isn't there basketball? Why are you so upset, man? And who are these? Supersonics? Yeah. And what does that mean anyway? So at some point the balance will tip and I [00:20:00] will be if I'm not already in the minority of the grumpy people. Dude, every time I see somebody wearing a Sonics hat, I go, man. Sonics. What's the guy's name? The the commissioner. Well, was David Stern and now it's somebody else. So does he have a lanky do? Does he have a different line? Well, he's. He was sort of hand. He was sort of picked by David Stern, but he's doing things differently. Because Stern said. It's long as I'm the commissioner of the NBA. There will not be a basketball team in the SEC city of Seattle. They say that I can't validate that sort of like, yeah. Be great, but they're just never gonna happen kind of thing. Listen, if anybody doesn't know what we're talking about, you need to go to YouTube and you need to look up Sonics gate. Yeah. Okay. It's a well-done piece. It is a well-done piece. And actually it is a production company. But I suspected it's a production company similar to the production company that you and I have. Could be so little grassroots [00:21:00] anyway. But there's a there's gonna be a point where there's gonna be like pitching the idea. And in ten years, oh, I think we're gonna actually gonna get a team here and people be super excited and they won't have the baggage because they're either from not not from here or they are too young when the Sonics left. Right. So they become the culture. And then by then we'll all be saying the five and the four or five. I'm not going to say it. No, no, no. You'll be the old curmudgeon. Right. Why do you guys call it the five? Yeah. So anyway, I noticed that. And it kind of I learned from a guy named Dave Preston. Know your audience. Right. And he gave us example after example after example of like politicians saying, I love being in Chicago when they're in Houston. Yeah. Yeah. Trying to trying to spell Smerconish to some some phone rap or something like that. Is not HAMISH. It's exactly like it looks really snow. Homesh. Yes. [00:22:00] Yeah. S e Q:You I am Sequim. Sequim KYEEMA. Did you really just say hump tulips? Yeah. So I say it. I screwed him. Yeah. Well I suppose that happens everywhere at you. You don't say certain things the certain way. Then you all automatically identify yourself as not from there. Yeah. Did we talk about this? Talk about what? There is a we need to hire somebody did transcripts of every conversation. A court reporter. What do they call us? Stenographer. Stenographer. That was so awesome. I think it's cool how that works. The weird thing is that it doesn't make any noise. Oh, but whatever. I think like like a little clip. I. I think it would be it would be tedious for our listeners because it would be like every four seconds to be like, do I need to go back to the record? Let the record show that. I'm going back to the record with some some other voice from outside of the car. Yeah. It's like no. You said you said [00:23:00] Supersonics and not Sonics. Yes. Okay. So I said Supersonics. Are you sure my plus records show. My point still stands. You mean we are not war right out called red? The court reporter. We need to. OK. So if anybody knows somebody who is a court reporter, let me know. Please. I would love to have somebody. And then we'd have to engineer something so that we could be like, let the record show. I want to say that and make it real. I want to do that for real. Well, listen, with all the promises that we've made of something that we're going to do or look up that we never actually do. Well, hey, you know what? This is a two way street. I mean, to be honest with you, I'm gonna throw this out there. If we say that we're gonna look up something and it interests you and we don't look it up, look it up your damn self. And then tell us. Right. Yeah. You can tweet us or you could you can hit the Web site and leave a comment or you know what our listeners favorite thing to do is for [00:24:00] them to text me, to text me on my phone calls. All the listeners know you first believe it, right? Because all six of them know me personally, but they like to text me on phone and go, hey, that was a great podcast, which doesn't do anything. All it does is is help my ego a little bit. Right. So either listeners, listeners, 1:36, take it to the website or the Twitter machine or just text the rap and I might just know or and don't text me. This is what you got to do. You go to the Twitter machine. If you if you find that something is remarkable in any way. Right. Or just break the word remarkable down to its core, it's something that you could make a remark about. Yeah, it doesn't need to be it doesn't need Runnable. It doesn't need to be the Saturn 5 rocket. Right. It just needs to be something where you go. There's actually kind of cool. Or do you guys don't [00:25:00] know what the hell you're talking about? Everyone says if the five take a left down to Laurel Canyon and take the five to the Home Depot, you're going to get caught in traffic. What does that show that the Californians on SNL do? That it's a that's an amazingly specific. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, I think our traffic around here is probably rivals California. But but anyway, as far as the Twitter goes, what are the digits, man? Tell us tell it tell me how to do it at at 24. Man Ren because Renaissance Man 24 was taken. So I just flip it around backwards. 24. Man ran. Renaissance Man 24. Yeah. So if. And then there's Mike's G.I. tract. Oh, okay. Yeah. Also known as Tracht of Mike's G.I.. I haven't posted on it yet, but I will. Okay. I'll, I'll I'll start doing it. And speaking of traffic, I just got back from Florida. Okay. So tell us about your trip to Florida. Well, the traffic, [00:26:00] lots of traffic, but not nearly as much like backup as I thought. Like when we got back and got off the plane in driving up the before or five or four or five back from Sea-Tac. You can't hear me shaking my head. I mean, like the traffic was terrible is like ten o'clock in the morning. It just backed up like crazy. There's there's no massive backups in Florida. A lot of traffic. There are a crazy amount of people who will ride 10 inches from the back of your car. At 70 miles an hour, really, however, I would say the vast majority of people are doing 3 over in their lane where they're supposed to be, and it's just like a handful of just crazy people driving them. I noticed a lot of 30 mile stretches of just purely straight highway and they mark their lanes fantastically. Really? Yep. You have no problem understanding what lane you're in. Have you experienced the shiny lights? [00:27:00] It's not calling. Yes, the L.E.D.. Yeah, they have. They have L.E.D. in the lanes embedded in the ground. As you go over the mountain passes, they'll call me. It's very aviation. It's. Yeah. It reminded me when they. Well now that they've had it up for two winters now. Yeah. Like three quarters of them are all busted up and burned out. But when they first did it at night it reminded me of the game. Pole position. Oh wow. That's amazing. Yes. Dude we're gonna to like if you weren't moving all of the lights would be confusing and random. But as soon as you move then you can see the pattern of the lanes. Yeah. And then if you like here in pole position, prepare to qualify. Yep. Yeah. So. Okay. What else. Tell me you were first class. Yes. Tell me. Oh my God. As a tall man, this isn't your way to go. I've done business class eight years ago at a trailer for business as like this is awesome, but I'm not as I'm just getting older curmudgeonly. But the extra three inches of leg room and three inches of elbow [00:28:00] room or whatever the amount is makes made all the difference in the world. So do you think. Do you think that the cost of first class and it varies. Right. The cost of first class is worth it. Or in this case, it was an extra 50 bucks. Yeah, that's a no brainer. 50 bucks do it right. So versus buying one of the chair locks and then pissing your pissing like flying overseas and you want to go first class. It's a difference of hundreds and hundreds of dollars right now. If not over a thousand dollars, then you're just like that's just you to have the money or you don't. A thousand dollars. There's a massive difference. So I don't know what the reason was why it was so cheap. But it was great, huh? I flew. It was Delta. Delta was better than fine. It was great experience, huh? That's good. Holling, I'm from Holland Air flying first class to Hawaii in about two weeks. Yeah. You should be great. So a thousand Nazi were flying [00:29:00] to Australia. That takes, what, 17 hours, 17 or 18 from L.A., divided by seventeen. Fifty eight dollars an hour. Okay. While we flew to Florida was five hours. Oh, on the way back, we got in an hour early. Put one that all works early. One heck of a tailwind. Yeah. You got back an hour early. Yeah, earlier than scheduled. You know, the prevailing winds go the opposite direction. Yeah. They had said at one time during the flight that we don't have a headwind as Sarah sort of coming from the side. But I was just shocked that it was an hour. So how much how many how much time did it take you to fly there? Four and a half hours, maybe five. Okay. Fifty dollars divided by four point eleven dollars an hour versus what? Go, Australia? Fifty [00:30:00] eight dollars an hour. I wonder if it's just fuel prices five times as much, huh? So you had a side wind, apparently. That's great. Okay. Oh, we went to Kennedy Space Center. Yeah, that was awesome. I went there in nineteen ninety. No. In 1988. Space camp. Right. Yes. But you have to pull the photo you in the light blue jumpsuit dude. So I wore that thing for as long as I could. Oh yeah. How old were you at the time. I was in fifth grade so I had to be ten or eleven. Oh I'd be great. It's got to be a rat. It's probably that flight suit is probably up in mom and dad's attic. I think we should find that. We should find it making a promise, though. So I went to Kennedy Space Center, which was fan tastic. They said they have a space shuttle Atlantis there. That was the test bed, right? No. The Enterprise was the test [00:31:00] bed. Oh, they never went to space. Show us what space camp did for me. Yes. The Atlantis is the one that they have there. And it went up maybe 10 times, but they have it on display in a building. Can you go inside of it? No, no. But you can you close enough to touch it. Like there's parts of you could probably reach out, just touch it easily. It is really cool. It's much bigger than I imagined. If you touched it, would it be like that? That scene in night in the museum. Don't touch me. No, I think he could. There was. It was awesome. And the way they. And I won't I won't ruin it. I won't ruin it for anybody who's going to go. But there's a way that you first see this thing is big, presented in such a spectacular way. And it's just awesome that it's right there. And then the. I think probably a lot of our listeners seeing the photos of the rocket garden. One day we went to a rose garden and the next day went to Kennedy Space and had a rocket going to get all the rockets there. And one of was laid on the side. And I was as a minor space nerd, I was very excited to see [00:32:00] the Saturn 5 rocket as well as the space shuttle. And out in the I'm over here trying to be quiet and then they gently put your coffee cup down and knock everything else over. So I on the rocket garden, they have the one rocket on the side of Saturn 5. And I got out there. We're looking at space to taking pictures and like all awesome. And I'm in my head and like, I don't see an alarm, but it's really cool. But I thought to be bigger. I mean it. I mean, that is huge to satisfy a big, gigantic. Right. I mean, I don't think I've ever seen anything that flies. Well, maybe an A380 would be bigger. I don't know if this what the deal is like. Okay, cool. Like other militant leaders, a little confused with the nozzles on the PSI on the back of this, things like I thought the pictures were a little bit bigger. Why is there so many in there smaller? Like you could drive a truck through them, right? No, you couldn't drive a truck through them. Oh. Oh. So that was the problem? That was the problem. They didn't look quite big. So anyway, I was like, well, that's cool. This is awesome. [00:33:00] Then we get on this tour and we go out to one of the launch sites and the control room. And then, you know, it's the actual control room with the actual panels where they launched this thing. Is that the one where they're like. Houston, we have a problem. Mm. Not Alan but they have this whole presentation. But as you get down to the control room and you go out into this hangar and there's an actual Saturn 5 there. And what they have in the rocket garden, they don't specify it's a Saturn one literally half the size of the Saturn 5. Did they use it. Yes. Yes. So I went looked up. So is that like a redstone mercury? Like Thom mercury? And then the Apollo program was on the Saturn rockets, and they actually sent one or two of them up on a Saturn one. And then the rest was like Saturn 5 want to launch like 13 or 20 Saturn by rockets. They launched a ton of these things. I did not know this. And these are single use rockets. Yeah. And they were. And then when they shut the program down, there [00:34:00] were I think there were three left. And one of them's at Kennedy Space Center. That is amazing. Yeah, I know. I know. When they retired, the space shuttle, people were like, well, they're going to dust off the old Saturn 5. And then on the aviation podcast that I was listening to, there is this guy that we're like, you guys don't understand, like. Not only could we just not afford the fuel for that, but literally internal combustion or combustion rocket is like it's like propelling yourself in a boat to France by dropping rocks off the back of it. Yeah. And so I walk into this hangar just like, oh, that is the Saturn 5. It is like clear difference between this one that I thought was the Saturn 5. Massive. I think a video like walking briskly from the tail into the nose and cause laying down its. You think you can post it? Sure. Take like a minute. 50 seconds to walk the whole the whole length. At a brisk pace. And it's fantastic. They did a really great job. [00:35:00] So the night before we went to Universal Studios City Walk, which is sort of like their outdoor mall restaurants and shopping and stuff like that. Is it like San Antonio? A little bit. There's the water feature there and it's like San Antonio then. OK. Some of them is Universal Studios City. That's not the actual theme park is connected to it. So like if you did the theme park and like, that's it. Go to food court. You'd go to the city walk. That's the third card for say, there are probably five or ten acres of ivy. It's huge hot. And we went to the city walk in California last summer or whenever we went to California. Universal Studios in California and in Hollywood. And had a great time and went to the city park in Florida and had not a great time. Why? What happened? I don't know. It's just so I have had a good time at a place like this, did not enjoy this this trip. But but then did the next day go to Kennedy Space Center? And [00:36:00] the difference between the two is Universal Studios City Walk was like a church to consumerism and just. Oh, right. People walk around all day being tired and grumpy, eating really crappy food, and they go to Kennedy Space Center. And it's inspirational. It's forward looking even now. Still even now. Oh, it is like look what what what people can accomplish when you put your mind to it and you have a goal and it's looking forward. It's like that's super where it's the second time that's come up. What? Right. The the forward projection that you put your hand has something. It's but I think that's it's interesting because you're kind of like you are making a juxtaposition between our two portions of our culture. Yeah. United States, which is one is that consumerism culture, which, you know, the best waste, the best way to make yourself miserable is to compare yourself to the people that live next to you. Yeah. Right. And then and then the other part is not [00:37:00] only does NASA and the space center have that kind of sense of forward projection, but the reality is, is that that not only represents a kind of a symbolism in the United States of America and our culture that that may be kind of slipping, but it represents a a a sensibility of humanity to which has with. Without question is all encompassing, all in something which says we have problems and and barriers that we're trying to overcome. Let's find out what the problems are and get past it and move on and get to this thing. Yes. And not not looking where you're standing currently. Yes. So I said the whole thing about City Walk in California to say that I can have a good time at a place like that. But go down when whereas in Florida is like this is just sort of like the gross just sort of the everyday kind of like walk around, [00:38:00] you get sore feet, you stink and. Yeah. And you're you're standing in line with a bunch of other tired people just waiting for your spaghetti, trying to get your your wait for your cafeteria spaghetti and trying to get your, you know, old Navy sweatshirt that you want to buy with. Right. And with some logo. And and then to turn around the next day in like this place is full of aspirations and inspirations and so achievement hat. Okay. I love it. I thought I thought Kennedy was incredible. How do we. I really like this. Like, I really embody this. Like I try to. I know. And sometimes, you know, just as people were just like, I'm not good at anything. I'm I'm I'm not particularly good at a single one thing. Right. And that is there is a portion of that where I think everybody kind of goes through that. You know, and that's part of human culture. But if you take that, if you embody or not embody, if you take that kind of culture of NASA or JPL [00:39:00] or or even Lockheed Martin or Boeing, you know, black works or whatever they're called, you know, those those things that reach out into the unknown. The the the military term would be the contested battle space, the the the area where we are not dominant right now. How do you bring that back down? To a 10 year old and to a 5 year old. It literally it's literally reaching for the stars. I know it's a very it's kind of attitude. It is a platitude. It is such a you know, sometimes when you find yourself down in the dumps, you really just gotta look up and reach for the stars. Lift up your chin. Reach for the stars. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps in. And you really need to know where you're going. You got to know where you've been. It's right there. Like what? You're just saying something and saying the opposite and putting it together. So you don't. It literally is. And without. I mean, obviously, it's a theme park kind of atmosphere [00:40:00] at Kennedy. Right. But it isn't it. The you sound like I'm being herded onto this bus, but it isn't quite like Disneyland. Like, you know, I'm cattle. I'm being moved from one spot to there. You sort of know you're gonna do that at Kennedy, but you don't realize that it has happened until it's done. Interesting that you walk in and it's all about the space race and the Soviets in the United States and trying to annul the failures and trying to get to space and orbit and to the moon and what it took. And in all of the problems and it what it took. And then before you know it, you're talking about the space shuttle program and all the stuff that they did there. And then and then you're talking about going to Mars and the new rockets are building. Right. And you're like, well, I just had a whole story. And it wasn't go to building one to learn about the past. Go to building to you. Just go through it. Yeah. Yes. The way that we ended up, like when the show the space shuttle, like right there representative for you is like it's right there in front of you. And [00:41:00] then like we missed the whole first part of this, talking about the Saturn 5, which is massive and impressive, but it'll never fly again. That was okay. So I was going to ask you that that part, because I've been down there, but it's been years and years. So, again, 1988, I think it was the year before he graduated because. Yeah. Because you I was in sixth grade when you graduated. And I remember thinking that I had missed my opportunity to go to war. Well, speaking to kids and opportunities and not talking about war, I've been thinking about this, trying to explain this to my kids, too, trying to get them kind of excited about science and math. And it has really taken but they said specifically on this on one of the tour buses, which which was awesome to hear. I wish my kids were there, which was if you're a kid on this bus and you're between the age of seven and 17, you are at the perfect age to be the first person to walk on Mars. Yes. There are people walking around today who are between 7 and 17 who will [00:42:00] be on Mars. Yes. All I want to bring the kids as opposed to let's go to city walk and you get your elephant ears and your your elephant ears and your ESPN branded, you know, British Knight or Nike British made. What is this? Nineteen eighty five in 1993. Okay. So I was going to ask you. I was. Okay. So aspirational and inspirational. Aspirational, inspirational part. But I remember and you got to understand my personality. And if you've listen to any of our podcasts, you probably understand it by now. But I'm very introspective and I try to perhaps to a fault. I try to figure out what my relationship to where I am and what's going on is does that make sense? Yes. And I remember taking the space camp tours that they had down in Florida were very small groups [00:43:00] of kids and their kids, you know, very small groups of kids that were in a very small bus. And they had a very educated tour leader. And they took us out there to the launch pads. And I remember I was out of school two or three days short. Right. But they they drove us past the Mercury launch pads and the Saturn were in the Redstone rocket launch pads. And they're just crap. They're there. Oh, yeah. They're they're falling apart. And it is like entropy, right. You know, it's decay. And it could very easily turn into the the status or the the the sentinel, you know, the standard bearer of what the space program is today compared to what it was back in Saturn five days. Could easily get locked on to the glory days of the past. And what they did and they'd pick B, two best points of the past said this. This was an awesome achievement. And then they turnaround. We're looking forward. And we're not [00:44:00] just hanging on to it like back in two. Right. It isn't dusty. It's awesome. I'm so glad. Yes. I'm so glad to hear that. It was crossing my fingers for our craft, aspiration, inspiration. Oh, and one thing, I know the kids, right? Yes. And I wonder, I don't know if they did this on purpose. And I feel like I mean. College. Some college class got to be careful what I'm saying, but I noticed that DUI during the space race. You can say whatever you want in the 50s and the 60s and the 70s. The world and the country were going through upheaval as far as the Vietnam War and kill Cuba, Cold War, African-American rights in the country and riots and all Scott stuff. Strategic Air Command. Yeah, all of this all of this crazy stuff is going on and NASA is headlong into trying to get to the moon and whatever it is that they're trying to do to get to it. And they don't [00:45:00] I don't highlight things like why here is when we had the first African-American or the first woman or the first this or that. They sort of like, well, yeah, when then when the time was right. And that all included was like, awesome. Yeah. You're on board. We got something we're gonna do. Come on. Like anybody in everything that wanted to be part of moving forward. So it wasn't a politically correct CIA motivator. It was as soon as they they had an opportunity to use the talents and the abilities of companies and people and whatever they like. Yeah, we are mixed up in building rockets that will bomb people. Right. They were mixed up in war and all this kind of stuff. But we have a better we have something else that does not include that. I love it. You kind of the feeling I got. Have you seen the picture of the lady that wrote the code for the Apollo? No. WSA lady. Right. This is back in the 60s or 70s or whenever it was. Well, I'll have to look it up. And she's standing next to a stack [00:46:00] of paper that's like seven or eight feet high. And she wrote the code for computer code. The computer code for the module in the 60s or 70s. Right. I mean, computers were hardly invented then. Yeah. I mean there would be paper. Yeah. Yeah. So it just kind of like supports your point of it doesn't matter who you are or what you are. Right. But I don't know. I almost feel like if somebody today would go back and point out, well, NASA, you know, a woman that wrote that NASA, you know, mass of the person would be like, huh? Oh, yeah, I guess she was anyways. Yeah. So part of the team. Yeah. Well it's not like it's necessarily a big flag that says, hey, what your look the Air Force did this a couple months ago or a couple of years ago with their Airman Stone guy who helped thwart the attack on the train station in Paris. Yeah. Right. And he got shot and stuff like that. And they promoted him to staff sergeant. So I mean, it they [00:47:00] took what? By all rights was a pretty darn cool thing. And they they they hung up on a flagpole and waved him around in front, everybody. And it kind of makes it taste off a little too promoted. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like like the Air Force's like finally I hear our hero. Right. Hero we can all get behind. And and you're like, dude, the reality is, is that the people that are turning the ranch know the people that are writing the code for the space space ship. Exactly. Are, you know. And you know, the older I get, the more I realize that you can't. And it seems trivial. But, yeah, you get sort of reminded of this daily, right. Your contribution to whatever your contribution is is always gonna be one small piece and anything more than that. Or if you expect anything more from yourself unless you're like Eminem or something like that or or hey, I was listening to Eminem when I set up the computer [00:48:00] last night, you know, but he he built an empire of his own records, but he did it based on the fact that Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg laid the foundation. And in a side hugged him into that. Into the fold. Right. So when you look at it, you're like, yeah, he's got an empire music empire. I know there's a huge divergence, but he didn't do it alone. Sure, they are there other people around? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, I mean, the greater good. Ultimately, I. When we talk about politics and I always get roped into this, I mean, I'm not going to sell myself out here, but because it's not time to sell myself out after the primaries and all that stuff. And you get the really. Mike, Ralph Nader. Ralph Nader has a bolt on everything, every vehicle that's named after him. The Nader vote. Yeah. Anyway, see, you tell he got me off track there. What? Eminem. What? What? Yeah. Eminem. Eminem juxtaposed [00:49:00] to the space program. The United States. What I what I really find myself yearning after. And this is part of my personality. Some people don't share this at all is something that I can get behind. And I was raised that way. I participate in the military in that way, even though it's kind of in a coast mode right now, not necessarily wrapping up or rapping down. But and I'm to the point in my career where patriotism doesn't really push me like that, because I know in my heart that patriotism is more than outward. It's more than, you know, marching. But then I look at the politics of the space program and how you describe it back in the 60s. Is that they were almost agnostic of what was going on because they had a fortunate goal at the end, you know? Yeah. And I and I and I juxtapose that to what we're looking at today. And I feel like that that America is as a whole it doesn't [00:50:00] matter where you come from. And you know, my term, dude, all non gender specific, you know, all encompassing, dude. Right. Or guys, I say that non gender specific. I forgot what it is now. But anyway, guys, you know, I feel like America as a whole is looking for something to get behind. And I and I know that like during World War Two, what everybody got behind was stopping Hitler. Yeah. And I and I would hope that the next thing that America can stand behind isn't American Idol and it's not another war. It should be something like developmental internally to the human human beings or it should be further exploration outside of our own world. Yeah. And there's a lot of emphasis, too, on on not emphasis, but just sort of not like, oh, look how again, it isn't like look how we're including other countries. It's like we have to all do this together. And so all these other countries are contributing to the next the [00:51:00] next phase of getting beyond Earth and getting beyond the moon and going to Mars and whatever else. Brilliant. It's all it's it's easy to do nowadays because we don't have the evil Soviets to fight and to try to best in all these other countries are there just like we got some to contribute and like we need you we need you to do this. And it isn't it isn't. America's the best. But I think there's an opportunity to be leader. Just from I know from all these other reasons of. Yeah, it's actually kind of cool because you think about the fact that right now we don't have space shuttles. There's no way for the United States to get up and down. Right. And they're not are sworn arch enemy anymore like North Korea's is sworn in. Iran is our it's a pretty much a sworn arch enemy except for that nuclear deal. And, you know, you know, stuff like that. But the reality is, is that we we depend on [00:52:00] the Soviets. They're not even Soviets anymore. They're pseudo Soviets. But we depend on the Russians to get us up there because we have people up there with the Soyuz rockets and everything like that. And it's really cool that even though the the leaders have a tendency to use that as a political tool, that we're still able to go, yeah, we need to be beyond the political tool. Yeah. It's interesting that even a realist of a Putin in the last couple of years and, you know, Russian United States and all of the political stuff on the ground in the midst of the craziness, we're still launched. We still hopped on a Soviet anar, so a Russian rocket and went up space and they were still like, yeah, we're gone. Hop on board. Let's go. Yeah, I like it. I like it a lot. I can't wait until we're old and even more curmudgeonly. And we say Soviets and Ellis and Kellar like dad keeps saying, that was like 200 years ago. You know that I'm married to a Russian. That's resus. You'll be like, you don't know the definition [00:53:00] of racist. You remember Grandpa Nelson. He used to say Japs all the time. And then I. Hodges Hodges. That's the most worst thing. Yeah. What's it gonna be like? Oh, my God. I can't believe you guys did that. I can't believe you only had us on a five point harness strapped to the back of the car. I know, right. Where was the bubble? So we didn't have straps when I was a kid. They hadn't made nylon straps yet, so. Well, sounds like your trip was was great. Yeah. Good trip. Oh, well, we can talk about next time. That cheerleader, national cheerleader competition culture. Talk about consumerism, right. There's a whole thing. It's awesome. It's good stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Actually, we were down at Disneyland a couple months ago and they were doing like a dance competition. And I was walking out to the curb that was just be-bop. And, you know, and there's girls from ages of three all the way up to 18. I would assume running around all over the hotel complex at Disneyland in [00:54:00] leotards. It's the first time I ever notice Eliska. And I said it's gone. And I looked at her as far as I don't say anything. Eyes forward. Have I told the eyes right story? No, I'm all. Yes. Yeah. OK. Then I won't tell it. Or should I? What? What? The attractive person walking by? Yes. OK. That's that. Sorry. Yeah. OK. So I'm glad that you're on your trip. Went well that it sounds like it was inspirational and aspirational for you. Yeah. I think that we should plan a a trip with the kids to go out to the right part museum and maybe hit the Smithsonian. It would be very aviation century by the time we're done, maybe like frikkin done with us. That's the last space launch system, first launch in 2018. So how do you get tickets? You fly out. You have like first come, first serve. I don't know. I mean, [00:55:00] I'm sure you can see it from all sorts of spot. We should ask people who watched it in the 70s and the 80s and the 90s how to watch a rocket launch. But do we know anybody? I don't know. But we should start planning if we want to go. I'm I'm there. Let's do it. Maybe we can take the North Northwest Aviation podcast out there. That would be great, huh? Okay. All right. So correction. Correct. Next up on Renaissance Man. Correction, since we need to do our correction. All right. So last last podcast, we talked about the fact that Angela Merkel, Angela Merkel, who is the prime PM, the prime minister of Germany, told Turkey to pack a bag of sand to wherever they wanted to. And the reason is, is because there's a guy in Turkey named Erdogan. He is the president. Right. And [00:56:00] I had said that Germany has been the standard bearer of political freedom for quite some time. And frankly, they have. But recently in the press, since I said that they were that Angela Merkel was like, oh, yeah, that court case that you wanted to go against this guy, Jan. Jan, WBO Hammerman. There's two ends. It's probably. What did you say, John? Why? Yeah. j.a and Yon both Hammerman satire. His satire was directed, among other things that the president Irda Erdogan, I'm murdering these names, by the way, with a garrotte has been using to lock up his critics. So apparently he locks up critics and he's kind of in jail. In jail for for being critical. And he is where? Keam Where he's the president of Turkey. OK, so President Turkey locks up people who say bad things about him in the press. [00:57:00] In the press. Yeah. Which is not cool from a Western perspective. And Turkey is widely considered to be the most westernised Islamic country this around. And it's in it's it's bad. So what happened was Turkey said, hey, you guys got to prosecute this guy. And originally and. And Angela Merkel was like, yeah, here's a bag of sand. You can take that wherever you want. We're not going to prosecute. Right. And then she reversed her position on this. And I was like, oh, crap. Because we spent four or five minutes talking about the fact that in the United States and other Western countries, you could say whatever you want. And it's fantastic and great. And I I like the press, because even though you get these outliers like Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, and they kind of have a tendency to steer politics on that. There are other organizations that actually do report true news and they provide a counterpoint and balance to the constant stream of it's not necessarily propaganda, but really rosy pictures that the government has intensity, but that's [00:58:00] their job. There's a balance the press has to balance to that. And then you read in the in on online that that they're going to go ahead now. So last week we said what we said that Germany was fantastic because they told Turkey to go shut up. Right. And now they're like, actually this court case and go ahead. And this guy, Johan. No, John, John. Bob Bahaman is now in protective custody of the German German police force, whatever that is. Polizzi eye or whatever. I'm making it up now because probably this guy Erdogan would now look protective custody is maybe get disappeared. Yeah, yeah. He sees disappeared people before and then him reaching into another sovereign country with another sovereign citizen. So Merkel is now saying, yes, you can prosecute him, but you cannot disappear him. I don't think she specifically said that. But my guess is this is that. This [00:59:00] is what I hope. I hope that Merkel is backed off because she doesn't need to be the standard bearer of press freedom. Right. The people need to be the standard bearer. Press freedom. And in order for this to cause he's not going to get he's not going to get prosecuted in Turkey. No. Right. He'll never leave Germany probably ever again. But if it does go to court in Germany, I'm 99 percent sure that a German jury and I don't know anything about how German courts work. But I would assume that it's very similar considering we've set it up after World War 2. I would assume that it's very similar in some way, shape or form to United States justice system, which isn't perfect. But I'm pretty sure that if it did go to court that it would go up before the court and there will be some guy who would represents Turkey. Hey, you slandered blah, blah, blah. And then the judge or the jury would go, yeah. But in the Constitution, it says you guys can go ahead and have this bag of sand that's sitting right here and you [01:00:00] can leave. I think testing it in court would be better than just having Angela Merkel go. No, you can't. No, you can't. And which is sort of the same way that the United States works. Like if it gets jacked up, it sets precedent. Legal precedent. Yeah. Yeah. And it revalidate the the value. So it seems like we have a topic that we could follow very topical. Yeah. We need to watch this. Okay. We need to watch this because whether or not anybody else identifies us, the fact that we produce what we produce means that we're members of the press. Yep. Interesting. And we're we're actually doing reporting somehow. Wow. Resumé line number two, not God. Spiegler enters me. Number three. Line number three, follow international press politics. Member of the press corps. That'll get us soon to all sort of event. I know actually that that the aviation [01:01:00] podcast that the guy who does the airplane of the week got invited to go down to the the Langley Air Force Base Air Show and be able to attend both sides. The Air Force side, which has F-22s and F-35's flying all over the place and the NASA side. So we're we're wading into following journalistic stories. We have just had our first corrections segment. Yeah. Yeah. So it's interesting to me because this this makes a difference because I'm pretty sure that there's people in Turkey that have podcasts and they probably are critical, but they have to be careful. Yeah. And I can I can in under the auspices of my own podcast without any affiliation for anything else that I do. I mean, I'm listen, I'm kind of bound by. What do you think about the leader of Turkey now? I'm sorry. I totally am not obliged to be able to comment on that. And I'll tell you why. I do have an [01:02:00] own my own opinion in the United States in general allows for wide varying opinions. But everybody that listens to this podcast knows that I'm in the military. And I I you know, ours is not to say why, but ours is just a do or die. And I toe that line because I have that same expectation of the troops that I have command over. So you're not going to say I'm not. You don't have to say either. I will say that freedom of the press is important. I will say that I believe in testing our laws at the highest level. And I probably have too much faith in our Supreme Court in other, at least in the United States, for them to be at least somewhat impartial. But I I like to watch how that stuff works, because a lot of times they're sending a statement just [01:03:00] by going now. We're not going to. We're not going to not we're not going to address it. Yeah. Because we addressed in 1972 in the law. Still apply that. So come back when you got something new. Yeah. Yeah. So the correction is, is that Merkel no longer is telling Turkey to go away, but has said, go ahead, try and sue him. And I suspect it would be a civil case and it won't stand up in if it does stand up. There's gonna be a revolt in Germany when we talk. Extradition. Extradition. Treaties, all sorts stuff. Yeah. Yeah. So. Yeah. Anything else? No. Everything I'm listening to lately. Just more modest. Yahoo! I think artists mentioned that. Yeah. Put them on your modest Yahoo! And I listened to Eminem last night. Nice rap. God, dude. The real Slim Shady. I'm putting rap got on the end of the podcast. I'm telling you right now whether or not you like kids. Yeah. Hijra kids. Although you will never even be able to understand most of it. But [01:04:00] that guy is talented.