Ukraine’s field medical treatment edge: WSJ: https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-medical-treatment-is-giving-ukraine-a-quiet-edge-over-russia-9d57193e . Meanwhile, Zelensky works tirelessly to support the troops: https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraines-zelensky-seeks-to-stay-strongand-human-5b2608e .
WSJ: Ukraine gets ultra-precise long-range missile: https://www.wsj.com/articles/ukraines-deadly-new-missile-was-created-to-hit-saddam-hussein-in-his-bathtub-75e04412 .
WSJ: French rioting continues: https://www.wsj.com/articles/france-riots-rage-for-fourth-night-8548113f . The young man killed is something like France’s George Floyd. There has been a massive outpouring of grievance for which this death has become a symbol and a rallying cry.
Only 4 swing states in 2024?: https://finance.yahoo.com/news/four-swing-states-that-will-determine-the-2024-presidential-election-172546631.html . Based on current circumstances, this seems accurate. Circumstances that might affect this: (1) Orange Julius is knocked out by his legal troubles; (2) Biden has health problems; and/or (3) A credible third-party candidate enters the race.
The world’s Most Frequent Flyer: https://onemileatatime.com/news/tom-stuker-united-airlines/ . So this guy bought a lifetime pass on United for $290,000 in 1990 and has now flown over 23 million miles lifetime (!). The Washington Post article mentioned in the link gives us additional stats. In 2019, he flew 373 flights for 1.46 million miles. The retail cost of these trips in 2019 would have been $2.44 million. He never checks a bag, and underpacks.
Why do this insane thing? Tom accrues frequent flyer miles on his pass, which he spends mostly on non-airline redemptions. He redeemed miles for $50,000 in Walmart gift cards to help his brother remodel his house. He also redeemed 451,000 miles in a charity auction to appear in a Seinfeld episode (the one where George’s fiancé dies from licking envelopes – Tom is in the diner).
Let’s do a little math here. Suppose all Tom’s flights had the same average miles as 2019 (4,000, which is a long flight). Then his 23 million miles convert to 5,750 flights over 32 years. Assume each trip involved a connection both ways, and at each end he took 30 minutes to get to the airport, 2 hours to check in and get seated (most of his flights are international, which is why the average length is so great), 45 minutes to get out of the airport and to his destination, and an average of 1 hour to make his connection.
Actual cruising speed for a 737 is 514 miles, while landing, takeoff and taxiing eat up another 30 minutes. Gate-to-gate flight time for 4,000 miles for two flights and a connection is therefore 17 hours and 34 minutes each direction, or 35 hours and 8 minutes. In and out time from airport to destination is 6 hours and 30 minutes per trip. Then 41 hours and 38 minutes times 1,438 trips is 59,869 hours, or 1,871 hours average for 32 years. So travel time has been Tom’s full time job for 32 years.
His wife has accompanied him on 120 “honeymoon” trips over these years, or 5.2 trips per year. She must have a lot of alone time in New Jersey. While 1 million miles has value, even at the standard value of 2 cents per mile, his “income” is $20,000 annually at best. So maybe he’s received his $290,000 back over 32 years, but that’s about it. And he’s been an incredible expense for United, which is why they no longer offer the lifetime pass.
As someone who flew a lot in the 70’s and 80’s, and probably 35,000 miles a year in the 90’s, this strikes me as a waste of life by Tom to get his “full value” out of the United deal. Indeed, Tom’s behavior strikes me as beyond obsessive compulsive. For many of my travel years, I took an international vacation, with the flights (for two or four) often paid for by airline miles. Much of my other travel was company-paid, so I personally paid much less for my lifetime flight costs than Tom’s $290,000. Most importantly, it was not my full-time job. I think Tom got a lousy deal even before you factor in his ridiculous use of his life’s time.
This exercise led me to an interesting review of how I’ve used my time on the planet, both day-to-day and over my lifespan. Generally speaking, I’ve lived in the present as much as possible and made good use of my time. Someone recently commented to me, “You live your life with intent.” I’d never thought of it in those terms, but not only is that observation correct, I would have used this as an objective if I’d understood this more clearly before. I encourage you to make this review for yourself, and see what you come up with.
WSJ: Musk acts against data scraping, irritating Twitter users: https://www.wsj.com/articles/twitter-limits-number-of-posts-users-can-read-prompting-disruptions-for-some-15bc01cc .
WSJ: Euclid telescope departs to examine dark matter: https://www.wsj.com/articles/esa-euclid-space-telescope-dark-matter-b1baa8b4 .