At 05:16 PM 11/1/02 -0500, Steve Furlong wrote:

But Maj Variola made a questionable point, too:

...

At 30K feet, you have about half a minute before you pass out

I just tested that, sort of. I emptied my lungs, then lifted weights for 30 seconds. It was a little painful toward the end, but I didn't grey out or anything.

I was unable to find my ref. But I also know that muscles can work anaerobically; also that asphyxiation-feeling is from too much CO2, not a lack of O2. Also, you can't really empty your lungs. I once saw a show about medicine. In it, an M.D. rebreathed his own CO2-scrubbed air as he wrote the alphabet, on camera. Halfway through he started scribbling incoherently and fell over, unawares. (There were assistants to save him.) FWIW