Let’s give some perspective to the astronomical dollar figures coming from the 50th Paris Airshow’s seething caldron of technology now being held at Le Bourget Airport. Counting one number a second, it takes nearly 32 years to count to one billion. Orders at the airshow have already topped $100 billion.

Back at you @FlyerTalk on Twitter. Who are you? How do you do it? Are you some kind of automaton rifling through all 1,317,221-and-counting FlyerTalk threads and pulling out the good stuff?

It’s not the distance but the first step that is difficult. Today, Airbus flexed long-haul legs in Toulouse, France, completing the maiden voyage of their first new aircraft in eight years, the A350 XWB, which landed like a leaf in water.

Mark Gerchick has written a spellbinder on the state of aviation and its discontents. A former FAA chief counsel, Gerchick – “the guy in the coach seat next to yours – aisle, of course” – might nip the last joy you get from flying.

Luggage tags capable of texting us when lost. Biometrics verifying our irises and fingerprints. Seattle’s Hotel 1000 with infrared signals that detect body heat so housekeeping staff doesn’t barge in.

Happy-with-fat Boeing predicts the 20-year demand for planes means we can’t get there from here. We need to double the fleet. That’s nice work if you can get it. The airlines are in the wrong business. They should be making the stuff they fly.

Architecture might be rock-hard science compared to writing about architecture, nonetheless, the great critic Paul Goldberger (you do it enough it’s like walking) has trained his laser eyes on the alphabet soup of airports.

Well, Mr. Branson, oh pardon moi, Sir Richard Branson, you of Virgin Atlantic surrounded by red pencil skirts and high heels. It has come to this. Aviation biofuel at LAX. Contrails of native sweet grass. United Airlines committed to 5 million gallons a year, for three years.

Give me a dog story. It’s that kind of day. The Humane Society of St. Thomas-St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands, operates a Pets With Wings program in the territories. With the help of American Airlines they bring unwanted recused dogs and cats to the mainland.

Here’s the thing about that self-made Whitney Houston singer who got the boot from American Airlines for ambling on automatic pilot. Flight attendants were telling passengers not to video her unconsciously displayed C.V. of talent. I’m not surprised, just stung.