Bitchin Dave's Newsletter - August 5th
Recently, I read A Great Improvisation which details the life of Ben Franklin as he moved to France in support of the Revolutionary War. I'll admit the book is a little hard to read as its written more like a series of accounts, rather than "a story," but its still worth some time. Its really interesting to consider the events that took place, and how much France helped the fledgling nation (in order to support its own ongoing disputes with England, of course). The book also highlights the politics of it all, which maybe aren't so different than we're seeing today on some level.
It also becomes clear that without France's help, we would still be a commonwealth, even today. We owe very much to France, and the first Fourth of July celebration was held in Paris, organized by Franklin. The French were so enthused about how they helped us - and themselves - that on July 4, 1884, they gifted the Statue of Liberty to the United States to celebrate our independence, democracy, and our willing acceptance of others on our shores.
With that backdrop, I wanted to point out that Dutch artist Judith de Leeuw created a mural called "The Statue of Liberty's Silent Protest," designed to illustrate the "shame" surrounding the recent immigration policies of the T-rump administration. Its drawn on a building in Roubaix (a section of Paris), which houses a large migrant population who live in extremely difficult circumstances. De Leeuw said "The values that the statue once stood for — freedom, hope, the right to be yourself — have been lost for many."
Of course, not everyone was happy to see this mural. The MAGA crowd thinks it's insulting and there were more than a few comments about how France should be "thanking us for bailing them out in the second world war" ... which is somewhat disingenuous and omits the fact that our independence would not have been won if the French hadn't intervened and provided support for the revolution.
It also becomes clear that without France's help, we would still be a commonwealth, even today. We owe very much to France, and the first Fourth of July celebration was held in Paris, organized by Franklin. The French were so enthused about how they helped us - and themselves - that on July 4, 1884, they gifted the Statue of Liberty to the United States to celebrate our independence, democracy, and our willing acceptance of others on our shores.
With that backdrop, I wanted to point out that Dutch artist Judith de Leeuw created a mural called "The Statue of Liberty's Silent Protest," designed to illustrate the "shame" surrounding the recent immigration policies of the T-rump administration. Its drawn on a building in Roubaix (a section of Paris), which houses a large migrant population who live in extremely difficult circumstances. De Leeuw said "The values that the statue once stood for — freedom, hope, the right to be yourself — have been lost for many."
Of course, not everyone was happy to see this mural. The MAGA crowd thinks it's insulting and there were more than a few comments about how France should be "thanking us for bailing them out in the second world war" ... which is somewhat disingenuous and omits the fact that our independence would not have been won if the French hadn't intervened and provided support for the revolution.
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The European Space Agency sent along a 3D printer to the International Space Station, and recently, it was used to create a 3D metal object. As you might expect, in micro gravity, it took a while to calibrate the machines. But the result is that they now can now print a part that they need for a repair on the station - and it naturally has implications beyond the ISS. As we move further from Earth, we have to be prepared for many eventualities. And a 3D printer allows for a wide range of possibilities. Remember that in Apollo 13, they had to repurpose whatever things they could find on board to ensure that the astronauts could return home. Imagine how that could have gone if they could have made literally anything out of an idea. |
It may seem a little far-fetched, but the scientists involved invited in a group of other scientists and reporters, and demonstrated the effect: plastic sitting in a salt water tank disintegrated in about an hour. So if this is scalable, and if the plastic can stand up to regular handling, they may be on to something.  |
The stupidity of craven people elected to "represent us" is on full display here. The federal government wants to cut, cut, cut! They have cut programs big and small, all in a seeming effort to inflict the most "pain" on citizens, while mostly protecting the oligarchs. This abomination of a bill proved just how silly all of this is, on almost every level. Rafael Edward Cruz (I shan't call him "Ted" because that's a nickname, and that is simply unacceptable in this day and age) added a line item to said budget that moves the Space Shuttle Discovery from its home at the Air and Space Museum to the Johnson Space Center. For no reason other than he thought it belongs in Texas. Included in this line item was $85,000,000 to facilitate its move. Its just the usual stupidity from the people who we "elect to serve us" but instead just act like a bunch of imbeciles in it for themselves But there's always more. The space shuttle Discovery isn't owned by the federal government, so his authority to order the move is an open question. The appropriated funds are about 1/4 of what it would take to actually move it. And the specially outfitted 747s that can move the shuttle have been retired for about 15 years. https://www.jalopnik.com/1916183/smithsonian-fights-back-against-space-shuttle-kidnapping/ |
In an effort to rile up the stupid people, and help move away from the Epstein case, the orange menace decided it was time to dictate how sports franchises name themselves. He went on some weird screed about how the time to worry about names that insult native Americans has passed, and the Cleveland guardians should revert to "Indians," while the Washington commanders should revert to "Redsk*ns" or else he'll personally veto any stadium money from the federal government. The Cleveland team said in a statement they're happy with the name as it is. And that pretty much was it for them. For now, anyway. The football team would (I would say "never" in the past, but these days the world is truly upside down) be unlikely to change the name back because (as I've noted before) the trademark they owned on the name and likeness that they used have been lifted. Anyone could profit from it, undercutting a prime source of revenue for the team. Aside: take a look at the reveal of the throwback uniform. Do take note of the fact that there is no mention of the name and they did not use the logo for this very reason. And here is the guy who is in the highest office telling literally everyone - from private citizens to private companies - how to conduct themselves.  |
While visiting the island of St Kitts, I was talking with some locals about the sargassum that was collecting along the shore on the Atlantic side. There was quite a lot of it, and it smelled. The questions were: why is so much of it collecting? And does it have anything to do with pollution? And the answer is that it is likely the result of human habits. Here's an article from 2023 that sums it up pretty well. More on the scourge that is sargassum  |
When the Disney/MGM studios opened back in 1989, it was all about the behind the scenes magic of movie making. Among the many interactive exhibits was a look into Disney's animation process. There was a short film featuring Robin Williams and Walter Cronkite, and a gallery where you could watch people animating Disney cartoons in a very "old school" sort of way. Artists sat at desks and hand drew the images, and then they were painted. Two things happened that led to the closure of this area: more artists were hired in far off lands, and technology started to creep into the animation process. For a time, Disney kept this area open as a memento to a bygone era, and they allowed young artists to try their hand at simple drawings. Then, Disney bought out Star Wars, and decided to reimagine the space into the "launch bay" to introduce the franchise to what had become Disney's Hollywood Studios. And then last week, Disney announced that the launch bay would be going away and a new - old - attraction would be brought back. Yep, they are bringing back some kind of animation studio experience to the space. I have no doubt it will be cute, but given how the art of animation devolved, and how lackluster the launch bay was, and how animation is all created on computer, this will probably be a bit of a nothing. But we'll have to wait until 2026 to reach that pinnacle of disappointment. |
Bonus: A while ago, skydance media made a bid to buy paramount, which would include all of its holdings, movie library, CBS, and all other streaming.
The FCC under Biden said "no thanks," because this would create a huge problem in terms of freedom of the press and create a sort of monopoly.
But, David Ellison - ceo of skydance - is a huuuge supporter of T-rump, and shortly after T-rump got elected, Ellison managed to convince CBS to apologize to T-rump for whatever they said that aggrieved him, and got Colbert fired, essentially for insubordination.
And then new leadership of the FCC approved the merger, making Ellison the biggest media mogul. And now he can control what paramount delivers. Which is bad for all of us.
At least for now, we can take solace in the fact that over the air media, streaming "news" and such are less important to most people, as other options pop up on the Internet all the time.
*for now is noted because the Feds want very badly to restrict what we can access on the internet, and to track us if we're seeing things they don't approve of. And don't sleep on the fact that "Oracle wants to buy TikTok" because David's father, Larry, was the ceo of oracle and still has a lot of pull there. So expect that platform to change somewhat quietly, too.
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