Bitchin Dave's Newsletter - February 18




The challenge in today's world is to make yourself useful, and fight against the absurdity that seemingly exists around us. 

I'd like to share with you what I'm doing, and suggest you come up with some things for yourself. 

First, and foremost, never stop learning. Take advantage of any opportunities that are offered to learn a new skill. Take classes at the collegiate level (hey, some are offered at universities for free, online, on your schedule). Personally, I keep teaching myself new tools online and playing with creative ideas. 

Second, challenge yourself to think about things you hear.  Don't accept things at face value. Always be a critical thinker, and a skeptic. 

And finally, Volunteer! I am currently volunteering about once a month at a local food bank. The reason: food insecurity is a very big problem and as a (supposed) 1st world nation, we should be doing more. My little bit helps my community.  And by the way, something I read was that Taylor swift makes a sizable donation to the local food bank in every city she tours, because she sees the need and can't volunteer in person.  For what it's worth, I find that intriguing. 

I also decided that I could be a citizen archivist. The National Archives is always looking for volunteers to help read hand written cursive letters that exist in the archive. It's surprisingly fun, and as long as the archives remain available on the internet, I can see keeping this up. 

In addition, I try and entertain and enlighten on the internet, using my second YouTube Channel Just What Do You Think You're Doing, Dave? that delves into more science-oriented items.

Its all about finding a way to be useful and engaged.

===

Its a kind of a comeuppance I guess


There's a thing trending on the socials called FAFO - essentially "F*ck Around and Find Out" which presents stories of buyers remorse in a way, as it relates to voting for T-rump in 2024.  

You have stories about deporting people other than the "bad illegals," complaints that prices are going up in spite of him saying he'd bring them down, the unitended consequences of proposed tariffs, proposed changes to tax laws that will hit everyday people in their wallet, and much more.

But the one that seems to have the "most legs" behind them are related to small farmers.  This has many facets to it, so bear with me a moment as I try and explain. 

First off, you have to remember that many small farmers in rural areas bought whatever T-rump was selling.  He was going help them (somehow)!  And so they voted for him by and large.

But T-rump doesn't care about them and is actively working to ruin their businesses. Of course, you have the obvious factor of deporting migrants, you know, the ones who work the farms.

And then there's the cuts to USAID. There are plenty of reasons to think this is a really bad idea.  But to the farmers there's more to it. Some amount of what they produce is bought by the US Government and used in subsidy programs and to ship overseas as part of a broader trade arrangement under USAID. 

The changes mean that the US isn't - and won't be - buying their goods anymore.  Which means they have a limited marketplace and it will affect the bottom line.  

There are also some relatively silly rules about how SNAP funds may be used (for example, no sugary drinks!) and that means a reduction in corn production that's used in processing corn syrup.

Of course included in the cuts are farm aid loans that will not be available anymore.

And then you have the problem of fertilizer manufacturers being bought up by big agricultural groups and jacking up prices - at the expense of the small farmer, whose margins get slimmer.

The "funny" thing about all of this is that Biden was working really hard to find solutions to these problems and unequivocally told them what he was doing - and what T-rump would do if he was elected. And yet they still voted for T-rump. 

There were, and are, consequences that came with the decision to vote for him.  And no matter how much we warned people, here we are.


There is good in the world.


Summary: a woman bought a cabinet online from a family that was moving. 

She got it home and unlocked some compartments, and found fairly valuable China inside. 

She posted her finding to one of the socials, and realized that it might have been the previous owners dinnerware. 

So she contacted them and offered for them to have it back. They were very grateful and came and retrieved it. 



The Walmart Effect - The Atlantic


Walmart coming to a small town makes the community it operates in poorer. Because it displaces other businesses, so unemployment goes up. And their wages are lower, so people have lower incomes. 



Sports in bizarro world


The Australian open tennis tournament was unable to provide live video from the tournament due to some quirky (and all too common) licensing deal.  The rights holders don't allow for it to be broadcast.

And that meant that the production company had to get creative.  They came up with a solution that had very wii-like figures playing, and included the audio commentary from the match, all on a few minute delay.

https://www.npr.org/2025/01/17/nx-s1-5261006/australian-open-wii-animation

Now this isn't the first time we've seen this kind of thing, The NFL has had several football games that they have similarly animated.  Its a crazy, tech world we live in.  




Disney Hit With Copyright Lawsuit For Moana 2


Here's a story about how an animator believes that Disney stole his work for the Moana movie. 

It's not the first time Disney has been accused of stealing someone else's work; they were sued over most of the animations that came out in the 90s. Those were settled out of court or Disney won, so they didn't get a lot of press. 

"Buck Woodall claims that the Moana movies infringe on the copyrighted screenplay for his movie Bucky, which was given in 2003 - along with a concept trailer and other materials - to Jenny Marchick, Mandeville Films' Director of Development, who had a first look deal with Disney."

Still, it's worth following this story. 




Possible evidence of water on mars


The Curiosity rover went over an area that has all the tell-tale signs we have on earth for this being a likely former lake bed. 

It's intriguing, I have to say. Mars may very well have been like earth at some point, maybe millions or 100s of millions of years ago. 

https://www.sciencealert.com/curiosity-finds-evidence-of-open-water-on-ancient-mars


Bitchin' Dave's newsletter is published weekly.  Please feel free to forward it around. If you want to subscribe or unsubscribe, send an email to geezergamer92@gmail.com

Comments

Post a Comment