Bitchin Dave's Newsletter - February 25



T-rump has proposed "drastic cuts" to pretty much everything.  And while they all hurt in some way, the ones that make me nauseous are the ones that are related to the sciences.  Who needs weather forecasting?  Who needs any sort of public health information?  Who needs food that meets certain standards?  These are all things that are likely to be cut off.  

No more ability to keep us healthy. And no more ability to research and innovate - no that has to be left to private companies who can profit from it.

But on that note, there's another interesting twist here.  During Biden's presidency, there was an uptick in the number of patents that were filed.  The patent and trademark office protects these private companies (and individuals) when they invent something new. With the advances in computers, machine learning, and our ability to make physical things using 3D printing, there have been an ever increasing number of patents filed.

So Biden, realizing that there was not enough space in the DC office and not enough people willing to relocate to DC anyway, took a different approach.  He implemented a "work from anywhere" program for patent examiners, and opened a satellite office in Atlanta to take some of the burden off of DC.

T-rump has told all government workers that they need to "return to the office" in DC, even if they were hired with the explicit agreement that they could work from anywhere.  And it appears as though he wants to close the satellite office in Atlanta, too.

As news of this unfolds, we are hearing that many of the patent examiners will simply quit,  rather than move to DC, and have an unknown office arrangement (there wouldn't be enough space if they all moved).  Besides, the cost of living is too high, and surely the pressure on them will mount.

And that means that the patent process will probably slow to a crawl.  If companies know that innovation that they want to protect may take a significant amount of time to go through the process, it seems likely they will be reluctant to innovate at the same pace.

Or perhaps they start patenting in Europe or elsewhere, which moves innovation out of the US.

These are dark times.

===


Sample from the asteroid reveals something interesting


Building Blocks Of Life Found On Asteroid Bennu


While it doesn't mean that there's life elsewhere in the universe, finding building blocks for life is intriguing and suggests that we have a lot more to learn about life and how it exists. 

This is kind of a cool discovery, and hopefully will get us to do more study about our universe. 


The backstory of made up words


I always find etymology interesting. But here's a case where words in written text were used for typesetting originally. More recently, they have been used to fill in a page, so you can see the page layout (which is a form of modern day typesetting I suppose). 

"Lorem Ipsum" doesn't actually mean anything. So where did it come from?

https://wordsmarts.com/lorem-ipsum/



UFOs in Roswell NM


This is a good synopsis of what happened in New Mexico (hint: a weather balloon crashed) and the ensuing news coverage. 

The local media did a pretty thorough job of reporting on what actually happened, including interviews with the military and civilians. 

And that was that. 

Until the National Enquirer ran with a story in the 1970s that omitted some facts and details of the actual account. 

And thus a conspiracy was born and continues to grow today. 

This should serve as a gentle reminder of how easily the media can manipulate people into believing that they are somehow being lied to, and concoct some absurd story which then becomes "fact" in a way. 

https://theweek.com/us/59331/roswell-ufo-crash-what-really-happened-67-years-ago




Seeing maps differently


Here's a fun collection of people showing us how maps can be deceptive. 

This is due at least in part to an inability to adequately reconstruct a 3D sphere on a 2D flat surface.  

We wind up centering things, and enlarging the scale (North America I'm looking at you!) on maps, and it makes everything more confusing to visualize correctly.  


It's no wonder some people get confused about geography in a spatial sense. And since I'm on that topic, here are some thoughts about what we often get wrong. 


And just because I have a pet peeve about it,  the earth is a globe. Anyone who suggests that it's flat is …. well … stupid. 




Disney CEO Bob Iger's Total Pay Jumps 30% To $41.1 Million


That's just insane. 

How many rank and file workers saw a 30% increase in pay? (hint: none)

And if we make a bold assumption that the average Disney employee makes around $40k per year, that means he's making about 1,000 times their salary. 

Ain't nobody. NOBODY. Who is that much more valuable than anyone else, regardless of what they will tell you.

Another example of how things will go sideways under the current administration


Among all of the things Biden included in his American Rescue Plan was funding for gun violence prevention. 

…and in Detroit, it had great success. Gun related deaths reached a low that hasn't been seen in 60 years. 

But T-rump will not renew the funding and that means the program will shutter. 

The article notes that the state had allocated funds via a bill that passed the legislature, but never passed in the state senate, and thus no state money will be spent, either. 

Wow a program that worked that cost relatively little money. But those billionaires need another sports car I guess. So you gotta reduce spending.

And since somehow the GOP seems to thrive off misery, it's on brand. 



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