Bitchin Dave's newsletter

Housekeeping: This will be my last newsletter of 2025.  Wishing everyone a joyous holiday season, and I'll be back around mid-January! It's the holiday season, so we're seeing more about organizations that are setup to help others, asking for your help.  It's the season of giving! The likes of the Ronald McDonald House spring to mind.   And to be clear, I don't have anything against this program, rather I think it's great. I'm just using it as my example. My question is: why? Why does it exist?  Why do we have a system that treats seriously ill children with such disregard that they have to go to what amounts to a crowdsourced program to help? Why isn't there a better way?  We are a first world nation, and can and should be helping those in need.  It should not come down to McDonalds founding an organization that takes in contributions for its existence - with a purpose of helping those who simply can't help themselves, and who through no fault of th...

I recently listened to a podcast from Radio Lab called "the creation story" ... it was an interesting half hour (or thereabouts). Latif (the host) interviewed Ella al-Shamahi, who is described as a real-life Indiana Jones.  She is quite interesting and explores anthropology and history through her work, and several shows she hosts.   But this podcast was about her story, and how she got here.  She was born Muslim (in England) and followed all the traditions and beliefs growing up.  When she went to school, she decided that she was going to prove Charles Darwin wrong because evolution couldn't be a thing. And as you might guess, she couldn't.  Because evolution is demonstrably true and try as she might to poke holes, the evidence didn't support her point of view. So....she made some pretty major changes in her life, and now tries to elucidate and educate others, but not in a confrontational way.  I found that most interesting, and wanted to share. A few things are ...

A few years ago, the World Cup was awarded to "North America" - with some games in Canada, some games in Mexico, and some games (including the late rounds and finals) in the United States. Plans were made.  Contracts were signed.  Stadiums were updated.  Sponsors got involved.  Lots and lots of money changed hands to get ready for the event.  Its huge, and is the ultimate in "inclusion" with people travelling from around the world to see their team play! And then, we had an election, and the idiot in chief started to take over the event to a degree.  He invited the head of FIFA to visit and told him he might move the games around at his discretion.  Word is that the head of FIFA was quite put off by that. The contracts, the money, everything would be a huge headache.  Sponsors reacted by making a decision to spend more of their energy on games hosted in Mexico and Canada. Of course, there were rumblings and quiet talks  about maybe moving some games out of the US al...

Housekeeping: there will be no newsletter next week.  Happy Thanksgiving! More housekeeping: I realized I edited out a Disney article last week.  Oops.  Please enjoy two Disney-related stories this week. Sometimes it's interesting to see the world through other people's eyes.  I recently watched a video about the "rise and fall of ESPN." It was interesting and covered all the broad points, talked about how they changed their model from a financial standpoint (moving from cable to streaming), how the studio shows and hosts changed with the times (more discussion panels, and more social-media focus), and how they've paid more to get rights to games.  Honestly, I thought it was pretty even in the way they laid it out. However, there were a series of comments attached to the video that explained in MAGA-related terms why ESPN failed !  In summary: They are "woke" (yeah, this was a one-word comment left several times by different people) They went away from j...