Bitchin Dave's Newsletter - October 28th
This coming weekend, we once again change our clocks. What you may not know is that Benjamin Franklin is kind of the originator of the idea for Daylight Savings Time. It comes from his time in France, as a new candle had been invented that didn't produce smoke. He was captivated by it and it stoked his imagination. Being a thinker and a scientist, he considered how important candles were to life. Once it got to be dark, you had to light one to see anything. And over the course of an evening, a week, a month, or a year, he ran through many candles. How many? He ran the numbers. And then he wrote a short piece about how if there was more daylight, then the need for candles would be reduced. He determined that Parisians could save millions of French Livre every year if they had an hour of extra daylight, and didn't have to buy candles for that period of time with more light. That was pure Franklin magic. He was good at dissecting a topic and giving a point of view that was well reasoned and proffered an idea. He was quite good at that, and that's why "Doctor Franklin" was so beloved. The story itself went mostly unnoticed; just some musings. That is until 1916, when the Great War started. Europe was looking for ways to focus attention and cut some costs. They found Franklin's work, and twisted it a little to suit the needs of the time. It would be good for their war effort! ... and thus began - in Europe - a path of implementing daylight savings time. The "Savings" being -more or less- about saving money on candles (or now, oil) in the evenings. Shortly after that, the Americas took note and opted to implement it as well. But they, too, applied some convoluted logic that made it (and continues to make it) impossible to understand the reasons behind it. |
Woah. Using a telescope and a galaxy in between to enhance the image is a surprising way to see more detail around a black hole. It's a cool "trick" of using the corona edge to refract light. |
Here's another approach to providing drinkable water, a commodity that much of the world doesn't have access to. In this case, it's about a desalinization method, meaning salty water can be made drinkable in a fairly low cost way. By applying an ultra-thin, electrically conductive coating on top of the membrane and then charging the surface with low voltage, the salt ions and other charged species in the water are pushed away from the membrane surface, reducing scaling and fouling. Innovative Membrane Technology Promises Access to Clean Water - Tech Briefs https://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/53623-innovative-membrane-technology-promises-access-to-clean-water |
This is just plain dumb. Tesla has been accused of not responding to its customer complaints. The Insurance Commission notes: "[The companies] concede that they have not been able to keep staffing on pace and acknowledge that they are responsible for the staffing shortfall," officials noted. So a company that wants to pay the ceo a trillion dollars can't be bothered to hire a few people to respond to customer emails. Got it. |
Lay's is making a big to-do about making some changes to their products, and, more specifically, the packaging. On the one hand they note that 42% of people who enjoy Lay's don't realize they're made with real, farm-grown potatoes. Which would suggest that people are stupid. (But then we knew that didn't we?) So they are hilighting the potato on their packaging. Which, if you look at any packaging they've used in the last 30 years always has shown potatoes on them… so I'm not sure how that helps. And on the other hand, it's clear that they are dancing around the fringes of the dunderhead in health and human services and his quest to reduce food dyes and additives. They don't mention this specifically, but they do want to be more transparent. So sure, sure. It's just weird that they made such a big splash and the media ate it up. (See what I did there?) |
Here's a nice bit of innovation in using science to cool the air. Yeah maybe it's not quite what we think of as "ice cold a/c" but applying thermodynamic principles to cool the air efficiently, cheaply, and at a lower cost to the environment is a huge leap forward. Caeli Energie has invented responsible "aircon" - Grenoble INP - UGA https://www.grenoble-inp.fr/en/companies/caeli-energie-has-invented-responsible-%e2%80%9caircon%e2%80%9d And a review |
Disney's imagineering series takes a look behind the scenes in the haunted mansion And of course you can see my retrospective in it here: Episode 70: The Haunted Mansion https://youtu.be/2Esfyq-gxXc |
Bonus: As if we needed to have more to generally be concerned about, right on cue T-rump conducts several "bits of business" this week that are worth noting.
First, he quite literally is stealing from the treasury. He wants to be repaid for legal fees in the suits brought against him by the government, which he lost.
Second, he is offering a sort of financial bailout of the country of Argentina (mainly because the guy he backed won an election), while at home railing about helping actual Americans.
Third, there's a story about him offering for Qatar to build a military base here in the US. I'll admit its confusing and there are many questions about what is really going on here, but quite clearly the US is allowing a foreign nation to create a military presence here in America.
And finally is this bosheet about the White House, and him treating it like his property. He wanted to expand the ballroom (ostensibly so he can host wrasslin and fights for his amusement). Congress said "probably not, but you have to wait for us to approve any changes" - and so he proceeded to collect private donations from unknown parties and then just started demolition, without any sort of review.
There are many, many issues with that last one, not the least of which is that the presidential emergency operations center was under the demolished portion. But the sycophants do what they always do - and just wait in line to kiss the ring (or more appropriately to stick their noses up his bulbous arse)
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