Bitchin Dave's Newsletter - November 11th
Over the last few weeks, we've heard all manner of seemingly ridiculous news... from a government shutdown for spurious reasons, to sending money to a foreign country (while thumbing the nose at Americans), to hosting a very tone deaf "Gatsby party," to remodeling the whitehouse (taking money from unknown people AND circumventing congress in making changes to "the peoples house"), to allowing a foreign military to operate on our soil, to literally stealing from the treasury, to questions about T-rumps mental fitness to serve (yet again, and still!), to possibly being awarded a "FIFA peace prize." Every day feels like a lot. Yes, these things are terrible. And yes, there is no actual end in sight. But we have to keep it all in perspective. There is always some amount of optimism and hope. We had an election last week that showed that perhaps the people are starting to tire of it all. He was booed at a football game (lustily as I hear it). There are the proverbial "chinks in the armor" that motivates the cult. And of course, we have the opportunity to do our small part to swim against the tide. We can work toward building a better tomorrow. I encourage anyone reading this to find ways to make the world a better place, in whatever small way (or big if you're up for it!) that you can. There are so many things we can do. A few very simple ideas: Be kind. Listen. Volunteer somewhere. And of course you should stay away from the hate mongering and promote messages of peace, and/or write to your elected officials and tell them what you think. |
China is tinkering with heliostats (mirrors used to collect solar energy) and think they've come up with an innovation; they use sand mixed with some water - rather than just water - to get heated and provide the steam that can be used to provide energy. Many countries have been playing with this concept over the years, but while they have found success, the biggest problems were the amount of water required made it costly, and of course there was the cost to build and maintain it. Arizona had a similar sort of farm, but they announced it will be closing due to federal subsidies being withdrawn AND because the cost of more traditional solar has decreased to the point where its much more cost effective. But, as always, I love to see innovation happening. |
I'm sensing a theme here. There are very many companies and individuals taking on the challenge related to one of our most basic needs: access to clean drinking water. Here's yet another group of individuals who have come up with a solar powered device that can pull a liter of water from the air using solar. |
I'll leave this here for you to read. That's not good… |
Well. Alrighty then. A review of the security at the museum turned up some interesting things... They are still using Windows 2000, with all of its outdated and unsupported security issues. They use passwords that are unchanged from install, as well as easy to guess passwords. And more! It sounds like the Louvre didn't take its technical security seriously enough. |
What's not to love? A group of amateurs that included school kids, families, and assorted others went on a hunt for treasure in England. And quickly found some. Fun stuff. Archaeologists Recruited Amateurs—and Uncovered Roman Treasures https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/archaeology/a68990619/group-of-amateurs-roman-treasures/ |
While no launch date has been announced, the plan is still to launch a washing machine sized object into space. This device will collect the sun's rays and then beam the energy that is collected down to an earth station using microwaves. Then, this microwave energy will be used to provide power, like a power station. So it quite literally is beaming energy from space. Something Arthur C Clarke had hypothesized about more than 50 years ago. How cool!
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Bonus: Sports betting is a huge moneymaker. And its out of control.
The fact that sports leagues embrace the idea of betting (while allowing for investments in it), and that players are permitted to bet on anything that they are not directly involved in, is a recipe for disaster.
We've seen in the past that games can be influenced from within, and we perhaps didn't take that seriously enough.
And this football season, we've seen some oddities. "Game officials," who are in a studio far away from the game, can stop the game and ask for a review (and apparently can "suggest an outcome"). We saw an instance in a college game where a play was negated and they reviewed the previous play and then replayed that down; the referee in that game quit because of it. Of course, there are other questionable things that have happened.
This past week, we had a handful of college basketball players who were indicted for fixing games they played in. Later in the week, a few professional baseball players suffered the same fate.
And those are the ones we know about, of course.
There's not much "truth" in anything, and sports outcomes are absolutely part of that group. Enjoy it as pure entertainment. Root for a team or an outcome if you wish, but don't expect it to be exactly fair in the outcome. And for the love of Pete, don't bet on games (unless its a friendly wager among friends and one of the key takeaways is bragging rights)
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