Bitchin Dave's Newsletter - February 24th
I am extremely bothered by the outcome of the EPA gutting pretty much any/every thing related to climate or clean air & water. Years ago, under Obama, the EPA made clear that there was climate change and that we needed to protect against that. Now some of the same members who voted that way (without a second thought!) are playing some stupid political game that is harmful, and surely will be more so, in the future. These ignoramuses just ignore the science and side with whatever nonsense T-rump says. Great. Just great. And it goes on from there. Our water is in danger. Our air is in danger. Our environment overall is in danger. And there's an underlying thought that cars don't need to have emissions standards, or to have higher gas mileage. We want to go back to the polluting days of 50+ years ago. While the rest of the world is looking at efficiency and standards. We have lost our way. Murica! |
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This is pretty cool. Two supernovas (or is it super novae?) were detected by the James Webb telescope. One remained visible, but the other disappeared. The reason for this has to do with the theory of cosmic lensing, essentially meaning light from one is refracted by nearby objects and we can see it, while the other is hidden behind objects, and will remain invisible to us for a period of time. The idea of this cosmic distortion was included in Einsteins theory of relativity, and has been observed at times. But the fact that there are two objects helps us to solidify the theory because we can detect the differences and see some of the objects that distort theory light. |
Curiosity and a little perspiration for the win. He made an umbrella that follows him using drones and some proximity detection. Is it practical? No, not in this form. Is it worthwhile? Absolutely. I highly recommend watching the 17 minute video to see what went into this effort. |
This is so whacked. It's one way large corporations manage to keep food prices high, while churning out big profits, and neutralizing competition. |
There is good in the world, and I have so much respect for these actions. And the comments they include are pretty spot-on. You can read the whole interview here: "Right now people are not happy, because we are all expecting someone else to be kind. We are expecting a president or a politician, some leader, to come and bring us world peace. But there is no world peace if your neighbour comes to your door wanting some sugar for their tea, and you lock it against them and say 'get away'….. no one is going to come and change the world for you. You have to do it for yourself." |
There's a bit of a long story about how the Walt Disney company wanted the talents of Jim Henson, and were willing to buy the Muppets just to get him. Unfortunately, he died before the deal was ever finalized, and the company lost interest in the property, and it was sold to a German company. But Disney had a license to use the muppets in some situations, including as a part of Muppet Vision 3D at the studios. So that remained open, but couldn't be expanded beyond that. Then, the German company went bankrupt, and Disney wound up acquiring them - at a fraction of the original price. But they had no idea what to do with them, and the Muppets mostly just sat idle. And with park expansion, Muppet Vision finally closed. And Disney decided that the next-best thing was to move The Muppets over to the Rock'N'Rollercoaster, because Aerosmith's contract is expiring. But (a) that really doesn't do them justice, (b) they don't really fit there, and (c) because they're in a rollercoaster they're not accessible to some (like me!) And that leads us to today. Disney has been considering other ideas. One of them was a resurrection of the Muppet Show. They produced one episode and released it in January. It followed the formula of the original 70s era show - and I have to say that I enjoyed it. There is some discussion about producing more episodes, and I sure hope that they do.... and don't just continue to let them languish and ultimately be forgotten. |
As we bid goodbye to another Olympics, we can marvel at the (mostly) young athletes who got to do something amazing as a representative of their country. This item is about one of these youngsters: Eileen Gu, who is an American, but represents China at the Olympics. She's a remarkable person and I thought it was worth commenting on her. You see, Gu is a smart woman, and she figured out how to make the most of her opportunity and love of skiing early on. She created a social media presence and got noticed. And because she's of Chinese ancestry, she was invited to participate on behalf of that country. They pay for her training and related expenses. And yet they allow for her to continue to use her presence to maintain sponsorships, and keep modelling. And she is able to remain in the United States and pursue a degree at Stanford. She's studying International Relations, but that hasn't stopped her from taking courses in Quantum Physics! (and as a few physicists have noted, that may help her perform better because she understands what it takes to make her successful at her sport). She went on to win 6 medals across two olympics. And yet, she is mostly humble and understands her place as a kind of leader - and took the high road when several knuckleheads tried to chastise her for not representing the United States. Heck, she cried after her last event, while giving an interview, because she was informed her grandmother - an inspiration - had just died. I have so much respect for her and her intelligent approach. Consider this quote: "I'm an introspective young woman. I spend a lot of time in my head. It's not a bad place to be. I journal a lot. I break down all of my thought processes. I'm 22, so with neuroplasticity on my side I can literally become exactly who I want to be. How cool is that? How empowering is that, right? "I get to become every day the kind of person that me, at age eight, would revere. I would be obsessed with me today. Are you kidding? I would love me and I think that's the biggest flex of all time." We need so many more people like her in the world! |
Bonus: And on the other side of the Olympics, we see that it is a costly endeavor (constructing all those courses and buildings costs money, and there's the cost to provide security and infrastructure), which is all paid for by the host country.
Meanwhile, the Olympic committee comes out way ahead, but they are the only ones.
In fact, here is a pretty well done piece about Olympic athletes and what they make against the backdrop of the Olympics and its huge revenue stream (which athletes get none of!)
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