Bitchin Dave's Newsletter - March 17th

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

Before I talk about the holiday, I want to make a quick correction about an item from last week. While discussing T-rump and his crimes,  I conflated two separate crimes, and wanted to clarify that he was convicted of fraud criminally, and that is his felony conviction.  He was also convicted in a civil court of rape (or more precisely, sexual assault), but is not a convicted felon for that crime.  I strive for accuracy and I fell short.  On with this week's newsletter...

I've often asked myself who is St. Patrick, and why do we have a day of revelry and merriment associated with him?  Well, here's an answer which I found in an article dated last year. 

It's maybe not quite what I thought, and the fact that Patrick isn't technically a Saint, is kind of amusing in a way.

In any case, get out there and get your Irish on!

====

Changes to Disney World are aplenty


Disney World is undergoing a bit of a renaissance. Whether that's good or bad is debatable, but it is happening.  Entirely new lands are being added, while some older lands are being removed.  Attractions are being added at a dizzying pace.  Intellectual Property is at the forefront.

It makes visiting right now... interesting, because there are a lot of construction walls. 

But some of the new areas and attractions sound like they'll be fun once they open.  One that stands out for me is an attraction that I have enjoyed since its opening in 1998: Buzz Lightyear's Space Ranger Spin.  It's a fun interactive ride that has you shooting lasers at targets to try and save the galaxy and become a galactic hero.  The upgrades they have planned include handheld lasers (as opposed to mounted ones) and haptic feedback to let you know if you hit a target.  

And they're removed the cap of 999,999 points (which I've managed to achieve a number of times; once you know where to hit it's not that difficult).  So I have a whole new world to explore once it re-opens, in April.  







A Spacecraft Flew Closer to the Sun Than Ever – and Is Rewriting a Century-Old Mystery


This spacecraft is collecting new information about the sun, its composition, and the atmosphere around the sun.

The objective is to help us better understand more about the sun, and how it affects the Earth.  We're learning more about solar wind and how it is heated on its journey to earth. 

But on that last one, shhh! Don't tell anyone that it will help us understand how earth's climate is affected by the sun, because that might be considered climate science. And that's not allowable in this day and age.



Albert Einstein predicted it and Mars has now confirmed it: time flows differently on the Red Planet, forcing future missions to adapt


This feels crazy!

Essentially time is a construct that we came up with, and while it mostly works, consider that we have to add in time periodically (hence the leap year), and because of the constraints on it, "time travel," as we think of it, is impossible.  It's a linear function within the construct.

But Einstein used the theory of relativity to help us think about the construct and how it might not apply in every situation, because of orbits around the sun, gravity, and other factors. 

And we're seeing that this is the case on Mars. Time is not absolute, and what we think of time in that sense does not apply on Mars (or really anywhere else other than Earth).

So that means when you're "late for work," you really aren't because time itself doesn't make sense. (Ha) 

And in science fiction when they talk about traveling through time by somehow warping space-time, it turns out that they're actually applying science.

It kind of blows my mind. 



Ford Has a Patent for a Shifter That Could Give the Manual New Purpose | Gear Patrol


With all the talk about moving away from computers, or even that Ford is somehow abandoning advanced tech or EVs, this is an interesting twist.


China's water battery hits 120,000+ cycles, can beat lithium by decades


Tofu for the win! These scientists have found a way to use a tofu brine as the means to allow batteries to conduct electricity - in place of lithium. 

It's less costly, lasts longer, and in-all, safer. 

See? Even cars are going vegetarian. lol. 
 



Leopards adapted to South Africa's Cape so successfully that they're genetically unique


Well. What do you know?  These leopards evolved and adapted, based on their environment.  

Shocking. Said no one with half a brain ever. 




Bonus: Wealth inequity is so out of control.  

There are a mere 900 billionaires in the US (the uber, of the uber wealthy, who would fall into the top POINT ONE percent of Americans).  

Their combined wealth grew exponentially, to over $7 trillion in 2025, and that had a cascading effect on everyone else in society.  To reach any measurable threshold, for the rest of us, became that much harder.  Those few people have nearly all of the wealth in the United States. 

That is crazy, loco.


Bitchin' Dave's newsletter is published weekly.  Please feel free to forward it around. If you want to subscribe or unsubscribe, send an email to geezergamer92@gmail.com

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