Bitchin Dave's Newsletter - July 28th
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The Tour de France wrapped up this weekend, and while there are always fun takeaway moments, the bigger story was the heat, even in the mountains!
Temperatures got as high as 110F in the low lying lands, and in the upper 80sF in the mountainous regions. People (not in the race) died as a result of the heat. And there were forest fires that raged in areas, which meant that they had to alter the route of the final day as a result of those fires.
All of these extremes were mostly unexpected, if you listen to the reports.
Except that's not really true. Climate scientists have been warning about these changes coming to a city near you. Not that long ago they said 'We've entered a dangerous zone,' but mostly no one listened.
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As I noted previously, FIFA requires that a specific type of grass be used for events they host. And that's why the stadia used in the World Cup changed to that grass, from whatever had been used (and that other surface is being re-installed).
But it's more than that. The grass gets watered before the game, at halftime, and in any breaks - like a hydration break. The reason for this is to keep the playing surface slick and fast. There's a science behind this!
And a long article about how it works, here:
Yet because of the halftime show in the final, they weren't able to water the grass sufficiently, so the second half was slow.
It's a wonder to me that the NFL doesn't want to keep grass and doesn't seem to mind that the fields are slow. It's so strange, because the fast pace of play is something fans love.
And speaking of that, there are a large number of purpose-built soccer stadiums in the US. They have great pitches and watering systems. But they were not selected for the tournament. Why? Because they only seat between 20k - 30k fans. These monster NFL stadiums can seat 65k - 80k, and they have luxury suites ... meaning more tickets sold!
To me, that is crazy. Talk about greed...
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Arthur C Clarke proposed this as a possibility half a century ago, and now we’re seeing that technology has reached a point where it’s possible.
How cool is that?
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I read recently that the European Parliament voted to ban a long list of meat-related words from being used on plant-based products and other alternatives, such as cultured meat. These include protections for dairy producers, new rules for marketing, and the definition of meat as the “edible parts of an animal,” excluding plant-based and other animal-free alternatives from the use of certain meat-related words. The advocates for these protections said it was simply “new measures to support farmers.”
Alistair Currie, the public affairs and policy manager at The Vegan Society, said: “This decision will remove consumer choice, stifle innovation in the vegan food sector, increasing costs to businesses that will need to re-label and re-market products with new names and descriptions. None of these benefits the consumer.”
Before the vote, Jasmijn de Boo, the CEO of ProVeg, told Euronews Green: “The climate transition requires making more sustainable food choices easier, not harder. Plant-based foods typically have a significantly lower environmental footprint than animal-based products, including lower greenhouse-gas emissions and land use, so policies should support their development and uptake.”
To that end, a peer reviewed study was conducted and the summary is that animal agriculture Is THE leading cause of Climate Change.
Not fossil fuels. Full stop.
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On our recent trip to Disney World, my son and I ventured into Epcot. We opted to get in the spirit of the Semiquincentennial and see the shows about America.
Early in the day, we decided to check out Soarin’ over America. I previously gave my assessment of a video I saw - it had too much CGI, really didn’t capture the essence of America, and kind of sucked. In person, with the attraction effects and the immersiveness, I would say it was better… but I stand by general comments. Still, I was glad we saw it in situ.
Later in the day, we headed over to the American Adventure and checked out the offerings there. The building is unique in that it captures many different architectural styles from the colonial era, and is actually 5 stories tall but a reverse kind of forced perspective is used to make it appear two stories tall, with a kind of “attic space” at the top. We saw the voices of liberty (for the uninitiated they are an acapella group that performs traditional American songs), whose voices carry nicely through the rotunda. We checked out the museum (which on this day celebrated Native American heritage). And then we went up to see the show.
On the way up, you pass 44 flags from throughout the United States’ history. There are statues for the different “spirits” that guided the nation’s founding (like the spirit of adventure).
And then came the show, which you can watch in the YouTube link below.
The technology behind it is astounding. There’s a giant “wagon wheel” that moves show parts in and out and brings up the audio animatronics as the show progresses. And by the way, its use is the reason the building is 5 stories. The vistas are amazing and watching Ben Franklin climb stairs is cool.
But the show is mostly uninspiring. It’s had small updates and tweaks in its lifespan, but it is mostly the same show it was in 1982.
It’s long, and gives a view of America through the lens of exceptionalism, is a bit uneven, and glosses over some topics (as an example, the civil war was a conflict between families, and slavery barely gets a mention). Sadly, this is how I remember the 1970s talking about such things.
I’ve probably only sat through the show fewer than 6 times over its 40+ years, for those reasons.
My adult son had never seen it, but was surprised at how it came across. No doubt that it could use some serious changes - or at the very least, a revised point of view.
But nevertheless, the small-ish audience that was there with us cheered at the end. So perhaps it did what the imagineers originally intended: it celebrated America from a very American point of view.
With all that’s going on in the world, it was at least pleasant to remember our history, and think about the point of view we had at the 200th anniversary.
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You may have read the book or seen the movie “Hidden Figures” about the black women who did the manual computing required by space flight.
Well, here’s a little more detail about one specific set of calculations Katherine Johnson was asked to do. The engineers fed information into the newly installed IBM computer, to figure out how to manage John Glenn’s flight.
But he wanted her to recompute them by hand to verify what the computer had spit out.
It’s another way Johnson contributed that is often overlooked.
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Hmmmm. The idea of packing hydrogels into a jacket, and then moving the absorbed liquid into a container that will release the water when heated is intriguing.
I’d like to see this in practice. But good on the Texas students for making a prototype.
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Bonus: last month, the most high profile illegal alien became the world's first trillionaire. And what does he do with that wealth? He hoards it! (Gotta feed your family #AmIRight?)
But here's a little something the World Bank noted: with $1.04 trillion, invested in infrastructure, we could ensure that everyone *around the world* could have access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation - through at least 2030.
I'll let that sink in.
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