Bitchin Dave's newsletter

Over the last few weeks, we visited St Kitts & Nevis. It was interesting on so many levels - beyond just enjoying beaches in the West Indies.  First, and foremost, Nevis is where Alexander Hamilton was born.  We did a brief tour, and his life there was a little complicated. His father was a wealthy plantation owner, and Alexander was born to a woman who many believe was a prostitute.  In any case, he was a bastard raised in Charlestown.  He couldn't attend school because of that fact, and was tutored by a Jewish woman (and surprisingly, there was a decent sized Jewish community there!).  Of course, he saw slavery first hand, and that was pointed out as an influence on his life. After his mother died at age 9, he left for NY.   It's really interesting how connected these islands are to the Americas.  Second is about this being Charlestown. As it happens, the first colonists who made it to the Americas in the 1600s landed on the island, reprovisioned their ship, and continued...

Quick housekeeping item: it's time for a summer break!  Look for a new edition of the newsletter in a few weeks. In the meantime, here's to hoping that you have a fun summer. ---- This is a somewhat personal story... Years ago, I met a guy through some work I was doing on the web and we became friends.  We found out we had a lot in common, and would hang out a few times a year (we lived in different parts of the country, so it revolved around common activities).  He appeared on a Dolphins podcast that I had at one point, and on my Disney podcast, too. He was a good human being. And I was glad to call him a friend. The pandemic came, and we didn't see each other for a while, and we fell behind on communicating.  Hey.  It happens, that's life. I saw something that I was pretty sure this friend would enjoy knowing about, so I dropped him an email.  I got a fairly unexpected reply, from his daughter: "sorry to tell you that he passed away after a brief illness, about t...

Evolution is a thing.  And here is fact-based-evidence that humans are evolving in real time, right in plain view, and in our lifetime.  The story is that the people living in the Himalayas have adapted to the lower-oxygen environment in this mountainous region.  Children are being born with the ability for their blood to carry enough hemoglobin to support their regular function. Whereas those of us who live much closer to sea level can not survive in that environment for long periods.  Please, tell me again how humans haven't adapted and evolved based on environmental factors.  Ahem. I'll say it again slowly so mouth breathers can get it. Human evolution has happened. And is happening. Every. Day.  https://www.sciencealert.com/humans-are-evolving-right-in-front-of-our-eyes-on-the-tibetan-plateau === Environmental impacts from big pharma Here's a rather odd story about how pharmaceutical companies create enormous amounts of waste, primarily in the disposal of over produced ...

As I've noted many times before, the founding fathers weren't particularly religious. As the primary religion in the American colonies was Anglican, that meant that the predominant religion accepted the monarchy. Because the monarch is the head of the Anglican Church.  That certainly didn't fit with the ideals of this fledgling nation, which was trying to free itself from the ties to England.  And that's an important part of how our nation was founded. The Declaration of Independence speaks of "the creator" as a very ambiguous thing. And they do note that there is "divine providence" in the action, which suggests a higher power. But they don't otherwise mention god, and certainly not Christianity.  The constitution makes no reference to god. At all. There is a notation in article vii that reads "in the year of our lord"  done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our...