In early 1962, weeks before John Glenn's orbital flight, a NASA mathematician named Katherine Johnson was asked to recompute by hand what the new IBM 7090 had already calculated, because Glenn had told mission planners he would not fly unless she personally verified the machine's numbers on paper

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. 

https://spacedaily.com/sd-in-early-1962-weeks-before-john-glenns-orbital-flight-a-nasa-mathematician-named-katherine-johnson-was-asked-to-recompute-by-hand-what-the-new-ibm-7090-had-already-calculated-because-glenn-had/

Texas engineers created a jacket capable of extracting up to 900 milliliters of drinking water per day directly from the air, an invention that sounds like science fiction for surviving a drier future – ECOticias.com

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. 

https://www.ecoticias.com/en/texas-engineers-created-a-jacket-capable-of-extracting-up-to-900-milliliters-of-drinking-water-per-day-directly-from-the-air-an-invention-that-sounds-like-science-fiction-for-surviving-a-drier-future/34697/

The World Cup

The World Cup reached its conclusion today.  In spite of it all (more in a minute), the games were mostly fun and competitive, and the fans were great (tartan army? viking row?  yes, please).  I know futbol (or soccer if you like) isn't for everyone, but I find the strategy of it all enticing.  And the players are very athletic - did you know the average player runs close to 8 miles in a 90 minute game?  

Spain had a great tournament, and came out on top.  For what it's worth, Argentina “felt like” they got advantages, mostly through officiating. But their opponents absolutely made tactical mistakes, like going defensive late in games, so these advantages may not be all that relevant. 

Anyway, the stadia hosting the games are in a bit of a rush to put back the corporate names, and return to whatever playing field that had previously been in place, because turf allows for the stadium owners to be more flexible about how the stadium is used, and arguably it cost them less to maintain than grass.

Of course, I can't just leave it there and have to comment on some things I saw during the few weeks:

• Oh the money grab! Beyond ticketing, you may have noticed the games were at times that best suited the western hemisphere.  Fans in Europe had late nights and early mornings to watch their teams. And ads on US television were plentiful, especially during the water breaks (even though this wasn’t permissible, based on the contract)
• There was quite the oddity surrounding a red card handed out to US Soccer player Folarin Balogun, meaning he would miss the next game.  Enter T-rump inserting himself, and FIFA bending its own rules to accommodate him, and reinstating Balogun without explanation.  Two fun moments from that sequence of events:
• Balogun is a birthright citizen with an interesting backstory.  Earlier in the same day that he caused FIFA to reinstate him, T-rump was railing about how birthright citizenship was bad.  And yet, we found ourselves here.  
• Belgium trolled T-rump after the game with a dance to "YMCA" https://sports.yahoo.com/articles/victorious-belgian-footballers-troll-trump-185150991.html
  
• FIFA talks big about environmental issues and yet, Infantino (the president) was jetting around on a private plane, creating emissions to be ashamed of.  
  https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/articles/cgev5wy0zg3o
• Officiating - as always in soccer - was a bit strange. To be fair, that's one of the things that makes the game a little delightful because there is some weird random element that plays in.  But I do have to say that VAR (replay) was used haphazardly. An example: in the Argentina - Egypt game, there appeared to be a foul favoring Egypt, but it wasn't called and Argentina scored as a result.  Players and coaches for Egypt were incensed that they wouldn’t even look at replay, and it resulted in a kind of amusing series of yellow cards on pretty much everyone.
• There was a story involving French star Kylian Mbappe, after the Paraguay game.  A senator from Paraguay decided to make overtly racist comments about Mbappe.  He responded by calling her disrespectful.  And she doubled down and said he needed to apologize to her because he was *attacking her*
• And finally, there are a couple of other stories about Argentina:
• It was hard to miss that Argentina doesn’t have a single black player on the team; this fits in with Argentina’s history related to white supremacy, which I encourage you to read more about.
• There is an ongoing story and investigation into the Argentina soccer organization possibly engaged in money laundering https://www.cbssports.com/soccer/news/fbi-investigates-argentina-football-association-alleged-money-laundering-in-u-s-2026/

Walt Disney’s private airplane restored after 15 years of baking in the Florida sun | Popular Science

The plane had been on display on the backlot tour at the Disney MGM tours for many years. And then, they closed the tour and moved the plane into a backstage area … where it’s been rotting in the sun ever since. 

And now, it’s been restored and will return to public display. 

https://www.popsci.com/technology/walt-disney-private-airplane-restored/

Seeing America in Epcot.

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, with a kind of “attic space” at the top. We saw the voices of liberty (for the uninitiated they are an acapela 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 it’s 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 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 in a way that the 1970s kind of did (which is to be expected).

I’ve probably only sat through it between 4-6 times over its 50 years for those reasons. 

My adult son had never seen it, but was surprised at how it came across. At this point in time, it could probably use some changes or at 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 appreciate the shows point of view. 

https://youtu.be/2HtO-slH3o8?is=UZkW-VKKDMZexJOG

Dumbassery is alive and well in Murica.

T-rump is still railing about an election that took place 6 years ago!!!

He claims election fraud, which has been proven time and again to be false. 

And honestly, if we were to simply take it at face value, then he won a second term based on fraud. Which is clearly not his point. 

Such a dumbass. But the maga crowd cheers at dear leader. And this is another salvo in attacks on free and fair elections. 

Yikes.