Olympian Eileen Gu

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 - while the IOC makes a ton of money and leaves the host city holding the bag from a financial perspective.

But 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 continue 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!

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/feb/22/eileen-gu-freestyle-skiing-halfpipe-gold-zoe-atkin-bronze-great-britain-winter-olympics

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 in that sense does not apply on mars (or really anywhere else).

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, they're actually applying science.

It kind of blows my mind. 

https://beaconwales.org/23-164048-albert-einstein-has-flows-adapt/

China invention turns desert sand into fertile soil in just 10 months - Earth.com

Well, this is interesting. A group of scientists are using bacteria to mix in with the sand, and then providing nutrient in order to stabilize the soil.  From there, they can plant other types of living things that can take root and grow.

Essentially reclaiming deserts.  

https://www.earth.com/news/process-microbes-turn-desert-sand-into-fertile-soil-in-just-10-months/

To the orange menace…

Birthright Citizenship at SCOTUS: Your Voice Matters | American Civil Liberties Union

https://action.aclu.org/petition/birthright-citizenship-scotus-your-voice-matters

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 other.  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 earths climate is affected by the sun, because that might be considered climate science. And that's not allowable in this day and age.

https://scitechdaily.com/a-spacecraft-flew-closer-to-the-sun-than-ever-and-is-rewriting-a-century-old-mystery/

Automakers are getting rid of Apple CarPlay to try and take advantage of $625,000,000,000 opportunity

Recently, lawmakers have been discussing cars. Among the topics are a change to gas mileage requirements, a removal of any sort of emissions standards, and a notion that computers need to be removed from cars.

There's reasoning on this last one - according to them - is that the cars could be more like older models, with simple engines that are powerful, sometimes loud, and which allow the drive to control the car (certainly something we've strayed from, since cars in control these days. Heck even stick shifts on most current cars don't engage the engine to change how it physically operates; the shifting tells the computer to adjust the engine). There was also some nonsense about needing to be able to touch physical buttons rather than touching a screen (which felt very generational). 

 But here's the bigger picture: these computers collect billions of dollars worth of data about you and your driving habits.  Do you think the car manufactures will simply give that up? 

Just take a look at this article and the power play move with apple here.  This is about collecting, controlling, and selling information about you. It's about money.

https://supercarblondie.com/tech/why-automakers-are-getting-rid-of-apple-carplay/