Bitchin' Dave's Newsletter - Aug 15

  

August 15, 2023 Insights, news, ramblings, and other serious nonsense from Dave

Dave’s Musings

One of my lifetime bucket list items is to experience the aurora borealis; to see it overhead is a bit of a dream. 

I have been traveling for a few weeks through Vancouver, into whistler, and over to Vancouver island to visit Victoria. Any or all of which “could” provide viewing opportunities. 

But unfortunately, there was only one day where the northern lights were visible - and only through a camera lens, not with the naked eye. So my quest remains unfulfilled for now. 

But I did have some amazing star filled skies and the persied meteor shower was completely visible one night. So it wasn’t a total loss. 

There’s a Facebook enthusiast group I was following; someone posted a cool video from the night it was almost visible: 

https://m.facebook.com/groups/northernbcaurora/permalink/1619447131798122/?refsrc=deprecated&__hwl=1&_rdr

  

The helicopter that’s on Mars - Ingenuity - continues to have successful flights around the Martian landscape.  And last week, it captured a picture of the Perservance Rover, which is kind of a cool thing.

Theres some exciting research going on in the fields related to technological advancements.  A group of researchers in Spain has combined a variety of polymer and a graphene to create a something that is clear and electrically charged - but which can be folded and used as a screen.  It’s a cool leap forward and underscores how much research is being done to find the next “dig thing” (even if it’s little) phys.org article

I saw an article recently that calls out the contemporary resort at Walt Disney world as the ugliest hotel in Florida.  Where’s the love, man? “Disney World is usually spot on when it comes to designing things, but what in the world were they thinking when they created the iconic (and ugly) Contemporary Resort? It looks like a futuristic Aztec pyramid, which is not something you would normally associate with Mickey Mouse.  Although it's not much to look at, the Contemporary Resort is one of Disney's most beloved places to stay. It's been around since day one of Disney World, opening on October 1st, 1971. In addition to being one of the ugliest buildings, it's also one of the loudest, since a monorail runs right through the middle of it.” Unsightly buildings in all states

Here’s a fun blog from a couple who made a trip to central California in the Tesla.  What makes this compelling is that there are no superchargers / fast chargers nearby. And not many level 2 (240v outlet types) to be found.  So they did a lot of “trickle charging” connected to typical wall outlets.  Its a fun read  Acterra blog

One Little Spark …  … for your imagination

Take a moment to consider what happened in Ohio last week. Like many states, Ohio grants citizens the rights to propose a constitutional amendment, if they can get enough signatures on a petition. Then, the amendment goes on a ballot and needs a simple majority to be an amendment to the states constitution. 

The state GOP wanted to pass legislation to ban abortion. But the citizens got the required signatures to keep abortion legal, as a constitutional amendment. The GOP saw that as a threat and proposed a change to the law and change the rules on constitutional amendments to require a 60% threshold (rather than simple majority), and a few other punitive things. 

They held a special election (which may have violated the law as it’s written, that’s still being determined) and cost the taxpayers money. Holding it on a random day in August, they thought maybe voter turnout would be low…

And the voters were motivated and turned out in force to vote down the changes. Voters who normally didn’t vote in such things. Voters who live in rural areas who may or may not vote for the abortion issue turned out. 

It reminds us all that the power of democracy is still strong. And we can do a lot with that power. 

Dave’s latest video

This week I'm talking about hiking up in whistler.   https://youtu.be/6eDE-Fu6GrU

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