Bitchin Dave's Newsletter - September 26

  

September 26, 2023 Insights, news, ramblings, and other serious nonsense from Dave

Dave’s Musings

In the early days of the pandemic, when we were asked to stay home, I decided that I could get a little fresh air and exercise daily by taking my bike out and going for a ride. And in the almost 3 and half years since, I still go out almost every day for a ride.

Its a great way to start my morning. I spent an hour or two riding around, clearing my head, and going anywhere from 5-10 miles on the bike. Sometimes I stop at a park, sometimes for coffee.

But the best part is, its time away from the computer. Its truly "me time," and I relish it. I'd like to encourage you to find time for yourself, offline, too.

  

NASA had an ambitious mission to land a craft on an asteroid, take a sample of the asteroid, and then return the sample to Earth for further study. This past weekend, the sample landed in the desert in Utah and will be studied in the coming months. Its exciting and interesting. Asteroid return But there is more to this story... Queen (the band) guitarist Brian May was involved in the program - he's an astrophysicist after all - and was an integral part of the plan to bring home the rock. Brian May story Photo from ABC News

There's a group of academics who suggests that we have been mis-interpreting Newton's first law. Of course, Newton wrote in Latin, and we have translated it into many different languages. In short, their belief is that QUATENUS should be translated as "insofar" instead of "unless" which would mean that Newton understood that everything would affect the motion. Lex I: Corpus omne perseverare in statu suo quiescendi vel movendi uniformiter in directum, nisi quatenus a viribus impressis cogitur statum illum mutare Which has been translated commonly as: Every body perseveres in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed thereon. As a quick aside: bear this in mind when reading something that has been translated. Some words may not be "correct" or might have a slightly different meaning than what was intended. Scientific American Article

Brightline (a privately held company) debuted high speed rail between Miami and Orlando this week. You may recall that this was originally intended to get passengers easily between South Florida and Disney World, but was modified to go to Orlando International Airport...and from there you are on your own. The cost is around $160 round trip per person, and will take close to three and a half hours (nearly the same as driving). I'm not quite seeing the value proposition - but I'm willing to let it play out for a while, and I may even want to try it out sometime myself.

There's an odd story about a fictitious company that somehow managed to get into the airplane parts market. They sold parts that had forged paperwork (that looked "correct"), but which weren't OEM and didn't pass the standard checks. And after taking in large sums of money, the company has disappeared. But these parts were sold to most airlines around the world, and were installed in many aircraft. They're being removed, but it did pose a public risk. You can read the whole story here: Phony airline parts

One Little Spark …  … for your imagination

Private schools in Florida are doing their part to ensure the teaching of black history is not lost, as it is in public schools.

Eric Smaw of Rollins college is glad to see it, “If we inadvertently or intentionally make the mistake of telling them that some of the most egregious and immoral acts that we participated in had good outcomes, then they might see those acts as less egregious, less immoral." 

The principal of Monarch Learning Academy in Orlando, Marguerite McNeill, said “I don’t know what the fear of knowledge, I don’t understand fear of knowledge. I have more of a fear of lack of knowledge, right?” 

Monarch - and others - teach the AP African American History that is now not allowed in Florida public schools.  And they take field trips to places like Alabama, so students can see first hand what has happened in our past.

Rather than thinking it makes some people uncomfortable, and literally whitewashing history.

We need a lot more of this kind of leadership in the world.

Dave’s latest video

I've got a short video where I'm talking about EV charging, and how adoption is going. https://youtu.be/Qpu_sLO6pqI?si=0KvBgL7XVEqNA_qz

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