Dave’s Musings
If you haven't been following it, there's an abortion-related case in Texas which is interesting. It doesn't matter where we each stand on the topic; this case is not about abortion per se. This is about compassion and a broader sense of our reproduction and health and safety.
In short, there is a woman whose pregnancy is in jeopardy. The fetus can not be brought to term, and her reproductive health will be damaged if she has to deliver. And, it is likely she will never be able to have children should she have to complete the pregnancy. This is the very definition of "medically necessary."
But the state has no exceptions. No caveats. Abortion is illegal. Full stop. She managed to win a few times in court, but the Texas Supreme court has rejected any claims and simply says she can't seek an abortion. As a result, she announced her intention to seek an abortion out of state.
My bigger issue is that too many people show absolutely no compassion for the situation. Not even the simple polite human kind of thing like "the law is the law and we're sorry that this happened"... no, its more about threats, some gloating, and being cruel to any and every one. Remember back when some politicians talked about "death panels?" It sure feels like we're there in a way. Doctors can't administer care because the law forbids it.
Its sad really.
Why do we have to be this way? Why do politics and religion have to play into everything so that we can't even have a rational discussion on a topic? We should all be outraged and looking for a different set of answers and engaging in a rational discussion.
| There was recently an announcement about interagency communication related to space weather. On the surface, its about being operationally ready for space missions, which sounds fine, but has limited potential to help with Earth-based weather. What about studying our climate and better communicating about it?
But I'll take the fact that they are setting up ways to share information. And in looking at "space weather" there are two possible things that are positive: launch operations rely in part on forecasts for upper level clouds, which is, in fact, Earth based weather. And second, knowing what the sun is doing, and better understanding its and the moon impacts would be useful. And should help us understand our planet.
Plus, knowing where all of our space debris is, and knowing more about threats from things like asteroids will be beneficial.
https://www.noaa.gov/stories/new-path-for-space-weather-collaboration-among-federal-agencies |
| I read an interesting article on the demise of the dinosaurs. A group of scientists have hypothesized that it wasn't simply a meteorite that caused mass extinction.
Their thinking is that it was primarily climate change caused by a large number of volcanic eruptions; this caused the Earth to cool and the dinosaurs died off.
Now, they are testing sediments, rocks, bones, and other items to see what they can tell us about that time 200,000 years ago. They're looking for specific types of ash, and certain chemicals that would have been present in a large scale volcanic eruption.
So far, their research is encouraging but there is still more work to be done.
You can read more here:
https://phys.org/news/2023-11-meteorite-clues-demise-dinosaurs.amp |
| Over the last few months or so, there has been some chatter about the potential for a hostile takeover at Disney! As these things often go, its complicated.
It involves a billionaire named Nelson Peltz who owns a large stake in Disney. He was not happy with Disney's "direction" under Bob Chapek's leadership. He was pleased that the company planned to make a change, but was troubled by them returning to Bob Iger.
He immediately sought to increase his stake in the company, and then looked to get himself onto the board of directors. When that failed, he allied himself with others who are disgruntled, and see Disney underperforming, including Ike Perlman (who at one point ran Marvel, before being ousted by Iger).
Peltz and Perlman have both publicly said that Disney has spent too much effort on woke-ness, and not paid enough attention to the bottom line.
They fought for seats again in November, which led Disney to protect against that, by filling them with other people - and then changed how seats are filled.
And that leads us to here: the pair intended to have a proxy fight early next year to oust Iger.
To counter that, Disney has announced the return of dividends (yay, in general, but as small stockholders we'll see very little), and plans to spend in order to grow in the major operational areas.
Its all crazy, but it shows just how far we've come with the company that Walt and Roy started. Its about politics and money - and not strictly about entertainment.
(Quick addition: its not that Walt wasn't political, he surely was, but it was handled differently, perhaps smarter? and those were different times). |
| Florida's insurance issues came to the national stage recently. It all started when the governor, at a recent campaign event talking about how great he is, attempted to explain how he "fixed" the insurance market in Florida.
He rambled and stumbled and wound up (a) saying that Florida has a huge gap in the funds available through the Citizens insurance program; and if there was a big storm, he would ask the Federal Government for a bailout, and that all Floridians would have to pay large sums to cover any shortfall. (gee, that sure sounds like its far from fixed and, rather is on the brink of disaster).
This drew the attention of the US Senate, which convened hearings to talk about how (poorly) the state is handling insurance and whether they should be considered insolvent when it comes to handling claims. This can't end well...
And (b) he inadvertently acknowledged that there is a climate crisis and more huge storms are coming.
Of course climate scientists jumped on the second point. And noted that surely even some of the biggest deniers see that there is a problem on a global scale, even if they are reticent to do anything about it. For now. I take it as a starting point. Its slightly better than nothing. |
One Little Spark …
| Smithsonian Magazine has a good article about Thaddeus Stevens. Its a name you may never have heard, because the Jim Crowe era mostly erased his name.
Stevens was an anti-slavery force who did what he could to help us move away from slavery. He was chairman of the ways and means committee during the Civil War, and was instrumental in helping to amend the Constitution during Reconstruction. And he was always outspoken on the topic, and its related injustices.
We should take time to remember the man and his accomplishments. |
Dave’s Musings
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