Hailing frequencies closed

Many years ago, I met Curt at an event hosted by the Miami Dolphins. We had a little fun back-and-forth about who was first with a dolphins website (though I always knew it was him; he beat me by maybe a month or so). 

We became friends and had a some fun bonding over being long-suffering fans, and discovered we also shared a love of Disney. There were other things, too, but those always worked. 

He appeared on both my dolphins and Disney podcasts a few times, and we did the scavenger hunt in 2011. It was an absolute blast. 

Unfortunately, we lost touch shortly before the pandemic, and the emails and calls became more sporadic. 

Then, today I saw something about the dolphins I thought he'd enjoy seeing, so I thought maybe we could pick up again. 

Only… I learned from his daughter that he passed away in March. That gave me pause. 

Goodbye my friend. May you feast among the dolphins greats, and get an audience with Walt himself. 😁

This is one of those fun human interest stories

TL;DR dad offers his son a chance to take on a challenge that you see on the socials. Kid succeeds. That video goes viral, and ultimately leads to the son getting a chance to go on the field with a baseball player he wanted to meet. 

It's worth a read, and reminds us that there is still good in the world. 

https://people.com/how-a-viral-prank-led-boy-to-meet-his-texas-rangers-idol-exclusive-11740602

When Don Shula almost went to work for Donald Trump

This is a summary of Trump buying the New Jersey Generals and pursing Don Shula. 

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DI4gG_tzVpf/?igsh=eTM4cWZ2Z3ZzaXpy

A little more context: If I remember correctly, T-rump decided he wanted to win at all costs and made a run at Shula. 

Shula was flattered but not really interested. His situation in Miami was good but the money was tempting. And of course he and owner Joe Robbie had clashed a bunch by now.

I don't think they ever got far into negotiations, with Shulas representative doing the talking.

But it did give him more money from the notoriously cheap Robbie.

There are two rumors around this topic. First is that Larry Csonka (who played for Shula, and they remained friendly over the years) told reporters Shula "probably would have taken the money" if that other Donald hadn't gone public.

And the second is that the agent was trying to size up the real interest. Was this a publicity stunt? Would Shula have had control? Was it a legit offer without stupid clauses that would have made life difficult?

Part of how he negotiated was to ask for some ridiculous things, perhaps including the penthouse apartment.

It was to see what kind of a person that Donald was. And we all saw it.

Shula called it all a distraction and just moved on.

Religion meets politics

As I've noted many times before, the founding fathers weren't particularly religious. As the primary religion in the American colonies was Anglican, that meant that the predominant religion accepted the monarchy. Because the monarch is the head of the Anglican Church. 

That certainly didn't fit with the ideals of this fledgling nation, which was trying to free itself from the ties to England. 

And that's an important part of how our nation was founded. The Declaration of Independence speaks of "the creator" as a very ambiguous thing. And they do note that there is "divine providence" in the action, which suggests a higher power. But they don't otherwise mention god, and certainly not Christianity. 

The constitution makes no reference to god. At all. There is a notation in article vii that reads "in the year of our lord" 

done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present the Seventeenth Day of September in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven and of the Independance of the United States of America the Twelfth In witness whereof We have hereunto subscribed our Names

But keep in mind that the British had imposed the gregorian calendar on all its territories. It has a "starting point" related to the assumed birthdate of Jesus. Any days before that are "BC," or "Before Christ." And anything after are "AD," or "Anno Domini" which is loosely translated to "after the coming of god."

The plucky americans kept the calendar and the nomenclature for convenience. So "year of our lord" is a holdover from that, specifically. 

And with no other mentions of god, it's a stretch to fit Christianity into that. Though certainly some people try and do so.  

Moreover, it was decided to make the semi-official motto of these new United States e pluribus unum which you may recognize as a Latin phrase (Latin being commonly used in documents pertaining to state, in many British territories). It means "out of many, one."

You may also realize that this is the basic tenet of the declaration that "we the people" are the nation. Not a king. Not a type of tyrant. We. All of us.   

Now a quick aside: The pledge of allegiance that we all know and recite, didn't get written until after the civil war. It was 1892 when we started pledging allegiance to the republic. And it did NOT contain the phrase "under god" in its original form. 

But along came the Cold War in the 1950s. The red scare. There were communists everywhere, according to some. And we couldn't let the Russians take over our nation. So there were a series of witch hunts. 

And a serious discussion about how we could differentiate ourselves from *them* got underway … one way was through religion. The communists didn't believe in god and therefore, if the United States made references to god, we could assure ourselves that the red menace wouldn't affect our way of life. Silly as that sounds. 

So in 1956, the pledge of allegiance was changed to add "under god" to it. It's a small, subtle change. But in context, really relevant. 

They also adopted an official motto that reads "in god we trust," and stopped using "e pluribus unum" in most official capacities. 

Until then, no one much cared about religion in the way we think of it today. Yes, people were religious. And yes there were debates about church and state. But the constitution typically won out because it didn't mention god. 

But, with legislation and the stroke of a pen, we started down a long path of religion infiltrating our system of government. People assume that "under god" refers to Christianity. But of course it does not specifically do that. 

And our founding fathers never intended for this to happen. 

Reference: the constitution 

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/constitution-transcript#7

Reference: the Declaration of Independence 

https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript

Seaweed packaging

A company called Notpla is working on a seaweed coating to put over a cardboard container.  The result is something that can biodegrade quicky and easily.

They're partnering with some European business, and with some big stadium operators to replace the packaging that's used when serving food at games and events.  

They also toyed wit han idea for seaweed-based cuops to replace single use plastic cups, but post-pandemic, opted to focus on these takeaway containers.

https://www.euronews.com/green/2025/06/07/we-dont-want-to-be-a-niche-brand-seaweed-is-taking-plastic-out-of-stadiums-and-sandwich-bo

Davinci drawings lead to newly discovered tunnels

Leonardo Davinci did some drawings of the Sforza Castle, and included were a series of underground tunnels.

Centuries passed, and the landscape changed.  The tunnels were lost to history.  Except that some archaeologists referred back to these drawings, and used ground penetrating radar.  And found the tunnels.

This is one of those fun stories that makes one marvel at the ability of Davinci to show us the real world.

https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/archaeology/a64864755/leonardo-da-vinci-castle-sketch/

Scientists in Japan develop plastic that dissolves in seawater within hours

It may seem a little far-fetched, but the scientists had in a group of scientists and reporters, and demonstrated the effect: plastic sitting in a salt water tank disintegrated in about an hour.  So if this is scalable, and if the plastic can stand up to regular handling, they may be on to something.

https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/scientists-japan-develop-plastic-that-dissolves-seawater-within-hours-2025-06-04/

Saturn's moon - Titan - has a tilt that scientists are trying to understand

To this point, scientists can't figure out why Titan is "wobbling."

"We think some event in the past may have knocked the atmosphere off its spin axis, causing it to wobble."

While studying it using telescopes and looking at the data from probes, they noticed that Saturn wasn't impacting the tilt, which made the result curiouser.

"That would've given us clues to the cause," Nick Teanby, co-author of the study and a planetary scientist at the University of Bristol, said in the statement. "Instead, we've got a new mystery on our hands."

Its amazing to me just how much we don't know.  But its also worth noting that this is what's great about scientific curiosity.  We continue to evaluate what we see, and update theories to adapt to that.  And we continue to learn new things.

https://www.space.com/astronomy/solar-system/weve-got-a-new-mystery-on-our-hands-titans-weird-wobble-just-got-even-stranger

Space is hard

Japan's Resilience Lunar Lander apparently crash landed on the moon.  Everything was looking good after its time in space, and the engineers were excited and confident about landing.

But as it was 20m above the surface, and about 2 minutes from landing, the thrusters fired to move it to a vertical position, but it didn't successfully complete the maneuver, and the craft didn't slow down.  

iSpace lost contact with it and later determined that it had crash landed.  And that means its iSpace's second failed attempt to land on the moon,

https://www.reuters.com/science/japans-ispace-tries-lunar-touchdown-again-with-resilience-lander-2025-06-05/

Disney announces Piston Peak

Disney hadn't said much about the Cars themed land slated for the magic kingdom, after their initial announcement. 

The reason for that is: Florida politics. 

Disney proposed filling in the Rivers of America and using that as additional space for their new land. But Disney no longer controls its own waterways. They are now under the purview of the state's water management district. So, when Disney proposed their changes, the state rejected it outright. It's hard to tell what their reasoning was, but presumably it's about their ongoing feud. 

Disney tried negotiating, but they met a lot of resistance. I personally assumed the project died quietly. 

But in the first week of June, they came up with this statement. 

"Since the early days of Magic Kingdom, adventurous guests have traveled across space and time as they pass from Liberty Square to Frontierland.

 

"At the heart of all these stories are heroic characters with a belief in themselves that helped forge a path to their dreams.

 

"To continue this journey in great American storytelling, Piston Peak National Park will be part of the largest expansion in the history of Magic Kingdom.

 

"Visitors will be able to see and explore the visitor lodge, Ranger HQ, trails and more all set within the Disney and Pixar Cars universe.

 

"To make sure these buildings fit naturally within the surrounding majestic landscapes, Imagineers are using a style of architecture called 'Parkitecture,' which was developed by the National Park Service to create structures that harmonize with the natural environment.

 

"From the outside, trees will provide a natural barrier between the off-road rally and other parts of Frontierland and Liberty Square. Rugged mountains with dramatic peaks will be nestled along a calming waterway across from Grizzly Hall, and soaring geysers from the famed Big Thunder Mountain Railroad will stretch into the trails of our off-road rally."

Which means that they found a way to make it work. And if you look at the new rendering, you'll note that the waterway surrounds the land. So in effect, they reshaped the Rivers of America slightly, but left it intact. 

I'm not quite sure who won and lost here. But it seems a reasonable compromise. I think, anyway. 

But my one question is why did they put it there, and not over by the Tomorrowland speedway? That seemed to be a more natural tie-in. 

But what do I know?

Original artist rendering - no waterways shown:

Conceptualization shown in June with the announcement, with the waterway!: 

This is just madness

There's a weird story about Elon Musk, Stephen Miller, and Miller's wife. And honestly, I'm not sure why this is any way "news" or relevant. 

But I think it probably does suggest there are problems with this stupid "in crowd"…

If you're unfamiliar with the story, well, it's that Miller assigned his wife to keep an eye on Musk. Miller referred to it as "handling him," and musk reportedly figured out that he was being manipulated. 

Whatever it was ex actor is unclear … but it sure seems like something is simmering among them. 

And of course, there was some weirdness about their relationship, both professional and personal. And there was some side story about Musk no longer contributing to T-rumps personal account, which seems to have rankled some of the keystone cops.