Freedom is never really free

Setting aside the silliness of the agenda and the absurd rhetoric that comes out of Tallahassee (and one particular idiot specifically), I find this a little amusing. 

Recall that during antebellum period, there were "slave states" and "free states."  Florida was squarely in the "slave state" category (and proud of it!). 

And keep in mind that while the Florida state flag purports to evoke the Spanish imperial flag with the red lines crossing on a white background, the fact that the jagged parts are missing suggests that Florida also wanted to (however subtly) recall its own past as a "slave state" and being part of the south. 

So to put up signs that refer to Florida as a "free state" is, in fact, quite funny. 

http://www.northescambia.com/2024/07/florida-announces-free-state-of-florida-placed-on-all-welcome-signs

Props to TSwift

I admit, I'm not a huge fan of her music. But I am a fan of her giving back to communities that she visits while on tour. 

She donates to food charities in every city to help with food insecurity as she believes it's the right thing to do. There shouldn't be this many people going without food. 

Props to her. 

That's simply awesome. 

https://www.cnn.com/2023/08/13/business/taylor-swift-food-bank-donations/index.html

SpaceX Suffers Engine Failure

This was an interesting turn of events. As far as I can tell, there was a leak of some kind (perhaps liquid oxygen?) and it built up as ice and caused the engine to fail. 

The video says "catastrophic" and that's not 100% accurate. 

The mission still was counted as a success in a way, as the satellites were deployed into a lower orbit, and they will use the thrusters to try and push them into the correct orbit. 

But the bigger issue was the rocket itself, which couldn't be disposed of in the "typical way" and is now more space debris. 

So there is a mission review ongoing, to see what happened and how to prevent it. And SpaceX can't launch starlink satellites for now. 

https://youtu.be/I2klvDvmtFc?si=kL6YvIE277y9aLoP

Space junk

Here's another story about a Japanese company that is looking at space debris and plans to deal with it. 

https://petapixel.com/2024/07/12/space-junk-removal-company-snaps-beautiful-photo-of-discarded-rocket/

Seems weird to me

Burger King is a Miami original. The first store was on US1 near coral gables. Their corporate headquarters has always (I think anyway?) been in Miami.

And their corporate headquarters are in blue lagoon (across the 836 from the airport).

The marlins current home is where the orange bowl once stood. It's maybe 1 mile away from BKs headquarters.

And yet there has been virtually no connection between the two. You would think maybe they'd have some corporate connection. Maybe a BK in the ballpark? But no.

But…I went to a game this past weekend, and there was some advertising going  on. They had crowns. And let you sit in the kings throne.

And when the marlins won, you could get a free whopper junior at participating locations.

Still. Why not have a bigger partnership?

And of course, I wore that crown for several days.

I even attached it to my bike helmet.

This is all kinds of crazy

A haboob - or dust storm - covering much of the US

https://www.thecooldown.com/green-tech/haboob-satellite-image-dust-storm-southwest/

And this is what Disney does well…