Gladys West, GPS pioneer and mathematician, dies at 95 : NPR

Earlier this year, Dr West passed away at the age of 95. Her mathematics in calculating the surface of the earth, led to the development of GPS. 

There’s a short history of her life in the attached NPR story, but I just started reading her memoir. It’s fascinating stuff. She grew up in the Jim Crow South, but managed to be very successful and her legacy lives on. 

https://www.npr.org/2026/01/23/nx-s1-5685027/gladys-west-gps-mathematician

Is it just me…

Two stories caught my attention this week related to Disney. And they made me scratch my head…

The first was about the sale of the lakers. Bob Iger as the CEO of Disney threaded a bit of a needle in protecting “his” company from the orange menace. Iger was no fan of the convicted felon, and is reportedly a democrat who sometimes used to express some views that ran that direction. But he decided he wanted to buy the basketball team, and partnered with Jared Kushners brother to buy them. 

I would argue that the Kushner family, long connected to the convicted felon, are about as close as you can get to him. It’s just so weird and reminds us that people - especially the wealthy elite - are only in it for themselves and are willing to put anything aside to get what they want. 

The second story was about Pat Mcaffee, the personality at espn who often espouses a point of view that supports the maga movement, yet claims he doesn’t want to get political with his show. (And for the record, several others who espoused the opposing view were actually fired from espn for doing essentially the same thing). 

He became the highest paid personality recently, and espn laid off a large number of people (who kept it about the sports and could be considered actual journalists), presumably to lean into Pats POV for ratings. 

And what does Pat do next? He has the convicted felon on his show, and then appears with him at something called “the patriot games” (which were laughably stupid, as you might guess). 

Thus throwing out a sense of “not being political” … how silly this all became. 

Photos: Total solar eclipse 2026 | CNN

Yesterday, there was a full solar eclipse, visible from Northern Europe, and up into Iceland. 

I know some people who saw it and their comment was: Beautiful. 

https://www.cnn.com/2026/08/12/science/gallery/photos-total-solar-eclipse

In 1961 President Kennedy picked Ed Dwight to become America's first Black astronaut candidate, but NASA never selected him, so he spent decades sculpting bronze instead — and finally flew to space at 90

I’ve mentioned Ed Dwight in previous newsletters, but it’s worth revisiting.  Dwight nearly was the first black man in space - if he had been selected among the first group of astronauts in the 1960s.

But sadly, while Kennedy had wanted Dwight to be part of the story, when Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, that dream died along with him, and Dwight was excluded. And it would be another two decades before a black man would go into space.

https://spacedaily.com/m-in-1961-president-kennedy-picked-ed-dwight-to-become-americas-first-black-astronaut-candidate-but-nasa-never-selected-him-so-he-spent-decades-sculpting-bronze-instead-and-finally-flew-to/

Wealth inequity

Wealth is so out of control these days.  The uber wealthy have grown to a point where they have become oligarchs (actual definition: An oligarch is an extremely rich and powerful person who uses extreme wealth and business ties to control or influence government and society. The word comes from ancient Greek terms meaning "to rule by the few")

Back in 1990, there were just 66 people in the US who had a billion dollars or more.  And the top 1% of the population controlled a little under $5 trillion in total.

Today, there are about 3,400 people with a billion or more (that's more than a 50 fold increase, and the curve is something like exponential growth).  And the amount of wealth controlled by the top 1% is around $56 trillion (an 11 fold increase!).

But the number of people in the top 1% only increased by about 20% (1.08 million people > 1.33 million people).  Essentially meaning the group at the very top accumulated most of the wealth.

And the crazy part is that this increase is almost exclusively  "new money," accumulated in an environment where de-regulation is key.  Tax rules are favorable, companies can do what they want, and the people that run companies are profiting off the backs of their under-appreciated employees.

It's crazy, and can lead to nowhere good in the long run.  We can and should be taxing them more.  I have no issues with someone accumulating wealth, but at what point is it "too much" or excessive?  Seems to me that there should be a threshold (IMHO $50 million is more than enough for anyone and is generational in nature), and in excess of that, you have to contribute to society in some way - through taxation or by having to move it into a charitable endeavor.

On that note, I recently re-watched the re-imagined adaptation of Sherlock Holmes called "Elementary" which came out about 15 years ago.  Holmes is still British, but he's solving crimes in New York with the help of Watson, played by Lucy Liu.  It is entertaining, but takes a few modern-day liberties.  

One of those liberties is to have storylines around Holmes' father, Morland.  He comes from old money, and has a lot of power in the world to do as he pleases.  At some point in the story arc, new money comes into the picture and starts aggressively moving into Morland's domain.  He can stave it off at first, and then must start calling on other old money players to band together.  Only, he gets betrayed as a group of them, who sell out to these new players - and they set him up to be killed off.

What we're seeing play out around us is that storyline to a point.  The new money players are edging out the old money - and it becomes a matter of them adapting, or they fall behind.  Life is imitating art to a degree.

If you know, you know.

Giant U.S. company cancels major employment perk for new staff - TheStreet

This is an interesting turn of events. While we may simply sluff it off as corporate greed and kind of what we expect today, there’s a little more to this. 

Many of the large companies have events, retreats, and otherwise use Disney World as a kind of a fun perk for employees. 

Taking these perks away and “cost cutting” has a bottom line impact to Disney. 

While Disney doesn’t provide exact figures, it’s estimated that there are around 1,000 corporate events held each year.  And that’s not even considering events with under 250 people. They book rooms, using meeting space, dine, take advantage of the amenities, and often will rent a park for a signature event one evening. 

That’s a lot of potential lost revenue. 

https://www.thestreet.com/employment/pwc-cancels-employment-perk-internship-disney-world