Disney doing some good in nature

Disney's Sea Turtle Conservation Inspires the Next Generation

This is a cool story about how Disney is using sea turtle nesting into a means to study these amazing creatures, and inspire the youth by seeing conservation in action.  And in a fun way, no less.

https://disneyparksblog.com/ase/disneys-sea-turtle-conservation-inspires-the-next-generation/

Daylight savings time

In the book I read about Benjamin Franklin, there was a snippet about how he became fascinated by a candle that didn't produce smoke. 

It stoked his imagination, and being a thinker and a scientist, he considered how important candles were to life. Once it got to be dark, you had to light one.  And of the course of an evening, a week, a month, or a year, he ran through many candles.

And so he wrote a short piece about how if there was more daylight, then the need for candles would be reduced.  He did a little math and determined that Parisians could save millions of French Livre every year if they had an hour of extra daylight, and didn't have to buy candles.

That was pure Franklin magic.  He was good at dissecting a topic and giving a point of view that was well reasoned and proffered an idea.  He was quite good at that. And that's why "Doctor Franklin" was si beloved.

The story itself went mostly unnoticed.

That is until 1916, when the Great War started, and Europe was looking for ways to focus attention and cut some costs.  And so they turned to Franklins work, and twisted a little.  It would be good for their war effort... and thus began a path of daylight savings time.  Savings more or less being about saving money on candles, and oil in the evenings.

Disney World to re-open the magic of Disney animation... sort of

When the Disney/MGM studios opened back in 1989, it was all about the behind the scenes magic of movie making.

Among the many interactive exhibits was a look into Disney's animation process.  There was a short film featuring Robin Williams and Walter Cronkite, and a gallery where you could watch people animating Disney cartoons in a very "old school" sort of way.  Artists sat at desks and hand drew the images, and then they were painted.  

Two things happened that led to the closure of this area: more artists were hired in far off lands, and technology started to creep into the animation process.  For a time, Disney kept this area open a memento to a bygone era, and they allowed young artists to try their hand at simple drawings.

Then, Disney bought out Star Wars, and decided to reimagine the space into the "launch bay" to introduce the franchise to what had become Disney's Hollywood Studios.  

And today, Disney announced that the launch bay would be going away and an old - new attraction would be brought back into the space.  Yep, they are bringing back some kind of animation studio experience to the space.  I have no doubt it will be cute, but given how the art of animation devolved, and how lackluster the launch bay was, and how animation is all created on computer this will probably be a bit of a nothing.

But we'll have to wait until 2026 to reach that pinnacle of disappointment.

https://www.flcourier.com/lifestyle/new-attraction-magic-of-disney-animation-opens-at-disney-s-hollywood-studios/article_83918167-a3ab-481a-bd69-ceff5b4c0841.html

Unprecedented sargassum surge threatens tourism in the Caribbean

More on the scourge that is sargassum 

https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2025/07/23/caribbean-sargassum-surge-threatens-tourism-2025/9771753295062/

Using kids as pawns.

Venezuelan Little League team denied travel visas to U.S. for World Series

The Cacique Mara Little League team from Maracaibo, Venezuela, was "unfortunately unable to obtain the appropriate visas," Little League International said in a statement, adding that the decision was "extremely disappointing, especially to these young athletes."

Venezuela is one of several countries whose nationals are restricted or limited from travel into the U.S. under the presidential proclamation signed by President Donald Trump in June. Neither the White House nor the State Department immediately responded to an overnight request for comment.

Where there’s smoke…

There is something so bizarre about this Epstein situation.

We're being misdirected and gaslit. There's a reason that Teflon Don can't just make this one go away, like he has everything else. 

Why is this the one thing that maga seems to not want to let go?

To my totally untrained eye I see one of three options. 

1. there's something they're trying to pull behind the scenes so they leave this as the media focus.  Of course the problem here is that they don't usually try and hide things. Look at all the shnizzle that's going down and no one tries to misdirect on any of it. And besides, they keep tossing more garbage to try and bury *this* story for some reason.

2. this is a sort of coup. Donald was the means to the end to getting people into power and executing on the project 2025 scam. Remember that there is a story about the battle between Vance and his tech guys vs Trump and his nonsense? 

It's at least possible that Trump has outlived his usefulness to everyone, and maybe they'll use this as a means to unload Trump and then pin things on him … and get Vance, who they actually would prefer.

I have heard Europe is doing more reporting on how they always knew Trump was a pedophile and Russia is leaking new info on it … but the US media isn't biting.

And the undertone is that Trump is being setup.

I don't know if this is true, but I can read European articles and translate as needed. I leave this as a pending *possibility*

Of course 3. is that it's all just plain stupidity. And maybe pedophilia is a line too far for many people. And this is where we are at. 

Stay tuned. Eventually we'll know more. 

Well. That sucks. Media just became less “free”

A while ago, skydance media made a bid to buy paramount, which would include all of its holdings, movie library, CBS, and all other streaming. 

The FCC under Biden said "no thanks," because this would create a huge problem in terms of freedom of the press and create a sort of monopoly. 

But, David Ellison - ceo of skydance - is a huuuge supporter of Trumps, and shortly after Trump got elected, Ellison managed to convince CBS to apologize to Trump for whatever they said that aggrieved him, and got Colbert fired, essentially for insubordination. 

And then Trumps FCC approved the merger, making Ellison the biggest media mogul. And now he can control what paramount delivers. Which is bad for all of us. 

At least for now, we can take solace in the fact that over the air media, streaming "news" and such are less important to most people, as options pop up on the Internet all the time. 

*for now is noted because the Feds want very badly to restrict what we can access on the internet, and to track us if we're seeing things they don't approve of. And don't sleep on the fact that "oracle wants to buy TikTok" because David's father, Larry, was the ceo of oracle and still has a lot of pull there. So expect that platform to change somewhat quietly, too. 

https://slate.com/technology/2025/07/larry-ellison-donald-trump-paramount-skydance-merger.html