The Spiders are Dead, Long Live the Guardians

 I post an awful lot about Indian mascots. Last Winter I posted about Cleveland Baseball's decision to drop their racist name and search for a new one. Well... search they did, and they found one. Please welcome the new Cleveland mascot, the .... 

At first it seems pretty lame. If you remember, before the Indians, Cleveland's baseball team was the Spiders. There was plenty of speculation the franchise would go back to the Spiders moniker. Instead they chose this nonsense. It sounds awkward. 

I looked into it though. It makes sense for Cleveland. Way more sense than using a Native mascot. In 1932, Henry Herring and Frank Walker built a bridge across the Cuyahoga River. The bridge itself isn't very memorable, but at the ends stand four giant statues. These statues represent the progress of transportation, and each hold a mode of transportation representing that progress, from hay wagon to automobile. 

These statues are known as the Guardians of Transportation. And there you have it.... the Cleveland baseball team has officially partnered with the Ohio Department of Transportation.  

Energy Futures Won't Explode

It's story time. 

Once upon a time, I was on my High School Debate Team. We played in the Policy Debate format, meaning we were divided into teams of two, I had a partner, and there was one topic, or resolution, for the entire season. Each team prepared to either agree with the resolution and argue to affirm it, or disagree and argue to uphold the status quo. The debate is structured around four 8 minute speeches, one given by each team member, each speech rebutted by a 4 minute cross examination, and then closed with a 4 minute rebuttal closing speech. The debate is mediated and judged by an impartial debate judge, usually an adult/teacher. 

In the late 90's the National Policy Debate Resolution one year was as follows: 

That the Federal Government Should Establish a Policy to Substantially Increase Renewable Energy Use in the United States

My partner and I were both first year debaters. We were persuaded to debate as the Affirmative Team. There are some advantages to that. The Affirmative Team goes first in the debate structure. We get to define the terms of the resolution, and set the agenda for what will be debated and what can be challenged by the other side. Not only does the Affirmative Team have to show why the resolution should be adopted, but also create a plan for implementation. In contrast, the Negative team has to address and defeat each of the opposition's assertions for necessity, but also cast the plan in doubt. 

We set to work establishing our argument. While researching renewables, we ran into a few obscure articles on hydrogen fuel cells. At the time, the use of hydrogen fuel had barely begun to make a resurgence, long abandoned after the '40s. The papers, articles, and anecdotes we were able to collect told a story of a very real possibility of a clean burning fuel source, theoretically renewable, able to fully supplant coal and oil in fixed point power plants, but also theoretically replace gasoline in transportation. 

Our plan... 1: Hydrogen captured, burned for energy 2: waste water then collected and split using energy from solar farms. 3: Hydrogen recaptured , burned for energy 4: rinse. repeat. 

The arguments against were predictable. 

What about the waste water? Physically speaking, combustion happens when a substance is ignited, it combines with oxygen and burns, releasing energy. Hydrogen + Oxygen = H2O and nothing else. We found proof that hydrogen fuel waste water was safe enough to drink. 

Where does the energy come from to split the water back into hydrogen and oxygen? Solar power cells at the time would not be able to yield the power needed on a small scale for the continuous electrolysis needed to split molecules. Also, solar battery storage at the time was not good. However, as the Resolved points out, we only need to argue for policy change, and eventually the research and investment will yield future technology. Our sources predicted with proper investment, solar and hydrogen technologies would make leaps in the next 10 to 20 years. 

The biggest set back? Public opinion. 

You see... at the turn of the 20th century, rigid airships were newly engineered transport vessels. These vessels were created from massive fixed metal frames which housed ballasts filled with lighter than air gases, allowing for flight. Helium was the preferred gas used for these things, but due to helium shortages and US trade embargoes, hydrogen became a substitute, despite being more volatile. 

If anyone has some of these stamps, let me know

This volatility became a real public issue when, in 1937, the Hindenberg caught on fire at the Lakehurst Naval Yard in New Jersey. The incident was widely broadcast, famously by Herbert Morrison from WLS Chicago, and documented by newsreel footage. The newsreels, still photographs, and radio broadcast are even now easily recognized. 36 people lost their lives.

As a consequence, zeppelin technology was abandoned, and would have been eclipsed by passenger jet aircraft anyway. Hydrogen as a fuel would suffer the same fate, despite several other issues and factors contributing to the deadliness of the accident.

Anyway, my partner and I understood the easy arguments to dismiss hydrogen as dangerous and outdated, and we worked hard to find information to counter these biases born more than 60 years ago and reinforced by every high school history textbook ever since. 

The gas itself is no more flammable, or combustible than gasoline, and materials used to store this material are far advanced compared to 1930s technology. And, speaking of technology, just like solar tech, these things will also develop over time and become safer and more user friendly. 

During the debate season, we fared pretty well. Not many Negative Teams had prepared to argue against such an obscure fuel source plan. When we were mediated and judged by impartial judges, we usually won. 

Read that again.... "When we were mediated and judged by IMPARTIAL judges...."

Despite the rules for hearing and judging debates, we still ran into judges that awarded the debate to the other side simply due to the fact that they couldn't get past hydrogen as being dangerous and impractical, even when the Negative Team failed at arguing and winning that point based on the rules. Keep in mind, these judges were all either public school teachers, or debate league volunteers, not our high school peers. 

Yes, this still makes me salty. It's been 20 years and I'm still mad. 

Lately, though, my partner and I have been vindicated. 

I have been finding more and more articles from Popular Mechanics, SciTech Daily, and other science and engineering publications about hydrogen fuel cell innovations. In fact, one article, by Fuel Cell Works, specifically details the kind of water splitting fuel cells we hypothesized. 

Below are some more linky links. As you can tell, I'm proud of my teenage self for predicting the future. Also, this is my big F U to those biased judges of the past. 

Fuel Cells Works

Salt Cave Storage

Nanotech Materials

The Indians are Dead, Long Live the Spiders

 

Last week, The Cleveland Baseball Franchise released the above statement. The New York Times broke the story that a name change would be announced the day before, and on December 14th, there it was. 

2020 was an incredibly awful year, but for the Change the Mascot organization that has been battling to leave old native themed sports mascots in the past, this year has been a huge success. Since the 70s this movement has been successful in changing mascots at the grade school and collegiate level, and in minor and semi pro leagues. Professional league teams, though, have resisted. 

Something changed this year, making the previously improbable finally a reality. The worst professional league offender, the Washington Redskins, retired the name and logo. They changed to the classy, simple Washington Football Team, and started using a wordmark instead of an Indianhead. And now, following suit, the Cleveland Indians, one of the oldest American baseball teams, using the same name for 105 years, has decided to change. 

This shouldn't be a huge surprise. Cleveland has been making strides in the last few years to move to this obvious conclusion. They retired their racist caricature mascot Chief Wahoo in 2018. However, like the mascot, the Indian name will survive for one more year, the 2021 season being its last. And the franchise will undoubtedly hold onto the trademark as long as possible by releasing Indians imprinted merchandise periodically. I wouldn't be so concerned about this. It's a business decision, and in a year, the franchise will be rebranded and busy peddling their new rebranded merchandise. 

Speaking of that... I hear the franchise may be planning on resurrecting the mascot from a Cleveland precursor franchise. The Spiders could be the second arthropod mascot of a major league team, after the Charlotte Hornets. University of Richmond might be pissed. 

A cause for celebration, surely, even though the Indians could have done as Washington did, and discontinue use immediately. Instead they will wait an entire season. Below is an article from the Washington DC ABC affiliate, which showcases reaction tweets from Indian fans. Some are uplifting and supportive, and some are disappointedly not. 

Identity Crisis: Sports Edition

As released on the franchise twitter machine, and the NFL, the team formally known as the Redskins will take a page from the soccer playbook and rebrand themselves as the Washington Football Team. 

As reported by the Independent, this move will at least be for the 2020/2021 season, and perhaps longer, but as the NFL story seems to say, it won't be a permanent solution. The colors will stay the same, the mascot will "retire", and the helmet logo is to be replaced by players individual numbers, which is something that teams have done in the past, and some colleges still do. 

So... finally the worst offender of racial mascots in post modern history has come to an end. And, in contrast to what detractors have been saying for decades, the team identity doesn't seem to be hurt at all by this. They will still be (literally) their city's team. In fact, due to the name change, presumably the team will be allowed to actually relocate back into the city limits. 

Redskins No More

It finally happened. The Washington Football Team has officially decided to retire their logo and nickname. I've been posting about this a lot in the past. use the search bar here to see all the posts labeled "American Indian" and "sports", you'll find them. 

This decision is huge. The Anti-Indian Mascot movement has been seeking this outcome since the 1970s. Dan Snyder had previously vowed to never change the name as long as he's owner. It has been a one-sided debate against an opposition that was tone-deaf and unwilling to listen. So... what happened to suddenly change minds?

1: There has been a trend in the last ten years to end the use of culturally insensitive mascots in public schools, and public and private universities. California and Maine recently passed legislation. The Cleveland Indians retired Chief Wahoo, The Braves retired the Laughing Brave. 

2: George Floyd's viral death which strengthened Black Lives Matter to a point where the movement can not be ignored anymore. Suddenly, it became very bad for business to be seen on the wrong side of racial civil rights issues. And at the heart of the Indian Mascot issue is colonialism and racism. 

3: Business partners, and advertisers, and then finally minority share holders began to jump ship. This is what ultimately forced the franchise's hand. 

How long will this take? Unclear. It's actually unclear at the moment if there will even be an NFL season starting in 2020 (unlikely). If there is, it is doubtful that the Washington football team would even be able to compete with new branding and a new nickname. There aren't even any official ideas yet for a name change.

However, this idea of changing the name isn't new. Previously, Snyder was granted trademarks to the Washington Warriors. But that trademark had been voided. Other nicknames that had been suggested in the past include the Griffins, Generals, Sentinels, Senators, Renegades, Red Wolves, Redhawks, and Red Tails. 

Hopefully we wont have to wait long until the new name is revealed. At the moment, I'm sure there are plenty of terrible human beings making it clear how angry they are at even the prospect of a new team identity. And I'm also sure there will be plenty of throwback merchandise proudly displayed at NFL games for the foreseeable future.