Blue Origin launches New Glenn

Jeff Bezos (another detestable billionaire) founded Blue Origin as his own vanity project to get into space.

Until recently, his launches were all space tourism; this was his way of literally getting off the ground and learning about space craft.

But, this week, he actually entered the commercial space race.  His New Glenn launched a payload from Kennedy Space Center, after several weather-related delays,

Mostly, it went according to plan with the payload deployed, though the first stage failed to land,  At least they think they know what happened and can learn from it.

This rocket is more powerful than SpaceX Falcon 9, though less powerful than the StarShip.  In theory, it should be another cost effective means to launch satellites into orbit.

And there is one intriguing difference with this rocket: it uses Hydrogen as a propellant.  And that gives it an interesting thrust to weight ratio - which means that it lifts off the pad fairly slowly and ascends at a slower rate.  And, it also gives the flame behind it a blue tint, rather than the orange we're used to with oxygen.

Disney Supporting the Sunshine State 💛

I subscribe to a mailer about the Walt Disney company, and in particular their work in the central Florida area.

While its self-promotional, it is encouraging to see a large company share some good in the world.  Thought I'd share.

Disney in Florida: Supporting the Sunshine State As the largest and most visited theme park destination in the world,* Walt Disney World plays an active role in finding solutions to important matters affecting people in Central Florida and communities around the globe. As we kick off the new year with our Florida neighbors, we want take a look back at some of the special moments we shared together in 2024: To learn more about what we're doing to give back across the Sunshine State, visit DisneyFlorida.com. *According to the Themed Entertainment Association The Walt Disney Company Commits $15 Million to Los Angeles Area Fire Relief & Rebuilding Efforts The history of The Walt Disney Company is inextricably linked to the greater Los Angeles region, and the destruction from the devastating fires affecting thousands in that area is truly heartbreaking. We are committing $15 million for initial and immediate response and rebuilding efforts – read more here. 👇 What Else is Happening 🇺🇸 World War II Veteran Celebrates 100th Birthday at Disney World Magic Kingdom cast gave a big hero's welcome to a special guest celebrating his 100th birthday at Disney World: World War II Veteran William "Bill" A. Connelly. Watch as we honor him with a flag retreat ceremony on Main Street. 🚀 Space Mountain Celebrates 50 Years at Walt Disney World This week marks 50 years since Space Mountain first launched us into space, becoming a place where families can enjoy the thrilling magic of Disney and make lifelong memories together. Join us in celebrating this galactic milestone. 🦦 Pint-Sized Otter Pups Born at Animal Kingdom Cute alert! An Asian small-clawed otter mom at Disney's Animal Kingdom has welcomed a litter of pups to the world. Mom and dad are taking great care of these babies and you can already see their unique charm in these new photos. 🎨 Foodie Guide: EPCOT International Festival of the Arts Get your palates ready! EPCOT International Festival of the Arts begins Jan. 17, and our culinary cast have created some amazing dishes that are as beautiful as they are delicious. This guide has all the tasty bites you won't want to miss. 👀 In Case You Missed It 👀 Inside Look at the New Voices of Liberty Costumes at EPCOT Behind the Scenes at Walt Disney World Marathon Weekend New in 2025! Disney Resort Guests Receive Free Water Park Admission 📍Where to Find Us Next📍 Martin Luther King Jr. Day: Meal Packing with U.S. Hunger Spark STEM Fest at Orlando Science Center Paws in the Park Benefitting Pet Alliance of Greater Orlando  Feedback | DisneyFlorida.com | Subscribe  MouseMail is a news brief for Florida businesses, community and government leaders by Disney.

More lunar missions!

Recently, SpaceX launched a ride share mission with two separate lunar landers on board. 

The launch was cool because the trajectory took it to a high orbit, then the second stage had three separate burns to move into low-earth orbit, higher earth orbit, and on a path toward the moon out of earths orbit. 

The missions were described thusly:

Blue Ghost is a commercial lunar lander developed by Firefly Aerospace for NASA's CLPS program. Blue Ghost is designed to bring up to 155kg of payload to the lunar surface. It will land at Mare Crisium in the Crisium Basin and is designed to last 14 days before freezing in the lunar night.

Resilience is the second mission of the Hakuto-R commercial lunar lander developed by private Japanese company ispace. The lander will carry a small rover developed by ispace to perform studies on the moon's surface. The rover is also expected to collect lunar regolith as part of a contract with NASA signed in 2020, in which companies will collect materials on the moon and then transfer ownership "in situ" to the agency.

Movie making in Florida

This story starts with an introduction to author Carl Hiassen.  Carl lives in Miami, and writes some short stories about the reality of things that happen here. And longer (at least partially fictional) stories loosely based on real events.  

The stories are weird and wonderful, taking place in the state of Florida. We didn't get the "Florida Man" name for nothing!

Anyway, one of the stories he wrote was "Bad Monkey" which Apple TV made into a mini series starring Vince Vaughn.  It takes place in the Keys and Miami and is fun.  But the cool part is that its not only set here, it was actually filmed here.

If you haven't seen it, I do recommend it.  It is bizarre and pretty funny. The series was based on the book, and ended in much the same way as its source. That's that.  

But... Apple found it to be such a success that they are ordering a season 2.  Except that its not based on a specific work, Hiassen will only "consult" on the general theme, and it will be filmed in Hollywood, but be set in the keys again.

It all raises many questions, but the biggest one has to do with why it won't be filmed here.  Its because the state doesn't have any sort of tax incentive to produce movies here, and very often shows are set here but filmed in California.  Its weird.

More bad reporting

Macy's recently announced a plan to close underperforming stores.  

They made the announcement and listed off the stores. That got picked up and media outlets ran with a headline "Macys closing!" and proceeded to list locations of stores that sure didn't seem to fit with "underperformance."

Since that didn't seem right, I looked at the addresses for stores in Florida.  And discovered that these were not Macy's stores, but rather Macy's Furniture stores, which are not your traditional storefronts.

I guess technically they are Macy's stores, but they were created as stand alone stores that only sell furniture.  They are large and expensive to run - and have been considered for closure for quite some time.

But the headline that Macys is closing is more salacious and requires no research.  That is just lazy and sad.  And again shows that no one can do an ounce of research.

Weirdness in booking a Disney trip

As most of you know, I host a Disney world history YouTube series. I've been going to the parks for most of my life and have enjoyed being a local. 

Pre-pandemic, I knew what was what. I knew the tricks. I understood the ins and outs of making a visit. And everything could be done as a spur of the moment type of thing…

Then came the pandemic and the rules started to change. Of course you had the evolution of fastpass which complicated everything. But it was more than that. 

Now I have to make a reservation - subject to availability - to go to the parks. And oddly, most of the knowledge about how to manage the parks became irrelevant. 

I had promised my son a trip to Disney world when he graduated high school….but he graduated during the pandemic, and then went off to college. So we had to wait. 

Finally, we had an opportunity to go. I had to get him a ticket … which was complicated and maybe a little stressful - because the ticket prices vary wildly depending on when you want to go. And it is way more expensive than it was 5 years ago. 

Of course, there was still the matter of proving he is a Florida resident, which didn't work online, meaning we had to go to a guest relations window just to activate his ticket.  

And nevermind that I had to book a reservation to visit a park using my annual pass.

You have to spend time and effort and work through it, and figure it out. I can only imagine for a newbie how hard this is...

And on that note, I happened to see a video from a guy who had never been.  He outlined his confusion and the challenges he faced.  He ended with his thought that its not really worth it.  That intrigued me.

And then when my son and I went, we encountered some interesting folks.  One guy had some pretty serious complaints about attractions and wait times (and lightning lane), dining availability, and assorted confusion.  I heard "if only I had known" and "this shouldn't be this hard."

And that sums up the current experience at Disney World.  

License plate cameras on the open internet?

Here's a story about a man who discovered that many of the license plate cameras in use are actually not behind any layer of security. 

Anyone can simply access them and track vehicles in real time. Which he proceeded to do in order o make a point. 

Privacy is not something that is generally given a second thought when there's money to be made with little effort. 

https://www.404media.co/researcher-turns-insecure-license-plate-cameras-into-open-source-surveillance-tool/

That's the world we live in.