Amazing game

In case you missed it, this may have been one of the best college football games played, ever.  It was the underdog, middling, UCF taking on the #2 ranked BYU.  And it was chaotic and fun, and the referees were oddy involved.

There was drama, poor clock management, and a likely mistake on the clock by the officials.  And there was overtime!  With more drama!

So much fun!

https://youtu.be/9PeHoZE98f8?si=cqyKfiz8JYsM5L7W

Incidents of Guest Misconduct at Disney World

In the early days of Disney World, the term "Guest Misconduct" was almost never used.  People came into the Happiest Place on Earth, followed the rules, and left the typical exit and went home.  Then, as we entered the late 80s, there were incidents of note.  But they were handled discreetly, and you mostly heard about them through whispers from friends.

By the 90s, that started to change.  Guests were behaving badly at times, and police - uniformed officers - started to appear at the parks more often.  And then by the early '10s, there was an alarming regularity to incidents.  

One reason that I can pin to all of this is entitlement.  People feel like they deserve more, and because they are paying more, their expectations go way up.  And of course because its "me-first" many times, this just gets worse. 

And social media these days is a central reason we hear more about things - because some guests filmed themselves to make their own 5 minutes of fame, and others figured they could report on it and get their own likes.

With that, I'd like to call attention to a few incidents that have happened in the last couple of years.  It just goes to show how people have changed behaviors.  I should note that in nearly every incident, the Cast Members step in and call the sheriffs office who handles it from there.  Its unknown what happens in each case, unless there is a police report and we know the person was arrested or otherwise charged.  Sometimes the guests are simply escorted out, sometimes they get a ban for a day, a week, or a lifetime.  And sometimes they have charges pressed against them

1. Guest decides to climb out of the boat and dive into the water on the 3 Caballeros ride at Epcot  https://www.instagram.com/p/DeK8a4vCZ6H/
2. Man takes a plunge into the lagoon at Epcot  https://www.instagram.com/p/CywhJG5rr80/
3. A guest climbed up the stairs at the Mexico pavilion at Epcot https://www.facebook.com/7NewsMiami/videos/man-climbs-pavilion-at-epcot/10153290431702613/
4. A former Cast Member drinks water from decorative fountains, and rates it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-z82RiZwUXk
5. A guest climbed up to a balcony on Cinderella's castle for a photo https://www.reddit.com/r/disneyparks/comments/praey3/guest_standing_on_cinderella_castle_balcony_at/
6. A guest wanted to get drone footage of the fireworks show (drones are forbidden, and the story is that many have been confiscated by security) https://www.orlandosentinel.com/2020/06/05/drone-pilot-tries-to-get-perfect-disney-world-footage-but-gets-trespass-warning-instead/
7. A man riding the Land boat ride at Epcot apparently dropped his phone into the water, and exits the boat to retrieve it https://www.instagram.com/reel/DLVR9ncPOVe/?hl=en
8. A guest needed to go to the bathroom really badly on Kilamanjaro safari and later apologized saying he *really* needed to pee https://www.tiktok.com/@itsedwinlv/video/7636259939542928653
9. A couple of guests hopped off of Pirates of the Caribbean (I think this incident was at Disneyland?) and hung out with the animatronics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rzxli1VUnjw
10. A guest wasn't willing to wait and left Its a Small World with their child, but had trouble getting past the gate and nearly got injured https://www.tiktok.com/@mgkaty._/video/7340846096689810734
11. A man got drunk and started pounding on a hotel room door, which was not his.  He wound up getting arrested https://nypost.com/2026/03/26/lifestyle/drunk-disney-guest-arrested-after-banging-on-wrong-hotel-door-in-wild-viral-meltdown-video/
12. A verbal altercation led to a guest punching a Cast Member, all around a refund https://insidethemagic.net/2026/03/guest-allegedly-strikes-a-cast-member-after-verbal-altercation-at-disneys-animal-kingdom-rl1/
13. A man was upset that he didn't get what he wanted when his family met a costumed character, got physical, and was arrested. https://insidethemagic.net/2026/03/guest-allegedly-strikes-a-cast-member-after-verbal-altercation-at-disneys-animal-kingdom-rl1/
14. A woman wasn't happy with the service at Steakhouse 71 in Disney's Contemporary and bad behavior ensued.  She was detained by police.https://www.fox35orlando.com/news/irate-disney-guest-smashes-glasses-shoves-employee-over-party-dispute

Who Is Isabel Rossi? How a 14-Year-Old Used Game Theory to Improve Earthquake Sensor Placement

This young lady won a science fair…but the work is much more impressive than the run-of-the-mill baking soda volcano. 

She game theory and some mathematics to determine how to better place sensors to detect seismic activity. And she did so in a way that doesn’t require any sophisticated changes, and doesn’t replace the existing sensors (it only adds a few pieces of equipment). 

But her story is equally impressive. She’s been flying model rockets since she was 9, and regularly studied how to improve their performance. 

We should be celebrating this! She should be the story of the day, rather than the mishegas the media typically feeds us. 

https://www.jagranjosh.com/general-knowledge/who-is-isabel-rossi-how-a-14yearold-used-game-theory-to-improve-earthquake-sensor-placement-1820013287-1

Its election time!

The mid-term elections are right around the corner, and while elections always matter, this one feels like it is more consequential than any in recent memory. 

It seems clear that our country will go through another change as a result of the outcome: either we slide further into some sort of dictatorship OR we see the pendulum start to swing back toward a middle ground.

I'm hopeful that the latter option shall come to pass and we can move forward with better days ahead.  

But to get there, we need to ensure that EVERYONE we know gets out and votes.  Its important to not take this for granted, and to take action!  So get people you know motivated and VOTE BLUE.  

Let's get the next phase started. Of course, we will still have a ways to go, but at last we can be on a different path than we are today.

An enjoyable show

I've been watching Tucci's tour of Italy on Disney+, and I am finding it most enjoyable.  Yes, the food aspects are fun, but its so much more.  Tucci takes on cultural aspects and human interest stories that are timely and topical.

A few examples: he talks about a same-sex couple that adopted a boy, but can't get the country to recognize that they are the parents due to some recent law changes.  There's a story about immigrant communities in an ever-changing landscape, and how everyone comes together to get to know one another by sharing foods from their homelands. And there are threads of Italy's history under Mussolini that are presented from the point of view of people living in the country.  

It's worth a watch IMHO

The joys of scientific discovery

There is a group of people, in cooperation with Purdue University, looking for Amelia's Earhardt's plane.  They've poured over the transmissions, satellite images, maps, and other available data and they thought they had a lead.

Among the reasons were a satellite image that looked like maybe it was a plane, and a transmission fragment where Earhardt says "New York" ... and a shipwreck for the SS Norwich was found nearby. So maybe she was giving a location in a way?

The researchers went in cautiously optimistic, but same up empty.  The "plane" turned out to be fallen trees. And there was no evidence to support her having been on the island.

The researchers were disappointed, but took it in stride, and will examine what they did find to try and learn something about our oceans and how things flow through them. And they will continue to look for the plane.

Maybe they came up empty, but they are still learning something, and attempting to solve a nearly 100 year old mystery.

Bride-to-be calls off wedding, invites homeless to her reception | 13newsnow.com

This happened a while ago but it’s a great story.  In short, the woman thought that the money she already spent on the wedding shouldn’t be wasted, and the food should do some good. 

So she invited 150 homeless people to attend what would have been her reception, arranged for them to get clothes to get dressed up, and bussed them to the venue. 

I live everything about how this turned out in that sense. 

https://www.13newsnow.com/article/news/bride-to-be-calls-off-wedding-invites-homeless-to-her-reception/291-456685013

Short video here. 

https://www.cincinnati.com/videos/news/humankind/2017/07/17/bride-invites-homeless-reception-after-wedding-called-off/103767290/