Bitchin Dave’s newsletter - Jan 16

 Dave’s Musings

I know its cliche after a few weeks, but Happy New Year!

We keep hearing about how companies can self regulate and how things will just magically work out if we take away the burdensome rules and let the free market do its thing. But I remind you that in his 1981 Inaugural address Ronald Reagan said "In this times of crisis, the free market is not the solution to every problem, often it is the problem." We should always remember that as we think about how to "fix" a problem, especially here in Florida. I can't even begin to list the dumb ideas I'm hearing to supposedly help Floridians.

There was some serious space launch shuffling at year end, at Kennedy Space Center. The critical factor was a Falcon Heavy launch which got delayed due to a technical issue; it carried the space plane, and was identified as highest priority. So everything else had to wait. But we finally did see the Falcon Heavy go up just before the new year - and then the Vulcan Peregrine moon lander went up just after the new year. We have no idea what happened with the space plane, as the mission is classified. The lunar lander developed a problem with its hydraulics, and for a time it seemed the engineers might find a work around. But so far, no luck, and they think they will have to abandon the actual landing, and instead study the moon from orbit. Stay tuned.

Somber news to report: 2023 was the hottest year ever recorded. This was reported by many agencies here in the US, in the EU, and beyond. People who continue to deny that the climate is changing need look no farther than some of the destructive, monster storms which plagued travel over the holidays (and continue to do so). We, as individuals, need to do whatever we can and let our voices be heard. This clearly is not sustainable, and we can't just simply let things continue in the status quo. https://climate.copernicus.eu/copernicus-2023-hottest-year-record  Copernicus is the Earth observation component of the European Union’s Space programme, looking at our planet and its environment to benefit all European citizens. It offers information services that draw from satellite Earth Observation and in-situ (non-space) data.

Disney World made a big deal about “doing away with theme park reservations” as of January 1st (if you are not in the know, post-pandemic, anyone who visited a theme park needed to buy a ticket AND have a valid reservation for the specific theme park they wanted to visit).  While people gushed over it, to a large degree it’s kind of semantics. Disney now uses historical information, predictive modeling, and some other types of reservations to determine theme park attendance, and then can adjust staffing accordingly, or limit admission. These other reservations include making dining reservations or “lightning lane” reservations (ie a guest books specific attractions in advance) months before they arrive. These would be specific to a theme park, thus helping them figure out where you will be. Also, when someone purchases a day or multi-day ticket, it is based on the park(s) they will be visiting.  The wildcard element in all of this, though, are pass holders.  These guests have somewhat erratic behavior and "can visit as many times as they want."  So for now, they have been told they will continue to need a reservation for most days - unless it’s a forecasted not-busy day, in which case they can just show up; but they still have to check the reservation system.  I have no doubt that Disney will solve the pass holder conundrum soon. But for now it’s just a little more complicated.  In summary, I absolutely love how Disney uses data to understand much about guest behavior and how things work. And also understands how to use the right words to make it seem like they are changing something.  So yeah they’re getting rid of the reservations. Sort of. And replacing them with good data.

Right before New Years, there was an utterly ridiculous thing that happened which started trending on social media as #MiamiMall. Here's the story: there was a large police presence near an outdoor shopping area known as Bayside (not Miami Mall). People realized this was unusual and rushed to a conclusion that what was going on was..... ...Aliens! As in ET. And then took it to an even higher level of absurdity by claiming it was a government conspiracy, and maybe actually happened a half dozen years ago. And to add to the fun, there was a grainy video that shows the police confronting a 7 foot tall alien. The video itself can be easily explained due to the low light and distance. The police presence was in response to an altercation and reports of gunfire at Bayside (the city of Miami has a heightened response when potential terrorist activities are reported). It did NOT happen "years ago with the video just coming to light." People in the area were reporting information in real-time, illustrating how far from the truth that was. I have heard the FBI did arrive on the scene, as it was a potential terrorist activity - but they didn't take control or whatever nonsense was spewed. It’s kind of amazing that an absurd story took off on social media like wildfire, with people wanting to believe something. And they ran with it for many days. (And it appeared in the news as recently as this past weekend!) But its also a cautionary tale of how destructive social media can be. And how we can get sucked into some weird conspiracy theory. This particular incident is more funny than anything. But we should always be on guard against these types of stories. Be careful what you read - and if it doesn't pass the "sniff test" maybe it requires a little more research and thought before choosing to continue to propagate the tall tale.

Latest video

Here's the latest on Tesla software and a fun sound I added to my car. https://youtu.be/Po8GdYL66iI?si=0WHXx-XMLkgL1838

One Little Spark …

I was watching a random episode of the TV show cops the other day. Said cops pulled up next to a black guy. They tell him that they want to "have a conversation" with him. From the viewer's perspective, there was no reason to stop him. The kid was scared and ran, and that led to an obligatory police chase. They caught him and handcuffed him. They narrate for us about him fleeing and therefore must have done something, and he had a lot of money on him. It's a bad neighborhood - it's a place for drugs. The police don't find any drugs on him, so they head out to literally beat the bushes to find some. Of course, they do find a bag of weed. The policeman appears a little excited and says something to the effect of "This ought to be enough to put him in jail for a long time based on his prior convictions." (keep in mind that WE don't know anything about these convictions or how the officer knows this). They talk to the kid and they say things like "You know if you hadn't run this never would've happened. We would've just talked to you for a minute. You made it worse for yourself because you were fleeing the police." He argues the drugs aren't his, but they clap back and say he ran, and its an abandoned apartment complex. They must be yours! As they continued, the rhetoric sounded more and more like any story where a black individual is harassed by the all white police force. They were speaking to him in a confrontational way, trying to get a reaction, or to railroad him in some way. Its certainly possible there was more to the story that got edited out. And context may matter. But it was easy to see that this wasn't quite right. The reality is this poor guy had to stand there and take it from police. They gave him a false choice, of either "not running" and being accosted, or running and hoping for the best. Based on how he carried himself, one might assume he won't be able to afford a lawyer. He might very well plead guilty and wind up spending time in jail, continuing this sad cycle. The tones. The language. The subtle intimidation. The whole thing about Black Lives Matter was just encapsulated in those few minutes of TV. But remember that we are capable of being better than this. And we should strive to be.