Bitchin' Dave's Newsletter - Feb 27

 Dave’s Musings

I recently re-watched The Spanish Prisoner, Steve Martin's foray into the non-comedy world (from 1997). It was as good as I remember it; well done with a fair amount of intrigue - even if the protagonist gets reeled in kind of stupidly. In summary, a guy gets caught up in an earlier version of the Nigerian Prince scam with Martin in the con artist role, and it turns out no one is who they seem to be.

But that's just the thing. There are stories nearly every day about people getting reeled in by elaborate (and sometimes exceedingly simple) schemes, with the end result of someone taking the persons money because there's just enough believability, and often the person wanted to believe in it.

Its a lesson and a reminder to all of us. When someone comes to you with an offer, or even a veiled threat with an offer to help, think about whether its right - and pay attention to that little voice inside your head that is asking questions.

The movie also has some subtext about work. Guy invents something that will make a lot of money. His boss won't talk with him about a bonus until "after a board meeting" and then they want him to sign some new agreement to protect THEMSELVES. And it turns out his boss was behind the theft in the first place.

While exaggerated, this is the nature of office politics to a large degree. You work hard, and rarely get a reward, and then some higher up gets the credit and you're left to fend for yourself.

NASA contracted with a private company to put a lander on the moon. Intuitive Machines launched their Odysseus lunar lander (via SpaceX) about a week ago, and the craft touched down last Thursday evening. It was a tense period of time, as they lost contact with the lander, and the control room was collectively holding its breath. But then, they received a radio signal and knew everything was going well. But....it wasn't perfect; the craft tipped over and they've had to realign the antennas to communicate with the craft and it will still take some time to retrieve data. And they may not be able to keep the craft fully powered for a long time. Even so, its an exciting time as the United States has returned to the moon for the first time in 50 years. And its the first time a private company has made a successful landing.

There's a saying that we know more about the surface of the moon, than we know about our own oceans. Recently, that proved true once again, as a team of scientists exploring a section of the Pacific Ocean, near-ish to Chile, discovered underwater mountains that are between a mile and a mile and half tall (as measured from the ocean floor). Imagine if we understood more about our oceans. Maybe we could have a better feeling for how to work against climate change. By the way, among other things, its expected that these mountains will contain a significant amount of life, which we can further study and explore. That may prove to be most interesting. https://futurism.com/the-byte/scientists-baffled-mountains-ocean

For many years, Disney owned tourism and generally owned Central Florida. And then in the late 1980s, along came Universal Studios to challenge them. I recall a higher up at Disney telling me they welcome the competition, because it will keep Disney on its game. And here we are 30+ years later, and the "battle" is perhaps a little more even. Universal opened a second themepark, and a water park, and announced a third themepark. They've managed to poach Imagineers, and have created a less-immersive but fun environment that parkgoers seem to enjoy. Recently, some travel blog rated Disney World as the worst value among themeparks (based on cost vs what you get), in spite of the parks still having good attendance. In general, Disney doesn't like news like that, so I'm sure they're taking notes. And in the end, don't ever count Disney out. They are planning for a massive park expansion, and to enhance on the guest experience. And their aim is to retain the crown as THE destination, while actively working to change the perception. How this plays out with an ongoing proxy war, battles with the state, some of the nonsense around the district in which they reside, and generally with the cost of doing business will prove interesting.

The astronauts headed to the moon on Apollo 11 faced enormous dangers, and it was uncertain whether they would complete the mission. At very many points before we saw their rescue in the ocean, there were places where they might have died. President Nixon was well aware of such a possibility, and had written an epitaph for the astronauts, in case he needed to let a nation know that they were heroes who gave their lives in the pursuit of exploration. But I just learned something new: the astronauts made plans for their families' futures in the event of them not making it home. Obviously, life insurance was not something they could get, so they turned to memorabilia. They autographed pictures of themselves while they waited in quarantine before their mission, and mailed them to their families. The intent was that their wives and children could sell these pictures of the heroes to support themselves. That's crazy, and a little wild. And thankfully was never needed, though a few have been sold over the years. https://historyfacts.com/science-industry/fact/the-apollo-11-astronauts-signed-autographs-as-life-insurance-policies/

Latest video

This is the story about the Columbia space shuttle disaster. https://youtu.be/z2DJR063YEI?si=saVAmGl9ysmbrlDp

One Little Spark …

This is a story about Ed Dwight, who nearly was the first black man in space - if he had been selected among the first group of astronauts in the 1960s. But sadly, while Kennedy had wanted Dwight to be part of the story, when Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, that dream died along with him, and Dwight was excluded. And it would be another two decades before a black man would go into space. Chuck Yaeger years later said that Dwight "wasn't good enough," which perhaps could be true (though probably not), but we'll never really know if that's accurate or a fanciful account to ignore the racist overtones (it likely was). In any event the story is interesting, and you can. read more here - or watch an historical account called "Space Race" on Disney+. Its really quite good. https://apnews.com/article/nasa-space-race-ed-dwight-9e87955f10331a2c32ecab6ca033a4af