Bitchin' Dave's Newsletter - Apr 30

 Dave’s Musings

The pesky law of unintended consequences came into play again recently.

The state of Florida wanted to crack down on immigration and thus caused many migrant workers to leave, and left the farmers in the state without workers to work the fields.  So as this example points out, strawberries are rotting because they aren't picked. And the state says that's because they're not hiring the right people.  Which are…. Who, exactly?  And the net result is that the cost of doing business goes up - and consumers will have to pay more just to keep the farm open.  https://www.npr.org/2024/04/26/1242236604/florida-economy-immigration-businesses-workers-undocumented

China has an ambitious plan to send a probe to the far side of the moon, retrieve a sample, and return it to Earth for analysis. Color me intrigued! Thus far, we've only studied the near side, so it will be interesting to learn more about the part we can't see. And of course, communication with the probe will be mostly impossible due to the location - so this will undoubtedly be a nail biter for the team. https://www.science.org/content/article/china-set-fetch-first-rocks-mysterious-far-side-moon

A long, hot summer is looming. Research suggests that most of the US will experience a hotter-than-average summer, which is problematic on so many levels. And silly me, here I am thinking anyone cares and maybe could throw a little money toward research and attempting to mitigate it in some way. https://www.axios.com/2024/04/23/summer-2024-heat-weather

I recently visited Disney World, and I noticed the crowds were lighter that I had expected, and seemed lighter than the last few years. I wound up having a few conversations with Cast Members, and they, too, were surprised by the relative lack of crowds given the time of year. One mentioned that they feared they might get their hours reduced (the very thing that would clearly indicate that something not-so-great is happening). Its impossible not to notice what's going on with the company - the stumbles with the CEO, the fight with the governor of Florida, and the proxy war surely have made their impact. And while some might say its "woke politics" catching up, I might suggest that they are wrong -but I think there may be something more specific and tangible to look at. There are problems with the business is being run (see the proxy vote), and surely the ongoing reach into everyones wallets (ticket prices, up charges, the relative lack of benefits to loyal fans) is also a factor. I saw a survey recently that asked consumer for their views on theme parks, and then ranked them on value and fun. Dollywood topped the list (!) and none of the Disney parks were in the top 5. Which should be a wakeup call.

National parks are a treasure,  and now more people are starting to explore them (personally I've been to about a dozen, and hope to make it to many more in the future).  But with the increased traffic comes a delay at entry because many of them have a small entrance fee.  The park service decided to respond by making some of them cashless (though it's soon to be all of them). It speeds thing up when the rangers don't have to make change, they say.  People have voiced their concerns and at times rangers have suggested that people simply go to a local Walmart and buy a gift card for cash and use that for entrance.  But here's the thing that people point out: the NPS is a government agency. And they are saying this government agency will not accept the legal tender (ie dollars issued by the government).  There's something wrong with that.  And then that begs the question: why is there a fee at all? The NPS gets a budget from the government. The fees are to cover the cost of vehicular traffic causing road wear and tear. They are nominal, but they exist. Why not increase the congressional budget by a few percent and remove the fee?

Latest video

I had a bit of an issue with a video I did about the Disney World monorail, and YouTube saw fit to remove it (!). So I'm rethinking what I want to present, and have several videos in pre-production which will cover much of the same ground, while avoiding the issue. (in case you read this far, and are curious, its a copyright issue that some jerk decided to raise, and then proceeded to be a complete and total douche about it ... but that's life on the good old internet) The first in my replacement series is a history of the monorail, starting with Walt Disney and his plans: https://youtu.be/xyFlpdoLCIg

One Little Spark …

Near Atlanta, there's a rock formation with a carving of several "heroes of the South" from the civil war era. I've been there, and I have to say that a confederate monument on this scale always struck me as a little odd. And the fact that the state currently owns it, and maintains it, and keeps it as a tourist attraction of sorts harkens back to a darker time in our history. If you read through the Wikipedia entry noted below, you'll get a sense of the inherent problems, namely that: This is another in a long series of monuments meant to remind the formerly enslaved that the confederacy was more than willing to fight to keep them enslaved The daughters of the confederacy played a role in creating this (because of course they did), and The mountain was once owned by a founding member of the KKK, and regular meetings were held there. There's more, but its all kind of absurd when you think about it... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_Mountain