Watch "The Spectacular Failure of the Star Wars Hotel" on YouTube

I have not watched this, because spending 4 hours seems a bit like a commitment.

But I have read others who watched and reviewed her review. And it sounds intriguing. 

 

https://youtu.be/T0CpOYZZZW4?si=qCwVgMD9GFBPkd3g

Shnizzle like this makes me angry

A disingenuous silly look at universal basic income played for humor, because it's "bad"…

But what else can you expect from idiots who just want to control everything we do?

https://www.businessinsider.com/universal-basic-guys-fox-animated-comedy-universal-basic-income-program-2024-6

Watch "Reggie Jackson Gives Fox Viewers a Much-Needed Reality Check" on YouTube

The host, Rick, does a good job of summing up the issues with race, as it relates back to Reggie Jackson's appearance on a baseball broadcast. 

https://youtu.be/SF8MZ-M5AJE?si=-xdbxOep8dH9KVCw

Updates to Disneys and queue skipping

The Disney company spent north of $1 billion dollars to create fastpass+. It was a free service that worked pretty well, and allowed guests to make ride reservations to mostly avoid the queues. But it had an important caveat that the scales were tilted toward locals (and not the highest paying customers). 

And so late in Igers first go-round, they decided to make a change. It would more naturally favor the people who were spending more and would charge for the previously free add-on. And arguably it would be much worse than what they built.  

Sure, some of the guts of what they built were still being used, but "genie+" was hard to plan with and the pricing and what was included could best be described as confusing. To compound the confusion, they also added a "lightning lane" that allowed you to purchase access to a single attraction. 

So this week, Disney decided to change course again, and perhaps get closer to what they had with fastpass+… but as a fee based service. 

The idea is that you have the ability to make multiple ride reservations in advance for a sliding fee (around $25 per person, per day) in the "lightning lane multi ride pass". And you can add on what might have previously been called E-ticket attractions (the big ones) for an additional roughly $15 each. And they call that the "lightning lane single ride pass"

So you pay your $150 to get into the park, and then spend somewhere around $50 to see the attractions you want with little wait time. 

This new idea sounds better on paper. And maybe it will help revenue. And maybe guests will like it. And if we're lucky, the queues might be better balanced. 

Time will tell how all of this works out. 

It's just sad that the already high price is being added onto with more costs. 

And it has the additional effect of putting people's heads into their phones, rather than just enjoying a magical vacation. 

https://mickeyvisit.com/disney-world-lightning-lane-pass/

Another case of space debris falling into someone’s yard

This one is in a more populated area. And it is concerning. We need to get a better handle on this before it becomes a real problem. 

https://www.wral.com/story/confirmed-strange-debris-found-in-western-nc-part-of-spacex-spacecraft/21493383/

More evidence of success in universal basic income

Look, Denver shoes that it has a net positive effect! Shocking. Said no one ever. 

Screw the stupid people who don't want to help anyone but themselves. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/denver-basic-income-reduces-homelessness-food-insecurity-housing-ubi-gbi-2024-6

Some fallout from Disneys proposed campus in lake Nona

Disney planned to move creatives to Florida then cancelled the project, screwing over some employees who made the move. 

And they're suing. 

Call it more fallout from the stupidity with floridas governor. 

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/disney-employees-sue-company-over-153413141.html

The Sherman’s

While the Sherman brothers are known for Disney songs, they did have one foray into music that yielded a memorable song that climbed the charts, and was performed by Ringo Starr.

"You're 16" - creepy as it is - was written by the Sherman's. 

https://www.arts.gov/honors/medals/sherman-brothers

https://youtu.be/8ainB6qnWBI?si=Tf7x2N5sspxwRtcy

How about no!

Musk is asking small shareholders to approve his absurd multi tens of billion dollar payout.

To which I say - and have already voted - hell no!

No one. And I mean NO ONE "deserves" that kind of payout. And besides, he's not doing anything to move the needle on the company right now. Instead he's involved in other silly things (to wit, helping America destroy itself) and pet projects. 

And he hasn't helped Tesla in particular. In fact, they've lost market share and the stock has retreated 30%. Tell me again how he's helping the company?

Put that money back into the company. Find a way to turn the market share and stock around. Heck. Pay the shareholders a dividend. 

Just don't cave to his absurd demands. 

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/tesla-turns-musks-small-shareholder-fans-back-56-billion-payday-2024-06-10/

4 day work week experiment

Here's another trial that's ongoing in Germany. I would argue that while this story focuses on the general challenges faced by companies, you can read through that there is some success by most measures 

In any case, knowing and understanding these challenges will help make for a smoother transition "someday" - perhaps soon! 

https://www.welcometothejungle.com/en/articles/germany-trials-four-day-workweek

Snowflake data breach

I had never used the snowflake platform before. But being a bit of a techie, I thought it might be interesting to learn some things about it. 

There's a plethora of free online training, so I took some, and then some more. 

It's an interesting tool that can be used to manipulate large amounts of data that you can then leverage to do some form of analytics. Or just to develop some sense of what aggregate data tells you so you can explore insights. 

But. And it's a big but. I noticed that in the training, security is sort of glossed over. It's mostly absent in any discussions about data manipulation. It's assumed that they're doing something or perhaps when you install it for a company, you need to put a framework around it. Maybe. 

And now that I'm reading about the data breach, I have to wonder if they have any sort of robust security, or threat assessments. I mean, I certainly don't know. 

But given how they didn't really talk about it - and this massive breach, maybe not so much. 

https://www.wired.com/story/snowflake-breach-advanced-auto-parts-lendingtree/

Space elevators

The theory is that you can build an elevator (more or less a few floors at a time) that would allow a parson to get to space. 

But no one has been able to actually build one. Cool idea. If they can get it to work. 

https://www.businessinsider.com/space-elevator-pros-cons-japan-design-revolutionize-space-travel-2024-5

Instant replay

The premier league in English soccer has been discussing doing away with the video replay, because there were some issues with it this season.  

It's strange to think about going backward, and using no technology to assist the referees in games.  In all sports, it's become something that's useful, and allows for fans another place to throw their outrage.  It's a part of the sporting experience. 

But as I think about it, I recall back in the late 80s/early 90s when the NFL was first experimenting with replay.  They had someone in "the booth" who looked at plays, and would radio down to the head referee if he wanted to review something, and then would provide an update.

But it was early, and the league hadn't really thought this through.  The communication that a play was under review was haphazard, and the communication sometimes caused the referee to stop play just before the ball was snapped, disrupting the rhythm of the game.  

And (worse) there were no standards for outcomes.  I distinctly remember one incident that was called out - and which led to the demise of this early version of replay.  The replay official radioed down "pass incomplete" which the referee heard as "pass is complete"… oops.  

World views

Not for nothing.... I was recently in Canada, and met some interesting people at an event.  One man was from Hong Kong that we spent some time with. 

Interesting, intelligent conversation about how the US is viewed in Chinese media and how China is viewed by the US media.  

My wife asked him if abortion is legal in Hong Kong... "of course! Just like here in Canada! It makes sense and America is backward that way" 

Which led to an interesting conversation about how, in many tangible ways, life is less restrictive in China than it is in the US. In spite of outward appearances to the contrary.

Now that’s progress

For all it's perceived problems it's amazing to me the Mexico elected a woman who is Jewish to be the president of the country and by the way did you know that abortion is legal there?

This is awesome.

The Chinese landed a spacecraft on the "far side of the moon" - which people can't quite wrap their head around; it doesn't mean quite what most people think. 

And of course there is the immediate outrage that it's fake, that the Chinese are pulling a fast one, or whatever nonsense gets pulled. 

It's a great achievement for human kind. Maybe we could accomplish more here at home if we pulled our heads out of our asses and stopped fighting about stupid things. Just saying. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/chinese-spacecraft-lands-on-moon/

What the actual fuck?

A teacher held a slave auction and used the N word for her 5th grade class. You know, like 10 year olds. 

https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/01/us/massachusetts-teacher-slave-auction/index.html

Some kind words and a little decency

Katy Perry Shares Edited Version of Harrison Butker speech

https://www.marieclaire.com/celebrity/katy-perry-harrison-butker-speech-edited-version/