Bitchin Dave's Newsletter - October 3

  

October 3rd, 2023 Insights, news, ramblings, and other serious nonsense from Dave

Dave’s Musings

One thing that currently drives me crazy is reward points. Companies a few years ago wanted to reward customer loyalty, and thus offered programs to delight and excite their customers. And the rewards were pretty generous, with freebies and assorted offers to their loyal customers.

This came at a cost. As the customers accumulated points, they were a liability of sorts; customers could redeem these points at any time, and they counted against the bottom line in some way. A few people I worked with and I created a solution and patented it, but unfortunately it never went anywhere; the ability to exchange these points seemed like a good idea at the time.

But I digress. Companies in the meantime took a different approach and decided to stop rewarding overall loyalty and instead decided to reward consistent spend (which is a very different thing). Gone were the freebies and many promotions. The number of points required for things went up, and they now have somewhat arbitrary (and often unknown) expiration dates.

I suppose that all goes along with the notion of lack of customer service. Why try and get anyone to do business with you at all?

  

The company Firefly has been working with the US Military to create a "rapid response" launch program. They started 2 years ago with a go for launch, and were able to turn around and liftoff within 21 days. Around 2 months ago, they were able to get from the go to actual launch within 24 hours. Unfortunately, the launch was not successful, so there are still kinks to iron out. But you have to love the sense of purpose. Finally, a week or so ago, they did launch, but there are new concerns about the launch process, the cost, etc. But those things may work themselves out. The pace is staggering, but considering current technology and having rockets literally at the ready, it makes some amount of sense. You can read more here: ARSTechinca

I remember being in school in the 1970s and hearing about advancements in Science. We saw plenty of films on topics that ran the gamut. One particular subject was about cloud seeding to provide rain and "control the weather." Films we saw were like this one: Cloud Seeding (1968) And here we are in 2023, and there are climate conditions that are impacting everything. And so what's old is new again, and they are talking about cloud seeding in Utah at ski resorts. Cloud seeding in Utah I am a bit skeptical of their claims (3% - 10% more snow compared to ... what?) and their methods (atomize something and heat it ... how exactly?), but I am willing to see what happens. It appears to be mostly environmentally harmless activity. And of course there has been 60 years of research into it. So maybe it will help in some way. But then again, maybe this magic rock will cause more snow to fall this year!

ESPN, being one of the first neworks to produce content that people wanted to see, made a deal with every cable provider to be included in a "base cable package" for $4 per subscriber. It was nearly twice the amount that any other network charged and a huge windfall for ESPN. Disney purchased ESPN years ago, knowing this was a generous revenue stream. But then came the idea people going without traditional cable TV and going to streaming services. Disney is trying to figure out how to reposition themselves for profitability. For ESPN, one idea is to allow people to subscribe to a streaming ESPN service. Their proposed price point? $23. I can't decide if that's good business or just greed.

Vox has an interesting take on Facebook account hacks. They suggest that these unending hacks are sometimes an attempt extort money from users, or take any payment methods stored. But more often, these account takeovers are to used to establish some "legitimacy" for crypto scams. The hacked users have longer tenure, more history, and some personal info that the hackers use to set up accounts to move money. And of course to solicit others to try and get rich too. Who knew there was a whole black market for stolen Meta/Facebook accounts?

One Little Spark …  … for your imagination

Voting rights are something worth talking about.  A few years after the civil war, formerly enslaved citizens were granted the right to vote by the 15th amendment.  But voting proved to be no simple task, and they needed a little help.

Congress created something called the "Jim Crow laws" as a means to ensure that these newly created citizens be offered the same opportunities as the white citizens always had.

It helped to a degree to have these laws, and they led us directly to the civil rights movement over 100 years later.  And then after 150 years, the Supreme Court decided we didn't need these laws anymore, and eviscerated them.  

But as you may notice today, voting rights for blacks are still lacking and always under assault.  As exhibit "A" just looking at the voting maps that the state of Alabama has been trying to draw which severely under-represent the black population. (more on that topic here: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/the-supreme-court-will-let-alabamas-congressional-map-be-redrawn-to-better-represent-black-voters)

But who was Jim Crow?  A quick summary is that Jim Crow was a character created by a white man with black face who performed as a stereotypical (as defined by the whites of the time) black man.  Its absurd and very, very racist.  

You can read more about the history in these links:

https://jimcrowmuseum.ferris.edu/what.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws

Dave’s latest video

Here's a mostly unknown story about the history of Boca Raton: The Boca Raton army air field. 100,000 people training to fly - and learning to use radar https://youtu.be/CCW6BUGv8dw

-----

To subscribe, unsubscribe, contact > geezergamer92@gmail.com

Sports on TV

I think sports are about to be in a tough spot. Fewer networks want to pay out large sums. 

I just read an article that baseball and the ballys network are about to part ways (Ballys used to be Fox sports regional networks before Disney bought out the Fox name; and recently ballys sports declared bankruptcy)

They have no real solutions for what to do about baseball and probably will go back to the model of the teams negotiating for local broadcast rights and losing out on thousands of games making money in a non regional sense. Though they would still be streamed through MLB TV or whatever. 

And the bigger problem is that means less revenue. And less revenue sharing. 

Surely it will affect other sports as well. 

Then there's the Disney/espn problem. Cord cutting hurts. 

Disney made about $4 per subscriber on cable. With no ability to opt out it was a cash cow. Now it's a problem. 

Disney is considering a bunch of options. One is to provide a standalone streaming service for all espn content. And they suggested the price might be around $24 per month. 

Worth it? 🤷🏼‍♂️

Bitchin Dave's Newsletter - September 26

  

September 26, 2023 Insights, news, ramblings, and other serious nonsense from Dave

Dave’s Musings

In the early days of the pandemic, when we were asked to stay home, I decided that I could get a little fresh air and exercise daily by taking my bike out and going for a ride. And in the almost 3 and half years since, I still go out almost every day for a ride.

Its a great way to start my morning. I spent an hour or two riding around, clearing my head, and going anywhere from 5-10 miles on the bike. Sometimes I stop at a park, sometimes for coffee.

But the best part is, its time away from the computer. Its truly "me time," and I relish it. I'd like to encourage you to find time for yourself, offline, too.

  

NASA had an ambitious mission to land a craft on an asteroid, take a sample of the asteroid, and then return the sample to Earth for further study. This past weekend, the sample landed in the desert in Utah and will be studied in the coming months. Its exciting and interesting. Asteroid return But there is more to this story... Queen (the band) guitarist Brian May was involved in the program - he's an astrophysicist after all - and was an integral part of the plan to bring home the rock. Brian May story Photo from ABC News

There's a group of academics who suggests that we have been mis-interpreting Newton's first law. Of course, Newton wrote in Latin, and we have translated it into many different languages. In short, their belief is that QUATENUS should be translated as "insofar" instead of "unless" which would mean that Newton understood that everything would affect the motion. Lex I: Corpus omne perseverare in statu suo quiescendi vel movendi uniformiter in directum, nisi quatenus a viribus impressis cogitur statum illum mutare Which has been translated commonly as: Every body perseveres in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a right line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed thereon. As a quick aside: bear this in mind when reading something that has been translated. Some words may not be "correct" or might have a slightly different meaning than what was intended. Scientific American Article

Brightline (a privately held company) debuted high speed rail between Miami and Orlando this week. You may recall that this was originally intended to get passengers easily between South Florida and Disney World, but was modified to go to Orlando International Airport...and from there you are on your own. The cost is around $160 round trip per person, and will take close to three and a half hours (nearly the same as driving). I'm not quite seeing the value proposition - but I'm willing to let it play out for a while, and I may even want to try it out sometime myself.

There's an odd story about a fictitious company that somehow managed to get into the airplane parts market. They sold parts that had forged paperwork (that looked "correct"), but which weren't OEM and didn't pass the standard checks. And after taking in large sums of money, the company has disappeared. But these parts were sold to most airlines around the world, and were installed in many aircraft. They're being removed, but it did pose a public risk. You can read the whole story here: Phony airline parts

One Little Spark …  … for your imagination

Private schools in Florida are doing their part to ensure the teaching of black history is not lost, as it is in public schools.

Eric Smaw of Rollins college is glad to see it, “If we inadvertently or intentionally make the mistake of telling them that some of the most egregious and immoral acts that we participated in had good outcomes, then they might see those acts as less egregious, less immoral." 

The principal of Monarch Learning Academy in Orlando, Marguerite McNeill, said “I don’t know what the fear of knowledge, I don’t understand fear of knowledge. I have more of a fear of lack of knowledge, right?” 

Monarch - and others - teach the AP African American History that is now not allowed in Florida public schools.  And they take field trips to places like Alabama, so students can see first hand what has happened in our past.

Rather than thinking it makes some people uncomfortable, and literally whitewashing history.

We need a lot more of this kind of leadership in the world.

Dave’s latest video

I've got a short video where I'm talking about EV charging, and how adoption is going. https://youtu.be/Qpu_sLO6pqI?si=0KvBgL7XVEqNA_qz

-----

To subscribe, unsubscribe, contact > geezergamer92@gmail.com

Soarin challenge

I felt the need to return my player to first place. Why? Just because. 

And along the way, I noticed several times that my player, and the others in the top 10, had points taken away. 

For reasons I can't explain. 

Bitchin Dave's Newsletter - September 19

  

September 19, 2023 Insights, news, ramblings, and other serious nonsense from Dave

Dave’s Musings

One thing that drives me crazy is conspiracy theories. Looking at it from a distance, you might realize that large scale ones - like the Kennedy assassination or faking the moon landing - would require a ridiculous amount of planning and coordination. And they would also require that too many people would know, and would be willing to keep that secret. It's just not reasonable to have a conspiracy like that. And add in any technology that would have been required, and it's a task that would be easier to NOT fake.

And then you have the smaller scale ones in recent times that come from a "crazy uncle" that maybe seem like a possibility for a moment. At least until you stop and think about how crazy they really sound. Someone was running a child sex trafficking ring out a pizza shop? A senator has been replaced by a duplicate (like in the movie "Dave" where the president was replaced)?

But then they get parroted many times over, and suddenly they gain some traction. Its amazing (not in a good way) what the internet can do in terms of sucking people in and giving them just enough to support a belief or bias that they have.

As always, I remind you to consider carefully what you read and its source.

  

One of the great things about science overall is the notion that we create theories to explain the world (and universe) around us, but are willing to accept that new evidence may challenge these theories. We had a theory about the universe and how it expands. Along came the Hubble Space Telescope, and it suggested a different answer. Scientists called the difference the "Hubble tension" ... the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope would hopefully show something that matched with the original theory. Except that it confirmed what Hubble showed, and now there's a cosmological problem of sorts. And while its a relatively minor argument, and scientists disagree, they all are aware that we may have a new accepted theory of how this all works. https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/jwst-confirms-worsens-hubble-tension/

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) recently announced that they are working on Wireless Energy Transmission, using high energy lasers. Of course the intended purpose is for ensuring the military can be powered anywhere in the world. But even so, the concept is intriguing and may be an enormous breakthrough. A lesser-known nugget: Nikola Tesla proposed the idea of wireless energy transmission nearly 100 years ago. He even tested the theory and started to build a tower to provide energy to an area in New Jersey. (but that's a story for another day) Intriguingly - and not to sound like a conspiracy theorist - all of his notes and records for everything he was working on (a "death ray" among them) were confiscated by the FBI upon his death. Interesting Engineering - DARPA More about Tesla

There's a bear in Disney World! Although guests are used to seeing Henry, Big Al, Liver Lips, Wendell and the rest of the Country Bears in Frontierland, this was different. A real life black bear was spotted near the Magic Kingdom, although it was incorrectly reported that it was in the park. I mean why would they let him in without a ticket? He was in a backstage area near (what was) Splash Mountain. So as a precaution, some areas of the park were closed until he could be safely removed and relocated to the Forest in Ocala. As far as I know, its the first time this has ever happened in Disney World. Which may suggest that habitats are changing for bears as they wander further away. Just a little something to consider.

I was reading that Starbucks - with its global coffee chain accounting for more locations than any other store - wants to do away with single use cups and lids. An admirable goal, to be sure. But the question is how? They've been testing out compostable lids in some places. And they have plenty of ideas for the cups: making them compostable, forming a cup sharing program, washing cups, and offering an opportunity for customers to bring their own cup. To me, the one thing that would really work with customers is to engage them with an incentive. Bring a cup, return a cup. or otherwise contribute, and get a discount. Financial incentives and making people feel a part of something seems obvious. Its worth keeping an eye on because of their reach - and the amount of waste that is produced because of them. What they do will be replicated by others.

One Little Spark …  … for your imagination

Last week Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first black woman to serve on the Supreme Court, spoke about the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing, which happened 60 years ago in Birmingham, Alabama.  

She spoke of confronting race and race issues, even though they may be uncomfortable.  Or perhaps because they are uncomfortable.

“I know that atrocities like the one we are memorializing today are difficult to remember and relive, But I also know that it is dangerous to forget them.” 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HiZNSfz42H8

Dave’s latest video

Jimmy Carter turns 99 on October 1st. I'd like to point you to a video I did about a visit to Disney World on his 54th birthday. https://youtu.be/dYTrhYH41jg?si=7hsqSieUSXXeWKQM

-----

To subscribe, unsubscribe, contact > geezergamer92@gmail.com