More bad reporting

Macy's recently announced a plan to close underperforming stores.  

They made the announcement and listed off the stores. That got picked up and media outlets ran with a headline "Macys closing!" and proceeded to list locations of stores that sure didn't seem to fit with "underperformance."

Since that didn't seem right, I looked at the addresses for stores in Florida.  And discovered that these were not Macy's stores, but rather Macy's Furniture stores, which are not your traditional storefronts.

I guess technically they are Macy's stores, but they were created as stand alone stores that only sell furniture.  They are large and expensive to run - and have been considered for closure for quite some time.

But the headline that Macys is closing is more salacious and requires no research.  That is just lazy and sad.  And again shows that no one can do an ounce of research.

Weirdness in booking a Disney trip

As most of you know, I host a Disney world history YouTube series. I've been going to the parks for most of my life and have enjoyed being a local. 

Pre-pandemic, I knew what was what. I knew the tricks. I understood the ins and outs of making a visit. And everything could be done as a spur of the moment type of thing…

Then came the pandemic and the rules started to change. Of course you had the evolution of fastpass which complicated everything. But it was more than that. 

Now I have to make a reservation - subject to availability - to go to the parks. And oddly, most of the knowledge about how to manage the parks became irrelevant. 

I had promised my son a trip to Disney world when he graduated high school….but he graduated during the pandemic, and then went off to college. So we had to wait. 

Finally, we had an opportunity to go. I had to get him a ticket … which was complicated and maybe a little stressful - because the ticket prices vary wildly depending on when you want to go. And it is way more expensive than it was 5 years ago. 

Of course, there was still the matter of proving he is a Florida resident, which didn't work online, meaning we had to go to a guest relations window just to activate his ticket.  

And nevermind that I had to book a reservation to visit a park using my annual pass.

You have to spend time and effort and work through it, and figure it out. I can only imagine for a newbie how hard this is...

And on that note, I happened to see a video from a guy who had never been.  He outlined his confusion and the challenges he faced.  He ended with his thought that its not really worth it.  That intrigued me.

And then when my son and I went, we encountered some interesting folks.  One guy had some pretty serious complaints about attractions and wait times (and lightning lane), dining availability, and assorted confusion.  I heard "if only I had known" and "this shouldn't be this hard."

And that sums up the current experience at Disney World.  

License plate cameras on the open internet?

Here's a story about a man who discovered that many of the license plate cameras in use are actually not behind any layer of security. 

Anyone can simply access them and track vehicles in real time. Which he proceeded to do in order o make a point. 

Privacy is not something that is generally given a second thought when there's money to be made with little effort. 

https://www.404media.co/researcher-turns-insecure-license-plate-cameras-into-open-source-surveillance-tool/

That's the world we live in. 

Vivek Murthy suggests we rethink how we’re living our lives

This is an uplifting letter from the outgoing surgeon general as he reflects on how we as humans live. One part reminds of us what fulfillment is:

I have come to see there are three essential elements that fuel our fulfillment and well-being: relationships, service, and purpose. 

Relationships keep us grounded and bonded to each other. Service, from formal volunteering to informal small acts of kindness, is about helping each other. And purpose gives our life a sense of direction and meaning. Together, these elements form the triad of fulfillment. 

https://people.com/surgeon-general-vivek-murthy-americans-closing-letter-rethink-how-we-are-living-our-lives-exclusive-8770191

This is worth a read. 

Watch ""Fight Back!" Classics: Sears Trash Can 1500-Foot Drop Test" on YouTube

I love this piece for so many reasons. 

It's educational and informative

It applies a bit of scientific rigor and healthy amount of curiosity. They even poll the audience, who seem interested. 

It's not sponsored, and is independent for the sake of understanding 

It's good journalism. 

It's consumer oriented, and what do you know the product they test was well made.

I know there is some of this still available on the internet, but not enough of it. It's drowned out by vapid themes.

ahhh,  simpler times …

https://youtu.be/f8KIG7P9Vjc?si=_m1lpWzeBRxTyMu_

Elon Musk, Tesla, and Las Vegas

There are very many privacy concerns these days.  Not the least of which is that cars collect data about you - from tracking where and how you drive to recording conversations on the integrated microphones.  And at present, there is no way to opt out.  And they can do with it as they please, from selling it to unknown 3rd parties, to sharing it with insurance companies, to releasing it to law enforcement if they see fit.

We had the incident with the cybertruck that exploded in Las Vegas, which the media was quick to pounce on - with incomplete or erroneous information. But, then Elon Musk proudly told everyone that he would retrieve all the info from this vehicle, in order to help law enforcement piece together what happened.

There are so many concerns with this.  He arbitrarily offered to pull up some personal type data and share it (generally, anyway) with the world.  How is that okay?  And in the position of power he has, how will he abuse that ability?

And as an aside: I take exception to Elon's recent comments that he wants to help the police, and believes in law enforcement.  That sure sounds nice, but isn't he sucking up to the convicted felon who was able to make an additional series of charges that may have led to additional convictions and jail time go away? What about enforcement of the laws that man broke?

So I suppose he supports law enforcement when it suits him?       

Disney settles with the orange menace

This story was a little hard to follow, due to bad reporting, no real fact checking, and some politically motivated story lines. 

But from what I gather, ABC (owned by Disney of course) made a settlement with the orange menace that paid him some money and admitted that they had misreported some information about the man. 

What's confusing is *what* that report was and *how* it was wrong. 

But what I took away from it was that Bob Iger is trying to play nice with T-rump so he won't continue to attack the company for spurious reasons (like he did during his other term in office).  It seems to have been a calculated move to kowtow to him, as seemingly every other company is doing. 

It's all very bizarre. 

But don't sleep on the fact that the person tabbed to run the FCC has already made known that he won't tolerate disparaging dear leader, and has an eye on this settlement as showing how "the media" needs to be further held accountable for actually reporting on anything. 

Freedom of the press and truth can suck it.