Bob Chapek Breaks His Silence with Tell-All Memoir About His Ouster as Disney CEO - Disney Tourist Blog

Oh the drama! I’m sure some shade will be thrown by Chapek!

For the uninitiated, Chapek had worked his way through the ranks at Disney. CEO Bob Iger, after years of hemming and hawing about succession planning that saw some tremendous candidates to be Disneys next CEO leave the company, decided Chapek was going to be the next guy. 

Arguably Chapek was not up to the job. To be fair, he took the reins at the height of the pandemic. But he did alienate himself to very many with his style and some comments he made. 

So the board removed Chapek after just a few months, and put Iger back in the job. 

While it certainly bruised his ego, Chapek got paid well for his run as CEO. And surely, he’ll continue to use that “stigma” to his advantage through his career. 

 

https://www.disneytouristblog.com/bob-chapek-breaks-his-silence-with-tell-all-memoir-about-his-ouster-as-disney-ceo/

New Underline section opens from Dadeland to South Miami | Miami Herald

Back in the 1970s, as urban sprawl was just beginning in Miami, the transit authority thought building a light rail would be a solution to getting people around through the city. They had grand plans and ambitions, but they only wound up building about 11 miles of elevated track when they opened it 40 years ago. Metrorail was a bit of a mess in the early days and took on the nickname of “metrofail” for a while. 

It’s since been expanded since, but the one thing you can say is that it was a nothing. Just concrete jutting from the ground, with nothing beneath it. Just broken bottles, overgrown weeds, concrete parking lots, and the homeless. But now, they’re making an effort to make it something. They call it the underline - which IMHO is pretty amusing. 

By the way, the right of way they used was originally a train track owned by the FEC … which as you may recall was what was originally Henry Flagler’s rail to Key West. It remained a working rail line until sometime in the 1970s. And as my dad shared with me, it was used by the military during the Cuban missile crisis in the 60s to move weapons down to the keys efficiently.  Miami acquired it when it fell into disuse and thus became metro rail.  

The Miami Herald reported on progress, but it’s behind a paywall. You can read it here:

https://archive.is/2026.08.17-161631/https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/community/miami-dade/article316846179.html

Disney and the NFL have a collab? Huh?

For some reason - probably because ESPN is Disney owned and there’s some money changing hands between ESPN and the NFL as a partnership of sorts - Disney announced that there’s a “collab” where Disney characters would be used with team logos. And uhhhh…

This week, the full lineup was revealed, and it is fascinating, confusing, and everything in between.

Agreed. It’s just weird. And stupid. And it’s something no one asked for. But don’t let that stop you from merchandising! 

For the dolphins they selected king triton. And while I think flounder from the same movie would have been better, triton works too. He’s the ruler of the seas, but he’s not paying attention and his daughter just does whatever, and focuses on shiny objects.  In the end, he gives in and just lets her be. Which is kind of a metaphor for the dolphins owner. 

https://gizmodo.com/were-both-confused-and-fascinated-by-this-disney-and-nfl-team-up-2000802516

And you can see them all here 

https://www.disneystore.com/collections/disney-champion-nfl-collection/

voting matters

Once again, it feels like the world around us is out of control, and I have to say that I get irrationally angry at some of it.  New stories appear every day about malfeasance, greed, corruption, subverting religion, social issues, and a total lack of concern for our future, or that of the planet.  There are lies and obfuscation that just make everything harder.

And of course, the people that support the administration - who are behind most of the nonsense - are just blindly clapping, even when it directly adversely affects them.  It's a form of insanity, and cultish in the way it plays out. FAFO, indeed.

But I remain hopeful about it all.  At some point, the pendulum will swing back.  How long that takes is debatable right now, but with a bit of luck it will start during the next election cycle.

Sure, voter turnout for the mid-term primaries were abysmal.  In Florida, they were well below 20%, which pundits will tell you doesn't bode well.

But are they right?  Only time will tell if there's a general apathy - or if there's anything more to this.  As always read the breathless headlines with a grain of salt.  A couple of things to consider: 

• a good size block of voters switched to independent from either party; and there wasn't much to vote on in a primary for them.  So I wouldn't have expected them to show up at the polls.
• One might (rightfully) argue that many voters will simply vote to protect the administration or vote against it.  To some, it simply doesn't matter what the name is on the ballot to accomplish that.  
• There will be other things on the ballot in November that voters DO care about, like the property tax issue in Florida which likely will drive voter turnout.

So we'll see.  But the one thing you can do is to remind everyone that their vote is, in fact, important and they need to turn out and vote! Volunteer for a voter drive.  Make phone calls.  Canvas if that's your thing.

Brazilian teen Lucas Tadao makes eco trays from cassava peels to fight

As global concern mounts over plastic pollution and the environmental damage caused by non-biodegradable materials, innovative solutions are emerging from unexpected quarters. In Brazil, 14-year-old student Lucas Tadao Sugahara Wernick is drawing national attention with his development of a biodegradable alternative to conventional Styrofoam food trays, using agricultural waste sourced from the country’s own backyard. The project, developed as a school science initiative in Curitiba, the capital of Paraná state, seeks to address the environmental impact of single-use plastics by using cassava peels and araucaria tree residues that would otherwise be discarded.

Lucas began exploring sustainable packaging materials after confronting the grim reality that Styrofoam, widely used for packaging fruits, vegetables, and meats, can persist in the environment for centuries. According to project documentation, Styrofoam can take up to 700 years to decompose, contributing significantly to long-term plastic pollution. Seeking environmentally responsible alternatives, Lucas turned to cassava peels, a by-product of Brazil’s well-established food industry, and to araucaria tree residues, which naturally fall from Paraná pine trees and are typically treated as waste.

The trays are produced by combining dried, ground cassava peels and processed araucaria residues with water and cassava starch. After cleaning and grinding the raw materials into fine particles, the mixture is heated and pressed into molds before undergoing a drying process. The use of cassava starch, a natural binding agent derived from the abundant local crop, eliminates the need for petroleum-based plastics or synthetic additives. The resulting trays are intended to replace traditional Styrofoam containers for packaging fresh produce.

Experimental results suggest the biodegradable trays offer a dramatic improvement in environmental performance compared to Styrofoam. Lucas reported that under suitable conditions, the trays decompose in roughly 30 days - a stark contrast to the centuries-long persistence of conventional alternatives. To confirm the packaging’s real-world viability, the project included tests for compression strength, pressure resistance, torsion, water absorption, and biodegradability. The trays demonstrated sufficient mechanical strength for use in food packaging while successfully breaking down in moist soil.

Cassava peels are a particularly promising resource for such innovations, given that Brazil is one of the world’s largest producers of cassava. The peels contain valuable natural starch that can serve as an adhesive, supporting the formation of lightweight composites when combined with fibrous tree residues. This approach reduces reliance on new raw materials, aligning with the principles of a circular economy by giving new life to materials that would otherwise be wasted.

Lucas’s invention has brought recognition at Brazilian science fairs, including the PUCPR Science Fair, and has been published in the proceedings of a scientific initiation symposium. The success of the project underlines the broader potential of agricultural waste as a raw material for biodegradable packaging, a solution that is gaining prominence as countries worldwide seek to curb their reliance on petroleum-based plastics. While additional development is needed to enable large-scale manufacturing and deployment, the project demonstrates how grassroots innovation, using local resources and waste streams, could play a key role in reducing plastic pollution and shaping a more sustainable future.

Costa Rica’s Wild Capuchin Monkeys Are Using AI Touchscreens

CaupchinAI is a good use case for a form of artificial intelligence. 

Researchers put touch screens in the forests in Costa Rica to try and test the intelligence of the capuchin monkeys. The screen activates one a monkey comes near it and gives a task; if the monkey completes it they get a treat. 

And the results were interesting in that monkeys did interact and get rewards. And there’s some evidence that they learned from the interaction too.  

https://ticotimes.net/2026/08/14/costa-rica-capuchin-monkeys-ai-touchscreen-study

Gladys West, GPS pioneer and mathematician, dies at 95 : NPR

Earlier this year, Dr West passed away at the age of 95. Her mathematics in calculating the surface of the earth, led to the development of GPS. 

There’s a short history of her life in the attached NPR story, but I just started reading her memoir. It’s fascinating stuff. She grew up in the Jim Crow South, but managed to be very successful and her legacy lives on. 

https://www.npr.org/2026/01/23/nx-s1-5685027/gladys-west-gps-mathematician