Bitchin Dave's Newsletter - December 2nd
A few years ago, the World Cup was awarded to "North America" - with some games in Canada, some games in Mexico, and some games (including the late rounds and finals) in the United States. Plans were made. Contracts were signed. Stadiums were updated. Sponsors got involved. Lots and lots of money changed hands to get ready for the event. Its huge, and is the ultimate in "inclusion" with people travelling from around the world to see their team play! And then, we had an election, and the idiot in chief started to take over the event to a degree. He invited the head of FIFA to visit and told him he might move the games around at his discretion. Word is that the head of FIFA was quite put off by that. The contracts, the money, everything would be a huge headache. Sponsors reacted by making a decision to spend more of their energy on games hosted in Mexico and Canada. Of course, there were rumblings and quiet talks about maybe moving some games out of the US altogether. And with the stupid rules around visas, and the "enhanced security" this might be wise, according to some. Especially after what we saw at the Club World Cup earlier this year - what happened in Miami was a disaster. They certainly couldn't have a repeat of that. Anyway, flash forward to a few weeks ago. The head of FIFA took on a new tactic: just kiss the ring (or more if necessary). Flatter the guy. Show him the trophy. Tell him how great it is to have games in his country. You know, all the things you say to a dictator. If you can, get him to just accept the games where they are, and to remind him about the spirit of international competition. Let people from other countries come for two weeks.... and then, the hook: FIFA will be awarding the first ever "FIFA Peace Prize" during the draw ceremony. It will go to the person who really embodies the spirit of cooperation. "Will it be Trump?" "Wait and see!" Never forget that while its nice that this is an international competition, its also about the money! Getting T-rump on your side ensures that money flows with no need to breach any contracts. And to that end, they announced ticket pricing. They promised some tickets would be under $60. And apparently they did make a very small number - across all venues for games in the first round - available to fans. They were immediately snapped up and resold for way over that value. And meanwhile, the actual ticket prices are shown below, compared with the pricing in 2022 in Qatar. Oh and then there's parking. While these games will take place at large NFL-sized stadiums, most of the parking lots will be closed off, and attendees will be directed to park in places literally miles away from the venues, at a starting price of around $175 per car. Of course, these parking spots must be purchased in advance and to this point, the venues haven't announced how many spaces will be available, or where they will be. And in many cities, public transportation really isn't an option, so its unclear who can afford to go to the games and how they will get there. I admit that I was excited when I heard the world cup was coming to south Florida, and the notion that I could go see a game locally sounded great. At a starting point of $100, which still seems high to me, maybe I would go. But good luck finding tickets under $400! That's the going rate apparently for any ticket to a first round game here. No thanks.  |
This is a remarkable story. It's peculiar how peanut allergies spiked for around 20 years and became a thing, so a researcher started studying what was going on. He got the peanut industry to fund the research and then studied children in Israel who had a lower incidence of peanut allergies against children from similar backgrounds who lived in the US. And what he found was that children in Israel were given a peanut snack fairly commonly from a very young age, where children in the states were not. And after studying further, the conclusion was that avoiding peanuts in young children actually increased the likelihood of peanut allergies. The recommendation, then, was to introduce peanuts early, and the number of cases went way down. Science for the win. |
Here's an article about how different companies are taking on the idea of wireless ev charging - and how they're having great success in their laboratory environments. Now the real test will come in deploying it to the real world and ensuring cars manage to connect to them "right" or if somehow the devices can adjust to the receiver. But it is another cool leap forward. Imagine charging without having to plug in, in under 20 minutes. |
This is pretty cool. A thin, clear coating is placed on a window to collect solar radiation. This radiation is then transferred to photovoltaic cells on the edge of the window. And … voila. Energy is easily stored and can be used in the building that has the windows. |
Bob Iger provides a look into his tenure as ceo, and gives a few insights into the role and what it's like to follow in Walt's footsteps. The linked podcast is about 30 minutes and is a good listen…and the podcast has a few other episodes related to Walt and the company that are now on my playlist. "That's really constant innovation, a constant exploration, a constant essentially desire to reinvent and or to invent even more than anything else. That's what I'd want," he continued. "But I think we do occupy a place in the world as great storytellers, perhaps maybe the greatest in many respects. And I would hope that that position would continue for years and years." |
First off, I'm glad to see that there are still scientific studies ongoing at US universities. And sincerely hope that they are able to, and do, continue. Second, what they found in their study is that erythritol, which was heralded as a great breakthrough in alternative sweeteners, may actually be (very) bad for brain health. I've tried it in a few drinks and thought it tasted weird, and so I've stuck to sugar. But it's interesting to learn more about these chemical compounds that are engineered. |
Back in July, the European space program launched a satellite called Sentinel-4. Its purpose is to monitor pollution and atmospheric conditions, so we can learn more about how pollution travels and where hot spots exist. The first publicly available data became available recently, and shows how this will work. We should be able to understand the impacts of man-made pollution (even if certain politicians here in the US want to ignore it). |
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