Greednomics

Well, it's finally happened. May be Tony and Mike won't be back after the holiday. If they do come back, I'll bet there'll be another 5 minutes of ads. Swell. Thing is, Disney isn't exactly in the poor house

Disney's television division, which includes ABC, ESPN, FX, the Disney Channel and National Geographic, reported $7bn in revenue in fiscal year 2022, up 3% from a year earlier, with a $2.5bn operating profit, a 13% increase.

Now, depending on how 'operating profit' is defined by Disney (likely not Gross Profit; generally GP net of bloated Overhead), Mickey made a return of, wait for it, 38%. And remember, that's almost surely after paying the Corner Suits their millions. What a country.

Balance

As a callow young undergraduate, I cycled through a few majors before ending up in economics. This was in the late 60s (yes, there were years before 2000), and the notion of affirmative action was just beginning to bubble. As it happened, one of my professors took up the idea during a discussion. He structured the argument thus

We have a 100 yard dash with two runners. They both come to the starting line in standard running duds, but before the race is started, Blue must put on a rucksack with 50 pounds of rucks in it. Green does not.

The race starts, and Green sprints ahead. When Blue reaches the 50 yard mark, he is told to drop the rucksack with its 50 pounds of rucks and continue in the race.

To no one's great surprise, Green wins going away.

After the race, Blue understandably complains. But the organizers dismiss his objection, saying that he finished the race in the same condition as Green. It was a fair race at the end.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the hypocrisy of the organizers. To segue to the RRW Supremes' ruling today, we can argue about how long the racial divide can be compensated for, but 50 odd years out of 400 seems a tad short. After all, white folk (cops and not) still seem to get their jollies from shooting Black folk just for the hell of it. Predominantly Black school districts are still widely underfunded compared to white. And so forth. I guess that's ok, since Jesus says, "The poor you will always have with you."

The aftermath of the decision is easy to predict: separate but equal will be Constitutional once again. Not that separate will ever really be equal. Disparities in public education between Black and white will revert to the 1940s and earlier; hell, antebellum would be so much better. White privilege will once again be in control.

Under Pressure

Just some spitballin today. With all the noise about the Titan fiasco, time to share some old thoughts and new on the general subject.

- Rush is described as being an aeronautical engineer
- Rush was working as such when the 787 was being born
- from the outset, I've been leary of the 787 plastic fuselage
- Rush decided, rather than going with the tried and true heavy metal sphere, he'd go with a cylinder
- Rush concluded, my biggest spitball, that carbon fiber was a good hull material because of the use in 787 fuselage
- maximum pressure differential seen by a 787 fuselage:

So if we assume a constant altitude of 43,000 (the 787's service ceiling), we would get a maximum differential of:
6,000 ft Cabin Altitude = 9.06 psi
8,000 ft Cabin Altitude = 8.11 psi

- pressure differential at 12,500 feet of ocean:

The water pressure at 12,500 feet (3,800 meters) below the surface at the site of the Titanic wreck is roughly 400 atmospheres or 6,000 pounds per square inch.

- note that the pressure vector in the 787 fuselage is outward, i.e. tensile, while in the Titan is inward i.e. compression and/or shear
- just another spitball: carbon fiber is strong in tensile strength, but not so much in compression or shear
- there has been lots of research on carbon fiber, and it's brittle and fatigue is nearly impossible to note
- so, what works in the air ain't close to what's needed in water
- Rush, just another spitball, decided that the carbon fiber cylinder would be strengthened by the titanium endcaps, in that the endcaps would push the cylinder along its major axis and keep the cylinder wall from failing; this is easily seen by standing on a soda can vs. squeezing it
- water pressure doesn't care about axis
- the pressure cylinder was replaced at least once after only a few dives -

You Can''t Make This Stuff Up - part the third

Some times the news reports beggar the imagnination.

Kellye SoRelle, the woman who claimed to be general counsel for the right-wing Oath Keepers militia, will be held in federal custody for mental health treatment after a judge ruled Tuesday that she was incompetent to stand trial.

OTOH, why would anyone be astonished?? These are a bunch of first-order wackos, so it follows that their mouthpieces are as well.

Mary Jane

Regular reader likely recalls some of these missives discussing the wisdom (mostly, lack of it) of public financing of sports arenas, lotteries, and the like. The issue, from a profitability point of view, is: who is the market? If the market is merely inhabitants of the jurisdiction paying for the McGuffin, odds are not good that profitability will ensue, simply because the inhabitants will have substituted buying sports tickets for buying movie tickets, or the like. The only way for such expenditures to be net-net positive is if the market is largely composed of 'aliens'. Well, guess what? The same is true of selling weed.

And so, we find the RRW in the Mountain West wringing their hands. Seems Oregon has legalized Mary Jane, but Idaho refuses, so all those proper Idahoans are running across the border to get them some weed. And the tax man in Salem is just saying, 'thank you very much'. Aliens make for a profitable market.

Stupid White People - part the first

As the saying goes, "ignorance is curable, stupid is forever".

Just met this interview from Barbara Kingsolver. The name is a bit familiar, but I've not read anything by her. Having read the piece, it's just about zero likely I ever will. Here's why

She is also surprisingly angry. "I understand why rural people are so mad they want to blow up the system," she says. "That contempt of urban culture for half the country. I feel like I'm an ambassador between these worlds, trying to explain that if you want to have a conversation you don't start it with the words, 'You idiot.'"

Proving just how stupid you are. It's The System that sends billions of dollars from Uncle Sugar to ameliorate the conditions of poverty, bad health, and lousy education that the bidnezz friendly corrupt politicians you idiots continue to elect. Said politicians have no interest in lifting your populations out of poverty, ill health, and lousy education. Kind of the plantation society that supposedly ended a hundred or so years ago. By the way, the Loving decision wasn't until 1967. I'll bet you folks are still angry at such dictatorial wokeness. May be you all can get this new and improved Supremes to re-instate the law? The decision was, after all, based on the egregious fig leaf of 14th Amendment protection. We all know there is no such a thing. Thomas is out to undo all 14th Amendment decisions which grant more freedom to citizens. I'll bet you can't wait.

But what you clearly doesn't understand is that people from shithole states are in such bad shape just because you continue to elect fascists who are intent on keeping your populations poor, sick, and stupid. So you morons blame city folk for being smarter, and not electing such fascists. I've mentioned this before: there was a time when lower class working poor parents were proud and happy when their children got a proper education and moved up in life. Not anymore. Now you morons see to it that your children remain poor, sick and just as stupid as Ma and Pa while blaming your lot on folks who've done the right thing. This is a lousy way to run a country.

She just doesn't get it.

"We are the last demographic that progressive people still mock with impunity."

Blacks, Jews, Hispanics, wimins, LGBTQ, and similar are born that way; they don't have the option to become an old, white, grievence ridden, sub-GED, rural guy. If it weren't for progressive people's alms to you poor, uneducated, hillbillies, as bad as you feel about the quality of your lives (and who to blame) it'd be a whole lot worse.

And why not? The Red states are welfare queens, living better on the benefits of Uncle Sugar (Blue state taxpayers), and blaming the progressives for your lot. It would be a lot worse if you had to support yourselves on your own. You buy Batshit J. Moron's bullshit about the evils of the Coastal states, of course. Your plight can't possibly be the result of continually electing bidnezz friendly corrupt politicians, now can it? If there had never been FDR, you'd still be without piped water, sewers, roads, and the other amenities of modern life. You're the worst kind of ingrates.

Your people have earned the mockery. Your people aggressively mock education, expertise, and anything else intellectual. I'll bet that you, and your people, still believe that Scopes was properly found guilty. You want to return to the wonderful days of the 19th (may be, 18th) century. Slavery made a better life for Black folks, after all.

For years she had been thinking of this big story she wanted to write "but that nobody wanted to hear", not just about the prescription drugs crisis, but the generations of exploitation and institutional poverty, the plundering of the region for timber, coal and tobacco leading up to it.

Here's a pile of data on education by county (and other) in Virginia. It's not a pretty picture. The innterTubes says Kingsolver lives in Washington County, which is the 11th uneducated (No H.S. Diploma) county in the state; if you cursor over the map of southwestern Virginia, you see that Washington County is the over-achiever in it's corner of the state. It ain't Northern Virginia. And every reason to conclude that rural Virginians are quite happy being stupid. In the interview, she makes a, hopefully, sarcastic remark that someone in a Trump truck will just shoot them. I'd bet on it.

And what of the Compassionate Republican Youngkin?? Not so much.

How did all that happen? Because you imbeciles elected corrupt bidnezz friendly politicians who exploited your hidebound view of life. And you keep doing it. And you keep bitching about your lot in life. And having your abject stupidity made fun of. The situation will only change when you make sure your kids are properly educated, and vote for folks who will see to it. If you don't, nothing will change. You'll still live off the generosity of Uncle Sugar, and cast blame on the Blue state taxpayers.

There's a reason the Blue coastal states are better places to live. Get with the program. You're at least a century late, but you've got to start some time.

Where are you now? The wiki says you're properly educated, and you claim to be a non-Republican, yet you've produced a screed that's aimed at inflaming the persecuted, grievence laden, uneducated, shithole county White people who largely live off the good graces of the Damn Gummint. The Orange Traitor couldn't do better.

Call For Gov. DeMented© - part the third

Well, one might easily bet that this guy will be getting fired, just like the girl who blew the whistle on Gov. DeMented's Covid lies.

In a widely shared tweet, Brian McNoldy, senior research associate at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric and Earth Science, called rising ocean and air temperatures "totally bonkers."

How dare a mere bureaucrat contradict Gov. DeMented?

About the wisest bit from Dr. McElhone: "the world is not linear." Not only is it not linear, but it's very close to exponential in many of the phenomena we live with. Don't believe that? Go look at the Covid-19 curves, from the beginning. Each segment (variant) starts quite small, and appears to grow along a straight line at first, aka, linearly. But then it takes off like a 777, or worse (Covid-Ο) a rocket ship.

Climate change is no different, just on a bit longer timeframe than a virus. [Aside: the choice of XBB.1.5 for the next single-variant jab is foolish; just look at the way XBB.1.16 is going non-linear! By the fall season, XBB.1.5 will be a distant memory.] To the extent that apologists try to minimize the threat, and keep the RRW faction from assaulting them, projections are dumbed down to, or nearly so, linear growth.

The RRW are quite content to burn the planet to a dead cinder (with catastrophic floods as an appetizer) for their kids and grandkids, just so they can continue their profligacy. A new version of Conservative.

By The Numbers - part the thirty third

So, what's up with the GOP? We know have 10 (as I type, more to come) fools trying, or so they would have us believe, to knock off Batshit J. Moron for the party nomination.

Really? They're all in it for the Cabinet seat or Ambassadorship when wannaBePresident Huey Long 2024 gets elected again. They're all in it to create chaos and syphon off votes bit by bit, ensuring that oughtaBePresident Nicolae Ceauşescu has the plurality at the convention, and thus the nomination. Of course, he could well be in The Slammer by then. Or dead of a heart attack; his obsession with bad food makes that ever more likely.

Bank Shot

Well, one the regulars at my local greasy spoon complained the other day that it was so cold that she had to turn on the heat in her house. And this should be a surprise? Smoke ain't clouds, and really does block the sun. So, in Tinkers to Evers to Chance style, climate change leads to higher temperatures, which leads to deeper evaporation, which leads to more flammable undergrowth, which leads to more intense wildfire, which leads to dense smoke, which leads to lower sun power, which leads to colder temperatures. It's not as if it hasn't happened before.

One of the more well known instances was "The Year Without Summer", back in the early 1800's, and also happened here in the shithole states of New England. That event caused significant harm. Again, particulates blocked the sun, in the 1816 case, from vulcanism. The Canadian wildfire situation isn't likely to have as widespread impact. Gov. DeMented will likely boast that such would never happen if he were President.

Then, of course, there's Snowball Earth. Something to look forward to:

Many possible triggering mechanisms could account for the beginning of a snowball Earth, such as the eruption of a supervolcano

1816 demonstrated that such an event is possible.

Skill Killer

According to accounts, Apple's AR/VR headset supports an interactive mode, wherein a 'tracing paper' type of image interposes between the viewer's eyes and the area in which he's looking.

Imagine wearing a headset to assemble furniture while the instructions are digitally projected onto the parts, for instance, or cooking a meal while a recipe is displayed in the corner of your eye.

So, instead of assembling your chest of drawers, you're some sub-GED chucklehead who'll be taken through some simple surgery, like fixing a hernia. One surgeon for the whole world (paid a preformance fee, no residuals for each in the real world hernia repair), and all the real world work done by sub-GED chuckleheads for less than minimum wage. Not that your bill for the hernia repair will be any lower.

Folks worry about AI killing jobs. This is the Ghost of Jobs destroying employment.

It's not so far fetched, either. Well, in the world of teeVee fiction anyway. There's an episode of L&O:CI in which a surgeon suffers from myasthenia gravis and directs her orderly (or some such) to do eye surgerys. Kind of the same idea. Of course, it eventually blows up, being a Murder Show and all. HAL 9000 has arrived.