News, Notes, and Notions for 28APR24
NFL Draft and electoral politics are more alike than you think, plus things from me, and stuff worth reading and watching from the week that was
It was NFL Draft weekend in America. The richest sport in the world that is the most popular TV show on multiple networks and streaming services held one of their biggest ratings draws. No matter how bad your team is, maybe this next bright young thing will turn it all around. Now spread out over three days and traveling from city to city, the draft circus is bigger than ever. This year's spectacle live from Detroit drew an average rating of 12.1, and the NFL and Neilson claim over 34.3 million people watched at some point, somehow, someway during the festivities.
Sports fans cannot get enough of the NFL Draft because it is a product selling the most valuable thing not just in sports, but in human nature: Hope. No matter how bad last year was, maybe this year will be better. Maybe, just maybe, this hot young new player is going to turn it all around. This year is going to be different. This year, we ain’t going to suck. And so forth and so on.
The need for hope is universal. Especially in this election year, we see it all through politics as folks project hope onto candidates, often despite the clear and obvious evidence to the contrary, that if we just elect this one person all problems will go away. The politicians and the billion-dollar political industry around them spend a lot of time, money, and advertising feeding those exact sentiments. And folks buy it hook, line, and sinker, just like they talk themselves into players they love in college that are not going to translate to the NFL.
It is not just elections; hope overrides good sense. With so many in the citizenry treating government policy as something they only think about when it directly affects - or more to the point, interferes - directly with their life perception of how things are outruns reality more often than not. Folks know, if you pin them down on it, that the same government is overseeing schools, Medicare, and the DMV, yet somehow in their minds magically expect the first two of those to run much more efficiently because of the nomenclature than the third. Expecting a benevolent government without constant attention, oversight, and accountability is the most forlorn of hopes. And yet, that is how far too many voting eligible folks think, evidenced through their actions regardless of what their mouths and social media say.
Maybe drafting that quarterback who looks amazing on a highlight reel playing against college players will be the magic bullet that overcomes bad owners, questionable coaching, and years of incompetence and single-handedly turn around a franchise. That is the hope. But that is all it is, hope, disconnected from understanding that a winning NFL team has ownership, coaching, players, and a culture of success all in alignment to really succeed. Government and policy are not that different, but many think hope not only springs eternal, but will automatically manifest without any effort on their part.
Never, in the history of ever, has that worked. Not in football, nor in politics. Adjust accordingly.
From Me This Week:
Felt good to do be doing Heard Tell episodes again. We bring back our friend, writer, attorney, and Senior Editor at Ordinary-Times.com Em Carpenter to talk the Trump NY trial coverage, and how to try and get something useful out of the caterwauling thereof:
Your Heard Tell Show is turning down the noise and getting to the information we need by talking to our good friend, attorney, and Senior Editor at Ordinary-Times.com about the start of the New York trial of Donald Trump, how NOT to follow the trial, how celebrity trials are just different, understanding factors that might affect the vedict, seperating good coverage from bad coverage, importance of a jury trial, why even calling it a "hush money" trial already sets a narrative and perspective, and insight into how criminal proceedings go.
Follow/Subsrcibe to Heard Tell wherever you get your podcasts, and please do leave a comment and rating, it helps us make sure Heard Tell never costs you anything more than a click:
Worth Reading:
Housing issues are greatly affecting the ability of the National Park Service to staff up, as reported in this piece from our friend Molly McCluskey who did her own stints as a park ranger before becoming an investigative journalist.
In Skagway, Alaska, Klondike Gold Rush National Historic Park faces a set of housing and staffing issues unique to Alaska. Skagway is a small remote town, accessed only by propeller plane, ferry, or the Alaskan Highway. Set in a confined, narrow valley, with a booming seasonal economy fed in large part by the cruise ship industry, Skagway has always had limited housing options, little room for expansion, and no viable daily commuting options. Building brings additional costs and challenges than in the Lower 48.
Many of Klondike's seasonal park housing units require double occupancy per room. Several current and former officials at the park told Sierra that potential seasonal employees turn down positions each year because of a lack of suitable housing, including for the 2023 season.
However, according to Superintendent Angela Wetz, additions to park housing in the past several years created enough units to meet the needs of the seasonal employees the park will hire this year. "Seasonal housing is not limited by housing availability in the 2024 season," Wetz said. "The number of applicants has been reduced over time post-pandemic, and we are facing staff shortages for a variety of reasons unrelated to housing."
Those staff shortages include multiple vacant full-time, division chief-level positions and specialist positions, including the park's administrative officer, chief of interpretation, museum tech, natural resources specialist, and more. Those year-round positions were previously filled by people who lived in non-park housing. "We have a variety of permanent positions we have had difficulty filling, and looking at housing options to help with that shortage is something we are considering options to address," Wetz said.
Several current and former staff members blame the vacancies on a morale issue in the park—one directly tied to housing. In 2019, a house previously purchased to accommodate up to six seasonal employees instead became the superintendent's home.
NPS leadership is well aware of how the housing challenges are impacting staffers, park units, and the agency as a whole. "Subpar and limited housing options in or near parks has been hindering the NPS's ability to attract and retain staff," Kathy Kupper, a spokesperson for the National Park Service in Washington, told Sierra. "Quality housing that is available for our workforce is a critical issue that requires immediate and ongoing attention and remains a priority. Housing affects many aspects of our operations and directly impacts our employees."
This, from our friend Michael Siegel, blows my mind, and his personal experience trying to fix his own Swift mission spacecraft is just as impressive:
A few months ago, we stopped being able to get useful data from the Voyager 1 spacecraft. It turns out that, after 46 years in space, part of the telemetry stopped working. We knew the spacecraft was receiving commands but could not get any health and safety data down, needless to say any scientific data. For a while, it looked like this might be the end of he road.
Well, JPL was finally able to restore communications, deploying a workaround that leverages other parts of the onboard hardware. This is astonishing work: debugging a fifty year old computer at a distance of 15 billion miles.
In related news, my own mission — Swift — went on the blink in March due to a failing gyroscope. A couple of weeks ago, we returned to operations in a two-gyroscope mode. I got to see this one up close and personal, being a member of the Science Operations team and an instrument lead. And it was … impressive. I can’t go into the details (partially because I don’t understand all of them) but the knowledge about a 20-year old spacecraft and the care taken with implementing changes was amazing to be a part of.
This is what NASA does. They solve problems. They figure out complex issues. They make the impossible possible. And we’ve gotten two important vehicles back online thanks to hard work and deep knowledge.
Between that, the eclipse and LIGO firing back up, it’s a good month to be an astronomer.
Worth Watching:
I still think the TikTok issue is way more complicated than just passing legislation to “divest” it, but our friends Stephen Kent and Jim Lokay talk through the issue here on The Final 5:
I had no idea who this individual was, but that’s why I let our friend Peter Pischke explain all things gaming and internet culture to me on his excellent Culture Scape channel. Really interesting:
Welcome to another episode of CultureScape with Peter Pischke! In this 3-hour long special, we sit down with the one and only Vito Gesualdi, our good friend, game journalist, comedian, lolcow, writer, and co-host of the popular podcast and YouTube show, The Biggest Problem in the Universe.🌌 We delve into the world of comedy, games journalism, the YouTube attention economy, @youngrippa59 Eric July, Superkiller, free speech, and some classic Vito moments with Belle Delphine and Dave Chappelle.🔍🎭 This interview is more than just a conversation. It’s a journey through Vito's life and how his trajectory has been reflected in the ever-changing media and internet landscape.🎥💡 So, buckle up and get ready for a rollercoaster ride through the universe of Vito Gesauldi.
In depth look at some of the most evil people on the planet from DW Docs:
North Korea. Geographically small, it nonetheless looms large in the geopolitical consciousness. The country is isolated, its population desperately poor. The Kim dynasty has ruled for three generations. How does this ruling family manage to make its power felt around the world? The nuclear program is central to North Korea's strategy. For decades, the regime devoted increasingly large amounts of its resources to acquiring the bomb. Then, in 2006, North Korea detonated a nuclear bomb for the first time. It was a signal to the world: North Korea was a force to be reckoned with.
The Kim dynasty has also acquired strong partners. China regards the country as a military buffer zone and keeps it heavily dependent on its economy. With China in its corner, North Korea is not intimidated by the United States. Now, North Korea is also allying with Russia and supporting it in the war against Ukraine.
Propaganda, intimidation and surveillance form the pillars of North Korean society. The state’s top-secret structures are largely opaque because the country has been hermetically sealed off from the outside world. The Kim dynasty began with regime founder Kim Il-sung, who was in power from 1948 to 1994. Creating a unique cult of personality, he built a regime according to his own ideas. After his death, his son Kim Jong-Il was in charge until his death 2011. Then, Kim Jong-Il’s son, Kim Jong-un, took over the leadership position. Should Kim Jong-un die, his sister or daughter are considered his likeliest successors.
The North Korean government exercises total control over the country and its population. With the help of a comprehensive surveillance system, the state engages in extreme repression, using everything from intimidation to prison camps and death sentences to keep its people in check. With the help of leading experts, including former officials of the Pyongyang regime, the film analyzes the strategies deployed by the North Korean government.