Kurt's Thoughts

China’s economy is weakening, and the government is taking action by censoring news about the economy. https://www.semafor.com/article/08/07/2023/china-restricts-economists-from-discussing-risks

China is losing the world. Companies don’t want to invest. Tourists don’t want to visit. https://archive.ph/0u9NS

Watching the “More Star Trek” channel on plutoTV – 24/7 Star Trek Deep Space Nine. All day, every day.

Just the theme gets me misty. DS9 is easily my favorite Star Trek of all time… although Star Trek: Strange New Worlds is giving it a run for its money. 😁

https://pluto.tv/en/live-tv/more-star-trek

Musk appears to be openly committing fraud.

Tesla employees celebrated as they canceled appointments & mistreated customers: Some celebrated canceling service appointments by putting their phones on mute & striking a metal xylophone, triggering applause from coworkers.

The team often closed hundreds of cases a week & staffers were tracked on their average number of diverted appointments/day.

Managers told the employees that they were saving Tesla about $1K for every canceled appointment.

https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/tesla-batteries-range/

Yael Tauman Kalai is a Sr. Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research & an adjunct professor at MIT. A theoretical computer scientist & cryptographer, she was awarded the 2022 ACM Prize in Computing.

She & her collaborators are updating their cryptographic schemes for a future in which quantum computers could threaten the security of today’s cryptographic methods.

“The Cryptographer Working to Protect Computations” – Quanta Magazine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMrpHQehRmY
#microsoft #quantum #security

I went to Knott’s Berry Farm for the 1st time in more than 25 years. I wanted to specifically check out:
✅Ghost Town Alive!
✅Fiesta Village
✅Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Restaurant
…cuz certain YouTubers have hyped it up a bit. So away we went.

Not gonna lie… I wasn’t initially impressed with the #knottsberryfarm #GhostTownAlive experience.

If you’ve been on #StarWars #GalacticStarcruiser you know that initially getting engaged can a little difficult for some but the #playDisney app provides rails for the story & really helps.

Here there is no app, so if you get lost, lose track of your ‘guy’ or the story, you’re kinda hosed.

Also, knowing to pick this up & read it at the start would’ve been very helpful to know initially.

But many of the actors are really good. I mean, they’re workin’ their asses off getting guests involved & dragging them into the story thru tasks & missions.

Really everywhere you turn you can get 1:1 time with someone looking to help you get engaged with the town of Calico.

For example, we walked into town & just started talking to someone named Flint & he just WENT OFF & gave us subtle hints on where to go & what to do & a “task” thru this slip of paper.

Here’s tip #1: There were rather few people at #knottsberryfarm #ghosttownalive on a Sunday compared to #Disneyland or even #disneycaliforniaadventure. If you’re gonna visit, this a great time to go.

Tip #2: The “Fastlane” pass wristband (skips/accelerates the line) for rides is SO worth it. At “Calico River Rapids”, we didn’t just skip the entire 1hr long line in the 90F heat… we rode 3x in a row w/ NO WAITING. In front of 100s of people waiting in line, it felt borderline criminal!

Depending on who you ally yourself with you can get some interesting quests or missions in #knottsberryfarm #ghosttownalive.

For example, my son was deputized by the Calico sheriff & got a warrant to search certain facilities to retrieve stolen objects. There’s a lot of ground to cover (it’s a big town) but he managed to accomplish some tasks & got the token in the image below for something he did.

I’ve heard others got other rewards or items for many other quests.

Another job we secured was hunting down the sheriff’s bounties. #Ghosttownalive seemed to be emulating the #GalaxysEdge #bountyhunters game but with real people.

We never caught him cuz we had to hustle over to “Mrs. Knott’s Chicken Restaurant” for lunch & we had a mixed experience:
❌You have to leave the park to go to the restaurant. And it’s a fair walk.
❌The chicken dinner was frankly just okay. Crispy, thinly battered but BLAND, Disney Plaza chicken is a whole level better. (cont.)

(cont.)
✅Boysenberry drink, jam & ice cream are excellent. Don’t pass on those.
✅Mashed potatoes maybe some of the best I’ve ever had at a restaurant.
❌Everyone’s salads were drowning in dressing. Really surprising & unappetizing.
✅Time from ordering to biscuits, salads & appetizers? 5min. Lightning fast.
❌Time from appetizers to main course? 45min. People that arrived after us got served their meals before us. At the 30min mark, I got stern about the kitchen eff up & things sped up.

Tip #3: Unless you want to wait in the heat w/ no air current for 30min – even with a Fastlane pass – don’t bother w/ “Knott’s Bear-y Tales: Return to the Fair”. (Track-driven, 3D glasses, infrared gun video game ride)

The Knott’s app will say the ride has a 5min wait & that’s b——-. The staff here load SO SLOWLY is criminal but I don’t actually know that it’s their fault: There seems to be a ton of safety concerns. The carriage doors don’t lock, it’s not clear when to get out, etc.

Tip #4: Wanna cool down? The Mix-It Up Ice Cream shop at #knottsberryfarm #ghosttownalive has ICEEs. And their exclusive flavor? Boysenberry. And it’s really good compared to cherry & strawberry.

Only problem is the line is gonna be long. 15min in the sun but it’s probably worth it. And once you get to the counter, service is super quick. Have someone in your party leave the line and go hunt down a picnic table with shade to sit at in front of the Calico Saloon or the shop.

I really loved the detail Knott’s put into the town of Calico. Everything feels authentic & the majority of the actors are fantastic.

As an aside, I never got to go to “Miner’s Mac & Spuds”. I love baked potatoes & my son loves Mac & cheese so this would have been a great place to check out but we ran out of juice by 6PM & had to head home.

#knottsberryfarm #ghosttownalive was worth the visit. We’ll come back for #knottsscaryfarm to check that out seeing that the event is notorious.

So Twitter decided to send a threatening letter to an organisation who were researching hate speech on Twitter .

They fired back with a beautiful letter on their own.

I’m sure Twitter isn’t going through with their threat, but I kinda hope they will. The discovery will be gorgeous.

Download the letter here: https://counterhate.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Letter-to-A.-Spiro-from-R.-Kaplan-re-CCDH.pdf