A blog about societal, cultural, and civilizational collapse, and how to stave it off or survive it. Named after the legendary character "Crazy Eddie" in Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's "The Mote in God's Eye." Expect news and views about culture, politics, economics, technology, and science fiction.
You've heard of fake purses, and fake food, and fake concert tickets. But fake fossils? Turns out forging evidence of life in the ancient past isn't as uncommon as you might think. From another work by the infamous forger of the Piltdown Man to the carved footprints that fueled a conspiracy theory, here are seven of the weirdest fossil forgeries of all time.
Hosted by: Savannah Geary (they/them)
I knew about Piltdown Man, which is why I blogged about it twice, now a third time, but I had forgotten about Charles Dawson's other fossil forgery, the toad in the hole, which seems lazy in comparison. I hadn't heard about some of the others, particularly the augmented cheetah. Too bad — Acinonyx kurteni was a good name that is now invalid.
That completes the celebration of today's holiday. Follow over the jump for some of the most read holiday posts during the 15th year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.
Donald Trump (James Austin Johnson) promotes his new album.
This skit was as much about making fun of the January 6 Choir as the indictment itself; the music is much more transparent than the indictment, which hasn't been unsealed yet. We'll probably find out Tuesday, when TFG surrenders voluntarily. I'll leave it to any of my readers who are law enforcement or lawyers whether that counts as an arrest.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like President Biden calling for an assault weapons ban.
TFG's legal troubles, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Ron DeSantis all got the attention they deserved, but the biggest reaction was to the April Fools prank Michael Che played on Colin Jost. It helped make for a fast five minutes.
Weekend Update anchors Colin Jost and Michael Che tackle the week's biggest news, like a sperm donor being sued for increasing the risk of accidental incest.
I think Colin should pay less attention to Punxsutawney Phil and pay more attention to his local groundhog, Staten Island Chuck, who predicted an early spring. That prediction came closer to the truth for New York City.
Michelangelo's David (Michael Longfellow) stops by Weekend Update to address the recent controversy surrounding an image of him being included in a school curriculum.
I remember the days of "banned in Boston." Now it's "banned in Florida."
I'm concluding the highlights of last night's episode with Quinta Brunson Monologue - SNL, which continues the theme of education.
First-time host Quinta Brunson talks about working on Abbott Elementary and how poorly teachers are treated in the United States.
I agree, pay teachers more.
Follow over the jump for a retrospective of the top posts showcasing videos from SNL.
The myth of the Missing Link--the idea that there must be a specimen that partly resembles an ape but also partly resembles a modern human--is persistent. But the reality is that there is no missing link in our lineage, because that’s not how evolution works.
PBS Eons used Piltdown Man mostly to talk about its effect on the rest of paleoanthropology and how it took changes in evolutionary thinking and new technologies to finally discredit it so that the discipline could progress. It's an attention grabber that almost functions as a MacGuffin — almost, as its story is more or less resolved and its significance established. I say more or less because the likely perpetrators are strongly suspected, but not confirmed. PBS Eons returned to the subject in its most recent Mysteries of Deep Time podcast, The Case of the Most Famous Fake Human Fossil.
This episode is a mystery in the most classic literary sense of the word. It’s a whodunit detective story that spans more than a century - the saga of the Piltdown Man Hoax. From a gravel pit in Sussex, we follow the faked fossils through history, to what’s now the Natural History Museum in London, where scientists are using new technologies to try to unravel the identity of the fraudster, and explore how this hoax impacted the study of human origins.
The podcast episode focuses much more on the fake fossil and the people who likely created it than on its effect on the rest of science. It makes for a good unsolved mystery as well as a good hoax to examine on April Fools Day.
That's it for today's holiday. Follow over the jump for the some of the top holiday posts of the eleventh year of Crazy Eddie's Motie News.
Seth takes a closer look at the former top prosecutor for the Capitol riots saying that evidence from the attack could support sedition charges as federal investigators continue to examine Trump’s role in fomenting the insurrection.
Happy April Fools Day! As I wrote yesterday, I have something appropriately silly for the day in a "ha, ha, only serious" way. Without any further ado, I present The Furries Are On to Something from Full Frontal with Samantha Bee.*
Before things went to hell in a handbasket, correspondent Amy Hoggart interviewed a group of people (remember those?) who pride themselves on maintaining a hopeful and welcoming community, no matter the circumstances.
Furries get a bad rap for being weirdos, but this segment shows that they embody mutual respect and inclusiveness in the way they run their community, demonstrating that one can find virtue in the strangest places. As I promised, "ha, ha, only serious."
*As far as I can tell, this is only the second time I've mentioned furries on this blog. The first was when I wondered if K-Dog was a furry for linking to a drawing of a sexy anthropomorphic animal (a lab rat?) in a response to me. That was five years ago.
I promised an April Fools Day entry and I have something appropriately silly, Senator Mike Lee's presentation making fun of the GreenNew Deal and the equally mocking reactions to it.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) took an unconventional approach to blast the Democratic plan to tackle climate change on March 26.
It says something that the least stupid of the three pop-culture prop-comedy examples Lee used was the tauntaun from "Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back." One of them actually was used for warmth in the movie and, according to the canon version of the tauntaun entry on Wookieepedia, it is a lizard, although I prefer the legends version, which calls it a reptomammal. And, no, none of this is an April Fools joke.
CNN's Anderson Cooper's Ridiculist looks at Sen. Mike Lee's (R-UT) use of poster-board sized pictures to mock the Green New Deal, the proposed Democratic solution to climate change.
HAHAHAHA! OAC's response is priceless! Also, I'm with Cooper; I feel sorry for the young woman who was assisting Lee with the posters. As for the Aquaman reference, he could at least have used something from the current movie instead of the Super Friends cartoon.
While Stephen Colbert barely showed the tauntaun, he made his own Star Wars reference in Colbert Gives Mike Lee The Mike Lee Treatment, calling him "the Jar-Jar Binks of the Senate."
Stephen gives Senator Mike Lee a taste of his own prop-comedy-based medicine.
If anything, AOC's comeback is even better the second time. Her line needed a studio audience for full effect.
Colbert also pointed out some of the problems with Lee's solution, more children. The other is that all environmental problems are reflections two factors, population and affluence, something I first pointed out in Lisa Hymas of Grist expounds on the A in I=P*A*T.
I teach my environmental science students the following equation to describe environmental impact: I=P*A*T, where I is impact, P is population, A is affluence, and T is technology. It's the A and inefficient T that is multiplying the impact of the effect of the relatively small P in the developed world, especially in North America.
Without more efficient technology, having more children, especially here in the U.S., is almost certainly guaranteed to make any environmental issue, including climate change, worse, not better. Lee could not have picked a more counterproductive idea, unless it was intended to troll environmentalists, in which case it was very effective. At this point, he could say "April Fools!" Unfortunately, I know enough about the culture of Utah, which Lee represents, to know that he was probably serious.
The son of Russian-Jewish parents, a social liberal, and lifelong activist, Bernstein made a surprising choice: the Roman Catholic Mass. But instead of a straightforward, purely musical setting of the Latin liturgy, he created a broadly eclectic theatrical event by placing the 400-year-old religious rite into a tense, dramatic dialog with music and lyrics of the 20th century vernacular, using this dialectic to explore the crisis in faith and cultural breakdown of the post-Kennedy era. ... Bernstein and Schwartz envisioned MASS not as a concert piece, but as a fully staged, dramatic pageant. They mixed sacred and secular texts, using the traditional Latin liturgical sequence as the fundamental structure and inserting tropes in contemporary English that question and challenge the prescribed service, as well as meditations that demand time for reflection. They took the Tridentine Mass, a highly-ritualized Catholic rite meant to be recited verbatim, and applied to it a very Jewish practice of debating and arguing with God. The result was a piece that powerfully communicated the confusion and cultural malaise of the early 1970s, questioning authority and advocating for peace.
As the Cadets prepare for the 2017 DCI Championships in Indianapolis, VIC FIRTH gives you an exclusive up-close look at their rehearsal run-through during finals week!
That's the most recent use of the composition in The Cadets' repertoire. Follow over the jump for the two earlier ones.
[E]lection officials are still concerned about systems’ vulnerability to hacking by bad actors who gain access to individual machines on Election Day, and about the public’s ability to draw a distinction between small-scale in-person hacks and large-scale remote ones. There is no shortage of demonstrations of the former. Over a long weekend last summer, hackers at a conference in Las Vegas, DefCon, managed to breach all five models of paperless voting machines, as well as an electronic poll book. The hack received a great deal of media attention. One machine, called a WINvote by Advanced Voting Solutions, was hacked in under two hours and reprogrammed to play Rick Astley’s 1987 song “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
The greatest threat to American voting machines might not be hacking, but old age.
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In our latest collaboration with ProPublica, we take a look at US election security and the status of American voting machines.
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In 2017, hackers Rick Rolled a voting machine in Las Vegas. Even though the machine was out-of-date and the demonstration didn’t replicate real-life conditions, the stunt brought national attention to an election crisis that has been building ever since the “hanging chad” fiasco that occurred during the 2000 Presidential election recount.
In her story on American election security, ProPublica’s Kate Rabinowitz revealed that many state and local election officials are suffering a funding crisis. Without the money needed to maintain and update electronic voting machines, officials are having to make do with equipment that was manufactured in 2008 or even earlier. At that time, most machines had recently been replaced thanks to the 2002 Help America Vote Act, but few have been updated since.
By isolating machines from the internet and keeping them in secure locations, officials are able to reduce the threat of widespread hacking, but the machines are plagued with more mundane technical problems that states have been slow to address and could have major consequences for future elections.
On the bright side, the omnibus spending bill that was passed in March 2018 allocated $380 million dollars for state election officials to update their voting infrastructure. Whether that money is actually provided and how it will be spent, however, remains to be seen.
I hope that money actually makes it to the states and municipalities that need it. I also hope the state and local governments heed the warning in ProPublica's report: "For others, though, the DefCon report was a resounding signal to end the use of paperless voting machines." That's no April Fools.
Stay tuned for the last post of March, followed by a real April Fools post. A drum corps Easter on April Fools Day anyone?
Researchers think they've figured out why some people easily believe things that aren't true.
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"Erroneous beliefs are difficult to correct. Worse, popular correction strategies may backfire and further increase the spread and acceptance of misinformation. People evaluate the truth of a statement by assessing its compatibility with other things they believe, its internal consistency, amount of supporting evidence, acceptance by others, and the credibility of the source."
Here's to figuring out the hoaxes intended for entertainment, then using the same skills to protect oneself from the fake news with more serious intent than mere amusement.
After I found out yesterday that Trump had finally collected a majority of delegates to the Republican convention, so he is now officially the presumptive nominee, I searched YouTube for an appropriately comedic reaction. I found one in Stephen Colbert's Here's What Put Donald Trump Over The Top, although I've always thought Trump was over the top.
Hearing the news that Donald Trump has clinched the Republican nomination puts Stephen in the fetal position.
Yeah, Stephen, I wanted to lie down on hearing the news, too.
As viewers can see and hear, Trump's earning the nomination may have had top billing in the monologue, but it wasn't alone on stage. The possibility of Sanders debating Trump shared the limelight and showed even more comedic potential.
Senator Sanders talks about the possibility of debating Donald Trump and competing against Secretary Hillary Clinton in California.
Jimmy even has an idea of what a Trump-Sanders debate would look and sound like.
Recently we showed what it looks like if you play Donald Trump at half-speed. We tried it with Bernie too, but it wasn’t as good. Then we slowed Trump down and sped Bernie up and Jimmy thinks that if they end up debating, he’d love it to go something like this.
Bernie Sanders (James Adomian) and Donald Trump (Anthony Atamanuik) debate their likeness to Jesus and launch attack ads in the @midnight presidential debate.
A real debate would be more substantive, but it wouldn't be as funny.
As for whether it's a good idea, I'm not sure. If it's bad for Clinton, she should debate Sanders one last time instead. If it's good for Clinton, she should continue what she's doing, which is ignoring Sanders. On the other hand, it would make for great TV. Stay tuned.
I told my readers to "Stay tuned to see what pranks I find on the web today" in last night's STORY is the theme for April 2016. I found a good collection of them from Vox--one-stop shopping!
April Fools' Day is always a good reminder of how much time someone spent to come up with and market products that will almost certainly never exist, all while trying to be funny.
So far, Google fared worst: Its Mic Drop button infuriated users so much that they had to apologize. But buyer beware: If you thought about purchasing any of these new products announced today, the good (or bad) news is that they don't exist.
Along with the hoaxes, there are also products and services intended to be jokes that actually exist, including the following.
This Zumba-Roomba collaboration on a vacuum that also plays music was already invented by Tom Haverford, Aziz Ansari's character on Parks and Rec.
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Horrifyingly, preschool student loans, an April Fools' Day joke from CommonBond, actually already exist in New York.
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And you actually can search the Google Photos service by emoji.
So what is the BlogHer Writing Lab theme this month?
STORY
Hamilton ends the play with an important question: "Who lives, who dies, who tells your story?" Is it you? If it isn't you, is there someone you trust shaping the narrative? Is your story fated to be lost to time? And what becomes of all those ideas floating around inside your brain?
The beauty of the Internet age is that everyone has the ability to get their story out there. You can write a blog, Tweet your world, or photograph the whole thing for Instagram. Doing so not only records the important moments in your life but tells the rest of the world who you are, what is important to you, and what you believe.
This month, we're talking stories over at the BlogHer Writing Lab. We're looking at who owns a story, how you write about other people who are characters in your story, and how you set some firm blogging boundaries.
... So join the April BlogHer Writing Lab and tell your story.
The prompts for this month actually look interesting, especially the first two and a few others. I might use them. After all, I almost alwaysobserveAprilFoolsDay on this blog, even if I sometimes observe it a day late. Stay tuned to see what pranks I find on the web today.
Also, I like the idea of writing about what other bloggers have to say about me. I can think of two who have been complimentary, Paul Wartenberg and Infidel 753, and one who has been not necessarily critical but not friendly either, John Michael Greerthe Archdruid. I've mentioned the first two writing about me before, including in two of the recentretrospectives, but I've never passed along what Greer thinks of me when he's not responding to me directly. Time for that to change.
As for the rest, I have lots of my story, the story of Detroit and Michigan, and stories about and from speculative fiction media to pass along. I expect it will be as fun for my readers aa it will be for me!
I started today with A prank for April Fools Day in which January Jones told Jimmy Fallon of the Tonight Show about a prank she pulled a few days ago. That wasn't really an April Fools joke, as it was early, but it made for a good placeholder until the real ones for today rolled in. They have, beginning with CNN's Best and worst April Fool's jokes.
Best and worst April Fool's jokes from Cheetos fragrance to an edible pizza box. CNN's Jeanne Moos reports.
I used both the corporate PR and humor labels for Daily Kos on 'Cosmos' and manufactured ignorance, but that was humor about corporate PR that wasn't itself funny. I've never used it when the corporate PR was intentionally funny--until now. Happy April Fools Day!
Follow over the jump for more geeky humor for the day.
There is an event in the more distant future that fits one of the themes of this blog, disasters with a science fiction flavor, perfectly--the first of two close approaches of the asteroid Apophis, which is predicted to happen on Friday, April 13, 2029. The second pass of the asteroid will also happen on April 13th of 2036. So, today's date, April 13th, will be day of the year when both approaches of Apophis happen. I christen it Apophis Day!
NASA will likely get $100 million next year to jump-start an audacious program to drag an asteroid into orbit around the moon for research and exploration purposes, U.S. Senator Bill Nelson says.
The $100 million will probably be part of President Barack Obama's federal budget request for 2014, which is expected to be released next week, Nelson (D-FL) said. The money is intended to get the ball rolling on the asteroid-retrieval project, which also aims to send astronauts out to the captured space rock in 2021.
"This is part of what will be a much broader program," Nelson said Friday (April 5), during a visit to Orlando. "The plan combines the science of mining an asteroid, along with developing ways to deflect one, along with providing a place to develop ways we can go to Mars."
Just to summarize, the goal is to send humans to explore an asteroid. Instead of the mission going to the asteroid belt, an asteroid is brought close enough to Earth for the available technology. I'd call it cheating, except that it's so clever.
Having trouble keeping up with all the April Fools' Day pranks on the Internet? Scott rounds them all up for you. From Google's seven different April Fools' gags to Toshiba's fake game console to ThinkGeek's multiple (awesome) fake products, we have you covered.
When was the last time you were genuinely tricked by an April Fools' joke? Let us know in the comments below.
Methinks they doth protest too much.
As for the last time I was genuinely tricked by an April Fools' joke, I really don't remember. However, I almost was when I read on Michigan Liberal today that Brewer was going to run for Congress, challenging Sander Levin. I thought that was nuts, and reading the comments convinced me that it was a prank. Sure enough, it was. Good thing. I wouldn't have voted for Brewer if it were true, just like I was prepared to vote against him in February.
I started this month with a good news post based on a press release that assumed Business as Usual (BAU) will return. I may as well close out the month with a post based on another optimistic BAU press release, this time from one of my alma maters.
University of Michigan: Oakland economy is in the early stages of sustained recovery
ANN ARBOR, Mich.—After posting modest job losses last calendar year following an abysmal 2009, the Oakland County economy should add nearly 29,000 jobs over the next three years—the best years since 2000, say University of Michigan economists.
That looks really good, doesn't it?
In their annual forecast of the Oakland County economy, George Fulton and Don Grimes of the U-M Institute for Research on Labor, Employment, and the Economy say that Oakland will add nearly 11,000 jobs this year, another 8,000 next year and more than 9,700 in 2013.
This year looks like the best of the three and next year the worst of the three. If you're a politician up for re-election in 2012, that may not be the best news, but at least the projection isn't for job losses that year, either.
Last calendar year, Oakland County lost less than 1,200 jobs after losing nearly 60,000 jobs in 2009, and is currently adding jobs—the majority in sectors most tied to the New Economy.
Now does adding 29,000 jobs in three years look that good? Not when you realize that more than twice as many were lost in one year.
Even so, the good news continues
"The resurgence in the Oakland County economy appears to be no fluke, not related to any unusual events, but rather is backed by improvements in the U.S. economy, a reborn auto industry and the county's still-strong economic fundamentals and forward-looking policy initiatives," Fulton said. "Although the recovery is slower than what we've seen in the most recent expansions—a trend we also anticipate for the nation as a whole—we do see the county economy as being on an upward and sustained growth trajectory.
Until the start of the Great Recession, Oakland County was consistently among the ten richest counties in the country. It isn't any more, although it's still the wealthiest county in the state. Looks like things are reverting to the mean, which means climbing back up the rankings.
Despite the economic difficulties of the past decade, Oakland County still remains among the premier local economies in the country, with its coveted AAA bond rating and high ranking among 33 comparable counties in the United States on a series of measures that indicate future economic prosperity.
"Oakland ranks 8th overall—an impressive standing, especially considering that a number of these counties house some of the most thriving local economies in the nation," Grimes said. "This is even more impressive in light of Oakland's location within the state that has become notorious for its recent position near the bottom of the economic barrel.
"It is clear that whether we assess Oakland County with respect to how it is positioned in key economic fundamentals across all regions of the United States, or more restrictively here among its peers, there are few local economies with a more favorable composite profile for succeeding in the New Economy."
See, I told you, climbing back up the rankings.
Speaking of good news, is there any more?
"The net gain in jobs forecast over the next three years (including 2011), however, indicates only that the broad decline in employment has ended. It does not mean that the economy is back to normal. For many residents, the economic struggles will continue."
And who are the ones most likely to struggle, in addition to the long-term unemployed?
While the private sector in Oakland County will post job gains over the next three years,
Nearly 31,000 in fact.
jobs in the government sector, which includes public schools and local government administration, will continue to shrink, with more than 2,000 jobs lost through 2013. Nearly 70 percent of these losses will occur this year.
Remember I said that slow growth might harm the chances of any politician up for election next year? There are some politicians who public sector employees don't care for already who might be up for re-election, after a fashion, this year. Watch the following clip from WOOD-TV.
A longshot effort to recall Republican Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder can begin collecting signatures aimed at getting the measure on the ballot.
ETA: Also watch the following clips from WXYZ-TV.
Hundreds protest as Governor Snyder delivers address
April Fools is over, and so is focusing on "business as usual." It's time to return to what this blog is about, which is fighting off or surviving collapse.
Since it's Saturday, it's the day when I survey scientific, environmental, and economic research news from the local universities. This week, Michigan State University receives top billing, as they have a plethora of environmenal news.
EAST LANSING, Mich. — Michigan State University will kick off Earth Month festivities this Friday, April 1, with the annual Dim Down program.
Sponsored by the MSU Office of Campus Sustainability, the program is designed to encourage faculty, staff and students to engage in collaborative energy conservation.
Faculty, staff, and students are encouraged to participate in voluntary energy conservation each Friday from noon to 1 p.m. throughout the month of April by turning off lights, computer monitors, speakers and other nonessential items.
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“The Dim Down program has very successful in the past several years at MSU,” said Ashley Hale, senior communication undergraduate and founder of the Dim Down Program. “In 2009, Dim Down events equated to a 3 percent decrease in overall energy usage on campus.”
That's not much, but it's better than nothing.
Each week an event will be hosted by the Office of Campus Sustainability to encourage participation and facilitate discussion on environmental issues.
Oh, cool. What's on the agenda?
*April 1: Turning Trash into Treasure — A crafting activity designed to help participants learn how to reuse household materials and reduce land-filled waste. The event will take place from noon to 1 pm. in the Union lobby. Craft materials will be provided.
Darn, missed it--and it looks like it would have been fun, too.
What else?
*April 8: Sustainability Research Symposium — Research conducted at MSU with a focus on sustainability will be presented in Wonders Hall Kiva from noon to 2 p.m.
*April 15: State of the State Energy Discussion — Learn more about statewide energy policy, MSU’s Energy Transition Planning Process and energy efficiency at home from noon to 1 p.m. in Wonders Hall Kiva.
*April 22: Take-a-Tour — Stop by the MSU Surplus Store and Recycling Center from 12-1 and take a tour of the facility which has earned LEED gold certification.
*April 29: Dim Down Walk — Celebrate a month of energy conservation and enjoy the sunshine. The walk starts at noon in front of the Hannah Administration Building.
(Washington, D.C.) Driven by improving same-store sales and customer traffic levels as well as growing optimism among restaurant operators, the outlook for the restaurant industry improved in February. The National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index (RPI) – a monthly composite index that tracks the health of and outlook for the U.S. restaurant industry – stood at 100.7 in February, up 0.4 percent from its January level. In addition, February represented the fifth time in the last six months that the RPI stood above 100, which signifies expansion in the index of key industry indicators.
“February’s RPI gain was driven by solid improvements in the same-store sales and customer traffic indicators,” said Hudson Riehle, senior vice president of the Research and Knowledge Group for the Association. “Restaurant operators reported positive same-store sales and customer traffic results in February, after January’s results were dampened by extreme weather conditions in many parts of the country.”
“In addition to improving sales and traffic indicators, restaurant operators’ outlook for capital spending hit a 40-month high, while their expectations for staffing growth rose to the highest level in nearly four years,” Riehle added.
Oh, wow, great news!
The Current Situation Index, which measures current trends in four industry indicators (same-store sales, traffic, labor and capital expenditures), stood at 99.4 in February – up 0.9 percent from its January level. However, the Current Situation Index remained below 100 for the fourth consecutive month, as the softness in the labor and capital expenditure indicators outweighed the gains in same-store sales and customer traffic.
Don't worry, spending and employment will follow!
Restaurant operators reported a solid improvement in same-store sales in February. Forty-nine percent of restaurant operators reported a same-store sales gain between February 2010 and February 2011, up from 39 percent of operators who reported higher same-store sales in January. In comparison, 37 percent of operators reported a same-store sales decline in February, down from 44 percent of operators who reported lower sales in January.
Restaurant operators also reported a net increase in customer traffic levels in February. Forty-one percent of restaurant operators reported an increase in customer traffic between February 2010 and February 2011, up from 35 percent of operators who reported higher traffic in January. In comparison, 39 percent of operators reported a traffic decline in February, down from 44 percent in January.
See, I told you, good news!
The Expectations Index, which measures restaurant operators’ six-month outlook for four industry indicators (same-store sales, employees, capital expenditures and business conditions), stood at 101.9 in February – up slightly from January’s level of 101.8. In addition, the Expectations Index stood above the 100 level for the seventh consecutive month, which signifies expansion in the forward-looking indicators.
Restaurant operators remain solidly optimistic that their sales levels will improve in the months ahead. Forty-eight percent of restaurant operators expect to have higher sales in six months (compared to the same period in the previous year), up slightly from 47 percent who reported similarly last month. In comparison, just 12 percent of restaurant operators expect their sales volume in six months to be lower than it was during the same period in the previous year, down from 14 percent who reported similarly last month.
Bolstered by an improving sales outlook, restaurant operators’ plans for capital spending rose to its highest level in 40 months. Fifty-two percent of restaurant operators plan to make a capital expenditure for equipment, expansion or remodeling in the next six months, up from 48 percent who reported similarly last month.
For the fifth consecutive month, restaurant operators reported a positive outlook for staffing gains in the months ahead. Twenty-six percent of restaurant operators plan to increase staffing levels in six months (compared with the same period in the previous year), while just 10 percent said they expect to reduce staffing levels in six months.
See, I told you, nothing but good news, as the restaunteurs think things will improve for them! Business as usual will resume!
While restaurant operators are bullish about their sales prospects in the months ahead, they are somewhat less optimistic about the direction of the overall economy. Thirty-four percent of restaurant operators said they expect economic conditions to improve in six months, down from 42 percent who reported similarly last month and the lowest level in six months. In comparison, 14 percent of operators said they expect economic conditions to worsen in the next six months, up from 10 percent who reported similarly last month.
April Fools!
Hey, what did you expect out of me today, a rickroll?
