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posted by
mattie_p
on Sunday March 09 2014, @07:08AM
from the we're-just-as-not-evil-as-google dept.
from the we're-just-as-not-evil-as-google dept.
fx_68 writes:
Bloomberg Business Week reports that Disney is investing $1 billion (or milliard) in guest tracking. From the article:
Jason McInerney and his wife, Melissa, recently tapped their lunch orders onto a touchscreen at the entrance to the Be Our Guest restaurant at Florida's Walt Disney World Resort and were told to take any open seat. Moments later a food server appeared at their table with their croque-monsieur and carved turkey sandwiches. Asks McInerney, a once-a-year visitor to Disney theme parks: "How did they know where we were sitting?"
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I'm not a robot like you. I don't like having disks crammed into me... unless they're Oreos, and then only in the mouth.
-- Fry
(Score: 1, Interesting) by bucc5062 on Sunday March 09 2014, @07:25AM
What could possibly go wrong?
I remember two stories of theme parks that were created for the ultimate experience. Westworld and the episode in Star trek (Pleasure planet). In the first the company did something wonky, the robot goes on a killing spree and wipes out the park. In Star Trek people weren't aware of the planet's special features and "issues" ensued till all was resolved.
I doubt this would turn into a Westworld, but the sense is that people are just entering a well oiled machine. People are the raw material, money is the final product and once they enter the assembly line, they are well fleeced of their value.
I am not fan of the Rat. I really don't see the joy or value in standing in like for hours for a few moments on thrills. Companies like Disney steal our time and legally fleece our pockets and the sad things is, some say thank you very much. Really did not have thought to go to Disney, but after reading that article, it's a certainly.
The more things change, the more they look the same
(Score: 0, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 09 2014, @07:57AM
Disney is guilty of countless crimes against true culture. This is yet another.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by lx on Sunday March 09 2014, @08:24AM
You may hate everything Disney stands for (a sentiment shared by me) but that doesn't exclude their products from being part of culture.
If you care to point me to the Definitive List Of True And Approved Culture then my life will become so much easier.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Barrabas on Sunday March 09 2014, @10:05AM
E.D. Hirsh's book Cultural Literacy [wikipedia.org] has exactly what you're looking for.
The index lists topics that every English speaker needs to be familiar with to be considered culturally literate.
There are also a number of online cultural literacy tests [readfaster.com] to help you determine which areas need work, and Houghton Mifflin's The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy [bartleby.com] for reference.
You're welcome.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Daniel Dvorkin on Sunday March 09 2014, @12:18PM
FTFY.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by lx on Sunday March 09 2014, @01:05PM
To be honest, to me these lists more or less resemble Bluff your Way into Management books. What's the point of cramming in culture so you won't look out of place at a dinner party? Either live it with passion following your own compass or forget about it. Out there in the real world people talk about reality TV and the Oscars. High Culture has devolved into a niche interest for weird people.
(Score: 2) by demonlapin on Sunday March 09 2014, @06:05PM
(Score: -1, Troll) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Sunday March 09 2014, @11:03AM
If written carefully by an attorney, vetted by a title insurance broker, a Covenant on the deed for your new home can actually be quite a good thing.
In my own case, the deed to our place in Owl's Head, Maine stated that while our neighbors owned the land upon which our long (~100 foot) driveway lay, we had an easement to permit us to pass over it so would come enter from the road, pass through our neighbor's property onto our own property.
That is of crucial importance, because the owner just previous to the people we purchased from, was a self-employed autobody specialist who built our oversized two car garage with two separate workshops to one side, so that he would not have to lease a commercial auto shop in Rockland, thereby enabling him to work from home without paying for a lease.
That was quite specifically forbidden by the neighborhood's residential zoning, there were all many of infractions, like tow-trucks dragging in wreck automobiles in the middle of the night, so the town of Owl's Head was eventually successful in forcing that jackass to sell.
However while he was living there, working out of his garage, making all manner of loud noises 24/7 and so keeping the wonderful couple that later became our neighbors from ever getting any sleep, my neighbors were simply not permitted to prevent that jerk from using his driveway that cross their property.
Every Condominium Complex such as the one where I'm staying in my mom's basement as I write this, has a Neighborhood Association, more commonly known as a Condo Association.
I was dismayed when Mom told me she was buying a Condo, but in Mom's case, as well as my Aunt Peggy's case, they all worked out real well.
Everyone in Mom's complex pays monthly dues to the Condo Association, which uses most of that money for the hourly pay of a handyman who is always on-site for minor repairs. The condo association also takes care of mowing mom's lawn, tending to her flowerbed, repainting the exterior of her home. If she ever needed a new roof, the Condo Association would figure that out with Mom having to point it out to them, then hire a roofing contractor to replace it.
Unfortunately it is quite common for Neighborhood Associations to pull such jackass stunts as forbidding some guy to erect a flagpole then fly an American flag in the front yard of his own. To be clear, on his own property, but that's not his private property as it would be were he not a member of a Condo Association.
Not to be deterred, he painted his entire house with red and white strips, big blue arrays with huge white stars!
It is unlawful to forbid anyone at all to dry their laundry outside on a clothesline. From time to time a city will pass an ordinance to forbid clotheslines, but there have been many civil lawsuits, pressed by the Federal EPA or DOE or what have you. Always the laws are overturned, so that that city's residents are then free to dry their clothes outside.
However, it is also quite common for Neighborhood Associations to forbid clothelines. I don't actually know but I do suspect it's that with with my Mom's Condo Association. She has a well-designed laundry room, top quality washer and dryer, and no one in her complex or the other one right next to it dries their clothes outside.
In my understanding, while a Condo Association rule that forbids clotheslines is just as unlawful, the only ones who have standing to sue in Civil Court are members of the Condo Association who are actually "Injured Parties". That is, they are Condo owners who attempted to dry their clothes in the Sun, but were forced not to by their condo association.
GET THIS:
Quite a long time ago - like thirty or forty years ago, Disney got the idea in its head to invest in Florida Real Estate.
So it bought up a big chunk of land, then designed, built then sold to many new homeowners, a substantially large town called "Celebration".
I expect that if you were to rebuild the engine of your Ford pickup in the driveway of your own home, which is completely cool just about everywhere, would you to do that in Celebration, The Rat would come through your phone then give you a Telewedgie.
I don't recall much about it, but quite a long time ago, the cover of I think Mother Jones or some manner of Commie-Pinko publication, depicted and aerial view cartoon-like picture of Celebration. It's head and shoulders just out of view above the top edge of the illustration, the giant black body, block arms, white gloves and white shorts of The Rat had its arms all the way around Celebration, The Rat's hands clenched tightly together.
IIRC, many Celebration residents tried to do quite reasonable things that any homeowner could do on their own property, but the Celebration Neighborhood Association would send Disney Staff Legal Counsel to their doors to give them boots to their heads.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Daniel Dvorkin on Sunday March 09 2014, @12:16PM
Last year, at the age of 44, I visited a Disney park (Epcot) for the first time in my life. It was interesting, and all in all I'd say I had fun. No doubt, it was slickly packaged and planned entertainment, and kind of soulless--but it was very slickly packaged and planned entertainment. Disney's had a lot of practice at that, and they're very good at it. So while it's certainly not something I'd want to do all the time, I can see why adults would want to do it at least occasionally.
KIds, of course, are a different story. I remember from when my daughter was very young the drug-like effect Disney movies had on her, and I imagine if we'd had the money to take her to one of the more kid-oriented parks in those days she'd have gone nuts over it. And let's face it, part of being a parent is wearing a tolerant smile through childhood manias.
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