Roller Coaster Safety

You hear stories about people being stuck upside down on a roller coaster for 4 hours and that someone lost their memory on the mind eraser, but if you think about it, you don't really hear about any of this very often.  It turns out this is because roller coasters are actually the safest rides at all theme parks.

The reason why theme parks do this is simple, they invest so much money in these rides that any repeated problems could put them out of business. 

Roller Coasters are inspected every day before anyone is allowed to go on the ride.  Yes, I know it is a pain having to wait in line watching the ride run a few times before you can go on it, but safety is a priority and better the ride break down with no one on it anyways.   Each morning before a park opens maintenance workers will go through making inspections.   A few of the operations they go through are...

Lubrication:  tracks need to be properly lubricated otherwise the friction can decrease the life span of the roller coaster.

Train inspection:  All roller coasters have an area where the bottom of the coaster can be checked out for any problems or missing bolts.

Obstruction Removal:  It is a necessity to remove any and all objects from the tracks to ensure no problem with the running of the ride.  This is done by the worker walking the track and making sure that there are to be no foreign objects on the tracks.

Testing:  As I mentioned earlier there is a ride testing before opening, and also before reopening a ride if there were any problems during the earlier days of operation.

It is nice to know that these thrill rides are only a way to scare you and there really isn't anything to be scared about.  I never had a problem getting on a ride before but now I know that I should feel just as safe getting on one.

Creepy Animation

Mars Needs Mom was supposed to be a fun animated movie but apparently too real is a bad thing.  Below it the article written by Ryan Nakishima an AP Business writer.

Too Real Means Too Creepy in New Disney Animation

Computer animation has a problem: When it gets too realistic, it starts creeping people out.



Most recently, moviegoers complained about the near-realistic depiction of humans in Disney's 3-D flick "Mars Needs Moms."


A theory called the "uncanny valley" says we tend to feel attracted to inanimate objects with human traits, the way a teddy bear or a rag doll seems cute. Our affection grows as an object looks more human. But if it looks too human, we suddenly become repulsed.
Instead of seeing what's similar, we notice the flaws — and the motionless eyes or awkward movements suddenly make us uncomfortable.
"Mars" may have plunged to the bottom of this valley of fear.


"People always comment on things feeling strangely dead around the eyes," said Chuck Sheetz, an animation director of "The Simpsons" and a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles. "If it gets too literal, it starts to feel false or has a strange effect."


Skin texture that is slightly off can especially leave people feeling unsettled, said Patrick Markey, a psychologist and director of Villanova University's Interpersonal Research Laboratory.
The near-realistic animation style championed by producer Robert Zemeckis uses motion-capture technology, where actors are covered with dots and skin suits and have their performances captured on computer. The dots provide the frame, and the rest is filled in with computerized graphics.
AP

In this film publicity image released by Walt Disney Studios, the character Milo's Mom, voiced by Joan Cusack, is shown in a scene from "Mars Needs Moms." (AP Photo/Walt Disney Studios) Close"Mars" creates humans that are more realistic and detailed than Zemeckis' earlier attempts in such movies as "Beowulf" and "The Polar Express" — which were also criticized for inviting this discomfort. The greater detail might have made things worse.
Doug McGoldrick, who took his two daughters to see the movie, said the faces of the main characters "were just wrong." Their foreheads were lifeless and plastic-looking, "like they used way too much botox or something," said the 41-year-old photographer in the Chicago suburb of River Forest, Ill.
Marc Kelley, a 32-year-old pastor in Allegan, Mich., who went with his two young children, said he found the renditions of characters "all annoying in their own way."
Indeed, when the mother of the main character Milo mentioned the word "zombies" at the start of the movie, it conjures up a feeling that the characters themselves are undead.


Animation experts say the key to success is to be only authentic enough to tug at our heart strings.
The best example of this was "Avatar," the 2009 blockbuster that made $2.8 billion in theaters worldwide. The humanoid, but blue-bodied Na'vi were alien enough not to trigger our inner rejection mechanism.
"My own personal opinion is try to stay away from photo-real with a human," said Greg Philyaw, the business development director at Giant Studios, which captured the performance of human actors for their digital re-creation in "Avatar." "Subconsciously you know what you're looking at isn't quite right."
The Walt Disney Co., by its actions, has already voted against the super-real animation format


Last March, it said it would shut down the Zemeckis-run company ImageMovers Digital, which made "Mars," to cut costs. Several months ago, Disney also nixed a plan to fund and distribute Zemeckis' "Yellow Submarine," a half-finished work he is now free to shop to other studios.

Disney would not comment for this story, and Zemeckis declined interview requests through an agent.




It is very interesting in the sense that something too real or life-like is not appealing considering that animation has really developed over the years.  Maybe this means that the world just would not be ready for robots that look like humans.  Actually, I think the small outcry over this proves that.  How weird would it be to not know if it was a robot walking the street and you didn't know it?  All right I know this may be taking it a bit far but with all the crazy technology we have gained over the last decade it could really just be around the corner.  


As Nakishima states only be as real to tug at the heart strings is a relative way to explain it but I do completely agree with it.  This may be a stretch but look at Dobby from Harry Potter, he looks real but not too real and you really do feel for the poor little house elf.  Maybe overtime, this idea of too real will fade but in an industry designed to entertain the public, you have to give them what they want.

Disney Going Green

From my senior design project, Low Cost Residential Energy Efficiency, I have learned a lot of ways for homeowners to save a little bit of money and energy in their homes.  From this, I wondered if Disney has been doing anything about this.  Well, it turns out Disney has been and over the last 5 years has reduced energy consumption about 9%.  With Earth day just past and with all of the hype over the Disney Earth movies, it is nice to know that they are doing a little bit at the parks to help out with this.
Here is the video...

This video focused on mainly making changes like not turning on rides to early or changing the the LED lightbulbs, but the biggest part to take away from this is pay attention to detail.

Paying attention to the little things even in a home can save you big bucks on the energy bill and be better for the enviornment.  This was actually a part of my Senior Design Project, by making little changes to their home and being aware what is going to save you money is half the batte.  For example, yes turn off your faucet when you brush your teeth but not just to conserve water but to conserve the energy to heat that water as well.  Overall, it is just nice to see that yes a big corporation will in turn save money from these changes but it the future they will also help the enviornment!

WDW Monorail

In Orlando, Florida, the Disney Parks are separated from each other and there is a monorail that connects them and actually can directly take people from certain hotels directly to the parks.  It is really an ingenious way in order to keep traffic down around the parks.  The monorail first was opened on October 1, 1971.  Now, with a few new modifications since the original, the train can reach a top speed of 55mph and runs for 14.7 miles.

The monorail system takes approximately 50 million guests to and from the parks each year.  It have three main services, the express, resort and epcot. 

The structure of the monorail is of concrete beams, with a polystyrene core to allow for a lighter weight. This weight difference is from the different densities of the two materials.  Concrete has a density of 2.24g/cm^3 while polystyrene is 1.05g/cm^3.When designing such a system the weight needs to be taken into account as the structure is suspended in the air.  With the stronger and denser outer material, the weight bearing beams can be just as strong with not as much weight.  You may ask why not just use the polystyrene for the entire beam.  This answer is simple, the concrete has a strong compressive strength and is more durable than the polystyrene so the two together are the only way to get the best of both worlds with a strong lighter structure.

Each train of the monorail has a capacity to hold 364 passengers with up to six trains running at a time.  The trains run on eight 113 HP motors connected to a 600 v busbar system.  This busbar system consists of thick copper or aluminum strips that will conduct electricity to the motors.  A switchboard will be operated to allow for the different amounts of power to the monorail.  I could not find much more information on the operational part but I will try and find out more and keep you posted.

Magical Portholes

Inside the Disney Dream, the Imagineers wanted to make sure every visitor had the same experience with having a port hole in their room.  This is included even with the rooms that are inside the ship.  If you were on the left or right side of the boat or in the captains terms, port side or starboard they could have the same view.  This is done actually pretty simply by just having a fake porthole placed in each room and then having a camera feed to the port hole which would be a live feed.  But being Disney they took that one step further and decided to make them magical.  This was done by adding a picture of a Disney character onto the video feed.  For such a new concept, it really is an easily implemented idea that can make everyone on the ship feel as though they got a full view of the outside of the ship.

Video Blog: Harry Potter vs. Mickey Mouse

Touchbiance Interactive Floors

On the new Disney Cruise ship, the Disney Dream, there are a lot of new technologies.  One of these new technologies is a system called touchbaince.  This new system is an interactive projection system.  It allows people to control images.  I have seen this technology in my local mall at the Colorado Mills but Disney has set it up on their cruise ship.  These images can be displayed on a wall, screen, ceiling, floor, or really any surface.  The system reads the body at 30 times per second and the image has a pixel sensitivity of 19200 pixels.  This system is based off a Windows software and uses a projector to make the interactive game possible.  On the Disney Dream,

On the Disney Dream, this interactive floor in an industry first with having this technology on a cruise ship.  Also, it was taken one step further when Disney took the interactive game technology and allowed  for an interactive adventure.  This is done by a group of kids flying over the streets of London with none other than Peter Pan or riding the ocean waves with Crush.  I mean Dude, this is awesome.  Also there is an interactive game with a maze for children to get a ball through a maze(source).  This touchbiance technology is relatively new and Disney has already took it to this new level.

Touchbiance is not just for fun and games, it could also take window shopping to a new level with interactive windows.  But the main idea of this technology was originally for advertisements.  Take a look at what they have already done with the technology.



Disney Dream: New Cruise Ship

So I found this online the other day and it is pretty cool at all the technology that goes into a cruise ship.  I am still trying to find some more information about it, so hopefully I can add more about this giant cruise ship that can carry up to 4000 guests.

Pluto vs Goofy vs Planet?

First off, there has been some debate throughout the years as to why Goofy can walk and talk and poor Pluto can't.  Well turns out there is one little explanation to this question.  Pluto was actually a minor character and created in 1930 while Goofy didn't show up until 1930 and was a main character.  So it looks like poor Pluto lost out and it the dog while Goofy is the man.

Now, on a little bit more serious note, why was Pluto lost of being the name of a planet?  It turns out that a planet is by definition  is a celestial body orbiting a star or stellar remnant that is massive enough to be rounded by its own gravity, is not massive enough to cause thermonuclear fusion, and has cleared its neighbouring region of planetesimals.  Yes, that is a mouthful.  Anyways, there turned out to be another rock mass out past the orbit of Pluto's that was bigger than Pluto.  This planet is known by 2003 UB313.  The basic concept was that if you consider Pluto a planet then so is this 2003 UB313. 

With the use of new research and observatories, Pluto was found to actually be a part of the Kuiper Belt and not actually a planet in our solar system.  The rules for what a planet is changed from this discovery and they follow three main concepts shown below.

■It needs to be in orbit around the Sun – Yes, so maybe Pluto is a planet.

■It needs to have enough gravity to pull itself into a spherical shape – Pluto…check

■It needs to have “cleared the neighborhood” of its orbit – Uh oh. Here’s the rule breaker
 
From this it can be seen that Pluto is no longer a planet because of the nearby neighbors it has is the Kuiper Belt.  This is one thing that I had a hard time getting over, I mean how is My(Mercury) Very(Venus) Excellent(Earth) Mother(Mars) Just(Jupiter) Served(Saturn) Us(Uranus) Nine(Neptune) Pizzas(Pluto), going to help kids remember the planets with out Pizza/Pluto on the end?  I guess this will be a test of the younger generation.
 

 
**I do know that Pluto was not named after the Disney Character, it just made things a little more interesting.  It was actually named after a Roman God of the Underworld.