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By Michael - January 13th, 2010 So, while I was researching my story about the old Lake Buena Vista STOLport, I spent a lot of time poring over old charts and trying to navigate several ridiculously labyrinthine governmental websites. All that staring at a monitor tends to make your eyes go crossed, and that’s what I thought had happened when I looked at a specific map from 2003 on the official Florida Department of Transportation website. It’s a highway map of Orange County that was created directly by the Florida DOT and the United States DOT’s Federal Highway Administration.
So, I scroll down to take a look at the Walt Disney World property…
So, that’s kinda cool. I was sad it didn’t have any detailed markings for the resort, but it’s interesting to see the boundaries of the cities of Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista. I was especially amused that they list the populations of the two cities: Bay Lake with 23 residents, and Lake Buena Vista with 15 inhabitants. That should be me in my Club Lake Villa!
Anyway, the interesting thing that caught my eye is at the very southern end of property, near the line with Osceola County. Surely, I thought, my eyes deceived me. So, I zoom in. Nope, there is was, plain as day:
Rat World.
Rat World?!
That’s a pretty good burn, Florida Department of Transportation! I mean, it’s one thing to get slammed by some crank on the internet, but another entirely when the state and federal governments tag team to make fun of you.
Now, according to the key on the map, this marker is a triangulation station. These are apparently small survey markers littered across the world that allow surveyors, mapmakers and construction teams to do whatever it is that they do. Every marker’s location is accurately recorded in all three dimensions, which allows interested parties to measure distances and positions precisely.
And this one, located on Disney property near the Pop Century Resort, is called Rat World.
That’s pretty cold, surveyors. Although it is near Pop Century, so I can understand your sentiment.
I think that finding this designation on an official government chart is proof positive of the international Freemason conspiracy, the stranglehold on our society by the Trilateral Commission and the RAND Corporation, the Federal Reserve, Opus Dei and the Church of Scientology.
And they all. Hate. Mickey.
The truth is out there.
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By Michael - January 13th, 2010 So, then there’s this. It might not quite be the holy grail, but it’s plenty close enough to make me happy. A series of videos from 1983 have appeared on YouTube depicting a freshly-minted EPCOT Center. And they’re amazing. It’s rare to see video at all from this era, and even more rare to see such wonderful documentation like these videos. It’s obviously someone who cared about the landscaping, design and architecture, and they really take their time to let you soak it all in.
And there are Danish bathrooms!!
I’ve been hoping for a long, long time that the internet would render up unto us something like this. Hoping that someone, somewhere in the early 1980s had the cash for a video camera and the temperament and disposition to take tons of detailed video of EPCOT Center. Just the slow videos of the planters with that main entrance music playing in the background gives me chills.
Seriously, close the blinds and take the phone off the hook. Grab several sodas from the fridge so you won’t have to get up. Because this is going to blow your mind.
Part one is below; you can find the rest on YouTube.
Thanks to Martin Smith and Cousin Orville for bringing this to my attention…
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By Michael - January 13th, 2010
A brief correction from the Progress City Department of Humble Mea Culpas…
You might recall in all the discussion of the NextGen technology initiative that’s underway at Disney, there was some talk of how this would be implemented. Some suggested that RFID chips would be embedded into guests’ tickets or room keys, while others thought that they might make their way into rubber wristbands. This is a model that is used at a number of other parks and water attractions.
Anyway, about the time that there was buzz about these possible wristbands, the term “X-Band” was… bandied… about and I reported here that it was a possible name for the wristbands – if Disney decided to go in that direction.
Of course, if I had bothered to read the literature, I would have known that the X-band is part of the microwave spectrum that it is hoped can be used for RFID applications. As I understand it, increasing the use of RFID tags depends mostly on lowering their price. This could be achieved through miniaturization, which would allow the chip and its antenna to be cut from the same die. The smaller antenna, the higher the broadcasting frequency needs to be, which pushes the RFID transmission into this now-famous X-band.
Keep in mind this is entirely a layman’s interpretation of some journal articles. Most of what I know about physics was left in Dr. Kolena’s classroom lo those many years ago. But I just wanted to let you know that if you were waiting for your Disney’s X-Band t-shirts, it’s not going to happen.
With Jim MacPhee now in charge of the Next Generation Experience at Walt Disney World, we’ll hopefully be hearing something about this program fairly soon.
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By Michael - January 12th, 2010 I got a press release today about an event this Friday, January 15th, in Kansas City that every Disney fan in the area should attend. I certainly wish that I could make it!
Local group Thank You, Walt Disney is holding a fundraising event and special premiere screening of Ted Thomas’s documentary Walt and El Grupo, which tells the story of the Disney Studios goodwill trip to South American in 1941. Even more exciting is that author J.B. Kaufman will be there to discuss his book, South of the Border with Disney: Walt Disney and the Good Neighbor Program, 1941-1948, which came out last year. Kaufman gave a talk about the South America trip at the D23 Expo last September, and it was incredibly informative and highly enjoyable for this Disney fan. Kaufman will have copies of his book on hand at the Kansas City event, and will be autographing them for fans.
The details:
The screening takes place Friday, January 15, 2009 at the Screenland Theater. The address for the theater is 1656 Washington Street, Kansas City, MO 64108.
Doors will open at 6:30, with a pre-film talk by Kaufman. The screening will begin at 7:30.
Tickets are $20 for general admission, $15 for Thank You, Walt Disney members, and $35 for a VIP admission ticket (which also gets you a Thank You Walt Disney poster). Tickets can be ordered here.
This is a great chance to learn about a fascinating time in Disney’s history and hear one of the best-respected Disney authors out there. Best of all, you’re helping out Thank You, Walt Disney. This fantastic group has dedicated themselves to preserving Walt’s legacy in Kansas City, and are working to save and restore the Laugh-O-grams Studios, Disney’s very first animation studio which they saved from collapse and demolition. I highly recommend you check out their website, subscribe to their newsletter, and buy a ticket if you’re in the area. Do it for Tommy Tucker’s Tooth!
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By Michael - January 11th, 2010  “Walt Disney and his wife Lillian arrive in Honolulu for a week’s stay, Oct. 23, 1934.” (AP Photo) Looking good, guys! Have fun at the hukilau!
I was going to research a little story to accompany this nice photo of Walt and Lilly arriving in Honolulu for vacation, but why should I bother when I’d just be trying to re-create this great piece of research by Michael Barrier about the same trip? There are some nice little details in that story, so check it out. Needless to say, Walt’s stated plans to do nothing on his holiday “except to lie on the beach in the sun and wiggle my toes in the sand” were short-lived.
One oddity – as you notice, the caption of the AP photo above stated that the Disneys arrived in Honolulu on October 23rd, 1934. This is untrue; their actual arrival date was August 16th. By October, they had long since returned to the mainland.
PS. The ship the Disneys took to Hawaii was the S.S. Lurline. This piece of trivia is completely unimportant, save for the fact that I love that there was a ship called the S.S. Lurline.
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The Progress City Primer
 From the Progress City archives comes this collection of 33 tall tales and true from Disney history. Available in paperback, hardback, and ebook formats. |
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