Today's links

Podcasting "Disneyland at a stroll": Winding up my series on "amusement parks, crowd control, and load-balancing" (for now).
The Unraveling: Ben Rosenbaum's stunning debut novel.
What kind of emergency is our emergency?: Kim Stanley Robinson on the structure of feeling of this perilous moment.
The secrets of hospital bills: What do you call a "market" where no one chooses the services or knows the prices?
This day in history: None
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 23 Aug 2021"

Today's links

Charter schools are money laundries: "The hidden world of charter schools operated for financial gain."
Disney parks and aggregate demand management: My ongoing series on Medium, for an age of supply shocks.
Oregon's carbon offsets go up in smoke: The Bootleg Fire is more evidence that markets can't solve the climate emergency.
Surge pricing violates antitrust law: Even the weaksauce version pushed by the econ establishment.
This day in history: 2011, 2016, 2020
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 26 Jul 2021"

Now you’ve got two problems (Part III)

Amusement parks, crowd control and load-balancing

This is Part III in this series. In Part I, I opened the with news that Disneyland Paris is getting rid of its Fastpasses in favor of a per-ride, per-person premium to skip the line, and explored the history of Disney themeparks and what they meant to Walt Disney. In Part II, I explored Disneyland’s changing business-model and the pressures that shifted it from selling ticket-books to selling all-you-can-eat passes, and the resulting queuing problems.

Continue reading "Now you’ve got two problems (Part III)"

Boredom and its discontents (Part II)

Amusement parks, crowd control and load-balancing

Queue for Walt Disney World’s ‘it’s a small world.’ Image by Michael Gray: https://www.flickr.com/photos/kathika/2601484170. CC BY-SA: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ — *Michael Gray*, *CC BY-SA 2.0*

In Part I, I opened the with news that Disneyland Paris is getting rid of its Fastpasses in favor of a per-ride, per-person premium to skip the line, and explored the history of Disney themeparks and what they meant to Walt Disney.

Continue reading "Boredom and its discontents (Part II)"

Are we having fun yet?

Amusement parks, crowd control, and load-balancing

Group photo in front of the castle at Disneyland’s goth day, “Bat’s Day in the Fun Park,” August 2006.

Pay for play

The news that Disneyland Paris is now selling Fast Passes — a skip-the-line ticket — for about $10 per person per ride has theme park watchers debating whether this is the destiny of all Disney parks and, if so, what it means for the future of theme parks.

You may not care about this, but the creation, maintenance, and operation of immersive built environments is an old art form with enormous cultural significance and few practitioners. The curious pleasures of an immersive built environment go back at least as far as the Sun King’s palace at Versailles and the winding path of built environments from elite follies to mass entertainment runs in parallel to the changing currents in populism, commodification, and participation.

Continue reading "Are we having fun yet?"

Pluralistic: 15 Jan 2021

Today's links

Laura Poitras fired from First Look: She says it's because she spoke out on Reality Winner.
Kickstarting a pad of "Tiny Paper Dungeons": Procedural paper adventures for your pocket.
Facebook says it's the best henhouse fox: Only we can stop Qanon.
I was investigated by the FBI: It took 20 years!
Yugoslavia's Cold War obsession with Mexican music: Nonaligned Yumex gave us Celovečernji the Kid.
Machine learning is a honeypot for phrenologists: "AI" researchers just can't put away the fucking calipers.
Disneyland kills annual passes: No more Disney at a stroll.
Tesla's valuation is 1600x its profitability: Finacialization, in green and white.
This day in history: 2006, 2016, 2020
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming/recent appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 15 Jan 2021"

Pluralistic: 08 Jul 2020

Today's links

Hank Green's "A Beautifully Foolish Endeavor": Catch us live on July 10!
Near-ultrasound links: Chirpy IoT configuration for <$1.
Disneyland's Tower of Terror in Minecraft: Brilliant attention to detail!
Who got PPP and how much did they get?: Propublica has a whole database of receipts.
EY helped 'Ndrangheta sell mafia bonds: "Consulting services."
The rotten culture of the rich: Let me tell you about the very rich. They are different from you and me.
The awful stupidity of measuring engineers' productivity: Any measurement becomes a target.
Unions say Disney World isn't testing employees: The Florida Man of themeparks.
This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 08 Jul 2020"

Pluralistic: 08 May 2020

Today's links

US public health officials on apps: "Meh": Exposure notification is no substitute for labor-intensive contact-tracing.
Volcano gods demand workers: Reopening is only possible under threat of starvation and homelessness.
Animal Crossing Haunted Mansion: Needs more AOC.
This day in history: 2010, 2015, 2019
Colophon: Recent publications, upcoming appearances, current writing projects, current reading

Continue reading "Pluralistic: 08 May 2020"