My conflicted views on Disney

 I am still a fan of the theme parks.  Though, I have to admit that the way they've changed bothers me in some way - because its become somewhat of a playground for the wealthy.

But the company on the whole often rubs me wrong.  They are all about the bottom line, staying on top in entertainment (including sports), and currying favor poltically.

And then they made a decision to suspend (or is it fire?) Jimmy Kimmell from the show he hosts.  Which a certain orange menace cheered about.  

This should not be the accepted behavior of an entertainment company that has its hands in so many pots.  There is still freedom of speech, and Kimmell's show was still profitable.  But he made a political comment and that was the end.

Once again, here we are...

This whole story actually hurts…

The basic story is that a literature professor at Texas A&M was conducting a lecture about children's authors and in the context of the discussions used pronouns other than the two that the GOP seems to dwell on.

A student was incensed and a discussion ensued, that essentially was the student saying the law was broken in even discussing such matters.  The instructor politely offered for the student to leave if they were uncomfortable.  

And how do we know this?  Because "someone" in the class recorded it and posted it online.  To me, it feels an awful lot like a setup, but no matter.  There was additional fallout.

The student wound up calling the chair of the department and recording that conversation and posting it (not sure if that's a crime in Texas, but whatever).  The chair said nothing would happen, and wanted to move on.

She posted more to social media about how she was expelled from the classroom and how this was a violation of her rights (there was also some "I'm personally offended by the subject matter" thrown in there too - snowflake much?) 

But then various ideological political idiots in Texas inserted themselves and asked the president of the university to act.  The teacher in question and a few others were fired.  The chair was fired.  The curriculum came under scrutiny. 

And the president of the university was again called upon to do more... and since the attached was written, he, too, has been fired.

What have we become?

Like I said, this all felt like a setup.  And Texas can go fuck itself.

Gender-identity content in Texas A&M class leads to removals | The Texas Tribune https://www.texastribune.org/2025/09/08/texas-am-video-professor-student-gender-identity-content/

A single college football matchup took place at two different stadiums this weekend

That's unique. And fun. 

  https://www.footballscoop.com/2025/09/15/division-iii-wabash-case-western-uniquevenue-change-small-college-football-jake-gilbert-crawfordsville-high-school

Disney Patent Targets AI Projection for Real-Time Animatronic Faces in Theme Parks

This is pretty cool. The idea is to make a fully animated face appear on the surface of a mask, to make animatronics even more life-like. 

A method includes determining an orientation of a mechanically animated surface relative to one or more projectors configured to project content onto the mechanically animated surface, dynamically rendering the content based on one or more parameters derived from the orientation of the mechanically animated surface relative to the one or more projectors, and presenting the content on the mechanically animated surface using the one or more projectors.

https://www.wdwmagic.com/other/walt-disney-imagineering/news/12sep2025-disney-patent-targets-real-time-projection-on-animatronic-faces.htm

Ok. That’s kind of amusing.

The Bills beat the dolphins last night and the bills tweeted this. 

It's kind of silly; in the past the dolphins have been known as "the fish" and I can recall them somehow being connected to tuna. But salmon? Huh. 

1972 Miami Dolphins

 Here's a current look at the players who are still with us...

http://disneyworldpodcast.net/1972Dolphins/

60 years after Gemini, newly processed images reveal incredible details

This is really, really cool. I think I have a new book for my wishlist. 

https://arstechnica.com/space/2025/09/60-years-after-gemini-newly-processed-images-reveal-incredible-details/