Posts filed under 'Demystified'
Disney World has Many Legal Powers of a City
By Chad Upton
Disney World is the size of a small city, make that two small cities.
Many people believe that Walt Disney World Resort is in Orlando Florida, but that’s not exactly correct. While it is near Orlando, The City of Bay Lake and the City of Reedy Creek (now the City of Lake Buena Vista) are incorporated into the lands of Walt Disney World Resort.
When the Disney World was announced, Walt Disney explained that a special district would need to be created for it to succeed. Due to the massive construction effort to build Disney World, Walt believed the park would need to have powers similar to a city in order to manage construction efficiently and secure control over its future.
On May 12, 1967, legislation forming the Reedy Creek Improvement District was formed. This legislation provides Disney World with immunity from county and state land-use laws, giving them eminent domain and ultimate control over what they build inside the park. Property taxes and elevator inspections are the only items that the district submits to the county and state.
Broken Secrets
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Sources: Wikipedia (Walt Disney World Resort)
Photo: Stuck in Customs (cc)
Add comment July 27, 2010
The Magic Kingdom is Built on a Series of Tunnels
By Chad Upton
Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando Florida is the largest resort in the world at 100 km squared (39 sq miles).
It started off as mostly swamp land. In fact, there were many people who owned pieces of that land before Walt Disney secretly bought it all up. He didn’t want people to know he was buying the land because he feared prospectors would buy it up and hold out for exorbitant figures.
In order to secretly buy this land without attracting attention, a number of dummy corporations were formed. Some of the company names included M. T. Lott Real Estate Investments (“empty lot”), Ayefour Corporation (“I 4″ because the resort is near Interstate 4) and many of them were owned by “Mr. M. Mouse.” In hindsight, it seems pretty obvious. But, nobody caught on until someone leaked the information to the Orlando Sentinel in October of 1965. Many of these names can be found on a window on Main St in the Magic Kingdom.
Walt Disney World Resort includes a number of theme parks, but the oldest and most well known is The Magic Kingdom. It’s crown jewel is Cinderella’s Castle.
The castle is directly across the park from the front gate. In fact, if you look at the castle from inside the front entrance, you can tell the castle is built one story higher than the gate — Main St gradually slopes up to the castle. This gives the castle a grand presence and it also accommodates a big secret below the park.
If you look at the picture of the Magic Kingdom Railroad Station (below) which is just beyond the front gate, you can see that it is one level above ground level. The elevation of the train station and the castle exist because concrete utility corridors (“utilidors”) are built at ground level and the rest of the park is built on top of these tunnels.
The Seven Seas Lagoon, in front of the Magic Kingdom, is a man made lake. 1.5 million square meters (5 million square feet) of dirt was excavated to create the lake — that dirt was used to build up the ground around the utilidors to make the Magic Kingdom seem like it is at ground level. The main tunnel starts just on the other side of the railroad station and runs below Main St, leading directly to Cinderella’s Castle.
There are entrances into the utilidors all over the park (see the attached map). The main entry is behind “It’s a Small World” at the back of the park where there is a large loading area for people and supplies to enter the tunnel system. There are 2.5 km (1.5 miles) of tunnels below the park. They’re not just for moving around, there are many other features built in to the tunnels: break rooms, restrooms, locker rooms, “Kingdom Kutters” (hair cutting), “Mouseketeeria” (cafeteria), makeup room, first aid facility, money room and training rooms.
The tunnels make it efficient for cast members and utility crews to move around the park without disrupting park guests. It prevents guests from seeing characters in parts of the park where they don’t fit in, although visitors can pay for a tour that includes a look behind the scenes of some shows and a trip through the utilidors. This is an all day tour of Walt Disney World Resort called the Backstage Magic Tour and it costs $238 per person. If it’s just the tunnels you want to see, watch this video for free.
Guests under the age of 16 are not allowed in the Utilidors because Disney is worried about ruining the magic if a child sees two of the same character together or two characters from different stories talking together. The walls of the tunnels are labeled and color coded to make navigation easy.
Just like other places, Disney World has it’s own secret language, including terms such as “Protein Spill” (vomit) and “Alpha Crew” (first aid). These codes allow them to communicate on radios without spoiling the magic for guests within earshot.
There are many secrets that make the Magic Kingdom seem so magical — I’ll share more again soon.
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Sources: Hidden Mickeys, Wikipedia, Explore the Magic
Photos: Daryl Mitchell (cc), John Corigliano (cc)
3 comments July 19, 2010
That Falling Feeling When Going To Sleep
By Chad Upton
When you’re falling asleep, do you ever get that sensation of falling, sometimes followed by a jerk reaction?
It’s pretty normal for this to happen occasionally. Irregular sleep schedules are one known cause and the explanation behind it is pretty interesting.
During REM sleep, your muscles go into a state called atonia. Essentially, all of your muscles except those in your eyes and those used for breathing are temporary paralyzed. You brain blocks signals that are normally sent to these muscles. This is true for humans and common among most other warm blooded mammals.
This is the reason why your muscles don’t actually move when you’re dreaming about them moving. It’s a self preservation mechanism, preventing you from hurting yourself and other people while you’re asleep, which is obviously good for your safety but it also prevents you from waking yourself, ensuring a proper sleep.
If your REM sleep is interrupted, your muscles resume from atonia and your mind returns to consciousness at roughly the same time. But, it is possible for your consciousness to resume before muscle control. You’ll be awake, but paralyzed. This is called “sleep paralysis” and as many as 60% of people will experience it at least once in their lifetime. It can be scary, but it normally occurs for a very brief period of time, sometimes it is so short that you may not even realize it happened.
This sensation is often described with feelings of fear or dread and described like an out of body experience. Auditory and visual hallucinations have been reported and are part of the mythology of some cultures, attributing this feeling to supernatural forces, demons, UFO encounters and so on. There are also people who believe this state is a doorway to the inner mind and they try to remain in this state as long as possible.
Waking up into sleep paralysis a single time is not usually something to worry about, but if it happens more frequently then it could be a symptom of a more serious problem such as narcolepsy and you should see a doctor. Sleep paralysis occurs more commonly when people are on their backs, but doctors do not know why.
Sleep paralysis can also happen while you’re falling asleep. Your mind may realize that you are awake but your body is paralyzed. That disconnect can cause the feeling of falling, which is startling and often accompanied by a hypnic jerk.
Super thanks to Dr Ryan W, the Broken Secrets neurology expert, for his help with this post and for his great work in neurology.
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Sources: Dr Ryan W, Sleepdex, brynmawr.edu, Wikipedia (Hypnagogia, Hypnic Jerk)
Photo: NewEndProductions (cc)
10 comments July 16, 2010
Shoes on Power Lines
By Chad Upton
Tying shoes together by their laces and throwing them onto overhead lines is known as “shoefiti” (shoe + graffiti).
Shoefiti started in the United States and spread throughout the world, the photo above was taken in Berlin.
There is no single reason why people do this, there are many reasons.
When sneakers are festooned on power lines in rough neighborhoods, the conclusion for their presence is often crime related. Some believe they mark crack houses where you can get your fix or some free shoes via ladder. Others say they are shoes that belong to (or hang in memory of) a murder victim. Some say they are for marking gang turf, but Tucson Arizona police have denied that and flagged the turf marker idea as myth.
They did mention that many shoes are removed each week, since they are unsightly and can cause damage to the lines.
They also said that the volume of shoes increases during the summer break from school. A couple of stories have been told that may support this. One is that of tradition, shoes are thrown on power lines to celebrate the last day of school or graduation. Teenage boys have also been said to do this when they lose their virginity.
Perhaps the oldest story about the origin of shoefiti claims it was tradition for soldiers to hang their boots on the power lines at base when they completed basic training, went home on leave or left the service entirely.
In some movies, it’s the school bully who steals your shoes and throws them onto the lines. There are also stories of kids retiring their own shoes when they get a new pair.
Chances are good that the people who are doing it now have no idea why their predecessors did it.
Some people may think it’s a harmless tradition, but the shoes can disrupt utility services by adding weight to the lines which causes them to sag and potentially touch other lines or trees, which could also result in fire.
If you want to remove shoes from the lines, because you want your kicks back or you just want to clear the eyesore, you should call the utility company to do it — a few Darwin Award candidates have earned their nomination trying to DIY their shoes back.
Broken Secrets
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Sources: About.com, Snopes, Straight Dope, Wikipedia
Photo: edkohler
7 comments July 15, 2010
Quantum Teleportation is Real
By Chad Upton
We know a lot about the world around us. We have a pretty good understanding of forces such as gravity and magnetic fields. We know a lot about barely visible subatomic particles and even invisible energy such as radio waves.
We can control and measure most of these amazing things and they really are amazing. Think back over a thousand years. Could you imagine what it was like when magnets were first discovered? The amazement, confusion and challenge to explain how they worked.
Due to recent developments, we are in a similar state of fascination.
When you read “quantum teleportation” in the title, you probably had visions of something from Star Trek where people and objects are transported from one location to another. That is teleportation but it’s not quantum teleportation.
In quantum teleportation, no visible object is moved from one place to another. Rather, quantum information is moved from one place to another.
It starts with entanglement of two atoms or particles such as ions or photons. In simple terms, they are “tied” together. When separated, something amazing can be observed. Changing the state of one, the state of the other changes to match. This phenomena has been observed when the two have been separated by a distance of a few meters (10 feet), 16 km (10 miles) and even 144 km (89 miles).
No, it won’t let you visit your grandma in Montana and your other grandma in Malta on the same day, but the potential is still amazing.
You’ve probably seen a satellite interview on TV noticed there is a huge delay between the two people talking. That’s what happens when shipping information to space and back on each side of the screen. But, Quantum information moves extremely fast so there would be negligible delay if it could one day be used for communication (it can’t for now).
Although a bit awkward sometimes, we can live with delayed satellite interviews. But, as we try to explore deep space, communication delays could become a factor that prevents or severely delays exploration. One day, cell phones might use this technology to eliminate dropped calls and dead zones. In communications, the possibilities are endless.
We can’t even imagine how this might affect other areas of science and that’s because we don’t really understand how it works. But, scientists believe these entangled particles exist in nature and there are potentially billions of them. Of course, we don’t know which ones they are or where the other half of their entangled pair is. Maybe there is some truth behind the notion that one twin feels something when their identical twin experiences something traumatic. Maybe there’s even some science to prove it.
Broken Secrets
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Sources: Wikipedia (QT), Quantum (Entangled QT, First QT), The Future of Things , Ars Technica
Photo: Thomas Shahan (cc)
3 comments July 14, 2010
Tea Contains Less Caffeine Than Coffee
By Chad Upton
This is one of those things that a lot of people know and a lot people get wrong.
Most coffee has 60-100 milligrams of caffeine per cup. Here’s a list of the most popular coffees and their caffeine content:
| Coffee (16oz) | Caffeine (mg) |
| Starbucks | 330 |
| Caffè Americano (Espresso) | 225 |
| Tim Hortons | 160 |
| McDonald’s | 145 |
| Store Brand (Drip) | 145 |
| Dunkin Donuts | 143 |
| Store Brand (Brewed) | 108 |
| Decaf | 2-5 |
As you can see, Starbucks coffee is the strongest with 330 mg of caffeine in a 16oz serving. It is followed by Starbucks Caffè Americano, which has three shots of espresso in it and more than 100 mg less caffeine in the same size serving. Most of the other brands have about 110-160 mg in a 16oz serving..
So, how does that compare to tea? Let’s have a look:
| Tea (16oz) | Caffeine (mg) |
| Starbucks Tazo Chai | 94 |
| Black | 90 |
| Green | 40 |
| White | 30 |
| Starbucks Tazo Red | 0 |
As we can see, Tea generally has much less caffeine than coffee.
Of course, there are always exceptions. There are some coffees that have less caffeine than most teas, particularly decaf coffee. That might be an unfair comparison since decaf is a man-made product. Although, it might not be that way forever. Caffeine free coffee beans have been discovered, although they’re too bitter for most people’s taste buds.
There are also some black teas that have up to 140 mg of caffeine per 16 oz, which is more than the same size coffee at Dunkin’ Donuts (or Dunkin’ Coffee as they call it in Spain).
Dunkin Donuts - Barcelona, Spain
There are many other caffeinated beverages that are popular, how do those stack up?
| Product | Serving (oz) | Caffeine (mg) |
| Jolt Energy | 24 | 280 |
| Red Bull | 8 | 80 |
| Mountain Dew | 12 | 55 |
| Mountain Dew Code Red | 12 | 54 |
| Diet Coke | 12 | 45 |
| Coca-Cola Classic | 12 | 35 |
| Sprite | 12 | 0 |
| 7-Up | 12 | 0 |
Caffeine is found in many other foods, such as chocolate. It is also found in guarana beans, which are very similar to coffee beans according to Brett’s Energy Drinks. So, be careful of those guarana filled energy drinks, caffeine is a hell of a drug.
Thanks to Kristen for suggesting this one and Ian for adding front lines insight.
Broken Secrets
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Sources: Mayo Clinic, Brett’s Energy Drinks, Energy Fiend,
10 comments July 13, 2010
Secret Codes in Public Places
By Chad Upton
I was at Walmart today and I realized, I absolutely love that place — I feel like a supermodel in there.
While there, I heard an announcement for “Code C” and I had to know what it was.
You see, airports, retail stores and hospitals all have secret codes to announce information to staff without causing alarm to the general public.
Walmart actually has a lot of these codes and for good reason. Perhaps the most well known code is “Code Adam.” It was invented by Walmart 1984 and it’s now used by many different companies, all over the world.
It’s named after Adam Walsh, son of America’s Most Wanted TV host John Walsh. Adam was kidnapped from a Sears store in 1981 and murdered. Walmart actually has a very strict policy about this code. All employees drop what they’re doing, some watch the doors and other sweep the store looking for the child. Employees do nothing else until the child is found.
Other Walmart Codes:
- Code Black – Severe weather (ex. tornado warning)
- Code Blue – Bomb threat
- Code Brown – Shooting
- Code Green – Hostage situation
- Code Orange – Chemical spill
- Code Red – Fire
- Code White – Accident
- Code C – Customer service or cashier needed
- Code 300 or Department 51 – Security
Walmart also has color coded pillars in their stores:
- Blue – Telephone
- Red – Fire extinguisher
- Orange – “Spill-O-Magic” station
Boat/Ship/Vessel Codes
- Code Oscar or Mr. MOB – Man overboard
- Bravo, Bravo, Bravo – Serious incident such as a fire
- Mr Skylight – Minor incident
- Code Blue – Medical emergency
Hospital Codes
- Code Blue, Code 90, Code 45 – Cardiac arrest
- Code Red, Dr Red, Dr Pyro, Dr Firestone – Fire
- Code Grey, Code Silver – Combative or violent person
- Code Orange – Mass casualty incident
- Code Black, Code Brown – Extreme weather warning
These are the most common codes, obviously some of these codes will be known by other code names in certain places. Some countries such as Australia, Canada and the United States have standards for these codes, but they differ from each other and many other countries do not have standards.
Broken Secrets
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Sources: Wikipedia, Google Answers, Wal-mart Info, UPHAA, Vessel Emergency Codes, Hospital Codes
11 comments July 12, 2010
Trap Doors on Car Bumpers
From satellite navigation to chilled cup holders, modern cars are full of high-tech developments that get you from point A to point B without getting lost and with colder refreshments. Overall, car technology has improved the handling, efficiency, style, safety, comfort and entertainment of our cars.
There are even high-tech bumpers out there. If you see bumpers with three or four dimples aligned across the back bumper, those are likely sensors for the backup warning system.
If you see small rectangular patches, that’s what this secret is about. They’re actually pretty low-tech, but still cool.
Even if your car doesn’t have them, maybe you’ve noticed them on other cars while you’re sitting at a red light (they may be found on front and/or rear bumpers).
They look like trap doors that cartoon characters fall through long after the audience spots them and screams at their television to warn the carbon impaired being of the obvious hazard and their impending doom. In reality, they cover anchor points where you can insert a towing eye (aka “tow hook”).
Check your car out during the summer and if you need them in the winter, you’ll know if they’re there. The towing eye is usually stored with the spare tire and/or jack and it screws in behind these covers.
Like all of the secrets on this site, there will be somebody reading who already knows this one — that’s cool, you can brag (or complain) about it in the comments, or retweet it and say you knew this, “like 10 years ago.”
Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton
1 comment July 6, 2010
Run When It’s Raining to Stay Drier
Sooner or later, everybody gets caught outside when it starts raining.
I used to have a long walk to school. I mention this because walking to school has the same affect on rainfall as washing your car — it only rains at the worst possible time and it stops immediately after you stop caring.
When you’re stuck in the rain, you might think about whether it would be better to run or walk. When you run, you collide with more rain but you also reduce the amount of time you are exposed to the rain. When you walk, you collide with less rain but for a longer duration. So which is better?
It turns out that running is the better option, assuming you run fast enough to reduce the time you are exposed to rain. Myth Busters tested this in episode 38 if you want to check it out.
Broken Secrets | By: Chad Upton
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Sources: Myth Busters, Wise Geek
2 comments July 1, 2010
