This is the start of a quick flurry of brief posts of observations that I made during our recent visit to Disney World. Now I want to clear the queue with a few comments that are relatively short and to the point before returning my full attention to a little more serious business. We had begun an unfinished conversation on evolution shortly before the start of vacation. I sincerely hope Dr. Leblanc and Andrey Pavlov will find the time to rejoin our conversation, as soon as their schedules permit. But while vacationing in Orlando, I couldn't help but notice that smart phones appear to make people act considerably more stupid than they might actually be. It seems that Disney provides several applications for mobile phones that allow people to know which rides have the fewest people waiting in line, maps to the park with a handy "You are here" feature, which rides offer their "Fast Pass", etc. These Disney mobile apps seemed to do just about everything for you except slice the bagel and butter it with cream cheese in the morning. Unfortunately, these apps proved so useful that many visitors were incapable of taking even a single step without staring at their phones. It often gave one the sensation of playing bumper cars with human bodies, a particularly unpleasant experience when one is not intimately familiar with the instigator of the collision. After several attempts to "turn the other cheek" and simply step out of the way, eventually I gave up and revised my park navigation strategy. When the meanderer in question managed to mirror every … [Read more...]