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dehnehsu
12-02-2006, 09:27 PM
The hidden Mickey golf ball that gets hit toward you. I've read in "Wikipedia" that the golfer is Michael Eisner. Is this a rumour? True?. Can anyone comfirm or deny this? Seems the only quote confiming this is the Wikipedia one.

chrisaustx
12-02-2006, 09:56 PM
Wikipedia is NOT a valid source for any information, if I wanted to locate that page, and write: Michael Eisner was surfing in the Soarin Over CA movie, and he was showing the camera his awesome surfing skills, there would be nothing to stop me. It is possible it is Eisner in the movie, but only the producer would probably know. Don't use Wikipedia for any information, it is not peer reviewed or confirmed in any way, on the Disneyland page it said that Disneyland is larger than Disneyworld. :)

dehnehsu
12-02-2006, 10:38 PM
When I think about it. The golfer looks a little slimmer than Eisner. It goes by so fast, it's really impossible to tell.

Bytebear
12-03-2006, 12:00 AM
I think the article got its info from IMDB.com trivia on the film, but the info is no longer there, so maybe they found it unverifiable. And Wikipedia does not say that Disneyland is bigger than Walt Disney World, but that Disneyland is bigger than the Magic Kingdom at WDW (at least in the number of attractions) which is true.

As a big fan of Wikipedia, I can say this. If you find something unverifiable, go to the talk page and discuss it, or be bold and change it. Wikipedia is open to editing by anyone and everyone. All facts are supposed to be verified with a source, so if you can prove something, then do so. Also, studies have been done comparing the accuracy of Wikipedia with the accuracy of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and both are about the same in number of mistakes.

see: http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051212/full/438900a.html

Califgirl
12-03-2006, 12:01 AM
I've had tour guides tell me that it was Eisner - but who knows where they got their info. You can only hope that it is accurate.

potzbie
12-03-2006, 12:49 AM
I doubt a corporate executive, with a pay scale in the neighborhood of $500 per hour, will spend the necessary hours setting up for a camera shot.

Especially if he does not get credit (publicity) out of it.

I vote "no."

FantasmicFanatic
12-03-2006, 03:14 AM
I doubt a corporate executive, with a pay scale in the neighborhood of $500 per hour, will spend the necessary hours setting up for a camera shot.

Especially if he does not get credit (publicity) out of it.

I vote "no."


You would need to add a few zero's to that hourly pay if we are talking eisner salary.

FF

geoffa
12-03-2006, 06:59 AM
I dunno. You guess:

http://www.sca-group.co.uk/personal/darrin/soarin%20eisner.jpg

TikiGeek
12-03-2006, 08:02 AM
Yes it is Eisner. Several years ago when Eisner's book Camp came out he was on a talk radio show promoting the book (I believe it was Larry King's show). He mentioned his "cameo" on Soarin'. :rolleyes:

tod
12-03-2006, 09:37 AM
Yes it is Eisner. Several years ago when Eisner's book Camp came out he was on a talk radio show promoting the book (I believe it was Larry King's show). He mentioned his "cameo" on Soarin'. :rolleyes:

This could also be a manufactured urban legend like the color-blind bulldozer operator. Who cares? It's a fun story either way.

--t

chrisaustx
12-03-2006, 11:11 AM
I am a graduate student who has taken courses from Professors who have written articles for scholarly journals and volumes such as Encyclopedia Britannica. All encyclopedia articles are peer reviewed by other scholars, if the article is found to contain errors, the editor of the article will correct the information. The Disneyland page on Wikipedia is changed often and it used to say that Disneyland was larger than Walt Disney world, but a user by the name of Disneyphile changed it. I doubt seriously that any people who post information to Wikipedia write scholarly articles in a university press or any of their works can be located on JSTOR. If you can offer a citation of Eisner playing golf in the movie, please provide a valid citation for this information, either from a scholarly article on JSTOR, a link to the CNN article from their achieves or a citation in a book that Eisner has written, the latter would be primary source evidence, please put the citation in Chicago format and post it on here. At a university level, any use of wikipedia in citations will earn you a grade of F on your project, one professor I had went so far to say, if any student used wikipedia as a source in the course, they will get an F in the class. I think Google does provide links to JSTOR, through their scholarly paper section.

disneyhound
12-03-2006, 12:44 PM
...If you can offer a citation of Eisner playing golf in the movie, please provide a valid citation for this information, either from a scholarly article on JSTOR, a link to the CNN article...

OUCH! I would hardly assess a link from a CNN story as undeniable fact. And as far as University Professors go, put five Economic Professors into a room and you'll get five differing opinions on the current state of the economy!

From what I know of Eisner, his ego would demand that he be immortalized somewhere, somehow. Besides, Eisner could not convince the board to replace Walt's likeness with his own in the Partners Statue...

Andrew
12-03-2006, 12:47 PM
"It's actually me hitting the gold ball in Soarin', not Eisner. I'd never played golf before and haven't since, but I happened to be driving through Palm Springs and saw this cool flying camera swooping down on the course so I figured, what the heck." -- Andrew Rich, as quoted on MousePad on Sunday, December 3, 2006.

TikiGeek
12-03-2006, 12:56 PM
"It's actually me hitting the gold ball in Soarin', not Eisner. You're pushing me to reveal facts about my identity that I'm not comfortable in sharing - but here goes:
The location:Palm Springs
The course: La Quinta
The tee box: #5
The club: Calaway Big Bertha
The ball: Had Mickey on it :D
The golfer: Michael D. Eisner
The caddy: Me ;)
The tip: $5:00 (Disney dollars at that :rolleyes: )

There ya have it - end of argument.

chrisaustx
12-03-2006, 01:39 PM
You're pushing me to reveal facts about my identity that I'm not comfortable in sharing - but here goes:
The location:Palm Springs
The course: La Quinta
The tee box: #5
The club: Calaway Big Bertha
The ball: Had Mickey on it :D
The golfer: Michael D. Eisner
The caddy: Me ;)
The tip: $5:00 (Disney dollars at that :rolleyes: )

There ya have it - end of argument.
:) 5 Disney Dollars, I read an article on JSTOR that someone at the Harvard Business School wrote, he figured out how much Eisner made per day, heck at least Eisner could have thrown in a free churro as well.

aricbell
12-03-2006, 03:52 PM
Actually, Eisner is most likely the guy falling off the rock skiing. :geek:

h_lehmann
12-03-2006, 04:25 PM
I doubt a corporate executive, with a pay scale in the neighborhood of $500 per hour, will spend the necessary hours setting up for a camera shot.

Especially if he does not get credit (publicity) out of it.

I vote "no."

Eisner wouldn't be there for the hours that it takes to set up the shot. Just like any film with high paid actors, they use stand-ins to get everything setup, then bring in the star at the last minute. And besides, Eisner is a salaried employee, not hourly. It's not like Disney has to pay him a couple of hours overtime for working late.

The old man
12-03-2006, 05:38 PM
I think the article got its info from IMDB.com trivia on the film, but the info is no longer there, so maybe they found it unverifiable. And Wikipedia does not say that Disneyland is bigger than Walt Disney World, but that Disneyland is bigger than the Magic Kingdom at WDW (at least in the number of attractions) which is true.

As a big fan of Wikipedia, I can say this. If you find something unverifiable, go to the talk page and discuss it, or be bold and change it. Wikipedia is open to editing by anyone and everyone. All facts are supposed to be verified with a source, so if you can prove something, then do so. Also, studies have been done comparing the accuracy of Wikipedia with the accuracy of the Encyclopedia Britannica, and both are about the same in number of mistakes.

see: http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051212/full/438900a.html
Note that the article talks about science articles. They would tend to be more accurate since they're often of a esoteric nature and science is a peer reviewed subject.

The general cultural articles, like on DL etc., are batted around like a badmitton shuttlecock and are full of inaccuracies. I don't know how many colleges allow the citation of Wikipedia as a dependable source.

Pirate Princess
12-03-2006, 06:21 PM
As a grad student: Wikipedia is a good place to start on something you often know little about. That way you can find good "search strings" when searching through more "educational" databases... but even those databases contain info from magazines and other more unreliable sources... most aren't peer-reviewed.
Additionally, you'd be hard pressed to find anything peer-reviewed regarding DL unless it was a critical analysis about something extremely narrow and obscure or economic based studies.
I am going to have to disagree with chrisaustx... peer-reviewed and educational databases are not the place to turn to when seeking Disneyland factiods. Wikipedia is a WAYYYYYYYYY better option... but do look if they cite their source.. for example, "as quoted in Time Magazine".. and check up on it if you want to really know if it is true. If there is no citation.. look else where to verify.

MommyTo3Boys1Girl
12-03-2006, 06:38 PM
This could also be a manufactured urban legend like the color-blind bulldozer operator. Who cares? It's a fun story either way.

--t

You mean that story isn't true? :)

beast77
12-03-2006, 08:46 PM
I too must disagree with Chrisaustx. I also have to state that the post was just a little condescending. So, on that note, I too am a graduate student. Not only that, if we must raise our educational flags to show our academic dominance, I am a PhD candidate at a major research university (that means I am pretty much done…Dr.Beast77 by May). I have published quite a few peer reviewed papers myself, have been named 2nd and 3rd author on quite a few papers, presented at many professional conferences, teach my own courses at the university, advise students…yada yada yada -all the horn blowing and self promoting we can do- and can give a few facts here. JSTOR is not the ultimate source of academic information. It is only one of many incomplete databases that are available for academic use. Secondly, Chicago is not the absolute in citation. It is simply one of the many forms of citation used in academia. It has been my experience that many of the social sciences use this citation format. On another note, not all encyclopedias are peer reviewed. It depends entirely on the encyclopedia and their policies. Finally, academic experience and peer review are not the hallmarks of absolute knowledge. Sources such as Wikipedia, or even boards such as this are absolute goldmines of information that while one must be mindful of credibility, can be quite useful in both private and academic life. I allow my students to cite Wikipedia as long as their info can be supported by additional info or related data. So, at the university level, the use of Wikipedia is allowed, even at this research university. It takes a few years to learn that sometimes the info in the journals can be wrong or even fabricated. Peer review only serves to verify the research methods and author credibility… it in no way means that the research is truthful, complete, or even existent/nonexistent .
Sorry. Just needed to vent a bit. I hate the condescension that comes out of (clearly) 1st or 2nd year grad students. The absolutes and the judgments…AHHHHHH !!

BTW. I have and do publish academic journal articles, and I write/edit info on Wikipedia.

chrisaustx
12-03-2006, 09:36 PM
If you can use your influence to get an personal telephone interview with Eisner, just call his agent and ask him about his Imax film exploits, please publish an academic paper and publish it on JSTOR or a similiar database, so in the future, students may use your work. The California State University System discourages the use of Wikipedia, the Fullerton campus has established policies in all departments disallowing its use by students as a source. A friend of mine that attends UC Irvine told me a tale about one his classmates the student used a date in a paper from Wikipedia, she received an F on her research project because of this lack of scholarship. Once again, if you feel so strongly, please arrange an email interview or phone interview of Eisner and ask him about his Soarin' exploits, then cite your sources and put it up on here, since this is a social science, I suggest Chicago Manual of Style, but APA will work just as well.

chrisaustx
12-03-2006, 09:44 PM
As a grad student: Wikipedia is a good place to start on something you often know little about. That way you can find good "search strings" when searching through more "educational" databases... but even those databases contain info from magazines and other more unreliable sources... most aren't peer-reviewed.
Additionally, you'd be hard pressed to find anything peer-reviewed regarding DL unless it was a critical analysis about something extremely narrow and obscure or economic based studies.
I am going to have to disagree with chrisaustx... peer-reviewed and educational databases are not the place to turn to when seeking Disneyland factiods. Wikipedia is a WAYYYYYYYYY better option... but do look if they cite their source.. for example, "as quoted in Time Magazine".. and check up on it if you want to really know if it is true. If there is no citation.. look else where to verify.
The Orange County Register (Santa Ana Register) and LA Times do have academic editions, I can pull up the LA Times on my computer, with photos and articles from 1880, all I need to know is the date and keyword. The LA Times database is available at all UC/CSU libraries online, it has been digitized. If you know how to use the digital LA Times system, you can find articles dating back to 1954 about Disneyland, complete with photos. I doubt any Wikipedia posters have used any of the digital LA Times articles as sources about Disneyland. I did find JSTOR articles from Harvard, the authors were critical about Eisner making so much money and delivering so little to Disneyland. If you do research, you will find great things, without having to resort to Wikipedia, its shocking to see how dumbed down our educational system has become, students don't know how to research any longer.

Bytebear
12-03-2006, 09:49 PM
The great thing about Wikipedia is that you can improve it yourself. If you don't see a citation, you can question the fact, and request a verifiable source. or if you are resourceful and know where to find such references, you can add them yourself.

When I read an unfamiliar article, I always go to the talk page and see what people are discussing. You can get a lot of information about what people consider verifiable by reading their comments on the topic.

chrisaustx
12-03-2006, 10:13 PM
You have a point Byte Bear, but someone can just change the correct information on Wikipedia, to something which is wrong.
Well going back to the Eisner topic, I did find his contact information.
He bought into a company called Veoh Video Networks
http://www.veoh.com/corporate/team.html
Their address is:
Veoh Video Networks
Attn: Michael Eisner
7220 Trade St, Suite 115
San Diego, CA 92121

If one of the great scholars here were to write a nice letter and provide Mr. Eisner with your email address, and ask him about his Soarin' exploits, I am sure he would be inclined to answer. Just scan and post the letter or email he sends back to you in PDF format, and that will settle the issue. Then I will make up a Wikipedia article linking it to the email or letter Eisner sent back.