the buzz log
Barack Obama, Puppet Leader
Given the continued Search interest, amusement parks will a Fourth of July weekend destination for many. Those headed to Orland's Magic Kingdom on Independence Day might want to stop by a revamped Hall of Presidents, where an animatronic Barack Obama—AKA Robobama—makes his debut.
Animatronics is, as HowStuffWorks puts it, a "mechanized puppet." The administration apparently is so tickled by this honor, the White House blog posted a "behind-the-scenes video" of the president reading the oath of office and a Disney-penned speech— tinkered a bit, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
The Florida newspaper also reports that Obama's standing with good company (Abraham Lincoln) and represents the "most advanced figure," although "not a completely new generation." Who knew Disney imagineers were pundits?
Filed under: Amusement Parks, Disney, Presidents, Barack Obama
Six Flags Flagging: How a Bankrupt Theme Park Ranks in Amusement
Six Flags...bankrupt? What about Sasquatch? Bizarro? The Terminator Salvation ride?
Save your fear for that 221-foot 'coaster drop. Six Flags Theme Park filed for Chapter 11 on June 13, but all attractions remain open and no one's getting fired—not any staff, not the management team, not Mr. Six (A.K.A. the Dancing Old Guy who's now the Dancing Twittering Old Guy).
Even though a staycation economy translated into "record attendance" for the New York-based amusement chain last year, all those high-flyin', stomach-dropping roller coasters don't come cheap. Six Flags hasn't seen a profit since 1998 and its stocks have been junked.
Six Flags may be healthy in attendance, but its properties aren't the leading go-to places like they were on our June 2007 list. With summer less than a week away, we took another gander at the top amusement (and water) park destinations on the Web. Here are two top 10s: the most searched and the ones climbing the Search rollercoaster.
Most Searched Amusement/Water Parks on Yahoo!, past 30 days
| Fastest Rising Amusement/Water Park Searches on Yahoo!, past 30 days
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Filed under: Amusement Parks, Economics
All About Amusement
Harry Potter may be British, but like all retirees, the boy wizard plans to head to sunny Florida after his literary adventures end.
Universal Orlando's announcement that it will host the Wizarding World of Harry Potter prompted more than a 7,000% surge in searches for "harry potter theme park." If the turnstiles to Potter's other-wizardly destinations opened this week, Universal Orlando might've surpassed Disneyland as the greatest place on Earth, at least in terms of Buzz.
The 20-acre addition won't debut until 2009, but people are managing to make do in enjoying one of the grand traditions of summer: Popularity for "amusement parks" is at its peak, with kids under 18 fueling the bulk of the lookups.
That's not even counting searches for individual parks, which are upping the ante with faster rollercoasters, wetter rides, and glossier entertainment. Disneyland (#2) plans to surpass last year's 50th anniversary attendance with its spanking new Nemo submarine ride, and both Six Flag parks in Texas (#3) and St. Louis (#31) launch Tony Hawk's Big Spin roller coaster ride. Meanwhile, Hersheypark (#9) commemorates 100 years of chocolate-infused attractions.
As summer officially gets underway, we check the top 20 amusement park destinations this week.
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Filed under: Summer, Amusement Parks, Harry Potter
top movers
| Rank | Subject | 1-Day Move |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nidal Malik Hasan | Breakout! |
| 2 | Fort Hood Shooting | Breakout! |
| 3 | Tyrannosaurus Rex | Breakout! |
| 4 | Fort Hood | 43518% |
| 5 | Tropical Storm Ida | 4377% |
| 6 | Willie Aames | 3325% |
| 7 | Shannon Dedrick | 3299% |
| 8 | Gretchen Rossi | 2702% |
| 9 | Epic Mickey | 2583% |
| 10 | Lee Harvey Oswald | 1907% |
top leaders
| Rank | Subject | Move | Score |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Danica Patrick | +194 | 207 |
| 2 | Fort Hood | +185 | 185 |
| 3 | Angelina Jolie | +114 | 164 |
| 4 | Rihanna | +39 | 157 |
| 5 | New York Yankees | +54 | 154 |
| 6 | Alicia Keys | +139 | 153 |
| 7 | +1 | 153 | |
| 8 | NFL | +6 | 138 |
what's the buzz?
A subject's buzz score is the percentage of Yahoo! users searching for that subject on a given day, multiplied by a constant to make the number easier to read. Weekly leaders are the subjects with the greatest average buzz score for a given week.
For more detailed information, visit our FAQ.