In an age of online shopping, commercial algorithms and streamed entertainment, most of us rarely face up to things that have not been digitally matched to our previous interests or prejudices. Few will have avoided the suggestion “if you've enjoyed X, then you'll like Y and Z” as they surf the internet looking for books, films or music.”

But now there are efforts to fight back against it. In both the arts and the media, a series of new projects are celebrating the importance of coming across the unexpected.

A new self-help book by Neil Farber; an American academic and doctor focuses on the vital role that chance plays in enriching our lives and thoughts. An unconventional service, Trade Journal Cooperative is offering to send a random publication direct to your door four times a year, from Professional Pasta to American Funeral Director or Plumber Magazine.

A new radio app, Stack, deliberately delivers music chosen by someone else. Stack has been set up in response to the vast areas of unknown music available to download. The music on Stack is instead chosen by a number of DJs and musicians and, importantly, listeners cannot influence what it plays. “It's not designed around your usage,” says Wigram, who is an art dealer. “But it removes the anxiety of having to 'like', or 'liking' something by mistake, and suddenly being recommended tracks that you don't even like. Algorithms reduce diversity and chance. And it's that element of chance, of discovering a new track, that an algorithm can't compete with. I do believe that human beings can do it better than algorithms.”

So the hope for an interesting future, according to Wigram, depends upon a good mix of blind chance and trusted human recommendations — a bit like the shelves of the old independent record stores and bookshops.

Have you always wanted to visit Disney World or Disneyland, but were waiting for different reasons? 【小题1】, but its continuously rising ticket prices might make you frustrated.

【小题2】. Throughout much of the 2010s, Disney raised fees at almost double the rate of inflation (通货膨胀), according to the Wall Street Journal. In fact, both U.S. parks have already made price increase in 2020. In February 2020, Disneyland, in California, raised prices on its one-day park tickets about 5 percent.【小题3】, because it's the first time Disneyland park tickets have crossed $200.

When Disney World opened, staying at the Bora Bora Bungalows cost $29 per night. Now it can cost as much as $3,400! 【小题4】? Disney isn’t hunting for money, with a net income in 2019 of $10.44 billion. But here are some reasons:

To occupy the market

Since Walt Disney World opened in Orlando in 1971, Disney has expanded faster and faster, with new parks and attractions, pulling ahead of the competition and attracting double the visitors of its closest competitor.

【小题5】.

Disney has also increasingly attracted people with more money to spend, with private tours dinners with princesses, and the opening of a five-star hotel. “They know that the money is in the upper class, the top 10 percent, the top 1 percent.” Niles says. “They’ve created a wide variety of new products to try and, honestly, earn more money from the rich people.”

OAKLAND, Calif.—Facebook said on Thursday that it would allow many employees to work from home permanently.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, told workers during a staff meeting which was livestreamed (现场直播) on his Facebook page that within a decade as many as half of the company’s more than 48,000 employees would work from home.

“It’s clear that Covid has changed a lot about our lives, and that certainly includes the way that most of us work,” Mr. Zuckerberg said. “Coming out of this period, I expect that remote work is going to be a growing trend as well.”

Facebook’s decision, the first among tech’s biggest companies, is an obvious change for a business culture built around getting workers into giant offices and keeping them there. Using free shuttle buses, free cafeterias and personal services like dry cleaning, tech companies have done as much as possible over the years to give employees little reason to go home, let alone avoid the office. If other giant companies follow suit, tech employment could start to shift away from expensive hubs (中心枢纽) like Silicon Valley, Seattle and New York.

Tech executives have long believed that person-to-person communication was a big part of the creativity that went into producing popular products. Mr. Zuckerberg long worried that employees who worked remotely would lose productivity.

In March, the coronavirus lockdown forced companies to send employees home. Many tech companies, including Facebook, emptied their offices before local shelter-in-place orders. Now, more than two months later, executives are discovering that their remote workers performed better than expected.

Mr. Zuckerberg said the shift could offer more benefits than inconveniences for the company. Allowing remote work will allow Facebook to broaden its recruitment, retain valuable employees, reduce the climate impact caused by commutes and expand the diversity of its work force, he said.