Apparently The Gap, along with subsidiaries such as Old Navy, shut down their online stores for two weeks to launch a much-improved ecommerce solution. Their site is kind of slow right now, and I didn’t use it in the first place, so I can’t really give much of a critique of how the shopping experience improved. …Oops, I guess they’re not selling short-sleeve casual shirts right now: “We’re sorry, but the page you are looking for is no longer available.” ...
Strange Horizons comments on utopian/dystopian ideas through the centuries: The Ten Stupidest Utopias! The Industrial Revolution gave the world a new idea of the ideal society. “Try sniffing the abominable stench behind the piles of books,” wrote Japanese Futurist Hirato Renkichi in 1921. “How many times superior is the fresh scent of gasoline!” The Ten Sexiest Dystopias! Roll down your window: see the metaphors go by. There’s Zhora the replicant, smashing through plate glass windows; there’s Jake lost in Chinatown, and Tod Hackett running through Hollywood, bloody faced, chased by a mob. “Los Angeles is probably the most mediated town in America,” writes Michael Sorkin, “nearly unviewable save through the fictive scrim of its mythologizers.” ...
So, I guess there’s a level closer to Kevin Bacon than one degree, and Colin Firth is heading right for it.
Pearls Before Swine, today. :)
In the meantime, as the evacuation efforts started, about 100 New Orleans residents decided to grab the school bus that was just sitting abandoned in their neighborhood and drive to Houston’s Astrodome. Eighteen-year-old Jabbor Gibson took the wheel, never having driven a bus, and drove the flood victims seven hours to the Astrodome, getting there before any of the official buses. Naturally, the authorities weren’t thrilled about that. (Why do I have a feeling an SUV convoy would have been welcomed more?) While I can see the point that the evacuation effort needed some organization to it, I have to applaud the initiative and bravery it took to do so. ...
This is amazing. Michael Brown, the current head of FEMA…the man who said the federal government didn’t know there were people at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans until Thursday…was hired into FEMA after being fired from his last job running horse shows. The reason for his dismissal? Supervision failures. The result of FEMA’s disorganization and refusal of outside help? More people died. I’m sure there are many people at FEMA who are doing a good job. I’m sure that, without their efforts, a major disaster would have turned worse. What I can’t fathom, however, is that an agency so clearly needed in the homeland security apparatus is run by a person whose experience comes from horse shows. Isn’t this administration supposed to be the security administration? One has to wonder whether the quick evacuation at the end of the week was accomplished through Brown’s planning, or through the military’s organization. ...
The (New Orleans) Times-Picayune newspaper staff are evacuating their building due to rising floodwaters. In case you wonder how serious the situation is down there, try to imagine your local newspaper publishing this excerpt on their website: Our plan is to head across the Mississippi River on the Pontchartrain Expressway to the west bank of New Orleans and Jefferson Parish. From there, we’ll try to head to Houma. You can donate to the Red Cross here. Update: Descriptions of the devastation and chaos. New Orleans is flooding, and the Gulf Coast isn’t any better. Meanwhile, the Times-Picayune keeps on working. They have an RSS feed as well. ...
The Sydney Aquarium in Australia apparently had an accident with a giant exhibition tank. The tank exploded, allowing the water…and sharks…inside to come rushing out onto Hazel Swinden, 61, who was injured by some of the glass. She now has post-traumatic stress disorder, and is suing the Aquarium over it. I have a feeling any jury will be able to appreciate the amount of stress she was under. Of course, the sharks can just count themselves lucky they didn’t drop out on this fellow. :) ...
Pat Robertson calls for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Pat Robertson catches flak for it and immediately claims he was misinterpreted. Victoria Gotti comes clean about her breast cancer story… more of a breast cancer scare, really. Robertson: Televangelist with his own TV show who uses his base to influence politics. Gotti: Daughter of mob boss John Gotti, also had own TV show, but probably doesn’t influence politics in any meaningful way. ...
According to the New York Times, sales of educational software are plummeting, going from $498 million in 2000 to $152 million in 2004. This is a surprise, because the educational software industry is obviously immune to the bad economy, right? Right? Anyway, how are parents supposed to afford educational software for their six-year-olds when they’re saving up to get them Grand Theft Auto for their birthdays? ;)