Day: November 27, 2003

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Big Thunder Mountain Broken By Negligence

Not that we didn’t all know this before, but Disney has now officially stated that the Big Thunder Mountain railway accident last September was caused by poor maintenance.

Leslie Goodman, senior vice president of strategic communications for Walt Disney Parks and Resorts made the statement, “Our own analysis found that the accident was caused by incorrectly performed maintenance tasks required by Disneyland policy and procedures that resulted in a mechanical failure.”

The victim’s parents have made a settlement with Disney for an undisclosed amount of money.

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Behind the Scenes at Google

Via Slashdot:

Fortune Magazine published a fairly long but tremendously interesting article about Google.

“Instead of the usual exultation over PageRank algorithm and Larry-and-Sergey biographies, we get a different message – is Google growing up, and is trouble brewing at Google? Here’s Fortune’s description of the pre-IPO days: ‘Google has grown arrogant, making some of its executives as frustrating to deal with in negotiations as AOL’s cowboy salesmen during the bubble. It has grown so fast that employees and business partners are often confused about who does what. A rise of stock- and option-stoked greed is creating rifts within the company. Employees carp that Google is morphing in strange and nerve-racking ways.”

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What’s really undermining the sanctity of marriage?

From MeFi:

Dahlia Lithwick has an interesting article on Slate commenting on the real threats to marriage in light of Massachusetts Supreme Court’s declaration that same-sex marriage is protected by the Constitution. Lithwick lists:

  1. Divorce (~43-50% of all US marriages end in divorce)
  2. Frivolous marriages (i.e. it is easier to get married than it is to drive a car, buy a gun, buy alcohol, etc.)
  3. Birth control (is marriage “only for procreation”?)
  4. The various challenges to our time and attention that take away from quality time with our spouses.