The thing about the Emergency Alert System is that it’s only supposed to be used to alert people when there’s an actual emergency. So anyone viewing the trailer for 2013’s Olympus Has Fallen might’ve been alarmed to hear those telltale tones along with “This is not a test” — at least until Gerard Butler’s face hits the screen. [More]
walt disney
Disney Parks: Mickey Mouse Ain’t Your Babysitter, Unaccompanied Kids Must Be At Least 14
By 3.19.13
For those of us who didn’t grow up near Disneyland, it sounds like we were missing out of a heck of a fun time: while parents used to be able to drop kids off at a Disney park for the day and have Mickey Mouse and friends babysit their offspring, a new admission policy requires that kids be at least 14 if they’re not with adults. [More]
Disney Agrees It Shouldn’t Contribute To Destroying The Jungle For Paper To Make ‘The Jungle Book’
By 10.12.12
Leave it to triumphant activists to make the best puns! After Walt Disney pledged it will change its paper purchasing policies for the supplies it gets to make children’s book, including cutting ties with two controversial companies criticized for harming endangered rain forests, a member of the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) put the news this way: “The Jungle Book will no longer be destroying the jungle.” [More]
Disneyland Partners With Feral Cat Colony To Control Rodents
By 9.16.10
When you have a theme park as large as Disneyland, you run into some unique challenges. Among them, the gobs of melted Mickey bars and popcorn boxes attract hordes of rodents, and those rodents have attracted an estimated 200-strong feral cat colony that has been going strong for the past 25 years. [More]
Flashback to WWII: The Mickey Mouse Gasmask
By 7.1.09
There’s a metric assload of Disney-branded products, but currently their vast lineup just doesn’t have anything for the child who’d like to avoid death by chemical weapons while still having fun. This wasn’t always the case. Back in the early 1940s, there was an actual Mickey Mouse gas mask.
By 9.19.08
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Throughout 2009, if you show up on your birthday to any Disney theme park in the U.S., you’ll get in free. Imagine how much money you can save on an awesome birthday, provided you go alone! [Orlando Sentinel] (Thanks to RL!)
The 10 Most Reputable Companies In The U.S.
By 6.18.08
The Research Institute has compiled a list of the most reputable companies in the U.S., “calculated by averaging perceptions of trust, esteem, admiration, and good feeling obtained from a representative sample of 100 local respondents who were familiar with the company.” (Then they do some statistical stuff to it.) Coming in at #1 is Google, which we think is remarkable considering how much data the company has managed to collect over the past several years, and continues to collect with new record-keeping initiatives like Google Health.
How Walt Disney Invented America
By 3.11.07
There’s an excellent piece in the March National Geographic that explores how Walt Disney’s vision of Orlando set the mold for the exurbs (“A region lying beyond the suburbs of a city, especially one inhabited principally by wealthy people”) proliferating across America.
The Disneyland Sex Orgy
By 10.16.06
An age-old question finally gets answered: do the costume-wearing Mickeys, Minnies and Goofies at Disney theme parks let off some steam after work by humping each other in a sexy, furry orgy?
