OK, Black Friday has officially gotten out of hand. A 34-year-old WalMart employee was trying to hold back the crowds at a Long Island store this morning at 5am, when they took the doors off their hinges and stormed the store. The man fell down and was trampled by over 200 people as he gasped for air. It’s sad and despicable, and it’s equally the fault of the dehumanised shoppers and the WalMart store it happened at.
PlayStation Home has long lost its lurid appeal, our relationship with it having transgressed from potential infatuation to being stood up at Applebee’s, sucking down some purple margarita that we’re beginning to suspect might be void of both alcohol and dignity. Regardless, PS Home director Jack Buster assures the world that the service will hit in 2008.
newVideoPlayer("/sofia_giz.flv", 640, 380,""); Although still three years from starting actual scientific missions, the Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA) airborne observatory is tenaciously getting closer to its first job day. After two decades of research and $US500 million modding a Boeing 747–including the 2.5-metre telescope itself that you can see tested in this video–SOFIA got a High-speed Imaging Photometer for Occultation two weeks ago, an instrument that will help it to measure objects’ surfaces and atmospheres. Now, NASA is completing final tests at their Dryden Aircraft Operations Facility before its first open-door flight later this year.
Today is Black Friday, a day dedicated to our basest and most pathetic inclinations. The day after giving thanks for all that we have, we turn around and jump through horrible hoops to accumulate more at the insistence of sleazy, desperate retailers. It’s a nice summation of everything wrong with this country and the holiday season, an appropriately named cancerous mark on our calendars. Our behaviour today is the sort of thing an alien race would use as justification for our destruction. Let’s run through the specifics, shall we?
AU: Just a note guys – even though we don’t have Black Friday (or Thanksgiving) here in Australia, think of the Boxing Day sales here and you’ll get the same sort of idea as to why we’re doomed.
