Today’s lunchtime news chum highlights some recent articles about things that are disappearing:
- From the “Societal Evolution” Department: It’s been repealed. The president signed the bill repealing the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, and the appropriate updated policy and implementation will follow. This is yet another step towards eliminating discrimination in our society.
- From the “The Iceman Cometh” Department: An interesting article from the LA Times on a business that is calling it quits in Huntington Beach: an Ice Seller. Started in 1945, the business has sold nothing but ice. That market has been killed, for the most part, by ice machines and other technology, and so Brewster’s Ice will soon be no more.
- From the “Come Fly With Me” Department: American Airlines is pulling its fare data off of Orbitz. American wants to take greater control of the way it sells tickets and other goods and services to online travel agencies like Orbitz. American is pressuring travel agencies and giant ticketing clearinghouses, such as Travelport’s Worldspan and Galileo, to use an electronic pipeline created by the airline, called AA Direct Connect, to handle all transactions with the carrier. This shakeout should be interesting, and reminds me of the wars we see between content providers and cable TV systems.
- From the “California Here I Come” Department: DCA (Disney’s California Adventure) is getting a makeover, and the iconic entrance with the big letters is going away, to be replaced with a faux Pan Pacific entrance. Actually, that’s just some of the changes coming to DCA, with rides being reworked, removed, or added, and layouts being modified. It should be interesting to see when its done. My guess, by the time they’re done, is the DCA will be more the Pixar/Henson, plus early (pre-movie) Disney, and Disneyland will be more the Disney side of things. In other theme park news, Sea World is getting rid of the Shamu show.
