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4/30/2017
4/24/2017
Astronaut breaks record (audio)
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Online bad behavior
Next time you swear on Twitter, or post that drunken photo, just remember that future employers are watching – and it could cost you a job.
One in five employers says they have rejected a candidate after looking at what they’ve been getting up to online.
Although most people are aware of the pitfalls of social media, the number of organizations rejecting applicants suggests there are people who still fail to think before they post.
What are employers looking out for?
Aggressive or offensive language is the most off-putting social media activity. Three-quarters of employers said this could prevent someone getting a job.
Image: YouGov
Reference to drug-taking follows not far behind. There’s a surprise in third place, as bad spelling or grammar is named by more than half as off-putting. In fact, poor spelling and grammar is more damaging to a candidate’s reputation than drunken photos.
Larger organizations more likely to turn down candidates
Large organizations are more likely to reject applicants, and they’re also more likely to do a background search on them, found the YouGov research. More than a quarter of large businesses have turned down a candidate on the grounds of what they discover online. The figure falls to 1 in 10 among smaller companies.
Image: YouGov
At large organizations, only 1 in 5 says they don’t check applicants’ feeds. This rises to 2 in 5 at smaller businesses.
More than 2,000 business managers were surveyed on their decisions when hiring new employees.
The business networking site LinkedIn is the most frequently checked platform. Half of respondents said they search for candidates’ profiles.
Image: YouGov
It’s not over once you get the job.
Nearly 1 in 5 employers has fired a current employee because of something they’ve posted on social media, according to a separate study.
The survey, by CareerBuilder, highlights the risk of ill-advised activity on social media.
“It’s important to keep your personal brand appropriate and make sure [what you post is] something you’d feel comfortable with your employer seeing,” Rosemary Haefner, chief HR officer at CareerBuilder said.
There’s a debate about whether employers should monitor employee activity on social media, though. Some employees might feel it’s an invasion of their privacy, whereas employers might counter that all the information is in the public domain.
3 letters, 645 meanings
Oxford English Dictionary editors recently revealed that
“run” has indeed become the single word with the most potential meanings in all
of English, boasting no fewer than 645 different usage cases for the verb form
alone.
The definitions of “run” featured in the OED’s upcoming
third edition begin with the obvious, “to go with quick steps on alternate
feet,” then proceed to run on for 75 columns of type. This entry took one
professional lexicographer nine months of research to complete.
How could three little letters be responsible for so much
meaning?
Context is everything. Think about it: When you run a fever,
for example, those three letters have a very different meaning than when you
run a bath to treat it, or when your bathwater subsequently runs over and
drenches your cotton bath runner, forcing you to run out to the store and buy a
new one. There, you run up a bill of $85 because besides a rug and some cold
medicine, you also need some thread to fix the run in your stockings and some
tissue for your runny nose and a carton of milk because you’ve run through your
supply at home, and all this makes dread run through your soul because your
value-club membership runs out at the end of the month and you’ve already run
over your budget on last week’s grocery run when you ran over a nail in the
parking lot and now your car won’t even run properly because whatever idiot
runs that Walmart apparently lets his custodial staff run amok and you know
you’re letting your inner monologue run on and on but, God—you’d do things
differently if you ran the world. Maybe you should run for office.
It bears mentioning that “run” didn’t always have the run of
the dictionary. When the OED’s first edition came out in 1928 (after 70 years
of editorial research), the longest entry belonged to another three-letter
juggernaut: “set.” Even today, the print edition of the OED contains some 200
meanings, beginning with “put, lay, or stand (something) in a specified place
or position,” and continuing on for about 32 pages.
So what happened? Why is “run” suddenly the Swiss Army Knife
of verbs? ‘Run’ appears to have earned some major lift during the boom of the
Industrial Revolution, when all manner of mechanized innovation adopted it as
their verb of choice. “Machines run, clocks run, computers run—there are all of
those [meanings] which began in the middle of the 19th century,” British author
Simon Winchester says.
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4/16/2017
United Airlines again???
A week after David Dao was violently dragged off a United flight out of Chicago, the negative stories keep flowing like
complimentary wine.
A passenger on a flight from Kauai to Los Angeles said he
was threatened with handcuffs for refusing to give up his $1,000 seat
to "somebody more important."
A man on a flight from Houston to Calgary was stung by
a scorpion after it fell on his head.
And now United is trying to put out another PR fire involving a bride and groom headed for their wedding.
 |
| Amber Maxwell and Michael Hohl |
On Saturday, Amber Maxwell and Michael Hohl of Park City, Utah. flew from Salt Lake City to Houston,
where they boarded a connecting flight to Liberia, Costa Rica.
The bride and groom said they were the last to board the
plane, which was half-full. As they walked down the aisle, they noticed a man
was sprawled across their seats in row 24. Not wanting to wake the napping
passenger, they decided to grab seats in row 21.
"We thought, 'not a big deal,' it’s not like we are
trying to jump up into a first-class seat. We were simply in an economy row a
few rows above our economy seat."
A flight attendant approached them, and the couple explained why they weren't in their assigned seats. The flight
attendant told them to return to their seats, and they did. Then a
U.S. marshal came onto the plane and asked them to get off.
"They said that we were being disorderly and a hazard
to the rest of the flight, to the safety of the other customers," the
groom said.
United Airlines provided this statement on Saturday:
"We are disappointed anytime a customer has an
experience that doesn’t measure up to their expectations. These passengers
repeatedly attempted to sit in upgraded seating which they did not purchase and
they did not follow crew instructions to return to their assigned seats. We’ve
been in touch with them and have rebooked them on flights tomorrow."
The bride and groom said they won't be flying United again
and described the whole situation as "quite strange."
“I think customer service and the airline have gone real
downhill,” the groom said. "The way United Airlines handled this was
really absurd.”
Despite their flight delay, their wedding is still planned
for Thursday.
Edited from Mashable and WCNC
4/15/2017
All Blacks in AIG’s New Ad
AIG is one of the All Blacks’ biggest sponsors, so it’s not
a shock that the insurance company got the New Zealand rugby team to star in
its recent spot.
The All Blacks enter the Tokyo subway and exit at the famous
Shibuya crossing. They give each other a few signals and then split up, rushing
off to viciously tackle seemingly random Japanese people—a schoolgirl walking
along texting, a bicycle delivery guy, two cheerful co-workers, a man dressed
in a teddy-bear suit handing out fliers, a businessman in a bow-off with
another businessman. And it gets more ridiculous from there.
A player jumps through the window of a moving car. Another
sacks a window washer so quickly that her rag stays stuck to the pane. And then
a whole squad stops a car. Finally, they run a play, passing the ball and
kicking it through an office window to knock out a man working at a desk.
Watch the spot before reading on.
A couple of people have suggested the ad is too
violent, but I don’t think any of
them have ever watched a rugby game.
Of course, no actual pedestrians were harmed in the making
of the spot. It was filmed safely under controlled conditions and expert
supervision.
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4/13/2017
United Airlines Flight 3411
LOUISVILLE — A United Airlines flight to Louisville has become infamous after videos of a man being dragged from his seat to make room for airline employees went viral on Sunday evening.
Louisville resident Audra Bridges posted a video which shows three security officers speaking to an unidentified passenger on United Express Flight 3411, which hadn't left O'Hare International Airport in Chicago yet. Then, one of the men grabs the passenger, who screams as he is yanked out of his seat and pulled down the aisle. That clip, as well as other videos from the flight, were posted on social media and racked up millions of views Monday as the story made national headlines.
Bridges said United offered passengers on Sunday's flight up to $800 in compensation if they agreed to take a different plane to Louisville. After they boarded the flight, passengers were told that four people would be selected to leave since no one volunteered.
The man in the video was one of the four chosen because they had purchased the cheapest flights on the plane.
He became "very upset" and said he was a doctor who needed to meet with patients the next morning. When he did not leave willingly, security officers came and he was forcibly removed from the plane.
United spokeswoman Erin Benson said four crew members needed seats on the plane so they could catch another flight in Louisville. If they weren't able to get to Louisville, Benson said there could have been a "domino effect" that impacted other.
Airlines usually request volunteers who are OK with taking a new flight in return for compensation and will keep upping their offers if necessary until enough people take the deal. If still need more people to give up their seat, the company can determine who must leave but typically makes that decision before passengers board the plane.
The situation did not escalate into violence until three security people attempted to pull the doctor off the aircraft. The man resisted at first but then appeared to be unconscious as he was pulled off the aircraft.
About 10 minutes after the doctor was dragged down the aisle, everyone was ordered to leave the aircraft, so blood could be cleaned out of it. About 45 minutes to an hour later passengers were allowed to reboard.
Passengers on United Express Flight 3411 will get a refund, United Airlines said Wednesday.
United has faced a fierce firestorm of criticism to the incident, which has remained a top story in the United States, China and across the globe.
On Thursday Crystal Pepper, the daughter of David Dao, the Kentucky physician who was recorded being dragged while screaming and bleeding, held a news conference alongside her father's attorneys.
She explained that her father, 69, suffered a concussion, broken nose and damaged sinuses and lost two front teeth when he was dragged off the flight Sunday.
Lawyer Thomas Demetrio added Dao has been released from the hospital and is staying in a "secure" location.
A lawsuit will be filed at some point and a hearing on preserving evidence is set for Monday in Chicago.
First video from Business Insider
4/09/2017
President Macri speaks with Bloomberg
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4/08/2017
Paid paw-ternity leave
 |
| (Photo: BrewDog) |
The company said it's the first company in the United
States, and the first brewery in the United Kingdom, to offer the
"paw-ternity" benefit.
BrewDog, in an announcement made earlier this week, said the
benefit will be offered to all of its nearly 1,000 employees across the world,
including those at its soon-to-be brewery near Columbus, Ohio, which will open in the spring.
BrewDog said the week of leave will ensure dog owners can
accompany puppies as they get adapted to their new surroundings.
"It's not easy trying to juggle work and settle a new
dog into your life, and many members of our crew have four-legged friends at
home," said company co-founder James Watt. "We wanted to take the
stress out of the situation and let our teams take the time they need to
welcome their new puppy or dog into their family."
The truly fringe benefit fits with the company's aim to become "the best company to
work for. Ever."
The company started in 2007 as "two
guys and their dog." Since then, those guys, co-founders Watt and Martin
Dickie, have created a dog-friendly atmosphere at the Scotland brewery. Staff
members are welcome to bring their dogs to work.
The company said it also has "enhanced paternity and
maternity pay."
"We always want to raise the bar when it comes to
offering our staff the best possible benefits, We care
about two things above all else. People and beer. We also just really like dogs."
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Article edited from USA Today
Venezuela's Bread Wars (audio)
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What's a reasonable commute?
What’s a reasonable commute? An hour? Maybe two? What if, on some days, you spend more time getting to and from work than you do at your office doing your job?
This is the daily grind for hundreds of thousands of workers
who spend on average six hours – and sometimes up to nine – commuting to and
from Beijing, according to a recent BBC report.
Beijing residents spend on average 52 minutes commuting.
Many workers, however, have been priced out of the capital’s sky-rocketing
property market. They live instead in more affordable satellite towns and
cities, such as Yanjiao, in Hebei province, which is around 35 kilometers from
the capital.
By 2030, Chinese cities will be home to more than 1
billion people – or up to 70% of the population.
Traffic jams stretching for many kilometers are already
a familiar sight in Beijing, and other Chinese cities. In an effort to avoid
the gridlock, some commuters are not using their cars. Some ask elderly
relatives to queue for them at bus stops, where the wait to get on can be over
an hour.
The average American daily commute was about 24 seconds
longer in 2016 than 2015. Over the year, this added about three hours and 20
minutes to the total time spent getting to and from work.
In the UK, a two-hour commute is a daily reality for 3.7
million workers – a figure that has increased by a third in five years.
In recent years, a growing number of people have been
travelling even further to work. Known as “super commuters”, they cross borders
or cover very long distances. These commuters often work from home part of the time, and
make the journey once or twice a week, or less. They take advantage of
lower-cost housing where they live and higher salaries where they work.
In Europe, the share of cross-border commuters is
particularly high in Slovakia (5.7%), Estonia (3.5%), Hungary (2.4%) and
Belgium (2.3%). The rise of low-cost airlines in Europe has also contributed to
the growth of the super commuter.
Longer commutes are linked to increased rates of high blood pressure, back and
neck pain, depression and divorce. But there are upsides too. People report having the time to fall
in love with reading again and using it to further their education.
In the future, technology may well make long commutes a
thing of the past. Big data could revolutionize
traffic management. A system already in use in Madrid uses big data to match
fluctuations in demand for public transport by adjusting the frequency of buses
or trains. This improves punctuality while also reducing overcrowding.
But we may not have to commute at all. In the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report, 44% of HR managers agreed with the statement: “Organizations are likely to have an ever-smaller pool of core full-time employees for fixed functions and external consultants and contractors for specific projects.”
Edited from World Economic Forum
4/02/2017
Emirates and the US ban on laptops in cabins
On Tuesday March 21st, the US Department of Homeland
Security and the US Transportation Security Administration issued a ban on all
electronics larger than a cellphone from the cabins of nonstop flights to the
US from 10 airports in the Middle East and North Africa. It's
disproportionately problematic for a carrier like Emirates, which counts on
international business travelers for a significant portion of its revenue and
to fill hundreds of seats in its fleet of Airbus A380 superjumbos.
Emirates Airlines is introducing a service that will allow
passengers to use their laptops and tablets until it's time to board their
US-bound flights instead of checking them with their luggage.
"Our aim is to ensure compliance with the new rules,
while minimizing disruption to passenger flow and impact on customer
experience," Emirates President Tim Clark said in a statement. "Our
new complimentary service enables passengers, particularly those flying for
business, to have the flexibility to use their devices until the last possible
moment."
Industry analysts and safety experts question the ban and
its intended ability to prevent a terrorist attack.
Emirates' service offers a partial fix. It also means
passengers flying through Dubai on their way to the US from India, for example,
will be able to use a laptop during the first flight and while they're at the
airport instead of having to check it at the start of the trip. It will also be
a solution for business travelers whose employers don't allow them to check
laptops for fear they could be lost or stolen with company information on them.
Passengers will be required to declare their large electronic
devices to security agents before boarding US-bound flights. The devices will
then be packed in secure boxes and stored in the aircraft's cargo hold. The
boxes will be returned to the travelers once they reach the US.
According to Emirates, passengers' carry-on bags will be
thoroughly searched by security personnel before they board nonstop flights to
the US.
On board the flight, passengers will be able to access the
internet on their phones through the airline's free Wi-Fi service. According to
Clark, 90% of the airline's passengers surf the web on their smartphones, while
only 6% use their laptops.
Emirates has also been touting its in-flight
entertainment system and its 2,500 channels of movies, TV shows, live sports,
and music.
Edited from Business Insider
April 1st news (video)
Number 1
We are excited to announce the launch of an innovative new contactless ticket system, offering Virgin Trains customers the opportunity to have their train ticket permanently tattooed on their body, preventing frequent passengers from ever losing their tickets again.
Number 2
Introducing Petlexa! The Petlexa feature allows dogs, cats, and other animals to communicate with Alexa just like you do. The Petlexa feature gives pets the freedom to place orders from Amazon, and to activate smart home enabled toys.
Number 3
Here is what the people at Burger King had to say:
Number 4
"Rodda’s Clotted Cream has set a new precedent with local milk farmers, by setting contractual standards about the length of the grass used to feed their cows. The creamery, which commences direct milk contracts with local farming families within a 30 mile radius tomorrow (1st April), has discovered that the optimum grass blade length in grazing fields is 25cm. This precise measurement will help cows produce the highest possible milk quality for making the perfect clotted cream. Dedicated farmers will now measure the grass each time their herd goes out to graze."
Edited from The Telegraph
The pink dress
While this may be where the garment was finally sewn
together, it has already been to several other countries. In fact, it's quite
possible this piece of clothing is better travelled than you..
The material used to create it came from lyocell - a
sustainable alternative to cotton. The trees used to make this fibre come
mainly from Europe, according to Lenzing, the Austrian supplier that Zara-owner
Inditex uses.
These fibres were shipped to Egypt and then sent to China
where it was woven into a fabric. This fabric was then sent to Spain where it
was dyed, in this case pink. The fabric was then shipped to Morocco to be cut
into the various parts of the dress and then sewn together.
After this, it was sent back to Spain where it was packaged
and then sent to the UK, the US or any one of the 93 countries where Inditex
has shops.
From dresses to t-shirts and trousers, most items of
clothing sold around the world will have similarly complicated journeys.
Most Inditex garments are made close to its Spanish
headquarters or in nearby countries such as Portugal, Morocco and Turkey. This
is what helps the firm achieve its famously fast reaction times to new trends. Most
of its rivals' supply chains are far less local.
Regardless of where they're based, most factories are not
owned by the fashion brands that use them. Instead, they're selected as
official suppliers. Often these suppliers subcontract work to other factories
for certain tasks, or in order to meet tight deadlines.
This system can make tracking the specific origins of a
single item difficult. I contacted several big clothing brands including
H&M, Marks and Spencer, Gap and Arcadia Group last week to give me a sample
example of the journey of a t-shirt in their basic range from seed to finished
product.
Only Inditex was able to respond in time to meet the
deadline for this article.
"I imagine companies don't want to respond because they
have no clue where the materials they buy come from," says Tim Hunt, a
researcher at Ethical Consumer, which researches the social, ethical and
environmental behaviour of firms.
The difficulties were highlighted devastatingly by the 2013
Rana Plaza disaster where more than 1,100 people were killed and 2,500 injured
when the Bangladesh garment factory collapsed.
In some cases, brands weren't even aware their clothes were
being produced there.
According to the "Behind the Barcode" report by
Christian Aid and development organisation Baptist World Aid Australia, only
16% of the 87 biggest fashion brands publish a full list of the factories where
their clothes are sewn, and less than a fifth of brands know where all of their
zips, buttons, thread and fabric come from.
Non-profit group Fashion Revolution, formed after the Rana
Plaza factory collapse, is leading a campaign to try to force firms to be more
transparent about their supply chains. Every year, around the time of the
disaster it runs a #whomademyclothes campaign encouraging customers to push
firms on this issue.
Fashion Revolution co-founder and creative director Orsola
de Castro says the mass production demands of the fashion industry and the
tight timescales required to get products from the catwalks on to the shelves
as quickly as possible means the manufacturing processes have become
"very, very chaotic".
While newer and smaller fashion brands are creating products
with 100% traceability, she says it's a lot harder for the established giants.
Yet just over a decade ago, Pietra Rivoli had no problems
tracking the journey of a single $6 cotton t-shirt she'd picked out of a sale
bin in a Walmart in Florida. Starting with the tag at the back of the t-shirt,
she tracked its journey backwards from the US "step by step along the
supply chain".
"A shoe leather project," is how Prof Rivoli
describes her journey, which resulted in a book, The Travels of a T-Shirt in
the Global Economy.
As a teacher of finance and international business at
Georgetown University in Washington, Prof Rivoli wanted to investigate her
assumption that free trade benefited all countries.
Her travels took her from the cotton-growing region of
Lubbock in Texas to China, where the t-shirt was sewn together. Eventually, she
ended up in Tanzania on the east coast of Africa, which has a thriving second-hand
clothing market.
Her assumption was that the complicated supply chain was
driven by cost and market forces.
She concluded that a lot of brands' decisions about where to
buy supplies and make their clothing was actually driven by politics. She cites
US agricultural subsidies for cotton growers and China's migration policies
encouraging workers to move from the countryside as examples.
"Rather than a story of how people were competing - how
do I make a faster T-shirt, a better T-shirt, a cheaper T-shirt - what I found
is that the story of the T-shirt was really about how people were using
political power," she says.
The current backlash against global trade is a direct result
of this kind of political interference. This kind of consumer anger could
eventually drive change among fashion firms. Prof Rivoli notes that many firms
now list all their direct suppliers and she says there is a move towards
developing fewer, longer term supplier relationships.
 |
| Pietra Rivoli travelled from the US to China and Africa to track the journey of a single $6 t-shirt |
Million-Dollar Coin Stolen from Berlin Museum (audio)
 |
| The world's biggest and most expensive gold coin, the "Canadian Maple Leaf. A similar coin was stolen in Berlin this week. |
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