…the referee at the center of the most controversial call of the season so far is in fact a vice president for small-business banking at Bank of America in California.
Category: News and Views
Dogs Reduce Stress, Make Job More Satisfying | LifesLittleMysteries.com
It’s long been known that owning a pet can be good for your mental and physical health, but new research indicates that it can also make your office a much happier and productive place.
That’s the finding of a first-of-its kind study, which looked at the effects that man’s best friend has on employees. In that research, dogs were demonstrated to have many positive benefits in the workplace, most notably that they reduce stress and make working more satisfying.
British Airways New Customer Service Initiative | Airlinereporter.com
Recently, British Airways started keeping information on some of their VIP customers and searching for their images online all in the name of service. The program, called “Know Me,” has some privacy advocates worried.
“Last year we re-committed to the ethos: To Fly. To Serve. That’s what ‘Know Me’ is all about – enabling us to recognise our customers in a way that is individual to them,” Jo Boswell, head of customer analysis at British Airways, stated. “We’re essentially trying to recreate the feeling of recognition you get in a favourite restaurant when you’re welcomed there, but in our case it will be delivered by thousands of staff to millions of customers.”
The idea is simple enough. Airline employees have iPads which contain information on high-end passengers. What kind of food they prefer, if it is the first time they have flown with a certain product and if they might have had previous issues flying on the airline. The software also allows the crew to identify a passenger by searching Google Images.
SmartThings will let you run your world by smartphone| cnn.money.com
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Kickstarter’s latest tech darling promises to let you run your entire world from your smartphone: Control your air conditioning, lock your doors, or get an alert when your plumbing starts leaking. It’s called SmartThings, and it’s slated to start shipping in December.
SmartThings founder Alex Hawkinson got the idea for a system linking regular household items to the Internet after a power outage in his vacation home caused the basement pipes to explode. When Hawkinson showed up at the house a month later, he wished there had been a way for him to get a notification that something was up before chaos broke out.
Weekly Economic Update | LAEDC
THIS WEEK’S HEADLINES:
- California Home Sales and Median Prices in July
- Weak July Port Figures Reflect Deteriorating Global Economy
- Youth Employment Summer 2012
- Events of Interest
- September 25: The Federal Budget Deficit, the Fiscal Cliff and the Southern California Economy
- September 30: October 6, 2012: Canada Trade and Investment Mission
- October 29, 2012: Southern California Visitor Outlook Conference: Stepping on Uneven Ground
- October 30, 2012: X Marks the Spot: Discovering the Treasure in Today’s Real Estate Market
- November 8, 2012: LAEDC 17th Annual Eddy Awards
The Next Internet? Inside PARC’s Vision of Content Centric Networking | Xconomy
The fundamental idea behind Content Centric Networking is that to retrieve a piece of data, you should only have to care about what you want, not where it’s stored. Rather than transmitting a request for a specific file on a specific server, a CCN-based browser or device would simply broadcast its interest in that file, and the nearest machine with an authentic copy would respond.
How Alcohol Companies Are Targeting Kids | BusinessNewsDaily.com
Parents might do their best to shield their kids from advertising related to alcohol, but alcohol marketers are doing their best to reach them anyway. That’s the finding of new research that discovered that the content of alcohol ads placed in magazines is more likely to violate industry guidelines if the ad appears in a magazine with sizable youth readership.
The research, which was done by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, found that ads in magazines with a substantial youth readership (15 percent or more) frequently showed alcohol being consumed in an irresponsible manner.
Your Data for a Donut: The Price of Paying With Your Phone | Wired.com
Among the many cravings your smartphone can satisfy, add fat, sugar and caffeine to the list.
Dunkin’ Donuts’ new mobile payment app released today lets you set up an account and pay by scanning an on-screen barcode at the checkout counter. As with Starbucks’ popular mobile app, the system works like a glorified gift card. You can add money to your account by feeding the app your credit card information, and in the case of the Dunkin’ Donuts app you can send gift cards to friends. The Starbucks app tracks your purchases and rewards frequent buyers with free drinks.
Panoramic image: At home in a retired Boeing 727 – PhotoBlog
Solar Power Allows Luxury Yachts To Cruise In Silence | Wired.com
For luxury yacht owners, switching to solar power isn’t about saving money on electricity costs. It’s about silencing a noisy generator that threatens the tranquility of a cruise off the coast of Saint-Tropez.
That’s why the Ned Ship Group and STR Europe have partnered on plans to build a pair of extremely luxurious multihulls that combine solar cells with either electric or hybrid powerplants. A 65-foot catamaran can be used as either a private yacht or well-appointed ferry, while a 131-foot trimaran will feature a pool and several entertainment areas.
