Blog dedicado a la formación en todos sus ámbitos: presencial, online, a distancia
However, the new Maytag Man is not a repair technician. He is the embodiment of Maytag appliances. Or something. He looks a little bit like Mike Rowe of “Dirty Jobs” fame and stands in our houses, scrubbing dishes and handing us gallons of milk.
Maytag Man gets a makeover and gets busy [Consumer Reports]
If I had a nickel for every time a medieval sword-fighting practice session in a Taco Bell parking lot turns into a drug deal gone wrong… well you know where I’m going with this. It’s a weird occurrence and in one recent Cleveland case, pretty embarrassing for the accused drug dealers in question. Sounds like they got taken by a bunch of teenagers, wielding swords, no less.
The story two men told Cleveland cops at first was that they were just hanging out with some teenagers in a Taco Bell parking lot, practicing their medieval sword-fighting craft, when the teens up and robbed them, reports Cleveland.com.
But see, there was bit more to that story, and that bit maybe should’ve had the men thinking twice about calling the authorities. Seems the twosome sort of forgot to mention that the alleged reason they were in that parking lot was to sell pot to the group of teenagers.
When police asked about the robbery, neither of the suspects mentioned that part of the story. Instead they said they were just their to practice their sword skills.
“But that’s clearly not what ended up happening,” said the public information officer for the local police department.
Instead, cops say that when the two men got into a car with the teenagers to sell them $80 worth of marijuana, one of the teens pepper-sprayed one of the alleged drug dealers, grabbed the stash and ran. The two men then called the police to report the robbery, failing to mention it was pot that had been stolen.
Police looked at one of the men’s phone records and spoke to witnesses before determining that the and the other guy had met with the teenagers with the intent to sell them pot, not just play with swords. Gotcha.
One of them men was charged with trafficking marijuana, obstructing justice and possessing criminal tools, while the other is facing charges of trafficking marijuana and obstructing justice.
Two men robbed of their marijuana in Westlake after practicing medieval swordfighting, police said [Cleveland.com]
For those coming late to the story, the driver was pulled over last October for allegedly speeding (a fact that many stories have overlooked) and for “Driving with Monitor visible to Driver (Google Glass),” which the police maintain violates a California law prohibiting drivers from operating a vehicle if he or she can be distracted by a visible TV or other video monitor used primarily for entertainment or business applications. That law does allow for informational screens like GPS and rearview cameras.
In December, she entered a not guilty plea, claiming that while she was indeed wearing the geeky headgear, the Google Glass was not turned on.
“There is nothing illegal about simply wearing the Google Glass while it is not turned on,” said her lawyer at the time.
Now Reuters reports that she is scheduled to appear and argue her case today in a San Diego traffic court. While the decision will likely not set any concrete, binding precedent, it is believed to be the first time that a court will rule on the legality of wearing such devices while behind the wheel.
Of course, that issue is just going to get more complicated if and when Google integrates Glass into frames containing prescription lenses. Think about it — a driver may simultaneously need to wear the device in order to see the highway with his prescription lenses while also putting himself at risk for being ticketed because of the Google Glass screen.
It’s not just any buyer throwing its hat in the mouse’s ring — Apollo Global Management was one of the buyers of Hostess Brands last year, joining with Metropoulous & Co to buy the assets of the bankrupt company.
Chuck E. Cheese dates back to 1977 when it was founded by Nolan Bushnell, who was also one of the founders of Atari, reports the Associated Press. The more you know, right?
The company has tried to stay current by changing its mouse mascot over the years, sometimes showing Chuck as a New Jersey streetwise mouse with a cigar in his mouth, other times as a hip, skateboarding mouse with a baseball cap. Despite those various iterations, including the most recent refresher to Chuck in 2012, the restaurants have had flagging sales recently.
Apolla is an investment firm that has a history of buying troubled companies using borrowed money, until it can sell them for more years later. Otherwise known as a leveraged buyout.
Chuck E. Cheese still might take other proposals from others until Jan. 29, saying it’s been reviewing its strategic options. Those options include a shareholder rights plan, or “poison pill,” which could be used to try to stave off hostile takeovers.
There are currently 577 Chuck E. Cheese locations in 47 states, as well as 10 elsewhere in the world. Then there’s the one from my memory where I’m trapped in a ride that basically goes nowhere but up and around in circles, and Chuck is calling my name from the stage to come sing “Happy Birthday” and I’m TRAPPED. TRAPPED WITH NOWHERE TO GO AND MY BIRTHDAY IS RUINED.
Anyway, good luck, Chuck!
Chuck E. Cheese owner agrees to $950M buyout [Associated Press]
If you were to pick up the phone in a hotel room and dial 9-1-1, what would you get? You probably wouldn’t be in the state of mind to dial 9 first, but that shouldn’t stop you from getting in contact with emergency services as fast as possible, which is why one member of the Federal Communications Commission is looking into how it works at different hotel chains across the country.
The move by FCC member Ajit Pai to send letters to 10 hotel chains in the United States asking whether guests dialing 9-1-1 are immediately connected to an emergency call center or an employee started after a 9-year-old tried to call for help when her mother was stabbed to death, the Associated Press reports.
The girl, her mom and two siblings were at a Baymont Inn in December when officials say the father dragged the woman into a bathroom and killed her. The daughter tried to call 9-1-1 three times, but because she didn’t press 9 first, she got no response.
The girl’s grandfather has since initiated the push to find out where else this could possibly happen. Pai calls the family’s situation “horrific,” adding that he wants to dig around and see how deep the problem goes before recommending an action to the FCC.
“If it’s a ’90 percent’ problem as opposed to a ’5 percent,’ obviously the contours of the problem will look very different and the nature of the solution will look very different,” Pai says.
It might seem like a no-brainer to have 9-1-1 always work — after all, even if you’re locked out of your smartphone you can still dial emergency services — but the problem seems to be far from solved. The grandfather noted that this week he was staying in a hotel in Waco and saw evidence that things need to change.
“There was a big card on the phone giving you instructions on how to do everything else, except dial 911,” he said of the hotel room’s phone. “It was disheartening.”
When he asked front desk workers how to call 9-1-1 from his room, they told him he had to dial 9 first.
FCC member studies Texas 911 dialing case [Associated Press]
Below is the complete list of stores to be closed, arranged by state. While most states on the list are only losing one or two stores, Wisconsin will be saying goodbye to five JCP stores, the most of any state.
The first name given is the name of the mall or shopping center in which the JCP store currently resides. The name of the town is given in parentheses.
ALABAMA
Selma Mall (Selma)
CALIFORNIA
Arrow Plaza (Rancho Cucamonga)
COLORADO
Chapel Hills Mall (Colorado Springs)
CONNECTICUT
Meriden Square (Meriden)
FLORIDA
Lake Square Mall (Leesburg)
Gulf View Square (Port Richey)
IOWA
Muscatine Mall (Muscatine)
ILLINOIS
Stratford Square Mall (Bloomingdale)
Hickory Point Mall (Forsyth)
INDIANA
Five Points Mall (Marion)
Marketplace Shopping Center (Warsaw)
MARYLAND
The Centre at Salisbury (Salisbury)
MICHIGAN
Westwood Plaza (Marquette)
MINNESOTA
Northland Mall (Worthington)
MISSISSIPPI
Singing River Mall (Gautier)
Natchez Mall (Natchez)
MONTANA
Butte Plaza Shopping Center (Butte)
The JC Penney Store in Cut Bank (Cut Bank)
NORTH CAROLINA
Vernon Park Mall (Kinston)
NEW JERSEY
Burlington Center (Burlington)
Phillipsburg Mall (Phillipsburg)
OHIO
Wayne Towne Plaza (Wooster)
PENNSYLVANIA
Exton Square Mall (Exton)
LaurelMall (Hazleton)
Washington Mall (Washington)
TENNESSEE
Northgate Mall (Chattanooga)
VIRGINIA
Bristol Mall (Bristol)
Military Circle Mall (Norfolk)
WISCONSIN
Forest Mall (Fond du Lac)
Janesville Mall (Janesville)
Lincoln Plaza Center (Rhinelander)
Cedar Mall (Rice Lake)
Wausau Mall (Wausau)
The closures only represent a small number of the retailer’s approximately 1,100 locations nationwide, but that won’t make it any less annoying to the employees who will be out of work or customers who need to drive even further to get to a JCP.
While “Plastic Surgery for Barbie” might have been taken down, its clone “Girl Makeover” is still available on Google Play.
Judging by screenshots (because as much as I love the search for the truth, there’s not a chance in heck I’m downloading any of these apps), all the apps appear to be the same, even though they use different names.
The version getting the most publicity was labeled Plastic Surgery for Barbie, which had apparently been listed as suitable for children aged 9 and over. Players perform all manner of fun plastic surgery procedures on the initially overweight animated character until she’s been sliced, diced, molded and vacuumed into a different woman.
“This unfortunate girl has so much extra weight that no diet can help her,” read the description of the game. “In our clinic she can go through a surgery called liposuction that will make her slim and beautiful.”
The Plastic Surgery for Barbie game was pulled earlier this week from the Apple store, with toy-maker Mattel issuing a statement that the app had nothing to do with its line of Barbie products, which merely imply that women should have unrealistic figures but doesn’t outright demonstrate how to achieve them via surgery.
Other versions of the “game,” titled Plastic Surgery for Barbara or just Plastic Surgery, have shown up and subsequently been removed by Apple and Google. One app that is either a clone or is just the same app using yet another title is still available on Google Play under the name “Girl Makeover.” This one has actually been up since Christmas day and contains the presumably Google Translated description:
Very classic plastic game! Lara is a very cute and sweet girl，she likes to eat a lot of burgers and chocolates and once she found out that she looks ugly. She can’t make it up with this situation any additional second. And today plastic surgeon is going to make operation on her body and face in order to return cute look. She is afraid of all of this, but I know you will check that everything is over normally.
While this particular version of the app is listed as for mature users, the same developer has made apps like “Ugly Girl Makeover,” which involves prying the braces off a young woman’s teeth, which Google lists as appropriate for “Everyone.”
Plastic surgery game for kids removed from iOS, Android stores [Joystiq]
Plastic surgery app game aimed at children taken down [BBC]
Apple and Google pulls cosmetic surgery game aimed at children [Polygon]
While JPMorgan Chase took immediate steps in the wake of the breach, replacing some 2 million debit cards in December, the New York Times reports that Citi waited until now to issue the replacement cards so as to minimize the potential havoc that could have been caused by changing millions of card numbers in the middle of the holiday shopping (and subsequent return) season.
Citi claims that the decision to replace these cards is precautionary and is not tied to any increase in fraudulent activity.
Neither Chase nor Citi have announced any intention to replace affected credit cards. Federal laws offer a higher level of protection to credit card users than they do to debit cards.
If an ID thief were to get a debit cardholder’s account number and PIN, he could create a duplicate card and begin withdrawing cash directly from that customer’s checking account. Even though some banks have minimal or zero liability policies on such fraudulent transactions, it can take quite some time for that stolen money to be reinstated to the customer’s account.
Target initially denied that PIN information was stolen during the breach, but it later confirmed that encrypted PIN info was indeed stolen. The thieves will need a key to break that encryption and access the PINs. Target insists that key was not part of the massive data breach.
No other major banks or card issuers have taken any action to replace debit or credit cards.
Theft at Target Leads Citi to Replace Debit Cards [NY Times]
Citi to replace debit cards involved in Target data breach [Reuters]
