Delta Looking Into Snippy Comments From Pilot To Air Traffic Control

No one really likes to be corrected, but when that correction is “you’re taking your plane to the wrong runway,” then you should probably appreciate the criticism. That wasn’t the case for one Delta pilot who didn’t take kindly when an air traffic controller at the country’s busiest airport tried to put him on the right path.

The conversation is being described as a “rant,” and ABC News even warned viewers that the exchange can get pretty heated. Neither of those is really true, as neither party curses or raises his voice.

But what is of concern is the pilot’s attitude during the discussion.

The flight, Delta 2422 from Atlanta to Charlotte, NC, was slated to take off from the runway labeled “Mike” on Friday, but the air traffic controller contacted the pilot because he appeared to be taking his jet to the “Lima” runway.

“Hey you know what, we’ll taxi out there any way we want unless you tell us to,” responded the pilot. “I don’t like your attitude.”

To which the controller answered, “I don’t have an attitude, I’m just saying it looks like you joined Lima instead of Mike and I’m just trying to correct you before you stay on Lima.”

This apparently got the pilot even more upset.

“Like oh my god, there’s another plane out there, like 6 miles away,” he told the controller. “Your attitude is really something sir, we’re out here on Mike. Good morning.”

At this point, the controller reminds the pilot that it’s a controller’s job to, ya know, control air traffic.

“Good morning. There was no attitude,” he told the Delta crew. “I was just trying to correct you. That’s my job to correct you if you mess up, and make sure everybody’s doing what I ask them to do for certain reasons.”

Then the pilot said something he probably didn’t want the world to hear on national news.

“All right, I make a mistake every two to three minutes but my attitude is not like yours,” he fired back.” We’re out on Mike and you didn’t tell us how to get there, so next time you can try doing that.”

The best part of the exchange is when a pilot from another plane chimes in to say, “Settle down Captain Happy,” which we’re assuming is not the Delta pilot’s actual name.

Delta says it is looking into the exchange but says no passengers were ever in danger.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Guess What Happens When Robbers Go After Money At A Gas Station Staffed By MMA Fighter?

(Click2Houston.com)

If you guessed: “A lot of kicking,” from the above headline, you’d be right. A pair of accused robbers picked the wrong gas station clerk to mess with in Houston — unless they somehow decided to tussle with a semi-professional mixed martial arts fighter on purpose.

The store clerk was behind the counter when he saw his coworker returning after a trip to the bank, reports Click2Houston.com. Two men reportedly jumped out of a car and went after the worker carrying a bag of money from the bank.

That’s when he ran outside and started kicking people.

“The first guy I saw, I just kicked him in the face,” he said. “Then I punched the other guy.”

He’s been fighting in cage matches and involved with mixed martial arts for more than a decade, he says, and was the national champion of Sri Lanka for five straight years.

Those skills came in handy — the suspects beat a hasty retreat and headed back to the getaway car, but not before the clerk punched one of the men to the ground, where his pals left him.

The downed suspect was arrested and charged with robbery with bodily injury, while the other and the driver got away for now.

Gas station clerk with MMA training surprises thieves [Click2Houston.com]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Wendy’s Testing Out Build-Your-Own Sandwich Idea

In our experience, most Wendy’s stores have been willing to mix and match sandwich elements to suit customers’ individual preferences, but at two restaurants near Wendy’s global HQ — where everyone is a perky redhead who never seems to put on a pound, in spite of all the fast food she devours — the burger chain is currently testing a program that makes this build-your-own idea official.

QSR Magazine posted the image shown at the left and confirmed with Wendy’s that the DIY sandwich program is indeed being tested at a pair of eateries in Columbus, OH.

As you can see, customers have a choice of bun, including the pretzel bun or no bun at all; options for protein, though it’s unclear if you can have both chicken and beef or if customers can only stack up beef patties (max. 3). Then there’s the cheese, toppings, and sauces options.

“It’s an early [operational] test,” a Wendy’s rep tells QSR. “We’re always looking at a variety of things, from menu offerings to equipment to technology to customer enhancement. Many of these approaches are changed [during testing] or never adopted.”

Prices for a DIY burger start at around $4; prices for chicken are slightly higher.

This is the latest in the fast food trend of trying to create new menu items without having to introduce new ingredients. In the last few years, a number of fast food franchisees have complained about being forced to take on limited-time menu items that may not sell well, like the McDonald’s Mighty Wings that didn’t sell anywhere near what the company had hoped.

[via BurgerBusiness]

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Zillow Likes The Zestimate On Rival Site Trulia, Puts In Offer Of $3.5 Billion

If you’ve got $3.5 billion lying around, you could buy just about any house you wanted. Or if you’re online real estate site Zillow, you just use that money to buy your competition.

Seattle-based Zillow announced Monday that it would acquire rival online real estate site Trulia for $3.5 billion, Venture Beat reports.

Under the proposed merger, which is expected to close in early 2015, the combined company will maintain both the Zillow and Trulia consumer brands.

Zillow currently has 83 million users, while Trulia has about 54 million users. While that seems like a lot of people, officials with the companies say there’s little overlap between the customer bases.

According to a Zillow news release on the proposed merger, approximately half of Trulia.com’s monthly visitors do not visit Zillow.com, and approximately two-thirds of Zillow’s monthly visitors across all devices do not use Trulia.

Both companies offer buyers, sellers, homeowners and renters access to information on homes and real estate at no cost, while offering advertising and software applications for real estate professionals.

The majority of revenue for both companies comes in the form of advertising sales to real estate professionals. The combined revenues for the two companies currently sits at $12 billion each year.

Today’s merger announcement comes just two months after Zillow’s “Zestimates” – the site’s automated approximation of what the property is worth – came under fire from real estate agents. Some realtors say Zestimates are useless and cause confusion for their customers, while Zillow officials contend the data provides valuable information to prospective buyers and renters.

Zillow buys Trulia for $3.5B to create an online real estate giant [Venture Beat]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Halloween Creep Strikes Costco With July Costume Displays

If you already finished all of your back-to-school shopping back in June when Staples started up its sale campaigns, maybe it’s time to get started on other ridiculously early holiday tasks. For example, it’s almost August: do you have your kids’ Halloween costumes ready?

Tim was shopping at Costco when he noticed these racks of costumes. Of course, children are fun because some of them like to wear costumes year-round, but this is clearly a display for highly organized parents who are planning way ahead.

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Former GM CEO Thinks Congress Would Have Gone Easier On Him Over Ignition Recalls

(paul bica)

In the short time that she’s been CEO of General Motors, Mary Barra has repeatedly been called before federal lawmakers and investigators to answer for the car company’s record-shattering recalls, including the ignition-related problems that went ignored for more than a decade. But her predecessor at the GM CEO gig says he probably wouldn’t have received such tough interrogations from Congress.

Dan Akerson had only been in the CEO seat at GM since Sept. 2010 when he stepped down at the beginning of 2014. He’d been on the board of the car company before that, but his professional experience had been at companies like Nextel and MCI.

Meanwhile, Barra is a lifer not just in the auto industry, but specifically at GM. She not only began working at the car maker when she was 18, she also got her undergraduate degree from General Motors Institute.

It’s that difference between the career businessman drafted to help a bailed-out automaker and a company veteran who somehow didn’t notice all the problems until after she inherited them that Akerson believes would have led to less-harsh questioning from Congress.

“I think it would have been easier for me to defend the company, because quite frankly I thought Mary got treated a bit unfairly by virtue of, ‘You’ve been with the company 30 years. Why didn’t you change things?’” explains Akerson, according to the Detroit News. “I could have said, ‘Hey, look, we had to change 30 things. This one dates back to eight, 10 years ago.’ It’s a little unfair, but life isn’t fair, and you own the problem.”

Akerson has only praise for the way that Barra has responded to the numerous recalls and queries from Congress.

“I was proud that the team faced the facts, brutal as they were, and I think they formulated a plan of recovery and I think that’s something to be proud of,” he said. “I can’t think of a better leader than Mary.”

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Amazon Launches Marketplace Selling 3D Products Printed On-Demand

Don’t have a 3D printer? Neither does anyone else, seeing as it’s one of those new technologies that hasn’t made the leap to being a product the average person can afford. In the meantime, Amazon has decided to fill that gap by launching an online marketplace offering customizable 3D printed products.

The marketplace opens today, Amazon says in a press release, with 200 products to choose from that are customizable by things like material, size, style and color, and some with options to add personalized text and image imprints.

The products range from things like slim wallets and phone cases to toys, jewelry (including cufflinks for men), and home decor items.

“The 3D Printed Products store allows us to help sellers, designers and manufacturers reach millions of customers while providing a fun and creative customer experience to personalize a potentially infinite number of products at great prices across many product categories,” says Petra Schindler-Carter, Director for Amazon Marketplace Sales.

If you’re worried about how your 3D cufflinks will turn out, there’s a preview function that shows a virtual model of the product that rotates so you can see every side and angle before you order.

Once the personalization process is done, each product is printed on-demand by the manufacturer and shipped.

Thus far, it doesn’t seem that customers can upload their own designs and order up printable versions, but we wouldn’t be surprised if Amazon offers that in the future. Because who wouldn’t want to design a new take on something like, a cheesehead that holds real cheese? Or your own 3D version of Aaron Rodgers? Creepy, maybe, but awesome, definitely.

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

If Someone From “Comcast” Requires You To Pay With A Prepaid Cash Card, It’s A Scam

(diaper)

You get a call from Comcast and the person on the other end says you can lock in a decent rate for the next year if you pay for the first six months’ worth of service up front. It sounds a bit odd, but you’re always looking to save a few bucks, so you keep listening. The caller then tells you that the only way to pay that money is to put it on a prepaid cash card. This is when you hang up because the caller is probably trying to run a scam on you.

KUSA-TV reports that Comcast customers in the Denver area have recently been taken in by scammers pretending to be Comcast.

The callers either have some inside info or are really good at guessing, as KUSA reports that they convince customers the call is legitimate by knowing how long the customers have had Comcast service, which packages they have, and how much they are paying each month. The information is not always entirely accurate, but it’s been sufficient to fool some customers.

What we can’t figure out is why customers don’t sniff a scam when the caller demands that the $600 up front money be paid — not in cash, check, or credit card — but with a Green Dot MoneyPak prepaid cash card. Comcast does accept these cards, but it’s never the only option. Meanwhile, the caller expects the customer to go out and purchase a card, load it up with money, and then provide the account info and PIN to the scammer.

Since that can’t obviously all be done in one call, the scammer needs to provide a call-back number. When hoodwinked customers call that number, the recorded voice states that “you have reached the Comcast Infinity rewards program.”

The scam doesn’t just steal money from Comcast customers; it can also screw up their Comcast account. See, the scam caller tells the customer that by paying the $600, they won’t have to pay anything to Comcast for the next six months.

Thus, people who don’t realize they’ve been scammed will stop paying their Comcast bills, only to find service cut off after a few months of non-payment.

In a statement to KUSA, Comcast says it is “aware of the Green Dot MoneyPak scam in which victims receive an email, or call offering them a promotional package for Comcast services.”

The cable giant confirms that it does accept Green Dot as one form of payment from customers but, “under no circumstances would it be required in advance for services.”

Comcast says customers should verify promotions by checking comcast.com or by calling 1-800-COMCAST.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

$8.5 Billion Discount Store Merger: Dollar Tree Purchases Family Dollar

(pjpink)

Those dollar purchases really add up, but for Dollar Tree it’s just one proposed purchase that’s creating a rather substantial tab. The discount store recently announced plans to acquire its larger rival Family Dollar.

Chesapeake, VA-based Dollar Tree announced Monday that it would acquire Matthews, NC-based Family Dollar for a whopping $8.5 billion, CNNMoney reports.

Combined, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar have more than 13,000 stores and annual revenues of $18 billion, propelling the combined company ahead of current dollar store leader Dollar General which operates 11,000 stores and has $17.5 billion in revenue.

Officials with Dollar Tree say in a news release that the company will continue to operate under both brands when the merger is completed in early 2015.

Dollar store chains experienced a period of high patronage during the recession when consumers traded in shopping trips to big box retailers for those at discount joints. Companies, such as Family Dollar and Dollar General, took their popularity as a sign that consumers needed more stores, and a dollar store bubble was born.

It appeared that bubble may have been on the verge of bursting earlier this year when Family Dollar announced it would close 370 stores, reduce staff and cut prices on more than 1,00 items. It’s unclear if the proposed merger would change any of those plans.

Dollar stores joining forces [CNNMoney]

by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

Campus Científicos de Verano

El Ministerio de Educación y la FECYT vienen convocando desde el 2010 el proyecto “Campus Científicos de Verano” con el doble objetivo de potenciar las capacidades de los alumnos que demuestran unas habilidades particulares en el ámbito científico-tecnológico, y de estimularles en un momento en que deben decantarse hacia uno u otro ámbito en sus estudios.

Para este año, se convocaron 1.920 ayudas, para cuarto curso de Enseñanza Secundaria Obligatoria y primero de Bachillerato. Se puede consultar la convocatoria completa del Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia en el BOE Martes 1 de abril de 2014. Sec. III Pág. 27921.

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