Please Stop Making Bomb Threats Against Southwest (Or Any Airline)

(David Transier)

For the second time this week, a Southwest Airlines flight had to be investigated because someone thought it would be hilarious to waste everyone’s time by making bomb threats for flights between San Diego and Dallas.

The first incident occurred Monday, when threats against Southwest flights reportedly popped up on Twitter. At least one flight, en route to Southwest’s home at Love Field in Dallas, was in the air when the threats were spotted. The plane landed safely but authorities are now investigating the threat.

Then around 6 a.m. PT this morning, a threat was received for another flight headed from San Diego to Dallas. This plane had yet to leave the airport, so authorities were able to check it over and give it the all-clear before allowing it to take off.

And this is nothing new. In September, a Southwest passenger was detained because he had the really funny notion of giving clever names to his WiFi hotspot like “bomb on board,” or “the bomb is on this seat.”

Only a few months earlier, a Seattle-area man phoned in bomb threats to Southwest with the intention of ruining his ex-girlfriend’s vacation. He later tried to claim that he didn’t technically make a bomb threat, he merely lied when he said his ex was carrying a bomb.

What really annoys us about these repeated threats is what a massive waste of everyone’s time and money they are. Passengers have their flights delayed or canceled; police have to take time away from investigating other crimes; delays with moving flight crews around the country can have a ripple effect, causing later flights to be held up or canceled.

And while you may say “boo hoo” to a large national airline losing money, remember that these losses aren’t shrugged off. These costs result in higher airfares, more fees, staff cuts, and general corner-cutting, putting everyone at risk.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

Estrategia en Social Media de Infojobs #socialmedia #empleo

Hola:

Una presentación con la Estrategia en Social Media de Infojobs.

Un saludo

Archivado en: Inserción laboral, Redes Sociales, Sociedad de la información Tagged: Inserción laboral, internet, redes sociales, tic, Web 2.0.



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via Alfredo Vela Posteado por www.bscformacion.com

Pepsi’s Stevia-Sweetened Soda Will Hit Real-Life Stores In 3 Cities

Back in October, we told you about Pepsi’s plans to follow Coke into the mid-calorie, partly-stevia-sweetened soft drink market. Pepsi Life first went on sale in 7.5-ounce mini-cans in October, available only through Amazon. That was meant as a test before Pepsi tried putting the beverage in grocery stores. The test was apparently a success, since the green-labeled soda will be available in real-life stores.

The catch is that it will only be available in three cities. The lucky stevia-lovers of Denver, Minneapolis, and Washington, D.C. will be able to find Pepsi True in their grocery stores beginning this week. The tiny can experiment was successful. That serving size will remain on the market through Amazon, and 12-ounce glass bottles and 10-ounce cans will be available in retail stores.

As consumers try to cut back on or eliminate both high-fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners from their diets, Coke and Pepsi are testing these green cans to appeal to people who aren’t terrified of sugar, but who are looking to cut back a little. Stevia is considered a “natural” plant-based sweetener, but does have a bitter aftertaste that some people don’t care for.

Here are the new bottles, courtesy of the trade publication Beverage Digest:

ICYMI: Pepsi adding new packages for Pepsi True mid-cal sugar/stevia cola: 10-oz cans & 12-oz glass bottles. Image: http://ift.tt/1uZYf8P

— Beverage-Digest (@BeverageDigest) January 26, 2015

PepsiCo Expands Distribution of Stevia-Sweetened Cola [Wall Street Journal]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Top 10 países con Internet más rápido #infografia #infographic

Hola:

Una infografía con el Top 10 países con Internet más rápido.

Un saludo

You will find more statistics at Statista

Archivado en: Infografía, Sociedad de la información Tagged: Infografía, internet, tic



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Poll: Ride-Sharing Services Are Cutting Down On Drunk-Driving Incidents

(frankieleon)

Times used to be, if your friend was drunk and threatening to drive, you’d have to deal with the inconvenience of actually calling up a cab while hiding their keys. But now due to ride-sharing services that can summon vehicles with a swipe on an app, drunk-driving incidents are down. This, according to a poll by one of those services, Uber, along with Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

David Plouffe, formerly President Obama’s campaign manager and now working as Uber’s strategy chief, said such services are helping to reduce drunk-driving incidents, reports USA Today.

Almost four in five respondents of the poll said friends were less likely to drive themselves home after drinking because of ride-sharing apps. And 57% of transportation app users 21 and older said they’d “probably end up driving more after drinking at a bar or restaurant” if ride-sharing options didn’t exist.

The survey polled 807 adults in 19 cities where Uber operates.

“This study shows people are changing their behavior, particularly when they’re out having drinks,” Plouffe said.

While others might attribute the drop in incidents in places like California, where Uber points out that drunken-driving crashes have decreased by 6.5% among drivers under 30 since Uber began offering its UberX service in the state in 2012, to other factors besides just ride-sharing, Plouffe says the survey suggests the change can be linked to having ride-sharing in cities where public transit and cabs aren’t so easily available late at night.

“(Uber is launching) in small cities now, and these are places where (at night) maybe you either had a designated driver or you drove,” he says. “This study shows people are changing their behavior, particularly when they’re out having drinks.”

MADD’s president says it doesn’t matter how the word gets out about alternatives to driving drunk, just so long as it gets out.

“Safe rides are always within reach now,” says Colleen Sheehey-Church. “We’re aiming for a future with no more victims.”

Uber’s Plouffe pushes service as drunk driving solution [USA Today]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Of Course You Can Summon A Snow Plow With A Smartphone App

(Chris WIlson)

People and journalists often compare new products and services to an existing company that does something similar. “It’s a StitchFix for umbrellas,” you might say about a new venture. “It’s like GrubHub, but for freshly-prepared cat meals. It’s Netflix for woodworking tutorials.” A few startups have launched a new business model that could actually work: they’re like Uber, but for snow plows and lawn care.

You may have heard about a big storm headed toward the Northeastern United States, which is why these ventures are suddenly receiving some attention. One of the plow-summoning startups, Plowz, did something brilliant. The area around Plowz headquarters in Syracuse, NY, is expected to get a normal amount of snow this week by local standards. However, a few hours to the east, New England has some frosty blizzard action, and more snow than they know what to deal with. The startup’s solution: recruit some local plow drivers to spend the week in Boston, clearing driveways and parking lots.

It makes sense that someone would want to simplify and streamline the process of hiring a plow service. Simply using the same one your neighbors do doesn’t work when you only need one-time service while you’re out of town or temporarily injured, and that’s where Plowz comes in. (It also has a sibling app, Mowz, for lawn-care services.)

Plowz aims to make money from people who only need one-time service and order plowing when they need it. The app constructs efficient routes for independent plow companies or solo drivers, and those contractors snap a photo of their work for the homeowner or renter to view. For this, Plowz gets a 30% cut.

Competitor PlowMe looks at the business differently: they know that plow and lawn services depend on weekly customers, not on one-time bailouts when there’s a big storm. They construct efficient routes and make collecting payments easier, but the idea is to turn yard and driveway care into an automated process, not to summon a plow like an Uber vehicle.

There may be room for both models in the snowy driveways of America, and there’s definitely an appeal to being able to check an app and find out when the plow is coming to dig you out.

Uber for Snowplows: Startups Dig Out of the Blizzard [Bloomberg Businessweek]

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

Your Pork Prayers Have Been Answered: Bacon Prices Are Falling

(ChrisGoldNY)

The choice between money in your wallet and savory, melt-in-your-mouth bacon has just gotten a lot easier, my bacon-loving friends: The pork industry is coming through a recent porcine diarrhea epidemic that slowed down business for awhile, meaning your next bacon fix won’t be quite as costly.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (PDF), via the Huffington Post, prices of pork products are dipping now that hog herds are finally rebounding from the viral epidemic that killed millions of piglets in the last year and caused prices to go up.

“Pork prices are getting cheaper,” Terry Roggensack, co-founder of commodities research firm the Hightower Report, told HuffPo’s Alexander C. Kaufman. “It’s a positive.”

He adds that it’s not just the relief from the diarrhea virus that’s making things less expensive, but we’re not exporting as much to Russia, while the amount of hogs slaughtered rose 4.6% last week from the same period last year. And when you’ve got to move most of that pork sooner rather than later, cutting prices helps make it move.

“For the most part, you’ve got to use it within a month or so of when it’s produced,” Roggensack said. “The domestic market needs to absorb an even bigger supply than it normally would.”

Our mission is clear. Go forth and consume bacon. Someone has to do it.

Bacon Prices Are Falling [Huffington Post]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Words Of Neil Gaiman, Jeffrey Eugenides To Appear On Chipotle Cups You Will Discard Without Reading

Neil Gaiman is a bestselling author whose work spans multiple genres and formats, from children’s books to literary fiction to graphic novels to screenplays. Now he can add fast food packaging to that list, as he joins other notable writers like Jeffrey Eugenides, Amy Tan, Barbara Kingsolver, Paulo Coelho, and comedian Aziz Ansari in slapping their work on Chipotle cups and bags.

These big names, along with Augusten Burroughs, Julia Alvarez, Carlos Ruiz Zafron, and Walter Issacson as the latest slate of writers to take part in Chipotle’s Cultivating Thought program.

This group was put together by author Jonathan Safran Foer, who was among the first slate of writers willing to cross that line between literature and burrito packaging.

For the project, the authors didn’t just copy/paste excerpts from their latest books or scripts. Gaiman, for example, used his cup design to provide Chipotle customers with a quick read on the plight of refugees.

Eugenides investigates a more personal moment, describing the break-up of a relationship (at a Chipotle, of course), while Isaacson attempts to explain Einstein’s theory of special relativity on the back of a soda cup.

For those who don’t want to patronize a Chipotle just to get their authorial fix, all the writings are available on the Cultivating Thought site.

by Chris Morran via Consumerist

N.J. Wegmans, Whole Foods Customers Sue Over Claims Of “Store-Baked” Goods

(Seuss.)

How fresh is fresh? That’s the question at hand in a lawsuit brought by a group of Wegmans customers in New Jersey who say that just because the store’s rolls are technically put in an oven on the premises, that doesn’t mean they’re “store-baked.” The same group is going after Whole Foods in the lawsuit for similar reasons.

The lawsuit alleges that Wegmans is misleading customers by advertising its bakery rolls as “store-baked” because the bread is prepared elsewhere, frozen, then reheated at the store, reports BuffaloNews.com.

That description, however, would make the average customer believe that the rolls are whipped up from scratch at the store and baked fresh there, the lawsuit claims.

The customers are seeking class-action status and want compensation for customers in New Jersey’s Camden and Burlington Counties, for anyone who bought the bread products between 2008 and now.

Whole Foods is also named in a similar lawsuit, reports NJ.com, with customers alleging that the chain’s claims to making its own bagels, croissants, cookies, cakes, pies, muffins and rolls in-house is misleading.

“These individuals like to know what they’re buying. They shouldn’t mislead people that the baking is done on premises,” an attorney for the consumers told NJ.com.

Wegmans denies it’s leading customers astray.

“We haven’t deceived or misled our customers in any way,” said a Wegmans spokeswoman.

Both companies have requested the lawsuits be moved to federal court, as their headquarters are outside New Jersey, in Texas and New York, respectively.

Wegmans customers sue in New Jersey [Buffalo News]

Wegmans, Whole Foods accused of making half-baked claims about their bread [NJ.com]

by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

Study Shows The Obvious: Amazon Prime Members Spend More On Amazon

(Stephen Woods)

It should be obvious to anyone with a basic understanding of how shopping works that Amazon.com customers who have a subscription to the company’s Prime service probably spend a lot more with Amazon than people who don’t. The temptation to order just about everything one needs without needing to accumulate a $35 order beckons to our inner very lazy or very efficient people.

The important question, though, is what the difference is between Amazon customers who have Prime and who don’t. In a survey of Amazon customers, Consumer Intelligence Research Partners found that Prime members spend about $875 less than non-members. Those non-members spend an average of $625, which also shows some customer loyalty.

That’s because Amazon has other ways to build loyalty to their brand. While a person who owns a Kindle e-reader or table, or a Fire media player probably also has Prime, that doesn’t mean that they necessarily do. The survey found that just under 40% of Amazon customers own the company’s devices, and that some don’t particularly care whether they’re connected to the Internet or not.

About 15% of customers have Amazon’s Visa-branded credit card, and they’re also very loyal to the retailer because of the rewards that they earn.

Let’s review: owning a product with its own media ecosystem, belonging to a free shipping program that you have to pay for in advance, or that having a store credit card that lets customers earn extra rewards by shopping at that store encourages them to shop at that store. Who knew? Everyone, but it’s good to have a survey quantify what we thought was true.

Amazon Prime Hits New Highs [CIRP] (via CNET)

by Laura Northrup via Consumerist