Mike Rowe on Safe Spaces →

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While addressing an individual’s question regarding girls in Boy Scouts, Mike Rowe brought up the bigger picture. I encourage you to read the whole article. And once again, the troops are NOT going to be sharing tents or even be in the same Dens. Educate first. I, for one, would love my girls to be Eagle Scouts and “live” in the wilderness.

As we all know, in 1974, a chipped tooth or a black eye didn’t lead to lawsuit, and today, I’m pretty sure a boxing ring and a trip to the shooting range would make a lot of parents…uncomfortable. But that’s exactly the point. In a world that values safety above everything else, discomfort is never welcome. Neither is risk. And yet, discomfort and risk are precisely why my time in Scouting was so valuable, and why Troop 16 was the polar opposite of a safe space.

Revenge of the Chargers' Fans →

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“God, I am so glad I no longer root for the Chargers,” tweeted Justin Halpern, the former San Diegan behind the “Sh*t My Dad Says” books and Twitter feed. “That was like watching your ex throw up on the dance floor at a party and knowing that’s no longer your problem.”

Probably the best descriptor of how I feel about this season or lack thereof. If she turns into the prom queen a few years from now, great, but if not, it'll continue to be business as usual. Go 1904FC and Soccer City!

Let the Banner Fly!

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Disgruntled Chargers fan Joseph MacRae bought a banner to fly over the stadium in Carson to send a message to Dean Spanos about how much San Diego fans detest the move to L.A.

Recently, Spanos tried to stop it by contacting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and requesting a temporary flight restriction (TFR) for game days.

However, the FAA only grants TFRs for stadiums and arenas that hold 30,000 or more, and since the StubHub Center capacity is under 30,000 -- the Chargers announced a sellout at 25,386 during their game with the Kansas City Chiefs last Sunday -- the FAA will not grant the TFR.

Just too much awesome not to link back to!

The Flight Was Not Oversold →

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It turns out that the contract has a specific rule regarding “Refusal of Transport” (Rule 21), which lays out the conditions under which a passenger can be removed and refused transport on the aircraft. This includes situations where passengers act in a “disorderly, offensive, abusive, or violent” manner, refuse to comply with the smoking policy, are barefoot or “not properly clothed,” as well as many other situations.

There is absolutely no provision for deplaning a seated passenger because the flight is oversold.

An added complication here is that the flight wasn’t even oversold. The contract defines an oversold flight as “a flight where there are more Passengers holding valid confirmed Tickets that check-in for the flight within the prescribed check-in time than there are available seats.”

In this case, the airline attempted to remove seated passengers to make room for airline staff requiring transport to another airport, not because it had sold more tickets than there were seats available.

It's not looking good for United and the operator of the flight, but if he wins, blue skies for Dr. David Dao. (Pun intended)

My opinion: He was mistreated by all counts. Period. At the same time, listening to authority is what I would have done only because I wouldn't have know my rights in the difference of boarding and oversold.

Republicans Getting Bought →

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A look at eight of the country’s largest providers, as well as five of the trade groups that signed a letter in January in favor of overturning the rules, show that in the last six years, they gave a total of at least $1,726,288 to those 22 senators — an average of more than half a million dollars per election cycle.

Idiots. We should probably harvest their internet browsing history and share it with their constituents. Idiots. It's our political system and if this isn't a form of corruption, I don't know what is.

via 9to5mac

New York AG Sides with the Consumers Against Time Warner Cable

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“When connecting wirelessly,” Schneiderman writes, “subscribers on the 300 Mbps plan typically received 15% of the promised speed; subscribers on the 200 Mbps plan received 20% of the promised speed; subscribers on the 100 Mbps plan received 39% of the promised speed; and subscribers on the 50 Mbps plan received 58% of the promised speed.”

To use the analogy of a public water main, Spectrum promised customers gallons of water and then knowingly leased them a faucet that was only able to produce drops at a time.

Now, I hope our new FCC Chairman does one better and goes after these telecom companies for the sake of all US Citizens. One can only hope.

GameStop Lying to Their Loyal Customers

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The more new games an employee sells, the more used games they’ll have to sell to make up for it. In other words, according to salespeople speaking to Kotaku and elsewhere on the internet, GameStop is incentivizing employees to stop people from buying new games and hardware. GameStop staff say the company has threatened to fire people who don’t hit these quotas, which is leading to all sorts of scuzzy tactics.

“We are telling people we don’t have new systems in stock so we won’t take a $300 or $400 dollar hit on our pre-owned numbers,” one GameStop employee told me in an e-mail, requesting anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to press. “This is company wide and in discussions with my peers it is a common practice. We also tell customers we don’t have copies of new games in stock when they are on sale—for example, Watch Dogs 2 is currently $29.99 new and $54.99 pre-owned. We just tell them we don’t have the new one in stock and shuffle them out the door.”

My Nintendo Switch Pre-order might just be my last interaction with this franchise. And I just upped my Power Rewards to Pro status again for another year.

A second employee also said they found themselves in trouble after selling a bunch of new games last Tuesday, during the launch of Resident Evil 7, Kingdom Hearts 2.8, and Tales of Berseria. “Now I’m fucked for the week,” that employee said. “Now I have to sell way more pre-owned this week.”

When a company slogan is "Power to the Players," they are actually referring to metrics and corporate. What a sham!

The Right Continues to Misfire on Technological Advances

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Ingraham is now the National Chairman of the organization that just launched the campaign against Musk and his companies.

They market themselves as being against “the entire culture of corporations making billions of dollars off of the American people for almost zero return to the consumer”, but they target very specific industries.

For example, they say they are against “Big Energy” in their manifesto, but in the section about ‘Big Energy’ they only attack the solar industry because they receive tax breaks. Does the solar industry really represent “Big Energy”? If your goal is really to attack energy subsidies, solar and renewable energy subsidies should be your last target considering their share of federal subsidies: Fossil Fuels.

Politics like this I cannot stand. Relentless idiocracy. Utterless stupidity. So what, we continue to run on gas? Idiots. // *frustrated.

Benghazi - A 28 Month Investigation →

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At two years and four months, it was longer than Congressional probes into 9/11, Watergate, the JFK assassination and Pearl Harbor.

Four Americans died at the U.S. embassy in Libya.

28 months into an investigation that one party is calling overkill and the other party calling for prison time. I just don't understand how any politician with this much ongoing background checks can get a security clearance or even run for the highest office of the United States of America. Like her or not, the case has all actions / in-actions of an individual who did not do their job.

Read it for yourself please before you make any comments. Here's a video if you're even that lazy.

Diamonds Are Done

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reputational headaches have been compounded by a glut of diamonds caused by a slump in consumer demand in China. That has dragged prices of top-quality cut diamonds down from about $12,000 per carat to $7,400 in five years, according to Rapaport-RapNet Diamond Trading Network, a price index.

Against this backdrop, a technological challenge is also emerging that could make it harder for the industry to win over the millennial customers on whom future sales depend. From China to California, boffins are improving their ability to cultivate diamonds in labs. They are looking beyond the billions of carats of synthetic diamonds produced under high temperature and pressure that are used in industries such as oil drilling. Now they are perfecting gem-quality stones for jewellery.

Only fitting that these narcissistic rocks that people have associated with wealth are finally coming into their own worthlessness. Jewelry means nothing against the backdrop of origin and acquisition.

And here's a wonderful video explains why diamonds are dumb.

A Fatigued Airline →

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The Emirates airlines’ management displays a callous disregard for the needs of its pilots, an ex-Emirates pilot told RT on condition of anonymity, stressing that none of the “many fatigue reports” he filed were taken seriously. Additionally, he was told that his promotion was delayed because he had “called sick and… fatigued too often.”

Seriously. Why would anyone knowingly put their lives on an airline that has blatant disregard for their pilots? Now, in wake of the FlyDubai crash, many pilots are finally voicing their concerns through the media.

Reach Across the Aisle

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Can you come to an unanimous agreement when it comes to receiving an awesome benefit such as a free flight?

From the capital to the campaign trail, political partisanship and a contentious election make disagreement feel like the new normal. It is clear that the country is divided. Or is it? Can compromises be made for the greater good? See what happens when unsuspecting JetBlue customers are tasked with putting aside personal differences to reach across the aisle.

Have I mentioned that I love working here?