Please create an account to participate in the Slashdot moderation system

 


Forgot your password?
Close
typodupeerror
×

Submission + - Defense Dept paid millions to NFL teams for "heartfelt" salutes to troops (nj.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: The U.S. Department of Defense has paid $5.4 million in taxpayer money to 14 National Football League (NFL) teams across the country, including $377,500 to the Jets, with the bulk spent by the National Guard. They payments were first revealed by U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz)., who said most in the general public believe the segments were heartfelt salutes by their hometown football team, not an advertising campaign paid for with their money. The senator explained: "Those of us go to sporting events and see them honoring the heroes. You get a good feeling in your heart. Then to find out they're doing it because they're compensated for it, it leaves you underwhelmed. It seems a little unseemly."

Teams that received taxpayer funds include the Baltimore Ravens ($799,000), Cincinnati Bengals ($138,960) Cleveland Browns ($22,500), the Green Bay Packers ($600,000), Pittsburgh Steelers, ($36,000) Minnesota Vikings ($605,000), Atlanta Falcons ($1,049,500) Indianapolis Colts ($620,000), Buffalo Bills ($679,000), Dallas Cowboys ($62,500), Miami Dolphins ($20,000), Kansas City Chiefs ($250,000), St. Louis Rams ($60,000), and the Jets ($377,000). (http://www.scout.com/story/1545004-nfl-teams-paid-to-thank-troops-at-games)

Submission + - Verizon Wireless gives Grandmother a heart attack (hamptonroads.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: On November 19, Angela Hawkins called Verizon Wireless about their earlier promise of a $60 account credit made several weeks before. Hawkins spoke to a customer service representative for at least 20 minutes. Hawkins, a 4-foot, 10-inch tall grandmother of four, said she never raised her voice or threatened the rep because she's "not that type of person."

The Verizon Wireless rep eventually suggested Hawkins speak with her supervisor. After waiting on hold for several more minutes, the supervisor came on the line sand said that Hawkins had threatened his employee and that he was calling the police. Hawkins felt lightheaded and quickly got off the phone and sat on her couch. She talked to her husband about what happened and checked her blinds several times in anticipation of police cars.

The day after the call, Hawkins went to her doctor, where an EKG revealed she'd had a heart attack. Her doctor personally drove her to a hospital, where she underwent surgery to place a stent in one of her arteries. The hospital trip cost more than $60,000 and the grandmother will require special medication for the rest of her life at a cost of about $120,000.

Hawkins had high cholesterol but no history of heart problems before the call. "She was in good health," her attorney said, noting that she took a stress test in 2013 and passed. "It was all found to be in good working order."

Submission + - Surveymonkey CEO Dave Goldberg's death highlights treadmill dangers (washingtonpost.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: The tragic death of Dave Goldberg, Surveymonkey CEO and husband of Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, (http://tech.slashdot.org/story/15/05/03/1943245/surveymonkeys-ceo-dies-while-vacationing-with-wife-sheryl-sandberg) is bringing attention to the dangers of high-powered treadmills and digital distractions that make the machines even more dangerous.

According to CNN, Goldberg fell and hit his head while using a treadmill. He was found shortly thereafter, still alive. He was then transported to a hospital, where he was declared dead. Goldberg suffered from traumatic brain injury and hypovolemic shock, a condition tied to severe blood and fluid loss. [http://money.cnn.com/2015/05/04/technology/dave-goldberg-cause-of-death/index.html?iid=Lead]

The freakish accident actually isn’t that rare. Treadmills account for the majority of such exercise equipment injuries, according to Janessa M. Graves, a professor at the College of Nursing at Washington State University. In a study of 1,782 injury reports from 2007 to 2011, she found that “treadmill machines comprise 66% of injuries but constitute approximately only one-fourth the market share of such equipment.”

Graves says she was shocked not only by the proportion of injuries caused by treadmills but also by the victims. “We were surprised by the number of pediatric injuries that we saw,” she says. “There was a pretty high incidence among kids, especially 0 to 4 years old, also 5 to 9 years old.” In many cases, kids turned on their parents’ treadmills, only to burn their hands on the fast-moving tracks or, worse, get their fingers caught in the powerful machines.

According to data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) [http://www.cpsc.gov/en/Safety-Education/Safety-Guides/General-Information/National-Electronic-Injury-Surveillance-System-NEISS/], roughly 19,000 people went to emergency rooms in 2009 because of treadmill injuries, including nearly 6,000 children.

Submission + - SurveyMonkey's CEO dies while vacationing with wife Susan Sanberg (nytimes.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: Dave Goldberg, the chief executive of SurveyMonkey (https://www.surveymonkey.com) and spouse of Facebook COO Sheryl K. Sandberg, died on Friday night. He was 47.

“We are heartbroken by this news,” Facebook said in a statement. Mark Zuckerberg, a friend of the family, said that Mr. Goldberg died while on vacation abroad with Ms. Sandberg.

Goldberg built Surveymonkey into a provider of web surveys on almost every topic imaginable, with 500 employees and 25 million surveys created. News reports said it was valued at nearly $2 billion when it raised a round of funding last year.

Submission + - Student torches computer lab after he is unable to hack into grading system (cbs46.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: A 15 year-old Douglas County, Georgia high school student has been charged with five felonies, including burglary and arson, after sheriff's deputies caught him while responding to a 1 AM fire at Alexander High School.

The boy admitted to investigators that he set fire to a computer after trying, unsuccessfully, to hack into the school computer system to change his grade on a failed test.

“It's very sad and tragic. He could have very easily come to one of his counselors and asked for help,” said Lt. Glenn Daniel with the Douglas County Sheriff's Department. “From what we can tell, (the student) was mad and frustrated because he could not hack into the system.” Lt. Daniel said the charges could land the young man in prison for several years.

The computer lab was cleaned up and re-opened in time for the start of that day's classes.

Submission + - AT&T bills 83-yr old customer $24,298.93 for landline dial-up service (latimes.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: 83-year-old Woodland Hills, California resident Ron Dorff usually pays $51 a month to AT&T for a landline, which he uses to access the Internet via an old-school, low-speed AOL dial-up subscription.... but then, in March, AT&T sent him a bill for $8,596.57. He called AT&T and their service rep couldn't make heads or tails of the bill, so she said she'd send a technician to his house. None came, so Dorff figured that everything was ok.

Dorff's next monthly bill was for $15,687.64, bringing his total outstanding debt to AT&T, including late fees, to $24,298.93. If he didn't pay by May 8, AT&T warned, his bill would rise to at least $24,786.16. Droff then called David Lazarus, business columnist for the LA Times, who got in touch with AT&T, who wasted little time in deciding it would waive the more than $24,000 in charges.

AT&T spokeshole Georgia Taylor claims Dorff's modem somehow had started dialing a long-distance number when it accessed AOL, and the per-minute charges went into orbit as he stayed connected for hours.

AT&T declined to answer the LA Times questions about why AT&T didn't spot the problem itself and proactively take steps to fix things? AT&T also declined to elaborate on whether AT&T's billing system is capable of spotting unusual charges and, if so, why it doesn't routinely do so.

Comment Re:Hard to take sides (Score 2) 355

by McGruber (#49570751) Attached to: University Overrules Professor Who Failed Entire Management Class
Thank you for sharing that informative article, which quotes the actual emailed reasons for the failing grade:

You all lack the honor and maturity to live up to the standards that Texas A&M holds, and the competence and/or desire to do the quality work necessary to pass the course just on a grade level. I will no longer be teaching the course, and all are being awarded a failing grade."

The article also explains why the Professor, a guy with 20 years of college teaching experience, is in his 1st year at Galveston:

The professor, who is new to Galveston, relocated (to a non-tenure-track position) because his wife holds an academic job in Houston, and they have had to work hard to find jobs in the same area. He stressed that the students' failings were academic as well as behavioral. Most, he said, couldn't do a "break-even analysis" in which students were asked to consider a product and its production costs per unit, and determine the production levels needed to reach a profit.

In most of his career, he said, he has rarely awarded grades of F except for academic dishonesty. He said he has never failed an entire class before, but felt he had no choice after trying to control the class and complaining to administrators at the university.

Students have complained that they need this class to graduate, and Horwitz said that based on the academic and behavioral issues in class, they do not deserve to graduate with degrees in business fields (the majors for which the course is designed and required).

Submission + - Texas A&M Overrules Professor Who Failed Entire Management Class (click2houston.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: After a semester of disrespect, backstabbing, lying, and cheating, Texas A&M Galveston Professor Irwin Horwitz (http://www.tamug.edu/mara/FacultyBios/IrwinHorwitz.html) had all he could take. He "sent a lengthy email to his Strategic Management class explaining that they would all be failing the course. He said the students proved to be incompetent and lack the maturity level to enter the workforce."

Professor Horwitz's email cited examples of students cheating, telling him to "chill out," and inappropriate conduct. He said students spread untrue rumors about him online, and he said at one point he even felt the need to have police protection in class. "I was dealing with cheating, dealing with individuals swearing at me both in and out of class, it got to the point that the school had to put security guards at that class and another class," said Horowitz.

However, Vice President of Academic Affairs Dr. Patrick Louchouarn made it very clear that the failing grades won't stick. The department head will take over the class until the end of the semester, according to school officials.

Submission + - Denver TSA Screeners Manipulated System in order to Grope Men's Genitals (cbslocal.com)

Submitted by McGruber
McGruber writes: The CBS affiliate in Denver reports: "Two Transportation Security Administration screeners at Denver International Airport have been fired after they were discovered manipulating passenger screening systems to allow a male TSA employee to fondle the genital areas of attractive male passengers."

According to law enforcement reports obtained during the CBS4 investigation, a male TSA screener told a female colleague in 2014 that he “gropes” male passengers who come through the screening area at DIA.

“He related that when a male he finds attractive comes to be screened by the scanning machine he will alert another TSA screener to indicate to the scanning computer that the party being screened is a female. When the screener does this, the scanning machine will indicate an anomaly in the genital area and this allows (the male TSA screener) to conduct a pat-down search of that area.”

Although the TSA learned of the accusation on Nov. 18, 2014 via an anonymous tip from one of the agency’s own employees, reports show that it would be nearly three months before anything was done.

Slashdot Top Deals

Our business in life is not to succeed but to continue to fail in high spirits. -- Robert Louis Stevenson

Close