AllupInyourBiz

Wednesday at the AA Terminal in JFK

American Airlines was one of the first airlines to begin charging an extra fee for checking baggage. On Wednesday, hundreds of pieces of luggage were left behind as computer glitch at American, prevented the bags from being loaded onto the proper flights. Apparently the fee is non-refundable, even if the baggage is lost. Not exactly a lot of bang for your buck, going on here.

Update: According to Gothamist, AA waived the bag checking fee for domestic travelers, checking 3 bags or less.

The science section in the NY Times, today ran an article about a new jet pack that is being developed by Glenn Martin. Martin, a New Zealand native, says that he has been dreaming of a functional jet pack, since he was a child. Yeah, Martin, I’m pretty sure that all little boys who ever played G.I. Joe, or watched James Bond, have dreamed about Jet Packs. Unlike most little boys, Martin did not realize, when he grew up, that technology wasn’t the factor holding back the production of the jet pack. Certainly if there were any practical utilitarian use for jet packs, that outweighed the logistical problems created by them, they would be in mass production by now. Before Martin, there was just no one with the right combination of rich and street-dumb, to take the project as far as Martin plans to. When I was younger, I thought it would be so awesome to have a car that turned into a boat. So did some other dude that, like Martin didn’t grow out of the idea. It totally took off.

Imagine what Martin could come up with in terms of energy alternatives, if he wasn’t wasting his mental energy and time on this project. Imagine all of the hungry mouths he could feed, or lobbyists he could hire, if he wasn’t wasting so much money on this project.

As a part of the speech that Patterson gave yesterday during an emergency session of the NY State Legislature, he alluded the fact that NY may have to sell it’s bridges and tunnels. The session was called primarily to address the State’s enormous budget deficit. Selling state owned roads, bridges and tunnels would be a measure to hopefully help close the deficit.

Oh no! Does that mean that the entities manging the bridges and tunnels would have to actually follow GAAP, when accounting for the tolls they charge? Does that mean that someone might actually be held accountable for poorly managing income, allowing disrepair and misappropriating earnings? Please, no! Don’t let the bridges and tunnels fall under the control of the private sector!

Elasun, the Chinese condom manufacturer, has employed a very clever sport themed ad campaign for the upcoming summer games. Images like one above can be found posted around the city of Beijing, coupled with slogans like “Sports make you health”[sic].

 For the image below, it probably would have been more catchy if they came up with a slogan like “sometimes you don’t want your swimmers to win.” …just an idea.

The Village Voice posted the winners from its tortilla debate. The entrants submitted which of corn or flour tortillas are better, in 25 words or less. Although the submissions are fairly witty and mildly entertaining, the real attention grabber is the question posed by the Voice, to those who didn’t enter. The intro asks: “Don’t like the winner? Then why didn’t you enter, you lazy Mexican?”Oof! Way to shamelessly promulgate social stereotypes.

No, I’m actually a lazy Danish-American. But my pedigree did directly influence my decision not to participate in the contest. I can only guess that since Gustavo Arellano, the author of the tortilla article, is actually Mexican, he feels like it is ok to write phrases like the one he wrote, above. Kind of like, if you are black, it’s ok to use the N word. Or something. I guess. A long those same lines of logic, I suppose that I could say stuff like, “you freakishly tall scandinavian!” and get away with it.

The Telegraph published the results of it’s photo editing contest today. The theme was “Genetic mutations: Imagining nature’s errors.” Those Brits sure do have an imagination. It is too bad that there had to be some “photo editing” as a part of the contest. I’m pretty sure that any dentist over there could have won the contest just by submitting some completely unedited shots of his/her client’s teeth.

The NY Post ran a story today about a woman who was thrown from an exercise machine while working out at a gym in Harlem. After being thrown from the machine, she became pinned between some exercise equipment where she was later rescued. The article refers to her as “very large.” It also emphasises the fact that because of her size, she had to be rescued using a rescue basket, instead of a convention stretcher.

Is it because the story is funnier, knowing that the victim was a bit chubby? Or is it because TOM LIDDY, PILAR CONCI and JAMIE SCHRAM, the authors, are all slobs themselves, and it makes them feel better to point the finger at someone who has a more severe weight problem? I’m not sure. But at least the poor lady was trying to do something about her condition. Give her a little credit, man!

According to Deal Book, a recent trend of roaming the Internet to purchase websites that poorly execute good ideas, has proved very profitable for some. Even the volume of websites that have been sold on eBay has purportedly doubled over the last three months. According to David Hermansen of birdcage.com, the trick is to find a niche and go after that type of site. Hermansen bought birdcage.com for $1,800 three years ago, then sold it late last year for $173,000.

In recent statements by Bam’s group and Hillary’s group, it is becoming apparent that the Obama ticket will more than likely, not feature Hillary as his running mate. Hillary’s camp has stated that they are interpreting early indications of Obama’s consideration of Hillary as a VP, as more of a courtesy than anything substantive. It is also noted that the Obama camp has not requested Hillary’s written documentation to be vetted, as part of the selection process, that is apparently occurring with other possible VP candidates.

The NY Times reports that Obama’s advisers stated that “a central message of his campaign — that he would represent a break from the way politics are conducted in Washington — would be tarnished by the simple act of linking himself to the family that has dominated Democratic politics since Bill Clinton won the presidency in 1992.” In my opinion that is as strong of a reason as any to count Hillary out.

Categories include:

• Best Revenge for Being Fired (ML employee, for expressing his displeasure with an inappopriate bowel movement)
• Pettiest Money-Saving Measure (MS making car service available only after 10 P.M.)
• Most Insulting Bonuses (Citigroup)
• Least Funny Kidding E-mail About Imminent Layoffs (Wachovia “if you are here at the end of the day, you are OK”)
• and more…