by Mike Krumboltz
This past week, workplace woes set the Search box on fire. In one case, a man was allegedly fired for wearing a "God pin" to work. In another, a group of hotel workers was told by their boss to use different names around guests. And, across the pond, the U.K.'s top drug advisor was canned for making some ill-advised comments. Catch up on those stories and more with the Buzz Week in Review.
Fired over a pin
Trevor Keezor had been working at Home Depot for over a year, when his boss pulled him aside and told him that he'd have to remove a certain pin from his orange apron. The American flag pin said "One nation under God, indivisible." Keezor refused, and he says he was fired for it. In a very buzzy article from the AP, reps from Home Depot explain that Mr. Keezer was fired for violating the dress code, not because the company agrees or disagrees with the button. Policy states that "only company-provided pins and badges can be worn" on the aprons. Not surprisingly, the story sparked tremendous interest in the Search box. Lookups on Mr. Keezor and "home depot firing" both surged into breakout status. And, also not surprisingly, a lawsuit is currently in the works. This is one story that hasn't ended yet.
Changing names at work
Here goes one of the buzziest and most bizarre stories in some time. Larry Whitten, a hotel owner in New Mexico, ordered his staff of primarily Latino workers to change their names while working. For example, a worker who pronounced his name "Mahr-teen," would have to go by "Martin." The point, Mr. Whitten asserted, was to help the hotel become more profitable and draw more customers. But instead of customers, Whitten was met with protestors—and plenty of 'em. Additionally, the story's Search profile shot through the roof. In just 24 hours, Web lookups on "Paragon Inn," the hotel in question, surged into the thousands. In an article that scored a slew of votes, Whitten explains that he's helped turn around over 20 hotels, and this isn't racism. His guests, he contends, can't understand Spanish. Still, he later said that he was "sorry for the misunderstanding and insisted he has never been against any culture."
Watch your words
The United States isn't the only country to fight a war on drugs. The U.K. is battling, too, and until this past week, one of the country's biggest fighters was David Nutt. But that was before he went on the record as saying that marijuana, LSD, and ecstacy were less dangerous than alcohol. The assertion caused a huge stir and led to Mr. Nutt's near-immediate dismissal. But the recently laid-off official isn't taking the news lying down. In an interview with BBC, Mr. Nutt accused British Prime Minister Gordon Brown of being "irrational" with regards to the dangers of marijuana. In another buzzy article, Mr. Nutt was quoted as saying that he was "not prepared to mislead the public about the harmfulness of drugs like cannabis and Ecstasy." The British government is currently seeking a replacement.
Also buzzing this week...
• Joe Biden doesn't care what Dick Cheney thinks.
• Move over "Blair Witch." "Paranormal Activity" is now the most profitable movie in history.
• Wanna dress like Lady Gaga? Get some advice from the woman herself.
by Claudine Zap
Sarah Palin must be kicking herself. The former Republican vice-presidential candidate made Levi Johnston the poster child of teen fatherhood (He is the baby daddy of her grandchild): Palin paraded him before the world when she accepted her party's nomination. Had he been under the radar, the ex-boyfriend of Bristol Palin might have just disappeared.
But now he's running his mouth about the Palin fam — and says he's got way more dirt to dish out, and promises a book. The 19-year-old squared off against the ex-governor of Alaska with all kinds of tales that must make Palin crazy. She called her baby retarded! She left her office for money! She and Todd talked divorce! The future presidential contender chose to engage by sniping back at the snarky stories, calling them "mean-spirited, malicious, and untrue," and calling Johnston "desperate." Me-ouch.
Truth or lies, the back-and-forth has caused major interest in Web searches: One-day Yahoo! lookups for "Levi Johnston" soared a whopping 1,992%. Popular queries also included "sarah and levi," and "sarah palin book tour."
Pace yourselves. Johnston made clear on the CBS "Early Show" he is just warming up to this "he said, she said" business. The smooth talking teen let loose this juicy gem: "I have things that can, you know — that would get her in trouble, and could hurt her." But for now, this guy's lips are sealed. Kind of. His handler says he's working on a book, and the bombs he dropped in his recent Vanity Fair piece were nothing compared to what could come out.
That's not all that's being revealed. Johnston confirmed he will pose for Playgirl (on the same day Palin will appear on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," natch), which will show off Levi's "Johnston," as Gawker put it. We have to admit, this guy knows how to get his sort of ex-mother-in-law's attention, and not in a good way. Who's gone rogue now?
There is a crisp bite in the air, a light drizzle coming down and fog covering the ground on this All Hallows Eve, and we’re starting to get scared. With Halloween upon us we suspect you have begun to gather your fellow vampires, witches, goblins, and if you dare zombies for this frightful occasion. We over here at Bing have gathered a few zombies together to inspire some last minute costumes ideas, in our newest visual search experience (still in beta) - feel free to explore and refine to find the perfect Halloween inspiration.
What does tomorrow hold for you? Some tricks or treats? A Halloween party or two? Maybe a trip to a haunted house or maybe even a haunted mansion? Wherever the day and night takes you, we hope it is ghoulish, creepy and the most of all fun!
Happy Halloween!
Kristin Meldahl – Bing
Other posts of interest:
Haunted hotels: Discover a room with a boo
It’s a Full Moon for Bing Today
Ghost? Bumble bee? No? Ok, This Year it is a Vampire!
We wrapped up YUICONF 2009 last night, and I wanted to share with you the first video coming out of the sessions. This is from YUI engineer Luke Smith’s (@ls_n’s) presentation yesterday, “Events Evolved,” in which he dives deeply into the YUI 3 Event system (created by Adam Moore, one of YUI’s architects). YUI 3’s Event module is one of the strengths of the library, and Luke’s talk is the best job we’ve done so far of talking about its best qualities. This is must-see-tv for YUIers.
More video from YUICONF will be on YUI Theater in the coming weeks; I hope you enjoy this first installment.
If the video embed below doesn’t show up correctly in your RSS reader of choice, be sure to click through to watch the high-resolution version of the video on YUI Theater; the downloadable version is much smaller, optimized as it is for iPods, iPhones, and other handheld devices.
