FAA Training Questioned

Obviously not a business entertainment blog entry - I need to change the name of this blog soon enough.  Still...enjoy:

The Federal Aviation Administration recently adopted a new data system for its aviation controller training program after an audit by the Department of Transportation found the FAA’s method outdated and inaccurate.

The modified system will more accurately track failure statistics among those in the program to help FAA sufficiently train 11,000 new air traffic controllers by the fiscal year 2019 to replace vacant positions left by retirees.

“The important thing is that we don’t change the training – we don’t look at the attrition rate and say, ‘[the program’s] too hard,’” said Paul Takemoto, a spokesperson for the DOT. “We have a strict standard that we have to adhere to.”

Nearly two weeks after the FAA adopted the changes recommended by the DOT, the organization faces new challenges in the overall sufficiency of its training program.

A recent incident involving a Southwest Airlines jet and a small plane flying dangerously close together resulted in the suspension of an air traffic supervisor and an investigation into the aviation controller training program by the National Transportation Safety Board.

“By placing this passenger aircraft in close proximity to another plane, the air traffic controller compromised the safety of everyone involved. This incident was totally inappropriate,” said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt in statement released Tuesday.

“We are reviewing the air traffic procedures used here and making sure everyone understands the protocols for contacting unresponsive aircraft.”

In a separate incident the week prior, a supervisor fell asleep while two aircrafts landed at Reagan National Airport. The supervisor was suspended. 

Update: Read my article about President Ronald Reagan's role on cycles of FAA staffing issues here.
 

Men's Web site Speaks out to Demographic and Rakes in the Cash

Inc.com ranked Thrillist - a men's lifestyle webzine - #93 in their list of 500 fastest-growing companies in America. 

The concept is simple...

 

Imagine being able to see everything – the perfect table, the right music and ambiance – that a restaurant has to offer before bringing a date in for a special evening

For young men wanting to orchestrate the perfect evening, a new Web site, Thrillist.com, promises to help them do just that. Thrillist, a six-year-old Web site, was started by two fraternity brothers wanting to navigate single men around the city’s restaurant and club scene and impress their dates in the process. 

Acting as an insider’s guide to affordable and trendy places, Thrillist distributes a daily newsletter to more than 2.5 million subscribers and the number increases at a rate of 100,000 subscribers every month. The media company has grown at a rate of 2702 percent in the past three years.

The daily newsletters introduce something new, unknown or underappreciated, such as an underground supper club, a maker of custom shoes operating out of a warehouse in Brooklyn or a restaurant with an off-the-menu three martini lunch special.

The two fraternity brothers behind the operation – Adam Rich and Ben Lerer – decided to start the company when they moved to New York City and realized city guide publications, such as NYMag.com or Citysearch, weren’t written for “guys like them.”

The recent graduates from the University of Pennsylvania saw a problem with daily deal sites, such as Groupon, since they typically featured everything in the area. Rich, 31, and Lerer, 29, wanted a guide that would eliminate all the extra materials and focus solely on the targeted demographic. Other national men’s magazine had the tone, but most of the content is written months in advance with little, local information. 

The gap in the market encouraged the two co-founders to start something specifically for their demographic of educated, twenty-something, affluent, urban guys with decent-sized wallets.

“We couldn’t trust other city guides – it was written for everyone in New York,” Lerer said. “Were my mom and I supposed to have the same idea of what a romantic restaurant is?”

Rich and Lerer started Thrillist.com with a $250,000 investment from Pilot Group, the same company who funded DailyCandy, a similar e-commerce company geared towards women.

The private investment firm’s interest in DailyCandy proved profitable when the company sold its first investment – DailyCandy – to Comcast for $125 million in 2008.

Along with its second investment, Thrillist, the equity firm invests in other corporations, such as David’s Bridal, Double O Radio and Barrington Broadcasting.

“Thrillist is getting close to the size of DailyCandy when we sold it,” said an associate at Pilot Group. “[The company] caught our attention because they are able to evolve and expand into new markets…we saw great potential in them.”

Since their beginnings in 2005, Thrillist currently has 60 employees and has expanded to 16 editions in U.S. cities and London. In 2009, the Web site raked in $7.1 million in revenues.

Their business model is simple – a daily email is sent to subscribers’ inboxes across the nation – and London – of hip places to dine, wine, play and shop. The ubiquitous email system is preferred since most working men in their mid- to late-twenties possess an email address.

“It’s been said that by 2014, there will be over 2 billion people with email addresses,” Lerer said. “Email’s not going anywhere, anytime soon.”

The use of email, an opt-in service, assures potential subscribers that anyone who has been exposed to their advertisements have consented to communications with Thrillist. Email is also an inherently viral medium, making sharing between users uncomplicated and doesn’t require one to visit a different site.

For the content itself, Thrillist ensues a team of edition editors – at least one in each of the 16 cities Thrillist covers – and senior editors to scour the cities, reach out to different venues, gather information and choose only the places they believe will most likely appeal to their audience.

“We’re no B.S…We’re speaking as guys to guys and that definitely sets us apart,“ Lerer said.

The recommendations are strictly editorial and the company does not make a profit from any places they recommend.

Recently, the Web site incorporated online video tours of many of the recommended venues along with useful information as whether the filet is tastier than the strip or which table angle provides the perfect setting for intimate conversations.

Kings County Jerky Co., a homemade jerky operation in Brooklyn, N.Y., reached out to Thrillist and witnessed an uptick in sales the day the Web site featured them.

“Thrillist is successful because they have a distinctive voice,” said Chris Woerhrle, the company’s co-founder. “They cater to an urban male audience which tend to be more liberal and open to a bit of sass, snark, impolite language…there’s no reason to worry about their tone because it’s right for their audience.”

In 2010, Thrillist switched gears from online media company to commerce corporation when they acquired JackThreads, a member-only retailer Web site. Although terms of the deal has yet to be disclosed, the digital lifestyle publication will allow subscribers access to JackThreads’ exclusive shopping community.

JackThreads.com is part of the group buying industry, offering significant discounts with numerous brands, such as Mishka, ALIFE, WeSC and Shades of Greige, through bulk purchases.

At the end of 2010, Thrillist launched Rewards, a Groupon-like program allowing local businesses to participate in deals Thrillist believes would appeal to its subscribers, such as “Unlimited Beer and Ribs at Hill Country BBQ” and “A Strip and a Strip at Robert’s and Score’s.” The latter deal offered actually includes an exotic dance alongside a strip of steak.

“It is our way of helping to curate fantastic experiences on a local level, and give another round of exposure to our audience for the participating businesses,” Lerer said.

Last June, the company launched their iPhone app and recently, the Android app became available. The idea is more of a supplement to the daily email and Web site with geo-targeted recommendations for eating, drinking and shopping, depending on where you are. The app also allows users to check into recommended places, similar to the frenzy behind Foursquare.

“We’ve also evolved into more than just the original business model…so in that respect, we’ve developed far beyond any other publication that could have previously been considered a competitor,” Lerer said. “We zone in on a very specific part of the male demographic that is untouched by any of the other email newsletters.”

The testosterone-driven editorials seem to be appealing to their target demographic; last year, Thrillist raked in anywhere between $5 and $10 million, the actual numbers are unknown since Lerer and Rich are keeping quiet.

“[Men] are probably even more graphic,” Lerer said. “We speak to guys as guys, so what may seem shocking to someone outside the demographic is exactly what builds trust within it. “

“We've never aimed to be all things to all people.”

A Weak-Tie Generation, A Strong Revolution.

A funny thing occurred to me a couple of months ago.

I was reading The New Yorker when I came across an article written by Malcolm Gladwell, a colorful writer whose pieces are oftentimes filled with so many grandiose ideas, it can be difficult to keep one thought separate from the next. I like him as a writer for that very reason.

In this particular article, Gladwell called our current generation a “weak-tie generation” due to the social networking takeovers during our lifetimes.

He toyed with the idea that great events throughout history transpired only from passion, courage and beliefs deeply rooted in the participators…passion not present in the current generation. 

He called this a “strong-tie phenomena.”

It occurred in 1960 in Greensboro, North Carolina when four dark-skinned college students sat at a lunch counter and refused to move. Less than two weeks later, news of the protest spread throughout the South and eventually, the number of protesters soared to seventy thousand.

Thirty years later, across the Atlantic, another “strong-tie phenomena” occurred when a Wall collapsed and a people was given the chance for reunification.

“Weak ties seldom lead to high-risk activism,” Gladwell wrote.

He doesn’t believe the deep roots present at that lunch counter in 1960 lives in us today.

Perhaps he is right.

The printing press. The telegraph. The telephone. Magnetic spectrum in the air. The radio. And finally, Twitter and Facebook.

Like it or not, we are living in the most expressive age; so expressive that how we read into that expression is another expression of its own.

I see a graffiti wall and it's expression. I see a man sitting in the middle of household objects making music and it's expression. I see a woman dancing to a technique I can’t even pretend to recognize and it's expression.

If I meet a person and the only communication I have with them is through texting or social media, the first time we have voice on voice contact will be awkward. The mediums have switched gears and perhaps that is too much, too soon.

We have become a generation where we notify others of our daily lives, daily thoughts, and have “followers” and “friends” whom we will seldom ever share a meaningful relationship.

But it is these exact thoughts shared that have allowed for ideas to evolve and the exchanging of ideas to occur. It is these instantaneous thoughts that have given us all a glimpse of the revolution occurring in that foreign land. 

From the beginning – three weeks ago – I scrolled down the screen of my phone, scanned the headlines and I am rewarded with each move documented in Egypt. I can simply scan headlines from multiple news organizations and the revolution unfolds with every word I read. 

"[It's] so much more exciting than waiting till the end of the day to read a newspaper report. It’s also better than simply watching one news channel. Instead, I get reports from ALL the news channels — both English and Arabic," blogged Matt Duffy, journalism professor at Zayed University in Abu Dhabi. 

"I can’t imagine I’ll watch any breaking news story in another fashion." 

Muslims and Christians are uniting for a change. Their change. Their revolution. And I feel connected. In contrast to what Gladwell thinks, I feel deeply rooted.  

So perhaps when Gladwell wrote his piece in The New Yorker a couple of months back, he didn’t envision the hundreds of thousands of people camping, chanting, yelling and hoping in Tahrir Square. But of course, this has happened before - in Moldova. And before that - all throughout the Middle East. 

Can it happen in America? If it must, I believe it can. I believe in our generation and I believe we are deeply rooted. Don’t let the users who tweet about relationship problems or what was happening for breakfast, lunch and dinner make you believe that you already have us all figured out. 

Accept social media for what it is, and not for what it was never meant to substitute. 

Viva la revolución.

Note: Follow me on Twitter @vivian_giang

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Devil Boys: A breakup over money issues

With a plastic cup of cabernet sauvignon in my hand, I couldn’t remember another time I laughed so hard on a Friday night, alone. Well, I wasn’t technically alone since I was sitting in a dimly lit room with, say, thirty other people.

But it WAS a Friday night and I had traveled to midtown’s New World Stages to witness the wackiness circulating the off-Broadway play “Devil Boys from Beyond.”

The hilarious script made its public debut during the previous year’s New York International Fringe Festival and broke box office records, despite limited stage props and an inability to pay their talents. But the funny lines and chemistry between those involved kept the show sold out every night as people lined the streets to witness the success of a low budget production.

Then, Buddy Thomas took his science-fiction spoof and collaborated with Kenneth Elliott to produce an even more bizarre script.

Despite a stomach-clenching comedic act that was fresh, unique and everything else you wanted in a performance, the play ended nearly three weeks early for one main reason: money.

Devil Boys’ budget was set at a standard (in regards to off-Broadway productions) $100,000 but when the show didn’t instantly take off and expenses kept racking up as the weeks continued, the show came to an abrupt end before its time was up.

When I heard of the news, I was heartbroken. Honestly, the play made me laugh, cry and think. But aside from the storyline...it was the chemistry…I could feel the chemistry from my seat in the audience. And if there wasn’t chemistry behind the curtains, well, the actors certainly knew how to pretend there was when the spotlight hit them.

“Simply to me, that’s what theater is all about – connecting the actors to the audience,” said Elliott, director and co-author. “It’s how I got my start…doing shows in clubs in the East Village when I moved to New York.”

Elliott talked about the good ol’ days when he was involved in plays like “Vampire Lesbians of Sodom” and the whole performance was acted out in front of a backdrop in some dark club.

With all that said, you must be prepared for operating preview losses associated with off-Broadway productions, Elliott explained.

“Usually it takes a few weeks where there are previews that you have to pay for,” he said. “Advertising is extremely expensive...contingency funds… in most theater budgets, there are significant items needed in capitalization.”

 

With all the attention that a big money production can receive before its art is even shared with the world, the low budget entertainment industry – the “underdog” of show business – must take on creative endeavors to fight against the big money.

“When the script and the cast is right, it doesn’t matter how much money is put into the play, it’s good,” said Jeff Riberdy, a casted alien in the out-of-this-world 'Devil Boys.’ “But in order to make the big bucks, you have to go Broadway… it’s just the place to be for the money.” 

Top Secret: Facebook Takes Over with New...Phone??

Following Apple's footsteps, word is out that Facebook is building the software and working with a third party to produce the hardware for a new phone.

 

Currently the number one Web site in the United States (with Google coming in a close second), Facebook has reasons to feel threatened and left behind by the power held by the iPhone and Android. Less than a year ago, news circulated that Google was working on a phone which we now know is the Nexus One. It won't be surprising if Facebook will have their own phone by next year. 

And why shouldn't they? Why stay an app when you can etch your name on the entire software? In other words, why rent when you can own? Zuckerberg, the youngest self-made billionaire to-date, has reasons to feel owning a mere app on a smartphone isn't going to cut it in long-term competition.  

So what's the phone going to look like? Is it going to be blue? The phone could come out in a number of styles and appearances, but the bottom line here is price. And who's going to buy it?

I'd say, most likely, the phone will be cheap...probably dirt cheap...cheap enough so that more people can afford to buy it. Facebook is free to the public and now it's the number one Web site so why shouldn't the phone be affordable and be the number one phone?

Two upper-level employees - Joe Hewitt and Matthew Papakipos - are said to be working on the top secret project. Creating all of Facebook's iPhone web applications and formerly assisting to create the Firefox browser, Hewitt is qualified to work on a new software for a top secret phone. On the same scale, Papakipos is equally qualified as the recent lead developer of the Google Chrome OS project. Interestingly enough, Papakipos left this past June before the project was finished, most likely, for a more "exciting" project speculated to be - that's right - the new Facebook phone. 

Officially the word isn’t out yet and we don’t know when the secret launch date will be. And how the Facebook geniuses will integrate Facebook into the phone will, well, be another blog post. 

A Race to Dominate Television Market

First, we saw newspapers across the country frantically come up with innovative alterations to stay afloat financially and now online options are blurring the lines for another traditional medium: television.

As online services offer more flexibility in scheduling and prices, the race in the home television market no longer is the playing field merely between cable and satellite television. Among the most popular competitors include Netflix, Hulu and even Microsoft. 

Netflix recently acquired new deals with NBC Universal, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros to cast their footsteps on the video streaming market. The Los Gatos, California-based company offers a $7.99 per month option allowing subscribers to watch unlimited television episodes and movies streamed into a computer or television set.

To officially shift their focus from DVD rentals to primarily video streaming, Netflix has raised prices on their DVD rental plans, increasing prices by $1 on their two most popular plans: the one and two-DVD rental at-a-time option.

Netflix experienced their fourth consecutive quarter of acquiring more than one million additional subscribers and shares have increased by 200 percent since the beginning of the year.

The company reported a net income of $37,967 million, or $0.70 per diluted share, at the end of their third fiscal quarter ending on September 30, 2010. The numbers represented a significant growth in the company compared to a net income of $30,141 million, or $0.52 per diluted share, from the same quarter of the previous year.

Netflix ended the third quarter with approximately 16,933,000 total subscribers, a 52 percent growth compared to 2009.

Similar to Netflix being fundamentally known as the internet movie provider, Hulu Plus is known as the internet television provider and their new $10 per month option offers subscribers the ability to watch episodes from current and past popular television series on ABC, NBC and Fox.

Even the world’s largest software company – Microsoft – can’t keep away from the enticing market; its latest move uses the Xbox game console’s internet and streaming capabilities for access to CBS, ESPN, CNN and Fox. With 25 million subscribers worldwide, Xbox Live currently has more subscribers than Comcast.

The race to be the first to successfully place software in television sets across America has hit cable service providers hard. Between July and September of this year, Time Warner Cable experienced a loss of 155,000 subscribers, a 41.3 percent increase compared to a loss of 64,000 subscribers during the same period the previous year.

During the third quarter of this year, U.S. cable companies experienced the largest decline since 1980 with the loss of 741,000 basic subscribers, according to research by SNL Kagan.