EFL
At 5:30 p.m. Eastern time today, all 2.3 million 7,100 Starbucks locations in the United States will close their doors for three hours.
Immediate ramifications stretch far beyond the lack of strong coffee in dozens of permutations, though that was certainly the most important the late shift may be running slower tonight.
On the practical end of the spectrum, freeloaders will lose thousands of dependable seats, bathrooms, internet access and CDs of Bob Dylans favorite songs. On the spiritual end, the angst bred by Starbucks ubiquity will have a chance to recede for a moment, hopefully leading to an epiphany or two.
But those are all side effects worth weathering for a larger goal, according to the company. As one British newspaper characterized the news, Starbucks closes to learn how to make coffee.
While self-inflicted mockery was tacked on to The Ledes side-effect count, the article explained that Starbucks was introducing a new set of standards for making their coffee drinks, and that the most important feature of each store the espresso machine had to be commandeered to spread the knowledge to the baristas. They will be trained in creating the perfect shot, steaming the milk and all the pieces that come together in a drink, a company spokeswoman told The Seattle Times. Vast stretches of suburbia will resemble some bizarre post-holocaust nightmare landscape, zombie-like masses of sleepy-eyed yuppies and professional students roaming the streets, plaintively murmuring and wailing in grief and anguish until the magic hour of redemption arrives.
#3
Starbucks? Oh, you meant the place that's like a Barnes & Nobles sans books. I thought they was called Fourbucks. Basically what they try to sell a cup of that crap for.
FTR - I'm stationed in a college town now and refuse to buy the proletariat blend at the local trust fund java haus. I make my own stuff @ home w/my favorite dunkin' donuts - or go to the crappy circle-k if in a pinch & w/my buy 5 get one free card because I'm the eternal cheap-ass.
#4
One comedian said that the only reason that Starbucks is so popular is that people have very few decisions they can make these days. Starbucks is the only place where they can spend half an hour (and 5-7 bucks) deciding what size to get, how much foam they want, if they want a shot of flavoring, and on and on.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
02/26/2008 18:10 Comments ||
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#5
FOX NEWS > tempor closure was to re-intruct workers on how to make Starbucks products???
CUSTOMER SERVICE? STORE SANITATION?
Truth be told, IMO some of stuff that goes on now [2007-8] in local Guam restaurants wouldn't had been tolerated when I was back in middle-high school, or even iff formerly employed there, and to include as recently as the 1990's. AT MINIMA, CREW/SHIFT CHIEFS TO STORE MANAGERS WOULD HAD BEEN CHEWED OUT IFF NOT PER SE FIRED, OR THREATENED WID FIRING UNLESS SHAPED UP. It may or may not be the same nowadays back on the US mainland???
Tonight on Cops: Tales from the Sunshine State...
PORT ST. LUCIE - As if you need to be reminded that alcohol and stun guns don't mix. Ah dint know. They ain't gut no warnin label on em r nuthin. Ah'm gunna sue!
A 40-year-old man was arrested early Thursday on a charge of aggravated domestic battery after police allege he shocked his mother. Where's mah beer, mama! N' be quick about it!
According to a Port St. Lucie Police Department report, Kenny Chumsky was "using a Taser on guests" about 2 a.m. Thursday at his mother's home in the 1000 block of Southwest Liberty Avenue. C'mon, Joe Bob! Ita be fun!
"Kenny and everyone at this location were under the influence of alcohol," the report stated. Johnson! Stop the presses!!
Chumsky reportedly shocked his mother in the leg, causing her to fall and hit her head on the garage floor. She received "a scrape and swollen lump" on her forehead, according to the report. Chumsky's mother said she wanted to press charges against her son, the report stated, because she was "tired of being abused." But ah'm yer sun, mamma! Where's ah gonna live!
Hey, honey. This looks like fun... The Riviera Beach dive company involved in a fatal shark attack off the Bahamas this weekend offers clients the opportunity for uncaged encounters with tiger sharks and great hammerheads, fearsome ocean predators known to attack people. They won't rip me to shreds, right? These people know what they're doing, right? Sure, honey, of course they do...
On a dive Sunday from the 65-foot boat Shear Water, which the company's Web site said was on a shark expedition, something went wrong. A shark sank its teeth into the leg of Markus Groh, 49, a lawyer from Vienna, Austria. Hmmmmmm...no professional courtesy there, I guess...
A mayday call went out at about 10 a.m., and the Coast Guard airlifted him to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, where he died. But I'll bet he had the experience of a lifetime. Not for long though...
No one was able to identify the species of shark that attacked, said Petty Officer Nick Ameen. The circumstances of the attack are unclear, and the Coast Guard is investigating. We're not sure but we think it had big, pointy teeth...
But the incident has drawn more attention to the dive company and its practice of shark feeding, a common procedure in which tour operators dump bloody fish parts into the water to attract sharks. Here sharky sharky. Here sharky sharky...
Jim Abernethy's Scuba Adventures, which took Groh on the tour, offers diving expeditions of the Bahamas and the reefs off Palm Beach County. At the company's dock Monday, the Shear Water was tied up, with brown curtains pulled tight over the windows. In a telephone interview, Abernethy said he had never had an accident in 25 years of operations and felt terrible. "I've been awake for 48 hours taking care of the grief with friends," he said. "At this time, my heart and soul goes out to the loved ones and family members who are affected by this unfortunate accident ... I would never had done any of this if I thought there would have been an accident." He hung up before he could be asked what had happened. Another bottle of Grief, Jim?
The Austrian Consulate in Miami confirmed the victim's identity. According to the company's Web site, Europeans are among the steadiest clients, with many divers flying from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Europeans: They're not just for breakfast anymore...
During the weekend of the fatal attack, according to the schedule on the company's Web page, the Shear Water was on a seven-day tour called the "Great Hammerhead and Tiger Shark Expedition." The company restricts such trips to 10 divers, and it demands that they demonstrate advanced scuba experience through log books and interviews with the company's staff. Forgot ya log book? But ya got your checkbook? Well, okay, we'll trust ya...
"This week's shark expedition started off with calm seas and Great Hammerheads, Tigers and Bull Sharks every day for the first three days," reads Abernethy's Web account of a shark expedition at the beginning of the month. "The Hammerheads arrived within minutes every day. The water was clear and the sharks were plentiful." And, you know, the thing about a shark... he's got lifeless eyes. Black eyes. Like a doll's eyes. When he comes at ya, doesn't seem to be living... until he bites ya, and those black eyes roll over white and then... ah then you hear that terrible high-pitched screamin'...
For years, Abernethy and other tour operators ran shark dives off Broward and Palm Beach counties, feeding the sharks to ensure a successful experience for their clients. The practice drew complaints from spear fishermen, swimmers and others who worried that the practice would attract sharks and lead them to associate people with food. ...and it appears to have worked.
After a series of highly contentious meetings, at which Abernethy and other tour operators insisted the practice was safe, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission banned shark feeding in 2001. For the past five years, Abernethy has run his shark dives in the Bahamas. When in doubt...go where there is none.
George Burgess, director of the International Shark Attack File, said Sunday's attack would be the first fatality involving shark feeding, if it turns out that practice was taking place around the time of the attack. If it did, the incident would be considered a provoked attack, he said. There have been more than two dozen injuries involving feeding, he said. Traditional shark dives stick to reefs or shallow water, where the sharks are smaller and their behavior more predictable, he said. But this one heads into open water, he said, where there's little cover and a greater chance of encountering dangerous sharks such as tigers and makos. ...and Danger is my middle name!
The Bahamas Diving Association has issued a warning about the dangers of interacting with dangerous sharks. It called for an end to open-water non-cage diving operations involving such sharks. Burgess said he opposed shark feeding, not so much because of its immediate danger but because it trains sharks to expect food from people and not to fear them. Oh, no food, huh?
Get 'em, boys!
Abernethy's activities had drawn scrutiny from the Bahamas Diving Association, which sent a letter urging him to exercise caution with more aggressive sharks such as mako, lemon, tiger and hammerhead. Oh, okay. I'll get right on that...
The association, a group of 36 charter businesses, asked Abernathy and other boat owners in the past year to stop conducting "open-water non-cage Shark Diving experiences with known species of potentially dangerous sharks," said Neal Watson, the association president."Most operators do a safe dive behind cages. But Abernethy, for whatever reason, simply refused to comply with the safe diving practices in violation of our standards in the Bahamas," said Watson, who operates a diving company out of Fort Lauderdale. Ahhhh, sharks...people in the water. What could happen?
Although it's tempting to offer a cageless option, improving the photographs and the experience, the risks are too great, Watson said. Wow! Great picture of him ripping off your arm, Bob!
"Him working with tiger sharks and bull sharks uncaged is totally irresponsible and dangerous," he said. "It wasn't a matter of 'if,' it was a matter of 'when.'" Well, gee, thanks, Mr. Knowitall...
#1
I still blame this kind of thing on Disney, the public at large no longer understands that wild animals are DANGEROUS. They might be cute, cuddly and nifty, but to them you're just food or a rival for food. They don't talk, sing, or dance and they will kill you without mercy.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/26/2008 13:19 Comments ||
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#4
LOL, Frank! Snark of the week material ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/26/2008 13:42 Comments ||
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#5
They're not all in the Bahamas, but there's nothing in the article about what's for breakfast in Manalapan, Frank. Several South Florida beaches are closed because of migrating sharks. Hundreds of sharks have been seen recently migrating off the coast of Palm Beach County, Florida. This swarm of sharks was spotted in the waters off Manalapan, Florida Tuesday morning. Officials have closed the beaches to keep swimmers from getting too close to the sharks. The sharks are expected to eventually move north and away from land.
#6
Entirely possible I fished (for sailfish, not sharks) off that same boat in Florida about 25 years ago. Same name, same length, same look. Not and uncommon name or look, I know. What a freaking moron tour operator and what moron tourists. Getting into the water with a tiger shark, a bull shark, a big hammerhead or a mako is asking for trouble.
Treebeard: Decided? No, we have just finished saying "Good Morning".
Merry: But it's night time already! You can't take forever!
Treebeard: Now, don't be hasty, master Merriadoc.
Merry: We're running out of time!
Treebeard: You must understand, young Hobbit, it takes a long time to say anything in Old Entish. And we never say anything unless it is worth taking a long time to say.
Posted by: Mike ||
02/26/2008 10:18 Comments ||
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Moved to Home Front: WoT, as that's what this looks like. AoS.
A man carrying multiple passports, including one from Lebanon, bolted from security screeners at Miami International Airport on Monday afternoon, leaping 25 feet off the second-floor concourse and breaking his arm and ribs. He was whisked away to the jail ward at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where on Monday night he was being questioned by local, state and federal investigators.
The man, who identified himself as Faid Beydoun, 42, was bound for Los Angeles. His jail record lists an alias: Miguel Garcia.
Two other men, also headed to Los Angeles, were taken off a later flight still on the tarmac. They told investigators they had paid for the man's plane ticket and that he was their Miami Beach party guide.
None of the men was found with any weapons or dangerous material. Miami-Dade police, in a news release late Monday, charged Beydoun with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest without violence. His jail record lists an alias: Miguel Garcia.
We've been waiting for this - use of Hispanic covers for Islamicists from the middle east and elsewhere.
At least one of the other men hails from Bahrain. The two men described Beydoun as a well-known party promoter who knows the best U.S. night spots. The men had apparently been partying in Miami-Dade, spending lavishly.
At Concourse D, just after 2 p.m., Beydoun passed through a security checkpoint but was flagged for a secondary inspection by federal Transportation Security Administration officers. He had a Lebanese passport and a fraudulent U.S. passport, investigators said.
''He bolted and knocked a few people out of the way, '' said Mark O. Hatfield Jr., TSA's airport security director. Chased by Miami-Dade officers, the man jumped over the second-floor departure concourse and landed outside the baggage-claim area. Despite the broken bones, he ran a bit further. ''The officers on the first floor were able to apprehend him and place him under arrest,'' said Miami-Dade Detective Alvaro Zabaleta, a spokesman.
Miami-Dade police were investigating the men along with South Florida's Joint Terrorism Task Force, and a host of federal and state agencies including the FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The concourse was never evacuated, although one security lane was closed briefly.
Faid Beydoun, the man who bolted from a security screening line at Miami International Airport and jumped from the second-story concourse, has also been charged with cocaine possession.
Beydoun was bound for Los Angeles. Two men he had been staying with in South Beach were pulled from another LAX-bound flight, still on the tarmac, and questioned. Beydoun had given one of them his luggage pieces to check in -- and it contained cocaine, police say. The two businessman had purchased Beydoun's fare to Los Angeles.
The men described Beydoun as a well-known party promoter who knows the best U.S. night spots. All three had been staying at the Delano Hotel, spending lavishly.
#3
I have a feeling that these guys, and everyone even vaguely associated with them, are going to gain a new and deep appreciation of words like "interrogation", "biometrics", "indefinite", and "rectal".
#1
Blair's Law in action: David Duke, Al Sharpton, and the Islamofascists coalescing into "one giant useless force."
Posted by: Mike ||
02/26/2008 16:42 Comments ||
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#2
. . . suggests stirring up racial tension between African-Americans and whites in the U.S. by spreading inflammatory materials on the Internet
Only Muslims get riled up by printed materials, internet or otherwise. Does he really think he's going to start a race war by posting inflammatory content? Blacks and Jews are used to that. I guess Muslims aren't.
#3
It will never work for these two simple reaons.
Blacks are already pissed off about a million different imaginary slights, and whites my age are used to getting the shitty end of the stick. So I really can't see this gaining much traction.
City authorities in Munich, southern Germany, have closed down a kindergarten centre with immediate effect after discovering it was run by the Church of Scientology, the municipality said on Monday. "The wellbeing of the children in the establishment was under threat because the education process was based on the principles of Scientology," the municipality said. The kindergarten opened last summer and had 18 children looked after by two adults.
The Church of Scientology became the subject of intense debate in Germany last year when Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise, one of its most famous followers, was chosen to play the role of a resistance hero in a film about a failed plot to kill Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
Cruise was deemed by many Germans to be unsuitable for the part because of his beliefs. In January, German historian Guido Knopp compared a speech the actor made to fellow Scientologists with a call to war by Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.
The comparison drew a furious response from the Church of Scientology, which has been described in Germany as a sect that exploits its members financially. It has been under surveillance in some German states for more than 10 years and regional ministers agreed in December to investigate the possibility of banning it.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/26/2008 00:00 ||
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#2
L Ron Hubbard always said that if you want to be the richest man in the world, invent a religion. How sad that the people who follow his cult don't recognize this.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
