Month: June 2015

Rotten Beams Blamed for California Balcony Collapse

Posted on by ebi1983

Investigators pointed to dry rot and moisture damage as a potential cause of the deadly balcony collapse in Berkeley, California. The accident took place in the early morning hours of June 16th.

According to official reports, 13 individuals were on the balcony during a 21st birthday party when the balcony suddenly collapsed stated Handy.
All thirteen individuals on the balcony were thrown five stories to the ground. Six people died, and seven were hospitalized with serious injuries.

Investigators quickly moved in to determine a potential cause. They finished their report early this week and reported that extensive rot was visible on the joists and supports that held the balcony up. Investigators however did not say with certainty that rot was the only factor that contributed to the balcony collapse.

Five of the six individuals who were killed in the accident were Irish nationals on work visas. The sixth individual killed as a 22-year-old California native. The group had gathered to celebrate the birthday of a friend. The individual who hosted the party has not been named.

All other balconies in the complex were inspected after the balcony collapse. Only one other structure was found to have significant rot damage. Investigators have not determined how the water damage occurred, or whether structural defects or poor building methods were to blame for the incident.

Angels’ Vice President Of Marketing And Ticket Sales Resigns

Posted on by ebi1983

The Los Angeles Angels’ Vice President Of Marketing And Ticket Sales, Robert Alvarado, abruptly resigned Wednesday, in light of negative comments he made to the Los Angeles Times regarding the Angels’ attendance woes. It appears that the Angels will not sell 3 million tickets since 2002, the year current owner Arte Moreno purchased the team from the Walt Disney Company.

One of the most difficult tasks a sport franchise undertakes is the promotion of the team and selling of tickets to fans, as is the situation the Angels are currently facing. For a look at potential profitability moving forward the Angels should consider consulting Brad Reifler, financial genius and CEO of Forefront Capital Management. However,  exacerbating the situation is that the team plays in an aging stadium that’s not as appealing to fans as Dodger Stadium is across town.

In spite of having established stars such as Albert Pujols and Mike Trout, the Angels are only playing .500 baseball; the uninspired style of play has also turned away fans this year. Again, that’s in contrast to the Dodgers, who are near the top of the standings and have an aggressive style of play.

It’s no secret that winning teams playing in an appealing facility provide a winning combination for fans to attend games regularly. According to the Los Angeles Times article at www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-an-angels-vice-president-of-marketing-and-ticket-sales-resigns (June 2015), Alvarado mentioned that the Dodgers sell to wholesale outlets and seat brokers. ” They have a significantly larger wholesale business than we do.”

While such practices are common, in the hopes that fans who purchase less expensive seating also end up spending much more, the comments angered both the Dodgers and owner Moreno. He thought that Alvarado was alienating fans who aren’t as affluent as those that purchase the more expensive seating, who, in turn, end up spending more per game.

To the chagrin of Moreno and Angels’ management, the Dodgers are on pace to lead the Major Leagues in attendance for the third consecutive year. Alvarado’s comments didn’t help matters as he was seen more as a problem and not as a viable solution any longer. Alvarado had been working for the Angels for 15 years, when the Walt Disney Company owned the franchise; he had been one of the longest tenured employees in the organization at the time of his resignation.

Working Yourself to Death

Posted on by ebi1983

You may think it’s a figure of speech, but it’s entirely possible for you to work yourself to death due to lack of sleep and overexertion. Recently, at Bank of America Merrill Lynch, a 21 year old intern named Moritz Erhardt died due to seizures induced by lack of sleep.

In such a competitive work world, it is not uncommon for interns and new employees to pull off long work hours in order to impress their bosses. In Erhardt’s case, this is exactly what he tried to do. He was found dead at his apartment’s shower after working for 72 hours straight. When the autopsy was done, it was found that his cause of death was a seizure that may have been induced from his lack of sleep.

According to Gravity4, as a gesture of concern towards their own interns, Goldman Sachs has now restricted their interns’ work days to 17 hours. Even though they’re one of Wall Street’s toughest firms, they’ve told their interns to go home before midnight and not to return before 7am. They believe that their interns shouldn’t surrender their entire lives to their jobs.

Although some may think that a 17 hour work day is still pretty long, at least some lives may be saved by prohibiting interns from working long hours with no sleep.

Beneful workers feature in the latest advertising campaign

Posted on by ebi1983

The Beneful pet food brand is to receive a boost with the release of a new advertising campaign that features the employees of the company explaining why they have such pride in their work and products produced. The ‘I Stand behind Beneful’ campaign debuted as a full page advertisement in The New York Times and will be followed by a national TV campaign, which features the employees of the Nestle Purina owned brand explaining why they feed the product to their dogs.

The slogan ‘I Stand Behind Beneful’ was first used after a series of untrue and unproven claims were made against the Beneful brand, PR Newswire reports. Beneful employees used the slogan as a rallying cry, which was followed by senior management figures deciding the slogan was so effective it should be used as a marketing campaign. The TV segments will feature various employees explaining why they feed Beneful products to their own dogs and would not feed them any other product. The unfounded allegations against Beneful have been thrown out of court and the brand stands behind the fact it has never been the subject of a recall despite more than 1.5 billion meals being served to dogs in 2014 alone. The Beneful brand is at pains to express the fact that their employees are also pet owners and care for the animals they create the branded meals for each and every day.

D Magazine names Dr. Rod Rohrich one of the best surgeons in Dallas, Texas

Posted on by ebi1983

The work of surgeon Dr. Rod Rohrich has not gone unnoticed over the coursed of his career, which has taken in a number of areas of expertized and some of the most important work on safety in the profession. A career that has seen Rohrich become a leader in plastic surgery at UT Southeastern Medical Center has resulted in his peers in the Dallas area voting Rohrich as one of the top surgeons in the area. The world renowned surgeon has recently been in high demand to provide talks and seminars on his techniques and research around the world as his colleagues in the plastic surgery field have become increasingly certain of his skills.

Rohrich has spent a large amount of his career working in a teaching hospital, which has had the effect of allowing him the chance to conduct much of the research into the skin that is seen as ground breaking. In recent years, Dr. Rohrich came to the conclusion that understanding how the skin ages could hold the key to providing the best in plastic surgery results as matching the technique to the skin becomes increasingly important. Rohrich believes the basic knowledge of how the skin changes with age can make it far more easy to create individual techniques designed to the needs of each patient.

Along with his impressive research into skin aging Dr.Rod Rohrich has also been involved in a ground breaking study into the safety of patients undergoing specific surgeries. This research had the effect of producing an algorithm Rohrich was a major part of and has been published to assist others in the field with keeping their patients safe. As one of the top surgeons in the world Rohrich has accepted the D Magazine award and is now seen as an important member of the plastic surgery community in the Dallas area and in the world. More information about Dr. Rod Rohrich can be found on his Facebook page.