Gumby, Santa and a panda joined adults in PJs and even a tutu for the city’s first annual pillow fight. Never to be outdone by San Francisco, the good people of San Jose decided that the Bay Area’s largest city would host its own Slumber Party to compete with San Francisco’s Annual Great American Slumber Party. And so a tradition was born.
Articles by Danny Wool
Every silver lining has a cloud, they say. While the city really wants a $14.9 million FEMA grant to rehire laid off firefighters, accepting it means they can’t lay them off again for two years. The only way to avoid this would be for the firefighters to accept a 10 percent salary cut, and refusing to accept that cut led to the layoffs in the first place.
By limiting messages to just a few dozen characters, Twitter is changing the way people write. While sesquipedalian monstrosities are out, the micro-blogging site has added some new words to the English language too, most recently, “Mubaraktic,” meaning, “Someone who can’t take a hint.” In keeping with a changing world, the root is neither Greek nor Latin, but Arabic.
High tech giants like Intel and Cisco may claim to be ethnically diverse, but the numbers tell a different story. Minorities such as African Americans and Hispanics make up a disproportionately small section of their workforce, while the percentage of Asian Americans is augmented by foreign workers from China and India.
Facebook and Google are both in low level talks with Twitter about an eventual acquisition, but the popular micro-blogging site may be tempted to stay independent.This year’s revenues are expected to be $100 million, but the site’s execs believe that this is just the beginning, and that they can grow Twitter into a $100 billion enterprise.
The Campbell Union High School District is opening five new, state-of-the-art theaters in its high schools, at a cost of $6 million each. The message being sent at a time when staff is being cut and programs are being slashed is simple: “The show must go on!”
The Winkelvii twins and stalker Pradeep Manukonda are three of the people who want a piece of Mark Zuckerberg’s billions. While the two brothers are planning to take Zuckerberg to court in The Social Network 2.0, Manukonda, has apologized to Zuckerberg. It turns out he wanted a loan to help pay for his mother’s medical care.
Caltrain may be faced with a $30 million deficit. It may be forced to raise fares and eliminate service too, but its CEO is the highest paid of the 23 Bay Area transit operators’ CEOs. Mike Scanlon, a 44-year veteran of the railroad, earns just over $400,000 per year.
Google executive Wael Ghonim was released from prison Monday night, after holding a meeting with Egypt’s new Interior Minister Mahmoud Wagdy. He was later interviewed on Egyptian television, and said that he was treated well while in detention. According to his latest tweet, he is heading to Tahrir Square to participate in today’s protests.
Two controversial new apps for the iPhone and iPad are making headlines. One helps you smuggle immigrants over the border. The other helps you confess to doing that. According to its creator, the confessional app is intended, “to invite Catholics to engage in their faith through digital technology,” in keeping with a recent pronouncement by the Pope about the benefits of technology. “If used wisely.”
