Ted’s frequent fliers scavenging for prizes
If you spot people uttering nonsensical phrases as they wander around Denver landmarks, know that United Airlines could have something to do with their odd behavior.
To promote its low-fare service, called Ted, the company has set up a scavenger hunt of sorts. Registered frequent fliers are hitting a website, www.fly ted.com/meetted/happytrails.htm, to collect clues that steer them to the city’s prominent and most popular sites, includingCoors Field, Denver Skate Park and Union Station. At each, United has stowed various prizes.
To collect a prize, game-players usually have to speak a code word or phrase that includes the mention of Ted.
United is stashing prizes at five secret locations three days a week until the contest ends Labor Day weekend. So far, the company has given away tickets to music concerts and outdoor festivals and coupons for car rentals. The grand prize, to be awarded Labor Day weekend, is a Chevy HHR provided by Alamo Rent A Car and packed with tickets on Ted and prizes from Starbucks.
As of Monday, more than 10,600 people were registered to play the game.
BBB warns of e-mail identity theft attempt
Identity fraudsters are taking continually new approaches in their efforts to get people’s Social Security and bank account information.
The Better Business Bureau of Southern Colorado is warning computer users about a mass e-mail from a Safe Sales Inc. soliciting an “escrow operator.” The job offers $30,000 a year and the ability to work at home receiving e-mails and answering phone calls.
One of the job requirements is opening or providing a bank account number to accept money from clients. The BBB warns that the offer isn’t legitimate and appears to be an attempt at identity theft.
World’s tallest horse to visit Littleton store
What eats 18 pounds of grain, 40 pounds of hay and drinks 20 gallons of water daily?
Radar the horse, of course.
Murdoch’s Ranch and Home Supply in Littleton will host the animal – the world’s tallest living horse, according to the 2006 Guinness World Records – from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. The chain store sells agricultural, livestock and ranch supplies and often hosts educational clinics and animal visits to draw customers.
Store manager John Teini said last year Murdoch’s brought in Goliath, the world’s tallest horse at the time. But after Goliath went to that big barn in the sky Radar took his title. At 19 hands, 3.5 inches (or 6 feet 7 1/2 inches for the rest of us) and 2,700 pounds, Radar is no slouch.
Radar will be available for photo opportunities during his visit to Murdoch’s. For more information call 303-791-7800.
Employers can’t stop intraoffice discussion
Some employers either formally or informally discourage workers from discussing their pay and working conditions with each other.
But prohibiting such water-cooler gossip violates the National Labor Relations Act, cautions Faegre & Benson, a law firm with offices in Denver and Boulder.
The U.S. National Labor Relations Board recently ruled against Cintas Corp., a nonunion employer, for maintaining a confidentiality policy that employees could “reasonably construe” as prohibiting them from sharing information.
Companies can prohibit employees from discussing such things with outsider vendors, competitors or customers, but not with each other. Faegre & Benson advises that company policies should be redrafted accordingly.
Cellphone users: ICE emergency contacts
Putting numbers on ICE is one way wireless-phone users can safeguard themselves in case of emergencies.
Entering the telephone number of an emergency contact under the title ICE (In Case of Emergency) into a cellphone helps accident responders both identify and help people who need emergency care – especially when they are unable to speak for themselves.
In 2003, nearly 900,000 emergency victims in the United States were unable to provide contact information to emergency room personnel, according to news reports.
“It is such a simple, elegant solution to a problem,” said Dave Heller, Qwest’s vice president of risk management. “There is no cost nor effort to do it.”
Paramedics in England got the idea after being frustrated by the time it took to identify emergency victims carrying only a cellphone.
But the problem is also local.
“I can’t tell you how many times our personnel have come to an accident scene where we need to render aid and the only clue we have about who the person is and what they might need is the cellphone,” said Daniel Qualman, president of the Colorado State Fire Chiefs Association.
Vail to host private golf outing for CEOs
There’s a high-roller alert in Vail. More than 100 chief executives are expected to descend on Beaver Creek for the Chairman’s Cup, a private pro-am outing Aug. 19-21.
VIPs will take part in a golf outing at Red Sky Ranch Golf Club. The Chairman’s Cup is an annual celebration for the Bard Capital Challenge championship. The guests will be wined and dined and will participate in the luxury of Vail Valley.
Bard Capital Partners, the Professional Golf Association and the American Cancer Society are sponsoring the challenge that will whittle down the best golfers out of 30,000 amateurs across 250 cities and towns.
The finalists will play for a $750,000 purse, with $150,000 going to the American Cancer Society, during a December televised championship at the Tournament Players Club at The Canyons in Las Vegas.
Web helps teens, but aids in time-wasting
Here’s the rub on the Internet: It helps teens do better in school, but it also causes them to waste time.
That was one of the results of a recent survey of 1,100 parent-teen pairs by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in Washington, D.C.
Nearly two thirds of teens admitted they “do things online that they wouldn’t want their parents to know about.” That includes cheating at school, which was identified as a problem by 37 percent of the teens surveyed.
The survey found that 87 percent of American kids between the ages of 12 and 17 use the Internet. The number of teens using the Internet at school has doubled since the last survey in 2000.
