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Brian and team, who work for a digital marketing agency run this Digital Crosstalk blog.
Occasionally we might blog about companies and people we work with but for the most part we'll simply be blogging about stories and events which we find interesting.

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19th
AUG

United Break Guitars II: Dave Carroll releases his new song

Posted by Brian | Filed under blogging

Dave Carroll has released the second song in his three-part series of songs detailing his experience with United Airlines, who he claimed broke his guitar and refused to compensate him.

If you’re not familiar with Dave’s story, you can catch up here. If, however, you know of the original tale and are eagerly awaiting the next instalment you can enjoy the full song and video below.

Be warned however, it’s not a patch on his first tune unfortunately, which is much more catchy.

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19th

‘Par Mates’ for the Course: Walters Golf introduce female caddies

Posted by Brian | Filed under blogging, tourism

: Image by silverhawk42532 via Flickr

If you’ve ever played golf, then you’ll know about the game’s ups-and-downs. If your game is anything like mine, you’ll have experienced more of the downs than ups – you’ve hooked your tee shot; you’ve three-putted the first or your ball has sailed out-of-bounds. All regular occurrences in my rounds of golf.

And to make matters worse, you have to cart around a heavy bag of clubs, balls, garments and other accoutrements. Yes, the golf course can sometimes be a lonely and unforgiving place. Until now, or at least that’s the claim of one American golf company, Walters Golf of Las Vegas, Nevada.

According the 19th hole blog over at YourGolfTravel.com, a UK provider of golf breaks around the world, the company has introduced a line of female caddies, known as ‘Par Mates. The company introduced the program in late 2008 to offer players a memorable experience – despite their game perhaps not being at its best – and the female caddies are attractive, outgoing young women who in addition to providing eye candy will perform traditional caddie duties throughout the round – everything from repairing pitch-marks and marking scorecards to arranging refreshments during the round and course navigation.

The female caddies in the ‘Par Mates’ program have been hand-picked by the Walters Golf team and underwent a full golf training program before commencing their duties.

The cost of hiring a Par Mate for the round is $225 and they require to be booked 72 hours ahead of your tee-off time. Par Mates are available on two Walters Golf golf courses – the Bali Hai and the Royal Links, which are two of the premier courses in Las Vegas – and the available caddies can be viewed online via the Walters Golf ‘Par Mates’ page or via the Par Mates Facebook group.

Incidentally, Kara (no 20) is my favourite!

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4th
AUG

Astronaut’s $100k tool-kit returns to earth

Posted by Brian | Filed under blogging

: Image by chatarra picks via Flickr

If while gazing up at the stars on Monday night, you happened across a shooting star then there is a small possibility what you were watching wasn’t a comet or a piece of space debris from the International Space Station.

No, it wasn’t the advance guard of an HG Wells martian invasion either…

What you could have been watching was the destruction of an astronaut’s $100,000 toolkit. Specifically one which was lost during a spacewalk at the ISS on November 18 last year and now, having circled the earth in an ever-decreasing orbit finally has made it’s re-entry into the atmosphere where it promptly burned up.

The toolbag, which weighed around 30lbs (14 kg) was roughly the size and shape of a small backpack and would have contained grease guns, rubbish bags and a scraper tool said NASA officials. It was lost during the spacewalk to repair a worn solar array joint on the ISS by former NASA astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper.

According to NASA a grease gun had leaked inside the toolbag and as Stefanyshyn-Piper tried to clear up the mess, the bag drifted free as it hadn’t been properly secured.

“There was that split second thinking that, maybe I can go jump for it and grab it. Then I realized that it would just make everything worse and then we’d have two floating objects, one of which would be me,” Stefanyshyn-Piper said in a televised Nov. 19 interview from space the day after losing the bag. “So the best thing to do was just to let it go.”

One wonders what would have happened if it had been her hand-bag that she had dropped?

Tags: Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper, International Space Station, NASA, Space debris

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24th
JUL

United Airlines don’t break guitars… oh yes they do!

Posted by Brian | Filed under air, blogging, hotels

Most people would have simply ranted and raved when their air carrier lost or damaged their luggage, but Canadian singer Dave Carroll went a step further than simply complaining to his carrier, United Airlines, when he penned his ditty ‘United Break Guitars’ in protest at the airline’s refusal to accept responsibility they had broken his prized Taylor acoustic guitar at Chicago’s O’Hare airport last year.

The song was accompanied by a video which went on to become an internet phenomenon, attracting four million views on video sharing website, You Tube, which is owned by Google. It was so successful that after nine months of trying and failing to gain admittance from United Airlines, the carrier has now paid up.

“You broke it, you should fix it/ you’re liable just admit it/ I should have flown with someone else or gone by car,” Carroll sings, “’cause United breaks guitars.”

However, sadly for United Airlines the damage isn’t going to stop there, despite the settlement as Dave is in the process of recording a second track, which will form part of a trilogy against the airline by the singer. The original song even managed to cause United Airline’s share price into a temporary drop, such was the publicity surrounding Dave’s ditty.

United Airlines aren’t the first company to become embroiled in an internet slanging match between customers and companies and they won’t be the last either as the upsurge in social media websites continues to create a rebalance in communication between consumers and businesses; helping to spread both the good and bad word about customer experience.

In a Twitter post, United Airlines admitted they made a mistake and would donate $3,000 to a music charity, but also that they liked the video if not the song. The carrier even hinted that they would like to use the video as a training aid to ensure a better level of service for their passengers.

United Airlines

Dave says he is no longer angered by the incident and he no longer cares about getting compensation, despite repairs to his guitar coming in at some $1200 – which still doesn’t play correctly. He will however press on with the second tune, which will feature his dealings with United Airlines’ customer service agent Ms Irlweg, who flatly refused Dave’s claim for compensation; with a third track following later.