National Anthem Protests

By now, nearly everyone who has access to the outside world has heard of the athletes who are protesting the national anthem. Regardless of your opinion on the gesture it seems to be accomplishing the goal of opening the dialogue that those protesting claim that they are working towards. This week it came to my attention that Colin Kaepernick, the 2nd string quarterback for the San Francisco 49ers, has been using his fame to reach out and open dialogues with several military members. One such member is Nate Boyer, who was in training camp with the Seattle Seahawks last season. Initially Boyer was against the gesture of sitting during the anthem, but has since talked to Kaepernick about how to accomplish his goals of bringing attention to racism in our country without disrespecting past and present military members. Since that conversation Kaepernick has donated more than $1 million to organizations to help their cause, and hes hardly the only one as a number of current NFL players partake in the protest in some way or another. Below are two links, one to the original story about Kaepernick and Boyer, and the other from ESPN that shows all the players who have participated in the protest this weekend

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2016/09/01/colin-kaepernick-met-with-former-green-beret-nate-boyer/

 http://www.espn.com/blog/nflnation/post/_/id/217161/nfl-players-who-protested-during-the-national-anthem-in-week-5

Colin Kaepernick kneels during the National Anthem before a game 

Current Event

Pretty much everyone has a "chip card," or a credit card with a microchip in it that is now used to pay instead of the old "swiping method. These chip cards are also universally hated by both the users trying to pay, and by the cashier who is tasked with explaining how to use the chip reader to their customers (take it from a cashier- its a pain). One of the biggest complaints levied against chip cards is how long it takes for the transaction to process. While the old method of swiping your card took only a few seconds, the chip card processing can take upwards of 12 seconds. The good news is that the company Square, which is one of the suppliers of the chip technology has announced that they have been able to shave 25% off the average time to process the cards. This is good news for consumers and cashiers alike. Even better is that Square is hoping to continue to lower the time needed for transactions, aiming for the three second range, and I speak for everyone when I say that it is much needed.

Generic "chip card"