IT Insights Blog — training

Once upon a time in 2014, a Gulfstream III private jet, one of 202 built between 1979 and 1986, ran off the runway at a general aviation airport in London. No serious injuries resulted, but when your private jet can't navigate well enough to roll down a runway, well, it's probably time to consider an alternative mode of transportation. The jet's owner did what most of us would do and approached his friends with a business proposition: How about you guys buy me a new jet?

July is here, and we're getting very close to the Final Four of the biggest sporting event in the world, soccer's FIFA World Cup. Believe it or not this thing has only been rolling for 88 years — the first World Cup was held in 1930 — and two tournaments were skipped on account of World War II. So there have only been 21 World Cup titles, and Germany (4 titles) and Brazil (5 titles) have almost half of them. These guys are like the Celtics and Lakers of soccer.

It's a big weekend in the professional sports world. This is the weekend when NBA players who have played out their existing contracts can sign new deals. Some will sign with the teams they already play for, and others will seek employment in a new city, playing for a new team. A player who is contractually in a position to seek a new deal is called a free agent — available to every team, free to weigh competing offers and seek the best deal from the highest bidder.

Some of you no doubt live your lives under the mistaken impression that there has never been a sequel to the hugely successful Walt Disney Pictures animated classic The Lion King. And when we say "mistaken," we mean almost willfully ignorant. There have actually been not one, but TWO sequels to The Lion King, and there is currently a Lion King cartoon on the Disney Channel that literally features Rob Lowe as the voice of heroic Simba. Rob Lowe, ladies and gentlemen!

OK, show of hands: Who out there reading this post remembers those old Choose Your Own Adventure novels? There were 184 of them published between 1979 and 1998. The first in the series is The Cave of Time, written by Edward Packard, who pioneered the concept. There was a spinoff series for younger readers, and themed series for both Walt Disney and The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.