A lot goes into determining someone's credit worthyness.  Think of the days before computers and credit scores.  If you wanted to lend money to someone, you took a look at their reputation.  Who did they hang around with?  Well Brendan Spaar is here to tell you that the old days may be here again.  At least one lender, Lenddo, is assessing your Facebook and social media connections before it approves your loan.  This is nothing new, however.  A German lender says that it uses 8,000 data points when deciding whether or not it will approve a loan.  If you are looking to get a non traditional loan, you may want to invest some time or money into cleaning up your online reputation, especially if you were arrested or charged.

Source:  http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/26/technology/social/facebook-credit-score/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

There are more claims coming out of the America's Cup that the Oracle Team may have cheated.  The cup officials are claiming now that Oracle's team modified the lengths and the weight of the kingposts.  Brendan Spaar has no idea what all of this means.  One thing it could mean is the forfeit of past championships.  It is believed that Oracle may have cheated in the last two years of competition.  So far Oracle has been ordered to pay $5000 to cover the costs of their protest that Team New Zealand and Luna Rossa had trespassed on their boats.  They were probably sneaking onto the boats to take measurements that would prove that Oracle was cheating.  There is no word yet if Lance Armstrong will be


Source:  http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/other-sports/9084920/Cheating-ruling-benefits-Team-NZ

America's favorite trashy beauty queen is back in the news.  This time Honey Boo Boo is hanging out with a different type of beauty queen.  Boo Boo, her mom June (aka Human Thumb), and Uncle Sugar Bear all attended Drag Queen Bingo at Hamburger Mary's in Jacksonville Florida.  Brendan Spaar discovered that Hamburger Mary's holds a Bingo event for charity.  Of course once word got out that Boo Boo was playing Bingo, the place filled up quickly.  The trashy Georgia family started signing autographs for cash saying that the money would go to charity.  It has not been confirmed whether or not Mama June is expecting a baby girl named Charity.

Source:  http://www.examiner.com/article/honey-boo-boo-plays-drag-queen-bingo-and-fundraises-the-same-night?cid=rss

It came as a surprise this week when Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, announced his retirement.  Ballmer started at Microsoft before Brendan Spaar was even born, becoming one of its first 30 employees.  He owns one of the largest pieces of the Microsoft stock pie so its no wonder that he is looking to enjoy some down time.  According to a statement, Microsoft has disclosed that it does not pay any kind of retirement plan for its executives.  They are already handsomely rewarded with stock options and seven figure salaries.  Hopefully Ballmer didn't go crazy with his spending over the years but even if he did, he's one of the world's richest men so he can enjoy a little extravagence.  No one has been selected yet to replace Steve at the helm of Microsoft.  Some may even wonder if Microsoft is still relevent in the age of Apple and HP gaining ground in the software and hardware markets.  One thing is for sure, Steve Ballmer is going to enjoy his retirement without a compensation a lot more than his employees t

It seems that spying and monitoring of civilians is very popular these days with Edward Snowden revealing such programs being in use by the NSA in the United States.  Brendan Spaar warns if you thought the survellence was limited to use by the government then you are in for a big surprise.  Josh Marti, the CEO of customer-tracking company PointInside, has gone on the record saying some companies are using WiFi tracking to tell when you are in a particular department within their store.  Other tracking companies include ByteLight, IndoorAtlas, and Swirl who all use either LEDs or Bluetooth transmitters to track patrons.  The tin foil conspiracy nuts out there will warn people to stay off of the internet but now it appears that even shopping at the local retail outlet will expose you to tracking and monitoring.  Welcome to The Minority Report. 

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/07/26/retail-stores-plan-elaborate-ways-to-track/#ixzz2ci4AUHPX