Monday, August 10, 2009

Tom Hayes: Another glimmer of hope for the economy

The health care sector continues to add jobs so investor confidence during the past month led the monthly Economic Recovery Reality Index (ERRI) up a modest 4.76 points over July numbers to 16.03 for August. Unemployment dipped slightly and the increase in the number of “discouraged” workers slowed, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics - but as with prior economic recessions and depressions employment changes are once again trailing the other economic indicators:

The small ERRI gain shows Wall Street's optimism hasn't yet reached most other streets; it will take some time for average Americans to feel - or believe - that this long subtle assault that started with obscure financial "devices" has eased and real recovery has begun. The problem, we know now, was not sub-prime lending, which can and does help people, but aggressive and deliberately predatory sub-prime lending from companies and CEOs who thought they were immune to the risks in an essentially unregulated environment.

The ERRI uses a hypothetical, indexed fund (similar in some ways to a mutual fund) to measure investor confidence across nearly a dozen sectors of the economy, but until jobs and wages show sustained improvements you won't see it move back closer to (or above) the 100 mark no matter how fast stock prices drive the stock/investment component higher.
"Equity investments are volatile, particularly when not carefully diversified and monitored; the ERRI would have shown even less improvement had closing prices from even a day sooner been utilized in the calculations (since that would have reduced the 'ERRI fund' improvement.)"
The modest gain in the August ERRI figures reflect both equity prices as of the close of the NYSE on Friday, August 7th and data released in the monthly update/estimate from the Department of Labor earlier the same day combined using a new calculation. Without the on-going hiring in health care and the slight turn-around in unemployment rate even the robust gains in various stock markets would not have had much impact on the index.

Michael Vick please show that you have class!

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com

Now as any regular follower of my blogs knows, I'm really happy former Atlanta Falcons Quarterback Michael Vick's back in the NFL, and even though he's not signed with a team yet, former Indy Coach Tony Dungy said on NBC's telecast of the "Hall of Fame Game" that a team should sign him within the next week. That's great. But just because God's smiling on Vick, doesn't mean he has to lose control of the image he's working to build so quickly, and risk blowing it all.

What do I mean? Well, there's a new set of expectations of Vick from a number of people: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Dungy, and anyone rooting for Vick to get a second chance and most important succeed at it. I count myself here because I embarked on an attack against on PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) for its race-tinged smearing of Vick, and I'm still not done with PETA. But because of that, I expect Michael Vick to be that guy we all want him to be, and not someone sporting the latest in thug attire and saying "I'm gonna always love my N___, you know what I'm sayin" as he did in this video:



When I got wind of this via Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports on Twitter, I pretty much fell out of my chair. I wanted to make sure I wasn't being too anal about the whole deal so I asked my Mom, who's visiting me, to come over and watch the video. Her words came out as soon as she listened to him: "He's not gonna make it," she said.

I informed Mom that Coach Dungy said Vick would be signed by someone and she said "I hope so." So do I.

See, what Mike doens't understand is now, like it or not, everyone black's not only rooting for him and fighting for him, but demands that he represent himself in a way that justifies our actions in defending him. I write "black" because Vick's behavior ignites the age-old argument of what it means to be black in America and the idea that one does not have to act black, but that's another blog post, back to this one.

Allowing ones self to be on camera showing the best of thug life (another code word for "acting black") doesn't help us one bit. I don't know where anyone got the idea that rap culture was desirable, but Vick's got to understand if he wants to establish himself as lovable to corporate sponsors (and if you want to say that's a code word for "acting white" go ahead but my retort is that being clean, intelligent, and presentable to companies has nothing to do with race at all), he's got to lose that shtick, and fast.

Am I being harsh, yes, massively so. Do I care? No way. I'm really ticked-off with Vick's actions; perhaps T.O. (Terrell Owens) can talk me down and talk to him in the process. Protecting the proper image is at the center of this issue of Michael Vick's future. There are people betting that Vick will be just the kind of person he's showing himself to be in that YouTube moment and that's not acceptable to us, his fans. While Michael may feel he's got to "keep it real" as Chris Rock would say, "keeping it real, yeah, real dumb" is what he's doing.

Why in hell would Michael allow someone to point a camera at him and just follow him around without knowing what the digital image was going to be used for? Vick not only didn't care, he got right up to the camera and came off big in his thuggy glory.

Great, man. Just peachy.

What we want to see - Ok, what I want to see is a clean-cut, smooth, thoughtful version of Vick that by its very existence gives a collective finger to his doubters and allows him to regain then surpass the value he had before he was hauled off to jail. In the NFL, where potentially hundreds of millions of dollars can be brought to bear on one person, image is everything. One can't whine and cry about not being able to wear his gangta t-shirt or not "looking black", unless of course he wants to kiss his revenue potential goodbye. If so, then fine. There's thousands of brothers on the street trying to sell their music and "looking black in the process, perhaps Vick can join them.

Call me "Uncle Tom" or whatever. I don't care. I'm keeping it real myself. And the real story is that the Michael Vick I saw in that video is pretty much the same Michael Vick I briefly met at the 2000 EA Sports Party in Atlanta during the Super Bowl. At that event, Vick was playing video games wearing a white tank top shirt some call a "wife beater" shirt. His hair was braided. I was disappointed and wanted to kick the ass of whomever was supposedly advising him.

There's no denying Vick's physical talent, but I want to see him bring himself to an NFL-level of character and image, if anything because it's a good, positive message to send to kids. He didn't project that NFL-level of person at the EA Sports party 10 years ago, where he should have dressed business casual, and he's didn't show it on the YouTube video.

Coach Dungy, please talk to Michael before its too late. As my 74-year old Mom said "He's got to stay away from that old crowd. C'mon Vick!"

Amen.

Michael Vick please show that you have class!

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com

Now as any regular follower of my blogs knows, I'm really happy former Atlanta Falcons Quarterback Michael Vick's back in the NFL, and even though he's not signed with a team yet, former Indy Coach Tony Dungy said on NBC's telecast of the "Hall of Fame Game" that a team should sign him within the next week. That's great. But just because God's smiling on Vick, doesn't mean he has to lose control of the image he's working to build so quickly, and risk blowing it all.

What do I mean? Well, there's a new set of expectations of Vick from a number of people: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Dungy, and anyone rooting for Vick to get a second chance and most important succeed at it. I count myself here because I embarked on an attack against on PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) for its race-tinged smearing of Vick, and I'm still not done with PETA. But because of that, I expect Michael Vick to be that guy we all want him to be, and not someone sporting the latest in thug attire and saying "I'm gonna always love my N___, you know what I'm sayin" as he did in this video:



When I got wind of this via Charles Robinson of Yahoo Sports on Twitter, I pretty much fell out of my chair. I wanted to make sure I wasn't being too anal about the whole deal so I asked my Mom, who's visiting me, to come over and watch the video. Her words came out as soon as she listened to him: "He's not gonna make it," she said.

I informed Mom that Coach Dungy said Vick would be signed by someone and she said "I hope so." So do I.

See, what Mike doens't understand is now, like it or not, everyone black's not only rooting for him and fighting for him, but demands that he represent himself in a way that justifies our actions in defending him. I write "black" because Vick's behavior ignites the age-old argument of what it means to be black in America and the idea that one does not have to act black, but that's another blog post, back to this one.

Allowing ones self to be on camera showing the best of thug life (another code word for "acting black") doesn't help us one bit. I don't know where anyone got the idea that rap culture was desirable, but Vick's got to understand if he wants to establish himself as lovable to corporate sponsors (and if you want to say that's a code word for "acting white" go ahead but my retort is that being clean, intelligent, and presentable to companies has nothing to do with race at all), he's got to lose that shtick, and fast.

Am I being harsh, yes, massively so. Do I care? No way. I'm really ticked-off with Vick's actions; perhaps T.O. (Terrell Owens) can talk me down and talk to him in the process. Protecting the proper image is at the center of this issue of Michael Vick's future. There are people betting that Vick will be just the kind of person he's showing himself to be in that YouTube moment and that's not acceptable to us, his fans. While Michael may feel he's got to "keep it real" as Chris Rock would say, "keeping it real, yeah, real dumb" is what he's doing.

Why in hell would Michael allow someone to point a camera at him and just follow him around without knowing what the digital image was going to be used for? Vick not only didn't care, he got right up to the camera and came off big in his thuggy glory.

Great, man. Just peachy.

What we want to see - Ok, what I want to see is a clean-cut, smooth, thoughtful version of Vick that by its very existence gives a collective finger to his doubters and allows him to regain then surpass the value he had before he was hauled off to jail. In the NFL, where potentially hundreds of millions of dollars can be brought to bear on one person, image is everything. One can't whine and cry about not being able to wear his gangta t-shirt or not "looking black", unless of course he wants to kiss his revenue potential goodbye. If so, then fine. There's thousands of brothers on the street trying to sell their music and "looking black in the process, perhaps Vick can join them.

Call me "Uncle Tom" or whatever. I don't care. I'm keeping it real myself. And the real story is that the Michael Vick I saw in that video is pretty much the same Michael Vick I briefly met at the 2000 EA Sports Party in Atlanta during the Super Bowl. At that event, Vick was playing video games wearing a white tank top shirt some call a "wife beater" shirt. His hair was braided. I was disappointed and wanted to kick the ass of whomever was supposedly advising him.

There's no denying Vick's physical talent, but I want to see him bring himself to an NFL-level of character and image, if anything because it's a good, positive message to send to kids. He didn't project that NFL-level of person at the EA Sports party 10 years ago, where he should have dressed business casual, and he's didn't show it on the YouTube video.

Coach Dungy, please talk to Michael before its too late. As my 74-year old Mom said "He's got to stay away from that old crowd. C'mon Vick!"

Amen.

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Canton South Marching Band HOF 2009

Canton South Marching Band during the Hall of Fame Parade August 8, 2009. The band did a great job! Including all the NICC Sr. Highers!

Police slam elderly lady, taser Oakland A's fan - what's up?

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com



Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums has called for reform of how police solve problems in the wake of the Oscar Grant shooting.



I'm not sure if it's because we have more digital camcorders around than ever before, or there's something sinister in the way police are being trained today, or some combination of both, but we now have two disturbing examples of excessive force applied by the people we hire to protect and to serve.

The first and most recent example comes from a Walmart in Columbus, Ohio. In the video below this elderly woman named Virginia Dodson reportedly of 84 years old is standing in a parking lot and holding a knife. The reason for holding the knife was that Dodson's daughter left her in her car while she went back into the store. The elder Dodson, an Alzheimer's Patient, got scared because she was alone and cut herself out of the car seat belt, then got out of the automobile in search of her daughter.

Some young people had talked to Virginia in such a way that she brandished the knife. In turn they called 911. When the police officer arrived she walked up to Dodson and after asking her to drop the knife, violently slammed her to the ground.

Here's the video:



What's got me is that since it's obvious the female officer (proving that its not a gender-based issue) was strong enough to take her down with ease, why not just grab the knife from her instead? All of the other moves were excessive and caused Dodson to bleed. Thankfully she was rushed to the hospital and no charges were filed.

To me, police officers are supposed to be trained to be super people in judgment not just strength. Yes, I know that what they do is dangerous, but the job doesn't have to be a thankless one. Somewhere along the way, deep in our long term backslide in education spending and the decline of leisure time we produced a society of people impatient to study a situation then react in a non-violent way. Great classic books on negotiation like "Getting to Yes" have given way to the ideas of "Ask A Ninja". Police seem to be expected to strike and make arrests by any means necessary rather than intelligently work to resolve a problem without arrests or violence. Want another example? Take the case of the Oakland A's fan who was tasered by police basically for being a big mouth.



Why taser a man sitting in his chair? What was the deal? Well, he was drunk, unruly, and refused to leave the stadium upon Oakland police orders. But here's the rub, yet again: why the totally unintelligent way of just saying "Just do as I say?" Yes, you should always follow police orders, period. That's for you and me. But what about those stupid people who don't? Why is the answer hitting them or tasering them? Why not another kind of weapon: words? It seems like we're really going backward as a society if you or anyone else feels you have to defend such an action. Again, the police are supposed to be SUPER PEOPLE. People we look up to for their extraordinary decision making skill, not people we fear because of the idea that they may go too far and harm someone.

I miss the days of community policing, when officers on the beat knew folks in the neighborhood and at the stadium. Those guys and women were a unique breed of talkers that knew how to use their brains to solve problems. At least the one's I knew in Oakland; they're retired for the most part. It seems that we have a national problem of not teaching good negotiating tactics to officers, who because of that are more prone to take a physical approach to problem resolution.

We've got to insist on smart cops. In fact, I'll call for a "smart cop" movement: a detailed list of changes in law enforcement systems that will produce more of the kind of modern problem solvers we need today. The first change should be monetary bonuses of $3,000 per officer per event for anyone that manages to defuse a situation without violence. That's a great incentive for an officer to think twice before flipping an elderly woman to the ground.

Saturday, August 08, 2009

LakeFest Street Fair in Oakland, CA - August 1st 2009

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com



On YouTube.com

LakeFest is a street fair that was held last Saturday and Sunday August 1st and 2nd on Lakeshore Avenue between Lake Park and Mandana near the Grand Lake Theater in Oakland. After a long absence, it's back for its second year and with great bands and vendors selling clothes and representing everything from the new Lake Chalet restaurant to "Friends of the Oakland Public Library."

I talked with a number of Oaklanders about the festival because there was a long period of time that, well, there was not an event of this kind at this location. That is until Helen Wyman stepped in.

Helen Wyman is an event producer currently best known for the first, successful Uptown street fair held June 18th of this year. She explained that this event has nothing to do with the version of year's past and is brand new. "'LakeFest' was a concept we came up with through my company Oakland Events. We decided that Lakeshore was a great spot because of the community and the neighborhood, location and the weather and so many people that can walk here. And they didn't have a festival so we wanted to bring the festival back here."

But what happened to the first version of what is now called "LakeFest"? For the answer to that question I turned to long-time Oaklander Pam Drake, who is Executive Director of the Lakeshore Business Improvement District (LBID). "WE had put it on with an art organization that didn't work with the vendors and it ended up costing us a lot of money and didn't involve our stores as much as it should. So the businesses, we weren't really sure if we wanted to go on with it.

"So, we hadn't done anything in a while and we felt like even though we have the wonderful farmers market, that people wanted to see Lakeshore on the map again. So Helen Wyman, who's someone who I worked with her mom, came up and said 'We've done all these events and I'd really like to do an event for this district.'"

LakeFest was Wyman's first independent event so she wrote a proposal to the LBID's Drake and she liked and endorsed Wyman's idea. Last year was the first one; this is the second year in a row for Wyman's festival concept.

Personally, I love what she's done. It captures the feel and the sprit of Oakland without really any "trick" other than organizing businesses and entertainment and booths. But with that, I have to complement Oakland Events on taking steps to guard against overcrowding. Many street fairs in San Francisco have the booths so close to the side walk that its hard to walk back-and-forth because folks are pressed so close together; not so at LakeFest.

LakeFest also helped the businesses along Lakeshore, especially Easy Lounge, which was perpetually crowded with a great mix of people and Starbucks and Noah's Bagels, which benefited from being near the music stage at the Mandana Avenue end of the street fair. Combined with the Grand Lake Farmers Market, the whole neighborhood was just one big party.

So, congrats to Wyman and Oakland Events for a fun time. But I look forward to the day when both Grand Avenue and Lakeshore are both closed down for one big Grand Lake Festival.

Friday, August 07, 2009

"Follow Friday" on Twitter - what is it?

More at Zennie62.com | Follow me on Twitter! | Get my widget! | Visit YouTube | Visit UShow.com

Today's Friday August 7th and for any regular Twitter user it it's "Follow Friday". But just what is Follow Friday and why is it so popular? I've got to admit I had no idea why the habit started. Whatever the case, it's a popular Internet happening, so let me explain what it is.

Follow Friday is the act of copying a Twitter account reference (@zennie62) and other Twitter accounts references (@handsongourmet), then in the "What are you doing" field paste those references and add this before them - Follow Friday - so the result looks like this:

Follow Friday @zennie62 @handsongourmet

And then click on "update". What will happen is others will see those references and click on them to follow if they want. But at times just making that kind of update will not do the trick, so many people add more account references, like so:

Follow Friday @zennie62 @handsongourmet @makeitpro @therealshaq @sfgate @ladygaga

The reason for adding so many accounts is that the more people you encourage to be followed, the more likely they are to place you in their Follow Friday update post and the more times you will be "seen" to be followed by their followers.

Got it?

It's like this: let's say there's a 50 percent chance that you will get new followers if you have just two Twitter reference accounts, ok? So, if we have six, we go from one possible new follower to three. But you don't stop there, you add more Twitter account holders as you go along in new updates for Friday. The ideal system is to help those account holders who are following you first. What you want is for everyone following you to gain the benefit of your follower base, and vice versa. The overall objective is more followers, and a greater base from which to issue your message.

It's also the best free way to gain followers in addition to tweeting everyday, and retweeting (copying someone's tweet, pasting it into your "What are you doing? field, adding "RT" before it, and then pressing "update. On the matter of free, I don't recommend buying into a service as many of them don't work as advertised.)

Now, who started all of this?

According to Mashable the first Follow Friday tweet was issued in mid January of 2009 by @micah (Micah Baldwin), then @myklroventine came up with the hashtag #followfriday (which you can use or just "Follow Friday" as I do). But the very next week, the trend went viral, with about two Follow Friday's per second at its highest rate of activity.

TopFollowFriday a great tool

Wondering what online tool to use to "watch" your Follow Friday activity? I learned about something called TopFollowFriday, which is where can see who's endorsing them and who you've endorsed.

So give Follow Friday a try today, which is...Friday!