By David Levy-Fan Experience Reporter-Football Reporters Online
The Georgia Dome in Atlanta remains a perfectly fine building for professional football. Still a teenager, it is nowhere near long in the tooth. Capacity is enough to accommodate nearly every Atlanta Falcons fan willing to buy tickets.
Arthur Blank, the team owner, craves a new stadium. That seems akin to trading in your car after it has logged only 20,000 miles, but he can well afford it. Blank, the former owner of the ubiquitous American home improvement store chain called The Home Depot, has a net worth of $1.2 billion, according to Forbes, and the franchise value has risen 52 per cent since he bought it in 2002 for $545 million.
But wait. Blank expects the quasi-public agency that operates the Dome and the proposed site of a new stadium to issue bonds that would pay some of the costs. That should be 15 yards for unsportsmanlike conduct, sticking it to taxpayers at the same time that funding for public schools in Georgia is being cut.
This sickness is spreading among NFL team owners. In Minnesota, the Vikings' Zygi Wilf has capitalized on the collapse of the Metrodome's inflatable roof amid a once-in-a-lifetime snowstorm and the fear of the franchise relocating to Los Angeles in his campaign for a replacement stadium. Of course, citizens would contribute to the project. Never mind that Blank might expect Wilf, worth $1.3bn, to pick up their lunch bill.
The shameless nonchalance of these folks who seem detached from reality has generated a shifting of the winds. We have already experienced it here in New York and New Jersey.
The public, which normally sides with management during labor disputes in American sports, is sympathetic toward the players in a stand-off with owners that has pushed the league to the brink of a lockout. In a poll conducted by Seton Hall University, 35 per cent who participated backed the players, compared to 22 per cent for their bosses. This, even though the same study found that most contend the players are overpaid.
Taxpayers are increasingly fed up with being forced to become stadium-erecting partners with Rolex-wearing, yacht-sailing jet-setters. Economists nowadays agree on little, but one belief they share is that public support of professional sports offers almost nothing financially in return.
The Giants and Jets grew tired of their shared arena and convinced the government to pitch in for a new-and-improved one. The old Giants Stadium was torn down despite carrying more than $100m in debt that must be paid off by the good people of New Jersey. Plus, the season ticket holders are also helping flip the bill on the new one with PSL's. Isn't that double dipping? The nerve!
Roger Goodell, the NFL commissioner, stands complicit in this wasteful building boom. From his office comes a wink-nod promise of the ultimate in ego gratification for owners: host your own Super Bowl! Just throw up a stadium and you will get the big game. How you bankroll it, that's your business.
Which explains why the 2014 Super Bowl was awarded to New Meadowlands in a region where the average low temperature in February is -2°C. Which also explains why 22 of 32 teams have moved into fresh digs or had their existing ones totally made over in the last two decades.
In that time, teams have been blessed with more than $7bn in taxpayer subsidies for construction and renovation, according to the NFL Players' Association.
The players union reports that, on average, taxpayers put up 65 per cent of the financing for those projects. Owners found a way to avoid putting in any money for 10 of them; for nine others, their contribution amounted to less than 25 per cent.
Further driving public sentiment toward the players are reports on the sport's inherent physical risk, particularly for victims of post-concussive syndrome that has ravaged retirees. Fans are looking beyond the average salary of $1.9m and discovering other statistics:
$770,000, the median yearly pay. Three-and-a-half years, the average length of career. Eleven, the average number of players per team on injured reserve this past season.
While many of us might trade places with the players, the figures show that most of them accumulate more aches and pains than enough wealth to last them a lifetime.
For team owners, it is a different story. Admittance into the club all but guarantees going from rich to richer, experienced from the comfort of a stadium luxury suite.
Fine. That is the American way. But those who knock on government doors seeking handouts to finance mostly unnecessary arenas should instead heed the marketing message aimed at customers of Blank's old home improvement stores.
Do it yourself.
Follow me Twitter @LevysBakeryProd or at LevysBakeryProductions.com
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Orb Networks Apple TV Killer Makes Home Digital Entertainment Simple
And you don't even need a digital television or stereo set.
As the video below, will show (get a cup of coffee and relax because it's 22 minutes long) Mr. Costello and his staff have made a smooth looking, wel, orb called The Orb Caster, that connects with your existing television or stereo and allows you to call up (as an example) videos from any YouTube channel, or Hulu, or ESPN 3, just to give some examples of video sources.
But you can show not only videos, but photos from your smartphone or online platform, too. In fact, Joe demonstrates this in the video.
As you will see, you download the smartphone app that "calls" the Orb Caster from the Orb Networks website.
Here's the video:
Joe Costello is no stranger to the digital space. The former boardmember of Oracle, and CEO of Cadence (which became the world's supplier of Electronic Design Automation or "EDA" software), Joe's an energetic man who's youthful exuberance for his products and company is infectious.
Costello is a great model for any startup entrepreneur because he feels and believes in what he's doing, and knows he's got something that can change how people live in their homes. (And on top of that, he invested in the company himself. The origin of Orb Networks goes back about five years and before Costello; that story's a blog post in itself.)
Orb Networks Blue-Ray
Joe's also excited about his newest offering, the Orb Networks Orb BR software, where "BR" means "Blue Ray." He says "The combined cost of a Blu-ray player and Orb BR software is less expensive
than most of the other Internet TV solutions, like Boxee and Google TV,
while providing more capabilities." In fact, at $19.99 Costello's got a point. In fact, all of the Orb Networks products are competitively priced. The Orb TV is $99 and the Orb Music Player is $79.
It's the same price as Apple TV but with one big difference: the smartphone is the controller, whereas you have to enable Apple's AirPlay provision to use your iPhone with Apple TV. And even with that, some have complained the ability to stream videos from platforms like YouTube isn't yet "fully baked" on Apple TV.
Check out Orb at http://www.orb.com.
Tila Tequila Convinces MTV She Stands for Empowering Women
How buzzworthy - Female Empowerment? Tila Tequila? Over the summer Tila Tequila encouraged her army to attack blogger, Nikky Raney, whose only flaw was blogging objectively about "Miss Tila" and her shenanigans. Now, working as an MTV VIP looking through MTV posts it is seen that Tila has done a Yoko Ono cover to the song "Walking On Thin Ice.
The kicker is what MTV writes within the blog post before posting the video:
We have to give Tila credit for empowering and encouraging women not to tolerate an abusive relationship. Tila said she recorded the song "at a time when my life was complicated and I was emotionally drained." Of the video's violence and abuse, she said, "The video was created in a way where the woman isn't just the victim; she is also a survivor. I want women to see that you can get out of an abusive relationship and hopefully do it BEFORE something horrible happens to you or your partner. I am hoping that people can see that this video doesn't promote or glorify abuse; that in fact, it is promoting change and strength."
The music video will not be included within this blog post, because that would be an insult to Yoko Ono - who originally sang this song.
Although there are personal ties related to why the video won't be posted and within this blog post - it is still a fact that over the summer Tila Tequila was not empowering but insulting. Attacking a 20 year old girl and having her "Tila Army" attack her again and again. The hate mail and the e-mails received from "Miss Tila" were enough to make it unbearable to even go onto Twitter. So, no, the girl who coined the phrase "Piggy Raney" and posted lots of blog posts attacking other celebrities and hating on Rihanna (yes, Tila shows no remorse for what Rihanna went through and always insults her) is not someone who should be commended for female empowerment. The post has gotten a few comments, and it's unsure as to how many views the video has gotten.
Since I no longer go to Tila's personal "celebrity gossip blog" which I have been told is now just a TILA TILA TILA TILA TILA promotion blog I don't know what she has written in regards to the MTV endorsement, but I felt as though I was obligated to write this blog post after what I had to go through this summer with her. I have not watched the music video.
TMZ took Tila's blog off their blog roll after what she did; it was minutes after she posted a blog post bragging that she was on TMZ; unknowing that Zennie62 Media was also.
Oh, this brings back some not-so-fond memories, but that's what got me known on this blog. So this post is a bit of a throwback for me.
UCubed Creates ‘Marching to Madness’
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
UCubed Creates ‘Marching to Madness’
Washington, D.C., March 10, 2011 – Citing today’s state and local unemployment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Ur Union of Unemployed (UCubed) has created a March Madness-like graphic to bring the grim statistics to life.
“We’re predicting a lot more ‘upsets’ in this tourney – between 25 to 29 million,” said UCubed Executive Director Rick Sloan. “Today’s local unemployment release serves as further proof that state governments and Congress must focus less on destroying good-paying jobs and more on putting jobless residents back to work.”
The “Marching to Madness” unemployment brackets are the latest installment of UCubed’s aggressive ad campaign on Facebook meant to draw more attention to the national jobs crisis. Users are being asked to fill out the unemployment brackets, ranking the city they think is suffering the most. On Friday, March 18, 2011, UCubed will fill in the brackets with actual rankings from the BLS.
“America’s jobless, along with the rest of the country, have for the past few weeks watched the assault Republican governments in Wisconsin, Ohio, Missouri and other states are afflicting on hard-working Americans,” said Sloan. “They can’t help but wonder: How does this put me back to work? It doesn’t. Not only will it ultimately send more hard-working folks to the unemployment line, it’s also part of the GOP’s larger strategy to completely ignore and distract from the more pressing issue affecting our country at this time – jobs.
“The jobless want to go back to work. And they want to go back today. The time to create a national jobs agenda is now.”
See UCubed's ad campaign on Facebook.
Ur Union of Unemployed, or UCubed, is a community service project of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) designed to assist the millions of unemployed and underemployed Americans, and to provide them with a structure that allows them to take advantage of their growing numbers. For more information, visit Ur Union of Unemployed.
Go to http://www.unionofunemployed.com/blog/uncategorized/ucubed-creates-marching-to-madness-unemployment-brackets/ and hit the "LIKE"
Newsweek is Officially TheDailyBeast.com
Just received the newest issue of Newsweek in the mail and up on top of the header for Newsweek is a little link that says THEDAILYBEAST.COM - which has never been there before. It is now official. Newsweek.com is no longer in existence and Thedailybeast.com is the new site.
The bottom of EVERY SINGLE PAGE under the page number is a link to thedailybeast.com. Every single page. And the Daily Beast Logo is everywhere.
And then there's a NewsBeast title. Pretty sure Zennie62 Media came up with that one first.
What has happened to Newsweek? The Daily Beast has taken over.
There will be a video to accompany this blog post posted as soon as it has finished loading on Youtube.
Keene State Adventure
There have been a lack of blog posts from blogger Nikky Raney - the reason for this is the lack of Internet while spending time on Spring Break, but there are many videos which are interesting and will be worth watching. The videos were taking with the FLIP CAM that Zennie sent for Zennie62 Media vlogs.
Enjoy seeing what this college girl was up to when she wasn't blogging. She was getting a good use and getting practice with the Flip cam!
Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin, what about Tina Fey?
Media Bistro reports Julianne Moore will be portraying Sarah Palin in HBO's adaptation of the book Game Change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the Race of a Lifetime. written by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin.
Tina Fey spent a lot of time on Saturday Night Live portraying Sarah Palin, and it is a bit more realistic that Fey looks like Palin more than Julianne Moore does - when thinking about who would play Sarah Palin in a movie Tina Fey would be the first to come to mind, but maybe this role calls for someone a bit more serious and it would be difficult to take Sarah Palin seriously in a movie if Tina Fey was the actress, but in all honesty: it's hard to take Sarah Palin seriously when she is Sarah Palin - so good luck trying to make her look better.
Media Bistro reports:
Anybody wish they picked Saturday Night Live veteran Tina Fey? Heilemann and Halperin interviewed more than 300 people to write Game Change (2010). The book had three parts: part one covered the Democratic primaries, part two looked at the Republican primaries, and part three examined the race between Barack Obama and John McCain.
 |
| Getty Images. Moore & Palin |
The five things include being on camera naked, having a sexual performance, overdosing on pills, having a British twin and uttering the phrase, "Do you like sex, Mr. Lebowski." All of the aforementioned are things that the actress has done previously in her roles from Boogie Nights, Magnolia, Short Cuts, As The World Turns and The Big Lebowski.
Time Magazine online also begins its article asking: "We wonder what Tina Fey thought when she found out she wasn't playing the part."
Its more in-depth article with Time's blog Tuned In writes:
Another burning question: is Moore's Alaska accent better than the Boston Southie one she put on for 30 Rock? Speaking of which, might she pick up some coaching from Palin-impersonation veteran and 30 Rock producer Tina Fey? And who will fill out the rest of the cast, whose lead characters will presumably (if it hews to the book) include John McCain, Barack Obama, Hillary (and presumably Bill) Clinton and John (and presumably Elizabeth) Edwards?
This is bound to be very interesting. Good luck to Julianne Moore - maybe it's good giving Fey a break. It will be interesting to see who will be cast as Barack Obama, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, etc.
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