This Reporter Exploded On Manhole Cover

Look. You know and I know this is fake -- but it's hella funny. If you were a reporter who was doing a story on exploding manhole covers, would you stop and stand on top of one to give your report? Of course not. And if you did, the camera person should have stopped you. So that's two checks against that action.

Still, it's funny to watch. She just goes right into the air.

NFL Hall Of Fame Game (Video): Raiders 16 - Eagles 10 - NFL.com

The one glaring problem was my Mountain Mike's Pizza friend Robert Gallery getting beat on the Raiders' second series for a sack. Offensive Coordinator Tom Walsh can help him by installing three-step drop passes. But if the Raiders insist on force-feeding the deeper drops, it's going to be a long season for Gallery and The Oakland Raiders.

Game video:



NFL.com wire reports

CANTON, Ohio (Aug. 6, 2006) -- All Art Shell asked to see in his first game back as coach of the Oakland Raiders was some progress.

He got that, and strong placekicking by Sebastian Janikowski in a 16-10 victory over the Philadelphia Eagles as the NFL preseason began with the Hall of Fame Game.

Oakland forced five turnovers and Janikowski made field goals of 50, 51 and 24 yards.

"Coming up with turnovers was huge tonight," Shell said. "They are reacting to the ball."

Shell was rehired a dozen years after being fired as Oakland's coach. His mission: bringing back the glory of the franchise for which he was a Hall of Fame tackle.

In front of former Raiders coach John Madden, who was enshrined Aug. 5, Shell got off to a winning start.

"It feels really good to be back," Shell said. "And getting a win is huge, because no matter if it is preseason, everybody wants to win. Playing in this game, with Coach Madden inducted, it was very much a good thing."

Philadelphia's David Akers set a game record with a 55-yarder in the second quarter. And the Eagles' first-stringers were solid on both sides of the ball.

"It was good that the offense got a chance to get out there and get things rolling," Donovan McNabb said. "I felt healthy, so it's an exciting time right now."

Eagles RB Bruce Perry was carried off on a stretcher with 1:14 remaining, his head immobilized. He was tackled by rookie Timi Wusu on a running play. Players from both sides stood silently or kneeled in prayer before Perry was removed. Perry gave a thumbs-up as he was wheeled to an ambulance and taken to a hospital.

Eagles coach Andy Reid said Perry had a concussion and a team spokesman added X-rays of Perry's neck were negative. A CT scan also was normal and the team expected Perry to accompany it back to Pennsylvania.

"He had some loss of feeling in his arms and legs initially and the feeling started to come back," Reid said. "I don't know how far along he is now."


Brian Westbrook carried the Eagles into the end zone early, but the Raiders laughed last.
In his one-series series, Donovan McNabb hit all three passes for 29 yards on a 61-yard drive that ended with Brian Westbrook's 1-yard touchdown run. McNabb is returning from sports hernia surgery that cut short his 2005 season, a major reason the Eagles finished 6-10.

"We came with a different attitude," McNabb said. "This is something that's serious for us. We were prepared to come out and have a good showing."

Westbrook, coming back from a foot sprain that cost him the final four games of 2005, had 32 yards rushing and a 14-yard reception in his short night.

"I think as an offensive unit, we're out there trying to prove we can run the ball," Westbrook said. "We've certainly committed a lot of time to the running game and we did it out there in the first preseason game."

The Eagles made Oakland's starting defense look leaky in taking the 7-0 edge, and the Raiders did little on offense with their first-stringers until getting a break.

Three plays after Aaron Brooks ' wobbly pass was picked off by Roderick Hood, Jeff Garcia returned the favor. The veteran QB, brought in as McNabb's backup this year, made a poor pass toward another Philly addition, Jabar Gaffney. Fabian Washington intercepted and sped 40 yards down the left sideline to the Philadelphia 23.

"I was excited at the time," Washington said. "But then I realized I can't take this into the regular season."

LaMont Jordan gained 14 yards on the final play of the opening period, then Brooks hit Courtney Anderson in the front of the end zone to tie it.

"I actually thought I wouldn't get it, but you never know unless you try," Anderson said. "I threw my hands up there and caught it."

Akers untied it with his record kick.

Oakland's defense provided another superb chance in the third quarter when Grant Irons sacked Koy Detmer, who fumbled at his 13. The Raiders got nothing out of it when holder Shane Lechler bobbled the snap on an attempted field goal and Janikowski never got off a kick.

He did get off the 51-yarder in the third quarter to tie it, though. His 50-yarder early in the fourth period made it 13-10, and his 24-yarder finished the scoring.

Al Davis - Al Davis On NFL Network After His Speech

NFL Network's Adam Schefter talks with Oakland Raiders Owner Al Davis and is visited by Dallas Cowboys' Owner Jerry Jones. Davis reminds Schefter that he no longer works for The Denver Broncos.

John Madden's Speech To The NFL Hall Of Fame

This is John Madden's speech after being introduced by Al Davis at the NFL Hall Of Fame

Here's video part one:



..and video part two:

Al Davis - Al Davis Presents John Madden At The NFL Hall Of Fame

This is a series of videos where Al Davis presents John Madden into the NFL Hall Of Fame. If transcripts of these great speeches become available, we'll post them for you. Visit NFL.com for more information.

Here's the first part of the video:



Here's the second part of the video:

NFL Hall Of Fame - John Madden Intro At Friday Night Party

This video -- without sound -- shows Oakland Raiders Former Head Coach and now NFL Hall Of Famer John Madden being introduced at the Friday night party before the Saturday induction ceremonies.

Here's John Madden

2006 NFL Schedule From The NFL

NATIONAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE CALENDAR

2006

Late July -- Training camps open.

July 24 -- Signing period ends at 4:00 PM ET for unrestricted free agents who received June 1 tender.
August 6 -- Pro Football Hall of Fame Game, Canton, Ohio -- Oakland Raiders vs. Philadelphia Eagles
(NBC).

August 10-14 -- First full preseason weekend.

August 29 -- Roster cutdown to maximum of 75 players.

September 2 -- Roster cutdown to maximum of 53 players.

September 3 -- Clubs may establish practice squad of eight players.

September 7-11 -- Kickoff 2006.

October 17 -- Trading deadline.

October 23-25 -- NFL Fall Meeting (New Orleans, Louisiana).

December 30-31 -- Regular season ends.

2007

January 6-7 -- Wild Card Playoffs.

January 13-14 -- Divisional Playoffs.

January 21 -- Conference Championships.

February 4 -- Super Bowl XLI, South Florida (CBS).

February 10 -- AFC-NFC Pro Bowl, Honolulu, Hawaii (CBS).

February 21-27 -- NFL Scouting Combine, Indianapolis, Indiana.

March 25-28 -- NFL Annual Meeting, Phoenix, Arizona.

April 28-29 -- NFL Draft, New York City.

Late May -- NFL Spring Meeting (Site TBD).

Technorati - Does It's Tagging System Allow Bloggers To Shut Out Voices?

Masood Mortazavi says this:

...Apparently, Jon had the good fortune of attending Peter Hirshberg's birthday party during which Peter showed off some of the new cool things about Technorati, but what grabbed my attention was Peter's discussion of the way Technorati is constraining its tag system.

For some reason, I never read about these constraints anywhere else when I first started using the tags. Here's a quote from Jon's article:

Lest omnivorous bloggers try to game the system and claim they cover subjects they rarely write about, they can declare expertise in only 20 subjects, and a feedback mechanism lets users suggest that blogs be removed from certain categories. Because Technorati scans 16.4 million blogs, all it takes is those bloggers spending a few minutes with the database "for the entire system [to] get smart and correct itself very quickly," says Hirshberg.


What this means is that if there are enough users organized to remove someone from a particular topic, they'll be able to do it. This is rule of the masses, not the rule of the free expression of ideas, and while I don't have anything against the masses, I have always found suppression of ideas quite reprehensible. What is even worse in my case is my prolific use of the tags, which have taken me to several dozen different topics. I find it ridiculous that the writer is limited to the use of only 20 tags. That might work for an advertising agency working for a corporation but it doesn't quite work for the free-wheeling blogger. As a lite-relativist, I've always had trouble with expertise being defined in such narrow ways. I spent my graduate years trying to escape it and now here we have a system that can do quite a bit of good in bringing you to greater number of readers but that puts restraints on how you stream your thoughts and what you write about. So, I'm out.

At least for right now, I have to say: Goodbye To Technoratic Tags!!!

No longer, will I bother and waste time with them. They may be good for category writers but not for me unless policies such as those above change.

Jon Fine's column is available online for free. By the way, in it, Fine mentions some Technorati competitors.

This is very disturbing news given Technorati's size. Dave Sifry should alter this ASAP!

Alien Behind Post Grabs Boy - Fake Video Looks Real

I read this video was made in Mexico and the producers admitted it was fake. Either that or the producers are lying and they are aliens. You never know.

But check this out:

Wall Street Journal Names Moguls Of New Media, Gets It Wrong

The Wall Street Jounal, looking to get a lot of links, asked John Jurgensen to pen an article pointing to the "Moguls of New Media."

Give me a break.

Hey, I'm glad they gave Amanda Congdon some more exposure-- too much is not enough in this case -- but John forgets her ex-partner Andrew Baron. Big mistake.

But it underscores what a joke of an article this is. The definitions of Mogul are:

-a bump on a ski slope
-a member of the Muslim dynasty that ruled India until 1857
-baron: a very wealthy or powerful businessman; "an oil baron"

None of which is listed in the Wall Street Journal's "mogul" list. But considering the WSJ and its author think New Media's just a terms for kids on MySpace -- which is featured in his article and prominently -- it's no wonder this pap was released. It does no one any good at all.

This video asking real New Media players -- people a bit more on the Mogul level -- what New Media is, has the definition in it and does a better job than the WSJ.

...But hey, it's expressed in a new media way, so what should I expect!