Barack Obama's BIG IOWA WIN; On To New Hampshire

I just returned from Tosca in San Francisco and the home of a rousing Barack Obama party. Senator Obama gave the best speech I've ever heard him give in this campaign and that's saying a lot. We all agreed that because the nation was watching him, he had the chance to hit it -- nail it -- out of the park and he did. It was one of those "Where were you when?" moments.

Here's the speech:



Wild.

I'm not at all surprised we won; I would have been had we lost. I've done almost a year of volunteer work and I can tell you that Barack reminds you of high school, where you voted for the most popular person and his or her skin color was not an issue. That's the real beauty of America. It's been lost in the minds of people, until now.

At Tosca, people started chanting "USA. USA" as Barack was speaking. I was one of them. I've never been so proud of being in America and being an American citizen.

More on this awesome development, soon.

Presedential Candidate Chris Dodd Drops Out Of Race

After an extremely poor showing in tonight's Iowa caucus, Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd has decided to abandon his run for the White House and drop out of the race.

Strapped by low support, lack of resources and financial stability, Dodd had no other choice than to surrender his attempt to provide change for the country that so dearly needs it.

While the Dodd Squad was terminated tonight, it must be recognized that he put forth a valiant effort and it's essential for him to be rewarded for the hard work he consistently showed for several months.

Barack Obama- Projected Winner In Iowa

According to numerous reports out of the Hawkeye state, Barack Obama has catapulted ahead of rivals Hillary Clinton and John Edwards to win the Iowa caucus.

His rampant surge in the past several weeks to connect with caucus-goers and continue to advocate his mission of change appears to have paid off favorably in his quest for the Democratic nomination.

With New Hampshire kicking off the primary contest next Tuesday, the momentum and unconditional support is overwhelmingly in Obama's favor.

Titans' top receiver breaks ankle, will sit out wild-card game

This injury to the Titans top wide receiver will severely hamper their ability to upset the AFC West champion Chargers.

Associated Press

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- The Tennessee Titans will be without top receiver Roydell Williams for the first round of the playoffs after he broke his right ankle in practice Wednesday.

Coach Jeff Fisher said Thursday that Williams was having surgery to repair the bone at the base of the tibia, which will require a plate and screws. Williams was hurt during practice Wednesday, but was able to walk off the indoor practice field by himself.

Fisher said X-rays showed the severity of the injury late Wednesday night.

The Titans have already lost top tight end Bo Scaife after he suffered a lacerated liver in last week's win at Indianapolis.

Williams was tied with Justin Gage for the team lead in receptions with a career-high 55. He was second with 719 yards for a team-high four touchdowns.

Receiver Brandon Jones has been on injured reserve with a groin injury since Dec. 15.

Parcells, Dolphins hire Ireland as new GM

NFL.com

The Miami Dolphins named Jeff Ireland as their new general manager, the team announced Wednesday. Ireland joins the Dolphins after a seven-year stint with the Dallas Cowboys, where he spent the past three as the team’s Vice President of College and Pro Scouting.

“I am excited about joining the Dolphins as their general manager,” Ireland said. “I know the great tradition of the team, and in my mind they are one of the flagship franchises in the NFL. They have a great owner in Wayne Huizenga, who I know is committed to making the Dolphins into winners once again. I am looking forward to working with him and everyone else in Miami to achieve that goal.

“I also want to thank Jerry Jones and the Dallas Cowboys organization. I enjoyed my tenure with the team, and I would not be where I am today without the help of so many people there.”

Prior to being elevated to his most recent role with the Cowboys in 2005, Ireland had served as national scout with Dallas since 2001, during which time he evaluated the top collegiate talent in the country. In his four years in that post, the Cowboys drafted four Pro Bowl performers in safety Roy Williams, center Andre Gurode, cornerback Terence Newman and tight end Jason Witten.

Ireland got his start in the NFL as a scout with the Kansas City Chiefs, where he spent the 1997-2000 seasons. He also was a scout for the National Football Scouting combine from 1994-96.

Before becoming an NFL scout, Ireland coached the special teams at the University of North Texas from 1992-93. This followed his playing career at Baylor University, where he was a kicker from 1988-91.

A native of Abilene, Texas, Ireland is the stepson of former Kansas City Chiefs standout linebacker/center E.J. Holub and the grandson of former Philadelphia Eagles player and longtime Chicago Bears personnel man Jim Parmer.

First Noelia, Then Laure Manadou's Nude Photos, Now Chua Soi Lek Sex Tape Scandal - He Says It's Him

Wow. I'm wondering what the whole Sex Tape/ Photo scandal craze is about! First we have Noelia , then Laure Manadou's Nude Photos , and now Chua Soi Lek's sex tape scandal. I'm wondering if Ron Paul's got one out there, considering his Internet following. But today we have Chua Soi Lek.

Who?

Chua Soi Lek is the Malaysia’s Minister of Health, and according to the New York Times, Lek has a racy tape that has been sold on the streets of Malaysia and is now in the Internet -- no link here.

According to the Times,

It seems the ministerial sex romp in question was captured on tape — from four different angles — and then edited into not one but two full-length DVDs, which were peddled on streetcorners and even seemed to reach some people as junk mail, according to the New Straits Times, a major Malay daily controlled by the ruling party.

As you might guess, the tapes have produced one helluva political scandal, which Malaysian officials initially addressed with several creative versions of “no comment.”

So I checked the newspaper "New Straights Times and found...

"Johor police chief Datuk Hussin Ismail said police were investigating the matter under Section 292 of the Penal Code for distribution of obscene materials.

The discs were reportedly dropped into the postboxes of selected houses and shops in Muar and Batu Pahat. Residents found the discs on Sunday morning.
The name of the minister involved is said to have been written on the DVD cover.

"We have reason to suspect that the discs contain pornographic material and, as such, it is an offence to either possess or distribute them," Hussin said.

Those found guilty under Section 292 may face a jail term of up to three years, a fine or both.

Seems like he did this and was set up as the distributor of the tape. I know a politician understanding the law against distribution of obsence material in that country would not then do that. Makes no logic.

And now, Dr. Lek has admitted to being the man in the tapes. His wife -- poor lady -- has stated she would stand by her man.

Obama Maintains Iowa Lead By 4 Points In New Poll 32 Percent; Clinton Third

A new poll released today , January 2nd, has Senator Barack Obama ahead of both former North Carolina Senator John Edwards with 29% and New York Senator Hillary Clinton at 27%. Delaware Senator Joseph Biden received 5%; New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson 2%; Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd received 1%; Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich 1%; and 3% were undecided.

This new poll comes on the heels of the much criticized Des Moines Register poll which had Obama with a six point lead over Clinton, followed by Edwards.

When Republicans were polled on whom they would support in 2008 for the Republican Presidential nomination, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney led with 30%; followed by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee with 28%; Arizona Senator John McCain 16%; former Tennessee Senator Fred Thompson 13%; former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani 4%; Texas Congressman Ron Paul 4%; California Congressman Duncan Hunter 1%; and 4% undecided.

“The Republican race continues to be extremely close although at this point the momentum is with Mitt Romney and John McCain who is making a strong bid for third,” said David E. Johnson, CEO of Strategic Vision, LLC, who conducted the pol of 600 Democrats and Republicans.

But the poll does not take into account the impact of Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich's instructions to his supporters to back Senator Obama as a second choice.

Mike Huckabee Press Conference Where He Shows Ad He Said He Would Not Air

I don't know if he's so smart he's dumb or so dumb he's smart, but I'm betting he thinks that voters don't care.

We will see tommorrow in Iowa.

Sports Business Simulations Turns Five Years Old

In 2002, a former aide to The Mayor of Oakland met the head of the University of San Francisco Sport Management department to discuss stadium financing, and the need for a new stadium for the Oakland Baseball. In that meeting, USF Professor Dr. Dan Rascher, PhD, took note of Zenophon "Zennie" Abraham’s web-based simulation game The XFL Simworld, and said "I need that for my class."

When Mr. Abraham finished his second simulator in late October 2002, the Oakland Baseball Simworld, he met again with Mr. Rascher, and Sports Business Simulations (SBS) was born. On January 24th of 2003, SBS became a Delaware Corporation, with seed capital, and based in Oakland.

Now, SBS is about to turn five-years-old.

SBS is the first company who's products are built around the Forio Macro Language (FML) programming language developed by San Francisco-based Forio Business Simulations. "Forio's partners, Michael Bean and Will Glass have been our friends and advisers over the last five years," said Zenophon "Zennie" Abraham, SBS's Co-Founder and CEO.

Abraham says that SBS is an entity unique to the San Francisco Bay Area. "I mean only here can one easily meet people who have the resources, talent, and skill to start an online business like this. The Bay Area culture made SBS possible."

Sports Business Simulation's charge is to build online business Simulations of sports teams and leagues for use in the classroom. For just $15, a student has unlimited use of SBS' simulators for an entire class semester or quarter. SBS products are not designed to replace textbooks, they are developed to enhance the classroom experience.

SBS has two simulators: the XFL Simworld and the Oakland Baseball Simworld, but has plans to add a new simulator based around the fitness industry in one month.

The SBS website itself has expanded dramatically during its five years of growth. In 2003, there were just the simulations. Now, the "sims" as they're called are joined by a network of over 40 blogs, over 100 message boards, a Facebook-style social network, video shows, and pages with links to the offerings of affilate partners, like StubHub.com," said Abraham.

SBS now has an online marketing division because Abraham said too many of his friends wanted articles and videos for their business. "It got so bad I started what we call "SBS-ON" at http://sbson.com. We now have clients in the transportation and real estate industries and are looking to expand. It actually helps us promote our sims."

The SBS sims have been used by many high schools and colleges in America. The Oakland Baseball Simworld has been the focus of numerous academic papers. "What's happened over five years is that the Oakland Sim has developed a kind of cult following. It's a complex online game with over 100 decisions and asks one to run a numerical copy of the behavior of the Oakland Athletics Baseball Organization. It's kind of a sports business fantasy game."


For more information:

510-387-9809
http://www.sportsbusinesssims.com

New Orleans Again Set To Be Bloodiest City In U.S

NEW ORLEANS (AP) ― The bloodiest city in the country in 2006, reeling from crime in its struggle to recover from Hurricane Katrina, got even worse in 2007.

New Orleans registered 209 homicides last year, a nearly 30 percent increase from the 161 recorded in 2006.

The FBI's rankings for 2007 will not be out until much later in the year, but New Orleans' population is thought to be 295,450, which would mean a rate of about 71 homicides per 100,000 people.

Even the most generous population estimate in 2006 put the number of people in the city that year at 255,000. That meant a real homicide rate of 63.5 per 100,000 residents. To compare that number with some other notoriously bloody cities, the rate for Gary, Ind., was 48.3 and Detroit's was 47.1.

The killings are drug-related or retaliatory for the most part, police have said. The upswing comes despite continued patrols by the National Guard and state police and the addition of two new classes of police recruits in the past year.

But beefed-up policing efforts can only do so much, said Rafael Goyeneche, executive director of the Metropolitan Crime Commission of Greater New Orleans.

"The police and the criminal justice system is expected to clean up the mess, but they didn't create the mess," Goyeneche said. "They aren't responsible for the social problems of the city, the failure of the school system, the degeneration of the family unit. And until the city does something to rectify those problems, crime and murder will continue to be a problem."

There are hopeful signs, however, Goyeneche said, pointing to improved schools in the city since the 2005 storm, grass-roots efforts to tackle crime, and a growing effort to upgrade city life.

"This city is beginning to do some things that I've been waiting 25 years to see," Goyeneche said. "I think there is a renewed sense of purpose; people are focused and demanding more than what was in play before Katrina hit."

Zed Shaw Lets Loose On New Year's Eve - Programmers Need A Union

Zed Shaw's a person not know to the general public, but is considered a star in the programming community. Zed's the creator of a kind of server called Mongrel that hosts Ruby applications. But his extensive development experience and advanced-for-a-programmer-age, combined with what seems to be a long string of experiences with bad men have caused him to let loose with a rant that would please Ron Paul and give Laure Manadou nude photo seekers a reason to turn their heads for a day.

Zed's website contains a blistering account of communications with other program managers and developers that left me howing. By design, it's not made a lot of people happy. Take this commenter over at Ruby Inside:

I don't mind a good rant, but this is way over the top.

He's done well for the Ruby community and for that I have a lot of respect for the guy.

Granted all in that post were wrong.

First off, if he thinks he is moving to a different language and going to command anywhere near the same respect that he had a few days ago, then he's got a fucking huge mountain to climb. No one is going to look at that post and say "he's not a backstabber, our community is fine."

Secondly, His complaints are more with Rails than Ruby and to quit a whole scene because of one framework is ridiculous. There are others around. If he doesn't like the way DHH codes Rails, easily he could just port to Merb. Secondly, the public-facing people of a scene does not equal the quality of a product in itself. He did mention it but mostly it was "fuck it, i'm leaving, this community sucks because everyone else is at fault and I've had too many bad experiences with it.'

He also seems to be very immature. All the way he threatens with violence to the point you wonder if he's truly grown up. He was even a protagonist in the IRC chat. Granted he didn't get what he deserved, but he didn't exactly act numinous.

Or this:

The guy's not doing himself any favors with his rant; he comes off sounding like a narcissistic psycho. He may be smart [although really, how hard is it to build a web server that's faster than WeBrick? It's like building a sort function that's faster than bubblesort] ... but face it, the software field is chock full of smart loners who can't get along with others. Despite the evidence he musters up against a host of other people, he's the one I'd be backing away the quickest from.

I'm not sure if this is going to help Zed's chances at future employment, but it could make him a star in the entertainment community. But his rant is a good view at how terribly screwed up the programming culture is.

In reading the comments, what many -- and I mean many people -- are missing is that this is a person who's been treated terribly in his pocketbook. Doing work and not getting paid for it, and being "effectively homeless for six months" as he put it would upset anyone.

But it shed light on just how the younger generations of people, or at least the tech people, don't pay attention to politics and by not starting a union of any kind have allowed this terrible "slave climate" to develop and fester.

I think Zed's rant's good for bring attention to the cultural issues that the industry faces, but I'm not certain it will spark real change at all. But I'm waiting for his follow-up. Maybe that will be the prod that gets things going.

Dennis Kucinich Tells Iowa Supporters To Back Barack Obama - MSNBC

If Presidential Candidate Dennis Kucinich does not reach the 15 percent support threshold in the Iowa Caucuses, he's instructed his supporters to back Barack Obama in Iowa, according to MSNBC.

"This is obviously an 'Iowa-only' recommendation, as Sen. Obama and I are competing in the New Hampshire primary next Tuesday where I want to be the first choice of New Hampshire voters," Kucinich said in a statement."

"I hope Iowans will caucus for me as their first choice this Thursday, because of my singular positions on the war, on health care, and trade. This is an opportunity for people to stand up for themselves. But in those caucus locations where my support doesn't reach the necessary threshold, I strongly encourage all of my supporters to make Barack Obama their second choice. Sen. Obama and I have one thing in common: Change."

All I can say is this is a major development in the campaign and swings the momentum toward the already surging Obama.