True Blood campy fun by Suzannah B. Troy

I can't stand the blood and gore but this season is so much better than last season, at least for me.  This season is so much more campy and humorous despite the gore which I could live with out.   The new extended cast is terrific.  Tonight was episode 29 and I can't wait for next week to find out what happens.

Sookie is on the cusp of tapping in to her own inner power or is it a super power?  Eric looks back to his roots and revenging his family being murdered which suddenly seems suddenly very fresh.  Will Eric get revenge and if so will it be this season?  You know I want the answer to be yes and this season!

Lafayette has a super hottie male nurse pursuing him.    This actor playing the male nurse makes me want to go gay as in become a gay man.  He is hot.   There are so many subplots with romantic or scary storylines I can't wait to find out what happens as long as True Blood doesn't turn in to what it did least season which for me became unpleasant to watch but I tuned in just because I had to find out how the HBO series ended, not because I was enjoying it.

Of course the HBO series is very, very sexy and most people getting naked look like they spend enormous hours every day working out.  Very hot bodies, lots of entertaining drama and good story telling in the Alan Ball style with some terrific acting.  One of the best shows on television right now...

I had started reading the books and found Alan Ball's HBO series far superior than the books.  I put the books down but this new season just rocks the house.

Stay tuned....

Beatles Norwegian Wood played on San Francisco BART train

YouTube, Metacafe, Blip.tv and Viddler

A group of wandering musicians playing The Beatles Norwegian Wood on a San Francisco BART train bound for Oakland last week, Thursday.

The musicians, who appeared to be a family consisting of a man and three boys, one an older teenager of about 16, and the other two between the ages of 12 and 14, went from car to car singing The Beatles Norwegian Wood, and really not badly, all things considered - for whatever money the BART riders would give.

I gave two bucks.

It's sad that taking on such activities as singing The Beatles Norwegian Wood on a Bay Area Rapid Transit Train at rush hour is what some have to do to make money. While BART has a "no-panhadling" policy, groups like this one should be given some leeway as they provide entertainment after a long day and a little levity in a San Francisco Bay Area than can take itself a little too seriously.

The Future of Commentary: print vs web by:Nikky Raney

When newspapers and magazines were more popular than web pages the way that the readers were able to comment and give feedback was through "letters to the editor." The editors of each were able to choose and edit which comments made its way into the paper.

With news being delivered online commentary is received instantaneously. Bangor Daily News' Jeff Tuttle is in charge of the newspaper's web site, and he came to my class and spoke about various topics involving moving the news from print to web; he also spoke about the commenting feature.

He told the students in the "Intro to News Reporting" class that Bangordailynews.com makes it so that commenting is only allowed through signing up on the site. Even when signing up for the site anyone is able to make a quick account and e-mail address and post things. The example that Tuttle gave was a comment that would say something along the lines of "so and so is sleeping with so and so's wife."

Of course magazines and newspapers still have their "letters to the editors," but by adding the commenting feature to the web sites commenters that know the negative comments given would never appear in the print edition are able to rant and rave as they please. The unfortunate part is when spam accounts are made, or the self-promoters use the commenting feature to get recognition.

There are certain sites where the comments may not even relate to the entry that the comment is about. Some commenters just comment about random things that have no relevance to the posts whatsoever.

With the online commentary enabling users to interact and give feedback the good and the bad are able to be shown, but sometimes the hateful and disrespectful comments are also present.

Sometimes articles that are known to be overly controversial will have commenting disabled, and in those rare scenarios the "censorship" of the readers is enacted. Commenting and giving feedback is good when the comments and feedback is constructive; whether negative or not there is a way to leave a comment of disagreement without being disrespectful and rude. The downside is that some commenters will use the opportunity to spread negativity and add absolutely nothing constructive to the "conversation."

The print edition will always have the most thought-provoking comments that stick out, but for all other commentary the web site will be able to include the comments that were unable to fit to print- as well as the comments that the print edition would never think to publish.

Tea Party Movement and Mark Williams hurt GOP chances in November

A big problem for the GOP 

The current controversy over Tea Party Express blogger Mark Williams' racist Letter to Abe Lincoln" and his expulsion from The National Tea Party Federation have created such negative attention for Republicans that it threatens GOP chances to gain seats in the House or the Senate in November.

What Mark Williams and some members of The National Tea Party Federation forget, if they even knew, is that America's population has changed so dramatically that minorities who were mere bit players in elections in some states and counties, are now significant influencers in those same regions.


The Center For American Progress Action Fund report on voter demographics explains that while the Democratic Party will become dominated by "the emerging constituencies that gave Barack Obama his historic 2008 victory," the Republican Party will be smaller in its support base, and forced "to move toward the center to compete for these constituencies."

Heavily Democratic minority voters (80 percent for Obama) increased their share of votes in U.S. presidential elections by 11 percentage points between 1988 and 2008, while the share of increasingly Democratic white college graduate voters rose 4 points. But the share of white working-class (not college-educated) voters, who have remained conservative in their orientation, has plummeted by 15 points.

From The Center For American Progress Action Fund Report

The Republican Party is anything but "near the center" in the wake of the Tea Party Movement and Mark Williams. It's no wonder why GOP elected officials aren't talking about Mark Williams or his actions. They're trying to kill the issue with silence, but Mark Williams appearing on CNN's not helping their cause.

Between Mark Williams and Arizona's racist approach to illegal immigration, GOP hopes for gains after the November election are silly to maintain. The only way forward for the GOP is to dump any association with The Tea Party Movement.

Racist Tea Party Express blogger Mark Williams expelled from Tea Party

Mark Williams, the Tea Party Express leader who CNN seems in love with having on their shows, and who's racism seems to know no bounds - first saying that Muslims worship "the terrorists' monkey god," and then writing a racist "Letter to Abe Lincoln" - has been kicked out of the National Tea Party Federation, which represents the Tea Party movement around the country.

Mark William's letter from his blog MarkTalk (where he's taken down the post and replaced it with a note) is here:

Dear Mr. Lincoln,

We Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don’t cotton to that whole emancipation thing. Freedom means having to work for real, think for ourselves, and take consequences along with the rewards. That is just far too much to ask of us Colored People and we demand that it stop!
In fact we held a big meeting and took a vote in Kansas City this week. We voted to condemn a political revival of that old abolitionist spirit called the ‘tea party movement’.
The tea party position to “end the bailouts” for example is just silly. Bailouts are just big money welfare and isn’t that what we want all Coloreds to strive for? What kind of racist would want to end big money welfare? What they need to do is start handing the bail outs directly to us coloreds! Of course, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is the only responsible party that should be granted the right to disperse the funds.
And the ridiculous idea of “reduce[ing] the size and intrusiveness of government.” What kind of massa would ever not want to control my life? As Coloreds we must have somebody care for us otherwise we would be on our own, have to think for ourselves and make decisions!

The racist tea parties also demand that the government “stop the out of control spending.” Again, they directly target coloreds. That means we Coloreds would have to compete for jobs like everybody else and that is just not right.
Perhaps the most racist point of all in the tea parties is their demand that government “stop raising our taxes.” That is outrageous! How will we coloreds ever get a wide screen TV in every room if non-coloreds get to keep what they earn? Totally racist! The tea party expects coloreds to be productive members of society?
Mr. Lincoln, you were the greatest racist ever. We had a great gig. Three squares, room and board, all our decisions made by the massa in the house. Please repeal the 13th and 14th Amendments and let us get back to where we belong.

Sincerely,

Precious Ben Jealous, Tom’s Nephew NAACP Head Colored Person

The main, troubling issue, is what kind of mind thinks of even writing something like that? While other Americans are living diverse lifestyles and getting on with the business of teaching, working, and enjoying life, Mark Williams has to prove that racism is a mental illness just by first thinking of that letter, then writing it.

Mark Williams comes off as one of those white guys that would say something stupid to a black / white interracial couple as they walked by, in part because he's angry over his own sexual frustrations

The question is, how many members of The National Tea Party Federation actually think like Mark Williams? While we may never know that answer, it's more than gracious for NAACP head Ben Jealous to want to meet with Mark Williams. Frankly, why bother?

Mark Williams needs to get with the American program and understand history, and not repeat it. Williams claims he's not racist, but tosses out an obviously racist letter. That's unfortunately typical with racists today, who say "I'm not racist" while doing everything they can to prove they are.

If Mark Williams is a good person, he'd apologize for the letter and for his screwed-up attitude. It's totally un-American, as has been his views on American minorities.

Stay tuned.

Boeing 787 Dreamliner Lands at Farnborough Airshow

The new Boeing 787 Dreamliner does a flyby and then lands at the Farnborough Airshow in the Flightglobal video above.

The revolutionary new jumbo jet, declared so by the fact that 50 percent of its airframe is made from composite fiber material, the use of modular manufacturing techniques involving as many as 90 countries, and futuristic avionics, made its first landing for the public at the famed airshow and aircraft trade show in England.

Boeing Chief Test Pilot Mike Carriker told Flightglobal's Jon Ostrower that the Boeing 787 flight started a nine-hour flight from in Seattle and came north over Greenland, while pilots made "about 20 tests" during the flight.



Now, potential customers are touring the airplane to get a feel for what the Boeing 787 is like. Airlines like United Airlines and Northwest Airlines have already placed substantial orders for the Boeing 787.

According to the Wall Street Journal, there are five Boeing 787's already in the air conducting test flights.

Zsa Zsa Gabor, Eva Gabor's sister, rushed to hospital

Gabor and Prince Frederic 

Famed actress and socialite 93-year-old Zsa Zsa Gabor, the sister of Green Acres Eva Gabor, was rushed to the UCLA Medical Center late Saturday night and is in serious condition, according to her publicist John Blanchette via The Associated Press.

Zsa Zsa Gabor suffered broken bones after falling out of her bed while watching television at her home in Bel Air, in Los Angeles, California.

Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband Prince Frederic von Anhalt called the ambulance after the accident. Gabor is also referred to as Sari Prinz von Anhalt, since her marriage to Prince Frederic von Anhalt.

Gabor is partially paralyzed from a car accident in 2002, and confined to a wheelchair. The AP reports Gabor had a stroke in 2005.

Gabor married nine times

A Hollywood legend, Zsa Zsa Gabor has been married nine times. So much, that she once joked she was a good housekeeper, because everytime she married, she kept the house.

Gabor's starred in television shows like The Milton Berle Show (1956), and served as a special guest on Gilligan's Island (1965), and The Late Show with David Letterman (1994). She's played in numerous movies, and best known for The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear.

Social Network: the Facebook movie by Nikky Raney

The movie "Social Network" directed by David Finch has just come out with its trailer. Nikky Raney's input on the movie which comes out October 1, 2010.

note: I have always called him David Finch ever since Seven came out, because it was a joking nickname. I probably should have mentioned that. His name is David Fincher, for anyone who was confused.

News site charges for free study that says people will not pay for online news

NewMediaAge thought it was pulling a fast one by offering a study that reads "Almost two-thirds of people are happy to pay for quality journalism but not online, according to a YouGov survey," for a fee behind a paywall, when the same study results are actually available online without charge.

Thus, NewMediaAge proved why paywalls don't work, even as it was using one: all you have to do is search around to get the same content for free.

And where you can get the study results summary is the very YouGov site that produced the study, here: media paywalls don't work.

 That reports:

A vast majority (83 percent) replied that they would refuse to pay, with only two percent of respondents willing to shell out for online content in the current format. Only four percent would pay for online even when the content in question was not available anywhere else.

NewMediaAge must think the online consumer is stupid.

The study claims:

The Daily Mail is read online at least once a week by 8 percent of respondents, with the Guardian and the Telegraph trailing with 7 percent and 6 percent respectively.
The Independent on Sunday is the Sunday paper least likely to be read online with 96% of respondents saying they do not read the paper online.
Restaurant reviews are more likely to be read by people in the ABC1 social grade than by their C2DE counterparts.
59 percent of the public agree that it is worth paying for a good newspaper.
39 percent agree that newspapers are too expensive now.
17 percent of the public believe that there is no point paying for a paper when you can get it for free. This statistic is the same across the ABC1 and the C2DE social grades.
1 in 5 men admit to watching 'adult content' online.

The idea that paywalls work for news sites is borne of the same arrogance that prevents traditional media sites from fully adopting new approaches to the delivery of news. The bottom line is that the emergence of the personal media network of cell phones, blogs, camcorders-in-PDAs, and so on, has rendered it impossible for Old Media organizations like The New York Times and The Associated Press to enjoy the revenue levels of the past.

Today, anyone can produce media and get paid for it by affiliate marketing or ad sales. The free access blogs win the battle, with their more nimble, and free, news production culture.

Paywalls don't stand a chance, and neither do the companies, like NewMediaAge, that have them.

Stay tuned.

Oakland News: Oakland Mayor's Race - thoughts on the forum before video

On Thursday night July 15th, a change in flight plans enabled this blogger to attend the Oakland Mayoral Forum on Public Safety. Here are some thoughts from the distance of Georgia before the forum videos go up.

First, former California State Senator Don Perata's making a huge mistake by not showing up to the debates. As I've explained to Perata, and the other Oakland mayoral candidates when I've talked to them, its very important to have as much internet exposure as possible that's self-generated. Instead, Perata's allowing others - once again - to write his script for him. Come November, it's going to cost him dearly.

As a joke, someone - perhaps longtime Oaklander Pam Drake, since she took that photo - placed a chair next to the candidates panel with the words "Don Perata" on it. While they also should have had one for Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums, because Dellums is just that he's making his own media just by working at being Mayor, even if the media approach is clumsy at times.

Second, this is the first time in Oakland's post Equal Rights Amendment (1974) history that we've had more than three white guys running than at any time since the 70s: Perata, Greg Harland, Don MacLeay, and while he's of Middle Eastern-decent, demographically still considered white, Joe Tuman. If you count Mayor Dellums, Orlando Johnson, and Dr. Terrance Candell, that's three African American men (so far), two women, Councilmembers Rebecca Kaplan and Jean Quan, with Quan being the only Asian American candidate for Mayor of Oakland.

Overall, this is a great development in Oakland's history of diversity. While someone reading that sentence may laugh, the bet here is they've not been in Oakland longer than 10 years. I've been here since 1974; Lionel Wilson was Oakland's first black Mayor in the late 70s and since then each election has generally had more black candidates than white or any other race or ethnicity.

This one's different.

Third, I resisted this idea of ranking performance of the candidates, but here goes, and to send a message to those at the bottom to do better, and at the top to not get comfortable. From one to nine, Joe Tuman, Rebecca Kaplan, Don MacLeay, Jean Quan, Orlando Johnson, Greg Harland, Terrance Candell, and Don Perata and Mayor Dellums, both who should have been there.

Dr. Candell's a great man and a friend who's video interview with me is live and coming to this blog by Sunday. But his bombastic, theatrical performance totally upset the two women I was sitting next to and they said so in my video - and they were just part of the crowd who didn't like his approach.

Dr. Candell has a great cheering section of people who love him without condition, and that's a beautiful thing. But Terrance is running for Mayor of Oakland, and that means he's got to give the people what they want, or else he loses.

By contrast, Joe Tuman frankly sounds like the best candidate. Again, sounds. The problem with the forum is it's one that's geared to an opinion-centric approach. You have no idea how Tuman's going to handle a complex issue as Mayor from the forum. But Tuman tells it like it is, and has a way of "cutting to the chase" of a problem, and the people in the forum liked that.

Jean Quan has a lot of experience and a big fan base, but she hurt herself by appearing to be too mean. If she wasn't grimacing over what Rebecca Kaplan said on Measure Y, she was not looking at Joe Tuman when he spoke, chosing to wear a "Do I have to sit next to him" look on her face. Councilmember Quan's got to stop this approach. It's not making her look warm and fuzzy; more like someone you'd expect to pull out a Glock.

Rebecca Kaplan did very well and I don't write that because our issue is over. Yep. She apologized and that's enough for me. But even if Kaplan had not, this blogger would be forced by sheer honesty to give her an affirmative nod. Rebecca was particularly clear and intelligent in her knowledge of programs available to help curb the sex trafficking problem - the first question of the forum.

What hurts Rebecca Kaplan  just a bit is her quasi-support for the gang injunction issue, saying she would take action to "to make sure that we're not criminalizing" people of color, is a way of admitting the policy does just that.

Don MacLeay and Orlando Johnson did well by not trying to parrot answers or come up with new, novel ones that might get them into trouble. Both stated where he was coming from openly, in opposing the gang injunction and in general giving simple, direct answers. Where both Don and Orlando can improve is in his overall explanation of his knowledge of the tools available to the Mayor of Oakland.

Greg Harland is a great person.  A kind man. But he makes statements regarding those less fortunate that make one cringe.  He told a story about a fight that he said he witnessed, then broke up a week ago.   The way he delivered the story made him sound like the "white night" flying it to break things up between minority youth because he was identified as "the Mayor."   Harland's take didn't go over well with the crowd.

In general, the people running for Mayor of Oakland present a good, strong group that gave the packed Lakeshore Baptist Church crowd an excellent discussion on the problems of Oakland and how they would address them. Not bad.

Jessi Slaughter given PCP by her father? Kerligirl13 a study in teen Internet abuse

This is the kind of thing you find after a day of travel across the country. To learn that a father is so messed up, he thinks it's just fine to give PCP to his daughter? Not really, but that apparently was the issue with the father of Jessi Slaughter. A deeper look reveals that's not the case, and shows a study in teen Internet abuse writ so large, it became the hottest search on Google Trends as of at 9:39 PM PDT.

Why did other news websites miss this? Because the vast majority don't know what they're doing when it comes to the generation of news on the Internet. Keep reading for a look into how the Internet is really influenced.

From the looks of the videos below, Kerligirl13 has been on a video chat that is common for teens is the 21st Century. Specifically creative use of the latest Internet technology but for the development of hurtfully interactive exchanges.

In this case, the exchange was so damaging that Jessi Slaughter went and told her father. He came into the room as she was making a video to tell the kids bothering her to stop.

Apparently, it all started with the video below that Jessi Slaughter made - which was done in response to comments she apparently got in a live video chat using Stickcam, an online live video chat system - and awful comments she got in response to them.

As a warning, the video contains language you and I would not expect to hear from a young girl (unless you're an educator), but here it is and in it a study in the root causes of the decline of civility in American society, where rudeness is in some parts of the country, all too common:



What shocks me is her statement that she would "pop a Glock in your mouth and make your brain a slushie" - which means she would use a gun against someone and to their brain - and forms her hand into a gun that she's "shooting."

I looked up the term Jessi Slaughter used - "pop a Glock in your mouth and make your brain a slushie" using Google and found 2,780 results using the exact same term that she used but only because Jessi's Internet blasts have been the talk of some web forums as of this writing. Where Jessi learned that saying is from hip hop pop culture, where "pop a glock" or "pop the glock" is said so often, there's even a song of the same name.

The artist Uffie's song "Pop The Glock" has these lines:

i got a loaded bodygaurd
dont make him pull out the glock and pop

And

pop the glock,pop the glock, pop the glock, pop the glock, pop the glock pop the glock pop the glock, the glock you pop
sound like twista, fast as hell
i rock this beat you know damn well

So when you consider how often the term's said and the popularity of such songs with young teens and in this case, even young girls, Jessi's comment becomes less surprising. But it's still very disturbing.

It explains the Internet culture we've allowed to form before us, and, I argue, oozes into American society beyond the web. It's gone unchecked under a wave of families without two parents or parents so busy they don't take time to manage their kids.

The fact that Jessi Slaughter's father breaks in during her second video  below and issues a stern warning is evidence that there's something wrong:




After what's now called the "muh breakdown video" was posted, another YouTuber who was apparently part of the Internet interactions using Stickcam that led to the production of Jessi Slaughter's two videos above, made the video below. This video is a screenshot of a then-new Stickcam exchange between Jessi Slaughter and her Internet contacts. The view shared is that Jessi Slaughter is, as one viewer put it...

She's just trolling for attention. She invited folks to join the chat via Twitter, and just hours AFTER her breakdown video. Her parents really should get a clue OR get a visit from CPS.

"CPS" is Child Protective Services.

This is the video one hour after the "blast" video. It's graphic in speech:




It's obvious that Jessi Slaughter's actions - not just the YouTube videos, but the use of Twitter, and Stickcam - have gotten her far more than the common level of attention. Her "muh breakdown video" has been repeatedly copied on YouTube channel after YouTube channel (not mine).

It's hard to tell who started the post "jessi slaughter given pcp by her father" that led to the term dominating Google Trends results, but from my poking around, it appears the first forum post was at Jumptags.com, a very effective social bookmarking service.

Then the title, and Jessi Slaughter's explosive videos, including the one with her father, caused repeat after repeat of the "jumptag" and more blogs and videos with the same title. Soon, searches for the term gave demand for the content containing the title and the result was a top ranked search on Google Trends...

Where it still sits as the #1 Google Trend as of 10:50 PM, PDT.

Now, everyone knows who Jessi Slaughter is and what her dad looks like, as someone posted a video with his face on it - and that I will not post here - that has been repeated, even as it's removed.

I feel sorry for him and for his little girl. I know others will not, but I do. Internet technology consists of the most powerful set of communications tools yet developed in history. This is why I call it "social broadcasting" and not "social networking." Using them without knowledge of the consequences either emotionally, spiritually, or legally is unwise, yet done every day.

Now, Jessi Slaughter's become a limited purpose public figure. The best action to counter her status is to keep her offline for about a year (seriously) and let the chatter die down.

The videos were apparently made during the day; Jessi's parents should find something more constructive for their daughter to do during the Summer.

Hopefully enough people see this story and take steps to manage what their kids do online.

Stay tuned.

Apple Heaven no more Hell by Suzannah B. Troy

The New York Post has an article on one update with the Iphone 4 and I tell you another hot off the press or should I say Apple website!

Pull up to my bumper baby....Grace Jones song way back when....

Well Apple is giving out free Bumpers.

Apple also has a notice on their website new download able to give you more bars.

I posted this comment on the article.....

Suzannah B. Troy

07/16/2010 4:07 PM

I wrote a blog piece Apple Hell but the reality is Apple is mind blowingly awesome out of this world flaws included. They have the best customer service on the planet. If you buy a computer they will educate you once a week for one hour every week for a year. If you walk in the store you may see them doing amazing programs with inner city kids and people older than me (I am 48) eagerly learning in the one on one sessions which are 99 dollars a year. The press may be trying to drive down Apple's stock but it won't work because Apple has too many happy customers. Yes it sucks when the calls drop and or I can't get data. I hate being forced to sign a contract with AT&T or any company for 2 years -- sounds illegal but Apple rocks the house. I have filmed a homeless musician that made 2 records in the 1960's and self destructed and put the film "Giuseppi Logan playing Begin the Beguine" on YouTube radically changing his life. I helped him reconnect with people around the world that had bought his records in the 60's and his youngest son a musical gifted artist like him who had not seen his father in 40 years all because I threw out my Dell. Bought a MacBook and took one on one classes for $99 a year. I filmed NYU and a little local rag the villager turning away senior citizens, the press including NY1 to Christine Quinn and her opposition in the candidates debate for city council and posted this injustice and undemocratic activity live from the street all on the 3Gs. Now that I am using Apple 4 with rubber I am glad to have the much improved camera despite the frustrations encountered with every version of Iphone so I would like to drop AT&T and try Verizon.