Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Lunar Eclipse Live Camera Missed by Stranded O'Hare Travelers
When dealing with air flight cancellations, sad passengers, and cold, snowy weather, the last thing on your mind is a lunar eclipse. And that explains why this blogger and thousands at Chicago's O'Hare Airport missed the lunar eclipse.
Unless, of course, someone had time to avoid standing in long customer service lines for enough time to catch it all on live stream.
Assuming of course they had a laptop computer.
Anyway, I missed it as it happened.
RATS!
Christmas Travel: Stuck At O'Hare At A Crowne Plaza Where The Phone Failed
What happened was United Airlines flight UA 102 made it to Chicago from San Francisco and landed in what at first was a relatively typical snow for Chicagoland. That was 6:12 PM CST; as the night got older the snow got worse, and eventually O'Hare took on the look of The North Pole, complete with sightings of Santa Claus outside.
And then delayed.
And then the United gate reps explained the airplane we were to board had landed. To that end, this standby passenger got seat 12 F and waited.
And waited.
And waited and talked with a woman from Vancover BC and a brother from LA.
And then had a hunch that something was wrong with the flight, so went online to check its status. Sure enough, just seconds before United told the passengers at the gate, the flight was cancelled.
Well, I'm used to that, and I know the drill. Hey, it happened to me after this 767 flight a few weeks ago for Thanksgiving:
But I digress...
There's a service you can use at United's Customer Service Desk that provides pink vouchers where you can get deep hotel discounts if you're stuck at O'Hare and don't want to sleep there overnight. The place I stay at is the Hilton at O'Hare Aiport, only this time, the freaking hotel was booked two hours before my flight was cancelled.
So, the service person gave me the next choice: the Crowne Plaza Hotel at O'Hare. The room rate was just $69. That's it.
Lots of people. Lots of kids. It's Christmas week, and they're all sleeping at O'Hare.
Except me and a few others.
So, as this blog post is being written, I'm impatiently waiting for a deep-dish pizza from a place called Rozatti's. They're going to deliver it in the snow. I planned to take the 6 AM flight to Atlanta, but there's are going to be so many standbys my Mom think's it's nuts to try it.
You know. I'm gonna listen to her.
Monday, December 20, 2010
Oscars News: 248 Films Eligible for Best Picture Oscar
While large, the list is not a record number for the category; in the past more than 300 films were eligible for the award.
Oscar Front Runners.
From the Golden Globes we have The King's Speech, and The Social Network, the movie about the founding of Facebook.com. But the sleeper candidate looks like True Grit, the Coen Brothers' remake of the classic 1969 movie with the late John Wayne. The list also includes animated films like Despicable Me and Toy Story 3. And science fiction films like Inception and Tron 3 are on the list as well.
What Films Qualify?
According to AMPAS, films that are "feature-length motion picture must have a running time of more than 40 minutes and must have been exhibited theatrically on 35mm or 70mm film, or in a qualifying digital format." And movies that, say, appear in a film festival rather than at a movie theater are not eligible for an Academy Award "in any category."
Stay tuned.
Chevron Reports Elaborate Forgery of Lawsuit Against It In Ecuador
This ran across Twitter:
That is explosive. According to Chevron's press release, which, in part, reads...
The whole damn lawsuit's a fake.
The lawsuit claiming that Chevron failed to conduct the proper environmental remediation activities when it produced oil in Ecuador. The lawsuit, led by American lawyer Steven Donziger, who this blogger calls "Steven The Don" was already beset with problems that point to one big fraudulent attempt to extort money from an American oil company.
Chevron filed a motion to nullify the lawsuit, but given that Ecuador itself is a party to the lawsuit and Donziger has taken meetings with many of the foxes guarding the hen-house, foremost among them Ecuador President Rafael Correa and executives of Petroecuador, it's beginning to look like a fixed deal.
If there's any real justice in Ecuador, the case will be dismissed.
Let's see what happens.
Stay tuned.
Chevron Chevron
Expert discovers elaborate forgery of plaintiffs’ signatures authorizing 2003 complaint against #Chevron in #Ecuador: http://bit.ly/h1k7j0
8 minutes ago Favorite Retweet Reply
That is explosive. According to Chevron's press release, which, in part, reads...
Chevron Corporation (NYSE: CVX) today submitted expert analysis from a leading forensic specialist demonstrating that many of the signatures on the document purporting to authorize the lawsuit against Chevron in Lago Agrio, Ecuador, were forged. According to Chevron’s filing, this newly uncovered evidence of forgery and fraud makes clear that the lawsuit has been tainted with corruption from the very beginning and must be terminated.
The whole damn lawsuit's a fake.
The lawsuit claiming that Chevron failed to conduct the proper environmental remediation activities when it produced oil in Ecuador. The lawsuit, led by American lawyer Steven Donziger, who this blogger calls "Steven The Don" was already beset with problems that point to one big fraudulent attempt to extort money from an American oil company.
Chevron filed a motion to nullify the lawsuit, but given that Ecuador itself is a party to the lawsuit and Donziger has taken meetings with many of the foxes guarding the hen-house, foremost among them Ecuador President Rafael Correa and executives of Petroecuador, it's beginning to look like a fixed deal.
If there's any real justice in Ecuador, the case will be dismissed.
Let's see what happens.
Stay tuned.
Top 10 Tech Trends Of The Decade: Apps
It's that time where we're all thinking about our list of "Top 10 Tech Trends Of The Decade," but there's a problem. Some lists, well, all that this blogger has seen, have failed to separate applications from technologies. In other words, a particular technology can be used to make an application, like Twitter, which is a really domain-based application. But the technology itself is IPS, or Internet Protocol Suite and the programming languages used to activate it for various purposes.
With that, here's an app-based list of the top tech trends of the decade. The consideration is from the perspective of social and cultural impact.
1. Search engines - Google obviously leads the pack here. But consider that in 2000, only a few college students, mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area where Google was founded in Palo Alto, had actually heard of it. At that time, AOL and Yahoo had the dominant search engine systems, but their websites were not "search engine-based," but "content-based." Bet Yahoo Founder Jerry Yang would love to reverse time, ah? Now, Google is not only the dominant player, but has used it's 60-percent search market share position smartly, playing a major role in the growth of online advertising and using that via Google AdWords to fuel its incredible growth. What's the next thing here? Well, take a look at Blekko.
2. Craigslist and Craigslist-style websites - these application services have almost single-handedly destroyed the newspaper industry, which relied largely on classified ads to generate revenue. With Craiglist leading the change, and now with Angie's List and others, the ad as online - free or paid - era continues to grow. Meanwhile, the newspaper industry collapsed, and thousands of journalists have been tossed adrift and are either, still to this writing, trying to figure out the New Media World, moving or moved into other fields of work, or clinging to the Old Media, using the legal system to help them make organizations like Google do their bidding.
Have doubts? Take a look at how Google News wimped out to News Corporation head Rupert Murdock in 2009, after fears that Murdock would de-list from Google. And look at how Google News has kicked blogs off its system, except those ran by large media organizations. And where's the FTC on this? Good question, but back to the main subject.
3. Blogs - Led by Pyra Labs and Six Apart, weblogs, created in 1998 and really well-chronicled in Scott Rosenberg's book Say Everything, have served as the other app that, with Craigslist, has served to destroy newspapers and alter media as we know it. Why? Because prior to blogs, websites were used to place text in, but one needed to know HTML to do it quickly. Blog programs changed all that. Now, all you have to do is either install your own pre-written code into a website or join a service like Blogger.com, to have access to a system that allows you to write text and have it posted to the web immediately. Once used by only a few, the number of blogs now is staggering, and is as of this writing well over 100 million.
Now, the battle is between the nimble blogs - like Zennie62.com, I couldn't resist as we're one of the top 100,000 blogs in America - and the slow websites in news publication. Guess who's running the news websites? The big Old Media players like, you guessed it, News Corporation.
But, beyond skirmishes, blogs have emerged as high-value media companies started by people who weren't journalists or even trained as journalists. TechCrunch, founded by Michael Arrington, a lawyer, was just purchased by AOL for $30 million. PerezHilton.com was founded by Mario Lavandeira, Jr., who pursued an acting career before he took up blogging as a hobby. Now, his blog's value has been estimated to be as high as $32 million and $48 million in 2008.
4. Facebook, MySpace, and Social Networks - This space, once dominated by MySpace (and really created by tech entrepreneur Marc Canter) and is now the domain of Facebook, has worked to bring together people in ways that few could have imagined when they were created. Once, like Google, the plaything of college students, social networks have grown to be used by even the elderly seeking to reconnect with old friends.
Now, Facebook has well over 500 million users and has caused a kind of "closed-loop" versus "open-loop" discussion where Google represents the "open-loop" world, and Facebook, with it's membership-based system, is the "closed-loop" where searches for content can be done within it. Facebook Founder and President Mark Zuckerberg was just named Time Magazine's Person Of The Year.
5. Twitter and Microblogging -You might say "Why not just Twitter?" but that would not have been fair to Twitter-competitor Pownce, that other San Francisco-based 140-character challenger that lasted until 2008. While Twitter is not a social network - in fact, they say so in their Twitter blog - it's considered as such because of the unique new communications style that's sprang from it, and the way it allows people to share everything from what their doing and where they're doing it, to pictures of what they're doing and where they're doing it.
6. Video Games and Computer and Online Gaming - It's funny how video, computer, and online gaming is as much a part of tech as Google, but seldom talked about in that way. It's pushed to the forefront at the GDC, the Game Developers Conference, that I attend, but almost never considered at functions like TechCrunch Disrupt. Yet, video games, computer and online games are types of applications. This field has grown so that companies like GameStop are publicly-traded, and conventions like ComicCon are actually dominated by game developers mixing with comic book artists, and in the last five years, movie producers. The online games market is said to be at $15 billion as this is written.
The cultural impact of computer and online games is staggering. They've served to alter how we related to each other, and arguably for the worse, considering the "flaming" that happens in online game communications and how that's spilled over into areas like online comments. It's also caused young women to think that a game without, say, the ability to realistically dismember a zombie, is just plain boring.
7. YouTube and Online Video - In the beginning there was YouTube and Blip.tv, and now there are around eight main players with the now-Google-owned YouTube.com heading the group. Online videos cultural impact was communicated with TIME's "Person of The Year" was YouTube in 2007. Then it grew more as TV news managers started to figure out how to take video clips and place them on as part of a telecast. Now, as we see with CNN's iReport, you, the user of a camcorder, can make national news, replacing the work of camera people, who once made as much as $1,000 per story. And now YouTube is being challenged by live streaming companies like USTREAM.tv. But not willing to sit still, YouTube is working on its own live streaming service. Meanwhile, Yahoo is dropping online video and AOL's just trying to figure it all out, it seems. In, then out, then in again.
8. The Smartphone - The smartphone, paced by the iPhone, but still led by Nokia, has become the instrument by which people access the other apps above, as much as computers and laptops. You can Tweet, post to blogs, and even make videos and upload them to YouTube. But this app has its own apps to use those apps. Get it? The smartphone industry was unheard of in the year 2000, and now has become the source of devices people feel they can't be without. The act of texting was borne within the smartphone revolution, and itself has altered how people communicate, again, arguably for the worse. Now, people make deals and even breakup with each other via text, making the impersonal communication the new cultural norm.
9. iPhone and Android Apps - The next logical step in this process, and the fact, is that applications created for the iPhone and Android smartphones have become a growth industry. There are tens of thousands of apps now that allow you to do everything from get the name of a song played in an elevator, to access the online World of Second Life. Indeed, while the term "app" has been with us for just over a decade - remember the idea of the "killer app," some only think of smartphones, and one other device when the term is used.
10. iPad and iPad Apps - That other device is also another app of a technology - the iPad. Yes. Remember, we're talking about the term "app" in its purest form, which means a way of doing something using a system created around an available technology. Ok? Now, the idea of a tablet has been in the mind of folks like Michael Arrington for years, but it took Apple's Steve Jobs to bring us the first really insanely great version of this app, the iPad. And the apps created for the IPad app may revolutionize publishing, even if they don't save print media. Right now, the iPad is an app used mostly to consume media; but when it's developed to allow the better production of content and media - specifically to create, edit, and upload videos, then its full potential will be realized.
The future app? Just what's next is a constant conversation, so I'll turn it a bit. What should be next? The next app is going to be a combination of two or three of the current apps above, yet help to frame the future of media. That's another way of saying I have an idea. But beyond me, that is the real future. We're in an app-dominated World that didn't exist 11 years ago. Now, you can even use Google Apps to make your own new app. Indeed, kids should have to take a basic programming language as much as they have to take basic math, because if they don't, they're going to be left behind.
As large companies continues to crumble under the increasing weight of small, Internet-based organizations formed around apps, and outsourcing and open-sourcing is more common, being able to make an app is fast becoming an engine of economic advancement. In the future, the most economically-powerful cities and countries will be those where app-based industries thrive.
Stay tuned.
With that, here's an app-based list of the top tech trends of the decade. The consideration is from the perspective of social and cultural impact.
1. Search engines - Google obviously leads the pack here. But consider that in 2000, only a few college students, mostly in the San Francisco Bay Area where Google was founded in Palo Alto, had actually heard of it. At that time, AOL and Yahoo had the dominant search engine systems, but their websites were not "search engine-based," but "content-based." Bet Yahoo Founder Jerry Yang would love to reverse time, ah? Now, Google is not only the dominant player, but has used it's 60-percent search market share position smartly, playing a major role in the growth of online advertising and using that via Google AdWords to fuel its incredible growth. What's the next thing here? Well, take a look at Blekko.
2. Craigslist and Craigslist-style websites - these application services have almost single-handedly destroyed the newspaper industry, which relied largely on classified ads to generate revenue. With Craiglist leading the change, and now with Angie's List and others, the ad as online - free or paid - era continues to grow. Meanwhile, the newspaper industry collapsed, and thousands of journalists have been tossed adrift and are either, still to this writing, trying to figure out the New Media World, moving or moved into other fields of work, or clinging to the Old Media, using the legal system to help them make organizations like Google do their bidding.
Have doubts? Take a look at how Google News wimped out to News Corporation head Rupert Murdock in 2009, after fears that Murdock would de-list from Google. And look at how Google News has kicked blogs off its system, except those ran by large media organizations. And where's the FTC on this? Good question, but back to the main subject.
3. Blogs - Led by Pyra Labs and Six Apart, weblogs, created in 1998 and really well-chronicled in Scott Rosenberg's book Say Everything, have served as the other app that, with Craigslist, has served to destroy newspapers and alter media as we know it. Why? Because prior to blogs, websites were used to place text in, but one needed to know HTML to do it quickly. Blog programs changed all that. Now, all you have to do is either install your own pre-written code into a website or join a service like Blogger.com, to have access to a system that allows you to write text and have it posted to the web immediately. Once used by only a few, the number of blogs now is staggering, and is as of this writing well over 100 million.
Now, the battle is between the nimble blogs - like Zennie62.com, I couldn't resist as we're one of the top 100,000 blogs in America - and the slow websites in news publication. Guess who's running the news websites? The big Old Media players like, you guessed it, News Corporation.
But, beyond skirmishes, blogs have emerged as high-value media companies started by people who weren't journalists or even trained as journalists. TechCrunch, founded by Michael Arrington, a lawyer, was just purchased by AOL for $30 million. PerezHilton.com was founded by Mario Lavandeira, Jr., who pursued an acting career before he took up blogging as a hobby. Now, his blog's value has been estimated to be as high as $32 million and $48 million in 2008.
4. Facebook, MySpace, and Social Networks - This space, once dominated by MySpace (and really created by tech entrepreneur Marc Canter) and is now the domain of Facebook, has worked to bring together people in ways that few could have imagined when they were created. Once, like Google, the plaything of college students, social networks have grown to be used by even the elderly seeking to reconnect with old friends.
Now, Facebook has well over 500 million users and has caused a kind of "closed-loop" versus "open-loop" discussion where Google represents the "open-loop" world, and Facebook, with it's membership-based system, is the "closed-loop" where searches for content can be done within it. Facebook Founder and President Mark Zuckerberg was just named Time Magazine's Person Of The Year.
5. Twitter and Microblogging -You might say "Why not just Twitter?" but that would not have been fair to Twitter-competitor Pownce, that other San Francisco-based 140-character challenger that lasted until 2008. While Twitter is not a social network - in fact, they say so in their Twitter blog - it's considered as such because of the unique new communications style that's sprang from it, and the way it allows people to share everything from what their doing and where they're doing it, to pictures of what they're doing and where they're doing it.
6. Video Games and Computer and Online Gaming - It's funny how video, computer, and online gaming is as much a part of tech as Google, but seldom talked about in that way. It's pushed to the forefront at the GDC, the Game Developers Conference, that I attend, but almost never considered at functions like TechCrunch Disrupt. Yet, video games, computer and online games are types of applications. This field has grown so that companies like GameStop are publicly-traded, and conventions like ComicCon are actually dominated by game developers mixing with comic book artists, and in the last five years, movie producers. The online games market is said to be at $15 billion as this is written.
The cultural impact of computer and online games is staggering. They've served to alter how we related to each other, and arguably for the worse, considering the "flaming" that happens in online game communications and how that's spilled over into areas like online comments. It's also caused young women to think that a game without, say, the ability to realistically dismember a zombie, is just plain boring.
7. YouTube and Online Video - In the beginning there was YouTube and Blip.tv, and now there are around eight main players with the now-Google-owned YouTube.com heading the group. Online videos cultural impact was communicated with TIME's "Person of The Year" was YouTube in 2007. Then it grew more as TV news managers started to figure out how to take video clips and place them on as part of a telecast. Now, as we see with CNN's iReport, you, the user of a camcorder, can make national news, replacing the work of camera people, who once made as much as $1,000 per story. And now YouTube is being challenged by live streaming companies like USTREAM.tv. But not willing to sit still, YouTube is working on its own live streaming service. Meanwhile, Yahoo is dropping online video and AOL's just trying to figure it all out, it seems. In, then out, then in again.
8. The Smartphone - The smartphone, paced by the iPhone, but still led by Nokia, has become the instrument by which people access the other apps above, as much as computers and laptops. You can Tweet, post to blogs, and even make videos and upload them to YouTube. But this app has its own apps to use those apps. Get it? The smartphone industry was unheard of in the year 2000, and now has become the source of devices people feel they can't be without. The act of texting was borne within the smartphone revolution, and itself has altered how people communicate, again, arguably for the worse. Now, people make deals and even breakup with each other via text, making the impersonal communication the new cultural norm.
9. iPhone and Android Apps - The next logical step in this process, and the fact, is that applications created for the iPhone and Android smartphones have become a growth industry. There are tens of thousands of apps now that allow you to do everything from get the name of a song played in an elevator, to access the online World of Second Life. Indeed, while the term "app" has been with us for just over a decade - remember the idea of the "killer app," some only think of smartphones, and one other device when the term is used.
10. iPad and iPad Apps - That other device is also another app of a technology - the iPad. Yes. Remember, we're talking about the term "app" in its purest form, which means a way of doing something using a system created around an available technology. Ok? Now, the idea of a tablet has been in the mind of folks like Michael Arrington for years, but it took Apple's Steve Jobs to bring us the first really insanely great version of this app, the iPad. And the apps created for the IPad app may revolutionize publishing, even if they don't save print media. Right now, the iPad is an app used mostly to consume media; but when it's developed to allow the better production of content and media - specifically to create, edit, and upload videos, then its full potential will be realized.
The future app? Just what's next is a constant conversation, so I'll turn it a bit. What should be next? The next app is going to be a combination of two or three of the current apps above, yet help to frame the future of media. That's another way of saying I have an idea. But beyond me, that is the real future. We're in an app-dominated World that didn't exist 11 years ago. Now, you can even use Google Apps to make your own new app. Indeed, kids should have to take a basic programming language as much as they have to take basic math, because if they don't, they're going to be left behind.
As large companies continues to crumble under the increasing weight of small, Internet-based organizations formed around apps, and outsourcing and open-sourcing is more common, being able to make an app is fast becoming an engine of economic advancement. In the future, the most economically-powerful cities and countries will be those where app-based industries thrive.
Stay tuned.
Paramore Loses Zac and Josh Farro
Most people don't even know who Zac and Josh Farro are, but the true Paramore fans know that Paramore is more than just the beautiful Hayley Williams...or at least it was. Maybe Hayley's fame was too much for them to handle?Zac was the drummer of Paramore, and according to Paramore's official web site Zac has now started his own band called "Tunnels." Zac's brother Josh was the guitarist of Paramore.
The official statement on the band's site states that it had been known months in advance that the Farro brothers planned on leaving the band:
"None of us were really shocked. For the last year it hasn't seemed as if they wanted to be around anymore."
"We want Josh and Zac to do something that makes them happy and if that isn't here with us, then we support them finding happiness elsewhere."
Well that all sounds great but what people really want to know is if the band members will be replaced, if Paramore is going to break up or if Hayley is just going to peace out and become a solo artist (cough).
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Preview of "Trashy Tabloid Analysis"
This is going to be broken up into parts.
This may become a series in some way.
There will be a short (3 minute max) video to go along with the post where examples of good/bad journalism will be pointed out within the magazine - so that there are examples of either so that there is an example to base the opinion off of. Someone who thinks the magazines are awesome might like it without ever reading it either - just say, "Oh, I love reading that magazine." So, it's not good to judge something or form an opinion unless you fully understand it and have analyzed it (like when I did my 20+ page research paper on Fox News' Conservative Bias where I spent over a month watching Fox News and analyzing the web page and then comparing Fox to other news sources. So, I can truly say that I have a reason behind why I judge Fox - not just saying it or believing it based on hearsay or influence of those around me).
This can be done without being bias.
This is going to be a journalistic analysis (with a bit of blog mixed in) of "trashy tabloids." Sure a lot of people call them "trashy tabloids" because of hearing what the publications report about, but most of those have never even touched the magazine. Like the way someone says they dislike something without ever actually understanding it.
An objective analysis of a magazine considered "trashy tabloid." The ones that are usually all about celebrities & scandals. (OK!, Life & Style, STAR, etc.)
So, that will start up tomorrow. The video aspect will show certain spots that have been circled with pen, etc & be able to show that I really do have a physical copy of the magazine and have done all the research first hand based on that magazine alone in regards to journalistic standards and principles (as well as which version of AP Stylebook is used; if there even is one used.)
Then the blog post accompanying will explain WHY that the publication did was GOOD or BAD. It's like a movie review, but a magazine review - without personal bias. Like pointing out a trend that the magazine may have like ALLOWING ALL INTERVIEWEES TO BE CONFIDENTIAL AND REFERRED TO AS "SOURCE" or "AN INSIDER." And then writing in a paragraph to explain WHY it's not okay for a magazine's only interviews in an article to be with an "anonymous source." These trashy tabloids need to stop only using anonymous sources within their publications - and that's something I will go into more detail about.
So, that will start tomorrow.
Now, it's time to go read a "trashy tabloid" while holding a pen so that I can pretend that it's the end of the print cycle and I am giving the publication a quick look-through to see if there's anything that should be fixed before it goes to print -- or if there's something very notable that should be complimented upon.
How sad, I am officially on winter break (no more school for a month), and I am basically doing all this research and work. Wow, I love journalism ; I'm a workaholic.
“To sit in judgment of those things which you perceive to be wrong or imperfect is to be one more person who is part of judgment, evil or imperfection.” -- Wayne Dyer
IASBRN
-- Nikky Raney 12/20/2010 1:11 AM (EST)
ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE FUTURE OF JOURNALISM
Michael Vick, DeSean Jacskon Punt Return - Eagles Stun Giants 38-31
The Eagles shocked the NY Giants and The World by scoring 21 points in six minutes, and 28 points in seven minutes, going from down 10 to 31, to win the game.
The shocking turn of events started with Vick's 65-yard pass to Brent Celek, and ended with Cal Football Star and now Eagles Wide Receiver DeSean Jacskon's amazing 65-yard punt return, which Jackson prolonged to run out the clock.
NY Giants Not Ready For Onside Kick
With about seven minutes remaining, the Eagles tried an onside kick after scoring to make it 31-17. The Giants didn't have their "hands team" ready; the Eagles recovered the kick. Later Giants Head Coach Tom Coughlin said (on NFL Network) that he didn't think "they were going to try an onside kick with seven minutes left."
Seriously, Coach Coughlin said that.
Eagles On Top Of The World
The win makes the Eagles if not the front runner, then perhaps number two behind the New England Patriots as Super Bowl favorites. For the New York Giants, Coughlin said they had to "run the table" and win their next two games. It's going to take a great coaching job on his part to overcome this shocking win.
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Virgin Megatore SF Car Crash Update
On Wednesday, a car crashed into the former but still "marked" Virgin Megastore at the corner of Market and Stockton near San Francisco's Union Square. If you missed it, here's my video (I was the first to break the story as I was on the scene) which was made just about 10 minutes after the crash happened:
According to KGO, the driver of the car that wound up in what used to be the entrance lobby of the record and video store said she was trying to avoid a big rig truck as she was heading down Stockton. Then, she lost control of her car and went right into the front door on the building.
As you can see, she hit it perfectly.
What's confusing to this blogger is the driver had to be going down Stockton Street, which would have had her driving next to the building and well past the front door. Why? Because Stockton crosses Market Street and the Virgin Megastore's front door - where she crashed - is on Market.
The only way she could have hit that door was to have made a u-turn coming down Stockton, turned the wrong way along Market, and then hit the door. That also means the "big rig" would have had to have moved up, not down, Stockton. If that's the case, it was going the wrong way.
Or, the woman was going the wrong way up Stockton herself, and turned to avoid the truck going down Stockton, along with what certainly was a flood of car traffic.
The things that make you go "hmmm."
According to KGO, the driver of the car that wound up in what used to be the entrance lobby of the record and video store said she was trying to avoid a big rig truck as she was heading down Stockton. Then, she lost control of her car and went right into the front door on the building.
As you can see, she hit it perfectly.
What's confusing to this blogger is the driver had to be going down Stockton Street, which would have had her driving next to the building and well past the front door. Why? Because Stockton crosses Market Street and the Virgin Megastore's front door - where she crashed - is on Market.
The only way she could have hit that door was to have made a u-turn coming down Stockton, turned the wrong way along Market, and then hit the door. That also means the "big rig" would have had to have moved up, not down, Stockton. If that's the case, it was going the wrong way.
Or, the woman was going the wrong way up Stockton herself, and turned to avoid the truck going down Stockton, along with what certainly was a flood of car traffic.
The things that make you go "hmmm."
Unemployed Americans - Especially 99ers Got Scrooged!
There is so much confusion over this “so called” 13 month UI extension President signed into law yesterday, I thought I would help sort things out for the American Jobless masses - 1 thing is for certain: Unemployed Americans - Especially the 99ers Got Scrooged!
First get this straight: you will NOT be getting a 13 month extension of additional UI benefits and there is a better than 50% chance that you will not be getting anything at all, ZERO - ZIP - not 1 dime. Let me explain.
With well over 18 million unemployed in this country, the DOL will admit to 15.8 million (a figure which has remained magically unchanged since the beginning of 2010 - even as they - the DOL - continues to report new jobless claims each week of 2010 between 423,000 and 576,000. Since you cannot put in a new jobless claim unless you have recently lost your job - then I say just do the math. Obviously the DOL thinks Americans are very stupid!)
But let’s use their 15.8 million for argument sake and their 7 million estimate of jobless Americans currently collecting UI benefits. That would mean 8.8 million unemployed are NOT collecting any UI at present for a variety of reasons. Of that 8.8 million amount it is estimated over 5.8 million are UI exhaustees with many more to join their ranks in the first 3 months of 2011 - despite this “so called 13 month UI extension the Obama administration seems so proud of negotiating.
Now here are some cold hard facts about the BIG tax break / UI Extension trade off:
$25 Extra UI compensation (or FAC) is OUT! Federal Additional Compensation is a temporary, federally funded program that adds a supplemental $25 payment to each week of unemployment compensation benefits. To be eligible, an individual must have established a new Unemployment Insurance claim with an effective date on or before 5/23/10. The statutory end date of the FAC program is December 7, 2010, therefore, FAC cannot be added to any payment for week ending December 18, 2010 or later. FAC WAS NOT RENEWED in HR4853! [Source: Federal Additional Compensation UPDATED DECEMBER 17, 2010]
So billionaires and millionaires get everything they wanted and more (The death Tax expanded in their favor) and the poorest unemployed get HOSED out of an additional $25.00 bucks a week. Un-frigging believable!
Extended Benefits or EB (the 20 weeks that are NOT given as a TIER) has a UI% rate trigger (unless you are lucky enough to live in 1 of 13 states who have their own EB program -check with your state’s UI office).
The EB trigger for federally funded states is as follows: The High EB program ends if the total unemployment insurance rate averages less than 8.0% in any three-month period.So according to Nov. 2010 figures that leaves out:
Oklahoma, Minnesota, Montana, Maine, Maryland, Arkansas, Alaska, Wisconsin, Utah, Iowa, Wyoming, Kansas, Virginia, Vermont, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota.
The way the Government is playing fast and phony with the UI % rates - it is highly likely that your state, if not listed above - soon will be!
Now let’s get to the Tiers 3 & 4:
Your state’s total unemployment insurance rate must average 6.0% for a three-month period before you will qualify for 13 weeks of Tier 3 EUC.Using Nov. 2010 figures again, the following states are out of luck for a Tier 3: Vermont, New Hampshire, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota.
And these states may soon join the NON - Tier 3 eligible states above: Oklahoma, Iowa, Wyoming, Kansas, Virginia and Hawaii.
As far as Tier 4 goes, your state’s total unemployment insurance rate must average 8.5% for a three-month period before the 6 weeks of Tier 4 will “trigger-on.”Currently that leaves out: Oklahoma, Minnesota, Montana, Maine, Maryland, Arkansas, Alaska, Wisconsin, Utah, Iowa, Wyoming, Kansas, Virginia, Vermont, Hawaii, New Hampshire, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Texas, New York, Colorado, New Mexico and Delaware.
And leaves the following states between 0.1 and 1% of being in jeopardy of getting “down graded” to NON - Tier 4 qualified very soon: Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Connecticut, Alabama, Arizona, West Virginia, Washington, Missouri, Idaho and Tennessee.
Remember no matter what you read about UI exhaustees being counted in your State wide or National UI rates - THAT IS NOT TRUE! If you do not believe me then do the math yourself. But I’ll let you comb through the monthly DOL reports to get that info, after all WHY should I do all the work?
Hello Washington - poverty is not some disease you are going to catch just by helping someone in desperate need. After all, it is YOU, your policies and FAILURES which put America in this untenable situation.
For Congress and the President to falsely tout this as a 13 month extension for the long term unemployed is a flat out lie that distorts the truth in an unconscionable manner, as MOST of the people on at least their 1st Tier of EUC by about September this year WILL NOT GET anywhere near 13 months AND this bill actually EXTENDED NOTHING but dates for the more recently unemployed Americans to file for what will amount to far less that the max 99 weeks - as they continue to mislead the Jobless with false UI % rates in all states!!!
For those of you who feel I am not happy with our president of late, how very perceptive of you! Was always a strong supporter of Obama and I am as patriotic as any American. I am just heart broken and disgusted that my president would turn his back on millions of jobless Americans hurting the worst and borrow money from foreign nations to make sure the wealthiest in this country can keep their gardeners and pool boys without liquidating a few stocks.
And if that angers you - the fact that I speak out when Obama does something I clearly believe is WRONG - then I refer you to the following quote by one of our GREATEST presidents EVER:
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public."- Teddy Roosevelt[Please use the donation button below to help Paladinette to KEEP FIGHTING for the 99ers! Thank you.]
National Candlelight Vigil for 99ers, December 20th
A National Candlelight Vigil for 99ers will be held at City Halls across America at between 6-7PM, December 20, 2010.
Please join local 99ers and supporters for this first national 99er event:
ONE FLAME LIGHTS THE WAY...
99ers and their supporters will join together at your local City Hall to remember the forgotten, respect the suffering and rejuvenate our souls by coming together as Americans. Bring your candle and stand with your neighbors and other 99ers. Many are suffering today, not just 99ers. Many need to see a light at the end of this dark tunnel. Many need to feel hope. Connect with 99ers and supporters in your area and show There IS Hope, There Is Light. One Flame Lights the Way. Please RSVP today.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFdqZGpUaVdUMmlHM1lScFNyWW5MMmc6MQ
There is also a Facebook Event page for this event:
[Please use the donation button below to help Paladinette to KEEP FIGHTING for the 99ers! Thank you.]
Please join local 99ers and supporters for this first national 99er event:
ONE FLAME LIGHTS THE WAY...
99ers and their supporters will join together at your local City Hall to remember the forgotten, respect the suffering and rejuvenate our souls by coming together as Americans. Bring your candle and stand with your neighbors and other 99ers. Many are suffering today, not just 99ers. Many need to see a light at the end of this dark tunnel. Many need to feel hope. Connect with 99ers and supporters in your area and show There IS Hope, There Is Light. One Flame Lights the Way. Please RSVP today.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?formkey=dFdqZGpUaVdUMmlHM1lScFNyWW5MMmc6MQ
There is also a Facebook Event page for this event:
Please RSVP and get out there to let America know what is happening to millions of 99ers and their families. Let the 99er Nation know they have your support and this fight to survive is not over by a long shot! www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=154561994589952
AND PLEASE do NOT forget to invite your local MEDIA!!!!
AND PLEASE do NOT forget to invite your local MEDIA!!!!
[Please use the donation button below to help Paladinette to KEEP FIGHTING for the 99ers! Thank you.]
TRON Movie Review At The Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, CA.
The first review of TRON from this space was more about its similarities with 2001 A Space Odyssey, and called Tron Legacy: 2010: A Digital Odyssey, and why it was disturbing to this blogger.
But this is to explain that TRON is a good movie, not a great one, but good, and that you should see it at The Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, CA.
The Grand Lake Theater, at Grand Avenue and Lake Park Ave near Oakland's Lake Merritt, has existed since 1926 and features an enormous main viewing room that represents the best of the old theaters.
The friends I saw it with thought TRON was outstanding and, as the video shows, would definitely see it again. However, the 3D element was disappointing. Again, converting a 2D movie to 3D is something that should be done with care and consideration. It had to add something to the film experience.
The TRON 3D effects don't add much to the film. I was constantly moving my 3D glasses up and off and back over my eyes again to tell the difference; it was negligible.
TRON could have done just as well without the 3D element. Unfortunately, because of the box office success of Avatar and new televisions and broadcasting systems, we're going to see more, not less of movies with poor 3D effects, like TRON.
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