CNN Ali Velshi's Mean Twitter Tweet Lesson In Social Media

OK. All I did was send a friendly Twitter Tweet to CNN's Ali Velshi today and he fired back in a nothing less than a mean way.

What happened was Ali was running a segment on city fiscal problems in today's economy on CNN Live Saturday and featuring, among others, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter. Ali had Nutter say a few words about his city's need for more Federal dollars, but then Velshi let this other guest who's not an elected official drone on and on without stopping him.

 It was totally disrespectful to the mayor of a major city (not to mention out of protocol) for Ali to waste Mayor Nutter's valuable time.

I sent a friendly Twitter tweet to Velshi on the matter, this one...

@zennie62 Zennie Abraham
@AliVelshi Hey that Michael guy on the City Fiscal Segment went on 35 seconds longer than necessary. #longwinded

But rather than send a tweet that was in agreement or providing some insight, Ali shot back with this tweet:

@AliVelshi Ali Velshi
@zennie62 did anyone ask you to be the timekeeper?

Man. I know Ali wasn't too happy that others at CNN felt I bested him when we were debating on the economic stimulus program in 2009, but apparently he's hasn't gotten over it.

So, I thought "Ok. It's on, dude!"

Ali didn't stop to think before he sent a tweet; this will teach him a lesson because it's news now. (Of a sort.)

The lesson in social media is that we are the timekeepers, not Ali Velshi. Even my dear Mom said "Why is he letting that guy go on and on?!"

In social media, we all matter, not just celebrity anchors like Ron Jeremy or Ali Velshi.

Sending a mean Twitter Tweet has consequences.

Jon Wagner’s 45 Questions for Super Bowl XLV

Jon Wagner’s 45 Questions for Super Bowl XLV

Football Reporters Online's Sr. Writer gives us his "Watch" list for tomorrow's game

STRATEGY & PERSONNEL:

1. Will Maurkice Pouncey play?

2. If Pouncey plays, but is limited, how effective will he be at helping to protect Ben Roethlisberger and opening holes for the Steelers’ running game?

3. If Pouncey can’t go, will the Steelers’ offense operate well enough behind backup Doug Legursky?

4. Will key rookies on either side (Pittsburgh’s Pouncey – if he plays, Antonio Brown, Emmanuel Sanders or Green Bay’s James Starks, or Sam Shields) play significant roles?

5. Will Starks (who leads all postseason rushers with 263 rushing yards) or Packers’ regular season-leading running back Brandon Jackson run the ball effectively enough to give Green Bay’s dangerous passing attack some balance against the NFL’s best rushing defense?

6. Can Aaron Rodgers and the Packers’ passing game exploit the legendary Dick LeBeau’s blitzing attack against the Steelers’ biggest overall weakness – their 12th-ranked pass defense?

7. Or, can either the Pittsburgh pass rush or the secondary combination of Ike Taylor and Troy Polamalu mask the Steelers’ pass defense deficiencies?

8. With two weeks of preparation, can the great Dick LeBeau come up with enough varied defensive looks to confuse Aaron Rodgers the way the Jets did the same to Tom Brady in their divisional upset round win in New England?

9. How much more dangerous could the ideal conditions on the fast track, indoors, in Cowboys Stadium make the Packers’ passing game? (recall what happened at the Georgia Dome in Green Bay’s 48-21 divisional round win over the Falcons).

10. If the Packers focus too much on stopping James Harrrison, will LaMarr Woodley or James Farrior disrupt the Green Bay offense?

11. Will James Harrison make a big game-turning play the way he did with his interception against Arizona in Super Bowl XLIII, which stands as the longest play in Super Bowl history?

12. Can Rashard Mendenhall pick up where he left off against the Jets, when he had a career post-season high 121 yards (95 in the first half) in the AFC title game?

13. Will Tramon Williams get another key postseason pick or two?

14. Will the Packers’ pass rush – one of the best in the NFL this season – get to Ben Roethlisberger?

15. Or, will Roethlisberger use his patented elusiveness and pump fake to make more of his trademark big plays after the plays break down?

16. Will linebackers Clay Matthews and A.J. Hawk be able to patrol the middle of the field when Roethlisberger is on the run or after he dumps shorts passes off, particularly to his safety valve Heath Miller?

17. Can the Steelers’ receiving playmakers Mike Wallace, Hines Ward, Heath Miller, Emmanuel Sanders, and Antonio Brown keep pace with their more dangerous counterparts Greg Jennings, James Jones, Jordy Nelson, and Donald Driver?

18. If called upon late in the game, can Shaun Suisham make a field goal over 50 yards or more? (although he’s 14 of 15 this season, he hasn’t attempted a field goal of 50 yards or more this year, and he’s only 3 of 9 from that distance for his career, with his last make from that far away coming two seasons ago, during the second of his three different stints with Washington). Conversely, Green Bay’s Mason Crosby has made 2 of 4 kicks from 50 or more yards this year, and he’s made 10 of 21 career kicks from that distance.


ON THE LIGHTER SIDE:

19 . Will karma catch up with the Steelers and will they lose a Super Bowl because of poor refereeing, the way they benefited from several bad calls to beat the Seattle in Super Bowl XL?

20. Will viewers be confused which team is at the bottom of a pile with both teams wearing pretty much the same shade of yellow pants? (at least the Steelers’ black stripes and the Packers’ green stripes down the sides might help ).

21. How ironic is it that the first-ever Super Bowl without cheerleaders is played in the stadium of the NFL team which made NFL cheerleaders famous?

22. Speaking of which, should the Dallas Cowboys lend their cheerleaders to the Pittsburgh and Green Bay sidelines?

23. Will a part of a Super Bowl venue (namely the oversized video boards overhanging the field from one 20 yard-line to the other) interfere with the play during a Super Bowl for the first time, on a high punt?

24. Will people finally stop complaining about the weather in Dallas and in general, about Super Bowls being held at sites where warm weather isn’t guaranteed? (It’s football! Suck it up, deal with the elements, and cover the Super Bowl without the ridiculous whining!).

TRENDS & STORYLINES:

25. Will the Steelers extend their record for Super Bowl wins to 7?

26. Will the Packers extend their record for NFL titles to 13?

27. Will the Packers become the NFC’s first 6 seed, and the NFL’s only other 6 seed besides Pittsburgh to win a Super Bowl?

28. Can the Packers improve upon their all-time NFL-best 28-16 postseason record?

29. Will the Packers stop the Steelers’ 7-game postseason winning streak?

30. Will Ben Roethlisberger join Terry Bradshaw, Joe Montanta, Tom Brady, and Troy Aikman, as the only quarterbacks with at least at least three Super Bowl wins?

31. Will Aaron Rodgers finally be able to step out of Brett Favre’s shadow and into the spotlight of a Super Bowl winning MVP?

32. Will Mike Tomlin become the youngest coach (at age 38) to win multiple Super Bowl titles?

33. Which will win out, the Steelers’ experience of playing in their third Super Bowl in six years, or the inexperienced yet loose Packers, who are playing in the Super Bowl for the first time with their current group (having not been to the Super Bowl as a franchise in 13 years)?

34. Will long-time veteran Charles Woodson after 13 brilliant seasons (eight in Oakland, five with Green Bay) and Packer draftees Donald Driver (12 years with Green Bay) and Chad Clifton (11 years with Green Bay) finally get their-long-awaited Super Bowl rings?

35. Will a game on the fast track, indoors, at Cowboys Stadium, with good two good quarterbacks and several receiving weapons on each side make it more of a shootout than it should be?

36. Or, will the top two teams in the NFL in points allowed (Pittsburgh – 14.5 points per game, Green Bay – 15.0 points per game) during the regular season keep it a low-scoring, defensive struggle?

37. Will Green Bay (15 postseason plays this year of 20 yards or more) keep making big plays in the passing game?

38. Will the Steelers be hurt by having not been truly tested away from Heinz Field in more than two months? (Since a December 5th win at Baltimore, Pittsburgh has won five home games, had two byes, and a lone road victory against the lowly Browns, in Cleveland).

39. Conversely, will Green Bay be helped by having been thoroughly tested in five straight elimination games, including two regular season contests to make the playoffs, followed by three straight road playoff wins over the NFC’s top three seeds, to reach Super Bowl XLV?

40. After the Packers’ winning the first two Super Bowls, the AFL/AFC dominating with 11 of the next 13 Super Bowl wins, the NFC then responding with 15 of the 16 (including 13 straight), and the AFC then taking 8 of the following 10 Super Bowls, will an alternating pattern continue for a fourth straight year? (If it does, Pittsburgh will on Sunday).

41. With arguably the two most well-traveled fan bases in the NFL coming to the stadium with the largest capacity the NFL has ever seen, could Super Bowl XLV provide the most electric atmosphere the a Super Bowl has ever had?

42. Will Super Bowl XLV set an all-time NFL attendance record (as expected)?

43. Will Super Bowl XLV set the record for the most-watched television program in American history (breaking the record set last year, during Super Bowl XLIV)?

44. And yet, with a potential lockout looming, will this be the last NFL game played for a while?

45. Whether it is or not, will Super Bowl XLV provide as exciting a game and as great a fourth quarter as in the last meeting between the Steelers and Packers? (Pittsburgh blew a 24-14 lead after three quarters and fell behind 36-30, before Roethlisberger led a two-minute drill to pull out a last-minute, 37-36 victory at Heinz Field on December 20, 2009).

Comic Con Popularity Becomes Issue For TicketLeap.com

Comic Con 2011 is coming again to San Diego July 21st through July 24th, and registration for single-and-up-to 4-day ticket "badges" went on sale this morning.

If you don't know what "Comic Con" is, and wonder what the fuss is about, it's a 42-year old comic book convention that got huge over the last 12-years with the merging of comic and movie efforts, then went into orbit over the last 5-years with the growth of digital media and it's social media component. Last year, the event drew over 120,000 people, and it looks to break that number in 2011.

Comic Con reps announced the action on Twitter, then watched in horror as the online ticket sales service provider named TicketLeap.com, fell into a ditch. Overwhelmed with visitors trying to snap up badges. Eventually, #sdcc - or "San Diego Comic Con" - became a Twitter Topic Trend.

This is the @ComicCon tweet that got things started:

Comic-Con 2011 Attendee Registration will open on Saturday, February 5 at 9 a.m. PT. More info to follow at: http://bit.ly/fh4QW. #comic_con

But after a few hours - just two really - patrons experienced problems because the TicketLeap.com page, which I visited to test the vendor system out, produced a message stating 'We are currently overcapacity. Try again momentarily. Reach us on Twitter @TicketLeap."

And people did just that; here are some examples.

bcddesign Brad Dressler
by DarkStitch
@ticketleap What to do if get 4-day option after 2.5hr, then click pay and get Over Capacity msg-Refresh, Back, SCREAM? #sdcc @Comic_Con

Jellebean Shannon Jelle
Right now there's nothing in the world I hate more than that stupid green little frog that mocks me #sdcc #ticketleap #epicfail

All of this was to the dismay of Comic Con's PR reps, which smartly used Twitter to send tweets of concern.

Comic_Con Comic_Con
We’re obviously not happy with this morning’s events. We are trying to find answers and get to the bottom of this.
1 hour ago

Comic_Con Comic_Con
While we know the process is slow and frustrating, badges are being processed and sold, so we will keep the site live for now.
39 minutes ago

And this problem happened as people were trying to get tickets; hotel room blocks haven't even gone on sale yet, as @rkbentley asked:

rkbentley RK Bentley
#sdcc peeps this registration is just for tickets right? So, the #nerdpromcarnage for hotel rooms isn't even upon us yet, right?

Right. Not yet.

Now, as of 11:12, some are getting their tickets:

jennyfahhh Jennifer Mendoza
YAY I finally got my ticket! Thanks to @ticketleap for stealing 2 hours of my life! #sdcc here I come!! #ComicCon #sdcc #woohoo

Some. When I refreshed the screen, the overcapacity message propped up again at 11:14 AM PST. But then I'm going as a member of the press already; I had to testing the system for this blog post.

Stay tuned.

The Dilemma Reviewed

The theater had less than a dozen people waiting to watch The Dilemma at the 8:55 showing. Although this movie was already a few weeks old it would be assumed that there would be more people in attendance.

The theater, which shall not be named, had a period of time where the screen was messed up and the top half of the movie was below the bottom half of the movie which became very distracting.

IMDB

The cast seemed brilliant; it was about time that Vince Vaughn and Kevin James got together. It was great to see Winona Ryder, because since Girl, Interrupted the most she has been known for is her alleged thefts. Jennifer Connelly did a great job as Vince Vaughn's girlfriend. Vaughn and James play best friends and business partners for a car company. Vaughn catches James' wife cheating on him with Channing Tatum's character. Vaughn does not know what to do, but in the scene where he confronts Ryder it is also exposed that before James married Ryder there was a sexual experience between Ryder and Vaughn.

The lack of communication and trust between all four of the characters is a bit unsettling, and Tatum's character seems too unrealistic.

The scene in the commercials where a little boy asks his mother, "Why is that man hugging himself?" and the mother says, "Just keep walking." - Well that scene does not happen, because all that is shown is Vaughn hugging himself and the mother saying, "Just keep walking."

The movie ends with an intervention and some big fights and make ups.
The movie deserves a 2 out of 5 stars.

Hearst Corporation Buys 100 Magazines, Needs Innovative Digital Focus

I just read that Hearst Corporation, owner of The San Francisco Chronicle, purchased over 100 magazines, including 102 titles covering 15 countries.

Excellent. It's a good idea to own the high-end magazines as they draw top-dollar revenues from advertisers. But the problem is that ad revenues are falling.

A purchase as large as the near $700 million on made by Hearst Corporation must have an eye toward an all-digital future.

And please, not one only focused on the frigging iPad when there are 75 tablets out there.

The digital strategy must be multi-platform. Moreover, it must consider a planning scenario where print is out of the picture, and have a plan in place.

An all digital approach that has Hearst Corporation owning news websites, blogs, and forums that match the print-originated brands.

That is a future that brings revenues from different brands poised for a solid digital existence.

A good web example to follow is NFL.com, which is a giant collection of sites of each of the 32 teams of the NFL.

 Why not one portal for the websites of the magazine brands of Hearst Corporation, and that links back to the portal from each site?

Stay tuned.

Super Bowl XLV - Accident At Cowboys Stadium

Super Bowl XLV Cowboys Stadium AP Photo, originally uploaded by zennie62.

On The Friday before Super Bowl XVL, six people were injured, by ice that fell from the Cowboys Stadium roof in Arlington, Texas, according to The Associated Press. The Dallas News reports that one photographer, Win McMamee of Getty Images, thought he was "going to die here."

And a local Dallas TV station has a video featuring a dramatic shot of ice and snow as it was falling from the Cowboys Stadium roof. It's a scene topped in scale only by the that seen by millions when the Metrodome Roof collapsed in November of last year.

Here's the video:



In the video, Indianapolis Mayor Greg Ballard said the Dallas officials were caught off-guard and didn't plan for the weather. That comment and this incident may put the unfortunate kabosh on any future Super Bowls in The Dallas Ft. Worth area.

The photo of the stadium and its surroundings covered by snow and ice, and that video, as well as this accident and other problems, will not be forgotten.

Given the fact that Texas weather is "tricky" and has produced outcomes like this, but not this bad, in the past, the Host Committee should have had a plan for this in place long ago. Now, sadly, this is starting to look like Super Bowl Atlanta 2000 all over again. D-FW deserves better.

Stay tuned.

Super Bowl XLII NY Giants Greatest Drive In Super Bowl History

It's not often one get the chance to witness history in the making but the third-deck 50-yard line seat at Super Bowl XLII, NY Giants vs. New England Patriots in Glendale, Arizona, presented just that. Why do I call this final drive by the Giants to win "The Greatest Drive In Super Bowl History"?

For several reasons.

First, the New England Patriots were on a roll and would have posted the first undefeated season in NFL History since the 1972 Miami Dolphins. And some of their players were reportedly in the stadium to witness the expected hand-off of greatness.

Second, most, especially New England Patriots fans, expected New York Giants Quarterback Eli Manning to screw up. It seems Eli, the younger brother of Indianapolis Colts Quarterback Peyton Manning, could not get out of his brothers skyscraper-high shadow. Plus, few gave him credit for the Giants march to Super Bowl XLII, pointing to the G-Men's defense and running game, more than anything Manning did. Eli was a bit-player, rather than the star.

Third, while the Patriots arguably fooled around with the implementation of an arrogant deep passing game, all but forgetting the short passing game that got them that far, many in the stadium expected the Pats defense to save the day.  The crowd around me - about 70 percent Pats fans - were making fun of Manning almost exclusively, chanting "Eli!  Eli!" and expressing faith in their vaunted defense.

For a while, it looked like they were right.

The Giants were moving toward mid-field, and picking up a key 4th and 1 conversion on the Giants 38 yard line, but they seemed to be flirting with disaster rather than getting a big play.  That changed when, on 3rd down and six yards to go, Manning, seemingly about to be sacked by Defensive End / Linebacker Adalius Thomas, somehow spun away, then rolled to his right, set his feet, and fired a pass toward the deep middle, and to since-retired wide receiver David Tyree.

Tyree, in making a catch that's now part of history, and partially explains why he retired (how can you top that?), held the ball against his helmet as Patriots Safety Rodney Harrison brought him down.

Many call that catch the greatest in Super Bowl History. I agree and I was there to see it.

Obviously.

When the Giants set up shop at the New England Patriots 24 Yard Line, you could actually feel they were about to score, and that feeling was helped by Offensive Coordinator Kevin Glibride's strategy of using his backs in underneath patterns, while the Giants receivers ran deep.

But then Gilbride found the right formation formula to get the Giants best pass-catcher Plaxico Buress one-on-one, and that was the same formation they used when their running back caught the ball out of bounds to set up the 1st down at the Pats 14.

But the difference was the Pats Defense.

On the pass to the running back, the Giants were in what's called "Trips Right," which is three receivers to the right, the running back closest in to the quarterback.  On the opposite side was the wide receiver, Buress.   But Plaxico was double covered by the cornerback and the safety, who moved to cover him, causing Manning to throw to the back (in the photo on the left).

But on 1st and 10 from the 14, the Pats Defense executed a costly change-up.    They put the safety in a pre-snap blitz position and left Plaxico one-on-one against the Pats cornerback Ellis Hobbs (the photo on the right).

Buress took a quick slant-in move, then broke to the corner of the end-zone. Manning spotted him, really before the snap, and threw. The touchdown catch ended the greatest drive in Super Bowl history: 12 plays and 83 yards. And a performance that gave Manning the MVP award.

As you can see in the video, the Pats fans around me were stunned, and I went nuts. I could barely hold my camcorder!

And while the Pats did have time to possibly score, it didn't happen.

The Best Of The NFL

This represents the best of the National Football League, and I thank the NFL for allowing me to present it to you here. This is what The Super Bowl is all about: people doing things you didn't expect them to do on a giant stage.

Bring on Super Bowl XLV!

Paladinette to 99er Nation: "I feel a Boner coming on"

In the latest episode of Jobless Talk, Paladinette ripped weeper of the House Boehner but good, stating through sniffles: "I feel a Boner coming on" - a joke she repeated in this weeks Jobless Talk Rant (seen below).

Actually she/I was attempting to appease the conservative listeners of the show who:

"... may have been offended by my radio show Jobless Talk last week – I apologize as I mean no disrespect to your views and honestly believe unemployment and the 99ers suffering is NOT a partisan issue.

Just so you know, I do not only BASH conservatives or Republicans - I AM an EQUAL OPPORTUNITY BASHER."

Paladinette went on to say: "I try to entertain, inspire and inform with my shows. It is nothing personal and look at it like the liberals view Stephen Colbert. We know he is an act – a put-on that HE really just tries to make us laugh. We need much laughter in the 99er Nation today and I am sorry if I offended any of you who clearly have not yet evolved to the stage where humor is universal.

..... So stop being so sensitive ... And if that does not work for you and you still feel the uncontrollable URGE to dictate what gets said on a radio show - MAY I suggest you get off your lazy hyper-critical butts and begin your own show... catering to the stuffy humorless conservatives that cannot stomach my show cuz it hurts their feelings. WHAAAA"

The rant continues with a rather thought-provoking take on why the government is lying about the magical drop in the National UE rate (to the incredulous 9%) when less than 40K jobs were created last month. FEAR!

"With what is happening now all over the world and most recently in Egypt - I believe it is no accident that the DOL thought it prudent to lie about the UE rate now, as I feel our Government is more than just a bit scared that this Egypt type of uprising might happen here in the USA!"

"Be afraid Washington DC --- BE VERY AFRAID!! You have worked ever so hard to earn it..."

The RANT continues with discussion on the so-called Internet 'kill switch' bill that was approved by the Senate's Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee back in December and recently resubmitted by Republican Senator Susan Collins.

[The donation button below is for Paladinette. If you like what I write please donate so I can keep on fighting for the 99ers! Thank You!]

Kenneth Cole Cairo Egypt Twitter Tweet Was No Mistake

Kenneth Cole the famous shoe manufacturer and retailer, had nothing better to do it would seem, so he decided to issue a provocative Twitter tweet, drawing in the Cairo, Egypt protests, to help move his product. This one:

Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo-KC.

And while that URL now leads to a page that doesn't exist, and Kenneth Cole deleted the tweet, the "damage" was done, and to Cole.

Or was it?

Kenneth Cole issued this apology on Facebook:

I apologize to everyone who was offended by my insensitive tweet about the situation in Egypt. I’ve dedicated my life to raising awareness about serious social issues, and in hindsight my attempt at humor regarding a nation liberating themselves against oppression was poorly timed and absolutely inappropriate.

Kenneth Cole, Chairman and Chief Creative Officer

But that didn't stop others from unloading on him on the same page:

Cristian Reatti
You are an asshole! No excuses
on Thursday · Report

Alex Fellas Khater
insensitive
on Thursday · Report

Daniel Machock
bastar-d
on Thursday · Report

Bruce Willke Sr.
I still cant get over how you could even think of making jokes about Egypt/Cairo when people are dying in the streets.
on Thursday · Report

It also didn't stop an employee or manager of the Kenneth Cole Store in the South of Market District (SOMA) in San Francisco from posting the same tweet on a plastic glass surface. Why, I don't know, other than to draw attention, which is the point of it all.

And that's why Kenneth Cole didn't make a mistake. I think he knew his action wasn't going to be well-received, but went ahead and did it because he knows it's a common action today.

In other words a marketer will take an action that's less than kosher to get attention, which satisfies the first level of reach, then apologize for that action, which draws more attention, and then ride off the talk that's generated from the entire episode.

That's what Kenneth Cole's going through. Overall, he's still got a good name and the Internet flamers who jump on him will, in some cases, make themselves look so bad it actually helps Cole.

Meanwhile, Cole was just doing the kind of "hashtag piggybacking" (a term I created) that's common on Twitter.

Hashtag Piggybacking is where a person uses a Twitter hashtag intended to bring attention to one thing as a tool to bring attention to something of their own design. Here's an example using two hashtags that are top Twitter Trend Topics as of this writing: #scariestwordsever and #statefarmwasntthere.

Now the idea is for you to take the hashtag and add some snappy words to it to cause a cool new tweet. But what I did was use it to bring attention to my video-blog on Kenneth Cole's actions.

#scariestwordsever Zennie62 is talking about you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNHG8Hi4Ypw because #statefarmwasntthere

See?

It's a sure thing Cole, or one of his associates, noticed this and decided to try it around the Egypt situation, perhaps thinking there would be a negative backlash but nothing that would really hurt his brand. So, he did it.

What followed was a lot of buzz for his brand and for a certain SOMA store, and 400 new Twitter followers in one day. The angry Internet people? That will pass. Cole's not going to do that again, and he knows it.

Not bad.

American Heart Association: Wear Red Day

The Go Red For Women campaign was created by the American Heart Association in 2004. Today, February 4, 2011 is the annual "wear red" day.

The campaign's mission is to help fight heart disease in women. National Wear Red Day is nationally sponsored by Macy's and Merck.

The donations toward Go Red For Women go toward funding the efforts for breakthrough research and more education of the disease. The site includes testimonials from celebrities such as Jennie Garth and Betty White.

The "going red" campaign is similar to "going green," and since its launch in 2004 has made a huge impact in locations such as Niagara Falls, Empire State Building, Seattle and more. This movement is for companies and individuals alike.

Many will wear red today in hopes to draw attention to heart health for women.

Dallas-Ft Worth Super Bowl Gets Snow, Many Hotel Rooms Available

Fort Worth Snow, originally uploaded by Optic Oreo.

The Dallas Super Bowl organization officially called "The Super Bowl XLV North Texas Host Committee" issued a post on its website that reports:

ROOMS STILL AVAILABLE
Most major hotels throughout the region still have availability for Super Bowl XLV...National Football League (NFL) fans in Chicago, Green Bay, New York and Pittsburgh take note: it’s not too late to book hotel rooms for Super Bowl XLV in North Texas. Major hotel brands such as Hilton, Hyatt, Marriott, Sheraton and Westin, just to name a few, still have rooms available at affordable prices. Rates start as low as $79 per night, with some hotel properties not requiring a minimum night stay.

This is the first time in Super Bowl History that a host committee issued a message explaining that even major hotels had rooms and that you didn't have to buy one for four nights - the common minimum Super Bowl stay requirement (get there Thursday, leave Monday). That's due, for the most part, to the unexpected severe weather conditions. In other words, the ice storm followed by the snow that started falling overnight and hasn't stopped since.

Detroit was snowing like this for the 2006 Super Bowl, but folks there were used to it and Steelers fans didn't care - hotels were hard to come by. And a Steelers fan said "Detroit's just up the road from us," meaning it was no problem to get there by car and not plane.

I stayed in Warren, Michigan, about 20 miles out, and drove in for the game and the parties. I thought it was going to be awful; man, I had a blast! But that was because snow was and is part of the deal for them, and for Indy too, where the 2012 Super Bowl will be.

This is different.

Dallas Cowboys Owner Jerry Jones has to wonder if God's got something on him, because not only was the snow not supposed to be part of the deal, last year's NBA All-Star Game had bad weather too.

But not this bad. This is the worst weather for this time anyone's seen in over 15 years. It also completely obliterates the forecast of 50 degree weather over the weekend, and points more to a Super Bowl played with the snow and cold outside.

Moreover, Twitter tweets under the NFL-created hashtag #sb45 mostly concern the snow:

HeyDivaD Hey, DivaD 

Good Morning, Dallas! #nastytexasweather #sb45 http://plixi.com/p/74724865

cbarta carolyn barta

Should Dallas get out of big events biz? Bookend to icy #SB45: GOP Natl Conv in 1984. Temps hit 110, heat was miserable. We're snakebit.

MsPartyGirl Molly B 

Dear Lord please make it stop snowing in Dallas....this sux....xoxo....#SB45

You get the idea.

The snow is everywhere in the D/FW Metroplex. The photo above was taken in FT. Worth just 20 minutes ago. And now on The Dan Patrick Show on DirecTV Channel 101 you can see know falling outside the window of the set. (For some reason they elected to do the show at a make-shift set outside The Super Bowl Media Center.)

Plus, a number of flights into Dallas - Ft. Worth airport have been cancelled, impacting Super Bowl events. One Atlanta Falcons player - I'll nail down his ID for the next blog post - missed a radio show because his flight from Atlanta to Dallas was nixed due to the weather.

I can't help but wonder how many people bought Super Bowl tickets, yet can't get to Dallas. Yikes.

The Daily For The Apple iPad - Rupert Murdoch, Steve Jobs' Media Risk

The Daily,the long-awaited iPad-only news publication that's the result of a team-up between Apple CEO Steve Jobs and Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation, was released on Wednesday. The representatives of The Daily were kind enough to ask this blogger for a review, thus this vlog and post.

I want to be excited about The Daily, and for the most part, I am. But let me get my issues with it out of the way, up front. The first problem is it has three barriers to success, which are also economic barriers to entry: you need an iPad to use it, there's a $39 cost for the news after a 14-day period, and you have to want the content they're presenting. Those are rather significant blocks to over come.

The other problem reared its head when I saw the staff makeup: it's almost all white male. In an era where Americans, who are the most likely to consume this product to some degree, prize diversity as a sign that you're cool, hip, and intelligent, the makeup is not the way to go.

A diverse staff generally equals diversity in thought, not necessarily politically, but relationally. A black or Hispanic person, and a black Hispanic person, will view issues involving people of color differently than a white male. Throw in female orientation and you have yet another perspective. A news product that reflects diversity of thought is more fun and provocative than one that does not.

But with all of those shortcomings, The Daily is still an exciting development just because it's the first of its kind.  The content is fresh, and the videos on subjects like The Super Bowl have celebrities like Kathy Griffin offering a hilarious perspective.   

The other attraction, which I can't comment on beyond the video below because I don't have an iPad (I avoided purchasing one at first out of protest against its subpar video-blogging usefulness) is the user interface. It's designed to work as if you were flipping through the pages of a magazine. Moreover, it has access to apps and games.

In short, The Daily is packed with features.

But so is the Wired iPad app, and with a download price of just $5, it was considered too expensive by Jay Yarow at Business Insider at SFGate.com.

And how's the Wired app doing? Well, after a promising start, not so well. Sales dropped from 100,000 in June to 31,000 in August. And by December came the news that people just were not buying iPad magazine apps.

Into this comes The Daily. I think Jobs and Murdoch should have created an iPad app portal for existing blogs - a cross between Technorati and The Daily, with a chance for bloggers to earn revenue if a post is featured.

But for now we have The Daily in its present form. Let's see what happens.