SI Swimsuit Model Kate Upton Candid Las Vegas Photo

Here's a lesson in how to generate some publicity for a model who wasn't selected as the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Model for 2011 - that honor goes to Angelina Jolie look-alike Irina Shayk - but is basking in the dimly-lit glow of being a runner-up.

Kate Upton is one of those models. While she's getting some publicity for being in the current 2011 S.I. Swimsuit Edition, it's always as second fiddle to Shayk, who also happens to have a famous boyfriend in soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, or to Christy Teigen, who's dating singer John Legend. With those two, plus the sheer number of S.I. Swimsuit models, not to mention the red-hot career of Brooklyn Decker (who's movie Just Go With It is this week's highest grossing film), it's no wonder Upton's day in the sun has yet to come.



Well, leave it to Sports Illustrated Assistant Editor M.J. Day to change all that. Armed with just a Blackberry, a small Twitter account @MJDay, and the Twitter-based photo sharing platform called YFrog, May took three photos of the apparently free-sprited Upton and posted them on YFrog for distribution everywhere.

There are three of them.  The one above where Kate's boobs are serving as warmers for a Vegas glass, one of Kate just looking at the Blackberry in a chest-down pose, and one of her sitting legs up in her airplane seat while sporting a really short blue dress.  She looks like she boarded the plane just after a party without changing clothes!

And the best news is you can have one of those photos for your website!  

That's right. You can embed the photos on your website, email them, or use them in a blog or website or video and distribute them for news commentary so long as you say "It came from this Yfrog channel by M.J. Day," and really use it for news - because it is.

Moreover, Imageshack, which owns Yfrog, allows me to use it according to its own rules:

By displaying or publishing ("posting") any Content on or through the ImageShack Services, you hereby grant to ImageShack and other users a non-exclusive, fully paid and royalty-free, worldwide, limited license to use, modify, delete from, add to, publicly perform, publicly display, reproduce and translate such Content, including without limitation distributing part or all of the Site in any media formats through any media channels, except Content marked "private" will not be distributed outside the ImageShack Services.

So, in plain English, Kate Upton's lovely face and partially-presented boobs are out there for the World to see, and supporting a "Vegas" drinking glass.

A star is born.

Len Lesser, Uncle Leo Of Seinfeld, Passes At 88

Deadline.com reports that Len Lesser, best known as "Uncle Leo" on Seinfeld, has passed away at 88 years of age today.

While Lesser's, who was most recently in an episode of ABC's Castle, is best known as Uncle Leo, he also played with the legendary Clint Eastwood in the cult film Kelly's Heroes, as well as Carl Reiner and of course Jerry Seinfeld. He died of cancer-related pneumonia.

Lesser's recurring appearance on Seinfeld started in the show's second season.  He quickly became known for his snappy, neurotic take on life.  Here's a classic scene focusing on a strange pair of eyebrows Uncle Leo acquired:



In the video below, Lesser talks about what it means to be famous and the recognition he enjoyed to his later years.



Len Lesser, a signpost on the Zeitgeist. May he enjoy his trip to Heaven.

Welcome To Zennie62.com From Twitter!

Hello and welcome to Zennie62.com. If you're on this page, chances are you came here directly from Twitter. With that in mind, here's a brief introduction.

Zennie62.com is an, as of this writing, a seven year old blog which was known as Zennie's Zeitgeist until 2009, when the name and branding were changed to Zennie62.com. Why that name? Well, it's a part of my name, Zennie Abraham, and includes the year I was born, 1962. That places me smack in the middle of perhaps the greatest generational transformation in the history of the industrialized World, all fueled by computerization and digital media.

Zennie62.com is designed to capture the stories of the day - the Zeitgeist. Even though the blog's name has changed, the focus - politics, news, sports, and tech - has not.  We cover what's now, happening, political, techie, and hip.  We love American and World Culture, and sports.  We're smart, provocative, and edgy.

The Growth Of Zennie62 Content

As this has developed, Zennie62 added video and I became a YouTube Partner in 2007, the year before that I was using, and still use, Blip.tv, and now I'm on six different video channels.  Here's one of my most popular videos, Fight At Fillmore Street Festival:



But over the years, Zennie62.com has moved beyond the me to the we.  We have great blog posts from great bloggers like Davey D, Tom Hayes, and our Executive Editor Nikky Raney.    As Zennie's Zeitgeist, this blog was one of 128 credentialed for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, and the main provider of video for CNN's iReport initiative, as well as one of their on-site contacts.  Four bloggers, Tom Hayes, David Kaye, Ashley Long (who calls herself AshPolitics) and myself provided coverage.

The NFL Draft and The Oscars

In 2005, I started covering the NFL Draft and then incorporated that content into Zennie62.com starting in 2009.  Today, Bill Chackhes brings his 33 years of NFL Draft expertise to Zennie62.  Already with Zennie62Media's NFL Business Blog,  we're making an even higher stage for the NFL Draft legend, starting at The 2011 NFL Combine.

Over the years, Zennie62 has expanded from this space and to about 40 online platforms, including Twitter, but they all work their way back here.  And around all of this is Zennie62Media.com.

Zennie62Media.com, Inc is a new company that provides one legal home for all of our media content, and one place for sponsors and investors to realize a return on their investments.

Welcome.

CBS Reporter Lara Logan At Home; On Sick Comments

After a horrible incident in Egypt, where CBS Reporter Lara Logan was raped and brutally assaulted, she's returned home. (The use of the word "rape" has become an issue itself, which is why it's mentioned: while CBS is not using the term "rape" but "sexual assault" is commonly associated with the crime of rape, thus the use of the the term around the Internet and in a number of television news reports). But another kind of assault on her is being done online, and that's by a large number of commenters.

Some have written a collection of words that make this blogger wonder how they would feel if someone wrote that about them. Many of the comments, which will not see the light of day here, are just plain sick. The bottom line is that what happened to Lara Logan should be considered the last straw, and what I said and wrote, I stand by: she and other reporters should be able to carry guns. I said it here:



And again, I'm not a "card-carrying member of the NRA," but in the specific case of what's happened to TV journalists, and more often female TV reporters, of late, it's hard to see anything other than the threat of using a gun as a deterrent to the behavior they've suffered from.

Some have said that a gun would have been taken from her.  Why?  Because she's a woman?  If that's the fear, have her, and others, take strength-training lessons from female bodybuilders.  I refuse to believe that could happen, and assertions to the contrary show how women are regarded, even by other women, as weak.

Enough is enough.

Natalie Munroe Blog: What If Oakland Teachers Blogged?

Natalie Munroe is a teacher at Central Bucks East High School in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, just outside Philadelphia who got so fed up with her kids, she decided to blog about it. And now, while all that blogging may cost Ms. Monroe the job she's held, she's still blogging. It brings up the question "What if Oakland Teachers blogged like that?" And the other question: "When will Natalie be the subject of a TV show?"

First, Natalie Munroe has taught English since 2006 and has a reported salary of $54,500 (not bad considering the cost of living there) according to Phillyburbs.com. Her blog Natalie's Handbasket contains (well, contained, since she's taken some entries off public view but the one I'm about to post is still cached as of this writing), some really candid thoughts about the little ones she teaches.

Here's a sample direct from her blog post from fall 2009:

A Big Problem Today

Kids! I don't know what's wrong with these kids today!
Kids! Who can understand anything they say?
Kids! They are disobedient, disrespectful oafs.
Noisy, crazy, sloppy, lazy LOAFERS (and while we're on the subject--)
Kids! You can talk and talk till your face is blue.
Kids! But they still do just what they want to do.
Why can't they be like we were? (Perfect in every way!!!!)
What's the matter with kids today?????

My students are out of control. They are rude, disengaged, lazy whiners. They curse, discuss drugs, talk back, argue for grades, complain about everything, fancy themselves entitled to whatever they desire, and are just generally annoying.

In the past week alone, I've written up 4 separate students--one for dropping the f-bomb in class, one for repeatedly saying "shittin'," one for crafting a pencil topper made from paper clips into the shape of a man and woman having sex, and one for being disrespectful to me (Me: Stop tapping. Him: (ignores and keeps on tapping. Another student tells him to stop but he still doesn't, indicating that if he didn't stop when I told him to, he wouldn't stop for this kid either. Another student then kicked the back of the first student's chair. Me: "I DID tell you to stop that already!" Him: "Yeah, you were ignored." Me: Do you want me to write you up?" Him: "Go ahead." Me: "Done!")

Now reading the entire blog, I really sympathize with what Ms. Munroe has gone through, but this end paragraph was disturbing:

These are the types of students I deal with on a day to day basis. Something must be done about their disrespect and attitude problems. We should do away with the attitudes of the students (and if we can't, we should do away with the students who have attitudes.)

Better to have a pet--- you know where you stand with a pet.

I didn't like that at all.  Does she mean that she wants to kill her students who have attitudes?  Considering the number of news reports of people going off and shooting others in schools and workplaces, that was beyond the pale.  But Munroe says that, even with that, she bears no ill-will toward her students.

Costing Her A Job?

That post, among others, is reportedly going to cost Ms. Munroe her teaching job.  The admin folks at Central Bucks are still investigating her blog posts.  And she's giving them, perhaps unknowingly, new material.  Here's part of her latest (as of this writing) blog post in what she calls "Bloggate," where she learns that her students know about her blog.  This was written on the 12th of February 2011:

When I woke up Wednesday morning and went to work, I certainly couldn't have foreseen what my day--and, in turn, the rest of my life--would be like from that point...

colleague pulled me aside to tell me that students had somehow found my blog and were all abuzz and up in arms about how I'd cursed and said negative things about students in it. The colleague wanted me to know in case it became a bigger deal.

I didn't realize, however, that it already WAS a big deal.

Within the hour, I was in a meeting with the principal who had a pile of my blogs printed out and sitting before him. Within the next 15 minutes, I was gathering my bags from my office and being escorted from the building.

Oh, and she's pregnant. Natalie blogged that the rest of the day was spent in part feeling "violated" as she put it, by reporters showing up at her house. She had to tell her poor three-year-old what was going on with people knocking at her door and deal with her new, though perhaps unwanted, fame.

What If Oakland Teachers Blogged Like That?

As I read that and other posts by Natalie Munroe, the thought of what Oakland teachers might blog kept entering my mind.  I know a lot of great Oakland teachers who put up with a lot every day.  One of my dear friends who I think about every day has a frustrating job at times just dealing with rude kids.  Another friend told me of 12-year-old students in her class doing sex acts in closets.  And another friend was actually robbed at her school.

I thought of all this and concluded that a candid Oakland Teacher Blog would be great because then we could read what their working conditions were really like.  In that, I don't think Natalie Munroe should be fired, but applauded.  She's giving America and the World a really frank view of what's happening at the front lines of education.

What's wrong with that?  Nothing.  Keep blogging, Natalie!

Debunking the "regulations burden business" argument

In a discussion of the provocative Wall Street Journal headline “Study: Strict Derivatives Regulation Could Cost 130,000 Jobs” John Parsons and Antonio Mello point out, "It’s always possible to ignore the system-wide purpose of a regulation and claim it is costly due to the burden it imposes..."

Not everybody cares about the Dodd-Frank reform of financial derivatives markets, but we've seen what happens without regulation(s): the markets crashed, foreclosures destroyed home values, and millions of our friends and neighbors are unemployed.

It's costly to control immigration, to restrict alcohol sales, enforce speed limits, verify the safety & efficacy of drugs, and register voters, but we choose to do all these things because we know we can't simply trust everybody to do the right thing.

Why should you care? How much is at stake in this smoke and mirrors game of derivatives trading? $600 trillion. Compare that to the debt-ceiling, or the budget for the entire U.S. Government. $600 trillion is in play. That's why the players, and the Chamber of Commerce, are lobbying so hard to be left alone, and trying to scare us with more jobs lost.

"...there is 'no upside' to imposing margin requirements on end users, said David Hirschmann, who heads the U.S. Chamber’s Center for Capital Markets Competitiveness."

Victoria McGrane

Wall Street Journal February 13, 2011

Study: Strict Derivatives Regulation Could Cost 130,000 Jobs

Recovering our standing as the world leader in agriculture and industry, and creating the millions of jobs our country needs, won't be enough to keep Wall Street greed from ruining our economy. Can the financial markets "create prosperity" beyond Wall Street? It's hard to prove, lately; it's hard to see any upside in leaving those with the most to gain in charge of regulating themselves when they've already abused the system, or trust the tired old assertions about "burdens on business" so quickly, thoroughly debunked by simple logic.

Thomas Hayes is an entrepreneur, former Congressional Campaign Manager, strategist, journalist, and photographer who contributes regularly to a host of web sites on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community.
You can follow him as @kabiu on twitter.

Lara Logan Egypt Assault: Reporters Should Carry Guns

CBS News reporter Lara Logan was reportedly "brutally raped and assaulted" by a group of men in Egypt. Here's the statement from CBS:

On Friday February 11, the day Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stepped down, CBS Correspondent Lara Logan was covering the jubilation in Tahrir Square for a 60 MINUTES story when she and her team and their security were surrounded by a dangerous element amidst the celebration. It was a mob of more than 200 people whipped into a frenzy.

In the crush of the mob, she was separated from her crew. She was surrounded and suffered a brutal and sustained sexual assault and beating before being saved by a group of women and an estimated 20 Egyptian soldiers. She reconnected with the CBS team, returned to her hotel and returned to the United States on the first flight the next morning. She is currently in the hospital recovering.

There will be no further comment from CBS News and Correspondent Logan and her family respectfully request privacy at this time.

This, in addition to the assault on CNN's Anderson Cooper, and on Sara Sidner in Mumbia, India two years ago, is a good reason why reporters should carry guns. The foreign governments don't seem to want to protect them. And rapid men tasting freedom for the first time seem to want to test what they can get away with by harming female reporters.

It's not that she's white and blonde; just ask Sara, who's brunette and black. All they have to be is of an "American affect" and attractive in the middle of a mob. Shooting an attacker in the leg would change the game and make life better for women reporters like Lara Logan.

Come to think of it, Anderson Cooper could have used a gun, too. 

Nikky's Body Detox Modifications with Debby K

College is a stressful time for many students, and the stress that students go through does a lot of damage to their bodies. When students live on campus they are not usually provided with many healthy choices - a lot of students gain weight their first year at college. The stereotype is the "Freshman 15" but it is usually less than that, but regardless of how much weight is gained there is a lot of damage done to the body itself.

DEBBY KAPLAN

A lot of late night cramming sessions will end up with late night snacking whether it be ordering out some pizza or eating a tv dinner in the middle of the night.


Debby Kaplan is helping this college student by first going through a total body detox. Debby explains that it takes the body a little over three weeks to stop craving the unhealthy toxins that college students unknowingly are allowing into their bodies.


Debby's goal has never been and is not to help me lose weight, but to help get all the bad out of my diet and let my body be cleansed and start fresh as it were. This was supposed to be a 30 Day Detox, but it is a bit more difficult than that - the start date was originally February 1, but there are things that cannot be interpreted always through texted based communication and busy schedules and changing environments have made it difficult.
Though it may take longer - this is something that is not unusual. College students are always on a strange schedule - some students have classes throughout the day and there are three hour classes that could be back to back making it really difficult to find a time to eat.

Debby believes that snacking is not good. She says, "I believe that mindless snacking is not good and to eat when you are hungry, not because there is food on your plate or because someone offers it to you. Detoxing in part is being mindful of what and when you eat."

Eat meals when hungry. The hardest part personally was not eating after 9 pm, but although that was tricky it was the diet itself within the detox that is the most difficult.


Under Debby's Dos was "real foods." It's hard to know what that means, but that means food in its most natural state - unprocessed.

First thought was, YAY LET'S EAT FRUIT. No, fruit has lots of sugar, and during a detox that is not what the body needs. The body needs some fruit, but not a lot - limiting to maybe 1-3 pieces a day. A smart thing she has told me is "Eat your fruit, don't drink it."

Debby says," Organic is best. Please make this point. I stress eating ORGANIC otherwise you are still putting toxic food into your body. I know it's hard to eat ALL organic. I don't . But I choose the foods like meats and certain fruits and veggies that are best eaten grown organically."

It's ironic, because as college students many of us feel like we are doing something great when we eat fruit; I never thought I would be told to stop eating so much fruit or that there is a limit, but there is - and within later blog posts these statistics and facts will be made readily available.

Debby is my personal trainer who suggests eating 5-6 meals a day during this detox process. That's a lot of time for eating but what is there to eat? Well, that's what will be in the next blog post. WHAT is on the "YES" list of foods to eat, and how much of it?


Debby lives in Oakland Ca, and is an A.C.S.M Certified Health Fitness Specialist, as well as a wellness Coach. Her blog is http://yourfitday.com.

San Francisco, Waste, And Environmental Discrimination At Hunters Point

Readers of this space know that I have been following the landfill contract process in San Francisco for some time now. Until a few weeks ago it was a battle between two companies. The winning bidder, a local employee-owned company, Recology, had a far more economical bid and a superior environmental transportation mode by taking the hauling of the trash out of trucks and putting it onto trains.

The losing bidder is the current service provider, Waste Management of Houston, Texas. Waste has worked tirelessly to keep the business after submitting a bid that was more than double Recology’s and approaching ten times their current price.

It even bought off typical opponents like the Sierra Club, creating an environmental industrial complex in the process by creating an economic incentive for them to keep receiving waste at the Altamont landfill through a open space mitigation fee overseen by the club.

Somewhat expectedly, the City’s Budget and Finance Committee rejected Waste’s tactics agreeing that there is no disputing the facts that Recology is cheaper and more environmentally superior option.

Case closed, right?

No. We forgot that this is the San Francisco Board of Supervisors where closing simple matters is no simple task. Instead of moving forward with the clear winner of their competitive bidding process, the B of Supes took a big two-month time out.

Why, you ask?

Well, because a company named Waste Solutions - that makes a living hauling toxic waste out of San Francisco on Port property in the Bayview - had an idea.

So what is the big idea to warrant this delay?

What is the earth shattering revelation that disrupted a multi-year competitive bid process raised by a company that did not even put forward a bid in the process?

Geniuses really, move the dump to the Bayview and barge it to Pittsburgh. Huh? Move the dump to the Bayview, next to the sewage treatment facility. Move the dump next to the power point that the community worked to close for more than 20 years. Move the dump to the Bayview where Lennar is expected to invest billions of dollars into building out the shipyard.

I don’t get it. The community will not get it. Apparently the City of Pitsburgh and the Port of San Francisco will get the trash and the revenue that comes with it.

Nice, right?

But what will the Bayview get? More environmental justice issues to deal with in a community that has struggled with every environmental impact the fair City of San Francisco has had to offer for the past 50 years.

One would hope that someone, somewhere, would actually bring this to the community for their discussion before derailing the rail option of the winning bidder that saved the City $130 million before they lose that offer in the City’s continued pursuit of environmental terrorism residents of the Bayview.

Nicole Sandler Spreads Word on Twitter Chat #99erAID at 8pm Tonight ET

Nicole Sandler spread the word about tonight's Twitter Chat #99erAID at 8pm ET with event organizer Jason Tabrys on her Radio-or-Not show this morning. (see video below at 15:40 in the stream )

PLEASE join us tonight!!!!! #99erAID The event will be moderated by @99erAID (Examiner.com’s Jason Tabrys) and all who participate are asked to use the hash-tag #99erAID in their tweets.

Reminder: Deadline for State Director Nominations Draws Near

The deadline for filing nominations for Union of Unemployed (UCubed) State Directors is two weeks away - Tuesday, March 1, 2011. All candidate filing statements must be emailed to the UCubed Executive Director at UCubed@iamaw.org on or before this date in order appear on the ballot.

States with 50 or more UCubed members are eligible to participate in the State Director elections. Candidates are encouraged to recruit new members in order to meet this requirement, as well as garner votes in their favor. By the way, South Carolina is the newest state to become eligible.

Voting will begin Friday, April 29th until Monday, May 9th. Winners will be announced Tuesday, May 10th.

All individuals elected to the office of State Director will be invited to attend a week-long training session at the IAM’s William W. Winpisinger Education & Technology Center in Hollywood, MD, from Sunday, May 22nd to Friday, May 27th. The group will work to define UCubed organizing objectives, plan political and legislative campaigns and refine leadership skills. Participants will also have the opportunity to lobby on Capitol Hill, as well as learn tips for working with the media. Travel expenses, room and board will be covered.

Please keep in mind that the office of UCubed State Director is a volunteer position. For more information on the election process and rules, click here.

If you are not yet engaged in U-Cubed Please DO SO TODAY:

U-Cubed on:

FACEBOOK: http://www.facebook.com/ucubed

TWITTER: @U_Cubed

WEBSITE: http://www.unionofunemployed.com

CPAC 2011 Had "Obama Hands In Chains" Bumper Sticker For Sale

This is why there are people who think Couch Potato Conservatives are just really unfortunate people and that CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, draws not a small collection of jokers in their ranks.

Banter Media Group blogger Mike Stark of The Stark Reports took a photo of a table at the with a bunch of bumper stickers. But the one that stood out, but Stark didn't get a close-up of, was one that reads "OBAMA: CHAINS we can believe in."

That's an obvious insult that goes beyond President Barack Obama and to me.

So, this blogger, me, took the photo and made a close up of the offending bumper sticker, because it took me a few seconds to pick out the image that Mike was referring to.  Plus, Mike wrote the blog post with so few words, and a title that rendered it almost unsearchable online. I had to step in and fix matters.

Now, we know this crap's out there.  This vile bumper sticker sold at CPAC.

Now that's sick on several fronts. First, that someone would make the bumper sticker. Second, that someone would try and sell the bumper sticker. Third, that the bumper sticker would be sold at CPAC. Fourth that anyone black at CPAC would be forced to see such an image just by attending CPAC.

For those of you who don't get it, let me spell it out for you in basic English. OK? When African Americans, or blacks, were enslaved, placing them in chains was a common habit for slave owners. Now, fast forward to the supposedly advanced 21st Century and after we've elected the first black President of The United States, we are presented with the ignorant and insulting creation of some cretin who's obviously welcome at CPAC to sell this crap.

Whoever makes it, they're also selling it on Amazon.com, and it would be cool if Amazon removed it - here.

Designed By A 12-Year Old What?

The Amazon.com description reports that the bumper sticker is:

Designed by 12-year-old Patriot
American made on self adhesive vinyl
Movable and easily removable without residue
Looks great on bumper, gun case, toolbox, refrigerator, locker and everywhere else

Designed by a 12-Year old? So someone's raised a kid to be a bigot in their early teens, or worse, is brainwashing the kid to be a bigot. Poor kid undoubtedly doesn't know any better at all.  This is not funny and it sure as hell isn't patriotic.

Lady Gaga Smokes Pot, Drinks Whiskey To Write Music

Lady Gaga, who came up with the craziest Grammys entrance yet when she arrived in an egg (that was quickly parodied by Next Media Animation), and wore horns on her face and kept them on for her appearance on Jay Leno, admits that she "smokes a lot of pot" and drinks straight whiskey to come up with her music creations.

Cool.

That's not much different from Biggie (AKA The Notorious BIG) coming up with his best work after chillin with some weed and women. One has to wonder what kind of music Lady Gaga would come up with if she also threw sex into the equation. But I digress.

If that's the case, did her creative manager Lori Ann Gibson smoke pot and drink whiskey when she came up with the Lady Gaga Egg Entrance for the Grammys?   Gibson told CNN's Showbiz Tonight that it was she who came up with the idea and brought it to Lady Gaga, who was all over it.

But was Gibson high or drunk, or high and drunk when she did?

And what about the horns?  Was that idea from the weed too?

Just asking.

Oh, and you can see Lady Gaga's Egg Entrance here in Next Media Animations' awesome take:



Lady Gaga on CBS 60 Minutes (which aired just before The Grammys on the East Coast) told Anderson Cooper that "I smoke a lot of pot when I write music. I'm not gonna, like, sugar coat it for 60 Minutes that, you know, I'm some, like, sober human being, 'cause I'm not. I drink a lot of whiskey and I smoke weed when I write."

Now we've got to find out what kind of whiskey she drinks.

Meanwhile, MTV reports that her new single "Born This Way" is topping the download charts, which, once you get over the irony of that report, is quite impressive.