Doc Gurley - Haiti: Hitting The Ground

Airports are bland portals scattered across the world. It's really when you step outside, walking down the cattle-chute ramp that's lined with well-wishers and people holding up hand-written signs - it's as you emerge, blinking into hot haze and the smell of moist, marinating diesel hits you, that's when you know you're somewhere else.

Our bus is a glorious, battered, curtained-fringed affair. I loved it instantly, its inside dotted with gently exhaling air conditioner vents, and the crack on the windshield buttressed by a large suction cup. We learned right away how grateful we should be for her (how can a bus with swaying fringed drapes NOT be a "her"?), because we didn't even make it out of customs before other aid workers were asking for possible rides to Jimani. We had so many wonderful bags and boxes of medical supplies (Thank you! Thank you! You know who you are), that we had to say sorry and wish the ride-seekers luck.]

A wildly painted bus in Haiti - NOT the one from the airport.

After a red-eye with 4 possible hours of sleep, we each re-folded back into the coach origami position to sit barricaded by boxes and bags, with Jesse, our local coordinator, perched on a cooler in the bus stairwell. And so the 3 hour trip just to reach the outskirts of Santa Domingo began.

It was urban density after urban density, and the kinds of insta-reflex, hair-thin near-misses that make 880 on Friday at 70mph look tame.

The sun set, the houses right against the freeway thinned and it was the kind of headlights-only dark you can't find in the States any more.

We stopped at a shockingly pristine, open-walled "market" for supper. Food was served cafeteria-style. As we left we saw an empty, nearly identical competitor right across the road, advertising Chinese and Creole food.

Mopeds with helmetless riders (and sometimes whole families) darted like mosquitoes around lumbering, gear-griding buses, even as the hour crept to midnight. A massive UN convoy passed when we stopped for fuel, car-carriers loaded with SUVs with UN painted on the sides, a massive flatbed with a mountain of lumber on the back and 3 container trucks, and 2 Security jeeps.

After midnight, in what felt like the middle of nowhere, we stopped at a massive, opulent hotel that was completely deserted - no other cars, no other guests. We slept in beds, showered in cold water and had a quick breakfast served family-style of fried chicken, stewed goat, plantains, eggs and rice. It was two minutes down the road, as we went through the 2 sequential wrought-iron gates that make up the DR and Haiti border (every inch between the gates a market stall, many of them selling bags of relief food), that I discovered that as I had been standing on the sidewalk outside the breakfast restaurant as we loaded our final two members of our group, my iPhone had been pick-pocketed.

My iPhone never made it into Haiti...

Share in the comments section about whether you think these are extreme needs or not - and tune in for the next in the series to get details about the Haiti trip. If you want to donate for supplies or transport, head over to www.docgurleycom for details underlined at the end of this same article. But if you're feeling a tad Haiti-ed out and overwhelmed, never fear, there will be OTHER, non-Haiti, fun health topics in the next few days! Keep up on the latest health issues in the news by signing up for a Doc Gurley RSS feed by clicking here. Look for future pics and other articles at Doc Gurley - discover the weird, the wacky and the everyday symptoms you want to know about, as well as practical expert tips on staying well. Want to express your inner fan-girl/boy? Become a Doc Gurley fan on Facebook! Want to be on the inside, fast track of health news and tips, as well as Haiti tweets? Get on the Twitter bandwagon and follow Doc Gurley! Also check out Doc Gurley's joyhabit and iwellth twitter feeds - so you can get topic-specific fun, effective, affordable tips on how to nurture your joy and grow your wellth this coming year.

Michael Jordan and Paris Hilton share a birthday

Would you believe that Michael Jordan and Paris Hilton share a birthday today? Yes. On his birthday, Michael Jordan turns 47, whereas Paris Hilton turns 29.

While Michael Jordan is enjoying the great retired life afforded by his amazing NBA Basketball career, Paris Hilton is enjoying a resurgence of sorts, after her celebrated DUI arrest of several years ago. Paris was the inspiration for my classroom simulation game called "Buffi The Gym Girl" where your job is to make Buffy, the fussy , glamorous celebrity, happy...



But "Buffi The Gym Girl" aside, Paris Hilton is the perfect model for anyone who's thinking of developing their personal brand. Paris is known for being famous, knowing the best parties, wearing the latest fashions, and having only the best of everything.

Michael Jordan is known for classy excellence on and now off the basketball court. Hmm.... Michael Jordan 47, and Paris Hilton 29; the perfect age gap.

Happy Birthday to both.

President Obama deserves a second term; CNN poll is irresponsible

In a wild hunt for ratings, CNN embarks on a poll question just one year into the four-year term of President Barack Obama asking if Obama deserves a second term. The fact that the poll was created during a period of high unemployment coupled with a still-new President Obama would tell a politically-aware ten-year-old that President Obama wasn't going to come out looking to good in such a poll: 52 percent said no; 44 percent said yes.

But CNN ran the poll with that predictable outcome anyway. All the better for stupid buzz; CNN got it. That CNN ran such a poll is totally intellectually irresponsible. It is so because they knew what the outcome would be. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that people polled will be unhappy with both President Obama and The Congress given the state of the economy. It also is equally irresponsible to poll just 1,023 Americans, and of that, only 923 registered voters. The poll sample size is too small to be taken seriously.

This blogger could have gotten a bigger sample size himself. Many of the polls ran in this space have drawn over 2,000 responses. For CNN to run a poll of just 1,023 people given their broadcast reach is, again, irresponsible.

CNN's embarked on what appears to be a really bizarre quest to discredit President Obama. Their main man in this effort in front of the camera has been David Gergen, advisor to a number of past Presidents and currently head of the Public Leadership Project at the Harvard John F. Kennedy School of Government.

CNN's Gergen regularly issues baseless evaluations of President Obama that include not-well-veiled political desires. For example, David Gergen mentions dropping the "Public Option" in the Health Care Reform proposal, rather than proving he's a really good student of politics by explaining how Obama could get a Public Option passed by Congress and discussing the problems with pushing a Public Option.

That's just one example. David Gergen's gotten so bad, this blogger changes the TV channel whenever he appears.

And that's often.

Of late, Gergen's on an "anti-Obama" kick that from this view has totally destroyed his credibility. As he's part of what appears to be an overall effort on CNN's part, it's only logical ro report that CNN's political credibility is equally low. Not the best place for the self-proclaimed "trusted news source" to be.

Stay tuned.

AC Transit Bus Fight near Lake Merritt, Oakland, on YouTube video

A AC Transit Bus Fight near Lake Merritt, in Oakland, California was captured on video and from two different perspectives. The AC Transit Bus Fight, which this blogger recognizes as starting on the AC Transit "N" route that serves the heart of Oakland into downtown Oakland, caused the bus to stop at the corner of Harrison and Webster Street, just one long block away from Lake Merritt and at the Kaiser Center's shopping mall area.

The first AC Transit Bus Fight video below shows an at first, seemingly harmless and rather misguided and silly conversation apparently about what someone would do based on their race. One young man, black, said the older man white, should get "yo ass back up in there", meaning the front of the bus. Apparently the older white man came to the back of the bus to confront the younger black man. "Why you being so hostile man", was what the older white man said to him.

Then the older white man went back to the front of the bus as the young black man was on his way to his seat at the back of the bus.

Here's the first video:



Then words were exchanged and after the young black man was on his way to the back of the bus. But when the older white man said "I can kick your ass", the young black man turned and went back to the front of the bus where the older white man was.

In the AC Transit Bus Fight, it's hard to tell exactly what happened for the first two seconds, but then it was obvious the two traded slap-punches. The older white man did get in one good left hook, and that was enough to drop the young black man.

The older white man said "See, you mess with me" as the younger black man was on the floor. (And the back of his shirt reads "I AM..a motherfucker")

 Then, as the young black man was collecting himself at the back of the bus, and the camcorder operator was talking to him, the older white man had started to just "go off" on a weird rant at the corner of Harrison and Webster.

This is that video:



What does this AC Transit Bus Fight prove? Well, it proves why cars and taxi cabs are a more desirable form of transportation than AC Transit buses in Oakland.

This is why Oaklanders rail against those who support higher parking fees, heavy-handed parking enforcement tactics, and tow-happy city administrators. It's also why some Oaklanders, like this blogger, support a BART Airport Connector rather than being forced on to AC Transit. For all of its woes, BART at least has an active police force.

Sorry, but you've seen the one reason why this blogger avoids AC Transit whenever possible. Both men were wrong and both should be charged with assault. But the overarching issue is that good working citizens of Oakland should not have their time wasted or their safety threatened by people who act like that. It's better to be able to avoid them.

The discussion about the AC Transit Bus Fight will break down to "Old White Rambo Dude versus Young N-word kid" and few will see the bigger picture. The kid should always respect his elders, regardless of color or behavior of the elder (within reason, of course), and the older man should know better than to go and pick fights because he's unhappy with his own life. And none of us should have to be subjected to their issues.

With that, the YouTune video takes on this are really worth watching:

Video: explaining the AC Transit Bus Fight:



Video: Another take on the AC Transit Bus Fight:



NOTE: In the first video, the young women who filmed the event noted that the older white man left his bag. I hope she returned it to him.

Stay tuned.

Oscar gets an iPhone app before Academy Awards - Twitter next?

AMPAS, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, announced that a new Oscars iPhone app (or "Oscars® App") is available just in time before the 82nd Annual Academy Awards.

This is great news for an organization who's social media efforts are far behind where they should be. The question is, when will AMPAS embrace Twitter and develop a fully integrated social media strategy? While you ponder that question, let's read more about the Oscars® App.

According to AMPAS, iPhone and iPod Touch users can get a nominees list for the 24 Academy Awards categories, see trailers from each film, and predict winners in each category. Your predictions will be saved in a database; you cna share them with your friends via email and Twitter.

It's a massively great new development, but where AMPAS can complete the social media job (for now) is by having a Twitter account that would send tweets of Oscar winners to the "Oscars® App" that you should then retweet to your Twitter followers from your iPhone or iPod Touch. Considering the number of AMPAS members who are on Twitter, plus Oscar fans, that would be a great distribution system.

But does AMPAS listen to me? I don't think so.

You can, and really should, get the "Oscars® App" for iPhone and iPod Touch at www.itunes.com/appstore/. Search for "Oscar" under the "Applications" drop down.

Lady Gaga wins three 2010 Brit Awards

Lady Gaga took home three 2010 Brit Awards last night. The amazing pop-culture super icon that is Lady Gaga won UK music industry's annual Brit Awards prizes for International Breakthrough Act, Best International Female Solo Artist, and Best International Album, according to CNN.



As Lady Gaga rises to obtain the award for International Breakthrough Act, the presenter said "No surprises here. The sheer force of Gaga has been such that you'd really be hard pressed to remember any other international artist even existed. Gaga is no newcomer to Planet Pop. She'd written songs for Britney and The Pussy Cat Dolls before she turned 21."

Lady Gaga thanked her fans, family, and business partners over the screams and cheers of the Brit Awards audience.

Roger Ebert: a living legend and American Cultural icon

Roger Ebert is an American Cultural icon. That term is thrown around a lot these days, but it's not without good reason. New Media allows us to enjoy a richer mix of what America's about. But even with all of the blogs, videos, and text - what we call "content" - experience still matters. In all of journalism, perhaps the one area other than investigative reporting that still matters is that of the Film Critic.

Roger Ebert's the kind of person I think of when I think of the Film Critic because after all these years it just seems like it's in his DNA to be just that. Roger Ebert has given thumbs up or down to movies for so long that it's impossible to think of him not doing so.

Yes, in capital letters, Film Critic. The person who can, within a moment, give a view of a film that at once captures what's good and bad about film and makes you think, even when you disagree with the critics view. That's what Roger Ebert does, and that's what he's done. It's not something that can be measured, but it is honed by years of experiences in the culture of film within the fabric of America. That's Roger Ebert's gift.

Roger Ebert deserves the Presidential Medal of Freedom. I hope President Obama sees fit to give him such a prize.

Megan Fox Armani Commercial 2010 - Megan Fox gets kudos

The latest 2010 Megan Fox Armani Commercial is out today, Tuesday. Megan Fox is drawing rave reviews for the Armani commercial, where the stunning actress from Jennifer's Body and The Transformers movie series puts on Emporio Armani and becomes the face and body of Armani.

Splash News observed that Megan Fox "teases", while, Mail Online UK gushes...

The Transformers star, shot in black and white, pouts seductively at the camera as it pans up and down her enviable figure that has made her an international sex symbol.

The commercial is a 30-second-long trip along the semi-nude body of Megan Fox more than an commercial for Armani. To this blogger, it's playful, sexy, seductive, and just a tad boring. Not Megan Fox, the Armani commercial. Make no mistake about it, Megan Fox is a classically beautiful woman. But there's something about the Armani commercial that's missing and it's action.

Megan Fox in stiletto heeled sexy shoes and walking near-nude in the same Emporio Armani underwear would have sent the Internet into tilt. If the Emporio Armani commercial emphasized her legs as much as it does her face and abs, and her walking motion timed with that music, it would be timeless. Here's Megan Fox's legs on display in the Rolling Stones Interview of last year:



Over at Fashionising.com, Daniel P. Dykes says that women "hate Megan Fox" but men don't. I think the idea is for men to ask women to wear the Megan Fox Emporio Armani underwear (as it will come to be called) for them.

Let's see if the strategy works.

David Letterman calls Olympics officials hypocrites after luge death

On his Monday show, David Letterman let loose on Olympics officials, calling them hypocrites for their statements and actions in the wake of the death of luge competitor Nodar Kumaritashvili last week.

At a pre-Olympics training run at Nodar Kumaritashvili's luge took the final turn high, then as it came down and into the straight portion of the track, slammed into a wall, and bounced from it to the opposite wall, where Kumaritashvili was thrown over it and to his death. Olympics officials said their was nothing wrong with the track and said the reason for Kumaritashvili's death was "athlete error."

This blogger was one of the first to call the Olympics officials claims completely wrong and blame Kumaritashvili's death on the design of the track. The track was redesigned before the start of the first official Olympics luge contest. Heres my video:



Again, the course should have been designed in such a way as to have the luge come into a curved straight portion of the course; no right angles should have been part of the design. It's poor engineering. If the track were designed in that way, the luge times would have been faster than what we have now, but with a built-in safety behavior. If the luger's to crash, this would keep the racer on the course, not force the racer off of it.

David Letterman's right; Nodar Kumaritashvili's death was not his fault. It was the fault of the design of the track on the course.

Stay tuned.

Tiger Woods talks return to Golf amid Joslyn James pregnancy claims

Tiger Woods is plotting a return to Golf, as porn star Joslyn James (real name Veronica Siwik-Daniels) launches love child claims. According to TMZ, Tiger Woods, the World's Greatest Golfer, is plotting a return to Golf. Reportedly Tiger Woods and representatives met with officials from the Tavistock Cup.

This blogger asked sports agent Leigh Steinberg about Tiger Woods return to Golf. Steinberg, who talked at his Miami, Florida Super Bowl Party before Super Bowl XLIV, said "Tiger will come back and take his place among the major figures in American sports. He's had his fall. The same way that Kobie Bryant did. The same way that Ray Lewis did. The same way many people have done; Michael Vick? And now it's will be time for the return. If he's careful in the way he reengages with the American Public. If he plays Golf well. As time passes he will get more and more reintegrated and things will work out fine."

If that happens, it would be on March 22nd 2010 at Isleworth Golf and Country Club, just a short walk from Tiger Woods' home. The meeting, which reportedly occurred on Monday, had Woods with his security team and staffers in with the Tavistock people for one hour before he returned home. TMZ's source says that Tiger Woods would then play in The Masters at Augusta, Georgia after the Tavistock event. But standing in his way are the pregnancy claims of porn star Joslyn James.

Joslyn James is the one of several Tiger Woods mistresses that will not stop talking. In the New York Daily News, Joslyn James claims that Tiger Woods got her pregnant twice: once ending in abortion and the other in a miscarriage. But Joslyn James claim is being given the slam-dunk by off all people Joslyn James' stepmother and her sister.

In the same NY Post article, James stepmother calls her a "compulsive liar." And in RadarOnline.com, James sister Samantha Siwik said she doesn't believe a word Joslyn James says. “If she was really that interested in Tiger Woods and his family then she would not have got involved with him in the first place because he was married," Samantha Siwik told RadarOnline.com.

Whatever the case, the Tiger Woods episode has landed a lot of publicity for a number of women he was involved with, and Tiger Woods Mistress "Number One" Rachel Uchitel landed a new job as a Special Assignment Correspondent with Extra.

Stay tuned.

Hotmail down: Hotmail service unavailable, now up again

Hotmail, the first mass email service and provided by Microsoft, was reported down. "Hotmail service unavailable" blog posts sprang up all over the Internet. But now, "Hotmail down" and "Hotmail service unavailable" must be replaced by "Hotmail up" and "Hotmail service available".

According to Business Week, the massive problems started in the "Windows Live ID service" used to sign in customers. It's also used by XBox customers for online game accounts. More than 460 users Worldwide have accounts, or a population larger than America as a whole.

The problems have been fixed and Microsoft apologizes for them. But really, one should have multiple email accounts they can use rather than just one. And using the Open ID system's really a plus as well. Windows Live ID is also an Open ID supporter.

John Mayer, after Playboy Interview, still silent on Twitter

The normally Twittery singer John Mayer has been silent on Twitter since his now famous Playboy Interview meltdown, a racist, homophobic (remember, John Mayer used a Gay slur, too but few seem to care) and sexist quasi-rant on blacks, his disinterest in black women, sex with Jessica Simpson, and Mayer's hybrid sexual habits.

The criticism of John Mayer continues, now one week into the Playboy Interview controversy, but John Mayer himself has been silent. Where he normally tweets several times a day, Mayer has issued exactly two tweets in three days between February 14th and February 16th. As John Mayer recently announced he's "quit the media game", perhaps this Twitter silence is part of his efforts.

But how long will it last? How long will it take John Mayer to get over what John Mayer did and the reaction, and get back to being John Mayer? The bet in this corner is two weeks. By some time around the Academy Awards, John Mayer will be tweeting and talking again. All of that will be much to the displeasure of New York Hip Hop artist Jay Smooth who let's rip on Mayer in Pop Life and Race Matters:



Basically, with everyone issuing an opinion on John Mayer, America and the World are doing his PR work for him. When that dies down, Mayer will swing into action, but the bet is he will be a more enlightened person.

Stay tuned.

Obama touts nuclear plant loan - first nuclear plant in 30 years

President Barack Obama announced approval of $8 billion in loan guarantees to build the first nuclear power plant in over 30 years. According to the Huffington Post, Obama said "On an issue that affects our economy, our security, and the future of our planet, we can't continue to be mired in the same old stale debates between left and right, between environmentalists and entrepreneurs."



President Obama is correct. But while Obama's working on the revival of nuclear power, some aren't happy with his efforts. Take Mother Jones, which reports that nuclear power plant cost overruns should give Obama and others pause because it takes taxpayer dollars to overcome the cost problem.

But that's the whole point of Obama's program - to use government loans and subsidies to make creating nuclear power plants more feasible. So in pointing out what they don't like about Obama's program, and reading like a Republican publication in the process, Mother Jones just explained why government subsidies are necessary in American Industry: to stimulate construction and industrial revival.

This is why it's never good to be an ideolog regardless of political leaning, left or right. A logical thinker would conclude that government subsidies were necessary to jump start an industry - The Nuclear Industry - that has made massive technical advances in 30 years. But rather than look at it that way, Mother Jones holds on to liberal ideological prejudices against nuclear power and wrongly assumes that because an expenditure is made for nuclear power, renewable energy efforts will suffer.

Fortunately, President Obama's not paying attention to them.

Haiti earthquake relief efforts draw Doc Gurley

Doc Gurley, the San Francisco-based physician and public health expert blogger, has made the greatest donation one can give to the effort of helping Haiti after the massive earthquake: herself and her time.

Doc Gurley blogs about her first day on the ground in Haiti, and talked with this blogger about her planned Haiti relief trip before she left when we met for lunch at the Lake Chalet in Oakland:



Doc Gurley will be posting updates on her Haiti relief trip. Stay tuned.

We Are The World 25 for Haiti - Sarah Palin singing Rap lyrics?

We Are The World 25 for Haiti is out and is a smashing success. It's now the number one Itunes download. And while the remake has enjoyed rave reviews, not everyone is happy. Count Jay-Z among them who, according to EW.com, did not participate in We Are The World 25 because "We Are the World’ is like ‘Thriller’ to me, Jay-Z said, "I don’t ever wanna see it touched."

While Jay-Z wanted a new song and not the remake, others have mixed reviews of the rap lyrics in the song. This blogger thinks the rap portion, created by LL Cool J, is genius. But some commenters were "thrown off" by the rap portion, one of the commenters on my We Are The World video said Wyclef Jean "sounded like Tarzan", and New York's Jay Smooth took to his website Illdoctrine.com to announce...

It is with a heavy heart I must report that on the evening of February 12th, 2010, Rap Music died once and for all. After battling a long illness, our beloved Rap was too weak to withstand the overpowering shame of that We Are The World remake.

We Are The World 25 for Haiti is powerful, period. And the rap portion is a logical and welcome addition given the growth of Hip Hop Culture. But to me, We Are The World 25 for Haiti is not complete until we have Republicans singing it. That's right: Republicans.

I can think of no better person for this, than Sarah Palin. If Sarah Palin can raise the roof on Saturday Night Live, she can sing the rap portion of We Are The World 25 for Haiti. My video is a kind of simulation of Sarah Palin singing We Are The World 25 for Haiti's rap.

Now, Sarah Palin's got to live up to this. It will give her the street cred she needs if she wants to be President of The United States!

Seriously.

Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras - what's going on in Oakland, SF, and Atlanta?

Today is Fat Tuesday or "Mardi Gras" and according to Wikipedia historically refers to the yummy ritual of eating richer, fatty foods before the fasting of the Lenten Season, which starts on what is called Ash Wednesday. But you know that Fat Tuesday is a synonym for "party Tuesday" in February. It's a day to wear beads and masks and do things you'd normally not do on a "school day" let alone a "school night". But where do you go if you happen to shuttle between Atlanta and the San Francisco Bay Area? Good question.

In Oakland, Ozumo's on the corner of Broadway and Grand is hosting a celebration that starts at 5 PM PST and features the sounds of New Orleans by live entertainment and "DJ Gray". In addition there will be Fat Tuesday food specials and Brazilian drink specials.

Right next door to Ozumo's free event, Pican's hosting a Fat Tuesday celebration, too, and that starts at 5:30 PM PST. Pican will have beads, boas, "traditional NOLA bites", Southern Comfort Hurricanes, and a cocktail called "Bulleit Sazerac" according to the report. In Pican's case, the cost is $75 at the door and $5 goes to Haitian relief. But with that, Pican's a fun place:



But Broadway & Grand's not the only place to go for Fat Tuesday in Oakland; you can head down to Jack London Square, too.

Miss Pearls Jam House at The Waterfront Hotel where Broadway ends has a Fat Tuesday event which starts at 7 PM PST. Miss Pearls' features live music with the Craig Caffall Band and an evening raffle.

Of course, if you want to have a party on Fat Tuesday without the heafy entry fee, check out Lake Chalet at 1520 Lakeside Drive. It's my favorite place to eat in Oakland, the bar is well-stocked, and it's always beads-friendly. Plus, if it's a nice day in the evening, the Patio should be rocking! The Lake Chalet is where I held my YouTube Meetup a while back:



Also, head over to Arizmendi Bakery on Lakeshore or in San Francisco for Fat Tuesday. No cocktails, but they do have something called "King Cake", a "colorful Danish pastry with pecans"! Now, as a word of warning, it seems only the San Francisco Arizmendi has a Fat Tuesday-related happening, but check the Oakland Arizmendi Bakery anyway. They're always full of unannounced surprises!

Of course, if you want a more serious evening you can head over to the Oakland City Council Budget Session at the Oakland City Hall at 5 PM PST. But after that gut-wrenching slice-and-dice party, you may very well be driven to drink, so wear your beads!

Fat Tuesday in San Francisco, frankly, makes Oakland look like a kitchen match compared to the H-Bomb-sized number of events in "The City". Here's a link to a search for all that's going on this year, 2010: FAT TUESDAY SAN FRANCISCO. But if you need some direction, go to Ruby Skye and check out the band "The Wonderbread 5". And of course, there's the Carnival celebration at the Mission Cultural Center that kicks off at 6 PM.

For me, the place to go is The Balboa Cafe on the corner of Fillmore and Greenwich, where there's no cover charge, a lot of beads, bartenders Lance and Brian should be working tonight, and if you're single it's a ton of fun (no comment on what married people do there!).

But what about Atlanta on Fat Tuesday?

The difference is the Fat Tuesday ethic is rich in Atlanta, even when it's not Fat Tuesday! Again there's so much to do, that a search link works best for ya: FAT TUESDAY ATLANTA. But where to go from all of the choices? Thee's the Mardi RA Masquerade Ball 2010 at RA Sushi at 1080 Peachtree St., Suite 8. There, you join Baton Bob as he hold his costume contest. It starts at 8 PM and its free.

The other place to go to is Parish Foods and Goods at 240 N. Highland Ave. They've got an all day thing with oysters, all-you-can-eat treats, roasted pig, and red beans and rice. Yum! Check it out.

What ever you do, be safe and don't drink and drive.

Geekosystem doesn't get the diversity message

YouTube, Metacafe, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, StupidVideos and Viddler

Geekosystem doesn't get the diversity message, judging by this rather unfortunately bad take in Mediaite.

(And for the record, Steve Krakauer, who wrote the post is confused. He's confronting me, not the San Francisco Chronicle. That's a crazy trick some people resort to when they don't like my opinion on something. The fact is the SF Chronicle does not tell me what to write or to think and that's the way they like it; me too. Plus, the same post can be found at Zennie62.com and I'm syndicated with a number of organizations and have a TV show. Moreover, I've contributed to Mediaite and who knows, this blog post may wind up there too!)

Geekosystem is the new Dan Abrams website that's attempting to represent what it considers "Geek culture." That really got my attention, so I visited the site and because Rachel Sklar's the Editor-At-Large at Mediaite, I expected some of the same obvious attention to cultural diversity that has been presented in Mediaite. But when I visited Geekosystem, I didn't see that at all and discovered that Rachel didn't have the same creative control. Thus, I went into action.

I'm well aware of what I'm doing. I'm one of the few African American voices in media that generally points out racism and diversity problems in such a way that the message is widely distributed. That upsets people who don't want to be reminded we still have a long way to go.

My value system says that people should want to mix and that diversity is not only good, it is something that is to be expected at every turn. Diversity is the one sign we're not going to repeat the civil rights mistakes of the past.

My issue with Geekosystem is described here, so I'll work to expand on it with this blog post. Simply this: Geekosystem does not show that Geek culture is truly so diverse that if I click on a mention of programmers I would see someone black, for example. I mention African Americans because between mainstream black culture and mainstream media, blacks who are geeks are largely ignored, or at least feel that they are. This is also true for women, even though that's changed a lot because of the great work of organizations like BlogHer.

But my point is, no one, woman or minority should look at a publication like Geekosystem and feel excluded. If I, or someone else, makes that claim it's not to be dismissed. It's very real. Stating that I should start a site called BlackGeeksdotcom is not going to solve the diversity problem. That promotes racial segregation.

Diversity is more than having an intern who's of color write on a publication from behind the veil. It's having the desire and mission to present an obviously diverse World. That's what I'm driving at. Yes, my point of view is infuriating. That it is, is a barometer of how far we have to go. It's the only way to really smash the comfort level of world view that allowed Geekosystem to develop. From a hard, cold, demographic perspective, the publication does appeal to what is a young, white, frat boy mentality. And as a guy who does have much of that point of view, yet is black, I'm well qualified to point it out.

We're in the middle of a culture war today. There are people, like myself, who launched an online campaign to compare Stanford Running Back Toby Gerhart, who's white, to NFL Legend Jim Brown, who's black. Why? Because the media tendency has been to compare white running backs to white running backs, and black running backs to black running backs. That's wrong and ignores the simple fact that Toby Gerhart runs like Jim Brown. Period.

We're forcing a type of thinking that says "racial diversity" first. If you think about the long term outcome of such an objective, it means a much better quality of life and a and more economically efficient America. No longer will we have to worry that the best programmer out there was ignored because he or she was black or female. Geekosystem can go a long way toward creating that kind of American society. Indeed, there's no good reason for Geekosystem to fight it. To the extent that any reader is annoyed by my call, I'm very delighted. Diversity does not happen by accident; it occurs by intent.

Oscar Nominees Luncheon Live Stream here!

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), Oscar Luncheon is in full swing now at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side) has just complete her question and answer session with the press. Now, Precious Director Lee Daniels is speaking.

Bullock is just one of a number of attendees (as was presented in this space): from the Best Actor and Best Actress categories are: Jeff Bridges, George Clooney, Colin Firth, Morgan Freeman, Jeremy Renner, Sandra Bullock, Carey Mulligan, Gabourey Sidibe and Meryl Streep.

For the Best Supporting Actor and Actress Categories, Vera Farmiga, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Anna Kendrick, Woody Harrelson and Christoph Waltz have been invited to the luncheon. All five Best Director nominees are here: Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron, Lee Daniels, Jason Reitman and Quentin Tarantino.

Here's the live cast:

Watch live streaming video from academyawards at livestream.com

Rachel Maddow embarrassed Rep. Aaron Schock on Meet The Press

The Internet is abuzz with accounts of MSNBC's Rachel Maddow's confrontation of Rep. Aaron Schock (R-Ill) on NBC News' Meet The Press (MTP), Sunday.

Rachel Maddow, in pointing out that Rep. Aaron Schock criticized Democrats for economic stimulus spending programs, then shows up for ribbon cuttings of facilities funded by those same programs, embarrassed the neophyte GOP congressman from Illinois.

Rachel Maddow said:

...just this week you were at a community college touting a $350,000 green technology education program, talking about how great that was going to be for your district. You voted against the bill that created that grant. And so that's happening a lot with Republicans sort of taking credit for things that Democratic bills do, and then Republicans simultaneously touting their votes against them and trashing them. That's, I think, a, a, a problem that needs to be resolved within, within your caucus, because, I mean, you seem like a very nice person, but that's very hypocritical stance to take.

Here's a video of the MTP segment where Rachel Maddow punks Rep. Aaron Schock:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

But there's a bigger problem than Rachel Maddow's embarrassing expose of Rep. Aaron Schock's actions and that's Rep. Aaron Schock's lack of knowledge of the details on that which he speaks. That's getting him into a lot of credibility trouble, especially at home in Illinois.

Billy Dennis of Peoria Pundit, a blog out of Peoria, Illinois, points out that Schock got "his facts wrong" when Schock stated that accused terrorists were not read their Miranda rights. Dennis found a CBS News account of U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and F.B.I. Director Robert Muller explaining that the terrorist in question, Richard Reid, aka "The Show Bomber" , was read his Miranda rights, and that was during the Bush Administration.

Schock should spend more time studying, not sunning

And The Atlantic Blogger Andrew Sullivan observed that Rep. Aaron Schock is "in over his head" after the GOP Congressman said he was "pro-torture" and explained that the method was working, when most in Washington, including many conservatives, knew that torture wasn't working.

Andrew Sullivan:

At some point, someone close to him needs to pull him aside and say "keep your head down, learn the issues before you go on television and start spewing things that can't be unsaid." The fact that he hasn't even toured the prison in his own district is pathetic.

Congressman Schock should heed Sullivan's advice before Illinois voters give him more time to work on his abs.

Stay tuned.

American Red Cross must explain $175 million in unallocated Haiti donations

One month ago, singer Wycef Jean's "NGO" (for"Non-Governmental Organization) called "Yelle Haiti" raised just over $1 million to help victims of the 7.0 Haiti Earthquake. At the time, scores of non-profit organizations sprang up to announce some kind of effort to assist the quake-damaged country.

But of all of them, Yelle Haiti received the most attention because of alleged past spending patterns, leading to the awful and unfounded accusation that Wycef Jean was using the money for personal use. In this video made one month ago, Wycef Jean answered his critics:



Just after The Smoking Gun and The Washington Post blog posts were issued (and with no evidence of having attempted to personally contact Wycef Jean to give him a chance to respond to the accusations) and the rescue efforts ramped up, suddenly the American Red Cross became mentioned in commercial after commercial as the "go-to" nonprofit for donations.

Ok, but where's the $165 million?

Some newspapers, like The San Francisco Chronicle, included the American Red Cross in a list of recommended organizations to donate to in the effort to help Haiti. The message, and thus the common assumption or "conventional wisdom", was that the American Red Cross was the "safe" organization to donate to.

It's not.

According to CNN Money, The American Red Cross had to ask for a $100 million cash infusion after its emergency fund was depleted. Today, reports are that the American Red Cross spent or committed nearly $80 million to "meet the most urgent needs of earthquake survivors."

But wait. Where did the cost of $80 million come from? Or is it that the American Red Cross received that much in donations and while all of it is committed, only part of it is spent? According to the American Red Cross' own one month report, it has raised $255 million for the Haitian Relief effort.

That's as much money as was raised to finance the upgrade construction of the Miami Dolphins' stadium for Super Bowl XLIV.

But here's where the reports gets really confusing and disturbing. While $255 million was raised, only $80 million was spent or committed, leaving $175 million in donations that's neither spent nor committed to Haiti.

Where's the $175 million the American Red Cross collected? Where's The Washington Post and The Smoking Gun to look at this?

The complete American Red Cross Haiti one month report does not help because it fails to even mention the $175 million collected but not spent or committed to Haiti.

Why?

The logical mind would think that if the American Red Cross gained $255 million in money that donors believed was going to the Haiti effort, then all of the $255 million should be committed to Haiti, not some of it.

This is a major outrage. But more outrageous is the media's blind eye to the American Red Cross' activities. One would think a reporter would not be so lazy that they could avoid subtracting $80 million from $255 million, get $175 million, read the Red Cross' online documents, and start asking about the unallocated $175 million?

But that's what's happened in the case of the only mainstream media organization to look at donation spending progress to date, The Miami Herald. The report in the business section mentions the $255 million and the $80 million in one sentence - this one:

For Haiti, the Red Cross has raised more than $250 million and has plans for some $80 million of that so far, said Red Cross spokesman Jonathan Aiken.

But disturbingly, The Miami Herald fails to ask the "What happened to the $175 million in donations" question.

Everyone deserves an answer, especially Wycef Jean and those who've ran Yelle Haiti, and who continue to be dogged by a PR attack that seems to have benefitted organizations like the American Red Cross and allowed them to submit sloppy reports of their own.

Indeed, The Miami Herald picked up the "something's wrong with Yelle Haiti" theme and repeated it in the same story where they give the American Red Cross a blind pass. That is awful and must be explained ASAP.

Stay tuned.

Jamie Mcmurray wins Daytona 500; pothole ruins race rep

Jamie Mcmurray managed to win a Daytona 500 permanently scared by what will go down as The Pothole Problem. The Daytona 500 was stopped for 2 hours and 23 minutes so that track workers could conduct the mundane and (one would think) already accomplished work of covering potholes.

If one stops to consider how important it is to have a safe track, then the only explanation for why a race like the Daytona 500 was allowed to go on, even with such a problem, has to be budget cuts running up against sponsor expectations. In other words, "We paid for this TV time, so you'd better start this race, period." So they did.

But the pothole problem was too great to ignore and the race was stopped while it was addressed. While observers felt the pothole "wasn't a big issue" at the end of the race, that it happened is a problem. Dale Earnhardt told the USA Today he's called for a resurfacing in the past. But to date, nothing has happened.

With a year to prepare the Daytona 500 track, this is an awful development. But even worse is that no one can explain how conditions were allowed to deteriorate to this level.

Stay tuned.

Celebrity Breakups and your Valentine's Day Survival Guide from Cat & Allie

Reese and Jake? Madonna and Jesus? Valentine's Day is just one opportunity to think about relationships gone wrong. But instead of that, Allie and I made this little vlog about Valentine's Day gone RIGHT. And a bunch of other random stuff... 

Grab that grapefruit body scrub from Trader Joe's, tell your family that you love them and be happy you're single instead of in a bad relationship! Valentine's Day is what you make of it. And listen to what me (a recovering love pessimist) and Allie (well... still a pessimist) have to say about the big day. xo

SomeRedCat.tumblr.com

Picture of Dr. Amy Bishop as murderer and teacher confusing and complex

The murder of three University of Alabama-Huntsville professors by Dr. Amy Bishop-Anderson, a a neurobiologist and assistant professor in that school's biology department is now three days old, yet the picture painted is not any more clear than before.

The image of Dr. Bishop is complex and moves from being one of brilliant researcher, genius, mother of four children and good teacher, to protective murderer and gun-happy woman, possible closet racist, and Harvard-trained kook, and now 1993 mail bomb suspect and 1986 murderer.

What's left officially unexplained, and what this blogger has been trying to focus on, is Amy Bishop's motivation for taking such a self-destructive turn in a life that showed great promise. Why did Dr. Bishop sefl-destruct. The LA Times reports she did not resist arrest. To get at the motivation requires looking at what Dr. Bishop may consider a threat, but that does not mean this blogger condones anything Dr. Bishop has done.

Regarding the murder of her biology collegues, the University of Alabama - Huntsville's website reports...

Confirmed dead are Dr. Gopi Podila, chair of the university’s biology department, Dr. Maria Davis, an associate professor of biology and Dr. Adriel Johnson, also an associate professor of biology. The injured have been identified as Dr. Joseph Leahy, associate professor of biology, and staff assistant Ms. Stephanie Monticciolo. Both were in critical condition at Huntsville Hospital Saturday afternoon. Dr. Luis Cruz-Vera, assistant professor of biology, was listed in stable condition and was able to leave the hospital on Saturday afternoon.

Working backward from Saturday, it was revealed that Dr. Bishop accidentally murdered her brother in 1986, but rather than be tried in a court of law, The Boston Herald reports the incident was considered an accident and Bishop was released to her mother, who worked on the police personal board; the case was closed and detailed records of it can't be found.

On Sunday it was reported that in 1993 Dr. Bishop was questioned as a possible mail bomber suspect after two bombs were sent to a Harvard Medical School professor. Bishop was an instructor at the Harvard Medical School who reportedly had a negative evaluation from the professor, thus the possible motive. Bishop was cleared from further consideration.

With all of this, UAB students have painted a picture of a Dr. Bishop that was a good teacher who gave informative, if "tagent-prone" lectures, and who took time to help them. Indeed, the whole issue is as confusing to students at Bama as it is to the rest of the World.

The reason why this matter is so intriguing is that no one had any warning that Bishop was going to snap in this way (if the murder allegations hold). It's important to not only get at the motivations for what she did, but how to spot such possible actions in the future and declare the person mentally ill and thus eligible for special treatment, care, and observation. This is important because students, parents, faculty, and staff need to know if they're safe in the future. What the community of The University of Alabama at Huntsville is going through should not be repeated again.

(For students who happen to read this and want to see a grief counselor, the University's web page has information on how to contact them. Click here: INFO.)

We Are The World 25 - 2010 We Are The World list of artists

If you've not seen it yet, We Are The World 25 is here. The 2010 version of We Are The World, recorded February 1st 2010 and in the same studio as the original recording, (now called Henson Recording Studios, formerly A&M Recording Studios), is just as beautiful as it's 25 year old father.

We Are The World 25 is a combination of private recording sessions and one large gathering of musicians and includes the late Michael Jackson. It's produced by Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie with Wyclef Jean, Randy Phillips and Peter Tortorici, Humberto Gattica and RedOne, and co-producers Rickey Minor, Mervyn Warren and Patti Austin. All to help the people of Haiti.

Here's the video followed by the full list of artists on We Are The World 25:



To donate to help Haiti, text "WORLD" to 50555 and visit World25.org

Here's the full list of artists who gave their voice to We Are The World 25 from the website World25.org:

QUINCY JONES – Executive Producer
LIONEL RICHIE – Executive Producer
WYCLEF JEAN – Executive Producer
RICKEY MINOR – Producer
RedOne – Producer
CARLOS SANTANA
JENNIFER HUDSON
JAMIE FOXX
SUGAR
LANDADAM LEVINE
JASON MRAZ
EARTH WIND & FIRE
NATALIE COLE
THE JONAS BROTHERS
T PAIN
BRIAN WILSON
JUSTIN BIEBER
NICOLE SCHERZINGER
INDIA.ARIE
JULIANNE HOUGH
MARY MARY
MELANIE FIONA
BEBE WINANSMYA
TYRESE GIBSON
ANTHONY HAMILTON
RAPHAEL SAADIQ
GLADYS KNIGHT
KERI HILSON
JOEL & BENJI MADDEN
HEART
BRANDY
P!NK
MUSIQ SOULCHILD
MILEY CYRUS
AKON
JORDIN SPARKS
CELINE DION
ROB THOMAS
KATHARINE McPHEE
JEFF BRIDGES
RANDY JACKSON
PATTI AUSTIN
KID CUDI
USHER
WILL.I.AM
KANYE WEST
LL COOL J
ISSAC SLADE (aka The Fray)
SNOOP DOGG
NICOLE RICHIE
TREY SONGZ
ETHAN BORTNICK
TARYLL JACKSON
TAJ JACKSON
TJ JACKSON
VINCE VAUGHN
DRAKE
FREDA PAYNE
FAITH EVANS
ROBIN THICKE
RASHIDA JONES
BARBRA STREISAND
JIMMY JEAN LOUIS
ENRIQUE IGLESIAS
ZAC BROWN
LIL WAYNE
TONY BENNETT
JOSH GROBAN
SEAN GARRETT
HARRY CONNICK, JR.
AL JARDINE
BONE THUGS AND HARMONY (BIZZY BONES)
AR RAHMEN
FERGIE
MARY J. BLIGE
ORIANTHI
MANN
NIPSEY HUSSLE
IYAZ
KEITH HARRIS
NIKKA COSTA
TONI BRAXTON
FARNSWORTH BENTLEY
PLAIN PATIL TRIO

Academy Luncheon Monday, Oscar Contest Finalists - Oscar Buzz Roundup

AMPAS, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, sends so many press releases - at times as many as six within a given week when the Academy Awards are not in full swing - that it spawned this experiment in Oscar-related blogging and Internet reach.

This is the Oscar Buzz Roundup.

Oscar Nominees to Be Honored at Academy Luncheon Monday

Monday features a luncheon that's certainly one this blogger should be at. At 12 noon, 14 of the 20 nominees in the acting categories will join 120 Academy Awards nominees for the annual Nominees Luncheon at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

All five Best Director nominees will be there: Kathryn Bigelow, James Cameron, Lee Daniels, Jason Reitman and Quentin Tarantino.

Expected to attend from the Best Actor and Best Actress categories are: Jeff Bridges, George Clooney, Colin Firth, Morgan Freeman, Jeremy Renner, Sandra Bullock, Carey Mulligan, Gabourey Sidibe and Meryl Streep. For the Best Supporting Actor and Actress Categories, Vera Farmiga, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Anna Kendrick, Woody Harrelson and Christoph Waltz have been invited to the luncheon.

Three Finalists Named in Academy/mtvU Oscar Correspondent Contest

AMPAS smartly partnered with MTV-U to produce a contest such that teams of college journalists would be flown to Los Angeles to compete for a spot on The Red Carpet. The winning teams and (their videos) are:

Chapman University, Orange, CA – Rachel Berry (anchor) and Christian Hartnett (videographer)
..and a corny but entertaining video that scored a 52 percent thumbs up rating:



Emerson College, Boston, MA – Terry Stackhouse (anchor) and Zach Cusson (videographer) - and an informative video that earned a 51 percent rating:



Florida A&M University, Tallahassee – Brandon McCaskill (anchor) and Kiarra Hart (videographer) and this special-effects-laden video:



You can still vote for these teams through March 2nd, here: Oscars.MTVU.com

The Grand Prize winning team will be announced Saturday, March 6th at a special Academy Awards press conference. The winning team will receive their spot on The Red Carpet and backstage press room passes. The runner-ups will be placed in the bleacher seats above The Red Carpet on Oscar day.

To see all of the videos that were submitted, click here: Oscars / MTV-U. Congratulations to the winning teams!

Actress Elizabeth Banks will host the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Scientific and Technical Awards on Saturday, February 20

The Oscar Scientific and Technical Awards, presented in this space, will be the focus of this Saturday's "Oscar special night" at the Beverly Wilshire in Beverly Hills, hosted by the lovely Elizabeth Banks (pictured).

Ms. Banks will present 15 awards to 45 individual recipients during the night's event. And you can catch Elizabeth Banks in Paul Haggis' film The Next Three Days.

Stay tuned for more Oscar news.

Happy Valentine's Day! Dating Doc shares his secrets

UPDATE: The makeer of the video below reports:

1) There are no Actors in the film
2) All events that took place are part of a Documentary Film in San
Francisco by Independent Filmmakers part of the organization at
(www.scarycow.com)
3) The services provided are real and are catered for San Francisco Bay
Area Singles (www.newdatinglife.com)

Today is Valentine's Day, one of the best days of the year. It is so because the very idea of Valentine's Day is associated with giving.

But today, with so many men and women trying to seek perfection in relationships (or the perfect person) when such a thing does not exist, many spend time worrying about who they didn't get a Valentine's Day greeting from, rather than enjoying who gave them one.   The result is a lot of depressed sprits for all the wrong reasons.

And some men, particularly in the San Francisco Bay Area, have forgotten how to approach and talk to a woman, if they ever knew how to. So they wallow in despair, silently cursing couples or expressing anger with men who aren't afraid of, and really like, women.

 That's where San Francisco-based "Dating Doc's Secrets to Attraction" comes in.

In the video below, Dating Doc helps this poor San Franciscan male out who just can't figure out what to say to a woman he's interested in:



OK. Now, I'll let you in on the joke. There's no Dating Doc (as far as I know). The video was sent to me by the YouTube channel NewDatingLife which houses the video work of Charles Gellman. All of the people in the video were actors. Even the website NewDatingLife.com is a fake service.

(Not sure what that says about our culture, but I'll think about it.)

But even with that, the video does capture a problem in the Bay Area: the lost art of verbal communication between people, regardless of the reason.

In a culture where people dump each other via text message, openly talking about anything is out of practice. The implications of this are the collapse of how a community of people relate, which keeps that group together.

The result is that no one really knows the other person at a level where trust can be established. It may also lead to the idea that people don't have to help each other, which means that a crime could be committed against one person, and the people in what should be that community do nothing about it.

You say we've already got that kind of situation?

To end it, we have to return to the art of talking. So on Valentine's Day practice striking up a conversation with just any one, for any reason.  Test yourself.  You're giving the gift of real community on a day when community and communication take center stage.

Or, they should.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Dr. Amy Bishop of Alabama-Huntsville killed to protect intellectual property

This news in the case of Dr. Amy Bishop-Anderson of Alabama-Huntsville, who murdered three of her colleagues in that school's biology department.



It was revealed to this blogger by a source who claims that Amy Bishop was his faculty advisor, that Dr. Amy Bishop Anderson killed to protect what she considered to be her intellectual property after Bishop lost tenure and was not going to be retained by the University.

"You called it when you said you thought this happened over her invention," and referring to this bloggers first post on this matter,"When her tenure was denied, that invention became the intellectual property of the university."

The invetion Dr. Amy Bishop believed was hers and that she had rights to something Bishop created, and what was reported in this space, is a portable cell-incubator called "InQ" which won the couple an award in a state competition and won $25,000 of seed money in a business competition, money they could use to start a company around the invention.

Dr. Bishop was also working on something she called The Neuristor, also reported in this space as using neurons as we use integrated circuits in a living computer. Bishop wrote:

Neuroengineering

My laboratory's goal will be to continue in our effort to develop a neural computer, the Neuristorâ„¢, using living neurons. This computer will exploit all of the advantages of neurons. Specifically, neurons rich with the nitric oxide NO dependent learning receptor, N Methyl D Aspartate receptor NMDAR, will be utilized. These have previously been studied in the context of induced adaptive resistance to NO IAR. For the Neuristorâ„¢ we will take advantage of the IAR phenomena since it has been demonstrated that IAR neurons express more learning and memory receptors NMDAR as well as increased neurite outgrowth. The neurons that we are currently using are mammalian motor neurons. We are exploring the possibility of using neurons derived from adult stem cells, and from bony fishes provided by Bruce Stallsmith Ph.D. This laboratory has created a portable cell culture incubator, the Cell Driveâ„¢ that is an ideal support structure for the Neuristor".

Still, there are many unanswered questions in this case. Dr. Bishop could have sued the University for damages or filed a criminal theft complain. But why murder in cold blood. That question remains unanswered.

Nodar Kumaritashvili's Olympics luge death fault of track design

Georgian Luger Nodar Kumaritashvili's Olympics luge death during a training run was the fault of the track at the Whistler Sliding Centre, not the athlete.

That is the opinion of this blogger as of this writing, not anyone else. It runs counter to the official view of Olympic officials, who fault the athlete and not the track. This bloggers' view comes from a back understanding of how a vessel moves along a surface at a certain speed.

The basic problem is the track, which has been adjusted since the accident, was such that it had the luger coming from a curved, banked part of the track to a right-angled, straight-away portion. If one takes the curve high, it literally tosses the luger into the wall that is the straight-away part of the course coming out of the turn.

While many have criticized NBC for showing the video of the crash, the public should see it, given the design issues the track presented. What's curious is how, in the 21st Century, the course designers could have overlooked such an obvious flaw?

And update as this blog post is being written: Deadspin reports that the Whistler Sliding Centre track's design was questioned by many athletes and observers. Three riders were hospitalized in 2008 duing the World Cup. Deadspin quotes American lugar Tony Benshoof as telling NBC that someone "was going to kill themselves" on the track.

Having higher track walls isn't the answer at all. The whole track needs to be torn down and rebuilt. It's simply too dangerous to be used.

We Are The World 2010 - Miley Cyrus kills it

25 years ago Michael Jackson, Lionel Richie, and Quincy Jones joined forces to make a song benefit for Africa called "We Are The World" which got together top music artists from Bob Dylan to The King of Pop for what's turned out to be a classic song.



In 2010 Lionel Richie, and Quincy Jones, and members of The Jackson Family joined with a more contemporary set of artists, from LL Cool J to Lil Wayne, Justin Bieber, and Barbara Streisand. But of all of the singers, the one who's got everyone talking is Miley Cyrus.

The teen pop sensation from the TV Show Hanna Montana sang her heart out and in a way some did not expect. Not this blogger.

Miley Cyrus can sing. Some, particularly on Twitter, express the idea in a way that they're surprised that this 17-year old white girl has a soulful voice. All of it has degenerated into a #WeLoveMileyCyrus v. #WeHateMileyCyrus tweet battle. But even with all of the sex-based marketing, if Miley Cyrus couldn't sing she would not have top selling albums or singles.

Moreover, Miley Cyrus is showing an interest in helping those less fortunate than she and teaming up with artists like Timbalind who are just outside her normal song genre.

Give Miley Cyrus a break and a real chance.

Oakland Raiders Stadium study: competitive bid and minority involvement missing?

The Oakland Tribune article on the possibility of a shared football stadium between the Oakland Raiders and the San Francisco 49ers is certainly exciting news, but lost in the hope that the Raiders get a new stadium - 49ers or not - is any attention to the process behind getting to that point.

In this case, on Friday February 19th the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority is considering a proposal from CSL International, an event planning and stadium development consulting firm to write a feasibility study of a stadium for the Oakland Raiders.

Great, but where's the competitive bid for the consultant? And what about minority involvement in the study's development? Now that the Oakland Raiders have finally succeeded in getting the City of Oakland to see that it needs a new stadium, it's important to make sure the Oakland Coliseum Authority doesn't screw it up.

Where public monies are used, sole-source consultant contracts are frowned on and have been for decades. The reasons are simple: such contracts are looked at as political gifts or favors to a friend unless there's solid evidence that that company, and only that firm, can do the job required.

In the case of a feasibility study for a stadium for the Oakland Raiders that may include the San Francisco 49ers, there's no evidence or source that can confirm that the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Authority conducted a competitive bid process, out of which CSL International emerged.

The contract is reportedly for $125,000, not below $5,000, which is the California legal level at which a contract must be below if it is "sole-sourced" or without a competitive bid process. And as Oakland is a charter city, this process goes against the City of Oakland's own process and it's "hire Oakland first" mandate for the use of Oakland's public funds for contracts.

As one who's done feasibility study work, this blogger can assert that what the Oakland Coliseum is looking for does not take a rocket scientist to do. (And this blogger has no interest in being considered for any City of Oakland contract.)

These questions must be answered by the Coliseum Authority:

1) which firms out there in Oakland and in the San Francisco Bay Area can do this work?

2) Where they contacted in writing by the Coliseum Authority's Executive Director?

3) What was their written response?

4) Why was CSL International selected out of the competitive bid process?

5) Does CSL International have people of color on its staff?

If all of these questions can be answered, then CSL International was selected fairly. But if not and it appears that CSL International was chosen out of an informal and process controlled by the current Coliseum executive director, their proposal should be rejected. The Coliseum executive director should be made to start the process over, the right way.

The Oakland Raiders deserve a new stadium. But there's no hurry; the process toward a new facility should be done in an inclusive, not secretive, way.

Dr. Amy Bishop of Alabama-Huntsville well regarded by students

Dr. Amy Bishop, who has been charged with murder and could receive the death penalty in the wake of the shooting of Gopi K. Podila, Maria Ragland Davis and Adriel Johnson, all professors in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Alabama's Huntsville campus. According to the Huffington Post, Amy Bishop could be heard saying "It didn't happen. There's no way .... they are still alive." No students were harmed in the shooting.

If this is a case of Amy Bishop allegedly "going off" - and as there's a man who's a "person-of-interest" so this matter is far from clear - she didn't do so to her students. And from online grades Amy Bishop received, the professor was well regarded by her students.

At the "Rate My Professor" page for Amy Bishop, students gave her an overall grade of 3.6, with her only low grade a 2.3 for "Average Easiness". Bishop received a 3.7 for Average Helpfulness.

Students comments painted a picture of a teacher who cared about her subjects, and of students who seemed to care about her. They also show a person who's bright, gives lectures that go off on "tangents", and who at least one student described as "hot":

am in her lab and her class. She is smart, talks about more stuff than just the book. She lets me sit in her office and study. She always dresses nice. She should stop trying to straighten her hair and go natural!

Bishop uses the online stuff, the internet, powerpoint, from the book and some stuff not from the book. If you show up to class and listen to what she tells you what is important and what is not as important you will get an A. Her animations from that anatomy program always crash the laptop(last year). This year her she bought her own laptop.

Study wha she tells u to study. If you have previous exams, u are more likely to get an A. Make sure u have good friends in that class, b/c they might have more resources to share with ya. Dont sweat it and go for it.

Dr.Bishop is so cool!

She is very nice, but her class is boring. Human A&P all we do is highlight the book. She reads straight from the book. I can do that at home. There is tons of material and she doesn't really narrow down what's going to be on the test. However, the class wasn't too hard though. There's just a lot of studying.

This prof is absolutely the bomb! Knows her stuff cold, and quick witted too. Never met anyone who knows more random knowledge. Sci-fi to quantum mechanics with a little art history thrown in the mix. Who knew? Definitely take one of her courses!

Dr. Bishop says she has to teach us about so much so we are ready for nursing classes. It is so much material! But she is nice, helpful and makes it interesting. I like her study day she has before the test.I heard she is from Harvard.I hope she remembers that she is not at Harvard.

Dr. Bishop is a great teacher! She talks about the stuff in the book but then she talks about extra stuff like diseases. This makes the class fun. She's super smart and thinks everyone else is too so sometimes she goes too fast.

Dr. Bishop tries to be a good teacher, but it's really pointless to come to class. All you do is highlight the book word for word. She is also very vague about her tests and what you should study; her answer is just study everything (which is the entire book.) She might have graduated from Harvard, but she has very little common sense.

I don't know what you people are talking about! She is not "easy" unless you are her favorite. She gets off on random**** all the time and is sooo completely scatter brained! I was there everyday, studied HARD, and still barely passed. I don't like her and don't recomend her.

Beware of Tangent Square Root!

Awesome teacher. She tends to make a lot of tangents but you learn a lot and she's always willing to help you out.

Mrs Bishop was totally awesome! She made this class fun and entertaining with her great sense of humor. She is always willing to help, and is great at working with students. I highly recommend this teacher!!

brilliant & hot

She makes class fun eventhough it is still hard.I thought because she is from Harvard she would be a snob but she isn't.She does not give multiple choice tests so her tests are hard. By the way Diane teaches BYS310 not Dr. Bishop.

If you didn't understand something in this class, she was willing to take time and give you a hand. She does what a professor is suppose to do: helps you and doesn't make you feel stupid.

She makes it seem like it is going to be hard but it is extremly easy. She is very unorganized, but its easy to get an A

Dr. Bishop is brilliant. Her research is fascinating. She will surely get the Nobel Prize. She is the best teacher I have ever had.

r. Bishop is extremely knowledgable about her field. She is grateful to help, you just have to ask. Her lectures are disorganized, but if you read your book, you'll get an A. I learned alot.

Dr. Bishop is very unclear in her test preparation, grading, and overall teaching style. She is not at all organized and neither are her lab instructors. The tests are fairly easy and you never really have to go to class except on review day.

Since Amy Bishop's not yet entered a plea regarding the murder charge, and the "person of interest" is still outstanding, we can't be absolute in our discussion of what happened. But what's clear to this blogger is there's a weird "Southern" issue with a "Harvard-trained" professor. The Alabama media stuck that tag as if to imply it had something to do with her alleged shooting of the three faculty members.

But the reference may be a clue to another problem: Dr. Bishop may have experienced a kind of anti-intellectual prejudice from the University of Alabama-Huntsville culture that could have just driven Bishop batty. A "You think you're better than us because you're from Harvard" attitude that may very well have blocked her from fair consideration by her peers.

I think there's something there worth investigating. This is not to excuse the action of murder, but an honest, cold, read of the situation with the current available information would lead a reasonable person to think Bishop was being discriminated against in the way I described. What's the point of mentioning that she's "Harvard-trained"?

If this happened at U.C. Berkeley (God forbid), no media outlet would mention that Bishop was "Harvard-trained", yet a ton of Berkeley faculty and instructors are. Something's wrong here.

Stay tuned.