Justin Bieber hits on Kim Kardashian at White House Dinner

Kim and Justin at White House Correspondents Dinner

For a 16-year-old Justin Bieber's becoming the man. At The White House Correspondents Dinner Bieber hits on Kim Kardashian, who he's said he wanted to date many times.

Of course Kim was with New Orleans Saints Running Back Reggie Bush, who now has to suffer as his Super Star Ex-Girlfriend openly flirts and teases with a gaggle of men from other athletes to the 16-year old Bieber (photo from Twitter).

In fact, Justin Bieber's claiming Kim Kardashian's his on Twitter:

KimKardashian I officially have Bieber Fever!!! RT @justinbieber: Look its my girlfriend @kimkardashian http://tweetphoto.com/20716573
about 14 hours ago via TweetGenius
Retweeted by justinbieber and 100+ others

But as I recall Justin Bieber wanted to date Barbara Walters and Tina Fey to name a few. That young man's head's on a swivel for sure.

Meanwhile, Reggie Bush must be busting a gut over Kim Kardashian's ability to make media in a second. Bush has a constant reminder that he should have married her if only to escape the indirect punishment he's receiving for not proposing to her after the Saint's Super Bowl win.

Meanwhile Kim's rockin' the Casbah!

Web 2.0 Expo is a waste of time

There was a time, not took long ago, when this blogger was excited to attend Web 2.0 Expo. Now, having just reviewed the website for this year, over and over again, I can't find anything of interest to me.

Plus, in the interest of full disclosure, I asked for a press pass two years ago and was rebuffed rather rudely by Tim O'Reilly and his people. After that, and with the ever-growing tech world melding more with entertainment, there were other conferences and events to attend, so I did not care.

Moreover, now that my video-blog reach is much greater, I'm in better position to deliver a message to an audience, and I just plain don't give a you-know-what, I don't care about Web 2.0 Expo for another reason: it's so, well, Web 2.0 Expo. Here we are again with the mother of all "Let me dictate to you from a high platform" conferences that's not about real time interaction. That should be the focus. Where's Mark Cuban when you need him?



What I like about Jeff Pulver's 140 Conference concept is that it's based on talk and real time interaction. And in the interest of full disclosure, I've not yet attended one of his conferences but a lot of my friends and associates have, and from the massive number of tweets I've received, I feel like I was at the New York Conference, even as I was in NYC for the 2010 NFL Draft. Props to Jeff.

Plus, Jeff Pulver is a cool guy.  This I can say from personal experience.

So that's why I'm just not excited about Web 2.0 Expo and will not even spend a dime or ask for any kind of pass this year. It's an old formula and reeks of a kind of selectivity that makes me ask "Who the heck are you to tell me..." in this case, about the "Power of Platforms."

What's really awful is that after being really interesting Web 2.0 Expo has settled into the same tired pattern that repeats itself again and again: someone talking to you about Facebook and Social Media without us talking about how all of this impacts media and about what new platforms are out there.

In other words the innovation climate once a part of Web 2.0 Expo is just gone. Moreover, O'Reilly Media shows that it doesn't really know what it's doing here by using "certain" platforms and not as many as possible. For example, the Web 2.0 Expo San Francisco webpage has just one video platform, and that's Blip.tv. I love Blip.tv, but No YouTube or Vimeo, and no Tubemogul? Thats crazy!

Using Tubemogul would automatically mean Web 2.0 Expo videos were on many different video platforms and not just one. "Power of Platforms?" Right. Sure. Okay.

And that's what really bugs me about Tim O'Reilly's approach: the overwhelming need to select "who gets in" and "what is used" which runs counter to the social media best practice of having a "mark" in every platform territory not just to get the message out, but also to block the chance some mean person will set up their own Web 2.0 Expo video channel on some place Tim and his people overlooked because it didn't matter to them or they just didn't know about it.

Like, er, YouTube. While O'Reilly Media has its own channel, you'd think they'd have one for Web 2.0 right? Well as of this writing, no they don't. Check the YouTube search for Web 2.0 Expo now (this could change after the release of this blog) and we find O'Reilly Media and a bunch of totally boring videos; no Web 2.0 Expo channel.

And no video-bloggers running around capturing cool stuff. Like, my video from the Reddit party in 2007:



Trouble is Reddit was new then and is still very relevant, but not to O'Reilly Media, which doesn't even use Reddit on its website. (There's that selectivity crap again.) Where's the party for the next great startup? I guess I'll have to wait for TechCrunch's next event.

Stay tuned.

NYC Times Square car bomb scare: who did it?

This blogger just returned from New York and The 2010 NFL Draft, and given that a week ago Saturday Times Square, next to Radio City Music Hall, was bustling and teaming with people on a warm spring night, it's shocking to learn that Times Square's shut down by a car with a bomb in it.

It happened at between 6 and 6:30 PM EST Saturday and was a Nissan Pathfinder that was parked on West 45th Street near 7th Avenue according to Gothamist.com. A T-shirt vendor who was not named and who was a Vietnam Veteran told NYPD mounted police officer, Wade Rattagan that a SUV's motor was running with its hazzard lights flashing.

CNN interviewed another man,Hamid Boubain, who was standing not less than "15 feet" from the SUV when he told a friend "Yo yo look at this!" and said that police came onto the scene 15 minutes later to clear everyone out of the area.

Eventually, Times Square and most of Midtown Manhattan was a ghost town with patrons evacuated from restaurants or told to stay in theater playhouses until further notice. Police cleared an area from 45th to 48th Streets and between 6th and 8th Avenue, according to The New York Times.

Then New York Police used a robot to go in and enter the vehicle. Inside were "three propane tanks, two filled five-gallon gas containers, two clocks with batteries, consumer-grade fireworks and a locked metal box that resembled a gun locker" according to CNN.

The SUV itself was unidentified. The license plate came from another car and police contacted that person who told them they'd taken the original car with the plate to a junk yard. The Vehicle Identification Number (VIN) was removed. It was a deliberate but unsuccessful attempt to terrorize New York City.

The question is "who did it?" No one knows. There were claims that someone ran from the car, but those were unfounded. The attempt was compared to the bombing in Glasgow, but that was in 2007.

Stay tuned.

Time Square Bomb Scare post by Suzannah B. Troy

First and foremost highest praise for the NYPD for their response and handling of what appears to be some kind of crude amateurish bomb that could have  harmed innocent people if it had gone off.    A t-shirt vendor heard some suspicious noises and alerted police and highest praise for a civilian coming forward.

Here in NYC we have signs in the subways and else where always alerting us if we see something suspicious to alert the NYPD and in this case someone did just that and helped prevent would could have been a terrible tragedy.

I am signed up on the Notify NY program with the City of New York so I get a text messages and emails alerting me but it gave no details, just police activity and that the area was closed off.  The t-shirt vendor alerted police at 6:30 but I got my text, May 2 at 12:50AM, still I am glad to get it and glad Notify NY is up and working.

 I wrote Commissioner Kelly asking if the NYPD could actually have a more extended notification system than this, that alerts New Yorkers about crimes that could help us to be even safer and give info if the NYPD need help catching a criminal by texting the people a description.  I am critical of the mayor for denying us a referendum and pushing a reckless tsunami of development but as far as 311 which needs work in terms of the city actually solving problems rather than answering calls and Notifying NY,the ideas are good, both need work.

Also here in NYC the 911 system has been overhauled,  called the UCT Dispatch System  and there are major problems especially alerting the FDNY and EMS  that still need addressing but last night all was good and every system worked as it should thank goodness!!!

Today thankfully we have a happy ending.  The NYPD are going to find the person responsible I am sure and that person will be spending some quality time in jail.  Thank goodness no one was hurt and many people that were there so see Broadway shows got first hand New York City Street Theatre for free.






Here is video from The New York Post.

Again highest praise for the NYPD.  Also for anyone interested here is a YouTube made by the NYPD about their amazing Bomb Squad check it out.   Personally, I have to say I am in awe.  I also got to speak to one of these officers and asked him some questions including about his gorgeous dog w/ a badge, a four legged NYPD officer which was "a bomb" - as in a good and wonderful experience for me.  Here is the slang dictionary for bomb being cool! http://onlineslangdictionary.com/definition+of/bomb,+the

If you have seen the Oscar awarding winning film Hurt Locker than you will recognize the safety clothing these brave officers wear so watch this YouTube!

Also for NYPD buffs -- Do you know who created The Bomb Squad? 

I have been told that Lt.  Joseph (Giuseppi) Petrosino created The Bomb Squad and he did so because he was fighting the Black Hand who were setting off explosives here in NYC.  

I found this comment posted to back up what I was told by an NYPD officer after 9-11 and also what I have read in the internet.

Lt. Petrosino's memory lives on in infamy. He was responsible for forming the NYPD Bomb Squad along with being the leader of the "Italian Squad". Lt. Petrosino went after "The Black Hand" and early form of the "Mafia" as we know it today. He stood for all that is good about Italian-American's and gave his life defending his belief. I have had the privilege to meet and work with his Granddaughter who is director of Bishop Kearney high school in Brooklyn's 66 Pct. May we never forget his ultimate sacrifice. God Bless.

— Det. John D'Onofrio

Lt. Joseph (Giuseppi) Petrosino was the 1st NYPD officer to die in the line of duty abroad.  Here is a YouTube where I take you on a short tour of a special exhibition at the NY Police Museum honoring Lt. Petrosino.   An Italian film maker is making a new film about him but there are have been others including a Hollywood film starring  Ernest Borgnine playing Lt. Petrosino called "Pay or Die".

In this YouTube I show you an NYPD pin I was given with Lt. Petrosino's badge number.  I treasure this pin and I thought I lost in Grand Central Station.  The pin had fallen in to my bag and a kind man got on his hands and knees along with me to help find the back of the pin which he did as many people busily past us.

White House Correspondents Dinner 2010 - Obama bests Leno

The 2010 White House Correspondents Dinner is history. It was the second one for President Barack Obama, and while he wasn't quite as funny as in 2009, he was funnier than Jay Leno. Reportedly, Joe Biden was even funnier than President Obama, but this blogger missed Biden's turn at the podium.

Would Conan have been funnier?

That aside, it's clear Obama enjoys the White House Correspondents Dinner, and comes with some pretty good material. For example there was the joke about Politico and how it has a centuries long history of spinning the news (Politico goes back to 2005.) Or there was the one about how Joe Biden talked him into coming to the dinner, saying "Mr. President. This is a big bleeping deal," in reference to Biden's on-mic F-bomb after the Health Care Reform Bill was passed.

In all Obama was just plain funnier than Jay Leno. It seemed Leno was searching for the one punch line that would get him going, but he remained stuck in the mud.

What did you think? Would Conan O'Brien have been funnier?

Stay tuned.

Thousands in Oakland protest Arizona immigration law and proposed federal reform (OaklandSeen.com)

The annual May Day march in Oakland began at the Fruitvale BART drew an energized crowd that grew to over 3,000 by early afternoon. Filipino Advocates for Justice Executive Director Lillian Galedo was a featured speaker facing a crowd who gathered under the slogan, "We are all Arizona". On stage, organizers invited City Councilmembers Jean Quan and Jane Brunner to announce their proposal for a city boycott of Arizona and Arizona-based businesses. (The full City Council will consider the proposal this Tuesday at a 5:30 p.m. meeting at City Hall, 1 Frank Ogawa Plaza.)

But talk soon turned to national immigration reform issues. Lillian Galedo addressed the congressional immigration reform proposal introduced late last week, which emphasizes enforcement over legalization. A move, Galedo said, "basically puts legalization on hold". According to an article in today's Washington Post, the proposal takes a Republican "secure the border" approach. Galedo added, "its not what we wanted in immigration reform."

It's too early to tell what impact the boycotts and protests in the streets in Oakland, San Francisco and across the country will have on the Arizona state law or the national reform debate. But what is certain is that the numbers out on the street for May Day demonstrate the loud and insistent demand for fair immigration law. Catherine Tactaquin, Executive Director of the National Network for Immigrant and Refugee Rights was impressed by the size of the Oakland crowd, "It was much bigger than the organizers expected, par for the course nationally!"

Aimee Allison is the publisher/founder of OaklandSeen.com.

Conan O'Brien blasts NBC and Jay Leno: Conan got $30 million

Lost in all of the argument and coverage of the now celebrated spat between Conan O'Brien, NBC and Jay Leno is one sobering fact: Conan O'Brien got $30 million. Repeat: Conan O'Brien got $30 million from NBC.

This blogger loves Conan O'Brien and definitely feels for how he was treated by NBC, but the bottom line for me was reading that NBC paid Conan and his staff large buyout money. That comes in the middle of a jobless economic recovery with double-digit unemployment rates in many counties in America and an overall rate that's a hair below 10 percent.

There are scores of people who would be happy with a $1 million buyout or a $10,000 one for that matter. For Conan O'Brien to go on CBS 60 Minutes all sad faced and boo-hooing is itself a bad move. Sure, it makes for great gossip and it certainly helps my blogging work. But for Conan it would do some initial good, then a bit of bad.

The "bit of bad" will come when people who aren't "into" the story realize that Conan got $30 million. If he wanted to he could retire on that money, assuming Conan's not racked up a lot of huge bills. Most people anywhere in the World would be happy with a fraction of that money.

Entertainment is a cut-throat business, especially at that level. If you're not smart enough to leverage New Media as a "balancer" you're subject to the whims of whatever Tom, Dick, Harry, or Jay Leno comes along. Conan had to know that.

From what I read Conan didn't want to move to 12 midnight. But what if he did? What if Conan had taken that spot, let Jay come back to 11:30 PM, then watch Jay tank? It may very well have been that NBC would have moved Conan right back to that spot.

But that didn't happen. Conan wanted things his way, and so a butting of heads happened. But it also appears that NBC and Conan just didn't get along. I wonder if some of that had to do with Conan's need to feel "needed" even though he reached the zenith of success? Let's face it. Conan's version of The Tonight Show didn't feel like, well, The Tonight Show. It felt more like Conan's old show. That's not what NBC wanted anyway.

But NBC saw Conan's value and paid him accordingly. They gave him start-up money to, well, start his own show.

$30 million. Nice.

Conan's going to be just fine. It's the rest of the World I'm worried about.

Rock the Casbah.