Chris Henry dead? No. In serious condition; prayer request

UPDATE: According to TMZ.com, Henry's fincee Loleini Tonga was questioned and released. She was never taken into custody.

Chris Henry dead is a hot search that's causing a problem; people think the Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver is just that.

Chris Henry

Chris Henry's not dead, but his agent Andy Simms of PlayersRep Sports reports that he's battling for his life according to the Associated Press.

WLWT Cincinnati reports that a homicide detective is investigating the Henry accident scene which means they don't think he's going to make it.

That's certainly what Mike Florio at ProFootballtalk.com thinks; I hope he's wrong.

This has been a really hard year for the Bengals. Earlier in the season Defensive Coordinator Mike Zimmer lost his wife, now this. Terrible.

Stay tuned and I echo Mike Florio by asking that you say a prayer for Chris Henry.

Chris Henry, Roy Disney, Tiger Woods divorce; bad news

You know it's a hard day when Cincinnati Bengals Wide Receiver Chris Henry is in critical condition, Roy Disney, Walt Disney's brother, passed away, and rumors are swirling that Elin Nordegren is divorcing Tiger Woods.

Divorce?


And the day's not over.

As I blog this, Chris Henry lay in critical condition at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C after he fell out of the back of a moving pickup truck driven by his fiancee Loleini Tonga.

Loleini Tonga and Henry reportedly had what is described as a domestic dispute; more on that below.

What's so sad about this news is not just the severity of Henry's injuries - such that some reports declare him dead - but that it seems his NFL career has been marked by more bad times than good times. Henry has been arrested for DUI, assault, and marijuana possession. And when he wasn't in legal trouble he was injured: he was out for the rest of 2009 after he broke his arm in a game against the Baltimore Ravens.

But when Henry is healthy and playing, he's a pass-catching force. The West Virginia Mountaineer joined the team in 2005. But even with his long list of off-the-field problems and injuries, Henry managed to average between 16 and 20 yards per catch during his career.

This year it looked as if Henry was finally balancing out his life, and he was. Ok, he was hurt, but that's the breaks in the NFL, no pun intended. Absent that, Henry was set to get married to Loleini Tonga. But what happened that caused the argument is a story still developing. Pop Crunch has it that Tonga was driving away in the truck when Henry ran after it and her and jumped into the bed, trying to argue with her; he fell off the truck as it was moving.

I close this subject for now, presenting a very cool video created by YouTuber CincyBengals29:

Roy Disney Dies

The nephew of the brother of the man who's history and focus on the urban America of tomorrow, Roy E. Disney, passed away after a battle with stomach cancer. What I remember most about Roy was more about his father Roy O. Disney - during the 70s he was the person who really didn't see his brother Walt Disney's dream of an Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow (EPCOT) through to reality.

For those of you who don't know, the original concept of EPCOT was a true city within Walt Disney World that would be home to just 10,000 people and always in state of flux. It would be constantly 25 years ahead of its time, and a place that was a living test-bed for all kinds of systems and technologies that were not yet available or used in the open market.

Here's the famous 24-minute film where Walt Disney talks about his vision for EPCOT. It's worth your time; stop what you're doing and watch it. It first aired September 16, 1965 on ABC Television:



The EPCOT that was Disney's vision essentially died with him in 1966. I write that because, as a person who as a kid of 10 years old wanted to work for WED, or what was then called Walter Elias Disney Enterprises, the Disney division responsible for designing EPCOT, I watched in horror as it was transformed from what Walt Disney wanted and you saw, to really a souped-up theme park.

What happened at the time was the Energy Crisis hampered tourism and thus Disney's revenue. Frightened over the prospect of a future without a new theme park to draw visitors, Roy Disney and Cardon Walker, the head of WED at the time, approved a move away from Walt's concept. With that, I lost interest in WED and much of what Disney was doing at the time.

I know some may discussion the development of Celebration, Florida as the real EPCOT, and I give a nod to that observation, but the basic idea that Walt wanted remains not implemented.

Still, Roy Disney was a proud representative of the Disney way and overall carried on his brothers overall legacy. Roy Disney will be missed.

Tiger Woods Divorce

Earlier today I expressed hope that Tiger Woods, the Athlete of The Decade, would overcome his personal issues and save his marriage; but from the reports swirling as of this writing that's not going to happen. Sadly, Wood's wife Elin Nordegren's seeking a divorce.

Stay tuned.

Tiger Woods Athlete of The Decade, girlfriends, golf, and all

Tiger Woods was named "Athlete of The Decade" by the Associated Press, beating out Lance Armstrong, Roger Federer, Michael Phelps, Tom Brady, and Usain Bolt, and withstanding Theresa Rogers, Rachel Uchitel, Jaimie Grubbs, Mindy Lawton, Holly Sampson, Jamie Jungers, Cory Rist, Kalika Moquin, and all the rest of the other five alleged cocktail waitress and model mistresses.

Here's to Woods' next victory!

That proves Tiger Woods is the chosen one.

In fact, the contest wasn't even close: Woods got 56 of the 142 votes. Even with all of his alleged mistresses and girlfriends, the car accident, and his wife Elin Nordegren reportedly clocking him with one of the golf clubs he may have used on the way to this award, Woods got it.

And get this: more than half the ballots were voted on after - yes, after - Woods' Thanksgiving night accident and the subsequent scandal that rocked his life, and ours.

The Tiger Woods sex scandal aside, for a moment, Woods' play on the golf course has been nothing short of incredible. He's won seven tournaments in 2009 alone and 64 times around the World in the decade, and 12 majors. ESPN points out that Woods has won on every continent around the World.

Woods pocketed $81,547,410 from the PGA Tour events he was in, which is an average of $482,529 per contest.

With all this, and the AP award, Woods' website still reminds us that he's taken a hiatus from Golf. Sad.

Congratulations Tiger Woods! I say, Yippee! Because the poor man has been beaten up so badly and for actions that frankly other athletes and people in the sports business - can we talk for a second? - are just as guilty of that it's ridiculous.

But Tiger's greatest win of all will be overcoming this scandal and saving his marriage.

I hope he does that.

Theresa Rogers photos? Rogers says she's not Tiger Woods mistress

People are searching for Theresa Rogers photos. But get this: a few of the online publications that use the title Theresa Rogers photos, don't have them, or even one. That's really a terrible way to treat the reader. And for someone - Theresa Rogers - who claims she's not Tiger Woods mistress in the first place.

What a relief to find at least one women who will say that, even if so-called 'friends' are outing her as being one of 'Tiger's women', if you will.

And what a relief to find one blogger that has a photo, me:

Theresa Rogers

I guess Theresa Rogers isn't playing the "story for money" game either which makes her really great in my book. I guess Rogers thinks enough of her personal image to steer clear from this stuff and being called 'Cougar' is not helping either. But think about it: how many of these allegations are true and is someone out there just trying to ruin Tiger Woods? There are so many stories flying around - many of them false - it's not funny.

And I'm really sick of the word 'Cougar'. In fact I'm starting to think of it as the N-word for adult women. Or maybe I'm just being too sensitive. Or maybe I should watch Cougartown and get it out of my system.

Whatever the case, I digress.

It looks like, if reports hold, Elin Nordegren, Tiger Woods wife, is seeking a divorce. I certainly hope this isn't the case and what happened to those marriage counseling reports? That was just two weeks ago, right?  See, this comes from  another "source" so I think it needs to be checked and double checked before it's ran with.  But it's a free for all.  And ...er...TIGER.   Dude.  Say something, will ya?  Come on, man.

Stat tuned.

The case for Zennie62 at the Academy Awards - Oscar Buzz

As my video-blog career has grown I've noticed that many don't have a complete understanding of how to evaluate a person's effectiveness in the New Media landscape.

Even with innovative movies like Avatar, Star Trek, and the upcoming Iron Man 2, and popular television shows like 24, many in the media and entertainment business lack a good set of metrics to evaluate how news and culture bloggers are performing and where to send press releases or in this case, who to have at The Oscars or The Golden Globes.

So, using the subject of the 82nd Annual Academy Awards as a backdrop, I elected to create a video and a short presentation of the message-distribution powers and abilities of the Zennie62.com brand.

The Zennie62.com New Media effort consists of my main blog, Zennie62.com (which was called Zennie's Zeitgeist), 26 main blogs, an overall inventory of 100 blogs, my popular YouTube channel Zennie62 and video channels on Blip.tv and six other systems, my San Francisco Chronicle / SFGate.com main blog, Examiner blog, my USTREAM.tv Zennie62 channel, a channel at BlogTalkRadio, and finally my television show The Blog Report with Zennie62 on CoLoursTV.

Zennie62 has grown to become a New Media force. My videos are seen an average of 25,000 times each day on YouTube alone.  And as of December 12th, my YouTube videos were seen a total of over 10 million times in just over 2.5 years.

At SFGate.com, Zennie62 generated 1.003 million visitors in November 2009 and as of this writing on December 15th 2009 has already surpassed the 1 million visitor mark for December alone. If the current rate continues Zennie62 on SFGate.com will reach over 2.5 million visitors for December 2009.

In addition to the video-blog combination the Zennie62 brand has over 7,000 Twitter followers and 3,000 Facebook friends. In total, the Zennie62 brand is represented on over 34 social networks.

Zennie62 is the New Media presence that should be at all Oscar events. It's able to communcate what's happening in a multi-media way, quickly and efficiently.

Oral Roberts passes at 91; first televangelist talked about sex

Oral Roberts passed on today after complications from pneumonia. He was 91 years old. Roberts was someone I always associated with the religious fire and brimstone speeches and hard-handed hitting of subjects to get them to rise, asserting that they were healed from an illness. 

Roberts will be remembered not just as the first person to bring religious preaching and ceremony, and his healing ministry to television - he's now called the first "televangelist" - but for talking frankly about religion and sex on the airwaves.

But beyond theatrics and a powerful set of convictions, Roberts will be remembered for the school he created and established. 

Roberts started what he later called a "healing ministry" in Tulsa, Oklahoma called Oral Roberts University. It's the largest college of its kind in the World. Upon the news of his passing, the website of Oral Roberts University contained this statement:

Oral Roberts, founder and chancellor of Oral Roberts University, passed away on December 15 at the age of 91. His departure is mourned by the ORU family, including the students, faculty, staff, alumni, and supporters who embraced his philosophy of whole-person education.


Born in 1918 in rural Oklahoma, Roberts was a preacher's kid who initially rejected his father's faith. At the age of 17, however, he was struck down with tuberculosis. A subsequent miraculous healing led to his conversion, and a call on his life from God himself to "take My healing power to your generation."


Carrying out that call took him from small churches to tent meetings to international crusades, and from radio and television to books and letters he wrote to the thousands who partnered with his ministry. The capstone of his life's work was the founding of ORU in 1963. "Raise up your students to hear My voice," God told Roberts, "to go where My light is seen dim, My voice is heard small, and My healing power is not known, even to the uttermost bounds of the earth. Their work will exceed yours, and in this I am well pleased."


As Roberts often said, "Success without a successor is failure." The graduates of ORU, he believed, would carry on the work of his healing ministry, "until Jesus comes again."

The school was not without controversy, as Oral Roberts son Richard Roberts came under fire for political and personal use of university funds in 2007.

Roberts used television to show live "healing ceremonies" where subjects would be able to walk and lift their legs allegedly just after he prayed and touched them where their ailment was located. Here's a video:



Roberts also used television to show how he was, again allegedly, casting out evil sprits from his followers:



The Young Turks' recently posted a video on Oral Roberts talking about sex.  Folks, even in today's more contemporary lens, what he has to say is still shockingly frank, regardless of your view on sex.  I'm not going to offer a text preview; just watch the video: 



You know, one is at times compelled to make fun of what Roberts has done over the years, but we can't fault him for trying to better the human condition. May he rest in peace.

Successful 787 dreamliner landing may spell end of United 747

The long-awaited Boeing 787 Dreamliner's successful landing at Boeing Field after a rainy test flight in Seattle today marks the official introduction of the advanced pssenger airplane. It also marks the eventual end of the 747 as used by United Airlines. Here's a video of today's events:





Two weeks ago, UAL announced the purchase of a fleet of both the 787 Dreamliner and the new Airbus-350. In a communication to employees on its website, UAL also explained that the new planes would be used on international routes.

Currently, United uses its 747 fleet almost exclusively for international flights, meaning that by 2019, when the airline is expected to take delivery of both the 787 and the A-350, they plan to phase-out the giant jumbo jet.

Today, United Airlines' President John Tague issued this statement:

The Dreamliner is going to be a tremendous addition to our fleet, providing our customers with a better travel experience in the cabin and new technology that reduces our impact on the environment, increases fuel efficiency and provides cost savings. This is a great day, and we congratulate Boeing on the success of the test flight and look forward to our continued partnership with them and continued success as they bring the aircraft online."

When asked why United didn't purchase the larger A-380 or the newer-generation of 747-8, United's Tague said "Our objective is to optimize the company's performance in the down cycle and to manage the down-side risk, not to capture every last dollar of opportunity that an extremely large aircraft might create for a short period of time."

But some industry watchers say both the A-350 and the 787 are too small to replace the 747-400, so United may be making a hedge bet for the future just to maintain its international routes. Still at some point United need to make a decision on what to do about the 747 program. Meanwhile it awaits the 787.

As I wrote before, the 787 is an exciting airplane with cool new push-button window shade technology. The problem is one has to reach over a sleeping window seat passenger to get to the button.

Stay tuned.