Sunday, September 26, 2010

Michael Vick Throws Three Touchdown Passes, Eagles Win 28 to 3

Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Michael Vick got the starting job against the Jacksonville Jaquars, and did what some observers said he would not do: win.



The Eagles destroyed the Jaquars 28 to 3, Sunday, and Vick threw three touchdown passes.

Michael Vick was 17 of 31 for 291 yards passing and just 30 yards rushing on four carries.

The win marks the emergence of the new Michael Vick. A Vick that stands in the pocket, goes through his progressions, and makes a great throw. A Vick that can run if he wants to, but knows how to read defenses well enough such that he doesn't need to.  A mature Michael Vick.

Eagles fans are amazed.  Even if some of the forum comments are a bit harsh:



Michael Vick is subhuman scum BUT he is one hell of a QB and I'm happy we have him. I wish him misfortune in his personal life and success on the field as long as it is for us.

I'm just happy we don't have to suffer through McThreeandout anymore.
And this commenter made a good point about the leaky Jacksonville Defense:



Vick had another awesome game...but lets not lose our heads. "stout"?

going into the game today....

Lions Defense T- 27th in pts/gm…27pts; Jags Defense 29th in pts/gm…27.5pts

Lions D 30th in yds/gm…300yds; Jags 29th in yds/Gm…305yds

you essentially played the same defense again


So some Eagles fans aren't happy unless and until Vick wins against a powerful defense. Some people are hard to please.

Poor showing against Titans leaves Sour taste in Giants fan's mouths

Poor showing against Titans Leaves sour taste in Giants’ fans mouths
By Dr. Bill Chachkes-Managing Partner/Executive Editor-Football Reporters Online

It was reminiscent of many trips back from the Meadowlands I remembered as a Teenager in the late 1970’s when my father was still with us. Back then we would wait for the busses outside of Gate D. Now we stand, however painfully, and wait for the train. We had all just watched the Titans throttle the NY Giants, if only on the scoreboard. I wanted to get some fan reaction. Two ladies behind me were in their jerseys and had polish under their eyes. It, and their make-up, was already running.

“Nooo…it was not a very good game” one told profootballnyc.com’s John Fennelly and I.” On seeing our press passes around our necks, another said. “No, this isn’t what I paid for, but I understand that anybody can have a bad day. At least they had more emotion then last week, but maybe too much,” said another. Two young men in front of me recognized my Military lapel pins and told me “we’re in the U.S. Air Force sir. I’m a Medic and He’s a Fireman. We are home on leave, and our Girlfriends’ got us the tickets for today. This was supposed to be the highlight of our trip home from our duty station in Japan.”

A young father with his two boys aged 5 and 8 had brought his children to their first Giants game. “I had hoped they would see a win today, that it would be something they’d carry with them for life. Maybe next time.”

More spoke up as we boarded the train, but no one spoke of 1978 and the plane with the banner that said 15 Years…., or of burning tickets in protest. A day I remember well. As well as the Giants 1986 NFC title game victory over the Washington Redskins by the score of 17-0. Most fans that remember that success, or the 1990 NFC title game against the Vikings, might feel very far away and detached from those teams and times. My Dad would simply say “Peaks and Valley’s, just like life kid, so get used to it.”

I felt for them all today, each and every one of them on line with us at the railhead, at the transfer in Secaucus, and getting off the train in Penn Station. I lived it from 1965 in Yankee Stadium as a 5 year old going to my first game by taking the third avenue “El” from Gun Hill Road , as a young teen going to the Yale Bowl and Shea Stadium, and in the early days of Giants Stadium. I knew the feeling of discomfort and dread these fans were feeling after a loss. I also knew the Emotional “high” of winning. From 1984 through 1990 the NY Giants were the team with the highest winning percentage in professional football. I sat in section 311 for most of those years with my Dad, until his passing in 1987, and with other friends and family after that until I went to the “professional’ side of all things football. I know exactly how he would have described this game’s outcome, in his no nonsense way akin to many professional veteran law enforcers/ex-soldiers like himself. “Plenty of emotion all right, but no focus for it to go to. On the football field it just gets you a loss, but on the battlefield it gets you shot up dead.” I remember going to California with Him for Super Bowl 21. I remember him telling me on the flight home afterwards” now I can Die in peace. Eleven months later we would bury him in His Army Dress Uniform with two tickets to the next game in his pocket, and his cherished 1962 NFL eastern division title football with it’s 12 autographs.

My Dad was also our local Housing development’s “official-unofficial football coach and expert all things Pigskin.” He would have spoken very little on this ride home if he where still with us today. But he would have quickly penned another of his famous letters to Mr. George Young, NY Giants General Manager at that time. Letters that always seemed to gain a hand-written reply by mail, because that was Mr. Young’s style.

He would calmly begin “Mr. Young, Penalties, turnovers, sloppy play, this doesn’t win ball games. I don’t teach it to my son and his teammates and your coaches shouldn’t either” I’m also sure Mr. Young, Mr. Accorsi, or Mr. Reese would all reply in a very similar manner: “ It was a bad day, but it was one bad day.” So tomorrow we move on.

Bishop Eddie Long Will Fight Sex Abuse Claims - by Davey D





Bishop Eddie Long
So after a turbulent week Bishop Eddie Long stepped to the pulpit of his New Birth Church this Sunday morning to address the allegations of sexual abuse levied against him by 3 young men. We recently gotten word that a 4th has come forward.
This is pretty much the entire sermon. Long doesn’t really start addressing the charges until 7 or 8 minutes into pt1.. In pt2 he’s pretty much letting folks know that he intends to fight back and that he’s under attack.

Long notes that he’s not a perfect man and he never claimed to be, but he is not the man being portrayed on TV. He promises to fight the charges.
What I find interesting is that we don’t really hear about the young men who accused him. Let’s say they are lying, that would indicate a certain type of sickness that needs healing and prayer. Let’s say they are being truthful, well those young men were violated in the worse way and need love and prayer.
The other thing that’s interesting and this is not unique to Long, but so many seem to have an obsession with homosexuality. What I mean is that one can read scripture and conclude that sex before marriage is sinful, home sexuality is sinful, lying is sinful etc.. Yet at the end of the day lots of time and attention is spent on the ‘sin of being gay’. Why is that?
We don’t have folks picketing couples who co-habitat. We don’t have folks damning folks for lying or baring false witness even when pointed out. But have someone who is gay and all hell breaks loose. Long was one of those folks who really underscored why he felt this was such a sinful ‘behavior’ , why not the other things? His outspokenness on gay sex is what got everyone’s attention especially when he was accused of partaking in the very activity he so aggressively damned.
The other thing that was interesting was during the sermon, Long had his armed security kick 'media' out the church which holds 25 thousand. Spelman professor and author Jelani Cobb who frequently appears as a guest on CNN was one of those 'media folks' escorted out. That's crazy when you consider that Long has had no problem being out there for the media. Now suddenly its an issue when he gets 'unwanted' attention?
The other day author Hadji Williams said something profound. He reminded us that we have made many of our pastors rock stars and perhaps we shouldn’t be viewing them through the lens of celebrity. He noted that to do so speaks volumes about our values. Are we praying to the pastor or to the God the pastor preaches about?

99er Gregg Rosen appears on Fox News



The 99er known to many as Mr G from his BlogTalk radio show Unemployment Roundtable, appeared yesterday on the Fox News channel.

Gregg Rosen is well known for his unique take on the nuts & bolts facts and figures on how the economic crisis is only made worse by not passing a Tier 5 for all states.

Gregg Rosen, Co-Founder of The American 99'ers Union discusses the macroeconomic benefits of extending unemployment insurance with Julie Banderas on the Fox News program "America's News HQ". Original Air Date 9/25/10 See video below:

Atlanta Falcons Defeat New Orleans Saints In Overtime

While the NFL Champion New Orleans Saints are still that until someone knocks them out of the playoff picture, the Atlanta Falcons were their measure Sunday, winning 27 to 24 in overtime.

The Falcons overcame Saints Quaterback Drew Brees' 30 of 38 for 365 yards passing and Falcons Quarterback Matt Ryan was hot when behind, posting a 147.5 ratings according to ESPN.com. Finally, Falcons' Kicker Matt Bryant hit from 46 yards out to give Atlanta the win.



What's more impressive about the Falcons win is it came at the New Orleans Superdome. The Saints at-home record now stands at .500 with three games completed in the season as of this writing.

The difference? Turnovers and offense. New Orleans has three of them; Atlanta had just one.  Moreover, the Falcons gained 417 total yards versus 398 for the Saints.

This was a key early game for the NFC South; the winner would gain the upper hand in the 2010 playoff race. Now, New Orleans has to win at Atlanta if it expects to win the division.

Yahoo's Carol Bartz With Twitter's Ev Williams, Biz Stone

In this photo from Twitter on Flickr, we have Yahoo's CEO Carol Bartz With Twitter's Founders Ev Williams and Biz Stone.

Now, judging from the fact that Ev's holding a mic and crossing his right leg, can we conclude he's imitating TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington's infamous interview of Bartz at TechCrunch Disrupt, New York?

At any rate, there's no word of what the three talked about while at Twitter Headquarters. But Bartz was reported to have said this :

"Failure is good - it gets you scared enough to change."

True. But won wonders in what context the sentence was made? Since Bartz' visit was around the time the Tech World crapped on her via Twitter, one can make some assumptions.

As a related aside, Yahoo has so many freaking users, it should reform itself into a Facebook-style social network as a way of tying together all of that content flotsam it's got. That would end the crits about Yahoo not knowing what it is.

ESPN's Lou Holtz Has Picked Against Notre Dame, Darren Rovell

Former ESPN and now CNBC Sports Business Analyst Darren Rovell issued a provocative tweet on Twitter a few days ago, and about ESPN's Lou Holtz:



Wondering if any1 can come up with this piece of data: Has Lou Holtz EVER picked against ND?
6:33 PM Sep 24th via web


Coach Lou Holtz, the last Notre Dame coach to lead the Fighting Irish to a national championship in college football, has been an ESPN homer for Golden Domers, even picking Notre Dame to win the BCS title last year. (Of course, that didn't happen.)

In fact Holtz makes ND a pick so much and has sparred with fellow ESPN Analyst Mark May so often  that you'd be shocked to know there was one time he went against them.

Yep. It was last year, when Coach Lou Holtz picked Connecticut to beat Notre Dame.

According to College Football Talk's John Tamanaha, it was a forced decision. Holtz reportedly said he would pick Connecticut if the Irish lost to Pittsburgh the week before.

That happened, so he did. At least you can say Coach Lou's a man of integrity. Something to celebrate in the sometimes untrustworthy world of the 21st Century.

Coach Lou's logic was that the Irish would lose because it was the last game at Notre Dame and the Irish seniors would "have tears in their eyes, they have so many great memories, they can't see who to block and tackle."

He was almost wrong. Connecticut did win the game, but 33 to 30 in double overtime to end the Charlie Weis era at Notre Dame.

So, there's your answer, Darren.  Now what does this corner win?

Changing The Ratio Of Women And Minorities In Tech? Kids Are Key

If we want to go about changing the ratio of women, and let's add minorities, in tech, we have to be willing to encourage friends and talk to the kids.

The idea for this blog post started because this blogger happened on TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington's post called Too Few Women In Tech? Stop Blaming The Men.

After consuming his text, it must be said that Michael is just plain wrong - the reasons why, we'll get into later.  Moreover, his post mentioned Rachel Sklar, who's a friend and who's work I respect a lot, as "a perennial TechCrunch critic," and quotes her in the Wall Street Journal,  as saying:

Part of changing the ratio is just changing awareness, so that the next time Techcrunch is planning a Techcrunch Disrupt, they won’t be able to not see the overwhelming maleness of it,” said Ms. Sklar, referring to the influential tech conference

It was disappointing to read that because in planning for the trip to New York for TechCrunch Disrupt, New York City, I informed Rachel of the conference via email and asked if she was going to attend. Rachel had made other plans.

It was too bad Rachel didn't go, because while TechCrunch Disrupt New York was mostly male, it wasn't overwhelmingly so - she would have been somewhat pleased.  I'm certain, as she's a speaker, she will be happy with what she sees at TechCrunch Disrupt SF.

What the official gender count at TechCrunch Disrupt New York was is not known here, but by observation, the mix was better than expected. There were women entrepreneurs competing in the "VC speed dating" contest, like my friend Jennifer O'Neil's startup firm Tripping.com.

Jennifer O'Neil Started At StubHub.com

I first met Jennifer in 2003 when she was the affiliate manager at then-new StubHub.com. Sports Business Simulations, the firm I started that year, was became one of StubHub.com's most successful affiliates, and Jennifer and I became friends. Ms. O'Neil did everything for StubHub, from managing affiliates, to radio spots, and even the phone greetings. I said over and over again to Jen that she should be on the StubHub board and also to take what she's learning there and start her own company.

Well, at TechCrunch Disrupt New York City,  Jen told me she remembered my constant badgering and that played a small role in the development of the confidence she had to start Tripping.com.   The point is, women and minorities must be encouraged to start tech firms.

Encouraging Women and Minorities

Michael's really wrong: men should be blamed for the lack of women in tech. There's nothing at all wrong with having the idea that a person should be picked because they're women or minority or white male, as long as the end objective is diversity.

Moreover, in order to "change the ratio," we have to start by encouraging girls and boys who are minority to go into tech fields.  Just saying "You should think about being a programmer" to a ten-year-older's a great start.  Having the tech equivalent of Junior Achievement is another much needed effort.

In fact, that there's not such an organization active in the San Francisco Bay Area underscores the problem. Imagine if Google executives like CEO Eric Schmidt took one evening a week to work at advising an imaginary start-up at an East Palo Alto school? Planting the idea of starting a tech company in the minds of girls and minority youth will, over time, change the ratio.

But to do that, and to be frank, it's Silicon Valley's men both white and Asian, who have to lead the charge. The only way to change the culture, is to change the behavior of the people within it.

In fact, just because Arrington said the poor ratio of women in tech is not the fault of men, he should be the very person that starts the kind of Junior Achievement-style non-profit organization called for here. Michael must understand that you can't say there's a cultural problem but it's not the fault of the people who are part of the culture. Men are the problem, but men can be the solution, too.

TechCrunch Disrupt SF: Wall Street Journal Takes AngelGate Bait

The AngelGate controversy, borne of a faux PlanCast meeting at Bin 38 that was a joke and a play on the real issue of the struggle for control pitting angel investors against entrepreneurs who create the very platforms and devices at the center of the conflict, has caught the attention of The Wall Street Journal.

Trouble is, WSJ Blogger Russell Garland didn't realize the meeting was fake:



AngelGate, as it’s become known, just won’t go away. The brouhaha erupted after TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington uncovered a meeting of top angel investors in a San Francisco restaurant, Bin 38. Arrington blogged about it, alleging angel collusion. Now angel Ron Conway, who wasn’t at the meeting but whose SV Angel partner David Lee apparently was,...


With AngelGate, Michael Arrington has managed to shine the light on TechCrunch Disrupt SF. But for all of this, nothing that happens this week will match the fireworks that happened after Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz famously told Michael to fuck off:



Well, that's not going to happen this time. A man telling Michael what to do just doesn't have the same impact as a woman blasting him. Even though it wasn't the intent, it made for good video.

Especially for Zennie62 on YouTube.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

Stanford Destroys Notre Dame, Goes 4 and 0, First TIme Since 1986

The Stanford Cardinal Football Team is as dominant as their commercials would imply. It's not just that they're 4 and 0, and for the first time since 1986, but how they got there, by destroying their opponents. The latest victim: The Fighting Irish of Notre Dame.

Stanford spanked Notre Dame 37 to 16, causing the Irish to lose their third straight game under new coach Brian Kelly and causing Irish fans to worry.

Over at Irish Envy forum, ND die-hards picked Stanford as a team the Irish could beat. It didn't happen. Later, the same Irish Envy Forum followers said Stanford was "for real" while licking their wounds over the butt kicking their team took.

Indeed, it's the same one Wake Forest, UCLA, and Sacrament State got.

Stanford has an average of 51.7 points per game scored, versus 13.7 points given up. Moreover, they've done it through the air and on the ground, and not in spectacular fashion ranking 47th and 15th in passing and rushing respectively. It's the Stanford Defense that's the difference.

Before the Notre Dame game, Stanford ranked third in the Pac-10 in total defense and second in pass defense. The difference is new Defensive Coordinator Vic Fangio. His version of the 3-4 is less "pure" in its format than the standard 34 defensive alignment, and gets more pressure on the offensive line both against runs and passes.

Can Stanford Go Undefeated?

The question on the minds of college football fans now is can Stanford go undefeated? As long as there's Cal and the Big Game, the answer is no.

GroupMe.com : TechCrunch Disrupt NY HackDay Creation Launches

Related: TechCrunch Disrupt SF, and Women and Tech.

GroupMe.com is the home of a very cool platform that allows you to form a mobile text group. While that may not seem like much at first, when you consider the vast number of service and retail organization that can make use of it, then its vast potential becomes apparent. (Yep, this blogger uses it.)

GroupMe was born at the 2010 TechCrunch Disrupt NY HackDay, and immediately caught fire. The New York based company that grew around the platform scored an $850,000 angel round of funding in August. It's really a super simple application.

You just got to the website GroupMe.com and punch in your mobile number. The system sets up a group phone number and asks for your name for the group. It will then send a confirmation text. All you have to do is add the people you want to be in your group.

Once done, you can set up an instant conference call, such that the GroupMe system calls everyone in your group.

Or, if you're, say, an airline like United Airlines, you can send a group text to everyone in the UAL group that gives important travel information.

It's a very interesting and exciting platform. Just wonder if Michael Arrington gets a cut of the angel money?

ESPN's Picabo Street Right, Alabama Beat Arkansas

ESPN's "guest picker" Picabo Street got it right after all. Number one ranked Alabama rallied to beat 10th ranked Arkansas 24 to 20. And this blogger, along with over 76,000 people at Razorbacks Stadium, thought the game was over, even when Alabama scored to make it 20 to 14 in the 3rd quarter.

Just shows you that it's never a good idea to walk away from the television set with a game like that.

According to ESPN.com, Alabama rallied to win on the power and speed of Running Back Mark Ingram and an interception thrown by Arkansas QB Ryan Mallett.

ESPN.com Still Fails On Picabo Street

While Picabo Street was right after all for ESPN television, the ESPN.com website still failed to do anything to capture the Internet buzz started by ESPN itself!

As much as ESPN may want to dominate the Internet for sports, this proves it has no idea what it's doing.