Tyler Clementi, Ty Smalley, and Kirk Smalley At Center Of Anti-Bullying Efforts

Tyler Clementi, Ty Smalley, and Kirk Smalley are at the center of anti-bullying discussion and efforts in the wake of Clementi's and Smalley's suicides.

Tyler Clementi is the gay Rutgers University student who committed suicide after his sexual encounter with a male student was secretly broadcast online.

Ty Smalley is the 11-year-old who also committed suicide after being suspended from school for defending himself. Smalley was bullied by peers for over two years because he was small for his age.

Kirk Smalley, Ty Smalley's father, wants to end this and has taken up a new anti-bullying effort. Smalley told CNN that "I will do everything I can possibly do to stop bullying dead in its tracks."

But what can he do? One clue is in Zennie62.com Contributing Editor Christina Villarreal's blog post called "Bully-proofing Your Daughters: How To Support A Girl Facing Relational Aggression." The Doctor has an extensive post that's worthy of review.

More on this soon.

The Social Network is a movie not to miss By Nikky Raney

David Fincher's The Social Network can easily be labeled the movie of the year, because it shows how the 21-year-old evil genius Mark Zuckerberg, played by Jesse Eisenberg, used his advanced abilities as a hacker to manipulate those around him in order to create the largest social networking site used by over 500 million users. Zuckerberg always seems to have an arrogant comeback for every remark thrown his way.

IMDB

Eisenberg plays the role of Zuckerberg brilliantly - the way he portrays the young Mark Zuckerberg is believable and matches up with the personality that Zuckerberg presently exhibits.

A huge part of why this is the movie of the year is, because it's more than just a movie. If this was a work of fiction then it may not have as big an impact - but this movie is based on the real story of how Zuckerberg did whatever he had to do, even if it meant betraying his closest friend, in order to make it to the top. The selfish Harvard student can easily be labeled as an arrogant jerk, but he is in fact the arrogant jerk who has created a site that millions of users spend hours of their day on.

The movie does not portray Zuckerberg as a likable character, which reflects on how he is viewed by many in reality. He shows that he will screw over whoever he has to to make his way to the top, and this is proven when he betrays his best friend who in turn ends up suing him.

It's quite intriguing to find out how Zuckerberg was able to create this empire - users are able to see how the site that they spend a majority of their time on came to be. It also gives an uneasy feeling that all the information on the site could at any point be accessed by Zuckerberg; the movie does not help Zuckerberg's case about the privacy issues that stirred up much controversy over the summer.

With Zuckerberg being so quick to screw over and break the trust of his best friend Eduardo Saverin, played by Andrew Garfield, why should users trust that he isn't hacking onto their accounts and taking account of their personal information?

While watching Justin Timberlake play the role of Napster's creator Sean Parker it's hard not to wonder what the real Sean Preston thinks of this depiction - especially since hew as fired from Facebook after being caught with cocaine, but the movie also shows him with underaged girls.

Parker is shown as cocky and delusional although playing a vital role in getting funding for Facebook - abandoning Saverin's ideas for advertising. Is this portrayal of Parker accurate - surely it will only be a matter of time until he speaks up.

It will be interesting to hear the feedback from the actual people who are depicted in the movie. It will definitely be worth while to find out what the real people have to say about the movie as a whole and how they feel they were represented.

When Zuckerberg was on Oprah he said that the movie was a piece of fiction, but the court cases, hacking, etc. are all too believable. Either way, the world's youngest billionaire will no doubt gain more traffic and the site will earn even more money and popularity due to the release of this film.

The Social Network deserves a five star rating and is a box office hit.

It would also be nice to know if Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who sued Zuckerberg for stealing the name and idea for Facebook, have their own Facebook accounts now.


Written by Nikky Raney
Journalist & Blogger

Rick Sanchez Replaced By Brooke Baldwin On CNN According To Twitter

Rick Sanchez departure from CNN, well, firing, has opened the door for his on-air sidekick Brooke Baldwin (in photo with her high school classmate Shelvis Smith-Mather) to take his place.

Rick's List was the 3 PM to 5 PM EST time slot, but on her Twitter page, Baldwin reports that she was asked to fill in "for now:"

BrookeBCNN Brooke Baldwin - @JTenBrink yes they have asked me to do the 3-5p shift. for now.....
20 hours ago

Brooke is the Twitter contact and follow beneficiary of Rick's last tweet as of this writing, as it was a re-tweet of her tweet:

BrookeBCNN Brooke Baldwin - by ricksanchezcnn
http://twitvid.com/B2HJ7 - *VIDEO* Brooke has a special surprise for Rick Sanchez! Also, Rick meets a special fan. Very cool! - 1 Oct

Brooke's On Twitter... A Lot  

Like Rick, Brooke's an active Twitter user with a Twitter Grader score of 100 as of this writing. Her Tweet Cloud reports that her most used term is she's in love, followed by @richsanchezcnn, and then in much smaller font, CNN itself.

(Now, I'm not saying she was in love with Rick Sanchez, but just reporting on the way her cloud reads, ok?)

As of this writing, she has 5,763 Twitter followers, but that will change, and fast.  Let's see how long it takes her to go by my over 8,000 Twitter followers on Zennie62.



Brooke's tweeted on everything from her height (she's 5-foot, nine) to her plan to follow-up with Perez Hilton on the blogger's comments that he may change his ways in the wake of the Cyberbullying story, to the news that she wasn't "a Barbie fan as a kid" even though she had to report on Barbie last week, to her special U.S. Open Tennis Ball, autographed by Serena Williams.

Not bad.

Rick Sanchez Replacement Speaks Spanish

There's an interesting clue as to how Rick may have managed to snare Brooke to work with her on Rick's List: she's fluent in Spanish. Rick's Cuban-American and also fluent in Spanish, which explains the more bi-lingual flavor of the show. Her ability to work with Rick in that capacity was a plus with Latino audiences. What's interesting to watch is if that will continue after Sanchez.

Other Info About Brooke

According to her CNN page, she's unfortunately a graduate of The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, which means she doesn't know a lick about basketball.

From reading her tweets, Brooke really seems to enjoy what she's doing and people in general.  She will be a great replacement for Rick, but CNN should give her a chance to make the show her own.    How about having her shooting some baskets with President Obama?  He loves North Carolina basketball.

Rick Sanchez Back-Stabbed By CNN Using Howard Kurtz

CNN back-stabs Rick Sanchez.

In the wake of his firing by CNN for his stupid remarks about CNN, his employer, being ran by Jews, Rick Sanchez got back-stabbed by the network, who put Howard Kurtz up to it with a segment on his show Reliable Sources, Sunday.

Here's the video:



It's one thing for CNN to fire Rick, but frankly this action was classless. CNN did it because everyone in media and around the country was talking about it and they had to get in on the action they created. Moreover, its also because, it seems, there are a lot of hard feelings at CNN and Rick didn't apparently back down from his words behind the scenes.

Now, we have Howard Kurtz, who's work I like, taking time to essentially make the case that there were people who worked at CNN who did not like him, by presenting some of those people on his show. Moreover, this was done in public and on television for all to see.  You're seeing it now.

One can only wonder what Rick Sanchez will think of this? CNN should have handled this with more class than this shows.

As a person who's been called the both black and Jewish slurs because of my name and background, what Rick said was both hurtful and stupid. Rupert Murdock, who owns News Corporation, is not Jewish.

The Sanchez episode reminds me of how stupid my Junior High school teacher was, who said that when she saw my name said "I thought I got a nice little Jewish kid." To which I remarked "You did. You got half" (the other half black.)

That was how I thought of myself at that time, and enough to see her as an idiot. But with that, I put her in her place in my mind and always treated her with dignity and respect.

CNN should know that two wrongs do not make a right.

The Rick Sanchez Poll

What do you think CNN should have done in the Rick Sanchez case? Take my poll:

create a free poll on pollsb.com

Silicon Valley's Mitra Says TechCrunch AOL Deal Cool, Blogs Not VC Play

Menlo Park's Sramana Mitra, a true "Woman In Tech" well-known in Silicon Valley and who should have been at Tech Crunch Disrupt SF as a panelist, says the TechCrunch AOL Deal for $30 million was great for TechCrunch Editor Michael Arrington, but that it's an example of successful bootstrapping, not VC play.

Mitra's an entrepreneur and a strategy consultant who's started three companies, sold two of them, and refused a deal with Ralph Lauren for the third company. She's advised and consulted over 80 companies, from SAP, to Cadence Design Systems, and Webex, and many more.

Sramana Mitra's not afraid of giving advise, and candidly, this blogger should add from personal experience. She doesn't see the TechCrunch deal as a reason VCs should jump in and start investing in blogs. In her blog post she says and has said:

I am personally not in favor of venture funding for blogs, since they are essentially small businesses, not venture scale enterprises. The only way to build an “enterprise” out of this business model is to put a lot of successful blogs under one banner. So, if GigaOm, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, paidContent, etc. could come together as a “network”, that could, conceivably, build critical mass. They would still need to graft more properties, but the only way I see in which venture-style “bulk” can be built in this niche of the media business is through a roll-up.

Mitra observes that with TechCrunch under AOL's wing, CEO Heather Harde, a mergers and acquisition specialist, now has enough resources to launch a roll-up strategy (where they get other online media platforms) that could see the new division of AOL eventually taking in $50 million. And, as this blogger has stated, the next round of activity is in acquisition of blogs looking for an exit.

While $10 million to @20 million may not be a VC level exit, there are a number of angel investors that would not look down on such deals.

Keep an eye on this new phase in the blog industry.

Chicago Bears Offense Protection Problems Due To Martz Design - REPEAT!

The Chicago Bears are behind the New York Giants 10 to 0 with 13:50 as of this writing and Bears Quarterback Jay Cutler is out of the game with a concussion. The result of being sacked a record nine times in the first half.

This blogger is not surprised.

Bears fans were warned about Bears Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz and his offensive scheme. They were warned in this space, with a blog post titled Chicago Bears Offense Protection Problems Due To Martz Design.

Given current events, the blog post is worth repeating:

Mike Martz offensive design got 49ers Alex Smith injured
Is Bears  Jay Cutler next?

The Chicago Bears lost to the Oakland Raiders 32 to 17 and while it was a preseason game, its still important from the perspective of evaluating players and schemes. The Chicago Bears Offense under Offensive Coordinator Mike Martz can move the ball, but it comes with the protection problems that have always plagued Martz offenses.

According to ProFootballTalk.com, Bears Quarterback Jay Cutler claimed the team "had a few protection issues." Bears Head Coach Lovie Smith said that Left Tackle Chris Williams performance was "Not good enough," and added, "It's as simple as that. Whenever you give up a couple of sacks as an offensive lineman, that is not good. Chris is a better player than that."

Exactly.

But it's hard to be a good offensive tackle when your offensive coordinator has you retreat-blocking, rather than fight-blocking. The signature problem with the Mike Martz Offense is the offensive line pass pocket retreats faster than is necessary to run the patterns Mike installs.

Mike, for some weird reason, has never corrected that problem.

It's the same issue that caused San Francisco 49ers Quarterback Alex Smith to be sacked into near oblivion in 2008, then get injured.

And it is the same problem that had Detroit Lions Quarterback J.T. O'Sullivan taste Ford Field turf over 50 times in 2007. But guess what? When Martz came over from the Lions, where he lasted for two years, and to the 49ers, he brought J.T. with him and the same offensive line blocking problem.

Martz lasted one year in San Francisco.

If Mike Martz wants to last longer than the 2010 Season with the Chicago Bears, he needs to correct his design problem. And the NFL must stop giving Martz a pass by continuously hiring him and calling him a genius. Martz will be a genius in this space after he fixes the O-line blocking problem.

Otherwise, Jay Cutler may become another Alex Smith of 2008.

So who's going to send another ridiculous email now?  Martz has paid no attention to my constant criticism of his system.  Now, Jay Cutler's on the  bench with mixed up marbles.

Wild.

99er Nation launches “White Ribbon Campaign”

This week the 99er Nation launches a “White Ribbon Campaign” for all 99ers and those who support the passage of a Tier 5, for all long term unemployed Americans.

The hope is that any and all who support the plight of the 99ers will wear a simple white ribbon to show their commitment to the cause, including news media members, celebrities, politicians and of course the 99er Nation themselves.

The campaign was contrived by leaders within the 99er Nation like: Cindy Paoletti, Connie Kaplan, Rob Curtis, PalTalk participants of “Tier 5 to Survive - Unemployed” chat room and dedicated members within the 99er cause.

Ed Schultz has also been contacted and invited to wear the “99er white ribbon” to show his support. No response has yet been received from the Schultz camp on if he will do so.

By all accounts, the One Nation rallies held yesterday from Washington DC to Los Angeles were a resounding success, even as the right wing nuts have already begun to trash the marchers as "communists and socialists". Right wing blogs using pictures of trash left behind in the DC mall and depicting the crowds only after the huge crowd had dispursed, claim that the march was a bust.

No matter how "Fox psuedo News" and the right wing nuts may want to spin the impact of the unity march, the real proof will come on election day, when the true impact of the political ramifications of either side will be felt.

See for your self the crowds and speakers by viewing the CSPAN coverage of the complete 4 hour rally at this link: http://www.c-span.org/Watch/Media/2010/10/02/HP/A/38847/One+Nation+Working+Together+Rally.aspx

SF Giants 3, San Diego Padres 0 - GIANTS CLINCHED THE NL WEST #sfgiants

The San Francisco Giants have done it! The Giants have won the NL west with a 92 win record!

The San Francisco Giants are in the playoffs and Bruce Bouchy's decision to give Johnny Guillen the start in right field paid off.

Now, San Francisco's going nuts and it's a safe bet that MoMo's is a tough place to get into.

Here are Giants fans watching the game:



GO GIANTS!

Michael Vick Injured; Kevin Kolb In, Eagles Defense Awful #mcnabbbowl

According to Fox Sports' Pam Oliver, Philadelphia Eagles Quarterback Michael Vick is out for the game against the Washington Redskins called the McNabb Bowl.   The Redskins are ahead 17 to 6 with 3:28 in the 3rd Quarter.

Vick was injured after he was hit by two Redskins defenders just one yard from the end zone in the 2nd quarter. He's injured his rib and his chest. More details to come.

Now, Kevin Kolb is in for Vick.

Kevin Kolb is obviously not Michael Vick; he's completed passes when the receiver was obviously open, and is not the runner. Kolb can't capitalize on opportunities like the giant hole Vick would have ran into to get a first down on the third down in the 3rd Quarter with 11:34 remaining.

McNabb's Game So Far

With the exception of one glaring passing error, missing a wide-open Fred Davis on a bootleg pass in the 1st Quarter, Donovan McNabb has played so-so. He's 6 of 13 for 115 yards. Kolb is 9 of 15 for 104 yards. Off all QB's to this writing, Vick's 90 is the highest rating according to ESPN.com

SF Giants 2, San Diego Padres 0 - One Win, Giants Are In #sfgiants

Big sports day: SF Giants 2, San Diego Padres 0,4th inning. One win and the San Francisco Giants are in the MLB Playoffs. At the time of this writing, the Giants got to their current lead when Johnny Sanchez' triple ignited a two-run rally.

Jose Guillen Gets The Start

Giants manager Bruce Bochy started Jose Guillen in Right Field for todays game, and according to The SF Giants website, Bochy said the reason was that the team performed better with him in the lineup.

So far, he's right. In the 5th inning, the Giants are still ahead 2 to zip.  Now, according to Twitter, Sanchez is done for the game.

TheNaturalHobbs Dustin Hobbs
Sanchez done - five solid and a shaky sixth...might be good enough if 'pen hangs on. #sfgiants

If the Giants win today's game, they're the National League West Champions and are in the MLB Playoffs.

Stay tuned.

Men's Heath Sex Survey: Indianapolis, Chicago, Among Most Sexually Satisfied Cities

Indianapolis, Indiana, home of the Indianapolis Colts, is America's most "sexually satisfied" city, according to a survey released in Men's Heath's Magazine. Using a criteria that includes condom purchases, sex toy sales from Pure Romance and Babeland, and birth rates, Indy came up the winner, with Chicago ranked number 10.

In between, six of the ten city listed are in America's midwest:

1. Indianapolis, Ind.
2. Columbus, Ohio
3. Fort Wayne, Ind.
4. Cincinnati, Ohio
5. Salt Lake City, Utah
6. San Antonio, Texas
7. Denver, Colo.
8. Austin, Texas
9. Boise City, Idaho
10. Chicago, Ill.

What's interesting is that none of the cities are listed in the Top 10 are California cities. The reason, may be that it's due to the fact that birth rates are considered. There's a known indirect correlation between birth rates and education rates. The higher the rate of education, the lower the birth rate. Or, as a 1997 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports, "birth rates are highest for women with the least education."

It doesn't mean that sex isn't happening, just that the people doing it are making sure they don't produce kids. So the value of this survey diminishes a bit because it fails to adjust for that issue of birth rates versus education.

Moreover, it can be said, unfortunately, that the cities listed have problems with levels of education. That's the flip side of the results in the Men's Health Sex Survey.

Oakland Mayor's Race: The Passionate Attack On Don Perata

In the Oakland Mayors Race, no one person brings out more passions than Former State Senator Don Perata. Everyone has some kind of opinion about Perata. Everytime the subject of the Oakland Mayor's Race comes up, someone says to this blogger "Perata's going to win," as if they're watching a horse race, rather than participating in an election.

But for those who have seen Oakland's mayoral future, and it's Perata, there seem to be many more who are set to attack him or just proclaim their hatred for him. It's a level of dislike that has led to the creation of one website and two Twitter accounts, all against him.

For example, there's the website Anybody But Perata, which reads as follows:

The purpose of this website is very simple: to present reasons why former State Senator Don Perata should not be elected mayor of the City of Oakland, California.

While the election of Don Perata as Oakland mayor would probably be very good for Mr. Perata and his friends and family and a few of his associates, we believe that it would be very bad for most of the residents of the City of Oakland.

The website is a collection, mostly, of articles from The East Bay Express, where Robert Gammon has paid his bills writing about Perata, and largely in the negative. As befits it's title, you're not going to find fair and balanced coverage of Perata.

Even more negative are the twin Twitter pages The REAL Don Perata and Fake Don Perata. Their tweets were the stuff of another World during the Kaiser Center Forum of two weeks ago. Here's a sample of their tweets, some of them to me as I was tweeting about the forum:

RealDonPerata The REAL Don Perata
#oaklandforum @fakedonperata You may have won this one but I WILL HAVE ReVENgE!!!!!!!!!!!!
23 Sep

RealDonPerata The REAL Don Perata
@zennie62 #oaklandforum @fakedonperata STFU!!! You fat bald bastard! I am the only Fake Real Don! There can only be ONE!
23 Sep

RealDonPerata The REAL Don Perata
#oaklandforum WTF! @fakedonperata is stealing my style! Dawg! You should know nots ta mess with da REAL!
23 Sep

RealDonPerata The REAL Don Perata
#oaklandforum @zennie62 MY budget experience includes going over the campaign spending limit with 2 months left in the race.
23 Sep

RealDonPerata The REAL Don Perata
@JeanQuan you call that a video? I just hired Spike Jonez! Sending limit, shmending shmimmit!
23 Sep

RealDonPerata The REAL Don Perata
@fakejeanquan Damn right we've got your precious microfilm! And if you want it back it will cost you dearly. Muhahahahahaha!
20 Sep

East Bay Express Helps Perata

Why does Don Perata have so much Internet exposure relative to his Oakland Mayor's Race competitors? The East Bay Express. Proving once again that Old Media people just don't get New Media, Robert Gammon has generated or caused the generation of 17,000 items of content regarding Don Perata. In shaping Perata's current image, that of a behind-the-scenes power broker who helps his friends at the expense of the public, Gammon has single-handedly formed the foundation for Senator Perata's neme recognition.

The good news for Perata is he didn't have to spend a dime. Because Gammon's view is so unbalanced, it causes some to think about Perata and consider that the Express could be wrong. Robert's material has also made Perata look like an operative who can get things done.

So, contrary to my initial take, Robert Gammon has been Don Perata's best friend. Gammon's almost psychotic-level of attention to Perata hs caused him to ignore the other candidates beyond those in the Oakland City Council, and even then they're not mentioned so much.

Robert Gammon has caused or catalyzed or been associated with more generated online content about Perata than even current Mayor Ron Dellums: 13,000 for Dellums versus 15,300 results for Perata.  (And 11,000 for Kaplan and for Quan each, 2,770 for Terrance Candell, 2,570 for Joe Tuman, 2,260 results for Don Macleay, 1,550 for Greg Harland, 673 results for Marcie Hodge, 89 for Larry Lionel Young, and 72 results for Arnie Fields.)

If Perata should win the Oakland Mayor's Race, his first course of action should be to thank Robert Gammon.