Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Mike Anderson Offered $2.2 Million

Kansas City Star reports that Mike Anderson, Missouri coach, has bbeen offered $2.2 million to coach the Arkansas Razorbacks.


Although that is said the news site also says that Steve Owens, the interim University of Missouri system president is not revealing anything:

I think it is safe to say that we are all big fans of Mike Anderson,” Owens said on a conference call Tuesday morning from the MU Board of Curators meeting in Rolla, Mo. “We appreciate very much what he does on the court and particularly off the court. But any hypothetical contract negotiations, we don’t confirm either their existence or their status.”


There are also talks that this could be a contract extension. So it is unclear what exactly is going on - so guess it will have to wait until the media is able to contact and get an answer straight from Anderson.

Don't call her "Liz" Taylor: What Zennie glossed over

I'm not going to pretend expertise on Hollywood, because the one film course I took in college was a practical lesson in the dangers of sitting in a dark room shortly after eating dinner. The Taming of the Shrew and Singing in the Rain were great movies, for example, but expecting a college student to stay awake with a full stomach was, I'd say, a tactical blunder on the part of my otherwise talented professor.

That experience reminds me of one of my favorite quotes from the late star:

"I really don't remember much about Cleopatra. There were a lot of other things going on."

~Elizabeth Taylor
Even those of us with merely a casual interest in film, though, can recognize that Elizabeth Taylor had a certain flair for being her own woman: her off-screen impact is undeniable, her candor about movie-making and stardom remains refreshing.

"I sweat real sweat and I shake real shakes."

~Elizabeth Taylor

At a time when divorce remained so rare as to be newsworthy, Elizabeth Taylor, clearly among Hollywood's royalty despite claiming she was forced into an acting career, could dominate the headlines with the start or end of another chapter in her series of marriages.

"I've only slept with men I've been married to. How many women can make that claim?"

~Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Taylor, perhaps best-known for playing Cleopatra opposite Richard Burton, leveraged the fame and glamor by branding jewelry and perfume. Zennie did a nice summary, and you can already find countless obituaries that list her awards and accomplishments; her biography is studded with accomplishments. But here's the thing:

"When people say, 'She's got everything', I've got one answer:
I haven't had tomorrow."

~Elizabeth Taylor
That's the best summary of Taylor's legacy. There are films, and awards, all the expected trappings of a mega-star with a lengthy career - but Elizabeth Taylor wasn't content to be a movie icon, her passion and impact by remaining engaged in life outside the studios eclipsed her acting -- she wasn't content to wait for tomorrow.
Thomas Hayes is a New Media Advisor, Political Consultant, Journalist, Entrepreneur, and former Congressional Campaign Manager; he believes in "follow the money" when following politics, and continues his 12-step recovery from the years spent as a Programmer/Database Administrator by carrying his camera nearly everywhere and writing on topics ranging from economics and politics to culture and community.
You can follow Tom as @kabiu on twitter.

Elizabeth Taylor Passes at 79; End Of An Era In Hollywood

Actress Elizabeth Taylor, long the symbol of Hollywood glamour, gossip, and elegance, passed away at 79 years old, after being hospitalized at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles with what was called congestive heart failure. Taylor, a two-time Academy Award-winner, had suffered from complications related to that medical condition, but was expected to live through it. She did not.

End of An Era

Elizabeth Taylor's passing marks the end of an era, when Hollywood stars were treated like royalty. She will be most remembered for her breath-taking beauty, her movies, and her eight marriages, most notably to Eddie Fisher.  The woman who once said that the acting career was "forced on me," went on to become the highest paid actress in Hollywood in 1960, when she signed a $1 million deal to star in Cleopatra.

 It was during that film that Taylor began the legendary romance with Burton, who played Mark Antony - both were already married at the time.

Here's Taylor making her dramatic entrance in the epic film:



A Four-Time Oscar Nominee, Two-Time Winner

Taylor was nominated for a "Best Actress" Oscar five times, winning twice, for her performance as "Gloria Wandrous" in BUtterfield 8 (1960), and for her role as "Martha" in Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966).

Elizabeth Taylor was said to have had a "passion" for jewelry, and wore many creations purchased for her by Richard Burton. Then, later, she designed works for The Elizabeth Collection, sold by at Christie's, and launched three perfume lines: "Passion", "White Diamonds", and "Black Pearls," all which earned an estimated $200 million in sales.

Taylor was a long-time friend of the late Michael Jackson, who she met in 1985 during an AIDS-related event. Jackson created and performed this song called Elizabeth I Love You, in her honor:




For more on Elizabeth Taylor, visit her Wikipedia page, and CNN.com.


Tuesday, March 22, 2011

William Shatner: Happy Birthday To Star Trek's Captain Kirk



William Shatner, who's still best known as Star Trek's Captain Kirk, tuns 80 years old today. Shatner, who has enjoyed an amazing rise in his already legendary pop culture status with his current TV show !#$$ My Dad Says, some how manages to stay young looking and young at heart.

It has to be that he just keeps moving.

The ultimate complement is to have Chris Pine play a character originally built around Shatner: Captain Kirk in J.J. Abrams version of Star Trek.

No matter what Pine does, his Kirk will always be measured by William Shatner. Pine can do nothing about that.

May William Shatner live long and prosper.

Twitter Followers Matter: The Ad Impressions View

There's a debate in social media circles on the value of Twitter Followers. Some, like Aliza Sherman at Gigaom in 2009, say that the number of Twitter Followers isn't important. Others have estimates of the value of Twitter Followers that make no sense at all.

In one case in 2010, an author stated that because Tim O'Reilly has over 1 million followers, but follows 644, he's more valuable as a follower than Guy Kawasaki, who has, or had, 223,631 followers versus 245,897 people he's following at the time. Then the author states "Tim O'Reilly may actually follow his followers, whereas I can't imagine that Guy Kawasaki does."

What?

Uh, it would seem Tim O'Reilly has the problem of not following people back and to a far greater extent than Guy Kawasaki.

So, you see the point?

Then there's the view of Chris Keller, blogging about the tool Twitter Grader and the value of followers. He blogs:





One of the factors that goes into measuring your Twitter Grade is the number of followers you have. Many of you will argue that the number of followers is completely irrelevant because it’s so easy to game. There are automated tools to do nothing but acquire followers by following a bunch of people. That’s true. It is easy to spike up your follower count.

However, I would counter with this: If we were looking at two different twitter users, all other things being equal (and I do mean all other things), the one with more followers is likely more powerful and deserves a higher twitter grade.


And let's return to Sherman's point, where she claims that follower quality is better than quantity. She rails about having "empty" followers, and goes on about making meaningful connections.

To an extent she has a point, but her blog implies that any large follower count consists of a lot of "empty" connections. And it's for that reason her take is a bit off the right path.

What everyone seems to miss is that Twitter is a communications device that provides instant ad impressions.

What are "Ad Impressions?"

Ad Impressions are defined as "a single appearance of an advertisement on a web page," or "display (serving) of an online ad."  If you consider that a Twitter tweet like this one:

McDonalds McDonald's
by charliesheen
Despite all the rumors there r no plans 2 bring #mclobster or mcsushi 2 the US menu. We r working on a new menu item called McWinning.
3 Mar Favorite Retweet Reply

That is essentially an ad for McDonalds that was seen, initially, 2.3 million times, or the number of followers Charlie Sheen had at the time, which is now over 3 million and counting. But let's not stop there, because we're forgetting the number of followers, Charlie Sheen's followers have, which is his "reach."

One would think locating a tool that properly and mathematically estimates reach would be easy, but it's not. Twinfluence, which used to have a great system for this, isn't working properly.

TweetReach produces a result is probably the best estimate of overall impressions, but even then, it produces results that make this blogger do a double take. If I type in charliesheen, TweetReach reports 80,758 people "reached" via 50 tweets, and exposure of 80,987 impressions. What's weird is Sheen has 3 million followers.

Check it out: Charlie Sheen TweetReach.

Now check this out.

TwitterReach reports that Zennie62 (remember not to include the @ sign in your query) has a reach of 68,589 people via just 50 tweets. I have 28,459 followers as of this writing for what Twitter Reach reports as a total exposure of 461,693 Impressions.

Check it out for yourself: Zennie62 TweetReach.

That calls for a double-take.

The impressions were contributed by 17 Twitterers, with me, Zennie62, leading the way at 415,092.

Why?  Well, the obvious difference has to be that I issue tweets including the term "Zennie62," which is something Mr. Sheen doesn't do.  That means he's not taking advantage of his base of followers to gain impressions for his Twitter account.

The point is, impressions matter in the Twitterverse.

Even if a person doesn't react to a Twitter tweet, they see the tweet. We can't know when they saw it, or even when or if they did, but since it's out there, it's visible. Thus, it's an ad impression, and the more Twitter Followers the submitter has, the more impressions that tweet's going to get.

That's why the number of Twitter Followers is important: as the basis for ad impressions. This perspective also gives value to the tweet issued. The more followers you have, and the more you tweet per day, the more valuable the tweets become.

Something else also not considered by Twitter reach analysis systems is that now, with social network search engines like SocialMention.com, and Facebook feeds for Twitter, that Twitter tweet is seen by more people than just in the Twitterverse.

Thus, Charlie Sheen's McDonald's tweet really made a lot of people hungry! Think about that the next time you see or make a Twitter tweet of any kind: it travels far and is seen by more people than even current tools can measure. Your tweet can start a movement for or against a person, place, or thing. All it takes is for it to be seen.

Some Things & Other Things the “not quite yet Spring time” in the NFL Edition

By Dr. Bill Chachkes Executive Editor-Football Reporters Online

I hear It’s “Always Sunny” in Philly, but that doesn’t keep Eagles Owner Jeff Lurie or Team President Joe Banner from lying right through their teeth when they talk about the costs associated with running the Linc. Raise your hand if you have ever been to the Linc….I have. It’s a nice place to watch a game, both in the seats and in the Pressbox. Can anyone really justify a 7digit “misc. expenses” tab for a stadium? I hope that doesn’t count food costs for the media. All Mr. Lurie could manage for us that day was Turkey or Ham sandwiches…Even though I’m not a fan of Pork product, I have no plans to shoot them from my helicopter like one politician suggests we do to immigrants. Lurie should produce movies about politicians who get elected and then go against the people who elected them, then he could see how he’s going against the fans of the team he owns. Most Philly fans Love Mike VICK, but that has to still be some that miss Donovan McNabb…

Do the NFL owners want to do the same thing to it’s players? If the owners really wanted to “come back to the table” and get a deal done with the players, they wouldn’t be waiting for the April 6th Court date before Judge Richardson. I like Mr. Goodell as a person, he’s always been nice to me, but he didn’t really think his letter to the players would be taken seriously when the owners for the most part prove time and time again how they can’t be trusted?

We are beginning to hear a lot of news from the “Camps” of players awaiting to be drafted next month about “who’s gonna kill it” at their pro day or how many NFL teams have invited me for a work out. What these guys have not realized yet is that the NFL that they are waiting to be selected into is going to be much different then they were hoping for. It’s going to have a rookie wage scale, and none of these guys will be “instant” millionaires like I have my “Instant Oatmeal” twice weekly….No, those days are gone. Hope you weren’t planning on paying off all your babies mommas with your signing bonus.

Football needs a “breath of fresh air”, and that just what the UFL’s Hartford Colonials did this week by hiring Jerry Glanville as their new Head Coach & GM. Not that Chris Palmer’s pressers were boring (he is a nice man too), But clearly as evidenced by the phone conference he gave to some of us media types yesterday he’s ready to ‘Shake it up” at “the Rent” this season. I look forward to being at a few of those post game press conferences…I’m even going to e-mail him my list of “dead” people he should leave tickets for…now that the statue of limitations has run out on The Doors’ Jim Morrison for the 1969 arrest in New Haven, Maybe he’ll be up for a Colonials game….but seriously, people are finally starting to take the UFL seriously(even though I did from day one, I was one of the people at the first UFL press conference…) and people should see it for what it is: competitive football. Maybe Coach Belichick could learn something about charismatic behavior from Coach Glanville….I heard he already got into a “Tweet-Fight” with Newsday’s Bob Glauber, with the Coach inviting him up to a game…Bob, if your reading this and you show up to the game and I’m there, I’d be glad to introduce you around…You’ll get to see that pro football goes beyond the NFL…

I’m so Tired of these” Rumor” football sites who just publish stories to get their traffic numbers up. Do you guys actually go out and hunt these stories down? Or do you come up with this “junk” while your in the “reading” room?

So Ohio State Head coach Jim Tressel wants to stand with his players and be suspended 5 games because “Maybe he didn’t do enough” to instill the right behavior in his players. I’m ok with his feelings, but these kids still should have sat out that bowl game….

Thanks to former Vikings DE and Retired Players Association President Carl Eller for joining us on the show last Thursday night. He was very pointed in his remarks about current players who take for granted what they have…

I heard about this great organization founded by a High School running back in Ohio who wants to help H.S. athletes who are severely injured while playing sports. Just google “rush for a cause” and find them on Facebook…

Finally, I’m headed down to our nation’s capital to speak to the sports management program students at Catholic University tomorrow. The Wed. & Thur. shows will be broadcast from The University (Wed. Night), and The Glory Days Sports grill in Broadlands, Va.(Thur. Night). Saturday we will be scouting and interviewing the athletes at the First BSN football combine of the season. Starting tonight, The Tuesday PFNYC show will be weekly again, until just after the draft…

This former soldier asks you to please pray for the people of Japan, and support our Soldiers, Sailors, Marines, Airman, and Coast Guardsman who defend our religious and political freedoms every day.

99ers News Alert: GOP Takes Meeting on HR589 - 99ers Data Base Created


This is a 99ers News Alert: GOP leadership takes Democrats up on their offer to meet on HR589 - And Rhonda Taylor (tireless long time 99er advocate) creates a badly needed 99ers Data Base. (see below)

According to Arthur Delaney of the Huffington Post today:

GOP Leaders Agree To Meet With Dems To Discuss Bill For Long-Term Unemployed

From the article:

WASHINGTON -- Republican leaders in the House of Representatives have agreed to meet with two Democrats to discuss longshot legislation for the long-term unemployed, the members' offices confirmed Tuesday.

Reps. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) and Bobby Scott (D-Va.) introduced legislation earlier this year to provide 14 additional weeks of unemployment benefits to Americans who've been out of work for six months or longer. Lee and Scott have spoken frequently about the struggles of so-called "99ers" -- people who still haven't found work after exhausting the maximum 99 weeks of benefits available in some states.

The Lee-Scott proposal received zero initial support from Republicans because it would add roughly $16 billion to the federal budget deficit. Lee and Scott later announced they'd be open to finding budget cuts to offset the cost of the benefits, something Democrats have generally refused to do for federal extended jobless aid typically enacted during recessions.

Given that concession, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) have agreed to meet with Lee and Scott sometime in the next few weeks to discuss possible cuts to fund the benefits.

The story goes on to say:

Cantor's office suggested he would steer the conversation toward job creation instead of just providing another 14 weeks of benefits.

"Leader Cantor looks forward to the meeting and would like to broaden the conversation to focus on ways to grow the economy, spur investment and create jobs rather than simply extending unemployment benefits in some instance beyond the maximum of 99 weeks currently permitted," a Cantor spokesman said Monday in a statement to the OC Register.

Cantor spokesman Brad Dayspring elaborated in an email to HuffPost: "The point was basically that the Leader believes that the best unemployment program in America is a job, so rather than only talking about extending benefits, we should be having a broader conversation about growing the economy, spurring investment, and allowing businesses to hire."

Lee and Scott haven't suggested what they'd be willing to cut, and House Democratic leaders have remained silent about the prospect of offsetting the cost of unemployment benefits. Last year, then-Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told HuffPost she considered offsetting benefits "a completely bad idea," though many conservative Democrats have said they support doing so.

The thing is though that after an entire year without any income, after the 2 previous years of unemployment, most 99ers - if they were hired today would not have the bus fare or gas money to get back and fourth to that job long enough to get that first pay check. Consequently the millions within the 99er Nation NEED SOME MONEY in order to survive long enough to get that elusive job that will be their saving grace. Congress seems in no big hurry to do either create jobs or help the 99ers survive - but good lord we certainly must help Libya, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen and every other country that needs it.

HR589 would cost $16 Billion and help desperate, forgotten 99er families to survive. American's involvement in Libya is likely to cost far more than that and not help even 1 Jobless American.

Did you hear it? Ed Schultz is the only one in TV media news who keeps mentioning the 99ers at all these days. Last week he did so on this Wednesday show - even in the midst of covering the horrific events as they unfolded in Japan.

Well last night big Ed did it again (see video at 3:13) when, during an interview with Laura Flanders, Ed was slammed Speaker Boehner for his comment: "The United States has a moral obligation to stand with the Libyans" , even as he stands idly by and does NOTHING for the 99ers.

Finally, Rhonda Taylor of Rhode Island - prolific 99er advocate extraordinaire has created a data base for 99ers. The purpose of this is to have a way to contact as many of those in the 99er Nation for protests and gives her a geographical "map" of sorts so she will know how many busses will be needed and from what locations for the big Washington 99er convergence planned for this Spring.

Rhonda has proven herself trustworthy and since she will be administering the 99er Data Base - I have already registered and suggest all unemployed Americans do the same. We are all 99ers. Some of us are the 99ers of yesterday, others the 99ers of today and the rest of the unemployed are the 99ers of tomorrow. Don't wait for it to happen to you. Register now here.



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

U-Cubed Press Releases Show Grim Jobs Statistics - Despite Washington Rhetoric


The U-Cubed Press Release below shows very grim Jobs Statistics - Despite the Washington Rhetoric to the contrary.

In their most recent Press release today, U-Cubed tells a far more reality based version of the American Jobless fiasco than our own government has recently reported. Perhaps Washington reports the skewed, bogus UE rates to justify their refusal to do anything about the problem. The old "Washington Two-Step"= If we ignore it and say everything is fine, maybe we can fool just enough voters to avoid doing any real work and still keep our own jobs.

U-Cubed Press Release 3-22-2011: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

UCubed’s Unemployment Brackets Showcase Grim Statistics

Washington, D.C., March 22, 2011 – Citing recent metropolitan unemployment numbers from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Ur Union of Unemployed (UCubed) released its updated “Marching to Madness” unemployment brackets.

The brackets are the latest installment of UCubed’s aggressive ad campaign on Facebook meant to draw attention to the national jobs crisis. Users were asked to fill out the unemployment brackets, ranking the city they believed is suffering the most. Today’s version has been filled in with actual rankings from the BLS.

“As predicted, there were an estimated 28.4 million ‘upsets’ in our unemployment bracket tournament,” said UCubed Executive Director Rick Sloan. “That’s the real number of Americans in need of a job. The real number of Americans pleading for policymakers to take action in creating a national jobs agenda that will put America back to work.

“Today, more than three years since the collapse of our economy, our nation’s leaders have yet to take bold action to address the jobs crisis. Washington’s indifference in the midst of this historical national emergency is appalling.

“The jobless want to go back to work. And they want to go back today. The time to create a national jobs agenda is now.”

Of the top 64 metropolitan areas, the city of Fresno, CA, recorded the highest unemployment rating in the “Marching to Madness” unemployment brackets with 17.2 percent! For a complete look at all the cities, click here.

Also see UCubed's ad campaign on Facebook.

Ur Union of Unemployed, or UCubed, is a community service project of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) designed to assist the millions of unemployed and underemployed Americans, and to provide them with a structure that allows them to take advantage of their growing numbers. For more information, visit Ur Union of Unemployed.

Rick Sloan also sent out a website wide email communication on this subject:

Dear UCubed Leaders & Activists:

As predicted, an estimated 28.4 million were “upset” in UCubed’s “Marching to Madness” unemployment bracket tournament. Of the top 64 metropolitan areas, the city of Fresno, CA, recorded the highest unemployment rating with a whopping 17.2 percent! Las Vegas, NV, followed with 14.9 percent.

UCubed created the unemployment brackets in a continual effort to draw attention to the national jobs crisis – and the lack of bold action on the part of our nation’s leaders in addressing this important issue. Washington’s indifference in the midst of this historical national emergency has been appalling. Today, more than three years since the collapse of our economy, millions of Americans remain in need of full-time work – yet, little has been done to create jobs.

The time to create a national jobs agenda is now. The jobless want to go back to work. And they want to go back today.

Show your support for the unemployed by clicking “Like” on UCubed's page on Facebook.

For a complete look at how your city stacked up in our “Marching to Madness” brackets, click here.

In Unity – Strength,

Rick Sloan
Executive Director
Ur Union of the Unemployed

Fresno, CA Ranked #1 "Most Unemployed" City by U-Cubed

Eight California cities made the U-Cubed March Madness Unemployment brackets, but Fresno, CA ranked #1 "Most Unemployed" City with an unemployment rate of (17.2).

From the U-Cubed website:

As predicted, there were an estimated 28.4 million “upsets” in UCubed’s “Marching to Madness” unemployment bracket tournament. Out of the top 64 metropolitan areas, the city of Fresno, CA, recorded the highest unemployment rating with a whopping 17.2 percent! Las Vegas, NV, followed with 14.9 percent.

“It makes you wonder how policy makers can simply turn a blind eye,” said UCubed Executive Director Rick Sloan. “There are millions of Americans in need of full-time work, yet nothing has been done to create jobs. The pleas of the jobless have gone unanswered.

“Washington’s indifference in the midst of this historic national emergency is appalling.”

UCubed created the “Marching to Madness” unemployment brackets in an effort to draw attention to the national jobs crisis. For a complete look at how your city stacked up, click here.

Show your support for the unemployed by clicking “Like” on UCubed’s page on Facebook.

San Diego made it into the "Somber Sixteen" bracket. It was one of eight cities in the "Golden State" to rate the dubious distinction among the Nation's worst cities to find employment. Aside from San Diego (10.3) and Fresno, the other 6 California towns were: San Francisco (9.2), Sacramento (12.6), San Jose (10.8), Riverside (14.3), Los Angeles (13.1) and Bakersfield (12.2). [All but Bakersfield made the "Somber Sixteen" roster level] California is way above the national unemployment rate and you can see - many of the largest cities have unemployment rates soaring far above the current (12.7) UE rate for our state. In fact, among the 14 areas with jobless rates of at least 15% , 12 were located in California.

The U-Cubed bracket has many other eye opening unemployment facts that paint a grim picture for the "Jobless Recovery" our so called "Leaders" in Washington keep avoiding and refuse to address. Be sure and check out who placed in the: Irate Eight, Fed-Up Four and Terrible Two brackets.

Seems that the only economies and human suffering Washington cares enough about to do anything at all are in the middle east and NOT here in the USA.



[The donation button below is for Paladinette. If you like what I write please donate so I can keep on fighting for the 99ers! Thank You!]





Monday, March 21, 2011

Dancing With The Stars Season 12: Kirstie Alley Over Hot Kendra Wilkinson

Kendra Wilkinson made her debut on Dancing With The Stars Season 12, but even with her great legs and moves, wasn't hot enough to earn the points needed to overcome her competitor, the rapper Romeo.

And while some wondered if 60 year old Kirstie Alley (in photo) was good enough to even dance on Dancing With The Stars, they're applauding now, because from all online accounts, she was terrific. Even hotter than any of Hugh Hefner's playmates, at least in dancing acumen.

Alley lit up Twitter:


chemicallycalm‎ I'm surprised, Kirstie Alley did a really good job.
Twitter - 1 minute ago

MikelsMindsEye‎ Kirstie Alley's 60??? I need to cut her a little slack...she looks great. #DWTS

ksblack‎ Still processing Wendy Williams' performance on DWTS. Kirstie Alley was HOT!
Twitter - seconds ago


Hef was in the audience, and alongside former Colts Wide Receiver and Kendra's husband, Hank Bassett, was cheering for Wilkinson. And it looked, for a while, as if she would light up the scoreboard as well as the television screen, but a few missteps with her partner Louis Van Amstel, led the judges to give them all sixes for a total of 18 points.

"Stars" judge Len Goodman had the sound bite of the show when he told Kendra, "You had my attention, if not always for the right reasons." The judges, Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli, and Goodman, all commented on Wilkinson's technical failings. In all it was enough to put her a point behind Romeo.

With his sexy partner Chelsie Hightower, who was back for the fifth time on "Dancing," Romeo Miller, aka Lil' Romeo, also the son of rapper Master P, burned up the floor, producing a dance that was part lovemaking, part romantic, and all fun. The two were so energetic they caused Tonioli to gush that he was "moving with" them all over, and leaned right into Goodman in the process. For their efforts, and minus some issues with footwork, they earned a 19.

But Kirstie Alley was the surprise. The actress, who said she "moved like a white girl" in the preview segment, showed she learned a thing to three, and with her partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy, scored a 23, just behind Ralph ("The Karate Kid") Macchio, who with his dancing mate Karina Smirnoff, turned in the evenings' best performance: a 24 out of 30.

All dancers survive - for now. The eliminations start March 29th.

A New Zennie62 Blog Under Construction

A new Zennie62 blog is under construction, and about 60 percent complete, but well enough along the way to show you and ask you to check it out.

It's called Zennie62Blog.com and you can see it here: http://zennie62blog.com . It reflects a switch from Blogger to Wordpress for this flagship blog of the 96 blogs in the network, and also a switch from "free" to a paid hosted server environment.

I had the idea for a while, but Executive Editor Nikky Raney, who prefers Blogger, was understandably resistant. But after Google focused more on "original content" as a factor in Google News submissions, and because we were producing original content, and Google wasn't favoring Blogger blogs for Google News (even though Zennie62.com was on it) I started to think about a switch.

Also, I'd taken the Zennie62.com blog as far as it could go in template changes on the Blogger platform. The simple fact is Google has not installed a full permalink system on Blogger, so what we get are URLs that don't have all of the words in a blog title, if the title is longer than four words. So you have to do a "workaround" just to deal with that problem.

It's a huge problem because it means that one word which may cause you to get more traffic because it's in your URL is left out of Blogger's permalink design.

That can translate into thousands of dollars of lost potential ad revenue. Moreover, Wordpress does not have that problem; I think its something Google does deliberately to counter the wave of massive impact millions of well-optimized Blogger blogs would have on the media climate today.

There's a reason even Matt Cutts, Google's Engineering "public face" switched from Blogger to Wordpress a few years ago. I should have taken Matt's cue and did it then, but I was stubbornly married to the idea that I could push my Blogger blogs to new levels of performance. I did that, but now and with what I've learned, I want to apply that to this new, even more powerful blog under development.

Making this switch is not easy, but it's worth it. I feel like I'm building the new Enterprise.

It means learning a new programming language, PhP, "on the go." It means locating a good hosting service, finding the appropriate design theme, then one-by-one, installing the files from that theme into the server. It means re-coding some files to meet certain needs, particularly in the area of Google AdSense ads. It means working on a strategy to transfer the remaining blogs posts, after already moving over 7,000 posts to the new blog.

And it means working on a system to transfer links and URLs to the new blog so that a search allows a reader to come to the new blog, rather than the old one.

The Zennie62 Blogger blog will be used as "Zennie2005.blogspot.com" and a place for YouTube video placement and for occasional blog posts pointing to activities at Zennie62Blog. Eventually, "Zennie62.com" will point at the new blog, and be the "go to URL" for it. But I prefer to keep "Zennie62Blog" for SEO purposes.

The process of making the new blog from scratch has been exciting; I love the challenge of building new platforms.

First, Wordpress just may be the most powerful blog platform on the planet today (which is old news to some of you). Second, Google seems to have deliberately avoided making a Blogger that completes with Wordpress in the area of SEO. Even before my focus on it, the Zennie62Blog.com platform started to be listed on Google and generate comments for existing blog posts! Third, the new Zennie62Blog.com is already Google News ready, as I have found plugins specifically for that purpose, and installed them.

Zennie62Blog.com will be positioned to compete with news blogs from PerezHilton.com to The Huffington Post and ProFootballTalk as well as Red State and the great liberal blogs at Banter Media. While that may seem like a tall order to some, let me inform you we have over 9,000 blog posts going back to 2005. We also have the 96 Blogger blogs to use to "point" at the new blog - those blogs will remain and with their own unique content.

We have the over 2,000 videos on what will be called the Zennie.tv video network. And we have our social media and broadcasting base, including what stands at almost 30,000 Twitter Followers, with an objective of 1 million. That's the perfect foundation from which to build this new blog and explains why I assert we're in a great place to catch those blogs.

Finally, as Old Media continues to prove it's not capable of succeeding in the digital space, this is the best time to attack. To strike while the iron is hot. Blogs will rule media in the 21st Century, and with over 70,000 blogs made each day as of this writing, that forecast is becoming all the more true each day.

Stay tuned.

AT&T Buys T-Mobile

Mashable.com reports that AT&T has bought T-Mobile for $39 billion.

PC Magazine

For T-Mobile customers (like myself) this could be a good thing, because AT&T has the iPhone as well as many other features that T-Mobile does not currently have. Many T-Mobile customers that have questions regarding this change, and it seems so strange that since T-Mobile is putting out commercials about 4G that it is about to be bought out by AT&T.

PC Magazine reports that this could be a huge in for AT&T - because AT&T would become the nation's largest carrier and get better coverage, 34 million more customers and an opponent is eliminated.

It also reports that T-Mobile's owner has been struggling and T-Mobile has been in the fourth place spot as a carrier.

This is unfortunate for T-Mobile employees who will be facing major lay offs.

The lack of choices will be unfortunate for the consumers because there will be less to choose from and not as much flexibility.

For those with questions read the PC Magazine post that answers questions for the specific consumers of T-Mobile and AT&T by clicking here.