What's it Like in Japan right now

I got a chance to interview Jesse Mendoza of Jordan International Aid who is in Japan right now doing relief work. You can listen to the live interview, below. Numbers and reports from the area are changing all the time. Jesse gave me some idea of what it is like there right now in the affected areas. These photos are from his trip there, now, where they brought supplies, food and infant formula.

First Hot meal in the shelter since the earthquake

For those who can't listen in, here are some bullet points. It goes without saying, there are a lot of challenges.

NGOs are being asked to not come because of the lack of accessibility.

Because of the nuclear exposure, relief groups that had come have left again.

A single meal of a bowl of rice and some soup is what people are getting per day.

It is very cold and snowing.

There is no electricity.

Some water has too much radiation to be given to infants.

There is still a great deal of widespread fear and distress. Listen here:

Doc Gurley is a Harvard Medical School graduate and is a practicing board-certified internist, and the creator of the Memoriam app - the first, and only, app to allow disaster-relief workers to speak for the dead. You can follow Doc Gurley on Facebook. Get more health posts at www.docgurley.com, or jump on the Twitter bandwagon and follow Doc Gurley. Also check out Doc Gurley's joyhabit and iwellth twitter feeds - so you can get topic-specific, effective, affordable tips on how to nurture your joy and grow your personal wellth.

Donald Trump's Idiotic Statements Enrage Whoopi Goldberg

The Long Island Press reports on Whoopi Goldberg's behavior during Donald Trump's visit to The View.

Trump has talked about his plans to run for presidency and that he will make a solid decision by June whether or not he wants to try his luck as a GOP nominee.

While on The View Trump questioned whether or not President Barack Obama was actually born in the United States - something that has been tackled many times and an issue that had been thought to be resolved and turned into whether or not Hawaii was actually a state when Obama was born there.

Trump said the following while on the air:


“I want him to show his birth certificate, there is something on that birth certificate that he doesn’t like.”


“The point is I cant rely on some newspaper that they show, I want him to show his birth certificate."


Whoopi Goldberg was not happy with this whatsoever and said that Trump's statements were racist and that never has a white president been asked to reveal his birth certificate - which is true. And Obama is only half black, and he was raised by his white mother.

Trump denied that race was a factor. Here's the video:

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. Tweet

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.

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.