April Fools Day Doesn't Stop WonderCon SF, Ryan Reynolds No Joke

Today is not only April 1st, it's April Fools Day, that day of pranks, some funny, others not, but it's the first day of the 25th WonderCon in San Francisco. WonderCon starts this morning and this blogger's headed over for three days of comics, tech, geeks, nerds, people trying to be geeks and nerds, and geeks and nerds trying to win a costume contest (tonight) and meet The Green Lantern's Ryan Reynolds.

(Why is there the urge to say "The Green Lampshade's Ryan Reynolds?")

What's to look forward to, today at WonderCon? Well, it's the first day of the presentation of a number of works, both established and new, not just from Marvel and DC Comics, but from BOOM!, Image, and a number of alternative comics publishers. It will also be interesting to see just how much of the Moscone Center South space is taken up, because there's been a trend of sorts of smaller events just because there's not as much money sloshing around.

In other word, less overall money to spend on comics, and due to job loss and credit reductions, theoretically translates to more publishers skipping WonderCon and ComicCon. Note, theoretically. The objective today will be to determine if facts fit that hypothesis.

But I digress.

Ryan Reynolds will appear at the Esplanade Room at 5 PM, and that's certain to be a major event. Many fans will be looking not just for him and Green Lantern co-star Blake Lively, but for any new clips from the movie. That's important, because buzz has grown over the lack of new footage, leading to speculation that there may be a problem with the production of special effects.

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See ya at WonderCon SF, and that's no April Food's Day joke.

Oakland: John Russo To Alameda Decision Reversed, Russo To Remain In Oakland

Earlier this week it was announced that Oakland City Attorney John Russo was leaving his post in Oakland to become Alameda's City Manager. Now, according to sources, that decision has been reversed, and by Russo himself.

"I can't tun away from the unfinished work around the Gang Injuction issue," Russo said early this morning. And Mayor Quan and certain councilmembers need a breakwater; someone to make sure they're not taking the city down the wrong legal path. That's where I come in."

This space isn't surprised that Russo changed his course. In a recent video interview for Zennie62.com, it was clear the avid Oakland A's baseball fan from Brooklyn wasn't looking forward to making the change. When asked about the possible Alameda move, Russo would only say "How 'bout those A's!"

Of course, Russo said more than that; the video's 31 minutes long.

Video:



The announcements' certain to come as a shock to Alameda Officials, who were excited to be able to quickly move beyond the less-than-stellar tenure of now former City Manager Ann Marie Gallant.

As of this writing, Mayor Quan had no comment, but you can guess she's not happy today. Reportedly, Mayor Quan said "Oh, my. John's really going to be a thorn in my Lirpa Sloof."

Stay tuned,

2011 NFL Draft: Update On Blaine Gabbert's Wayward Twitter Tweet

Yesterday, this space reported that Missouri Quarterback, top 2011 NFL Draft candidate, and avid fisherman Blaine Gabbert used Twitter to issue a tweet that was easy to misunderstand. Basically, it looked like Gabbert was calling a classmate named "Stuttering Stanley," an, in caps, IDIOT.

Moreover, I wrote the blog post to emphasize the fact that, with as much as $50 million on the line over the next 29 days and counting, a potential top pick like Gabbert can't afford to make such mistakes. I never blogged that Gabbert actually called anyone "Stuttering Stanley," or that he referred to someone named "Stuttering Stanley," in a negative way. Again, I simply said that it looked that way.

One person, Ryan Faller, got my message, and was kind enough to respond with valuable information:

Mr. Abraham,

I recently read you blog post on Blaine Gabbert's so-called Twitter snafu, and wanted to provide you with some clarification.

Though I certainly don't condone Gabbert labeling someone an idiot, particularly on a social media outlet, his remark was made toward what appears to be an Arkansas fan who blatantly was making fun of Kim English. It is well-known amongst Missouri fans that English endured a severe battle with stuttering growing up, and he has not shied away for recalling how painful it was to live with the handicap, primarily because of the ridicule he received from his peers in school.

From what I can tell, all Gabbert was doing was coming to the defense of English. The best forum for coming to the aid of a friend? Certainly not, particularly for someone who's now being so closely watched as we approach draft day, as you point out.

Just wanted to drop this by you.

Thanks.

Sincerely,

Ryan

Thanks, Ryan.

Again, and I'm going to make this point, again and again. When the endgame is signing a multi-million dollar contract, everyone's looking at you. Twitter tweet are a reflection of the person who's going to be the recipient of some NFL Owners big money. And right now, the competition's so tough, it's not funny.

I think Blaine got the message.

Onward.

MC Hammer, Happy Birthday To A Hip-Hop Tech Icon

MC Hammer, a great man and personable man who's going through a well-deserved resurrection of sorts, turns 49 years old today.

This blogger first met Hammer at the 2007 BizWorld Luncheon in San Francisco, where he announced the launch of his startup company DanceJam:



Since then, Hammer has become a fixture at Tech Events, and gained a large set of friends in the San Francisco Bay Area Tech Community. I recall running into him in the line to get into the after-party for TechCrunch's The Crunchies 2009 (the same event where I - no kidding - ran into Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg as we were both walking past the coat check) and Hsmmer and I ended up walking around San Francisco City Hall and talking for a bit.

The walk turned into a moving who's who tech tour, with Hammer pointing to one person, then another, and explaining what companies they owned, and how much they were worth. It was clear he was "dialed in."

Hammer's also dialed in to making his own tech way, and he's definitely making the right moves. He's even got a Twitter Following of over 2 million!

Happy Birthday, Hammer!

Profiteering From A Panic: The $1,740 Potassium Iodide Supply

With new reports showing that low trace levels of radioactive iodine-131 have been found in the rain as far away as Massachusetts, the Great Potassium Iodide Panic of 2011 continues to simmer along. But what's wrong with that, you may ask yourself. If people are just buying a pill (or 14) to have on hand, just in case, no one's getting hurt by that. Right?

Unfortunately for people who were heading out on short notice to do relief work in Japan, the fallout of the potassium iodide panic had serious repercussions close to home. Just ask Kellie Moore.

She volunteered to do the leg work for two different sets of people who were going directly to Sendai. One couple was going to try to evacuate frail elderly parents who'd been living there before the devastation. And a trio was going to provide disaster aid. They all needed to start taking potassium iodide pills right before they left.

With only 48 hours' notice, finding potassium iodide in the midst of a panic was going to be a thankless job, but Kellie wanted to help. So she spent two solid days trying to find potassium iodide in the Bay Area.

Read more here...

2011 NFL Draft: Jake Locker UW Pro Day: 37 of 39, 2 Deep Balls Missed

Let's get the negative out of the way: the University of Washington, 2011 NFL Draft, Pro Day for Quarterback Jake Locker revealed that the Huskies signal-caller has a fixable deep-ball throwing problem that's just like what Chicago Bears Quarterback Jay Cutler exhibited at points during the 2010 NFL Season.

What Jay Cutler did, on his deep passes, was to actually aim the ball deep, rather than throw the ball at the receiver on the run to a point - essentially overcompensating for the fact that the receiver was running deep.

That's why Jay Cutler's passes would sail over the receiver on the deep post or fly pattern, and that's why Jake Locker's two deep passes sailed over the receiver running the deep post during his just completed pro day.  Moreover, Locker's passes came off his hand and went high into the air, almost to the point where it looked like they might hit the ceiling of the UW Football Practice Facility, before coming down.

What both Jay and Jake were doing was looking deep, thus taking their gaze somewhat-off the receiver, trying to throw an arc. What both should have done is keep their eyes squarely on the receiver, and let their throwing motion take the ball where it needs to go.

That's why Jake Locker was, by my count, 39 of 37 passes; the two he missed were both deep throws. Other than that, Locker's best throws were short and mid-range, and his sideline passes were wickedly good. On a couple of throws, Locker "over-kicked" his back leg and let the ball go just a quarter-tick too early, causing the throw to be a bit higher than desired. But even then, he only did that twice; both throws were completions.

If you're going to nit-pick, not all passes were perfect spirals at first, but after the 19th ball, Locker got into a nice rhythm. Locker performed well on play action passes, and on most rollout passes, save for one that was really high because he threw with that leg-kick (again) as he was running.

Was Locker mind-blowing? No. Was he good? Yes. He was. Again, the issues pointed to here are fixable. Overall, his grade should be a B-plus. That's good enough for a low-first round or second round status. But factor in his excellent mobility and the middle-to-low first round area of the 2011 NFL Draft is logical.

Brock Huard A Homer For Jake Locker

ESPN3.com's coverage of the UW Pro Day was excellent, but Brock Huard, ESPN3.com's announcer, was too much of a homer for Jake Locker.  Huard, who lives in the Washington Area, and went to Washington, made a statement that was just plain wrong.  Brock said that Jake Locker was the best quarterback at the 2011 Senior Bowl.

That's really wrong.

Nevada's Colin Kaepernick was judged to be the better quarterback at the Senior Bowl.  In fact, depending on who you read, Locker was either helped or hurt by the Senior Bowl.  Check it here.

The question is, did Locker do well enough for the Seattle Seahawks?  Only Seattle Seahawks Head Coach Carroll (who was watching Locker today) knows for sure , and he'll have another look at Jake during a workout scheduled for Thursday before he makes a decision.

Stay tuned.

Twitter Down, Over Capacity As Of Now; Jake Locker Saved

Twitter is down. As of this writing, when one tries to go to the website, the page reads "Twitter is over capacity." It has been this way for about 20 minutes now.

What this means is you're being directed, or redirected, to Twitter’s "503 page" meaning "503 Service Unavailable" page.

Generally this lasts for a short period of time, but today, with all that's going on in the World, Twitter has become the international SMS for Earth.

What does this mean?

Well, for one, University of Washington Quarterback Jake Locker's saved from any tweets should his pro-day, on at ESPN3.com right now, not go well.

Locker's set to start his throwing session in moments here.