End Of The World Not May 21st - Harold Camping Wrong

As this blog post is written, today is Thursday, May 19th, 2011. If Christian Radio Broadcaster Harold Camping has his way, Saturday May 21st will be The End Of The World. It's not necessary to go into a lot of detail to explain that Mr. Harold Camping is wrong.

Rather than immediately point to any Biblical scripture that reads "The World Will End On May 21st 2011," Camping points to a self-created math that leads him to that conclusion. But, really, it's a conclusion Camping would have come to an asserted without numbers.

It's just like Google using an algorithm to express what really is a set of opinions about how Internet search, and the placement of news, should work. Google execs are fond of pointing to this 'black box' that produces a result, but the fact is, if that black box comes up with a search outcome that's not in favor with their views, it will be altered.

Mr. Camping, originally a Berkeley-trained Civil Engineer long before creating the ministry of Family Stations, Inc., used a mathematical system of his own design to generate his result, which has really nothing directly to do with the Bible. In fact, in an interview in New York Magazine, Camping says...

— but there’s nothing in the Bible that holds a candle to the amount of information to this tremendous truth of the end of the world. I would be absolutely in rebellion against God if I thought anything other than it is absolutely going to happen without any question.

In other words, forget the Bible, the end of the World is nigh!

In this way, Camping is very much like another "expert" on what God is, does, and intends who was attacked in this space: Steven Hawking. Hawking is as certain that Heaven's a "fairy tale," much as Camping is sure that the World will end this Saturday, and both hide behind math and science to prove their points.

And the media gives them a ton of attention.

Yikes, man. Yikes.

Camping's backers are every bit as self-righteous as Hawkings's and just as annoying. Both are wrong, but in Camping's case, all it take is for us to wake up and see Sunday, May 22nd, 2011 to know it.

For Hawking, we have to pass away. Or talk to Don Piper:



Stay tuned.

Dominique Strauss-Kahn IMF Salary vs. Bay Citizen CEO Salary

In the wake of the arrest of IMF Manager Dominique Strauss-Kahn for sexual assault, CNN asked if the World leader's $440,000 salary was too much, given his responsibilities.

The Cable News Network compared the IMF with The World Bank, and came away with the point that observers say it's the right amount, considering that Strauss-Kahn had oversite for the loans to those of its 187 member countries who need them.

Well, let's compare Dominique Strauss-Kahn's salary with that of Bay Citizen CEO Lisa Frazier, who makes $400,000.

Is the Bay Citizen salary justified, given CNN's questions about Dominique Strauss-Kahn's salary? The answer's no. $100,000 salary? Yes.

But for Frazier to make as much as the Dominique Strauss-Kahn or President Obama, and yet be in charge of a regional news website, and not even a World news website, is outrageous.

It's not personal, only business.

And the business fact is that The Bay Citizen can't justify paying that high a salary given the small size and Internet traffic footprint of the SF Bay Area news website.

But will that change anything over at the Bay Citizen? No. It still has the outdoor ads that are more debate challenges on the future of journalism than a message to type "BayCitizen.org," as I talked about in this recent video:



Stay tuned.

Redskins Fans Want Donovan McNabb, Not Beck Or Grossman

ESPN.com has an interesting blog post titled "Donovan McNabb weighs in on QB talk," where QB challenger John Beck has already penciled himself in as the NFL 2011 Season starter, saying 'he sees himself as the number one QB' even though he's not taken a snap since 2007.

And Rex Grossman, known for coming up with timely interceptions and fumbles to lose games that matter, was quoted as saying he will "definitely" be the starter.

But according to this hard-core Washington Redskins fans this blogger talked to at the 2011 NFL Draft, Donovan McNabb's their man for 2011. Here's the Redskins fan interview video, made after the 2011 NFL Draft Red Carpet:



Frankly, and I agree with the fans I talked to, the Redskins problem is Head Coach Mike Shanahan. He needs to make a commitment to McNabb, and stick with it. What's not right, is that Grossman had a "brain-up" on McNabb, only because he played in Offensive Coordinator Kyle Shanahan's offensive system the year before in Houston.

If Mike and Kyle are really truly good coaches, they can work with a sure-fire NFL Hall-Of-Famer in Donovan McNabb.

And if they can't then it's time for new coaches.

Hepatitis C African Americans, and INCIVEK

Hepatitis C is a viral infection that causes swelling and infection of the liver, and is particularly active within the African American Community, and at a level called "chronic," representing 22 percent of all known carriers in America.

How this infection spreads by simple blood-to-blood contact and is difficult, if in some cases impossible to detect early on.

Hepatitis C impacts an estimated 270 million to 300 million people Worldwide, 30,000 people in Santa Clara County and 12,000 people in San Francisco, and 2,400 new cases were reported in 2010.

An exciting new drug called INCIVEK, made by Vertex, is said to be the breakthrough drug of the future, today. Moreover, Vertex claims INCIVEK beats the current 40 percent to 45 percent cure rate; patients have a whopping 80 percent cure rate in clinical trials done thus far. But with all this, it's not a vaccine, and it's not yet approved by the FDA, but it reportedly increases the chance that someone undergoing treatment for HVC will be cured by the end of treatment.

This is an interesting - hell, exciting - new development that this blogger will be following in the coming weeks.

Stay tuned.

Steve Mariucci at NFL Draft

Sam, Stephanie,and Courtney - masters of Bay To Breakers PR and media

John Russo: City Of Oakland "Morally Questionable"; Part One

As of June 13th, John Russo 'transforms' from Oakland City Attorney to Alameda County City Manager, under a five-year contract that immediately give the hope of stability to a small island town that's seen a lot of instability, with five interim executives over the last six years, alone. In moving across the Oakland Estuary, Russo ends a period of both living and working in Oakland that started when he was 28 years old; he's now 52 years old.

It also ends a long string of City of Oakland-related video interviews with this blogger, that totals 15 and together have been seen, as of this writing, 21,307 times.

The next video interview will be after June 13th, when Russo sits down as Alameda, California's CEO, or more normally called, City Manger.

But on Monday, Russo, in conversation that produced the 38-minute-plus, video, had a lot to say about why he's leaving Oakland. He was relaxed, especially since cases and office management c decisions now fall to his three chief deputies, Randy Hall, Barbara Parker, and Vicky Laden, who handle litigation, Oakland City Council matters, and personnel decisions, respectively.

On that Monday, they didn't need to check in with Russo, but he was on hand to provide advice, and to finish projects and prepare for his move to Alameda.

On The Decision To Leave: Mixed Feelings

Russo says he has "mixed feeling" about the decision to leave Oakland. Not that he's unhappy about it, but, as explained above, he's leaving Oakland professionally for the first time since he came here from St. Louis in 1987, and before than from Brooklyn, where he's from. I've known John since 1990, and his entire life has been devoted to Oakland, so this move's a huge deal, for him and for his supporters. Like me.

While I have had different feelings, Russo doesn't feel he was "pushed out," of Oakland as we talked about in the video. "There are some people who are opposed to the gang injunction, there are other people who are opposed to the Fed's position on pot farms," he said. "Which was not my position; it 3was the Fed's position. There are some people who are opposed to the gang injunction who have this fantasy that 'The voice of the people has spoken,' and I have left as a result. That's really an ignorant position on so many levels. But on a private level, I can tell you, it's totally not the case."

John says that contrary to the views of some the gang injunction ordinance, which sets up boundaries and cracks-down on targeted gangs in Oakland, is "very popular. Particularly in the neighborhoods where we are seeking them."

John says he's leaving because he has "strong fundamental legal disagreements with the new leadership. (Oakland Mayor Jean Quan) and those who are speaking most loudly at the Council. And because I have fundamental moral disagreements with the direction that this government is taking in dealing with the crises that face Oakland."

Why Russo Did Not Stay And Fight

As I said in the video, Russo could "throw a punch that would be a nuclear bomb." Russo could publicly call out Oakland officials, and, in the most extreme case, bring a lawsuit against his own government. (And Russo did not, I stress, NOT, offer those as options; that's strictly from me).

But he didn't do that.

"Yeah, there's no doubt, if I wanted to stay here, and wanted to do what some of those opponents of mine claim I'm doing, If I wanted to gum-up the works. Somebody in opposition to what the government was doing in this role, could bring the government to a dead halt. And on certain issues, believe me, I'd love to take a different posture than this government has taken," he said.

"I think it's ethically inappropriate, because the city attorney has to follow the policy of the Council. It doesn't mean we have to tell the council what they want to hear about the law, but we have to enforce the policy of the council," he said, and by extension, the administrative policy of the Mayor of Oakland.

Russo says he's not the right person for the job.

Russo says that Oakland's problems in public safety and finance are "gripping the city," and he's totally opposed to the debt-based solutions being considered. And he said "The directions that the government is moving now are morally...not..uhm... They are, I think, morally questionable, and I could no longer serve, ethically, as City Attorney..." Russo, struggling to find the right words, said.

That's part one; part two on Wednesday.