Friday, June 03, 2011

Yemen President Injured In Palace Attack, Civil War Looms

Yemen's president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who has taken up what seems to be a kind of fever in the Mid East of late, attacking one's own people, was injured in an attack by soldiers for the opposition movement on the Presidential Palace, according to the New York Times.

Saleh's spokesman said he was in the middle of starting Friday prayers just before noon. But according to CNN, Saleh had it coming.

The Yemen President's decision to attack what CNN calls "a key tribal chief has brought the country to the precipice of a civil war."

CNN claims that all U.S. President Barack Obama can do is sit back and watch, as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) "extend their influence in tribal regions," but the question is, where is there actual proof that this is happening outside of what its author Barak Barfi writes?

The reason the question's raised by this blogger is the entire CNN article is based on the assertion that al-Qaeda is involved here in Yemen, but there's no clear proof of this. Mr. Barfi writes:


The violence and the instability it has engendered have allowed Islamist militants with possible ties to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) to overrun key towns in southern provinces where a secessionist movement has been agitating against Saleh since 2007.


Note "possible ties to Al Qaeda" in the paragraph. In other words, Barak Barfi isn't sure, and CNN's basing the promotion of an entire article on something that's not proven, and a fear of Al Qaeda in America.

But given the side these Islamist militants are on, against the Yemen President, could it be that they're fighting on the right side of the equation? In this case, perhaps having a good relationship with Islamist militants in Yemen's not so bad a thing?

Just saying.

Economy Is The Problem

What's the real cause of this?  Yemen's terrible economy and public sector.  With oil production far less than necessary and the government's reportedly bloated public sector, coupled with corruption and "bad management," Yemen's public corporation's not able to effectively care for its people.  

Yemen has an unemployment rate that stood at 42 percent last year, up from 35 percent in 2003 according to the CIA World Record and Fact Book.   

The numbers are all over the place, but still high. Yemen itself reports an unemployment rate of 16.2 percent for the period of 2004 to 2008.  But those unemployed also have an education problem: a 30 percent illiteracy rate. 

Thursday, June 02, 2011

Spamming For Public Health

Spam, public health, Doc Gurley, Reporting on Health, health journalismI have decided to spam for public health.

Phone calls, text messaging, and even apps have been shown to help improve health and sustain behavior change, even in people suffering from profound mental illness. But when it comes to using these tools for public health, there are two problems. The first is that each message (whether via phone call or text) costs money. The second is that it’s quite hard to use those platforms for blasting messages to a whole population.

That’s how I ended up in what is probably a community of spammers. I registered at Black Hat World in order to get access to its forum on uploading bulk tweets, and didn’t realize what company I was keeping until I saw user names like popzzz and images of a neon green skull and crossbones and rolling lines of HTML.

I am now poised at the unique intersection of spamming and homelessness. Suffice it to say, there aren’t a lot of people stampeding to spam the homeless.

So how did I, a suburban soccer mom, former Shoney’s-waitress-turned-Harvard-trained-doc, end up in this precarious position?

A lot of people are wondering if Twitter, or other similar Web-based messaging applications, could be a way to deliver health improvement messages. One big advantage of messaging systems like Twitter is that messages can be delivered either to the public at large or one-to-one. The classic example is when a celebrity direct-messages a fan (“OMG!!! Ashton just DM-ed me!!”)

Read more...

Disclaimer: Identifiable patients mentioned in this post were not served by R. Jan Gurley in her capacity as a physician at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, nor were they encountered through her position there. The views and opinions expressed by R. Jan Gurley are her own and do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the City and County of San Francisco; nor does mention of the San Francisco Department of Public Health imply its endorsement.

Photo credit: Arnold Gatilao via Flickr

John Russo On Oakland A's, Raiders, "Donated Alameda Politicians" Issue



On May 17th, this blogger interviewed now former Oakland City Attorney John Russo on video, as you can see. There have been three blog post written in this space, referring to that 38-minute interview.

But even with that, comes the usual San Francisco Bay Area journalist that has to tell you they got an "exclusive" with Mr. Russo, and after the interview. Enter the website Oakland North this week.

So, the initial plan was to run this new blog post next week, but considering Oakland North's hubris or error in claiming they had an "exclusive" interview, I figured "Why not today," so here it is.

John Russo Recaps Sports In Oakland

When John Russo gave his video interview for this blogger, he talked about how proud he was that he settled a number of legal issues with Oakland's sports teams, the Oakland A's, Golden State Warriors, and the Oakland Raiders. But, as John leaves for Alameda to become its new city manager, he says there are new issues.

"We've talked before about the (Oakland) A's. The A's still want to go away (leave Oakland), the economy is not cooperating with their plans. Nobody knows where Major League Baseball is (after the creation of the "blue ribbon" commission that was to evaluate Oakland as a home for a baseball team). They..I don't know maybe the Blue Ribbon Commission.. I just don't know.

John continued "Maybe the Blue Ribbon Commission came up with the wrong answer? I don't know. All we can do is speculate. Maybe the Blue Ribbon Commission didn't give the right answer?" I pressed John on this, because over the years of knowing him, I can generally tell when he's hiding part of what he knows, but he insists otherwise, saying "I truly just don't know (what happened to the MLB Blue Ribbon Commission or what Major League Baseball plans to do with the Oakland A's).

The "right answer" would have been for the MLB Commission to say that the Oakland A's would be better off in San Jose than in Oakland, but that view has not been expressed via the much-anticipated report.

And while other reports last fall have now-former City Administrator Dan Lindheim as stating that the commission looked at the fiscal health of Oakland's Redevelopment Agency and at its plans for a baseball stadium at Victory Court were sound, MLB has not released a final report. So, Russo is correct, it seems, that MLB did not find Oakland to be the bad baseball bet they probably assumed it was.

On the Oakland Raiders, "they say they want a new ballpark - a new stadium. It's understandable. They also seem to understand there's no appetite for public finance. And, uh, I think the Raiders are trying very hard" to come up with solutions that are workable in getting the new stadium they desire and need given changes in the industry that have left the Coliseum a relic - again. (I will explain in another post.)

"The Raiders are a different deal than the A's," Russo said. "The A's, I've felt, for a long time just did not want to cultivate their fan base here, because they wanted to prove a point 'We don't have a fan base here in Oakland, so we're not going to cultivate a fan base that had over 2 million people come here in 1981."

I personally think the A's don't get how their brand can fit with Oakland, and said so, but Russo actually does like their commercials and approach, and so had nothing negative to say on that more detailed issue of marketing, which is related to the overall picture of "not cultivating the Oakland fan base."

His issues with the Oakland A's were "tarpping up the upper deck to create (ticket) scarcity," which means no walkup ticket purchases for games, the constant changes in radio stations, making it harder for fans to find the games, and the rapid roster changes that "make it harder for fans to get to know the players."

Russo says he's never talked to MLB Commissioner Bud Selig, and he's never been part of the City of Oakland team that's worked on the Oakland A's project.

On NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell's statement that he wants the Oakland Raiders to team up and build a stadium in the Bay Area, Russo says he's never talked to Goodell, doesn't think the Niners will get their stadium deal done in Santa Clara, and isn't sure "the teams want to share. You have to want to share a stadium" to get such a deal done.

John says that because the NFL doesn't have baseball's anti-trust exemption, Goodell could not force the Raiders and The Niners to team up, even if he wanted to.

Here, a digression is in order.

If the NFL had such legal power, it could move teams around as it wished, or prevent a team from moving. But the idea that the NFL could do that was effectively killed in court by Al Davis and the Oakland Raiders in 1982.

The point was that the NFL doesn't have monopoly power, thus a team trying to move from one city to another should be allowed in the spirit of business competition, and the NFL Bylaws that then prohibited such actions were said to be illegal after the Raiders challenged the NFL. The Silver and Black won the right to move to Los Angeles from Oakland in 1982, only to return to Oakland in 1995.

I skipped over the Golden State Warriors, which Russo later said he had "no comment on" and mainly because the long-standing litigation between the City of Oakland and the NBA Oakland team had been discussed in closed session, to come to ask how the Oakland Coliseum Joint Powers Authority could sign a cheap $7 million naming rights agreement with Overstock.com, while at the same time being sued by the County of Alameda.

Russo said that was a JPA issue that didn't come across his desk, but that the JPA itself, with a board of eight members, thus insuring the chance of deadlock on votes, should but restructured to have some kind of "tie-breaking method."

On Alameda, The City Of, and Russo

We finally shifted gears to talk about his new occupational home, Alameda. On the question of what's first on his agenda, Russo blew and his eyes widened by a factor of two before he answered the question. "Well, there's number of things that need to be done in Alameda. Firs there are a number of people in interim positions in Alameda, so the team needs to be made permanent."

Russo says that he will be the seventh city manager in six years, and Alameda has an interim fire chief, interim police chief, and a "vacancy at economic development," as well as an interim city attorney, so Russo's job is to make a city executive team that's permanent. But if you think about it from another perspective, it's a great opportunity for John to populate the City of Alameda with the kind of public executives he thinks can't help him get the job done there over his five-year contract, and "bring stability."

Second, Russo says that the City of Alameda will work to secure the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory expansion, and says there is public support for the effort to place them at Alameda Point, for which Alameda is "short listed." He says that Alameda will work to get it, "like no other city in The Bay Area."

"I don't think it's an accident that the reuse of bases has been held up. There must be structural impediments," Russo said. He wants to "re-engage the Federal Government" to determine how best to speed up the base reuse process because it "shouldn't take 25 to 30 years to get the bases back into reuse."

Changing The City Of Alameda

"The City of Alameda needs to adopt these three words: accountability, responsiveness, and transparency. By those I mean if you look at Alameda's budget and you look at performance measures that are adopted for each department, they are in significant number input based, not output based. What I mean by that is, they'll say 'Your job is to make sure you've gone to 12 League Of City Meetings each year' if your the intergovernmental person there - who cares? Your job should be how many millions in grants have you gotten for the City." Russo says that his job will be to install a more output-based, results-oriented, performance evaluation system for the City of Alameda, as a starting point over the next year.

On "responsiveness," Russo says that too many Alamedans write or email city hall and never get a response from it "That will change," he says.

Regarding "transparency," Russo says that Alameda's tag as the least transparent city in the Bay Area will change. By September, the City will put out its city council agenda two weeks ahead of schedule, so that "everybody can see what their government will be voting on."

Russo will also stress public comment on what Alameda is "doing on their behalf." Overall the changes he will install are really basic to the operation of a good urban municipal government.

John says that, at 700 people, Alameda's not too big for him to manage and get to know. He's always wanted to be the chief exective of a city, and was looking for a city that had significant problems but also had significant opportunities."

On The Idea That Russo Donations Got Him The Job

We turned to the charge that John's donations to several Alameda City Council members essentially got him the job as City Manager. I was particularly eager to talk about this on camera, because the East Bay news organization that raised the issue has a bad habit of not contacting the people it writes negatively about while in the process of creating a story.

When I asked, directly, about the claim, John laughed in that funny "hehehe" he gives when he thinks something's stupid, and said "I love that. I also wanted to go to El Cerrito, Richmond, San Francisco, Piedmont, Emeryville, and every other city where I've given money to candidates. It's just silly. People say some really foolish things in politics."

Russo continued "I gave Marie Gilmore I think a thousand dollars for her mayoral campaign. I think I gave three thousand or thirty-five hundred dollars (to her) in 2004, when she ran for council. So does that mean I like her a third as much? I gave money to Lena Tam when she ran for hospital board in 2004. Understand something. As (Oakland) City Attorney, I gave a strong position that I should not give money to local (Oakland political) candidates."

And because Russo, as Oakland City Attorney, was essentially an Oakland department head. So what Russo did was to spread that money around the Bay Area, helping people he liked and had good relationships with over the years. But by not giving money in Oakland, Russo says that decision has hurt him politically.

He said the idea that he bought his way into Alameda is "ignorant of how the World works" -  the "job for donations" charge by the news organization that is the East Bay Express. Moreover, Russo says that it was presented as an isolated incident, rather than looking at the range of donations he's made over the years, and to people who are his associates and friends and represent Alameda.

But the biggest kicker is that no one at the East Bay Express bothered to call John, and yet the publication went with running the story under the guise of journalism. Next thing you know, because it's in print, the Bay Area pseudo-intelligencia that follows that publication quote it without investigation, and so it unfairlty tarnishes Russo's image.

This is no the first time the East Bay Express has done this, and it's really a sad practice. It happened during the 2010 Oakland Mayor's Race, when the target was mayoral candidate Marcie Hodge, who was first said to be a plant of Don Perata, getting money from him, and then that her whole candidacy was illegal. Marcie says she was never contacted about those claims before the stories ran, and eventually went to court to sue the East Bay Express.

I want to think the best about the East Bay Express and myself have a long history with them as both author and subject that's worth a series of blog posts, so this is not personal. They have a long standing history in Bay Area media and are a valuable resource. But the EBX must make sure that it's not using the paper to take out personal agendas against people. I'm not saying that it it, but many people around town think it looks that way.

But I digress.

Stay tuned. One more topic to come, on SunCal.










Shaq O'Neal Retires Via Tout; Congrats To Michael Downing



On Wednesday, Shaq - or Shaquille O'Neal - retired via Twitter and Tout, but really, the big story is that the legendary NBA Center and most of all LA Laker, did it via Tout.

This blogger's introduction to Tout came in an email from a friend: Michael Downing. Michael's a serial entrepreneur best known for GoFish and for TransMedia Capital.

Until now.

I met Michael one late Thursday night four years ago at the Balboa Cafe in San Francisco's Marina District, and as many frequent readers of my blogs know, one of my favorite hangs.

Our conversation started with him asking me what business I was in, and my reply was "Internet." We proceeded to a talk so long we left after the Balboa closed.

Yep. After.

We stayed in touch, and then, on March 30th of 2010, I received an email from the man who's now "Entrepreneur in Residence at Stanford Research Institute." This one:


Zennie


I hope you are well – and my apologies for the random email coming end-of-day, but I wanted to reach out and personally invite you to a brief sneak-peek of Tout – the new company I co-founded in partnership with SRI (Stanford Research Institute) this last year.


Tout is all about delivering a new kind of social-communications-experience enabling people to share their unique perspective on life through simple, short video updates from their smartphones.


We are launching Tout.com to the world in less than 1 week, and in advance of that date, I am personally inviting about 100 of the most interesting people I know in technology, media and entertainment to give it a test-drive.


If you want to be a part of the Sneak-Peek before launch, here’s what you need to do:


1. You need an iPhone 3GS or 4… if your on Android or BlackBerry we will be launching those versions shortly


2. Go to (My Tracking URL) hit Sign-Up-Now in upper right of page


3. Once your register with an email address and password, you will get a verification email – be sure to click “confirm your account” link to verify


4. On your iPhone, go to the APP Store and get the TOUT application (from Tout Industries)


My problem was I had not an iPhone, but a Samsung Galaxy Variant Smartphone. Just the perfect Android phone that Tout wasn't yet ready for at the time. But, and this is a big "but," I could add a link from my YouTube videos, and, at 1,470 videos and counting, I've got a lot of them.

Michael wrote:


Zennie


We gotta get you going
let's talk tomorrow - we got some great blogger/celebrities prepping now, you would be perfect
'555-555-5555.'


Let me know when u can chat tomorrow


So I tried to track Michael down via phone, and in the interim joined, created a channel, and actually posted a Tout from my Georgia Down YouTube video.

Which for some reason that may be related to the slick new website design, isn't there any more; so I had to install new YouTube video links.   

But the Shaq announcement explains why I'd not got a call from Downing after the emails.

I was tossed for Shaq.

Wait. I was tossed FOR Shaq?!

Cool!

Nice work Michael!

Wednesday, June 01, 2011

Oakland Sideshow Still The Happening In East Oakland

Unless you've had some doubt, let this blog post put to rest the idea that the Oakland Sideshow is dead. It's not. It's alive and well on International Boulevard, as this video, made during the East Bay Dragons event, and uploaded today on YouTube by wbr510, shows:



The East Bay Dragons are the same group linked to sideshow activity, and were the focus of the murder of a San Leandro man on Sunday night. But But Phil Baker, the East Bay Dragons vice president, told the San Jose Mercury News that "the clubhouse was closed early in the evening and all their members had gone home or elsewhere."

That would seem to exonerate the Dragons from the Sunday night shooting, but the video above points to the Dragons as the producer of this sideshow.  And care must be taken not to associate that video with that incident simply because the SJ Mercury News account points to a night-time sideshow - the one captured in this video below.

Second Video Shows Dragons Sideshow at Night





The third video, below, uploaded May 31st, which would be Tuesday, shows the East Bay Dragons Party, which appears to have occurred indoors, in a large room, and by association connected with the sideshows of that Sunday.




The videos point to a sideshow that did occur on the East Bay Dragons watch.  Oakland Sideshows are associated with the rash of murders and violence in East Oakland, even though there have been fewer of them than in the past.

Stay tuned.








Springfield, MA Tornado Hampers Boston Weather In Year Of Deadly Twisters

Whatever the reason, it seems America's facing a number of lethal tornados in 2011, the latest in Springfield, MA, which is hampering weather conditions in Boston.

Here are two videos which shows the tornado itself as it makes its way through Springfield.



And in this video below, the camcorder operator, recording the action from his office window on Bridge Street in downtown Springfield, says "it's frikin' tearin shit apart. Oh my God."



According to a new Wikipedia page specifically created to track tornados, there have been 1,415 such events in the United States in 2011, and 1,007 of them confirmed.

Moreover, this year was described as an "exceptionally destructive and deadly" one for tornados, as 519 fatalities have been recorded in America alone. That's the largest number of deaths since 1936.

Springfield Tornado Causes "A Lot Of Damage"

This latest tornado struck at 4:30 EST this afternoon, and has, according to WTNH News 8 of New Haven, Connecticut, caused "extensive damage," with windows blown of out of cars and buildings.

An eyewitness, Carlos Alamo, explained to News 8's Sara Welch, that "strong winds started shaking the house." So he told his wife that they should "get into the bathroom" because there was no shelter. Here's the video from WTNH's YouTube page:



Stay tuned.



Paladinette’s Jobless Talk Takes June Hiatus - 99er EXLAX Attack Building Momentum

Last month it was announced that Paladinette’s Blog Talk Radio show “Jobless Talk” will take a June hiatus after this Friday’s broadcast, meanwhile the 99er EXLAX Attack is building momentum on the social networks.


Unfortunately, it is unlikely any real MOVEMENT will take place in Congress (re: Unemployment issues, benefits or jobs) during June anyway. Hopefully, the unemployed masses will hop on the band wagon and flood Washington DC with tons of laxatives, coupons, emails and post cards in the 99ers “EX-LAX ATTACK, sending Congress and Obama a clear message.”


We have a Facebook Event created PLEASE RSVP: EX-LAX ATTACK on Washington DC


You can find printable post cards at: http://twitpic.com/549is6 and http://t.co/8Ra7oy8


TWEET THESE:

#99ers: EX-LAX ATTACK - Print on card stock and mail to Washington http://t.co/RQPrEpK

#99ers: Mail EXLAX 2 Congress. GET THEM MOVING on HR 589! http://exm.nr/j4Q98N

Post cards you can print and send to congress for the Ex-LAX attack: http://t.co/8Ra7oy8

It is suggested that the emails, faxes, post cards, laxative mailers, etc. begin on June 6, 2011 [D-Day] and continue through Father’s Day or even the July 4th Holiday. The important thing is that as many people as possible participate. You do not need to be unemployed or even a 99er to help Washington GET THE MESSAGE: Get your constipated butts moving on HR 589 and a REAL Jobs Bill NOW! We cannot wait!


I suggest you Twitter bugs out there tweet these to all your media & Political contacts lists, celebrities and activists. Post all this information on your social networking sites and try to get as many folks as possible to join in this important effort.


By now we should have a willing army of advocates to step in and overwhelm Washington with tons of messages whenever the need arises. This would be proof of our political clout - but even with an estimated 7 million or more UI exhaustees out there, sadly the dedicated “show of force in numbers” has been sorely lacking during most of the past year. Exactly HOW BAD do YOU want to SURVIVE?


It is time to step things up Nation! August is right around the corner (and you know every August Congress takes the entire month off). July has yet another recess for a holiday and with Labor Day approaching - after this month (June) Washington DC will be in session maybe 15 days between mid-July and mid-September. Do you really want to go another winter with NOTHING?


It is really up to you. ‘You have NOT because you demand NOT.’ If you would only visibly and vocally swarm Washington by constantly pestering them to demand better - even from your own home town streets - we’d have had our solution by now and could be benefiting from that new job, paid training program, or benefits extension instead of dying a slow, painful desperation as we wait in limbo for poverty to consume our dreams as Congress lives the “GOOD LIFE” on the American Tax Payers’ money.


[Please donate so I can keep on fighting for the 99ers! Thank You!]



NBA Finals - Lebron James Was Right About The Miami Heat



Game One of the 2011 NBA Finals is history,  the Miami Heat prevailed 92 to 84, and this blogger's still shocked the Heat are even there, let alone winning over The Dallas Mavericks.

Look, the decision in this space was to root for LeBron James, because last year, when Mr. James was making a big media show of his decision to leave the Cleveland Cavs, the word here was to go to the Chicago Bulls.

James selected the Miami Heat, saying he was going to South Beach, and making it sound like a vacation in the making. I wrote off LeBron at that point, figuring he was more interested in the honeys in the sand than getting a ring.

And LRMR Marketing's clients list potential in Miami? I really wrote that off. Chicago, with its incredible list of major corporations and marketing talent, is a hot bed for marketing companies - a perfect place for LRMR Marketing.

But what did I know? LRMR Marketing remained in Cleveland, not moving to Miami. And while LRMR exists, James, needing more fire-power, is with CAA.

Meanwhile instead of chlling on South Beach, LeBron put in hard work on the court. The result is not just the 2011 NBA Finals, but today's win. I'm rooting for him.

There's nothing wrong with wanting the best for yourself, and that's all James wanted for himself. James had the right idea in making a show of his decision to leave Cleveland, failing only at capturing the resultant web traffic revenue from the occurrence. Then James and the Heat caught hell for a flashy, smoky party to celebrate the merger of The Big Three.

I saw nothing wrong with it.

Then, Miami started out 9 wins and 8 losses, and this corner wrote them off for dead. But that's where the team found itself and its character, eventually playing better, and ultimately vanquishing the bully on the block, The Boston Celtics.

Anyone who can't like this story has something wrong with them.

Still, it's too early to crown the Heat. It's just Game One. But win or lose, at least applaud LeBron James for a job well done this year.

Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Homeless - Homeless Alcoholics Need A Wet House

homeless, wet house, doc gurley's urban health beat, reporting on healthHomeless alcoholics need a wet house.

When you sleep with your bottle, you've passed a milestone in your addiction. You've got to have it against your chest, all night, easy to reach. Your relationship to it is like other people's relationships with their smart phones; it's crucial to your existence, always clutched in your hand. You feel unsettled when you can't see it, until it's easier to just sleep with it.
But there are other, worse stages to come. As I ask my clinic patients about them, I hear a ding in my mind, like an elevator does each time a door opens, each time a patient answers yes.
Do you wake with the shakes? That means that you're so addicted that you begin to withdraw every night as you sleep. Ding.
Do you wake up in the night to take a drink? Your brain must be bathed in alcohol, awash in the acrid sea of it, at all times. You can no longer make it to morning. Ding.
Do you seize if you stop drinking? Deprived of alcohol, your tender brain begins to crackle and sizzle, and then ignites like a gas-explosion - ka-whoom - as a depth charge of neurons fires. Ding.
Can you remember how this happened? It looks like something hit you pretty hard, sir, the way your cheekbone is caved in here under all this blood. Do you remember? You never remember what happens when you're drinking. Ding. Ding. Ding.
At what point does society decide that someone has become a danger to himself because of his addiction? And what can be done about it?
The large numbers of public inebriates on our sidewalks represent a financial, ethical, and moral crisis in cities across America. These suffering humans also represent a public health crisis. Mortality rates are sky high, with life expectancies equal to, or worse than, those of people living in the most devastated, violence-riddled pockets of our globe.
The issue of people drinking themselves to death on a sidewalk is one that unites and divides us in unpredictable ways, crossing "normal" divisions of politics, compassion, and fiscal conservatism. There are those who want a person slowly dying in plain sight to at least have a roof over his head. There are the more law-and-order, throw-the-bums-out types, who just want public inebriates off the streets. And no one can look at the eye-popping cost of this public, drawn-out suffering and death without thinking that, at $8 million dollars a year in health care costs for 100 people, there has to be a better - and cheaper - way.
Disclaimer: Identifiable patients mentioned in this post were not served by R. Jan Gurley in her capacity as a physician at the San Francisco Department of Public Health, nor were they encountered through her position there. The views and opinions expressed by R. Jan Gurley are her own and do not necessarily reflect the official policies of the City and County of San Francisco; nor does mention of the San Francisco Department of Public Health imply its endorsement.
Photo credit: George Erws via Flickr
Read more...

PBS Website Hackers LulzSec Praise Zennie62, Media Misses Message

LulzSec is gaining fame for hacking into the website's of Fox, Sony, PBS, and it seems AT&T, by reading their Twitter tweets. Of course, the actions of the group of what Parmy Olson at Forbes.com says are four people (I think more) are lost on the mainstream media.

While the LutzSec folks say they're out to just have fun, their real intent in much greater, and necessary.

It was that observation I arrived at after reading a vast number of Twitter tweets, articles, and blog posts about LulzSec, then writing my own take that appears on Zennie62.com and on SFGate.com. After seeing it on Twitter (because I shared it with them), the group issued this tweet:

LulzSec The Lulz Boat
A fine article: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/abraham/detail?entry_id=89990 @Zennie62
13 hours ago

Cool.

Now at this point you might get the idea I'm egging LulzSec on. No, I'm not. They're going to do what they do regardless of my take. But, as a person who has intense disagreement with the way much of the media operates online, and an overall lack of understanding or interest in the Internet on their part, I see this as a much-needed cleansing.

What should come from these efforts are better and more secure website systems, and a lesser degree of corporate arrogance when matters of Internet operations are considered. What should also happen is the media should devote more time and effort to understanding and explaining what groups like LutzSec do.

Any one who thinks it's just for fun only sees what LutzSec wants them to see. The truth is, they do it because the website systems of many large companies allow them to do so. That goes for many news organizations.

If you think the PBS website hack was just playing around, don't think so. Every news website should look at what LulzSec has done and make sure their systems are secure so it doesn't happen to them. To think the unthinkable, imagine if the group had simultaneously hacked into three major news websites and posted the same Tupac story? Given the connections to Google News and other news aggregators, the damage to the media system would have been tremendous.

Yet, for now, this is possible.

It's possible, in part, because Google itself has subordinated blogs in favor of news websites, thus opening the public to such an effective attack. It's possible because a number of news websites are arguably not as secure as they could be.

This is a real problem. And look at it another way, LulzSec's not attacking websites where data exists that can really harm innocent people if it's compromised. These folks have a plan, and it's not about hurting society.

I'm not supporting what LulzSec is doing, I'm only explaining it's true implications to a public and a mainstream media that seems clueless. This idea of the hackers just having "fun" is only pablum, and the media's eating it up.

Stay tuned.

Subway Fights, NYC Naked Man Rants - How To Avoid Both



If you live in an urban area with a subway train system, chances are you've seen it, a subway fight. And maybe you've seen a naked man go on a rant on the subway system, as was true for a number of passengers on the #6 train in NYC in early May of this year. Well, if you've wondered what to do to avoid such calamities in the future, this video blog is for you.

Let's use three recent, real World examples - two from New York City.

In the first one, a young girl, black, is eating pasta out of a container, much to the displeasure of an adult white woman sitting across from her. Race is noted here, because the adult white woman uses racist terms and insults to verbally assault the obviously young girl. That alone was horrible, and some measure of understanding must be offered to the girl, who calls the woman by her overweight status.

But the best way for both to avoid these situations is, for the adult woman, to stop trying to control others. If she didn't like it, she could have moved - no one was stopping her.

The girl's not supposed to eat on the train, but let's face it, many people do. And I've seen some patrons and the police on San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit System make an issue of it if a person of color was doing the consuming of even a cup of coffee; it's OK if the person happens to be white.

But today, BART allows the sale of Starbucks Coffee in two stations: Berkeley and Powell Street. So, the BART Police should not even enforce such a "no eating" law and the BART Board should take it off their books, because it's not fair to maintain it, and sell food at the same time.

But I digress.

In the second example, an older Latina woman is singing on the Hollywood Subway. A man standing next to her doesn't like it. But rather than walk away, tries to control what she's doing. Another man takes offense to the, as I call him, "Angry Man's" behavior, and steps between them. The Angry Man sucker punches the other man and a fight breaks out.

The Angry Man had a problem and I personally hope he was charged with assault. He should have just walked away. The woman has a free speech right to sing on a public train, and at least one of the passengers enjoyed it.

Racism Is A Mental Illness

In the final example, a man in the video, obviously nuts, strips naked while yelling racial insults. What to do? Well, first get a camera or camcorder! Seriously. YouTube, for one video distribution company, pays well for viral videos. Second, get away from the guy and call the police, ASAP. Third, unless you like danger and think you can take him down without putting your hand in the wrong place, leave him alone.

The guy in the video had to be on something to act like that. Plus, he disobeyed a police officer, and then in one of the other videos it was said he tried to grab the cop's gun.

So this guy's looking at a bit longer than the standard penalty for disorderly conduct.

BART Is Safer - But Not By Much

Thankfully the BART system doesn't have as many happenings like these, even though they do occur. Take the guy blowing his horn in the passenger's face after the Giants World Series Game last year:




That passenger did the right thing: he just went with it, and the drunk guy walked on.

One reason for the fewer fights than in Eastern cities, I think, is simply because the trains are much nicer than their New York counterparts.

But the quiet, clean, nice BART of the 20th Century, is giving way to a dirtier, louder version in the 21st Century.

If this is a budget issue, and it must be, then given the state's overall revenue problem, we're in for trouble. One way BART should mitigate that is to have a sponsored train. Here, revenue is generated by allowing a train to have logos of a sponsor.

Something has to be done. Else, BART's degeneration into the next venue for urban fight clubs will continue.

Stay tuned.

YouTube's Statement On Harrassment And Cyberbullying

As this blogger's effort to have YouTube install a channel filter to block, for me, the unwanted N-word continues, we have to look at what Google and YouTube say about this problem, which is called "Harassment And Cyberbullying.

But before we press on, here's my video message:



Now. Why examine what YouTube and Google say about the problem?

Because some commenters on my video don't get the problem. Here's one comment that illustrates my point:

What I don't understand is how this word is so hurtful. It's just a word, and I guarantee you that 95% of the people that use it aren't racist at all, they're just trying to make you angry, and you're letting them.

I don't think that they should add a word filter. What are they going to do, remove all the videos such as rap and movie clips that have the word too? It's not going to happen and your complaining about it is just going to make more people do it because they know it ticks you off.

In other words, according YouTuber CelebO1996 (well, YouTube account holder, since he or she doesn't post videos) I should just take it, right? Continue to be harassed, right?

This is what YouTube and Google explain in their policy statements, starting with a definition of harassment:


Harassment is when someone persistently troubles or attacks another. Online, this is called cyberbullying and is commonly seen in text comments, messages and videos. People who harass others are usually doing this to get attention or reactions from others online or in real life. Harassment can be mildly annoying or can pose very serious safety issues. It's important to know the differences between the two to know when you should just ignore the user or report to a trusted adult or authorities.


So people who use the N-word fall into this category, obviously. Well, er, it doesn't seem to be obvious to some people.

As to how to stop it, this is the Google / YouTube statement:


Not everyone online is nice. Comments can get pretty rough sometimes. One thing nearly all haters have in common is that they are trying to get a reaction out of you. If a user's comments are bothering you, it's probably not a good idea to reply back. Instead, try deleting the comments and blocking the user so they can't view your other videos or leave more comments. You can also turn comments off for any video or manage comments by requiring pre-approval before they get posted.


Now for a person who has 1,468 videos, and counting, and thousands of comments, deleting and blocking the N-word has become a job onto itself. As I've said, and will continue to say, I've had it.

YouTube has something called the Help & Safety Tool, but it's designed to report a single YouTube account holder. If I used that, YouTube would get about 30 to 50 reports from me per month. Does YouTube want that? 

Why not just save everyone the trouble and add a word filter?

I'm not saying I don't believe in free speech, but if this wasn't a problem, Google and YouTube would not bother to install pages and write procedures for how to deal with Harrassment And Cyberbullying.

So, since the organizations have gone that far, why not go the extra mile and add a word filter?

It's not too much to ask for.