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I happened to run upon an article in today's edition of "Editor and Publisher" which reported that the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper (SFGate.com is the Chronicle website) was planning more layoffs after Labor Day. It may not happen, let's pray not, but staff reductions could come as soon as next week.

Apparently, even after the last round of job cuts about two months ago or so, the newspaper is still losing $1 million a week or about $4 million a month, or a whopping $48 million-a-year loss.

That's really, really sad news as a paper is nothing without the personalities who made it, but I think there's something that can be done to at least save some jobs and stem the tide of revenue losses.

There are as of this writing 2,780,000 pages that make up SFGate.com. My idea is simple: add a donate button to each one of them.

The button would be at the top left of each page. A person could donate as little as $1 and as much as $1,000, but let's say the average donation was $2.

SFGate.com draws about 9 million monthly unique visitors according to this press release issued earlier this year. That comes down to about 290,000 unique visitors a day.

Let's say that just 30,000 people or about 10 percent of the daily visitor count posted a donation of $2 each. (in the video I mistakenly said 180,000 visitors and 10 percent.  That's wrong.) Over the course of a month that could be as much as $1.86 million per month in revenue. That's almost cuts the $4 million deficit in half and helps maintain newspaper staff.

That's really it; the idea's that simple.

Donation is better than news pay

I'm not a fan of the idea of charging for news, as Hearst Corporation is considering of late. It invites a process where one website can feed its content with news from the paysite, and then offer other sites and blog with the chance to link to their site rather than the paysite. Plus, with all of the journalists losing jobs, there are more people out there who know how to get a story and compete with the paysite.

The free news sites will always outnumber and outperform the paysites, regardless of how many big brands do that strategy.

No.

Let people donate if they wish. But backing the effort with an aggressive marketing campaign and a well-designed donation button system will generate new revenue and help save the jobs of a lot of great people at the San Francisco Chronicle.

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In a blockbuster development, Ecuador Judge Juan Nunez, the key legal figure in the Chevron Ecuador environmental damage case, is captured in a video shown here explaining that he plans to rule against the oil giant and for an award of $27 billion "more or less". The judge explains that the verdict will happen and that Chevron will be blocked from filing an appeal of his ruling. In that segment of the video, the Judge explains he's only there to talk about the verdict, not about "the other stuff" which refers to a $3 million payoff request. Later in the video its implied that Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa will benefit from the bribe amount.


On video today I talked to Chevron Media Relations representative Sean Comey about the video and Chevron's investigation.



In the video Judge Nunez, Aulo Gelio ServioTulio Avila ("Avila"), and Pablo Almeida and are talking with two gentleman, Wayne Hansen and Diego Borja who are environmental remediation contractors and in the Judge's chamber in Lago Agrio, Ecuador.  Hansen and Borja have pen-installed camcorders in their shirt pockets.  Diego Borja has worked for Chevron before, Hansen has not, according to Chevron.

The idea of the meeting was for the Judge and his political associates to be paid by the environmental company for business that would come to them as a result of the Judge's planned verdict.  Here's what the Judge said from the video and the Amazonpost website:

Núñez:             “Any other questions for me as a judge?”
Hansen:           “Oh no, I, I know clearly how it is, you say, Chevron is the guilty party?”
Núñez:             “Yes Sir.”
Hansen:           “And the, the, the act (decision) is October or November of this year?”
Núñez:             “Yes Sir.”
Hansen:           “And it’s….?”
Núñez:             “No later than January.”
Hansen:           “January 2010. And the money is twenty-seven (billion dollars)?”
Núñez:             “It might be less, and it might be more.”

The Judge says "I have nothing to do with that other part" which is not explained in full but Garcia below fills in "the blanks" later, explaining that the Judge will be paid part of $3 million from the consulants.



The second part of the video has an operative Patricio Garcia (photo from the Amazonpost website) who's reportedly a member of Ecuador's ruling party talking about how the $3 million would be delivered and transfered. This is what was said by Garcia:

Borja: “OK. Of the three million … one million is for the judge?”


Garcia: “Yes.”


Borja: “One million for the presidency…?”


Garcia: “Yes.”


Borja: “And one million for the plaintiffs?”


Garcia: “Yes, that’s right.”


Borja: “But, Loco, for the plaintiffs, who gets the money? Fajardo?”


Garcia: “No. The thing is, we’re going to handle it here.”


Borja: “You mean Alianza PAIS would receive the payment here?”


Garcia: “Right.”

Here's the 30 minute version of the video (the full two hour version is here):



But there's more to this video than what's reported in the press thus far. The focus here is on President Rafael Correa, who's office is named by Patricio Garcia as a beneficiary of the planned bribe money as is "his sister" as stated in the video above. As of this writing Correa has not issued a statement, but his reputation has already come under attack.

The second part of the video was filmed at Alianza PAIS (which means "Proud and Sovereign Fatherland" according to the Wikepedia listing)  Offices June 22, 2009.   PAIS is a political movement led by President Correa.   Who Patricio Garcia is beyond his appearance in this video and his role in PAIS is still basically unknown as of this writing. 

Garcia says that the President's sister  Pierina will be helpful (presumably in making sure that the businessmen get their piece of the planned $27 billion pie) and will meet with "The Gringo" (that's Hansen).  I checked and "Prierina" is indeed  described here as "Pierina Correa, the president's sister and an Alianza País leader in Guayas province".  That confirms my assertion that Garcia is tied to the President and his family as he states in the video.


Shocking.  


Chevron wants Nunez taken off the case

The implication here is that as Chevron Media Relations representative Sean Corney said in my video above, Chevron wants Nunez taken off the environmental damage case.  But given that Chevron has informed the U.S. Department of Justice, the revalation could have deeper implications.  

It could cost the country its Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA) status, which was just renewed in June of this year.  Whatever the case, this news sends a clear message that doing business in Ecuador is not the "clean" experience it should be. Until now, blogs have reported the problems of corruption in Ecuador and with respect to President Correa's involvement in the Chevron case, but now we have visible evidence to back those claims.

The news also forever destroys the claim made by Ecuador lawsuit legal advisor Steve Donziger and others who say that the lawsuit against Chevron has nothing to do with the Ecuadorian Government and is brought by citizens of the Amazon. But Correa has appeared with Donziger in public and has been interviewed about the case.

Right.  

One can see that the bribe money's not going anywhere near those groups of people Donziger claims to represent; the political party PAIS would get it and "handle it" as Garcia said in the video.  The question is, did Donziger or his associates in Ecuador and America know about this bribe plan?  Was he to be one of the plaitiffs that would get the bribe money? In the Amazon Defense Coalition statement today, he does not address the possibility that he may be involved, instead he said "As the facts come out it's going to backfire heavily on Chevron."



Amazon Defense Coalition defends Judge Nunez

Karen Hinton of the Amazon Defense Coalition told Reuters that the video shows Judge Nunez resisting the bribery matter. (This is Hinton's full statement.)  In point of fact, the video shows the judge saying that he's speaking in the role of Judge and "does not know about that other matter" which is a way of saying he does know but does not want it to be officially said that he does know.  It's called "plausible deniability ." 

Stay tuned.

Notes:

Full video transcripts:


Meeting 1 Transcript (228 KB)
Meeting 2 Transcript (195 KB)
Meeting 3 Transcript (218 KB)
Meeting 4 Transcript (217 KB)

MotoGP Weekend .......

In a word - Great!!

The folks at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway really know how to organize an event. Granted, they've had 100 years to get it down right. They have everything figured out & a shitload of help. You can't go 10 feet w/o seeing someone in a yellow shirt. Got a question? Just ask. I really appreciated it when it came to parking. I got to park up on the main track between turns 1 and 2. That was kinda cool. They handed out kickstand pads to every rider, everyday so I ended up with 3 of them for souvenirs.
I'm gonna send one to Surly.

Unlike last year, I rode TheBigBluePlasticMotorcycle to the race.
It rained Friday, but unlike some other pussy racing sports, these guys run in the rain or shine. I did the big walk around Friday looking at all the vendors, manufacturers, bikes and Pit/Paddock/sales Girls -



The rainy practice was cool and these guys still rode fast. It amazes me how fast they can go in the rain.

Here's Valentino Rossi, current champion and one of the best racers ever getting after it in practice Friday-



He crashed out of the Race Sunday. Tough luck, but he wasn't the only one.

Saturday's weather was better and qualifying in all the classes was a blast to watch.

The 125 and 250 classes are as fun to watch as the Big Boys in the 800 class.

All 3 races Sunday were great. This is just a great event and if you live in the Midwest and like motorcycles, you should make a point to come watch this next year.

Here's a couple of random pics-
The parking area was full of cool shit. Like this one-









Shitload of Repsol Replicas






These are crazy looking and probably fun to ride.











Way cool Blown HD

The Rogue Valley Runners blog has an update about Erik Skaggs, who is doing better. The blog mentions a Fund set up to help him with the mounting medical bills associated with his treatment for renal failure.

One of the great things about our community of ultrarunners is when we rally to help those in need. I put my check in the mail today - please consider doing the same when you have a chance. Here's where to send it:

"Many friends throughout the ultrarunning community have already asked how they can help. One of Erik’s biggest concerns is the mounting medical bill. Erik does not have health insurance. He may be eligible for some assistance through his membership with USA Track and Field, but will no doubt require monies for the deductible and for the expected costs well above the coverage. An Ashland runner and friend of Erik’s has opened a bank account at Umpqua Bank in Ashland, Oregon to receive donations that will be used to help defray these medical expenses. You can contribute by sending a check to Umpqua Bank, 250 N. Pioneer Street, Ashland, OR 97520 made out to the “Erik Skaggs Medical Fund.” Any assistance that you could provide would be much appreciated by Erik. Please note that the Fund name should be on the outside of the envelope."

Thanks for your support!

- SD

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As I write this I'm sitting here watching the funeral for Senator Ted Kennedy and preparing myself to attend the memorial service for Mary Morris Lawrence.

This is a hard day. To start, it's a day that marks the passing of two incredible people; one I never got to personally know, the other I did personally know. Both changed the society they were in.

It's hard for me to accept the passing of Mary because her spirit was so powerful I can't see her as anything but here and alive. I suppose that's why it took me so long to write anything about this moment. Aside from the fact that this has been my sixth memorial or funeral this year, it's just something that's plain hard to acknowledge.

Mary was America's first female photojournalist, and one who knew many, from Orson Wells to Humphrey Bogart. But to me, Mary was always the bright buzzing light in the room that could make one statement which cut through all of life's crap and got to the point: "Zennie. I want to talk to you about that ridiculous column you wrote," she's loudly say at some gathering.


At the time from 1993 to 1996 I was a columnist for The Montclarion here in Oakland, and like today, I weighed in with my opinions on Oakland, politics, news, and sports (tech came later). Mary read my work and kept me in check, and I loved every second of it.

Mary was hard to miss. You felt her presence in the room. For me, she was the closest thing to royalty in Oakland.

Indonesia tour information, interesting places to tourist destinations, place of interest tour, vacation, or holiday to your family.

Tour di Indonesia atau wisata indonesia merupakan wisata dengan aneka pilihan yang sangat menarik untuk di kunjungi saat hari hari libur. Banyak sekali tempat wisata pilihan yang bisa di kunjungi. the best tour place in indonesia is Bali. Bali has famous in the world.

If you visited to Bali you can see any interesting places to visit like Kuta beach, sanur beach, Tanah Lot, Sangeh and others.

Bali beach is verry exotic to visit. You look this image.

Bali merupakan surganya dari Indonesia tour. Bali merupakan tempat favourit untuk tujuan wisata di indonesia. Banyak sekali tempat tempat wisata pilihan yang sangat menarik untuk di kunjungi.


Pantai Bali yang sudah mendunia dengan ombaknya yang sangat cocok sebagai tempat untuk surfing pantai.

When has ultrarunning gone too far in the mainstream? When it becomes tabloid material.

Mark Tanaka saw the story first - "Madonna Prepares for Ultra Marathon", a tabloid citing that she will be toeing the line at the grueling six-day Marathon des Sables. But her publicists soon issued a statement of their own to rule it out.

Either the tabloids are seriously devoid of material ("jumping the shark"), or the PR team at MdS are geniuses.

SD

I had the wonderful pleasure of befriending legendary singer Maria Muldaur last year during the 2008 presidential primary and through a mutual friend and Obama supporter, Brent Turner and Joel Jaffe of Studio D in Sausalito, CA. 

For those of you who have not heard of Maria, you may have heard of the classic song Midnight at The Oasis, it was she who wrote and sang it in 1973, around the time Lars, Bill, and I were kids using BART to get around.

Last year the Marin County dweller created this cool song, a tribute to then-Senator Barack Obama called "Yes We Can"; I created this video around it for her:



After Obama's presidential win, Maria, now in her 60s but looks to be in her 40s, continued to perform concerts at local venues around the Bay Area. Today, she sent an email annoucing that she's returning to her "Jug Band" roots in her new CD and fall concert tour called "Maria Muldaur and her Garden of Joy". Maria explains:

After years of exploring many different forms of American Roots Music, I recently decided to return to my original roots – Jug Band Music! As some of you may know, I first recorded in the early ‘60’s as a member of both the Even Dozen & the Jim Kweskin Jug Bands. Here, in my “Garden of Joy”, I have reunited with several of my former jug band mates and recorded many tunes from the classic jug band era (late ‘20’s early ‘30’s) as well as two hilarious, newly penned gems by Dan Hicks.

Special guests on the album include John Sebastian, David Grisman, Taj Mahal, Fritz Richmond, Suzy Thompson, my sensational new discovery Kit Stovepipe (who plays absolutely amazing ragtime guitar!), and that illustrious ultimate hipster, Dan Hicks!

Muldaur says the new album is right for the times. "Jug band music," she explains, "which tends to be lighthearted, humorous and zany, emerged out of a period of hard times as a way of lifting people’s spirits."

The concerts start tomorrow Saturday August 29th with a performance in Seaside, California, then at the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival September 19th. All other dates can be seen at her website MariaMuldaur.com.

It's agreed that the planned March 2010 closure of the Fremont New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant is a huge economic loss, but the elimination of 4,700 jobs only scratches the surface of the problem.

That coupled with the stoppage and possible closure of the Chevron Richmond refinery, which already cost 1,100 jobs and we have a total of 5,700 direct jobs lost and over 29,000 total people thrown out of work or unable to get work in a San Francisco Bay Area that can't afford this economic hit at this time.

23,000?

Yeah. 23,000 jobs. See, there's a multiplier impact with business operation such that an office or a manufacturer contracts with other businesses for supplies and services.

The action of a small business owner walking down to the local store to buy printer paper is part of the multiplier effect because that small expenditure helps the retailer run his or her business. Or that person's employee - even if it's just the owner - eating lunch at the local cafe helps keep it a "going concern."

It's well-known amoung urban planners that manufacturing jobs have larger multipliers than service jobs. The Alliance for American Manufacturing reports that for every one manufacturing job lost, there are four more lost in other areas of the economy. The Bay Area has been losing such "basic industry"  jobs  - and energy counts here - at a frighteningly rapid pace.

No Sense of an Economic Emergency

What bothers me is there's no one acting like there's an economic emergency with the exception of California Senator Diane Feinstein, who called the plant's loss a "devistating blow" to California. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger seems not to care, stating:

"Today is a sad day in the history of Fremont as California joins the ranks of states adversely affected by the bankruptcy of General Motors and the worldwide collapse in demand for automobiles. ... We continue work already in progress ... to ensure appropriate employee severance, proper environmental remediation and assistance in transforming the site to alternative uses."

Alternative uses?  Like what? A parking lot?   The governor says nothing of retaining and establishing jobs at the wage levels the NUMMI workers have today.   Awful statement to release.   The word "Jobs" does not appear once in it.&

Meanwhile the Toyota jobs are to go to Canada and Texas, which means that perhaps 50 percent of the employment opportunities are leaving America at a time when we're supposed to reverse that trend. If the Chevron plant closes, the jobs move south to Southern California, but it spells curtains on the Bay Area's set of jobs for low skilled workers.

Objective: Jobs for everyone

I'm really sick of the idea that everyone has to be trained to be a brain surgeon, then sit back at home waiting for a job and hoping that more in the population have something wrong with their skull. After World War II and into the '60s America had the objective of full employment - a job for everyone, period. You don't hear that kind of idealism expressed by politicians today.

That must change.

It has to start with California rediscovering economic development and doing whatever it can to save jobs and build on them. Governor Schwarzenegger needs to show the fire in the belly necessary to do this. Right now, the only fire he give off comes from one of his expensive cigars.

Which, I might add, are not made in California.

Off to the Races .......
MotoGP here I come!
Weather looks good, no Hurricanes on the horizon like last year. I'll update when I can.

Stay safe.

I'll leave Jim Redman here to keep an eye on you miscreants.
"Don't make me come over there."

This just in - two days after his epic course record run at the Where's Waldo 100k, Erik Skaggs was admitted to a hospital for renal failure in Medford, OR. Those at the race said he looked good at the finish and was in good spirits. The symptoms apparently kicked in over the following 48 hours.

Send your good karma thoughts his way, and let's hope he has a speedy recovery.

- SD

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Ha! This is the beauty of being a local in Oakland and the Bay Area. Having friends who have old photos of you and them in action. In this case the photo below is one of Lars Frykman, Bill Boyd and myself on BART in 1975. (In case you're wondering where Bill is, he's the photog here.)

Bill found this photo and put in on his Facebook profile page; now it's on mine too. But I couldn't resist sharing it as it's a small window into the Bay Area of the past. I mean, I had a small "'fro" and Lars was sporting the Rolling Stones' hair look. But that was as much hair as I wanted; no longer. No big 'Fro for me!

The only place I can think of where we may have been going at the time was Berkeley and to the Federation Trading Post (FTP) on a weekend or San Francisco just to ride through the then-new BART tube. That was a store located within a building that's still on Telegraph Avenue between Blake and Parker avenues.

One could go the FTP for book like "The Star Trek Technical Manual" and costumes and replicas of set props like 'Phasers'. I'd bet money that's where we were headed, but I'm wondering if our friend Craig Pryor was with us too. I seem to remember that he was, sitting next to Bill in that lounge seat area.

As to our expressions we were probably talking about the business of the club; that's the only thing that could get all of us worked up at some point in a conversation. Ha. Funny thing is, Lars then looks just like his son Kyle today.

BART was new then. It opened in 1972 and transbay service (under the San Francisco Bay from Oakland to San Francisco) started in 1974. What was neat about BART at that time was everything was automatic: the doors opened and the train didn't even have the human train operators that are in each one today. As I recall, the problems didn't start mounting up until 1976. But even with that it was a smooth almost soundless ride; the tracks have worn so much that such an experience is a thing of the past.

Well, in any case, my same friends are the ones who joined me to see the new Star Trek Movie last May, on the day it came out. Here we are in front of the Grand Lake Theater, in this video singing the Star Trek theme after seeing the flick.



Wow. I forgot how big my glasses were back then!

MotoGP Starts Tomorrow ........

Three days of Motorcycle Goodness & I'm torqued up for it.
Bad news is Surly and his Wife are not going. We are not happy about this, but shit happens and I understand.

The local Yamaha Dealer sponsored a Stunt riding show yesterday afternoon by these guys -



These Dudes can ride. They make all that shit look easy as hell, too.
I'm sure a lot of time, money and Orthopedics went into getting so good.
They're gonna be up at the MotoGP in a Stunt Competition Friday or Saturday.

These are local guys from around here and I wish 'em well.
Good luck Boys!
My Daughter knows a couple of these guys and she called and asked if I was going to be at the stunt competition last night. Uuumm, probably.
Gotta check the schedule of events and see what all's going on.

There's a lot of things going on besides the racing and all. I love it.

Gratuitous Picture for a Thursday Morning-
Safety first.

Stop Dreaming lalu Star Action
Mengembalikan Jati Diri Bangsa

Teddy, What Took You So Long ???????
40 years too late, Teddy goes to his just reward.

Mary Jo Kopechne was unavailable for comment.

Now the Treasonous Bastard can go rot. Now that he's dead, I wonder if this aspect of his career will be covered?

Probably not anytime soon.

Gratuitous Picture for a Wednesday Morning-
Pre-planning at it's best!

I Love Living in the Country.....
It's foggy as hell outside. I just stepped out on the front porch and took a piss without having to worry about embarrassing myself or the neighbor.

Life is good.

Gratuitous Picture for a Tuesday Night-
Country Girl.

Vlogger Sarah Austin - who looks like a (she's gonna kill me for this) kind of cross between Britney Spears, Chelsea Clinton, and Heidi Montag - invited me to her coming back to San Francisco party Monday evening. (Yes, yesterday!)

Now, you may be saying "Who's Sarah Austin" - good question. She's a micro-celebrity tech vlogger who gained her fame from appearing first on Justin.tv and now has a livecasting show on Mogulus. The difference between what I do and what she does is she's not a political commentator and focuses more on tech. To that end, she started her own site Pop17.com and has drawn a range of guests from the tech industry and has Ford Motor Company (she's an "agent" of The Ford Fiesta Movement), Virgin America, Perkett PR and TechCrunch news blog as sponsors.

Sarah is a study in how to make vlogging a business and her party was no exception to her example. Held at the office of ZaudHouse Design Group in Portrero Hill, it attracted a group of about 50 friends and family members, and almost all of the friends were in tech. There were the usual suspects like my friend Cathy Brooks, who manages to turn up at every single tech event in the Bay Area. And there were folks I didn't expect to see like my friend digital video producer "Turbo Ted" - Theodore Terbolizard - who must be Oakland's only Republican!

But what was fun for me was to see this new product called Poken. I'm going to feature it in another blog post, but the idea is to exchange information with someone else as you would switch business cards. In this case, let's say you and someone has this small device called Poken. It's designed like a tiny plastic four-finger hand. When you and the other person touch the hands - "Hi Four!" - green LEDs in both light up, meaning you've exchanged information. When you go back to your home or office and plug into the USB port of your computer, the site is called up where you can sign up and if the other person signs up or is already there, you have their business contact information.

Sweet.

The party became a kind of "Hi Four" fest for a time, until we got to the part where the raffle was held (I won another Poken), and then we had an auction to take Sarah out on a date. The winning bid of $375 was made by a man, but he was almost beaten by a dog named Truman, who barked his bid during the proceedings. (Ok, he was coaxed by Cathy Brooks, but Ted counted it anyway!)

The party was also to benefit Summer Search, a national leadership development program. They gained $500 from the event.

In all, a fun time, and a learning experience too. The party was the perfect mix of business and fun. Here's an example: most parties have a host or no host bar - this one had a wine sponsor Gary Vaynerchuk, who's doing his live USTREAM.tv show as I type this, and the winery was Titus Vineyards near St. Helena. So, the wine gains not just the exposure from the party, but from this video-blog too. And that's true for Poken as well. What we have is the first stage of a kind of marketing model that should cause more to discover vlogging.

I hope.

Items of Interest on a Monday .......

Here's a couple of things that you probably should see. Some new. Some not so new.

This video of a Town Hall meeting is good. There's been a lot of opinion about it in the last few days, so I'll spare you any extra. I just found it to exemplify the frustration that's out there. And the proper way to deal with shithead politicians.



You go, Marine. Semper Fi!

Speaking of Town Hall meetings - Here's an article and some commentary by, Mike Vanderboegh that you should read. Mike should be a daily read for you anyway and this is especially good.

Unrelated to Town Hall meetings, but from the, Dept. of Kinda Strange, comes this-
Fellow patrons had their cellphones temporarily confiscated to prevent pictures from being taken.

"MICHELLE Obama, like her husband, enjoys a good burger, but not as well done. The first lady brought daughters Malia and Sasha to former "Top Chef" contestant Spike Mendelsohn'sGood Stuff Eatery in DC for cheeseburgers, onion rings, fries, and milkshakes. "They got the burgers medium," says a spy. (President Obama was mildly ridiculed after ordering a burger medium-well in January.) "Three starving Secret Service guys were literally standing over the grill as Spike made the burgers, but didn't eat," our source adds. Fellow patrons had their cellphones temporarily confiscated to prevent pictures from being taken."

To which I'd have told them to "Go fuck yourself".
Yes, it would be a hassle to do that. But some things are just worth it.
A cellphone camera is not a security threat so I would not comply. I wouldn't be taking pictures of them without their (Meaning Mrs Obama) anyway. That's rude.

But I sure as hell wouldn't hand over a phone just to make them happy.


Add on - Here's a Guy that just impressed me a bunch. Go check this out. Congressman from Michigan.
Don't know anything more about him other than what is in this video. Seems like a guy worth paying attention to.

Gratuitous Picture for a Monday Evening-
As always, click to embiggin'

Even though vlogging - video blogging - can be considered a self-indulgent practice, vloggers are fans of others who vlog. In my case, I'm a fan of several - Paul Robinett, or "Renetto" is one of them. Renetto's YouTube's first big vlog star just from the simple practice of posting videos consistently of him talking into a camcorder about something. But after developing a great following - 41,000 subscribers on YouTube - and a "name", Renetto's concerned that he's not serving his fan base, so my idea is that he shorten his video time.



What makes Renetto popular is he talks to you through the camera. It's not so much lifecasting as leaving a message for the World. But they tend to go on for seven or eight minutes, where I've found that people tend to drop out of a video after about 2.15 minutes. I don't always like making such short videos, but I've slowly adopted this rule: me talking should be up to four minutes or so, me interviewing a person can be as long as 20 minutes for my video and TV show, me filming an event can be up to an hour. (My TechCrunch video at the 2008 August Capital Party was over 40 minutes.)

But for me, I try to say it in two to four minutes. Lately, I've clocked in around just a hair over 3 minutes or so average. I can't say I've seen such a short video from Renetto, but I'll check back with him.

Some of Renetto's fans like the long conversational format he brings; I do too. But he started the whole thing by complaining so I thought I'd help out.



We do get paid for vlogging

Some people think we vlog for free - in other words we don't get paid for our vlogging. Every time I hear that or see it written I wonder why some people insist on being so blind. I tell everyone I know about the YouTube Partner program and generally if I talk to 30 people, I'll get one person who's really interested and then it's a coin flp probability that they'll do anything. For example, at the recent blogger meetup at the Berkeley J School, I was the only one of two vloggers in the room.

And while there may be 175 bloggers in Oakland, I can think of one other vlogger than myself and that person's not consistently at it. Terrible. In San Francisco, I know of five - Irina Slutsky, Sarah Austin (back from New York), Tracy Swedlow, Josh Wolf (who just moved to Berkeley), Schlomo Rabinowitz, Justin Kan (who's not as visible of late). (If I've left someone out, sorry. But also I'm thinking of consistent vloggers, not one and done vloggers.)

You can make money creating videos and having an audience - living wage level revenue that doesn't take all of your day to earn. It's all eyeballs folks. I'm up to 7.7 million total viewers on my YouTube channel Zennie62 since 2006 and of that, drew 5 million viewers in the last year, and over 2 million of them in the last five months. That's not a lot compared to vloggers like Renetto or Phil DeFranco, but I'm headed in the right direction: up.

Vlogging is the future of marketing and communications and is at the heart of New Media, and is a powerful tool for social change, but let's face it: it's a test of your self-esteem. The more comfortable you are with who you are the easier it is to get a camcorder, make a video, and post it, and not give a care what people think about your looks. (Well, except the racism and cyberharassment part; that's sick, I have zero tolerance for it, and fortunately a number of people do too. People who do it get cut from my channels or in a few cases reported to the authorities. Period.)

There are only about 600 YouTube Partners out of the thousands of people who upload something daily worldwide. That means we're out there doing this as a business where I have no idea what anyone else is doing.

Hmm. Just 600 YouTube Partners? On second thought, maybe I should stop telling the rest of you about the program! More money for Renetto and me!

Who Would Have Thought?????

Dr. Ruth Westheimer, former Israeli Sniper

I'm sure there's some connection there between sex therapy and firearms.
H/T - Say Uncle

Great Les Paul Video .....
You should watch this.

I saw this the other day at Roger's Place
I haven't seen a better tribute to the great Les Paul than this. Filmed around his 90th birthday, it's wonderfully done and really shows what an amazing guy he was.

He seemed to be a hell of a nice guy to boot.

I enjoyed this tremendously and instead of going to bed because I had to work in the morning, I stayed up way too late the other night to watch it all.

Les Paul was a damn genius besides being a fabulous guitarist.
Well worth it. I know you'll enjoy it.

Gratuitous Picture for a Monday Morning-
Zombie Groundhog

Erik Skaggs and Joelle Vaught took advantage of the 80 degree weather at Willamette Pass, OR, to set new course records at the Where's Waldo 100k yesterday. Both led from start to finish, winning the USATF 100k National Championship and Montrail UltraCup opener in 9:11:05 and 10:23:32 respectively.

Top results from Craig Thornley's blog:

Men -
1st - Erik Skaggs - 9:11:05 (CR)
2nd - Zach Miller - 9:39:35 also under the old course record.
3rd - Jason Bryant - 9:49:08 also under the old course record.
4th - Neil Olsen - 10:02:39 also under his old course record. First Master.
5th - Sean Andrish - 10:03:36, also under the course record.
6th - Mark Lantz - 10:15:49
7th - Yassine Diboun - 10:16:16
8th - Matt Lonergan - 10:16:34
9th - Jace Ives - 10:55:54
10th - Sander Nelson - 11:04:46
11th - Geoffrey Donovan - 11:15:08
12th - Victor Ballesteros 11:16:03
13th - Lewis Taylor - 11:34:44
14th - Rafael Arceo 11:47:43
15th - Kurt Lindermuller - 11:56:08
16th - Bill Montgomery - 12:05:37
17th - Lucas Cramer - 12:18:10
18th - Joe Lee - 12:27:16
19th - Co Jones - 12:29:06
20st - Scott McLelllan - 12:30:50
21st - Andre-Paul Michaud - 12:33:10

Women -

1st - Joelle Vaught 10:23:32 (CR)
2nd overall and 1st Masters - Bev Anderson-Abbs - 11:01:59
3rd overall and 2nd Masters - Meghan Arbogast - 11:07:36
4th - Alison Bryant - 11:34
5th - Shawna Wilskey - 12:00:52
6th - Amy Sproston - 12:04:35
7th - Monica Ochs - 12:26:55
8th - Wendy Wheeler Jacobs - 13:06:11

Looks like the early results for the Leadville 100 are also posted. Colorado's Timmy Parr (17:27:23) and Leadville local Lynette Clemons (20:58:01) ran to victory, with top 10 performances from Garret Graubins, Andy Jones-Wilkins, and Bryon Powell. Anton Krupicka's DNF is a good read too; I love that he so graciously shares his successes and defeats.

SD

Media informasi wisata indonesia : Indonesia merupakan negara yang sangat luas dan merupakan negara kepulauan terbesar dan terbanyak di dunia. Potensi wisata indonesia merupakan seluruh wilayah yang ada dari Sabang sampai Merauke. Baik itu yang ada di daratan, laut, gunung hingga hutan merupakan aset wisata indonesia yang layak untuk di promosikan ke seluruh dunia.

Bali Indonesia merupakan tolak ukur suksesnya dunia pariwisata Indonesia. Bali sudah begitu mendunia dan di indonesia sendiri wisata Bali merupakan wisata favorit bagi hampir sebagian besar orang yang punya hobi traveling. Dengan majunya wisata Bali di banding dengan daerah daerah lain di Indonesia semoga bisa memacu daerah lain untuk lebih giat mengembangkan sektor wisata di masing masing daerah agar pula bisa bersaing dengan Bali.

Tempat wisata lain yang juga sangat menarik dan sudah mendunia adalah Candi borobudur di Provinsi jawa tengah dan Danau Toba di Sumatra Utara.

Here's Something Cool You Can Buy Me.....

1970 Factory 750 Honda Racer.

I'd show you a picture but I can't seem to get any to display here. Ebay must not want me to help them sell this thing.

Only takes $10,000 to get into the bidding! YerUnk would appreciate this for his birthday.

Item 2 for you is a nice article from Motorcycle Classics Magazine on Mike Hailwood's 1978 IOM TT winning Ducati Written by the Guy who owned it and ran the team.


Very interesting article and there are a couple of other links that you may wish to check out if you're a fan of this stuff.


The Indianapolis MotoGP is coming right up and YerUnk is excited about going to that again this year.

The weather has to be better than last years Hurricane that blew through and screwed things up royally.
I'm gonna ride the BigBluePlasticMotorcycle unless the forecast calls for another Hurricane.

Even with the crappy weather last year it was an incredible event & I'm getting torqued about it.
If you can go you really ought to.

Maybe Rossi will win again this year.




He's the best rider out there and one of the best ever.

I gotta admit I was pulling for Nicki Hayden last year, but Rossi is something special and watching him stalk Hayden and bide his time during that race was incredible.
He really is, "The Doctor".

Gratuitous Picture for a Thursday Afternoon-
"Have a seat. No. I promise you won't fall off."

Usain Bolt lowered his Men's 100m world record by an astounding .11 seconds in the World Athletics Championships in Berlin on Sunday, Aug. 16, 2009, then dominated the 200m four days later with a 19.19 second world record. Seventeen years had passed between Carl Lewis running the 100m in 9.86 seconds in 1991 and Usain Bolt going .14sec faster in May 2008, but he's already chopping it down by huge amounts. The scientists who predicted man couldn't run that fast for another 20 years are going back to the books.



How fast can he go? Usain thinks 9.4's is possible. Some say he might need some assistance from technology (luckily he and all the sprinters tested negative for doping). But one thing for sure, he's in a league of his own.

Check out the video. It sure is cool to be alive at a time when others can show us the limitless potential of the human spirit.



[update] - Usain Bolt extended his domination by running 19.19 for 200m, .11 seconds faster than his previous world record. Video above. Wow!

- SD

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YouTube, MySpace, Metacafe, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, StupidVideos and Sclipo

I couldn't wait to visit the new Lake Chalet Restaurant at the restored Lake Merritt Boathouse, so I made a plan with my friend Gab to be there when the doors opened for the first time right at 5 PM last Monday, August 17th.

As you may recall, I recently posted a video-blog of the day the ribbon was cut to dedicate the boathouse and Lake Chalet owner Lara Truppelli and Executive Chef Jarad Gallagher were kind enough to give me an interview at the bar as the eatery was under construction. Now, it's open and man is it terrific!

What's so exciting is the setting. The Boathouse is right on the shore of Lake Merritt and a seat at the "Pumphouse Bar" section of the place on a sunny day as Monday was is a treat to the kind of Oakland many of us have wanted to see and cause to happen for a long time. That's where we sat after we arrived.  The interior is both modern, futuristic in a way, and warm.

Lara came over to say hello and check on us; she and her husband Gar Truppelli really deserve all the accolades they get for creating a new destination place in Oakland right where it should be at Lake Merritt. As Gar said "It's wonderful. Three-and-a-half years it took to get to this."

We were like kids in a candy store, my friend and I, trying to figure out what to order. So, we turned to Gallagher who said he wanted us to try "something that we normally would not get" and offered several suggestions. Out of those, we ordered two dishes: Brandade Fish Sticks and Herloom Tomato and Buratta Cheese. We also elected to go on a kind of tour of Lake Chalet's cocktail offerings starting with me and Old Whiskey and a kind of mint drink Gab had that I can't remember the name of and I'm not going to bug her to ask about it.

Then Gallagher brought over a nice surprise: his special English Pea Soup.  Now I haven't eaten pea soup since I was six, but I never had English Pea Soup with White Truffle Oil, (and found this great blog post about making it!).  I hated pea soup; not this time.  Not this kind.  

The soup and the Herloom Tomato and Buratta Cheese were out of this world!  Gallagher said he had the Buratta Cheese delivered from Italy and so wanted us to give him our impression of it and the tomatos. As we said in the video, just great.  The meal dances in your mouth. 

Since we were part of the first set of patrons to arrive at the Lake Chalet it was a perfect place to talk and to just stop and admire the place. Then the rush came in and the Lake Chalet became a kind of cool center of Oakland.

It seemed as if almost everyone in the town walked in at some point that night: people who live around the Lake, folks young and old, and even celebrity politicos like California Attorney General Jerry Brown, who, Lara told me, was really helpful in helping them get a good lease agreement, my friends the ever-energetic Oakland builder Mike Baines, and Bob and Barbara Schock (Bob's a well-known Oakland-based lawyer), and of course Helen.  I think we ended up closing the place down.

Yeah. We did.  Thanks Lara and Gar! 

Folks, I love this place. You've got to visit it. Soon.

This is to Cool..........
The Carver. Never saw this thing before & to late to go researching it.

Just enjoy the video.


It's late. Here's a Bedtime Photo-

The Canner Has Been Busy.....
Today.


Jelly, Salsa and the first of the beans. There's more beans in the canner now. And a shitload more waiting to be put into jars.

I should go rob a bank. I think my fingerprints have been worn off from prepping beans.

I was surprised how many it takes to make one 6 quart batch in the canner.
We've just gotten started on the beans. There's a wheel barrow load of Tomatoes out in the garage yet that haven't been gotten to yet also.

And the Garden is full yet.

That's the kind of problems to have. Too much food to process.

The weather today was brutal. High 80's low 90's and 100% humidity. I didn't get a damn thing done outside.
Don't even feel guilty about it. I just fold up in no time when it gets like this.

The Queen and I are heading up North tomorrow evening for a quick overnighter to see the Niece make her big debut in a stage show.

Friends will be watching the Command and Control Bunker and taking care of the critters.

I wish they knew how to run the Canner. It's not like there isn't things to be done.

It's all good & It'll wait for a day.

Gratuitous Picture for a Wednesday Night-
Tree Lover, Maybe?

Got Garden ??????

Got up early this morning and went out to pick Beans and Tomatoes.

As you can see, I got a few.



You can guess what, QueenBuffness & I are gonna be doing today.

I still need to get out and start digging Potatoes.

Thank goodness we don't have to process them too.

No. I have no idea why that camera dated that picture 2006. Weird.

Gratuitous Picture for a Tuesday Morning-
As always, click to enlarge.