Showing posts with label YouTube. Show all posts
Showing posts with label YouTube. Show all posts
The headline is obviously referring to the blog, which is currently under repair. I think the only thing showing right now are the actual posts. Spent most of the weekend working on it, but ran into some frustrations. Eventually (probably over the course of the week), you will see a new look, along with possibly a new URL. Stay tuned...
Lots to mention to get this week started, one that looms large in political circles. More on that later and probably in another post.
Let's start with a birthday, born of a $1.65 billion investment. That is how much Google paid for YouTube in 2007, considered a major risk at the time. Well, last October, the internet video powerhouse eclipsed some one billion page views per day, and just recently it announced that figured had doubled. Today, YouTube turns five.
It is almost amazing to think that YouTube didn't exist when I was in high school. In what is clearly a sign of the information age, it is so prevalent right now as to give the impression that it has always existed. Yes, I was born before computers were even that ubiquitous. When I was in elementary school the cool thing to do on a computer was play Oregon Trail." Now, well, on this browser alone, I have nine different tabs open (five of them are related to this blog actually).
Google as a corporation has revolutionized information, taking advantage of the internet in the same way Microsoft did the personal computer. There is no slowing this train down. What I find funny to remember is the man who is largely give credit for creating the internet (financially anyway), Al Gore, is now so widely criticized in his current endeavor (clean energy) as to think he's never successfully done any forward thinking. Even Gore could not have expected this. The internet, as you don't need to be told, has changed the foundation of just about everything in the world, including the family. Google has been by far the leader.
So happy birthday to one of its arms, YouTube.
Uplifting, yet sad at the same time, the University of Virginia women's lacrosse team opened up the NCAA tournament with a win yesterday, in its first game since the murder of one of their own, Yeardley Love. Love's mother and sister were in the stands as the entire team held up pieces of paper with the number "1" on them, a reference to the motto of both teams in the NCAA tournament, "One Love." The alleged killer was a member of the men's team, which returned to action with a win on Saturday.
BP is claiming some success today, after a pipe inserted into the 21-inch riser pipe was able to begin diverting oil to a tanker on the surface. The mile long pipe is just four inches wide, means its effect is minimal, but it marks the biggest positive step anyone has seen in stopping the leak. Late last week reports suggested that more than 10 times more oil was leaking that previously thought. At the original rate there would have been about 5.6 million gallons spilled up to today, in the fourth week of the spill. In the newer range that has been hypothesized, somewhere around 100 million gallons has already spilled. That would be about 10 Exxon Valdez spills, with the end still of in the distance.
A Rhode Island school that fired all of its teachers has reached a tentative agreement to rehire all of them, after a three month process. The school board of the district voted to fire every staff member, teachers and administrators, over low student performance. A new deal would allow the teachers to return to work in the fall without having to re-apply for their jobs.
After 40 years, the Boston University class of 1970 walked in a graduation ceremony this weekend, a chance the 3,000 graduates never got during the turmoil of the time. Final exams and the ceremony were canceled that year after the university, like so many others, became the site of strikes, sit-ins, building takeovers and fire-bombings. That spring saw President Richard Nixon invade Cambodia and National Guardsmen killing nine students at Kent State.
Attorney General Eric Holder gave the commencement speech to the entire graduating class, including the 2010 grads, saying, "I love you all," then gesturing toward the class of 1970, sitting in front him, "But these are my people."
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Amazingly, I avoided Congress and politics for a while there, but no longer (I will be avoiding the Mariners, however, so if you want to be depressed, try the Seattle Times).
Despite being a higher seed at both the regional and the super regional last year, the Huskies were forced to travel because their stadium did not have lights, an NCAA requirement for hosting. The Huskies turned the lengthy road trip (which, unlike basically every school outside of the west coast, was in the middle of the academic quarter) into a positive and rode it the program's first national championship.
Along the way, their story was told over and over again on ESPN, leading to an influx of donations and the unveiling of lights to begin the 2010 at Husky Softball Stadium. The Huskies (45-6, 17-4) will host a regional starting Friday. Despite being the top-ranked team in the country for the entire season, unanimously for most of it, the Huskies are just the No. 3 overall seed. Alabama and Michigan are one and two, respectively.
A couple more things on this: The Huskies head into their 17th-consecutive postseason appearance coming off of the best regular season in school history. Washington missed out on the tournament in its first season of existence, 1993, but has been there in every year since.
And not only was this a big season for the team, but, as mentioned in previous posts, reigned National Player of the Year Danielle Lawrie has cemented her place as maybe the greatest pitcher to ever play the game and certainly one of the best athletes in UW history. She set the Pac-10 career strikeout record over the weekend. Lawrie heads into the postseason with, get this, a 35-2 record, 0.99 ERA and 407 strikeouts in 247.1 innings, while also hitting .322 with team highs of 14 homeruns and 55 RBI. Have the Mariners even scored 55 runs yet this season? Before last weekend she was almost out-homering that whole team.
Finally, if you can get past the blatant partisanship here, the way he presents this is absolutely hilarious. Obama was talking to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Yes, he is completely finger pointing, but tell me when he says, "No!", you didn't laugh.
Happy Monday
[More]
Lots to mention to get this week started, one that looms large in political circles. More on that later and probably in another post.
Let's start with a birthday, born of a $1.65 billion investment. That is how much Google paid for YouTube in 2007, considered a major risk at the time. Well, last October, the internet video powerhouse eclipsed some one billion page views per day, and just recently it announced that figured had doubled. Today, YouTube turns five.
It is almost amazing to think that YouTube didn't exist when I was in high school. In what is clearly a sign of the information age, it is so prevalent right now as to give the impression that it has always existed. Yes, I was born before computers were even that ubiquitous. When I was in elementary school the cool thing to do on a computer was play Oregon Trail." Now, well, on this browser alone, I have nine different tabs open (five of them are related to this blog actually).
Google as a corporation has revolutionized information, taking advantage of the internet in the same way Microsoft did the personal computer. There is no slowing this train down. What I find funny to remember is the man who is largely give credit for creating the internet (financially anyway), Al Gore, is now so widely criticized in his current endeavor (clean energy) as to think he's never successfully done any forward thinking. Even Gore could not have expected this. The internet, as you don't need to be told, has changed the foundation of just about everything in the world, including the family. Google has been by far the leader.
So happy birthday to one of its arms, YouTube.
Uplifting, yet sad at the same time, the University of Virginia women's lacrosse team opened up the NCAA tournament with a win yesterday, in its first game since the murder of one of their own, Yeardley Love. Love's mother and sister were in the stands as the entire team held up pieces of paper with the number "1" on them, a reference to the motto of both teams in the NCAA tournament, "One Love." The alleged killer was a member of the men's team, which returned to action with a win on Saturday.
BP is claiming some success today, after a pipe inserted into the 21-inch riser pipe was able to begin diverting oil to a tanker on the surface. The mile long pipe is just four inches wide, means its effect is minimal, but it marks the biggest positive step anyone has seen in stopping the leak. Late last week reports suggested that more than 10 times more oil was leaking that previously thought. At the original rate there would have been about 5.6 million gallons spilled up to today, in the fourth week of the spill. In the newer range that has been hypothesized, somewhere around 100 million gallons has already spilled. That would be about 10 Exxon Valdez spills, with the end still of in the distance.
A Rhode Island school that fired all of its teachers has reached a tentative agreement to rehire all of them, after a three month process. The school board of the district voted to fire every staff member, teachers and administrators, over low student performance. A new deal would allow the teachers to return to work in the fall without having to re-apply for their jobs.
After 40 years, the Boston University class of 1970 walked in a graduation ceremony this weekend, a chance the 3,000 graduates never got during the turmoil of the time. Final exams and the ceremony were canceled that year after the university, like so many others, became the site of strikes, sit-ins, building takeovers and fire-bombings. That spring saw President Richard Nixon invade Cambodia and National Guardsmen killing nine students at Kent State.
Attorney General Eric Holder gave the commencement speech to the entire graduating class, including the 2010 grads, saying, "I love you all," then gesturing toward the class of 1970, sitting in front him, "But these are my people."
--
Amazingly, I avoided Congress and politics for a while there, but no longer (I will be avoiding the Mariners, however, so if you want to be depressed, try the Seattle Times).
- Politico suggests that President Obama is rolling his sleeves up and taking a more hands-on approach with Congress right now, as financial reform and possibly energy work their way through. That can only be good for those efforts.
It probably also shows that, with some Democrats unwilling to campaign on a health care bill that was painted in such a negative light, the administration needs to give them something else. Cracking down on Wall Street should work every time. - Not necessarily political, but I absolutely loved this interview yesterday in the New York Times Magazine, with Alan Greenberg of JP Morgan Chase.
- Congressional hearings this week on the oil spill in the Gulf will focus on the federal response. Two things to watch:
- Are federal officials just as non-committal (or even finger-pointing) as their oil executive counterparts. After the speech Obama gave on Friday, for his administration to point fingers at oil companies would likely backfire.
- That said, expect to see the officials talk about how their response was appropriate and swift, even though there was very little the government could do initially. Quite frankly, what is often missed is that oil companies know best how to handle these sorts of things, which is why BP is still involved at all. If the hearing gets into how close the oil companies and their regulator are, or why BP was not required to do a full assessment before drilling the well, it could get ugly for the administration. - Here is a quick primer on what is going on in Pennsylvania, something my later post will cover. This one is far more interesting than the others, to me at least, simply because I really do think Arlen Specter is the only one that can win the general.
- Expect to see something from me on this as well, as questions loom over whether Governor Christine Gregoire will be nominated for the solicitor general position being vacated by Elena Kagan. That obviously has ramifications across Washington state politics. This next day or so of blogging is going to be fun.
Despite being a higher seed at both the regional and the super regional last year, the Huskies were forced to travel because their stadium did not have lights, an NCAA requirement for hosting. The Huskies turned the lengthy road trip (which, unlike basically every school outside of the west coast, was in the middle of the academic quarter) into a positive and rode it the program's first national championship.
Along the way, their story was told over and over again on ESPN, leading to an influx of donations and the unveiling of lights to begin the 2010 at Husky Softball Stadium. The Huskies (45-6, 17-4) will host a regional starting Friday. Despite being the top-ranked team in the country for the entire season, unanimously for most of it, the Huskies are just the No. 3 overall seed. Alabama and Michigan are one and two, respectively.
A couple more things on this: The Huskies head into their 17th-consecutive postseason appearance coming off of the best regular season in school history. Washington missed out on the tournament in its first season of existence, 1993, but has been there in every year since.
And not only was this a big season for the team, but, as mentioned in previous posts, reigned National Player of the Year Danielle Lawrie has cemented her place as maybe the greatest pitcher to ever play the game and certainly one of the best athletes in UW history. She set the Pac-10 career strikeout record over the weekend. Lawrie heads into the postseason with, get this, a 35-2 record, 0.99 ERA and 407 strikeouts in 247.1 innings, while also hitting .322 with team highs of 14 homeruns and 55 RBI. Have the Mariners even scored 55 runs yet this season? Before last weekend she was almost out-homering that whole team.
Finally, if you can get past the blatant partisanship here, the way he presents this is absolutely hilarious. Obama was talking to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Yes, he is completely finger pointing, but tell me when he says, "No!", you didn't laugh.
Happy Monday
Morning y'all from the town that got the outstretches of a hurricane on Saturday. First time I've done an extended day of basketball, which in my growing age is about 2.5 hours. But we did it outside over in NE which is pretty ghetto. It was horribly humid and just difficult to move. Between the four of us we drank at least three gallons of water while we were playing and probably lost more than that to sweat. And it was right as we were finishing that the rains came.
And they didn't stop until Sunday morning. The the storm actually started Friday afternoon and we had about a 36 hour lightning storm with a small break from the rain on Saturday morning. It was nice to have rain back and get the air cleared out. Yesterday was just amazing. Clear and mid-80's.
Alright, enough about the weather. I possibly have real things to talk about.
(This is an interjection. It occurred to me that I didn't actually write anything about the Yankees. Well, they beat Boston. Again. sixth time in seven games. And they hit five homers off Josh Beckett. And their awesome. See grandpa, we don't disagree on everything. However, the Raiders? Well, let's just say - actually let's not.).
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Okay wow. I had to add a gap there. Now, I knew today was going to be busy. I started the blog post before I left this morning because I knew this and I'm liking the trend of two-a-day (as long as content keeps up, which I know hasn't quite been the case - sorry). I already had plans for the second blog that I hashed out on the bus this morning. On the DC public school system. Some interesting stuff that hopefully I will visit tomorrow. But instead of being able to finish it off, here I am at 9:36 pm finishing, trying frantically to get done because I have work to do as well.
Oh, Monday. The day always feels short because we have a staff meeting and often times other meetings throughout. Even though the big meeting only takes about 30 minutes, it is at 11 am so it feels like it just cuts the day in half. I also don't like to leave projects undone so that really bugs me. That would be a normal Monday, though. On this Monday I had all the normal stuff to do, as well as a couple of blog posts to write, updating the Heat Is On (HIO) site (which hasn't been done yet) and a couple more meetings to sit. Oh yeah, and one more thing: the Sarah Palin project.
I cannot really reveal the details yet because the entire project is not completed, but as soon as it is, look for a link. One of the requirements was to just find something ridiculous that Palin has said. Obviously this isn't hard. However, it needed to be an audio or video clip (not just text) and it needed to be in the context of energy. Even if it was about energy, as long as she was talking about energy and then just said something like "my foreign policy experience is great because Russia is my neighbor," that would've been find. Now that is harder than you think. Hard to the tune of, wait for it, SIX HOURS of listening to Sarah Palin speeches, interviews, town halls, ropeline discussions, fishing tips, you name it. If I have to hear the words maverick, drill, baby, gosh, well, or her voice again I might jump off the Washington Monument. Six hours of her high-pitched squeaky voice in which she can never string a series of words together into that thing some of us call a sentence. I watched her last speech at the Governor's picnic (her last day in office) three times. That is when she tells the press to stop making things up, in honor of the military. WHAT?! I remember when I first heard the on the day she gave it, telling someone it was a "train wreck" and that person responding to me, "those are the exact words someone else used to describe it." At least I'm not alone. At one point I actually got up, walked down the hall to my boss'as office and said rather matter-of-factly, "I bet you could walk down Crenshaw and hear better English." That is not racist, it's the truth. Period. Still, at some point in the near future, this final video should be hilarious.
That right there was six of my 9.5 hours physically in my office today. Not including before I left or now. Which could very well stretch into the night. Hard to tell you more about today than that, honestly.
So here are some links for you to check out:
First a quote that is moving around the internet today, attributed to Kirk Herstreit, even though he didn't really say it:
“Ducks are the college football version of Paris Hilton… they’re famous for no reason, they look pretty and they got a rich daddy.” - Again, sorry grandfather. Truer words have rarely been spoken.
Continuing with sports first:
Pete Rose should have been inducted into the Hall of Fame 17 years ago this month.
This has only happened twice in history. And only the fourth time since 1950 that a team has done it and hit an inside-the-park homerun in the same game.
Edge is a Hawk.
Social media is taking over the world, as evidenced by UW Athletics having a YouTube page (to go along with Twitter, Facebook, you name it). LCV actually has multiple YouTube pages, as well. Unfortunately it is too new to have any video content that I was involved it, but here's something I will really miss.
That Jon Brockman was special huh?
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If this is even remotely true then it only heaps more sadness on an already sad tale. Regardless of your feelings for the man, Michael Jackson was one of the most talented musicians in history.
Only in SoCal.
Boycotting Whisky? That might be taking it a little too far. However, Scotland screw this one up, big time.
I've already shared this on my Facebook, but Glenn Beck is from Mount Vernon, Wash.
I honestly really do like the pre-Presidential politics John McCain. Nice words about Ted Kennedy.
As always you should check out Act Green. But on this day story about Southwest was written by me. It is actually pretty cool.
I'd like to make a habit of highlighting something that a friend, new or old, of mine is doing on a regular basis. Today I have nothing. However, I will point out that I have just started ready The Ragin Cajun himself, James Carville's new book, 40 More Years. I'll let you know how it goes.
As always, thank you for reading. Stay Classy.