Texans RB Arian Foster expresses frustration toward fantasy football players …

The Houston Texans had to remove 2010 NFL rushing leader Arian Foster from their exhibition game Saturday when his lingering hamstring injury began bothering him again late in the first quarter.

While the Texans worried about Foster’s ability to return to the field, fantasy football players worried about Foster’s standing as a No. 1 draft pick.

While the Texans worried about Arian Foster’s ability to return to the field, fantasy football players worried about Foster’s standing as a No. 1 draft pick. (AP Photo)

Foster himself took to Twitter on Sunday to respond to the troubled fantasy owners: “4 those sincerely concerned, I’m doing ok plan 2 B back by opening day. 4 those worried abt your fantasy team, u ppl are sick.”

He then followed up that tweet a few hours later with this: “I put nothing but positive thoughts and energy out on here, but look at what gets the attention. This reiterates my original point.”

Coach Gary Kubiak says Foster should be up to speed in time for the Texans’ Week 1 opener against Indianapolis.

Foster sounded somewhat optimistic in the locker room following Saturday’s game, according to the Houston Chronicle: “It’s a part of life. It’s a roller-coaster ride. You’ve got to remain even-keeled. It didn’t pop or anything like that. It’s a re-aggravation of what I already had.”

Article source: http://aol.sportingnews.com/nfl/story/2011-08-28/texans-rb-arian-foster-expresses-frustration-toward-fantasy-football-players-on-

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Maroon 5 Frontman Adam Levine Calls Out MTV on Twitter

Music

Published August 28, 2011

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Reuters

Aug. 5: Singer Adam Levine appears with his band Maroon 5 on NBC’s Today show in New York.

LOS ANGELES –  A fiery Maroon 5 frontman Adam Levine slammed MTV in a Twitter outburst, dissing the network’s Video Music Awards show set for Sunday.

“The VMA’s. one day a year when MTV pretends to still care about music. I’m drawing a line in the sand. [expletive] you VMA’s,” Levine tweeted.

The 32-year-old singer, also a mentor on NBC’s talent show “The Voice,” was not nominated for any awards at the ceremony this year. His rock band had been crowned Best New Artist at the VMAs in 2004 for their hit “This Love.”

MTV made light of Levine’s slap down, inviting him to tune into the televised ceremony in a follow-up tweet but the rocker was not amused and defended his bluntness.

“I may be a pop singer. but every once in a while the angsty teenager in me just blurts out some raw honesty. it’s a reflex,” he wrote in a another posting.

The 28th annual MTV Video Music Awards will air live Sunday from the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles at 9pm ET.

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Article source: http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2011/08/28/maroon-5-frontman-adam-levine-calls-out-mtv-on-twitter/

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Twitter Becomes a Playground During Hurricane Irene

Twentieth Century Fox Scenes from the movie “The Day After Tomorrow” were shared on Twitter during Hurricane Irene.

Hurricane Irene, which was traveling at a leisurely 13 miles per hour, took its sweet time arriving in New York. As boredom quickly set in for many, Twitter became a massive chatroom of New Yorkers with nothing to do but tweet, retweet and tweet some more, from their homes.

It seems everyone joined in. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg preached caution on his Twitter feed. News outlets used Twitter as a reporter’s notepad, sharing every aspect of the storm’s movement, wind gusts and damage. “Just lost power in Brooklyn…. on my ipad. It’s ok recharging now,” wrote Michael Milberger, an ABC News producer.

Many New Yorkers, faced with the boredom after 24 hours in hibernation, turned into comedians and cub reporters for the day. There were dozens of pictures taken from the movie “The Day After Tomorrow,” where the Statue of Liberty is destroyed in a tidal wave, shared online.

Some criticized the thespian displays by television news anchors who donned bright raincoats and ventured into the streets and piers to report Irene’s destruction — at the time, the storm was still hundreds of miles away. Dennis Crowley, co-founder of Foursquare, took to the streets of New York with an iPhone, rubber boots and enough on-air charm to one-up Anderson Cooper of CNN. Mr. Crowley and his friends recorded videos, documenting fallen trees and even tested the “capabilities” of their rubber boots.

As is usual in the excitement of breaking news events, Twitter became home to a lot of misinformation too.

An image that many thought was Irene approaching North Carolina or New York was actually taken in Pensacola, Florida weeks ago.

An awe-inspiring photo of “Hurricane Irene approaching North Carolina” began circulating social networks early Saturday evening and was quickly shared by thousands of people. The only problem: the image was actually taken weeks ago in Pensacola, Fla., and had nothing to do with Irene. Still, the photo was viewed 270,000 times on TwitPic, a Twitter image Web site.

Another image, apparently of the East River flooding, began broadcasting across Twitter early Saturday. This was also a hoax, taken in North Carolina hours before.

Some images were obviously authentic, like one showing the Times Square subway station being inundated with flood waters. But it was difficult to decipher fact from fiction.

Not everyone on Twitter was impressed with the jovial attitude of  New Yorkers. Sarah Cooley, a social media consultant, wrote: “I know this is NYC but I’m kind of over the sarcasm. There is still flooding all over the city and long island was hit really hard.”

Article source: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/28/twitter-becomes-adult-playground-during-hurricane-irene/

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Perils of Facebook, part 94

Since 1998, Phil Wainewright has been a thought leader in cloud computing as a blogger, analyst and consultant. He founded pioneering website ASPnews.com, and later Loosely Coupled, which covered enterprise adoption of web services and SOA. As CEO of strategic consulting group Procullux Ventures, he has developed an evaluation framework to help ISVs and enterprises select cloud platforms, and advises US and European vendors on messaging, positioning and go-to-market. His newest role as an industry advocate is vice-president of EuroCloud.

Article source: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/saas/perils-of-facebook-part-94/1397

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South African Police Investigate Controversial Facebook Photo

South African Police Investigate Controversial Facebook Photo

South African police are investigating a photo on Facebook that shows a white man with a rifle posing with what appears to be the lifeless body of a black child.

The photo was posted on the social networking site in the profile of a user called “Eugene Terrorblanche.” The name is similar to that of a South African white separatist leader who was murdered last year.

While it is not clear whether the photo is real or manipulated, police are asking the public for help in identifying the people in the picture.

South Africa’s Sunday Times newspaper says police began their probe after the paper showed the Facebook site to authorities.

The user, who has more than 500 Facebook friends, describes himself as self-employed, and lists his interests as knives, firearms and weapons.

The Times reports the photo was posted to Facebook in June of last year. It was no longer on the original user’s profile page as of later Sunday, but had reappeared on other Facebook sites, including two protest groups.

Officials told the paper that anyone who produced or distributed the photo could have violated several laws, including South Africa’s Children’s Act, Films and Publications Act, and Criminal Procedure Act.

Tags: Africa, Facebook, South
Posted in Africa

Article source: http://blogs.voanews.com/breaking-news/2011/08/28/south-african-police-investigate-controversial-facebook-photo/

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Missouri teachers win fight to be Facebook friends with students

The Missouri State Teachers Association (MSTA) has managed to win their first battle in blocking a new law regarding social networking with students. Cole County Circuit Judge Jon Beetem granted MSTA’s request for a preliminary injunction (PDF), effective for 180 days. It will expire on February 20, 2012 and will allow a trial before the statute is implemented.

Beetem found that based upon the evidence, teachers in Missouri use social media as one of their primary forms of communication. He stated that the law “clearly prohibits communication between family members and their teacher parents using these types of sites. The Court finds that the statute would have a chilling effect on speech.”

The judge also ordered that under this ruling, teachers cannot be disciplined or suffer adverse consequences for using non-work related social media. “This gives everyone time to debate and discuss the issue to come to a proper resolution rather than rushing to piece together language that doesn’t resolve the concerns of educators or allow time for teacher input,” Gail McCray, MSTA Legal Counsel, said in a statement.

Last week, the MSTA filed a lawsuit asking the Circuit Court of Cole County to determine the constitutionality of the law’s social media portion. The group argues the law infringes on educators’ first amendment rights of free speech, association, and religion. It asked the court to keep that section of law from being implemented until the constitutionality can be determined.

Senate Bill 54, also known as the Amy Hestir Student Protection Act, aims to fight inappropriate contact between students and teachers, including protecting children from sexual misconduct by their educators. It is named after a Missouri public school student who was repeatedly molested by a teacher several decades ago.

The new law is broad enough to prohibit teachers from communicating privately with students over the Internet, and inhibits educators’ ability to converse with students via text messaging and social networks. As I outlined earlier this month, it means teachers and students can’t be Facebook friends.

Last month, State Governor Jay Nixon signed Senate Bill 54, which goes into effect on August 28, 2011 in the state of Missouri. The new law bans direct social networking contact between teachers and students in the hopes of setting more distinct boundaries on the relationships between the two.

The law said teachers would still be able to have a Facebook Page for interacting with students on a slightly more personal level, as long it’s still work-related. It’s the actual friending, messaging, and whatever other direct connection you can make on a social network that was to be banned.

See also:

• Missouri bans students and teachers from being Facebook friends
• Missouri teachers fight to be Facebook friends with students
• Here’s how Facebook keeps track of who you are stalking
• Facebook: export your friends’ email addresses, if they let you
• 85% of women are annoyed by their Facebook friends

Article source: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/facebook/missouri-teachers-win-fight-to-be-facebook-friends-with-students/3087

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NBA Draft 2012: A New #1?

UConn Adds Drummond: The entire college basketball world received a major shock yesterday as Andre Drummond, the premier high school big man in the country, reclassified from the 2012 recruiting class to 2011 and announced that he will be attending UConn this year.

For the last year there have been rumors that Drummond was considering making this move, but there never seemed to be any substance to it. The talk had really quieted down as of late because he appeared to be heading to prep school. Instead he’ll be helping the Huskies in their quest to repeat as national champions.

Without Kemba Walker, the Most Outstanding Player from the 2011 NCAA Tournament, the Huskies were expected to be taking a step backwards this upcoming season. With Drummond they become a viable threat to defend their crown.

Drummond is going to make his teammates’ lives much easier on the court and cause havoc for the opposition. At 6’10 and 275 lbs he’s a game changer on both ends of the floor. He’s going to draw away a lot of the attention that dynamic sophomore swingman Jeremy Lamb was going to be receiving offensively and defensively he’s going to form a scary duo inside the paint with forward Alex Oriakhi.

Several schools who thought they had a shot a Drummond were severely disappointed by this news, mainly Kentucky and West Virginia. UConn’s head coach Jim Calhoun really hit a home run by grabbing Drummond a year early.

Calhoun is the perfect fit for Drummond. As an intense, fiery head coach who demands the most from his players, he’ll get Drummond playing harder than he ever has. The only real knock that NBA general managers and scouts have on him now is that doesn’t give maximum effort at all times. Calhoun won’t allow that.

Expect Calhoun to use Drummond a lot like he used New Orleans Hornets center Emeka Okafor when he had him. Drummond will be the featured option inside with the freedom to utilize his underrated passing skills and developing face up game.

Just last week we went over the crop of players who are in contention for the number one pick in the 2012 draft. As great as North Carolina’s Harrison Barnes, Ohio State’s Jared Sullinger and Baylor’s Perry Jones are, Drummond will surpass them immediately on most mock drafts. His upside is off the charts. His potential is as high as any center prospect to come along in the last five years.

The hype surrounding Drummond is going to be hard to live up to. He can’t worry about his press clippings or any outside manners during what is very likely to be his only year at UConn. His primary focus has to be delivering on everything that Coach Calhoun asks of him. Calhoun has a stellar track record when it comes to getting players ready for the pros, so Drummond needs to make sure to do things the Calhoun way. If he does he’ll be just fine.

While all of the other national title contenders were upset by this news, for college basketball fans out there this is a real treat. Drummond was considering skipping college all together. To be able to see him in a year where the talent level was already so high is going to be terrific.

The date of Drummond’s debut is currently unknown because the Huskies have yet to release their schedule for the upcoming year.

Davies Reinstated: Almost six months after being suspended by BYU for violating their honor code by having premarital sex, junior forward Brandon Davies has been reinstated by the program and will be back for the 2011-2012 season.

“I’m excited to be back at BYU and look forward to the future,” Davies said in a statement. “I’m grateful for this opportunity.”

“Our staff and our players are pleased that Brandon has been readmitted for the fall semester,” coach Dave Rose said in the same statement. “We’re excited to have him back on the team, and we look forward to a great season.”

The return of Davies is a big boost for the Cougars, who lost explosive point guard Jimmer Fredette to graduation. Davies will come back as their leading scorer and rebounder with a bigger role waiting for him.

Overshadowed last year by his off the court issues and the incredible season that Fredette had, few people understand just how good Davies is. He was the unsung hero of last year’s team who did a lot of the little things to help them be so successful. Any other program in the country would have loved him on their team, but Davies stayed loyal to BYU despite the circumstances.

Getting Davies back was critical for BYU as they enter their first year of play in the WCC. They wouldn’t have been able to compete with the likes of St. Mary’s and Gonzaga without him.

Gardner Dismissed: While Mississippi State head coach Rick Stansbury may have a ton of patience when it comes to sophomore forward Renardo Sidney, he apparently has close to none when it comes to Twitter. Last year he banned his players from using the social networking site and this week he dismissed freshman J.D. Gardner, who went to Twitter to voice his frustration over being redshirted this year.

Gardner’s tweets didn’t stay up for long, but the fact that they were put out there period was enough to anger Stansbury to the point where he was willing to cut him. Gardner was apparently caught off guard by being redshirted, thinking that he was going to be a major part of the rotation.

Understanding that they’re under a serious microscope, the Bulldogs should be very careful with what they tweet. But after this incident with Gardner, chances are that the twitter ban gets put back in place anyway.

Yannis Koutroupis is a senior NCAA and NBA analyst for HOOPSWORLD. You can follow him on twitter.

Article source: http://www.hoopsworld.com/nba-draft-2012-a-new-1/

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Hurricane Irene Gets a Twitter Handle

When Irene Tien started her Twitter account in 2006, she probably never predicted that the account would become the face of a natural disaster.

Hurricane Irene Bumps Up Ratings, Web Traffic for The Weather ChannelHurricane Irene: FEMA Urges People to Tweet, Facebook

But that’s exactly what happened when Hurricane Irene started heading toward the East Coast. Tien, who is 28-year-old New Yorker, started getting replies on Twitter as if she were the actual hurricane.

“Btw, tweeting @irene doesn’t deliver any messages to the hurricane. Sorry,” she wrote in reply.

However, Tien’s co-workers at the digital-media firm Huge, Inc., felt that there was an opportunity to do more with this sudden communication connection. They convinced her to hand over her Twitter for the next few days so that the account could actually become the storm. While many of the comments are funny, there are plenty of pieces of safety information also sent out through the account.

Hurricane Irene: All Broadway Performances Canceled This Weekend

Tien does not do any of the tweeting herself, leaving it up to her colleagues, Ross Morrison, who is Huge Inc.’s Associate Creative Director and Bjorn Larsen, a copywriter at the company. The duo is holed up in an apartment in Brooklyn for the storm.

“We’ve been trying to balance the humor with appropriate information. A lot of people were trying to engage the account for information. It was a responsibility that shouldn’t be taken lightly,” Sam Weston, Huge, Inc.’s Director, Communications told The Hollywood Reporter.

The first Tweet from Hurricane Irene came on August 26: “Hey, so… this is Irene. The hurricane.”

Hurricane Irene Prompts New York Times to Drop Pay Wall

Now, as the real Hurricane Irene travels up the coast from North Carolina, making its way into New England, Irene has more than 9,500 followers, and sends out a balance of funny and serious messages. Officials, such as a rep from FEMA, have also contacted the account about spreading the word about safety measures for this weekend.

Hurricane Irene: News Channels Airing Live Coverage From East Coast

“500,000 w/o electricity right now? Can’t verify this because none of them are tweeting,” she wrote on Saturday.

“Everybody get somewhere safe, get your rest and try to stay dry,” she also tweeted. 

Other gems from the Hurricane Irene writer have included:

“Jets vs. Giants preseason game moved to Monday? I was hoping to make it! Mark Sanchez is so dreamy!”

“I may not always be entirely serious… or cirrus … or even cumulonimbus… but I’ll try to keep it helpful.”

“Cape Lookout, NC doesn’t look anything like the brochure my travel agent gave me but still a very charming town.”

What will happen to the account once the storm has passed? Weston says they will return it to its rightful owner, Irene Tien.

Article source: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hurricane-irene-gets-a-twitter-228569

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Social media showing signs of value in times of trouble

Some of the most popular chatter Friday on the social media website Twitter came via a trending topic called “Ghetto Hurricane Names” and the inane -though sometimes witty – observations that people shared about the impending storm.

Someone shared a photo of a shark swimming a flooded street in Puerto Rico and there was a popular in-state joke about Irene being downgraded because Gov. Dannel P. Malloy threatened a layoff if she didn’t cut back.

But the website, in which users post comments of 140 characters or less, also contained valuable storm information. Emergency management agencies and towns provided storm tips and information on shelters, evacuation orders, the latest forecast or links to additional information.

And when Irene hits, the site, along with Facebook and others, will be a destination – for people seeking information, for others to broadcast a well-being update to family and friends, and, possibly, as a way to combat boredom.

The use of social media during natural disasters has surged in the past couple of years, from its being used as a forum to raise money for relief in Haiti or as a broadcast tool in Japan or Chile. But its effectiveness and the ways it is used are still raw.

“It’s sort of untested on a regular basis,” said Phillip Simon, director of the Master of Science Interactive Communications program at Quinnipiac University, “especially in this country, because how often do we have days to ponder a potential major disaster?”

These days, Simon said, the media hype is compounded by the posts of individuals who spread their own information and ideas. He suggested searching the hashtag Irene – a hashtag being a highlighted search term on Twitter designated by the # symbol – to see what people were saying and how much of it was extraneous to actual information.

“The question is, how do you filter through anything that’s meaningful or not?” he said. “There’s no sort of emergency broadcast tweet, if you think about it.”

There may not be one go-to source, but the stream of information and chatter doesn’t have to be overwhelming, either. Pick some trusted sources and stick to the reports coming from them, advises Paul Shipman, spokesman for the American Red Cross in Connecticut. They could be local news outlets, emergency response or law enforcement agencies and the like. And it may sound obvious, but beware any posts about catastrophes that originate from sources you are not familiar with.

In turn, more people expect those agencies to respond to them during crises via social media. In an online survey of 1,058 people conducted late last month, the American Red Cross reported that 69 percent of people surveyed said they agree with the statement that emergency response agencies should regularly monitor their websites and social media sites so they can respond promptly to any requests for help posted there.

Half said they agree that, because the request for help is posted to the social media site of an emergency response organization, the organization is probably already acting on this request; then again, 44 percent agreed with a statement that said the organization probably knew nothing about the request.

Also in the survey, 86 percent of people said they would use Facebook to post information about their safety.

Whether Facebook, Twitter or the old-fashioned phone call, people should include a communication plan in their storm preparations, Shipman said. The idea is to let others know how you intend to send word on your well-being.

A text is considered a particularly efficient means to communicate, as it uses less bandwidth than a phone call and, potentially, could get through when a phone call cannot.

“The time may be coming soon for people who say, ‘I don’t text, that’s for kids.’ That time may be passing,” Shipman said. “If you have a phone with that capability, I think it’s something you might want to use.”

Power problem

Shipman and Simon reminded people to be mindful of a potentially lengthy power outage.

Simon suggested letting family and friends know you’ll be turning the phone off. Tell them what time you’ll have the phone turned back on so they won’t worry if they haven’t heard from you and so they have a designated time to check in.

With the power out, so goes the ability for many people to go online. Shipman cautions against using a smartphone too much in that situation. Charge your phones before the storm gets bad, he said, and don’t leave them on. Then entertain yourselves with things like board games or a game of cards instead.

“This is when the phone has to become not a diversion but a means of important communication,” Shipman said. “It’s one of those things where I think people have gotten very comfortable using them as a diversionary tactic: in line, waiting for an appointment, checking emails, surfing the web. … You don’t want to do that if you don’t know when you’re going to have the next opportunity to charge the phone up.”

Simon said he’s interested to see what happens after the storm hits, to monitor the tweets that people send and to see where they came from. During and after this week’s earthquake in Virginia, for example, social media outlets like Twitter provided the fastest source of information on where the tremors were felt and where the damage was.

Simon said it’s important to remember that the most chatter doesn’t necessarily represent an area that’s among the hardest hit.

“If power is disrupted, people are not going to be able to tweet, use Facebook. … It’s not going to be as reliable to measure how people are doing and how they’re faring,” he said, adding that, even for those people with smartphones, “within a day and a half, those will be dead.”

“People on the fringe aren’t as affected and (will be) tweeting left and right,” he said, “but the people in the middle of it, their phones are not going to be able to work for days.”

Simon shrugged off the idea that many people are addicted to sites like Facebook and Twitter and would clamor to use them even in the aftermath of a natural disaster.

“Put it this way: If you’re without power and can’t cook, can’t open the fridge” or are on a septic system and facing those issues, “I can’t imagine that your obsession with being on Facebook or Twitter will be overwhelming … someone’s going to be more desperate to find running water,” he said.

As for news, even the social media expert recommended a seemingly quaint solution: “The bottom line is, even in the age of social media and the Internet, it all runs on power,” said Simon. “A transistor radio is the best thing to have because they could always tune into a radio station.”

k.crompton@theday.com

Article source: http://www.theday.com/article/20110828/NWS01/308289911/-1/NWS

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‘Racist’ Facebook photo condemned

Associated Press

Related Stories

• Race not issue with Facebook pic – cops
• ‘Terrorblanche’ wanted by Hawks

The picture on Facebook in which a white man poses with a rifle over an apparently lifeless body of a black child is “sick and horrifying” and should be denounced by every forward-thinking South African, the Independent Democrats said on Sunday.

“Whenever we see or experience racism of any form, as a society we should all condemn it in the strongest possible terms. If we fail to do so, we will simply allow this kind of ‘sick’ behaviour to permeate and grow in our society,” said ID secretary general Haniff Hoosen.

The image, published in the Sunday Times, is on the profile of a user called, “Eugene Terrorblanche”, a play on the name of the murdered Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) leader.

“Terrorblanche” had 583 “friends” on the social networking site by Sunday, seven less than on Saturday.

On his profile, he listed knifes, firearms and weapons as his interests, and self-defence, close combat fighting, weapons training and shooting as his activities.

“To some extent, this image represents the deep hatred that some sections of our society still harbour towards other races.

“Fortunately, this is in the minority as the large majority of South Africans have embraced the vision of a united South Africa that we have all fought for,” Hoosen said in a statement.

This behaviour should be condemned and ensure all forms of racism were reported.

The ID called on any person with information to contact the authorities.

The Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said the party was “horrified by the picture”.

“Whether or not the picture is genuine, it represents a scene of extreme violence perpetrated against a child by a man. The intention is to evoke racial hatred and polarisation,” she said in a statement.

Earlier on Sunday the police ministry warned that there should not be a racial connection made to the picture.

“Even if the child was white, or the man was black… once you narrow it down to a racial aspect it becomes problematic. Murder is murder,” Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa’s spokesman Zweli Mnisi said.

Mthethwa had ordered an immediate investigation and called on the man on the picture – or anyone who knows him – to come forward to assist in the probe.

It was early in the investigation, but if the picture was authentic the responsible person must be prosecuted, he said. There must also be another person involved, as someone took the photograph.

If the picture turned out to be digitally manipulated it was inciting violence and there were connections to violence, Mnisi explained.

Everyone partly responsible in the posting of the picture, or whoever created the profile and those who have seen it but failed to report it could face prosecution.

“There are so many questions that need to be answered.”

The ministry first became aware of the picture on Saturday when they were approached for comment by the Sunday Times, Mnisi said.

“From us as police we see this as shocking,” Mnisi said.

Child advocacy groups said the production and dissemination of the picture violated several laws. – Sapa

Article source: http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/racist-facebook-photo-condemned-1.1126384

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