misunderestimation

YouTube.com has become one of the biggest Internet success stories ever. What started in February 2005 has grown into a 100-million visits per day site. It seems everyone loves video. Now, YouTube is taking things to another level:

On Thursday, [YouTube] declared its intention to become a mainstream entertainment player, announcing plans to post on its site a copy of every single music video ever made. Like the rest of its content, they would be free to view and download. It is that innovation that net watchers say could threaten Apple’s iTunes service, which charges users to download videos.

Every single video EVER made? The scope of that statement is hard to imagine. All the bands who have produced videos; from mainstream acts to garage hacks. They do think BIG at YouTube.

We have seen the music industry go nuts in the past over downloading songs. What do they think about music videos?

Music executives have asked YouTube, founded in February 2005, to police its Web site for unauthorized use of copyrighted music and videos in users’ homemade videos. The music companies have also asked YouTube to pay licensing fees for any copyrighted content.

“We have sent notices to YouTube,” the Recording Industry Association of America said in a statement.

“We look forward to working together with YouTube and similar sites to find the best solution for these sites to fulfill their legal responsibility to protect copyrighted material.”

It would appear the RIAA has learned from their past mistakes. It’s about time the RIAA starting to realizing the market-place has changed. We don’t want our MTV anymore, we want our videos wherever we are and we want them now. YouTube has proven that.

Others blogging:

• YouTube’s going to publish music videos
• YouTube to Host Music Videos, Every, Single, One!
• New features for YouTube
• YouTube vs iTunes
• YouTube Plans on Music Video Distribution

More misunderestimation

Yes, you read that right, there are fantasy fishing leagues.

Not only has professional fishing grown so spectacularly that last year’s leading money winner earned $547,000, but popular “fantasy fishing” leagues, resembling fantasy baseball and football, employ elaborate statistical breakdowns of fishing tournaments to help players pick winners, according to a July Wall Street Journal report.

“Average weight per fish (caught) over careers,” “margin of victory (in pounds),” and other data points are plotted by players, along with weather reports, depth and temperature of tournament lakes, and intangibles such as “home-lake curse.” The organization FLW Outdoors estimates 40,000 fantasy players, many of whom have never actually fished.

This is clearly another sign of the apocalypse. People are sitting around computer screens feverishly researching water temperatures and combing the fly-cast injury reports!

And like those in other fantasy pursuits, the Fantasy Fishing folks research, troll over stats, watch the meets, obsess, obsess more and then hope and pray they’ve picked the right team.

I guess I just don’t get it:

Despite the surging fan and corporate interest, many in the pro-fishing industry believe it remains misunderstood. “People think of fishing as a guy with a six-pack of beer,” says Irwin Jacobs, owner of FLW and chairman of Genmar Holdings Inc., a large motor-boat manufacturer. Fantasy fishing, with its focus on elite anglers and statistics, is one of the ways tournament organizers and their backers hope to deepen fan involvement.

I still don’t see the attraction. My brother participates in what could be considered minor-league fishing and I get all the involvement I need in about 2 minutes of talking to him. Clearly, I’m missing something.

Check out these blogs:

• Sports Fantasy Fishing
• FLW Makes the Front Page of the Wall Street Journal
• Fantasy Fishing
• Hooked on a Fantasy
• Teach A Man To Fish… And He Will Bore Others On ESPN All Day Long

More misunderestimation

Now there is scientific evidence that watching TV actually makes you numb:

Researchers confirmed the distracting power of television — something parents have long known — when they found that children watching cartoons suffered less pain from a hypodermic needle than kids not watching TV.

Especially disturbing to the author of the scientific study was that the cartoons were even more comforting than Mom.

While it’s good to have a powerful distraction for children getting painful medical procedures, it is also troubling “because we have demonstrated the excessive power of television,” said chief author, Carlo Bellieni, a father of three and a neonatologist and pediatrician at the University of Siena in Italy.

Who needs pain killers when you have Spongebob? The numbing power of TV should be a lesson to us all.

More misunderestimation

Remember JonBenet Ramsey; the cute little 6-year-old who was killed in the mid 90s and everyone figured it was her parents. Well, there has been a stunning break in the case:

The American suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey murder case said publicly today he was with the 6-year-old when she died and called her death “an accident,” a stunning admission that will help answer 10 years of questions in the unsolved murder case.

“I was with JonBenet when she died,” John Mark Karr told reporters in Bangkok, Thailand, visibly nervous and stuttering as he spoke. “Her death was an accident.”

OK, this is one scary-looking guy. The arrest comes too late for Patsy Ramsey:

John Mark Karr’s arrest comes less than two months after the death by cancer of JonBenet’s mother, Patsy Ramsey, who never fully escaped an “umbrella of suspicion.” If the arrest holds up, it could end an anguishing mystery that has left law-enforcement careers in ruins and many lives forever marked.

Sources close to the investigation said Karr had confessed to parts of the crime unknown to the public.

What an amazing turn of events.

8/18 Update

Many are beginning to question if Karr is actually guilty:

casting doubt on Karr’s story, his ex-wife Lara told KGO-TV in San Francisco that he was with her in Alabama the entire Christmas season that year and did not believe he could have been involved in JonBenet’s murder.

This story continues to reach new levels of weird.

Others blogging:

• JonBenet Tribute Video
• Pretty Strange Coincidence or Psychic Vision?
• Astrological Musings: The death of Jonbenet Ramsey
• LET’S NOT START CELEBRATING JUST YET…
• People out there are just Crazy

More misunderestimation

The pressure to push kids to perform in youth sports is starting to take a toll:

The 12-year-old [E.J.] Strehlow tore a ligament in his right elbow last year, a condition that his father Ernie Strehlow said occurred from throwing too much at a young age.

“It caught up with him. A young arm,” said the elder Strehlow, a Little League administrator from Orangevale, Calif.

Before he was hurt, E.J. was throwing about six innings a week. He didn’t need surgery, but a doctor ordered him to stay off the mound for three months.

The problem of serious injuries to kids is compounded by the proliferation of baseball leagues and the level of competition:

A big part of the problem today, Fleisig said, is that more kids — especially the more talented pitchers — are playing in more than one league at the same time. A generation ago, most kids just played Little League.

Today there are other all-star and traveling teams that often share players. Managers may not keep track of what a good pitcher might be doing in another league, Fleisig said.

This problem is everywhere. In Houston, a baseball Mecca, you can play in your local league, neighboring leagues, Baseball USA, and even play for multiple teams within some leagues. All of this leads to a lack of oversight for the well-being of the player. Factor in parents who see their kid’s talents as a ticket to “The Show” and all the spoils, and you have a problem.

I’ve been involved with youth sports teams for the past 8 years and have noticed an increasing disregard for the kids involved. Time after time, I’ve seen examples of parents who forget the most basic element of sports, playing is fun. Remember, “for the love of the game?”

Here is a typical pattern for parents. At age 9, you find out your child can pitch so, bring on the private pitching lessons. Your pitching coach says little “Roger” needs to be careful, but you figure there is no such thing as too much practice. Next, you realize the key to the magical inner-sanctum of baseball is determined by the number of letters in the teams division; A is not so good, AA is better, and AAA is really good. If your lucky, you can even find a Majors level and that is obviously the best.

Then it happens, little Roger wants try football or (gasp!) soccer. Now it’s time to hunt down and destroy the guilty party who planted that seed in your Major League dreams. “Sorry Roger, you have to concentrate on your baseball if you want to be the best you can be.” That means baseball in the spring, summer, fall, and winter for those of us lucky enough to live where that type of activity can be occur in the winter.

After going year-round, it’s time to add multiple teams. You have your “league” team, but want to add a “tournament” team or two to give you the opportunity to really expose your little Roger to even more baseball. At this point, parents really start opening-up the checkbook for travel expenses, team uniforms, $400 bats, matching parents uniforms, team banners, charter planes, etc. The more you invest, the deeper you get, and the longer it must continue.

The Eagles were right, “You can check-out anytime you like, but you can never leave.”

After 4 or 5 years of this, little Roger suffers a torn rotator cuff and his career is over or he finally takes the $400 bat and “explains” to his parents that baseball has become a drag and he wants to stop playing. Either way, little Roger finally gets what he truly wants, a chance to be a kid.

Others blogging:

• Pitch Counts: Who’s Really Counting?
• Too many pitches, not enough pitchers
• How much is too much in youth sports?

More misunderestimation

Lately MySpace and other social networking sites have been taking it on the chin. Now, one positive example of the power of MySpace can be found:

Lissette Feliciano says she used MySpace to help identify a group of girls that beat her daughter in a park this week, taking her cell phone and wallet in the process. Bryanna Feliciano, a 14-year-old from Manchester, New Hampshire, says she was walking by a busy park in the area when nine girls attacked her, kicking her in the back and punching her in the face.

This heads-up mother decided to use MySpace to find her daughter’s attackers:

“As soon as we plugged it in one girl, all the girls showed up as best friends,” Feliciano said. “They had pictures of themselves — everything. They put it right out there.”

The woman printed out the photos and names of the girls and contacted the police.

I can’t decide if this is an example of a quick-thinking mother who used all the tools she could to find the guilty parties or is just another example of how dumb people who commit crimes can be. The only thing dumber would have been to video the entire thing and share it on YouTube.

Either way, take this as a reminder that it’s not the web site that is the problem, it’s the people who use it.

Others blogging:

• Manchester Mom tracks down daughter’s attackers
• Police Using Myspace To Catch Criminals
• Cops catch public urinator through Facebook

More misunderestimation

Just in time for back-to-school, Dell brings you their latest line; The Exploding Laptop! Don’t miss the chance to dazzle your friends with this hot little item.

Talk about a multimedia experience! You will never experience more realistic graphics than Dell’s patented 12 inch flame burst. Hurry, supplies are limited!

News stories:

• Exploding laptops prompt Dell battery recall
• Fire-Risky Batteries Part of Daily Life
• Dell Recalls Flaming Batteries
• Dell’s Battery Recall: How Bad Is the Danger?

Others blogging:

• Houston Chronicle Tech Blog
• Flame On
• Dell: Only batteries with Sony cells are affected
• I fell in to a burnin’ ring of fire
• Phew, I’m safe!
• Wow! That’s a hot laptop

More misunderestimation

NASA is learninig from its past:

Snoddy, a manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, has been removing valves and other parts from Apollo exhibits as he oversees construction of the upper-stage engine on the new moon rocket, dubbed Ares 1. Some of the pieces and accompanying documentation are not available anywhere but museums, he said.

The move makes sense: The new engine Snoddy is working on, a J-2X, is an updated version of the J-2 engine that powered the third stage of the 363-foot Saturn V rocket during Apollo.

You know, it nice to see NASA learning from their past successes. I can only imagine where the space program would be had they continued to develop the Apollo platform in the 80s instead of today.

More misunderestimation

School districts are facing a problem; filling classrooms with teachers. One logical solution to this problem would be to work hard and retain the valued services of experienced, district-trained teachers. These are teachers who have been indoctrinated to district methodologies as well as the policies and procedures. What is the cost of not retaining your employees?

As most HR managers know, the cost of turnover adds hundreds of thousands of dollars to a company’s expenses. While it is difficult to fully calculate the cost of turnover (including hiring costs, training costs, productivity loss), industry experts often quote 25% of the average employee salary as a conservative estimate. For example, if the average salary is $20,000/yr the cost of one employee turnover is $5,000.

In school districts, 25% of $41,000 is $10,250 per teacher. Business has learned this lesson and it makes logical sense to apply the same principle to schools. Right?!?

Wrong. Take a look at some example salary schedules of local Houston school districts and their salary schedules according to their own web sites:

In these 5 districts, starting teachers average $40,754. Not a bad start to a profession. However, after 10 years of experience, the average salary has only gone up to $45,227. That means after 10 years, teachers can look forward to a service pin and a whopping $4,473 raise over their un-experienced colleagues. On top of that, these teachers are expected to mentor the younger teachers; after all, they are just learning the job.

Most offensive is Spring Branch ISD where a teacher with 6 years of experience earns $707 more than their unexperienced peers. Why on earth would someone want to stay with a district that so clearly is looking only for new employees?

Note to Spring Branch parents: What type of teacher would you rather have teaching your children, brand new or exprienced. Remember that at the next board/bond election.

Why are districts having problems holding on to teachers? Try valuing your resources and realizing that service can and should be rewarded.

Local school district salary schedules:

• Spring Branch ISD
• Katy ISD
• HISD
• Cy-Fair ISD
• Fort Bend ISD

More misunderestimation

A study conducted by the Appleseed Foundation is showing that the cost of being the most neighborly city in the world is starting to mount.

Houston took in 150,000 evacuees — the most of any U.S. city — after Katrina struck on Aug. 29. Houston police believe the evacuees are partly responsible for a nearly 17.5 percent increase in homicides so far this year over the same period in 2005.

About 21 percent of Houston’s 232 homicides through July 25 involved an evacuee as either a suspect or a victim, according to police, who attribute much of the bloodshed to fighting among rival New Orleans gang members.

Why is this such a problem for Houston? The Houston Chronicle explains:

Houston had more evacuees, most of them people who couldn’t get out of New Orleans and had to be rescued after the storm hit. The city received a lot of New Orleans’ poor who did not have the resources to evacuate on their own, and many arrived with little more than the clothes they were wearing. Many were also physically or mentally ill.

I remember driving down to the Astrodome the morning after all the victims came to Houston. I, like many of my fellow Houstonians, loaded the car with supplies, waited in line for the throngs of donors, deposited my goods in the astonishing assortment of materials, and spent a few minutes talking with the victims before driving home. Seeing those faces; the shattered looks and hopelessness will stay with me forever and made me incredibly proud of my city. Houston was extending a hand to our neighbors in need and literally giving the shirt off our backs to help out.

At the time, people outside of Houston asked me why we did it. Why did we open our hearts and even homes to complete strangers? Frankly, I couldn’t imagine any other way.

Now, Houston is paying the price and some tough choices are facing our city. What do we do with the growing crime rate? What do we do if we are presented with this choice again? What is the true cost of being neighborly in today’s world? We’ve been removed from consideration (again) for the Olympics in 2016, we continue to be the butt of jokes:

You Know You’re From Houston When…The name “Bud Adams” makes people snarl, and “Bum Phillips” doesn’t mean a bad screwdriver.

and we will never live down, “Houston, we have a problem.”

What do we do as a community? How can the best of intentions turn out this badly? I guess it is actually true, we do have a problem.

Others blogging:

• The Cost of Katrina Crime
• Hurricane Katrina victims are being blamed for the increase in Houston’s crime rate
• houston crime rate up after welcoming 150,000 new orleans evacuees
• Giving
• Katrina victims blamed for Houston crime (AP)
• Katrina victims blamed for Houston crime…again

More misunderestimation