Detroit: What it's like to live in the most famous bankrupt city in America (BLOG)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_T5lf6ueUxANo2Kd6HBKaG9I2I9wGaAx2WxZ-D-7YE5ZlBLGwMp8FKA5yWpO5xQ0IwslCzhx6pCLMVwgZyoSbyair-Neu30RkBXmTsipmO4gfXq3HTRQ_3k01tsMfITU3tf6y3DLDkA/s1600/1111.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9_T5lf6ueUxANo2Kd6HBKaG9I2I9wGaAx2WxZ-D-7YE5ZlBLGwMp8FKA5yWpO5xQ0IwslCzhx6pCLMVwgZyoSbyair-Neu30RkBXmTsipmO4gfXq3HTRQ_3k01tsMfITU3tf6y3DLDkA/s1600/1111.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_3107" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">DETROIT — Ora Williams has lived in her home in the Brightmoor section of Detroit for more than 35 years, and over those decades, she’s seen what was once a thriving middle class neighborhood sink into what many regard as the wasteland of the city.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_3125" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Crime and economic turmoil drove many residents away. Their homes, left to decay, became epicenters for murders and drug deals. The overgrown trees and brush became illegal dumping grounds for everything from old boats to dead bodies. Neighbors pleaded with city officials to do something, anything, but the government, broke and famously dysfunctional, offered little help.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_3135" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But Williams, a retired caseworker for the state Department of Human Services, refused to give up on Brightmoor — even as many around her packed their bags and looked for more stable ground. Her endurance is slowly paying off.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_3145" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Over the past two years, private foundations have come in to help Brightmoor, setting up a community action group to help revitalize and rebuild. The Detroit Blight Authority, a nonprofit that demolishes abandoned homes and cleans up empty lots, cleared out 14 blocks of decay in the neighborhood last summer and plans to tackle another 35 blocks this year.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But the initial work has already transformed the neighborhood — making the streets a little safer and energizing residents who had never given up on the idea that Brightmoor could bounce back, even if it’s getting little help from the city government.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Williams is the first to acknowledge that Brightmoor has a long way to go, and she admits the transformation will be arduous and could take many, many years. But she refuses to walk away, even if it would be easier to live someplace else.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“This is my home,” Williams said. “This is where I raised my kids. … Besides, if everybody decides to run, you don’t have a community anymore. They beat you at your own game. It’s about stick and stay, and believing in what can be.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Williams is not alone in her hopefulness and her resilience. Her words could be a mantra for the other estimated 700,000 residents of Detroit who are a testament for survival and strength in a city that has struggled for decades and is now in the midst of the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But what is it really like to live and work in the most famous bankrupt city in America?</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The headlines about Detroit are constantly doom and gloom — and for good reason. The city has major problems. Its long-term debts are at least $18 billion and growing. The infant mortality rate <a data-rapid_p="10" href="http://www.detroitnews.com/article/20140130/LIFESTYLE03/301300005" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">rivals that in developing countries.</a> Unemployment is at 11 percent. City Hall, long mired in corruption scandals, is now under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager. Municipal services, which had already been lacking for years, have been cut to the bone. Retired city workers are worried about losing their pensions. Half of the city’s 88,000 streetlights don’t work. Roads go largely unplowed during snowstorms. The police reportedly take in upwards of an hour to respond to even the most serious of crimes. And the list goes on and on.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Today, Detroit’s iconic image is almost always a picture of one of its estimated 78,000 empty buildings, which have become an odd tourist attraction. The “ruins,” as they are described, are a striking monument to what the Motor City used to be.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But just as there is blight in virtually every corner of the city, there is also hope and glimmers of new life. It’s an odd dichotomy for a city that many have written off as dead.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In Midtown, just blocks from the boarded up mansions of historic Brush Park, there is a new Whole Foods store — the first new grocery store to open in the inner city in decades. A few miles away in downtown, all the tables at Roast, a restaurant owned by Food Network chef Michael Symon inside the renovated Westin Book Cadillac hotel, are perpetually booked and not just by visitors to the city.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">At the bar on a recent Wednesday, a frantic server paused and laughed. “What bankruptcy?” he said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">And that’s what locals say the world doesn’t get about Detroit: that life here goes on, fueled in part by the strength of residents who believe very strongly that the city will come back. And many are working to make it happen in both big and little ways.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In downtown Detroit, Dan Gilbert, the founder and chairman of Quicken Loans, has purchased several buildings and relocated his 10,000 employees into what was vacant office space in hopes of reviving the city’s urban core. He’s hoping to create a Silicon Valley of the Midwest by helping lure startups to Detroit with grants and other assistance.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">And all over town, small businesses are starting to pop up, founded by a younger generation of entrepreneurs who have descended on the city to take advantage of what locals say is an atmosphere friendly to people who want to test out business ideas with nothing to lose.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“Things are sparking here in spite of the financial challenges of the municipality itself,” said Sandy K. Unruh, president of the Detroit Regional Chamber, who is pitching the city as a comeback story in hopes of wooing potential investors.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Over the last year, companies that make bicycles, handmade jeans and luxury watches have launched in Detroit. At the same time, the city’s bar and restaurant scene is booming — aided largely by Detroit natives who came back to the city because they wanted to build something in their hometown.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“If you are someone who wants to build something, to do something of your own, Detroit is really cool because you can do that right now,” said Amanda Brewington, who opened Always Brewing Detroit, a coffee shop and community space last year.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Brewington, a native of the Detroit suburbs, had been working as a music supervisor in Lansing, but she had dreamed of opening a business in Detroit for years — in spite of the city’s struggles. “This place has always been magical to me,” she said. “People are different here. There is a lot of pride in the city and a ‘do it yourself’ mentality that you don’t find in other places.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Her parents were supportive but worried. “Detroit? Are you sure you want to do this?” her mother asked.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Brewington, who is 28, scouted locations all over the city and settled on a spot along a gritty stretch on Grand River Avenue in the Rosedale neighborhood of Northwest Detroit — not far from Brightmoor — because she wanted to be a part of a community of people willing to stay and live in Detroit even in the tough times.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“They don’t show them on the news or talk about them when they mention the bankruptcy, but there are people who live here, who work and have a house and have kids and dog and are normal people who are making it,” Brewington said. “Sometimes I think it takes a tougher person to do that because why would you choose to live in a place that isn’t exactly easy or workable to live in? But that’s the thing about Detroiters. They are the people who make it work and help each other and do what needs to be done.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Many Detroiters liken that resilient mentality to the psychology passed down from auto workers who toiled on the assembly lines to build fleets of cars — a technology that was invented in Detroit back in 1913 during the city’s industrial boom.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“The auto industry really shaped the consciousness that we are all in this together,” said Mary Byrnes, a Detroit native who is a sociology professor at Marygrove College. “Everyone has to work at the same pace, and we are all interdependent with one another. That hasn’t gone away. We depend on each other.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In her neighborhood in Southwest Detroit, there is little indication of a city under financial duress. The local pub is packed, and new businesses are opening. But she acknowledged that as tough as Detroiters are, there is underlying concern about what the future holds for the city as it tries to navigate its way through bankruptcy.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“On a day to day basis, you don’t feel it. Nothing has changed,” Byrnes said. “But I think people would be lying if they said they weren’t worried about what is happening to our city and the things we love and cherish.”</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_3154" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But, she added, “I am not only worried for us in Detroit, I am worried for other cities because we are the blueprint for how this is going to go down in other cities. We aren’t the only ones who have problems.”</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_3169" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But like Williams and others, she wouldn’t dream of living anywhere else.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_3179" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“We know what bad times are like, and we push through them,” Brynes said. “That’s the strength of Detroit.”</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_3179" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><br /></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_3179" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Yahoo</div>

Detroit: What it's like to live in the most famous bankrupt city in America (BLOG)

DETROIT — Ora Williams has lived in her home in the Brightmoor section of Detroit for more than 35 years, and over those decades, she’s seen...

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Bringing up baby: A tour of baby panda Bao Bao’s crib at the National Zoo (BLOG)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHSM6uFhASa7qA1VqcMy7UIlZN4FrMRw8BcNY3fWMKWYvGf93wdSAy1l8L9IRniJ-n-dzfkW9PUozYikwfsid9GEE9i3FUfbY_vZka3BG9318vB-aRJx0izhMWoGJIvgSZQ8Wvj9OGYmc/s1600/00.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHSM6uFhASa7qA1VqcMy7UIlZN4FrMRw8BcNY3fWMKWYvGf93wdSAy1l8L9IRniJ-n-dzfkW9PUozYikwfsid9GEE9i3FUfbY_vZka3BG9318vB-aRJx0izhMWoGJIvgSZQ8Wvj9OGYmc/s1600/00.jpg" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_9198" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">It’s “panda-monium” at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., where a baby giant panda, Bao Bao, has recently made her debut to the ooh’s and aah’s of the admiring public.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_9210" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">And in this special episode of “Power Players,” we go behind the scenes at the zoo for an exclusive play date with Bao Bao, a furry 5-month-old cub. Bao Bao’s keepers, Marty Dearie and Juan Rodriguez, led the cub in her daily training session, called “targeting,” during which they reward her for completing certain desired behaviors, such as touching her nose to a ball.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_9220" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“The purpose of the targeting is to start building new behaviors,” Dearie said. “So think about it, if you get her to touch her nose to a ball, well what if I want her to stand up? Well now I just move the target up a little higher, she has to stand up to it, and eventually you can take the target out and you can get her to stand up on her own without using it.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Though Bao Bao currently has a limited grasp of the targeted skills – choosing to wander off to explore rather than obey on most occasions—Dearie and Rodriguez said her performance will improve in the coming months as she is weaned from her mother’s milk.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“By the time she starts kind of consuming more solids, then we can start building a lot more behaviors,” said Dearie, explaining that adult pandas are very responsive to food-based rewards, such as pear pieces, cooked sweet potato and apples.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Bao Bao’s learning will also hasten once she becomes more active, Dearie said. The cub currently sleeps for at least 20 hours out of the day.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“Most of the energy she's taking from mom's milk is going to make her get bigger,” he said. “She was born at 4.8 ounces. Now, she weighs over 20 pounds.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The animal keepers also introduced us to Bao Bao’s dad, Tian Tian, to demonstrate the progress that Bao Bao is expected to make in the coming months and years over the course of her training. Tian Tian willingly comes into a cage where he places his arm on a platform to have blood drawn and lies on his side when commanded. Tian Tian is promptly rewarded with honey water and fruit pieces upon performing the action.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Tian Tian also lies down on command and will scoot left or right. It looks sweet, amazing even, but Dearie and Rodriguez say the point of the training isn't to enable the bears to perform. All of these behaviors, the same ones they are starting to nurture in Bao Bao, are critical for the bears comfort. Although the bears don't know it, they are working hard to help save their species. They are treated by doctors and examined by experts regularly. And they are comfortable around humans, moving into the right position upon command.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Despite the comfort level between the pandas and their human care takers, these bears are not pets – something Rodriguez said he has to tell himself during those “excruciatingly hard” moments when he wants to cuddle with the baby Bao Bao.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“The main thing you have to keep reminding yourself is these guys are a critically endangered species and as much as you want to cuddle with them, you have to sort of respect the fact that they are endangered and we don't want to make them into pets,” Rodriguez said. “You want to keep their wild instincts intact as much as possible.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Once Bao Bao is fully grown and fully weaned from her mother, Mei Xiang, at the age of four, she will leave the U.S. for China to be part of a breeding program. Dr. Brandie Smith, the senior curator of giant pandas at the National Zoo, said that while Bao Bao will be missed once she’s relocated, it’s for a good cause.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">“It is hard, but we know that we're sending her back to be part of the breeding program and to make more baby pandas,” Smith said. “So, I think a lot parents can relate, from the moment our kids are born we train them to go off and succeed on their own. So, that's what we're doing for Bao Bao.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">For more about the raising of baby pandas, and to get an up close look at Bao Bao for yourself, check out this episode of “Power Players.”</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_9282" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><em id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_9291">ABC News’ Ben Krolowitz, Betsy Klein, Gary Westphalen, Tom D’Annibale, Danny O’Shea, and Gary Rosenberg contributed to this episode.</em></div>

Bringing up baby: A tour of baby panda Bao Bao’s crib at the National Zoo (BLOG)

It’s “panda-monium” at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo in Washington, D.C., where a baby giant panda, Bao Bao, has recently made her debut to...

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Amusingly "Cool" Map of the Day

<b>January 30, 2014</b><br /><a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/01/map-how-much-snow-it-typically-takes-to-cancel-school-in-the-us/283470/">Map: 'How Much Snow It Typically Takes to Cancel School in the U.S.'</a><br /><br /><div style="color: #666666;"><i>Using data "taken from hundreds of various points from user responses...interpolated using NOAA's average annual snowfall days map," Trubetskoy made a map showing how much snow it typically takes to close schools in the U.S. and Canada.</i></div>

Amusingly "Cool" Map of the Day

January 30, 2014 Map: 'How Much Snow It Typically Takes to Cancel School in the U.S.' Using data "taken from hundreds of variou...

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Allure of Rebel Dirt Bike Pack Explored in ’12 O’Clock Boys’ (BLOG)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9tWBaNEKSrsSzI3YpYOkNO_qF7RY44DLUtl2eZH1Kw5zjZ1yJ9iXrHKJgq3-k0R0rjEdqmxU6san9o2E5M6tvA5I4OVZKL-6hDun49W0zSeUih7u3WtGC161de_OqBOXFGXUm4uezHys/s1600/HT_12_oclock_boys_film_sk_140205_16x9_992.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9tWBaNEKSrsSzI3YpYOkNO_qF7RY44DLUtl2eZH1Kw5zjZ1yJ9iXrHKJgq3-k0R0rjEdqmxU6san9o2E5M6tvA5I4OVZKL-6hDun49W0zSeUih7u3WtGC161de_OqBOXFGXUm4uezHys/s1600/HT_12_oclock_boys_film_sk_140205_16x9_992.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4574" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In the blighted neighborhoods of inner city Baltimore, lined with abandoned buildings and broken down cars, the loud, rhythmic, menacing choir of dirt bikes and four-wheelers can be heard cutting through the silence.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4559" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Ranging in age from teenage boys to men in their 30s, the large pack of illegal dirt bike riders race, weave and perform acrobatics at high speeds through the streets with almost celebrity stature. They are known as the 12 O'Clock Boys and people line the sidewalks with their smartphones and iPads to take in their spectacle.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4375" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">To some, the ride together is a street sermon of sorts, a Sunday ritual.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4610" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">To the Baltimore police and to many city residents, the bikers are a public safety hazard, who can seem intimidating as they perform stunts in traffic.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4620" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">But to a 12-year-old boy, who calls West Baltimore home, being a part of this urban dirt-biker pack would be a dream come true. Born Taekwon Ford, friends and family call him “Pug.”</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"When I ride, I feel powerful. I feel like a super hero," Pug said. "It feels like, you know, on top of the world."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The 12 O'Clock Boys' name comes from the group's trademark maneuver: speeding down the street with the front wheel of their bike pointing straight up, like the hands on the clock.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The 12 O'Clock Boys are the subject of a new controversial film by the same name that came out last month. The film explores the attraction and motivation behind the urban dirt biker group through the eyes of Pug and a few older members.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The film follows Pug for three years, from a precocious 12-year-old on the shy side of puberty to an edgy, often angry, teenager, hardened by circumstance. It details Pug's primary aspiration in life, which is to become a 12 O'Clock Boy.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">When asked why, he told "Nightline," "It's fun."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"You're seeing people's faces, they be so excited to see you," he said. "It just be amazing."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The film's director Lotfy Nathan was a college student from Great Britain studying at an art school in Baltimore when he started following the Baltimore dirt biker group as a class project.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The 12 O’Clock Boys have been described as many things -- a fearless pack, a gang, a menace, troublemakers –- but according to Nathan, they are not only “rebels,” but also “mentors” and “children.”</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4528" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"Right outside of [Pug's] door in West Baltimore, there was drug dealers, there's violence all the time. He would see these dealers waving cash in front of them and they seemed like the most successful people on the block," Nathan said. "It's seductive from a young age. So that's why I kind of shy away from calling [the 12 O'Clock Boys] a gang, from calling them menaces. As problematic as it is, it's still kind of lesser of evils."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Nathan said he understands the conflict between the 12 O’Clock Boys and the rest of the city, but he sees how the group can have a positive impact on someone like Pug.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"It's not necessarily the right kind of out, but it is an out for a lot of kids in Baltimore," Nathan said. "It's actually a kind of edification for a lot of kids in Baltimore. It's kind of like Boy Scouts or something in the context of what gangs can really be in Baltimore and what violence can really be and what can be."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">For its size -- Baltimore City as a population of roughly 621,000 -- Baltimore is one of the most violent crime and drug ridden cities in the country. There have been 28 homicides so far this year.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4625" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Pug said he has gotten used to seeing people walking around with guns, and has seen people get shot and stabbed on the street, but he doesn't pay attention to violent gangs.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"You gotta be careful out there, people get shot, sometimes for no reason, just for being at the wrong place at the wrong time," Pug said.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4520" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">To him, the 12 O'Clock Boys are his role models and mentors.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4510" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"They taught me to stay in school, do all my work, pass my classes. They just taught me to focus on school, don't worry about bikes all the time," he said.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4500" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Pug said he wants to be a veterinarian when he grows up. He is bright and ambitious enough, but the road out of these rough Baltimore streets is lined with more obstacles that even the most skilled 12 O'Clock Boy could maneuver.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4490" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"He's a really smart kid, and I think he's pretty resourceful too, so I would hope that he would put it all into school, if he can. That's what I always tried to tell him," Nathan said. But "there's no easy out."</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048736428_4490" style="background-color: white; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px;">VIDEO: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/nightline-fix-abc-news/allure-rebel-dirt-bike-pack-explored-12-o-145430670.html</span></span></div>

Allure of Rebel Dirt Bike Pack Explored in ’12 O’Clock Boys’ (BLOG)

In the blighted neighborhoods of inner city Baltimore, lined with abandoned buildings and broken down cars, the loud, rhythmic, menacing cho...

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A Great Disturbance in the Civilian Labor Force

<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFw5A4eFq0O8a66pEieOKmVN176_LigxL5_JLX4ACnooKnwq_PUz4aVR_Va2M-UogZ1R3xxNOl89c0GzRFcD_NiKy_61kyYbwKC04eNt0aDfiUTPCy9PdhiJ38KdnMwYyInkcxL30K2EI/s1600/Civilian+Labor+Force.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFw5A4eFq0O8a66pEieOKmVN176_LigxL5_JLX4ACnooKnwq_PUz4aVR_Va2M-UogZ1R3xxNOl89c0GzRFcD_NiKy_61kyYbwKC04eNt0aDfiUTPCy9PdhiJ38KdnMwYyInkcxL30K2EI/s320/Civilian+Labor+Force.jpg" /></a><br /><span style="font-size: x-small;">Click to enlarge.</span><br /><br />The blue line (left scale) shows the civilian labor force participation rate of those aged 25 to 54. It peaked in the late 1990s and it has been pretty much going down ever since.<br /><br />The red line (left scale) shows the civilian labor force participation rate of those aged 55 and over. It bottomed in the early 1990s and it has been generally going up ever since (recent flattening notwithstanding).<br /><br />The green line (right scale) shows the civilian labor force participation rate of those aged 25 to 54 divided by the civilian labor force participation rate of those aged 55 and over.<br /><br />In a truly healthy economy, should those aged 25 to 54 really be dropping out of the labor force at faster pace than those aged 55 and over (as seen in that green line since the early 1990s)?<br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="236" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/EZG0fBMT7Tc" width="420"></iframe><br /><br /><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_sucking_sound">Wikipedia: Giant Sucking Sound</a><br /><br /><div style="color: #666666;"><i>The "giant sucking sound" was United States Presidential candidate Ross Perot's colorful phrase for what he believed would be the negative effects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), which he opposed.</i></div><br /><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078748/taglines">In space no one can hear you <strike>scream</strike> suck.</a><br /><br /><b>Source Data:</b><br /><a href="http://research.stlouisfed.org/fred2/graph/?g=rXt">St. Louis Fed: Custom Chart</a>

A Great Disturbance in the Civilian Labor Force

Click to enlarge. The blue line (left scale) shows the civilian labor force participation rate of those aged 25 to 54. It peaked in the late...

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Leonardo DiCaprio: I've "Never Done" Drugs (BLOG)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB1_oap2LKtmGQWcIL6IavFsM2FhOEZl4ct6D45hyphenhyphentzay1t-ZcnTH5xuEucA1gfjE22olnOS5xd-ODD9M9rTwmSota7_qmS-OhDfoQ2W-Ojx7RHKjcww0fXKOR5hdUkPEsGvelGhM9xic/s1600/22.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB1_oap2LKtmGQWcIL6IavFsM2FhOEZl4ct6D45hyphenhyphentzay1t-ZcnTH5xuEucA1gfjE22olnOS5xd-ODD9M9rTwmSota7_qmS-OhDfoQ2W-Ojx7RHKjcww0fXKOR5hdUkPEsGvelGhM9xic/s1600/22.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048530966_3528" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><a data-rapid_p="8" href="http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrities/leonardo-dicaprio" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048530966_3535" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><strong id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048530966_3534">Leonardo DiCaprio</strong></a> is not the <em>Wolf of Wall Street</em>. Sure, he may party on yachts occasionally with beautiful women and be worth millions, but the 39-year-old actor says he really was acting while portraying his character Jordan Belfort's rampant drug use. In a recent interview with the <a data-rapid_p="9" href="http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/moviesnow/la-et-mn-leonardo-dicaprio-20140130,0,611473.story#axzz2sYpIj6Vi" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><em>Los Angeles Times</em></a>, DiCaprio opened up about growing up "very poor," and why it helped him to resist the temptation of drugs in Hollywood.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048530966_3550" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"Never done it," DiCaprio said about drugs. "That's because I saw this stuff literally every day when I was 3 or 4 years old. So Hollywood was a walk in the park for me . . . I'd go to parties and it was there and, yeah, there's that temptation," he admitted.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048530966_3556" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"Hollywood is a very volatile place where artists come in and they essentially say they want to belong. It's incredibly vulnerable to be an actor and also get criticism at a young age when you're formulating who you are," DiCaprio explained. "We've seen a lot of people fall victim to that, and it's very unfortunate."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><a data-rapid_p="10" href="http://www.usmagazine.com/entertainment/pictures/leonardo-dicaprios-ladies-2011911/18365" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">PHOTOS: Leonardo DiCaprio's ladies</a></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The actor's parents, George and Irmelin, divorced when he was was very young, and he lived mostly with his mother. Until the age of 9, DiCaprio lived in an L.A. neighborhood near Hollywood Boulevard and Western Avenue. He told the<em> Los Angeles Times </em>that there "used to be a major prostitution ring on my street corner, crime and violence everywhere."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">DiCaprio eventually won a scholarship to University Elementary School, located in a wealthier neighborhood. "It was like this little Garden of Eden," he recalled. "And if I went to play with my friends, I would drive to Beverly Hills and go in their backyard and there'd be a waterfall there. I mean, a waterfall! In the backyard? What the . . ."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">When he had to go back to the public school system, DiCaprio decided to try and become an actor to change his lifestyle.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"That was the motivational thing that happened to me in my life," he explained. "I was 15, and I said to my mom, 'I want to be an actor. Please take me to auditions.' Because I had to get out of that public school system."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">In DiCaprio's opinion, his background makes him more than qualified to discuss the subject of income disparity in America as depicted in the <em>Wolf of Wall Street</em>. "Who am I to talk about this?" the Oscar-nominated actor asked. "It goes back to that neighborhood. It came from the fact that I grew up very poor and I got to see the other side of the spectrum."</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048530966_3581" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">This article originally appeared on Usmagazine.com: <a data-rapid_p="13" href="http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/leonardo-dicaprio-ive-never-done-drugs-201472" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048530966_3586" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Leonardo DiCaprio: I've "Never Done" Drugs</a></div>

Leonardo DiCaprio: I've "Never Done" Drugs (BLOG)

Leonardo DiCaprio  is not the  Wolf of Wall Street . Sure, he may party on yachts occasionally with beautiful women and be worth millions, b...

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We Can't Catch A Break!

The alternate title would be, Oh, the humanity!<br /><br />A major fire broke out yesterday at a Winchester Ammunition plant in East Alton IL.<br /><br />Thankfully I guess, it was in a storage unit and not the main manufacturing plant.<br /><br /><a href="http://gunssavelives.net/gun-industry/video-breaking-fire-at-winchester-ammo-plant/">Video and story here</a>, thanks go to <a href="http://angrymikeshood.blogspot.com/">AngryMike </a>for the heads up.<br /><br />Alternative storage can always be leased and it sucks that they lost a bunch of inventory but thank goodness the actual processing facility escaped damage.

We Can't Catch A Break!

The alternate title would be, Oh, the humanity! A major fire broke out yesterday at a Winchester Ammunition plant in East Alton IL. Thankful...

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How will Marcus Smart's blowup affect his NBA draft stock? (BLOG)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDTgob8Wbkqsf_eTSDctAKSoPz0WmUil1W3vAegqzgoyWMVbNSdOEAjc4dlhZ0kKOts9IQ-5fGuv2Oz5PLrTODCdtG6ICA_YrfuV8iKXCef-SYY5MxhWRHrhPc4r4sp1OZMjxfYYtuTrU/s1600/1.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDTgob8Wbkqsf_eTSDctAKSoPz0WmUil1W3vAegqzgoyWMVbNSdOEAjc4dlhZ0kKOts9IQ-5fGuv2Oz5PLrTODCdtG6ICA_YrfuV8iKXCef-SYY5MxhWRHrhPc4r4sp1OZMjxfYYtuTrU/s1600/1.JPG" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048403838_3787" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Evaluating <a class="yom-entity-link yom-entity-sports_player" data-rapid_p="10" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/players/116604" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Marcus Smart</a>’s draft stock has NBA executives split in the aftermath of the guard’s actions Saturday.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048403838_3811" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><a data-rapid_p="11" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/news/marcus-smart-continues-downward-spiral--shoving-fan-during-oklahoma-state-loss-064154430-ncaab.html" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048403838_3820" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">The Oklahoma State star shoved a vocal Texas Tech fan in the chest</a> with two hands late <a data-rapid_p="12" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/ncaab/oklahoma-state-cowboys-texas-tech-red-raiders-201402080592/" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048403838_3830" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">in a 65-61 road loss on Saturday night</a>. A Texas Tech official told The Oklahoman that as the 19-year-old sophomore was being led to the locker room after the shoving incident, he continuously repeated that the fan called him the "N-word."</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048403838_3841" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">DraftExpress.com currently ranks Smart as the sixth-best prospect in this year's NBA Draft.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048403838_3851" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"His stock is going to take a hit," one NBA general manager told Yahoo Sports. "He has shown in the past few months that he is prone to outbursts. He kicked a chair (against West Virginia). He's under a lot of pressure. The team is not doing well, struggling.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048403838_3861" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"Fans say things in the NBA every day. He has a history of letting people get under his skin. The NBA fans will test him."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Said an NBA assistant general manager: "Unfortunately for Smart, there is going to be a fallout after this. His reputation has taken a hit. That is all people and the media are going to want to talk about with him before and after the draft. Some teams won't want to deal with that."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"><strong>[Related: <a data-rapid_p="13" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/news/black-coaching-legends-think-marcus-smart-should-ve-controlled-his-emotions-212443526-ncaab.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Black coaches give their opinion on Marcus Smart's in-game blowup</a>]</strong></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Other NBA executives told Yahoo Sports that Smart's incident would not affect their feelings about the guard.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"It seems way out of character for him," one NBA general manager said. "I saw the video of that fan in the past. I can only imagine what he said to the kid."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Said another NBA GM: "I hope not. He would get punished for responding to someone calling him the 'N-word'? Wow."<span class="yui-editorial-embed" id="yui_3_0_0-2-1391993335817"><span id="schemaorg"></span></span></div><div class="yom-figure yom-fig-right" style="background-color: white; clear: right; float: right; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin: 0px 0px 20px 20px; max-width: 100%; overflow: hidden; width: 310px;"><img alt="" class="editorial " src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/bSjegn2cxetFUfp8.guV0Q--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTMxMA--/http://l.yimg.com/os/publish-images/sports/2014-02-09/62c029c0-91d1-11e3-b06a-0b4567eea64e_marcussmart800_209getty.jpg" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: inline; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: bottom; visibility: visible !important;" title="Texas Tech fan Jeff Orr's comments set off Marcus Smart. (Getty)" width="310" /><div class="legend" style="background-image: none; color: grey; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; max-width: 100%; padding-right: 5px; padding-top: 5px;">Texas Tech fan Jeff Orr's comments set off Marcus Smart. (Getty)</div></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;"></div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Said another NBA GM: "Marcus Smart just needs to play better. Pushing some [expletive] will not affect his stock."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">One long-time NBA scout said he still likes Smart, is impressed by his athleticism and sees him as a top-five draft prospect. An NBA assistant GM said that he has to hear all the facts before making a determination on Smart and said that his play is hurting him more than the push.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">When asked if the push affects Smart's draft stock, another NBA GM said: "No, it's due to his game."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Smart averaged 17.5 points, 5.7 rebounds and 4.3 assists as a freshman, but decided to return for his sophomore season despite being projected as a top overall pick in last year's draft. While participating in USA Basketball's senior team mini-camp last July, Smart told Yahoo Sports that he would enter the 2014 NBA draft. Smart is averaging 15.4 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists this season.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"He's not a 'can't-miss' talent. He doesn't shoot the ball well enough," one NBA GM said.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Said one NBA assistant GM: "He absolutely should've went to the NBA last year."</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">One NBA GM said Smart is overhyped. The GM added that Connecticut's Shabazz Napier, Missouri's Jordan Clarkson and West Virginia's Juwan Staten are less-heralded guard prospects who are just as good if not better than Smart.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"[Smart is] a pretty good player, a solid player, but there is a lot of hype," the GM said. "But by no means is he a superstar player. He's tough. Not necessarily a point guard or a shooting guard. He's a guard.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">"There are other guards out there just as talented that aren't getting the publicity. He's going to be good, but he is being built up to fail early in his NBA career just like Kansas' Andrew Wiggins is."<br /><br />Oklahoma State coach Travis Ford addressed the incident in a press conference on Sunday night after it was announced that <a data-rapid_p="14" href="http://sports.yahoo.com/news/oklahoma-state-guard-marcus-smart-230524996--spt.html" style="color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; text-decoration: none;">Smart would be suspended three games</a>.<br /><br />"One day the NBA will get an incredible player and an incredible person that has learned a lot of lessons," Ford said.<br /><br /><span class="yui-editorial-embed" id="yui_3_0_0-2-1391993335819"></span></div><div class="yom-fig-frame" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048403838_3969" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin: auto; text-align: center; width: 714.125px;"><span id="schemaorg"><div class="yom-figure yom-fig-middle" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048403838_3968" style="float: none; margin: 0px auto 15px; max-width: 100%; overflow: hidden; width: 630px;"><figure class="cover get-lbdata-from-dom go-to-slideshow-lightbox" data-orig-index="0" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048403838_3967" style="cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><a class="cover-anchor" data-rapid_p="15" href="" id="cover-d44613fead6ed88da0cdba95cb6044da" name="cover-d44613fead6ed88da0cdba95cb6044da" style="color: #8ec0ff; cursor: pointer; position: absolute; top: -100px;"></a><div class="cta-overlay" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048403838_3966" style="-webkit-transition: background-color 0.24s linear; font-size: 13px; height: 349px; left: 0px; position: absolute; top: 0px; transition: background-color 0.24s linear; width: 630px;"><span class="clearfix title cta-text medium" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; left: 5px; opacity: 0; position: absolute; text-align: left; top: 5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear; white-space: pre-wrap; width: 567px; zoom: 1;"></span><div class="cta-text large" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.24s linear; color: white; font-size: 16px; margin-top: 35px; opacity: 0; position: relative; top: 174.5px; transition: opacity 0.24s linear;">View photo</div><span class="icon-slideshow icon-white-slideshow" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.16s linear; background-color: #324fe1; background-image: url(data:image/svg+xml; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; background-size: cover; border-bottom-left-radius: 7px; border-bottom-right-radius: 7px; border-top-left-radius: 7px; border-top-right-radius: 7px; cursor: pointer; height: 54px; left: 315px; line-height: 0; margin-left: -38px; margin-top: -27px; opacity: 0; padding: 0px; position: absolute; text-indent: -1000em; top: 174.5px; transition: opacity 0.16s linear; width: 76px; z-index: 1;">.</span></div><img alt="" class="editorial " data-preembed="image" src="http://l2.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/O0RnkNiyiLjVIge8DjCxCg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://l.yimg.com/os/publish-images/sports/2014-02-09/d4fd0610-9150-11e3-af9e-c7c48465647e_SmartShovebigger.gif" style="-webkit-transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; background-repeat: no-repeat no-repeat; border: 0px; display: inline; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; min-height: 1px; opacity: 1 !important; transition: opacity 0.3333s ease 0ms; vertical-align: bottom; visibility: visible !important; width: 630px;" title="Marcus Smart shoves Texas Tech superfan Jeff Orr in the closing moments of Oklahoma State's loss. (Yahoo)" width="630" /></figure><div class="legend" id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392048403838_3983" style="background-image: none; color: grey; font-size: 12px; font-style: italic; max-width: 100%; padding: 5px; text-align: left;">Marcus Smart shoves Texas Tech superfan Jeff Orr in the closing moments of Oklahoma State's loss. (Yahoo)</div></div></span></div>

How will Marcus Smart's blowup affect his NBA draft stock? (BLOG)

Evaluating  Marcus Smart ’s draft stock has NBA executives split in the aftermath of the guard’s actions Saturday. The Oklahoma State star s...

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Kanye West’s The College Dropout Turns 10 (BLOG)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin6NtWZIr7r1lSFRDDWKbiLSN-Bjd_hxBSd8qytLfRJzS5IXf9MynZdJAs7SLoH8PvfH6khaWAP4HBrEnUGUwg55pDDCbpad_XoZ2y6S4JJ6_4Y7t8gDUl-9uGjA61z1OzQs3wv_bc2LA/s1600/ye.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin6NtWZIr7r1lSFRDDWKbiLSN-Bjd_hxBSd8qytLfRJzS5IXf9MynZdJAs7SLoH8PvfH6khaWAP4HBrEnUGUwg55pDDCbpad_XoZ2y6S4JJ6_4Y7t8gDUl-9uGjA61z1OzQs3wv_bc2LA/s1600/ye.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">“I’m the funny version of<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Dead Prez</strong>.” That’s <strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Kanye West</strong> giving an amazingly succinct and accurate summary of his career during an interview. Without a timestamp on that quote, it could have easily been something he said in the handful of, ahem, “<a href="http://www.wmagazine.com/people/celebrities/2013/06/kanye-west-on-kim-kardashian-and-his-new-album-yeezus/" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #009dee; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">honest</a>” <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/16/arts/music/kanye-west-talks-about-his-career-and-album-yeezus.html?_r=1&adxnnl=1&partner=rss&emc=rss&pagewanted=all&adxnnlx=1391626979-xIhqtbt595rlVWxdla1VqA" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #009dee; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">interviews</a> he gave during the lead-up to the June 2013 release of his cathartic, abrasive and game-changing sixth studio album <a href="http://www.idolator.com/7464259/kanye-west-yeezus-review" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #009dee; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Kanye West’s ‘Yeezus’: Album Review"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yeezus</em></a>. West’s incendiary “New Slaves,” for all intents and purposes, was the best Dead Prez song they never recorded, and it was a fantastic example of the ways in which his sonic and thematic fascinations mirrored those of the Brooklyn duo’s seminal first record<em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let%27s_Get_Free" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #009dee; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Let’s Get Free</a></em>. But that quote was actually from a <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/kanye-west-head-of-the-class-20040429" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #009dee; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Rolling Stone</a></em> profile that ran in May of 2004, only a few months removed from the release (and subsequent smashing success) of West’s debut <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The College Dropout</em>, which turns 10 today (February 10).</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">That made me take a step back. I’ve spent the past eight months lauding <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yeezus</em> as not only West’s best album, but one of the most important, innovative hip-hop albums of the last decade. For me, the angry, bass-blaring, Corbusier lamp-inspired, Chicago house-riddled <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yeezus</em> made the rest of his back catalog look downright saccharine. I remembering thinking at some point during the fourth minute of “I’m In It” that it would be very hard for me to revisit West’s earlier material — like, say, the day-glo urban working class paean “We Don’t Care” from his debut —  and not yearn for what I saw to be his career’s avant-garde zenith in <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Yeezus</em>.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">But I went back, and ended up being astonished at how Ye’s creative vision and philosophical ruminations have stayed consistent and vital throughout a career spanning 10-plus years. <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The College Dropout</em> is the brilliant foundation of his raging, creative restlessness, as well as his constantly sharpening social mind. With this album, he wasn’t given access to the zeitgeist. He took it.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Make no mistake, <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The College Dropout</em> is an angry record. On it, Kanye is fed up with, among other things, systemic racism, hip-hop’s vapid materialism, the perceived uselessness of expensive college degrees, the lack of social mobility for black Americans and his own repeated personal failings in life and love. And while that anger is wrapped up in Hot 100 hooks, chipmunk soul samples and lush, limber production, the massive chip on West’s shoulder was a creative force of its own from day one.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s no secret West made his biggest professional splash producing the lion’s share of tracks on <strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jay-Z’s</strong>classic fifth album <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The Blueprint</em> — including the <strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Jackson 5</strong>-sampling anthem “Izzo (H.O.V.A.)” and the lacerating<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Nas</strong> bodyslam “Takeover” — and eventually angled to get his rapping career of the ground. He got passed along by a handful of record labels (including a close pass by Capitol) who didn’t know how to market West’s “First n***a with a Benz and a backpack” style, middle class background and seemingly lack of street edge at a time when MCs like<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> 50 Cent, Chingy </strong>and<strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> Lil Jon </strong>were dominating the charts. A reluctant <strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Damon Dash</strong> eventually signed Kanye to a Roc-A-Fella development deal and, as you can guess, West was pretty motivated to prove any gatekeeper of power who denied him access in the record industry wrong. It’s both obvious that record labels would want an unknown MC to fall in line with what is popular in hip-hop, and seriously depressing that Kanye wanted to break the mold of “gangsta” caricature only to be rebuffed at nearly every turn.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">As a result, <em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The College Dropout</em> is a classic first record in the sense that Kanye had spent his entire life preparing to put his thoughts and superlative beats down on wax, combining the socially aware, conscious rap introspection of close friends <strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Common</strong> and <strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Talib Kweli</strong> (who both appear in guest spots) with the club-ready excesses that MTV and radio audiences were hungry for. But it was also an open-ended mission statement providing a fascinating set of ideas and emotions Kanye is still playing around with 10 years later.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And while there are a few dated conventions (specifically, padding the tracklist with no less than seven skits and interludes), the silky progression of gloriously high-minded beats and various philosophical threads is damn near perfectly calibrated, walking listeners through a world where young, black Americans are beset on all sides by a society that seeks to simultaneously limit their strength and exploit their culture.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">On the aforementioned <strong style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">De La Soul</strong>-lite “We Don’t Care,” West basically places drug dealing and soul-deadening 9-to-5 jobs on the same level, eventually rattling off a list of societal failures that leave impoverished black people with few choices, and concluding “Sometimes, I feel like no one in this world understands us / But we don’t care what people say.”</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The middle-class ennui of “Spaceship” has West reminiscing about his (very un-gangsta) time working at a Gap and being unwittingly used as an ambassador for the store’s supposed diversity. And then of course there’s “All Falls Down,” the gorgeously constructed mid-tempo neo-soul hit that puts the materialism of hip-hop in the crosshairs, with West repeatedly pointing out how celebrating and prioritizing wealth is a pretty obvious side effect of crippling insecurity. When Ye says “We all self-conscious, I’m just the first to admit it” on the second to last line of the song, it’s a sentiment that still reverberates a decade later.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">And yet, on this very same song, he also defends conspicuous consumption by contextualizing it as a means of protesting against our society’s intrinsic racism: “We shine because they hate us, floss ’cause they degrade us / We’re trying to buy back our 40 acres / And for that paper look how low we stoop / Even if you’re in a Benz, you’re still a n*gga in a coupe.” So already, West was delving into the type of nuanced arguments and cognitive dissonance that makes him so compelling still.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The College Dropout</em> definitely isn’t the best album of Kanye’s catalog, but it’s arguably the most important. And while I could have spent a lot of time dwelling on the hits that everyone knows verbatim by now (“Jesus Walks,” “Slow Jamz,” “Through the Wire” <a href="http://www.idolator.com/7504416/kanye-west-college-dropout-anniversary-new-workout-plan" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #009dee; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank" title="Kanye West’s “The New Workout Plan”: Revisit His Hilariously Brilliant ‘College Dropout’ Single">“The New Workout Plan”</a>) or hammering the one or two songs that show some growing pains (“Never Let Me Down,” “Breathe in, Breathe Out”), I’d rather rest on the idea that Kanye has grown since his debut album, but he hasn’t changed. That’s a good thing.</div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">How do you think the album holds up 10 years later? Let us know below, or by hitting us up on <a href="http://www.facebook.com/idolatordotcom" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #009dee; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Facebook</a> and <a href="http://www.twitter.com/idolator" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; color: #009dee; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Twitter</a>!</em></div><div style="background-color: white; border: 0px; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: 20px; margin-bottom: 10px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">IDOLATOR</em></div>

Kanye West’s The College Dropout Turns 10 (BLOG)

“I’m the funny version of  Dead Prez .” That’s  Kanye West  giving an amazingly succinct and accurate summary of his career during an interv...

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Flappy Bird Knockoffs Dominate the App Store: “Fly Birdie,” “Flappy Bee” Both in Top 5 (BLOG)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7R2rw0ZpmCSuAxCoVCbzDGFSOiUY9XIuIvT19MOy5vmxRfkgIWtor6ZfT0qyCmlJ0mReV_yQUe1VPAslRQbPbcXgLGV5crAHKejUaGSJIcwgahJSGNZFFXwFRmlSx9V3-Av2k2WnAUoY/s1600/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7R2rw0ZpmCSuAxCoVCbzDGFSOiUY9XIuIvT19MOy5vmxRfkgIWtor6ZfT0qyCmlJ0mReV_yQUe1VPAslRQbPbcXgLGV5crAHKejUaGSJIcwgahJSGNZFFXwFRmlSx9V3-Av2k2WnAUoY/s1600/download.jpg" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_12_0_1_1392048138747_910" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">The App Store is getting Flappy Happy.</div><div id="yui_3_12_0_1_1392048138747_913" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">On Monday morning, about a day after the <a data-rapid_p="91" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:28844bef-bae1-3e51-b5c5-779092d329a0;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="https://www.yahoo.com/tech/get-it-while-you-can-flappy-bird-to-be-removed-from-76062214252.html" id="yui_3_12_0_1_1392048138747_914" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">creator of Flappy Bird removed his hit app from both Apple’s and Google’s app marketplaces</a>, obvious knockoffs of the game were topping Apple’s App Store in its place. In the wake of Flappy Bird’s sudden disappearance from the iPhone, “<a data-rapid_p="92" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:28844bef-bae1-3e51-b5c5-779092d329a0;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flappy-plane/id806026035?mt=8&v0=WWW-NAUS-ITSTOP100-FREEAPPS&ign-mpt=uo%3D4" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Flappy Plane</a>” and “Flappy Bee” have charged into the App Store Top 20; an app with almost identical gameplay to Flappy Bird, called “<a data-rapid_p="93" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:28844bef-bae1-3e51-b5c5-779092d329a0;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ironpants/id801727538?mt=8&v0=WWW-NAUS-ITSTOP100-FREEAPPS&ign-mpt=uo%3D4" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Ironpants</a>,” has taken over the No. 2 spot; and the No. 1 app is “<a data-rapid_p="94" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:28844bef-bae1-3e51-b5c5-779092d329a0;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fly-birdie-flappy-bird-flyer/id806307963?mt=8&v0=WWW-NAUS-ITSTOP100-FREEAPPS&ign-mpt=uo%3D4" id="yui_3_12_0_1_1392048138747_915" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Fly Birdie — Flappy Bird Flyer</a>,” a clone so complete that it even manages to sneak the name “Flappy Bird” into its title.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;"><img height="286" src="https://s1.yimg.com/cd/resizer/FIT_TO_WIDTH-w500/05101e8b6828c59ff7cf76588407b70442cf70ba" style="border: 0px; margin-right: 20px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: bottom;" width="500" /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;"><em>A survey of the App Store as it currently sits, at 10:30AM Monday morning. </em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">Flappy Bird creator Dong Nguyen <a data-rapid_p="95" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:28844bef-bae1-3e51-b5c5-779092d329a0;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="https://www.yahoo.com/tech/get-it-while-you-can-flappy-bird-to-be-removed-from-76062214252.html" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">created a firestorm over the weekend when he revealed on Twitter that for personal reasons he was pulling Flappy Bird</a>, a smash success for both iPhone and Android devices that was making the Vietnamese developer a reported $50,000 per day. <a data-rapid_p="96" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:28844bef-bae1-3e51-b5c5-779092d329a0;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="https://www.yahoo.com/tech/get-it-while-you-can-flappy-bird-to-be-removed-from-76062214252.html" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">On Sunday</a>, Flappy Bird disappeared from both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store. Those who had already downloaded the app were able to continue playing; those who had not yet discovered Flappy Bird — well, they were left searching for alternatives.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">And alternatives they now have. Each of these new top apps replicates the basics of Flappy Bird, from the gameplay down to the use of the word “Flappy” in their titles.</div><div id="yui_3_12_0_1_1392048138747_924" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;"><img alt="image" height="427" id="yui_3_12_0_1_1392048138747_923" src="https://s3.yimg.com/cd/resizer/FIT_TO_WIDTH-w500/292e80650dd351e5c73a184298308543bd855b14" style="border: 0px; margin-right: 20px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: bottom;" width="500" /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;"><em>Screenshots from the game “Fly Birdie” now tops in Apple’s App Store.</em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">The player must guide a hero — a bird, a bee or a plane — sideways through a series of vertically shifting obstacles. Taps on the screen propel the hero upward; doing nothing drops the hero to the ground. Flappy Bird has been both praised and criticized for its difficulty and simplicity, and has won legions of addicted fans who struggle to last for more than a few seconds per contest.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;"><img alt="image" height="430" src="https://s3.yimg.com/cd/resizer/FIT_TO_WIDTH-w500/a678b638f4749b9fc120e3f5e79e1e84d20e421b" style="border: 0px; margin-right: 20px; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: bottom;" width="500" /></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;"><em>Screenshots from Ironpants. </em></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">Flappy Bird didn’t invent this style of game. It has <a data-rapid_p="97" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:28844bef-bae1-3e51-b5c5-779092d329a0;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="http://mashable.com/2014/02/09/helicopter-game-flappy-bird/" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">often been compared to an old game </a>called the “<a data-rapid_p="98" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:28844bef-bae1-3e51-b5c5-779092d329a0;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="http://www.helicoptergame.net/" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Helicopter Game</a>.” And though Flappy Bird may not score points for its originality, it has clearly reignited the popularity of this “side-scrolling” category, creating by the sheer force of its demand a new niche of retro-style, tap-to-control smartphone games.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">Now that Nguyen has pulled his app, other developers are reaping the rewards, as the simplicity of Flappy Bird has also made it simple to quickly replicate. Perhaps it’s time we changed the name of this website to “Flappy Tech”?</div><div id="yui_3_12_0_1_1392048138747_931" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;"><em id="yui_3_12_0_1_1392048138747_934">Yahoo Tech is a brand new tech site from David Pogue and an all-star team of writers. <a data-rapid_p="99" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:28844bef-bae1-3e51-b5c5-779092d329a0;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="http://www.facebook.com/yahootech" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Follow us on Facebook</a> for all the latest.</em></div>

Flappy Bird Knockoffs Dominate the App Store: “Fly Birdie,” “Flappy Bee” Both in Top 5 (BLOG)

The App Store is getting Flappy Happy. On Monday morning, about a day after the  creator of Flappy Bird removed his hit app from both Apple’...

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Report: Iran successfully test-fires two missiles (BLOG)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje8JGmpspWXzFWpOO7AICl30jpn4pfjBpRtRC8y5bneC1Uo_UHBS6eBZ_c6veWqZcaMuFB5RavmYQWCrgWTfF0ItCO4bU34e6uW665DUuMShwHxHp38WZjclK2v7LMIc1OoQRvzs6d-_w/s1600/000.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEje8JGmpspWXzFWpOO7AICl30jpn4pfjBpRtRC8y5bneC1Uo_UHBS6eBZ_c6veWqZcaMuFB5RavmYQWCrgWTfF0ItCO4bU34e6uW665DUuMShwHxHp38WZjclK2v7LMIc1OoQRvzs6d-_w/s1600/000.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_7362" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran has successfully test-fired two missiles, including a long-range ballistic weapon, the official IRNA news agency reported on Monday.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_7379" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The "children of Iran successfully test-fired a new generation" of weapons, he said.The report by IRNA quoted President Hassan Rouhani as congratulating the military.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_7334" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The test came a day after a group of lawmakers accused Rouhani of halting a scheduled missile exercise. It was not clear if this was the same test.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_7393" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Rouhani's policy of outreach to the West and its centerpiece, a deal on Iran's disputed nuclear program, is opposed by hard-liners who accuse him of giving away too much for too little.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_7403" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Iran has pursued military self-sufficiency since 1992. It produces tanks, jet fighters, submarines and warships, as well as weapons for these systems.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">From time to time it announces technological breakthroughs, most of which cannot be independently verified.</div><div style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">The report did not say if the missiles were new designs, but the term "new generation" suggests that they were upgrades of existing ones.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_7436" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">It said the ballistic missile had radar-evading capabilities, but did not give a name. It said the second missile was called Bina, or "Insightful," and was laser-guided. It said it could be fired from the ground or from aircraft.</div><div id="yui_3_9_1_1_1392063571193_7426" style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24.000001907348633px; margin-bottom: 1.1em;">Iran already has surface-to-surface missiles with a range about 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles) capable of reaching Israel and the U.S. military bases in the region.</div>

Report: Iran successfully test-fires two missiles (BLOG)

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran has successfully test-fired two missiles, including a long-range ballistic weapon, the official IRNA news agency re...

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Should You Use Tech to Keep Track of Your Kids? (BLOG)

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLaD3JCnL54Kra96B7OVB5gTeL3ugIFeVUnz8Hz2wF5qVZ-gUwIkQSFM5LLG87cY5VvQfY5TFgkzubXviald2zDLHJiH94ZQaDtGcJgPtpzAS2UVQSDrQsfoFicb8fLfLg0ME8COJ8OiY/s1600/11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLaD3JCnL54Kra96B7OVB5gTeL3ugIFeVUnz8Hz2wF5qVZ-gUwIkQSFM5LLG87cY5VvQfY5TFgkzubXviald2zDLHJiH94ZQaDtGcJgPtpzAS2UVQSDrQsfoFicb8fLfLg0ME8COJ8OiY/s1600/11.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div id="yui_3_12_0_1_1392048138747_756" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">Even Spider-Man knew it, since Peter Parker’s uncle Ben told him: With great power comes great responsibility. But when you’re <u id="yui_3_12_0_1_1392048138747_758"><a data-rapid_p="60" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:30b4ea39-a769-34ab-8101-6ab230ee325c;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="https://www.yahoo.com/tech/how-this-special-router-turned-me-into-a-total-internet-73145981590.html" id="yui_3_12_0_1_1392048138747_757" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">a tech tyrant</a></u> like me <em id="yui_3_12_0_1_1392048138747_759">and</em> a father, the temptation to abuse your powers is hard to resist.</div><div id="yui_3_12_0_1_1392048138747_760" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">Take, for example, the <a data-rapid_p="61" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:30b4ea39-a769-34ab-8101-6ab230ee325c;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="http://getpiper.com/" id="yui_3_12_0_1_1392048138747_761" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Piper</a> surveillance cam I set up in my dining room. One night I turned on the motion-sensing alarm. As soon as anyone crossed its field of vision, the Piper would capture 25 seconds of video, sound a siren, and shine a spotlight in the perp’s face.</div><div id="yui_3_12_0_1_1392048138747_762" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">I had neglected, however, to tell any other members of my household about it. So, as my 15-year-old daughter entered the kitchen to grab a cup of coffee the next morning, the lamp snapped on and the siren began shrieking at 105 decibels. She nearly jumped out of her skin. Then <em>she</em> started shrieking.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">“OMG, what is wrong with you?” she wailed as I struggled to find the Off button on the iPad app. She said some other things too, which I won’t repeat here (but are captured on video if anyone’s interested).</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">My 17-year-old, who managed to sleep through the entire event, was much more low-key. Later, when he asked me what I was working on, I showed him the Piper. He simply shook his head. “You are such a control freak,” he said.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;"><strong>Spooks R Us</strong>In a <u><a data-rapid_p="62" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:30b4ea39-a769-34ab-8101-6ab230ee325c;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="https://www.yahoo.com/tech/tagged/modern-family" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">modern family</a></u>, we have surveillance tools in our arsenal that our parents could only dream about. I’d even wager that the intelligence agencies of some third-world nations would envy <u><a data-rapid_p="63" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:30b4ea39-a769-34ab-8101-6ab230ee325c;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="https://www.yahoo.com/tech/the-internet-of-things-is-coming-to-your-home-your-72780133945.html" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">the stuff in our house</a></u>.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">Like the NSA, we deploy this gear mostly in the interest of “national security” (insert your own definition here). For example, all of our external doors and windows are connected via a <u><a data-rapid_p="64" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:30b4ea39-a769-34ab-8101-6ab230ee325c;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="http://www.vivint.com/" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Vivint home security system</a></u>. Nobody in our house carries keys anymore; instead, we open the WiFi-connected door locks with our own numerical codes. I get alerts to my phone when doors and windows are opened. Checking Vivint’s website, I can see exactly who came or left, and when.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">The Piper is just one of a handful of surveillance cams we have set up across the house. Its purpose is not to scare the pants off teenagers; it’s for chasing off intruders. But this surveillance gear also doubles as a wickedly effective way to keep an eye on the kids.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">In the old days, my parents used to hide in the dark so they could surprise my older sisters when they came straggling home at some ungodly hour of the night. Today there’s an app for that. We have the ability to know where our children are and what they’re doing 24/7, if we choose to.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">Over the years we have installed various apps on their phones, like<u><a data-rapid_p="65" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:30b4ea39-a769-34ab-8101-6ab230ee325c;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="https://www.life360.com/" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Life 360</a></u> and <u><a data-rapid_p="66" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:30b4ea39-a769-34ab-8101-6ab230ee325c;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="http://www.glympse.com/" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Glympse</a></u>, that let us look up their location with a few taps. Since my son began driving two years ago, we’ve had an <u><a data-rapid_p="67" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:30b4ea39-a769-34ab-8101-6ab230ee325c;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="http://www.mycar-connection.com/" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Audiovox Car Connection</a></u> dongle plugged into the onboard computer of our aging minivan. I get a text whenever he leaves or arrives home, and if I so choose I can trace his recent movements on a map. It works so well we’re thinking about trying <a data-rapid_p="68" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:30b4ea39-a769-34ab-8101-6ab230ee325c;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="https://www.yahoo.com/tech/will-truvolo-make-your-teens-safer-drivers-75713827016.html" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">a similar dingus</a> in our other car when my daughter starts driving.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">And when my wife and I are out of town, we can call up cams on our phones to see if a teen rave is raging in our household. (Or, if the kids have unplugged the cameras, whether it’s time for a unannounced visit from their grandmother.)</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">Like the old U.S.-Soviet arms negotiators, our philosophy is “Trust but verify.” It seems to be working; so far we’ve managed to avoid any nuclear confrontations.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;"><strong>As easy as KGB</strong>But all of this raises difficult questions about where responsible parenting ends and irresponsible spying begins. Our teens have made it clear they aren’t exactly crazy about having Big Father and Big Mother intrude on their lives, especially as they develop into proto-adults.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">In our defense, we’ve been very up front about what this technology can do and how we use it. (See <a data-rapid_p="69" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:30b4ea39-a769-34ab-8101-6ab230ee325c;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="https://www.yahoo.com/tech/how-to-monitor-your-kids-without-turning-into-the-nsa-75449027616.html" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">“How to Monitor Your Kids Without Turning into the NSA.”</a>) We explained that the reason we spend an insane amount of money on mobile phones every month is not so they can watch YouTube in bed at 3 a.m. or maintain 27 simultaneous texting conversations; it’s so we can reach them when we need them, and vice versa. (So, in other words, please keep your phones charged, dammit.)</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">When my son began driving, this technology offered all of us peace of mind; we were able to know that he got where he was going, and he knew if he ran out of both gas and phone battery (because he’d forgotten to charge it) that we’d be able to locate him.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">And there are clear limits. We would never dream of putting cams in their private spaces, for example. Believe me, the last thing you want to see is a close-up view of a teenager’s bedroom. One cam is trained on the homework station in the dining room, another on the family room, and both give us a view of anyone entering or leaving the premises.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;"><strong>I, spy?</strong>Still, the decision whether to track your loved ones is not an easy one. Are the online threats to kids often exaggerated? Yes, usually by companies selling this technology. But nobody wants his son or daughter to be the poster child in an Internet horror story.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">Did we all manage to survive to adulthood without these tools? Yes, we did. But this is a different world than the one we grew up in, one where strangers can reach across time zones to get to your kids, and childish mistakes may be enshrined forever on the Web.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">Can this technology be abused? Absolutely — and not just to play a harmless little prank. (Though I think my daughter has finally forgiven me for that one.)</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;">But I believe the positives ultimately outweigh the negatives. Technology has enabled us to give our kids a longer leash at an earlier age, to allow them more autonomy, not less. It has helped us guide them, at a distance, toward making smarter choices. Hopefully it will also allow us to stay in touch with them when they get older and leave the nest. Assuming, of course, that they’re still speaking to us.</div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;"><em>Questions, complaints, kudos? Email Dan Tynan at</em><u><a data-rapid_p="70" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:30b4ea39-a769-34ab-8101-6ab230ee325c;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="mailto:ModFamily1@yahoo.com" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank"><em>ModFamily1@yahoo.com</em></a></u><em>. </em></div><div id="yui_3_12_0_1_1392048138747_763" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;"><em>*</em></div><div id="yui_3_12_0_1_1392048138747_764" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 26px; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em;"><em id="yui_3_12_0_1_1392048138747_767">Yahoo Tech is a brand new tech site from David Pogue and an all-star team of writers. <a data-rapid_p="71" data-ylk="elm:itm;elmt:link;g:30b4ea39-a769-34ab-8101-6ab230ee325c;ct:1;t1:a5;t4:18;itc:0;" href="http://www.facebook.com/yahootech" style="color: #324fe1; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Follow us on Facebook</a> for all the latest.</em></div>

Should You Use Tech to Keep Track of Your Kids? (BLOG)

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Jesse Ventura follows my "barnone11970" channel

<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">*****BREAKING YOU TUBE NEWS*****</span> </b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b>I am so humbled and flattered...</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Jesse Ventura is a barnone11970 fan</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Other well known people subscribe...</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi89BpQpZRydJTAQL7GMhd7qYSH4tWgiAlETj3oy9JPC7sJewLyHkQpirbKslG6R2HC01Z4ymchcHLu7lpz7vnJsrD6RCULXCSmDPC9CEbjOka0ruUNKVSUhKQb8jlWvGCys8Y24Kkzwxw/s1600/barnoneFLATTERED.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="153" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi89BpQpZRydJTAQL7GMhd7qYSH4tWgiAlETj3oy9JPC7sJewLyHkQpirbKslG6R2HC01Z4ymchcHLu7lpz7vnJsrD6RCULXCSmDPC9CEbjOka0ruUNKVSUhKQb8jlWvGCys8Y24Kkzwxw/s1600/barnoneFLATTERED.JPG" width="200" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj95M0goUTHszYOdrjAHcVyIKhhVHfl3RG4-huXthqzKmFq7eHMyUR4DPY1bJhSV-EaKF_f923x_ic065fE8tSgTOzO1KqrzKhktQamiRyRoj-6djgLP3QfXAwU_HthXLES-e5Z04V-Pvk/s1600/jesse-ventura-5.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj95M0goUTHszYOdrjAHcVyIKhhVHfl3RG4-huXthqzKmFq7eHMyUR4DPY1bJhSV-EaKF_f923x_ic065fE8tSgTOzO1KqrzKhktQamiRyRoj-6djgLP3QfXAwU_HthXLES-e5Z04V-Pvk/s1600/jesse-ventura-5.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>Well known people watch Chris a.k.a. barnone11970</b></span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: red;">*****Chris asks for donation*****</span> </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>"Mr. Ventura, I don't know if you'll watch this....in any way shape or form if any little minor contribution can be done on my behalf you can count me in I'm into it;  I definitely --I'm dedicating my life to this..."</b></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>---Chris, a.k.a. barnone 11970</b></i></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>I never realized how important Chris really is.  These are the people that really know what's going on!  There must be something to gold, silver, orgone pyramids, and freeman philosophies.  Chris says he's dedicating his life to this and hopes that Jesse Ventura might give him a donation besides.  What barnone! Asking for money?  Worthless fiat?</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The VELVET CULT has been notified...</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/G8egUYPnEfQ?feature=player_detailpage" width="640"></iframe><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="223" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/WDR7ADwWq78?feature=player_detailpage" width="308"></iframe></div><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><b>The CRUSADER barnone11970</b></span></div><br /><b>Wow he's scheduled for a YOU TUBE PODCAST.  Is he a key note speaker?</b><br /><b>He must be important.  Or is it just a fantasy?</b><br /><b><br /></b><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="223" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/fJ9rUzIMcZQ?feature=player_detailpage" width="308"></iframe><b><br /></b></div><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/I2tc3UqCMIk?feature=player_detailpage" width="640"></iframe><b> </b><br /><br /><b>...developing...</b></div>

Jesse Ventura follows my "barnone11970" channel

*****BREAKING YOU TUBE NEWS***** I am so humbled and flattered... Jesse Ventura is a barnone11970 fan Other well known people subscribe... ...

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