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Behind the scenes look at the 9/11 Memorial that is set to open on the 10th Anniversary of the most horrific terrorist attack on American soil. Please note, this video is very thought provoking and emotional.

We all remember 9/11/01 as if it were yesterday. This memorial will ensure that the generations to come will remember the innocent people who perished on this ill fated day.

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(source: Yahoo! News)

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Aug 14th, 2011

Wyndham to implement Anti-Prostitution Training

According to HotelMag.com, in response to allegations coming out of an 18-month federal investigation that Travelodge motel staff aided a criminal enterprise by helping Crips gang members running a child prostitution ring pick rooms less likely to be detected by police in exchange for cash, Wyndham Worldwide revealed to CNN on Friday that it is implementing new staff training procedures in light of child prostitution busts in Cali motels.

Clearly this is no laughing matter but #cmon can you imagine what the training will include? I mean as a former front desk manager, the training is already a bit much. I remember the monthly training for dealing with the “The Quiet Customer” vs. “The Angry Customer” and that was painful enough because in the end, you have to wing it when you’re in a real situation and good personal judgement is everything. Bottom line, there is no training for this type of situation. Actually, maybe there is….

Training Script:

F/D: Hello, Crips gang member. How can I assist you?
Crip: Wha up, lemme get a room so I can handle my bidness n I’ll give u cash so the boyz won’t kno, Cool?
F/D: Umm, I can not accept no such agreement

Banter back and forth……front desk agent gets shot

Long story short, just rent the room and call the boyz. Training over.

No but, in all seriousness, child prostitution is no joke and you have to applaud the Wyndham for making a conscientious effort and establishing partnerships with organizations like the Polaris Project and ECPAT to take a stance against prostitution and human trafficking. On another note, good luck training team with this one.

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Aug 3rd, 2011

Wow they have taken bootlegging to a whole new level. Sorry but you have to watch this video. I thought it was an actual Apple Store. Damn I’m hella impressed, but if you’re going to work as hard to brand your store in this manner, why not just create your own logo as a Authorized Apple Dealer. I’m sure you would get the same outcome unless you are truly selling fakes. Either way, wow this is what I call bootlegging on a whole new level.

Here is my favorite quote from the story “We never said we were an Apple Store, we just sell Apple Products” - O_o

[Source: LaTimes

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Jul 23rd, 2011

HULU is up for Sale?

BRAVO!!!! for Hulu mulling offersto sale their service. Reportedly, Yahoo and Apple are in full play for the online streaming service which could fetch $2+ Billion (USD) from the highest bidder.

Earlier this year, Hulu was mulling an IPO that was forecast to fetch a raise near the $2B mark, but with current US and Foreign market turmoil and rapidly growing content licensing cost, it appears that Comcast’s NBC-Universal, Walt Disney Corporation, and News Corp’s Fox division would rather revert back to being the studio and not both the studio and online content provider.

My Thoughts

I like the idea of the sale, but I think the final price will fall somewhere near the $2.5-$3B price range if there is truly an ongoing bidding war. Who should win it? I’m not sure, but both Yahoo and Apple will gain significant relevance from this purchase. I can see Apple expanding it’s reach and rebranding Hulu as Apple TV or even Hulu powered by Apple TV.

Apple TV and iTunes will make it easy for Apple to fuse it’s current product offerings with Hulu. My only concern with Apple winning the bid is will content migrate from a monthly price to a per show price? Hulu is Hulu because they are able to offer users the ability to stream the most popular shows, films and internet content for an affordable price. A per show format would instantly kill this service.

Yahoo on the other hand would become uber relevant again. They would finally have a product that expands their brand without being directly connected to their search engine. Honestly Hulu should have been a Yahoo creation in the first place. Oh wait, that would have required the former leadership to think outside the box during a time when they were more focused on their Billionaire riches and caviar lifestyle than running a true Internet conglomerate. My only concern with a Yahoo winning the bid is their pricing model. For some reason Yahoo is a big fan of charging $19.99 for everything they once solely owned. If the current management team wins this bid and tremendously hikes prices up, it will be all for not. Hulu will crumble for sure and become something.yahoo.com powered by someone else anyway

The Markets and Internet World will be watching this battle closely. Who will win? Yahoo, Apple or possibly a dark horse like Facebook will ride in and shock everyone. Let’s pause for a second…. I actually like a Facebook-Hulu relationship. If Facebook does buy Hulu, they can pretty much guarantee a huge IPO that will offer technology investors a sustainable, fundamentally sound foundation.

Thanks for reading and I will post an update once the deal is done.

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posted by Ran Crosby

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Jul 22nd, 2011

As a Black Man, you will live longer if you go to jail? That’s what a research firm discovered.

This has to be one of the dumbest articles I’ve ever read, but according to a research firm, Black Men in North Carolina are more than likely to live if they are locked up rather than if they are free. Being a caged animal means a long and prosperous life on this planet. GTFOH

As Reported By Reuters:

Black men are half as likely to die at any given time if they’re in prison than if they aren’t, suggests a new study of North Carolina inmates.

The black prisoners seemed to be especially protected against alcohol- and drug-related deaths, as well as lethal accidents and certain chronic diseases.

But that pattern didn’t hold for white men, who on the whole were slightly more likely to die in prison than outside, according to findings published in Annals of Epidemiology.

Researchers say it’s not the first time a study has found lower death rates among certain groups of inmates — particularly disadvantaged people, who might get protection against violent injuries and murder.

“Ironically, prisons are often the only provider of medical care accessible by these underserved and vulnerable Americans,” said Hung-En Sung of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.

“Typically, prison-based care is more comprehensive than what inmates have received prior to their admission,” Sung, who wasn’t involved in the new study, told Reuters Health by email.

The new study involved about 100,000 men between age 20 and 79 who were held in North Carolina prisons at some point between 1995 and 2005. Sixty percent of those men were black.

———

What are we going to do Black Men? Are we going to get mad, get violent, or stage a protest? Hell no, here’s my suggestion. Let’s do something productive with our lives. Let’s make strategic investments in our community to gain ownership. With that ownership, let’s begin to secure political positions and do something productive rather than corrupt the seat. After that, let’s leave an inheritance of knowledge behind so the generation behind us will follow in our footsteps. I’m in such a fairy tale land it’s utterly ridiculous. Regardless, we must do something to dispel this stereotype immediately.

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[Source: Global Grind, Reuters]

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Jul 18th, 2011

Last week in Random News:

Another crazy week in random celeb world so I just thought I should share via pics…random I know, but everybody looks so dayum fab =D just enjoy it and hush …MUAH!

-Keri shows how pretty girls rock in LV…get it!

-Emma Watson realizes she is finally an actress after clearly working for an entire decade on Harry Potter and is ready to move on…I’m not judging

-Beyonce is honored to perform second to Coldplay at Scotland’s ‘T in the Park’…I’m not surprised they are her bestie people

-Jennifer looks fab in black for the Horrible Bosses Premiere

-Rihanna’s show is cut short after a fire breaks out…did they get their money back? *shrugs*

-Blake and Miranda battle the morning show circuit..umm k why is this happening?

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Jul 11th, 2011

EA Sports discusses how they are completely changing the gaming world.

(Source: Bloomberg)

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Jul 10th, 2011

$500 MILLION DOLLARS!!!! FB and Zynga are Killin’ Em

I’m sure you are like @Rannyran ‘s twitter account has been hacked, but it hasn’t. No this is not a contribute $1 to a multi-billion dollar lottery pot, nor is it a stock trading get rich quick scheme. Well maybe it’s a jackpot lottery win for Facebook and Mark Zuckenberg. Whatever one would like to call it, it’s definitely an amazing accomplishment for both Zynga and Facebook.

The Facebook and Zynga relationship is now worth approximately $500M in real money from the sale of virtual items. Ponder that one for a moment…it’s real, cold, hard, green back, dead presidents baby. The numbers breakdown like this:

$100 million paid by Zynga to Facebook for advertising + $400 million earned by Facebook through a revenue sharing agreement with Zynga which pays Facebook a commission for the items purchased by Facebook users that play Zynga’s games. That equals $500M baby….$500 million dollars *in my Dr. Evil* voice.

Zynga recently reported their revenue jumped over 255% from last year. This should position them for a gang buster IPO when they finally get around to listing an actual ticker symbol on an exchange. Will it be super successful? Only time will tell. In the meantime, Zynga and Facebook look to have an amazing courtship. Hopefully the marriage will survive.

Hey Mark…why not buy Zynga and make it a formal Facebook company? It makes perfect since to me and with the current multiple that FB has, I’m sure you can raise enough capital to secure the deal. Food for thought and ideas for another conversation….

Enjoy and thanks for reading.

Live it, Love it, Share it - OURBLOC.com posted by: Ran Crosby

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Jul 8th, 2011

Blogger and Picasa are going away…Well Kind of Sort of

Mashable.com is reporting that Google plans to retire Blogger and Picasa as exclusive services and fold them in to their newly, limited launched social media site, the Google+ Project (the Google+ Project).

Calm down, calm down…Google does not intend to delete your blogs or photos. There intention is to rebrand the sites as Google Blogs and Google Photos respectively over the next 6 weeks.

Exciting, but Sad News

Like you, I want to establish a Google+ profile as well, but we have to wait until July 31st before we get that amazing social opportunity. Will it work? Let’s see…it’s the largest internet company in the world with an over $300B market cap; I’m not sure if that will guarantee success, but it’s a damn good head start.

Time will tell if Google will be able to compete with the likes of Facebook. What was that? Yea there are other sites, but are they even relevant? Nope, but I digress.

See you on Google+

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Posted by Ran Crosby

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Jul 6th, 2011