Freelance Jobs

This is default featured post 1 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.

This is default featured post 2 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.

This is default featured post 3 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.

This is default featured post 4 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.

This is default featured post 5 title

Go to Blogger edit html and find these sentences.Now replace these sentences with your own descriptions.This theme is Bloggerized by Lasantha Bandara - Premiumbloggertemplates.com.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Another MTV Kiss Award for Bullock

Sandra Bullock (looking amazing) made her second appearance in as many days to pick up the Generation Award at the MTV Movie Awards, during which she locked lips with Scarlett Johansson.
Johansson, along with Bullock's former costars Betty White and Bradley Cooper, presented Bullock with her award. Johansson's husband Ryan Reynolds, who couldn't be there, was nominated with Bullock for Best Kiss. They lost, but Scarlett wanted a shot at a sweet kiss of her own.

WATCH:





David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Another Bad Name for California ; Carly Fiorina

We're so lucky in California to have two wealthy women running for political office in our upcoming primary. Who says we haven't come a long way, baby?
But while I'm a big fan of eBay, the candidate I want to focus on is Carly Fiorina, who wants to be our next female senator and promises to bring jobs, jobs, jobs to our beleaguered state. As opposed to that liberal do-nothing Barbara Boxer.
Let's review her credentials. Fiorina is perhaps best known for running Hewlett-Packard into the ground when she was CEO, a feat she achieved by laying off thousands of employees, shipping jobs overseas, pushing an ill-advised merger with Compaq, trashing the stock price, and generally destroying HP's famously mellow culture. For this she got sacked in 2005 in a unanimous and highly publicized vote by HP's board.
Understandably it's still a touchy topic. After a Tea Party rally in Pleasanton, CA, in April, Fiorina snapped at some reporters when, instead of asking her about the wonderful response she got from the crowd, they asked her about the recent federal probe into HP's murky business dealings with Russia when she led the company. And another about HP's relations with Iran. Talk about a downer!
All of which raises a question: with California's economy in tatters, a $19 billion deficit, unemployment at a staggering 12.5 percent, do we really need a failed CEO with a chip on her shoulder representing us in Washington? Someone who was widely reviled for axing jobs rather than creating them?
I hate to bring this up, but it's not like Fiorina has been an avid citizen or particularly excited about government, either. (Unless you count that auspicious period in 2008, when she was one of John McCain's economic advisers and got in trouble for saying he couldn't run a company.)
As Connie Bruck wrote in The New Yorker of Fiorina's record,"she has failed to vote in two-thirds of local, state and national elections since 2000, including gubernatorial elections and Presidential primaries."
I know teenagers who have better voting records than that.
Call me picky, but it also seems a stretch to call yourself a populist, as Fiorina has done every chance she gets, when you walked away from your last job with $21 million in severance, have a yacht, a mansion, a condo in Georgetown, and have been able to funnel at least $5.5 million of your personal fortune into a Senate race. But let's not dwell on the obvious.
Aside from the lack of interest problem, the conservative Republican also seems to think she's running in Texas or South Carolina, and has been proudly touting her endorsements from everyone from anti-choice groups to the NRA to Sarah Palin. (Who in her typical oblivious fashion got her facts about Fiorina's "humble beginnings" wrong, saying her dad was a school teacher. He was a law professor and later a federal judge.)
At least Fiorina, who has said she would overturn Roe v. Wade if given the chance, hasn't dubbed herself a feminist, like her new BFF Palin did recently in one of her more comic moments.
In her effort to win the Tea Party vote and disgruntled Independents, Fiorina has been particularly intent on slamming Tom Campbell, a former congressman and the lone moderate in the race. (Chuck DeVore, the other GOP candidate, is pretty much toast at this point.) It seems like ages ago, but remember the delightfully tacky demon sheep ad, where Fiorina painted Campbell as a "wolf in sheep's clothing"?
At a debate in May, when the GOP candidates were asked if people on the "no-fly list" should be allowed to carry guns, Fiorina attacked Campbell when he very sensibly said no, sniffing, "That's why he has a poor rating from the National Rifle Association, right there."
The attacks appear to have worked. This week Campbell pulled his ads off the air, after Fiorina leaped ahead in the polls.
She's nothing if not tenacious. Faster than you can say "demon sheep," Fiorina was up with a new ad trashing Barbara Boxer. In the ad Boxer is shown saying that climate change is a national security issue. Is that ridiculous, or what? Then Fiorina comes on screen and gravely says, "Terrorism kills, and Barbara Boxer is worried about the weather."
Is that ridiculous, or what?
As for the newly resurrected wedge issue of the moment, Fiorina is all for Arizona's harsh immigration law. At a time when Californians are most worried about jobs and not who's busing their tables or picking their strawberries, that might not be such a swell move.
There's also the no small matter that one in six voters in November is expected to be Hispanic. And that most young Californians have grown up in a strikingly diverse culture where race-baiting not only is unusual but extremely uncool.
Maybe Fiorina should move to Texas?

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Who gets Game 3 - NBA Finals Update

 Ron ArtestI realize there isn’t an NBA team anywhere near Kansas City and that means there aren’t a lot of NBA fans – at least compared to MLB or NFL – who might be reading UFR. Nevertheless, I am a fan and so I’m going to report after each game in the finals. I would probably do it regardless of who the two teams were, but when it’s the Lakers-Celtics, you can’t go wrong.
Of course, Los Angeles won game #1 the way I expected – dominating at home. Game two was much more like the typical Lakers-Celtics wars of yesteryear – although nowhere near the scoring. Though the final margins of the two games were similar, game #2 was far more competitive.
Having watched both contests, I have a few  thoughts.
Game 1: 67 Free Throw Attempts - Boooring!
Game 2: 67 Free Throw Attempts - Boooring!

As Ron Artest goes, so go the Lakers
Artest was an abysmal 1-10 from the field, 1-6 from the arc and 3-8 from the line. It doesn’t get much worse than that. He is important defensively, but you simply can’t begin to overcome a -3 EFF in 40+ minutes!
I don’t think I’ve ever discussed this yet on UFR. It’s one thing to get a -3 in two minutes of action, but something entirely different in 40 minutes. If you add all the Lakers individual EFFs you get 106. Since there are 240 man-minutes in a game, that means for each minute played per person, they should have racked up .442 EFFs.
Since Artest played 40:31, he should have had an 18 EFF to be consistent with the team. Even worse, take his 40:31 out of the mix and you have 109 divided into 192 minutes. That’s .568 EFF per man minute. If he had done as well as the rest of the team on a per-minute basis, he would have had an EFF of 23.
I can assure you that if he had a 23 instead of a -3, the Lakers would have won… easily. The loss of this game falls at the feet of one person – Ron Artest.

What is Artest doing jacking so many threes?
I looked at the last 30 games that each of the players have played – which includes 18 in the playoffs and the last dozen of the regular season. Here is a stat that will make you quiver in your boots if you are a Lakers’ fan.
COOL FACTOID: Ron Artest has taken more three-point shots than Kobe Bryant over the last 30 games each has played.
That might be ok if it was 2008 (38.0%) or 2009 (39.9%), but in 2010, he only shot 35.5% and over his last 30 games, he’s bricking them at 26.2%.
In Bryant’s last 30 games, he’s shooting treys at 40.3%! Huge difference. Here are the three-point stats for Fisher, Bryant, Farmar and Artest over the last 30 games.

Player
Treys.Attempted
3pt%
Artest
145
26.2
Bryant
144
40.3
Fisher
96
36.5
Farmar
81
45.7
-
Can anyone explain to me what a non-ball handling, defensive forward is doing shooting more threes than any of the guards on the team – including Kobe Bryant – especially when he’s only clanking them at 26% !?
It’s hard to believe Jackson likes it, but you have to figure he probably tolerates it in order to keep his (Artest’s) mind right.

Rajon Rondo was even better than Ray Allen
Rondo will get some props because he is the flavor of the month for the talking heads – not to mention a triple-double. But, most people will certainly make the blanket assumption that Ray Allen won the game for Boston. Although it was close by EFF, Rondo had a 28 and Allen a 26.
While it is true that Allen outscored Rondo 32-19 – including a finals record eight three-pointers on only 11 attempts, it’s also true that Rondo had nine more rebounds and eight more assists!
Besides, every one of those eight three-pointers came in the first three quarters. LA had the lead after that. It was Rondo’s play down the stretch that won the game for the Celtics.
Unquestionably, the headline(s) will read… Ray Allen this, Ray Allen that. In fact, the first person mentioned in every story I looked at was “Ray Allen”. It’s just one more example (out of millions) where the public and the reporter are fooled by scoring.
You will know (well, you won’t know because you will be dead of old age) that reporting has evolved when you see a game like this and the lead headline is “Rajon Rondo leads Celtics to victory”.

EFFs for games 1 and 2
Los Angeles
Player
Game 1
Game 2
Gasol
32
37
Bryant
28
19
Artest
18
-3
Bynum
11
25
Fisher
10
10
Odom
6
6
Brown
5
4
Farmar
5
3
Vujacic
2
5
Walton
1
-
Boston
Player
Game 1
Game 2
Pierce
28
9
Rondo
14
28
Garnett
14
13
Wallace
12
12
Perkins
11
16
R.Allen
8
26
Davis
4
7
T.Allen
1
3
Finley
0
Robinson
7
Williams
-2
-
I don’t have a prediction on game #3. However, I’m sticking with the Lakers winning the series. It will be tough to win in six, having lost one of two at home, but I still think they are the superior team.
One last item of interest. On the way home, one of those brilliant late-night radio hosts made a comment to this effect – meaning paraphrased: “I think it is important that LA win at least one game in Boston because they have to get back the home court advantage.”
Hey Sherlock! I’ve got an even better reason why they need to win at least on game in Boston. Because if they don’t… they will lose the series 4-1.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

GM Recall of Cars in Canada

 General Motors is the latest auto maker to deal with a major recall.
More than one million vehicles are affected in North America including more than 250 thousand in Canada.
The company says there are potential steering problems with some of its compact vehicles.
But GM insists the problem only occurs at low speeds and the vehicles are still safe to drive.
Vehicles affected by the recall include:
2005-2010 Chevrolet Cobalt
2007-2010 Pontiac G5
2005-2006 Pontiac Pursuit
The company says an investigation has revealed "greater steering effort" may be required by drivers when the vehicle is travelling at under 24 km/hr.
There have been reports of 14 crashes and one injury in the U-S and three complaints in Canada.
Repairs won't be made until replacement parts are available from the dealership.

David Mikael Taclino
Inyu Web Development and Design Creative Writer

Share

Twitter Delicious Facebook Digg Stumbleupon Favorites More