Rosie O'Donnell has quit her job as moderator of The View after a vicious war of words with Elizabeth Hasselbeck hit the headlines last week. She clashed with her co-host on last Wednesday's program after the pair fell out over their political views, and she has not returned to the daytime show since.
She told fans she didn't know when she'd be back in a posting on her blog after the on-air fight, but now the show's producers have confirmed O'Donnell has quit.
On her blog O'Donnell said, "I have said all I needed," and posted a scrapbook tribute to her co-hosts from The View as a touching swansong video.
And just because she is no longer on "The View", don’t think she’s just going away. She's announced that she's going on a rock tour, joining her friend Cyndi Lauper on a series of dates beginning soon. They're said to have been friends for a while, and Rosie has even considered producing Cyndi’s show for Broadway.
Tribute video to those who fought in Vietnam from 1961 to 1975, made by a fellow Vietnam Marine.
The music is Billy Joel's Goodnight Saigon from his album The Nylon Curtain (1982). He wrote the song as a tribute to many of his friends who had served in the war, and at some of his concerts, he would bring Vietnam veterans on stage when he performed this.
WASHINGTON, May 27, 2007 – A chrome convoy of about 300,000 motorcycles driven by Vietnam veterans and their supporters blazed across the nation’s capital today in a deafening roar of solidarity.
Spectators watch and show their support as motorcycle riders rumble by near the National Mall in Washington, D.C., during the 20th Rolling Thunder Ride for Freedom, May 27, 2007. The bikers ride to raise awareness about prisoners of war, troops missing in action and veterans’ benefits. Defense Dept. photo by John J. Kruzel (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available.
On the 20th anniversary of Rolling Thunder Ride for Freedom, current and former military personnel, family members and other spectators cheered riders on as the legion rumbled from the Pentagon to the National Mall here.
The ride is held every year by the non-profit group as a demonstration to raise awareness about prisoners of war, troops missing in action and veterans’ benefits. The event also offers vets the chance to reconnect with their brothers-in-arms.
“We were over there together in Vietnam, we’re real tight here. I don’t think any other generation of veterans ever had that,” said Artie Muller, founder and executive director of Rolling Thunder.
Muller and other Rolling Thunder leaders took their hogs on a detour to the White House today where President Bush invited them to share their views on issues concerning veterans of all U.S. wars.
“We have a very tight relationship with veterans from the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan because we have a brotherhood,” Muller told American Forces Press Service after his meeting with Bush.
Rolling Thunder’s designated route brought bikers whizzing past national landmarks including the Vietnam Memorial, the Washington Monument and the Capitol.
For rider Kenneth Pezewski, today marked the 15th year that he’s rallied riders from his home state of Wisconsin, to pound the pavement here.
“My brother died from Agent Orange in Vietnam,” Pezewski said. “I do this in a tribute to him.”
Pezewski said his participation is his way of paying homage to former and current servicemembers.
“I’ve got son-in-laws who are still in the service,” he said, “That’s the only way I can honor their rank and their respect, so that’s why I do it.”
Despite encountering light rain May 24, Pezewski called the nearly 800-mile journey from Milwaukee, “a beautiful ride.” Since 1992, Pezewski has designed and printed shirts for fellow riders – a taskmade more difficult by the 200 riders who joined him this year.
One such rider was retired Army Sgt. Tom Boisbert, known to fellow riders as “Top Hat.”
“I do this because I love my country,” Boisbert said.
“That’s why I fly the flags,” he said, pointing to the stars and stripes mounted on the back of his bike.
Retired Army Spc. George Rusiewicz rides to show support for his brother, who fought in Vietnam and was riding in Rolling Thunder today for the fourth straight year.
“You’ve gotta support the troops, and I think this is a great way to do it,” Rusiewicz said. “We need people to defend this nation, and like they say, ‘Freedom isn’t free.’”
The 350-mile trek here from New London, N.C., is one of the few rides under Rusiewicz’s belt. He recently bought his first motorcycle – a brand new Harley Davidson cruiser – but Rusiewicz has found himself immediately addicted to Rolling Thunder.
“I love it,” he said. “I’m going to keep coming back every year until I can’t do it anymore.”
Retired Navy field hospital corpsman Jim Enos, who leads the Wilmington, N.C., Rolling Thunder chapter, doesn’t miss too many Freedom Rides, he said.
“I love coming up here,” he said. “I have not come to an event up here yet where I have not run into somebody that I knew in Vietnam.
“Last year over here I ran into a fellow that I served with about 30 years ago, and it was pretty awesome,” he said. “I kept looking at this guy, and all of a sudden I said, ‘I know him,’”
Thirty years before, Enos and the man had served in the same company, he recalled.
“And I went over and spoke to him and when he heard my voice – evidently my voice hasn’t changed, though the rest of me has – he knew who I was and he said, ‘Doc!’” Enos said.
“I said, ‘Damn, you got old boy!’” Enos recalled with a jovial laugh.
Earlier today, a Marine Purple Heart recipient who Enos never met reached out to him, he said.
“I saw he had been with the 9th Marines and he was a Purple Heart recipient,” Enos said. “And when he saw my caduceus here, and he saw 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, he hugged me – the guy’s about 6’4”, about 300 pounds, when he hugged me I thought he was going to crush me!”
The Rolling Thunder Ride for Freedom is made up Vietnam veterans and their supporters who are dedicated to ensuring that those who are missing or killed in action are accounted for. Defense Dept. photo by John J. Kruzel Download screen-resolution Download high-resolution
Barbie Cummings doesn't see what all the fuss is about.
Trooper James Randy Moss of the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) was just doing his job when he observed a pink Honda Accord speeding outside of Nashville on May 7th. He clocked her doing 92 mph in a 70 mph zone near Lebanon, so doing his duty, he pulled her over.
Since she was speeding, Trooper Moss felt it necessary to search her vehicle, and asked her if she had drugs in the car. She admitted to having some "happy pills," otherwise known in the real world as painkillers. He told her that a drug charge would mean she couldn't leave the state.
Trooper Moss then found out that Barbie Cummings is a porn star (and I didn't make this up, that's her stage name). The 21-year-old buxom blonde informed him of her occupation, explaining that if she was arrested she wouldn't be able to leave the state, blah, blah, blah and etc.
So what did the resourceful trooper to do? He threw the "happy pills" in the brush and decided to get happy the good old-fashioned way. Cummings says the trooper led her to the cruiser where the two watched some of her finest work from her Web site using a laptop computer in his patrol car. That must have really gotten him going, because they moved to a secluded area where he used a hand-held camera to make his own oral-based porno.
One might say that Trooper was just being resourceful, but he was so proud of his performance that he supposedly bragged about it to his cop buddies. Then like some high-school locker room stud, he e-mailed the pics and video to her, to share them with her.
Now get this: Trooper Moss still gave her a ticket!
The officer's citation did not mention finding any illegal narcotics in the car, but he still charged her with speeding.
So Ms Cummings wrote about it, and posted the visual evidence on her blog. And in her blog she also commented in so many words that if anyone was speeding, he was.
The story has made international headlines, and she said she’s enjoyed the attention it’s brought her. She’s evidently gotten hundreds of e-mails from fans as far away as Pakistan since the story broke. Her blog was taken down temporarily and moved after the site netted 205,000 hits during the last week of May, she said.
"This police officer went ahead and told (all) of his co-workers, other police officers, and was bragging about it," she wrote. "He isn’t in trouble because of the act itself, but that he chose to let it happen while he was on duty. There was no bribing, no (coercing) or convincing."
But why in the world would you then be so incredibly stupid as to not only allow someone to take pictures and videos, but to give them copies?
A fourth grader would have more sense than that. And now we find out that Trooper Moss has been fired. One can only wonder if he was fired for throwing the pills away, receiving oral favors while on duty, or stupid conduct unbecoming a law enforcement officer.
Barbie met with THP investigators and said she turned over the photos and video. They evidently saw enough evidence, and have fired Trooper Moss, who may still be facing further charges.
And Barbie Cummings she may see James Randy Moss again, as she a good citizen, and plans to show up in court in Lebanon, TN on June 29th to answer the charge of speeding.
Will try to get the outcome of her court appearance.
This one is my nomination for the 2007 Darwin Awards.
It all started in the beginning of May, when Randall Munroe of xkcd.com published his humorous Map of Online Communities as seen below.
Click on the map above for a high-resolution version in a new window.
It was reported and commented on elsewhere here on Buzznet by Mark (panasonicyouth), where many were wondering since Buzznet didn't appear on the map, was is one of the small-but-unnamed islands there in the Bay of Angst, or somewhere within the Blogipeligo.
The folks at xkcd had announced that a large 25"x24" poster would be available by popular demand, and that one would be able to "read all the little city labels" and the " other little other points of interest" mapped exclusively for the poster!" But the question became interesting, because even in the larger online version, there was no Buzznet... it just couldn't be found, anywhere on the map.
Could it be that it wasn't even on the big poster... was Buzznet actually that small?
The question became interesting, especially on light of the undercurrent from some of the older Buzznetters who had been here for a few years, and remembered "the old days" when Buzznet, founded in March 2003, was the warm, cozy photo-sharing community. From those beginnings Buzznet could be compared and contrasting to Flickr, sharing most of Flickr’s strengths, and adding has a few additional features as well.
Yet even in those good old days when Mark Glaser reported about how Flickr and Buzznet expand citizens' role in visual journalism in 2005, he noted that "Buzznet... has roots in the music scene," so the interest outside of just photo sharing has been there all along. But keep in mind that Yahoo! acquired Flickr in 2005, and though some insiders speculated that Buzznet would also be purchased by a larger firm, it remains (as of this writing) a private entity.
So why isn't it on the map? Where is Buzznet today? Maybe the chart below will help explain things a bit.
Market Share of US Internet Visits to Top 20 Social Networking Sites
Note - data is based on custom category of 20 of the leading social networking websites ranked by market share of visits, which is the percentage of traffic to the site, based on Hitwise sample of 10 million US Internet users. The percentages represent the market share of visits among the websites within the custom category.
On March 14th, LeeAnn Prescott, a Research Director at Hitwise, the online competitive intelligence service, reported that Buzznet showed the fastest growth within the category, with visits increasing 148.4% from January to February 2007. Next was IMEEM, with an increase of 145.7% in the same period.
She also reported that the market share of visits to the custom category of the top 20 social networking sites increased by 11.5% from January 2007 to February 2007. Year-over-year (February 2006 - February 2007) category traffic was up 87%. Traffic to leader MySpace was up 10.2% from January to February 2007 and 107.3% year over year.
History repeating itself...
In the mid-'80s, WordPerfect and WordStar were the two leading word processors, with larger market shares than several other programs (DisplayWrite, Microsoft Word, MultiMate, Samna Word). WordPerfect, however, broke away from the pack, and by 1990 it clearly dominated the market with almost 50% share of the PC market, and had become the de facto standard word processor on all platforms, from PCs to mid-range UNIX systems up to IBM S/370 mainframes. By the end of the '90s, however, Microsoft Word came up from way behind and was the dominant word processing program.
In the world of computers, technology and the Internet there are many such examples. And the point is? Simple, it's called evolution.
In March, Paul La Monica, CNNMoney.com's editor at large remarked that social networking is hot, and went on to explain that there's more to the rapidly growing market than MySpace and Facebook. He noted that in February 2007, MySpace had 64.4 million unique visitors, while Facebook logged 16.7 million. During this same time, Buzznet (#17 of the top 20) above had 3.1 million unique visitors, more than either Bebo (#3 above) or hi5 (#9). There was no mention about photography or photographic sites, but he noted "that two other sites focusing on music, Buzznet and iMeem, are experiencing rapid growth."
Editor/publisher Ben Kuo interviewed Buzznet co-founder Anthony Batt on May 10, 2006 for socalTECH. Anthony explained how he and co-founder Marc Brown had observed that no one was doing photo blogging, and that's were it started He explained that they focused on allowing members to blog using photos, extending that into using video, and needless to say text. He went on to explain how Buzznet was evolving, that the "content in Buzznet is being brought in by trainspotters and trendsetters. The members who are joining Buzznet usually trainspotters and trendspotters. The content that bubbles up is really pop culture-y content, and is really about what is going on."
If you're tempted to carry on about how you feel that Buzznet has abandoned the serious photographers and writers here, maybe you need to take a good look at Buzznet Originals, an almost-daily feature where different users brings their own original and unique content to Buzznet. And don't forget that the grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence.
Each time we see someone leave our community, whether to switch to another photo sharing site or to simply fade away, it's a sad day, especially for those of us who are a bit older and who value the true meaning of nostalgia. But as we see these changes, let's not forget that every day we see new faces with new ideas and visions.
Before we get too involved in wrapping ourselves up in remembering of how things used to be, it might be wise to also think about the following:
The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn. ~ Alvin Toffler, author of Future Shock and The Third Wave
There is nothing permanent except change. ~ Heraclitus (535-475 BCE)
So where is Buzznet? It's right here, just look around you!
A California woman is suing Geek Squad (aka "Peek Squad") and Best Buy after one of their techs allegedly taped her taking a shower.
The geek in question, named Hao Kuo Chi, used the customer's bathroom before fixing a broken PC. He left his camera phone on "record" in the bathroom. One of the two girls who lives in the house (a minor) took a shower. When she saw the phone, she told her sister. Sarah Vasquez says he set his camera phone up in the bathroom, left it running, and recorded her bathing. "You could see him on the video setting it up," Vasquez said. "I was shocked."
This isn't a joke, see the additional videos here, here and here.
And get this: the younger sister is a 13-year-old. It's not just that you could get ripped off when you let strange people into your house these days, as you can see in the videos. They could be total pervert douche bags.
Then formerGeek Squad Agent Hao Kuo Chi appeared in court on April 3rd, 2007. He plead "no contest" to one count of unlawful invasion of privacy, according to the LA County DA's office, and he received this sentence:
3 days in county jail
3 years probation
42 days of community service on a tree farm
1 year of sexual impulse classes
Ordered to stay away from the victim
Now, this doesn't mean that he necessarily did what they say he did. It just means he didn't oppose the charge. A Geek on a tree farm, surrounded only by manual implements. Sounds like justice to me.
And get this: 
