Bayless called out for trumped up high school history

Skip Bayless was called out by Jalen Rose on ESPN for lying about his high school basketball career. Bayless was criticizing Oklahoma City’s point guard on Twitter. Bayless was pumping up his own credits as a high school point guard who finally learned that point guards should think "pass 12 times before they fire away.”

According to Bayless, he was the starting point guard for his high school team in Oklahoma that made the state finals.

People from The Last Ogle, along with Rose, did their research and found out that Bayless wasn’t even on the varsity squad until his senior year, only played 15 out of the 22 games his team played and no one on his team scored fewer points than Bayless did.

 Overall, this was an attempt for Bayless to get more attention and more followers on Twitter. The result backfired because Rose called him out on his lie and made Bayless seem less credible.

 Link: http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/jalen-rose-calls-skip-bayless-air-trumped-high-214530179.html

YouTube Fame Could End Your Life

     In recent months, we have all seen videos about the cinnamon challenge and other games of that nature. While the idiotic thought of these types of games may seem funny to the viewer, they have proven to be very dangerous for the individuals that partake in the challenge itself.
     The cinnamon challenge in tells one to take a spoon full of sugar and eat it all without being able to wash it down with any water or any other beverage. Challengers usually do not complete the challenge entirely and when they do, the end up choking and coughing vigorously. Sometimes they even throw up. These challengers do not know that those small side effects are just the start of bigger complications that they are causing to their bodies such as lung collapse and pneumonia.
     Other dangerous challenges that have been broadcast all over YouTube and have been trending on Twitter are the Gallon Challenge (drink an entire gallon of milk without stopping), Chubby Bunny (how many full sized marshmallows you can fit in your mouth until you can no longer say "chubby bunny"), and the Choking Game (people cut off their oxygen supply in order to get the sensation of feeling high).
     I feel that these games are all ridiculous and they need to be stopped. I know that there is no way to stop people from doing things entirely, but I would hate for something tragic to happen before people stop doing things of this nature.

http://news.yahoo.com/dangerous-games-kids-avoid-160523743.html

"GCB"

Ok, guys I have a confession..............I am OBESESSED with ABC's newest show "GCB." Based on the "semi-autobiographical" novel Good Christian Bitches by Kim Gatlin, the series centers on a recently widowed woman who moves her family back to the upscale Dallas, Texas  neighborhood where she grew up.New to ABC'S primetime lineup, "GCB," series debuted on ABC as a mid-season replacement in the 2011-12 television season, on Sunday, March 4, 2012.

The series follows Amanda Vaughn (Leslie Bibb), former high-school "Queen Bitch," a recently widowed mother of two, who returns to her hometown of Highland Park, Texas, an enclave of Dallas. Formerly rich, Amanda lost everything when her husband was exposed as stealing billions of dollars from investors and died in a car crash with his mistress. She meets the former schoolmates she used to mock: Carlene Cockburn the new "Queen Bitch"; Sharon Peacham, who was beautiful in high school and is now heavy and insecure and does the bulk of Carlene's bidding; glamorous gossip queen Cricket Caruth-Reilly, whose husband, Blake, is gay; and Heather Cruz, a powerful Dallas real-estate agent.

Amanda and her teenage children move in with her 50-something mother Gigi Stopper, who tries to influence Amanda's parenting and style choices, and gives her advice about strategic maneuvering among these women. While Amanda has grown considerably since high school and wants to move on with her life, Carlene and the others still resent Amanda. They don't believe she's changed and are out to drive her away.

The storyline follows her pursuit to make right all of her worngs she's accumulated in the past and meanwhile attepting to rebuild her life in the balance. This show is definitely my guiltiest pleasure. As much as I hate it, some Texans act the way they are protrayed in the show, and its HILARIOUS. The show has even become the topic of many controversies surrounding the show's stances on religion and to some extents religious activist have petitioned to get the show removed from the air because, of what they feel, its negative portrayal of people and religion.

If you find time on a Sunday night around 9 p.m. you definitely should check it out, I'm for sure you won't be dissappointed.

Games for Education

Grantoo is a new app that allows students to play brand-sponsored games in order to win money for their education and a charity of their choice.

Students can play for free and are asked to pick a philanthropy to contribute at least 10 percent of their winnings to.

The founders of the app figure that students were playing games as a distraction anyways, so they might as well do it for a beneficial cause. The games include Wordy Bird, Grantoo Hold’em and Quiz Night. Not only students benefit from this, but companies have a great opportunity to build brand image through this application.

For more on this story click here.

Say Goodbye to print version of Yellow Pages

According to an article on CNN, AT&T has made the decision to sell its stake in Yellow Pages due to the rapid advancements in this digital era.

The sell leaves AT&T free from suffering loss on this out-dated print version of locating phone numbers, addresses and other information for company's and private individuals. AT&T will still remain connected to Yellow Pages, as a stake holder, as it moves into the digital business via Cerberus Capital Management; therefore, if the new modern version is a success, AT&T will profit. Although this deal is has not been completely finalized, it is expected to be in mid 2012.

Full article:

http://money.cnn.com/2012/04/09/technology/ATT-sells-yellow-pages/index.htm

RIP Press Release?

Read Jonathan Rick's, Levick Strategic Communication director, article on Mashable here.

In this article Rick discusses how the traditional press release has been accurately labeled as a dying bread for the last ten years. This is because digital alternatives are now eclipsing the traditional press release.

He describes how big company names, such as Goggle and Dell have made big announcements via blog posts, or other online mediums in recent years.

He goes on to explain how smaller successful companies have also had success in "blog-centric" communications. The companies listed are Zillow, Patagonia, Innocent and Servint.

The four lessons that can be taken from these 4 companies success with virtual/digital style of breaking news (rather than a press release) are:
1. Keep it human
2. Passion and edginess benefit the message; they do NOT get in the way of it (this ones my favorite)
3. Entertaining customers is as important as informing them
4. Make it personal


I think all of these pointers are great things to note and keep in mind as we enter the field!

Instagram, Instant Fame

By: Staci De Leon

Facebook seems to be taking over the world, well maybe just the Instagram world. Monday morning Facebook and Instagram status updates revealed that Facebook will be taking over the 13 employee company. Facebook bought the two-year-old company for $1 billion, this comes just after Instagram gained more users by announcing an Android application.

Some users are ready to delete their Instagram accounts calling the company a sell-out. Was it a good move? It will depend on the new "photo sharing" features Facebook decided to make available to its users.

The heat users are giving Instagram can be understandable since Facebook seems to be doing a lot of network sharing; updating Facebook and Twitter at the same time with the same information, adding your Pinterest pins to your Facebook wall, etc.

Personally, the move seems illogical. I got Instagram to upload photos in a picture blog type of way, not to add them to my Facebook photos for all of those friends to see. Although technology and the internet are growing, I feel like having different social network accounts are a personal decision and should be kept separate from each other.

To read the full Huffington Post article click here.