Mammoth Blog

In the wild, wild west, when a poker player was caught cheating it was a capital offense, with the punishment quickly dispensed right across the card table. But today if you're caught cheating in the popular and lucrative world of Internet poker, you may get away scot-free.

At least that's what seems to be happening in the biggest scandal in the history of online gambling.

As 60 Minutes correspondent Steve Kroft first reported last November, a small group of people managed to cheat players out of more than $20 million.

And it would have gone undetected if it hadn't been for the players themselves, who used the Internet to root out the corruption. As a joint investigation by 60 Minutes and The Washington Post revealed, it raises new questions about the integrity and security of the shadowy and highly profitable industry that operates outside U.S. law.

WashingtonPost.com: Click here to learn more about online gambling.

If you had to pick the moment that the poker boom began, it was probably the day an unknown accountant named Chris Moneymaker won $2.5 million at the 2003 World Series of Poker.

Suddenly every amateur with a hat, sunglasses and a stack of chips saw themselves as the next big money maker. Nearly 7,000 competed in last year's tournament for $180 million in prize money. But the fever has spread far beyond Las Vegas.

It is the richest sporting competition in the world. And yet all this pales in comparison to the half million people who are playing on the Internet right now in the unregulated world of online poker.

As we learned in a tutorial, all you have to do to play is log on to the Web, click your way to an online gambling site, open an account with your credit card, choose your game and pull up a seat at a virtual table.

"These people could be playing from anywhere in the world. They could be here in the United States. They could be, you know, in India. They could be in South Africa," Australian computer security expert Michael Josem tells Kroft.

We should tell you that this $18 billion industry is illegal in the U.S., but the ban is almost impossible to enforce since the Internet sites and the computers that randomly deal the cards and keep track of the bets are located offshore, beyond the jurisdiction of U.S. law enforcement.

And unlike land-based casinos, there is almost no official regulation, enforcement or supervision. But it hasn't stopped thousands of mostly young men from making this their livelihood. Todd Witteles, a former computer scientist-turned-poker pro, says you no longer have to go to Vegas to find a high stakes game.

"You could do it from your own living room," he says. "You don't have to get dressed. You don't have to anything. It's right there on your computer."

Witteles says online poker is much different - faster, more aggressive and less personal.

"You're not lookin' at somebody sittin' across the table. You're just playing the cards that tumble out of the computer," Kroft remarks.

"Not only are you not looking at your opponents, you're not looking at the cards being dealt, you're not looking at who's dealing them to you. So, you don't know if the whole thing is legitimate, even if all the players sitting with you are just as legitimate as you are. Maybe the whole game isn't," Witteles says.

And as Witteles found out, it wasn't, at least on a popular Internet site called "Absolute Poker." His suspicions were first aroused in a high stakes game of Texas Hold 'Em, against what he thought was an incompetent, and lucky, amateur using the screen name "Grey Cat."

"This Grey Cat person was new. And at first, he seemed like a live one. He seemed terrible," Witteles remembers. "He seemed to play crazy. It seemed like he was giving his money away. Except the only thing was, he wasn't losing. He was playing in a style that was sure to lose, but he was killing the game day after day."

While Witteles was losing $15,000 to the apparent novice, other high stakes players began to notice improbable and endless winning streaks on Absolute Poker's sister site, "Ultimate Bet."

David Paredes, a Harvard grad who has made enough money playing poker to pay off his law school loan and live in an expensive New York apartment, got fleeced by a player called "Nio Nio."

Asked how much he lost, Paredes tells Kroft, "I'm probably down somewhere in the range of $70,000 to that particular player."

Paredes says there were other players who lost higher sums. "In the range of $250,000, $90,000, $70,000, $210,000." continue>>>

There will be a convergence of two worlds, MLM and affiliate marketing. If you're only in one world, you need to understand the other so you can get beyond the misconceptions and better compete.

Know that there are legitimate MLM ("network marketing") companies. These differ from pyramids which are illegal.

When a firm pays new independent reps (or "networkers") for sponsoring others into the program or mandates that new reps must each purchase a certain amount of product to receive the right to sponsor others into the opportunity, then the company can be vulnerable to pyramid challenges.

Most mainstream MLM companies do require the purchase of a start-up kit containing sales materials to become an approved independent rep.

To stay within legal parameters, MLM companies have extensive policies and procedures for their reps. In addition, they have compensation plans that, because of their tiered structures, have some complexities that have to be accurately explained.

Also, disclaimers and disclosures regarding the income opportunity and the products are needed.

That's why mainstream MLM firms will have start-up kits whereby the reps are given information needed to help them operate their businesses within ethical and legal parameters. A manual is included along with brochures, business cards and other sales materials.

Note that reputable companies sell these kits at cost without any bonuses made to reps. This is done to avoid any possible legal challenges relating to monies being made purely for the act of recruiting.

From a marketing perspective, having a start-up kit also helps to screen reps from those who just impulsively sign up as opposed to those who show some real interest since there is this minimal purchase involved. (Many of the kits sell for $49 or less.)

MLM companies without start-up kits have a far greater number of people who sign up and never get active selling products as opposed to those mainstream firms that do require the purchase of a kit.

Affiliate marketers can relate to this. You know that since people can become affiliates for free, resulting in an overabundance of inactive affiliates in a given affiliate program.

Hence, how one enters an MLM program as opposed to an affiliate program differs. Agreements, along with the policies and procedures, are usually more stringent in the former.

If you participate in the upcoming convergence of MLM and affiliate marketing, you'll want to utilize the best strategies and tactics to create a synergy between the two to expand your business.

This article serves as a start to a more vivid understanding of both worlds. source>>>

Lonnie Nielsen was as amazed as anybody.

Nielsen shot a 9-under 63 on Sunday, vaulting past second-round leader Fred Funk with an impressive five-hole flourish at the start, and won the Dick's Sporting Goods Open by three shots over Funk and Ronnie Black.

Trailing Funk by three shots entering the day, Nielsen started with four birdies and an eagle and pulled away on the back side to win for just the second time on the Champions Tour.

"What a start! I never dreamed I would start like that,'' Nielsen said. "I had a lot of breaks go my way.''

The victory came a day before his 56th birthday. The only other tournament he had won - the 2007 Commerce Bank Championship on Long Island - came two days after he celebrated his 54th.

"This is the time of year I start to play,'' said Nielsen, whose best previous finish this year was a tie for third at the Outback Steakhouse Pro-Am in April.

Nielsen finished at 21-under 195, a record in the three-year history of the event and three shots better than Eduardo Romero's winning total a year ago.

"I've never had a week like that,'' Nielsen said.

It was the fourth straight finish of seventh or better for Funk (69), who was bidding to become the first player to win a PGA Tour event and a Champions Tour event on the En-Joie Golf Club course. He won the B.C. Open in 1996 at En-Joie.

"You wouldn't dare dream that (Nielsen's start),'' Funk said. "I didn't have the run of birdies I needed. It's disappointing. I would have liked to have scared him.''

Black (66) had not won in 498 starts - 484 on the PGA Tour and 14 on the Champions Tour, a span of 24 years, 11 months and 13 days since capturing the 1984 Anheuser Busch Classic.

Playing in the group ahead of Funk, Nielsen began his round with birdie, birdie, eagle, birdie, birdie - and suddenly had a two-shot lead. His 60-foot putt at the par-5 third had to go over a ridge and he hit it too hard, but it bounced off the back of the cup and somehow dropped in for eagle.

"That might have saved me two shots. It was a huge confidence-builder,'' said Nielsen, who had watched in amazement when his 25-foot putt on the first hole broke back right a foot from the hole and dropped into the cup. "That ball had no reason to do what it did. I was off and running.''

It was down to Nielsen and Funk after that.

Nielsen birdied No. 4 and went for the green with a hybrid on his second shot at the 565-yard, par-5 fifth, statistically the easiest of the day. The ball landed in a greenside bunker and Nielsen blasted to 5 feet and made birdie for a two-shot lead.

Nielsen parred the next six holes, while Funk made birdies at Nos. 5 and 6, curling in a perfectly paced 10-foot putt to tie for the lead. But the touch that produced 17 birdies in rounds of 64 and 65 the first two days wasn't there again, and Funk failed to make another birdie.

"I watched Fred make my jaw drop yesterday,'' Nielsen said. "You know it's hard to maintain that over three days.''

If Nielsen hadn't yet figured it was his day, he had to be reassured on the closing two holes. His tee shot at the par-3 17th hit in the rough and caromed back onto the green and he made par. Then his tee shot at 18 hit a tree along the right side and ricocheted back onto the fairway and he managed to score his final birdie of the tournament and finish a second straight round without a bogey.

Nielsen, who played the PGA Tour from 1978-83 without much success, is a contributor to Golf for Injured Veterans Everywhere, and he was convinced that was a big reason he finished with 24 birdies and one eagle. He donates $50 for each birdie and $500 for each eagle.

"It helps give them a place to play, makes them feel part of society again,'' Nielsen said. "I felt I needed to do something. I think it's a big reason I won. I could feel them pulling for me.''

Divots: Romero was the only player in the field with two eagles. Funk had 20 birdies and Black had just one bogey. ... Nielsen's 63 is the lowest final round by a winner on the Champions Tour this year. source>>>

Kenny Perry shot 63 yesterday to finish with a course-record 22-under-par 258, giving him a three-stroke victory over Paul Goydos and David Toms in the Travelers Championship.

The 48-year old Perry, who led after each of the first two rounds at TPC River Highlands in Cromwell, Conn., trailed by a stroke to Paul Goydos heading into the final round.

He responded by shooting a 32 on the front nine and was up by five strokes heading to the par-4 15th.

Perry birdied 15 and put the tournament away by making birdie on 17 after hitting a 164-yard approach to within eight feet.

"I knew that I had to keep making birdies," he said. "I wasn't going to let up. I wasn't going to play defensive golf."

Perry has won five times in just more than a year, the most of any player on tour. He has 12 top-10 finishes over that span. His 14th career win also moves him to the top of the FedEx Cup standings. source>>>

Canadians who sell a lot of stuff on eBay best beware - the taxman is watching.

The Canada Revenue Agency has won a Federal Court order requiring eBay Canada Ltd. to turn over the names, addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of all high-volume sellers on the popular website. The CRA wants to find out whether those individuals or companies are reporting the income they made from online sales in 2004 and 2005.

"The CRA is seeking to verify compliance with the obligations and duties under the Income Tax Act of certain Canadian taxpayers selling goods in an online marketplace," said an affidavit filed in court by Aziz Fazal, a Toronto tax officer who heads an audit group within the CRA that is leading the probe.

"In particular, the CRA seeks to verify the reporting of income by certain Canadian taxpayers selling goods via the eBay marketplace."

A lawyer representing eBay Canada declined to comment on the order, which was finalized last week.

The company argued in court that it did not have access to the records because eBay Canada is a subsidiary of eBay Inc. All of the information requested by the CRA is stored in computers outside Canada, eBay's lawyers said in court filings.

The company also argued that the CRA had not shown enough evidence to prove that it "was conducting a genuine and serious inquiry."

Mr. Justice Roger Hughes of the Federal Court of Canada ruled that eBay is legally obliged to turn over the information even if it is located elsewhere.

However, Judge Hughes reserved his decision on the issue of the validity of the CRA investigation. That will be dealt with in a future hearing.

"Good for [the CRA]," said Andrea Alacchi, a Montreal entrepreneur who launched an online business in 2004, called Distribution Online, after starting out by selling items on eBay. "It's unfair competition for people like us who run businesses fairly. If the other guy is not declaring his income, it's unfair competition."

Canadians spend about $5-billion online each year and eBay is by far the largest electronic marketplace, accounting for about a quarter of the total sales. The site was visited by nearly 11 million Canadians in August, according to company figures.

The CRA said in court filings that it is targeting people who qualified for eBay's PowerSeller program in 2004 and 2005.

Only top eBay sellers can qualify for the program, which provides benefits to members. Those benefits include prioritized customer service, special promotions and sales tips.

According to court filings, there are five PowerSeller levels ranging from Bronze, which involves $1,000 a month in sales, to Titanium, which is for people or companies that sell more than $150,000 a month.

The company does not release the number of PowerSellers but, according to court files, it keeps detailed computer records on each member.

The CRA defended its actions in court filings by arguing that it has the power to ensure tax laws are followed and it offered assurance the information will be kept confidential. "The Canadian income tax system is a self-assessing system. It's integrity is dependent on the Minister's broad power to verify compliance with the Act," the agency said in a filing.

A CRA spokeswoman declined to comment on the probe or whether it will be expanded to other websites.
source>>>

Sales for Sega Corp.'s Michael Jackson's Moonwalker video game skyrocketed on Ebay following the death of the superstar last Thurs.

Michael Jackson's Moonwalker, released for the Sega Genesis in 1990, fetched prices as high as $205 for a complete set of the original retail SKU.

The action title featured music from the best-selling Thriller album and the BAD album, including Smooth Criminal, Beat It, Billie Jean, and BAD.

An arcade version of the game was also released in 1990.

Michael Jackson died last week in an L.A. hospital. He was 50 years old.

In addition to Moonwalker, Jackson appeared in a cameo in the music title Space Channel 5 for the Sega Dreamcast.

Microsoft Corp. over the weekend offered a free download of the Michael Jackson music video 'Thriller' at no cost to U.S. Xbox Live members. source>>>

A steakhouse lunch with billionaire investor Warren Buffett sold for $1.68 million in an online auction to benefit a San Francisco charity, trailing last year's record of $2.1 million. The winner chose to remain anonymous.

The auction consisted of 10 bidders and 116 bids, according to EBay Inc., and ended yesterday. The Glide Foundation, a San Francisco-based charity where Buffett's late wife volunteered, will receive all proceeds from the event.

The auction winner and as many as seven friends get to sit down for lunch with Buffett, gaining a chance to ask questions of the famed investor known as the "Oracle of Omaha." The auction has raised more than $5.92 million for Glide over the past decade, helping the foundation offer food, clothes, shelter and health care to the needy.

"To have someone like Warren Buffett, who has such a high level of intellect support your cause, is an unbelievable endorsement," said Willa Seldon, chief executive of Glide, in an interview at the San Francisco Hilton Hotel, where the foundation was hosting a party.

Bidding for the lunch on the EBay auction site began on June 21, with the final bids broadcast last evening on two screens at the Hilton. The party was on the 46th floor, overlooking downtown, and featured wine, snacks and speeches from Seldon and Reverend Cecil Williams, Glide's founder.

Winner Not Identified

Bidding surpassed $1 million about 45 minutes before the auction closed. Winners typically wait a year before having their lunch meeting.

"For now the winner wants to stay anonymous," said Tod Thorpe, an associate director at Glide. The group will announce the name "as soon as that changes if it changes," he said.

Buffett, the 78-year-old chairman and chief executive officer of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc., met on June 24 with last year's winner, hedge fund manager Zhao Danyang of Hong Kong, at the Smith & Wollensky restaurant on Third Avenue in Manhattan.

Zhao said he quizzed Buffett for three hours over lunch about commodities, the importance of corporate governance and the role of central governments in stabilizing currencies.

"What I gained from that meeting was immeasurable," said Zhao. He said his fund's 600 percent return over the past six years was made possible by an investment strategy he learned from reading about Buffett.

Berkshire's Transformation

Ranked the world's second-richest man by Forbes magazine, Buffett transformed Berkshire from a failing textile maker into an enterprise with businesses ranging from ice cream and underwear to power plants and corporate jet leasing. Berkshire has more than $100 billion in annual revenue.

Buffett said in an interview before his lunch with Zhao that U.S. unemployment is likely to exceed 10 percent and predicted the country may need a second stimulus package.

"It looks like we're going to need more medicine not less," Buffett said in the Bloomberg Television interview. The economic rebound "will be a slow process."

The unemployment rate climbed to 9.4 percent in May, the highest since 1983, and the economy shrank at a 5.5 percent annual pace in the first quarter. Glide, founded in the 1960s, said in a June 15 statement that the number of free meals it served jumped 20 percent in the past year, while visitors to its health care clinic rose to a record.

"The auction comes at a time when Glide needs the extra funds more than ever," the foundation said.

Glide Lunch With Warren Buffett Results:

Year Winner Winning Bid
2000 Anonymous $25,000
2001 Anonymous $18,000
2002 Edward Jones Co. and 2 Anonymous $25,000
2003 David Einhorn, Greenlight Capital $250,100
2004 Jason Choo, Singapore $202,100
2005 Anonymous $351,100
2006 Yongping Duan, California $620,100
2007 Mohnish Pabrai, Guy Spier, Harina Kapoor $650,100
2008 Zhao Danyang $2,110,100
2009 Anonymous $1,680,300
source>>>

A new version of Ben E. King's "Stand By Me" featuring Jon Bon Jovi and exiled Iranian singer Andy Madadian, which is making the rounds as an online video, is meant to send "a musical message of worldwide solidarity" to the Iranian people in the wake of the country's controversial recent election, according to co-producer Don Was.

VIDEO

Was tells Billboard.com that the session, which took place June 24 in Los Angeles, was spurred by a conversation he had with Madadian about "whether there was something we could do just to send out a little message of solidarity, remembering the '60s, believing music can change things." When they arrived to record the song, they found Bon Jovi, guitarist Richie Sambora and John Shanks, who's producing their next album, sitting outside and having lunch.

"They asked what we were doing, I told them, and Jon said, 'Look, man, if you do it right now we'll do it with you,' " Was recalls. "So we did." Maladian -- who's lived in the U.S. since the Iranian revolution of 1979 -- and Bon Jovi duet on the song, with both men singing the first verse in Farsi. Sambora plays a guitar solo, with Was on bass, Patrick Leonard on keyboards and Jeff Rothchild on drums.

"We just cut it," Was says, "and the video is the session. It took about four hours and just fell into place nicely." The video, which features footage and still photos from the session, went up on Was' portion of My Damn Channel on Saturday and was quickly disseminated via MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and other sites. At the end of the video Maladian and Bon Jovi stand next to each other, with the latter holding a sing saying "We are one" in Farsi.

"It is not for sale," Was says. "It wasn't intended to be on the Billboard charts, wasn't meant to be a hit record or even pressed on a CD. It's intended to be downloaded and shared by the Iranian people. The whole idea was to get it into Iran and tell them...to carry on, that the world is watching and we're with you. source>>>

Geoff Taylor, head of UK major label trade group BPI, wrote an op-ed piece for the BBC today in which he called Napster the "Rosetta Stone of digital music," said it was "simple to understand and use," and said that the music industry should have "embraced Napster rather than fighting it."

While this might sound radical, it's not actually a controversial position among major label executives anymore -- a top RIAA executive said the same things to me last week at the Jammie Thomas-Rasset trial in Minnesota.

More interesting is the rationale for why such a deal never got done. If Napster was truly the "Rosetta Stone" that unlocked the mysteries of digital online distribution, why was it sued out of existence?

According to Taylor, the world of 1999 wasn't ready for such a deal. "To make music fully and legally available on the internet meant clearing the rights in millions of tracks for a huge number of countries," he said, "agreeing how the revenue should be shared, implementing workable DRM (which everyone considered fundamental at the time), developing technology to track all the downloads for royalty purposes, as well as creating a quality user experience people would pay for."

Napster famously didn't bother about those things, and when it finally did get around to talking to the labels about actually compensating them and their artists for all that music being traded, the industry was insulted by the amounts offered.

Napster wasn't "prepared to pay fair royalties or to partner in a business model that could sustain investment in new music," said Taylor. That's too bad, since otherwise everything would have worked out great and we would now be living in a blanket-licensed digital music paradise.

Or would we?
Revisionist history

The record industry's Napster epiphany certainly came late. Steve Knopper, who wrote about the industry's tortured shift to online distribution in the recent book Appetite for Self-Destruction (read our review), notes the resistance of the labels to services like Napster back in 1999-2000.

Liquid Audio, for instance, was trying to launch a DRM-protected music service years before iTunes. As Liquid Audio exec Gerry Kearby tells the story, "One day in a moment of pure honesty, [a Sony rep] said, 'Look, Kearby, my job is to keep you down. We don't ever want you to succeed.' Some of them were more interested in experimenting than others, there's no doubt about it. But they were, in effect, buggy-whip manufacturers, trying to keep the auto at bay as long as they could."

Napster, with its uncontrolled P2P distribution and no DRM, was even more unlikely to reach a deal with the labels, regardless of the money on the table.

And far from using Napster as a "Rosetta Stone" that helped them understand the online market, major labels instead launched terrible music services like PressPlay to control the distribution of DRMed music themselves.

At this point, it's all ancient history. The interesting question is, ten years after Napster, why has no similar, legal service been offered if the music biz recognizes its Napster mistake? Only in the last year are we starting to see services like Qtrax and Nokia's Comes With Music and the new UK program that offers Universal's music to ISP customers.

None of these are truly like Napster, and the fact that a Napster-style service has still not been legally licensed suggests that it certainly wouldn't have been licensed 10 years ago, either, back when labels were screaming for DRM and higher up-front payments from music startups.

Taylor is right to note that music has loosened its grip, has dropped most DRM, and is willing to license to all sorts of innovative services. Music has gotten over its fear of the online world. Had that been true a decade ago (and had Napster truly been willing to do a workable deal), where might we be today?
source>>>

An autopsy on Michael Jackson revealed that the King of Pop's emaciated body was riddled with needle marks and scars, and his head was virtually bald, it was reported today.

Jackson's body had wasted away to a mere 112 pounds, and his stomach was completely empty except for partially dissolved pills, according to the London Sun.

His hips, thighs and shoulders were covered with needle wounds, believed to have come from shots of painkillers, and he was wearing a wig when he was found because his hair had been reduced to a "peach fuzz" on his scalp, the report said.

"He was skin and bone, his hair had fallen out, and he had been eating nothing but pills when he died," a source close to the singer's entourage told the paper.

"Injection marks all over his body and the disfigurement caused by years of plastic surgery show he'd been in terminal decline for some years."

There were four fresh injections around his heart, presumably from attempts to pump adrenaline into it to jumpstart it, the paper said.

Three of them had penetrated and damaged his heart wall, while a fourth struck his ribs, the paper reported.

He also sustained several broken ribs while authorities administered CPR during his final moments Thursday.

Jackson had one spot above his left ear that was scarred and completely bald - the apparent result of burns sustained when his hair caught fire while he was filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984. He also had numerous other scars, apparently from plastic surgery.

In addition, he had mysterious bruises on his knees and shins and cuts on his back, possibly indicating a recent fall, the paper said.

Jackson has had two autopsies performed on him: one by the Los Angeles coroner and a private one requested by the family. The details leaked came from the official autopsy. The Sun didn't say how it got the information.

Meanwhile, the cardiologist who was Jacko's private doctor and performed CPR on him did it the wrong way, a Jackson family confidant claimed yesterday.

Dr. Conrad Murray found Jacko on the floor in his rented Los Angeles mansion and put him in a bed, the source said. Medical experts say that compressions for cardiopulmonary resuscitation must be performed on a hard surface.

"Michael was on the floor first, and they put him on the bed, and then started compressions on the bed," said the source, who had spoken to a Jackson relative. "What kind of doctor is that?"

In a transcript of the 911 call, the person seeking help says Jackson is "on the bed." The dispatcher says, "OK, let's get him down to the floor." Edward Chernoff, a lawyer for Murray, yesterday said the doctor found Jackson in his bed with a faint pulse.

Chernoff told The Associated Press that Murray was at the pop icon's mansion Thursday afternoon when he discovered Jackson and immediately began administering CPR.

"He just happened to find him in his bed, and he wasn't breathing," the lawyer said. "Mr. Jackson was still warm and had a pulse."

Murray, who spoke to cops for three hours on Saturday, is a licensed MD and specializes in cardiology, although he is not board-certified. Jackson hired Murray last month as he prepared for a grueling 50-date concert series in London that had been set to start in July.

Chernoff also said Murray never prescribed or gave Jackson the powerful painkillers Demerol or OxyContin. He denied reports suggesting Murray gave Jackson an injection of Demerol shortly before his death.

"Dr. Murray has never prescribed nor administered Demerol to Michael Jackson," Chernoff said. "Not ever. Not that day. Not OxyContin for that matter."
source>>>

It may have been an awards ceremony celebrating the best in urban music today, but if you didn't know better you would've thought it was a special event strictly remembering fallen pop star Michael Jackson.

That's what it felt like if you tuned into the 2009 BET Awards, broadcast live from Los Angeles' Shrine Auditorium on Sunday night (June 28). Nearly the entire evening was dedicated to the late, great, legendary Michael Jackson, just days after his passing.

Right off the bat, host Jamie Foxx kicked off the BET Awards with a re-enactment of the choreography from Jackson's "Beat It" video in front of the star-studded crowd, who stayed on their feet, even from the start of the show.

"No need to be sad. We want to celebrate this black man," said Foxx.

One of the night's biggest moments came when Michael's sister Janet took the stage to speak on her older sibling, vowing to keep his memory alive while she fought to keep tears from flowing.

"To you Michael is an icon," said Jackson. "To us, Michael is family and he will forever live in all of our hearts. On behalf of my family and myself, thank you for all of your love, thank you for all of your support. We miss him so much, thank you so much."

During red carpet arrivals, Michael's father Joe Jackson had a few words about his son as well: "I wish the world had recognized him when he were living. Right now he's bigger than ever. But I wish he was here to see all this, to hear all this."

Janet's appearance was followed by a tribute by singers Ne-Yo and host Jamie Foxx, who performed a somber version of the Jackson 5 classic "I'll Be There," as photos of Jackson flashed across the screen to close out the show.

2009-06-29 - BET AwardsThe performance was an emotional highlight for the event, which was completely revamped to recognize the legacy of Jackson, who died Thursday at age 50.

Most of the other performances during the evening also paid tribute to Michael. While some artists did perform their own hits, most made sure to incorporate some of the late entertainer in their performances. A chant of "Michael Jackson, Michael Jackson" was heard while Keri Hilson performed, and Foxx's "Blame It" incorporated some of the Jacksons' dance hit "Blame It On the Boogie."

New Edition performed several of the Jackson 5's greatest hits, from "I Want You Back" to "ABC," mirroring their idols right down to the group's original choreography. And Ne-Yo sang one of Jackson's most sensual songs, "Lady in my Life."

Throughout the night, Foxx also appeared on screen with some of Jackson's signature looks, like the wide-collar black leather outfit from "Billie Jean," as well as the red leather jacket and white glove that he made so popular during the 80s.

Overall, the event's focus on Michael just proved how much of an impact Michael Jackson had, especially to the music community. If the BET Awards last minute revamp isn't a testament to his influence, what is?

Aside from Michael tribute, awards were given out. Beyonce's took home two awards, one for Video of the Year for "Single Ladies" and another for Best Female R&B Artist.

A full list of BET Award winners is as follows:

Video of the Year: Beyonce Knowles - "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)"
Best Male R&B Artist: Ne-Yo
Best Female R&B Artist: Beyonce Knowles
Best Male Hip-Hop Artist: Lil Wayne
Best Female Hip-Hop Artist: M.I.A.
Best Group: DAY26
Best New Artist: Keri Hilson
Viewer's Choice: T.I. feat. Rihanna - "Live Your Life"
Best Collaboration: Jamie Foxx feat. T-Pain - "Blame It"
Video Director of the Year: Benny Boom
Centric Award: Jazmine Sullivan
Best Gospel Artist: Mary Mary
Best Actor: Will Smith
Best Actress: Taraji P. Henson
Best Male Athlete: LeBron James
Best Female Athlete: Serena Williams
Humanitarian Award: Alicia Keys and Wyclef Jean
Lifetime Achievement Award: The O'Jays source>>>

- Never mind that Jimmie Johnson is third in the Sprint Cup standings.

The three-time defending series champion admitted Friday that his No. 48 Chevrolet team has made some uncharacteristic mistakes this season.

"Unlike other years, we've made more mistakes as a team," Johnson said. "Like last week (at Sonoma), I got nailed for speeding on pit road. I've made plenty of mistakes like that this year. I've crashed a couple of cars that I shouldn't have. Pit stops are clearly in our rhythm now, but we've had a couple of hiccups along the way."

Given that Johnson clearly feels there's room for improvement, should Cup points leader Tony Stewart be worried?

In his first year as an owner/driver with Stewart-Haas Racing, Stewart sees it from the opposite perspective.

"I look at it this way," he said. "How scary is it for them that a new team is sitting here leading the points? That's no disrespect to them, but we feel like we've got room to gain each week, too. . .

"Obviously, history shows that you can never count Jimmie and that team out. I'm not sure that it scares all of us -- but it doesn't scare us, because we never underestimated him to begin with." source>>>

New Hampshire Accident Quotes: NASCAR Sprint Cup - Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton
Posted by: MSulka on Jun 28, 2009 - 05:12 PM
NASCAR News
New Hampshire Accident Quotes: NASCAR Sprint Cup - Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Jeff Burton

MARTIN TRUEX, JR., NO. 1 TOMTOM IMPALA SS, involved in a multi-car accident on lap 182: WHAT HAPPENED? "I'm not sure what happened in front of us, either the No. 88 (Earnhardt Jr.) or the No. 2 (Kurt Busch) spun the tires, I'm not sure who it was. But I was just, you know, staying in line doing what I could do to get going and obviously you can't pass before the start/finish line. And I guess Kyle (Busch) just decided he didn't want to lift, so I was just an innocent victim today. Someone spun the tires and our lane didn't go. Kyle just lost his head like he usually does when something bad happens. He decided he wasn't going to lift; he was going to turn me on the straightaway for no good reason at all. We have a tore up race car."

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YOU PULLED BACK ON HELMET THROWING, IS IT A LITTLE MORE FRUSTRATING WHEN YOU HAVE A CAR THAT GOOD?
"Yeah. We've had a tough season, you know? It's been tough, and this don't help much."

CAN YOU DESCRIBE THE DOUBLE-FILE RESTART TODAY? "The restarts were fine if everyone uses their head. It was a time when everybody gets checked up like the No. 88. I am not sure the No. 2 spun the tires or if it was just him. Where you going to go?"

IS THIS A PRODUCT OF THE DOUBLE-FILE RESTART? "No. That is the product of one guy making a mistake. Simple as that."

SO WE AREN'T GOING TO SEE MORE OF THAT? "Yes, if people decide they aren't going to lift when the guy in front of them spins the tires, where are you going to go? You can't pass until the start finish line. We are at a track here, this isn't Pocono or Michigan. The front straight away isn't 30-car lengths wide. People get checked up. You just have to chill out and wait until you can race them. I don't race on a restart basically with 150 laps to go or whatever it was. There was no reason for it. Our car is tore up and I am pissed about it."

KEVIN HARVICK, NO. 29 SHELL-PENNZOIL IMPALA SS, involved in a multi-car accident on lap 182: WHAT HAPPENED OUT THERE? "There were cars spinning and I tried to slow down and minimize the damage as much as you can at that point. I don't know, I hit two or three cars as they were coming up the race track the wrong way. They just wrecked in front of us and I couldn't get slowed down. I've got to thank the Shell-Pennzoil guys, they've worked hard today. Tough day and end to the Day for our Shell-Pennzoil Chevrolet. The car was running really good and we made up a ton of position there on the last run. We had a good car. I hate for it to end that way. This is typical for the year. It's been a rough year but we'll try to get back out there."

JEFF BURTON, NO. 31 LENOX TOOLS CHEVROLET, involved in a multi-car accident on lap 182: WHAT IS YOUR TAKE ON THAT AND WHAT ABOUT ALL THREE OF THE RCR CARS INVOLVED? "Well, you're right. It really has been one heck of a year. I'm really disappointed with the day but we ran really well today. I'm really proud of how we ran. We were really competitive today. Given the right track position, I think we were as fast as anybody and that's what I'm going to take from it. We didn't do anything wrong today. We didn't cause a wreck. We got into a wreck; I don't even know what happened but it really doesn't matter. So we'll go build some more stuff and come back. I'm really proud of everybody because we ran really well today. We needed a real good finish for the points, but we needed a good run. If we run well enough, the points will take care of themselves. There's still plenty of time. Nine races is an eternity in this sport. The Chase is 10 races long and think about all the stuff that happens in 10 races. So this is nine races and we still can do it; it's going to be hard, but we can do it."

IS THIS MAYBE THE ONE DOWNSIDE TO DOUBLE-FILE RE-STARTS?
"Everything you do has a positive and a negative. You hope there is more positives than negatives, there's no question that the double-file restarts are going to make more excitement, they're going to make more aggressive racing. And when you have more aggressive racing and more excitement, you're going to have more wrecks. That's just how it is. We've wrecked here on single-file restarts too; let's be clear about that. There's no question that it's going to be more aggressive, but hey, that's what racing is all about and it was just our turn today to get in it.

"I didn't see what happened. I can't judge anybody or say anything about anybody because I didn't see what happened. All I saw was some cars stopped in front of me. Double-file restarts are going to make things more aggressive. They are going to create more accidents because things are going to be more aggressive. I don't think the fans want to see wrecks, but they want to see more aggressive racing so that is the product of that. You can't change something without there being some kind of negative consequences and this is an example. We have had wrecks with single file restarts too. We have to be clear about that. We drive the cars and ultimately the responsibility lays on us, but this does put another wrinkle in there for us."

TALK ABOUT THE POINTS IMPLICATIONS: "My guys did an awesome job. It is a real disappointing finish. Certainly hurts us in the points. But I am going to tell you, I feel good about what we are doing with our team. I feel good about what we are doing with our cars. I think we can still do this thing, I really do. We have our best stuff coming, but I think we can do it."

ON HOW FRUSTRATING THIS IS: "It is very frustrating. It has just been that kind of year. We've worked really hard. Our guys have worked a lot of Saturdays and Sundays and we are asking them to work even more. Building a lot of new stuff. It is a strain on everybody. These are all really good race cars. I can tell you my car won't be repaired, it is killed. That is another car we have lost at a time when we are trying to build new and better stuff, it is hard to lose something. We are all racing for the points trying to get in the Chase and this sets us back on that. But, it is what it is. We didn't do anything wrong, we had a good race car. My guys did an awesome job, I was proud of them. We'll go fight next week."

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. had one of the most satisfying 13th-place finishes in his NASCAR career Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Gas strategies and a rain-shortened race probably cost the crowd favorite a better finish, but Earnhardt ran well throughout the day, spending most of the 273 laps in the top 10 and running quite a bit in the top five.

"We ran good today," said Earnhardt, in only his sixth race with crew chief Lance McGrew. "I want to thank Lance and the team. ... They did a good, man, giving me a good car. I had fun today. I hope we can keep this up.

"Being around fifth and looking at the top five, that was great," he added. "Seeing the leaders most of the day in your windshield is better than where we have been."

Earnhardt moved up one spot in the standings to 19th with nine races remaining until the start of the Chase for the championship, which will include only the top 12 drivers.
FIND MORE STORIES IN: Jimmie Johnson | Kyle Busch | Mark Martin | Ryan Newman | Jeff Burton | Kasey Kahne | Nascar | Brian Vickers | Juan Pablo Montoya | David Reutimann | Joey Logano | Dale Earnhardt, Jr. | Haas CNC Racing | Bill Weber | Ralph Sheheen

"We are inching so slowly up back in to where we need to run," he said. "It is taking a while but, hopefully, we keep moving forward."

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COULDA BEEN: Rookie Joey Logano saved just enough fuel and was in the right place at the right time to win Sunday's race. Ryan Newman didn't and wasn't.

Newman, leading late in the race, thanks to fuel strategy, ran out of gas just three laps before the rain starting coming down.

"We had a good strategy but, for some reason, we didn't get the mileage that run there," said Newman, who drives a Chevrolet for Stewart-Haas Racing. "Coulda, woulda, shoulda. We could have been leading at the end."

Instead, Newman had trouble restarting his car after coasting down pit road for more gas. That cost him three laps and he was 29th when rain ended the race after 273 of a scheduled 301 laps.

"It was unfortunate," Newman said. "We had planned on doing two tires and at least get some track position back. It just didn't work. I told the guys on the radio when it's not your day, it's not your day. It didn't work."

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UNHAPPY GUYS: Martin Truex Jr. and Brian Vickers were both upset with Kyle Busch after being knocked out of the race in an eight-car crash just past halfway.

It appeared Dale Earnhardt Jr. spun his tires on a restart on lap 175 and, when Truex slowed behind him, Busch ran into the rear of the Truex car and ignited the melee.

Busch was able to continue and Truex, stood on the track as he went by and made as if to throw his helmet at the No. 18 car.

"I guess Kyle just decided he didn't want to lift, so I was just an innocent victim today," Truex said. "Someone spun the tires and our lane didn't go. Kyle just lost his head like he usually does when something bad happens."

Vickers was just as tough on Busch.

"While I was in the care center, I saw the replay and it looked like the 18 was just completely impatient -- very normal," Vickers said. "Just hooked the (No.) 1 (Truex) in the right rear and turned him in front of the field. If you wreck somebody on the straightaway, you kind of should be black-flagged for it. But that's NASCAR's call, not my call."

Vickers added, "I guess everybody just learns to expect Kyle doing something stupid. Stupid is forever."

Busch took the blame.

"Unfortunately, I have to apologize to all those guys on the restart," he said. "I got into Martin and I hate it for him and Jeff Burton and those guys. It was just hard racing on a restart." source>>>

The 19-year-old rookie Joey Logano became the youngest driver to win a race in Nascar's top series, capturing a rain-shortened Sprint Cup race Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon.

Logano, raised in Middletown, Conn., came back from a crash that put him a lap down earlier in the Lenox Industrial Tools 301 and won in his 20th Cup start.

He was among a group of drivers who moved to the front of the field after falling out of sequence on fuel stops. Logano took the lead when Ryan Newman, who was trying to stay on the track as long as possible with rain threatening, ran out of gas on Lap 264. The event was scheduled to go 301 laps.

The four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon moved into second and was steadily cutting into the lead as Logano, with a nearly empty gas tank, conserved as much fuel as possible. But the rain began falling three laps later.

The competitors ran six slow laps under caution before Nascar stopped the race in hopes of drying the track. But the rain began falling harder, and the race was called after 273 laps.

"I guess I'd rather be lucky than good right now," Logano said as he waited for the decision to end the race.

Logano, at 19 years 1 month 4 days, broke the record set by Kyle Busch for the youngest winner. Busch, now 24, was 20 years 4 months 2 days when he won at California in September 2005.

Kurt Busch, who won a rain-shortened event here last June, finished third. He was followed by David Reutimann and Tony Stewart, the series leader by 69 points over Gordon.

The race was slowed by 11 caution flags for 47 laps. The ninth one came out when Logano spun, hitting the wall in Turn 4 on the 1.058-mile oval.

That cost Logano a lap, but he regained it on the next caution flag, earning a free pass because he was the first car a lap down. source>>>