A Series of Tubes

New news on the yelp front.  As background: A while back, yelp originally got in the news due to an east bay express article regarding extortion practices that their sales department would engage in.  Essentially east bay express claimed that yelp would call up a businesses and say “hey that’s a nice rating you’ve got on yelp.  It would be a shame if something were to happen to it.  Those reviews can remain untouched.  On a unrelated note, we have an advertising program that you can become a member of on yelp.  Just remember that your enrollment in this advertising program will be you giving money to the people in control of your stores rating on the internet. I hope you make the right decision.”

I had emailed the CEO of the company regarding the east bay express claim and got responses from him denying the claim but using quite possibly the worst logic imaginable and making me more suspicious of yelp after talking to him.  It turns out that yelp is getting sued over their extortion racket.  They deny the charge and say that they will fight it in court.  I can’t wait to see how this plays out.

A recent party at UC San Diego has sparked a lot of controversy.  The name of the party was the Compton Cookout.  The part was to mark “a very important month in American society. No, i’m not referring to Valentines day or Presidents day. I’m talking about Black History month.”  To read the full invitation see here.  This party decided to honor black history month by promoting a slew of racial stereotypes.  Here is a small section of the party invitation:

For girls: For those of you who are unfamiliar with ghetto chicks-Ghetto chicks usually have gold teeth, start fights and drama, and wear cheap clothes … have short, nappy hair, and usually wear cheap weave, usually in bad colors…Ghetto chicks have a very limited vocabulary, and attempt to make up for it, by forming new words, such as “constipulated”, or simply cursing persistently, or using other types of vulgarities, and making noises, such as “hmmg!”, or smacking their lips, and making other angry noises,grunts, and faces. The objective is for all you lovely ladies to look, act, and essentially take on these “respectable” qualities throughout the day.

The person taking claim for the party is someone calling himself Jiggaboo Jones (shown below).

If you don’t mind heavy amounts of swearing then you can watch two youtube videos where he takes credit for and also defends his actions for the Compton cookout:

http://www.youtube.com/user/jigga2jones#p/a/u/1/iGfFSZ2kcRg

You can see the display behind him freeze part way through his second speech:

http://www.youtube.com/user/jigga2jones#p/a/u/0/y95G-LH885Y Read more