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Friday, March 31, 2017

Summer At The Balaton - Balatoni Nyar (A. Gàbor Szucs)

How Deep Is Your Love [The Bee Gees] | Tommy Emmanuel & John Knowles

Regina Belle - If I Could

When the Ducks Had Just One

From the Undefeated -

Oregon basketball team’s first out-of-state black player paved the way with his struggles and success
The Ducks’ majority-black roster didn’t always look that way — but my father is part of the reason it does
BY KURT STREETER

It’s a team picture I’ll always cherish, even though I’d never seen it until 11 years ago, shortly after my father died.

It shows him as a young man, in the early 1950s. He was in college then, at the University of Oregon, where he was a fixture on the basketball team. In the photograph he’s No. 11, sitting in the front row, a familiar gleam in his eye. His teammates were all white. My father, Mel Streeter, was the only African-American player on the Ducks.

As much as I love this photograph, it also presents a mystery. My dad didn’t talk all that much about his playing days, or what it was like to be a dark-skinned, 6-foot-4 black guy in a virtually all-white town and a virtually all-white state in the years of Truman and Eisenhower. I can’t stop wondering what those days were really like for him.

https://theundefeated.com/features/oregon-ducks-basketball-ncaa/

This Data Center Looks Like a Villain's Lair Out of James Bond

So Much News, So Little Time - Nepotism, Impeachment & the Freedom Caucu...

Podcast Love

From the New York Times -

Liked ‘Serial’? Here’s Why the True-Crime Podcast ‘S-Town’ Is Better
By AMANDA HESS

“S-Town” is not another tale of a journalist trying to solve a murder with just a microphone and a little elbow grease, and thank God. Instead, “S-Town” transcends the podcast procedural with a destabilizing narrative structure in which one small-town mystery leads to another, all surrounding Mr. McLemore and his acquaintances. There is that murder, but also a treasure hunt, a land grab and a mysterious benefactor. Mr. Reed’s investigation turns psychological and emotional — into how people come to be branded as bad, and the hidden relationships among men in the rural South.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/30/arts/true-crime-podcast-s-town-serial.html


This Will Wake You Up

From Food & Wine -

The Most Caffeinated Coffee in the World Is Now Available in the US

By Mike Pomranz


Launched in 2016, Black Insomnia, a South Africa-based coffee company, is the most recent brand to claim that title, saying it has scientific proof that its blend is the most caffeinated in the world – with “dangerously high levels of caffeine” as the brand awkwardly boasts. And now, the king of caffeinated coffees is finally available in the US.

http://www.foodandwine.com/news/black-insomnia-coffee-available-us

We invited Ugandan Olympic hopefully Brolin Mawejje to forerun the slope...



http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/the-extraordinary-story-of-ugandas-first-major-snowboarder/74962

Wow!

From Deadspin -

Here Is A Rugby Player With His Face In Another Rugby Player's Bare Ass
By Billy Haisley

Photo credit: Matt King/Getty

http://deadspin.com/here-is-a-rugby-player-with-his-face-in-another-rugby-p-1793895706

Play Only. Keep Your Opinions to Yourself.

From the Washington Post -

NFL players and the value — and potential cost — of political activism 
By Barry Svrluga

“It’s amazing, I think, to see how many people will call us ‘athletes’ and will tell us we need to be in the communities and we need to serve in the different communities that we play in or live in,” Boldin said, walking the tunnels beneath Capitol Hill, hustling from House to Senate side Thursday afternoon. “But as soon as you take a political stand, they tell you, ‘Stick to football.’ You can’t have it both ways. If you’re expecting me to be a role model for younger kids or for society in general, how is it wrong for me to speak out when I do see injustices?”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/nfl-players-and-the-value--and-potential-cost--of-political-activism/2017/03/30/8d8793d8-1580-11e7-9e4f-09aa75d3ec57_story.html?utm_term=.bb676013577f&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1

Thursday, March 30, 2017

Social Security Cards Explained

Angela Rye tears into network for giving 'bigot' Joe Walsh a platform

Lessons From "The Wire"

From the Huffington Post -

This Law School Created A Criminal Justice Class Based On ‘The Wire’
Long live Omar’s code!
By Taryn Finley

The University of Pittsburgh Law School is bringing the real life lessons from HBO’s classic series “The Wire” to the classroom.

The 3-credit course, “Crime, Law and Society in ‘The Wire,’” will use the Baltimore-based drama to analyze many of the contemporary issues in the criminal justice system. According to the course description, these include, “drug enforcement, race, confessions, police manipulation of crime statistics, mass incarceration, use of force, gender, criminal organizations, gun violence, and honesty and accountability in law enforcement.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/law-school-criminal-justice-class-the-wire_us_58dd1601e4b08194e3b7b3e8?9r68b0avqi7msra4i&

There’s nowhere this toothbrush can’t go.

The future of mobility. As usual.



http://www.upworthy.com/a-hilarious-commercial-in-sweden-is-getting-people-hyped-about-public-transport?c=upw1&u=6861cbea6edfdfe5a709ee39ad3c14b64135e61f

Black Women Being Humiliated . . . Again

From the Atlantic -

The Day Bill O'Reilly Apologized
The Fox News host—like White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer—landed himself in hot water Tuesday for responding to how a woman of color looked, and not to what she said.
By ALEX WAGNER

Tuesday was not a good day for America’s hard-charging white men. Fox News host Bill O’Reilly began his day on the set of Fox & Friends, where he was asked about remarks that Representative Maxine Waters made Monday evening on the floor of Congress about Trump supporters and patriotism. Instead of responding to Waters’s comments, O’Reilly opted to focus on something else. “I didn’t hear a word she said,” O’Reilly said, interrupting his hosts. “I was looking at the James Brown wig.”

~~~~~~~~~~

At the same time that O’Reilly was feverishly attempting unwind these peculiar and offensive comments about a prominent black woman, several hundred miles south in Washington D.C., White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was at the podium, scolding April Ryan of American Urban Radio Networks—a black, female journalist who’d drawn Spicer’s ire by pressing him on the Trump administration’s alleged collusion with Russia.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/03/oreilly-waters-spicer-ryan/521145/


Black Women Making History



http://www.essence.com/celebrity/15-modern-day-black-women-who-made-history-their-firsts

Wednesday, March 29, 2017

Gaming the System

From OZY -

WHY TECH'S LATEST FASHION ACCESSORY IS A FACE MASK
By Leslie Nguyen-Okwu

These days, being online can feel like living in a glass house. According to a 2016 report from Georgetown Law’s Center on Privacy and Technology, about half of all U.S. adults can be found in one of the many facial recognition databases maintained by law enforcement. But never fear — there are ways to game the system. In an age when privacy often feels more like a luxury than a civil right, a creative cadre of artists, designers and makers are fashioning a new kind of camouflage for today’s intrusive digital era.

The privacy strategy of the photobomber, which retails for $288, revolves around glass nanospheres embedded in the fabric that reflect light in every direction, leaving your face eerily backlit and indiscernible, says Chris Holmes, a DJ who designed the cowled garb back in 2015. In London, designer Saif Siddiqui sews crystal spheres into an anti-paparazzi scarf ($362) that, like the hoodie, reflects camera flashes to obscure the wearer’s face. Austrian Wolf Prix brought Harry Potter’s invisibility cloak to life as the Jammer Coat; it incorporates metallic fabrics that can block radio waves, cellphone signals and tracking devices, providing off-the-grid anonymity even while the wearer is strolling busy city streets.

Betabrand’s Flashback Photobomber Hoodie is coated with reflective
glass nanospheres that thwart smartphone flash photos.
                  SOURCE COURTESY OF BETABRAND
http://www.ozy.com/fast-forward/why-techs-latest-fashion-accessory-is-a-face-mask/76529

"Let's Get It Poppin'" Soul Line Dance

Love Notes

My favorite: #4

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1CMdLB/:1Fo2LAw7e:iMyIPL76/www.boredpanda.com/modern-relationship-love-notes

A Plain Old Box

From Upworthy -

Here's why American parents are now ditching expensive cribs for a simple, cardboard box.
EVAN PORTER

One of the biggest problems new parents in developed nations face is SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome, which is exactly as frightening and unpredictable as it sounds.

Experts can't always pinpoint the cause of every death from SIDS, but more often than not, it has to do with unsafe sleeping environments that accidentally cut off the baby's air supply with blankets, toys, or other obstructions.

For years now, many of the world's leading countries in this area have had a secret weapon in the fight against SIDS: cardboard boxes.

Or "baby boxes" as they're known.

http://www.upworthy.com/heres-why-american-parents-are-now-ditching-expensive-cribs-for-a-simple-cardboard-box?c=upw1&u=6861cbea6edfdfe5a709ee39ad3c14b64135e61f

Paralyzed Man Moves Arm



http://time.com/4715028/paralysis-brain-arm/

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

GOOD Compton Jr Posse



https://sports.good.is/features/compton-junior-posse

94-year-old woman celebrates 44 years working at McDonald’s



http://www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/2017/03/27/_94_year_old_loraine_maurer_has_worked_at_mcdonald_s_in_indiana_for_44_years.html

How a case gets to the US Supreme Court

Why do some people go bald? - Sarthak Sinha

Life of a Kumari Goddess: The Young Girls Whose Feet Never Touch Ground

Is There Any Doubt?

There Was no Pull

From VPR -

Why Is Vermont So Overwhelmingly White?
By ANGELA EVANCIE & REBECCA SANANES

“In terms of immediacy, there isn't an established community of color here in Vermont. And there is a historic reason for that,” says C. Winter Han, an associate professor of sociology at Middlebury College and the author of the book Geisha of a Different Kind: Race and Sexuality in Gaysian America. “Because clearly there were many places that at one time in history were not very diverse, like Chicago or New York or Philadelphia — there really was a time when those cities were almost uniformly white. And yet over time, for different reasons, for different groups, they became much more diverse.”

Professor Han says these transformations weren’t arbitrary.

“There is this pattern of migration that most places where people go, they go because there's already an established connection between the place that that is sending migrants and the place that is receiving them.

This theory of immigration is often referred to as “push and pull.” And if you take the long view of Vermont’s history, when it comes to a particular demographic — African-Americans — there was no "pull" to Vermont.

http://digital.vpr.net/post/why-vermont-so-overwhelmingly-white#stream/0

Chef Official Trailer (2014) Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson HD

The Playa-Hater Phenomenon: The Daily Show

Warriors of Hula

The Difference Between Cajun & Creole

https://www.houmatravel.com/about/cajun-vs-creole

Expandable Undersink Organizer

Zydeco is Calling

From the New york Times -

Accordions, Étouffée and Nonstop Dancing in a Zydeco Capital
By CHRIS WOHLWEND

As 8 a.m. approached on a spring Saturday, a crowd of 70 to 80 patiently waited outside the front door of a cafe in the hamlet of Breaux Bridge in the heart of Louisiana’s Cajun country. Inside, Cedryl Ballou & the Zydeco Trendsetters were finishing their sound-check as bartenders filled cups with Bloody Mary and mimosa mixers.

As the door opened, the distinctive sounds of accordion and washboard announced that another zydeco breakfast had begun in this town along Bayou Teche.

The dance floor began to fill with the first accordion runs and was packed by the start of the second tune. Many of the dancers had begun lining up outside as early as 6:30 a.m.

Eggs, zydeco and dancing are a year-round Saturday morning tradition in Breaux Bridge, but on this particular morning in late April last year, the crowd also included a smattering of partyers from the Festival International de Louisiane in nearby Lafayette, including a group from the French-speaking Caribbean island of Martinique.

The breakfast crowd is a microcosm of Louisiana’s culture, both Creole and Cajun, a culture heavily seasoned with zydeco music. And that is what the festival, which began in 1987, is about. Lafayette will welcome an estimated 300,000 revelers over five days, April 26 to 30, with the peak attendance on Friday and Saturday. The music will include zydeco along with its antecedents and influences from Africa, the Caribbean, Europe and Southeast Asia.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/28/travel/louisiana-zydeco-music-capital-accordions-etouffee-dancing.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=mini-moth&region=top-stories-below&WT.nav=top-stories-below&_r=0

Macka.B Medical Mondays Recap CUCUMBA + 3 Other Episodes

How sign language innovators are bringing music to the deaf

Monday, March 27, 2017

Meet Leah the Overcomer, a young girl who is inspiring the world

Maru - The cat from Japan that holds the record for most watched animal ...

The New York Public Library Has a Human Google

What's the fastest way to alphabetize your bookshelf? - Chand John

Moving Forward

From Slate -

A Way Forward
What Democrats should do to capitalize on the defeat of Trumpcare.
By Jamelle Bouie

It almost goes without saying that Democrats have an unprecedented gift. By simply describing the AHCA and the GOP effort to pass it, they can tie their opponents to dysfunction and cruelty. They can show, in vivid terms, what the Republican Party would do to the public if it had the chance—if it could get itself together. Democrats have no excuse; they should blast the Republican Party with its failure and use the opportunity to tout a comprehensive plan for improving the Affordable Care Act. This could take several forms. They could embrace Sen. Bernie Sanders’ call for universal Medicare; they could introduce a public option to the exchanges, coupled with more generous subsidies; they could announce a plan to federalize and expand Medicaid even further; or they could do a little of each, writing a simple proposal that opens Medicare up to older Americans not yet on there, provides greater subsidies in the health care exchanges, and closes any coverage gaps with Medicaid. And in the short term, they can pressure individual states to adopt the Medicaid expansion as it exists. Whatever the path they choose, Trump’s health care quagmire gives Democrats a chance to move the ball forward and show Americans a real path toward affordable insurance and universal coverage.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/03/what_democrats_should_do_to_capitalize_on_the_defeat_of_trumpcare.html

If You Need (or Want) a New iPhone

From USA Today & Reviewed -

Target will give you $300 if you buy a new iPhone this week
By Brendan Nystedt , Reviewed.com

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/reviewedcom/2017/03/27/target-will-give-you-300-if-you-buy-a-new-iphone-this-week/99687416/

Police chases cow until the cow chased him

Lesson Learned: Fight Back

From the Huffington Post -

School Tries To Censor BLM Article. These Students Had The Final Say.
The high schoolers recruited the help of their regional ACLU.
By Zahara Hill

Two California high schoolers fought back ― and won ― when their principal tried to censor a yearbook article on Black Lives Matter earlier this year.

Throughout the fall semester, Vanessa Mewborn, 16, and Ariana Coleman, 17, interviewed students and faculty at Buckingham Charter Magnet School in Vacaville, California, about their thoughts on the BLM movement for a yearbook article.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/these-students-fought-back-when-their-principal-tried-to-censor-blm-discussion_us_58d932a8e4b03692bea7faec?section=us_black-voices

Behind the Scenes of the (Actual) Record Industry

ROCK AND A HARD PLACE Official Trailer (2017) Dwayne Johnson, HBO Docume...

Ted Koppel on why he thinks Sean Hannity is bad for America

Circular Runway Airport, the Endless Runway at Netherland



http://www.endlessrunway-project.eu

I Love This Dad!



http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/03/dad-called-out-son-bad-grades-sign-cavaliers-game-amazing-photo

Contesting the Truth

From Slate -

Trump’s Terrifying Comey Tweet
The president is using his office as a platform to contest the very nature of truth.
By Jamelle Bouie

But Trump sees no advantage in accountability, no reason to honor the truth or even gesture toward its existence. Both he and his White House have made a conscious decision to destabilize public discourse, to fracture and undermine common understanding. President Trump isn’t just lying to the American people; he’s saying, almost openly, that the truth just doesn’t matter either way.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/03/trump_s_comey_tweet_was_one_of_his_most_terrifying_lies_yet.html


Sunday, March 26, 2017

All Alone

From the Guardian -

Into the woods: how one man survived alone in the wilderness for 27 years
At the age of 20, Christopher Knight parked his car on a remote trail in Maine and walked away with only the most basic supplies. He had no plan. His chief motivation was to avoid contact with people. This is his story
by Michael Finkel

Christopher Knight was only 20 years old when he walked away from society, not to be seen again for more than a quarter of a century. He had been working for less than a year installing home and vehicle alarm systems near Boston, Massachusetts, when abruptly, without giving notice to his boss, he quit his job. He never even returned his tools. He cashed his final pay cheque and left town.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2017/mar/15/stranger-in-the-woods-christopher-knight-hermit-maine?CMP=oth_b-aplnews_d-1

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI | Official Red Band Trailer | ...

Meet the King of Fake Cash

Where Dollars Die (and Are Reborn)

New Rule: Trump and the Long Con | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

Adorable Seal Catches a Ride on a Kayak | National Geographic

Pantene Gold Series | Celebrating Strong, Beautiful African American Hair

Living Large on Our Dime

From the Washington Post -

Brace yourself, taxpayers: Trump’s plutocracy doesn’t come cheap
By Dana Milbank

The average family of four in the United States pays about $4,000 a year in federal income taxes. That means the entire tax bill for 15,000 families for the year will go toward these additional protection measures for Trump. And the Secret Service is just a slice of the overall expense. Figure in costs incurred by authorities in Florida and New York, the Pentagon and others, and costs related to the Trump sons’ international business trips, and we’re well over $100 million a year.

That’s the annual federal income-tax bill for some 25,000 American families. Each trip Trump takes to his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, where he has gone most weekends since his inauguration, is estimated to cost taxpayers in excess of $3 million.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trumps-plutocracy-doesnt-come-cheap/2017/03/24/9a1f79d8-10a5-11e7-ab07-07d9f521f6b5_story.html?utm_term=.9002bd954e04


Haunted by the Truth

From the Huffington Post -

Haunted By ‘Get Out’ — But Not Because It’s A Horror Film
It highlighted for me how we can all make buffoons of ourselves in the face of diversity.
By Shira Hirschman Weiss

The film may also have another message for its audience about Caucasians adopting black culture, glorifying it and even including parts of it as its own without acknowledging origins. Because I love pop culture, I’ll look there for examples: While Eminem frequently credits his predecessors and professional influences, do other white rappers pay homage to those who paved the way? When Tom Hanks youngest son talks like an African American in a video - despite the fact that we know he’s Rita and Tom’s son - is it fine to just chalk it up to immaturity?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/haunted-by-get-out-but-not-because-its-a-horror_us_58d6e9e1e4b06c3d3d3e6e7e?

Saturday, March 25, 2017

The Sacrifices Paid Off

From the Undefeated -

STUNTIN’ LIKE HIS DADDY: HOW DEVIN BOOKER’S FATHER PAVED HIS PATH TO THE NBA
The preservation of a basketball legacy strengthened Melvin Booker’s relationship with his son
BY MARC J. SPEARS

It took a lot of persuading for former NBA player Melvin Booker to get his son to move to Mississippi away from his mom to best aid his hoop dream. It wasn’t an easy move for a teenager who only knew suburban life to switch to an “urban environment” at a high school where his dad was a star. While going back to Michigan did get strong consideration, Devin Booker’s perseverance not only led to an NBA career but also a close bond with father.

https://theundefeated.com/features/stuntin-like-his-daddy-devin-booker-father-paved-his-path-to-the-nba/

Waving or Drowning?

From NY Magazine -

Is Political Gravity Finally Sinking Donald Trump?
By Andrew Sullivan

Is he waving or drowning? Swimming or sinking?

I ask this question because we’re more than two months in and the trauma has not subsided, but it has, perhaps, bifurcated. Sure, Trump still shows alarming potential as a would-be tyrant, contemptuous of constitutional proprieties, and prone to trashing every last norm of liberal democracy. But he is also beginning to appear simultaneously as a rather weak chief executive, uninterested in competent management or follow-through, bedeviled by divisions within his own party, transfixed by cable news, and swiftly discrediting himself by an endless stream of lies, delusions, and conspiracy theories. Even the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal challenged his credibility last Tuesday. They did this because, at this point, among sane people, he quite obviously has none.

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/03/sullivan-is-political-gravity-finally-sinking-donald-trump.html

Latina & Muslim

From the LA Times -

Like an invisibility cloak, Latina Muslims find the hijab hides their ethnicity — from Latinos
By Cindy Carcamo

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-muslim-latinas-20170324-story.html

When We Fail Kids

As an educator, I'm a mandated reporter of suspected abuse.  In my personal dealings with CPS workers, I was alarmed and frustrated at the indifference on display the few times I made contact.

One incident that stands out is when a 6th-grade student came to me to share what was happening in her home that she shared with her father.  It was alarming.  She asked that I call CPS to request that she be moved.  She understood what she was asking as she had been in and out of foster care most of her life.  I made the request and the CPS worker I spoke with flipped it off as "typical kid stuff" and dismissed it as she felt the complaint was without merit.  I was livid.  I told her that if anything happened to this child, it was on her.  Further intervention on the school's part lead to the student moving out to live with relatives.

I'm sure there are wonderful, hard working CPS workers who care about the children they are responsible for monitoring, but this does not describe the ones I dealt with, at all.

~~~~~~~~~~

From the LA Times -

4 L.A. County social workers to face trial in horrific death of 8-year-old boy
Melissa Etehad and Richard Winton

Los Angeles County judge ruled Monday that four social workers should stand trial on child abuse and other charges in the death of an 8-year-old Palmdale boy they were assigned to protect, allowing prosecutors to push ahead with a case that has sent a chill through the ranks of child protection workers nationwide.

Superior Court Judge Mary Lou Villar said that “red flags were everywhere” during the months before Gabriel Fernandez died and that the social workers mishandled evidence of escalating abuse and failed to file timely reports on what was happening in the boy’s home before he was allegedly killed by his mother and her boyfriend in 2013. The judge said the workers’ conduct amounted to criminal negligence.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-social-worker-charges-20170320-story.html

A Migrant Worker's Perspective

Reaction to the Loss

From the Daily Mail -

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4347808/Democrats-mock-House-Republicans-healthcare-failure.html?ITO=applenews

Free Throw King - www.NBCUniversalArchives.com

Friday, March 24, 2017

Lianne La Havas - Say a Little Prayer (Live)

We've Seen This Before

From the Huffington Post -

Colin Kaepernick Is To The NFL What Black People Are To America
Hatred of the quarterback among NFL owners feels all too familiar.
By Ja’han Jones

With this, the NFL and its exclusive cohort of wealthy, white male owners seem eager to quell any sort of social activism practiced by its players, a great many of whom are black. (It is noteworthy, also, that a black person has never majority-owned an NFL team in the league’s history.) In so doing, the league is acting in accordance with longstanding, oppressive, American tradition by silencing black voices seeking refuge from oppression. And the coordinated ostracism of Kaepernick betrays a familiar, frustrating plight to many black people in the United States.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/colin-kaepernick-is-to-the-nfl-what-black-people-are-to-america_us_58d59e25e4b03787d358ce3d?s2djbb0qyc766r&

Lianne La Havas – What You Don't Do (Official Video)

Loser

From the Daily Kos -

Quoting Dan Rather.

Loser. That's a word that Donald Trump fears being called more than any other. It is a word that he has wielded with relish against his enemies. But if the health care bill goes down in defeat, and at this point that is still a big if, Mr. Trump will be seen as a loser, and so will his new cheerleader Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.

A loser president. It's a moniker that every president dreads, but especially President Trump. It strikes at the very essence of his being. It is why he rails away at conspiracy theories about voter fraud. Once you are seen as a loser in Washington your enemies are emboldened and your allies become skittish. Power can evaporate faster than dew in Dalhart.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/03/24/1646681/--A-loser-president-Dan-Rather-hits-him-where-it-hurts

Hey Guys, Which Are You?

From the New Yorker -

MEN AS DOORS
By Olivia de Recat

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/men-as-doors

Emeli Sande - Where I Sleep

The Moving Sofa Problem - Numberphile

This professor is from UC Davis.

We're the only daily news source in our part of rural Alaska. Trump's bu...

This Man Speaks 32 Different Languages

Watch The Car That Will Eliminate The Problem Of Traffic - Hum Rider

Howard University West

From USA Today -

Google opens Howard University West to train black coders
Jessica Guynn

SAN FRANCISCO — Google is opening "Howard West" on its campus in Mountain View, Calif., a Silicon Valley outpost for the historically black university where computer science majors can immerse themselves in coding instruction and tech culture, not to mention the inner workings of one of the planet's most famous companies.

Between 25 and 30 juniors and seniors from Washington, D.C.-based Howard University will spend 12 weeks at Google this summer, receiving instruction from senior Google engineers and Howard faculty and getting course credit for their studies, the Internet giant announced Thursday.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/03/23/howard-university-google/99518020/?csp=tech


For Real?

From Upworthy -

5 bizarre features of American politics that shock people when they first hear about them.
...including one reason people are staying involved despite it all.
By ERIC MARCH

As breaking news and scandals continue to erupt at an Usain Bolt-ish pace, many Americans are experiencing the early days of the Trump administration as a crash course in what makes our government kind-of-but-honestly-not-exactly work, with emphasis on the "crash."

Granted, even for those of us who have been mainlining C-SPAN for years, the current political climate is more than a little strange. For those just wading into the pool, it's like the water is 150 degrees, there are knives in the water, and oh yeah, it's peanut butter instead of water.

I spoke to four political novices who are getting acquainted with our political system for the first time — a teacher in Boston, a corporate retail worker (also in Boston), a marketing executive in New York, and a former advertising project manager in Detroit. Here are just a few of the surprising things they were shocked to learn are real parts of American politics:

1. If one political party wins enough elections in a state, they can change the maps to make it harder for their opponents to beat them in the next election.

http://www.upworthy.com/5-bizarre-features-of-american-politics-that-shock-people-when-they-first-hear-about-them

Disproving the Myth

From the LA Times -

Disproving the 'black films don't travel' Hollywood myth
By Tre'vell Anderson

“Every time there’s a success, it gets swept under the rug,” says Jeff Clanagan, president of Lionsgate’s Codeblack Films, which primarily produces films with African American casts. “It’s almost like there’s an asterisk on it. They chalk it off as an anomaly.”

For 1988’s “Coming to America,” the anomaly was the comedic genius of Eddie Murphy, who “transcended race” when the film grossed $160.6 million internationally for a $288.8 million worldwide take. (Samuel L. Jackson, Morgan Freeman, Will Smith, Kevin Hart, Denzel Washington and Don Cheedle are other box office champs for whom the “transcended race” label has been applied.)

For 1995’s “Bad Boys” and its 2003 sequel — which together pulled in a combined $210.3 million internationally and $414.7 million worldwide — it was the fact that the film was an action flick, never mind leads Smith, Martin Lawrence and Gabrielle Union.

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-black-movies-global-audience-myth-20170324-story.html

Green Thumbs Everywhere

From the LA Times -

Grow blueberries on your patio: They're perfect for small-space gardening.
By Jeanette Marantos

http://www.latimes.com/home/la-hm-how-to-grow-blueberries-on-your-patio-20170314-story.html


Noticeably Absent

From the list is Trump.

From the Washington Post -

Cubs mastermind Theo Epstein is No. 1 on Fortune’s ‘greatest leaders’ list. The pope is No. 3. 
By Marissa Payne

The Chicago Cubs winning the World Series was a big deal. Like, a really big deal, according to Fortune, which put the team’s president, Theo Epstein, on top of its “World’s Greatest Leaders” list on Thursday. The 43-year-old baseball mastermind beat out Chinese businessman Jack Ma, the executive chairman of the ever-growing Alibaba commerce empire, as well as No. 3 Pope Francis — you know, the head of the Catholic Church.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/03/23/cubs-mastermind-theo-epstein-is-no-1-on-fortunes-greatest-leaders-list-the-pope-is-no-3/?utm_term=.f24b2adf6504

PB&J to the Rescue!

From ESPN -

The NBA's Secret Addiction
ESPN exclusive! How one performance-enhancing sandwich has spread through the NBA.
by Baxter Holmes

The legend has been passed down by NBA generations, chronicled like a Homeric odyssey. The tale they tell is of Kevin Garnett and the 2007-08 Celtics, and the seminal moment of a revolution. Bryan Doo, Celtics strength and conditioning coach, recalls it as if it were yesterday, how before a game in December of that season, an unnamed Celtic -- his identity lost to history, like the other horsemen on Paul Revere's midnight ride -- complained to Doo of incipient hunger pangs.

"Man, I could go for a PB&J," the player said.

And then Garnett, in an act with historical reverberations, uttered the now-fabled words: "Yeah, let's get on that."

Garnett had not, to that point, made the PB&J a part of his pregame routine. But on that night in Boston, as Doo recalls, Garnett partook, then played ... and played well. Afterward, from his perch as the Celtics' fiery leader, Garnett issued the following commandment: "We're going to need PB&J in here every game now."

And so a sandwich revolution was born.

http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/presents18931717/the-nba-secret-addiction

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Republicans Can't Get Their S**t Together on Health Care: The Daily Show

Dance Theatre of Harlem 2017 New York Season



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dance-theatre-harlem-short-film_us_58d3fa4fe4b0b22b0d1ab3a1?fbmv326p7mzir7ldi&

From spy to president: The rise of Vladimir Putin

Random Acts of Kindness

Here's a shout out to the blog "Inspiration Made Simple" for the "Random Acts of Kindness" ideas and cards.  Thank you!

http://www.inspirationmadesimple.com/2014/08/random-acts-of-kindness-ideas-and-free-printable/

http://www.inspirationmadesimple.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/raok.pdf

Why Design Matters

From OZY -

A DESIGN EXPERT ON MAXIMIZING CREATIVITY IN THE WORKPLACE
By Eugene S. Robinson



“My biggest insight was that you could look at a product as being the manifestation or outcome of a set of interpersonal and organizational ‘negotiations,’ or battles, over subjective decisions,” Owens says, looking much younger than his nearly 50 years. At Dell, “the operations people won most of the battles,” he says, leading to machines that were cheap, modular, efficiently produced and not much to look at. Contrast with Apple’s machines, “you could see that design and marketing had won quite a few more battles — their machines were expensive, hard to produce and beautiful.”

http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/a-design-expert-on-maximizing-creativity-in-the-workplace/68436


Your Brain On Edible Marijuana

Lines in the Sand: When The Beach Becomes a Canvas

Hallelujah - Brooklyn Duo (Piano + Cello)

Elmo Gets FIRED (PARODY)

Profiting From Pain

From the Huffington Post -

When White People Profit Off Of Black Pain
The controversy surrounding a painting of Emmett Till by a white artist reveals the limits of white empathy.
By Zeba Blay

What exactly are the implications of white artists creating (and profiting) off of work that depicts black trauma and black pain?

~~~~~~~~~~

Schutz’s “Open Casket” is an oil on canvas recreation of those famous photos. “Open Casket” is a weak attempt at white solidarity with black folk.

The painting makes an attempt at forcing to viewer to meditate on loss and the “radical” visibility of the black body, but it fails. Why? Because there is nothing radical about a white artist misappropriating and profiting off of black trauma.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/when-white-people-profit-off-of-black-pain_us_58d2a435e4b0b22b0d18ee3d?9loywrk9

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Handcrafting Papal Bells with Italy's Oldest Family Business

China's panda diplomacy, explained

Costco Delivery Coming Soon

From Consumerist -

Some Costco Shoppers Can Now Get Groceries Delivered
By Mary Beth Quirk

Costco is partnering with a service called Shipt, one of many companies that caters to the online shopping set, to offer delivery to customers in the Tampa Bay area.

From there, the plan is to expand to 50 markets and more than 30 million households by the end of this year. Shipt already works with Whole Foods, Meijer, H-E-B, Harris Teeter, and other grocery chains to offer delivery service in some areas.

https://consumerist.com/2017/03/22/some-costco-shoppers-can-now-get-groceries-delivered/

Brain Work

From OZY -

THE BIOENGINEER TRYING TO PREDICT AND PREVENT CONCUSSIONS
By Melissa Pandika

The good news: Advances in brain imaging and other technology have yielded a slew of metrics for measuring head impacts. The Holy Grail is to translate these data into biomarkers for diagnosing and preventing concussions, says Gerald Grant, a pediatric neurosurgeon at Stanford. To that end, researchers are racing to develop sensor systems that measure the forces the head sustains during an impact — with Camarillo among those in the lead. “He’s definitely a rising star,” Smith says. “Something like his mouth guard sensor will have really, really broad applications.”

http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/the-bioengineer-trying-to-predict-and-prevent-concussions/76239



Athletes & Politics

From the New Yorker -

THE POLITICAL ATHLETE: THEN AND NOW
By Hua Hsu

In January, Haymarket Books published “Long Shot,” the autobiography of the former N.B.A. player and “freedom fighter” Craig Hodges. Hodges was one of the finest three-point shooters of his era, playing in the N.B.A. for ten years and winning two titles with the Chicago Bulls. He was also one of the most politically outspoken players the league’s ever seen, a locker-room agitator, proselytizing to teammates and staff on behalf of grassroots political movements. And, at a time when off-court grievances were rarely aired in public, Hodges was unrelenting in his criticisms of millionaire athletes who didn’t give back to their communities. “How much money did we make here last night?” he wondered aloud to a reporter during the 1992 N.B.A. Finals. “How many lives will it change?” He went on to accuse his teammate, Michael Jordan, of “bailing out” when the superstar was asked his thoughts on the recent Los Angeles riots.

~~~~~~~~~~

Athletes have always been political. But until recently they rarely possessed the means to explain themselves. Where Hodges’s generation worked hard to ingratiate themselves with the American mainstream, today’s athletes possess a relative freedom when it comes to speaking their minds, taking risky political stands, or acting with a kind of blunt directness. It’s what makes today’s players seem so different: their capacity to share more in a late-night Instagram post than a decade of carefully stage-managed, Nike-approved Jordan documentaries. Maybe the difference between then and now is just an instinctive awareness that everything is political. The game resists our desire for it to be an escape from the rest of life, where the rules can seem arbitrary and unpredictable, and there can be one winner to every ninety-nine who have lost.

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cultural-comment/the-political-athlete-then-and-now

Police Pup in Training


So Much News, So Little Time: The Daily Show

Football Player, Rhodes Scholar, Neurosurgeon

From the Washington Post -

Myron Rolle had two dreams: play football and become a doctor. He’s almost there. 
By Rick Maese

Myron Rolle opens his "Match Day" letter that shows where he will continue his medical education and residency.
(Toni L. Sandys/The Washington Post)
Rolle, 30, was the only prospective neurosurgeon in Florida State’s graduating class — and also the only former NFL player and the only Rhodes Scholar.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/redskins/with-neurosurgery-every-day-feels-like-a-football-game-for-myron-rolle/2017/03/21/40c4e1cc-0da1-11e7-9b0d-d27c98455440_story.html?utm_term=.16066a317d35

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Grounds to Sue

From the New Yorker -

HOW THE FIRST AMENDMENT APPLIES TO TRUMP’S PRESIDENCY
By Lincoln Caplan

While it is unlikely that former President Barack Obama would sue Trump for libel, he very likely has a strong case. The First Amendment scholar Geoffrey Stone wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times that “there seems no doubt that Trump’s statement was false, defamatory, and at the very least made with reckless disregard for the truth.” That is the test for damaging the reputation of a public figure or official: Trump either made his assertions with knowledge of their falsity or with disregard of a high degree of probability that they were false. Obama, Stone is confident, could prove that Trump made his false charge, as the Supreme Court defined the standard, with “actual malice.”

But his charge of McCarthyism against Obama points in a different direction. In 1954, Senator Joseph McCarthy was censured by the Senate, 67–22, for bringing it “into dishonor and disrepute” and obstructing the constitutional process. The scale of the damage that McCarthy did during his four-year witch hunt for communists in the federal government dwarfs what Trump has done so far, in less than two months in office. The nature of what Trump did, however, by accusing his predecessor of an illegal act without providing any support for the charge, amounts to the same offense that the Senate condemned McCarthy for: abuse of power.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-the-first-amendment-applies-to-trumps-presidency

Electronic Devices Ban

From the National.ae -

ABU DHABI // Businessmen, parents and frequent travellers from the UAE to the US spoke of their frustration about travelling on long-haul flights without their electronic devices.

~~~~~~~~~~

A Jordanian businessman said he cancelled his US travel plans after the ban was announced.

"This issue is very annoying for me because I am a businessman and when I travel the trip could last for about 16 hours. I use my laptop on board the flight to finish my work or contact my clients through Skype," said Amjad Mohammed, 28.

"It is pointless. I do not know what is the significance of this ban. On the contrary, it stimulates stealing the luggage of passengers.

"If they will feel that I am a danger to them, I do not want to go there and do not need it because I will be humiliated by this approach."

Parents will also have to look at alternative ways to keep young children occupied throughout the flight, travellers said.

Canadian Samarra Abu Samra, 30, a ballet studio director, is flying to the US with her children on Sunday, a day after the ban is due to come into force. She has four-month-old twins, a four-year-old and an eight-year-old.

"I need to start prepping my children for 16 hours of colouring book sessions," she said.

"My kids are allowed to use their iPads on vacation only and on the flights. I have no other option to keep them occupied for the entire flight next week and, unfortunately, it is a day flight so they will not sleep either."

http://www.thenational.ae/uae/frequent-flyers-to-us-frustrated-by-electronics-ban

Quote

From Slate -

“A giant middle finger”: The Trump administration’s new laptop ban—restricting large electronics on direct flights to the U.S. out of 10 countries on eight airlines—is more than just an inconvenience, Daniel Gross writes. It’s the latest in Trump’s “business class warfare,” and insults the very people you would think he would want to keep happy.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2017/03/21/trump_s_laptop_ban_is_a_giant_middle_finger_to_business_travelers.html?wpsrc=newsletter_tis&sid=554654ea10defb39638b510d

Responding With His Money

From the Huffington Post -

While Trump Attacks Colin Kaepernick, The Quarterback Is Donating To Meals On Wheels
When the president goes low, Colin Kaepernick goes high.
By Maxwell Strachan

On Monday at a rally in Louisville, Kentucky, President Donald Trump took aim at NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who decided last season not to stand for the national anthem in protest of the mistreatment of people of color in the U.S.

“There was an article today … that NFL owners don’t want to pick [Kaepernick] up because they don’t want to get a nasty tweet from Donald Trump,” Trump said. “Do you believe that?”

He added, “I said, ‘If I remember that one, I’m gonna report it to the people of Kentucky because they like it when people actually stand for the American flag.’”

Kaepernick responded Tuesday not with his mouth, but with his money. NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport reported earlier today that the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback was donating $50,000 to Meals on Wheels America, which could face reduced federal funding if Trump’s budget were to be approved. (Worth noting: Meals on Wheels only gets a small percentage of its funding from the Community Development Block Grant and other federal programs that Trump has proposed cutting.)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/colin-kaepernick-donald-trump_us_58d185f0e4b0ec9d29e022ed?gml7qghd7xwhwu3di&

Kevin Olusola Speaking Chinese

A Fold Apart: Origamist Robert Lang's Incredible Paper Creations

Bad typography has ruined more than just the Oscars

Loving Your Brain

From the Good -

A Former Olympic Snowboarder On His Journey From Tragedy To Mindfulness
After a brain injury derailed his career, Kevin Pearce dedicated his life to teaching others to love their brain
by Sheila Mulrooney Eldred

In 2009, Kevin Pearce was considered to be one of the best snowboarders in the world. Then, while training to compete against rival Shaun White in the 2010 Olympics, Pearce collided with the half-pipe wall, shattering his left eye socket and causing bleeding to his brain. He suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury that almost killed him, and after a six-day coma and years of recovery, his competitive snowboarding career was over. The day of the accident, Pearce was riding with symptoms of a recent concussion; he wasn’t aware that training after a concussion amplifies the risk for the often-fatal Second Impact Syndrome. (He was wearing a helmet in each incident.) Now, Pearce and his brother, Adam, have founded the LoveYourBrain Foundation, a nonprofit which aims to educate people about brain injury and the healing powers of yoga and meditation.

“We’re hoping we can help athletes and young people see the long-term effects that TBI can have and help people understand how fragile our brains are,” Adam says. “The more we can show people what we have been through with this really difficult experience, we can help people make smart decisions to reduce their risks.”

https://sports.good.is/features/kevin-pearce-snowboard

Dope Grannies

http://www.ozy.com/provocateurs/dope-grannies-can-cannabis-help-senior-citizens-survive/65957

She Escaped!

From BlackWebAmerica -

An Alabama woman is lucky to be alive – thanks to a Facebook video. A week ago, nursing student Brittany Diggs was forced into the trunk of her own car by a man demanding money. Diggs was terrified, until she remembered watching a Facebook video that explained how to get out of a car trunk via a latch newer cars have inside their trunks.
Essence.com reports:
Brittany Diggs appeared on the Today show Monday, describing the terrifying ordeal she experienced on Tuesday when a man approached her with a gun and demanded money while she was walking to her apartment in Birmingham.

https://blackamericaweb.com/2017/03/21/facebook-and-insulin-pump-help-abducted-woman-free-herself-from-car-trunk/

Nasty Tweets Lead to Donations

From Kotaku -

Game Developers Respond To Nasty Tweets By Donating Thousands To 'Girls Make Games'
By Jason Schreier

Over the weekend, Naughty Dog artist Alex Neonakis started getting nasty Twitter messages from GamerGaters and other internet cretins. Exasperated, she tweeted some screencaps, along with a message: “I just donated to @GirlsMakeGames in honor of these lovely boys. Thanks guys!” Other developers followed her lead.

By Tuesday, hundreds of game developers had donated thousands of dollars to Girls Make Games, an organization that provides workshops and summer camps to young women who are interested in developing video games. (Before you start asking “why isn’t there a ‘Boys Make Games’?”, consider that, by the ESA’s account, just 22% of game industry employees are women. That’s why.)

http://kotaku.com/game-developers-respond-to-nasty-tweets-by-donating-tho-1793483940

Unclaimed Property

From the NY Times California Today -

There is more than $8 billion just sitting in the unclaimed property fund run by California.
Some of it could be yours.

The state controller requires that banks, insurers and other companies turn over customers’ property after three years of account inactivity.

It comes in the form of stock dividends, tax refunds, wages — even the contents of safe deposit boxes.

The controller’s office says more than 32 million individuals and businesses in its database have unclaimed property. (I plugged in my name and found an old $20 bank balance.)

To find out if you’re owed money, it’s as easy a Google search.  Give it a go here.

https://ucpi.sco.ca.gov/UCP/Default.aspx

http://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/2017/03/21/california-today?nlid=38867499

Accessible Coding School

From KQED - Please share this.

Oakland Coding School’s New Pay Model: No Tuition Until You Land a Job
By Alyssa Jeong Perry

Then Vashti clicked on an online ad for Learners Guild, a 10-month developer program located in downtown Oakland. The program is one of a handful of coding schools that offer “income-share agreements,” which means students don’t have to pay until they get a job making more than $50,000 a year. And depending on their salary, graduates will fork over 12 to 20 percent of it for three years.

The coding school also offers a monthly stipend. For Vashti and the other students at Learners Guild, the stipend and income-share agreement allowed them to pursue a career change.

~~~~~~~~~~

Learners Guild president Ian Inaba believes that by using this income-share agreement model, the school removes barriers that can keep women and people of color out of tech. He said that the school is more diverse than the tech industry at large — 50 percent of students in the program are African-American and Latino, and 35 percent are female.

“There’s no reason why there aren’t women or African-American, Latino programmers,” Inaba said.

https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/03/18/oakland-coding-schools-new-pay-model-no-tuition-until-you-land-a-job/


What Toxic Looked Like

From Upworthy -

These old photos reveal why we needed (and still need) the EPA.
MATTHEW GAULT

http://www.upworthy.com/these-old-photos-reveal-why-we-needed-and-still-need-the-epa?c=upw1&u=6861cbea6edfdfe5a709ee39ad3c14b64135e61f

Highest & Lowest Paying Jobs

From Thrillist -

THESE MAPS SHOW THE HIGHEST AND LOWEST PAYING JOBS IN ALL 50 STATES
By SAM BLUM


https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/zippia-maps-show-the-highest-and-lowest-paying-jobs-in-each-state

Spanish Guitar Hits TT - 4

Single Parents Day

From USA Today -








http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/03/21/best-single-parents-day-posts-weve-seen-today/99446378/

The Padre for Life

From Now I Know  - I'm not a baseball fan, but this is a great story.

The Padre for Life

http://nowiknow.com/the-padre-for-life/

A Flying Cruise

From Bloomberg -

See All the World’s Greatest Places in One Month On a Flying Cruise
The ultra-elite trend is hoping to tap a broader crowd.
by Nikki Ekstein

So you want to see all of the world’s greatest sights … in 29 days?

Good news: For the first time ever, it’s a realistic proposition.

But there’s a catch: You’ll have to do it on a private jet. And it’ll run you $159,000 per person.

At least that’s what Edie Rodriguez, chief executive officer of Crystal Cruises, is proposing with the company’s soon-to-launch AirCruises, whose first “Around the World: Iconic Sights” tour will pit stop in Easter Island, Uluru, Lhasa, Jaipur, Victoria Falls, and Prague (among others)—all between Oct. 21 and Nov. 18.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-20/best-around-the-world-private-jet-trips-four-seasons-crystal?bcomANews=true

Adoptive father helped formerly homeless boy to basketball stardom

Here's How to Make America Great Again

Monday, March 20, 2017

Love This "This is Us" Review

From Very Smart Brothas -

I BINGED WATCHED ‘THIS IS US’ AND MY FEELINGS ARE IN SHAMBLES. I MAY NEVER RECOVER. ZOMG!
Panama Jackson, 3/20/17

http://verysmartbrothas.com/watch-this-is-us/




Sesame Street Parodies Trump

From the Washington Post - 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/entertainment/sesame-streets-brutal-parodies-of-donald-trump/2017/03/20/2a53a75e-0d72-11e7-aa57-2ca1b05c41b8_video.html

This is What Terrorism Looked Like For Us

From the Huffington Post - Click the first link below for interactive map

This Interactive Map Reveals The History Of Lynching In America
Take a comprehensive, shocking look at lynchings from the 1830s to the 1960s.
By Zeba Blay



From the early 1900s to the late 1930s, African American sociologist Monroe Nathan Work researched every known lynching in the United States. Now, his tireless work has become the inspiration for an interactive map that offers a striking visualization of racist domestic terrorism spanning decades.

The Monroe Work Today research group launched a map earlier this year that allows users to discover the roughly 4,770 people of color lynched in the United States from the 1830s to the 1960s. By clicking on each colored point on the map, users can read information about each known individual, including their name and the circumstances of their lynching.

http://www.monroeworktoday.org/explore/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/this-interactive-map-reveals-the-history-of-lynching-in-america_us_58d0204fe4b0ec9d29de4056?section=us_black-voices

Ronald Isley & Burt Bacharach - This Guy's in Love with You

Generous chef gets aid of his own after restaurant burns down

This is your brain on terrorism

Is This the Answer?

From Wired -

Running Delivery Trucks on Trolley Wires Isn’t as Crazy as It Sounds
By Jack Stewart

ELECTRIC TRUCKS OFFER all the advantages of electric cars, namely, they’re greener. Trucks are a big source of the noxious emissions linked to smog and climate change. Minimizing the number of stinky, dirty diesels rumbling through town carries obvious public health benefits. But powering delivery trucks, let alone an 18-wheeler, with a big honkin’ battery simply isn’t practical. So engineers are taking another look at a century old solution: Stringing electrical cables over the road.

Siemens, best known in the transportation world for its trains, and the truck manufacturer Scania developed a hybrid electric truck that draws power from overhead cables like a bus or trolley. You can find some of the trucks undergoing testing on a 1.25-mile stretch of highway in Gävle, Sweden, and crews installing cables alongside a stretch of the 710 and 405 highways in Los Angeles.

https://www.wired.com/2017/03/running-delivery-trucks-trolley-wires-isnt-crazy-sounds/?mbid=nl_32017_p7&CNDID=

Period Tracker

Thank God I don't need this, but for you ladies who are still visited by Aunt Flo each month, there's an app that can help.  It's called Clue.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/clue-period-tracker-period-ovulation-tracker/id657189652?mt=8

Federal Budget: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)

Slumber party! These twin toddlers are much more interested in building ...

Dave Chappelle on escaping fame, returning to stand-up with Netflix

How About Dinner?

From 100 Days 100 Dinners -

For millennia, sharing a meal has stood as one of the few things that all of us—whoever we are and wherever we come from—have in common. In the wake of this divisive election, we're hungrier than ever for spaces to break bread, be heard, and build bridges across lines of difference.

Over the course of the first 100 days of the new Administration, we invite you to pull up a chair.

https://www.100days100dinners.us


Sunday, March 19, 2017

Filed Under "No Sh*t Sherlock"

From the Huffington Post -

White House Admits Trump ‘Insurance For Everybody’ Guarantee Isn’t Going To Happen
“The only way to have universal care, if you stop to think about it, is to force people to buy it under penalty of law.”
By Amanda Terkel

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-insurance-mulvaney_us_58cea736e4b00705db502fef?mvq1e5ddvz6txd2t9&

Chuck Berry (Rest in Peace) - Johnny B-Goode

More Affirmations for Kids

From Planet of Success -

Positive affirmations for children

  1. I am loved.
  2. I listen to my heart.
  3. I am safe.
  4. I have lots of friends who love me.
  5. My dreams are coming true.
  6. I am helpful.
  7. I am friendly.
  8. Every problem has an answer.
  9. I am kind.
  10. I can do it.
  11. I play well with others.
  12. I’m intelligent.
  13. I learn from my mistakes.
  14. I act responsible.
  15. I am calm.
  16. I love myself even though I sometimes fail.
http://www.planetofsuccess.com/blog/2015/powerfully-positive-affirmations-for-kids/

Daily Student Affirmations

From the Affirmation Spot -

  1. Today and every day, my thirst for learning is alive and well in me!

  2. I can learn anything! I can know anything! I can be anything!

  3. This semester is MY learning experience and I take from it what is useful to me.

  4. I love the challenge of finals! I am acing all my finals this semester.

  5. I am a student and being a student is ALL about the possible!

  6. I am a great student and getting better each and every day!

  7. Learning new things is a challenge and I love challenges!

  8. I am prepared for my tests. I love taking tests. Tests are a breeze for me.

  9. I thrive and I succeed at school! Learning is my gateway to an abundant future.

  10. When I am exposed to information that benefits me, I absorb it like a sponge!
https://affirmationspot.me/2012/01/30/student-and-learning-affirmations/

Affect vs. Effect

From Grammarcheck -

http://www.grammarcheck.net/affect-vs-effect/

Ooops!

From Deadspin -

South African Soccer Player Accidentally Thanks Both Wife And Girlfriend In Post-Game Talk
By Emma Baccellieri

http://deadspin.com/south-african-soccer-player-accidentally-thanks-both-wi-1793405981

Dear Kitten: The Forbidden Water Bowl

What if the British Empire Reunited Today?

What happens when you leave a tetherball in the forest

Yes We Can!

From the Root -

Black and Brown Elementary School Winners of Indianapolis Robotics Championship Told to ‘Go Back to Mexico’
By Angela Helm

Some bigoted parents in Indiana prove that the rotten apple doesn’t fall far from the diseased tree.

They tried to ruin what should have been a very special moment for five black and Latinx 9-and 10-year-olds after they won a citywide robotics championship in Indianapolis.

“Go back to Mexico!” two or three kids and their parents screamed at the proud team parents, according to some who were there, proving that black/brown excellence just makes some white folks downright nasty.

~~~~~~~~~~

“For the most part, the robotics world is kind of a white world,” said Lisa Hopper, the team’s coach and a Pleasant Run second-grade teacher. “They’re just not used to seeing a team like our kids.

“And they see us and they think we’re not going to be competition. Then we’re in first place the whole day, and they can’t take it,” she said.

http://www.theroot.com/black-and-brown-elementary-school-winners-of-indianapol-1793403809


Math Resources

From Education Technology -

20 Excellent YouTube Channels for Math Teachers

http://selectedreads.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/20-excellent-yo_39_46315730dd3209c9030ab7366082aca8184fdb19.pdf

Stupid is as Stupid Does

From the Washington Post -

So far, Trump has been mercifully incompetent
By Dana Milbank

This tragicomedy adds irony when you consider that the main character is the same one who campaigned by saying “they laugh at our stupidity” and “we are led by very, very stupid people” and “I have the best words, but there’s no better word than ‘stupid.’ ”

Now the world has reason to laugh at us — because we’re with stupid.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-once-said-we-were-led-by-very-very-stupid-people-hes-finally-right/2017/03/17/1c6f915a-0b3a-11e7-b77c-0047d15a24e0_story.html?utm_term=.6ee75b5984ce&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1



Saturday, March 18, 2017

Jake Tapper on the Fourth Estate | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

President Crazypants | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)

FAMU Has a National Champion!

Go Rattlers!

From the Tallahassee Democrat - H/T Forrest

Florida A&M’s Carter completes wrestling journey as national champion
Rattlers’ heavyweight Rickey Carter won an NCWA heavyweight crown last weekend in Dallas
By Brian Miller

Carter captured a National Collegiate Wrestling Association national championship last weekend in Allen, Texas, winning his 285-pound weight class with a 2-1 overtime decision over Central Florida’s Jesse Gaudin in Saturday’s finals match.

http://www.tallahassee.com/story/sports/2017/03/17/florida-ams-carter-completes-wrestling-journey-national-champion/99328724/

Friday, March 17, 2017

Budget Woes

From the Washington Post - (Bold is mine)

Trump budgets for a dumber, dirtier America
By Eugene Robinson

President Trump’s first budget is an attempt to reshape the federal government in his own image — crass, bellicose, shortsighted, unserious and ultimately hollow.

Unsurprisingly, Trump titled it “America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again.” The reality is that if Congress were to accept these numbers — which it can’t possibly do — America would be made dumber, dirtier, hungrier and sicker. That may be Trump’s idea of greatness, but it’s certainly not mine.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-budgets-for-a-dumber-dirtier-america/2017/03/16/3373adc2-0a82-11e7-b77c-0047d15a24e0_story.html?utm_term=.b5413d9b577d

He's Helping to Put UC Davis on the Map

From CNN -

NCAA tournament: UC Davis' Chima Moneke spans the globe
By Jill Martin

(CNN)It's been a long journey for Chima Moneke, and it's not over yet.

The son of Nigerian diplomats has lived on five different continents. He hasn't seen his parents since 2009, when he moved back to Australia. He considers Canberra his home town.
Now in North America, Moneke is a junior forward at the University of California Davis. For the first time in program history, the Aggies are in the NCAA tournament, the premier college basketball postseason bonanza that can turn obscure student athletes into pro prospects overnight.

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/16/sport/ncaa-tournament-uc-davis-chima-moneke/index.html

Thursday, March 16, 2017

Hip-Hop En Pointe: The Rhythm and Beat of Hiplet

Why Bruno Mars' '24K Magic' Makes You Dance

Yea or Nay for Y'all

Getting in touch with my Southern roots.

From the Atlantic -

America Needs ‘Y’all’
English has no standard second-person plural word, and it’s time for that to change.
By VANN R. NEWKIRK II

How y’all doing?

A greeting as Southern as a bowl of grits, it rolls off the tongue in a single open-mouth utterance. Sweeter than honey and often saturated with hidden meaning, it can open up a dialogue with a roomful of strangers with ease.

Part of that ease hinges on the incredible versatility of the phrase’s most important word. “Y’all,” that strange regional and ethnic conjunction, offers a simplicity to speech that can’t be found elsewhere. It is a magnificently elegant linguistic creation.

https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/03/the-case-for-yall/473277/


How America's justice system is rigged against the poor | Vox Voices

Stevie Wonder-You haven't done nothin' Lyrics

If You Live in the South and Fashion is Your Thing . . .

Check this out.

From the New York Times -

Is This Store the Best-Kept Secret in Fashion?
By STEVEN KURUTZ

NASHVILLE — The novelist Ann Patchett, who lives in this city, has said that she brings out-of-town visitors to two places: the Parthenon, the replica of the ancient Greek structure in Centennial Park, and United Apparel Liquidators, or U.A.L. as devotees know it. Both are temples of a sort.

The small clothing chain has three stores in the Nashville area. The flagship is also in the city, in a strip mall of no distinction, half-hidden between a nail salon and a Chinese takeout place. Ms. Patchett took the author of “Eat, Pray, Love,” Elizabeth Gilbert, shopping there one day last year, and during a literary talk that night, they dished about the Christian Dior flats that Ms. Gilbert purchased.

~~~~~~~~~~

And yet, many fashion insiders have never heard of the place. Its founders, Bill and Melody Cohen, who run the business with their former daughter-in-law, Stephanie Cohen, are savvy if eccentric businesspeople, who for 37 years have operated what the shopping website Racked called the “best-kept secret” in fashion. They locate their stores in secondary markets in the South, in small cities like Hattiesburg, Miss., and Slidell, La., where one doesn’t expect to find, say, a $10,000 crystal-embroidered Dolce & Gabbana bustier dress for sale next to a pool hall with $2 bottles of Michelob Ultra.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/15/fashion/best-kept-secret-in-fashion-shopping-nashville-ual.html?rref=collection%2Fsectioncollection%2Ffashion&action=click&contentCollection=fashion&region=rank&module=package&version=highlights&contentPlacement=7&pgtype=sectionfront

The Staple Singers - Respect Yourself

Get This People!

Use technology to beat Trump at his own game.  What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

From the Daily Good -

This New Anti-Trump Tech Is The Most Genius Thing Of 2017 
by Kate Ryan

Nearly two months into Trump’s presidency, we’ve seen all the stories imploring us to write, call, and fax our senators about the issues that matter most to us. We’ve done our best to digest and implement most of them. Of course, GOOD is certainly guilty of adding to the mounting pile of well-intentioned suggestions, mostly because we can’t imagine not. But we really mean it this time when we say there’s a tech tool that will take the headache out of reaching out to your congresspeople. It’s called “Resistbot,” and it’s by far the easiest way to gradually chip away at Trump’s spirit.

Here’s how it works:

Text “resist” to 50409.

You’ll be prompted to provide your name, zip code, and a message you’d like to send to your senators.

https://www.good.is/articles/anti-trump-tech?utm_source=thedailygood&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailygood

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This works!

I just did it.

I wrote a quick sentence about fighting the drastic budget cuts and that info was formatted into letters to my two senators.  Once I ok'd them, they were faxed to them in Washington, DC.

Quick and easy.

RESIST!!!





Chores by Age

As seen on Pinterest.

From the blog Sunshine & Hurricanes -

The Importance of Chores for Children (Printable Chore Chart)
By KIRA LEWIS

http://www.sunshineandhurricanes.com/the-importance-of-chores-for-children-printable-chore-chart-included/

http://www.sunshineandhurricanes.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/ChoreAgeChart-2.pdf

The Whole City is Reading

I love this!

From Vulture -

How to Talk to All the Other People on the New York Subway Also Reading Americanah As Part of the City’s Book Program
By Jackson McHenry

Today, the New York mayor’s office announced that Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s 2014 novel Americanah is the city’s “One Book, One New York” pick. The novel, which follows a Nigerian woman named Ifemelu who immigrates to the U.S., was chosen after NYC commuters cast a series of votes in the subway system.

http://www.vulture.com/2017/03/americanah-chimamanda-adichie-one-book-one-new-york.html