That's a Lot of Mac N Cheese!

From Now I Know -

Thankfully, They Left the Expensive Ketchups at Home

The Barenaked Ladies are eclectic, all-male singing group from Canada. Their most well-known song, "One Week," topped the Billboard Hot 100 list in the fall of 1998. But you may be familiar with another of their songs, titled "If I Had One Million Dollars." The song, which was an early staple of the band's live shows, is a somewhat-silly discussion of the types of things bandmates would buy for their would-be loves if they were only rich enough to do so. You can read all the lyrics here and you'll see what I mean -- the group imagines purchasing a tree fort outfitted with a tiny fridge; a Picasso; a chesterfield (that's a couch, for non-Canadians); a monkey; and, relevant to our purposes, Kraft Dinner, pictured above. You can listen to that section of the lyrics here, and to get a real feel for that part of the song, you really should. But here's the relevant text, just in case.

If I had a million dollars
We wouldn't have to eat Kraft dinner

But we would eat Kraft dinner.
Of course we would, we'd just eat more. And buy really expensive ketchups with it.
That's right, all the fanciest ket--Dijon ketchup.
Mmmm!
Mmmm!

Kind of silly, yes, but it's not as crazy as you'd think, especially if you're a non-Canadian. Kraft Dinner -- which is what Americans call Kraft Macaroni and Cheese -- is a big, big deal in Canada. Wikipedia explains:

Kraft Dinner has been called the de facto national dish of Canada. Packaged in Quebec with Canadian wheat and milk, and other ingredients from Canada and the US, Canadians purchase 1.7 million of the 7 million boxes sold globally each week and eat an average of 3.2 boxes of Kraft Dinner each year, 55% more than Americans. The meal is the most popular grocery item in the country,  where "Kraft Dinner" has iconic status and has become a generic trademark of sorts for macaroni and cheese. It is often simply referred to by the initials K.D. 

So yeah, if the Barenaked Ladies had a million dollars, they'd still eat KD. They'd just eat more of it, as the lyrics state. (Let's ignore the adding ketchup up stuff -- that's just gross.) After all, one can never have enough Kraft Dinner. 

http://nowiknow.com/thankfully-they-left-the-expensive-ketchups-at-home/

Cat Burglar

From The Huffington Post -

Brigit has a big problem. When it comes to her male neighbors’ underwear, the adorable kitty just can’t help herself.

Every night the 6-year-old Tonkinese prowls around the city of Hamilton on New Zealand’s North Island.

And every morning, her owner Sarah Nathan wakes up to find stolen men’s briefs and socks dumped inside her house.

Sarah Nathan - Now it's getting silly. This is Brigit's haul from the last two months.
Every morning we wake up to more. I've put notes in every letterbox in the street.
Someone must be missing this stuff.
Please share if you know someone who lives in the George St area.

“It’s an absolute obsession,” Nathan told the New Zealand Herald on Sunday. “A night does not go by without her bringing things home. I got up this morning and there were another four socks in the house.” 

Since January, Brigit’s stolen 11 pairs of underpants and more than 50 socks. At a previous home, Nathan said her thieving feline would return with “a bit of everything.” 

“She was much less discerning, now she’s decided menswear is the thing, and it’s a very specific kind of underpants that she likes,” Nathan said. 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cat-underwear-new-zealand-thief_us_56ee53dce4b03a640a6aaecb

What a Job Interview!

From The Huffington Post -

A New Orleans teen landed a new job after he helped stop a robbery during his interview.

Last Saturday afternoon, Devin Washington was interviewing for a new job when a thief tried to steal cash from the register at Popeyes Famous Fried Chicken restaurant on Chef Menteur Highway, The Times-Picayune reported. 

The 18-year-old job hunter made the perfect first impression when he leapt from his seat and placed the suspected robber in a reverse bear hug. Popeyes assistant manager Dominique Griffin grabbed the suspect’s arm and manager Danyanna Metoyer — who’d been conducting the interview — blocked the door to prevent escape.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/teen-catches-robber-interview-job_us_56efac8de4b09bf44a9dbb51

Another Idiot

From USA Today -

Indian Wells CEO Raymond Moore made reprehensible, sexist comments about women’s tennis before Sunday’s final at the BNP Paribas Open.

He later apologized in a statement.

Well, Serena Williams wasn’t going to look past Moore’s remarks.

She fired back at Moore following her 6-4, 6-4 defeat in the final to Victoria Azarenka.

Williams said via ESPN:

“Obviously, I don’t think any woman should be down on their knees thanking anybody like that. I think Venus [Williams], myself, a number of players have been — if I could tell you every day how many people say they don’t watch tennis unless they’re watching myself or my sister, I couldn’t even bring up that number. So I don’t think that is a very accurate statement. I think there is a lot of women out there who are more … are very exciting to watch. I think there are a lot of men out there who are exciting to watch. I think it definitely goes both ways. I think those remarks are very much mistaken and very, very, very inaccurate.”

Williams also didn’t buy that Moore’s statements could have been taken out of context.

“Well, if you read the transcript, you can only interpret it one way. I speak very good English. I’m sure he does too. You know, there’s only one way to interpret that. Get on your knees, which is offensive enough, and thank a man, which is not — we, as women, have come a long way. We shouldn’t have to drop to our knees at any point.”

Spot on, Serena. Spot on.

http://ftw.usatoday.com/2016/03/serena-williams-responds-indian-wells-ceo-raymond-moore

Music Gadgets

No Need For Red Lights?

http://www.itworld.com/article/3045942/car-tech/mit-hopes-to-eliminate-traffic-lights.html?google_editors_picks=true

Smart People

An excerpt from The Washington Post -

Why Smart People Are Better Off With Fewer Friends

~~~~~~~~~~

"The effect of population density on life satisfaction was therefore more than twice as large for low-IQ individuals than for high-IQ individuals," they found. And "more intelligent individuals were actually less satisfied with life if they socialized with their friends more frequently."

Let me repeat that last one: When smart people spend more time with their friends, it makes them less happy.

~~~~~~~~~~

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/03/18/why-smart-people-are-better-off-with-fewer-friends/?wpisrc=nl_rainbow

Legos for Gardens

FLOTUS in Pictures

From The Root - 

Wicked smart.  Funny.  Poised.  Gracious.  Powerful.  Beautiful.

This is why we love her.

Check out the slideshow about midway down the page.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/lists/2016/03/michelle_obama_is_dope_these_pictures_explain_why.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26

"Working" Piglet

Faded Sounds

From The Museum of Endangered Sounds -

http://savethesounds.info

It opens to a retro page giving directions.  You simply have to click on the icons to listen, click again to stop them.  Click close this page and enter the museum.

Enjoy!

Medal of Freedom Winner

The 1st Fifteen

From the Root -

Last week, in response to the lynching photo found at a Joe’s Crab Shack in Minnesota, I wrote a piece explaining “post-racial racism” (which has also been referred to as “Chad Crow”—Jim Crow’s laid-back cousin):

In post-racial 21st-century America, no one actually wants to admit to being racist. They’ll do racist things, say racist words, think racist thoughts, support racist business, vote for racist politicians and even willingly benefit from racist policies and business practices, but the moment you actually bring up racism, they’re like, “Who, me? Never! I can’t be racist. Andre Iguodala is my favorite athlete, and my best friend almost had a black girlfriend in 2004!” And they do this because owning up to it and letting everyone know exactly who they are could be social suicide. ...

[Post-racial racism] is an evolved form of racism that allows people to exist ensconced within racism’s confines while never having to complete a registration form ...

I then listed 13 examples of this type of racism. But there are so many more that I decided to extend that list to 35:

1. “Racism doesn’t really exist” racism;

2. “You’re the real racist for thinking and talking about racism” racism;

3. “I don’t have a racist bone in my body” racism;

4. “It’s a class thing, not a race thing” racism;

5. “If black people want to get over racism, they need to stop segregating themselves” racism;

6. “I know what’s good for you better than you do” racism;

7. “I hate the NBA” racism;

8. “I’m not a racist; I’m a realist” racism;

9. “Look how cool and witty and ironic I am when I do this remarkably offensive thing” racism;

10. “Can you provide some evidence that the racist thing that happened was actually racist and not just happenstance?” racism;

11. “Let’s talk about diversity and have panels about diversity and invite the media to these panels about diversity but never actually make a real effort to be more diverse” racism;

12. “I know what happened was racist, but my feelings were hurt when you pointed it out, and we need to talk about my feelings instead of the racist thing now” racism;

13. “I don’t think anyone is paying attention, so let me sneak this really racist thing in real quick, like a cheat day for my no-racism diet” racism.

14. “I have a black boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife, so I can’t be racist” racism;

15. “I had sex with a black person and that sex resulted in a black child, so I can’t be racist” racism;

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/03/_35_types_of_post_racial_racism.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26

A Novel Approach

From The Atlanic - (bold is mine)

But this vision of homogenous, altruistic Nordic lands is mostly a fantasy. The choices Nordic countries have made have little to do with altruism or kinship. Rather, Nordic people have made their decisions out of self-interest. Nordic nations offer their citizens—all of their citizens, but especially the middle class—high-quality services that save people a lot of money, time, and trouble. This is what Americans fail to understand: My taxes in Finland were used to pay for top-notch services for me.

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/03/bernie-sanders-nordic-countries/473385/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=March%2017%2C%202016&utm_term=Vox%20Newsletter%20All

Good News From Chicago

From Vox -

Chicago’s City Council voted unanimously yesterday to get rid of the sales tax on tampons and pads, becoming one of the first major US cities to do so.

The council voted to reclassify the feminine hygiene products as "medical necessities," exempting them from taxation. Right now they are subject to a 10.25 percent sales tax, a combination of city and state taxes.

http://www.vox.com/identities/2016/3/17/11253628/chicago-tampon-tax

Make Your Own App

http://www.lifehack.org/374267/10-ways-make-your-own-app?mid=20160315&ref=mail&uid=789627&feq=daily

Frederick Douglass in Pictures

From The Washington Post -

Who’s the most photographed American man of the 19th Century? HINT: It’s not Lincoln…

Born into slavery in 1818, Frederick Douglass would become one of the most well-known abolitionists, orators, and writers of his time. He understood and heralded not only the power of the written or spoken word, but also the power of the visual image — especially, his own likeness. He therefore sat for portraits wherever and whenever he could. As a result, Douglass was photographed more than any other American of his era:  160 distinct images (mostly portraits) have survived, more than Abraham Lincoln at 126. Many of these rare, historically significant images are published for the first time in “Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century’s Most Photographed American,” by John Stauffer, Zoe Trodd and Celeste-Marie Bernier.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2016/03/15/douglass/?hpid=hp_no-name_photo-story-a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Made With Legos

From Wired - 

Exquisite Lego Versions of the World’s Most Famous Buildings

BECOMING A LEGO Certified Professional is a bit like becoming a master sommelier. To be inducted is to join the ranks of the nonpareil, to be a member of the 0.0001 percent with absolute devotion to mastery of one’s subject. But of the two, the cadre of Lego elite is the most exclusive. There are 147 people on the Court of Master Sommeliers, but there are just 14 Lego Certified Professionals in the world.

Adam Reed Tucker is one of them, and he has an exhibit at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. Brick by Brick features 13 of his creations, each a model of some of the world’s most famous architectural works. The Golden Gate Bridge, the Colosseum, and One World Trade Center are rendered in miniature. That’s something of a relative term, here: The “miniature” Lego version of the Golden Gate Bridge comprises 64,500 Lego bricks, took 260 hours to build, and is 60 feet long. That’s as big as some of the dinosaurs on display the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

http://www.wired.com/2016/03/exquisite-lego-versions-worlds-famous-buildings/?mbid=nl_31516#slide-1

Plain Hot Water

This article peaked my interest because it reminds me of my surprise when I first arrived in the UAE that folks don't drink cold water, even though it's hot as a raging furnace throughout much of the year.

Now with over four years under my belt living here, I too, shy away from cold water and reach for the room temperature bottle more often than not.

Another case of "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."

~~~~~~~~~~

Another great find from the New York Times What We're Reading -

China's go-to beverage? Hot water. Really.

China's annual legislative sessions are in full swing in Beijing. Thousands of delegates are convening daily at the Great Hall of the People to listen to speeches, discuss government work reports, and review economic plans for the next five years.

Essential to keeping things moving? Hot water. Brigades of young women (and a few men) are toting thermoses around the massive building all day, pouring drinks for delegates. Some use the steaming hot liquid to make tea in paper cups that read "Great Hall of the People," but many others simply drink it straight.

For many Westerners, the idea of drinking plain hot water is odd. But most Chinese (among others) think Americans' habit of chugging ice water is equally bizarre, and even unhealthy.

As the daughter of a traditional Chinese doctor, I am a devoted hot water drinker.

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-china-hot-water-20160313-story.html

Changing Lives

Some Hard Truths

An excerpt from The Atlantic -

Nina Simone's Face

The upcoming biopic about the singer proves that the world still isn’t ready to tell her story.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Simone was able to conjure glamour in spite of everything the world said about black women who looked like her. And for that she enjoyed a special place in the pantheon of resistance. That fact doesn’t just have to do with her lyrics or her musicianship, but also how she looked. Simone is something more than a female Bob Marley. It is not simply the voice: It is the world that made that voice, all the hurt and pain of denigration, forged into something otherworldly. That voice, inevitably, calls us to look at Nina Simone’s face, and for a brief moment, understand that the hate we felt, that the mockery we dispensed, was unnatural, was the fruit of conjurations and the shadow of plunder. We look at Nina Simone’s face and the lie is exposed and we are shamed. We look at Nina Simone’s face and a terrible truth comes into view—there was nothing wrong with her. But there is something deeply wrong with us.


We are being told that Nina Simone’s face bears no real import on the new eponymous movie about her life, starring Zoe Saldana. “The most important thing,” said Robert Johnson, whose studio is releasing Nina, “is that creativity or quality of performance should never be judged on the basis of color, or ethnicity, or physical likeness.” This is obviously false. Saldana could be the greatest thespian of her time, but no one would consider casting her as Marilyn Monroe. Indeed Nina’s producers have gone to great ends—tragicomic ends—to invoke Nina Simone’s face, darkening Saldana’s skin, adorning her with prosthetics. Neither the term blackface nor brownface is entirely appropriate here. We are not so much talking about deliberate mockery as something much more insidious.

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/03/nina-simone-face/472107/?utm_source=atl-daily-newsletter

Punished for Wearing "Black Brilliance"

An excerpt from The Root -

If You Don’t Love Our Kids, Stay Out of Our Schools

Black children deserve to be in schools with teachers who lift up their emotional well-being, not who display their own resentment.

Nine-year-old Kaedyn G. goes to a private school in New Jersey. Last week at school, Kaedyn wore a hooded sweatshirt with the words “black brilliance” plainly displayed on the front of her hoodie. She was not in violation of the school’s dress code and had not broken any of the school’s rules regarding appearance. Yet as she walked down the hall, a white teacher instructed Kaedyn to turn her hoodie inside out. The teacher told Kaedyn that her hoodie was “causing problems” and questioned the 9-year-old, asking, “How would you feel if I wore a shirt that said ‘white brilliance’ on it?”

What happened to Kaedyn illustrates a critical disconnect on both a cultural and emotional level between educators and many of the young people they are charged to instruct, support and protect. All children have individual needs, but black and Latino learners have a not-so-nuanced experience in educational environments that can often leave them feeling shut out, shunned or not as good as their white peers. Navigating this journey requires a sincere commitment from school administrators to invest in the creation and maintenance of culturally competent school environments.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/03/if_you_don_t_love_our_kids_stay_out_of_our_schools.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26

A Graphic Look at Friendships

From Upworthy -

http://www.upworthy.com/10-awkward-friendships-you-probably-have-we-all-have-a-9?c=upw1

Freestylin' Frenzy

Let's all Pull Together: Team of µTug Microrobots Pulls a Car

Go Stanford!

Little Big Shots - This Kid Will Nunchuk Your Brain! (Sneak Peek)

A Safety Net

An excerpt from  the New York Times -

For Vulnerable Teenagers, a Web of Support

By DAVID BORNSTEIN

 

Recently, I learned about an organization that stopped me in my tracks and has forced me to re-evaluate my assumptions about what’s possible. It’s called Thread. It rallies volunteer community support around underperforming students in Baltimore public high schools and gets results that defy all expectations.

Thread identifies students in ninth grade who are facing major life challenges: poverty, homelessness, family breakdown or single parents who are overwhelmed by work, illness or other problems. The students are in the bottom 25 percent of their classes academically and are often chronically absent. Thread connects them with a team of up to five volunteers who commit to support them in any way necessary, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for 10 years.

The assistance may include wake-up calls or rides to school, food and clothing, child care or legal help, connection to community service opportunities, help finding jobs, tutoring, SAT preparation or college admission guidance. The philosophy is to do whatever it takes to help the teenager develop into an adult who can pursue a fulfilling life. “A volunteer may literally go at 7 a.m. and try to pick the kid up for school, a second person may go at 10 a.m., another person at noon,” explains Sarah Hemminger, a Thread co-founder and the chief executive. Volunteers take students to restaurants and movies; they hang out and talk about life; they go camping; they sometimes provide homes to students.

~~~~~~~~~~

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/08/for-struggling-kids-unconditional-support/?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=0

~~~~~~~~~~

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/how-a-tapestry-of-care-helps-teens-succeed/?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region

A Race Against Time: Cuba's Fast and Furious

Has a Black President Changed America?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/13/us/politics/proud-of-obamas-presidency-blacks-are-sad-to-see-him-go.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Vox%20Sentences%203/14/16%20Trump&utm_term=Vox%20Newsletter%20All&_r=0

How?

Excerpts from Slate - 

How Trump Happened

It’s not just anger over jobs and immigration. White voters hope Trump will restore the racial hierarchy upended by Barack Obama.

~~~~~~~~~~

All of which is to say that we’ve been missing the most important catalyst in Trump’s rise. What caused this fire to burn out of control? The answer, I think, is Barack Obama.

~~~~~~~~~~

For millions of white Americans who weren’t attuned to growing diversity and cosmopolitanism, however, Obama was a shock, a figure who appeared out of nowhere to dominate the country’s political life. And with talk of an “emerging Democratic majority,” he presaged a time when their votes—which had elected George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan—would no longer matter. More than simply “change,” Obama’s election felt like an inversion. When coupled with the broad decline in incomes and living standards caused by the Great Recession, it seemed to signal the end of a hierarchy that had always placed white Americans at the top, delivering status even when it couldn’t give material benefits.

~~~~~~~~~~

You can draw a direct line to the rise of Trump from the racial hysteria of talk radio.

~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/03/how_donald_trump_happened_racism_against_barack_obama.html

Highest Paid Jobs

From Stumbelupon - 

Physicians have topped this year’s list of the 25 highest-paying jobs in America.

In the latest report by jobs marketplace Glassdoor released on Wednesday, physicians are expected to bring home a median base salary of $180,000, which is highest among all occupations. Lawyers and research and development managers fill out the top three.

One common thread that unites the top-paying jobs is the high level of skill required, and the protection of these jobs from any threat of automation. “This report reinforces that high pay continues to be tied to in-demand skills, higher education and working in jobs that are protected from competition or automation,” said Dr. Andrew Chamberlain, Glassdoor chief economist, in a statement.

The tech and healthcare sector are especially well-represented in the list, with eight of the top ten-paying jobs going to either of those two sectors. “The urgency of many healthcare scenarios requires snap-decisions or creative solutions to existing medical conditions,” Chamberlain said, as reported by 24/7 Wall St. Both sectors also feature heavily in our latest 100 Best Companies to Work For rankings.

It also pays to be a manager -- 15 of the top 25-paying jobs are managerial in nature. “The manager skill set that requires maintaining a working team in a fast-paced, highly-educated industry like tech, finance or healthcare is also something that employers find difficult to automate, and will invest in with higher employee salaries,” Chamberlain told 24/7 Wall St.

The thought that robots could become our biggest competition for jobs is also reflected in Glassdoor’s list of lowest-paying jobs, which were filled by servers, receptionists and leasing consultants respectively. This follows a recent report by the World Economic Forum that estimated a net employment loss of 5.1 million jobs by 2020 due to technological change.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2ky0G2/:jPiIeHcT:qQxOM8ok/www.entrepreneur.com/article/272221

Write On!

From The Root - 

9-Year-Old Brooklyn Girl Youngest to Ever Publish Chapter Book

The Day Mohan Found His Confidence was inspired by Anaya Lee Willabus’ trip to Guyana two years ago.

BY: ANGELA BRONNER HELM

Posted: March 13 2016 11:37 AM

 

Anaya Lee Willabus, a 9-year-old girl from Brooklyn, N.Y., became the youngest person to publish a chapter book in U.S. history.

Anaya, who penned The Day Mohan Found His Confidence, described on Amazon as realistic fiction, is “about a boy’s struggle to balance life at home and school, and how he realizes he can do anything with the help of his family and friends,” Ayana said in an interview with WPIX.

“I like to read all genres, of books,” Anaya told the New York Daily News. “I love both reading and writing. They both have something that I love in them.”

http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2016/03/_9_year_old_brooklyn_girl_youngest_to_ever_publish_chapter_book.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26

How Tootsie Rolls Saved the Troops

Remember These?

Learning Something New

The QR Code has been around for a while now, but I just learned how to personalize it. 

Thanks to Google and YouTube, I'm good to go. 

You can link a video, a business card, an email address, an event, an invitation, a song or album, etc.  As a teacher, you can include all of your contact info for your parents to quickly scan and go.  The possibilities for its application are endless.

To unlock this code, you'll need to get a QR Code Reader, to hear what I've sent.  I've linked one below for Apple.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtwCTo7T9zg

http://www.qrstuff.com

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/qr-code-reader-and-scanner/id388175979?mt=8

Enjoy!

Food Chain Paper Cups

Here's a clever way to teach kids about the food chain.

http://eisforexplore.blogspot.com/2012/10/food-chain-stacking-cups.html

Black Pioneer Stuntmen

An excerpt from NPR -

For 2 Black Stuntmen Breaking Into Hollywood, 'You Were Subject To Get Hurt'

Willie Harris and Alex Brown, photographed in Stockton, Calif.

For some African-Americans who have been in Hollywood for decades, though, this is a familiar story. Willie Harris and Alex Brown, two black stuntmen who first tried to break into the movie business in the 1960s, quickly realized that studios wouldn't hire black stuntmen.

"When we were starting, anytime they had a stunt to do with a black actor in them, they would paint these white guys in blackface," Brown recalls, on a recent visit to StoryCorps with Harris.

"We wanted to prove that black guys can do stunts," Harris says. "But we couldn't get anyone to train us."

So they trained themselves. After their day jobs, they set about perfecting their craft in public parks. On Wednesday nights, they'd practice falling onto donated mattresses and throwing punches while Los Angeles police watched from a parked car nearby.

http://www.npr.org/2016/02/26/468157462/for-2-black-stuntmen-breaking-into-hollywood-you-were-subject-to-get-hurt

Afrofuturism Mixes Sci-Fi and Social Justice. Here’s How It Works.

Jason Ikeem Rodgers conducts The Orchestra Di Toscana Classica Part 1

This Kid - UGH!

From USA Today - (bold is mine)

A student breaks into his teacher's phone and distributes nude photo of her, and she's forced out.

(Photo: WYFF (Greenville, S.C.) News-4, via AP)

When we were kids, the teacher’s desk was a fearsome island, a place you didn’t approach unless you absolutely had to.

Clearly, things have changed.

Take what happened when a South Carolina high school teacher left her cell phone on her desk last week to, she says, do her hall monitoring duties for a few minutes.

That phone was swiped by a 16-year-old male student, who then opened her photo library, went through the teacher’s photos, found a picture of her nude that she had taken for her husband (as she would later freely admit) for Valentine’s Day. The student took a snapshot of that photo with his phone, then sent it around to anyone and everyone he chose.

According to the teacher in an interview with a South Carolina CBS affiliate, that student later told her, “Your day of reckoning is coming.”

Now, I would like to state, proudly, how old I am. I am old enough that 1) If I took something from my teacher’s desk 2) If I dared to leaf through it 3) If I ever uttered the words, “Your day of reckoning is coming” to ANY ADULT IN THE WORLD — my day of reckoning would have already arrived.

I would have been thrown out of school, no questions asked, which would not have mattered, since my parents would have grounded me for life.

Instead, last week, the only day of reckoning was for the teacher, a 13-year veteran named Leigh Anne Arthur. Thanks to this kid’s antics, she was pressured to resign, she said.

And, until Friday, after the public outcry had grown loud, the student had not been punished or charged.

Like I said, things have changed.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/nation-now/2016/03/09/south-carolina-high-school-fires-teacher-nude-selfie-student-thief-column/81541862/

The Blind Leading the Blind

Ben Carson has just announced he's supporting Trump for President.

It goes to show you that even smart people can be stupid.

Unlikely Business Partners

From The Root -

2 Former Los Angeles Gang Rivals Created a Catering Business

Trap Kitchen LA is the brainchild of  former Bloods and Crips members.

http://www.theroot.com/blogs/the_grapevine/2016/03/_2_former_los_angeles_gang_rivals_created_a_catering_business.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26

The New Footlong

From Salon - 

“Size queens take note”: Chicago hot dog stand creates the “Trump footlong” and “it’s yuuuuge” 

The description of these 3-inch long dogs is as honest as the man whose name they bear — so, not at all 

http://www.salon.com/2016/03/11/size_queens_take_note_chicago_hot_dog_stand_creates_the_trump_footlong_and_its_yuuuuge/?source=newsletter

Quote

From Very Smart Brothas - 

MARIA SHARAPOVA MUST’VE HAD SOME SHITTY DRUGS IF THEY MADE HER LOSE TO SERENA 18 STRAIGHT TIMES

~~~~~~~~~~

Now, I’m not sure what meldonium is or what it does, but I do know that performance enhancing drugs are called performance enhancing drugs because they are drugs that presumably enhance performance. I also know that Maria Sharapova, the world’s highest paid tennis player, has lost 18 consecutive times to Serena Williams. The most recent being Jan 26th, the day she was drug tested. Which makes me wonder which performance these drugs were enhancing. Did her hair get more blonde? Did she get better at typing? Did her guacamole improve? Is she doing a better job responding to emails and text messages in a timely manner? Can she drink a whole Hennessy fifth? (Some call that a problem, but I consider it a gift.) Did she receive an especially cruel version of the same powers as Bradley Cooper in Limitless, with tennis courts being her only kryptonite? Can she Wobble without forgetting her steps? Or learn how to summarize shows to friends without spoiling them? (An underrated great quality to have.) Did she become a crocheting maven? Like, the best motherfucking crocheter in the history of crocheting? Can this chick loop the shit out of some yarn now?

http://verysmartbrothas.com/maria-sharapova-mustve-had-some-shitty-drugs-if-they-made-her-lose-to-serena-18-straight-times/

You're Never Too Old to Twist & Shout

To My Irish Friends . . .

From The Associated Press - 

Just in time for St. Patrick's Day, genealogical research website Ancestry.com is making 10 million Catholic parish records from Ireland — some dating to 1655 — available online for free to help people trace their Irish heritage.

http://bigstory.ap.org/urn:publicid:ap.org:b6c1df6496f64070a59e8b4fbd702551

Real or Fake?

From USA Today -

How to spot fake product reviews.  Just copy the URL of the product onto the page, and wait for the analysis of reviews.

http://fakespot.com/top-fake-reviews

This Dude Should Rot in Hell!

Great News!

An excerpt from The New York Times -

New Procedure Allows Kidney Transplants From Any Donor

In the anguishing wait for a new kidney, tens of thousands of patients on waiting lists may never find a match because their immune systems will reject almost any transplanted organ. Now, in a large national study that experts are calling revolutionary, researchers have found a way to get them the desperately needed procedure.

In the new study, published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine, doctors successfully altered patients’ immune systems to allow them to accept kidneys from incompatible donors. Significantly more of those patients were still alive after eight years than patients who had remained on waiting lists or received a kidney transplanted from a deceased donor.

The method, known as desensitization, “has the potential to save many lives,” said Dr. Jeffery Berns, a kidney specialist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine and the president of the National Kidney Foundation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/10/health/kidney-transplant-desensitization-immune-system.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Vox%20Sentences%203/10/16&utm_term=Vox%20Newsletter%20All&_r=0

Daylight Saving Time Explained

Texas. Texas. Texas. Part 3

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lawn-mower-dog-texas_us_56e0e731e4b0b25c9180d662

Bionic Fingertips May Be Medical BreakThrough

Meet 15 Black Tech Innovators Diversifying SXSW

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/03/meet_15_black_tech_innovators_who_are_bringing_diversity_to_south_by_southwest.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26

A Touching Moment

From The Root -

Photo of Baltimore Teen Praying Over Homeless Man Goes Viral

The unidentified teen was walking to the bus when he saw a sleeping homeless man. He stopped, knelt, touched the man's foot, and prayed over him.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2016/03/photo_of_baltimore_teen_praying_over_homeless_man_goes_viral.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26

School Janitor Singing Sam Cooke

The Return of the Black Panther

An excerpt from The Atlantic -

The Return of the Black Panther
A behind-the-scenes look at the revival of Marvel’s first black-superhero series—and an exclusive preview of the first issue

By Ta-Nehisi Coates

~~~~~~~~~~

Some of the best days of my life were spent poring over the back issues of The Uncanny X-Men and The Amazing Spider-Man. As a child of the crack-riddled West Baltimore of the 1980s, I found the tales of comic books to be an escape, another reality where, very often, the weak and mocked could transform their fallibility into fantastic power. That is the premise behind the wimpy Steve Rogers mutating into Captain America, behind the nerdy Bruce Banner needing only to grow angry to make his enemies take flight, behind the bespectacled Peter Parker being transfigured by a banal spider bite into something more.

But comic books provided something beyond escapism. Indeed, aside from hip-hop and Dungeons & Dragons, comics were my earliest influences. In the way that past writers had been shaped by the canon of Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Wharton, I was formed by the canon of Claremont, DeFalco, and Simonson. Some of this was personal. All of the comics I loved made use of two seemingly dueling forces—fantastic grandiosity and ruthless efficiency. Comic books are absurd. At any moment, the Avengers might include a hero drawn from Norse mythology (Thor), a monstrous realization of our nuclear-age nightmares (the Hulk), a creation of science fiction (Wasp), and an allegory for the experience of minorities in human society (Beast). But the absurdities of comics are, in part, made possible by a cold-eyed approach to sentence-craft. Even when the language tips toward bombast, space is at a premium; every word has to count. This big/small approach to literature, the absurd and surreal married to the concrete and tangible, has undergirded much of my approach to writing. In my journalism here at The Atlantic, I try to ground my arguments not just in reporting but also in astute attention to every sentence. It may not always work, but I am really trying to make every one of those 18,000 words count.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/04/the-return-of-the-black-panther/471516/?utm_source=atl-daily-newsletter

Texas. Texas. Texas. Part 2

Last week Dorothy Patton Barrera, who is white, approached her hometown cemetery, seeking to bury the ashes of her husband, who was cremated. Barrera later said that she was turned away because her husband, Pedro, was Hispanic and the plot was for “whites only.”

http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2016/03/_white_s_only_texas_cemetery_reverses_decision_after_denying_widow_place.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26

Severe Weather

Here's hoping you can access these video clips of the storm we experienced here in the UAE this week.

First, as a point of reference, the official rainfall for this country is four days per year.  

It has rained four days this week!  

Now granted, some days were not more than a hard drizzle, but it rained nonetheless.

However, on Tuesday, we expereinced a real rainstorm with downpours, 75 mph winds, and hail.  

In my little town, there was some thunder and lightning, but not much more, thank God.

Other parts of Abu Dhabi were not so lucky.

This is the majlis (sitting area) in someone-s home.

Window blowing into office.

Rain falling inside of school - not mine.

Glass doors blowing into building.

Painkillers Kill More Than Pain

Texas. Texas. Texas.

https://youtu.be/qgoypDIHKAQ

Cat Attacks Mail Man || KARMA

Ooops

I just reread "Gratitude," an earlier post from today and caught several errors.

Like I've said many times over these almost five years of blogging, I do proofread before hitting "send," but many times I just can't see the errors.

Isn't that same thing oftentimes true with life?

We can't see the error of our ways until some time has passed away, or someone has brought it to our attention?

So, here's to always striving for error-free posts and an error-free life.

Who thinks there might be slip ups?

Yeah, me too.

"A" for effort though.

The Carmichael Show - Successful People Cheat (Sneak Peek)