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Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Trailer: Oprah's Master Class Season 6 | Oprah’s Master Class | Oprah Wi...

How obsessive artists colorize old photos

MONOPRIX - Label of Love



https://www.fastcompany.com/40422833/this-is-the-cutest-love-story-youll-see-from-a-grocery-store-all-day

Speaking Out

An excerpt from the LA Times -

They dismissed her as a lightweight. But California's top judge has found her voice — and uses it to call out Trump policies
By Maura Dolan

Settled in as California’s top judge, she is speaking her mind, calling on the Trump administration to keep its immigration agents away from state courthouses and giving a highly publicized address that reflected California’s jitters about the new president.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-chief-justice-20170528-story.html

Sweden on Airbnb



https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/sweden-lists-whole-country-on-airbnb-freedom-to-roam

Sunday, May 28, 2017

Chayanne - Qué Me Has Hecho (Official Video) ft. Wisin

Close To You | Songs | Tommy Emmanuel

Quote

From the NY Times -

Trump’s Hand-to-Hand Combat
By Maureen Dowd

“We’re beyond grief and into disbelief,” David Axelrod, Obama’s old guru, told me. “I feel like a 6-year-old has gotten controls of the 747 and we’re all strapped in our seats hoping either he’ll land the plane or somebody else will co-pilot. But meanwhile, we’re just getting jerked around in turbulence on a constant basis here. It is just debilitating.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/27/opinion/sunday/trumps-hand-to-hand-combat.html?ribbon-ad-idx=6&rref=opinion&module=Ribbon&version=context&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Opinion&pgtype=article

Ladybugs Folding Their Wings

Saturday, May 27, 2017

Ed Sheeran - What Do I Know? [Official Audio]

Mayor Mitch Landrieu's full address on the removal of the Confederate mo...

The Farm of the Future Could Fit in Your Backyard

Caroline Kennedy on John F. Kennedy: I miss him more each and every day ...

WATCH Black Farmer Calls Out Liberal Racism



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-farmer-calls-out-liberal-racism-in-powerful-facebook-message_us_5925a027e4b0650cc020eb4d

A Great Book!

If you're in the mood for a funny, thought-provoking, "too good to put down" kind of book, then grab The Transformation of a Lost Soul by Forrest J. Beverly.

You'll share the experiences with the author as he moves from his life in rural China, Texas to the halls of Florida A & M University, to life as an undercover Drug Enforcement Agent.

Full disclosure.

The author is my brother and these are stories I was familiar with.  However, I was enthralled from cover to cover.  I think you will be, too.

https://www.amazon.com/Transformation-Lost-Soul-Spiritual-Journey/dp/1478770759/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1470835162&sr=1-2&keywords=The+transformation+of+a+lost+soul


Hasan Minhaj: Homecoming King | Official Trailer [HD] | Netflix

This tilting house forces roommates to cooperate

Sunday, May 21, 2017

Gabe Bondoc – 'Gentlemen Don't'

2CELLOS - Moon River [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

Making a big splash with the Super Soaker

7 people who were rejected before reaching incredible success

An Insult to 4-Year-Olds

An excerpt from the NY Times -

4-Year-Olds Don’t Act Like Trump
By ALISON GOPNIK

The analogy is pervasive among his critics: Donald Trump is like a child. Making him the president was like making a 4-year-old the leader of the free world.

But the analogy is profoundly wrong, and it’s unfair to children. The scientific developmental research of the past 30 years shows that Mr. Trump is utterly unlike a 4-year-old.

Four-year-olds care deeply about the truth. They constantly try to seek out information and to figure out how the world works. Of course, 4-year-olds, as well as adults, occasionally lie. But Mr. Trump doesn’t just lie; he seems not even to care whether his statements are true.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/20/opinion/sunday/4-year-olds-children-trump-gopnik.html?_r=0

Friday, May 19, 2017

How I learned to read -- and trade stocks -- in prison | Curtis "Wall St...

Fox News’ 5 steps for handling a Trump scandal

Turning the Tables

Look closely at the pictures below.

An excerpt from the Huffington Post -

These Profound Photos Masterfully Turn Racial Stereotypes On Their Head
A powerful new photo essay reexamines our relationship with race.
By Lilly Workneh

The pictures are indeed eye-opening, and force us to reexamine damaging stereotypes and explore how race, class and power can intersect.

CHRIS BUCK/O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE



CHRIS BUCK/O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/these-profound-photos-masterfully-turn-racial-stereotypes-on-their-head_us_591dceece4b03b485caf8c6d?h1&ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

Thursday, May 18, 2017

Jeanette Harris - All I Do

Girl Scouts new CEO is a rocket scientist

How Trump made it harder for the US to fight terrorism

Liberal Redneck - What's It Gonna Take Yall

We’ve got your back . . . hair.

This Cat Needs a Home

From the Huffington Post -

Animal Shelter Writes Badass Adoption Memo For ‘Utter Bastard Of A Cat’
“Mr. Biggles is a despot and dictator.”
By Rebecca Shapiro

Mr. Biggles
Pet adoption agency Cats of Melbourne, located in Melbourne, Australia, posted a darkly hilarious memo about Mr. Biggles (also known as Lord Bigglesworth) on its website this week, practically daring a future owner to take him in.

Founder and group co-ordinator Gina Brett wrote the ad, describing the shiny black cat as “an utter utter utter bastard” who throws tantrums and does not like to be thwarted.

“Mr. Biggles is a despot and dictator, he will let you know he is not happy, which is often because things are often just not up to his high standards,” the memo reads. “Mr Biggles likes his cuddles on his terms, and will sit in your lap when he decides it’s time. If the stroking is not up to his standards, he will nip you.”

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/animal-shelter-writes-badass-adoption-memo-about-utter-bastard-of-a-cat_us_591d0240e4b034684b095160?3af&ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

A Special Prosecutor Steps In & Fox News Doesn't Get the Comey Memo: The...

The fight to rethink (and reinvent) nuclear power

Trump Asked Comey to End Flynn Probe, Gave Russians Intel: A Closer Look

The Master Matador Tailor

Pretty Please!

An excerpt from the New Yorker -

OBAMA WILLING TO SERVE AS TEMP PRESIDENT WHILE TRUMP RECEIVES PSYCHIATRIC EVALUATION
By Andy Borowitz

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Amid concerns about Donald Trump’s fitness to be President, former President Barack Obama said on Tuesday that he was willing to serve as “temp President” while Trump undergoes psychiatric evaluation.

“It would just be a temp thing,” Obama told reporters. “As soon as psychiatrists determine that Donald Trump is mentally stable and fit to serve as the most powerful officeholder in the world, I’d step aside.”

http://www.newyorker.com/humor/borowitz-report/obama-willing-to-serve-as-temp-president-while-trump-receives-psychiatric-evaluation

Sunday, May 14, 2017

An Exhaustive List That Will Keep Growing

From the NY Times -

The Republican’s Guide to Presidential Behavior
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

It wasn’t so long ago that Republicans in Congress cared about how a president comported himself in office. They cared a lot! The president is, after all, commander in chief of the armed forces, steward of the most powerful nation on earth, role model for America’s children — and he should act at all times with the dignity his station demands. It’s not O.K. to behave in a manner that demeans the office and embarrasses the country. Shirt sleeves in the Oval Office? Disrespectful. Shoes on the Resolute desk? Even worse. Lying? Despicable, if not impeachable.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/13/opinion/sunday/the-republicans-guide-to-presidential-behavior.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region&_r=0

Not Smart

An excerpt from the Washington Post -

In Arizona, teachers can now be hired with absolutely no training in how to teach
By Valerie Strauss

New legislation signed into law in Arizona by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey (R) will allow teachers to be hired with no formal teaching training, as long as they have five years of experience in fields “relevant” to the subject they are teaching. What’s “relevant” isn’t clear.

The Arizona law is part of a disturbing trend nationwide to allow teachers without certification or even any teacher preparation to be hired and put immediately to work in the classroom in large part to help close persistent teacher shortages. It plays into a misconception that anyone can teach if they know a particular subject and that it is not really necessary to first learn about curriculum, classroom management and instruction.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/answer-sheet/wp/2017/05/14/in-arizona-teachers-can-now-be-hired-with-absolutely-no-training-in-how-to-teach/?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_as-arizona-955am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.44c3524d23bd

Amazon Echo - SNL

Lester Holt Cold Open - SNL

Happy Mother's Day

As a mother to two sons and a grandmother to three precious little girls, I've learned some things.

I've learned that the greatest impact on a child's life happens in the first five years.

This is tough because as a new mother, or even a seasoned one, the first five years of a child's life are hectic.  You're busy taking care of them and they're busy discovering and exploring the world around them.  But it is in the first five years that lifelong lessons are learned.  In those first five years, kids learn how to behave, how to treat others, how to take care of themselves, and how to think for themselves, to name a few.  And the tricky part is, as a parent you have no idea if what you're doing is right or good for that child until much later.  In these first five years, you're operating on a hope and a prayer.

I've learned you don't do your child any favors by always coming to their rescue.

When a child blows it, they need to understand that they need to figure out what to do to solve their issue.  I'm not suggesting that we let them suffer, but I am saying that they need to understand that the world will not bail them out.  When they screw up, they need to fess up, correct the problem, make amends and move on.  Too often parents become a lifelong crutch.  In their desire to help, they become a hindrance.

I've learned that kids have to be taught how to work; how to complete a task and do a good job.

If kids are allowed to get away with doing half-ass work, they will grow up thinking that's good enough in school, at work, and in relationships.  Kids have to be explicitly taught how to do a job and do it well.  That begins with picking up their toys and cleaning their rooms.  Simple things that have a lifelong impact.

I've learned that once your kids are grown, you have to step aside and let them live their lives.

And to me . . .

That's the hardest lesson of all.





Ditch These Folks . . . Fast

From the Huffington Post -

10 Toxic People You Should Avoid Like The Plague
Quit trying to beat them at their own game.
Dr. Travis Bradberry

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/10-toxic-people-you-should-avoid-like-the-plague_us_591344f2e4b07e366cebb80e

Saturday, May 13, 2017

Billy Porter, Pentatonix - Oh, What a Beautiful Morning

Bobby Charles - I Must Be in a Good Place Now

Johnny Mathis Deniece Williams, Too Much Too Little Too Late

Roberta Flack / Donny Hathaway - Where is the Love (1972)

Carpenters - Close to you

✿ LUTHER VANDROSS - What The World Needs Now Is Love (1994) ✿

The White House press briefing is dying

Cute Baby Animals Meet Their Stuffed Counterparts

Still Happening

An excerpt from the Root -

Mass. Charter School Students Sent to Detention, Banned From Prom Because They Wear Braids 
By Breanna Edwards

Why black hair in school environments is still an issue in this, the year of our Lord 2017, is beyond me. But here we are, yet again. This time, in an apparent sudden enforcement of the “rules,” black students at a charter school in Malden, Mass., have been subject to punishment over braids (yes, the same hairstyle almost every little black girl has had at least once). And parents are upset.

According to the Boston Globe, Colleen Cook, whose twin 15-year-old daughters, Deanna and Mya, attend the Mystic Valley Regional Charter School, have been subject to several detentions since last week and now could actually be suspended from school over their hairstyle.

http://www.theroot.com/mass-charter-school-students-sent-to-detention-banned-1795173513

Friday, May 12, 2017

We Need His Calmness Now More Than Ever

From the Huffington Post -

Happy Little You Can Now Surf Random Bob Ross Videos Online, Forever
You never have to choose between Bob Ross videos ever again.
By Priscilla Frank



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/random-bob-ross-videos_us_5914ce4ce4b0fe039b33549e?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009

Patti's Cinnamon Crumb Cake Recipe

From Entertainment Weekly -

Celebrate Mother's Day with Patti LaBelle's cinnamon crumb cake
It’s soul sweetening
By RUTH KINANE

Ingredients:

For the cake:
1,1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for pan
2 tsp. baking powder
1/8 tsp. table salt
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for pan
1 large egg, at room temperature
1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 cup whole milk

For the streusel topping:

1,1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon


http://ew.com/books/2017/05/12/mothers-day-patti-labelle-cinnamon-crumb-cake-recipe/?xid=email-email-ewbooks-20170512PM-tout3

President Rock?

An excerpt from GQ -

Dwayne Johnson for President!
BY CAITY WEAVER

The cold, hard truth is that if Donald Trump can be elected president, Dwayne Johnson can be elected president. Easily. He probably has better odds of winning an election than Trump, and Trump did win, so what does that tell you? If anything, Trump's election proved that celebrities can just dive right in—they don't even have to make a pit stop as governor of California before the presidency.

“If [becoming the president] is something he focused on,” says Ron Meyer, the NBCUniversal vice chairman, “he probably would accomplish it. I think there's nothing that he couldn't do.”

http://www.gq.com/story/dwayne-johnson-for-president-cover

Unforgiven



http://www.salon.com/2017/05/12/watch-unforgiven-casts-spotlight-on-americas-6-1-million-forgotten-voters/?source=newsletter

Between the Scenes - Trump's Dictator Tendencies: The Daily Show

New Orleans’ Queen of Creole Cooking Still Reigns at 94

Son Shows Mom a Good Time

Will Trump's lies cost lives? Can we break his spell? Killer cognitive b...

"I Won"


http://money.cnn.com/2017/05/11/media/stephen-colbert-trump-no-talent-comment/

Young, Gifted & Black 14-Year-Old Physics Graduate

From the Huffington Post -

This 14-Year-Old Is Already Graduating College With A Physics Degree
Oh, and his 11-year-old brother is also a freshman at the university.
By Lilly Workneh

While most 14-year-old students are about to enter high school, Carson Huey-You is ready to graduate from Texas Christian University with a physics degree.

Carson, who also completed a double minor in math and Chinese, enrolled in the school as a freshman at the age of 11 and is set to graduate Saturday.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/this-14-year-old-is-already-graduating-college-with-a-physics-degree_us_59148dcae4b066b421720e2f?kjh


Planet-Saving Inventions

From CNN -

5 cool inventions that could save the planet
By Tricia Escobedo

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/11/tech/ecosolutions-5-ways-tech/index.html

Thursday, May 11, 2017

The chemistry of cookies - Stephanie Warren

He's a Lousy Poker Player

From the NY Times -

The Easy Tells of Comey’s Canning
By Bret Stephens

Tell: After the president publicly impugned his own F.B.I. director, it meant Rosenstein’s memo was a pro forma, pretextual exercise.

Tell: When the president boasts about his great campaign, you know he’s less than sure about just how great it really was.

Tell: When the president calls news “fake” or a story “phony,” you know the truth quotient is likely to be high. And, again, you know he knows you know it.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/10/opinion/comey-firing-donald-trump.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

The Native American Code Talkers Who Helped Win WWI

Familiarity Breeds Contempt

I hope this is not true because if it is, he comes off as a first class jerk.

You decide.

http://www.thewrap.com/steve-harvey-bizarre-email-to-employees-do-not-open-my-dressing-room-door/

A Tough Job

An excerpt from the NY Times -

An Open Letter to the Deputy Attorney General
Rod Rosenstein has more authority than anyone else
to restore Americans’ confidence in their government.
By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Dear Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein:

Few public servants have found themselves with a choice as weighty as yours, between following their conscience and obeying a leader trying to evade scrutiny — Elliot Richardson and William Ruckelshaus, who behaved nobly in Watergate, come to mind. You can add your name to this short, heroic list. Yes, it might cost you your job. But it would save your honor, and so much more besides.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/11/opinion/deputy-attorney-general-open-letter.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0

Wednesday, May 10, 2017

the girl from ipanema, astrud gilberto, instrumental music, smooth jazz,...

La Vie En Rose

Build 2017: Project Emma

Where There's Smoke, There's Fire

An excerpt from Salon -

Americans are witnessing a slow-motion coup
Rule of law be damned, President Trump was mad as hell and casting around looking for a reason to fire James Comey
By LUCIAN K. TRUSCOTT IV

How incredibly clueless is Trump that he would think this would work? Did he really expect them to endorse his obvious cover-up? Who came up with this insane strategy? Do they really think when the man who is under investigation fires the guy investigating him that people are going to buy it? Do they think nobody remembers when former President Richard Nixon fired the special prosecutor Archibald Cox? Watergate isn’t water under the bridge; it’s history. And there are still people in Washington who know that Archibald Cox wasn’t a character on “The Simpsons” and the night Nixon fired him was called the Saturday Night Massacre. Trump’s pathetic political naïveté is coming into focus. If this is his best game, it’s the fourth quarter: He’s down by double digits; he’s the quarterback and his name isn’t Brady.

http://www.salon.com/2017/05/10/americans-are-witnessing-a-slow-motion-coup/

A Damn Shame! 2

From CBS News & the Associated Press -

Tuskegee syphilis study descendants speak about tragedy, seek healing

Decades later, it's hard to grasp what the federal government did to hundreds of black men in rural Alabama. Especially if you're among their descendants, who continue to gather in memory of their fathers and grandfathers.

For 40 years starting in 1932, medical workers in the segregated South withheld treatment for unsuspecting men infected with a sexually transmitted disease simply so doctors could track the ravages of the horrid illness and dissect their bodies afterward.

Finally exposed in 1972, the study ended and the men sued, resulting in a $9 million settlement. Twenty years ago this May, then President Bill Clinton apologized for the U.S. government.

But it did not mark the end of the study's ugly legacy.


Relatives of the men still struggle with the stigma of being linked to the experiment, what's commonly known as the "Tuskegee Syphilis Study." For years they have met privately to share their pain and to honor the victims.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/tuskegee-syphilis-study-descendants-speak-about-tragedy-call-for-action/