Search This Blog
Tuesday, June 27, 2017
Serena
V.F. cover star @SerenaWilliams—world’s best athlete (plus, mom and wife-to-be)—still has her eyes on the prize https://t.co/kvYTrrcPdW pic.twitter.com/zTq6ZGYb4k— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) June 27, 2017
Shattered Dreams
From Wired -
A MURDER SHATTERS THE DREAMS OF IMMIGRANT TECH WORKERS
By LAUREN SMILEY
“He’s back, and he has a gun!”
Adam Purinton strode toward the patio of Austins Bar & Grill, a black and white cloth tied around his head and military-style medals pinned haphazardly to his white shirt.
He burst into the patio’s flimsy side door shouting, “Get out of my country!” and fired his handgun at two Indian men seated at a high table, according to eyewitnesses and police records. Customers screamed over the din of the TVs and dove for the ground. At least three bullets hit the man facing the door, Srinivas Kuchibhotla. Another bullet plunged into the leg of his friend, Alok Madasani, who crawled for the door before collapsing on the concrete. Alok’s wife was pregnant with their first child, due in four months, and all he could think of was living to see his baby’s face. Survive, he thought.
https://www.wired.com/story/adam-purinton-shooting-olathe-kansas/?mbid=nl_62717_EIC_p1&CNDID=
A MURDER SHATTERS THE DREAMS OF IMMIGRANT TECH WORKERS
By LAUREN SMILEY
“He’s back, and he has a gun!”
Adam Purinton strode toward the patio of Austins Bar & Grill, a black and white cloth tied around his head and military-style medals pinned haphazardly to his white shirt.
He burst into the patio’s flimsy side door shouting, “Get out of my country!” and fired his handgun at two Indian men seated at a high table, according to eyewitnesses and police records. Customers screamed over the din of the TVs and dove for the ground. At least three bullets hit the man facing the door, Srinivas Kuchibhotla. Another bullet plunged into the leg of his friend, Alok Madasani, who crawled for the door before collapsing on the concrete. Alok’s wife was pregnant with their first child, due in four months, and all he could think of was living to see his baby’s face. Survive, he thought.
https://www.wired.com/story/adam-purinton-shooting-olathe-kansas/?mbid=nl_62717_EIC_p1&CNDID=
Most Instagrammed
https://www.onthegotours.com/Instagram-wonders-world/
https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/most-instagrammed-locations-sites
https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/most-instagrammed-locations-sites
The Future of Swimming is Black
From the Washington Post -
The future of U.S. swimming is 6 feet 9, 17 years old — and African American
The future of U.S. swimming is 6 feet 9, 17 years old — and African American
By Dana O'Neil
Whitley was featured on the December 2015 cover of Sports Illustrated Kids. (Heinz Kleutmeier /AP) |
The combination of his competitive potential and his skin color makes Whitley perhaps the most important male swimmer to come along since Phelps, Gaines argues. Whitley has spent his entire high school career at Penn Charter, a prestigious Quaker school in Philadelphia known more for its academic rigor than its swimming success. Crystal Keelan, Whitley’s longtime coach, has built a more than respectable program at the school, but Whitley remains the only swimmer competing at a national — let alone international — level.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/olympics/the-future-of-us-swimming-is-6-feet-9-17-years-old--and-african-american/2017/06/26/1132fbb8-5a8d-11e7-9fc6-c7ef4bc58d13_story.html?utm_term=.f9639b9ff27c&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
From Leader to Laughingstock
From the Pew Research Center -
U.S. Image Suffers as Publics Around World Question Trump’s Leadership
America still wins praise for its people, culture and civil liberties
BY RICHARD WIKE, BRUCE STOKES, JACOB POUSHTER AND JANELL FETTEROLF
Although he has only been in office a few months, Donald Trump’s presidency has had a major impact on how the world sees the United States. Trump and many of his key policies are broadly unpopular around the globe, and ratings for the U.S. have declined steeply in many nations. According to a new Pew Research Center survey spanning 37 nations, a median of just 22% has confidence in Trump to do the right thing when it comes to international affairs. This stands in contrast to the final years of Barack Obama’s presidency, when a median of 64% expressed confidence in Trump’s predecessor to direct America’s role in the world.
http://www.pewglobal.org/2017/06/26/u-s-image-suffers-as-publics-around-world-question-trumps-leadership/
U.S. Image Suffers as Publics Around World Question Trump’s Leadership
America still wins praise for its people, culture and civil liberties
BY RICHARD WIKE, BRUCE STOKES, JACOB POUSHTER AND JANELL FETTEROLF
Although he has only been in office a few months, Donald Trump’s presidency has had a major impact on how the world sees the United States. Trump and many of his key policies are broadly unpopular around the globe, and ratings for the U.S. have declined steeply in many nations. According to a new Pew Research Center survey spanning 37 nations, a median of just 22% has confidence in Trump to do the right thing when it comes to international affairs. This stands in contrast to the final years of Barack Obama’s presidency, when a median of 64% expressed confidence in Trump’s predecessor to direct America’s role in the world.
http://www.pewglobal.org/2017/06/26/u-s-image-suffers-as-publics-around-world-question-trumps-leadership/
Monday, June 26, 2017
We Can Hope
An excerpt form the New York Magazine -
Just Wait
Watergate didn’t become Watergate overnight, either.
By Frank Rich
In the decades since, Watergate has become perhaps the most abused term in the American political lexicon. Washington has played host to legions of “-gates,” most unworthy of the name, and the original has blurred in memory, including for those of us who lived through it. Now, of course, invocations of Watergate are our daily bread, as America contemplates the future of a president who not only openly admires Nixon — he vowed to put a framed Nixon note on display in the Oval Office — but seems intent on emulating his most impeachable behavior. And among those of us who want Donald Trump gone from Washington yesterday, there’s a fair amount of fear that he, too, could hang on until the end of a four-year term that stank of corruption from the start. Even if his White House scandals turn out to exceed his predecessor’s — as the former director of national intelligence James Clapper posited in early June — impeachment is a political, not a legal, matter, and his political lock on the presidency would seem secure. Unlike Nixon, who had to contend with Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, Trump has the shield of a Republican Congress led by craven enablers terrified of crossing their Dear Leader’s fiercely loyal base. That distinction alone is enough to make anti-Trumpers abandon all hope.
I’m here to say don’t do so just yet. There’s a handy antidote to despair: a thorough wallow in Watergate, the actual story as it unfolded, not the expedited highlight reel that most Americans know from a textbook précis or cultural artifacts like the film version of All the President’s Men. If you look through a sharp Nixonian lens at Trump’s trajectory in office to date, short as it has been, you will discover more of an overlap than you might expect. You will learn that Democratic control of Congress in 1973 was not a crucial factor in Nixon’s downfall and that Republican control of Congress in 2017 may not be a life preserver for Trump. You will find reason to hope that the 45th president’s path through scandal may wind up at the same destination as the 37th’s — a premature exit from the White House in disgrace — on a comparable timeline.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/06/frank-rich-nixon-trump-and-how-a-presidency-ends.html
Just Wait
Watergate didn’t become Watergate overnight, either.
By Frank Rich
In the decades since, Watergate has become perhaps the most abused term in the American political lexicon. Washington has played host to legions of “-gates,” most unworthy of the name, and the original has blurred in memory, including for those of us who lived through it. Now, of course, invocations of Watergate are our daily bread, as America contemplates the future of a president who not only openly admires Nixon — he vowed to put a framed Nixon note on display in the Oval Office — but seems intent on emulating his most impeachable behavior. And among those of us who want Donald Trump gone from Washington yesterday, there’s a fair amount of fear that he, too, could hang on until the end of a four-year term that stank of corruption from the start. Even if his White House scandals turn out to exceed his predecessor’s — as the former director of national intelligence James Clapper posited in early June — impeachment is a political, not a legal, matter, and his political lock on the presidency would seem secure. Unlike Nixon, who had to contend with Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, Trump has the shield of a Republican Congress led by craven enablers terrified of crossing their Dear Leader’s fiercely loyal base. That distinction alone is enough to make anti-Trumpers abandon all hope.
I’m here to say don’t do so just yet. There’s a handy antidote to despair: a thorough wallow in Watergate, the actual story as it unfolded, not the expedited highlight reel that most Americans know from a textbook précis or cultural artifacts like the film version of All the President’s Men. If you look through a sharp Nixonian lens at Trump’s trajectory in office to date, short as it has been, you will discover more of an overlap than you might expect. You will learn that Democratic control of Congress in 1973 was not a crucial factor in Nixon’s downfall and that Republican control of Congress in 2017 may not be a life preserver for Trump. You will find reason to hope that the 45th president’s path through scandal may wind up at the same destination as the 37th’s — a premature exit from the White House in disgrace — on a comparable timeline.
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/06/frank-rich-nixon-trump-and-how-a-presidency-ends.html
It Took a Whole Page
From the Business Insider -
The New York Times used a full page to print 'Trump's lies' since taking office
Sonam Sheth
The New York Times used a full page in the opinion section of Sunday's paper to print what it described as nearly every lie President Donald Trump had publicly told since taking office just over five months ago.
http://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-times-used-full-page-to-print-all-trump-lies-since-taking-office-2017-6
The New York Times used a full page to print 'Trump's lies' since taking office
Sonam Sheth
The New York Times used a full page in the opinion section of Sunday's paper to print what it described as nearly every lie President Donald Trump had publicly told since taking office just over five months ago.
http://www.businessinsider.com/new-york-times-used-full-page-to-print-all-trump-lies-since-taking-office-2017-6
Sunday, June 25, 2017
How Failure Fits
From the NY Times -
On Campus, Failure Is on the Syllabus
A Smith College initiative called “Failing Well” is one of a crop of university
programs that aim to help high achievers cope with basic setbacks.
By JESSICA BENNETT
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. — Last year, during fall orientation at Smith College, and then again recently at final-exam time, students who wandered into the campus hub were faced with an unfamiliar situation: the worst failures of their peers projected onto a large screen.
“I failed my first college writing exam,” one student revealed.
“I came out to my mom, and she asked, ‘Is this until graduation?’” another said.
The faculty, too, contributed stories of screwing up.
“I failed out of college,” a popular English professor wrote. “Sophomore year. Flat-out, whole semester of F’s on the transcript, bombed out, washed out, flunked out.”
“I drafted a poem entitled ‘Chocolate Caramels,’ ” said a literature and American studies scholar, who noted that it “has been rejected by 21 journals … so far.”
This was not a hazing ritual, but part of a formalized program at the women’s college in which participants more accustomed to high test scores and perhaps a varsity letter consent to having their worst setbacks put on wide display.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/24/fashion/fear-of-failure.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage®ion=CColumn&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&src=me&WT.nav=MostEmailed
On Campus, Failure Is on the Syllabus
A Smith College initiative called “Failing Well” is one of a crop of university
programs that aim to help high achievers cope with basic setbacks.
By JESSICA BENNETT
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. — Last year, during fall orientation at Smith College, and then again recently at final-exam time, students who wandered into the campus hub were faced with an unfamiliar situation: the worst failures of their peers projected onto a large screen.
“I failed my first college writing exam,” one student revealed.
“I came out to my mom, and she asked, ‘Is this until graduation?’” another said.
The faculty, too, contributed stories of screwing up.
“I failed out of college,” a popular English professor wrote. “Sophomore year. Flat-out, whole semester of F’s on the transcript, bombed out, washed out, flunked out.”
“I drafted a poem entitled ‘Chocolate Caramels,’ ” said a literature and American studies scholar, who noted that it “has been rejected by 21 journals … so far.”
This was not a hazing ritual, but part of a formalized program at the women’s college in which participants more accustomed to high test scores and perhaps a varsity letter consent to having their worst setbacks put on wide display.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/24/fashion/fear-of-failure.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage®ion=CColumn&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&src=me&WT.nav=MostEmailed
Just Another Black Guy
From the Huffington Post -
Off-Duty Officer ‘Treated As Ordinary Black Guy,’ Shot By Another Cop
The 11-year department veteran’s lawyer says he considers the incident more severe than an accident.
By Doha Madani
A black off-duty officer was shot by a colleague in his St. Louis neighborhood Wednesday night, the Missouri city’s police department confirms.
~~~~~~~~~~
The victim was treated in hospital but has since been released, police confirmed. His lawyer, Rufus J. Tate Jr., told local news outlets that he considers the incident more severe than an accident. The police department has given no description of a threat, he said.
“This is the first time that we are aware, that a black professional, in law enforcement, himself being shot and treated as an ordinary black guy on the street,” Tate told Fox News. “This is a real problem.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-officer-shot-off-duty_us_594e76c8e4b05c37bb76a88f?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Off-Duty Officer ‘Treated As Ordinary Black Guy,’ Shot By Another Cop
The 11-year department veteran’s lawyer says he considers the incident more severe than an accident.
By Doha Madani
A black off-duty officer was shot by a colleague in his St. Louis neighborhood Wednesday night, the Missouri city’s police department confirms.
~~~~~~~~~~
The victim was treated in hospital but has since been released, police confirmed. His lawyer, Rufus J. Tate Jr., told local news outlets that he considers the incident more severe than an accident. The police department has given no description of a threat, he said.
“This is the first time that we are aware, that a black professional, in law enforcement, himself being shot and treated as an ordinary black guy on the street,” Tate told Fox News. “This is a real problem.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-officer-shot-off-duty_us_594e76c8e4b05c37bb76a88f?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
New York!
From the New York Daily News -
CARIBBEAT: A celebration of arts, music and more at 4-day International African Arts Festival coming to Brooklyn
By Jared McCallister
The International African Arts Festival is returning to Brooklyn’s Commodore Barry Park Saturday with a host of anticipated activities — and an entertainment lineup that will thrill cultural mavens and music fans.
Reggae performer Denroy Morgan of “I’ll Do Anything for You” fame, funky James Brown band veteran Fred Wesley and the New JBs, Latin music star Tito Puente Jr., and the Kulu Mele African Drum and Dance Ensemble are among the scheduled performers during the four-day event, which runs Saturday through July 4 in the park on Navy St. (between Park and Flushing Aves.) in Fort Greene.
In addition to the performances, there are attractions and activities for adults and children, such as the "Culture, Community and Struggle" symposium, daily children's programs, a talent search, an arts and craft zone, a chess tournament, a natural hair show, a fashion show, health fair, poetry and spoken word shows, martial arts exhibitions and African dance workshops.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/caribbeat-international-african-arts-festival-returning-saturday-article-1.3275353
CARIBBEAT: A celebration of arts, music and more at 4-day International African Arts Festival coming to Brooklyn
By Jared McCallister
The International African Arts Festival is returning to Brooklyn’s Commodore Barry Park Saturday with a host of anticipated activities — and an entertainment lineup that will thrill cultural mavens and music fans.
Reggae performer Denroy Morgan of “I’ll Do Anything for You” fame, funky James Brown band veteran Fred Wesley and the New JBs, Latin music star Tito Puente Jr., and the Kulu Mele African Drum and Dance Ensemble are among the scheduled performers during the four-day event, which runs Saturday through July 4 in the park on Navy St. (between Park and Flushing Aves.) in Fort Greene.
In addition to the performances, there are attractions and activities for adults and children, such as the "Culture, Community and Struggle" symposium, daily children's programs, a talent search, an arts and craft zone, a chess tournament, a natural hair show, a fashion show, health fair, poetry and spoken word shows, martial arts exhibitions and African dance workshops.
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/caribbeat-international-african-arts-festival-returning-saturday-article-1.3275353
A Bank Investing in Renewable Energy
From Bank of America -
Bank of America issues $1 billion Green Bond
In November 2016, Bank of America issued its third and largest green bond for $1 billion in aggregate principal amount, furthering the company’s commitment to advancing renewable energy generation. The bond will help to fund renewable energy projects under the company’s $125 billion multi-year environmental business commitment to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy through lending, investing, capital raising, advisory services and developing financing solutions for clients around the world. This issuance follows our $600 million corporate green bond offering in 2015 and our first corporate green bond issuance for $500 million in 2013.
Bank of America issues $1 billion Green Bond
In November 2016, Bank of America issued its third and largest green bond for $1 billion in aggregate principal amount, furthering the company’s commitment to advancing renewable energy generation. The bond will help to fund renewable energy projects under the company’s $125 billion multi-year environmental business commitment to accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy through lending, investing, capital raising, advisory services and developing financing solutions for clients around the world. This issuance follows our $600 million corporate green bond offering in 2015 and our first corporate green bond issuance for $500 million in 2013.
Here are some examples of projects financed by our third green bond.
First Reserve, Comanche Solar.
D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments, North Star Solar.
Exelon Generation Company, Bluestem.
Starwood Energy Group Global, Electra Wind.
SunPower, Sunrise 2.
D.E. Shaw, Balko Wind.*
NextEra, Pioneer Plains.*
NextEra, Steele Flats.*
D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments, North Star Solar.
Exelon Generation Company, Bluestem.
Starwood Energy Group Global, Electra Wind.
SunPower, Sunrise 2.
D.E. Shaw, Balko Wind.*
NextEra, Pioneer Plains.*
NextEra, Steele Flats.*
*Projects refinanced from our first green bond.
http://about.bankofamerica.com/en-us/green-bond-overview.html#fbid=EQ2_Jqn8mWY
Being the First
From the Washington Post -
20 new and returning TV shows that you should check out this summer
By Hank Stuever
20 new and returning TV shows that you should check out this summer
By Hank Stuever
First in Human
(Discovery Channel at 9 p.m., Thursday, Aug. 10) Three-night docu-series, narrated by “Big Bang Theory” star Jim Parsons, takes viewers on an unprecedented trip inside the National Institutes of Health’s “Building 10” hospital complex, where chemotherapy was first used against cancer, lithium was tried for depression and — so long as federal funding continues — further research continues.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/tv/20-new-and-returning-tv-shows-that-you-should-check-out-this-summer/2017/06/15/6f730dce-4ad1-11e7-bc1b-fddbd8359dee_story.html?utm_term=.bd3063003eaf&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
You Lose a Lot When You Lose Sleep
From the Huffington Post - (Bold is mine)
Sleep Deprivation Is Killing You (And Making You Fat In The Process)
By Dr. Terry Bradberry
The next time you tell yourself that you’ll sleep when you’re dead, realize that you’re making a decision that can make that day come much sooner. Pushing late into the night is a health and productivity killer.
According to the Division of Sleep Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, the short-term productivity gains from skipping sleep to work are quickly washed away by the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation on your mood, ability to focus, and access to higher-level brain functions for days to come. The negative effects of sleep deprivation are so great that people who are drunk outperform those lacking sleep.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sleep-deprivation-is-killing-you-and-making-you-fat_us_594c1d77e4b0f078efd97fe0
Sleep Deprivation Is Killing You (And Making You Fat In The Process)
By Dr. Terry Bradberry
The next time you tell yourself that you’ll sleep when you’re dead, realize that you’re making a decision that can make that day come much sooner. Pushing late into the night is a health and productivity killer.
According to the Division of Sleep Medicine at the Harvard Medical School, the short-term productivity gains from skipping sleep to work are quickly washed away by the detrimental effects of sleep deprivation on your mood, ability to focus, and access to higher-level brain functions for days to come. The negative effects of sleep deprivation are so great that people who are drunk outperform those lacking sleep.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/sleep-deprivation-is-killing-you-and-making-you-fat_us_594c1d77e4b0f078efd97fe0
Was This The Best Haka Yet? || Maori All Blacks VS B&I Lions
Frankie - This one is for you.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/24/sport/new-zealand-british-and-irish-lions-rugby-eden-park-auckland/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2017/06/24/sport/new-zealand-british-and-irish-lions-rugby-eden-park-auckland/index.html
Saturday, June 24, 2017
Little Black Girl Magic 2
From the Undefeated -
This 9-year-old launched her own line of bath products
Jelani Jones has become a pro at running a business while balancing life as a fourth-grader
BY MAYA A. JONES
While most kids are looking forward to relaxing during summer break, 9-year-old Jelani Jones is contemplating ways to grow her business.
As founder of Lani Boo Bath, a line launched last October that specializes in bath bombs and handcrafted moisturizing soaps, Jelani is learning a thing or two about entrepreneurship. According to Fredericksburg.com, the Spotsylvania County, Virginia, native learned how to make bath bombs — a tightly packed mixture of ingredients that fizzes and expels various scents and oils when wet — in school. Jelani had so much fun with the project that she went home to experiment on her own.
With the help of her parents, Jelani purchased the ingredients needed to create the bath bombs and turned the family kitchen into her personal laboratory. After perfecting the blends to her satisfaction, Jelani started by selling her products to friends, family and church members before establishing Etsy and Facebook pages.
https://theundefeated.com/features/9-year-old-jelani-jones-launched-lani-boo-bath/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/laniboobath#about
This 9-year-old launched her own line of bath products
Jelani Jones has become a pro at running a business while balancing life as a fourth-grader
BY MAYA A. JONES
Jelani Jones, founder of Lani Boo Bath. Facebook |
As founder of Lani Boo Bath, a line launched last October that specializes in bath bombs and handcrafted moisturizing soaps, Jelani is learning a thing or two about entrepreneurship. According to Fredericksburg.com, the Spotsylvania County, Virginia, native learned how to make bath bombs — a tightly packed mixture of ingredients that fizzes and expels various scents and oils when wet — in school. Jelani had so much fun with the project that she went home to experiment on her own.
With the help of her parents, Jelani purchased the ingredients needed to create the bath bombs and turned the family kitchen into her personal laboratory. After perfecting the blends to her satisfaction, Jelani started by selling her products to friends, family and church members before establishing Etsy and Facebook pages.
https://theundefeated.com/features/9-year-old-jelani-jones-launched-lani-boo-bath/
https://www.etsy.com/shop/laniboobath#about
Get to Know This Golfer
From the Undefeated -
Golfer Zakiya Randall has been productive in her time away from the sport
She’s taking a break from the professional circuit to work on her game and inspire the youth
BY TIERRA R. WILKINS
Twenty-six-year-old Zakiya Randall has been playing golf since she was 10. During her prime, she says, she won close to 80 tournaments around the country on the junior and amateur circuits, but more recently she’s been taking a break from professional golf to hone her skill in the sport. But that doesn’t mean she has a lot of downtime. She hosts business clinics, models and travels the country giving motivational speeches. We caught up with the Golden State Warriors fan (she’s from Atlanta and calls Washington, D.C., her hometown, but it’s all good!) to see what she’s been up to since she appeared on Golf Channel’s Big Break in 2012 — needless to say, she hasn’t slowed down.
https://theundefeated.com/features/cultureplay-golfer-zakiya-randall/
Golfer Zakiya Randall has been productive in her time away from the sport
She’s taking a break from the professional circuit to work on her game and inspire the youth
BY TIERRA R. WILKINS
Zakiya Randall |
Twenty-six-year-old Zakiya Randall has been playing golf since she was 10. During her prime, she says, she won close to 80 tournaments around the country on the junior and amateur circuits, but more recently she’s been taking a break from professional golf to hone her skill in the sport. But that doesn’t mean she has a lot of downtime. She hosts business clinics, models and travels the country giving motivational speeches. We caught up with the Golden State Warriors fan (she’s from Atlanta and calls Washington, D.C., her hometown, but it’s all good!) to see what she’s been up to since she appeared on Golf Channel’s Big Break in 2012 — needless to say, she hasn’t slowed down.
https://theundefeated.com/features/cultureplay-golfer-zakiya-randall/
Historical
From the Undefeated -
Markelle Fultz and Kelsey Plum make history as No. 1 picks
For the first time, the year’s top NBA and WNBA selections came from the same school
BY AARON DODSON
Markelle Fultz and Kelsey Plum make history as No. 1 picks
For the first time, the year’s top NBA and WNBA selections came from the same school
BY AARON DODSON
https://theundefeated.com/features/markelle-fultz-kelsey-plum-make-history-number-1-picks/Relevant. pic.twitter.com/51vjVj9jas— espnW (@espnW) June 23, 2017
Cheyenne Mountain
https://www.wired.com/2017/05/rare-journey-cheyenne-mountain-complex-super-bunker-can-survive-anything/?mbid=nl_62417_p1&CNDID=
Little Black Girl Magic
From BlackAmericaWeb -
Meet The 10-Year-Old Girl Who Invented A Million-Dollar Barrette
Just imagine, a hair accessory being sold in 50 stores and 16 states across the country…and the CEO of the hair brand is still in elementary school! That’s right, 10-year old Gabrielle Goodwin has come up with a solution that will bring nothing but relief to Black moms around the world – barrettes that don’t fall off or go missing.
https://blackamericaweb.com/2017/06/21/meet-the-10-year-old-girl-who-invented-a-million-dollar-barrette/
Meet The 10-Year-Old Girl Who Invented A Million-Dollar Barrette
Just imagine, a hair accessory being sold in 50 stores and 16 states across the country…and the CEO of the hair brand is still in elementary school! That’s right, 10-year old Gabrielle Goodwin has come up with a solution that will bring nothing but relief to Black moms around the world – barrettes that don’t fall off or go missing.
A post shared by GaBBY Bows (@gabbybows) on
A post shared by GaBBY Bows (@gabbybows) on
https://blackamericaweb.com/2017/06/21/meet-the-10-year-old-girl-who-invented-a-million-dollar-barrette/
Blaxodus
From the Root -
For Those Considering Blaxit, I Present to You: Budapest
By Jennifer Neal
I’ll be completely honest: When it comes to hypothetical homes for African Americans who are considering a post-Trump “blaxodus,” Eastern Europe was way off my radar. Like many former Soviet-bloc states, Hungary is a place that grapples with unemployment and poverty while its leaders hoard taxpayer funds to line their own pockets.
~~~~~~~~~~
But I’m ready to admit something else: Budapest surprised me. Centuries of expanding and contracting border lines, nomadic ethnic groups like the Roma and 150 years of Turkish occupation have turned Budapest into a unique archetype relative to the rest of the region. This is reflected in the architecture, the music and, unlike Germany—a country where emulsified pork fat spread on toast is considered a delicacy—the food, which is slap-somebody good.
http://www.theroot.com/for-those-considering-blaxit-i-present-to-you-budapes-1796277680
For Those Considering Blaxit, I Present to You: Budapest
By Jennifer Neal
I’ll be completely honest: When it comes to hypothetical homes for African Americans who are considering a post-Trump “blaxodus,” Eastern Europe was way off my radar. Like many former Soviet-bloc states, Hungary is a place that grapples with unemployment and poverty while its leaders hoard taxpayer funds to line their own pockets.
~~~~~~~~~~
But I’m ready to admit something else: Budapest surprised me. Centuries of expanding and contracting border lines, nomadic ethnic groups like the Roma and 150 years of Turkish occupation have turned Budapest into a unique archetype relative to the rest of the region. This is reflected in the architecture, the music and, unlike Germany—a country where emulsified pork fat spread on toast is considered a delicacy—the food, which is slap-somebody good.
http://www.theroot.com/for-those-considering-blaxit-i-present-to-you-budapes-1796277680
Stayin' Alive
From the Root -
Ohio State Recruit Breaks Internet With Wokest Shirt Ever
By Michael Harriot
Ohio State Recruit Breaks Internet With Wokest Shirt Ever
By Michael Harriot
http://www.theroot.com/ohio-state-recruit-breaks-internet-with-wokest-shirt-ev-1796343394⭕️state was great!!!! 💯 pic.twitter.com/HlWtYBXhOu— Tyreke Smith™ (@T_23_baller) June 17, 2017
Remember These Guys?
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
The Legend of Reebok’s ‘Dan and Dave’ ad campaign, as told by Dan and Dave
By Rick Maese
Twenty-five years ago, the advertising campaign was ubiquitous. By Summer 1992, it would be infamous – one of the biggest sports’ marketing campaigns to date, featuring two relatively unknown track and field athletes who became household names almost overnight. Dan O’Brien and Dave Johnson were American decathletes on a crash-course to compete against each other for Olympic gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Reebok pumped $30 million into the “Dan & Dave” campaign and invited the nation to choose sides.
Twenty-five years later, Johnson and O’Brien spent time remembering that summer that turned them into unlikely celebrities.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2017/06/23/the-legend-of-reeboks-dan-and-dave-ad-campaign-as-told-by-dan-and-dave/?utm_term=.a6f80f977344&wpisrc=nl_most-draw7&wpmm=1
The Legend of Reebok’s ‘Dan and Dave’ ad campaign, as told by Dan and Dave
By Rick Maese
Dan O’Brien and Dave Johnson at the Modesto Relays in 1992. (Tim DeFrisco / Getty Images) |
Twenty-five years ago, the advertising campaign was ubiquitous. By Summer 1992, it would be infamous – one of the biggest sports’ marketing campaigns to date, featuring two relatively unknown track and field athletes who became household names almost overnight. Dan O’Brien and Dave Johnson were American decathletes on a crash-course to compete against each other for Olympic gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Reebok pumped $30 million into the “Dan & Dave” campaign and invited the nation to choose sides.
Twenty-five years later, Johnson and O’Brien spent time remembering that summer that turned them into unlikely celebrities.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2017/06/23/the-legend-of-reeboks-dan-and-dave-ad-campaign-as-told-by-dan-and-dave/?utm_term=.a6f80f977344&wpisrc=nl_most-draw7&wpmm=1
Friday, June 23, 2017
Hmmmmm
From Scientific American?
Why Are so Many Babies Born around 8:00 A.M.?
Data visualization engineer Zan Armstrong takes a close look at human birth patterns.
By Zan Armstrong
How a baby is born affects when a baby is born
In the U.S., 32 percent of births are C-section surgeries, another 18 percent are the result of induced labors and 50 percent are “natural” (vaginal deliveries without induction). If we break down the data by the method of delivery, we see a distinct rhythm for each type of delivery method. Together, these three intersecting patterns create the overall minute-per-day pattern we see: fewer births at night, a huge spike in the morning and a broader afternoon bump.
For the 50 percent of babies born without intervention, we see a night/day pattern. Roughly 20 to 30 percent more babies are born per minute between 6:45 A.M. and 6 P.M. than during the night.
https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/sa-visual/why-are-so-many-babies-born-around-8-00-a-m/
Why Are so Many Babies Born around 8:00 A.M.?
Data visualization engineer Zan Armstrong takes a close look at human birth patterns.
By Zan Armstrong
How a baby is born affects when a baby is born
In the U.S., 32 percent of births are C-section surgeries, another 18 percent are the result of induced labors and 50 percent are “natural” (vaginal deliveries without induction). If we break down the data by the method of delivery, we see a distinct rhythm for each type of delivery method. Together, these three intersecting patterns create the overall minute-per-day pattern we see: fewer births at night, a huge spike in the morning and a broader afternoon bump.
Credit: Nadieh Bremer and Zan Armstrong; SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |
For the 50 percent of babies born without intervention, we see a night/day pattern. Roughly 20 to 30 percent more babies are born per minute between 6:45 A.M. and 6 P.M. than during the night.
Flying Cars
From Wired -
Can’t Decide What Kind of Flying Car to Get? Try These 10
By Jack Stewart
COMMUTERS OF THE world, rejoice. The long-promised age of the flying car is finally here—more or less. Big-name companies around the world are showing honest to goodness flying machines in action, and promising to make them available to the public soon. This sudden shift can be pinned on recent tech advances: Better motors, batteries, and lightweight materials mean designers’ dreams can now be built. The flexibility that comes with compact electric motors gives engineers almost total free reign, and man have they taken advantage.
https://www.wired.com/2017/06/flying-car-concepts-prototypes?mbid=nl_62217_p10&CNDID=
Can’t Decide What Kind of Flying Car to Get? Try These 10
By Jack Stewart
COMMUTERS OF THE world, rejoice. The long-promised age of the flying car is finally here—more or less. Big-name companies around the world are showing honest to goodness flying machines in action, and promising to make them available to the public soon. This sudden shift can be pinned on recent tech advances: Better motors, batteries, and lightweight materials mean designers’ dreams can now be built. The flexibility that comes with compact electric motors gives engineers almost total free reign, and man have they taken advantage.
https://www.wired.com/2017/06/flying-car-concepts-prototypes?mbid=nl_62217_p10&CNDID=
Wednesday, June 21, 2017
Right to Bear Arms? Not Us.
An excerpt from the Atlantic -
Do African Americans Have a Right to Bear Arms?
And if so, why won’t the justice system or the NRA stand up for it?
By DAVID A. GRAHAM
Philando Castile’s shooting death, at the hands of a police officer in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, one year ago, was numbingly similar to a string of other killings of black men by police. But Castile’s shooting was notably different in one crucial respect: Castile was licensed to carry a gun. He carefully informed Officer Jeronimo Yanez—exceeding his legal requirements under Minnesota law, though following the advice some gun-rights advocates offer for concealed carriers when stopped by police. And yet Yanez almost instantly shot him. That aspect made the case a central focus not just for Black Lives Matter activists, but for some gun owners, too.
As I wrote at the time, Castile’s killing raised the question of whether African Americans truly have a right to bear arms in practice. Even setting aside the questionable grounds under which Yanez had pulled Castile over (a malfunctioning taillight is a classic pretextual stop police use to question black drivers), Castile had done everything right.
There’s a long history of African Americans attempting to arm themselves to defend against state violence. During the post-Civil War period, many blacks armed themselves to protect against white supremacist violence. Southern governments responded by attempting to strip the right to bear arms. A century later, the Black Panthers made a habit of openly carrying guns as a way of displaying to racist police officers in Oakland that African Americans couldn’t be pushed around. In response, the California legislature passed a ban on open carry, and Governor Ronald Reagan signed it into law.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/the-continued-erosion-of-the-african-american-right-to-bear-arms/531093/?utm_source=nl-atlantic-daily-062117
Do African Americans Have a Right to Bear Arms?
And if so, why won’t the justice system or the NRA stand up for it?
By DAVID A. GRAHAM
Philando Castile’s shooting death, at the hands of a police officer in Falcon Heights, Minnesota, one year ago, was numbingly similar to a string of other killings of black men by police. But Castile’s shooting was notably different in one crucial respect: Castile was licensed to carry a gun. He carefully informed Officer Jeronimo Yanez—exceeding his legal requirements under Minnesota law, though following the advice some gun-rights advocates offer for concealed carriers when stopped by police. And yet Yanez almost instantly shot him. That aspect made the case a central focus not just for Black Lives Matter activists, but for some gun owners, too.
As I wrote at the time, Castile’s killing raised the question of whether African Americans truly have a right to bear arms in practice. Even setting aside the questionable grounds under which Yanez had pulled Castile over (a malfunctioning taillight is a classic pretextual stop police use to question black drivers), Castile had done everything right.
There’s a long history of African Americans attempting to arm themselves to defend against state violence. During the post-Civil War period, many blacks armed themselves to protect against white supremacist violence. Southern governments responded by attempting to strip the right to bear arms. A century later, the Black Panthers made a habit of openly carrying guns as a way of displaying to racist police officers in Oakland that African Americans couldn’t be pushed around. In response, the California legislature passed a ban on open carry, and Governor Ronald Reagan signed it into law.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/the-continued-erosion-of-the-african-american-right-to-bear-arms/531093/?utm_source=nl-atlantic-daily-062117
Shocking Behavior or Not?
An excerpt from the Root -
Video of a White Woman Demanding a White Doctor Shocked Everyone ... Except Black Doctors
By Michael Harriot
A viral video of a woman at a Canadian clinic demanding to see a white doctor has the internet buzzing about her demands. While many are shocked by the woman’s insistence that she will allow only a white doctor to treat her son, there is one group of people who are not shocked by the video, or by the woman’s brazen display of racism:
Black doctors.
While the internet may be clutching its pearls, according to numerous studies and anecdotal examples, nonwhite doctors and nurses see this all the time. The Root spoke with 12 black medical professionals who all say they have encountered similar situations, some routinely.
http://www.theroot.com/video-of-a-white-woman-demanding-a-white-doctor-shocked-1796299094
Video of a White Woman Demanding a White Doctor Shocked Everyone ... Except Black Doctors
By Michael Harriot
A viral video of a woman at a Canadian clinic demanding to see a white doctor has the internet buzzing about her demands. While many are shocked by the woman’s insistence that she will allow only a white doctor to treat her son, there is one group of people who are not shocked by the video, or by the woman’s brazen display of racism:
Black doctors.
While the internet may be clutching its pearls, according to numerous studies and anecdotal examples, nonwhite doctors and nurses see this all the time. The Root spoke with 12 black medical professionals who all say they have encountered similar situations, some routinely.
http://www.theroot.com/video-of-a-white-woman-demanding-a-white-doctor-shocked-1796299094
Live in CA and Need a Job?
An excerpt from the NY Times -
California Today
By MIKE MCPHATE
Need a job?
California’s state government has at least 3,800 openings it wants to fill.
In a push to do so, the state human resources agency recently introduced a revamped jobs website, branded under the name CalCareers.
The site lets job seekers search using filters such as location and job category.
There are currently openings for lawyers, lifeguards, nurses, plumbers, music therapists and Jewish chaplains.
The postings, helpfully, give expected salary ranges. The top listed minimum salary? About $274,000 a year to be a chief dentist in California’s correctional system.
If that’s a little beyond your expertise, don’t worry. According to the website, there are plenty of openings that require neither a degree nor experience.
https://jobs.ca.gov
http://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/2017/06/21/california-today?nlid=38867499
California Today
By MIKE MCPHATE
Need a job?
California’s state government has at least 3,800 openings it wants to fill.
In a push to do so, the state human resources agency recently introduced a revamped jobs website, branded under the name CalCareers.
The site lets job seekers search using filters such as location and job category.
There are currently openings for lawyers, lifeguards, nurses, plumbers, music therapists and Jewish chaplains.
The postings, helpfully, give expected salary ranges. The top listed minimum salary? About $274,000 a year to be a chief dentist in California’s correctional system.
If that’s a little beyond your expertise, don’t worry. According to the website, there are plenty of openings that require neither a degree nor experience.
https://jobs.ca.gov
http://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/2017/06/21/california-today?nlid=38867499
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
Side Effects of Too Much Power?
An excerpt from the Atlantic -
Power Causes Brain Damage
Over time, leaders lose mental capacities—most notably for reading other people—that were essential to their rise.
By JERRY USEEM
If power were a prescription drug, it would come with a long list of known side effects. It can intoxicate. It can corrupt. It can even make Henry Kissinger believe that he’s sexually magnetic. But can it cause brain damage?
When various lawmakers lit into John Stumpf at a congressional hearing last fall, each seemed to find a fresh way to flay the now-former CEO of Wells Fargo for failing to stop some 5,000 employees from setting up phony accounts for customers. But it was Stumpf’s performance that stood out. Here was a man who had risen to the top of the world’s most valuable bank, yet he seemed utterly unable to read a room. Although he apologized, he didn’t appear chastened or remorseful. Nor did he seem defiant or smug or even insincere. He looked disoriented, like a jet-lagged space traveler just arrived from Planet Stumpf, where deference to him is a natural law and 5,000 a commendably small number. Even the most direct barbs—“You have got to be kidding me” (Sean Duffy of Wisconsin); “I can’t believe some of what I’m hearing here” (Gregory Meeks of New York)—failed to shake him awake.
The historian Henry Adams was being metaphorical, not medical, when he described power as “a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim’s sympathies.” But that’s not far from where Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at UC Berkeley, ended up after years of lab and field experiments. Subjects under the influence of power, he found in studies spanning two decades, acted as if they had suffered a traumatic brain injury—becoming more impulsive, less risk-aware, and, crucially, less adept at seeing things from other people’s point of view.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/07/power-causes-brain-damage/528711/?utm_source=nl-atlantic-daily-061917
Power Causes Brain Damage
Over time, leaders lose mental capacities—most notably for reading other people—that were essential to their rise.
By JERRY USEEM
If power were a prescription drug, it would come with a long list of known side effects. It can intoxicate. It can corrupt. It can even make Henry Kissinger believe that he’s sexually magnetic. But can it cause brain damage?
When various lawmakers lit into John Stumpf at a congressional hearing last fall, each seemed to find a fresh way to flay the now-former CEO of Wells Fargo for failing to stop some 5,000 employees from setting up phony accounts for customers. But it was Stumpf’s performance that stood out. Here was a man who had risen to the top of the world’s most valuable bank, yet he seemed utterly unable to read a room. Although he apologized, he didn’t appear chastened or remorseful. Nor did he seem defiant or smug or even insincere. He looked disoriented, like a jet-lagged space traveler just arrived from Planet Stumpf, where deference to him is a natural law and 5,000 a commendably small number. Even the most direct barbs—“You have got to be kidding me” (Sean Duffy of Wisconsin); “I can’t believe some of what I’m hearing here” (Gregory Meeks of New York)—failed to shake him awake.
The historian Henry Adams was being metaphorical, not medical, when he described power as “a sort of tumor that ends by killing the victim’s sympathies.” But that’s not far from where Dacher Keltner, a psychology professor at UC Berkeley, ended up after years of lab and field experiments. Subjects under the influence of power, he found in studies spanning two decades, acted as if they had suffered a traumatic brain injury—becoming more impulsive, less risk-aware, and, crucially, less adept at seeing things from other people’s point of view.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/07/power-causes-brain-damage/528711/?utm_source=nl-atlantic-daily-061917
How to Fight Superbugs
https://www.theatlantic.com/video/index/530826/how-to-fight-superbugs/?utm_source=nl-atlantic-daily-061917
A Gift of Freedom
An excerpt from Salon -
Jay Z’s priceless Father’s Day gift: This is how leaders should address injustices of mass incarceration
The rap mogul bailed other dads out of jail while highlighting the devastating effects of our biased justice system
D. WATKINS
Jay Z was not talking about his watch, cars or money this past week; instead, the rap legend and recent Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee celebrated Father’s Day by bailing other fathers out of jail. And he’s been talking about it, too. In an article for Time, the rap mogul wrote, “We can’t fix our broken criminal justice system until we take on the exploitative bail industry.” While Jay Z has long been aware of how messed up the American criminal justice system is, working on telling Kalief Browder’s story strengthened his commitment to this personal mission.
“When I helped produce this year’s docuseries, ‘Time: The Kalief Browder Story,’ I became obsessed with the injustice of the profitable bail bond industry. Kalief’s family was too poor to post bond when he was accused of stealing a backpack,” Jay-Z wrote. “He was sentenced to a kind of purgatory before he ever went to trial. The three years he spent in solitary confinement on Rikers ultimately created irreversible damage that [led] to his death at 22.”
http://www.salon.com/2017/06/19/jay-zs-priceless-fathers-day-gift-this-is-how-leaders-should-address-injustices-of-mass-incarceration/
Jay Z’s priceless Father’s Day gift: This is how leaders should address injustices of mass incarceration
The rap mogul bailed other dads out of jail while highlighting the devastating effects of our biased justice system
D. WATKINS
Jay Z was not talking about his watch, cars or money this past week; instead, the rap legend and recent Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee celebrated Father’s Day by bailing other fathers out of jail. And he’s been talking about it, too. In an article for Time, the rap mogul wrote, “We can’t fix our broken criminal justice system until we take on the exploitative bail industry.” While Jay Z has long been aware of how messed up the American criminal justice system is, working on telling Kalief Browder’s story strengthened his commitment to this personal mission.
“When I helped produce this year’s docuseries, ‘Time: The Kalief Browder Story,’ I became obsessed with the injustice of the profitable bail bond industry. Kalief’s family was too poor to post bond when he was accused of stealing a backpack,” Jay-Z wrote. “He was sentenced to a kind of purgatory before he ever went to trial. The three years he spent in solitary confinement on Rikers ultimately created irreversible damage that [led] to his death at 22.”
http://www.salon.com/2017/06/19/jay-zs-priceless-fathers-day-gift-this-is-how-leaders-should-address-injustices-of-mass-incarceration/
That's a Lot of Change!
An excerpt from the Washington Post - (Bold is mine)
All that spare change you forget at TSA checkpoints adds up to big bucks
By Lori Aratani
All the nickels, dimes and quarters travelers leave behind at airport security checkpoints adds up to big bucks — enough that next time you forget your change after emptying your pockets, you might want to go back for it.
In fiscal year 2016, travelers left behind a record $867,812.39, according to a report from the Transportation Security Administration. That’s over $100,000 more than went unclaimed the previous year. Of that amount, nearly $80,000 was in foreign currency.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/dr-gridlock/wp/2017/06/19/all-that-spare-change-you-forget-at-tsa-checkpoints-adds-up-to-big-bucks/?utm_term=.3ae318a00118&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
This Copier Can Erase
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
This new copier gives you an option to erase what you’ve printed
By Hayley Tsukayama
To reuse a piece of paper, the printer essentially uses the same process as a normal printer, but in reverse, Melo said. Paper printed with the eraseable toner is fed back into the printer, super-heated, and the toner gets removed and put in a discard tank. The process generates a high enough heat that there is little danger of losing your information if, say, you keep the sheets in your car on hot day.
There are a couple of catches. All of the printouts using the eraseable toner have to be in blue ink, which is the only color in which eraseable toner is now available. And the company said that people may want to stop reusing the printouts after five times through the eraser because small traces of erased text will build up over time.
The $15,420 printer is aimed at offices and schools, where there are often large numbers of printouts that outlive their usefulness quickly. With the eraseable toner, it’s possible to load any short-lived handouts back onto the printer to be erased and then reused.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/06/19/this-new-copier-gives-you-an-option-to-erase-what-youve-printed/?utm_term=.4fc9d6f2c1bb&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
This new copier gives you an option to erase what you’ve printed
By Hayley Tsukayama
To reuse a piece of paper, the printer essentially uses the same process as a normal printer, but in reverse, Melo said. Paper printed with the eraseable toner is fed back into the printer, super-heated, and the toner gets removed and put in a discard tank. The process generates a high enough heat that there is little danger of losing your information if, say, you keep the sheets in your car on hot day.
There are a couple of catches. All of the printouts using the eraseable toner have to be in blue ink, which is the only color in which eraseable toner is now available. And the company said that people may want to stop reusing the printouts after five times through the eraser because small traces of erased text will build up over time.
The $15,420 printer is aimed at offices and schools, where there are often large numbers of printouts that outlive their usefulness quickly. With the eraseable toner, it’s possible to load any short-lived handouts back onto the printer to be erased and then reused.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/06/19/this-new-copier-gives-you-an-option-to-erase-what-youve-printed/?utm_term=.4fc9d6f2c1bb&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
10 Year Old Inventor
An excerpt from the Huffington Post -
This 10-Year-Old Is Creating A Device To Prevent Infants From Dying In Hot Cars
His patent should be here within the year.
By Zahara Hill
After Bishop Curry heard his neighbor’s 6-month-old infant died from being in an overheated car, he decided to create a life-saving device to prevent incidents like this from reoccurring ― as any responsible 10-year-old would.
“It kind of came in my head,” Bishop told HuffPost of his device, the Oasis.
The Oasis would respond to rising temperatures by emitting cool air and use an antenna to signal parents and authorities. At the moment, Bishop only has a 3-D clay model of the device, but his father, Bishop Curry IV, began a GoFundMe campaign for the Oasis in January.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/10-year-old-invents-device-to-prevent-hot-car-deaths_us_5948065de4b07499199d9e96
This 10-Year-Old Is Creating A Device To Prevent Infants From Dying In Hot Cars
His patent should be here within the year.
By Zahara Hill
Bishop Curry will begin sixth grade in the fall. |
After Bishop Curry heard his neighbor’s 6-month-old infant died from being in an overheated car, he decided to create a life-saving device to prevent incidents like this from reoccurring ― as any responsible 10-year-old would.
“It kind of came in my head,” Bishop told HuffPost of his device, the Oasis.
The Oasis would respond to rising temperatures by emitting cool air and use an antenna to signal parents and authorities. At the moment, Bishop only has a 3-D clay model of the device, but his father, Bishop Curry IV, began a GoFundMe campaign for the Oasis in January.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/10-year-old-invents-device-to-prevent-hot-car-deaths_us_5948065de4b07499199d9e96
Sunday, June 18, 2017
Happy Father's Day
If you've been with me for a while, you know that I had three older brothers. My youngest brother Terry died suddenly ten years ago.
But it is my middle brother, Forrest, that comes to mind every day, but especially on this day that we honor and celebrate fathers.
Forrest is ten years older than me and more than anyone, he has been the father figure in my life.
Our father was there, in the house, working every day and providing for the family, but he was absent in every other way. I know now that he was doing the best he could. The best he knew how.
So it was Forrest who stepped up and filled that void.
He started working at a tender age making sure we had food to eat, as Daddy took care of his liquor bill before the grocery bill.
He made sure Mom was OK from the onslaught of abuse, mostly verbal.
He convinced Mom to let me go away to college to his alma mater, which was one of the most important decisions of my life, setting me on course for my lifelong journey.
He paid for my college tuition when the scholarships ran out.
He taught me about relationships, and although my father was around, it was he who walked me down the aisle when I got married.
He is the one who helped me to recognize my worth when my marriage came to an end.
He is the one that I called when I needed help raising Ben and Frankie, especially so after my divorce.
He is the one I still call almost every day, no only to share what's happening, but to get the unvarnished truth.
Everyone needs a Forrest in their life.
I am forever grateful he's in mine.
Happy Father's Day Forrest.
But it is my middle brother, Forrest, that comes to mind every day, but especially on this day that we honor and celebrate fathers.
Forrest is ten years older than me and more than anyone, he has been the father figure in my life.
Our father was there, in the house, working every day and providing for the family, but he was absent in every other way. I know now that he was doing the best he could. The best he knew how.
So it was Forrest who stepped up and filled that void.
He started working at a tender age making sure we had food to eat, as Daddy took care of his liquor bill before the grocery bill.
He made sure Mom was OK from the onslaught of abuse, mostly verbal.
He convinced Mom to let me go away to college to his alma mater, which was one of the most important decisions of my life, setting me on course for my lifelong journey.
He paid for my college tuition when the scholarships ran out.
He taught me about relationships, and although my father was around, it was he who walked me down the aisle when I got married.
He is the one who helped me to recognize my worth when my marriage came to an end.
He is the one that I called when I needed help raising Ben and Frankie, especially so after my divorce.
He is the one I still call almost every day, no only to share what's happening, but to get the unvarnished truth.
Everyone needs a Forrest in their life.
I am forever grateful he's in mine.
Happy Father's Day Forrest.
In Celebration of Juneteenth
From the NY Times RACE RELATED -
Monday is the 152nd anniversary of Juneteenth, the day slavery in the United States effectively ended.
More than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, an Army ship arrived on June 19, 1865 in Galveston, Tex. with this news: The Civil War had ended and the South had surrendered two months earlier.
Texas was the last state to learn of the outcome. A Union general announced that “all slaves are free.” Those former slaves, numbering 250,000 in Texas, began celebrating the day.
To help you commemorate the holiday, we worked with Will Shortz, the crossword editor of The Times, to create a word search puzzle that recognizes a small slice of the African-American experience.
To play along, you’ll need to answer the clues to get the last names of 22 famous African Americans. Then find and circle them in the grid. The names may read horizontally, vertically or diagonally in any direction.
Here’s a sampling of clues:
-- With a racket, she crossed a color line.
-- Harlem Renaissance poet, via Joplin, Mo.
-- “This is CNN,” he intones.
When you're done, 10 letters will be left over. Reading line by line, from left to right and top to bottom, these will spell a quotation by Muhammad Ali.
http://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/2017/06/18/race-related?nlid=38867499
https://static01.nyt.com/packages/pdf/crossword/juneteenth-wordsearch.pdf
Monday is the 152nd anniversary of Juneteenth, the day slavery in the United States effectively ended.
More than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation, an Army ship arrived on June 19, 1865 in Galveston, Tex. with this news: The Civil War had ended and the South had surrendered two months earlier.
Texas was the last state to learn of the outcome. A Union general announced that “all slaves are free.” Those former slaves, numbering 250,000 in Texas, began celebrating the day.
To help you commemorate the holiday, we worked with Will Shortz, the crossword editor of The Times, to create a word search puzzle that recognizes a small slice of the African-American experience.
To play along, you’ll need to answer the clues to get the last names of 22 famous African Americans. Then find and circle them in the grid. The names may read horizontally, vertically or diagonally in any direction.
Here’s a sampling of clues:
-- With a racket, she crossed a color line.
-- Harlem Renaissance poet, via Joplin, Mo.
-- “This is CNN,” he intones.
When you're done, 10 letters will be left over. Reading line by line, from left to right and top to bottom, these will spell a quotation by Muhammad Ali.
http://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/2017/06/18/race-related?nlid=38867499
https://static01.nyt.com/packages/pdf/crossword/juneteenth-wordsearch.pdf
Saturday, June 17, 2017
It's Not What You Think
From the NY Times -
Only Mass Deportation Can Save America
By Bret Stephens
In the matter of immigration, mark this conservative columnist down as strongly pro-deportation. The United States has too many people who don’t work hard, don’t believe in God, don’t contribute much to society and don’t appreciate the greatness of the American system.
They need to return whence they came.
I speak of Americans whose families have been in this country for a few generations. Complacent, entitled and often shockingly ignorant on basic points of American law and history, they are the stagnant pool in which our national prospects risk drowning.
On point after point, America’s nonimmigrants are failing our country. Crime? A study by the Cato Institute notes that nonimmigrants are incarcerated at nearly twice the rate of illegal immigrants, and at more than three times the rate of legal ones.
Educational achievement? Just 17 percent of the finalists in the 2016 Intel Science Talent Search — often called the “Junior Nobel Prize” — were the children of United States-born parents. At the Rochester Institute of Technology, just 9.5 percent of graduate students in electrical engineering were nonimmigrants.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/opinion/only-mass-deportation-can-save-america.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top-stories
Only Mass Deportation Can Save America
By Bret Stephens
In the matter of immigration, mark this conservative columnist down as strongly pro-deportation. The United States has too many people who don’t work hard, don’t believe in God, don’t contribute much to society and don’t appreciate the greatness of the American system.
They need to return whence they came.
I speak of Americans whose families have been in this country for a few generations. Complacent, entitled and often shockingly ignorant on basic points of American law and history, they are the stagnant pool in which our national prospects risk drowning.
On point after point, America’s nonimmigrants are failing our country. Crime? A study by the Cato Institute notes that nonimmigrants are incarcerated at nearly twice the rate of illegal immigrants, and at more than three times the rate of legal ones.
Educational achievement? Just 17 percent of the finalists in the 2016 Intel Science Talent Search — often called the “Junior Nobel Prize” — were the children of United States-born parents. At the Rochester Institute of Technology, just 9.5 percent of graduate students in electrical engineering were nonimmigrants.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/opinion/only-mass-deportation-can-save-america.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top-stories
He's Preparing for Something
From Salon -
Is Mike Pence pulling a Gerald Ford or a Spiro Agnew?
Pence is either getting ready to become an incoming president or an outgoing vice president
MATTHEW ROZSA
Vice President Mike Pence’s decision to hire his own lawyer for the special counsel investigation into alleged ties between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government can mean one of two things — or perhaps even both things at the same time.
Either Pence is concerned that he may face charges of his own, or — believing that he is innocent — he wants to separate his own legal fate from that of a president whose innocence he (for good reason) doubts.
http://www.salon.com/2017/06/16/is-mike-pence-pulling-a-gerald-ford-or-a-spiro-agnew/?source=newsletter
Is Mike Pence pulling a Gerald Ford or a Spiro Agnew?
Pence is either getting ready to become an incoming president or an outgoing vice president
MATTHEW ROZSA
Vice President Mike Pence’s decision to hire his own lawyer for the special counsel investigation into alleged ties between Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and the Russian government can mean one of two things — or perhaps even both things at the same time.
Either Pence is concerned that he may face charges of his own, or — believing that he is innocent — he wants to separate his own legal fate from that of a president whose innocence he (for good reason) doubts.
http://www.salon.com/2017/06/16/is-mike-pence-pulling-a-gerald-ford-or-a-spiro-agnew/?source=newsletter
Dear Lord
From the Huffington Post -
18 Of The Most Profound Tweets In Reaction To The Philando Castile Verdict
We’re. Just. Tired.
By Zahara Hill
A Minnesota jury found police officer Jeronimo Yanez not guilty of second-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of Philando Castile on Friday.
The July 2016 killing, which was streamed on Facebook Live by Castile’s girlfriend Diamond Reynolds, is just one of a serial string of fatal cop shootings that allowed officers to walk away scot-free and many times, with their jobs intact.
For Twitter users that could muster a reaction to the news, many echoed sentiments that have been growing on our hearts since the acquittal of George Zimmerman in 2013: exhaustion, anger and most of all, hurt.
We’ve rounded up 18 of the most profound reactions below:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/18-of-the-most-profound-tweets-in-reaction-to-the-philando-castile-verdict_us_59444aede4b0f15cd5bb61a9
18 Of The Most Profound Tweets In Reaction To The Philando Castile Verdict
We’re. Just. Tired.
By Zahara Hill
A Minnesota jury found police officer Jeronimo Yanez not guilty of second-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of Philando Castile on Friday.
The July 2016 killing, which was streamed on Facebook Live by Castile’s girlfriend Diamond Reynolds, is just one of a serial string of fatal cop shootings that allowed officers to walk away scot-free and many times, with their jobs intact.
For Twitter users that could muster a reaction to the news, many echoed sentiments that have been growing on our hearts since the acquittal of George Zimmerman in 2013: exhaustion, anger and most of all, hurt.
We’ve rounded up 18 of the most profound reactions below:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/18-of-the-most-profound-tweets-in-reaction-to-the-philando-castile-verdict_us_59444aede4b0f15cd5bb61a9
Friday, June 16, 2017
Thursday, June 15, 2017
Leave or Stay?
An excerpt from Vox -
Those who leave home, and those who stay
How we’re sorted into these groups.
By Alvin Chang
Those who stayed in their hometown tend to be less educated, less wealthy, and less hopeful.
They tend to be less open to other cultures and less open to immigrants.
Ultimately, they tend to be more likely to support Donald Trump.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/15/15757708/hometown-stay-leave
Those who leave home, and those who stay
How we’re sorted into these groups.
By Alvin Chang
Those who stayed in their hometown tend to be less educated, less wealthy, and less hopeful.
They tend to be less open to other cultures and less open to immigrants.
Ultimately, they tend to be more likely to support Donald Trump.
https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2017/6/15/15757708/hometown-stay-leave
Men Interrupting Women
From the New York Times -
The Universal Phenomenon of Men Interrupting Women
By SUSAN CHIRA
For women in business and beyond, it was an I-told-you-so day.
The twin spectacles Tuesday — an Uber board member’s wisecrack about women talking too much, and Senator Kamala Harris, Democrat of California, being interrupted for the second time in a week by her male colleagues — triggered an outpouring of recognition and what has become almost ritual social-media outrage.
Academic studies and countless anecdotes make it clear that being interrupted, talked over, shut down or penalized for speaking out is nearly a universal experience for women when they are outnumbered by men.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/business/women-sexism-work-huffington-kamala-harris.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
The Universal Phenomenon of Men Interrupting Women
By SUSAN CHIRA
For women in business and beyond, it was an I-told-you-so day.
The twin spectacles Tuesday — an Uber board member’s wisecrack about women talking too much, and Senator Kamala Harris, Democrat of California, being interrupted for the second time in a week by her male colleagues — triggered an outpouring of recognition and what has become almost ritual social-media outrage.
Academic studies and countless anecdotes make it clear that being interrupted, talked over, shut down or penalized for speaking out is nearly a universal experience for women when they are outnumbered by men.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/14/business/women-sexism-work-huffington-kamala-harris.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)