Thursday, October 19, 2017
Another Life For Grouchy Cats
An excerpt from the AP News -
For ornery shelter cats, 2nd chance is a job chasing mice
By KRISTEN DE GROOT
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Gary wasn’t used to being around people. He didn’t like being touched or even looked at. If anyone came too close, he’d lash out.
He was perfect for the job. Because at the Working Cats program, no manners is no problem.
Philadelphia’s Animal Care and Control Team established the program about four years ago to place unadoptable cats — the biters and the skittish, the swatters and the ones that won’t use a litter box — into jobs as mousers at barns or stables.
https://apnews.com/ddaf915aaf19413ebc122be3afe20c2f
For ornery shelter cats, 2nd chance is a job chasing mice
By KRISTEN DE GROOT
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Gary wasn’t used to being around people. He didn’t like being touched or even looked at. If anyone came too close, he’d lash out.
He was perfect for the job. Because at the Working Cats program, no manners is no problem.
Philadelphia’s Animal Care and Control Team established the program about four years ago to place unadoptable cats — the biters and the skittish, the swatters and the ones that won’t use a litter box — into jobs as mousers at barns or stables.
https://apnews.com/ddaf915aaf19413ebc122be3afe20c2f
Take Note Parents
An excerpt from the Atlantic -
Why Parents Make Flawed Choices About Their Kids' Schooling
A new study shows that families act on insufficient information when it comes to figuring out where to enroll their children.
By GAIL CORNWALL
A person trying to choose their next set of wheels might see that car A made it farther than car B in a road test and assume it gets better gas mileage. But that’s only true if the two tanks are filled with the same substance. Putting high-octane gas in one and water in the other, for example, provides little useful information about which car makes the most of its fuel. A new working paper titled “Do Parents Value School Effectiveness?” suggests that parents similarly opt for schools with the most impressive graduates rather than figuring out which ones actually teach best. The study joins a body of research looking critically at what it means for a school to be successful.
Take the work of Erin Pahlke, for example. The assistant professor of psychology at Whitman College saw research showing that girls who attend school only with other girls tend to do better in math and science. The trick, she said, is that those studies didn’t analyze “differences in the students coming into the schools.” As it turns out, those who end up in same-sex schools tend to be wealthier, start out with more skills, and have parents who are more proactive than students who attend co-ed institutions. In a 2014 meta-analysis, Pahlke and her colleagues reviewed the studies and found when examining schools with the same type of students and same level of resources—rather than “comparing [those at] the public co-ed school to [their counterparts at] the fancy private school that’s single-sex down the road”—there isn’t any difference in how the students perform academically. Single-sex schooling also hasn’t been shown to offer a bump in girls’ attitudes toward math and science or change how they think about themselves. In other words, it often looks like single-sex schools are doing a better job educating kids, but they aren't. It's just that their graduates are people who were going to do well at any school. They’re running on high-octane gas.
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/10/can-parents-really-pick-the-best-schools-for-their-kids/543201/
Why Parents Make Flawed Choices About Their Kids' Schooling
A new study shows that families act on insufficient information when it comes to figuring out where to enroll their children.
By GAIL CORNWALL
A person trying to choose their next set of wheels might see that car A made it farther than car B in a road test and assume it gets better gas mileage. But that’s only true if the two tanks are filled with the same substance. Putting high-octane gas in one and water in the other, for example, provides little useful information about which car makes the most of its fuel. A new working paper titled “Do Parents Value School Effectiveness?” suggests that parents similarly opt for schools with the most impressive graduates rather than figuring out which ones actually teach best. The study joins a body of research looking critically at what it means for a school to be successful.
Take the work of Erin Pahlke, for example. The assistant professor of psychology at Whitman College saw research showing that girls who attend school only with other girls tend to do better in math and science. The trick, she said, is that those studies didn’t analyze “differences in the students coming into the schools.” As it turns out, those who end up in same-sex schools tend to be wealthier, start out with more skills, and have parents who are more proactive than students who attend co-ed institutions. In a 2014 meta-analysis, Pahlke and her colleagues reviewed the studies and found when examining schools with the same type of students and same level of resources—rather than “comparing [those at] the public co-ed school to [their counterparts at] the fancy private school that’s single-sex down the road”—there isn’t any difference in how the students perform academically. Single-sex schooling also hasn’t been shown to offer a bump in girls’ attitudes toward math and science or change how they think about themselves. In other words, it often looks like single-sex schools are doing a better job educating kids, but they aren't. It's just that their graduates are people who were going to do well at any school. They’re running on high-octane gas.
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/10/can-parents-really-pick-the-best-schools-for-their-kids/543201/
Pole Dancing in the Olympics
From the Washington Post -
Pole-dancing in the Olympics? International sports federation recognition helps pave the way.
By Marissa Payne
No strip club necessary. Pole-dancing now stands on its own as a provisionally recognized sport thanks to the Global Association of International Sports Federation, which granted the activity’s international governing federation “observer status” earlier this month.
“Pole Sports is a performance sport combining dance and acrobatics on a vertical pole,” GAISF writes on its website. “Pole Sports requires great physical and mental exertion, strength and endurance are required to lift, hold and spin the body. A high degree of flexibility is needed to contort, pose, demonstrate lines and execute techniques.”
Observer status is the first step international federations must achieve before becoming full GAISF members, which serves as a great boost for any sport hoping to one day land in the Olympics. And that is exactly pole-dancing’s goal, according to International Pole Sports Federation President Katie Coates, who lauded the day the decision was made on Oct. 2 as “historical.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/10/18/pole-dancing-in-the-olympics-international-sports-federation-recognition-helps-pave-the-way/?utm_term=.05ed0cf96c12&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Pole-dancing in the Olympics? International sports federation recognition helps pave the way.
By Marissa Payne
No strip club necessary. Pole-dancing now stands on its own as a provisionally recognized sport thanks to the Global Association of International Sports Federation, which granted the activity’s international governing federation “observer status” earlier this month.
“Pole Sports is a performance sport combining dance and acrobatics on a vertical pole,” GAISF writes on its website. “Pole Sports requires great physical and mental exertion, strength and endurance are required to lift, hold and spin the body. A high degree of flexibility is needed to contort, pose, demonstrate lines and execute techniques.”
Observer status is the first step international federations must achieve before becoming full GAISF members, which serves as a great boost for any sport hoping to one day land in the Olympics. And that is exactly pole-dancing’s goal, according to International Pole Sports Federation President Katie Coates, who lauded the day the decision was made on Oct. 2 as “historical.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2017/10/18/pole-dancing-in-the-olympics-international-sports-federation-recognition-helps-pave-the-way/?utm_term=.05ed0cf96c12&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Bill - 0 Jake - 1
Sean Hannity kicking serious butt in the ratings. Tapper on CNN as low as you can go.— Bill O'Reilly (@billoreilly) October 18, 2017
"Low" would be sexually harassing staffers and then getting fired for it -- humiliated in front of the world. Now THAT would be low. https://t.co/e2d6kOHL7F— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 18, 2017
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Tuesday, October 17, 2017
Chicago
Tonight at 11/10c, we begin our week in Chicago by looking at its reputation as the "most dangerous city in America." #DailyShowChicago pic.twitter.com/6EwV3uOiFE— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) October 17, 2017
Latin Ladies
From Buzzfeed -
A Bunch Of Badass Latinas In Hollywood Got Together And It Warmed My Cold, Dead Heart
Icons supporting icons!
By Pablo Valdivia
https://www.buzzfeed.com/pablovaldivia/icons-helping-icons?utm_term=.xnMw8bEY9#.lkWeO0wy5
A Bunch Of Badass Latinas In Hollywood Got Together And It Warmed My Cold, Dead Heart
Icons supporting icons!
By Pablo Valdivia
https://www.buzzfeed.com/pablovaldivia/icons-helping-icons?utm_term=.xnMw8bEY9#.lkWeO0wy5
Monday, October 16, 2017
Sunday, October 15, 2017
Saturday, October 14, 2017
Christian Hogwarts
An excerpt from Buzzfeed News -
Meet The "Young Saints" Of Bethel Who Go To College To Perform Miracles
How a school that calls itself "Christian Hogwarts" is upending a small city in California's Trump country.
ByMolly Hensley-Clancy
It’s the first day of Prophecy Week at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. Or, as students here like to call the place, Christian Hogwarts.
The auditorium of the civic center in Redding, California, where first-year students have class, is so full of eager, neatly dressed young people that it’s initially impossible to find a seat. The roomful of some 1,200 students hums with expectant energy: People talk in clusters, clutching their books to their chests and stealing eager glances at the stage. There are so many languages spoken here it’s hard to keep track: English of all flavors, spoken with Australian and British and South African accents; Chinese; Korean; Portuguese. It’s a strange medley for a place like Redding, an economically depressed rural outpost about 200 miles north of San Francisco, in the heart of Northern California’s Trump country.
The students are waiting for today’s lecturer, Kris Vallotton, one of the school’s founders and a prophet so prolific he literally wrote the book on it — Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry, a combined textbook and workbook used by Bethel students to learn how to hear, and speak, God’s words. (“Name the five things that distinguish a false prophet from a true prophet.” “What is the difference between a vision and a trance?”)
The basic theological premise of the School of Supernatural Ministry is this: that the miracles of biblical times — the parted seas and burning bushes and water into wine — did not end in biblical times, and the miracle workers did not die out with Jesus’s earliest disciples. In the modern day, prophets and healers don’t just walk among us, they are us.
To Bethel students, learning, seeing, and performing these “signs and wonders” — be it prophesying about things to come or healing the incurable — aren’t just quirks or side projects of Christianity. They are, in fact, its very center.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/mollyhensleyclancy/meet-the-young-saints-of-bethel-who-go-to-college-to?utm_term=.msoanVm7X#.vkgnLql7y
Meet The "Young Saints" Of Bethel Who Go To College To Perform Miracles
How a school that calls itself "Christian Hogwarts" is upending a small city in California's Trump country.
ByMolly Hensley-Clancy
It’s the first day of Prophecy Week at the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry. Or, as students here like to call the place, Christian Hogwarts.
The auditorium of the civic center in Redding, California, where first-year students have class, is so full of eager, neatly dressed young people that it’s initially impossible to find a seat. The roomful of some 1,200 students hums with expectant energy: People talk in clusters, clutching their books to their chests and stealing eager glances at the stage. There are so many languages spoken here it’s hard to keep track: English of all flavors, spoken with Australian and British and South African accents; Chinese; Korean; Portuguese. It’s a strange medley for a place like Redding, an economically depressed rural outpost about 200 miles north of San Francisco, in the heart of Northern California’s Trump country.
The students are waiting for today’s lecturer, Kris Vallotton, one of the school’s founders and a prophet so prolific he literally wrote the book on it — Basic Training for the Prophetic Ministry, a combined textbook and workbook used by Bethel students to learn how to hear, and speak, God’s words. (“Name the five things that distinguish a false prophet from a true prophet.” “What is the difference between a vision and a trance?”)
The basic theological premise of the School of Supernatural Ministry is this: that the miracles of biblical times — the parted seas and burning bushes and water into wine — did not end in biblical times, and the miracle workers did not die out with Jesus’s earliest disciples. In the modern day, prophets and healers don’t just walk among us, they are us.
To Bethel students, learning, seeing, and performing these “signs and wonders” — be it prophesying about things to come or healing the incurable — aren’t just quirks or side projects of Christianity. They are, in fact, its very center.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/mollyhensleyclancy/meet-the-young-saints-of-bethel-who-go-to-college-to?utm_term=.msoanVm7X#.vkgnLql7y
Friday, October 13, 2017
Woz U.
An excerpt from the Daily Good -
Apple Co-Founder’s Next Venture Could Revolutionize Education
by Britni Danielle
It’s hard to imagine a world without tech behemoth Apple in it, but when Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs founded the company in 1976, the personal computer was rare. With the creation of the Apple I, and the more advanced Apple II model, Wozniak helped to revolutionize the tech computing industry and pave the way for innovations like laptops, smartphones, and high-tech gaming systems. Now, Wozniak is hoping to transform the industry once again by training a generation of workers for high-paying jobs.
Recently, Wozniak announced he was launching Woz U, an online educational institute that aims to train students and connect them to companies looking for high-skilled workers. And with more than 600,000 unfilled jobs in the tech industry, Wozniak’s goal to “get people into the workforce quickly and affordably” could be a game-changer.
“Our goal is to educate and train people in employable digital skills without putting them into years of debt,” the innovator said in a press release announcing Woz U’s launch. “People often are afraid to choose a technology-based career because they think they can’t do it. I know they can, and I want to show them how.”
https://education.good.is/articles/woz-u
Apple Co-Founder’s Next Venture Could Revolutionize Education
by Britni Danielle
It’s hard to imagine a world without tech behemoth Apple in it, but when Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs founded the company in 1976, the personal computer was rare. With the creation of the Apple I, and the more advanced Apple II model, Wozniak helped to revolutionize the tech computing industry and pave the way for innovations like laptops, smartphones, and high-tech gaming systems. Now, Wozniak is hoping to transform the industry once again by training a generation of workers for high-paying jobs.
Recently, Wozniak announced he was launching Woz U, an online educational institute that aims to train students and connect them to companies looking for high-skilled workers. And with more than 600,000 unfilled jobs in the tech industry, Wozniak’s goal to “get people into the workforce quickly and affordably” could be a game-changer.
“Our goal is to educate and train people in employable digital skills without putting them into years of debt,” the innovator said in a press release announcing Woz U’s launch. “People often are afraid to choose a technology-based career because they think they can’t do it. I know they can, and I want to show them how.”
https://education.good.is/articles/woz-u
Thursday, October 12, 2017
Be Inspired
An excerpt from Acorns -
7 Wildly Successful People Who Started From the Bottom
By Molly Triffin
Howard Schultz
Starbucks executive chairman and former CEO
Growing up, Schultz would have had to save his pennies to afford a grande latte. Raised by his truck driver father and stay-at-home mom in a Brooklyn housing project, Schultz described his family as “pretty much destitute.”
“I knew the people on the other side [of the tracks] had more resources, more money, happier families,” he told the Mirror. “I wanted to climb over that fence and achieve something beyond what people were saying was possible.”
Well, mission accomplished. Schultz was the first in his family to go to college. Later, during a stint working for a housewares company, he was introduced to a small coffee chain in Seattle that he eventually purchased and transformed into the Starbucks empire.
https://grow.acorns.com/7-wildly-successful-people-who-started-from-the-bottom/?utm_source=October&utm_medium=newsletter/
7 Wildly Successful People Who Started From the Bottom
By Molly Triffin
Howard Schultz
Starbucks executive chairman and former CEO
Growing up, Schultz would have had to save his pennies to afford a grande latte. Raised by his truck driver father and stay-at-home mom in a Brooklyn housing project, Schultz described his family as “pretty much destitute.”
“I knew the people on the other side [of the tracks] had more resources, more money, happier families,” he told the Mirror. “I wanted to climb over that fence and achieve something beyond what people were saying was possible.”
Well, mission accomplished. Schultz was the first in his family to go to college. Later, during a stint working for a housewares company, he was introduced to a small coffee chain in Seattle that he eventually purchased and transformed into the Starbucks empire.
https://grow.acorns.com/7-wildly-successful-people-who-started-from-the-bottom/?utm_source=October&utm_medium=newsletter/
You Can Buy a House From Amazon!
From Gizmodo -
The 11 Best Tiny Houses You Can Buy on Amazon
By Adam Clark Estes
https://gizmodo.com/the-11-best-tiny-houses-you-can-buy-on-amazon-1819377589
The 11 Best Tiny Houses You Can Buy on Amazon
By Adam Clark Estes
https://gizmodo.com/the-11-best-tiny-houses-you-can-buy-on-amazon-1819377589
Wi-Fi Ballons For Puerto Rico
An excerpt from Atlas Obscura -
The Plan to Launch Giant Wi-Fi Balloons Over Puerto Rico
Alphabet’s Project Loon aims to help get the heavily damaged island back online.
BY ERIC GRUNDHAUSER
As Futurism is reporting, Project Loon has received expedited approval from the FCC to launch wireless data-providing balloons over Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands as soon as possible. The goal of Project Loon is to provide internet coverage to inaccessible or less developed parts of the world by floating large balloons in the stratosphere, at about 65,000 feet. The balloons carry signal relay points capable of communicating with service providers on the ground—in a sense they are more or less floating cell towers. According to Project Loon’s website, the balloons can stay up for as long as 190 days at a time.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/google-balloon-puerto-rico-loon-cell-internet
The Plan to Launch Giant Wi-Fi Balloons Over Puerto Rico
Alphabet’s Project Loon aims to help get the heavily damaged island back online.
BY ERIC GRUNDHAUSER
As Futurism is reporting, Project Loon has received expedited approval from the FCC to launch wireless data-providing balloons over Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands as soon as possible. The goal of Project Loon is to provide internet coverage to inaccessible or less developed parts of the world by floating large balloons in the stratosphere, at about 65,000 feet. The balloons carry signal relay points capable of communicating with service providers on the ground—in a sense they are more or less floating cell towers. According to Project Loon’s website, the balloons can stay up for as long as 190 days at a time.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/google-balloon-puerto-rico-loon-cell-internet
Wednesday, October 11, 2017
Young Commercial Airline Pilot Jonathan Strickland makes History by film...
https://blackamericaweb.com/2017/10/11/25-year-old-jonathan-strickland-is-the-youngest-pilot-ever-hired-by-ups/?omcamp=es-baw-nl&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Campaign%2010-11-2017&utm_term=BAW%20Subscribers%20%28Daily%29
Helping Students Acclimate
An excerpt from the LA Times -
At UCLA, a dorm floor dedicated to first-generation students
By Teresa Watanabe
Desiree Felix didn’t make her way to UCLA with the help of helicopter parents who hired tutors, hounded teachers or edited her application essays.
Her father is a handyman with a sixth-grade education. Her mother finished high school and helps manage apartments.
At Kennedy High School in Granada Hills, Felix had to figure out most of the nuts and bolts of preparing for and applying to colleges on her own. She didn’t know anything about Advanced Placement classes until her sophomore year, and she came close to missing UC’s application deadline.
In her freshman year, Felix has chosen to live on a newly created dorm floor just for students like her who are the first in their families to attend college.
“I wanted to be around people who understood and shared my experiences so I could connect with them,” she said on move-in day as she unpacked her bags and arranged her new desk.
The dedicated dorm floor is UCLA’s latest effort to support its first-generation students, who make up 32% of undergraduates — a strikingly high number for an elite university.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ucla-first-gen-students-20171002-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter
At UCLA, a dorm floor dedicated to first-generation students
By Teresa Watanabe
Desiree Felix didn’t make her way to UCLA with the help of helicopter parents who hired tutors, hounded teachers or edited her application essays.
Her father is a handyman with a sixth-grade education. Her mother finished high school and helps manage apartments.
At Kennedy High School in Granada Hills, Felix had to figure out most of the nuts and bolts of preparing for and applying to colleges on her own. She didn’t know anything about Advanced Placement classes until her sophomore year, and she came close to missing UC’s application deadline.
In her freshman year, Felix has chosen to live on a newly created dorm floor just for students like her who are the first in their families to attend college.
“I wanted to be around people who understood and shared my experiences so I could connect with them,” she said on move-in day as she unpacked her bags and arranged her new desk.
The dedicated dorm floor is UCLA’s latest effort to support its first-generation students, who make up 32% of undergraduates — a strikingly high number for an elite university.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ucla-first-gen-students-20171002-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter
In Case of Emergency
An excerpt from KQED News -
Here’s What You Should Have in Your Emergency Bag
By Erika Aguilar
We reached out to San Francisco’s Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) to get tips on what should be in your emergency “go bag”:
Q: What should be in my go bag?
“Things you cannot live without,” said Capt. Erica Arteseros of San Francisco’s Fire Department. She is the training coordinator for the NERT team of volunteers. Here’s a list of things to get started:
Medication
An extra set of keys
Eyeglasses or contact lenses
Hearing aids
A change of clothes
Some water and snack bars
Cash in small bills
A first-aid kit
Flashlight
A portable radio
Charging cables for your cellphone and a portable cellphone battery pack
A copy of your ID
https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/10/10/heres-what-you-should-have-in-your-emergency-bag/
Here’s What You Should Have in Your Emergency Bag
By Erika Aguilar
We reached out to San Francisco’s Neighborhood Emergency Response Team (NERT) to get tips on what should be in your emergency “go bag”:
Q: What should be in my go bag?
“Things you cannot live without,” said Capt. Erica Arteseros of San Francisco’s Fire Department. She is the training coordinator for the NERT team of volunteers. Here’s a list of things to get started:
Medication
An extra set of keys
Eyeglasses or contact lenses
Hearing aids
A change of clothes
Some water and snack bars
Cash in small bills
A first-aid kit
Flashlight
A portable radio
Charging cables for your cellphone and a portable cellphone battery pack
A copy of your ID
https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/10/10/heres-what-you-should-have-in-your-emergency-bag/
IQ Explained
From Vox -
IQ, explained in 9 charts
By Brian Resnick
https://www.vox.com/2016/5/24/11723182/iq-test-intelligence
IQ, explained in 9 charts
By Brian Resnick
https://www.vox.com/2016/5/24/11723182/iq-test-intelligence
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
Monday, October 9, 2017
Coolest Buildings in America
From Thrillist -
https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/coolest-buildings-in-america
https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/coolest-buildings-in-america
Sunday, October 8, 2017
Saturday, October 7, 2017
The Supreme Court's Ruling on the Anthem
An excerpt from Rolling Stone -
What the Supreme Court Says About Sitting Out the National Anthem
Some public schools are telling student-athletes they can't kneel during the anthem – but that's unconstitutional
By David S. Cohen
The Supreme Court very forcefully declared that punishing students for not participating in the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional. The decision had nothing to do with the students' religion and everything to do with their constitutional right to freedom of speech. As the Court wrote, in language that has become one of the most important principles of modern free speech law:
"If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us."
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/what-the-supreme-court-says-about-sitting-out-the-national-anthem-w507503?utm_source=rsnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=100617_17
What the Supreme Court Says About Sitting Out the National Anthem
Some public schools are telling student-athletes they can't kneel during the anthem – but that's unconstitutional
By David S. Cohen
The Supreme Court very forcefully declared that punishing students for not participating in the Pledge of Allegiance was unconstitutional. The decision had nothing to do with the students' religion and everything to do with their constitutional right to freedom of speech. As the Court wrote, in language that has become one of the most important principles of modern free speech law:
"If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us."
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/what-the-supreme-court-says-about-sitting-out-the-national-anthem-w507503?utm_source=rsnewsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=daily&utm_campaign=100617_17
Silicon Kidneys
An excerpt from Wired -
SILICON ISN'T JUST FOR COMPUTERS. IT CAN MAKE A PRETTY GOOD KIDNEY, TOO
By MEGAN MOLTENI
Now, after more than 20 years of work, one team of doctors and researchers is close to offering patients an implantable artificial kidney, a bionic device that uses the same technology that makes the chips that power your laptop and smartphone. Stacks of carefully designed silicon nanopore filters combine with live kidney cells grown in a bioreactor. The bundle is enclosed in a body-friendly box and connected to a patient’s circulatory system and bladder—no external tubing required.
The device would do more than detach dialysis patients—who experience much higher rates of fatigue, chronic pain, and depression than the average American—from a grueling treatment schedule. It would also address a critical shortfall of organs for transplant that continues despite a recent uptick in donations. For every person who received a kidney last year, 5 more on the waiting list didn’t. And 4,000 of them died.
There are still plenty of regulatory hurdles ahead—human testing is scheduled to begin early next year1—but this bioartificial kidney is already bringing hope to patients desperate to unhook for good.
https://www.wired.com/story/artificial-kidneys?mbid=nl_100617_daily
SILICON ISN'T JUST FOR COMPUTERS. IT CAN MAKE A PRETTY GOOD KIDNEY, TOO
By MEGAN MOLTENI
Now, after more than 20 years of work, one team of doctors and researchers is close to offering patients an implantable artificial kidney, a bionic device that uses the same technology that makes the chips that power your laptop and smartphone. Stacks of carefully designed silicon nanopore filters combine with live kidney cells grown in a bioreactor. The bundle is enclosed in a body-friendly box and connected to a patient’s circulatory system and bladder—no external tubing required.
The device would do more than detach dialysis patients—who experience much higher rates of fatigue, chronic pain, and depression than the average American—from a grueling treatment schedule. It would also address a critical shortfall of organs for transplant that continues despite a recent uptick in donations. For every person who received a kidney last year, 5 more on the waiting list didn’t. And 4,000 of them died.
There are still plenty of regulatory hurdles ahead—human testing is scheduled to begin early next year1—but this bioartificial kidney is already bringing hope to patients desperate to unhook for good.
https://www.wired.com/story/artificial-kidneys?mbid=nl_100617_daily
Apply to Work for the President
An excerpt from InStyle -
This Is Not a Drill! You Can Now Apply to Work for Former President Barack Obama
By Lara Walsh
Whether you've dreamt of a career in politics, hoping to someday make a significant difference in your community, or are just a big fan of Barack Obama, look no further, because a select group of 20 applicants will now have the opportunity to work alongside the former commander in chief.
On Thursday, the former president took to Instagram to encourage politically-minded individuals to apply to his Obama Foundation Fellowship Program. The two-year program seeks to help future leaders work through hot public issues in innovative ways, with governmental institutions and beyond traditional establishments.
http://www.instyle.com/news/obama-foundation-fellowship-program-application
This Is Not a Drill! You Can Now Apply to Work for Former President Barack Obama
By Lara Walsh
Whether you've dreamt of a career in politics, hoping to someday make a significant difference in your community, or are just a big fan of Barack Obama, look no further, because a select group of 20 applicants will now have the opportunity to work alongside the former commander in chief.
On Thursday, the former president took to Instagram to encourage politically-minded individuals to apply to his Obama Foundation Fellowship Program. The two-year program seeks to help future leaders work through hot public issues in innovative ways, with governmental institutions and beyond traditional establishments.
http://www.instyle.com/news/obama-foundation-fellowship-program-application
Friday, October 6, 2017
Thursday, October 5, 2017
Tell 'Em Todd
WATCH @chucktodd: "When planes flew into the World Trade Center did we say now is not the time to talk about terrorism? When our banking system nearly collapsed in 2008 did we say now is not the time to talk about financial regulation?" pic.twitter.com/NNCRUESuQg— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) October 3, 2017
Hilarious Tweets
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/marriage-tweets-that-are-just-plain-funny_us_59d56a16e4b0380b6c9a22d3?ncid=APPLENEWS00001
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Patient Becomes Caregiver
An excerpt from Buzzfeed News -
This 24-Year-Old Who Survived Cancer Twice Is Now A Nurse At The Hospital Where She Was Treated
"Never in a million years did I think that at the age of 24 I would have achieved my biggest and wildest dream — to work at the hospital I was treated at as a child/teenager."
By Stephanie McNeal
Brown, now 24, underwent chemo for a year at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and went into remission.
When she was 15, her cancer returned.
"I had just tried out for my high school cheerleading team," Brown told ABC News. "I actually ran a mile while I had cancer and had no idea...There weren't symptoms but my mom and dad could tell that something was different about me and they knew that something was a little off."
Brown's experience inspired her to become a pediatric oncology nurse, and last week, she started working at the hospital where she was treated.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemcneal/child-who-beat-cancer-returns-as-a-nurse?utm_term=.mrwyxalgQ#.ntdG9YBJj
This 24-Year-Old Who Survived Cancer Twice Is Now A Nurse At The Hospital Where She Was Treated
"Never in a million years did I think that at the age of 24 I would have achieved my biggest and wildest dream — to work at the hospital I was treated at as a child/teenager."
By Stephanie McNeal
Brown, now 24, underwent chemo for a year at the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta and went into remission.
When she was 15, her cancer returned.
"I had just tried out for my high school cheerleading team," Brown told ABC News. "I actually ran a mile while I had cancer and had no idea...There weren't symptoms but my mom and dad could tell that something was different about me and they knew that something was a little off."
Brown's experience inspired her to become a pediatric oncology nurse, and last week, she started working at the hospital where she was treated.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemcneal/child-who-beat-cancer-returns-as-a-nurse?utm_term=.mrwyxalgQ#.ntdG9YBJj
Double Standard
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
‘Lone wolf’: Our stunning double standard when it comes to race and religion
By Khaled Beydoun
In what police call the deadliest attack in modern American history, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire on concertgoers at a country music festival in Las Vegas on Sunday.
Despite the scale of the attack and Paddock’s being armed with more than 10 rifles, Las Vegas Sheriff Joe Lombardo immediately dismissed any ties to terrorism, classifying Paddock, a white male from a rural town 80 miles from Las Vegas, as a “local individual” and a “lone wolf.”
We have yet to determine whether Paddock was motivated by anyone or anything, so many are tiptoeing around terms such as “terrorist.” But if Paddock were Muslim, his status as a local individual would be entirely irrelevant, and the motive of “Islamic terrorism” or “jihad” would likely be immediately assumed, even without any evidence.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/10/02/lone-wolf-our-stunning-double-standard-when-it-comes-to-race-and-religion/?utm_term=.6e339ea464d8
‘Lone wolf’: Our stunning double standard when it comes to race and religion
By Khaled Beydoun
In what police call the deadliest attack in modern American history, 64-year-old Stephen Paddock opened fire on concertgoers at a country music festival in Las Vegas on Sunday.
Despite the scale of the attack and Paddock’s being armed with more than 10 rifles, Las Vegas Sheriff Joe Lombardo immediately dismissed any ties to terrorism, classifying Paddock, a white male from a rural town 80 miles from Las Vegas, as a “local individual” and a “lone wolf.”
We have yet to determine whether Paddock was motivated by anyone or anything, so many are tiptoeing around terms such as “terrorist.” But if Paddock were Muslim, his status as a local individual would be entirely irrelevant, and the motive of “Islamic terrorism” or “jihad” would likely be immediately assumed, even without any evidence.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/acts-of-faith/wp/2017/10/02/lone-wolf-our-stunning-double-standard-when-it-comes-to-race-and-religion/?utm_term=.6e339ea464d8
Monday, October 2, 2017
Sunday, October 1, 2017
They Helped Us See the World
An excerpt from the Paris Review -
John H. Johnson and the Black Magazine
By Dick Gregory
Let me tell you a story about Jet magazine.
In the late 1970s, I went to the African country Uganda, which was falling apart under Idi Amin. His rule was over, and he had left a mess. I wanted to see about helping sick and hungry folks over there. I got on a plane, and then onto a bus. Things were crazy, with people fighting for control of the country. A group of men made everybody get off the bus I was on. And the saddest thing was: suddenly I was looking at a nine-year-old African child with a gun, who walked up to me and said, “Get up on the sidewalk.”
A man on a bicycle jumped off and said, “Dick Gregory! Dick Gregory!” He looked at that little punk packing the gun and said, “Get outta here. You know who this man is?”
And how did the man on the bicycle know who I was? Jet magazine.
That man said to me, “I see all your work, brotha. I just … ” And he started crying. Because he had read about me in Jet.
Jet and Ebony magazines exposed black people to the world—not just the negativity but the positive things, too. We got to see black folks we had never seen, hear about black folks we had never heard of. Let’s say your sister was a judge. How would I know that? Because Jet magazine put it out there. Let’s say your daddy was a scientist in California, but I’m in New York. How would I know? The New York Times wouldn’t mention it. So we looked at Jet and said, “Wow, this is positive stuff, not just the negative stuff about black folks that the white press was talking about.” Ebony and Jet had black photographers taking pictures of people and things that white photographers wouldn’t even have thought of.
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/09/26/john-h-johnson-black-magazine/#nws=mcnewsletter
John H. Johnson and the Black Magazine
By Dick Gregory
Let me tell you a story about Jet magazine.
In the late 1970s, I went to the African country Uganda, which was falling apart under Idi Amin. His rule was over, and he had left a mess. I wanted to see about helping sick and hungry folks over there. I got on a plane, and then onto a bus. Things were crazy, with people fighting for control of the country. A group of men made everybody get off the bus I was on. And the saddest thing was: suddenly I was looking at a nine-year-old African child with a gun, who walked up to me and said, “Get up on the sidewalk.”
A man on a bicycle jumped off and said, “Dick Gregory! Dick Gregory!” He looked at that little punk packing the gun and said, “Get outta here. You know who this man is?”
And how did the man on the bicycle know who I was? Jet magazine.
That man said to me, “I see all your work, brotha. I just … ” And he started crying. Because he had read about me in Jet.
Jet and Ebony magazines exposed black people to the world—not just the negativity but the positive things, too. We got to see black folks we had never seen, hear about black folks we had never heard of. Let’s say your sister was a judge. How would I know that? Because Jet magazine put it out there. Let’s say your daddy was a scientist in California, but I’m in New York. How would I know? The New York Times wouldn’t mention it. So we looked at Jet and said, “Wow, this is positive stuff, not just the negative stuff about black folks that the white press was talking about.” Ebony and Jet had black photographers taking pictures of people and things that white photographers wouldn’t even have thought of.
https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2017/09/26/john-h-johnson-black-magazine/#nws=mcnewsletter
So Wrong
From the AP & Time -
A Man Told His Friends He Needed Help Moving. They Didn't Realize They Were Robbing a House for Him
(GREAT FALLS, Mont.) — Police in Montana say a man told friends he needed help moving and got their unwitting help stealing $40,000 worth of items from another man's home.
One of the friends allegedly rented a U-Haul without knowing it would be used in a crime. The other told police he became suspicious and left after he saw military medals in the Great Falls home. He doubted 36-year-old Patrick Joseph Adams Jr. served in the military.
Investigators say the true homeowner came home later that night, found his home had been burglarized and called 911.
http://time.com/4964291/great-falls-movers-robbed-house/
A Man Told His Friends He Needed Help Moving. They Didn't Realize They Were Robbing a House for Him
(GREAT FALLS, Mont.) — Police in Montana say a man told friends he needed help moving and got their unwitting help stealing $40,000 worth of items from another man's home.
One of the friends allegedly rented a U-Haul without knowing it would be used in a crime. The other told police he became suspicious and left after he saw military medals in the Great Falls home. He doubted 36-year-old Patrick Joseph Adams Jr. served in the military.
Investigators say the true homeowner came home later that night, found his home had been burglarized and called 911.
http://time.com/4964291/great-falls-movers-robbed-house/
Straight to Hell
http://www.vulture.com/2017/09/lin-manuel-miranda-cant-hide-his-disgust-at-trump-tweets.htmlYou're going straight to hell, @realDonaldTrump.— Lin-Manuel Miranda (@Lin_Manuel) September 30, 2017
No long lines for you.
Someone will say, "Right this way, sir."
They'll clear a path. https://t.co/xXfJH0KJmw
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