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Wednesday, December 27, 2017

An Update on a Tortured Genius

An excerpt from the LA Times -

For all his setbacks, he still finds hope and sanity in the music
By Steve Lopez

have been a transporter and caretaker of various musical instruments for nearly 13 years. A clarinet and an electric keyboard sit in corners of my office. There’s a cello in my garage at the moment, waiting for a ride to the repair shop.

Nathaniel Ayers asked for an inventory update on Christmas morning, after I picked him up at the South Bay mental health rehabilitation center where he lives.

He brought his string bass and trumpet with him. Like I’ve said before, he’s a one-man band, and he never travels light.

It’s been this way since I met the Juilliard-trained musician in 2005, when he lived on skid row with nothing but a two-string violin and a shopping cart containing his clothes and bedding.

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-ayers-20171227-story.html


Folsom Prison Music

An excerpt from the LA Times -

Music rolls on at Folsom Prison 50 years after Johnny Cash made history
The 50th anniversary of Johnny Cash's historic live album recorded at Folsom Prison afforded a new look inside the gates of the institution, and at the men who serve time there. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
By Randy Lewis

Irony isn’t something the residents of Folsom State Prison spend much time contemplating. But it’s not lost on Roy McNeese Jr. exactly where he spends every Tuesday. That’s when he leads music theory classes for fellow inmates looking to turn their lives around.

McNeese’s classroom is a compact space adjacent to Folsom’s expansive, echo-heavy dining hall. Prisoners wishing to hone their instrumental or vocal chops while serving time, or to learn from McNeese how to write music and better understand songwriting techniques, enter the room each week through a heavily fortified metal door — a door with two words on it:

“Condemned Row.”

Nowadays, however, stark gray cells that long ago housed Death Row inmates — before San Quentin took over housing them in 1937 — are used to store electronic keyboards, drum kits, guitar amplifiers and other gear for the prison’s music program, one of several rehabilitation programs Folsom offers.

The equipment is used by about 40 inmates who play in one or more bands at Folsom, which gained worldwide fame thanks to Johnny Cash’s career-defining 1956 hit “Folsom Prison Blues.” Cash’s song featured a chilling confession that’s central to the song’s stark portrait of life in prison: “I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die.”

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/music/la-et-ms-johnny-cash-folsom-prison-50-anniversary-20171226-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter

Parents Love You Netflix

An excerpt from the Huffington Post -

Netflix Will Once Again Help Parents Get Kids To Bed On New Year’s Eve
No one has to know it isn’t really midnight.
By Taylor Pittman

For the fourth year in a row, Netflix will have parents’ backs on New Year’s Eve.

The streaming platform started offering its New Year’s Eve countdowns ― which can make any time, even bedtime, seem like midnight ― on Tuesday. The clips feature beloved characters from nine different shows celebrating the last 10 seconds of the year.




https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/netflix-new-years-eve_us_5a3aa024e4b025f99e140479

Smelling Parkinson?

An excerpt from Upworthy -

This woman's nose could be the key to spotting Parkinson's early.
by James Gaines

A woman's incredible nose might help scientists detect Parkinson's earlier than ever.

Joy Milne says she was living in Perth, Scotland, with her husband Les, when she noticed that he smelled different. Milne would later describe to the BBC as a kind of heavy, musky smell. The change was subtle, but it was there none-the-less. Milne says that at the time, she nagged Les a bit about missing showers, but didn't think much more of it.

Six years later, Les was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, a neurodegenerative disease that attacks brain cells, causing tremors and other mobility issues. In the United States, about one million Americans live with the disease. There are therapies that can help with the symptoms, but no cure.

Her husband's diagnosis would inspire Milne to join the charity Parkinson's UK, where she was able to meet other Parkinson's patients. But something weird happened. The smell was back. And it wasn't unique to Les. She could detect it on other Parkinson's patients as well.

Milne realized she could, in essence, smell Parkinson's disease.

This is amazing, because there is currently no definitive early test for Parkinson's. The only way is to watch for symptoms, and by the time that happens, the disease has already started to impact the brain.

Milne got in touch with scientists to let them know what she was experiencing. Now, Milne's amazing nose might lead to a brand new early-detection test for the disease.

http://www.upworthy.com/this-woman-s-nose-could-be-the-key-to-spotting-parkinson-s-early?c=upw1

Black Gun Owners

An excerpt from the Huffington post -

Why Black People Own Guns
HuffPost spoke with 11 black gun owners to figure out what gun ownership means in a country determined to keep its black populace unarmed.
By Julia Craven

As much as America loves her guns, she has never liked the idea of seeing them in black hands.

Before the Revolutionary War, colonial Virginia passed a law barring black people from owning firearms — an exercise in gun control as racial control. In 1857, in his notorious Dred Scott decision, Chief Justice Roger Taney summoned the specter of black people freely enjoying the right to “keep and carry arms wherever they went.” Surely, he argued, the founders were not “so forgetful or regardless of their own safety” to permit such a thing. When black people armed themselves against white supremacist attacks following the Civil War, Southern state governments passed “black codes” barring them from owning guns. After the Black Panthers open carried to signal to California police officers that they would defend themselves against racial attacks in the late ’60s, then-Gov. Ronald Reagan signed a state ban on open carry into law.

In 2016, legal gun owner Philando Castile was shot after informing a Minnesota police officer that he was armed. Two years prior, Tamir Rice was killed by Cleveland police while holding a toy gun. John Crawford suffered the same fate in a Beavercreek, Ohio, Walmart.

So what does black gun ownership mean in a country so determined to keep its black populace unarmed? Since the 2016 election, interest in firearms has supposedly ticked upward in the black community. Gun shops and clubs link the interest to a desire for self-protection against the white supremacists emboldened by President Donald Trump’s election.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-gun-ownership_us_5a33fc38e4b040881bea2f37?9ae

10 Detective Riddles Only the Most Attentive 1% Can Solve

Leaving Home | A Tragicomedy

All the financial advice you’ll ever need fits on a single index card

Making It | What It Costs To Live In San Francisco

Why Japan's Homeless are Different from North America's

The Rise of New York’s Super Skinny Towers | The B1M

Tuesday, December 26, 2017

How To Read One Book Every Week | JIm Kwik

Why Do American Schools Have Such Long Hours?

What Happens To Your Body And Brain If You Don't Get Sleep

Sleep Deprivation Can Be Deadly

An excerpt from USA Today -

Here's why sleep deprivation is toxic and will eventually kill you
Jeff Stibel

You can live for about three minutes without air, three days without water and about 21 days without food. But in between food and water, there is something else critically essential: sleep.

It turns out you can only live about 11 days without sleep. You can give it a try if you don’t believe me, but, just like the other essentials, after day 11 you will probably die.

Sleep is one of the most important things we overlook, because most of us don’t consider it vital. The problem isn’t you — it’s your brain. Brain scientists really don’t know what they are talking about when it comes to sleep. For far too long, we have known too little about why we sleep. Instead of acknowledging that fact, scientists have made up fairy tales to explain our need for sleep. They have guessed that sleep is necessary for creativity, rest, rejuvenation and recovery.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/columnist/2017/12/22/heres

Google - Year In Search 2017

This Bike Combines Skiing and Cycling

Google Maps vs. All Others

Hands down, Google Maps is best and in this article you can see why.

https://www.justinobeirne.com/google-maps-moat


Saturday, December 23, 2017

Learn More about Figure Skating in Harlem!

Anthony Hamilton - Spend Christmas With You (Audio)

Feliz Navidad- Jose Feliciano lyrics [HQ]

Luther Vandross - Every Year, Every Christmas

Kem - A Christmas Song For You

Ne-Yo - I Want To Come Home for Christmas

Bill Withers - Ain't No Sunshine (Cover by Octavius Womack)

"The First Noel" Leslie Odom Jr. ft. PS22 Chorus

Who Played It Better: Havana (Guitar, Piano, Violin, Saxophone, Electric...

Ember Trio - New Rules Dua Lipa Violin and Cello Cover

Why Is That Baby Staring at Me?

Brian McKnight - Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Give Love On Christmas Day Johnny Gill

The Instant Pot Guy

An excerpt from the NY Times -

Inside the Home of Instant Pot, the Kitchen Gadget That Spawned a Religion
The electric multicooker is a true viral phenomenon. We went to the company’s Canadian headquarters to learn why.
By KEVIN ROOSE

I went to Kanata to get a peek behind the scenes of the Instant Pot phenomenon and meet its creator: Robert Wang, who invented the device and serves as chief executive of Double Insight, its parent company. What I found was a remarkable example of a new breed of 21st-century start-up — a homegrown hardware business with only around 50 employees that raised no venture capital funding, spent almost nothing on advertising, and achieved enormous size primarily through online word-of-mouth. It is also a testament to the enormous power of Amazon, and its ability to turn small businesses into major empires nearly overnight.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/17/business/instant-pot.html?_r=0


Great Reads

An excerpt from the Huffington Post -

24 Of The Most Thought-Provoking Pieces Of Writing By People Of Color In 2017
Read these before the year is over.
By Zeba Blay

This was a year of consistent bad news, a year that (for better or worse) was rife for poignant, thought-provoking and conversation-starting commentary from writers of all backgrounds. And so, for the third year, we’ve curated a list of essays and articles that defined conversations about race, pop culture, politics and identity in 2017.

These essays and articles cover a wide array of topics, from the fascinating delusion of Rachel Dolezal to the horrors of fraternity hazing to the complexities of Donald Trump’s presidency.

As always, the criteria for this list is simple: All pieces must have been written by a person of color and been published online within the last year.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/24-of-the-most-thought-provoking-pieces-of-writing-by-people-of-color-in-2017_us_5a303859e4b01bdd7657e96a

Black In Tokyo Documentary 2017

If You’ve Never Heard of the ‘Homework Gap’ This Video Will Shock You

The Hyperloop Speeds to a 240-MPH Record | WIRED

What Makes The South 'The South'? | AJ+

Friday, December 22, 2017

Why Do You Check Your Phone 150 Times a Day? | Tristan Harris

Why Jerusalem can make or break peace between Israelis and Palestinians

What Afro-Latinos Want You To Know

Quote II

From the NY Times - 

Ferrari Sheppard, a multimedia artist, wrote: “Black intellectuals coming for one another about social justice issues on white-owned platforms is chain smoking cigarettes while eating kale.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/22/us/past-debates-echo-in-split-between-cornel-west-and-ta-nehisi-coates.html?em_pos=large&emc=edit_rr_20171222&nl=race-related&nlid=38867499&ref=headline&te=1&_r=0

What We Read in 2017

From Chartbeat -

2017:  The 100 Most Engaging Stories of the Year

http://2017.chartbeat.com/intro

Quote

"It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men." - Frederick Douglass

Afro-Mexicans: Dancing Their Way Back To Their Roots

Rebuilding a Home for a World War II Veteran

Dave Chappelle: Equanimity | Clip: Voting in the 2016 Election | Netflix

Yes!!! - College Acceptance Letters

From Essence -

https://www.essence.com/culture/black-teens-college-acceptance-reaction-videos#1

The Peppermint Mosque

Go Inside China's Spectacular World of Snow and Ice | National Geographic

Wednesday, December 20, 2017

How an Act of Hatred United a Texas Community

Samuel L. Jackson Teaches Acting | Official Trailer

Where babies in movies come from

The Real-Life Superhero Bringing Bike Thieves to Justice

Black Excellence in Science

An excerpt from OZY -

THE SEGREGATED BLACK SCHOOLS THAT DOMINATED IN SCIENCE
By Daniel Malloy

The segregation that built Sumner also fueled its excellence. The best-educated white minds of the time could become lawyers and doctors and business leaders. The cream of the African-American intellectual crop was blocked from many such opportunities, so they often became educators. In the 1930s, at a time when many white high school teachers did not have bachelor’s degrees, 44 percent of Sumner’s teachers had master’s degrees, according to research by Frank Manheim of George Mason University and Eckhard Hellmuth of the University of Missouri, Kansas City.

A history of Sumner written by its students in 1935 quotes an unnamed African-American educator: “Sumner is a child not of our own volition but rather an offspring of the race antipathy of a bygone period. It was a veritable blessing in disguise — a flower of which we may proudly say, ‘The bud had a bitter taste, but sweet indeed is the flower.’”

In 1952, the school systems on both sides of the Kansas-Missouri state line joined the International Science Fair movement. The Greater Kansas City Science and Engineering Fair went on to become one of America’s biggest. The prizes it handed out in the 1950s, according to Manheim and Hellmuth, went largely to Sumner students. Then the baton was picked up by Lincoln High, a Black school in Kansas City, Missouri, which dominated the competition into the 1960s. In 1963, Lincoln’s Vernice Marie Murray won a national first place in physics with a project called “Experimental Methods of Verifying Force.”

http://www.ozy.com/flashback/the-segregated-black-schools-that-dominated-in-science/79621

~~~~~~~~~~

Malcolm Gladwell does a podcast entitled "Miss Buchanan's Period of Adjustment" - number 8 on the list below - that does a masterful job of explaining the error in thinking that is associated with the Brown vs the Board of Education Supreme Court ruling.  Having been raised in segregated schools, it supports what I already knew to be true.


YouTube - The World's Best Film School?

An excerpt from Wired -

THE WORLD'S BEST FILM SCHOOL IS FREE ON YOUTUBE
By AUTHOR: DAVID PIERCE

Lessons from the Screenplay launched on June 8, 2016, with a video called "Gone Girl—Don't Underestimate the Screenwriter." In it, Tucker explains why screenplays matter more than you think, and dissects the techniques Gillian Flynn used in adapting her novel for the film. As Tucker narrates over clips from the movie, the corresponding lines and notes from the original screenplay appear underneath. The video blew up immediately, climbing the r/movies Subreddit and eventually landing on Reddit's front page. Lessons from the Screenplay had 8,000 subscribers after just one day, and the Gone Girl video racked up 200,000 views in a week.

With that, Tucker had found himself part of a rich, growing corner of YouTube. You could call it YouTube Film School, staffed by creators all over the platform who spend their time helping viewers understand how film and TV work. YouTube is rich with movie reviews, hilariously re-cut trailers, and haphazardly uploaded clips of dubious quality and legality. But the best channels are the ones that teach film as an art form, that help you understand why a particular cut or camera move makes you feel the way it does.

https://www.wired.com/story/youtube-film-school/


2017 Photos

From the Atlantic -

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/12/the-most-2017-photos-ever/548789/

Tuesday, December 19, 2017

How can groups make good decisions? | Mariano Sigman and Dan Ariely

Let’s face it — American breakfast is really dessert

Boy Calls 911 on the Grinch

From USA Today -

To save Christmas, boy calls 911 on the Grinch and then helps cops nab him
By Therese Apel, The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion Ledger

JACKSON, Miss. — It's actually a story of saving Christmas from the Grinch.

TyLon Pittman, a 5-year-old Mississippi boy, knew he was too little to take on the Grinch all by himself, so having identified the threat, he took action. TyLon called 911 to report that he did not want the Grinch to come steal his Christmas.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/12/18/boy-calls-911-report-grinch/960746001/

Monday, December 18, 2017

Portland’s Godfather of Soul

People Are Making Big Money Kicking Detroit Residents Out Of Their Homes...

Backpacks From Around the World

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2017/12/the-things-kids-carried/548105/

15: A Quinceañera Story (2017) | Official Trailer | HBO

See Where NYC’s Manhole Covers Come From | Short Film Showcase

The Surprising Plant Helping Kenyan Farmers Prosper

콘트라베이스 최준혁_이탈리아여행 중 거리연주가들과 함께 즉흥연주_Autumn leaves

Message In a Flipbook: How Inmates Stay Connected to Family

Little Big Shots: Forever Young - A Couple of Feisty Grandmas (Episode H...

Straight No Chaser - "Mary, Did You Know?" (live, acoustic)

Thursday, December 14, 2017

Frank Lucas - Mini Bio

Remember the Titans - "Ain't No Mountain High Enough"

How a case gets to the US Supreme Court

Ascend Thailand’s Temple of the Rising Dragon

Thanking Black Women

An excerpt from Upworthy -

15 real ways to thank black women for carrying the country on their backs.
by Erin Canty

Here are 15 ways to spend your money, power, time, and resources to thank black women for carrying the political load.

1. Support black women running for office.

Yard signs. Phone banks. Field work. And, most importantly, monetary donations. No black women running for office near you? No excuses. Consider contributing to Stacey Abrams, a black Democrat running for governor of Georgia.

2. Get serious about closing the wage gap.

You've likely heard the statistic that women earn 78 cents for dollar a man makes doing the same job. That's white women. Black women earn about 64 cents for every dollar. Connect with and contribute to groups like the 78 Cents Project and the National Women's Law Center, who work tirelessly to bring about change in this arena.

http://www.upworthy.com/15-real-ways-to-thank-black-women-for-carrying-the-country-on-their-backs?c=upw1

How your digestive system works - Emma Bryce

This Man Has Comforted Over 1,200 Newborns