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Friday, January 26, 2018

When the Lifesaving Gadget Puts You In Jail

An excerpt from Gizmodo -

What Happens When the Computer That Keeps You Alive Can Also Put You In Jail?
By Kristen V. Brown

When Ross Compton’s Ohio home caught fire last September, the story he told police was that he grabbed a few things and rushed out of the house, hurling essentials out a bedroom window he broke open with his cane before scrambling out himself.

Police, though, were suspicious. Compton’s few things had included a computer, a suitcase packed with clothes and the charger for the external heart pump that he needed to survive. It seemed unlikely that a 59-year-old man with a pacemaker and a heart pump would have been able to gather all those things and make it out of a burning house alive. But police were stumped on how exactly to make arson charges stick.

In the end, it was his pacemaker that did him in.

After obtaining a search warrant for all the electronic data stored in Compton’s pacemaker, police determined that his device did not corroborate his story. His heart rate, pacer demand and cardiac rhythms all suggested that Compton had not in fact quickly bundled up all his most prized possessions and left in a hurry as his house went up in flames. Last month, with the help of the pacemaker data, he was indicted on charges of aggravated arson and insurance fraud.

Privacy issues are moving under our skin—now the devices that keep us alive and healthy can also be used against us in the court of law.

https://gizmodo.com/what-happens-when-the-computer-that-keeps-you-alive-can-1792236550

"Miracle on 42nd Street" Trailer — Exclusive

Why danger symbols can’t last forever

Tell Them We Are Rising: The Story of Black Colleges & Universities Offi...

Thursday, January 25, 2018

Magnesium-infused deodorant helps you smell & feel great.

Run, Don't Walk

From Business Insider -

Relationship experts say these are the 8 red flags to look out for when you start dating someone — and some are surprisingly common
 By Lindsay Dodgson

http://www.businessinsider.com/relationship-red-flags-you-should-look-out-for-2018-1/#1-you-justify-their-bad-behaviour-1

Did They Survive?

Racing For Many

An excerpt from the Washington Post -

From Ghana to Virginia to PyeongChang: Maame Biney’s long journey on short track
By Rick Maese

Biney, 17, is the first African American woman to ever qualify for an American Olympic speedskating team, and at the PyeongChang Games she promises to be one of the most charismatic members of the U.S. Olympic team. Her journey to the Winter Games is like few others. Her father often jokes that in Ghana, ice is used solely to keep beer cold, so his daughter's chosen pursuit might draw some confused looks back in the country of her birth. Even in the United States, short-track speedskating is a niche sport that pokes its head into the mainstream every four years.

But when the PyeongChang Games begin next month in South Korea, the spotlight will find Biney. NBC will make her a focal point in the Olympics' opening week, certain her story will connect with American viewers: the youngest woman on the U.S. short-track team, a possible medal contender who can connect with youth, with African Americans, with sports fans of all backgrounds.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/classic-apps/from-ghana-to-virginia-to-pyeongchang-maame-bineys-long-journey-on-short-track/2018/01/23/206aa13a-fa29-11e7-8f66-2df0b94bb98a_story.html?utm_term=.abb48b5f99a9

Sharing Kindness

From Buzzfeed -

People Are Sharing The Kindest Things Strangers Have Ever Done For Them And The Stories Will Warm Your Heart
You never know what a big difference a little kindness can make.
By Julie Gerstein

https://www.buzzfeed.com/juliegerstein/people-are-sharing-the-kindest-things-strangers-have-ever?utm_term=.xgZN2Eyx3#.byZNb7ZqB

The awkward debate around Trump's mental fitness

No Sh*t Sherlock

An excerpt from the Slatest -

Report: Tourism to the U.S. Down 4 Percent Since Trump Took Office
By MOLLY OLMSTEAD

Travel to the U.S. has been declining since Donald Trump took office, leading to a cost of $4.6 billion in spending and 40,000 jobs, according to NBC News.

A report by the National Travel and Tourism Office found that last year saw 4 percent less travel into the U.S., translating into 3.3 percent less spending, NBC reported. As a result, Spain has overtaken the U.S. as the second-most visited country in the world after France.

This “Trump Slump” in part stems from the president’s anti-immigration language. More intense security and a weaker dollar likely also played a role.

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2018/01/donald-trump-hurting-us-tourism-according-to-report.html?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=traffic&utm_source=TheSlatest_newsletter&sid=554654ea10defb39638b510d

New Oral HIV Test

An excerpt from 2Paragraphs -

Stanford Scientists Develop New Oral HIV Test for Early Detection
by 2Paragraphs in Daily Edition

Oraquick, an oral HIV test on the market today (photo by Marcello Casal JR/ABr via Wikimedia Commons)


Getting blood from a potentially infected person is not as easy as getting saliva. Let’s start there. Many people and cultures resist syringes — and drawing blood, even for those who don’t resist on principle, is a more cumbersome process than collecting spit in a cup. Problem is: it’s a lot easier to detect early stage HIV in blood than in saliva. While the antibodies that develop to fight the virus are hard to miss in a blood sample, in a saliva sample it’s less easy to detect HIV antibodies. (Fewer HIV antibodies are present in saliva, especially near the beginning of the infection.) Enter Stanford University chemists, working with the Alameda County Public Health Laboratory. The chemists, led by Stanford professor Carolyn Bertozzi, developed a way to get those HIV antibodies in saliva to act in a way that made them detectable.

https://2paragraphs.com/2018/01/stanford-scientists-develop-new-oral-hiv-test-for-early-detection/

Fetch

Why Puerto Rico is not a US state

Gerrymandering: Because America Can Hack Its Own Elections: The Daily Show

Sunday, January 21, 2018

5 Reasons Why The Japanese Are So Polite

TEN FOLD ENGINEERING

COMMENTARY: WFAA anchor, daughter of Haitian immigrants responds to Trum...

Say au revoir to toilet paper.

Magnificent Rocks

From National Geographic -

Magnificent Ancient Buildings Hewn From Living Rock
From towering temples to artistic tombs, humans have been carving structures from cliff faces and mountainsides for thousands of years.
By Kristin Romey

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/photography/proof/2018/01/structures-carved-from-rock/

Then Came the Sun

Tammy Duckworth SLAMS President Trump as a Draft Dodger, Nicknames Him C...

An Aussie Winner


https://www.essence.com/celebrity/tennis-haitian-japanese-naomi-osaka

Trump Doctor Press Conference Cold Open - SNL

Hamilton – “Wrote My Way Out” (Nas, Dave East, Lin-Manuel Miranda & Aloe...

15 Things That Come to the Rescue In Case of Emergency

Immigration, Ethical Dining, Comedy vs. News | Overtime with Bill Maher ...

Trevor Noah Turns Donald Trump's Words into a Bad Reggae Song

Ford Has Created A Trucker Hat To Wake Sleepy Drivers

You Are the Sunshine of My Life (Stevie Wonder) - Solo Jazz Guitar

Saturday, January 20, 2018

Friday, January 19, 2018

Carry Your Cat in a Bag

The next generation of African architects and designers | Christian Beni...

Explore Portugal’s Castle of Many Colors

TOKYO CAPSULE HOTEL TOUR

Keeping Classic Sneakers Fresh With Chicago’s Teen Cobbler

So Stupid It's Not Funny: Trump's Crackdown on Legal Immigration: The Da...

So Stupid It's Not Funny: Trump's Crackdown on Legal Immigration: The Da...

U.S.A. For Africa - We Are the World



https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/we-are-the-world-a-minute-by-minute-breakdown-30th-anniversary-20150306

What a Wind!

Racist-in-Chief

An excerpt from the Huffington Post -

Racist-In-Chief Or Commander-In-Chief? You Can’t Be Both, Mr. Trump.
By Jamil Smith

Can a person perform these kinds of racist acts and still function as president of the United States in today’s day and age? How much does trying to bring about a white ethno-state get in the way of doing the actual job? Can you be the birther-in-chief and still be effective as the commander-in-chief? No.

Governing as an open racist certainly isn’t as easy for Trump as it may have been for his hero, Andrew Jackson. Two things stand in his way: the pragmatic functions of the job, and the reality of the country he governs.

These are questions about effectiveness, not sentiment. It’s important that we have a president who functions well, no matter the party, and being a leader who acts like Trump does has proven consequences. He gets in his own way: Courts have blocked his orders, including his efforts to cancel DACA and enact his beloved Muslim ban, thanks to his biased statements. Eleven inmates at Guantanamo are making a similar argument now, since Trump has said he never wants anyone to be released. But even in a systemically racist nation, does racist behavior make the job harder?

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-smith-trump-racist_us_5a59099fe4b03c4189657024

Sniffing Out Diseases

An excerpt from National Geographic -

You Can Smell When Someone's Sick—Here's How
The curious case of a woman who can smell Parkinson’s reminds us our noses are our first defense against illness.
By Erika Engelhaupt

Recently, the case of the woman who can smell Parkinson’s brought attention to the idea of sniffing for disease. Parkinson’s is notoriously tricky to diagnose; by the time most people learn they have it, they’ve already lost half of the dopamine-producing brain cells the disease attacks. But about six years before her husband Les was diagnosed, Joy Milne noticed that he smelled odd.

Les had a “sort of woody, musky odor,” Milne told the Telegraph. Years later, in a room full of Parkinson’s patients, she realized the smell wasn’t unique to Les. All the people with Parkinson’s smelled that way.

She mentioned it to a Parkinson’s researcher in Edinburgh named Tilo Kunath, who mentioned it to his colleague, analytical chemist Perdita Barran. They decided the well-meaning Mrs. Milne may have just noticed the characteristic smell of old people; “We talked ourselves out of it,” Barran says.

That could have been the end of it. But another biochemist encouraged the pair to track Milne down and try a blind T-shirt test: She sniffed six sweaty tees from people diagnosed with Parkinson’s, and six from healthy controls. Milne correctly identified which six had Parkinson’s, but she also tagged one of the control subjects as having the disease.

Despite that error, Barran was intrigued—all the more so eight months later, when the same supposedly healthy control subject Milne had identified was diagnosed with Parkinson’s.

https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/01/smell-sickness-parkinsons-disease-health-science/

Thursday, January 18, 2018

The Magic School Bus Goes Inside Trump

How Data Drives Innovation and Human Performance

Japan’s Post Box Under the Sea

WallyBroom v3

Repurposing Roadkill

Excerpts from the Atlas Obscura -

How Alaska’s Roadkill Gets a Second Life as Dinner
A unique system turns moose killed in collisions into meals.
BY MARK HAY

But in the ‘70s, Alaska developed a clever system to turn this burden into a boon: The state created a roadkill salvage program. In this system, the state contacts citizens and charities every time a trooper finds or is alerted to a big animal dead on the road. Soon thereafter, these groups and individuals swoop in, spirit the corpses away, and turn them into hundreds of thousands of pounds of edible meat every year. In theory, this lean red flesh is as versatile as beef, but it’s typically hacked into stew chuck or ground down for use in burgers and sausages. Game meats, which are wiry to start with and ever tougher with age, benefit from being being broken up and mixed with their own fat.

~~~~~~~~~~

Salvaging roadside moose probably wasn’t a radical or challenging idea in 1970s Alaska. People familiar with game meats, as many in the state were and are, know how to tell when an animal is diseased or when meat’s been corrupted by heat, time, or damage to internal organs. With that knowledge, roadkill isn’t disgusting or dangerous. It is, as Buck Peterson, a longtime writer on American “cuisine de asphalt,” puts it, “a gift.”

That’s especially true for moose. Though it’s not sold in supermarkets, moose is widely coveted and consumed in Alaska, with local hunters harvesting and divvying up millions of pounds of flesh every year. And even one good animal can feed one man for about a year. “Everybody sees the value in 200 to 400 pounds of high-quality, edible meat,” says Del Frate. Especially in a state with high (and rising) food insecurity, no one wants to waste that resource.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/moose-salvage-network-alaska

History Lesson

An excerpt from the Atlas Obscura -

Who Really Designed the American Dime?
The controversy that has long roiled the coin world.
BY CHRISTINA DJOSSA

Selma Burke won a competition to create a relief sculpture of Franklin Delano Roosevelt in 1943. JOHN W. MOSLEY PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTION, CHARLES L. BLOCKSON AFRO-AMERICAN COLLECTION, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES, PHILADELPHIA, PA

WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME you looked—really looked—at a dime? It is the smallest coin in U.S. circulation, so it takes a keen eye to see the very subtle “JS” just beneath Franklin D. Roosevelt’s truncated neck. These are the initials of John Sinnock, the U.S. Mint’s Chief Engraver from 1925 to 1947, who is credited with sculpting the profile of the 32nd president. However, institutions such as the Smithsonian American Art Museum—and even Roosevelt’s son—credit another sculptor with inspiring the design: Selma Burke, the illustrious Harlem Renaissance sculptor. So where is credit due? The answer is … complicated.

In 1943, 43-year-old Selma Burke won a Commission of Fine Arts competition and a rare opportunity to sculpt the president’s likeness for the new Recorder of Deeds Building in Washington, D.C. Burke, renowned for her Booker T. Washington bust, ran into some problems, since she didn’t feel that photographs captured Roosevelt’s stature. So the sculptor wrote to the White House to request a live-sketch session. The administration, to her utter shock, agreed.

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/who-designed-american-dime-selma-burke-franklin-roosevelt



A Knitted Village

From Atlas Obscura -

https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/entire-northern-ireland-village-knitted-wool-crochet-cloughmills-county-antrim


A Guide to Buying Appliances

An excerpt from the Washington Post -

Buying an appliance? Here’s how to get the best bargain.
By Kevin Brasler

Fortunately, Checkbook has identified some area stores that usually serve their customers well, and by using our simple shopping tips you’ll pay the lowest prices.

To help you separate the good stores from the not-so-good ones, through a special arrangement, Washington Post readers can access Checkbook’s ratings of local appliance stores free through Feb. 16 by visiting checkbook.org/WashingtonPost/Appliances.

Start by deciding on the models you wish to buy. There are a few excellent sources that provide independent buying advice. Consumer Reports regularly evaluates appliances on quality issues, including reliability, and offers advice on the pros and cons of configurations, designs, features and options. The U.S. Department of Energy’s Energy Star program provides lists and energy-usage data on certified appliances.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/where-we-live/wp/2018/01/16/buying-an-appliance-heres-how-to-get-the-best-bargain/?utm_term=.af7f2be60bb1

Calculating the Cost of College

An excerpt from the Washington Post -

These 31 colleges — including Yale — are now using a fast and easy financial aid calculator
By Nick Anderson

When his two sons were growing up, a college professor named Phillip Levine found himself 10 years ago asking a question on the minds of parents perennially worried about the price of higher education: Would they qualify for financial aid?

Levine, a Wellesley College economist, was frustrated to learn there were no easy answers beyond the scary sticker prices and pledges from certain colleges that they would meet the need of students they admit.

“How can you expect people to make educated decisions about the right thing to do when they have absolutely no idea what the cost is?” Levine said. “It’s crazy.”

So Levine set out to build a tool that would provide some quick and reliable answers. On Wednesday, Yale University and 15 other schools announced that they would use a version of his calculator now known as MyinTuition. (Get it?) That brought the total involved in his nonprofit initiative to 31, including Wellesley, which in 2013 became the first to use Levine’s calculator.

https://myintuition.org

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2018/01/17/these-31-colleges-including-yale-are-now-using-a-fast-and-easy-financial-aid-calculator/?utm_term=.ef099048b5b5

How rats take advantage of human failure

How a Mexican Delicacy Became a Mississippi Staple

Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Ridiculist

Lies. Lies. Lies.

Behold the Bactrian Camel

Donald Trump Is Somehow Healthy: The Daily Show

Pot Docs Making a Positive Impact

An excerpt from the Washington Post -

A family of doctors helps reinvent medical marijuana
By Justin Wm. Moyer

From left, physicians David Knox, Rachel Knox, Janice Knox and Jessica Knox are the founders of the American Cannabinoid Clinics. (Amanda Lucier/for The Washington Post)

The Knoxes are a clan of four doctors living in Oregon and California who specialize in medical marijuana. They seem to be doing quite well selling something that is illegal in many states, working with those they know best.

“We’re all fighting the same fight,” said Janice Knox, the founding doctor behind American Cannabinoid Clinics in Portland, Ore. — and the mother of two fellow physicians and the wife of the other. “I think when they do see us they’re surprised at who we are,” she said of her patients. The family aims for something not always associated with medical marijuana: professionalism.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/a-family-of-doctors-helps-reinvent-medical-marijuana/2018/01/14/f4ea320e-eb24-11e7-b698-91d4e35920a3_story.html?utm_term=.8046c338e4f7


Monday, January 15, 2018

A mother and son united by love and art | Deborah Willis and Hank Willis...

Miniature scenes of murder

A second honeymoon

Declared Dead

An excerpt from LiveScience -

Man Declared Dead Snores to Life Right Before His Autopsy
By Rachael Rettner

A man in Spain who was declared dead by three doctors was actually still alive, which doctors discovered only when he began snoring on the autopsy table, according to news reports.

The man, 29-year-old Gonzalo Montoya Jiménez, was a prisoner at a jail in northern Spain. He was found unconscious in his cell on Sunday (Jan. 7), and was believed to be dead, according to the Spanish news outlet La Voz de Asturias. Three forensic doctors allegedly examined Jiménez and certified his death.

But 4 hours later, right before Jiménez's autopsy, he was heard making noises on the autopsy table, and was found to still be alive. This discovery was not a moment too soon — Jiménez's body even had the marks painted on it to guide the autopsy, a family member told La Voz de Asturias.

https://www.livescience.com/61385-man-declared-dead-really-alive.html?ftag=CNM-00-10aac3a

Spectacular Bridges

From USA Today -

https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/travel/destinations/10greatplaces/2018/01/11/the-worlds-most-spectacular-new-bridges/109361156/

How the Animal Kingdom Sleeps

Most Innovative Companies

From USA Today -

The world’s 50 most innovative companies
Samuel Stebbins

https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2018/01/12/worlds-50-most-innovative-companies/1023095001/

Honored for His Bravery

An excerpt from Slate -

ACLU Honors Colin Kaepernick For Bravery in “Risking and Losing His Job” for the Cause of Social Justice
By Jeremy Stahl

BEVERLY HILLS, California—Former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick was a surprise honoree at the ACLU of Southern California’s annual "Bill of Rights Dinner" on Sunday, receiving the Eason Monroe Courageous Advocate Award.

Kaepernick, whose public speaking appearances have been rare in recent months, remained unsigned this year after he spent last season protesting racial inequities in the criminal justice system by taking a knee during the national anthem.

“Our next honoree took a stand. He took a stand knowing he would risk his job. And he has lost his job, one that he loved and was supremely talented and skilled at,” executive director of the ACLU of Southern California, Hector Villagra, told a packed ballroom at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel. “He took a stand knowing that some would criticize him and he has been viciously and unfairly criticized.”

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2017/12/03/aclu_honors_colin_kaepernick_for_bravery_in_risking_and_losing_his_job_for.html




Making a Difference

An excerpt from OZY -

MINORITY ENTREPRENEURS STRUGGLE TO GET BUSINESS LOANS. THIS FUND AIMS TO FIX THAT
By Laura Elizabeth

Bennett says she’s proof the EOCF works. A quick cash injection helped her say yes to the arena project, bring on workers and deliver the job. “Being able to do that one project teleported us to a whole different level,” she says now. “We are getting looked at by contractors that wouldn’t have known who we were two years ago. And we are looking at bigger and better opportunities that we would never have been able to consider before.”

The EOCF has been deemed such a success — with $4.5 million loaned to more than 40 minority entrepreneurs since it launched in 2015 — that the fund has lately attracted new investors and tripled from $6.5 million to $18 million. Based on the Detroit model, similar funds will be introduced to San Francisco and New York this year.

But the problem the fund wants to solve goes far beyond a handful of cities. A 2016 report from the Hamilton Project, which studies fiscal policy, called for better federal funding to help minority and women entrepreneurs nationwide, arguing this could help resolve major social injustices.

http://www.ozy.com/acumen/minority-entrepreneurs-struggle-to-get-business-loans-this-fund-aims-to-fix-that/83095?utm_source=dd&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=01152018&variable=e3bf1057d4e3c0988a79ae4bce515610

What if sticky notes never ran out?

Yes. Of Course He Is.

Excerpts from the NY Times -

Trump Is a Racist. Period.
By Charles M. Blow

Racism is simply the belief that race is an inherent and determining factor in a person’s or a people’s character and capabilities, rendering some inferior and others superior. These beliefs are racial prejudices.

The history of America is one in which white people used racism and white supremacy to develop a racial caste system that advantaged them and disadvantaged others.

Understanding this, it is not a stretch to understand that Donald Trump’s words and deeds over the course of his life have demonstrated a pattern of expressing racial prejudices that demean people who are black and brown and that play to the racial hostilities of other white people.

~~~~~~~~~~

As the brilliant James Baldwin once put it: “I can’t believe what you say, because I see what you do.” When I see that in poll after poll a portion of Trump’s base continues to support his behavior, including on race, I can only conclude that there is no real daylight between Trump and his base. They are part of his racism.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/14/opinion/trump-racist-shithole.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share

Martin & Malcolm

An excerpt from the Washington Post -

Martin Luther King Jr. met Malcolm X just once. The photo still haunts us with what was lost.
By DeNeen L. Brown


Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X met only once. On March 26, 1964, the two black leaders were on Capitol Hill, attending Senate debate on the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

King was stepping out of a news conference, when Malcolm X, dressed in an elegant black overcoat and wearing his signature horn-rimmed glasses, greeted him.

“Well, Malcolm, good to see you,” King said.

“Good to see you,” Malcolm X replied.

Cameras clicked as the two men walked down the Senate hall together.

“I’m throwing myself into the heart of the civil rights struggle,” Malcolm X told King.

King would say later: “He is very articulate, but I totally disagree with many of his political and philosophical views — at least insofar as I understand where he now stands.”

The exchange would last only a minute, but the photo remains a haunting reminder of what was lost. They would never meet again before each was assassinated, first Malcolm X and then King.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/01/14/martin-luther-king-jr-met-malcolm-x-just-once-the-photo-still-haunts-us-with-what-was-lost/?utm_term=.cf7036b7132f&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1

Franklin's Debut

An excerpt from the NY Times -

Guess Who’s Coming to ‘Peanuts’
By DAVID KAMP

“Is this your beach ball?” These were the first words spoken by Franklin, addressing Charlie Brown as the latter stared glumly out to sea. And this is how Charles M. Schulz integrated his comic strip, “Peanuts,” on July 31, 1968. Franklin’s initial three-strip arc unfolded quietly and gently, with the boys building a sand castle together while chatting.

Franklin stayed quiet and gentle, taking his place in the “Peanuts” gang as a steady but low-key presence over the next three decades — sometimes to the chagrin of African-Americans who found him to be anodyne at best and a token at worst. In a 1992 “Saturday Night Live” routine, Chris Rock complained, comically but pointedly, that Mr. Schulz had deprived Franklin of the kind of signature traits he had assigned the other “Peanuts” kids.

“Linus got the blanket, Lucy’s a bitch, Schroeder plays the piano, Peppermint Patty’s a lesbian,” Mr. Rock said. “Everybody got their thing except Franklin! Give him something! Damn, give him a Jamaican accent!”

Yet Franklin’s careful rollout and nice-guy equanimity were very much by design, as “50 Years of Franklin,” a new exhibition at the Charles M. Schulz Museum, in Santa Rosa, Calif., reveals. The exhibition opens this weekend in conjunction with the observance of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday on Monday.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/13/opinion/sunday/peanuts-franklin-charlie-brown.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0

Promoting Civil Rights Tourism

An excerpt from AP News -

Southern states join to promote civil rights tourism
By Jay Reeves

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Southern states that once fought to maintain racial segregation are now banding together to promote civil rights tourism at sites including the building where the Confederacy was born and the motel where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. died.

Fourteen states stretching from Kansas to Delaware, including all of the Deep South, are joining to promote the U.S. Civil Rights Trail, which will highlight about 130 sites linked to the modern civil rights movement. The joint effort is being unveiled as part of the MLK holiday weekend.

Individual Southern states have used such promotions for years, beginning with a black history trail launched by Alabama in the 1980s, but never before have they joined together in a single push to bolster civil rights tourism, said Lee Sentell, a leader of the effort.

“Everyone wants to showcase their landmarks. For the U.S. Civil Rights Trail, we’re saying ’What happened here changed the world,’” said Sentell, Alabama’s tourism director.

Most states participating in the promotion are part of the Atlanta-based Travel South USA, which is funded by state tourism agencies to lure visitors to the region. The organization has launched civilrightstrail.com and is placing advertisements in national magazines to promote the trail.

https://apnews.com/65c188db42cb4c0d98c0fd65a6fe332c/Southern-states-join-to-promote-civil-rights-tourism?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=&stream=top-stories

The chocolate science hype machine

Saturday, January 13, 2018

Medical Treatment of Black Women

An excerpt from Vox -

What Serena Williams’s scary childbirth story says about medical treatment of black women
Black women are often dismissed or ignored by medical care providers. Williams wasn’t an exception.
By P.R. Lockhart

A new Vogue profile of Serena Williams sheds light not only on the health risks that can come with childbirth, but also how those factors — coupled with racial bias in the medical field — can have dangerous, even life-threatening results for black women.

In Vogue’s February cover story, Williams recalls dealing with serious complications shortly after the recent birth of her daughter, Alexis Olympia. Williams explains that the problems started the day after her daughter’s birth by Cesarean section, when Williams felt short of breath. Due to her history of pulmonary embolisms (Williams underwent emergency treatment for a life-threatening embolism in 2011), the tennis star quickly alerted a nurse about her symptoms.

But the response wasn’t what she expected. Vogue writer Rob Haskell explains:

She walked out of the hospital room so her mother wouldn’t worry and told the nearest nurse, between gasps, that she needed a CT scan with contrast and IV heparin (a blood thinner) right away. The nurse thought her pain medicine might be making her confused. But Serena insisted, and soon enough a doctor was performing an ultrasound of her legs. “I was like, a Doppler? I told you, I need a CT scan and a heparin drip,” she remembers telling the team. The ultrasound revealed nothing, so they sent her for the CT, and sure enough, several small blood clots had settled in her lungs. Minutes later she was on the drip. “I was like, listen to Dr. Williams!”

Williams adds that she continued to have problems after this scare. Williams coughed frequently due to the embolisms, and the coughs were forceful enough to cause her C-section wound to rupture. When she went in for surgery, doctors found that a hematoma had filled her abdomen, a result of the blood thinners. A filter was placed into one her major veins to keep more blood clots from traveling to her lungs. When she finally returned home, Williams needed six weeks of bed rest.

https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/1/11/16879984/serena-williams-childbirth-scare-black-women


Friday, January 12, 2018

The new US tax law, explained with cereal

Yes Indeed!

From Very Smart Brothas -

10 Reasons I’m Glad I Was Raised in a Black Household
By Panama Jackson

https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/10-reasons-i-m-glad-i-was-raised-in-a-black-household-1821891589

Bless Your Heart

A New Low

An excerpt from the New York Times -

‘The Lowest White Man’
By Charles M. Blow

Trumpism is a religion founded on patriarchy and white supremacy.

It is the belief that even the least qualified man is a better choice than the most qualified woman and a belief that the most vile, anti-intellectual, scandal-plagued simpleton of a white man is sufficient to follow in the presidential footsteps of the best educated, most eloquent, most affable black man.

As President Lyndon B. Johnson said in the 1960s to a young Bill Moyers: “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”

Trump’s supporters are saying to us, screaming to us, that although he may be the “lowest white man,” he is still better than Barack Obama, the “best colored man.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/11/opinion/trump-immigration-white-supremacy.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&region=CColumn&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&src=me&WT.nav=MostEmailed

Trump Calls Non-White Countries "S**tholes": The Daily Show

Thursday, January 11, 2018

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Again?

From USA Today Network -

School's homework asked for 3 'good,' 3 bad reasons for slavery
By Darryl Enriquez, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

WAUWATOSA, Wis. — Administrators at a Lutheran school here apologized Wednesday for a fourth-grade homework assignment that asked pupils to write "3 'good' reasons for slavery and 3 bad reasons."

Trameka Brown-Berry shared the assignment Tuesday on Facebook asking if others found it offensive. Her son, Jerome Berry, is a fourth-grader at Our Redeemer Lutheran School.

The post set off a cry from Facebook respondents and a community leader that the assignment was insensitive and offensive.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/01/10/slavery-homework-assignment/1022098001/

1968

From The Atlantic -

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/01/50-years-ago-in-photos-a-look-back-at-1968/550208/?utm_source=&silverid=MzEwMTkwMTQ4ODk4S0

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