Sunday, March 11, 2018
Saturday, March 10, 2018
Great Women Who Were Overlooked
From the NY Times -
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/obituaries/overlooked.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage®ion=CColumn&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&src=me&WT.nav=MostEmailed
Friday, March 9, 2018
He Needed a Break
An excerpt from the Verge -
Burger-flipping robot takes four-day break immediately after landing new job
Robots, they’re just like us
By James Vincent
Good news if you’re worried about a robot taking your job: it turns out even mechanical laborers need a break.
Only a single shift into its career at the CaliBurger restaurant in Pasadena, California, this week, Flippy the robot burger-flipper is going on hiatus, reports USA Today. The bot, created by startup Miso Robotics, made its debut earlier this week assisting in CaliBurger’s kitchen by flipping patties on the grill. According to reports, the robot did its job well but was such a hit with customers that Miso Robotics is giving Flippy time off over the weekend for some upgrades.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/8/17095730/robot-burger-flipping-fast-food-caliburger-miso-robotics-flippy
Burger-flipping robot takes four-day break immediately after landing new job
Robots, they’re just like us
By James Vincent
Good news if you’re worried about a robot taking your job: it turns out even mechanical laborers need a break.
Only a single shift into its career at the CaliBurger restaurant in Pasadena, California, this week, Flippy the robot burger-flipper is going on hiatus, reports USA Today. The bot, created by startup Miso Robotics, made its debut earlier this week assisting in CaliBurger’s kitchen by flipping patties on the grill. According to reports, the robot did its job well but was such a hit with customers that Miso Robotics is giving Flippy time off over the weekend for some upgrades.
https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/8/17095730/robot-burger-flipping-fast-food-caliburger-miso-robotics-flippy
Penguin Selfie
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2018/03/08/these-penguins-found-a-camera-in-antarctica-and-captured-a-surprisingly-good-selfie/?utm_term=.d059e49b7b9d
Rethinking Prisons
An excerpt form the NY Times -
Turn Prisons Into Colleges
By ELIZABETH HINTON
Imagine if prisons looked like the grounds of universities. Instead of languishing in cells, incarcerated people sat in classrooms and learned about climate science or poetry — just like college students. Or even with them.
This would be a boon to prisoners across the country, a vast majority of whom do not have a high school diploma. And it could help shrink our prison population. While racial disparities in arrests and convictions are alarming, education level is a far stronger predictor of future incarceration than race.
The idea is rooted in history. In the 1920s, Howard Belding Gill, a criminologist and a Harvard alumnus, developed a college-like community at the Norfolk State Prison Colony in Massachusetts, where he was the superintendent. Prisoners wore normal clothing, participated in cooperative self-government with staff, and took academic courses with instructors from Emerson, Boston University and Harvard. They ran a newspaper, radio show and jazz orchestra, and they had access to an extensive library.
Norfolk had such a good reputation, Malcolm X asked to be transferred there from Charlestown State Prison in Boston so, as he wrote in his petition, he could use “the educational facilities that aren’t in these other institutions.” At Norfolk, “there are many things that I would like to learn that would be of use to me when I regain my freedom.” After Malcolm X’s request was granted, he joined the famous Norfolk Debate Society, through which inmates connected to students at Harvard and other universities.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/06/opinion/prisons-colleges-education.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage®ion=CColumn&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&src=me&WT.nav=MostEmailed
Turn Prisons Into Colleges
By ELIZABETH HINTON
Imagine if prisons looked like the grounds of universities. Instead of languishing in cells, incarcerated people sat in classrooms and learned about climate science or poetry — just like college students. Or even with them.
This would be a boon to prisoners across the country, a vast majority of whom do not have a high school diploma. And it could help shrink our prison population. While racial disparities in arrests and convictions are alarming, education level is a far stronger predictor of future incarceration than race.
The idea is rooted in history. In the 1920s, Howard Belding Gill, a criminologist and a Harvard alumnus, developed a college-like community at the Norfolk State Prison Colony in Massachusetts, where he was the superintendent. Prisoners wore normal clothing, participated in cooperative self-government with staff, and took academic courses with instructors from Emerson, Boston University and Harvard. They ran a newspaper, radio show and jazz orchestra, and they had access to an extensive library.
Norfolk had such a good reputation, Malcolm X asked to be transferred there from Charlestown State Prison in Boston so, as he wrote in his petition, he could use “the educational facilities that aren’t in these other institutions.” At Norfolk, “there are many things that I would like to learn that would be of use to me when I regain my freedom.” After Malcolm X’s request was granted, he joined the famous Norfolk Debate Society, through which inmates connected to students at Harvard and other universities.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/06/opinion/prisons-colleges-education.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage®ion=CColumn&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&src=me&WT.nav=MostEmailed
Girls Ruling the World
From the Huffington Post -
16 Girls Who Changed The World
Proof you’re never too young to make an impact.
By Caroline Bologna
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/16-girls-who-changed-the-world_us_5a8f4f09e4b01e9e56b9e26c
16 Girls Who Changed The World
Proof you’re never too young to make an impact.
By Caroline Bologna
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/16-girls-who-changed-the-world_us_5a8f4f09e4b01e9e56b9e26c
The Wire Cast - Where Are They Now?
From Complex -
Ranking the Careers of 'The Wire' Cast, 10 Years After the Series Finale
BY KHAL, DRIA ROLAND, FRAZIER THARPE, BRANDON JENKINS, KIANA FITZGERALD, SHAWN SETARO, ANGEL DIAZ
http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2018/03/the-wire-character-career-ranking-after-series-finale/
Ranking the Careers of 'The Wire' Cast, 10 Years After the Series Finale
BY KHAL, DRIA ROLAND, FRAZIER THARPE, BRANDON JENKINS, KIANA FITZGERALD, SHAWN SETARO, ANGEL DIAZ
http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2018/03/the-wire-character-career-ranking-after-series-finale/
Blacks Leaving White Churches
From the NY Times -
A Quiet Exodus: Why Black Worshipers Are Leaving White Evangelical Churches
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
Black congregants — as recounted by people in Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Fort Worth and elsewhere — had already grown uneasy in recent years as they watched their white pastors fail to address police shootings of African-Americans. They heard prayers for Paris, for Brussels, for law enforcement; they heard that one should keep one’s eyes on the kingdom, that the church was colorblind, and that talk of racial injustice was divisive, not a matter of the gospel. There was still some hope that this stemmed from an obliviousness rather than some deeper disconnect.
Then white evangelicals voted for Mr. Trump by a larger margin than they had voted for any presidential candidate. They cheered the outcome, reassuring uneasy fellow worshipers with talk of abortion and religious liberty, about how politics is the art of compromise rather than the ideal. Christians of color, even those who shared these policy preferences, looked at Mr. Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants, his open hostility to N.F.L. players protesting police brutality and his earlier “birther” crusade against President Obama, claiming falsely he was not a United States citizen. In this political deal, many concluded, they were the compromised.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/09/us/blacks-evangelical-churches.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
A Quiet Exodus: Why Black Worshipers Are Leaving White Evangelical Churches
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON
Black congregants — as recounted by people in Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Fort Worth and elsewhere — had already grown uneasy in recent years as they watched their white pastors fail to address police shootings of African-Americans. They heard prayers for Paris, for Brussels, for law enforcement; they heard that one should keep one’s eyes on the kingdom, that the church was colorblind, and that talk of racial injustice was divisive, not a matter of the gospel. There was still some hope that this stemmed from an obliviousness rather than some deeper disconnect.
Then white evangelicals voted for Mr. Trump by a larger margin than they had voted for any presidential candidate. They cheered the outcome, reassuring uneasy fellow worshipers with talk of abortion and religious liberty, about how politics is the art of compromise rather than the ideal. Christians of color, even those who shared these policy preferences, looked at Mr. Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants, his open hostility to N.F.L. players protesting police brutality and his earlier “birther” crusade against President Obama, claiming falsely he was not a United States citizen. In this political deal, many concluded, they were the compromised.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/09/us/blacks-evangelical-churches.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
Thursday, March 8, 2018
Demanding Less
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
Hundreds of Canadian doctors demand lower salaries. (Yes, lower.)
By Amy B Wang
In a move that can only be described as utterly Canadian, hundreds of doctors in Quebec are protesting their pay raises, saying they already make too much money.
As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 700 physicians, residents and medical students from the Canadian province had signed an online petition asking for their pay raises to be canceled. A group named Médecins Québécois Pour le Régime Public (MQRP), which represents Quebec doctors and advocates for public health, started the petition Feb. 25.
“We, Quebec doctors who believe in a strong public system, oppose the recent salary increases negotiated by our medical federations,” the petition reads in French.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/03/07/hundreds-of-canadian-doctors-demand-lower-salaries/?utm_term=.722bfe351051
Hundreds of Canadian doctors demand lower salaries. (Yes, lower.)
By Amy B Wang
In a move that can only be described as utterly Canadian, hundreds of doctors in Quebec are protesting their pay raises, saying they already make too much money.
As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 700 physicians, residents and medical students from the Canadian province had signed an online petition asking for their pay raises to be canceled. A group named Médecins Québécois Pour le Régime Public (MQRP), which represents Quebec doctors and advocates for public health, started the petition Feb. 25.
“We, Quebec doctors who believe in a strong public system, oppose the recent salary increases negotiated by our medical federations,” the petition reads in French.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/03/07/hundreds-of-canadian-doctors-demand-lower-salaries/?utm_term=.722bfe351051
Whoopi's Shoes
From Buzzfeed -
https://www.buzzfeed.com/morganmurrell/whoopi-goldberg-insane-shoe-collection?utm_term=.wwbqYN9K1G#.kawQrYLovG
https://www.buzzfeed.com/morganmurrell/whoopi-goldberg-insane-shoe-collection?utm_term=.wwbqYN9K1G#.kawQrYLovG
Tuesday, March 6, 2018
Best Burger Joint
From Business Insider -
We put In-N-Out and Five Guys to the test in a battle of the burger chains — and the winner surprised us
By Melia Robinson
http://www.businessinsider.com/review-in-n-out-versus-five-guys-showdown-2018-1
We put In-N-Out and Five Guys to the test in a battle of the burger chains — and the winner surprised us
By Melia Robinson
http://www.businessinsider.com/review-in-n-out-versus-five-guys-showdown-2018-1
Deion Sanders couldn’t believe his eyes by this deceptively fast and sneaky athletic defensive back pic.twitter.com/1BfDrV4Q9N— Laces Out (@LacesOutShow) March 5, 2018
Monday, March 5, 2018
Saturday, March 3, 2018
The Token Ones
From the Undefeated -
From ‘Dawson’s Creek’ to ‘Buffy’ to ‘Frasier’ to ‘Seinfeld’ — what happened to those lone, ‘token’ black actors?
Eight talents tell stories of offensive scripts, stunt people in blackface and the heartbreak — and hope — of portraying Thug No. 2 and the dope dealer’s girlfriend
BY KEITH MURPHY
https://theundefeated.com/features/90s-token-black-actors-phil-morris-bianca-lawson-kim-coles/
From ‘Dawson’s Creek’ to ‘Buffy’ to ‘Frasier’ to ‘Seinfeld’ — what happened to those lone, ‘token’ black actors?
Eight talents tell stories of offensive scripts, stunt people in blackface and the heartbreak — and hope — of portraying Thug No. 2 and the dope dealer’s girlfriend
BY KEITH MURPHY
https://theundefeated.com/features/90s-token-black-actors-phil-morris-bianca-lawson-kim-coles/
Friday, March 2, 2018
Tuesday, February 27, 2018
How to Bend
An excerpt from NPR -
Lost Art Of Bending Over: How Other Cultures Spare Their Spines
By MICHAELEEN DOUCLEFF
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/02/26/587735283/lost-art-of-bending-over-how-other-cultures-spare-their-spines#nws=mcnewsletter
Lost Art Of Bending Over: How Other Cultures Spare Their Spines
By MICHAELEEN DOUCLEFF
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/02/26/587735283/lost-art-of-bending-over-how-other-cultures-spare-their-spines#nws=mcnewsletter
Monday, February 26, 2018
Saturday, February 24, 2018
These Postcards Tell a Story
From the NY Times -
https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/2018/02/24/race-related?nlid=38867499
https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/2018/02/24/race-related?nlid=38867499
The Dismantling of a Legacy
An excerpt from Politico -
Billy Graham Built a Movement. Now His Son Is Dismantling It.
If you want to understand the evangelical decline in the United States, look no further than the transition from Billy to Franklin Graham.
By STEPHEN PROTHERO
The qualities of temper and judgment that made Billy Graham so singularly successful are almost entirely lacking in his son, who now imperils his father’s legacy. Thanks to Franklin Graham and his cronies on the Religious Right, American evangelicalism has now become first and foremost a political rather than a spiritual enterprise. The life of Billy Graham helped build it up. And his death may well have ensured its demise.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/24/billy-graham-evangelical-decline-franklin-graham-217077?cid=apn
Billy Graham Built a Movement. Now His Son Is Dismantling It.
If you want to understand the evangelical decline in the United States, look no further than the transition from Billy to Franklin Graham.
By STEPHEN PROTHERO
The qualities of temper and judgment that made Billy Graham so singularly successful are almost entirely lacking in his son, who now imperils his father’s legacy. Thanks to Franklin Graham and his cronies on the Religious Right, American evangelicalism has now become first and foremost a political rather than a spiritual enterprise. The life of Billy Graham helped build it up. And his death may well have ensured its demise.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/24/billy-graham-evangelical-decline-franklin-graham-217077?cid=apn
Cartoons
From The NIB -
Four Cartoonists on Their Favorite Unsung Black History Heroes
by The Response
https://thenib.com/black-history-response
Four Cartoonists on Their Favorite Unsung Black History Heroes
by The Response
https://thenib.com/black-history-response
Friday, February 23, 2018
Night and Day
From the Washington Post -
Mueller and Trump: Born to wealth, raised to lead. Then, sharply different choices.
By Marc Fisher and Sari Horwitz
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mueller-and-trump-born-to-wealth-raised-to-lead-then-sharply-different-choices/2018/02/22/ad50b7bc-0a99-11e8-8b0d-891602206fb7_story.html?utm_term=.c2f49103cdf1
Mueller and Trump: Born to wealth, raised to lead. Then, sharply different choices.
By Marc Fisher and Sari Horwitz
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mueller-and-trump-born-to-wealth-raised-to-lead-then-sharply-different-choices/2018/02/22/ad50b7bc-0a99-11e8-8b0d-891602206fb7_story.html?utm_term=.c2f49103cdf1
Roadblock to Success
An excerpt from OZY -
IT'S HARDER TO BECOME A HAIR-BRAIDER THAN AN EMT. WHO'S TO BLAME?
By Nick Fouriezos
Last year, Jocelyn DoCouto stood before a handful of lawmakers at the Rhode Island capitol — and began to braid her daughter’s hair. Typically, the 26-year-old works with clients in the privacy of her home in Pawtucket, just north of Providence. But on that day, DoCouto was testifying before members of the House Corporations committee. Her goal? To prove the state shouldn’t require a cumbersome, and costly, license to practice natural hair-braiding.
Considering that braiders don’t always use chemicals, like other stylists or cosmetologists, it may seem like a no-brainer. Yet about half of all states require some license for natural hair-braiders. The cost can be prohibitive to small-time entrepreneurs — not just financially, but also timewise. According to the Institute for Justice, a libertarian-leaning law firm that has pushed to end braiding regulations in more than a dozen states:
IT'S HARDER TO BECOME A HAIR-BRAIDER THAN AN EMT. WHO'S TO BLAME?
By Nick Fouriezos
Last year, Jocelyn DoCouto stood before a handful of lawmakers at the Rhode Island capitol — and began to braid her daughter’s hair. Typically, the 26-year-old works with clients in the privacy of her home in Pawtucket, just north of Providence. But on that day, DoCouto was testifying before members of the House Corporations committee. Her goal? To prove the state shouldn’t require a cumbersome, and costly, license to practice natural hair-braiding.
Considering that braiders don’t always use chemicals, like other stylists or cosmetologists, it may seem like a no-brainer. Yet about half of all states require some license for natural hair-braiders. The cost can be prohibitive to small-time entrepreneurs — not just financially, but also timewise. According to the Institute for Justice, a libertarian-leaning law firm that has pushed to end braiding regulations in more than a dozen states:
THE AVERAGE COSMETOLOGIST MUST COMPLETE 386 DAYS OF TRAINING, COMPARED TO JUST 34 FOR THE AVERAGE EMT.
http://www.ozy.com/acumen/its-harder-to-become-a-hair-braider-than-an-emt-whos-to-blame/83708
She Didn't Sign Up For This
An excerpt from Medium -
A letter from a furious teacher
By Rebecca Berlin Field
Dear every elected official,
Nowhere in my contract does it state that if the need arises, I have to shield students from gunfire with my own body. If it did, I wouldn’t have signed it. I love my job. I love my students. I am also a mother with 2 amazing daughters. I am a wife of a wonderful man. I have a dog that I adore. I don’t want to die defending other people’s children; I want to teach kindness and responsibility…and Art History. That’s what I am supposed to do each day. Blocking bullets? I am not supposed to do that. I imagine that if someone was trying to kill my students, that I would try to save them with all my being. I probably would jump on top of a child to save her life. And yes, I might be one of those heroic teachers that the media writes tributes to after their death. But I am furious that I would have to make this sacrifice. I am incensed that my own children would lose their mother because I chose to be a teacher.
https://medium.com/@rebeccaberlinfield/a-letter-from-a-furious-teacher-81d0590e3b0
A letter from a furious teacher
By Rebecca Berlin Field
Dear every elected official,
Nowhere in my contract does it state that if the need arises, I have to shield students from gunfire with my own body. If it did, I wouldn’t have signed it. I love my job. I love my students. I am also a mother with 2 amazing daughters. I am a wife of a wonderful man. I have a dog that I adore. I don’t want to die defending other people’s children; I want to teach kindness and responsibility…and Art History. That’s what I am supposed to do each day. Blocking bullets? I am not supposed to do that. I imagine that if someone was trying to kill my students, that I would try to save them with all my being. I probably would jump on top of a child to save her life. And yes, I might be one of those heroic teachers that the media writes tributes to after their death. But I am furious that I would have to make this sacrifice. I am incensed that my own children would lose their mother because I chose to be a teacher.
https://medium.com/@rebeccaberlinfield/a-letter-from-a-furious-teacher-81d0590e3b0
Thursday, February 22, 2018
Wednesday, February 21, 2018
Defending the Kids
There’s only one group Stephen thinks can actually defend the kids. And it is… the kids. pic.twitter.com/p962tuW9sv— The Late Show (@colbertlateshow) February 21, 2018
Tuesday, February 20, 2018
The Road to Redemption?
Former Carolina Panthers player Rae Carruth breaks silence behind bars, hopes for relationship with son
By Sarah-Blake Morgan, Reporter
By Nick Ochsner, Reporter
http://www.wbtv.com/clip/14137538/rae-carruth-breaks-silence-in-letter-call-from-behind-bars
By Sarah-Blake Morgan, Reporter
By Nick Ochsner, Reporter
http://www.wbtv.com/clip/14137538/rae-carruth-breaks-silence-in-letter-call-from-behind-bars
Monday, February 19, 2018
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