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Saturday, August 31, 2024
Teacher Has Found Clever Way of Teaching Art
Art Instructor Draws Clever Images With His Finger on the Windows of Dirty Cars
By Lori Dorn
Kundan Chowdhury of the Chandan Art Academy in Bhadreswar, Hooly in West Bengal, India, draws clever and teachable art with his finger on the windows of dirty cars. He starts with very simple shapes and then shows how the shapes connect to make the whole as a sum of its parts.
British Writer Describes Trump
From the London Daily -
Copied in its entirety from Nate White's article as found in the London Daily - It is too good to cherry-pick - Faye
~~~~~
British Writer Pens The Best Description Of Trump I’ve Read
Nate White
“Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England wrote the following response:
A few things spring to mind. Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem. For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed. So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever. I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman. But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers. And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface. Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront. Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul. And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist. Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that. He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat. He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully. That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead. There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.
So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss. After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum. God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid. He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.
And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish: ‘My God… what… have… I… created?' If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.
#Donald Trump
https://londondaily.com/british-writer-pens-the-best-description-of-trump-i-ve-read?sfnsn=mo
Where Folks Cuss a Lot
An excerpt from Readers' Digest -
This State’s Residents Curse the Most (Hint: It’s Not New York!)
By Kiersten Hickman
Well, dang. This state sure loves a good cussing.
In some cases, swearing makes you feel better. No, really! There’s science behind it. Research shows that profanity can help keep your emotions in check and positively correlates with honesty. It can even reduce your perception of pain. Pardon our French, but cursing comes in handy, gosh darn it!
So if you can’t help but swear, well, that’s not such a bad thing. Still, swearing isn’t for everyone. In fact, a new survey shows that residents of some states use more profanity than others.
To find out which U.S. state is the “sweariest” of them all, WordTips analyzed 1.7 million English-language geotagged posts on the social platform X (formally Twitter) and used a database of 1,600 profanities to uncover the most and least foul-mouthed places. Read on to find out which states’ residents curse the most and which are most likely to refrain from using profanity.
What other states round out the top five?
Along with Maryland, here are the states that tend to use the most curse words online (plus their average number of curse-word-laden posts):
Maryland (66.3 posts on average)
Louisiana (61.7 posts on average)
Georgia (57.4 posts on average)
Virginia (47.6 posts on average)
Ohio (47.3 posts on average)
After Ohio, many other states averaged in the 45-post range, including Mississippi (45.9), Pennsylvania (45.7), New Jersey (45.5), Nevada (45.5), Michigan (45.3) and Illinois (45).
Most-Spoken Languages Besides English And Spanish
An excerpt from Mental Floss -
The Most-Spoken Language Besides English and Spanish in Every State, Mapped
The analysis from WordFinderX took a deep dive into the languages of the United States—and revealed some fascinating trends along the way.
By Paul Anthony Jones
The United States is, famously, a linguistic melting pot, with estimates ranging from 350 to as many as 430 different languages being used across the country.
Out of all those, English understandably comes out on top nationwide. Almost four-fifths of Americans reported in the last census that they only speak English at home, making English America’s de facto official language (though, oddly, no de jure official language has ever been legally or formally recognized in the United States). After that, Spanish is America’s second most widely-spoken language, used in 62 percent of non-English speaking households, and giving America the world’s second-largest Spanish-speaking population, after Mexico.
But what would happen if we were to take English and Spanish off the table, and look instead at how the other 400 or so languages of the United States are used? A fascinating new analysis has done precisely that.
Language blog WordFinderX took household population data from the last census to discover the most spoken languages—outside of English and Spanish—across the United States. Breaking down the Census Bureau data by regions, states, major cities, and even individual districts and neighborhoods showed just how linguistically diverse American households truly are, and revealed some surprising geographic and linguistic trends in the process.
Let's Give Our Girls a Heads Up
An excerpt from YourTango -
12 Lessons Most Women Learn Too Late In Life
We all want to better ourselves, but learning how isn't always easy.
By Marielisa Reyes
Here are 12 lessons most women learn too late in life
1. You're responsible for how people treat you
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We've all been disrespected or undermined, and in the moment we might feel like nobody respects us or people don't know how to treat us right. But the reality of the situation is this: you are responsible for how people treat you.
You set the limits and you set the boundaries. And if someone treats you with disrespect, you step away from them. Because if you don't, this will only lead to more disrespect later down the road.
In fact, one study found that those who are disrespected have cynical views about human nature. This, in turn, leads to treating yourself and others with disrespect, and losing the respect of people around you.
2. Attitude is everything
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Whether we had a bad morning or a raging headache, most of us struggle to keep a positive mindset. Even more, most of us learn far too late what a change in mindset can accomplish.
For instance, multiple studies have shown that a change in mindset leads to greater motivation and academic success among students. According to an additional study, "Positive thinking and interventions can increase older adults' resilience, and thereby improve their quality of life. High quality of life can lead to greater life satisfaction."
So, even when it's hard, find things to be grateful for each and every day. Focus on the positives throughout your day and keep yourself in high spirits — your overall health depends on it.
4. Actions speak louder than words
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| New Africa | Shutterstock |
According to licensed counselor Lee Wichman, "The unconscious is incredibly powerful and one's behaviors cannot help but betray one's true sentiments." This means that if a friend or partner says, "I care about you," but their actions don't align, they likely don't care or value you.
It's a tough pill to swallow for most, but it's important to truly understand the meaning of that phrase. Because if we don't, we might find ourselves in relationships that drain us instead of inspire us.
https://www.yourtango.com/self/lessons-most-women-learn-too-late-life
Thursday, August 29, 2024
Wednesday, August 28, 2024
Tuesday, August 27, 2024
Why "Windy City?"
An excerpt from Readers' Digest -
The Surprising Reason Why Chicago Is Called the "Windy City"
It's got nothing to do with the weather.
By Meghan Jones
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| Grey Tree Studios/Shutterstock |
When you hear someone mention the “Windy City,” you immediately know they’re talking about Chicago, as surely as the “Big Apple” means New York and “Sin City” refers to Las Vegas. Knowing this, you might make sure to pack your best windbreaker for your first trip to Illinois’ biggest city. But it turns out that, while Chicago is as prone to a blustery day as any other metropolis, its wind isn’t particularly exceptional. How did the city get this nickname?
| Well, when the nickname came to be, the “Windy City” meaning wasn’t describing the weather but the people. (Don’t worry, not that kind of wind.) Nineteenth-century journalists first gave Chicago this designation when criticizing the city’s elite as “full of hot air.” In the Chicago Daily Tribune, a reporter wrote in 1858 that “[a] hundred militia officers, from corporal to commander … air their vanity … in this windy city.” Another reporter, a proud citizen of Milwaukee, boasted that his own city was the better of the two: “We are proud of Milwaukee because she is not overrun with a lazy police force as is Chicago—because her morals are better … than Chicago, the windy city of the West.” They meant that the city was full of “windbags,” people with inflated egos who cared about nothing but profit. (Learn these 12 signs someone has a massive ego.) https://www.rd.com/article/chicago-windy-city/ |
Monday, August 26, 2024
Saturday, August 24, 2024
Wednesday, August 21, 2024
Monday, August 19, 2024
21 Clever Memory Tools
An excerpt from Buzzfeed -
21 Clever Mnemonic Devices That Will Help You Remember Almost Everything
Please Excuse My Dear Aunt Sally.
By Sarah Aspler, BuzzFeed Staff, Canada
1. The order of planets from the sun:
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| BuzzFeed / Getty |
4. The order of mathematical operations:
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| BuzzFeed / Getty |
5. When to use "affect" or "effect":
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| BuzzFeed / Getty |
7. How to remember who is on which bill:
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| Buzzfeed / Getty |
14. How to set the table:
A Freshman at Georgia Tech at 13
An excerpt from CBS Evening News -
He was reading at 1 and doing fractions by 2. At 13 years old, he's majoring in aerospace engineering at Georgia Tech.
By Mark Strassmann
The 360 Degree Revolving, Titling House
An excerpt from designboom -
alex schweder + ward shelley's 'ReActor' house rotates atop a concrete column
the house has been conceived as a piece of performance architecture
video courtesy of art OMI / © richard barnes
‘ReActor’ is the latest work in an experimental, performative series of ‘social relationship architecture’ designed and built by artists alex schweder and ward shelley. this summer, for a total of five days, the architect-artist duo lived in the rotating house, located in upstate new york. the habitable sculpture measures 44-foot by 8-foot (13.4 x 2.4m) and rotates a complete 360-degrees atop a 15-foot (4.5m) concrete column.
https://www.designboom.com/architecture/reactor-house-alex-schweder-ward-shelley-omi-international-arts-center-new-york-08-21-2016/
The Valley of the Dolls
An excerpt from AllThatsInteresting -
Haunting Photos Of Nagoro, The Japanese Village Where The Dead Are Replaced With Life-Size Dolls
Artist Tsukimi Ayano has made at least 400 dolls to repopulate the dwindling village of Nagoro
By Erin Kelly | Edited By Jaclyn Anglis
The streets in the tiny village of Nagoro, Japan are far from bustling. In fact, things are remarkably still. Then, through the corner of your eye, you see a figure — then a group of figures huddled together.
Then you realize they're everywhere you look.
But these aren't people. They're actually life-size dolls — and they make up most of Nagoro's population. The dolls outnumber humans by a ratio of more than ten to one.
The handmade dolls are one woman's attempt to fill the loneliness that exists in Nagoro. This small village becomes increasingly void of people as time goes on. The elderly die and the young people leave for city jobs. Not even a local grocery store remains open.
The village, also called Kakashi No Sato, or Scarecrow Village, is not unlike other rural areas in Japan facing this depopulation trend. Since 2010, the nation has lost about 1.4 million of its people — and it's having a major impact on both the economy and society.
However, here in Nagoro, it's like no one has left; each doll seems to contain the soul of a departed villager. A local official told one tourist that "the figures have even been added to the census records of the village, with detail descriptions of each figure."
In this way, it really does seem like the dolls have a larger-than-life presence in the village of Nagoro.
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| Several dolls sit lined on a bench. KAZUHIRO NOGI/AFP via Getty Images |
BACK-TO-SCHOOL
It’s BACK TO SCHOOL time in America. And if we don’t trust Trump with our kids, we can’t trust him with our country.
— Eric Swalwell (@ericswalwell) August 14, 2024
🎬WATCH my new ad pic.twitter.com/2qGmeWAPm7
Time Magazine's 2024 Kid of the Year
An excerpt from Time -
Heman Bekele Is TIME’s 2024 Kid of the Year
Dreaming of a cure
By Jeffrey Kluger
Heman Bekele whipped up the most dangerous of what he called his “potions” when he was just over 7 years old. He’d been conducting his own science experiments for about three years by that point, mixing up whatever he could get his hands on at home and waiting to see if the resulting goo would turn into anything.
“They were just dish soap, laundry detergent, and common household chemicals,” he says today of the ingredients he’d use. “I would hide them under my bed and see what would happen if I left them overnight. There was a lot of mixing together completely at random.”
But soon, things got less random. For Christmas before his 7th birthday, Heman was given a chemistry set that came with a sample of sodium hydroxide. By then, he had been looking up chemical reactions online and learned that aluminum and sodium hydroxide can together produce prodigious amounts of heat. That got him thinking that perhaps he could do the world some good. “I thought that this could be a solution to energy, to making an unlimited supply,” he says. “But I almost started a fire.”
After that, his parents kept a closer eye on him. As it turned out, having adults watching what he does is something that Heman, now 15, would have to get used to. These days, a whole lot of people are paying him a whole lot of attention. Last October, the 3M company and Discovery Education selected Heman, a rising 10th-grader at Woodson High School in Fairfax County, Virginia, as the winner of its Young Scientist Challenge. His prize: $25,000. His accomplishment: inventing a soap that could one day treat and even prevent multiple forms of skin cancer. It may take years before such a product comes to market, but this summer Heman is already spending part of every weekday working in a lab at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, hoping to bring his dream to fruition. When school is in session, he’ll be there less often, but will continue to plug away. “I’m really passionate about skin-cancer research,” he says, “whether it’s my own research or what’s happening in the field. It’s absolutely incredible to think that one day my bar of soap will be able to make a direct impact on somebody else’s life. That’s the reason I started this all in the first place.”
It’s that ambition—to say nothing of that selflessness—that has earned Heman recognition as TIME’s Kid of the Year for 2024.
Facts About the US Black Population
An excerpt from Face2Face Africa -
8 facts about the U.S. Black population you should know
BY Kofi Oppong Kyekyeku
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| Facts about Black people in U.S. - Original photo credits: Pew Research Center and ABC News |
Population
The U.S. Black population in 2022 can be categorized into four distinct groups:
- The total U.S. Black population
- Single-race, non-Hispanic Black people
- Multiracial, non-Hispanic Black people
- Black Hispanic people
Geography
Geographically, the majority of Black Americans reside in the South, with more than half (56%) living there in 2022. Meanwhile, 17% live in the Midwest and Northeast, and 10% reside in the West. Texas is home to the largest Black population among the states, with approximately 4.2 million Black residents. Florida follows with 3.9 million, and Georgia ranks third with 3.7 million.
The New York City metropolitan area, which includes parts of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, is the preferred metropolitan area for Black Americans, with 3.6 million residents. The Atlanta metro area is the second most popular, with 2.2 million Black residents, followed by Chicago, which is home to 1.7 million Black residents.
Daddies and Daughters
An excerpt from The Daily Beast -
Why Every Father Needs to Watch the Netflix Film ‘Daughters’
The new documentary is about a father-daughter dance at a prison. As one dad of two girls writes, it’s a must-see film that brings all of parenthood into perspective.
By Andrew Crump
Reams of data exist that highlight the range of effects a father’s absence can have on his daughters. They’re likely to struggle with trust issues. Their confidence might flag. They may wrestle with feelings of abandonment, low self-esteem, and rejection, or develop aggressive or otherwise antisocial behaviors, or risk-taking behaviors; they may become depressed, detached, or anxious. Fathers shape their daughters’ relational lives—the foundation and maintenance of meaningful relationships, with family, with friends, with romantic partners, with communities—and spur their creativity.
Angela Patton and Natalie Rae’s Daughters, the Festival Favorite and Audience Choice: U.S. Documentary Competition winner at this year’s Sundance Film Festival—now available to watch on Netflix—side steps statistical analysis and instead strives for emotional impact.
I have two daughters myself. For their privacy’s sake, I’ll refer to them by their nicknames: Brontosaurus, my eldest, and Elephant, my youngest. I love them more than anything I’ve loved in my forty years on this Earth.
On behalf of that, I intentionally avoided Daughters in my remote coverage of Sundance, knowing full well a movie with that title, focused on the subject of barriers forced between young girls and their incarcerated dads, would likely break me in two; the idea of being separated from my girls is the stuff of my nightmares, as unlikely as it is that we’ll ever be separated. (Sending them off to summer camp and, soon, back to school is hard enough.) I am not a statistic. Brownie and Elephant aren’t, either. All the same, my reality didn’t blunt Daughters’ effect on me.
This is not a film about the numbers: How many girls grow up fatherless in the U.S.; how many of those girls end up in bad partnerships; how many of them become teen mothers; how many are burdened by mental health problems; how many attempt suicide. Frankly, that wouldn’t be a film at all, had Patton and Rae chosen these details as their subject. It would be an academic paper instead, dry and sans any human sensation.
Sensation is what Daughters is all about, of course, a front row seat to an overwhelming reconnection between a cadre of girls and their fathers, each behind bars for reasons Patton and Rae refuse to detail. (Those reasons are neither our business nor relevant to the film’s thesis.). At the same time, it’s an elegant condemnation of America’s love affair with crime and punishment, exhibited through varied atrocities carried out within its prison system.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/obsessed/netflixs-daughters-the-movie-every-father-needs-to-watch
Sunday, August 11, 2024
August 13 is Left Handers Day!
Celebrate the lefties in your world!
Did you guess? I'm a lefty, too!
Who Decides Who's Black Enough?
An excerpt from the LA Times -
Opinion: Denigrating Drake, and Kamala Harris, as ‘Not Like Us’
By Michael Eric Dyson
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Arguments that question the racial identity of the hip-hop artist and the presidential candidate deny the complexity of Blackness. (Los Angeles Times photo illustration; photos by Carmen Mandato / Getty Images, Matt Rourke/ Associated Press) |
On the same day that former President Trump claimed before a national gathering of Black journalists that Vice President Kamala Harris “was Indian all the way, and then all of a sudden she made a turn, and she became a Black person,” his running mate Sen. JD Vance accused Harris of being a “phony” who “grew up in Canada” (she attended high school in Montreal) and used “a fake Southern accent” at a rally.
Both men’s accusations sound eerily like those leveled against the rapper Drake by his fellow hip-hop titan Kendrick Lamar (and many others) in a rap beef whose effects linger. Drake has been accused of being a “colonizer” whose Canadian identity and eager embrace of various aspects and accents of a wide range of Black culture make him racially suspect.
Such arguments, whether made by racially troubled white men or Black icons, deny the complexity and diversity of Blackness.
~~~~~
Ironically, that cosmopolitan vision of Blackness is at the heart of the Lamar and Drake dustup. Their kerfuffle — playing out fiercely this spring in a series of releases — is a battle over cultural cachet, racial authenticity and group pride. And it exposes a provincialism that undercuts the global currents of hip-hop.
In his hit “Not Like Us,” Lamar accuses Drake of being a “colonizer” because Drake supposedly “run[s]” to Atlanta to partner with some of the paragons of its trap music to bolster his Blackness. Lamar’s argument echoes long-standing criticisms that Drake’s biracial Canadian roots render him suspect as a bona fide Black artist. Drake’s artistic experimentation with different accents and musical genres has prompted many to claim, as Vance did with Harris, that Drake is a phony.
Lamar’s beef with Drake is rooted in a parochial, claustrophobic vision of Blackness.
Drake grew up in Toronto the son of a Jewish Canadian mother; he spent summers in Memphis, Tenn., with his Black American musician father. His artistic tastes were deeply influenced by a wide swath of the Black diaspora — Afro-Caribbeans, Londoners, American Southerners, especially Memphians, and Torontonians. The multicultural makeup of Toronto, with its sizable Italian, Portuguese, Jamaican and Filipino immigrant populations, also fed his musical appetite.
Comparing Crowd Size
Meanwhile at @realdonaldtrump’s rally... https://t.co/uZ73w1de7D pic.twitter.com/lhCZvG4KxF
— Kamala HQ (@KamalaHQ) August 10, 2024
Saturday, August 10, 2024
An Obamacare Convert
My apologies. I couldn't figure out how to post this other than just linking the page. I promise. It's worth the watch. It is one minute long.
Friday, August 9, 2024
THE Arizona Turnout for VP Harris & Gov Walz
I've been to dozens of campaign rallies this cycle: Trump, Biden, Haley, DeSantis, etc. This Harris rally in Glendale, AZ, is — by far — the biggest crowd (and biggest venue) I've seen. pic.twitter.com/o8r0tz9nb3
— Samuel Benson (@sambbenson) August 9, 2024
Thursday, August 8, 2024
Monday, August 5, 2024
Do you Know Your Salts?
An excerpt from ChowHound -
Table Salt Vs Sea Salt Vs Kosher Salt: When To Use Each Type In Your Kitchen
BY MATTHEW LEE
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Westend61/Getty Images |
It doesn't matter if it's the kitchen of an amateur home cook who barely uses the space or that of a professional chef, you'll be hard-pressed to find one that doesn't have a jar of salt somewhere. And that jar will most likely contain table salt, also known as "common salt." This fine-grained variety is super versatile and can be used for both seasoning and cooking just fine. But if you want to get the most out of your cooking, you'll need to expand your salt collection, stat. There are dozens of notable salt varieties; but to start, try adding sea salt and kosher salt to your pantry.
Table salt is great for most applications
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| Ws Studio / Getty Images The salt you'll find sitting in those fancy glass shakers at restaurants and cafés is most likely table salt. Odds are good that the one you have in your kitchen right now is this type, too. Table salt is produced by blasting high-pressure water at underground salt deposits to reduce them to brine. It's taken up to the surface by a pipe and into a factory where it's dried. After going through several more processing steps, the results are tiny, dense salt crystals that — under a microscope — look like perfect little cubes. |
Sea salt for extra flavor
Sea salt, as its name suggests, comes straight from the ocean. Large puddles of seawater are left to bake in the sun, and once all the water has evaporated, flakes of salt appear at the bottom of these pools, ready for harvesting. Unlike table salt, sea salt doesn't go through a lot of processing steps, so it retains trace minerals like magnesium and calcium.
Kosher salt for everything
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| AlexPro9500 / Getty Images |
Even though table salt is the most common, if you can only choose one type of salt to stock your pantry with, pick kosher salt. Think of it like a salty Swiss Army knife. Whatever task you have in mind — from cooking and seasoning a dish, to canning, pickling, and curing — kosher salt can handle it.
I'm a Republican, not a fool."
An excerpt from WeGotThisCovered -
‘I’m a Republican but not a fool’: If you think all GOPs are voting for Donald Trump, you might want to take a look at this
Who's gonna tell him?
By Nahila Bonfiglio
Meanwhile in Philly pic.twitter.com/4AxBd9sxzj
— Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) August 3, 2024
Every presidential election is a vital moment in history, but it’s hard to argue the truly unprecedented urgency of the 2024 election.
This November, the American public will make the choice between a heavily convicted felon who has no remorse, who plans to establish a dictatorship, and who has an avenue in place to contest a free election process, and a capable leader who has experience, poise, and decades of experience under her belt. The choice will come down to the security of Kamala Harris or the unhinged bluster of Donald Trump, and it’s truly unclear which option has a better shot at the White House.
The masses are praying for a Harris victory, but it’s unsettling to see how much support Trump still boasts. Even beyond his support of the Heritage Foundation and Project 2025, his promises that Christians will only need to vote “this once” and then never again; even beyond his insistence that Harris happened to “turn Black” in order to win the election, he still has unwavering support from a huge number of people.
But not everyone on the right side of the political aisle is so enamored with the former Cheeto-in-Chief. Despite the overwhelming support he continues to boast from his most dedicated followers, Trump is hemorrhaging support from pretty much anyone with a brain and right-leaning tendencies. These poor souls, left with no Republican options that aren’t outright dangerous for the nation, have decided to step across the political aisle, and they’ve masterminded the perfect sign for their unique position.
That sign is starting to decorate lawns now that the election is mere months out. Straightforward and truly stunning, the simple piece of cardboard states that its owner is “a Republican but not a fool,” before proclaiming its support for “Harris for President.”
Mr. Harris
An excerpt from WeGotThisCovered -
Kamala Harris’ father Donald J. Harris’ ethnicity, confirmed
What is Kamala Harris' father's cultural background?
By Kevin Stewart
This is Kamala Harris, father Donald Harris, distinguished emeritus, professor of economics from Stanford University. Stanford called him their first Black tenured economics, professor.
— Mr. Reynolds (@MrReynolds52) August 2, 2024
pic.twitter.com/l1K2AztmAe
Donald J. Harris is an award-winning economist and professor emeritus at Stanford University and the father of Democratic Party Presidential candidate Kamala Harris, and her lawyer sister, Maya Harris.
In 1960, he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of London, and in 1966, he achieved a PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.
He is the author of several books and articles, including the 1978 monograph Capital Accumulation and Income Distribution and the 1993 article “Economic Growth and Equity: Complements or Opposites?” in The Review of Black Political Economy.
https://wegotthiscovered.com/politics/donald-j-harris-ethnicity-confirmed/
Afro-Latina Stanford Grad Wins Miss USA
An excerpt from CNN -
New Miss USA crowned, capping tumultuous year of pageant controversy
By Oscar Holland, CNN
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| Michigan's Alma Cooper wins Miss USA 2024 at the 73rd annual Miss USA pageant at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles, California. Gilbert Flores/Variety/Getty Images |
Michigan’s Alma Cooper, a US Army officer, was named Miss USA on Sunday, becoming the third person to hold the title this year following the shock resignation of 2023’s winner.
The 22-year-old, who has a Master’s in data science from Stanford University, beat 50 other contestants in a pageant that included swimwear and evening gown competitions. Kentucky’s Connor Perry and Oklahoma’s Danika Christopherson were named first and second runners up, respectively.
“As the daughter of a migrant worker, a proud Afro Latina woman and an officer of the United States Army, I am living the American dream,” she had told judges during a Q&A session at Sunday’s finale. “If there’s anything that my life and my mother have taught me, it’s that your circumstances never define your destiny: You can make success accessible through demanding excellence.”
https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/04/style/miss-usa-winner-alma-cooper-michigan/index.html
Sunday, August 4, 2024
The History of Theme From Shaft
An excerpt from American Songwriter -
The Groundbreaking Story Behind the “Theme From Shaft” by Isaac Hayes
By Hal Horowitz
“Theme From Shaft”
Written by Isaac Hayes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTU_9T5ufzY&t=12s
Right on. Can ya dig it? Shut your mouth…
Sound like the early ‘70s? You’re daaaamn right! Those by-now iconic words are some of the few, mostly spoken, lyrics to Isaac Hayes’ 1971 No. 1-charting title track to the motion picture considered one of the first and best examples of the “Blaxploitation” genre.
Specifically named “Theme From Shaft,” the song was as groundbreaking as the film, winning an Oscar for Best Original Song, making Hayes the first Black composer to triumph in that category. It also grabbed two Grammys, for Best Instrumental Arrangement and Best Original Score.
Why Isaac Hayes?
Hayes was a hot property in the early ‘70s, especially in the Black community. He had recorded four solo albums since 1967. Hot Buttered Soul (1969) was the most successful; it topped the R&B chart and rose to No. 8 on the Billboard 200, showing that Hayes’ made-for-the-bedroom slow-jams could cross over to a more mainstream audience.
Parks showed Hayes footage of the gritty opening scene of his film, where private detective John Shaft emerges from a Manhattan subway and weaves in and out of traffic like he owns New York City. Parks told Hayes he wanted “a driving, savage beat, so we’re right with him all the time.”
Hayes responded with the propulsive 16th-note hi-hat opening that leads into arguably the most definitive and demonstrative use of distorted wah-wah guitar in soul music. But he paused writing the rest of the theme until he’d composed the remainder of the film’s score. “Theme From Shaft” was completed after Hayes had gained a better appreciation for who this guy confidently crisscrossing the crowded city streets really was.
Then What?
https://americansongwriter.com/the-groundbreaking-story-behind-the-theme-from-shaft-by-isaac-hayes/
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