Unlikely Volunteer Mourners

An excerpt from NPR -

'Today We Are His Family': Teen Volunteers Mourn Those Who Died Alone

On the drive to Fairview Cemetery in the Boston neighborhood of Hyde Park, six seniors from Roxbury Latin boys' school sit in silent reflection. Mike Pojman, the school's assistant headmaster and senior adviser, says the trip is a massive contrast to the rest of their school day, and to their lives as a whole right now.

Today the teens have volunteered to be pallbearers for a man who died alone in September, and for whom no next of kin was found. He's being buried in a grave with no tombstone, in a city cemetery.

"To reflect on the fact that there are people, like this gentleman, who probably knew hundreds or thousands of people through his life, and at the end of it there's nobody there — I think that gets to all of them," Pojman says. "Some have said, 'I just gotta make sure that never happens to me.' "

The students, dressed in jackets and ties, carry the plain wooden coffin, and take part in a short memorial. They read together, as a group:

"Dear Lord, thank you for opening our hearts and minds to this corporal work of mercy. We are here to bear witness to the life and passing of Nicholas Miller.

"He died alone with no family to comfort him.

"But today we are his family, we are here as his sons


"We are honored to stand together before him now, to commemorate his life, and to remember him in death, as we commend his soul to his eternal rest."

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/25/463567685/today-we-are-his-family-teen-volunteers-mourn-those-who-died-alone

The Afterlife of a Subway Car

Fascinating!

Be sure to go all the way to the end of the article.  What you see might surprise you.

http://www.viralforest.com/subway-cars-dumped-coral-reef/

Sound Familiar?

An excerpt from The Root - 

Why Successful Black Men in Brazil Won’t Marry Black Women

“Black is a slave. Black is not good,” said black Brazilian actress Polly Marinho, in explaining the thinking behind why interracial marriage is more common the higher up the socioeconomic ladder a black Brazilian goes.

~~~~~~~~~~

The 2010 census in Brazil showed that out of all the women over 50 who had never had a spouse, a majority of them were “pretas,” a term commonly used to refer to dark-skinned black women. It’s also obvious to all Brazilians that once black Brazilian men attain a certain social status, they choose white women as their life partners. Brazil’s most famous soccer player, Pelé, has been married three times, but never to a black woman. Nearly all of Brazil’s top male samba singers are married to white women. A study conducted of high-level black Brazilian businessmen in 2011 found that out of the 50 interviewed, 49 were married to white women (pdf).

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/03/why_successful_black_men_in_brazil_won_t_marry_black_women.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26

Introducing Open eBooks

I know first hand the power of reading and how books can transport you to another world and help to transform you into the person you are destined to be.

You know my story.

I was raised in the tiny town of China, Texas, where thank God, my Mom somehow found the money to buy books and magazines, so that I always had something to read.  She understood too well the limitations that home presented, but she found a way for me to see the world through literature.

I will forever be grateful to her for that.

So, this initiative to get books into the hands of children everywhere is monumental.

Life changing.

Please join me in spreading the word about this incredible opportunity of discovery and adventure for kids through books.

http://openebooks.net/index.html

Wintergatan - Marble Machine (Music Instrument Using 2000 Marbles)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/martin-molin-marble-machine-music_us_56d74bade4b0bf0dab3454b1

Fido vs Spot — Animal vs Robot

Dumb and Proud of It

An excerpt from Rolling Stone - (Bold is mine)

Revenge of the Simple: How George W. Bush Gave Rise to Trump

Bush was just an appetizer — Trump would be the main course

By Matt Taibbi March 1, 2016

People forget what an extraordinary thing it was that Bush was president. Dubya wasn't merely ignorant when compared with other politicians or other famous people. No, he would have stood out as dumb in just about any setting.

If you could somehow run simulations where Bush was repeatedly shipwrecked on a desert island with 20 other adults chosen at random, he would be the last person listened to by the group every single time. He knew absolutely nothing about anything. He wouldn't have been able to make fire, find water, build shelter or raise morale. It would have taken him days to get over the shock of no room service.

Bush went to the best schools but was totally ignorant of history, philosophy, science, geography, languages and the arts. Asked by a child in South Carolina in 1999 what his favorite book had been growing up, Bush replied, “I can’t remember any specific books.”

Bush showed no interest in learning and angrily rejected the idea that a president ought to be able to think his way through problems. As Mark Crispin Miller wrote in The Bush Dyslexicon, Bush's main rhetorical tool was the tautology — i.e., saying the same thing, only twice. 

Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/revenge-of-the-simple-how-george-w-bush-gave-rise-to-trump-20160301#ixzz41o85VGwj
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

Take This Test

Can You Guess Which of These Books Are Banned in Prison?

See if you have what it takes to be a prison censor.

By Bill Keller

For this week’s Quizzical, here’s a quiz from the Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering criminal justice reform. The original quiz is here and is republished below with permission.

For those doing time in prison, books and magazines can be a refuge, a civilizing influence and a source of skills that might help make them employable citizens when they get out. To those who run the prisons, the wrong books and magazines can seem a source of disorder and danger.

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/quizzical/2016/03/quiz_can_you_guess_which_of_these_books_are_banned_in_prison.html?sid=554654ea10defb39638b510d&wpsrc=newsletter_tis

Yes, But . . .

From The Root - 

11 Actresses Who Could Play Nina Simone Without Blackface

For colored girls whose dark skin ain’t enough ...

Colorism is real. It's the reason women like Jennifer Lopez and Sofía Vergara represent Hispanic culture in Hollywood. It's the reason darker skin is mostly celebrated by black people. There's a melanin comfort zone or a threshold in Hollywood that is rarely disturbed.

So when the powers that be decided that they would create a biopic for the troubled, yet extremely talented and dark-skinned songstress Nina Simone, we were excited. This meant that Hollywood was confronting that threshold. But not so fast—because they cast Zoe Saldana as the leading lady.

The trailer for Nina, the Simone biopic that shockingly stars a medium-complected Saldana as the late singer, has been released. The film was heavily criticized in production when several photos of a painted-on Saldana were leaked. And it seems that the film will still be getting the side eye from many of us because Saldana is fully painted in blackface, black body—I bet they even painted her toes.

~~~~~~~~~~

Check out the gallery at the link below.

http://www.theroot.com/blogs/the_grapevine/2016/03/_11_actresses_who_could_play_nina_simone_without_blackface.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26

Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Donald Trump (HBO)

This is twenty minutes of truth.

I wasn't going to share this, but in light of this train wreck that keeps plowing on, here's a "balanced" perspective.

Zootopia Official US Trailer #2

http://www.vox.com/2016/3/2/11147378/zootopia-review-disney

How Architecture Changes For the Deaf

Heading North?

Does It Tastes Better If It Cost More?

From NOW I KNOW - 

You Can Taste the Price

The hamburger pictured above is from a fancy restaurant. It costs $17. And it probably tastes good. No, it has to -- who would pay $17 for a burger and fries which didn't? No one, at least not twice.

That makes sense: in order to stay in business with an expensive menu, whatever your selling better make for a good dining experience. But at some point, our palates can't really discern between foods. When that happens, other signals take over. And at times, those signals can be so powerful that it overwhelms the rest of the experience. For example, would the same burger and fries above taste as good if it cost, say, $4? Maybe not.

In the fall of 2014, the Journal of Sensory Studies published a paper which investigated the effect on a meal's price on a diner's experience, and specifically, on how the diners rated their meals. The researchers teamed up with an of all-you-can-eat buffet Italian buffet which offered unlimited pizza to its customers, and invited a bunch of people -- 139, to be exact -- to partake in a chow down. Afterward, each of the 139 customers was asked to rate their experience. There was only one wrinkle: some of the customers paid $4 for the privilege while others paid $8. And no, the former group didn't know that they were getting a 50%-off deal. (Similarly, the latter didn't know that they were paying twice as much as the other group.)

So, who liked their meal more? The ones who paid double, per the Atlantic: "Those who paid $8 rated the pizza 11 percent tastier than those who paid $4. Moreover, the latter group suffered from greater diminishing returns—each additional slice of pizza tasted worse than that of the $8 group." Yes, even though they paid twice as more for the exact same product, the $8 group had a better time -- and thought they got a better deal, even though objectively, it wasn't. 

What's going on here? In a press release about the study, one of the authors of the paper, a Cornell professor named Dr. David Just, explained that, basically, a quality experience at a $4 all-you-can-eat pizzafest is simply too good to be true: "People set their expectation of taste partially based on the price -- and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. If I didn't pay much it can't be that good." 

So that $17 burger? It may taste good because of its high quality ingredients, a superior recipe, and better preparation than a $5 burger at a less fancy joint. Or maybe you've just convinced yourself that it does because hey, you paid $17 for it, and you had to have gotten your money's worth... right? 

http://nowiknow.com/you-can-taste-the-price/
 

Blaxicans

An excerpt from CNN - 

'Blaxicans' photos explore Angelenos straddling two worlds

"Duality: Blaxicans of L.A." is a photo exhibit that explores multiracial identity among the city's two largest minority groups. The show is a Humans of New York-esque portrait series of Angelenos of African and Latino backgrounds accompanied by captions detailing family history, experiences with colorism and self-identity. 

The exhibit grew from an Instagram account of the same name started by Walter Thompson-Hernandez, who has a Mexican mother and an African-American father. He launched Blaxicans of L.A. while researching the topic as a graduate student at Stanford University's Center for Latin American Studies in response to what he saw as a gap in multiracial studies.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/01/living/blaxicans-of-los-angeles-photo-exhibit-feat/index.html

More Folks We Need to Know About

Book synopsis from Amazon - 

We Could Not Fail: The First African Americans in the Space Program

by Richard Paul (Author), Steven Moss (Author)

4.3 out of 5 stars   7 customer reviews

The Space Age began just as the struggle for civil rights forced Americans to confront the long and bitter legacy of slavery, discrimination, and violence against African Americans. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson utilized the space program as an agent for social change, using federal equal employment opportunity laws to open workplaces at NASA and NASA contractors to African Americans while creating thousands of research and technology jobs in the Deep South to ameliorate poverty. We Could Not Fail tells the inspiring, largely unknown story of how shooting for the stars helped to overcome segregation on earth.

Richard Paul and Steven Moss profile ten pioneer African American space workers whose stories illustrate the role NASA and the space program played in promoting civil rights. They recount how these technicians, mathematicians, engineers, and an astronaut candidate surmounted barriers to move, in some cases literally, from the cotton fields to the launching pad. The authors vividly describe what it was like to be the sole African American in a NASA work group and how these brave and determined men also helped to transform Southern society by integrating colleges, patenting new inventions, holding elective office, and reviving and governing defunct towns. Adding new names to the roster of civil rights heroes and a new chapter to the story of space exploration, We Could Not Fail demonstrates how African Americans broke the color barrier by competing successfully at the highest level of American intellectual and technological achievement.

Not Sure Why You'd Want To But . . .

It's good to see this young man charting a path in NASCAR.

From The Root -

Darrell Wallace Jr.

MIKE EHRMANN/GETTY IMAGES

For many, NASCAR is not a sport “for us.” But that stigma is slowly changing, especially with Darrell Wallace Jr. in the game.

Wallace, affectionately known as “Bubba” to family and friends, made history in 2013 when he became the second African American in history to win a NASCAR national series (the first was Wendell Scott, in 1963). Finally, we had someone we could root for. As a product of NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity program, Wallace may be the second to make waves in the sport but, hopefully, won’t be the last.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2016/03/darrell_wallace_jr_continues_to_pave_new_roads_in_nascar.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26

Primary Voters Don't Really Look Like America

Black Geniuses, Part 2

These gifted folks with ingenious inventions were left out of my history books.

Just in case they were left out of yours too, check them out and please pass this on. Our kids need to see this.

http://blackinventor.com

Black Geniuses

From The Huffington Post - 

10 Things You Never Knew Were Invented By Black People

We have black pioneers to thank for these useful inventions.

Three-Signal Traffic Light

After he saw a carriage crash in a Cleveland intersection, Garrett Morgan created a version of the modern three-way traffic signal in 1923. He was also the first black man to own a car in his city.

Closed Circuit TV

Marie Van Brittan Brown created a device in 1966 that would be the precursor to home surveillance as we know it. She connected a motorized security camera to a monitor, where one could view images from the camera.

Mailbox

In 1891, Philip Downing invented the "street letter box," which became the predecessor to the metal letter-drop mailboxes we use today.

Potato Chip

George Crum is widely credited for coming up with the potato chip as we know it. While he was working as a chef at a resort, a disgruntled patron sent his french fry order back to the kitchen and complained that they were cut too thick. So Crum made a new batch, cut them as thin as possible and added a bit of salt. Thus, potato chips were born.

Laser Cataract Surgery

Howard University alum Patricia Bath is responsible for creating the laserphaco probe, a device used for laser cataract surgery. With the help of the instrument, she was able to recover the sight of several individuals who had been blind for over 30 years.

Touch-Tone Phone

Shirley Ann Jackson made several telecommunications breakthroughs while employed with Bell Laboratories. Her scientific discoveries led to the touch-tone phone, caller I.D. and call waiting. Jackson was also the first black woman to graduate with a Ph.D. from M.I.T.

Super Soaker

'90s kids have Lonnie Johnson to thank for their super soaked summer water gun battles. The former NASA engineer created the toy in his spare time and after several rebranding attempts, his Super Soaker, known for its high-powered water blasting function, hit $200 million in sales in 1991.

3-D Special Effects

Computer graphics designer Marc Hannah co-founded Silicon Graphics, Inc. His computer programs were instrumental in the creation of special effects for films like "Jurassic Park," "Aladdin," "Beauty and the Beast" and more.

The Blood Bank

African American physician Charles Drew developed a way to process and preserve blood plasm, which lasts much longer than actual blood. His discovery was crucial to creating blood banks and assisting in the war effort during World War II. He was working on a blood bank for U.S. military personnel when he grew unhappy with the military's request to segregate the blood and left his position.

Refrigerated Trucks

Before Frederick McKinley Jones invented his portable cooling unit, perishable items were transported in trucks filled with ice.  He revolutionized the industry by creating a cooling system that could be mounted on the roof of the vehicle and would keep food fresh during long journeys.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/black-inventors_us_56d0d33ee4b0bf0dab3236d5