Frederick Douglass in Pictures

From The Washington Post -

Who’s the most photographed American man of the 19th Century? HINT: It’s not Lincoln…

Born into slavery in 1818, Frederick Douglass would become one of the most well-known abolitionists, orators, and writers of his time. He understood and heralded not only the power of the written or spoken word, but also the power of the visual image — especially, his own likeness. He therefore sat for portraits wherever and whenever he could. As a result, Douglass was photographed more than any other American of his era:  160 distinct images (mostly portraits) have survived, more than Abraham Lincoln at 126. Many of these rare, historically significant images are published for the first time in “Picturing Frederick Douglass: An Illustrated Biography of the Nineteenth Century’s Most Photographed American,” by John Stauffer, Zoe Trodd and Celeste-Marie Bernier.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2016/03/15/douglass/?hpid=hp_no-name_photo-story-a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Made With Legos

From Wired - 

Exquisite Lego Versions of the World’s Most Famous Buildings

BECOMING A LEGO Certified Professional is a bit like becoming a master sommelier. To be inducted is to join the ranks of the nonpareil, to be a member of the 0.0001 percent with absolute devotion to mastery of one’s subject. But of the two, the cadre of Lego elite is the most exclusive. There are 147 people on the Court of Master Sommeliers, but there are just 14 Lego Certified Professionals in the world.

Adam Reed Tucker is one of them, and he has an exhibit at Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry. Brick by Brick features 13 of his creations, each a model of some of the world’s most famous architectural works. The Golden Gate Bridge, the Colosseum, and One World Trade Center are rendered in miniature. That’s something of a relative term, here: The “miniature” Lego version of the Golden Gate Bridge comprises 64,500 Lego bricks, took 260 hours to build, and is 60 feet long. That’s as big as some of the dinosaurs on display the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

http://www.wired.com/2016/03/exquisite-lego-versions-worlds-famous-buildings/?mbid=nl_31516#slide-1

Plain Hot Water

This article peaked my interest because it reminds me of my surprise when I first arrived in the UAE that folks don't drink cold water, even though it's hot as a raging furnace throughout much of the year.

Now with over four years under my belt living here, I too, shy away from cold water and reach for the room temperature bottle more often than not.

Another case of "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."

~~~~~~~~~~

Another great find from the New York Times What We're Reading -

China's go-to beverage? Hot water. Really.

China's annual legislative sessions are in full swing in Beijing. Thousands of delegates are convening daily at the Great Hall of the People to listen to speeches, discuss government work reports, and review economic plans for the next five years.

Essential to keeping things moving? Hot water. Brigades of young women (and a few men) are toting thermoses around the massive building all day, pouring drinks for delegates. Some use the steaming hot liquid to make tea in paper cups that read "Great Hall of the People," but many others simply drink it straight.

For many Westerners, the idea of drinking plain hot water is odd. But most Chinese (among others) think Americans' habit of chugging ice water is equally bizarre, and even unhealthy.

As the daughter of a traditional Chinese doctor, I am a devoted hot water drinker.

http://www.latimes.com/world/la-fg-china-hot-water-20160313-story.html

Changing Lives

Some Hard Truths

An excerpt from The Atlantic -

Nina Simone's Face

The upcoming biopic about the singer proves that the world still isn’t ready to tell her story.

Ta-Nehisi Coates

Simone was able to conjure glamour in spite of everything the world said about black women who looked like her. And for that she enjoyed a special place in the pantheon of resistance. That fact doesn’t just have to do with her lyrics or her musicianship, but also how she looked. Simone is something more than a female Bob Marley. It is not simply the voice: It is the world that made that voice, all the hurt and pain of denigration, forged into something otherworldly. That voice, inevitably, calls us to look at Nina Simone’s face, and for a brief moment, understand that the hate we felt, that the mockery we dispensed, was unnatural, was the fruit of conjurations and the shadow of plunder. We look at Nina Simone’s face and the lie is exposed and we are shamed. We look at Nina Simone’s face and a terrible truth comes into view—there was nothing wrong with her. But there is something deeply wrong with us.


We are being told that Nina Simone’s face bears no real import on the new eponymous movie about her life, starring Zoe Saldana. “The most important thing,” said Robert Johnson, whose studio is releasing Nina, “is that creativity or quality of performance should never be judged on the basis of color, or ethnicity, or physical likeness.” This is obviously false. Saldana could be the greatest thespian of her time, but no one would consider casting her as Marilyn Monroe. Indeed Nina’s producers have gone to great ends—tragicomic ends—to invoke Nina Simone’s face, darkening Saldana’s skin, adorning her with prosthetics. Neither the term blackface nor brownface is entirely appropriate here. We are not so much talking about deliberate mockery as something much more insidious.

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2016/03/nina-simone-face/472107/?utm_source=atl-daily-newsletter

Punished for Wearing "Black Brilliance"

An excerpt from The Root -

If You Don’t Love Our Kids, Stay Out of Our Schools

Black children deserve to be in schools with teachers who lift up their emotional well-being, not who display their own resentment.

Nine-year-old Kaedyn G. goes to a private school in New Jersey. Last week at school, Kaedyn wore a hooded sweatshirt with the words “black brilliance” plainly displayed on the front of her hoodie. She was not in violation of the school’s dress code and had not broken any of the school’s rules regarding appearance. Yet as she walked down the hall, a white teacher instructed Kaedyn to turn her hoodie inside out. The teacher told Kaedyn that her hoodie was “causing problems” and questioned the 9-year-old, asking, “How would you feel if I wore a shirt that said ‘white brilliance’ on it?”

What happened to Kaedyn illustrates a critical disconnect on both a cultural and emotional level between educators and many of the young people they are charged to instruct, support and protect. All children have individual needs, but black and Latino learners have a not-so-nuanced experience in educational environments that can often leave them feeling shut out, shunned or not as good as their white peers. Navigating this journey requires a sincere commitment from school administrators to invest in the creation and maintenance of culturally competent school environments.

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

A Graphic Look at Friendships

From Upworthy -

http://www.upworthy.com/10-awkward-friendships-you-probably-have-we-all-have-a-9?c=upw1

Freestylin' Frenzy

Let's all Pull Together: Team of µTug Microrobots Pulls a Car

Go Stanford!

Little Big Shots - This Kid Will Nunchuk Your Brain! (Sneak Peek)

A Safety Net

An excerpt from  the New York Times -

For Vulnerable Teenagers, a Web of Support

By DAVID BORNSTEIN

 

Recently, I learned about an organization that stopped me in my tracks and has forced me to re-evaluate my assumptions about what’s possible. It’s called Thread. It rallies volunteer community support around underperforming students in Baltimore public high schools and gets results that defy all expectations.

Thread identifies students in ninth grade who are facing major life challenges: poverty, homelessness, family breakdown or single parents who are overwhelmed by work, illness or other problems. The students are in the bottom 25 percent of their classes academically and are often chronically absent. Thread connects them with a team of up to five volunteers who commit to support them in any way necessary, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, for 10 years.

The assistance may include wake-up calls or rides to school, food and clothing, child care or legal help, connection to community service opportunities, help finding jobs, tutoring, SAT preparation or college admission guidance. The philosophy is to do whatever it takes to help the teenager develop into an adult who can pursue a fulfilling life. “A volunteer may literally go at 7 a.m. and try to pick the kid up for school, a second person may go at 10 a.m., another person at noon,” explains Sarah Hemminger, a Thread co-founder and the chief executive. Volunteers take students to restaurants and movies; they hang out and talk about life; they go camping; they sometimes provide homes to students.

~~~~~~~~~~

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/08/for-struggling-kids-unconditional-support/?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=0

~~~~~~~~~~

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/how-a-tapestry-of-care-helps-teens-succeed/?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region&region=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region

A Race Against Time: Cuba's Fast and Furious

Has a Black President Changed America?

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/13/us/politics/proud-of-obamas-presidency-blacks-are-sad-to-see-him-go.html?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Vox%20Sentences%203/14/16%20Trump&utm_term=Vox%20Newsletter%20All&_r=0

How?

Excerpts from Slate - 

How Trump Happened

It’s not just anger over jobs and immigration. White voters hope Trump will restore the racial hierarchy upended by Barack Obama.

~~~~~~~~~~

All of which is to say that we’ve been missing the most important catalyst in Trump’s rise. What caused this fire to burn out of control? The answer, I think, is Barack Obama.

~~~~~~~~~~

For millions of white Americans who weren’t attuned to growing diversity and cosmopolitanism, however, Obama was a shock, a figure who appeared out of nowhere to dominate the country’s political life. And with talk of an “emerging Democratic majority,” he presaged a time when their votes—which had elected George W. Bush, George H.W. Bush, and Ronald Reagan—would no longer matter. More than simply “change,” Obama’s election felt like an inversion. When coupled with the broad decline in incomes and living standards caused by the Great Recession, it seemed to signal the end of a hierarchy that had always placed white Americans at the top, delivering status even when it couldn’t give material benefits.

~~~~~~~~~~

You can draw a direct line to the rise of Trump from the racial hysteria of talk radio.

~~~~~~~~~~

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/cover_story/2016/03/how_donald_trump_happened_racism_against_barack_obama.html

Highest Paid Jobs

From Stumbelupon - 

Physicians have topped this year’s list of the 25 highest-paying jobs in America.

In the latest report by jobs marketplace Glassdoor released on Wednesday, physicians are expected to bring home a median base salary of $180,000, which is highest among all occupations. Lawyers and research and development managers fill out the top three.

One common thread that unites the top-paying jobs is the high level of skill required, and the protection of these jobs from any threat of automation. “This report reinforces that high pay continues to be tied to in-demand skills, higher education and working in jobs that are protected from competition or automation,” said Dr. Andrew Chamberlain, Glassdoor chief economist, in a statement.

The tech and healthcare sector are especially well-represented in the list, with eight of the top ten-paying jobs going to either of those two sectors. “The urgency of many healthcare scenarios requires snap-decisions or creative solutions to existing medical conditions,” Chamberlain said, as reported by 24/7 Wall St. Both sectors also feature heavily in our latest 100 Best Companies to Work For rankings.

It also pays to be a manager -- 15 of the top 25-paying jobs are managerial in nature. “The manager skill set that requires maintaining a working team in a fast-paced, highly-educated industry like tech, finance or healthcare is also something that employers find difficult to automate, and will invest in with higher employee salaries,” Chamberlain told 24/7 Wall St.

The thought that robots could become our biggest competition for jobs is also reflected in Glassdoor’s list of lowest-paying jobs, which were filled by servers, receptionists and leasing consultants respectively. This follows a recent report by the World Economic Forum that estimated a net employment loss of 5.1 million jobs by 2020 due to technological change.

http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2ky0G2/:jPiIeHcT:qQxOM8ok/www.entrepreneur.com/article/272221

Write On!

From The Root - 

9-Year-Old Brooklyn Girl Youngest to Ever Publish Chapter Book

The Day Mohan Found His Confidence was inspired by Anaya Lee Willabus’ trip to Guyana two years ago.

BY: ANGELA BRONNER HELM

Posted: March 13 2016 11:37 AM

 

Anaya Lee Willabus, a 9-year-old girl from Brooklyn, N.Y., became the youngest person to publish a chapter book in U.S. history.

Anaya, who penned The Day Mohan Found His Confidence, described on Amazon as realistic fiction, is “about a boy’s struggle to balance life at home and school, and how he realizes he can do anything with the help of his family and friends,” Ayana said in an interview with WPIX.

“I like to read all genres, of books,” Anaya told the New York Daily News. “I love both reading and writing. They both have something that I love in them.”

http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2016/03/_9_year_old_brooklyn_girl_youngest_to_ever_publish_chapter_book.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26

How Tootsie Rolls Saved the Troops

Remember These?

Learning Something New

The QR Code has been around for a while now, but I just learned how to personalize it. 

Thanks to Google and YouTube, I'm good to go. 

You can link a video, a business card, an email address, an event, an invitation, a song or album, etc.  As a teacher, you can include all of your contact info for your parents to quickly scan and go.  The possibilities for its application are endless.

To unlock this code, you'll need to get a QR Code Reader, to hear what I've sent.  I've linked one below for Apple.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtwCTo7T9zg

http://www.qrstuff.com

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/qr-code-reader-and-scanner/id388175979?mt=8

Enjoy!

Food Chain Paper Cups

Here's a clever way to teach kids about the food chain.

http://eisforexplore.blogspot.com/2012/10/food-chain-stacking-cups.html