Thursday, December 8, 2016
Wednesday, December 7, 2016
From Prison to School
An excerpt from the New Yorker -
BUILDING A PRISON-TO-SCHOOL PIPELINE
Formerly incarcerated undergrads started a group on campus to offer mentoring, support, and advocacy to other onetime inmates.
By Larissa MacFarquhar
The first day of his first semester at the University of California, Berkeley, Danny Murillo walked into the Cesar Chavez building and saw a white man with tattoos on his arms. Something about the man felt familiar. He could tell from the tattoos that the man was, like him, from Los Angeles, and he was around his own age, mid-thirties, but it was something else that he recognized. He went up to the man and said, “Damn, I feel old around all these youngsters.” The man said, “Yeah, me, too.” Murillo said, “I haven’t been in school for a long time.” The man said, “Yeah, me, too.” Murillo said, “I was on vacation.” The man said, “Yeah, me, too.” Murillo said, “I was in the Pelican Bay shu.” The man said, “Yeah, me, too.”
The Pelican Bay shu—Security Housing Unit—is where California sends some of its most recalcitrant inmates. Both Murillo and the white man, Steven Czifra, had spent much of their lives in prison, including many years in solitary confinement, but by the time they met they were pretty sure they were never going back. Neither had finished high school—Czifra got sent to juvenile hall at twelve—but now they were undergraduates at U.C. Berkeley. They knew that although most people who had lived lives like theirs were still in prison, many were capable—given the right advice, incentives, and money—of making it to college and leaving prison forever. They started talking, and during the next few months they formed a plan to get those people out.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/12/the-ex-con-scholars-of-berkeley
BUILDING A PRISON-TO-SCHOOL PIPELINE
Formerly incarcerated undergrads started a group on campus to offer mentoring, support, and advocacy to other onetime inmates.
By Larissa MacFarquhar
The first day of his first semester at the University of California, Berkeley, Danny Murillo walked into the Cesar Chavez building and saw a white man with tattoos on his arms. Something about the man felt familiar. He could tell from the tattoos that the man was, like him, from Los Angeles, and he was around his own age, mid-thirties, but it was something else that he recognized. He went up to the man and said, “Damn, I feel old around all these youngsters.” The man said, “Yeah, me, too.” Murillo said, “I haven’t been in school for a long time.” The man said, “Yeah, me, too.” Murillo said, “I was on vacation.” The man said, “Yeah, me, too.” Murillo said, “I was in the Pelican Bay shu.” The man said, “Yeah, me, too.”
The Pelican Bay shu—Security Housing Unit—is where California sends some of its most recalcitrant inmates. Both Murillo and the white man, Steven Czifra, had spent much of their lives in prison, including many years in solitary confinement, but by the time they met they were pretty sure they were never going back. Neither had finished high school—Czifra got sent to juvenile hall at twelve—but now they were undergraduates at U.C. Berkeley. They knew that although most people who had lived lives like theirs were still in prison, many were capable—given the right advice, incentives, and money—of making it to college and leaving prison forever. They started talking, and during the next few months they formed a plan to get those people out.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/12/12/the-ex-con-scholars-of-berkeley
Tuesday, December 6, 2016
Cleaning House
From Medium -
12 Things You Need to Really Get Rid of in the Next 12 Months
By Lolly Daskal
1. Stop giving up.
Success in life and in business comes when you simply refuse to give up — because failure doesn’t come from falling down, failure comes from giving up.
2. Stop letting everyone else make decisions for you.
If you want to be successful, never allow anyone to tell you what’s good for you. You’re the one who knows what you need and what works for you. So stick to what you know and do what you know is right.
3. Stop thinking you’re on your own.
Success is not an individual undertaking. Be smart and brave enough to ask for help when you need it and allow others to help you along the way.
https://medium.com/small-business-playground/12-things-you-need-to-really-get-rid-of-in-the-next-12-months-c8d7d18ddb59#.a9okuago1
12 Things You Need to Really Get Rid of in the Next 12 Months
By Lolly Daskal
1. Stop giving up.
Success in life and in business comes when you simply refuse to give up — because failure doesn’t come from falling down, failure comes from giving up.
2. Stop letting everyone else make decisions for you.
If you want to be successful, never allow anyone to tell you what’s good for you. You’re the one who knows what you need and what works for you. So stick to what you know and do what you know is right.
3. Stop thinking you’re on your own.
Success is not an individual undertaking. Be smart and brave enough to ask for help when you need it and allow others to help you along the way.
https://medium.com/small-business-playground/12-things-you-need-to-really-get-rid-of-in-the-next-12-months-c8d7d18ddb59#.a9okuago1
Which is Better?
An excerpt from Thrillist -
WHY BEING AN IN-N-OUT MANAGER IS BETTER THAN BEING A LAWYER
By LEE BRESLOUER
Which is the better job? Being the manager of an In-N-Out or working as a lawyer? If you're inclined to pick the latter, it's understandable -- lawyers receive a solid paycheck and spend their days in fancy suits. But being the manager of an In-N-Out can pay just as well (plus you don't have to deal with a dry-cleaning bill for all of those suits).
They might not get to expense dinner on a corporate card, but In-N-Out managers are privy to a wealth of benefits too. Perks to working at one of America’s most popular burger chains include strong job satisfaction and even this rare unicorn known as "work-life balance."
While it might sound surprising, there's a number of reasons to skip that law degree and don an In-N-Out paper hat instead.
https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/in-n-out-burger-manager-salary-perks-lawyers
WHY BEING AN IN-N-OUT MANAGER IS BETTER THAN BEING A LAWYER
By LEE BRESLOUER
Which is the better job? Being the manager of an In-N-Out or working as a lawyer? If you're inclined to pick the latter, it's understandable -- lawyers receive a solid paycheck and spend their days in fancy suits. But being the manager of an In-N-Out can pay just as well (plus you don't have to deal with a dry-cleaning bill for all of those suits).
They might not get to expense dinner on a corporate card, but In-N-Out managers are privy to a wealth of benefits too. Perks to working at one of America’s most popular burger chains include strong job satisfaction and even this rare unicorn known as "work-life balance."
While it might sound surprising, there's a number of reasons to skip that law degree and don an In-N-Out paper hat instead.
https://www.thrillist.com/eat/nation/in-n-out-burger-manager-salary-perks-lawyers
Great Advice
From Medium -
Never Buy Underwear at a Thrift Store: 38 Pieces of Life-Changing Advice
By Daron K. Roberts
I’m a Harvard Law grad turned NFL coach turned university professor. This year, I turned 38. The lessons below are tidbits that I’ve learned from getting wait-listed at Harvard for three years, working with 3 NFL teams, chasing four kids and coaching people to realize their dreams.
~~~~~~~~~~
My favorites:
2. There is a thin line between being witty and being a jerk. Speak responsibly.
3. Never buy underwear at a thrift store.
Never Buy Underwear at a Thrift Store: 38 Pieces of Life-Changing Advice
By Daron K. Roberts
I’m a Harvard Law grad turned NFL coach turned university professor. This year, I turned 38. The lessons below are tidbits that I’ve learned from getting wait-listed at Harvard for three years, working with 3 NFL teams, chasing four kids and coaching people to realize their dreams.
~~~~~~~~~~
My favorites:
2. There is a thin line between being witty and being a jerk. Speak responsibly.
3. Never buy underwear at a thrift store.
16. If you can’t dance, make sure you’re the first person to hit the dance floor.
20. Never go cheap on two things: toilet paper and pillows.
https://bullshit.ist/never-buy-underwear-at-a-thrift-store-38-pieces-of-life-changing-advice-d467196d26ac#.k5hkg2qsn
Black Santa
From Upworthy -
Everyone is falling in love with the Mall of America's first black Santa.
By Robbie Couch
Uh, not everyone.
Unfortunately, Santa's skin color still seems to ruffle some people's feathers. An editor at the Star Tribune, for instance, says the paper had to turn off its comments section due to nasty feedback on its article about Santa Larry. And the debate over Santa's race has been known to fire up a few talking heads in the 24-hour cable news world.
http://www.upworthy.com/everyone-is-falling-in-love-with-the-mall-of-americas-first-black-santa?c=pop
Everyone is falling in love with the Mall of America's first black Santa.
By Robbie Couch
 |
| Star Tribune |
Unfortunately, Santa's skin color still seems to ruffle some people's feathers. An editor at the Star Tribune, for instance, says the paper had to turn off its comments section due to nasty feedback on its article about Santa Larry. And the debate over Santa's race has been known to fire up a few talking heads in the 24-hour cable news world.
http://www.upworthy.com/everyone-is-falling-in-love-with-the-mall-of-americas-first-black-santa?c=pop
Google Questions
From the Daily Dot -
Google autocomplete reveals exactly what people think of your state
By Elijah Watson
http://www.dailydot.com/unclick/google-map-what-people-ask-your-state/
Google autocomplete reveals exactly what people think of your state
By Elijah Watson
http://www.dailydot.com/unclick/google-map-what-people-ask-your-state/
Monday, December 5, 2016
Bowel Habits
From Stumbleupon -
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/Ao1h9Y/:1MTFqrKFO:6utJZsMK/health.good.is/articles/how-normal-is-poop-infographic
Saturday, December 3, 2016
Thursday, December 1, 2016
Wednesday, November 30, 2016
Jamie Does Marvin
From the AVClub -
Jamie Foxx to produce a limited series about the life of Marvin Gaye
By William Hughes
http://www.avclub.com/article/jamie-foxx-produce-limited-series-about-life-marvi-246677
Jamie Foxx to produce a limited series about the life of Marvin Gaye
By William Hughes
http://www.avclub.com/article/jamie-foxx-produce-limited-series-about-life-marvi-246677
He Ages Before Our Eyes
From The Huffington Post -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/barack-obama-aging-gif_us_583e67b0e4b0ae0e7cdadb83
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/barack-obama-aging-gif_us_583e67b0e4b0ae0e7cdadb83
The Birth of TV Dinners
An excerpt from National Geographic -
How Leftover Turkey Launched The TV Dinner
by Rebecca Rupp
In the fall of 1953, the frozen-food company of C.A. Swanson & Sons of Omaha, Nebraska, was left with what must be a record in turkey leftovers: ten railroad cars packed with 520,000 pounds of turkey.
Swanson had massively overestimated the number of birds Americans planned to purchase for Thanksgiving, and so now was stuck shuttling a trainload of spurned turkeys back and forth between the Midwest and the East Coast in order to keep the electricity on in the refrigerated cars, thus keeping the turkeys safely cold.
At its wit’s end, the company put out an all-points bulletin to employees, asking for solutions to the turkey problem. The winner was salesman Gerry Thomas, who proposed that Swanson turn the turkeys into frozen dinners. Thomas suggested that the meals be packaged in a three-compartment aluminum-foil tray—a version of the trays then used to serve in-flight meals on airplanes— and sold as TV Dinners, in colorful boxes designed to look like television sets, complete with screens and tuning and volume knobs.
http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2015/11/26/how-leftover-turkey-launched-the-tv-dinner/
How Leftover Turkey Launched The TV Dinner
by Rebecca Rupp
In the fall of 1953, the frozen-food company of C.A. Swanson & Sons of Omaha, Nebraska, was left with what must be a record in turkey leftovers: ten railroad cars packed with 520,000 pounds of turkey.
Swanson had massively overestimated the number of birds Americans planned to purchase for Thanksgiving, and so now was stuck shuttling a trainload of spurned turkeys back and forth between the Midwest and the East Coast in order to keep the electricity on in the refrigerated cars, thus keeping the turkeys safely cold.
At its wit’s end, the company put out an all-points bulletin to employees, asking for solutions to the turkey problem. The winner was salesman Gerry Thomas, who proposed that Swanson turn the turkeys into frozen dinners. Thomas suggested that the meals be packaged in a three-compartment aluminum-foil tray—a version of the trays then used to serve in-flight meals on airplanes— and sold as TV Dinners, in colorful boxes designed to look like television sets, complete with screens and tuning and volume knobs.
http://theplate.nationalgeographic.com/2015/11/26/how-leftover-turkey-launched-the-tv-dinner/
My America
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/11/21/us/21raceinamerica.html?emc=edit_rr_20161125&nl=race-related&nlid=38867499&te=1&_r=0
Black Vets
An excerpt from The New Yorker -
THE TRAGIC, FORGOTTEN HISTORY OF BLACK MILITARY VETERANS
By Peter C. Baker
“We do so much in this country to celebrate and honor folks who risk their lives on the battlefield,” Stevenson told me recently. “But we don’t remember that black veterans were more likely to be attacked for their service than honored for it.” To be a soldier is to receive training in weapons, in organizations, in tactics: the skills of self-assertion. It is also to lay claim to the reverence that America sets aside for its former warriors. For these reasons, the return home of black soldiers after war has infuriated and terrified white America, setting the stage for reactionary aggression.
When the Civil War broke out, the Union was reluctant to let black soldiers fight at all, citing concerns over white soldiers’ morale and the respect that black soldiers would feel entitled to when the war ended. But, as the Union death toll increased, the skeptics relented. By war’s end, almost two hundred thousand black men had enlisted. This is widely known today, thanks in large part to works of art like the 1989 film “Glory.” Unfortunately, less cultural bandwidth has been devoted to what happened to those black troops after the fighting stopped. Few high-school or college students, when they learn about military history, learn about the lynching of black veterans.
In 1867, when Reconstruction ended, black veterans living in Southern states quickly became targets for white violence. White newspapers spread rumors of black soldiers assaulting white police. States across the South prohibited blacks from handling weapons. Compared to those who had not served, former soldiers were disproportionately assaulted, driven from their homes, and, in the most extreme cases, lynched in public. “Targeting Black Veterans” traces this trend in coolly objective prose, occasionally detailing shocking examples. “At Bardstown in Nelson County, Kentucky, a mob brutally lynched a United States Colored Troops veteran,” we learn. “The mob stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and then cut off his sexual organs. He was then forced to run half a mile to a bridge outside of town, where he was shot and killed.”
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-tragic-forgotten-history-of-black-military-veterans
THE TRAGIC, FORGOTTEN HISTORY OF BLACK MILITARY VETERANS
By Peter C. Baker
“We do so much in this country to celebrate and honor folks who risk their lives on the battlefield,” Stevenson told me recently. “But we don’t remember that black veterans were more likely to be attacked for their service than honored for it.” To be a soldier is to receive training in weapons, in organizations, in tactics: the skills of self-assertion. It is also to lay claim to the reverence that America sets aside for its former warriors. For these reasons, the return home of black soldiers after war has infuriated and terrified white America, setting the stage for reactionary aggression.
When the Civil War broke out, the Union was reluctant to let black soldiers fight at all, citing concerns over white soldiers’ morale and the respect that black soldiers would feel entitled to when the war ended. But, as the Union death toll increased, the skeptics relented. By war’s end, almost two hundred thousand black men had enlisted. This is widely known today, thanks in large part to works of art like the 1989 film “Glory.” Unfortunately, less cultural bandwidth has been devoted to what happened to those black troops after the fighting stopped. Few high-school or college students, when they learn about military history, learn about the lynching of black veterans.
In 1867, when Reconstruction ended, black veterans living in Southern states quickly became targets for white violence. White newspapers spread rumors of black soldiers assaulting white police. States across the South prohibited blacks from handling weapons. Compared to those who had not served, former soldiers were disproportionately assaulted, driven from their homes, and, in the most extreme cases, lynched in public. “Targeting Black Veterans” traces this trend in coolly objective prose, occasionally detailing shocking examples. “At Bardstown in Nelson County, Kentucky, a mob brutally lynched a United States Colored Troops veteran,” we learn. “The mob stripped him of his clothes, beat him, and then cut off his sexual organs. He was then forced to run half a mile to a bridge outside of town, where he was shot and killed.”
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-tragic-forgotten-history-of-black-military-veterans
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