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Saturday, December 24, 2016

One of My Favorite Quotes

“When someone shows you who they are believe them; the first time.”
― Maya Angelou

Wednesday, December 21, 2016

Mark Zuckerberg's awkward afternoon with Morgan Freeman

Taking It To the Streets

From KQED -

Teaching Computer Programming Through Making in Oakland’s Fruitvale
By Queena Sook Kim

Making computer programming a part of the K-13 curriculum is becoming a rallying call in the United States. But just because you teach a subject doesn’t mean you get kids interested in it. So the real challenge is how to get kids, who might not necessarily be into computers, to pursue a career in coding?

Google and MIT’s Media Lab are trying to answer that question at Code Next,  an after-school program located in the Fruitvale neighborhood of Oakland. Coding programs put on by tech companies are often in a Google office or held at a local school. But Code Next is a storefront space in a shopping center next to the Fruitvale BART Station. The idea is to capture high school students from this working-class neighborhood.

https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2016/12/21/teaching-computer-programing-through-making-in-oaklands-fruitvale/




From Russia With . . . Say What?

From the Root -

From Russia With Blackness: Terrell J. Starr, Black America’s Russian Translator
Starr is an expert on Russian and Eastern European politics, and he has a few warnings for us.
By Jason Johnson



Terrell J. Starr has been Columbused by many in the mainstream media in the last several weeks. As the Russian hack on the 2016 election and President-elect Donald Trump’s relationship with Russian leader Vladimir Putin dominate the headlines, outlets are looking for a fresh take on Russian politics and American vulnerabilities.

Terrell J. Starr—tall, black, lanky, with a Detroit accent, and who is just as likely to lay out facts in Russian as he is to compare Putin to Marlo Stansfield from The Wire—has stepped into the gap.

He may not “look” like your typical Russian/Eastern European political expert, but with a Fulbright scholarship and degrees in journalism and ethnic conflict, Terrell J. Starr just might be black Generation X’s best chance to understand what is happening in this postelection Trump/Putin world.

http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2016/12/from-russia-with-blackness-terrell-j-starr-black-americas-russian-translator/