An excerpt from the NYTimes -
A Washington Correspondent’s Own Refugee Experience
By HELENE COOPER
WASHINGTON — When I was 13 years old, my family fled our home for the United States.
We were refugees, even though we came here on visitor visas that we simply outstayed. The country of my birth, Liberia, had just seen a military coup, where enlisted soldiers took over the government, disemboweled the president and launched an orgy of retribution against the old guard. My father was shot. My cousin was executed on the beach by firing squad. My mom was gang-raped by soldiers in the basement of our house after she volunteered to submit to them on the condition that they leave my sisters and me, ages 8 to 16, alone.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/31/insider/a-washington-correspondents-own-refugee-experience.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share&_r=0
Thursday, February 2, 2017
Playing Dress Up
From the Huffington Post -
 |
| Ambrielle-Baker Rogers, Morgan Coleman and Miah Bell-Olson dressed as Dorothy Vaughan, Katherine Johnson and Mary Jackson, the trio of black women featured in the movie “Hidden Figures” who helped NASA send astronaut John Glenn into orbit. Courtesy of Amanda Evans
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/girls-dress-up-as-hidden-figures-characters-totally-nail-it_us_5892016ce4b02772c4ea6d7d?
|
He Was the Man
From Vanity Fair -
Sidney Poitier, 1967, and One of the Most Remarkable Runs in Hollywood History
Five decades ago, at the height of the civil-rights movement, America’s most beloved movie actor was a black man whose three films that year—To Sir, with Love; In the Heat of the Night; and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner—made him king of the Hollywood box office. How the actor’s coolly uncompromising navigation of that status helped send a pointed message to white America.
by LAURA JACOBS
It was the “long hot summer of 1967,” so called because racial unrest had reached full boil. Riots—“the language of the unheard,” in the words of Martin Luther King Jr.—were exploding in city after city, from Atlanta to Boston, Birmingham to Milwaukee, roaring in Newark and Detroit. Malcolm X had been shot dead two years earlier, and Stokely Carmichael’s Black Power, in all its incendiary eloquence, was sweeping up the young, both black and white. It was slash-and-burn civil-rights activism, and it terrified parents, enraged racists, and unsettled the White House. America the melting pot was a crucible in crisis.
But at the movies, even in the South, the crucible was cool. In 1967 the country’s biggest film star, its most loved actor, was black. He had the self-containment of a cat, the swoop of a hawk, the calm of a saint. His poise was a form of precision, and his precision, intelligence that ran deep. He was Hollywood’s first African-American matinee idol (though technically Bahamian-American) and the last of an Old Hollywood breed—the gentleman hero in the bespoke suit. His name was Sidney Poitier.
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/02/sidney-poitier-remarkable-run-in-hollywood-history
Sidney Poitier, 1967, and One of the Most Remarkable Runs in Hollywood History
Five decades ago, at the height of the civil-rights movement, America’s most beloved movie actor was a black man whose three films that year—To Sir, with Love; In the Heat of the Night; and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner—made him king of the Hollywood box office. How the actor’s coolly uncompromising navigation of that status helped send a pointed message to white America.
by LAURA JACOBS
It was the “long hot summer of 1967,” so called because racial unrest had reached full boil. Riots—“the language of the unheard,” in the words of Martin Luther King Jr.—were exploding in city after city, from Atlanta to Boston, Birmingham to Milwaukee, roaring in Newark and Detroit. Malcolm X had been shot dead two years earlier, and Stokely Carmichael’s Black Power, in all its incendiary eloquence, was sweeping up the young, both black and white. It was slash-and-burn civil-rights activism, and it terrified parents, enraged racists, and unsettled the White House. America the melting pot was a crucible in crisis.
But at the movies, even in the South, the crucible was cool. In 1967 the country’s biggest film star, its most loved actor, was black. He had the self-containment of a cat, the swoop of a hawk, the calm of a saint. His poise was a form of precision, and his precision, intelligence that ran deep. He was Hollywood’s first African-American matinee idol (though technically Bahamian-American) and the last of an Old Hollywood breed—the gentleman hero in the bespoke suit. His name was Sidney Poitier.
http://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/02/sidney-poitier-remarkable-run-in-hollywood-history
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
This Dude is From Davis
An excerpt from Wired -
The Chemical Engineer Who’ll School You on Coffee
By CAIT OPPERMANN
AS A CHEMICAL engineer who studies the motion of fluids, Bill Ristenpart deals with a lot of spattered blood and aerosolized pathogenic mouse phlegm. But when it comes to teaching wary freshman the basics of mass transfer and thermodynamics, the UC Davis professor relies on a less messy (and more potable) liquid: coffee. Beans go through so many complex chemical changes that they can easily form the basis of a whole curriculum.
Ristenpart’s three year-old course, the Design of Coffee, has become the most popular chemical engineering class in the country, enrolling a quarter of Davis’ freshmen. After spending the semester deconstructing coffeemakers and determining pH levels by taste, the 500-odd students compete to engineer the tastiest brew using the least amount of energy. Which isn’t easy, Ristenpart says, because “we know very little about coffee.” Though Americans down some 400 million cups a day, US researchers don’t typically study it; there’s little incentive for agencies like the USDA to fund research on a crop grown thousands of miles away in the tropics. Nearly everything about java, from the microbial intricacies of fermentation to the molecular basis of flavor, remains a mystery.
https://www.wired.com/2017/02/study-coffee-at-uc-davis/?mbid=nl_2117_p2&CNDID=
The Chemical Engineer Who’ll School You on Coffee
By CAIT OPPERMANN
AS A CHEMICAL engineer who studies the motion of fluids, Bill Ristenpart deals with a lot of spattered blood and aerosolized pathogenic mouse phlegm. But when it comes to teaching wary freshman the basics of mass transfer and thermodynamics, the UC Davis professor relies on a less messy (and more potable) liquid: coffee. Beans go through so many complex chemical changes that they can easily form the basis of a whole curriculum.
Ristenpart’s three year-old course, the Design of Coffee, has become the most popular chemical engineering class in the country, enrolling a quarter of Davis’ freshmen. After spending the semester deconstructing coffeemakers and determining pH levels by taste, the 500-odd students compete to engineer the tastiest brew using the least amount of energy. Which isn’t easy, Ristenpart says, because “we know very little about coffee.” Though Americans down some 400 million cups a day, US researchers don’t typically study it; there’s little incentive for agencies like the USDA to fund research on a crop grown thousands of miles away in the tropics. Nearly everything about java, from the microbial intricacies of fermentation to the molecular basis of flavor, remains a mystery.
https://www.wired.com/2017/02/study-coffee-at-uc-davis/?mbid=nl_2117_p2&CNDID=
Gentrification Warning Signs
From Salon -
5 warning signs that your neighborhood is gentrifying
Know what to look for before your rent goes up
By D. WATKINS
http://www.salon.com/?post_type=post&p=14693925
5 warning signs that your neighborhood is gentrifying
Know what to look for before your rent goes up
By D. WATKINS
http://www.salon.com/?post_type=post&p=14693925
Good vs. Evil
From the Washington Post - (Bold is mine)
20 reasons why Patriots-Falcons Super Bowl is a classic Good vs. Evil matchup
By Bill Plaschke
It’s cheating Brady against wide-eyed Matty.
It’s an owner who stalks against one who dances.
It’s a coach wearing a hoodie against one who dresses in Navy SEAL mottos.
The Super Bowl pitting the New England Patriots against the Atlanta Falcons features competing auras as clear as the rumple in Bill Belichick’s sweatshirt or the curl of Tom Brady’s upper lip.
According to Public Policy Polling, the Patriots are the most disliked team in pro football for a second consecutive season. By comparison, the relatively blah Falcons are beloved.
Even with this week’s revelations about the Falcons’ past concerns over their players’ use of pain medication, this truly feels like a Super Bowl of not just David vs. Goliath, but that old favorite, Good vs. Evil, and here are 20 reasons why:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-patriots-falcons-plaschke-20170131-story.html?utm_source=Today%27s+Headlines&utm_campaign=f598d81244-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_12&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b04355194f-f598d81244-80034853
20 reasons why Patriots-Falcons Super Bowl is a classic Good vs. Evil matchup
By Bill Plaschke
It’s cheating Brady against wide-eyed Matty.
It’s an owner who stalks against one who dances.
It’s a coach wearing a hoodie against one who dresses in Navy SEAL mottos.
The Super Bowl pitting the New England Patriots against the Atlanta Falcons features competing auras as clear as the rumple in Bill Belichick’s sweatshirt or the curl of Tom Brady’s upper lip.
According to Public Policy Polling, the Patriots are the most disliked team in pro football for a second consecutive season. By comparison, the relatively blah Falcons are beloved.
Even with this week’s revelations about the Falcons’ past concerns over their players’ use of pain medication, this truly feels like a Super Bowl of not just David vs. Goliath, but that old favorite, Good vs. Evil, and here are 20 reasons why:
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-patriots-falcons-plaschke-20170131-story.html?utm_source=Today%27s+Headlines&utm_campaign=f598d81244-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2016_12_12&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b04355194f-f598d81244-80034853
Orangutans Find Love on Tinder
From the Washington Post -
An orangutan will have a chance to find her mate — through Tinder
By Amy B Wang
The first indication Samboja was being nudged to find a partner came last year, when her home zoo — the Apenheul Primate Park in the Netherlands — took to Facebook to casually point out that the female orangutan was approaching the age where she could start having kids.
A year later, the Dutch zoo has announced how exactly they’re hoping the primate will meet someone: through “Tinder for orangutans.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2017/01/31/an-orangutan-will-have-a-chance-to-find-her-mate-through-tinder/?utm_term=.9b99b471da45
An orangutan will have a chance to find her mate — through Tinder
By Amy B Wang
 |
| Female orangutans Conny and Sinta watch videos of potential mates at the Wilhelma Zoo in Stuttgart, Germany, in 2016. (Courtesy Wilhelma Zoo) |
The first indication Samboja was being nudged to find a partner came last year, when her home zoo — the Apenheul Primate Park in the Netherlands — took to Facebook to casually point out that the female orangutan was approaching the age where she could start having kids.
A year later, the Dutch zoo has announced how exactly they’re hoping the primate will meet someone: through “Tinder for orangutans.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2017/01/31/an-orangutan-will-have-a-chance-to-find-her-mate-through-tinder/?utm_term=.9b99b471da45
Tuesday, January 31, 2017
A Place to Stay
From Atlas Obscura -
United Record Pressing
When Motown musicians came to Nashville in the 1960s they stayed at this historic record press, because hotels wouldn't host them.
In 1959, a 30-year-old songwriter from Detroit had a few hit tunes from recordings he had written with his sister, so with $800 borrowed from his parents, Berry Gordy began what was to become one of the most successful African-American owned businesses in history. But in the 1960s, even as Motown dominated the charts, in southern cities like Nashville, racial segregation kept Gordy and his artists out of most hotels.
Left with few options in one of the most important music towns in the country, the manufacturer of Motown’s records, United Record Pressing (which was known as Southern Plastics in the early years), built a suite of rooms for Gordy and his recording artists who needed a place to stay when they came through Nashville.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/united-record-pressing
United Record Pressing
When Motown musicians came to Nashville in the 1960s they stayed at this historic record press, because hotels wouldn't host them.
In 1959, a 30-year-old songwriter from Detroit had a few hit tunes from recordings he had written with his sister, so with $800 borrowed from his parents, Berry Gordy began what was to become one of the most successful African-American owned businesses in history. But in the 1960s, even as Motown dominated the charts, in southern cities like Nashville, racial segregation kept Gordy and his artists out of most hotels.
Left with few options in one of the most important music towns in the country, the manufacturer of Motown’s records, United Record Pressing (which was known as Southern Plastics in the early years), built a suite of rooms for Gordy and his recording artists who needed a place to stay when they came through Nashville.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/united-record-pressing
Forced Out
From Atlas Obscura -
District Six Museum
An excellent and sobering account of the vibrant multicultural neighborhood destroyed under apartheid.
District Six, or “Distrik Ses” in Afrikaans, was a bohemian, mixed neighborhood in every sense of the word. It was crowded with a multiracial blend of working class people, Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike, many of whom were descended from freed slaves and immigrants. In the mid–20th century, a population of roughly 60,000 lived there. Unfortunately, District Six was also at the epicenter of apartheid in Cape Town, and still bears its scars.
During the apartheid regime of the 1960s and ’70s, the segregating Group Areas Act saw all the non-white residents of District Six evicted and relocated further outside the city. It was called “slum clearing,” but the true intention was to fill the desirably located neighborhood with white residents and high rises.
Side note - I saw this are when I visited Cape Town five years ago. The history is a sad one.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/district-six-museum
District Six Museum
An excellent and sobering account of the vibrant multicultural neighborhood destroyed under apartheid.
District Six, or “Distrik Ses” in Afrikaans, was a bohemian, mixed neighborhood in every sense of the word. It was crowded with a multiracial blend of working class people, Jews, Muslims, and Christians alike, many of whom were descended from freed slaves and immigrants. In the mid–20th century, a population of roughly 60,000 lived there. Unfortunately, District Six was also at the epicenter of apartheid in Cape Town, and still bears its scars.
During the apartheid regime of the 1960s and ’70s, the segregating Group Areas Act saw all the non-white residents of District Six evicted and relocated further outside the city. It was called “slum clearing,” but the true intention was to fill the desirably located neighborhood with white residents and high rises.
Side note - I saw this are when I visited Cape Town five years ago. The history is a sad one.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/district-six-museum
Trevor's View
http://www.cc.com/video-clips/bxjc4n/the-daily-show-with-trevor-noah-president-trump-s-muslim-targeted-travel-ban
Lars and the Real Girl, For Real
From the Washington Post -
What life is like living with a ‘love doll’ in Japan
By Kenneth Dickerman
In 2007, Ryan Gosling played a character who has trouble making friends or even socializing with people in a movie called “Lars and the Real Girl.” In the movie, to salve his social anxieties, he turns to the company of a silicone doll he names Bianca. His friends, family and community decide to support him. Eventually, Lars learns to get past his insecurities and begins a relationship with a real woman. Although this was fiction, it is not as far-fetched as it might seem. In fact, at least one man in Japan is playing out a somewhat similar story.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2017/01/30/what-life-is-like-living-with-a-love-doll-in-japan/?utm_term=.6131c7d563cd
What life is like living with a ‘love doll’ in Japan
By Kenneth Dickerman
In 2007, Ryan Gosling played a character who has trouble making friends or even socializing with people in a movie called “Lars and the Real Girl.” In the movie, to salve his social anxieties, he turns to the company of a silicone doll he names Bianca. His friends, family and community decide to support him. Eventually, Lars learns to get past his insecurities and begins a relationship with a real woman. Although this was fiction, it is not as far-fetched as it might seem. In fact, at least one man in Japan is playing out a somewhat similar story.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2017/01/30/what-life-is-like-living-with-a-love-doll-in-japan/?utm_term=.6131c7d563cd
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