From USA Today -
Push to get more African-Americans into tech leads to SXSW
By Jarrad Henderson
Mariah Cowling promised her father she would apply to Spelman College, with dreams of becoming an aerospace engineer. There was just one problem: the historically black women's liberal-arts college didn't have an engineering program.
So she became a computer science major instead. That's how Cowling, who is headed to Microsoft as a coder in its virtual reality division after she graduates from Atlanta's Spelman in May, finds herself surrounded by tens of thousands of tech professionals at the SXSW Interactive Festival here.
She's one of 100 students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) participating in the HBCU@SXSW initiative, a partnership between South By Southwest Convention and Festivals and organizations such as Opportunity Hub, Huddle Ventures and Stemmed. These have teamed up to help students of color attend the popular music, interactive and film festival in Austin.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/03/13/push-get-more-african-americans-into-tech-leads-sxsw/99103260/
Monday, March 13, 2017
Making Connections
From the Hollywood Reporter - (Bold is mine)
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Why 'Get Out' Is 'Invasion of the Black Body Snatchers' for the Trump Era
by Kareem Abdul-Jabba
It's horrifying watching poor Chris Washington (Daniel Kaluuya) paralyzed in that chair while his will and body are being stolen, because growing up, I felt as paralyzed as him. Watching James Baldwin struggle with the frustrations of black bodies being destroyed both physically and mentally in the documentary reminded me of my own struggles as a young black man in the '60s. I was the poster child for the Good Boy, which to many Americans meant Good Negro. Everyone was telling black children that if you studied hard and did what you were told, you could be successful and welcomed into white society. I studied hard and earned good grades. I practiced hard and earned a good living. But I knew as a child that my name and religion were not my own. Alcindor was the Christian slave monger who owned my ancestors. I was paralyzed by that past, by white America's expectations for how a black man should behave, by how much gratitude I should constantly express for allowing me to succeed. I overcame that paralysis when I adopted a religion and name that I felt connected me more to my cultural roots. Reading The Autobiography of Malcolm X and James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time inspired me to find my own voice. When I used that voice to speak about political and social injustice, some Americans responded with hatred and death threats. Ironically, I was just doing what people came to America to do since it was founded: reinvent myself according to my beliefs rather than someone else's.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kareem-abdul-jabbar-why-get-is-invasion-black-body-snatchers-trump-985449
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Why 'Get Out' Is 'Invasion of the Black Body Snatchers' for the Trump Era
by Kareem Abdul-Jabba
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/kareem-abdul-jabbar-why-get-is-invasion-black-body-snatchers-trump-985449
Cautionary Tale
From the LA Times -
His NFL-to-prison cautionary tale leaves students transfixed. Here is Ryan Leaf's story, in his own words
By Sam Farmer
There was a joke going around campus when I was at Washington State. It went, “What’s the difference between God and Ryan Leaf?” The punchline was, “God doesn’t think he’s Ryan Leaf.”
When I came into the NFL, there were three things that were very important to me: money, power and prestige. I was powerful now because I was a famous athlete. I had prestige because I was doing what everybody wanted to do. And I had a lot of money.
When I’m talking to parents, I tell them an analogy. My emotional level was kind of stunted when I was about 13, so I tell them to try this experiment at home: Give your 13-year-old child $31 million and see how that works out.
So I’m 21, have $31 million, and I wasn’t responsible to anyone anymore for money or really anything. If anybody said “no” to me, I would discard them from my life. That included my parents at one point. I just had zero perspective on what was important.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/nfl/la-sp-ryan-leaf-20170311-story.html
His NFL-to-prison cautionary tale leaves students transfixed. Here is Ryan Leaf's story, in his own words
By Sam Farmer
There was a joke going around campus when I was at Washington State. It went, “What’s the difference between God and Ryan Leaf?” The punchline was, “God doesn’t think he’s Ryan Leaf.”
When I came into the NFL, there were three things that were very important to me: money, power and prestige. I was powerful now because I was a famous athlete. I had prestige because I was doing what everybody wanted to do. And I had a lot of money.
When I’m talking to parents, I tell them an analogy. My emotional level was kind of stunted when I was about 13, so I tell them to try this experiment at home: Give your 13-year-old child $31 million and see how that works out.
So I’m 21, have $31 million, and I wasn’t responsible to anyone anymore for money or really anything. If anybody said “no” to me, I would discard them from my life. That included my parents at one point. I just had zero perspective on what was important.
http://www.latimes.com/sports/nfl/la-sp-ryan-leaf-20170311-story.html
Sunday, March 12, 2017
Confiscated From Migrants
From the New Yorker -
A JANITOR’S COLLECTION OF THINGS CONFISCATED FROM MIGRANTS IN THE DESERT
By Peter C. Baker
Tom Kiefer was a Customs and Border Protection janitor for almost four years before he took a good look inside the trash. Every day at work—at the C.B.P. processing center in Ajo, Arizona, less than fifty miles from the border with Mexico—he would throw away bags full of items confiscated from undocumented migrants apprehended in the desert. One day in 2007, he was rummaging through these bags looking for packaged food, which he’d received permission to donate to a local pantry. In the process, he also noticed toothbrushes, rosaries, pocket Bibles, water bottles, keys, shoelaces, razors, mix CDs, condoms, contraceptive pills, sunglasses, keys: a vibrant, startling testament to the lives of those who had been detained or deported. Without telling anyone, Kiefer began collecting the items, stashing them in sorted piles in the garages of friends. “I didn’t know what I was going to do,” he told me recently. “But I knew there was something to be done.”
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/a-janitors-collection-of-things-confiscated-from-migrants-in-the-desert?intcid=mod-latest
A JANITOR’S COLLECTION OF THINGS CONFISCATED FROM MIGRANTS IN THE DESERT
By Peter C. Baker
 |
| When migrants are apprehended, Customs and Border Protection agents dispose of personal-hygiene items such as toilet paper during intake. Thomas Kiefer INSTITUTE |
Tom Kiefer was a Customs and Border Protection janitor for almost four years before he took a good look inside the trash. Every day at work—at the C.B.P. processing center in Ajo, Arizona, less than fifty miles from the border with Mexico—he would throw away bags full of items confiscated from undocumented migrants apprehended in the desert. One day in 2007, he was rummaging through these bags looking for packaged food, which he’d received permission to donate to a local pantry. In the process, he also noticed toothbrushes, rosaries, pocket Bibles, water bottles, keys, shoelaces, razors, mix CDs, condoms, contraceptive pills, sunglasses, keys: a vibrant, startling testament to the lives of those who had been detained or deported. Without telling anyone, Kiefer began collecting the items, stashing them in sorted piles in the garages of friends. “I didn’t know what I was going to do,” he told me recently. “But I knew there was something to be done.”
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/a-janitors-collection-of-things-confiscated-from-migrants-in-the-desert?intcid=mod-latest
A Master Thief
From the New Yorker -
A PICKPOCKET’S TALE
The spectacular thefts of Apollo Robbins.
By Adam Green
Robbins, who is thirty-eight and lives in Las Vegas, is a peculiar variety-arts hybrid, known in the trade as a theatrical pickpocket. Among his peers, he is widely considered the best in the world at what he does, which is taking things from people’s jackets, pants, purses, wrists, fingers, and necks, then returning them in amusing and mind-boggling ways. Robbins works smoothly and invisibly, with a diffident charm that belies his talent for larceny. One senses that he would prosper on the other side of the law. “You have to ask yourself one question,” he often says as he holds up a wallet or a watch that he has just swiped. “Am I being paid enough to give it back?”
In more than a decade as a full-time entertainer, Robbins has taken (and returned) a lot of stuff, including items from well-known figures in the worlds of entertainment (Jennifer Garner, actress: engagement ring); sports (Charles Barkley, former N.B.A. star: wad of cash); and business (Ace Greenberg, former chairman of Bear Stearns: Patek Philippe watch). He is probably best known for an encounter with Jimmy Carter’s Secret Service detail in 2001. While Carter was at dinner, Robbins struck up a conversation with several of his Secret Service men. Within a few minutes, he had emptied the agents’ pockets of pretty much everything but their guns. Robbins brandished a copy of Carter’s itinerary, and when an agent snatched it back he said, “You don’t have the authorization to see that!” When the agent felt for his badge, Robbins produced it and handed it back. Then he turned to the head of the detail and handed him his watch, his badge, and the keys to the Carter motorcade.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/01/07/a-pickpockets-tale
A PICKPOCKET’S TALE
The spectacular thefts of Apollo Robbins.
By Adam Green
Robbins, who is thirty-eight and lives in Las Vegas, is a peculiar variety-arts hybrid, known in the trade as a theatrical pickpocket. Among his peers, he is widely considered the best in the world at what he does, which is taking things from people’s jackets, pants, purses, wrists, fingers, and necks, then returning them in amusing and mind-boggling ways. Robbins works smoothly and invisibly, with a diffident charm that belies his talent for larceny. One senses that he would prosper on the other side of the law. “You have to ask yourself one question,” he often says as he holds up a wallet or a watch that he has just swiped. “Am I being paid enough to give it back?”
In more than a decade as a full-time entertainer, Robbins has taken (and returned) a lot of stuff, including items from well-known figures in the worlds of entertainment (Jennifer Garner, actress: engagement ring); sports (Charles Barkley, former N.B.A. star: wad of cash); and business (Ace Greenberg, former chairman of Bear Stearns: Patek Philippe watch). He is probably best known for an encounter with Jimmy Carter’s Secret Service detail in 2001. While Carter was at dinner, Robbins struck up a conversation with several of his Secret Service men. Within a few minutes, he had emptied the agents’ pockets of pretty much everything but their guns. Robbins brandished a copy of Carter’s itinerary, and when an agent snatched it back he said, “You don’t have the authorization to see that!” When the agent felt for his badge, Robbins produced it and handed it back. Then he turned to the head of the detail and handed him his watch, his badge, and the keys to the Carter motorcade.
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/01/07/a-pickpockets-tale
He Was Sold by the Jesuits to Save Georgetown
From the New York Times RACE / RELATED -
He was an enslaved teenager on a Jesuit plantation in Maryland on the night that the stars fell. It was November of 1833, and meteor showers set the sky ablaze.
His name was Frank Campbell. He would hold tight to that memory for decades, even when he was an old man, living hundreds of miles away from his birthplace. In 1838, he was shipped to a sugar plantation in Louisiana along with dozens of other slaves from Maryland. They were sold by the nation’s most prominent Jesuit priests to raise money to help save the Jesuit college now known as Georgetown University.
Mr. Campbell would survive slavery and the Civil War. He would live to see freedom and the dawning of the 20th century. Like many of his contemporaries from Maryland, he would marry and have children and grandchildren. But in one respect, he was singular: His image has survived, offering us the first look at one of the 272 slaves sold to help keep Georgetown afloat.
http://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/2017/03/12/race-related?nlid=38867499
 |
| A photograph of Frank Campbell was found in a scrapbook at Nicholls State University in Louisiana. The children with Mr. Campbell are unidentified. |
He was an enslaved teenager on a Jesuit plantation in Maryland on the night that the stars fell. It was November of 1833, and meteor showers set the sky ablaze.
His name was Frank Campbell. He would hold tight to that memory for decades, even when he was an old man, living hundreds of miles away from his birthplace. In 1838, he was shipped to a sugar plantation in Louisiana along with dozens of other slaves from Maryland. They were sold by the nation’s most prominent Jesuit priests to raise money to help save the Jesuit college now known as Georgetown University.
Mr. Campbell would survive slavery and the Civil War. He would live to see freedom and the dawning of the 20th century. Like many of his contemporaries from Maryland, he would marry and have children and grandchildren. But in one respect, he was singular: His image has survived, offering us the first look at one of the 272 slaves sold to help keep Georgetown afloat.
http://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/2017/03/12/race-related?nlid=38867499
Hiring the Right Person
From the New York Times -
How to Hire the Right Person
By Adam Bryant
Over the course of speaking with almost 500 leaders for my weekly “Corner Office” series, I’ve asked every one of them, “How do you hire?” Their answers are always insightful because after years of interviewing countless job candidates, they’ve learned the best approaches to help them get right to the core of who a candidate is and how he or she will work with a team. Learn the strategies these chief executives have developed through trial and error to help you go beyond the polished résumés, pre-screened references and scripted answers, to hire more creative and effective members for your team. And if you’re on the other side of the job hunt, you can gain insight on what your interviewer is really looking for in a candidate.
https://www.nytimes.com/guides/business/how-to-hire-the-right-person
How to Hire the Right Person
By Adam Bryant
Over the course of speaking with almost 500 leaders for my weekly “Corner Office” series, I’ve asked every one of them, “How do you hire?” Their answers are always insightful because after years of interviewing countless job candidates, they’ve learned the best approaches to help them get right to the core of who a candidate is and how he or she will work with a team. Learn the strategies these chief executives have developed through trial and error to help you go beyond the polished résumés, pre-screened references and scripted answers, to hire more creative and effective members for your team. And if you’re on the other side of the job hunt, you can gain insight on what your interviewer is really looking for in a candidate.
https://www.nytimes.com/guides/business/how-to-hire-the-right-person
Hot Pockets History
From Saveur -
THE FORGOTTEN IMMIGRANT ORIGINS OF AMERICA’S MOST ICONIC MICROWAVABLE SNACK
How two Iranian brothers invented the beloved Hot Pocket
BY MATTHEW SEDACCA
The short version of the story goes like this: In the late ‘60s, the Merages were attending universities in California. After earning an MBA in business, Paul Merage worked entry-level marketing positions at Maxwell House coffee. But both wanted to start their own company, a dream ingrained by their father, and according to a 2015 profile in Family Business, David believed success would happen in California. (The Merage family did not respond to requests for an interview.)
After a business trip to Europe in the mid-70s, the brothers saw potential demand in the American market for frozen Belgian waffles, according to a 2016 Tedium article, working for months to perfect a reipce. For months, the two worked on a recipe for easy-to-prepare Belgian waffles. In 1977, despite minimal experience in the industry, they founded the food manufacturing company Chef America Inc. in Chatsworth, California. Then, after earning millions marketing their waffles to restaurants and coffee shops, the brothers decided to compete with lunch and dinner-time offerings. The Hot Pocket came soon after.
http://www.saveur.com/hot-pockets-merage-brothers-history#page-2
THE FORGOTTEN IMMIGRANT ORIGINS OF AMERICA’S MOST ICONIC MICROWAVABLE SNACK
How two Iranian brothers invented the beloved Hot Pocket
BY MATTHEW SEDACCA
The short version of the story goes like this: In the late ‘60s, the Merages were attending universities in California. After earning an MBA in business, Paul Merage worked entry-level marketing positions at Maxwell House coffee. But both wanted to start their own company, a dream ingrained by their father, and according to a 2015 profile in Family Business, David believed success would happen in California. (The Merage family did not respond to requests for an interview.)
After a business trip to Europe in the mid-70s, the brothers saw potential demand in the American market for frozen Belgian waffles, according to a 2016 Tedium article, working for months to perfect a reipce. For months, the two worked on a recipe for easy-to-prepare Belgian waffles. In 1977, despite minimal experience in the industry, they founded the food manufacturing company Chef America Inc. in Chatsworth, California. Then, after earning millions marketing their waffles to restaurants and coffee shops, the brothers decided to compete with lunch and dinner-time offerings. The Hot Pocket came soon after.
http://www.saveur.com/hot-pockets-merage-brothers-history#page-2
Sister Sledge - We Are Family
From CNN -
Joni Sledge of vocal group Sister Sledge dies at 60
By Ralph Ellis and Tony Marco, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/11/us/joni-sledge-of-sister-sledge-dies/index.html
Joni Sledge of vocal group Sister Sledge dies at 60
By Ralph Ellis and Tony Marco, CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/11/us/joni-sledge-of-sister-sledge-dies/index.html
Saturday, March 11, 2017
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