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Tuesday, April 4, 2017

KKK, Empowered by Trump

From Slate -

The Alt-Right of the Ozarks
What one town’s fight with the KKK says about the latest battle over white nationalism.
By Bret Schulte

In the Ozarks, the normalization of white supremacist ideology started decades ago. The credit goes largely to Thomas Robb, who in 1989 took control of David Duke’s Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. The rebranding began with one of his first acts in charge. Instead of the creepy Grand Wizard moniker, Robb opted for the urbane: national director.

~~~~~~~~~~

Though Robb’s compound sits some 15 miles away from Harrison—up a hill from an unincorporated heap of marred trailers, dirt roads, and despair called Zinc, pop. 103—his Harrison address, and its history as a Sundown Town, has given the Boone County seat an unsavory reputation, even within Arkansas. In November, the U.K.’s Daily Mirror dubbed it “the most racist town in America.”

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/04/what_harrison_arkansas_fight_with_the_kkk_says_about_the_alt_right.html?wpsrc=newsletter_tis&sid=554654ea10defb39638b510d

Female Mathletes

An excerpt from OZY -

BRAZIL'S STELLAR FEMALE MATHLETES
By Catherine Osborn

In April, the women will become Brazil’s first team to compete at the annual female math Olympics, the European Girls’ Mathematical Olympiad (EGMO), in Switzerland. Brazil was invited to participate in the event, which was founded to increase women’s participation in math; later this year, Brazil will compete in the world’s biggest coed math Olympiad on its home turf with a team that may include some of these girls. Here, in the nation of 200 million, these women are converging conversations about gender and poor preparedness in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) fields. Between 2012 and 2015, Brazil’s score fell 14 points in math and 4 points in science in the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment.

But some corners of Brazil’s math system are thriving, like the Olympics program, which reaches outposts like the rural northern hometown of 14-year-old Rebouças. A cheery girl sporting red spectacles, Rebouças is known for hunting the internet for good math jokes. Wisecracking Carvalho, 17, signed up from Brazil’s southeast, as did Saltiel and 15-year-old Groff, who’s often spotted at extracurricular events in her military-school uniform. The women have repeatedly beaten tens of thousands of men in recent years to medal in Brazil’s math Olympic finals; at a January competition, they won travel to Switzerland sponsored by one of Brazil’s premier mathematical institutions, the National Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA).

http://www.ozy.com/rising-stars/brazils-stellar-female-mathletes/76323

Stanford Agreed

From the Root -

Muslim Teen Writes #BlackLivesMatter 100 Times for His Stanford Application Statement, Gets Accepted
By Monique Judge

Is your activism performative or substantive? One New Jersey teen knew exactly how to show his answer to that question when filling out his application to Stanford University. Asked “What matters to you, and why?” the teen could think of only one thing: #BlackLivesMatter.

Ziad Ahmed wrote the hashtag #BlackLivesMatter 100 times, and that one act of activism paid off. According to a Mic profile of Ahmed, he received his letter of acceptance from Stanford on Friday.

http://www.theroot.com/muslim-teen-writes-blacklivesmatter-100-times-for-his-1793975181

His Only Qualification . . . He Married Well

From the New Republic -

Speaking on CNN last night, Daniel Drezner, a political scientist at the Fletcher School and Washington Post contributor, became exasperated as he listed off Kushner’s absurdly long to-do list. “I’m just assuming that Jared Kushner stayed at the best Holiday Inn Express imaginable last night,” Drezner quipped on CNN, referring to the famous ad campaign. “Because that’s the only explanation I have for why anyone would have the kind of hubris to think that you can solve U.S. relations with Mexico, U.S. relations with Canada, U.S relations with China, bring peace to the Middle East, solve the opioid crisis, solve the V.A. problem and, by the way, I believe reform all of the federal government...His one qualification is that he married well.”

https://newrepublic.com/article/141835/scary-power-nepotism-trumps-white-house


Great Answer!

From the Washington Post -

Would Neil deGrasse Tyson ever take SpaceX to Mars? Only if Elon Musk’s mom does it first.
By Amy B Wang

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2017/04/03/would-neil-degrasse-tyson-ever-take-spacex-to-mars-only-if-elon-musks-mom-does-it-first/?utm_term=.8925d4514a9f&wpisrc=nl_most-draw7&wpmm=1

The Coolest Sport in the Desert: Playing Ice Hockey in Dubai

Where There's Smoke . . .

Monday, April 3, 2017

Comedians have figured out the trick to covering Trump

A Book That Celebrates Girls

From the Huffington Post - The link to order the book is below.

New Children’s Book Teaches Black Boys To Treat Black Girls With Respect
“We have to change the narrative that the more melanin you have means you’re uglier.”
By Zahara Hill

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new-childrens-book-teaches-black-boys-to-treat-black-girls-with-respect_us_58dec1a3e4b0b3918c837947?d3t3fub2ovoeu680k9&

http://lawrencelindellstudios.bigcartel.com/product/from-black-boy-with-love

1400 Days To Go

An excerpt from the LA Times -

Our Dishonest President
PART I
By THE TIMES EDITORIAL BOARD

Still, nothing prepared us for the magnitude of this train wreck. Like millions of other Americans, we clung to a slim hope that the new president would turn out to be all noise and bluster, or that the people around him in the White House would act as a check on his worst instincts, or that he would be sobered and transformed by the awesome responsibilities of office.

Instead, seventy-some days in — and with about 1,400 to go before his term is completed — it is increasingly clear that those hopes were misplaced.

In a matter of weeks, President Trump has taken dozens of real-life steps that, if they are not reversed, will rip families apart, foul rivers and pollute the air, intensify the calamitous effects of climate change and profoundly weaken the system of American public education for all.

http://www.latimes.com/projects/la-ed-our-dishonest-president/

Necessity is the Mother of Invention

An excerpt from the Associated Press -

Cuban uses condoms, tropical fruit to make own brand of wine
By ANDREA RODRIGUEZ

In this March 30, 2017 photo, winemaker Orestes Estevez
poses among dozens condom topped wine jugs

Today, Estevez, his wife, son and an assistant tend to 300 jugs containing five gallons (20 liters) of wine apiece. The main ingredient is Cuban grapes, but added flavors include tropical fruits and vegetables of virtually every variety.

The winery has become a neighborhood attraction, with residents of the El Cerro neighborhood sitting on the curb at all hours sipping Estevez's wine from green glasses.

The most remarkable sight, however, are hundreds of bottles capped with condoms that slowly inflate as the fruity mix ferments and produces gases. When the fermentation is over and there are no more gases, the condom stops inflating and falls, and the wine is ready for bottling.

"Putting a condom on a bottle is just like with a man," Estevez said. "It stands up, the wine is ready, and then the process is completed."

http://bigstory.ap.org/2174698b2f7c47f5bc49eedfd25a2457



Sunday, April 2, 2017

This Inspiring Veteran Runs Marathons to Heal His War Wounds | Short Fil...

Quote

From the New York Times' Roger Cohen - (bold is mine)

Audacious ignorance is hard at work in the White House. The only solace is that, with Trump, it’s accompanied by paralyzing incompetence.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/31/opinion/donald-trumps-parrot.html?hpw&rref=opinion&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well&_r=0

Saturday, April 1, 2017

New Rule: Trump's Enablers

Monologue: The New Cold War

The Economics of Airline Class

Avoid These

From the Huffington Post -

9 Bad Manager Mistakes That Make Good People Quit
If you want your best people to stay, you need to think carefully about how you treat them.
By Dr. Travis Bradberry, Contributor

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/9-bad-manager-mistakes-that-make-good-people-quit_us_58dc073ae4b0fa4c0959854e?3840h4d9ih70c0udi&

Watch This Guy Build a Massive Solar System in the Desert | Short Film S...

Cute AF! 2 Cats Each Ringing A Bell For Treats - SERVICE PLEASE!

A Second Chance

From Tasting Table -

New Beginnings
How the formerly incarcerated are finding hope for a new life in kitchens across America
BY ALISON SPIEGEL

While being one of the fastest-growing sectors of the economy, according to the National Restaurant Association, it's also an industry having trouble filling entry-level positions.

"People are really struggling to find reliable, engaged team members," Joe DeLoss, founder of Hot Chicken Takeover, says. "It's a pretty pervasive problem." This translates to an incredible opportunity, financially and socially, for both the formerly incarcerated and food businesses.

The restaurant industry is currently the "top employer of former inmates in the United States," Saru Jayaraman, cofounder and codirector of Restaurant Opportunities Centers United (ROC), says in an article for Fast Company. Indeed, the culinary world across the board—from fast-casual joints to fine dining spots, bakeries to food trucks—is stepping up to the plate.

https://www.tastingtable.com/dine/national/restaurants-formerly-incarcerated-drive-change