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Thursday, January 11, 2018

Again?

From USA Today Network -

School's homework asked for 3 'good,' 3 bad reasons for slavery
By Darryl Enriquez, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

WAUWATOSA, Wis. — Administrators at a Lutheran school here apologized Wednesday for a fourth-grade homework assignment that asked pupils to write "3 'good' reasons for slavery and 3 bad reasons."

Trameka Brown-Berry shared the assignment Tuesday on Facebook asking if others found it offensive. Her son, Jerome Berry, is a fourth-grader at Our Redeemer Lutheran School.

The post set off a cry from Facebook respondents and a community leader that the assignment was insensitive and offensive.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/01/10/slavery-homework-assignment/1022098001/

1968

From The Atlantic -

https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2018/01/50-years-ago-in-photos-a-look-back-at-1968/550208/?utm_source=&silverid=MzEwMTkwMTQ4ODk4S0

Clip: Why President Obama "stays in the pocket" with his dad moves [HD] ...

The Reason Britain Loves Tea

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Battle of the Boxes

Gadgets

The real reason Amelia Earhart is so famous

Making Moves With a One-Legged Tap Dancer

Trump Is Becoming More Erratic and Working Less: A Closer Look

She's On Fire!

An excerpt from the Huffington Post -

First Black Woman On U.S. Olympic Long-Track Skating Team Started Sport Only 4 Months Ago
Erin Jackson is black girl magic! ✨
By Taryn Finley

A 25-year-old long-track speed skater is gearing up for the 2018 Winter Olympics just four months after she first took to the ice.

Erin Jackson qualified for the U.S. team last Friday when she came in third place in trials for the 500-meter race behind two former Olympians, Brittany Bowe and Heather Bergsma.

The Florida resident finished her first run 39.22 seconds and clocked in at 39.04 in her second run. Jackson told NBC Sports that she was surprised she had made the squad.

“I really wasn’t expecting any of this, just coming in as a newbie, just trying to do the best I can,” Jackson said. “I still don’t even know.”

Jackson became the third black athlete to make a U.S. Olympic speedskating team, and the first black woman to qualify for the long-track competition.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/first-black-woman-to-compete-on-olympic-speed-ice-skating-team-picked-up-sport-4-months-ago_us_5a54ed65e4b0efe47ebd4ef7

Monday, January 8, 2018

What Made It So Powerful

An excerpt from the New York Times -

What Politicians Could Learn from Oprah Winfrey
By JAMES PONIEWOZIK

But to argue that Ms. Winfrey should run for president — or shouldn’t — simply because she’s a celebrity oversimplifies the issue. Most celebrities would make terrible candidates. (No offense, Kid Rock.) The real consideration here is why Ms. Winfrey is a celebrity, and all those qualifications were on display in that speech.

It’s a master’s stage performance. It builds from kitchen confession to mountaintop thunder. It shifts perspective cinematically — close in on young Ms. Winfrey sitting on the linoleum floor, pull back to a panorama of America. It uses preacherly rhythms and even cliffhangers (“a young worker by the name of … Rosa Parks”).

But above all, it’s a story. And it’s a story about stories. It moves from the personal (young Ms. Winfrey watching Sidney Poitier win an Oscar) to the communal (women in Hollywood, and women working on farms and even “some pretty phenomenal men”). It links “your truth” and “absolute truth.” It tells the audience: I have my struggle, and I know you have yours, and that connects us all in the sweep of a global struggle.

Conventional politicians can do that too, though it’s not easy or common. Barack Obama was no one’s idea of a shoo-in when he announced his campaign. But he synthesized his biography (as the “kid with a funny name”), his country’s current struggles and an idea of generational social progress into one evocative narrative — change.

People are drawn to stories for a reason: In politics as in art, they say more than a list of bullet points.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/08/arts/television/oprah-winfrey-president-television.html?hpw&rref=television&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=well-region&region=bottom-well&WT.nav=bottom-well

Quote

Even Bill Kristol, newly woke, couldn’t resist joining in: “Oprah: Sounder on economics than Bernie Sanders, understands Middle America better than Elizabeth Warren, less touchy-feely than Joe Biden, more pleasant than Andrew Cuomo, more charismatic than John Hickenlooper. #ImWithHer.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/08/opinion/oprah-2020-president-globes.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region

How Many People Approved This Ad & Thought It Was OK?


What Real Smart People Say About Themselves

From the Atlantic -

How Actual Smart People Talk About Themselves
Hint: not by discussing IQ
By JAMES FALLOWS

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/01/how-actual-smart-people-talk-about-themselves/549878/?utm_source=&silverid=MzEwMTkwMTQ4ODk4S0

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This article is too good to cheery pick.

Enjoy!


The Ultimate Paper Airplane