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Friday, March 9, 2018

He Needed a Break

An excerpt from the Verge -

Burger-flipping robot takes four-day break immediately after landing new job
Robots, they’re just like us
By James Vincent


Good news if you’re worried about a robot taking your job: it turns out even mechanical laborers need a break.

Only a single shift into its career at the CaliBurger restaurant in Pasadena, California, this week, Flippy the robot burger-flipper is going on hiatus, reports USA Today. The bot, created by startup Miso Robotics, made its debut earlier this week assisting in CaliBurger’s kitchen by flipping patties on the grill. According to reports, the robot did its job well but was such a hit with customers that Miso Robotics is giving Flippy time off over the weekend for some upgrades.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/3/8/17095730/robot-burger-flipping-fast-food-caliburger-miso-robotics-flippy

Penguin Selfie



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/animalia/wp/2018/03/08/these-penguins-found-a-camera-in-antarctica-and-captured-a-surprisingly-good-selfie/?utm_term=.d059e49b7b9d

This 12-Year-Old Scientist is Taking On Flint's Water Crisis

Taste Hawaii’s Famous Mochi

This Sea-Craft Looks Like A Plane, Has A Car's Engine, And Docks Like A ...

The Rickshaw Driver Starting a Revolution

Ember Trio - Destiny's Child Medley Violin Cello Cover

Rethinking Prisons

An excerpt form the NY Times -

Turn Prisons Into Colleges
By ELIZABETH HINTON

Imagine if prisons looked like the grounds of universities. Instead of languishing in cells, incarcerated people sat in classrooms and learned about climate science or poetry — just like college students. Or even with them.

This would be a boon to prisoners across the country, a vast majority of whom do not have a high school diploma. And it could help shrink our prison population. While racial disparities in arrests and convictions are alarming, education level is a far stronger predictor of future incarceration than race.

The idea is rooted in history. In the 1920s, Howard Belding Gill, a criminologist and a Harvard alumnus, developed a college-like community at the Norfolk State Prison Colony in Massachusetts, where he was the superintendent. Prisoners wore normal clothing, participated in cooperative self-government with staff, and took academic courses with instructors from Emerson, Boston University and Harvard. They ran a newspaper, radio show and jazz orchestra, and they had access to an extensive library.

Norfolk had such a good reputation, Malcolm X asked to be transferred there from Charlestown State Prison in Boston so, as he wrote in his petition, he could use “the educational facilities that aren’t in these other institutions.” At Norfolk, “there are many things that I would like to learn that would be of use to me when I regain my freedom.” After Malcolm X’s request was granted, he joined the famous Norfolk Debate Society, through which inmates connected to students at Harvard and other universities.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/06/opinion/prisons-colleges-education.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&region=CColumn&module=MostEmailed&version=Full&src=me&WT.nav=MostEmailed

Girls Ruling the World

From the Huffington Post -

16 Girls Who Changed The World
Proof you’re never too young to make an impact.
By Caroline Bologna

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/16-girls-who-changed-the-world_us_5a8f4f09e4b01e9e56b9e26c

The Wire Cast - Where Are They Now?

From Complex -

Ranking the Careers of 'The Wire' Cast, 10 Years After the Series Finale
BY KHAL, DRIA ROLAND, FRAZIER THARPE, BRANDON JENKINS, KIANA FITZGERALD, SHAWN SETARO, ANGEL DIAZ

http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2018/03/the-wire-character-career-ranking-after-series-finale/

Blacks Leaving White Churches

From the NY Times -

A Quiet Exodus: Why Black Worshipers Are Leaving White Evangelical Churches
By CAMPBELL ROBERTSON

Black congregants — as recounted by people in Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Fort Worth and elsewhere — had already grown uneasy in recent years as they watched their white pastors fail to address police shootings of African-Americans. They heard prayers for Paris, for Brussels, for law enforcement; they heard that one should keep one’s eyes on the kingdom, that the church was colorblind, and that talk of racial injustice was divisive, not a matter of the gospel. There was still some hope that this stemmed from an obliviousness rather than some deeper disconnect.

Then white evangelicals voted for Mr. Trump by a larger margin than they had voted for any presidential candidate. They cheered the outcome, reassuring uneasy fellow worshipers with talk of abortion and religious liberty, about how politics is the art of compromise rather than the ideal. Christians of color, even those who shared these policy preferences, looked at Mr. Trump’s comments about Mexican immigrants, his open hostility to N.F.L. players protesting police brutality and his earlier “birther” crusade against President Obama, claiming falsely he was not a United States citizen. In this political deal, many concluded, they were the compromised.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/09/us/blacks-evangelical-churches.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share