Tuesday, November 24, 2020
Top Black Grad!
An excerpt from Black Enterprise -
STUDENT WHO TOOK 21 AP COURSES BECOMES THE FIRST BLACK MALE VALEDICTORIAN AT HIS HIGH SCHOOL
by BLACK ENTERPRISE Editors
Congratulations Rawlin Lee Tate Jr. This is something to be truly proud of! 🎓🎆 https://t.co/jObG4Uo7sb
— Jennifer Jones Newbill (she/her/hers) ✨ (@JenNewbill) November 17, 2020
https://www.blackenterprise.com/student-who-took-21-ap-courses-becomes-the-first-black-male-valedictorian-at-his-high-school/
No Licking!
Oh hi, moose. We have strict instructions about your snack habits. #jasper #Alberta 🇨🇦 pic.twitter.com/xSNo7YBrXS
— Carolyn Campbell (@_CLCampbell) November 15, 2020
https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/22/americas/canada-warns-moose-lick-cars-trnd/index.html
Even the Robots Are Biased
An excerpt from the NY Times -
Can We Make Our Robots Less Biased Than We Are?
A.I. developers are committing to end the injustices in how their technology is often made and used.
By David Berreby
 |
| Chris S. Crawford, a computer scientist at the University of Alabama. “I personally was in Silicon Valley when some of these technologies were being developed,” he said, and more than once, “I would sit down and they would test it on me, and it wouldn’t work. And I was like, You know why it’s not working, right?”Credit...Wes Frazer for The New York Times Over the past decade, evidence has accumulated that “bias is the original sin of A.I,” Dr. Howard notes in her 2020 audiobook, “Sex, Race and Robots.” Facial-recognition systems have been shown to be more accurate in identifying white faces than those of other people. (In January, one such system told the Detroit police that it had matched photos of a suspected thief with the driver’s license photo of Robert Julian-Borchak Williams, a Black man with no connection to the crime.) There are A.I. systems enabling self-driving cars to detect pedestrians — last year Benjamin Wilson of Georgia Tech and his colleagues found that eight such systems were worse at recognizing people with darker skin tones than paler ones. Joy Buolamwini, the founder of the Algorithmic Justice League and a graduate researcher at the M.I.T. Media Lab, has encountered interactive robots at two different laboratories that failed to detect her. (For her work with such a robot at M.I.T., she wore a white mask in order to be seen.) https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/22/science/artificial-intelligence-robots-racism-police.html |
Kaep's Message
1,363 days of being denied employment.
— Colin Kaepernick (@Kaepernick7) November 23, 2020
Still putting in work with @E_Reid35
Still going hard 5 days a week. #StillReady#StopRunning pic.twitter.com/iMeJ03IRuB
Free Period Products
Proud to vote for this groundbreaking legislation, making Scotland the first country in the world to provide free period products for all who need them. An important policy for women and girls. Well done to @MonicaLennon7 @ClydesdAileen and all who worked to make it happen https://t.co/4lckZ4ZYIY
— Nicola Sturgeon (@NicolaSturgeon) November 24, 2020
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/24/world/europe/scotland-free-period-products.html
"Racism is a Public Health Threat"
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/11/23/racism-public-health-threat-american-medical-association/6400945002/
Monday, November 16, 2020
Sunday, November 15, 2020
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Another First
An excerpt from Black Enterprise -
MEET THE FIRST BLACK WOMAN TO RECEIVE A PH.D. IN NEUROSCIENCE FROM THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
by Dana Givens
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| Image via University of Rochester Alumni |
Dr. Monique Mendes has become the first Black woman to receive a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Rochester. The Jamaican-born, first-generation college graduate says the announcement came as a shock to her, not even realizing she had done so until informed.
“I didn’t know I was the first Black woman, but I’m excited,” said Mendes to Diversity Education. “I feel empowered; I really want other students in the Rochester city schools, just around Rochester that are Black, who are people of color that know that this is possible and that they can pursue a Ph.D. in neuroscience.”
Her desire to obtain her degree came after she became apart of the McNair Scholars Program at the University of Florida, a program designed to help undergraduate students from low-income and marginalized backgrounds offering financial assistance in addition to mentorship to help them prepare for their doctoral degree. From there, her interest grew and she became more immersed in studying the complexities of the brain, hoping to establish a career in neuroscience.
https://www.blackenterprise.com/meet-the-first-black-woman-to-receive-a-ph-d-in-neuroscience-from-the-university-of-rochester/
The Youngest Composer for the NY Philharmonic
An excerpt from Black Enterprise -
THIS 12-YEAR-OLD IS SET TO BECOME ONE OF THE YOUNGEST COMPOSERS FOR THE NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
by Dana Givens
Teaching music to children has been said to offer positive growth during their early development. For one Brooklyn girl, her love for music led her to continue her dream toward composing original work while achieving remarkable milestones.
Grace Moore is a young musician who is poised for greatness and achieved a huge milestone this week. WPIX 11 reported that the seventh-grader is one of the youngest composers to enter the New York Philharmonic. Moore is enrolled in the organization’s Very Young Composers program designed to teach participants as young as 8-years-old how to create original scores. The members of the program will also get to see their work performed by professional musicians in the orchestra.
https://www.blackenterprise.com/this-12-year-old-is-set-to-become-one-of-the-youngest-composers-for-the-new-york-philharmonic-orchestra/
Making History @ Annapolis
An excerpt from CBS Baltimore -
Midshipman 1st Class Sydney Barber Will Be The First Black Woman To Lead US Naval Academy’s Brigade
By CBS Baltimore Staff
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (WJZ) — For the first time, a Black woman will serve as the U.S. Naval Academy’s brigade commander.
Midshipman 1st Class Sydney Barber will be the commander for the spring semester, the academy’s commandant said.
Credit: US Naval Academy
The first female brigade commander ever was then-Midshipman Juliane Gallina, who served in 1991.
Barber, a graduate of Lake Forest High School in Illinois, is a mechanical engineering major and aspires to commission as a Marine Corps ground officer.
https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2020/11/09/midshipman-1st-class-sydney-barber-will-be-the-first-black-woman-to-lead-us-naval-academys-brigade/