It’s a point guard’s game
NBA courts, once dominated by big men, have become the domain of smaller, quicker players as the sport has evolved
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/sports/wp/2016/04/15/its-a-point-guards-game/?hpid=hp_no-name_graphic-story-b%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
Friday, April 15, 2016
Smart Kid
An excerpt from The Washington Post -
This 9-year-old wants to be the first White House child science adviser
This 9-year-old wants to be the first White House child science adviser
 |
| Jacob Leggette, 9, of Baltimore, Md., looks on as President Obama blows a bubble while visiting his exhibit during the White House Science Fair on April 13, 2016. Jacob made toys and models with a 3-D printer. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) |
Jacob Leggette’s mother said his childhood has been characterized by impatience. He was grabbing at his father’s iPad as a toddler. At 8, he tried out a 3-D printer at Digital Harbor Foundation, which has youth technology programs near his home in Baltimore, and decided he had to have one.
Not content to wait for Santa Claus, he began writing letters to 3-D printer companies urging them to give him a free printer in exchange for writing reviews of their products. It worked, and the models and toys he built on the machine he got earned him a ticket to the White House Science Fair this week.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/this-9-year-old-wants-to-be-the-first-white-house-child-science-adviser/2016/04/15/8979b494-0341-11e6-9203-7b8670959b88_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
The Queen of Creole Cooking
An excerpt from The New Yorker -
New Orleans’s Queen of Creole Cooking, at Ninety-Three
BY BRETT ANDERSON
The ninety-three-year-old New Orleans chef Leah Chase arrived at Dooky Chase, her historic Creole restaurant, at 7:30 A.M. on Holy Thursday. Lent was over for the city’s Catholics, but the day is nonetheless a solemn occasion, marked by foot-washing ceremonies and the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. In New Orleans, Holy Thursday is also synonymous with going to Dooky’s for gumbo z’herbes, a rare form of New Orleans’s ubiquitous dish.
An hour before the 11 A.M. service, the first of three sold-out turns on the restaurant’s busiest day of the year, Chase was holding a knife over a steaming pile of smoked ham hocks. In her tenth decade, she requires the aid of a walker or a cane. Her fingers no longer travel in a straight line from knuckle-to-nail, but her hands remain nimble, and she can still be found in Dooky’s kitchen most days. Next month, she’ll become the first African-American to receive the James Beard Foundation’s lifetime-achievement award. (The Times was marvelling at her fortitude back in 1990, when she was just sixty-seven.) She pulled meat from the bones and chopped. “See how tender they are?” she said, extending a morsel of rosy pork. A local television cameraman, who was capturing the kitchen’s progress, asked Chase’s grandson, Edgar “Dooky” Chase IV, to name his favorite dish. His grandmother answered for him: “Gumbo.”
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/new-orleanss-queen-of-creole-cooking-at-ninety-three?mbid=nl_TNY%20Template%20-%20With%20Photo%20(29)&CNDID=27124505&spMailingID=8790175&spUserID=MTE0MzE0NDEyNDUyS0&spJobID=901616882&spReportId=OTAxNjE2ODgyS0
New Orleans’s Queen of Creole Cooking, at Ninety-Three
BY BRETT ANDERSON
 | ||
| The New Orleans chef Leah Chase will in May become the first African-American to receive the James Beard Foundation’s lifetime achievement award. |
The ninety-three-year-old New Orleans chef Leah Chase arrived at Dooky Chase, her historic Creole restaurant, at 7:30 A.M. on Holy Thursday. Lent was over for the city’s Catholics, but the day is nonetheless a solemn occasion, marked by foot-washing ceremonies and the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. In New Orleans, Holy Thursday is also synonymous with going to Dooky’s for gumbo z’herbes, a rare form of New Orleans’s ubiquitous dish.
An hour before the 11 A.M. service, the first of three sold-out turns on the restaurant’s busiest day of the year, Chase was holding a knife over a steaming pile of smoked ham hocks. In her tenth decade, she requires the aid of a walker or a cane. Her fingers no longer travel in a straight line from knuckle-to-nail, but her hands remain nimble, and she can still be found in Dooky’s kitchen most days. Next month, she’ll become the first African-American to receive the James Beard Foundation’s lifetime-achievement award. (The Times was marvelling at her fortitude back in 1990, when she was just sixty-seven.) She pulled meat from the bones and chopped. “See how tender they are?” she said, extending a morsel of rosy pork. A local television cameraman, who was capturing the kitchen’s progress, asked Chase’s grandson, Edgar “Dooky” Chase IV, to name his favorite dish. His grandmother answered for him: “Gumbo.”
http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/new-orleanss-queen-of-creole-cooking-at-ninety-three?mbid=nl_TNY%20Template%20-%20With%20Photo%20(29)&CNDID=27124505&spMailingID=8790175&spUserID=MTE0MzE0NDEyNDUyS0&spJobID=901616882&spReportId=OTAxNjE2ODgyS0
A Letter From Daughter-in-Law to Mother-in-Law
From Upworthy -
You always stole my thunder. You gave them everything they wanted. You never said no when they asked for anything.
A second helping of dessert. Candy before dinner. A few more minutes in the bath. Money for the ice cream truck.
I struggled to show you respect and appreciation while trying to make sure you didn’t spoil my children. I thought you would turn them into “selfish brats” by giving them everything they wanted. I thought they might never learn to wait, to take turns, to share, because you granted their wishes as soon as they opened their mouths and pointed.
You held each one of my babies long after they fell asleep. Didn’t you understand that I needed them to learn to fall asleep on their own?
You ran to them as soon as they made the tiniest sound. How would they ever learn to self-soothe?
I resented you for buying the best and most expensive gifts on their birthdays and on Christmas. How could I possibly compete with you?
And how they loved afternoons spent with you. You made their favorite things for dinner — three different meals for three different boys. And you always had a little surprise. A present, candy, or a special treat. I didn’t want them to associate you with gifts and sweets. I thought they should love you for you. I tried to tell you this, but you wouldn’t listen.
I spent a lot of time wondering why you did all these things and how I could get you to ease up. I know grandmothers are supposed to “spoil the kids” then send them home, but you were ... ridiculous.
Until you were gone.
I had to hold my boys and tell them that their grandma died. It didn’t seem possible — you were supposed to be there for all the other special moments: proms, graduations, weddings. But they lost their grandma too soon and too suddenly. They were not ready to say goodbye.
And how they loved afternoons spent with you. You made their favorite things for dinner — three different meals for three different boys. And you always had a little surprise. A present, candy, or a special treat. I didn’t want them to associate you with gifts and sweets. I thought they should love you for you. I tried to tell you this, but you wouldn’t listen.
I spent a lot of time wondering why you did all these things and how I could get you to ease up. I know grandmothers are supposed to “spoil the kids” then send them home, but you were ... ridiculous.
My kids, now in their teens, miss you dearly. And they don’t miss your gifts or your money. They miss you.
They miss running to greet you at the door and hugging you before you could step in. They miss looking up at the bleachers and seeing you, one of their biggest fans, smiling and enthralled to catch their eye. They miss talking to you and hearing your words of wisdom, encouragement and love.
If I could speak to you one more time, I would tell you that every time a precious moment steals my heart, every time I watch them arrive at a new milestone, and every time they amaze me with their perseverance, talents, or triumphs, I think of you. And I wish that they could have you back.
Come back and love them one last time, like no one else in the world but a grandmother could. Bring your sweets and surprises. Reward them with gifts for the smallest accomplishments. Painstakingly prepare their favorite meals. Take them anywhere they want to go. All and only because you love them.
Come back and see how much they’ve grown. Watch each boy becoming his own version of a young man. Be in awe with me as we admire how family, friendship, time, and love helped them grow so beautifully over the years.
The more I long for you to come back, though, the more I realize that in a way, you never left.
I understand now. I know you loved them in every way you could. I know that being their grandma gave you joy and purpose. And of course I know that you can’t come back, but I do know that your love for them will always remain. Your love built them and sheltered them in ways that cannot be described. Your love is a big part of who they are and what they will become as they grow. For this, and for every treat and gift, and every time you held them too long or consoled them too much or let them stay up too late, I will always thank you.
And I will wish a million times that you could do it all again.
http://www.upworthy.com/a-letter-to-my-mother-in-law-about-my-3-boys?c=upw1
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Who Dies?
Excerpts from Variety -
‘Anyone Can Die?’ TV’s Recent Death Toll Says Otherwise
Women of color, men of color, LGBTQ characters and white female characters have been killed off left and right. None of that’s new for TV, but the sheer volume of these deaths — a number of which were shocking for the wrong reasons — has been notable. When considered as a whole, it’s difficult for the suspicion that these characters are expendable not to harden into belief.
A lot of shows pride themselves on the idea that “anyone can die,” but is that actually true?
It doesn’t feel true when a large number of LGBTQ characters die in a matter of weeks.
It doesn’t feel true when a network TV drama, “Sleepy Hollow,” kills off its African-American female lead in order to provide motivation for the show’s white, male lead — whose lifespan, its worth noting, now stretches more than 200 years and counting. (There are reports that actress Nicole Beharie wanted to leave the show, which is understandable, given how poorly the show’s narrative and character development has been handled since early in season two.)
It doesn’t feel true when, in recent months and years, I can think of dozens of gay, female and non-white character deaths that were used to prod growth or vengeance in white, straight or male characters — but I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen that dynamic play out in reverse.
~~~~~~~~~~
Who does die? This year, dozens of lesbians and bisexual women have died on various shows, among them “The Vampire Diaries,” “The Walking Dead,” “Empire,” “The Shannara Chronicles,” “The Magicians” and “The 100” (which also recently killed a character played by a black male series regular). In the last two weeks, notable women died on “Hap and Leonard,” “Vikings,” “Arrow” and “Sleepy Hollow.”
~~~~~~~~~~
But the real problem is this: who’s telling the stories. Just as certain kinds of characters appear to be protected, TV’s creative leadership tiers are dominated by certain kinds of people. Who wants to take a bet on whether these two issues are linked?
http://variety.com/2016/tv/opinion/tv-deaths-walking-dead-the-100-arrow-1201751968/
‘Anyone Can Die?’ TV’s Recent Death Toll Says Otherwise
Women of color, men of color, LGBTQ characters and white female characters have been killed off left and right. None of that’s new for TV, but the sheer volume of these deaths — a number of which were shocking for the wrong reasons — has been notable. When considered as a whole, it’s difficult for the suspicion that these characters are expendable not to harden into belief.
A lot of shows pride themselves on the idea that “anyone can die,” but is that actually true?
It doesn’t feel true when a large number of LGBTQ characters die in a matter of weeks.
It doesn’t feel true when a network TV drama, “Sleepy Hollow,” kills off its African-American female lead in order to provide motivation for the show’s white, male lead — whose lifespan, its worth noting, now stretches more than 200 years and counting. (There are reports that actress Nicole Beharie wanted to leave the show, which is understandable, given how poorly the show’s narrative and character development has been handled since early in season two.)
It doesn’t feel true when, in recent months and years, I can think of dozens of gay, female and non-white character deaths that were used to prod growth or vengeance in white, straight or male characters — but I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen that dynamic play out in reverse.
~~~~~~~~~~
Who does die? This year, dozens of lesbians and bisexual women have died on various shows, among them “The Vampire Diaries,” “The Walking Dead,” “Empire,” “The Shannara Chronicles,” “The Magicians” and “The 100” (which also recently killed a character played by a black male series regular). In the last two weeks, notable women died on “Hap and Leonard,” “Vikings,” “Arrow” and “Sleepy Hollow.”
~~~~~~~~~~
But the real problem is this: who’s telling the stories. Just as certain kinds of characters appear to be protected, TV’s creative leadership tiers are dominated by certain kinds of people. Who wants to take a bet on whether these two issues are linked?
http://variety.com/2016/tv/opinion/tv-deaths-walking-dead-the-100-arrow-1201751968/
Tuesday, April 12, 2016
Monday, April 11, 2016
Vindicated
An excerpt from Rolling Stone -
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/anita-hill-on-confirmation-joe-bidens-legacy-and-bill-cosby-20160411#ixzz45a4uDn5b
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook
In 1991, 35-year-old Oklahoma State University law professor Anita Hill was called before Congress to testify about the behavior of Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas, her former boss at the Office for Civil Rights and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Hill was subpoenaed by the Senate Judiciary Committee to share allegations that Thomas sexually harassed her on the job at the EEOC — the federal agency that handles workplace sexual harassment claims, among other things. For coming forward, Hill was demonized by conservatives, who called her a liar and delusional for thinking Thomas could be interested in her. Their attacks on Hill's character worked; by the end of the hearings, nearly three-quarters of the public believed she lied about Thomas. It was only in the ensuing years that a steady stream of books, interviews and articles emerged to bolster Hill's version of events, and discredit Thomas'.
Add to that list Confirmation, a film airing April 16th on HBO, starring Kerry Washington as Hill, Wendell Pierce as Thomas and Greg Kinnear as then Judiciary Committee chair Joe Biden. Hill recently spoke to Rolling Stone about reliving her experience with the hearings via conversations with Washington and screenwriter Susannah Grant; the film's portrayal of Biden, who refused to call witnesses who would've supported Hill's claims; and all the ways America still fails victims of sexual harassment and abuse.
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/anita-hill-on-confirmation-joe-bidens-legacy-and-bill-cosby-20160411#ixzz45a4uDn5b
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook
Smart Hiring
An excerpt from The Atlantic -
The Science of Smart Hiring
Finding great new workers is hard. A little bit of empiricism can help.
Hiring is hard. General managers know it. Startup founders know it. School principals and casting directors know it. But for readers who are none of those things, consider America’s most public hiring processes—aside from presidential elections, perhaps—which are sports drafts.
Every year, millions of Americans watch professional talent evaluators try to predict who will be the best future athletes in the NBA and NFL Drafts. Again and again, audiences get valuable lessons in the inability of experts to divine future talent. Scouts aren’t dumb. Overall, the first pick tends to be better than the tenth pick, and he tends to be better than 100th pick. But years after the draft, at least one squad almost always looks foolish. For every top five team that can’t believe it picked a Darko Milicic or Ryan Leaf, there is a top five team that can’t believe it missed a Stephen Curry or Tom Brady.
Hiring is hard for the same reason that dating is hard: Both sides are in the dark. "The fundamental economic problem in hiring is one of matching with costly search and bilateral asymmetric information,” Paul Oyer and Scott Schaefer write in "Personnel Economics.” In English, that means hiring is expensive, time-consuming, and inherently uncertain, because the hirer doesn't know what workers are the right fit, and the worker don’t know what hirers are the right fit.
http://www.theatlantic.com/author/derek-thompson/
He Was Just Hungry
From The Root -
http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2016/04/d_c_police_looking_for_man_who_broke_into_five_guys_and_cooks_meal.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26
DC Police Looking for Man Who Broke Into Five Guys Restaurant and Cooked Meal
The unidentified suspect was caught on camera making himself food while the restaurant was closed between 3:10 a.m. and 5:05 a.m. March 18.
http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2016/04/d_c_police_looking_for_man_who_broke_into_five_guys_and_cooks_meal.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26
Forget the Nerd
#YesImARocketScientist: Graduating Aerospace Engineer Tiffany Davis Breaks the Internet
http://www.theroot.com/blogs/the_grapevine/2016/04/_yesimarocketscientist_aerospace_engineer_tiffany_davis_breaks_the_internet.html?wpisrc=newsletter_jcr:content%26
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