Saturday, August 12, 2017
Combustion Engine - RIP
An excerpt form the Economist -
The death of the internal combustion engine
It had a good run. But the end is in sight for the machine that changed the world
The shift from fuel and pistons to batteries and electric motors is unlikely to take that long. The first death rattles of the internal combustion engine are already reverberating around the world—and many of the consequences will be welcome.
To gauge what lies ahead, think how the internal combustion engine has shaped modern life. The rich world was rebuilt for motor vehicles, with huge investments in road networks and the invention of suburbia, along with shopping malls and drive-through restaurants. Roughly 85% of American workers commute by car. Carmaking was also a generator of economic development and the expansion of the middle class, in post-war America and elsewhere. There are now about 1bn cars on the road, almost all powered by fossil fuels. Though most of them sit idle, America’s car and lorry engines can produce ten times as much energy as its power stations. The internal combustion engine is the mightiest motor in history.
https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21726071-it-had-good-run-end-sight-machine-changed-world-death?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top-stories
The death of the internal combustion engine
It had a good run. But the end is in sight for the machine that changed the world
The shift from fuel and pistons to batteries and electric motors is unlikely to take that long. The first death rattles of the internal combustion engine are already reverberating around the world—and many of the consequences will be welcome.
To gauge what lies ahead, think how the internal combustion engine has shaped modern life. The rich world was rebuilt for motor vehicles, with huge investments in road networks and the invention of suburbia, along with shopping malls and drive-through restaurants. Roughly 85% of American workers commute by car. Carmaking was also a generator of economic development and the expansion of the middle class, in post-war America and elsewhere. There are now about 1bn cars on the road, almost all powered by fossil fuels. Though most of them sit idle, America’s car and lorry engines can produce ten times as much energy as its power stations. The internal combustion engine is the mightiest motor in history.
https://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21726071-it-had-good-run-end-sight-machine-changed-world-death?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top-stories
Monk Life
An excerpt from the LA Times -
For the monks of Big Sur, the bonds of brotherhood grow after Highway 1 closure
By Elijah Hurwitz
Life for the monks at New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur is by definition an exercise in isolation, but recent months forced that isolation to new levels. In February the monastery was effectively cut off from its normal stream of visitors and guests after winter rain storms dubbed "atmospheric rivers" pounded the California coastline, damaging Highway 1 and nearby access roads. Several monks and staff decided to ride out the isolation, enduring multiple health crises and two deaths as they persisted in their devoted, austere lifestyles in this remote mountain community. After six months, the Hermitage began accepting guests again this month.
http://www.latimes.com/visuals/framework/la-me-fw-big-sur-monks-unfurled-20170811-htmlstory.html#nws=mcnewsletter
For the monks of Big Sur, the bonds of brotherhood grow after Highway 1 closure
By Elijah Hurwitz
Life for the monks at New Camaldoli Hermitage in Big Sur is by definition an exercise in isolation, but recent months forced that isolation to new levels. In February the monastery was effectively cut off from its normal stream of visitors and guests after winter rain storms dubbed "atmospheric rivers" pounded the California coastline, damaging Highway 1 and nearby access roads. Several monks and staff decided to ride out the isolation, enduring multiple health crises and two deaths as they persisted in their devoted, austere lifestyles in this remote mountain community. After six months, the Hermitage began accepting guests again this month.
http://www.latimes.com/visuals/framework/la-me-fw-big-sur-monks-unfurled-20170811-htmlstory.html#nws=mcnewsletter
Fascinating Traffic Data
From the Washington Post -
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/national/escape-time/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_rush-hour-340pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.24bff068b259#nws=mcnewsletter
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/national/escape-time/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_rush-hour-340pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.24bff068b259#nws=mcnewsletter
Poop-Powered
An excerpt from KQED -
Poop-Powered Electric Feed Truck Debuts at Northern California Creamery
By Tiffany Camhi
One of the first things that you pass on the dirt road to Straus Family Creamery in Northern California is a pond. It has a white tarp over it, and you don’t want to get too close because the tarp is collecting methane gas — gas produced by the poop from the ranch’s nearly 300 cows.
“The cows’ waste is collected. It goes through our methane digester that produces methane gas,” says Albert Straus, founder and CEO of the creamery, located in the Marin County town of Marshall.
Then the methane is used as the fuel for a generator that produces electricity for the entire farm.
https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/08/11/poop-powered-electric-feed-truck-debuts-at-northern-california-creamery/
Poop-Powered Electric Feed Truck Debuts at Northern California Creamery
By Tiffany Camhi
One of the first things that you pass on the dirt road to Straus Family Creamery in Northern California is a pond. It has a white tarp over it, and you don’t want to get too close because the tarp is collecting methane gas — gas produced by the poop from the ranch’s nearly 300 cows.
“The cows’ waste is collected. It goes through our methane digester that produces methane gas,” says Albert Straus, founder and CEO of the creamery, located in the Marin County town of Marshall.
Then the methane is used as the fuel for a generator that produces electricity for the entire farm.
https://ww2.kqed.org/news/2017/08/11/poop-powered-electric-feed-truck-debuts-at-northern-california-creamery/
Friday, August 11, 2017
In Honor of the 44th Anniversary of Hip-Hop
Check out this interactive Google Doodle.
https://www.google.com
https://www.google.com
Talent Runs in This Family
An excerpt from the Hollywood Reporter -
How Donald Glover's Brother Went From Chemical Engineering to 'Atlanta's' Lead Writer
by Lacey Rose
Stephen Glover may not be as well-known as his older brother (yet!), but he's the sole credited scribe on nearly half of the FX series' Emmy-nominated first season — and he'll co-create the network's upcoming 'Deadpool' series.
As you enter Stephen Glover's apartment, your eyes can't help but settle on a cluttered corner to the right of the door. Mixed in with several pairs of shoes, some booze, a few pieces of musical equipment, a stack of papers, a framed poster from Atlanta's first season and a slice or two of day-old pizza sits a pair of Golden Globe statues and a collection of Writers Guild awards. Somewhere else in the Hollywood apartment, which he shares with his buddy Swank, also a writer on Atlanta, is the AFI award the show earned in January. And come mid-September, an Emmy or two could join the collection.
"It's all just so crazy," says Stephen, 29, who had never written an episode of TV before Donald enlisted him to join the staff. "I'm sure people thought, 'You're bringing on your friends and your brother? This is a train wreck ready to happen.' "
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-donald-glovers-brother-went-chemical-engineering-atlantas-lead-writer-1027637
How Donald Glover's Brother Went From Chemical Engineering to 'Atlanta's' Lead Writer
by Lacey Rose
Stephen Glover may not be as well-known as his older brother (yet!), but he's the sole credited scribe on nearly half of the FX series' Emmy-nominated first season — and he'll co-create the network's upcoming 'Deadpool' series.
As you enter Stephen Glover's apartment, your eyes can't help but settle on a cluttered corner to the right of the door. Mixed in with several pairs of shoes, some booze, a few pieces of musical equipment, a stack of papers, a framed poster from Atlanta's first season and a slice or two of day-old pizza sits a pair of Golden Globe statues and a collection of Writers Guild awards. Somewhere else in the Hollywood apartment, which he shares with his buddy Swank, also a writer on Atlanta, is the AFI award the show earned in January. And come mid-September, an Emmy or two could join the collection.
"It's all just so crazy," says Stephen, 29, who had never written an episode of TV before Donald enlisted him to join the staff. "I'm sure people thought, 'You're bringing on your friends and your brother? This is a train wreck ready to happen.' "
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/how-donald-glovers-brother-went-chemical-engineering-atlantas-lead-writer-1027637
I Agree. Stand Up For Kaepernick.
An excerpt form Salon -
Boycott the NFL: Athletes and fans need to stand up for Colin Kaepernick now
I love football, but I won't support a hypocritical corporation that punishes peaceful protest
D. WATKINS
This is the first year that I can honestly say that I’m not excited about the upcoming NFL season. I won’t watch it, support it or pay any attention to it. It’s not that I lost interest in the sport. I love football. But the NFL has been going above and beyond to show how racist they are as an organization. As if the dearth of minority owners and small number of black coaches — not to mention having a team called the Redskins — isn’t bad enough, Colin Kaepernick still doesn’t have a job.
He didn’t murder dogs like Michael Vick, who was able to be reinstated and has also criticized Kaepernick by saying “first thing we’ve got to get Colin to do is cut his hair.” Kap’s hair doesn’t matter; he has a better rating (QBR) than 20 starting quarterbacks currently preparing for the 2017-2018 season. Kaepernick was also never involved in a murder like Ray Lewis, who also criticized him by hopping on Undisputed and saying that he disagreed with Kap’s silent, peaceful protest. Kaepernick stood up against our racist law enforcement and criminal justice systems by taking a knee during the National Anthem — along with donating a million dollars to various charities — and he’s paying the ultimate price.
http://www.salon.com/2017/08/11/boycott-the-nfl-athletes-and-fans-need-to-stand-up-for-colin-kaepernick-now/?source=newsletter
Boycott the NFL: Athletes and fans need to stand up for Colin Kaepernick now
I love football, but I won't support a hypocritical corporation that punishes peaceful protest
D. WATKINS
This is the first year that I can honestly say that I’m not excited about the upcoming NFL season. I won’t watch it, support it or pay any attention to it. It’s not that I lost interest in the sport. I love football. But the NFL has been going above and beyond to show how racist they are as an organization. As if the dearth of minority owners and small number of black coaches — not to mention having a team called the Redskins — isn’t bad enough, Colin Kaepernick still doesn’t have a job.
He didn’t murder dogs like Michael Vick, who was able to be reinstated and has also criticized Kaepernick by saying “first thing we’ve got to get Colin to do is cut his hair.” Kap’s hair doesn’t matter; he has a better rating (QBR) than 20 starting quarterbacks currently preparing for the 2017-2018 season. Kaepernick was also never involved in a murder like Ray Lewis, who also criticized him by hopping on Undisputed and saying that he disagreed with Kap’s silent, peaceful protest. Kaepernick stood up against our racist law enforcement and criminal justice systems by taking a knee during the National Anthem — along with donating a million dollars to various charities — and he’s paying the ultimate price.
http://www.salon.com/2017/08/11/boycott-the-nfl-athletes-and-fans-need-to-stand-up-for-colin-kaepernick-now/?source=newsletter
Smog-Eating Bikes
From the Daily Good -
Smog-Eating Bikes Are About To Take On Beijing
by James Gaines
If one design firm can pull it off, cyclists in Beijing may soon double as mobile air filters. Holland’s Studio Roosegaarde has developed anti-smog bicycles and the first prototype is expected to hit the Asian city’s congested streets as soon as the end of this year, according to Quartz.
~~~~~~~~~~
Here’s how the bikes work: A device installed near the handlebars of the bike sucks in smoggy air and filters out particulates like soot or dust, clearing the way for what will essentially be a bubble of clean air right in front of the rider.
The bikes are still in the planning stage, so their effectiveness has yet to be put to the test, but it’s possible that this air-filtration system could benefit more than just the cyclist who rides it. With Roosegaarde’s partner bike-sharing service Ofo providing access to over 6.5 million bikes in Asia and the U.K., a lot of air could end up running through those filters.
https://www.good.is/articles/beijing-bicycles-remove-smog-directly-from-the-air?utm_source=thedailygood&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailygood
Smog-Eating Bikes Are About To Take On Beijing
by James Gaines
 | |
All images via Studio Roosegaarde.
|
If one design firm can pull it off, cyclists in Beijing may soon double as mobile air filters. Holland’s Studio Roosegaarde has developed anti-smog bicycles and the first prototype is expected to hit the Asian city’s congested streets as soon as the end of this year, according to Quartz.
~~~~~~~~~~
Here’s how the bikes work: A device installed near the handlebars of the bike sucks in smoggy air and filters out particulates like soot or dust, clearing the way for what will essentially be a bubble of clean air right in front of the rider.
The bikes are still in the planning stage, so their effectiveness has yet to be put to the test, but it’s possible that this air-filtration system could benefit more than just the cyclist who rides it. With Roosegaarde’s partner bike-sharing service Ofo providing access to over 6.5 million bikes in Asia and the U.K., a lot of air could end up running through those filters.
https://www.good.is/articles/beijing-bicycles-remove-smog-directly-from-the-air?utm_source=thedailygood&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailygood
Passport Website
From the Huffington Post -
This Website Will Upend The Way You Think About Passports
Find out where you can travel without a visa thanks to your U.S. passport.
By Suzy Strutner
Having a U.S. passport comes with really big benefits, as a new website will remind you.
Passport holders from the States can visit some 174 countries without applying for a visa first. VisaDB, a handy new website in its prototype phase, allows travelers to easily browse all the available options. Just plug in the U.S. as your country of residence, and the tool will tell you which countries you can visit visa-free in a given region, along with some helpful data about expenses.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/visadb-passports-do-you-need-a-visa_us_598cd4a6e4b08a247273567d?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
This Website Will Upend The Way You Think About Passports
Find out where you can travel without a visa thanks to your U.S. passport.
By Suzy Strutner
Having a U.S. passport comes with really big benefits, as a new website will remind you.
Passport holders from the States can visit some 174 countries without applying for a visa first. VisaDB, a handy new website in its prototype phase, allows travelers to easily browse all the available options. Just plug in the U.S. as your country of residence, and the tool will tell you which countries you can visit visa-free in a given region, along with some helpful data about expenses.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/visadb-passports-do-you-need-a-visa_us_598cd4a6e4b08a247273567d?ncid=inblnkushpmg00000009
Medical Marvels
From the NY Times -
Heart and Asthma Monitors? There’s an App for That
By CAROL POGASH
He could have been surfing in Cabo. Instead, Tyler Crouch, then a 21-year-old mechanical-engineering student, spent spring break of 2013 building a digitized stethoscope and thinking, “This better be worth it.”
Since then, he and two classmates from the University of California, Berkeley, have formed a company — Eko Devices, which is based here — raised nearly $5 million and sold 6,000 digital stethoscopes, used in 700 hospitals. The wireless stethoscopes can transfer a patient’s heart rate and other vital signs directly to Eko’s secure portal, where it can, among other things, be shared with other doctors for a second opinion.
Now they have built something with a potentially larger market: It is the Duo, a digital stethoscope for home use, which could change how heart patients are monitored, the entrepreneurs say. It is scheduled to become available by prescription in the fall.
The product, which fits in your hand, combines electrocardiogram, or E.K.G., readings and heart sounds into a device that allows patients to monitor their health at home and send data to their physicians.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/business/heart-and-asthma-monitors-theres-an-app-for-that.html?emc=edit_ca_20170811&nl=california-today&nlid=38867499&te=1
Heart and Asthma Monitors? There’s an App for That
By CAROL POGASH
He could have been surfing in Cabo. Instead, Tyler Crouch, then a 21-year-old mechanical-engineering student, spent spring break of 2013 building a digitized stethoscope and thinking, “This better be worth it.”
Since then, he and two classmates from the University of California, Berkeley, have formed a company — Eko Devices, which is based here — raised nearly $5 million and sold 6,000 digital stethoscopes, used in 700 hospitals. The wireless stethoscopes can transfer a patient’s heart rate and other vital signs directly to Eko’s secure portal, where it can, among other things, be shared with other doctors for a second opinion.
Now they have built something with a potentially larger market: It is the Duo, a digital stethoscope for home use, which could change how heart patients are monitored, the entrepreneurs say. It is scheduled to become available by prescription in the fall.
The product, which fits in your hand, combines electrocardiogram, or E.K.G., readings and heart sounds into a device that allows patients to monitor their health at home and send data to their physicians.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/business/heart-and-asthma-monitors-theres-an-app-for-that.html?emc=edit_ca_20170811&nl=california-today&nlid=38867499&te=1
So Hard to Watch
I went to see the movie "Detroit" this week. It was horrific. Not because it wasn't well made. It was. Not because it wasn't well cast. It was. Not because it was brought to life by a white director. A problem, but one I could overlook. No, the issue was the pain it evoked. The torment and physical agony of seeing black folks tortured and killed simply for being black, was too much to bear. Seeing the cops who did it get off, was soul-crushing. Knowing this happened 40 years ago and knowing that it is still happening today, is horrifying. Heartbreaking.
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
‘Detroit’ and the question of cultural gatekeeping
By Ann Hornaday
The groan, when it came, was swift, the pain behind it palpable. At a curators’ roundtable at the BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia last weekend, the subject was gatekeeping. Who decides what stories get told? Who decides who gets to tell them? When it comes to stories rooted in the African diaspora — the focus of BlackStar, now in its sixth year — how have moving images in mainstream culture contributed to external bias and internalized self-loathing? Why is a particular story that transpired during the 1967 riots being called “Detroit,” as if one specific, if admittedly monstrous, episode can fairly represent the far more complex events during which it took place?
It was at this question, posed by scholar and curator Dessane Cassell, that the collective groan went up in the packed conference room at the Institute of Contemporary Art. “Detroit,” in which director Kathryn Bigelow dramatizes the murder of three black teenagers at the hands of white policemen during the titular city’s 1967 uprising, has been hailed by many critics (including this one) for plunging viewers into an event that crystallizes white supremacy and impunity at their most pathological. But for many others — including those among the filmmakers, programmers and viewers who attended BlackStar — “Detroit” presents yet another dispiriting example of a white filmmaker undertaking self-examination and catharsis using the spectacle of anguish, suffering and desecration of the black body.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/detroit-and-the-question-of-cultural-gatekeeping/2017/08/10/0bdff1a2-7dce-11e7-83c7-5bd5460f0d7e_story.html?utm_term=.11590ba19b41&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
‘Detroit’ and the question of cultural gatekeeping
By Ann Hornaday
The groan, when it came, was swift, the pain behind it palpable. At a curators’ roundtable at the BlackStar Film Festival in Philadelphia last weekend, the subject was gatekeeping. Who decides what stories get told? Who decides who gets to tell them? When it comes to stories rooted in the African diaspora — the focus of BlackStar, now in its sixth year — how have moving images in mainstream culture contributed to external bias and internalized self-loathing? Why is a particular story that transpired during the 1967 riots being called “Detroit,” as if one specific, if admittedly monstrous, episode can fairly represent the far more complex events during which it took place?
It was at this question, posed by scholar and curator Dessane Cassell, that the collective groan went up in the packed conference room at the Institute of Contemporary Art. “Detroit,” in which director Kathryn Bigelow dramatizes the murder of three black teenagers at the hands of white policemen during the titular city’s 1967 uprising, has been hailed by many critics (including this one) for plunging viewers into an event that crystallizes white supremacy and impunity at their most pathological. But for many others — including those among the filmmakers, programmers and viewers who attended BlackStar — “Detroit” presents yet another dispiriting example of a white filmmaker undertaking self-examination and catharsis using the spectacle of anguish, suffering and desecration of the black body.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/detroit-and-the-question-of-cultural-gatekeeping/2017/08/10/0bdff1a2-7dce-11e7-83c7-5bd5460f0d7e_story.html?utm_term=.11590ba19b41&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Smart Hires
From Axios -
Jim (Axios CEO Jim VandeHei) told me the one management super-power he would wish for all is this: the self-confidence and judgment to hire people, with killer talent and awesome values, who want your job and can do it better. Do this and the next person they hire will do the same and your company will crush it. Don't do this, and you will have a hot mess of mediocrity. This is the Roy Schwartz Rule — and it's damn good one!
https://www.axios.com/axios-am-2471665645.html
Jim (Axios CEO Jim VandeHei) told me the one management super-power he would wish for all is this: the self-confidence and judgment to hire people, with killer talent and awesome values, who want your job and can do it better. Do this and the next person they hire will do the same and your company will crush it. Don't do this, and you will have a hot mess of mediocrity. This is the Roy Schwartz Rule — and it's damn good one!
https://www.axios.com/axios-am-2471665645.html
Thursday, August 10, 2017
A Better Bus?
From the Washington Post -
Can a better night’s sleep in a ‘hipster’ bus replace flying?
By Peter Holley
For many people, moving between major hubs that are just far enough away to create complications — think Los Angeles to San Francisco, for instance — is a regular travel headache.
Tom Currier calls it the “500-mile problem” and now, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur and his partner, Gaetano Crupi, say they have a solution. It’s called “Cabin” — a double-decker, luxury bus line with WiFi, a comfy lounge and sleeping pods that offer the same pressed sheets you’ll find at the Ritz Carlton.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/08/10/can-a-better-nights-sleep-in-a-hipster-bus-replace-flying/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_bus-1120pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.94fcf5e78559
Can a better night’s sleep in a ‘hipster’ bus replace flying?
By Peter Holley
For many people, moving between major hubs that are just far enough away to create complications — think Los Angeles to San Francisco, for instance — is a regular travel headache.
Tom Currier calls it the “500-mile problem” and now, the Silicon Valley entrepreneur and his partner, Gaetano Crupi, say they have a solution. It’s called “Cabin” — a double-decker, luxury bus line with WiFi, a comfy lounge and sleeping pods that offer the same pressed sheets you’ll find at the Ritz Carlton.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2017/08/10/can-a-better-nights-sleep-in-a-hipster-bus-replace-flying/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_bus-1120pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.94fcf5e78559
History Lesson
An excerpt from Atlas Obscura -
The Best Trick U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves Ever Pulled on a Criminal
A particularly glorious example of “fake it ‘til you make it.”
BY ERIC GRUNDHAUSER
THE AMERICAN OLD WEST WAS a fertile cauldron for myth and legend, producing such fantastical figures as Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill. But while many folk heroes of the era may have been embellished-unto-fable, or completely dreamt up, the legendary Wild West figure Bass Reeves was absolutely real, even if his exploits sound like tall tales.
Reeves was one of the most remarkable figures of the Old West, serving as a deputy U.S. Marshal from 1875 to 1907, mostly in and around the regrettable Indian Territory, which once made up much of what is now Oklahoma.
Born into slavery, Reeves escaped from the slave owner George Reeves at some point during the Civil War, supposedly knocking out his so-called “master” in a dispute over cards. Bass then fled into Indian Territory where, despite never having had the opportunity to learn to read, he learned the land and languages of the Cherokee, Seminole, and major tribes that had been forced to relocate to the region. After the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865, abolishing slavery, Reeves was finally able to settle down at an Arkansas farm and start a family. He and his wife Nellie would have almost a dozen kids while working their peaceful homestead, but for Bass, the legend was just beginning.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/bass-reeves-wild-west-letter-trick?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=eeb0bfdbad-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_08_10&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f36db9c480-eeb0bfdbad-63562045&ct=t(Newsletter_8_10_2017)&mc_cid=eeb0bfdbad&mc_eid=866176a63f
The Best Trick U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves Ever Pulled on a Criminal
A particularly glorious example of “fake it ‘til you make it.”
BY ERIC GRUNDHAUSER
 | |
| Bass Reeves, wearing his iconic push broom mustache. JUNKYARDSPARKLE/PUBLIC DOMAIN |
THE AMERICAN OLD WEST WAS a fertile cauldron for myth and legend, producing such fantastical figures as Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill. But while many folk heroes of the era may have been embellished-unto-fable, or completely dreamt up, the legendary Wild West figure Bass Reeves was absolutely real, even if his exploits sound like tall tales.
Reeves was one of the most remarkable figures of the Old West, serving as a deputy U.S. Marshal from 1875 to 1907, mostly in and around the regrettable Indian Territory, which once made up much of what is now Oklahoma.
Born into slavery, Reeves escaped from the slave owner George Reeves at some point during the Civil War, supposedly knocking out his so-called “master” in a dispute over cards. Bass then fled into Indian Territory where, despite never having had the opportunity to learn to read, he learned the land and languages of the Cherokee, Seminole, and major tribes that had been forced to relocate to the region. After the passage of the 13th Amendment in 1865, abolishing slavery, Reeves was finally able to settle down at an Arkansas farm and start a family. He and his wife Nellie would have almost a dozen kids while working their peaceful homestead, but for Bass, the legend was just beginning.
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/bass-reeves-wild-west-letter-trick?utm_source=Atlas+Obscura+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=eeb0bfdbad-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_08_10&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f36db9c480-eeb0bfdbad-63562045&ct=t(Newsletter_8_10_2017)&mc_cid=eeb0bfdbad&mc_eid=866176a63f
Remembering the Korean War
An excerpt form the Intercept - H/T Ben
Why Do North Koreans Hate Us? One Reason — They Remember the Korean War.
By Mehdi Hasan
“The hate, though,” as longtime North Korea watcher Blaine Harden observed in the Washington Post, “is not all manufactured.” Some of it, he wrote, “is rooted in a fact-based narrative, one that North Korea obsessively remembers and the United States blithely forgets.”
Forgets as in the “forgotten war.” Yes, the Korean War. Remember that? The one wedged between World War II and the Vietnam War? The first “hot” war of the Cold War, which took place between 1950 and 1953, and which has since been conveniently airbrushed from most discussions and debates about the “crazy” and “insane” regime in Pyongyang? Forgotten despite the fact that this particular war isn’t even over — it was halted by an armistice agreement, not a peace treaty — and despite the fact that the conflict saw the United States engage in numerous war crimes, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, continue to shape the way North Koreans view the United States, even if the residents of the United States remain blissfully ignorant of their country’s belligerent past.
For the record, it was the North Koreans, and not the Americans or their South Korean allies, who started the war in June 1950, when they crossed the 38th Parallel and invaded the south. Nevertheless, “What hardly any Americans know or remember,” University of Chicago historian Bruce Cumings writes in his book “The Korean War: A History,” “is that we carpet-bombed the north for three years with next to no concern for civilian casualties.”
How many Americans, for example, are aware of the fact that U.S. planes dropped on the Korean peninsula more bombs — 635,000 tons — and napalm — 32,557 tons — than during the entire Pacific campaign against the Japanese during World War II?
How many Americans know that “over a period of three years or so,” to quote Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command during the Korean War, “we killed off … 20 percent of the population”?
https://theintercept.com/2017/05/03/why-do-north-koreans-hate-us-one-reason-they-remember-the-korean-war/
Why Do North Koreans Hate Us? One Reason — They Remember the Korean War.
By Mehdi Hasan
“The hate, though,” as longtime North Korea watcher Blaine Harden observed in the Washington Post, “is not all manufactured.” Some of it, he wrote, “is rooted in a fact-based narrative, one that North Korea obsessively remembers and the United States blithely forgets.”
Forgets as in the “forgotten war.” Yes, the Korean War. Remember that? The one wedged between World War II and the Vietnam War? The first “hot” war of the Cold War, which took place between 1950 and 1953, and which has since been conveniently airbrushed from most discussions and debates about the “crazy” and “insane” regime in Pyongyang? Forgotten despite the fact that this particular war isn’t even over — it was halted by an armistice agreement, not a peace treaty — and despite the fact that the conflict saw the United States engage in numerous war crimes, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, continue to shape the way North Koreans view the United States, even if the residents of the United States remain blissfully ignorant of their country’s belligerent past.
For the record, it was the North Koreans, and not the Americans or their South Korean allies, who started the war in June 1950, when they crossed the 38th Parallel and invaded the south. Nevertheless, “What hardly any Americans know or remember,” University of Chicago historian Bruce Cumings writes in his book “The Korean War: A History,” “is that we carpet-bombed the north for three years with next to no concern for civilian casualties.”
How many Americans, for example, are aware of the fact that U.S. planes dropped on the Korean peninsula more bombs — 635,000 tons — and napalm — 32,557 tons — than during the entire Pacific campaign against the Japanese during World War II?
How many Americans know that “over a period of three years or so,” to quote Air Force Gen. Curtis LeMay, head of the Strategic Air Command during the Korean War, “we killed off … 20 percent of the population”?
https://theintercept.com/2017/05/03/why-do-north-koreans-hate-us-one-reason-they-remember-the-korean-war/
Wednesday, August 9, 2017
He Has Proven Himself
An excerpt from the NY Times -
Admit This Ex-Con to the Connecticut Bar
By BARI WEISS
In 1996, when Reginald Dwayne Betts was being sentenced to nine years in prison for a carjacking, the judge handing down the ruling told the 16 year old: “I don’t have any illusions that the penitentiary is going to help you, but you can get something out of it if you want to.”
The judge probably had, at best, a high school equivalency diploma in mind for Mr. Betts. Mr. Betts had bigger ambitions.
It began with a book called “The Black Poets,” which someone slipped under his cell door during the year he spent in solitary confinement. “That’s the book that changed my life,” he has said of the anthology. “It introduced me to Etheridge Knight, to Rob Hayden, Lucille Clifton, Sonia Sanchez and so many countless black writers and black poets that really shaped who it is that I wanted to be in the world.”
After his release in 2005, he wrote two books of critically acclaimed poetry and a memoir. He got a B.A. and an M.F.A., and became a Radcliffe fellow at Harvard. Last May, he graduated from Yale Law School. Oh, and along the way, he became a husband and a father to two boys; tellingly, this is the first accomplishment he lists on his website’s biography page.
~~~~~~~~~~
Dwayne Betts is the kind of man who should be receiving awards from the bar association of Connecticut. Instead, he hasn’t been admitted.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/opinion/admit-this-ex-con-to-the-connecticut-bar.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region®ion=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=0
Admit This Ex-Con to the Connecticut Bar
By BARI WEISS
In 1996, when Reginald Dwayne Betts was being sentenced to nine years in prison for a carjacking, the judge handing down the ruling told the 16 year old: “I don’t have any illusions that the penitentiary is going to help you, but you can get something out of it if you want to.”
The judge probably had, at best, a high school equivalency diploma in mind for Mr. Betts. Mr. Betts had bigger ambitions.
It began with a book called “The Black Poets,” which someone slipped under his cell door during the year he spent in solitary confinement. “That’s the book that changed my life,” he has said of the anthology. “It introduced me to Etheridge Knight, to Rob Hayden, Lucille Clifton, Sonia Sanchez and so many countless black writers and black poets that really shaped who it is that I wanted to be in the world.”
After his release in 2005, he wrote two books of critically acclaimed poetry and a memoir. He got a B.A. and an M.F.A., and became a Radcliffe fellow at Harvard. Last May, he graduated from Yale Law School. Oh, and along the way, he became a husband and a father to two boys; tellingly, this is the first accomplishment he lists on his website’s biography page.
~~~~~~~~~~
Dwayne Betts is the kind of man who should be receiving awards from the bar association of Connecticut. Instead, he hasn’t been admitted.
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/09/opinion/admit-this-ex-con-to-the-connecticut-bar.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-region®ion=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=0
Why We Ignore Mass Suffering
An excerpt from Vox -
A psychologist explains the limits of human compassion
Why do we ignore mass atrocities? It has to do with something called “psychic numbing.”
Updated by Brian Resnick
I often report on political psychology. And in my conversations with scientists, I’ll often ask: “What research helps you understand what’s going on in the world?” The answer — whether it’s pegged to the refugee crisis abroad or the health care debate at home — very often involves Paul Slovic.
Slovic is a psychologist at the University of Oregon, and for decades he’s been asking the question: Why does the world often ignore mass atrocities, mass suffering?
Slovic’s work has shown that the human mind is not very good at thinking about, and empathizing with, millions or billions of individuals.
“THE VALUE OF A PERSON'S LIFE DECLINES PRECIPITOUSLY WITH NUMBER. IS THAT WHAT WE WANT?”
That’s why it’s not surprising six out of 10 Americans support a travel ban that, in part, bars refugees from entering America. That many lawmakers aren’t horrified by the possibility of booting tens of millions from health insurance. That the world looked on as millions died in war and genocide in Darfur. That we haven’t really grappled as a nation with the opioid epidemic, which killed 33,000 in 2015.
When numbers simply can’t convey the costs, there’s an infuriating paradox at play. Slovic calls it “psychic numbing.” As the number of victims in a tragedy increases, our empathy, our willingness to help, reliably decreases. This happens even when the number of victims increases from one to two.
https://www.vox.com/explainers/2017/7/19/15925506/psychic-numbing-paul-slovic-apathy
A psychologist explains the limits of human compassion
Why do we ignore mass atrocities? It has to do with something called “psychic numbing.”
Updated by Brian Resnick
I often report on political psychology. And in my conversations with scientists, I’ll often ask: “What research helps you understand what’s going on in the world?” The answer — whether it’s pegged to the refugee crisis abroad or the health care debate at home — very often involves Paul Slovic.
Slovic is a psychologist at the University of Oregon, and for decades he’s been asking the question: Why does the world often ignore mass atrocities, mass suffering?
Slovic’s work has shown that the human mind is not very good at thinking about, and empathizing with, millions or billions of individuals.
“THE VALUE OF A PERSON'S LIFE DECLINES PRECIPITOUSLY WITH NUMBER. IS THAT WHAT WE WANT?”
That’s why it’s not surprising six out of 10 Americans support a travel ban that, in part, bars refugees from entering America. That many lawmakers aren’t horrified by the possibility of booting tens of millions from health insurance. That the world looked on as millions died in war and genocide in Darfur. That we haven’t really grappled as a nation with the opioid epidemic, which killed 33,000 in 2015.
When numbers simply can’t convey the costs, there’s an infuriating paradox at play. Slovic calls it “psychic numbing.” As the number of victims in a tragedy increases, our empathy, our willingness to help, reliably decreases. This happens even when the number of victims increases from one to two.
https://www.vox.com/explainers/2017/7/19/15925506/psychic-numbing-paul-slovic-apathy
Second Chance Project — Andre Edding’s Story
http://www.upworthy.com/he-was-ready-to-return-to-a-life-of-crime-daves-killer-bread-offered-an-alternative?c=upw1
Thank an Immigrant
From Upworthy -
23 things non-English-speaking immigrants gave us that we totally don't need. Not at all.
by Eric March
http://www.upworthy.com/23-things-non-english-speaking-immigrants-gave-us-that-we-totally-dont-need-not-at-all?c=upw1
23 things non-English-speaking immigrants gave us that we totally don't need. Not at all.
by Eric March
http://www.upworthy.com/23-things-non-english-speaking-immigrants-gave-us-that-we-totally-dont-need-not-at-all?c=upw1
Gentrification
An excerpt from the New Republic -
How to Stop Gentrification
Individuals moving to newly-hip neighborhoods admit they are part of the problem. What can they do?
BY COLIN KINNIBURGH
In September 2005, the New Orleans real-estate developer Finis Shelnutt told a German newspaper of the opportunities Hurricane Katrina had created for his business. “The storm destroyed a great deal,” he said, just weeks after Katrina had killed more than one thousand people and expelled tens of thousands more from the city. “And there’s plenty of space to build houses and sell them for a lot of money.” Moreover, he added, “the hurricane drove poor people and criminals out of the city, and we hope they don’t come back.”
Shelnutt’s uniquely forthright comments distilled the essence of gentrification, as Peter Moskowitz explains it in How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood. Gentrification, in this account, is not just about twenty-something white dudes with beards riding their fixed-gear bikes into unfamiliar neighborhoods, nor filament-bulb-lit craft beer bars opening up alongside bodegas. It is not really a cultural phenomenon, as it is so often depicted, nor one driven by individuals with a little more disposable income than their new neighbors. It is about profit and power, racism and violence on a massive scale. It is, in Moskowitz’s words, “the urban form of a new kind of capitalism.”
https://newrepublic.com/article/144260/stop-gentrification
How to Stop Gentrification
Individuals moving to newly-hip neighborhoods admit they are part of the problem. What can they do?
BY COLIN KINNIBURGH
In September 2005, the New Orleans real-estate developer Finis Shelnutt told a German newspaper of the opportunities Hurricane Katrina had created for his business. “The storm destroyed a great deal,” he said, just weeks after Katrina had killed more than one thousand people and expelled tens of thousands more from the city. “And there’s plenty of space to build houses and sell them for a lot of money.” Moreover, he added, “the hurricane drove poor people and criminals out of the city, and we hope they don’t come back.”
Shelnutt’s uniquely forthright comments distilled the essence of gentrification, as Peter Moskowitz explains it in How to Kill a City: Gentrification, Inequality, and the Fight for the Neighborhood. Gentrification, in this account, is not just about twenty-something white dudes with beards riding their fixed-gear bikes into unfamiliar neighborhoods, nor filament-bulb-lit craft beer bars opening up alongside bodegas. It is not really a cultural phenomenon, as it is so often depicted, nor one driven by individuals with a little more disposable income than their new neighbors. It is about profit and power, racism and violence on a massive scale. It is, in Moskowitz’s words, “the urban form of a new kind of capitalism.”
https://newrepublic.com/article/144260/stop-gentrification
Preparing for College
An excerpt from Very Smart Brothas - (From me. Note - PWI = Predominating White Institutions)
10 Things to Help Black Students Prepare for Life at a PWI
By Lawrence Ware
I regret not attending an HBCU.
If I could do things over, I would have accepted those offers from either Howard or Hampton University and had a college experience devoid of the constant assaults on my humanity by way of microagressions and covert racism.
Attending a PWI (predominantly white institution), I was ever aware of the fact that I was an “other.” Often, I was the only black student in my class, and when my fraternity wanted to host events, we were forced to jump through hoops that white Greek organizations did not know existed.
Now, working at a PWI as a faculty member and administrator, I try to do for my students what I wish someone had done for me: prepare them for the challenges that come along with the reality of life at a PWI as a student of color.
If I could give an intellectual going-away gift to every black freshman headed to a PWI this fall, in addition to a bottle of Louisiana hot sauce (the cooks at PWIs don’t know how to season the damn food), I would include the following:
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/10-things-to-help-black-students-prepare-for-life-at-a-1797642965?utm_source=theroot_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2017-08-09
10 Things to Help Black Students Prepare for Life at a PWI
By Lawrence Ware
I regret not attending an HBCU.
If I could do things over, I would have accepted those offers from either Howard or Hampton University and had a college experience devoid of the constant assaults on my humanity by way of microagressions and covert racism.
Attending a PWI (predominantly white institution), I was ever aware of the fact that I was an “other.” Often, I was the only black student in my class, and when my fraternity wanted to host events, we were forced to jump through hoops that white Greek organizations did not know existed.
Now, working at a PWI as a faculty member and administrator, I try to do for my students what I wish someone had done for me: prepare them for the challenges that come along with the reality of life at a PWI as a student of color.
If I could give an intellectual going-away gift to every black freshman headed to a PWI this fall, in addition to a bottle of Louisiana hot sauce (the cooks at PWIs don’t know how to season the damn food), I would include the following:
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/10-things-to-help-black-students-prepare-for-life-at-a-1797642965?utm_source=theroot_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2017-08-09
Caltrans is Hiring!
An excerpt from the Sacramento Bee -
Get your resume: Caltrans has 1,100 job openings
BY ADAM ASHTON
Attention job seekers: It’s a good time to send a resume to California’s transportation department.
Caltrans has more than 1,100 job openings this summer in wide a range of white collar and blue collar careers. It’s making the rounds at dozens of career fairs at universities and military bases to spread the word.
“We’re constantly hiring,” said Michelle Tucker, the department’s chief of human resources.
Two trends are driving the department’s hiring spree.
First, Caltrans has a somewhat older workforce than most other state departments and it’s seeing a wave of baby boomers retire.
Second, it’s planning for a heftier workload while it prepares for a slate of projects that are to be funded through the state’s new transportation tax. The tax, a 12-cent increase to the state’s base gasoline tax, is expected to deliver an additional $52 billion in funding for transportation projects over the next 10 years.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article165854712.html#storylink=cpy
Get your resume: Caltrans has 1,100 job openings
BY ADAM ASHTON
Attention job seekers: It’s a good time to send a resume to California’s transportation department.
Caltrans has more than 1,100 job openings this summer in wide a range of white collar and blue collar careers. It’s making the rounds at dozens of career fairs at universities and military bases to spread the word.
“We’re constantly hiring,” said Michelle Tucker, the department’s chief of human resources.
Two trends are driving the department’s hiring spree.
First, Caltrans has a somewhat older workforce than most other state departments and it’s seeing a wave of baby boomers retire.
Second, it’s planning for a heftier workload while it prepares for a slate of projects that are to be funded through the state’s new transportation tax. The tax, a 12-cent increase to the state’s base gasoline tax, is expected to deliver an additional $52 billion in funding for transportation projects over the next 10 years.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article165854712.html#storylink=cpy
Another FAMU Success Story
An excerpt from the LA times -
'Girls Trip' producer Will Packer finds success by targeting an underserved audience
By Ryan Faughnder
In the run-up to his latest movie “Girls Trip," producer Will Packer didn’t rely on massive billboard campaigns in Los Angeles and New York.
Instead, he brought the star-studded cast to Atlanta, Miami and New Orleans for advanced screenings with fans and online tastemakers, including black millennial website Hello Beautiful, to generate excitement among African American women. At an event at New Orleans’ luxurious Theatres at Canal Place, Packer told moviegoers of his wish to make a film that encapsulated the experiences of black women.
“It makes [moviegoers] feel like they're part of a movement,” Packer said in an interview.
The strategy of marketing movies directly to their target audiences has served Packer well. “Girls Trip,” a $19-million movie about four women who reconnect at the Essence Festival in New Orleans, has grossed $85 million so far domestically. The Universal Pictures-released film is the latest success for Packer, 43, a prolific producer whose 26 movies, which include “Think Like A Man” and “Ride Along,” have grossed more than $1 billion combined at the box office.
~~~~~~~~~~
It’s a startling rise to power for a filmmaker who got his start as a college sophomore in Tallahassee, Fla. by helping a fraternity brother make a $20,000 indie film.
At Florida A&M University, where he studied electrical engineering, he made a movie called “Chocolate City,” a coming-of-age tale set at a historically black college, with his friend Rob Hardy. They sent the movie to every studio and agency, with no luck. So they went local, premiering the film in the school’s main auditorium and booking it in a second-run theater. It got a huge response.
“Nobody cared in Hollywood, but you know where they did care? Tallahassee, Fla., and Florida AMU, and they cared a whole lot,” Packer said. “I realized that if you make something for an audience, and it's received well by that audience, it doesn't really matter what other people feel about it.… I certainly want to make content for a broader audience, but I never lost an eye for making sure I hit the bull’s-eye with a niche.”
http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-will-packer-inc-20170808-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter
'Girls Trip' producer Will Packer finds success by targeting an underserved audience
By Ryan Faughnder
In the run-up to his latest movie “Girls Trip," producer Will Packer didn’t rely on massive billboard campaigns in Los Angeles and New York.
Instead, he brought the star-studded cast to Atlanta, Miami and New Orleans for advanced screenings with fans and online tastemakers, including black millennial website Hello Beautiful, to generate excitement among African American women. At an event at New Orleans’ luxurious Theatres at Canal Place, Packer told moviegoers of his wish to make a film that encapsulated the experiences of black women.
“It makes [moviegoers] feel like they're part of a movement,” Packer said in an interview.
The strategy of marketing movies directly to their target audiences has served Packer well. “Girls Trip,” a $19-million movie about four women who reconnect at the Essence Festival in New Orleans, has grossed $85 million so far domestically. The Universal Pictures-released film is the latest success for Packer, 43, a prolific producer whose 26 movies, which include “Think Like A Man” and “Ride Along,” have grossed more than $1 billion combined at the box office.
~~~~~~~~~~
It’s a startling rise to power for a filmmaker who got his start as a college sophomore in Tallahassee, Fla. by helping a fraternity brother make a $20,000 indie film.
At Florida A&M University, where he studied electrical engineering, he made a movie called “Chocolate City,” a coming-of-age tale set at a historically black college, with his friend Rob Hardy. They sent the movie to every studio and agency, with no luck. So they went local, premiering the film in the school’s main auditorium and booking it in a second-run theater. It got a huge response.
“Nobody cared in Hollywood, but you know where they did care? Tallahassee, Fla., and Florida AMU, and they cared a whole lot,” Packer said. “I realized that if you make something for an audience, and it's received well by that audience, it doesn't really matter what other people feel about it.… I certainly want to make content for a broader audience, but I never lost an eye for making sure I hit the bull’s-eye with a niche.”
http://www.latimes.com/business/hollywood/la-fi-ct-will-packer-inc-20170808-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
A Legal Document That's Fun to Read
From the NY Times -
The Spirit of the Law
By Sarah Lyall
Here is a truly delightful amicus brief filed by the A.C.L.U. in support of the talk show host John Oliver, who is being sued by the aggrieved coal-mining executive Bob Murray. Even the table of contents (sample heading: “You Can’t Sue People for Being Mean to You, Bob”) fills a First Amendment-loving reporter’s heart with joy. “The complaint also interestingly claims that “ ‘nothing has ever stressed [Bob Murray] more than [John Oliver’s] vicious and untruthful attack,’” the brief notes. “Is he really saying that a late-night British comedian on a premium channel has caused him more stress than the time that one of his mines collapsed and killed a group of his employees?” SCRIBD »
The Spirit of the Law
By Sarah Lyall
Here is a truly delightful amicus brief filed by the A.C.L.U. in support of the talk show host John Oliver, who is being sued by the aggrieved coal-mining executive Bob Murray. Even the table of contents (sample heading: “You Can’t Sue People for Being Mean to You, Bob”) fills a First Amendment-loving reporter’s heart with joy. “The complaint also interestingly claims that “ ‘nothing has ever stressed [Bob Murray] more than [John Oliver’s] vicious and untruthful attack,’” the brief notes. “Is he really saying that a late-night British comedian on a premium channel has caused him more stress than the time that one of his mines collapsed and killed a group of his employees?” SCRIBD »
ACLU Brief on Behalf of John Oliver by LawNewz on Scribd
Focusing on the Booze
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
Most drunken-driving programs focus on driving. This one worked because it focused on booze.
By Keith Humphreys
“24/7 Sobriety” was invented more than a decade ago in South Dakota by an innovative county prosecutor (and future state attorney general) named Larry Long. Long concluded that the best use of the power of the criminal justice system was to attack the role of alcohol in offenders’ lives directly by mandating them to abstain. Many judges across the country order abstinence as part of parole or probation, but Long decided to actually enforce it. Offenders’ drinking was monitored every single day, typically by in-person breath tests in the morning and evening. In contrast to the typically slow and unpredictable ways of the criminal justice system, anyone caught drinking faced a 100 percent chance of arrest and an immediate consequence — typically 12 to 36 hours in jail.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/07/most-drunk-driving-programs-focus-on-driving-this-one-worked-because-it-focused-on-booze/?utm_term=.aec716532e5b&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Most drunken-driving programs focus on driving. This one worked because it focused on booze.
By Keith Humphreys
“24/7 Sobriety” was invented more than a decade ago in South Dakota by an innovative county prosecutor (and future state attorney general) named Larry Long. Long concluded that the best use of the power of the criminal justice system was to attack the role of alcohol in offenders’ lives directly by mandating them to abstain. Many judges across the country order abstinence as part of parole or probation, but Long decided to actually enforce it. Offenders’ drinking was monitored every single day, typically by in-person breath tests in the morning and evening. In contrast to the typically slow and unpredictable ways of the criminal justice system, anyone caught drinking faced a 100 percent chance of arrest and an immediate consequence — typically 12 to 36 hours in jail.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/07/most-drunk-driving-programs-focus-on-driving-this-one-worked-because-it-focused-on-booze/?utm_term=.aec716532e5b&wpisrc=nl_rainbow&wpmm=1
Monday, August 7, 2017
Getting Their Due
An excerpt from the Washington Post -
At the heart of every restaurant
Our food critic works a shift to understand why top chefs are starting to give dishwashers their due.
Plenty of bandwidth has been lavished on the men and women who cook the food, pour the wine and otherwise pamper us in restaurants. Scant attention has been paid to some of the lowest-paid workers with the most responsibility, the ones chefs say are the linchpins of the restaurant kitchen. “You can’t have a successful service in a restaurant without a great dishwasher,” says Emeril Lagasse, the New Orleans-based chef and cookbook author with 14 restaurants across the country. “Bad ones will bring the ship down.”
After years of performing tasks no one else wants to do — cleaning nasty messes, taking out trash, polishing Japanese wine glasses priced at $66 a stem (at Quince in San Francisco) — the unsung heroes of the kitchen might be finally getting their due.
This spring, chef Rene Redzepi of the world-renowned Noma in Copenhagen made headlines when he made his dishwasher, Ali Sonko, a partner in his business. The Gambian native helped Redzepi open the landmark restaurant in 2003. And in July, workers at the esteemed French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., one of master chef Thomas Keller’s 12 U.S. restaurants and bakeries, voted to give their most prestigious company honor, the Core Award, to a dishwasher: Jaimie Portillo, who says he has never missed a day of work in seven years.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/style/2017/08/07/chefs-say-a-dishwasher-can-make-or-break-a-restaurant-so-i-signed-up-for-a-shift/?utm_term=.5e7b9ec2fed0&wpisrc=al_alert-national&wpmk=1
At the heart of every restaurant
Our food critic works a shift to understand why top chefs are starting to give dishwashers their due.
By Tom Sietsema
Plenty of bandwidth has been lavished on the men and women who cook the food, pour the wine and otherwise pamper us in restaurants. Scant attention has been paid to some of the lowest-paid workers with the most responsibility, the ones chefs say are the linchpins of the restaurant kitchen. “You can’t have a successful service in a restaurant without a great dishwasher,” says Emeril Lagasse, the New Orleans-based chef and cookbook author with 14 restaurants across the country. “Bad ones will bring the ship down.”
After years of performing tasks no one else wants to do — cleaning nasty messes, taking out trash, polishing Japanese wine glasses priced at $66 a stem (at Quince in San Francisco) — the unsung heroes of the kitchen might be finally getting their due.
This spring, chef Rene Redzepi of the world-renowned Noma in Copenhagen made headlines when he made his dishwasher, Ali Sonko, a partner in his business. The Gambian native helped Redzepi open the landmark restaurant in 2003. And in July, workers at the esteemed French Laundry in Yountville, Calif., one of master chef Thomas Keller’s 12 U.S. restaurants and bakeries, voted to give their most prestigious company honor, the Core Award, to a dishwasher: Jaimie Portillo, who says he has never missed a day of work in seven years.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/style/2017/08/07/chefs-say-a-dishwasher-can-make-or-break-a-restaurant-so-i-signed-up-for-a-shift/?utm_term=.5e7b9ec2fed0&wpisrc=al_alert-national&wpmk=1
Tackling Homelessness in the Bay Area
From Upworthy -
This mother-son duo is taking homelessness to task in an amazing way.
We’re talking the kind of close that only single moms and their children understand.
And for Chris and his mom, this bond has only been strengthened by a shared mission to end homelessness.
His mom was always very driven — she climbed the corporate ladder, becoming a successful Venture Capitalist, then CEO of Napster and another high-tech startup. But it was while Chris was away at college that she decided to tackle a social issue: homelessness.
So in 2004, Eileen popped her head into a food closet in Palo Alto, California, hoping to do just that. And it didn't take her long to decide to take giving back to the next level, leading her to launch the Downtown Streets Team.
The nonprofit isn't your average give-'em-food-and-a-place-to-stay-for-the-night-then-send-'em-on-their-way kind of initiative.
In exchange for community volunteer work, Downtown Streets Team offers homeless people food and housing as well as job skills training.
http://www.upworthy.com/p-this-mother-son-duo-is-taking-homelessness-to-task-in-an-amazing-way-p-cc3-3a?c=click
This mother-son duo is taking homelessness to task in an amazing way.
We’re talking the kind of close that only single moms and their children understand.
And for Chris and his mom, this bond has only been strengthened by a shared mission to end homelessness.
His mom was always very driven — she climbed the corporate ladder, becoming a successful Venture Capitalist, then CEO of Napster and another high-tech startup. But it was while Chris was away at college that she decided to tackle a social issue: homelessness.
So in 2004, Eileen popped her head into a food closet in Palo Alto, California, hoping to do just that. And it didn't take her long to decide to take giving back to the next level, leading her to launch the Downtown Streets Team.
The nonprofit isn't your average give-'em-food-and-a-place-to-stay-for-the-night-then-send-'em-on-their-way kind of initiative.
In exchange for community volunteer work, Downtown Streets Team offers homeless people food and housing as well as job skills training.
http://www.upworthy.com/p-this-mother-son-duo-is-taking-homelessness-to-task-in-an-amazing-way-p-cc3-3a?c=click
He Nails It
This dad perfectly nails fatherhood with his hilarious comics.
by Evan Porter
http://www.upworthy.com/this-dad-perfectly-nails-fatherhood-with-his-hilarious-comics?c=upw1
by Evan Porter
http://www.upworthy.com/this-dad-perfectly-nails-fatherhood-with-his-hilarious-comics?c=upw1
How to Answer Interview Questions
From Lifehack -
How to Answer Common Interview Questions in an Uncommon Way
By Brian Lee
No matter how much we may love our job, there are always aspects that we could do without. And among all of my duties as Chief of Product Management at Lifehack, interviewing is by far my least favorite. It’s an awkward, draining task that wears me down both mentally and physically. Most interviews take around an hour to get through, a grueling 60 minutes that neither I nor the interviewee enjoys. I hear the same answers to the same questions time and time again. Boring, basic answers that by no way separate the individual from their competition. But every once in a while I will hear an answer that catches me off guard, leaving me impressed and inspired.
To help you to knock out your next interview, I’ve compiled a list of the best possible answers to common interview questions, and what to avoid.
http://www.lifehack.org/620362/what-employers-are-really-looking-for-in-the-most-common-interview-questions?ref=mail&mtype=newsletter_tier_3&mid=20170807&uid=789627&hash=726d85717f746d7e7c714c73796d75783a6f7b79&utm_source=newsletter_tier_3&utm_medium=email&action=click
How to Answer Common Interview Questions in an Uncommon Way
By Brian Lee
No matter how much we may love our job, there are always aspects that we could do without. And among all of my duties as Chief of Product Management at Lifehack, interviewing is by far my least favorite. It’s an awkward, draining task that wears me down both mentally and physically. Most interviews take around an hour to get through, a grueling 60 minutes that neither I nor the interviewee enjoys. I hear the same answers to the same questions time and time again. Boring, basic answers that by no way separate the individual from their competition. But every once in a while I will hear an answer that catches me off guard, leaving me impressed and inspired.
To help you to knock out your next interview, I’ve compiled a list of the best possible answers to common interview questions, and what to avoid.
http://www.lifehack.org/620362/what-employers-are-really-looking-for-in-the-most-common-interview-questions?ref=mail&mtype=newsletter_tier_3&mid=20170807&uid=789627&hash=726d85717f746d7e7c714c73796d75783a6f7b79&utm_source=newsletter_tier_3&utm_medium=email&action=click
Canine Crime
From the Huffington Post - (Me: An excerpt doesn't do it justice.)
Shelter’s Posts About A Chewed-Up Dog Toy Read Like An Episode Of ‘CSI’
It is a VERY good crime story.
By Elyse Wanshel
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/animal-shelter-assault-mystery-dog-toy_us_5984b48be4b0cb15b1be437a
Shelter’s Posts About A Chewed-Up Dog Toy Read Like An Episode Of ‘CSI’
It is a VERY good crime story.
By Elyse Wanshel
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/animal-shelter-assault-mystery-dog-toy_us_5984b48be4b0cb15b1be437a
An Offbeat College Tour
From the Boston Globe -
You don’t have to be wicked smaht to take this Hahvahd tour
By Lauren Feiner
Fresh out of college and newly in the workforce, I recently found myself doing the last thing I expected to do in my young professional life: taking a college tour.
But this tour of Harvard University was distinctly different from those I’d taken as a nervous high school student. There were no jittery teenagers or overeager parents, no chatter about SAT scores. This was Harvard, — or Hahvahd in the local vernacular — not as dream college, but as tourist attraction.
~~~~~~~~~~
The Hahvahd Tour, first developed by Harvard student Daniel Andrew in 2006, calls itself an unofficial tour of the university. While the tour now has a friendly relationship with the university — it conveniently ends at university-sponsored gift shops — it once clashed with the school over its use of the Harvard brand. Harvard actually received a trademark for the word “Hahvahd,” which it now licenses to the tour group, Andrew told me.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/08/06/you-don-have-smaht-student-take-this-tour-hahvahd/eHKIkU6fruoNca7svj3xIK/story.html?et_rid=606374700&s_campaign=todaysheadlines:newsletter
You don’t have to be wicked smaht to take this Hahvahd tour
By Lauren Feiner
Fresh out of college and newly in the workforce, I recently found myself doing the last thing I expected to do in my young professional life: taking a college tour.
But this tour of Harvard University was distinctly different from those I’d taken as a nervous high school student. There were no jittery teenagers or overeager parents, no chatter about SAT scores. This was Harvard, — or Hahvahd in the local vernacular — not as dream college, but as tourist attraction.
~~~~~~~~~~
The Hahvahd Tour, first developed by Harvard student Daniel Andrew in 2006, calls itself an unofficial tour of the university. While the tour now has a friendly relationship with the university — it conveniently ends at university-sponsored gift shops — it once clashed with the school over its use of the Harvard brand. Harvard actually received a trademark for the word “Hahvahd,” which it now licenses to the tour group, Andrew told me.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2017/08/06/you-don-have-smaht-student-take-this-tour-hahvahd/eHKIkU6fruoNca7svj3xIK/story.html?et_rid=606374700&s_campaign=todaysheadlines:newsletter
Sunday, August 6, 2017
How to Respond to An Insult
From StumbleUpon -
20 Years Ago, Steve Jobs Demonstrated the Perfect Way to Respond to an Insult
In 1997, Steve Jobs was answering developers' questions when one audience member took a shot at him. What happens next is remarkable.
By Justin Bariso
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/9yq7Oa/:x4h5Nmbg:l2+Yy$+f/www.inc.com/justin-bariso/20-years-ago-steve-jobs-demonstrated-the-perfect-w.html
20 Years Ago, Steve Jobs Demonstrated the Perfect Way to Respond to an Insult
In 1997, Steve Jobs was answering developers' questions when one audience member took a shot at him. What happens next is remarkable.
By Justin Bariso
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/9yq7Oa/:x4h5Nmbg:l2+Yy$+f/www.inc.com/justin-bariso/20-years-ago-steve-jobs-demonstrated-the-perfect-w.html
Know Your Rights
From the Thrillist -
AIRLINE FINE PRINT THAT'LL SAVE YOU MONEY WHEN YOU FLY
By MATT MELTZER
Overbooking -- and forced bumping -- is totally legal. But you can get cash for it.
Airlines regularly overbook flights, and as we all learned from the unpleasantness back in April, even if you don’t want a free upgrade on a later flight, airlines have the right to deny you entry to your flight. (What they cannot legally do is take you off that flight once you’re seated, unless you act up. United Airlines erred so terribly in removing David Dao from his flight, it was clear the airline’s employees didn’t know their own fine print.)
The good news is the US Department of Transportation requires airlines to compensate you, based on how much later you get to your destination. If you’re placed on a flight that gets you to your destination within an hour of your original reservation, you don’t get squat. If the flight arrives between one and two hours of your original schedule, you’re entitled to 200% of your one-way fare, up to $675. For flights arriving more than two hours later, you are entitled to 400% of your one-way fare, up to $1,350.
https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/how-to-save-money-on-flights-fine-print
AIRLINE FINE PRINT THAT'LL SAVE YOU MONEY WHEN YOU FLY
By MATT MELTZER
Overbooking -- and forced bumping -- is totally legal. But you can get cash for it.
Airlines regularly overbook flights, and as we all learned from the unpleasantness back in April, even if you don’t want a free upgrade on a later flight, airlines have the right to deny you entry to your flight. (What they cannot legally do is take you off that flight once you’re seated, unless you act up. United Airlines erred so terribly in removing David Dao from his flight, it was clear the airline’s employees didn’t know their own fine print.)
The good news is the US Department of Transportation requires airlines to compensate you, based on how much later you get to your destination. If you’re placed on a flight that gets you to your destination within an hour of your original reservation, you don’t get squat. If the flight arrives between one and two hours of your original schedule, you’re entitled to 200% of your one-way fare, up to $675. For flights arriving more than two hours later, you are entitled to 400% of your one-way fare, up to $1,350.
https://www.thrillist.com/travel/nation/how-to-save-money-on-flights-fine-print
The Cycle of Lies
From the Boston Globe -
TRUMP’S CYCLE OF LIES
By the Editorial Board
http://apps.bostonglobe.com/opinion/graphics/2017/08/trump-lies/
TRUMP’S CYCLE OF LIES
By the Editorial Board
http://apps.bostonglobe.com/opinion/graphics/2017/08/trump-lies/
Saturday, August 5, 2017
A Fighter - First as a Woman, Then as a Man
An excerpt from the LA times -
The first U.S. boxer to fight as a woman, and then as a man
By KEVIN BAXTER
A five-time amateur boxing champion whose biggest tournament ended in surrender, Manuel is just months away from his pro debut.
He has cycled through a number of dead-end jobs and now owns a digital marketing company. It’s called Dark Horse, a name Manuel hopes is prophetic as well as prosaic.
Manuel says the biggest daily reminder that he has finally taken control of his life comes when he looks in the mirror each morning. For years he saw an uncertain woman looking back at him. Now the reflection is of a confident young man, the Adam’s apple and scruffy facial hair evidence that while Manuel’s journey is not complete, it’s now headed in the right direction.
“I still have split seconds of not recognizing myself. But for the most part, I feel more comfortable than I ever have in my body,” says Manuel, who underwent gender-reassignment surgery, becoming the first boxer in U.S. history to fight first as a woman and later as a man.
“It never crossed my mind to give up. It has absolutely been worth this journey to live publicly as my true self.”
http://www.latimes.com/sports/boxing/la-sp-pat-manuel-20170804-htmlstory.html#nws=mcnewsletter
The first U.S. boxer to fight as a woman, and then as a man
By KEVIN BAXTER
A five-time amateur boxing champion whose biggest tournament ended in surrender, Manuel is just months away from his pro debut.
He has cycled through a number of dead-end jobs and now owns a digital marketing company. It’s called Dark Horse, a name Manuel hopes is prophetic as well as prosaic.
Manuel says the biggest daily reminder that he has finally taken control of his life comes when he looks in the mirror each morning. For years he saw an uncertain woman looking back at him. Now the reflection is of a confident young man, the Adam’s apple and scruffy facial hair evidence that while Manuel’s journey is not complete, it’s now headed in the right direction.
“I still have split seconds of not recognizing myself. But for the most part, I feel more comfortable than I ever have in my body,” says Manuel, who underwent gender-reassignment surgery, becoming the first boxer in U.S. history to fight first as a woman and later as a man.
“It never crossed my mind to give up. It has absolutely been worth this journey to live publicly as my true self.”
http://www.latimes.com/sports/boxing/la-sp-pat-manuel-20170804-htmlstory.html#nws=mcnewsletter
This Legacy Lives On
An excerpt from the Atlantic -
The Lost Cause Rides Again
HBO’s Confederate takes as its premise an ugly truth that black Americans are forced to live every day: What if the Confederacy wasn’t wholly defeated?
By TA-NEHISI COATES
Having inaugurated a war which killed more Americans than all other American wars combined, the Confederacy’s leaders were back in the country’s political leadership within a decade. Within two, they had effectively retaken control of the South.
Knowing this, we do not have to wait to point out that comparisons between Confederate and The Man in the High Castle are fatuous. Nazi Germany was also defeated. But while its surviving leadership was put on trial before the world, not one author of the Confederacy was convicted of treason. Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop was hanged at Nuremberg. Confederate General John B. Gordon became a senator. Germany has spent the decades since World War II in national penance for Nazi crimes. America spent the decades after the Civil War transforming Confederate crimes into virtues. It is illegal to fly the Nazi flag in Germany. The Confederate flag is enmeshed in the state flag of Mississippi.
The symbols point to something Confederate’s creators don’t seem to understand—the war is over for them, not for us. At this very hour, black people all across the South are still fighting the battle which they joined during Reconstruction—securing equal access to the ballot—and resisting a president whose resemblance to Andrew Johnson is uncanny. Confederate is the kind of provocative thought experiment that can be engaged in when someone else’s lived reality really is fantasy to you, when your grandmother is not in danger of losing her vote, when the terrorist attack on Charleston evokes honest sympathy, but inspires no direct fear. And so we need not wait to note that Confederate’s interest in Civil War history is biased, that it is premised on a simplistic view of white Southern defeat, instead of the more complicated morass we have all around us.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/08/no-confederate/535512/?utm_source=nl-atlantic-daily-080417
The Lost Cause Rides Again
HBO’s Confederate takes as its premise an ugly truth that black Americans are forced to live every day: What if the Confederacy wasn’t wholly defeated?
By TA-NEHISI COATES
Having inaugurated a war which killed more Americans than all other American wars combined, the Confederacy’s leaders were back in the country’s political leadership within a decade. Within two, they had effectively retaken control of the South.
Knowing this, we do not have to wait to point out that comparisons between Confederate and The Man in the High Castle are fatuous. Nazi Germany was also defeated. But while its surviving leadership was put on trial before the world, not one author of the Confederacy was convicted of treason. Nazi Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop was hanged at Nuremberg. Confederate General John B. Gordon became a senator. Germany has spent the decades since World War II in national penance for Nazi crimes. America spent the decades after the Civil War transforming Confederate crimes into virtues. It is illegal to fly the Nazi flag in Germany. The Confederate flag is enmeshed in the state flag of Mississippi.
The symbols point to something Confederate’s creators don’t seem to understand—the war is over for them, not for us. At this very hour, black people all across the South are still fighting the battle which they joined during Reconstruction—securing equal access to the ballot—and resisting a president whose resemblance to Andrew Johnson is uncanny. Confederate is the kind of provocative thought experiment that can be engaged in when someone else’s lived reality really is fantasy to you, when your grandmother is not in danger of losing her vote, when the terrorist attack on Charleston evokes honest sympathy, but inspires no direct fear. And so we need not wait to note that Confederate’s interest in Civil War history is biased, that it is premised on a simplistic view of white Southern defeat, instead of the more complicated morass we have all around us.
https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/08/no-confederate/535512/?utm_source=nl-atlantic-daily-080417
PAINTBACK by Legacy BLN - Graffiti Culture & Art Tools
From the Good -
When Swastikas Started Popping Up In Their City, These Graffiti Artists Came Up With A Creative Solution
by Liz Dwyer
https://www.good.is/articles/artists-covering-swastikas-with-street-art?utm_source=thedailygood&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailygood
When Swastikas Started Popping Up In Their City, These Graffiti Artists Came Up With A Creative Solution
by Liz Dwyer
https://www.good.is/articles/artists-covering-swastikas-with-street-art?utm_source=thedailygood&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailygood
Friday, August 4, 2017
More Black Girl Magic
An excerpt from Black America Web -
Simone Askew Is The First African American To Lead West Point’s Corps Of Cadets
By Diannah Watson
A woman from Fairfax, Virginia has become the first African-American to lead West Point’s Corps of Cadets.
According to FOX 5, cadet Simone Askew has attained the highest position in the cadet commands. She will start her new position on Monday, August 14, 2017.
She is currently in charge of 1, 502 cadets as the Regimental Commander of Cadet Basic Training II. As the First Captain, she will be responsible for 4,400 member Corps of Cadets.
https://blackamericaweb.com/2017/08/04/simone-askew-is-the-first-african-american-to-lead-west-points-corps-of-cadets/?omcamp=es-baw-nl&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Campaign&utm_term=BAW%20Subscribers%20%28Daily%29
Simone Askew Is The First African American To Lead West Point’s Corps Of Cadets
By Diannah Watson
A woman from Fairfax, Virginia has become the first African-American to lead West Point’s Corps of Cadets.
According to FOX 5, cadet Simone Askew has attained the highest position in the cadet commands. She will start her new position on Monday, August 14, 2017.
She is currently in charge of 1, 502 cadets as the Regimental Commander of Cadet Basic Training II. As the First Captain, she will be responsible for 4,400 member Corps of Cadets.
https://blackamericaweb.com/2017/08/04/simone-askew-is-the-first-african-american-to-lead-west-points-corps-of-cadets/?omcamp=es-baw-nl&utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily%20Campaign&utm_term=BAW%20Subscribers%20%28Daily%29
Low-Down Nasty Priests
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/08/04/guam-priest-child-sex-abuse-scandal/503680001/?csp=dailybriefing
Hypocrisy in Action
An excerpt from Salon -
Donald Trump, a classic case of affirmative action for the wealthy, wants to take it away from the disadvantaged
President often claims he's "like, a smart person" — but he didn't get into Wharton on his academic merits
By PETER DREIER
Of all the issues facing higher education today — skyrocketing student debt, for-profit colleges ripping off its students and government subsidies, declining college enrollment – President Trump has chosen to make it harder for black and Latino students to get into college.
The Trump administration is preparing to sue universities over affirmative action admissions policies deemed to discriminate against white applicants, according to a document obtained by The New York Times.
Apparently Trump objects to affirmative action for African-Americans and Latinos, but not to affirmative action for the super-rich and the well-connected. That’s how Trump got into the University of Pennsylvania in 1966.
http://www.salon.com/2017/08/03/donald-trump-a-classic-case-of-affirmative-action-for-the-wealthy-wants-to-take-it-away-from-the-disadvantaged/
Donald Trump, a classic case of affirmative action for the wealthy, wants to take it away from the disadvantaged
President often claims he's "like, a smart person" — but he didn't get into Wharton on his academic merits
By PETER DREIER
Of all the issues facing higher education today — skyrocketing student debt, for-profit colleges ripping off its students and government subsidies, declining college enrollment – President Trump has chosen to make it harder for black and Latino students to get into college.
The Trump administration is preparing to sue universities over affirmative action admissions policies deemed to discriminate against white applicants, according to a document obtained by The New York Times.
Apparently Trump objects to affirmative action for African-Americans and Latinos, but not to affirmative action for the super-rich and the well-connected. That’s how Trump got into the University of Pennsylvania in 1966.
http://www.salon.com/2017/08/03/donald-trump-a-classic-case-of-affirmative-action-for-the-wealthy-wants-to-take-it-away-from-the-disadvantaged/
Thursday, August 3, 2017
A Travel Advisory for Black Folks
From the Good -
Racism Is So Bad In This State, The NAACP Is Telling Black People To Avoid It
by Liz Dwyer
Americans are regularly advised by the State Department to avoid going to countries — like Venezuela, Haiti, or the Philippines — that are considered too violent or politically unstable to visit. But according to the NAACP, people of color don’t need to cross an international border for their lives to be in danger. Racism is so bad in Missouri that the civil rights organization has issued a travel advisory warning people of color that they could be endangering their lives if they visit the state.
Travel with extreme caution.
The advisory is the first statewide warning to be issued by the national NAACP in its 108-year history, and it’s an adoption of a warning issued in June by the Missouri NAACP State Conference. “Individuals traveling in the state are advised to travel with extreme CAUTION. Race, gender and color based crimes have a long history in Missouri,” read the state chapter’s warning.
https://www.good.is/articles/naacp-travel-warning-racism?utm_source=thedailygood&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailygood
Racism Is So Bad In This State, The NAACP Is Telling Black People To Avoid It
by Liz Dwyer
Americans are regularly advised by the State Department to avoid going to countries — like Venezuela, Haiti, or the Philippines — that are considered too violent or politically unstable to visit. But according to the NAACP, people of color don’t need to cross an international border for their lives to be in danger. Racism is so bad in Missouri that the civil rights organization has issued a travel advisory warning people of color that they could be endangering their lives if they visit the state.
Travel with extreme caution.
The advisory is the first statewide warning to be issued by the national NAACP in its 108-year history, and it’s an adoption of a warning issued in June by the Missouri NAACP State Conference. “Individuals traveling in the state are advised to travel with extreme CAUTION. Race, gender and color based crimes have a long history in Missouri,” read the state chapter’s warning.
https://www.good.is/articles/naacp-travel-warning-racism?utm_source=thedailygood&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dailygood
I Love Her!
Trump asked what Blacks had to lose. It was apparently healthcare, housing, college admission, & freedom after Sessions locks everyone up— Maxine Waters (@MaxineWaters) August 2, 2017
Wednesday, August 2, 2017
Joking? Really?
An excerpt from the New Yorker -
Donald Trump Is Serious When He “Jokes” About Police Brutality
By Jelani Cobb
In Trump’s world, toughness is not a means to an end—it is an end in itself. When Trump invokes Chicago as the exemplar of what is wrong with American law enforcement, the irony is that the city’s crime problem was made worse by its anything-goes ethic of policing. The city where police ran a black site for torturing suspects, attempted to cover up the circumstances in which the seventeen-year-old Laquan McDonald was killed, and regularly paid out millions in police-brutality settlements is the same city where seventy per cent of residents do not believe that police can be trusted to treat all residents fairly. The idea that community trust is more valuable to a police department than “toughness”—really a Trumpian euphemism for brutality—might seem quaint, but Chicago’s experience would point to the contrary. When Trump says police need not be concerned if suspects suffer head injuries in their custody, it’s not simply a wink and a nod at the old days of unrestrained policing. It’s a foreshadowing of a world he’s actively attempting to resurrect.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/donald-trump-is-serious-when-he-jokes-about-police-brutality?mbid=nl_TNY%20Template%20-%20With%20Photo%20(194)&CNDID=27124505&spMailingID=11612091&spUserID=MTMzMTgyODE2ODQxS0&spJobID=1220182297&spReportId=MTIyMDE4MjI5NwS2
Donald Trump Is Serious When He “Jokes” About Police Brutality
By Jelani Cobb
In Trump’s world, toughness is not a means to an end—it is an end in itself. When Trump invokes Chicago as the exemplar of what is wrong with American law enforcement, the irony is that the city’s crime problem was made worse by its anything-goes ethic of policing. The city where police ran a black site for torturing suspects, attempted to cover up the circumstances in which the seventeen-year-old Laquan McDonald was killed, and regularly paid out millions in police-brutality settlements is the same city where seventy per cent of residents do not believe that police can be trusted to treat all residents fairly. The idea that community trust is more valuable to a police department than “toughness”—really a Trumpian euphemism for brutality—might seem quaint, but Chicago’s experience would point to the contrary. When Trump says police need not be concerned if suspects suffer head injuries in their custody, it’s not simply a wink and a nod at the old days of unrestrained policing. It’s a foreshadowing of a world he’s actively attempting to resurrect.
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/donald-trump-is-serious-when-he-jokes-about-police-brutality?mbid=nl_TNY%20Template%20-%20With%20Photo%20(194)&CNDID=27124505&spMailingID=11612091&spUserID=MTMzMTgyODE2ODQxS0&spJobID=1220182297&spReportId=MTIyMDE4MjI5NwS2
Supersized Inequality
An excerpt from the New Republic -
How Fast Food Chains Supersized Inequality
Fast food did not just find its way to low-income neighborhoods. It was brought there by the federal government.
BY MAX HOLLERAN
Supersizing Urban America, a new book by the historian of public health, Chin Jou, shows that fast food did not just find its way to low-income urban areas: It was brought there by the federal government. In the wake of the 1968 riots, Nixon’s law-and-order presidency began programs that doled out federal funds to fast food franchises. The administration asserted that black-owned businesses serving fast food would help to cure urban unrest by promoting an entrepreneurial spirit in poor communities. The federal subsidization of McDonald’s and other chains to enter urban markets previously considered too poor or dangerous was meant to promote “black capitalism.” It did make a select group of black entrepreneurs wealthy, but it was mostly a boon to fast food giants searching for new market demographics.
Like “ethnic” advertising in the alcohol and cigarette industries, fast food companies sold a dream of middle class affluence to communities of color that were nonetheless still excluded from the housing and education that would make those aspirations a reality. Jou’s book shows conclusively that obesity and diet in America have little to do with personal responsibility, and everything to do with public policy.
https://newrepublic.com/article/144168/fast-food-chains-supersized-inequality
How Fast Food Chains Supersized Inequality
Fast food did not just find its way to low-income neighborhoods. It was brought there by the federal government.
BY MAX HOLLERAN
Supersizing Urban America, a new book by the historian of public health, Chin Jou, shows that fast food did not just find its way to low-income urban areas: It was brought there by the federal government. In the wake of the 1968 riots, Nixon’s law-and-order presidency began programs that doled out federal funds to fast food franchises. The administration asserted that black-owned businesses serving fast food would help to cure urban unrest by promoting an entrepreneurial spirit in poor communities. The federal subsidization of McDonald’s and other chains to enter urban markets previously considered too poor or dangerous was meant to promote “black capitalism.” It did make a select group of black entrepreneurs wealthy, but it was mostly a boon to fast food giants searching for new market demographics.
Like “ethnic” advertising in the alcohol and cigarette industries, fast food companies sold a dream of middle class affluence to communities of color that were nonetheless still excluded from the housing and education that would make those aspirations a reality. Jou’s book shows conclusively that obesity and diet in America have little to do with personal responsibility, and everything to do with public policy.
https://newrepublic.com/article/144168/fast-food-chains-supersized-inequality
Dear GOP
An excerpt from the Boston Globe -
Dear Republicans: You know you can shut this mess down, right?
By Renée Graham
Hey GOP: Y’all know you can shut this mess down, right?
Instead you slump onto news talk shows lamenting the dismal state of affairs engulfing this bewildered nation. You’ve been there every step of the way since Jan. 20, as we’ve all been forced to understand such difficult things as collusion, emoluments, the 25th Amendment, and Jared Kushner’s voice.
Yet you behave like you’ve suddenly awakened to find President Trump looming over you, golf club in hand, ready to strike. You are even more responsible for this reign of incompetence and potential criminality masquerading as a presidency than those who voted for Trump. Still, you act as if you can simply tsk-tsk and finger-wag your way through every inflammatory tweet, statement, and action, as if the president is nothing more than a naughty puppy that has soiled the carpet.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2017/08/01/dear-gop-get-backbone/dibR5yES6PjxeUaXHYh6BJ/story.html
Dear Republicans: You know you can shut this mess down, right?
By Renée Graham
Hey GOP: Y’all know you can shut this mess down, right?
Instead you slump onto news talk shows lamenting the dismal state of affairs engulfing this bewildered nation. You’ve been there every step of the way since Jan. 20, as we’ve all been forced to understand such difficult things as collusion, emoluments, the 25th Amendment, and Jared Kushner’s voice.
Yet you behave like you’ve suddenly awakened to find President Trump looming over you, golf club in hand, ready to strike. You are even more responsible for this reign of incompetence and potential criminality masquerading as a presidency than those who voted for Trump. Still, you act as if you can simply tsk-tsk and finger-wag your way through every inflammatory tweet, statement, and action, as if the president is nothing more than a naughty puppy that has soiled the carpet.
http://www.bostonglobe.com/opinion/2017/08/01/dear-gop-get-backbone/dibR5yES6PjxeUaXHYh6BJ/story.html
Tuesday, August 1, 2017
Reclaiming My Time -Gospel Mix
http://www.elle.com/culture/music/news/a47043/reclaiming-my-time-now-has-a-gospel-remix/
Another GOLD!
From the Huffington Post -
Simone Manuel Sets New Record And Takes Home The Gold AGAIN
Black girl magic FTW.
By Taryn Finley
Simone Manuel hasn’t slowed down since her history-making victory at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
On Friday, Manuel scored gold over world record holder Sarah Sjöström in the world 100m freestyle in Budapest for the 2017 World Aquatics Championships. Manuel beat out Sjöström by mere milliseconds ― 52.27 seconds to the Swedish’s 52.31 seconds ― setting a new American record.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/simone-manuel-sets-new-record-wins-gold-again_us_597f5a43e4b02a8434b8173e?section=us_black-voices
Simone Manuel Sets New Record And Takes Home The Gold AGAIN
Black girl magic FTW.
By Taryn Finley
 | ||
Simone Manuel hasn’t slowed down since her history-making victory at the 2016 Summer Olympics.
On Friday, Manuel scored gold over world record holder Sarah Sjöström in the world 100m freestyle in Budapest for the 2017 World Aquatics Championships. Manuel beat out Sjöström by mere milliseconds ― 52.27 seconds to the Swedish’s 52.31 seconds ― setting a new American record.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/simone-manuel-sets-new-record-wins-gold-again_us_597f5a43e4b02a8434b8173e?section=us_black-voices
A New Cosmetics Line
An excerpt from Essence -
Mented Cosmetics Is The Black-Owned Brand Making Nude Lipstick Anything But Basic
Two Harvard Business School graduates talk about the realities of starting a cosmetics business created for and by Black women.
By Deena Campbell
KJ Miller and Amanda Johnson knew they wanted to work together after graduating Harvard Business School, but they didn’t have any idea on the type of business to launch. Finally, after many months of meeting up to discuss life hacks, the duo realized the beauty industry needed cosmetics for women of color. They grabbed a few hot plates, a glass of pinot and began mixing shades in their kitchen. Six shades later, Mented Cosmetics was born.
http://www.essence.com/lifestyle/entrepreneurship/mented-cosmetics-interview?iid=sr-link2
http://www.essence.com/beauty/makeup/lips/black-owned-mented-cosmetics-nude-lipstick?iid=sr-link1
Hi there! I want you to try Mented Cosmetics, a new line of nude lipsticks for women of all hues. Use my link to get 15% off your first purchase! Check it out: http://mentedcosmetics.refr.cc/rhildaf
Mented Cosmetics Is The Black-Owned Brand Making Nude Lipstick Anything But Basic
Two Harvard Business School graduates talk about the realities of starting a cosmetics business created for and by Black women.
By Deena Campbell
KJ Miller and Amanda Johnson knew they wanted to work together after graduating Harvard Business School, but they didn’t have any idea on the type of business to launch. Finally, after many months of meeting up to discuss life hacks, the duo realized the beauty industry needed cosmetics for women of color. They grabbed a few hot plates, a glass of pinot and began mixing shades in their kitchen. Six shades later, Mented Cosmetics was born.
http://www.essence.com/lifestyle/entrepreneurship/mented-cosmetics-interview?iid=sr-link2
http://www.essence.com/beauty/makeup/lips/black-owned-mented-cosmetics-nude-lipstick?iid=sr-link1
Hi there! I want you to try Mented Cosmetics, a new line of nude lipsticks for women of all hues. Use my link to get 15% off your first purchase! Check it out: http://mentedcosmetics.refr.cc/rhildaf
That's a Lot of Poop
From Now I Know -
The Poop Collector
We all have different hobbies. Some of us like to play golf, others enjoy cooking, still others write trivia email newsletters. Some hobbies are mundane, but some are weird. Take, for example, a Florida man named George Frandsen. He collects something called coprolite — or, to use Merriam-Webster’s definition, “fossilized excrement.” Basically: Frandsen collects really old pieces of poop — poop specimens that have been preserved over millions of years and are now considered fossils.
http://nowiknow.com/the-poop-collector/
The Poop Collector
We all have different hobbies. Some of us like to play golf, others enjoy cooking, still others write trivia email newsletters. Some hobbies are mundane, but some are weird. Take, for example, a Florida man named George Frandsen. He collects something called coprolite — or, to use Merriam-Webster’s definition, “fossilized excrement.” Basically: Frandsen collects really old pieces of poop — poop specimens that have been preserved over millions of years and are now considered fossils.
http://nowiknow.com/the-poop-collector/
A Scary Thought
An excerpt from Slate -
A Stymied Trump Is a Dangerous Trump
Since he can’t score any wins at home, he just might look for glory overseas—and that means war.
By Joshua Keating
The collapse of efforts to repeal Obamacare last week leaves Donald Trump without a single legislative achievement more than half a year into his presidency. With relations souring between the president and his own party, with the West Wing thrown into chaos, and with the Russia investigation continuing to dog the administration, the president’s governing agenda has lost momentum. At first glance, this must be reassuring to Trump’s opponents, but it really shouldn’t be: The more he’s stymied at home, the more likely he is to look for victories abroad, a dynamic that significantly raises the risk of armed conflict.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/07/why_trump_might_be_itching_to_start_a_war_against_north_korea_or_iran.html
A Stymied Trump Is a Dangerous Trump
Since he can’t score any wins at home, he just might look for glory overseas—and that means war.
By Joshua Keating
The collapse of efforts to repeal Obamacare last week leaves Donald Trump without a single legislative achievement more than half a year into his presidency. With relations souring between the president and his own party, with the West Wing thrown into chaos, and with the Russia investigation continuing to dog the administration, the president’s governing agenda has lost momentum. At first glance, this must be reassuring to Trump’s opponents, but it really shouldn’t be: The more he’s stymied at home, the more likely he is to look for victories abroad, a dynamic that significantly raises the risk of armed conflict.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/07/why_trump_might_be_itching_to_start_a_war_against_north_korea_or_iran.html
What Are the Odds?
An excerpt from Vanity Fair -
Trump Has Fired Enough Staffers for an All-Trump Season of Dancing with the Stars
But which castoff would win the coveted Mirrorball Trophy?
by LAURA BRADLEY
In fact, now that we think of it, Dancing with the Stars could air an entire season populated solely with ex-Trump staffers looking for their second acts. Naturally, that raises one crucial question: who would win? Let’s consider the odds.
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/07/anthony-scaramucci-fired-trump-dancing-with-the-stars
Trump Has Fired Enough Staffers for an All-Trump Season of Dancing with the Stars
But which castoff would win the coveted Mirrorball Trophy?
by LAURA BRADLEY
In fact, now that we think of it, Dancing with the Stars could air an entire season populated solely with ex-Trump staffers looking for their second acts. Naturally, that raises one crucial question: who would win? Let’s consider the odds.
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2017/07/anthony-scaramucci-fired-trump-dancing-with-the-stars
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)