Sen. Kamala Harris says Trump should be scared to debate her

On the latest podcast episode of Jemele Hill is Unbothered, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) pulled no punches. While the senator’s well-known megawatt smile and infectious laugh were on display, the former California attorney general also had a few stern and serious messages to convey.

The fun and informative interview by Hill, a veteran journalist, pulled out some notable quotables from Harris who was at the time of the podcast recording during Essence Fest, firmly in an impressive second place amongst Democratic 2020 presidential candidates. Several Democratic candidates made it down to New Orleans to mingle with the 500,000 attendees of the annual display of #BlackGirlMagic drip, but Sen. Harris is the only one who is actually in the legacy publication’s target demographic. She was in her bag and her answers reflected her comfort level.

Here are just a few gems from Sen. Kamala Harris’ talk with Jemele Hill:


Why She Decided to Run
The thing that really at the end of the day compelled me to make the decision to jump in this race and I was talking to my sister about it, is I felt so strongly and really quite emotional. And what this is what I said: “If I don’t get in this race, there is a voice that will not be present on that stage and a voice that needs to be heard.”

READ MORE: Beto O’Rourke appeals to Black voters after learning his ancestors once owned slaves

Why She Wants to Include Bills Like Rent and Utilities in the Credit Score
So here’s the thing, credit score is your credit score. If it’s good or bad, we’ll determine whether you have access to capital, whether you have access to loans. One of the things that we don’t measure, which I intend to change, is we don’t really have [an] accurate measure of people’s financial responsibility. For example, in your credit scores, they’re not measuring the fact that you pay rent on time. Let’s measure that. Let’s measure the fact that people pay their phone bill on time. Let’s measure the fact people pay their utilities on time because that’s an indication of financial responsibility, which is the whole point of it. Are you financially responsible so that I loan you this money? Well, so I want to change it.

Breaking Down the Gender Wage Gap
We’re talking about things like equal pay. The equal pay act was passed in the United States of America in 1963 we’ve been talking about this and talking about this and talking about it. Well, fast forward to the year of our Lord 2019 and women are still paid 80 cents on the dollar, black women’s 61 cents on the dollar, native American women, 58 cents, Latinas, 53 cents. I’m done. Like we don’t need to debate the question any longer. Are women paid equally for equal work? It’s a non debatable point. The question becomes what are we going to do about it?

Creating True Pay Equity for Women
So here’s what I’m prepared to do. I’m prepared to say I’m going to shift the burden from that working woman to prove to the employer that she’s not getting paid the same amount for the same work and shift the burden to the corporations to prove that they are paying women equally for equal work. If they are not, they will have to pay a fine, which will be for every 1% differential between what they pay men and women. It will be an equal 1% of their profits from the year before. That’ll get their attention.

READ MORE: Attorney Benjamin Crump announces endorsement of Sen. Kamala Harris for President 

If She Thinks Donald Trump is Afraid to Debate Her
He should be.

What Her Favorite Curse Word Is
It starts with “m” and ends in “ah.”

*Mic Drop* And on that note, you’ll have to go check out the entire episode of Jemele Hill is Unbothered to hear the rest of Sen. Harris’ thoughts on a myriad of subjects, including her record as a prosecutor, her candid thoughts on her heated debate exchange with Joe Biden and more.

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The Game has future music royalties seized to pay off massive $7M judgement in sexual assault claim

'Boeing still hasn't said sorry to us'

Family members of victims of the 737 Max crashes give emotional testimony before US lawmakers.

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Here’s How Elon Musk Plans to Put a Computer in Your Brain

To hear Musk tell it, Neuralink's hardware is either a state-of-the-art tool for understanding the brain, a clinical advance for people with neurological disorders, or the next step in human evolution

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Tech Giants Claim Competition Exists. House Dems Don't Buy It

Executives from Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Apple testified before Congress that they face fierce competition. Lawmakers say it’s “frustrating.” 

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Kim Kardashian advocates on the ‘gram for a convicted murderer accused in grisly family slaying

Kim Kardashian introduced to her fans a man she believes was wrongly imprisoned in an effort to fight for his release.

—Mother of Eric Garner writes powerful essay after decline to prosecute police officer who killed him—

The soon-to-be lawyer and reality star, who facilitated the release of non-violent drug offender Alice Marie Johnson, took to Instagram Tuesday to advocate for Kevin Keith, an Ohio man who was found guilty of a 1994 triple homicide.

Kardashian explained the circumstances surrounding his case that led to her support in his favor, The Daily Mail reports.

“Kevin Keith was convicted of a triple homicide back in 1994 in Ohio and was sentenced to death,” Kardashian wrote.

“I heard about Kevin Keith’s case last year & the more I learn about it, the more I believe the world needs to hear what happened to him! He was on death row & came within days of execution before the governor of Ohio commuted his sentence to life w/o parole.

“I had the pleasure of meeting Kevin Keith through a video visit & was so impressed w/ the amazing programs he created in prison to help others inside better themselves! So much evidence has been uncovered proving Kevin’s innocence. I hope justice is served soon & he is released.”

Kardashian added a link to JusticeForKevinKeith.org.

Police claim Keith entered an apartment on the evening of Feb. 13, 1994, and sprayed it with gunfire, killing Marichell Chatman, 24; her 4-year-old daughter, Marchae; and the Marichell’s aunt, Linda Chatman, 39.

—Meek Mill lawyers: Case could crumble if new trial granted—

Three others were wounded, including siblings Quanita Reeves, 7, and Quentin Reeves, 4.

Marichell Chatman was the sister of an undercover police informant whose efforts led to a drug raid weeks earlier during which Keith was arrested.

Keith’s attorneys questioned eyewitness testimony that identified Keith as the shooter, provided evidence of an alternate suspect and lined up four alibi witnesses.

Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland cited “legitimate questions” about evidence used to convict the inmate. But he also cautioned he did believe Keith committed the crimes.

The AP contributed to this report.

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Beach Tragedy: Black father dies while trying to save his two children swept out into ocean

A father of seven who urgently tried to save two of his children who were swept away by strong waters at a state beach, died during the ill-fated rescue effort.

—Meek Mill lawyers: Case could crumble if new trial granted—

On Sunday, Johnny Lee Vann Jr., of North Carolina found himself in troubled waters at Wrightsville Beach near Wilmington when his children were swept off a jetty wall and whisked away in the ocean.

Vann reportedly saved one child and but struggled to stay afloat when he went back to recover the second child, according to Capt. Jason Bishop of the Wrightsville Beach Police Department told ABC News.

Vann and the other child were subsequently rescued but the brave father was reportedly underwater for 30 seconds and could not be resuscitated.

“We came from church and we went to the beach to have fun. We wound up having a tragedy. You couldn’t ask for a better person,” the victim’s wife Dawn Vann told WWAY.

“You could have took anybody else,” she said. “I would’ve preferred to take me than him.”

“He never hesitated,” Dawn said about her husband’s heroic rescue efforts. “He threw everything down – phone keys and ran out there.”

Dawn said when people noticed that Vann was having difficulty, he told them, “Forget about me. Get my kids!” He didn’t care about nothing else,” she recalled.  “They could’ve easily saved him,” she said explaining that he wanted them to focus on saving their children.

—Mother of Eric Garner writes powerful essay after decline to prosecute police officer who killed him—

“My dad always tells us, “You all are going to be together forever,”‘ said Vann’s daughter Kierstyn.

“His spirit is still alive and we’re all going to remember him as a hero,” she said.

The family has set up a GoFundMe to help pay funeral costs.

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2019 Black Men XCEL Takes Celebration of Excellence To Miami

Black Enterprise will present the 2019 Black Men XCEL Summit, Aug. 28 through Sept. 1st, at the JW Turnberry Miami Resort and Spa. The new host location for the annual event will welcome more than 800 men and women who will celebrate and honor the leadership and excellence of today’s men of color.

After spending two years in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, the 3rd annual celebration will move to Miami to accommodate the larger audience and offer attendees a lot more, including: luxury rooms, a world class spa, top-notch golf courses, an amazing waterpark and much more. Black Enterprise will also introduce new elements to the event and more networking opportunities for the attendees. Black Men XCEL will feature nationally recognized leaders and provide attendees with thought-provoking sessions, a star-powered awards dinner, a hilarious night of comedy, a summer concert, and, golf and spa experiences.

The XCEL Awards will be a major highlight of the event. It will honor men who are the living embodiment of the purpose of Black Men XCEL: “Celebrating the best of who we are.” The XCEL Awards recognize outstanding trailblazers whose achievements, influence, impact, and leadership have helped to open doors of opportunity and present an inspiring example of success for others, especially men of color. XCEL Awards will be presented to Rev. Jesse Jackson, the founder and president of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition; Eddie Levert, one of the founders and lead singers of the legendary R&B group The O’Jays; Jerome “The Bus” Bettis, Pro Football Hall of Famer and one of the greatest running backs in NFL history; and Marc H. Morial, CEO of the National Urban League. The accomplishments of these honorees will continue to set the standard of success to which others aspire to match and exceed.

2019 Black Men XCEL attendees will also engage in development sessions and activities designed to train, equip, and inspire leadership. Topics will include Filling the Pipeline to Opportunity in Tech and Financial Services; Lessons on Leadership: What it Takes to Win the Trust of People, Teams, and Organizations; Mindy Body Spirit: How Black Men can Survive Trauma and Thrive,and more. Black Men XCEL will also host a golf tournament, executive leadership coaching, career opportunity showcase, concert, comedy show with Roy Wood Jr, Chris Spencer, Capone and Mark Viera, and networking mixers.

To register and get more information, visit www.blackenterprise.com/bmx.

The 2019 Black Men XCEL is hosted by FedEx, with presenting sponsors, AT&T and Prudential. Platinum sponsor Georgia-Pacific/Koch Industries. Corporate sponsors Apple and Walmart and Gold sponsor Accenture. To register for the Black Men XCEL or for more information, visit https://ift.tt/2tBH6CX. You can also search #BMXCEL for additional updates and information about the summit on social media.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Interested press should contact Johann Alleyne-Morris at 212-886-9598 or via e-mail at morrisj@blackenterprise.com.

 

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Da Brat defends Jermaine Dupri and his ‘genius’ after he was dragged online for criticizing ‘stripper rappers’

Da Brat is taking up for her big brother Jermaine Dupri and sounding off after he was blasted online for criticizing female rappers by saying with disdain, “it’s like drug dealers rapping.”

—After uproar on hip-hop ‘stripper’, comment Jermaine Dupri tries to offer olive branch—

Dupri was met with an almost instant backlash from many people in the hip-hop community, when he sat down with People TV and expressed his disappointment with female rappers and when he was urged to pick a favorite, he responded with a critique of women in the rap game today.

“For me, it’s like strippers rapping,’” Dupri criticized. “As far as rap goes, I’m not getting who is the best rapper. Oh, you got a story about you dancing in the club, you got a story about you dancing in the club, you got a story about you dancing in the club. OK, all right.”

In a video, Cardi defended her right to rap about whatever she wanted to and noted there is a gap in support for female rappers who don’t infuse their lyrics with sexually-charged content. She also shouted out new artists Tierra Whack and Rhapsody and criticized Dupri for not recognizing them.

Cardi B addressed Dupri’s shade aimed at mainstream rappers like herself and hit back at JD.

But on Tuesday, Brat called Dupri a “genius” and said despite the fact that he vilified female rappers his criticism turned out as a benefit to them because he plans to extend an olive branch and hold a female cypher.

“Everything Jermaine Dupri does, he does strategically,” she told TMZ. “You should be thankful that the conversation is even started now, because now the focus in on us [female rappers]. New [rappers], seasoned [rappers], legends…everybody’s commenting.”

Afterward, Dupri took to Twitter on Friday to announce the creation of a So So Def cypher to uplift women coming up in the rap game.

—Cardi B claps back at Jermaine Dupri over ‘stripper rappers’ comments—

“I love Jermaine Dupri, he’s very smart at what he does and there’s always a method to his madness,” Brat added. She said his words were “absolutely taken out of context.”

But is it too late for him to clean up this mess and make amends?

 

After all the calls,DMs, angry tweets and other messages saying “I am a major gatekeeper in the hip hop world,why don’t I invest in a female who is out here hustling and making a name for herself?” I decided to create the #SoSoDefFemalecypher, details coming soon pic.twitter.com/Nyxl5KpPXZ

— Jermaine Dupri (@jermainedupri) July 12, 2019

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J-PAL North America announces second round of competition partners

J-PAL North America, a research center at MIT, will partner with two leading education technology nonprofits to test promising models to improve learning, as part of the center’s second Education, Technology, and Opportunity Innovation Competition. 

Running in its second year, J-PAL North America’s Education, Technology, and Opportunity Innovation Competition supports education leaders in using randomized evaluations to generate evidence on how technology can improve student learning, particularly for students from disadvantaged backgrounds. Last year, J-PAL North America partnered with the Family Engagement Lab to develop an evaluation of a multilingual digital messaging platform, and with Western Governors University’s Center for Applied Learning Science to evaluate scalable models to improve student learning in math.

This year, J-PAL North America will continue its work to support rigorous evaluations of educational technologies aimed to reduce disparities by partnering with Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Houston, a youth-development organization that provides education and social services to at-risk students, and MIND Research Institute, a nonprofit committed to improving math education.

“Even just within the first and second year of the J-PAL ed-tech competition, there continues to be an explosion in promising new initiatives,” says Philip Oreopoulos, professor of economics at the University of Toronto and co-chair of the J-PAL Education, Technology, and Opportunity Initiative. “We’re excited to try to help steer this development towards the most promising and effective programs for improving academic success and student well-being.”

Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Houston will partner with J-PAL North America to develop an evaluation of the BookNook reading app, a research-based intervention technology that aims to improve literacy skills of K-8 students.

“One of our commitments to our youth is to prepare them to be better citizens in life, and we do this through our programming, which supplements the education they receive in school,” says Michael Ewing, director of programs at Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston. “BookNook is one of our programs that we know can increase reading literacy and help students achieve at a higher level. We are excited about this opportunity to conduct a rigorous evaluation of BookNook’s technology because we can substantially increase our own accountability as an organization, ensuring that we are able to track the literacy gains of our students when the program is implemented with fidelity.”

Children who do not master reading by a young age are often placed at a significant disadvantage to their peers throughout the rest of their development. However, many effective interventions for students struggling with reading involve one-on-one or small-group instruction that places a heavy demand on school resources and teacher time. This makes it particularly challenging for schools that are already resource-strapped and face a shortage of teachers to meet the needs of students who are struggling with reading.

The BookNook app offers a channel to bring research-proven literacy intervention strategies to greater numbers of students through accessible technology. The program is heavily scaffolded so that both teachers and non-teachers can use it effectively, allowing after-school staff like those at Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston to provide adaptive instruction to students struggling with reading.

“Our main priority at BookNook is student success,” says Nate Strong, head of partnerships at for the BookNook team. “We are really excited to partner with J-PAL and with Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston to track the success of students in Houston and learn how we can do better for them over the long haul.”

MIND Research Institute seeks to partner with J-PAL North America to develop a scalable model that will increase students’ conceptual understanding of mathematical concepts. MIND’s Spatial Temporal (ST) math program is a pre-K-8 visual instructional program that leverages the brain's spatial-temporal reasoning ability using challenging visual puzzles, non-routine problem solving, and animated informative feedback to understand and solve mathematical problems.

“We’re thrilled and honored to begin this partnership with J-PAL to build our capacity to conduct randomized evaluations,” says Andrew Coulson, chief data science officer for MIND. “It's vital we continue to rigorously evaluate the ability of ST Math's spatial-temporal approach to provide a level playing field for every student, and to show substantial effects on any assessment. With the combination of talent and experience that J-PAL brings, I expect that we will also be exploring innovative research questions, metrics and outcomes, methods and techniques to improve the applicability, validity and real-world usability of the findings.”

J-PAL North America is excited to work with these two organizations and continue to support rigorous evaluations that will help us better understand the role technology should play in learning. Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Houston and MIND Research Institute will help J-PAL contribute to growing evidence base on education technology that can help guide decision-makers in understanding which uses of education technology are truly helping students learn amidst a rapidly-changing technological landscape.

J-PAL North America is a regional office of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab. J-PAL was established in 2003 as a research center at MIT’s Department of Economics. Since then, it has built a global network of affiliated professors based at over 58 universities and regional offices in Africa, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, North America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. J-PAL North America was established with support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and Arnold Ventures and works to improve the effectiveness of social programs in North America through three core activities: research, policy outreach, and capacity building. J-PAL North America’s education technology work is supported by the Overdeck Family Foundation and Arnold Ventures.

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Unmasking mutant cancer cells

As cancer cells progress, they accumulate hundreds and even thousands of genetic and epigenetic changes, resulting in protein expression profiles that are radically different from that of healthy cells. But despite their heavily mutated proteome, cancer cells can evade recognition and attack by the immune system.

Immunotherapies, particularly checkpoint inhibitors that reinvigorate exhausted T cells, have revolutionized the treatment of certain forms of cancer. These breakthrough therapies have resulted in unprecedented response rates for some patients. Unfortunately, most cancers fail to respond to immunotherapies and new strategies are therefore needed to realize their full potential.

A team of cancer biologists including members of the laboratories of David H. Koch Professor of Biology Tyler Jacks, director of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, and fellow Koch Institute member Forest White, the Ned C. and Janet Bemis Rice Professor and member of the MIT Center for Precision Cancer Medicine, took a complementary approach to boosting the immune system.

Although cancer cells are rife with mutant proteins, few of those proteins appear on a cell’s surface, where they can be recognized by immune cells. The researchers repurposed a well-studied class of anti-cancer drugs, heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) inhibitors, that make cancer cells easier to recognize by revealing their mutant proteomes.

Many HSP90 inhibitors have been studied extensively for the past several decades as potential cancer treatments. HSP90 protects the folded structure of a number of proteins when cells undergo stress, and in cancer cells plays an important role in stabilizing protein structure undermined by pervasive mutations. However, despite promising preclinical evidence, HSP90 inhibitors have produced discouraging outcomes in clinical trials, and none have achieved FDA approval.

In a study appearing in Clinical Cancer Research, the researchers identified a potential reason behind those disappointing results. HSP90 inhibitors have only been clinically tested at bolus doses — intermittent, large doses — that often result in unwanted side effects in patients. 

RNA profiling of human clinical samples and cultured cancer cell lines revealed that this bolus-dosing schedule results in the profound suppression of immune activity as well as the activation of heat shock factor 1 protein (HSF1). Not only does HSF1 activate the cell’s heat shock response, which counteracts the effect of the HSP90 inhibitor, but it is known to be a powerful enabler of cancer cell malignancy.

In striking contrast, the researchers used cancer mouse models with intact immune systems to show that sustained, low-level dosing of HSP90 inhibitors avoids triggering both the heat shock response and the immunosuppression associated with high doses.

Using a method devised by the White lab that combines mass spectrometry-based proteomics and computational modeling, the researchers discovered that the new dosing regimen increased the number and diversity of peptides (protein fragments) on the cell surface. These peptides, which the team found to be released by HSP90 during sustained low-level inhibition, were then free to be taken up by the cell’s antigen-presenting machinery and used to flag patrolling immune cells.

“These results connect a fundamental aspect of cell biology — protein folding — to anti-tumor immune responses” says lead author Alex Jaeger, a postdoctoral fellow in the Jacks lab and a former member of the laboratory of the late MIT biologist and Professor Susan Lindquist, whose work inspired the study’s HSP90 dosing scheule. “Hopefully, our findings can reinvigorate interest in HSP90 inhibition as a complementary approach for immunotherapy.”

Using the new dosing regimen, the researchers were able to clear tumors in mouse models at drug concentrations that are 25-50 times lower than those used in clinical trials, significantly reducing the risk for toxic side effects in patients. Importantly, because several forms of HSP90 inhibitors have already undergone extensive clinical testing, the new dosing regimen can be tested in patients quickly.

This work was supported in part by the Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation, the Takeda Pharmaceuticals Immune Oncology Research Fund, and an MIT Training Grant in Environmental Science; foundational work on HSF1 was supported by the Koch Institute Frontier Research Program.

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Beyonce drops ‘Spirit’ video featuring Blue Ivy from ‘Lion King’ soundtrack

Beyonce dropped her “Spirit” video exclusively during The Lion King: Can You Feel the Love Tonight special with Robin Roberts special that aired Tuesday on ABC.

And it was brimming with all the blackness that we’d expect from the Queen Bee.

“The concept of the video is to show how God is the painter, and natural beauty in nature needs no art direction,” said the singer, who voices Nala in the film. “It’s the beauty of color, the beauty of melanin, the beauty of tradition.”

And remember when reports broke that Beyonce was whisked into exclusive Grand Canyon tribal grounds to film a music video? Well the magnificent waterfall in the ‘Spirit’ video was likely from the super exclusive Havasu Falls campsite at the Grand Canyon.

And there was a surprise special guest in the video by the name of Blue Ivy. Baby Blue was right by momma bear Bey’s side and was looking cute in her pink outfit with matching hair.

Watch #SPIRIT now #TheLionKing https://t.co/RYtZbQYCvn

— BEYONCÉ (@Beyonce) July 17, 2019

During the one-hour special, Beyonce debuted the music video for her latest single “Spirit” and discuss how The Lion King inspired her to create a new album The Lion King: The Gift. The album was executive produced by Queen Bey and features JAY-Z, Childish Gambino, Pharrell, and Blue Ivy Carter. 

Here’s why James Earl Jones is not promoting ‘The Lion King’

“The soundtrack is a love letter to Africa and I wanted to make sure we found the best talent from Africa and not just use some of the sounds and do my interpretation of it. I wanted to be authentic to what is beautiful about the music in Africa,” Beyonce says in the clip. 

“A lot of the drums, the chants, all of these incredible new sounds mixed with some of the producers from America, we’ve kind of created our own genre and I feel like the soundtrack becomes visual in your mind. It’s a soundscape. It’s more than just the music because each song tells the story of the film.”

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MIT and Fashion Institute of Technology join forces to create innovative textiles

If you knew that hundreds of millions of running shoes are disposed of in landfills each year, would you prefer a high-performance athletic shoe that is biodegradable? Would being able to monitor your fitness in real time and help you avoid injury while you are running appeal to you? If so, look no further than the collaboration between MIT and the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). 

For the second consecutive year, students from each institution teamed up for two weeks in late June to create product concepts exploring the use of advanced fibers and technology. The workshops were held collaboratively with Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA), a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based national nonprofit whose goal is to enable a manufacturing-based transformation of traditional fibers, yarns, and textiles into highly sophisticated, integrated, and networked devices and systems. 

“Humans have made use of natural fibers for millennia. They are essential as tools, clothing and shelter,” says Gregory C. Rutledge, lead principal investigator for MIT in AFFOA and the Lammot du Pont Professor in Chemical Engineering. “Today, new fiber-based solutions can have a significant and timely impact on the challenges facing our world.” 

The students had the opportunity this year to respond to a project challenge posed by footwear and apparel manufacturer New Balance, a member of the AFFOA network. Students spent their first week in Cambridge learning new technologies at MIT and the second at FIT, a college of the State University of New York, in New York City working on projects and prototypes. On the last day of the workshop, the teams presented their final projects at the headquarters of Lafayette 148 at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, with New Balance Creative Manager of Computational Design Onur Yuce Gun in attendance.

Team Natural Futurism presented a concept to develop a biodegradable lifestyle shoe using natural material alternatives, including bacterial cellulose and mycelium, and advanced fiber concepts to avoid use of chemical dyes. The result was a shoe that is both sustainable and aesthetic. Team members included: Giulia de Garay (FIT, Textile Development and Marketing), Rebecca Grekin ’19 (Chemical Engineering), rising senior Kedi Hu (Chemical Engineering/Architecture), Nga Yi "Amy" Lam (FIT, Textile Development and Marketing), Daniella Koller (FIT, Fashion Design), and Stephanie Stickle (FIT, Textile Surface Design).

Team CoMIT to Safety Before ProFIT explored the various ways that runners get hurt, sometimes from acute injuries but more often from overuse. Their solution was to incorporate intuitive textiles, as well as tech elements such as a silent alarm and LED display, into athletic clothing and shoes for entry-level, competitive, and expert runners. The goal is to help runners at all levels to eliminate distraction, know their physical limits, and be able to call for help. Team members included Rachel Cheang (FIT, Fashion Design/Knitwear), Jonathan Mateer (FIT, Accessories Design), Caroline Liu ’19 (Materials Science and Engineering), and Xin Wen ’19 (Electrical Engineering and Computer Science).

"It is critical for design students to work in a team environment engaging in the latest technologies. This interaction will support the invention of products that will define our future," comments Joanne Arbuckle, deputy to the president for industry partnerships and collaborative programs at FIT.

The specific content of this workshop was co-designed by MIT postdocs Katia Zolotovsky of the Department of Biological Engineering and Mehmet Kanik of the Research Laboratory of Electronics, with assistant professor of fashion design Andy Liu from FIT, to teach the fundamentals of fiber fabrication, 3-D printing with light, sensing, and biosensing. Participating MIT faculty included Yoel Fink, who is CEO of AFFOA and professor of materials science and electrical engineering; Polina Anikeeva, who is associate professor in the departments of Materials Science and Engineering and Brain and Cognitive Sciences; and Nicholas Xuanlai Fang, professor of mechanical engineering. Participating FIT faculty were Preeti Arya, assistant professor, Textile Development and Marketing; Patrice George, associate professor, Textile Development and Marketing; Suzanne Goetz, associate professor, Textile Surface Design; Tom Scott, Fashion Design; David Ulan, adjunct assistant professor, Accessories Design; and Gregg Woodcock, adjunct instructor, Accessories Design.  

To facilitate the intersection of design and engineering for products made of advanced functional fibers, yarns, and textiles, a brand-new workforce must be created and inspired by future opportunities. “The purpose of the program is to bring together undergraduate students from different backgrounds, and provide them with a cross-disciplinary, project-oriented experience that gets them thinking about what can be done with these new materials,” Rutledge adds. 

The goal of MIT, FIT, AFFOA, and industrial partner New Balance is to accelerate innovation in high-tech, U.S.-based manufacturing involving fibers and textiles, and potentially to create a whole new industry based on breakthroughs in fiber technology and manufacturing. AFFOA, a Manufacturing Innovation Institute founded in 2016, is a public-private partnership between industry, academia, and both state and federal governments.

“Collaboration and teamwork are DNA-level attributes of the New Balance workplace,” says Chris Wawrousek, senior creative design lead in the NB Innovation Studio. “We were very excited to participate in the program from a multitude of perspectives. The program allowed us to see some of the emerging research in the field of technical textiles. In some cases, these technologies are still very nascent, but give us a window into future developments.”  

“The diverse pairing and short time period also remind us of the energy captured in an academic crash course, and just how much teams can do in a condensed period of time,” Wawrousek adds. “Finally, it’s a great chance to connect with this future generation of designers and engineers, hopefully giving them an exciting window into the work of our brand.”

By building upon their different points of view from design and science, the teams demonstrated what is possible when creative individuals from each area act and think as one. “When designers and engineers come together and open their minds to creating new technologies that ultimately will impact the world, we can imagine exciting new multi-material fibers that open up a new spectrum of applications in various markets, from clothing to medical and beyond,” says Yuly Fuentes, MIT Materials Research Laboratory project manager for fiber technologies. 

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Unicode's Website Redesign Makes It Easier to Suggest New Emoji

Unicode, the organization that oversees new emoji, just redesigned its website. The upshot: It’s easier to figure out how to submit an emoji proposal.

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What Happens When Reproductive Tech Like IVF Goes Awry?

Opinion: Freezers fail. Samples are mislabeled. Embryos get switched. But a lack of regulation leaves those harmed by such negligence without clear recourse.

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Manchester Arena attack: Bomber's brother extradited to UK

Hashem Abedi was arrested in Libya shortly after the 2017 suicide attack that killed 22 people.

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Mother of Eric Garner writes powerful essay after decline to prosecute police officer who killed him

Eric Garner’s chokehold death, captured on cellphone video, will not lead to federal charges for the NYPD officer who killed him.

This decision, announced yesterday, angered his family who had waited five years for Officer Daniel Pantaleo to be brought to justice.

—Breaking News: Eric Garner’s chokehold death will not lead to federal charges for NYPD officer—

Garner’s mother Gwen Carr wrote a passionate piece for The New York Daily News saying her son who died after being choked into submission, was killed all over again on Tuesday.

“Five years ago, my son said “I can’t breathe” 11 times as officers placed him in a banned chokehold and killed him. After patiently waiting, following the rules, hoping for accountability and closure, we now learn that the Department of Justice has decided not to bring federal charges against Officer Daniel Pantaleo,” Carr wrote.

“The DOJ has killed Eric all over again, and today we are the ones who are finding it difficult to breathe.”

Carr, and many others, believe Pantaleo and the other officers involved got away with murder.

“Everyone saw what happened; the entire world watched as my son’s life was taken by those who swore an oath to protect and serve. It was all captured on video, in plain view, and yet somehow Pantaleo and all of the officers involved in Eric’s murder have been able to walk away with a slap on the wrist — if that.”

Pantaleo, Carr said, was never penalized and has continued to receive his nearly $120,000 pay over the years and even got $20,000 more in overtime pay.

“In fact, the only “punishment” he ever received was being placed on desk duty, where he’s been able to rack up pay and pension benefits.

“Meanwhile, I will never get my son back. My grandchildren will never have their father. My family will never see Eric’s beautiful smile again,” she wrote.

—Meek Mill lawyers: Case could crumble if new trial granted—

“The NYPD failed us. Mayor de Blasio failed us. And now the DOJ has failed us. But we aren’t going anywhere and we will not be silenced.”

Carr said she and her family will continue to push to get Pantaleo and the other officers fired. According to the New York Times, it will be up to Commissioner James P. O’Neill to decide whether to fire Officer Pantaleo.

“We are asking Police Commissioner James O’Neill to fire Pantaleo and all of the officers responsible for Eric’s death. They all must be off the force.”

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Africa Cup of Nations 2019: LeRoy criticises new timing of tournament

Frenchman Claude LeRoy criticises the new timing of the Africa Cup of Nations, saying that top players arrive exhausted after a long European season.

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This Food-Delivery Robot Wants to Share the Bike Lane

Refraction AI, founded by two researchers at the University of Michigan, joins a crowded field of self-driving delivery vehicles.

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Texas Democrat Al Green introduces articles of impeachment against Trump

Texas Rep. Al Green has introduced articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump, potentially forcing a vote this week on whether to remove the president from office.

The vote would come too soon for most Democrats, as a majority of the caucus appears to oppose impeachment, for now. But Green is seeking to capitalize on a growing sentiment for impeachment in the wake of Trump’s racist tweets over the weekend.

Green introduced the measure shortly after the House voted to condemn Trump for tweets that four Democratic congresswomen should “go back” to their home countries. All are Americans.

Under House rules, a single member of the House can force an impeachment vote. Green did so twice, unsuccessfully, when Republicans controlled the House.
For now, a majority of House Democrats appear to oppose impeachment. And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has resisted launching official proceedings without broad bipartisan support.

Green said Tuesday that Trump is unfit for office and “enough is enough.”
Any member of the House can force an impeachment vote. Green has done so twice before, unsuccessfully.

The Democratic-led House has voted to condemn President Donald Trump’s tweets telling four Democratic congresswomen of color to “go back” to their countries of origin.
Tuesday’s vote was 240-187 and was solidly opposed by Republicans. It came after Trump and top congressional Republicans denied he is a racist and urged GOP lawmakers to oppose the Democratic measure.

The resolution says the House “strongly condemns” Trump’s “racist comments that have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color.”
Republicans say Democrats are using the uproar over Trump’s comments to score political points. But Democrats say such comments were revolting and needed to be vilified, especially coming from the president.

Trump didn’t back down and tweeted that lawmakers unhappy with the U.S. “can leave.”

The post Texas Democrat Al Green introduces articles of impeachment against Trump appeared first on theGrio.

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Meek Mill lawyers: Case could crumble if new trial granted

Lawyers for Meek Mill asked an appeals court Tuesday to overturn a 2008 drug and gun conviction that has kept the rapper on probation for a decade and made him a celebrity crusader for criminal justice reform.

Defense lawyers believe the city judge who has overseen his case and sent him to prison in 2017 over minor parole violation has become too involved in the performer’s life — once checking on his community service efforts at a homeless shelter — and lost her impartiality.

And, they say, the only prosecution witness at the nonjury trial was a drug squad officer whose credibility is now in doubt.

“He now has been discredited,” lawyer Kim Watterson of Los Angeles told the three-judge panel. “They (prosecutors) do not have confidence in his testimony and will not call him at retrial.”

The retired officer, Reginald Graham, is on an internal do-not-call list of police officers District Attorney Larry Krasner won’t use in court because of credibility concerns, according to a brief Krasner’s office filed that supports the new trial bid. Krasner, a former civil rights lawyer, took office last year.

“Although he was not charged federally with the other officers in the narcotics unit, Graham resigned from the police department prior to being formally dismissed,” Krasner’s office wrote, referring to a 2015 police corruption trial that ended with the acquittal of six officers. “The Commonwealth cannot call a witness whose credibility it mistrusts.”

Assistant District Attorney Paul George echoed the point in court, making for an unusual, uncontested appeal. He said the office wouldn’t call Graham due it its “legal, ethical and constitutional obligations.”

Prosecutors could choose to drop the case if a new trial is granted, leaving Williams unconvicted and free of the court’s oversight.

The court typically takes several months to rule.

Mill, whose real name is Robert Rihmeek Williams, became a champion for criminal justice reform after Judge Genece Brinkley sentenced him in 2017 to two to four years in prison for the parole violations. He spent five months in prison before a court ordered him released last year.

He has hired a large team of high-priced litigators to clear his name, including lawyers from Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia who were on hand for Tuesday’s hearing. Brinkley, for her part, has hired her own high-profile city lawyer to defend her actions.

“She’s a tough judge across the board,” said her lawyer, A. Charles Peruto Jr. “When you have this kind of money and fame you use it to your advantage to try to show she’s prejudiced against him. . If he wins, it just demonstrates that he’s above the law.”

At the 2008 trial, Graham testified that the 19-year-old Williams pointed a gun at him during the arrest outside his southwest Philadelphia home. Williams has acknowledged having a gun but denied pointing it at police. Brinkley found him guilty of drug and gun charges and sentenced him to about one to two years in jail, followed by 10 years of probation.

Williams, now 32, has frequently tangled with the judge over terms of the parole, especially over reporting requirements and travel rules that he says conflict with his soaring music career.

Brinkley, after a 2015 hearing that included testimony from Williams’ then-girlfriend, superstar Nicki Minaj, said she “has done nothing but try to help the defendant.”

The presiding judge on Tuesday’s panel, President Judge Jack Panella, said the violations and resulting prison term become moot if the court grants a new trial.

“Pretty much everything falls apart if we grant (post-conviction) relief on the first trial,” Panella said.

Williams, whose top-selling albums include the 2015 “Dreams Worth More Than Money” and last year’s “Championships,” is a fixture at NBA games in Philadelphia and has the support of many high-profile celebrities and athletes.

He appeared in last month’s season finale of “Saturday Night Live,” performing beside DJ Khaled, John Legend, SZA and other artists in a tribute to slain rapper Nipsey Hussle.
A documentary on his legal travails, produced by music mogul Jay-Z, is set to be released next month.

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The Paradox of the Incredible Shrinking Comic-Con Expansion

The pop-culture event keeps getting bigger, even as it feels smaller. Welcome to the Age of Content.

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When an Online Teaching Job Becomes a Window into Child Abuse

More than half a million Chinese kids take virtual English classes on VIPKid. What can the platform do to keep them safe in their own homes?

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Sudan junta and civilians sign power-sharing deal

Sudan's ruling military council and opposition leaders sign power-sharing accord after all-night talks to end crisis.

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Breaking News: Eric Garner’s Chokehold Death Will Not Lead to Federal Charges for NYPD Officer

TheGrio has launched a special series called #BlackonBlue to examine the relationship between law enforcement and African-Americans. Our reporters and videographers will investigate police brutality and corruption while also exploring local and national efforts to improve policing in our communities. Join the conversation, or share your own story, using the hashtag #BlackonBlue.

The Justice Department will not bring federal charges against a New York City police officer in the death of Eric Garner, ending a yearslong inquiry into a case that sharply divided officials and prompted national protests over excessive force by the police, according to two people briefed on the decision.

Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn intend to announce the decision not to bring civil rights or criminal charges on Tuesday morning, just one day before the fifth anniversary of Mr. Garner’s death. That is the deadline by which they would have to file some of the possible charges against the officer, Daniel Pantaleo.

The post Breaking News: Eric Garner’s Chokehold Death Will Not Lead to Federal Charges for NYPD Officer appeared first on theGrio.

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No More Deals: San Francisco Considers Raising Taxes on Tech

In 2011, San Francisco cut taxes to lure tech firms. Eight years later, gaping income inequality has city officials looking for ways to get tech to pay its share.

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The 10 Things We're Most Excited to See at Comic-Con

This year's event is definitely downsized—but that makes room for a lot of surprises.

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Zuma inquiry: South Africa's ex-leader claims he received death threats

Jacob Zuma says threats were also made against his children and lawyer.

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Lil Nas X riding high as ‘Old Town Road’ hits 15th week atop Billboard Chart

Lil Nas X is riding his horse down that old town road and all the way to the bank.

—Young Thug worried fellow MC Lil Nas X made a career mistake coming out—

The rapper’s viral hit song “Old Town Road” is the little chartbusting summer hit that remains at the number one spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart for the 15^th week, The NY Daily News reports.

Back in March, Billboard said the song “does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music.”

“He was flat-out discriminated against when the song had a these country overtones, but it continues to be one of the strong, infectious songs of our time,” Chuck Creekmur, co-founder and CEO of allhiphop.com, told the Daily News on Monday.

“I find myself humming it all the time without hearing it.”

After much backlash with folks questioning if the song was truly taken down because it was a Black artist artfully mixing country and rap and carving out his own path, the single re-emerged on the chart with help from Billy Ray Cyrus spitting a few bars.

By its 13^th week, Old Town Road had made history with its longevity on the chart longer than any other hip-hop record ever.

And when the Atlanta rapper came out as gay a few weeks during pride month, his song continued to surge.

—Lil Nas X on why he didn’t intend to come out as gay publicly and the perfect way he deals with bullies—

Now that the song has hit it’s 15^th week on Billboard, Lil Nas X has another notch on his belt beating out Mark Ronson and Bruno Mars (2015’s “Uptown Funk!”), Elton John (1997’s “Candle In The Wind”) and Whitney Houston (1992’s “I’ll Always Love You”) which all stood firm a lot the list for 14 consecutive weeks.

In one more week, if Old Town Road keeps riding high, it will beat out Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men’s 1995 hit “One Sweet Day” and 2017’s “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi & Daddy Yankee featuring Justin Bieber and it will be a first in the chart’s 61-year history.

The post Lil Nas X riding high as ‘Old Town Road’ hits 15th week atop Billboard Chart appeared first on theGrio.

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That Global Ban on Huawei? Not So Much Anymore

A UK committee declines to recommend banning Huawei from the nation's telecom networks, as the US prepares to permit some sales to the Chinese company.

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Africa Cup of Nations: Guinea sack coach Paul Put amidst air of "mistrust"

The Guinea Football Federation a sacks coach Paul Put for poor results and for 'creating an atmosphere of mistrust.'

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Trump renews racist assault against congresswomen, says other racists agree with him

Defiant in the face of widespread criticism, President Donald Trump renewed his belligerent call for four Democratic congresswomen of color to get out of the U.S. “right now,” cementing his position as the most willing U.S. leader in generations to stoke the discord that helped send him to the White House.

Content to gamble that a sizable chunk of the electorate embraces his tweets that have been widely denounced as racist , the president made clear that he has no qualms about exploiting racial divisions once again.

“It doesn’t concern me because many people agree with me,” Trump said Monday at the White House. “A lot of people love it, by the way.”

The episode served notice that Trump is willing to again rely on incendiary rhetoric on issues of race and immigration to preserve his political base in the leadup to the 2020 election.

There was near unanimous condemnation from Democrats for Trump’s comments and a rumble of discontent from a subset of Republicans — but notably not from the party’s congressional leaders.

Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, the party’s White House nominee in 2012 and now one of the president’s most vocal GOP critics, said Trump’s comments were “destructive, demeaning, and disunifying.”

Far from backing down, Trump on Monday dug in on comments he had initially made a day earlier on Twitter that if lawmakers “hate our country,” they can go back to their “broken and crime-infested” countries. His remarks were directed at four congresswomen: Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan. All are American citizens and three of the four were born in the U.S.

“If you’re not happy in the U.S., if you’re complaining all the time, you can leave, you can leave right now,” he said.

The president’s words, which evoked the trope of telling black people to go back to Africa, may have been partly meant to widen the divides within the House Democratic caucus, which has been riven by internal debate over how best to oppose his policies. And while Trump’s attacks brought Democrats together in defense of their colleagues, his allies noted he was also having some success in making the controversial progressive lawmakers the face of their party.

The president questioned whether Democrats should “want to wrap” themselves around this group of four people as he recited a list of the quartet’s most controversial statements.
The four themselves fired back late Monday, condemning what they called “xenophobic bigoted remarks” from the Republican president and renewing calls for their party to begin impeachment proceedings.

Trump “does not know how to defend his policies and so what he does is attack us personally,” said Ocasio-Cortez.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who said Trump’s campaign slogan truly means he wants to “make America white again,” announced Monday that the House would vote on a resolution condemning his new comments . The resolution “strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s racist comments” and says they “have legitimized and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of color.”

The Senate’s top Democrat, Chuck Schumer of New York, said his party would also try to force a vote in the GOP-controlled chamber.

Trump, who won the presidency in 2016 in part by energizing disaffected voters with inflammatory racial rhetoric, made clear he has no intention of backing away from that strategy in 2020.

“The Dems were trying to distance themselves from the four ‘progressives,’ but now they are forced to embrace them,” he tweeted Monday afternoon. “That means they are endorsing Socialism, hate of Israel and the USA! Not good for the Democrats!”

Trump has faced few consequences for such attacks in the past. They typically earn him cycles of wall-to-wall media attention. He is wagering that his most steadfast supporters will be energized by the controversy as much, or if not more so, than the opposition.
“It’s possible I’m wrong,” Trump allowed Monday. “The voters will decide.”

The president has told aides that he was giving voice what many of his supporters believe — that they are tired of people, including immigrants, disrespecting their country, according to three Republicans close to the White House who were not authorized to speak publicly about private conversations.

Trump on Monday singled out Omar, in particular, accusing her of having “hatred” for Israel, and expressing “love” for “enemies like al-Qaida.”

“These are people that, in my opinion, hate our country,” he said.

Omar, in an interview, once laughed about how a college professor had spoken of al-Qaida with an intensity she said was not used to describe “America,” ”England” or “The Army.”
She addressed herself directly to Trump in a tweet, writing, “You are stoking white nationalism (because) you are angry that people like us are serving in Congress and fighting against your hate-filled agenda.”

Republicans largely trod carefully with their responses.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close ally of the president who golfed with him over the weekend, advised him to “aim higher” during an appearance on “Fox & Friends,” even as he accused the four Democrats of being “anti-Semitic” and “anti-American.”

Marc Short, chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence, said “I don’t think that the president’s intent in any way is racist,” pointing to Trump’s decision to choose Elaine Chao, who was born outside the country, as his transportation secretary.

Chao is one of the few minorities among the largely white and male aides in high-profile roles in Trump’s administration. She is the wife of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who declined to comment Monday on Trump’s attacks.

The latest provocation came just two days after Trump inserted himself further into a rift between Pelosi and Ocasio-Cortez, offering an unsolicited defense of the Democratic speaker. Pelosi has been seeking to minimize Ocasio-Cortez’s influence in the House Democratic caucus in recent days, prompting the freshman lawmaker to accuse Pelosi of trying to marginalize women of color.

Trump told advisers later that he was pleased with his meddling, believing that dividing Democrats would be helpful to him, as would elevating any self-proclaimed socialists as a way to frighten voters to steer clear of their liberal politics, the Republicans said.

Among the few GOP lawmakers commenting Monday, Rep. Pete Olson of Texas said Trump’s tweets were “not reflective of the values of the 1,000,000+ people” in his district. “We are proud to be the most diverse Congressional district in America. I urge our President immediately disavow his comments,” he wrote.

Several other Republicans went out of their way to say they were not condoning the views of the Democrats, while encouraging Trump to retract his comments.
Maine Sen. Susan Collins, who is up for re-election next year, said Trump’s tweet was “way over the line and he should take that down.”

Sen. Patrick Toomey of Pennsylvania said of the Democrats, “We should defeat their ideas on the merits, not on the basis of their ancestry.”

In an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll from February 2017, half of Americans said the mixing of culture and values from around the world is an important part of America’s identity as a nation. Fewer — about a third — said the same of a culture established by early European immigrants.

But partisans in that poll were divided over these aspects of America’s identity. About two-thirds of Democrats but only about a third of Republicans thought the mixing of world cultures was important to the country’s identity. By comparison, nearly half of Republicans but just about a quarter of Democrats saw the culture of early European immigrants as important to the nation.

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Tennessee governor backtracks on Confederate proclamation honoring KKK leader after backlash

Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee changed course on Monday and declared he’s now in favor of amending a law that requires the state to honor Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest, an early leader of the Ku Klux Klan.

Lee tweeted on Monday he will work to change a decades-old statute requiring governors to sign a proclamation designating July 13 as “Nathan Bedford Forrest Day.”

“While it is my job as governor to enforce the law, I want Tennesseans to know where my heart is on this issue,” Lee, a Republican, said. “Our state’s history is rich, complex and in some cases painful. With this in mind, I will be working to change this law.”

Lee’s statement came days after he faced national backlash for not only signing the proclamation last week, but also declining to answer reporter questions if he thought the law should change. When pressed, Lee told reporters Thursday that he “hadn’t even looked at that law, other than knowing I needed to comply with it.”

High-profile Republicans and Democrats quickly criticized the signing, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who called the law “wrong” and argued Tennessee “should not have an official day honoring (Forrest).”

At the same time, others also pointed out that Lee’s reluctance to address the proclamation was similar to his lack of action on what to do with the bust of Forrest currently sitting inside the Tennessee Statehouse.

Lee tweeted that he was speaking out in order to “clear the air on something that everyone’s been talking about.”

“I didn’t like it, and I want to explain why I didn’t like it and why I didn’t want to sign it,” Lee told WKRN-TV in interview Monday. “There are parts of our history that are painful, particularly to African Americans.”

Forrest, a Confederate cavalry general, amassed a fortune as a plantation owner and slave trader in Memphis before the Civil War.

He was in charge during the battle of Fort Pillow, where an estimated 300 African-American soldiers were massacred by Forrest’s men after surrendering. The massacre provoked outrage in the North and was one of the most bitterly disputed incidents in the Civil War.
State lawmakers voted to place Forrest’s bust in the Capitol more than a century after the Civil War ended.

“Nathan Bedford Forrest and his parts of life is part of painful history and why I, we need to look at changing law and I will work with legislators to do that,” Lee said.

According to the law in question, Tennessee governors must sign six proclamations throughout the year designating the following days of special observance: Robert E. Lee Day (January 19), Abraham Lincoln Day (February 12), Andrew Jackson Day (March 15), Confederate Decoration Day (June 3), Nathan Bedford Forrest Day (July 13) and Veterans’ Day (November 11).

The law encourages the governor to invite the public to observe each day in schools and churches. It does not, however, outline a penalty should the governor choose to not sign the proclamation.

Previous Democratic lawmaker attempts to change the law have been unsuccessful.
Earlier this year, Lee said he regretted attending and wearing a Confederate uniform during a fraternity “Old South” party while at Auburn University. Lee says he has come to see his participation in the event differently.

The post Tennessee governor backtracks on Confederate proclamation honoring KKK leader after backlash appeared first on theGrio.

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Spaceflight and Spirituality, a Complicated Relationship

The earliest days of American human spaceflight were dominated by white Christian protestants. Does religion have a place in the future of space exploration?

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Lunar Mysteries That Science Still Needs to Solve

What scientists most want to know about our closest planetary neighbor.

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Why 'Moon Shot' Has No Place in the 21st Century

Today’s challenges are vast and nebulous—and demand a different kind of ambition and approach. We need a new name for them.

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The World Watched Apollo 11 Together. Here's the Evidence

From the beaches of Florida and department store TVs to mission control and Parisian living rooms, everyone witnessed the mission's launch and landing.

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The Best Gear to Take to the Moon

You're embarking on the craziest 76-hour journey of your life. What on earth (literally) do you bring?

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Photographer Dan Winters on His Apollo Obsession

The frequent WIRED contributor has been captivated by space since he was a kid. Now he's documenting NASA's freshly retro-furbished mission control.

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The WIRED Reader’s Guide to the Moon

We sifted through dozens of new books released in honor of the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. Here are the giant leaps for lunar literature.

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Was Bitcoin Created by This International Drug Dealer? Maybe!

The search for Satoshi Nakamoto has led down many rabbit holes. I went down another: The case of global criminal mastermind Paul LeRoux.

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Amazon Prime Day 2019: 11 Things WIRED's Gear Team Wants

We look at gear all day, every day. Here are the cat caves and chopsticks that we'd spend our own money on.

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Hodan Nalayeh prize: Somalia to honour journalist murdered by al-Shabab

Hodan Nalayeh relocated to Somalia last year to help rebuild the country of her birth.

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Bill Kasanda: 'Losing my leg didn't stop me biking'

Billy Kasanda refuses to allow an accident, in which he lost a leg, to stop him biking.

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Marc Batchelor: Former South Africa footballer shot dead

Former South Africa footballer Marc Batchelor is shot dead near his home in Johannesburg.

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Warner Bros. to shine light on diversity with #BlerdandBoujee boat party at Comic-Con

26 Best Amazon Prime Day Alternative Deals From Walmart, eBay, Etc

Prime Day is so popular that Amazon competitors like Walmart and Target counter it with their own sales. We've collected the best of the rest.

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Headed to Mars? Pack Some Aerogel—You Know, for Terraforming

Armed with the right materials, Martian colonizers could unlock frozen carbon dioxide beneath its surface, making the Red Planet warm enough to support life.

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Buy Black: Great Black-Owned Products on Amazon for Amazon Prime Day

It’s Amazon Prime Day. Over the next 48 hours, Amazon will offer some truly amazing deals exclusive to its Amazon Prime members. According to one forecast, 76% of Amazon Prime members in the US expect to shop Prime Day, up from 63% who shopped in 2018.

Although most Prime Day shoppers are looking for deals on tech and electronics (the Instant Pot and iRobot Roomba are expected to be big sellers) Prime Day deals are likely to trickle down to other products as well. And since the majority of you Prime members are likely to be on Amazon, here is a listing of black-owned products sold on Amazon that you may be able to get a bargain on. Click on the links or images to pull up the product listing.

 

Black-Owned Products on Amazon for Amazon Prime Day

 

• Clothing, Jewelry, and Accessories

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• Health, Wellness, and Beauty

(Photo courtesy of Yubi Beauty, LLC)

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• Food and Drink 

(Image: longevitywines.com)

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• Tech, Recreation, Toys, and Games

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• Home, Decoration, Baby, and Pets

  

  (Image: harlemcandlecompany.com)

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• Books

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• Unique 

(Image: That Melanin Life/Etsy)

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MIT Press and Harvard Data Science Initiative launch the Harvard Data Science Review

The following is adapted from a joint release from the MIT Press and the Harvard Data Science Initiative.

The MIT Press and the Harvard Data Science Initiative (HDSI) have announced the launch of the Harvard Data Science Review (HDSR). The open-access journal, published by MIT Press and hosted online via the multimedia platform PubPub, an initiative of the MIT Knowledge Futures group, will feature leading global thinkers in the burgeoning field of data science, making research, educational resources, and commentary accessible to academics, professionals, and the interested public. With demand for data scientists booming, HDSR will provide a centralized, authoritative, and peer-reviewed publishing community to service the growing profession.

The first issue features articles on topics ranging from authorship attribution of John Lennon-Paul McCartney songs to machine learning models for predicting drug approvals to artificial intelligence (AI). Future content will have a similar range of general interest, academic, and professional content intended to foster dialogue among researchers, educators, and practitioners about data science research, practice, literacy, and workforce development. HDSR will prioritize quality over quantity, with a primary emphasis on substance and readability, attracting readers via inspiring, informative, and intriguing papers, essays, stories, interviews, debates, guest columns, and data science news. By doing so, HDSR intends to help define and shape the profession as a scientifically rigorous and globally impactful multidisciplinary field.

Combining features of a premier research journal, a leading educational publication, and a popular magazine, HDSR will leverage digital technologies and advances to facilitate author-reader interactions globally and learning across various media.

The Harvard Data Science Review will serve as a hub for high-quality work in the growing field of data science, noted by the Harvard Business Review as the "sexiest job of the 21st century." It will feature articles that provide expert overviews of complex ideas and topics from leading thinkers with direct applications for teaching, research, business, government, and more. It will highlight content in the form of commentaries, overviews, and debates intended for a wide readership; fundamental philosophical, theoretical, and methodological research; innovations and advances in learning, teaching, and communicating data science; and short communications and letters to the editor.

The dynamic digital edition is freely available on the PubPub platform to readers around the globe.

Amy Brand, director of the MIT Press, states, “For too long the important work of data scientists has been opaque, appearing mainly in academic journals with limited reach. We are thrilled to partner with the Harvard Data Science Initiative to publish work that will have a deep impact on popular understanding of the growing field of data science. The Review will be an unparalleled resource for advancing data literacy in society.”

Francesca Dominici, the Clarence James Gamble Professor of Biostatistics, Population and Data Science, and David Parkes, the George F. Colony Professor of Computer Science, both at Harvard University, announce, “As codirectors of the Harvard Data Science Initiative, we’re thrilled for the launch of this new journal. With its rigorous and cross-disciplinary thinking, the Harvard Data ScienceReview will advance the new science of data. By sharing stories of positive transformational impact as well as raising questions, this collective endeavor will reveal the contours that will shape future research and practice.”

Xiao-li Meng, the Whipple V.N. Jones Professor of Statistics at Harvard and founding editor-in-chief of HDSR, explains, “The revolutionary ability to collect, process, and apply new analytics to extract powerful insights from data has a tremendous influence on our lives. However, hype and misinformation have emerged as unfortunate side effects of data science’s meteoric rise. The Harvard Data Science Review is designed to cut through the hype to engage readers with substantive and informed articles from the leading data science experts and practitioners, ranging from philosophers of ethics and historians of science to AI researchers and data science educators. In short, it is ‘everything data science and data science for everyone.’”

Elizabeth Langdon-Gray, inaugural executive director of HDSI, comments, “The Harvard Data Science Initiative was founded to foster collaboration in both research and teaching and to catalyze research that will benefit our society and economy. The Review plays a vital part in our effort to empower research progress and education globally and to solve some of the world’s most important challenges.”

The inaugural issue of HDSR will publish contributions from internationally renowned scholars and educators, as well as leading researchers in industry and government, such as Christine Borgman (University of California at Los Angeles), Rodney Brooks (MIT), Emmanuel Candes (Stanford University), David Donoho (Stanford University), Luciano Floridi (Oxford/The Alan Turing Institute), Alan M. Garber (Harvard), Barbara J. Grosz (Harvard), Alfred Hero (University of Michigan), Sabina Leonelli (University of Exeter), Michael I. Jordan (University of California at Berkeley), Andrew Lo (MIT), Maja Matarić (University of Southern California), Brendan McCord (U.S. Department of Defense), Nathan Sanders (WarnerMedia), Rebecca Willett (University of Chicago), and Jeannette Wing (Columbia University).

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Africa Cup of Nations 2019: Nigeria coach Rohr in no hurry to decide future

Gernot Rohr says there is 'no hurry' for him to decide on his future as Nigeria coach after the team's defeat to Algeria in the Africa Cup of Nations semi-final.

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Making high-quality education accessible to all

One of the earliest interactive course videos offered by MIT BLOSSOMS (Blended Learning Open Source Science or Math Studies) looks at the physics of donkey carts — used frequently in the streets of Pakistan. The lesson, created by Naveed Malik ‘81, looks at Newton’s Third Law of Motion, teaching how gravity can affect how two objects interact through the very visual, real-world example of a donkey pulling a cart.

At the recent LINC 2019 conference, Professor Richard Larson, principal investigator of BLOSSOMS and founding director of LINC, provided this example from 2010 of teaching STEM concepts in an engaging and locally-relevant way. Both BLOSSOMS and LINC have grown substantially over the last decade, continuing to explore and expand on the ways that technology-enabled education can improve education access — particularly for developing countries and underserved populations.

Vijay Kumar, executive director of the Abdul Latif Jameel World Education Lab (J-WEL) and associate dean for open learning at MIT, welcomed the very international LINC 2019 audience, comprising approximately 130 attendees representing 31 countries.

Kumar noted that the themes of the conference mirror the central mission of J-WEL, especially applying the innovation and research of MIT to catalyze change — with a particular focus on the developing world and emerging economies — "to address hard problems of education access and inequality.”

This year, LINC focused on “the new learning society,” trying to understand how best to address educational opportunities for diverse learners from around the world with different aspirations, motivations, and needs. Included in this group are many people who are displaced or face other financial or social obstacles to accessing a quality education. In addition to new types of learners, new tools and technologies have emerged. With the explosion of online education, digital learning has become central to the discourse on educational change.

“We are looking at questions of how technology might allow us to think more deeply about learning outcomes,” says Kumar. “How do you initiate change, how do you share resources, how do you create process to scale change, and how do you generate and maintain learning communities?”

“Leapfrogging” for bigger advances in education

Keynote speaker Rebecca Winthrop, director of the Center for Universal Education and senior fellow for global economy and development at the Brookings Institution, talked about innovations that aim to scale education to ensure that all young people across the globe develop the skills needed for a fast-changing world. Winthrop is the author of "Leapfrogging Inequality: Remaking Education to Help Young People Thrive," published by the Brookings Institution in 2018.

Many young people throughout the world — for a variety of reasons — do not have access to quality education. The Brookings Institution has identified a “100-year gap” between levels of education in wealthy and developing countries — meaning that without substantial changes in current education systems, it will take 100 years for children in developing countries to reach the education levels of children in developed countries.

Compounding this challenge is the reality that this 100-year gap refers solely to current education — to the best practices of education today. With new technologies shifting the landscape of what work might look like in the future, education needs to evolve, as well.

“We need to shift to skills that will prepare students for the future,” said Winthrop. “Students need a broad set of competencies, as well as social and emotional skills.”

Winthrop noted that research indicates that, without any significant change in practices and policies, 884 million young people worldwide will not have basic secondary-level skills by 2030.

She discussed the potential of a “leapfrogging” approach to reforming education. Like the word implies, a “leapfrogging” approach to education focuses mostly on “rapid, non-linear progress.” This approach seeks to provide access, quality, and relevance all at once, rather than in stages or steps. There is an emphasis on more student-centered teaching and learning and individualized programs that are results-oriented.

Winthrop provided a variety of examples of specific efforts that in some way reflect this approach, including a satellite education program in Brazil that divides the teaching profession into lecturing and mentoring teachers to reach more students in rural communities; a tablet-based, distance-learning program based in Sudan, Jordan, Lebanon, and Uganda; a literacy and numeracy game that started in Colombia; and tablets preloaded with localized educational content provided to small groups of students in India.

Winthrop emphasized the importance of designing for scale at the beginning, considering the cost per student and what is most important about the program.

“You need to know what is the essence of why the thing is successful, and you need to make sure that core element is preserved when moving to another context or scale,” she said.

Advancing education at MIT and beyond

A panel discussion on “Learning Everywhere” provided some examples of innovative approaches to expanding education access, including the Refugee Action Hub (ReACT) Certificate Program, which was launched during an MIT Solve competition at the Institute. The program seeks to provide pathways to education for refugees, who very rarely have access to higher education, and it includes in-person lectures, online classes, and a paid internship. Key elements of this program, and of many others discussed, are human interaction and community-building.

Another example of an innovative education program with some “leapfrogging” characteristics is the Program in Data Science, created by CoLAB, a hub of disruptive innovation organizations in Uruguay. CoLAB also supports up to 500 students over the next four years to participate in a blended learning program in data science offered through the Uruguay Technological University (UTEC). Developed through membership in J-WEL Higher Education, the Program in Data Science includes online courses from MITx and Uruguayan universities, online activities facilitated by J-WEL staff, and on-site workshops run by J-WEL and MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI).

Although a wide variety of creative and impactful efforts were highlighted at LINC 2019, many larger education systems have not yet undergone significant changes.

“Education is super innovative — it’s just largely at the margins and not at the center of systems,” says Winthrop. “It’s a problem of how we harness that for larger systemic change.”

The LINC 2019 participants and J-WEL, as a whole, aim to address this challenge.

“It’s tremendously exciting to see all the people who have come together to share their ideas and experiences,” says Kumar. “New technologies and approaches are enabling new, shared opportunities of increasing education equality. J-WEL supports and strengthens these efforts to enable substantive educational change.”

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