England force a dramatic 189-run victory over South Africa late on day five of the second Test in Cape Town to level the series at 1-1.
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Tuesday, January 7, 2020
LeVar Burton releases YouTube video series on what it’s like to be Black in America
LeVar Burton is trying to educate the masses about the daily racism and microaggressions that affect Black Americans through a video series called This is My Story.
READ MORE: LeVar Burton bombarded with angry tweets from Trump fans who think he’s LaVar Ball
The Roots and Star Trek actor said he came up with the idea just thinking “about the state of race relations in America,” according to his Twitter post. Through the six-part, YouTube series, Burton said he hopes to provide an “anecdotal context” for what it’s like to be Black in America by utilizing the “power of storytelling as a way to bridge the gap between races.”
“There was an America before ROOTS and there was an America after ROOTS and post ROOTS, America was a greater, more enlightened nation. We came to a better, deeper, more informed understanding of the evil nature, intent, and outcomes of chattel slavery as practiced in America,” Burton says on Twitter. “As a result, I fervently believe in the power of Storytelling to move the culture forward. To that end, some friends and I have created a few videos, 6 in all, that chronicle some of the racist experiences most Black people who live in America, have in common.”
Burton warned naysayers to open their minds to the realization that their experience in America is not everyone’s experience.
Spoiler Alert: Unless you have walked the walk of the African American experience in this country, it is difficult — not impossible — but difficult, to know what that journey is on the daily. Trust me when I say, being Black in America is not for the weak of heart.
— LeVar Burton (@levarburton) January 2, 2020
“Spoiler Alert: Unless you have walked the walk of the African American experience in this country, it is difficult — not impossible — but difficult, to know what that journey is on the daily. Trust me when I say, being Black in America is not for the weak of heart,” Burton said in the Twitter post. “Neither is it for the weak in Spirit. For, being Black in America oftentimes means living in and loving a country, that does not love us back. You may take exception to my premise but you cannot discount my experience.”
Burton then goes into what viewers can expect from each of the six videos of the series. The veteran actor narrates each of the stories.
READ MORE: LeVar Burton calls Tarantino’s ‘Roots’ ‘Django’ comparison ‘bullsh*t’
“The first installment of, This Is My Story, is an incident from my own life,” Burton wrote, referring to when he was racially profiled as a student at the University of Southern California. “The others are real life experiences of some of my friends, told by me. Like ROOTS did so long ago, my intention in sharing these stories is to provide anecdotal context for being Black in America.”
The first installment of, This Is My Story, is an incident from my own life. The others are real life experiences of some of my friends, told by me. Like ROOTS did so long ago, my intention in sharing these stories is to provide anecdotal context for being Black in America.
— LeVar Burton (@levarburton) January 2, 2020
The post LeVar Burton releases YouTube video series on what it’s like to be Black in America appeared first on theGrio.
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Kentucky high school girls basketball coach finds racist slur written on his car
A Black, girls high school basketball coach in Kentucky had just lost a game and was headed out to his car when he noticed a racial slur written on his rear window.
READ MORE: Black New Jersey high school basketball player taunted with racist attacks
Erik Daniels, who coaches and teaches at Woodford County High School and once played basketball for the University of Kentucky Wildcats, said only “cowards” would scrawl the N-word out of raindrops on his car. The incident happened after Friday night’s game, according to The Louisville Courier-Journal.
“In 2020 we still have cowards doing things like this,” Daniels wrote in a Facebook post. “But the funny thing is that we laughed about it because with me playing basketball all over the world this happened a lot. I’ve been called a nigger in several languages so it doesn’t bother me at all. I’ll keep doing God’s work by educating these kids and preparing them for life. And a little advice for people who do foolish things like this, there are cameras everywhere on school campuses. I’m going to embrace the hate and let everyone else be mad.”
Woodford County Public Schools officials said they are investigating the incident and have notified law enforcement. School officials say they are also reviewing security footage.
In a Facebook post, the Central Kentucky school system said: “it is our highest priority to ensure the safety and security of our staff and students, which includes maintaining a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere.”
“This incident in no way reflects the values and mission of Woodford County Public Schools, and appropriate action will be taken upon a positive identification of the individual,” the school system wrote on Facebook.
READ MORE: Shaq releasing inspiring ‘Killer Bees’ documentary about struggling basketball team
The school district is requesting anyone who has additional information on the incident contact its administrative staff or police.
Daniels was chosen to head up the Woodford County girls basketball team last summer.
The post Kentucky high school girls basketball coach finds racist slur written on his car appeared first on theGrio.
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Lil Nas X Teams Up With Scholly to Give Away $30,000 in Student Scholarships
Despite dropping out of college, Lil Nas X is making it easier for students to earn a college degree. The Grammy-nominated artist teamed up with Scholly, a popular scholarship-matching platform, to give away $30,000 in scholarships.
Born Montero Lamar Hill, the 20-year-old rapper revealed that three deserving high school and current college students will receive $10,000 each. To apply, students must complete a two-minute application and submit an essay on Scholly’s website or through the Scholly app. The deadline is May 15, 2020.
“Before his music career took off, Lil Nas X was like many high school students scrambling to find ways to pay for college,” said Scholly founder Christopher Gray in a press release sent to BLACK ENTERPRISE. “Because he knows how hard it can be to find money to pay for college, he was eager to help students reduce student loans and get the word out about all the ways to help students succeed.”
Lil Nas X graduated from a Georgia high school in 2017 and studied for one year at the University of West Georgia before dropping out to pursue a career as an internet sensation and rapper. During this time, he lived with his sister and worked at restaurants and a Six Flags theme park before the release of his recording-breaking hit, “Old Town Road,” in December 2018. The single grew in popularity and was re-released by Columbia Records in March 2019. Lil Nas X then recorded a remix with country singer Billy Ray Cyrus that was released in April. The country-rap hit peaked at no. 1 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 for 19 weeks, becoming the longest-running no. 1 song in Billboard history.
“Not too long ago, I was in college racking up student loans,” said the rap star, who is up for six Grammys, including Best New Artist and Record of the Year, in a promo video. “I still understand the challenges my fans have when it comes to paying for school.”
Founded in 2013, Scholly claims it has helped students win more than $100 million in scholarships for college and graduate school. The platform also uses artificial intelligence to proofread and edit academic papers, essays, and other writing assignments.
Gray created the platform in order to share with students the same techniques that helped him earn $1.3 million in scholarships while he was in college. Scholly received national attention when it was featured on Shark Tank, landing a deal with Daymond John and Lori Greiner while sparking one of the biggest fights in the show’s history.
Students can apply for the Lil Nas X scholarship by visiting myscholly.com/lilnasx
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3 Ways to Obtain Financing to Grow Your Business
Building a successful business is both rewarding and challenging. One of the biggest challenges is access to capital. According to the 2017 Federal Reserve Report to Congress, “the relatively elevated costs of evaluating small business loan applications and the ongoing costs of monitoring firm performance have made loans to small businesses less attractive for some lenders.” This economic reality has prevented many enterprises from expanding. As a business owner, you must be proactive when it comes to acquiring a line of credit or working capital. By developing a strategy before pursuing capital, you will increase the probability of success.
Here is how you can obtain financing to grow your business.
How to obtain financing to grow your business
Revisit Your Business Plan
We’ve all heard, “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” While cliche, it is important to note when it comes to building your business. If you have developed a business plan, now is the time to revisit. It is important for you to update your plan to show that you are an attractive candidate for financing. You want to tell a prospective lender the story of your business through numbers. For example, you can highlight the increases in operating margins and revenue per employee over the course of a three year period. The upward trend can give lenders confidence that you are growing and will be able to service the debt payments.
Control your finances
While acquiring and serving your customers is your main priority, managing your finances is crucial. If you haven’t done so, developing and monitoring a budget can help you keep spending under control. You will also benefit from working with your business advisor to develop a forecast for your revenues and expenses.
As the lead decision-maker, you should be familiar with your accounting software. Work closely with your business advisor to analyze and interpret financial reports to know how you are performing.
With tax season around the corner, it’s not too early to have a conversation with your accountant about maximizing your credit and deductions. Develop a tax plan that you can work on all year round to reduce your ongoing tax liability and keep more money in your business.
Build lending relationships
In business, relationships are paramount to success. As a business owner, one of the best relationships you can develop is with a business banker. If you haven’t done so already, introduce yourself to the business banker at the institution that you bank with. Tell them about your business and the customers that you serve. They can be a great source of information on financing options and how you can position yourself to obtain financing.
If a traditional lender isn’t a good fit at this time, try an alternative lender. A community development financial institution, or CDFI, is a nonprofit lender who provides financing to small business owners. You can find a list of CDFIs in your area on the Opportunity Finance Network’s website.
Scaling a business takes a considerable amount of resources, including capital. The great news is that there are many lending options available today. With the right plan in place, you can increase the probability of getting approved for financing to grow your business.
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Monday, January 6, 2020
Finding the true potential of algorithms
Each semester, Associate Professor Virginia Vassilevska Williams tries to impart one fundamental lesson to her computer-science undergraduates: Math is the foundation of everything.
Often, students come into Williams’ class, 6.006 (Introduction to Algorithms), wanting to dive into advanced programming that power the latest, greatest computing techniques. Her lessons instead focus on how algorithms are designed around core mathematical models and concepts.
“When taking an algorithms class, many students expect to program a lot and perhaps use deep learning, but it’s very mathematical and has very little programming,” says Williams, who recently earned tenure in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. “We don’t have much time together in class (only two hours a week), but I hope in that time they get to see a little of the beauty of math — because math allows you to see how and why everything works together. It really is a beautiful thing.”
Williams’ life is very much shaped by math. As a child of two mathematician parents, she fell in love with the subject early on. But even though she excelled in the subject, her high school classes focused on German, writing, and biology. Returning to her first love in college and beyond, she applied her math skills to make waves in computer science.
In highly influential work, Williams in 2012 improved an algorithm for “matrix multiplication” — a fundamental operation across computer science — that was thought to be the fastest iteration for 24 years. Years later, she co-founded an emerging field called “fine-grained complexity,” which seeks to explain, in part, how fast certain algorithms can solve various problems.
In matrix multiplication, her work has now shifted slightly to showing that existing techniques “cannot do better,” she says. “We couldn’t improve the performance of our own algorithms anymore, so we came up with ways to explain why we couldn’t and why other methods can’t improve the performance either.”
Winding path to math
Growing up in Sofia, Bulgaria, Williams loved math and was a gifted student. But her parents often reminded her the mathematician’s life wasn’t exactly glamorous —especially when trying to find faculty gigs in the same area for two people. They sometimes traveled where work took them.
That included a brief odyssey around the U.S. as a child. The first stop was Laramie, Wyoming. Her parents were visiting professors at the University of Wyoming, while Williams initially struggled through fourth grade because of the language barrier. “I didn’t really speak English, and was thrown into this school. My brother and I learned English watching the Disney channel, which was pretty fun,” says Williams, who today speaks Bulgarian, English, German, and some Russian.
The next stop was Los Angeles — right around the time of the Rodney King riots. “The house on the other side of our street was set on fire,” Williams recalls. “Those were some very strange memories of L.A.”
Returning to Bulgaria after two years, Williams decided to “explore her options” outside math by enrolling in the German Language High School in Sofia, the country’s top high school at the time, where she studied the German language, literature, history, and other humanities subjects. But, when it came to applying to colleges, she could never shake her first love. “I really tried to like the humanities, and what I learned is very helpful to me nowadays. But those subjects were very hard for me. My brain just doesn’t work that way,” she says. “I went back to what I like.”
Transfixed by algorithms
In 1999, Williams enrolled in Caltech. In her sophomore year, she became smitten by an exciting new field: computer science. “I took my first programming course, and I loved it,” she says.
She became transfixed by matrix multiplication algorithms, which have some heavy-duty math at their core. These algorithms compute multiple arrays of numbers corresponding to some data and output a single combined matrix of some target values. Applications are wide-ranging, including computer graphics, product design, artificial intelligence, and biotechnology.
As a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon, and beyond, she published numerous papers, on topics such as developing fast matrix multiplication algorithms in special algebraic structures, with applications including flight scheduling and network routing. After earning her PhD, she took on a series of postdoc and researcher positions at the Institute for Advanced Study, the University of California at Berkeley, and Stanford University, where she landed a faculty position in 2013 teaching courses on algorithms.
In 2012, she developed a new algorithm that was faster than the Coppersmith–Winograd algorithm, which had reigned supreme in matrix multiplication since the 1980s. Williams’ method reduced the number of steps required to multiply matrices. Her algorithm is only slightly slower than the current record-holder.
Dealing with complexity
Between 2010 and 2015, Williams and her husband, Ryan Williams, who is also an MIT professor, became main founders of “fine-grained complexity.” The older field of “computational complexity” finds provably efficient algorithms and algorithms that are probably inefficient, based on some threshold of computational steps they take to solve a problem.
Fine-grained complexity groups problems together by computational equivalence to better prove if algorithms are truly optimal or not. For instance, two problems may appear very different in what they solve and how many steps algorithms take to solve them. But fine-grained complexity shows such problems are secretly the same. Therefore, if an algorithm exists for one problem that uses fewer steps, then there must exist an algorithm for the other problem that uses fewer steps, and vice versa. On the flip side, if there exists a provably optimal algorithm for one problem, then all equivalent problems must have optimal algorithms. If someone ever finds a much faster algorithm for one problem, all the equivalent problems can be solved faster.
Since co-launching the field, “it’s ballooned,” Williams says. “For most theoretical computer science conferences, you can now submit your paper under the heading ‘fine-grained complexity.’”
In 2017, Williams came to MIT, where she says she has found impassioned, likeminded researchers. Many graduate students and colleagues, for instance, are working in topics related to fine-grained complexity. In turn, her students have introduced her to other subjects, such as cryptography, where she’s now introducing ideas from fine-grained complexity.
She also sometimes studies “computational social choice,” a field that caught her eye during graduate school. Her work focuses on examining the computational complexity needed to rig sports games, voting schemes, and other systems where competitors are placed in paired brackets. If someone knows, for instance, which player will win in paired match-ups, a tournament organizer can place all players in specific positions in the initial seeding to ensure a certain player wins it all.
Simulating all the possible combinations to rig these schemes can be very computationally complex. But Williams, an avid tennis player, authored a 2010 paper that found it’s fairly simple to rig a single-elimination tournament so a certain player wins, depending on accurate predictions for match-up winners and other factors.
This year she co-wrote a paper that showed a tournament organizer could arrange an initial seeding and bribe certain top players — within a specific budget — to ensure a favorite player wins the tournament. “When I need a break from my usual work, I work in this field,” Williams says. “It’s a fun change of pace.”
Thanks to the ubiquity of computing today, Williams’ graduate students often enter her classroom far more experienced in computer science than she was at their age. But to help steer them down a distinct path, she draws inspiration from her own college experiences, getting hooked on specific topics she still pursues today.
“In order to do good research, you have to obsess over a problem,” Williams says. “I want them to find something in my course they can obsess over.”
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Muslim woman receives apology for being sent home from work because she wore a hijab
A Muslim woman challenged her right to wear a hijab to work at a Chicken Express fast-food restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas, and won.
Using the power of social media, Stefanae Coleman posted a video on Twitter last week as she had a discussion with her manager about the hijab she wore. Coleman, whose video detailed the exchange, said her manager was sending her home for wearing it, according to ABC News.
I converted to Islam not too long ago and I started wearing my hijab, I went to work today and was kicked out because my hijab was not apart the “ dress code” apparently and I wasn’t allowed to wear it. Don’t come to the chicken express in Fort Worth!! pic.twitter.com/xiulAEJS8y
— Folake Adebola 💕 (@thatgirlfolake) December 30, 2019
READ MORE: ‘Sesame Place Sallie’ starts fight and allegedly told Muslim woman to ‘go back to where you came from’
Coleman, 22, used the viral video as an opportunity to explain to her manager why she wears a hijab. More than 635,000 people have viewed it.
“Your job is your job and it has nothing to do with religion,” the manager responded.
Coleman told him that she “read the handbook and in the handbook, it doesn’t say anything about not being able to wear religious head pieces.”
“It says you have to follow the Chicken Express uniform policy and it lists out what it is and it doesn’t involve anything else,” the manager replied, according to ABC News.
Coleman said in the video that she started working for the chain in October and had been upfront with her managers about her religion. She said according to the handbook, there was “equal opportunity for every religion.”
Rhett Warren, a lawyer for the Chicken Express franchise owner, released a statement to ABC News backing Coleman’s freedom of religion. He said the manager in question “unfortunately did not take religious liberty into consideration.”
“Ms. Coleman is not facing discrimination for her decision to wear a headscarf or for being Muslim. The manager’s decision to send Ms. Coleman home for wearing the headscarf was due to a lack of training,” Warren wrote in the statement. “The manager was using a strict interpretation of the company policy that does not allow derivations from the standard employee uniform, and he, unfortunately, did not take religious liberty into consideration.”
Warren said Coleman was compensated for the hours that she lost when she was sent home and that she “worked the following day and was allowed to wear her headscarf.”
READ MORE: Halima Aden dazzles on SI Swimsuit 2019 cover in hijab and burkini
“An apology was made to Ms. Coleman for the mistake. The Chicken Express franchisee is addressing this issue through additional training, and Ms. Coleman has been asked to participate in developing the training so that a mistake like this will not happen again,” the statement continues, according to ABC News. “The manager has been reprimanded for his decision, and he will receive further training on how to properly handle similar situations in the future.”
Coleman told ABC News that her response to the manager’s instruction could potentially “help other women like me” and that she hopes that the situation helps other employees to “be strong and fight for your rights and for employers to study about the hijab and what it means to Muslim women.”
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Texas woman allegedly killed by her fiancé, days after he proposed
Kendrick Marquette Akins of Texas had just proposed to his fiancé, Dominic Jefferson, but an argument allegedly ended with him shooting her to death, her family said.
Akins, 39, asked Jefferson to marry him on New Year’s Eve after the couple dated for three months, her family told KTRK in an interview. But on Saturday, they had an argument outside of a Houston apartment and family members say it turned deadly.
READ MORE: ‘She did not deserve that’: Transgender woman’s fiancé speaks out after fatal shooting
During the argument, according to a police affidavit, Jefferson yelled ‘shoot me’ and shortly afterward, the mother of three was fatally shot in the chest.
A witness told Houston police officers that Akins appeared to leave the scene but came back when a “concerned citizen” attempted to help the victim. Akins fired a shot at the citizen and then fled, the witness told police.
“Akins surrendered to officers at the HPD Northeast Police Station. He was questioned by detectives and subsequently charged in the shooting,” according to CNN, which quotes Houston police.
Akins, who was on parole, is being held on $250,000 bond and has expressed concern for his safety while locked up. Through his public defender, Te’iva Johnson Bell, Akins is asking to be put into protective custody because of threats he says he is receiving on Facebook. Akins’ lawyer said relatives of Jefferson are inmates at the same Harris County jail and reportedly got word to him that “they were going to get him as soon as he hits the floor,” reported ABC.
Akins is charged with fatally shooting Dominic Jefferson during an argument outside a west Houston apartment early Saturday morning.
Four days prior to her death, the couple was seen in a Facebook Live post getting engaged. Jefferson’s mom told ABC that she watched it. “I thought she had finally found the man of her dreams,” she said. “It was the nightmare of her life.”
UT Quan, a friend of Jefferson, said he was concerned at how quickly things were going since they had only dated for several months. “I thought it was fast,” Quan told ABC. “I said, if they’re happy, I’m happy, but when the altercation happened, I was thrown off. I was like, how could you do that? You just proposed.”
Court records show Akins, who worked in construction, has a lengthy criminal history. Jefferson’s mom said neither she nor her daughter were aware of his past.
READ MORE: Pregnant Georgia teen found dead in woods, fiancé charged with murder
“This needs to wake women up to do their research on who they’re letting into their lives,” she told ABC.
And she added that she hopes he doesn’t get protective custody while locked up. “He doesn’t deserve protected custody. He doesn’t deserve to live. That’s how I feel about it, with no filter.”
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Levar Burton’s ‘This is My Story’ Captures Black People’s Racist Experiences
LeVar Burton of Roots and Star Trek: The Next Generation fame has released a video series named This is My Story, where he shares stories that speak about some of the racist experiences most Black people in the United States.
Burton had an epiphany that he posted on his Twitter account, “I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the state of race relations in America. One thing I learned from the success of ROOTS (if you don’t know, you better ask somebody) 42 years ago, was the power of storytelling as a way to bridge the gap between races.”
He continued, “There was an America before ROOTS and there was an America after ROOTS and post ROOTS, America was a greater, more enlightened nation. We came to a better, deeper, more informed understanding of the evil nature, intent and outcomes of chattel slavery as practiced in America. As a result, I fervently believe in the power of Storytelling to move the culture forward. To that end, some friends and I have created a few videos, 6 in all, that chronicle some of the racist experiences most Black people who live in America, have in common.”
“Spoiler Alert: Unless you have walked the walk of the African American experience in this country, it is difficult — not impossible — but difficult, to know what that journey is on the daily. Trust me when I say, being Black in America is not for the weak of heart. Neither is it for the weak in Spirit. For, being Black in America oftentimes means living in and loving a country, that does not love us back. You may take exception to my premise but you cannot discount my experience.”
In This is My Story, Burton narrates and gives the audience stories regarding racism in America. The first six videos gives in detail six unique and painful stories about racism starting from Burton’s own experiences of being racially profiled while a student at the University of Southern California, to a young boy’s story of being spit on by a “grizzled old white man” at a Georgia fast-food restaurant.
“The first installment of, This Is My Story, is an incident from my own life. The others are real-life experiences of some of my friends, told by me. Like ROOTS did so long ago, my intention in sharing these stories is to provide anecdotal context for being Black in America.”
Burton recently received Case Western Reserve University’s Inamori Ethics Prize and had a park, LeVar Burton Park, renamed in his honor in the Meadowview neighborhood of Sacramento, California where he grew up.
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New York Gives $3.5M Grant To Help Build Hip-Hop Museum In The Bronx
New York recently awarded a $3.5 million capital grant to help build the world’s first museum dedicated to hip-hop music and culture.
According to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, the $80 million Universal Hip Hop Museum will open in 2023 in the South Bronx – which is considered the birthplace of hip hop. The museum is currently operating temporarily in Bronx Terminal Market.
The museum is expected to be a win-win for the city. It’s director, Rocky Bucano, told The New York Post that the Hip Hop Museum will generate tourism and tax revenues for the Bronx and New York. The Bronx Point Development is slated to be its permanent home.
“The museum is part of the renaissance of the Bronx. The Bronx is coming back,” he said. “But the museum will be of the people and for the people.” Bucano added that the museum received $6.5 million in additional funds from the city.
“It’s the best Christmas gift ever,” Universal Hip Hop Museum spokesperson Renee Foster told Patch. “It’s like Santa Claus.”
Hip-Hop music isn’t the only thing that will be showcased at the museum. There will also be exhibits on break dancers, graffiti artists, disc jockeys, and MCs.
“Hip hop culture was born in the Bronx and New York City is the cultural center of the world,” said Foster. “We’re joining institutions like Carnegie Hall and all those great artistic institutions.”
Corporate partners for the museum include Microsoft and MIT as well as support from Hip-Hop artists such as Nas, Q-Tip, and LL Cool J.
“The Universal Hip Hop Museum will occupy 50,000 square feet in Bronx Point, the residential and retail project by L+M Development Partners that will be erected north of the 145th Street bridge along the Harlem River in the Bronx,” The New York Post reported.
Residents had mixed feelings about the grant.
New York City invests $3.75 Million to help build a Hip-Hop museum in the Bronx.
“An archive dedicated to the preservation and celebration of hip-hop history and culture” pic.twitter.com/STq86jmB9A
— East Renaissance (@EastRenaissance) December 31, 2019
New York City invests $3.75 Million to help build a Hip-Hop museum in the Bronx.
“An archive dedicated to the preservation and celebration of hip-hop history and culture” pic.twitter.com/STq86jmB9A
— East Renaissance (@EastRenaissance) December 31, 2019
Ayyyyeeeeeee!!!! Come through BX!#BronxBombshell #bornandraised https://t.co/Gyp5a23cru
— Krystal A. Livingston (@IamKALivingston) December 29, 2019
This article was written by Ann Brown on January 1, 2020 for The Moguldom Nation
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America’s first female TV meteorologist, who also happens to be Black, dies at 90
Dr. June Bacon-Bercey, the country’s first female TV meteorologist and the first Black woman to earn a degree in meteorology, has died.
The trailblazing meteorologist broke racial and gender barriers to win the American Meteorological Society’s (AMS) prestigious Seal of Approval for her “excellence in television weathercasting,” according to AccuWeather. Bacon-Bercey, 90, actually died on July 3, 2019, but her daughter, Dail St. Claire, reported news of her mother’s passing to AccuWeather recently.
READ MORE: Weather Channel owner Byron Allen wants to highlight climate change’s impact on Black communities
In addition to working as a meteorologist for an NBC station in Buffalo in 1970 – a position she filled as an emergency replacement when her predecessor was fired, Bacon-Bercey has also worked for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, the National Weather Service (NWS) and Sperry Rand.
As important as her groundbreaking work in meteorology was Bacon-Bercey’s commitment to see that other minority women pursue careers in science like her, with a specialty in meteorology.
In 1977, Bacon-Bercey won $64,000 on the TV game show The $128,000 Question, and she used the money to start a scholarship fund for women interested in majoring in atmospheric sciences.
“Education was No. 1, so scholarship was a passion and she always wanted to share it with those who were less fortunate,” her daughter told AccuWeather.
At the time, Bacon-Bercey told The Washington Post that she started the scholarship as a way to encourage women to pursue careers in science even though they wouldn’t see many people who looked like them.
“I was discouraged (from becoming a meteorologist), and other women were discouraged,” Bacon-Bercey said in the Post interview. “If they feel they’ve got some money behind them, it might be better.”
Twelve women ultimately received scholarship money and would go on to careers in geochemistry, physics, astronomy, meteorology, and/or oceanography, with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA, MIT and TV stations throughout the country.
Bacon-Bercey also established a meteorology lab at Jackson State University and was instrumental in starting the AMS Board on Women and Minorities, also with an aim to increase minorities and women in her field of study.
READ MORE: Rochester meteorologist fired for racist on-air reference to MLK sues former station
“She was obviously extremely successful,” Ralph Bouquet, NOVA’s director of education and outreach told AccuWeather. “She did so much and also gave back in so many prominent ways – with a scholarship, with setting up a meteorology lab at Jackson State University, just really impressive things that one person was able to accomplish. How many people could have done that, could have been in that position to produce so much but also give back so much?”
Capping off a lifetime of achievements, Bacon-Bercey was named Minority Pioneer for Achievements in Atmospheric Sciences in 2000.
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Trump’s Nominee To Lead SBA Commits To Expand Resources To Black Businesses Among Her Priorities If Confirmed
As a new year begins, obtaining financing remains among the largest obstacles blocking many black-owned businesses from growing and reaching new heights. The lingering problem comes after the Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship voted 17-2 in December to approve Jovita Carranza’s nomination to serve as the new administrator of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). No votes came from Senators Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Ed Markey (D-Mass).
Carranza, who has served as deputy administrator of the SBA and is currently U.S. treasurer, was nominated by President Trump in April 2019 to oversee the SBA. Her selection came after the federal agency’s previous administrator, Linda McMahon, stepped down. Carranza must go before the full Senate for consideration. Chris Pilkerton is now the SBA’s acting administrator.
During a committee hearing in December, Carranza was questioned on many SBA-related issues. They included how the agency would help small businesses gain access to the SBA’s 7(a) and alternative microlending programs. Another inquiry was how the SBA would offer better outreach to underserved communities and entrepreneurs.
The ante is high for small businesses as the SBA guaranteed more than $28 billion in loans to entrepreneurs in its fiscal year 2019. There are more than 30 million small businesses in America, including reportedly around 2.6 million black-owned businesses.
If confirmed, Carranza testified in hearings before the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship earlier in December that a priority for her will be to expand access to SBA resources among entrepreneurs in disadvantaged communities, including African American and Latino businesses, as well as businesses started by veterans. “By better connecting these small businesses with SBA support services, we can help even more underrepresented entrepreneurs overcome barriers to financial capital and gain access to lucrative government contracts.”
She added one of her priorities will be to open more doors for women-owned businesses. “Women entrepreneurship is on the rise, but we can do more to ensure they have access to relevant resources and professional support so that they can scale and take their businesses to the next level.”
Another priority for Carranza will be disaster relief. “We don’t know when catastrophe will strike, but when it does, it’s important that the SBA disaster loan process is operating at peak efficiency. That includes not only meeting the needs of affected businesses in a timely manner but also ensuring inter-agency coordination and cooperation. When small businesses are out of commission, it negatively impacts not only the local economy but also the regional and national economy.”
Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship Ranking Member Ben Cardin (D-MD) issued this statement after the committee’s approval of Carranza:
“At a time when the face of business ownership in America is becoming more diverse, SBA needs strong leadership and innovative thinking to help entrepreneurs from underserved communities as they overcome pervasive, historical barriers. During last week’s nomination hearing, Treasurer Carranza expressed her commitment to supporting underserved communities and advocating for small businesses within the administration. I look forward to working with Treasurer Carranza to empower America’s entrepreneurs so they can build successful businesses and create jobs.”
Cardin’s comments came after he earlier in December pressed Carranza for her support on SBA programs that aid underserved entrepreneurs.
In more support for Carranza, U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, issued a statement:
“I congratulate Ms. Carranza on being favorably reported to the Senate floor. If confirmed, I look forward to working collaboratively with her to modernize the SBA, optimize the agency’s programs, and increase interagency coordination.”
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Black Flea Market in D.C., Breaks Ground on Permanent Home
Market 7, which is home to a variety of black-owned businesses, has broken ground at a new location in the District of Columbia.
Last month The Neighborhood Development Co., Asturian Construction, and Market 7 hosted a ground-breaking ceremony to start the construction of Benning Market; a new multi-use development site that will include a 7,000-square-foot food hall in the Ward 7 section of Washington, D.C. The venue is located at 3451 Benning Road NE.
The market celebrated the ground-breaking on their new permanent location on its Twitter account, “Cheers to our permanent home! Thank you to everyone that attended. #Fall2020 #Ward7Strong #Market7dc #WeBuiltThis“
The flea market that brought black businesses together in a parking lot was started in 2017 to meet the needs of local people who had to travel to other parts of the city for retail and food options. It has partnered with local urban farmers, entrepreneurs, and community stakeholders in order to provide market-based solutions to the crucial health and economic problems facing the Ward 7 community.
In two short years, the marketplace has gathered 60 new small businesses to the Ward 7 community through alternative pop-up markets. “There is no reason why I should have to cross the bridge to go and get items, produce, food, clothes, and services, which is what most of us have to do in Ward 7 and 8. Having something like this is important,” Dr. Judy Walton, a resident of Ward 7, said in a statement.
More than 80% of Ward 7 residents have to travel to Ward 6 or into Maryland to shop for some or all of their food and grocery needs, although they preferred not to leave the area to do so.
Market 7 will be the anchor tenant at Benning Market and will continue its work to address the food and retail disparities in communities east of the river. Ward 7 residents will benefit from the cultivation of the new food hub since they have experienced very limited food options for several years.
“This is more than just retail,” says founder Mary Blackford in a press release, “Market 7 is a real, multi-generational, community-based approach to sustaining Ward 7. The new Market 7 at Benning Market will be an exciting expansion of the work we are already doing to bring abundance, vitality, and total wellness to our community by creating a space where our local food ecosystem and small businesses can thrive.”
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MIT School of Engineering and Takeda join to advance research in artificial intelligence and health
MIT’s School of Engineering and Takeda Pharmaceuticals Company Limited today announced the MIT-Takeda Program to fuel the development and application of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to benefit human health and drug development. Centered within the Abdul Latif Jameel Clinic for Machine Learning in Health (J-Clinic), the new program will leverage the combined expertise of both organizations, and is supported by Takeda’s three-year investment (with the potential for a two-year extension).
This new collaboration will provide MIT with extraordinary access to pharmaceutical infrastructure and expertise, and will help to focus work on challenges with lasting, practical impact. A new educational program offered through J-Clinic will provide Takeda with the ability to learn from and engage with some of MIT's sharpest and most curious minds, and offer insight into the advances that will help shape the health care industry of tomorrow.
“We are thrilled to create this collaboration with Takeda,” says Anantha Chandrakasan, dean of MIT’s School of Engineering. “The MIT-Takeda Program will build a community dedicated to the next generation of AI and system-level breakthroughs that aim to advance healthcare around the globe.”
The MIT-Takeda Program will support MIT faculty, students, researchers, and staff across the Institute who are working at the intersection of AI and human health, ensuring that they can devote their energies to expanding the limits of knowledge and imagination. The new program will coalesce disparate disciplines, merge theory and practical implementation, combine algorithm and hardware innovations, and create multidimensional collaborations between academia and industry.
“We share with MIT a vision where next-generation intelligent technologies can be better developed and applied across the entire health care ecosystem,” says Anne Heatherington, senior vice president and head of Data Sciences Institute (DSI) at Takeda. “Together, we are creating an incredible opportunity to support research, enhance the drug development process, and build a better future for patients.”
Established within J-Clinic, a nexus of AI and health care at MIT, the MIT-Takeda Program will focus on the following offerings:
- funding 6-10 flagship research projects per year in the areas of machine learning and health, engaging MIT faculty and Takeda researchers on areas of mutual interest to both organizations including diagnosis of disease, prediction of treatment response, development of novel biomarkers, process control and improvement, drug discovery, and clinical trial optimization;
- providing 11 annual fellowships supporting graduate students working at the intersection of AI and health, creating substantial, value-added programming for young scholars; and
- offering educational programs through J-Clinic for Takeda employees to bolster individual and organizational learning in integrating AI and machine learning technologies into practical and applied solutions.
James Collins will serve as faculty lead for the MIT-Takeda Program. Collins is the Termeer Professor of Medical Engineering and Science in MIT’s Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES) and Department of Biological Engineering, J-Clinic faculty co-lead, and a member of the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology faculty. He is also a core founding faculty member of the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University and an Institute Member of the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard.
A joint steering committee co-chaired by Anantha Chandrakasan and Anne Heatherington will oversee the MIT-Takeda Program.
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Sunday, January 5, 2020
SNUBBED? Black actors got absolutely NO LOVE at the Golden Globes
This year’s Golden Globes were pretty disappointing before Sunday night’s event began and it went downhill from there.
Despite the fact that Ava DuVernay and her masterpiece When They See Us was shut out of the nominations, we decided it was worth it to tune in and root for a few of our faves including Billy Porter and Eddie Murphy.
When They See Us’ got no respect from the 2020 Golden Globes
Boy were we WRONG.
The night was a total bust when it came to honoring Black talent. Every single melanated nominee went home empty-handed, including Beyonce, who snuck in about an hour after the show began and still managed to be the night’s most exciting surprise.
She was nominated for Best Original Song for The Lion King’s ‘Spirit” but lost to “I’m Gonna Love Me Again” from Rocketman.
PHOTOS: Kerry Washington, Eddie Murphy, Billy Porter and more SHINE at the Golden Globes
Renee Zellweger nabbed the award for Best Actress – Drama for her turn as Judy Garland in Judy, leaving Cynthia Erivo and her nod for Harriet in the dust.
Dolemite Is My Name was nominated for Best Motion Picture- Musical or Comedy, but lost to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Eddie Murphy was nominated for Best Actor- Musical or Comedy for his leading role in the film, but was edged out by Aaron Egerton for his portrayal of Elton John in Rocketman.
Billy Porter was in the running for Best Actor in a TV Series- Drama, for his mesmerizing work in POSE but lost the win to Succession star Brian Cox. I mean, Succession IS pretty dope but still…not one trophy? None? Zero?
Upside of not being nominated for Golden Globe for WHEN THEY SEE US: I don’t have to juggle getting into hair, makeup + gown while researching, reading and worrying about impeding war. Also: easier to block trolls without newly manicured nails. Thanks, HFPA. This is a win win! pic.twitter.com/U5YN0xQLsU
— Ava DuVernay (@ava) January 5, 2020
The post SNUBBED? Black actors got absolutely NO LOVE at the Golden Globes appeared first on theGrio.
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Tool predicts how fast code will run on a chip
MIT researchers have invented a machine-learning tool that predicts how fast computer chips will execute code from various applications.
To get code to run as fast as possible, developers and compilers — programs that translate programming language into machine-readable code — typically use performance models that run the code through a simulation of given chip architectures.
Compilers use that information to automatically optimize code, and developers use it to tackle performance bottlenecks on the microprocessors that will run it. But performance models for machine code are handwritten by a relatively small group of experts and are not properly validated. As a consequence, the simulated performance measurements often deviate from real-life results.
In series of conference papers, the researchers describe a novel machine-learning pipeline that automates this process, making it easier, faster, and more accurate. In a paper presented at the International Conference on Machine Learning in June, the researchers presented Ithemal, a neural-network model that trains on labeled data in the form of “basic blocks” — fundamental snippets of computing instructions — to automatically predict how long it takes a given chip to execute previously unseen basic blocks. Results suggest Ithemal performs far more accurately than traditional hand-tuned models.
Then, at the November IEEE International Symposium on Workload Characterization, the researchers presented a benchmark suite of basic blocks from a variety of domains, including machine learning, compilers, cryptography, and graphics that can be used to validate performance models. They pooled more than 300,000 of the profiled blocks into an open-source dataset called BHive. During their evaluations, Ithemal predicted how fast Intel chips would run code even better than a performance model built by Intel itself.
Ultimately, developers and compilers can use the tool to generate code that runs faster and more efficiently on an ever-growing number of diverse and “black box” chip designs. “Modern computer processors are opaque, horrendously complicated, and difficult to understand. It is also incredibly challenging to write computer code that executes as fast as possible for these processors,” says co-author Michael Carbin, an assistant professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) and a researcher in the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). “This tool is a big step forward toward fully modeling the performance of these chips for improved efficiency.”
Most recently, in a paper presented at the NeurIPS conference in December, the team proposed a new technique to automatically generate compiler optimizations. Specifically, they automatically generate an algorithm, called Vemal, that converts certain code into vectors, which can be used for parallel computing. Vemal outperforms hand-crafted vectorization algorithms used in the LLVM compiler — a popular compiler used in the industry.
Learning from data
Designing performance models by hand can be “a black art,” Carbin says. Intel provides extensive documentation of more than 3,000 pages describing its chips’ architectures. But there currently exists only a small group of experts who will build performance models that simulate the execution of code on those architectures.
“Intel’s documents are neither error-free nor complete, and Intel will omit certain things, because it’s proprietary,” Mendis says. “However, when you use data, you don’t need to know the documentation. If there’s something hidden you can learn it directly from the data.”
To do so, the researchers clocked the average number of cycles a given microprocessor takes to compute basic block instructions — basically, the sequence of boot-up, execute, and shut down — without human intervention. Automating the process enables rapid profiling of hundreds of thousands or millions of blocks.
Domain-specific architectures
In training, the Ithemal model analyzes millions of automatically profiled basic blocks to learn exactly how different chip architectures will execute computation. Importantly, Ithemal takes raw text as input and does not require manually adding features to the input data. In testing, Ithemal can be fed previously unseen basic blocks and a given chip, and will generate a single number indicating how fast the chip will execute that code.
The researchers found Ithemal cut error rates in accuracy — meaning the difference between the predicted speed versus real-world speed — by 50 percent over traditional hand-crafted models. Further, in their next paper, they showed that Ithemal’s error rate was 10 percent, while the Intel performance-prediction model’s error rate was 20 percent on a variety of basic blocks across multiple different domains.
The tool now makes it easier to quickly learn performance speeds for any new chip architectures, Mendis says. For instance, domain-specific architectures, such as Google’s new Tensor Processing Unit used specifically for neural networks, are now being built but aren’t widely understood. “If you want to train a model on some new architecture, you just collect more data from that architecture, run it through our profiler, use that information to train Ithemal, and now you have a model that predicts performance,” Mendis says.
Next, the researchers are studying methods to make models interpretable. Much of machine learning is a black box, so it’s not really clear why a particular model made its predictions. “Our model is saying it takes a processor, say, 10 cycles to execute a basic block. Now, we’re trying to figure out why,” Carbin says. “That’s a fine level of granularity that would be amazing for these types of tools.”
They also hope to use Ithemal to enhance the performance of Vemal even further and achieve better performance automatically.
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2020 Golden Globes: The complete winners list (Updating)
The 77th Annual Golden Globes went down in Hollywood on Sunday night and the most famous faces in Hollywood gathered to see who would take home a trophy.
Although When They See Us was shut out of the ceremony along with Queen & Slim, there were still some serious contenders to root for.
PHOTOS: Kerry Washington, Eddie Murphy, Billy Porter and more SHINE at the Golden Globes
Check out the full list of winners:
Best Foreign Language Film
- “Parasite” (WINNER)
- “The Farewell”
- “Les Miserables”
- “Pain and Glory”
- “Portrait of a Lady on Fire”
Best Actress TV Series — Comedy
- Phoebe Waller-Bridge, “Fleabag” (WINNER)
- Christina Applegate, “Dead to Me”
- Natasha Lyonne, “Russian Doll”
- Kirsten Dunst, “On Becoming a God in Central Florida”
- Rachel Brosnahan, “Marvelous Mrs. Maisel”
Best Television Series — Drama
- “Succession” (WINNER)
- “Big Little Lies”
- “The Crown”
- “Killing Eve”
- “Morning Show”
Best Performance by a Supporting Actor in a Limited Series / TV Movie
- Stellan Skarsgard, “Chernobyl” (WINNER)
- Alan Arkin, “Kominsky Method”
- Kieran Culkin, “Succession”
- Andrew Scott, “Fleabag”
- Henry Winkler, “Barry”
Best Performance by an Actor in Limited Series / TV Movie
- Russell Crowe, “The Loudest Voice” (WINNE)
- Chris Abbott, “Catch 22”
- Sacha Baron Cohen, “The Spy”
- Jared Harris, “Chernobyl”
- Sam Rockwell, “Fosse/Verdon”
‘When They See Us’ got no respect from the 2020 Golden Globes
Best Actor TV Series — Comedy
- Rami Yousef, “Rami” (WINNER)
- Ben Platt, “The Politician”
- Paul Rudd, “Living With Yourself”
- Bill Hader, “Barry”
- Michael Douglas, “The Kominsky Method”
The post 2020 Golden Globes: The complete winners list (Updating) appeared first on theGrio.
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PHOTOS: Kerry Washington, Eddie Murphy, Billy Porter and more SHINE at the Golden Globes
Hollywood’s brightest stars sparkled on the red carpet at the 77th Annual Golden Globe Awards.
Stars like Kerry Washington, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Tiffany Haddish, and Billy Porter served up some serious style when they hit the carpet and we can’t wait to see who will take home a trophy.
“When They See Us” got no respect from the 2020 Golden Globes
Check out some of our favorite looks:
Kerry Washington
Washington ditched her subtlety at the door before she hit the carpet in this skin-baring look.
Jennifer Lopez
The Hustlers star made a huge impact when she hit the carpet in this white, gold, and green gown.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph
This beauty took fuchsia to a whole new level when she hit the carpet alongside some of her Dolemite Is My Name costars.
Zoe Kravitz
The newlywed Big Little Lies star was pretty in polka dots and a pixie cut.
Eddie Murphy
The Dolemite Is My Name star kept his shades on and wore a plum-colored suit for his big night out with wife, Paige.
Keegan-Michael Key
Keegan-Michael Key opted for a traditional tux when he hit the red carpet with his wife.
Winnie Harlow
The model sparkled on the red carpet with this fringed, sequin gown and killer pose.
Tiffany Haddish
The comedienne chose a gathered pink gown that was perfectly paired with her pearly white smile.
Billy Porter
The POSE star is a vision in white and once again combines mens wear with over-the-top glam in this half casual suit, half flowing skirt ensemble.
Wesley Snipes
The Dolemite Is My Name star looked like a winner in his wine-colored tuxedo.
Cynthia Erivo
The Harriet star is looking like an Old Hollywood beauty in a long, black, off-the-shoulder gown with white trim.
Barry Jenkins
The man behind If Beale Street Could Talk show off his style game in a gray suit with black stripes on the pants and sleeve.
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