The Ghana Football Association condemns the violence that left a fan with an alleged gunshot wound as police carry out an investigation.
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Monday, January 13, 2020
Sunday, January 12, 2020
A new approach to making airplane parts, minus the massive infrastructure
A modern airplane’s fuselage is made from multiple sheets of different composite materials, like so many layers in a phyllo-dough pastry. Once these layers are stacked and molded into the shape of a fuselage, the structures are wheeled into warehouse-sized ovens and autoclaves, where the layers fuse together to form a resilient, aerodynamic shell.
Now MIT engineers have developed a method to produce aerospace-grade composites without the enormous ovens and pressure vessels. The technique may help to speed up the manufacturing of airplanes and other large, high-performance composite structures, such as blades for wind turbines.
The researchers detail their new method in a paper published today in the journal Advanced Materials Interfaces.
“If you’re making a primary structure like a fuselage or wing, you need to build a pressure vessel, or autoclave, the size of a two- or three-story building, which itself requires time and money to pressurize,” says Brian Wardle, professor of aeronautics and astronautics at MIT. “These things are massive pieces of infrastructure. Now we can make primary structure materials without autoclave pressure, so we can get rid of all that infrastructure.”
Wardle’s co-authors on the paper are lead author and MIT postdoc Jeonyoo Lee, and Seth Kessler of Metis Design Corporation, an aerospace structural health monitoring company based in Boston.
Out of the oven, into a blanket
In 2015, Lee led the team, along with another member of Wardle’s lab, in creating a method to make aerospace-grade composites without requiring an oven to fuse the materials together. Instead of placing layers of material inside an oven to cure, the researchers essentially wrapped them in an ultrathin film of carbon nanotubes (CNTs). When they applied an electric current to the film, the CNTs, like a nanoscale electric blanket, quickly generated heat, causing the materials within to cure and fuse together.
With this out-of-oven, or OoO, technique, the team was able to produce composites as strong as the materials made in conventional airplane manufacturing ovens, using only 1 percent of the energy.
The researchers next looked for ways to make high-performance composites without the use of large, high-pressure autoclaves — building-sized vessels that generate high enough pressures to press materials together, squeezing out any voids, or air pockets, at their interface.
“There’s microscopic surface roughness on each ply of a material, and when you put two plys together, air gets trapped between the rough areas, which is the primary source of voids and weakness in a composite,” Wardle says. “An autoclave can push those voids to the edges and get rid of them.”
Researchers including Wardle’s group have explored “out-of-autoclave,” or OoA, techniques to manufacture composites without using the huge machines. But most of these techniques have produced composites where nearly 1 percent of the material contains voids, which can compromise a material’s strength and lifetime. In comparison, aerospace-grade composites made in autoclaves are of such high quality that any voids they contain are neglible and not easily measured.
“The problem with these OoA approaches is also that the materials have been specially formulated, and none are qualified for primary structures such as wings and fuselages,” Wardle says. “They’re making some inroads in secondary structures, such as flaps and doors, but they still get voids.”
Straw pressure
Part of Wardle’s work focuses on developing nanoporous networks — ultrathin films made from aligned, microscopic material such as carbon nanotubes, that can be engineered with exceptional properties, including color, strength, and electrical capacity. The researchers wondered whether these nanoporous films could be used in place of giant autoclaves to squeeze out voids between two material layers, as unlikely as that may seem.
A thin film of carbon nanotubes is somewhat like a dense forest of trees, and the spaces between the trees can function like thin nanoscale tubes, or capillaries. A capillary such as a straw can generate pressure based on its geometry and its surface energy, or the material’s ability to attract liquids or other materials.
The researchers proposed that if a thin film of carbon nanotubes were sandwiched between two materials, then, as the materials were heated and softened, the capillaries between the carbon nanotubes should have a surface energy and geometry such that they would draw the materials in toward each other, rather than leaving a void between them. Lee calculated that the capillary pressure should be larger than the pressure applied by the autoclaves.
The researchers tested their idea in the lab by growing films of vertically aligned carbon nanotubes using a technique they previously developed, then laying the films between layers of materials that are typically used in the autoclave-based manufacturing of primary aircraft structures. They wrapped the layers in a second film of carbon nanotubes, which they applied an electric current to to heat it up. They observed that as the materials heated and softened in response, they were pulled into the capillaries of the intermediate CNT film.
The resulting composite lacked voids, similar to aerospace-grade composites that are produced in an autoclave. The researchers subjected the composites to strength tests, attempting to push the layers apart, the idea being that voids, if present, would allow the layers to separate more easily.
“In these tests, we found that our out-of-autoclave composite was just as strong as the gold-standard autoclave process composite used for primary aerospace structures,” Wardle says.
The team will next look for ways to scale up the pressure-generating CNT film. In their experiments, they worked with samples measuring several centimeters wide — large enough to demonstrate that nanoporous networks can pressurize materials and prevent voids from forming. To make this process viable for manufacturing entire wings and fuselages, researchers will have to find ways to manufacture CNT and other nanoporous films at a much larger scale.
“There are ways to make really large blankets of this stuff, and there’s continuous production of sheets, yarns, and rolls of material that can be incorporated in the process,” Wardle says.
He plans also to explore different formulations of nanoporous films, engineering capillaries of varying surface energies and geometries, to be able to pressurize and bond other high-performance materials.
“Now we have this new material solution that can provide on-demand pressure where you need it,” Wardle says. “Beyond airplanes, most of the composite production in the world is composite pipes, for water, gas, oil, all the things that go in and out of our lives. This could make making all those things, without the oven and autoclave infrastructure.”
This research was supported, in part, by Airbus, ANSYS, Embraer, Lockheed Martin, Saab AB, Saertex, and Teijin Carbon America through MIT’s Nano-Engineered Composite aerospace Structures (NECST) Consortium.
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Olympic athletes could be suspended if protesting occurs during Tokyo games
Black athletes taking a knee, or even holding up a fist in solidarity of their rights and injustices, won’t be seen at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics… without a fine or suspension attached to it.
On Thursday, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) released a three-page guideline for athletes participating in the games that reiterates Rule 50 of the Olympic Charter. This rule explains just how athletes can protest in the 2020 Tokyo games, according to CBS News.
Athletes are banned from protesting of any sort while on the field of play. Protesting is also banned in the Olympic Village, as well as during medal or other official ceremonies. The only time athletes can protest freely is in meetings and on traditional or social media, outside the Olympic Village.
“We believe that the example we set by competing with the world’s best while living in harmony in the Olympic Village is a uniquely positive message to send to an increasingly divided world. This is why it is important, on both a personal and a global level, that we keep the venues, the Olympic Village and the podium neutral and free from any form of political, religious or ethnic demonstrations,” the IOC said in a statement.
READ MORE Colin Kaepernick is still not on a NFL team and that’s shameful
The consequences of disobeying these rules could get you suspended from participating for a year or more. Silent protests happened just last August at the Pan-American Games in Peru. Hammer thrower Gwen Berry and Fencer Race Imboden kneeled and raised fists in protest during medal ceremonies. Both now face 12-month probation, which has disqualified them from competing in the Tokyo games, CBS News reported.
But this isn’t the first time we’ve seen athletes take a stance on the Olympic stage and get chastised for it.
In the 1968 Olympic games American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists in protest of racial discrimination in the U.S. and were then suspended from the team only to become homeless and unemployed. However, 51 years later, the duo was recently inducted into the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Hall of Fame. In recent years, kneeling has become a means of protest that was brought into the mainstream by former NFL star Colin Kaepernick.
The IOC said this implementation of rules is so that the games remain unified. “The mission of the Olympic Games to bring the entire world together can facilitate the understanding of different views, but this can be accomplished only if everybody respects this diversity,” it said.
The Tokyo Games’ will kick off on July 24 with its opening ceremony.
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Kobe Bryant buys out Philly theater for ‘Just Mercy’ premiere weekend
NBA Legend Kobe Bryant bought out a Philadelphia movie theater this weekend so people in his hometown were able to see the new legal drama Just Mercy.
Just Mercy was released nationwide on Friday starring Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx. The film is based on a true story about attorney Bryan Stevenson, played by Jordan, who decides to take the appeal case of a Black man Walter McMillian, played by Jamie Foxx, that was wrongfully imprisoned in 1986 for the murder of a white woman.
The former NBA star shared with Twitter this week that he was buying out the Regal UA Riverview Plaza in South Philly for 1 p.m. screenings of the film on Saturday. Bryant made sure viewers had a guaranteed ticket by providing an RSVP link for tickets. The event quickly sold out and required some to join a waitlist, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.
PHILLY! @JustMercyFilm is a powerful film starring my friends @michaelb4jordan, @iamjamiefoxx, @OsheaJacksonJr & @brielarson. Everyone should absorb its msg, so I bought out the @regalmovies UA Riverview Plaza on Sat. Jan 11 @ 1pm. Claim ur ticket here – https://t.co/3YrJjAbvS7 pic.twitter.com/udp8fzbnB2
— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) January 8, 2020
In 2014 Stevenson wrote about his lived experience as a novel with the same title.
READ MORE Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx talk ‘Just Mercy’ and taking action
“I felt really strongly the movie had to be curated in exactly the right way, that there wouldn’t be a Hollywood compromise, or a reversion to formula,” Stevenson said to the Philadelphia Inquirer. “But working with Michael and [director Destin Daniel Cretton] they have been responsive and thoughtful throughout.”
Just Mercy’s limited release on Christmas Day received lots of positive reviews and even scored an 82 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, making it a “Certified Fresh” film among critics. Bryant’s comments about the movie aligned with its rating, he said “everyone should absorb” its message and that it is a “powerful film.”
READ MORE Inclusion in action: Michael B. Jordan mandated hiring diverse staff for new film ‘Just Mercy’
Bryant isn’t the only celebrity giving viewers a chance to see the film for free. Celebs such as Common, John Legend, Lena Waithe, and Kim Kardashian West bought out theaters for the film. The Los Angeles Lakers, Milwaukee Bucks, and San Francisco 49ers have also joined the ranks of theater buyouts for the film.
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Kevin Hart’s ‘Night School’ turns into a TV show
Kevin Hart is bringing Night School back to a screen near you, but this time directly into your home.
The Philadelphia native has signed on to be the executive producer of a new NBC comedy show that is based on the hit 2018 movie Night School that he wrote, produced, and starred in with actress Tiffany Haddish. The Universal Studios film Night School opened in September 2018. It opened at the box office with $27 million and grossed 103 million in total.
The pilot, hailing from Universal TV, will be very similar to the film. The series will follow a group of adults in night school prepping to take the GED. Although the group of students are very different, they find commonalities and similar life experiences in and out of the classroom that bring them together, Hollywood Reporter said.
READ MORE Kevin Hart gets deep about cheating scandal, other drama in trailer for new Netflix docu-series
Writer and Producer Chris Moynihan of NBC’s Marlon is writing for the comedy and will also will executive produce with Hart alongside Will Packer, Sheila Ducksworth and Malcolm D. Lee. Packer produced the 2018 film and Lee directed.
The Universal TV pilot project will also be produced by Hart’s Heartbeat Productions, Will Packer Media and Moynihan’s Bicycle Path Productions.
The writers, producers and directors of the pilot aren’t rookies in Hollywood. Packer and Hart have produced several projects prior to this. Packer, whose had a long working relationship with Universal has also produced Girls Trip and Little, in addition to Night School.
READ MORE Kevin Hart returns home after accident, ‘shocked’ to be alive
Hart recently produced and hosted FXX’s upcoming comedy Dave and CBS’ game show TKO: Total Knock Out and also his own Netflix docuseries Don’t F**k This Up. The new series will continue his hectic schedule and career that was temporarily in jeopardy.
In September, TheGrio reported Hart getting into an almost fatal car crash in his 1970 Plymouth Barracuda that steered off the road and down into an embankment in California. Hart suffered several spinal injuries during the crash but has recovered since this then.
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NBC boss pledges ‘new practices if necessary’ at ‘AGT’ after Gabrielle Union allegations
Gabrielle Union was fired from the hit talent show America’s Got Talent in November after allegations of racial insensitivity and now NBC has pledged change.
It was announced last fall that Union, alongside Julianne Hough, would not be returning for season 14 of the show. Union alleged a hostile work environment that included comments about her hair and racial bias against contestants. According to Yahoo News, NBC is now prepared to address those concerns.
During the network’s Television Critics Association press tour, on Saturday, the president of NBC Entertainment Paul Telegdy said the situation is, “in the middle of an investigation,” saying the matter is “really serious.”
READ MORE Gabrielle Union warns against being the ‘happy negro’ bowing to the status quo
“I can’t deny it, and that’s being handled by lawyers.”
“We certainly take anyone’s critique who comes to work here incredibly seriously, if we learn something, we’ll certainly put new practices in place, if necessary,” Telegdy said.
Variety reported in November that Union and Hough said at times they were subjected to “excessive notes” on the way they looked physically. Furthermore, Union was also told her constant change in hairstyles were “too black” for AGT‘s audience.
READ MORE Gabrielle Union has ‘productive’ meeting with NBC execs over AGT toxic workplace complaints
On Dec. 4 Union disclosed she sat down with NBC and AGT production company to express how concerned she was over the racial insensitivity and a toxic culture at the show.
The show is produced by Fremantle and Simon Cowell’s Syco Entertainment.
In a joint statement, Syco Entertainment, Fremantle and NBC said, “We remain committed to ensuring a respectful workplace for all employees and take very seriously any questions about workplace culture. We are working with Ms. Union through her representatives to hear more about her concerns, following which we will take whatever next steps may be appropriate.”
Also taking to Twitter to explain more about the meeting, Union wrote, “We had a lengthy 5-hour, and what I thought to be, productive meeting yesterday. I was able to again, express my unfiltered truth. I led with transparency and my desire and hope for real change.”
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Uniontown treasurer blocked from taking office sues for racial bias
A city official in a Pittsburgh, Penn. suburb of Uniontown has filed a lawsuit against the same City Council that she is now a part of.
Treasurer-elect Antoinette Hodge was elected as the first African-American City Council treasurer in Uniontown, Penn. But this accomplishment didn’t come without a little drama first.
Hodge is alleging the Uniontown City Council denied her seat in office because she is Black. She’s giving credit for her denial to the city clerk and a City Council member that she believes conspired together to withhold her from getting the required insurance bond to take office, according to Pittsburgh Action News 4.
READ MORE Michael Bloomberg campaigns against voter suppression at voters rights summit in Georgia
Under Pennsylvania law, some elected officials have to fulfill the requirement of being bonded. Hodge says the bond was denied because City Council member Martin Gatti, said a racist comment to the bonding company.
Hodge’s attorney, Joel Sansone said, “This councilman told the bonding people ‘this colored girl’ shouldn’t sit as the treasurer for the city of Uniontown.”
“It was like, you’ve got to be kidding me, because by now you would figure people are over that. We’ve had a black president,” Hodge said.
This alleged chain of events led Hodge to file a federal lawsuit against the city of Uniontown, Gatti, and Gatti’s sister-in-law, City Clerk Kim Marshall. This lawsuit was filed on Wednesday, the same day the bond was approved.
By Thursday, the city solicitor said, Hodge will be able to take office, according to Pittsburgh’s Action News 4.
“This is the most blatant form of ignorance that I have ever seen or heard of in my 50-plus years of living,” Pennsylvania NAACP President Kenneth Houston said, at a news conference about the lawsuit.
READ MORE Ava DuVernay slams Michael Bloomberg’s ‘non-answers’ pertaining to Central Park Exonerated Five
Gatti released a statement on Wednesday, responding to the lawsuit, saying: “I did not nor have I ever made a political or professional decision based on race. I had every right to follow up on her bond status and whether or not all the facts were provided when the (bond) company found out that information had been withheld.”
City officials said the only way a bond is denied if Hodge has a poor credit score rating. Hodge said she was once the victim of identity theft, and if negatively affected her credit rating. However, this didn’t stop her from initially getting approved for the bond.
“It was about race. It was not about my credit because if it was my credit, the bond never would have been issued in the first place,” she said.
Hodge is set to be sworn in on Monday.
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LAPD Officers Suspended for Wrongly Classifying People as Gang Members
The Los Angeles Police Department has suspended three LAPD officers for erroneously classifying people as gang members, according to ABC News.
Due to falsely classifying people as gang members to try to boost the department’s statistics, three police officers have been suspended. After a San Fernando Valley mother received a written letter informing her that her son had been identified as a gang member, she believed her son was misidentified and reported the error to a supervisor at a nearby police station.
The supervisor immediately reviewed the circumstances, including body-worn video and other information, and found inaccuracies in the documentation completed by an officer.
The mother was notified that her son wouldn’t be identified as a gang member and any such references to the mistake were removed after the supervisor immediately reviewed the circumstances. Based on inaccuracies in the documentation submitted by the officer, the Department initiated a personnel investigation into the actions of the three officers involved in the arrest.
“Public trust is the foundation of community policing, and the LAPD has zero-tolerance for any employee that would violate that trust,” read a press release from the department.
“An officer’s integrity must be absolute. There is no place in the Department for any individual who would purposely falsify information on a Department report,” Chief of Police Michel Moore said in a statement. The Department is working with the Justice System Integrity Division of the L.A. County District Attorney’s office on any potential criminal charges that may arise from any misconduct.
Because of the serious nature of the alleged misconduct committed by the police officers, they have all been assigned to inactive duty or removed from the field completely.
The Los Angeles Police Department’s Internal Affairs investigation of this situation will continue and the chief of police directed the Office of Constitutional Policing and Policies to further inspect the work product of all Metropolitan Division crime suppression activities to ensure that the accuracy of all documentation is true. If any discrepancies are found they will be forwarded to the Internal Affairs Division for further investigation.
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Saturday, January 11, 2020
Sending clearer signals
In the secluded Russian city where Yury Polyanskiy grew up, all information about computer science came from the outside world. Visitors from distant Moscow would occasionally bring back the latest computer science magazines and software CDs to Polyanskiy’s high school for everyone to share.
One day while reading a borrowed PC World magazine in the mid-1990s, Polyanskiy learned about a futuristic concept: the World Wide Web.
Believing his city would never see such wonders of the internet, he and his friends built their own. Connecting an ethernet cable between two computers in separate high-rises, they could communicate back and forth. Soon, a handful of other kids asked to be connected to the makeshift network.
“It was a pretty challenging engineering problem,” recalls Polyanskiy, an associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science at MIT, who recently earned tenure. “I don’t remember exactly how we did it, but it took us a whole day. You got a sense of just how contagious the internet could be.”
Thanks to the then-recent fall of the Iron Curtain, Polyanskiy’s family did eventually connect to the internet. Soon after, he became interested in computer science and then information theory, the mathematical study of storing and transmitting data. Now at MIT, his most exciting work centers on preventing major data-transmission issues with the rise of the “internet of things” (IoT). Polyanskiy is a member of the of the Laboratory for Information and Decision Systems, the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society, and the Statistics and Data Science Center.
Today, people carry around a smartphone and maybe a couple smart devices. Whenever you watch a video on your smartphone, for example, a nearby cell tower assigns you an exclusive chunk of the wireless spectrum for a certain time. It does so for everyone, making sure the data never collide.
The number IoT devices is expected to explode, however. People may carry dozens of smart devices; all delivered packages may have tracking sensors; and smart cities may implement thousands of connected sensors in their infrastructure. Current systems can’t divvy up the spectrum effectively to stop data from colliding. That will slow down transmission speeds and make our devices consume much more energy in sending and resending data.
“There may soon be a hundredfold explosion of devices connected to the internet, which is going to clog the spectrum, and there will be no way to ensure interference-free transmission. Entirely new access approaches will be needed,” Polyanskiy says. “It’s the most exciting thing I’m working on, and it’s surprising that no one is talking much about it.”
From Russia, with love of computer science
Polyanskiy grew up in a place that translates in English to “Rainbow City,” so named because it was founded as a site to develop military lasers. Surrounded by woods, the city had a population of about 15,000 people, many of them engineers.
In part, that environment got Polyanskiy into computer science. At the age of 12, he started coding — “and for profit,” he says. His father was working for an engineering firm, on a team that was programming controllers for oil pumps. When the lead programmer took another position, they were left understaffed. “My father was discussing who can help. I was sitting next to him, and I said, ‘I can help,’” Polyanskiy says. “He first said no, but I tried it and it worked out.”
Soon after, his father opened his own company for designing oil pump controllers and brought Polyanskiy on board while he was still in high school. The business gained customers worldwide. He says some of the controllers he helped program are still being used today.
Polyanskiy earned his bachelor’s in physics from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, a top university worldwide for physics research. But then, interested in pursuing electrical engineering for graduate school, he applied to programs in the U.S. and was accepted to Princeton University.
In 2005, he moved to the U.S. to attend Princeton, which came with cultural shocks “that I still haven’t recovered from,” Polyanskiy jokes. For starters, he says, the U.S. education system encourages interaction with professors. Also, the televisions, gaming consoles, and furniture in residential buildings and around campus were not placed under lock and key.
“In Russia, everything is chained down,” Polyanskiy says. “I still can’t believe U.S. universities just keep those things out in the open.”
At Princeton, Polyanskiy wasn’t sure which field to enter. But when it came time to select, he asked one rather discourteous student about studying under a giant in information theory, Sergio Verdú. The student told Polyanskiy he wasn’t smart enough for Verdú — so Polyanskiy got defiant. “At that moment, I knew for certain that Sergio would be my number one pick,” Polyanskiy says, laughing. “When people say I can’t do something, that’s usually the best way to motivate me.”
At Princeton, working under Verdú, Polyanskiy focused on a component of information theory that deals with how much redundancy to send with data. Each time data transmit, they are perturbed by some noise. Adding duplicate data means less data get lost in that noise. Researchers thus study the optimal amounts of redundancy to reduce signal loss but keep transmissions fast.
In his graduate work, Polyanskiy pinpointed sweet spots for redundancy when transmitting hundreds or thousands of data bits in packets, which is mostly how data are transmitted online today.
Getting hooked
After earning his PhD in electrical engineering from Princeton, Polyanskiy finally did come to MIT, his “dream school,” in 2011, but as a professor. MIT had helped pioneer some information theory research and introduced the first college courses in the field.
Some call information theory “a green island,” he says, “because it’s hard to get into but once you’re there, you’re very happy. And information theorists can be seen as snobby.” When he came to MIT, Polyanskiy says, he was narrowly focused on his work. But he experienced yet another cultural shock — this time in a collaborative and bountiful research culture.
MIT researchers are constantly presenting at conferences, holding seminars, collaborating, and “working on about 20 projects in parallel,” Polyanskiy says. “I was hesitant that I could do quality research like that, but then I got hooked. I became more broad-minded, thanks to MIT’s culture of drinking from a fire hose. There’s so much going on that eventually you get addicted to learning fields that are far away from you own interests.”
In collaboration with other MIT researchers, Polyanskiy’s group now focuses on finding ways to split up the spectrum in the coming IoT age. So far, his group has mathematically proven that the systems in use today do not have the capabilities and energy to do so. They’ve also shown what types of alternative transmission systems will and won’t work.
Inspired by his own experiences, Polyanskiy likes to give his students “little hooks,” tidbits of information about the history of scientific thought surrounding their work and about possible future applications. One example is explaining philosophies behind randomness to mathematics students who may be strictly deterministic thinkers. “I want to give them a little taste of something more advanced and outside scope of what they’re studying,” he says.
After spending 14 years in the U.S., the culture has shaped the Russian native in certain ways. For instance, he’s accepted a more relaxed and interactive Western teaching style, he says. But it extends beyond the classroom, as well. Just last year, while visiting Moscow, Polyanskiy found himself holding a subway rail with both hands. Why is this strange? Because he was raised to keep one hand on the subway rail, and one hand over his wallet to prevent thievery. “With horror, I realized what I was doing,” Polyanskiy says, laughing. “I said, ‘Yury, you’re becoming a real Westerner.’”
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5 Ways to re-energize those New Year’s resolutions that went by the wayside
2020 is your year, right? Maybe that first full week of work threw you off a bit from your grand scheme of gym classes, meditation, organizing and such. We get it. Life happens. Just because you might have had a rocky start to your New Year’s resolutions doesn’t mean you can’t still work towards being your best self. You missed some journaling and workouts? Okay! Every day is a new day to start over and try again. Below we have some tools and resources for you to get to the you that you want and deserve.
READ MORE: 6 tips about managing your money that will set your 2020 on fire
She Did That
Renae Bluitt (the powerhouse behind the In Her Shoes brand), has a documentary about Black women entrepreneurs that is sure to get you amped about shaping your own financial future. You don’t have to be a woman to be inspired by the gems dropped by the likes of Lisa Price (Carol’s Daughter founder), Luvvie Ajayi (I’m Judging You author), Melissa Butler (Lip Bar founder) and other dynamic creatives. The best part? You don’t even have to leave home to get into this goodness. If you don’t feel like heading to Target to snag a copy, you can go to Amazon or iTunes to give it a whirl.
READ MORE: Study analyzed the best and worst U.S. cities for Black women to live
Eternal Sunshine
Everybody needs a little woo-sah in their lives. Between work, family, friends, and everyday life stuff, you have to get in some slow, focused time on yourself, even if it’s just a few minutes a day. That’s where Eternal Sunshine comes into the picture. This handy dandy app offers a plethora of ways to center and calm yourself. There are daily mantras, guided meditations, mindfulness rituals, book suggestions and more. Plus, it’s free!
Vibrate Higher Daily
Want to level up your spiritual life? Got you. Spiritual writer and wellness educator Lalah Delia is giving us all the feels with her new book Vibrate Higher Daily: Live Your Power. It’s full of affirmations, meditations, and just general “here’s how to get your ish together” type content. Delia is out here dropping knowledge like “What’s for you won’t take away from your healing or success journey.” Give us a word! It’s a whole mood. You can catch Delia on Instagram too. The book is on shelves now, so what are you waiting on?
The DynaSmiles
Soooo, about that planner and all those goals and to-do lists you were gonna set. Yep. Kicking it off right on January 1 might not have exactly worked out for you, but don’t fret! It’s never too late to get on the good foot. And guess what? There are Black business owners holding it down for you. The DynaSmiles has a range of planners and other paper products to suit your needs and they all feature beautiful Black faces. The planner includes goals, budgeting, color-coded tabs, and all the bells and whistles. Just because you fumbled out the gate doesn’t mean you can’t recover. Get to it!
Therapy for Black Girls
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Founded by Dr. Joy Harden Bradford, Therapy for Black Girls is exactly what it sounds like. Often times, Black folks who seek therapy lament the fact of how hard it is to find a therapist who truly understands them. Therapy for Black Girls takes care of that. The site offers a therapist directory and access to an online community and podcast. The Instagram account serves up daily affirmations, exercises, and thought-provoking questions. And if you’re not a Black woman, surely you know some. Sharing is caring.
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Michael Bloomberg campaigns against voter suppression at voters rights summit in Georgia
For the first time since announcing his 2020 presidential run in late November, Michael Bloomberg visited Atlanta, GA. On Friday, the Presidential nominee hopeful kicked off his schedule with an early morning stop at an invite-only voting rights summit organized by Stacey Abrams‘ Fair Fight 2020 Initiative. While there, Bloomberg shared detailed thoughts on voting and voter suppression with the handful of media outlets in the room.
Those unaware of the history between Bloomberg and Abrams might raise an eyebrow at their alliance. Bloomberg, however, has been a long time and an early financial supporter of Abrams. She shared that history as she introduced him to the attendees. According to Abrahams, when she launched the New Georgia Project in 2014 intending to register 800,000 unregistered voters in the state by 2024, Bloomberg was a generous donor. Then in 2018, when Abrams dared to run for governor of Georgia, a feat that would have made her the first Black woman to hold that position in this country, Bloomberg donated significantly to her campaign.
In December 2019, the former New York City Mayor donated $5 million to her Fair Fight 2020, which the Spelman and Yale Law School alum launched months earlier in August to focus on voter protection in 20 battleground states for the 2020 election cycle. Among those states is Georgia, where voter suppression was alleged in Abrams’s slim loss to Republican Brian Kemp, who also served as Secretary of State monitoring that same election. In closing, she presented Bloomberg as “our friend” and “a friend of America” to the group.
At the podium, Bloomberg initially floundered when he spoke of the Atlanta Falcons while referencing his first Georgia visit with Mayor Hardie Davis, Jr. in December. When he turned the focus on voter suppression, he finally gained traction with the group.
“I think it’s fair to say that we all wish that we didn’t have to have this conference,” he told attendees. “If voter suppression wasn’t such a big problem, Stacey wouldn’t have started Fair Fight; she would be in the governor’s mansion.”
Continuing he said, “Unfortunately, voter suppression is one of our most urgent challenges. And the right to vote is a fundamental right that protects all others. And it’s under attack around this country.”
“The history of voter suppression, as we all know, is long and ugly,” he shared. “There are grandfather clauses and literacy tests and poll taxes. That may not officially be on the books anymore, but, even today, in 2020, there are eight states, including Georgia and four others, that have never ratified the 24th amendment banning poll taxes. Just think about that, in this day and age.
“Now, some people may say, ‘well, so what’s the point? It’s already in the Constitution,’ and that’s true, but I’ll tell you the point is eight southern states also held up on ratifying the 19th Amendment, which guaranteed women the right to vote, and it took some 50 or 60 years before they eventually all did. And so why not on poll taxes? We just got to get to work here and we can get this done. . . Is it just a coincidence that states like Georgia and Mississippi haven’t ratified it while they’ve also engaged in some of the strongest suppression efforts?”
Bloomberg didn’t reference President Donald Trump specifically, but he did take shots at Republicans overall. “The reality is you can draw a straight line from Jim Crow poll taxes and to the Republican party today. And I don’t know why they think this, but they do. It’s a disgrace to our Constitution. It’s an insult, I think, to the generations of people who fought, marched, for the right to vote. And since we’re in Georgia, I’m particularly thinking of a true American hero, Congressman John Lewis, who marched,” he said, generating applause.
“America is a wonderful country, but we’ve got to keep working to make it better and make sure we get rid of some of the things that we don’t do well. We should never ever keep anybody from voting. I think it’s very simple. We’ve got to make sure that everybody can register. Same-day registration and electronic registration make a lot of sense to me. Also allowing 17-year-olds to pre-register so that, when they’re 18, they can start voting. The big question I suppose I keep asking is, why should we have to register it all? After all, the government knows who’s 18. Why does it make us fill out another form? And, particularly, I don’t understand why the Republicans want to do it [if] they’re always supposed to be in favor of smaller government and less bureaucracy. It just doesn’t make sense.”
As Bloomberg began closing out, he informed the small crowd that popular Georgia native, former President Jimmy Carter, was also an early supporter of automatic registration. “We should actually make it easier to vote. You should be able to vote from your home,” he said. “Why you have to go to the polls, I don’t know. Why do you have to do it just on election day? And, there are a whole bunch of things that we can do to make it easier for everybody to vote. And if everybody votes, I think we’ll always get better government.”
After his address, Bloomberg and Abrams exited the room together.
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WATCH: Tiffany Haddish and Billy Porter on their fun new flick ‘Like a Boss’
Tiffany Haddish is back on the big screen this week and this time she’s partnered up with Rose Byrne and Salma Hayek in the female-driven flick, Like a Boss.
In it, the ladies play best friends Mia (Haddish) and Mel (Byrne) who run their own cosmetics company — a business they built from the ground up. Mia is the creative force behind their makeup kits while Mel handles the business side of things. Each woman knows how to play up their strengths and their friendship is the core of their small store. Unfortunately, the company isn’t making any money and Mel knows something needs to change fast or else they’ll lose their store.
That’s where Claire Luna (Salma Hayek) comes in. She’s a super successful businesswoman who wants to make the BFFS a part of her ever-expanding empire. of course, the ladies will have to prove themselves worthy of her support and her coins, which leads to some serious breakdowns in the friendship.
EXCLUSIVE CLIP: Tiffany Haddish, Salma Hayek, and Billy Porter in ‘Like a Boss’
Billy Porter and Jennifer Coolidge provide some support to their bosses and each other throughout the flick that does deliver some laughs despite a pretty predictable storyline.
Like a Boss isn’t groundbreaking on any level but it’s a fun little escape that should satisfy fans of Byrne and Haddish. It’s also a triumphant return for Salma Hayek whose over-the-top turn as a self-absorbed, scheming villain is pretty fun to watch.
While I don’t think it stands up to some of Byrne’s other work, it’s actually one of Haddish’s most enjoyable roles since Girl’s Trip.
Check out our interviews with the film’s stars above.
Like a Boss is in theaters now.
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REVIEW: ‘Just Mercy’ is the film America needs right now
Civil rights attorney Bryan Stevenson has all the makings of a real-life superhero. Standing up to villains much bigger and stronger, fighting for the powerless, saving lives, and yet, Just Mercy has little to do with singing his praises.
Based on his memoir, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption the true intention of the film is to inspire real change and this is one of the few flicks with the power to do just that.
Just Mercy evokes intense feelings of anger, shock, shame, and hope and it’s the most important film you’ll see all year.
Michael B. Jordan and Jamie Foxx talk ‘Just Mercy’ and taking action
The impeccably casted film doesn’t rely on traditional tactics to provoke emotion but the facts of the story and the strength of the performances should light a fire inside of anyone with a pulse.
Michael B. Jordan employs just the right amount of restraint in his portrayal of the man who founded the Equal Justice Initiative in 1989. Jamie Foxx is incredible as Walter McMillian, a wrongfully convicted death row inmate who has lost all hope after being framed for a murder he had nothing to do with.
Despite the fact that McMillan was at home surrounded by friends and neighbors at the time the 18-year-old white woman was gunned down, Sheriff Tom Tate (Michael Harding) would stop at nothing to see him convicted. That includes manipulating a poor, white criminal (Tim Blake Nelson) into providing false testimony, sealing McMillian’s fate on death row.
Just Mercy would be a powerful tale even if it was fiction, but the fact that the despicable details of the case are true and relatively recent is what makes it so impactful and urgent. Seeing the way Stevenson and Eva Ansley (Brie Larson) committed to their quest for justice against insurmountable odds is a testament to the fact that we are not helpless. We do not have to simply accept the way things are for Black folks in America but have real chances at change.
Rob Morgan and Tim Blake Nelson discuss near-perfect performances in ‘Just Mercy’
Since he founded the Equal Justice Initiative, Bryan Stevenson has saved 125 men from death row and continues his fight against the bias in the criminal justice system.
The film also manages to humanize an easily forgotten category of people who have been written off as criminals deserving of death. The searing performances from Foxx, O’Shea Jackson Jr., and Rob Morgan, as death row inmates make it nearly impossible not to question the whole notion of capital punishment.
Just Mercy should remind us that the system is stacked against us so severely that it would be easy to lose all hope but it should remind us that there is indeed power in passion and perseverance.
Just Mercy is in theaters now.
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Colin Kaepernick’s girlfriend Nessa criticizes Trump and the NFL over Super Bowl ad purchase
Nessa Diab, radio personality and girlfriend of Colin Kaepernick took to Twitter on Tuesday to share her displeasure about Donald Trump’s campaign being allowed to purchase ad time during the upcoming Super Bowl.
Nessa did not shy away from criticizing the president, the NFL or the NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell about the news of the $10 million re-election campaign ad.
“You see how this works?” Nessa wrote on her Twitter account. “Trump and his @NFL buddies from team owners & @nflcommish have a code they stick by. That code blackballed @kaepernick7 for peacefully protesting systematic oppression. Trump to drop $10 million on Super Bowl ad.”
You see how this works? Trump & his @NFL buddies from team owners & @nflcommish have a code they stick by. That code blackballed @kaepernick7 for peacefully protesting systemic oppression.
Trump to drop $10 million on Super Bowl ad https://t.co/scxmI9W58Z
— NESSA (@nessnitty) January 8, 2020
Kaepernick, who is a former NFL quarterback, received much criticism for kneeling during the national anthem to protest against police brutality, Newsweek reports.
Nessa along with many others believe Kaepernick’s form of protest is the main reason he hasn’t been signed to a team since 2016.
Trump was amongst those who criticized Kaepernick for his activism. The belligerent politician even said that players who knelt during the national anthem “shouldn’t be playing” following a policy the NFL enforced requiring players to stand during the anthem when they are on the field, according to the site.
Kaepernick signed a collusion grievance last year with the NFL, regarding his claim that he hasn’t been able to play for the league because of his activism. But the former football player has still yet to be signed to a team, although the league and Goodell said “they are open” to Kaepernick being signed to a team.
READ MORE: Why Jillian Michaels is dangerous and can (sincerely) kiss my big beautiful Black a**
“The code” Nessa may be referring to is the relationship between Trump and the NFL, and the league allowing the president to have 60 seconds of air time during one of the most-watched TV events in the United States.
The post Colin Kaepernick’s girlfriend Nessa criticizes Trump and the NFL over Super Bowl ad purchase appeared first on TheGrio.
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Shaggy passed on appearing on Rihanna’s new album after being asked to audition
While fans are anxiously waiting for Rihanna’s ninth album to drop, new information revealed this week that veteran reggae singer Shaggy will not be featured on the album.
The 51-year-old artist said he passed on the opportunity to work with Rihanna, 31 because he was not interested in auditioning to be on a record, People reports.
“They approached me for the Rihanna project, yeah,” said during an interview with British newspaper The Daily Star. “There’s a lot of great people involved but for me, I didn’t need to audition to be on the record, I’ll leave that to younger guys. But from what I hear, it should be good.”
READ MORE: Beyoncé teases fans with videos and sneak peeks of IVY PARK x Adidas collaboration
Although we will not be hearing the artist on the highly anticipated album, Shaggy did reveal that he supports that musicians being inspired by the dancehall genre, the site reports.
As an artist, Rihanna has never shied away from her Carribean roots with songs like “Work” and “Man Down” from her previous albums, and it looks like she will also include some reggae songs in her upcoming project.
She revealed to Vogue that the album will be “reggae-inspired or reggae-infused.”
“It’s not gonna be typical of what you know as reggae. But you’re going to feel the elements in all of the tracks,” she explained. “Even though I’ve explored other genres of music, it was time to go back to something that I haven’t really honed in on completely for a body of work.”
READ MORE: Rihanna is not Jamaican but Twitter has decided to convince us otherwise
Rihanna has been teasing fans for a while now about when she will be dropping the album, and they have made it all unclear that they are getting impatient.
She teased her fans in December with a video of puppy bobbing its head to the song, “Jump Around,” by House of Pain.
She posted the video with the caption, “update: me listening to R9 by myself and refusing to release it.”
Fingers crossed, R9 will be released in 2020.
The post Shaggy passed on appearing on Rihanna’s new album after being asked to audition appeared first on TheGrio.
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Beyoncé teases fans with videos and sneak peeks of IVY PARK x Adidas collaboration
After announcing her new IVY PARK x Adidas collaboration in Elle Magazine in December, Beyoncé has finally revealed what fans can expect from her collection.
Earlier this week, the icon dropped a series of Instagram posts and a teaser video previewing the items that will be for purchase when the line drops on January 18th.
READ MORE: Man robs Philadelphia pharmacy, slips note saying ‘I’m sorry, I have a sick child’
The one-minute video clip of the IVY PARK x Adidas collaboration features a few familiar faces, including herself and K-pop singer CL, according to Rolling Stone. Models Ebonee Davis and Adonis Bosso also appear in the promo video.
Davis also posted the video clip on her Instagram with the caption, The right ones are always watching. 🐝👑 #ADIDASXIVYPARK.”
The video emphasizes the maroon and orange color scheme of the collection along with powerful statements made by stars, including ”I find love in everything that I do” and “These barriers are not going to stop me,” according to the site. Beyoncé even went all out by spelling IVY PARK with beads in her hair.
The Beyhive along with many stars have already revealed their anticipation about the collection dropping such as actress, Yara Shahidi.
The young star posted a video of her receiving an early shipment of the collection, with the caption, “It’s officially my fave day 💃🏾 ADDIDASXIVYPARK PEEK💧.” The video already has over 500,000 views.
Beyoncé also revealed more details of the collection’s packaging and unboxing on her own IG account with a series of videos.
The clips show the items in a large orange and maroon box with items such as jackets, pants, and hats from the collaboration, and from the looks of it, the Beyhive is ready for the star to take all of their coins.
Every year Beyoncé continues to prove while she will forever reign as queen. From movies, music and clothing lines, she does it all.
There’s no telling what she under her sleeve for 2020.
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