Using just the technology in your pocket, you can gauge the velocity of the space station as it zips across the night sky.
from Wired https://ift.tt/38vja82
via
Friday, March 6, 2020
This Vegan Food Entrepreneur Is Helping Black People Get Healthy—And Register To Vote
With the rise of obesity and health issues in the African American community, many have become inspired to change their eating habits and lean toward a healthier diet. Vegan and plant-based diets have become increasingly popular among Americans. For one food entrepreneur, the move created an opportunityvto create a venture aimed at blending veganism with traditional African American food while also giving back to the community.
Aisha “Pinky” Cole is the mastermind behind the Atlanta-based Slutty Vegan food truck, which brings vegan food to underserved communities. Her pop-up eatery has become a huge hit, selling out in cities from Durham, North Carolina, to New York as customers rave about her delicious food. It isn’t uncommon to see lines for her food wrap around the block, which has put her brand on the map. On a typical day, it is normal to have to wait on a line for several hours before you can order Cole’s 100% plant-based burgers and her vegan twists on classic dishes.
“I was one of the people who would always try and to raise awareness about that and how and why heart disease and type 2 diabetes are so prevalent in the [black] community,” she told CNN last year. “People of color die and suffer at a disproportionately higher rate than any other race or community from chronic diseases and lifestyle diseases.”
While Cole currently travels around the country on a 50 city pop-up tour, she has also decided to use the opportunity to register customers to vote. Customers can complete their voter registration forms while waiting on line. Cole launched her voter registration drive through her Pinky Cole Foundation, which she founded in 2019 to inspire people in her community to vote in the upcoming election.
from Black Enterprise https://ift.tt/2IlQbct
via
Debra Lee, Debbie Allen, and More Distinguished Black Women Honored at the Women of Power Summit
The 15th annual BLACK ENTERPRISE Women of Power Summit kicked off on Thursday at the Mirage in Las Vegas with a gala that honored highly esteemed African American women who’ve reached the pinnacle of success in their careers.
Each year the summit welcomes hundreds of professional women of color for a three-day conference that celebrates and empowers corporate leadership. This year’s recipients of the Legacy Awards Gala, hosted by PepsiCo, included Debbie Allen, an award-winning actress, director, choreographer, and producer; Debra Lee, the former CEO and Chairman Emeritus of BET Networks; and Myrtle Potter, the CEO of Sumitovant Biopharma. Gale V. King, the EVP and chief administrative officer of Nationwide, received the coveted Barbara Graves Legacy Award, which was named after the late founder of the Women of Power franchise.
Gale V. King, EVP and chief administrative officer at Nationwide, at the 2020 Black Enterprise Women Of Power Summit
“I’ve been in four cities this week, but I’m delighted to be here. This means so much to me,” said Lee while accepting the first legacy award of the night. “Black Enterprise has been part of my life for at least 50 years.”
The businesswoman went on to address some of the challenges she faced during her three-decade career at BET, especially after she was named as CEO of the network in 2005. “I know how hard it is to remain profitable, keep true to your principles, and remain authentic in this industry,” she said.
Under Lee’s 13-year stint as chief executive, the network was widely criticized for airing racy hip hop music videos that critics argued stereotyped African Americans and degraded women. At one point, black faith leaders led ongoing protests in front of Lee’s Washington, DC home for seven months starting in September of 2007.
“When I took over as COO and CEO, I had to find my voice and figure out what I wanted my vision to be. I couldn’t run the company like the founder had. I had to figure out what I wanted to accomplish, and, as you saw, it was in the middle of protests outside my house for seven months,” admitted Lee. “That was a difficult time for me.”
Lee, however, doubled down on her decision to continue to air controversial content despite the pressure to prohibit explicit music videos. “As a lawyer, I believed in First Amendment rights. I believed in the rights of young people to like the kind of music [that] they liked,” she said. “We reviewed every video that went on the air and if we thought it violated our standards, we’d sent it back to the labels. I wasn’t going to turn over that authority to someone else.” She added, “I wasn’t going to give that up just because there were protesters at my house. Now, why they didn’t go to Jay-Z and Ludacris’ house? I don’t know. They were the ones making the music,” she said, inciting laughs from the audience. Nevertheless, Lee says the incident forced her to take an introspective look at what she wanted BET to represent and how she wanted to shape her legacy.
Debbie Allen at the at the 2020 Black Enterprise Women Of Power Summit
Allen, who currently directs and stars on ABC’s “Grey’s Anatomy” and recently signed on as the new brand ambassador for Easy Spirit, danced on stage before delivering a heartfelt speech about her decades-long career in entertainment and her drive to keep going. “All my friends are retired. I don’t know what that is,” she joked, explaining that she had no desire to spend the rest of 70’s on cruise ships.
Didn’t make it to Vegas? No worries. Follow all of the action via the Women of Power Summit Livestream and on social media under the hashtag #BEWPS.
from Black Enterprise https://ift.tt/2VRColB
via
Thursday, March 5, 2020
Nathaniel Woods executed hours after Supreme Court denies stay
Nathaniel Woods was executed on Thursday night just hours after the Supreme Court had initially granted a temporary stay, but ultimately reversed that decision.
In the minutes before Woods, 44, was set to die by lethal injection in an Alabama prison, Justice Clarence Thomas halted the execution “pending further order of the undersigned or of the Court,” ABC News reported.
Hours later, however, the court denied the stay and the execution was back on.
Woods was convicted of capital murder in the 2004 shooting deaths of three police officers. However, he was not directly a part of slayings. Despite that, prosecutors successfully convinced a jury that Woods was part of a conspiracy in the murders carried out by his co-defendant Kerry Spencer.
Spencer maintained that Woods had nothing to do with the slayings and, according to CNN, said he even ran during the shooting which also left a fourth officer injured.
READ MORE: Georgia death row inmate whose appeal dragged on dies in prison
The court’s reversal came after Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey reviewed a letter requesting a reprieve from the death sentence. Ivey ultimately decided that she would allow the execution to proceed.
“Governor Ivey does not presently intend to exercise her powers of commutation or reprieve in this case,” general counsel William G. Parker Jr. wrote.
“While Governor Ivey reserves the right to grant clemency at any time before an execution is carried out, she has determined, based on her review of the complete record, including the matters presented in your letter, that clemency for Mr. Woods at this hour is unwarranted.”
Woods’ family and supporters have maintained his innocence and desperately pleaded for Gov. Ivey to stop the execution from moving forward. In the days leading up to the initially scheduled execution, Martin Luther King III sent a letter to the governor on Woods’ behalf.
READ MORE: MLK III urges Alabama governor to stop execution of Nathaniel Woods
“Killing this African American man, whose case appears to have been strongly mishandled by the courts, could produce an irreversible injustice. Are you willing to allow a potentially innocent man to be executed?” King wrote.
“My father said, ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,’ and so I pray that God grants you the courage to do the right thing: to delay his execution.”
Woods has sought to appeal his conviction, citing inadequate representation from his lawyer – mainly for withholding information that says he cannot be convicted of capital murder as an accomplice.
He said his previous counsel also convinced him not to accept a plea deal that would have given him a sentence of 20 to 25 years in prison.
The Alabama Supreme Court and the U.S. Supreme Court had previously denied Woods’ appeal.
Birmingham police officers Carlos Owen, Harley Chisholm III, and Charles Bennett were shot and killed on June 17, 2004, while serving a misdemeanor assault warrant for Woods in Birmingham at what is believed to have been a crack house.
Spencer confessed to being the sole gunman who killed the police, however, both men were convicted on capital murder charges. Prosecutors argued that Woods and Spencer acted together to kill the officers.
The sister of Officer Chisholm also came out against the execution in a statement to ABC.
“I am writing to express my sincere wishes for Governor Ivey to stop the execution of Nathaniel Woods. I am the sister of Harley Chisholm III. I do not think that Nathaniel is guilty of murder. I urge Governor Ivey to reconsider her decision not to intervene,” the statement said.
“There is no harm in allowing more time for the courts to investigate,” the statement added.
“I want the new evidence to be brought forward and evaluated by new attorneys. Please do not move forward with the hasty decision to execute Nathaniel. My conscience will not let me live with this if he dies. I beg you to have mercy on him.”
The post Nathaniel Woods executed hours after Supreme Court denies stay appeared first on TheGrio.
from TheGrio https://ift.tt/2vJCC3B
via
Novel method for easier scaling of quantum devices
In an advance that may help researchers scale up quantum devices, an MIT team has developed a method to “recruit” neighboring quantum bits made of nanoscale defects in diamond, so that instead of causing disruptions they help carry out quantum operations.
Quantum devices perform operations using quantum bits, called “qubits,” that can represent the two states corresponding to classic binary bits — a 0 or 1 — or a “quantum superposition” of both states simultaneously. The unique superposition state can enable quantum computers to solve problems that are practically impossible for classical computers, potentially spurring breakthroughs in biosensing, neuroimaging, machine learning, and other applications.
One promising qubit candidate is a defect in diamond, called a nitrogen-vacancy (NV) center, which holds electrons that can be manipulated by light and microwaves. In response, the defect emits photons that can carry quantum information. Because of their solid-state environments, however, NV centers are always surrounded by many other unknown defects with different spin properties, called “spin defects.” When the measurable NV-center qubit interacts with those spin defects, the qubit loses its coherent quantum state — “decoheres”— and operations fall apart. Traditional solutions try to identify these disrupting defects to protect the qubit from them.
In a paper published Feb. 25 in Physical Letters Review, the researchers describe a method that uses an NV center to probe its environment and uncover the existence of several nearby spin defects. Then, the researchers can pinpoint the defects’ locations and control them to achieve a coherent quantum state — essentially leveraging them as additional qubits.
In experiments, the team generated and detected quantum coherence among three electronic spins — scaling up the size of the quantum system from a single qubit (the NV center) to three qubits (adding two nearby spin defects). The findings demonstrate a step forward in scaling up quantum devices using NV centers, the researchers say.
“You always have unknown spin defects in the environment that interact with an NV center. We say, ‘Let’s not ignore these spin defects, which [if left alone] could cause faster decoherence. Let’s learn about them, characterize their spins, learn to control them, and ‘recruit’ them to be part of the quantum system,’” says the lead co-author Won Kyu Calvin Sun, a graduate student in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering and a member of the Quantum Engineering group. “Then, instead of using a single NV center [or just] one qubit, we can then use two, three, or four qubits.”
Joining Sun on the paper are lead author Alexandre Cooper ’16 of Caltech; Jean-Christophe Jaskula, a research scientist in the MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics (RLE) and member of the Quantum Engineering group at MIT; and Paola Cappellaro, a professor in the Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering, a member of RLE, and head of the Quantum Engineering group at MIT.
Characterizing defects
NV centers occur where carbon atoms in two adjacent places in a diamond’s lattice structure are missing — one atom is replaced by a nitrogen atom, and the other space is an empty “vacancy.” The NV center essentially functions as an atom, with a nucleus and surrounding electrons that are extremely sensitive to tiny variations in surrounding electrical, magnetic, and optical fields. Sweeping microwaves across the center, for instance, makes it change, and thus control, the spin states of the nucleus and electrons.
Spins are measured using a type of magnetic resonance spectroscopy. This method plots the frequencies of electron and nucleus spins in megahertz as a “resonance spectrum” that can dip and spike, like a heart monitor. Spins of an NV center under certain conditions are well-known. But the surrounding spin defects are unknown and difficult to characterize.
In their work, the researchers identified, located, and controlled two electron-nuclear spin defects near an NV center. They first sent microwave pulses at specific frequencies to control the NV center. Simultaneously, they pulse another microwave that probes the surrounding environment for other spins. They then observed the resonance spectrum of the spin defects interacting with the NV center.
The spectrum dipped in several spots when the probing pulse interacted with nearby electron-nuclear spins, indicating their presence. The researchers then swept a magnetic field across the area at different orientations. For each orientation, the defect would “spin” at different energies, causing different dips in the spectrum. Basically, this allowed them to measure each defect’s spin in relation to each magnetic orientation. They then plugged the energy measurements into a model equation with unknown parameters. This equation is used to describe the quantum interactions of an electron-nuclear spin defect under a magnetic field. Then, they could solve the equation to successfully characterize each defect.
Locating and controlling
After characterizing the defects, the next step was to characterize the interaction between the defects and the NV, which would simultaneously pinpoint their locations. To do so, they again swept the magnetic field at different orientations, but this time looked for changes in energies describing the interactions between the two defects and the NV center. The stronger the interaction, the closer they were to one another. They then used those interaction strengths to determine where the defects were located, in relation to the NV center and to each other. That generated a good map of the locations of all three defects in the diamond.
Characterizing the defects and their interaction with the NV center allow for full control, which involves a few more steps to demonstrate. First, they pump the NV center and surrounding environment with a sequence of pulses of green light and microwaves that help put the three qubits in a well-known quantum state. Then, they use another sequence of pulses that ideally entangles the three qubits briefly, and then disentangles them, which enables them to detect the three-spin coherence of the qubits.
The researchers verified the three-spin coherence by measuring a major spike in the resonance spectrum. The measurement of the spike recorded was essentially the sum of the frequencies of the three qubits. If the three qubits for instance had little or no entanglement, there would have been four separate spikes of smaller height.
“We come into a black box [environment with each NV center]. But when we probe the NV environment, we start seeing dips and wonder which types of spins give us those dips. Once we [figure out] the spin of the unknown defects, and their interactions with the NV center, we can start controlling their coherence,” Sun says. “Then, we have full universal control of our quantum system.”
Next, the researchers hope to better understand other environmental noise surrounding qubits. That will help them develop more robust error-correcting codes for quantum circuits. Furthermore, because on average the process of NV center creation in diamond creates numerous other spin defects, the researchers say they could potentially scale up the system to control even more qubits. “It gets more complex with scale. But if we can start finding NV centers with more resonance spikes, you can imagine starting to control larger and larger quantum systems,” Sun says.
from MIT News https://ift.tt/2PRSMig
via
Showing robots how to do your chores
Training interactive robots may one day be an easy job for everyone, even those without programming expertise. Roboticists are developing automated robots that can learn new tasks solely by observing humans. At home, you might someday show a domestic robot how to do routine chores. In the workplace, you could train robots like new employees, showing them how to perform many duties.
Making progress on that vision, MIT researchers have designed a system that lets these types of robots learn complicated tasks that would otherwise stymie them with too many confusing rules. One such task is setting a dinner table under certain conditions.
At its core, the researchers’ “Planning with Uncertain Specifications” (PUnS) system gives robots the humanlike planning ability to simultaneously weigh many ambiguous — and potentially contradictory — requirements to reach an end goal. In doing so, the system always chooses the most likely action to take, based on a “belief” about some probable specifications for the task it is supposed to perform.
In their work, the researchers compiled a dataset with information about how eight objects — a mug, glass, spoon, fork, knife, dinner plate, small plate, and bowl — could be placed on a table in various configurations. A robotic arm first observed randomly selected human demonstrations of setting the table with the objects. Then, the researchers tasked the arm with automatically setting a table in a specific configuration, in real-world experiments and in simulation, based on what it had seen.
To succeed, the robot had to weigh many possible placement orderings, even when items were purposely removed, stacked, or hidden. Normally, all of that would confuse robots too much. But the researchers’ robot made no mistakes over several real-world experiments, and only a handful of mistakes over tens of thousands of simulated test runs.
“The vision is to put programming in the hands of domain experts, who can program robots through intuitive ways, rather than describing orders to an engineer to add to their code,” says first author Ankit Shah, a graduate student in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AeroAstro) and the Interactive Robotics Group, who emphasizes that their work is just one step in fulfilling that vision. “That way, robots won’t have to perform preprogrammed tasks anymore. Factory workers can teach a robot to do multiple complex assembly tasks. Domestic robots can learn how to stack cabinets, load the dishwasher, or set the table from people at home.”
Joining Shah on the paper are AeroAstro and Interactive Robotics Group graduate student Shen Li and Interactive Robotics Group leader Julie Shah, an associate professor in AeroAstro and the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.
Bots hedging bets
Robots are fine planners in tasks with clear “specifications,” which help describe the task the robot needs to fulfill, considering its actions, environment, and end goal. Learning to set a table by observing demonstrations, is full of uncertain specifications. Items must be placed in certain spots, depending on the menu and where guests are seated, and in certain orders, depending on an item’s immediate availability or social conventions. Present approaches to planning are not capable of dealing with such uncertain specifications.
A popular approach to planning is “reinforcement learning,” a trial-and-error machine-learning technique that rewards and penalizes them for actions as they work to complete a task. But for tasks with uncertain specifications, it’s difficult to define clear rewards and penalties. In short, robots never fully learn right from wrong.
The researchers’ system, called PUnS (for Planning with Uncertain Specifications), enables a robot to hold a “belief” over a range of possible specifications. The belief itself can then be used to dish out rewards and penalties. “The robot is essentially hedging its bets in terms of what’s intended in a task, and takes actions that satisfy its belief, instead of us giving it a clear specification,” Ankit Shah says.
The system is built on “linear temporal logic” (LTL), an expressive language that enables robotic reasoning about current and future outcomes. The researchers defined templates in LTL that model various time-based conditions, such as what must happen now, must eventually happen, and must happen until something else occurs. The robot’s observations of 30 human demonstrations for setting the table yielded a probability distribution over 25 different LTL formulas. Each formula encoded a slightly different preference — or specification — for setting the table. That probability distribution becomes its belief.
“Each formula encodes something different, but when the robot considers various combinations of all the templates, and tries to satisfy everything together, it ends up doing the right thing eventually,” Ankit Shah says.
Following criteria
The researchers also developed several criteria that guide the robot toward satisfying the entire belief over those candidate formulas. One, for instance, satisfies the most likely formula, which discards everything else apart from the template with the highest probability. Others satisfy the largest number of unique formulas, without considering their overall probability, or they satisfy several formulas that represent highest total probability. Another simply minimizes error, so the system ignores formulas with high probability of failure.
Designers can choose any one of the four criteria to preset before training and testing. Each has its own tradeoff between flexibility and risk aversion. The choice of criteria depends entirely on the task. In safety critical situations, for instance, a designer may choose to limit possibility of failure. But where consequences of failure are not as severe, designers can choose to give robots greater flexibility to try different approaches.
With the criteria in place, the researchers developed an algorithm to convert the robot’s belief — the probability distribution pointing to the desired formula — into an equivalent reinforcement learning problem. This model will ping the robot with a reward or penalty for an action it takes, based on the specification it’s decided to follow.
In simulations asking the robot to set the table in different configurations, it only made six mistakes out of 20,000 tries. In real-world demonstrations, it showed behavior similar to how a human would perform the task. If an item wasn’t initially visible, for instance, the robot would finish setting the rest of the table without the item. Then, when the fork was revealed, it would set the fork in the proper place. “That’s where flexibility is very important,” Ankit Shah says. “Otherwise it would get stuck when it expects to place a fork and not finish the rest of table setup.”
Next, the researchers hope to modify the system to help robots change their behavior based on verbal instructions, corrections, or a user’s assessment of the robot’s performance. “Say a person demonstrates to a robot how to set a table at only one spot. The person may say, ‘do the same thing for all other spots,’ or, ‘place the knife before the fork here instead,’” Ankit Shah says. “We want to develop methods for the system to naturally adapt to handle those verbal commands, without needing additional demonstrations.”
from MIT News https://ift.tt/2TvcRNP
via
‘Twenties’ centering masculine queer Black woman is ‘groundbreaking’ but not perfect
I am a dapperqueer Black woman.
It means that I’m more at home in bowties and wingtips than dresses and kitten heels. To be honest, it means that I don’t even know if kitten heels are worn with dresses; it’s just a cute term that my wife used.
Mostly, my dapperqueer identity means that I spent my formative years drawing from an aesthetic with very few examples and resources. Like other Black women, I cheered for characters that began to show us as powerful, intelligent, and yes, sexy without regard to European standards of beauty.
READ MORE: Cast of BET’s ‘Twenties’ opens up about the groundbreaking new series and working with Lena Waithe
And yet, Black intentionally masculine of center women remained in the background, if we were present at all. It’s like Jewelle Gomez’s 1990s question, “where are the Black lesbians in fiction” echoed on the television landscape.
So like many Black queer women, I turned to the Internet and devoured content from amateur and indie producers. I even became one myself, writing and producing a web series (Quare Life) about a dapperqueer Black woman and her queer friends navigating relationships and life on the south side of Chicago.
Eventually my research and writing took me to Lena Waithe. We were two Black dapperqueer women writers from the south side of Chicago. I watched her Emmy-winning episode of Masters of None and it was like seeing my life on screen.
I wrote about Waithe as an example of a dapper aesthetic of Black womanhood. When her debut series The Chi premiered on Showtime, I penned a review for Playboy. It did not include my personal disappointment that the show was not an extended version of the Masters of None “Thanksgiving” episode. Come on, Lena, I thought. Where we at, fam?
I’ve never met Waithe in person but I’d like to think that her new show, Twenties, is her ethereal response of We right here, fam.
(Disclaimer: This is not a review of Twenties, rather it’s my initial response, as a Black queer woman, to a show written by a black queer woman with a black queer woman lead.)
Twenties is clearly a love letter to Blackness — and a range of Blackness at that — from the opening phrase of “I got melanin” to generously placed cultural references. I caught sight of a wall of Black princes (the singer formerly known as, and once again known as, Prince and Prince Akeem of Zamunda).
Blackness also found its way in the form of Waiting to Exhale references; character names (Ida B, Hattie); and a James Baldwin book all within the opening minutes.
READ MORE: Here’s how Lena Waithe made Disney history in ‘Onward’
Waithe’s care in curating what feels like authentic Black spaces for the screen is apparent. I remember the set of her character’s southside home in “Thanksgiving” and seeing dishware that every Black household in Chicago had in their cabinets in the ’90s. I felt at home.
Twenties achieves the same effect for its characters’ demographics — early to mid-twenties Black folk for whom Waiting to Exhale is a throwback and detaching from cell phones is a first-time experience.
We’re introduced to the lead character, Hattie, through a series of shots straight from the “Joy of Sex” textbook (Black lesbian version) and voiced over by Waithe. I sat upright with rapt attention, which continued as Hattie’s partner, Lorraine, reinforced that their relationship was strictly casual.
I was midway through mental applause for presenting a lesbian relationship that wasn’t invested in chasing the model of heteronormative monogamy when I learned that Hattie’s partner is regarded as straight — or as Hattie corrects her mother and friends “fluid.”
Essentially meaning that her casualness is reserved for same-gender interactions.
Hattie’s best friends Nia and Marie advise her to stop dating straight women and I understand their concern. But when I find out in the same scene that her friends are also straight women, the advice — although sound — just hits a bit differently than had it come from other queer Black women.
It’s like when a caring white friend (but white nonetheless) gives genuine advice on something you experience as a Black person. No matter how sound or solid the advice, it’s mitigated through a person who not only hasn’t experienced the matter but also has de facto benefited from it at some time.
At this point in the episode I begin to get the sinking suspicion our Black lead in Twenties is still a token character. Hattie (as of episode two) seems to be the only openly queer woman. Although a quirky coffee shop cutie makes eyes at her and Hattie’s boss, Ida B, gives me casual-straight-but-will-dabble puma vibes, Hattie is the lone Black lesbian in these episodes, and seemingly, in her life.
READ MORE: Lena Waithe denies stealing ‘Girls Room’ Atlanta screenwriter
Twenties demonstrates a flair for humorously presenting ranges of Blackness — from Nia’s expectation for her date to pay for coffee because of Jamaican sensibilities to Ben’s preference for white women and white friends.
Yet what of Black lesbians who don’t seem to be a part of their Black queer communities?
Hattie reminds me of those Chicago Black lesbians who only hung out in queer areas on the predominantly white north side, and were utterly clueless to the thriving community of Black lesbians that spanned generations on the south side.
Sometimes I’d befriend them and invite them into that Black lesbian utopia of friendships, mentorships, parties, community events, and partnerships. Sometimes my invites were declined.
I wonder what to think of a Black lesbian who seemingly doesn’t have Black lesbian friends (as of episode two). Of course, Twenties’ story plot is clearly described as a Black lesbian and her two straight friends, so it can be argued that what I am describing lies outside of the show’s scope.
Yet marginalization occurs when the same group of people always fall outside of scope and this is most true for Black queer women, which is why a show that places one as a lead is so “groundbreaking.”
It just seems that Black queer/lesbian communities (as in there are more than one of us) remain outside of the scope of shows relegating us to always being the token.
Apparently, even in one of our own’s creation.
M Shelly Conner is an assistant professor of creative writing at the University of Central Arkansas. She writes about black womanist experiences through a dapperqueer aesthetic. Her debut novel everyman is forthcoming (Blackstone Publishing).
The post ‘Twenties’ centering masculine queer Black woman is ‘groundbreaking’ but not perfect appeared first on TheGrio.
from TheGrio https://ift.tt/330rCLx
via
‘Love is Blind’ star Carlton Morton sparks suicide fears after bisexuality backlash
Carlton Morton, star of the Netflix hit reality series Love is Blind, sparked fears of suicide this week after posting a cryptic response to backlash over his identity as a bisexual Black man.
Morton, whose explosive blowup with short-lived fiancée Diamond Jack became one of the most talked-about moments of the show, took to his Instagram on Tuesday to address the lack of support he’s received since the show’s airing.
“I’m really done,” Morton said in the post. “Black lives matter until it’s an LGBT Black life.”
For those who don’t know, the binge-worthy series sees singles participate in a blind dating experiment to determine if they could find love after getting to know each other in just ten days. The catch is, however, they do so while in walled rooms called “pods” — never getting the chance to meet their soon-to-be fiancé(es) until they’ve already agreed to an engagement.
Morton chose not to tell Jack that he was bisexual until they were already engaged and enjoying their pre-honeymoon. Their fairytale quickly spiraled into a hard-to-watch shouting match that ended with Jack quoting Beyoncé lyrics and Morton making disparaging comments about Jack’s “wig.”
Reactions on social media have been nonstop and have led to heated debates online about bisexuality, specifically bisexual men. In particular, many have accused Morton of leading Jack on. Others have outright said he’s not actually bisexual, but gay.
In his Tuesday post, Morton — who’s also appeared in the Real Housewives of Atlanta years go — said he would no longer talk to the press and claimed that his so-called “celebrity” friends on social media did nothing to defend his “character.”
“I’ve argued for tons of people. Ya’ll see ANY of those people speaking up for me? I’M DONE,” Morton wrote.
“Thanks for the 3 of ya’ll who supported me in this. I feel alone and don’t want any of this life anymore. I’m fighting ALONE. And it HURTS.”
Morton’s post quickly caused some people to fear that his use of words suggested that he was maybe having thoughts of suicide. Comments of support came pouring in.
“You are LOVED!” commented Chicago radio and TV personality Kendra G., apparently a friend of Morton. “Please please please reach out to me if you ever need to talk. I just tried to text you but not sure if your number is the same. Mines is. Send you love and a huge hug.”
“Mannnnn, keep staying true to yourself! You are an inspiration to so many. Nothing but respect!” wrote Instagram user @richasbrandon.
“I hate that that you have to endure this. I wish there were some words of comfort that I could render to get you out of this headspace,” another person commented.
“We can’t change ppl but we can continue to live and be our authentic selves. I will pray for your strength this evening. May you be guided on this journey.”
The post ‘Love is Blind’ star Carlton Morton sparks suicide fears after bisexuality backlash appeared first on TheGrio.
from TheGrio https://ift.tt/2TpY4DS
via
Letter regarding MIT's response to the coronavirus disease
The following email was sent to the MIT community today by President L. Rafael Reif.
To the members of the MIT community,
Since early January, we have been tracking the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) situation daily, offering standing guidance and regular updates. We will continue that practice. However, with the disease now established in the US, and with spring break and major holidays coming up shortly, we are intensifying our institutional response.
I write now to share important new MIT policies and guidelines about travel and events. Because they will affect all of us on campus in some way, I ask that everyone – students, staff, postdocs, affiliates and faculty – take the time to read the new policies, which appear here and below.
For our campus community, the current risk level associated with COVID-19 is low.
However, global hotspots shift, and the contagion pattern is not well understood. With that uncertainty, we need to make prudent choices to protect the health of our own community and the broader communities we belong to, without creating unnecessary disruptions to the normal pursuit of our educational and research mission.
This balanced approach led us to the travel, visitor and event policies below. In shaping them, we consulted experts at MIT Medical and carefully considered the decisions of peer universities and major businesses around the world that are also striving to respond to this fluid situation.
These guidelines represent our best judgment, at this moment, about practical steps we can all take to reduce risk for ourselves and for each other. Because MIT is a community constantly on the move and always inviting people in, I know that asking you to abide by the restrictions in these new policies is non-trivial. Where we can safely consider exceptions, we have provided a process for doing so. Beyond that, I ask for everyone’s cooperation as we try to choose a sound path for us all.
Since future challenges from COVID-19 could disrupt critical Institute functions, we are developing contingency plans. For example, in case we face an urgent need to switch to online instruction, we are actively developing options; the vice chancellor will follow up with faculty and instructors to better understand their needs and guide them to initial resources.
I encourage each of you to think through how you can help limit risk as well, starting with shifting to virtual meetings when you can. Supervisors may wish to consider now how telecommuting might work in their unit, if public health concerns grow worse.
I know that both the spread of this disease and our decisions about it affect not only MIT programs and planning, but the lives of individuals. For many of you, the steps we are taking to protect the health of the community may involve significant inconvenience and personal sacrifice. Please accept my gratitude in advance for your goodwill and understanding.
I also hope we can be sensitive to each other’s burdens in this situation and make accommodations when we can. And I count on every member of our community to make sure that the discrimination, shunning and bullying that sometimes accompany an outbreak never occur at MIT.
In this uncertain moment, I have every confidence in our community’s ability to pull together with kindness, care and concern for the common good.
Sincerely,
L. Rafael Reif
----------------
NEW POLICIES AND GUIDELINES ON TRAVEL, VISITORS AND EVENTS: MARCH 5–MAY 15, 2020
The policies below will take effect immediately and stay in place through at least May 15. In this two-month period, we will review them on a rolling basis, provide frequent updates and offer new guidance about activities after May 15 as soon as we can.
If you have questions about how these policies apply in your own situation, our Emergency Management staff can help triage your requests. Please contact em-staff@mit.edu.
We recognize that responding to the new requirements may have financial implications for units across campus. If the costs feel significant for your unit, please bring these concerns to your unit head. The information we gather from these conversations will help us understand the impact across campus and assess how we can help.
MIT Guidance for Travel, Visitors and Events
TRAVEL ABROAD
Effective immediately – and in step with new advice from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health – we are suspending all international travel on MIT business or with MIT programs, for all faculty, students, postdocs and staff. This includes any travel associated with one’s scholarly activities as an MIT employee, even travel funded by a government grant, foundation, company or other university.
Rare exceptions will be considered; those who feel they have a compelling need to travel internationally may apply in writing to the provost and the chancellor at COVIDtravel@mit.edu. Anyone currently abroad may return to MIT or in some cases to their home.
We also discourage personal travel to international locations by any MIT community member. If you must travel to any country on the CDC’s COVID-19 travel advisories page, please know that you are required to fill out this form two or three days before you return. Those returning from Level 3 countries will be required to self-quarantine for 14 days upon return; others may also be required to self-quarantine.
We know many students plan travel for spring break. We urge you to weigh the risks and potential consequences for yourself and others. If you travel to any nation where the CDC reports “widespread sustained (ongoing) transmission” of COVID-19, you will not be permitted to complete your required two-week self-quarantine on campus. Further, as new outbreaks occur and government travel restrictions shift, be aware that, if you choose to travel outside the United States, you may encounter difficulties in returning.
TRAVEL IN THE US
We will continue to fund MIT-related domestic travel as usual. However, we encourage everyone in our community – faculty, staff, postdocs and students – to weigh whether any domestic travel between now and May 15 is essential and to explore options to join meetings or events remotely, especially in the growing number of areas with high infection rates.
TRACKING TRAVEL FOR PUBLIC HEALTH PURPOSES
Until May 15, we strongly encourage everyone in the MIT community to register ALL non-commuting travel outside of Massachusetts in the confidential MIT travel registry. This applies to both personal and MIT-related trips, international and domestic. If a new COVID-19 outbreak occurs in a place where our community members have been traveling, having this confidential information will help our public health team take effective action.
VISITORS FROM OUTSIDE MIT
Visitors from countries which the CDC finds have “widespread sustained (ongoing) transmission” of COVID-19 cannot join us on campus until they have successfully completed 14 days of self-quarantine.
Other visitors are welcome at MIT. However, common sense dictates that the next two months are not the best time to host large groups.
To protect children and older visitors to campus, we ask that you:
- Cancel or reschedule all K–12 programs and visits to be held at MIT from now through May 15.
- Consider postponing a meeting if your visitors are over the age of 60.
MIT EVENTS
Effective immediately, if you are planning any in-person MIT event with more than 150 attendees that will take place between now and Friday, May 15, on campus or off campus, you must postpone, cancel or “virtualize” it.
This new policy does not apply to classroom instruction or other internal gatherings (e.g., colloquia) attended solely by members of the MIT on-campus community.
Unfortunately, it does apply to Campus Preview Weekend and other signature spring semester conferences and celebrations. As an example, we have now postponed the MIT Excellence Awards until June.
Exceptions are possible for imminent events with travelers already here or en route; please inform us immediately at COVIDevents@mit.edu if you are hosting such a gathering. In very limited cases, we may consider appeals to hold larger gatherings attended only by members of our community. You may submit an inquiry at COVIDevents@mit.edu.
We chose 150 people as a threshold to help reduce risk of transmission without calling a halt to all activity on campus. However, group size is only one factor to consider in planning an event – and our success in managing the risk of COVID-19 depends not only on the existence of these policies, but on your cooperation and common sense.
As you plan events with fewer than 150 attendees, please consider these factors:
- How many people will attend, and will they be in close quarters? In some cases, it may make sense to go ahead with an event but to reduce the attendance well below 150. Even with fewer people, if your event is planned for a confined space, you may want to choose a larger site, allow people to participate remotely or both.
- How many participants will be coming from abroad, or from US locations with high infection rates? Given the changeability of travel restrictions, international visitors may face difficulties coming from or returning to their home countries.
- What do you know about the age and health of expected attendees? Evidence to date suggests that COVID-19 hits certain vulnerable populations harder, including older individuals. Whatever the size of your event, consider postponing it if many attendees will be over the age of 60.
- What is the risk to staff who will help prepare for your event, serve your guests and clean up afterward? Staff working for outside service vendors may not have generous health insurance or sick leave, and we should take steps to help keep them safe.
For all events of every size:
- Encourage handwashing!
- Make it easy for your guests to practice good health hygiene: provide hand sanitizer and tissues, and minimize communal food.
- Educate your attendees about proper precautions.
- Urge anyone who feels unwell to stay home and to participate online if possible.
- You may also want to arrange for enhanced cleaning of the event site, before and after.
MIT CLASSES AND INSTRUCTIONAL MEETINGS
All meetings and classes attended by members of the on-campus community can continue to be held as normal.
However, please stay home if you feel sick, and urge others to do so. Encourage handwashing, provide hand sanitizer and tissues, minimize communal food, and educate your students and colleagues about proper precautions.
For large classes, consider offering a way to attend online or arranging other accommodations.
----------------
You can find the latest advice any time at medical.mit.edu/covid-19. For support or questions, please email covid19-support@mit.edu.
-----------------
These policies and guidelines reflect MIT’s official position as of March 5, 2020. In this fluid situation, they may need to change in the future with little warning.
from MIT News https://ift.tt/2TGLZJl
via
MIT Emergency Management establishes COVID-19 planning team and working groups
As part of the Institute’s ongoing work to respond effectively to the rapidly evolving coronavirus (COVID-19) public health emergency, MIT Emergency Management has established a comprehensive preparedness effort focused on the following key areas of campus life: academics, research, residential life, business, medical, and communications.
MIT Emergency Management has organized community members with relevant expertise into working groups and an overarching planning team, charging them with developing a set of contingency plans in the event MIT’s normal operations are interrupted in the coming weeks.
“It’s important to remember that the risk to the MIT community is still relatively low,” says Suzanne Blake, director of Emergency Management and chair of the planning team. “We are taking these planning steps and engaging campus experts in our work out of an abundance of caution. The goal is to be fully prepared in case the situation does change so that we can continue to ensure the health and safety of our community and carry out the Institute’s core functions.”
The working groups and planning team are aspects of MIT’s thorough response to COVID-19, which President L. Rafael Reif detailed in a letter to the community today. The sending of the letter follows the release yesterday of new guidance from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Blake says the planning team and working groups will meet multiple times per week for the foreseeable future, and they will be monitoring issues and creating action plans in the following areas:
Academic continuity
This working group, which is being led by Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate and Graduate Education Ian Waitz, is developing plans to enable as much educational continuity as feasible in situations where students, faculty, and staff may not be able to be on campus for a brief or extended period of time, or are otherwise faced with limitations to normal academic progress due to COVID-19. This includes planning and developing resources to support continuing classes, strategies for maintaining graduate student research, planning and guidance for academic events of all sizes, and assessing implications for student travel for internships and global experiences. Importantly, the group will also be defining event-driven criteria and procedures for altering academic policies including the Academic Calendar. The group will also be assessing and developing options to mitigate the financial impacts graduate and undergraduate students may face under different scenarios.
Research continuity
This working group, led by Ronald Hasseltine, assistant provost for research administration, is responsible for identifying ways to protect critical research in the event of a brief or extended disruption to normal operations. The group’s objectives include compiling an inventory of sensitive research that requires continued support during a disruption; preparing a plan to provide that support with limited staff, resources, and vendor provisions; and reviewing existing plans for continued care of sensitive research specimens.
Business continuity
This working group, led by Robin Elices, executive director of the Office of the Executive Vice President and Treasurer, will assess and evaluate MIT’s essential operational functions; determine strategies for maintaining critical campus utilities and infrastructure; and develop policies that enable employees to work remotely. The group will also discuss implications and procedures for union staff and plans for stockpiling supplies in the event of a supply chain disruption.
Medical response
MIT Medical Director Cecilia Stuopis is leading the effort to ensure a cohesive medical response for several different possible scenarios ranging from having patients under investigation to evidence of MIT community spread of the disease.
Student/Residential response
The student/residential response working group is exploring a number of issues, including ways to guarantee that those living on campus have access to essentials such as campus dining services and student support and wellbeing programs in the event of a partial or full campus closure. Senior Associate Dean for Residential Life Judy Robinson is the group’s chair.
Communications response
Providing timely and accurate information is a critical component of MIT’s response to COVID-19. The communications group, which is being led by Alfred Ironside, vice president for communications, will create multipronged communications plans for different planning scenarios, and identify ways to bolster existing communications methods.
“The tremendous work these groups are doing aligns with our emergency management and business continuity strategic plan for MIT,” Blake notes. “COVID-19 has just put that plan on a fast track. We are grateful for all of the people at MIT who have set aside time to make this process work.”
from MIT News https://ift.tt/3austXf
via
LeBron James Earns $300,000 Per Sponsored Instagram Post
When you want to get the word out on Instagram from an NBA basketball player, who do you go to for the biggest impact? Well, according to Business Insider, that would be The King, Los Angeles Lakers basketball player, LeBron James.
Based on data compiled by OnlineGambling.ca, James earns more than $300,000 for every sponsored Instagram post. With that amount, it makes him the NBA‘s highest-paid social media influencer as he makes nearly twice as much per post than any other basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). That’s nearly double the reported $155,100 per sponsored Instagram post that Golden State Warriors player Stephen Curry receives.
With ESPN reporting that James takes home an annual salary of $37,436,858, which amounts to approximately $456,547.05 per game. With James averaging $300,850 per sponsored post, all he has to do is send out two Instagram postings and he doesn’t even have to break and surpass his average game salary playing with the Lakers.
The businessman has 60.9 million followers on his Instagram account who will see whatever he posts on his feed. That enormous figure places him as having the fourth most followers of any sports athlete in the world to promote brands such as car manufacturer GMC Hummer, nutrition brand Ladder Sport, and Nike, with whom he has a lifetime shoe deal worth more than $1 billion, according to GQ.
Although James makes over $300,000 per sponsored Instagram post, it still falls behind the amount that another sports athlete gets. Cristiano Ronaldo, a Portuguese professional soccer player, who holds the title of being the world’s top-earning sports star from Instagram, makes almost a million dollars per post as he pulls in $975,000 per advertised post. That comes out to an annual income of $47.8 million, more than his $34 million annual salary at Juventus.
With the amount that James and Ronaldo get combined, they just squeak by what entrepreneur Kylie Jenner receives for her sponsored posts. The two of them would command $1,275,850 together while she, alone, makes a head-scratching $1,266,000 per sponsored post, according to Hopper HQ. Of course, her follower list is currently at 164 million followers.
from Black Enterprise https://ift.tt/38waNtf
via
Biden’s stronghold with black voters exposes generational divide rooted in fear
We have now arrived at the truth: Black voters are the reason why former Vice President Joe Biden is having an astonishing comeback story this primary season.
After landing his first victory in South Carolina on Saturday, the Black vote there and in other southern states helped propel Biden’s undeniable victory on Super Tuesday.
Watching the results on the night of Super Tuesday, however, was infuriating.
READ MORE: The Obama Gap: Dem presidential candidates face generational divide in Black voters
As a progressive Black millennial, the generational divide couldn’t have been more glaring. My academic, activist, and “woke” Black peers on social media were either disappointed in Senator Elizabeth Warren’s performance or Senator Bernie Sanders losing momentum in several key states.
As political pundits kept talking about how the Black vote was the deciding factor on Super Tuesday, I kept feeling this instant gut sense of betrayal. Older Black voters–our grandparents, aunties and uncles–gave their vote to a moderate, likely because his proximity to the first Black president, Barack Obama, made them feel as if he was a more viable candidate.
“Uncle Joe,” as some of them refer to Biden, is the “one to defeat Trump.” I kept hearing this at my barbershop in Philly, the bar in my home state of Texas, and in constant arguments with older relatives on Facebook and social gatherings. For them, it’s about picking a candidate who can beat President Donald Trump in November.
It’s not about intersectional policy plans that truly advance the diversity, equity, and inclusion of the Democratic Party. It’s not about Biden’s patchy history with race and his inconsistency with how he talks about the Black community nor advancing progressive values.
READ MORE: Hillary Clinton doesn’t think Bernie Sanders is the strongest Dem nominee
It’s about backing the man who they think can bring the country back to normal again.
Sadly, that’s a losing strategy. I don’t blame Black elders in the community for believing this — I blame the Democratic establishment for putting us here in the first place.
Black voters are often forced by the establishment to vote based on survival tactics, which subsequently reinforces the narrative that our vote is taken for granted.
Whether it is being told to “vote blue no matter who,” or feeling as though we are giving Trump another victory if we are critical of any of the Democratic options, Black voters have been bastardized into pragmatism rather than imagination.
And while some may actually like Biden, it’s hard to imagine this guy being their first choice in a party that boasts more dynamic and fresh leaders.
Biden arguably struggles with getting young voter support because he isn’t inspiring or saying anything different than what we’ve heard over the last decade.
The first presidential election I was eligible to vote in was for former President Obama in 2012.
Obama the candidate possessed cross-generational appeal and had an appreciation for progressive ideas around marriage equality, health care, and social services.
Today, Obama’s former VP, who is now in his third bid for president, rambles on stage and gives uninspiring (and sometimes inaudible) political talking points. Biden’s identity as an old, white, straight, Christian man with a familiar and established face makes him more palatable to Black older voters. They see him as the more formidable challenger Trump, who’s also an old, white, straight, Christian man.
READ MORE: Symone Sanders praised after rushing Biden stage to grab protester during rally
We’re essentially fighting fire with fire, which is an enticing strategy, but pretty much says nothing about improving American society beyond the status quo. It’s more about one political party trying to outdo the other.
While progressive candidates like Warren and Sanders have struggled to garner the prized treasure trove that is the older Black vote, I blame the Democratic Party for not aggressively pushing the kind of imagination and promise of more diverse presidential candidates throughout this entire process.
Looking back, I would have liked to see former Secretary Julián Castro, whose background with the Obama administration and progressive platform would have made him a better reflection of where the Democratic Party is truly headed.
Now, Black voters are forced to keep their fingers crossed and hope that the future Democratic presidential nominee picks someone of color to be their running-mate — someone who’s likely more qualified to be on top of the presidential ticket.
The older Black vote has spoken, and it’s highly unlikely that they will be swayed at this point now that Biden has the competitive primary edge. If he is the nominee in November, I will vote for him. But it’s not because he is a great candidate with a bold vision for the America that I’d like to live in. It would instead be based solely on escaping four more years of Trump.
READ MORE: Sanders says Biden winning Black vote by ‘running with his ties to Obama’
Sadly, I fear that this rationale will not be good enough for the millions of other young voters who might just stay home and keep the status-quo intact. An election shouldn’t just be about survival. It should be about the freedom to make your voice heard.
Right now, young Democratic voters are making their voice loud and clear on the kind of candidate they’d like to see elected to the White House. I fear they won’t be as motivated when the time comes to cast their ballot on Nov. 4, given the top choice of their elders.
Ernest Owens is the Writer at Large of Philadelphia magazine and CEO of Ernest Media Empire, LLC. The award-winning journalist has written for The New York Times, NBC News, USA Today and several other major publications. Follow him on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram and ernestowens.com.
The Grio’s opinion stories reflect the thoughts of the author and are not endorsements or the opinions of its staff.
The post Biden’s stronghold with black voters exposes generational divide rooted in fear appeared first on TheGrio.
from TheGrio https://ift.tt/32TeXdf
via
Sanders says Biden winning Black vote by ‘running with his ties to Obama’
Presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) claims Black people are supporting Joe Biden, because of his link to President Barack Obama.
When MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow asked Sanders about his struggle to garner Black votes, Sanders replied that he’s “running against somebody who has touted his relationship with Barack Obama throughout the entirety of his campaign.” Sanders added that Obama is “enormously popular” with Democrats and Black voters and Biden is capitalizing on this.
READ MORE: Hillary Clinton doesn’t think Bernie Sanders is the strongest Dem nominee
“(It’s) not that I’m not popular; Biden is running with his ties to Obama,” Sanders told Maddow. “And that’s working well.”
Biden’s campaign, which was struggling prior to Feb. 29, received a lifeline when Black voters in South Carolina boosted him to his first primary win. On Super Tuesday, Biden continued to win the southern states —from Virginia to Alabama —and now leads Sanders in the delegate count. Sanders could take the lead back once delegates from California are allocated, reported The Hill.
Just prior to South Carolina’s election, Biden received a critical endorsement from House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.). Clyburn said Sanders never asked for his endorsement, and the Vermont senator told Maddow he didn’t ask because their politics are different.
“It is no secret, Jim is a very nice guy, his politics are not my politics,” Sanders said. “(There’s) no way in God’s earth he was going to be endorsing me.”
It’s important to note that Sanders has also run ads featuring him with Obama.
In the Maddow interview, Sanders said while Obama is not his “best friend,” he respects the former president’s decision not to interfere in the nominating process by endorsing a candidate.
“I know there’s enormous pressure on him to support Biden,” Sanders said, “(and) the fact that he’s not doing that makes me respect them even more.”
Sanders says he running against the so-called “Democratic establishment” which he says Biden is a part of. Several politicians who endorsed Biden took offense to being classified in this way and interpreted the statement as a slap to Black voters supporting Biden.
READ MORE: Rachel Maddow calls out Shaun King over Bernie Sanders tweet
“To say that African American voters in the South are the establishment is not only untrue, but it’s insulting,” Sen. Tim Kaine told CNN.
“I just did not know African Americans in the South were considered part of the establishment,” Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.), a co-chair of Biden’s campaign, added on a press call with the press yesterday.
The post Sanders says Biden winning Black vote by ‘running with his ties to Obama’ appeared first on TheGrio.
from TheGrio https://ift.tt/3axA878
via
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)