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Sunday, July 28, 2019

Michelle Obama, Victor Blackwell respond to Trump’s racist Baltimore rant

Michelle Obama and CNN anchor Victor Blackwell both reacted to another racially charged twitter rant from Donald Trump.

The rant came Saturday after U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings criticized conditions of ICE and border patrol facilities along the Mexican border. Trump took to Twitter, and called Cummings’ Baltimore home district a “very dangerous & filthy place.”

Most of Cummings’ district is comprised of Baltimore, where about 62.8 percent of the city’s population is African-American, notes People.

READ MORE: Sheraton Atlanta linked to 11 new cases of Legionnaires Disease

Trump went on to say that Cummings is “shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous.”

The tweets and somewhat baseless words about Baltimore shook up CNN anchor and Baltimore Native Victor Blackwell on Saturday.

During his show Saturday, Blackwell stated, “Donald Trump has tweeted more than 43,000 times. He’s insulted thousands of people, many different types of people. But when he tweets about infestation, it’s about black and brown people,” the New York Post wrote.

Blackwell used over 5 examples of Trump’s use of the word infested, which in every case had to do with people of color.

Blackwell’s final response to the president was addressing Trump’s comment that no one wants to live in Baltimore. “You know who did, Mr. President? I did, from the day I was brought home from the hospital to the day I left for college, and a lot of people I care about still do.”

First Lady Michelle Obama also chimed in on the discussion, but in a bit more subtle way. She took time to give a shoutout to a Baltimore dance team for National Dance Day.

READ MORE: Boston Celtics sign Tacko Fall, a 7-foot-7 center from Dakar, Senegal to its roster

Trump has tweeted about Blacks, Baltimore, racism, and Cummings from Saturday to Sunday. Here’s a look at some of the conversation.

The post Michelle Obama, Victor Blackwell respond to Trump’s racist Baltimore rant appeared first on theGrio.



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Black Founder Creates Meditation App for People of Color

Julio Rivera found a deep-seated need to connect to the wellness space. As an Afro-Latino, he found a practice that worked for him at the New York Insight Meditation Center. When that was taken away due to an intensive schedule, he felt extremely isolated which caused a sudden onset of anxiety that he wasn’t sure how to cope with.

After a thorough search, he discovered there wasn’t a platform out there that specifically met his needs. Rivera took his knowledge and background as a software engineer and created Liberate Meditation. It’s a meditation app for people of color built to provide empowerment and support.

The site states that it’s dedicated to empowering the black, indigenous, and people of color communities on their journey to find inner peace. Folks can sign up for free to access from instructors of color on their path through guided meditations and talks.

“We want to help empower people, not only to meditate but to show them that there’s something you can do about your suffering,” said Rivera in a statement. “We can help each other get free and be liberated.”

The platform showcases content that is specific to the black community. Topics range from dealing with microaggressions to cultivating loving-kindness for difficult people. There are specific chats from unique authors like Jan Willis who hosts dharma talks addressing the intersection of Buddhism and racism.

Meditation App for People of Color

(Image: Liberate Meditation)

Users can select time frames for their practices that range from five to 20 minutes. They are then asked to rate their experience through the platform. “We continuously see how touched people are,” said Rivera. “A few people have mentioned in their ratings that they cried during their meditation and were able to release pent up emotions. To me, that makes all the challenges and sacrifices that come with building a business worth it. I want folks of color all over the world to know that they are not alone.”

Currently, Liberate Meditation is available for both Apple and Android.



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Dozens of mourners 'killed by Boko Haram' at a funeral in north Nigeria

Militants from the Islamist group Boko Haram are believed to have opened fire at a funeral in Borno.

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Black America Must Understand the Importance of Estate Planning

Prince passed on April 16, 2016; Bob Marley passed in 1981; Aretha Franklin passed Aug. 16, 2018, and as of this past April, John Singleton has passed on. These celebrities, and many others I haven’t named, all have something profound in common aside from their fame and race: none of them had efficient estate planning in place.

Passing on without a will or a current will in place turned their mourning periods into a frenzy of fighting families. The lack of a will is a social imbalance that affects many black Americans regardless of socioeconomic standing and/or level of fame, as the aforementioned celebrities’ estate issues reveal.

Financial Blunders of the Rich and Famous

The notion of celebrities dying without a will seems bizarre considering that after their deaths, their output continues to generate massive amounts of income. Think of Michael Jackson as an example. According to Reuters, from June 25, 2009—the day he passed—to June 25, 2010, his estate—including his music royalties, merchandising, licensing and more—brought in a staggering $1 billion in revenue.

However, Jackson had a will in place that allotted his robust financial returns to go to his children with his mother, Katherine Jackson, as the executor of his estate. There was never any risk of confusion or family members with ulterior motives attempting to gain access to an estate with a seemingly endless amount of capital.

On the other hand, Singleton, the Oscar-nominated director of such movies as Boyz N’ the Hood, Poetic Justice, Higher Learning, and the recent FX series, Snowfall, is the latest example of a wealthy individual not having adequate estate planning in place. His alleged $35 million fortune is still being contested in court by his seven children, six of whom were not included in the will he created in 1993 when his eldest daughter, Justice Singleton, was born. According to his outdated will, Justice is the sole beneficiary of her father’s fortune. However, John Singleton’s mother, Sheila Ward, who is the executor of his estate, filed his will in probate court and listed his assets at only $3.8 million. Therefore, an additional $31 million of Singleton’s estate is unaccounted for.

Allegedly, Singleton set up a trust with other assets such as movie rights and other royalties, the value of which has yet to be determined, that doesn’t have to go through probate court. Therefore, inheritance issues involving those assets can be settled quickly, quietly, and more efficiently. Otherwise, the seven siblings are gearing up for a messy court battle that could be lengthy and also expensive. If Singleton’s will had been updated, preferably after each child was born, his offspring would have been financially protected and able to mourn their father in peace.

Available Information for Everyday People

What about everyday people who aren’t Oscar-nominated and Grammy-winning celebrities? For us, living wills are just as important. End of life planning is something the black American community should incorporate into the conversations we have with our families.

According to Lori Anne Douglas, an estate planning and probate attorney based in New York, “Black Americans are 50% less likely to have a living will in place in comparison to other groups.”

“Estate planning,” she continues, “is much bigger than ‘You get this after I die’—it can be about setting our families up for the type of generational wealth that has long alluded our community. Having done this for 25 years and watched all the money that was lost in families because they didn’t have any planning, I am convinced that if the African American community got on the good foot and every black person who is alive over 60 did their estate planning, we’d be the richest minority group in the United States in one generation. We used to be the assets. Now we have assets.” (Douglas has more estate planning gems worthy of viewing, here).

Creating a will can be confusing for some. You may wonder; Do I need an attorney? Do I have to have a will notarized? What if I want to change my will? These are all valid questions. You also don’t need to be rich to have a will in place. Each state has its own requirements for how a will can be crafted and legitimized. But what most states have in common is that you can write a simple will, have it notarized and/or signed by two witnesses. This allows you to itemize exactly your wishes during your final days and after passing on. It also allows flexibility in updating estate plans when the need arises. Legalzoom.com also gives simple step-by-step instructions on what one can do to prepare a will without an attorney.

Black Enterprise Contributors Network 

 



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South Africa presidential panel backs limited land seizures

White people, who make up just 9% of the population, own 72% of the farmland.

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3 Ways to Save When Buying a Car

Many businesses are working to reduce the financial impact on consumers due to Trump’s tariffs on China’s imports. However, they are still feeling the significant financial burden, which ultimately affects what consumers will pay, especially for automobiles. Purchasing a car is projected to get even more expensive. So, if you are in the market to buy a vehicle, get these three things done first to save when buying a car.

3 Ways to Save When Buying a Car

Get Pre-Approved

Before shopping for your next vehicle, the first question to answer is, “How much I can afford?” Do not allow the dealer’s finance department or bank to tell you how much you can afford. The reality is they both want you to borrow and spend as much as possible to increase their income. Most people shop for a vehicle and then rely on the dealer to secure financing. Financing through the dealership can be costly because it will be based on the cost of the car as well as the best deal the dealer will obtain from the financier.

To avoid an expensive payment that may become a financial hardship, get pre-approved for a loan based on the payment you can afford based on your budget. Once pre-approved, you will know how much money you will have to shop for a vehicle. This will also eliminate numerous financial institutions pulling your credit file, as well as minimize the chance of being lured into an overpriced car.

Get Prepared

There is nothing like the “new car” smell. It can be intoxicating as you test drive your dream car. So, get prepared by knowing these numbers.

Online car-buying sites like Vroom, Carvana, and Shift have inventory available for viewing online. Understanding the market price for vehicles will help you decide the best car for your budget. Once you have identified your desired vehicle, check the value of the vehicle using NADAguides or Kelley Blue Book to find its value. Also, use these sites to check the trade-in value of your car used toward your next car purchase. This information will be valuable when it comes time to negotiate.

Get Pre-Owned

The thought of being the first person to purchase that new vehicle can be exhilarating. However, when purchased new, a car loses at least 10% of its value when driven off the lot. Vehicles lose over 45% over the first three years of ownership, which means the value of the car will be less than the amount financed—called ‘negative equity.’

Buying a used or pre-owned vehicle with low miles gives you the vehicle you want, holds its value better, and can save you up to a few thousand dollars.

Black Enterprise Contributors Network 



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Meet the 19-year-old blind pianist challenging his disability

Yongren Otundo is the leading pianist in his school, despite losing his sight at a young age.

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Uganda's bamboo bikes: 'A sustainable luxury'

Kasoma Noordin's company Boogaali Bikes, make sustainable, high end bicycles from bamboo in Uganda.

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Air strike on Libya hospital kills five doctors

The government has accused the forces of rogue general Khalifa Hafta of carrying out the attack.

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Self-Parking Garages, Robovans, and More Car News This Week

Bosch and Daimler introduce a garage where cars park themselves, carmakers sign on to tough mileage standards, and a Ford F-150 tows a train.

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A Fake Presidential Seal Tops This Week's Internet News Roundup

The text on it translated to "45 is a puppet." Plus: #NoToBoris, the latest on Jeffrey Epstein, and more.

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5 Best Air Purifiers (2019): HEPA, PECO, and More

We tested many HEPA and standard air purifiers to find the right one for your bedroom or home.

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Seeing Through Silicon Valley’s Shameless ‘Disruption’

Finally we are discovering what a world devoid of moral responsibility looks like. It ain’t magical.

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Quantum Darwinism Could Explain What Makes Reality Real

Some physicists believe that our experience of the universe is just a big game of subatomic survival of the fittest.

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The Terrible Anxiety of Location Sharing Apps

Google Maps, Find My Friends, and other such apps promise peace of mind. Instead, monitoring our loved ones becomes a nail-biting exercise in anxiety.

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Kidnapped Turkish nationals freed in Nigeria's Kwara state

The construction workers were captured by unknown gunmen, amid a wave of abductions in the country.

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Saturday, July 27, 2019

Mathematical insights through collaboration and perseverance

Wei Zhang’s breakthrough happened on the train. He was riding home to New York after visiting a friend in Boston, during the last year of his PhD studies in mathematics at Columbia University, where he was focusing on L-functions, an important area of number theory.

“All of a sudden, things were linked together,” he recalls, about the flash of insight that allowed him to finish a key project related to his dissertation. “Definitely it was an ‘Aha!’ moment.”

But that moment emerged from years of patient study and encounters with other mathematicians’ ideas. For example, he had attended talks by a certain faculty member in his first and third years at Columbia, but each time he thought the ideas presented in those lectures wouldn’t be relevant for his own work.

“And then two years later, I found this was exactly what I needed to finish a piece of the project!” says Zhang, who joined MIT two years ago as a professor of mathematics.

As Zhang recalls, during that pivotal train ride his mind had been free to wander around the problem and consider it from different angles. With this mindset, “I can have a more panoramic way of putting everything into one piece. It’s like a puzzle — when you close your eyes maybe you can see more. And when the mind is trying to organize different parts of a story, you see this missing part.”

Allowing time for this panoramic view to come into focus has been critical throughout Zhang’s career. His breakthrough on the train 11 years ago led him to propose a set of conjectures that he has just now solved in a recent paper.

“Patience is important for our subject,” he says. “You’re always making infinitesimal progress. All discovery seems to be made in one moment. But without the preparation and long-time accumulation of knowledge, it wouldn’t be possible.”

An early and evolving love for math

Zhang traces his interest in math back to the fourth grade in his village school in a remote part of China’s Sichuan Province. “It was just pure curiosity,” he says. “Some of the questions were so beautifully set up.”

He started participating in math competitions. Seeing his potential, a fifth-grade math teacher let Zhang pore over an extracurricular book of problems. “Those questions made me wonder how such simple solutions to seemingly very complicated questions could be possible,” he says.

Zhang left home to attend a high school 300 miles away in Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan. By the time he applied to study at Peking University in Beijing, he knew he wanted to study mathematics. And by his final year there, he had decided to pursue a career as a mathematician.

He credits one of his professors with awakening him to some exciting frontiers and more advanced areas of study, during his first year. At that time, around 2000, the successful proof of Fermat’s Last Theorem by Andrew Wiles five years earlier was still relatively fresh, and reverberating through the world of mathematics. “This teacher really liked to chat,” Zhang says, “and he explained the contents of some of those big events and results in a way that was accessible to first-year students.”

“Later on, I read those texts by myself, and I found it was something I liked,” he says. “The tools being developed to prove Fermat’s Last Theorem were a starting point for me.”

Today, Zhang gets to cultivate his own students’ passion for math, even as his teaching informs his own research. “It has happened more than once for me, that while teaching I got inspired,” he says. “For mathematicians, we may understand some sort of result, but that doesn’t mean we actually we know how to prove them. By teaching a course, it really helps us go through the whole process. This definitely helps, especially with very talented students like those at MIT.”

From local to global information

Zhang’s core area of research and expertise is number theory, which is devoted to the study of integers and their properties. Broadly speaking, Zhang explores how to solve equations in integers or in rational numbers. A familiar example is a Pythagorean triple (a2+b2=c2).

“One simple idea is try to solve equations with modular arithmetic,” he says. The most common example of modular arithmetic is a 12-hour clock, which counts time by starting over and repeating after it reaches 12. With modular arithmetic, one can compile a set of data, indexed, for example, by prime numbers.

“But after that, how do you return to the initial question?” he says. “Can you tell an equation has an integer solution by collecting data from modular arithmetic?” Zhang investigates whether and how an equation can be solved by restoring this local data to a global piece of information — like finding a Pythagorean triple.

His research is relevant to an important facet of the Langlands Program — a set of conjectures proposed by mathematician Robert Langlands for connecting number theory and geometry, which some have likened to a kind of “grand unified theory” of mathematics.

Conversations and patience

Bridging other branches of math with number theory has become one of Zhang’s specialties.

In 2018, he won the New Horizons in Mathematics Breakthroughs Prize, a prestigious award for researchers early in their careers. He shared the prize with his old friend and undergraduate classmate, and current MIT colleague, Zhiwei Yun, for their joint work on the Taylor expansion of L-functions, which was hailed as a major advance in a key area of number theory in the past few decades.

Their project grew directly out of his dissertation research. And that work, in turn, opened up new directions in his current research, related to the arithmetic of elliptic curves. But Zhang says the way forward wasn’t clear until five years — and many conversations with Yun — later.

“Conversation is important in mathematics,” Zhang says. “Very often mathematical questions can be solved, or at least progress can be made, by bringing together people with different skills and backgrounds, with new interpretations of the same set of facts. In our case, this is a perfect example. His geometrical way of thinking about the question was exactly complementary to my own perspective, which is more number arithmetic.”

Lately, Zhang’s work has taken place on fewer train rides and more flights. He travels back to China at least once a year, to visit family and colleagues in Beijing. And when he feels stuck on a problem, he likes to take long walks, play tennis, or simply spend time with his young children, to clear his mind.

His recent solution of his own conjecture has led him to contemplate unexplored terrain. “This opened up a new direction,” he says. “I think it’s possible to finally get some higher-dimensional solutions. It opens up new conjectures.”



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'Born to be wild': Kenya's female biker gang

Photos of the Inked Sisterhood who often shocks people in the socially conservative East African nation.

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Ebola: How a disease is prevented from spreading

A doctor on the frontline of the fight against Ebola explains the steps taken to tackle the disease.

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How to Create a Purpose-Driven Business

It’s one thing to launch a business; it’s another to launch a business with a purpose. Jovian Zayne, founder of the OnPurpose Movement and the International Day of Purpose, wants to help entrepreneurs do just that—create a purpose-driven business.

The certified leadership and professional development coach, consultant, and public speaker says that purpose is the foundation of her work and at the core of who she is.

Zayne says she has worked with Google, Goldman Sachs, The New York Times, Columbia University, Harvard University, The Clinton Foundation, The Aspen Institute, Janelle Monáe’s Wondaland Records, and Teach For America.

“When I think about purpose through my work I think about it through service and impact,” says Zayne. “When people are thinking about using their sense of purpose to grow a business, you need to build your business on purpose, not by accident. Be very thoughtful around why are you doing this.”

She adds that being honest about why you want to start a business is key.

“I don’t think there’s a problem with starting a business because you want it to be profitable. And to that point, asking yourself, ‘Am I doing this in a way that honors the values I hold most dear?’ will help you.”

purpose-driven business

Zayne

When it comes to making a profit from a purpose-driven business, Zayne says, “Self-care is knowing your worth and being comfortable asking for it. No matter what products or services you provide, you thrive when you know what value you add.”

“I believe in the work that I do; I believe in the service I provide, and I believe that my gifts will make room for me. I also believe in creating a sustainable business that can create a legacy and generational wealth for people who look like me. That is something I’m committed to doing in this world because one of my values is equity,” says Zayne.

She goes on to say, “People should be putting their value where their output is. You can’t say that you’re doing critical work and let people pay you chump change, it’s just not gonna work. You won’t be able to continue to do the work that’s important and have people have a scalable business.”

A Framework For Creating Purpose

A big part of her work with corporations and individuals begins with being clear about not only the goals of the client but how she can best serve them. She starts her work with her ‘Core Five Framework.’ As a part of that framework, Zayne encourages entrepreneurs to ask themselves the following questions:

  • Who do I want to serve right now?
  • What skills, gifts, resources, and experiences do I have right now that I feel most compelled and uniquely positioned and called to use to positively serve this group?
  • What habits need to shift in order for this impact to be real?
  • Who needs to impact me?
  • Who do you want to be as you serve?

Zayne’s framework serves as a guide but she also says that when doing the work it is important to ask yourself, “what value are you bringing with you?”

In addition, Zayne says that impactful work requires a team effort. “I deeply believe that you can’t be your best self by yourself.”

Doing Business on Purpose Requires a Lifestyle Shift  

“There were certain things that I needed to shift in order to set my life up to be an entrepreneur. And it was everything from creating a different kind of health routine to creating structures that supported me being effective and keep my energy up,” says Zayne. She offers these tips on creating a business with purpose:

  • Automate services and tasks that might be time-consuming and easy to forget to complete.
  • Find a community of people who will hold you accountable.
  • Create a routine that supports your health and wellness as you do the work so that you don’t burn out.
  • Be more ferocious and committed to carefully curating what you allow in your spirit: from who you follow on your social media, to what you watch on TV, the books you read, etc.

 

 



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