A 'Cameroon Web' reporter remains in a maximum-security prison, and a writer for 'Kashmir Narrator' will have been imprisoned for one year on August 27.
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Thursday, August 1, 2019
CNN’s Lemon doesn’t back down after ‘dumb’ Trump criticism
CNN’s Don Lemon did not back down despite criticism from President Donald Trump, twice labeling presidential remarks as racist while he was moderating Wednesday’s Democratic debate.
Lemon, with partners Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, presided over a session with questions designed to highlight differences between the 10 candidates onstage, most of whom eagerly took the bait.
Tuesday night’s debate wasn’t a ratings triumph for CNN. The Nielsen company said just under 8.7 million people watched, a sharp drop from the 15.3 million who saw opening night of the first debate on NBC News last month.
Trump used Twitter on Wednesday to attack Lemon. After insulting Lemon’s intelligence, the president said the CNN anchor had insinuated that he was a racist, “when in fact I am ‘the least racist person in the world.'” Trump was apparently quoting himself.
Hours after the tweet was sent, Lemon asked Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet what he would do to bridge a racial divide that “has been stoked by the president’s racist rhetoric.”
In another question to former Housing Secretary Julián Castro, Lemon referred to Trump’s “racist tweets” about Baltimore. In an attack on Democratic Rep. Elijah Cummings last weekend, Trump had referred to Cummings’ Baltimore district as a “rodent infected mess.”
It was even sharper terminology than Lemon had used the night before, when he said Trump “is pursuing an election strategy based in part on racial division.” In another question, Lemon referred to “the president’s bigotry.”
LGBTQ advocacy group GLAAD defended Lemon, who is gay, in a Wednesday tweet that said Trump’s “continued attacks on the intelligence of prominent black Americans are abhorrent and telling.”
The ratings drop for the first debate wasn’t entirely unexpected, since the NBC News debate was the shown on both broadcast and cable networks and took place at a time fewer people were on vacation. Still, they led Trump to taunt CNN for “very low ratings.”
Besides the television viewership, CNN said an average of 516,000 people watched the debate via digital stream.
CNN faces a stiffer challenge in matching NBC for the second night. A month ago, the second of two nights on NBC reached 18.1 million people.
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Judge: Smollett special prosecutor will still be appointed
A judge told Jussie Smollett’s attorneys he’s not changing his mind about appointing a special prosecutor in the case against the actor and that he won’t let another judge replace him.
The losses that Cook County Judge Michael Toomin handed the attorneys Wednesday mean Smollett may not be clear of criminal charges alleging he staged an attack in January in Chicago that he described as racist and homophobic. Prosecutors dropped the charges against him in March, but a special prosecutor could charge him again.
Smollett’s attorneys have argued that Toomin should remove himself because he presumed Smollett guilty. Toomin said Wednesday that the special prosecutor’s opinion will be the only one that matters.
Toomin decided in June to appoint a special prosecutor to examine the dismissal of the charges but hasn’t said who it will be.
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Host A.J. Calloway exiting ‘Extra’ after sex assault allegations
A.J. Calloway is leaving the syndicated entertainment news show “Extra” in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations.
Warner Brothers issued a statement on Wednesday saying the company has investigated the claims into Calloway’s conduct and he and the company “have mutually agreed to part ways.” The statement did not say when the agreement was made.
The company had investigated prior accusations against Calloway and found no suggestion of workplace misconduct. But the 44-year-old was suspended in February after Warner Brothers became aware of additional allegations.
At the time, Calloway’s lawyer said her client vehemently denied ever assaulting anyone and looked forward to clearing his name.
His lawyer has not replied to an email seeking comment.
Calloway had been with “Extra” since 2005.
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Wednesday, July 31, 2019
Software to empower workers on the factory floor
Manufacturers are constantly tweaking their processes to get rid of waste and improve productivity. As such, the software they use should be as nimble and responsive as the operations on their factory floors.
Instead, much of the software in today’s factories is static. In many cases, it’s developed by an outside company to work in a broad range of factories, and implemented from the top down by executives who know software can help but don’t know how best to adopt it.
That’s where MIT spinout Tulip comes in. The company has developed a customizable manufacturing app platform that connects people, machines, and sensors to help optimize processes on a shop floor. Tulip’s apps provide workers with interactive instructions, quality checks, and a way to easily communicate with managers if something is wrong.
Managers, in turn, can make changes or additions to the apps in real-time and use Tulip’s analytics dashboard to pinpoint problems with machines and assembly processes.
“With this notion of agile manufacturing [in which changes are constant], you need your software to match the philosophical process you’re using to improve your organization,” says Tulip co-founder and CTO Rony Kubat ’01, SM ’08, PhD ’12. “With our platform, we’re empowering the manufacturing engineers on the line to make changes themselves. That’s in contrast to the traditional way of making manufacturing software. It’s a bottom-up kind of thing.”
Tulip, founded by Kubat and CEO Natan Linder SM ’11, PhD ’17, is currently working with multiple Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies operating in 13 different countries, including Bosch, Jabil, and Kohler. Tulip’s customers make everything from shoes to jewelry, medical devices, and consumer electronics.
With the platform’s scalable design, Kubat says it can help factories of any size, as long as they employ people on the shop floor.
In that way, Tulip’s tools are empowering workers in an industry that has historically trended toward automation. As the company continues building out its platform — including adding machine vision and machine learning capabilities — it hopes to continue encouraging manufacturers to see people as an indispensable resource.
A new approach to manufacturing software
In 2012, Kubat was pursuing his PhD in the MIT Media Lab’s Fluid Interface group when he met Linder, then a graduate student. During their research, several Media Lab member companies gave the founders tours of their factory floors and introduced them to some of the production challenges they were grappling with.
“The Media Lab is such a special place,” Kubat says. “You have this contrast of an antidisciplinary mentality, where you’re putting faculty from completely different walks of life in the same building, giving it this creative wildness that is really invigorating, plus this grounding in the real world that comes from the member organizations that are part of the Media Lab.”
During those factory tours, the founders noticed similar problems across industries.
“The typical way manufacturing software is deployed is in these multiyear cycles,” Kubat says. “You sign a multimillion dollar contract that’s going to overhaul everything, and you get three years to deploy it all, and you get your screens in the end that everyone isn’t really happy with because they solve yesterday’s problems. We’re bringing a more modern approach to software development for manufacturing.”
In 2014, just as Linder completed his PhD research, the founders decided to start Tulip. (Linder would later return to MIT to defend his thesis.) Relying on their personal savings for funding, they recruited a team of students from MIT’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program and began building a prototype for New Balance, a Media Lab member company that has factories in New England.
“We worked really closely with the first customers to do super fast iterations to make these proofs of concept that we’d try to deploy as quickly as possible,” Kubat says. “That approach isn’t new from a software perspective — deploy fast and iterate — but it is new for the manufacturing software world.”
An engine for manufacturing
The app-based platform the founders eventually built out has little in common with the sweeping software implementations that traditionally upend factory operations for better or worse. Tulip’s apps can be installed in just one workstation then scaled up as needed.
The apps can also be designed by managers with no coding experience, over the course of an afternoon. Typically they can use Tulip’s app templates, which can be customized for common tasks like guiding a worker through an assembly process or completing a checklist.
Workers using the apps on the shop floor can submit comments on their interactive screens to do things like point out defects. Those comments are sent directly to the manager, who can make changes to the apps remotely.
“It’s a data-driven opportunity to engage the operators on the line, to gain some ownership over the process,” Kubat says.
The apps are integrated with machines and tools on the factory floor through Tulip’s router-like gateways. Those gateways also sync with sensors and cameras to give managers data from both humans and machines. All that information helps managers find bottlenecks and other factors holding back productivity.
Workers, meanwhile, are given real-time feedback on their actions from the cameras, which are usually trained on the part as it’s being assembled or on the bins the workers are reaching into. If a worker assembles a part improperly, for example, Tulip’s camera can detect the mistake, and its app can alert the worker to the error, presenting instructions on fixing it.
A demonstration of a worker assembling a part wrong, Tulip's sensors detecting the error, and then Tulip's app providing instructions for correcting the mistake.
Such quality checks can be sprinkled throughout a production line. That’s a big upgrade over traditional methods for data collection in factories, which often include a stopwatch and a clipboard, the founders say.
“That process is expensive,” Kubat says of traditional data collection methods. “It’s also biased, because when you’re being observed you might behave differently. It’s also a sampling of things, not the true picture. Our take is that all of that execution data should be something you get for free from a system that gives you additional value.”
The data Tulip collects are channeled into its analytics dashboard, which can be used to make customized tables displaying certain metrics to managers and shop floor workers.
In April, the company launched its first machine vision feature, which further helps workers minimize mistakes and improve productivity. Those objectives are in line with Tulip’s broader goal of empowering workers in factories rather than replacing them.
“We’re helping companies launch products faster and improve efficiency,” Kubat says. “That means, because you can reduce the cost of making products with people, you push back the [pressure of] automation. You don’t need automation to give you quality at scale. This has the potential to really change the dynamics of how products are delivered to the public.”
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‘Real Housewives of Atlanta’ star Apollo Nida re-released to Philly halfway house
Real Housewives of Atlanta star Apollo Nida has once again been released from prison, he now resides in a Philadelphia halfway house.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons confirms the transfer of Nida to the halfway facility.
The reality star was originally released to the halfway home on June 5. The Blast reports the star was re-arrested after he violated the terms of his parole. The rule break resulted in being taken into custody at the Phidalephia Federal Court House.
Nida was sentenced to 96 months in prison in 2014 for conspiracy to commit mail, wire and bank fraud. In addition to his sentence, Nida is required to pay $1.9 million in restitution. In March, a federal judge reduced his sentence from 96 months to 84 months.
Nida’s fame rose as he appeared with his ex-wife Phaedra Parks on the Bravo series Real Housewives of Atlanta. The divorce between the two played out while Nida was behind bars.
Around the original release in June, Nida was spotted with his fiancée Sherien Almufti near the halfway home. He and Almufti have been together since 2017 and she reportedly made multiple visits to Nida during his prison stints. The Blast reports thatt Almufti will work as a real estate agent in the Philadelphia area.
As for Parks, the RHOA ish-stirrer also has a new bae, the DailyMail has linked her to Have and the Have Nots actor Medina Islam.
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Kenya Moore’s ex, Matt Jordan arrested for aggravated assault on girlfriend
Fans of Real Housewives of Atlanta may remember the hard time Kenya Moore had with Matt Jordan, and now looks like her instincts were right.
The former beauty queen kicked her man to the curb after he demonstrated aggressive behavior and now he has been arrested in Arizona on multiage charges after allegedly punching his current girlfriend int he face.
According to reports, Jordan was booked for trespassing and three separate charges including aggravated assault, theft, and threatening/intimidating with damage to property. His bail was set at $3,250 and he’s reportedly still in custody.
Kenya Moore warns women how to spot signs of domestic abuse
TMZ obtained the arrest report and claim it details a violent altercation between Matt Jordan and his current girlfriend, Valerie Bell. She claims he punched her in the face at a Denny’s parking lot on Saturday morning in front of a witness who is backing her story.
Jordan had already left the scene when police arrived, but circled back to Bell’s home that night, where he was picked up and arrested for trespassing. He reportedly had an outstanding warrant stemming from an incident in April, leading to the three additional charges.
EXCLUSIVE: Kenya Moore on domestic violence PSA & Kim’s nasty fertility digs
Back when they were dating, Kenya Moore was disturbed by Jordan’s explosive temper which led him to kick in her glass door at one point. She obtained a restraining order against him in 2017 after claiming he threatened her and harassed her repeatedly.
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Gucci hires Black executive, Renée Tirado, as diversity chief after racist designs spark backlash
Gucci has tapped the talent of a Black executive who will take over as its diversity chief, following widespread criticism for selling a “blackface” sweater and complaints of cultural or racial insensitivity.
—In wake of blackface scandals, Spike Lee calls for boycott of Prada, Gucci—
Renée Tirado will lead the fashion house as its diversity chief, The Daily Mail reports.
Tirado will work to restore the brand’s image after it faced harsh backlash for promoting a $890 black sweater with bright bold lips. It was ridiculed on social media as insensitive and racist.
Gucci was also slammed for creating a turban for fashion that offended members of the Sikh community who wear them faithfully for religious reasons.
Many celebrities have called for people to fallback from the luxury brand. And T.I. and Waka Flocka Flame have also encouraged people to start supporting black-owned fashion designers and labels.
“I gotta get rid of all the Gucci I have at home. I’m not supporting their brand anymore,” 50 Cent wrote on Instagram previously.
—Dapper Dan to meet with Gucci head in Harlem about scandal—
Since the fallout, Gucci created a multicultural design scholarship program, a diversity and inclusion awareness program and a global exchange program, the outlet reports.
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