The regulations are particularly less than ideal for the companies because New York is among their largest urban markets.
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Friday, August 16, 2019
Thursday, August 15, 2019
Data-mining for dark matter
When Tracy Slatyer faced a crisis of confidence early in her educational career, Stephen Hawking’s “A Brief History of Time” and a certain fictional janitor at MIT helped to bolster her resolve.
Slatyer was 11 when her family moved from Canberra, Australia, to the island nation of Fiji. It was a three-year stay, as part of her father’s work for the South Pacific Forum, an intergovernmental organization.
“Fiji was quite a way behind the U.S. and Australia in terms of gender equality, and for a girl to be interested in math and science carried noticeable social stigma,” Slatyer recalls. “I got bullied quite a lot.”
She eventually sought guidance from the school counselor, who placed the blame for the bullying on the victim herself, saying that Slatyer wasn’t sufficiently “feminine.” Slatyer countered that the bullying seemed to be motivated by the fact that she was interested in and good at math, and she recalls the counselor’s unsympathetic advice: “Well, yes, honey, that’s a problem you can fix.”
“I went home and thought about it, and decided that math and science were important to me,” Slatyer says. “I was going to keep doing my best to learn more, and if I got bullied, so be it.”
She doubled down on her studies and spent a lot of time at the library; she also benefited from supportive parents, who gave her Hawking’s groundbreaking book on the origins of the universe and the nature of space and time.
“It seemed like the language in which these ideas could most naturally be described was that of mathematics,” Slatyer says. “I knew I was pretty good at math. And learning that that talent was potentially something I could apply to understanding how the universe worked, and maybe how it began, was very exciting to me.”
Around this same time, the movie “Good Will Hunting” came out in theaters. The story, of a townie custodian at MIT who is discovered as a gifted mathematician, had a motivating impact on Slatyer.
“What my 13-year-old self took out of this was, MIT was a place where, if you were talented at math, people would see that as a good thing rather than something to be stigmatized, and make you welcome — even if you were a janitor or a little girl from Fiji,” Slatyer says. “It was my first real indication that such places might exist. Since then, MIT has been an important symbol to me, of valuing intellectual inquiry and being willing to accept anyone in the world.”
This year, Slatyer received tenure at MIT and is now the Jerrold R. Zacharias Associate Professor of Physics and a member of the Center for Theoretical Physics and the Laboratory for Nuclear Science. She focuses on searching through telescope data for signals of mysterious phenomena such as dark matter, the invisible stuff that makes up more than 80 percent of the matter in the universe but has only been detected through its gravitational pull. In her teaching, she seeks to draw out and support a new and diverse crop of junior scientists.
“If you want to understand how the universe works, you want the very best and brightest people,” Slatyer says. “It’s essential that theoretical physics becomes more inclusive and welcoming, both from a moral perspective and to get the best science done.”
Connectivity
Slatyer’s family eventually moved back to Canberra, where she dove eagerly into the city’s educational opportunities.
After earning an undergraduate degree from the Australian National University, followed by a brief stint at the University of Melbourne, Slatyer was accepted to Harvard University as a physics graduate student. Her interests were slowly gravitating toward particle physics, but she was unsure about which direction to take. Then, two of her mentors put her in touch with a junior faculty member, Doug Finkbeiner, who was leading a project to mine astrophysical data for signals of new physics.
At the time, much of the physics community was eagerly anticipating the start-up of the Large Hadron Collider and the release of data on particle interactions at high energies, which could potentially reveal physics beyond the Standard Model.
In contrast, telescopes have long made public their own data on astrophysical phenomena. What if, instead of looking through these data for objects such as black holes and neutron stars that evolved over millions of years, one could comb through it for signals of more fundamental mysteries, such as hints of new elementary particles and even dark matter?
The prospects were new and exciting, and Slatyer promptly took on the challenge.
“Chasing that feeling”
In 2008, the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope launched, giving astronomers a new view of the cosmos in the gamma-ray band of the electromagnetic spectrum, where high-energy astrophysical phenomena can be seen. Slatyer and Finkbeiner proposed that Fermi’s data might also reveal signals of dark matter, which could theoretically produce high-energy electrons when dark matter particles collide.
In 2009, Fermi made its data available to the public, and Slatyer and Finkbeiner —together with Harvard postdoc Greg Dobler and collaborators at New York University — put their mining tools to work as soon as the data were released online.
The group eventually constructed a map of the Milky Way galaxy, shining in gamma rays, and revealed a fuzzy, egg-like shape. Upon further analysis, led by Slatyer’s fellow PhD student Meng Su, this fuzzy “haze” coalesced into a figure-eight, or double-bubble structure, extending some 25,000 light-years above and below the disc of the Milky Way. Such a structure had never been observed before. The group named the mysterious structure the “Fermi bubbles,” after the telescope that originally observed it.
“It was really special — we were the first people in the history of the world to be able to look at the sky in this way and understand that this structure was there,” Slatyer says. “That’s a really incredible feeling, and chasing that feeling is something that inspires and motivates me, and I think many scientists.”
Searching for the invisible
Today, Slatyer continues to sift through Fermi data for evidence of dark matter. The Fermi Bubbles’ distinctive shape makes it unlikely they are associated with dark matter; they are more likely to reveal a past eruption from the giant black hole at the Milky Way’s center, or outflows fueled by exploding stars. However, other signals are more promising.
Around the center of the Milky Way, where dark matter is thought to concentrate, there is a glow of gamma rays. In 2013, Slatyer, her first PhD student Nicholas Rodd, and collaborators at Harvard University and Fermilab showed this glow had properties similar to what theorists would expect if dark matter particles were colliding and producing visible light. However, in 2015, Slatyer and collaborators at MIT and Princeton University challenged this interpretation with a new analysis, showing that the glow was more consistent with originating from a new population of spinning neutron stars called pulsars.
But the case is not quite closed. Recently, Slatyer and MIT postdoc Rebecca Leane reanalyzed the same data, this time injecting a fake dark matter signal into the data, to see whether the techniques developed in 2015 could detect dark matter if it were there. But the signal was missed, suggesting that if there were other, actual signals of dark matter in the Fermi data, they could have been missed as well.
Slatyer is now improving on data mining techniques to better detect dark matter in the Fermi data, along with other astrophysical open data. But she won’t be discouraged if her search comes up empty.
“There’s no guarantee there is a dark matter signal,” Slatyer says. “But if you never look, you’ll never know. And in searching for dark matter signals in these datasets, you learn other things, like that our galaxy contains giant gamma-ray bubbles, and maybe a new population of pulsars, that no one ever knew about. If you look closely at the data, the universe will often tell you something new.”
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Eric Reid blasts Jay-Z for partnering with NFL ‘It looks like your goal was to make millionsby assisting the NFL in burying Colin’s career’
Carolina Panthers safety Eric Reid slammed Jay-Z for paper chasing by forming a partnership with the NFL and helping to further “bury” Colin Kapernick’s career.
—Jay-Z defends NFL deal with Roc Nation, talks Kaepernick—
Social media was abuzz when the Roc Nation founder sat down Wednesday with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and answered questioned about his new role co-producing the Super Bowl Halftime show and also contributing to Inspire Change, a foundation the NFL started in response to public outrage over their mishandling of Kaepernick’s peaceful #TakeTheKnee protest.
“For me it was about action. What are we gonna’ do with it? … everybody knows I agree with what you’re saying [in Kaepernick’s underlying message]. So what are we gonna do? … [Help] millions and millions of people, or we get stuck on Colin not having a job.”
When asked, would he kneel or would he stand, Jay responded: “I think we’re past kneeling. I think it’s time to go into actionable items.”
Reid, Kapernick’s friend who also protested alongside him criticized the rapper Wednesday night on social media, TMZ reports.
“These aren’t mutually exclusive,” Reid wrote back … “They can both happen at the same time! It looks like your goal was to make millions and millions of dollars by assisting the NFL in burying Colin’s career.”
Jay has many questioning his move but in an audio clip released by TMZ, he defended the partnership saying it was a necessary next step after Charlemagne the God asked him about partnering with the NFL when Kap is still unemployed.
—The Kaepernick Effect: Is Jay-Z’s new deal with the NFL a conflict of interests?—
“No, I don’t want people to stop protesting at all. Kneeling — I know we’re stuck on it because it’s a real thing — but kneeling is a form of protest. I support protest across the board. We need to bring light to the issue. I think everyone knows what the issue is — we’re done with that,” he added. “We all know the issue now. OK, next. What are we moving (on to) next? …And I’m not minimizing that part of it because that has to happen, that’s a necessary part of the process. But now that we all know what’s going on, what are we going to do? How are we going to stop it? Because the kneeling was not about a job, it was about injustice.”
When asked why Kaepernick wasn’t added to the deal, Jay answered:
“You’d have to ask him. I’m not his boss. I can’t just bring him into something. That’s for him to say.”
NYC radio DJ and Kaepernick’s longtime girlfriend Nessa Diab took to social media confirm that the Super Bowl winning quarterback was left out of the conversations.
THIS is a lie. COLIN never spoke to Jay-Z and NFL ahead of that deal being done. They NEVER included him in any discussion 👉🏽 https://t.co/TWmoXS4JVJ pic.twitter.com/2bjSIEtnjQ
— NESSA (@nessnitty) August 14, 2019
I never thought I would see this headline in my lifetime. I can’t put in words the disappointment and disgust #IMWITHKAP FOREVER 👉🏽👉🏽👉🏽Jay-Z Helps the NFL Banish Colin Kaepernick – The Atlantic https://t.co/avK3tc1tBq
— NESSA (@nessnitty) August 15, 2019
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High school girl dies after participating in basketball drills in sweltering heat
A high school basketball player died after practice and officials are exploring whether the sweltering August heat was a contributing factor in the student’s death.
The father of 16-year-old Imani Bell learned that his daughter died Tuesday after running outdoors where temperatures soared while participating in a basketball drill. Sources told the news outlet that the girls running the drills did not get a water break.
“My baby is gone,” the grieving father told WSBTV.
According to the outlet, first responders were called after Bell collapsed and was found unresponsive around 6 p.m. at Elite Scholars Academy. She was reportedly running uphill and became overheated.
Medical personnel initially got Bell’s pulse back but she died later at Southern Regional Medical Center, according to the outlet.
“We are very saddened by the loss of one of our students this evening. The school district is here to support the family of the student and all school staff and student body,” the Clayton County school district officials said in a statement.
—Illinois High school responds after graduates are caught on video screaming ugly racist language—
1) Several reliable sources tell me the Elite Scholars Academy student who died was a 16 year old basketball player who was a part of an organized activity running outdoors in the extreme heat. @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/AFT16JjxRX
— Tom Jones (@TomJonesWSBTV) August 14, 2019
2) The sources say the student had to run a mile and had to run up hills. There was no water for students who were overcome by heat. She collapsed around 4:30pm. @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/qjCJUWyiZt
— Tom Jones (@TomJonesWSBTV) August 14, 2019
Story developing.
The post High school girl dies after participating in basketball drills in sweltering heat appeared first on theGrio.
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Join Us at Black Men Excel To Honor Jesse Jackson, Our Champion For Equal Opportunity
Civil rights leader Rev. Jesse Jackson has been among the powerful influencers in my life for some 40 years. I remember as a high school junior in Norfolk, Virginia, attending an assembly in a jam-packed arena with thousands of other students listening to his inspirational message which urged us to stay drug-free and focused on academic achievement.
Using a series of rhyming maxims – “If my mind can conceive it, my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it!”…”Down with dope, up with hope!” – the founder and president of the Rainbow Push Coalition closed that speech with a call and response that brought us to our feet, loudly declaring in unison: “I am somebody!”
A decade or so later, as a BLACK ENTERPRISE editor I would be among those who covered his historic run for the White House in 1988 – his first foray into presidential politics was during the 1984 race – in which Jackson came in second in the Democratic primaries with over 1,200 delegates, more than any runner-up in history at that time. He leveraged that position at the Democratic National Convention to rework the rules for selecting a Democratic Party nominee, making the process more equitable and inclusive.
Jesse Jackson as the ‘Conscience of the Nation’
In recent years, I have had the privilege to participate in and work closely with his team on The Wall Street Project Economic Summit, which has served as major catalyst in the diversification of capital markets for more than 20 years. In fact, WSP has resulted in black-owned investment banks and asset managers gaining significant bond and equity underwriting and money management assignments, respectively, from corporate America.
Those represent but a few milestones that have left me, along with millions of others, forever transformed by his decades of fearless, visionary leadership.
Regardless of age, gender or generation, Jackson undoubtedly has played a huge role in uplifting the lives of people of color, the working class and the disenfranchised. As such, he has been our unyielding champion for equal opportunity over five decades, fiercely fighting for parity in issues ranging from civil and voting rights to workforce and business diversity in Silicon Valley. Due to this relentless drive for African American economic advancement and political empowerment, it is fittingly that he will receive the Earl G. Graves Sr. Vanguard Award at our Black Men Xcel Summit held at the JW Marriott Turnberry Miami Resort and Spa Aug. 28 – Sept. 1. .BE Founder and Publisher Graves says of the civil rights icon: “He has been vital in articulating the concerns, needs and aspirations of black Americans from every corner of this country. He addresses himself to the legacy of our past struggles for civil rights and embodies much of our hopes for a future in which equal opportunity for all Americans is woven into the fabric of our society.”
The accomplishments of the man known as the “Conscience of the Nation” confirms that assertion. A testament to the breadth and depth of his works can best be expressed by two of the greatest honors he has received. In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded the nation’s highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, to Jackson; and, in 2013, the South African government bestowed upon him their highest civilian honor, the National Order, the Companions of OR Tambo. Also called the “Great Unifier,” he has challenged America to be inclusive and establish just and humane priorities for the benefit of all. He has brought people together on common ground across lines of race, faith, gender, culture, and class.
Born in Greenville, South Carolina in 1941, the North Carolina A&T State University graduate who began his activism as a student deferred completion of his Master’s Degree to work full-time for the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King as an organizer for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and later director of Operation Breadbasket program. Ordained in 1968 – the year in which King was slain by an assassin’s bullet–Jackson carried forward the equal rights agenda with the development of Operation PUSH (People United to Serve Humanity) in Chicago in 1971 to expand educational, business and employment opportunities for the disadvantaged and people of color. In 1984, the year he made his first run for the White House, Jackson launched the National Rainbow Coalition, a social justice organization based in Washington, D.C devoted to political empowerment, education and changing public policy. By 1996, the Rainbow Coalition and Operation PUSH merged to form the Rainbow PUSH Coalition to continue the work of both organizations and to maximize resources.
(Wikimedia)
The ‘Shadow Senator’
Throughout the years, Jackson became an international figure who took on national health care, a war on drugs, peace negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis, ending apartheid in South Africa and installing democratic practices in Haiti, among other issues. His two presidential campaigns collectively registered more than 3 million voters, becoming a powerful force in a series of national, state, and local contests. In 1991, he would gain election as the “shadow senator” of Washington, D.C., advocating for statehood for the nation’s capital and promoting the “rainbow” agenda. Moreover, he was appointed by President Clinton and Secretary of State Madeleine Albright as “Special Envoy of the President and Secretary of State for the Promotion of Democracy in Africa.” In this official position, Reverend Jackson traveled to several countries on the African continent and met with such national leaders as President Nelson Mandela of the Republic of South Africa.
In addition to his other global campaigns for human rights and equity, he was on the front lines in the development of “reciprocal trade” between African Americans and corporate America. Jackson, who effectively used boycotts against major corporations to open doors for minorities, employed a different strategy to diversify the financial and tech sectors. For example, he acquired shares of publicly traded companies to press them as a shareholder to hire minority firms. Ariel Investments co-CEO and founder John Rogers, a major supporter of his initiatives, maintained that Jackson’s approach gave him access to attend annual meetings, and speak with corporate directors and CEOs as a means to “highlight the successful partnership between minority and majority companies.”
His Contribution to Black-Owned Businesses
Through it all, the impact of Rev. Jackson’s WSP has been palpable. Top-ranked black financial firms were tapped for the largest transactions on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley. For instance, these companies were involved in the industry-transforming initial public offerings of Goldman Sachs in 1999; Prudential Financial in 2001; Google in 2004; New York Stock Exchange in 2006; Visa in 2008; General Motors in 2010; Facebook in 2012 and Snap, Inc. in 2017, just to name a few milestone transactions.
And Jackson continues to fight. During last year’s Economic Summit, he recounted African Americans’ tumultuous history and the need to continue our focus on multigenerational wealth building.
“African Americans have journeyed through four stages of a 400-year struggle. Stage one – ending slavery after 246 years in bondage; Stage two – ending the Jim Crow era with its mass lynchings and terror campaigns; Stage three – securing the right to vote; and currently, Stage four – securing access to capital, industry, technology and deal flow in the U.S. economy,” he told attendees. “We are in the early days of stage four. We have freedom in our lives, but we don’t have equality. There are some steps the African American community can take to move closer to gaining equality and the fruits that will come with the successful navigation of stage four of the struggle. It’s the simplest way to begin building wealth. We must save money to invest in building a future. It’s time to consolidate that earning power for the welfare of the community.”
Let’s come together at BMX to salute him as well as commit to joining him in the next leg of our ongoing battle for economic parity.
Register now for Black Men Xcel
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A$AP Rocky speaks on Swedish court conviction in assault case
A$AP Rocky is disappointed that he didn’t beat his assault case and now has a conviction under his belt.
—A$AP Rocky testifies in Swedish court: ‘We didn’t want to provoke these guys’—
The rapper took to Instagram to thank his team for riding with him from the beginning to a rocky end after he was jailed for an altercation with a fan in Sweden.
“I am of course disappointed by today’s verdict,” the rapper said Wednesday, Page Six reports.
“I want to say thanks again to all of my fans, friends and everyone who showed me love during this difficult time,” he added. “Imma keep moving forward. Thank you to my team, my management, attorneys, label and everyone who advocated for justice.”
A$AP Rocky was found guilty of assault and handed a conditional sentence after a street altercation in Stockholm on June 30 was caught on video.
The rapper, and two members of his entourage, were convicted by a Swedish court on Wednesday.
The Stockholm District Court said in its ruling that the performer’s claim of self-defense was rejected.
“The defendants have claimed that they acted in self-defence. Based on statements from two witnesses, the court finds that the defendants were not subject to a current or imminent criminal attack. Therefore, they were not in a situation where they were entitled to use violence in self-defence. Nor could they have perceived themselves to be in such a situation.”
The conditional sentence means that A$AP Rocky will be subject to a probationary period of two years.
The court also awarded damages to the victim “for violation of his integrity and pain and suffering.”
The defendants were also ordered to repay legal expenses to the state.
A$AP Rocky responds to fans
A$AP Rocky returned to the United States last week and spoke directly to his fans about his “scary, humbling” detainment prior to the announcement of his conviction.
According to Pitchfork, the rapper took the stage at the Real Street festival in Anaheim, California and performed for the first time since being released from jail in Sweden, where he had been held since early July.
He kicked off his set wearing a retro mask from “The Incredible Crash Dummies,” before finally removing it to addressing the crowd about the pink elephant in the room.
—Petition earns 260,000 signatures to change Trump Tower address to Barack H. Obama Ave.—
“Everybody listen, I know you was praying for me,” the rapper, whose real name is Rakim Mayers, told the screaming audience, before opening up about his time in the Swedish jail.
“Y’all know how happy I am to be here right now,” he began. “I wanna say this though. When I was away—hold the mosh please, this a sentimental moment!—what I experienced was crazy…. It was a scary, humbling experience but I’m here right now. God is good. People who ain’t even f**k with me felt sympathy. People was praying for me, that uplifted me when my spirits was low. I can’t thank y’all enough, man, that was crazy. Hip-hop never looked so strong together.”
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