I just learned that Examiner.com is shutting down their website and that if I want to keep the articles, I will have to retrieve and archive them. I am posting them here on my blog for safe keeping. It's work I've done, afterall. So. . .in the next couple days or more, this blog will be updating with many old articles.
It's interesting that there is no news on the matter, and the letter they've sent out to writers says that no part of it can be outed. I did find a link to an article that was posted over at Inquisitr but when you click on it, there is nothing there. hmmm. . . . Maybe I should have stayed with the company longer so I could have seen what became of it (the parts of it they would have talked to us about, anyway).
Ah well. . . The only thing we can count on is change.
There’s sad news today for the world of hip hop. Malik Isaac Taylor, otherwise known as Phife Dawg, one of the founding members of the legendary Hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest, died on Tuesday, March 22 after struggling with his health. He was 45 years old.
Chris McKay/Getty Images
The hip-hop pioneer had been struggling for a long time with diabetes and had received a kidney transplant in 2008 from his wife, reports BBC March 23. Rolling Stone confirmed the late MC’s death, but an official statement has yet to be released, as well as an official cause of death.
A slew of Twitter messages from leaders in the hip-hop community began paying tribute to Phife, starting with a RIP message from producer and radio broadcaster DJ Chuck Chillout. Other hip-hop leaders paid tribute to the late MC on social media including DJ Gilles Peterson and politically and socially conscious rapper Chuck D.
Rolling Stone reports that Phife’s health problems were so severe, that they interfered with him having much of a solo career. Taylor appeared on each of Tribe’s five studio albums (including Low End Theory and Midnight Marauders). He released one solo album in 2000 entitled Ventilation: Da LP.
Taylor was working on new music and it is yet to be released. A teaser of the EP “Nutshell,” a track from a J Dilla collaboration entitled Give Thanks had been released, but a full version of the song is still under wraps. Taylor was also at work on an album called Muttymorphosis, an album that would have served as the late MC’s biography. He had hoped to release the album in 2016.
*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com
Starting a club on your college campus could be your best internship
Get involved! It's a catchphrase of college campuses. By getting involved in your college community, you can make important connections, and learn many skills that you will be able to apply to future jobs and experiences.
One of the many ways you can become involved on your campus is by becoming a member of one or more of the clubs offered. What are your interests? Take a look at the catalogue of clubs at your college and contact the club officers for more information.
Another way of obtaining career oriented skills is by simply creating your own club. Doing this could very well be a sort of internship, and maybe even the best kind. Many interns find themselves performing menial tasks in their internships without really learning much about their field. You may not be able to get internship credit for creating a club, but the skills you glean there are priceless as are the connections you'll make.
Creating and managing your own club means you will gain many skills. Some of these skills include but are not limited to marketing, fundraising, networking, facilitating meetings, scheduling events, training future officers, and so on. These are all skills that you can add to your resume as valid work experience.
For more information about starting a club on your college campus, contact your student activities administrators and/or student government. There are also many articles online about how you can start a your own college organizations.
*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com
The U.S. Marines are strategically placing tanks and military equipment inside classified Norwegian caves in efforts to support any possibility of crisis at the NATO-Russian border.
Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images
The preplacement of tanks, artillery and logistics equipment comes during renewed tensions between NATO and Russia. In a statement delivered on Friday, Col. William Bentley, operations officer for the 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade said: "Any gear that is forward-deployed both reduces cost and speeds up our ability to support operations in crisis, so we're able to fall in on gear that is ready-to-go and respond to whatever that crisis may be."
CNN reports Feb. 18 that the NATO-Russian border was heavily militarized during the Cold War. Continuing those efforts, Russian president Vladimir Putinis flexing his military muscle, creating three new divisions in the western border alone, and making five nuclear missile regimens ready for battle within the year.
The U.S. began stocking the climate controlled caves in 1981 during the Cold War. The stock was primarily meant to help NATO defend against the Soviet Union. When the Cold War ended, the U.S. reevaluated whether it was necessary to maintain those facilities, but the Norwegian government took on the costs of maintaining them in the 1990s.
There is enough equipment in these caves to support 15,000 Marines. And the equipment has not been sitting their latent. The equipment was reportedly used to aid in operations in Iraq.
Because of renewed tensions at the NATO-Russian border, the caves are again a strategic asset. "Now that we have a very new security context with Russia, it now makes sense to rethink what is needed," Heather Conley, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Europe Program told CNN.
More than 16,000 troops are training this month along with NATO allies and partners, using equipment from the classified caves. The development of military capabilities “in a challenging environment” is the goal. The exercise is called “Cold Response 16” and will ensure confidence that NATO and its participating allies will be able to defend the border.
More military equipment is on the way, with six F-15s due to arrive in Finland in time for the spring exercises. The exercises will occur about 100 miles away from the Russian border.
The Department of Defense is spending $3.4 billion in efforts to prevent Russia’s pending violence against NATO and its allies in the European Reassurance Initiative. In the initiative, military equipment will be stationed in the Baltic Seas, Poland and Central Europe. "We have to look at Northern Europe, the Northern Atlantic, the Baltics and Eastern Europe as one theater of operations," states Conley. She further states that military exercises are becoming critical.
Russia’s Northern Fleet recently conducted military drills involving 38,000 troops. Their drills were unannounced.
* originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com
An exciting opportunity is available for teenage girls between the ages of 16-18 who are interested in taking a mountain adventure during their summer vacation. The program, which offers a wilderness education experience, free of charge, is taking applications through Jan. 29 for its two glaciology expeditions this year.
Girls on Ice North Cascades will bring participants to Mount Baker in Washington state. There, participants will explore a glacier, the mountain and the surrounding alpine meadows. The trip is open to applicants from all around the world. The expedition runs from July 10 to July 21.
The second team of young women will explore the Gulkana Glacier in the Alaska Range while hiking and camping in the Alaskan alpine landscape. This arm of the program is open to young women from Alaska, the Pacific Northwest, British Columbia, Yukon and California. This expedition runs from June 17 to June 28.
Participants will learn mountaineering and how to conduct their own science experiments. The program is also designed to challenge participants and help them gain self-confidence on many levels while also integrating lessons in Earth science.
Recent studies and observations show that empathy, an ability that many think only humans capable, is a trait that other animals also exhibit.
Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images
While in the past, such observations have been deemed controversial, more studies have been coming to the fore rendering humans’ former beliefs that animals are nothing more than “mindless automata” questionable. Researchers have been pairing science alongside philosophical queries concerning animal subjectivity and they are finding that their observations are not solely the product of anthropomorphizing projections.
For example, Dr. Larry Young, a researcher at Emory University witnessed what looks like consoling behavior in prairie voles, reports The Atlantic, Jan. 21. In an experiment where two voles were placed in separate cages, one received a small electric shock and then, when it was reunited with its mate, received ten minutes worth of licking and grooming that seemed to calm it down.
Researchers found that voles witnessing the distress of their cohorts take on the behavior exhibited by their stressed companions. For example, a vole not receiving the shock would continuously groom itself and freeze whenever it heard a tone that heralded an impending shock. Those same voles exhibited higher stress hormone levels when tested even though they had not been shocked. Then, when reunited with their companions, they would groom distressed animals.
Voles are not alone in their show of concern and feeling for one another. Elephants conduct funerary rituals over their dead cohorts, burying deceased elephants with leaves and grass and then holding week long vigils. The recognition of their loss does not end there. Elephants visit the bones of those who passed for many years after burying them.
Rats have been shown to exhibit empathy for their cohorts, freeing trapped rats before pursuing any personal rewards. Dolphins have been shown to not only exhibit love and empathy for their own kind, but for other animals and humans, as well. Many animals have exhibited metacognition and still others such as chickens, and cows have been shown to have emotions.
According to an article published in July by National Geographic, animals think and feel. They have consciousness. Environmental writer Carl Safina recently wrote about animal consciousness in his book Beyond Words: How Animals Think and Feel and explains why it’s important to acknowledge animal consciousness. He also explains how neurological science will most likely make humans’ former belief that animals are incapable of such abilities as love and empathy obsolete.
*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com
Starting Jan. 20, five planets will line up single file in the predawn skies.
Five planets will align in a rare celestial show that hasn’t been seen in more than a decade. The planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn will line up single file in the predawn sky starting Jan. 20 and will be visible to the naked eye.
The line of planets can be seen around the world until Feb. 20. It is best viewed one to one-and-half-hours before sunrise, reports Accuweather Jan. 19.
If stargazers attempt to view the line of planets just before dawn, they may find that it has not completely risen. After dawn, the line of planets will begin to disappear as its visibility in Earth’s skies will be cancelled out by sunlight.
Venus will be the brightest planet in the sky and can assist viewers in finding the rest of the planets. Mercury, Venus and Saturn will be low over the southeastern horizon (in that order) while Mars and Jupiter will reach across the sky into the southwest. Jupiter, which ends the line, will be the second brightest visible planet. Mars may be hard to see low on the horizon, but its faint red color will differentiate it from surrounding stars.
Viewers will be able to differentiate the planets from stars because starlight twinkles and the light reflected from planets is more of a steady glow.
The last time five planets have glowed like this in a singular line was between Dec. 15, 2004 to Jan. 15, 2005.
Another celestial treat visible via telescope or binoculars in predawn skies is Comet Catalina. The two-tailed comet is passing by Venus. According to Space.com, the comet probably hails from the Oort cloud. The comet is on its way from circling the sun and will continue its journey into the outer Solar System. Comet Catalina was closest to the Earth on Jan. 17.
*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com
Civil Rights activist and minister Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was integral to the Civil Rights Movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. His work led to the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a document that put an end to legalized segregation and banned workplace discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.
Dr. King’s activism was led by the nonviolent philosophies of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the leading voice inIndia’s independence movement which began in 1857 and ended in 1947. Both leaders taught that a strong body of individuals brought together in solidarity can create long-lasting change for the betterment of everyone.
Gandhi led nonviolent protests which included week-long fasts and marches to protest everything from British occupation to caste separation. Similarly, Dr. King led boycotts, committees and campaigns to end social injustices, marches and other peaceful demonstrations and protests.
Though members of Congress proposed a legislated holiday for the fallen leader directly after Dr. King’s assassination, it wasn’t until 15 years after his death that the day became a national holiday. Many advocates were on board, including Stevie Wonder who wrote a song honoring Dr. King called “Happy Birthday.” According to Time Magazine, the song was meant to “make a case for the holiday,” and point out anyone who was opposed to the idea.
Finally, in 1983, despite then-president Ronald Reagan’s reluctance to pass the bill, he conceded. Dr. King’s birthday became a national holiday. This was an honor that up until that time had only been given to George Washington, the first president of the United States.
Returning hate for hate multiplies hate, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction. -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The world was rocked when news of David Bowie’s death hit Jan. 10. The British singer and multi-instrumentalist had a long career in music which ended with one last album, a carefully planned farewell to his fans called “Blackstar.”
Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images
While most fans know Bowie because of his musical career which spanned more than fifty years, some may be surprised to learn that he wasn’t just a musical artist. He was also a big art collector, a voracious reader, a visual artist and writer. He was a creative who supported many other facets of the arts just as much as he was influenced by them.
“Bowie was curious about everything in the world, whether it had to do with gender issues, jazz, movement—he understood the symbolic significance of any gesture or thought form. He was able to use it as food for his own art,” wrote avant garde pianist Matthew Shipp in an exclusive email exchange with Examiner.com. “Bowie was a great model for all artistsof any genre because he utilized the symbolic nature of everything. He was also fearless in his ability to explore the many aspects of his many selves.”
One of Bowie’s many talents included painting. He had started painting as a practice in 1976 to help distract him from depression and the stressors of the the music business. He returned full-fledged to music and picked up visual art again in the 1990s, reports the New York Times Jan. 14
During that time, Bowie joined the board of the British magazine Modern Painters and personally interviewed many contemporary artists of note including: Balthus, Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Jeff Koons and Julian Schnabel. During his stint with the magazine, he also created a lot of work of his own. He was prolific, creating hundreds of pieces of art using paint, chalk, charcoal and other mediums.
According to the Independent, Bowie even helped create a fictitious artist named Nat Tate, a man who was a supposed Abstract Expressionist who destroyed 99 percent of his work and killed himself by jumping off the Staten Island ferry. Tate’s story was told in a book written by William Boyd, a best-selling UK writer who was integral in the creation of the hoax. The book was published with a publishing venture that Bowie created called “21.”
David Bowie never stopped creating, not even during his seeming retirement from celebrity in 2004. He continued painting, designing, and exploring new expressions of art while intermittently contributing more music to his canon.
*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com
Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse is Philadelphia's first Black Female-owned comic book store. In fact, the comics and coffee shop is the first Black Female-owned comic book store on the East Coast, reports Fabulize Magazine Jan. 2.
Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse / Facebook
Amalgam Comics owner Arielle R. Johnson said that the idea was brewing for 12 years. “My favorite coffee shop was directly across the street from my comic book store of choice. So, each Friday, I would buy my books at Fat Jack's, go across the street to Crimson Moon, and read everything I bought,” she said. "When the coffee shop closed its doors, I was devastated. That's when the idea came to me."
Amalgam Comics aims to promote diversity and community with events, workshops, movie, TV screenings, book signings and BYOG (Bring Your Own Game) nights. In a recent interview, she noted that when she was developing the idea for Amalgam, she really yearned for a place where people could not only buy their comics, but sit and read them, and even have conversations with others about their love for the medium. “I thought that a space like that would be conducive to some fun conversations, and who doesn't love that?”
Along with today’s mainstay titles in comics, the store will showcase comics from indie and marginalized communities not often represented in the world of comics.
We think that comics are for everyone and anyone that loves comics-women, people of color, and the LGBTQ community. We will actively look to stock titles that showcase people in these groups, right along with Superman, Batman, Captain America, and Thor.
Amalgam Comics & Coffeehouse opened its doors on Dec. 14. The shop has received much community support. From the spaciousness of the shop to the knowledge and friendliness of the staff, reviewers only have good things to say.
*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com
A group of middle school students from Buffalo New York want to test out potato gardening by sending a spud into space with a little help from their friends at NASA.
Last fall, when “The Martian” hit movie theatres, fact-checkers speculated whether potatoes could really grow onMars. Now, a group of middle school students from Buffalo New York want to test out potato gardening by sending a spud into space with a little help from their friends at NASA.
Buffalo News reports Dec. 27 that three students from Hamlin Park School 74 ‒ Gabriella Melendez, Toriana Cornwell and Shaniylah Welch ‒ will see their science experiment entitled “Tuber Growth in Microgravity” sent to the International Space Station (ISS) in the spring/summer of 2016. Their experiment will answer whether the potato can sprout in the ISS laboratory and survive a trip back to earth for subsequent planting.
The self-named “Spud Launchers” were inspired by the film “The Martian” when they came up with their project idea. “We wish to try to grow potatoes on the International Space Station so we can see if the plants will be able to grow on other planets…because of the distinct lack of grocery stores in outer space,” they said.
The project won in a national competition hosted by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE) and was selected to be tested on the ISS. The three students worked with researchers from the the Biological Sciences Department at the University at Buffalo and the Agricultural and Life Sciences Department at Cornell to fine-tune their data and research. It wasn’t just a big win for the students, but also for the world of science which has been working to increase interest in the sciences in today’s youth.
*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com
At the Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain resort in Marana, Arizona, there is a life-size gingerbread house where you can have your dinner. It’s like something out of Hansel and Gretel and comes complete with a roaring fire. But don’t worry, you won’t run into the evil child-eating witch on these premises.
What you will find is a three-course menu, reports the Associated Press Dec. 26. Anyone can walk through the 19-foot high gingerbread house for free so long as no one has reserved it. $150 can get up to six people seating in a space that smells and looks good enough to eat. Then the party can order food and beverages from the hotel kitchen and bar.
The house was built from scratch using gingerbread bricks that were created by top-of-the-line pastry chefs. They used 200 pounds of ginger powder, 400 pounds of honey, 50 pounds of cinnamon and 10 pounds of nutmeg for the house. More than 4,000 bricks in all were created to make the building. The bricks and windows were decorated with gumdrops and candy canes.
The house has been up since Thanksgiving but pastry chefs began construction in June. They made batches of red-tinted gingerbread everyday and then cut them into bricks. It took 13 people and four days to put the house together after the bricks were ready.
The gingerbread bricks are safe to eat (though staff urges visitors to not take souvenirs). Staff saw some children licking gingerbread walls but luckily no one ran off with parts of the house.
The life-sized gingerbread house is a project Ritz-Carlton, Dove Mountain would like to do in some form or another for the 2016 holidays. Although the house isn’t an original idea, it is a bit different than others’ life-size houses which usually just put up a gingerbread facade and ignore the insides of the house.
*originally published at the now defunct Examiner.com
Companion robotsas complex as the “Star Wars” droids R2-D2, C-3PO, and BB-8 don’t seem to be too far in the future.
EunChan Park / YouTube
The caliber and complexity of current innovations in robotics has taken approximately 2400 years to evolve. But robot models in circulation have many helpful qualities that do much more than help with cleaning the floors or baking and cutting your next loaves of bread. From robot delivery drivers to robot nurses (like Baymax from “Big Hero 6”), the world of robotics is creating the very droids you may indeed be looking for, even if you just need a drinking buddy.
RT reports Dec. 26 that a South Korean inventor has done just that. Park Eun Chan along with his wife created Robot Drinky, a friendly skully cap wearing robot who clinks his glass against yours, downs booze, and acts just like your favorite drinking buddy.
This is much better than robot bartenders who simply mix your drinks and don’t even talk to you. As Robot Drinky’s cheeks light up after downing some alcohol, he looks you straight in the face, seemingly listening and responding to your actions and words. Drinky won’t tell others your secrets (he doesn’t talk). Further, since Robot Drinky lacks a digestive system (his lower body is made up of a jar that catches his drinks) you could snag the contents for your own cup and continue letting Robot Drinky drink you under the table.
*originally published on the now defunct Examiner.com
