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21:42:04 02/07/12
Solyndra Unshine, Paterno Rolls and Seal Dateless - NTN #106
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 21:42:04 02/07/12
Nearly The News #106
LET THE DEFAULTED LOANS SHINE IN
A source inside the Obama administration has told Cap News that the solar panels produced by the now defunct Solyndra actually gave the sun more power.
"The sun has never been brighter," said the anonymous source. "We can literally trace how much bigger and hotter its gotten during the time Solyndra was in operation."
Former Solyndra officials indicated that the schematics for the solar panels were drawn backwards, causing a reflective effect, which delivered energy back to the source. The diameter of our sun increased several thousand miles over the course of six years, during which time solar flares reached an all time high, frequently interrupting cell phone service.
http://www.crystalair.com/story.php?id=201201011
ROLLIN’ JOE, ROLLIN’ SLOW
Derfmagazine.com says Penn State’s athletic department has confirmed that the on-campus statue of Joe Paterno has been outfitted with wheels so that it can be used for coaching and recruiting visits. The statue is expected to play the exact same role in recruiting and coaching as Joe Paterno did over the past decade.
Despite losing his job after failing to report allegations of child sexual abuse to police, they still have a soft spot for Paterno at Penn State. “I cannot think of anything that could happen that would make us not want to have him around,” said an un-named official. “And I can’t think of one disgusting, sinister, ungodly ordeal that would change that.”
http://www.derfmagazine.com/news/sports/joe-paterno-statue
And finally…
SEAL: I’VE BEEN DISSED BY A HO…
Famed singer Seal and super model Heidi Klum are divorcing, and experts say it’s highly unlikely the Grammy winning performer will ever be able to bag another woman that hot.
“He’s really shot himself in the foot, and by foot I mean junk” said a dating expert from Maxim Magazine. “I mean, look at her, then look at him. I mean, come on.” The expert went on to say “Seriously, think about it. I mean dude. Really?”
2 Views
16:25:00 01/31/12
RnRTV #274: Travis Barker; Joy Division vs Disney and More!
[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 16:25:00 01/31/12
Rock n Roll TV delivering the rock news to help you focus! Travis Barker nudie pics; Joy Division fans express displeasure with Disney; Iggy Pop named Ambassador; Metallica is good for you!
Blink 182's drummer Travis Barker is threatening a gossip site with legal action after they posted photos of his "private drumstick". ya know.. schlong. Ding dong. Mediatakeout.com posted nude pics of an unnamed musician that were sent in by a female admirer. But Travis' instantly recognizable tattoos were also visible in the pic and the anonymity was gone. Meanwhile, Blink 182 are busy working on a new album.
Fans of Joy Division voiced their displeasure with the Walt Disney Company after they used the band's iconic Unknown Pleasures album cover as the basis of a t-shirt design featuring the one and only Mickey Mouse. The image is of the first pulsar ever detected and while it is in the public domain, Disney pulled the shirt from both their shelves and online stores. Now the secondary market has taken over and the shirt is selling on Ebay for more than $250.
SHORTS
Bruce is back in 2012. A new album, the keynote at sxsw and... he's hitting the road with a string of US dates with the E Street Band starting in March.
Iggy Pop has been named ambassador for Record Store Day 2012 taking place April 21.
Motley Crue's Nikki Sixx reignited the war with Godsmack frontman Sully Erna when he said.. "We're looking for an angry midget for our Vegas shows and I was thinking of using the singer from Godsmack."
Guitarist Johnny Marr has created three one of a kind backpacks to benefit Designers Against AIDS education center.
---------------------
WHATEVER:
Demi Lovato is not in rehab. I repeat, Demi Lovato is NOT in rehab.
Miley Cyrus shocked everyone at her bf's bday party by posing with a cake shaped like a man's ding dong!
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It's true! Metallica can make you feel better! In her latest book, Your Playlist Can Change Your Life: 10 Proven Ways Your Favorite Music can Revoluionize Your Health, Memory, Organization, Alertness and More, Columbia University professor Galina Mindlin assert that rocking out to song with a certain number of beats per minute can generate specific mental states … such as productivity and relaxation!
Guess what? Metallica's tunes fall into that category. The next time your boss catches you rocking' out to Metallica on your iPod? Tell them you're "achieving a state of high mental alertness so you can focus better!"
Legends of Rock like Iggy Pop know how to roll with the times. Now you can roll with a stress free car rental experience when you choose Avis and use our Avis coupon code to help out even more!
0 Views
22:42:06 01/25/12
Mujeres - "LA": SXSW 2012 Showcasing Artist
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 22:42:06 01/25/12
Mujeres - "LA": SXSW 2012 Showcasing Artist
We met at University, studying cinema and ended up being friends. After graduation we thought that the best way to keep the four of us united was creating a rock and roll band. That's how Mujeres was born. Everything else is unimportant. From: sxsw Views: 273 6 ratings Time: 03:03 More in Entertainment
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22:42:06 01/25/12
Mujeres - "LA": SXSW 2012 Showcasing Artist
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 22:42:06 01/25/12
Mujeres - "LA": SXSW 2012 Showcasing Artist
We met at University, studying cinema and ended up being friends. After graduation we thought that the best way to keep the four of us united was creating a rock and roll band. That's how Mujeres was born. Everything else is unimportant. From: sxsw Views: 126 5 ratings Time: 03:03 More in Entertainment
1 Views
21:58:51 01/24/12
Celeb Twitpics of the Week: Ashley Tisdale, Selena & More
[LESS INFO] 1 VIEWS | ADDED 21:58:51 01/24/12
Celeb Twitpics of the Week: Ashley Tisdale, Selena & More
PHOTOS: Ashley Tisdale posts sexy pics of her dance moves, Lauren Conrad shares her new candy hair color, Demi Lovato's shocking news and more! When it comes to Hollywood- there's no such thing as TMI thanks to the paparazzi! But lately, thanks to twitter...we get the inside scoop from the celebs themselves! Check out our favorite twit pics of the week. Someone has come a long way since high school! Ashley Tisdale decided it would be a great idea to go out with her friends and have them take sexy pics of her dance moves...and then post them on twitter. The Tis had no problem showin' off her sexy moves in this white tee shirt- filled with holes and captioned one photo: #Whenthemusicisloud. But the photo fun didn't stop in the club...outside Ash showed off her crew in this pic and tweeted: This is how we roll #escaladedeep. Looks like a fun night! We love that Lauren Conrad is fearless when it comes to the color of her hair- and she isn't afraid to show it off! She just tweeted her new look and said: "My cotton Candy Bun" So is candy the new ombre? And while we really wanted Selena Gomez's latest tweet to be about Justin Bieber...as soon as we saw the photo we knew she was talking about her other best friend! It's ok Justin- we're sure she misses you too! But one member of young Hollywood decided to totally pull the plug on Twitter this week! Demi Lovato's 5.6 million followers were shocked when she announced on Saturday that she was dunzo saying: Twitter break. It's for ... From: CelebTV Views: 1032 9 ratings Time: 01:37 More in Entertainment
0 Views
21:58:51 01/24/12
Celeb Twitpics of the Week: Ashley Tisdale, Selena & More
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 21:58:51 01/24/12
Celeb Twitpics of the Week: Ashley Tisdale, Selena & More
PHOTOS: Ashley Tisdale posts sexy pics of her dance moves, Lauren Conrad shares her new candy hair color, Demi Lovato's shocking news and more! When it comes to Hollywood- there's no such thing as TMI thanks to the paparazzi! But lately, thanks to twitter...we get the inside scoop from the celebs themselves! Check out our favorite twit pics of the week. Someone has come a long way since high school! Ashley Tisdale decided it would be a great idea to go out with her friends and have them take sexy pics of her dance moves...and then post them on twitter. The Tis had no problem showin' off her sexy moves in this white tee shirt- filled with holes and captioned one photo: #Whenthemusicisloud. But the photo fun didn't stop in the club...outside Ash showed off her crew in this pic and tweeted: This is how we roll #escaladedeep. Looks like a fun night! We love that Lauren Conrad is fearless when it comes to the color of her hair- and she isn't afraid to show it off! She just tweeted her new look and said: "My cotton Candy Bun" So is candy the new ombre? And while we really wanted Selena Gomez's latest tweet to be about Justin Bieber...as soon as we saw the photo we knew she was talking about her other best friend! It's ok Justin- we're sure she misses you too! But one member of young Hollywood decided to totally pull the plug on Twitter this week! Demi Lovato's 5.6 million followers were shocked when she announced on Saturday that she was dunzo saying: Twitter break. It's for ... From: CelebTV Views: 1002 9 ratings Time: 01:37 More in Entertainment
0 Views
05:01:21 01/18/12
How to Celebrate Chinese New Year
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 05:01:21 01/18/12
On the eve of January 22, Chinese the world over will gather to usher in the Year of the Dragon. New Year is unlike any other festival of the lunar calendar. Preparations begin weeks in advance: Houses are cleaned from top to bottom. All accounts with tradespeople are settled and the cooks in the family pause to plan the New Year’s feast. In Chinese astrology anyone born during the year of the dragon is special and it is considered to be a year filled with good fortune- a wish we all need in these challenging times. On New Year’s eve, the whole family gathers for a huge banquet and certain foods are de rigeur for the holiday. There may be spring rolls which symbolize bricks of gold bricks. Dumplings are often boiled, steamed, or pan-fried when they are said to resemble golden coins. Noodles symbolize and impart a wish of longevity. They are also the Chinese equivalent of a birthday cake and since everyone is a year older, the New Year is also a type of birthday celebration. Many Chinese families prefer to serve only vegetarian dishes for New Year’s meal. Bowls of oranges and tangerines are put on display to be eaten and they also imply a wish for happiness and prosperity. Jennifer Che, of the popular website TinyUrbanKitchen.com and I got together to make TWO recipes: Jennifer made homemade dumplings from scratch (Her recipe is on her website and we have on ours to PLUS I made a simpler, but no-less-delicious recipe from my new book Simple Asian Meals :Gingery Faux Won Ton Soup with Bow Tie Pasta. Here’s wishing you all a healthy and happy New Year filled with good fortune! ENJOY!!
0 Views
23:36:19 01/13/12
Madonna Reveals Name of New Album and Thoughts on Lady Gaga
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 23:36:19 01/13/12
Madonna Reveals Name of New Album and Thoughts on Lady Gaga Hey everyone I am Diana Madison for Hollyscoop. Alright all your Madonna fans, the queen of pop has revealed the name of her 12th studio album, drum roll please....the album is called MDNA. We now know what the album is called and the lead single is "Give Me All Your Luvin'" complete with that cutesy way of spelling "loving." However, when is the album going to come out? "It's soon," says Madonna, "It depends how quickly people hac
0 Views
22:48:19 01/08/12
How To Make The Cinnamon Roll
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 22:48:19 01/08/12
First, watch the ENTIRE episode for outtakes. Secondly, we are busting through the cinnamon roll shooter, which we find can also become be a nice sipping cocktail. The recipe is: 1/2 oz. Cinnamon Schnapps, 1 oz. Whip cream Vodka, 1/2 oz. Simple Syrup.
0 Views
22:48:19 01/08/12
How To Make The Cinnamon Roll
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 22:48:19 01/08/12
First, watch the ENTIRE episode for outtakes. Secondly, we are busting through the cinnamon roll shooter, which we find can also become be a nice sipping cocktail. The recipe is: 1/2 oz. Cinnamon Schnapps, 1 oz. Whip cream Vodka, 1/2 oz. Simple Syrup.
6 Views
16:00:56 12/29/11
Mitt Romney's Big Promises - and Bigger Lies
[LESS INFO] 6 VIEWS | ADDED 16:00:56 12/29/11
Click here to view this media
In the election of 1928, the Republican Party of Herbert Hoover promised voters "a chicken in every pot and a car in every backyard." (We all know how that turned out.) Now, Mitt Romney is pledging that "If I'm President" every college graduate will be guaranteed a job, Iran will have no nuclear weapons and the United States will dominate the 21st century. And when Romney isn't making fantastic promises about what he'll do when he gets to the White House, he's slandering the current occupant , Barack Obama.
"I Won't Let Iran Get Nukes"
Governor Romney's guarantees start with Iran and its nuclear program . In a November 10, 2011 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Romney pledged, " I won't let Iran get nukes ." Or as he put it 10 days earlier during a GOP national security debate : >
"If we re-elect Barack Obama, Iran will have a nuclear weapon. If you elect me as president, Iran will not have a nuclear weapon."
As to how he'll ensure that outcome, Romney explained that "If you want peace, prepare for war." And despite occasionally acknowledging the complexity of a strike against Iran and even the questionable possibility of success, Romney told the Wall Street Journal this weekend how he would get it done: >
So what would he do about it? "I do not have a top secret security clearance at this stage to be able to define precisely what kinds of actions we could take." But he adds that "the range includes something of a blockade nature, to something of a surgical strike nature, to something of a decapitate the regime nature, to eliminate the military threat of Iran altogether."
No U.S. Decline in Romney's "American Century"
Romney's promise to "eliminate the military threat of Iran altogether" is just part of his larger assurance that the 21st century will be another " American Century ." Pretending that the rise of India, China and Brazil doesn't inevitably entail the relative loss of U.S. power and influence, Romney announced in his October address at The Citadel : >
"This century must be an American Century. In an American Century, America has the strongest economy and the strongest military in the world. In an American Century, America leads the free world and the free world leads the entire world...As President of the United States, I will devote myself to an American Century. And I will never, ever apologize for America."
Not content to rest there, Romney accused President Obama of "waving the white flag of surrender": >
"An eloquently justified surrender of world leadership is still surrender. >
I will not surrender America's role in the world. This is very simple: If you do not want America to be the strongest nation on Earth, I am not your President. >
You have that President today."
Two months later, Mitt Romney repackaged his promise and his slander at the December 15 Republican debate in Sioux City, Iowa: >
"Our president thinks America is in decline. It is if he's president. It's not if I'm president. This is going to be an American century."
As for Romney's charge that President Obama "went around the world and apologized for America," the Washington Post Fact Checker deemed it a Four-Pinocchio lie .
A Job for Every College Graduate
At an event in New Hampshire last week, Governor Romney's pandering went from the sublime to the ridiculous. There, Mitt pledged President Romney would deliver full-employment for all American college graduates: >
"What I can promise you is this -- when you get out of college, if I'm president you'll have a job. If President Obama is reelected, you will not be able to get a job. That's the reason I will hopefully get young people who are in college is to say, You know what, I understand what it takes to get jobs in America."
As the record shows , not so much. After all, as the Los Angeles Times recently documented, Romney's "Bain Capital often maximized profits in part by firing workers." That's why FactCheck.org , the Washington Post Fact Checker and Fortune all refused to vouch for Romney's claim that "In those hundreds of businesses we invested in, tens of thousands of jobs net-net were created."
Obama "Has Not Created Any New Jobs"
If Mitt Romney can't prove his boasts about his own job creation record, neither can he justify his blatant lie about President Obama's : >
"25 million people are out of work because of Barack Obama. And so I'll compare my experience in the private sector where, net-net, we created over 100,000 jobs." >
"I'll compare that record with his record, where he has not created any new jobs."
Sadly for Mitt Romney, the Bush recession began in December 2007. As ThinkProgress rightly noted, "The private sector has added 2.3 million new jobs since March 2010, and it took the Obama economy one year to create more jobs than the economy under President Bush did in eight." As The Economist explained earlier, the recession was not at its deepest just as Barack Obama was entering office, but far worse than official statistics revealed at the time. Romney might also want to check with former McCain economic adviser Mark Zandi as well as the non-partisan CBO , who concluded that the Obama stimulus program "added up to 0.9 million jobs in 2009, 3.3 million jobs in 2010 and 2.6 million jobs in 2011."
Obama's Debt Exceeds All Previous Presidents Combined
Mitt Romney didn't just lie about Barack Obama's jobs record. At the Sioux City debate, he got President Obama's contribution to the federal debt all wrong as well: >
"We all understand that the spending crisis is extraordinary, with $15 trillion now in debt, with a president that's racked up as much debt as almost all of the other presidents combined."
Of course, we don't all understand that, because it's not true . After Ronald Reagan tripled the gross national debt and George W. Bush doubled it again, Uncle Sam's red ink totaled almost $11 trillion when Barack Obama took the oath of office.
Obama is "Taking over 100 Percent" of Health Care
In his desperate quest to win over conservative Republican primary voters, Mitt Romney has turned his back on his signature achievement which he once boasted was a health care model for the nation. And to do it, Romney has been lying for months by telling voters "Obamacare is about taking over 100 percent of the people's insurance in this country."
In a September 15, 2011 interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer , Romney made the same charge: >
"The Massachusetts plan was crafted for Massachusetts, for the needs of 8 percent of our population that didn't have insurance, not for the 92 percent that did. Obamacare is a plan that takes over 100 percent of the people in the country and their health care, and that's one of the reasons why people don't want it."
Sadly for Mitt Romney, repetition of a lie doesn't make it any more true.
The Affordable Care Act passed by Congress and signed by President Obama in the spring of 2010 targets the 17 percent of people (over 50 million people) who are uninsured . As Politifact explained in deeming Romney's fraud another "Pants on Fire" lie: >
According to the Census Bureau, the percentage of Americans without health insurance nationally was slightly under 17 percent in 2009, the year Obama began pushing for the bill. According to a Congressional Budget Office estimate, the number was about the same in 2010, when the measure was signed into law. Other estimates have pegged the national number at about 15 percent.
As Henry Aaron, a senior fellow with the centrist-to-liberal Brookings Institution right noted, comparing 8 percent to 17 percent "would have been apples to apples" when it comes to the impact of the individual mandate at the center of both the Massachusetts and national plans. Sadly, Politifact concluded, Romney was guilty of "a felony case of comparing apples and oranges."
Romney "Will Reverse President Obama's Massive Defense Cuts"
During that same "American Century" speech in October, Governor Romney pledged: >
"I will reverse President Obama's massive defense cuts. Time and again, we have seen that attempts to balance the budget by weakening our military only lead to a far higher price, not only in treasure, but in blood."
Sadly for Romney, as Steve Benen pointed out, defense spending has not only gone up every year of the Obama presidency . It is higher than it ever was when George W. Bush sat in the Oval Office.
Of course, Romney's confusion over matters of war and peace are hardly new. In an April op-ed for the Manchester Union Leader, Mitt forgot about the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan as he denounced President Obama for "one of the biggest peacetime spending binges in American history."
Obama's "Equal Outcomes" and "Entitlement Society"
Last week, the Romney campaign rolled out what may well become the meta-theme and meta-lie for the 2012 general election race.
After President Obama declared in his Osawatomie, Kansas address that Republican trickle down economics "never worked," Romney struck back. Just not with the truth: >
"Just a couple of weeks ago in Kansas, President Obama lectured us about Teddy Roosevelt's philosophy of government. But he failed to mention the important difference between Teddy Roosevelt and Barack Obama. Roosevelt believed that government should level the playing field to create equal opportunities. President Obama believes that government should create equal outcomes. >
"In an entitlement society, everyone receives the same or similar rewards, regardless of education, effort, and willingness to take risk. That which is earned by some is redistributed to the others. And the only people who truly enjoy any real rewards are those who do the redistributing -- the government. >
"The truth is that everyone may get the same rewards, but virtually everyone will be worse off."
By raising the mythical red menace of communism and falsely attributing it to Barack Obama, Romney in the words of Paul Krugman had introduced " The Big Lie " into his " Post-Truth Campaign ." While Andrew Sullivan announced "Mitt Romney is a big, fat liar," Steve Benen lamented that "Romney, allegedly the responsible one in the Republican field, has been reduced to lying uncontrollably." And while Greg Sargent in the past had expressed amazement at "Mitt Romney's casual, effortless falsehoods," New York Magazine's Jonathan Chait explained that Romney's red scare rose to a whole new level of duplicity: >
"This isn't just a casual line. In eight sentences, Romney asserts over and over again that Obama wants to create "equal outcomes" and give everybody the "same rewards." This is nuts, Glenn Beck-level insane. Restoring Clinton-era taxes is not a plan to equalize outcomes, or even close. It's not even a plan to stop rising inequality. Obama's America will continue to be the most unequal society in the advanced world -- only slightly less so. The alternative proposals accelerate inequality even further."
Of course, as the proliferating profiles from the Wall Street Journal , the New York Times , the Washington Post and others show, Mitt Romney is no stranger to inequality. Legendarily cheap and analytical , as a Harvard Business School student Romney gave a presentation to his classmates that "proved the value of family time based not on emotion but on yield." Two Romney quotes - " I love business " and " I love data " - seem to sum up the man.
As for loving the truth, that for Mitt Romney is apparently another matter altogether.
(This piece also appears at Perrspectives .)
24 Views
18:21:09 12/28/11
GoingNative 5: Inside the Visual C++ IDE, Meet Raul Pérez
[LESS INFO] 24 VIEWS | ADDED 18:21:09 12/28/11
Happy Holidays to all of you out there who are in some sort of holiday state. If not, then happy holidays anyway from Diego, Charles, C9, and VC
We don't cover software testing—the job discipline—often enough on C9. We aim to change that starting now.
A friend of Diego's on the VC++ team, Raul Pérez , is a software developer from Puerto Rico who works in QA for the Visual C++ IDE team. He writes tests to make sure the very-front-end of the VC toolchain—the IDE and its design-time compiler infrastructure — works as expected.
There's a lot going on when you type characters into the VC++ editor. What happens, exactly? Why? What types of things can make Intellisense fast? What types of things can hinder the performance of the IDE? How does all of this magic happen? There's a compiler involved in all of this. It's not the front-end compiler (cl), but it is a front-end compiler and it compiles your source into data that's stored in a local DB for design-time use by Intellisense, Go-To-Definition, Syntax Coloring, Reference Highlighting, Auto-Completion, etc... All of these things are part of the set of IDE features that make Visual C++ visual ... So, meet Raul and learn a thing or two about how the IDE works under the covers and how the system has evolved over time.
Table of Contents (click time code links to navigate player accordingly)
[00:00] GoingNative();//Getting faster at show construction - still have some optimizations to make...
[01:56] Charles interviews Raul about Raul and the VC++ design-time system (Intellisense, Go-to-Definition, Auto-complete, Syntax coloring, etc...)
[37:20] ~GoingNative(); //We're really performant this time
We really want to hear from you , so please tweet feedback to @C9GoingNative (follow us!) and send your requests, ideas, complaints, praises, hate mail, and love letters to C9GoingNative [at] hotmail [dot] com . We will read and respond to all messages! That's how we roll, brothers and sisters. And if you're a Facebook user, please join our C9::GoingNative Facebook group .
Go native!
29 Views
18:21:09 12/28/11
GoingNative 5: Inside the Visual C++ IDE, Meet Raul Pérez
[LESS INFO] 29 VIEWS | ADDED 18:21:09 12/28/11
Happy Holidays to all of you out there who are in some sort of holiday state. If not, then happy holidays anyway from Diego, Charles, C9, and VC
We don't cover software testing—the job discipline—often enough on C9. We aim to change that starting now.
A friend of Diego's on the VC++ team, Raul Pérez , is a software developer from Puerto Rico who works in QA for the Visual C++ IDE team. He writes tests to make sure the very-front-end of the VC toolchain—the IDE and its design-time compiler infrastructure — works as expected.
There's a lot going on when you type characters into the VC++ editor. What happens, exactly? Why? What types of things can make Intellisense fast? What types of things can hinder the performance of the IDE? How does all of this magic happen? There's a compiler involved in all of this. It's not the front-end compiler (cl), but it is a front-end compiler and it compiles your source into data that's stored in a local DB for design-time use by Intellisense, Go-To-Definition, Syntax Coloring, Reference Highlighting, Auto-Completion, etc... All of these things are part of the set of IDE features that make Visual C++ visual ... So, meet Raul and learn a thing or two about how the IDE works under the covers and how the system has evolved over time.
Table of Contents (click time code links to navigate player accordingly)
[00:00] GoingNative();//Getting faster at show construction - still have some optimizations to make...
[01:56] Charles interviews Raul about Raul and the VC++ design-time system (Intellisense, Go-to-Definition, Auto-complete, Syntax coloring, etc...)
[37:20] ~GoingNative(); //We're really performant this time
We really want to hear from you , so please tweet feedback to @C9GoingNative (follow us!) and send your requests, ideas, complaints, praises, hate mail, and love letters to C9GoingNative [at] hotmail [dot] com . We will read and respond to all messages! That's how we roll, brothers and sisters. And if you're a Facebook user, please join our C9::GoingNative Facebook group .
Go native!
0 Views
07:41:54 12/28/11
On "If I were a poor Black kid"...
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 07:41:54 12/28/11
[ VIDEO ] Joe Hicks discusses the controversy over Gene Marks' blog post at Forbes entitled " If I were a poor Black kid ". Basically he asks, "Why can't white people contribute to the national dialogue on race and racism?"
It does seem like a cop out to just tell someone that they have nothing to say because they're not a poor Black child so they can't relate in any way. I've had a white geography teacher in high school - GO FALCONS - who said that he could relate because he was poor. Of course the conclusion could be that he thinks all Blacks are poor, but that's only a thought and not necessarily based on reality.
All the same Marks bounces off of a recent speech by President Obama in Kansas where he discussed the gap between the rich and the poor:
> The President’s speech got me thinking. My kids are no smarter than similar kids their age from the inner city. My kids have it much easier than their counterparts from West Philadelphia . The world is not fair to those kids mainly because they had the misfortune of being born two miles away into a more difficult part of the world and with a skin color that makes realizing the opportunities that the President spoke about that much harder. This is a fact. In 2011.
I am not a poor black kid. I am a middle aged white guy who comes from a middle class white background. So life was easier for me. But that doesn’t mean that the prospects are impossible for those kids from the inner city. It doesn’t mean that there are no opportunities for them. Or that the 1% control the world and the rest of us have to fight over the scraps left behind. I don’t believe that. I believe that everyone in this country has a chance to succeed. Still. In 2011. Even a poor black kid in West Philadelphia.
It takes brains. It takes hard work. It takes a little luck. And a little help from others. It takes the ability and the know-how to use the resources that are available. Like technology. As a person who sells and has worked with technology all my life I also know this.
If I was a poor black kid I would first and most importantly work to make sure I got the best grades possible. I would make it my #1 priority to be able to read sufficiently. I wouldn’t care if I was a student at the worst public middle school in the worst inner city. Even the worst have their best. And the very best students, even at the worst schools, have more opportunities. Getting good grades is the key to having more options. With good grades you can choose different, better paths. If you do poorly in school, particularly in a lousy school, you’re severely limiting the limited opportunities you have.
And I would use the technology available to me as a student. I know a few school teachers and they tell me that many inner city parents usually have or can afford cheap computers and internet service nowadays. That because (and sadly) it’s oftentimes a necessary thing to keep their kids safe at home than on the streets. And libraries and schools have computers available too. Computers can be purchased cheaply at outlets like TigerDirect and Dell’s Outlet . Professional organizations like accountants and architects often offer used computers from their members, sometimes at no cost at all. You will see at the end of this posting links to several rebuts to Marks' comments. I will add my two cents just as Hicks and those other links have.
I didn't go to the very best schools in Chicago. I'd say my old elementary school was an average at best school and my old high school - when I attended - was one of the worst. My marks weren't that great in elementary school but for some reason my marks in high school were often in the honor roll range. With that in mind though I consider that a fluke today.
My time in high school wasn't a time to seek out options. I never thought of my grades as a ticket mainly because they were had too easy. It was never a challenge academically and who knows how that would've been weathered. The serious challenge was in college where I struggled to keep up.
If only I had the tools back then that the young people have today to help me study and understand the various subjects. I wouldn't just be ahead of my peers but it would be light years ahead of them. But when I was in public school most of those tools did not yet exist.
In spite of the nay sayers - and I will get to one in a moment - Marks isn't wrong. Make the best grades you can where you are take advantage of all the tools you can. Don't have a PC at home go somewhere to use one, especially the library. At that there are people at your school who if you establish a relationship with them will help you move forward.
This nay sayer, well is making more of this than he realizes:
> No believer in Bell Curv-ish nonsense about black intellectual inferiority, Marks makes clear that the children about whom he speaks are no less capable than his own kids. Of course, one wonders just how much of a compliment Marks really intends for this to be, given his strange habit of dissing his offspring, on more than one occasion, as rather unintelligent, unmotivated, promiscuous and even inclined to petty criminality. Not sure what kind of asshole says things like this about his children in print, but I suppose we can leave that discussion for another day.
No doubt Marks would say that he was simply encouraging poor African American kids to take personal responsibility for their success. He might even say that by acknowledging unfair and unjust structural inequity (and even, indirectly, white privilege), he was doing so in a politically ecumenical way. Certainly Marks would perceive his words and intentions as quite different from those of right-wingers whose hectoring of the poor so often involves blaming those at the bottom of the nation’s economic hierarchy for their station in life. To Marks, poor black kids are not to blame for the position in which they find themselves, but they nonetheless hold the keys to their own liberation, and if they would simply follow his sage counsel they could surely make it, like anyone else: even the cerebrally challenged and oversexed spawn who slumber each night just down the hall from he and his wife.
There is much one could say about Marks’s advice — rather typical bootstrapping fare about studying hard, coupled with a more modern emphasis on becoming a techie like him, and thereby, presumably, an irresistible college or job applicant — and most of it has been said already. Like, for instance, this piece , or this one , or this one , or maybe this one , all of which eloquently critique the privileged and naive mindset displayed by Marks, and explain how even when poor kids of color do everything right, the structures of society are too often set up to help them fail anyway.
...
And it’s this last point that we might do well to explore further. Fact is, Gene Marks knows his readership at Forbes . He knows that it includes virtually none of the people to whom he is ostensibly offering advice, which means that he isn’t really giving them advice at all; rather, he is inviting his mostly white, mostly affluent audience to engage in a perverse moralistic voyeurism at the expense of impoverished African American youth, almost none of whom that readership will ever meet, and whom they will, in fact, go out of their way to avoid. He is offering a kind of secret white-male handshake to others in the club, assuring them that the problems of urban poverty are not theirs to fix, that they are off the hook as it were, and isn’t that a relief? That Marks may not be as vile in his desire to blame the poor for their status as some, hardly acquits him of the charge that by pandering to the biases of his readership, he has, with some 700-odd simple (and simplistic) words, managed to reinscribe all the worst of their prejudices, many of which one can see on grand display in the readers’ comments section of the original article. Make no mistake, Gene Marks’s column is contempt cloaked as compassion and bigotry dressed up as benevolence. And it can do nothing but contribute to the indifference and even antipathy towards the poor that those who rely on Forbes for insights already possess in ample supply. Starting with that last paragraph it's true, Forbes may not have a significant audience in poor inner city communities. Without having to purchase a subscription you can always go to a library to access past issues of magazines. Also with internet access you can access magazines as well and blog posts such as this one which surely don't require a subscription.
As for Mr. Tim Wise who wrote the above excerpts, how is he going to call that man out for what he refers to his kids. Yeah it may be wrong to say your kids are very bright, but somewhere out there some parent is doing it. I also recognize that Marks is merely a commentator who is definitely using his platform to say what he wants to say.
The main point surely Marks is making is that his children are not much different than poor inner city children. Just that they have different opportunities living in a different part of the Philadelphia area than the inner city children. Perhaps even different expectations from parents, perhaps different staff and different schools. He didn't write the "poor black kid" piece to denigrate his children.
I think what he wrote was real. It shouldn't be impeached merely for that reason. That alone is weak! Although to Mr. Wise's credit he is at least has some suggestions for Marks to put his money where his mouth is. Marks could always help get the information out aside from using his platform at Forbes.
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21:44:09 12/23/11
The difference: What 40 Dollars Means
[LESS INFO] 6 VIEWS | ADDED 21:44:09 12/23/11
The President had a chance to meet a few of the folks who took to the web to make the pay roll tax cut happen. Take a moment to hear what they had to say. It began when we asked everyone to show how that missing $40 would affect them and their families. In a matter of hours thousands of vivid, powerful stories from Americans of all ages, all backgrounds, from every corner across the country were pouring in. For some, $40 means dinner out with a child who's home for Christmas, for others a tank of gas or a charitable donation. In just two days, tens of thousands of Americans were making their voice heard.
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19:52:09 12/23/11
The difference: What 40 Dollars Means
[LESS INFO] 0 VIEWS | ADDED 19:52:09 12/23/11
The difference: What 40 Dollars Means
The President had a chance to meet a few of the folks who took to the web to make the pay roll tax cut happen. Take a moment to hear what they had to say. It began when we asked everyone to show how that missing $40 would affect them and their families. In a matter of hours thousands of vivid, powerful stories from Americans of all ages, all backgrounds, from every corner across the country were pouring in. For some, $40 means dinner out with a child who's home for Christmas, for others a tank of gas or a charitable donation. In just two days, tens of thousands of Americans were making their voice heard. From: whitehouse Views: 43786 410 ratings Time: 02:34 More in News & Politics







