Sunday, December 19, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
This holiday season send your prayers where they are needed
Please pray for a peaceful resolution to the turmoil in the Cote d'Ivoire. It seemed as if they had left the conflicts of 2003 behind, pray that the ghosts of the past don't resurface for the next generation.
Sunday, November 28, 2010
Friday, November 19, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Probably my favorite television sequence (excluding all seasons of the wire)
To understand the beauty of this scene you have to take into context the setting. First you must understand that he is completely lying through is teeth, Tony the alpha male of the group, the boss of the New Jersey family is lying to his capos out of his own weakness. Throughout the Sopranos we are shown Tony vulnerable to many things, his family, mental disease, physical injuries however he always ruled over his crew with an iron fist. And in this minute and a half we see how they control him as well, like most things his bravado and fearless command is all a facade. The music is also flawless.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
Beautiful Lies - B complex
Some of you don't know I got very into dubstep over the summer, this is one of my favorite songs ever.
Sunday, November 14, 2010
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (With Album Artwork) - Kanye West
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Monday, November 8, 2010
Does Obama seek to gain India as an economic "ally' against an unwavering Chinese Yuan?
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Fall For Your Type (Full Version, solo Drake) - Drake
Yea this is a re-post of a song, Drake redid the extended version singing Jamie Foxx's verses. What do y'all think?
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Friday, October 29, 2010
Divided We Fail - Paul Krugman
Barring a huge upset, Republicans will take control of at least one house of Congress next week. How worried should we be by that prospect?
Not very, say some pundits. After all, the last time Republicans controlled Congress while a Democrat lived in the White House was the period from the beginning of 1995 to the end of 2000. And people remember that era as a good time, a time of rapid job creation and responsible budgets. Can we hope for a similar experience now?
No, we can’t. This is going to be terrible. In fact, future historians will probably look back at the 2010 election as a catastrophe for America, one that condemned the nation to years of political chaos and economic weakness.
Start with the politics.
In the late-1990s, Republicans and Democrats were able to work together on some issues. President Obama seems to believe that the same thing can happen again today. In a recent interview with National Journal, he sounded a conciliatory note, saying that Democrats need to have an “appropriate sense of humility,” and that he would “spend more time building consensus.” Good luck with that.
After all, that era of partial cooperation in the 1990s came only after Republicans had tried all-out confrontation, actually shutting down the federal government in an effort to force President Bill Clinton to give in to their demands for big cuts in Medicare.
Now, the government shutdown ended up hurting Republicans politically, and some observers seem to assume that memories of that experience will deter the G.O.P. from being too confrontational this time around. But the lesson current Republicans seem to have drawn from 1995 isn’t that they were too confrontational, it’s that they weren’t confrontational enough.
Another recent interview by National Journal, this one with Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, has received a lot of attention thanks to a headline-grabbing quote: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
Continue at NY Times
Not very, say some pundits. After all, the last time Republicans controlled Congress while a Democrat lived in the White House was the period from the beginning of 1995 to the end of 2000. And people remember that era as a good time, a time of rapid job creation and responsible budgets. Can we hope for a similar experience now?
No, we can’t. This is going to be terrible. In fact, future historians will probably look back at the 2010 election as a catastrophe for America, one that condemned the nation to years of political chaos and economic weakness.
Start with the politics.
In the late-1990s, Republicans and Democrats were able to work together on some issues. President Obama seems to believe that the same thing can happen again today. In a recent interview with National Journal, he sounded a conciliatory note, saying that Democrats need to have an “appropriate sense of humility,” and that he would “spend more time building consensus.” Good luck with that.
After all, that era of partial cooperation in the 1990s came only after Republicans had tried all-out confrontation, actually shutting down the federal government in an effort to force President Bill Clinton to give in to their demands for big cuts in Medicare.
Now, the government shutdown ended up hurting Republicans politically, and some observers seem to assume that memories of that experience will deter the G.O.P. from being too confrontational this time around. But the lesson current Republicans seem to have drawn from 1995 isn’t that they were too confrontational, it’s that they weren’t confrontational enough.
Another recent interview by National Journal, this one with Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, has received a lot of attention thanks to a headline-grabbing quote: “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
Continue at NY Times
Thursday, October 28, 2010
So Far Gone
Why Drake is my favorite artist right now; I can relate.
"The whole tape extends from one of my closest friends Oliver. One night we were having a discussion about women and the way we were talking about them, it was so brazen and so disrespectful. He texted me right after we got off the phone and he was like, 'Are we becoming the men that our mothers divorced?' That's really where the cover comes from, too. It's just this kid in pursuit of love and money. We're good guys, I'm friends with some real good people and for him to even text me after we got off the phone it just showed we have a conscience. But sometimes you just get so far gone, you get wrapped up in this shit. The title has a lot of meanings—as the way we carry ourselves, the way we dress, the way people view us, not to sound cocky, it's just that feeling that we're just distanced in a good way. You’re just elevating past the bullshit and past all the shit that you used to be a part of and you're not that proud of, you're just so far gone." - Drake
"The whole tape extends from one of my closest friends Oliver. One night we were having a discussion about women and the way we were talking about them, it was so brazen and so disrespectful. He texted me right after we got off the phone and he was like, 'Are we becoming the men that our mothers divorced?' That's really where the cover comes from, too. It's just this kid in pursuit of love and money. We're good guys, I'm friends with some real good people and for him to even text me after we got off the phone it just showed we have a conscience. But sometimes you just get so far gone, you get wrapped up in this shit. The title has a lot of meanings—as the way we carry ourselves, the way we dress, the way people view us, not to sound cocky, it's just that feeling that we're just distanced in a good way. You’re just elevating past the bullshit and past all the shit that you used to be a part of and you're not that proud of, you're just so far gone." - Drake
James Bond's true "M" finally revealed
Defending Secrecy, British Spy Chief Goes Public
LONDON — At an appropriately hush-hush site, before a not-so-hush-hush audience of newspaper editors and television cameras, Sir John Sawers, the head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, on Thursday delivered what he said was the first public address by a serving chief of the agency in its 101-year history.
His speech ranged from questions about Al Qaeda abroad to accountability at home, from nuclear proliferation in Iran to terrorism and on to the fraught issue of torture in the pursuit of secret information. He praised Britain’s secret agents as “true heroes” in some of the world’s most dangerous places.
But Sir John, whose organization is widely known as MI6, devoted much of his 30-minute address to the central role of secrecy in maintaining security — a reaffirmation of traditional tradecraft in an era of leaks and pressure for ever-greater disclosure.
“Secrecy is not a dirty word,” he said. “Secrecy is not there as a cover-up. Secrecy plays a crucial part in keeping Britain safe and secure.”
“If our operations and methods become public, they won’t work,” he said.
While he has not spoken publicly spoken before about the work of MI6, he made two public appearances to give evidence at an official inquiry into the Iraq war, both about earlier assignments as a foreign policy adviser to former Prime Minister Tony Blair and as the British representative in Baghdad.
His appearance Thursday reinforced a trend among Britain’s spy bosses to shed the traditional cloak of their trade. Sir John’s appearance followed a first public speech by Iain Lobban, the director of Britain’s electronic eavesdropping agency, and several appearances by Jonathan Evans, the director general of MI5, which is responsible for domestic security in contrast to MI6’s focus on overseas operations. In 2006, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, Mr. Evans’s predecessor, made headlines when she gave a speech warning of the range of terrorist threats Britain faced.
“Why now, might you ask?” Sir John said of his decision to go public. The answer, he said, was that despite its prominence in the news, the debate about MI6 was not well informed, and “in today’s open society, no government institution is given the benefit of the doubt all the time.”
Continue at NY Times
LONDON — At an appropriately hush-hush site, before a not-so-hush-hush audience of newspaper editors and television cameras, Sir John Sawers, the head of Britain’s Secret Intelligence Service, on Thursday delivered what he said was the first public address by a serving chief of the agency in its 101-year history.
His speech ranged from questions about Al Qaeda abroad to accountability at home, from nuclear proliferation in Iran to terrorism and on to the fraught issue of torture in the pursuit of secret information. He praised Britain’s secret agents as “true heroes” in some of the world’s most dangerous places.
But Sir John, whose organization is widely known as MI6, devoted much of his 30-minute address to the central role of secrecy in maintaining security — a reaffirmation of traditional tradecraft in an era of leaks and pressure for ever-greater disclosure.
“Secrecy is not a dirty word,” he said. “Secrecy is not there as a cover-up. Secrecy plays a crucial part in keeping Britain safe and secure.”
“If our operations and methods become public, they won’t work,” he said.
While he has not spoken publicly spoken before about the work of MI6, he made two public appearances to give evidence at an official inquiry into the Iraq war, both about earlier assignments as a foreign policy adviser to former Prime Minister Tony Blair and as the British representative in Baghdad.
His appearance Thursday reinforced a trend among Britain’s spy bosses to shed the traditional cloak of their trade. Sir John’s appearance followed a first public speech by Iain Lobban, the director of Britain’s electronic eavesdropping agency, and several appearances by Jonathan Evans, the director general of MI5, which is responsible for domestic security in contrast to MI6’s focus on overseas operations. In 2006, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, Mr. Evans’s predecessor, made headlines when she gave a speech warning of the range of terrorist threats Britain faced.
“Why now, might you ask?” Sir John said of his decision to go public. The answer, he said, was that despite its prominence in the news, the debate about MI6 was not well informed, and “in today’s open society, no government institution is given the benefit of the doubt all the time.”
Continue at NY Times
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Why Sisterly Chats Make People Happier - Deborah Tannen
This is a really interesting read, I can't help but wonder how different I would be had I grown up with a sister. How we would have affected each other, and what she would be like now.
“Having a Sister Makes You Happier”: that was the headline on a recent article about a study finding that adolescents who have a sister are less likely to report such feelings as “I am unhappy, sad or depressed” and “I feel like no one loves me.”
These findings are no fluke; other studies have come to similar conclusions. But why would having a sister make you happier?
The usual answer — that girls and women are more likely than boys and men to talk about emotions — is somehow unsatisfying, especially to a researcher like me. Much of my work over the years has developed the premise that women’s styles of friendship and conversation aren’t inherently better than men’s, simply different.
A man once told me that he had spent a day with a friend who was going through a divorce. When he returned home, his wife asked how his friend was coping. He replied: “I don’t know. We didn’t talk about it.”
His wife chastised him. Obviously, she said, the friend needed to talk about what he was going through.
Continue at NY Times
“Having a Sister Makes You Happier”: that was the headline on a recent article about a study finding that adolescents who have a sister are less likely to report such feelings as “I am unhappy, sad or depressed” and “I feel like no one loves me.”
These findings are no fluke; other studies have come to similar conclusions. But why would having a sister make you happier?
The usual answer — that girls and women are more likely than boys and men to talk about emotions — is somehow unsatisfying, especially to a researcher like me. Much of my work over the years has developed the premise that women’s styles of friendship and conversation aren’t inherently better than men’s, simply different.
A man once told me that he had spent a day with a friend who was going through a divorce. When he returned home, his wife asked how his friend was coping. He replied: “I don’t know. We didn’t talk about it.”
His wife chastised him. Obviously, she said, the friend needed to talk about what he was going through.
Continue at NY Times
Monday, October 25, 2010
Thursday, October 21, 2010
At That Moment - Raymond R. Patterson
When they shot Malcolm Little down
On the stage of the Audobon Ballroom,
When his life ran out through bullet holes
(Like the people running out then the murder began)
His blood soaked the floor
One drop found a crack through the stark
Pounding thunder-slipped under the stage and began
Its journey: burrowed through concrete into the cellar,
Dropped down darkness, exploding like quicksilver
Pellets of light, panicking rats, paralyzing cockroaches-
Tunneled through rubble and wrecks of foundations,
The rocks that buttress the bowels of the city, flowed
Into pipes and powerlines, the mains and cables of the city:
A thousand fiery seeds.
At that moment,
Those who drank water where he entered...
Those who cooked food where he passed...
Those who burned light while he listened...
Those who were talking as he went, knew he was water
Running out of faucets, gas running out of jets, power
Running out of sockets, meaning running along taut wires -
To the hungers of their living. It was said
Whole slums of clotted Harlem plumbing groaned
And sundered free that day, and disconnected gas and light
Went on and on and on ...
They rushed his riddled body on a stretcher
To the hospital. But the police were too late.
It had already happened.
On the stage of the Audobon Ballroom,
When his life ran out through bullet holes
(Like the people running out then the murder began)
His blood soaked the floor
One drop found a crack through the stark
Pounding thunder-slipped under the stage and began
Its journey: burrowed through concrete into the cellar,
Dropped down darkness, exploding like quicksilver
Pellets of light, panicking rats, paralyzing cockroaches-
Tunneled through rubble and wrecks of foundations,
The rocks that buttress the bowels of the city, flowed
Into pipes and powerlines, the mains and cables of the city:
A thousand fiery seeds.
At that moment,
Those who drank water where he entered...
Those who cooked food where he passed...
Those who burned light while he listened...
Those who were talking as he went, knew he was water
Running out of faucets, gas running out of jets, power
Running out of sockets, meaning running along taut wires -
To the hungers of their living. It was said
Whole slums of clotted Harlem plumbing groaned
And sundered free that day, and disconnected gas and light
Went on and on and on ...
They rushed his riddled body on a stretcher
To the hospital. But the police were too late.
It had already happened.
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
I've Got a Home in That Rock - Raymond R. Patterson
I had an uncle, once, who kept a rock in his pocket--
Always did, up to the day he died.
And as far as I know, that rock is still with him,
Holding down some dust of his thighbone.
From Mississippi he'd got that rock, he'd say—
Or, sometimes, from Tennessee: a different place
each year
He told it, how he'd snatched it up when he first
left home—
Running, he'd say—to remind him, when times
got hard
Enough to make him homesick, what home was
really like.
Always did, up to the day he died.
And as far as I know, that rock is still with him,
Holding down some dust of his thighbone.
From Mississippi he'd got that rock, he'd say—
Or, sometimes, from Tennessee: a different place
each year
He told it, how he'd snatched it up when he first
left home—
Running, he'd say—to remind him, when times
got hard
Enough to make him homesick, what home was
really like.
Whip My Hair - Willow Smith
This is Will Smiths 10 year old daughter for those of you who didn't know.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
HotdamnIrock
I'm not a big youtube subscriber, I watch videos as they come to me but this dude is hilarious. Check out his channel here and some of my favorite videos below.
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
Harmony in Dissonance
You know that one conversation you feel like you have been waiting to have for a long time, not with any particular person or about a particular thing, but than you have it and it feels like you had been waiting to hear those words for far too long. A conversation that rewards you with clarity and focus.
I had been very unsure about whether or not to continue onto law school for some time, I had been hesitant due to the banality of a large majority of the work coupled with an unsure job market and the sure certainty of large sums of debt to be accrued in the process.
On top of that I had been trying to find self purpose in the current work I have been doing; the reelection of a local congressman. While I believe he is truly the better candidate and I am completely committed to his campaign I had asked myself "how is this furthering me". In a tough job market that is only getting increasingly competitive I felt I should be moving towards my future as opposed to sitting in neutral hoping for something to make itself evident.
Thanks to a conversation with a friend I have found the correlation between my now and my tomorrow. I am reinvigorated with new goals to accomplish along the way to my final destination that will be stimulating, challenging and hopefully rewarding. Thank you.
I had been very unsure about whether or not to continue onto law school for some time, I had been hesitant due to the banality of a large majority of the work coupled with an unsure job market and the sure certainty of large sums of debt to be accrued in the process.
On top of that I had been trying to find self purpose in the current work I have been doing; the reelection of a local congressman. While I believe he is truly the better candidate and I am completely committed to his campaign I had asked myself "how is this furthering me". In a tough job market that is only getting increasingly competitive I felt I should be moving towards my future as opposed to sitting in neutral hoping for something to make itself evident.
Thanks to a conversation with a friend I have found the correlation between my now and my tomorrow. I am reinvigorated with new goals to accomplish along the way to my final destination that will be stimulating, challenging and hopefully rewarding. Thank you.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Friday, October 8, 2010
Sometimes you need to use better judgement
Idk what this girl was thinking and why she put so much work into outing herself as promiscuous than sending it to friends like they wouldn't show other people. Smh.
Basically she slept with a bunch of athletes at Duke than wrote a report critiquing them and sent it around.
Duke Winces as a Private Joke Slips Out of Control - NY Times
The Actual Report (Reader Discretion Advised)
Basically she slept with a bunch of athletes at Duke than wrote a report critiquing them and sent it around.
Duke Winces as a Private Joke Slips Out of Control - NY Times
The Actual Report (Reader Discretion Advised)
Thursday, October 7, 2010
Monday, October 4, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Saturday, September 25, 2010
So Appalled - Kanye West feat. The RZA, Jay-Z, Pusha T, and Swizz Beatz
Kanye West is going in hard for a comeback and so far his G.O.O.D. Friday releases have been on point. Breaking from his traditional pop tracks he has been putting out music featuring some of his staple co-collaborators as well as RZA and Raekwon of the Wu-Tang Clan. I'm feeling his latest release "So Appalled", what do you all think? get it here.
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Friday, September 17, 2010
Jay Ghartey - Shining Gold
Jay Ghartey is an up and coming Ghanaian-American singer/songwriter currently working out of NYC. I first heard about his music through my cousin Jodi's husband Joseph who is his brother/manager. I've sporadically heard singles released from his album throughout the last six months until finally today I got the full album and gave it a listen.
This dude is dope, and I'm not just saying that because he is in my extended fam. Blending African drumbeats and rhythms with a distinctly American hip hop/r&b flavor perfectly bridges the gap between contemporary African and Western sounds without seeming as if it's trying to.
The album begins with already popular singles "Me Do Wo" feat Okyeame Kwame and "My Lady", higher energy tracks capturing the vibrance of African music and culture. As the album progresses it relaxes into softer more romantic tones and this is where Jay's exceptional vocal talent shines through.
My favorite tracks right now are "Shining Gold", "Runaway", "Around the World", and "Waiting for you". You music heads definitely want to check this one out, you can find the album here on iTunes (Shining Gold).
Brooklyn Tornado
Yesterday there was a tornado in Brooklyn. A few local scholars documented their initial reaction to as well as the defensive measures they took to remain safe during this weather phenomenon atypical for the region.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Through The Wormhole hosted by Morgan Freeman
A series of documentary programs dedicated to asking "the big questions" of science and finding the correlations and divergences within philosophy, religion, and the natural sciences. I'm quickly becoming addicted to this.
Friday, September 10, 2010
James Brown & Luciano Pavarotti - It's a Man's World
Keeping in the spirit of killer musical tag teams this is one of my favorite songs and performances of all time. Rest in peace to the great Pavarotti and James Brown
Frank Sinatra Improvs with Louis Armstrong at a Live Show
I stole this from OctobersVeryOwn blog but I couldn't help myself. This is one of the coolest things I have ever seen.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Miles Aldridge
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