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What is Steamfunk? Watch this video from the Steamfunk Panel at the Mahogany Masquerade and discover the history...the philosophy...the films; the literature; and the Movement!

An era came to an end today. Hostess Bakeries went out of business. Another icon has bitten the dust and disappeared in a cloud of flour. Rest in peace, Twinkies and Ho-Hoes and Wonder Bread. First Romney's defeat, and now this. Another casualty for white America. What's next Miracle Whip Mayonnaise? Pass the hot sauce, please.

There are now challenges out there in regard to the concept of race, with the latest one being that it is an artiificial construct that's more political than scientific. When it comes to the human species in the African continent, people from different tribes and different countries are not monolithic in their appearance. Their skin color has a wide range, running from the blue-blacks to the mahoganies. Body types span the gamut from the keen-featured, tall, slender Watusis to the broad featured short and pudgy Pygmies. Hair grade includes both wooly and crinkly. Because the slave trade was focused mostly on West Africa's ivory coast, particularly Nigeria, these natives are the ancestors of African Americans, and how Nigerians look is how we tend to picture Africans. The natural diet of Africans is not really compatible with that of the Western World. That's why so many Blacks in this country are lactose intolerant, and prone to diabetes and high blood pressure. Since slaves were given left-overs from the massah's table this influenced their eating habits. But I'd be the last one to condemn soul food. I love it and ain't about to stop eating it. Since Africa is the cradle of civilization, Homo Sapiens sprung from there. Mutations of the Negroid stock are what account for the Caucasian and Mongoloid breeds. That's why some say, in jest, that when white mutants were driven out of the black tribes because of their pale color, they vowed revenge and have been punishing Blacks ever since. And doing a very effective job, I might add. My observations in regard weight changes over the years, Troy, is that women of all ethnicity are packing on the pounds. The average dress size is now up to 14 from 12. A lot of this has to do with availablity of fast foods that are high in caories. I was once slim, myself, but my now being heavier has somethng to do with the aging process. I've confess to never eating heathy, however. Enjoying what I like to eat is one of the many vices I refuse to give up because as Little Wayne say, "YOLO". I try to convince myself that my RH-Negative blood handles food in a different way. Any excuse will do. Anyway, I'm still here as opposed to many of my diet-conscious dead friends.

What We Can Learn From The Chinese Author Neil Gaiman shared a fascinating fact. While appearing as a Guest of Honor at China’s largest state approved Science Fiction convention, Neil decided to enquire why Science Fiction, once frowned upon by the Chinese government, was now not only approved of, but encouraged, with China now the world’s largest market for Science Fiction, with the highest circulation of Science Fiction magazines and the largest Science Fiction conventions. The answer Neil was given is very interesting. China is the world’s manufacturing powerhouse. But it doesn’t invent or design most of the things it manufactures. China wants to capture the creativity and imagination of the culture that has produced companies like Google and Apple. So Chinese researchers talked to people involved with those and other companies to see what factors they had in common. The answer? They all read Science Fiction. TO READ THIS ARTICLE IN ITS ENTIRETY, PLEASE VISIT: http://chroniclesofharriet.com/2012/04/17/what-we-can-learn-from-the-chinese/.

I would consider the woman in the photo fat and obese. I have spent a good amount of time in west Africa and most sisters are actually not large chested. They DO have ample butts, though and are well-toned.

Atlanta, GA November 30, 2012 - Sent nearly thirty years into the past as an unwilling subject in a time travel experiment, Ezekiel Cross must save his younger self from the deadly path that forged him into the ruthless killer he is. This edge-of-your-seat thriller is both gangster saga and science fiction epic – “Goodfellas” meets “The Time Machine”. AVAILABLE NOW!

White people do seem embarassed when their under belly is exposed. They'd much rather convince themselves that Western Civilization is alive and kicking - inside the stomach of a barfing aspirant to the British throne. The only difference between the family of Honey Boo-Boo and the unfaithful Prince Charles, his adulterous wife Camilla, the nude bathing Duchess Kate, the strip poker playing Prince Harry, the tittering, simple-minded Queen Elizabeth is an accident of birth. These coarse peasants posing as well-bred Anglo Saxons are no more blue-blooded than the family of red necks from Arkansas.

PRESIDENT WANTS TO NOMINATE SUSAN RICE TO BE SECRETARY OF STATE...REPUBLICAN TRASH TRYING TO BLOCK THE NOMINATION....JOHN MCCAIN IS A IDIOT AND SOUTH CAROLINA LINDSEY GRAHAM WEARS A SHEET AND BURN CROSSES I BELIEVE.//////

ON IYANLA VAN ZANT'S FIX MY LIFE,THAT COMES ON WEEKENDS AT NIGHT..ANOTHER BLACK PREACHER MARRIED WITH MISTRESSES ON THE SIDE...THIS PREACHER SAYS HE HAS MORE THAN 10 WOMEN ON THE SIDE.SOME WOMEN IN HIS CHURCH HE IS SEXUALLY INVOLVED WITH...ONE WOMAN HE HAD A CHILD WITH... HOW CAN PREACHERS PREACH THE 10 COMMANDMENTS ,WHEN IT SEEMS NONE OF THEM LIVE BY IT OR BELIEVE IT.....BIBLE SAYS ADULTERUS SHOULD BE STONED TO DEATH....////THIS PREACHER JOINS A GROWING LIST OF MARRIED BLACK PREACHERS WITH WOMEN ON THE SIDE AND HAVING A CHILD WITH A MISTRESSES..THEN THERE IS BISHOP EDDIE LNG..MARRIED SEXUALLY ROMANCING YOUNG BLACK BOYS, THAT THE NAACP, BLACK CHURCHES AND BLACK POLITICIANS CONDONE.///////YET BLACK PEOPLE ARE AMAZED AT VILE BEHAVIOR BY BLACK MALES THROUGH OUT BLACK COMMUNITIES.....////

So, it’s Thanksgiving day, and I’m at my grandaughter’s place, settling down to dig into my full plate of turkey and all the trimmings, patiently explaining to an outside guest why a woman my age decided to get 2 tattoos over the past 7 years. When my oldest son off-handedly referred to me as the family matriarch, I almost choked on my sweet potatoes. Matriarch. The word sounded so sedate and sedentary, but as I looked around the gathering at my 3 sons, 2 daughters, 8 grand children and 3 great grandchildren, figures of all ages, sizes, shapes and colors, milling around the rooms, I was suddenly struck by the idea that if it wasn’t for me none of them would be here. Mommy/Nana was, indeed, a matriarch. Another identity in the characters I have been cast as over the years. Years that have culminated in my present state of avoiding the future, looking backward instead of forward, caught up in nostalgia, contemplating this thing called “life” and the thing called “time” that is such an integral part of it. I ponder about the brain perk that makes long-ago occurrences seem like they just happened yesterday, how the weeks fly by and how memories can be triggered by a song, or a fragrance or a familiar sight. Lately I keep thinking about my freshmen year at college, as reports of the deaths of so many of my school mates keep reaching me. And when Illinois completed its football season this year without winning one single game, I keep recalling how different things were 60 years ago when the U. of I. dominated the Big10, making history by taking first place in every major sport from football to fencing, a feat still touted by alumni from that era. Better scenarios cheer me as my old high school has maintained its winning tradition while turning out NBA stars like Doc Rivers and Michael Finley and Shannon Brown, players I remember as little boys in grade school. Family get-togethers are always an occasion to fondly recall loved ones who have passed on as in, yet another mystery, they seem to be present in spirit as though their essences are able to shift between parallel dimensions. What captivates me most, however, is how vivid the imagination can be, how easily the past can become a movie scene played on the screen of my mind’s eye. But what a downer it is when I am constantly reminded that although I am the same person I’ve always been, my body didn’t get the memo, a reality that calls up the relationship between time and change. Does time really exist or is it an illusion abetted by change? Is the past still there or does it disappear as soon as the present defers to the future. What is truth? Is it contained in the words of Edgar Allen Poe who declared “all that we see or seem is just a dream within a dream…” or in the musing of Langston Hughes who opines that “It is wise to suffer illusion…Delusion…Even dreams…To believe that in this life…What is real…May also be what it seems. What is not true…May be…For you… Language in its inadequacy can only attempt to explain what is what it is. And so it goes.

AGAIN SPEAKING ABOUT BLACK SPORTS REPORTER BILL RHODEN BOOK.. 40 MILLION DOLLAR SLAVES.ABOUT HOW RICH BLACK ATHLETES ARE CONTROLLED AND OWNED...LEBRON JAMES LEADS THAT.....HE HAS BEEN WITH RABBI'S, HOW MANY BLACK LEADERS HAS HE BEEN WITH/DO NOT MEAN THOSE REPTILE PREACHERS MOTIVATED BY GREED/HAS HE BEN WITH MINISTER LOUIS FARRAKHAN.THEY SEEM TO BE TOLD WHO NOT TO BE BE WITH, OR TALK TO...WHAT TO DO, AND WHEN TO DO IT....THEY ARE NOT YESTERDAYS BLACK ATHLETES LIKE, JACKIE ROBINSON, BILL RUSSELL, MUHAMMED ALI , KAREEM OR ARTHUR ASHE... WHAT ARE THEY AFRAID OF, WHO ARE THEY AFRAID OF...NFL YESTERDAY. TWO IDIOTS I CANNOT STAND,CAM NEWTON AND ROBERT GRIFFITH 111//////.

Artist - Zion Birdsong, Musical Director of The Book Look Song - D. Amari Jackson, Creator of The Book Look Like This Quote MultiQuote Edit Blog This

An exciting Sword and Soul tale by Balogun Ojetade, Once Upon a Time in Afrika tells the story of a beautiful princess and her eager suitors. Desperate to marry off his beautiful but "tomboyish" daughter, Esuseeke, the Emperor of Oyo, consults the Oracle. The Oracle tells the Emperor Esuseeke must marry the greatest warrior in all Onile (Afrika). To determine who is the greatest warrior, the Emperor hosts a grand martial arts tournament inviting warriors from all over the continent. Unknown to the warriors and spectators of the tournament a powerful evil is headed their way. Will the warriors band together against this evil? Buy your copy today at www.mvmediaatl.com Also available on Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble.com http://www.amazon.co...pd_rhf_gw_p_t_3 http://www.barnesand...n=2940015313925 You can read an excerpt from Once Upon a Time in Africa here: http://www.scribd.co...n-Afrika-Excert

Here's the video of our presentation at Dragon Con. It was a packed house and an interesting discussion.

It's a difference writing an alien as opposed to writing about a known human experience. I actually think that no person can write a good alien, because that alien will contain some characteristic that is human. We cannot write outside of our experience. An alien, more than likely will be just that, alien. It will do and think things that will be totally incomprehensible to us, but make perfect sense to it. At least that's what I think. That's why I don't do aliens. All the cultures and situations created in science fiction and fantasy contain some element that we can relate to, because in the end they are about the human experience. There are so many variations on those themes that we'll tell stories forever. A number of people disagreed with me and I respect that. All I know is that when I read fiction about slavery written by black people the same experience by white authors there is a significant difference. White authors tend to stick to the stereotypical portrayal, while black authors 'go in,' being unafraid to deal with the ugly side of slavery. I believe the same pertains to racism as well.

The real energy is with the independent black sci fi writers. A friend of mine made a list. I'll post it soon.

Great discussion! One of my fav quotes: "...hey we forgot to put the black guy in there..." - Milton. Funny, on point, and insightful. I just love my peeps! The talks regarding whether or not a non-black author can write black sci-fi reminds me of one of the discussions on this board. I'm still watching, but I think that when I'm done, I may just pick up a sci-fi book. I used to like science fiction as a kid. Wouldn't mind getting back into it. Thanks for sharing.