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Mel Hopkins

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Everything posted by Mel Hopkins

  1. Thanks @Delano I've already acknowledged that perspective. "Although I understand your mentioning that 45* didn't dance an Irish jig to get his message but rather he articulated his message clearly to his base,
  2. I'm not the right person to ask though. I read a lot more nonfiction, than fiction. And when I read fiction it's sci-fi, horror and fantasy. I'd love to hear from those who who read literature. They may have an example of a strong mom character.
  3. @Pioneer1 In Chicago, these students belong to the Peace Warrior program at North Lawndale, which trains students to be nonviolence peer leaders. And the Parkland Florida teens (pictured with Emma) reached out to them because they wanted to join forces since their organization (peace warrior program) had been around since 2015 , if not earlier like 2012. According to reports, a month before the Parkland shooting these students Alex King, D'Angelo McDade began another group Good Kids Mad City - (probably taken from the Kendrick Lamar Album of the same name) to stop the violence in Chicago. By the way, Pulitzer Prize winning emcee Kendrick Lamar would be a more accurate entertainer to reference. He speaks to the pathology of inner city living. Childish Gambino (Donald Glover) is an entertainer - he's not even social activist nor claims to be one. He talks about twitter activism in an old article and being label a white rapper. Although both Donald Glover and 45* are both entertainers; when 45* ran for the presidency he ran as politician not an entertainer ... Although I understand your mentioning that 45* didn't dance an Irish jig to get his message but rather he articulated his message clearly to his base, he wasn't working on The Apprentice or running a Miss Universe contest. He was a candidate. Childish Gambino isn't running for office - he appears in a provocative video to sell records. It's a bit of a stretch to compare Glover, an entertainer to a then candidate now President of the United States. Teen social activists Alex King and D'Angelo McCade and a whole host of young people are working to make the world a safer place - Including 11-year-old Naomi Wadler (see below). For these young people, it's real life not entertainment. https://nowthisnews.com/videos/her/naomi-wadler-speaks-at-the-women-in-the-world-summit https://theoutline.com/post/3887/fighters-good-kids-mad-city-chicago?zd=1&zi=tuhzoe5r https://hiphopdx.com/news/id.30218/title.childish-gambino-blasts-twitter-activists-says-he-wants-to-be-white# http://cct.org/2015/11/a-student-warrior-whose-purpose-is-peace/ https://www.teenvogue.com/story/alex-king-dangelo-mccade-march-for-our-lives-washington-dc-speeches
  4. @richardmurray , In all the fiction, I've read I don't have a nomination for a "best mother" If I go by memory , then most of the mothers have been largely forgettable. However, I felt comforted by mother-figure in The Shack by William P. Young
  5. @Troy and for some corporations this is absolutely their modus operandi! This is exactly why I look for businesses that have sustainable development at its core.
  6. @Kalexander2 According to Anari Sengbe in this talk, the internet of things (IoT) allows the devices to mine bitcoins for others and earn a fee for the transaction. In short, your refrigerator, thermostat or any device in your home can become a virtual "Check Cashing Place" except its mining bitcoins or any other cryptocurrencies.
  7. @Troy Yep. Google has gone commercial and eCommerce - happy. I just noticed that yesterday when I was looking for a aphorism about fishing poles. All I could find on the first couple of pages were places to buy fishing poles. Net Neutrality sunsets in June - so I guess google changed their algorithm to feature the sites that will be accessible. It looks like it will be old-fashioned marketing of websites again - if people know about your website - they will have actively choose to visit it - and hope it will load properly
  8. Yes, this is a very old aphorism. I've read one about fishing poles to fisherwomen/men. But do we still find value in tools today? Also, do you think wealthy people are “careful”? Let's unpack this sage advice using the top 25 wealthiest people in the world. (1) Jeff Bezos–sells tools, provides a virtual and real location for tools and storage for information. (2) Bill Gates – makes and sells tools (3) Warren Buffet buys companies that sell tools, transportation and shelter & tools protection (4) Bernard Arnault sells luxury tools and goods (5) Mark Zuckerberg’s product is people and sells their attention Mark Zuckerberg provides the tools, but his company, Facebook’s product is people and he sells their attention. Allegedly, he doesn't even sell personal information, he sells access to those who’d like to get in front of specific eyes. In this case, is attention the shovel/fishing pole? I'm not sure. Also, MZ allows those who want access to determine the value of those eyes. Although this tends to be my blind spot, most of these people on the list "sell shovels/fishing poles", some sell "fish” but there are a few gold-miners /fisherwomen/men here too. But all those businesses have one thing in common – they earn and require currency. Now bitcoin is cryptocurrency, and its value is in the exchange. I don’t know if the goal is to get rich quick from using bitcoin but rather allowing those who use it, determine its value. It’s practically an egalitarian currency that’s in use nearly worldwide. So, I guess the key to predict who will profit from the proverbial gold rush is the one provides the platform for trading. Currently, heavily regulated financial institutions are the ones who profit. But now we have the Winklevoss Twins who were awarded a patent for ETP (exchange-traded products (ETPs) using cryptocurrencies) –(See Vanguard ETF) Then on a smaller scale we have Anari Sengbe's website OWO where gaming and purchasing products at a discount using cryptocurrency gives the platform its value. We still have bitcoin miners (With Bitcoin, miners use special software to solve math problems and are issued a certain number of bitcoins in exchange) AND cryptocurrency platforms just might be the new “shovels or fishing poles" in this digital economy. Edit: to change but to AND. According to Anari Sengbe in this talk, the internet of things (IoT) allows the devices to mine bitcoins for others and earn a fee for the transaction. In short your refrigerator, thermostat or any device in your home can become a virtual "Check Cashing Place" except its mining bitcoins or any other cryptocurrencies. I don't think the Black community can afford to be ignorant of cryptocurrencies. We're already 10 years behind.
  9. As long as black women need to get their hair "did", and black men need to get lined up, we will always come together in the "Shop" or around kitchen tables to share the latest news. No matter how many social networks like Myspace, Facebook and Twitter spring up they will never replace Low tech media such as The Barbershop,The Beauty Salon & Kitchentalk. On this video, Software and Mobile App developer Anari Sengbe, illustrates this point when after his days of disrupting Silicon Valley, he returns to the village to talk about cryptocurrency. I've been following this tech guru since he came up with the GoVote app that would allow volunteers to wait in line for others who couldn’t afford the long wait time to vote I was updating ads on my blog and I came across a story I "pressed" on him last year. As you can tell, from the name of this blog, I look for interesting "characters" and so I followed up with him on LinkedIn to find out the latest. Earlier this year, Anari Sengbe launched OWO (Yoruba-English translation: Money). OWO.world is a digital platform that has a suite of applications from social to gaming with a twist that allows users and developers to earn/exchange cryptocurrency. I'm working my way up the learning curve to understand this digital currency, but I like the questions these brothers ask because when you teach you learn. And Sengbe is able to answer these bitcoin questions in a way that s easy to understand. By the way, Gaming is included in the Trillion-dollar Media & Entertainment industry but I don't think the government did an assessment that includes bitcoin mining. My head is spinning trying to make sense of all this but you only get old when you stop learning.
  10. Never in my wildest dreams (and yes I have wild ones) would I think a short observation would spur such a nourishing conversation! Thank you @richardmurray, @Troy and @Kalexander2 for you evocative perspectives!
  11. @Troy Special Sales! Before Academic Marketing and Sales at Penguin USA - I worked in Special Sales G.P. Putnam's Sons... As a Special Sales Assistant, it was my job to do most of the customer service work for special sales and institutional accounts - such as catalogs, library appearances, specialty accounts and stores such as those that would appear at a yacht club etc. I learned how to sell books in nontraditional ways such as those looking for premium incentive products and of course retail stores that would also sell books on the side... You know, like those psychic tellers - who have spell books for sale .. All this to say, yes, it's a profitable business model for this type of selling... And you already have 2 coveted accounts. I remember Barbara O'Shea, my former boss, got so happy when she would land an account like a large book club - or McDonald's, who wanted to put one of our children's books in every happy meal. G.P Putnam had so many imprints, we had a book for every type of lifestyle. Anyway, she was quoted in the New York Times article talking about her role as President of a non-trade sales at Penguin. (Yes she also started at G.P Putnam's Sons) . This is also an excellent article for an overview on special sales. Oh! does this replace the google tag manager?
  12. @richardmurray ... OMG!!! this is true of everything we create. Understanding the creator reveals the creator.. I knew this to be true of my writing ... to read me is to know my heart - (good bad or indifferent). BUT now looking from your perspective I'd say this is true of what we consume. @Kalexander2., "It's not that I have something to hide. It's that I have nothing I want you to see." ~ANON (Netflix) @Kalexander2 If I understand this premise correctly, if the state is receiving the money - then why aren't officials distributing the HUD funds based on needs - rather than using the cash to integrate communities. One challenge, however, is to make sure millionaires such as Fox News Sean Hannity don't get the HUD money and then fix up buildings in areas - and charge exorbitant amount of rent for each apartment. https://www.11alive.com/article/news/sean-hannity-under-fire-for-allegedly-using-hud-money-to-help-buy-housing-property-in-georgia/85-548596246
  13. @richardmurray , interesting perspective and one that makes a lot of sense - especially with the history of humans seeking to control each other.
  14. @Pioneer1 wow - just wow. I was coming back to this board to commend you on your perspective about information really boils down to whom we trust. I had to look at my own behavior and preferences, and you're correct. If I don't know something from experience - I go to the source I trust the most. I realized this is especially true in our current political climate. Especially with 45* doing his best to undermine the information sources that most Americans trust... I was like wow - Pioneer showed me my blindspot... (applause) AND THEN you had to go and write something like this... SMH (shaking my head)... welp.
  15. The Cooking Gene by Culinary Historian Michael W. Twitty is The 2018 James Beard Award (non-cookbook) winner. As much as I can't stand awards I have to give them a second look now because without hearing that Twitty won the award I would not have heard of this book - which I now absolutely must have on my bookshelf. I love to cook but I especially love to cook the foods that are indigenous to my family. Anyway, I found this interview from Mr. Twitty and African Ancestry's co-founder Dr. Gina Paige and it too is delightful!!!
  16. The Cooking Gene by Culinary Historian Michael W. Twitty  is The 2018 James Beard Award (non-cookbook) winner and as much as I can't stand awards I have to give them a second look now because without hearing that Twitty won the award I would not have heard of this book - which I now absolutely must have on my bookshelf.   

    I love to cook but I especially love to cook the foods that are indigenous to my family.   Anyway, I found this interview from Mr. Twitty  and African Ancestry's co-founder Dr. Gina Paige and it too is delightful!!!
     

     

  17. @richardmurray & @Troy I hadn't thought about involuntary ways we share our stories. I was thinking more about how we share moments, and events with each other. For example, I can tell a part of your story, Troy, that took place at Brooklyn Tech because it was my journey too. Or Richard, I can share a little of your writing journey as I know it from AALBC because both of us look for ways to get our words to the masses. But your responses allow my little observation to become so much more than I'd realized. Data analysts can collect all the information in the world; sift through it and concoct part of our stories but it will never be accurate. It will always lack intimacy. Humans are too fluid. We possess innate ability to connect with another human in a way that allows us to feel what the other person is feeling in that moment. This is one reason, Artificial Intelligence will never become the standard. It can never be intimate - because it doesn't understand vulnerability. Such as the intimacy of community. In a community, we allow ourselves to see others and " be seen" by them. Looking through our data and trying to figure out the human experience is as hard as looking through our excrement and understanding WHY we eat the things we do. To know WHY we eat, takes sharing a meal and feeling the nuances of the story we tell. Speaking of meal and stories, -Amistad author Michael W. Twitty, won the James Beard Foundation Award for his book - The Cooking Gene. But I digress. I happened to stumble on this early tedtalk yesterday and while the speaker rambles on, he expands on this concept when he said "emotional empathy, feeling with the other person" His talk reminded me of why it is a lot easier to turn humans into robots than it will be for Artificial Intelligence to reach the level of humanity. Humans will always have shared stories; AI, not so much.
  18. Programmed to be aggressive... there's no naturally occurring hormone that produces aggression.
  19. Programmed to be more aggressive - there's nothing scientific about being programmed.
  20. "When main accuser Andrea Constand took the witness stand during the trial, she told the jury that one night in January 2004, Cosby gave her three blue pills he called "friends" to relax her." From NPR There's no mention here of Bill Cosby forcing the 3 blue pills down her throat. However, I don't need to rationalize cosby's guilt or innocence. I don't really care about him. What I care about is accountability. While this woman couldn't give consent to have sex if she's under the influence ; where is her accountability? How about not take pills just because Bill offered them. Women are either accountable for their actions or they're not. If they are not, then the whole feminist/equality argument goes out of the window.
  21. Queen X, exactly!!! By her own words he didn't force her... and that should have rendered a not guilty charge... (The Pennsylvania code § 3125 defines two degrees of the crime aggravated indecent assault, each with associated punishments. The degree of the crime depends on the specifics of the crime committed, with higher degrees of the charge generally receiving harsher punishments.) He offered he pills to "help" her relax and she took them. WHO DOES THAT? BUT my problem with this case and all the claims that followed for all these filthy monsters... is why did these women allow other women go into the monster's dungeon? They should have at least warned their friends who would have warned others... We all know of that mom, aunt or cousin who won't let their children go near "uncle bill"... maybe no one has called the police but at least everyone in the family and on the block knows "uncle bill is pedophile " and that's why he's shunned. What's up with all these women waiting 20-30-effing years to "tell"?
  22. 1. prescribed placebos cure patients ... 2. synthetic testosterone might contain steroids 3. she was already pissed at him when she swallowed...
  23. Actually you did that when you brought in the nation of islam. Thanks though because you proved my point that there are various reason why people do what they do with their bodies. Sexual reproductive organs are a function of BIOLOGY... it doesn't get any clearer than that. But Sociologists will study the affects of why some men like you think that makes women submissive...
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