Troy

Wait, @Pioneer1 did you just throw a gratuitous "bigger penis" in there just for kicks?  What environment would a big penis not come in handy?  (oh God, I know the nasty-gram from Google is on it way now... we used the word "penis" on a page with their ads,... hey did anyone hear that?  That was my search engine ranking hitting the floor).

Exactly.  I thought what Martin did to Umar was foul.  I've seen him treat others the same way.  I when I have a second I'll dig up that video.  I seem to recall Martin was working off hearsay and could not provide anything evidence to justify sullying Johnson's reputation.  Now I'm not saying Johnson is above reproach, he probably is not, but it was just the way he handled it was funky...

Well I would agree Caucasian is a better term than white, because it speaks to geography.  Well I do not know the answer for the gentleman and I've removed his book from the list, but he is perfectly appropriate for the site given his work.

Truth be told, I can't look at Danzy's hair and see that it is permed.  She looks like your garden variety Caucasian woman to me.  But I'm a guy and defer to our elder from the great state of Illinois.  Danzy's book is on the list because she recognizes her Blackness.

The "race" thing sure is a messy business...

Based upon what you wrote; you are going to use the temperature data from 1895 - 2017 to see if the temperature has gotten warmer in central park.  Beyond that you have to tell me.

@David Covin, I appreciate that, but when I sell books "directly" I take the orders and have them dropped shipped by Ingram.  I don't have the resources to manage sales like that, besides I don't like doing it (been there, done that).  I rather deal with a distributor. 

Now if Blue Nile would fulfill orders I send that would work for me.  For example, if you look at the buy links for Just Us Books or Black Classic Press the buy links go directly to the publishers and they fulfill the order.  Right now I just give readers the option to buy direct from publisher and authors.  Right now it is not setup to generate commission, but that would not be too difficult. 

Another alternative is Mahoganybooks.  They fulfilled the orders for our old Power List bestsellers.  I'm SURE the would stock a handful of Blue Nile titles.  I would then change the buy links for your titles to route to Mahoganybooks who would be happy to ship the order.  They also have a physical store and are setup to pay commissions too.  How does that sound.  Shall I arrange for this to be setup as an initial experiment?  

But two significant problem remain;

1. Getting people to buy from someplace other than Amazon. Now if I remove the Amazon option, maybe some readers will use the publisher/MahoganyBooks links--especially if I explain why the Amazon links were removed.  Perhaps the #ReadBlackBooks (I gotta get the hash tag right) campaign will pick up and gain some traction. 
2. Using one bookseller does not scale. Mahogany Books has limited resources too--this solution will not scale very well.

Other options would be using POD, Ingram, or spreading the books around to different business wiling to stock and ship orders.  I bet Desmond Reid (Dare Books) would be willing to help.  He has a large bookstore--it even has a loading dock.

I'll reach out to Mahogany and float some ideas by Desmond.

No, because in some locations the temperature may be lower.  For example, Atlanta GA got snow last week, which is unusual. That does not mean the planet is not warming.  Again this was explained in the documentation you provided it was in the FAQ section is memory serves.  

You should review the website it can provide better answer than I.

@David Covin, I'm going to join in an #readingblackout effort I described earlier.  I'm still trying to understand who is involved and how I can help promote it.  But te idea of buying and reading Black for a year struck me.  Plus it is as you and Mel described a proactive campaign. With enough support we can made it such that any reader with internet access will HAVE to be aware of the effort. 

I'll begin to share information about that effort here as well as reacting out to the booksellers.

A few days ago I created a printable display of the Black-owned bookstore in my database, I'm encouraging people to the share information.  They can copy and paste it and they don't even have to attribute AALBC.com as the source--I just want the information to get out there.  I'll create a widget tomorrow which will allow anyone to share the list of Black-owned bookstore on their website as well.  

I'm planning to drop my Amazon links, striking the URL and linking to a page where I explain why the link was removed.  I can sell the books myself link to other booksellers.  I know I'm gonna take a hit, but I hope to lead buy example too.

If anyone has other ideas please post them here I'll aggregate what I have and share with my mailing list.  I like this approach 

Del the website you shared earlier went into some detail about the methodology and complexity of making of how the determination is made (I assumed you looked at the website).  The difficulty of simply collecting temperature over time is fascinating.

I'm completely lost understaning to why you would think it is simply a matter collecting temperature data from a single location.  

I agree Mel.

Let me look into the alerting feature--I missed seeing David's message myself.

I guess the next steps is figuring out how to address the issues David raised.  For example:

On 12/7/2017 at 5:16 PM, David Covin said:

...learning strategies that publishers, self-published and others, can use to make their books visible to a wide Black readership and that could provide ways of selling their books on line, in bookstores, and hand sales.

What are the real challenges of getting books into the hands of readers?

I think platforms like AALBC.com, Mahoganybooks.com and others are a start, but we need a way to scale from selling hundreds of books a month to millions of books a month.

Also, is it a given that Amazon doing a great job at addressing the issues @David Covin raised?  If so, what is Amazon being compared to?

@Pioneer1, I just read an article in the New York Times which describes the medical profession considering stopping the use of race.  The problem is people are being misdiagnosed, and mistreated because of race.  Dr. are bending over backwards to not diagnose white people with sickle cell because they think it is a Black disease.  They cite more examples.  Now this a real good reason to stop using race and relegate it to slang more appropriate for the the street corner.

"Science has revealed how arbitrary racial categories are. Perhaps medicine will abandon them, too."
The New York Times, December 08, 2017 - By MOISES VELASQUEZ-MANOFF - Opinion 

For a wide variety of reasons, I've some to see the wisdom of your statement @David Covin. I guess the most significant reason is that we really have no choice.  The  time and effort required to launch a boycott against Amazon could be would be better used for our own businesses.

Thanks.

I'm going to quote you in the newsletter the email today.

@Delano, you do understand that you can not show that the planet's is warming based upon the temperatures in Central Park, right?

Del who said Feynman was not smart?  The man is about as smart as they come. Feynman was used because it was government investigation a 3rd party is used in these situations. Man do you now anything about the investigation?  That was rhetorical question your statements make the answer obvious.

Yes Del, they still launched despite knowing the risk. Which is my point.  Feynman did not uncover the flawed o-rings or even NASA's poor management; this was all know the Rodgers commission made this public knowledge.

Sorry for the delayed response @David Covin, though I hope anyone would feel free to chime in.  All three issues, Selling Books Online,  In Bookstores, and Hand Sales are really the same issue.

Independent booksellers have been selling books on the web almost as soon as it became possible--even before Amazon. Of course we have always run our own stores and have sold books any way they could be sold, from street corners to salons.

The real question is can we get more reades to buy more of their books from Black-owned independent online and Brick and Mortar stores instead of from Amazon?   Someone on Youtube (a "Booktuber") has kicked of an year long effort, for 2018, called the #blackout.  Basically the idea is to only read Black literature for a year and to buy those books from Black-owned stores (assuming the book is not borrowed from a friend or the library).

Maybe a proactive campaign to exclusively the read our literature and patronize our booksellers rather than boycotting Amazon is the way to approach this.  If we focus on what we need to do to satisfy the three points you raised an active boycott would be unnecessary because we'd be doing our own thing independent of Amazon.

@Mel Hopkins, this actually brings to mind the "follow the reader" idea, what do you think?

Just an FYI,. Dr. David Covin is an AALBC.com bestselling author who has written several books.  He has also published award winning authors with his publishing company, Blue NIle Press, and is the founder of the Sacramento Black Book Festival.  He is also one of the reasons AALBC.com has lasted 20 years.

Well that is good news.  Louisiana has historically had the poorest performing school in the country particularly for Black children. I would be happy to see LA surpass New York.  Maybe the embarrassment will be enough for legislators to do something 

The New York Times has identified 100 books from all the books they have reviewed over the past year to be the most "notable."  Of that list 11 were books were written by Black* writers.

Boy, if we depended solely upon The New York Times to identify notable books written by Black folks we'd be in for a world of disappointment.  Thankfully we have other options to discover books written by Black people.  The number of these options have greatly diminished over the years, which is why Ill be working with come folks promoting an effort called the 2018 Blackout #readingblackout

I just learned about #readingblackout this effort today.  It was started by booktuber (another new one one me. basically a person who is part of community of people who create book related videos on youtube).  Enjoy.

*Black is a subjective term.  As a result, some may disagree that all of the author's I've identified are indeed Black.

“Some say, street knowledge and the school of hard-knocks will help our children  succeed but that's only useful if we want them to survive the streets. 

If we want our children to thrive, we must find a way to supplement their education with experiences that will provide a foundation for learning and critical thinking.” —Mel Hopkins

I believe this to be true.  However I have lost hope that legislative process can be a viable solution--that boats sailed long ago.  Between the gerrymandering of districts, the misinformation and disinformation circulating, voter apathy, lobbyists working for the privatization of education, and the fact that wealthy people kids are getting great educations now.  

Is your daughter in the video? if not, it sure looks like you could have spit that child out yourself :-)

Del the read that he lead engineer refused to sign off on the launch?  What does that tell you?  Again, I ask you the question the Feynman reveal anything that was not previously known by others?  If not, then why do you reject my statement that you give Feynman too much credit? 

Thank you Mel, but of course you'll edit to correct my typos first 

Sound good to me.  I'll hit you up via email.

Peace,

Troy

@Mel Hopkins, as you said you can't know what you don't know.  As someone who has also raised children into independent adulthood, all you can do is is expose them to a wide variety of things, help them to think critically and independently, and to serve as a model.  If they don't discover the valuable gift(s) they were born while you are raising them, perhaps they will discover it on their own.

You can't put the pressure on yourself to find this for your kids.  They are their own people and ultimately have to live their own lives.  The best you, and the community, can do is to create an environment is which people can achieve artistry, which I'd describe, at the risk of sound too new-agey, as finding one's bliss.

The real risk, and trap, I think many people, if not most, fall into is never trying to figure out what gift they have that would allow them to achieve artistry in a pursuit they'd both enjoy and earn a living from.  

@Delano, do you believe Feynman was the only one aware of these problems until he reported on them? If no, that is the only point I'm making, in that you are giving Feynman too much credit. If your answer is yes, then we'll have to agree to disagree. 

I've learned from videos like this and in conversations here that I have to change the way I communicate with the general public on technical issues.  Sharing data with graphics and charts really does not work with people unfamiliar with the domain in which you are speaking. You have to appeal to people on an emotional level.  

In the video Van Jones said;

“People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

I know this to be true from personal experience because people have no problem saying they don’t care how much education someone has when they disagree with them. They’ll argue with climatologist easily dismissing what the scientist knows in favor of what they themselves feel.

I have a talk coming up in a couple of weeks on the impact of Facebook, Google and Amazon on the web and I'm going to consider these factors when I address the audience. We'll see how it goes.

In the video, also bt VOX they talk about the environmental cost of ordering online with the next day shipping.  Amazon is the obvious culprit.  As long as Amazon make their owners money, this behavior will never change.  Amazon own the legislators and even the Washington Post who should be reporting on their activities.  The only way this will change is if people change their behavior and I see little evidence of this happening.

Hey Coach, I've added Shattering Black Male Stereotypes: Eradicating the 10 Most Destructive Media Generated Illusions about Black Men to the website.

I also added the following video to your page:

When I heard that Roland Martin lost his talk show, my first impression was damn don't tell me Roland sexually abused someone too!

I have not dug deeply into the reason for the show's pending cancellation, so I don't really know why it is being cancelled.  I was not a fan of Martin's show and did not watch it. I caught a few youtube videos and I just did not vibe with Marin's personality.  His show was one of a shrinking number of political talk shows and I would rather have his show exist than for it not to exist. That might sound like a contraction, but it really is not.

We have so few platforms where Black people can talk about Black issues with a large audience.  Having Martins shows is absolutely better than having nothing.  Makes me long for the days when Tavis Smiley was on BET.

In my book, the true giants of Black talk were Gil Noble (Like It Is) and Tony Brown (Tony Brown's Journal).  I watch Gil's broadcasts today.  Gil Noble introduced us to deep thinkers.  You would never see Noble or Brown gossiping about what one celebrity said about another, the way I've seen Martin do on one too many Youtube clips of his show.  

Another Brother I like is Rock Newman (sp?) I only recently discovered him to YouTube, I'm not sure where his program broadcasts or even if it is on TV.  I just notice Rock as high quality guests.  They may not be celebrities, but they are deep people with important information to relate. 

@Mel Hopkins I guess If the discipline is unrecognized by others us then it has no value and would not be nurtured.  Those born with a gift in a  field of no value would remain obscure.  Sometimes this is described as being ahead of one's time.  If Lebron James or Flavor Flav were born 50 years earlier I doubt they would have enjoyed any prominence and certainly no financial success.

@Delano,

• "Morton Thiokol isn't NASA and the engineers aren't decision makers.:  --Thanks for the revelation
• "engineers aren't decision makers." --Spoken like someone who was never an engineer.
• "Awareness is clearly not understanding." --Sometimes, but lack of awareness is ALWAYS not understanding.

Why reject the fact that Nasa engineers were aware of the faulty O-Rings before Feynman was ever involved.  Why not just admit this given the evidence I've shown you and move on?  Are you really that sensitive?  When did this happen?