Troy

Interestingly, I met a woman the other day who actually got on the bus in New York City to view the eclipse in the path of totality. The way I traveled to see it but her trip was much more arduous. She was no more than a 15-minute drive from where I was in South Carolina. We saw essentially the same event. She went on about how spiritually moving the eclipse was for her. She expressed that feeling after I said did not understand why so many people were so excited about seeing it. As I said before, the experience was nothing like that for me. This is profound evidence that different people experience the same event entirely differently.

Hmmm. There really is a lot to pull apart in what you wrote. First I need to ask did you watch the video or read any of the accompanying documentation? It would be helpful if I knew for sure that you have a basic understanding of the environment. Do you understand why the EU took Google to court, and why the court penalized Google with a multi-billion dollar fine? If so, I gather you disagree with the decision. That is fine; one's perception of right or wrong is a personal decision. However, in this case, Google violated the law, which is far less subjective. No one said Google or Amazon were waging a war against Black people specifically. I'm saying their behavior adversely impacts us; perhaps morese than any other group, because we own so little on the web. @The DW_Perspective, are you or have you even been a bookseller? If so, could share how you come to know so much about the business? That would be helpful. The music business model was under assault before Itunes came along. How old are you? Do you remember Napster? Itunes as a music platform is growing increasingly irrelevant as more people move to simply streaming music or downloading it instead of buying it. I'm glad to read you like and use Bing. Unfortunately, the reality is that only a small minority of people use Bing. Bing has little impact in search. Do you run a website? If so, what percentage of your traffic comes from BIng? Your mention of Obama and the contributors to his campaign is lost on me. I watched the video. "net neutrality" is a serious issue. If 45 gets rid if it that would be bad, really bad.

Yep I'll be ready to handle everything from edit to printing. All I really need are a couple of reliable book cover designer I can count on and I'll be ready for you when your book is ready.

The scientist said "models" (plural) as if there are multiple studies. After a cursory look I could not find one to satisfy me. I will have to dig deeper, my friend. Seemingly, these models should not be that hard to find. Stay tuned...

I was thinking about you this morning while listening to NPR this. I know NPR is a bastion of liberalism and are all over climate change, some may call that bias... anywho, they were interviewing a scientist was was talking about models that show ocean water temperature due to climate change are creating more powerful storms. There is actually a another powerful storm right behind Irma (though current models do not predict it hitting the United States. At any rate, I thought about looking up those models, but figured you would have come across them by now. I just ran a quick query to see if I could find something to correlate ocean temperatures with the strength of hurricanes (assuming something that simple exists) but did not find anything worth posting. I'll keep my eye out and will share anything I find.

Man you and the other regulars here are truly a blessing Obviously I enjoy the conversation even when we disagree--you force me to assess my own assumptions and beliefs. If you are talking about the book project cover highlights from the discussion forum. Sure I'll keep you posted. I actually just added another piece to the publishing pie. AALBC.com Prints Books: aalbcprintsbooks.com

I think at the end of the day people simply wanted profound changes in the way the government worked because people felt it was failing them. They thought Obama could do this, and now think that 45 can will do it. Between a profit driven mainstream media and social media and all of the influence money plays in our political process, we are all terribly misinformed. Anything Obama did that was great can go completely unknown to much of the country. Anything terrible that 45 did can be whitewashed and appear innocuous or turned into lies manufactured by the liberal media. Hillary was doomed from jump. Whether the reasons where valid or fair was irrelevant. The environment was what it was. Hillary was a Clinton and that probably hurt her more than her gender. Hillary was perceived as more or less a continuation of Obama, which too many people felt was not a good thing. Meanwhile 45 and his Russian conspirators were utilizing Facebook to influence public opinion, while American journalists were asleep at the wheel, failing to investigate the nature of social media, but instead serving as broadcasters and validators of 45's stupid tweets. Becoming president is not based upon merit. I think this is abundantly obvious today. A first term Senator can become elected and even someone without being elected to any office can win. Whoever has a lot of money and is willing to say things that make of feel good (whether they are true or not) has a great chance. Hillary had the money, but maybe not the willingness to just say anything to make people feel good. She had too much integrity to win.

Well Cynque at least you are not saying all of these people belong to different "races."

@Del, I'm actually going to push back a little more on your statement and actually modify a statement previously made. Just today I was talking to another Brother, older, who runs a business as well. He employs several full time staff, in other words he runs a much larger business. We were discussing the relative advantages of his competitors and what advantages he offer tat they don't. One of the advantages he cited was that his business was Black owned. I told him that I actually did not find that being Black owned was an advantage. He explained that were it not for other Black people, he would not have a business. Upon reflection I had to recognize that the same was true for my business. Now I may not have as much support has I want from my community, and on too many occasions I may not have as much as I need, but I would not have a business were it not for my Brothers and Sisters. Indeed Del, while you are not writing checks to me on a regular basis your participation here makes this forum possible. You and all the regular contributors to this forum could be doing anything else, but you are a Black man who is supporting a Black business. In all seriousness and gratitude; thank you. Almost all of the active participants on this forum have been Black. If I depended upon white folks to keep this forum alive it would never have gotten off the ground. Now I'm not dismissing the support of white folks in keeping AALBC.com alive, but to be clear: there would be no AALBC.com with the support of my people. My sincere thanks to all of you

Del, the "100-year" and "500-year" storms are terms the local "weathermen" use when speaking to the masses. They are terms like "race" that has a technical meaning but no one one uses it that way in informal conversation. Generally these terms are use to refer to storms that should happen very rarely. More formally the terms refer to an 1 one in 100 chance and 1 in 500 chance of occurring in a given year.

You know I watched the video a few more times and it is staring to grow on me It feels like I can visualize more or different energy levels and see how everything is connected. I also see large scale objects in small thing and vice versa. Hmmm is this what an acid trip looks like?

Hi Cynique, why do you like this video? I ask because while it is visually interesting, it does not do anything for me. I was just wondering what it does for you? I see you've complete leap frogged over post images going to video. Next thing you'll be posting custom programs

Ok @HICKSON, it looks like I'm missing half your titles. Would you shoot me the ISBN13 for the titles listed below. If the are they are eBook only shoot me the ASIN number (assuming they are Kindle ebooks). I'll make sure they are on your page: https://aalbc.com/authors/imprint.php?imprint=Ghettoheat BROTHERS BEHIND BARS, VOLUME 1 HICKSONBELIKE... LOVE DON'T LOVE NOBODY (The ISBN13 I have, 9781935148012, seems to be wrong) THICKNESS ULTRAFABNABULOUS SO SEXY TOUGH MR. GHETTOHEAT® BANJEE CUNT TURF GHETTOHEAT® EATS Thanks for the shoutout on Facebook. Peace, Troy

Well the seal has been corrected. I'm going to do some extra promotion for authors who use the seal on their website or marketing materials. I have not decided what yet.

Terrible tragedies all of them. One thing can be said for modern technology, the early warnings we get and superior infrastructure has clearly saved a lot of lives. Lets pray that Irma, the most powerful we've ever seen in the Atlantic basin, does not take any more lives. Scientists say Earth's temperature has increased a full degree over the course of the last century, and that the higher temperatures allows the air to carry more moisture. As a result, the massive 100-year, 500-year storms we are seeing will become the norm. Still there are those who see no cause for concern. To borrow an approps phase, "winter is coming."

In the book world we own AALBC.com, the largest website dedicated to celebrating the diversity of Black culture through books. We also own over 60 bookstores across the nation, when own several independent publishing companies, at least one book printer, a handful of book distribution companies and this is just in the United States. We actually own quite a bit, it is just that we don't do very much, collectively, to support and promote the concerns. We do however jump through hoops to promote the wealthiest and largest corporations. Authors will tell you to you to buy their books from Amazon, as if it was a secret that Amazon sold books. Authors will tell you to follow them on social media instead of their own websites. Of course Black bookstores and websites, like AALBC.com, could benefit from the free promotion so frequently given to corporations. @Delano, the question is not, what do we own; it is what what do we support.

I have some native american blood in me too. I did not know this until my DNA was tested. I also learned where it comes from my mother is descendant from a marriage between the son of a British merchant and a Native American woman. As far as I know, my maternal ancestors were never enslaved. It would be interesting to know how many of 'ole Captain Basse's descendants are considered white today. I wonder if he would be upset about how many negro descendants he would spawn.

Mel I did not realize I was blowing off your comments by making the statement about engineers and programmers, in fact I thought I was supporting it, not sure why you did not see it that way. At any rate, I was really lamenting the fact that these jobs are rather meaningless in that they are not contributing anything of value. Yes I know full well Facebook are using our data in ways we can not begin to fathom, which is why I've largely opted out of the platform--which nowadays is tantamount to being the crackpot living off the grid in a cabin. I also know all these new professions collecting our data is not being done to improve society but the more effectively get us to buy not things we don't really need or to manipulate us into behaviors that don't serve us, like electing 45. The best and the brightest among us are not trying to improve the world, or deal with climate change, but are on Wall Street trying to create a computer program to extract more of our wealth. Hopefully some good will come out off this "technology," but all that has happened is that wealth inequality have grown to a record highs and more of us are living on the margins. Even the life expectancy of white men is down Speaking of white men. When I was in technology on wall street I watched entire departments of white men be replaced by guys in, or brought over from, India. It was really crazy to watch it happen. I also watched the number of contractor increase dramatically while really employees go down. From the cafeteria, mail room and janitorial staff, to administrators and computer programmers, many of these employees are contractors, without benefits offer to actual employee of the firms. This was largely unheard of when I started in corporate America today it is par for the course. No one works their way up from the mailroom, because they are not even employees of the firm. Capitalism make these actions desirable; technology make it easier to accomplish.

It is impossible for humans to analyze the unimaginably large volumes of data being produced. You need programmers and engineers to design the hardware and software to make sense of it all. One of the first things that struck me when I first started working on Wall Street was that they did not make a single tangible product, yet great fortunes were being generated (for a relatively few number of people). Working for defense contractors like GE, United Technologies, and Grumman, you saw the output whether is was a satellite, a jet engine or an aircraft it made sense. Wall Street initially did not make sense to me. Indeed I could not even envision making money in a manner that they did, so looking for a job in the field never occurred to me. Wall Street makes money through schemes that don't actually ad value to society. Sure they say they do, but they really don't. They have consipred with the government to extract as much wealth as possible from the public while virtually eliminating all risk: initiate a collapse of the global financial markets not problem, here is damn near a trillion dollars to start all over again. This Obama hiring so many folks from Wall Street was disappointing to me, but it should not have been surprising given how much money they put into his campaign. Of course 45 following suit comes as no surprise despite all his bluster to the contrary during his campaign. Bernie Madoff got away so long with his ponzi scheme because he was not really doing anything very different from what Wall Street does no a daily basis... I don't believe in the Capitalist system, at least not the way it is practiced in the United States. It is too easy to pervert and corrupt. It is inherently exploitative and the application of rules are unfair and biased--particularly as it concerns poor people--especially the brown ones. It is a rigged game. I think the most successful people in this system are the ones most willing to exploit others. Whether it was enslaving Black people for a few hundred years, imprisoning them and having the work for Walmart, or paying slave wages. If I run a store and don't; have inmates making my products; pay people slave wages, in some 3rd world country; and don't benefit from government tax incentives how to do I compete with Walmart? We are all led to believe we just have to be creative, think smarter, or work harder. But again the fix is in and there is really nothing you can do. I try to get folks to work together behind the scenes, but while the results are better than working alone the results are constrained and will never benefit more than a few people. Sure most businesses fail after a few years and many of them needed to fail because they were poorly conceived or executed. But i suspect many business were put out of business because our capitalist system is broken. Meanwhile the US has been hit by the strongest storm or record, only to followed by an even stronger storm this weekend! Cynique, "winter is coming" is a perfect metaphor for our current predicament. We have an impending disaster known as climate change that will effect all of us, but too many people believe it is myth, meanwhile we are all preoccupied fighting over shit that won't ultimately matter in the end. Game of Thrones was great huh?

Yeah Mel I don't know what Amazon where trying to accomplish. Basically this was for a Kindle eBook, which was not aware could be sold via a platform other than Amazon. This seems to be an effort to prevent the same electronic book being sold via Itunes, B&N or even the universal .pdf format. The author also said they tried other formats, but Amazon resulted if far more sales. This does not come a surprise as Amazon dominates all book sales and effectively owns Black book sales.

I'd settle for unbiased journalism.

@Mel Hopkins, I visited two successful Black owned bookstores this year. One in Oakland (Marcus Books) and the other in Sacramento (Underground Books). (FYI: this is based upon outward appearances, I have not looked at either store's financials). I previously visited Eso Won in Los Angeles They are simply bookstores, no cappuccino machines, no tables filled with people using free WiFi, no Shea butter--just books. All are iconic institutions in their communities and surrounding area. I point this out to say is that I don't think you have to be all that inventive to have a viable bookstore. I think our biggest weakness is that Black people probably buy a higher percentage of books from Amazon than any other group. I don't have data to support this but I'm just seeing Amazon grow increasingly stronger while and places that sell Black book are drying up. Speaking of Amazon a future advertiser on my site, just today told me that they could not run an ad on my site unless I only provided the book for sale via Amazon! I could not believe it but the author provided documentation to the effect. Of course I accommodated the request. We actually don't not have that many options to buy books, certainly not as many as we used to have, as evidenced the dearth of Black owned independent brick and mortar and web based bookstores; the closure of Borders; and the contraction of B&N. Even Walmart and Target don't carry as many Black books as they used to... The first physical Amazon book store I visited in NYC did not have very many book written by Black people (I looked hard trust me). Amazon's store actually does do something "inventive" you check prices and buy the books on your cell phone. The data they collect is just amazing--how longer you were in the store, what book interested you enough to check the price, etc. I agree 100% with everything else you wrote. Daren thanks for joining us. Please create an account so that I don't have to approve your comments. Also make sure you share information about your book too!

Actually Cynique when I say I "feel him" I mean that I understand his sentiment. That does not mean that I agree with it. As I initially and clearly stated I don't. I've said a number of times on the fourm that I actually understand Pioneer dispite disagreeing with him or being unable to get him to budge on a position (but it is hard to get anyone to change their mind). For example, l understand his perspective on race because that is what I used to believe myself.

I was not "complaining" @Cynique, that is how you see it. I'm not interested or need your, or Serna's, justification. Who she marries is her decision. I was just expressing an understanding of Pioneers sentiment, but I thought I was pretty clear, "...people should marry anyone they want..." Similarly, you won't hear me complain about "...money being taken out of the black community by the white wives of rich niggas..., " because I don't care who people choose to marry. Besides, what does a Black man marrying a white woman have to do with taking money out of the community?

Pioneer the problem with your vocabulary "our: vocabulary is that is slopy. When you write something like; I can't begin to comprehend this. "Black" deals with phenotype, "Latino" deals ethnicity, and "Asian" deals with geography. So called Black people can fit into all of these categories and white people can easily fit into the Hispanic and Asian categories. In other words it is impossible to make sense of your statement. Maybe if you cited the scientific proof that will make more sense to me. Again when your equate "race with "genetics" I have to every conclusion that you drawn from that assumption.Because for the umpteenth time there is only one race. That has been scientifically proven.