Troy

OK I see I have to look up what happened with Jay-Z and Solange... maybe later... maybe not... Can whatever the Carters are doing surpass the drama of taking away the billionaire's toy :-) Whoever Photoshopped the image should have made 'Hova's hands smaller

I do. I question and make adjustments to my beliefs all the time. Otherwise what is the purpose of seeking out new information and learning?

This interesting thing about this trend is that as a book seller for the better part of 20 years I've watched this happen right before my eyes. As someone who has cared about this issue for far longer I've seen the impact and it is ugly. Corporations profit MORE from people who don't read. So there is little incentive for them and the government the control do to anything about this terrible trend. Don't fooled by all the press and attention on charter schools--this is really a ploy for corporations to generate profit from education. Needless to say, the gap between Black children and white children has not closed--88% of Black 4th graders are not proficient at reading (I'm sure the standard for proficiency is not very high). The problem is generational, linked to poverty and festers in an country that has no concern for its people--other than the profit it can generate off of them. The information is there, but no one will read it... let alone do anything about it.

Report highlights how the nature of reading is changing; addresses a critical need for more research to understand new media platforms' impact on reading For immediate release Monday, May 12, 2014 SAN FRANCISCO, CA—Common Sense Media today announced the release of "Children, Teens, and Reading," a research brief that offers a unique, big-picture perspective on children's reading habits in the United States and how they may have changed during the technological revolution of recent decades. The report brings together many disparate studies on children's reading rates and achievement for the first time, summarizing key findings and highlighting where research is scarce, incomplete, or outdated, as well as offering suggestions for new areas of study. Society has reached a major transition point in the history of reading. From children's earliest ages, "reading" used to mean sitting down with a book and turning pages as a story unfolded. Today it may mean sitting down with a device that offers multimedia experiences and blurs the line between books and toys. At the same time, for older children, much daily communication is now handled in short bursts of written text, such as text messages, emails, Facebook posts, and tweets. All of this has led to a major disruption in how, what, when, and where children and teens read, and there is much we don't yet know. Though the report finds that reading is still a big part of many children's lives -- and reading scores among young children have improved steadily -- achievement among older teens has stagnated, and many children don't read well or often. Among the key findings: Reading rates have dropped precipitously among adolescents. The proportion of children who are daily readers drops markedly from childhood to the tween and teenage years. One study documents a drop from 48% of 6- to 8-year-olds down to 24% of 15- to 17-year-olds who are daily readers; another shows a drop from 53% of 9-year-olds to 19% of 17-year-olds. According to government studies, since 1984, the percent of 13-year-olds who are weekly readers went down from 70% to 53%, and the percent of 17-year-olds who are weekly readers went from 64% to 40%. The percent of 17-year-olds who never or hardly ever read tripled during this period, from 9% to 27%. A significant reading achievement gap persists between white, black, and Hispanic children. Government test scores indicate that white students continue to score 21 or more points higher, on average, than black or Hispanic students. Only 18% of black and 20% of Hispanic fourth graders are rated as "proficient" in reading, compared with 46% of whites. The size of this "proficiency gap" has been largely unchanged over the past two decades. There is also a gender gap in reading time and achievement. Girls read for pleasure for an average of 10 minutes more per day than boys, a gap that starts with young children and persists in the teenage years. It's also reflected in achievement scores, with a gap of 12 percentage points in the proportion of girls vs. boys scoring "proficient" in reading in the eighth grade in 1992 and 11 points in 2012. "Technology is playing an increasingly significant role in kids' lives, and it's changing the nature of how kids read and our definition of what is considered reading," said Jim Steyer, CEO and founder of Common Sense Media. "Used wisely, technology such as ereaders could help support ongoing efforts to reduce disparities, promote reading achievement, and fuel a passion for reading among all young people, but we need more research to better understand the impact of technology on kids' reading." "Children, Teens, and Reading" is part of a research effort directed by Vicky Rideout, a senior advisor to Common Sense Media, head of VJR Consulting, and director of more than 30 previous studies on children, media, and health. "This review brings together many different government, academic, and nonprofit data sets to reveal some very clear trends," said Rideout. "There has been a huge drop in reading among teenagers over the past 30 years, and we’ve made virtually no progress reducing the achievement gaps between girls and boys or between whites and children of color. The bottom line is there are far too many young people in this country who don't read well enough or often enough." This research brief reviews national surveys and databases for trends in children's and teens' reading and reading achievement. Studies covered include the National Assessment of Educational Progress by the National Center for Education Statistics, The Kaiser Family Foundation's Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds, Scholastic's Kids and Family Reading Report (4th Edition), Northwestern University's Parenting in the Age of Digital Technology, Common Sense Media's Zero to Eight: Children's Media Use in America 2013, and The Joan Ganz Cooney Center's Learning at Home: Families' Educational Media Use in America. For the full white paper with details on studies reviewed, the methodology of the review, and other findings, visit: www.commonsense.org/research About Common Sense Media Common Sense Media is dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in a world of media and technology. We exist because our kids are growing up in a culture that profoundly impacts their physical, social, and emotional well-being. We provide families with the advice and media reviews they need to make the best choices for their children. Through our education programs and policy efforts, Common Sense Media empowers parents, educators, and young people to become knowledgeable and responsible digital citizens. For more information, go to: www.commonsense.org. Press Contact: Amber Whiteside awhiteside@commonsense.org 415-269-8127 Alexis Vanni avanni@commonsense.org 415-553-6728 ### Download the Report

125 Books on 125th: Hand-to-Hand Lit Campaign with THE RESIDUE YEARS FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Mitchell S. Jackson, the author of the critically acclaimed debut novel THE RESIDUE YEARS will be giving away 125 free copies of his hardcover book on Harlem’s famous 125th Street on Monday, May 19. THE RESIDUE YEARS, which was published by Bloomsbury in August 2013 and will soon be released in paperback, was first conceived when Jackson was serving time in prison for drug-dealing. Once released, he vowed to take his scribbled stories that were based on his own experiences, and write a novel that would inspire others. Now, years later, Jackson will take to the streets that could have been his drug-dealing corners and dispense a wholly different substance: books. Jackson was born in Portland, Oregon to a teenage single mother, who in his youth became addicted to crack cocaine. In his early teens, Jackson began selling cocaine, a trade he practiced off and into his early twenties when he was arrested and convicted for drug distribution. Jackson spent sixteen months in an Oregon state prison. Upon his release, Jackson—who was already a college Junior—re-enrolled in college, eventually earning BS and MA degrees from Portland State University and later an MFA from New York University. "I wrote The Residue Years for the people I see walking up and down 125th, the people with whom I feel a deep connection. And if they have not yet come to the book, I feel compelled to bring the book to them. In another life, I would stand in neighborhoods filled with people who looked like me and sell crack hand to hand. In this life, I'm out among my people again, but this time giving them what I believe is 300-plus pages of hope. What I mean to say is this is also a form of penance," says Jackson. Sunday, May 18, 2014 3:00-5:00 PM Mitchell S. Jackson has been the recipient of fellowships from Urban Artist Initiative and The Center For Fiction. He teaches writing at New York University and tours the country speaking at colleges, universities, prisons, jails, and other criminal justice and social outreach institutions. He published the e-book Oversoul: Stories and Essays in to critical acclaim. His debut novel The Residue Years was praised by publications including The New York Times, The Times of London, and O, the Oprah Magazine, and The Paris Review. It was a finalist for the PEN Hemingway Award for first fiction and The Center For Fiction’s prize for debut novel of the year. The novel was short listed for the Sayaron International prize for Writing, long listed for the Chautauqua Prize, and named an “Honor Book” by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. For press inquiries contact: Summer Smith 212-419-5310 Summer.smith@bloomsbury.com -------------------- I'll be there to cover this event. Mitchell writes for all readers but young men will really "get" what he is saying because he speaks their language and shares their experience. Here is a video of Mitchell at a reading I attended last week.

Miami Dolphins defensive back Don Jones was fined and suspended from team activities after he wrote "OMG" and "Horrible" in reaction to the the kiss above. A million dollar slave unable to express his opinion on his own time. Some people don't like to see two guys kissing. Is it a crime to express that sentiment? I would be grossed out seeing a photo of Donald Sterling kissing his "so-called" mistress. Is there anything wrong with saying that? This is controversial?! My God we are in serious need of help in America.

Hey Pioneer, sure Black folks, like everyone else should obey they law. But you must understand the laws are not equally applies nor is punishment fairly given. Black people are criminalized very early. Do you know that many Black boys are arrested, by the police, for fighting in schools. This rarely happens in white schools and never when I was school age. Poor people of all colors live in a hostile environment here in the U.S. What you describe as criminal mentality is really a reaction to that environment, not the other way around. The key to fixing this is dealing with the underlying problems of poverty caused by system that caters to the rich at the expense of the poor.

Pioneer, do you know many people were falsely convicted based on eye witness accounts. Eye witness accounts are notoriously unreliable. I'm not talking about people who are deliberately lying on the witness stand I'm talking about well-meaning people giving an account of what they saw that was ultimately discovered to differ from what actually happened. To Cynique's point, one's personal experience is not proof. Even similar personal experiences of many people is not proof. This is not to say those experiences are false, but it does not constitute "proof." If 1,000 people see a weather balloon and are convinced it is an alien space craft, that does not mean it is true does it? And needless to say, those observations are not proof of an alien sighting. While it is fascinating to consider the possibility of visits from extraterrestrials, Big Foot wandering woods in America, or life after death. No one has provided proof of any of it--despite the numerous personal accounts and anecdotes. Again, this does not mean that Big Foot does not exist, but proof has not been presented.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 14, 2014 Contact: Tony Valenzuela at (323) 376-6801 tvalenzuela@lambdaliterary.org Lambda Literary Foundation Announces E. Lynn Harris Award for Excellence in Black LGBT Short Fiction The Lambda Literary Foundation is thrilled to announce that A. Naomi Jackson is the winner of the first E. Lynn Harris Award for Excellence in Black LGBT Short Fiction. Selected by contest judges Linda Villarosa and Don Weise, "Ladies" is a short story set in Jamaica that chronicles the romance between two women who meet at teachers college and reconnect many years later as women in Brooklyn. Weise says of the story, "What impressed Linda and me wasn't just Naomi's command of craft and storytelling but that "Ladies" is so original and moving. It's such a pleasure to discover fiction of this caliber from a new writer. It's exactly what we hoped for when we created the Harris Award in the first place." Jackson says on winning the award, "It is such an honor to be selected as the winner of the E. Lynn Harris Award for Excellence in Black LGBT Short Fiction. I became a fan of Harris' work when I was a teenager. Reading his books were an essential part of my coming out process and helped me to see the possibility of being fully embraced by both black and gay communities. I am so grateful to the Lambda Literary Foundation for demonstrating its commitment to literature by and for queer people of color with this award." A. Naomi Jackson A. Naomi Jackson is the 2013-2014 ArtsEdge resident at the University of Pennsylvania's Kelly Writers House. She studied fiction at the Iowa Writers' Workshop, where she was awarded the Maytag Fellowship for Excellence in Fiction to complete her first novel, Who Don't Hear Will Feel. Jackson traveled to South Africa on a Fulbright scholarship, where she received an M.A. in Creative Writing from the University of Cape Town. A graduate of Williams College, her work has appeared in brilliant corners, The Encyclopedia Project, The Caribbean Writer, and Sable. Her short story, "Ladies" won the 2012 BLOOM chapbook contest. She has been a resident at Hedgebrook and Vermont Studio Center and received the Archie D. and Bertha H. Walker scholarship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown. "Congratulations to A. Naomi Jackson for winning the E. Lynn Harris Award," said Tony Valenzuela, LLF's Executive Director. "We're excited to showcase such an important emerging writer." *** The Lambda Literary Foundation nurtures, celebrates, and preserves LGBT literature through programs that honor excellence, promote visibility and encourage development of emerging writers. LLF's programs include: the Lambda Literary Awards, the Writers Retreat for Emerging LGBT Voices, LGBT Writers in Schools, and our comprehensive website, www.LambdaLiterary.org. For more information call (323) 643-4281.

Yes I saw a elderly white man with a long beard, there were little cherubic white angles with halos and feathery wings floating around me me. I was scared to death, or rather back to life... Pioneer1, I never had an NDE. I have had experiences were I felt I was aided by something or someone non-corporeal, I had an experience just last week, that if I were to described it to you would sounds like all the stories you've heard that start with, "...and God spoke to me..." I do believe people make up stories to fit their reality. Sometimes these stories involves spirits, God or extraterrestrials--it depends on the person. While I find the stories interesting, I don't believe all of them simply because two smart, conscious people can witness the same event and come away with completely different descriptions. Why would I believe anything someone with brain trauma and coming out of a coma has to say. Here is the book referenced above. The Soul Hypothesis: Investigations into the Existence of the Soul The "Sooner or later, the contributors to The Soul Hypothesis warn, scientists will pinpoint the exact three neurons whose firing accompanies the thought of our deciding to make a phone call or, if you prefer, deciding to get up and get a beer from the refrigerator. As ever more such micro-couplings are observed, we will—so scientists tell us with unseemly glee—gradually come to see that our cherished conscious life is nothing but a long series of electrical impulses, not an autonomous realm of free will and free thought. [...] The book's contributors set out this scientific challenge fully and engagingly, but they also expose its fallacies.The Soul Hypothesis performs yeoman service in rescuing the human capacities for consciousness and voluntary action from scientific challenge." — The Wall Street Journal

I know scary stuff. But you create an environment where wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few. Groups like this fester and grow out of confusion over who the enemy is... A resurgence of groups like this is further evidence of a failed education system.

Or worse Cynique being fined to fired for just expressing your opinion. I've heard some players were fined for expressing their opinions. It seems mere words are more powerful and treated more harshly than actual actions. We live in a world where people are literately unemployable because of comments made online?! Culturally we have completely lost it. As an aside, has anyone observed an 18 year old hooked on social media? It is crazy! Connected and engaged 24 hours--stressed without it.

I just posted Kam's review of Half of a Yellow Sun (2014) and his interview with on of the film's stars Anika Noni Rose.

Pioneer it really is no different than a black man who has sex with a Black woman and then displays no obvious signs of respect for her otherwise. Sometimes these brothers show no signs of respect during the "love making." I think this whole "controversy" is complete bullshit. Meanwhile the players are still million dollar slaves and the so called fans are still suckers paying hundreds of dollars for over priced sports apparel, tickets and cable bills, while thousands of Black boys are uneducated and exploited by colleges.

More about the the debate I spoke about above

Check out the debate "If consciousness is just the workings of neurons and synapses, how do we explain the phenomenon of near-death experience? By some accounts, about 3% of the U.S. population has had one: an out-of-body experience often characterized by remarkable visions and feelings of peace and joy, all while the physical body is close to death. To skeptics, there are more plausible, natural explanations, like oxygen deprivation. Is the prospect of an existence after death “real” and provable by science, or a construct of wishful thinking about our own mortality? One of the comments from the debate: I attended the debate last night and it was enjoyable. As a psychiatrist (in NYC to attend the American Psychiatric Association convention) but also having experienced an NDE 12 years ago and read widely on this topic and spoken to patients with NDE like experiences - it is a topic that fascinates me. The awareness in my NDE was the same as right now - if not more clear - in stark contrast to the awareness in a brief hallucinatory phase and then confusional phase as I was recovering from the concussion and "loss of consciousness" (whilst to me there was no loss of my awareness/consciousness - I was just somewhere else - initially in a dark void and then in a tunnel moving at vast acceleration with what looked like stars whizzing by outside the translucent tunnel wall and I was accompanied by a loving protective guide - both of us had spirit like "bodies" that were far from the "blobs" that Dr Carroll jokingly referred to them as). This was my subjective experience, it was of a completely different quality of conscious being-ness to having a dream. I felt that Dr Carroll and Dr Novella were tactically far better debaters than Dr Alexander and Dr Moody. Dr Alexander and Dr Moody would have benefited in a much longer forum to fully expand their argument. Dr Moody's focus on philosophy was eloquent but I think went over the heads of many in the audience. Yet Dr Moody is correct that the materialist "scientific" position that Dr Carroll and Dr Novella so skilfully defended - breaks down in the realm of philosophical reasoning. The question/comment I wanted to ask was - MATERIALISM WITH ITS INHERENT EPI-PHENOMENALISM IS ACTUALLY MORE "SUPERNATURAL" THAN BELIEF IN AN ONTOLOGICAL REALITY TO CONSCIOUSNESS THAT IMPLIES EXISTENCE OF A "SOUL". The "Soul" perspective does not need an inexplicable gap as to how consciousness arises from non-conscious matter such as subatomic particles, atoms, cells and neural tissue. The trouble with the "naturalism" that Dr Carroll and Dr Novella were promoting as scientific is it requires this super-natural gap and leap of faith to say your sense of being you (awareness and intentionality/free-will) arises from total non-aware matter by some kind of magical means. This is obscured to many who don't know their philosophy of mind by calling the essential part of you and i an "epiphenomenon". Dr Moody and Dr Alexander don't need you to believe in this super-natural philosophical leap of faith. Dr Alexander pointed out there is much research in science and philosophical discourse to support their position on this issue and I felt Dr Novella and Dr Carroll were overly quick (but clever from a tactical perspective) to shut this part of the debate down. There is a book written on this by a group of scientists called "The Soul Hypothesis". Essentially they argue cogently that the materialism put forth by Drs Carroll and Novella is dead."

Del I agree with that even without the poetic license. Trees serve to preserve humanity, and the planet, by their very existence pumping much needed oxygen into the atmosphere. Man, on the other hand, seems to be doing everything he can do destroy the planet. This guy would be doing a bit more than shedding a tear right about now.

I scored a couple of tickets to this sold out event. A buddy of mine has connections ;-) Does anyone have a question I'll try to ask the debaters if you have a question for a specific person let me know. The debate starts at 6:30 Eastern.

Del what was the search term were you using when aalbc.com came up #1? While I'll take a high search result, even for Elias, I'm most concerned about terms which are most relevant to the website

So life simply has an unrecognized, perhaps in unrecognizable structure. If our soul is eternal, I hope my soul is a lot smarter than I am. I'd hate the idea of running around as clueless and powerless as I am now for eternity or even being around many of the people I know... We may not be less than trees but I'm not convinced we are more.

These are the visitors Google sends to this discussion forum. Elias Gutierrez is far and away the top search term. I don't even know who the heck he is! I assume number 4 is the Clarence Thomas poem, and number 5 is the film. At least, a few of the search terms have to do with books elias gutierrez (multiple variations with maia campbell) harlem book fair (multiple variations) denise nicholas bill withers abuse (multiple variations) niggers and flies (multiple variations) lorraine hansberry facts dujango burn women as witches nadiya pendleton bronx literary festival toni morrison home zoot suit Google's algorithm perplexes and annoys me. I guess I should just find out who Elias is and write a bunch of articles about him to bring traffic to the website, instead of worrying about getting people interested in talking about books. Google sends those folks to my social media platforms. I can't tell you how many times I ran a google search to find something on my site only to have my social media platform (with just a sentence and a link) out rank my site with the full content--argh?!? I some ways Google sucks, they really do. Google will probably stop sending me even the Elias Guitierrez visitors based upon that last comment. Hickson if you are lurking out there "Convicts Candy" ranked high as well.

Del this is what I mean; "Structured Chaos" is an Oxymoron Synchronicity is coincidence Death is final, by definition

Cynique and Del you might find the up coming Intelligence Squared Debate interesting. It will be streamed live on Wednesday (May 7th at 6:45PM), otherwise you can catch a podcast. The proposition is: Death Is Not Final "If consciousness is just the workings of neurons and synapses, how do we explain the phenomenon of near-death experience? By some accounts, about 3% of the U.S. population has had one: an out-of-body experience often characterized by remarkable visions and feelings of peace and joy, all while the physical body is close to death. To skeptics, there are more plausible, natural explanations, like oxygen deprivation. Is the prospect of an existence after death “real” and provable by science, or a construct of wishful thinking about our own mortality?" I've attended a number of these debates in the past. They are all really quite fascinating. On one occasion I attended an reception with the debaters. On this particular evening there were was a military general that was previously debating about the use of drones (something I'm against). After specking with this guy I got the sense that he really was sincerely interested in protecting the American people. He really changed my opinion on the use of drones. These are complicated and tough decisions these guys make. I don't envy them. In any event, you can cast your vote before the debate. Once the debate is over you vote again. After the debate the side that changed the most opinions wins. I voted for the proposition; I believe death is not final. So far, the majority (58%) are against the motion.

Pure structure, but so complex it appears chaotic.