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3 Self Driving Cars That Are Propelling Us Towards A New Future

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Autonomous Cars

“As we move from struggling with today’s inefficient relationship between cars and infrastructure to one empowered by automobility, new capacities and better use of our existing resources will emerge. Daily commutes will improve in ways that allow us to accomplish so much more, making the slow seem fast,” says IDEO.

Your car of the future has a proximity sensor. As soon as you’re 200 feet away it begins prepping for your drive, pulling in info from your suite of connected devices. Based on email, calendar and text messages, it knows where you need to go and when you need to be there. Your favorite Spotify radio station is queued up, at your preferred volume. You’re ready to drive…rather, your car is ready to drive, according to Wired.

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12 Disturbing Facts About Your Mobile Phone

In today’s world, mobile phones are literally our lifelines — they are with us through the good, the bad and the ugly. This list lets you know just how ugly it can get. Here are 12 disturbing facts about your mobile phone, according to Yahoo.

 

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Your Phone Is Filled with Crud

You never know what you’ll find when you pop the cover of an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy, but you know it won’t be pretty. The repair shops we contacted report a wide range of effluvia inside, including metal shavings, construction dust, tobacco leaves and “what can only be described as green slime,” says Oz Rahman, vice president of quality assurance at Batteries Plus Bulbs.

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Your Phone Is Also Dirtier Than a Subway Toilet

And not by just a little. Cellphones have 18 times more bacteria per square inch than your average toilet seat, according to researchers in Turkey. A study by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine found that the surface of one in six handsets contained — how do we put this delicately? — fecal matter.

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Pocket Lint Is Not Your Friend

The No. 1 cause of failure for charging ports and headphone jacks? Pocket lint, say several repair shops.

“Lint is a horrible conductor that can slow down charging or block it entirely,” says iCracked’s AJ Forsythe. “And it doesn’t move when you blow into the port — in fact, that just forces the lint in even farther.”

However, you can remove the lint from a headphone jack using a Q-tip and a tiny bit of rubbing alcohol, he adds. The charging port is trickier — you may need to open the case and reseat the power connector, a task better left to a pro.

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5 Advisers to Avoid When Launching a Business

In the age of trending #startups and #entrepreneurship, more people than ever believe they are experts or have advice to give. According to Mashable, “the success of any new business often hinges on getting the right advice from people who have been there before. Applying the 90-10 Rule to advice means that 90 percent of the advice worth following comes from just 10 percent of the advice-givers.” Here are five advisers to avoid, as shared by Mashable.

 

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Advisers Who Don’t Listen

Have you ever come across people who start spouting advice without taking the time to understand your specific situation? They never bother to ask a single question about the business before launching into their “advice.”

Avoid these individuals by focusing on advisers who ask thoughtful questions and then listen to your answers. The best listeners usually make the most helpful advisers.

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5 Ways Tesla Motors Is Bringing The Auto Industry Into The 21st Century

Tesla Motors is an American company that designs, manufactures and sells electric cars, creating an all new demand in the marketplace and leaving competitors scrambling to catch up. Tesla first gained widespread attention with the release of the Tesla Roadster, the first fully electric sports car. That was only the beginning for the company. Here are five ways Tesla Motors is pushing technology in the auto industry, according to the Los Angeles Times.

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Embedded telematics: Inclusion in the Model S of an embedded connection link — as opposed to connectivity via smartphone tethering — demonstrates that embedded connectivity is the way drivers will communicate with the digital world outside their car.

In the long term, they can expect embedded connectivity to become more of a standard.

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Good Read: 12 Science Fiction Books Written by Black Authors

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‘Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film’

“Black Space: Imagining Race in Science Fiction Film” by Adilifu Nama (2008) is the first book-length study of African-American representation in science fiction films. “Black Space” demonstrates that science fiction cinema has become an important field of racial analysis, a site where definitions of race can be contested and post-civil rights race relations (re)imagined.

 

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‘The Conjure Woman’ 

“The Conjure Woman” is a collection of short stories, written by Charles W. Chesnutt in 1899, that deal with major themes through the lens of an African-American man living in the antebellum South. The prose is a bit dated, and very 19th century, but it establishes the genre very well. Chesnutt’s work is one of the first collections to be truly considered Black speculative fiction/sci-fi/fantasy. Also, “The Conjure Woman” collection is 100 percent free on Project Gutenberg.

 

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‘Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation’

“Black Comics: Politics of Race and Representation” edited by Sheena C. Howard and Ronald L. Jackson II (2013) is an analytic history of the diverse contributions of Black artists to the medium of comics. Covering comic books, superhero comics, graphic novels and cartoon strips from the early 20th century to the present, the book explores the ways in which Black comic artists have grappled with such themes as the Black experience, gender identity, politics and social media.

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20 Amazingly Innovative Apps Created By Black Developers

As technology and innovation grow throughout the world, Black innovators are playing a big role in the market. Here are 20 mobile apps created by Black developers, according to AfricanAmerican.org and IT News Africa.

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Zimbile

Although not strictly an app, Zimbile helps small businesses enter the online world in a flash. The website allows businesses and individuals across Africa to build fast-loading, mobile-optimized websites in app form in a few easy steps.

The company prides itself on helping you build a mobile website in minutes, even if you have no technical knowledge.

 

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HBCU Buddy

Founders Jonecia Keels and Jazmine Miller’s app HBCU Buddy provides prospective and current students with information about historically Black colleges and universities on aspects of student life, admissions, alumni, standardized test scores and faculty research. The app also has virtual campus tours and integrates social networking with Twitter and Facebook. The app won the 2010 AT&T Mobile Campus Challenge with a $10,000 prize.

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Myavana

Founders Techturized Inc. and co-founders Candace Mitchell, Jessica Watson, Chanel Martin and Joy Boulamwini created Myavana, a hair app for African-American women that encourages users to form communities based on hair textures and desired hairstyles. Women can upload hairstyles, share beauty tips about styling products, techniques and salons. Also, users can follow desired hairstyles by “Girlfriending” other users who post images with that style. Each time a Girlfriend request is accepted, the community can follow that user’s hair journey and learn her hair secrets.

 

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HopStop 

HopStop founder Chinedu Echeruo created the app to give those who live in metropolitan areas simple and easy directions on how to navigate by using public transit, walking, taking a cab or biking. Echeruo, a Nigerian former Wall Street analyst, was fortunate enough to have his app included in Time magazine on its list of 50 Best iPhone Apps of 2011.

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10 of the Best-Paying Jobs For Math Lovers

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Economist

Economists study and analyze the effects of resources such as land, labor and raw materials on costs and their relation to industry and government. Notable economist Robert Shiller recently won the Nobel Prize in Economics and predicted the housing bubble of 2006 in which housing prices peaked and then sharply declined in 2007, reaching new lows in 2012.

As reported by Business Insider, an economist’s median annual salary is approximately $91,000, providing a good job environment and low work stress.

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Stockbroker

The life of a stockbroker has been publicized in films such as The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), depicting a lavish lifestyle in New York. Stockbrokers facilitate the purchase and sale of stocks, bonds and other securities for individual and institutional clients, as reported by Business Insider.

The annual media salary for a stockbroker is $72,484, with a great work environment but a significant amount of stress.

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Tax Examiner and Collectors 

Although tax “season” does not last all year for taxpayers, tax examiners remain in full force, gearing up and winding down in preparation for the next cycle. Tax examiners determine tax liability and collect taxes from individuals or businesses, as reported by Business Insider. They review tax returns, conduct audits, identify taxes owed and collect overdue tax payments, according to the Bureau of Labor and Statistics. With low stress, a reliable work environment and a median salary of $50,210, tax examiner is a job to consider!
 

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Insurance Underwriter

Insurance underwriters assess and analyze the risks inherent in insuring potential policyholders before making recommendations to the insurance companies that employ them, according to Business Insider. The annual income is $61,182, and the job comes with low stress and a quality work environment.

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America’s First Black Astronauts: 15 People Who Paved the Way

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Venturing into outer space is a rarity that requires hard work, dedication and sacrifice. These 15 Black men and women include scientists, doctors, chemists and military leaders who have truly paved the way for Blacks to explore and exceed their wildest imagination. Here are the Black astronauts who raised the standard, according to NASA and The Root.

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Maj. Robert Henry Lawrence Jr. (U.S. Air Force, Deceased)


Born Oct. 2, 1935, the Chicago native was a top-performing student at Englewood High School and Bradley University. Lawrence was selected by the Air Force for astronaut training in July 1967. On Dec. 8, 1967, he died in a crash of an F-104 fighter jet while instructing a student pilot at the controls. Lawrence, who held a Ph.D. in chemistry from Ohio State University, never got to fulfill his dream, but he left behind a legacy for others who made the journey into space, according to The Root.

 

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Col. Guion S. Bluford Jr. (U.S. Air Force, Retired)

Born in Philadelphia on Nov. 22, 1942, Bluford was the first African-American astronaut to blast off aboard Challenger in 1983. According to NASA, Bluford, who has a degree in aerospace engineering from Penn State, was an accomplished fighter pilot who flew 144 missions in Vietnam before entering NASA’s rigorous Astronaut Training Program. Bluford logged four shuttle missions.

 

 

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Bernard A. Harris Jr., M.D.

Harris was born June 26, 1956, in Temple, Texas. Graduating from Sam Houston High School in San Antonio in 1974, Harris holds a degree in biology from the University of Houston and a medical degree from Texas Tech. Harris was selected by NASA in January 1990 and flew his first shuttle mission aboard Columbia in 1993. He became the first African-American to walk in space during a joint mission with the Russians in 1995, according to The Root. Harris is a veteran of two space flights, with more than 438 hours in space on STS-55 and STS-63, according to NASA.

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8 Books Every Intelligent Person Should Read According to Neil deGrasse Tyson

king_james_bible7The Bible

“To learn that people not in power will do all they can to acquire it, and people in power will do all they can to keep it,” stated Tyson in a 2011 Reddit chat.

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The Age of Reason by Thomas Paine

Tyson encourages individuals to read this book in order to “learn how the power of rational thought is the primary source of freedom in the world.”

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9 Superheroes You Didn’t Know Were Caribbean

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Steel Pulse, Jamaica

A Jamaican-born skilled metallurgist, Desmond Negril’s past is a mystery. He is identified as “Rastafarian,” meaning he believes in the divinity of Ethiopian emperor Haile Selassie.

He was put in charge of a $2 million private research facility, Allotech, located on Strong Island. His life changed the day he was in the middle of an experimental liquid metal bonding process. His complex was attacked and exposed to his liquid metal chemicals. This changed the chemical composition of his body into a malleable liquid metal, yet still alive, form.

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Aizan, Barbados

Hela St. August, also known as Aizan, is a self-taught practitioner of parkour and breakdancing, making her extremely agile and coordinated. Through a special ceremony of the Aizan Clan, some of her mentor’s abilities were passed to her, allowing her to absorb some of his martial arts abilities. Aizan is now skilled in the clan’s martial arts system “Anansea Vita Saana.” With all of these elements, she has created a new hybrid, unorthodox fighting style all her own.

It is thought that Aizan is able to cast a psychic aura or “web” that allows her to perceive parallel realities. This allows her to see through illusions, to the “truth” of reality. Aizan can “read” body movements and actions, giving her the ability to anticipate attacks or even tell when someone is lying.

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