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Theories Abound About Black Panther’s Introduction to Big-Screen Universe

When news about Black Panther joining the Marvel cinematic universe hit the Web earlier this year, there were many different theories on how he would be introduced prior to his own solo film.

In the recent Avengers: Age of Ultron, director Joss Whedon and company dropped hints about Black Panther’s homeland, Wakanda. There were hints about one of his major villains, Ulysses Klaw, and about Vibranium, which is a common resource to Wakanda. crossbones-contre-captain-america-et-falcon

According to Sean Erickson of Movie Pilot, “some of the more interesting photos from the set of Captain America 3 have been of a big fight between Cap, Falcon and Crossbones taking place in what is almost certainly Black Panther’s home turf of Wakanda.”

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In the past two days, there have been leaked photos of the set and villains. These photos can lead one to think that the Winter Soldier may be in Wakanda on assignment. Maybe he is en route to assassinate the ruler or rulers. From this information, Black Panther could team up with Captain America and the Falcon to take down the common menace.

There was an earlier theory that Iron Man and Captain America would have tried to persuade Black Panther to join their respective causes, but that may not be the case because Spider-Man is rumored to be in the film as well.

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5 Interesting Reasons People Give for Hating Educated Black People

There are some stigmas educated Black people have to deal with that other educated groups don’t. You can’t speak proper English or wear clothing outside of hip-hop styles without being labeled as trying to be white. Most people should know that white people don’t have a monopoly on education, intelligence or class.

_DSC0433Name Assimilation  

When people of color have children, they have to decide whether to give their child a name that is stereotypically white or a name representative of their culture and people. “Creative naming has reached every race and class, but it is largely and profoundly the legacy of African-Americans,” writes Eliza Dinwiddie-Boyd in her baby-naming book “Proud Heritage.” However, there are issues with this. In the documentary Freakonomics, economist Steven Levitt put it to the test. People with white-sounding names got more callbacks from future employers than Latinos and African-Americans with non-white names. The facts are clear: racism and prejudice are real. Parents have every right to give their children whatever name they choose, but the world isn’t always an accepting place. Hopefully, one day no one will be judged based on their name, but that day has yet to come.

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11 Black Male Directors Besides Spike Lee Who Have Established A Respectable Career Behind The Camera

out-of-time-2003-tou--02-gCarl Franklin

Notable Works: House of Cards (2013-present), Out of Time (2003), Devil in a Blue Dress (1995)

Impact: Franklin was a former actor working on the hit 1980s show The A-Team. He has directed Denzel Washington in two neo-noir films that show off his flair and style for directing crime drama and action scenes — Devil in a Blue Dress and Out of Time. In the 2000s, he became a major TV director, working on House of Cards and 2014’s The Affair for Showtime. Franklin is making a Tupac Shakur biopic.

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Ernest R. Dickerson

Notable Works: The Walking Dead (2010-present), Juice (1992),
The Wire (2003-08)

Impact: Dickerson began his career in film and TV as a cinematographer shooting most of Spike Lee’s early films. He is the most prolific TV director on this list. He has worked on many Showtime, HBO, FOX and ABC TV shows since the 2000s. Aspiring television directors should look at his body of work.

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Google’s Self-Driving Cars Are Coming to Consumers in 2020

Google’s self-driving cars are just a few of the “top secret” projects the mega company has been working on in the past decade. The first working prototype hits the roads this summer to show the world Google’s commitment to the project.

According to The Associated Press, “This prototype is the first vehicle built from scratch for the purpose of self-driving, Google says. It looks like a Smart car with a shiny black bowler hat to hide its sensors, and it can drive, brake and recognize road hazards without human intervention. It has more capabilities than the prototype Google introduced last May, which was so rudimentary it had fake headlights.”

The prototype has been involved in 11 accidents. Though these incidents have been minor, there is clearly more work to be done.

The news of the prototype began Wednesday when Google showed it to the public during a demonstration on its campus in Mountain View, California.

“With 360 degrees of awareness, the self-driving cars are gaining new insights into dangerous driving behaviors, including drifting lanes and red light running,” reports ABC News digital reporter Alyssa Newcomb.

The fascinating aspect to the project is that 20 self-driving cars has gathered an estimated 100,000 miles driving in urban areas.

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Georgia Tech Highlights Black Men in STEM

For almost a decade, the number of science, technology, engineering and mathematics degrees awarded to Black males has not increased nationwide.

So Georgia Tech put together a national panel May 5 in Washington, D.C., to discuss the issue and provide solutions to increase the graduation rates of Black men in STEM fields. The panel was led by Gary May, dean of the College of Engineering at Georgia Tech. In fact, the majority of the panel was made up of Black men working in STEM.

According to Georgia Institute Technology News, “joining May on the panel were: Rodney Adkins, former senior vice president of IBM and a Georgia Tech alumnus; Reginald DesRoches, Karen and John Huff School Chair of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Georgia Tech; Jeremy Feaster, Ph.D. candidate in chemical engineering at Stanford University; Darryll Pines, dean of the Clark School of Engineering at the University of Maryland; Guy Primus, co-founder and chief operating officer of The Virtual Reality Company; Karl Reid, executive director of the National Society of Black Engineers; Cedric Stallworth, assistant dean for outreach, enrollment and community for the College of Computing at Georgia Tech; John Silvanus Wilson Jr., president of Morehouse College; and Kyle Woumn, computer science major at Georgia Tech.”

The panel discussed reasons why many Black males fall behind in STEM fields. The panelists discussed how they succeeded and what solutions could help increase numbers. They also emphasized the need for mentors, hands-on STEM programs in K-12 programs to get young people interested, and they wanted corporations and parents to get involved.

Blerds has covered STEM, discussed solutions for the issues and provided examples of successful Black men and women of all ages in STEM.

Georgia Tech is one example of Black people helping Black people to expand STEM careers to younger people. It is quite possible other institutions of higher learning will discuss and take action to include more Black males in STEM.

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5 Black Women Who Could Shake Up the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Marvel continues to dominate the movie theaters with its dynamic characters and elaborate cinematic universe. However, there are issues. Recently, Avengers director Joss Whedon left Twitter over a fan backlash over Black Widow. The reasons he left are still unclear. The situation brings up the problem of character diversity. There is very little diversity in terms of race and gender up to this point. Here are five cool female characters who can shake up the mostly male and mostly white films.

misty-marvel-s-newest-agent-of-shield-misty-knight-incomingMisty Knight

Misty Knight is a former cop who is a hero with a robotic arm. What makes her interesting is that her arm was created by Iron Man aka Tony Stark. She is a hero-for-hire who works on the streets of the Marvel Universe. It is possible she might be on one of Marvel’s Netflix series.

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9 Awesomely Talented Blerds Behind The Scenes of Your Favorite Animation

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James Tucker 

Tucker is a prominent animation producer for DC Comics and Warner Bros Animation. He has worked on projects such as Justice League: The Animated Series (2001), Batman: The Brave and the Bold (2008) and Superman: Unbound (2013). He also worked on comedy animated series like Pinky and the Brain (1997).

 

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Floyd Norman

Norman is one of the most important animators in Black history. He worked at Walt Disney Animation Studios, Hanna-Barbera Productions, Ruby-Spears, Film Roman and Pixar. He was the first Black artist/animator to work for Disney, opening the door for many animators to come. He worked on Sleeping Beauty (1959), Toy Story 2 (1999), and Monsters, Inc (2002). He also has writing credits on Mulan (1998) and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996).

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Liquid Processor Cooling Innovation May Save Consumers Billions

University of Alabama in Huntsville researchers have developed a new cooling apparatus that could bring many changes.

Dr. James E. Smith Jr., Cuong Nguyen and Xiaolin Wang have invented a way to cool down processors without electricity, using liquid, and is more cost-efficient than the everyday cooling systems currently being used.

Cooling is possible because of the excellent heat-transfer characteristics of Fluorinert FC-72.

TechRepublic writer Michael Kassner explains that the process works because “heat from the computer processor vaporizes the Fluorinert liquid. Then the vapor being lighter moves upward to the heat exchanger. The FC-72 transfers its heat load to the exchanger, which in turn transfers the heat to the surrounding air. Removing heat causes the FC-72 to condense into a liquid that flows into the holding tank below the heat exchanger. From the holding tank, the liquid FC-72 travels to the processor where the cycle is repeated.”

The researchers made progress due to a $10,000 grant from UAH Charger Innovation Fund last year. The team has estimated that computer manufacturers could save up to $600 million and consumers could save more than $6.3 billion per year if the cooling innovation is used in future computers.

“Our system can absolutely work, and it can work for 12 hours in a stable condition,” Nguyen said.

This type of cooling system could possibly be used for propulsion systems for space travel and 21st century power delivery systems. Since the project is in the early stages, there are a large number of people who still need convincing.

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Epic Selfies and Hollywood Shots: 3DR’s New Solo Brings Consumers Into the New Era of Drones

Drones have been growing in popularity among professional filmmakers and photographers who would do just about anything to get the perfect shot, but a new drone has just been introduced to the market and is making it easier for even the newest of drone novices to capture stunning aerial shots on their own.

Thanks to 3D Robotics, the average consumer will finally be able to use his or her own drones to capture the type of shots that have long been reserved for those with years of experience piloting drones.

The $1,000 Solo drone offers a collection of helpful tools that make shooting with the drone easier while also providing new features that haven’t been available on drones in the past.

“We like to joke that we just turned Steven Spielberg into software,” Chris Anderson, the CEO of 3D Robotics, told NBC News.

That’s because the new features make it possible for anyone to capture the type of video that “a Hollywood director would approve of.”

“It has a simple controller, with a holder for your iPhone or iPad, which act as both the monitor for the drone and the remote control for the mounted GoPro camera,” Wired reports of the new drone.

It also features a panic button on the controller that will stop the drone in its tracks along with a flight simulator that will help new drone pilots learn how to control the flying device without risking serious damage to their $1,000 investment.

Other impressive features are the “follow me” mode that allows users to draw a path for the drone on the screen and the “Orbit” function that will cause the drone to create a perfect circular path around a selected object.

Solo is even making a way for drone users to capture stunning selfie videos.

With just one click, the GoPro camera will focus on the user as it flies away to create an epic selfie shot that would be much more difficult to get otherwise.

Perhaps the most innovative feature, however, will be the fact that the Solo drone is encouraging hackers to improve the software with their own tech skills.

Solo is being sold as an open platform, which will allow users to freely tinker with the hardware and software.

The Solo’s release comes at just the right time as more and more consumers are getting swept away in the drone wave.

In 2014, consumers spent $69 million on drones, and they are expected to spend more than $100 million in 2015 on the devices, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.