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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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5 Interesting Things You May Not Know About Black History in Comic Books

Most people do not know that there have been Black creators in comics since the 1940s. Most don’t know that there have also been Black characters appearing in the pages of comic books that precede the creation of Black Panther and the Falcon by Marvel Comics. The reality is that Black people have been part of the process, and they could have been just as influential as Jack Kirby and Stan Lee under different circumstances.

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Orrin C. Evans 

Evans crossed racial boundaries in the comic industry and the world of journalism. He was the first Black person to cover news at an all-white news outlet in the United States. Evans worked at the Philadelphia Record, a now-defunct publication.

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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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10 Top Historically Black Colleges and Universities That Receive the Most Alumni Financial Support

As college tuition costs rise nationwide, predominately white institutions continue to see a spike in attendance. However, historically Black colleges and universities are suffering from a lack of funds and lower attendance rates. Even in these hard times, HBCU alumni still stand by their schools by opening their pocketbooks and giving back what they can. According to a 2014 analysis by U.S. News & World Report, “more than 12 percent of alumni, on average, donated to each school.” The report is a sample of alumni donations for both 2010-11 and 2011-12. The schools below were the top institutions with active alumni donors out of 45 ranked schools by U.S. News & World Report.

574-Tingley Hall - Sandy AndrewsClaflin University 

In the two-year period, 43 percent of alumni donated to the university. Claflin University is located in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and has 1,834 undergraduates, according to 2015 data. The university also has an estimated $200 million endowment.

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Spelman College

Atlanta-based Spelman College has an estimated $330 million endowment and has 2,200 undergraduates as of 2015. The college received donations from 37.3 percent of its alumni, according to U.S News & World Report.

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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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6 Things You Should Know Before Watching The New ‘Dragon Ball’

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The new series Dragon Ball Super will be written by creator Akira Toriyama himself. Toriyama is an active mangaka who has created works such as Dr. Slump and has worked in the gaming industry on games such as the Dragon Quest series and Chrono Trigger. 

majin-buu-2Dragon Ball Super will follow the aftermath of Goku’s battle with Majin Buu. At this time, there is very little information on the other villains Goku and company will fight. We can only assume that older villains like Cell could return.

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5 New Cloaking Technologies Set to Make Invisibility a Reality in the Near Future

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Earthquake Cloaking Device

Technology can solve many things at this point, even earthquakes. The diagram above shows how scientists at the Institut Fresnel in Marseille, France, plan on stopping seismic energy. First, the vibroprobe shakes the ground – simulating an earthquake. Second, rows of hollow cylinders act as metamaterials (man-made materials) that will reflect the vibrations away from the important structure and make it “invisible” to the “earthquake.” The whole experiment will have acoustic sensors to measure how well this works.

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5 Of The Biggest Problems That May Doom Jay-Z’s Tidal Streaming Service

31-tidal-press-conference.w1403.h933.2xThe Pitch

When Tidal was launched March 30, many of the music industry’s heavy-hitters were backing up Jay Z’s new business venture. Kanye West, Beyonce, Rihanna, Alicia Keys, Nicki Minaj, Usher and Madonna stood on a stage to present a streaming service that gives the money to the artists, where it belongs.

The problem is that all of these artists combined are worth well north of a billion dollars. If Jay Z wanted to make the case for the struggling artists, get the struggling artists out front and center stage. Make them the mouthpiece because it is difficult to sympathize with the extremely wealthy.  However, Beyonce and others could help promote the service later on, just not initially.

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5 of the Most Disappointing Moments of ‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’

 

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1. The Ratio of Comedy to Action (Pacing) 

One of the reasons why I’m such a Joss Whedon fan is because I appreciate how he can flawlessly incorporate humor, usually in the form of witty dialogue, with drama and action. And Age of Ultron is hilarious. You really can’t beat the humor in this one. I think it even surpassed its predecessor, which had many great moments on its own. However, some of the humorous moments caused the movie to lag and affected its overall pacing. Take, for example, Tony Stark’s soiree in the beginning of the movie, during which there was a lot of Avengers bro action, jokes and flirting (see No. 5). I loved seeing the Avengers’ chemistry as they casually socialized, but the scene felt drawn out, especially compared to some of the action scenes we see later with Ultron. And speaking of Ultron …

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5 Things About The Advancement of Modern Technology That Terrifies People

 

Robots weld the bodyshell of a Toyota Camry Hybrid car on the assembly line at the Toyota plant in Melbourne

Robots Taking Our Jobs 

We see it every day in the grocery store. The convenient self-checkout lanes might make our trips to the store easier, but these machines take away jobs that people may want and need. Since the creation of the modern assembly line by Ransom Olds in 1901 and later perfected by Henry Ford in 1913, manufacturing large machines has become easier. Today, there are manufacturing robots that have replaced human hands. In the 1950s and ’60s, many people relied on these jobs and many lived comfortably from them. Now those jobs are scarce, and cities like Detroit are feeling the effects.

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