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John Wesley Gilbert
Gilbert (July 6, 1864 – Nov. 19, 1923), an archaeologist born in Georgia, faced extreme racism and prejudice, but that did not stop him from being the first Black professor at Paine College and the first Black person to earn a master’s at Brown University in 1891. Gilbert is also the first person to map the ancient Greek city-state of Eretria where, from 1890-1891, he conducted archaeological excavations with Professor John Pickard.
Google has just unveiled the Jump, a 16 GoPro camera rig built to support 360-degree VR video. The video, which will be available on YouTube this summer, will be watchable on Google Cardboard, a $20 cardboard housing for your Android phone.
Source: Digital Trends
Fabian Elliot has a dream to diversify tech by turning Chicago into a tech hub for Black people. Elliot is not a native of the city and he did not visit until he started his career at Google as co-chair of the Black Googler Network that serves as Google’s Black talent reservoir.
At 25 years old, Elliot has created Black Tech Mecca, an organization that wants to teach technology and attract more Black people to the city. In fact, Chicago is perfect for this initiative because of Techweek.
Every year the city vibes with tech experts, CEOs, entrepreneurs, innovators and dreamers that come to talk shop and network for a week. In addition to that, Chicago is home to a variety of Fortune 500 companies.
In an interview with Dnainfo.com, Elliot explains why he wanted Chicago to be this mecca. “I realized that less than 1 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs were black,” he said. “I started to question why there are not more people of color in influential positions. I started to develop a plan. If we’re not in positions of influence, I want to be a person of influence to help change that.”
Elliot goes on to say that he wanted to bridge three communities — Black, tech and global.
“I was thinking of how I could make Chicago a beacon for all three communities, and I thought I would merge them all and address my vision. I did my research and found out what was out there. I came to realize that we had all of the ingredients, someone just needed to come up with a nice recipe to bake the cake.”
Black Tech Mecca launched during the Techweek in the last week of June. Elliot’s team includes business people and tech experts Rachel Green, Nehemiah Bishop, Keith L. Gordon, Edward Wilkerson Jr. and Floyd Webb.
For more information on the initiative, check out blacktechmecca.org.
Kara Walker (Nov. 26, 1969)
Walker is a painter and printmaker who has become famous for her paper silhouettes. Her work addresses race, gender, stereotypes and Black history. Walker has made a career out of controversial works that force people to see the ugliness of the world. In 1997, the painter won the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation “genius grant.”
Gwendolyn Bennett (July 8, 1902- May 30, 1981)
Sadly, Bennett was an overlooked poet, painter and writer from the Harlem Renaissance. She was multi-talented in a variety of areas. Bennett worked alongside intellectuals like Alain Locke. In addition to writing and painting, she served as a journalist working for the New York Herald Tribune, The New Republic and the New York Amsterdam News.
There are thousands of species of animals that are unique to the African continent that exist nowhere else on Earth. Sadly, most of these beautiful creatures are being hunted by poachers and big game enthusiasts. So their populations are dwindling at record numbers. Here are only a small sampling of the exclusive African wildlife that are still living today.
Ethiopian Wolf
This type of wolf is an endangered species that has had declining numbers for decades. It is estimated that the wolf only has a population of 500. The Ethiopian wolf is a canine and native to the Ethiopian highlands.
Giraffe
This animal is the tallest living animal. Giraffes are herbivores and have been targeted by poachers for decades. In the above photo, two male giraffes are competing for dominance.
A schoolbag made from recycled plastic is helping students from impoverished communities in South Africa study at night. As Clementine Logan reports, these bags are integrated with photovoltaic panels and batteries.
Source: CCTV Africa
Two weeks ago, the Internet went on high alert with misleading news of Ava DuVernay’s apparent job offer to direct Marvel’s Black Panther flick.
However, that was not the case. DuVernay nor Marvel’s Kevin Feige confirmed the hire. “There are a lot of fans hoping that she will get the job, but at this time, there is only known information about meetings with multiple directors, not just DuVernay, ” a Blerds report said.
“It wasn’t for me. I loved exploring it. I loved the character. I love that they called me about it, but ultimately, when I delved into it, it wasn’t a good match, so I wish them luck.” DuVernay told The Huffington Post last week at the Essence Music Festival.
Marvel’s reputation for not giving auteurs the creative breathing room necessary to work continues to grow. Director Edgar Wright was a prime example. He left the upcoming Ant-Man film, a film he pitched and wanted to work on at Marvel but left due to creative differences, opening the door for director Peyton Reed.
Joss Whedon has also reported that Avengers: Age of Ultron is his last Marvel film.
However, the Marvel machine keeps on trucking and so does DuVernay. She has two projects in the early stages of development that should appease her fans. A scripted drama for the OWN network and a Hurricane Katrina love story starring David Oyelowo are all slated for future release.
New research from the Ford Motor Co. says the top fear for millenials and Generation Z is other people driving dangerously!
Source: TODAY’S TMJ4
Samuel Massie Jr. (July 3, 1919–May 9, 2005)
Massie attended Fisk University. He earned a master’s degree from the university and went on to earn a doctorate in organic chemistry from Iowa State University. Massie is a pioneer in this field because he was the first African-American to teach at a U.S. military academy. In 1966, he became a professor at the U.S. Naval Academy, where he would become chairman of the chemistry department.
Google’s new photo app introduced in May has rubbed many users the wrong way with a defective auto-tag system.
After the app tagged two Black users “gorillas,” Google has been in a mad dash to make things right. This is how Twitter user Jacky Alcine responded to the app:
Google Photos, y’all f*cked up. My friend’s not a gorilla. pic.twitter.com/SMkMCsNVX4
— diri noir avec banan (@jackyalcine) June 29, 2015
Yonatan Zunger, the chief architect of social at Google, contacted the young lady thanking her for addressing the issue and pointing out the problem. “Zunger says that Google has had similar issues with facial recognition due to inadequate analysis of skin tones and lighting, ” reports Loren Grush for The Verge.
However, this racist use of labels has been a problem in other Google products like Google Maps.
@jackyalcine Holy f*ck. G+ CA here. No, this is not how you determine someone’s target market. This is 100% Not OK.
— Yonatan Zunger (@yonatanzunger) June 29, 2015
“Earlier this year, searches for ‘ni**er house’ globally and searches for ‘ni**er king’ in Washington, D.C. turned up results for the White House, the residence of U.S. President Barack Obama. Both at that time and earlier this week, Google apologized and said that it was working to fix the issue,” according to Jana Kasperkevic for The Guardian.
As the issue of race becomes a dominant issue to the public, technology should not be part of the discussions and debates.
At this moment the “gorilla” label has been removed from the app.