Expanded polystyrene insulation and polyisocyanurate foam polyiso are the two main insulation types used in EIFS in North America. Overseas, many other types of insulation are used to make EIFS, such a mineral wool and “glass foam.”

EIFS is like any other building material in the sense that it is well-suited for some uses and not for others. This column is a compilation of my thoughts about where EIFS works well and where it does not, including some unusual specialty uses.

 I moved to Florida a few years ago. Construction is different down here. 

The greenest low slope roofing solution really sucks.

Sensitive to environmental considerations in the security and video surveillance industry, Panasonic System Networks Company of America, Secaucus, N.J., is taking leadership by offering products manufactured in energy-efficient facilities, using fewer hazardous materials and emitting less CO2, and which also consume less power than previous Panasonic comparable models.

A leading provider of home automation and technology, Vivint is always on the lookout for opportunities to bring additional value to their customers with new offerings to provide more comprehensive home integration solutions.

Halo Floors, offered under the CBC Flooring family of products, represents one of the most dynamic and refreshing luxury vinyl tile product lines in the industry.

Shaw Floors’ divisions Tuftex Carpets of California and Anderson Hardwood have launched the Color Coordinates display system exclusively for Shaw Design Center retailers.

Floyd & Associates has launched its new e-commerce website: www.sampleboards.biz.

Strategis has outdone itself again with their all new PICASSO Artwood program, a product unlike any other hardwood you have ever seen.

Rock, a colorful new quartzite recreation in glazed porcelain, uses HD Technology for a natural effect.

Campbell purchased noosa as part of the Sovos Brands, Inc. acquisition in March 2024.

Enterprise software is going beyond the line in matters of size and scalability; small companies depend on custom tailored software to manage their business rules, and large enterprises with onsite engineers, deal in a daily basis with the challenge to keep their systems up to date and running with the top edge technology.

In both cases the investment made in software systems to assist a given business is elevated, regardless if it was purchased from another company or if it was built and maintained by the own, it’s never going to stop being critical to update the current systems and platforms.

            Any enterprise software owner/designer/programmer must be aware of the market tendencies of operating systems, web technologies, hardware specs, and software patterns and brands; because of the raging nature of the IT industry it takes an eye blink to get obsolete.

Let’s recap about VB6 to VB.NET era, a transition with a lot of new technology, specs and a lot of new capabilities that promise the programmers to take their applications where it seems to be previously impossible like web services and remote facilities, numerous data providers are accessible with a common interface, and more wonders were presented with the .NET framework, however all this features can get very difficult or near to impossible to get incorporated in legacy applications. At this moment it was mandatory to get that software translated to the new architecture.

Initially the idea was to redesign the entire system using those new features in a natural way but this implicates to consume large amounts of resources and human efforts to recreate every single module, class, form, etc. This process results in a completely new application running over new technology that needs to be tested in the final environment, and that will impact the production performance because it has to be tested in the real business challenges. At the end, we got a new application attempting to copycat the behavior of the old programs and huge amount of resources spent.

Since this practice is exhaustive for the technical resources and for the production metrics, the computer scientists research about the functionally equivalent automated processes were used to create software that is capable to port one application from a given source platform to a different, and possibly upgraded one. During this translation process, the main objective is to use as much inherent constructions as possible in the newly generated code to take advantages of the target technology and to avoid the usage of legacy components. In case that the objective is to include a new feature found in the target platform, the application can be migrated and then the feature can be included more naturally than building communication subprograms to make that new capability to get in touch with the old technology.

This process is widely promising because it grants the creation of a new system based on the previous one, using minimum human efforts by establishing transformation rules to take the source constructions and generate equivalent constructions in the desired technology. Nevertheless, this will require human input, especially in very abstract constructions and user defined items.

All the comparisons done before to measure the benefits between redesign and migration, points to identify the second practice as the most cost-effective and fast, but now another metric becomes crucial. The automated stage is done by computers using proprietary technology depending on the vendor of the migration software, but how extensive the manual changes will be? Or, how hard will be to translate the non-migrated constructions?

The quality metrics of the final product will be redefined because a properly designed application will be translated with the same design considerations. This means that a given application will be migrated keeping the main aspects of design and the only changes in the resulting source code will be minor improvements in some language constructions and patterns. This makes the new quality metrics to be: maximize the automation ratio, minimize the amount of manual work needed, generate more maintainable code and reach the testing stage faster.

 As mentioned previously, the migration process is now an ally of every company while attempting to get their software systems revamped. It’s imperative to determine the rules to measure the process throughput, in order to compare all the options the market offers for this purpose, but, how it comes to be described the rules to compare a process where every single vendor employs proprietary technology that contrast from one to another?

After eye-witness the whole process, the ideas impressed in the user’s mind will decide the judgment made to some specified migration tool, and how it performs; but to make sure this judgment will be fair, here are some concepts, ideas and guidelines about how the migration process should be done, and the most important, how it should be measured.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·        <!--[endif]-->Time:

Human efforts are precious; computer efforts are arbitrary, disposable and reusable. An automated process can be repeated as many times as necessary, as long as their design considerations allow the algorithms to accept all the possible input values. Migration processes can be done with straight one-on-one transformation rules resulting in poorly mapped items that will need small adjustments, but regardless of the size of those efforts, those must be human, so these single reckless rules may become hundreds of human hours to fix all this small issues; remember, we are dealing with large enterprise software products, meaning that a single peaceable imperfection can replicate million times. Another possible scenario will be complex rules that searches for patterns and complex structures to generate equivalent patterns on the other side, but as many AI tasks, it may take lots of computer efforts, because of the immense and boundless set of calculations needed to analyze the original rules and synthesize new constructions. For the sake of performance, the user must identify which resources are most valuable, the time spent by people fixing what the tool’s output provided; or computers time that will be employed by more complex migration tools to generate more human-like code.

<!--[if !supportLists]-->·        <!--[endif]-->Translation equivalence:

Legacy applications were built using the code standards and conventions for the moment, the patterns and strategies used in the past have evolved ones for good other to became obsolete. During an automated software migration process there must be a way to adapt arcade techniques to newer ones; a simple one-on-one translation will generate the same input pattern and the resulting source code will not take advantage of all the new features on the target platform. A brilliant migration tool should detect legacy patterns, analyze its usage and look for a new pattern in the target platform that behaves the same way. Because of the time calculations explained previously, a faster tool will only mean non-detailed and superficial transformations that will be a poor replica of the original code or in the best scenario a code wrapper will fix all the damage done. Functional equivalence is the key to a successful migration, because the whole concept of software migration is not only about getting the software running in the target platform, it’s about adaptation to a new set of capabilities and the actual usage of those capabilities.

With that on mind, a comparison between different tools can be clearer now. Leaving aside the competitiveness of the market, the readers should identify the facts from the prevaricated marketing slogans, and appraise the resources to be spent during a migration process. Saving a couple of days of computer time may become hundreds of human hours, which at the end will not cure the faulty core, will just make it run.

Spend time NOT talking to family with our preview
of the holidays’ most-hyped new releases. by Dom Sinacola

Holidays are usually meant for time with family, which is obviously why so many people elect to go to the movies on Thanksgiving and Christmas. Thanks to theaters being open, you now have a ready-made excuse to avoid talking to loved ones for a solid two hours. 

From St. Johns Twin Cinemas to Regal Division Street, every corner of Portland is thriving with film love, be it a first-run chain or local rep theater. So, to gird thy loins for the upcoming high holy days, I’ve assembled a preview of the movies you can see in theaters on Thanksgiving and/or Christmas day when conversation runs as dry as an overcooked bird. 

Red One

Following the box office shrug that was 2022’s Black Adam, The Rock optimistically reported from the set of Red One that his new blockbuster, co-starring Chris Evans and JK Simmons (as muscle daddy Santa Claus), is a “big, fun, action packed [sic] and fresh new take on Christmas Lore [sic].” After The Rock’s supposed chronic lateness and “unprofessional” on-set behavior helped push Red One to late 2024, this “new take” on the late-December holiday will finally see the overcast light of mid-November. Apparently, when Santa Claus is kidnapped, the head of North Pole security, Callum Drift (Rock), must join forces with world-class bounty hunter (come on now) Jack O’Malley (Evans, seemingly running on fumes), to save Kris Kringle. Whatever. I have no doubt this movie will be excrement, struck with surprisingly upsetting violence splayed against the most conservative values you can carve from a $250 million budget. This comes out on November 15; will it still be in theaters on Thanksgiving? Let’s hope not.

Gladiator II

If you’ve seen Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, you know that the octogenarian director cannot be bothered by such woke trappings of cinematic culture as “historical accuracy” or “consistent accents.” Instead, Scott trades obsession for the spectacle of history; he’s in thrall more to the bloom of organs erupting from cannonball wounds than allegiance to facts most audiences wouldn’t know anyway. 

That energy will carry into Gladiator II, Scott’s sequel to his 2000 original, which will surely be a stupendously gory feast for IMAX screens. Arms all veined up, Paul Mescal is New Gladiator, the fate of Rome on his shoulders for some reason, with Denzel Washington clearly having a blast playing an ancient weapons dealer. Finally able to put a career’s worth of ideas onto the screen, Scott’s never been more prolific, and never less beholden to anyone than himself. Respect. 

Wicked Part One

The first half of an adaptation of the musical—as well as of the 1995 novel on which the musical’s based and the Wizard of Oz writings of Frank L. Baum—Wicked has a runtime of two hours and 40 minutes. More like Wicked Long Movie [pats self on back]. Growing to the width of the Garfield balloon at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, Ariana Grande’s dinner plate eyes will ultimately occlude all other light. Suddenly, lifetimes will pass in the dark of that theater. You will wake in another epoch, another land, and you will discover there is still a second movie to sit through.

Moana 2

The November of The Rock continues with the last IP he hasn’t stripmined of all goodwill. That’s right, Rockheads, Maui, the beefy demigod from Moana, is back for the sequel. Originally developed as an animated series, Moana 2 went theatrical eight months ago when Bob Iger announced the series had been reconfigured following a revamping of the producing and directing teams—for solely artistic reasons, I’m sure. Rarely are reports like this a good sign, usually accompanied by accounts of animators enduring hellish work conditions or presaging a movie that feels functionally incomplete. Still, I can’t imagine families not defaulting to this Thanksgiving weekend. Will our thumb-headed megastar once again drop a People’s Elbow on the box office? I sincerely do not care.

The Brutalist 

Brady Corbet’s gushed-over saga about architect László Toth (Adrien Brody) has the accolades (garnering Corbet the Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival), distribution deal (A24), and runtime (215 minutes) to make it the year’s biggest small release. Couple this with Corbet and cinematographer Lol Crawley shooting in Vistavision—a process that can make 35mm film look as huge as 70mm in the theater just by running the stock through the camera sideways—and expect to see this engorged on the swollest screens in town. It’s so intentionally and obviously epic, you’d be forgiven for assuming architect László Toth is a real person. The magic of cinema!

Babygirl

I was going to make a joke about Halina Reijn’s Babygirl being the perfect choice for families wanting to watch a horny movie together on Christmas, but looking into the film’s reception at the Toronto International Film Festival, I find critics saying that Nicole Kidman’s performance as a repressed CEO who forms a sub-dom bond with an intern (Harris Dickinson) is a brave and reflexive exploration of her career and aging physicality. So I will be similarly brave and refrain from making that joke.

Nosferatu

A young foil to Ridley Scott and his disregard for the exigencies of time, Robert Eggers is a horror filmmaker who makes macabre period pieces—The Witch, The Lighthouse, The Northman—that are so thoroughly researched they feel like stolen visions, like sights from the past that we have no right to witness. With Nosferatu, he seems to be pulling from F.W. Murnau’s 1922 silent film as much as from Werner Herzog’s 1979 remake and Bram Stoker’s 1897 Dracula novel, filtering his hyper-literate taste through a century of German expressionism. 

A Complete Unknown

James Mangold responds to Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story—a satire responding to the pestilence of Oscar-bait biopics birthed by Mangold’s Walk the Line—by making an even more by-the-numbers take on an iconic musician. This time it’s Bob Dylan, given approximate life by Timothée Chalamet. A Complete Unknown will almost certainly hinge on Dylan going electric at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival, giving him the opportunity to reminisce about what led up to this all-culminating cultural moment. Its financial returns will be optimistic, its award season obligatory. So it is foretold.

Better Man

While we’re on the subject of biopics: Better Man is about the life of UK pop idol Robbie Williams… only he’s a CGI chimpanzee and no one else in the movie acknowledges he’s a CGI chimpanzee. I hesitate to call this conceit so stupid it may be genius, but I won’t hesitate to recommend it, because we both know it will be [my eyes glaze over and soul noticeably disappears from my body] bananas.

With new digs and funding, a local nonprofit is helping queer and trans residents find safety, and a path off the streets. by Anna Del Savio

In October, Portland’s first day center for unhoused queer and trans people opened in Southeast.

The Marie Equi Center’s new Brooklyn neighborhood day shelter is intended to welcome visitors “just coming in to regulate their nervous systems in the space and hang out, or to get connected to our peer services,” center director Katie Cox said.

“We say that we’re a really LGBTQ-affirming city and space, but the services and the infrastructure have needed more support,” Cox said. The new funding, which comes from Metro’s Supportive Housing Services tax revenue via Multnomah County, “feels like folks putting their money where their mouth is,” Cox added.

Peer support and community health workers are on-site to offer basic wound care, emotional support, recovery mentoring, health education, referrals, and assistance navigating social service systems. But the 13,000-square-foot Trans & Queer Service Center also has space for visitors to come in off the street to simply sit and decompress. 

For many unhoused people, “you don’t have a safe place to be during the day where you actually feel welcome and your whole nervous system has a chance to relax and just be,” Equi program director Madeline Adams said. “So much of what we do as humans to heal or to overcome what we’ve been through requires, as a baseline, an environment… where we can come back to a semblance of having all of our faculties.”

A large room at the front of the building hosts community events that run the gamut from karaoke nights to crash courses on budgeting and cleaning for newly housed folks. 

Smaller rooms are used for one-on-one meetings with community health workers who provide emotional assistance, harm reduction, basic first aid, recovery support, health education, help navigating over services and systems, and gender-affirming referrals. 

“That can look a lot of different ways, but the goal of it is to walk alongside folks, to help them address barriers as they come up and access the resources and supports that they need,” Cox said.

Before the move—which also came with a name change from Institute to Center—the Marie Equi Institute primarily offered services out of an office in the Q Center on North Mississippi Avenue.

Scarlet Meadows first came to the Q Center two years ago for the free food pantry, but found her way into the Equi Institute’s office.

The institute’s peer support workers “helped me out a lot emotionally with the stress of being a new mom as well as being part of the queer community,” Meadows said. “There were days where I went there just to be, because it was a safe space.” Meadows ended up in Portland when their housing plans fell apart en route from Kentucky. From the Equi Center mentors, Meadows found spiritual and emotional support, and help navigating bureaucracy like Medicaid enrollment. 

“Sometimes I would go there specifically to make a phone call, just to have that support and someone who knows what questions to ask,” Meadows said.

Meadows hadn’t sought out peer services before coming to the Equi Center.

“I was still dealing with a lot of trauma and kind of stuck in my own head about certain things,” Meadows said. 

Peer health workers at Equi “move at the speed of trust,” Adams said. Rather than jumping right into tasks, workers have to build relationships with their houseless clients before those clients will open up about their needs. The bigger space allows staff to connect with visitors who need more time before opening up to a peer worker. 

When Adams was houseless, one of the hardest parts was that “people just couldn’t comprehend what I was dealing with or why I wasn’t housed,” she said. “It was always just so awkward and you could tell that people didn’t want to hear. The last thing you want to do in that situation is to ask for what you need, because by the time you reach someone that’s going to say yes, you’ve already learned that it’s not really safe to be asking.”

The Marie Equi Institute was founded a decade ago, named for “Doc” Marie Equi, a lesbian doctor and activist working in Oregon in the early 1900s (and the namesake of the local lesbian bar Doc Marie’s). The institute was created to provide queer and trans-specific primary care, right after Oregon Medicaid started covering gender-affirming care. Many of the Equi Institute’s clients came to the organization after fleeing other areas of the country where there wasn’t access to gender-affirming care, Cox said.

The center has seen a growing number of visitors who came to Portland to escape anti-LGBTQ legislation and violence in other states.

When the pandemic hit, the institute had just hit pause and started to reassess operations after their clinical director took medical leave.

The institute joined the C(3)PO coalition, which created three outdoor tent camps for homeless Portlanders early in the pandemic. Starting in sheds in the C(3)PO villages, the Equi Institute built up a community health program working “at the intersection of homelessness and public health,” Cox said. 

Last fall, the Multnomah County Board of Commissioners approved $3 million in funding for day shelters, including $830,000 to the Equi Institute, in preparation for Portland’s public camping ordinance taking effect. But the institute didn’t get the contract from the Joint Office of Homeless Services until March. The funds had to be spent by the end of June, leaving just a few months for the center to find a new location and use up the money. 

The institute signed a lease in June and got to work on renovations with Gensler, an architecture firm that also led the renovation of the Rose Haven day center. 

The building has showers, laundry services, a gymnasium, food pantry, kitchenette, computer lab, reading nook, and art space. 

Cox said staff are working on plans to use the gym as an overnight shelter during severe weather.

“We know this is going to be a big learning curve for us, having our own building,” Cox said.

Thanks in-part to the SHS funding, the Marie Equi Center has doubled in size to 15 staff, including a new peer services coordinator and a center operations coordinator. The center ended up spending $752,000 from JOHS last fiscal year and was awarded $857,000 for the current fiscal year.

A Homelessness Response Action Plan finalized by the city and county earlier this year specifically calls for more culturally-specific services, including the creation of a shelter for LGBTQIA2S+ adults.

Existing culturally-specific providers like the Marie Equi Center “know what their communities need, are doing what their communities need, and just need that funding piece and support from their partners in government to be able to make that happen or do more of it,” JOHS equity manager Emily Nelson said.

Cox wanted to add a housing navigator to the center’s expanded team, but the Joint Office didn’t award enough funding to cover that position in the current fiscal year. 

“As we expand day services and expand shelter, we have to make sure that we have ways to connect folks to permanent housing through day services and shelter,” Nelson said.

Cox said the center’s peer workers struggle to connect clients with housing services that are safe and affirming for queer and trans people. 

One of the hardest parts of the work “is the heartbreak of knowing exactly what people need and deserve and not being able to get that to those people in a real way,” Adams said.

Transgender houseless people are less likely to find shelter. Nearly 54 percent of transgender houseless people are unsheltered, compared to 39 percent of cisgender houseless people, according to the National Alliance to End Homelessness. 

The new day center won’t only serve people while they’re living on the streets or in a shelter. Trans and queer people face disproportionate discrimination in housing, both in affordable housing and market-rate rentals, so support is needed for newly housed people.

“If it’s not the rental company discriminating against you, it could be other people in the building, and then your new home is starting to feel very unsafe,” Cox said. Having a queer or trans peer who can offer support in navigating those challenges “increases the likelihood that folks are going to be able to stay housed,” they said.

“As people navigate the transition from being unhoused to being housed, they often feel like they lose their community of folks that they were living with unsheltered,” Cox said. “The more we can start to bridge those gaps early on and create that community building, the more successful we’ll be at keeping people housed.”

For more information, visit www.marieequi.center. 

Christmas came early for these city bureaus and agencies. Let’s see what ‘Taxpayer Santa’ brought them! by Courtney Vaughn

What you do with your money is nobody’s business, but what the government does with your money is everyone’s business. 

At a time of year when parents across the nation get suckered into splurging on pricey, short-lived toys (sorry, but your kid is never gonna learn to play that keyboard and there’s a good chance that Easy-Bake Oven will burn your house down), we set out to see which public agencies and city bureaus received the biggest, coolest, and most expensive toys—thanks to you and your tax dollars. 

While these agencies may have been blessed with many of the toys on their wish lists, we know austerity measures are coming. The Portland mayor’s office recently offered a budget preview that reveals city bureaus will likely need to cut another 5 percent from their budgets in the upcoming fiscal year. If that sounds like a bone dry way of explaining the city’s money sitch, imagine if you already had to cancel all your streaming services and lower your grocery bill last year, and now you have to cut even more expenses, to the point where you’re considering canceling your internet service and just stealing the shoddy WiFi signal from that coffee shop down the street.

And though the government shopping sprees may be coming to an end for now, let’s take stock of some big-ticket toys, tools, and trucks that taxpayers recently bought for our public agencies. Show this to your kids to explain why “Santa” had to scale back this year.

Body cameras

What they are: small video cameras roughly the size of a credit card that clip onto officers’ uniforms. In December 2023, Portland City Council authorized police to spend up to $10 million on body-worn cameras over the next five years. The end-of-year purchase was a bit of an impulse buy. The council approved the expense in an effort to save the bureau $1.5 million by approving a contract with camera manufacturer Axon before the new year. This feels like the equivalent of springing for a new washer and dryer during a Presidents Day sale because the deal is too good to pass up. 

Estimated cost: $10 million

Drones

What they are: small, aerial cameras also known as unmanned aircraft systems, which record video and images from the vantage point of a bird or an insect buzzing above your head. PPB started using drones in 2023 as part of a pilot program. This year, the City Council coughed up nearly $100,000 for the bureau to buy more devices. Police mainly use them to help get images at major crime and crash scenes. 

The bureau says the high-flying cameras allow officers to “monitor critical incidents from a distance, assist with search and rescue, and provide evidence of crimes.” Recently, PPB has deployed drones at crisis scenes involving uncooperative, potentially dangerous subjects, to try to peer into windows or gain a view of other hard-to-reach spaces. Police swear they’re not using drones for any type of facial recognition efforts. 

Estimated cost: $166,000

Crowd control weapons; armor

What it is: tear gas, riot shields, and impact munitions. Earlier this year, the Portland Police Bureau revived its crowd control specialists, formerly called the Rapid Response Team. Crowd control officers responded to large-scale protests over the spring at Portland State University and now, the bureau is preparing for demonstrations and potentially violent protests following the November election. The city didn’t skimp on PPB’s shopping budget, authorizing $1.1 million for the purchase of 100 shields; 350 tear gas canisters; 350 kinetic impact projectiles; 300 impact munitions with chemical irritants; 100 flash-bang incendiary devices, and munitions training. 

Note: Since they’re spending your tax money, all of these weapons will be used on you, dear readers… which gives new meaning to the phrase, “You get what you ask for.”

Estimated cost: $1.1 million

Articulated transit bus,
AKA “bendy bus”

What it is: a long, 60-person public transit bus with an accordion-like middle section, allowing the long bus to maneuver around tight roads while carrying more passengers. The buses are diesel-powered and allow TriMet to expand capacity on select, highly-used routes. Frequent service and more seats = more fentanyl traces, baby!

Estimated cost: $935,000

Tractor-drawn aerial truck

What it is: a big-ass fire engine with superpowers. Tractor-drawn aerial trucks give firefighters extra maneuverability and include an aerial ladder for reaching tall and tight spaces. They also have independent rear steering, so the trailer attached to the truck can be angled even when the cab isn’t. These behemoths typically range in length from 55 to 65 feet. 

Estimated cost: $1.7 million

Street sweeper

What it is: A heavy-duty truck that sweeps and vacuums. The latest street sweeper purchase by PBOT was a 2023 Elgin Eagle. The model boasts a conveyor that won’t jam, a variable height lift system and a high-capacity dump feature (paging Sir Mix-a-Lot!) As the manufacturer notes, the Eagle sweeper can maintain highway speeds and ensures “dumping is a breeze.”

Estimated cost: $424,500 

Snow plow 

What it is: A SnowDogg plow attachment for heavy-duty trucks that can scoop snow and debris off roads. You probably thought PBOT was the only bureau to come to our rescue during a snowstorm. Not so! The Water Bureau is also responsible for keeping roads clear during crummy weather, while responding to water main breaks and other crises. The Water Bureau recently bought two plow attachments and even opted for discontinued 2019 models to save some dough. The latest purchases weren’t meant for general use around the city. Instead they’re mostly meant to secure watersheds, clear access paths to the Water Bureau’s own facilities, and other bureau-specific responses—but still, it never hurts to have more of these puppies available during the next snowpocalypse.

Estimated cost: $5,600

The Friday bout pits the 58-year-old former heavyweight champ against a much younger opponent whose fame is rooted in social media.

Rebroadcast September 26, 2014 It's been almost two months since 18 year old Michael Brown was shot and killed by Ferguson, MO police officer Darren Wilson, but the reverberations surrounding his death continue. Brown's death was the fourth last summer in as many weeks in which an African American man was killed by law enforcement. In a special conversation this week, Basic Black goes beyond the headlines to explore the racial, historical, and cultural underpinnings of the relationship of law enforcement to communities of color and the meaning of protest in a post-civil rights movement era.

Panelists:
- Callie Crossley, Host, Under The Radar With Callie Crossley, WGBH News
- Phillip Martin, Senior Reporter, WGBH News
- Frank Rudy Cooper, Professor of Law, Suffolk University Law School
- Marcela Garcia, Regular Contributor to The Boston Globe, Editorial and Op-Ed Pages
- Peniel Joseph, Professor of History, Tufts University

Photo: A man is moved by a line of police as authorities disperse a protest in Ferguson, Mo. early Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2014. On Saturday, Aug. 9, 2014, a white police officer fatally shot Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, in the St. Louis suburb. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)

December 5, 2014 December 1st marked the 59th anniversary of Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger, setting in motion the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the emerging modern civil rights movement. We observe this anniversary amidst a wave of protests: online, on the streets, and in the marketplace… actions in response to the deaths of several African American men and boys at the hands of law enforcement. This week on Basic Black, we consider the changing face and force of future social justice movements.

Panelists:
- Callie Crossley, Host, Under the Radar with Callie Crossley, WGBH News
- Kim McLarin, Assistant Professor of Writing, Emerson College
- Phillip Martin, Senior Reporter, WGBH News
- Peniel Joseph, Professor of History, Tufts University
- Pamela Lightsey, Associate Dean for Community Life and Lifelong Learning, Boston University School of Theology
Students and community members hold their hands up on campus at Boston University in Boston, Monday, Dec. 1, 2014 to show solidarity with protesters in Ferguson, Mo. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

December 5, 2014
December 1st marked the 59th anniversary of Rosa Parks refusing to give up her seat on the bus to a white passenger, setting in motion the Montgomery Bus Boycott and the emerging modern civil rights movement. We observe this anniversary amidst a wave of protests: online, on the streets, and in the marketplace… actions in response to the deaths of several African American men and boys at the hands of law enforcement. This week on Basic Black, we consider the changing face and force of future social justice movements.?? Panelists:? - Callie Crossley, Host, Under the Radar with Callie Crossley, WGBH News ?- Kim McLarin, Assistant Professor of Writing, Emerson College ?- Phillip Martin, Senior Reporter, WGBH News ?- Peniel Joseph, Professor of History, Tufts University? - Pamela Lightsey, Associate Dean for Community Life and Lifelong Learning, Boston University School of Theology?
Photo: Students and community members hold their hands up on campus at Boston University in Boston, Monday, Dec. 1, 2014 to show solidarity with protesters in Ferguson, Mo. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

December 19, 2014
As we head into the festivities of the holiday season, we talk about the good, the bad, and the ugly of soul food. We’re joined by Frederick Douglass Opie, author of Hog and Hominy: Soul Food from Africa to America. Later in the show, as the #BlackLivesMatter protests continue, we pause to consider what’s next for the movement and what happens after the die-ins, the shut-downs, and the walk-outs. Panelists: - Callie Crossley, host, Under the Radar with Callie Crossley, WGBH News - Peniel Joseph, Professor of History, Tufts University - Kim McLarin, Assistant Professor of Writing, Literature, and Publishing, Emerson College - Frederick Douglass Opie, Professor of History and Foodways, Babson College

Selection for bigger tomatoes has made the fruits less sweet, but now it has been shown that gene editing can make them sweeter without decreasing yields

In his new book, Power Metal, journalist Vince Beiser provides a balanced briefing on the race for the resources that will shape our technological future

Twelve soldiers escaped from a military unit in the Novosibirsk region of Russia on November 13. The servicemen pogromed the military unit when escaping. One of the escapees was filming others smashing windows and breaking furniture. "Look, there's a riot going on here. A riot, yehoo! [I'm sick of] it all," the man can be heard saying filming his reflection in a mirror. Another soldier in the background shouts: "Come on, break all the windows!"

The Ukrainian military received US-made shells for Soviet 2S7 Pion self-propelled guns. Kyiv had used up its stocks of Soviet shells for Pion cannons in 2022, and the system had not been used much since then. 203-millimeter 100-kilo shells are suitable for use with Pion guns. It is believed that Ukraine received the required shells from the US. During World War II, the United States produced the 203-millimeter M115 howitzer before the M110 system was developed in the 1950s. It was actively used during the Vietnam War. The system was decommissioned from the US Army during the 1990s. This fact suggests that there were 203-millimeter shells left in the arsenals, and the United States could thus help Ukraine with the supply of ammunition.

Visix, Inc. has released version 1.87 of their AxisTV Signage Suite digital signage software. This latest update includes a new Microsoft Power BI widget, major speed enhancements, simplified content scheduling and other updates for a better user experience.

Today, Tufts University announced that Loring Tu, a professor in the Department of Mathematics, has made a substantial gift to name the Science and Engineering Complex (SEC) in honor of his late grandfather, Tsungming Tu, who was a world-renowned doctor and expert on pharmacology, toxicology, and medical education. Going forward, the SEC will be known as the Tsungming Tu Complex (TTC).

Un estudio de Mayo Clinic sugiere que un estent en forma de reloj de arena podria mejorar el flujo sanguineo y aliviar el dolor toracico intenso y recurrente en personas con microangiopatia.

In a groundbreaking study, researchers at McMaster University have identified a potential treatment for Sandhoff and Tay-Sachs diseases--two rare, often fatal lysosomal storage disorders that cause progressive damage to nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. After years of investigating the diseases' underlying mechanisms, the research team has identified an existing FDA-approved drug that could significantly improve quality of life for affected patients and their families.

Today, Tufts University announced that Loring Tu, a professor in the Department of Mathematics, has made a substantial gift to name the Science and Engineering Complex (SEC) in honor of his late grandfather, Tsungming Tu, who was a world-renowned doctor and expert on pharmacology, toxicology, and medical education. Going forward, the SEC will be known as the Tsungming Tu Complex (TTC).

Argonne scientist, Maria Chan, has been elected as a Fellow of the American Physical Society for her contributions to energy research.

Un estudio de Mayo Clinic sugiere que un estent en forma de reloj de arena podria mejorar el flujo sanguineo y aliviar el dolor toracico intenso y recurrente en personas con microangiopatia.

The Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine of Florida (ASEMFL) has named two Florida State University faculty members part of its 2024 class of "Rising Stars."

In a groundbreaking study, researchers at McMaster University have identified a potential treatment for Sandhoff and Tay-Sachs diseases--two rare, often fatal lysosomal storage disorders that cause progressive damage to nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. After years of investigating the diseases' underlying mechanisms, the research team has identified an existing FDA-approved drug that could significantly improve quality of life for affected patients and their families.

KRICT sets a new world record for large-area perovskite solar module efficiency and accelerates commercialization

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FX Back Office (FXBO) has partnered with

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Walter Flores was unemployed for 8 months in 2014 but is now working in sales for Workforce Solutions in Compton; Credit: Brian Watt/KPCC

California's unemployment rate continued its decline in December, ending the year at 7 percent, according to figures released Friday by the state Employment Development Department.

But in Compton, Willowbrook and the Florence-Graham section of Los Angeles County, it remains about double that, data show.

“You might have work this week. But next week, you won’t have work,” said James Hicks, 36, 0f Compton. He's worked in warehouses through staffing agencies, but said the jobs have always been temporary.

Statewide, California has added jobs at a faster rate than the United States for three straight years, according to Robert Kleinhenz, Chief Economist with the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation. He pointed out the statewide unemployment rate is now where it was June 2008. 

"All in all, with the recession now five years back in our rearview mirror, we’re finally at the point where we can say that we have shrugged off quite a bit of the pain that occurred back during those times," Kleinhenz said.

The Los Angeles County metro area saw a net gain of almost 71,000 jobs in 2014.  The County's overall unemployment rate has fallen to 7.9 percent from 9.2 percent a year ago.

But Compton's unemployment rate was 13 percent in December.

“I’d rather have a  full-time type of gig, working 40 hours a week, but right now, even if you get 25 hours, it’s a blessing,” said Hicks, the warehouse worker in Compton.

On Thursday, he interviewed to be a guard with a security firm, but was told there weren’t any positions available. He had another security guard job six months ago that he thought might become full time and permanent. 

"It was going all right for about two to three months, until they cut my hours and days," Hicks said. 

Walter Flores lives in La Mirada but currently works as an account executive in the Compton office of Workforce Solutions. He was unemployed for about eight months last year after a car accident.

"Losing what you love to do is a tough one, but I'm back," he said. "2015 is going to be a great year."

Flores said most major warehouse and logistics companies prefer to hire temporary workers through industrial staffing firms like the one where he's working because their needs are sporadic.  

But he said it's still a potential opportunity.

"It doesn't matter that it's a temporary position, as long as you put your foot in the door, and then you let the employer know how much value you are for the company," Flores said.  

Hicks, who's earned a GED, wants to find a program to study physical therapy. But first, he’d like to find a job. 

He said you can't judge Compton’s residents by its unemployment rate.

"Some of us out here who [are] looking for jobs, but sometimes it’s the luck of the draw," he said. "It’s kind of scarce out there.” 

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

The backdrop of the stage with the Oscar Award is seen onstage during the 84th Academy Awards announcement held at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Samuel Goldwyn Theater on Jan. 24, 2012 in Los Angeles.; Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty Images

The Academy Awards have made history with breakthroughs for minorities in the past — but with this year's nominations, observers are noting how white the Oscars are, with no actors of color nominated in any of this year's acting categories.

It marks the least diverse nominations since 1998. People have been speaking out about this disconnect, with films like "Selma" being shut out of the acting nominations (though it did pick up a Best Picture nomination).

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

A cosplay gathering in the Anaheim Convention Center's Grand Plaza during WonderCon Anaheim 2014.; Credit: Kevin Green/SDCC

For all the sad comic book and pop culture fans who weren't able to get tickets to San Diego Comic-Con, we've got good news for you: They run another convention, and it's closer to Los Angeles. Their little brother WonderCon Anaheim has been growing, with some comparing it to the Comic-Con of old — before it got way too crowded. It's this Friday through Sunday, April 3-5. They're starting to have big stars and lots of great panels, so if you want to get your geek heart sated, here are some of the events you won't want to miss.

Warner Bros. Presentation: San Andreas, Mad Max: Fury Road

San Andreas trailer

The most highly anticipated event at this weekend's convention, Warner Brothers is putting on a special presentation with footage from these two upcoming action films. They haven't announced which stars will be on hand, but these panels often surprise with star power, so you may get a visit from stars like "San Andreas's" Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson or "Mad Max: Fury Road's" Tom Hardy or Charlize Theron. At the Comic-Con panel last year for the "Mad Max" flick, the director talked in detail about the film, so you'll probably at least get his take on the franchise and its resurrection.

DC Comics TV shows: The Flash, Gotham, iZombie

The Flash trailer

While Marvel has been dominant on the big screen, DC has put out a diverse slate of TV shows, with "The Flash" being the biggest hit among them. It's among those getting a spotlight at WonderCon, with creators and stars dishing on the programs that have captured the imaginations of TV fans and comic fans alike. All three shows are also getting special video presentations, likely showing clips of what you can expect the rest of this season. And in case you didn't already know, "iZombie" comes from "Veronica Mars" creator Rob Thomas, so come find out about his latest project.

World Premiere: Batman vs. Robin

Batman vs. Robin trailer

It's become a tradition at both WonderCon and San Diego Comic-Con for DC Comics to debut their latest animated movie, and the new one is based on the critically acclaimed "Court of Owls" storyline by writer Scott Snyder. (Be sure to check out our previous interviews with Snyder — he's even an NPR fan.) The original story is based on how Batman thinks he knows everything there is to know about Gotham City and faces the discovery that there are deep secrets about the city that he had no idea about, and the film also emphasizes him fighting his son Damian.

Sing-alongs: Dr. Horrible & Batman's The Music Meister

Batman: The Brave and the Bold: Drives Us Bats

People go to comic conventions to geek out, and what's geekier than a good old-fashioned singalong? In addition to one for geek god Joss Whedon's much loved Web series "Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," they're also doing one for the musical episode of animated series "Batman: The Brave and the Bold" — which, just like "Dr. Horrible," features singing by the one and only Neil Patrick Harris. In the Batman cartoon, he plays the Music Meister, a Batman villain who makes both heroes and villains sing, as he drops some tunes of his own.

Superman: The Richard Donner Years Celebrity Super Reunion

Superman: The flying sequence

There's a reunion of stars from the first two of the classic Christopher Reeve Superman movies, including Lois Lane herself, Margot Kidder. You can also see the actors who played characters like Jimmy Olsen, several of the villains and more, as well as two of the producers. Find out what you don't know about the movie that broke ground when it came to depicting flight on-screen and, like the ads promised, made you believe a man could fly.

TV writing panels

Two panels will give you a peek into the world of the writers who write some of the hottest shows on TV: "TV Guide Magazine's Fan Favorites Showrunners" and "Inside The Writers' Room: Earth's Mightiest Writers Re-Assemble Redux." The first of those includes legendary TV showrunners like Dan Harmon of "Community" and the minds behind shows including "Orphan Black," "The Goldbergs" and more. Meanwhile, at the writers room panel, you'll get writers who've worked on shows like "Lost," "Firefly," "Heroes," "The Big Bang Theory," "Agent Carter" and more.

Fan culture programming track

This includes a lot of different panels, but it's a sign of the way fandom is shifting — it's a lifestyle that's far more diverse than it used to be, with a lot more gender parity. This track includes panels on topics like body confidence in cosplay, fashion, fitness, race and more. See what sparks your interest and might invite you into having an identity as a fan being a bigger part of your life while not letting anyone make you feel excluded.

There's so much more, like Will Forte doing a panel promoting his new show "The Last Man On Earth," the annual cosplay masquerade and so much more. Tickets are sold out for Saturday, but at press time, tickets were still available for both Friday and Sunday at WonderCon.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.

Aryza Group has expanded its partnership with

It’s good to be back in Southern California after a week in the hothouse of Tampa.  I mean that in both the weather and political senses.
Even though we were largely inside from 9 in the morning to 11 at night, every trip outside provided exposure to extreme humidity and more than 90-degree temperatures.  Couple that with a long wait through security to get back into the building and there wasn’t much incentive to go anywhere.
On the political side, I forget (or block out) how intense these party conventions can be.  It’s an alternate universe, where most everyone recognizes even minor national political figures.  It’s like walking through Beverly Hills with an editor from People magazine.
It makes me feel at a bit of a disadvantage, as a generalist who talks a lot of politics, but doesn’t devote himself to it exclusively.  When you hear some of the political reporters from around the country, there are times it sounds more like advanced math than policy.  From delegate counts to Congressional seats in play to dueling budget scenarios, it gets highly detailed very quickly.  The first couple of days of the convention, I feel like I’m trying to catch up and get my head around all the subplots.
Of course, just as I start feeling like I’m getting it down, we come home.  Regardless, I have terrific memories of the week.  Out team of producers, engineers, and reporter Frank Stoltze really enjoyed working together on your behalf.  Let’s do it again in four more years.

This content is from Southern California Public Radio. View the original story at SCPR.org.