When Soul Train first launched in 1970, Black audiences weren't understood as a viable target market. Don Cornelius changed that forever with his weekly TV dance show. | Subscribe to our weekly newsletter here.

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This episode originally ran in 2020.

In 2005, Franklin Leonard was a junior executive at Leonardo DiCaprio's production company. A big part of his job was to find great scripts. The only thing — most of the 50,000-some scripts registered with the Writers Guild of America every year aren't that great. Franklin was drowning in bad scripts ... So to help find the handful that will become the movies that change our lives, he needed a better way forward.

Today on the show — how a math-loving movie nerd used a spreadsheet and an anonymous Hotmail address to solve one of Hollywood's most fundamental problems: picking winners from a sea of garbage. And, along the way, he may just have reinvented Hollywood's power structure.

This episode was produced by James Sneed and Darian Woods, and edited by Bryant Urstadt, Karen Duffin and Robert Smith.

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After a successful career in advertising, Erika Williams decided it was time for a change. She went back to school to get an MBA at the University of Chicago, and eventually, in 2012, she got a job at Wells Fargo as a financial advisor. It was the very job she wanted.

Erika is Black–and being a Black financial advisor at a big bank is relatively uncommon. Banking was one of the last white collar industries to really hire Black employees. And when Erika gets to her office, she's barely situated before she starts to get a weird feeling. She feels like her coworkers are acting strangely around her.

"I was just met with a lot of stares. And then the stares just turned to just, I mean, they just pretty much ignored me. And that was my first day, and that was my second day. And it was really every day until I left."

She wasn't sure whether to call her experience racism...until she learned that there were other Black employees at other Wells Fargo offices feeling the exact same way.On today's episode, Erika's journey through these halls of money and power. And why her story is not unique, but is just one piece of the larger puzzle.

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The Nobel-prize winning economist Simon Kuznets once analyzed the world's economies this way — he said there are four kinds of countries: developed, underdeveloped, Japan... and Argentina.

If you want to understand what happens when inflation really goes off the rails, go to Argentina. Annual inflation there, over the past year, was 124 percent. Argentina's currency, the peso, is collapsing, its poverty rate is above 40 percent, and the country may be on the verge of electing a far right Libertarian president who promises to replace the peso with the dollar. Even in a country that is already deeply familiar with economic chaos, this is dramatic.

In this episode, we travel to Argentina to try to understand: what is it like to live in an economy that's on the edge? With the help of our tango dancer guide, we meet all kinds of people who are living through record inflation and political upheaval. Because even as Argentina's economy tanks, its annual Mundial de Tango – the biggest tango competition in the world – that show is still on.

This episode was hosted by Amanda Aronczyk and Erika Beras. It was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler with help from James Sneed. It was engineered by Maggie Luthar, fact-checked by Sierra Juarez, and edited by Molly Messick. Alex Goldmark is Planet Money's executive producer.

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Black History Month is a time to remember and reflect on Black heritage. This hour features powerful conversations from past episodes on how we can confront the past to move toward a better future. Guests include historian and preservationist Brent Leggs, community organizer Colette Pichon Battle, and computer scientist Joy Buolamwini.

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Toronto, ON — Public health researchers created a first-of-its-kind peer education project targeting black women to improve breast and cervical cancer awareness and screening for black women living in Toronto’s Malvern community. “There is a lot of silence in the black community. People think that cancer is not a black issue and many survivors are […]

This week, a special episode in honor of Black History Month, with stories that celebrate the diversity of the Black experience. Dye jobs, dream jobs, and swimming pools. This episode is hosted by Moth Senior Curatorial Producer, Suzanne Rust. The Moth Radio Hour is produced by The Moth and Jay Allison of Atlantic Public Media.

Hosted by: Suzanne Rust

Storytellers:

Harold Cox brings his Texas roots--and speech patterns-- to his first Boston radio gig.

Danyel Smith follows the music and finds a place for herself in the world of journalism.

CJ Hunt grows up trying to "adjust the thermostat" of his racial identity.

While out for a swim, Hasna Muhammad finds a kindred spirit.

On this episode, we’re turning the episode over to Ray Christian, a storyteller, historian, and valued member of the Moth family. We’re playing one of our favorite episodes from his podcast, “What’s Ray Saying,” and we just know you’ll love it.

You can find “What’s Ray Saying” wherever you get your podcasts, or click on this link: https://pod.link/1097310592

Ken Frazier, CEO of Merck, is one of only four Black CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. He talks about his new initiative to close the opportunity gap for Black Americans and Merck’s own journey in the race to develop a vaccine.

Black women are often “the onlys” in their organizations, putting tremendous pressure on them in uncertain times, but also offering unique opportunities.

Greg Kinsey, Industry Executive at Hitachi, reveals how creative uses of the DMAIC process with digital transformation are helping factories to unlock the next level of process improvement.

Black Bear Clan by Kitty Cantrell is a(n) Limited Edition. The Edition is Limited to Limited Edition of 750 pcs

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Ahead of launching the first satellites in its Gen-3 constellation upgrade, BlackSky [BKSY] fully acquired small satellite manufacturer LeoStella. BlackSky announced the move in its third quarter investor call on Nov. […]

The Tony Award-winning play, loosely based on Alicia Keys’ childhood, falls into the same trap much theatre does, failing to depict the nuances of Black trauma.

Rio de Janeiro’s Port Zone was once the largest slave port in the Americas. As developers work to “revitalize” the area, Black activists are fighting to retain the remnants of the district’s historical significance.

Exploring the history of land theft in the U.S., Brea Baker argues that the Black reparations and Indigenous Landback movements are stronger together.

After conducting the largest-ever survey of Black Americans, Black to the Future has released a detailed Black economic agenda.

The National Black Farmers Association just won a historic $2.2 billion in reparations from the U.S. government.

In the months prior to Vice President Kamala Harris’ nomination to the Democratic presidential ticket, I felt a lingering fear in my body about what it would mean for Black

Birth workers serving Black pregnant people maintain the holistic methods—and data privacy—that distinguish doula care from the medical-industrial complex.

A black start refers to the ability of a power plant to restart itself using its own resources in the event of a complete shutdown and isolation from external power sources. Initiating a black start at an industrial plant might... Read more

The post Design engineering and the black start of a power plant appeared first on EEP - Electrical Engineering Portal.

Young Film Critic (15-19 category) Katie Snow attended the world premiere of The Woman in Black at the Royal Festival Hall last week and wrote us this great review of the forthcoming film.

Array

Online  resource for Black History Month aimed at 11-19 year olds. Celebrating BHM, the resource offers a range of approaches to relevant films and focuses on key black actors and filmmakers      

Created in partnership with PA Consulting, as part of the Bottle Collective with PA and PulPac, this is Diageo’s first paper-based 70cl bottle trial in the on-trade.

Washington, D.C. -- NAB Show today announced that two-time Emmy-award winning writer, actress and comedian Ashley Nicole Black will moderate a fireside chat with actor, writer, producer and all-around multihyphenate Brett Goldstein. In "A Conversation with Brett Goldstein," on the NAB Show Main Stage Monday, April 17, at 4 p.m., Goldstein will discuss his multifaceted creative career, how he balances his various roles, and his process for creating compelling content.

Good price on a gooseneck. Great for pourovers.

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Back with another negotiated deal and this time it's on the 8Bitdo Ultimate 2C Black Myth: Wukong Limited Edition in both the wired and wireless variants. It beats the previous deal, still beats $69.95 at EB Games and ships from 8BitDo's official store.

The Ultimate 2C improves upon the original by introducing Bluetooth connectivity alongside 2.4G wireless, hall effect joysticks/triggers, customisable R4/L4 buttons and tactile switches. Comparison here.

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A preview of the 2024 Black Harvest Film Festival.

Hundreds of thousands of protesters, many dressed in black, marched on the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday to demand their leader resigns. — Reuters

Denzel Washington may yet join the Marvel Cinematic Universe with a role in Black Panther 3, at least according to the Oscar-winner himself.

Black Widow will be the first of Marvel's superspies to get her own movie (preceding Shang Chi by a year), and today Marvel released the first trailer. And it looks pretty cool! I'm honestly surprised about how many images come directly from the various Black Widow comics over the years. Clearly, the character's first standalone film will contain some flashbacks to Natasha Romanoff's early days as a child raised to be a KGB assassin in Moscow's infamous Red Room. Scarlett Johansson has played the role in seven Marvel movies (most recently the all-time box office champ Avengers: Endgame), but this will be her first solo feature.


If you want to play catch-up on the comics and see where some of those images in the trailer come from, there are some collections out there that make that possible. (And even more are due next year in the lead up to the movie!) Three beautifully prodcued Marvel Premiere hardcovers collect this secret agent's most essential adventures in matching volumes. Black Widow: The Sting of the Widow presents the character's first appearance (in a silly costume in an issue of Iron Man) and earliest solo adventures from the early Seventies, after she'd gotten an Emma Peel makeover, ending up in the black catsuit with which she's still most closely associated. These early Black Widow comics will surely be of interest to collectors and hardcore fans, but casual fans looking for a great introduction to the character are better off picking up the second volume in the series, Black Widow: Web of Intrigue first.

Black Widow: Web of Intrigue offers an excellent primer on the character containing some of her classic appearances from the early Eighties, including an excellent comic drawn by my second-favorite spy artist (after Steranko), Paul Gulacy.  (Look for a cameo appearance by Michael Caine!) Black Widow: Web of Intrigue contains this and several other seminal tales of the red-haired Russian superspy. A third volume, Black Widow: The Itsy Bitsy Spider collects a pair of Marvel Knights stories from the late Nineties (including one by Queen & Country scribe Greg Rucka).

My two favorite modern-day Widow storylines have yet to receive the hardcover treatment, sadly, but are available in a pair of out-of-print trade paperbacks. (They'll also, happily, be collected in a new single volume next year!) Richard K. Morgan's Black Widow: Homecoming and Black Widow: The Things They Say About Her put the focus on espionage above superheroics and are among the very best Marvel spy stories of this century. Other recent Widow stories include Black Widow: Deadly Origin, Black Widow and the Marvel Girls, Black Widow: The Name of the Rose and Black Widow: Kiss or Kill. Most of the character's adventures with Daredevil from the 1970s are included in Essential Daredevil: Volume 3. as well as the color Daredevil Epic Collection: A Woman Called Widow.

The spy genre has lost a Great today. The Guardian reports that Honor Blackman has passed away at the age of 94, "of natural causes unrelated to coronavirus." It's crushing to lose two of the key Bond Girls in a matter of months, Blackman's death coming on the heels of Thunderball's Claudine Auger in December. And while she will probably be best remembered for her definitive portrayal of Pussy Galore opposite Sean Connery in Goldfinger, Blackman's mark on the spy genre is far greater. For me, she'll first and foremost always be Cathy Gale, John Steed's first regular female partner on the UK TV classic The Avengers.

Cathy Gale was ultimately overshadowed by Steed's more famous subsequent partner, Emma Peel (played to perfection by another future Bond Girl, Diana Rigg), but Gale's and Blackman's place in television history cannot be overstated. Cathy Gale was television's original badass, leather-clad female spy, paving the way not only for Mrs. Peel, but for Honey West (producer Aaron Spelling was inspired to create the show by Avengers episodes he saw in England, and reportedly first offered the role to Blackman, who turned it down), The Bionic Woman, Alias's Sydney Bristow, and every other leading lady of espionage to throw an attacker over her shoulder, as well as non-spy heroines like Xena and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Quite simply, there had never been an action-oriented female protagonist on television before Honor Blackman's groundbreaking performance. She changed the game. In part, this was due to Blackman inheriting scripts that had been originally written for another male partner for Steed (following his first season foil, Ian Hendry's Dr. David Keel), which were hastily rewritten for her, but kept the character involved in the action in a way women hadn't been previously on TV. But in a larger part, it was due to Blackman's undeniable and very physical presence: she played Cathy as a woman definitely not to be trifled with! And she learned judo for the role, impressively dispatching stuntmen twice her size on a regular basis on episodes that were at the time taped live. Her obvious talent even led to the publication of a book, Honor Blackman's Book of Self-Defense.

Prior to playing Cathy Gale, Blackman was known for glamour more than ass-kicking. But she'd already racked up a pretty impressive roster of spy roles. Foremost among them was a regular role on the 1959-60 ITC wheel show The 4 Just Men (review here), in which she played Nicole, secretary to Paris-based Just Man Tim Collier (Dan Dailey). That was a series very much of its time in all respects, so Nicole was no Cathy Gale, but Blackman nonetheless imbued her with the quick wit and spark that would later define her more famous character alongside her martial arts skills. She also made pre-Avengers appearances on other ITC series like The Saint, Danger Man,  and The Invisible Man, as well as U.K. spy and detective series like Top Secret (sadly lost), Ghost Squad, and The Vise, while also turning up in spy movies like Conspirator (with Elizabeth Taylor), Diplomatic Passport, and the original 1953 TV movie version of Little Red Monkey (penned by wartime BSC spy Eric Maschwitz and adapted two years later into a feature film version). Other notable film roles during this period include Jason and the Argonauts (1963), the Eric Ambler-penned Titanic drama A Night to Remember (1958), the Dirk Bogarde suspense drama So Long at the Fair (1950), and the Hammer noir The Glass Tomb (1955). Following the international success of Goldfinger, Blackman surprisingly didn't make many more spy appearances. The notable exceptions were the superior 1968 Goeffrey Jenkins adaptation A Twist of Sand (a movie in dire need of a Blu-ray or at least DVD release!), opposite Deadlier Than the Male's Richard Johnson, and a 1983 TV adaptation of Agatha Christie's Tommy and Tuppence mystery The Secret Adversary. In the late Nineties, Mike Meyers dreamed of getting Blackman and Connery to play Austin Powers' parents, but that didn't happen and Michael Caine ended up playing his dad. While not playing spies, though, Blackman continued to have a robust post-Bond career, including a re-teaming with Connery in the 1968 Western Shalako, a pair of 1970s cult horror movies, Fright ('71), and Hammer's final genre flick of that incarnation, To the Devil a Daughter ('76), opposite Christopher Lee, and, more recently, a very memorable comedic turn in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001). She also continued to make her mark in television, too, with recurring or starring roles on Doctor Who, The Upper Hand, and Coronation Street, and guest appearances in Columbo, Dr. Terrible's House of Horrible, Midsomer Murders, and New Tricks.

Her early fame from The Avengers brought her an unlikely career milestone in 1990 when an infectious novelty single she had recorded with Patrick Macnee in the early Sixties, "Kinky Boots," became a dubious Top 10 radio hit at Christmastime. Some have described it as "embarrassing," but as far as I'm concerned both of those stars had enough infectious charisma to pull it off even if they're not really singers! (I'm also partial to the B-side, "Let's Keep It Friendly," about the characters' platonic relationship on the show.)

Blackman has also had a successful theater career, including productions of "The Sound of Music," "My Fair Lady" and "Cabaret," and a couple of touring one-woman shows. It was one of these performances that brought her into my out-of-the-way neck of the woods when I was in high school in the mid-Nineties. I took in the show, which was amazing, and then managed to meet her backstage. Blackman was the first Bond celebrity I'd ever met, and she did not let me down. She seemed genuinely happy to meet with fans, and gladly signed a Goldfinger trading card for this starstruck teen while regaling me with stories from her days on The Avengers. She even weighed in with a decidedly non-PC answer on a debate I'd been having at the time with a friend about whether Bond and Pussy's roll in the hay was truly consensual. "Darling," she told me, eyes sparkling, "it was Sean Connery. Any woman would have wanted it!"

That sparkle remained ever-present as she remained a public figured right up to the end, always reliable for some media appearances whenever a new Bond movie came out. She never turned her back on the franchise, or publicly showed any resentment for the "Bond Girl" label that followed her throughout her career. She also continued to be a cheerleader for The Avengers, despite having left the series just before its transition to film and color... and the American broadcast that cemented its global fame.

In Blackman's final episode of The Avengers (after her Goldfinger casting was already public news), Steed bade farewell to Cathy Gale with a typical request of a favor, beginning, "And as you're going to be out there anyway, pussyfooting along those sun-soaked shores..."

"You thought I might do a little investigating," she finishes, knowing him all too well. She demurs, asserting her well-earned right to a vacation. "You see I'm not going to be pussy-footing along those sun-soaked shores," she corrects her partner, "I'm going to be lying on them." Pussyfooting or lounging, Honor Blackman has certainly earned her trip to those sun-soaked shores. While more terrestrially, the modern spy genre forever owes her an enormous debt. Blackman was a true trailblazer, who transformed the role of women in the spy genre from femme fatales who relied exclusively on their sexuality to equal participants in the action, undaunted by superior force and unmatched in combat skills.

Yes, we're not yet two full weeks into November, and also yes, the Black Friday deals and promotions have already begun to appear (like discounts on the Galaxy S24 FE and iPhone 16 bargaiins, as well as a massive discount on TCL's 98-inch behemoth of aTV). We suspect things will ramp up this week and as we further approach the real Black Friday—November

Officially, we have not yet arrived at the actual Black Friday date on the calendar, which for 2024 falls Friday, November 29 (a little over two weeks from now). But don't worry if you're a bargain hunter, the deals are already starting to pour in. We've covered several of them already, and today we're highlighting a deep discount on Google's

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UX designers rejoice! This Black Friday, our friends over at the Interaction Design Foundation (IxDF) have a gift for you: 25% off UX design courses on new memberships and a $200 discount on UX Bootcamps for new and existing members. The offer is now open and ends at midnight on Cyber Monday, 29 November.        […]

The post Discounts on UX Courses and Bootcamps for Black Friday 2021! appeared first on Usability Geek

KEF has launched its latest Q Series speakers – the Q Series with MAT™ technology – that deliver top audio at a lower price.

Lifetimo Platform Launches Annual Black Friday Technology Marketplace Event  Newsfile

Google has launched its new router – Google Wifi – in Ireland, with the promise of ending the dreaded reception blackspots found in some people’s homes.

Read more: Google’s new Wi-Fi router promises to end reception ‘blackspots’

[Addis Standard] Addis Abeba -- Drivers in Hawassa, the capital of Sidama Regional State, report an acute and worsening fuel shortage, which they attribute to widespread black market sales within the city.

Come down and play your way to great deals with Amazon.sg this Black Friday Sale season! #amazon.sg #amazonprime #blackfriday

Black cats are often a sign of bad luck.

Astronomers have identified a distant stellar tagalong to the binary system V404 Cygni.

The post Newfound Stellar Companion May Explain Black Hole System appeared first on Sky & Telescope.

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