November 14, 2014 Identity is an ever evolving, some would say elusive concept in American culture: Grammy award-winning artist Pharrell declares himself part of the “new black” generation… The US Army only last week eliminated “Negro” as a racial designation… “More Hispanics declaring themselves white” was a New York Times headline in May… and Asian American and Pacific Islander students at Harvard recently held a forum to bring their issues to the forefront. This week on Basic Black we look at the common thread through these and other stories identity, and what it means on a personal level and the global landscape. Panelists: - Callie Crossley, Host, Under The Radar with Callie Crossley, WGBH News - Kim McLarin, Assistant Professor of Writing, Emerson College -Peniel Joseph, Professor of History, Tufts University - Phillip Martin, Senior Reporter, WGBH News - Julio Varela, journalist and founder, Latino Rebels (Photo: Pharrell/Jonathan Short - Invision- Associated Press, 2014.)

November 21, 2014 This week on Basic Black: President Obama has thrown down the gauntlet to his detractors on immigration reform in the form of an executive action. Who does it impact and does this signal the beginning of a battle with Congress? Later in the show, the unmaking of an icon, as up to 13 women have come forward with accusations of sexual assault against comedian Bill Cosby.

Panelists: - Latoyia Edwards, anchor, NECN - Phillip Martin, senior reporter, WGBH News - Kim McLarin, cultural commentator and Assistant Professor of Writing, Emerson College - Michael Jeffries, Associate Professor of American Studies, Wellesley College - Julio Varela, journalist and founder, Latino Rebels
Photo: President Obama delivers an address on immigration reform from the East Room of the White House, November 20, 2014. (Official White House photo by Pete Souza.)

February 6, 2015 This week on Basic Black’s roundtable: • With the rise of television shows like Black-ish and Empire and the newly-released movie Black and White, we ask if Hollywood is on the way to realistic portrayals of families of color.
• A measles outbreak earlier this week at Disneyland in California re-ignited the debate over vaccinations - with oftentimes limited access to healthcare are children of color at particular risk?
Panelists: - Latoyia Edwards, Anchor, NECN - Phillip Martin, Senior Reporter, WGBH News - Kim McLarin, assistant professor of writing, literature and publishing, Emerson College - Donna Patterson, Assistant Professor fo Africana Studies, Wellesley College

Researchers mapped Earth’s ionosphere, part of the upper atmosphere, using signal data from 40 million phones – a method that could improve GPS accuracy and help track space weather

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

Driverless cars can now do doughnuts and drift like stunt drivers, skidding sideways around corners while maintaining control, which might help the cars recover from dangerous situations

Christian groups in South Korea are calling on the World Evangelical Alliance to put on hold plans for its next General Assembly in Seoul next year.

A Democratic member of the U.S. Congress is doubling down as he faces calls to resign after expressing concern about trans-identified male athletes competing in female sports. 

Evangelist Franklin Graham congratulated former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on his Tuesday nomination by President-elect Donald Trump to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel.

Robotic dogs are patrolling President-elect Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida days after his election victory as the Republican has faced two assassination attempts and reports of an Iranian murder plot against him.

Months after his successful solo exhibition featuring a compelling selection of his religious paintings billed “The Lord was There” in New York earlier this year, Christian master portrait artist Zimou Tan is now on a mission to make his work more accessible to art lovers of faith and he launched a Kickstarter campaign Tuesday to help him reach it.

Nancy O'Brien Simpson Death by a thousand cuts.  There are as many postmortem reasons for the Trump landslide as there are pundits.  It was a historic comeback with inroads in every demographic group.  However, Trump did not win by millions of new voters joining the Trump Train he won because Democrats stayed home and did not vote for Kamala Harris.  Trump gained about 300,000 new voters and Democrats lost three million voters from the 2020 election.   This is my take on the top five reasons why the Democrats did not show up for Harris.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said following a meeting with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte that the allies would continue helping Ukraine to prepare the country for the continuation of the conflict with Russia in 2025. The North Atlantic Alliance should adjust itself to "changes in Ukraine's needs" and the situation on the battlefield. The US Secretary of State made such statements amid reports about North Korean troops fighting Ukrainian forces on the front lines. Blinken also called on the allies to "respond harshly". NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who supports the idea of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, calls for the continuation of the "bloody massacre," Maria Zakharova, an official representative for the Russian Foreign Ministry said, RIA Novosti reports.

The Saraya al-Quds* group, a military wing of the radical Islamic Jihad* movement (a terrorist organization banned in Russia), released a new video of Alexander Trukhanov, a Russian citizen, who was kidnapped on October 7, 2023. The video of the hostage posted on the Telegram channel of the terrorist group shows the man speaking Hebrew. The man complains about the difficult situation the hostages found themselves in. They do not have enough water and have run out of hygiene products, the man said. Fearing Israeli bombings and missile attacks, Trukhanov called on the Israelis not to forget about the hostages. He also urged the people of Israel to go to rallies and advocate for a ceasefire so that hostages could return home.

A "rare and complex" British Challenger 2 tank that Ukraine received from the UK was spotted in the Kursk region of Russia. "The destruction of a heavy British Challenger 2 tank, a rather rare and complex tank to operate, by the marines of our 155th brigade indicates the concentration of enemy efforts," Two Majors Telegram channel said. The fact that such rare military hardware was transferred to the Russian region indicates the intention of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to use all opportunities to hold positions in the Kursk region, authors of the channel added.

Codeless Platforms has revealed that Meridian Farm Market, a Canadian-based retailer of meat and farm produce, has automated its sales orders and data transfers between SYSPRO, Shopify and its POS system using BPA Platform.

After a comprehensive two-year follow-up, researchers at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center found that MRI-guided stereotactic body radiotherapy (SBRT) for prostate cancer significantly reduced long-term side effects and improved quality of life, particularly in bowel and sexual health, compared to conventional CT-guided treatment.

Research findings from Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami will be presented at the Annual Meeting & Exposition of the American Society of Hematology in San Diego, Dec. 7-10.

The American Association of Nurse Anesthesiology (AANA) calls on Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Undersecretary for Health, Shereef Elnahal, to correct his inaccurate statement made under oath about Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist (CRNA) practice during a House Committee on Veterans' Affairs hearing.

The University of Kentucky Sanders-Brown Center on Aging Director Linda Van Eldik, Ph.D., hopes to shed light on how specific brain cells may contribute to the progression of Alzheimer's disease, paving the way for potential new therapeutic approaches.Van Eldik recently received a three-year, $300,000 award from the BrightFocus Foundation to support her research project, "Relationship between astrocyte p38 MAPK, neuroinflammation, and Alzheimer pathology.

University of Kentucky Co-Executive Vice Presidents for Health Affairs Eric N. Monday and Robert S. DiPaola sent the following message to the UK HealthCare community on Nov. 6, 2024: We are very pleased to announce that Chris DeSimone and Tim Slocum have accepted the positions of Executive Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer, respectively.

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).

Hematology researchers from Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Miller School of Medicine at the University of Miami are authors or co-authors on more than 70 posters to be presented at the Annual Meeting & Exposition of the American Society of Hematology in San Diego, Dec. 7-10. Links to each abstract are included in this tip sheet.

If there is one thing that is constant in marketing, it's that things are constantly changing, according to Michael Wall, a marketing expert at WashU Olin Business School. As social media users flock to sites that align with their political beliefs, brands face the challenge of connecting with diverse audiences.

Recent advances in bladder cancer treatments may offer hope of curative care to more patients, including those with high-risk localized, muscle-invasive disease, according to a New England Journal of Medicine editorial published by Matthew Milowsky, MD, FASCO, a bladder cancer expert at UNC School of Medicine and UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

University of Maryland School of Medicine Researchers Identify Neurobiological Changes Leading to Increase Release of the Brain Chemical Dopamine and Its Target Neurons Linked to Addiction-Like Behavior With the increased legalization of recreational cannabis, as many as 1 in 5 pregnant women in the U.S. are now using the drug to help with morning sickness, lower back pain or anxiety.

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.

Private equity is more likely to look at public firms for acquisition when the target aggressively manages its earnings to meet analyst expectations, because those firms are often so cut to the bone there's more room to add value with investment.

University of Kentucky Co-Executive Vice Presidents for Health Affairs Eric N. Monday and Robert S. DiPaola sent the following message to the UK HealthCare community on Nov. 6, 2024: We are very pleased to announce that Chris DeSimone and Tim Slocum have accepted the positions of Executive Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President and Chief Operations Officer, respectively.

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).

If there is one thing that is constant in marketing, it's that things are constantly changing, according to Michael Wall, a marketing expert at WashU Olin Business School. As social media users flock to sites that align with their political beliefs, brands face the challenge of connecting with diverse audiences.

Argonne National Laboratory researchers to showcase leading-edge work in high performance computing, AI and more at SC24 international conference.

University of Central Florida's A Team with A Dream wins the 2024 CyberForce Competition(r). The mission of the competition is to equip the next generation of cybersecurity professionals with hands-on experience defending critical infrastructure.

ARRIVE Together of Middlesex County, NJ, run by University Behavioral Health Care (UBHC) at Rutgers Health, has expanded its partnerships to include the East Brunswick, South River and Cranbury police departments, making New Jersey the first state in the nation to have a statewide law enforcement and mental health alternative response program.

Recent advances in bladder cancer treatments may offer hope of curative care to more patients, including those with high-risk localized, muscle-invasive disease, according to a New England Journal of Medicine editorial published by Matthew Milowsky, MD, FASCO, a bladder cancer expert at UNC School of Medicine and UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center.

New York City's 2019 ride-hailing surcharge cut overall taxi and ride-share trips by 11 percent in Manhattan but failed to reduce traffic congestion, a key goal of the policy, according to a new NYU Tandon School of Engineering study published in Transportation Research Part A."While this surcharge differs from the MTA's proposed congestion pricing plan, the study's findings can contribute to the current discourse," said Daniel Vignon, who led the research.

University of Maryland School of Medicine Researchers Identify Neurobiological Changes Leading to Increase Release of the Brain Chemical Dopamine and Its Target Neurons Linked to Addiction-Like Behavior With the increased legalization of recreational cannabis, as many as 1 in 5 pregnant women in the U.S. are now using the drug to help with morning sickness, lower back pain or anxiety.

The interplay between the genetic makeup of crops and the conditions in which they grow is difficult to untangle. A research team led by an Iowa State University professor aims to help breeders analyze the interactions to make crops more resilient and productive.

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

The election is over, but conversations surrounding the outcome are sure to continue for weeks to come. With Thanksgiving right around the corner, knowing how to engage with friends and family members with differing political views may help keep tempers at bay - and relationships intact. Virginia Tech expert Todd Schenk shared his advice for how to keep the peace.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new commission on cutting government spending and regulation. ...

According to the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, hateful and violent rhetoric in support of president-elect Donald Trump appeared online on fringe platforms within moments of Trump's... ...

ARRIVE Together of Middlesex County, NJ, run by University Behavioral Health Care (UBHC) at Rutgers Health, has expanded its partnerships to include the East Brunswick, South River and Cranbury police departments, making New Jersey the first state in the nation to have a statewide law enforcement and mental health alternative response program.