aquababie's world

i think i would be a little miffed...

i was listening to npr (like i do every morning) and heard a story that was close to my heart.  being the science nerd i am, i thought i would share it with yall.  

the folk who won the the nobel prize for chemistry owe their success to a man who even isn't in the field any more.  he's a hard luck story.  his funding had been cut at several agencies.  because of his generosity, they were able to do the work.  i hope folk hear his story and find him a job....hell they should share the money with him.  go here to take a listen.  

Gene's Discoverer Let Out of Nobel Prize

my grand revelation for the week....

americans are stupid.

foreclosure dreams...

i've always wondered about the folk they select for extreme home makeover.  i figured they gave the families some sort of counseling to go along with their paid-for homes.  being fiscally responsible is something we're not born with.  it's cultivated and cared for.  i'm not tooting my own horn by any means.  i'm working on my finances myself right now.  but i would like to think if this was me, i wouldn't have taken the gamble. 

____________________________________________________________________________________

'Extreme Makeover' home in Atlanta in foreclosure
Harper family may lose luxury remodeled home in Clayton County

By MARK DAVIS
accessAtlanta

Published on: 07/25/2008
Things couldn't look better three years ago for Milton and Patricia Harper of Lake City, who giddily accepted the keys to a small castle, plus enough money to pay taxes on it for 25 years. It was a product of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition."

Now, the Clayton County house is a two-story, turreted example of how things can go wrong. It's in foreclosure.

The Harpers used the house at 5489 Ahyoka Drive as collateral for a $450,000 loan, Clayton County mortgage records show. Records at the law firm handling foreclosures for the lender, JPMorgan Chase Bank, say it is in foreclosure. The four-bedroom house with decorative rock walls and a three-car garage is scheduled for auction on the Clayton County Courthouse steps Aug. 5.

The Harpers, who declined interview requests when reporters knocked on their door Friday, told WSB-TV they got the loan for a construction business that failed.

Failure seemed an impossibility in February 2005, when ABC TV viewers got a look at the stunning home constructed in a subdivision three miles east of I-75. Painted dark olive and covered with specialty shingles, the home's domed door opened into a structure that featured four fireplaces, a solarium, music room and a porte-cochere that connected to Milton Harper's new office. The yard was a study in landscape art, with young magnolias, fieldstone and a Leyland cypress hugging one corner. A black metal fence ringed it.

It had taken shape in six intense days in January 2005, when Atlanta-based Beazer Homes USA and "Extreme Makeover" demolished the Harpers' old home, plagued by a faulty septic system. Professionals and volunteers came together to erect the largest home that the "Extreme" team had ever built.

Materials and labor were donated, but the home would have cost about $450,000 to construct. When they were done, the home dwarfed all the ranch and split-level structures in neighboring lots.

That was not all. Beazer Homes' employees and company partners raised a quarter-million dollars in contributions for the family. The sum included scholarships for the three Harper children and a home maintenance fund.

The Harpers, whom ABC chose from among 15,000 "Extreme Makeover" applicants, spent the week in Disneyland while 1,800 people swarmed about the site. The family returned to a new home, plus contributions worth about $200,000.

They opened the home to lots of friends, said Amber May, 18, who lives a few doors away from the Harpers.

"It will be midnight," she said, "and we'll see six cars and a million kids" at the house.

Another neighbor, Brittney Harris, said the Harpers seemed considerate.

"They're good, quiet neighbors," she said.

Perhaps they are, said Donald Williams, who was visiting Harris. But he doubted their business acumen.

With $450,000 "they could have just bought a business," he said.

A representative for Beazer declined comment. A representative of ABC offered an e-mail: "'Extreme Makeover: Home Edition' advises each family to consult a financial planner after they receive their new home. Ultimately, financial matters are personal, and we work to respect the privacy of the families."

Law firm McCalla Raymer LLC, which has a team of specialists handling JPMorgan foreclosures, confirmed that the Harper home is on the calendar for auction next month.

The news left Lake City Mayor Willie Oswalt wondering what went wrong. He recalled a chilly January day when he and a handful of others wrestled an aged beam into place in the home's living room. The Harpers' future seemed just as solid, he said.

"It's aggravating," said Oswalt. "It just makes you mad. You do that much work, and they just squander it."

is this soul man--2008?

what do yall say??
________________________________________________________________________________________

By Adam B. Vary

First Look: 'Tropic Thunder'

Who's that man between Jack Black and Ben Stiller in this scene from the upcoming comedy? (Hint: he's famous...and white)

If you don't recognize that African-American actor standing between Jack Black and Ben Stiller, there's a good reason: He's white. In Tropic Thunder, an epic action comedy co-written and directed by Stiller, Robert Downey Jr. plays Kirk Lazarus, a very serious Oscar-winning actor cast in the most expensive Vietnam War film ever. Problem is, Lazarus's character, Sgt. Osiris, was originally written as black. So Lazarus decides to dye his skin and play Osiris, um, authentically. Funny? Sure. Dangerous? That's an understatement. ''If it's done right, it could be the type of role you called Peter Sellers to do 35 years ago,'' Downey says. ''If you don't do it right, we're going to hell.''

The film marks Stiller's first directing effort since 2001's Zoolander. With Thunder (opening Aug. 15), he takes aim at the sweetest target of all: actors. Downey plays one of a team of self-indulgent stars cast in the modern equivalent of Apocalypse Now. Stiller plays an action hero who has just adopted a baby from Asia but worries that ''all the good ones are gone.'' Black portrays a comedian known for performing multiple roles in a single film — his latest is called The Fatties: Fart 2. But when the film's director (Steve Coogan) and writer (Nick Nolte) get fed up with their prima donna cast, they drop them into the jungle to fend for themselves. The actors think they're doing some sort of full-immersion filmmaking, but the danger they're in is very real.

Stiller got the idea for Thunder more than 20 years ago while shooting a small part in Steven Spielberg's WWII drama Empire of the Sun. He's continued to develop the script as his own star has risen, which makes taking on his brethren all the richer — watch for cameos from Tom Cruise and Tobey Maguire — and all the more perilous. For starters, Hollywood satires have a rocky box office record. And then there's that little issue of a white guy playing a black guy. Stiller says that he and Downey always stayed focused on the fact that they were skewering insufferable actors, not African-Americans. ''I was trying to push it as far as you can within reality,'' Stiller explains. ''I had no idea how people would respond to it.'' He recently screened a rough cut of the film and it scored high with African-Americans. He was relieved at the reaction. ''It seems people really embrace it,'' he says.

Paramount is hoping so: The studio plans to debut the trailer online March 17, and Downey is all over it. (In one scene, he tries to bond with a real African-American castmate by quoting the theme song from The Jeffersons.) Downey, meanwhile, is confident he never crossed the line. ''At the end of the day, it's always about how well you commit to the character,'' he says. ''I dove in with both feet. If I didn't feel it was morally sound, or that it would be easily misinterpreted that I'm just C. Thomas Howell in [Soul Man], I would've stayed home.''

link:  http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,20182058,00.html

touch the rainbow :)

right now this is my favorite commercial.  i saw it again last night.  maybe it's because i was really tired, but i started to think about all the shit this dude can't do.

• if he can't dress himself, then certainly he can't wipe his ass or piss on his own.
• how does he make love to his wife?
• who feeds him? 
• if you turn everything you touch to skittles, how can you work? 
• why not get a disability check.
• if you turned someone into skittles while in the fit of anger, would that be premeditated murder??
• if you eat that same person you turned into skittles, isn't that like cannibalism or is it ok because they're candy?

dr. king just rolled over twice...

i think that episode of boondocks just came true...minus dr. king being alive.

it is not sean paul's fault...

this is amazing to me.  this would be like telling me that listening to coltrane or prince would give me a seizure.  and nice play on the lupe song...
__________________________________________________________________________________________
                     

HIP-HOP OP FIXED MY HEAD      

GRAND 'PAUL' SEIZURES CURED

                  

By KIERAN CROWLEY

                        

               

      

 

January 18, 2008 -- It took "miracle" brain surgery, but now a Queens woman can listen to rapper Sean Paul without getting sick.

It had nothing to do with musical taste - Stacey Gayle, 24, happens to love the musician, especially his hit song "Temperature." It's just that the dancehall tune would trigger grand mal seizures in the Rosedale woman.

Gayle is one of five people in the world who suffer from a bizarre and nightmarish condition called musicogenic epilepsy, said her doctors at Long Island Jewish Hospital.

Yesterday Gayle explained that around her 21st birthday, she was at a barbecue when "Temperature" began playing.

Instantly, she experienced the peculiar "aura" sensation epileptics feel just before a seizure, she said.

"As soon as the beat comes on, I don't know what it is, it just triggers my seizure," Gayle said.

"It's like a weird sensation you get, like a tingling in your head. I smelled something funny, a weird smell."

When she woke up in the hospital after that seizure, she recalled that the Sean Paul song had triggered a prior seizure.

Some of her seizures had been set off by other rap or hip-hop music - but, oddly, not by classical music. "Even the sound of other peoples' iPods would trigger it," Gayle said.

But "Temperature" was the most reliable instigator of her epileptic events, which happened at least four times a week and increased to as many as 10 times a day - many of which led to hospitalization, she said.

"Sean Paul was giving me seizures. I was very surprised, because he was one of my favorite artists," Gayle said.

After a seizure in church, she had to stop attending and quit singing in the choir. She also left her job in a Manhattan bank.

"Everyone in my church came to my home and prayed for me," Gayle said.

But the song trigger became a vital tool for her neurosurgeon, Long Island Jewish's Dr. Ashesh Mehta, who said Gayle is one of just a handful of patients worldwide to suffer from the music-triggered seizures.

Precise mapping of the damaged area causing the problem could be done only during an actual seizure.

But when Gayle told him she had discovered a reliable trigger, Mehta was "skeptical at first," but then was able to use Sean Paul's music - from Gayle's iPod - to induce seizures so he could first map and then remove the damaged part of her brain.

On Oct. 3, Mehta performed the brain surgery, which made use of a cutting-edge operating-room technology he likened to a global positioning system. He said Gayle has been seizure-free in the three months since the surgery.

"It's definitely a miracle," said a beaming Gayle.

"It's a miracle to be here. I'm back in the choir."

She has also returned to classes at York College and is studying elementary education because she wants to become a teacher.

When "Temperature" was played at a press conference yesterday, Gayle just smiled.

"Had that been before, I would have been on the floor, obviously, having a seizure," she said.

kieran.crowley@nypost.com

link:  http://www.nypost.com/seven/01182008/news/nationalnews/hip_hop_op_fixed_my_head_301500.htm
 

the new money for '08

chitling test??

i saw the story about "the chitling test" last night when i was watching the news.  at first i thought, this is really some bullshit.  the racial implications are terrible.  how can you use something written in 1968 to teach psychology?  how is carrying on stereotypes suppose to teach anything other than ignorance and hate.  i seen where some comment say this is teaching about cultural bias.  however i don't see anything that relates to stereotypes of other people of color or whites.  i looked a little further and discovered that the creator of this test, adrian dove is a black sociologist. 

now i think i'm getting why this test was offered.  i'm 32 and before i started looking for info, i was confused about why anyone should take this test.  now i understand.  it's been shown that standardized tests can be biased culturally.  if a test is demonstrating how biased it is, those not exposed to the generalizations will certainly fail.  if the teacher who presented this materials did not preface the students on why and how this test works, they should have. 

what do yall say?
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Task 5: Taking a culturally biased test

There is a charge that many psychological tests are biased against racial, ethnic and cultural minorities. Minorities and nonminorities grow up in different environments that require different skills for survival. However, standardised tests typically test for skills and knowledge appropriate to a white, middle-class environment. According to Kaplan & Saccuzzo (1989), the practice of administering these tests to minorities "is analogous to testing a cat on a task designed to determine how well a rat is adapted to a rat's environment" (p.492).

Black sociologist Adrian Dove developed the Dove Counterbalance General Intelligence Test that has come to be known as the Chitling Test (from Newsweek, 1968). The Chitling Test is not standardised, does not have predictive validity and has only face validity (Kaplan & Saccuzzo, 1989). The Chitling Test does, however, discriminate between people who have been exposed to Black culture of the 1960s and those who have not. It is tempting to say that it discriminates between North American blacks and whites, but this would be an overgeneralisation. However, it is probably a biased test as far as many college students are concerned.

To give you a chance to see what it is like to take a biased test, you can answer a sample of the Chitling Test (see below). Even this exercise will fall short of its intended purpose, however, unless you can believe or accept that, in the real world, scores on this test could be used to determine their future in such important areas as education and jobs. Failing miserably on such a test would be a devastating experience that could create a lifetime of helplessness, despair and failure.

Kaplan, R.M., & Saccuzzo, D.P. (1989). Psychological testing: Principles, applications and issues (2nd ed.). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole.

Taking the Chitling Test. (1968, July 15). Newsweek, pp.51-52.

The Chitling Test

1. A "handkerchief head" is:

a. a cool cat
b. a porter
c. an Uncle Tom
d. a hoddi
e. a preacher

2. Which word is most out of place here?

a. splib
b. blood
c. grey
d. spook
e. black

3. A "gas head" is a person who has a:

a. fast-moving car
b. stable of "lace"
c. "process"
d. habit of stealing cars
e. long jail record for arson

4. "Down-home" (the South) today, for the average "soul brother" who is picking cotton from sunup until sundown, what is [in 1968] the average earning (take home) for one full day?

a. $.75
b. $1.65
c. $3.50
d. $5
e. $12

5. "Bo Diddley" is a:

a. game for children
b. down-home cheap wine
c. down-home singer
d. new dance
e. Moejoe call

6. If a pimp is uptight with a woman who gets state aid, what does he mean when he talks about "Mother's Day"?

a. second Sunday in May
b. third Sunday in June
c. first of every month
d. none of these
e. first and fifteenth of every month

7. "Hully Gully" came from:

a. East Oakland
b. Fillmore
c. Watts
d. Harlem
e. Motor City

8. If a man is called a "blood", then he is a:

a. fighter
b. Mexican-American
c. Negro
d. hungry hemophile
e. Redman or Indian

9. Cheap chitlings (not the kind you purchase at a frozen-food counter) will taste rubbery unless they are cooked long enough. How soon can you quit cooking them to eat and enjoy them?

a. 45 minutes
b. 2 hours
c. 24 hours
d. one week (on a low flame)
e. 1 hour

10. What are the "Dixie Hummingbirds"?

a. part of the KKK
b. a swamp disease
c. a modern gospel group
d. a Mississippi Negro paramilitary group
e. Deacons

11. If you throw the dice and seven is showing on the top, what is facing down?

a. seven
b. snake eyes
c. boxcars
d. little Joes
e. 11

12. "Jet" is:

a. an East Oakland motorcycle club
b. one of the gangs in "West Side Story"
c. a news and gossip magazine
d. a way of life for the very rich

13. T-Bone Walker got famous for playing what?

a. trombone
b. piano
c. "T-flute"
d. guitar
e. "Hambone"

Answers to the Chitling Test:
1-c, 2-c, 3-c, 4-d, 5-c, 6-e, 7-c, 8-c, 9-c, 10-c, 11-a, 12-c, 13-d _________________________________________________________________________________________

Student appalled by Chitling Test

09:22 PM CST on Tuesday, December 4, 2007

By Wendell Edwards / 11 News
As a high school senior, Kayla Thomas is used to being tested.

But she says an exam that was recently given in her AP Psychology class at Klein Collins High went too far.          

“I read through the test. I couldn’t believe it was ever given out,” Thomas said.    

The exam is called the Chitling Test.   

It’s full of multiple choice questions like this one:    

Q: If a pimp is uptight with a woman who gets state aid, what does he  mean when he talks about Mother’s Day?    

A: The first and 15th of every month.   

      

“I couldn’t believe it. I couldn’t answer it. I didn’t know the answers. Didn’t think I should have to know the answers,” Thomas said.

Thomas went home and told her mom, who couldn’t believe it herself.   

“One of the questions said ‘down home South, picking cotton’ and she was talking about a pimp … and I said ‘what?’” Kay Thomas said.

She says the test has no business in a school.    

“It’s unacceptable. It’s totally unacceptable. They need to apologize to Kayla. They need to apologize to the class,” Thomas said.

A spokeswoman from Klein ISD declined to comment on camera.    

Over the phone, she told 11 News the test is an approved part of the state curriculum for the AP Psych class.    

The district later released the following statement regarding the test:    

"Advanced Placement Psychology is a course designed to study behavior, personality and what elicits emotions through the context of various experiences or materials. The curriculum materials for the advanced course include an intelligence test written in 1968. Taking the test was a learning activity to help students see how cultural basis will influence emotions, feelings and outcomes. A comprehensive explanation on how this test illustrates bias was cut short by the teacher’s absence due to a death in the family. Both the teacher and the principal have been empathetic to the student and parent concerns. The teacher and the principal agree that a high degree of sensitivity is necessary in using such materials."

Link:  student appalled by chitling test

blast from the past!

i was at this game and i remember this!  wavey dave (r.i.p.)  whooped the grambling tiger's ass!  aww...good times :)