Finally, I got a chance to see "Lincoln"

On Christmas Eve I finally had a chance to see Skyfall, the lastest James Bond effort. On New Year's Eve I finally had a chance to see Steven Spielberg's Lincoln. This needs to become a recurring tradition!

Lincoln could be a film in the same vein as say The American President - well aside from the romantic comedy aspects it's still a film that involves politics. I also have compared Lincoln to The West Wing TV series. They all did tackle some issues that were important to the eras that they had been set in.

In the case of Lincoln it was slavery and the Civil War. Basically what we saw in this film was President Abraham Lincoln securing the votes in Congress for the 13th Amendment. Not only that he also had to contend with ending the Civil War. In fact news of representatives coming from the Confederate States of America wanting to talk about the end of the war figured in the political machinations of enacting an amendment to the US Constitution to abolish slavery.

We also learned more about the other players involved other than Lincoln. Many members of Congress - Representatives & Senators - played a role in making the 13th Amendment a reality. Just like the effort it took to make many of today's policy objectives a reality. For example look no further than "Obamacare" as one example of many.

Granted it's not the most exciting movie to watch. There's only one scene of the movie that was action packed which is mainly of Black soldiers fighting against the Confederate army. Then there's a scene that shows the bombardment of a Southern city although we didn't see anyone in that scene. It's a movie for the history buffs and President Lincoln (portrayed by Daniel Day-Lewis) does come alive for us in this movie as well as the many other players in this drama!

When I came to see this movie again at River East there was a packed theater to see this movie. This movie and Skyfall has been out since November and people are still coming to see it. Spielberg must have done something right for it to have the appeal it does. :)

So is there going to be a NHL season?

To be honest, I haven't really kept an eye on the current NHL lockout that has already claimed half of the NHL season. It's unfortunate since I consider myself more of a hockey fan than anything else. It's also unfortunate that it almost seems like the NHL could lose another season to labor strife.

In 2005, the NHL cancelled their whole season thanks to another lockout. So far they are the only professional sports league in North America to have cancelled an entire season due to labor strife. In that vein I'm glad that the league and it's players are about to further their talks in order to save the current season.

You know all I when it comes to labor strife in professional sports is that I rarely know what's going on. It seems whether it's MLB, NFL, NBA or NHL it's always about the collective bargaining agreement. Some will make it about the players thinking their not getting enough money while it does seem the big news in sports is the latest million-dollar offer some athlete signed. At that it seems some athletes are making more money not on their respective fields of play but with outside offers such as endorsement deals. If it's all about the money how much is enough!

Anyway, hopefully the NHL will eventually start their season in the near future. I'm looking forward to some Black Hawks games in the near future! Then by April, it's time for my other favorite sport, baseball!

VIDEO: Spelman College acceptance reaction...

[VIDEO] I wish there were more videos of some young men getting college acceptance letters. That would be very exciting but I recognize young men may not be so willing to show their emotions on camera.

Although what we're looking at is a young lady who discovered that she had been accepted to Spelman College she's even more excited. Why is she excited because this was definitely her dream school.

You know her excitement is contagious as I see that many Spelman women are sharing this which is how I got wind of it. Well one of my Morehouse bros shared it on his wall as well. He may share in her excitement as well.

It makes me wonder what would've happened if I had allowed myself years ago to take some risks and fill out some applications when I was still a senior. My excitement came years later when I found that I had been accepted to Spelman's sister university of Morehouse College. Though thankfully my reaction didn't elicit a YouTube video as they didn't yet exist!

I'm very excited for the young people who are taking one step forward in their futures, but it's also envy. My youth didn't exactly allow me to take life by the horns! Thankfully many youth today are doing the same especially when it comes to college.

Congrats Nia on your acceptance to Spelman. I also hope that you will be able to afford going to school there. Hopefully you'll navigate the intricacies of college finance and then avoid going into serious debt! Meaning hopefully you will be good the day you walk the stage and graduate as a Spelman woman!

Where has James Bond been?

Not sure why exactly but James Bond wasn't even a blip on my radar screen this year. It got squeezed between The Dark Knight Rises and next year's Star Trek into Darkness. And there's more than enough time to watch the Star Trek sequel next May.

I'm big into genre movies especially action and science fiction. In fact if there were any two movie franchises that have been long time favorites over the years it's Bond and Star Trek. It's even more puzzling to me that not a lot of focus on my part was put into the latest Bond effort entitled Skyfall.

I went to see Skyfall recently at River East near Navy Pier. It was pretty good and it almost seemed like a classic bond film with an old school sounding theme song and of course there's the Ashton Martin that was a fixture in the Bond films of the 1960s. It was certainly a nice touch at the end where the offices Bond enters into near the end of the movie simply went retro!

I've been a Bond fan for a long time and it's very regretful that no trailers were shown here on this blog prior to its release. Besides trailers for Star Trek and The A-Team had been shown here in the past on this blog for example. Why was I too slow for Skyfall?

James Bond will return in the near future and I promise to do much better in the future.

Instagram will not sell your photos

Whoever decided to write this language should've been fired! It's good that it will be corrected if it hasn't already:

Instagram apologized to its users today, saying it will "remove" language from its legal terms that would have let it sell users' photos or use them in advertisements.

In a blog post this afternoon, Chief Executive Kevin Systrom said it's "our mistake that this language is confusing" and that the company is "working on updated language."

"Since making these changes, we've heard loud and clear that many users are confused and upset about what the changes mean," he wrote.

Instagram's terms of use agreement announced yesterday sparked a user revolt unprecedented in its history -- and prompted competitors to tout their own services as more user-protective. It came three months after Facebook completed its acquisition of the popular photo-sharing service, which has over 100 million users, and follows recent efforts by the social network to increase revenue.
No other photo-sharing service appears to have had a policy as broad as Instagram's now-abandoned language, which claimed the perpetual right to license users' photos to companies or any other organization, including for advertising purposes, which would effectively transform the Web site into the world's largest stock photo agency. A hotel in Hawaii, for instance, could have written a check to Instagram to license photos taken at its resort and then use them for its own purposes.
...
Another pitfall of the now-abandoned policy: If Instagram users continued to upload photos after January 16, 2013, and subsequently deleted their account afterward, they may have granted Facebook an irrevocable right to sell those images in perpetuity. There's no obvious language that says deleting an account terminates Facebook's rights, said Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. 

I was about to consider myself if I would continue using Instagram. Basically loathe to deactivate any usage of social networking sites, but for the right reason such as this it would be worth it. Enough people revolted where it was known it would be a problem.

New preview "Star Trek into Darkness"

[VIDEO] This the new preview for the upcoming Star Trek into Darkness that will premier next May. We also know more about the characters who will be portrayed in this movie. The only character introduced into this universe from Star Trek canon is Dr. Carol Marcus.

The main villain whom many thought was either Khan or Gary Mitchell well his name isn't very familiar to Trek fans. There's a chance he's brand new or it's possible he may be revealed to be someone from canon. To me the odds are about even and we won't know until the movie is out. The main villain is played by Benedict Cumberbatch.

The 2009 Star Trek was very intense, into Darkness appears to be even more intense judging by these previews!

Marathon Pundit wants to save President Reagan's former Chicago home

832 E. 57th St.

John Ruberry wants his post to be shared and so I shall share. It's safe to say Obama's Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park was briefly home to another president almost 100 years ago. In fact a year ago I wrote a post about that apartment building where a young Ronald Reagan once lived.

A year ago there were some activists who wanted to preserve this residence, and today it's in the shadow of the University of Chicago hospital and they're looking for room to expand. This building is also owned by UChicago according to Ruberry.

The former Williams Clinic

Crossposted at The Sixth Ward

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What you see above is a Google Streetview of the former Williams Clinic located at 408 E. Marquette Road. It was operated by a family of Black doctors and it seemed they offered a number of services at this clinic including a dentist and a pharmacy. In fact here's an obituary for one of the Williams brothers who originally founded the clinic.

Recently I drove by and it hits me that the clinic is close the motel near Marquette Road & King Drive that had been recently demolished thanks to the activism of a local minster Corey Brooks - who incidentally was interested in succeeding Jesse Jackson Jr. for the 2nd congressional district seat. In driving by, on that motel property was a rendition of how the new community center Brooks hope to build would look.

Then it also hit me, I wonder if Brooks might find a way to thrown in some health care services at his future community center. Indeed perhaps he could find a way to take over the Williams Clinic property which is currently a church.

I do wish to know what happened to Williams Clinic. My dad used to patronize their practice back in the day and continued to do so until it appears that the Williams family were no longer involved in that business. I'm not entirely certain when they closed but surely someone could fill in some details.

BTW, this post is going into some unfamiliar territory as far as a particular issue such as health care. Medical services are necessary no matter your income level and this area around the former clinic is considered a low-income area. The question to ask here is whether or not it's possible for an independent clinic such as this could exist today. Would the economics of health care today keep independent medical professionals from operating?

VIDEO: "Star Trek into Darkness" teaser preview

[VIDEO] Just got wind of this today, it seems to wet the appetite at least until the movie is released next year. I am only more curious who the new villian is. My gut tells me it isn't Khan but it's possible that we may see another villain from Star Trek canon. Although judging by the trailer is got to be a character who really does have an axe to grind with Earth.

Also I've heard Gary Mitchell, he's the villain from the 2nd original Star Trek pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before". In that episode the USS Enterprise under Capt. Kirk reaches the outer galactic barrier after finding a marker from a long lost starship and some of their crew including Mitchell recieved ESP powers. Mitchell begins to really feel the power and becomes a threat to the Enterprise crew.

Anyway, TrekMovie.com has seen the trailer even has bonus footage provided in a Japanese preview for the film. Also, a scene-by-scene analysis of this preview seen there as well.

VIDEO: Wide new Lincoln Park rowhomes under $1M

[VIDEO] I post the vid above for one main reason. Sometimes I wish I was an architect and most importantly wish I was a builder. If only these homes could be built in communities that needs them.

The design from the outside looks great, however, they're built in Lincoln Park for a reason. These homes are expensive, thus for a builder on the the south side depending on the neighborhood they have to find a way to scale down the price. It makes me wonder if the construction of the home ultimately helps determines the price when it's built and available for sale.

This only shows that I have an interest in real estate mainly the purchase of property and it's leasing. Of course the next step is to learn the economics of construction.

"Star Trek into Darkness" poster

Hmmmm, a poster is nice. And you can tell somewhat it's Star Trek. Too bad I'm in the mode of wanting to find out more about the movie before it's released. All the same for every Star Trek movie that is to be released I'm always optimistic. Very much looking forward to seeing the finished product and hopefully we will see this poster in a cinema near you.

BTW, according to TrekMovie this evokes the initial poster for The Dark Night Rises. Basically the bat symbol carved amongst some skyscrapers. In this case the Star Trek symbol carved into a building or a bulkhead with a man standing on some of the wreckage. Hopefully we'll find out what this all symbolizes although I recognize that this imagery we won't likely see in the movie.

ALSO, check out the official website for the new movie @ http://www.startrekmovie.com/

Capitalism, Part 3

I've been talking a lot about capitalism lately, but to be honest I haven't spent a lot of time reading up on the subject. There's one book that anyone should read up and that's Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations and if you're lucky you can read that book for free thanks to the public domain! :P

Anyway it's one thing to philosophize about capitalism with all of it's benefits and faults, but it's absolutely another to actually practice it. That realization came to a eureka moment!

When I was in high school all the way through my college years there was one thing I failed to do, take a business course. In high school my counselor seemed interested in having me take another social studies my mistake was in rolling with it. It might have been in my best interest to take a bookkeeping/accounting class and it was something of interest, but it never happened for me for some reason.

I've spend a number of years in college starting off at a local community college and then of course attending Morehouse. During my time in college I never considered taking any business courses as my career goals still hadn't been determined and business struck me as very intimidating. When I was at Morehouse the least I did as far as a basic business course was in business law. It would've done me good to take an accounting course or two but I never did.

Now here's my eureka moment, would it do our young people a great service to require them to take some type of business class before they graduate high school. Just give them an intro course to business that teaches them all aspects of business especially accounting. That way, they will still have learned some business skills and hopefully it will serve them well when they start looking for a job which they will have to do at some point.

Perhaps there ought to be other classes before they leave high school if they want to take it further. Then of course there is college and they can take some basic courses electives permitting or they may choose to major in a business discipline. Hopefully if they excel in these endeavors the young people won't have a problem in their future careers.

Besides no matter where you go in your career - such as academia, church, science, government, politics, etc. - business skills are necessary. You must know where the money is going and how to manage resources. Also operations have to be able to continue operating and business skills could help that.