Harvard Mag: Morehouse Man, Redux

Earlier this year Morehouse College gained a new President in John S. Wilson Jr. In addition to being a Morehouse Man, he had also attended Harvard University getting his graduate degrees there hence he's interviewed by Harvard Mag. Sadly he has to state that attending an HBCU doesn't have the allure it used to since Black college students have more choices today.

“The vast majority of African-American students in higher education are choosing nonblack colleges,” Wilson says. Today, HBCUs educate only about 10 percent of that population; and of those who do enroll, he adds, 75 percent are women, “so we are in a particular crisis in educating African-American males.” 

OK another problem we've discussed here, not enough Black males are going to college these days. It might be true of a number of campuses not just HBCUs although Morehouse is an exception since it's all male. Although let's be clear there have been reports that I have seen that illustrated that a lot of college campuses are increasingly populated with women and the population of men are going down.

Before the quote Dr. Wilson also noted that Morehouse needs to build an endowment. That endowment could go to not only the campus facility because Wilson talked about "improving the campus infrastructure which, he says, 'is basically the same buildings and landscape that I left in 1979.'" Also of course the endowment could help capable & motivated low-income students attend Morehouse and hopefully stay and graduate from there.

In any case, this is still a worthwhile article and Morehouse does have it's work cut out for them.

Today is Columbus day!

Today feels like a Sunday, but in fact it's Columbus Day. We may have learned that Christopher Columbus discovered America back in the late 15th Century in school. As time went on it turns out that story is a bit more complicated as Columbus may not have been the first European or perhaps even the first of the old world to discover these new lands.

All the same next month is another much more festive holiday Thanksgiving. I have a friend who refer to this holiday as Thanks-taking. We may celebrate the idea of giving thanks, even the origin of this holiday is complicated.

Both days are great for this main thing. These are days off from work for most and for school especially if you attend Chicago Public Schools. And here's hoping many of you see the origin of the holidays we currently take for granted.

So now we have watch phones...

[VIDEO] Earlier today on TV I've been seeing the ads for this Samsung Galaxy Gear. Basically this device is bringing to life the idea of a watch that could be used as a communication device. Basically this device used in connection with a Samsung smartphone such as a Galaxy Note or Galaxy S4 is called a "smartwatch".

The ads featured similar devices from Dick Tracy, The Jetsons, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Knight Rider, or even Babylon 5. Let me digress for a moment, the "comlinks" you saw on Babylon 5 aren't true smartwatches. They do rest on your hand perhaps connected in some abstract way to the Earth Alliance uniform the characters wore, but they were still nifty devices certainly no more than the devices seen in the other properties named above.

The Gear reminds me of the sixth generation iPod Nano which could be used as a watch although an iPod is normally used as a device to listen to music or podcasts. I was very disappointed when they discontinued this model as I always thought it was nifty but I couldn't justify paying the price to get one.

Since I'm firmly an Apple customer I hope that they may bring that style of iPod back along with the accompanying wristbands for the same purpose as the Gear. It almost seemed as if they might, but after reading all the rumors about the updated iPhones or iPads it's always possible that in spite of not seeming like they will develop it here it comes. Here's hoping if they do bring that style iPod back that it can be connected to the iPhone and used in a similar way to the devices now to be sold by Samsung.

Check out the old home of former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick

[VIDEO] Well another take on the sentencing on Kwame Kilpatrick the former Mayor of Detroit. Curbed Detroit shared this video of Mayor Kilpatrick's old house and aside from the fact that it had been broken into and they showed the screen door no longer had it's knobs it appeared to be a very nice home. He probably moved out not long before he became Mayor since well Detroit has a Mayoral residence.

I recall that Kilpatrick had already been to jail pleading to guilty to charges that caused him to resign from his office in 2008. More recently he has been sentenced to 28 years in prison on various charges of corruption. That's much more than our very own Rod Blagojevich we thought he got it stiff! OUCH!

Sometimes when I get to thinking...

At work one day I picked up a business card and flyer for a cinematographer. The flyer was for a project that this individual had done for a film festival. Then it got me thinking.

I often note the works that were produced and exhibited online from either Brain Terminal or Protest Warrior that partially inspired this blog. There was a time that I wanted to match some of the work they did although what could be done differently by me than they did.

There are always projects that are worth doing if you require the services of a cinematographer. There is always something at least worth making a documentary about. There's always something out there you want the general public to know about.

And let me add, the many videobloggers I followed over the years. It seemed for the most part that activity has died down, but what they did to me was very ground breaking. Many of them really just wanted to show us the world as they see it. It something I'm interested in and still do it in the form of photography or even on social media.

Still when I saw the card for the cinematographer, for second my thought became what could be the use of such a skilled person. What project could be created that would justify having him work on my project?

Recently I talked with a friend having shared with him some posts from my other blog - The Sixth Ward. He had a much larger vision for what I'm doing there than I really did. He thought about flyers, t-shirts, he thought of ways to make money while pursuing a story, and much more.

Then in thinking of this, I recognize that sometimes there are moments like the one I described in the first paragraph of this post is the kind of out of the box thinking that necessary. It just lets me know that there are always projects that needs to be done and hopefully the world can only learn about something I'm passionate about!

Should I get another iPhone?

[VIDEO] By the time I had bought my current iPhone it wasn't long until it was time for the iPhone 5. My feelings on that device is that I wish it was designed like the iPhone 4 & 4S and it appears the new iPhone 5S takes its cue from the 5.

For now it appears this is the design I will see for the foreseeable future. I could always wait for the iPhone 6 and hope Apple provides a better design.

On the other hand I'm all about utility as it's as much what the device can do and not all how it looks. Lots of social networking and picture taking in addition to the basic function of making phone calls. While they talk more about the processor hopefully it makes the phone function better. Although it's a great idea to use a fingerprint scanner to ensure security for the device.

Other than that should I keep my current iPhone and wait for the iPhone 6?

In the mood for "The Right Stuff"

[VIDEO] When I was in high school (GO FALCONS) I had designs on being an astronaut and unfortunately that was one path never followed. Basically my vision was to go on a real live "Star Trek" thanks to the fact that I was a fan of that franchise and other series and movies that involved space exploration.

There was a documentary mini-series that aired on TBS years ago called Moonshot that chronicled the early days of the space program and through the Apollo years. Then at theaters was Apollo 13 which is a real life story of a "moonshoot" that didn't quite land on the moon due to a mechanical failure.

Then in my junior year of high school I did a research paper on the lead-up to Apollo 11. I have to say, at one point in my paper was a paragraph that was a full page long. What was that about? LOL!

Anyway, during this time I discovered this movie called The Right Stuff that also chronicles the early days of the space program and somehow fits in the role of aerospace pioneering by one Chuck Yeager. Yeager was the first man to break the sound barrier in the late 1940s.

So I'm a huge fan of movie soundtracks and therefore want to share some music from The Right Stuff's soundtrack. It's very heroic although in this YouTube vid above it turned heavily 1980s near the end. This movie definitely was an homage to a group of men called the Mercury 7 who were the first Americans trained for spaceflight.

Now I need to find this film!