Whites-only movie invite riles Rutgers students

By James Eng, msnbc.com

The English Department at Rutgers University says it responded swiftly and ?with severity and directness? after finding out that a graduate student sent an email to a group of students inviting them to a whites-only screening of the film ?Song of the South.?

Carolyn Williams, professor and chair of the department, denied allegations contained in a letter to the editor?of the student newspaper?that department officials had refused to publicly acknowledge ?the racist, discriminatory nature of the email.?


?The Department of English, like the rest of Rutgers University, finds bias acts unacceptable,? she said.

The controversy over the email was first reported this week by The Daily Targum, the student newspaper. The email was sent Sept. 28 by a white graduate student in the English Department to a group of students enrolled with her in a class titled "Post-Bellum/Pre-Harlem.? The student invited the group, reportedly also white, to watch a screening of the 1946 Walt Disney movie ?Song of the South,? which some modern-day observers say is racist and stereotypical in its portrayal of blacks just after the Civil War.

The film, a blend of live action and animation, is based on the fictional African-American character Uncle Remus created in the 1800s by author Joel Chandler Harris. In the movie, Uncle Remus regales a young boy who runs away from home with a series of delightful fables.

"If you do come, hooch is most welcome, as are strawhats and other Darkeyisms. I might even buy a watermillyum if I get enough interest," the email read in part, according to the Targum. The email also noted that guests should be careful whom they brought, because "I might yell racist things at the TV."

Elizabeth Braxton, another graduate student in English, said she was upset when she found out about the email. In a letter to the student newspaper, Braxton and fellow students in a ?Race, Ethnicity, and Inequality in Education? class complained:

"This racist email, and the other students' reactions to it - including their silence - have now shaped the learning environment in their classroom, in much the same way as the department's failure to act appropriately has shaped the environment beyond the classroom. A few professors scolded the writer. However, no one in the department publicly acknowledged the racist, discriminatory nature of the email. This was a moment when faculty could have made clear the seriousness with which they regard the critical topics they discuss in the courses they teach.

A meaningful and important discussion could have taken place that may have changed or engaged people. Instead, an uncomfortable topic was largely avoided, and the feelings of the student who sent the email were prioritized above the pain of students of color, breeding resentment and misinformation about what was wrong with the email in the first place.?

Braxton said Friday she and her classmates stand by the letter but declined further comment.

Williams, in an email Friday to msnbc.com, disputed the assertion that department and university officials were lax in responding.

The screening never took place, and the sender apologized within a few days of the incident to the students she sent it to and to the director of graduate studies, Williams said. She then apologized again to her whole class in early October, Williams said.

?At that time, her apology was accepted.?Nevertheless, the original email -- and waves of responses to it -- have of course continued to be hurtful,? Williams said.

In a response letter sent this week to the Targum, Williams and Rebecca Walkowitz, acting director of graduate studies, wrote: ?In fact we responded immediately with severity and directness; it could not have been misunderstood what we thought about the offending email.?

Williams would not say Friday whether the author of the email could face discipline, citing privacy rules.

The incident led to faculty-student meetings and a ?civility forum? held?Dec. 7, and a committee will begin work early next year on a policy addressing bias.

?The learnings are huge, for all of us -- and they will continue in the spring semester, when we are planning to have workshops, group discussions, lectures, perhaps a conference, and many other activities that will continue to educate our own department members (and perhaps others) about how to respond if such an incident were ever to occur again,? Williams told msnbc.com.

?We are committed not only to this educational mission, but to preventing bias in any form, and I look forward, with the department, to pushing forward with this initiative.?

It's not the first time Rutgers has found itself engulfed in discrimination controversy. In September 2010, Tyler Clementi, an 18-year-old Rutgers freshman, commited suicide after finding out that he had been taped -- allegedly by his roomate -- ?having a sexual encounter with another man. And the Education Department's Office for Civil Rights is also reportedly looking into complaints that?Rutgers administrators have done little to respond to anti-Semitism on campus.

More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/16/9500346-racist-email-for-whites-only-movie-viewing-riles-rutgers-students-staff

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"Super movie queue" bookmarking system launches (Reuters)

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) ? Netflix ... Amazon Instant Video ... iTunes ... SnagFilms ... Redbox ... Movies on Demand ... VUDU ...

With so many movie queues, a new bookmarking system is letting users streamline them.

The patent-pending Watch It button is created by Plexus Entertainment, which develops products and strategies in an effort to help connect films and filmmakers with audiences.

Watch It launched in beta form Thursday. It was unveiled on GoWatchIt.com and will be available on TheWrap.com in January.

With the "super movie queue," users can locate, bookmark, track, filter, sort and watch their movie picks across multiple digital-distribution platforms, as well as theaters, DVD and Blu-ray.

Watch It users can request and receive email alerts when movies of interest become available on different platforms, whether it be the theater, a digital service or another platform. The button, which can be embedded in movie reviews and blogs, lets users click and see where a film is available.

Through the button, full movies or trailers can be viewed immediately or placed in a queue for future viewing.

Watch It also allows users to share their queues with their Facebook friends.

The company plans to use Watch It to provide movie marketers with analytics by mining and aggregating non-personally identifiable consumer data.

Plexus Entertainment is planning to broaden the Watch It concept to include music, TV, books, and video games online and offline.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/movies/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111216/stage_nm/us_moviequeue

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Obama signs government spending bill into law (Reuters)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) ? President Barack Obama has signed into law a spending bill that Congress approved to keep the government running, the White House said on Saturday.

Earlier on Saturday, the Senate had passed the $915 billion bill to fund most federal activities through next September and avert a government shutdown. It had cleared the House of Representatives on Friday.

A number of government agencies, including the Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency and Labor Department, faced the possibility of shutting down this weekend without the legislation to replenish their funding.

(Reporting by Laura MacInnis; Editing by Eric Walsh)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/obama/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111217/ts_nm/us_usa_congress_obama

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AP Newsbreak: Official: 9 states win grants (AP)

WASHINGTON ? Nine states will share $500 million in grant money won in a high profile competition intended to jumpstart improvements in often-overlooked early childhood programs, The Associated Press has learned.

The winners to be announced Friday at the White House are California, Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island and Washington, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the winners had not been officially announced.

The money to aid the nation's youngest learners is part of the Obama administration's cornerstone education initiative ? Race to the Top ? which has states competing for federal dollars to create programs that make schools more effective. Last year, it handed out $4 billion in such grants focused on K-12 education.

The goal of this competition was to get more children from birth to age 5 ready for kindergarten. Thirty-five states along with the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico applied for the chance each to win between about $50 million to $100 million in prize money. The winnings are to go to build state-wide systems that affect all early learning programs, including child care, Head Start centers, and public or private preschools.

Billions are spent annually in America on early education programs, but the quality and availability of those programs varies greatly. Roughly half of all 3-year-olds and about a quarter of 4-year-olds do not attend preschool, said Steve Barnett, director of the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University.

Kids who attend quality early education programs have been shown to do better in school, and later in life, spend less time in prison and make more money. But children from low-income families who start kindergarten without any schooling are estimated to walk in the door 18 months behind their peers ? a gap extremely difficult to overcome.

To win, states were asked to demonstrate a commitment to make such programs more accessible, coordinated and more effective. Providing professional development for teachers and creating ways to assess the education level of kids entering kindergarten were among the areas states were asked to focus on in their application.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius were to announce the winners at the White House. The two agencies jointly administered the competition. HHS oversees the federal Head Start program, which provides early education to nearly 1 million low-income children.

Last month, Obama announced new rules that require lower-performing Head Start programs to compete for funding. The Education Department also has proposed creating a new office to oversee the grants and better coordinate early learning programs.

_____

Online: Education Department: http://www.ed.gov/

Department of Health and Human Services: http://www.hhs.gov/

_____

Kimberly Hefling can be followed at http://twitter.com/khefling

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111216/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_race_to_top_early_learning

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Come On, Microsoft: Siri Is Making You Look Terrible

annes fanLast week, Microsoft overhauled the Xbox 360. The update brought dozens of new features, but there was one I was particularly excited about: when paired with a Kinect, the new interface was said to pack voice recognition support pretty much everywhere. As I noted in my initial Kinect review well over a year ago, the Kinect's voice system was the one bit I found particularly disappointing. After finally seeing someone do something right with voice with Siri, the idea that the 360 might be getting a wonderful voice interface had me beyond excited. Alas, it still sucks.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/lM2pxMZv-6U/

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Investing in Amazing Health | Diet Press ? Magazine about Diet and ...

Do you know what is the greatest investment you ever made? If real estate, stocks and bonds come to mind, you are not alone. Most people think in terms of ?financial? wealth when they think investing.

But what about your health? Let?s face it, you can have all of the money in the world, but without your health, what do you really have?

So why doesn?t everyone invest in the best health ever with the same gusto that they invest in their 401 K?s? Part of it is a lack of information. Many people don?t realize the power that they have over their health. Another reason is people assume that it is too expensive to live and eat healthily.

No doubt buying fresh organic fruits, veggies and other REAL non-processed, whole foods will cost more than the processed stuff. It will also take more time to prepare than fast food. But those are just the short terms costs. Like any good investment, you pay a little more upfront, but look at the long-term picture. You will save boat loads of money by minimizing, possibly even eliminating, your drug, surgery and hospital costs in the future!

Let?s look at six simple ways to start investing in your health right now!

1. Make optimum health your top priority. The goal here isn?t just to prevent illness. It?s to actively promote the best, most radiant health that you and your family have EVER experienced. To do this, you may need to make some tough choices. Shift some priorities around. For starters, do you spend money on the latest, greatest new cell phone and cable TV package? Or do you invest that money in the most healthy, nutrient dense foods on the planet?

2. Read the ingredients. Less is more when it comes to ingredients. If you don?t know what it is and how to pronounce it, you probably shouldn?t be ingesting it into your body. Most of these hard to pronounce ingredients are preservatives only there to increase shelf life. Look for products with no (or at least minimal) preservatives. You may have to eat it sooner, but your body will thank you for it!

3. Load up on fruits and veggies! Buy a wide variety of colors. The more colors, the more nutrients, the more powerful health promoting antioxidants! I?m thinking green spinach, orange carrots, red tomatoes, blue blueberries and yellow squash ? just to name a few. To get the biggest bang for your health buck, buy local organic produce. To save some money, buy in bulk and shop at Farmer?s Markets. Or best case scenario, grow your own organic garden!

4. Fill your plate with whole grains. It doesn?t cost any more to choose brown rice and whole grain pasta over the white processed varieties. The difference is that the whole grains are loaded with essential nutrients and fiber that get largely removed when processed. Again, buy in bulk to reduce costs.

5. Know your super-foods. To get the maximum amount of life enhancing vitamins and minerals, you want to be eating super-foods. Dr. Linus Pauling, the world?s only 2 time unshared Nobel Prize winner, said that ?You can trace every sickness, every disease and every ailment to a mineral deficiency.? Very simplicity, Deficiency of nutrients = Disease. Super-foods are jam packed with nutrients. You can eat them straight up or spoon them into a juice or smoothie. Some great examples of super-foods are goji berries, spirulina and raw organic cacao powder. Sweet potatoes, garlic and blueberries are some other readily available super-food staples in my diet!

6. Start a mind ~ body fitness practice. Most of us spend our days hunched over a computer. It?s so important to have some activity that moves the body on a daily basis. Some great examples are yoga, martial arts, running, tai chi, even gardening. The list goes on and on. Experiment until you find a practice that you really enjoy.

If you think about it, when you invest in your heath, not only do you save money, but you also get to enjoy the benefits of vibrant, amazing health for the rest of your long life! What could be a better investment than that!

?

About the Author:

Learn about the power of mind body health and fitness

Tags: boat loads, Body, bulk, disease, fitness, health, loads of money, nutrient dense foods, organic fruits, radiant health, stocks and bonds, tough choices

Source: http://dietpress.net/2011/12/investing-in-amazing-health/

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Zenonia, Swiftkey X headline day 9 of the Android Market sale

There's two days to go before the Android Market returns to normal, as we enter into day 9 of its sale to celebrate the download of the ten billionth app. Only one, Swiftkey X, has come back for a second helping of the sale. Of the eleven apps being featured today, a healthy eight are games: Sleepy Jack, Icebreaker Hockey, Deer Hunter 3D, MX Moto, Guns 'n' Glory, Tank Riders, Zenonia and Collapse. Rounding out the selection you'll find ezPDF Reader -- which obviously needs no introduction -- and Toddler Tapping Zoo for the young 'uns. One day left, and then we'll just have to cross our fingers and wait to see what happens when the Android Market hits twenty billion. As always, check out the source link to see the options.

Zenonia, Swiftkey X headline day 9 of the Android Market sale originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Dec 2011 13:47:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceAndroid Market  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/14/zenonia-swiftkey-x-headline-day-9-of-the-android-market-sale/

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IBM System Monitors Food Supply Chains in China

IBM is helping a Chinese state-owned firm to monitor food safety in the country, by building a new system meant to prevent tainted products from being sold to consumers.

IBM said on Thursday it developed the system with Shandong Commercial Group, a company with more than 70 of its own "Inzone" large retail stores in the country. The 195 million yuan (US$30.5 million) system will allow the Chinese company to track food products across the supply chain, from farms up to retailers. If a consumer becomes sick after consuming tainted food, the system can better pinpoint which products should be removed, while keeping the safe products in stock.

The system is being deployed in China's Shandong province, a major producer of pork and agriculture in the country, said IBM spokeswoman Harriet Ip. Shandong's provincial government requested a system be made to limit bad pork products from being sold to consumers.

In 2010, Shandong Commercial Group and IBM began work on the system, which first started as a pilot project to monitor production at select slaughterhouses and warehouses.

IBM provided the software and system architecture to the project. In the case of pork production, the food is monitored by first tagging pigs with bar codes and using cameras to record their movement. Shipping trucks have been installed with temperature and humidity sensors, along with global positioning, to ensure the meat arrives to retailers under safe conditions.

The system is the first of its kind for IBM, although the company is also working on projects in the area of food monitoring in other parts of Asia such as Vietnam and Thailand, Ip said.

The project will be implemented over a three year period, ending in 2013. Major food products including pork, beef, and vegetables, will be monitored by the system.

Source: http://feeds.pcworld.com/click.phdo?i=023db0452a72a8415de7603408d4d460

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iSeat Recliner Advances Sitting Technology With a Built-in iPhone Dock: Your Move La-Z-Boy [Furniture]

If there was ever a reason to be worried about being technologically one-upped by China, this iSeat is it. While our craftsman have only concerned themselves with comfort, their engineers have integrated speakers and an iPhone dock into this recliner. More »


Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/nNVzPLE7ous/iseat-recliner-advances-sitting-technology-with-a-built+in-iphone-dock-your-move-la+z+boy

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