Marsha Ambrosius – Far Away
I see where you were going with this Marsha but ummm….yeah
27th Feb2011
1 Comm
27th Feb2011
Eric Blair Presents – Daily Knowledge: Stephen Smith (Day 27)
Stephen Smith was one of the wealthiest Afrian-Americans in the United States. He was born in Columbia, Pennsylvania, and went on to build an empire that included the Smith, Wipper and Company Lumber and Coal yard. He was a leading agent on the Underground Railroad when he was living in Columbia. In 1867, he donated property and cash worth $250,000 for the establishment of a home for the aged and infirm. The home, which bears his name, was dedicated two years before Smith’s death and still operates today.
26th Feb2011
26th Feb2011
YouTube Wants To Spend $100 Million To Stream Movies And Beat Netflix
YouTube wants to start a subscription service of streaming movies a la Netflix and Amazon‘s new streaming service for Prime customers, the Post reports.
They’re planning to launch it first in the UK and Europe where there’s less competition and they can test it, before rolling it out internationally. YouTube has been in talks with Hollywood executives over the plan for months, and plans to spend $100 million on content. In Europe the service would compete with Lovefilm, the Netflix-like service which Amazon recently acquired; Netflix is also planning to expand to Europe.
Of course, not all studios are on board and it’s not an easy road from here to there. One studio executive mentions that Google needs to take a stronger stance against piracy. But a subscription is a pretty big shift in strategy for YouTube, which so far has made everything free and tried to make money from advertising.
26th Feb2011
26th Feb2011
NBC Fires The Guy Who Posted The “What Is The Internet” Video
NBC has fired the person who posted the video of former Today Show anchors Katie Couric, Bryant Gumbel, and Elizabeth Vargas asking “What is the Internet?,” according to WaPo’s Rob Pegoraro (via TechDirt).
Ridiculous.
The video was off-air footage taken from 1994 of the three hosts trying to define the “Internet.” Again, the video was from 1994 – a time when the Internet hadn’t yet taken over our lives.
So, why did NBC feel compelled to fire the guy over this? The video does no harm at all to the news anchors, and it could even be considered an actual viral promotion for the Today Show.
NBC blew it with this one.
26th Feb2011
Eric Blair Presents – Daily Knowledge: African-American Woman Suffrage Movement (Day 26)
In 1890, the woman suffrage movement began, black and white women fought together for the same goal — enfranchisement of women. But as the movement gained popularity, African American women found themselves being marginalized. African American women soon found themselves fighting against sexism and racism at the same time. This was a fight that continued even with the ratification of the nineteenth amendment (passed in 1920) with many efforts to keep African American women from voting. At first, African American women in the north were able to register quite easily and quite a few became actively involved in politics. Annie Simms Banks was the first African American female fully-credited delegate at the 7th Congressional District Republican Convention in Kentucky in March 1920. In some states in the south it took until the 1960s before African American women were allowed to freely exercise their right to vote.These difficulties, however, did nothing to deter African-American women.
26th Feb2011
U.S. Marshals: “We Have Effectively Shut Down BMF (Black Mafia Family)”
No, unfortunately not the Officer Bawse song…
Four members of the Black Mafia Family organization were arrested earlier this week, including one suspect who was on the Atlanta Police Department’s 10 Most Wanted list. Police busted Ernest Dennis, 37, and Jonathan Manigualt, in the Buckhead section of Atlanta, which was once a strong hold for members of BMF. The other two members, Ricardo Webb and Tovis Raines were also taken into custody, leading U.S. Marshals to declare that BMF has effectively been shutdown. “We know that they don’t have level of contacts or access to drugs and money the way they had before, so we’re slowly destroying their organization,” U.S. Marshal James Ergas told Atlanta’s Fox 5. In a previous interview with AllHipHop.com, BMF’s founder Demetrius “Big Meech” Flenory denied the organization was weakening, despite the fact the he and his brother Terry “Southwest T” Flenory are each serving 25-year sentences.
25th Feb2011
A Brief Introduction To Modern Shaolin Vernacular
thread count (t̸hred ko̵unt) adjective A standard unit used to measure authenticity, usually in reference to street credibility.
“Yalls aint cut from the same cloth as niggas. Niggas is cut from divine fabrics namsayin. Yalls is cut from Burundi flannel n shit. Yalls niggas need to step yalls thread counts up if you gon step in a nigga square like that. You dealin wit a 900 thread count nigga.” — Big Ghostface
coonin coupon (ko͞on′iŋ ko͞oˈpŏn) noun A symbolic certificate or ticket entitling the holder to display ignorance in a public forum without the consequence of reprecussions.
“Niggas is coonin the fuck out like coonin gon get played out tomorrow n shit. Niggas is worried that they coonin coupons is gon expire before they can cash that shit in namsayin. Niggas is takin ignorance to the next levels n shit. These niggas is like the X-Men of ignorant niggas.” — Big Ghostface
snacks (snaks) noun An inquiry birthed from an intense thirst for knowledge.
“Ayo I’m sayin tho, niggas was tryin to get they littlle questions in but the nigga wasn’t lettin niggas get they little words in, niggas ain’t have they little snacks.” — Raekwon
More HERE
25th Feb2011
Reconsidering Physical Music Retail (Or Moving Past Chain Stores)
A few years ago the famous Tower Records stores in NYC shut their doors for good. I remember it being described as a big blow to indie artists, as Tower was the only chain that would take a chance on putting some indie artists in their racks. Last week when I was over in London I read an article that discussed the big chain HMV closing down 60 of their stores in the next 12 months.
A few quoted lines:
The retailer today announced a 14.1% drop in like-for-like sales at its UK and Ireland stores for the 10 weeks to January 1 2011, blaming the bad weather and weak sales of entertainment products.
“My message to the music industry would be, I appreciate your support,” [HMV CEO Simon Fox] tells Music Week. “We needed to take steps to make sure we are a profitable, long-term business. We think the sales impact [of these closures] will be minimised by our actions.”
Physical music retail, in the mainstream brick-and-mortar sense, has been in a downward spiral for about a decade now, and it will not recover. If we can accept that fact, we can move forward and focus on places where we can sell physical music products. Note that I didn’t say “cds” or even “vinyl”. We’re going to have to be more creative than that, but “what” to sell is a topic for another post altogether.
Chain stores never really were that great of a place to sell music as a non-mainstream artist to begin with. The retailer takes a big cut, demands a lot in return for good placement and is not invested in your career or even the music business in general. Best Buy’s (more…)
25th Feb2011
The Link Between Racism & Capitalism
FOR REVOLUTIONARY Marxists, there is an inextricable link between racism and capitalism. Capitalism is dependant on racism as both a source of profiteering, but more importantly as a means to divide and rule. Racism is necessary to drive a wedge between workers who otherwise have everything in common and every reason to ally and organize together, but who are perpetually driven apart to the benefit of the ruling class.
Thus, any serious discussion about Black liberation has to take up not only a critique of capitalism, but also a credible strategy for ending it. For Marxists, that strategy hinges on the revolutionary potential of a unified, multiracial and multi-ethnic working class upheaval against capitalism.
Marxists believe that the potential for that kind of unity is dependant on battles and struggles against racism today. Without a commitment by revolutionary organizations in the here and now to the fight against racism, working class unity will never be achieved and the revolutionary potential of the working class will never be realized.
Yet despite all the evidence of this commitment to fighting racism over many decades, Marxism has been maligned as, at best, “blind” to combating racism and, at worst, “incapable” of it. For example, in an article published last summer, popular commentator and self-described “anti-racist” Tim Wise summarized the critique of “left activists” that he later defines as Marxists. He writes:
[L]eft activists often marginalize people of color by operating from a framework of extreme class reductionism, which holds that the “real” issue is class, not race, that “the only color that matters is green,” and that issues like racism are mere “identity politics,” which should take a back seat to promoting class-based universalism and programs to help working people. This reductionism, by ignoring the way (more…)
25th Feb2011
IAmNotADictionary Phrase Of The Day: Codex Alimentarius (Food Book)
Above: Nutricide – Criminalizing Natural Health, Vitamins, and Herbs
IAmNotADictionary Phrase Of The Day: Codex Alimentarius – The Codex Alimentarius is a body that was established in 1963 by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)threat to the freedom of people to choose natural healing and alternative medicine and nutrition. Ratified by the World Health Organization, and going into Law in the United States in 2009, the threat to health freedom has never been greater. This is the first part of a series of talks by Dr. Rima Laibow MD, available on DVD from the Natural Solutions Foundation, an non-profit organization dedicated to educating people about how to stop Codex Alimentarius from taking away our right to freely choose nutritional health.
25th Feb2011
Eric Blair Presents – Daily Knowledge: Maulana Ron Karenga (Day 25)
Maulana Ron Karenga is an Afro-American author, political activist, convicted felon, and college professor best known as the creator of Kwanzaa. Karenga was active in the Black Power movement in the 1960s and 1970s and founded the black nationalist group Us Organization which remains active to this day promoting the philosophy of Kawaida. Kawaida is a philosophy based on social and cultural change. In 1975, with newly-adopted views on Marxism, Karenga was released from California State Prison, and re-established the Us organization under a new structure. One year later, he was awarded his first doctorate. In 1977, he formulated a set of principles called Kawaida, a Swahili term for tradition. Karenga called on African Americans to adopt his secular humanism and reject other practices as mythical. Central to Karenga’s doctrine are the Nguzo Saba, the Seven Principles of Blackness, which are reinforced during the seven days of Kwanzaa.
