Ultimate Buy Black Father’s Day 2019 Gift Guide: Men’s Grooming, Health and Wellness

Father’s Day Gift Guide: Men’s Grooming/Health and Wellness Gifts

Scotch Porter

Scotch Porter is a premium-affordable men’s grooming brand, with a focus on delivering efficacious, high-quality products that give men the confidence, courage, and style they need to go out in the world and crush it.

 

(scotchporter.com)

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THE CUT BUDDY

The Cut Buddy is a beard- and hair-shaping tool for those wanting to feel that “fresh from the barbershop” confidence in between barber visits or if they can’t afford or get to the barber multiple times per month.

(Image: thecutbuddy.com)

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228 Grant Street Candle Co.

Give your father some aromatherapy: 228 Grant Street Candle Co. is owned by a black candlemaker who creates soy-based, small-batch candles in tantalizing scent combinations, including amber and sandalwood.

(228grantstreet.com)

 

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Therapeutate Parfums

Rodney Hughes, a Brooklyn-based natural perfumer, launched Therapeutate Parfums, which offers “100% botanical fragrance and apothecary masterfully crafted employing raw minerals that are organic, wild-harvested, and therapeutic,” according to the company’s website.

(tpeta.com)

 

 

 

from Black Enterprise http://bit.ly/2I7UCam
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Ultimate Buy Black Father’s Day 2019 Gift Guide: Men’s Fashion

Father’s Day Gift Guide: Men’s Fashion 

Benson Watch Co.

Launched by millennial entrepreneur Marcel Benson, the Benson Watch Co. offers innovative and elegant timepieces.

(bensonwatch.com)

 

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Dapper Dan Clothing Line 

Daniel “Dapper Dan” Day pioneered luxury hip-hop fashion in the ’80s and ’90s by remixing high-end brands into urban streetwear. However, after closing shop 25 years ago, the legendary designer opened a new store in Harlem this year similar to the famous Dapper Dan Boutique that closed in 1992—but this time with a Gucci twist.

(Image: Instagram/DapperDanHarlem)

 

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LyfeStyle Clothing Line 

Born in Brooklyn, Lyfestyle captures the essence of New York City urban art, style, and flavor. The brand was birthed from the imaginations of four friends who loved the lavish fashion on Fifth Avenue but were limited to shopping on a budget.

(Image: Instagram/LyfestyleNYC)

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Abdju Wear

Abdju Wear is a new clothing line that sports high-end clothes and sneakers at affordable prices. The brand offers everything from polo-style shirts to high-top sneakers in traditional Pan-African flag colors. The designer, Bobby West, aspires to become a staple in black fashion the same way that Ralph Lauren has become one of the most iconic brands in the country.

Abdju Wear founder Bobby West

 

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Tradition

Help Dad rep his HBCU with apparel from Tradition, a collegiate and lifestyle brand.

(traditioneversince.com)

 

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Loren S

If you know of or are a man who is a purveyor of fine clothing, then get familiar with Loren Spratt—a uniquely inspiring black-owned clothing brand wholly focused on the male consumer. The Atlanta-based men’s custom couture line is the brainchild of Clark Atlanta University grads Dalen Spratt, Juwan Mass, Brandon Theriot, and Mario McMillan.

(lorenspratt.com)

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from Black Enterprise http://bit.ly/2W8RhS1
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Review: Ring's Stick Up Cam Battery Eliminates Wires

The latest version of Ring’s camera aims to replace your home security system—no wires or drilling necessary.

from Wired http://bit.ly/2XaM3Sn
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Egypt's Sinai: 'War crimes' being committed, says Human Rights Watch

Children as young as 12 are being held in secret prisons, Human Rights Watch says.

from BBC News - Africa https://bbc.in/2EDM8GT
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Lake Mai-Ndombe disaster: 'Older boats' to be banned

The move comes after an accident in which hundreds are feared to have drowned at the weekend.

from BBC News - Africa https://bbc.in/2Wrq24p
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Serena Williams slays French Open in outfit emblazoned with female empowerment themes

Adorable brothers, 5 and 6 years old, drown in pool after sneaking out of apartment

In a heartbreaking story out of Florida, two brothers drowned in a pool together in a North Lauderdale apartment complex.

—Lawyer accuses Chris Brown of “disrespect” in rape case—

Ja’Kye Joseph, 6, and Branario Minto, 5, were the young brothers who together ventured out to the pool area as their mother slept.

The boys climbed a fence to get to the pool, according to their mom Wildine Joseph.

Last Wednesday, neighbors noticed the boys floating face down in the pool around 9:30 p.m and rushed to pull them out and give them aid, but it was too late, the Broward Sheriff’s Office reported.

“I ran over there and saw two children laying on the side of the pool, the kids were on the floor and they were giving them CPR,” a neighbor told CBS4.

Joseph told  Local 10 News that one of her sons was learning how to swim but still didn’t know how.

“He was getting swimming lessons but he didn’t really make it. He thought he could swim but he cannot swim, and I think the brother tried to help him so he jumped in too,” Joseph said.

“I’m so sorry. If I was there I could have saved them on time,” she said, according to

—Angry Spirit Airlines passenger slaps employee in the face in viral video—

“I will always miss my babies. I’m sorry, Ja’Kye. I’m sorry, Branario. They’re only 5, and they’re only 6.”

The investigation is ongoing. However, Child Protective Investigations Section has removed the 4-month-old child and a 1-year-old siblings of the children from Joseph’s home, according to the sheriff’s release.

A GoFundMe page has been set up to raise money for the boys’ funeral expenses.

The post Adorable brothers, 5 and 6 years old, drown in pool after sneaking out of apartment appeared first on theGrio.

from theGrio https://on.thegrio.com/2YQRo1p
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‘When They See Us’ actors revisit Central Park Five case and their own troubling police encounters

Actor Jharrel Jerome, perhaps best known for his role in “Moonlight,” recalls walking to school a few years ago in his native New York City, worried about an upcoming test, when he was stopped by two police officers.

“Stop! Can I see your bag?” one asked him.

He immediately froze in fear. What did he do wrong? Did he walk weird? Did he say something? Jerome let them look though his notebooks, papers and pens. Then they let him go. He was still shaking at his desk hours later.

“You just wonder what was in their mind and what they see in me when I’m just trying to be as good as I could be,” he recalled. “It’s terrifying because they could have been the worst of cops. They could have done anything.”

Jerome, 21, drew heavily on that testy interaction to play Korey Wise, an innocent man who spent 12 years behind bars for a rape in Central Park he never committed. “Thinking about that experience and then thinking about it times ten is terrifying,” he said.

Wise was one of five black and Latino teenagers — the others were Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Yusef Salaam, Raymond Santana — who were coerced into confessing to the crime and are collectively known as the “Central Park Five.”

In Ava DuVernay‘s new four-part Netflix series “When They See Us,” the horrific odyssey the five endured is shown over 25 years, from the 1989 night they were arrested to the day a settlement was reached with the city in 2014.

The case was drawn on racial lines from the outset, with the victim being a young white woman, and it drew worldwide attention. Tabloid headlines compared the teens to a wolf pack, and Donald Trump took out newspaper ads calling for the return of the death penalty in New York state. It took years for the five to be exonerated, and they spent most of their youth in prison. Another man was found guilty of the attack.

The five young actors who play the accused in the first half of the series were horrified to learn details of the case and hope it can lead to changes in the judicial system.

“It hurts me to think that it’s 2019 and it’s not that I don’t still hear of stories exactly like this,” said Marquis Rodriguez, 21, who plays Santana and grew up in Brooklyn.

The two New Yorkers — Jerome and Rodriguez — were acquainted with the case before landing their roles, but the three others — Asante Blackk, 17, Caleel Harris, 15, and Ethan Herisse, 18 — hadn’t heard of the plight of the Central Park Five. Now they think it’s too important to forget.

“It’s something that needs to continue to be told, to remind everyone that miscarriages of justice can happen,” said Herisse. Harris agreed, and said the case is about something else, too: “It is a story of survival.”

Questionable police tactics have led to a long list of troubling police encounters with young black men, including instances that have resulted in death: Sean Bell, Oscar Grant, Eric Garner and Michael Brown among them.

“It kind of blurs together and that’s just how it is living in America as a young man of color,” said Blackk, who grew up in and around Washington, D.C. “Multiple experiences day after day and it kind of becomes normal to you and that’s not OK.”

Jerome and Rodriguez said their mothers told them about this ugly chapter in city history, hoping their sons would learn to be respectful of police but also not be too pliant.

“It was just something that she thought was really important for me to know, part of my history and almost a cautionary tale — just how quickly things can go terribly, terribly wrong especially for a young man of color in this city,” Rodriguez said.

Jerome’s mother grew up near where the attack took place and as a girl of 12 or 13 wasn’t allowed to go to Central Park for two years. “That kind of probably stayed with her as she raised her kids,” he said. “She made sure that we were aware of stories like that because their case was one of millions of others that we’ve heard about.”

The case still echoes today in no small part to recent instances of exonerated, railroaded defendants and by who occupies the White House. “We’ve definitely made progress but there is so much more progress to be made,” said Blackk.

“We’re still living in a time where our president has tried to ban an entire religion from entering this country,” he added, referring to Trump’s attempt early in his presidency to ban foreigners from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.

To get into character, all five actors met their counterparts, who charmed the young men with their cheer despite the hardships they faced. Richardson cracked jokes. McCray was warm. Santana nicely offered specific details of his ordeal. Wise was youthful, as if stuck in amber.

“I mean, the man matches his hat to his shirts to his sneakers — still like the ’90s. He’s all about ’90s culture, ’90s hip-hop, as if he kind of was in a time machine and stayed there,” said Jerome.

Rodriguez still has a hard time wrapping his head around the fact that Santana was only 14 at the time of his arrest and maintained his innocence even as he faced police coercion.

“I did not know if I would be able to hold the weight of what he held at that age,” said Rodriguez. “I know for sure I would have broken under it. And he came out of it alive and functioning and happy now, which is absolutely unbelievable.”

The young actors seem changed by the experience of working on the project. All — from Blackk, who enjoyed his first professional acting role, to the experienced Jerome — said they wanted to find projects as meaningful down the road.

“I want to be a part of important stories and I want to be a part of the right stories and I want them to be told correctly and to be told with an inclusive mindset,” said Rodriguez, who is next off to work on the “Game of Thrones” prequel.

Jerome agreed: “This is all I want to do. I want to do projects that speak to people who don’t get to have a voice. I want to do projects that resonate with you after a long time.”

The post ‘When They See Us’ actors revisit Central Park Five case and their own troubling police encounters appeared first on theGrio.

from theGrio https://on.thegrio.com/2MeCalF
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The Radical Plan to Change How Antibiotics Get Developed

The traditional structure of the pharma business doesn't work for antibiotics. The answer might lie in removing profit from the equation.

from Wired http://bit.ly/2Waid3H
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The Military Is Locked in a Power Struggle With Wind Farms

A nationwide fight between wind developers and the military highlights the challenge of transitioning to a future of renewable energy.

from Wired http://bit.ly/2KbmPPR
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Angry Spirit Airlines passenger slaps employee in the face in viral video

An irate passenger, upset that a Spirit airlines employee tried to block his entrance onto a plane, hauled off and hit him in the face.

And it was all captured on video.

—Church shooter seeking revenge over Charleston massacre convicted of first-degree murder—

According to the clip taken by a fellow passenger boarding a flight to Denver Colorado over the weekend, the Spirit airline employee had words with a customer and warned him that he would not be boarding the flight.

“You’re not getting on the flight. You’re not getting on the flight”

The man responded, “Yes I am getting on the flight.”

That’s when the Spirit employee said, “Ok, we’ll see.”

As the customer inched toward getting his ticket validated to board the flight, that’s when the Spirit airline employees tried to stop the belligerent passenger from boarding and grabbed him. The customer then turned around and punched the employee smack dab in the face while yelling, “Get your hands off of me!”

At that point you could hear audible gasps from onlookers who were shocked at the confrontation.

@SpiritAirlines your worker has no customer service and I’m sad I didn’t get the first part on camera where the worker told everyone in line WHAT YALL DONT LISTEN smh side had some nerve thinking he was going to talk to people any type of way smh pic.twitter.com/cGjTUdaKP3

— Rissriss2x (@GUAPPESO) May 22, 2019

Twitter user @Guappeso took to Twitter painting the employee as the aggressor:

“@SpiritAirlines your worker has no customer service and I’m sad I didn’t get the first part on camera where the worker told everyone in line WHAT YALL DONT LISTEN smh side had some nerve thinking he was going to talk to people any type of way smh.”

While the airlines has yet to respond to the dustup between the employee and the passenger, this is not the first time it has dealt with angry passengers who take matters too far.

Earlier this year, a Florida man was sent to federal prison for two months after he threatened to blow up a Spirit Airlines flight and called a flight attendant a “n****r b***h” and a “slave.”

—Michigan city will introduce ordinance outlawing calling cops on people based on race—

The post Angry Spirit Airlines passenger slaps employee in the face in viral video appeared first on theGrio.

from theGrio https://on.thegrio.com/2K8Fv32
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Togo and Getafe defender Djene Dakonam relishes facing Messi

Togo and Getafe defender Djene Dakonam relishes facing the likes Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann in Spain's La Liga

from BBC News - Africa https://bbc.in/2HELYAQ
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Lawyer accuses Chris Brown of “disrespect” in rape case

The lawyer for a woman who filed a rape complaint in Paris against Chris Brown says the artist “has thumbed his nose at and shown disrespect for the French legal system” after he did not attend a formal confrontation with the alleged victim.

Brown was arrested in Paris in January then released from custody without charges pending further investigation of the woman’s allegations that he raped her at the French capital’s Mandarin Oriental Hotel. The Grammy winner called the accusations false.
American lawyer Gloria Allred said Brown’s “failure to appear today is very unfair to my client, but I assure him that my client will not be deterred from seeking justice.”
The woman’s French lawyer said Brown was not legally obliged to attend Tuesday’s confrontation.

The post Lawyer accuses Chris Brown of “disrespect” in rape case appeared first on theGrio.

from theGrio https://on.thegrio.com/2QtHu2R
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Texas lawmakers approve safe gun storage program despite NRA

Lawmakers in gun-loving Texas have quietly gone around the National Rifle Association by slipping language into a massive spending bill that would fund a $1 million public safety campaign on gun storage.

The last-minute move late Sunday sets up a political test rarely seen in Texas for Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who must decide whether to veto the spending or to ignore NRA opposition and approve the program.

An Abbott spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and the Texas Legislature adjourned Monday until 2021.

The campaign for safe home gun storage is a small item in the two-year, $250 billion state budget, and it was fiercely opposed by the NRA and gun-rights activists. The measure failed to get a vote and appeared all but dead weeks ago.

Then budget negotiators — the majority of whom are Republicans — added the funding into a budget bill. The legislation was approved Sunday night by the GOP-controlled Legislature.
“I have full confidence that the governor will look at it hard and will realize it’s all about saving lives. I hope there is no one discouraging him,” Gyl Switzer, executive director of Texas Gun Sense, said Monday.

Abbott has said he would support promoting gun safety. But he has also bowed to pressure from the NRA and gun rights advocates on issues such as stiffer penalties for negligent gun storage, as well as “red flag” laws to keep guns away from people deemed dangerous to themselves or others.

Creating a new safe storage campaign in Texas would be a rare defeat for the NRA, which has long flexed considerable muscle in a state with more than 1.3 million handgun license holders.

Texas lawmakers have steadily expanded gun rights over the last decade. That includes a Sunday night vote to allow anyone who can legally own a gun to carry it openly or concealed for a week after a natural disaster declaration.

The NRA and its state affiliate, the Texas State Rifle Association, have worked to beat back new restrictions on gun ownership, including after two recent high-profile mass shootings: one at a church in Sutherland Springs in November 2017 that killed more than two dozen people, including a pregnant woman, and a shooting at Santa Fe High School near Houston that killed 10 people and wounded 13 others in May 2018.

The proposal for a safe gun storage public service campaign came after the Santa Fe High School shooting. Police have said the then-17-year-old gunman took his father’s weapons from their home.

After the Santa Fe shooting, Abbott’s gun law proposals said he wanted to “to encourage the millions of law abiding, gun-owning Texans to embrace their personal responsibility for gun safety.”

Bills filed by Democrats to have the Texas state police agency create a safe storage campaign never made it to votes in the House or Senate. The NRA lobbied against them, arguing that gun rights groups and gun manufacturers have similar campaigns that are widely distributed to gun stores and shooting ranges. In one public hearing, an NRA lobbyist warned lawmakers that a campaign designed by the Texas state police could easily be corrupted by anti-gun rhetoric.

Abbott has line-item veto power in the budget, meaning he could strip out the safe storage campaign without scuttling the entire spending bill.

Alice Tripp, legislative director and lobbyist for the Texas State Rifle Association, said the group still opposes the program but isn’t in the business of asking for veto.

“We don’t do that. Gov. Abbott does not need that kind of advice from us. We bring information to the table,” Tripp said. “If he calls me, I would tell him that.”

Advocates for the safe-storage campaign say it’s needed far beyond efforts to stop mass shootings.

Nationwide, nearly 1,700 children under age 18 died from accidental gun deaths from 2001 to 2017, while more than 33,000 were injured, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A University of Texas study of pediatric shooting injuries or deaths over a 15-year period in Houston found that in most cases, there was no adult supervision at the time and most families had received no training on safe gun storage at home.

The post Texas lawmakers approve safe gun storage program despite NRA appeared first on theGrio.

from theGrio https://on.thegrio.com/2VS8Y3b
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10 Productivity Tips and Tricks From WIRED Staff

Our journalism machine works best when we hit our deadlines. Here are some of the WIRED ones' tips and tricks for optimizing their work/time ratio.

from Wired http://bit.ly/2VROZSs
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Drugs That Boost Our Circadian Rhythms Could Save Our Lives

Almost all of the cellular functions in your body run on a 24-hour schedule. Keep that clock regular, and you could stay healthier, and maybe even live longer.

from Wired http://bit.ly/2Md9g5q
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How to Manage Your Time: A Book List

You don’t have time to read all these books on how to carve out more time, so we did it for you.

from Wired http://bit.ly/2Wr7VMe
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US Sanctions on Huawei May Fuel China's Plan for Its Own Tech

China's government has to plan to wean itself from reliance on Western technology. Blacklisting Huawei will only accentuate that impulse.

from Wired http://bit.ly/2McAusF
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Productivity and the Joy of Doing Things the Hard Way

I like a good efficiency hack as well as anyone, but sometimes we should take the long way around.

from Wired http://bit.ly/2WvNOfH
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On Pooping in the Dark—No Lights, No Phones, No Distractions

A bowel movement, above all human projects, is the body’s way of making time for the mind to roam.

from Wired http://bit.ly/2McAsRz
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To Fight Deepfakes, Researchers Built a Smarter Camera

One way to tell if an image has been faked? Bake the tamper-proofing into the camera itself.

from Wired http://bit.ly/2WuACHY
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London teens sent to Africa to escape knife crime

Why British Somali parents are sending their children to East Africa to avoid violence in the UK.

from BBC News - Africa https://bbc.in/30PM3JQ
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Chioma Onwutalobi: 'We want to showcase amazing women'

Chioma Onwutalobi, CEO of Glam Africa magazine, says it's a great time to celebrate diversity.

from BBC News - Africa https://bbc.in/2MeQYAJ
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Former South Sudan FA President Chabur Goc Alei to appeal Fifa ban

The former South Sudan Football Association President Chabur Goc Alei will appeal a 10-year ban and fine imposed on him by Fifa.

from BBC News - Africa https://bbc.in/2MeDWmD
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Merging financial savvy and engineering solutions

MIT Sloan Fellow James Fok attributes his early interest in science and engineering to spending many of his childhood days in Hong Kong’s Kai Tak International Airport, where his father was a senior air traffic control supervisor.

“He took me to the control tower to see the flights, and I’ve always been fascinated by the question of why, I guess. I always asked my dad ‘Why this? Why that?’ and when I started going to high school, I always had a particular interest in physics and chemistry,” he recalls.

Fok also liked figuring out how things work, so after attending boarding school in the U.K., he went on to major in mechanical engineering at Imperial College. While there, he immersed himself in both basic research and the advent of startup culture.

That combination of engineering and business led Fok to conclude that a lack of financial savvy was impeding the availability of engineering solutions to the general public. “Even with a good idea, very often [scientists are] asking for silly money and no one’s ever going to fund it,” he says. “Just because you have a good idea doesn’t mean you’re going to make money. So I talk to money people, and they don’t know how innovations work, and I talk to scientists and engineers and they don’t know how money works, and it’s just frustrating.”

The realization that Fok could bridge this gap set him on a new path: to “bring engineering to the market by being the financier of it,” he says.

A global perspective

Fok became a citizen of the world at a young age, moving from Hong Kong to the U.K. countryside for boarding school. There, he learned English alongside other students from Turkey, Russia, and Japan. The move to London for college was a more high-spirited global education. “More than any other city in the world, London is so international. The cultural diversity, the ethnic diversity, everything is evident. Different pockets of London have different cultures, are populated by different groups of people,” he says.

After graduating from Imperial, Fok spent time as a certified public accountant at PricewaterhouseCoopers, an experience that exposed him to an even wider world perspective. So when he was offered an internal position in Bahrain, he didn’t think twice about moving to the Middle East.

“Lo and behold when I got there, it was a completely different experience,” Fok says. “Despite thinking that I had known almost every different culture that I could think of, being embedded in the Middle East, where religion is at the forefront, taught me a cultural sensitivity that I thought I had, but didn’t.” It was a lesson in making space in his mind for a new culture — a lesson that Fok has brought with him to MIT.

FinTech at MIT

Throughout his early career, Fok nurtured his interest in finance with positions in investment companies and startups — particularly those with a technological edge. Financial technology, or fintech, is a specific type of technology that reinvents the ways in which people interact with their finances. Fok believes this creates more freedom in the world, which is the type of solution he is driven to bring about.

“It’s not necessarily hard engineering problems, but very much with the ethos of solving problems to make life a bit better for people,” Fok says. “I see my role as not necessarily the person who does it but very much a part of the team that makes it happen. Given my interest in finances, I was always the person who would try and make the numbers add up. How do we make technology work?”

To Fok, there’s no better place than MIT to merge business with tech. So when he was deciding whether or not to take time out of his career, the Sloan Fellows program — a 12-month, accelerated MBA with a heavy emphasis on teamwork and leadership — made perfect sense.

Rather than asking himself if he could afford to do it, he realized he couldn’t afford not to keep up with rapidly advancing technologies. “New technology has come to the forefront that changed the world: machine learning. Love it or hate it, it’s going to change the world. It’s the same for cryptocurrency. So how often can you take the time to really dive into these topics even as a business person, even as a tech person?” Fok says.

Making the world a smaller place

He has immersed himself in MIT and Cambridge culture in his year at the Institute by living in the Sidney Pacific dormitory, participating on the MIT Driverless team, and spending time near the Charles River. He has also been involved in Sloan Pride and G@MIT, two of MIT’s LGBTQ+ organizations. The supportive environment he’s found at Sloan has allowed him to promote a shared agenda between LGBTQ+ people and allies to broaden diversity and inclusion. It’s a perspective that’s resonated within the Sloan Fellows program.

“To be an ally [means] if you see anything — it doesn’t matter if its anti-LGBT or racist comments — just if you hear it, whether it affects you or not, challenge it and be supportive,” Fok explains. “Whether you have friends in that situation or not, it doesn’t matter. Just be there. And I think that’s one thing that my fellows have been very supportive and proactive in, is just learning how to do that.”

In many ways, Fok feels the Sloan Fellows program is a microcosm of the world, with a rich diversity of cultures and perspectives — and that has made him feel at home. In his program alone, there are 111 Fellows from 40 different countries. The camaraderie among his cohort fosters an appreciation for differences in sexual orientation, race, and nationality. As a world citizen, living far from home, he counts these friends as family. Like he does in his travels, Fok cherishes the differences in perspectives he has gained from his diverse friend group.

“And certainly my friends see a different perspective because of me,” he says. “So I have always strived to see different cultures, and over the years I’ve tried to change from one place to another to try to learn different things. MIT is just the latest chapter of a very long journey.”

After MIT, Fok plans to follow the technologies that he thinks are changing the world, wherever they lead; he doesn’t feel committed to any particular city or country in his career. One reason for that freedom, he notes, is technology itself. In fact, he believes that FinTech helps make the world a smaller place — a place where he, and all of us, can connect internationally with ease.

“Technology has such an incredible way of linking and transforming every part of the globe,” he says.

from MIT News http://bit.ly/2JNRvHV
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The tablet computer pulled by donkey

Communities in Mozambique learn about health, banking and elections via giant interactive screens.

from BBC News - Africa https://bbc.in/2XaHebu
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In mostly white Iowa, Black Dems poised to play a 2020 role

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — In Iowa, one of the whitest states in the nation, more than 100 Black Democrats who expect to attend the 2020 caucuses crammed into a tiny community center in the capital city to position themselves as a force in the most wide-open presidential campaign in a generation.

“There is hope! There is hope, I tell you, the same hope that Barack Obama brought us,” Jamie Woods, former chairwoman of the Iowa Democratic Black Caucus, implored the cheering group last month.

In the state where Obama’s 2008 candidacy cleared its first important hurdle, Black Democrats are energized as seldom seen, in part motivated by overwhelming dissatisfaction with President Donald Trump. That enthusiasm could make a difference in a state that holds a presidential caucus, which, unlike an open primary, attracts only the most motivated voters. That means a candidate who can rally more Black voters in the caucuses can gain an outsized advantage, even though African Americans make up only two percent of Iowa’s population.

READ MORE: Most Democratic voters say race not a factor in 2020 campaign

Iowa’s caucus, coming next February as the first event in the Democratic Party’s presidential nominating contest, is an early test of how voters are going to respond to two dozen candidates and could be a harbinger of the primary a few weeks later in South Carolina, where African Americans comprise most of the Democratic primary electorate.

“They’re realizing that their voice needs to be heard,” said Deidre DeJear , the first African American to win a primary for statewide office in Iowa and now state chairwoman for Sen. Kamala Harris’ 2020 presidential campaign. “And they are using the platform they have whether they’re elected or whether just a regular voter.”

Stacey Walker, the first Black county board chairman in Iowa’s second-most-populous metro area, said she hasn’t seen this kind of energy among Black operatives, activists and officeholders in Iowa in years.

“Not since the Obama coalition have we seen so many persons of color actively engaged and inspired by our politics,” Walker said. “It hasn’t always been this way, and certainly not in Iowa.”

Giving an early indication of the energy within this small but influential segment of the caucus electorate, more than 200 black Democrats braved a driving ice storm in February to attend the Iowa Democratic Black Caucus winter fundraiser at a north Des Moines union hall.

READ MORE: Eyeing White House, Cory Booker introduces himself to Iowa

Candidates are looking to harness that energy. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a 2020 presidential candidate and former mayor of Newark, has convened city leaders, including Quentin Hart, the first Black mayor of Iowa’s most densely African American city, Waterloo. Booker met Saturday with Shane McCampbell, the first Black mayor of Burlington, along the Mississippi River in southeast Iowa.

Harris met privately with state Rep. Phyllis Thede, who is African American, before the four-term lawmaker moderated a campaign event for the California Democrat in eastern Iowa earlier this year.

In 2008, when Obama became the first African American to win the Iowa caucuses, 4% of caucus participants were Black, double the percentage of the state’s overall black population. Obama received 76% of the black vote on caucus night.

Non-Black candidates are working to attract influential Black supporters, who can help make the difference in a close race, especially given the crowded field.

Amy Klobuchar, for instance, last month hired Woods, the former Iowa Black Democratic Caucus chairwoman, as her caucus campaign’s Iowa political director, giving the Minnesota senator a key ally in the competition for black votes.

Entrepreneur Andrew Yang hired Al Womble, a black Des Moines-area businessman known for his behind-the-scenes organizing, as his Iowa campaign chairman.

Multiple Black candidates in the race and the outreach by others in the crowded field create a different scenario than in 2008, when Obama was the only Black candidate.

READ MORE: Black donors tell Democratic pols regarding super PACs: Put up or shut up

What’s more, most of the candidates put ending racial disparity in income and criminal justice atop their agendas.

“Even though we’re talking about racial disparity and white supremacy, and all this is bad, that this isn’t who we are. No one single candidate is leading the charge,” said Guy Nave, a Democrat from Decorah who is black and plans to attend the caucus.

Iowa Democrats are predicting turnout in the 2020 caucuses will beat the record 237,000 set in 2008, as Trump’s approval in Iowa has struggled to top 50 percent. Meanwhile, candidates themselves are working to attract first-time caucus participants to eke out any advantage in a field that now numbers 23.

That means even a narrow edge of support from African Americans, in combination with a coalition of other voters, could make the difference for the winner in Iowa next February, said former Iowa Democratic Party executive director Norm Sterzenbach.

“If you can find a candidate that has a stronghold in a particular demographic and is able to turn them out, that could turn into something extraordinary on caucus night,” said Sterzenbach, who is advising former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke’s presidential campaign.

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Drake trades petty jabs with Gucci mane over Raptors Eastern Conference title win

Drake’s very public love for the NBA Eastern Conference champions the Toronto Raptors is as real as Spike Lee’s is for the New York Knicks. But in his case, he’s taken it as far as initiating a playful rap beef.

The “In My Feelings” rapper still high that his team bested the Milwaukee Bucks for a slot to play in the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors, took a few shots at fellow rapper Gucci Mane further instigating the faux beef the two had going during the Eastern Conference Finals.

Drake tagged Gucci in a semi-creepy post with his face animated and looking happy as can be, celebrating his team’s win, evidenced by the Raptors’ 2019 NBA Finals hat he’s wearing. In other words, he was rubbing it in and getting petty with it.

Drake tagged Gucci in this post 💀 pic.twitter.com/GAiiNCRdNc

— sarahi🦋 (@spanishting_) May 26, 2019

Gucci is a Bucks fan and the two had been going back and forth during the Finals taking friendly jabs.

Actually, Drake’s been pretty playful on social media lately and recently went back and forth with his friend Carnage, who alleged that the rapper had a little plastic surgery to get his rock hard abs he showed off on social media.

—University of Wisconsin assistant basketball coach’s wife and daughter killed in head-on collision—

After the Raptors win, Drake thanked fans for riding with the team to victory.

“Look around you, look at this. We created this. This didn’t exist before we were here. Look around at the square. I promise you right now, we did this,” he said. “Doesn’t matter what anybody says.

“They can say it’s disrespectful, they can say it’s this and that; everybody’s within the rules, everybody’s doing their thing,” he continued. All we are is proud and passionate. We are like a college sports team. The Toronto Raptors are a college sports team, I promise you. I love Toronto, I love this team and we’re going to the NBA Finals.”

Gucci Mane was told to sit down by security. The Raptors beat the Bucks 3 games in a row. The Bench is alive. Drake does what he wants. Kawhi is a Raptor.

It’s a glorious time to be a Raptors fan.

— Sandro Rubin (@Insider6ix) May 24, 2019

The Raptors won the Eastern Conference title, Saturday night beating the Bucks 100-94 and will face off against the Warriors in Game 1 May 30.

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Church shooter seeking revenge over Charleston massacre convicted of first-degree murder

A man accused of a fatal church shooting near Nashville was found guilty of first-degree murder, a 12-panel jury determined Friday, The Tennessean reports.

Emanuel Kidega Samson was reportedly seeking revenge for the massacre at Mother Emanuel A.M.E., when he opened fire at the Burnette Chapel Church of Christ during a September 2017 Sunday service, killing Melanie Crow and injuring seven others.

READ MORE: Church shooter planned to kill 10 white congregants in vengeance for Charleston

Samson intended to killed at least 10 white churchgoers as payback for the nine lives taken by white supremacist Dylann Roof at Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church in 2015. Samson was so enraged by Roof’s act that he conceived a plot to take his frustration out on his own former church.

The claim was substantiated by a note found on Samson’s car that referenced Roof and the Charleston church.

The jury came to a unanimous decision after less than five hours of deliberation. According to the outlet, Samson was also found guilty of 42 other charges, from attempted murder for injuring seven other church members, three counts of civil rights intimidation to 24 counts of aggravated assault.

Despite the revenge plot’s scope, the single casualty that day was Crow, a 38-year-old wife and mother of two, while seven others were wounded, the Tennesseean reported.

Samson was reportedly mum as the verdict was read aloud.

READ MORE: Louisiana church fire mystery has not yet turned up any leads or suspects, officials say

The courthouse was filled with members of the Burnette Chapel church who were seen attending the trial through the course of the four days. While they remained quiet in court, they burst into an array of emotions once outside the courtroom.

“When you come out that courtroom door, it bursts loose,” said Burnette Chapel minister Joey Spann, who was shot with a bullet that remains lodged in his chest. “We felt like justice has happened.”

Sheila Crow, Melanie’s mom also attended to see justice served against Samson.

A sentencing still has to be determined and is expected to be rendered next week. Prosecutors are seeking a maximum life sentence without the possibility of parole, according to Nashville station WSMV.

READ MORE: Charleston unveils memorial plans for victims of church massacre

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Michigan city will introduce ordinance outlawing calling cops on people based on race

Grand Rapids, Mich., may be one of the first cities in the country to implement an ordinance that would criminalize calling the cops on Black people for mundane reasons.

Last year a bevy of #LivingWhileBlack cases occurred and brought to light headline-making episodes that caught whites calling the cops on Black people for trivial things like sitting in a Starbucks and for choosing to barbecue in a park – two cases that caught national attention for its absurdity, The Los Angeles Times reports.

READ MORE: Baltimore police union leader infers city youths are ‘criminals’ in viral tweet

While those two well known cases took place in Philadelphia and Oakland Calif., another lesser known case happened in Grand Rapids when police were called to answer a noise complaint because a group of Black people were celebrating a graduation in a public park last June. In that situation, white people reportedly felt uncomfortable with the Black attendees.

Then there was the case of two 11-year-old twin brothers who were handcuffed in western Michigan who were arrested after a call came in charging that a teen was roaming around with a gun last September.

The city is working to address the unnecessary assault on Black people by tackling the problem at its root dealing with the plethora of illegal calls targeting a specific racial group. According to the Times, the proposed ordinance would make it a “criminal misdemeanor to racially profile people of color for participating in their lives.” People who violate the ordinance by making a bogus 911 on Blacks would face a $500 fine.

“A policy like this makes it so people have to think about whether their decision to call 911 is grounded in something significant,” said Senita Lenear, the first Black Grand Rapids city commissioner.

READ MORE: Cops handcuff 11-year-old girl at gunpoint as she walks out of her home

“Our resources can’t be wasted on police addressing nonissues. You can’t ignore that people of color are the ones who have been victimized…. That is a part of a pattern.”

Similar ordinances have been introduced in Oregon and New York and more are being proposed in other cities.

Last year, Janelle Bynum, a Black state representative running for re-election for her seat in Clackamas County, Ore., decided she would hit the campaign trail and canvass door-to-door to meet her constituents.

But residents called the police on her in her own district. Bynum, now the state’s only Black legislator, is behind a bill that would allow give victims of fake 911 calls the opportunity to file for up to $250 against their accuser in court.

“I thought my incident was isolated and odd, but as time went on I realized, no, it’s not,” said Bynum, a Democrat. “My goal has always been to spark a conversation on issues, especially in Oregon where people don’t have a great understanding of civil rights history.”

READ MORE: Wild 911 call from BBQ Becky released and it’s bananas

While it is already illegal for people to make phony 911 calls, the proposal in Grand Rapids gives more public empowerment.

“Police can charge a person for filing a false report, but this puts more power in the hands of the person who has police called on them,” said Jeremy DeRoo, executive director of the Grand Rapids community development nonprofit Linc Up.

The city is seeking more input from community members before it goes up for a vote.

“There are too many people calling police on people in the community who are just going about their business, like they did with my sons,” said Juanita Ligon, whose twin sons were the victims of a false call reporting they had a gun resulting in their arrest.

“My only concern is that police would use the ordinance to blame any wrong things they do to the community on the people who make the 911 calls.”

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Kanye celebrates fifth wedding anniversary with surprise date night for Kim at Céline Dion concert

Kim Kardashian West and Kanye West celebrated their fifth wedding anniversary with Celine Dion on Saturday in Las Vegas.

West surprised his wife with a date night to watch Dion perform at her show at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace. After the show, the power couple had a private meeting with the music legend backstage.

Kardashian shared several videos from the concert on her social media pages as well as photos of her and Ye with the Canadian songstress.

READ MORE: Kanye West, daughter North pay tribute to his mom during Mother’s Day Sunday Service

“He surprised me with a date in Vegas with @celinedion,” Kardashian wrote on her Instagram Story.

“Kim and Kanye had a lot of fun during their quick trip to Las Vegas,” an unnamed source told E! News. “They had planned a date night and Kanye thought this would be a fun way to spend the evening and surprise Kim.

The source noted that the Wests “appeared to be visibly moved by Céline’s powerful voice, often turning toward each other in awe during moments of the show.”

West and Kardashian tied the knot in a televised wedding event in 2014, in Florence, Italy. They celebrated five years of marriage this past Friday, two weeks after they welcomed their fourth child, son Psalm, via surrogate. The couple also share daughter North, son Saint and daughter Chicago.

READ MORE: Kanye West says after son Psalm’s birth, he wants to preach the Gospel

Kim met Dion in 2011 and noted in a 2016 Billboard interview that she was her “favorite” singer.

“Kim and Kanye were brought backstage during the show to greet Céline as soon as she finished,” the source said of KimYe’s date night with Dion. “Kim and Kanye both thanked Céline for an incredible performance. Céline was very happy to have them there.”

Dion’s Las Vegas residency wraps June 8 after eight years. In September, she will kick off a tour of the United States and Canada.

READ MORE: Kanye bumps NYFW to be super dad at North’s Daddy Daughter Dance

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Malawi election: President Mutharika re-elected after court battle

President Mutharika secures a second term, after a court-ordered delay to the result's announcement.

from BBC News - Africa https://bbc.in/2QsTn9t
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New Gillette ad shows dad giving transgender son a lesson on shaving

A new Gillette ad is apparently breaking barriers by showing a man giving his transgender son his first lesson on how to shave.

Last Thursday the Facebook ad was unveiled featuring Samson Bonkeabantu Brown, a Toronto-based artist, who is engaged in a pivotal moment shaving his face while his father walks him through the new practice, The Boston Herald reports.

READ MORE: Wendy Williams says she’s reclaiming her life, dating and the “parade of men” will continue

“Now, don’t be scared,” the father says in the video. “Shaving is about being confident.”

“Growing up, I was always trying to figure out what kind of man I wanted to become and I’m still trying to figure out what kind of man that I want to become,” Brown said.

Brown also spoke candidly about his experience transitioning, saying in the video:

“I’m at the point in my manhood where I’m actually happy. It’s not just myself transitioning, it’s everybody around me transitioning.”

The global shaving brand released the advert with the caption:

“Whenever, wherever, however it happens – your first shave is special.”

“I look forward to the great things you’re going to continue doing to encourage us all to be our best selves,” Brown said in the comments.

READ MORE: Here’s why Sterling K. Brown is on a mission to support cancer survivors

“Thank you for sharing your story, Samson!” Gillette responded. “We’re honored to showcase this special moment between you and your father and are proud to have you as a partner.”

Organizations like PFLAG National, an advocacy organization for parents of LGBTQ people, praised the ad.

Oh wow, ⁦@Gillette⁩, we are having all the feels here. As the first and largest organization for parents of #LGBTQ people we thank you for seeing our #trans kids…and for honoring their affirming #dads! https://t.co/BYuOwLhEBf

— PFLAG National (@PFLAG) May 25, 2019

According to The Herald a survey conducted after the ad showed 71 percent of consumers who saw the ad received it well. The company released an ad focusing on toxic masculinity which became controversial several months ago.

 

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10 Top Personal Finance Books by Black Authors

If you are on an economic empowerment journey to financial freedom and love a good read, there are thousands of personal finance books that provide useful strategies. However, it is important to read books written by experts who understand our uniqueness and challenges as African Americans. In the midst of the well-known personal finance books, here are the top 10 personal finance books by black authors you should add to your reading list and library.

10 Top Personal Finance Books by Black Authors

“The 21-Day Financial Fast” by Michelle Singletary

Fasting is good for the soul and body, but who knew it was also good for financial health as well. Michelle Singletary, award-winning columnist for The Washington Post, gives a tested financial challenge in her book “The 21-Day Financial Fast.”

For twenty-one days, readers eliminate excessive spending habits, stop using credit cards, and only buy the bare necessities. Singletary gives guidance for the three-week challenge, as well as practical ways to achieve financial freedom, financial peace, and prosperity.

Regardless of your income level, this book is a great tool to help you make better financial choices.

Get the book:

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“Perfect Credit: 7 Steps to a Great Credit Rating” by Lynnette Khalfani-Cox

Having poor or no credit will inhibit the ability to obtain loans and credit cards or make interest on credit extremely high if approved. If you need or are ready to improve your credit, Lynnette Khalfani-Cox teaches simple steps to take in her book “Perfect Credit: 7 Steps to a Great Credit Rating 2nd Edition.”

“Around 220 million Americans have their credit information maintained and shared through three major credit reporting companies: Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion.” states Khalfani-Cox. So what information is being reported about you, and how does it affect you financially?

Khalfani-Cox provides an easy-to-follow blueprint on how to get excellent credit, as well as how to sidestep many credit traps and pitfalls along the way.

Get the book: 

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“Live Richer Challenge: Learn how to budget, save, get out of debt, improve your credit and invest in 36 days” by Tiffany Aliche – The Budgetnista

Are you ready to live richer, but your finances are a mess? Tiffany Alice, known as The Budgetnista, teaches how to make the shift from messy money to financial freedom in her book “Live Richer Challenge: Learn how to budget, save, get out of debt, improve your credit and invest in 36 days.”

Through simple daily financial tasks, readers learn about money mindsets, budgeting, saving, debt versus credit, insurance, and investing.

Even if you don’t have a budget, a savings account, or investments, Aliche’s five-week challenge is ideal for beginners that want to achieve financial success.

Get the book: 

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“The Money Manual: A Practical Money Guide to Help You Succeed on Your Financial Journey” by Tonya Rapley – My Fab Finance

Who said you needed degrees or certifications to master money management? Tonya Rapley, known as My Fab Finance, proves that all we need is the right information to empower us to take action in her book “The Money Manual: A Practical Money Guide to Help You Succeed on Your Financial Journey.”

Many people feel anxious and overwhelmed when thinking about money management. Rapley addresses these emotional challenges and gives the readers the skills and knowledge they need to improve their financial situation within six months.

If you are looking for the best way to tackle financial basics such as budgeting, saving, improving or building credit, and eliminating debt, this book will help you move from financially insecure to secure.

Get the book: 

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“Real Money Answers for Every Woman: How to Win the Money Game With or Without a Man” by Patrice C. Washington – Money Maven

Whether you are single or married, if you are ready to get out of debt, rebuild your credit and fulfill your financial dreams, Patrice C. Washington, known as the Money Maven, gives practical strategies in her book “Real Money Answers for Every Woman: How to Win the Money Game With or Without a Man.”

Women face unique challenges when it comes to finances not just because of poor spending habits, but because women make less than men, contribute more to care-giving of children and aging parent, live longer and most live in a single income household because they choose to stay single.

Washington uses a Q & A format to provide relatable and easy to understand and implement advice from everything from managing credit cards, home ownership, student loans, affordable childcare, and even negotiating a higher salary.

Get the book:

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“#MoneyChat THE BOOK: How to Get Out of Debt, Successfully Manage Your Money and Create Financial Security” by Dorethia Conner-Kelly

Have you ever read a financial book and nothing changed in your financial life? That is because the application of principles learned is essential for success. Financial coach Dorethia Conner-Kelly’s provides how-to strategies to fill the gap between the financial information and application in her book “#MoneyChat THE BOOK: How to Get Out of Debt, Successfully Manage Your Money and Create Financial Security.”

Conner-Kelly shares simple strategies with a sense of humor to explain complex financial concepts in easy to understand language.

If you are wondering about the best place to put your savings, how to come up to extra money when you need it without going to a payday lender, or how to save towards college in under ten years, this book is the missing link to help you change your #MoneyChat.

Get the book: 

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“The Frugal Feminista: Unmasking The Strong Black Woman” by Kara Stevens

Feeling the pain of the superwoman syndrome? Sometimes, it is best to take off the cape, put your oxygen mask on first, and practice self-care. Kara Stevens, known as “The Frugal Feminista,” share the importance of self-care to improve your finances in her self-titled book “The Frugal Feminista: Unmasking The Strong Black Woman.”

Many women are exhausted from being the woman that everyone expects them to be, and it is negatively affecting their finances. Stevens shares secrets of financial and emotional self-care that every woman needs to live in her greatness.

If you are sick and tired of playing small and ready to claim a deliciously prosperous life you deserve, this book gives down-to-earth money and life advice.

Get the book: 

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“4 Financial Languages: The Secrets to Communicating About Money” by Tarra Jackson – Madam Money

Are you sick and tired of arguing about money with your partner? There is a logical reason why savers and spenders argue about money, and it is not what you think. I explain this as well as the solution in my latest book, “4 Financial Languages: The Secrets to Communicating About Money.”

Financial fights are the leading cause of divorce. The reason most money misunderstandings occur with couples is that they are speaking in different financial languages. I use relatable stories and conversation examples to teach the four dominant financial languages: Saving, Spending, Investing and Giving. I also teach how to communicate in the different financial language for a fun, sexier, and healthier financial relationship with your partner.

If you never want to argue about money again, this book will teach you how to go from having budget battles to enjoying fun cash conversations about your financial dreams together.

Get the book:

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“The Wake Up Call: Financial Inspiration Learned from 4:44” by Ash Exantus – Ash Cash

Jay-Z’s 4:44 imparted several financial lessons that were undeniable. Ash Exantus, known as Ash Cash, brilliantly extracts these financial lessons in his book “The Wake Up Call: Financial Inspiration Learned from 4:44 + A Step by Step Guide on How to Implement Each Financial Principle.”

Exantus teaches African Americans how to manage money more effectively and how to build generational wealth. Cooperative economics and how to start a business, creating multiple streams of income, and how to pass down wealth to the next generation are just a few lessons taught.

If you love hip hop and ready to move the next level with your money, this book will help you decipher all of the financial concepts you need to build generational wealth.

Get the book: 

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“The Wealth Choice: Success Secrets of Black Millionaires” by Dennis Kimbro

The Black community has faced and is still facing difficult financial times. “The weight of the continuing housing and credit crisis disproportionately impacts the African-American community.” explains Dr. Dennis Kimbro.  To help break this cash crisis cycle, Dr. Kimbro shares the secrets of the financial success of 1,000 of the wealthiest African Americans in his book “The Wealth Choice: Success Secrets of Black Millionaires.”

Kimbro uses these inspiriting stories of men and women at every stage of life and in every industry to introduce the strategies that millionaires practice.

If you are ready to invest in your personal development growth to achieve your financial goals, this book will teach you what it takes.

Get the book: 

[RELATED: 7 BLACK MILLENNIAL FINANCIAL EXPERTS TO FOLLOW ON INSTAGRAM IN 2019]

[RELATED: ‘Your Money, Your Life’ podcast with Alfred Edmond, Jr.] 

Please note: Black Enterprise makes a small commission when you purchase one of these products via the embedded Amazon links. 

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Black Enterprise Contributors Network 

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The Crips, now making business moves, file to trademark Nipsey Hussle’s slogan

Factions of L.A.’s Crips, which have turned from gang life to business life and organized to form a limited liability company, are now moving to continue the legacy of Nipsey Hussle with the filing of a trademark of his business slogan.

Hussle ran The Marathon clothing store in South L.A., where he was tragically gunned down March 31. He also was affiliated with the Rollin’ 60s set of the gang and now their holding company, Crips LLC, has filed paperwork to form “The Marathon Continues,” under the catchphrase Hussle used for his business, which reportedly will serve as a youth sports program in honor of the slain rapper.

READ MORE: Nipsey Hussle’s daughter to remain with sister of slain rapper, judge rules

According to documents obtained by The Blast, the trademark request was filed on May 16 with its intent to be used in a mixture of services, including “arranging and conducting youth sports programs.”

No word on if Hussle’s family is on board with the program but there is a period during the trademark process for anyone to challenge the trademark. Hussle never filed for a trademark of his business slogan which also was the name of his sixth album mixtape.

The newly formed organization would also focus on “Developing educational manuals for others in the field of community organizing, gang prevention” and “gang intervention.”

Hussle was in the middle of arranging a meeting with law enforcement officers a day before he died in an effort to discuss methods on how to prevent and keep youth from being affiliated with gangs.

READ MORE: Nipsey Hussle’s partner says that Las Vegas resort was in the works

The application also notes that entertainment services will include celebrities, comedians, rappers and “community organizers” from both the Crips and the rival gang the Bloods, the outlet reports.

It seems there is a documentary also in the works too. Per an attachment in the application, it states that “The Marathon Continues,” doc is planned for summer 2019 and will be released on “all streaming platforms.”

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3Q: Yet-Ming Chiang on reopening the case of cold fusion

Researchers at MIT have collaborated with a team of scientists from the University of British Columbia, the University of Maryland, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Google to conduct a multiyear investigation into cold fusion, a type of benign nuclear reaction hypothesized to occur in benchtop apparatus at room temperature.

In 1989, benchtop experiments were reported that raised hopes that cold fusion had been achieved. If true, this form of fusion could potentially be a source of limitless, carbon-free energy. However, researchers were unable to reproduce the results, and serious questions arose about the validity of the work. The topic laid largely dormant for 30 years. (In contrast, research in “hot” fusion has persisted, including the SPARC collaboration between MIT and Commonwealth Fusion Systems, which aims to commercialize fusion technology.)

Yet-Ming Chiang, the Kyocera Professor in MIT’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering, is part of the Google-sponsored team now revisiting the possibility of cold fusion through scientifically rigorous, peer-reviewed research. A progress report published today in Nature publicly describes the group’s collaboration for the first time.

The group, which included about 30 graduate students, postdocs, and staff scientists from across the collaborating institutions, has not yet found any evidence of the phenomenon, but they did find important new insights into metal-hydrogen interactions that could affect low-energy nuclear reactions. The team remains excited about investigating this area and hopes their ongoing journey will inspire others in the scientific community to contribute data to this intriguing field.

Q: How did you get involved with a project that many would not consider?

A: Matt Trevithick SB ’92, SM ’94, senior program manager at Google Research, approached me in spring of 2015 and he did so pretty gingerly, kind of poking around the edges at first, and then he popped the question, “What do you think of cold fusion?” And my answer to him was that I didn’t have an opinion one way or the other on the scientific merits, because in 1989, when the cold fusion story broke, I was working all-out on high-temperature superconductivity, which had broken in 1986-87. We were furiously doing research in my lab on that topic, and also had started a company with MIT collaborators. So the cold fusion story came and went, and I was peripherally aware of it.

Then Matt asked if this was something I might be interested in. Google recruited the collaborators on this team not by telling us what they wanted done, but by asking us what we would find interesting to do. We wrote proposals that were internally reviewed. What was interesting to me is the idea that electrochemistry, and especially solid-state electrochemistry, is a very powerful driving force that can create unusual states of matter. We’ve applied that idea to high energy batteries and electrochemical actuators previously, and this was another field in which electrochemical manipulation of matter could be interesting.

This project was carried out in stealth. We didn’t want the fact that Google was funding research in this area to become a distraction. For the first couple of years, we didn’t even tell other members of our group the real reason behind the hydrogen storage experiments going on in the lab! 

Ariel Jackson, a postdoc, had a major role in developing the original proposal. Later on, Daniel Rettenwander and Jesse Benck joined as postdocs, and David Young SB ’12, SM ’18 joined as a graduate student. Together, we pursued the idea of using different types of electrolytes, liquid, polymer, and ceramic, as the medium by which to electrochemically pump hydrogen into palladium metal in order to achieve as highly loaded a state as possible. We also developed techniques to measure loading dynamically more precisely and more accurately than had been done before. To date we’ve been able to reach a H:Pd ratio of 0.96, where the theoretical maximum is 1, measured to an uncertainty of + or – 0.02. These results have just been published in Chemistry of Materials, and one measure of the care we went to in this work is the fact that the supplemental information section of the paper is 50 pages long.

Q: What have you learned, and why did the group choose to publish now? 

A: The Nature publication makes clear that to date we have not discovered compelling evidence for cold fusion. Our objective was to be scrupulously objective, and I think we have managed to avoid any form of “confirmation bias.” However, we’ve also learned that the high deuterium concentrations hypothesized to be necessary for cold fusion to occur are much more difficult to attain than we would have expected. And, there have been a number of other discoveries that have come about as a result of the group’s work that are applicable in other scientific areas.

Google’s intent from the beginning was to fund a multi-institutional collaborative effort that would work quietly but intensively, then publish its findings in peer-reviewed journals. Now is the right time to disclose that this project exists, to tell people what we have found and not found. We are not finished – in many ways this is just the beginning – and we want others to join the effort to look into the materials science, electrochemistry, and physics surrounding this topic.

Q: What’s next at MIT?

A: The project at MIT goes on, and we are looking to add to the team. What we’ve learned over the past three years has suggested new ways to use electrochemistry and materials science to create highly loaded metal hydrides: palladium for sure, but also other metals. We believe that we have found certain knobs that could allow us to create phase states that have not been accessible before. If we can controllably produce these, they will be very interesting target materials for other experiments within the broader program looking at, for example, neutron yields from deuterium-deuterium fusion in a plasma discharge device at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. 

from MIT News http://bit.ly/2QpcOQr
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