Saturday, May 23, 2009

Congrats Ursula!


As I browse my favorite blogs this am, absence is the congratulatory responses that I expect to see from the so called black woman empowerment sites, I read the usually complaints about the fool uncle tom Michael Steele, Strip Club prowling for eligible men, and other frivolous nonsense.

Mrs. Burns currently serves as president of Xerox Corporation, named to the position in March 2007. She previously served as president of the company's Business Group Operations and as a corporate senior vice president. On May 21, 2009, it was announced she will succeed Anne M. Mulcahy as CEO starting July 1, making Xerox the largest company headed up by an African American woman.

Burns joined Xerox in 1980 as a mechanical engineering summer intern. She subsequently held several positions in engineering, including product development and planning. In June 1991 she became the executive assistant to Paul A. Allaire, then Xerox chairman and chief executive officer.

From 1992 through 2000, Burns led several business teams, including the office color and fax business, office network copying business and the departmental business unit. In May 2000, she was named senior vice president, Corporate Strategic Services, and most recently, president of the Document Systems and Solutions Group.

Burns received a bachelor of science degree from Polytechnic Institute of New York in 1980 and a master of science degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University in 1981. She serves on professional and community boards, including American Express, Boston Scientific, FIRST, National Association of Manufacturers, University of Rochester, the MIT Corporation, the Rochester Business Alliance and the RUMP Group.

So I just wanted to congratulate a sister from humble means, child of a single mother in New York City, and graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology, that started a internship at Xerox over 25 years ago, to become the first African American Women to head a fortune 500 corporation.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Water Water Water!


(Mos Def Said:)
There's nothing more refreshing (that cool refreshing drink)
Than a cool, crisp, clean glass of water
On a warm summer's day (That cool refreshing drink)
Try it with your friends

New World Water make the tide rise high
Come inland and make your house go "Bye" (My house!)
Fools done upset the Old Man River
Made him carry slave ships and fed him dead nigga
Now his belly full and he about to flood somethin
So I'ma throw a rope that ain't tied to nothin
Tell your crew use the H2 in wise amounts since
it's the New World Water; and every drop counts
You can laugh and take it as a joke if you wanna
But it don't rain for four weeks some summers
And it's about to get real wild in the half
You be buying Evian just to take a fuckin bath
Heads is acting wild, sippin poor, puffin dank
Competin with the next man for higher playin rank
See I ain't got time try to be Big Hank,
Fuck a bank; I need a twenty-year water tank
Cause while these knuckleheads is out here sweatin they goods
The sun is sitting in the treetops burnin the woods
And as the flames from the blaze get higher and higher
They say, "Don't drink the water! We need it for the fire!"
New York is drinkin it (New World Water)
Now all of California is drinkin it (New World Water)
Way up north and down south is drinkin it (New World Water)
Used to have minerals and zinc in it (New World Water)
Now they say it got lead and stink in it (New World Water)
Fluorocarbons and monoxide
Push the water table lopside
Used to be free now it cost you a fee


A young man asked me one afternoon while riding commuter rail, with the current financial crisiss what would be a prudent investment...I said, Water! Even Oil tycoon corporate raider Boone T Pickens has switched gears and is investing in wind and water, why?

A quick spin spin through recent headlines reveals just how badly and soon we're going to desperately need new supplies of freshwater: Over the past 18 months in the United States alone, the governor of Georgia declared a state of emergency due to water shortages; salmonella contaminated municipal water in Colorado, Las Vegas Nevada will experience shortages from depleted levels in Lake Mead due area overgrowth; and eight other states ratified the Great Lakes Basin Compact, an agreement designed to ensure that the Great Lakes water, nearly 20 percent of the worlds freshwater, won't be shipped beyond those basins not even to nearby Minneapolis or Pittsburgh.

No this not something of Science Fiction or recent James Bond Film. Worldwide, the picture is far bleaker. Global water consumption has roughly doubled since World War II. Over 1.1 billion people still don't have access to a clean, reliable supply.

Several multinationals stand to profit and control the worlds drinking supply. GE Water, Coca Cola, Halliburton are a few, In 2005 GE Water, acquired Ionics and three other market-leading water services companies. GE Water is a 2bn business unit, employing 78,000 people in 43 countries. And the company has aims for $5bn in water revenue in the next five years. The question is what impact will this have on our economic, and geopolitical future, and what detrimental impact on environment of future generations.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Latest King Sibling Feud!



By Christopher Quinn
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

ATLANTA - Zealous guardians of his words and his likeness, the family of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is demanding a share of the proceeds from the sudden wave of T-shirts, posters and other merchandise depicting the civil rights leader alongside Barack Obama.

Isaac Newton Farris Jr., King's nephew and head of the nonprofit King Center in Atlanta, said the estate is entitled to hundreds of thousands of dollars in licensing fees — maybe even millions.

But while Obama's election as the first black president may be the fulfillment of King's dream and could yield a big windfall for his estate, policing his image and actually collecting any fees could prove to be a legal nightmare because of the great proliferation of unauthorized King-Obama paraphernalia, much of it sold by street vendors.

Now the Kings are fighting the sale of movie rights to Spielberg Film works. The latest controversory sparks new battle among King siblings and DreamWorks Studios’ announcement Tuesday that it plans a big-screen epic on the life of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. quickly sparked a new battle among his three feuding children.

Dexter King, who lives in California, negotiated the sale of rights by the King estate for what he hopes will be “the definitive film” on his father’s life and legacy, he said in a news release.

But his brother and sister, Atlantans Martin Luther King III and Bernice King, said they only learned of the deal in an e-mail from him Tuesday as Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks Studios announced the project.

They don’t consider the deal valid and plan to fight it, Bernice King said in an interview later Tuesday.

“We are taking action. We cannot reveal what it is at this time,” she said.

“Dexter King has entered into an agreement without approval of his shareholders,” she said. “It’s about Dexter King and the empire he is trying to build with Madison Jones.”

Jones, a longtime associate of Dexter King’s, and former Motown Records executive and film producer Suzanne de Passe worked on the deal with DreamWorks and heavyweight filmmaker Spielberg, according to de Passe. Spielberg, Jones and de Passe would be co-producers. De Passe, in a phone interview, declined to say how much the deal is worth.

Dexter King, 48, who could not be reached Tuesday, is the chief executive of the King estate. Martin Luther King III, 51, and Bernice King, 46, have been contending legally with him for months over its control and other issues.

De Passe said she was aware of ongoing legal fights among the King siblings.

“But that has no real bearing on [the film],” de Passe said, a comment echoed by a DreamWorks spokeswoman.

Production years off

Spielberg said in a DreamWorks news release that he hoped to bring a movie “of undeniable power that we can all be proud of” to the screen.

De Passe said the next step will be hiring screenwriters, and that production could be two years away.

The King siblings have gone to court in Georgia over control of the corporation that controls their parents’ legacy. That case revolves around papers of their mother, Coretta Scott King, that Dexter King is trying to use for a biography and that Martin and Bernice King are trying to block.

Martin and Bernice King were also angered by a deal cut by Dexter King and a record company for recordings of their father.

Young supports film

Andrew Young, the former Atlanta mayor, diplomat and lieutenant of Martin Luther King Jr., said a movie by Spielberg —- maker of “Schindler’s List” and “Saving Private Ryan,” among other films —- might be the best way to tell the slain civil rights leader’s story.

“We’ve had few documentaries but we’ve never had a film that has the budget and the cinematography and the spirit that is capable of telling the King story,” Young said.

“His work was dream works and we all grew up on his dream.”

Young also said such a film has been Dexter King’s longtime goal.

“Dexter has been single-minded in his pursuit of this effort. … What he has been looking for is a major motion picture production.”

He said he thought Martin and Bernice King had accepted that Dexter King is in control of at least this aspect of their father’s legacy.

“They have gotten a bad rap but they have given a bad rap to each other,” he said of the three children.

“I think Dexter is a loner. He would have been a hero if he had … continued the legacy by feeding the hungry or if he had gone into politics. But he has always thought he had the responsibility of communicating his father’s and mother’s legacy globally. I think the other two didn’t feel that way, and I could see both sides.”

“They are all accomplished in their own way but none of them are their father and we can’t expect them to be their father.”

Young said the film will have a hard time pleasing everyone.

“The problem is that nobody will like the movie in the movement,” Young said. “I don’t know who they can get to play Martin Luther King.”

Staff writer Steve Visser contributed to this article.

Remembering Malcolm X


Thank you Melissa Harris-Lacewell for keeping Malcolm's spirit and memory on our minds, I totally slip on this one yesterday.http://princetonprofs.blogspot.com/2009/05/happy-birthday-malcolm.html

Tuesday, May 19, 2009

The Pendulum Swings Back!

Al Roker host the reunion of Cosby Show cast members celebrate its impact on television, and perception of Middle Class Black Americans, noticeably absence was Lisa Bonet.

Friday, May 8, 2009

Star Trek Reboot!


Saw the latest incarnation in the Star Trek franchise, this latest film is not your fathers Star Trek, and die hard purist, Trekkers and Trekkie's alike will probably not be pleased. **Spoilers Beware* *If you want to tamper with canonical use time travel as a plot point in your prose, this appears to be a favorite vehicle of choice for Abrams to tie up loose ends.

The 2009 “Star Trek” film goes back eagerly to where “Star Trek” began, using time travel to explain a cast of mostly the same characters, only at a younger point in their lives, sailing the Starship Enterprise. As a story idea, this is sort of brilliant and saves on invention, because young Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Scotty and the rest channel their later selves. The child is father to the man, or the Vulcan, and all that.

Even with this criticism the new "Star Trek" is pure movie making excitement, "Star Trek" is the best kind of summer movie: smart, sleek, spectacular excitement. Fast pace from beginning to end!

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Jazz in the Diamond District

When Jasmine "Jazz" Morgan (Monique Cameron) loses her mother to lung cancer, she can only focus on one thing—pursuing her dream of becoming a singer. Ignoring the wishes of her father (Clifton Powell), a strict doctor who prefers that she return to college, Jazz spends the summer entrenched in the hyper-sexualized, drug-influenced Washington, D.C. music scene, dragging along her naïve younger sister (Erica Chamblee). One night after an impromptu audition, Jazz is invited to join a local Go-go band (music by Likeblood, Uncalled 4 Experience) that is managed by a laid-back barber (Wood Harris) and supported with drug money provided by the lead MC (Andre' Strong). With ease, she falls in line with the band and in love with the stage and together they reach new heights of popularity. But just as quickly as her success builds so does the pressure and Jazz recklessly tries to maintain control. Directed and co-written by Lindsey Christian.
http://www.jazzinthediamonddistrict.com/film_thestory.html

United States First Black Female Supreme Court Judge

Leah Ward Sears the current chief justice of Georgia's State Supreme Court, Sears could be the first black female justice. Sears will be the second Black Female attorney from Georgia considered for a presidential appointment. Teresa Wynn Roseborough,a former Deputy Assistant Attorney General during the Clinton administration and previously attorney with Sutherland Asbill Brennan in Atlanta.

Wishful Thinking!