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CNNMoney

Median net worth of grads under 40 with student debt is only $8700 Los Angeles Times Young people with student loans are often weighed down by lots of other debt as well. Young people with student loans are often weighed down by lots of other debt as well. (Kevin Swank / Associated Press). Walter Hamilton contact the reporter. The Role of Student Debt in Stunting the RecoveryNew York Times Only Rich Kids Should Go to CollegeTIME Young Student Debtors Lag Behind in Accumulation of WealthBloomberg CNNMoney -seattlepi.com all 59 news articles »

Dean Baquet, the incoming executive editor of The New York Times after Jill Abramson’s surprise ouster, made it most of the way through an English degree at Columbia University—but didn’t quite finish. In the great tradition of highly successful dropouts like Microsoft’s Bill Gates and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Baquet found exactly what he wanted to do and pursued it rather than sticking out a degree he’d lost interest in.

According to a profile in the Los Angeles Times, Baquet took an internship at the States-Item, an afternoon paper in his hometown of New Orleans, during one of his summer breaks. As an intern he investigated corrupt cops and once dug through the plaster of a bar’s wall to find a bullet a drunk cop had fired off inside.

Class apparently seemed boring after that, and he dropped out to work full time as a journalist.

The lack of a degree certainly didn’t hurt Baquet. He spent seven years reporting in New Orleans, won a Pulitzer Prize for investigating political corruption in Chicago in 1988, then joined the New York Times in 1990. He became national editor there in 1995, left to serve as managing editor of the Los Angeles Times in 2000, then as its editor in chief in 2005. He returned to the New York Times to run its Washington bureau in 2007, and later became managing editor.

Baquet is a contrast with predecessor Jill Abramson, who is a Harvard graduate and has a crimson “H” tatooed on her representing the school and her husband, who was in her graduating class.

Baquet is in pretty good company as a dropout at the New York Times. A.M. Rosenthal was a Pulitzer-prize winning foreign correspondent and was executive editor from 1977 to 1986. Rosenthal, who spearheaded the publication of the Pentagon Papers, dropped out of City College (paywall) a few credits short of a degree to work for the paper in 1944.

As Columbia’s Emily Bell points out, Baquet also has some accomplished fellow dropouts of the university.

@kevinjdelaney @MaxNisen in good company at Columbia ..Alicia Keys, James Cagney, Langston Hughes, Jack Kerouac wikicu.com/Dropouts—
emily bell (@emilybell) May 14, 2014

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submitted by smileymouse [link] [1 comment]

Anonymously spilling personal gossip and corporate secrets online is all fun and games–until someone gets a subpoena. Startups like Secret and Whisper have defined a buzzy new category of social media, attracting millions of users and tens of millions of dollars in venture capital investments with the promise of allowing anyone to communicate with anonymity. […]

hodad

a.k.a. R2K playlist

Some albums transcend their eras, finding their way into the cultural canon and continually being rediscovered by subsequent generations of listeners. And some don't. For whatever reason, be it dated production, a social context that doesn't translate, or any number of far more ineffable causes, the following albums were beloved by millions of baby boomers and yet, unlike, say, the inarguably canonical  and London Callings of the world, seemed not to resonate particularly strongly beyond their initial audience. Check back again in a few years, and this list, hopefully, will look entirely different.

By Kory Grow, Kenny Herzog, David Marchese and Dan Reilly 

Original Source

Could MLS be the first major league to put a team in Las Vegas?

Las Vegas is the latest team to throw its hat in the MLS expansion ring. A local ownership group launched plans to build a 24,000 seat stadium on Wednesday with the goal of bringing a MLS team to it, possibly as the league's 24th team.

Findlay Sports and Entertainment and The Cordish Companies are teaming on the project, having acquired a 61-acre site at Symphony Park in downtown and put together plans for a venue there. The stadium and team are expected to cost more than $300 million, some of which would be paid with public funds. Cordish apparently already has an agreement with the city on that.

Las Vegas does not have a major league team in any sport so MLS could be the first into the market and the potential ownership group has already spoken with MLS.

"We recently met with Justin Findlay and Blake Cordish at the MLS League office in New York and were very impressed with their vision to pursue building a new soccer stadium and acquiring an MLS expansion club for Las Vegas," MLS Deputy Commissioner and President Mark Abbott said to the Las Vegas Sun.

"We look forward to continuing discussions as they work to further develop their plans with Mayor Goodman and the City of Las Vegas."

MLS has said that they want to expand to 24 teams by 2020. They currently have 19 teams, with New York City FC and Orlando City set to join next season. Atlanta has also been awarded a team and will debut in 2017, while Miami has a provisional team, pending their ability to get a stadium built.

Assuming Miami does get that done, MLS is committed to 23 teams, leaving one more opening. Minneapolis has been considered a frontrunner, with Vikings owner Zygi Wilf hoping to put a MLS team in his new football stadium and Twins owner Carl Pohlad part of a group trying to build a soccer stadium. San Antonio, Sacramento and Indianapolis are among the other cities vying for a team, but it looks like Las Vegas is also in the mix now and if they are as far along as they say, they may have the upperhand.

If this is built, it would not be the only new venue in the city. Recently, AEG broke ground on a new arena right off of the Strip and UNLV is working to build a new football stadium, however the

Unlock your phone by just picking it up! No more pesky password or gesture PIN, just scan an NFC tag! This week’s project covers creating an NFC ring, putting an NFC tag in your nail polish, modding your Android installation to read tags from the lockscreen, and creating an automation toolchain to unlock the phone when the desired tag is scanned. I earned my Android skill badge on this one, folks!

Unlock Your Phone with NFC – Ring & Manicure – Adafruit Learning System

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Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!

Some of you may have seen a clock project that used a faux wood adhesive paper to pull off an LED display underneath. Well, this watch called Night Vision looks even better with its display shining under some wood veneer according to Gizmodo. Produced by TokyoFlash Japan, the watch comes in different wood finishes, as well as different LED colors.

The most interesting thing about this watch is its hexagonal face, which keeps its geometric design when offering the time. A portion of the outer ring  is left open at the appropriate number to represent hour, while the center of the watch offers actual digits with the same fun shape. The watch also has a special mode for evening where you can have the display keep moving.  Frank Lloyd Wright probably would have been a fan.

This watch is going to cost you some change, but you may be able to DIY your own version. Start with a laser cutter to get the wood pieces and then work with a thin veneer or faux wood adhesive paper for the face. You’ll probably want to get one of our watch kits like the TIMESQUARE. It might not be a hexagonal display, but it will be a lot quicker to read. Isn’t that part of good design anyway?

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Every Wednesday is Wearable Wednesday here at Adafruit! We’re bringing you the blinkiest, most fashionable, innovative, and useful wearables from around the web and in our own original projects featuring our wearable Arduino-compatible platform, FLORA. Be sure to post up your wearables projects in the forums or send us a link and you might be featured here on Wearable Wednesday!

The RPF user Clothears – a.k.a. Alison Naylor – has been trooping as Boushh since 2006. Her costume was even used in the movie Paul. However, she did some more research on the costume used in Return of the Jedi and decided to craft a new version. She set out with the goal of making it as screen accurate as possible. Her and her partner built everything from the tunic to the helmet and discussed construction in great detail over at The RPF. Here’s what she said about the armor piece around the neck:

We moulded the armour from a 50/50 PU rubber and resin with a brown colour pigment. The mould was made to have imperfections in it, as the screen worn armour is very rough. It is very flexible yet holds it’s shape nicely and retains the sharp edges and fiberglass look that we would have lost had we gone with vac formed armour. Once the armour was moulded we trimmed it down and weathered it. Around the collar of the armour I have made the suede/foam padding and finished with the rough black stitching like the original. Also inside the armour is the velcro for attaching the leather tank strap, which runs from the two press studs at the top all the way down and attaches to the velcro inside the armour, we are pretty confident that this is how the original works. There is also velcro inside the front for the chest com link.

Read more and see additional photos at The RPF.

Autodesk introduces Spark – Open Software Platform for 3D Printing.

We believe that 3D printing has the potential to fundamentally change how things are designed and made, but the industry is still in its infancy. With Spark, we want to enable the acceleration of innovation in 3D printing so that everyone can have even better experiences faster, and make 3D printing accessible and relevant to millions, if not billions, of people.

Spark is an open 3D printing platform that will make it easier for hardware manufacturers, software developers, materials scientists, product designers, and more to participate in and benefit from this technology. Spark connects digital information to 3D printers in a new and streamlined way, making it easier to visualize prints and optimize them without trial and error, while also broadening the range of materials that can be used for printing. And because the Spark platform is open, everyone can use its building blocks to further push the limits of 3D printing and drive fresh innovation.

A tight integration between hardware and software is critical to a successful 3D printing process. Just as mobile devices and apps work seamlessly together, the 3D design software and 3D printer need to work in close partnership. As a reference for the capability of Spark, we’re also introducing a 3D printer built on the platform and setting a new benchmark for the 3D printing user experience.
In keeping with our open approach, we will make it simple to integrate new materials into our printer, and will also make the design files for the printer available so others can iterate on and enhance its capabilities.

More @ MAKE.

submitted by wheeldog [link] [23 comments]

Oregon's gay rights campaign just quietly scored a major win. by Dirk VanderHart and Denis C. Theriault EDITOR'S NOTE: As this story hit news stands, US District Judge Michael McShane decided not to allow the National Organization for Marriage defend the state's ban on same-sex marriage—another big win for gay rights advocates.

VICTORY ARRIVED by speakerphone on Friday, May 9.

It was 4:58 pm, and after an afternoon of beers and bundt cake, gay rights advocates at Oregon United for Marriage (OUM) gathered around someone's iPhone at campaign headquarters. A voice on the line had news—tidings from a just-issued press release that would dictate the future of Oregon's gay marriage fight. "We have resolved to suspend Initiative Petition 52 [IP52]."

The room erupted. The largest looming threat to gay rights in Oregon was dead—at least for the time being.

Someone opened a bottle of red wine. Someone else sent for hamburgers. By 6:20 pm, cheap champagne buzzed in plastic flutes, and tears rolled.

"We weren't planning to win today," OUM press secretary Peter Zuckerman said, "but we'll take it."

Oregon's constitution still bans gay marriage, but it's reasonable to expect that will soon change. What advocates won on May 9 is potentially more significant. Following months of legal wrangling and persistent pressure, IP52—Oregon's campaign to allow discrimination against gay couples—decided not to attempt a vote.

Advocates see it as a banner victory on a fast-emerging new front in the marriage equality culture war. All over the country, proposals are cropping up to allow business owners to refuse services to gay couples, citing religious beliefs. In every case—a recent legislative train wreck in Arizona, for example—those attempts have come from state lawmakers.

But in Oregon, the newly defunct Protect Religious Freedom Initiative—IP52—came from the people. It was filed in November by an Oregon Family Council offshoot calling itself Friends of Religious Freedom, and it had a single purpose: to allow Oregonians, and Oregon companies, to refuse to "participate" in gay weddings. Polling suggested its lofty language about personal freedom and beliefs resonated with voters at least as much as arguments against discrimination.

If IP52 had made the November ballot, gay marriage advocates believe it might have inspired a slew of copycats in other states. Even worse, they say, it might have passed.

But the initiative met a wall of outrage. OUM put together a competing campaign—Oregon United Against Discrimination—and gathered wide-ranging support. When the Oregon Supreme Court, crucially, approved ballot language that undercut the rhetoric and labeled the initiative for what it was—"discrimination"—Friends of Religious Freedom suspended the campaign, promising a lawsuit.

Now, OUM hopes Oregon's sent a message: These fights can be won.

"Our being able to stop this here has got to be really good news across the country," says Mike Marshall, the decorated campaign manager for OUM, minutes after hearing the news. "It's a very big victory."

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The Protect Religious Freedom Initiative was drawn up in a Lake Oswego law office. But it might as well have been baked in an East Multnomah County kitchen.

In early 2013, a Gresham bakery called Sweet Cakes by Melissa drew local and national heat when its owners declined to bake a wedding cake for a local lesbian couple, citing religious beliefs. According to a formal complaint filed with the state, a co-owner called the couple "abominations unto the Lord." One of the women started to cry.

By the time the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries determined Sweet Cakes by Melissa violated the lesbian couple's civil rights this past January (a development Fox News complained "really takes the cake"), Protect Religious Freedom Initiative had already emerged, the 52nd initiative petition filed for the November election.

The words used by IP52's supporters sounded great. "Religious freedom upholds stability in a diverse society," Friends of Religious Freedom trumpeted in a press release. "It is a fundamental human right and is the right to express, think, and act upon what you deeply believe."

But the upshot was as ugly as the scene described in the Sweet Cakes complaint. IP52 would have allowed people, businesses, and corporations to deny services that contribute to same-sex marriages, civil unions, or domestic partnership ceremonies "if doing so would violate a person's deeply held religious beliefs."

Shawn Lindsay, the Lake Oswego attorney who helped draft the initiative petition, says the Sweet Cakes case was only one instance of increasing discrimination against people of faith. A wedding photographer in New Mexico has also faced penalties for turning down a same-sex couple. A Washington florist, too.

"I think it's just come to a head," Lindsay said days before the initiative's suspension.

Under existing Oregon law, "bona fide" churches and religious institutions (including schools, hospitals, and camps) are allowed to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation when hiring or granting use of their facilities. The Protect Religious Freedom Initiative would have opened up the right to discriminate to everyone, at least where wedding and civil union ceremonies were concerned.

"Religious institutions and clergy are being treated different than individuals of faith," Lindsay said. "A Jewish violinist, a Christian harpist, a Muslim pianist who provide their services for a fee and do not want to participate in that same-sex marriage—they are not protected. Where's the concern for those people?"

That sentiment has cropped up throughout the country. Most visibly, Arizona lawmakers in February passed legislation that would have given business owners cover to refuse customers—gays included—on the basis of religion. As the bill made its way to the desk of Arizona Governor Jan Brewer, conservatives and the religious right cheered.

But the opposition proved stronger. Companies like Apple, Marriott, and Delta Airlines voiced their disdain. Organizations threatened to cancel their Arizona-based conferences. Even the Super Bowl, slated to take place in Glendale in 2015, was called into question.

Adding to the outcry, both of Arizona's Republican senators, John McCain and Jeff Flake, publicly opposed the law. Sensing potential political and economic catastrophe, Brewer vetoed the bill.

Other states are considering similar legislation, but the ballot measure approach, at least this year, was unique to Oregon.

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Marshall, the OUM campaign manager, had been on the job mere days when IP52 was announced. He'd taken a job to win gay couples the right to marry, and suddenly faced a hydra of intolerance.

"Within two weeks [of getting the job] they said I would be running two campaigns," he says. "It wasn't even part of the conversation when I was being recruited."

There was good news, though.

Back when OUM began collecting signatures in February 2013, only one path existed for winning gay marriage in Oregon. Advocates would need to pass a statewide vote to reverse Measure 36, the 2004 provision that defined Oregon marriages as between one man and one woman. But in June 2013, a decision by the US Supreme Court opened up another route: Measure 36 could be challenged in court.

While OUM busied itself collecting enough signatures to put a gay marriage measure on the ballot this November, it watched a pair of legal challenges make their way through federal court. By February, those challenges looked like a sure bet, as Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum announced she wouldn't defend Measure 36 in court.

That freed up OUM to focus on strategies to fight the discrimination initiative. The group announced the Oregon United Against Discrimination campaign this month, and aimed to kill the initiative before it got going.

"Our goal was to throw up five walls of opposition and to launch them right about now," Marshall said on May 9.

The campaign worked behind the scenes to win backing from communities of color, Republicans, faith-based organizations, and newspaper editorial boards. But it had only begun to unfurl the strategy when IP52's backers pulled out.

Two of the state's newspapers—the Oregonian and the East Oregonian in Pendleton—criticized the Protect Religious Freedom Initiative. And on the morning of May 9, local companies and business boosters appeared in a downtown press conference, announcing that more than 160 companies, including Nike, Columbia Sportswear, and Google, were against IP52.

More weighty than newspaper articles or press conferences was the Oregon Supreme Court. On May 8, the court approved ballot language for the initiative—the verbiage Oregonians would read while deciding how to vote. The ballot title included the word "discrimination" in five places. Lindsay, the initiative's attorney, had argued that word sent a dire message—that it was "politically charged and emotionally laden"—but to no effect.

A little more than 24 hours after the court's decision, the Friends of Religious Freedom suspended its campaign. Still, OUM's Marshall resisted wholly crediting the ruling with IP52's demise.

"I would say the court is a big part of it," he said, "but had we not done anything and they got in this position, they would have been tempted to move forward."

Minutes later, Marshall was in the other room, leaving a voicemail for someone at Nike: "It was your press conference today that obviously just scared the shit out of them."

---

Oregon, it turns out, boasts a rather terrible distinction, nationally. According to George T. Nicola—the self-appointed chronicler of the state's LGBTQ movement—Oregon voters have seen something like 35 anti-gay ballot measures since the late 1970s.

The so-called "religious freedom" measure would have been number 36.

"It's extremely unlikely another state has had as many," Nicola says.

Nicola's tally includes a handful of well-known statewide measures and a couple dozen lesser-known local ones. It starts with a 1978 referendum in Eugene that overturned a 1977 law banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. It ends in 2004, with the statewide Measure 36.

Along the way, it wraps in 1992's unsuccessful Measure 9, in which "homosexuality" was equated with pedophilia, sadism, and masochism—all behaviors not to be promoted by the government. (Nicola says at least 29 Oregon cities or counties tried to ape Measure 9 in the two years after its defeat, and many of them were successful.)

"We have faced many of these measures," Nicola says. "They may not have claimed it was from religious basis, but many came from backgrounds where religion motivated them."

But there's good evidence things have turned around. By Nicola's accounting, IP52's death marks the fourth time since Measure 36 passed that groups have failed to get an anti-gay measure on the ballot.

"Increasingly we have acceptance throughout the country," he says. "People are beginning to realize we're not just this bizarre abstract. We're their friends, their family, their coworkers, their neighbors. If we're being attacked as a group, that now means someone they love is being attacked. That's a big thing."

---

Without the looming religious freedom initiative, the future of gay marriage in Oregon seems clearer than it's been in a decade.

Lawsuits challenging the 10-year-old ban on same-sex marriage, amid a favorable wave of court rulings in other states, could bring marriage equality to Oregon as soon as this spring.

If that happens—if US District Judge Michael McShane rules before the July 3 deadline to submit signatures for the ballot—Marshall says the marriage campaign won't push a gay marriage measure this fall.

(A statewide vote, by the way, stands a strong chance. A recent poll commissioned by Oregon Public Broadcasting found 58 percent of respondents support overturning Measure 36.)

But Marshall told the Mercury something interesting during a recent interview. Even if McShane doesn't rule in time for the deadline, the campaign might still decide to stand down. So long as it looks like McShane will rule sometime soon after.

"The issue will be why he's not made a decision by July 3," Marshall says.

In recent weeks, what appeared to be a surefire court victory for the state's gay couples became less certain. A renowned foe of marriage equality, the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), has muddied Oregon's legal waters—filing an 11th-hour bid to defend the state's gay marriage ban.

According to NOM Chairman John Eastman, Oregon Attorney General Rosenblum committed a grave error in February, when she announced her office wouldn't defend the gay marriage ban in court. Then in March, Rosenblum filed a lengthy brief excoriating the ban. Given a 2013 US Supreme Court ruling on the federal Defense of Marriage Act, she argued, Oregon's law can't withstand serious legal scrutiny.

"The attorney general not only declined to defend, but affirmatively attacked, the position of her client," Eastman tells the Mercury.

NOM argues it should be granted standing as a party in the case, saying it represents "a county clerk, a wedding services provider, and an Oregon voter who cast a vote in the November 2004 election in support of Measure 36." The organization does not plan to reveal those people's identities. It says they're afraid Oregonians will mistreat them.

Despite a fast-changing tide—judges have overturned gay marriage bans in six states, including a brand new ruling out of Arkansas—Eastman says his organization's involvement in Oregon is important. Even if McShane, who is openly gay, invalidates Measure 36, Eastman argues NOM may be able to ride an appeal to the Supreme Court.

The organization is scheduled to make its case to McShane on May 14. If it's granted standing, NOM would have power to draw out the lawsuit, but advocates don't think it will change the eventual outcome.

 "I'm confident the judge is going to make the right decision," Marshall says. "Why would he decide any different than anybody else?"

---

But who knows, right?

If there's one thing gay activists have learned over the years, it's that you can't tell what's coming next.

Look at Robin Castro, a 59-year-old Portlander who's volunteered 30 hours a week for the Oregon United for Marriage campaign—and a multitude of fights before that.

In March 2004, when Multnomah County briefly issued marriage licenses to same-sex couples, Castro and his longtime partner got married.

"It was an amazing feeling," he said, sipping a glass of wine at OUM headquarters on May 9.

But it turned out Multnomah County didn't have legal authority to marry same-sex couples. And the county's attempt lit the fuse on Measure 36. Mere months after his marriage, Castro watched as fellow Oregonians voted to ensure he'd never again be married in the state.

The death of IP52 could be similar. Friends of Religious Freedom might have given up the ballot measure, but they've also promised to file a lawsuit on behalf of people who are "currently being coerced into violating their faiths."

Everyone at OUM is exceedingly curious. They're also not surprised.

"How long have you been gay?" Castro asked. "I have for a long time. We will always have something to fight.

"As long as I breathe, I will be there for that."

[ Subscribe to the comments on this story ]

Daily Beast

Chelsea Manning Getting Gender Treatment Daily Beast The Department of Defense will try to transfer convicted national-security leaker Pvt. Chelsea Manning to a civilian prison in response to her request for hormone therapy to be able to live as a female. The request was a first for the Pentagon, as transgender ... and more »

CNN

Explorer hopeful Spain, Haiti will cooperate on Santa Maria Fox News Latino The U.S. marine explorer who thinks he's found the wreckage of Christopher Columbus' flagship off the coast of Haiti said Wednesday he was confident that there would be cooperation between the Spanish and Haitian governments in excavating the remains ... Possible Columbus wreck off Haiti in danger of lootingThe Sun Daily Explorer seeks speedy dig for possible Santa Maria wreckReuters all 112 news articles »

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	Courtney shared this story from Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture:
	"ABC made the bold decision to sell nearly all of their dramatic airtime toShonda Rhimesuntil 2018, leaving me wonder if this is truly what Reparations were supposed to look like."

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by Kendra James

There was one clear winner at the network Upfronts this year: DC Comics.

Yes, DC Comics a company that hasn’t managed to do much this year except piss off their fans, came from behind, hurdled over the teen barrier that is the CW network, and dominated the fall 2014 pilot season. Thanks to pickups on NBC, FOX, and the CW, DC (in part with Marvel’s presence on ABC) has managed to leave CBS as the only network without a show centered around superheroes.

Of course, with a demographic needle pointed exclusively at the 45 and older column and two more NCIS and CSI spinoffs headed our way, it’s possible CBS just doesn’t care. Not that CBS was the only network with a line of uninspired pickups for the fall season– there’s plenty more of that (and the full details of DC’s television takeover) under the cut.

NBC

Let’s just get this out of the way first:Parenthoodwas renewed and I’m not crying, it’s just raining on my face.

There’s not a lot I’ve enjoyed on NBC over the past year and the twoJason Katimsshows that I do watch,ParenthoodandAbout A Boy, were both on the renewal bubble as we went into Upfronts week.Parenthood,a show that deals with a wide variety of topics liketrans-racial adoptionsandinter-racial relationships, was renewed for a final 13 episode season.About a Boy, which co-stars former Daily Show correspondentAl Madrigal(and occasionally crosses over withParenthood), was renewed for a second season. Otherwise there was a bit of a bloodbath over at the Peacock. We’ve lostCommunityandBlair Underwood‘s projectIronsidealong with several other failed comedies and dramas (because, shocker,Growing Up FisherandDraculawere not shows to bet a network on).

But Sean Hayes and Michael J. Fox’s losses are DC Comic’s gains.Constantine, based on theHellblazercomic from their Vertigo imprint, arrives this fall starringMatt Ryanin the titular role,Lucy Griffiths(BBC’sRobin Hood)andHarold Perrineauas “Manny”. No word yet on who will be playing Constantine’s advisary Papa Midnight, and it’s possible NBC doesn’t know yet either. They tried casting the role on February 26th and had to get a lot less specific in a second call ten days later when their request for a Cuban actor apparently went unanswered to their liking:

True Bloodcostars Oscar-NomineeAlfre WoodardandJanina Gavankarland on NBC onState of AffairsandThe Mysteries of Laurarespectively. Woodard plays the President of the United States toKatherine Heigl’sCIA operative on their hour long while Gavankar co-stars withDebra Messingon a new cop show.Lenora Crichlowmoves from ABC (Back In The Game) to NBC onA to Z,a new romantic comedy (produced in part byRashida Jones), andCraig Robinsonwill star inMr. Robinsonwhich we first heard about back in February of 2013. It co-starsAmandla Stenberg(Sleepy Hollow)as one of the students Robinson’s character teaches, andLarenz Tate.

And finally, Art would kill me if I didn’t remind R readers that the formerly kinda multi-racialHeroeswill be back on television atsome pointduring the coming season. There’s no trailer or cast, but the hopes of many (or just Art) are currently in show runnerTim Kring‘s hands.

ABC

ABC made the bold decision to sell nearly all of their dramatic airtime toShonda Rhimesuntil 2018, leaving me wonder if this is truly what Reparations were supposed to look like.

The Scandal creator inked a 4 year deal with the network that comes on the heels of the pickup of her newest show, How To Get Away With Murder. Murder stars Oscar-winner Viola Davis, and features Alfie Enoch (Dean Thomas in the Harry Potter films) as the one main character we appear to be introduced to in the trailer below. We don’t quite know what Rhimes’ deal with ABC entails yet, but it starts with an all Shonda Thursday night lineup this fall. Grey’s Anatomy viewers will have to adjust their schedules as the show moves to 8pm, followed by Murder at 9, and Scandal’s fourth season at 10. It’s not a stretch to assume that Rhimes will spend the next four years developing shows for the network. Perhaps that collaboration with Awkward Black Girl creator Issa Rae that ABC passed on last year?

But because a network cannot survive on the shoulders of one woman alone (and because Shonda Rhomes doesn’t seem to have much of a sense of humour) the network also picked up a string of half hour comedies including the John Cho and Karen Gillian helmed Pygmalion-esque Selfie.

Fresh off the Boat will be the first comedy centerting around an Asian American family since Margaret Cho’s All American Girlfrom 1994. Boat takes its title from chefEddie Huang‘s memoir off which it’s based. The show follows a young Eddie, played by newcomerHudson Yang, as his family relocates from Washington DC to Florida in the 1990s.

Then we have Black-ish, featuringAnthony Anderson, Tracee Ellis Ross, and Osacar NominatedLaurence Fishburne (you’re going to start to see a trend), about a Black family who begins to think that they may have assimilated into white society too much. I’d love it if we could bury the ‘real Blackness’ meme (or “New Black” as Pharrell’d like you to call it) deep, deep underground, so I’m not so hot on sticking it on national television.

I read part of the script for Selfie back when the casting breakdowns first appeared in January, and while my socks weren’t blown off by it’s progressiveness one can’t help but root for John Cho and hope that it benefited from some sort of rewrites. The only inside scoop we have from Boat (aside from the slight red flag that the phrase “tiger mom” was used as a descriptor for casting the mother) comes from Jeff Yang, real life father of Hudson. He wrote the following in his Wall Street Journal column:

I think I can safely share this much, however: The show is like nothing you will have ever seen before on television. If it makes it to air, it will blow minds, raise eyebrows and, to quote a line that my son says as Little Eddie, “change the game.” I would honestly say the same if I weren’t the lead actor’s father. It’s that different. And provocative. And, yes, gut-bustingly funny.

ABC also greenlit a Peggy Carter series starring Hayley Atwell, bringing their superhero show roster to two. I’m not going to be the person to decry a female led piece of comic book based media (Lord knows I’m 10x more interested in a Peggy Carter show than I have ever been in a Wonder Woman movie), but wouldn’t it be nice if the show ended up with a little more diversity than the main cast of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Ming Na’s holding it down, but if we could get some of those Howling Comandos from the first Captain America film or any mention of repercussions stemming from the Truth: Red, White and Black arc I’d be a happy viewer who actually felt appreciated by the company that gets a large chunk of my annual salary. The shows 1946 setting is no excuse for a lack of diverse casts or plot lines.

Otherwise, I’m rooting for Peggy and Hayley this fall. ABC is nothing if not chock full of dramas driven by their female characters –renewed shows Scandal, Once Upon A Time, Mistresses, Revenge, and Nashville, and new shows The Austronauts Wives Club and How To Get Away With Murder, are just a handful. Produced by Michele Fazekas and Tara Butters (Hawaii Five-0, Reaper),Agent Carter should see a stronger start than S.H.I.E.L.D in terms of quality, and will hopefully find a long network television life.

FOX

Fox never fails to produce an exciting crop of hour-longs brimming with potential that will have stabbed their audience in the back by the time May rolls around– and that’s literally, if you watch The Following. We’re losing one, Almost Human, which starred Michael Ealey and Karl Urban which debuted this winter, and gaining another. Like Almost Human, DC’s Gotham is a show that I would like to be excited about, but it’s airing on Fox. It’s just as likely to be a crap-fest that’s aired in order as it is to be a brilliant look at the streets and characters of Gotham City aired ass-backwards. This is Fox, after all.

Gotham stars Ben McKenzie (The OC, SouthLAnd) and featuresJada Pinkett Smith as a crime boss character created specifically for the show. It was announced after the release of the trailer that Victoria Cartegena‘s Renee Montoya (a crucial lesbian Latina character from the comic Bat-verse) will also be a series regular.

Elsewhere, Oscar Winner Octavia Spencer (starting to see the trend here?) stars in Red Band Society, an hour long about the patients, nurses, and doctors in the pediatric wing of a hospital. Michael Pena co-stars in the American Broadchurch remake called Bordertown in this iteration, yet still starring David Tennant.

Oscar Winner Terrence Howard, Oscar Winner Gabourey Sidibe, and Oscar Nominee Taraji P. Henson arrive in the midseason debut Empire about a hip-hop media mogul, his family, and their business. Lee Daniels and Danny Strong are writing and Timbaland is producing the show’s original music. With Glee ending and ABC picking up a second original musical show (Galavant, with original music by Disney genius Alan Menken), Fox must have felt the need to get in the game. Personally, I can’t with Terrence Howardsince the whole baby-wipes thing, but this is another Fox show that I’d like to see get a fair shot. Danny Strong wrote Recount and Game Change for HBO, and partnered with Lee Daniels on last summer’s The Butler, leading me to believe that if Fox airs the show in order and doesn’t completely change the premise a season or two in (see: Glee, The Following)then there’s no reason for this not to be raking in Emmys in a year’s time.

Which is the exact opposite of what the drama Hieroglyph, will be doing. I’ve seen Condola Rashad on Broadway, and I promise you she’s better than this:

If you like snakes, eyeliner, sex, vampires (I think those were vampires?), and shows that focus on the sole shirtless white man in the middle of a country populated by various people of color, then I guess this is the midseason replacement show for you.

On the comedy side we’re getting Mulaney, which appears to be a modern day Seinfeld with a few more brown people. John Mulaney, Nasim Pedrad, Seaton Smith, Martin Short, and a dog in a dreadlock hat star. The Mindy Project was renewed, and Seth MacFarlane was allowed to produce a cartoon about a white border patrol agent and Mexican immigrants called Boardertown. So that’s happening, and I’m sure it won’t be offensive to anyone at all.

The CW

Because the CW will air a show until it goes out begging for a mercy kill there wasn’t much movement over here for 2014-2015. The network renewed Supernatural, The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, Arrow, Beauty and the Beast(starring Kristen Kruek), and Hart of Dixie. Freema Agyemen and The Carrie Diaries got the boot.

The Flash, introduced on Arrow this season, got the green light meaning that the Wests are officially a Black family now. Between this and The Fantastic Four casting news this week, racist comic book fans are not having a great month. Grant Gustin stars as Barry Allen with Candice Patton playing Iris West (eventual wife of Barry, and aunt of the third Flash, Wally West) and Jesse L. Martin playing her father, Detective West. The show comes from the team behind Arrow (which finishes a so far superb second season tonight) and if successful will probably stay on the air until I’m in my mid 40s. DC continues their conquest with iZombie, also debuting on The CW this fall.

Jane the Virgin joins the network starring Gina Rodriguez as the title character, a religious Latina woman who ends up pregnant after she’s accidentally artificially inseminated. The show is based on a popular Venezuelan telenovelas (much like what ABC did with Ugly Betty), but there’s not much more information than that. In lieu of a trailer, here’s a description of the series regulars:

CBS

The Big Bang TheoryandTwo and a Half Men,5CSIsand 20NCISs are all still on the air, and all is right with the world.

I exaggerate the numbers slightly, but CBS heard the calls of many and is giving usNCIS: New Orleansthis fall, co-starringCCH Pounder(most recently ofSons of Anarchy).CSIgoes cyber withCSI: Cyber(yup) which doesn’t appear to have a fully announced cast as of yet. But if they stay true to the CBS procedural formula then rest assured the cyber team will consist of at least one Black person and one quirky white lady.

StalkerwithMaggie QandDylan McDermott(because once CBS finds a formula and pairing that works they run with it; Elementary also returns this fall) looks far more interesting. Kevin Williamson (The Following, The Vampire Diaries)runs the new drama that follows two detectives who specialise in stalking cases for the LAPD. That’s kind of… specific, but I’ve always loved the camp-fests that are Williamson shows, and Maggie Q is a gift, so let’s give it a shot.

Finally Oscar Winner Halle Berry’s sci-fi showExtantbegins this summer andKal Pennis set to co-star inBreaking Badcreator Vince Gilligan’sBattle Creek.It is, you guessed it, another detective show– a final brave and bold choice by CBS to end our coverage of the 2014 network Upfronts.

The post Recap: The 2014-2015 Network Upfronts appeared first on Racialicious - the intersection of race and pop culture.

	Courtney shared this story from The ToastThe Toast:
	“But I’d like to talk about the parts of the building I didn’t build.”

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This post wasbrought to youon behalf of Nicole Tuttle for her birthday from Rich and Felix.

“Where do you get your ideas for buildings?”

“Oh, I could never do what you do — you know, get up in the morning and go to my job and do my job there.”

“Sometimes I feel like I have a building in me.”

“What’s your favorite building to re-look at?”

“Oh, I’d love to design an office complex, but I’m just so busy.”

“Is this skyscraper autobiographical?”

“This particular building really surprised me. I mean, I designed it, and I approved it, and I oversaw the construction of it, but it still reallysurprisedme. My buildings are always surprising me.”

“Do you have a designing process, or do you just sort of build it all at once?”

“Architect like a motherfucker.”

“How many floors is a good building supposed to be, roughly?”

“Designing a building is such a wild, messy process. It’s amazing that any buildings get built at all, but somehow the crazy cosmic dance continues.”

“Will you sign my house?”

“But I’d like to talk about the parts of the building Ididn’t build.”

“Who would you cast in a film adaptation of your building?”

“Do you do most of your building during the day or when you find an inspiration?”

“Build anything. Build everywhere. You’re going to build a lot of structurally unsound buildings that collapse and kill hundreds before you’re able to build something that can withstand an earthquake.”

“I have a building idea for you; it’s totally fully formed in my mind already, but I just don’t have the time to build it myself. Can I tell you about it for your next building?”

“Draft drunk. Construct sober.”

“Where do you get your ideas for buildings?”

“Oh, I could never do what you do — you know, get up in the morning and go to my job and do my job there.”

“Sometimes I feel like I have a building in me.”

“What’s your favorite building to re-look at?”

“Oh, I’d love to design an office complex, but I’m just so busy.”

“Is this skyscraper autobiographical?”

“If you don’t have time to look at buildings, you don’t have time to design buildings. It’s as simple as that.”

“What made you decide to put such a graphic sex scene on the ninth floor?”

“Do you ever have days where you just can’t plan a courtyard?”

“Does your wife ever look at your buildings before you’re finished?”

“I’m a new architect, and I’m wondering if you have any advice on finding construction contracts.”

Read more If We Talked About Architecture Like We Talk About Writing at The Toast.

https://twitter.com/RichardAyoade/status/466179401861062656?refsrc=email

Original Source

ifiwakeinthemorning:

To explain a little of the horror coming from the Australians right now

The Australian 2014 budget (though it hasn’t yet passed the senate) has:
-made our Disability Pension more inaccessible
-made unemployment support for people under 25 pay less
-made unemployment support for people under 30 include a 6 month waiting period, and adapted it to only be paid out for 6 months a year.
-brought in a ‘work for the dole’ program
-introduced a levy on healthcare: doctors visits which were previously covered by our universal healthcare will now require an extra $7 per visit (only for the first 10 visits IF you hold a concession card.)
-increased the cost of medication
-removed the cap on university fees
-reduced the minimum income at which government student loans have to be paid back
-started charging interest on said student loans
-made massive cuts to programs supporting Indigenous Australians
-raised the pension age to 70 for anyone born after 1958
-cut seniors concessions massively
-cut 16,500 jobs for public servants

And that’s just the start of it.