A new documentary, American Promise, follows the lives of two African-American families as they try to navigate a path for their young sons at The Dalton School—a prestigious, private school in New York City with predominately white student body.
Joe Brewster and his wife Michèle Stephenson decided to chronicle their son, Idris Brewster and his best friend Seun Summers from kindergarten to college. The ambitious film took over 13 years to make and Michele Stephenson says "Everyone involved at some point or another dropped out."
The documentary showcases the difficulties and growing pains the boys faced. For example, they often felt left out by other students because of their race and wondered if they were being stereotyped by their teachers. "I talked to my parents about leaving and we actually applied to other schools." Idris says. "But I just felt as though I had to continue."
Joe, Michèle and Idris spoke with NPR's Michel Martin about letting their lives play out in front of the camera, and the lessons they learned about raising black boys.
Interview Highlights
On the Decision to Send Idris to Dalton
I was more propelled to do a public school choice. But Joe had gone to school- I had also, in university - gone to school with students who, you know, had experienced the world of independent and college preparatory schools and they were just ten times, a hundred times more prepared than either of us were when it came to university and college...I realized it was an opportunity that we couldn't really pass up because the intellectual stimulation, the nurturing, the individualized attention that we saw students were getting was something we wanted our son to experience. And I ended up saying yes to the school.
Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson/YouTube
New film explores the black male achievement gap.
On Dealing with Racial Stereotypes in the Classroom
We were always concerned about perception and we assumed that if our son was seen for who he really was - shy, eager, wanting to learn - that he would thrive in any environment. But that's not the way the rules are. And particularly for black boys who come with a legacy - a 400-year legacy of perceptions - which are not kind at times. We were always questioning whether it was that legacy that the teachers were responding to or whether in fact, there were issues that we had to address.
On Being Called Tiger Parents
We want you to throw the first stone. Because it's hard. We didn't come with a manual. We've probably read everything that could possibly be read about parenting and parenting African American boys. And still we struggled. But for us, the take-home message is that if you put in the time, the kids will thrive. If you engage the teachers, the teachers will change their perceptions. I wouldn't call us tiger parents, but I would say that we're not kitty cats.
A feel-good drama anchored by Eugene Domingo's starring turn and a narrative which advocates women's triumph against chauvinist odds.
Venue
Tokyo International Film Festival
Director
Jun Robles Lana
2013 marks the 30th anniversary of an event which heralds the beginning of the end of the Ferdinand Marcos dictatorship in the Philippines: the assassination of the tyrant's most vocal opponent, Benigno Aquino, on the tarmac of Manila's airport on Aug. 21, 1983 would eventually snowball into a massive political movement which led to Marcos' ouster in 1986 and the return of democracy to the Southeast Asian nation.
In this context, Jun Robles Lana's latest film could be seen as a metaphor for this episode in Philippine history: by speaking of the political emancipation of a meek widow, Barber's Tales – which was set in 1975, with Marcos' political sway very much present in the village the story unfolds in – could be seen as mirroring the rise of Corazon Aquino, who would transform from being Benigno Aquino's "plain housewife" into the leading figure of the anti-Marcos movement, before finally succeeding the tyrant as president.
Philippine audiences would certainly be able to detect the parallels between history and Lana's story – the power of funereal and religious parades, for example, or how those in power would frame their opponents with deaths they caused, as Marcos tried to finger communist rebels as masterminding Benigno Aquino's killing. But just as Lav Diaz's recent festival hit North, the End of History, Lana's film – which premiered in competition at the Tokyo International Film Festival, where Diaz's film would also be shown – goes beyond the lone historic event with an audacious attempt in actually exposing the commonly-shared traits which has led to the tragedy and calamity that follows.
While Diaz's film explores the conservative ideology that could give rise to cynical power-grabbers, Lana's Barber's Tales uses the spiritual awakening of a village barber's subservient spouse to condemn patriarchy – a way of thinking which props up the behavior of corrupted politicians and thuggish husbands, but also well-meaning revolutionaries fighting for a good cause. It's a universal theme which would engage with audiences beyond the Philippines, and Lana's linear and conventional spin to the story – driven by melodrama of co-incidences, and the showing of women's solidarity through mainstream humor, complete with quite a few jokes about the male genitalia – would certainly give Barber's Tales as much festival traction as Lana's previous film Bwakaw.
And Lana could very well thank his lead actress Eugene Domingo for all that, as the veteran's poised performance is what anchors the film just as it sometimes veers dangerously close to comic-soap territory. Rather than drawing out the transformation of her character, Marilou, with broad strokes, her delivery is very controlled and somewhat internal.
She began the film living completely as the shadow and slave of her barber husband Jose, attending to his every whim – making him food, ironing his shirts, heating his bath water – and also forced to tolerate his patronizing bullying attitude and his nocturnal ventures in town. Even as she takes over the business when he dies – a task encouraged by the local pastor Arturo (Eddie Garcia, the actor-director who flourished in Bwakaw)and grows into her work as a better haircutter than his spouse, the change is slight and so incremental, even as she has to contend with the mayhem around her, as she plays the matriarch who cares for the other troubled women in the village – such as Susan (Gladys Reyes), who was pressurized into sex and continuous childbirth – while also beginning to care for the young rebel fighters in the area.
Domingo's performance subtle turn as Marilou has a reason, as her docile veneer could serve to jolt the audience with the one explosive act at the film's finale when she finally gets to confront the local corrupted mayor (and Marcos flunky) Alberto Bartolome (Nonie Buencamino) for one last time for all the hurt and grief he brought to everyone in his realm, from his own long-suffering wife Cecilia (Iza Cazaldo) – whom Marilou has befriended – to all the people he ruled with much duress.
Barber's Tales is a story about sisterhood; Domingo's turn is suitably supported by engaging performances from, for example, Shamaine Buencamino – who plays Tess, the single middle-aged woman whose role as a sage among confused wives is thrown into disarray when her nephew decided to join the anti-government insurrection. Their resilience against the odds speaks volumes about the chauvinistic universe they were placed under – not just from Alberto and his cronies, but even in a milder way from the rebels to which Marilou and Tess could only care for (serving food to them while they plot their ambushes) and fret about.
Given the period nature of the film – it was set in the countryside in the 1970s, as far away from Bwakaw's contemporary, urban settings as it can be – the production design could somehow be found a bit wanting, with the sets resembling something more out of a TV series than the cinematic epic Lana might need for the story. And while audacious in content, Barber's Tales is certainly mainstream in style, with a plot heavy on coincidences (Jose's husband's favourite prostitute also happens to be the sister of the rebel fighter Marilou saved – an event which brought about a reconciliation between wife and mistress) and camerawork and editing which relies on conventional close-ups and shots/countershots.
Still, Barber's Tales provides enough of a harbinger of things to come: as the film ends, Susan's voiceover relays the rumors surrounding Marilou's fate after she has left town: these takes on her life – she might have gone on to become a maid; she might have gone insane – relays the many realities facing Filipino women in decades to come. Lana's "real" ending for her character is much more optimistic – but perhaps it's in this that Barber's Tales will thrive, as Marilou and sisters continue their struggle to find the light in their lives.
Competition, Tokyo International Film Festival
Production Company: Apt Entertainment and Octobert Fain Films
Director: Jun Robles Lana
Producer: Ferdinand Lapuz
Executive Producers: Michael B. Tuviera, Joselito C Oconer, Ramel L. David, Perci Intalan and Jun Robles Lana
Cast: Eugene Domingo, Eddie Garcia, Iza Cazaldo, Gladys Reyes
Screenwriter: Jun Robles Lana, on a story by Peter Ong Lim, Elmer Gatchalian, Benedict Mique and Jun Robles Lana
Yellow Sac Spider, Cheiracanthium inclusum, with its web and eggs. Photo courtesy Joseph Berger, Bugwood.org
Ah, the smells and sights of fall. Crisp leaves, pumpkin spice flavored everything, and … spiders. Spiders everywhere. This massive car recall from Toyota left out one important detail: SPIDERS.
“Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. … announced it will conduct a voluntary safety recall of approximately 803,000 2012-2013 vehicles… In the involved vehicles, water from the air conditioning condenser unit housing could leak onto the airbag control module and cause a short circuit … In some instances, the air bag(s) could become disabled or could inadvertently deploy.”
Cindy Knight, Toyota’s media contact for recalls, patiently let me pester her with spider questions this afternoon. It’s clear that an as-yet unnamed species of spider found some air conditioning drainage tubes to be an ideal place to spin a web. That makes sense to me, as a spider-watcher: It’s warm under a car, it’s dark, it’s damp — it’s the perfect spider habitat.
Those webs caused a drain blockage, and a resulting leak is blamed for shorts causing three airbag misfires and 35 warning light activations. Toyota preemptively issued a recall when the arachnid issue was discovered. Sadly, although understandably, Toyota seems more focused on fixing the electrical short than actually collecting and identifying the spider species responsible.
There is NO evidence this happens when airbags deploy. Unfortunately. Illustration by Ethan Kocak.
When I first started investigating this story, the general (and horrified) assumption people made was that the airbag exploded, spraying passengers with spiders. Like this illustration:
As awesome as that would be (in MY opinion, anyway), reality is far less interesting. It’s just a short caused by dripping water that makes the airbags misfire.
Spider automotive blockages are not unprecedented. A few years ago Mazda had to recall 65,000 cars because spiders caused vent blockages and fires. In that case the culprit was the Yellow Sac spider:
“Beverly Braga, Product Communications Specialist for Mazda, assured me that yes, there have been 26 confirmed cases in which the webs of yellow sac spider have caused problems by blocking the evaporative canister vent line of certain 2.5-liter four cylinder vehicles.”
Before you panic, Sac spiders normally occur in your garden and are relatively harmless, although they do have an irritating bite. (The term “sac spider” does NOT mean they spin webs in scrotums, which was the alarmed conclusion of one person I talked to. Some of ya’ll have really overly active imaginations.)
Sac Spiders spin tubular webs, an example of which you can see in the image at the top of this post. It’s kind of a sleeping bag affair, in which the spiders hide in the daytime. The web is fairly dense and somewhat water repellent, so it would probably function effectively as a plug in a small drain.
Sac spiders are tiny, usually not bigger than 6mm. They forage at night, so you can see why downward-facing drainage tubes in cars would make a nice daytime retreat for a hunting spider. They certainly are a likely candidate species for the Toyota spider saboteurs.
Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Cars
Itchy yet? You probably have spiders in and around your car all the time. That’s part of living in a biological world. Spiders in cars are a problem primarily when the big apes driving the cars freak out. Just talking about spiders while driving increases driving errors in people who are phobic. There are plenty of accidentreports related to spiders, but I have never found any that actually relate to harm from a spider bite.
It pains me to say it, but I know you won’t all learn to like spiders like I do, and that’s Ok. If you happen to find a spider in your car, go right ahead and scream. But do know that they are not going to hurt you, and stay focused on the road if possible. You don’t have to become a spider-lover; even entomologists can be arachnophobic. I recently found my entire head covered in thick cobwebs after cleaning behind my washing machine. The sound frequency I produced was probably last achieved by Little Richard hitting one of his high notes. Unexpected spiders startle even the most arachnophilic of us.
Practicing calm in the presence of spiders is a good goal. To help you find your Spider Zen, I’ll be celebrating Arachtober, a festival of fall spideryness started by Jenn Foreman Orth a few years ago.
The vast majority of spiders are your friends. They are valuable (and free!) pest control for your garden, home, and car. Unless there is something seriously wrong with your personal hygiene, spiders have no interest in living on you or in you. Share the Road … with spiders.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama on Friday named former Pentagon attorney Jeh Johnson to run the Department of Homeland Security, where the task of securing the nation's borders will give Johnson a central role in the president's immigration reform efforts.
Johnson, now a partner at the law firm of Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, served as general counsel at the Pentagon during Obama's first term. There, he was involved in ending the military's ban on gays serving in the armed forces and in formulating the administration's policy for the use of unmanned drones to strike at enemy targets.
While at the Pentagon, Johnson also worked on counterterrorism, cyber security and disaster response, all of which will be issues he will have to address as head of Homeland Security.
"Jeh has a deep understanding of the threats and challenges facing the United States," Obama said in announcing Johnson's nomination at the White House.
Johnson must win confirmation in the Senate. In an indication of challenges ahead of him, Republican Senator Jeff Sessions of Alabama said Johnson would have to address concerns over management of the sprawling agency and allegations that immigration officers are releasing violent criminals.
"Enforcement has collapsed, offericer morale has plummeted, and the integrity of the entire immigration legal system is in jeopardy," Sessions said in a statement.
A spokesman for Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, the top Republican on the Senate's Homeland Security committee, said on Thursday the next department chief would be expected to bring about reform. Coburn has raised concerns about wasteful spending at the department, including grants for domestic law enforcement agencies used to buy drones for surveillance.
Speaking at the White House, Johnson described how being in Manhattan on September 11, 2001, had motivated him to pursue work in public service.
"I wandered the streets in New York and wondered, and asked, what can I do," he said. "Since then I have tried to devote myself to answer that question."
The Department of Homeland Security was created in response to the 9/11 attacks.
Obama has identified immigration reform a leading priority of the remainder of his second term, and said that he would focus on the issue now that a bruising fight with Congress over reopening government and avoiding default is over.
Obama, who won re-election last year with overwhelming Hispanic backing, had hoped to make reforms easing the plight of the 11 million immigrants who are in the United States illegally.
The Senate passed an immigration overhaul in June, but House of Representatives Republicans are divided over the granting of legal status to those in the country illegally.
(Reporting By Mark Felsenthal; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — A suicide car bomber attacked a small convoy of vehicles Friday near a heavily fortified private residential compound used by hundreds of foreigners on the outskirts of Kabul, killing two passers-by, Afghan officials said.
Inferior Ministry spokesman Sediq Sediqi said a suicide car bomber attacked two vehicles used "by foreigners" near the Green Village compound. There were no reports that the people in the vehicles were injured.
A police official said two civilians passing by the site of the explosion were killed by the blast. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid claimed responsibility for the car bombing and said Green Village was the intended target.
The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force confirmed that a car bomb attack had occurred in Kabul and that "there was one enemy killed as a result of the attack."
"We have no operational reports of ISAF personnel fatalities," it said in a statement.
Small arms fire could be heard after the initial blast, apparently as guards in the industrial zone where the blast occurred started shooting. An Associated Press reporter there saw fire trucks move to extinguish a blaze started by the blast.
Police initially reported that the residential compound was the target of the attack. The camp houses contractors from various countries, European diplomatic personnel and United Nations employees.
It is located on the main highway connecting Kabul to the eastern city of Jalalabad and is surrounded by layers of blast walls and has dozens of armed guards.
Green Village was last attacked by a suicide car bomber and armed attackers on May 2, 2012, and a number of Afghan guards were killed. None of its residents was injured in that assault.
___
Associated Press writer Patrick Quinn contributed to this report.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — With a midnight strike deadline just hours away and public frustration mounting, negotiators for the Bay Area Rapid Transit system and its two unions resumed contract talks Sunday as nervous commuters scouted alternate ways of getting to work.
Members of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1555 and Service Employees International Union Local 1021 have vowed to walk off the job Monday morning if no new labor agreement is reached by midnight.
BART workers went on strike for nearly five days in July and were set to do so again Friday when a cooling-off period ordered by Gov. Jerry Brown ended, but they agreed to negotiate through the weekend.
Nearly 370,000 riders take BART every weekday, and its 104 miles of track make it the nation's fifth-largest commuter rail system.
In a sign of how seriously another shutdown is looming over the region, state lawmakers from the Bay Area and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom dropped by the talks Sunday to encourage the two sides to reach a resolution.
Newsom told reporters he believes a deal is close and can happen Sunday night.
"It would be preposterous for both sides at this stage when you're getting this close to put, at risk, your reputation and the economy of the entire region," he said.
BART and union representatives said in the late afternoon that they were still hopeful a strike could be averted.
Sticking points in the 6-month-old negotiations include salaries and workers' contributions to their health and pension plans. BART workers currently pay $92 a month for health care and contribute nothing toward their pensions — generous benefits BART management is seeking to curtail.
The unions, which represent 2,375 mechanics, custodians, station agents, train operators and clerical workers, want a raise of nearly 12 percent over three years, while BART has proposed a 10 percent increase over four years. Workers from the two unions now average about $71,000 in base salary and $11,000 in overtime annually, BART said.
Labor leaders also are pressing demands to make stations safer, such as better lighting in tunnels, bulletproof glass in agents' booths and improved restroom access.
BART spokeswoman Alicia Trost said the negotiating teams met separately and face-to-face Sunday while reviewing and fine-tuning their respective proposals.
No details on the latest offers or the pace of progress were released, however, at the mediator's request.
If a strike is called for Monday, BART is planning to offer free bus trips between San Francisco and the East Bay, and ferry service to the city would be expanded. But people who travel on the system's north-to-south routes in the East Bay would be stranded, and freeway traffic is expected become snarled as more commuters opt to take cars.
Pacific ocean temperature influences tornado activity in US, MU study finds
Public release date: 17-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: Christian Basi basic@missouri.edu 573-882-4430 University of Missouri-Columbia
COLUMBIA, Mo. Meteorologists often use information about warm and cold fronts to determine whether a tornado will occur in a particular area. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found that the temperature of the Pacific Ocean could help scientists predict the type and location of tornado activity in the U.S.
Laurel McCoy, an atmospheric science graduate student at the MU School of Natural Resources, and Tony Lupo, professor and chair of atmospheric science in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, surveyed 56,457 tornado-like events from 1950 to 2011. They found that when surface sea temperatures were warmer than average, the U.S. experienced 20.3 percent more tornados that were rated EF-2 to EF-5 on the Enhanced Fuijta (EF) scale. (The EF scale rates the strength of tornados based on the damage they cause. The scale has six category rankings from zero to five.)
McCoy and Lupo found that the tornados that occurred when surface sea temperatures were above average were usually located to the west and north of tornado alley, an area in the Midwestern part of the U.S. that experiences more tornados than any other area. McCoy also found that when sea surface temperatures were cooler, more tornadoes tracked from southern states, like Alabama, into Tennessee, Illinois and Indiana.
"Differences in sea temperatures influence the route of the jet stream as it passes over the Pacific and, eventually, to the United States," McCoy said. "Tornado-producing storms usually are triggered by, and will follow, the jet stream. This helps explain why we found a rise in the number of tornados and a change in their location when sea temperatures fluctuated."
In the study, McCoy and Lupo examined the relationship between tornadoes and a climate phenomenon called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). PDO phases, which were discovered in the mid-1990s, are long-term temperature trends that can last up to 30 years. According to NASA scientists, the current PDO phase has just entered into a "cool" state.
"PDO cool phases are characterized by a cool wedge of lower than normal sea-surface ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific and a warm horseshoe pattern of higher than normal sea-surface temperatures extending into the north, west and southern Pacific," McCoy said. "In the warm phase, which lasted from 1977 to 1999, the west Pacific Ocean became cool and the wedge in the east was warm."
In 2011, more than 550 deaths occurred as a result of tornadoes, resulting in more than $28 billion in property damage, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. McCoy says that with her findings, officials may be able to save lives in the future.
"Now that we know the effects of PDO cool and warm phases, weather forecasters have another tool to predict dangerous storms and inform the public of impending weather conditions," McCoy said.
The research will be presented at the National Weather Association Conference this fall.
###
[
| E-mail
| Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Pacific ocean temperature influences tornado activity in US, MU study finds
Public release date: 17-Oct-2013
[
| E-mail
| Share
]
Contact: Christian Basi basic@missouri.edu 573-882-4430 University of Missouri-Columbia
COLUMBIA, Mo. Meteorologists often use information about warm and cold fronts to determine whether a tornado will occur in a particular area. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found that the temperature of the Pacific Ocean could help scientists predict the type and location of tornado activity in the U.S.
Laurel McCoy, an atmospheric science graduate student at the MU School of Natural Resources, and Tony Lupo, professor and chair of atmospheric science in the College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources, surveyed 56,457 tornado-like events from 1950 to 2011. They found that when surface sea temperatures were warmer than average, the U.S. experienced 20.3 percent more tornados that were rated EF-2 to EF-5 on the Enhanced Fuijta (EF) scale. (The EF scale rates the strength of tornados based on the damage they cause. The scale has six category rankings from zero to five.)
McCoy and Lupo found that the tornados that occurred when surface sea temperatures were above average were usually located to the west and north of tornado alley, an area in the Midwestern part of the U.S. that experiences more tornados than any other area. McCoy also found that when sea surface temperatures were cooler, more tornadoes tracked from southern states, like Alabama, into Tennessee, Illinois and Indiana.
"Differences in sea temperatures influence the route of the jet stream as it passes over the Pacific and, eventually, to the United States," McCoy said. "Tornado-producing storms usually are triggered by, and will follow, the jet stream. This helps explain why we found a rise in the number of tornados and a change in their location when sea temperatures fluctuated."
In the study, McCoy and Lupo examined the relationship between tornadoes and a climate phenomenon called the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). PDO phases, which were discovered in the mid-1990s, are long-term temperature trends that can last up to 30 years. According to NASA scientists, the current PDO phase has just entered into a "cool" state.
"PDO cool phases are characterized by a cool wedge of lower than normal sea-surface ocean temperatures in the eastern Pacific and a warm horseshoe pattern of higher than normal sea-surface temperatures extending into the north, west and southern Pacific," McCoy said. "In the warm phase, which lasted from 1977 to 1999, the west Pacific Ocean became cool and the wedge in the east was warm."
In 2011, more than 550 deaths occurred as a result of tornadoes, resulting in more than $28 billion in property damage, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. McCoy says that with her findings, officials may be able to save lives in the future.
"Now that we know the effects of PDO cool and warm phases, weather forecasters have another tool to predict dangerous storms and inform the public of impending weather conditions," McCoy said.
The research will be presented at the National Weather Association Conference this fall.
###
[
| E-mail
| Share
]
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_sOcqemvZVw2oJblzE1t5Gu-ug9nMU5ScXznAzF3oYg3cRzjqhYDteGgU_x0asXBnxeIL-dQb0D3eR4n0qAvZU7DLgfmRbsi1yc3_aThGY=s0-d){kind=small}
Share