0 Start-up Acceleration

A new program called New Media Entrepreneurship Accelerator Program has been started in order to advance the start-ups of minority owned and led technology companies.

image credit: Frerieke

The program promises some pretty sweet deals for the start-ups including one-on-one mentorships, dinners with some of the most respected technology giants in Silicon Valley, and the chance to demonstrate the start-up, all opportunities to showcase it and attract investors.

At this time in the US economic history, this is invaluable help for people who have always wanted out of the 9-5 rat race and innovate their way out of the vicious cycle that employment had become in the 21st Century.

Unfortunately, the program has already picked the participants for their first session for the summer, with 5 selected and 2 community voted companies, but hopefully it will not be the only session that will exist and other companies will be able to participate in this program.

For more information about the program, please visit their website at www.newmeaccelerator.com

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0 Bad News

image credit

Big news today, cellphones may be carcinogenic to humans.

WHAT?!

Yup! The sweet gadget you wear proudly on your hip, or hold tenderly in your hands or whip out to impress someone may very soon be linked to CANCER. I know that word brings the fear of Goliath into my heart, I'm not quite sure about you.

In our modern view of cancer, images of suffering come to mind. The pain, the expensive treatment, the complications that may follow and the looming threat of death. While many cancers are treatable, the one being referred to in the article released by WHO, a glioma, typically grows in the spine or in the brain where glial cells can be found. It is a malignant cancer, which basically means it is the killing kind and it is very rarely curable.

A 2010 survey showed that women of color were the greatest users of cell phones in the United States and with the incredible proliferation of cell phone usage in Africa, which recently surpassed the number of cell phones purchased in Europe, we know that even more people of color around the World are using cell phones to communicate with one another.

According to the WHO/International Agency for Research on Cancer IARC that included 31 scientists from 14 different countries that met in Lyon, France, exposure to the non-ionizing radiofrequency electromagnectic fields produced by cell phones increases the risk of cancer. This poses a serious public health concern since there are estimated to be well over 5 billion cell phone users globally and rising quickly. Of course more research needs to be conducted, and conducted quickly so that the proper measures are taken.

So what does this mean for you? Cell phones have become vital to the convenience of our lives. A single text message routed to friends and relatives on the other side of the World lets them know you are thinking about them. Cell phone use was responsible for bringing us up to date information from the ground this past February as we watched Africa's second largest economic power relieve themselves of an oppressive dictatorship. We need our cell phones to find out if the restaurant we want to visit is open, but there are ways to use it and reduce the amount of exposure to the electromagnetic waves.

1. Purchase a pair of ear pieces (no blue tooth gadgets either. They are just as bad).
2. Purchase a phone that will allow you to have a conversation via speaker-phone.
3. Turn off your cellphone whenever there is a stretch of time that you will not be using it.
4. Put your cellphone in airplane mode so it does not continue to search for a connection to a tower.
5. When you are not using it, keep your cellphone away from your body.

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0 Reading Faster?

If you have ever spoken to someone who cannot read, or allowed yourself to learn a language written without the English alphabet then you understand the magic of reading. Looking at symbols that convey a message that seems like a secret message until you learn to unlock the secret.

We learnt how to read back in elementary school and although we had to practice it in school, studies are now showing that most of us never improve our reading speed or comprehension skills past the sixth grade! One comparison I read said if you played piano for 12 years but every time you played you sounded like you'd just started your lessons, it would seem very strange.

So why are we not keen on learning to read faster or increasing our comprehension of whatever we read?

Here is a speed reading test to find out what your Words Per Minute (WPM) and comprehension are.

Here is an internet website where you can practice to speed read.

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0 Creative Resumes

It seems that everywhere we look people are falling out of employment into the unemployment line. Everyone starts out very optimistic, looking online for jobs, reformatting their resumes and calling up random companies from the phone book to see if they have any job openings.

This may seem a little outlandish, but depending on the field in which you find yourself, a resume can be something different from the usual Microsoft Word templates that are familiar to us all. I recall the scene in Legally Blonde, when Elle pulled out her pink resume that had been printed on scented paper.

Is that the way you should go? Probably not if you're applying to be a Construction Manager on a major construction project, but consider it if you're taking in your application to a beauty Salon.

You may consider using colorful children's blocks and teddy bears if your resume is going to a Kindergarten, or an AutoCad drawing of a building you designed in College (or designed recently) if you're applying to work for an Architect or engineer. Whatever your field is, if you are creative with your resume, it cannot harm your chances for employment in an economy as tough as this one and makes you stand out from the crowd.

Take a look at some of the samples I've found on the Internet.

mmahgoub

....

Emilie Ogez

bananas-web

mistis

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0 Google Science Fair

I'm a certifiably GOOGLEFIED! In the past, if you asked me which company I wanted to work for I would have had to say GOOGLE! The reason why it excited me was because they accepted the most creative minds and sought creative one-of-a-kind solutions to internet based problems we've all faced. That's why they are the biggest!

Anyway, enough of my google-praise.

President Obama and various other educators have said that the only way America is going to move forward is if we wholeheartedly put ourselves behind fostering creativity in our children. I agree.

Creativity is what has created some of the most fascinating technological achievements of our time. One guy put wires into his body, connecting them to the nerves that went to his brain to see if he could control a robotic arm. What if he could send those kinds of messages wirelessly to a receiver on the other side of the globe? Could the events of the 2009 Bruce Willis Movie Surrogates be just around the corner?

Here is a chance to involve your child in a very creative endeavor for their own future and possibly the future of the World. Engage them in a discussion about science and what they could do for Google Science Fair. Check out the rules, make your submissions and see what happens!

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0 Online Chat

In 2004 I went through a terrible breakup. I had been completely consumed with the relationship that I failed to properly maintain my friendships. As a result I found myself without a shoulder to cry on and a completely empty life.

After picking myself up from the floor and changing stuff around, I decided to venture into online communities and threw myself 100% into the experience.

The result of that has been some really strong reliable friendships that have stood the test of time and (more importantly) my weird neuroses.

My mission has become one that encourages people to develop healthy relationships with other people online who may (or may not) be different from yourself. Learn something new, understand another person's perspective and allow yourself to fully enjoy the process of discovering another human being. It enforces the humanity in all of us.

So in line with that mission I bring you TinyChat.com where you can video chat with people you know, discover communities geared towards you own interests and discover new things about someone else.


Enjoy!

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0 Online Gaming: Assassin in Training

My friend and I were reminiscing and ended up talking about the dreams we had as young girls. We both wanted to be in espionage. She wanted to be an assassin. I just wanted to be like all the cool characters in Robert Ludlum and Jeffery Archer's novels. There was never any question in my mind that I could do it and I walked around the house making small notes about stuff I noticed and things I'd seen.


So imagine my elation at finding this game on the internet! Think you can play along and be part of an elite group of assassins? Enjoy!

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0 We Can Do ANYTHING!

Two African American women from Spelman College were the 2010 winners of the AT&T Big Mobile Challenge last October.

It is not often that African American women see positive images of themselves in popular media. More often they are engaged in street brawls with each other, half naked in some music video or pregnant in line at the Welfare Office. If one only paid attention to these kinds of images, then it would be difficult to imagine that there are those who are high achievers bent on sitting at the big desk with the boys.

Enter Jonecia Keels and Jazmine Miller, Computer Engineering students at Spelman College.

They created an app called HBCU Buddy that allows the user to research HBCUs and their surrounding areas. Learn more about it from the link above.

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0 Technology: eReaders

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past two years you have heard of eReaders. The nifty electronic devices that were introduced in 2007, starting with the Kindle, translate eBooks into readable portable formats.

The raging argument on the internet has been whether this new format of reading books will destroy the publishing industry as we understand it. It is safe to say that the publishing moguls will modify their advertising strategies, if indeed readers get turned on to eBooks and eReaders.

A popular ad in magazines claims that eReaders cannot kill magazines because instant coffee did not kill regular coffee. In the same vein one could argue that cell phones did not kill home phone lines even though more households have cell phones than they do phone lines.

No matter what the case is, it will be interesting to think what the people in 2035 think about eReaders. 

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