Zipped Up

http://www.phillyprolive.com/herfavorite/

The girlie girl in me cannot wait!

Movie Trailers - Movies Blog

Conan O'Brien Blowing $1.5 million in 60 seconds!

University of Massachusetts Boston-Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program

UMASS has a Post Baccalaureate Achievement Program that is called the Ronald E. McNair Program. The program is federally funded and undergraduate students who are low income, first generation college students, from an underrepresented group wanting to pursue doctoral studies are encouraged to apply to this program. The program focuses on those undergraduates whose majors include: Biology, Chemistry, Math, Computer Science, Physics, Psychology, Anthropology, Nursing or Environmental/Earth and Ocean Science. 


Being a McNair scholar affords students the following privileges:

• a tuition waiver
• a stipend of $2800 per academic year
• workshops on selecting graduate schools, preparing applications
• GRE preparation, guidance through graduate application process
• travel to professional conferences
• a faculty mentor
• graduate student mentor
• loaner laptop

This program has been in existence for about 17 years and has been successful in helping students capitalize on graduate opportunities. If you would like to be part of this program go to the University of Mass Boston campus, Science Building 2nd floor room 60A to pick up an application or download one at http://www.mcnair.umb.edu/. If you should have any questions call Millicent Riggins the program coordinator at (617) 287-5780.

Good luck!

Save Your Home From Foreclosure-Mortage Modification

If the above sign is your next stop you need to take the necessary precautions and make a detour for yourself and your family. Even if you are in the process of foreclosure, are behind with your mortgage a couple payments,  you or your spouse has recently lost his/her job-you may still be eligible to save your home and dignity by modifying your mortgage in the following ways:

·  Reduce your monthly payment

·  Reduce fixed interest rate

·  Reduce your principal amount

·  Sell your residence fast if necessary

·  Save your home and stop foreclosure entirely

The majority of non-profits are too overwhelmed to assist people in foreclosure due to the present economic climate, another safe and confidential way is to work with a loss mitigation specialist who will negotiate directly with your lender to lower your monthly payments. This is NOT a scam: YFE does not work in that capacity, and these are not interest only loans-the government is giving incentives to home owners in these programs until 2011 so don't sleep on this program. If you or anyone you know is interested in learning more about this program, has questions or is ready to try and save your home contact Joe Phillips at jpjmichael@yahoo.com and click here for the Integrity Mortgage Modification website. 


*YFE does not guarantee you will be approved for any mortgage modification programs and assumes no liability. This post is for informational purposes only.*


FYI: This is our 100th post!!! AYE!

Jay Electronica-Exhibit A Video Trailer....I Cannot Wait

Wyclef's Tearful Plea

Exhibit C Live-Jay Electronica, Talib Kweli, Mos Def, & Diddy

August 28, 1963

What Pop Music Should Sound Like...

Last night while at Harper's Ferry on Commonwealth Ave in Allston I was impatiently waiting for Wale to take the stage. Since I had arrived all together too early my patience was wearing on me, and the opening acts were not only terrible they were damn near unbearable. One band whose name for the life of me I can't remember, although I was sober, came on stage and announced they were from the Prospect Hill section of Lawrence (blank stare). The one who screamed this confession was dressed in a bathrobe (blank stare), the music that proceeded this announcement was nothing more than semi-organized noise.

Then these kids came on stage, I had never heard of them until last night and they are from Boston and go by the name of the "Bad Rabbits". I knew they were serious when the DJ booth was taken away and a live band began to set themselves up. They came on stage with an outstanding amount of energy and genuinely seemed to be having fun performing. The live band sounded pretty good and the lead singer was hitting impressive notes. Below watch video of clips of them performing, it was so nice to finally have some refreshing, original, and talented musicians from Boston take the stage. These kids are just one AnR away from making a huge break, really. I downloaded their album today and I cannot tell you how impressed I am with this band. They are worth a listen and are what pop music should sound like.

Peace & Progress

Stephi's on Tremont

On an impromptu lunch with my father the other day I decided we should try Stephi's on Tremont St. in the South End. I hadn't heard great things about Stephanie's on Newbury therefore, I was a little hesitant but figured what the hell. It was buzzing at around 1:30pm when we arrived but we were seated right away at the above pictured booth (very comfortable and chic if I may add). It was a Friday so everyone was drinking during lunch, although it appeared to be full of professionals and entrepreneurs having meetings. We ordered Lime Rickey's to start and their salty pretzel crusted crab cakes, my father enjoyed the crab cakes and said they were better than those he had recently had on a trip to Maryland, I was shocked. For our main course I had the pecan tempura chicken sandwich (lightly battered breast of chicken with house made guacamole and buttermilk ranch, served on brioche bun with french fries) and my father had a grilled chicken caesar salad. My sandwich was unbelievably delicious; I was completely caught off guard and surprised. My father's salad was fresh and made to order not to mention the Lime Rickey's were made just right. We skipped on dessert since I had to return to work but I will be sure to try next time. The service was pretty good considering how busy the restaurant seemed to be and the bathrooms were clean. With that I give this place a definite two thumbs up and it is deserving of exploring dinner and brunch....happy eating!

http://www.stephisontremont.com/index.html

What is Good Para La Noche?

DJ QUESTLOVE comes to BU CENTRAL on January 16th aka TONIGHT!!

Can you think of a better way to start 2010? Ummmm, hell no. 

Doors: 8:30 PM

THE BEATARDS: 9:00 - 9:30 PM

DJ QUESTLOVE: 9:45-12:45 AM

DJ QUESTLOVE WILL BE SPINNING FOR 3 HOURS! Don't miss this!

This event is FREE and for BU STUDENTS ONLY.

If you have any questions, please e-mail us at buc@bu.edu or click here for event details click here.

Ya man Wale (Wale voice) will also be here tonight at Harpers Ferry in Allston www.harpersferryboston.com  doors open at 8pm. I'll be in attendance so if you swing by say what up. It will be my first time seeing the kid and hopefully it's a good show. Click here to purchase tickets to  tonight's concert. 

RAHEEM AOOOWWWWW-Mr. February aka March Madness the latest mixtape

Mr. February Mixtape is here and we could not be anymore excited! Let me know what you think, I'm curious.

The Mixtape:

1.) Intro
2.) I'm Good ft. Phil Ade
3.) Pretty Girls- Wale ft. Phil Ade and Raheem DeVaughn
4.) Bonita Applebum Remix (Produced by Supreme)
5.) Know What I Mean
6.) Take Home Remix- XO ft. Phil Ade and Raheem DeVaughn
7.) Slow Love (Slow Dance Remix)8.) Fever Tabi Bonney ft. Raheem DeVaughn
9.) Re-Invented Sex
10.) West Coast Love
11.) Never Too Much (Remake)
12.) Die For You (Remake)
13.) Lying To Myself
14.) Solider Of Love Remix Sade ft. Raheem DeVaughn
15.) PSA
16.) Village Ghetto Land (Remake) 17.) Birthday Cake
18.) Redemption Song (Remake)19.)We Are DJ Jazzy Jeff ft. Cy Young and Raheem DeVaughn
20.) We Are One (Remake)
21.) Love Experience Remix Pt. 2 ft. Omar Retnuh - Urban Ave 31
22.) Until (Unplugged Live Version)23.) Outro PSA

Click HERE if you want to download.

Racist About Helping

Someone forwarded this article on to me and I found it particularly appropriate and applicable to what is now going on in Haiti and the response that some people are having to the United States helping a nation full of "black people" like Haiti. It is unfortunate that the response was not as swift when Hurricane Katrina hit NOLA, but I feel the world is trying to get it right and the United States (at least under the Obama administration) will not allow such a slow response on their watch again.


Study shows people's racial biases can skew perceptions of how much help victims need when assessing the amount of help someone needs, people's perceptions can be skewed by their racial biases, according to a Kansas State University study.


Donald Saucier, K-State associate professor of psychology, and psychology graduate students Sara Smith, Topeka, and Jessica McManus, Maineville, Ohio, surveyed undergraduate students a year after Hurricane Katrina to examine their perceptions of the hurricane victims and the helping response.


The researchers created a questionnaire that evaluated the participants' perceptions of Hurricane Katrina victims. The questionnaire evaluated whom the participants perceived to be the victims based on measures like gender, race and socioeconomic status. The results showed that participants generally thought people impacted by Hurricane Katrina were black and lower class.



"What we wanted to do was see how perceptions of victims of Hurricane Katrina would interact with things like racism," Saucier said. "We wanted to look at how much the participants felt that the victims may have been to blame for their own situation in Katrina."


The researchers measured differences in the participants, including their levels of conservatism, empathy and racism. The findings showed that when recalling victims of Hurricane Katrina, participants who were less racist thought the victims did not receive adequate help from the government. Participants who were more racist thought the victims received adequate government assistance and were at fault for their situation. The survey also asked questions that measured whether the participants thought the victims had enough time to evacuate and whether they had enough resources to get out before the hurricane hit.



"We asked the participants to make personality attributions about individuals, such as whether they thought the victims were lazy, stupid, sinful or unlucky," Saucier said. "If they said they were lazy, stupid or sinful, they were putting more blame on the victims for the situation. If they said they were unlucky, they took away the blame."


The results suggest that perceptions of the victims and the Hurricane Katrina situation depended on the participants' individual differences, including their levels of racism. Negative perceptions and placing blame on the victims were generally associated with the participants' perceptions that the situation was less of an emergency and that the victims needed less help.


Saucier said although the findings can't fix what happened to the victims, the study helps show how people interpret the situation. He said when something negative happens, people often evaluate the situation and see whether they can fix it, and sometimes they avoid the situation by blaming the victim.


The researchers study the effects of group membership, and groups can be categorized in various ways, including by gender, race and socioeconomic status. Studies show there are specific factors that cause someone to help a member of their own group more than others. In helping situations, discrimination is often expressed by not giving help to those of a different group than the helper, Saucier said.


"Rather than doing something bad, the person who chooses not to help the out-group member fails to do something good," Saucier said. "I think this illustrates the complexity of how prejudice is expressed in contemporary society despite the social norms that usually serve to suppress the expression of prejudice."


Saucier said discrimination is often expressed only when other factors are present that would justify the action and rationalize it as something other than an expression of prejudice. Factors that contribute to the justification of not helping someone include the time it would take to help; the risk, effort, difficulty and financial cost involved; the distance between the potential helper and the person needing help; the level of emergency and the ambiguity of the helping situation.


The researchers said the Hurricane Katrina situation had several elements that studies show trigger acts of discrimination, such as a high cost of help, a high level of emergency and a large amount of time and effort required to help. The researchers are exploring other helping situations and how other group memberships affect the helping response.


"We want to examine how the perception of someone that you're going to be helping is going to affect your perception of how much help they need and how much help you'll want to give," Saucier said.


Though it's unlikely that researchers can fix the beliefs and attitudes that lead to discrimination, studies are being done to try to change the behavior that is expressed when related to discrimination, Saucier said.


The researchers' findings on Hurricane Katrina victims are included in a chapter about discrimination against out-group members in helping situations in "The Psychology of Prosocial Behavior: Group processes, intergroup relations and helping," published in September 2009.


"You will not be forsaken, you will not be forgotten."-President Barack Obama

Really???

I'm not quite sure what to say about this video, other than its perplexing and as I sit here I have a confused look on my face. I certainly have no clue what Pat Robertson is talking about here, and it is aggravating that the young lady to his left just nods her head in ignorant agreement. At approximately 1:19 Pat discusses how "prosperous, healthy, [and] full of resorts" the Dominican Republic is: that statement could not be any further from the truth. The last time I visited the Dominican Republic it was still a third world country; with a corrupt police force, outlaws, lack of electricity, no proper sewage system in some parts, and no hot water to bathe-Pat has obviously only visited the resorts in Punta Cana. But enough of what I think...what are your thoughts?

Help Haiti!

Less prayers, more help!

I was not impressed with the job that the Red Cross did in NOLA when hurricane Katrina hit, so I have decided to donate to another venue: Wyclef Jean established an intermittent earthquake fund site at www.yele.org. You can also donate by using your cell phone to text “Yele” to 501501, which will automatically donate $5 to the Yele Haiti Earthquake Fund (it will be charged to your cell phone bill).

If you are local and in the Boston area here are a few places where you can find assistance/resources, volunteer or make donations:

• Mayor Menino has opened a Haitian Relief Center at SEIU Local 1199 located at 150 Mount Vernon St in Dorchester. The Center opens its doors tomorrow, Thursday, January 14th from 9am-9pm and will remain open depending on need and escalation of the situation in Haiti. The center will provide translators, crisis councilors, computers, and phone lines for local families trying to find out more information about loved ones and trying to get in contact with family. For more information contact the Center directly by calling (617) 284-1199.

• The Haitian Adult Day Health Center located at 9 Livingston St in Dorchester is accepting clothing donations for the earthquake victims for more information contact them at (617) 288-4155.

Embassy’s Consular Task Force 509-2229-8942
Doctors Without Borders
Oxfam
UNICEF

YFE Is Looking for Some Creativity

I am looking for a whole new look for YFE. That is why I decided the best way to find some talent was to reach out to you, our readers. I'm looking for a Graphic Designer, with some formal education and training to redesign our website and create a logo for us. Someone who is familiar with CSS as the next platform I want to have will be Wordpress. I am on a strict minimal budget (blogging is no get rich quick program) and would like this process to be as painless and professional as possible. I will need to see examples of some previous work and will need to be in receipt of a formal bid with specifications. If you are interested in taking on this project and working with YFE please email me at milyna@youngflyeducated.com there will be additional benefits besides compensation. Help me help you get your name out!

This just maybe THE Jacket

This piece of art was designed by Christopher Bailey of Burberry exclusively for Colete . I may need to take a trip to France for this gem. I'm in LOVE.

Raheem Devaughn Spins Trey Songz & Blesses Us With 'Re-Invented Sex'

Raheem Devaughn's new mixtape is going to be released on January 15th, 2010 and it is called Mr. February (but I have heard rumors that it may be called The Art of Noise as well). This mixtape is a prelude to his album which is going to be released February 16th, it is going to be called The Love and War Masterpeace . I am currently on the edge of my seat with anticipation, as The Love Experience album was the best album in the last decade, in my opinion. I saw him live a couple of years ago for the first time at Berkeley (in a blizzard mind you) and he was on time and sensational!

Peace& Progress

OH THE IRONY!

Unless you have been under a rock, you have heard about what Rush Limbaugh thinks about the healthcare reform bill: it’s nothing but a bunch of "socialism" *gasp now*. And in the above video you will hear him gloat about how wonderful he was treated by security, the medical staff, and he also mentions how he received no special treatment. Although, the last time I went to the emergency I wasn't given a security detail and I'm better looking than he is! Rush suggests that the state of our present health care system is just "dandy" and easily accessible to all. NO Rush, the present state of our health care system is not dandy: it's deplorable! Of course, healthcare is going to be easily accessible when you make approximately $32 million per year! Deep down inside I couldn't be happier that Rush has survived another encounter with evil socialist Hawaiian healthcare. By admitting that there is nothing wrong with the healthcare in the United States he inadvertently admitted that Hawaii is part of the United States, I hope the Tea Baggers are okay with that =).

Talib Kweli X Hi Tek =Reflection Eternal

They are finally baaaccckkkkk!!! Click here to download the free mixtape. My favorite song is Just Begun ft. Jay Electronica, Jay Cole, and Mos Def. This album is fire, that's all I can say about that!

Colossal Waste of Money

http://www.burjdubai.com/

I was disgusted that an opening ceremony was held for this disgusting display of phallicism. I cannot believe that even though the economy in Dubai is in shambles from the splurging they did in the first place (think indoor ski sloops and Tiger Woods Dubai, see picture below) that they went ahead with this waste of a project. Dubai is making claims that this mixed use building is 90% sold and/or leased. According to reports the skyscraper is a half -mile-high, contains 160 stories and cost $1.5 billion to build.

This "thing" has been hailed as the tallest building in the world. Ironically, a few weeks ago I was just reading that officials in Dubai were trying to "defer" loan/mortgage payments because they hadn't realized profits for the useless structures they had built and couldn't afford the payments for, who would have figured *insert sarcasm here*? It is so sad to see this type of spectacle made out of Dubai, but they have no one to blame but themselves. The government clearly has a "build now, plan later" mentality that is not proven to be a key ingredient in longevity or economic stability.  What I really want to know is if all this Arab money has the answers to what the people who work in these gross tourist attractions will do when the ride is over.

http://www.tigerwoodsdubai.com/

Apple Set To Release "iSlate"

Rumored to be called the iSlate, Apple is supposed to announce the release date of this multimedia tablet device at the end of January. According to a report released by the Wall Street Journal today Apple will begin shipping the "iSlate" some time in March. The specifications of the device aren't clear because of how secretive Apple is but according to the tabloids the screen is supposed to be an OLED (organic light-emitting diode) screen ranging anywhere from 10 to 11 inches. The price of this soon to be hot product is anyone's guess: I have seen technology blogs hypothesizing that the price will be anywhere between $1000 to $3000, that's quite a range. I'm thinking that this device will be equivalent to a large iPhone without the phone component. What do you think? 

Mos Def X Talib Kweli= 'History' Video

Forgive me guys, I've been on such a music kick lately and could not resist giving you a little slice of life with the new Black Star collaboration. This 'History' video is classic Mos swagger and the details are discretely embedded in it. In my opinion, the video successfully gets the lyrics' message across. Enjoy!

HAPPY NEW YEAR! My First Gift to You-'On To The Next One'

This video is definitely off beat from Jay-Z's other videos, being a black and white video and more artistic than what he is usually accustomed to putting out. I hit the blogasphere running this morning and it seems that people are reading too much into this video and making comments about the Illuminati and Jesus returning to earth. I do not believe that it is that serious or that Jay would try to get that deep in four minutes and fifteen seconds but I will agree that it is a "dark" video. There is obviously a lot of play with the number 3, hence, BP3 (Blue Print 3). This is the first video of the new decade....what do YOU think?