Angelou celebrates black history with Oprah, Keys

WASHINGTON (AP) ? In the midst of talking black history with Grammy-winning singer Alicia Keys, Maya Angelou breaks out singing a hymn a cappella.

The acclaimed poet and author wants to show Keys, a New Yorker, what "lining out," call-and-response singing that is popular in black churches down South, sounds like.

That teaching moment is one of many during Angelou's third annual Black History Month program, "Telling Our Stories," airing on more than 175 public radio stations nationwide throughout February.

Angelou says she is obligated to share her knowledge and experience with younger people like Keys, in a way that is not "preaching" but gives context to the "human truth."

"We owe the truth, not just the facts," she said recently in a phone interview from her home in Winston-Salem, N.C. "I'm celebrating my 84th year on this planet. I've seen many things, I've learned many things. I've certainly been exposed to many things and I've learned something: I owe it to you, to tell you."

Angelou said she is sharing black history in "a way that you get it and don't even know you got it," with songs, poems, jokes and short stories woven throughout interviews with five guests, including Keys, media mogul Oprah Winfrey, singer and actress Jennifer Hudson, diplomat Kofi Annan and actress and playwright Regina Taylor.

Keys talks about growing up in New York's Hell's Kitchen and how the diverse city influenced her sound. The performer, who began studying European classical music at the age of 7, said her influences range from the greats like Ella Fitzgerald, John Coltrane and Nina Simone to chart-topping peers like rappers Nas and Jay-Z.

Winfrey chats with Angelou during the special about their close friendship spanning over two decades, starting the Oprah Winfrey Network and her return to acting in the Lee Daniel's film "The Butler."

"One of the wonderful things about Oprah: She teaches you to keep on stepping," Angelou said. "She had the most powerful and popular program for 25 years and she stepped down and took on a bigger task, starting OWN."

Angelou added, "She teaches the young people: Keep on going, continue and continue with some pizazz, some laughter and some style."

Angelou interviews Hudson, an Oscar and Grammy winner, about her journey from singing in her Chicago church choir to performing at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert in Norway last year; and Taylor, a Golden Globe-winning actress and playwright who was the first black woman to play Juliet in William Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet" on Broadway.

This year's special mostly focuses on women in media and entertainment, and heavily uses music to convey history.

"I think music is one of the hero/sheroes of the African-American existence," Angelou said, noting that black history has been preserved through music, via songs on slave ships to Negro hymns passed down in Baptist churches.

The single man spotlighted as a guest on the radio program is Annan, the former secretary-general of the United Nations and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. He talks about climbing the ranks in diplomacy and his mission of public service.

"Mr. Kofi Annan has behaved too fabulously as secretary-general of the United Nations and he's had more than one stint at the job and he has earned a Nobel," she said. "Sometimes we don't know about any African except Nelson Mandela and oft times, we don't know any Afro-American man."

Angelou jokes that next year she will feature all men for the annual special, with rapper Common already in mind.

"Or mostly men, because there are men of such quality ? African-American men ? such riches, such dignity and humor," she said. "They just run through my mind now."

Another man who brings Angelou great pride is Richard Blanco, the youngest, the first Hispanic and the first gay person to recite a poem at a presidential inauguration ? last month at President Barack Obama's second swearing-in. Angelou was the first black woman to recite a poem at an inauguration, President Bill Clinton's in 1993.

"He showed great courage," she said of Blanco, "and it's courage (that) is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently. So I was very pleased with that."

___

Online:

http://mayaangelouonpublicradio.com

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/angelou-celebrates-black-history-oprah-keys-083304228.html

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Hangover Helper: Soup Dumplings from Dim Sum Garden in ...

[Photographs: Hawk Krall]

When you think of great soup dumplings, Philadelphia doesn't immediately spring to mind. But this grimy looking spot (at least on the outside) under a parking garage and next to the recently closed Chinatown Bus Station is one of the best hangover dining options in the city. Philly has some good dim sum palaces around the corner in Chinatown, where the lines stretch down the block on weekends, but the blazing neon red decoration and carts slamming into the back of your chair might not do too much to help your hangover.

Dim Sum Garden's no frills atmosphere and attentive, no-nonsense service is perfect for sweating out a few bottles of bourbon, and the food is amazing, whether you're in pain or not.

Mapo Tofu and greens sauteed with garlic are both must-orders: the tofu just hot enough, the greens bright and still slightly crunchy for some much needed vegetables to counteract the 17 beers and 3 a.m. tacos from the night before. The cold cucumber, slightly sweet with rice wine marinade, is refreshing and costs about 3 dollars. I could eat it every day.

But this place is really about the dumplings. All of the different varieties are hand made, usually in the dining room, and all are delicious, but the pork Xiao Long Bao, known as "Juicy Buns" on the menu, will blow your mind. Piping hot, each pouch is filled with fatty, rich broth that rivals some of the more intense ramen I've had, plus juicy knobs of pork. After about four of these, you'll be ready to go back to bed.

Dim Sum Garden

59 N 11th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19107 (map); 215-627-0218

Hawk Krall is a Philadelphia-based illustrator who has a serious thing for hot dogs. Dig his dog drawings? Many of the illustrations he has created for Hot Dog of the Week are available for sale: hawkkrall.net/prints/.

Source: http://drinks.seriouseats.com/2013/02/hangover-helper-best-soup-dumplings-philadelphia-dim-sum-garden-11th-st.html

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Will you want the new BlackBerry?

Rosa Golijan , NBC News ? ? ? 1 hr.

We've referred to BlackBerry 10, the latest operating system released by Research in Motion (now known as BlackBerry), as the company's last hope. It's do or die, make or break, claim a hefty serving of the smartphone market or settle for a few crumbs. But setting aside all that pressure and drama, let's focus on what's important now: Will you actually want to buy a smartphone running BlackBerry 10?

Yes, no ? and maybe so.

The first device to run BlackBerry 10 is the Z10, an all-touch smartphone. Yes, you did read that right: The physical keyboard, a defining BlackBerry feature, is gone. Sure, it'll reappear with the Q10 ? the more traditional-looking of the first two BlackBerry 10 devices ? but that isn't expected to be available until April or so. For now, we can merely judge BlackBerry based on one device ... one that's a dramatic departure from the company's modus operandi.

Physically speaking, the Z10 is a beautiful device. It doesn't have some sort of flashy or daring design. Instead it's simple and unadorned, like a classy little black dress that'll seldom look out of place or out of style. Whenever I'd hand the Z10 to someone for the first time, he or she would remark that it feels a great deal like an iPhone. Take that however you will, but I see it as a good thing.

As far as the device's guts go, there's nothing that'll grab your attention too much. It has a 1.5GHz dual-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 16GB or memory (expandable up to 64GB, thanks to a microSD slot), an 8MP camera on the back, and a 2MP camera in the front. Oh, and there's a removable battery. (As someone who has gone a long time without having to deal with annoying BlackBerry freeze-ups, I'd forgotten how important it is to have a battery that can be yanked out, if only to force a restart. And yes, the Z10 has frozen up a couple of times during my review period.)

Touchy
It's not the hardware that's the main attraction when it comes to the Z10 though. As I've said, this is the first BlackBerry 10 device. And the operating system is the deal-maker ? or deal-breaker.

Since the physical keyboard is absent, I found myself quite focused on its touch-screen replacement. It left me impressed. It definitely takes some adjustment to start using the keyboard's suggestions ? every tap brings up hovering words, and you flick a word up to select it ? yet it's amazingly easy to write entire sentences without ever actually tapping out a single full word.

Not every touch interface was as pleasant as the keyboard. The navigational gestures baked into BlackBerry 10 were a source of frustration. If you don't start them at the very edge of the screen, the Z10 simply ignores your attempts to jump back home.

The Hub
Since the BlackBerry is known for creating email monsters ? gadgets that can handle any amount of correspondences thrown at them ? I was fairly excited about the new BlackBerry Hub. This is intended to function as a unified inbox of sorts, where all email, BlackBerry messages, SMS messages, Twitter notifications, Facebook notifications, and the like can live.

Unfortunately, as you can see in the video up top, the Hub gets overwhelming as soon as the emails and notifications start flooding in and causes more headaches than it relieves. Additionally, there's an odd quirk that sends you back to the last viewed message instead of the Hub overview whenever you toggle between other apps and the Hub. This is incredibly annoying since you then have to hit the back button to get where you want to go.

The Z10's 8-megapixel camera delivers poor image quality compared to the leading Samsung and Apple contenders, while the camera app is gimmicky at best. While some might be excited about TimeShift mode, which rapidly captures several photos and allows you to choose a subject's best face, the novelty quickly wears off and leaves one craving for the more intuitive (and higher quality) camera systems of Android and iOS. Besides, that feature is far from unique, found increasingly on other phones and cameras.

While BlackBerry devices are typically workhorses, any competitive smartphone also has to be able to serve as a primary media player. So how is the music and video playback on the Z10? Short answer: Acceptable. Long answer: You can live with it, but if you're an iPod/iPhone/iTunes addict, you'll definitely flinch at the limited content management and access of the Music Player and Video Player apps.

The rest of the BlackBerry 10 experience is fairly smooth. The device is snappy and responsive ? pesky gestures aside ? and, unlike the BlackBerry operating systems of the distant past, doesn't feel bloated.

Of course, one could write the lack of bloat off as being related to the limited app selection. BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins called attention to the fact that there are over 70,000 apps available for the operating system, and indeed we found Cut the Rope, Facebook, Twitter, and other favorites ? BlackBerry also secured Skype, Rovio, Amazon, and other popular app makers as partners ? however, we're still waiting for Netflix, Google Maps, Instagram, and Hulu, among other obvious absentees.

Overall, the BlackBerry Z10 is a solid device. If you're an existing BlackBerry user who happens to be willing to patiently adjust to an on-screen keyboard, that brand dedication may finally pay off. But if you, like me, have come to rely on iPhone or Android, chances are that you'll constantly find yourself looking for features (or apps) that are missing from BlackBerry 10.

BlackBerry certainly did re-design, re-invent and re-imagine itself ? as it takes pains to tell you on its website ? but the clich? of "too little, too late" definitely rings true at this point.

Want more tech news or interesting links? You'll get plenty of both if you keep up with Rosa Golijan, the writer of this post, by following her on Twitter, subscribing to her Facebook posts, or circling her on Google+.

Source: http://www.nbcnews.com/technology/gadgetbox/will-you-want-new-blackberry-1B8211810

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Clinton raps critics as she leaves office

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is leaving office with a slap at critics of the Obama administration's handling of the September attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya. She told The Associated Press that critics of the administration's handling of the attack don't live in an "evidence-based world" and their refusal to "accept the facts" is unfortunate and regrettable for the political system.

In her last one-on-one interview before she steps down on Friday, Clinton told the AP that the attack in Benghazi was the low point of her time as America's top diplomat. But she suggested that the furor over the assault would not affect whether she runs for president in 2016.

Although she insisted that she has not decided what her future holds, she said she "absolutely" still plans to make a difference on issues she cares about in speeches and in a sequel to her 2003 memoir, "Living History," that will focus largely on her years as secretary of state.

Clinton spoke to the AP Thursday in her outer office on the seventh floor of the State Department less than 24 hours before she walks out for a final time as boss. She was relaxed but clearly perturbed by allegations from Republican lawmakers and commentators that the administration had intentionally misled the public about whether the attack was a protest gone awry or a terrorist attack, or intentionally withheld additional security for diplomatic personnel in Libya knowing that an attack could happen.

An independent panel she convened to look into the incident was scathing in its criticism of the State Department and singled out four officials for serious management and leadership failures. But it also determined that there was no guarantee that extra personnel could have prevented the deaths of the U.S. ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens, and three other Americans. Clinton herself was not blamed, although she has said she accepted responsibility for the situation.

"I was so unhappy with the way that some people refused to accept the facts, refused to accept the findings of an independent Accountability Review Board, politicized everything about this terrible attack," she said. "My job is to admit that we have to make improvements and we're going to."

Clinton faced a barrage of hostile questions about Benghazi from Republican lawmakers when she testified before Congress recently in appearances that were delayed from December because of illness. Afterward, some lawmakers continued to accuse her and the administration of withholding evidence. Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., told a television interviewer that he thought Clinton was getting "away with murder."

In the interview, Clinton had little patience for such allegations.

"There are some people in politics and in the press who can't be confused by the facts," she said. "They just will not live in an evidence-based world. And that's regrettable. It's regrettable for our political system and for the people who serve our government in very dangerous, difficult circumstances."

At the same time, Clinton said she refused to be "discouraged by the fact that they are never going to accept the facts and the limitations of the facts." She added that "you have to get up every day and work to do best you can and communicate that to the vast majority of fair-minded Americans whether they're in Congress, in the press or in the public."

Because of that, she said, the partisan divide should not dissuade anyone with a cause from getting involved in politics and she hinted strongly that a divisive atmosphere would not stop her in any future endeavor. "You have to have a thick skin because (politics) is just going to be a contact sport as far as we can look into the future."

Clinton is no stranger to partisan politics. As first lady, she railed in 1998 against a "vast right-wing conspiracy" that she asserted had been attacking her husband, Bill Clinton, ever since he had become president.

But the woman who was once considered a divisive figure in American politics, yet leaves office as one of its most popular, remained coy about whether she would run for president in 2016.

"I am making no decisions, but I would never give that advice to someone that I wouldn't take myself," she said. "If you believe you can make a difference, not just in politics, in public service, in advocacy around all these important issues, then you have to be prepared to accept that you are not going to get 100 percent approval."

Asked if she still thought she could make a difference, Clinton replied, "Absolutely," but added quickly that she hadn't yet decided how.

"I have deliberately cabined it off," she said. "I am going to be secretary of state until the very last minute when I walk out the door. And then I am going to take the weekend off and then I may start thinking about all the various offers and requests and ideas that have come my way.

"I have made no decisions and I just can't until I have time to think it through and see how I am going to put it all together. I will certainly write something. I will certainly speak. Those are givens, but the rest of it I don't have in mind. And I hope through my writing and speaking to continue making a difference as well."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ap-interview-clinton-raps-benghazi-critics-084552064--politics.html

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LG Optimus L7 successor leaks in Russia with 4.3-inch display, dual-SIM ability

As entry-level phones go, last year's Optimus L7 had a few pluses on its score sheet -- but equally some serious drawbacks, including a reluctant touchscreen and a shoddy camera module. There's always hope for progress in this business, however, and given that LG already hinted at a new L-series phone in its earnings report, we're inclined to believe a leak that's just come in from Russian site Hi.tech.mail.ru. The pictures show a much softer-edged design with a dedicated SIM-switch button down below, in both black and white. In terms of specs, we're looking at a 2,460mAh battery that is said to last for two days, an 8-megapixel rear camera capable of 720p video and a 1GHz dual-core chip powering Android 4.1 with LG's custom UI on top. The Russian price of 12,990 rubles equates to around $430, which is a lot more than the $300 SIM-free price of the first L7 (not to mention a Nexus 4) -- but then these currency conversions are often wayward.

Filed under: Cellphones, Mobile, LG

Comments

Source: Hi.tech.mail.ru

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2013/01/31/lg-optimus-l7-II-dual-leak/

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Google?s Plans For Trekker Come To Fruition With 9,500 Grand Canyon Panoramas Added To Google Maps

When Google announced a new project it called Trekker last October, it sounded like a far-reaching and futuristic 20% type undertaking. Today, that project has come through with some of the most detailed and amazing interactive imagery of the Grand Canyon, as promised, showing off Google’s vision for how the world can be catalogued and detailed for everyone’s daily tasks and travels. Starting today, these images will start showing up on Google Maps for everyone to check out. In a blog post from Google Maps Project Manager, Ryan Falor, he discussed exactly how these images were taken and where these images will be applied: This breathtaking imagery collection was made possible with the Trekker. Our team strapped on the Android-operated 40-pound backpacks carrying the 15-lens camera system and wound along the rocky terrain on foot, enduring temperature swings and a few muscle cramps along the way. Together, more than 9,500 panoramas of this masterpiece of nature are now available on Google Maps. Take a quick look at some of the amazingly detailed photos that the Trekker backpack captured: Sure, 40 pounds might sound really heavy, but when you’re out trekking through nature, carrying heavy objects isn’t something totally new. The idea of Trekker is that there are so many views and vantage points that you can’t capture simply by driving a Street View vehicle up and down roads. There are places that cars and trucks can’t go, and this is where Trekker comes into play. Up until now, here’s the type of image you could expect when poking around the Grand Canyon on Google Maps: Yep, it’s the street. Not so pretty. Check these out, though: You’ll now be able to see more, explore more and plan more, all before you leave for your big trip. It started with the Grand Canyon and there’s no telling what location will be “trekked” next by Google. While Trekker isn’t a consumer device, it does look like Google will be sending these things out into the wild to get more data like the shots you’ll see in the below video: I discussed the possibility of Street View technology becoming available for Google Glass at Trekker’s launch and was told “Absolutely.” As you can tell, Google wants people to feel like they’re Christopher Columbus, exploring areas in ways that nobody else ever has, while documenting their experiences along the way. There could be a

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/tL7IQ4SeRfA/

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Kim Kardashian Baby Bump: It's Popped!!!

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