Year: 2013

Categories
Education

How to Answer the Toughest Question at a Job Interview


When you’ve made it to land an interview, you may have your best power look going and your resume and presentation prepped, but what happens when you face a dreaded and oftentimes difficult question at the top of the interview?

The prospective boss shakes your hand, asks you to take a seat, and then asks …

“So, tell me a little about yourself.”

Do you err on the side of modesty or toot your own horn? Do you include personal attributes or strictly stick to your career accomplishments? What if what was supposed to be a 30-second elevator pitch turns into a nervous rambling of your life story?

Well, consider these tips from hiring manager Melanie Szlucha, via Brazen Careerist, on how you can best answer one of the most difficult job interview questions:

Think of your responses as a movie preview, she advises.

The movie preview always relates to the movie you’re about to see. You never see a movie preview for an animated flick when you’re there to see a slasher movie. So the “tell me about yourself” answer needs to directly fit the concerns of your prospective employer.

It should also be as short and engaging as a great trailer.

Another approach, touted by venture capitalist Brad Feld is “to do the opposite of what comes naturally and go backwards in time.”

h/t – blackenterprise

Categories
Education News

Discovery: Earliest Known Prison Memoir Written By African-American

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Yale University announced Thursday that research has determined an 1858 manuscript it acquired is the earliest known prison memoir written by an African-American.

The book-length manuscript, titled “The Life and Adventures of a Haunted Convict” and written under the name Robert Reed, describes the author’s experiences while incarcerated in New York from the 1830s through the 1850s. It was acquired by Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library in 2009.

English and American studies professor Caleb Smith authenticated the manuscript and identified its author as Austin Reed, a free black man who was born in upstate New York, Yale said.

“Finding any new text by an African-American author of the 19th century is significant, but this memoir has so much to say about captivity, freedom and human rights,” said Smith, who’s preparing the manuscript for publication. “It is a truly remarkable discovery.”

The key piece of evidence in the authentication process was an 1895 handwritten letter, preserved in state files, from Austin Reed to the warden of a juvenile reformatory where he served earlier that recounts some of his story and inquires whether the institution has maintained any records of his time as an inmate, Yale said.

Reed’s account aimed to expose the brutal punishments at Auburn State Prison, including whippings and what were called shower baths, similar to water-boarding, a type of simulated drowning. He described what happened after he confronted a warden with a knife:

“Stripping off my shirt the tyrantical curse bounded my hands fast in front of me and ordered me to stand around,” he wrote. “Turning my back towards him he threw sixty seven lashes on me according to the orders of Esq. Cook. I was then to stand over the dreain while one of the inmates was my back in a pail of salt brine.”

Yale American history professor David Blight called the Reed prison narrative manuscript “a revelation.”

“Nothing quite like it exists,” said Blight, director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. “Reed is a crafty and manipulative storyteller, and perhaps above all he left an insider’s look at the American world of crime, prisons and the brutal state of race relations in the middle of the 19th century.”

h/t – huffingtonpost

Categories
News

Cop Gives the Shirt off His Back to Homeless Man Freezing in New York

One New York City cop gave the sweater he was wearing to a homeless man who was dressed only in a thermal undershirt Friday when temperatures dropped to 23 degrees.

Officer Carlos Ramos, 29, was assigned to look for suspicious activity near the United Nations in midtown Manhattan when he spotted Robert William sitting on a sidewalk outside the Robert Moses Park dog run.

William was sitting barefoot because his shoes had gotten soaked, and had taken off his other shirt to try and wrap it around his freezing cold feet.

Warm heart: NYPD Transit Bureau officer Carlos Ramos stopped and gave Robert William a sweater off his back in the frigid New York morning on Friday.
Grateful: Robert Williams’ shoes were wet and he had only a thermal undershirt on

‘I saw he was in need and it was my job to help him,’ Ramos told the New York Daily News.

‘I saw he had no coat,’ he said. ‘It was a very cold day, because I was very cold even bundled up.’

He offered the thick, navy blue Champion sweatshirt he was wearing under his uniform and coat to William, who initially refused.

‘My concern was for him – his concern was for me staying warm,’ Ramos told the Daily News.

Ramos finally convinced William to take the sweatshirt.

‘He gave it to me. He said, “Don’t worry about it,”‘ William told the New York Post.

‘I felt good about having it.’

Makeshift: After Ramos left, William, wearing his new sweater, tore up his shirt to wear as socks.

The warmhearted officer told the Daily News that he regularly helps people out, especially when the weather is cold.

‘A nice cup of coffee, a tea, whatever seems appropriate,’ he said.

Ramos has been a NYPD officer since 2007. He works in anti-crime and counterterrorism for the Transit Bureau.

William told the New York Post that he doesn’t know how long he’s been homeless for, but that he used to live uptown at West 163rd and St Nicholas Ave before an argument with a roommate saw him turfed out onto the streets.

h/t: DailyMail

Categories
Food And Recipes Health

12 Best Foods For Your Abs

Losing belly fat is an inside job, yes you have to exercise, but first fuel your body with foods that give you energy and nutrients, while also helping you to lose belly fat. Any program that encourages eating works for me! I love my greens, legumes, olive oil, berries, and yogurt!

Categories
Politics santa claus

Megyn Kelly Changes her Mind on Santa Claus’s Skin Color – Video

Fox Host Megyn Kelly, kicking off a discussion with her panel on Fox News, stated something she called a fact – that Santa Claus was white. Megyn went all out to make sure that any kids watching Fox News at that moment knew that Santa was a white man. Well that was then, this is now.

It seems Megyn Kelly has had a change of heart. Due to all the press her dumb statement caused, Kelly is walking back her statement, calling it “a joke.” and based on a video below she’s apparently blaming everybody for not knowing that she was joking.

In kicking off the lighthearted segment, I offered a tongue-in-cheek message for any kids watching, saying that Santa, who I joked is a real person whose race is identifiable, is white.

In her video response to the outrage her statement caused, Kelly tried a classic Republican trick, projection – turning her statement around and blaming the audience for taking her statement seriously. This projection trick is classic for Republicans. We’ve seen them play this game times before where they say something outrageous, and when called on it, they take a Holier than thou position, acting as if they were always right and you were always wrong for correctly understanding their statement.

Prepare yourself to be bulldozed. The turn the tables method demonstrated in the video below is a doozie.

“Well, this would be funny if it were not so telling about our society,” Kelly says, “in particular the knee-jerk instinct by so may to race bait and to assume the worst in people. Especially people employed by the very powerful Fox News channel.”

Bulldozed!

Categories
Politics

Jon Stewart Takes On Fox’s Assertion that Santa is White – Video

Yes folks, Santa and Jesus are white… according to the brains at Fox News!

Sidenote: I don’t know why we waste time with these airheads, but we do. And again, more time-wasting.

So earlier in the week, the brains at Fox News concluded that Santa Claus was a white man. Needless to say, this caused quite a stir in our shortsighted, cannot report real news… news media. So much attention came because of this statement, that the smart ones like Jon Stewart felt the need to put things in perspective.

Stewart pointed out the fact, based on Vatican’s findings, that St. Nicolas has his roots in a part of Greece that actually belongs to Turkey today. And with that fact, Stewart shows his rendition of what St Nicolas could have actually looked like – a dark-skinned man with a white beard.

“So who exactly is changing the facts to make themselves more comfortable here?” Stewart asked. “Actual St. Nicolas, well, my guess is there would be no Christmas if he looked like that dude, because he’s probably still on the no-fly list.”

Video

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

Categories
Barack Obama Entertainment Music Politics

President Obama Rapping – #GetCovered

Okay, so he’s not exactly the president, but he’s been playing the president on YouTube since Mr. Obama won election in 2008.

Below, using his rapping skills, Alphacat does it again as he advises all to #GetCovered

Categories
Music

Police Chief to Kanye – “Check Yourself, Before You Wreck Yourself”

Kanye’s “Dangerous” Mountain

The officer made his statement on CNN because of another of Kanye’s outrageous statement, where the compared being onstage performing to soldiers working in the military or police doing their jobs.

As part of his Yeezus tour, Kanye stands on an erected moving mountain while performing some of his songs. In his interview, West said, “I’m just giving up my body on the stage and putting my life at risk, literally. That mountain goes really, really high, and if I slipped…You never know. And I think about it. I think about my family and I’m like ‘Wow, this is like being a police officer or something, in war or something.'”

In a Facebook post, Chief Oliver from the Brimfield Police Department in Ohio had a few words for Mr. West.

I read your interview and also watched it on video. You said:
“I’m just giving of my body on the stage and putting my life at risk, literally.….and I think about it. I think about my family and I’m like, wow, this is like being a police officer or something, in war or something.”

I want to thank you for putting your life on the line for all of us every day. I know that being a rapper is tough work. I have tried to rap, and it is very difficult to keep up with the pulse of the rhyme flow…although when Ice Ice Baby comes on the radio, I can usually keep up with ol’ Vanilla. Anywho, your job is just some very dangerous work. Most people don’t consider… if you rap really fast, without a chance to inhale, you could pass out and hit your head.

That last paragraph was covered in sarcasm. I’m letting you know, just so you do not think I agree with your very ignorant assessment of your career (or any other performer)as it relates to a person in the military or a police officer’s service. You sir, are as misguided as they come. I do have a suggestion for you. Since you are accustomed to danger, from your life as an international rapper, I am strongly encouraging you immediately abandon you career as a super star and join the military. After joining, I would like you to volunteer to be deployed in Afghanistan or one of the numerous other forward locations where our men an women are currently serving. When the Taliban starts shooting at you, perhaps you could stand up and let the words flow. It could be something like “I’m Kanye West, wearing a flak vest.” I’m sure they would just drop weapons and surrender. You could quite possibly end all wars, just from the enemy being star-struck.

Your line of thinking is part of the problem in the world today….which include entertainers thinking they are something more than just entertainers. I know it is supply and demand and the demand for your services is high. I get economics. What I do not get is you EVER comparing what you do for a living to our heroic military members, who are always in harm’s way… and my brother and sister police officers who have to go to work carrying weapons and wearing a bullet-proof vest to protect themselves.

Check yourself, before you wreck yourself….Chief Oliver.

Video

Categories
Featured

Russian TV Star Wants to Burn All Gay People in Ovens

Russian actor/ex-Orthodox priest Ivan Okhlobystin, who’s famous for playing an ill-mannered recovering alcoholic on the medical sitcom Interny (a show sometimes described as “the Russian Scrubs”), has an interesting take on gay rights. He isn’t for them. In fact, he’d rather be done with the whole concept of gay people all together.

“I would put all the gays alive into an oven,” Okhlobystin told cheering fans in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk. “This is Sodom and Gomorrah! As a religious person, I cannot be indifferent about it because it is a real threat to my children!”

He also compared homosexuality to fascism (“queer fascism!” that is), which is strange, since shoving human bodies into ovens is something closely associated with fascist death camps and the Holocaust.

The 47-year-old actor and filmmaker attempted to form his own political party in 2012, but failed to get state registration. He also once tried to run for president of Russia, and has pledged to donate the proceeds from an upcoming book to purchase more weapons for the mass-murdering Assad regime in Syria.

Categories
Health News

Woman’s Stomach Pain was a 40 Year Old Fetus

A Colombian woman suffering from stomach pain was found to have a 40-year-old fetus inside her.

The 82-year-old, from Bogota, had what is known as ‘lithopedion’, or stone baby, when the unborn child develops outside the womb.

The woman was originally thought to be suffering from a stomach bug, NTD TV reports.

A Colombian woman suffering from stomach pain was found to have a 40-year-old fetus inside her

But an scans revealed lithopedion, where the fetus becomes calcified.There are fewer than 300 cases reported in medical literature.

The woman will now will undergo surgery to have the fetus – mostly comprised of dead tissue – removed.

According to NTD, Dr Kemer Ramirez of Bogota’s Tunjuelito Hospital said that the doctor overseeing the woman noticed something ‘abnormal in her abdomen’ – and suspected gallstones.

An ultrasound showed nothing then radiography of her abdomen revealed a tumour in her abdominal cavity.

Dr Ramirez explained: ‘This happens because the fetus does not develop in the uterus because it has moved to another place.

Dr Kemer Ramirez of Bogota’s Tunjuelito Hospital (pictured) explained the woman was suffering from ‘lithopedion’, or stone baby, when the unborn child develops outside the womb

‘In this case, the abdominal part of the woman is not a viable (place) and this is what happened, a calcified fetus because the body is generating defence mechanisms and it is calcified until it stays there encapsulated.’

The patient is thought to have been transferred to another hospital to have the lithopedion removed.

In 2009, a 92-year-old Chinese woman was found to have a 60-year-old ‘stone baby’ inside her.

The first reported case of lithopedion was Madame Colombe Chatri, a 68-year-old French woman.

An autopsy after her death in 1582 revealed she had been carrying a fully-developed stone baby in her abdominal cavity for 28 years.

Read more: DailyMail

Categories
Politics

New Poll: Christie Leads Clinton In 2016 Presidential Match up

Christie leads Clinton 42 percent to 41 percent in a Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday. Christie’s 1-point lead is the same as Quinnipiac’s poll in November, but a far cry from the 13-point lead Clinton held in October.

Clinton leads other potential Republican challengers, topping Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul 48 percent to 41 percent, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz 50 percent to 37 percent and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush 48 percent to 39 percent.

The four Republicans are at the top of the pack in the hypothetical GOP primary, as well. Christie leads among Republican voters at 17 percent. Paul got 14 percent, Cruz got 13 percent and Bush got 11 percent. All other candidates were in the single digits.
Clinton leads on the other side: Sixty-six percent of Democratic voters went for Clinton. In second place was Vice President Joe Biden with 8 percent, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren got 7 percent.

Categories
arrested News

Tiger Woods’ Brother Arrested for Making Bomb Threat

Tiger Woods’ half brother, Earl Dennison Woods Jr., was arrested Thursday after police said he called in a bomb threat to an Arizona Department of Economic Security office in Phoenix.

Woods, 58, worked at the office and admitted to supervisors that he called in the threat as a joke, authorities said.

Phoenix police responded at about 8:30 a.m. to the DES building at 1824 E. McKinley St. after a caller — later identified as Woods — said that he had a bomb and was going to blow up the building, said Sgt. Trent Crump, a Phoenix Police spokesman.

The building was evacuated and searched, but no device was found.

During the search, Woods admitted to management that he called in the threat and he had done so as a joke, Crump said, adding that Woods repeated his admissions to authorities during an interview.

Woods was booked into a Maricopa County jail on suspicion of use of an electronic communication device to terrify, intimidate, threaten or harass, which is a misdemeanor.

Exit mobile version