Uganda is building electric buses
Deion Sanders heads football at Jackson State, Twitter algorithm, “Watchmen” and the Tulsa Massacre of 1921
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⚡️ Africa’s First Electric Bus Plant Will Industrialize Uganda While Fighting Pollution
“State-owned Kiira Motors Corp. plans to have an initial manufacturing capacity of 5,000 vehicles per year, including buses, starting in July 2021. The company will be selling the buses to private and public companies that operate transport routes in and around Kampala, so its prices will need to be competitive enough to compete with other providers selling fossil fuel vehicles to the same clients.”
“The origins of the Kiira bus date back to 2007, when students and staff at Kampala’s Makerere University joined a global initiative led by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to design a 5-passenger plug-in hybrid vehicle. After that experience, students and professors kept working on their own project, and in November 2011 the Kiira EV, a two-passenger fully electric car and the first to be designed and built in Africa, rolled off the assembly line. Following that, the company also produced prototypes for a five-seater car and an electric bus that charged itself in real time through solar panels mounted on its roof.”
We want to show we can make a machine of our own with Ugandan steel, lithium and copper, bamboo floors and banana fiber seats.
- Dr. Elioda Tumwesigye, Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation
(Bloomberg)
👀 Apparent racial bias found in Twitter photo algorithm
“An algorithm Twitter uses to decide how photos are cropped in people’s timelines appears to be automatically electing to display the faces of white people over people with darker skin pigmentation. The apparent bias was discovered in recent days by Twitter users posting photos on the social media platform. A Twitter spokesperson said the company plans to reevaluate the algorithm and make the results available for others to review or replicate.”
(VentureBeat)
🏈 Jackson State announces Deion Sanders as its next head football coach
I am truly blessed to be the 21st Head football coach of Jackson State University. It's my desire to continue this storied tradition and history of JSU and prayerfully bring more national recognition to the athletes, the university, the Sonic Boom of the South, and HBCUs in general.
- Deion Sanders
📺 ‘Watchmen’ Makes History as First Comic-Book Adaptation to Earn Top Emmy
“The HBO production earned the most nominations of any series heading into Sunday night’s ceremony, with 26 nods across nearly every category possible. The show won 11 Emmys in total, including Regina King for best actress in a limited series or movie; Yahya Abdul-Mateen II for best supporting actor in a limited series or movie; Cord Jefferson and Damon Lindelof for best writing in a limited series or movie; Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross for best music composition for a limited series, movie, or special; Gregory Middleton for best cinematography for a limited series or movie; Victoria Thomas and Meagan Lewis for best casting for a limited series, movie, or special; and Sharen Davis and Valerie Zielonka for best fantasy/sci-fi costumes.”
“Although HBO’s ‘Watchmen’ is based on the acclaimed 1986 graphic novel by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons about a world in which costumed vigilantes are real, the nine-episode series is not a traditional adaptation. Rather than depict the events of the original — as director Zack Snyder did in the 2009 feature film — Lindelof’s team brought the events of the novel into the present day with new characters and a new setting. Most crucially, rather than focus on cold war fears of nuclear annihilation like the original, the new ‘Watchmen’ series dedicates its story to exploring the legacy of racial violence in the United States, through the prism of the real massacre of a prosperous Black neighborhood in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1921 as depicted in the premiere episode of the show.”
(Variety)
📺 Watching “Watchmen” as a Descendant of the Tulsa Race Massacre
“Although descendants of the Williams family appreciate that “Watchmen” has brought the story of Greenwood to a wider audience, they’re also keenly aware that elements of their family’s history have played out onscreen without their involvement.”
“Entertainment conglomerates, such as Warner Media, HBO’s parent company, have used trademark and copyright laws to protect their intellectual property for decades. For large corporations and wealthy families, such legal maneuvers are easy. For average people, seeing their stories come to light is often assumed to be payment enough.”
“Black custodians of history are always expected to magnanimously welcome an ever-expanding tent of newcomers, even if they’re not earning a dime for having their stories reproduced as mass entertainment.”
(The New Yorker)