Author: JD
Embracing the Youth of Today, Preparing the Leaders of Tomorrow
I have always been a champion of young people, the next generation — that 21 and under group who change their minds at the speed of light and who are always instinctively on the cutting edge. Many times we don’t give our teens and young adults enough credit. We tell them what to do but we very seldom listen to them in return. But why not? We should, because their opinions are valid and their ideas are oftentimes refreshing. I’ve always believed that if we empower our young people to be the best they can be our global economy and world in general would be a different place. Let’s take the music industry for example. The industry of yesteryear was always about the young artist–a young Stevie Wonder, the Jackson Five, New Edition, New Kids on the Block, etc. But a lot has changed since then and now it seems as though we’re in a space where no one wants to give the under 21, up-and-coming artists credibility. These days, if you’re under a certain age, and not vulgar or using profane language, you’re overlooked to some degree and not played on mainstream radio stations, particularly urban leaning artists. That’s unfair and short sighted and has a negative effect within our communities in general. We need to embrace these kids, because they are the next generation of leaders, artists, and thinkers. They are the ones we’ll be looking up to one day, the ones who will be running this world. They just need to be given the chance. Radio stations don’t always give young artists a chance, but because children today are so tech savvy and innovative, they’ve learned how to master platforms like Vine, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to promote and market their music and themselves. They’re taking matters into their own hands and I admire that. Look at Willow and Jaden Smith and how they’re paving their own way with the MSFtS brand. Their parents, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, are allowing them to experiment and build their own fan base on their own terms. But what about other kids who don’t have someone to champion them or encourage them? How do they get their voices heard? Empowering our youth is very important to me, so a few years ago I founded the Next Generation of Leaders (NXG), a community and education driven program, focused on youth, teens, and young adults. A major component of NXG is town hall meetings, where young people have the chance to share with one another and really speak their minds. And I am always amazed by how honest the kids are. It makes me further realize that our future can actually be brighter if we support our young people and encourage them to shine their own light. If I had it my way, there would be a youth council in every city, where teens and young adults would sit down with community leaders and government officials for a roundtable discussion on various issues. I truly believe that this type of dialogue and mentorship would help make for a better, more collaborative tomorrow. I’m implementing this type of program into the Scream Nation Back 2 School Fest 2015 kicking off in September. We’ll host town hall meetings in each of the cities the tour stops in and the meetings will focus on twelve codes of leadership. Youth across the U.S. will have an opportunity to connect with the artists featured on the tour, who are also their peers. We see this as a positive outlet for young people, but also as an opportunity for older generations to learn about the issues that are affecting them the most. Even if we can’t always relate to their music, don’t understand what they’re doing on social media, or think they push the envelope a little too much, let’s embrace the next generation and take time to listen to what they have say. You’d be surprised at how insightful they are and how much we can learn from them. At the end of the day, all millennials and Generation Z want is a chance to be heard and respected, and a chance to spread their wings. Michael Mauldin is the CEO of Scream Nation, a hip-hop and pop music tour franchise, and the founder and President of Mauldin Brand, Inc., a multidimensional entertainment company focused on music, motorsports, artist management, music-publishing and corporate endorsements. Scream Nation’s Back 2 School Fest will kick off in September. Visit www.screamtour.com for more information. Follow Michael Mauldin on Twitter: www.twitter.com/MichaelTMauldin
#WTF !! Vagina contouring is a makeover for your southern hemisphere
Correction: In an earlier version, Mashable stated that vaginal contouring was approved by the FDA. The FDA has approved devices that were not initially intended for vaginal contouring, but which doctors may be using for the procedure nonetheless. The FDA does not regulate the practice of medicine. You have probably heard of contouring, or visual reshaping, in regards to bronzer and Kardashian-inspired YouTube tutorials. Let’s travel a little down south. Vontouring (no, that’s not a typo) is the nickname for Protégé Intima, or the non-invasive, non-surgical remodeling of the inside of the vagina using radio frequencies. And we should mention, it’s not makeup either. The treatment is the latest and purportedly safe way to visually enhance one’s lady lips. SEE ALSO: 13 Plane Confessions From the People Running Your Flight With vontouring, a thermal pen-like device stimulates collagen production in the vagina’s opening (“Imagine putting in a tampon,” said cosmetic surgeon Dr. Sharon Giese), which results in a tighter vagina. Lips of the vagina look firmer and plumper. The sensation is supposedly warm, and one treatment takes about 12 minutes to complete with no recovery time. It is not always clear which companies use devices that have been cleared by the FDA. Even if a device has been cleared by the FDA, doctors may be using it for off-label purposes, which could include vaginal contouring. Now it’s common knowledge — or should be — that vaginas come in all shapes, sizes and colors. But vaginal cosmetic surgery — also known as vaginoplasty and labiaplasty, depending what you’re restructuring — has been picking up speed; the number of procedures has increased 44% from 2013 to 2014, according to the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery. Childbirth and age can also affect the vagina’s plumpness and features, which may prompt women to seek such rejuvenation, said Dr. Giese. Or if a woman finds wearing tight jeans uncomfortable, she might want to restructure her vagina, she adds. But skin grafting is often bloody, painful and expensive. IMAGE: MASHABLE/VICKY LETA Vontouring also comes with a bonus of possibly better sexual pleasure. In a 2013 study of 10 females who completed four treatments, 40% reported better sexual satisfaction due to increased sensitivity from the tightening. IMAGE: INTIMA Side effects are less of a concern compared to actual surgery, but some things a woman might experience are burning due to misapplication or simply not reaching her desired tightness. In that case, she can receive surgery or go in for multiple treatments. One session costs a little over $300, according to the Daily Mail. That’s a small price compared to labiaplasty’s estimated $5,000 price tag. Dr. Giese is “excited” for the procedure to be making its way to the United States, since it’s the least invasive of a lady’s options when it comes to taking control of her vagina — even if it is another drop in the bucket of body image.
“Get Home” @JRCastroLV @KidInkBatGang @DjMustard @MigosATL
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Palantir Raises $450 Million, Now Valued At $20 Billion
Palantir, the makers of a data analytics platform used by government agencies, law enforcement, as well as financial, insurance, retail and healthcare industries, has confirmed by way of an SEC filing that it has raised an additional $450 million in a new round of funding. The filing indicates the company had offered $500 million in stock, which means $50 million more could still be in the works. According to a report by The WSJ, the funding was raised at a valuation of $20 billion, up from its late 2014 valuation of $15 billion. Morgan Stanley and S F Sentry Securities Inc. are listed as brokers on the filing, which can be found here. As noted by Business Insider, the filing confirms a report from last month which indicated the company was raising up to $500 million. Palantir has historically been a very secretive company due to the nature of its work. Its software is used by government and law enforcement agencies, often to connect the dots between known criminals. (It’s probably the inspiration for the computer system in “Person of Interest,” if you ask me.) While not much is publicly disclosed about the nature of its work, a leaked document TechCrunch came across this year detailed some of the software’s use cases and key clients. For instance, a firm hired by the Securities Investment Protection Corporation used Palantir’s software to comb through over 40 years of records in order convict Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff. And the LAPD used Palantir to connect 160 data sets when sorting its records. In addition, the file revealed the firm’s work in Washington had expanded from 8 pilots to over 50 programs by 2009 and by 2013 was used by 12 U.S. government groups, including the CIA, DHS, NSA, FBI, the CDC, the Marine Corps, the Air Force, Special Operations Command, West Point, the Joint IED-defeat organization and Allies, the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Ahead of the new fundraising, Palantir was the fifth most valued “startup” (if the name still fits) behind Snapchat, Uber, Airbnb and Xiaomi, The WSJ noted. It’s now the fourth most highly valued startup. Palantir has raised around $1 billion to date, from investors including the CIA’s investment arm In-Q-Tel, Founders Fund, and Tiger Global Management.
Why Atlanta Is An Epicenter Of A New HIV/AIDS Epidemic
ATLANTA — On a late night in Atlanta’s Old Fourth Ward, lots of people were leaving and going to bars. Out there on the side of the street was Gary Jerkins of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. He was standing in front of a large HIV testing van. “Get tested! Get your result in one minute,” Jerkins shouted as people passed him. “Participate. Raise awareness.” Jerkins passed out condoms and candy. “So, we pass out lifesavers and we tell people that the test can be a lifesaver, he said. “We pass out dumb dumbs and we say don’t be a dumb dumb. Know your status. And we pass out Smarties. Smarties get tested. Know your status.” Jerkins says every status is good whether positive or negative if it means halting the spread of HIV. Atlanta is the fifth highest metro area for rates of new HIV diagnoses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “In many ways the South is the epicenter of the epidemic and really Atlanta is the epicenter of that,” said Nic Carlisle, executive director of the Southern AIDS Coalition. LaMar Yarborough, 23, remembers his diagnoses. It was on his 18th birthday. A couple days earlier, he had been rushed to Atlanta’s Grady Hospital. “Two days before my birthday, I fainted in the shower,” Yarborough recalled. “And my mother, she rushed me to the hospital. I went to doctors, and I had everyone standing around me. You know, Grady partners with Emory. So, you know you have a whole bunch of medical students. So, it was like eight people around me you know asking me questions. They told me I had AIDS, and then they were asking me if I knew what that is and things of that nature. At the time, I did not.” Yarborough said the virus was sexually transmitted. At the time, he was sleeping with both men and women. He also developed a type of cancer tied to HIV. Yarborough said within his family, talk about sex was confined within heterosexual relationships. Sex Ed in school wasn’t much better. “Pretty much within the south we do an abstinence only teaching,” he said. “If you were to catch an STD, I remember the video, it was like the steam rising from the ally, the girls with the short skirts on, guys with the sagging pants. I remember friends and I we kind of checked out cause that’s not us. We talk proper. We do what we’re supposed to do. It just didn’t apply to us.” Now he is more vocal about the importance of being able to identify with someone on how to handle HIV. “You don’t have a lot of people who are advocates who are African American men that I’ve seen growing up,” he explained. “We are dying from this and therefore it makes me step up to the plate and say I need to be a leader, and to educate my fellow people of color so that we don’t die from this epidemic.” Death from AIDS is still a reality for many young African-Americans. Dr. Abigail Hankin-Wei oversees the H-I-V testing program at Grady Hospital, where Lamar Yarborough was diagnosed. “We’ve had patients who were diagnosed on the same-visit that they died of their complications, which is not the way we should be doing it in 2015,” she said. Hankin-Wei said at Grady, there are anywhere between 15-and-20 new HIV diagnoses a month. In about half of all cases, the patient already has AIDS, which she says for some patients can take about a decade to develop. “We do have the patients that despite the possibilities of treatment are going to get diagnosed extraordinarily late and too late to get the benefits of treatment,” she noted. According to the CDC, the South has the greatest number of people living with the disease and dying from it, and that in Georgia, 613 people died with AIDS in 2012. Emory researcher Patrick Sullivan used to oversee HIV surveillance at the CDC. He said black men who have sex with other men in Atlanta are three times more likely to become HIV positive than whites. That is despite having a similar number of sex partners. “That finding was related to two things,” Sullivan explained. “One was the racial composition of their sexual network. In other words, they had more black partners. Those black partners were more likely to be living with HIV, and the other was access to health insurance.” Medicaid is the largest source of coverage for persons living with HIV/AIDS, said Nic Carlisle of the Southern AIDS Coalition. Carlisle said not expanding Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, which is the case in Georgia, keeps some people from getting tested. “The bigger issue and I think the bigger issue where Medicaid comes in is so many people are being diagnosed late,” he said. “I think that’s one of the signs of not having access to routine health care. Not being part of a culture that establishes a primary care doctor and encourages folks to have an annual checkup.” For those already diagnosed with HIV, there is a safety net. It is the federal Ryan White CARE Act, and it’s available to people who are HIV positive and don’t have any health coverage. “But that safety net is vulnerable,” Carlisle said. “It’s subject to appropriations every year and if and when the Ryan White Care Act goes away and Medicaid hasn’t been expanded, you’re talking about a disaster for people living with HIV in the south.” LaMar Yarborough relies on the Ryan White CARE Act to cover the cost of his antiretroviral medication. He is unemployed and does not qualify for Medicaid in Georgia. “For me just personally if Ryan White ever went away then hopefully God willing, I would be financially stable to pay for them myself,” Yarborough said. Georgia’s Department of Public Health reports that a disproportionate share of the more than 50,000 people with HIV in Georgia who are low-income and black. “If they don’t have enough money, for example, to put a roof over their head, they’re not going to spend a lot of attention thinking about taking the medication for HIV,” said Patrick O’Neal, the director of Health Protection for the Georgia Department of Public Health. “They’re going to be thinking about the basic needs of getting a roof over their heads. Poverty definitely plays a role, and obviously throughout the southeast we have severe poverty issues.” Georgia is one of several states that’s part of a pilot program with the CDC to boost HIV testing and prevention, particularly among minorities. Meanwhile, Yarborough doesn’t live out his days as a death sentence. He said he feels good. He is taking his medication and this summer started a support group to help youth and young adults living with HIV.
Hulk Hogan Removed From WWE Website After N-Word Audio Surfaces
WOW!! PEOPLE FUCKING THEY LIVES UP The WWE, which made Terry Bollea famous, took down the majority of mentions and video of Hogan from its website and stores Thursday after it was revealed he used the N-word several times in a 2012 radio interview. Hogan was removed from the WWE Hall of Fame page and all of his merchandise was taken down from WWEShop.com, Wrestling News Source reported. The move by the WWE apparently came in response to a 2012 radio interview between Hogan and DJ Whoo Kid, where Hogan described conversations between fellow WWE wrestler Booker T. Also Read: Gawker’s Nick Denton Says Publishing Hulk Hogan Sex Tape Is About ‘Freedom of the Press’ “Well, Booker T used to do that to me, and every time I pull up YouTube there’s that famous thing with Booker T and his brother is there and they’re all talking trash, and Booker T says, ‘I’m coming for ya Hogan, you nigger’–and not ‘nigga,’ he goes ‘nigger,’” Hogan said. He used the term several more times, asking why it’s OK for black people to use the N-word but not him.
21 Of The Best Vegan Places To Eat In Los Angeles
YES!!!!!! Where: 8905 Melrose Ave., West Hollywood, CA 90069 (West Hollywood) Why it’s worth it: Because the butternut squash quesadillas will change your life. Where: 10820 Ventura Blvd., Studio City, CA 91604 (Studio City) Why it’s worth it: For the creamiest, cheesiest vegan mac & cheese. Where: 7751 ½ Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046 (Fairfax) Why it’s worth it: For the vegan falafel, of course. Where: 5107 York Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90042 (Highland Park) Why it’s worth it: For the unique combinations with vegan options. Where: 4449 Prospect Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90027 (Los Feliz) Why it’s worth it: For the vegan cheese and delicious toppings. Where: 8101 Beverly Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90048 (Beverly Grove) Why it’s worth it: Because the avocado curry will make your vegan food dreams a reality. Where: 4319 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90029 (Silver Lake) Why it’s worth it: For the bomb AF nachos. Where: 3818 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026 (Silver Lake) Why it’s worth it: Because they have a delicious brunch selection, including these vegan huevos rancheros. Where: 114 N. Market St., Inglewood, CA 90301 (Inglewood) Why it’s worth it: Because the decadent soul food platter is everything you’ve ever wanted. Where: 712 N. Heliotrope Dr., Los Angeles, CA 90029 (East Hollywood) Why it’s worth it: Because they’re constantly updating ice cream flavors so there’s always something new to try. Where: 1114 Gayley Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90024 (Westwood) Why it’s worth it: Vegan BACON cheeseburger. Where: 8284 Melrose Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046 (Beverly Grove) Why it’s worth it: For a delightfully fancy vegan cuisine — and a fantastic brunch spot. Where: 2703 W. Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026 (Silver Lake) Why it’s worth it: For the tasty chicken-less orange chick’n. Where: 12406 Washington Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90066 (Culver City) Why it’s worth it: Because this vegan sushi is everything you never knew you needed. Where: 10438 National Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90034 (Palms) Why it’s worth it: For the incredibly delicious spicy mint noodles. Where: 11266 Ventura Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 91604 (Studio City) Why it’s worth it: For the unique and colorful blackened cauliflower dish. Where: 639 N. Larchmont Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90004 (Larchmont) Why it’s worth it: Lots of healthy greens and funky food mashups. Where: 1700 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90026 (Echo Park) Why it’s worth it: Because the pesto ravioli is phenomenal. Where: 414 N. La Cienega Blvd., West Hollywood, CA 90048 (Beverly Grove) Why it’s worth it: For these completely LOADED not-chos. Where: 3655 S. Grand Ave., Ste. C2, Los Angeles, CA 90007 (Historic South-Central) Why it’s worth it: For the flavorful vegan Ethiopian food. Where: 4222 W. Pico Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90019 (Mid-City) Why it’s worth it: For a wide arrange of filling vegan wraps and sandwiches.