Community News
Yahoo search engines, elevator doors, refrigerated trucks Another look at African inventors
BY SIMONE J. SMITH
I received an email from a member of our Toronto Caribbean Community gently telling me that he enjoyed my article about African Inventors, but he did not think that I had dug deep enough.
Since then, this gentleman has been sharing information with me, and I must say, I have learned a lot from him. You see, that is what it is all about learning from our elders and passing this knowledge down to the next generation. It is the only way that they are going to know that we as a people have produced great work; work that can never be duplicated, but most definitely can be added on too.
Ready to take a trip down the scientific highway? Let’s begin.
Philip Emeagwali
Father of the internet
He is known as the Second Greatest Genius in Mathematics, the Third Greatest Genius Alive, he was voted “Father of the Modern Computer,” and holds the title of the Greatest Scientist of African Descent Ever.
Philip Emeagwali was born in 1954 in Nigeria. At a very young age, his genius was recognized, and he was nicknamed “Calculus” by schoolmates. At age 14, he had mastered calculus, and could out-calculate his instructors.
Unfortunately, he had to drop out of school because his family could not afford to send all eight children. This did not stop Philip. He continued studying on his own. At the age of 17, he was awarded a full scholarship to Oregon State University where he majored in math. Upon graduation, he attended George Washington University and was awarded two engineering master’s degrees: one in civil engineering and the other in marine engineering. He didn’t stop there. He also received a master’s in mathematics from the University of Maryland, and completed his doctorate from the University of Michigan in civil engineering (National Society of Black Physicists)
Some of his greatest scientific achievements include:
- Designing the program and formula for the fastest computer on earth, the Connection Machine. His design allows us to search the internet to our hearts desire.
- Designed equations to explain how sperm swim, how polluted groundwater flows, how the earth’s interior moves and causes volcanic eruptions, and how to recover petroleum safer and in larger quantities.
As many great Africans before him, Emeagwali utilized nature as the inspiration for the Connection Machine. He remembered observing bees in nature. He saw their way of working together and communicating with each other was more efficient than trying to accomplish tasks separately. He wanted to make computers emulate the construction and operation of a beehive’s honeycomb.
Dr. Marian Rogers Croak
The highest female patent holder at AT&T
If you are a reality show watcher (America’s Got Talent, Big Brother), and have ever voted for your favourite person to win, you have our next scientist to thank for that.
Marian Rogers Croak grew up in New York City. She attended Princeton University and completed her doctoral studies at the University of Southern California in 1982, specializing in social psychology and quantitative analysis.
She is currently the highest female patent holder at AT&T with 127 patents (and counting). Her work helped change the way we integrate communication capabilities into our daily lives. She made it possible for TV viewers to interact with reality shows via voting, enabled by text messages.
The importance of this invention was first noted, shortly after Hurricane Katrina battered the coast in August 2005. Dr. Croak envisioned an alternate use for this technology–one that would enable people to efficiently donate money for charitable groups responding to natural disasters. She developed the technology that enables us to text a designated number to make a donation to an organization such as the Red Cross. The usefulness of this technology was again recognized after the 2010 earthquake hit Haiti. The American Red Cross raised more than $32 million via individual $10 donations from people who texted the word “Haiti” to 90999 (blackengineer.com).
She was inducted into the Women in Technology Hall of Fame in 2013 and was named the 2014 Black Engineer of the Year award and Fierce Wireless Most Influential Women in Wireless.
Not too long after she left AT&T to join Google, where she serves as a Vice President for Engineering. She serves on the board of directors of the Centre for Holocausts, Human Rights & Genocide Education. Her proudest achievements are her three adult children (two sons and a daughter).
Frederick McKinley Jones
The Thermo King
Have you ever wondered how they transport items that have to stay cold from one location to the other? Your first answer would be “Duh Simone! In those refrigerated trucks.” Great! The question is, who thought of doing that?
Our next inventor is a great example of why our circumstances do not make us. Frederick McKinley Jones was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on May 17th, 1893 to a white father and black mother. His mother deserted him when he was a young child, which left his father struggling to raise him on his own. At the age of seven, he was sent to live with a priest in Kentucky. Two years later, his father died. This left Frederick as an orphan, and at the age of 11, with minimal education under his belt, Jones ran away to fend for himself (https://www.biography.com/).
By the time he was twenty, Jones was able to secure an engineering license in Minnesota. He served in the U.S. Army during World War I, and his natural ability to repair machines was recognized. He was often called upon to make repairs to machines and other equipment.
In the 1930s, he designed and patented a portable air-cooling unit for trucks carrying perishable food. Forming a partnership with Numero, Jones founded the U.S. Thermo Control Company (Thermo King). His invention was the roof-mounted cooling system that’s used to refrigerate goods on trucks during extended transportation the company grew exponentially during World War II, helping to preserve blood, medicine and food. By 1949, U.S. Thermo Control was worth millions of dollars (https://www.biography.com/).
In 1944, Frederick became the first African American elected to the American Society of Refrigeration Engineers. He died of lung cancer in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on February 21st, 1961.
Bessie Blount
Steadfast and Strong-willed
Bessie Blount was often slapped on the knuckles for being born left-handed, and because of that, she was forced into using her right hand. Her strong will made her take a stand; if she shouldn’t write left-handed, she shouldn’t write with her right. So, she taught herself to write with a pencil in her mouth, and to write with her toes. It was a skill that would be helpful in training amputees to write without their hands.
Born in Hickory, Virginia in 1914, Bessie was always interested in a career in medicine. She moved from Virginia to New Jersey where she studied to be a physical therapist at the Panzar College of Physical Education and at Union Junior College. She decided to further her training as a physical therapist in Chicago.
At the end of World War II, Bessie was a practicing physical therapist, and many of her patients were amputees from the front lines. Remembering what she had practiced as a young child, Bessie taught the amputees how to use their feet instead of their hands to do some basic tasks. The one difficulty was eating. Blount saw this as an opportunity to try to invent something to help these men regain some independence and lift their spirits.
In 1951, she designed her first invention, a patented feeding tube that allowed amputees to feed themselves. The electrical device allowed a tube to deliver one mouthful of food at a time to a patient in a wheelchair or in a bed whenever he or she bit down on the tube. She presented her feeding tube to the American Veteran’s Administration, but they were not interested. She patented a simpler device called a “portable receptacle support” which also allowed people to feed themselves.
She later discovered the need for an emesis basin. She came up with the idea of a disposable cardboard emesis (vomit) basin. She baked a mixture of newspaper, flour and water in her oven to make the basin. Once again, she presented her idea to the American Veteran’s Administration, and they showed no interest. Remaining strong willed, Bessie sold her patented equipment to Belgium. To this day Bessie Blount’s vomit basin design is commonly found in hospitals in Belgium.
Alexander Miles
Thank God for Elevators
We can all say that we are grateful for the invention of the elevator. If it had not been invented, we would probably all be in much better shape because we would have to commit to long and gruelling climbs up flights of stairs. However, before the creation of elevator doors that close automatically, riding an elevator (then called a lift) was both complicated and risky.
Before automatic doors, people had to manually shut both the shaft and elevator doors before riding. If someone forgot to do this, it led to multiple accidents as people would fall down elevator shafts. Alexander Miles had a personal experience with this when his daughter almost fatally fell down the shaft. He took it upon himself to develop a solution. In 1887 he took out a patent for a mechanism that automatically opens and closes elevator shaft doors and to this day, we have him to thank for the opening and closing of elevator doors.
What he did was attach a flexible belt to the elevator cage, and when the belt came into contact with drums positioned along the elevator shaft just above and below the floors, it allowed the elevator shaft doors to operate at the appropriate times (http://www.myblackhistory.net/). The elevator doors themselves were automated through a series of levers and rollers.
In 1900, it was believed that Alexander Miles was the “wealthiest African man in the Northwest.” Alexander Miles died sometime after 1905 and was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2007.
There you have it. As a people, Africans have donated their expertise and talents to the world, and we must continue to share this information with our young people so that they know that anything, and everything is possible.
References
Biography.com
https://www.biography.com/
National Society of Black Physicists
https://www.nsbp.org/
My Black History
http://www.myblackhistory.net/
United States Black Engineers
blackengineer.com
BY MICHAEL THOMAS
According to a new peer-reviewed study funded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), sixty per cent of young people who were hospitalized with Myocarditis after receiving an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine still showed signs of this disease six months after being injected.
Some 307 out of 333 patients they started with had their health data collected from April 2021 to November 2022. The time between injection and follow-up varied, with a median of 178 days, almost six months.
What is worse is the study authors are said to be making fun of the seriousness of the findings. They are calling the results reassuring and describing these cases of Myocarditis as mild.
Who are these study authors? Why are they acting so recklessly? Critics said that some of those study authors who published their report in The Lancet on September 6th, 2024, also have ties to the government and the big drug companies that may have influenced the research.
One such person is lead author Dr Supriya S. Jain, a pediatric cardiologist and researcher at Maria Fareri Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, New York. Daniel O’Conner of Trial Site News criticized the FDA as the study’s funder. “The FDA is not keeping up with its tradition of ‘patient safety first,’” he said.
O’Conner said he believes the outcome is much more severe than is reported, and The FDA study authors do not have the urgency they should, given the vulnerabilities of the population.
Chief Scientific Officer of The Children’s Health Defense Brian Hooker agreed, saying he was “disgusted” by the study authors’ downplaying of cardiac harm caused by the COVID-19 mRNA injections. Hooker is quoted as saying, “You get vaccinated, get Myocarditis, and then have a ticking time bomb in your chest for the rest of your life.”
Some of the most vital questions here concerning these injected youths, and the injected population is “What happens as they age?” or “Where do they go from here?”
It is important to know that medical researchers have pointed out that studies show Myocarditis can be life-threatening and can also cause critical changes and scarring of the heart.
“I don’t feel that any incidence of vaccine-induced Myocarditis is reassuring,” Heather Ray, a science and research analyst with CHD told a reputable news source. “Additionally, we have all witnessed several anecdotal, or personal reports of individuals who died from vaccine-induced cardiac issues over the past four years.”
Dr Peter McCullough said, as a cardiologist, he was “Greatly concerned,” that COVID-19 vaccine heart damage in most of the young people studied had not resolved at the time of follow-up. McCullough said that he disagreed with the author’s reports calling this finding mild, “Even small areas of damage invisible to cardiac MRI could put vaccine recipients at risk for a future cardiac arrest.”
It is amazing that with all these findings and recommendations to date, COVID mRNA Injections are still very intentionally and maliciously pushed on the population quietly worldwide, this is especially true here in Canada.
It may interest readers to know that the same people behind these mRNA injections in the Western world have decided to look at Africans as lab rats too. The World Health Organization has approved so-called mpox injections for use in adults and said it can be used for: babies, children, teens, and pregnant women in Africa.
Brian Hooker called the WHO’s approval of the shot for infants and children in Africa “A train wreck in the making.”
Recently here in Canada, Global News is now warning that the CDC is telling folks that COVID injections, and heart inflammation issues between injected teens are related. This is something that Toronto Caribbean Newspaper has been warning Canadians about for years now.
Again, Global News has reported, “Myocarditis is noted by the Canadian Pediatric Society as a possible side effect of mRNA injections.” https://old.bitchute.com/video/EFDWj1rHrX6v/
Now more than ever it is vital that folks think for themselves and quit relying on compromised professionals who are in positions of power but are wolves in sheep’s clothing working for Big Pharma.
A rule of thumb is to question everything because history has shown that liars usually suffer from short memory.
Community News
New course launched that counters narratives and understands Black children’s humanity
BY PAUL JUNOR
The launch of the new course “Black Childhoods in Canada” in the School of Early Childhood Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University is positive and encouraging. Details of the launch of this groundbreaking course were revealed in a post by Clara Wong on May 8th, 2024. For many students it will be the first time formally studying Black experiences; encountering Black scholarship, or even being taught by a Black professor. It was introduced in the winter term of 2024 and was one of the first courses in TMU’s Black Studies minor, which is offered by the Faculty of Community Services.
The course is coded as “CLD540” and details of its content are noted.
“An introduction to Black Canadian Studies in the context of childhoods. Childhoods are considered via Black feminism, Black studies, anti-racism, and de-colonial theoretical and practical frameworks and pedagogy. Students engage in a range of textual, experiential and multi-modal learning opportunities.”
Some of the topics covered include:
- Black acts and media
- Black Canadian histories
- Black families and mothering
- Black girlhood
- Blackness and disability
- Blackness and ECEC and education
- Black play
- Black queer activism
- Global anti-Black racism
Professor Rachel Berman was inspired to enlarge the Black studies content in early childhood studies and reached out to her colleague, Janelle Brady to collaborate on the development of the course. This was financed through the Faculty of Community Services Anti-Black Racism Curriculum Development Fund, which ensured that it was ready.
Professor Berman states, “I’m thrilled now to see the course come to life. It’s long overdue. There’s a deficit assumption about Black children-that Black boys make trouble during play, or that Black girls are made to seem more mature than they are. We need to counter those narratives and understand Black children’s humanity.”
Professor Brady notes, “The course doesn’t resolve everything, but it’s a start in breaking the ‘preschool-to-prison’ pipeline for Black children.”
She observed further that the impact of teaching the course has influenced her greatly. She adds, “It motivated me to do even more and seek more resources. There were so many informal discussions among students inside and outside of class. There’s a real hunger for spaces like this. It was inspiring to see how much students are already engaged in anti-Black racism work, and I feel I was learning just as much as they were.”
There are many testimonials from students who have been enrolled in this extraordinary course. Faizi Ali, an undergraduate student in the early childhood studies program states, “Any forum that allows Black students to lift their voice is cause for celebration. The course provides so much space for us to exchange ideas and thoughtful dialogue. I’ve gained many new perspectives and techniques to better support students.”
Magdalena Grammenopoulos, a media production undergraduate student, talked about the insight that left the biggest impression on her from the course. She states, “The concept of Black ‘futurity.’ It’s about imagining a stronger future for Black children through the ways we live day-to-day-ways that counter the stereotypes and discrimination which prevent Black children from living as freely as others. I want to implement futurity by always taking it upon myself to create safer spaces for Black children, whether it be my friends, family, or strangers.”
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