Chris Brown will "Think Like a Man" in film project

Reuters(TheWrap) - Chris Brown is attached to co-star in the upcoming romantic comedy "Think Like a Man," an individual with knowledge of the project told TheWrap.

An adaptation of the 2009 nonfiction book "Act Like a Lady, Think Like a Man" by Steve Harvey -- who'll be co-executive producing -- the movie will center on a relationship expert whose own personal life is in shambles.

With Brown's casting, that won't be the only ironic element of the romantic comedy -- the 22-year-old "I Can Transform Ya" singer's personal life famously hit a bumpy road in 2009 when he was charged with felony assault for beating his then-girlfriend, singer Rihanna, following a pre-Grammys party.

Brown was sentenced to five years' probation, a year of domestic violence counseling, and six months of community service for the beating.

Though primarily known for his music, Brown has had several notable acting roles, including in the 2010 film "Takers" and in 2007's "Stomp the Yard."

"Think Like a Man," starring Gabrielle Union and produced by Rainfores.


*Can you say "COME BACK!"


Yes Chris Brown is back and bigger ,and seems smarter than ever. 

We are glad he has improved his life by concentrating on his music and acting roles. 


Some say he should have gotten a harsher punishment for what he did to Rihanna. However, the past is the past and Chris has moved on big time.

In life if you have made mistakes it's up to you to repent, heal, and keep it moving. As we know life can be tough but it's it's up to you on how you live your life.*


Diva's Nation
*Join The "Chris Brown" Conversation*

America's biggest teacher and principal cheating scandal unfolds in Atlanta

(Christian Science Monitor) Award-winning gains by Atlanta students were based on widespread cheating by 178 named teachers and principals, said Georgia Gov. Nathan Deal on Tuesday. His office released a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation that names 178 teachers and principals – 82 of whom confessed – in what's likely the biggest cheating scandal in US history.


This appears to be the largest of dozens of major cheating scandals, unearthed across the country. The allegations point an ongoing problem for US education, which has developed an ever-increasing dependence on standardized tests.

The report on the Atlanta Public Schools, released Tuesday, indicates a "widespread" conspiracy by teachers, principals and administrators to fix answers on the Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT), punish whistle-blowers, and hide improprieties.

It "confirms our worst fears," says Mayor Kasim Reed. "There is no doubt that systemic cheating occurred on a widespread basis in the school system." The news is “absolutely devastating," said Brenda Muhammad, chairwoman of the Atlanta school board. "It’s our children. You just don’t cheat children.”

On its face, the investigation tarnishes the 12-year tenure of Superintendent Beverly Hall, who was named US Superintendent of the Year in 2009 largely because of the school system's reported gains – especially in inner-city schools. She has not been directly implicated, but investigators said she likely knew, or should have known, what was going on. In her farewell address to teachers in June, Hall for the first time acknowledged wrongdoing in the district, but blamed other administrators.

The Atlanta cheating scandal also offers the first most comprehensive view yet into a growing number of teacher-cheating allegations across the US, reports of which reached a rate of two to three a week in June, says Robert Schaeffer, a spokesman for the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, which advocates against high-stakes testing.

It's also a tacit indictment, critics say, of politicians putting all bets for improving education onto high-stakes tests that punish and reward students, teachers, and principals for test scores.

"When test scores are all that matter, some educators feel pressured to get the scores they need by hook or by crook," says Mr. Schaeffer. "The higher the stakes, the greater the incentive to manipulate, to cheat."

Cheating in Atlanta Public Schools.

The 55,000-student Atlanta public school system rose in national prominence during the 2000s, as test scores steadily rose and the district received notice and funding from the Broad Foundation and the Gates Foundation. But behind that rise, the state found, were teachers and principals in 44 schools erasing and changing test answers.

One of the most troubling aspects of the Atlanta cheating scandal, says the report, is that the district repeatedly refused to properly investigate or take responsibility for the cheating. Moreover, the central office told some principals not to cooperate with investigators. In one case, an administrator instructed employees to tell investigators to "go to hell." When teachers tried to alert authorities, they were labeled "disgruntled."

One principal opened an ethics investigation against a whistle-blower.
Investigations by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) and state investigators found a pattern consistent with other cheating scandals: a spike in test scores in one critical grade would be followed by an equally dramatic drop the next year. A USA Today investigation in March found that erasure data in six states and the District of Columbia showed these "abnormal patterns," according to testing expert Thomas Haladyna at Arizona State University.

The Atlanta testing allegations led to the first major law enforcement investigation of teacher cheating. Scandals in other states have typically been investigated by state officials. In response to recent teacher cheating allegations in Baltimore, Michael Sarbanes, the district's community engagement director, told District Management Journal, an industry publication for school administrators, that manipulating a test is "inherent in human nature, [although] we think people who do that are outliers."

The high stakes for teachers.

Ten states now use test scores as the main criterion in teacher evaluations. Other states reward high-scoring teachers with up to $25,000 bonuses – while low scores could result in principals losing their jobs or entire schools closing. Even as the number of scandals grows, experts say it remains fairly easy for teachers and principals to get away with ethical lapses.

"I think the broadest issue in the [Atlanta scandal] raises is why many school districts and states continue to have high-stakes testing without rigorous auditing or security procedures," says Brian Jacob, director of the Center on Local, State and Urban Policy at the University of Michigan. "In some sense, this is one of the least worrisome problems in public education, because it's fairly easy to fix. The more difficult and troubling behavior would be teaching to the test, which we think of as a lesser form of test manipulation, but which is much harder to detect, and could warp the education process in ways that we wouldn't like."

In response to cheating scandals, some states and school districts have instituted tougher test-auditing standards, employing software that analyzes erasure rates and patterns. Meanwhile, the Obama administration is reforming NCLB to reduce pressure on teachers and principals. Education Secretary Arne
Duncan said in June that NCLB “is creating a slow-motion train wreck for children, parents, and teachers.”

On the other hand, an Obama administration proposal – to pay bonuses to teachers who improve test scores in their classes – may shift the stakes without lowering them.

"The [Atlanta] teachers, principals and administrators wanted to prove that the faith of the Broad and Gates Foundations and the Chamber of Commerce in the district was not misplaced and that APS could rewrite the script of urban education in America and provide a happy, or at least a happier, ending for its students," writes the AJC's education columnist, Maureen Downey.

"And that’s what ought to alarm us," adds Ms. Downey, "that these professionals ultimately felt their students could not even pass basic competency tests, despite targeted school improvement plans, proven reforms, and state-of-the-art teacher training."


*I have to say this has been going on for years.  School officials cheating our kids and our society  for a God damn buck.

"Yeah I said it!" Truly pathetic!

The sad part of this whole matter is that the teachers have no faith in their students at all. It not only makes the schools look back for putting this bad professionalism into play, but it ultimately makes the students look dumb and uneducated. 

When we take look at the Atlanta cheating scandal it says what I've been saying for years. That is;  you can't blame it all on the parents with regard to education.  The reasons are clear; we send our kids to school to get a proper education, not to be taught  bogus tactics by professionals who are only thinking of getting paid.

At the end of the day, this cheating scandal makes the United States look like a fraud.  It makes us look like we aren't the smartest nation on the planet.  It only makes us look dumb as hell.

Remember; cheating is for suckers and a sucker never wins at anything.*


Diva's Nation
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HAPPY 4TH OF JULY!

Happy 4th of July to all of our readers!

Be safe and relax as this is a day to celebrate independence for America and your indpendence as people. 



Diva's Nation
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Wayans brothers face trial for alleged joke theft

(Hollywood Reporter) - Trial alert! On July 12th, the best comedy in Los Angeles will not be heard at the Improv, but rather a federal court as the Wayans brothers face down a former assistant who charges that they ripped off jokes for their book, "You Know You're a Golddigger When..."

Jared Edwards worked for the comedy family for a decade and wrote jokes about women who prey upon wealthy men. He claims he pitched the idea for a book that would include material like "You know you're a golddigger when you know more about sports players' stats than an ESPN analyst."

Keenen, Shawn and Marlon Wayans rejected the idea, and then allegedly did their own version.
Joke theft allegations have been around almost as long as the first "Knock, Knock" joke, but recently, comedians have become more sensitive to laugh larceny, raising the copyright infringement card.



Because Edwards worked for the Wayans brothers, this case goes a bit above and beyond the typical plagiarism routine of a plaintiff struggling to prove the copying of expression rather than theft of unprotected ideas. Edwards is claiming that the Wayans (and St. Martin's Press) not only committed copyright infringement but also breached an implied promise to pay him for use of his ideas. Writers alleging this type of allegation have increasingly been successful in passing judicial muster.

To sum up the defense, you know you're a golddigging joke-theft plaintiff when:
* You can't be the owner of a valid copyright on jokes when the material is a work-made-for-hire.
* You can't own undivided rights on the jokes when, at most, the material was jointly authored.
* You consented to having the jokes performed by the famous Wayans clan.
* You didn't complain in time, and thus the statute of limitations has run out.

The trial is sure to provide some laughter and entertainment, but might not have the full shock value possible.
That's because the parties have stipulated that certain alleged "bad acts" won't be brought up, including allegations that Edwards committed check fraud and borrowed $12,000 from Shawn, that Edwards engaged in sexual acts in Shawn's vehicle, and that Edwards threw a phone at Marlon.

Still, the trial won't be devoid of highjinks. There's been a suggestion made in court papers that the attorney for the Wayans brothers will attempt to impeach Edwards for things he said during the deposition.

Finally, even if the Wayans brothers lose, they might not have to fork over a significant amount of money.
The book was hardly a best-seller, and so the judge has capped a damage award to the amount of money the Wayans got as an advance for writing the book, foreclosing any of the publisher's profits.


*This is crazy! One would think that the Wayan's wouldn't have to steal a joke from anyone. They seem to be funny all on their own without the help of people writing for them.

However, you never know what goes on behind closed doors. It seems this guy ( Jared Edwards )feels bamboozled by the brothers over the book ("You Know You're a Golddigger When...")

 which didn't even sell that well.  One has to ask, is he looking for 15 mins of fame by bringing  about a lawsuit against a famous family? Who knows, maybe he's just upset regarding something else.

If this goes to court, he might get something. Then again maybe not.

The bigger picture is, this guy wants fame outside of working for this family, if that's the case; why doesn't he write his own book of jokes and publish it?*


Diva's Nation
*Join The "Wayans Brothers" Conversation*

Is feminism reducing the quality of America’s teaching force?

(The Lookout-Liz Goodwin) Thanks to feminism, American schools are no longer benefitting from an invisible wage subsidy that allowed them to attract bright, over-qualified college-educated teachers at low wages and poor working conditions.


That's the controversial conclusion reached in a recent report by Marc Tucker at the nonpartisan National Center on Education and the Economy. Tucker blasts the United States for largely ignoring teacher quality in favor of a focus on grade-by-grade standardized K-12 testing. He points out that those priorities are out of sync with the strategies of developed countries that appear to be churning out students who are better educated than ours.

Instead, countries such Finland, Singapore and the Chinese province of Shanghai--who far outperformed their American counterparts on the latest international PISA tests--are investing in an elite teaching force recruited from the top third or higher tier of each country's college classes by offering various incentives. In the United States, high school students who said in 2008 that their intended college major was education scored in the bottom third of American students who took the SATs.

Tucker argues that the United States has benefitted from an invisible wage subsidy that has now disappeared--the limited professions available to women until just a few decades ago. He argues that America "greatly benefitted for the better part of a century from having a teaching force largely made up of college-educated women whose choice of career was largely limited to nursing, secretarial work and teaching, and some minorities whose career choices were similarly constrained." Schools benefited from a capable workforce willing to work at "below-market wages under poor working conditions," he says. But that's now changed:

Those who accepted that deal are now leaving the workforce in droves.  There are now more women than men in the professional schools preparing young people for many of the most prestigious professions and they are taking advantage of those opportunities. The United States is now about to get the least capable candidates applying to our education schools when we need the best.

The higher status teachers enjoy isn't the only thing that separates the United States from Finland, however. As Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post points out, the country has a 3 percent poverty rate for its children, while 21 percent of American children are currently living in poverty.


*The US is an education mill, that can't stop. They are in to deep to stop the harsh cycle of low pay, crumbling schools, and bad teachers, who some aren't qualified. At this point if parents want their kids to have a decent education, then packing up (as some say) and moving to another country might not be a bad idea.*


Diva's Nation
*Join The "Feminism" Conversation*

Census Update: What the World Will Look like in 2050

(Time.com) Here is the world in 2050, as imagined by the U.S. Census Bureau: India will be the most populous nation, surpassing China sometime around 2025. The U.S. will remain exactly where it is now: in third place, with a population of 423 million (up from 308 million in 2010). And declining birth rates in two of the world's most economically and politically influential countries, Japan and Russia, will cause them to fall from their current positions as the 9th and 10th most populous nations, respectively, to 16th and 17th.

The findings are the result of population estimates and projections of 228 countries compiled by the U.S. Census Bureau's International Data Base (IDB). They offer a revealing look into the future. "One of the biggest changes we've seen has been the decline in fertility in some developed countries such as China," says Loraine West , an IDB project manager, "while others are experiencing a slight increase." In other words, China's population boom is finally slowing down while Western Europe's long-declining birth rate is - in some places, at least - rising again. Spain and Italy are "on an uptick," says West, "but how high will [the birth rate] rise? Or will it simply fluctuate up and down on some long term level? We'll have to see." According to Italy's The National Institute of Statistics, the country's recent population increase can be largely attributed to its own immigrant population. See TIME's "Intelligent Cities.")

The two countries on track to make the biggest population gains are Nigeria and Ethiopia. Nigeria currently boasts 166 million people, but by 2050 its population is expected jump to 402 million. Ethiopia's population will likely triple from 91 million to 278 million, bringing the east African nation into the one of the top 10 most populous countries in the world for the first time. In fact, according to the United Nations Population Division, although only 18% of the world's population lives in so-called "high-fertility" countries (places where women have more than 1.5 daughters on average), most of those countries are in Africa; the continent is expected to experience significant population growth in the coming decades, which could compound the already-dire food supply issues in some African nations.

While the U.S. appears relatively stable - it's the only country in the top 10 whose ranking is not expected to change in the next 40 years - previous census reports have highlighted dramatic demographic shifts within the country's borders. Last week, the Census Bureau announced that more than half of children under two in the U.S. are ethnic minorities. Add to that the non-Hispanic white population's increasing age (in California, for example, the median age for non-Hispanic whites is almost 10 years older than that of the state as a whole) and America in 2050 will look a lot different than the America we know today. (See TIME's video: 10 Questions for Robert Groves.)

Perhaps the most unfortunate change is the one currently experienced by Russia. The cold, vast country has been undergoing steady depopulation since 1992 and the U.S. Census Bureau expects it to decline further, from 139 million people to 109 million by 2050. That's a 21% drop, even more than country suffered during World War II. Like many countries, Russia is experiencing declining birth rates, but it's also suffering form a relatively low life expectancy. According to the World Health Organization, Russian men have a life expectancy of just 62 years, a fact that is often attributed to the country's high rate of alcoholism and poor diet. (For comparison, Japan is also struggling with depopulation, but the World Health Organization puts its life expectancy at 80 for men and 86 for women).

So what does this mean? The U.S. is not yet experiencing the kind of population decline that Europe experienced in the 1990s and 2000s, although immigration and differing birth rates among races means that the country's ethnic composition is changing. Something similar will be going on in the rest of the world, as well: Africa and India's boom, Russia's decline and China's expected plateau (holding steady around 1.3 billion people between now and 2050) will change the makeup of the estimated 9.4 billion people who will call Earth home in 2050. The future, it seems, is not as distant as we think.


*WOW! This isn't anything new. We all know that people are mixing it up and having non-white kids...moving on. It seems that the two African nations (Ethiopia and Nigeria) will take the lead in population gains. Again this isn't news. With African women pumping babies out 24/7, it's very evident they will have population gains...moving on. The most eye opening thing about this whole article is that, those two African nations, where people were taken as slaves and placed all over the world and forced to do unspeakable acts; seems to be on top according to the findings. While other countries may be declining these two, according to the findings will be on top. Again, this article only says what we already knew about the world.*


Diva's Nation
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Birthers sue Esquire for more than $100 million over satire they say hurt book sales

(The Cutline-Dylan Stableford) If you thought birther conspiracy theorists went the way of Donald Trump's presidential hopes, think again.

Joseph Farah--who runs the World Net Daily website and a related book imprint--and Jerome Corsi, author of "Where's the Birth Certificate? The Case That Barack Hussein Obama Is Not Eligible to Be President," held a press conference in Washington, D.C., yesterday to announce that they have filed a lawsuit against Esquire magazine and its owner, Hearst, over an satirical article by Mark Warren published last month.

"This was a serious mistake by Mark Warren and Esquire for which they will pay dearly," Larry Klayman, lawyer for the plaintiffs, said. "It was obviously calculated with malice to destroy not just the book and its sales, but the reputations of Mr. Corsi and Mr. Farah."

The piece ("BREAKING! Jerome Corsi's Birther Book Pulled From Shelves!") was published shortly after President Obama released his longform birth certificate--also the time when Corsi's book was released. But, as Forbes' Jeff Bercovici noted, some readers failed to recognize the satire, forcing Esquire to add this disclaimer:

We committed satire this morning to point out the problems with selling and marketing a book that has had its core premise and reason to exist gutted by the news cycle, several weeks in advance of publication. Are its author and publisher chastened? Well, no. They double down, and accuse the President of the United States of perpetrating a fraud on the world by having released a forged birth certificate. Not because this claim is in any way based on reality, but to hold their terribly gullible audience captive to their lies, and to sell books. This is despicable, and deserves only ridicule.

"It was amateurish, it was rank, and it hurt," Klayman said at the press conference, which according to Adweek was attended by just three reporters. "There was nothing stating that it was satire."

Farah and Corsi--who authored the 2004 Swift Boat book that helped sink John Kerry's presidential bid--claim the article defamed them and hurt book sales. They are seeking compensatory damages of at least $100 million, punitive damages of $20 million, plus legal costs. (Forbes noted that, all told, the plaintiffs are demanding $285 million.)

Esquire claimed Wednesday it had not yet seen the lawsuit, but did not sound terribly worried.

"The blog post spoke for itself," a representative for the magazine said in a statement. "It was satire, an age-old and completely legitimate form of expression. Additionally, the piece was tagged as 'humor,' as are all of our frequent satire posts on Esquire's Politics Blog. That was not lost on our observant readers."


*WOW!! I think we should start by saying; "birthers go to hell...fo real."


In the ages that we live in, we have people like these dumb ass birthers who are so ravished with fear by a black man, that they keep this charade going about President Obama not being a US citizen. How dumb can you be?


On top of everything else, they decide to file a lawsuit because of hurt book sales. How ridiculous is that!! It's not the like we haven't heard of their conspiracy before. It seems like they just want to keep it going as much as they can and make as much money on top of that. Which also means they to are trying to make money off back of President Obama.


What a crying shame...my grandmother use to say.


If anything, these cheesy ass birthers need to pack up and leave the country.*


Diva's Nation
*Join The "Cheesy Bither" Conversation*

Supermodels: They never get old

(Newdailynews.com) Supermodels, like Carbon-12, age really, really slowly. 20 years and multiple pregnancies may wreak havoc on us normal folks, but it doesn't seem to do a darn thing to these freakishly good-looking Amazons. Have a look....

If there's one thing Heidi Klum knows, it's how to turn up the heat.

The German stunner, 38, poses topless in the August issue of Glamour, and opens up about how she keeps her marriage to singer Seal spicier than ever.

'There's nothing wrong with a nice garter belt,' Klum tells the mag. 'I'm not saying you have to put a pole up in your bedroom and start swinging off the rafters. But I love that sometimes!'

'My husband and I just had a 'sexy week' in London. I'd put on a super-short skirt with a garter belt on underneath so that when I'd sit, he could see it. It's fun to sauce it up a little bit,' she adds.

While she likes to change things up in the bedroom, the blond beauty says she loves her husband just the way he is. Not only does Klum think Seal is 'always' good looking, she says, 'He's even hot when he's sleeping.'

 

*Heidi is one hot mama! She defines what it's like to age gracefully.*

Diva's Nation

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MSNBC suspends Mark Halperin for Obama remark

(The Cutline-Joe Pompeo) MSNBC has suspended political analyst and Time magazine writer Mark Halperin indefinitely over a remark he made about President Obama Thursday morning.

"Mark Halperin's comments this morning were completely inappropriate and unacceptable," said MSNBC spokesman Jeremy Gaines in a statement. "We apologize to the President, the White House and all of our viewers. We strive for a high level of discourse and comments like these have no place on our air."

Appearing on "Morning Joe" this morning, Halperin, senior political analyst at Time and MSNBC and co-author of the 2008 election opus "Game Change," sought to characterize the president's demeanor at a press briefing the previous day. You can watch the video below--though the term Halperin uses to characterize the president is vulgar, as the partial transcript after the jump will also show:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

"Are we on the seven-second delay?" Halperin asked.

"We have it. We can use it. Go for it. Let's see what happens," co-anchor Joe Scarborough replied.

"I thought he was a dick yesterday," Halperin replied, sending the hosts into a brief moment of panic.

Halperin apologized later on in the show and issued his own mea culpa hours later via MSNBC.

"I completely agree with everything in MSNBC's statement about my remark," he said. "I believe that the step they are taking in response is totally appropriate. Again, I want to offer a heartfelt and profound apology to the President, to my MSNBC colleagues, and to the viewers. My remark was unacceptable, and I deeply regret it."

Halperin is the latest in a string of MSNBC suspensions this past year. Scarborough himself was suspended last November for violating the network's campaign contribution policy, as was Keith Olbermann, who left MSNBC several months later. More recently, Ed Schultz was suspended in May for calling pundit Laura Ingraham a "slut." And former MSNBC dayside host David Schuster also got a suspension in 2008 for complaining that Hillary Clinton had "pimped out" her daughter, Chelsea, on the presidential campaign trail.

UPDATE 12:30 pm: Time also has issued a statement reprimanding Halperin: "Mark Halperin's comments on air this morning were inappropriate and in no way reflective of TIME's views. We have issued a warning to him that such behavior is unacceptable."


*Not surprised with the suspension of Mark Halperin! It was coming and we all knew it. It seems after he wrote his book "Game Change" he's been a bit of "DICK" himself.

As I listened to his political mumbo jumbo about the President and the debt ceiling, I thought wow; what the hell is his problem? Did he wake up on the wrong side of the bed or hasn't gotten any "you now what" in a while?" 

As I kept listening it seems Joe, including the the crew in the control room was all for it, until he said it. Now it seems his ass wants to issue an apology! So tragic and so dumb!

At the end of the day, it's ok to talk politics and even bring the heat in your political convo. However; when your calling names to prove your point, then that's what makes the individual look like a damn idiot instead of a smart professional who they are aiming to be to the public.


Diva's Nation
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