Blazing The Trail For Female Programmers

Sarah Allen has been the only woman on a team of computer programmers a few times in the more than two decades she has worked in the field. Most notably, she led the team — as the lone female programmer — that created Flash video, the dominant technology for streaming video on the Web.

Allen got interested in computers when she was 12. Her mom was one of the first women to sell the Apple II, and she brought one home. Allen read the manual and taught herself to write simple programs. She says it seemed like magic to her: "I could wave my hands, and I could create this pattern in the machine, and then this thing exists that didn't exist before."

"If you're interviewing people for your job, and you haven't interviewed a woman, don't hire until you've at least interviewed one woman. And if your recruiter can't get you resumes that are diverse, find another recruiter," she says.

When asked if she has ever experienced sexism, Allen doesn't want to talk about it in those terms.

"I don't think you can be a woman in our society and not experience sexism, so, sure, but that's not the point," she says.

Sarah Allen’s reflections on internet software and other topics

Blazing The Trail For Female Programmers
A little over four years ago, Allen founded Blazing Cloud, which does design and development of software for mobile devices. The company's mix of 10 programmers and designers work with entrepreneurs and help them take an idea and turn it into software that works.

Recently they met with Estee Solomon Gray, the founder of a company called Mmindd. Solomon Gray is trying to create a sort of next-generation calendar that better reflects people's priorities. Allen and her team help Solomon Gray visualize what her software might look like. Allen will then help Solomon Gray design and build a product.

“Owning Your Power As a Female Leader” In this program you will experience the excitement in knowing you can create and sustain great teams, where people want to contribute and make a difference. Gain tremendous insights and skills to breakthrough to a new level of leadership. Own your power and authenticity as a female leader revitalizing your team to produce exceptional results.

Stillheart Institute Newsletter

Highland Team

Women's Breakthrough Leadership

In this program you will experience the excitement in knowing you can create and sustain great teams, where people want to contribute and make a difference. Gain tremendous insights and skills to breakthrough to a new level of leadership. Own your power and authenticity as a female leader revitalizing your team to produce exceptional results.

Since they began in 2009, the workshops — they call them RailsBridge — have drawn thousands of women, among them Lillie Chilen. Chilen was an art history and opera major in college. A lot of programming workshops felt uncomfortable.



Now, Allen is also working with minority groups such as Black Founders to teach more people Ruby on Rails.

"If we persist in this notion that the people who should be making software in our world are these people with low social skills who are hard to understand, we're going to miss the boat," Allen says. "We're not going to be able to solve the problems we need to solve if we don't have just lots of people who know about the rest of the world."
 On the wall of Allen's office is a large photo of the ENIAC computer from 1946

Felix Hernandez "Rhythm Revue

Felix Hernandez's Rhythm Revue radio show, now in its 26th year on New York radio, is heard every Saturday 10am-2pm on WBGO-FM.

Felix lives in New York with his wife and children. He's a graduate of  Temple University in Philadelphia.

His parents met at a dance.


In 1983, Felix Hernandez began a two-year project travelling the U.S. collecting hundreds of hours of interviews with R&B artists. Some of the interview material was used for a 13-part radio show called Harlem Hit Parade, which was syndicated to 70 NPR stations in the mid-80's.

Felix Hernandez

@nycsoulman
NYC · classicSoul.com

Rhythm Revue Saturdays:

Classic soul, R&B, and funk, from the 60s to today.
8AM - 10AM, 107.5 WBLS-FM.


10AM - 2PM, 88.3 WBGO-FM





In 1986, Felix introduced Rhythm Revue, New York's first radio show devoted exclusively to "classic" soul and R&B. It premiered on WBGO. It also aired on New York stations WTJM (Jammin'105) and KISS-FM. In 1989, Felix was awarded a major production grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the NEA for BluesStage, a weekly radio series hosted by Tony-winner Ruth Brown and writer/director Melvin Van Peebles. BluesStage ran six years on 200+ NPR stations, with blues and R&B performances recorded and produced by Hernandez on location at clubs and festivals nationwide. 

The original BluesStage recordings will be donated to an educational institution dedicated to the study of African-American music.

In 1991, Felix did his first Rhythm Revue Dance Party at Tramps in New York City. The party outgrew Tramps and moved to the Roseland Ballroom, where it's been held since 1992. Felix's mix of classic soul, disco and funk consistently draws a crowd of 2,500 to 3,500 dancers.

WBGO Live Stream

felix hernandez soul music

Where do ideas come from?

How does the metaphorical lightbulb go off? Is it a flash of genius? The power of crowds? These heady talks explore the nature of ideas...

People often credit their ideas to individual "Eureka!" moments. But Steven Johnson shows how history tells a different story. His fascinating tour takes us from the "liquid networks" of London's coffee houses to Charles Darwin's long, slow hunch to today's high-velocity web. About Steven Johnson

What is Biomimicry? Janine Benyus

What if we copy or mimic nature, can we gain valuable information on collecting and storing water?

Can we learn from Nature?

Stenocara beetle

We humans are at a turning point in our evolution. Though we began as a small population in a very large world, we have expanded in number and territory until we are now bursting at the seams. There are too many of us, and our habits are unsustainable. Having reached the limits of nature’s tolerance, we are finally shopping for answers to the question: “How can we live on this home planet without destroying it?”

Just as we are beginning to recognize all there is to learn from the natural world, our models are starting to blink out—not just a few scattered organisms, but entire ecosystems. A new survey by the National Biological Service found that one-half of all native ecosystems in the United States are degraded to the point of endangerment. That makes biomimicry more than just a new way of viewing and valuing nature. It’s also a race to the rescue.

Janine Benyus has a message for inventors: When solving a design problem, look to nature first. There you'll find inspired designs for making things waterproof, aerodynamic, solar-powered and more. Here she reveals dozens of new products that take their cue from nature with spectacular results.

A self-proclaimed nature nerd, Janine Benyus' concept of biomimicry has galvanized scientists, architects, designers and engineers into exploring new ways in which nature's successes can inspire humanity. Full bio »


"If I could reveal anything that is hidden from us, at least in modern cultures, it would be to reveal something that we've forgotten, that we used to know as well as we knew our own names. And that is that we live in a competent universe, that we are part of a brilliant planet, and that we are surrounded by genius."   Benyus


"Biomimicry is a new discipline that tries to learn from those geniuses, and take advice from them, design advice. That's where I live, and it's my university as well. I'm surrounded by genius. I cannot help but remember the organisms and the ecosystems that know how to live here gracefully on this planet. This is what I would tell you to remember if you ever forget this again. Remember this. This is what happens every year. This is what keeps its promise. While we're doing bailouts, this is what happened. Spring."

A self-proclaimed nature nerd, Janine Benyus' concept of biomimicry has galvanized scientists, architects, designers and engineers into exploring new ways in which nature's successes can inspire humanity.

Marshmallows and Spaghetti: How Kindergartners Think Like Lean Startups

As Wujec adds, every business challenge has its own "marshmallow," so consider bringing some kindergarten-minded people onto your startup team.

From running shoes to car seats, from buildings to smart phones, from blockbuster movies to MRI machines, we live in a world that somebody imagined, designed, and created.

The activity, known as the marshmallow challenge, was borrowed by Wujec from Peter Skillman, VP of Design at Palm. Small teams are given 18 minutes to build a free-standing structure made of dry spaghetti, one yard of string, one yard of tape and a marshmallow, which must be placed on top. The team wins by creating the tallest structure of all the groups participating. What Wujec discovered is that this simple game revealed some fascinating insights into how groups collaborate.

Wujec conducted a team building experiment with all types of people, from business execs to kindergartners, and the results he presented were surprising, to say the least.

Wujec has conducted this experiment with over 70 groups of "students and designers and architects, even the CTOs of the Fortune 50," he says. Most teams quickly break into roles and plan their structure, and then spend the remaining time building it before quickly and gingerly placing the marshmallow on top as time expires. More often than not, the structure pitifully fails as the marshmallow is added, leaving the team with a pile of spaghetti and no time to try again.

"Design truly is a contact sport. It demands that we bring all of our senses to the task, and that we apply the very best of our thinking, our feeling and our doing to the challenge that we have at hand." - Tom Wujec

Wujec says that business school grads are taught to seek out and execute the one correct solution their challenge, while kindergartners practice the iterative prototype and refine process, much like the methods of lean startups.  The kids would build, test and repeat until they found a structure that worked, and most times, he says, they built the tallest and most interesting structures.

What startups can take away from the marshmallow challenge is that bigger teams and higher incentives are no substitute for having the right skills and the right process in place. Wujec found that larger teams performed increasing worse than smaller teams, and incentivizing them with a reward did not make up for the fact that they were not using the right process.

Historic Map Guide: Europe:Europe Antiquarian Maps & Historic Map Guide: Africa & Antarctica

Isothermal chart

Click on the date links to see some of the oldest Europe maps in our collection:

Europe Antiquarian Maps

Racial and Linguistic Map of Africa.

Africa and Antarctica Antiquarian Maps
Click on the date links to see some of the oldest Africa and Antarctica maps in our collection:













NYPL Digital Gallery provides free and open access to over 800,000 images digitized from the The New York Public Library's vast collections, including illuminated manuscripts, historical maps, vintage posters, rare prints, photographs and more.

For Educators

Google celebrates Ella Fitzgerald with doodle on 96th birthday



David Batty


Ella Fitzgerald, who would have been 96 on 25 April, had a career that spanned six decades and was known as 'the queen of jazz'. Photograph: Google

Ella Fitzgerald, whose great vocal range and perfect pitch won her the monikers 'the first lady of song' and 'the queen of jazz', has been commemorated in a Google doodle.
The Official Web Site of Ella Fitzgerald
Most every performer has a story about how he or she made it big, but few can match the tale of the late Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996). Recognized as the best female jazz vocalist of the century as well as a pioneer in the area of jazz, Fitzgerald was respected worldwide by musicians and audiences alike.
Ironically, her earliest passion was not singing but dancing. Though she had participated in her school's musical and glee club, Ella once wrote, "I never considered myself a singer. My real ambition was to dance."