Facts About Life.

  

For thousands of years, STEM Field culture has been cultivated in diverse ways. From textbooks to movies, its culture is diverse, widespread, and growing. Today we have some of the most advanced technological advances in human history. Still, the digital divide remains a serious problem that we must address prodigiously. Real work has been shown to expand the culture of STEM Fields. With new cultural changes all of the time, we see more BIPOC people, women, and other human beings working in STEM related occupations constantly. With the advent of Google Certification programs, ITT, and other universities offering certain science related programs, there has been a massive growth of STEM scholars. There are new efforts to recruit women to have STEM fields too. The common lie is that STEM is just for men. That lie is refuted on the fact that some of the greatest STEM experts in human history have been women. There is equality among men and women. Equality doesn't mean that everyone is identical (i.e. even relatives will have some genetic differences). Equality means that all people have equal worth, should have equal rights, and can achieve massive accomplishments in their lives. STEM culture relates to science teachers giving assignments to students. It deals with scholars being involved in documentaries about STEM. It is about game changers who can inspire future generations to achieve their goals massively. Not to mention that movies as diverse as Stand and Deliver, 1968: A Space Odyssey, and Hidden Figures (that praised black American STEM heroes) describing the value of STEM expression (in fictional and non-fictional stories). We do have this right to build up a positive culture where people, who want to express themselves in STEM, have the just opportunities in doing so. In that way, the whole Universe is blessed. 

 

The history of mixed martial arts came from ancient times in fighting styles from Africa, Asia, and Europe. Nothing is new under the sun. In ancient China, there was a combat sport called Leitai. This was a no hold barred mixed combat sport that combined Chinese martial arts, boxing, and wrestling. In ancient Greece, there was a sport called pankration. It included grappling and striking skills similar to modern MMA. Pankration was formed by combining the already established wrestling and boxing traditions and, in Olympic terms, first featured in the 33rd Olympiad in 648 BC. All strikes and holds were allowed with the exception of biting and gouging, which were banned. The fighters, called pankratiasts, fought until someone could not continue or signaled submission by raising their index finger; there were no rounds. According to the historian E. Norman Gardiner, "No branch of athletics was more popular than the pankration." There are similar mixed combat sports in Ancient Egypt, India, and Japan. These fighting sports evolved worldwide from Africa to the Americas over the course of centuries and thousands of years. By the mid 19th century, there was the new sport called savate in the combat sports circle. French savate fighting wanted to test their techniques against other traditional combat styles of this time. 

By 1852, there was a contest held in France between French savateurs and English bare knuckle boxers. The French fighter Rambaud alias la Resistance fought English fighter Dickinson and won using his kicks. However, the English team still won the four other match-ups during the contest. Contests occurred in the late 19th to mid-20th century between French Savateurs and other combat styles. Examples include a 1905 fight between French savateur George Dubois and a judo practitioner Re-nierand which resulted in the latter winning by submission, as well as the highly publicized 1957 fight between French savateur and professional boxer Jacques Cayron and a young Japanese karateka named Mochizuki Hiroo which ended when Cayron knocked Hiroo out with a hook.  Catch wrestling was in the late 19th century. It had many styles of wrestling like Indian pehlawni and English wrestling. Modern MMA was influenced by catch wrestling too. There was no holds barred fighting taking place in the late 1880's. This was when catch wrestling representated the style of catch wrestling and many other people met in tournaments and music hall challenge matches all over Europe. In the US, the first major encounter between a boxer and a wrestler in modern times took place in 1887 when John L. Sullivan, then heavyweight world boxing champion, entered the ring with his trainer, wrestling champion William Muldoon, and was slammed to the mat in two minutes. The next publicized encounter occurred in the late 1890s when future heavyweight boxing champion Bob Fitzsimmons took on European wrestling champion Ernest Roeber. In September 1901, Frank "Paddy" Slavin, who had been a contender for Sullivan's boxing title, knocked out future world wrestling champion Frank Gotch in Dawson City, Canada. The judo-practitioner Ren-nierand, who gained fame after defeating George Dubois, would fight again in another similar contest, which he lost to Ukrainian Catch wrestler Ivan Poddubny. One early example of mixed martial arts was Bartitsu, which Edward William Barton-Wright founded in London in 1899. It combined catch wrestling, judo, boxing, savate, jujutsu, and canne de combat (French stick fighting). Barttitsu is known as the first martial artist to have combined Asian and European fighting styles. These MMA style contests were all over England among European catch wrestlers and Japanese Judoka champions against representatives of various European wrestling styles.

 

Baby Boomers are included in some of the most influential generations in human history. They are younger than the Silent Generation and older than Generation X. They were born from 1946 to 1964, or part of the post World War II baby boom. Many of the Baby Boomers are children of the Greatest Generation or the Silent Generation. They are often the parents of the late Generation Xers and Millennials. Some late Baby Boomers are parents of some of Generation Z too. The Baby Boomers had their childhoods in the 1950's and 1960's. They saw cultural changes that caused many of them to be the first in their families to go into college. They saw the peak of Cold War tensions between especially America and the Soviet Union. The oldest members were 18 in 1964. Their large size contributed to the power of the counterculture and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's. In many countries, this period was one of deep political instability due to the postwar youth bulge. In China, boomers lived through the Cultural Revolution and were subject to the one-child policy as adults. These social changes and rhetoric had an important impact in the perceptions of the boomers, as well as society's increasingly common tendency to define the world in terms of generations, which was a relatively new phenomenon. That this group reached puberty and maximum height earlier than previous generations added to the tension between the generations.

In the West, Baby Boomers came of age with massive government subsidies in postwar times involving housing, education, civil rights, and voting rights. Many of them believed that they could change the world. By the 21st century, they make up a large portion of elderly human beings. From 1940 to 1940, there was an increase of 2,357,000 people in the American population. Sylvia F. Porter wrote about this boom in the May 4, 1951 edition of the New York Post. The first recorded use of "baby boomer" is in a January 1963 Daily Press article by Leslie J. Nason describing a massive surge of college enrollments approaching as the oldest boomers were coming of age. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the modern meaning of the term to a January 23, 1970, article in The Washington Post. Baby Boomers were too young to remember WWII, but they were old enough to remember the John F. Kennedy's assassination in many cases. In the US, the generation can be segmented into two broadly defined cohorts: the "leading-edge baby boomers" are individuals born between 1946 and 1955, those who came of age during the Vietnam War and Civil Rights eras. This group represents slightly more than half of the generation, or roughly 38,002,000 people of all races. The other half of the generation, usually called "Generation Jones", but sometimes also called names like the "late boomers" or "trailing-edge boomers", was born between 1956 and 1964, and came of age after Vietnam and the Watergate scandal. This second cohort includes about 37,818,000 individuals, according to Live Births by Age and Mother and Race, 1933–98, published by the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Health Statistics. In China, there was the Great Leap Forward of massive population growth in Communist China. From the early 1930's to the late 1970's, IQ scores increased rapidly in the Flynn effect. People were more adept at doing many specific tasks involving scientific and analystical thinking. The reason is that there were more improved nutrition, higher literacy levels, better educational opportunities, and a more intellectual stimulating environment. The rising standard of living caused this to be possible for Baby Boomers. 

In many places of the West, social welfare programs helped the economies of many nations from America to France. WIth more Baby Boomers going into college, society changed. By the 1950's and 1960's, television was dominant media service stronger than the radio. Baby Boomers were influenced by music, youth culture, and scholars like Jack Kerouac (and Herbert Marcuse of the Frankfurt School of Social Theory). Baby Boomers saw a cultural revolution from the Betty Friedan's The Feminine Mystique in 1963, Dr. King, Malcolm X, Jimi Hendrix, and second wave feminism in general. Some Baby Boomers were liberals and others were conservatives. Many Baby Boomers wanted to be open to go against mainstream culture to establish a more new style of living. There were moderate members of the counterculture and more revolutionary elements in it that wanted radical change in society. Baby Boomers saw protests, rebellions, civil disobedience, wars, and other conflicts worldwide. Hippies were popular, but they didn't make up the majority of society. There was a more permissive attitude about sexuality growing since the 1960's. What was once taboo was shown openly by the Baby Boomers. The growth of contraception and antibiotics grown the sexual revolution along with its proponents being funded to show their voices. Second Wave feminism saw the creation of NOW (the National Organization for Women) and the Equal Rights Amendment movement. Changes to divorce laws and abortion laws were the signs of that time period. Later, changes happened in society. Cohabitation increased, divorce rates grown, and we see the mixture of economic booms and busts since 1968. Baby Boomers were in middle age by the early 2000s. Some saved money for retirement. Many Boomers don't follow traditional religion. Some Baby Boomers exited the workforce more quicker since the start of the COVID-19 Pandemic. 

Baby Boomers live longer than previous generations, and they save tons of wealth. Tons of money are spent on them for resources like medical devices, because the Baby Boomer population is so large in the world. Most elderly Baby Boomers are conservatives, because on average older people are more conservative than younger people. Baby Boomers saw massive change in the world from the Apollo Program, the rise of RFK, the Watergate scandal, the oil crisis of 1973, and the Vietnam War. Famous Baby Boomers are people like Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Samuel L. Jackson, Steve Jobs, Bono, julieanna Richardson, Erin Brockovich, Bill Murray, and other human beings. 

  

Generation X is a highly influential group of people. They are younger than the Baby Boomers and older than the Millennials. They are people born from 1965 to 1980. There are about 65.2 million Generation Xers in America alone. Many of them are parents of Millennials and Generation Z. They were the latchkey generation where kids were given keys by parents to an empty home. They had less adult supervision than previous generations. They saw massive divorces, the War on Drugs, and other situations. Some call these people the MTV Generation when they were teens and young adults in the 1980's and the 1990's. Music videos were abundant. They saw the start of hip hop, punk, heavy metal, grunge, and other genres of music. They witnessed tons of video games and movies. Generation X witnessed the end of the Cold War and the growth of capitalism worldwide. Generation X had cultural angst, suffered more complications economically than Baby Boomers, and was a time in transition. Some call this generation as the 13th Generation too or the 13th generation since the American independence. Generation X saw birth rates declined in the West. The birth rate will increase by the 1980's. The oldest Generation X is 57 and the youngest Generation X person is 42 years old. Individuals born in the Generation X and millennial cusp years of the late 1970s and early to mid-1980s have been identified by the media as a "microgeneration" with characteristics of both generations. Names given to these "cuspers" include Xennials, Generation Catalano, and the Oregon Trail Generation. 

Generation X are known to be hardworkers among men and women. They are a diverse demographic. Many of them had to take on many adult responsibilities as children, because many of their parents worked tons of hours. Some older Generation X people embraced Reaganomics at the end of the Carter Presidency years. Generation X people came of age during the 1980's crack epdiemic, the war on drugs, and the prison industrial complex where many African Americans were impacted in urban communities. 

The U.S. Drug turf battles increased violent crime. crack addiction impacted communities and families. Between 1984 and 1989, the homicide rate for black males aged 14 to 17 doubled in the U.S., and the homicide rate for black males aged 18 to 24 increased almost as much. The crack epidemic had a destabilizing impact on families, with an increase in the number of children in foster care. In 1986, President Reagan signed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act to enforce strict mandatory minimum sentencing for drug users. He also increased the federal budget for supply-reduction efforts.

Fear of the impending AIDS epidemic of the 1980s and 1990s loomed over the formative years of Generation X. The emergence of AIDS coincided with Gen X's adolescence, with the disease first clinically observed in the U.S. in 1981. By 1985, an estimated one-to-two million Americans were HIV-positive. This particularly hit the LGBT community. As the virus spread, at a time before effective treatments were available, a public panic ensued. In a panic, bigotry grown. Today, we have a long way to go, but we have more facts on HIV/AIDS than ever before. Sex education programs in schools were adapted to address the AIDS epidemic. Generation X saw Atari, Commodore, and Apple with personal computer devices. They were among the first children to have busing to try to have integration in public schools. They witnessed Roots and Title IX (passed in 1972) helped young women especially to have athletic opportunities. Still, racism was very vicious back then like today in 2022. In the U.S., compared to the boomer generation, Generation X was more educated than their parents. The share of young adults enrolling in college steadily increased from 1983, before peaking in 1998. In 1965, as early boomers entered college, total enrollment of new undergraduates was just over 5.7 million individuals across the public and private sectors. By 1983, the first year of Gen X college enrollments (as per Pew Research's definition), this figure had reached 12.2 million. This was an increase of 53%, effectively a doubling in student intake. As the 1990s progressed, Gen X college enrollments continued to climb, with increased loan borrowing as the cost of an education became substantially more expensive compared to their peers in the mid-1980s. By 1988, there were 14.3 million people in high education in America. Women outpaced men in completion rates by this time. 

Generation X saw struggles in the job market because of inflation, scandals, and economic changes. Some Generation X people were disaffected with politics because of political scandals. With the Berlin Wall gone, some believed in the myth that capitalist neoliberalism was the only economic system around to embrace. Generation X loved bikes, loved to explore, and were involved in fun. They were part of the early Internet system with floppy disks, America online, and a massive growth of business during the 1990's. Many of them were working, forming start up companies, and weren't slackers. In the U.S., Gen Xers were described as the major heroes of the September 11 terrorist attacks by author William Strauss. The firefighters and police responding to the attacks were predominantly from Generation X. Additionally, the leaders of the passenger revolt on United Airlines Flight 93 were also, by majority, Gen Xers. Author Neil Howe reported survey data which showed that Gen Xers were cohabiting and getting married in increasing numbers following the terrorist attacks. Gen X survey respondents reported that they no longer wanted to live alone. Now, Generation X are in middle age. Many of them live a balanced, active, and happy life. They are self reliant, savvy, and love the spirit of entrepreneurship. They grew up in the Golden Age of hip hop. Many of Generation X hip hop artists are Kane, EPMD, Jungle Brothers, Wu, and other artists. 

Unlike millennials, Generation X was the last generation in the U.S. for whom higher education was broadly financially remunerative. In 2019, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis published research (using data from the 2016 Survey of Consumer Finances) demonstrating that after controlling for race and age, cohort families with heads of household with post-secondary education and born before 1980 have seen wealth and income premiums, while, for those after 1980, the wealth premium has weakened to a point of statistical insignificance (in part because of the rising cost of college). The income premium, while remaining positive, has declined to historic lows, with more pronounced downward trajectories among heads of household with postgraduate degrees. Hip hop back then was diverse with artists talking about politics, the streets, sex, and other issues. Public Enemy's Fight the Power song was an anthem for Generation X hip hop fans. Generation X popularized the independent film movement in the world. 

In cinema, directors Kevin Smith, Quentin Tarantino, Sofia Coppola, John Singleton, Spike Jonze, David Fincher, Steven Soderbergh, and Richard Linklater have been called Generation X filmmakers. Smith is most known for his View Askewniverse films, the flagship film being Clerks, which is set in New Jersey circa 1994, and focuses on two convenience-store clerks in their twenties. Linklater's Slacker similarly explores young adult characters who were interested in philosophizing. Literature grew. Generation X people volunteer, help elderly members of their families, and they have an increased risk of heart attacks (because of high blood pressure, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease). About 1 in 7 of all Americans will develop chronic kidney disease in his or her lifetime. That's real. Generation X are usually the parents of Generation Z, and sometimes millennials. Jason Dorsey, who works for the Center of Generational Kinetics, observed that like their parents from Generation X, members of Generation Z tend to be autonomous and pessimistic. They need validation less than the millennials and typically become financially literate at an earlier age, as many of their parents bore the full brunt of the Great Recession. Well known Generation X human beings are: Kobe Bryant, Will Smith, Britney Spears, Martin Lawrence, Robert Downey Jr., Slam Hayek, Jay Z, Ice Cube, Tupac Shakur, Biggie, Tim Duncan, Usher, Aaliyah, Ron Artest, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Kate Moss, Shaq, Mariah Carey, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Gwen Stefani, etc. 

 

Historically Black Colleges and Universities are always a massive part of black culture. In America, black Americans and black people from across the world have been educated in them to be the best at what they are born to be. Many of the greatest black heroes in human history were educated in HBCUs too. Tons of my relatives have gone to HBCUs and graduated from them. I'm from Virginia, so HBCUs are always part of our culture and existence. The comraderie among black students, the systems of education, and the art of learning are all in display in those universities. Those locations represent a large part of the black freedom struggle as scholars, doctors, STEM experts, athletes, teachers, judges, social activists, and other contributors of society have been graduates of HBCUs. HBCUs help to give confidence among human beings, they help to inspire hope for the future, and they make us aware the value of Blackness. Blackness is priceless, and our black identities are always sacrosanct. 

By Timothy