(ALABAMA) Sunny days require shades and cute tees. Every day requires self-discovery.
<a href="Solerabrand.com" target="_blank">Sol-Era Brand</a> owner K.D. Smith says their eyewear and new inspirational merch is just what you need. 
“Being an inspiration and encouraging others is something I am passionate about, and find a purpose in,” Smith said. “Every day we have to make the choice to see the world as our own and look at life through a different set of lenses than anyone else’s.” 
Smith launched Sol-Era after putting in weeks of research and connecting with the right business acquaintance.  
Each eyewear is named after inspirational people from the past and present.
For example, Smith said, the multidimensional Da Vinci’s are inspired by the multi-talented Leonardo Da Vinci. We're told these frames were the first that launched the Sol–Era Brand.
Other top sellers include the ‘Libby Clarke’, with a unique shape and light weight frame, as well as the ‘Botticelli’ and ‘Pablo’s’. 
All come with a different color choice for lenses.  
As part of the brand's recent re-launch, Sol–Era now offers inspirational graphic tees and sweatshirts to wear through your "Live Sol" journey. 
"We invite you to join us in the pursuit of learning what makes you shine in this world," Smith said. "How will you see yourself through our lenses?"

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Alabama

Live "Sol" with local re-launch

Jasmin Washington

(NATIONAL) Facebook made headlines last month when they rebranded their company to “<a href="https://www.facebook.com/facebookrealitylabs/" target="_blank">Meta</a>”, but will their name change and virtual reality pivot be enough to break away from the negative pushback on their current social media platforms? 
What is the metaverse?  
“We’ve gone from desktop to web to phones from text to photos to video, but this isn’t the end of the line,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during their Meta announcement. “The next platform and medium will be even more immersive and embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it, and we call this the metaverse.”  
Basically, the metaverse is a virtual world that people will be able to use to travel around, take part in different experiences, and (of course) buy stuff using avatars.   
Zuckerberg said he expects 1 billion to be part of his virtual world in the next 10 years.  
“We’re a company that focuses on connecting people,” Zuckerberg said. “While most other companies focus on how people interact with technology, we focus on building technology so people can focus on each other. One of the reasons I started Facebook was because at the time you could use the internet to find almost anything. Information, news, movies, music, shopping. Expect for the thing that matters most of all. People.”  
But it’s not all sunshine and rainbows for Meta, despite the promising tech.  
Facebook backlash  
Meta’s mission to rule the metaverse has not gone over smoothly, especially since a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/10/26/facebook-angry-emoji-algorithm/?fbclid=IwAR0Y8lNtIc4KQ2BIQf28FlxxQwbwco7e9qid55JMxCjB17GEC9BNhk0abn8 " target="_blank">massive document leak</a> by whistleblower Frances Haugen showed Facebook algorithms previously valued angry reactions more than likes, driving negativity and discord throughout the social media platform.  
Haugen said she believes the rebranding is just a cover up for recent scandals and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/kateoflahertyuk/2021/11/13/why-facebooks-metaverse-is-a-privacy-nightmare/?sh=3b0e1d676db8" target="_blank">will result in an even more complex privacy nightmare,</a> since the metaverse will require people to put a lot more sensors in their homes and workplaces. 
The metaverse relies on different ways of tracking people’s body movements and expressions to animate their avatars, which means the tech companies need more access to the things around you. 
“If you're doing an augmented experience or a virtual experience, you could be collecting data on that user constantly,” Mark <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/facebooks-metaerse-will-still-track-your-every-move-172251956.html">Skwarek</a>, industry associate professor at NYU’s Tandon School of Engineering, told Yahoo Finance. “You'll be able to predict what people think.”
With trust and transparency on the low end of the spectrum at Meta, critics argue they are not the best fit for the job. 
Instagram backlash  
Meta purchased Instagram back in 2012. Instagram’s first intentions were for sharing photos but as stated by their head Adam Mosseri “<a href="https://petapixel.com/2021/07/01/instagram-head-instagram-is-no-longer-photo-sharing-app/">Instagram</a> is no longer a photo sharing app.” 
As more kids joined Instagram, more parents and other adults became concerned. Then word got out that Meta was building an Instagram for children under 13. <a href="https://app.verifiednews.network/articles/share/1987 " target="_blank">And that did not go over well with a lot of people. </a>
Earlier this year, a bipartisan group of <a href="https://content.govdelivery.com/attachments/OKAG/2021/11/19/file_attachments/2001100/2021.05.10%20-NAAG%20Letter%20to%20Facebook%20-%20Final.pdf" target="_blank">40+ attorneys general urged Facebook</a> to abandon its plans for Kids Instagram. 
“The Office of the Oklahoma Attorney has a duty to protect those who are most vulnerable to exploitation,” Oklahoma General John O’Connor said. “Our office is invested in protecting against social media’s harmful effects on the physical, emotional, and mental well-being of children.”
According to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/technology-facebook-metaverse-mark-zuckerberg-d99617b9399bee5c09bc7aceb593eecd">AP News</a>, activists are also calling for the U.S. to pass a national digital privacy act that would apply to platforms like whatever Meta is building.
What does the future hold?  
It is clear that while Meta still has a lot of convincing to do before some people set foot in their virtual world, others are ready and waiting to jump right in.  
In their <a href="https://s21.q4cdn.com/399680738/files/doc_financials/2021/q3/FB-Earnings-Presentation-Q3-2021.pdf" target="_blank">latest report</a>, Facebook said their daily active users were 1.93 billion for September 2021, up 6 percent year-over-year. But daily active users in the United States and Canada actually dropped by 3 million, from 198 million to 195 million, in the second quarter of this year compared to last.   
Rampant misinformation and disinformation are problems that have plagued Facebook heavily the past few years, and these issues were not touched on during the Meta announcement. Instead, Zuckerberg spoke about logistical transparency, data protection and general safety.   
“And we’re spending a lot of time talking with experts and getting perspectives from outside the company on what we’re building, even before we build it,” Zuckerberg said. “And this is about designing for safety and privacy and inclusion before the products even exist.”  
As critics decry Facebook as stoking the fires for the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/former-facebook-exec-addictive-as-cigarettes-tim-kendall-2020-9 " target="_blank">next civil war</a> in the U.S., how Meta will prevent and diffuse such escalations in the metaverse remains to be seen.

When you want to rule the metaverse, but people think you're from the Negaverse

Photo Courtesy: Alabama Historical Commission
(TUSCALOOSA, Ala.) Fellow Alumnus and Stillmanites, it must be a great feeling to see Stillman College recognized by the National Register of Historic Places.
Stillman College, a private Presbyterian and HBCU located in Tuscaloosa, AL, was officially listed in the National Register of Historic Places on March 16, 2021.
“The Stillman College Historic District was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places for its local significance in African American education and heritage for its ability to illustrate broader trends in the history of higher education for African Americans, particularly the evolution from a white led to an African American led institution and from a ministerial training school to a four-year liberal arts college. It is also locally significant for the theme of social history due to its important role as a Civil Rights Movement strategy and planning site and the involvement of its faculty and students in Civil Rights activities in Tuscaloosa,” according to a NRHP Facebook post.
The original concept of Tuscaloosa Institute, brought forth by Dr. Charles Allen Stillman, was to train black men to become ministers. The institute held its first class in 1876 and upon being chartered as a legal corporation in 1895 they changed their name to Stillman Institute in honor of Dr. Charles A. Stillman. In 1948 Stillman College became a 4year liberal arts institute.
With their enlistment in the NRHP, Stillman will have a chance at receiving federal grants for rehabilitation and they are being considered “worthy of preservation,” according to the National
Register of Historic Places with notable buildings such as Winsborough Hall built in 1922, and Snedecor Hall built in 1929, which are just a couple of sights to see on this 105 acre campus graced with beautiful magnolias trees across its campus.

Jasmin Washington

Live "Sol" with local re-launch

When you want to rule the metaverse, but people think you're from the Negaverse

Stillman College officially recognized as "Historic Place"