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https://thenerdsofcolor.org/2019/11/04/hard-noc-life-begun-the-streaming-war-has/
This week on Hard NOC Life, Dominic and Keith attempt to make sense of all of the new streaming platforms. http://traffic.libsyn.com/thenerdsofcolor/HNL166.mp3 On the heels of Apple TV+ debuting with several high-profile shows, the hosts look at the future of streaming. With new entries like the aforementioned Apple TV+, HBO Max, and Disney+ taking aim at […]
It’s time you learned about actor Folake Olowofoyeku, star of the new CBS series Bob 
Abishola.
Bob Abishola is a love story about a middle-aged compression sock businessman from Detroit who, while recovering from a heart attack, unexpectedly falls for his cardiac nurse, a Nigerian immigrant, and he sets his sights on winning her over. The series is created by award-winning producer Chuck Lorre and co-created by comedian Gina Yashere, best known from her work on Comedy Central’s The Daily Show.
The youngest of 20 kids, Folake Olowofoyeku is a Nigerian-born actress of Yoruba descent playing a Nigerian role on the first American sitcom featuring a Nigerian family. Despite her parent’s desire for her to study economics and attend law school, Folake moved from Nigeria to New York and began studying acting at the City College of New York, graduating with a B.A. with honors in theater. In addition to theater arts, she knows her way around a basketball court, competing in the NCAA Women’s Division III for the Beavers while at City College, and she’s a self-taught guitar player.
Folake sat down with BGN to discuss her role as Abishola, working with her co-star Billy Gardell, and why she believes it’s worth your time to check out this series.
Briefly tell us about your character in this series.
My character has moved to America, to Detroit, and she’s been very specific about what her achievements will be in this country. She’s going to become a nurse, and she’s going to fund her son’s way through an Ivy League school so he can become a doctor. Everything she’s doing is that on top of all that. She’s an immigrant from Nigeria. She moved in with her auntie and uncle, and it’s pretty much a focus on her life. After meeting Bob, things begin to move in a different direction.
Billy Gardell plays Bob, and you guys have some great chemistry. Did you know each other at all before filming?
No, we’ve never met before. The first time we met was during the test screening. I’d say we’re kindred souls. We trust each other. There’s a huge amount of trust that exists between he and I and almost everybody in the cast, producers, everyone. I think that’s what you need to create that sort of chemistry and have it reflect in your work.
This is the first time we are seeing a Nigerian family depicted on network television. What kind of feedback are you getting from viewers so far?
“It’s so refreshing.” “I’ve never watched network television in years, but I’m going to sign up for CBS All Access.” “I can’t believe this is on network television. I can’t believe the accuracy.”
People who haven’t been back to Nigeria in a while, like immigrants who are of Asian descent, of African descent, Caribbeans, are like, “Oh my god, this resounds with me so much.” I think it translates across the immigrant experience, not necessarily just the Nigerian experience. I find that people are just so happy to see their story being highlighted in a positive and authentic way.
For people who have not yet watched the series, what would you say to them?
What are you waiting for? This is the beginning of something.
I think every once in a while, there’s a pioneering thing that happens for the first time. This is one of those moments. It’s going to be a part of history. Just watching it means being involved in that. And I think, if I should say so myself, this is why you should watch it.
Bob Abishola is available now on CBS All Access.
This interview was edited and condensed for clarity.
The post Interview: Folake Olowofoyeku Stars in the Quirky Love Story ‘Bob ♥ Abishola’ appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.
It’s difficult to imagine a more grotesque idiosyncrasy of life than cannibalism. Eating the flesh of one’s own species is not only intuitively disgusting, but there are even more downsides to the act than you’ve probably imagined. However, when it came to a colony of wood ants that made its home in and around a former nuclear weapons bunker in Poland, cannibalism not only helped the insects to survive, but thrive. And now, for whatever reason, scientists have brought most of them back to Earth’s surface.
A look at the hole through which the worker ants fell. Wojciech Stephan
Newsweek reported on the cannibal ants’ return to the surface, which was enabled by a group of Polish researchers led by Professor Wojciech Czechowski of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Warsaw. In a recently published paper in the Journal of Hymenoptera Research, Czechowski et al. discuss the peculiar “colony” of Formica polyctena (wood ants), which was trapped for years inside of the defunct bunker once used to house nuclear weapons. (Colony is in quotations because this massive group of ants only contained workers.)
The wood plank researchers installed in order to evacuated the fallen worker ants. Wojciech Stephan
The authors of the paper note that the subterranean colony of wood ants was an offshoot of another colony that was built in the outdoors, around a ventilation pipe that still extends down into the former nuclear weapons bunker. While the complete upper colony was being built, worker ants would continuously fall down the ventilation pipe, subsequently increasing the new colony’s population size over time. Except, in order for that to happen, the ants needed food, which they didn’t have. But they did have each other’s corpses. The researchers note, by the way, that they could tell that cannibalism was the insect snack du jour because of the fact that many of the ant corpses had holes eaten into their abdomens, or were missing their abdomens altogether.
Cut to today, and the colony, which once contained roughly a million members, has now been almost entirely evacuated. This is thanks to the installation of a wooden board that has allowed most of the trapped ants to reenter the ventilation pipe, and ultimately rejoin the original colony. It’s unclear why exactly the researchers felt the need to evacuate the cannibal ants from their nightmarish underground home, but putting a stop to their twisted dietary dynamic seems like reason enough.
A close-up look at Formica polyctena. Michal Kukla
And for those wondering why researchers would bother studying these ants at all, the authors note that this “case adds a dimension to the great adaptive ability of ants to marginal habitats and suboptimal conditions… as the key to understanding their unquestionable eco-evolutionary success.” Presumably there are some things people could learn from this extraordinary adaptability, although if things ever get this bad for the human race, let’s all hope that aliens or robots come along with a metaphorical wooden board to save us before we turn to munching on each other’s abdomens.
What do you think of researchers releasing a million cannibal ants from a Polish nuclear weapons bunker? Are you glad they’re finally free, or should they have been left in their hole considering how well their population was doing? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Header Image: Wojciech Stephan
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