Now that we’re well heeled in Nexus 9-ness, Google has gone ahead and released the keyboard folio for their flagship tablet. As expected, the keyboard folio does all we were told it would: attaches magnetically, doubles as a hardcover case — all the good stuff. We do find it interesting that Google has made the folio with a mechanical keyboard, … Continue reading
Sploid reader Andrew Seltzman sent us these videos of his custom-made radiation-shielded GoPro camera going under an industrial irradiator and getting bombarded by X-rays. Reminder: Getting irradiated by a particle accelerator doesn’t give you superpowers. I think.
Sometime in the next 48 hours, you’ll likely be on a long drive, stuck at a hellish airport, or surrounded by the full chattering force of your extended family. If you’d like a moment of calm and quiet, put on Papercuts’s “Future Primitive.”
At long last, 3D printing has conquered its final frontier: space. NASA has successfully printed its first 3D object aboard the International Space Station. It’s just a tiny faceplate that identifies the printer maker (Made In Space), but it’s both a…
If you bought Halo: The Master Chief Collection, then you’re probably still waiting for online multiplayer to be un-broken. Welcome to the age of the “day one patch.” That’s not all we have on deck, though — read on for Engadget’s news highlights fr…
With selfies being the rage these days, we can’t say we’re surprised that developers are trying to cash in on the opportunity by creating apps with a selfie-focus. Shots is such an app, and it is also an app that has seen tremendous growth. As it stands, it has a user base of more than 3 million and about two-thirds are women under 24.
This is apparently the reason as to why Twitter could be thinking about picking up the app for themselves. This is according to a report from CNBC who claims that a source has told them that Twitter and Shots are currently in talks about a possible acquisition. Twitter’s CFO also seems to have accidentally tweeted a message about it which was meant to be a direct message, thus “confirming” that talks are indeed taking place.
This was similarly speculated by Re/code who tried to guess at who Twitter’s CFO was talking about, with Shots being listed as a possible candidate. Another reason why Shots is so popular is because pop star Justin Bieber is an investor in the app and has put about $1.1 million of his own money into the app last year.
However as it stands, this is only a rumor and we have no way of confirming if any of this is real. Twitter has since released a statement claiming that they don’t comment on rumors and speculation, but either way we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled for more information.
Twitter Looking To Acquire Shots, A Selfie-Centric App [Rumor] , original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Eva Mendes and Ryan Gosling kept their baby news a secret up until the very end of Mendes’ pregnancy, but it appears the parents are bending their privacy policy a bit these days.
Mendes opened up about the couple’s two-month-old daughter in Violet Grey‘s digital magazine, The Violet Files, revealing why they decided to name her Esmeralda Amada.
“We were really excited about naming her,” the 40-year-old explained. “We both love the Esmeralda character from the Victor Hugo novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame and just think it’s a beautiful name. Her middle is Amada, which was my grandmother’s name. It means ‘beloved’ in Spanish.”
As for motherhood, Mendes says it’s been pretty eye-opening. “People always told me that [it was tough]. But I’ve learned that it’s way harder to be a baby,” she said. “Everything is a struggle for her. For instance, I haven’t thrown up since the ‘90s and she’s thrown up twice since we started this interview. Motherhood is cake compared to what it’s like to be a baby.”
Mendes and Gosling, who have been dating since September of 2011, made an effort to keep their baby news under wraps after realizing that fame was probably going to have a big effect on their child.
“Whether we like it or not, privacy is going to be very difficult for Esmeralda. I think it’s unfair but that’s our reality. So Ryan and I decided early on to give her as much privacy as we could. And my pregnancy was the first opportunity to give her that,” Mendes told The Violet Files. “It’s such an intimate time for the mother, too. I know that it seems all very innocuous when you’re flipping through a tabloid at the doctor’s office or see a photo of a pregnant lady online, but I find the media’s ‘bump watch’ obsession to be both intrusive and stressful. So I made a decision to eject myself from it completely. I was like, ‘Annnnd I’m out.'”
For more with Eva, head over to VioletGrey.com.
WASHINGTON — Michael Brown’s family did not just decry a grand jury’s decision to bring no charges against the police officer who killed the 18-year-old on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri. They also offered a solution — require all police to wear cameras on their bodies.
“While we understand that many others share our pain, we ask that you channel your frustration in ways that will make a positive change. We need to work together to fix the system that allowed this to happen,” the Brown family said in a statement Monday night.
“Join with us in our campaign to ensure that every police officer working the streets in this country wears a body camera,” they said.
It’s an idea that has gained momentum since police Officer Darren Wilson gunned down Michael Brown Jr. in August, with witnesses offering differing accounts of what happened. Ferguson police started using the cameras shortly after the killing, and departments across the country have been trying them out, including Dallas and New York City. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) called for deploying the cameras broadly, as well.
The cameras, which can be worn on sunglasses or clipped to a shirt, have won the backing of both civil libertarians and police groups. Civil liberties advocates argue that video records prevent cops from abusing their authority, while law enforcement groups note that a person cannot falsely accuse an officer if their encounter is recorded.
A recent study commissioned by the Police Foundation, an organization devoted to law enforcement research, found that the devices dramatically lowered complaints of police abuse.
In the study, about half the police force in Rialto, California, wore cameras during patrols for a year. At the end, there were just three complaints of excessive force against the officers — down from 28 in the previous 12 months.
“The findings suggest more than a 50 percent reduction in the total number of incidents of use-of-force compared to control-conditions, and nearly 10 times more citizens’ complaints in the 12-months prior to the experiment,” the report said.
Other experts, including those at the Department of Justice, have reached similar conclusions.
Use of the cameras does have downsides, however. There are no across-the-board standards for how and when the devices should be used, or for how the footage created should be used. It is possible for police to tamper with the recordings, or to simply refuse to turn on the cameras. A recent investigation by the Times-Picayune in New Orleans found cameras often were not used when they should have been.
Privacy advocates have also raised concerns, noting that storing such videos is open to potential abuse, with the possibility of potentially embarrassing encounters winding up on the Internet. The technology also may eventually be paired with other investigative tools, such as facial recognition software, opening up the chance for even greater surveillance of law-abiding citizens.
More On Ferguson From HuffPost:
Photographic Evidence Reveals | ‘First Year Law Student Could Have Done Better Job’ | 61 Arrested | Ferguson Smolders After Night Of Fires | Protest Locations | Americans Deeply Divided | Police Chief: ‘Worse Than The Worst Night We Had In August’ | What You Can Do | Darren Wilson Interview | Darren Wilson Could Still Face Consequences | Timeline | Students Protest | Photos Of Darren Wilson’s Injuries Released | Shooting Witness Admitted Racism In Journal | Peaceful Responses Show The U.S. At Its Best | Reactions To Ferguson Decision | Prosecutor Gives Bizarre Press Conference | Notable Black Figures React | Jury Witness: ‘By The Time I Saw His Hands In The Air, He Got Shot’ | Thousands Protest Nationwide |
Spice up your relationships with gratitude: Here’s the simplest yet most powerful tool for transforming any relationship.
Which kind of relationship do you have? Abundantly appreciative or constantly critical?
With Thanksgiving around the corner, there is no better time to ask yourself this question.
Appreciation is the most powerful way to inject fun, passion and vitality in your relationship… but most couples spend more time blaming and criticizing each other.
Be honest now, and ask yourself the following questions:
If you are like most people, you fall in the category of “I feel criticized all the time” and NOT “my partner loves and appreciates me.”
That means criticism is running your relationship. It’s become the pattern of relating to each other, and it will destroy your relationship over time if you don’t stop it right here, right now.
Why Criticism Destroys Love
Critical comments don’t just get you down. Over time, the habit of criticism sets off a chain of negative interactions that can actually erode the love you and your partner share. Here’s how:
Passive-aggressive behavior: When you feel criticized, you build up resentment towards your partner. This constant bubbling of anger makes itself known in all sorts of ways: you become snappy, you criticize back, or you “forget” to do things your partner has asked.
Detachment and distance: If you feel as though you’re always doing something wrong in your partner’s eyes, you’ll probably start shutting down. You might shut your partner out in various ways — either by spending less time together or by “checking out” emotionally.
Loss of intimacy: When you’re criticized, you don’t feel accepted as you are. And acceptance is critical to intimacy. You simply can’t get close to someone you feel rejected by.
Plummeting passion: Criticism is one of the biggest mood killers we know of. You’re not going to be turned on when you feel judged. And this loss of connection in the bedroom in turn becomes fuel for more criticism in other areas of the relationship.
As we hope it’s now clear, the habit of criticism needs to be stopped. But how?
One word: appreciation.
The Anti-Criticism Injection
Research findings tell us that thriving relationships have at least five times more spoken appreciations than critical comments.
Any time you tell your partner how grateful you are for something they do or for who they are, you raise the positive energy between the two of you.
And appreciation is contagious. The more you get, the more you want, and the more you want to share!
It only takes 10 seconds, but the effects are miraculous. Here’s how to do it:
A few examples:
“I really appreciate how much you care about our friends, like the way you helped Teresa with her project the other day. You really take the time to listen to people and find out what they need.”
“I love the way you just moved. You’re like a dancer! It reminds me of when we first met, and all you had to do to turn me on was to walk into the room.” Note: I (Gay) have used this one on Katie, and she swooned!
“You know, you really make me feel safe in our relationship, both physically and emotionally.”
Giving and receiving appreciation takes a little practice. First, you may have been so focused on noticing what’s wrong with your partner, that you might feel a little phoney at first when you appreciate him or her instead.
And here’s the interesting flip side: Often it’s even harder for us to receive appreciation than to give it! Hearing something wonderful about ourselves may feel uncomfortable. We’re just not used to soaking up that much love!
The great news is that once you and your partner go on a steady “appreciation diet,” it becomes easier and easier to dish out the appreciation, and it becomes addictive to receive it.
So this holiday, we challenge you to pay attention to how many critical comments vs. spoken appreciations you share. Gratitude can celebrated every day, and it will open more joy and connection in your relationship than you ever dreamed possible.
Katie and Gay’s free relationship e-newsletter, Hearts In Harmony, explores the challenges and glories of lasting love. Based on the tools they’ve developed throughout their 30+ year marriage and taught to thousands, you’ll learn powerful insights and practical techniques you can start using today — whether you’re in a relationship or eager to attract one. www.heartsintrueharmony.com
November is National Adoption Month and it’s a great time for us all to think about how we can support adoption in our communities. Each year, there are over 100,000 adoptions in the United States and there are more than 5 million people who were adopted living in the U.S. right now. Chances are, each of us has one or more friends or family members who was adopted or who has adopted. So it’s important we all know how to talk about adoption in a respectful way, and avoid accidentally offending our friends and family. I’ve had several adoptions in my family and I’ve talked with over 1,000 adopting families, and you’d be amazed by some of the inconsiderate things people say — even though they aren’t trying to be inconsiderate. Here are six things everyone should know to say, or not say, about adoption:
Sometimes people ask about an adopted child’s “real family,” which unintentionally implies that the adopting parents are not the child’s real family. Instead, they should ask about the child’s “birth family.”
By putting “adopted” before “parents” or “mom” or “dad”, it is implying you don’t think the parents are “full” parents. But a family is not defined by biology — families are defined by unconditional love, and parents who adopt love their children just as much as parents who give birth.
This statement is bad news for several reasons. Calling birth children their “own” children, implies you don’t consider children who were adopted to be their “own,” which is not true. Also, this implies that anyone’s first choice would be to have biological children and that adopting is a last resort. Wording like this can make children who were adopted feel inferior, which they shouldn’t. Lastly, it implies that the parents adopted for infertility reasons, which is why some parents adopt, but not all of them. People adopt for many different reasons.
This statement would only be appropriate if you were asking the parents where they bought their clothes. It’s not appropriate to ask this about their children. If you are genuinely interested because perhaps you are also interested in inter-country adoption or domestic transracial adoption, you can ask the parent, preferably not in front of the child, if they have experience with adoption and for their advice.
It has become more and more common for children who were adopted to have contact with their birth family throughout their life. This does not mean they will leave their parents to go back with their birth parents. They just become part of the child’s extended family.
“Giving up” or “not keeping” implies the birth mother abandoned the child. Placing a child for adoption implies the birth mother loved the child and made a plan for her.
These are the six positive adoption language phrases I felt were the most important to share. If you are curious to learn more positive adoption expressions, you can go here for an extensive list.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
