Most people don’t bother reading the terms and conditions when they download apps. They’re boring! The downside of swiping and tapping without actually looking is that we often allow broad access without thinking, like downloading an app that wants to read all your text messages and not even knowing you did it. This video shows how unsettled people get when they realize exactly what they’ve been saying yes to on their phones.
What does a world-class city need these days? Museums, skyscrapers, leafy parks, and, perhaps, a custom typeface.
Michelin and Bridgestone have been racing to take the air out of everyone’s tires—but in a good way. Both companies have been developing open-air wheels that will never puncture or deflate, and while they’ve mostly seen use in research and military vehicles to date, John Deere will finally offer a ride-on mower that uses Michelin’s see-through Tweels.
Laying new a transoceanic internet cable is a massive undertaking—laying one across the Arctic especially so. Arctic Fibre has grand plans to venture across the ice and the unmapped ocean floors, threading a trans-Arctic cable to finally connect London and Tokyo directly. Here’s how.
Checking out at the super market with your phone is old hat. But topping off the parking meter, now that’s kind of interesting. USA Technologies, a company that handles cashless payments, announced that about 200,000 of its points of purchase will ac…
the Misfit Flash may not be the flashiest fitness wearable around, but it’s handy. A small Bluetooth button, which then slides into a watchband or clip-on, Flash is good at tracking your activity levels. Starting today, Flash is getting a whole lot handier, as Misfit announces they’ve integrated several new platforms into their own service. To round out your connected … Continue reading
NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope has been studying the system they’ve called Kepler-444 for about four years. This system, they say, was formed about 11.2 billion years ago, making it one of the most ancient star systems with terrestrial-sized planets discovered thus far. This star system is important not because of its age, on the other hand, but because of its … Continue reading
I used to have a little girl that loved me very much.
“Mommy,” she would say, “You are so beautiful. You tell the funniest jokes. You do the best voices when you read stories.” And she would snuggle up with me and kiss me lovingly on my cheek.
That little girl made me very proud. When we would go to the store, she was always the best behaved child — shaking her head sadly as one of her brothers threw tantrums over denied boxes of Legos and another brother bit my calf over my refusal to buy fruit snacks. But this child, her blondish pigtails nodding, would just meet my eyes and make a disgusted clucking sound, as if to say, “Those heathen boys, irrational, selfish creatures. Your cross is a mighty one to bear, Mother.”
And it WAS mighty, so I smiled at her and patted her pretty little head.
Yes, this was a glorious time in our relationship.
And then, abruptly, without much warning, she began to hate me and started wishing I would get run over by an ice cream truck.
This was not a process that occurred gradually; rather, it was abrupt and coldly sudden.
As in — one day we were together admiring hair barrettes at Wal-Mart together and she was smiling and sweet and the next day we were arguing over hair dye and leggings and she was foaming at the mouth and I was asking her if it was at all possible that she had acquired rabies from a mad, neighborhood squirrel.
Needless to say, it was a rude awakening.
As in, I awoke one morning and my logical, agreeable daughter had been replaced by one who was rude. And angry. For no apparent reason.
Other than the fact that she was 12.
This was, apparently, a time of great crisis in her development. And yet, beyond homework, her brothers and my apparently unreasonable refusal to buy her a new iPhone, I didn’t really see her existence as one beyond the scope of normal difficulty. Granted, there were hormonal components at work, I concede to this immediately. And she was an all-A student, a bright, capable girl. But the level of venom that she now possessed exceeded even my own presumptions regarding pre-teen hormones.
And all of, ALL OF IT, my friends, was locked, loaded and aimed squarely at me.
My life became a series of circular, frantic discussions that made me dread her thump-thump-thump down the stairs each morning. I loved her, of course she was my beautiful child still. Somewhere in there, anyway. As I became convinced that my previous child had been eaten by an angry beast with a precocious vocabulary and sharp, orange-polished talons, I began to name our daily interactions.
As such, I give you:
I Hate You, Don’t Leave Me (Conversation with my 12-year-old daughter)
Me: Hey, girl! Good Morning!
Her: What’s so good about it?
Me: There’s no school today. That makes it good, right?
Her: I wish I had school so I could get away from my brothers (and then, under her breath)… and you. They are so annoying.
Me, forcing a smile: I know, I know. Why don’t you get some breakfast and then get dressed and we will go to Target and start back to school shopping?
Her: STOP PRESSURING ME! I can’t even think about school now! YOU… PEOPLE!
Me: But… you just said…
Her: No one respects anything I say.
Me: Yes, we do. Let’s just get breakfast and —
Her, mockingingly: Let’s just get breakfast!
Me, with false bravery: Oh, now you’re a 2-year-ld. (But I take a step back)
Her, entering the bathroom and wheeling around to face me: It is entirely possible that you have never loved me.
(She slams the door. I crawl into my bed to await her high school graduation)
Five Minutes Later
(Bathroom door opens, 12-year-old skips out)
Her, entering my room and perching on my bed: So… whatchya doin?
Me, voice muffled, head under covers: Ummmm, hiding?
Her, laughing the laugh of the hormonally insane: Why, silly? I thought we were going to Target!
Me, peeking one eye out: You want to go out?
Her, lovingly: After I get some snuggle time! (She slides under the covers with me)
Me, sensing danger but too stupid to acknowledge it: Awww, baby girl. (I give her a hug as she snuggles in).
Three Minutes Later
Me, still snuggling: Maybe while we are out we can get your haircut too!
Her, sitting up abruptly and snatching the covers off the bed: What’s wrong with my hair?????
Me, at my limit and it’s only 10:30 a.m.: It’s just-the whole bias cut-long on one side… it’s not. I don’t think. (Things are falling apart, panic setting in.) I’m sorry, it looks like you have a beaver pelt there on your head, honey. We need to fix it. You’re so beautiful, we will just–
Her: I. AM. NEVER. SPEAKING. TO YOU. AGAIN!!! (stomping up the stairs)
I can’t help but smile. With this threat, I am the happiest I have been in 24 hours. Which should indicate the debased nature of my life station.
Five Minutes Later
I am happily curled up with my iPhone and Candy Crush. Cheerful. Free at last. Until I hear, thump-thump-thump on the stairs.
And then… the lights flicker and my iPhone unexpectedly goes dead.
I turn to see a beaver pelt on a woman-child’s head flounce down next to me. A long pale arm gives me a great big hug. And from under the mass of hair I hear a voice.
Her: So… Whatchya doin?
And I start calculating, silently, just how many days it will be until she goes to college or I find an ice cream truck willing to put me out of my misery.
By: Rachael Rettner
Published: 01/26/2015 10:52 AM EST on LiveScience
Although a number of states have legalized marijuana for medical or recreational reasons in recent years, a leading group of U.S. pediatricians says it opposes such legalization, over concerns that these laws could be harmful to children.
However, the group says that in some cases, some of the chemical compounds contained in marijuana could be used to treat children with debilitating diseases.
The recreational use of marijuana is now legal in Washington, Colorado, Oregon, Alaska and the District of Columbia. Although none of these places allows the drug to be sold to children or teens, making marijuana available to adults could increase the access that teens have to the drug, according to a policy statement released today (Jan. 26) by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
“Just the campaigns to legalize marijuana can have the effect of persuading adolescents that marijuana is not dangerous,” Dr. Seth D. Ammerman, a member of the AAP Committee on Substance Abuse, said in a statement. [Maps: Where Americans Smoke and Grow Marijuana]
Still, laws that legalize marijuana for recreational use are relatively new, and it’s not clear what the true effect on teens will be, the AAP said. For this reason, the group is against legalization, but supports the idea of conducting studies into the effect of these laws, to better understand the laws’ impact on teen use.
The AAP also recommends that in states where marijuana use is legal, there should be strict regulations that limit the marketing and advertising of the products to youth. States that legalize marijuana should prohibit the sale of the drug to those under age 21, the AAP said.
The AAP also opposes the use of marijuana for medical purposes, except for drugs that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration. Currently, there are two FDA-approved drugs that contain synthetic cannabinoids, which are compounds similar to the active ingredients in marijuana.
Some studies suggest that cannabinoids may be helpful for adults with certain medical conditions, but no studies have been done in children, so more research is needed to determine the effectiveness and dosing of the drugs in young people, the AAP said.
However, the AAP said that exceptions for using cannabinoids may be made for children with debilitating or life-limiting diseases, as these children may benefit from cannabinoid medication and may not be able to wait for a lengthy research process to prove the drugs’ effectiveness.
In teens, marijuana use is linked with a number of negative consequences, including impaired short-term memory and decreased concentration, which may interfere with learning, the AAP said. Temporary alterations in reaction time and motor control while under the influence of marijuana may also contribute to deaths and injuries among teens, especially if the teen is driving a car while under the influence. Some studies have also found that marijuana use in adolescence is linked with lower odds of graduating from high school.
The AAP’s previous policy statement on marijuana was released in 2004, and also opposed the legalization of the drug.
Follow Rachael Rettner @RachaelRettner. Follow Live Science @livescience, Facebook & Google+. Original article on Live Science.
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ST. LOUIS (AP) — An 8-year-old St. Louis boy went to school and told an office worker he had been shot, after his mother exchanged gunfire with a man who tried to force his way into a home, police said Tuesday.
Both mother and child were hospitalized in stable condition as police searched for a suspect in the shooting, the latest of several that have plagued St. Louis over the past 13 months.
Officers were called Tuesday morning to a home on the city’s south side. Police said a 39-year-old man who lived there was warming up his car and returned inside to retrieve something.
When he went back outside, another man tried to push his way into the home, police said. As the men struggled, the resident told the female resident to go upstairs and get a gun.
Police said the woman retrieved a revolver and exchanged shots with the suspect through the door. The suspect, armed with a semi-automatic pistol, shot the woman, 35, in the leg. Another bullet grazed the child’s ankle. Police have not confirmed whether the bullet that struck the boy was from his mother’s gun or the suspect’s.
The suspect drove off in the family’s 2006 Dodge Charger. Police weren’t certain if he was shot.
It appears no one knew the boy was injured until he got to school and told an office worker. Paramedics arrived and took him away on a stretcher, though the wound was described as minor.
Meanwhile, the male resident of the home took the mother to Saint Louis University Hospital for a leg injury.
Officers found a large amount of marijuana inside the family’s home, police said, though they did not say whether it was a possible motive in the attempted break-in.
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