Hasta La Gadget!

Sean Rad believes that male “inexperience” is the root cause of inappropriate interaction on Tinder.

During The Atlantic’s New York Ideas festival on May 20, Atlantic President and Editor-in-Chief James Bennet asked the Tinder co-founder to address the critique that “women can encounter some pretty aggressive and even nasty behavior” on the dating app. Bennet cited a Guardian article that called Tinder “a place where women regularly have to put up with the kind of sexist, vulgar and aggressive messages.”

“Let’s talk a little bit about how you think about policing the environment [on] Tinder — or if you do — to prevent that kind of thing,” said Bennet.

Rad assured Bennet that Tinder moderators “quickly take action” if a user is reported, going on to say that the company just launched a program to “correct” bad behavior and “educate” users who engage in it. However, Rad made it clear that it takes at least three or four reports for someone’s account to be suspended from the platform, and said he sees no difference between the behavior women encounter on Tinder and the behavior women encounter out at a bar.

“You’re of course going to find incidences of creepiness just like when you walk into a bar,” said Rad, “there are going to be guys who are lost and don’t know how to communicate well or effectively.” That assessment is questionable at best; It’s very hard to believe that all the people who feel emboldened to call women sluts and whores and racial slurs on dating apps would use the same language in person.

Here, for example, is a real-life Tinder exchange that was post on the popular (and self-explanatory) Instagram account, Tinder Nightmares:

If we can’t date at least like my photos?

A photo posted by Unspirational (@tindernightmares) on Apr 6, 2015 at 1:15pm PDT

Rad implied that men who are “rude and offensive” to women on Tinder are essentially lost puppies who genuinely don’t know any better:

I think a lot of the times, what you see is, men don’t know what to do, so it’s not they’re inherently creepy or bad, they just genuinely don’t know what to say, so they resort to stupid things. That’s the unfortunate reality.

I think that corrects over time. And I think they’re learning. And the more practice you have on Tinder, the more you realize that being rude or offensive doesn’t work. And when you realize it doesn’t work, you stop being rude and offensive. I think there’s this self-policing aspect of Tinder.

Rad’s analysis is insulting to men and women. Are men truly as dumb and ignorant as he makes them out to be? And if so, is it really the responsibility of female Tinder users to turn offensive dudes into decent human beings? To both, I say, swipe left.

(Skip to 8:25 to hear Rad discuss harassment of women on Tinder.)

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

“We piss you off, but you love us anyway.” — the motto of cats everywhere.

Which is why Will Herring‘s video game, “My Garbage Cat Wakes Me Up at 3 a.m. Every Day,” is so great. The game, which can be played on your desktop, allows you to fulfill the role of Herring’s cat. The objective is to knock everything over and wake up your poor, sleeping human.

Because that’s just what our feline friends do.

guys!! i made a game where you play as my cat and have to knock stuff over and be the worst! http://t.co/j1v4yrrrZJ pic.twitter.com/EHrPrYzrIV

— Will Herring (@grey2scale) May 14, 2015

In addition to knocking everything over, you can “meow and cry all the time” and “knead with your dumb little paws,” the instructions announce. As you destroy your human’s apartment, you will deplete his sleep meter. When the meter runs out, the human begrudgingly admits defeat and says exactly what cat owners are all quietly wondering to themselves — “Why are you this way.”

Of course, cat owners love their furry friends, and would probably follow them to the ends of the Earth. But sometimes it’s just nice to turn the tables and experience a feline’s glorious, needy life.

To play “My Garbage Cat Wakes Me Up at 3 a.m. Every Day,” visit the game’s website here.

H/T Mashable

Like Us On Facebook
Follow Us On Twitter

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Black men in the U.S. have been described as being stuck in a “permanent recession,” with unemployment rates consistently higher than those of other demographic groups. But an advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., is working to tackle the problem head-on.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Black Chambers, a nonprofit association of various chambers of commerce, launched the Young Black Male Entrepreneur Institute, an endeavor meant to address the employment gap among black men and help inspire and support new leadership on the issue.

The institute, according to its description, will provide both experienced and novice millennial black male entrepreneurs with a 16-week program featuring “a curricula led by subject matter experts from the framework of our nation’s most competitive business institutions. The entrepreneurs will also receive business development counseling from a cadre of diverse business leaders with a culminating experience that allows cohort members to pitch to a selection of CEOs and investors from the region.”

The group celebrated its first cohort of participants at an event at the City Club in Washington last month.

In an interview this week with NewsOne, Howard R. Jean, the institute’s chief engineer and an education entrepreneur, said the connection between mentors and mentees is key to the initiative’s model.

“We know that having a cohort and having people around you to support you is great, but also having that business savvy, that curricula and the expertise of senior leaders, is going to help us propel these guys to higher heights and accelerate their growth,” Jean said.

Even as national unemployment has trended downward since the height of the Great Recession, the unemployment rate among black men has remained robust. In April, black male unemployment dipped below 10 percent for just the first time in seven years.

As the Pew Research Center has reported, ever since the government started tracking joblessness by race in 1954, black Americans have consistently experienced an unemployment rate at least double that of their white counterparts. And as Al Jazeera noted last year, black men generally fare worse in the job market than black women.

The disparity appears to hold up regardless of education levels. According to a report released last year by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, black college graduates were generally twice as likely to be unemployed in 2013 as their white peers. The same study reported that a white man with a recent criminal history was more likely to receive a follow-up call after a job interview than a black man with no criminal record and an otherwise identical resume.

According to The Root, Jean and Keith Benjamin, the institute’s chief organizer and connector, hope eventually to expand the program on a national scale. Such growth, they say, could have a big effect on both the black community and the business world.

“The implications on economic development and workforce development will provide young black males with leverage and influence, which in turn will allow them to serve as business leaders in various sectors,” Jean told The Root.

Watch a video from the initiative’s April launch event:

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

I’m a busy working mom. My daughter is a busy pre-teen kid, and as she grows older, there’s less time snuggling and more time talking. I thought I would be heartbroken when that time came, but the talking is so much fun that I hardly miss it.

I think it’s important to embrace each new stage as it comes along and not dwell too much on the past or how easy it is to miss!

Every single day, I make it a point to start a conversation with her that leaves a door open for her to tell me anything she wants. Let me be real here; this doesn’t always end in some poignant mother-daughter moment, and I get one-word answers more often than not, but that’s OK, because sometimes, I get the good stories and the important questions. And so I ask these things, every day. And I take the time to listen to the answers, because I like that she knows I’m listening.

I don’t ask these questions all at once, but I try to make time to ask my daughter these four questions every day:

1. How’s life?

I’ve been asking her this question since she was old enough to talk. When she was little, she used to answer this one with things like, “very purple.” Or, “tastes like chicken.” But now that she’s almost 10, sometimes I get somewhere with this one. “Sucky” is what she says when she wants me to ask a more direct question or pry for more details. But when I get a “fine,” I know that question isn’t going to get anywhere, so I don’t press it.

That’s the key with these questions; you don’t have to press your kids to answer. If they need to talk, these questions lead them to an opportunity to confide in you.

2. What’s up with your friends?

Occasionally, I will ask about a specific friend if I know a kid has been going through something, or if she’s told me about a disagreement she’s trying to work out, but most of the time, I pose this question in general terms. You’d be surprised how, when you take the spotlight off of your kid and shine it on friends, your kid will be more likely to talk.

3. Anything cool going on?

OK, so I’ll be honest, this is more for me and my absent-mindedness than it is for her. Sometimes, I forget about things coming up, and if I ask this question, she usually reminds me. But sometimes, she tells me all about her secret Harry Potter club or a new project at school.

4. Do you need help with anything?

This is my favorite question of all. And I think it might be the most important. My kid knows I’m there for her when she needs it, but we all know how hard it can be to ask for help. So I just do the heavy lifting for her on this one. Most of the time she says no, and sometimes she just says, “Cleaning my room is a lot today. Could you maybe help a little?” (And sometimes, I help, sometimes I say no.) But this question can go a lot deeper than that. Maybe she’s having trouble trying to fix a rift between two friends, or she doesn’t understand a concept they’re working on at school. Asking if she needs help every day gives me the chance to be there for her when I didn’t know she needed it.

These four questions keep the conversation flowing between my daughter and I, and they keep me in the loop when it comes to the goings on of all things tween.

This post originally appeared on TotallyTheBomb.com. Follow Jamie on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Want more? Check out the ten things I want my daughter to know before she turns ten.

This post originally appeared on TotallyTheBomb.com. Follow Jamie on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.

Maybe it’s your birthday. Maybe your godson is graduating from college. Maybe it’s a Saturday night and your name is Emily Gilmore. Maybe it’s a Thursday night and you’re the Entertainment Chair of your fraternity. But for whatever reason, you’re throwing a party. The invitations have gone out, and you’ve figured out the lighting, decor and music.

But you also need to figure out the food and beverage situation. You’re entering perilous waters, full of rocky shoals and hungry sea monsters. But don’t worry: HuffPost is here. We’ve identified 11 common food-and-drink mistakes that party hosts make all the time. As long as you avoid these snafus, you’ll be just fine. You’ll throw a great party, and all your friends will love you forever, and all your enemies will rue the day they crossed you.

Mistake #1: Not Having Enough Ice

This is the most common mistake party hosts make, which is frustrating because it’s really cheap and easy to rectify and ice is SUPER IMPORTANT. If you have ice, you can make pretty much any simple mixed drink taste good: cold and dilution can make even straight whiskey or tequila palatable. But without ice, you can’t really make any mixed drink taste good. (Except, I suppose, a hot toddy?) The dozen ice cubes that have been collecting dust in your ice trays for a week won’t cut it. When you throw a party, buy some bags of ice. More than you think you’ll need. It’s better to have leftovers — which keep pretty much forever — than to run out halfway through the night.

Mistake #2: Not Having Enough Cups

This is almost as bad as, and even easier to fix than, not having enough ice. But I also understand it: You might think you should buy as many cups as there will be guests, plus maybe 20 percent for people who lose theirs. But the truth is that a good party will be so chaotic that many guests are likely to go through not one or two, but easily three or four cups. So buy a ton! Just be sure to recycle them the next day, or, better yet, wash and reuse them.

Mistake #3: Having Too Low A Ratio Of Mixers-To-Liquor

Here’s a common sight: You walk into a party, you go to the makeshift bar the host has set up on some credenza in their living room, and you see exactly as many bottles of juice or soda as there are bottles of liquor. This is wrong. Those mixers will run out. You should always provide at least three times as much mixer as liquor. Especially because there are bound to be some people who won’t want to drink alcohol, or much alcohol, and will want cups of plain Diet Coke or cranberry juice.

Mistake #4: Serving Drinks That Are Too Fussy

This is, in some sense, the inverse of the first three mistakes. It comes from a noble place in the heart of a party host — the desire to serve delicious beverages. But it, too, is a mistake. Fussy drinks take a long time to make, which can create bottlenecks of sobriety at the party, especially if a bunch of guests arrive at the same time. And it forces the host to focus on mixology rather than talking to their guests and having fun. If you’re insistent on serving a fantastic, elaborate drink, make it a punch that you can mix one huge batch of in advance: My favorite is the Original Chatham Artillery Punch. It’s never been anything less than a smash hit when I’ve made it for a group.

Mistake #5: Not Serving Food

You don’t have to feed everyone at your party a full dinner. Certainly not. You don’t have to serve delicious food. (Though it helps.) But if you are serving alcohol, you must provide something to eat. Chips and salsa, olives or a bowl of nuts, at least. Otherwise, people will get wasted far more quickly than you want them to — or, just as bad, they’ll leave when they get peckish.

Mistake #6: Serving Messy Food

On balance, serving messy food may actually be worse than serving no food. Nothing ruins a party like getting sloppy joe meat all over your nice shirt.

Mistake #7: Serving Clichéd Party Food

You wanna see someone’s eyes roll back all the way into their head? Invite me to a party and serve one of two kinds of food: a grape-and-cheese plate or a crudité platter, the pre-fab kind that comes from Costco. It’s lazy, boring and totally basic. I’d prefer a bowl of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. This is, I admit, better than no food at all — but only by a hair.

Mistake #8: Putting All The Food And Drink In One Place

A subtle mistake that has consigned countless parties to failure. Here’s why: If you put the beer, the liquor, the Cheetos and the cake all on one table, or, God forbid, in your narrow kitchen, all your guests are going to congregate there. That’s a recipe for heat, discomfort, accidental pushing and early departures. Instead, if you have any space at all, spread the different types of comestibles throughout your home. That way, your guests will be forced to move around the party all night, and thereby be thrust into all sorts of the random encounters that are the lifeblood of a proper party.

Mistake #9: Not Accounting For Dietary Restrictions

If you have no dietary restrictions whatsoever, it’s easy to be annoyed by them, or even to forget that they exist. But when you’re throwing a party, you have to think about them. Because if you don’t, you run the risk of having multiple people feel uncomfortable, hungry and sad at your party. You should be safe as long as you have options for people who are vegetarian, vegan and/or gluten-free. That’s not particularly difficult: get some wine for the gluten-free people to drink instead of beer, and serve some pita and hummus, or other meatless snack, alongside your platter of prosciutto and foie gras terrine. Easy peasy.

Mistake #10: Not Making The Menu Personal

This one’s a little nebulous, and related to the injunction against clichéd party foods. But the idea is that if you’re throwing a party, it should feel like your party. Not your mom’s party or your friend’s party or a party you saw on Pinterest. Some of this work can and should be done through decor, but food and drink with personal significance can be great too. So if you just moved back to Chicago after spending four years in San Diego, get some craft beer from that great San Diego brewery you toured! Or if you’re known as an obsessive “Breaking Bad” fan, serve some meth-inspired blue drinks! Bake some of your trademark blondies!

Mistake #11: Not Serving Jell-O Shots

I’ve saved the most important rule of party-throwing for last: Always serve Jell-O Shots. Preferably in a piñata .

— This feed and its contents are the property of The Huffington Post, and use is subject to our terms. It may be used for personal consumption, but may not be distributed on a website.