Tomorrow Ikea will reportedly announce a recall of over 27 million Malm dressers. And shockingly, the Swedish furniture company is doing away with the piece of furniture altogether. Many versions of the Malm dresser were officially removed from the Ikea website today.
Microsoft has paid a $10,000 judgement to Windows user Teri Goldstein, who sued the company after an authorized Windows 10 update allegedly wrecked havoc on her computer, causing issues that, according to Goldstein, ultimately hampered her travel agency business. Microsoft has been heavily criticized for pushing Windows 10 onto users, often in sneaky or unauthorized ways; though it has paid … Continue reading
Xbox Fitness has provided an at-home workout with the help of the trusty game console and Microsoft’s Kinect since 2013. However, the exercise option won’t be around much longer. Microsoft Studios announced that the console-driven workouts would be s…
A federal judge has given Volkswagen until Tuesday, June 28th, to present a plan aimed at making amends in the diesel emissions scandal that’s been dogging the company for nearly a year. Reuters and Bloomberg report that the settlement will cost VW $…
Donald Trump’s economic policies are so bad that they would produce the longest U.S. recession since the Great Depression, a report from economists at Moody’s Analytics found last week.
Assume, as the economists did, that Trump could implement his key economic policies — tax cuts skewed heavily to the one percent, mass deportation of illegal immigrants, and huge tariffs on imports from China and Mexico — during his first two years as president.
The result: the U.S. will go into recession at the start of 2018 and not emerge until 2020. Instead of 6 million new jobs being created, 3.4 million Americans would lose their jobs. Gross domestic product will fall by 2.4 percent. That’s a longer, though less severe, downturn than the Great Recession (which officially began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009).
The Moody’s economists summed up their warning:
Even allowing for some variability in the accuracy of the economic modeling and underlying assumptions that drive the analysis, four basic conclusions regarding the impact of Mr. Trump’s economic proposals can be reached: 1) they will result in a less global U.S. economy; 2) they will lead to larger government deficits and more debt; 3) they will largely benefit very high-income households; and 4) they will result in a weaker U.S. economy, with fewer jobs and higher unemployment.
To reach that conclusion, the economists took Trump’s stated policies and plugged them into their model for the U.S. economy. They noted that their model is similar to the ones used by the Federal Reserve and the Congressional Budget Office.
Of course, as The New York Times’ Neil Irwin points out, forecasting with precision is very hard, and so the Moody’s report is more useful to understand the broad economic trends that would be at work in a Trump presidency. Those trends are really bad.
First, Trump’s huge tax cuts, of which one-third would go to the top one percent, would fail to durably stimulate the economy, and the U.S. national debt would balloon. Debt is not necessarily bad. It can, in fact, be a good thing when it’s paying for investments that help grow the economy. But Trump’s tax cutting binge wouldn’t do that. It would instead send debt to record levels for no greater long-term purpose than to tilt the tax code even further in the favor of the rich.
Second, Trump’s vow to get tough on trade — by, for instance, putting a 45 percent tariff on Chinese imports — would raise consumer prices 3 percent. American businesses would be left struggling to find alternative sources of goods, while China raised its own tariffs in response. Not a good scene at all.
Third, there’s the presumptive GOP nominee’s pledge to deport all 11 million undocumented immigrants. Undocumented workers, Moody’s points out, make up 5 percent of the U.S. workforce. So Trump’s plan is the equivalent of ripping all the workers in North and South Carolina, and then some more, out of the economy, and telling yourself this will have no ripple effects on businesses or local communities.
Trump’s campaign hit back in a statement last week by pointing out that the lead author of the Moody’s report, Mark Zandi, is a Democrat and a donor to Hillary Clinton. That’s true, but it’s no substantive response to the economists’ predictions. The attack also failed to mention that Zandi served as an economic advisor to 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain.
Trump economic adviser Peter Navarro was more on point in a CNN interview. The University of California, Irvine, professor said that the candidate’s policies wouldn’t cause a recession because tax cuts mean growth and American workers would fill the (often poorly paid) jobs left vacant by deported immigrants.
Trump won’t start a trade war with China, Navarro said, because China won’t even fight back. When that nation realizes it “no longer [has] a weak leader in the White House, China ceases its unfair trade practices,” Navarro said.
Or as Trump put it last year, “We will have so much winning if I get elected that you may get bored with the winning.”
Editor’s note: Donald Trump regularly incites political violence and is a serial liar, rampant xenophobe, racist, misogynist and birther who has repeatedly pledged to ban all Muslims — 1.6 billion members of an entire religion — from entering the U.S.
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Earlier this month, a young child found his way onto the field of a Euro 2016 game between Iceland and Hungary. He was one of a number of boys chosen to stand in front of the two national teams before the game. But unlike the others around him, our protagonist had a plan.
The boy surely knew he’d only have a split second to pull his idea off before the camera cut away from the Icelandic team behind him. But if he could get it just right, make his move at the perfect moment, there would be no doubt that he, not Iceland or Hungary, would go down as the game’s true winner.
After a few moments, the camera fixed on his face. It was time — now or never. And so, the boy with the swooping hair turned toward the camera on his right with complete confidence. He held a straight face for half a second, maybe even just a third. Then, he did it: The most perfect goddamned wink I have ever seen.
The moment was so brief that many people missed it at first. But soon enough, the headlines started rolling in: “Fans can’t get enough of the coolest mascot football has ever seen at Hungary vs Iceland;” “World’s Chillest Mascot Kid Winks At Camera During National Anthem At Euro Game;” “A wink of brilliance went unnoticed during the Hungary vs Iceland match.”
The internet is a hot bed for hyperbole, but, c’mon, the hyperbole was justified here. That wink was brilliant and chill. It was understated. It required an almost professional-level understanding of TV timing and angles — the kind of knowledge neither I nor anyone I know really possesses. Which made me wonder: Is it just me or have kids become extra suave recently?
Kids, like adults, have long been obsessed with appearing on the Jumbotron and television for as long as Jumbotron and television have existed. But when the camera has dropped on them in the past, the traditional reaction has been either to shy away or go completely bonkers, like this kid.
Lately, I’ve noticed a subtle change in the ideal way the cool kids are trying to act on camera. They seem to be becoming more self-aware and media savvy of course, but there is something else going on, too, and that “something else” feels like a growing degree of subtleness and timing in their viral exploits. And to be honest, I’m not mad about it at all. It’s awesome. Consider the latest person to garner the interest of the internet for his viral genius: That kid at the College World Series over the weekend who stared into the depths of the camera and, by extension, the depths of my own soul.
Or what about this kid, who recently stood behind some sportscasters while performing a series of dabs and dances?
Or how about this wonderful human right here?
Or Marsai Martin of “Black-ish” fame at the BET Awards on Sunday night?
Or water bottle guy?
We have created a generation of children who have spent their entire lives not only on the web, but also mastering the exact angles, faces and movements that can be packaged into six-second Vines and consequently distributed to the world. Sure, they are probably going to end up hopelessly addicted to their iPhones — the consequences of which we won’t truly know until it’s too late. But it’s also created a generation of suave-ass kids, who seem to be coming into their own in the last year. Or maybe more likely, I’m just getting old.
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College campuses across the country are experiencing increased student activism. Students are challenging practices inside and outside the classroom, demanding change and forcing our campuses to tackle important and long overlooked issues of class, race, social status, and the narratives that our institutions have chosen to promote. This is good! What better place for students to lead advocacy and systemic institutional change efforts than on our own campuses.
Student voices are also being heard at high schools and even middle schools across the country. Recent school walk-outs by students demanding more funding and great support of public schools are generating impressive results. Here in Boston, Wheelock College recently hosted, with our community partners, a powerful conversation with more than 500 middle and high school students from Greater Boston.
The half day Youth Symposium: Youth Speak discussed the politics of race, gender, and equity. The students heard an inspiring keynote message from Beverly Bond, Founder of Black Girls Rock! What was most impressive was the receptiveness of the “adults” including Boston Mayor Martin J. Walsh and other civic and business leaders who were there to listen to the voices of the students. We asked these passionate students to identify the issues they believe affect them the most.
Their list of “hot issues” included:
• Jobs: Particularly lack of access to summer jobs, meaningful internships, and workforce readiness skills
• College Access: Particularly lack of resources to prepare for college
• Voice in School: Particularly lack of opportunities to talk about what’s going on in their schools around funding
• Community Violence: Particularly lack of opportunities to talk about community violence they may have experienced
The students told us the many ways that these issues affect them personally, as well as the impact they see in their neighborhoods and communities, the media, and their schools. It was an eye-opening experience for me and the other adults in the room. Far from the stereotypes we often see of urban youth as loud and uncaring, these students were thoughtful, respectful, well-spoken, and completely engaged in the discussion about improving their future. Most importantly, the students presented meaningful and measurable solutions that can be implemented. Our overriding message to them was that young voices matter and we wanted to hear what they had to say.
The voices of young people are incredibly important in any discussion of our future. In fact, the agenda of this and our two previous Wheelock Youth Symposia were created by the students themselves. This year, we asked the students to tell us how we can make Boston a better city, how we can make this a better country, and how we can address issues around race, gender, and equity.
The students brainstormed in small groups on what they need to overcome these issues and succeed. And boy did they have ideas to share!
• They recommend partnering with community organizations, such as the Boston Foundation, to create professional networking opportunities and training for paid jobs for young teens.
• They want better support from guidance counselors to navigate the college preparation process.
• They suggest creating a social justice course requirement for all Boston Public School students, where they could discuss school budgets and other social factors that directly affect their education.
• They want their teachers to get to know them better–without labeling them–and aim to understand their individual experiences.
• They want to develop a culture of “see something, say something” by fostering community activities where people can come together to talk about drugs, trafficking, music, and media.
They also told us we need to figure out how to make our institutions of higher learning–both public and private–more accessible to all students. These students laid out a pathway to success and there is a role for all of us adults to play–whether we’re in higher ed, public office, the private sector, or anywhere else. If we can rise to this challenge, I have complete confidence that these young people–and their peers across this country–can truly save the world.
The 2016 Youth Symposium was Wheelock’s third such event for middle and high school students. In our first Symposium, Archbishop Desmond Tutu engaged with youth on the very important topic of forgiveness. Our second Symposium, led by award-winning author and activist Hill Harper and Harvard Law School Professor Charles Ogletree, focused on our commitment to each other and our obligation to give back to society. For our third Symposium, we decided to focus on the intersection of gender, race, and equity because we all see it played out every day in the media.
I believe 2016 will be an incredibly important year for everyone in Boston, across America, and around the world. Not only are we electing a U.S. president, but we’ll be electing Congresspeople, Senators, and local officials who all will affect our ability to have the kind of life we want to have for ourselves and for our children. The 2016 Youth Symposium was a powerful day for the young people and everyone else in attendance.
As I complete my 12-year presidency at Wheelock College this month and celebrate the success of our third Youth Symposium, I hope that other institutions around the country will open their campuses to similar conversations with the voices of our youth. We have a lot to learn from them!
For more information on the Wheelock College Youth Symposium and video highlights of the 2016 Youth Symposium, visit our web site here.
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Long before she became a bride-to-be, Kresha Bajaj had dreamt of designing her own wedding clothes one day.
Leading up to her February 28 nuptials to Vanraj Zaver at The Leela Palace in Udaipur, India, Bajaj finally got the chance. One of the most striking pieces she created for the occasion was a wedding lehenga — or long skirt — which she embroidered with their love story.
“There’s a pattern in the middle of the lehenga which looks like chevron, but is actually a repeat of our names written in zari thread,” the bride explained to The Huffington Post. “Each kali (or panel) has a frame which depicts milestone moments from our life. So as you go around the lehenga from left to right, you can see our entire story unfold.”
For instance, she embroidered the bottom hem with jumping dolphins because the couple’s love story began at a protest against the captivity of marine mammals.
Because Bajaj knew she wouldn’t have a chance to wear the garment again, she decided to have it framed and hung in her home in Mumbai after the wedding was over.
“If I was going to frame it, I had to make it like a piece of art,” Bajaj wrote in a blog post on Miss Malini. “In order to have a piece of artwork up on our wall, it had be something meaningful, something we wouldn’t get sick of looking at. And the one thing I knew we wouldn’t get sick of looking at was our love story.”
The idea to frame the garment came to her one night while watching an episode of the reality show “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
“I saw Adrienne Maloof’s framed wedding dress and decided I wanted to frame my wedding lehenga,” the bride told HuffPost.
Bajaj owns her own fashion brand called Koecsh, which specializes in edgy western and Indian clothing.
“I mostly work on customized and one-off pieces as my clients, like me, have a love for expressing themselves through the way they dress,” she said.
See more of her stunning designs in the wedding photos below:
H/T Vogue India
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Without even knowing it, toddlers reject conformity on a daily basis. Getting dressed? So status quo. Breakfast in bed? Absolutely! And when it comes to time to kick back and take a nap, they are masters at shutting it down — any and everywhere.
This adorable “Today” show video above nails why toddlers’ sleep rules, well, rule. They’re not afraid to steal your bed, if it’s more comfortable than their own. They have the best bedfellows. And there’s no such thing as a bad place to take a quick nap.
And while the video makes us giggle, remember these little ones are the ones banking 11 to 13 hours of sleep a day on average, while as many as 50 percent of adults struggle with sleep. So we’re taking note!
Sarah DiGiulio is The Huffington Post’s sleep reporter. You can contact her at sarah.digiulio@huffingtonpost.com.
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And… Exhale. Congratulations, you have made it through yet another season of Game of Thrones ladies and gentlemen. In many ways a unique season where the show finally raced past the book and left GRRM’s slow writing caboose in the dust (surprising that he allowed one of the biggest reveals of the series to be dropped on HBO over in his writing, but I guess money talks, or more aptly whispers quietly into young Ned Stark’s ear). That means this was also the first season where both the book fans and the show fans were just staring at each other going “huh?”
SPOILERS:This is a given. This is a GoT article. You don’t want spoilers you don’t keep reading. It’s 2016 and I think we should all agree that we expect others to know how the internet works.
Okay, let’s get going. Because it feels like last night both David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were both having their cake and eating it (before smashing whatever was left with a giant hammer). GoT finales are usually reserved for the slow burn nightcap to action-packed penultimate episodes, something we fully expected give how precisely climactic the “Battle of the Bastards” felt. The show is known to slow down, tie up the biggest questions and set up new mysteries while leaving fan satisfaction in the back-seat, abandoning us all whispering frantically “maybe next season” in a dark room.
In that regard, the Season 6 ending felt both very uncharacteristic for a show with a habit of pouring wildfire over fans emotional stability and I imagine very orgasmic for it’s creators to finally drop all of the facts and reveals including… DRUMROLL:
J=L+R: A fan theory 20 years in waiting that Jon Snow is in fact the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen and not the only living evidence of Ned’s one night of weakness in the loins. It was something GoT fans have speculated on ever since Book 1 (or Season 1, relative) and was pretty much assumed to be true at this point. It was more of when and how rather than if the reveal would come, and boy did the show creators milk it, down to the dramatic cut. We get the long close up on baby Jon (who’s hair is looking suspiciously fresh out the womb — does Lyanna just have a baby barber on deck?) that lingers a little too long on this side of uncomfortable, before cutting to seasoned adult-Jon claiming his rightful place (somewhat ironically).
This of course puts a damper on Littlefinger’s plans, who finally admitted his true intentions (if I ever am in a hostage situation, I want Sansa Stark to be my negotiator). He still has a play to make, but the eventual “Jon Snow is actually a Stark AND a Targaryen” truth bomb really ruins his plans to crown Sansa and rule with her. This makes Jon the rightful heir to the throne, the one he worked so hard to get not as much out of want as out of obligation where really he could have just safely sat in it (also known as the reverse-Hillary), leaving Littlefinger out in the cold. It will be interesting how savvy Sansa plays him and his desires and whether or not she still has a play to make to swing this silent conflict.
Speaking of female characters, the show just kept going with pouring the fandom through the episode. We get a little bit more of Lady Olenna doing what she does best: scheming, this time with the Sand Snakes. We get the triumphant return of Arya to Westeros, finally starting to take her revenge in the most satisfying way possible (I am fully prepared to have a well thought out discussion about time/location traveling in GoT). And Dany is coming back!
The Dany return is like a three-hour foreplay session transitioning into the main event. We knew it was going to happen almost always (there was always that one moment of doubt), and as with J=L+R, it was just a matter of when. The show finally got her royal bum on a boat and sent her to reclaim what’s rightfully hers, but not before giving us a satisfying moment with Tyrion, one Alan Sorkin would be proud of. As we finally set into the show’s conclusion, the creators figured it’s time to start setting Daenerys up as a fit ruler for the Seven Kingdoms.
Last week, I wrote that it’s a good time to be a woman in Westeros, and this episode seemed to double down on that statement. The show stood up on it’s podium, walked up to the mic, yelled “bad bitches only” and then proceeded to pour gasoline on the elated crowd. We started with establishing Cersei as your go-to villain (since everyone still continues to ignore that the Night King is coming), and it did it so well. It brought her character arc full circle from making us hate her, to giving her a moment of sympathy to her going full Palpatine on literally every important person King’s Landing. She has descended into madness and it makes it ever so powerful because of how complete her character was in its development. Like the prophesy it is coming full circle.
This makes Jaime’s character arc intriguing as he has witnessed his sister do the one thing he literally killed a King for. As far as emotional affection metronomes go, Jaime is all over the place. At one point, I was really rooting for him (as much as you can root for a dude who’s okay with pushing kids out of the window and getting down on the low with his sis). He seemed to be on his way to redemption before threatening to catapult babies at a castle. I think that’s where the line was drawn. As always, the show however toys with our expectations and now Jaime has yet another prophecy to fulfill to gain our love back. He can be the valonqar Cersei was promised. The “little brother” (he came after her out of the womb, by seconds, but still). This reveal would be very GRRM and once again, years in the making.
The show also gave the minor female characters some play, including everyone’s favorite Lyanna Mormont (Queen in the North?!). While I still love her (and her resting bitch-face), maybe it’s time to start asking about her acting range? The girl is young and she will be fine. She already has a crowd of dedicated fans, so just do a Lyanna spin-off already. Regardless, was there really a need for that speech outside of continuing the hour-long orgasmic fan-service episode? Not sure. That is not to say that it detracted from the show, but it felt rather unnatural and almost un-Game-Of-Thrones-esque.
And that is the most apt way I can think of describing this whole experience. As fantastic and satisfying as it was in the end, it felt unnatural from the way the show normally flows. It hit too many traditional tropes and handled it’s reveals like your standard, hyper-excited cable television show. You get a reveal, you get a reveal; you get a badass scene, you get a badass scene. The show was never going to win the grueling battle with the books on a natural timeline. There is just more you can do with writing. Tell a more complex story on a page. Now that the show passed the literary timeline however, all bets are off; it gets to progress the plot on its own terms because frankly we don’t know any better. It gets to lean into fan expectations faster and make the hype more wide spread (word to Twitter). And in that, it has become a little less Game of Thrones and a little more something else.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still a phenomenal show, almost every bit as satisfying as before (and as the books). However, it lost some of its defining characteristics. Seasons 1-5 were real life. AF (as the kids would say). It was where good didn’t necessarily always triumph and where your favorite characters were never safe. It cherry picked just the right tropes while also dismissing others and making for a very unique viewing experience. It toyed with your emotions kind of like Arya did when she revealed to Lord Frey what the secret ingredient in his delicious pie was (hint: it wasn’t love). Now? Now it’s just rolling in the fan votes for your favorite Westerosi Idol contestant. For better or for worse.
I guess we’ll see next season.
*originally published on Armchair Society.
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