Jun 18
I like to imagine this bear thinks it’s opening the office refrigerator. “Leftover dad, eh. Mmm hey anybody’s name on those screaming kids in the back?”
Jun 18
Saturday's Best Deals: Your Favorite Travel Mugs, AV Receivers, Guess Wallets
Posted in: Today's Chili
Jun 18
No more than a day after Overwatch game director Jeff Kaplan offered details about what new content players can expect over the coming months, he’s followed-up with a developer update video that outlines the changes coming to Competitive Play. The game mode, which focuses on ranked multiplayer matches more suited for serious FPS players, is said to be nearing completion … Continue reading
Jun 18
Scoot’s red scooters, frequently seen weaving in and out of San Francisco traffic like tiny army ants, are getting an upgrade. Not only are the rental scooters getting bigger, but they thankfully will look a lot better than the current crop of bikes…
Jun 18
The following post is adapted from DEATH AND LETTING GO (Montague Press) by Ellen Tadd.
Death is an inevitable fate that everyone must face. Still, the topic of death is often avoided or denied because of fears and misunderstandings about what death actually is. When we recognize death as a continuation of life, we release fears that prevent a fuller experience of material existence.
Just as attitudes and actions in one’s material life affect the quality of that life, the attitudes and actions after death affect the quality of life in the next realm. As individuals become more conscious and responsible for the thoughts and focus they choose, they can have a greater impact on the quality and circumstances in life and after death. By addressing fears and attachments all throughout one’s life, the death process simply becomes a continuation of this same lesson and life-long practice of letting go.
There are many different types of death experiences. These mirror the attachments, fears, and aspirations of each individual. When leaving the physical body, aspiring to spiritual qualities such as compassion, forgiveness, or truth propels an individual into an expansive force of light and ecstasy. On the other hand, if a person is immersed in fear, regret, guilt, or disappointment, he or she may become anchored in density after death. This can manifest as being “earth-bound” (caught in earth experiences while in spiritual form), or becoming trapped in limited or “lower vibrational” realms, which are restrictive and confining. Such experiences can last for a long period of time. Unfortunately, it is difficult for guides in spiritual dimensions to help these people because guides are unable to usurp free will and enter the density caused by negative attitudes. Therefore, earth-bound or confined individuals stuck in lower realms must let go of attachments to the past and focus on positive thoughts and feelings in order for guides and helpers to reach them.
When letting go occurs in the after-death state, an expansion of consciousness and an energetic lightness develop in the non-physical body. This feels and appears to me like a balloon that has been trapped and freed to rise up into the higher spheres. Access to enlightened individuals who reside in these higher realms then becomes available. These beings offer comfort and insight about the last life on earth, as well as teaching attitudes favorable for spiritual growth and personal fulfillment in future lives.
I have come to recognize that people’s experiences after death are as varied as their experiences in the physical world. It has been fascinating to study through clairvoyance the attitudes and circumstances involved in a desirable death versus a painful and confused one. My hope is that this book will help people move through fears and apprehensions surrounding death which inhibit enjoyment of life on earth and quality of life after death. Also, I will provide information that can prevent people from becoming trapped in lower realms, once life in the material world has been completed. Finally, I wish to communicate to loved ones left behind, that relationships do not end because we die. Love, support, and ideas can be exchanged between individuals in the physical and spiritual realms.
We all must address this topic at one stage or another in our lives, whether through the death of a loved one, helping a friend accept a death in their family, or confronting our own time to leave the body. My experiences have taught me that knowledge about death can dissipate fear and aid in a successful passing into the spiritual world. At the time of death, a comfortable, illumined, and expansive transition from one life to the next is available to everyone.
Follow Ellen Tadd on Facebook.
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Jun 18
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Belgian police arrested 12 suspects in a major anti-terror operation overnight amid security alerts in Belgium and France around the Euro 2016 soccer tournament and just three months after Islamist bombers wrought carnage in Brussels.
Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel chaired a meeting of the government’s security council – which includes the ministers of defense, foreign affairs, home affairs and justice – on Saturday after the raids and said soccer-related events would go on as planned with extra security measures.
“We want to continue living normally,” Michel told a news conference. “The situation is under control.”
“We are extremely vigilant, we are monitoring the situation hour by hour and we will continue with determination the fight against extremism, radicalisation and terrorism,” he said.
Earlier on Saturday the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said 40 people had been taken in for questioning and 12 among them were arrested “in connection with a criminal investigation concerning terrorism.”
“The investigating judge will decide on their possible detention later today. The investigatory results necessitated an immediate intervention. The investigation continues,” it said in a statement.
No weapons or explosives had been found during the overnight searches, which also involved 152 garage lockups.
SOCCER MATCHES TARGETED?
Flemish public broadcaster VTM said the people arrested overnight were suspected of planning an attack in Brussels this weekend during one of Belgium‘s soccer matches.
Areas where fans watch matches in Brussels were potential targets, as well as other crowded areas such as shopping centers and stations, Belgian media reported.
The Belgian crisis center in charge of coordinating security responses decided not to raise the security level to the maximum that would indicate an imminent threat of attack, Michel said.
Public broadcaster RTBF said Belgium‘s crisis center on Friday had placed several government ministers, including Michel, under heightened protection.
Michel said extra security measures had been taken for some people but did not name them.
With the Euro 2016 soccer tournament underway in neighboring France, Europe is on high security alert. Islamist suicide bombers killed 32 people in Brussels in March following attacks in Paris last November in which 130 people died.
Investigators have found links between the Brussels and Paris attackers, some of whom were based in Belgium.
On Monday a French police couple were stabbed to death outside their home in Paris in an attack claimed by Islamic State. In a video posted on social networks, the attacker, Larossi Abballa, linked it to the soccer tournament, saying: “The Euros will be a graveyard.”
A spokeswoman for Paris public prosecutor Francois Molins said two people close to Abballa would meet a judge on Saturday while a third one was released.
Separately, a judiciary source told Reuters on Friday a 22-year-old man suspected of planning attacks on tourists had been jailed on terrorism charges after being arrested at the start of the week.
On Wednesday Belgian police received an anti-terror alert warning that a group of Islamic State fighters had recently left Syria en route for Europe planning attacks in Belgium and France, security officials said.
Also on Friday police arrested and detained a 30-year-old man named as Youssef E.A, a Belgian national, on suspicion of taking part in terrorist activities in connection with the Brussels attacks.
The man worked at Brussels airport, said RTBF, citing judiciary sources.
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Jun 18
Keep Guns Out Of Dangerous Hands In Orlando, In Chicago, In Every Community
Posted in: Today's ChiliCo-author Congresswoman Robin Kelly (D-IL)
The horrific mass shooting in Orlando was the deadliest in our nation’s history. In response, this week Democrats in both the House and the Senate said ENOUGH, and demanded action to stem the rising tide of gun violence in our country.
On Monday, House Democrats refused to participate in the perfunctory moment of silence held after each mass shooting, pledging to remain silent no more. Then on Wednesday, Senate Democrats led by Chris Murphy of Connecticut, took the floor in a 15 hour filibuster to demand action on common sense legislation supported by 90% of the American people. We are proud to have joined in those efforts. Democrats in both chambers will no longer stand for business as usual in the face of these horrific gun crimes. Congress must honor the victims of this bloodshed not with merely thoughts and prayers, but with action.
What happened in Orlando on Sunday was shocking, and our hearts are broken for the victims and their loved ones. And while the scale of these mass shootings captures the nation’s attention, the carnage caused by guns on the streets of Chicago every day is no less tragic. More than 280 people have been killed in this great city since the first of the year. Thousands more are living under siege in neighborhoods where they fear sitting on their front porches or letting their kids out to play because of the threat of gun violence.
No one in the United States of America should ever have to live this way.
That’s why we are pushing in Washington to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people. There are simple steps Congress can and must take to end this gun violence nightmare: We must make universal background checks the law of the land, and close a shocking loophole in current law that allows known or suspected terrorists to buy guns and even explosives. In 2015 we were informed that forty percent of the crime guns confiscated in the most violent neighborhoods in Chicago were coming from gun shows in Indiana where guns can be purchased without background checks. And despite having been on the terrorist watch list in the past, the Orlando shooter was able to purchase an assault weapon and ammunition to stage his attack.
Establishing universal background checks and closing this terrorist gun loophole will help keep guns out of the hands of convicted felons, the mentally unstable and individuals with ties to terrorism. This should be done now as a matter of national security and public safety. This is a starting point. We know that much more must be done to keep guns out of dangerous hands, and that the appalling gun violence in Orlando and here in Chicago is the consequence of inaction.
The pursuit of gun reform is personal for us. And we won’t stop — not until all Americans everywhere can live free from the threat of gun violence.
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Jun 18
Democrats pushing for gun curbs after the latest mass shooting in the United States are co-opting a Republican mantra to build public support and defang opposition: it’s time to get tough on national security.
Shoring up national security has long been a pillar of Republican orthodoxy, as has staunch opposition to gun control.
But the massacre of 49 people in Orlando, Florida, last Sunday, the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history, by a gunman who pledged loyalty to Islamist militants may be leaving Republicans on shakier ground.
With national security driving the debate, Democrats see a more powerful argument than simply advocating the need to curb gun violence in a country of 320 million that has more than 310 million weapons.
Although the Orlando gunman, Omar Mateen, is believed to have had no help from extremist Islamist groups in targeting a gay nightclub, he had been investigated by U.S. authorities for possible links to terrorism and subsequently cleared.
That prompted Democrats to clamor for legislation to expand background checks and prevent people on U.S. terrorism watch lists from buying guns. Votes on four measures were scheduled Monday in the U.S. Senate, two sponsored by Democrats and two by Republicans. Many Republicans, and some Democrats, oppose strict gun curbs partly on constitutional grounds.
“Every senator is now going to have to say, whether they’re for terrorists getting guns or against terrorists getting guns,” Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer told reporters on Thursday.
“The terrorists that we need to fear are not on the streets of Aleppo, or Mosul or Fallujah. They’re on the streets of the United States and they will have guns unless we pass tough laws,” added Senator Ed Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat.
President Barack Obama, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson all took the tack this week that gun measures were a safeguard against terrorism.
Republicans have long criticized Obama for not being tough enough on national security and doing more in the fight against Islamic State.
The Orlando massacre and the San Bernardino, California shooting in December by a couple inspired by Islamic State captured the attention of the American public in a way previous mass shootings have not, said Tom Diaz, a former member of the National Rifle Association gun rights lobby who now backs gun control.
“They’ve changed the dynamic of this whole issue,” said Diaz, an author and expert on terrorism and the gun industry.
That shift in sentiment has heartened the families of the 20 elementary school children and six staff members killed in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, who championed the last big, and ultimately unsuccessful push, on gun control.
About 71 percent of Americans, including eight out of 10 Democrats and nearly six out of 10 Republicans, favor at least moderate regulations and restrictions on guns, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted from Monday to Thursday. That was up from 60 percent in late 2013 and late 2014.
REPUBLICANS AND CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
Diaz believes Republicans must look as if they care about keeping guns out of the hands of so-called homegrown extremists, while balancing issues of due process and the Constitution’s Second Amendment right to bear arms that form the backbone of the NRA’s opposition to gun control.
Republicans say new laws won’t necessarily keep weapons out of the hands of people intent on doing harm, and are keen to avoid twinning the two issues.
“This is not a gun control issue,” U.S. Senator Ted Cruz said on Thursday. “This is a terrorism issue.”
Republican strategist Ron Bonjean said Democrats “must be careful about overplaying their hand with rhetoric that could sound like government overreach to Americans who believe in the Second Amendment.”
Even if the current efforts fail, the new push on national security may prove Democrats’ best shot at eventually luring Republican support on an issue that has floundered for decades.
“This is a chance for the Democrats to talk in tough terms about safety and security and also to link that to the gun issue,” said Robert Spitzer, political science professor at State University of New York at Cortland.Some notable Republicans appeared willing this week to engage in the debate on gun control. The party’s presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump, vowed to meet with the NRA to talk about ways to bar people on certain government watch lists from buying guns.
The top Republican in the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, said he was open to suggestions from experts on how to prevent terrorism suspects from acquiring firearms and called the Orlando shooting a “calculated act of terror.”
But it was unclear whether Trump or McConnell would throw their weight behind any measures acceptable to Democrats.
Democratic U.S. Representative Jim Himes said he did not hold out great hope that the gun legislation would advance.
“The reason you won’t see a compromise anytime soon is because Congress actually acting in the wake of Orlando would be a tacit admission on the other side that guns had something to do with what happened in Orlando as opposed to ISIS,” he said, using an acronym for Islamic State.
(Editing by Mary Milliken)
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Jun 18
We live in a world that idolizes perfectionism. From a very young age, parents, coaches, and teachers push us to be high achievers, but they fail to teach us balance. We live our lives with an ingrained desire to give our all in pursuit of lofty goals, but we don’t know when to pull back. We don’t know when enough actually is enough.
Most people lean hard into their perfectionism–they extol it as a virtue to the point that it becomes a vice. Doing so is troubling because separate studies from the University of British Columbia and the University of Tehran show that perfectionism is linked to depression, anxiety, and a slew of mental health issues.
To defeat perfectionism, you have to learn to spot when it’s holding you back. This task is difficult because perfectionistic tendencies like to hide under the guise of hard work and zeal.
Tal Ben-Shahar suggests that you shift your mentality from that of a perfectionist to that of an optimalist. Optimalists strive just as hard for success, but they’re more flexible, resilient, and adaptive in the pursuit of their goals.
Shifting your approach from perfectionism to optimalism is bound to make you happier and more productive. First, you need to recognize the signs of perfectionism that’s holding you back. What follows are the hallmarks of perfectionism that has gotten out of control.
1. You recognize that your perfectionism is a problem, but you think that’s what it takes to be successful. Sometimes, you really need to push yourself hard to be successful. When your perfectionism gets out of control, using hard work as the justification for the unnecessary pain and suffering you endure is easy. Make no mistake about it, perfectionism does create unnecessary struggle and strife. When you get your perfectionism under control, you can work less and get more done.
2. You get defensive when receiving feedback. Perfectionists care deeply about what other people think of them, and this can make feedback hard to take. Even well-presented, useful feedback feels like a needle to the eye. You likely catch yourself acting defensively before you even realize that you take issue with the feedback. It’s a knee-jerk reaction. As a perfectionist, you naturally have an intense desire to succeed. Take comfort in the fact that feedback (even brutal feedback) is ultimately helping you improve your work. Take it in stride, and feedback will actually help you get closer to perfection.
3. However, you’re critical of others. Considering their inability to receive criticism, perfectionists sure can dish it out. Perfectionists can’t help but measure themselves against other people, so taking someone down a notch, especially if that person is a threat, feels good. Though, this isn’t always the reason. Perfectionists are also critical of others because they compare them to the same unobtainable standard to which they compare themselves.
4. You procrastinate all the time. Perfectionism and fear of failure go hand in hand. This combination leads to procrastination because even mundane tasks are intimidating when they must be completed perfectly. Most writers spend countless hours brainstorming characters and plot, and they even write page after page that they know they’ll never include in the book. They do this because they know that ideas need time to develop. We tend to freeze up when it’s time to get started because we know that our ideas aren’t perfect and what we produce might not be any good. However, how can you ever produce something great if you don’t get started and give your ideas time to evolve? Author Jodi Picoult summarized the importance of avoiding perfectionism perfectly: “You can edit a bad page, but you can’t edit a blank page.”
5. You have a guilty conscience. Perfectionists have a steady stream of guilty thoughts running through their minds, because they’re always feeling like they’re coming up short. This guilt elevates stress, and it can easily spiral into depression and anxiety. Guilt is fueled by your self-talk. The more you ruminate on negative thoughts, the more power you give them. Most of our negative thoughts are just that–thoughts, not facts. When you find yourself believing the negative and pessimistic things your inner voice says, it’s time to stop and write them down. Literally stop what you’re doing and write down what you’re thinking. Once you’ve taken a moment to slow down the negative momentum of your thoughts, you’ll be more rational and clear-headed in evaluating their veracity.
6. You take mistakes personally. Perfectionists take their work so seriously that they tend to overestimate the impact of their mistakes. Minor events can cause them to experience bitter disappointment. This issue is significant because it makes you less resilient, and the ability to bounce back from failure is critical to success. Perfectionists must learn that failure is not a confirmation that they aren’t good enough.
7. You take pleasure in other people’s failures. This little known secret of perfectionists is not as evil as it sounds. Misery loves company, and perfectionists can’t help but find satisfaction in knowing that other people experience the same frustrations as they do. These moments of relief are short lived, and they make perfectionists feel bad for being so competitive.
8. You’re afraid to take risks. With the fear of failure comes the fear of taking risks. Perfectionists’ hard work, research, and attention to detail produce novel ideas. Unfortunately, their great ideas are often placed on the back burner because of their fear of risk. The only way to get comfortable with taking risks is to take risks. Starting the process is never easy, but by actively leaning into the very things that make us uncomfortable, we build confidence and realize that it’s never as bad as we build it up in our minds to be.
9. You live in fear of rejection. Perfectionists need the approval of others to feel successful. This mentality leads to a crippling fear of rejection. Perfectionists dread things, such as asking for a raise or pursuing their passions in lieu of something that will win approval from others. Living in fear of rejection feels terrible, stifles creativity, and slows down your progression as a person. Whenever you find yourself overly concerned with what other people think of you, remember Dr. Seuss’s take on authenticity: “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.”
Bringing It All Together
To beat perfectionism, you need to be the most authentic version of yourself you can be. This means pursuing the things you love, trusting that hard work will pay off, learning from your mistakes, and deriving satisfaction from within.
What are some other signs of perfectionism that has gotten out of hand? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below; I learn just as much from you as you do from me.
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Jun 18
If you fold a pizza in half lengthwise to eat it (the proper way to eat pizza), then you’re actually utilizing mathematician Carl Gauss’s “theorem egregium” or the “remarkable theorem.”
Who's in charge here?
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