Acer has introduced its new Air Monitor, a device that does exactly what its name suggests: monitors the quality of air that is, in this case, located within one’s home or other indoor space. The Air Monitor features what Acer describes as a ‘breathing’ LED light that helps owners monitor the quality of the air in their home at any … Continue reading
Facebook’s ambitions for video have been pretty explicit. And now the social network is (officially) introducing a way for its publishing partners to get paid for them. Rather than front-loading ads the way YouTube and so many others do, these will a…
WASHINGTON ― Attorney General Jeff Sessions on Thursday withdrew an Obama-era Justice Department memo that set a goal of reducing and ultimately ending the Justice Department’s use of private prisons.
In a one-page memo to the acting head of the Bureau of Prisons, Sessions wrote that the August 2016 memo by former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates “changed long-standing policy and practice, and impaired the Bureau’s ability to meet the future needs of the federal correctional system.”
A Justice Department spokesman said Sessions’ memo “directs the Bureau of Prisons to return to its previous approach to the use of private prisons,” which would “restore BOP’s flexibility to manage the federal prison inmate population based on capacity needs.”
BOP currently has 12 private prison contracts that hold around 21,000 inmates. Yates had said that private prisons compared “poorly” to BOP prisons. Her memo followed a damning report from the Justice Department’s inspector general which found that privately run facilities were more dangerous than those run by BOP.
The two largest private prison companies have told investors that they have room to accommodate increased use of their prisons by federal or state and local authorities. On an earnings call with stock analysts this week, executives at GEO Group emphasized that their company has a total of 5,000 spots in its prisons that are presently either unused or underutilized.
CoreCivic, formerly known as CCA, told investors on Feb. 17 that the company has nine idle prisons that can hold a total of 8,700 people. Those prisons are ready to accept inmates on short notice. “All of our idle facilities are modern and well maintained, and can be made available to potential state and federal partners without much, if any capital investment or the lead-time required for new construction,” CEO Damon Hininger said.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
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Roughly 2 million kitchen knives are being voluntarily recalled following reports of hand and finger lacerations from the blades breaking, federal authorities announced Wednesday.
The massive recall of Calphalon Contemporary Cutlery specifically targets blades sold between August 2008 and this past December, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said in a press release.
Thirteen models that were sold individually for $25 and in sets for $300 are specifically being recalled. The recalled model numbers are as follows: 1808008, 1808009, 1821332, 1922890, 1922971, 1922976, 1932810, KNR0005C, KNR0007C, KNR10045C, KNR4008C, KNSR002C and KNSR0102C.
Of the products sold ― about 7,000 of which were in Canada ― there have been about 3,150 reports of broken knives. At least four of the injuries required stitches, the CPSC said.
“Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled cutlery and contact Calphalon for a replacement cutlery product,” the safety commission states on its website.
The list of stores that the models were sold at includes J.C. Penney, Kohl’s, Macy’s and Amazon.com
Anyone who has one or more of these knives is asked to contact the company to exchange the product for a replacement.
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There is certainly no shortage of information available to exhausted parents in search of tips and tricks on getting their babies to sleep longer at night. There’s the internet. There are books. There are friends who swear by this, and mothers-in-law who swear by that.
But, if you were to ask parents if they’d ever considered using an overnight sleep trainer to coax their little one into more shut eye, chances are you’ll get more questions than answers. To learn more about this kind-of-brilliant, kind-of-bougie sleep trend, we’ve partnered with Sleep Number to learn more about the fascinating industry of sleep training.
What The Heck’s A Sleep Trainer, Anyway?
Kim Schaf thinks all of the information out there can be too much for parents “in crisis,” who are desperate for more sleep. “It’s like trying to complete a puzzle using three different sets of pieces. It just doesn’t work.”
That’s when Schaf says a sleep-deprived mother or father might reach out to her. Schaf is a professional sleep coach whom parents pay for guidance on getting their sons and daughters to fall (and stay) asleep. Schaf, based in Chicago, works with clients by email, video chat, phone or ― perhaps most surprising to some ― in-person and overnight in a client’s home.
I can’t believe people would spend money on that!
And Schaf is far from being the only overnight sleep coach around. While the field of sleep coaches, consultants, trainers and whisperers is still relatively new, it’s rapidly growing. Searching the phrase “baby sleep consultant” on Google yields more than 90,000 results, with the bulk of these services offered in big cities. The cost of an overnight stay varies wildly, with most trainers charging between $300 to $2,000 a night. (Yes, in-home sleep training is expensive.) In fact, when a group of parents were asked about the service on Facebook, the majority scoffed. “I can’t believe people would spend money on that!” But people do, and many of those people said that, for them, it was worth the extra cash.
What Does A Sleep Trainer Actually Do?
The basic idea behind sleep training is to teach a baby to sleep without the aid of a “crutch,” such as being nursed to sleep by mom or rocked to bed by dad.The reason? Babies who fall asleep unassisted will be able to fall back asleep unassisted, experts say, when they wake up during a change in sleep cycles.
Natalie Nevares is a sought-after sleep coach in Manhattan who found her calling after being treated herself for depression and anxiety when she was a new mother. Today, she works in her clients’ homes offering day-and-night, hands-on-help for up to 72 hours with parents who are “ready” to sleep train. That means parents need to be comfortable with “some” crying (all sleep training involves some crying, she says), on “the same page” as their partners and willing to discern a baby’s “habits” from “needs.”
Author Greta Lambert (not her real name) is a former Nevares client. Lambert, who lives in a two-bedroom apartment, was suffering from the effects of chronic sleep deprivation and contacted Nevares with the “dream” of getting her baby and toddler to sleep in the same room, sleep through the night and nap at the same time. She and her husband also wanted to reclaim the sacred space of their bedroom. Lambert said her wishes “felt like science fiction.”
It felt like I had died and gone to heaven.
Greta Lambert
Nevares stayed with Lambert and her family for 72 hours. Among other things, Nevares advised Lambert on adjusting the children’s sleep schedules, tweaking details in their bedtime routines and distancing nursing and crib times. She also encouraged Lambert and her husband to avoid going into the children’s room when their daughter cried after being put to bed if they were cries of “frustration” rather than “distress.”
As with other clients, Nevares encouraged Lambert to go to bed and took charge of the baby monitor for the night. (Nevares will sleep for a short period when on the job but spends most of her nights awake in order to monitor, record and respond to wakeups and interruptions.) By day, they practice nap training. Lambert’s ruling after 72 hours of coaching? “It felt like I had died and gone to heaven,” she said.
Better yet is the realization that when your little ones snooze, you’re able to catch up on your own Zs. Parents oftentimes overlook the importance of their own shut-eye during their child’s first few years. But, it’s important to remember that though parents are likely to get less quantity of sleep during a child’s infant and toddler years, it’s the quality of those few hours of sleep that makes the difference.
Here are some tips to help parents snag some quality shut-eye:
- Limit the number of visitors you have during those first few weeks of parenthood, challenging as it may be
- Warm your feet to fall asleep faster
- Avoid “bed sharing” with your little one
- Don’t glance at the clock during naps or in the middle of the night
- Keep the room at a comfortable temperature
But Be Wary ― Not All Training Methods Are The Same
Despite how thrilled Lambert was with Nevares, not all sleep coaches (and their methods) are created equal. Sleep training that involves allowing a baby to cry, for any amount of time, has its share of vocal critics.
It should be noted, however, that the American Academy of Pediatrics, the organization whose recommendations form the basis of pediatric preventive health care, has weighed in on some (but not all) methods of sleep training and concluded that parents can “feel confident using behavioral techniques for managing infant sleep.” The takeaway? Trust your gut in whether or not to use a particular behavioral methods to sleep train your little one.
How Can You Sleep Train Without Spending Big Bucks?
For parents who don’t want to reach deep into their pockets to hire a sleep coach but do want some bedtime advice for babies who are 6 months or older, take a look at these tips from the pros:
- Have your baby in bed at the same time each night
- Establish a consistent routine that signals it’s bedtime, such as a bath and a book
- Put your baby to bed while she is still awake
- Avoid sleep crutches. Don’t nurse or rock your baby to sleep
- Stay calm and show confidence when you say “goodnight”
- Don’t run to your child at the first sound of a wakeup. Give her time to readjust and go back to sleep on her own
- If you’re having trouble at bedtime, remember the mantra, “This too shall pass”
Experts say when you can’t get the 7 to 8 hours of sleep you need, focus on getting QUALITY sleep over quantity. Sleep Number customers who adjust the firmness of their bed — their Sleep Number® setting — are 58 percent more likely to have improved sleep quality.* SleepIQ® technology inside the beds lets you track and optimize your sleep so you know how to adjust for your best night’s sleep, and Sleep Number research shows people who used SleepIQ® technology experienced improved sleep quality and more restful time in bed.
*Increase measured in a 2015 Select Comfort study including 1,079 individual participants.
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The Arkansas Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that state law barred local governments from enacting ordinances banning discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity, but justices did not address the law’s constitutionality.
The unanimous decision voided anti-discrimination protections passed in 2015 in Fayetteville, a liberal city that is home to the state’s flagship university, as well as similar ordinances adopted by other local governments in the politically conservative state.
State Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, a Republican, had appealed a lower court ruling upholding the Fayetteville ordinance, which prohibited discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in employment, hiring and other aspects of commerce.
Rutledge cited an Arkansas law forbidding cities and counties from extending nondiscrimination protections beyond those classes identified at the state level.
The legislature passed that measure in 2015 after initial attempts by Fayetteville to enact an anti-discrimination ordinance failed. Fayetteville and several other cities then passed ordinances in response to state law.
Although other state statutes against bullying and spousal abuse include gender identity and sexual orientation, the Arkansas civil rights code makes no mention of either.
In siding with Rutledge, the Supreme Court held that the state civil rights law was the controlling statute. The court said Fayetteville’s city ordinance could not stand because it created a direct inconsistency between state and municipal law.
Left undecided was whether the underlying state law passed constitutional muster. The court returned that issue to the local trial judge for consideration.
Rutledge said she was grateful for the ruling, noting that Arkansas’ law required “discrimination protection be addressed at the state level and be uniform throughout the state.”
LGBT advocates, who argue the state law banning local protections for gay and transgender people is discriminatory, said they were disappointed.
“We would have preferred to have a final outcome today, but I’m certain there will be further appellate review after the trial court rehears the case,” said Holly Dickson, a staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union at Little Rock.
The ACLU filed a brief in support of the Fayetteville ordinance.
(Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Leslie Adler)
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Michelle Jackson wanted to make another film about slavery.
But the Los Angeles-based filmmaker faced some opposition from those around her who say portrayals of the black experience should go beyond slavery. She agreed that black stories are but she said she wasn’t comfortable with the idea that many Americans were tired of the subject. Jackson told The Huffington Post that “Django,” “12 Years A Slave” and “Amistad” and similar films “do not speak for 4 million enslaved black bodies” She said there are stories that still need to be told. So she took on the task of telling them by highlighting the stories of individual former through her film, “Another Slave Narrative.”
The 37-minute film reenacts the original transcripts from former slaves Lewis Jenkins, Fannie Moore, William Moore, Delicia Ann Wiley Patterson, Mary Reynolds and Elizabeth Sparks. They were seven of 2,300 free men and women interviewed in the Federal Writers’ Project Slave Narrative Collection 1936-1938. Jackson said that she felt compelled by these interviews because they didn’t romanticize life after emancipation. Instead, free men and women told the traumatic realities that they faced after what was meant to be freedom.
“Mainstream American culture believes that because black enslaved people were emancipated, whatever that means, slavery’s trauma and its effects on black enslaved people discontinued as soon as the plantation gates were opened,” she said. “It didn’t discontinue. They lived with it their entire lives. For some, that was 100 years of PTSD.”
One woman’s story that especially moved Jackson was that of Mary Reynolds, who at the time of the interview was a blind 105-year-old. Reynolds was separated from her family was a child and sold to a white man. Even more than 90 years after enslavement, her memories still haunted her.
Jackson wanted the story of Reynolds and the other men and women to impact her audience, no matter their background. So she casted both black and non-black actors to bring these individual stories to life.
The Los Angeles-based filmmaker wrote in a blog post that she was admittedly hesitant to cast non-black actors. But after considering the heavy toll these roles can play on black actors, she moved forward.
She casted 22 diverse actors —who identify as Black American, Nigerian American, white, Chinese, Indian and Latina — whom she worked with in the past. Between six and eight actors read each monologue. Making some grammar and syntax changes in the transcripts, Jackson instructed the remove their assumptions of how slaves talked and speak naturally.
“[W]hen performing their monologues, I asked them to imagine that they are actually recounting their story, in their body, with their voice, with their mannerisms, and with their emotions. I asked them to not worry about how they thought the interviewee might react or behave,” Jackson told HuffPost. “I just wanted viewers and actors to connect with the interviewees’ story as quickly as possible, especially since I wasn’t able to fit each interviews full-length transcript in the film.”
I created ‘Another Slave Narrative’ to honor those who endured slavery and who negotiated what it meant to be free in the country that originally enslaved them.
Michelle Jackson, “Another Slave Narrative” filmmaker
Jackson also said she didn’t want to omit the word “nigger” from the scripts. She didn’t censor the monologues, except that of one black actor who preferred not to use word, the filmmaker said censoring the original transcripts “would have imposed a modern-day moral approach” to these men and women who used their words with their own sense of morality. She also added that she thought it was “important” to have white actors use “nigger” in first person.
“Not surprisingly, we are used to watching slave narrative films and TV shows that feature white actors who employ ‘nigger’ in the third-person and derogatorily towards black bodies,” she told HuffPost. “I didn’t know how viewers would be impacted when they saw an attractive blonde hair and blue-eyed actor, like Jilon VanOver, referring to himself as a “nigger” during his portrayal as formerly enslaved, Lewis Jenkins, but I did expect it to shift something — left, right, down, up, I’m not sure—inside their paradigm related to slavery and the black and white experience in America.”
Jackson shared that her film has received a lot of positive feedback. She said she wants to uncover the 2,300 former slave interviews in the collection by continuing this series with a multiracial and multigenerational cast.
She noted that multiracial casting probably won’t work for all films about slavery, but Jackson said she would like to see more directors follow suit. Not only to show that slavery is an issue that should concern all Americans, but also to show that we should honor the lives of those who were enslaved.
“Mary Reynolds’s story matters. Fannie Moore’s story matters. Lewis Jenkins’s story matters. My great great aunt’s story matters… I created ‘Another Slave Narrative’ to honor those who endured slavery and who negotiated what it meant to be free in the country that originally enslaved them,” she said. “As a descendant of those who were enslaved, telling our collective story is the least I can do.”
Watch “Another Slave Narrative” above.
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Donald Trump’s presidency has cast a pall over the nation, so now witches are casting a spell against him.
A document making its rounds among the witch community is asking people who practice the craft to perform a monthly binding ritual until the president is removed from office.
In order to work, the mass spell must be performed at midnight EST on every waning crescent moon.
The first one is happening on Friday and will be followed by similar spell cast events on March 26, April 24 and May 23 and beyond.
Unless, of course, Trump is cast out of office before then.
Michael M. Hughes, who writes about the paranormal, posted the spell at ExtraNewsFeed last week.
He stressed that a binding spell is different than a curse or hex.
“It’s a restraint, not harm,” Hughes told The Huffington Post. “I see it as self-defense.”
Hughes said he heard that two separate witch groups were planning the spells and asked if he could take it to a wider audience.
The spell instructions have gone viral, and there is a group on Facebook dedicated to answering all the questions people may have.
Performing the spell takes a good deal of dedication, including amassing the following:
Practitioners are supposed to prepare for by writing “Donald J. Trump” on the orange candle stub with a pin or nail. They then arrange the other items in a circle and lean the Tower card against something so that it’s standing up.
Hughes suggests reading the 23rd Psalm aloud before beginning the spell by lighting a white candle.
The complete spell can be read here, but some of the lines include:
“Hear me, oh spirits
Of Water, Earth, Fire, and Air
Heavenly hosts
Demons of the infernal realms
And spirits of the ancestors
(Light inscribed orange candle stub)
I call upon you
To bind
Donald J. Trump
So that he may fail utterly
That he may do no harm
To any human soul
Nor any tree
Animal
Rock
Stream
or Sea”
Next, practitioners are supposed to burn the photo with the orange candle, chanting “So mote it be.” But if that sounds a little too “witchy,” Hughes says a simple “You’re fired!” will also work. The spell is completed by burying the candle stub or carrot, or discarding it in running water.
When the ceremony is over, Hughes says it’s crucial to ground yourself by laughing loud and hearty since, “Trump hates people laughing at him.”
He admits the spell has a satirical element, but insists that “doesn’t invalidate it.”
“I’m OK with people calling it a stunt,” he said. “The spell can still be effective. I think it’s already working. Some Christian groups are calling for a day of prayer to counteract the spell. That’s magic, right there. When people do a ritual, that’s changing consciousness.”
Kevin Ambrose, a writer at Christian Nationalism, suggests people protesting the spell recite the 23rd Psalm, coincidentally the same biblical passage recommended by Hughes.
As satisfying as a mass spell might seem for Trump detractors, proving it has an effect is another thing altogether.
After all, any bad luck Trump experiences after the spell can be attributed to the spell without being disproven.
Hughes concedes that but think the actual ritual is therapeutic in and of itself.
“If people feel more empowered and less beaten down, that’s valid,” he said.
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A new hoverbike prototype is grabbing attention for its ability to fly/float through the air. Resembling a cross between a motorcycle, a Jet Ski and a drone, you have to see it to believe it! (VIDEO)
Importantly, this should also mean that Chris McKay is bringing one of the most lauded butts in comic books to the big screen as well.
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.
