Hasta La Gadget!

Veronica Mars is no stranger to the art of the takedown.

The teen-sleuth-turned-badass-private-eye has orchestrated the destruction of everyone from dognappers to secret society members (shoutout to the Tritons!) over three seasons of “Veronica Mars” and, of course, the fan-funded film continuation in 2014. 

But in this political climate, fans are not only clamoring for new episodes ― more on that later ―  but also curious about how their quick-witted hero might respond to a man like Donald Trump becoming president. Let the record show that Veronica doesn’t exactly have the best track record with authority. 

When we sat down with Kristen Bell earlier this month, she revealed exactly how her alter ego would react to Trump — and her plan of action for unseating him from power. 

“Veronica would definitely fly smart and under the radar and infiltrate,” Bell told The Huffington Post. “She would run for office immediately.”

Remember, Veronica always stood up for the underdog and called out injustice where she saw fit. Whether it was exposing corruption in the Neptune Sheriff’s Department or outsmarting her privileged 09er classmates, if there’s anyone who could go toe-to-toe with 45, it’s Veronica. 

Joking that a Trump-inspired storyline might be the perfect fit for the series’ long-awaited next chapter, Bell quipped, “That’s a good idea. Oh, my god, that’s very topical.” 

And as for the six-episode miniseries “Veronica Mars” creator Rob Thomas teased earlier this year, Bell urges fans not to give up hope just yet. Scheduling and the pair’s busy schedules ― Thomas is at the helm of the CW’s “iZombie,” while Bell stars on NBC’s “The Good Place” ― are the biggest impediments. 

“Rob and I are constantly talking about it. He actually called me recently,” she explained. “The thing is, we have to work around our current jobs because i have a contract that doesn’t allow me to do another TV show, but possibly a miniseries. It might be labeled something different, but ‘Veronica Mars’ is not dead and gone in our minds at all.”

C’mon Netflix, this is the America we want to see. 

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Delaying school start times has been universally touted as the answer to the growing epidemic of teenage sleep deprivation, but this common orthodoxy may be based in false ideas about how teen biological clocks really work. 

The argument for later start times hinges on the fact that teenagers prefer to go to bed and sleep in later because of a delay in their circadian clocks that govern the body’s rhythms of sleep and waking. To be more in line with teens’ “natural” sleep patterns, thousands of U.S. high schools have pushed back their morning schedules in recent years. 

But the solution may not be so simple, according to new research from Harvard Medical School and the University of Surrey in the U.K. 

The research collaboration between mathematicians and sleep scientists used a complex mathematical model to show that delaying school start times is unlikely to do much to ease high school students’ sleep deprivation. 

Why? Because teenagers with later school start times stay up even later in the evenings, thereby increasing their exposure to artificial light, which can further mess with their circadian rhythms. A far more effective solution to teenage sleep deprivation, the study’s authors suggest, would be to turn down the lights and limit screen time in the evenings. (Or better yet, keep devices out of the bedroom altogether.) 

“The use of artificial light in the evening is in large part responsible for adolescents sleeping later.”
– Dr. Andrew Philips, Harvard sleep scientist

“The potential benefits of shifting school start times later can unfortunately be undermined if individuals do not also carefully manage their use of artificial light,” Dr. Andrew Philips, a sleep scientist at Harvard and one of the study’s lead authors, told The Huffington Post. “This is especially true for individuals with a tendency to be later sleepers.”

For the study, published Monday in the journal Scientific Reports, the research team created a mathematical model to show how British teenagers’ circadian clocks respond to light and how this determines the time at which they fall asleep. The model accounts for whether an individual is a morning or an evening person; the impact of natural and artificial light on the body’s clock; and the time that their alarm clock usually goes off. 

In developing their model, the researchers took inspiration from Huygens, a 17th century Dutch mathematician, who studied how a person’s body clock could synchronize with the environmental clock.  

The analysis showed that later start times didn’t mediate sleep loss. It did show, however, that young peoples’ light consumption interfered with their natural clock. The researchers found that getting up later in the morning resulted in teens staying up later at night, increasing their exposure to artificial light. They ended up going to bed even later and sleeping in later as a result, while suffering from worse sleep quality. 

Poor sleep among young people is a growing issue with wide-ranging implications. Teenagers need roughly nine hours of sleep, according to the National Institutes of Health, but less than 10 percent are actually getting it. This chronic sleep deprivation comes at an enormous cost, including poor academic performance, issues with learning and memory, mental health conditions, and physical health complications including diabetes and obesity. 

Resetting the Biological Clock  

Without artificial light, people would wake up with the sunrise. Teenagers, whose body clocks “run slow,” are particularly vulnerable to the effects of artificial lighting. 

“From research over the last few decades we know that body clocks typically run a little slow, so they need to be regularly ‘corrected’ if they are to remain in sync with the 24-hour day,” Philips said. “Historically, this correcting signal came from our interaction with the environmental light/dark ‘clock’.”

We know from a large body of science that the circadian rhythms of people of all ages are extremely sensitive to artificial light exposure, and using light-emitting devices after dark delays the timing of the circadian clock.

Indeed, increased exposure to artificial lighting seemed to only enhance the delay in the students’ biological clocks. In a new paper slated for publication in the Journal of Biological Rhythms, the same research team showed that modern use of artificial light has allowed people who have a tendency towards being late sleepers to become extremely late sleepers, sometimes to their own detriment. 

“[It’s] been suspected that our modern usage of artificial light is responsible for our much later sleep times compared to our pre-industrial ancestors,” Philips said, “as well as our tendency to have differently timed sleep on weekends compared to weekdays.” 

But the researchers noted that start times in the U.K. are generally later than in the U.S., where many schools begin as early as 7 a.m. In American high schools, the study’s authors concluded, there may be some benefit to modestly delaying school start times in addition to educating teens about the effects of artificial light and excessive evening screen time. 

“In all cases, cutting back on evening light will greatly amplify the benefits of a delay in school start times,” Philips said. “Any district considering a delay in school start times should therefore also be educating their students on the impacts of using artificial light at night.”

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WASHINGTON ― For the second time in the eight months since former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the national anthem to protest police killings of black men, a group of current and former NFL players visited Congress to draw even more attention to the issue.

“The community I come from wants and needs to know that they are being heard,” Detroit Lions wide receiver Anquan Boldin said during a forum held Thursday on Capitol Hill. “We want to make sure that you, that those in position to bring positive change, understand the things that we as an African-American community are going through. We certainly do not feel that we’re being heard right now right now, especially when it comes to law enforcement and the way we are being policed. Our neighborhoods are feeling hurt, and they want to see change.”

In October 2015, a police officer shot and killed Boldin’s cousin Corey Jones. Jones, Boldin recounted, was driving home after playing a show with his church band in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, when his car broke down. An unidentified officer pulled up in an unmarked white van.

“Moments later,” Boldin said, “Corey was dead.”

Officer Nouman Raja, who fired six shots and killed Jones, according to an official report, was charged with one count of manslaughter by culpable negligence, and one count of attempted first-degree murder with a firearm. His trial is scheduled for next fall. 

“I wish I could tell you Corey’s story was unique,” the wide receiver continued. “I wish Corey hadn’t died in the first place. As a matter of fact, I wish I wasn’t here at all talking to you about him at all. But I am.”

Jones was one of 222 black men killed during incidents with police officers in 2016, according to the Washington Post.

Boldin came to Congress as part of a group of players that included Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins, Detroit Lions defensive back Johnson Bademosi, and former NFL wide receiver and former Huffington Post intern Donte Stallworth. Over three days, the players met with more than a dozen members of Congress from both parties to discuss ways to improve relations between communities and the officers that police them, and potential legislative reforms that could help reduce the number of people ― in particular, African-American men and women ― killed in encounters with police.

There have been 257 people shot and killed in interactions with police officers since the beginning of 2017, according to the Washington Post’s database of police shootings. Sixty-two of them, or 24 percent, were black, even though African Americans make up only 12.5 percent of the overall population. Black Americans “are 2.5 times as likely as white Americans to be shot and killed by police officers,” according to the Washington Post’s data.

Thursday’s forum was the latest effort NFL players have made to address such issues since Kaepernick’s protest began in August. Jenkins and Boldin, along with other NFL players, had previously met with members of Congress in November. Other players who joined Kaepernick’s on-field protests have met with local police officials and community leaders.

During his testimony Thursday, Jenkins said that he and his teammates met with Philadelphia’s police commissioner and even did a ride-along with police to “gain a better understanding” of how they interact with the community around them.

“Police brutality is really a symptom of a bigger system,” Jenkins said Thursday. “Our police force is the front lines of that justice system.”

That, Jenkins said, highlights the need for reforms that go beyond policing. NFL players can draw all the attention they want to these issues, Jenkins said, but without action from Congress little will change.

“If our justice system is not giving justice,” Jenkins asked members of Congress, “then what’s holding that back?”

The players called on Congress to push forward with legislation they believe will help address broader issues of discrimination in the criminal justice system ― specifically two pieces of legislation that Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), who organized and chaired the forum, have sponsored.

The first, the Fair Chance Act, is commonly known as the “Ban The Box” bill and would ban the federal government from requesting the criminal history of job applicants. The bill has bipartisan support ― along with Cummings, Sen. Corey Booker (D-N.J.), Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) also sponsored it. Cummings is planning to re-introduce the legislation as soon as next week.

The second, the Law Enforcement Trust and Integrity Act, was introduced last year by Conyers and Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.). That bill would encourage local law enforcement agencies to adopt performance-based standards to reduce incidents of misconduct through improved training and protocols. It also aims to enhance investigations into misconduct.

Boldin also said they hoped to see the revival of criminal justice reform efforts, which Congress failed to address last year despite bipartisan support for many initiatives. Jenkins, meanwhile, pointed to the nation’s problem with mass incarceration and policies that contribute to it, including mandatory minimum sentences, the practice of trying children as adults, and other issues inside a system that disproportionately targets and affects African Americans. Congress should also focus on job training and mental health services for people once they leave prison, Jenkins said, in order to help people rejoin their communities and reduce high recidivism rates.

“They serve time long after they’re released back into our neighborhoods,” Jenkins said. “These are things that need to change.”

Jenkins and Boldin are also working with other players in an effort to push for reforms at the state and local level. 

Reps. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Tex.), William Lacy Clay (D-Mo.), Cedric Richmond (D-La.) and Brenda Lawrence (D-Mich.) attended the forum alongside Conyers and Cummings. Though the players met with GOP members earlier in the week, no Republicans, nor any white members of Congress, were in attendance.

Boldin said he hoped the lawmakers he and Jenkins talked to this week would continue the discussions with other members to push these reform efforts onto the congressional agenda.

“We want to see changes in policy,” Boldin said. “We want to know that justice will be served for all.”

“These issues are consistently pushed to the political back burner,” he said. “I believe that by working together, we can not only move it to the political forefront, but we can make measurable, meaningful and sustainable change in our communities.”

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