Flying a drone and using it to record video or take pictures is a pretty exciting experience all its own, but if you want to make it more exhilarating, then DJI‘s new Goggles might be for you. Though DJI Goggles don’t really have much of an inspired name, they’ll give you a birds-eye view of the action as your drone … Continue reading
Dish Network’s Sling Media has unveiled its new SlingStudio, something it says is the first ever portable and wireless production system of its kind. With this device, broadcasters and producers — both professional and hobbyist — are able to manage up to ten connected cameras or smartphones. The system monitors and can edit up to four high-definition video inputs at … Continue reading
This piece by Dawn Clancy originally appeared on The Establishment, an independent multimedia site founded and run by women.
Content Warning: descriptions of child abuse.
My mother had a thing for serrated steak knives.
When she was sober, those knives, unlike the silver ones with the dull edge she’d use to spread soft butter on toast or yellow mustard on white bread, were used to slice through the salt and pepper steak she’d make for Joe, my stepdad. But when she was drunk, those serrated knives became weapons.
As a kid, out of concern for both my safety and hers, I studied my mother’s every drunken move. I knew what a warm beer on a Tuesday afternoon meant. I could gauge exactly how drunk she’d become by whether or not she used the banister or the wall to navigate the stairs. And I knew that once her speech turned heavy and slow, and her eyes disappeared behind thin, sharp slits, that it was time to measure my every thought and gesture.
There was one night I remember being in the kitchen with my mother when she grabbed a serrated knife from the drawer. Initially I didn’t panic because my naive 6-year-old brain was convinced there had to be a steak nearby. But when she turned to me and aimed the silver tip of the knife at my forehead, a panic that made my entire body feel hollow set in. She screamed, “You little bitch, I’m going to fuckin kill you;” all I could think was, run.
As mom lunged forward I spun around, nearly crashing into the dining room table in the next room. I ran through the living room, past the coffee table covered in Budweiser cans and gray flakes of cigarette ash. I glanced back over my shoulder and mom was right behind me. The serrated knife jutting out of her right hand like a sixth finger, she spit through her teeth, “You runnin from me you little bitch?” Without answering, I turned to climb the stairs to my bedroom; as I did my eyes swelled with tears, turning the cream and brown carpet beneath me into a puddle. Once inside my room, I slammed and locked the door. I pressed my belly into the floor and lined my eyes up with the thin gap between the tip of the carpet and the base of the door. I held my breath and waited to see if she followed. I could hear her trying to find her balance at the bottom of the stairs. In between a series of thick moans and thuds she screamed, “You fuckin biiiiitch.” As she moved away from the stairs and back to the kitchen her voice got smaller, and as it did, I slowly peeled myself up off the floor.
The hollow that had filled my body just minutes before was replaced with an energy that cut my breath short. I lifted my right hand and as hard as I could, I slammed the base of my palm against the side of my head over and over again until my skin went numb.
“You little bitch,” I mouthed as I buried my face in my hands, sobbing.
After I was taken away from my mother, when I was 8, I went to live with my dad. But even with a 30-minute drive between us, she was still alive and drunk as ever in my dreams. Every night for months, I’d wake up screaming, my sheets soaked in sweat. My dad said he’d find me on my back, both fists punching wildly at the air. He told me it looked like I was trying to run away from something or someone. I don’t remember these dreams, but I recall being afraid to fall asleep at night.
At 16, I tried to trick myself into believing she was dead, but even visualizing her body and bones dissolving under a mound of brown dirt couldn’t silence her voice in my head. She haunted everything.
Even visualizing her body and bones dissolving under a mound of brown dirt couldn’t silence her voice in my head.
My favorite color back then was red. I remember once buying a bottle of Revlon nail polish. I sat cross-legged on my bedroom floor, my left palm resting on my right knee, my fingers spread wide. Starting with my thumb, I brushed each nail with a heavy glob of red. And in between each finger and stroke, my mother’s voice appeared. “You’re nuthin but a two-bit whore,” she moaned. When some of the red polish slid off my middle finger and stained my fingertip, she growled, “You think you’re better than everybody, don’t you?” And when a drop of the sticky polish slid off the brush and melted into the creme rug beneath my knee, she shouted, “Look what you did you dumb shit. Who’s gonna want you now?”
I jumped up from the floor and ran into the bathroom. I turned the water on full blast and washed and picked my nails clean of every drop of red. Looking back now, I realize it wasn’t the nail polish that I was trying to scrub myself clean of.
About five years ago, I did something I was never supposed to do ― I got married. Not only had my mother convinced me that I was entirely unlovable ― I was supposed to be an abortion, after all ― but growing up, she also flooded my head with the idea that all men were pigs. On my wedding day, in an off-white dress and with a shade of pale pink polish on my nails, I cried hysterically while exchanging vows with my now husband. What no one else besides my therapist knew was that my tears not only reflected the joy I felt in that moment; they also marked the start of a new chapter that I hoped would drive a deep chasm between me and my mother’s legacy.
Somehow this little bitch, despite being unlovable, managed to pull together a life that exceeded the bounds of my mother’s abuse. My marriage and the life I’d create from that point forward, with my husband, would be off limits to my mother and her memory.
But recently, I discovered I’m going to need much more than hope to shake her.
It happened for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It was around 7:30 in the morning, and I had just rolled out of bed. After brushing my teeth, I bellied up to my medicine cabinet mirror while gently rubbing the back of my pointer finger up and down my neck and across both sides of my chin. Like many other women in their late thirties, I was checking for hairs. I found a coarse, stubby black one poking like the tip of a toothpick out from under the right side of my chin. With my left hand, I pulled back the skin, and with a pair of tweezers in my right hand, I played tug-of-war with the hair.
I mindlessly glanced up at my reflection in the mirror ― and saw my abuser, my own mother, staring back at me.
I squinted ever so slightly in an effort to fuzz out my reflection. When I did, my eyes disappeared behind thin, sharp slits. I could see her in the skin that had started to sag around the corners of my mouth. As I inhaled, my mother appeared in my collarbones and in the pink, crescent-shaped lines that had settled around the base of my neck. I remembered the night she stumbled out of the house drunk wearing nothing but a long green robe that zipped up the front. She stood in the middle of the lawn, in front of our neighbors and other kids my age, and pulled the robe past her shoulders, exposing both of her breasts. Embarrased, I jumped in and tried to work the robe back up over her body. I remember looking up at her chin; the crescent-shaped lines at the base of her neck were taut, her collarbones rising and falling as she screamed.
Suddenly, I wanted to rip the mirror off the wall and smash it on the floor. Instead, I took a deep breath and steadied myself against the counter. I looked down at the sink and counted the bubbles of water and the hairs my husband left behind after shaving that morning. Once I realized I was safe, I started to cry.
“Please, just leave me alone,” I whispered. “Just leave me the fuck alone.”
As a baby drifting off to sleep, my mother told me she used to lean into my crib and say, “Don’t end up like me, baby girl.” Of course I was too young to remember this, but on some level I believe I heeded the warning. As a result, I’ve spent my life stringing together choices that tempered the anxiety I secretly carried over the possibility of becoming just like my mother. But little did I know that, while I was busy doing, my mother laid dormant in my DNA.
Now that I’m aware of what might happen the next time I look in the mirror, I’m admittedly cautious. The other morning, while pounding out a cardio session on the treadmill, I caught my mother running beside me in the full-length mirror. While driving to the grocery store last Sunday, I glanced into my rear-view and there she was squinting back at me. What I find most curious about each time I see her is my reaction. If there are other people around, mostly random people who don’t even know me or my mother, I worry that they see her too. But when I’m alone the feeling is much darker and more fluid. So far, it’s been difficult to identify, which makes me wonder if I’ll ever be able to completely free myself from my mother. I don’t want to believe it’s impossible, but considering the depth of the trauma I experienced, I’m not so sure.
I’ve spent my life stringing together choices that tempered the anxiety I secretly carried over the possibility of becoming just like my mother.
In the meantime, I’ve considered changing up my look entirely. Recently, I’ve looked into eyebrow tattooing, invested in a super-powered teeth whitening kit, and even had a discussion with my hairdresser about perming my hair. But I know these changes are all superficial, when the real problem is anything but.
In calmer moments, I try to remind myself of all the ways that I’m most definitely not like my mother. How unlike her, I didn’t get pregnant at 16; how I finished high school; how I made my way through college; and how, although I enjoy a good gin and tonic, I’m thankfully far from an alcoholic.
When in doubt, I need to remember that the emerging lines on my face only say so much. I know I’ll never use a steak knife as a weapon against someone I love ― and ultimately, that may be all I really need to know.
You can support The Establishment’s independent media work by purchasing a ‘Member of the Resistance’ tee or making a donation here.
Other recent stories include:
How My Abusive Father Helped Me Understand Trump Supporters
When Transitioning Changes How We Have Sex
It’s Time To Ignore Caitlyn Jenner
My Mother And The Ambiguity Of Abuse
What Happened When My Travel Ban-Supporting Neighbor Met With Refugees
— 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.
A 4-year-old girl is recovering after she fell out of a bus’ back door and tumbled onto a road in a horrifying incident that was captured on video by an emergency medical technician who came to her aide.
Ryan Ciampoli, a licensed EMT and volunteer firefighter, was driving behind the bus in Harrison, Arkansas, last week when his dash cam captured its door suddenly swing open, exposing a child dangling from its handle, 40/29 News reported.
Within seconds, the girl fell out like a rag doll onto the ground as the bus continued to drive off without her.
“It was just unbelievable,” Ciampoli told CNN of Wednesday’s terrifying sight. “It was heartbreaking, but instantly I used my EMS training and firefighter training and assessed the scene as best I could.”
Ciampoli can be seen hurrying over to the child’s body in the road. As he approaches her, she begins to move.
“Typically, in EMS, we’re not supposed to move the patient unless they’re in a pretty dangerous situation. And because she was on the state highway there in Harrison, Arkansas, it was grounds to get her out of there,” he said.
Ciampoli carefully picked the girl up and out of the way of any oncoming traffic. Once out of the road, he said, her “shock kicked in.”
“She started kicking and screaming and ‘Where’s my mommy?’ and things like that. Stuff like that is really heartbreaking,” he told 40/29 News.
The little girl was hospitalized with a broken jaw, which will reportedly require surgery.
Harrison police told CNN on Monday that the driver of the bus, which belongs to a church, is not expected to face charges.
As for how this all happened, children told police that the girl went and opened the door on her own. After seeing her fall, they alerted the driver, who pulled over, police told CNN.
Police Chief Paul Woodruff called the ordeal a “tragic accident.”
type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=CHECK OUT THESE RELATED STORIES BELOW: + articlesList=58f1a816e4b0bb9638e4359e,58e0f4f7e4b0ba359595a67b,58d887dae4b03787d359ad1b
— 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.
Former President Barack Obama returned to the spotlight on Monday, moderating a civic engagement panel featuring Chicago-area high school and college students and young leaders.
“So, uh, what’s been going on while I’ve been gone?” he joked at the start of the event, held at the University of Chicago.
The panel discussion was Obama’s first formal public appearance since leaving office in January. It was also a homecoming, as Obama began his political career in Chicago and taught constitutional law at the university for 12 years. He is building his presidential library just south of the campus, in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood, with the involvement of the university and community organizations.
Obama has said he hopes to focus his post-presidency on supporting the next generation of political leaders and community organizing. Monday’s event provided a taste of what that could entail.
“I’m spending a lot of time thinking about what is the most important thing I can do for my next job, and what I’m convinced of is that, although there are all kinds of issues that I care about and all kinds of issues that I intend to work on, the single most important thing I can do is to help, in any way I can, prepare the next generation of leadership to take up the baton and to take their own crack at changing the world,” Obama said.
He opened the discussion by talking about his early days as a community organizer on Chicago’s South Side.
“I am the first to acknowledge that I did not set the world on fire, nor did I transform these communities in any significant way, although we did some good things,” he said of his experience. “But it did change me. This community gave me a lot more than I was able to give in return, because this community taught me that ordinary people, when working together, can do extraordinary things. This community taught me that everybody has a story to tell that is important.”
For the most part, the former president encouraged the students to discuss their experiences in politics and public service, asking them how they became involved and how they hope other young people can become more politically engaged. But sometimes, he interjected with anecdotes, multi-part follow-up questions and quips, like joking about his age compared to that of the young panelists.
Obama has largely been quiet since leaving office in January, vacationing and writing a memoir ― which he briefly mentioned Monday, describing it as a book “about my political journey.” Although he criticized Donald Trump vociferously during last year’s campaign, he said after the election that out of respect, he would comment on Trump’s policies only if he felt it was necessary. Nine days after leaving office, Obama issued a statement in support of the nationwide protests against Trump’s executive order banning travel and immigration from seven majority-Muslim countries and halting refugee resettlement. Through a spokesman, he also denied Trump’s unsubstantiated allegation that he had ordered wiretapping on Trump Tower.
Obama similarly refrained from directly commenting on his successor or current political events on Monday. But in his introduction, he lamented the influence of money and special interests in politics, the polarization of politics and media, gerrymandering, and political apathy among young people.
He also urged Americans to become more involved in local politics, including through community organizing, which he said “gave me the foundation for my subsequent political career and the themes that I would talk about,” and through organizations like school PTAs.
“The mediating institutions — the unions, the churches, the PTA groups, the Rotary Clubs, a lot of the voluntary organizations that used to exist — those have declined,” Obama said. “What that means is that people don’t have the same habits of being involved in a common project that they used to. We’ve become more of an individualistic society.”
Obama repeatedly stressed the importance of listening to other people’s concerns, connecting that to his criticism of the huge divisions in political discourse and media. Young people need to be “hearing other people early on, before the lines of political division start hardening,” he said.
“Your ability to create trust and relationships is the thing that makes all the difference in being able to have an impact, and that’s hard to do in this current environment,” he said. “But it’s not impossible.”
Reflecting on his own loss in a congressional primary in 2000, Obama noted that elected office is not the only way to be politically active.
“Worry less about what you want to be, and worry more about you want to do,” he said.
— 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.
Mario Kart fans, get pumped!
In honor of the April 28 launch of Mario Kart 8 for Nintendo Switch, Target has unveiled themed shopping carts, entrance music and more.
On April 20, over 650 Target stores across the country went into “full game-on mode” with Mario Kart carts featuring Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach. This is the first time Target has decorated its iconic red carts.
The stores also feature big round Mario and Luigi bollards, and the entrances have been transformed into starting lines. “As you walk through, motion sensors fire up flashing lights and play Mario’s catchy theme song,” states a press release for the video game festivities.
“Experience counts—it’s what keeps guests coming in and coming back to our stores,” senior vice president of merchandising, Scott Nygaard, notes in the press release. “So we’re delivering the fun like only Target can, giving generations of Mario fans a shopping trip they won’t soon forget.”
Indeed, both parents and kids who love Mario Kart have been enjoying the new additions.
But not everyone is a fan. Writing for Scary Mommy, Valerie Williams noted that while mothers love Target for its breastfeeding policies, empowering clothing options and more, this latest innovation may not be ideal for all parents.
“Ugh. So that means if we have our kids with us, they’re going to beg for one of the few Mario Kart carts and then possibly mow people down while we mull over our face wash options?” she wrote. “And that’s assuming we can get one and they aren’t throwing a fit because there are no Princess Peach carts left.”
If you share Williams’ concerns, fear not! The Mario Kart elements are part of a limited-time experience expected to last only a few weeks.
So for everyone else, get your fix while you can.
— 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.
Some bowlers spend a lifetime chasing a perfect game. Ben Ketola accomplished one in about the time it takes to brush your teeth.
Watch Ketola rush from lane to lane to bowl 12 straight strikes for his 300 score in 86.9 seconds at 281 Bowl in Cortland, New York.
The final strike brought Ketola, who reportedly works at the alley, to a celebratory squat.
“I honestly wasn’t expecting to do it,” Ketola told Syracuse.com. “I just wanted to see how quickly I could get across the house and get strikes.”
Using a two-handed delivery, Ketola accomplished his now-viral feat on April 5.
Among other known attempts, pro bowler Tom Daugherty once accomplished the stunt in 1 minute 50.99 seconds.
Here’s another look at Ketola’s fast and furious frames:
— 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.
The sister of Tad Cummins, the 50-year-old former teacher accused of abducting a 15-year-old girl in Tennessee, says her brother doesn’t believe he kidnapped the teen.
“I asked him why ― why would he do this ― and the answer he gave me is that she wanted to run away … and he didn’t want her to go alone,” Cummins’ older sister, Daphne Quinn, told NBC News in an interview that aired Monday on the “Today” show. “And so, he went with her so that he could know that she was safe.”
Authorities issued an Amber Alert for the teen after her parents reported her missing on March 13. At that time, authorities said they suspected Cummins, a former Culleoka Unit School health science teacher, had abducted her.
On April 20, the teenager and Cummins were found on the other side of the country, in a remote area of Siskiyou County, California. The cabin they were staying in at the time is more than 2,000 miles from where the search began.
In addition to state charges, which include aggravated kidnapping and sexual contact with a minor, Cummins faces federal prosecution for transportation of a minor across state lines for the purpose of criminal sexual intercourse.
The charges filed against Cummins “could keep him behind bars for many years,” according to Mark Gwyn, director of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
Cummins’ wife filed for divorce earlier this month, amid the nationwide manhunt. Quinn said her brother has yet to grasp the gravity of the situation.
“He’s repentant sounding and I think he would like to get his family back, but I think it just hasn’t hit him yet that that’s not going to happen,” Quinn said on NBC. “He’s just going to have to learn a new normal … and he’s just going to have to deal with it.”
The girl’s disappearance, according to police, came more than a month after a student reported seeing Cummins kiss her. When school officials questioned the girl about the incident, she allegedly denied that it happened. School officials waited until February to suspend Cummins. He was formally dismissed the day after the teen was reported missing.
More disturbing allegations in the case surfaced on Friday, when authorities released a copy of Cummins’ criminal complaint.
According to the investigative document, Cummins filled two prescriptions for erectile dysfunction medications before fleeing with the girl, and while on the run, purchased “commonly used lubricant for sexual intercourse.”
The affidavit further alleges investigators believe Cummins and the teen were “involved in a sexual relationship and traveled in interstate commerce to continue their relationship and to engage in unlawful sexual activity.”
Cummins is scheduled to appear in court Monday to face the federal charges. It remains unclear whether he will enter a plea during the proceeding.
“He’s done this horrible thing that he has to pay for, but he’s still my brother and I love him,” Quinn said on NBC.
The victim in the case has since been reunited with her family.
“She is being evaluated and treated by mental health experts specializing in trauma,” family attorney Jason Whatley said in a Friday statement. “There is no doubt that she has suffered severe emotional trauma and that her process of recovery is just beginning.”
Whatley said he was taken aback by the girl’s appearance, which he said greatly differs from earlier photos that had been released to the media.
She “is a little child,” he said. “She could easily pass for 12 … She is a little girl in every sense of the word. This was the abduction of an impressionable, little child.”
David Lohr covers crime and missing persons. Tips? Feedback? Send an email or follow him on Twitter.
type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related Coverage + articlesList=58f8f273e4b06b9cb914b082,58d036e2e4b00705db51d599
Need help? Visit RAINN’s National Sexual Assault Online Hotline or the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s website.
— 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.
Authorities in Georgia have issued a missing child alert for Shaun Stokes, an 11-year-old boy who disappeared in Savannah.
Shaun was last seen Sunday evening in the 7000 block of Leghorn Street, according to the Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department.
Authorities said Shaun is known to frequent the 2100 block of Dodge Avenue and the 400 block of Mall Boulevard. He also has family in nearby Rincon.
Shaun is described as an African-American male, about 4’8” tall, 75 pounds, with black hair and brown eyes. He was last seen wearing a blue plaid shirt, tan pants and white Nike sneakers.
No additional details are available. The Savannah-Chatham Metropolitan Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from HuffPost.
Anyone with information on Shaun Stokes’ whereabouts is asked to call Savannah detectives at 912-652-6500.
David Lohr covers crime and missing persons. Tips? Feedback? Send an email or follow him on Twitter.
type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related Stories + articlesList=57fe989ee4b0162c0439a9d5,58a6b0d2e4b07602ad535e98
— 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.
Jordan appears set to repeal a legislative loophole that allows rapists to escape punishment by marrying their victims.
The Jordanian cabinet recommended removing Article 308 from the country’s penal code on Sunday. The archaic provision guarantees that sexual predators can avoid prison time if they wed their victims and stay married for at least five years. Final approval from Parliament and King Abdullah II is all but guaranteed, according to Suad Abu-Dayyeh, Middle East and North Africa consultant for human rights organization Equality Now.
Abu-Dayyeh called the repeal movement a “collective effort” and praised women’s advocacy groups and parliamentarians for years of activism.
“People have really started to understand the negative impact this article has on women and girls,” Abu-Dayyeh told The Huffington Post on Monday. “Having this law in the penal code is a really big problem.”
Jordan’s lawmakers amended the law last year to restrict its application to rapists if their victims were aged 15 to 18, and if the assault was deemed “consensual.” But mounting public backlash prompted Jordan’s royal committee to recommend abandoning the law completely in February.
Supporters of Article 308 have claimed it allows victims to maintain their reputation and protects them from honor killings.
This region “can concentrate so much on a woman’s virginity,” Abu-Dayyeh said. “They feel it creates dishonor if a girl or woman is raped. … But people have to understand that a girl who has been raped is a victim, and she needs the support of her family and also the government.”
Egypt repealed a similar measure in 1999, and Morocco followed in 2014. Still, similar rape laws still exist in other parts of the Middle East and Africa. Abu-Dayyeh said she hopes Jordan’s move to repeal the loophole will inspire other countries, such as Bahrain, to take similar actions.
Lebanese activists protested their country’s version of the rule Saturday by hanging 31 paper wedding dresses from nooses on Beirut’s seaside promenade.
Jean Oghassabian, Lebanon’s minister for women’s affairs, said the country’s Article 522 is from the “stone age.”
“It’s not acceptable for people to talk about it anymore,” Oghassabian told Agence France-Presse. “How is it reasonable for a woman to be raped and then sold into a prison?”
The Lebanese Parliamentary Administration and Justice Committee approved repealing the law in December. The country’s parliament can make a final decision at any time.
“I really hope that Jordan and Lebanon will be good examples of Arab governments [working] to revoke all remaining discriminatory laws toward women and girls,” Abu-Dayyeh said.
type=type=RelatedArticlesblockTitle=Related… + articlesList=58fcda14e4b00fa7de151e02,578a2f1de4b0867123e17c6d
— 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.
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.
