Category: News

This article originally appeared on 05.01.17

Bill Gates sure is strict on how his children use the very technology he helped bring to the masses.

In a recent interview with the Mirror, the tech mogul said his children were not allowed to own their own cellphone until the age of 14. “We often set a time after which there is no screen time, and in their case that helps them get to sleep at a reasonable hour,” he said. Gates added that the children are not allowed to have cellphones at the table, but are allowed to use them for homework or studying.

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The Gates children, now 20, 17 and 14, are all above the minimum age requirement to own a phone, but they are still banned from having any Apple products in the house—thanks to Gates’ longtime rivalry with Apple founder Steve Jobs.

While the parenting choice may seem harsh, the Gates may be onto something with delaying childhood smartphone ownership. According to the 2016 “Kids & Tech: The Evolution of Today’s Digital Natives“ report, the average age that a child gets their first smartphone is now 10.3 years.

“I think that age is going to trend even younger, because parents are getting tired of handing their smartphones to their kids,” Stacy DeBroff, chief executive of Influence Central, told The New York Times.

James P. Steyer, chief executive of Common Sense Media, a nonprofit organization that reviews content and products for families, additionally told the Times that he too has one strict rule for his children when it comes to cellphones: They get one when they start high school and only when they’ve proven they have restraint. “No two kids are the same, and there’s no magic number,” he said. “A kid’s age is not as important as his or her own responsibility or maturity level.”

PBS Parents also provided a list of questions parents should answer before giving their child their first phone. Check out the entire list below:

• How independent are your kids?
• Do your children “need” to be in touch for safety reasons—or social ones?
• How responsible are they?
• Can they get behind the concept of limits for minutes talked and apps downloaded?
• Can they be trusted not to text during class, disturb others with their conversations, and to use the text, photo, and video functions responsibly (and not to embarrass or harass others)?
• Do they really need a smartphone that is also their music device, a portable movie and game player, and portal to the internet?
• Do they need something that gives their location information to their friends—and maybe some strangers, too—as some of the new apps allow?
• And do you want to add all the expenses of new data plans? (Try keeping your temper when they announce that their new smartphone got dropped in the toilet…)

This article originally appeared on 12.05.18

If you were taking a stroll through a quiet neighborhood and happened to catch a glance of this majestic sight, you might bat an eye. You might do a double take. If you were (somewhat understandably) concerned about this surprising roof-dog’s welfare, you might even approach the homeowners to tell them, “Uh, I’m not sure if you know…but there’s a…dog…on your ROOF.”

Well, the family inside is aware that there’s often a dog on their roof. It’s their pet Golden, Huckleberry, and he just sorta likes it up there.

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To put passersby at ease and ebb the parade of concerned parties knocking on their door, Huckleberry’s human put up a note explaining the whole weird scenario to those interested:

It reads:

“Huckleberry is living up to his name and learned how to jump onto our roof from the backyard. We never leave him in the backyard without someone being at home. He will not jump off unless you entice him with food or a ball!””

We appreciate your concern but please do not knock on our door… we know he’s up there! But please feel free to take pictures of him and share with the world! #hucktheroofdog.”

Of course, they ended it with a hashtag for photos shared on social media. Also, it seems a little strange that the owners mention that Huck is willing to jump 10 feet off a roof to chase food or a ball, but do nothing to suggest that people refrain from urging their dog to make that (seemingly dangerous) leap. Maybe Huck’s got the whole process down to the point it’s just not a concern.

This may seem like a pretty odd phenomenon, but not so odd that there isn’t a whole corner of Reddit devoted to dogs who just seem to really, really enjoy roofs. It’s called r/dogsonroofs, and boy does it ever deliver on that name.

This article originally appeared on 08.17.17

As the cost of living in large cities continues to rise, more and more people are realizing that the value of a dollar in the United States is a very relative concept. For decades, cost of living indices have sought to address and benchmark the inconsistencies in what money will buy, but they are often so specific as to prevent a holistic picture or the ability to “browse” the data based on geographic location.

The Tax Foundation addressed many of these shortcomings using the most recent (2015) Bureau of Economic Analysis data to provide a familiar map of the United States overlaid with the relative value of what $100 is “worth” in each state. Granted, going state-by-state still introduces a fair amount of “smoothing” into the process — $100 will go farther in Los Angeles than in Fresno, for instance — but it does provide insight into where the value lies.

Image by Tax Foundation.

The map may not subvert one’s intuitive assumptions, but it nonetheless quantities and presents the cost of living by geography in a brilliantly simple way. For instance, if you’re looking for a beach lifestyle but don’t want to pay California prices, try Florida, which is about as close to “average” — in terms of purchasing power, anyway — as any state in the Union. If you happen to find yourself in a “Brewster’s Millions”-type situation, head to Hawaii, D.C., or New York. You’ll burn through your money in no time.

If you’re quite fond of your cash and would prefer to keep it, get to Mississippi, which boasts a 16.1% premium on your cash from the national average.

The Tax Foundation notes that if you’re using this map for a practical purpose, bear in mind that incomes also tend to rise in similar fashion, so one could safely assume that wages in these states are roughly inverse to the purchasing power $100 represents.

This article originally appeared on 09.30.20

`Fox News is up to five times more likely to use the word “hate” in its programming than its main competitors, according to our new study of how cable news channels use language.

Fox particularly uses the term when explaining opposition to Donald Trump. His opponents are said to “hate” Trump, his values and his followers.

Our research, which ran from Jan. 1 to May 8, 2020, initially explored news of Trump’s impeachment. Then came the coronavirus. As we sifted through hundreds of cable news transcripts over five months, we noticed consistent differences between the vocabulary used on Fox News and that of MSNBC.

While their news agendas were largely similar, the words they used to describe these newsworthy events diverged greatly.

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Fox and hate

For our study, we analyzed 1,088 program transcripts from the two ideologically branded channels – right-wing Fox and left-wing MSNBC – between 6 p.m. and 10:59 p.m.

Because polarized media diets contribute to partisan conflict, our quantitative analysis identified terms indicating antipathy or resentment, such as “dislike,” “despise,” “can’t stand” and “hate.”

We expected to find that both of the strongly ideological networks made use of such words, perhaps in different ways. Instead, we found that Fox used antipathy words five times more often than MSNBC. “Hate” really stood out: It appeared 647 times on Fox, compared to 118 on MSNBC.

Fox usually pairs certain words alongside “hate.” The most notable was “they” – as in, “they hate.” Fox used this phrase 101 times between January and May. MSNBC used it just five times.

To put these findings in historic context, we then used the GDELT Television database to search for occurrences of the phrase “they hate” on both networks going back to 2009. We included CNN for an additional comparison.

We found Fox’s usage of “they hate” has increased over time, with a clear spike around the polarizing 2016 Trump-Clinton election. But Fox’s use of “hate” really took off when Trump’s presidency began. Beginning in January 2017, the mean usage of “they hate” on the network doubled.

Fox says ‘they hate’ way more than CNN or MSNBC

Since 2011 all three major cable news channels used the phrase “they hate” in their evening newscasts (between 6 and 11 p.m.). But starting with the 2016 Clinton-Trump race, FOX News has done so far more often than CNN and MSNBC.

The Conversation, CC-BY-ND Source: Te

‘Us’ versus ‘them’

So who is doing all this hating – and why – according to Fox News?

Mainly, it’s Democrats, liberals, political elites and the media. Though these groups do not actually have the same interests, ideology or job description, our analysis finds Fox lumps them together as the “they” in “they hate.”

When Fox News anchors say “they hate…”

Quantitative analysis shows Fox News’ used the phrase “they hate” frequently on its evening programing between January and May 2020, most commonly referring to Democrats (29% of the time) or to a non-specific group like “political elites” (24% of the time). Many of these terms were used interchangeably, as if they were one group unified in their hatred.

Table: The Conversation CC-BY-ND Source: C. Knüpfer & R. Entman

As for the object of all this hatred, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and other Fox hosts most often name Trump. Anchors also identify their audience – “you,” “Christians” and “us” – as the target of animosity. Only 13 instances of “they hate” also cited a reason. Examples included “they can’t accept the fact that he won” or “because we voted for [Trump].”

Who’s being hated, according to Fox News

Thirty-six percent of times that Fox News anchors said “they hate” between January and May 2020, Trump was the alleged target of that hatred. A smattering of other targets were also named (“you,” “me,” “Christians,” etc.). Rarely did Fox anchors offer a reason for this animosity.

Table: The Conversation CC-BY-ND Source: C. Knüpfer & R. Entman

Citing liberal hate as a fact that needs no explanation serves to dismiss criticism of specific policies or events. It paints criticism or moral outrage directed at Trump as inherently irrational.

For loyal Fox viewers, these language patterns construct a coherent but potentially dangerous narrative about the world.

Our data show intensely partisan hosts like Hannity and Carlson are more likely than other Fox anchors to use “they hate” in this way. Nevertheless, the phrase permeates Fox’s evening programming, uttered by hosts, interviewees and Republican sources, all painting Trump critics not as legitimate opponents but hateful enemies working in bad faith.

By repeatedly telling its viewers they are bound together as objects of the contempt of a powerful and hateful left-leaning “elite,” Fox has constructed two imagined communities. On the one side: Trump along with good folks under siege. On the other: nefarious Democrats, liberals, the left and mainstream media.

Research confirms that repeated exposure to polarized media messages can lead news consumers to form firm opinions and can foster what’s called an “in-group” identity. The us-versus-them mentality, in turn, deepens feelings of antipathy toward the perceived “out-group.”

The Pew Research Center reports an increasing tendency, especially among Republicans, to view members of the other party as immoral and unpatriotic. Pew also finds Republicans trust Fox News more than any other media outlet.

Americans’ divergent media sources – and specifically Fox’s “hate”-filled rhetoric – aren’t solely to blame here. Cable news is part of a larger picture of heightened polarization, intense partisanship and paralysis in Congress.

Sean Hannity portrays criticism of Donald Trump as hate-based.YouTube/Fox News/The Conversation

Good business

Leaning into intense partisanship has been good for Fox News, though. In summer 2020 it was the country’s most watched network. But using hate to explain the news is a dangerous business plan when shared crises demand Americans’ empathy, negotiation and compromise.

Fox’s talk of hate undermines democratic values like tolerance and reduces Americans’ trust of their fellow citizens.

This fraying of social ties helps explain America’s failures in managing the pandemic – and bodes badly for its handling of what seems likely to be a chaotic, divisive presidential election. In pitting its viewers against the rest of the country, Fox News works against potential solutions to the the very crises it covers.

Curd Knüpfer is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Freie Universität Berlin.

Robert Mathew Entman is J.B. and M.C. Shapiro Professor Emeritus of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University.

This article first appeared on The Conversation. You can read it here.

This article originally appeared on 05.17.19

A Lawton, Oklahoma, student who goes by the Facebook user name Rose Lynn had the last laugh after being sent home from school for wearing an outfit deemed “distracting.” Rose Lynn believes her outfit attracted the attention of school officials because of her figure.

She proved it by posting a photo on Facebook of her modest outfit, which consisted of black leggings, a t-shirt, long cardigan, and boots. In her post, she wrote that she was sent home “because I’m developed farther than the average girl my age,” and because she’s a “CURVY woman.” Rose Lynn also thinks the appropriate response shouldn’t have been to tell her to cover up, but to teach boys to “to respect the boundaries of young ladies.”

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Her father, Lance Miles, agrees with her. “If she was built like a board or as round as a ball she wouldn’t have been sent home but [since] she has a figure she was told she had to change,” he said in the comments of her Facebook post.

“This is 100 percent on [Lawton Public Schools] because they have left the rule up to interpretation. She has been taught that if you believe in something, do what you must and be prepared for the consequences. She has done that,” he continued.

Rose Lynn’s post:

“So today I was sent home from class, after being in school for two hours, for my outfit. Because I’m developed farther than the average girl my age, I am required to go home and change… Because I look like a CURVY woman and may distract young boys, I have to miss class and change my outfit.

So once again, society has failed to advocate young ladies, by confining them in a box, where they are stripped from their sense of self respect and self expression, rather than teaching young men to respect the boundaries of young ladies. My response: #Feminism #YoullDistractTheBoys #SocietyIsFailing”

via Facebook

On the day Rose Lynn was sent home, she was due to take a 20-minute algebra exam. She asked school officials if she could take the test before changing her outfit, but her request was denied. So the next day, she got her revenge.

Rose Lynn returned to school wearing an oversize t-shirt. On the front she scribbled a quote from school officials in black Sharpie, “It doesn’t cover your crotch”; on the back, “You’ll distract the boys.” That day, Rose Lynn was called to the office and sent home again. This time it wasn’t for her outfit but for not wearing her student I.D., which she had left in the classroom after being called to the office.

Josie Bowers, a 19-year-old woman from Canada, shared the story of how she thwarted an intruder when she was 15. The viral TikTok video is a harrowing tale and also an important lesson for everyone to learn.

Josie was staying with her family at the Ocean City Hilton in Maryland when the incident occurred. She went to her hotel room alone to take a shower while her family was on the beach.

After getting out of the shower, she was alarmed when she noticed a long wire with a hook at the end wiggling its way out of the crack at the bottom of the front door. The hook was waving around, trying to catch the handle to open the door.

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It’s amazing that no one in the hallway noticed someone shoving a wire through the bottom of a door.

The intruders eventually caught the handle with the wire and pulled it down to enter the room. Without hesitation, Josie slammed the door shut and put on the deadbolt.

“My main thought was holy shit I’m in a towel right now and someone is about to break in and get me,” she said on TikTok. “So the door opens a crack, and I just slammed it back shut and put the deadbolt on.”

After the door was shut on the intruders, they pretended to work for the hotel. “So they tell me your keycard is broken and we need to get into the room and fix your keypad for you,” she continued. “And so I open the door a tad bit, to see if it was a worker. It clearly wasn’t, they were in jeans and a T-shirt. Hilton keeps it pretty classy, not the attire.”

Josie then remembered a trick that her stepfather, who’s a police officer, once told her: Never let people know you’re alone.

“I yelled ‘Hey dad, there’s someone here to fix the door.’ As soon as they thought that I wasn’t alone – and potentially my dad was there – they ran, they were gone,” she said. A lot of people freeze in such a stressful situation but Josie was able to remember her stepfather’s advice and it made all the difference.

Given their reaction, it’s pretty clear that the intruders must have followed her up from the beach or had some inside information to know that she was alone. They didn’t want anything to do with her father.

The TikTokker shared the video to show others what they should do in a similar situation and to remind them to never let anyone know they are alone.

“I’m glad I had this experience so I can teach people about it. Obviously, I’m safe but it could have ended up a lot worse,” she said. “Be safe, you can get door stoppers, always put on the deadbolt.”

Along with making music and headlining festivals this year, Run The Jewels have been expanding into the beverage industry. The duo made up of Killer Mike and EL-P recently hopped on the hard seltzer trend with their Pink Lemonade drink. Now, Run The Jewels are partnering with several Black-owned breweries for a new line of craft beer.

The line of beers includes the recently released rice lager Never Look Back brewed at Green Bench Brewing Co. in Florida, the molasses and corn grits ale All Due Respect brewed in collaboration with Proximity Brewing and Spaceway Brewing, and Blockbuster Night, Pt. 1, an IPA brewed at Brew Gentleman Brewery in Braddock, PA and made with cannabis terpenes.

Each of Run The Jewels’ beers benefit various nonprofits. A portion of proceeds earned from their Never Look Back beer is slated to benefit Beer Kulture, an organization that works to advance and create opportunities that foster diversity, equity and inclusion within the craft beverage space.

A portion of the duo’s All Due Respect beer will be donated to Blacktoberfest, where the beer will also debut. Blacktoberfest invites over 100 Black-owned establishments to spotlight their products and are about to celebrate their second year as a festival. Furthermore, Run The Jewels have committed to donating 50 percent of proceeds from their Blockbuster Night, Pt. 1 IPA to various Pittsburgh charities serving the children and the arts.

See product images of Run The Jewels’ new craft beer below. Order it here.

My esteemed colleague Katie Heindl is ever-vigilant on her Summer Vacation Watch, scouring player social media pages for the best in offseason vacationing excellence. Recently, more and more players have taken up golfing — although, only the bravest have ventured into the world of competitive college golf — and she alerts me to new golfing NBA players for some analysis.

The most recent of these golfing hoopers is JaVale McGee, who seems to be using his offseason to get ready for being in Phoenix this coming season, where you are never more than a stone’s throw away from a golf course. McGee is vacationing somewhere on a beach and got Cobra to send him some sticks to enjoy the resort course nearby. He posted a video of his barefoot golf swing that had some, like Kyle Kuzma, appalled.

Barefoot resort golf is absolutely the way to go, so salute to JaVale for the pro move here — if you don’t believe me, ask Jordan Spieth, Rickie Fowler, and Justin Thomas — but being the doldrums of August, I can’t help but want to breakout the Konica Minolta BizHub Swing Vision camera to show the good and bad from JaVale’s swing.

The big thing is that, JaVale, my friend, you’re an athlete, so let’s swing like one. This is all arms and shoulders, and we need to get the lower body more involved. Let’s start with the backswing, which is very short because of the lack of hip rotation. If we can keep turning those hips and bring the club a bit further back (with his length he doesn’t need a particularly long backswing to create power) we could really be in business.

That said, I like a lot about where we are at impact. The feet are nice and quiet, which is an impressive feat given he’s not wearing shoes, and look how he’s kept his head still and behind the ball. This is good stuff, we just want to keep this same base with more hip turn around it to really be cooking with some gas.

The follow through, however, has plenty to clean up because it’s pretty clear that he’s trying to scoop the ball to get it in the air by how quickly his trail arm collapses here. We want a long, elongated follow through to make a big, sweeping circle, not to be folded up like this after impact. I get the natural inclination to try and lift the ball up, but that’s what the club’s loft is for and we want to be hitting down on the ball to make it go up and then finishing with extension and high hands. This’ll also be easier if you have more hip turn on the backswing to generate natural power rather than trying to manufacture it on the follow through by pulling with your arms.

Overall, there’s some good foundational things here, but plenty of room to grow, which is really what golf (and life) is all about.

I’ll say “Beetlejuice” as many times as I want, but “Candyman” five times in a row? Never. Maybe that’s because I saw the 1992 horror classic when I was too young or because I’m a fearful person, but I’d rather not test fate. A hook-man made of bees coming to murder me? I’m good, thank you. So, I guess I won’t be watching the new trailer for Nia DaCosta’s Candyman, because the only way to see it is to go IDareYou.CandymanMovie.com and say his name five times into the microphone. Fair warning, this will trigger a “swarm of bees [to begin] to appear on-screen during the process, growing larger with each progressive iteration,” according to IGN.

For my fellow cowards out there, don’t worry, there’s no new footage.

Here’s more:

In present day, a decade after the last of the Cabrini towers were torn down, visual artist Anthony McCoy and his girlfriend, gallery director Brianna Cartwright, move into a luxury loft condo in Cabrini, now gentrified beyond recognition and inhabited by upwardly mobile millennials. With Anthony’s painting career on the brink of stalling, a chance encounter with a Cabrini Green old-timer exposes Anthony to the tragically horrific nature of the true story behind Candyman. Anxious to maintain his status in the Chicago art world, Anthony begins to explore these macabre details in his studio as fresh grist for paintings, unknowingly opening a door to a complex past that unravels his own sanity and unleashes a wave of violence that puts him on a collision course with destiny.

Candyman, which stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Teyonah Parris, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, and Colman Domingo, and Vanessa Estelle Williams and Tony Todd from the original film, opens on August 27.

Indie-rock mainstays Real Estate, who released their Half A Human EP earlier this year, are planning a series of tribute shows to honor the 10th anniversary of their sophomore album, 2011’s Days, where they’ll play the album in full. The shows will come in the form of a few stops toward the end of their upcoming North American tour, at the Anchor Rock Club in Atlantic City on November 20, Brooklyn Made on November 22 and 23, and August Hall in San Francisco on December 15.

The band said in a statement:

“It’s difficult to overstate how important Days has been to our trajectory as a band. We were really just kids when we made it. I can remember long days and even longer nights in New Paltz, NY laboring over this record. Nobody had ever held us to the standard of quality that our producer Kevin McMahon was holding us to. He even made us tune our guitars between takes! In turn, we held ourselves to the same standard, and the music is a testament to that. 10 years ago you heard it too, and that changed our lives.

So here we are, still doing it. We’re pleased to invite you to celebrate this album at a few special shows where we’ll play it in its entirety, and a bunch of other stuff too! Obviously the band has changed in countless ways over the past 10 years. Come and help us celebrate this landmark of our past while looking forward to new music and an even brighter future.”

Check out the full run of tour dates below.

11/03 — Buffalo, NY @ Asbury Hall at Babeville
11/04 — Cleveland, OH @ Beachland Ballroom
11/05 — Ferndale, MI @ Loving Touch
11/06 — Grand Rapids, MI @ Pyramid Scheme
11/07 — Madison, WI @ High Noon
11/09 — Bloomington, IL @ Castle Theatre
11/10 — Indianapolis, IN @ The Vogue
11/11 — Louisville, KY @ Zanzabar
11/12 — Lexington, KY @ The Burl (Outdoor Show)
11/13 — Columbus, OH @ Skully’s Music Diner
11/14 — Pittsburgh, PA @ Thunderbird Music Hall
11/16 — Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom
11/17 — Portsmouth, NH @ 3S Artspace
11/18 — Holyoke, MA @ Gateway City Arts
11/19 — Woodstock, NY @ Levon Helm Studios
11/20 — Atlantic City, NJ @ Anchor Rock Club*
11/22-23 — Brooklyn, NY@ Brooklyn Made *
12/15 — San Francisco, CA @ August Hall *

*Days tribute show

Tickets for the Days anniversary shows go on sale 8/27. Get yours here.