Is Child Adoption Good Or Bad?
The question “Is child adoption good or bad?” often arises when prospective parents seek to adopt a child from a dangerous situation, such as those that may occur in abusive circumstances. For these parents, the decision to adopt a child from a situation of abuse can be heartbreaking. In order to decide if adopting a child from a dangerous environment is the best option, one must consider what the advantages and disadvantages of doing so are.
Adoption, by definition, is the act of putting a child into a new family. Adopting a child from a dangerous environment eliminates any risk that could be posed by the child’s natural parents. The birth mother and father will both be required to pass the necessary background checks to adopt the child. The new family will also be asked to undergo therapy and counseling in order to prepare them for raising the child in a safe and healthy environment. While these benefits certainly outweigh the disadvantages of adopting a child out of a dangerous environment, it should be noted that the benefits do not negate the disadvantages.
The most obvious disadvantage of adopting a child out of a dangerous environment is the possibility of harm coming to the child. Most abusive situations involving children result in psychological issues that the child has to face. Adoption agencies specialize in working with adoptive parents who have experienced similar psychological issues in the past. Since all adoptive parents have a unique history of abuse and neglect, there is a good chance that the adopted child will have similar psychological difficulties to deal with.
Another disadvantage of adopting a child from an abusive environment is the possibility of exploitation. Though many adoption agencies take care of the screening and grooming of the child, potential caregivers and/or exploiters may try to take advantage of the child in some way. This could include the possibility of forcing the child to perform dangerous tasks or be placed in a situation where they could be sexually abused. An adoption agency can minimize this risk by taking measures to screen and interview any possible caregivers.
Adoption agencies also provide protection for the child in the form of a protective child custody agreement. This type of agreement protects the child in a variety of ways from a number of potential threats. It may be used to limit the time the child spends away from his/her biological parents, prevent any visitation by non-related family members, and prevent any contact with the birth parent or adoptive parents. As the agreement is drawn up between the adoptive parents and biological parents, it becomes standard practice to include a provision allowing the biological parents to visit their child occasionally and/or allow for medical visits.
Child adoption also provides opportunities to interact with other children from different backgrounds. Though the child has already been placed with an adopted family, the prospect of interacting with other children of his/her age, culture, and religion can be an enriching experience. Many churches offer special programs that welcome unwed or gay families. Adoption agencies and other groups also provide these services.
While the idea of sharing one’s child with another adult makes some parents feel comfortable, it can also cause anxiety, stress, and fear in the child. For children who have experienced this situation in the past, the idea of living with strangers on a daily basis can be overwhelming. If the prospective parents are truly concerned about the child’s well being, they should consider the possibility of doing a thorough background check on the prospective adoptive parents. This can help them find out if they have any history of child abuse or neglect and can help prevent the parents from adopting a child who may become a victim.
Is child adoption good or bad? The answer depends largely on the parents. Good foster parents can make a huge positive difference in the lives of children. Unfortunately, many children are removed from loving and nurturing homes for a variety of reasons and given to terrible environments where the best care is sometimes not even available. If the adoption process is planned carefully and responsibly, however, child adoption can be a wonderful chance for a child to have a stable and loving home.
An Overview About Child Adoption
What can you do when you find out that there is an adoption agency in your area? There are a lot of misconceptions surrounding the adoption process. Many people are not sure what they think they are getting into. People also question the motives and the ethics of a child adoption agency. The truth is that these questions are valid, but you do not need to worry about these things. You can learn about the adoption process, and you can understand it better.
First of all, there is a misconception that an adoption agency will force a birth mother to give up her child for adoption. This is not true. Agencies will not force a mother to give up her child for adoption, because the child belongs to the family. Adoption is a voluntary process, which means that it can only happen if the birth mother is willing to give up the child for adoption.
A birth mother may choose not to give up her baby for adoption. She may want to raise the child herself, or she may want to protect the family that she is adopted into. If a birth mother chooses not to give up her child for adoption, this does not mean that she is wrong in some way. The adoption process is simply meant to ensure that a child is well cared for in a loving and secure environment. She will not be forced into adoption, and she will not be discarded by the family.
Why would a birth mother leave her baby for adoption? There are a number of reasons that can explain a woman leaving her baby for adoption. Some women may be forced to leave her baby because of abuse. She could be killed or have an unsafe life. She could be left alone with an abusive or neglectful father. Or perhaps she was made to work in the orphanage as a child.
With all of these reasons in mind, it is understandable why she may not want to put her child up for adoption. However, adoption is not always fair. Many children are placed for adoption who are there because of abusive circumstances. They may be victims of rape or domestic violence. In these cases, an adoption agency cannot be expected to look out for the best interests of the child.
What is the role of an adoption agency? The role of an adoption agency is to ensure that the birth mother is properly cared for during the adoption process. They can provide help when it comes to paperwork, meetings, and legal issues. They can also answer questions that the birth mother may have about adoption, such as what the legal procedures are and what kind of financial support she might be provided.
What can an adoption agency do for me? An adoption agency can help provide a safe and loving environment for your child. They can prevent your child from being exposed to potentially abusive situations. They can also help provide a loving and secure home for your child after adoption. The agency can also work with you to ensure that your child understands the significance of adoption and that he or she is prepared to embrace it and become a part of the adopted family.
As you consider all of the things involved with adoption, including the possibility of placing your child for adoption, it is important to keep in mind that the adoption process itself is only one step. The birth mother and the agency must work hand-in-hand to ensure that the adoption goes smoothly and your child is well-taken care of throughout the process. If you are in the process of adoption or if you are a birth mother looking to find a way to support a child left at birth, contact an adoption agency today.
White Americans turn out for Floyd protests, but will they work for change?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Leslie Batson, a white office administrator from Maryland, joined the thousands of marchers protesting the killing of George Floyd in Washington, D.C., last weekend after her children asked why the family had done nothing about racism.
FILE PHOTO: People gather to protest for the removal of a Confederate statue of John B. Gordon at the Capitol in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. June 9, 2020. REUTERS/Dustin Chambers/File Photo
“This is my attempt to help elevate the voices of people of color, people who don’t look like me and who don’t benefit from the status quo,” Batson, 42, said on Saturday, as her 9- and 11-year-old children hid shyly behind her.
In recent days, white Americans have donned “Black Lives Matter” shirts, carried homemade signs, and shouted “Hands up, Don’t shoot” in cities and small towns (here) across the United States. Sometimes they lay down in the streets, just as Floyd, an unarmed black man in handcuffs, lay face down and struggling to breathe as a white police officer knelt on his neck.
Books like “White Fragility” and “The New Jim Crow” are topping U.S. best-seller (here) lists, and social media is flooded (here) with #BlackLivesMatter posts. Fortune 500 companies and sports franchises, predominantly run and owned by white Americans, voiced support (here) for anti-racist activism, and the New York Stock Exchange held (here) its longest moment of silence ever for Floyd.
The United States has a long history of white participation in civil rights protests, but the current outpouring of support is unprecedented, historians and social scientists agree.
That said, many question white Americans’ long-term commitment to do the work to fight racism.
“Historically, when we see higher levels of participation from white folks in movements and moments like this, that participation falls off precipitously after we move away from the protest,” said Charles McKinney, associate history professor and chair of Africana Studies at Rhodes College in Tennessee.
After civil rights activists leading protest marches in Selma, Alabama, in 1965 were beaten bloody by police, twice as many Americans polled expressed sympathy with protesters than with the state of Alabama, Pew Research noted (here).
In a separate opinion poll at the same time, however, 45% believed the U.S. administration of President Lyndon Johnson was moving too fast on the voting rights and integration that protesters advocated.
McKinney is analyzing whether the high white protester turnout will translate into laws that aid the Black Lives Matter movement.
“In order for this to be the last racial inflection point… white America must end its sideline sympathy and assume full ownership of this problem,” said Allyn Brooks LaSure, a former U.S. diplomat, and executive vice-president for communications at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, a national coalition of civil and human rights groups.
That would include awkward conversations on family Zoom calls, in work conference rooms, and at Thanksgiving dinners, he recommends.
REAL CHANGE OR TALK?
Big companies around the world which have typically stayed away from this debate have pledged (here) over $1.7 billion to advance racial justice and equity. City councils are voting (here) to cut police funding and limit police tactics, and statues to the slave-holding supporters in the U.S. Civil war are coming down.
Reuters research shows (here) some of the same U.S. companies have elevated few African Americans to top jobs; two centuries after it started, the NYSE’s traders and management remain overwhelmingly white; an anti-lynching bill named after a black teen killed in 1955 failed to pass the U.S. Senate on June 5.
On June 8, senior Democrats, including House speaker Nancy Pelosi, donned kente cloth, a Ghanaian fabric that is a prominent symbol of African arts and culture, knelt in the U.S. Capitol building for nearly nine minutes of silence for Floyd.
Charles Preston, a Chicago-based black activist and organizer, called the gesture “ridiculous.”
“I think it’s a charade, it’s hollow, it’s empty and I don’t understand what is the purpose of kneeling,” he said. Politicians, he said, should push for policy changes that help African-Americans instead.
The very gesture, known as “taking a knee,” echoes the “Black Power” raised-fist salute that U.S. Olympic medalists Tommie Smith and John Carlos made on the medal podium at the 1968 Mexico City Olympics.
Half a century later, it was still controversial when San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick took a knee to protest police brutality and racial injustice in 2016. Years after leaving (here) the team, he has yet to be picked up by another.
A NEW GENERATION
Melanie Campbell, president of the National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, said veteran activists have doubts this phase will endure for long. But she said the level of anger and frustration after Floyd’s death is new.
“This is a generation seeing mass shootings in schools, a divisive president, black people being killed and they are pushing back,” she said.
And the demographics of the country itself are changing.
One in 10 eligible voters in the 2020 electorate, about 22 million Americans, will be part of a new generation that is the most ethnically diverse in U.S. history, Pew reports (here), with just 52% of the generation white.
“This is not an unsurmountable task,” said Kyle Holman, a 21-year-old white student in Washington, D.C., who protested on Saturday. “If we can just start by acknowledging that things can be really bad for people of color, have scales fall from our eyes, we will move this debate forward,” he said.
Reporting by Nandita Bose and Heather Timmons; Editing by Howard Goller
Philippine doctors shield families with ‘quarantent’, safe spaces
MANILA (Reuters) – After taking a job in a hospital’s COVID-19 emergency room, Philippine doctor Jan Claire Dorado planned to move out of the family home to protect relatives from the risk of infection.
Jan Claire Dorado, 30, a doctor assigned to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Emergency Room of East Avenue Medical Center, bonds with her mother and cat from behind the small plastic window on her makeshift isolation room to protect her family from potential exposure to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines, June 26, 2020. Picture taken June 26, 2020. REUTERS/Eloisa Lopez
But Dorado’s parents insisted the 30-year-old keep living at home, so her father constructed a makeshift isolation area in a storage room there.
Now, when she returns from work at one of the country’s main hospitals treating coronavirus patients, her dinner is placed outside the room’s door on a stool.
“The hardest part is being away from them. I miss them a lot,” said Dorado, who greets family members from behind a plastic window on a wall covered in foil.
Her parents are considered high-risk for COVID-19 because of preexisting conditions, and Dorado said she once painfully refused her mother’s request for a hug.
Hundreds of Philippine medical workers have been infected by the coronavirus and more than 30 have died.
Safekeeping loved ones is also a high priority for paediatrician Mica Bastillo, even as she confronts COVID-19 head on.
The 38-year-old took on a new role at a children’s hospital in another part of Manila after it became a COVID-19 referral facility in April.
“My family thought about asking me to resign, but anywhere I go I would still have to face COVID,” she said.
With her father and sister battling medical conditions, the family built a makeshift tent next to their home for Bastillo, which they dubbed a “quarantent”.
Made out of plastic sheets to keep out the rain, it allows Bastillo to be with her family at a safe distance.
“My mother put the curtains and the table cloth to make it look like home… And my brother added the plastic sheet. It was a real family effort,” said Bastillo, who still joins her family for nightly prayers seated beside the front door wearing a mask.
Additional reporting by Neil Jerome Morales; Writing by Ed Davies. Editing by Gerry Doyle
Pompeo calls China Muslim sterilization reports ‘shocking’ and ‘disturbing’
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday labeled as “shocking” and “disturbing” reports that China’s ruling Communist Party is using forced sterilization, forced abortion and coercive family planning against minority Muslims.
FILE PHOTO: U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks during a joint briefing about an executive order from U.S. President Donald Trump on the International Criminal Court at the State Department in Washington, U.S., June 11, 2020. REUTERS/Yuri Gripas/Pool/File Photo
Pompeo highlighted a report about the situation in China’s Xinjiang region by German researcher Adrian Zenz published by the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation think tank.
Pompeo, a persistent critic of China, including its treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, said in a statement the findings were consistent with decades of Chinese Communist Party practices “that demonstrate an utter disregard for the sanctity of human life and basic human dignity.”
“We call on the Chinese Communist Party to immediately end these horrific practices and ask all nations to join the United States in demanding an end to these dehumanizing abuses.”
In his report, Zenz said his findings represented the strongest evidence yet that Beijing’s policies in Xinjiang met one of the genocide criteria cited in the U.N. Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, namely “imposing measures intended to prevent births within the [targeted] group.”
Zenz said analysis of Chinese government documents showed natural population growth in Xinjiang had fallen “dramatically.” He said that in its two largest Uighur Muslim prefectures, growth rates fell by 84% between 2015 and 2018 and further in 2019.
The Chinese Embassy in Washington referred to a statement by Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian, saying that “some institutions are bent on cooking up disinformation on Xinjiang-related issues. … Their allegations are simply groundless and false.”
Documents from 2019 revealed plans for a campaign of mass female sterilization targeting 14% and 34% of all married women of childbearing age in two Uighur counties, Zenz wrote. The campaign, he said, likely aimed to sterilize rural minority women with three or more children, as well as some with two children – equivalent to at least 20% of all women of childbearing age.
“Budget figures indicate that this project had sufficient funding for performing hundreds of thousands of tubal ligation sterilization procedures in 2019 and 2020,” he wrote.
Zenz said that by 2019, Xinjiang planned to subject at least 80% of women of childbearing age in its four southern minority prefectures to intrusive birth prevention surgeries – placement of intrauterine devices or sterilizations.
He said that in 2018, 80% of all new IUD placements in China were performed in Xinjiang, while only 1.8% of the population live there.
Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Leslie Adler
Mexican president slammed after comments on women staying at home
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Thursday suggested the tradition of women staying at home to take care of older family members was key to battling the coronavirus pandemic, sparking criticism his comments were sexist.
FILE PHOTO: Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador holds a news conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, March 17, 2020. REUTERS/Henry Romero
This is not the first time the 66-year-old leader has been accused of making tone-deaf comments and lacking empathy towards women.
“People want to change women’s role and that is one of the just causes of feminism, but the tradition in Mexico is that daughters are the ones who care the most for parents. We men are more detached,” Lopez Obrador said.
Whereas seniors in nursing homes in Europe had suffered with the pandemic, Mexico’s elders were helped by the custom of being cared for at home, he said, adding that the “Mexican family is the most important social security institution” in the country.
“Translating the president’s nineteenth century thinking when he says: men are more detached, he means irresponsible; daughters take care of their parents, he’s referring to unpaid work; tradition refers to machismo; feminism wants to change roles, true transformation,” Martha Tagle, a lawmaker with the Citizen’s Movement party, said on Twitter.
The hashtag AmloMachista, or sexist AMLO in reference to the president’s initials, was trending.
“AmloMachista insists on sending women to be ‘caregivers’, but we have news for him, we are citizens and we are feminists who will no longer tolerate his presidential misogyny,” Claudia Castello, who describes herself as a sociologist and feminist, wrote on Twitter.
Lopez Obrador’s prickly reaction earlier this year to criticism of his administration over brutal murders of women in Mexico riled feminists and undermined support for him among female voters, helping to fuel protests.
Lopez Obrador has been chastised for not taking the virus seriously enough and pushing for a reopening of the economy too soon.
Mexico has the seventh highest coronavirus death toll in the world with 25,060 deaths and 202,951 cases.
Reporting by Anthony Esposito; Additional reporting by Stefanie Eschenbacher and Frank Jack Daniel
Former Argentina coach Bilardo tests positive for coronavirus
Former Argentina coach Carlos Bilardo, who is a guest for the program Futbol Forever, speaks at a news conference in San Salvador March 31, 2011. REUTERS/Luis Galdamez/Files
SAO PAULO (Reuters) – Carlos Bilardo, the man who coached Argentina to victory in the 1986 World Cup, has tested positive for the new coronavirus, a source close to his family told Reuters on Friday.
“They carried out a test and it was positive, although he has not shown symptoms and he is good,” said the source.
His former club Estudiantes tweeted in support of Bilardo, their 82-year old former player and manager, who has been living in a nursing home in Buenos Aires since 2018.
He coached a team led by Diego Maradona to the World Cup in Mexico in 1986 and the final four years later and also won three Copa Libertadores titles as a player with Estudiantes between 1968 and 1970.
Argentina has reported 1,184 deaths from COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus, according to Health Ministry numbers.
Reporting by Ramiro Scandolo in Buenos Aires, writing by Andrew Downie in London; Editing by William Mallard
Mexican president slammed after comments on women staying at home
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador on Thursday suggested the tradition of women staying at home to take care of older family members was key to battling the coronavirus pandemic, sparking criticism his comments were sexist.
FILE PHOTO: Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador holds a news conference at the National Palace in Mexico City, Mexico, March 17, 2020. REUTERS/Henry Romero/File Photo
This is not the first time the 66-year-old leader has been accused of making tone-deaf comments and lacking empathy towards women.
“People want to change women’s role and that is one of the just causes of feminism, but the tradition in Mexico is that daughters are the ones who care the most for parents. We men are more detached,” Lopez Obrador said.
Whereas seniors in nursing homes in Europe had suffered with the pandemic, Mexico’s elders were helped by the custom of being cared for at home, he said, adding that the “Mexican family is the most important social security institution” in the country.
“Translating the president’s nineteenth century thinking when he says: men are more detached, he means irresponsible; daughters take care of their parents, he’s referring to unpaid work; tradition refers to machismo; feminism wants to change roles, true transformation,” Martha Tagle, a lawmaker with the Citizen’s Movement party, said on Twitter.
The hashtag AmloMachista, or sexist AMLO in reference to the president’s initials, was trending.
“AmloMachista insists on sending women to be ‘caregivers’, but we have news for him, we are citizens and we are feminists who will no longer tolerate his presidential misogyny,” Claudia Castello, who describes herself as a sociologist and feminist, wrote on Twitter.
Lopez Obrador’s prickly reaction earlier this year to criticism of his administration over brutal murders of women in Mexico riled feminists and undermined support for him among female voters, helping to fuel protests.
Lopez Obrador has been chastised for not taking the virus seriously enough and pushing for a reopening of the economy too soon.
Mexico has the seventh highest coronavirus death toll in the world with 25,060 deaths and 202,951 cases.
Reporting by Anthony Esposito; Additional reporting by Stefanie Eschenbacher and Frank Jack Daniel
Singapore PM says election not about family feud as brother joins opposition
FILE PHOTO: A woman with a face mask walks past a screen showing a telecast of Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong addressing the outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), at the central business district in Singapore, April 3, 2020. REUTERS/Edgar Su
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Monday a July 10 general election was not about him or a family dispute with his siblings after his estranged brother joined an opposition party.
Lee Hsien Yang, younger brother of Lee Hsien Loong and son of modern Singapore’s founder, Lee Kuan Yew, said last week he had joined the new Progress Singapore Party.
He said the People’s Action Party, which has governed Singapore since independence in 1965, had “lost its way” without his late father.
“He is within his rights as a citizen. This GE is not about me or any family disputes which may involve my brother and me,” the prime minister said when asked about his brother’s decision.
“It’s about Singapore’s future at a very grave moment in our history when we are facing the most serious crisis we’ve seen since independence,” he said.
“Health, jobs and the future” should be the major focus, he said.
Reporting by Aradhana Aravindan in Singapore; Editing by Robert Birsel
6 Travel Shows to Help Keep Your Wanderlust Alive
Are you an adventure traveler or foodie traveler or even a bucket-list traveler sitting around thinking, “Well, I’ll never travel again”? With travel restrictions still in place, it seems like it’ll take months before travel will resume back to its regularly scheduled programming.
Fortunately, there’s an assortment of travel shows to watch and keep that wanderlust alive, whether you’re curious about diving with sharks or chomping down on a live scorpion.
Taste The Nation
Former Top Chef host Padma Lakshmi has a new travel and food series called “Taste the Nation.” Lakshmi takes us on a journey into how food connects us culturally and explores traditions far and wide. In its first season, Lakshmi visits 10 cities around the nation while tackling issues surrounding immigration. Ultimately, she defines “American cuisine” as multicultural and sets out to show just how much of a melting pot our nation is.
You can check out Taste The Nation by watching on Hulu.
Dark Tourist
If you’ve ever had a death-defying travel-related idea in your bucket list, “Dark Tourist” will show you how it’s done. In the first episode, host David Farrier ventures into Colombia to check out tours that take him into the world of former cartel kingpin Pablo Escobar. While in Colombia, Farrier meets an ex-police officer who had been paid off by Escobar, Escobar’s ex-fiancée, and his former hitman.
This series is focused on tourism sites that focus in some way on death, how people see death around the world, and the ways it’s honored. You can check out Dark Tourist on Netflix.
Parts Unknown
As an avid traveler, I was deeply influenced by this show; it changed how I saw the world of travel and how I learned to respect it. “Parts Unknown,” hosted by the late Emmy-award winning host Anthony Bourdain, brilliantly explored the off-the-beaten-path side of exploration.
Bourdain masterfully gives audiences a front-row seat into his trips around the world while telling stories of family, triumph, hardship, war, and so much more. Although Bourdain has passed away, his legacy lives on. You can tune into Parts Unknown on Amazon.
Mysterious Islands
Hosted by award-winning journalist Kellee Edwards, “Mysterious Islands” centers around the most adventurous side of travel. This Travel Channel series explores remote islands, where Edwards is called on to fly planes and test her scuba diving skills. She sets out to find secrets that are hidden within the most uncharted areas of the world while introducing her audience to the people who live there.
Check out episodes here.
Departures
If you’re looking for the ultimate backpacking experience, check out this show, hosted by Scott Wilson and Andre Dupuis. Originally airing in the United States on the National Geographic Adventure Channel, “Departures” shows the audience the process of the journey itself, rather than just focusing on destinations. It gives the audience a true glimpse into the great outdoors and no-frills traveling. You can watch episodes here.
Ugly Delicious
Michelin star Chef David Chang leads his friends to different destinations to find some of the most obscure, mouth-watering cuisines in his show “Ugly Delicious.” Chef Chang highlights one cuisine or dish and presents how the concept is represented in various areas around the world.
You can watch on Netflix.
Google adds group video calls to Duo and Meet on smart displays
Starting next week, you’ll be able to start a video call with multiple contacts by asking your Assistant to “make a group call on Duo” or “make a group call on Meet” or create one via the visual interface on the screen. The feature will support up to 32 people on Duo and a maximum of 100 on Meet. On Duo, you’ll have to create groups in the mobile app, then start calls with those circles by asking Assistant.
On Meet, you can also join existing calls by typing in the room code, or enter scheduled meetings by pulling up calendar entries on the display. You can also ask the Assistant to open a call from a calendar appointment by saying “Hey Google, join my next meeting,” though this only works on personal accounts not enterprise ones for now. Those joining via a room code will have to enter it on the screen.
People aren’t just using their smart displays for family calls — they’re using the devices as second screens for work, too. To support users who want to dial into work conferences on their smart displays, Google is also enabling G Suite meetings on the Nest Hub Max in a beta that’s rolling out over the next few weeks. It’ll be available for G Suite domains enrolled in the Assistant beta program — organizations that want to take part can have their administrators sign up.
Google is also rolling out a speed dial feature that it announced at CES, which should make it slightly more convenient to launch your daily check in with your family, for example. This tool arrives today on Assistant-enabled smart speakers and displays, and once you have your favorite contacts set up, you can tell Google to “Call Mom” or “Call Brian.” On a smart display, you can start a call quickly by tapping a contact’s name.
These new features make Google’s smart displays more useful than before — even though you could conduct video calls on them previously, support for groups was an important feature that was missing. Facebook has been marketing its Portal display as a means to have calls with family members, complete with filters and stickers. With today’s announcement, Google will be giving Facebook more competition on this front and possibly giving smart displays more room to grow.
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OnStar now offers its safety features through a phone app
You no longer need to be in your car to use OnStar’s safety features. GM just launched an app for Android and iOS, Guardian, that brings OnStar to phones for the first time. So long as you have an active OnStar plan, as many as eight people can use the service’s safety features whether or not they’re in a car. You can reach emergency advisors, share locations between family members and get roadside assistance. This may also provide a safety net if you’re in another car (when that’s an option, at least) — a Mobile Crash Response feature uses your phone’s motion sensing to detect a collision and, on Android, automatically connect you to an OnStar advisor.
Guardian is available in the US and Canada, and those who jump in by July 31st get a free six months of use.
Why are Singapore’s first family feuding?
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A public rift between the heirs of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s modern day founder, has shot to the fore with the prospect of his two sons squaring off at a July 10 general election.
Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong attends the 22nd ASEAN Plus Three Summit in Bangkok, Thailand, November 4, 2019. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa/Files
Lee Hsien Yang on Wednesday formally joined a new opposition party competing against his brother Lee Hsien Loong’s People’s Action Party, which has ruled the city-state since its independence since 1965.
The move comes amid a long-standing and bitter dispute between the siblings centred around what to do with their late father’s house – demolish it, or let the government decide whether to make it a heritage landmark.
On one side of the dispute stands the eldest son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 68, who believes the government must decide what should be done.
On the other are his siblings – Lee Hsien Yang and his sister Lee Wei Ling.
They say their father’s will stated the house should eventually be demolished after his death and they have accused Prime Minister Lee of wanting to preserve the house to build his own political capital.
“His popularity is inextricably linked to Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy,” they said in a 2017 statement.
Prime Minister Lee has said his father was prepared to consider alternatives for the property if the government decided to gazette the site and that he has recused himself from government discussions on the matter.
Lee Hsien Yang last year said the PAP had “lost its way” and threw his support behind the newly-formed Progress Singapore Party, led by a former PAP lawmaker.
While he officially joined the party on Wednesday, he has not confirmed if he will run as a candidate in the upcoming poll. The deadline for nominations is June 30.
THE HOUSE, MORE THAN JUST A HOME?
Lee Kuan Yew, popularly known as LKY, moved into the five-bedroom house at 38 Oxley Road in 1945. He led the country for three decades and it was from his home that his People’s Action Party, which has governed since independence and never seen its vote share drop below 60%, was conceived.
A government panel set up to consider the future of the house said in a 2018 report that a future government should make the final decision. It laid out three options: preserving the house as a national monument, preserving part of it, or demolishing it.
The historic property was valued by estate agents at about S$24 million ($17 million) in 2017.
The family insists the feud is not about the money.
WHO OWNS IT?
The house is owned by the younger brother, Hsien Yang, and his unmarried sister, Wei Ling, lives there. Nothing can happen to the house until she chooses to move out.
Prime Minister Lee says his father bequeathed the property to him, and he later sold it to Hsien Yang at a fair market valuation. The proceeds were donated to charity.
WHAT DID LKY WANT?
LKY, who died in 2015, stated publicly that he wanted the house to be demolished as he did not like the idea of tourists visiting it and that it would cost a lot to preserve.
Lee Hsien Yang, son of former leader Lee Kuan Yew, delivers his eulogy during the funeral service at the University Cultural Centre at the National University of Singapore March 29, 2015. REUTERS/Edgar Su/Files
He also said so in his will, but added that if that could not happen, then he wanted it closed to everyone, except family and descendants.
Lee Hsien Yang’s wife, lawyer Lee Suet Fern, was earlier this year found guilty by a disciplinary tribunal of professional misconduct over her involvement in preparing his will.
Lee Suet Fern said she disagreed with the tribunal’s findings and would fight the allegations in court.
Writing by Aradhana Aravindan, and John Geddie; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Michael Perry
Explainer: Why are Singapore’s first family feuding?
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A public rift between the heirs of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s modern day founder, has shot to the fore with the prospect of his two sons squaring off at a July 10 general election.
FILE PHOTO: A view of former Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew’s Oxley Road residence in Singapore June 14, 2017. REUTERS/Edgar Su
Lee Hsien Yang on Wednesday formally joined a new opposition party competing against his brother Lee Hsien Loong’s People’s Action Party, which has ruled the city-state since its independence since 1965.
The move comes amid a long-standing and bitter dispute between the siblings centred around what to do with their late father’s house – demolish it, or let the government decide whether to make it a heritage landmark.
On one side of the dispute stands the eldest son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 68, who believes the government must decide what should be done.
On the other are his siblings – Lee Hsien Yang and his sister Lee Wei Ling.
They say their father’s will stated the house should eventually be demolished after his death and they have accused Prime Minister Lee of wanting to preserve the house to build his own political capital.
“His popularity is inextricably linked to Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy,” they said in a 2017 statement.
Prime Minister Lee has said his father was prepared to consider alternatives for the property if the government decided to gazette the site and that he has recused himself from government discussions on the matter.
Lee Hsien Yang last year said the PAP had “lost its way” and threw his support behind the newly-formed Progress Singapore Party, led by a former PAP lawmaker.
While he officially joined the party on Wednesday, he has not confirmed if he will run as a candidate in the upcoming poll. The deadline for nominations is June 30.
THE HOUSE, MORE THAN JUST A HOME?
Lee Kuan Yew, popularly known as LKY, moved into the five-bedroom house at 38 Oxley Road in 1945. He led the country for three decades and it was from his home that his People’s Action Party, which has governed since independence and never seen its vote share drop below 60%, was conceived.
A government panel set up to consider the future of the house said in a 2018 report that a future government should make the final decision. It laid out three options: preserving the house as a national monument, preserving part of it, or demolishing it.
The historic property was valued by estate agents at about S$24 million ($17 million) in 2017.
The family insists the feud is not about the money.
WHO OWNS IT?
The house is owned by the younger brother, Hsien Yang, and his unmarried sister, Wei Ling, lives there. Nothing can happen to the house until she chooses to move out.
Prime Minister Lee says his father bequeathed the property to him, and he later sold it to Hsien Yang at a fair market valuation. The proceeds were donated to charity.
WHAT DID LKY WANT?
LKY, who died in 2015, stated publicly that he wanted the house to be demolished as he did not like the idea of tourists visiting it and that it would cost a lot to preserve.
FILE PHOTO – Lee Hsien Yang answers questions during a news conference in Singapore, November 4, 2004. REUTERS/Luis Enrique Ascui
He also said so in his will, but added that if that could not happen, then he wanted it closed to everyone, except family and descendants.
Lee Hsien Yang’s wife, lawyer Lee Suet Fern, was earlier this year found guilty by a disciplinary tribunal of professional misconduct over her involvement in preparing his will.
Lee Suet Fern said she disagreed with the tribunal’s findings and would fight the allegations in court.
Writing by Aradhana Aravindan, and John Geddie; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Michael Perry
Explainer: Why are Singapore’s first family feuding?
SINGAPORE (Reuters) – A public rift between the heirs of Lee Kuan Yew, Singapore’s modern day founder, has shot to the fore with the prospect of his two sons squaring off at a July 10 general election.
FILE PHOTO: Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong is seen during a live-broadcast national address, in Singapore, June 23, 2020. Ministry Of Communications And Information/Prime Minister’s Office
Lee Hsien Yang on Wednesday formally joined a new opposition party competing against his brother Lee Hsien Loong’s People’s Action Party, which has ruled the city-state since its independence since 1965.
The move comes amid a long-standing and bitter dispute between the siblings centred around what to do with their late father’s house – demolish it, or let the government decide whether to make it a heritage landmark.
On one side of the dispute stands the eldest son, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, 68, who believes the government must decide what should be done.
On the other are his siblings – Lee Hsien Yang and his sister Lee Wei Ling.
They say their father’s will stated the house should eventually be demolished after his death and they have accused Prime Minister Lee of wanting to preserve the house to build his own political capital.
“His popularity is inextricably linked to Lee Kuan Yew’s legacy,” they said in a 2017 statement.
Prime Minister Lee has said his father was prepared to consider alternatives for the property if the government decided to gazette the site and that he has recused himself from government discussions on the matter.
Lee Hsien Yang last year said the PAP had “lost its way” and threw his support behind the newly-formed Progress Singapore Party, led by a former PAP lawmaker.
While he officially joined the party on Wednesday, he has not confirmed if he will run as a candidate in the upcoming poll. The deadline for nominations is June 30.
THE HOUSE, MORE THAN JUST A HOME?
Lee Kuan Yew, popularly known as LKY, moved into the five-bedroom house at 38 Oxley Road in 1945. He led the country for three decades and it was from his home that his People’s Action Party, which has governed since independence and never seen its vote share drop below 60%, was conceived.
A government panel set up to consider the future of the house said in a 2018 report that a future government should make the final decision. It laid out three options: preserving the house as a national monument, preserving part of it, or demolishing it.
The historic property was valued by estate agents at about S$24 million ($17 million) in 2017.
The family insists the feud is not about the money.
WHO OWNS IT?
The house is owned by the younger brother, Hsien Yang, and his unmarried sister, Wei Ling, lives there. Nothing can happen to the house until she chooses to move out.
Prime Minister Lee says his father bequeathed the property to him, and he later sold it to Hsien Yang at a fair market valuation. The proceeds were donated to charity.
WHAT DID LKY WANT?
LKY, who died in 2015, stated publicly that he wanted the house to be demolished as he did not like the idea of tourists visiting it and that it would cost a lot to preserve.
FILE PHOTO: Singapore Telecommunications Chief Executive Lee Hsien Yang arrives at the Federal Court in Sydney, April 5, 2006. REUTERS/Will Burgess
He also said so in his will, but added that if that could not happen, then he wanted it closed to everyone, except family and descendants.
Lee Hsien Yang’s wife, lawyer Lee Suet Fern, was earlier this year found guilty by a disciplinary tribunal of professional misconduct over her involvement in preparing his will.
Lee Suet Fern said she disagreed with the tribunal’s findings and would fight the allegations in court.
Writing by Aradhana Aravindan, and John Geddie; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Michael Perry
Frustration, fear and family: lockdowns test investment bankers
LONDON (Reuters) – Lockdowns are sharpening the knives in the cut-throat world of M&A banking.
FILE PHOTO: An office building appears empty in Canary Wharf, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), London, Britain, May 27, 2020. REUTERS/Dylan Martinez/File Photo
Stuck at home, armed only with a phone and a laptop, senior advisors are finding out just how strong their relationships with clients really are while frustrated juniors are left to crunch numbers in the shadows, deprived of the personal access to the rainmakers who could give their careers a boost.
With the dreaded “doughnut” – or zero bonus – almost a given this year, and some banks looking to cut jobs to weather the health crisis, the strains on bankers watching multi-billion dollar pre-pandemic deals go up in smoke is taking its toll.
“It’s like a Darwinian selection,” said a senior advisor at a Wall Street bank. “If you’re a senior banker and you don’t win a single pitch you can only blame yourself. You’ve failed to cultivate your relationships and now it’s clear to everyone.”
“If you don’t know them well enough, you will never win a mandate over Zoom,” said the banker, who declined to be named.
A lack of face-to-face contact is not just exposing the shortcomings of some senior financiers, it is also making it harder for junior associates to learn on the job and progress, headhunters, lawyers and bankers said.
“Junior bankers are challenged by old problems – long hours, excessive workload and lack of acknowledgement – but this lockdown has made them more acute,” said Anna Marietta, co-founder and managing partner of headhunter Vici Advisory.
“Juniors – especially analysts and interns – can also learn through osmosis and they need physical interaction in the office. They need to see how their managers are handling client relationships and solving problems,” she said.
RELATIONSHIP CHALLENGE
Global M&A volumes are down 41% so far this year, a far cry from the champagne-popping records of recent years when bankers at Goldman Sachs (GS.N), JPMorgan (JPM.N), Morgan Stanley (MS.N), Citi (C.N) and Bank of America (BAC.N) – the top five dealmakers – were the toast of Wall Street.
Massive government support for companies, particularly in Europe, is keeping many firms afloat and delaying the kind of lucrative takeover deals that have put M&A advisors at the top of the investment banking world, bankers and lawyers said.
But the pressure to drum up business means the workload – which often involves all-nighters and 100-hour weeks – is as heavy and stressful as ever, ramping up the risks for employers who turn a blind eye to potential burnout.
“Employers have always been responsible legally and financially for harm caused when they didn’t ensure an employee’s mental or physical safety at work,” said Melanie Stancliffe, employment partner at Cripps Pemberton Greenish.
“Ensuring the physical safety of employees is the prime business reason to work from home and in this new normal, the focus needs to shift to protecting employees from other risks so they are well and can support – not sue – their employer.”
For some bankers, the job stress is compounded by working from home in proximity to their families and juggling chores with conference calls, a shock to the system for people used to jetting around the world to schmooze clients.
“The lockdown for many throws into sharp relief the health of their home lives,” Paul McLaren, consultant psychiatrist at The Priory’s Wellbeing Centre in the City of London.
“For many high achieving City workers that is an area of their lives which they may have neglected, and participated in only from a distance. Rebalancing the power relationships at home with partners is a particular challenge at the moment.”
LOCKDOWN STRAINS
Still, investment bankers, with their bumpers salaries and bonuses from years past, can afford more palatial setups than most employees working from home during the health crisis.
Some senior bankers in Britain have escaped to their remote country piles while others have hunkered down in spacious pads with attic studies in upmarket London neighbourhoods.
For some, the opportunity to spend more time with their family is a rare gift they relish.
For others, the pandemic is exposing fractures in their personal lives. Well-known lawyers and psychiatrists contacted by Reuters have reported a surge in requests for help with relationships and mental health.
“Suddenly, a high-powered financial professional is stuck all day at home with someone that they usually barely see from week to week and with whom they’ve learned to co-exist at a distance,” said Ayesha Vardag, known in City circles for winning multi-million dollar divorce settlements for her clients.
Vardag told Reuters that inquiries from financial sector employees and their spouses jumped 170% in the week to May 27 as British lockdown restrictions began to ease, with some choosing to call time on their marriages before bonus cuts and layoffs damaged prospective settlements.
“Many financial sector clients and their spouses are reactivating divorce enquiries they made before lockdown, left in abeyance because they wanted to work on their marriages,” she said. “Then they found they couldn’t stand it any longer.”
‘THE OLD-FASHIONED WAY’
For junior bankers, who typically range in age from the early 20s to early 30s, the lack of career progress under lockdowns is the main source of stress coupled with an ongoing hiring freeze at most banks.
Shut out of video calls with clients due to digital security concerns, five analysts and associates said their opportunities to learn from – and impress – their bosses were limited.
Instead of knocking on a partner’s door to discuss ideas, some juniors said they had to lobby line managers to set up a call with their bank’s top rainmakers.
The top two M&A banks, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan, said they were pulling out the stops to keep junior colleagues engaged.
They pointed to a range of initiatives such as cocktail parties hosted by senior executives on Zoom, wellness programmes, online yoga and virtual choirs to relieve stress.
Banking bosses, meanwhile, are counselling their troops to sit tight and wait, as the deal drought will eventually end.
“From the middle of March until the end of May, nobody felt it was the right time to buy a business. But things have started to change,” said JPMorgan’s co-head of global M&A Dirk Albersmeier.
“Europe is coming out of this crisis faster than the United States. In certain European markets bankers are already sitting in the same room with their clients which may accelerate the recovery. Getting to an agreement is often easier the old-fashioned way.”
Editing by Rachel Armstrong, Carmel Crimmins and David Clarke
Man whose father left the family creates ‘Dad, how do I?’
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The Agile Family Meeting

At a moment when many families around the world are confined to home, climbing the walls, and are searching desperately for fresh techniques for managing their household chaos, one proven solution that my family, along with many others, uses comes from an unlikely source: agile development.
It’s no secret that working parents face enormous pressures. Ellen Galinsky, of the Families and Work Institute, asked a thousand children, “If you were granted one wish about your parents, what would it be?” When she asked parents to predict what their children would say, the parents said: “Spending more time with us.” They were wrong. The kids’ number 1 wish: that their parents were less tired and less stressed.
So how can we reduce that stress and help families to become happier?
I spent the last 15 years trying to answer that question, meeting families, scholars, and experts ranging from a founder of the Harvard Negotiation Project to online game designers to Warren Buffett’s bankers. I published my finding in the bestselling book The Secrets of Happy Families and have found myself doubling down on many of those ideas in this time of flux of stress. The single best solution I found may be the simplest of all: hold regular family meetings to discuss how you’re managing your family.
Meet the First Agile Family
A few years ago, my research brought me to the Starr family home in Hidden Springs, Idaho. The Starrs are an ordinary American family with their share of ordinary American family issues. David is a software developer; Eleanor is a stay-at-home mom. At the time, their four children ranged in age from 10 to 15.
Like many parents, the Starrs were trapped in that endless tension between the sunny, smooth-running household they aspired to be living in and the exhausting, ear-splitting one they were actually living in. “I tried the whole ‘love them and everything will work out’ philosophy,” Eleanor said. “but it wasn’t working. ‘For the love God,’ I said, ‘I can’t take this anymore.’”
What the Starrs did next, though, was surprising. Instead of turning to their parents, their peers, or even a professional, they looked to David’s workplace. Specifically, to a philosophy of business problem solving that David had studied and taught: agile development. The techniques worked so well for their family that David wrote a white paper about it, and the idea spread from there.
When my wife, Linda, and I adopted this blueprint into our home, weekly family meetings quickly became the single most impactful idea we introduced into our lives since the birth of our children.
The Three Questions
The idea of agile was invented in the 1980s in large measure through the leadership of Jeff Sutherland. A former fighter pilot in Vietnam, Sutherland was chief technologist at a financial firm in New England when he began noticing how dysfunctional software development was. Companies followed the “waterfall model,” in which executives issued ambitious orders from above that then flowed down to harried programmers below. “Eighty-three percent of projects came in late, over budget, or failed entirely,” Sutherland told me.
Sutherland designed a new system, in which ideas flowed not just down from the top but up from the bottom and groups were designed to react to changes in real time. The centerpiece is the weekly meeting that’s built around shared decision making, open communication, and constant adaptability.
Such meetings are easy to replicate in families. In my home, we started when our twin daughters were five and chose Sunday afternoons. Everyone gathers around the breakfast table; we open with a short, ritualistic drum tapping on the table; then, following the agile model, we ask three questions.
- What worked well in our family this week?
- What didn’t work well in our family this week?
- What will we agree to work on this week?
From the very beginning, the most amazing things started coming out of our daughters’ mouths. What worked well in our family this week? “Getting over our fears of riding a bike,” “We’ve been doing much better making our beds.” What went wrong? “Doing our math sheets,” “Greeting visitors at the door.”
Like most parents, we found our children to be something of a Bermuda Triangle: words and thoughts would go in, but few ever came out. Their emotional lives were invisible to us. The family meeting provided that rare window into their innermost thoughts.
The most satisfying moments came when we turned to the topic of what we would work on during the coming week. The girls loved this part of the process, particularly selecting their own rewards and punishments. Say hello to five people this week, get an extra 10 minutes of reading before bed. Kick someone, lose dessert for a month. Turns out they were little Stalins.
Naturally, there was a gap between the girls’ off-the-charts maturity during theses 20-minute sessions and their behavior the rest of the week, but that didn’t seem to matter. It felt to us as if we were laying massive underground cables that wouldn’t fully light up their world for many years to come. Ten years later, we still holding these family meetings every Sunday. Linda counts them as among her most-treasured moments as a mom.
So what did we learn?
1. Empower the children. Our instinct as parents is to issue orders to our children. We think we know best; it’s easier; who has time to argue? And besides, we’re usually right! There’s a reason few systems have been more “waterfall” than the family. But as all parents quickly discover, telling your kids the same thing over and over is not necessarily the best tactic. The single biggest lesson we learned from our experience with agile practices is to reverse the waterfall as often as possible. Enlist the children whenever possible in their own upbringing.
Brain research backs up this conclusion. Scientists at the University of California and elsewhere found kids who plan their own time, set weekly goals, and evaluate their own work build up their prefrontal cortex and other parts of the brain that help them exert greater cognitive control over their lives. These so-called “executive skills” aid children with self-discipline, avoiding distraction, and weighing the pros and cons of their choices. By participating in their own rewards and punishment, children become more intrinsically motivated.
2. Parents aren’t infallible. Another instinct we have as parents is to build ourselves up, to be Mr. or Ms. Fix-it. But abundant evidence suggests type of leadership is no longer the best model. Researchers have found that the most effective business teams are not dominated by a charismatic leader. Rather, members of particularly effective teams spend as much time talking to one another as to the leader, meet face to face regularly, and everyone speaks in equal measure.
Sound familiar? “One thing that works in family meetings,” David Starr told me, “is the kids are allowed to say whatever they want, even about the grownups. If I’ve come back from a trip and am having trouble reentering the routine, or if mom hasn’t been nice that week, this is a safe venue to express their frustration.”
3. Build in flexibility. Another assumption parents often make is that we have to create a few overarching rules and stick to them indefinitely. This philosophy presumes we can anticipate every problem that will arise over many years. We can’t. A central tenet of the tech sector is if you’re doing the same thing today you were doing six months ago, you’re doing something wrong. Parents can learn a lot from that idea.
The agile family philosophy accepts and embraces the ever-changing nature of family life. It’s certainly not lax; think of all the public accountability. And it’s not anything goes. But it anticipates that even the best designed system will need to be re-engineered midstream.
As I was leaving the Starrs’ home, I asked Eleanor what’s the most important lesson I should learn from the first agile family.
“In the media, families just are,” she said. “But that’s misleading. You have your job; you work on that. You have your garden, your hobbies, you work on those. Your family requires just as much work. The most important thing agile taught me is that you have to make a commitment to always keep working to improve your family.”
What’s the secret to a happy family, in whatever situation you find yourself and whatever kind of stress you face?
Try.
How to ‘Unplug’ Your Kid’s Tech Addiction
The global pandemic has changed the world on a macro level, but it has also reshaped the microcosm of our family routines. Once, screen time was a special treat for my kids, saved for weekends and movie nights. Oh, but then all the schools closed. And the daycares. And the summer camps. Suddenly, screens became school, or vice versa, and the days got a hell of a lot longer.
My daughter has been surprisingly okay with this. While she misses her teachers and the classroom environment, it turns out she really likes doing her schoolwork on the computer. And chatting with her friends on Zoom. And staying in touch using Messenger Kids. And YouTube. Oh, YouTube.
To put it another way, my 8-year-old is now a tech addict, like her father (and mother) before her. And especially now that school is over and both her parents are still working, it is becoming a problem—but we’ve landed on a solution to help us (and her) deal with it.
Tired of the constant fighting about what she’s doing on the computer and when, we figured out a way to make her device—in this case, our family’s sole non-work-provided laptop—into a limited resource: simply take away the power cord.
She now begins every day with a full battery charge—about four hours of heavy use on this 2015 Macbook—and she’s allowed to use it up in any manner she sees fit. If she wants to watch DrawSoCute videos on YouTube for two hours straight? Fine. If she wants to Zoom with her besties, even better. If she wants to read one book after another on Epic, great. But when the battery dies, she’s out of time for the day, and she has to figure out what to do next.
In theory, this is teaching her a bunch of useful skills: Impulse control. How to prioritize. How to keep her own schedule. How to occupy herself when screens aren’t an option. In practice, it has been… a transition. As a general rule, kids aren’t the best at self-regulating, and their skills at it develop over time. Even at 8, my kid struggles with concepts like delayed gratification—she doesn’t want to deal with the fact that she needs to stop DMing now if she wants to watch a craft video later. But she’s getting better every day—and the fact that she can see her computer time ticking down in the corner of the screen keeps it top of mind for her and helps quell the emotional outbursts when it comes time to close the laptop for the day.
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If the battery life on the devices your kids use is too long to be used up in one day, you might adjust the amount of time between charges, though at this point I can’t imagine going more than two days. I mean, let’s be realistic.
Her progress has been encouraging enough, in fact, that I’m considering implementing something similar for myself. I need to use a computer all day for work, but considering I spend almost all my time at home, there’s no reason I need to be on my phone all day, too. So, I’ll charge my aging iPhone overnight and I can only use it as long as the battery lasts. Hopefully this will keep me from trying to keep one eye on Slack and Twitter while I play with my kids in the evenings, since I won’t want to just stare into the existential abyss after they’ve gone to bed.
I’m really going to do this. I swear. I’ll start… tomorrow.
Goldman Sachs releases new font you’re not allowed to criticize Goldman Sachs with
Investment bank Goldman Sachs has released its very own typeface: an inoffensive set of sans-serif fonts dubbed Goldman Sans. But in the spirit of bankers everywhere, these fonts come with a catch in the contract. As their license states, you’re free to use Goldman Sans for just about anything you like so long as you don’t use it to criticize Goldman Sachs.
Just by downloading the package of fonts, you agree to these terms and conditions. And although Goldman Sans is nominally a free font, Goldman Sachs retains complete control over the license, allowing it terminate usage for any reason it likes.
Here are the relevant passages from the license:
C.c. The User may not use the Licensed Font Software to disparage or suggest any affiliation with or endorsement by Goldman Sachs.
D.2 This License shall terminate and become null and void for any use that does not comply with any of the conditions in this License. Further, Goldman Sachs may terminate this License, without notice to the User, for any reason or no reason at all and at any time, completely at Goldman Sachs’s sole discretion
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It’s a fitting bit of low-grade legal shithousing from a company that was most memorably described as “a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money.” This little contractual clause was spotted by Twitter user Matt Round and picked up by BoingBoing, where The Verge saw it.
Of course, no one should be particularly surprised that a bit of marketing fluff to bolster Goldman Sachs’ brand doesn’t actually mean the company is engaging with egalitarian design principles. But the license raises an interesting question: how much disparagement will Goldman Sachs allow before it terminates the font’s use?
What if you took, for example, the noticeably lengthy “Controversies and legal issues” section of Goldman Sachs’ Wikipedia page and rendered that in Goldman Sans? Is that disparagement? I mean, I would personally have my feelings hurt if you talked about how I defrauded customers for profit during the 2008 financial crisis or about my involvement in a “brazen scheme to loot billions of dollars from a Malaysian sovereign wealth fund.” Then again, I’m not one of the world’s most powerful, long-lived, criticized and maligned but seemingly bulletproof financial institutions. I don’t even have my own font.
8 of the Best Stand-Up Comedians to Watch as a Family
We could all use a few extra laughs right now, but our kids, in particular, have had a rough go of it this year. With a long (boring?) summer still stretching out ahead of us, now is a good time to lighten the mood in the home—with some good old-fashioned stand-up comedy.
Stand-up comedians as a group are not exactly known for being family-friendly. However, there are a few out there who steer clear of profanity and topics that are too mature or inappropriate for kids. One member of our Offspring Facebook Group recently asked for suggestions and the answers came pouring in. Alyssa says:
I’m looking for some recommendations for appropriate stand-up comedians [for an 8- or 9-year-old]. We watched a Jim Gaffigan special with our son and he loved it and has been asking to watch more stand-up, but everything I can think of is totally inappropriate! I figured this group would be the best place to ask!
Here are some of our top picks. Keep in mind that just because a comic’s language is mostly clean doesn’t mean they’re not mature or never offensive. So, as with any new media you introduce your kids to, it’s best to preview it first to make sure it falls in line with your comfort level—and then watch it together as a family so you can explain and discuss anything that might need some extra context.
Brian Regan
Brian Regan was probably the most suggested comic in our Facebook group. Regan is well-known as a sort of sarcastic everyman whose humor appeals to people of all ages. Blake Harper writes this about Regan for Fatherly:
Kids will love especially love Regan because a lot of his best material focuses on him looking back on his childhood. Regan is expert at recontextualizing all the weird stuff kids experience growing up. After all, who can forget Regan musing on trying to survive little league when you’re more focused on snow cones than playing the actual game?
Regan has two specials on Netflix: Nunchucks and Flamethrowers and Stand Up and Away.
Kellen Erskine
Kellen Erskine is a great option for kids just getting into stand-up comedy with topics like high school mascots, shopping carts and penguins. You can find some of his work on the Dry Bar Comedy channel on YouTube, and you can watch Erskine’s 40-minute special on Amazon, recommended for kids ages 7 and older.
Preacher Lawson
Preacher Lawson is best known for his time on America’s Got Talent (he was a finalist in season 12 and came in fifth in America’s Got Talent; The Champions); he’s also had a comedy special, called Get to Know Me, released on BET+ and has a YouTube channel.
Nate Bargatze
Nate Bargatze has a special on Netflix called The Tennessee Kid that was recommended by a couple of members in our Facebook group. The Tennessee Kid is rated PG and hits on topics that include air travel, cheap weddings, college football and chocolate milk.
Anjelah Johnson
Anjelah Johnson is another brilliant, creative comedian to check out. Harper writes this about her for Fatherly:
She may not be a household name like most of the others on the list but early YouTube fans or anyone who watched MadTV will most likely recognize Johnson as the infamous Bon Qui Qui. These days, Johnson mostly does stand-up, which, unsurprisingly features a lot of spot-on character work and goofy voices. Kids probably won’t get all of her jokes but are sure to be cracking up anytime she busts out one of her phenomenal impressions.
Her one-hour special on Netflix, Not Fancy, is rated TV-14.
Ryan Hamilton
Ryan Hamilton is known for his observational, self-deprecating humor—plus the fact that he sounds a LOT like Jerry Seinfeld. Hamilton’s Happy Face special on Netflix, in particular, got a couple of thumbs-up from the Facebook group. The one-hour special is rated TV-14 for “substances,” though, so give it a watch on your own before you let the kids tune in.
Michael Jr.
Comedian Michael Jr. calls his work “comedy that inspires,” with a focus on making sure it’s good for the whole family. He has a podcast, an upcoming movie, his comedy special called Laughing on Purpose, and a YouTube channel stocked with his stand-up work.
Jim Gaffigan
As Alyssa in our group pointed out, Jim Gaffigan is also a good place to start. He’s known as the “King of Clean Comedy,” so you won’t get much more tame in terms of language and topics (largely fatherhood, laziness and food) in a true stand-up comedian. You can find lots of Gaffigan clips on his YouTube Channel, and his Mr. Universe special is available on Netflix.
The Dry Bar channel on YouTube
I mentioned Dry Bar on YouTube earlier as a good place to find Kellen Erskine’s work, and it’s a great spot to find other short stand-up routines or clips from a variety of comedians. If you find a particular comedian there that you and your kids like, Dry Bar has playlists or full specials you can watch, too.
U.S. economy improving; rising COVID-19 cases a threat
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Sales of new U.S. single-family homes increased more than expected in May and business activity contracted moderately this month, suggesting the economy was on the cusp of recovering from the recession caused by the COVID-19 crisis.
FILE PHOTO: Real estate signs advertise new homes for sale in multiple new developments in York County, South Carolina, U.S., February 29, 2020. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
But a resurgence in confirmed coronavirus cases across the country threatens the nascent signs of improvement evident in Tuesday’s economic data. Many states have reported record daily increases in COVID-19 infections, which health experts have blamed on local governments reopening their economies too soon. The economy has stabilized as businesses reopened after closing in mid-March to control the spread of the respiratory illness.
“The renewed upsurge in COVID-19 cases across the South and the West poses a clear downside risk over the coming months but, with a second wave of state-wide lockdowns appearing unlikely for now, we are assuming this will act as a modest drag on the economic recovery, rather than resulting in a renewed downturn,” said Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics.
New home sales jumped 16.6% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 676,000 units last month, the Commerce Department said. New home sales are counted at the signing of a contract, making them a leading housing market indicator. Last month’s increase left sales just shy of their pre-COVID-19 level.
Sales dropped 5.2% in April to a pace of 580,000 units. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast new home sales, which account for about 14.7% of housing market sales, rising 2.9% to a pace of 640,000 in May.
New home sales are drawn from building permits. Sales surged 12.7% from a year ago in May. The report followed on the heels of data last week showing home purchase applications at an 11-year high in mid-June and permits rebounding strongly in May.
The broader economy slipped into recession in February, leaving nearly 20 million people unemployed as of May.
In a separate report on Tuesday, data firm IHS Markit said its flash U.S. Composite Output Index, which tracks the manufacturing and services sectors, rose to a reading of 46.8 in June from 37 in May. A reading below 50 indicates contraction in private sector output.
The improvement was led by an ebb in the manufacturing sector downturn, with the flash Purchasing Managers Index climbing to 49.6 from 39.8 in May. The survey’s services sector flash PMI rose to 46.7 from 37.5 in May.
Activity is also picking up around the globe. The IHS Markit’s euro zone Flash Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index recovered to 47.5 from May’s 31.9.
Stocks on Wall Street extended gains on the data and hopes of more fiscal stimulus. The dollar fell against a basket of currencies. U.S. Treasury prices were lower.
UNEMPLOYMENT HURDLE
The market for new homes is being supported by historic low interest rates and a preference among buyers for single-family homes away from city centers as companies allow employees more flexibility to work from home amid the coronavirus crisis.
But with record unemployment and companies freezing hiring to deal with weak demand and keep costs under control, a sharp rebound in the housing market is unlikely.
“If the overall economy seems to be slowing, the public may not be quite as confident about putting a down payment on an expensive new home,” said Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG in New York. “Many businesses are insolvent and there will be less spending from unemployed Americans as well that could keep this economic recovery in the slow lane for some time.”
Last month’s increase in new home sales did little to offset a plunge in sales of existing homes in April and May, leaving intact economists’ expectations for a record tumble in residential investment in the second quarter. Homebuilding also rebounded moderately in May after slumping in April.
Last month, new home sales shot up 45.5% in the Northeast and advanced 29% in the West. They rose 15.2% in the South, which accounts for the bulk of transactions, but fell 6.4% in the Midwest.
The median new house price rose 1.7% to $317,900 in May from a year ago. New home sales last month were concentrated in the $200,000 to $400,000 price range.
New homes priced below $200,000, the most sought after, accounted for about 15% of sales.
There were 318,000 new homes on the market in May, down from 325,000 in April. At May’s sales pace it would take 5.6 months to clear the supply of houses on the market, down from 6.7 months in April. Nearly two-thirds of the homes sold last month were either under construction or yet to be built.
Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrea Ricci
Trump says he met with families of victims of recent police violence
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks prior to signing an executive order on police reform at a ceremony in the Rose Garden at the White House in Washington, U.S., June 16, 2020. REUTERS/Leah Millis
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he met with the relatives of victims of recent police and other violence, including the family of Ahmaud Arbery, the unarmed black Georgia man who was killed while jogging in February.
Trump, speaking at a White House event on policing, offered his condolences to the families and vowed to pursue justice before preparing to sign an executive order, reiterating his emphasis on “law and order” amid protests against racism and police brutality.
Reporting by Jeff Mason; writing by Susan Heavey
Nova Scotia researchers to study potential treatments for COVID-19
Led by Dr. Lisa Barrett, the CO-VIC study tests potential therapies and monitors impact on COVID-19 symptoms
NEWS RELEASE
NOVA SCOTIA HEALTH AUTHORITY
CO-VIC, the COVID-19 treatment and immunity study, will evaluate effectiveness of treatments for hospitalized patients suffering moderate to severe COVID-19 symptoms, while helping researchers discover more about immunity to the virus.
CO-VIC is a Nova Scotia-designed study combining both treatment and laboratory science. It is led by Dr. Lisa Barrett, Clinician Scientist, Infectious Diseases, Nova Scotia Health Authority and Dalhousie University. The study is partially funded by the Nova Scotia COVID-19 Health Research Coalition.
The CO-VIC study tests potential therapies, and monitors impact on COVID-19 symptoms. When additional cutting-edge therapies become available, they will also be assessed. Personalized measurements of immune response will help develop future therapies and predict when and how severe COVID-19 happens. While the global race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine is well underway, the discovery science component of the study will advance our understanding of how the immune system responds to the disease and inform development of future treatments and second-wave vaccines.
“As COVID-19 related deaths increase in the older population, in the young who didn’t ever expect to be ill, and in health care workers, our research community feels the overwhelming urgency to protect Nova Scotians with research that tests treatments, predicts disease, and promotes understanding of immunity,” said Dr. Barrett. “We need the best knowledge of treatments and immunity, to save lives now and in the future as we continue to fight COVID-19.”
The treatment study is an integral part of Nova Scotia’s pandemic response. Compared with other provinces, Nova Scotia’s population includes a high proportion of vulnerable individuals who are older, have underlying respiratory conditions, or are immune suppressed. These are all people at higher risk of severe COVID-19 disease and this work may aid in protecting our population.
Approximately 600 patients located at NSHA sites across the province will participate. Most Nova Scotians will be eligible to take part at hospitals outside traditional research facilities to ensure fair access to research and potential therapies. While data will be gathered from Nova Scotians, for Nova Scotians, the study is designed to mirror larger international trials to promote the comparison of global data. This will allow the research team to leverage international information so it can be applied here in Nova Scotia.
For more information on the study, please visit https://co-vic.ca
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