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Groundbreaking study examines effects of screen time on kids
60 Minutes goes inside a landmark government study of young minds to see if phones, tablets and other screens are impacting adolescent brain development
Correspondent Anderson Cooper
This video is available on CBS All Access
60 Minutes All Access subscribers, Click here
If you have kids and wonder if all that time they spend on their smartphones endlessly scrolling, snapping and texting is affecting their brains, you might want to put down your own phone and pay attention. The federal government, through the National Institutes of Health, has launched the most ambitious study of adolescent brain development ever attempted. In part, scientists are trying to understand what no one currently does: how all that screen time impacts the physical structure of your kids' brains, as well as their emotional development and mental health.
At 21 sites across the country scientists have begun interviewing nine and ten-year-olds and scanning their brains. They'll follow more than 11,000 kids for a decade, and spend $300 million doing it. Dr. Gaya Dowling of the National Institutes of Health gave us a glimpse of what they've learned so far.
Dr. Gaya Dowling: The focus when we first started talking about doing this study was tobacco, marijuana, all drugs the screen time component really came into play because we were wondering what is the impact? I mean, clearly kids spend so much time on screens.
The first wave of data from brain scans of 4,500 participants is in and it has Dr. Dowling of the NIH and other scientists intrigued.
The MRI's found significant differences in the brains of some kids who use smartphones, tablets, and video games more than seven hours a day.
"We're sort of in the midst of a natural kind of uncontrolled experiment on the next generation of children."
Dr. Gaya Dowling: What we can say is that this is what the brains look like of kids who spend a lot of time on screens. And it's not just one pattern.
Anderson Cooper: That's fascinating.
Dr. Gaya Dowling: It's very fascinating.
The colors show differences in the nine and ten-year-olds' brains. The red color represents premature thinning of the cortex. That's the wrinkly outermost layer of the brain that processes information from the five senses.
Anderson Cooper: What is a thinning of the cortex mean?
Dr. Gaya Dowling: That's typically thought to be a maturational process. So what we would expect to see later is happening a little bit earlier.
Anderson Cooper: Should parents be concerned by that?
Dr. Gaya Dowling: We don't know if it's being caused by the screen time. We don't know yet if it's a bad thing. It won't be until we follow them over time that we will see if there are outcomes that are associated with the differences that we're seeing in this single snapshot.
Dr. Gaya Dowling
The interviews and data from the NIH study have already revealed something else: kids who spend more than two hours a day on screens got lower scores on thinking and language tests.
Anderson Cooper: When the study is complete, is it possible that a researcher will be able to say whether or not screen time is actually addictive?
Dr. Gaya Dowling: We hope so. We'll be able to see not only how much time are they spending, how they perceive it impacting them, but also what are some of the outcomes. And that will get at the question of whether there's addiction or not.
Anderson Cooper: When will you have the answers that you're searching for?
Dr. Gaya Dowling: Some questions we'll be able to answer in a few years. But some of the really interesting questions about these long-term outcomes, we're gonna have to wait awhile because they need to happen.
That delay leaves researchers who study technology's impact on very small children anxious.
Dr. Dimitri Christakis: In many ways, the concern that investigators like I have is that we're sort of in the midst of a natural kind of uncontrolled experiment on the next generation of children.
Dr. Dimitri Christakis at Seattle Children's Hospital was the lead author of the American Academy of Pediatrics' most recent guidelines for screen time. They now recommend parents, "avoid digital media use, except video chatting, in children younger than 18 to 24 months."
"Toddlers need laps more than apps"
Dr. Dimitri Christakis: So what we do know about babies playing with iPads is that they don't transfer what they learn from the iPad to the real world, which is to say that if you give a child an app where they play with virtual Legos, virtual blocks, and stack them, and then put real blocks in front of them, they start all over.
Anderson Cooper: If they try to do it in real life, it's as if they've never done it before.
Dr. Dimitri Christakis: Exactly. It's not a transferable skill. They don't transfer the knowledge from two dimensions to three.
Dr. Christakis is one of the few scientists who have already done experiments on the influence screens have on children under the age of two. It's a critical period for human brain development.
Dr. Dimitri Christakis: If you're concerned about your teenager being addicted to their iphone, your infant is much more vulnerable and using the exact same device.
Anderson Cooper: Your infant is more vulnerable because why?
Dr. Dimitri Christakis: Because the experience of making something happen is so much more gratifying to them.
In a small pilot study that Dr. Christakis conducted on 15 children, researchers gave toddlers three toys: first a plastic guitar, then an iPad that played musical notes and finally an iPad with an app that rewarded the kids with lights, colors and sounds.
Dr. Dimitri Christakis: So at a very specific time, the research assistant will ask the child to give what they're playing with back.
Anderson Cooper: To give it to the research assistant.
Dr. Dimitri Christakis: To give it to the research assistant.
Sixty-six percent of the time with a traditional toy, the child will do just that.
Dr. Dimitri Christakis: With the iPad that simulates that, they give it back almost with the same frequency. But with the iPad app that when they push on it, it does all kinds of things, they're much less likely to give it back.
With the more interactive iPad app, the percentage of kids willing to hand it back to the researcher dropped from 60 percent to 45 percent.
Anderson Cooper: It's that much more engaging?
Dr. Dimitri Christakis: It's that much more engaging. And that's what we find in the laboratory.
It's engaging by design, as Tristan Harris told us in a story we reported more than a year ago.
Tristan Harris: There's a whole playbook of techniques that get used to get you using the product for as long as possible.
Harris is a former Google manager who was one of the first Silicon Valley insiders to publicly acknowledge that phones and apps are being designed to capture and keep kids' attention.
Tristan Harris: This is about the war for attention and where that's taking society and where that's taking technology.
Anderson Cooper: You know it's one thing for adults, for kids this is a whole other thing?
Tristan Harris: That is where this gets particularly sensitive…is developmentally do we want this war for attention to be affecting our children?
Anderson Cooper: Do you think parents understand the complexities of what their kids are dealing with?
Tristan Harris: No. And I think this is really important. Because there's a narrative that, oh, I guess they`re just doing this like we used to gossip on the phone, but what this misses is that your telephone in the 1970s didn't have a thousand engineers on the other side of the telephone who were redesigning it to work with other telephones and then updating the way your telephone worked every day to be more and more persuasive.
Until recently, it was impossible to see what happens inside a young brain when a person is focused on a mobile device. But now scientists at the University of California, San Diego have hacked that problem.
Correspondent Anderson Cooper speaks with Dr. Kara Bagot
Dr. Kara Bagot is an investigator on that $300 million NIH study. Her team is scanning teenager's brains as they follow Instagram, the most popular social media app. When we met 18-year-old Roxy Shimp, she was about to participate in Dr. Bagot's study.
Anderson Cooper: How much time do you actually spend on screens?
Roxy Shimp: I check my phone pretty regularly I'd say.
Anderson Cooper: What's pretty regularly?
Roxy Shimp: Every at least 10 to 20 minutes.
Anderson Cooper: Is that a conservative estimate?
Roxy Shimp: Probably.
She can't take her phone into the MRI because of the powerful magnets in the machine, so a mirror has been placed above her face to allow her to look across the room at a movie screen displaying images from her Instagram account. This way, Dr. Bagot can see exactly which parts of the brain's reward system are most active while using social media.
Anderson Cooper: So you can actually see a part of the brain light up when you're feeling good.
Dr. Kara Bagot: Yes, in the scanner.
Anderson Cooper: In the scanner.
Based on her data and the results from other studies, Dr. Bagot is among scientists who believe screen time stimulates the release of the brain chemical dopamine, which has a pivotal role in cravings and desire.
Dr. Kara Bagot: So you're more likely to act impulsively and use social media compulsively instead of, like, checking yourself.
Anderson Cooper: You want to keep on it to keep getting--
Dr. Kara Bagot: The good feelings.
2017: What is "Brain Hacking"? Tech insiders on why you should care
Teenagers now spend on average four and a half hours a day on their phones. All that time has resulted in a fundamental shift in how a generation of american kids acts and thinks.
Jean Twenge: When smartphones went from being something only a few people had to something that the majority of people had, it had this really big effect on how teens related to each other.
"it should be a tool that you use. Not a tool that uses you."
Jean Twenge is a psychology professor at San Diego State University. She spent five years combing through four large, national surveys of 11 million young people since the 1960's. She discovered sudden changes in the behavior and mental health of teens born in 1995 and later, a generation that she calls "I-gen".
Jean Twenge: They're the first generation to spend their entire adolescence with smartphones so a lot of them can't remember a time before smartphones existed.
Anderson Cooper: There have been generational shifts before in the past, haven't there?
Jean Twenge: Certainly. But this one's much more sudden and pronounced than most of the others.
The iPhone was introduced in 2007. Smartphones gained widespread usage among young people by 2012. Jean Twenge says she was startled to find that in the four years that followed, the percentage of teens who reported drinking or having sex fell. But the percentage who said they were lonely or depressed spiked. It's possible other factors may have played a role, but Twenge says she wasn't able to identify any that correlated as closely as the growing popularity of the smartphone and social media.
Jean Twenge: It's not just the loneliness and depression from these surveys. It's also that ER visits for self harm like cutting have tripled among girls age 10 to 14.
Anderson Cooper: What are teens doing on their phones that could be connected to depression?
Jean Twenge: It could be anything. There's kind of two different schools of thought on this. That it's the specific things that teens are doing on their phones that's the problem. Or it could be just the sheer amount of time that they're spending on their phones that is the problem.
Correspondent Anderson Cooper with Jean Twenge
Finding definitive answers about social media's influence on mental health can be a frustrating exercise. Eighty-one percent of teens in a new national survey by the Pew Research Center said they feel more connected to their friends and associated social media use with feeling included. But in a month-long experiment at the University of Pennsylvania, college students who limited themselves to just 30 minutes a day on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat reported significant decreases in loneliness and depression.
Jean Twenge: A lot of times with these technological shifts is these things are adopted because they're so wonderful and convenient. And we don't realize until later the possible consequences. And I think fortunately in the last year or so there's been more discussion about how can we manage the use of our devices.
Facebook and Instagram have introduced settings to allow users to monitor app use. And Apple, the company that started the smartphone revolution, has built a new feature for parents to set time restrictions on apps.
Anderson Cooper: Tech companies say there are tools out there that they have supplied and that they're doing their part.
Jean Twenge: A lot of parents, probably the majority I talk to, don't even realize those tools are available. and I wish they happened five years ago instead of now. But better late than never.
For its part, the National Institutes of Health has just finished enrolling the 11,000 kids for its landmark brain study. Early next year, the data will be made available to any researcher around the world investigating the effect of a device that's become the most dominant technological presence in young lives.
Jean Twenge: Smartphones are great things, They are a wonderful piece of technology. They allow us to find our way around and look up the weather and do all that kind of stuff. And if you do it for a half an hour or an hour a day, fine. No problem. Then you're using it for what it's good for. But you have to use it for what it's good for and then put it down. I mean, it should be a tool that you use. Not a tool that uses you.
Produced by Guy Campanile and Andrew Bast. Associate producer, Lucy Hatcher
Anderson Cooper, anchor of CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," has contributed to 60 Minutes since 2006. His exceptional reporting on big news events has earned Cooper a reputation as one of television's pre-eminent newsmen.
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The American War for Independence bitterly divided the Anglican community. As the state church of England, the Anglican Church offered prayers to God and the head of the church, the monarch of the United Kingdom. Many ministers chose exile from the colonies over allegiance to the Revolution.
The story of Rev. Jacob Duché, pictured here, is one example of these tensions. During the early years of the Revolution, he was a patriot. He read the opening prayer to the First Continental Congress and sent liturgical prayers to Congress rather than the King on July 4, 1776. When the British entered Philadelphia in 1777, he was arrested and accused of treason by the British, He attempted to talk George Washington into suing for peace with the British directly, side-stepping Congress. Duché was ultimately forced to flee the colonies.
Posted by Arthur Murphy on June 29, 2017 at 3:34 pm. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.


Vegetables can be so beautiful. I've posted on cooking things with aglio e olio many times in the past, but I had this for dinner last night and thought it was so beautiful and delicious I thought I'd share a picture. Click here or a recipe (with pasta); click here to see many other versions of this dish.


Organic Mulled Wine Spice Herbal Tea is made specifically by our elves.
Organic Mulled Wine Spice Herbal Tea is made specifically by our elves. It is perfectly balanced and will thrill you during the Christmas season.
Ingredients: Cinnamon, orange peel, star anise, black pepper, vanilla, nutmeg, and cloves.


Guten tag! While visiting Wales during the first weekend of March me and my fiancée took the opportunity to visit Portmeirion, site of amongst others The Prisoner, Doctor Who and ofcourse... The Tripods! The beginning of episode 1.12 was filmed here, and I think you will recognize the locations. Enjoy!
I just discovered via google that the "town hall" which you paid a visit to was indeed the location of the trial scene. The actual room that was used is called the "Hecules Hall". Here is a good picture of what it looks like set up for a wedding instead of a trial for three young thieves.
When I get home tonite I'll get togther some screen caps to compare.
Thanks for sharing the Images and Videos!
Here are some screen caps to compare to the link I posted above.
Zuletzt geändert von Sven am Do Mär 14, 2013 4:28 pm, insgesamt 1-mal geändert.


Neil Lennon is set to be unveiled as Celtic's new manager on Wednesday morning.
The Hoops have called an 11am press conference at Parkhead where they will parade the man who will replace Tony Mowbray at the helm.
It is understood former captain Lennon has been handed the role after securing eight wins from eight Clydesdale Bank Premier League games as interim boss in the wake of Mowbray's departure.
The 38-year-old has been the subject of speculation for weeks and fans have welcomed the news that the uncertainty is set to finally come to an end.
"It was dragging on and it was meant to be last week or the week before," said Alan Horne, president of the Affiliation of Celtic Supporters Clubs.
"Now it's resolved and the job at hand is to get the league flag back.
"He had one blip - the obvious one against Ross County in the Scottish Cup - but he won all eight league games, including beating Rangers at Celtic Park so his record is certainly good in that sense."
Former captain Lennon took over the helm in a caretaker capacity when Mowbray parted company with Celtic after just nine months in March.
Hopes of landing the post long-term were initially dealt a blow following a shock Active Nation Scottish Cup exit to Irn-Bru First Division side Ross County. But an impressive recovery saw Celtic win all their SPL matches under Lennon to place him firmly in the frame for the job.
Reports suggest Lennon will be assisted in his new role by Johan Mjallby, Alan Thompson and Garry Parker.


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Grading Boston Red Sox Moves so Far This Offseason
Peter Panacy@@PeterPanacyTwitter LogoFeatured Columnist IVDecember 16, 2013
Red Sox general manager Ben Cherington (left) and manager John Farrell (right) have addressed a number of needs this offseason.Greg M. Cooper-USA TODAY Sports
One year ago, the Boston Red Sox made a number of splashy moves during MLB's winter meetings, heralding their offseason efforts to turn a franchise from a cellar-dweller into a team that could win a World Series championship.
Outfielder Shane Victorino and first baseman Mike Napoli headlined some of Boston's transactions that offseason and helped the team earn the October accolade.
After the 2013 season, however, the Red Sox have endured a much different situation.
Losing catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia to the Marlins forced the Red Sox's hand.David Manning-USA TODAY Sports
This offseason has seen Boston lose nearly a third of its starting lineup from last year. Catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia is gone, as is All-Star outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury—both departing via free agency. Shortstop Stephen Drew could also follow the same path.
In the wake of these changes, how have the Red Sox reacted and what should fans and analysts say about the work general manager Ben Cherington has put into place as he tries to keep his team at the same competitive level that it was last year?
Let us take a look at the transactions Boston has made thus far into the offseason, using the list provided by CBS Sports.
For starters, we will not grade free-agent departures. Rather, we shall include them into the listed grading criteria if relevant. We will also stick to major leaguers.
This criterion stands as such: First, we establish the importance of each signing to the Red Sox—for example, how crucial was it for Boston to bring in Player X?
Second, we take a look at the possible impact and side effects each move may have on the team in general.
It is also worth noting that some nonmoves—like Cherington's relative inaction at the 2013 winter meetings—also need to be evaluated.
Let us take a look.
Reliever Burke Badenhop has been effective against right-handed batters.Benny Sieu-USA TODAY Sports
Acquiring Relievers Burke Badenhop and Edward Mujica
We all know how important it is to have quality arms coming out of the bullpen.
Thus, both of these arms are lumped into one grade as Cherington looks to maintain the dominant bullpen Boston enjoyed in 2013.
The acquisition of right-handed pitcher Burke Badenhop is one such deal—traded from the Milwaukee Brewers in exchange for minor leaguer Luis Ortega.
Badenhop is especially effective against right-handed batters, owning a career .254 batting-average against. In the last two seasons, righties are hitting only .234 against him, per Ricky Doyle of NESN.com.
Carter Roane of Rant Sports calls the move a brilliant one, especially considering the importance of quality arms down the stretch.
The same could be said of right-handed reliever Edward Mujica, who posted a 2.78 ERA with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2013.
Mujica signed a two-year, $9.5 million deal with the Red Sox on Dec. 6 and will also look to shore up an already-effective Boston bullpen.
Edward Mujica could fill a closer's role if needed.Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports
What makes Mujica even more special is the fact that he has closing experience, which could prove vital if incumbent closer Koji Uehara struggles or suffers an injury in 2014. He could receive additional incentives if this winds up happening, per WEEI.com.
As a result, Cherington and the Red Sox earn a solid grade on these combined transactions. Bullpen effectiveness and depth are too important to overlook and it appears as if Boston understands this facet well.
A.J. Pierzynski replaces Saltalamacchia behind the plate.Tom Pennington/Getty Images
Signing Catcher A.J. Pierzynski
Having a catcher who can effectively handle a pitching staff is almost as critical as having quality arms on the mound.
Cherington was faced with this situation early into the offseason when former Red Sox backstop Saltalamacchia was pending departure via free agency.
At the outset, it appeared as if Boston was eager to explore additional options—being rumored as having interest in former Braves catcher, now-Yankee Brian McCann, as well as Phillies veteran Carlos Ruiz, per Doyle of NESN.
Once those two options signed elsewhere, and Saltalamacchia joined the Miami Marlins, Boston's options behind the plate dried up.
As a result—and perhaps out of some desperation—Cherington inked Pierzynski to a one-year deal, per Jon Heyman of CBS Sports.
Pierzynski brings veteran presence to the Red Sox, as well as a lifetime .283 batting average. That alone is an upgrade over Saltalamacchia's seven-year career .246 batting average.
Yet Pierzynski also comes with some baggage.
In 2004, when Pierzynski was a member of the San Francisco Giants, some of his teammates referred to him as a "cancer" in the clubhouse.
Pierzynski has sinced shrugged if off, via Craig Calcaterra of NBC Sports:
[You] know, they have their right, and one of the things I was accused of was getting the other team signs. Anyone that knows me, I would never in a million years give the other team, tell the other team what's coming.
Performance on the field aside, will Pierzynski be able to gel with the tight-knit Red Sox clubhouse in 2014? Will his negative reputation continue to be a factor?
Those questions will probably follow Pierzynski this season in Boston.
In addition, it is hard to overlook the fact that he will be 37 years old on Opening Day and the Red Sox are likely to pursue younger, long-term options.
As such, it makes sense that Cherington offered Pierzysnki just a one-year deal.
Still, I question this move. Perhaps Boston could have been more aggressive in some other areas. If the Pierzynski signing works out, it will be all that better for the Red Sox. If not, who knows what the ramifications will be.
Re-signing Mike Napoli was a critical move for the Red Sox.Rob Carr/Getty Images
Re-Signing Mike Napoli
This move, perhaps above all others, was the most crucial move Boston needed to make this offseason.
The story is well-known. First baseman Mike Napoli landed only a one-year deal in Boston after a degenerative hip condition was revealed in his physical before the 2013 season.
The ailment proved to be a nonfactor as Napoli went on to hit 23 home runs while driving in 92 RBI for the Red Sox over the season.
Napoli provides not only power and RBI potential, but he also serves as protection for Boston's biggest offensive threat—David Ortiz.
When he became a free agent after the season, one of Boston's biggest priorities was getting Napoli back.
Napoli helps provide protection for David Ortiz in Boston's lineup.Noah K. Murray-USA TODAY Sports
Fortunately, they were able to do so by signing him to a two-year, $32 million contract.
This is a win-win scenario for both parties. Boston wanted him back and Napoli wanted to stay.
Napoli described how coming back was an easy decision via Alex Speier of WEEI.com:
After going through what I went through last year, it was definitely a relief just to go through this and it was easier than last year. Ultimately I'm happy to be back. I wanted to be in a place to be comfortable and in a place where I could win.
The only significant question is whether the hip condition will be a factor moving forward. Cherington felt, in the same article, that it would not be an issue and Napoli would be 100 percent healthy.
That is good news for Boston.
Napoli should continue to provide plenty of protection for Ortiz in the lineup. The Red Sox will need that moving forward.
Boston has been patient with the possibility of re-signing Stephen Drew.Eileen Blass-USA TODAY
Holding Out on Stephen Drew
This is one case where Cherington gets points for taking no action whatsoever.
Heading into the offseason, shortstop Stephen Drew was probably at the bottom of Boston's priorities and concerns with their pending free agents.
There was the need to bring back Napoli. There were the pending departures of Ellsbury and Saltalamacchia. Then there was Drew.
The first three players have all found homes in 2014. Drew is the last of those who is yet to land a spot.
One of the elements that are potentially thwarting a quick deal for Drew elsewhere is the fact that a team would likely have to give up a compensatory first-round draft pick if Drew were signed.
Drew's market is further described by Jason Mastrodonato of Masslive.com.
If Boston were to lose Drew, it would be a loss that would have plenty of silver linings. For starters, the Red Sox would likely receive a compensatory pick.
Xander Bogaerts would likely benefit from Drew's departure.Jared Wickerham/Getty Images
In addition, the team would also rely upon the young, and talented, Xander Bogaerts to take over the void at shortstop.
"We think we have a pretty good solution at shortstop," Cherington said of Bogaerts via Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe.
Examining the situation from Boston's perspective, the Red Sox can afford to be patient. In the same article, Cherington entertained the possibility of Drew's return, but it is clear that the situation would be strictly on Boston's terms.
That is a good position to be in moving forward.
If Drew does return, that would likely mean Bogaerts shifts over to third base—competing for time with Will Middlebrooks. If Drew signs elsewhere, the team could get a compensatory pick and the door would be open for Bogaerts to enjoy a full-time role.
The only downside of bringing Drew back is that it could hamper the continued development of Bogaerts if he is forced into a platoon role with Middlebrooks.
Still, that is not a bad situation to be in.
There is still plenty of time between the winter meetings and Opening Day in which the Red Sox could make additional moves.
It is plausible the team adds another bat this winter—perhaps someone to supplement the loss of Ellsbury.
Still, Cherington has to be satisfied with what the Red Sox have done thus far this offseason. They have not necessarily made the biggest moves, but they have certainly made a number of the right ones.
For that, the team should receive plenty of credit.
All statistics, records and accolades courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com unless otherwise indicated. Contractual information provided by Cot's Baseball Contracts unless otherwise specified.
Peter Panacy is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report, covering the Boston Red Sox. Follow him @PeterMcShots on Twitter.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Meet Andrew Heaney, the Yankees' new starting pitcher
Daniel R. Epstein· 6 months ago
The New York Yankees were universally acclaimed as winners of the trade deadline for their acquisitions of Joey Gallo and Anthony Rizzo, but those players aren't the only lefties they added. They sent two Double-A pitchers to the Los Angeles Angels for veteran starter Andrew Heaney to bolster their rotation.
The 30-year-old southpaw was a consensus top-50 prospect in MLB coming up through the Miami Marlins organization. On Dec. 11, 2014, he was traded twice— first to the Los Angeles Dodgers and then to the Angels a few hours later. After a strong 2015 season in which he started 18 games with a 3.49 ERA at the major league level, Tommy John surgery wiped out most of the next two years. He's been mostly healthy since then, if not quite as dominant as once hoped, starting 78 games and throwing 436 innings since 2018 with a 4.60 ERA.
In 2021, he has started 18 games, but his ERA has ballooned to 5.27. On the surface, he appears to be an innings eater who won't inspire a ton of confidence. Let's look under the hood to see if there's more to his story.
Heaney's Arsenal
Heaney has always featured a three-pitch mix, but those pitches have evolved over the course of his career. When he came up to the majors, he was a sinker/slider guy with an obligatory changeup (nearly all lefty starters have one, especially those drafted out of college). Upon recovering from his injuries, he reshaped his slider into a curveball. In 2020, he altered his sinker grip into a more traditional four-seam fastball.
Regardless of the shape of his pitches, his usage hasn't varied much. For his entire career, he's thrown his fastball roughly 60 percent of the time, and his breaking ball and changeup 20 percent each. He reserves the change almost exclusively for right-handed hitters.
His fastball velocity averages 92 mph, which is middle-of-the-road for a starting pitcher, but his 2,453 rpm spin rate is fantastic. In fact, it somehow spins almost as much as his curveball. The 6.7 inches of horizontal movement on his heater is the most in MLB by a starting pitcher.
Mixed Results
There's plenty to like and dislike about Heaney's results this year. Let's start with the good. His 28.2 percent strikeout rate is well above the MLB average of 22 percent. He is able to finish off batters with any of his three pitches, accumulating 57 strikeouts with the fastball, 32 with the curve, and 24 with the changeup. His chase rate is 91st percentile in MLB. He's also stingy with walks. His career 6.7 percent walk rate is better than the MLB average of 8.4 percent. This year, only 31 of his 401 batters faced drew a free pass.
The trouble starts when opponents connect with his pitches. XwOBAcon is a statistic that sounds like a tech startup, but it actually measures the quality of contact. MLB league average xwOBAcon is .363, but Heaney has yielded an xwOBAcon north of .400 for three consecutive seasons.
Heaney's hard-hit rate of 41.7 percent is much higher than the league average of 35.5 percent. He's also a flyball pitcher, and hard hits + fly balls = home runs. He has given up 16 homers through 94 innings this year, or 1.5 per nine. Now he departs Angel Stadium's larger-than-average outfield for Yankee Stadium's close quarters (though obviously being left-handed helps).
Here is his fastball heat map:
From Baseball Savant
There are a lot of middle-middle fastballs in that picture. Like most pitchers, he throws it most often when he's behind in the count and needs a strike. After all, he doesn't walk many batters. The problem is that a 92 mph fastball down the pipe is just about the most hittable pitch in baseball, especially from a lefty pitcher to a righty batter. When opposing right-handed hitters are ahead in the count, they hit .448 on his fastball with a .828 slugging percentage.
The coaching staff may want to encourage him to mix up his pitches more. His curveball and changeup get better results, so maybe decreasing his overall fastball usage in favor of his secondaries will improve his numbers. They can also ask him to "pitch backward" more often— throwing curves and changeups in fastball counts. This may lead to more walks, but if the tradeoff is fewer loud hits, it will be worthwhile.
Finding a Role for Heaney
We've seen the Andrew Heaney movie before. The Yankees have a habit of trading for middling lefty starting pitchers at the deadline, such as J.A. Happ and Jaime García. The problem this time is that it's not clear Heaney is a rotation upgrade over their current starters. Before the trade, their rotation was Gerrit Cole, Jameson Taillon, Jordan Montgomery, Domingo Germán, and Nestor Cortes. The first three have guaranteed starting spots. Germán has been up and down this season, including a stint in the bullpen, with overall numbers similar to those of Heaney. Cortes has been a revelation, pitching inexplicably well in a variety of roles.
If not for the fact that they just traded for him as a starter, Heaney would probably be the best choice to take a lesser role. That's not an option right now, so Germán would seem like the obvious choice to move to the bullpen to make way for Heaney, but it appears Cortes gets the boot. That deepens their relief corps but weakens their rotation. Hopefully, Corey Kluber and Luis Severino will be back soon and make it all a moot point.
The Yankees made it a priority to add depth to their starting rotation. Injuries to their major league and triple-A rosters diminished what was thought to be a strength in Spring Training. Heaney certainly gives them more options should another pitcher land on the IL. He's probably better than his ERA indicates, but not by much, and it's not clear he's among their five best starting pitchers right now. He'll reach free agency following the season, so the club has two months to get the best out of him and justify handing him the ball every fifth day.
King and Severino give the Yankees much-needed weapons out of the pen
What really has gone wrong with DJ LeMahieu, and is he turning it around?
Aroldis Chapman's fastball is no longer special


When a young man dies suddenly, his friends and family are left to pick up the pieces. What were his last thoughts, what were the moments in which he changed their lives, and how will their lives be without him?
Fragments of Him is an interactive narrative experience told from a second person perspective. The story revolves around a tragic accident, and the life of the victim and his loved ones before and after the incident. The player plays through the events and the locations as if they were the spirit or intellect of the characters, making decisions and starting actions that progress the story. Follow the story of Will as you see how he influenced the lives of his grandmother Mary, his ex-girlfriend Sarah, and his boyfriend Harry. Through this snapshot of their lives we see that when a young man suddenly dies, left behind there will always be Fragments of Him.


text:
V Dhritarashtra said, The names of rivers and mountains, O Sanjaya, as also of provinces, and all other things resting on the earth, and their dimensions, O thou that are acquainted with the measures of things of the earth in its entirety and the forests, O Sanjaya, recount to me in detail'
Sanjaya said, O great king, all things in the universe, in consequence of the presence in them of the five elements, have been said to be equal by the wise. These elements, are space, air, fire, water, and earth. Their respective attributes are sound, touch, vision, taste, and scent. Every one of these elements possesses in addition to what is especially its own the attribute or attributes of that or those coming before it. The earth, therefore, is the foremost of them all, possessing as it does the attributes of all the other four, besides what is specially its own, as said by Rishis acquainted with truth There are four attributes, O king, in water. Scent does not exist in it. Fire has three attributes viz, sound, touch, and vision. Sound and touch belong to air, while space has sound alone. These five attributes, O king, exist in this way in the five principal elements depending on which all creatures in the universe exist.
They exist separately and independently when there is homogeneity in the universe When, however, these do not exist in their natural state but with one another, then creatures spring into life, furnished with bodies. This is never otherwise. The elements are destroyed, in the order of the one succeeding, merging into the one that proceeds; and they spring also into existence, one arising from the one before it All of these are immeasurable, their forms being Brahma itself. In the universe are seen creatures consisting of the five elements. Men endeavour to ascertain their proportions by exercising their reason. Those matters, however, that are inconceivable, should never be sought to be solved by reason. That which is above human nature is an indication of the inconceivable. O son of Kuru's race, I will, however, describe to thee the island called Sudarsana.
This island, O king, is circular and of the form of a wheel. It is covered with rivers and other pieces of water and with mountains looking like masses of clouds, and with cities and many delightful provinces. It is also full of trees furnished with flowers and fruits, and with crops of diverse kinds and other wealth. And it is surrounded on all sides with the salt ocean. As a person can see his own face in a mirror, even so is the island called Sudarsana seen in the lunar disc. Two of its parts seem to be a peepul tree, while two others look like a large hare. It is surrounded on all sides with an assemblage of every kind of deciduous plants. Besides these portions, the rest is all water. What remains I will describe to thee shortly. The rest I will speak of afterwards.
Listen now to this that I describe in brief


Cute dog :) New follower from the weekend hop, have a great rest of your weekend!
Hop'in by from 'Boost My Blog Friday Blog Hop'.
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Stopping by for the alexa blog hop! Thanks for hosting!
oh how we love our 2 doggies too!!!
hello! stopping by from the Monday Alexa hop!
love that pic of the doggie sleeping on his back! cuteness!


text:
Undermining Patient Values: The ASCO Value in Cancer Care Task Force Framework
Peter J. Pitts+−
Robert Goldberg+−
Peter J. Pitts
President, Center for Medicine in the Public Interest
Robert Goldberg
Vice President, Director of Research, Center for Medicine in the Public Interest
As stated in a recent article in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, ASCO established a Value in Cancer Care Task Force, with the goal of "developing a framework for comparing the relative clinical benefit, toxicity, and cost of treatment in the medical oncology setting. " In developing this framework or tool, the Task Force runs roughshod over basic facts to create a metric that – while established to promote patient centered care – strives mightily to achieve the exact opposite outcome.
IMS Health Finds Global Cancer Drug Spending Crossed $100 Billion Threshold in 2014
http://bit.ly/1F4hEmT
Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. Total Expenses and Percent Distribution for Selected Conditions by Type of Service: United States, 1996-2012. Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component Data. Generated interactively.(June 09 2015)
http://1.usa.gov/1cIYL2a
Howard, David H., Peter B. Bach, Ernst R. Berndt, and Rena M. Conti. 2015. "Pricing in the Market for Anticancer Drugs." Journal of Economic Perspectives, 29(1): 139-62.
An Economic Evaluation of the War on Cancer Eric C. Sun, Anupam B. Jena, Darius N. Lakdawalla, Carolina M. Reyes, Tomas J. Philipson, and Dana P. Goldman NBER Working Paper No. 15574 December 2009. We arrived at the number of life-years gained using the approach in this paper and updating it. We multiplied the average increase in life years (2 million) by the number of years between 1995 and 2013. (18) 2x18=36 million
We then multiplied the additional life-years by a conservative estimate ($82,000) of what people think (in dollar amounts) they would gain by living another year.
x82=2.952 trillion.
Pharmacy Cost Sharing Limits for. Individual Exchange Benefit Plans: Actuarial Considerations. Milliman Client Report, March 5 2015. http://bit.ly/1F4mKQ0
Terminal Care and The Value of Life Near Its End Tomas J. Philipson, Gary Becker, Dana Goldman, and Kevin M. Murphy NBER Working Paper No. 15649 January 2010 JEL No. H0,I0
http://www.bloodjournal.org/content/124/21/1326?sso-checked=true
Using Disability Adjusted Life Years to Value the Treatment of Thirty Chronic Conditions in the U.S. from 1987-2010Tina Highfill and Elizabeth Bernstein - BEA Working Paper (WP2014-9)
"ASCO acknowledges that this method of calculating the NHB does not permit assessment of the relative value of regimens that were not directly compared in clinical trials and that the observed improvement in NHB for a new regimen might be influenced by whether the comparator was best supportive care or active treatment. Nevertheless, ASCO believes this method to be one that is well grounded in the available medical evidence and provides the most objective assessment of NHB.â€
Lichtenberg, F. R. (2007), Benefits and costs of newer drugs: an update. Manage. Decis. Econ., 28: 485–490. doi: 10.1002/mde.1355
Frank R. Lichtenberg Has medical innovation reduced cancer mortality?
NBER Working Paper No. 15880 Issued in April 2010
Int J Cancer. 2015 Feb 15;136(4):E136-45. doi: 10.1002/ijc.29105. Epub 2014 Sep 4.
Measuring the societal burden of cancer: the cost of lost productivity due to premature cancer-related mortality in Europe.
Hanly P1, Soerjomataram I, Sharp L.
BMC Cancer. 2014 Mar 26;14:224. doi: 10.1186/1471-2407-14-224.
The cost of lost productivity due to premature cancer-related mortality: an economic measure of the cancer burden.
Hanly PA1, Sharp L. See also J Natl Cancer Inst. 2008 Dec 17;100(24):1763-70. doi: 10.1093/jnci/djn384. Epub 2008 Dec 9.
Productivity costs of cancer mortality in the United States: 2000-2020.
Bradley CJ1, Yabroff KR, Dahman B, Feuer EJ, Mariotto A, Brown ML.
Association of Specialty Drug Prescription Abandonment with Increasing Member Out of Pocket Expense
https://www.primetherapeutics.com/specialty/assets/pdf/AMCP_2014_Spring_Specialty_Rx_Cost_Share_Associated_Abandonment.pdf. See also, Gleason, P.P., G.C. Alexander, C.I. Starner, et al. Health Plan Utilization and Costs of Specialty Drugs within Four Chronic Conditions. Journal of Managed Care Pharmacy 2013;19(7):542–48 and
Peter Pitts is President of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest. A former member of the United States Senior Executive Service, Peter was FDA's Associate Commissioner for External Relations, serving as senior communications and policy adviser to the Commissioner. He supervised FDA's Office of Public Affairs, Office of the Ombudsman, Office of Special Health Issues, Office of Executive Secretariat, and Advisory Committee Oversight and Management. He served on the agency's obesity working group and counterfeit drug taskforce and as a Special Government Employee (SGE) consultant to the FDA's Risk Communications Advisory Committee.
Dr. Goldberg is a co-founder of the Center for Medicine in the Public Interest.


It's that time of year again when the weather becomes unpredictable!!
4) By calling the school on 020 8946 5452 and selecting option 0 on the phone system, where, if a member of staff has been able to access the school site, a new answer phone message will be left if the school is not operating normally. If the usual message is still in use please assume that school is open.
In the event of any closure or unusual circumstance we will attempt to send a text message via our automated system to all parents/carers so it is vital that you keep us informed of any changes to your mobile number.
We would ask that you keep these details for future reference.
You may also wish to add the above web addresses to your favourites for easy access.
Please be aware that on occassion we may ask you to turn up with your shovel!


The issue of gun control and the Second Amendment is something that is continually debated across our country but it's even more prominent on America's breeding ground for Liberals: college campuses. One leftie at the University of Connecticut decided to pen an eop-ed telling gun owners that we're just paranoid that the government is coming after our guns. Of course, he spewed the same rhetoric you hear from President Obama and Secretary Clinton.
The organization [NRA] wants people to believe that a Hillary Clinton Supreme Court justice would help in restricting the 2nd Amendment and leaving people defenseless.
Hillary Clinton herself said she would do everything in her power to make sure she appoints someone who agrees with her agenda for gun control.
This guy needs to listen to the audio for himself.
President Obama, the evil Muslim communist from Kenya, couldn't even get universal background checks.
Obama couldn't get "universal background checks" passed in part due to significant flaws in the National Instant Background Check System (NICS). As it is, 38 states send less than 80 percent of their criminal convictions to the FBI for them to update the NICS system. They could be one of the criminals who fall into that 20 percent threshold who aren't passed off to the FBI.
Before anyone even remotely talks about passing universal background checks, maybe, just maybe, we should talk about fixing these flaws.
The resistance to even having a vote on gun reform legislation is unnecessarily vehement. One proposition has been to ban people on the no-fly list from purchasing a gun, but even that wasn't passed. If we wouldn't let someone get on an airplane than of course they shouldn't be able to purchase a gun.
The reason the "No-Fly, No-Buy" and terror watch lists are frowned upon is because the lack of due process. Almost anyone can be put on these lists for any reason. Cause a commotion in the airport? You could be put on that list. Upset the government? You could end up on a watch list. Just ask Bearing Arms editor Bob Owens, who was placed on a watch list in January of 2013 for writing an article that some nameless bureaucrat didn't like.
Putting that much trust in our government is one step towards becoming tyrannical, just like our Founding Fathers warned about. Connecting this government agency to a Constitutional right opens the door for the government to place people on the no-fly list to keep them from possessing firearms.
Gun control laws are aimed at preventing the people who shouldn't have guns from getting their hands on them, not the other way around.
We've heard it all before. The problem with this logic? It's assumed that criminals follow laws, which was all know they don't. If they did, they wouldn't be criminals.
Someone doesn't understand how lobbying works. It happens on both sides of the aisle, including by gun control groups like Everytown for Gun Safety and Moms Demand Action. Every constituent wants to make sure their voice is heard and that it's fairly represented in Congress. It's politics 101.
If you ask me why a gun-grabbing government that tramples on the rights of its individuals will not come about because of gun control laws I will kindly refer you to the numerous examples of other countries with gun control laws that would give the NRA a heart attack. Do you weep for the poor people of Britain, where most guns are single shot (shotguns and rifles), handguns are effectively banned, and there is one of the lowest rates of gun homicide in the world? Or Australia, where strict gun control laws were enacted after a mass shooting that might have had something to do with the zero mass shootings occurring since?
Where are you getting your statistics from? Britain's crime rate went up 77 percent in the decade following their ban on handguns. Gun crimes in Australia have doubled since their gun control measures were implemented.
Of course the NRA is having a heart attack over those stats. The five million gun owners who make up the NRA don't want to become a victim of gun control. They would rather arm and defend themselves instead of relying on an increasingly corrupt federal government to protect them.


text:
Johnson Khoo
Passion & Dreams
Thoughts & Musings
Ventures & Projects
Most People Were Wrong
Posted on February 21, 2016 By Johnson Khoo
Most people were wrong,
When they thought there will never be a market for personal computers,
Because no one would ever want one,
When Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak started the personal computer revolution with Apple,
At a time when computers were big clunky machines only used by corporations & universities.
But it turned out to be the start of the PC revolution.
There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. – Steve Ballmer, 2007, USA Today
When they thought there was no chance the iphone was going to get any significant market share,
That it will just be another niche product like Palm PDAs,
But it turned out to be the start of the smartphone revolution and a multi-billion dollar industry.
When they thought the world doesn't need another search engine,
When Larry Page & Sergey Brin built Google,
The 13th major search engine after Alta-vista, Metacrawler & Yahoo etc,
But it turned out to be the best and last search engine.
When they thought the world doesn't need another social network,
When Mark Zuckerberg built facebook,
At a time when Socialnet had died, and Friendster & Myspace were struggling to monetize,
But it turned out to be the best & last social network & a huge & still growing cash cow.
When they thought that facebook was foolish to keep the newsfeed feature,
When 1 million facebook users or 10% of facebook's user base back then threatened to leave facebook if they din't remove the newsfeed feature because it was an invasion of privacy,
But it turned out that Mark was right that the newsfeed was a crucial tool in helping friends stay connected with each other & one of the major tools that made it better than its competitors like Friendster & Myspace, which all eventually died out.
When they thought Jack Ma was foolish to build an internet company in China,
At a time when the majority of China's population doesn't even know what the internet is,
But it turns out that it kick-started a series of events that led to the eventual founding of Alibaba, which became listed on Nasdaq through one of the biggest IPO events in history in 2014.
When they thought no one would ever want to use an app that made messages disappear,
But it turns out that enough people found it interesting enough to use it,
And it turned out to be a billion dollar company called Snapchat.
When they thought 2 designers and only 1 technical co-founder was a weak team,
Hence a bad team to fund,
But it turns out that the team was able to build a 20 billion dollar company called airbnb.
When they thought no one would ever want to stay at a stranger's home,
That it was simply ridiculous to rent out your room to a total stranger,
But it turned out that people had been doing it since forever with friends, relatives & people they could find some kind of common connection with,
It turned out that airbnb wasn't a bad idea at all, once you've ironed out some issues.
When they thought another car company is bound to fail,
Especially an electric car company,
When Elon Musk started Tesla,
At a time when the last successful American car startup was Chrysler, founded 90 years ago,
At a time when big car companies like GM were failing.
But it turned out to be the start of the electric car revolution.
When they thought it was impossible to start a private space transportation company,
And that it was impossible to make rockets reusable & space travel significantly more affordable,
When Elon Musk started SpaceX,
But it turns out that it was possible,
As SpaceX managed to deliver payloads into space at a significantly lower cost than its competitors,
Even if rockets weren't reusable, simply by innovating on design & technology,
It also recently successfully landed its Falcon 9 rocket after delivering a payload into orbit,
Paving the way towards a future of reusable rockets & affordable space flight.
All while already being a profitable company.
Most people can be, and are often wrong about these things.
That's why most people are not billionaires.
That's why most people won't take the risk to build world-changing companies.
That's why most people are not visionaries.
That's why most people don't end up leaving a dent in the universe.
Hence Peter Thiel's favourite question:
"Tell me something that is right, that most people disagree with you on,
Tell me something that is contrarian, but right."
However, there is a difference,
Between being contrarian, but right;
And being contrarian, just for the sake of being contrarian,
For getting attention,
For satisfying your own ego or just being ignorantly or baselessly contrarian.
Most people might be wrong,
But they always have a point.
To be contrarian, but right,
One would need to be humble,
And seriously understand, evaluate and consider all the criticisms & points everyone has raised,
And understand if there is something they see that most people don't see,
Or is it the other way around where there is something most people see that they themselves don't see,
In which case they would be contrarian, but wrong.
But if you fully understand everything most people say & where they are coming from,
But still see something they don't see and believe that you are right,
Then there is a chance you might be contrarian, but right.
That is when you might have something called,
Vision.
There is nothing wrong with being most people.
In fact, most of the time, we are most people.
Most people are cool,
Most people are kind,
Most people are smart,
Most people are awesome.
Just that,
Most people also have to see before they believe,
Most people have to experience before they realize,
Most people prefer to follow after someone else has tried.
But every once in a while,
We see something that most people don't see,
We see something that is true, but most people disagree with,
We realize something that is contrarian, but right.
We suddenly become, unlike most people.
If, and if we do decide that that something we discovered is so important that it is worth pursuing,
That it is worth proving,
Against the collective opinion of most people,
The journey is going to be hard,
So damn hard.
Simply because, right now,
Most people won't understand,
Most people will think you are a fool,
Most people will mistakenly think you are arrogant,
Most people will mistakenly think you are stubborn,
Most people will think you are wasting your life,
Most people don't see what you see,
Most people will think you are making a big mistake,
Most people will think you are, well, just wrong.
Simply because that is the nature of being contrarian,
But right.
Hopefully.
But for every instance of being contrarian, but right,
There will be some people,
Some people who will believe,
Some people who will take the risk and try,
Some people who will agree,
Some people who will grow to love it so much,
Some people who will start spreading the word,
Some people who will support you.
Some people, just those some people,
Is enough.
We just got to find those some people.
Some people will become more people,
More people will influence more people,
And there will come a time,
When some people finally becomes most people.
By that time,
Most people then might not be the same most people now,
Most people would realize how obvious it was,
Most people would agree,
Most people cannot imagine it any other way,
Most people won't be able to understand how people can disagree with something as obvious as that.
So, if you happen to be that some people,
Who is fortunate enough,
Or unfortunate enough,
Depending on how you see it,
To see something that most people don't see,
Something that is contrarian, but right,
And worth proving,
The choice is up to you.
But if you happen to be, indeed,
Contrarian, but right,
When the time comes that the some people right now become most people in the future,
Your journey in proving it will be another story of a moment a long long time ago when,
Most people were wrong.
– Johnson Khoo
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Category: All, Thoughts & Musings
I am one who believes that passion is the antidote to laziness and that impossible is nothing. I give my best in everything I do so I have no regrets. I am passionate about bringing talented people together to create great things that have a significant positive impact on the world.
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Why Does The World Need Another New Dating App?
Super Profitable Companies Don't Have To Generate Revenue Early — Most Don't
Many Start-Ups That Generate Supernormal Profits Had Zero Early Revenue — VCs Need To Realise That
Investing In Zero Early Revenue Start-Ups Is Just Like Investing In A Shopping Mall
Founder Control Is Still A Good Thing — Despite WeWork & Uber
VCs Should Not Over-Correct Because Of WeWork & Uber's Failure — Know Why They Failed
We Need To Start A Paradigm Shift In Thinking Among ASEAN VCs
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Why Am I Sacrificing My Life To Build My Startup — Wowwwz?
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LG is a brand of Limagrain UK; the UK operating company of the Field Seeds Division of Group Limagrain, the fourth largest plant breeder and seed development company in the world.
Located in 55 countries, Limagrain has more than 10,000 employees altogether, with a multitude of nationalities and cultures. With its wealth of different profiles and professions, the Group approaches human resources with a culture of sharing that has its origins in the world of agriculture.
LG offer a wide variety of challenging roles across a broad range of areas. We are currently recruiting candidates for the following listed vacancies.
No jobs currently available, please check back soon!


We are heading into the end of the school year around here – which means Cole is finishing up pre-K4 (::sob::), and Adam graduated with his THIRD Master's this month. I have gone into crazy Class Mom overdrive – we finished the yearbook last week, put the finishing touches on a graduation project this morning, and generally live at the school. Poor Lulu just gets dragged along wherever I'm going!
May saw some action on my hot glue gun, and I wanted to share a few Pinterest triumphs. (Oh, how I love Pinterest.) It's too late to use these for your own teacher appreciation/Mother's Day gifts this year, but posting them early would have ruined the surprise – so maybe you can try one next year if you're so inclined? Or an end of year teacher gift? Each of these projects cost well under $10, and most took less than 20 minutes to put together. Inexpensive and easy for the win! Where I can, I'll be putting affiliate links in here. So I can start making my millions off the blog. You know.
These came out delicious and super cute – I was a little worried after finding a BUNCH of different failed versions online. Because really? If anyone can take a simple craft and mess it up? That'd be me. ESPECIALLY if there's anything resembling cooking involved. Elena over at Craftibilities has the full directions AND a free printable for the cute tag. I used a copycat Magnolia Bakery recipe for thecake and the frosting, but most of the rest was as she instructed.
Jars – I found my cute little jars in the wedding section of AC Moore (on sale! with a coupon! That NEVER happens.), but these would work well.
Gel Food Coloring – Make sure you use the gel kind to get the nice, vibrant colors.
Spoons – So your lucky gift getter can dig right in. Get them at the dollar store.
It is kind of embarrassing how simple these were. I managed not to bookmark the original site I saw these on, but really they are everywhere. If you really need some directions, a simple search will get them for you. Faux flowers + stick pen + floral tape = Easy, adorable gift. I found the tiny Mason jar mugs at AC Moore, but almost any small container would work. I found directions after I had already given my bouquets that recommended using a layer of Mod Podge to seal the "stem," so I think I might do that next time.
Grammy Boo bought me a sewing machine this winter, and I really want to learn how to use it – Lulu will be SWIMMING in pillow case dresses! I found this project on She's Kinda Crafty, and it seemed like something I could handle. Throw in cheesy pun gift tag and this was DEFINITELY a craft for me! My sewing lines might not be the straightest, but I as pleased with how the fobs came out – I will definitely be making these again in the future.
Hardware<– Not an affiliate link, I <3 Etsy.
Ribbon – so many pretty colors and patterns!
Pliars – I just used regular pliars with fabric wrapped around the tips.
This does not even count as a craft because really, it was just a matter of cute presentation. I picked up a few bottles of bright nail polish, and coordinating nail files. This was another She's Kinda Crafty inspiration, and I mostly copied her punny gift tag, but I used my own background/colors. This is a foolproof last minute gift.
Orange You Glad It's Summer?
Insulated Cup – As I said, my cups were from Christmas Tree Shops, but any orange cup would do. I love this wine tumbler, too.


text:
Is Climate Change a Pro-Life Issue?
Over at The Christian Science Monitor, Ben Rosen writes about the Evangelical Environmental Network's attempt to convince evangelicals that climate change is a "pro-life" issue. The argument goes something like this: "if you value life from its conception, you should value a clean Earth for the rest of a child's life and for future children."
Here is a taste of Rosen's piece:
Associating "pro-life" with "pro-environment" is just one branch of religious environmentalism, a movement that frames conservation in religious terms. The idea has been around for decades, but has only started to gain traction among evangelicals recently, especially among Millennials. Still, most Americans do not yet associate climate change with religion and morality, according to the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
Groups like the Evangelical Environmentalism Network hope to change that. If they are successful, it could have a major impact on the way much of America views the issue, as evangelicals are estimated to make up nearly a third of the population. But some sociologists and historians doubt that reframing climate change as a moral responsibility can reverse deep-seated skepticism among some conservative Christians about environmentalism, especially among older generations of evangelicals who have associated it with the culture wars over abortion and same-sex rights.
I applaud the efforts of the Evangelical Environmental Network, but they have their work cut out for them. Most conservative evangelicals are unwilling to see the death penalty, gun control, and the reduction of programs to reduce poverty as "pro-life" issues. I imagine that the same is true for "creation care."
environment, Evangelical Environmental Network, life issues, pro-life movement, Uncategorized
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One thought on "Is Climate Change a Pro-Life Issue?"
Ed Thompson
Well, John, speaking as one of those conservative evangelicals and since I've already dropped a comment on another of your posts today, I'll add one here. Sorry for it's length.
From a Biblical position, the death penalty pre-dates the Mosaic Law. The penalty is the very essence of a pro-life law – human life is so valuable that the taking of it must be paid with another life (by the one who murdered). It conveys the value God puts on human life. So I don't accept that one must be against the death penalty in order to be consistent with a pro-life position. I could take issue with how it is applied and implemented in today's society, but as a general principle I have no problem with viewing the death penalty as consistent with a pro-life position.
Secondly, in the past 20 years, the "rate of non-fatal violent gun crime victimization dropped 75%" and the "gun homicide rate dropped 49% in the same period, according to numbers Pew researchers obtained from the Bureau of Justice Statistics and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention", per this USAToday article from 12/3/2013. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/05/07/gun-crime-drops-but-americans-think-its-worse/2139421/
If the rate of gun-related violent crimes goes down greatly while gun purchases have gone up, by what logic can one argue that to be pro-life means to be in favor of "gun control" when evidence contradicts the anti-gun rhetoric? If there are more guns, but less gun-related violent crime, then it's a flawed argument to put forth that supporting gun control is somehow a pro-life argument.
Thirdly, programs for reduction of poverty. The U.S. government has spent some $12,000,000,000,000 plus over the last 50 years on a "War on Poverty", yet the poverty rate is basically unchanged. Yet to question those programs or to seek overhaul them is to be on the receiving end of "oh, you're not pro-life". The fascists of Germany built the autobahn, so I guess fascism was good also, or at least that seems how the "logic" so often goes in these discussions.
The biggie – "climate change". The name itself is laughable, as if the climate has ever NOT been changing. There's a big difference in being sensible about the environment and buying into every little tidbit of environmental hysteria or believing every environmental regulation has come down from Heaven itself and cannot have it's value or consequences questioned.
Scientists have a long history of being completely and utterly wrong when predicting the future. This post is already long, so I'll only mention one: Y2K. Man! The "experts" stirred the pot with that one. Planes might fall from the sky. People might get stuck on elevators. The power grid might shut down. We might not be able to our money out of ATMs. If I recall correctly, if James Dobson advised his listeners at the time to play it safe and have some cash tucked away.
January 1, 2000 came. Nothing. Life went on like any other day. With an item made by their own hands, the so-called "experts" couldn't even accurately predict what would happen a few years in the future, yet we are called to spend – based on one of the more recent articles I've seen – $15,000,000,000,000 worldwide to combat a prediction made by a similar bunch of folks who think they've got enough of a grasp on worldwide planetary climate patterns to make doomsday predictions about our future if we don't reorganize our lives to their liking? How many of the world's poor have to die because their environmental regulatory desires will price clean water or inexpensive energy out of reach of the world's poor?
Computers – garbage in, garbage out, and that applies to their computer models predicting the future.
One other note: Back in 2006, after more than 30 years, the World Health Organization ended the ban on DDT. How many people – particularly in sub-Saharan Africa – died as a result of environmental hysteria and "science" that prevented DDT from being used in areas where malaria is rampant? Hundreds of thousands? Millions?
Yet to look back over history and to review the huge stack of evidence of past failed predictions about the future and come to the conclusion that the latest doomsday prediction is dubious at best is to have one's pro-life position questioned?
That's my 2 cents. Enjoying the podcasts. Have a great week.


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The AI health & fitness revolution that's changed how creators produce & share quality video content with voice guidance
November 6, 2021 Dania
Top-class video content production with personalized voice guidance
Hyperhuman elevates the health & fitness creators economy by enabling top-class video content production with personalized voice guidance
This is how we envision the future of health & fitness content: highly personalized, diverse and authentic."
— Bogdan Predusca, Hyperhuman CEO & Co-founder
BUCHAREST, ROMANIA, November 2, 2021 /EINPresswire.com/ — With more health & fitness professionals than ever before, it's crucial for these creators to have tools that allow scaling content offerings in these post-pandemic times. Producing quality content at scale requires a major investment of time and money. Add to that the worries that come with online training related to losing personal touch, authenticity and client connection.
Hyperhuman, a pivotal content creation platform that empowers health & fitness professionals from around the world to build reusable video content, is filling that gap with their most recent text-to-speech voice guidance update.
"Imagine instead of having to painstakingly rehearse and record your workout's audio intro, exercise instructions and key take-away outro, you now simply write them out and let the technology add a professional voiceover that plays exactly when your audience needs it the most. Never has video workout production been so easy, quick, and inspiring." said Bogdan Predusca, Hyperhuman CEO & Co-founder.
Hyperhuman Studio is the dedicated app for health & fitness professionals powered by proprietary video AI technology that removes the complexity and time needed to create quality workout videos. The created content is ready to be shared and consumed on any channel and in any format. This is truly unique and helps Hyperhuman become the go-to platform for health & fitness video content because it can be integrated in any of the existing tools or products that creators are already using.
Aflorithmic is Hyperhuman's trusted audio technology partner that provides the uniquely designed fitness voice that guides and inspires content consumers with a truly extraordinary one-on-one feel that's lacking in any other products available today.
"We will soon allow health & fitness creators to also clone their voice and provide the ultimate experience in terms of personalization and guidance in any language, starting from a simple text. This is how we envision the future of health & fitness content: highly personalized, diverse and authentic." added Bogdan.
About the companies
Hyperhuman is the omnichannel platform for health & fitness video content. The company's mission is to offer the most streamlined path for creating and distributing quality video content and a world-class experience for fitness content consumption on any channel and in any format.
Aflorithmic is a London / Barcelona-based technology company. Its api.audio platform enables fully automated, scalable audio production by using synthetic media, voice cloning, and audio mastering, to then deliver it on any device, such as websites, mobile apps, or smart speakers.
Bogdan Predusca
Hyperhuman – CEO & Co-founder
November 02, 2021, 11:00 GMT
EIN Presswire's priority
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Health & Fitnesschanged, content, creators, fitness, guidance, health, produce, quality, revolution, share, video, voice
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The 1987 Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards Presentation () was held in January 1988. It is part of the Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards Presentation series held in Hong Kong.

Top 10 song awards
The top 10 songs (十大勁歌金曲) of 1987 are as follows.

Additional awards

References
 Top ten songs award 1987, Tvcity.tvb.com
 Additional awards 1987, Tvcity.tvb.com

Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards Presentation, 1987
Jade Solid Gold Best Ten Music Awards

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia