Category: Society & Laws

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Little Rock Is Paying Homeless People $9.25 an Hour to Pick up Litter

The folks in Little Rock, Arkansas, might be on to something. In April 2019, the city launched its Bridge to Work program, paying homeless people $9.25 an hour to pick up litter off city streets.

Paul Atkins is a Pastor at the Canvas Community Church in Little Rock, and he’s been impressed with how successful the program has been so far. Atkins said 380 people have worked through the program, receiving paychecks and mental health and medical services. Some have even landed job interviews.

Atkins said, “We want to work with them on their next step. There are a lot of barriers that our people experience to go from homelessness and panhandling to full-time work. There’s a lot of steps in between.”

The people in the program work in groups of eight, but they usually leave one space open in case they encounter a panhandler or other homeless person who wants to join up and work with them.

One of the team leaders in the program, Felecia Cooks, was initially worried it wouldn’t be entirely successful. She said:

“When I first started, from Day One, I couldn’t catch the vision, nor could I travel the journey. But, you know, we’ve taken out over 400-and-something persons. And let me tell you, that has been the most exciting thing that I’ve done in my life. The energy, just the positive (energy), the vision that Canvas Community Church has. You know, it’s just wonderful.

The program was only supposed to last six months, but Little Rock’s mayor, Frank Scott Jr., said he will draft a resolution to extend the program through the end of September 2020 because it has been such a success.

Great idea! I’d like to see this in other cities across the country!

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The ‘OK’ Hand Sign Is Now Considered a Symbol of Hate

In this age of social media, you never know what’s gonna happen. Things are weird. Perhaps an everyday symbol will be co-opted by nefarious groups and turned into an emblem of hate? Does that seem far-fetched?

Well it shouldn’t because that’s exactly what happened with the ‘OK’ hand sign that we’ve all used countless times.

This is actually a problem for me – I use it a lot…

It seems like a harmless gesture, right? Well it was, but it’s not anymore. The Anti-Defamation League recently added the ‘OK’ hand gesture to its Hate Symbols Database. The hand sign has become associated with far-right and white supremacist groups on the Internet, causing its new classification.

Oren Segal of the Anti-Defamation League said, “Context is always key. More people than not will use the OK symbol as just ‘OK.’ But in those cases where there’s more underlining meaning, I think it’s important for people to understand that it could be used, and is being used, for hate as well.”

The ‘OK’ gesture has been pushed as a uniting symbol by far-right commentators and personalities in public and on message boards online. It originally started as a prank by users on the 4chan message board to flood social media outlets linking the hand sign to the white power movement, but it has since caught on and become a legitimate hate symbol.

Oren Segal said, “Over the past couple years, we’ve seen that the hoax was essentially successful in being applied by actual white supremacists. In many ways, they took what was a trolling effort and added it to their list of symbols.”

As ridiculous as it might sound, it’s important to keep up to date on these kinds of developments when they are brought to light. With hate groups and hate crimes on the rise, we should all know the symbols of the far-right so we can be informed and aware at all times.

If you’re curious about what else is out there, take a look at ADL’s Hate Symbols Database to keep up to date.

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Mattel Has Launched a Gender-Neutral Doll Collection

Long gone are the days when a child’s only options were the standard Barbie and Ken. And dolls got even more inclusive recently when Mattel, the company that makes Barbies, launched a gender-neutral doll collection.

This new line of toys from Mattel is meant to erase existing preconceived notions about what gender means and how it is ingrained into us from a very young age. Kim Culmone, the Senior Vice President of Mattel Fashion Doll Design said, “Toys are a reflection of culture and as the world continues to celebrate the positive impact of inclusivity, we felt it was time to create a doll line free of labels.” The line is called Creatable World.

Creatable World

In our world, dolls are as limitless as the kids who play with them. Introducing #CreatableWorld, a doll line designed to keep labels out and invite everyone in. #AllWelcomeShop now: http://bit.ly/CWMattel

Posted by Mattel on Tuesday, September 24, 2019

First off, the dolls come in a variety of skin colors. They can be styled with a variety of hairstyles, different clothes, and accessories such as sunglasses. TIME magazine noted that the “lips are not too full, the eyelashes not too long and fluttery, the jaw not too wide. There are no Barbie-like breasts or broad, Ken-like shoulders.”

In recent years, millennial parents have voiced their grievances about gender stereotypes in toys, and it seems like big companies such as Mattel are listening. The new, gender-neutral dolls are 11″ tall and they sell for $29.99 each. The official slogan for the new product is “A doll line designed to keep labels out and invite everyone in.”

It will be interesting to see how these products are received by the public and if other companies will follow Mattel’s lead. Stay tuned.

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Americans Share the Most Absurd Medical Bill They Ever Received

Healthcare is on many people’s mind these days, and the 2020 election is full of ideas on how to take our broken system and hopefully improve it.

Senator Bernie Sanders is and has been passionate about the topic for much of his career, and is championing a controversial Medicare for All plan that would see the end of private insurance offerings for good.

Regardless of what you think about Medicare for All, I’m sure we can all agree that healthcare costs are too damn high, and something has to be done.

Recently on Twitter, he asked his followers to share the most absurd medical bill they ever got in the mail, and you guys.

They delivered.

 

20. Always decline the ambulance ride.

19. Nobody should be worrying about the bill.

18. Yeah, that’s not a choice.

17. This one might win for most ridiculous.

16. I’m not sure that’s really science.

15. Heartbreaking AND absurd.

14. A whole new level of insult to injury.

13. We need equal opportunity healing.

12. I’ll bring my own Band-Aid.

11. Only the rich get to live.

10. I mean what else can you do?

9. It would be funny if it wasn’t so infuriating.

8. Answer: hardly anyone.

7. That’s a pretty penny for stuff you could have gotten at Walgreens.

6. You need a surgeon for that?

5. That’s a pretty high price for wielding a pair of tweezers for under 5 minutes.

4. Kidney stones are the worst and if $16k would help, I would have paid it.

3. I think they’re billing the wrong person.

2. Everyone should have a problem with this.

1. What on earth does most of that even mean?

 

I’m not here to discuss politics, but I think we can all agree that most of these are pretty darn silly.

If you were running for president, how would you solve the problem of rising healthcare costs, access to care, care for veterans, and all the rest?

There’s no easy answer, of course, but give it a go!

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A Man Was Tested and Has the Oldest American DNA Ever Recorded

A lot of us who have sent in our DNA to be tested are expecting results that tell us where we came from before our ancestors immigrated to America – if our families have been here a very long time (since the “beginning”), then perhaps we’ve been on American soil for 7 or 8 generations.

My own family came here on the Mayflower, but, obviously, folks met us when we arrived.

When Montana native Darrell “Dusty” Crawford sent in his DNA at his late brother’s request, he was expecting to find Native American heritage. His family lived on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation in Heart Butte, and their oral traditions were that they came to North America during the Ice Age, perhaps over the Bering Land Bridge.

What the DNA company, CRI Genetics, found, though was something far, far more incredible.

The results, they said, were so unprecedented it was “like finding Bigfoot.”

Crawford’s line could be followed back 55 generations.

The company has never traced anyone’s DNA back that far, making his the oldest American DNA ever found.

The DNA also indicates that the Crawfords’ ancestors came from the Pacific, not over the land bridge, settling in South America before traveling north. Though it’s still just a theory, it is one that has some science behind it.

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Browning is built on a vast open prairie, backlit by the jagged skyline of the Rocky Mountain Range. Cattle, horses and dogs roam freely. Cheap, wind-worn houses are scattered along rolling hills, amidst tall grass and endless fields of wheat. The gas station north of town also serves as a convenience store, grocery, restaurant and gift shop—teeming with residents of the reservation and a few passers by. In this place the historical consequences of an institutionalized doctrine of manifest destiny are palpable—boundless westward expansion by white settlers and the subjugation of the American Indian having generational effects. Further into town I find the Sleeping Wolf Campground. I lay on the grass and am both cooled by the steady winds and warmed by the eternal sun. #sleepingwolfcampground #browning #blackfeetindianreservation #blackfeet #montana #rockymountains #horses #prairie #roam #ontheroam #manifestdestiny #westwardexpansion #subjugation #bicycletouring #sleepingwolf More at www.tecumsehclark.com

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There are four major Native American groups that populated North America, each of which trace back to a female ancestor – Ai, Ina, Chie, and Sachi. Crawford and his family hail from the Ina clan, or the mtDNA Haplogroup B2, and CRI genetics isn’t sure how that particular line migrated around the world.

“Its path from the Americas is somewhat of a mystery as there are no frequencies of the haplogroup in either Alaska or Canada. Today this Native American line is found only in the Americas, with a strong frequency on the eastern coast of North America.”

Other experts, like professor Shelley Eli, dismisses the idea that this or any other Native American line migrated to the Americas from elsewhere at all, since their oral histories and indigenous histories cite nothing of the sort.

“There’s no oral stories that say we crossed a bridge or anything else. We’ve always been here, since time immemorial.”

She gets her information from 2017 research that dated human activity in North America back more than 100,000 years.

The truth isn’t likely to be uncovered any time soon, but Crawford’s results remain an important moment for the scientific community. Before his tests came back, the oldest American DNA was 17,000 years younger than Crawford’s, and with new information comes the opportunity for better understanding.

As for Crawford himself, it’s a personal validation that what his family has always believed is true.

He does wish, though, that he and his brother could have marveled in that reality together.

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Denmark Dominates the World Happiness Report Rankings Year After Year. Here’s Why.

America, let’s get it together. I don’t know if it’s arrogance or ignorance, but some Americans think that we are hands-down the best, the happiest, the “number-one” at everything imaginable.

I love living in the United States, and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else (permanently), but I have to admit that a lot of people here aren’t necessarily happy.

But in Denmark, folks are incredibly happy. In fact, the country ranks at or near the top of the World Happiness Rankings year after year. So what’s behind the happiness in that Scandinavian country of just under 6 million people?

The rankings are based on statistics including crime, income, health, and civic engagement. People were also asked questions about how often they experience positive and negative emotions.

But there’s more than that when it comes to figuring out why Danish people are so happy. They have access to good health care and education, they have a stable government, and they happily pay the highest taxes in the world because they believe this helps create a better society.

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Beautiful Copenhagen 🇩🇰 ⠀ How many bicycles do you see on the photo? 🚲😄 _________ ⠀ Сколько велосипедов вы видите на фото?🚲 ⠀ Дания поистине страна велосипедистов 🚴 По статистике их здесь в два раза больше, чем автомобилей, представляете?🙈 ⠀ Я уже второй раз за год в этом чудесном городе, и каждый раз он мне нравится всё больше ❤ ⠀ К тому же нам дважды везло с погодой, а как вы знаете, Скандинавия в этом плане очень непредсказуема 😅 Вы были в Копенгагене?)

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But there’s something else in the character of the Danish people that makes them so happy: it’s known as “hygge.” The word is sometimes translated as “cozy,” and Danes value it highly. It basically means having comfortable, high-quality social interactions with family and friends and being content with enjoying the simple things in life.

A hygge evening could consist of a family playing board games, having coffee with a friend in front of a fireplace, or eating a quiet, easygoing meal with someone. Hygge is so important to the Danish character that the CEO of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen called it “a defining feature of our cultural identity and an integral part of the national DNA.”

Places can also be described as “hyggelige”, such as a person’s home, which is obviously a compliment and means that it is cozy, comfortable, and welcoming. Danish people use hygge to combat everyday stress and to build camaraderie.

I don’t know about you, but I love this concept.

FYI, in the 2019 World Happiness Rankings, Denmark came in second place and was edged out for #1 by Finland. The U.S. sits at #19.

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A Homeless Mother Went to Jail for Enrolling Her Son in the Wrong School District

You’ve heard all about the college cheating scandal in the news – a bunch of super rich people and celebrities paid to get their average kids into Ivy-caliber schools – but for most of the country, there was little surprise that the education system (higher or otherwise) is rigged to favor the wealthy.

This case, in which a homeless woman was arrested and forced to spend time in jail simply for putting her son in a public school (which, in theory, are for everyone), really drives that point home for people still unsure how wealth inequality in America works.

In 2011, Tanya McDowell was a homeless mother in Bridgeport, Connecticut, when she was charged with first-degree larceny for enrolling her son Andrew in a Norwalk, Connecticut, kindergarten class.

McDowell says that though she and her son slept in a Bridgeport apartment at night, during the day they lived in her van or visited shelters for food.

She took a plea deal and received five years in prison (she served them concurrently with a sentence stemming from charges of selling drugs to support herself and her son), but only regrets part of what she did.

“Who would have thought that wanting a good education for my son would put me in this predicament? I have no regrets seeking a better education for him. I do regret my participation in this drug case.”

McDowell isn’t alone, either, according to New York City public defender Rebecca J. Kavanagh.

“In Ohio, Kelley Williams-Bolar was charged for lying about her residency to get her child into a better school and ordered to pay restitution of $30,000. When she did’t pay it she was sent to jail for 15 days.”

Since all public schools aren’t created equal, the practice of using friends and family’s addresses to enroll children in a “better” school district isn’t all that uncommon. It’s hard to blame poor communities and communities of color for wanting access to what should be the same for everyone – especially once you learn that white school districts get about $23 billion more in state and local funding than their nonwhite counterparts.

So while people like McDowell spend five years in jail for wanting their children to have what is available to other children, wealthy folks like Felicity Huffman get off with a slap on the wrist.

Kavanagh says this type of injustice is fairly common.

“This is really just an extension of what people do to get admitted to university already – donating money to buy buildings and fund endowments. The line between legal and illegal, donation and bribe, is blurred.”

She’s also quick to remind us that, regardless of Huffman’s (and others) sentence in this latest “scandal,” McDowell and those like her have suffered an injustice.

“While there is a part of us that may feel some sense of vindication at the idea of these parents serving five years in prison because Tanya McDowell served five years in prison when she was so much more deserving, that’s not justice. Justice is for Tanya McDowell to have never been charged, convicted, or sent to prison and to have the same educational opportunity for her son as these parents have for their children.”

As for McDowell, she hopes that things will be different for others – including her own son – in the future.

“I’m not only doing it for Andrew. I’m doing it for any other parent, any other child out there that has the potential to succeed and excel at a certain level and is just being deprived, period. My son exceeded all of my expectations.”

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A Memorial in Turkey Commemorates the Women Killed by Their Husbands Last Year

Violence against women is an epidemic worldwide, but in some countries, it’s more extreme than others. In Turkey, for example, 42% of women over the age of 15 have suffered from physical or sexual violence.

Last year in Turkey, 440 women were murdered by their own husbands. An artist decided to come up with a powerful memorial to pay tribute to the murdered women and to bring awareness to the problem in his country.

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#KahveDünyası’nın 2017 yılında hayata geçirdiği sanat platformu #Yanköşe, dördüncü edisyonunda #VahitTuna’nın “#İsimsiz” adlı çalışmasını ağırlıyor. 440 çift siyah kadın ayakkabısından oluşan “İsimsiz” projesinin çıkış noktası, Türkiye’de sayıları gitgide artan kadın cinayetleri. 2018 yılında Türkiye’de erkekler tarafından çeşitli şekillerde ve sebeplerle öldürülen kadınların sayısına işaret eden ve Yanköşe’nin her iki duvarını da nizami bir şekilde kaplayan 440 çift ayakkabı, neredeyse bir tür soykırım ya da kadınkırım anıtı gibi yükseliyor. Ölen kişilerin ayakkabılarının evlerinin kapısının önüne bırakılması geleneğine de işaret eden çalışma, kadına yönelik şiddetin hafızasını tutarak sokağa taşıyor; kamusal bir tartışma ve bilinçlenme için bir aracı olma görevi üstleniyor. Sanat üretiminde iktidar, iktidarla hesaplaşma ve ona göre pozisyon alma konularına odaklanan Tuna, bugün her üç kadından birinin fiziksel ya da cinsel şiddet mağduru olduğu bir dünyada şiddetin, özellikle de bu coğrafyaya ait şiddet olgusunun temellerine bakıyor. • ℹDaha detaylı bilgi için yankose.org adresini ziyaret edebilirsiniz. • • • Daha fazlası için 👉 @ajans.isleri • • • #ajansisleri #arts #creative # #staj #stajyer #seo #AdAgency #reklam #stratejist #arayüztasarımcısı #stajyer #markatemsilcisi #MarkaYöneticisi #ArtDirector #DijitalAjans #DijitalReklamcılık #ReklamAjansı #Advertising #Agency #DigitalAdvertising #grafiktasarım #socialmedia #dijitalajans

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Vahit Tuna said he had seen a lot of posts about the Turkish problem on social media, but he also realized that the stories came and went with a disturbing quickness. Tuna was determined to keep the issue in the public eye somehow.

Tuna chose to use 440 pairs of high heels in his memorial as a sign of female empowerment and independence that he sadly wishes was more of a reality in Turkey. In some parts of Turkey, it’s a tradition to put a person’s shoes outside after they pass away, so the memorial has even more cultural significance in the country.

The memorial is set up in central Istanbul so it will be seen by many people in the busy city. Tuna said, “We wanted everyone passing by the road to see [the work]. This is why we did not want to host the exhibition in a closed area.”

The 440 pairs of shoes are set to remain on exhibit for six months. Hopefully, as many people as possible will see the memorial and it will spark some painful and necessary conversations in Turkey.

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Facebook Rolled out Education Features to Combat Anti-Vax Propaganda

It’s amazing that in 2019, a lot of parents out there buy into the anti-vaccination rhetoric and expose their kids (and others’) to potential harm.

That’s why it’s encouraging that Facebook has taken steps to fight harmful misinformation and “fake news” that appeals to these anti-vaxxers. On Facebook, informational windows will pop up when a person searches for anything related to vaccines, taps related hashtags on Instagram (which Facebook owns), or visits vaccine-related pages and groups.

Furthermore, in the U.S., users can use pop-up windows to connect to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to read about accurate, credible information about vaccines. If you live outside the U.S., you can connect to the World Health Organization through the pop-up windows.

A spokesperson for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the organization is fully onboard with the move by Facebook:

“We know that parents often turn to social media to access health information and connect with other parents, and it can be difficult to determine what is accurate and who the credible sources of information are. [Combating] vaccine myths and misinformation is a shared responsibility and we applaud these efforts.”

A new feature is rolling out on Facebook and Instagram to combat the spread of anti-vaccine misinformation.Facebook,…

Posted by Columbia/Boone County Department of Public Health and Human Services on Friday, September 6, 2019

Health experts have said that anti-vaccination information online has played a large role in fewer people getting vaccinated against diseases and that has led to outbreaks in measles and other illnesses—in fact, the US is close to having its status as a measles-free country. So this is very timely and very important.

Nice work, Facebook. Let’s see more of this in regard to the spread of misinformation, because we all know how harmful that can be to Americans and others around the world.

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20 Interesting Signs from the Youth-Led World Climate Strike

Many people around the world admit that human emissions are slowly killing the planet via climate change, but no one seems to do anything. Scared for their futures, young people have been pushing the people in charge to not just agree, but to at least try to save us all from a fiery death.

Enter the recent youth-led global climate strike, a movement that numbered in the millions all over the globe. Participants everywhere hope their protest were heard by the UN during their Climate Summit (Greta Thunberg, a leader of the movement, shared some amazing words that made me tear up a little), and if these 20 signs have anything to say about it, these kids will be impossible to ignore.

20. It doesn’t seem like this should be asking too much.

19. I mean it takes a lot to get us out of the house.

18. Priorities, man.

Image Credit: Twitter

17. She’s walking the walk.

16. Incorporating a bit of our history lessons, there.

Image Credit: Twitter

15. Points for relevance.

Image Credit: Twitter

14. And justice for all.

13. Just a little something to think about.

Image Credit: Twitter

12. It’s so hot out you might not be able to feel this burn for much longer.

Image Credit: Twitter

11. I think this one is my favorite.

Image Credit: Twitter

10. That’s not at all romantic.

Image Credit: Twitter

9. On so many levels.

Image

Image Credit: Twitter

8. Fighting for the unborn on a whole other level.

7. A more perfect mashup has ever been conceived.

Image Credit: Twitter

6. It’s always a good time for a well-crafted pun.

Image Credit: Twitter

5. Who knew Mario Bros. would teach us so much about real life?

4. It’s quite backward.

3. My new favorite meme making an appearance.

2. I could not have bigger heart eyes for this sign.

Image Credit: Twitter

1. You are not alone.

 

It’s time to make a change, y’all. If it doesn’t start from the top, we’ll start it from the bottom. Consider looking into ways you can reduce your carbon footprint.

Are you impressed by the world’s youth campaigning for change? Are you inspired? Let us know how you plan to help in the comments!

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