Get Your Eyes Examined Online

Excerpts from USA Today -

You can get eyeglass and contact prescriptions online now

But just as surely as Uber upended the taxi industry and Amazon changed book-buying habits, there’s now a company hoping to turn vision testing into an online routine requiring nothing but a computer and a smartphone. Opternative, based in Chicago, has been offering free exams through its website since July 2015. About 40,000 people in 32 states have taken the tests, says CEO and co-founder Aaron Dallek.

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Opternative promises the prescriptions within 24 hours and says they can be used to buy eyeglasses or contacts anywhere, online or in stores.The site does not sell glasses and contacts directly. Right now, it offers prescriptions only to consumers ages 18 to 40. Charges are not covered by insurers but are close to the average $52 that the Vision Council says consumers pay out of pocket for traditional exams.

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http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2016/04/17/online-eye-exams-prescriptions/82892026/

https://www.opternative.com/online-eye-exams

We All Lie

Excerpts from the AP - 

We all lie, scientists say, but politicians even more so

Deception starts early.

Children learn to lie at an average of about 3 years old, often when they realize that other people don't know what they are thinking, said Kang Lee, a professor at the University of Toronto.

He has done extensive research on children and lying. Lee set up an experiment in a video-monitored room and would tell children there's a toy they can have that's behind them, but they can only get it if they don't peek. Then the adult is called out of the room, returns a minute later and asks if they peeked.

At age 2, only 30 percent lie, Lee said. At age 3, half do. By 5 or 6, 90 percent of the kids lie and Lee said he worries about the 10 percent who don't. This is universal, Lee said.

A little later, "we explicitly teach our kids to tell white lies," with parental coaching about things like saying how much they love gifts from grandma, and it's a lesson most of them only get around age 6 or older, Lee said.

~~~~~~~~~~

The problem is there are many shades of truth-bending. Experts split on whether to count white lies — what psychologist and political scientist Stanley Renshon calls "social lubrication" that makes civilized operate. When your spouse tells you that you don't look fat in that outfit when you do, does it really do any harm?

"There's a difference between white lies and real lies," Renshon said.

Some lies, said Schweitzer, "fall under politeness norms and are not very harmful. There are other lies that are self-interested and those are the ones that are really harmful. Those are the ones that harm relationships, harm trust."

But others, like DePaolo, see no distinction: "It doesn't matter if the attempt was motivated by good intentions and it doesn't matter if the lie is about something little."

Regardless, society rewards people for white lies, Feldman said.

"We're really trained to be deceptive," Feldman said. "If we're not, if we're totally truthful all the time that's not a good thing, there's a price to be paid for that. We don't like people who tell us the truth all the time.

http://bigstory.ap.org/urn:publicid:ap.org:c8efe2bb8bfc4e6eabcae0ed259a99b0

An Inspiration

Watch This 2

I just watched HBO's Confirmation, the reenactment of the 1991 Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill Senate Judiciary Hearings on sexual harassment that came up in the process of confirming Thomas as the next Supreme Court judge.

Watch this.

It was amazing!

It revealed the "win at any cost" mentality that is still very much alive and well in our political world today.

If the actual hearing was anything close to what was portrayed, what a sham it was.

The courage it took for Anita Hill to do what she did was extraordinary, and considering the beating she took as a result of coming forth; it's no wonder she didn't say anything for ten years.  She knew what she would be up against, and sure enough, the "he said / she said" accusations were probably far greater, far nastier, and far more contentious than she could have ever conjured up.

Side note - I wonder if Joe Biden has seen this.  His behavior as chairman of the hearing was appalling.  He was weak and ineffective at reigning in the crazies, if he even tried.  I'm guessing he wishes he had a do-over.

I don't know how anyone could doubt that Thomas did what he was accused of.

This man was guilty then, and he's guilty now.

The timing of this movie couldn't be more apropos with the looming confirmation of President Obama's nominee that the Senate is refusing to even consider.

The puppets of the gerry-rigging that happened in 1991, are still at work in 2016.

What a scam.

What a shame.

~~~~~~~~~~

You might also be interested in "The Washington That Failed Anita Hill" at the link below.

https://newrepublic.com/article/132761/washington-failed-anita-hill

The Hotline For Hollywood's Science Nerds

Grandmaster

From the AP - 

Chess' 1st African-American grandmaster enters Hall of Fame

NEW YORK (AP) — Maurice Ashley was 14 when he saw a high school friend playing chess and challenged him to a match. He lost badly, but it sparked a love affair that started him playing nearly non-stop ever since.

There were the countless hours competing against the hustlers in city parks, and the serious players at chess clubs in Manhattan. There were the years spent against increasingly tougher competition in college, and ultimately against the best of the best at tournaments around the country and abroad.

All that playing has led the 50-year-old Ashley to some trailblazing accomplishments — the first African-American to be designated as a chess grandmaster, and last Wednesday, the first African-American to be inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis. He received his honor as the U.S. Chess Championship got underway, with Ashley taking on commentating duties.

http://bigstory.ap.org/urn:publicid:ap.org:afa475649a7443c2a2fcb49a36a1cb83

"The Mentorship" feat. POTUS and Steph

Quote

If Trump wins the election it'll be the first
time in history that a billionaire moved into
public housing vacated by a black family! 
- Anonymous

H/T Forrest

Shocking: Hospital Refunds!

An excerpt from The Wahington Post -

The most unexpected hospital billing development ever: Refunds

DANVILLE, Pa. — At Geisinger Health System in Pennsylvania, hospital officials want to keep their customers happy. So when patients are upset about a long wait in the emergency department, or a doctor’s brusque manner, or a meal that never arrived in a room, Geisinger is doing more than apologizing.

It’s offering money back on their care, no questions asked.

The hospital system is the first in the country to adopt what has long been a basic tenet of retail business: customer refunds. This focus on customer satisfaction is a relatively new concept for health care, in which doctors have typically called the shots. And it’s one that Geisinger’s staff questioned when president and chief executive David Feinberg came up with the refund idea last fall.

But the novel approach is in keeping with health care’s shift to improve the experience of patients. Under the Affordable Care Act, government payments are increasingly tied to the quality of care and patient satisfaction as opposed to the quantity of services provided.

“We want to make sure we not only have the right care that is high quality and safe, but we also want to make sure our care is compassionate, dignified and delivered with a lot of kindness,” said Feinberg, who took over Geisinger last May after running the UCLA health system.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/2016/04/14/207cb934-fd95-11e5-886f-a037dba38301_story.html?wpisrc=nl_rainbow

A Basketball Game Changer

It’s a point guard’s game

NBA courts, once dominated by big men, have become the domain of smaller, quicker players as the sport has evolved

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/sports/wp/2016/04/15/its-a-point-guards-game/?hpid=hp_no-name_graphic-story-b%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Smart Kid

An excerpt from The Washington Post - 

This 9-year-old wants to be the first White House child science adviser

Jacob Leggette, 9, of Baltimore, Md., looks on as President Obama blows a bubble while visiting his exhibit during the White House Science Fair on April 13, 2016. Jacob made toys and models with a 3-D printer.
(Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)

Jacob Leggette’s mother said his childhood has been characterized by impatience. He was grabbing at his father’s iPad as a toddler. At 8, he tried out a 3-D printer at Digital Harbor Foundation, which has youth technology programs near his home in Baltimore, and decided he had to have one.

Not content to wait for Santa Claus, he began writing letters to 3-D printer companies urging them to give him a free printer in exchange for writing reviews of their products. It worked, and the models and toys he built on the machine he got earned him a ticket to the White House Science Fair this week.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/this-9-year-old-wants-to-be-the-first-white-house-child-science-adviser/2016/04/15/8979b494-0341-11e6-9203-7b8670959b88_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-more-top-stories_no-name%3Ahomepage%2Fstory

Not Just Another Pretty Face

The Queen of Creole Cooking

An excerpt from The New Yorker -

New Orleans’s Queen of Creole Cooking, at Ninety-Three
BY BRETT ANDERSON

The New Orleans chef Leah Chase will in May become
the first African-American to receive the James Beard Foundation’s lifetime achievement award.

The ninety-three-year-old New Orleans chef Leah Chase arrived at Dooky Chase, her historic Creole restaurant, at 7:30 A.M. on Holy Thursday. Lent was over for the city’s Catholics, but the day is nonetheless a solemn occasion, marked by foot-washing ceremonies and the Mass of the Lord’s Supper. In New Orleans, Holy Thursday is also synonymous with going to Dooky’s for gumbo z’herbes, a rare form of New Orleans’s ubiquitous dish.

An hour before the 11 A.M. service, the first of three sold-out turns on the restaurant’s busiest day of the year, Chase was holding a knife over a steaming pile of smoked ham hocks. In her tenth decade, she requires the aid of a walker or a cane. Her fingers no longer travel in a straight line from knuckle-to-nail, but her hands remain nimble, and she can still be found in Dooky’s kitchen most days. Next month, she’ll become the first African-American to receive the James Beard Foundation’s lifetime-achievement award. (The Times was marvelling at her fortitude back in 1990, when she was just sixty-seven.) She pulled meat from the bones and chopped. “See how tender they are?” she said, extending a morsel of rosy pork. A local television cameraman, who was capturing the kitchen’s progress, asked Chase’s grandson, Edgar “Dooky” Chase IV, to name his favorite dish. His grandmother answered for him: “Gumbo.”

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/new-orleanss-queen-of-creole-cooking-at-ninety-three?mbid=nl_TNY%20Template%20-%20With%20Photo%20(29)&CNDID=27124505&spMailingID=8790175&spUserID=MTE0MzE0NDEyNDUyS0&spJobID=901616882&spReportId=OTAxNjE2ODgyS0

A Letter From Daughter-in-Law to Mother-in-Law

From Upworthy - 

You always stole my thunder. You gave them everything they wanted. You never said no when they asked for anything.

A second helping of dessert. Candy before dinner. A few more minutes in the bath. Money for the ice cream truck.

I struggled to show you respect and appreciation while trying to make sure you didn’t spoil my children. I thought you would turn them into “selfish brats” by giving them everything they wanted. I thought they might never learn to wait, to take turns, to share, because you granted their wishes as soon as they opened their mouths and pointed.

You held each one of my babies long after they fell asleep. Didn’t you understand that I needed them to learn to fall asleep on their own?

You ran to them as soon as they made the tiniest sound. How would they ever learn to self-soothe?

I resented you for buying the best and most expensive gifts on their birthdays and on Christmas. How could I possibly compete with you?

And how they loved afternoons spent with you. You made their favorite things for dinner — three different meals for three different boys. And you always had a little surprise. A present, candy, or a special treat. I didn’t want them to associate you with gifts and sweets. I thought they should love you for you. I tried to tell you this, but you wouldn’t listen. 

I spent a lot of time wondering why you did all these things and how I could get you to ease up. I know grandmothers are supposed to “spoil the kids” then send them home, but you were ... ridiculous.

Until you were gone.

I had to hold my boys and tell them that their grandma died. It didn’t seem possible — you were supposed to be there for all the other special moments: proms, graduations, weddings. But they lost their grandma too soon and too suddenly. They were not ready to say goodbye.

And how they loved afternoons spent with you. You made their favorite things for dinner — three different meals for three different boys. And you always had a little surprise. A present, candy, or a special treat. I didn’t want them to associate you with gifts and sweets. I thought they should love you for you. I tried to tell you this, but you wouldn’t listen. 

I spent a lot of time wondering why you did all these things and how I could get you to ease up. I know grandmothers are supposed to “spoil the kids” then send them home, but you were ... ridiculous.

My kids, now in their teens, miss you dearly. And they don’t miss your gifts or your money. They miss you.

They miss running to greet you at the door and hugging you before you could step in. They miss looking up at the bleachers and seeing you, one of their biggest fans, smiling and enthralled to catch their eye. They miss talking to you and hearing your words of wisdom, encouragement and love.

If I could speak to you one more time, I would tell you that every time a precious moment steals my heart, every time I watch them arrive at a new milestone, and every time they amaze me with their perseverance, talents, or triumphs, I think of you. And I wish that they could have you back.

Come back and love them one last time, like no one else in the world but a grandmother could. Bring your sweets and surprises. Reward them with gifts for the smallest accomplishments. Painstakingly prepare their favorite meals. Take them anywhere they want to go. All and only because you love them.

Come back and see how much they’ve grown. Watch each boy becoming his own version of a young man. Be in awe with me as we admire how family, friendship, time, and love helped them grow so beautifully over the years.

The more I long for you to come back, though, the more I realize that in a way, you never left.

I understand now. I know you loved them in every way you could. I know that being their grandma gave you joy and purpose. And of course I know that you can’t come back, but I do know that your love for them will always remain. Your love built them and sheltered them in ways that cannot be described. Your love is a big part of who they are and what they will become as they grow. For this, and for every treat and gift, and every time you held them too long or consoled them too much or let them stay up too late, I will always thank you.

And I will wish a million times that you could do it all again.

http://www.upworthy.com/a-letter-to-my-mother-in-law-about-my-3-boys?c=upw1

How a TV Show Gets Made

Thin underwater cables hold the internet. See a map of them all.

Confirmation: Trailer (HBO Films)

No Mess Science Experiments for Kids

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/piiig-labs-science-experiments/id735909511?mt=8

Designed for kids 5-9

Free Today!

As see on https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apps-gone-free-best-daily/id470693788?mt=8

New York Prison Set To Instill Ivy League Classes

Who Dies?

Excerpts from Variety -

‘Anyone Can Die?’ TV’s Recent Death Toll Says Otherwise

Women of color, men of color, LGBTQ characters and white female characters have been killed off left and right. None of that’s new for TV, but the sheer volume of these deaths — a number of which were shocking for the wrong reasons — has been notable. When considered as a whole, it’s difficult for the suspicion that these characters are expendable not to harden into belief.

A lot of shows pride themselves on the idea that “anyone can die,” but is that actually true?

It doesn’t feel true when a large number of LGBTQ characters die in a matter of weeks.

It doesn’t feel true when a network TV drama, “Sleepy Hollow,” kills off its African-American female lead in order to provide motivation for the show’s white, male lead — whose lifespan, its worth noting, now stretches more than 200 years and counting. (There are reports that actress Nicole Beharie wanted to leave the show, which is understandable, given how poorly the show’s narrative and character development has been handled since early in season two.)

It doesn’t feel true when, in recent months and years, I can think of dozens of gay, female and non-white character deaths that were used to prod growth or vengeance in white, straight or male characters — but I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen that dynamic play out in reverse.

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Who does die? This year, dozens of lesbians and bisexual women have died on various shows, among them “The Vampire Diaries,” “The Walking Dead,” “Empire,” “The Shannara Chronicles,” “The Magicians” and “The 100” (which also recently killed a character played by a black male series regular). In the last two weeks, notable women died on “Hap and Leonard,” “Vikings,” “Arrow” and “Sleepy Hollow.”

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But the real problem is this: who’s telling the stories. Just as certain kinds of characters appear to be protected, TV’s creative leadership tiers are dominated by certain kinds of people. Who wants to take a bet on whether these two issues are linked?

http://variety.com/2016/tv/opinion/tv-deaths-walking-dead-the-100-arrow-1201751968/