jili 646 login OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is taking some time to reflect after Chrystia Freeland's bombshell resignation, the natural resources minister said on Tuesday. "The prime minister, as I understand it, a number of caucus colleagues have said that the prime minister has said that he will reflect on both the decision that minister Freeland made, but also what he's heard from members of his own caucus," Jonathan Wilkinson said. "I think we all need to give him a little time to reflect, and I respect that fact that he's going to take some time to reflect." Freeland quit as finance minister on Monday morning just hours before she was set to present the government's fall economic statement. That kicked off a day of turmoil on Parliament Hill that began with a morning cabinet meeting and wrapped with an evening meeting of the Liberal caucus, where some members called for Trudeau to step aside as party leader. That includes New Brunswick MP Wayne Long, one of 23 caucus members who signed a letter back in October calling for Trudeau to quit. "We certainly have more MPs than last time. So, if I had to guess how many more right now, I'd say we're probably at 40 to 50 right now," Long said. "But there's a lot more than that. I mean, this is so different than times before." The attempt to oust Trudeau earlier in the fall took up a great deal of oxygen on Parliament Hill, but ultimately failed to garner support from inside the cabinet. This time, Long said, at least five cabinet ministers believe it's time for a change at the top. "I certainly am one to say to my colleagues, to ministers in particular: 'Let's come out of the shadows,'" Long said. "Let's openly, once and for all, state how we feel and let's move forward with what we know has to happen." Before question period, cabinet ministers Anita Anand and Kamal Khera told reporters they support the prime minister. After the failed coup in October, Liberal MPs emerged from a tense caucus meeting saying they believed Trudeau was taking time to reflect. But the very next day, he publicly stated his intention to stay on as leader at a press conference. That is why P.E.I. MP Sean Casey, who called for Trudeau to resign in October, does not think the prime minister will take a walk in the snow now. "There's not a single indicator in anything that he says or does that would tell me otherwise. He seems to be absolutely committed and he has throughout the piece, he's been remarkably consistent," Casey said. "What he says, what he does, how he does it, how he says it, the energy he puts into it, I don't believe for one second it's an act. I think it's real." Whenever Trudeau has been asked if he intends to lead the Liberals in the next election, the response has been an unambiguous "Yes." The Liberals have faced three non-confidence votes in the House of Commons this fall and have struggled to advance legislation because of a filibuster on a Conservative privilege motion related to misspending at a now-defunct green technology fund. On Tuesday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre once again called on NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh to topple the government, criticizing him for voting against the latest non-confidence motion last week. Poilievre said Canada needs a new prime minister because U.S. president-elect Donald Trump can smell weakness from a mile away and the Trudeau government is weak. Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet also said a new Parliament is needed "as soon as possible," and he wants to see an election called in January. Blanchet said Trudeau has lost the political, moral and ethical authority to govern. He said the election should happen as soon as possible in the new year because Canadians do not want a campaign over the holiday season. On Monday, Singh called for Trudeau to step down but did not make a firm comment on whether the NDP would declare non-confidence in the Liberal government. Instead, Singh said "all options are on the table." The NDP, which ended a formal supply-and-confidence agreement to support the Liberals in September, has voted with the government on all three non-confidence motions. Singh has repeatedly said a Poilievre-led Conservative government would cut things New Democrats have fought for like dental care, pharmacare and other social programs. The Tories are also calling on the House of Commons trade committee to study the tariff threat between the week of Jan. 6 and Jan. 20, the date of Trump's inauguration. The House of Commons is expected to rise for the holiday break on Tuesday and return on Jan. 27. In her resignation letter, Freeland said she's been at odds with Trudeau in the last few weeks over the government's fiscal priorities. She said the government should do away with costly "political gimmicks" and instead set money aside to deal with a potential tariff war with the U.S. Dominic LeBlanc was sworn in as the new finance minister Monday, minutes after the government's fall economic statement was released. The economic update shows the deficit has grown to nearly $62 billion, far beyond the $40-billion target Freeland set earlier this year. It includes $1.3 billion in new spending on measures to beef up the border in response to Trump's threat to impose 25 per cent tariff threats on Canadian goods. LeBlanc, who is also in charge of intergovernmental affairs and democratic institutions, says his main priority as finance minister will be to address affordability issues. He will also continue to oversee the public safety file, implementing new border measures, until Trudeau holds a broader cabinet shuffle. That's expected to happen soon in order to replace ministers who have announced they won't seek re-election. This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 17, 2024. — With files from Nick Murray and Michel Saba David Baxter, The Canadian Press

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MANCHESTER, NH – The Millyard Museum is a fact-filled aesthetically pleasing experience for all ages to come and observe. It has a variety of opportunities to learn about the very start of technology and civilization in the not yet named state of New Hampshire. Once I heard about the tour of the Millyard Museum, I was very eager to join the trip because the only history I really know about Manchester is how The Puritan Backroom invented chicken tenders . My group learned from displays of how New Hampshire natives lived. My group and I thoroughly enjoyed the tour, especially the interactive activities such as fun games both natives and early colonizers played. Our favorite game, one of the resident artists, Yaz, kept calling it ‘egg in the basket.’ The goal of the game is to use momentum to swing the ball attached to into the cup via a string to complete the objective. It takes great patience and solid coordination and is very satisfying when completed efficiently. It took Yaz one hour to get her egg in the basket. I was able to quickly win within three to four swings, just saying. Yaz mentioned that most museums talk about why the indigenous populations no longer flourish in the region and that most museums secure contemporary work from the Native people who are on display in order to pay homage and uplift efforts by Indigenous peoples to keep their cultures alive. While touring through, I also had the greatest opportunity to learn about the beginning of production of tools from New Hampshire’s indigenous people, who made a variety of objects for their daily lives and while not metal, they used many stone implements. Most tools were made with chert, a non-metal that is native to the area, and is also able to be easily worked for use. Passing on by the various displays of history included information from the Millyard’s construction as well as the many purposes it served throughout its grand time in mass production, such as looming, the making and producing of denim and many other everyday and industrial items needed. They didn’t mention anything about where the cotton came from. Yaz and the facilitators Seana and Amara let us know it was most likely from the work of enslaved people in the South. They mentioned that we could learn more about this from work that the Black Heritage Trail has done. There was even an exhibit that showed bricks from the Amoskeag mills, the bricks were made locally in Hooksett and other towns around the river during the mid-19th century by the Stark Manufacturing Company. However, I thought the most interesting display happened to be of the waterpower! It tells you about how investors put their money, manpower, and knowledge into harnessing the power of the great roaring Amoskeag Falls. To quote the said display, “Raging winter floods and freshets were sober reminders that man could not entirely bend the power of the Merrimack River to its will.” Records as early as 1741 report on eyewitness accounts of waves reaching 55 feet into the air! The most severe floods happened during winter or early spring. Spring freshets (the flooding of a river from heavy rains) turned the river into a swollen torrent. In 1896 the most severe flood was recorded in the history of Manchester. The rising water continued unabated for five long days. Then the floods rose 10 feet above the falls. Raging waters and debris carried off three bridges, including the Amoskeag steam pipe bridge and the venerable Granite Street Bridge. Amazingly, the McGregor Bridge survived. However, it was then lost in the great flood of 1936, which devastated the city and the millyard. To many people, the Amoskeag Millyard resembled a walled medieval city complete with towers, moats, and gates. By 1911, a graceful arch of standardized brick buildings formed an unbroken mile-long facade along the river creating a model of visual unity. As we continued venturing through our journey of time, the Millyard and all of its revamped glory, we had a wonderful experience looking at displays, playing with interactive toys and taking many group photos. After spending quite some time at the Millyard, and unfortunately being denied access to the See Science Museum because it was closing in about 20 minutes, we were all feeling quite hungry and decided to head over to The Hop Knot on Elm Street. At the Hop Knot I had the absolute best roast beef sandwich I’ve ever had the pleasure of devouring. It was dressed with melty cheese, perfectly crunchy fried onions, and mayo. However, I got plain mayo because it comes with a horseradish one and I am just not that kind of girl. As we sat and I looked around at my peers you could see everyone enjoyed their meals like the pesto pizza, nice warm pretzels with variant dips, or even just a straight up piece of kielbasa. The Hop Knot is a great lgbtq+ friendly scene that also host drag events. In fact I had the pleasure of meeting and taking pictures with a couple of friendly cute queens from the House of Reigns . Talking with drag queens is so ethereal, they’re always on point and I love all the quips and phrases. I then headed home to sleep off my very delicious sandwich! The Inkubator program is aimed at nurturing and growing New Hampshire’s local journalism ecosystem – support for educators, opportunities for students and pathways for future journalists, artists and creators. And beyond that, we want to engage our community in this process because together, we rise. Click here to make a tax-deductible contribution to the Inkubator. We don’t spam! You're on the list! 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Musk, an early OpenAI investor and board member, sued the artificial intelligence company earlier this year alleging it had betrayed its founding aims as a nonprofit research lab benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. Musk has since escalated the dispute, adding new claims and asking for a court order that would stop OpenAI’s plans to convert itself into a for-profit business more fully. The world's richest man, whose companies include Tesla, SpaceX and social media platform X, last year started his own rival AI company, xAI. Musk says it faces unfair competition from OpenAI and its close business partner Microsoft, which has supplied the huge computing resources needed to build AI systems such as ChatGPT. “OpenAI and Microsoft together exploiting Musk’s donations so they can build a for-profit monopoly, one now specifically targeting xAI, is just too much,” says Musk's filing that alleges the companies are violating the terms of Musk’s foundational contributions to the charity. OpenAI is filing a response Friday opposing Musk’s requested order, saying it would cripple OpenAI’s business and mission to the advantage of Musk and his own AI company. A hearing is set for January before U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in Oakland. At the heart of the dispute is a 2017 internal power struggle at the fledgling startup that led to Altman becoming OpenAI's CEO. Musk also sought to be CEO and in an email outlined a plan where he would “unequivocally have initial control of the company” but said that would be temporary. He grew frustrated after two other OpenAI co-founders said he would hold too much power as a major shareholder and chief executive if the startup succeeded in its goal to achieve better-than-human AI known as artificial general intelligence , or AGI. Musk has long voiced concerns about how advanced forms of AI could threaten humanity. “The current structure provides you with a path where you end up with unilateral absolute control over the AGI," said a 2017 email to Musk from co-founders Ilya Sutskever and Greg Brockman. “You stated that you don't want to control the final AGI, but during this negotiation, you've shown to us that absolute control is extremely important to you.” In the same email, titled “Honest Thoughts,” Sutskever and Brockman also voiced concerns about Altman's desire to be CEO and whether he was motivated by “political goals.” Altman eventually succeeded in becoming CEO, and has remained so except for a period last year when he was fired and then reinstated days later after the board that ousted him was replaced. OpenAI published the messages Friday in a blog post meant to show its side of the story, particularly Musk's early support for the idea of making OpenAI a for-profit business so it could raise money for the hardware and computer power that AI needs. It was Musk, through his wealth manager Jared Birchall, who first registered “Open Artificial Technologies Technologies, Inc.”, a public benefit corporation, in September 2017. Then came the “Honest Thoughts” email that Musk described as the “final straw.” “Either go do something on your own or continue with OpenAI as a nonprofit,” Musk wrote back. OpenAI said Musk later proposed merging the startup into Tesla before resigning as the co-chair of OpenAI's board in early 2018. Musk didn't immediately respond to emailed requests for comment sent to his companies Friday. Asked about his frayed relationship with Musk at a New York Times conference last week, Altman said he felt “tremendously sad” but also characterized Musk’s legal fight as one about business competition. “He’s a competitor and we’re doing well,” Altman said. He also said at the conference that he is “not that worried” about the Tesla CEO’s influence with President-elect Donald Trump. OpenAI said Friday that Altman plans to make a $1 million personal donation to Trump’s inauguration fund, joining a number of tech companies and executives who are working to improve their relationships with the incoming administration.North Carolina interviews Bill Belichick for head coaching job, AP sources say

Semester 2 registration is open at Saskatchewan’s Distance Learning Centre. Sask DLC is a fully accredited online school that offers Kindergarten to Grade 12 education to Saskatchewan students of all ages and backgrounds. The straightforward school supply list includes a computer with internet access and, as part of the computer or as an add-on, a mouse, microphone, and webcam. Students also need headphones/earbuds, a scanner/cell phone camera for submitting work, a printer and paper, along with standard supplies such as pens/pencils, an eraser, ruler, scissors, markers, geometry set, binders, and paper or notebooks. New courses in practical and applied arts and elective courses will give students greater opportunities to explore their interests or try something new and see if it sparks their curiosity. Tourism 10 and 20 courses will introduce students to food and beverage, accommodation, recreation and entertainment, transportation and travel services. Tourism 10 provides the theoretical component necessary for Tourism 20. Tourism 20, newly available in Semester 2, provides more theory and is coupled with a work placement. Other new courses available in Semester 2 include Energy and Mines – Oil & Gas 20 and Football Skills 10. Students enrolling in Energy and Mines 20 will learn about energy exploration, production and environmental stewardship practices, as well as industry trends, safety, economic impacts and technological advancements. This course, available in Semester 2 only, provides 50 hours of online theory and a 50-hour work placement. Football Skills 10, one of the courses offered as part of a grouping of unique electives, will introduce students to the basic concepts of football. They will explore the elements and rules of tackle, touch and flag football while developing fitness levels, mental training and leadership skills. Students will examine the importance of basic training, conditioning, nutrition and mental wellness in developing an athlete. They will learn about game strategy and tactics, individual and team goal setting, leadership, communication and team building, sportsmanship and fair play and have the opportunity to explore pathways in football beyond high school. Football 20 and 30 are expected to be available in the 2025-26 school year. Also, Baseball 10, 20, and 30 are part of the unique electives grouping. Whether new to baseball or having some experience, students will find that these courses cater to all skill levels. Starting with the basics and rules, students progress to intermediate topics like statistics and metrics for athlete development and can explore non-playing careers such as coaching, umpiring, recruiting, and broadcasting. Baseball 30 will be available in Semester 2. Sask Polytech provided high school students taking online automotive courses, with the opportunity to get practical, hands-on learning in the automotive mechanical field, through a one-day learning camp at the Sask Polytech Saskatoon Campus. Sask DLC and Sask Polytech learning camps provide students from across the province with opportunities to learn about potential career paths and make informed choices for their future beyond high school. The camps allow students to either confirm their current career aspirations or discover new ones. Students got a preview of the Automotive Service Technician certificate program and apprenticeship training options available at Sask Polytech. “Sask Polytech is excited to support students interested in pursuing a career in the automotive industry,” Sask Polytech President and CEO Dr. Larry Rosia said in a News Release. “High school students can gain numerous benefits from exploring the trades and participating in the camp. It is an excellent opportunity to learn more about the automotive industry and to learn about the Automotive Service Technician program.” Interest among students in Sask DLC’s Mechanical and Automotive courses continues to increase. More than 300 students registered for Mechanical and Automotive courses, including 168 with work placements so far this school year. Last year, 124 students registered in Mechanical and Automotive 10, 20 or 30-level courses, completing more than 4,500 work placement hours. An additional 98 students took the introductory theory-only course. Sask DLC offers five Mechanical and Automotive courses for students across the province, including a 10-level introductory course where students can choose to do full-online theory or participate in 75 hours of online theory with a 25-hour work placement. At the 20-and-30- level each course is a combination of 50 hours of online theory and 50 hours of an in-person work placement at a local business. Students participating in the optional learning camp at Sask Polytech will earn six credit hours toward their work placement requirement. Student work placements are possible due to a partnership between Sask DLC and the Saskatchewan Automobile Dealers Association (SADA). Through this partnership, students are provided with opportunities to complete their work placement at a SADA member dealership. This partnership provides students with work placement opportunities near their home community and supports the automotive sector’s recruitment of future qualified employees to serve the industry. These courses complement several other 35 Sask DLC trades courses with work placements or hands-on learning opportunities available to students including Agriculture Equipment Technician, Autobody, Construction and Carpentry, Electrical, Energy and Mines - Oil and Gas, Parts Technician, Power Engineering, Precision Agriculture, Tourism, and Welding. Sask DLC’s Mechanical and Automotive, and other courses are open for semester 2 registration. Courses are available to full-time Sask DLC students and high school students attending local schools throughout the province to supplement their in-person learning. High school students can contact their local school administrator or guidance counsellor for help registering. Learn more about all online courses with work placements available through Sask DLC at saskDLC.ca .CLAYTON — St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said on Friday the county will pause in-person applications for its popular senior property tax freeze if the County Council doesn't approve next year's budget on Tuesday. Councilmembers quickly accused Page of resorting to scare tactics to get his way. Page wrote a letter dated Thursday to councilmembers saying the council must pass a budget to extend a staffing agency contract that provides workers for the tax freeze program. Without a renewed contract, the county would only be able to accept online applications for months, Page wrote. "Without extending this contract, the Department of Revenue would have to completely start over with finding a new agency to provide these workers," Page wrote. But some councilmembers scoffed at the threat. "All of this extra drama is just to keep us distracted," said council Chair Shalonda Webb, a Democrat from North County. "He's got to stop using this council as a punching bag and stop threatening and scaring the people of St. Louis County so he can get his way." The council usually passes a budget the week before Christmas, but this year, the council plans to meet on Dec. 30 to vote. Members needed more time to make changes to the budget requested by Page's office, Webb said. By then, the staffing company will have pulled its employees, said Doug Moore, a spokesman for Page. "These are employees that took weeks to train for this new program. Starting over with staffing would be disruptive and greatly limit services we could provide," Moore said in an email to the Post-Dispatch. Councilwoman Rita Heard Days, a Democrat from Bel-Nor, said the council's plans won't changed despite Page's letter. "I don't know what he's talking about," Days said. "It's difficult to trust whatever they're saying these days." Staffing company Robert Half Talent Solutions provides all of the staff for the program, including greeters, reviewers, deed research and call-room employees, according to Page's letter. The county paid the company $32,000 for program staff in September, county finance records show. The company's vice president and branch director, Lindsey Sielfleisch, emailed the county deputy revenue director, Erica Savage, on Thursday asking the county to recommit to the contract by Dec. 19. "Given the number of candidates we have placed within the St. Louis County government, it is essential to have sufficient time to redeploy any individuals whose contracts may not be renewed, particularly during the holiday season," Sielfleisch wrote. Savage forwarded the email to county budget staffers. "Without these staff members we would not be able to continue providing any senior tax freeze services outside of the online application," Savage wrote. And the county can't commit to renewing its contract with Robert Half unless the council approves the budget, Page wrote in his letter to councilmembers. Republican Councilman Dennis Hancock, of Fenton, said the county could easily extend the contract. It has funding secured through the rest of this year. And even if the council doesn't pass a new budget, the county automatically operates off this year's budget until the new one passes. "They've been using the senior tax freeze as a political football ever since we brought the idea forward last year," Hancock said. "They're trying to get us to hurry up and approve the budget so we can't do anything to it." Page's spokesman said the county needs to know what funding will be available in the new budget before the company's Dec. 19 deadline. "We would hate for there to be a suspension of the project, caused by lack of funding," Moore said. The council's relationship with Page has been sour all year as they fought over spending federal pandemic relief money and funding the senior property tax freeze program . In May, the council approved $300,000 for software and personnel. Relations further devolved this week when Page made it clear he intends to bypass the council in appointing his pick to replace Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell, who will resign Jan. 2 to take his newly won seat in Congress.Texas weighs social media bans for minors as schools and police face challengesDon’t glorify drugs, govt to OTT platforms

WASHINGTON ― Donald Trump instigated a violent attack on the Capitol, was impeached for it by the House, was criminally indicted for it, but in the end was given a pass for it by key voters in the seven swing states, new polling confirms, because they were more concerned about inflation and other pocketbook issues. “It’s clear that voters were thinking about their economic situation,” said Nick Ahamed from Priorities USA, a Democratic-aligned group that on Thursday released a post-election survey to quantify why Vice President Kamala Harris lost to a man who attempted a coup to remain in power the last time he held the White House. Ahamed said voters were not necessarily making a conscious tradeoff between democracy and lower living costs. It’s more that they largely did not believe that Trump represents a continued threat to democracy, despite his history. Even worse for Harris’ campaign, the voters she most needed to hang on to, those who flipped from Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020 to Trump in 2024, were even less likely to see Trump as a danger to the republic than the average voter. Only 24% of voters in Arizona, Nevada, Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Georgia and North Carolina believe that Trump is “very likely” to overturn the Constitution to remain in power ― which is still higher than the 18% of Biden-to-Trump voters who believe that. And while just 29% of voters thought it’s very likely that Trump would try to use the U.S. military to go after his political opponents and critics, among Biden-to-Trump voters that figure is just 24%. While both the Harris campaign and outside groups helping her focused on economic issues, the limited attempt to warn voters about Trump’s autocratic tendencies failed, Ahamed acknowledged. “We didn’t connect Trump’s authoritarian behavior and what it would mean for them in the next year and in the next four years,” he said. A more basic problem Democratic campaign operatives had, Ahamed added, is the assumption that most Americans saw Trump the same way they did. “Themes like ‘stronger together,’ ‘restore the soul of the nation,’ ‘we’re not going back,’ all are predicated on a hatred of Donald Trump that voters ... and the voters specifically that we lost, don’t necessarily feel,” he said. Polling, for example, showed Trump’s continued success at pushing the image that made him famous: his portrayal of a genius billionaire businessman on the television game show “The Apprentice.” Among Black men between 18 and 44, a full 38% like Trump because he “tells it like it is,” even though the former president has been a notorious liar his entire adult life, while 35% believe he is a “successful businessman and entrepreneur,” even though he inherited his wealth, and his business record includes bankrupting casinos. The poll also had warnings for Democrats about opposing “cultural heroes” of those voters they need to win over to win elections. Billionaire Trump supporter Elon Musk, for instance, is liked and disliked about equally among all voters. Among those who voted for Biden in 2020 but for Trump in 2024, he is seen favorably by 64% and unfavorably by only 20%. Democracy advocates, including anti-Trump Republicans, warned months ahead of the election that Jan. 6 was not likely to work as a campaign issue in 2024 because Trump successfully made his lie that the 2020 election had been stolen from him, and his follow-up claim that those arrested for their participation in the Capitol attack were “political prisoners” and “hostages” that deserved pardons, articles of faith within the Republican Party. While public opinion in the days and weeks after Jan. 6 ran overwhelmingly against the attack and Trump, those numbers began to shift over the months as Trump and pro-Trump media pushed conspiracy theories about the election as well as the violence on that day. The need to avoid alienating Trump’s hard-core supporters, in fact, in February 2021 led to Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell and most Republicans refusing to convict Trump on his impeachment, which would have led to his prohibition from holding federal office again. “Ultimately this comes down to Mitch McConnell,” Ahamed said. Dean Phillips, Early Challenger To Biden In 2024: I Would Do It All Again Tommy Tuberville Suggests GOP Senators Should Blindly Support Trump's Nominees Trump Moves To End His Criminal Case In GeorgiaA recent advisory from the United States Surgeon General has made it clear — parents and caregivers are burned out. In a 2023 poll of more than 3,100 American parents, nearly 50 per cent reported experiencing debilitating levels of stress most days. Other recent surveys from Canada and the U.S. also found between 20 to 30 per cent of parents are experiencing moderate to severe levels of anxiety that could warrant a clinical diagnosis. When the tasks of the holidays are piled onto this baseline stress, it’s easy to see how the “season of joy” may feel more like the “season of overwhelm.” How can both our society as a whole and parents as individuals dial back the pressure? Structural changes are essential. But scientific insights about child development can also help parents prioritize what matters most and shift how they respond to things that may otherwise trigger anxiety. What’s causing parent stress? Much of what is making parents stressed these days is structural in nature: things are more expensive, it’s hard to find affordable child care, parents are more isolated, work is taking up more of parents’ time and children’s engagement with ever-evolving technology brings a range of serious health and safety concerns . These factors disproportionately affect parents who experience poverty, racism, violence or trauma. Addressing them will require substantial political and cultural shifts . But there are smaller factors to tackle as well. Parents today have more access to information than ever before. It’s not just a pediatrician or family member they can turn to for advice, but endless blogs, forums and social media platforms. While online sources can build community and confidence, they can also contribute to information overload as panic headlines and contradictory advice often compound parents’ feelings of anxiety and being overwhelmed. These platforms also tend to showcase idyllic situations that lead parents to create unhelpful comparisons and unrealistic expectations, contributing to feelings of shame and guilt . To counteract these feelings, it’s helpful to remember a few things: children’s development is influenced by many things parents can’t control, there are many benefits to imperfect parenting and independent play and parent wellness matters more than most else. 1. It’s more than just parenting It’s common for people who haven’t experienced discrimination or unexpected challenges to attribute children’s behaviours and outcomes to parents’ choices and efforts. This is an example of “attribution bias,” a bias towards a particular kind of explanation . Developmental science helps dispel this bias by highlighting that children’s development is influenced by many factors other than parenting and beyond parents’ control. First among these is genetics. For example, twin studies have found that genetic factors explain 57-76 per cent of child/adolescent mental illness, 60-84 per cent of picky eating and 60-85 per cent of school achievement. Another is exposure to adverse or positive experiences , such as witnessing violence or being supported by friends and non-parental adults. These types of experiences have substantial effects on children’s physical and mental health. But they are inequitably distributed, based on factors such as income and race . There are big differences in children’s temperaments and how they respond to their environments . The same parenting strategy applied to two different children can lead to two very different outcomes, as you may have observed in siblings. This is why the next time you catch yourself feeling shame or judgment about a child’s behaviour, it’s important to remember parenting choices might not be to blame. 2. Parental imperfections are opportunities Psychologists and pediatricians often recommend certain parenting strategies to support children’s development. But rarely do these providers suggest parents must follow their advice 100 per cent of the time to achieve the desired effects. It’s what happens most of the time that matters. Even when parenting “imperfections” happen, like breaking routines or uncharacteristically snapping at children, they can be seen as opportunities. When “rupture” is followed up by “repair” in the form of acknowledgement, apologies, explanations and/or moments for restoring connection, it can benefit the parent-child attachment relationship and help children build their emotion-regulation skills. By using repair after the overwhelming moments that often happen during the holidays, parents can transform these moments from sources of shame to reasons for pride. 3. Benefits of independent play Over the past few decades, parents’ worries about children’s physical safety have grown , while children’s unsupervised play time has declined . Many parents are spending more time with their children , hovering or helicoptering over them rather than promoting independent play. No doubt, playing with the support of a responsive adult has many benefits for children’s learning and development . But when it comes to parent involvement in play, sometimes less is more. Research shows that unstructured play — play that isn’t organized by adults and doesn’t have defined goals — is a “ fundamental necessity ” for children’s well-being. Outdoor risky play has enormous benefits for children’s physical and mental health that outweigh many of the perceived safety risks. There are also many unique benefits of playing with peers for both academic and social skill development. With this in mind, if you are a parent who is regularly your child’s main playmate, it may be time to seek more opportunities to take a step back. The holidays can be a great time to start. 4. Parent well-being is paramount News and social media feeds are full of panic headlines that can make it seem that certain foods, toys or parenting habits are what make or break children’s life outcomes. It’s easy for parents consuming this media to feel anxious or even want to change their purchases or behaviours in response to every new study. But most headlines overstate the findings of weak studies or small effects. And if following the headlines comes at the cost of parental well-being, it could be doing more harm than good. This is because one of the most consistent and strongest predictors of children’s well-being is having safe, stable and nurturing relationships with caregivers — as both the Canadian and American Pediatric Societies have stated. Children need present and responsive caregivers more than they need any specific foods, presents or new parenting fads. This is why it may be worth considering what you can do to support yourself or other parents’ well-being this year. This could mean providing practical or social support to the parents around you or just making them feel heard and understood . With high parental stress , it’s more important than ever for everyone to replace judgment with empathy and advice with real support. And for parents, let’s try to distinguish what we can and can’t control, practise self-forgiveness in tough times, allow ourselves moments to do less and focus in on what matters most. It might help us experience more moments of joy in this holiday season and through all the seasons of parenthood. Nina Sokolovic has worked in several roles at non-profit and government organizations that support the well-being of children and parents, including her current as a Senior Policy Analyst in the Ontario Public Service. She previously received funding for her research from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

North Carolina interviews Bill Belichick for head coaching job, AP sources say

Millions of people now have access to artificial intelligence like ChatGPT. After Apple Intelligence integrated ChatGPT into its platform, anyone with an iPhone, iPad or Mac can now ask complex questions without going to a separate app or website. This long-awaited integration may spark questions like, how does ChatGPT work? What are chatbots? ChatGPT, operated by OpenAI, is an artificial intelligence chatbot like Google’s Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, or Meta AI. These chatbots use a type of AI called a “large language model.” They understand text and generate words to sound human. “It’s almost boring now to say this,” said Daniel Dugas, an AI and robotics scientist based in Switzerland. He wrote a visualized explanation of earlier AI GPT models. “The fact that I can talk to my computer and have a semi-coherent conversation is — it’s just unbelievable,” “As an engineer, I immediately was pushed to the direction of, OK, how do we make something like intelligence?” Dugas said. While large language models may seem intelligent, they essentially just predict the next word — much like a phone’s text suggestions. But it’s far more complex. How ChatGPT works Large language models are trained on vast amounts of data, ranging from books to social media to much of the internet. An LLM maps out word relationships similar to the way the human brain does. Take the sentence, “Don’t put all your eggs in one.” Once you enter it into an LLM and hit send, a lot of things happen in repetition — in a fraction of a second. Step One: Tokenization and Encoding Imagine the process like an assembly line. The first step on the assembly line is to turn the sentence into something computers can definitely understand: numbers. RELATED STORY | How deepfake technology works The sentence, “Don’t put all your eggs in one” is broken down into what’s called “token IDs” that vary depending on the AI model. The sentence now becomes [91418, 3006, 722, 634, 27226, 306, 1001] You can test out tokenization using OpenAI’s tool . Step Two: Embedding Next, the resulting vector of numbers is expanded based on context. For example, the word “egg” has a lot of different meanings and connotations. If you had to map out the word mathematically, one way is to plot it onto a graph between “chicken” and “young.” On a two-dimensional graph, that’s simple. But “egg” has so many different meanings. “Egg” can be a part of an idiom, a breakfast ingredient, something associated with Easter, or a shape. Graphing this out would require multiple dimensions in a never-ending vector. We can’t imagine this, but a computer can compute it. With the sentence “Don’t put all your eggs in one” the word egg might be [27226]. With the sentence “I ate an egg for breakfast” the word egg might be [16102]. It all depends on context. These contextual adjustments are based on all the training and the neural network of word relationships, and the changes are embedded into the vector. Step Three: Transformer Architecture The vector moves down the assembly line into a “transformer architecture.” It is a series of layers that make even more adjustments to the vector of numbers. Based on the previous training, the AI has learned and decided what words carry more weight. For example, in the sentence “Don’t put all your eggs in one” the word “eggs” matters more than “one.” Adjustments to the vector of numbers occur repeatedly to make sure context and meaning are close to everything it was trained on. Step Four: Output Finally, the result goes in reverse on the assembly line to turn a vector of numbers back into a word: basket. "Don’t put all your eggs in one ... basket." Is this advanced word prediction? Is this intelligence? Are there limits? “You have papers saying, the model will never be able to create music or a model will never be able to answer a mathematical question,” Dugas said. “And they basically are crushed in the last five years.” As large language models continue to advance, it’s important to keep up with what they can do and to know how we can work with them, not for them. Even a basic understanding will help people utilize, navigate, and legislate a technology some might consider revolutionary.Ayar Labs captures $155M to bring light into chip manufacturing

Kotek won’t designate rural land for chip industry after all as Oregon’s hopes for research hub fadeThe Christian's Approach To Morality And The 2024 Election - Drew Alan Hall 12-27-2024 09:44 PM CET | Associations & Organizations Press release from: ABNewswire The first battle in our country's morality war must start with us. That can be hard because if you are like me, you have screwed up royally in the past. Drew Alan Hall describes his father as his best friend, though they sometimes disagree on specific subjects. One such subject is politics. While neither Hall nor his father considers themselves far right or far left, they occupy different sides of the aisle regarding presidential candidates. Recent elections have sparked heated conversations between them, often centered not on tax strategy or foreign policy but on morality - specifically, the morality of individuals and their politics. Election years tend to bring moral issues to the forefront of public discourse, addressing topics ranging from gender identification to abortion and beyond. These issues emerge in debates between candidates and conversations among individuals, often spilling over into social media. During one such discussion with his father, Hall observed that many people look to political figures and parties as society's moral compass. The distinction between the morality of policies and the morality of candidates often becomes blurred. Hall believes followers of Jesus should take time to pray and reflect on how they approach their beliefs about morality and political choices before casting their votes. The desire for leaders to embody strength and integrity is not unique to America. The Bible illustrates this struggle when God's people asked for a king. Saul, who looked the part, was flawed internally, while David, a man after God's heart, made significant moral missteps. These two leaders, despite their outward differences, both faced moments of moral failure. Hall notes that while society often demands its leaders exemplify morality and integrity, individuals may not hold themselves to the same standards. The first step in addressing the nation's morality issues must begin with individuals. Acknowledging personal mistakes can be challenging, and past failures may lead some to feel unworthy of being used by God. Hall suggests that such thinking can cause people to expect their leaders to achieve what they themselves cannot. Conversations about morality and leaders' actions often overlook personal accountability. To see a shift in national morality aligned with God, Hall emphasizes that individuals must first address their own lives. This personal transformation does not necessarily require running for office but does demand active participation in the mission of making disciples and sharing the good news of Jesus. Hall draws parallels to the life of Peter, who, after denying Jesus, initially returned to his old life as a fisherman. However, an encounter with the risen Messiah helped Peter move past his guilt and step into God's work, ultimately playing a pivotal role in the establishment of the church. Hall highlights that while Peter did not pursue political office, his personal transformation led to world-changing impact. As the election approaches, Hall encourages individuals to seek a transformative conversation with Jesus. Such a conversation can lead to the realization of God's plan for their lives, replacing guilt and shame with grace and forgiveness. Hall believes this shift - aligning actions with beliefs - can gradually influence the nation's morality. For Christians navigating the election season, Hall offers three steps. First, engage in an honest conversation with Jesus to assess whether personal actions align with beliefs. Second, pray for guidance to discern the candidate to support and determine how to do so in a way that honors Christ. Third, remember that a follower of Jesus finds identity in His life, death, and resurrection - not in any political candidate or party. Regardless of who wins the presidency, Jesus remains King. About "How To Keep it Real" by Drew Alan Hall Has regret over past denial of God kept you from the purpose he has for your life? The good news is God does not want you to stay sidelined by past mistakes. By comparing the story of Peter's denial to my own, this book shows how one tough conversation with Jesus could be the thing that moves you forward to radically living for him. In this book, readers will be introduced to three things. * Possible reasons for denial of God through our words and actions * What a life following Jesus looks like * How to step into God's purpose for your life through an encounter with Jesus Get a Free Copy of this Book on Amazon From December 23 to December 27th. Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DR2QCB86 Kharis Website: https://kharispublishing.com/kp/product/how-to-keep-it-real/ About Kharis Publishing At Kharis Publishing, we believe every writer deserves a chance to share their story with the world. If you've faced rejection after rejection, you're not alone-many great authors have been in your shoes. Video: https://www.youtube.com/embed/dwOjhlcwmt0 Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/embed/dwOjhlcwmt0 Media Contact Company Name: Kharis Media LLC Contact Person: Rufus Philip Email:Send Email [ https://www.abnewswire.com/email_contact_us.php?pr=the-christians-approach-to-morality-and-the-2024-election-drew-alan-hall ] Phone: (630) 423-6309 City: Aurora, Chicago State: IL Country: United States Website: https://kharispublishing.com/kp/product/how-to-keep-it-real/ This release was published on openPR.