Client: “I need the number for Jack. Can you give me his number, please?”

Me: “Jack? Jack who?”

Client: “The manual for the modem said that I need to connect to Jack, so if you could give me his number, then I can connect with him.”

But my parents...they'll never understand. Would it help at all if I ate them?

High-profile entities in India have become the target of malicious campaigns orchestrated by the Pakistan-based Transparent Tribe threat actor and a previously unknown China-nexus cyber espionage group dubbed IcePeony. The intrusions linked to Transparent Tribe involve the use of a malware called ElizaRAT and a new stealer payload dubbed ApoloStealer on specific victims of interest, Check Point

When our loved ones are young they get showered with plenty of gifts. Usually, we’re talking about toys and that’s nice. Once they get a little bit older, the types of gifts we present to them change. In no time, your toddler is old enough to be wearing a ring. Rings are nice presents. Valuable ... Read more

The post How to Measure Your Child’s Ring Size: A Simple Guide for Parents appeared first on Star Two.

Mum of premature twins says rigid restrictions on birthing wards during Covid were traumatic.

With school on break, along with all the homework, tests and early start times that come with it, parents often assume that young people’s stress and anxiety will take a pause as well. However, that’s not always the case, especially as the novelty of summer dwindles. Without the daily structure of school and extracurricular activities, kids may struggle with boredom or restlessness. Maintaining a routine during the summer can be a powerful tool for supporting children’s mental health, and parents can play a crucial role in establishing and reinforcing this structure.

Parents of kids with ADHD often say their kids miss social cues, such as when peers are bored, hurt or offended, according to Amori Mikami, a psychology professor at the University of British Columbia in Canada. “It can lead to a lot of outbursts or temper tantrums or whining and complaining or arguing with the friend,” she said. Mikami researches peer relationships, specifically focusing on children with ADHD. Additionally, she developed a parental friendship coaching (PFC) model where parents of elementary school-age kids can learn to support their child in making friends.

Without a consequence-free hook-up culture, Planned Parenthood's business model collapses. The left's response to Trump's election is an existential threat... to itself!

The post OOPS: Planned Parenthood Sounds Alarm As Lefties Weaponize Abstinence appeared first on Clash Daily.

China Needs to Make the Belt and Road Initiative More Transparent and Predictable Expert comment sysadmin 29 April 2019

The global infrastructure project must move beyond mish-mash of opaque bilateral deals

As China welcomes dozens of world leaders to Beijing for its second Belt and Road forum, it has one simple aim: relaunching President Xi Jinping’s controversial global infrastructure drive.

Since it began five years ago, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) has sunk hundreds of billions into port, railway and power projects stretching from south-east Asia to central Europe. But its path has been bumpy, drawing sharp criticism over the ruinous debts that some countries have racked up amid Chinese largesse.

Xi will stress sustainable financing and transparency this week, amid the usual talk of ‘win win’ cooperation. Yet BRI’s problems are structural, not presentational. For any pledges to be meaningful, China must move beyond its present mish-mash of opaque, bilateral deals.

After bad headlines last year, BRI has in fact enjoyed a good run in recent weeks. Malaysia announced it would resume a previously cancelled high-speed rail project, while Italy’s decision to join up last month marked a further European incursion. Indeed, if attendance is any guide to success, BRI looks in fine fettle. The first forum in 2017 attracted 29 world leaders. China says 37 will turn up this week. Phillip Hammond, UK chancellor, arrives hunting deals too, just a day after news that Chinese technology group Huawei will be allowed to help build 5G networks in Britain.

Even so, three interlinked problems remain at the heart of President Xi’s pet project, all of which must be addressed if BRI is to move beyond the pitfalls that have damaged its reputation.

The first and most obvious is debt. Critics allege that China ‘traps’ its BRI partners financially, often pointing to a debt-for-equity deal that handed China control of a port in Sri Lanka. These claims are exaggerated — few other projects have ended up this way. Yet poorer nations from Laos to Tajikistan are still signing up to vastly expensive Chinese schemes that offer poor value for money while straining their public finances.

The second problem is transparency. Despite its grand scale there is still no reliable list of BRI projects, no disclosure of the lending standards China follows, nor even the amount China has invested. Beijing claims more than $1 trillion; independent estimates suggest perhaps a few hundred billion. Either way, it will be hard for China to convince doubters on debts until it is open about the criteria it uses in deciding who to lend to and why.

BRI’s third and most important challenge is its muddled organization. Despite BRI’s image as a centrally run mega-project, China has allowed many deals to be struck locally, via a mix of state-backed companies, public sector banks and freewheeling regional governments. And it is here that the problems began.

Infrastructure deals are notoriously complex, especially for transnational projects like high-speed rail. Renegotiations are common, even for experienced bodies like the World Bank. Yet BRI has repeatedly seen terms negotiated behind closed doors, in countries such as Malaysia and Pakistan, come unstuck in the face of public outcry.

Rather than seeking to trap others with debt, China’s central government more often has to step in to fix dubious projects agreed by underlings lower down the chain.

These negotiations go one of two ways. Either China’s partners complain and win terms, as was true in Malaysia and in Myanmar over a multibillion-dollar deep-sea port. Or, as in the case of Sri Lanka, the renegotiations go in China’s favour, but at the cost of accusations of debt trickery. In both cases China looks bad.

Speaking last year, Xi responded to criticism of BRI by describing it as ‘an open platform for cooperation’. Yet, so far, he has proved resistant to the step that would deliver on that vision — namely turning BRI into an institution with open standards and international partners.

The reasons for his reluctance are obvious. Ending BRI’s reliance on loose bilateral deals would limit Beijing’s room for geopolitical manoeuvre. Yet what might be lost in political flexibility could easily be gained in economic credibility, while avoiding some of the painful renegotiations that have dogged many BRI projects.

At a time when China’s economy is slowing and its current account surplus is shrinking, formalising and institutionalising, BRI could also help avoid wasting scarce public resources on white elephant projects. China even has an easy template in the form of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Beijing-based institution that has won plaudits for its project quality and openness since it started in 2016.

Whichever model is chosen, a dose of Chinese-style central planning is called for, along with more openness. Without it, the oddly chaotic and decentralised model pioneered in BRI’s first five years is unlikely to help the project thrive over the next five.

This article was originally published in the Financial Times.

Fed up with their district’s unmet pledges to stop steering African American students into low-level classes, parents take action.

COVID-19 has revealed stark inequities, but education leaders should seize the moment to dismantle them, writes Sonja Brookins Santelises.

Parents of a child with autism filed lawsuits against the Clark County, Nev. district, after video evidence showed him being restrained repeatedly.

Collaboration doesn’t require turning parents into math experts, classroom teachers say.

Looking for new ways to combat kids who bully, some communities are threatening to fine parents with no evidence that the approach is effective.

The state's highest court allowed some claims brought on behalf of relatives of victims of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School to proceed against the firearms industry.

Nearly 45 percent of children in rural McDowell County, West Virginia do not live with their parents and many are being raised by grandparents.

Early in the second half, Ohio State freshman Jaloni Cambridge went down with an apparent lower-back injury.

Ashley Hickey, a parent of a kid with celiac disease, is concerned that Nova Scotia's new school program does not offer any 100 per cent guaranteed gluten-free options.

As a troubled local gym goes dark, some members and the landlord say they haven’t heard from the owner about the future of the business in Thunder Bay, Ont.

The city said in a news release on Thursday that the Mayor’s Task Force on Transparency, Access and Accountability — which is in charge of reviewing community concerns about openness at the city — is looking for your feedback.

Black Lives Matter, climate change, family separation? All appropriate classroom topics, writes Christina Torres.

The parents of a 16-year-old who died last fall from football-related brain trauma are suing the New York school districts he played for and the medical responders who tended to him the night he sustained his fatal injury.

In the lawsuit, the Chicago-based team's parents allege Little League was aware of potential residency issues, "but chose to ignore and/or deliberately conceal these facts in order to garner higher ratings, publicity, and money."

Districts could face a rising tide of special education-related lawsuits and complaints when schools resume, experts say, if they still cannot offer the services that students with disabilities missed out on for months.

A leading autism researcher and former special education teacher offers advice to help students cope with the abrupt changes brought on by the novel coronavirus outbreak.

A new resource offers tips on how to keep Individualized Education Program meetings focused and on-schedule.

Districts could face a rising tide of special education-related lawsuits and complaints when schools resume, experts say, if they still cannot offer the services that students with disabilities missed out on for months.

A new digital guide aims to identify students missing out on special education services and supports during distance learning.

As the cold weather approaches, it’s important to protect your family from the flu, COVID-19 and RSV. A Penn State Health pediatrician shares some simple tips to help keep everyone healthy.

As schools apply more scrutiny to the methods and materials they use to teach early reading, educators and parents in some states have started to form new advocacy efforts—trying to pressure states and districts to adopt new approaches to teacher training and evaluating materials.

A recent blog post by Walt Gardner ("The Hard Truth About the Achievement Gap," placed the blame for the achievement gap on one group above others: parents.

A comprehensive look at how U.S. schools served students in the aftermath of the coronavirus closures finds that schools responded more fully in communities where parents' education levels were higher.

The workshops will equip school leaders with necessary skills to assist parents in guiding their children's academic, social, and emotional growth.

Hands of the couple that received a tiny cardboard box from a Kasargod court trembled with emotions and their eyes welled up.

Donald Trump's net worth has taken a $300 million hit following a dip in the shares of Trump Media & Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social.

Archana's son also joined her on the trip

Proposal offers 12 weeks of paid parental leave, would make Delaware the 6th state to offer the benefit to public workers DOVER, Del. – Governor John Carney joined members of the General Assembly on Tuesday to call for passage of legislation that would offer 12 weeks of paid parental leave to state workers. The bill, […]

A small listening session held by the Division of Child Support Services (DCSS) led to more than 1,000 non-custodial parents being notified that that the suspension of their Delaware licenses has been lifted. The Division learned from a group of parents that although they were now in compliance with their child support obligation, they had […]

Talk to Teens About the Importance of Driving Safety During National Teen Driver Safety Week   DOVER, Del. (Oct 14, 2022)— National Teen Driver Safety Week is October 16-22, 2022 — the perfect opportunity to talk with teens about safe driving habits. The Delaware Office of Highway Safety (OHS) is teaming up with its traffic […]

Check here each week to keep up with the latest from John MacArthur's pulpit at Grace Community Church.

to write a letter to parents from student teachers

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