Month: June 2021

Woman Reveals What Three Weeks Without Alcohol Does To Your Body

Posted on by Phil Lam X

A woman has shared her incredible three-week transformation after completely cutting out alcohol.

Danielle Pierce, from Austin, Texas, started “experimenting” with alcohol aged 16, and by 18 she’d fallen into the typical party culture at college.

The 24-year-old said she’d drink around two bottles of wine during the week, before downing shots and cocktails on the weekend.

She told Newsweek she’d spend around $114 a week on booze, adding her favorite tipple is pinot grigio. But on May 18 she decided to go sober, after admitting drinking had left her feeling “lethargic” and “grumpy.”

She said: “I decided to cut out alcohol after having gut/stomach issues. I was starting an elimination diet to figure out what foods I was intolerant too, and I figured I might as well cut out alcohol too. My parent’s have been sober since January and they were a huge inspiration and source of encouragement.”

“I stopped cold turkey—I knew I needed a reset and the only way I could do that was remove it completely. I wasn’t feeling like myself. I was lethargic, uninspired and honestly grumpy, and I wasn’t able to fit into my clothes and I was not happy about that. So I started the elimination diet and cut out alcohol as well to jump start my health journey.”

Initially she planned to quit for 21 days, but has kept it going after seeing the positive impact it’s had on her life.

She’s managed to lose an incredible 15 pounds (lbs), which she said was was “unexpected,” adding her sleep and skin have never looked better.

“I cannot tell you how proud I was when I hit that 21-day mark. I was really surprised that I wasn’t jumping at the bit to get a glass of wine, by that 21st day, I had no interest in drinking at all. I never want to feel another hangover again after feeling so good,” she raved.

Listing the benefits she’s noticed, Pierce continued: “I am so happy with my new lifestyle—like the happiest I have ever been. I wish I would’ve really taken a look in the mirror sooner and realized that I was not excelling in my personal or professional life due to drinking culture.

“It’s a completely personal choice, but I don’t feel like I was myself when I was staying out till 4am drinking and then being a hungover mess the next day. So many things have changed—I think the biggest thing I noticed is my social anxiety decreased and my overall happiness has increased. When I drank I would get so anxious around people and would be a recluse, not talk to anyone at all. So overall, my mental health has improved immensely.”

“My stomach issues are gone. I would get so nauseous when I ate at any time, and after some research I found that when you drink alcohol regularly you aren’t able to digest your food all the way and it creates gas in your stomach due to the alcohol sugar.”

“My skin is the best it’s ever been, and I have been on acne medications for years with no luck. My skin is bright, tight and glowing and I think that has to do with me not being dehydrated all the time.”

“My sleep patterns have improved but it took some time. When I first cut out alcohol I couldn’t fall asleep, which I guess means my body was depending on those nightly glasses of wine to go to bed. Once my body regulated to my new diet, my sleep consistency and overall depth improved and I wake up refreshed every morning.”

Initially the first weekend after she quit was tough, as most of her peers were drinking, but Pierce said she ordered mocktails to fit in.

“It was really weird that first weekend out. Obviously, when people are drinking, they honestly want you to drink with them too—and not like in a bad way, but like in a cultural expectation way. I found that ordering mocktails makes me feel much more included when I go out and it also stops the weird stares from strangers who are wondering why I keep ordering waters one after another,” she added.

The change has also seen her save money, as she estimated s”I plan to continue my sobriety journey in the way that best suits me. What I mean by that is, I only drink on ‘planned drinking days’ which occur around celebrations or holidays etc. I will say I will never ‘binge’ drink again. I have lost all interest in getting so drunk I don’t remember the night before.”

Source: Newsweek

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Adidas x LEGO Unveil New Superstar Sneaker Collab Including A Building Block Model

Posted on by Phil Lam X

This year, LEGO and adidas really upped the ante. Just recently, the two turned the Superstar into a buildable set, everything from the sole up made entirely of black and white blocks. And while some would like to, the collectible is not at all wearable; but fear not as the Three Stripes have you covered with this July release.

Though it may lack some of the aforementioned’s charm, the pair is as close to identical as physically possible. The signature LEGO look is still retained for the most part, channelled by way of the side stripes as well as the heel tab and toe. Each, unlike the smooth white leathers adjacent, are ostensibly made up of actual pieces, covered with studs all throughout their exterior. What’s more, though a subtle addition relative to the rest, the energy is matched by blocky stitching and logo windows.

A release is currently set to hit adidas.com on July 15th at a retail of $140 USD.

Source: SneakerNews

Amazon DSP Drivers Reveal The Challenges Of One-Day Shipping

Posted on by Phil Lam X

Amazon has more than 115,000 drivers working under independent small businesses – Delivery Service Partners, or DSPs – who deliver Prime packages to doorsteps with one-day shipping. We talked to current and former Amazon DSP drivers about the pressures of the job. From urinating in bottles to running stop signs, routes that lead drivers to run across traffic, dog bites and cameras recording inside vans at all times – some of the 115,000 DSP drivers have voiced big concerns.

First Nations Finds 751 Unmarked Graves At Saskatchewan Residential School Site, ‘Genocide Empowered By Colonial Structures’

Posted on by Phil Lam X

The unmarked graves of more than 751 people have been discovered at the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan, after hundreds of remains were found in other provinces in the past month.

“We are seeing the results of the genocide that Canada committed — genocide on our treaty land,” Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations Chief Bobby Cameron said in a virtual press conference Thursday.

Cameron said the burial site on Cowessess First Nation, 90 minutes east of Regina, is evidence of “a crime against humanity, an assault on First Nation people.”

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau released a statement shortly after the announcement saying he is “terribly saddened” by the news. “My heart breaks for the Cowessess First Nation, and for all Indigenous communities across Canada,” he said.

The news comes after Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced in May that the remains of 215 children were found on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Researchers say hundreds of unmarked graves are also believed to be located in Manitoba related to the residential school system in that province.

There has been considerable political pressure in recent years on federal party leaders to accept the past treatment of Indigenous peoples in Canada as genocide, including the nationwide residential school system removed children from their families to enroll them in a system that strove to “take the Indian out of the child.”

A 2019 inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women concluded what has happened was genocide.

“This genocide has been empowered by colonial structures, evidenced notably by the Indian Act, the Sixties Scoop, residential schools, and breaches of human and Inuit, Métis and First Nations rights, leading directly to the current increased rates of violence, death, and suicide in Indigenous populations,” read the report.

Following the discovery in Kamloops, Trudeau said earlier this month he accepted the conclusion of a 2019 inquiry that “what happened amounts to genocide.”

“Removing headstones is a crime in this country,” he said. “We are treating this like a crime scene.” Delorme suggested through the oral history of community members, the headstones were removed by representatives of the Catholic Church in the 1960s.

Small flags, 751 of them, now dot the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School, each marking the remains of a body. Delorme said both adults and children are believed to be buried in the graves.

Because of poor record keeping, it’s hard to pinpoint what the cause of death was for many students who disappeared at residential schools. Survivors have said some students who were hospitalized never returned, inadequate food supply left some children more vulnerable to disease, and others were threatened with death if they reported physical and sexual abuse.

Source: Politico

JJ Fad On Tomica Wright Excluding Them From ‘Straight Outta Compton’ Film

Posted on by Phil Lam X

In this clip, JJ Fad addressed being left out of the N.W.A. biopic “Straight Outta Compton,” and they explained that they believe that Eazy-E’s widow, Tomica Wright, was behind the decision. The women explained that it wouldn’t have taken a second to have JJ Fad mentioned, or their album being shown on the wall of Ruthless Records in the film. Moving along, they reacted to Dr. Dre involving them in the documentary “The Defiant Ones,” which some of the women felt was an apology. They also addressed claims of abuse surrounding Dr. Dre, which all three women said shocked them because they never saw that side of Dre. To hear more, including possible new deals they have on the way, hit the above clip.

Airlines And Flight Attendants Want Stiffer Penalties For Unruly Passengers: “It’s Out Of Control”

Posted on by Phil Lam X

A JetBlue Airways flight bound for New York returned to the Dominican Republic in early February after a passenger allegedly refused to wear a facemask, threw an empty alcohol bottle and food, struck the arm of one flight attendant, and grabbed the arm of another.

The Federal Aviation Administration, which detailed the incident in a report, slapped the passenger with a $32,750 fine.

Reports of verbal abuse, a failure to comply with the federal mask mandate and assault by airline passengers are on the rise. Airline industry groups, flight attendants and lawmakers want the government to do more to stop it.

The Federal Aviation Administration on Tuesday said it has received approximately 3,100 reports of unruly passenger behavior since the start of the year.

The agency said it has so far proposed fines totaling $563,800, though recent agency releases describe incidents that allegedly occurred in February, meaning there are likely more cases, and fines, yet to be disclosed.

The agency implemented a “zero tolerance” policy and threatened fines of up to $35,000 earlier this year, after a series of politically motivated incidents around the time of the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Passengers have 30 days to contest the fines.

Unruly passenger behavior or interfering with flight attendant duties is against federal law.

Flight attendant unions say their members have been insulted, shouted and demeaned by passengers, some of them intoxicated, and in some rare cases, violence.

A passenger allegedly punched a Southwest Airlines flight attendant last month. The flight attendant lost two teeth after she was struck, according to her labor union.

“It’s out of control,” said Paul Hartshorn, spokesman for the Association of Professional Flight Attendants, which represents American Airlines’ more than 20,000 cabin crew members. “It’s really coming to the point where we have to defend ourselves.”

Airline executives note that the cases are rare considering the number passengers they are carrying. Transportation Security Administration airport screenings recently topped 2 million a day, the highest since before the coronavirus was declared a pandemic in mid-March 2020.

But the issue adds to flight attendants’ stress after a year of job insecurity and health concerns from working in a pandemic, said Sara Nelson, a prominent labor leader and international president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, the largest flight attendant union with some 50,000 members across more than a dozen airlines.

“Even if it doesn’t rise to the level of a physical altercation, just the constant bickering and name-calling and disrespect, that wears away at people,” she said.

Most of the cases are related to passengers’ refusal to wear masks on board, which the Biden administration mandated earlier this year, though airlines have required it since early in the pandemic. The administration extended it through mid-September.

A passenger on a Jan. 7 Alaska Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., to Seattle allegedly pushed a flight attendant when cabin crew walked down the aisle to check whether travelers were wearing face masks, said the FAA, which fined the traveler $15,000.

There isn’t one single reason behind the incidents, according to Ryan Martin, a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, who has studied anger for about two decades. He said a sense of entitlement is a common thread in displays of anger, however.

“What we know is that entitlement is correlated with anger, meaning the more entitled you are the angrier you get,” said Martin, the author of “Why We Get Mad: How to Use Your Anger for Positive Change.”

Another factor behind disruptive behavior could be readily available examples, such as videos online, of others acting out.

“We’ve seen lots and lots of example of people losing their cool and having what I would call tantrums in the last year, very publicly,” Martin said. “Some of that may have modeled a way of dealing with problems for people that isn’t really a healthy, reasonable way to deal with problems.”

Increased anxiety returning to travel might also have heightened tensions, he added, though he noted that one of the better indicators for whether someone will turn violent is that they believe in violence to solve problems in the first place.

Source: CNBC

Ronnie Oneal III Found Guilty Of Double Murder After Acting As His Own Attorney

Posted on by Phil Lam X

Ronnie Oneal III, a man who went viral after giving a speech in court while acting as his own lawyer last week, has been found guilty of multiple charges, including two counts of murder, attempted murder, arson and child abuse.

According to a Monday report (June 21) from the Tampa Bay Times, a jury has found Oneal guilty on two charges of first-degree murder for the March 2018 killings of his girlfriend and their daughter, who was only nine at the time. He was also convicted on a charge of attempted murder for stabbing their then-8-year-old son, a charge of arson for setting their house on fire and two more charges of aggravated child abuse.

Prosecutors say Oneal shot his girlfriend, Kenyatta Barron, in the shoulder with a shotgun before she ran outside and onto her neighbors’ yard. It was then, prosecutors say, that Oneal beat her with the shotgun. After that, they say that he re-entered their home and ragged his daughter, who suffered from cerebral palsy, from her bed before attacking her with a hatchet before cutting his son with a knife and pouring gasoline around their house and setting it on fire. Barron and their daughter died of their injuries, and their son has been adopted by one of the homicide detectives assigned to work this case.

For his part, Oneal insisted that he defended himself during the trial, and he claimed that he ‘d shot Barron after she attacked both of their children. As part of his defense, he also claimed that government officials altered the evidence so that it would work against him.

Although Oneal acted as his own attorney, three public defenders were standing nearby and it’s being reported that they whispered advice to him at points during the trial. Before court adjourned for the day, the judge advised Oneal to have a trained lawyer represent him, but he apparently didn’t make a decision at that moment.

Now that he’s been convicted of several charges, prosecutors are reportedly looking to seek the death penalty for Oneal.

Source: Revolt

The Railroad Journey And The Industrial Revolution

Posted on by Phil Lam X

In which John Green teaches you about railroads, and some of the ways they changed the world, and how they were a sort of microcosm for the Industrial Revolution as a whole. Prior to the invention of steam powered railroads, pretty much all locomotion had been muscle-powered. You either walked where you wanted to go, or rode on an animal to get where you were going. The railroad changed human perception of time and space, making long distance travel much faster and easier. Railroads also changed habits, including increasing reading. People needed some sort of distraction to ensure they didn’t have to talk to other people on the train. Like any new technology, railroads also scared people. All kinds of fears surrounded rail travel, but over time, people got over them. And the quality of boiler manufacturing improved, so the trains exploded less often, which also made people feel safer.