Urban Hippie

Over the course of the 2018-19 school year, seven parents of students at McGee's Crossroads Elementary School, which straddles farms and suburbs near Raleigh, N.C., died. Students were struggling with the trauma of losing a parent, in several cases violently. Their classmates didn't always know how to support them, and in some cases taunted them over these experiences. The principal overheard one say, "I'm glad your dad died." During the next school year, the school took a new approach to help kids who might be acting out because of stress and trauma in their own lives. Armed with so-called trauma-informed techniques, school staff focused more on building relationships with students and understanding why they misbehaved. No longer did teachers ask, “What is wrong with you?” when kids acted

To say Apple TV+'s Foundation diverges from its source material would be a bit of an understatement.An adaptation of Isaac Asimov's classic science fiction novels, Foundation is less interested in following its source material to the letter than it is in creating a story within Asimov's universe that would make good TV. The basic plot remains the same: mathematician Hari Seldon (Jared Harris) foretells the fall of the Galactic Empire thanks to his theory of psychohistory. Knowing the fall is inevitable, he establishes the Foundation in order to preserve knowledge and, hopefully, civilization in the years to come.Foundation takes this story and tweaks it in some pretty big ways, which makes sense when considering the scale of Asimov's work. The Foundation books are collections of interlocki...

TL;DR: Save 33% on the PlayStation Plus: Three Year Subscription Stackable Code Bundle with the code PLAYSTATION2021 and receive $20 of store credit as of Sept. 25. Get it for just $119.99.After unwrapping your shiny new PlayStation 5 and admiring its beauty, then gawking at the jaw-dropping visuals, you’ll quickly realize it’s missing something. In order to access online gameplay and everything else your new console has to offer, you’re going to need a subscription to PlayStation Plus. Consider it the golden ticket. For a limited time, you can score three years of PlayStation Plus for a total steal at just $120 (regularly $179.97). With your subscription, you’ll get to enjoy online gameplay with friends and foes, exclusive discounts on new and classic games, plus two free games to keep ea

TL;DR: Become fluent in ASL with the Complete 2022 American Sign Language Lifetime Membership Bundle, on sale for $29.99 — an 87% savings — as of Sept. 25.American Sign Language is all about expression, being direct, and communicating your thoughts quickly and efficiently. Whether you've always wanted to learn or just recently fell in love with the movie CODA, now is the perfect time to learn ASL. And now it's never been easier, since this complete training is on sale for over 85% off for a limited time.This 2022 ASL Training Bundle is essentially your one-stop shop to become fluent in ASL. With this purchase, you'll get lifetime access to over 100 hours of online learning. But just because there are so many lessons doesn't mean they're stale; each course has been completely re-recorded in

TL;DR: Snag the A.Brolly Tube: World's Lightest Umbrella, stay dry, and save 52% as of Sept. 25. You'll pay just $18.99.Umbrellas are one of the oldest inventions of humankind, dating back to around 1,000 B.C. They were even regarded as a status symbol at one point. But today, they’re an afterthought. They sit in hall closets for years without ever being used. It’s hard to remember to grab an umbrella when we’re bombarded with tons of other everyday carry items. Plus, they’re often just a bulky inconvenience when you’re out and about. For those reasons, A.Brolly decided it was time to reinvent the umbrella. After a successful Kickstarter and Indiegogo funding round — reaching 155 percent of its goal — the A.Brolly Tube was born. Dubbed the world’s lightest umbrella at just three ounces, th

A new law will pry open the black box of how Amazon monitors, rewards, and disciplines its fulfillment center employees.On Wednesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that directly affects "mega-retailers" like Amazon, and how these companies use algorithms to manage warehouse workers. Mega-retailers are those that employ more than 1,000 warehouse workers, and they include one of Amazon's main competitors, Walmart. The bill, AB 701, takes effect on Jan. 1 and gives companies 30 days to disclose in writing "each quota to which the employee is subject."Traditional quotas let workers know what’s expected of them. But workers and government regulators can’t see what goes into the algorithms used by Amazon and other companies to judge productivity. So an employee could be pen

What if the games you played as a child were deadly?That's the main hook of Squid Game, a South Korean series that shot to the top of Netflix's most-watched list in the days following its release. It's been likened to Battle Royale, Black Mirror, and The Hunger Games — all of which are apt comparisons. And while the "children's games, but with murder" premise is intriguing enough by itself, Squid Game adds enough substance beyond that to cement itself as a compelling (and terrifying) watch.Let's start at the very beginning: Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae) is down on his luck and heavily in debt. He's so desperate for money that he doesn't hesitate to accept a mysterious stranger's offer to play simple children's games for cash. What could go wrong?Turns out, a lot. Gi-hun and 455 other willing

If you spend any time on TikTok, you've probably come across devious licks. The pretty bizarre challenge, which has swept social media over the past few weeks, has students stealing random items of school property. Think bus parts, soap dispensers, lab equipment, and even classroom telephones. Suffice to say, the missing items go easily noticed. And to top it off, students are posting their various "licks" onto TikTok. School administrators are not impressed, but neither is Trevor Noah. During a recent Daily Show episode, Noah shared some thoughts on the challenge. "It's not just disrespectful, it's also dumb," he said, pointing out that the destruction actually affects the destroyer. He's got a point. You have to use the toilets in your school, after all."When the U.S. government said you...

Your MacBook does not know better than you. Apple's macOS has an infuriating habit of automatically changing the computer's screen brightness level, seemingly at random. No, it's not all in your head. Thankfully, you can turn off this annoying so-called feature. Some MacBooks are equipped with ambient light sensors, and will attempt to automatically adjust the screen brightness to compensate for changes in surrounding light. Working in your dark bedroom to start the day, but your sunny backyard after lunch? Your Mac, at least in theory, will figure it out. But reality is often quite different from theory. If you work in a place where the light changes throughout the day — say there's a skylight above you, or you're next to some windows — this setting means your screen is constantly doing