This little girl gets extra points for originality with her highly unusual Halloween costume idea! Mom and Dad asked their small daughter what she wanted to dress up as for the spooky holiday, and her answer caught them by surprise. She told them she wanted to be a “pink chair.” Tucker Bohman, the child’s father, shared the cutest footage of her response. In the clip, the little girl’s parents asked her multiple times what she wanted to wear for her Halloween costume. They probably figured that the pink chair idea was a hilariously random one-off. However, this kid was unwavering in her decision. Every time the grown-ups asked her what she wanted to wear to go trick-or-treating, the adorable child told them she wanted to be a chair. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tucker Bohman (@toystorydad) Just to be sure, Mom followed up with a clarifying question. “Like, a chair that you can sit on?” she asked. Eventually, the parents realized that there was no mistaking what the little girl meant: she definitely wanted to wear a piece of furniture as her Halloween costume. So, this supportive mom and dad decided to make their daughter’s unconventional dream come true. At the end of Tucker’s video, he shared some footage of the little girl wearing her Halloween costume to go trick-or-treating. Just as requested, she was dressed as a pink chair. She couldn’t have looked happier as she paraded down the sidewalk in her outfit! Everyone loved this little girl’s wacky Halloween costume idea. Screengrab from Instagram Commenters absolutely loved the fact that these parents helped their daughter live her bizarre fantasy of being a pink chair. Some users also shared the weird costume ideas that their own kids came up with. “Once my daughter asked to be a chicken nugget dipped in BBQ sauce,” one fellow parent wrote. “And she was the best nugget.” Another added, “Me with my daughter right now except she wants to be ‘a pumpkin patch’. Not -a- pumpkin. The whole patch. So now I gotta make like a dozen tiny fabric pumpkins and attach them to a dress.” Kids have such incredible imaginations, don’t they? We’re so glad that so many amazing parents are indulging their children’s adorable whims! You can find the source of this story’s featured image here. The post Precious: Little Girl Finally Wears The Random Yet Adorable Halloween Costume Of Her Dreams appeared first on InspireMore.

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM There’s nothing quite like wandering around your garden with scissors in hand, ready to cut fresh herbs to season your meals. The aromatic scents and flavors are unparalleled. However, as any gardener knows, the growing season is limited, and those lush plants will eventually wilt with the arrival of winter weather. But don’t panic, drying your herbs is an excellent method to keep that garden-fresh flavor well into the winter. Gardeners particularly enjoy air drying since it is simple, inexpensive, and extremely effective at maintaining the essential oils that give herbs their distinct fragrances and smells. While freezing is a possibility, particularly for herbs with a high moisture content, drying is the preferred method for several varieties, allowing you to preserve your herbs in a compact, easy-to-use form that’s ideal for cooking, teas, and even DIY cures. Choosing the right herbs for drying: what works best? When it comes to drying, not all herbs are the same. Some herbs, such as bay, dill, oregano, rosemary, marjoram, thyme, and summer savory, are especially well-suited to air drying due to their low moisture content. These herbs dry quickly and maintain their flavor well.  On the other hand, herbs with a higher moisture content, such as basil, mint, tarragon, and chives, might be difficult to dry. These herbs are susceptible to mold and may lose flavor if not dried quickly enough. For these, you might use a food dehydrator to speed up the process, or you could freeze them, which is typically faster and more effective at preserving flavor. When and how to harvest herbs for optimal drying The timing of your herb harvest is critical for retaining the maximum flavor. The idea is to capture your herbs at their peak, just before they bloom when their essential oils are most concentrated. This is usually early to mid-morning when the dew has dissipated but before the sun becomes too bright. Here are a few tips for picking herbs: 1. Harvest before flowering: For the best flavor, harvest your herbs just before they start to flower. When herbs begin to flower, their energy transfers from leaf to flower development, often resulting in a loss of flavor. 2. Midmorning harvest: Harvest your herbs in the late morning, after the morning dew has dried but before the afternoon sun wilts them. This timing keeps the herbs at their freshest and most delicious. 3. Selective cutting: When harvesting, don’t cut back more than one-third of the plant at a time unless you intend to completely replace it. This strategy ensures that the plant remains healthy and productive throughout the season. Step-by-step guide for drying fresh herbs Drying your herbs is a simple process, but you must follow each step carefully to ensure that your herbs preserve as much taste as possible. Here’s a full tutorial to walk you through the process: 1. Gather your cuttings: Begin by gathering the cuttings from the herbs you intend to dry. This could include hardy herbs like rosemary, thyme, oregano, or others with low moisture content. 2. Shake it off: Gently shake your herb branches to remove any insects or debris. Because you won’t be properly cleaning the herbs before drying, this step keeps them clean and ready to use. 3. Check for dryness: If your herbs are a little unclean, give them a quick washing and pat them dry with paper towels. Then, place them in a well-ventilated room to air out entirely. Wet herbs are more likely to mold throughout the drying process, so make sure they are completely dry before you start. 4. Remove lower leaves: Remove the bottom inch or so of leaves from the stems. These leaves can be dried individually or utilized fresh. Remove any yellowed, damaged, or diseased leaves, since they will not dry well and can degrade the overall quality of your dried herbs. 5. Bundle the stems: Gather four to six stems and knot them into little bundles with string or a rubber band. Keep in mind that as the herbs dry, the bundles will shrink, so check them occasionally to ensure they are still tight. For herbs with a high moisture content, construct smaller bundles to allow for greater air circulation and reduce the risk of mold. 6. Use paper bags: If you’re worried about dust or want to speed up the drying process, put your herb bundles in paper bags with holes cut out for air. Hang the bags upside down in a warm, dry place. The paper bags protect the plants from dust and harsh sunshine while still allowing air to circulate freely. 7. Hang upside down: The conventional way of drying herbs is to hang them upside down in a warm, well-ventilated room. As the leaves dry, gravity helps to spread the oils throughout them, improving the flavor. 8. Check frequently: Depending on the herb and drying circumstances, the drying time might range from a few days to a couple of weeks. Check your herbs on a regular basis. They are ready when the leaves break easily between your fingertips. Proper storage of dried herbs for maximum freshness Once your herbs have been properly dried, proper storage is required to maintain their flavor and efficacy. Here’s how to properly store your dried herbs: 1. Check for mold: Before keeping your herbs, thoroughly inspect them for any symptoms of mold. If you come across any moldy herbs, dispose of them right away to prevent the mold from spreading. 2. Store in airtight containers: Use airtight containers to store your dried herbs. Small canning jars and zipped plastic bags work well. To maximize flavor retention, preserve the leaves intact and crush them shortly before use. 3. Label and date: Always label your containers with the herb’s name and date of storage. Herbs lose potency over time, so knowing when you dried them allows you to keep track of their freshness. 4. Store in a cool, dry place: Keep your herbs out of direct sunlight. Amber-colored jars are very efficient at shielding light, which might reduce the flavor of your herbs over time. 5. Enjoy for up to a year: When properly preserved, dried herbs can keep their flavor for up to a year. However, for the finest flavor, utilize them within six months. Drying and storing your garden herbs is a wonderful way to enjoy the flavors of your summer harvest all year. With a little care and attention to detail, you may enjoy the fresh, vibrant flavor of your homegrown herbs in every meal, long after the growing season is over.The post The ultimate guide to drying and storing fresh garden herbs for year-round homegrown flavor first appeared on The Optimist Daily: Making Solutions the News.

BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In a big step toward protecting workers’ personal time, Australia has passed a new law granting employees the “right to disconnect” from work after hours. This policy, which went into effect for the majority of workers this past Monday, permits Australians to reject work-related communications outside of regular business hours without fear of punishment. It legally establishes the line between professional commitments and personal life, which has been increasingly hazy in recent years, particularly with the rise of remote work following the COVID-19 pandemic. Restoring work-life balance The new law passed in February, does not prohibit companies from contacting employees after hours, but it does provide rights for individuals who opt not to interact outside of working hours. According to Australia’s Fair Work Commission (FWC), employees are now protected if they “refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact or attempted contact outside their working hours, unless their refusal is unreasonable.” Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations Sen. Murray Watt underlined that the regulation intends to restore work-life balance and prevent employees from accruing unpaid overtime. “It’s really about trying to bring back some work-life balance and make sure that people aren’t racking up hours of unpaid overtime for checking emails and responding to things at a time when they’re not being paid,” said Watt.  While the law gives workers the freedom to disconnect, there are several limitations. For example, if the situation is an emergency or if the employee’s refusal to react is deemed unreasonable due to their seniority, caregiving obligations, or the nature of the communication, the employee may still be required to participate. Addressing unpaid overtime and mental health The legislation was enacted in response to growing worries about the loss of work-life balance. According to the Centre for Future Work at the Australia Institute’s 2022 poll, 70 percent of Australians worked outside of their allocated hours, resulting in increased stress, anxiety, and physical exhaustion. The institute also reported that in 2023, Australians worked an average of 281 hours of unpaid overtime, which, at average salary rates, equated to roughly $7,500 in lost earnings per worker annually. “This is particularly concerning when workers’ share of national income remains at a historically low level, wage growth is not keeping up with inflation, and the cost of living is rising,” according to the institute. The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) hailed the new law as a “cost-of-living win for working people.” ACTU President Michele O’Neil stated that the freedom to disconnect would not only cut unpaid work hours but would also address the “growing crisis of increasing mental health illness and injuries in modern workplaces.”  She summarized it in one sentence: “More money in your pocket, more time with your loved ones, and more freedom to live your life — that’s what the right to disconnect is all about.” Critics and supporters Despite its widespread support among workers and labor groups, the law has received criticism from some quarters. Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has promised to revoke the right to disconnect if his party wins the next federal election, claiming that it will undermine productivity and employer-employee relations. The Business Council of Australia expressed similar worries, warning that the new law might harm Australia’s competitiveness by increasing costs and complexity for enterprises. However, the Australian population appears to embrace the effort. According to the Australia Institute’s 2022 study, only nine percent of respondents thought such a policy would have no positive influence on their lives. The majority mentioned benefits such as increased social and family time, better mental health, and higher job satisfaction. Australia has joined a growing list of countries that have enacted the right to disconnect, including France, Spain, and Italy. While the notion is still relatively new in many areas of the world, including the United States, its acceptance in Australia reflects a larger worldwide trend of valuing work-life balance and mental health in the workplace. As other countries monitor Australia’s implementation of this law, the question remains: Could the freedom to disconnect become a universal standard for workers worldwide?The post Australia grants employees the right to disconnect after hours first appeared on The Optimist Daily: Making Solutions the News.

Weeeeeeeeeeee!

Old-uvai but Gorge-ous (sorry, sorry).

For something so widespread and potentially so significant, it’s remarkable it has taken this long.

Taxpayer-subsidized National Public Radio shouldn’t be a starting place for aggressively biased coverage against either Democrats or Republicans. But you can ask Clarence Thomas how the machine works. On August 27, NPR veterans-affairs reporter Quil Lawrence lit into Donald Trump for bringing cameras to a section of Arlington National Cemetery with some families of soldiers killed during Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. The entire manufactured controversy is perverse. It’s obvious NPR is exploiting Arlington Cemetery for a political goal, and it then spread to the rest of the national media. Trump is showing support for grieving Gold Star families, while President Biden and Vice President Harris would not appear. They were MIA. But Trump was singled out as the one with grotesque political optics, not the no-shows whose negligence cost American lives. They weren’t seriously considering the Biden-Harris disaster on All Things Considered. They could call it “All Democrats Defended.” Conservatives quickly found snapshots from private photographers of Joe Biden in the same sacred section of the Arlington cemetery. That thing cannot be “considered.” In a different segment of this evening newscast, Lawrence and NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman reviewed the third anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing, which led to the death of 13 American service personnel. The segment was headlined: “The chaotic U.S. exit from Afghanistan in 2021 had stems from four administrations.”  NPR felt compelled to spread the blame around on everyone. Bowman spun furiously: "It's important to note that it was the Trump administration that signed this peace deal that was basically a quick exit plan.” Lawrence added, “There is a lot of failure to go around to the four presidents over the 20 years of war.” Lawrence was back the next morning to add another layer of reheated Democrat spin to the mix: “You know, Trump has a controversial history with comments about disabled veterans, though, and about fallen soldiers. Some of his former staff have said Trump called fallen World War II troops losers and suckers for fighting and dying when they had no personal gain at stake. Trump denies these comments, but even this year, he mocked the late John McCain for not being able to raise his arms fully.” One of the most annoying problems with this story is using anonymous cemetery officials to attack Trump’s optics. This leads the public to assume only Trump is being political, that it’s impossible that the people seeking to block Trump and the Gold Star families are partisan Democrats doing damage control.  Democrat journalists should be accused of hiding Democrat activism with an undeserved veil of anonymity. Why grant anonymity here? They’re supposedly nonpartisan public officials. Lawrence said they stopped talking: “They've told NPR and other media outlets that they're no longer going to answer any questions about this because they want to protect the identity of the official who confronted the Trump campaign.” Then Lawrence closed with one last insult: ”But our source told me that they have never seen this level of disrespectful behavior at Arlington, ever.” This sounds vaguely reminiscent of the anonymous “nonpartisans” at the National Archives that hated Trump so much it eventually led to an armed raid on Trump’s home at Mar-a-Lago over some missing presidential papers. Trump is always the loutish supervillain, and the people heaping negative press on him are painted as patriotic anonymous bureaucrats.   This is the corrupt nature of public broadcasting, loaded almost entirely with partisan Democrats, subsidized by Democrat politicians to provide mudslinging campaign ads disguised as “journalism.” It’s not “public” radio. It’s for the socialist half of the public. 

Much fanfare has been lavished on the concept of artificial intelligence in the past five years, to the point that its primacy is treated in the media as a foregone conclusion. The idea that algorithms can “think” has become a pervading myth, a sci-fi fantasy come to life. The reality is much less impressive.We continually hear from globalists at the World Economic Forum and other elitist institutions that AI is the catalyst for the “Fourth Industrial Revolution” — a technological singularity that will supposedly change every aspect of our society forever. I keep waiting for the moment that AI does something significant in terms of advancing human knowledge or making our lives better. The moment never comes. In fact, the globalists keep moving the goalposts for what AI really is.Globalists want the proliferation of AI because they know that people are lazy and will use the system as a stand-in for individual research. If this happens on a large scale, then AI could be used to rewrite every aspect of history, corrupt the very roots of science and mathematics, and turn the population into a drooling hive mind, a buzzing froth of brain-dead drones consuming every proclamation of the algorithm.I would note that WEF zealots like Yuval Harari talk about AI like it is the rise of an all-powerful deity (I discuss the globalist worship of AI in my article "Artificial Intelligence: A Secular Look at the Digital Antichrist"). Yet Harari has also recently downplayed AI as a sentient intelligence. He argues that self-awareness or consciousness doesn’t need to be achieved in order to be considered a super-being or a living entity. He even suggests that the popular image of a Terminator-like AI with individual agency and desire is not a legitimate expectation.In other words, AI as it stands today is nothing more than a mindless algorithm, and thus it is not AI. But if every aspect of our world is engineered around digital infrastructures and the populace is taught to put blind faith in the “infallibility” of algorithms, then eventually they become the robot gods the globalists so desperately desire. That is to say, AI dominance is only possible if everyone BELIEVES that AI is legitimate. Harari essentially admits to this agenda in the speech above.The allure of AI for average people is the pie-in-the-sky promise of freedom from worry or responsibility. As with all narcissists, the global elite love to future-fake and buy popular conformity now on false promises of rewards that will never come.Yes, algorithms are currently used to help laymen do things they could not do before, such as build websites, edit essays, cheat on college exams, create bad artwork and video content, etc. Useful applications are few and far between. For example, the claim that AI is “revolutionizing” medical diagnosis and treatment is far-fetched. The U.S., the nation that arguably has the most access to AI tools, is also suffering from declining life expectancy. We know it’s not COVID because the virus has a 99.8% average survival rate. You would think that if AI is so powerful in its ability to identify and treat ailments, the average American would be living longer.These digital tools haven't lived up to the hypeThere is no evidence of a single benefit to AI on a broader social scale. At most, it looks like it will be good at taking jobs away from web developers and McDonald’s drive-thru employees. The globalist notion that AI will create a robotic renaissance of art, music, literature, and scientific discovery is utter nonsense. AI has proven to be nothing more than a tool of mediocre convenience, but that’s actually why it’s so dangerous.I suspect the WEF has changed its ideas about what AI should be because it’s not living up to the delusional aspirations the elites originally had for it. They’ve been waiting for a piece of software to come to life and start giving them insights into the mechanics of the universe, and they’re starting to realize that’s never going to happen. Instead, the elitists are increasingly shifting their focus to the melding of the human and digital worlds. They want to fabricate the necessity of AI because human dependence on the technology serves the purposes of centralization.But what would this actually look like? Well, it requires the population to continue to get dumber while AI becomes more integral to society.For example, it is widely accepted at this point that a college education is no indication of intelligence or skill. Millions of graduates entering the workforce today display an unsettling level of incompetence. This is partially because college educators are less capable and ideologically biased and the average curriculum has degraded. But we also need to start accounting for the number of kids coasting their way through school using ChatGPT and other cheat boxes.They don’t need to learn anything; the algorithm and their cell phone cameras do it all for them. This trend is disturbing because human beings tend to take the easiest path in every aspect of survival. Most people stopped learning how to grow food because industrial farming does it for us. They stopped learning how to hunt because there are slaughterhouses and refrigerated trucks. Many Zennials today are incapable of cooking for themselves because they can get takeout delivered to their door any time they want. They barely talk on the phone or create physical communities any more because texting and social media have become the intermediaries in human interaction.Yes, everything is “easier,” but that does not mean anything is better.My great fear — the future that I see coming down the road — is one in which human beings no longer bother to think. AI might be seen as the ultimate accumulation of human knowledge, a massive library or digital brain that does all the searching and thinking for you. Why learn anything when AI “knows everything”? Except this is a lie.AI doesn’t know everything; it only knows what its programmers want it to know. It only gives you the information its programmers want you to have. The globalists understand this, and they can taste the power that they will have should AI become paramount as an educational platform. They see it as a way to trick people into abandoning personal development and individual thought.Look at it this way: If everyone in the world starts turning to AI for answers to all their questions, then everyone in the world will be given the same exact answers and will come to the same exact conclusions. All AI has to do is actively censor any information that contradicts the official narrative.Centralized control We got a taste of this Orwellian condition during the COVID pandemic, when Big Tech companies like Google used algorithms to bury any and all data that proved COVID was not the threat that government officials said it was. You could not go on YouTube for at least three years and look up alternative information on COVID or the vaccines. The algorithm forced everyone to sift through a long list of establishment sources, many of them promoting blatant lies about masking, social distancing, the COVID death rate, and vaccine safety.The powers that be don’t even need to directly censor or remove information they don’t like. All they have to do is let the algorithm dictate the search results and bury the truth on page 10,000, where no one will look.How would this affect the average person? Say AI is programmed to dictate scientific discourse. What if AI says that man-made climate change is an undeniable reality and the “science is settled” while never presenting the mountain of counter-evidence to the contrary? No one will look up the real data because AI will make it impossible to find. Everyone will assume AI is telling them all there is to know about the subject, but it gets worse than that.Many readers might remember a few months back when Google AI system “Gemini” was programmed to force DEI onto its users. Whenever a person asked the AI to create a historical image, the algorithm made everyone black or brown and often female. Depictions of white men were suspiciously rare despite historical accuracy. This meant endless images of black and brown Highlanders in Scotland, black Founding Fathers in America, female Catholic popes, Asian knights in medieval Europe, and, hilariously, even black Nazis in WWII Germany.AI developers often claim that once an AI is created, they don’t really control what it does and how it grows. The Gemini incident proves this is a lie. AI can definitely be controlled or at least molded by coding to promote whatever propaganda the programmers want it to promote. There is no such thing as an autonomous AI; there is always an agenda.To summarize, globalists want the proliferation of AI because they know that people are lazy and will use the system as a stand-in for individual research. If this happens on a large scale, then AI could be used to rewrite every aspect of history, corrupt the very roots of science and mathematics, and turn the population into a drooling hive mind, a buzzing froth of brain-dead drones consuming every proclamation of the algorithm as if it is sacrosanct.In this way, Yuval Harari is right. AI does not need to become sentient or wield an army of killer robots to do great harm to humanity. All it has to do is be convenient enough that we no longer care to think for ourselves. Like the “great and powerful” Oz hiding behind a digital curtain, you assume you’re gaining knowledge from a wizard when you’re really being manipulated by globalist snake-oil salesmen.Editor's note: This article was originally published on alt-market.us.

Whatever one thinks of the platforms being attacked by Brussels, it is crucial for freedom of speech that the EU is not allowed to win this fight.

By removing these leaders, we succeeded only in eliminating an easy target of public criticism, a fact that allows the schools to deflect accountability.