In a vote marred by accusations of corruption and political persecution, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador secured the passage of his controversial bid Tuesday night to amend the constitution and radically reshape the Mexican judiciary. While initially lacking one vote necessary to meet the requisite two-thirds majority necessary for constitutional amendments, the president and his allies managed to secure victory when two members of the opposition bloc failed to maintain their united front. The night of the vote, Senator Miguel Ángel Yunes Márquez of the National Action Party (PAN) crossed the aisle to cast his vote in favor of the judicial reform, while Senator Daniel Barreda of Citizens’ Movement was absent from the chamber entirely due the sudden arrest of his father by the government of Campeche. A furious opposition denounced Yunes as a traitor, asserting that the politician— a member of a political dynasty from the state of Veracruz and longtime enemy of the president—had traded his vote for the protection of his family in a number of criminal investigations opened against them by the state government (now controlled by López Obrador’s party, Morena). “It is obvious that there has been a bargain for immunity,” asserted PAN’s Senate leader, Marko Cortés. Other opposition members denounced him as a “traitor to the nation.” Yunes defended himself, saying, “it is no treason to act in accordance with my principles.” The absence of Barreda created further outrage amongst the opposition, who initially believed the senator himself had been arrested and so prevented from casting his vote, an accusation denied fervently by Morena on the Senate floor. He could not be reached, however, witnesses confirmed that his father’s house had been raided by the Morena-controlled government of the state of Campeche. On Wednesday morning, Barreda confirmed to the media that his father and a local legislator had been arrested by police, and Barreda had left the capitol to secure their release, which occurred at 11pm that same evening, preventing him from attending the Senate vote. The passage of the amendment means that, starting next year, all federal judges in Mexico (including the justices of the Supreme Court) will be elected by popular vote. The post Mexican Judicial Reform Passes Senate appeared first on The American Conservative.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson canceled a planned vote Wednesday on a stopgap funding bill that could keep the government open for the next six months after more than a dozen of his fellow Republicans walked back their support for it. “We’re going to work through the weekend on that,” said Johnson, R-La., less than five hours before the scheduled vote. “No vote today because we’re in the consensus-building business here in Congress with small...

Every parent wants to see their kid get good grades in school. But now we know social success is just as important.From an early age, we're led to believe our grades and test scores are the key to everything — namely, going to college, getting a job, and finding that glittery path to lifelong happiness and prosperity.It can be a little stressful.But a study showed that when children learn to interact effectively with their peers and control their emotions, it can have an enormous impact on how their adult lives take shape. And according to the study, kids should be spending more time on these skills in school.Nope, it's not hippie nonsense. It's science.Kindergarten teachers evaluated the kids with a portion of something called the Social Competence Scale by rating statements like "The child is good at understanding other's feelings" on a handy "Not at all/A little/Moderately well/Well/Very well" scale.The research team used these responses to give each kid a "social competency score," which they then stored in what I assume was a manila folder somewhere for 19 years, or until each kid was 25. At that point, they gathered some basic information about the now-grown-ups and did some fancy statistical stuff to see whether their early social skills held any predictive value.Here's what they found.1. Those good test scores we covet? They still matter, but maybe not for the reasons we thought.Back To School GIF by IFC - Find & Share on GIPHYTraditional thinking says that if a kid gets good grades and test scores, he or she must be really smart, right? After all, there is a proven correlation between having a better GPA in high school and making more money later in life.But what that test score doesn't tell you is how many times a kid worked with a study partner to crack a tough problem, or went to the teacher for extra help, or resisted the urge to watch TV instead of preparing for a test.The researchers behind this project wrote, "Success in school involves both social-emotional and cognitive skills, because social interactions, attention, and self-control affect readiness for learning."That's a fancy way of saying that while some kids may just be flat-out brilliant, most of them need more than just smarts to succeed. Maybe it wouldn't hurt spending a little more time in school teaching kids about the social half of the equation.2. Skills like sharing and cooperating pay off later in life.Adam Sandler Pee GIF - Find & Share on GIPHYWe know we need to look beyond GPA and state-mandated testing to figure out which kids are on the right path. That's why the researchers zeroed in so heavily on that social competency score.What they found probably isn't too surprising: Kids who related well to their peers, handled their emotions better, and were good at resolving problems went on to have more successful lives.What's surprising is just how strong the correlation was.An increase of a single point in social competency score showed a child would be 54% more likely to earn a high school diploma, twice as likely to graduate with a college degree, and 46% more likely to have a stable, full-time job at age 25.The kids who were always stealing toys, breaking things, and having meltdowns? More likely to have run-ins with the law and substance abuse problems.The study couldn't say for sure that strong or poor social skills directly cause any of these things. But we can say for sure that eating too much glue during arts and crafts definitely doesn't help.3. Social behaviors can be learned and unlearned — meaning it's never too late to change.The researchers called some of these pro-social behaviors like sharing and cooperating "malleable," or changeable.Let's face it: Some kids are just never going to be rocket scientists. Turns out there are physical differences in our brains that make learning easier for some people than others. But settling disputes with peers? That's something kids (and adults) can always continue to improve on.And guess what? For a lot of kids, these behaviors come from their parents. The more you're able to demonstrate positive social traits like warmth and empathy, the better off your kids will be.So can we all agree to stop yelling at people when they take the parking spot we wanted?But what does it all mean?This study has definite limitations, which its researchers happily admit. While it did its best to control for as many environmental factors as possible, it ultimately leans pretty heavily on whether a teacher thought a kid was just "good" or "very good" at a given trait.Still, the 19-year study paints a pretty clear picture: Pro-social behavior matters, even at a young age. And because it can be learned, it's a great "target for prevention or intervention efforts."The bottom line? We need to do more than just teach kids information. We need to invest in teaching them how to relate to others and how to handle the things they're feeling inside.Ignoring social skills in our curricula could have huge ramifications for our kids down the road.This article originally appeared on 08.12.15

The Northumberland Zoo in northern England has a great marketing team.With over 184k followers on TikTok, for years they've been producing videos where the zoo animals are the stars. (The zoo's adorable snow leopards always seem to be a surefire hit with the fans!)But for a recent video, Northumberland Zoo flipped the script and put zoo directors Brian and Linda front and center.Then they let some of their younger staffers write the script and cram it full of as much Gen Z slang as possible.The result is hands-down the best and funniest virtual zoo tour you'll ever see.The video currently has over 6 million views and counting, with more than a million likes to go with housands and thousands of comments! @northumberlandzoo Our Zoo Directors didn’t understand the assignment. #genz #genzmarketing #viral #fyp #funny #marketing In complete (and impressive) deadpan, Brian and Linda give a tour of the zoo and its most popular animals using only Gen Z slang.Here's just a sampling of the lingo they were able to squeeze into the minute-long video:"hits different""poppin'""brat""slay""main character energy""menty b""it's giving"and, of course, "very demure, very mindful"There's something kind of surreal about the whole thing — like it was directed by Wes Anderson — and people all over the globe are absolutely eating up Brian and Linda's brilliant comedic timing.It's fair to say that they "understood the assignment." Photo by Janosch Diggelmann on Unsplash It feels like generational divides are bigger and more stubborn than ever — maybe that's why videos like this one hit the spot so well.Northumberland Zoo isn't the first brand to play with generational comedy in their marketing.A real estate agent went mega viral earlier this year when he let his Gen Z employee edit his promotional video with hilarious results.Pairing Gen X/Millennial/Boomer bosses with Gen Z marketing staff has been Internet gold, and right now it's one of the hottest trends on TikTok.The idea of all the staff members at the Northumberland Zoo, young and old, coming together to poke a little fun at one another is just a delight.A survey from Pew Research showed that 79% of respondents believed there was a generation gap, or “a major difference in the point of view of younger people and older people today.”Maybe that's in part because we really love putting labels on people and using those to box them in. "OK boomer" to dismiss older people, while Gen Z is "soft," Gen Alpha is "doomed," and Millennials are cringe.It's just heart-warming and fun to see a group of people of different generations that like each other and can make fun of their differences, and themselves.Realistically, will a funny TikTok heal all the world's ills? Of course not. But here's hoping all the viral attention Northumberland Zoo is getting will help with their conservation efforts, including programs to protect snow leopards and harvest mice.Those harvest mice? Extremely cute by the way. Or, as the kids say, "smol."

Rock and roll on parade. The post The perfect rock song Tom Petty called difficult to write: “It’s not something you can overwork” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.

The absolute peak of Diamond Dave. The post The one Van Halen song Sammy Hagar wishes he wrote: “That’s a badass tune” first appeared on Far Out Magazine.