Demi Lovato got really honest really fast with the D.N.C. crowd Monday night in Philadelphia. Before performing her single Confident, the 23-year-old singer delivered a speech aimed at the importance of mental-health advocacy. She started by telling her own story:
Like millions of Americans, I am living with mental illness, but Im lucky: I had the resources and support to get treatment at a top facility, she began. Lovato, who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at the age of 19, is transparent about the fact that she had the resources necessary to help her manage her illness. Since that time in 2010, she has spoken out about her own illness and become a strong advocate for those living with similar challenges.
You know, entering rehab while youre on the Disney Channel, it was kind of like, everything was magnified, in the spotlight. Its quite the headline, she told Elle last year. And I couldnt get around it. So I thought, you know, I can use this to help others. And thats what I did.
But, she reminded her audience Monday night, not everyone can afford that privilege:
Unfortunately, too many Americans from all walks of life dont get help, either because they fear the stigma or cannot afford treatment. Untreated mental illness can lead to devastating consequences, including suicide, substance abuse, and longterm medical consequences.
She made a push for politicians to become educated on mental-health issues and change laws to better serve the Americans who live with them. She believes in this movement so strongly that she has invited members of her treatment team along on her world tour, so that least a small group of people, even for a brief moment, can have the support that I received.
Lovato praised Hillary Clinton as a candidate who would help fight for that support to all Americans who need it. Lets make her the next president of the United States of America.
Then, to the faint tune of Bernie Sanders supporters still chanting in the background, she launched into her hit song. A clear anthem of Hillary support, its lyrics setting what is perhaps the overall tone of a Clinton-led D.N.C.: This is my game, so you better come to play.
PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. - Youree Harris, the self-proclaimed psychic who was the face of nationwide infomercialsas Miss Cleo, died Tuesday of complications with cancer. She was 53.
William J. Cone, Harris" attorney, said in a statement that she died in Palm Beach County, while surrounded by family and close friends.
Harris also called herselfReePerris,YoureeCleomili,YoureeDell Harris,YoureePerrisand Rae Dell Harris. Her Psychic Readers Network character Miss Cleo had a Jamaican accent. But she wasn"t from Jamaica.
"The cards never lie," was the hotline advisor"s catch phrase. But many thought she did.
As a Los Angeles-born actress in Seattle, she left behind a trail of deception in the late 90s, according to alleged fraud victims who talked to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. She allegedly told some of her colleagues that she suffered from bone cancer and sickle cell anemia, an inherited blood disorder.
At the height of her fame, Harris was the subject of a "deceptive advertising, billing and collection practices" federal civil case filed against Florida-based Access Resource Services, the parent company of the Psychic Readers Network. The company paid a $5 million fine.
Prosecutors took a hold of her birth certificate to show Harris was born in Los Angeles and not the Caribbean, as she claimed as Miss Cleo. She would later tell Vice that she juggled both the Jamaican patois accent and a "little valley girl" accent.
When she could no longer be the face of the TV business, she told the New Times in 2007 that she was charging for one-on-one consultations as a spiritualadviser, she was an author and a poet, and she also performed "energy cleansings" and "house cleanings" as an "Obeah" woman.
"I"m not a psychic," Harris said during the interview. "I am a mambo, a Haitian high priestess -- that"s what I was trained to do. Being a psychic that was not my idea. That was a package that was put together. And it wasn"t me."
Some of her South Florida followers said she lived in Miami Beach and later in Southwest Ranches. About a decade ago, she told a reporter with The Advocate that she was a shaman, a lesbian, and the mother of two daughters. And she also said she had only made about $450,000 during her years as Miss Cleo.
"My family had to deal with the lies and the garbage and the misrepresentations," Harris said during the 2006 interview about the end of her relationship with the Psychic Readers Network. "People really believed that I owned the company. I"m said to have gazillions of dollars. I wish people would tell me where it is."
Harris" voice lives on as Auntie Poulet, also known as voodowitch Madame Haitian, a character on the 2002 "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" video game. And her story was featured inthe 2014 "Hotline,"a documentary about the telephone hotlines phenomena.
"I don"t know who, but I"m certain that I helped some people," Harris said during an interview for the documentary.
Copyright 2016 by WPLG Local10.com - All rights reserved.
In the early morning of Tuesday July 26, a lone attacker with a backpack full of knives stabbed 19 people to death and injured at least 25 more at a care home for disabled people in the city of Sagamihara, about thirty kilometers west of central Tokyo. The assailant was arrested and identified as 26-year-old Satoshi Uematsu, a former employee of the care home. The attack is Japans worst case of mass murder since the end of WWII.
As more details of the crime emerged, Uematsu was quoted as saying he held a grudge against the care home after he had been fired from there in 2012. After turning himself in to police, the Asahi Shimbun reported that Uematsu said, It would be better if disabled people were dead. Uematsu had also attempted to deliver a letter to a local legislator in February stating that disabled people should be poisoned. He was committed to a psychiatric hospital after this act (link in Japanese), and even though a physician reported he was at risk of killing others, he was released a few days later anyway.
Rampage killings such as the Sagamihara attack, where one assailant kills a large number of strangers, have been rare in post-war Japan. While rampage killings have become more frequent over the past decade in the US, there have been just three mass killings in Japan in the past fifteen years. In June 2008, Tomohiro Kato killed seven and injured ten in the Tokyo entertainment district of Akihabara after driving into a crowd with a truck and then attacking bystanders with a knife. In June 2001, Mamoru Takuma stabbed eight students to death and wounded 15 others at an elementary school in Osaka. And now Sagamihara.
Since 1945, these kinds of massacres seem to occur about once a decade in Japan, and other horrible crimes are reported fairly regularly. But compared to other countries, Japan has a very low murder rate, period. So why are these attacks so rare in Japan compared to other countries?
According to the latest Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data, Japans homicide rate was just 0.3 per 100,000 people in 2015. This is the second-lowest rate in the OECD, where the average homicide rate is 4.1 per 100,000. Annual statistics compiled by Japans National Policy Agency show there was only one gun-related death in 2015 in Japan (link in Japanese), and six in 2014. In contrast, at the other end of the spectrum, there were between 11,000 and 12,000 homicides with guns in the US in 2014.
What reasons are behind Japans low homicide rate, especially those murders involving guns? For one thing, gun ownership in Japan is very rare. There are just 0.6 firearms per 100 people in Japan, compared to 88.8 in the US. But as the Sagamihara, Akihabara and Osaka massacres demonstrate, if an assailant wants to kill people, they do not need a gun to do so. But if there were 372 mass shootings in the US in 2015, why didnt Japan have a similar number of knife massacres that year?
Next-to-nonexistent household gun ownership aside, it could also be argued that Japans comparatively communal culturewhich places a strong emphasis on preserving honor, avoiding shame, and generally being honestmay reduce petty crime as well as keep murder rates low. Besides murder, rates of assault and public disorder are much lower in Japan than in other parts of the world. Culturally, getting angry in public in Japan is considered a major faux pas, and only something that children do. The Japanese education system, with its emphasis on collaboration and not just on competition, could be one more reason why the murder rates are so low.
Another explanation may be that drug use in Japan is almost nonexistent and is frowned upon socially. Without the pervasive presence of narcotics, the general mayhem and crime associated with drugs in many other countries is not present. And then theres also the idea that Japanese society simply rejected violence as a way of approaching problems following the countrys crushing defeat in WWII.
For whatever unquantifiable reason you want to put it down to, the end result is that murder rates are incredibly low in Japan. In that case, what drives young men to commit massacres?
Little is known yet of Satoshi Uematsu, the 26-year-old who committed todays attacks in Sagamihara. He was a young man who became socially isolated after losing what was a fairly low-status job as a caregiver in 2012. In February 2016, he was diagnosed with an as-yet-unspecified mental illness before being released from a psychiatric hospital. Six months later, he killed at least 19 people.
Mamoru Takuma, who stabbed eight children to death and wounded 15 others at an elementary school in Osaka in 2001, was also living with untreated mental illness, and was also socially isolated and estranged from his family. Tomohiro Kato, who killed 7 and injured 10 in Akihabara in 2008, wasnt living with a diagnosed mental health condition. But he was likewise estranged from his parents and any support network and living a precarious existence as contract employee, deeply in debt.
The common theme? Socially isolated men, often living with untreated mental illness or the effects of childhood emotional or physical abuse, acting out. While Japan may be a safe country compared to many other parts of the world, its not always safe for everyone, all the time. Recognizing this fact can help the country take steps toward making citizens even safer.
You can follow Nevin on Twitter at @Nevin_Thompson. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.
Michael Jordan donates $2M to improve police-community relations Dear TIME Reader,
As a regular visitor to TIME.com, we are sure you enjoy all the great journalism created by our editors and reporters. Great journalism has great value, and it costs money to make it. One of the main ways we cover our costs is through advertising.
The use of software that blocks ads limits our ability to provide you with the journalism you enjoy. Consider turning your Ad Blocker off so that we can continue to provide the world class journalism you have become accustomed to.
The best single-tweet summary ofMichelle Obama"s address to the Democratic National Conventionmight be this one, courtesy of the New Yorker"s Emily Nussbaum.
Many viewers" memories of the "glass ceiling" portion of the speech will indeed be reduced to "something" because, well, it"s a phrase they"ve heard too many times to countin this election. But waking up each day in "a house that was built by slaves" that"s a line that hasn"t shown upnearly as often.
[Transcript: Read Michelle Obamas full speech from the 2016 DNC]
It certainly caught the attention of the press both on Monday and when the first lady tested it out last month during a commencement speech at City College of New York. On the two occasions when Obama has described the White House in this way, her words have played very differently across the media spectrum.
On CNN Monday, liberal commentator Van Jones said the remark reflected "adeep kind of patriotism." LifeZette, the news site founded by conservative commentator Laura Ingraham, offered the opposite assessment in June, decrying"thegrowing list of unpatriotic sentiments she has uttered since she first began campaigning for her husband during the 2008 presidential election."
After the convention speech, Vox"s Zach Beauchamp wrote that"it was a beautiful moment, reminding America of its dark history and how far it has come." Alex Jones"s Infowars site was less enthused about the progress: "How things change. Now the American people are slaves forced at gunpoint to pay for the extravagant lifestyle of the Obamas."
The Huffington PostdescribedObama"s slavery reference as an "amazing one-liner." The Young Conservatives site said last month that it showed "the disdain she has for America."
There is even some disagreement about the facts underlying Obama"s premise. Did slaves really build the White House? PolitiFact, citing the White House Historical Association, rated the first lady"s statement "true" but noted that records show "the White House was not exclusively built by slaves; it was built by a combination of slaves, free blacks and whites."
[If Michelle Obama ran for office, Democrats would roll the red carpet out for her]
That was enough for conservative commentator Michelle Malkin to tweet that Obama "stretched the truth."
Malkin linked to an article in the conservative Independent Journal, which asserts that "the government paid the slaves who worked on the White House." But the supporting link directs readers to a 2009 PolitiFact article about construction of the Capitol building, not the White House; the PolitiFact piece mentions only one slave who was paid by the U.S. government. The Independent Journal story concedes that "many of the surviving records only indicate payments made to their masters" and there is a very big difference between earning money for yourself and earning money for your owner.
NewsBusters, the conservative media watchdog, also found fault with Obama"s characterization of the White House, noting that the presidential mansion has been renovated multiple times since the abolition of slavery.
It"s worth noting that Obama tweaked the buildup to her White House description between June and Monday night. In her commencement address, Obama moved quickly from talking about immigration to "a house that was built by slaves" without much of a transition; at the DNC, she took more time to paint a broad arc of progress from slavery, to indentured servitude to segregation and, finally, to the presidency.
That is the story of this country, the story that has brought me to this stage tonight, the story of generations of people who felt the lash of bondage, the shame of servitude, the sting of segregation, but who kept on striving and hoping and doing what needed to be done so that today I wake up every morning in a house that was built by slaves. And I watch my daughters, two beautiful, intelligent, black young women playing with their dogs on the White House lawn.
It appeared that Obama, by adding context, wanted to make clearer that her primary goal was not to shame the country for a dark chapter but rather to celebrate the hard-fought changes that enabled African Americans to go from the White House"s enslaved laborers to its residents.
Some in the media saw it that way, but others did not. The result is coverage that almost seems based on two different convention speeches.
5 times Michelle Obama referred to Donald Trump - BBC News
The first lady says she wants the president to be someone who children can look up to as a role model and who takes the job seriously because they will have the power to shape the future of American children.
Heather Wines, Gannett News ServiceMichelle Obama, wife of Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Monday, Aug. 25, 2008.(Photo: Heather Wines, GNS)
Get up-to-the-minute conventionnewsfrom a New Jersey perspectiveonAPP.comwith our team of reporters and photographers in Philadelphia. Coverage you can count on!
By all accounts it was a speech that nearly rocked the Wells Fargo Center off its foundation: Michelle Obama in 15 minutes Monday night did everything from takingon Donald Trump ("because when you have the nuclear codes at your fingertips and the military in your command, you cant make snap decisions"") to wistfully recalling how she and the president during their time at the White House watched their daughters grow from bubbly little girls into poised young women.""
More: Michelle Obama speaks to gender, race and Trump
The first lady"s speech on the opening day of the Democratic National Convention drew raves from all corners:
DNC 2016: Sanders pledges to help get Clinton elected
Even some conservatives cheered the speech:
Other conservatives pretended not to notice:
A fair amount of Twitter users noted how refreshing it was to hear Michelle Obama in her own words...rather than Melania Trump using Michelle Obama"s words:
More: Donald Trump Twitter storm marks beginning of DNC 2016
A bonus --everything she talked about seems to check outon the truth meter:
Of course, high praise also came in from the president:
Bob Jordan bjordan@gannettnj.com
Read or Share this story: http://on.app.com/2a3HLE6
Marko Mandic feat. Wikluh Sky - Instagram (OFFICIAL VIDEO)
Instagram makeup at its finest.
How has Instagram changed the way millennials are approaching plastic surgery procedures? Our younger patients are showing me images they have of themselves or ones that they aspire tofrom Instagram, said Dr. Stafford Broumand, plastic surgeon of 740 Park Plastic Surgery. His patients are also bringing in photos of Chrissy Teigen(7.8 million followers), Taylor Swift(86.5 million followers) and Karlie Kloss(5 million followers)all Instagram favorites with huge followings, which isnt a coincidence. Dr. Broumand has seen what he calls a dramatic shift in procedures since the rise of Instagram. Patients want younger and less tired eyes, eyelid surgery, jawline surgery, neck liposuction, less wrinkles and fuller lipsespecially the social media savvy ones.
Snapchat offers aglimpse into a celebritys lifestyle, along with their expensive and intensive makeup routine; but Instagram is the far superior platformto show off makeup skills, especially since imagescan be heavily edited with apps Perfect365(its the self-proclaimed best free makeover app, with people sharing their own before and after photos) and FaceTune. Search #makeupand88,388,486 posts immediately appear, with regular, everyday folks demonstrating their elaborate routines.
I think with Instagram, people get a little bit carried away, celebrity makeup artistRamy Gafnitold the Observer, explaining that h**l meet social media friends and not recognize them because they look so different without the heavy duty editing.
Using Perfect365 you can Catfish someone with your own photo.
As Instagram has increased in popularity,a specific style of makeup began bombarding social media posts. It seemed impossible to scroll through a feed without seeing the Insta-lookheavily drawn eyebrows, contouring worthy ofany of the Kardashian sisters and a heavy, matte liquid lipstick (usually courtesy of a Kylie Lip Kit). And now, the Kylie Lip Kit isnt all that the Kardashian empire is offeringKylies introducing an eyeshadow palette.
Ramy explained the current Instagram face started with YouTube tutorials. Everything is a little bit exaggerated for dramatic effect on camera, he said, and after doing faces for Taylor Swift, Rihanna and Amy Poehler, he is an expert on camera ready looks. Youre going to wear a little big of a brighter lip color, [use] a little heavier hand with the brow filler.
Its as old as Kim Kardashians original face.
New trends are introduced to stay up-to-date with this Insta-makeup concept, but also to sell palettes and products.Theres nothing new under the sun, Ramy said, bringing up highlight, strobing and contouring as examples. Its all marketing. Its all semantics, honestly. Ive been doing this so many years, Ive never seen new terms being cranked out like this.Ramy was recently asked to weigh in on sandbagging, a powder technique using heavy, loose powder under the eyes so makeup doesnt run. When asked if it was new, Ramy responded, Its as old as Kim Kardashians original face.
Kim Kardashian showing off the sandbagging technique.
Ramy thinks some of the more elaborate makeup can be excessive (Look at the palette I have, its all on my eyes right now!) especially if the makeup artist is an Instagram amateur. When I see that kind of makeup, to me it screams amateuror drag queen, which is great if thats your objectivebut unless youre RuPaul, theres really no reason to have that much makeup on, Ramy joked. Hes a firm believer that makeup should enhance, not make it look like youve had plastic surgery. He prides himself on carrying only a few colors to a job, so he can mix and match. Just get the one correct shade, its all the magic you need, he recommends, instead of loading up on palettes youll inevitably not completely use.
Unless youre RuPaul, theres really no reason to have that much makeup on.
Instagram and beauty bloggers are usually artists who have only learned to master their ownface, got a lot of compliments and decided to share their vision of beauty, freelance makeup artistSami Heacock told the Observer. Heacock suggests people use Instagram to learn about makeup, but then branch out from there. If they continue following beauty bloggers, they wont learn what makeup looks good on their own faceand, everyone will walk around with the same badly drawn brows and highlighted cheekbones.
A typical Instagram #makeuphaul.
Enhancements, ranging from lip injections to eyelash extensions, have also grown in popularity since the rise of social media. Clementina Richardson of Envious Lashes told the Observer that Snapchat and Instagram have become one of the biggest drivers for new clients to pursue eyelashextensions, after hearing about her through social media.
Women are always looking for ways to step up their Instagram game, take better photos and curate an enviable feed, without having to spend too much editing and filtering their images. Lash extensions help women celebrate their natural features instead of trying to totally change up their looks, Richardson said. Most customers are looking for Kylie Jenner or Kim Kardashian lasheswhich, unsurprisingly, are also the bodies and facesmost asked for by plastic surgeons, according to Dr. Broumand.
Narcissism is now not only accepted, its expected. And if you stare at your face for long enough, youre certain to notice whats wrong, whether its a wrinkle, a too-thin upper lip or lashes that could be just a little bit longer. Once you correct it using an app, whats the harm in correcting it in real life? With the right enhancements, you can finally be a filter come to life. As Amy Schumer says, like the Kardashians, we can now take the faces we were born with as a light suggestion.
