CRISTIANO RONALDO WINS FIFTH BALLON D'OR TO EQUAL LIONEL MESSI

The Real Madrid star took home the prize after guiding his team to a La Liga and Champions League double in 2016-17
Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo has won the 2017 Ballon d'Or.
It is the fifth time the Portugal international has won the prize, drawing him level with his great rival Lionel Messi for the most Ballons d'Or of all time. Ronaldo scored 42 goals across all competitions during the 2016-17 season, leading Real Madrid to a La Liga and Champions League double.

Lessons From a Dad Who’s Fostered More Than 50 Kids

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My wife and I lost our first child to a brain condition. Years later, when we had three healthy kids of our own, we saw a lot of children around us who were suffering abuse and neglect as well as children who had been abandoned. We thought: “We lost our first child. How can we help other kids?

 

For fifteen years now, we’ve had over 50 kids come into our home. We averaged nine children in our house at a time for a great long time but have had as many as 11, from as young as 27 hours old to 18 years of age — and everything in between. One year, we had seven kids in diapers on Christmas.

 

When I was a teacher, I saw the need for foster parents in my classroom every day. Fifty-five percent of kids in foster care will quit school before they age out of the system. Sixty-five percent will end up homeless, and 75 percent will end up in jail. The cycle will just repeat itself for the next generation. Two of the three kids I have adopted, their parents, and grandparents were all in foster care. That’s when I knew foster care could be the way we help.
The kids that come to our home have suffered tremendous abuse and are suffering from great anxieties. So it’s hard for them. They don’t want to be in our house. They want to go back to their own home. Our norm is not their norm. I’m not their daddy, my wife’s not their mommy.         

Can You Be Successful If You Have Too Many Ideas?

Are you one of those business owners who has 17 new ideas a day?
I am, and a few years ago, when I was first starting my business, here’s what I had on my plate: a freelance design research consultancy, a research collaborative, a startup, an empowerment bootcamp for women, a speaker series, and a pop-up dinner club.
Whew.
Today I run only two companies, and they are successful: a career growth training company for creative women, and a small design research consultancy. But back then, it was tiring and exhausting, and it definitely wasn’t very financially sustainable.
My accountant once said, “I don’t understand how Mia is doing so much but making so little money.”
During this time, I picked up a book — Making Ideas Happen by Scott Belsky. There was a little graph in it that stopped me in my tracks, because it described my life perfectly.

8 Things a Parent Should Never Say to Their Children

 

In the absence of any real strategy, many parents opt for a stream-of-consciousness style of parenting — which is to say they react to their kid’s behaviors with a litany of seemingly parental phrases they’ve picked up over the years. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the approach — it’s certainly understandable — but unfortunately, many of the cliches at hand are based on outdated or wrongheaded assumptions about how kids work. Others phrases aren’t actually productive in the ears of children, but are merely emotional reactions to the stress of being responsible for tiny, crazed humans. These are eight of the worst and most common phrases to avoid.
“Get it Out of Your System”
Sometimes kids struggle with mysterious compulsions. They might be unable to fight the urge to run around the house naked, make annoying high pitched noises, or use potty talk. Some parents respond by offering a temporary reprieve of consequences so the kid can “get it out of their system.” Sadly, that concept is based on a tragic misunderstanding of the human brain and the concept of catharsis.

 

The fact is that children are not born with a finite desire to run naked through the house. That’s not how the human mind works. So, telling them to go ahead and run naked won’t somehow exhaust their urge to strip and sprint. In fact, it’s likely to do the opposite. A kid who is allowed to “get it out of their system” is actually delighting in having their behavior reinforced.                                  

REVEALED: The mystery buyer of Leonardo da Vinci painting sold for record $450M at NYC auction

• Saudi royal Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud has been revealed to be the buyer of Leonardo da Vinci's 'Salvator Mundi' painting
• It sold last month for a record breaking $450.3million during a Christie's auction in New York City
• Prince Bader is the Chairman of the Saudi Research and Marketing Group
• Painting, which was authenticated in 2011, is now heading to the Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum - the first museum to bear the Louvre name outside of Paris
• The museum has been billed as 'the first universal museum in the Arab world' in a sign of the oil-rich emirate's global ambitions

A Saudi prince has been revealed to be the mystery buyer of the $450.3million Leonardo da Vinci painting of Christ that is now heading to the Louvre Abu Dhabi in a coup for the bold new museum.
Prince Bader bin Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Farhan al-Saud shelled out the staggering amount on da Vinci's 'Salvator Mundi' during an auction last month at Christie's in New York City to make it the most expensive painting ever sold.
The New York Times confirmed that Prince Bader purchased the rare painting after citing documents it had reviewed while in the midst of an investigation into Saudi Arabia’s elite class, including his family and associates.

“He just didn’t want to upset the world” – Patti LaBelle on why Luther Vandross never Came Out as Gay

Patti LaBelle was a guest, along with Sam Smith, on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” where she discussed Luther Vandross’ sexuality.

Asked if there were any similarities between Sam Smith and Luther Vandross, LaBelle said:

There are voices in this world and once they sing it’s a stamp on everybody. Luther did that and he’s done it.

The talk went on to explore the friendship between LaBelle and Vandross, and while the latter’s sexuality has always been a cause for debate, Cohen asked if he ever struggled with coming out publicly. He said:

Obama blamed for Libyan slave trade

Former President Barack Obama has come under criticism after a series of videos showing men and women being sold in a renewed slave trade have gone viral in recent weeks.

Some critics have begun questioning how much the Obama administration contributed to the problem with its 2011 intervention in Libya. Obama has acknowledged the issue before, calling it the "worst mistake" of his presidency.

But as videos showing humans being sold into slavery shocks people around the world, the scrutiny has been renewed.

"The responsibility is on Barack Obama's administration," University of Texas professor, Alan J. Kuperman, said in an interview with Newsweek.
The United States launched an operation in Libya with NATO in 2011 in an attempt to save civilians who were targeted to be massacred by Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

Kuperman claims overthrowing Gadhafi led to many of the failed nation's issues, including the slave trade.

An investigation from CNN showed migrants being sold for as little as $400 at auction. Thousands of immigrants have fled Libya for Europe in an attempt to escape violence and instability.

Photos of 8yr old Boy Who Owns a Motorcycle Shop, & Hire People to Work for him is Breaking the Internet

A Young boy Kiberu Joseph is melting the hearts of internet users after photos of him reparing a motorcycle hit the internet, the 8year old had quite a challenging life during his early childhood hence growing up learning a few thing including learning how to repair motorcycles and now he uses his skills to survive.

Kiberu who also owns his own motor cycle garage in Kibaati town, Mubende District is a Primary two(P.2) pupil who takes some days off from school to repair motorcycles in order to help his poor father raise his (Kiberu Joseph) school fees of UGX 200000 per term hence enabling his study.

Life is not as easy as it looks but Kiberu here also hires a few people who help him run the garage while at school and even when he is around, these people he hires help him take care of a few heavy things he can’t handle by himself.

see mOre Photos of him below!

How often you hold your baby actually affects their DNA, study finds

A loving mother’s caress is more than simple comfort to an infant. Scientists have known for decades that touch is critically important for a child’s healthy development, according to an article in the journal Pediatric Child Health.

But now a new study shows that the amount a baby is touched can leave lasting, measurable effects — not just on behavior or growth, but all the way down to the molecular level of the DNA. Those changes, the scientists speculate, could have negative effects on the way the child grows and develops.

"A protector": Trial opens in death of teen who shielded girls from gunfire

A prosecutor said Tuesday at the start of the murder trial of three young men that at least 34 shots were fired in an attack that killed a Tennessee high school student who was posthumously lauded for courageously shielding two girls from the gunfire. Christopher Drone Bassett, Kipling Deshawn Colbert and Richard Gregory Williams III all face first-degree murder charges in connection with the Dec. 17, 2015, death of 15-year-old Zaevion Dobson in Knoxville.

Dobson's decision to protect his two friends was later hailed by then-President Barack Obama as an act of bravery.

Knox County Assistant District Attorney Phil Morton said Dobson was killed in an attack during a series of connected gang-related shootings in Knoxville that day. Morton said Dobson and his friends had gathered on a back porch after attending an evening high school basketball game when the shooters approached, firing shots from at least four weapons.

Former congresswoman Corrine Brown steals charity money from impoverished kids; sentenced to five years in prison

Former Congresswoman, Corrine Brown was yesterday sentenced to serve five years in prison for using charity donations meant for underprivileged students for personal use.

Brown was convicted months ago by a jury but on Dec 4th a federal judge sentenced her. Brown faced several allegations including fraud, lying on tax forms as well Congressional disclosures; which ended with Brown losing her seat. Amid the scandal, she also lost the primary election last year.

According to the Associated Press, officials accused Brown of using $800,000 of impoverished children’s charity money for her own. She stole money from a bogus charity, One Door For Education, which purported to give scholarships to poor children but instead filled the coffers of Brown and her associates.

Russia banned from 2018 Winter Olympics over doping scandal

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced Tuesday that it has suspended Russia's Olympic team from competing in the 2018 Winter Olympics over the country's doping scandal. The committee said it will allow athletes from the country to compete as neutrals at Pyeongchang Games.

The IOC suspended the Russian Olympic committee and IOC member Alexander Zhukov, and also banned Russian Deputy Prime Minister Vilaty Mutko from the Olympics for life. Mutko was the sports minister in 2014 and is the head of the organizing committee of soccer's next World Cup.

The Russian Olympic committee was also fined $15 million to pay for the investigation and future anti-doping work. The sanctions could be challenged at the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Woman Who Disappeared After Tinder Date Found Dead

A 24-year-old Nebraska woman who went missing after an online date has been found dead three weeks after she disappeared.

The family of Sydney Loofe made the announcement Monday night on a Facebook page they’d created to help raise awareness about Loofe’s disappearance.

“It’s with heavy hearts that we share this most recent update with you all,” the message reads. “Please continue to pray for Sydney and our entire family. May God grant eternal rest unto thee. We love you Sydney.”

The Antelope County Sheriff’s Office also shared the news on its official Facebook page, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the Loofe family … No other details are known at this time.”

According to Randy Thysse, special agent in charge of the Omaha division of the FBI, Loofe’s body was discovered Monday afternoon in an “open area” of rural Clay County. The location is roughly 90 miles southwest of Lincoln.

“On behalf of the FBI, we extend our deepest heartfelt condolences to Sydney’s parents, George and Susie, her brother and sister, her friends, an all that were very fortunate enough to know her,” Thysse said during a press conference.

Police in urgent appeal to find schoolgirl, 15, missing since she left a friend's house without mobile phone

Serious concerns have been raised about the welfare of a teenager who has not been seen for two days.

Kasey Herron, 15, hasn't been seen since Sunday evening when she was last seen leaving a friend's house in Bransholme, Hull, at around 8pm.

She was on her way to see her sister who lives in Tenterden Close, which is also in Bransholme.

It's thought Kasey was not carrying a mobile phone or any money at the time she went missing and a police appeal has been launched.
A spokesperson for Humberside Police said: "We are concerned for the safety of 15-year-old Kasey Herron from Hull who has been missing since the weekend.

Angelina Jolie opens up about working with Brad Pitt and why she thought it would help their marriage

Angelina Jolie filed for divorce from Brad Pitt in 2016.
The couple had been married for two years.
Jolie spoke candidly about her relationship with Pitt while on The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast.
The actress said she thought working with her husband on her movie, "By the Sea," would help them communicate.

After splitting from husband Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie is reflecting on their relationship and the importance of communication.

The 42-year-old actress appeared on The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast and described how she believed working on "By the Sea" with her husband would help their marriage.

"We had met working together and we worked together well ... I wanted us to do some serious work together," she said. "I thought it would be a good way for us to communicate. In some ways it was, and in some ways we learned some things."

American Airlines says it no longer faces a pilot crisis Christmas week

American Airlines has reached an agreement with pilots to fill 15,000 unmanned flights between Dec. 17 and 31.
A computer error had allowed pilots to opt out of some of the holiday flights, an option they usually don't have.
Rather than face mass cancellations and refunds, the airline has agreed to pay pilots double their normal rate for taking one of the previously unmanned flights.

A computer error threatened to ruin the holidays for American Airlines and its passengers, but the airline has reached an agreement with pilots to avoid a disaster.
Last week, pilots learned that a scheduling glitch had allowed them to opt out of some flights between Dec. 17 and 31. Pilots often don't have that option during the holidays.
The glitch left around 15,000 flights without a pilot. The airline first attempted to staff the flights with reserve pilots, but that would have been risky, as reserve pilots are typically meant to fill in for isolated incidents, rather than large, system-wide errors, according to Yahoo.

Almost 200 paedophiles arrested in one week in crackdown on live-streaming apps including Facebook and Instagram

Almost 200 paedophiles were arrested in just one week for grooming children online, according to reports.
It came during a crackdown on apps that offer live-streaming services including Facebook, Instagram and Live.me
Around 30 per cent of suspects worked in a position of trust, including teachers, civil servants, military personnel and police officer.

The swoop saved 245 children from exploitation.
Sick perverts pose as other children and convince targets to expose themselves or perform sex acts online.
Often they then use the pictures or video as blackmail to force children into even more degrading acts.

'The threat is very real': Millions in Tokyo to take part in North Korean nuclear attack exercise

Millions of residents of Tokyo are to take part in evacuation drills simulating a North Korean nuclear attack on the Japanese capital.

The national and city governments are to carry out a series of exercises between January and March to prepare for a potential attack on Tokyo, the Sankei Shimbun newspaper reported, the first time that a major Japanese city will have carried out responses to a simulated attack.

Towns facing the Korean Peninsula have in recent months conducted similar drills, with residents instructed to seek shelter in response to sirens warning of an imminent missile strike.
But the Japanese government has until now resisted calls for major cities to carry out similar exercises on the grounds that they would alarm the public.

How to Make The People You Love Feel Loved

When it comes to love, it seems there is some truth behind actions speaking louder than words.

Feeling loved can impact overall well-being, making it more important than we typically give it credit for. A team of researchers wanted to know if people mostly agree on what makes them feel loved, or if it’s a totally personal thing.

Not only do we agree, they found, it’s easier than you might think to make the people you love feel loved.

All the small things

The researchers, headed up by Penn State’s Saeideh Heshmati, asked nearly 500 U.S. adults how loved they’d feel in 60 different positive, negative and neutral scenarios—being greeted by a pet, feeling close to nature and interacting with a possessive partner, for example.

Ferrari 'thief' arrested after being caught begging for petrol money in supercar he didn't know how to fill up

A suspected Ferrari thief was arrested after he was found begging for money to buy petrol, police said.

Israel Perez Rangel denies stealing the $300,000 car, despite allegedly not knowing how to fill the vehicle up.

Police in Santa Ana arrested the 38-year-old after spotting him begging for money to put petrol in the 458 Spider.

Officers noticed the supercar was trashed, with cracked fins, a destroyed gearbox, emblems torn from the engine and body and missing paddle shifters.

Mystery over drowned hedge fund tycoon Michael Treichl's 'lost millions' after he left just £325,000 behind in his will following police quiz over the fire that destroyed his 500-year-old mansion

With the mystery surrounding the death of 69-year-old hedge fund tycoon Michael Treichl and the fire at his Grade I-listed family home still unsolved, a further enigma has now emerged – the whereabouts of his multi-million-pound fortune.

Lawyers for Treichl last week gained a grant of probate, and revealed he left less than £325,000, despite years of deal-making.
Treichl, who comes from one of the wealthiest families in Austria, was found drowned in Lake Geneva, Switzerland, in June – weeks after being arrested and questioned by police over the blaze which destroyed 500-year-old Parnham House.

He had spent a rumoured £10 million restoring the Dorset mansion, which he had bought for £4 million in 2001.
There have been suggestions that he dramatically burned down the house and then took his own life.

Germany's most famous women's rights activist Alice Schwarzer at 75

She has spent her life fighting for women's equal rights, writing and publishing the magazine "Emma." A look at the life of Alice Schwarzer, Germany's best known — and most controversial — feminist, as she turns 75.
"The engine driving everything I do is fairness. Anything else would have, for me, been a misuse of my life."
Taken from Alice Schwarzer's autobiography, "Lebenslauf" ("Curriculum Vitae"), published in 2011, that sentence could be viewed as something of a life motto for a woman who changed German society. Schwarzer writes further of herself, saying, "I am not a person who prefers to focus on myself, hunched over my sensitive predilections. I find the world much too exciting for that."
The worst insult at home: parochialism
It could be that Schwarzer's rebellious nature was already predetermined before she even hit the cradle. She was born out of wedlock on December 3, 1942. That normally would have been a scandal for the time, but it was overlooked at the height of a war that gave people other, more pressing worries.

Republicans may regret this tax bill

Josh Barro has an interesting piece laying out in words a thesis that so far I've only heard in whispers and tweets: In some ways, Democrats might be better off if the GOP tax bill passes.

The logic is this: After the Affordable Care Act's passage, one path forward (emblematized by Barack Obama's "pivot to deficits" and the search for a grand bargain) was to declare the American welfare state substantially complete. But the pivot failed, the grand bargain failed, and the energy in the party shifted strongly to the left. Now Democrats have a vision of continued welfare state expansion that's basically not going to work if polling-friendly tax hikes on the superrich are the only thing on the table. In the new Demutopia, rich people will pay more — but the middle class will need to pay more too.

This scam tricks you into buying fake tech support software

Scammers are tricking victims into paying $25 for fake security software, ZDNet reports.

The tech-support scammers use fake blue screen of death (BSOD) messages and a phony "Troubleshooter for Windows" application to try to sell a supposed Microsoft security product called "Windows Defender Essentials." The name sounds like two real Windows anti-malware applications: Windows Defender and Security Essentials.

Malwarebytes researcher Pieter Arntz said the Troubleshooter app is being distributed through a cracked software installer.

11-year-old girl wins $25,000 science prize for creating a cheap device to test drinking water for poison

Gitanjali Rao, a seventh grader from Colorado, has been awarded the title of "America's top young scientist" for designing a compact device to detect lead in drinking water, which she believes can be faster and cheaper than other current methods.

The 11-year-old's invention was inspired by the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, where cost-cutting measures led to tainted drinking water that contained lead and other toxins. It also won her a $25,000 prize, for which Rao already has plans: "I plan to use most of it in developing my device further so that it can be commercially available soon," she said