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The debate over whether parents should leave a wailing baby to cry it out or rush to their aid has been reignited by research that suggests allowing them to bawl does no harm.

Attachment theory suggests parents should dash to calm their infants, and proponents say leaving infants to cry could have knock-on effects including damaging the bond between parent and child and raising the infants stress levels.

Others, however, argue that picking a baby up reinforces crying, and that parents should leave the child.

Now researchers say they have found that leaving infants to cry has no impact on their behavioural development or their attachment to their mother, but may help them develop self-control.

Prof Dieter Wolke, the co-author of the study from the University of Warwick, said the findings suggest parents should not worry too much about which approach they take.

We may have made a mountain out of a molehill, he said.

Amy Brown, a professor of child public health at Swansea University who was not involved in the research, said the study should be treated with caution. Few mothers in the study often left their infant to cry it out until they reached 18 months, she said, and the study did not consider how long parents left their child or whether they found it helpful.

This doesnt prove that controlled crying is a beneficial thing, she said. . Nor does the study talk about how distressing a lot of mothers find it when their baby cries.

Writing in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, researchers from the University of Warwick report how they followed 178 babies and their mothers in the UK from birth to 18 months.

Mothers were asked to fill in questionnaires to report how often they left their baby to cry it out at several points in time: shortly after birth and at three months, six months and 18 months. They were also asked how often and for how long their child cried at various point in the day as a newborn and at three months and 18 months.

At three and 18 months the team explored how sensitive the mother was towards their infant, using video-recorded interactions between the two, and at 18 months it assessed the childrens behavioural development and attachment to their mother.

The team found mothers rarely left their baby to cry as newborns, but the practice became more common as the child grew older, with about two-thirds of mothers allowing the infant to cry sometimes or often by 18 months.

That, the researchers add, appears to bring benefits, noting that children left to cry a few times as newborns cried for shorter periods at 18 months.

The team say the practice seems does not seem to cause harm. It saw no negative impact on the level of attachment between mother and child, the mothers sensitivity or the behavioural development of the child at 18 months, the latter assessed through a combination of techniques including a questionnaire completed by the parent, a psychologists report and watching the infant play with its mother.

We neither recommend leaving infant to cry out nor responding immediately, the authors write. Wolke said the findings suggested parents intuitively know how to best to respond to their infant, and both they and the child adapt over time.

He also said the research did not mean parents should just ignore a crying infant, particularly early in life.

Crying is the only way of communication of a baby, for example for feeding, safety and things, he said. So caregivers should react to the crying, and automatically we do this. Letting the baby cry for a few minutes may be helpful though, he added, particularly if it is not feeding time. Then they can learn how to self-soothe themselves, he said.

The study has limitations, including that it relied on reports of crying rather than direct observation. Nor was it able to unpick whether leaving the child to wail is the cause of shorter subsequent crying periods.

Wolke said that because of parents strong attitudes on the topic, it would not be possible to carry out a randomised control trial to explore the issue.

Dr Charlotte Faircloth, an expert on parenting from University College London, said the cry it out issue was hotly debated.

The new study will be reassuring for many parents who have used these kinds of approaches with their babies, but as the study authors suggest, more credit should be given to parents in trusting that they will find an approach that suits them and their families, she said.

Stephen Scott, a professor of child health and behaviour at Kings College, said a number of studies had shown that overindulged children can lack resilience and develop difficulties later in life.

He also said the latest findings made sense from an evolutionary point of view. It is very unlikely that in the jungle when we were in our caves and off hunting, that a child left to cry for a bit would then be damaged by it, he said. It just wouldnt make for a very resilient species, and yet we are incredibly resilient.

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Should you let babies 'cry it out'? Debate reignited by new study - The Guardian

These Google Chrome tricks will help you keep your browser organized.

Google Chrome is the world's most popular browser, and for good reason. It's packed with useful tools that connect you to the internet every day, likedark mode,toolbar playback controlsand a "privacy sandbox" coming later this year. But it's also hard to keep up with all the browser changes. After all, you can't very well store your login credentials inChrome's password managerif you don't know it exists.

Sure, you know how to open a private window, but have you ever wonderedeverything that incognito mode is good for? Or, maybe you're one of those people likemy CNET office neighbor who's always got a zillion tabs open. Ever wish there were abetter way to manage all that clutter?

These are my seven (current) favorite shortcuts, productivity hacks and other nifty Google Chrome features that you might not have know about yet.

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For some, incognito mode is practically synonymous with lewd photos and raunchy videos. Hiding the evidence is just one of the many judicious reasons to consider opening a private browser window. But since incognito mode covers your online tracks and also disables cookies -- data files that tell websites stuff like who you are, where you are and when you last visited -- a private browsing window can help in other ways, too.

Use Google Chrome's incognito mode to check your email or social media accounts on public computers without leaving your credentials behind when you close the browser.

For example, if you open an incognito window to check your Gmail (or use any web service that requires a username and password), anyone logged in before you will be, in effect, logged out. You can then log in with your own username and password.

After you're finished with Gmail, Facebook, Amazon or whatever, rather than manually logging out, you can just close the window you're working in and the entire session will be scrubbed from browser history like it never happened.

To open a Chrome window in Incognito Mode, either select File from the Menu Bar, then New Incognito Window or press Command-shift-N on a Mac or Control-Shift-N on a Windows computer.

One of the downsides to letting your friends check their Gmail or Facebook account using Chrome's incognito mode on your computer is that they may also be able access your browser history, your email, your Facebook account and so on.

If privacy and security are of supreme importance to you (or you just don't trust your friends), Chrome's Guest Mode adds another layer of protection.

Basically, Guest Mode is Incognito Mode on steroids. Chrome load up like it's never been on the internet before, without browsing history and cookies, and will block access to other Chrome profiles,like the one where you keep all your usernames and passwords. And the only browser setting guest mode users can change is the default search engine, so you'll get your browser back more or less the way you had it.

To open a Chrome window in Guest Mode, tap the profile icon in the upper right corner of the Chrome browser and then select Guest.

How many tabs do you keep open at at time? Whether it's one or one hundred, Google Chrome can help keep them organized.

If you're not using a password manager,you should be. Chrome makes it easy to use the one that comes baked into the browser to store your logincredentials. Not only does it fill in your username and password for you online, you can manage your passwords and see if any of your login credentials have been compromised at Chrome's companionPassword Manager website.

Tabbed browsing was meant to help organize the clutter of multiple open browser windows, but it doesn't take long to make a mess of tabs, either. Thankfully, Chrome has a few built-in features that'll help you keep your tabs organized, find the tab you're looking for and save the day when you accidentally close a tab you needed to stay open. Here's how:

Reorganize tabs: Think of tabs like sticky windows -- when they get close to one another they attach, but when you pull them apart, they stay that way. You can rearrange the tabs in your active browser window by clicking and dragging them around. You can pull a tab out from your active window to create its own window. You can also drag tabs from one window to another. Thanks to an update from Microsoft, you can alsomove multiple tabs around at once -- just hold the Shift key down while selecting multiple tabs and then drag to a new location.

Right click to the right of the last open tab to reopen the last tab you closed.

Search the omnibox for open tabs: What used to be called simply the address bar Chrome now refers to as the "omnibox." That's because you can type the URL for a website you want to visit and also start a Google search from the same multipurpose ibox. However, another lesser-known trick is to use the omnibox to search your open tabs. Just type whatever keywords you remember from the tab you want and look for results labeled Switch to this tab among the results.

Use shortcut keys to change tabs: Command-tab will switch between open windows on a Mac, and Control-tab does the same on a Windows PC, but replace the tab button with a number, say, Command-3 (or Control-3 on Windows) and Chrome will switch to the third tab from the left.

Reopen a closed tab: This one can be a lifesaver. If you ever accidentally close a tab you needed to stay open, go to the History menu and under Recently Closed, reopen the tap or right-click to the right of the last tab at the top of your browser window and tap Reopen Closed Tab.

For more tips like these, check out our clever Gmail tricks to minimize regret, frustration and spam, as well as our five Google Maps tips to see more than just what's on the map.

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Google Chrome is the world's top browser. Stop missing out on its 7 best tools - CNET

The rise of populism a political argument that pits ordinary people against a corrupt, government elite is putting democracy at risk, said Stanford scholars in a new white paper released today.

When populist leaders discredit formal institutions and functions, democracy is being undermined and hollowed out, warns Stanford political scientist and paper co-author Anna Grzymala-Busse.

Stanford political scientist Anna Grzymala-Busse has co-authored a white paper that examines the threat global populism poses to democracy. (Image credit: Andrew Brodhead)

Here, Grzymala-Busse discusses what is at stake for democracies worldwide if populist rhetoric continues to take hold. As Grzymala-Busse points out, populists grievances about government failures are not entirely baseless. Thats why Grzymala-Busse and the papers co-authors who include director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, and political scientists Francis Fukuyama and Didi Kuo argue that populism is a political problem that requires political solutions.

Their paper, Global Populisms and Their Challenges, released Mar. 11 through the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), outlines what mainstream political parties must do to protect democracies from populists, including strategies such as reclaiming the rule of law and upholding democratic norms and values.

Why do some politicians find populist arguments so appealing?

Populism argues that elites are corrupt and the people need better representation, but makes very few policy commitments beyond this criticism. Theres been increasing distrust regarding political parties and politicians, especially given various funding and election scandals. And so people readily believe that these actors are corrupt and not to be trusted.

It is a message that is credible these days. It is also a message that doesnt tie politicians down to any other ideological or policy commitment.

Why is populism on the rise?

The immediate causes are the failures of mainstream political parties parties of the center-left and center-right to meet voter concerns and respond with distinct policies. In both Europe and in the United States, many voters who support populists want a change from politics as usual, which they view as unresponsive and unaccountable, and who fear losing cultural and economic status. They perceive that politicians have failed to respond to immigration, free trade, international cooperation, and technological advances and the threats they pose to many voters.

According to your research, what makes populist rhetoric detrimental to democratic governance?

Stanford political scientists Francis Fukuyama, Anna Grzymala-Busse and Neil Malhotra discuss why populist messages have emerged in contemporary politics and how they have evolved into larger, political movements.

Populist politicians and governments view the formal institutions of liberal democracy as corrupt creations spawned by crooked establishment elites and so they systematically hollow out and undermine these institutions, such as the courts, regulatory agencies, intelligence services, the press, and so on. They justify these attacks as replacing discredited and corrupt institutions with ones that serves the people or, in other words, populist parties and politicians. Moreover, precisely because populists claim to represent the people, they have to define the people first and that often means excluding vulnerable and marginalized populations, such as religious or ethnic minorities and immigrants.

For example, in Hungary, the governing populist party brought the courts under political control, abolished regulatory agencies, and funneled funding to allied newspapers and media. In Poland, the chair of the governing populist party refers to his opponents as a worse sort of Poles.

In the short term, what can be done to counter the effects of populism?

Vote! Vote for politicians and parties who make credible promises, who do not simply want to shut down criticism or who view their opponents as their enemies, and who are committed to the democratic rules of the game. At the same time, we need to understand, not just condemn, why so many voters find populist politicians appealing.

And in the long term?

Mainstream political parties need to credibly differentiate themselves, become far more responsive to their voters and consistently articulate and uphold the democratic rules of the game. Our research finds that where mainstream political parties are strong, populists stand far less of a chance of making inroads. Such parties would also be far more responsive to voter concerns about economic and cultural status, which also motivate populist support.

Some of the papers findings are from Global Populisms, a project sponsored by the Hewlett Foundation at FSIs Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CCDRL).

Grzymala-Busse is the Michelle and Kevin Douglas Professor of International Studies in the School of Humanities and Sciences and a senior fellow at FSI. She is also co-leading The Changing Human Experience initiative, which is part of Stanfords Long-Range Vision.

Fukuyama is the Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), the Director of the Ford Dorsey Masters in International Policy, and the Mosbacher Director of CCDRL.

McFaul is also the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies in Political Science in the School of Humanities and Sciences; and the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and a senior fellow at FSI.

Kuo is a senior research scholar and the associate director for research at CCDRL.

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Populism jeopardizes democracies around the world | Stanford News - Stanford University News

It's well known at this point that opportunistic third-party sellers on Amazon ($NASDAQ:AMZN) marketplace are doing whatever they can to cash inon coronavirus panic buying. As we've reported in the past, face mask sales have gone off the charts and disinfectants have been hard to come by for standard retail prices.

Amazon says it has removed tens of thousands of items that it determined were the result of price gouging, and pricing data shows that, so far, there hasn't been an appreciable rise in average prices across most of the site's categories.

The pricing data we've averaging here only accounts for the top 100 selling items per category, so it doesn't reflect the thousands of price gougers who may set up a new account and sell items at a high margin for a short period of time before the products begin to track in Amazon's best-selling product data. But it does show that across all of the relevant categories at Amazon, average prices have not risen, even in the site's Health & Household category where many items such as disinfectants are seeing price gouging.

At least among legitimate sellers (Amazon included) that move a lot of product, prices are holding steady for the top-100 products in each category. This data is also evidence that Amazon is indeed stamping out the price gougers before sales of their products can impact the average price of a category.

For instance, The Wall Street Journal found that a 33-count container of Clorox wipes was selling for $20.99 eight times the normal price on Thursday afternoon. By the next day, that product had disappeared from Amazon. And if products do work their way up the sales charts like face masks have their prices remain the same until they simply become unavailable.

But even if Amazon is keeping up with price gougers, less-regulated marketplaces like eBay and Facebook continue to see prices escalate as buyers make it clear that they're willing to pay whatever it takes to remain safe.

Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - andcreates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.

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Pricing data for thousands of products shows that Amazon is keeping coronavirus price gougers under control - Thinknum Media

HOLLYWOOD (CBS)

Disgraced film producer Harvey Weinstein was sentenced to 23 years in prison Wednesday on his rape and criminal sex act convictions following an emotional trial that was a landmark moment in the #MeToo era. Weinstein was convicted Feb. 24 of rape in the third degree for assaulting aspiring actress Jessica Mann in a New York City hotel room in 2013, and of committing a criminal sex act for forcing oral sex on former production assistant Mimi Haley in 2006.

Weinstein arrived in a wheelchair Wednesday morning to the Manhattan courthouse. He faced a minimum of five years in prison and a maximum of 25 years in prison on the criminal sex act count. The third-degree rape count carried a maximum penalty of four years, meaning Weinstein faced a maximum possible sentence of 29 years.

Prosecutor Joan Illuzzi thanked the six women who testified against Weinstein, all of whom were in the courtroom gallery.

Without these women and others who were willing to come forward, Illuzzi said, this matter would never have been able to be taken, it never would have been successful, and the defendant would never have been able to stop hurting or destroying other peoples lives.

Illuzzi said Weinstein got drunk on power.

He could take what he wanted knowing there was very little anyone could do about it, Illuzzi said.

Mann and Haley both also addressed the court, describing the impact of the assaults on the lives.

I believe that when he attacked me that evening with physical force with no regard for anything I said, Haley said, what he did stripped me of my dignity as a woman.

Haley became emotional, describing how she felt trapped and unable to go to officials.

At the time all of this happened I thought I was alone in this, I had no idea there were others, I didnt realize the extent of Harvey Weinsteins manipulative and calculated predatory behavior, Haley said.

She asked Burke to impose whatever sentence is long enough for Harvey Weinstein to acknowledge what hes done to me and to others and to be truly sorry.

Haley, speaking with CBS This Morning after the trial, said hearing the guilty verdict was a huge relief.

I felt just very grateful that they that Id been heard and believed, Haley said.

In her impact statement on Wednesday, Mann asked the judge to please understand as she couldnt fight back during the assault. My spirit and my emotions are the last things I have to control, Mann said. I want to remind you that I told Harvey no.

Mann also emphasized the lasting impact on victims.

Rape is not just the moment of penetration, it is forever, she said.

The sentencing comes after documents were unsealed in the case Monday that revealed correspondence from Weinstein in 2017 as the public allegations against him mounted. In one October 2017 email, Weinstein responded to an inquiry from The National Enquirer about an allegation that he had groped Jennifer Aniston by saying, Jen Aniston should be killed.

A spokesperson for Aniston told media outlets Tuesday the claim Weinstein groped the actress was unfounded.

The correspondence also revealed that Weinstein reached out to about two dozen high-profile figures to ask for help that same month, including Tim Cook, Jeff Bezos and Michael Bloomberg.

My board is thinking of firing me, Weinstein wrote to Bloomberg. All Im asking for is, let me take a leave of absence and get into heavy therapy and counseling whether it be in a facility or somewhere else, and allow me to resurrect myself with a second chance.

In December 2017, in an unpublished response to the allegations, Weinstein calls himself a sex addict and an anger addict and says he is suicidal. And correspondence from the previous month shows his brother Bob Weinstein denounced the disgraced producer as a liar, writing to him: U deserve a lifetime achievement award for the sheer savagery and immorality and inhumanness, for the acts u have perpetrated. Oh I forgot. They were all consensual.

In a letter delivered to Judge James Burke on Monday, Weinsteins defense asked Burke to sentence Weinstein to the minimum term of five years, arguing the trial did not fairly portray who he is as a person.

His life story, his accomplishments, and struggles are simply remarkable and should not be disregarded in total because of the jurys verdict, the letter read.

Defense attorneys cited his age 67 and health issues, saying that even the shortest term could be a de facto life sentence. Weinstein was hospitalized due to concerns about high blood pressure and heart palpitations for more than a week after his conviction, reports the Associated Press. He was reportedly transferred to the infirmary at New York Citys Rikers Island jail complex late last week.

Weinstein used a walker during his trial, and his lawyers have said he had an unsuccessful back surgery following a car crash.

The defense also cited the intense media coverage of the case and said his life has been destroyed since allegations were first published about him in the media in 2017: Simply put, his fall from grace has been historic, perhaps unmatched in the age of social media, his attorneys wrote.

Weinstein was not convicted of more serious charges of predatory sexual assault, and the jury did not find that he used force against Mann, defense attorneys stressed.

But in their own letter, the Manhattan District Attorneys office asked Burke to sentence Weinstein to a term that reflects the seriousness of the defendants conduct, his total lack of remorse for the harm he has caused, and the need to deter him and others from engaging in further criminal conduct.

Prosecutors cited a series of allegations spanning decades from women who said Weinstein assaulted them, describing what they called a lifetime of abuse toward others, sexual and otherwise. The claims dated back to 1978, when prosecutors said Weinstein told an employee of his music company there was only one room left at a New York hotel. She agreed to share a room with him but later awoke to find him sexually assaulting her, according to the letter.

At Weinsteins trial, too, prosecutors sought to prove Weinstein had a pattern of assaulting women by calling accusers whose claims could not be prosecuted under state statutes of limitations.

Weinstein will also be offered the chance to speak at Wednesdays hearing. Following the sentencing, Weinstein is expected to undergo a medical evaluation before he is transferred from the city jail system to the state prison system, the AP reports.

Weinsteins lawyers have said he will appeal the verdict.

CBS News Cassandra Gauthier contributed reporting.

First published on March 11, 2020 / 6:18 AM

2020 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

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Harvey Weinstein sentenced to 23 years on rape and sex assault convictions - Wink News