October 5, 2015

video shows the moment a mother was pinned to the ground by police officers and repeatedly punched

Cindy Hahn, 40, is suing the city of Carlsbad and several police officers
She claims an officer told her to 'mind her own f****** business' after she asked a simple question
The same officer later pulled her over and pushed her to the ground
Video recorded at the scene shows her screaming 'help' as one officer holds her down while the other brutally beats her
She says the ordeal left her with permanent memory loss and brain trauma


In July this year, the San Diego District Attorney dropped felony charges against Hahn for battery on a police officer and resisting arrest – which her attorney Mark Geragos says was due to the video.
However, she is going ahead with the lawsuit due to the ‘senseless act of egregious police brutality’ and wants the police officers involved fired and reformed. Court documents alleged that they lied about the incident under oath during Hahn’s criminal proceedings.
Hahn’s father Mike Dalton, who has retired from the San Fernando Police Department, said the incident should never have happened
‘There was no need to punch her in the face,’ he said.



Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3260527/Shocking-video-shows-moment-mother-pinned-ground-police-officers-repeatedly-punched-face.html#ixzz3njA4tqKW
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October 5, 2015

Air France workers rip executives' clothes off during protest

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/10/05/air_france_protesters_attack_executives_rip_their_clothes_off_photos.html

Per AFP, the protests/attacks were a response to the company's threat to cut 2,900 jobs, which itself was a response to pilots' refusal to accept longer flying hours:

October 5, 2015

Video of rat eating spaghetti goes viral

The adorable rat from the Netherlands is called Baby and this clip of it half buried in spaghetti has racked up nearly 100,000 views in just over a day.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/wildlife/11911617/Video-of-rat-eating-spaghetti-goes-viral.html

It comes weeks after a video of a rat carrying a full slice of pizza through a subway in New York went viral.


Sep 21, 2015 - 15 sec - Uploaded by Matt

October 5, 2015

Disneyland annual pass with no blackout days now costs more than $1,000

As Disneyland ponders how to deal with hordes of visitors during peak seasons, it raised the prices of annual passes on Sunday, introducing one that costs more than $1,000.

In the biggest change, Disney stopped selling a pass that let users attend its two Anaheim theme parks any day of the year, replacing it with two pricier options.

The now-discontinued Premium pass, which cost $779, allows unlimited attendance to Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park and provides discounts on some food and merchandise. People who already have Premium passes can keep using them until they expire, Disney spokeswoman Suzi Brown said. But they cannot be renewed.

The new Signature Plus pass, costing $1,049, includes all the benefits of the Premium pass, as well as parking and unlimited downloads of keepsake pictures taken through the PhotoPass program. (Walt Disney World in Florida has a similar photo program, and a standalone purchase of unlimited downloads there costs $199.)

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And the Disney Premier Passport, which allows unlimited admission to the attractions not only in Anaheim but also in Florida, now costs $1,439, up 31%.

Additionally, the price of parking at the Anaheim parks rose to $18 from $17.

Going solo at Disneyland helps the imagination go wild
Going solo at Disneyland helps the imagination go wild
All price changes took effect immediately. Single-day admission prices, which jumped to $99 in February, remained the same.
http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-disneyland-prices-annual-pass-20151004-story.html

October 5, 2015

Carly Fiorina moves on to Koch brothers shortlist as donors line up

Carly Fiorina has emerged as the Republican candidate of the moment in conservative fundraising circles, drawing the notice of the billionaire Koch brothers and other wealthy donors who could instantly remake her shoestring presidential campaign.

Fiorina’s show-stealing performance in the second Republican presidential debate last month, and her subsequent surge in the polls, has prompted industrialists Charles and David Koch to take a “serious look” at the former Hewlett-Packard chief executive, according to three sources close to the brothers.

She has now moved to the short list of candidates the Kochs may support with their reported $1bn war chest, the sources said, adding that Florida senator Marco Rubio is among those on the coveted list.



A spokesman for the Kochs declined to comment.

Other politically powerful mega-donors, however, are also lining up. Texas oilman T Boone Pickens hosted a packed luncheon at a posh Dallas venue for Fiorina in late September, while venture capitalist Tom Perkins is planning a fundraising gala in California in the next few months.

“My money is on her,” said Perkins, who served on HP’s board during Fiorina’s tenure. “I think she could be president.”

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/04/carly-fiorina-attracts-koch-brothers-other-wealthy-donors

October 5, 2015

Canadian man breaks into home, cooks meals, does laundry, writes in owner’s diary

After breaking into a ranch in Kamloops, Christopher Hiscock got comfortable. He fed the cats, started the fireplace, cooked a meal, did laundry and wrote in the home owner's diary, the Canadian Press reported.

This is what he had written:

"Today was my first full day at the ranch. I fed the cats and horses. So much I can do here I have to remind myself to just relax and take my time. I don't feel alone here, I guess with 2 cats and 3 horses it's kinda hard to be alone. Last night I had a fire in the house. It was so (peaceful). I slept like a little baby. I saw a picture in the basement on the wall of a man holding and weighing fish on a boat. Looking at him I think we look a lot alike, but I think I'm more handsome."

The residents of the ranch in Little Fort on the Yellowhead Highway came home and found him watching TV on the couch, with a cup of coffee on Sept. 20. Hiscock went in the house after seeing the door open, a lawyer said during the trial.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/canadian-man-breaks-home-feeds-animals-laundry-article-1.2385010

October 5, 2015

Migrant crisis debris: Greek island battles lifejacket mountain

http://news.yahoo.com/lightbox/municipality-employee-walks-past-pile-lifejackets-discarded-migrants-photo-034405948.html
http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/DwH9DH9gNIBRgM79dnnvuA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3NfbGVnbztmaT1maWxsO2g9MzE5O2lsPXBsYW5lO3B5b2ZmPTA7cT03NTt3PTQ4MA--/

http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/9AXzGK0I998tZaMihhlAnA--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3NfbGVnbztmaT1maWxsO2g9MzE5O2lsPXBsYW5lO3B5b2ZmPTA7cT03NTt3PTQ4MA--/


But the continent's biggest migration challenge since World War II is now presenting an unexpected environmental headache: what to do with the vast heaps of lifejackets and inflatable boats left behind by the arrivals?

On the beach of Skala Sikaminias on Lesbos' northern coast, a key landing point for migrants, a group of municipal employees are loading discarded jackets and dinghies on a truck.

"We've barely finished when it's time to start all over again," sighs Yiorgos Katsanos, the deputy mayor in charge of waste management.

The city has mobilised 12 additional staff to handle the overload and sends two trucks and a crane to clear the beaches every day.

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"If only they actually saved lives. But no, they're junk" hastily made in Turkey or cheaply ordered from China, the deputy mayor adds.

http://news.yahoo.com/migrant-crisis-debris-greek-island-battles-lifejacket-mountain-034405078.html

October 5, 2015

“Is Kindergarten the New First Grade?" More academic at the expense of play

The difference between first grade and kindergarten may not seem like much, but what I remember about my first-grade experience in the mid-90s doesn’t match the kindergarten she described in her email: three and a half hours of daily literacy instruction, an hour and a half of daily math instruction, 20 minutes of daily “physical activity time” (officially banned from being called “recess”) and two 56-question standardized tests in literacy and math—on the fourth week of school.

That American friend—who teaches 20 students without an aide—has fought to integrate 30 minutes of “station time” into the literacy block, which includes “blocks, science, magnetic letters, play dough with letter stamps to practice words, books, and storytelling.” But the most controversial area of her classroom isn’t the blocks nor the stamps: Rather, it’s the “house station with dolls and toy food”—items her district tried to remove last year. The implication was clear: There’s no time for play in kindergarten anymore.

A working paper, “Is Kindergarten the New First Grade?,” confirms what many experts have suspected for years: The American kindergarten experience has become much more academic—and at the expense of play. The late psychologist, Bruno Bettelheim, even raised the concern in an article for The Atlantic in 1987..

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Bassok and her colleagues found that while time spent on literacy in American kindergarten classrooms went up, time spent on arts, music, and child-selected activities (like station time) significantly dropped. Teacher-directed instruction also increased, revealing what Bassok described as “striking increases in the use of textbooks and worksheets… and very large increases in the use of assessments.”

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But Finland—a Nordic nation of 5.5 million people, where I’ve lived and taught fifth and sixth graders over the last two years—appears to be on the other end of the kindergarten spectrum. Before moving to Helsinki, I had heard that most Finnish children start compulsory, government-paid kindergarten—or what Finns call “preschool”—at age 6. And not only that, but I learned through my Finnish mother-in-law—a preschool teacher—that Finland’s kindergartners spend a sizable chunk of each day playing, not filling out worksheets.

http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/10/the-joyful-illiterate-kindergartners-of-finland/408325/

October 4, 2015

Cat To Dog: Shut Up Zip it.

Cats and dogs. Do they get along? Not usually. But is there respect? There better be. This cat demands it.

In the video above, it's clear that Greyscale the cat will tolerate zero funny stuff from Chazz the dog, even if the humans are out of the house.

Greyscale is no fun, but that cat has a point.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/cat-to-dog-shut-up_5605909ee4b0af3706dc2361

October 4, 2015

If you are wondering if it hurts to get a tattoo...

Getting a tattoo can be a pretty grisly experience, but there’s also beauty in the delicate, often meditative encounter between a tattoo artist and customer. Anne Burlock Lawver highlights both the agony and the serenity of tattooing in her series, “Indelible,” which comprises more than a year’s worth of photographs from a single Washington Heights tattoo parlor, Gunmental Tattoos, which has since closed.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2015/10/04/anne_burlock_lawver_photographs_a_washington_heights_tattoo_parlor_in_her.html