October 17, 2015

toddlers r more likely to choose brightly coloured bottles of hazardous cleaning products than toys

A worrying new film shows how young children are more attracted to the brightly coloured bottles of hazardous cleaning products than they are to a soft toy.

The filmed social experiment involved giving toddlers the choice of which item they wanted to grab - and more than half reach for the hazardous products.

The voice-over on the Dutch public service video reveals that 50 per cent of the youngsters went for stain remover, 64 per cent went for paint and most shockingly 82 per cent went for bleach.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3275924/Worrying-social-experiment-reveals-toddlers-likely-choose-brightly-coloured-bottles-hazardous-cleaning-products-toys.html#ixzz3omg8mMbx

October 17, 2015

‘I made it home:’ Homeless vets celebrate new Harbor Gateway apartments - 79 unit building

“I’m 56 years old and I’ve done a lot of crazy things in my life,” Anderson told the crowd of dignitaries that gathered for the unveiling of the 79-unit apartment building for homeless vets. “The first time I slept in a bed, it was like new to me. ... Now I can be a father to the daughter I get to see now.”

Anderson is among the 68 residents who are fast filling the new apartments at 16304 S. Vermont Ave. The four-story project, costing $22 million and taking 2 1/2 years to plan and build, was an ambitious collaboration with Affirmed Housing and PATH Ventures taking the lead.

And it is, homeless advocates agree, the public-private model that needs to be quickly replicated throughout the Los Angeles area amid a homelessness crisis that has overwhelmed communities and government officials.

It is, said South Bay Rep. Maxine Waters, “what we need all over this country.”

http://www.presstelegram.com/veterans/20151015/i-made-it-home-homeless-vets-celebrate-new-harbor-gateway-apartments

October 16, 2015

11-year-old girl's stick-figure drawing leads to arrest of burglary suspect

STRATFORD, Conn. - (WVIT/NBC) An 11-year-old girl, who drew a stick figure of a burglar, was honored by police in Connecticut after the sketch led to the arrest of a suspect.

In a room full of police, Rebecca DePietro of Stratford, Conn., was wearing hot pink. But she didn't need a uniform to be honored for some detective work of her own after a string of burglaries on her street.

She drew a stick figure sketch of the suspect after police came to her door a few months ago asking if she'd seen anyone suspicious.

"I drew a picture of him. It wasn't like the best picture it was just a head some legs,” said DePietro. "I thought like, ‘Oh, (the detective will) probably just going to crumple it up and throw it out.’"

Instead, police took the two-minute doodle seriously.

"For us to take that sketch and match it up, it was remarkable," said Stratford Police Chief Patrick.

http://www.wptv.com/news/local-news/water-cooler/rebecca-depietro-11-year-old-girls-stick-figure-drawing-leads-to-arrest-of-burglary-suspect

October 16, 2015

Researcher kills rare bird to study it, controversy ensues

He's being compared to the dentist who killed Cecil the lion, but is a researcher who killed a bird for study the same as a big game hunter?

It's a question that's sparking debate after a researcher from the American Museum of Natural History killed a moustached kingfisher in Guadalcanal. New York scientist Christopher Filardi spotted the kingfisher last month while observing wildlife with other researchers.

It was no ordinary sight — the kingfisher hasn't been seen in over 50 years and it is believed that 250 to 1,000 adult moustached kingfishers exist in the world.

In order to further study the rare bird, Filardi "collected" it — in layman's terms, he killed it. As you may have guessed, some people are not happy about this.

"It is a tired and nonsensical, self-serving claim that you must kill some animals in the name of research so as to study them enough to save them," PETA Senior Director Colleen O'Brien told the New York Daily News.

But that's exactly what Filardi is claiming in a defense of his actions posted on the Audubon Society website. Because so few of these types of kingfishers have been captured (he cites one example in 1927 and one in 1953), scientists haven't had an opportunity to study the bird on a deeper level.

http://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Researcher-kills-rare-bird-to-study-it-6568571.php

October 15, 2015

Mortified six-year-old boy hangs his head in shame as father launches sexist rant at Post Office

A father has been filmed launching a sexist rant at Post Office workers in Los Angeles while his embarrassed son hangs his head in shame.

As stunned customers look on, the man abuses a female member of staff for not treating him 'with respect' before telling her: 'I gotta put you in your place because you're a woman and I'm a man.'

Meanwhile, standing just behind him, his mortified six-year-old son tries to hide his face in his hat, apparently having seen the entire act before.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3274401/Here-Mortified-six-year-old-boy-hides-head-hands-father-launches-sexist-rant-Post-Office-staff.html#ixzz3ogPY59v7

October 15, 2015

Cop claimed he arrested journalist because camera flash interfered w another arrest.

NYPD officer: I made 'big mistake' when I said I arrested New York Times photographer over camera flash

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the 44th Precinct cop faces felony counts of filing false documents for allegedly fibbing about the reasons behind the Aug. 4, 2012 arrest of veteran photographer Robert Stolarik.

The journalist was photographing Ackermann's arrest of a young woman on McClellen Street and Sheridan Ave. when the cop arrested him, too, claiming later in court documents that Stolarik interfered in his arrest by repeatedly using his camera's flash.

Charges against Stolarik were dismissed and Ackermann was indicted after investigators determined the photographer did not use a flash at all.

A camera expert testified at trial that the Stolarik's Nikon D4 was not even capable of producing such an effect.

Assistant District Attorney Pishoy Yacoub said in Wednesday's summations that Ackermann, facing heat from NYPD Internal Affairs, invented the flash story in an effort to justify the controversial collar.

October 15, 2015

Hillary Clinton Debate Performance Chills Biden Movement

Source: nytimes

Democrats expressed growing skepticism on Wednesday that Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. could find a foothold were he to enter the presidential campaign as Hillary Rodham Clinton’s commanding performance in the first Democratic debate here abruptly quieted murmurs about her candidacy.

With no obvious constituency ready to support Mr. Biden, his prospects have increasingly been based on the possibilities of Mrs. Clinton’s faltering, repeating some of the missteps she has made since declaring her candidacy earlier this year or falling prey to more damning revelations about her use of a private email server as secretary of state.

But with Mrs. Clinton showing her mettle in Tuesday’s debate, and Democrats increasingly convinced that questions about her emails are little more than a Republican and news media fixation, she suddenly appeared far better positioned to allay skeptics in her party when she testifies next week before the congressional panel investigating the attacks on the American consulate in Benghazi, Libya.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/15/us/politics/democratic-debate-hillary-clinton-joe-biden.html?mabReward=A6&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&region=CColumn&module=Recommendation&src=rechp&WT.nav=RecEngine&_r=0

October 15, 2015

'We have a (cat) situation!' Adorable kid struggles to herd kittens

Video showing a young boy from the USA desperately trying to herd five kittens has gone viral, proving that nothing gets the internet purring like a combination of kids and cats.

In the clip, which you can see above, young Ryder from Cedar Falls in Iowa takes on the challenge of collecting the kittens on a blanket in his back yard.

Unfortunately, the blanket is not a very efficient pen as it has no side fencing, which means the cats hop merrily away every time Ryder turns his back.

'We have a (cat) situation!' Adorable kid struggles to herd kittens

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/the-filter/virals/11809089/We-have-a-cat-situation-Adorable-kid-struggles-to-herd-kittens.html

October 15, 2015

16 unusual interview questions you may face at Facebook interviews

You are trying to rob houses on a street. Each house has some +ve amount of cash. Your goal is to rob houses such that you maximize the total robbed amount. The constraint is once you rob a house you cannot rob a house adjacent to that house." -- Software engineer interview


"You have two lightbulbs and a 100-storey building. You want to find the floor at which the bulbs will break when dropped. Find the floor using the least number of drops." -- Software engineer interview

"Which is better? Having 10 false positives or 80 false positives?" -- Analyst interview

"How many Big Macs does McDonald's sell each year in the U.S.?" -- Data scientist interview

"How many mailboxes are there in San Francisco?" -- Risk analyst interview

"How would you find out the number of cars passing through a busy bridge?" -- Software engineer interview

"How many vacuums are there in the U.S.?" -- Risk analyst interview

"You're about to get on a plane to Seattle. You want to know if you should bring an umbrella. You call three random friends of yours who live there and ask each independently if it's raining. Each of your friends has a two-thirds chance of telling you the truth and a one-third chance of messing with you by lying. All three friends tell you that 'Yes' it is raining. What is the probability that it's actually raining in Seattle?" -- Data scientist interview

http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/16-unusual-interview-questions-you-may-face-at-6569103.php

October 14, 2015

Sanders stretched truth on VA record during debate, some vets say

Source: cnn

Sen. Bernie Sanders touted his record on veterans' issues during Tuesday's debate, citing his position as the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs when Congress provided billions of extra dollars to boost healthcare for veterans last year.

"We went further in than any time in recent history in improving health care to the men and women of this country who put their lives on the line to defend us," Sanders said Tuesday, referring to $15 billion given to the Department of Veterans Affairs to decrease wait times and reform the troubled agency.

Yet some veterans groups and others criticize Sanders for what they call a lack of oversight of the VA, and for at times coming to its defense in the midst of the scandal that rocked the agency in 2014.

Paul Rieckhoff, founder and CEO of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said Sanders largely ignored the appeals of organizations like his during a time when media and government reports exposed how veterans were waiting months for appointments and VA officials were covering up the delays.

"For far too long he was apologizing for the VA. He was refusing to acknowledge the severity. He was positioning it as a smaller issue than it was while veterans were dying waiting for care," Rieckhoff told CNN.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/14/politics/bernie-sanders-va/index.html