September 13, 2015

swimmers unfazed by bluff collapse in San Diego

causing no reported injuries or structural damage but prompting lifeguards to close a stretch of beach as a safety precaution against any further landslides.

An estimated two tons of dirt and rocks sloughed off the oceanfront cliff in the 400 block of Sea Ridge Drive in La Jolla about 1:30 p.m., according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

Authorities cordoned off a roughly 50- by 50-foot radius of beach around the site of the earth slide and called in a city geologist to survey the area for any lingering hazards, SDFRD Capt. Joe Amador said.

"We know there was an overflow of water that was happening at some time that could have caused the erosion for the bluff to fail," said Capt. Amador.

The broker for the vacation home said someone forgot to turn the pool water off. Water could bee seen leaking off the deck.
http://www.cbs8.com/story/30012497/bluff-collapse-in-la-jolla

September 13, 2015

search & rescue dog couldn't find runaway 100 lb tortoise (motorist found him ok)

Runaway 100lb tortoise back home after mile-long journey

A 100-pound tortoise is back with its owner after meandering more than a mile away from its northern New Jersey home.

NJ.com reports a motorist spotted Sulley on the side of a road Friday and called the state police.

Pattenburg Volunteer Fire Company’s chief, Dan VanFossen, said they were about to go looking for Sulley on Friday afternoon when they got the call that the tortoise had been found. Volunteer firefighters and a search-and-rescue dog searched unsuccessfully for several hours on Thursday.

Sulley’s owner, Laura Roerig, said the tortoise went missing from a backyard enclosure in Union Township on Sunday morning when she went to church.
http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/sep/12/missing-tortoise-found-sulley-new-jersey

September 12, 2015

hospital workers spent 8 days trying to get black woman to deny she was a BMW driving banker

Woman Says She Endured 8 Days In Psych Ward Because Cops Didn't Believe BMW Was Hers
"I do think race played a part in this."

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When she showed up at a police substation to get the car the next day, Brock said, "I just felt like from the moment I said I owned a BMW, I was looked at as a liar. They put me in handcuffs and said they just need to put me in handcuffs to take me to my car. And I said OK, whatever it's gonna take to get to my car."

"Then EMS approached me," she continued. "And they said we're gonna take you to your car. And I'm like, in an ambulance? I'm going to my car in an ambulance? I'm going to my car in an ambulance? I was just so confused."

Brock was taken instead to Harlem Hospital, where medical records obtained by her attorney, Michael Lamonsoff, show she was injected with powerful sedatives and forced to take doses of lithium.

"He held onto me and then the doctor stuck me in the arm and I was on a stretcher and I woke up to them taking my clothes off, specifically my underwear," Brock tearfully recalled for PIX11's Nicole Johnson. "Then I went back out again. When I woke up the next day, I felt like I was in a nightmare. I didn't understand why that was happening to me."

Medical records also show that over the course of her eight-day stay, personnel at the hospital repeatedly tried to get Brock to deny three things before she could be released: that she owned the BMW, that she was a professional banker, and that President Barack Obama followed her on Twitter.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/kamilah-brock-nypd-bmw_55f2c9aae4b063ecbfa3e60d

September 12, 2015

What These Garbage Men Found in the Trash MOMENTS Before Incineration

http://www.womansday.com/life/pet-care/a51898/what-these-garbage-men-found-in-the-trash-moments-before-incineration-will-break-your-heart/
Bekir Mercil, who was part of the team of sanitation workers who saved the cat, said, "We had a shovel to remove the waste as carefully as we could without doing any harm and a broom to try and get the kitten out. Eventually we got it out and saved it, which was a great feeling."

The team dug through the putrid pile of garbage for more than half an hour before they managed to pull the little guy out, who was covered in stinking garbage juice. Blegh! Poor little kitten!

Mercil said, "If we'd not gone to save the cat it would have headed for the incinerator, and you can just imagine what would have happened."

He continued, "It's a lovely cat as well—if we didn't already have two dogs we would have taken it for ourselves but thankfully there's a home out there for him already."










http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3231015/Cat-rescued-five-tonnes-rotting-waste-just-minutes-incinerated.html

September 11, 2015

North Carolina police officer saves suicidal man with hug

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/north-carolina-police-officer-saves-suicidal-man-hug-article-1.2357021
"He got a big old Dan Hicks bear hug whether he wanted it or not," Hicks told WRAL.

September 11, 2015

"I am not a heartless, child-kicking, racist camera operator." says fired Hungarian camer

'Something snapped': Fired Hungarian camerawoman apologizes for kicking, tripping migrants
http://www.startribune.com/fired-hungarian-camerawoman-apologizes-for-kicking-migrants/326616411/
The 40-year-old was fired by the right-wing N1TV online channel after footage of her kicking and tripping migrants Tuesday near the village of Roszke went viral on social media. Laszlo was seen sticking out her leg to trip a running man carrying a young boy, sending both crashing to the ground as the man fell on the boy. She also was seen delivering sideways kicks to the knees of a young man and a pony-tailed girl as they ran past her.

But in her letter, Laszlo sought to describe her kicks and stuck-out leg as a reasonable response to a chaotic situation. She was filming people running away from a field that police use to put newly arrived migrants on buses for asylum registration centers.

"I was scared as they streamed toward me, and then something snapped inside me," she wrote. "With the camera in my hands, I didn't see who was coming toward me. I just thought they were on the attack and I had to defend myself. It's hard to make good decisions when one is panicking."

She criticized those who condemned her on social media sites and said she had received death threats.

"I am not a heartless, child-kicking, racist camera operator. I do not deserve the political witch hunt that has been launched against me, nor do I deserve the abusive threats that often call for my death. I am just a woman, who has recently become an unemployed mother," she wrote.

September 11, 2015

ingenious money-saving gadgets created by cash-strapped students

Speakers


http://www.boredpanda.com/broke-college-students-life-hacks-save-money/

September 11, 2015

cop who tackled tennis star likes to throw people to the ground

Nafeesah Hines, 45, saw Officer James Frascatore pinning her boyfriend, Warren Diggs, to her driveway with two other officers on Jan. 12, 2013, for riding his bike on the sidewalk.

“I asked them what was going on, they asked what I was doing,” Hines said. “I told my daughter to go get my phone. I started recording. I told them I need to get first and last names and badge numbers.”

She said two of the officers quickly gave their names and shield numbers, as is department protocol, but Frascatore declined.

“He flat-out refused,” said Hines, a mother of two.

---
The agency recommended the NYPD retrain Frascatore on protocol. It was not immediately clear if that retraining ever took place.

Hines sued the city for false arrest and settled out of court for $22,500, said her lawyer, Amy Rameau.

Diggs currently has a federal civil rights lawsuit open against the city and names Frascatore as one of the arresting officers.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/james-blake-tackle-arrogant-liar-woman-article-1.2356444

September 11, 2015

12 question science test. 6% get all right.

http://www.pewresearch.org/quiz/science-knowledge/


The public opinion and research organization quizzed a representative sample of U.S. adults on geology, physics and astronomy, among other topics. Out of 12 questions, the test-takers answered 7.9 correctly, on average. That’s a score of 66%.


Only 6% of the 3,278 test-takers answered all 12 questions correctly. Twenty-six percent missed only one or two questions, and an additional 27% missed three or four.

At the other end of the spectrum, only 1% of those surveyed missed 11 of the questions, 2% missed 10 and 3% missed nine. (Want to see how you'd fare? Take the quiz here.)

The more time people had spent in school, the better they did on the quiz. For instance, those who had earned some type of graduate degree scored an average of 9.5, while those who didn’t make it past high school averaged only 6.8 correct answers.

http://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-science-quiz-americans-pew-20150909-story.html

September 11, 2015

Ted Cruz flounders in Trump’s shadow

You could see in the span of 20 minutes Wednesday afternoon why Donald Trump is soaring in his bid for the Republican presidential nomination and why Ted Cruz is struggling.

Cruz had invited Trump to join him at a Capitol Hill rally against the Iran nuclear deal, an unusual joint appearance for two rivals in which Cruz gambled that he could bask in Trump’s glow. But it was more like an eclipse.

___
Cruz, the Harvard- and Princeton-educated debater, subjected listeners to a 13-minute speech, structured into categories and subcategories, and packed with elegant turns of phrase that sailed right over the heads of his listeners.

___
came the bombastic billionaire. Trump’s brief speech, if it can be called that, had no form and contained all the subtlety of a weapon of mass destruction. “We are led by very, very stupid people,” Trump proclaimed. “Very, very stupid people.”

The crowd roared.



https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ted-cruz-flounders-in-donald-trumps-shadow/2015/09/09/0f47bb24-5740-11e5-abe9-27d53f250b11_story.html