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While Greece is struggling…
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The 2010 culture programme reveals £366 million will spent on a host of events to promote wind instruments, “hip hop” dance and circus skills.
The European Laboratory for Hip Hop Dance will net £900,000 to “improve the recognition and visibility of hip hop dance in Europe” and “encourage connectivity between hip hop artists”.
[..]
Other bizarre projects include The Project of Generosity which will get £180,000 to “spread the movement of reaching out and sharing.”
Court bars charges against teen who posed semi-nude
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A federal appeals court rebuked a Pennsylvania district attorney who threatened to file felony child pornography charges against teens who were photographed semi-nude unless they attended an “education program.”
In a unanimous decision issued Wednesday by the appeals court in Philadelphia, a three-judge panel said the threat amounted to a “Hobson’s Choice” that would retaliate against one of the girls and her family for exercising their constitutional right to free speech. A rare dose of government-issued sanity in the prosecutorial crusade against teenage ’sexting’, the ruling upheld a lower-court order issued last year in the case.
The case stems from “inappropriate images of minors” found by officials at Pennsylvania’s Tunkhannock School District, that included, among other things, a girl posing in her bathing suit. In late 2008, Wyoming County District Attorney George Skumanick told an assembly of about 20 students and their parents he would bring felony child pornography charges against them unless they completed a six- to nine-month program.
For female offenders, that meant attending classes designed to help the participants “gain an understanding of what it means to be a girl in today’s society,” and require them to write a report on what the students did and “why it was wrong.”
Skumanick is no longer District Attorney.
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“I got mine, so go fuck yourself and anyone else that dares take any of mine!”
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In a scene reminiscent of non-violent civil rights confrontations from the 1960s, Ohio Tea Partiers quickly turned ugly when facing off with health care advocates in front of Ohio Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy’s office Tuesday.
In shocking video taken by a Columbus Dispatch reporter Doral Chenowith yesterday, Tea Party protestors mock a seated counter-protestor with a sign indicating he has Parkinson’s disease. They then proceed to hurl wadded up bills at him shouting, “I’ll decide when to give you money!”
On March 17th outside of Rep. Mary Jo Kilroy’s (D-OH15) district office teabaggers mocked and scorned a man who had a sign stating that he had Parkinson’s. They told him “he’s in the wrong end of town to ask for handouts”, called him a communist and threw dollar bills at him to “pay for his health care”.
Mass. doctor pleads guilty to research fraud
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A doctor accused of faking research for a dozen years in published studies that suggested after-surgery benefits from painkillers including Vioxx and Celebrex pleaded guilty Monday to one count of federal health care fraud.
An attorney for Dr. Scott Reuben said the anesthesiologist will have to repay $361,932 in research grants and forfeit assets worth at least $50,000 as penalty for his conduct following a plea hearing in U.S. District Court.
He managed to do this for twelve years before he was caught. He was wrong, but so were the magazines publishing the results, the local hospital that was supposed to check the results, and Pfizer for claiming they just gave the money and were not “involved” in the research.
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French bread spiked with LSD in CIA experiment
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In 1951, a quiet, picturesque village in southern France was suddenly and mysteriously struck down with mass insanity and hallucinations. At least five people died, dozens were interned in asylums and hundreds afflicted.
For decades it was assumed that the local bread had been unwittingly poisoned with a psychedelic mould. Now, however, an American investigative journalist has uncovered evidence suggesting the CIA peppered local food with the hallucinogenic drug LSD as part of a mind control experiment at the height of the Cold War.
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Jeffersonville middle school student suspended for touching pill
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The parents of a Kentuckiana seventh grade student say their young daughter was suspended from school for doing exactly what she’s been taught to do for years – to just say no to drugs.
Rachael Greer said it happened on Feb. 23 during fifth period gym class at River Valley Middle School when a girl walked into the locker room with a bag of pills.
“She was talking to another girl and me about them and she put one in my hand and I was like, ‘I don’t want this,’ so I put it back in the bag and I went to gym class,” said Rachael.
The pills were the prescription ADHD drug, Adderall. Patty Greer, Rachael’s mother, said she and her husband are proud of their daughter for turning down drugs, just like she’s been taught for years by DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) instructors at school.
“I’m proud her conscience kicked in and she said, ‘No, I’m not taking this. Here you can have it back,’” Patty Greer said.
But just saying no didn’t end the trouble for Rachael. During the next period, an assistant principal came and took Rachael out of class. It turned out the girl who originally had the pills and a few other students got caught. That’s when the assistant principal gave Rachael a decision.
“We’re suspending you for five days because it was in your hand,” said Rachael.
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We wanted to know what would have happened if Rachael had told a teacher right away. Bell said the punishment would not have been any different. District officials say if they’re not strict about drug policies no one will take them seriously.
Dude, don’t look now, but… nobody is taking you seriously!
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Romanian street sign warns drivers of ‘drunk pedestrians’
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Street signs warning Romanian drivers to be careful of drunken pedestrians lying on roads were erected by road safety chiefs worried about the “despairing” levels of accidents.
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Holland proposes giving over-70s who ‘consider their lives complete’ the right to die | Mail Online
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Assisted suicide for anyone over 70 who has simply had enough of life is being considered in Holland.
Non-doctors would be trained to administer a lethal potion to elderly people who ‘consider their lives complete’.
The radical move would be a world first and push the boundaries even further in the country that first legalised euthanasia.
The Dutch parliament is to debate the measure after campaigners for assisted suicide collected 112,500 signatures in a month.
Euthanasia has been available for the terminally ill in Holland since 2002 in cases of ‘hopeless and unbearable suffering’ certified by two doctors, but this would be a far bigger step.
Supporters say it would offer a dignified way to die for those over 70 who just want to give up living, without having to resort to difficult or unreliable solitary suicide methods.
Okay, couple of points.
1. This in the daily mail. That should already be enough for you to dismiss this article.
2. Our government fell recently which means that any controversial topic is likely to be voted as ‘controversial’ (duh) and that means that it’s postponed till after the elections in June. This also means that no minister can propose any controversial law because it’s simply never going to pass.
3. This is about a “burgerinitiatief” – a rule that says that any group that gets 40,000 verified signatures of adult Dutch citizens can get parliament to talk about them, and the committee that verifies requests like this can deny it based on “it contravenes deeply held values of dutch society”. And if they approve it, all parliament has to really do is talk about it. Quite a bit away from “creating a law”, actually
4. The largest party in the Netherlands for the past decade has been the CDA. The “C” in there stands for “Christian”. You figure out the rest.
5. This isn’t something that happened “in a month”, the foundation that drives the signature collecting has been doing this since 2002.
6. They don’t have 112,500 signatures, they have something like 70,000 during that 8 years.
7. All the so-called “details” in the article, such like non-doctors doing the work, are utterly made up out of thin air.
8. See point 1.
Navy dogs in ‘deplorable’ conditions with contractor
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The task probably seemed innocuous enough when a small team of U.S. Navy personnel accepted it last fall. They would trek out to a private security contractor in Chicago to pick up 49 dogs, then transport them to a nearby military base.
But what they found when they arrived was shocking, according to internal Navy e-mails: dirty, weak animals so thin that their ribs and hip bones jutted out.
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The company says it is owed more than $6 million for its services and for the animals. The Navy appears to have gained little from the deal besides the dogs, which Securitas bought for roughly $465,000, according to the owner of the kennel that sold them.
The Navy wouldn’t disclose what it has actually paid out under the botched contract; officials would say only that they’re still working to determine exactly how much the Navy owes Lockheed Martin, the defense giant that subcontracted the K-9 work to Securitas.
Italy’s cabinet passes decree over election chaos
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Italy’s cabinet passed a decree on Friday aimed at reinstating candidates from Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s party stripped from ballots in two key regions due to irregularities in presenting their candidacies.
Opposition politicians said the legislation, approved by an emergency cabinet meeting late on Friday, was unconstitutional because it interfered with electoral law ahead of the March 28-29 regional polls.
However, Interior Minister Roberto Maroni said the decree did not change electoral rules but aimed to ensure they were interpreted “in the correct way” by magistrates.
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Ionia kindergartner suspended for making gun with hand
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To the little boy’s mother, it was just a 6-year-old boy playing around.
But when Mason Jammer, a kindergarten student at Jefferson Elementary in Ionia, curled his fist into the shape of a gun Wednesday and pointed it at another student, school officials said it was no laughing matter.
They suspended Mason until Friday, saying the behavior made other students uncomfortable, said Erin Jammer, Mason’s mother.
School officials allege Mason had displayed this kind of behavior for several months, despite numerous warnings.
Well, it appears you have to go to Grand Rapids or Lansing for a Starbucks, so the kid is probably not aware of what’s he’s doing.
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There’s being stupid..
and then there’s being this guy.
Darwin award, anybody?
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An Eyewitness News investigation talks to a police officer who reveals the pressure they are under to make quotas
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An Eyewitness News investigation talks to a police officer who reveals the pressure they are under to make quotas.
When Officer Adil Polanco dreamed of becoming a cop, it was out of a desire to help people not, he says, to harass them.
“I’m not going to keep arresting innocent people, I’m not going to keep searching people for no reason, I’m not going to keep writing people for no reason, I’m tired of this,” said Adil Polanco, an NYPD Officer.
Officer Polanco says One Police Plaza’s obsession with keeping crime stats down has gotten out of control. He claims Precinct Commanders relentlessly pressure cops on the street to make more arrests, and give out more summonses, all to show headquarters they have a tight grip on their neighborhoods.
“Our primary job is not to help anybody, our primary job is not to assist anybody, our primary job is to get those numbers and come back with them?” said Officer Polanco.
Eyewitness News asked, “Why do it?”
“They have to meet a quota. One arrest and twenty summonses,” said Officer Polanco.
Michaelsoft Binbows
(Binbows is a pun on the Japanese word 貧乏 (binbou – poor). The sign says it is a super cheap used PC shop.)
CNN: this is Hawaii
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Imagine the political world’s reaction if a Democratic senator had done this in, say, 2002.
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In a Congress when Republicans’ obstructionist tactics have become scandalous, and a discredited GOP minority has effectively shut down the American policymaking process, Sen. Richard Shelby (R) of Alabama still stands out for his brazenness.
Shelby, you’ll recall, placed a blanket hold on several dozen administration nominees, holding them hostage until the senator was paid off in earmarked pork. He eventually backed off, at least in part, though he continues to block Senate votes on three top positions in the Air Force.
CNN’s Dana Bash asked the right-wing senator yesterday whether his actions are justified.
BASH: I spoke with Geoff Morrell over at the Pentagon and just asked him what the impact is of not having these three people in place — one of whom, as you know, is the number two at the Air Force. He said, “Without these people, we’re not firing on all cylinders.” And he also said, “It does adversely affect the organization.”
Are you worried about that? This is a time of war –
SHELBY: The Pentagon is a big place. I don’t think one or two will affect anything except on the margins.
BASH: Do you think that the nominees you have holds on are qualified?
SHELBY: Oh, I don’t have any idea.
In a sane political world, this would put Shelby in an impossible-to-defend position.
Lobbying run amok: Eight health care lobbyists for every member of Congress
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For every member of Congress, there were eight lobbyists working to influence health care reform last year, according to research by The Center for Public Integrity.
That’s about 4,525 total lobbyists from 1,750 companies that include 207 hospitals, 105 insurance companies and 85 manufacturing companies.
Official Google Blog: Serious threat to the web in Italy
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In late 2006, students at a school in Turin, Italy filmed and then uploaded a video to Google Video that showed them bullying an autistic schoolmate. The video was totally reprehensible and we took it down within hours of being notified by the Italian police. We also worked with the local police to help identify the person responsible for uploading it and she was subsequently sentenced to 10 months community service by a court in Turin, as were several other classmates who were also involved. In these rare but unpleasant cases, that’s where our involvement would normally end.
But in this instance, a public prosecutor in Milan decided to indict four Google employees —David Drummond, Arvind Desikan, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes (who left the company in 2008). The charges brought against them were criminal defamation and a failure to comply with the Italian privacy code. To be clear, none of the four Googlers charged had anything to do with this video. They did not appear in it, film it, upload it or review it. None of them know the people involved or were even aware of the video’s existence until after it was removed.
Nevertheless, a judge in Milan today convicted 3 of the 4 defendants — David Drummond, Peter Fleischer and George Reyes — for failure to comply with the Italian privacy code. All 4 were found not guilty of criminal defamation. In essence this ruling means that employees of hosting platforms like Google Video are criminally responsible for content that users upload. We will appeal this astonishing decision because the Google employees on trial had nothing to do with the video in question. Throughout this long process, they have displayed admirable grace and fortitude. It is outrageous that they have been subjected to a trial at all.
What was the video shot on? Maybe they can press charges on some Sony employees for making cameras too.
London councils sue themselves for parking offences
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“If they ever make a sequel to the film Dumb and Dumber I would suggest that the producers look no further than Islington Parking Department for the starring roles.”
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Reboot Scheduler
Whine about Apple about closed systems and lack of multitasking all you want, but at least there’s no need for an app like this.
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New National Security Distraction: Arabic Language Students
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Yesterday, the ACLU filed a lawsuit on behalf of Nick George, a Pomona College student who was detained and aggressively interrogated by Transportation Security Administration (TSA) authorities, by the FBI and by Pennsylvania police when he tried to board a plane carrying Arabic language flash cards.
You heard right: Not liquids, not matches, not a bomb. Flash cards.
George, a physics major who’s studying Arabic, was pulled aside for secondary screening at the Philadelphia International Airport as he tried to go through security. When he emptied his pockets, the inspector saw his flash cards and he was arrested, handcuffed, locked in a cell for hours and aggressively questioned. Because of some flash cards.
The following exchange took place between George and a TSA supervisor who questioned him:
TSA Supervisor: You know who did 9/11?
George: Osama bin Laden.
TSA Supervisor: Do you know what language he spoke?
George: Arabic.At that point, the TSA supervisor held up George’s flash cards—which had words such as “to smile” and “funny” and on them—and said: “Do you see why these cards are suspicious?”
Ah, the smoking gun.
Nobody had better tell the TSA about Arabic numerals.
Because if there’s one thing they desperately need in Haiti, its…
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Thermos leads to highway closure, evacuations
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A suspicious package reported Friday at a bank in Mt. Angel led to the three-hour closure of Highway 214 and the evacuation of a city block.
Mt. Angel Police Department responded to a call from a U.S. Bank employee at 5:30 p.m.
Chief Brent Earhart said the employee found a suspicious-looking sack holding a cylinder-shaped object in the lobby underneath a counter.
Bank employees were evacuated to the Mt. Angel Fire Station where they were interviewed by police.
The Oregon State Police Bomb Squad was dispatched and Mt. Angel police and fire personnel evacuated the block surrounding the bank located at 250 N. Main St.
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Earhart said the object in the bag turned out to be a food and beverage thermos. The streets were reopened at 8:30 p.m.
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Tourists decry decision to close Lost Dutchman State Park
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Winter visitors who spend weeks, if not months, at the iconic Lost Dutchman State Park don’t understand why Arizona would sacrifice tourism revenue to cut the $3.2 billion state deficit anticipated in the coming fiscal year.
Plans to close the park – the closest state park to Mesa — on June 3 have left visitors wondering if it will reopen and whether they will have to go someplace else next winter, taking their money with them.
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Lost Dutchman, the state’s eighth most popular park and the closest to the East Valley, lost $9,545 in fiscal year 2008-2009. The biggest loser was Oracle State Park near Tucson, which lost $253,262. In contrast, popular Slide Rock State Park near Sedona turned a $254,249 profit.
But Stephen Filipowicz, Apache Junction’s economic development director, said the Arizona State Parks Department estimates that Lost Dutchman generates $4 million a year in tourism revenues each year.
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So while the park costs the state $10k to operate, it brings in $4 million in tourist revenue to the surrounding community. But because it didn’t break even on its operating expenses, the tax-obsessed clown posse at the state lege is shutting the park down.
I swear. The sheer lunacy in this kind of thinking is so surreal. Not only are they shutting down a beautiful state park that provides entertainment and recreation for tens of thousands of people in the state in order to save $10k in operating expenses, they are throwing away millions of dollars in tourist revenue in the process. This is the party of fiscal responsibility at work in our state.
Bard too bawdy for Nashville parents
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Toronto’s Classical Theatre Project has discovered that Shakespeare is a little too bawdy for some parents in the city of Nashville, Tenn.
The company, which has performed productions of Twelfth Night, Macbeth and Oedipus Rex to more than 100,000 Ontario high school students, is in the country music capital this week to perform Romeo and Juliet.
Artistic director David Galpern says he was astonished by the reaction of some teachers and parents who saw the production Sunday night, when it was in dress rehearsal.
“They came to us with what appeared to be a list of objectionable moments that they wanted us to tone down before the students came on Monday,” he told CBC News on Tuesday.
GOP candidate: People on public assistance ‘like stray animals’
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South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, who is running for the Republican nomination for governor, has compared giving people government assistance to “feeding stray animals.” “My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don’t think too much further than that. And so what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to curtail that type of behavior. They don’t know any better,” Bauer said.
Just like Jesus said. Don’t help the poor or they’ll breed like rabbits.
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‘Whites only’ basketball league announced
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The Augusta Chronicle reported on Tuesday that the All-American Basketball Alliance plans to kick off its inaugural season in June and hopes that Augusta will be one of 12 cities to host teams.
But here’s the kicker: According to a press release the newspaper and other Augusta media outlets received from the new league, “only players that are natural-born United State citizens with both parents of Caucasian race are eligible to play in the league.”
That’s right. Lewis, who calls himself the commissioner of the AABA, will exclude blacks and all foreigners from his new league, which the newspaper said will be based in Atlanta.
According to the Chronicle, Lewis said he wants to emphasize “fundamental basketball” instead of “street ball” played by “people of color.”
“There’s nothing hatred about what we’re doing,” Lewis told the paper. “I don’t hate anyone of color.”
Let me guess… some of your best friends are people of color, right?
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Mom forces son to kill hamster for bad grade
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As punishment for bad grades, a Georgia mother forced her 12-year-old son to kill his pet hamster with a hammer, police said.
Meriwether County Sheriff’s Offi Lynn Geter, 38, is accused of forcing her 12-year-old son to kill his pet hamster for earning a bad grade, according to Steve Whitlock, Meriwether County sheriff.The day after he was forced to kill his pet, the child told his teacher, Meriwether County Sheriff Steve Whitlock told the AJC Thursday evening.
The teacher reported the incident to DFCS authorities, who contacted police, Whitlock said. The pet’s death allegedly took place at the family’s Warm Springs home.
US Mercenaries Set Sights on Haiti
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We saw this type of Iraq-style disaster profiteering in New Orleans, and you can expect to see a lot more of this in Haiti over the coming days, weeks and months. Private security companies are seeing big dollar signs in Haiti thanks in no small part to the media hype about “looters.” After Katrina, the number of private security companies registered (and unregistered) multiplied overnight. Banks, wealthy individuals, the US government all hired private security. I even encountered Israeli mercenaries operating an armed checkpoint outside of an elite gated community in New Orleans. They worked for a company called Instinctive Shooting International. (That is not a joke).
Now, it is kicking into full gear in Haiti
East Boston cat called to jury duty
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Someone is getting called for jury duty…but it’s no human.
A family is trying to figure out how their pet cat was summonsed for jury duty.
“I said, Sal, what’s this? You know, I don’t believe it I was shocked,” said Guy Esposito, Sal’s owner.
Sal’s owners, Guy and Anna Esposito, think they may know the source of the mix up: Sal really is a member of the family, so on the last Census form, Anna Esposito listed him under “pets”.
“I just wrote ‘Sal Esposito’, scratched out the ‘dog,’ and wrote, ‘cat,’” said Anna.
Anna filed for Sal’s disqualification of service. However, the jury commissioner was unmoved and denied the request.
Sal’s service date at Suffolk Superior Court is set for March 23. Anna said that if the issue isn’t cleared up by then, she will simply have to bring the cat to court.
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I’m happy to hear that money is going to culture.