Society's ChildS


Cheeseburger

Spanish cyclist fined €100 for eating croissant

George Mills
The Local, Spain
Thu, 14 Nov 2013 17:05 UTC
Cyclist
© Tony HallThe croissant ended up being an expensive breakfast for this Spanish cyclist.

A cyclist in Spain was fined €100 ($135) recently for eating a croissant while riding his bicycle.

Ivan González was slapped with the fine after a policeman spotted him eating the breakfast pastry while riding through central Sabadell, in Spain's Catalonia region.

He was on his way to work when a local policeman waved him down and wrote up a ticket for reckless driving, Spain's La Vanguardia newspaper reported on Thursday.

An indignant González said he planned to appeal the decision.

Even police at the local station appeared confused by the hefty penalty, he said.

The fine for dangerous cycling is all part of Spain's shift towards a points-based driving licence.

Spanish drivers receive a total of 12 points but can lose points for various infractions, including talking on a mobile phone while driving, speeding or drink driving.

They can also see points stripped for more unusual activities like reversing on a motorway or throwing any object from a car window that could cause an accident.

But even cyclists can lose points for similar infractions, as Ivan González discovered recently.
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Dollars

Buying citizenship: Which nations are affordable?

Yousef Gamal El-Din
CNBC
Thu, 14 Nov 2013 16:28 UTC
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© Anne Rippy
There are plenty of countries offering to hand you a new citizenship, provided you invest a sufficient amount of money. For those who do not have millions to spare, which nations are more affordable?

Malta made headlines earlier this week when its parliament approved a program to sell the nationality for just $900,000. It comes with full EU benefits and is one of the least restrictive passports for global jetsetters.

It's likely to be an unwelcome development for an immigration-wary Brussels. Programs are already available for swift residency in Portugal - a "Gold Residence Permit Programme" there can be secured with property investments of at least $675,000. It does not give you full citizenship, however.
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Arrow Down

Social services worker arrested after boy found handcuffed to porch with dead chicken around neck


wral.com
Sat, 16 Nov 2013 16:17 UTC
Union County, North Carolina - Authorities arrested a Union County Department of Social Services worker and a Monroe man Friday night after an 11-year-old boy was found handcuffed to the front porch of a home with a dead chicken tied around his neck, investigators said.

WBTV of Charlotte reported a deputy was answering an animal services complaint next door to the home on Austin Road, south of Monroe, when he saw a child secured to the front porch at the ankle, by what appeared to be a pair of handcuffs.

The child also had a dead chicken hanging around his neck, and appeared to be shivering, the deputy said.
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Cowboy Hat

Melissa Bachman: One very sick individual

Oliver Darcy
Theblaze.com
Sat, 16 Nov 2013 09:38 UTC
Editor's Note: This post contains graphic pictures of dead wildlife that may disturb some readers.

Trophy hunter and U.S. television host Melissa Bachman ignited controversy this week after posting a picture showing her posing over a dead lion she had slain in South Africa earlier this month.

Lion
Melissa Bachman. (Image Source: Facebook).
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Laptop

Anonymous has reportedly been hacking US government computers for almost a year

Bryan Bishop
The Verge
Fri, 15 Nov 2013 13:47 UTC
According to Reuters, a recent FBI memo admits that hacking collective Anonymous has been accessing multiple US government computer systems and stolen information over the past year. The alleged memo is said to have been distributed yesterday, and calls the intrusions a "widespread problem that should be addressed." The Department of Energy, the US Army, and the Department of Health and Human Services are all mentioned as targets.

The attacks are said to have started last December, using an exploit present in Adobe's ColdFusion software. After gaining access, the perpetrators reportedly installed back doors in the systems so they could regain access at a later date; Reuters states that many of the compromised computers were still being accessed as of last month. The FBI memo tell IT personnel how to evaluate whether their systems have been compromised.
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People

Does the United States have a culture of bullying?

Katy Waldman
Slate
Sat, 16 Nov 2013 12:42 UTC
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© Photo by Joel Auerbach/Getty ImagesJonathan Martin, standing up and being a man
Does the United States have a culture of bullying? That was the thesis of an article by the New Republic's Chris Wallace that came out Tuesday. Following in the footsteps of Dave Zirin, who argued last week in the Nation that the NFL's pernicious "man code" reflected a broader American weakness for "sexism, violence against women...and physical domination of others," Wallace examines how the "power politics of the locker room" unfold across the country. "There exists a rush to dominance, a pattern of bullying," he writes, "in every walk of life...The hardest part about watching a football game for me now (aside from knowing now the real toll of the carnage-as-entertainment) is seeing its reflection in the world that brackets it."

Wallace was reacting to the high-profile NFL fiasco in which a white player for the Miami Dolphins, Richie Incognito, bullied a black teammate, Jonathan Martin, to the point of hospitalization. When Martin first reported the abuse, he was widely dismissed and insulted for tattling like a kid. What he'd done by going to the authorities - instead of taking his tormentor "to fist city" - was break the masculinity code. He failed to "step up and be a man," according to Tennessee running back Chris Johnson. "I think Jonathan Martin is a weak person," added an NFL personnel worker (who bravely insisted on anonymity). "There's no other way to put it, other than him being soft."
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V

Occupy Grassy Knoll: 50 years is enough!


Occupythegrassyknoll.org
Sat, 16 Nov 2013 10:50 UTC
Occupy the Grassy Knoll
© Unknown
Dealey Plaza is a public park and a designated National Historical Site that has been open to the public over the five decades since President Kennedy was assassinated there. It was meant to encourage visitors to seek and discuss their own history and this critical event. In 1964, Penn Jones, a newspaper editor and early critic of the Warren Commission's official version of the assassination, began to hold an annual Moment of Silence on the Grassy Knoll (North Pergola) lest we forget the injustice or let the case remain unsolved. At his request, the Coalition on Political Assassinations (COPA) has continued the tradition since his illness and death in the 1990s.

COPA has sought a permit since 2010 for our annual Moment of Silence this 50th anniversary year. We also speak truth to power about the assassination of President Kennedy, who was behind his murder and why he was killed to put others in power in the United States in an un-Constitutional coup.
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Handcuffs

Judge to sentence U.S. border cops who made smugglers eat pot

Brad Poole
Reuters
Tue, 12 Nov 2013 10:45 UTC
Image
Two U.S. Border Patrol agents who forced four suspected drug smugglers to chew marijuana and flee shoeless into the Arizona desert on a chilly November night are due to be sentenced on Tuesday for violating the men's civil rights.

A jury convicted Dario Castillo, 25, and Ramon Zuniga, 31, in April of depriving the Mexican men, all of whom were in the U.S. illegally, of civil rights in the incident in the borderland deserts of southern Arizona.

The 2008 incident began when a Border Patrol agent mounted on horseback discovered a group of men sleeping in a dry stream bed in the desert, which straddles a key corridor for Mexican traffickers smuggling drugs and illegally ferrying immigrants into the United States.

Castillo and Zuniga were about to end their shift after midnight, according to testimony, when they got a call for assistance from the horse patrol. They responded, but the group of about 20 suspected smugglers scattered into the night when the agents arrived.
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Ambulance

Four U.S. Marines die in accident at Camp Pendleton in California

Marty Graham
Reuters
Wed, 13 Nov 2013 10:39 UTC
Image
Four U.S. Marines were killed on Wednesday in an accident while clearing a training area used as an artillery and aerial bombing range at Camp Pendleton in Southern California, a military spokesman said.

NBC News reported the Marines were killed when unexploded ordnance unexpectedly detonated, but the spokesman could not immediately confirm that, saying only the Marines had been clearing the area.

Marines spokesman Lieutenant Ryan Finnegan said the clearance operation would have involved anything necessary to keep the range free of obstructions, which could include disposing of ordnance. But he could not say they were handling ordnance when the accident occurred.

The cause of the accident, which happened on Wednesday morning at the Zulu Impact Area in the interior part of the base, was under investigation.
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Sheriff

Cop Patrick Tuter indicted for killing Michael Allen, firing 41 shots at unarmed suspect

Jonathan Vankin
Opposing Views
Wed, 13 Nov 2013 10:27 UTC
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For only the second time in 17 years, a Dallas County grand jury has indicted a police officer for wrongly killing a suspect in the line of duty. Patrick Tuter is being held on an unusually high $100,000 bail after his indictment for manslaughter in the death of 25-year-old Michael Vincent Allen on Aug. 31 of last year.

Prosecutors said they did not consider the fired Garland police officer a threat to flee, and were prepared to let bail go as low as $10,000. But Judge Lena Levario said that in her view, Tuter (pictured) posed a threat to public safety and needed to be locked up. Typical bail in manslaughter cases is about $25,000, the Dallas Morning News reported.

If he makes bail, Tuter is not allowed to hold any job that requires him to use a weapon.

From the facts of the case, Tuter appears not only trigger-happy, but also an inaccurate shot. He is accused of killing Allen, who was unarmed, after a half-hour chase during which speeds hit 100 mph along a North Dallas freeway, ending up with Allen cornered in cul-de-sac in Mesquite.

According to one eyewitness to the shooting, Allen's white GMC pick-up truck was trapped between two cop cars. That's when Tuter, according to a witness, shouted for Allen to get out of the truck but then, without waiting more than a few seconds, opened fire.
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