Society's ChildS


2 + 2 = 4

Flashback Here's another impossibly stupid Common Core math worksheet

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© Twitter courtesy of @Hollaatme_baby
Yet another painfully awful Common Core math worksheet has bubbled up courtesy of Twitter.

This time, the math is for fourth graders, according to Twitchy.

The incomprehensible directions tell the poor nine-year-old souls forced to endure the worksheet to "use number bonds to help you skip-count by seven by making ten or adding to the ones."

At the top left corner of the worksheet are the all-capitalized words "NYS COMMON CORE MATHEMATICS CURRICULUM."
My 9 year old sisters math homework with this "common core" shit. WHAT ARE THESE DIRECTIONS.pic.twitter.com/GNw0uumhuR

- Lauren (@HollaAtMe_Baby) January 21, 2014
A subsequent Twitter conversation between the tweeter Lauren, who is trying to make sense of the assignment for her little sister, and someone named Relle is ribald and hilarious.

Megaphone

Read parent's Facebook response to 'ridiculous' Common Core math homework

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© Facebook/The Patriot Post
A Facebook update from a father frustrated with the Common Core math program at his son's school is making the Internet rounds after the father Jeff Severt expressed (via what looks like a kid's homework assignment) how convoluted the teaching approach is.

The worksheet posted to Facebook shows the elaborate Common Core (CC) formula for solving a math problem (as opposed to the simple strategy of subtracting the smaller number from the larger one). It instructs the student to explain why a fictional kid named "Jack" should be using common core strategies to solve the problem: "Jack used the number line below to solve 427 - 316. Find his error. Then write a letter to Jack telling him what he did right, and what he should do to fix his mistake."

Severt's response reads, "Dear Jack, Don't feel bad. I have a Bachelor of Science Degree in Electronics Engineering, which included extensive study in differential equations and other higher math applications. Even I cannot explain the Common Core mathematics approach, nor get the answer correct. In the real world, simplification is valued over complication. Therefore, 427 - 316 = 111. The answer is solved in under 5 seconds - 111. The process used is ridiculous and would result in termination if used. Sincerely, Frustrated Parent."

The Facebook post (which by Tuesday had generated 4,400 likes, 4,300 shares, and 700 comments debating the issue) coincides with news that on Monday, Indiana became the first state to formally withdraw from the Common Core standards.

Arrow Down

Couple in Qatar found guilty in organ theft death

Matthew Grace
© Mohammed Dabbous/CorbisMatthew and Grace Huang, a U.S. couple who were accused of murdering their adopted daughter Gloria, stand outside the entrance of the Court of First Instance after their trial in Doha, March 27, 2014.
Matthew and Grace Huang, an Asian-American couple living and working in the Persian Gulf country of Qatar, were arrested and put on trial last year accused of starving one of their adopted African daughters to death in an attempt to harvest her organs.

Their 8-year-old daughter, Grace, had been raised severely malnourished in Ghana and had been treated for an anorexia-like condition. She died in January 2013 from unknown causes after being found by her parents and rushed to a hospital. Their other two children, now 8 and 12, were put in an orphanage but eventually returned to the United States to live with relatives.

According to a New York Times report:
"Prosecutors raised questions about why defendants of Asian heritage would adopt African children and asserted that they had deliberately withheld food and let her die. The prosecution's case was undercut, however, by testimony from friends, medical pathology experts in the United States and a defense team that punched holes in a flawed pathology report that helped formed the crux of the charges against them. Defense lawyers asserted last month that the report might have been fabricated and asked Qatar's attorney general's office to investigate possible prosecutorial misconduct."
The fact that Qatari prosecutors considered the adoption of African children by an American couple of Asian descent to be inherently suspicious strongly suggests that this prosecution is based at least in part on cultural misunderstandings. Mixed-race families and adoptions are virtually unknown in Qatar.

Cell Phone

Russian woman filmed stepping into oncoming car while engrossed on mobile phone

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Seconds away from impact: She walks straight into the path of a passing car while failing to look left or right
* Woman filmed speaking on phone while stepping out on to road in Russia

* She walked straight into path of passing car and was sent flying into air

* Shocking incident was captured on another vehicle's dashboard camera


This is the shocking moment a woman was knocked down by a car after walking into the middle of the road while speaking on her phone.

The 33-year-old was captured talking intently on her mobile as she stepped out on to a busy road in Syzran, Russia.

She walked straight into the path of a passing car and was struck by the vehicle - sending her flying through the air.

Bulb

Why Anderson Cooper won't receive an inheritance from mom Gloria Vanderbilt

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© Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty ImagesGloria Vanderbilt, left, and Anderson Cooper, right, are pictured on Nov. 4, 2010 in New York City.
Anderson Cooper may come from a family with money, but he won't be seeing a dime of it. Though his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt, inherited a fortune before making her own millions, Cooper will not receive an inheritance.

"My mom's made clear to me that there's no trust fund. There's none of that," he told Howard Stern. "[And] I don't believe in inheriting money."

Cooper, 46, said that inherited money is an "initiative sucker" and a "curse." Because of that, he's grateful that his mother always gave him an incentive to work.

Arrow Down

Kansas family raided by SWAT because cops found discarded tea leaves in trash

Bob Harte_1
© AP Photo/Orlin WagnerBob Harte demonstrates how he was forced to the floor as masked SWAT agents raided his home.

Leawood - An innocent family was terrorized by a paramilitary SWAT raid on their home that lasted 2.5 hours; yielding nothing. It took the family 2 years and $25,000 to discover the real reason their house was targeted: discarded tea leaves in their garbage and the purchase of indoor gardening equipment.

'You're in the wrong house!'

Robert and Adlynn Harte discovered how easily an innocent family can become the targets of state-sanctioned violence when a SWAT team showed up at their home looking for contraband. The terrifying experience took place at 7:30 a.m. on April 20, 2012.

"It was just like on the cops TV shows," Mr. Harte told the AP. "It was like Zero Dark Thirty ready to storm the compound."

The Harte home was surrounded by paramilitary police. There was a sudden pounding at the door, which Robert quickly answered. If he had delayed opening the door, a man carrying a battering ram was prepared to breach the front door.

Robert was pushed to the floor and made to clasp his hands behind his head as strange men poured into his home. Rifle-toting, armored troopers stood over him with rifles screaming, "Where are the children in the home?"

The Hartes' 7-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son had both been sleeping in their bedrooms, and were "shocked and frightened" as they were shuffled into the living room and made to watch as the invaders snooped through their belongings.

"We just kept saying 'You're in the wrong house!'" Mrs. Harte told KSHB.

Johnson County Sheriff's deputies and police canines tore through the family's living space for 2.5 hours. They took interest with the Hartes' indoor garden, which was a family project to grow vegetables such as tomatoes, squashes, and melons in the basement.

The Hartes said that the deputies "made rude comments" and implied their son was using marijuana. Yet the deputies left empty handed. A receipt was left, saying "no items taken."

Eye 2

Egyptian Islamists murder young Christian, after dragging her from car

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© Al-Mehwar/YouTubeA screenshot from Egyptian television's 90 Minutes program shows a picture of 25 year-old Mary Sameh George, beaten and stabbed to death by a Muslim mob on Friday, March 28, 2014.
Eyewitnesses have given a harrowing account of the murder in Cairo of a young Coptic Christian woman, hauled out of her car and beaten and stabbed to death by a Muslim mob, apparently targeted because of a cross hanging from her rear-view mirror.

The incident occurred in the Cairo suburb of Ain Shams after mosque prayer services on Friday, when police clashed with Muslim Brotherhood supporters angered by army chief Abdel Fattah al-Sisi's decision to run for president.

An eyewitness appearing on "90 minutes," a program on the al-Mehwar satellite network, said 25-year-old Mary Sameh George was attacked in her car near a church, where she planned to deliver medicine to an ill and elderly woman.

Protestors climbed onto her car, collapsing the roof, then hauled her from the vehicle, beating and mauling her - to the extent, he said, that portions of her scalp were torn off. She was stabbed multiple times, her throat was slit and when she was dead, the mob torched her car.

Chalkboard

Why are U.S. schools unable to reduce bullying?

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© UPI/Ron Sachs/PoolAn analysis on school bullying found that K-12 schools' efforts to curtail bullying are often disappointing.President Barack Obama visits a classroom of 4 and 5 year old children at Powell Elementary School in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, March 4, 2014.
Schools that conduct limited programs to reduce bullying have had limited success, while more comprehensive programs have had some success but require enormous commitment and school resources. Overall, a new study suggests that efforts to reduce bullying in K-12 schools are not making the grade.

Lead author Jaana Juvonen, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, and study co-author Sandra Graham, a UCLA professor of education, thoroughly analyzed more than 140 studies conducted in six countries: the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Finland, Norway, and Sweden.
Band-Aid solutions, such as holding one assembly a year that discourages bullying, do not work," Juvonen said in a statement. "We are trying to figure out the right balance between comprehensive programs that are costly and require a lot of staff training versus programs that require fewer school resources,

Comment: From UCLA Newsroom- 'Schools have limited success in reducing bullying, new analysis finds':
Previous studies on bullying by Juvonen and her colleagues have found that: Students who get bullied often have headaches, colds and other illnesses, as well as psychological problems. Juvonen advises parents to talk with their children about bullying before it happens, to pay attention to changes in their children's behavior and to take their concerns about bullying seriously.
The bully problem seems to reflect the psychopathic values and worldview metastasized in society and it also seems these school programs are ignorant about this core problem of our world. Of course this problem is more complicated than just counting the mere presence of psychopaths but if schoolchildren were to learn about the psychopathic menace in our midst and how it has run amok, they would profit immensely in being able to understand the 'contagious' threat and predation which is almost incomprehensible within the crucible of mainstream society.




Family

Britain plans to introduce 'Cinderella law'

Cinderella law
© Reuters/Mansi Thapliyal
For the first time in history, the UK is planning to introduce the so-called "Cinderella law", which will jail parents failing to show love to children for up to 10 years in prison, putting it alongside physical or sexual abuse, local media reported.

The UK government is planning to introduce changes to child neglect laws, which will make "emotional cruelty" a crime for the first time, according to Daily Telegraph report. The law will protect children's emotional, social and behavioral well-being.

The offence will include deliberately ignoring a child, not showing them any love over prolonged periods, forcing degrading punishments or to witness domestic violence, and making them a scapegoat.

Gift 3

Low birthrate kicks campaign urging Danes to have more sex: 'Do it for Denmark!'

Do it for denmark
© Still from YouTube video/Spies Rejser
A Danish travel company is calling for Danes to have more sex while they're on holiday - to save the country. They even launched a competition to encourage the people to take a break and conceive kids, as the birthrate is now at its lowest in decades.

Spies Rejser Travel has promised three years of free baby supplies and a child friendly holiday for a couple who can prove that they conceived while on a Spies' holiday. The travel company said it is trying to help tackle the country's low birth rate by encouraging couples to do it for Denmark.

The birth rate in Denmark is currently the lowest it's been in 27 years. Almost 58,000 children were born in 2012, but the present rate of 1.7 children per family is not enough to maintain the population.

Comment: It's not only Denmark, it is a sign of our times. South Korea, Japan, and a host of other countries see a decline in birthrates in recent years - About that overpopulation problem.