Weird News of the World Thread

[Alex_Spider]

Astronaut: 'blind luck' protects us from 'city-killer' asteroids
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-04/22/asteroid-impacts

A nuclear weapons test warning network -- the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty Organisation -- in Canada has detected 26 multi-kiloton explosions since 2001: all due to asteroid impacts. This could be just the tip of an iceberg, says the non-profit B612 Foundation.

Information released for the foundation's Earth Day press conference says new data analysed by physics and astronomy professor Peter Brown at Western University, Canada, shows a large number of asteroid impacts on Earth during the last decade. The data came from large listening stations that pick up the low-frequency infrasound pulse from the explosions. Twenty-six of them ranged in energy between one and 600 kilotons. The atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima in 1945 exploded with an impact of 15 kilotons. Thankfully, many of these asteroids exploded too high in the atmosphere to damage things too much on the ground. If they do make it through, they are more likely to land in water than on land, as is shown in the video.

Wired.co.uk contacted Edward Lu, former astronaut and CEO of the non-profit B612 Foundation, who said previously the likelihood of such an impact was considered to be around 30 percent in your lifetime. Professor Brown's research puts the likelihood closer to once every 100 years for a major (city killer) impact. The last city killer asteroid documented to have hit Earth was the one that fell in June 1908 in Tunguska with an explosive energy of around five megatons.

Lu said: "The visualisation shows that asteroid impacts are not rare -- but actually 3-10 times more common than we previously thought.

"While most large asteroids with the potential to destroy an entire country or continent have been detected, less than 10,000 of the more than a million dangerous asteroids with the potential to destroy an entire major metropolitan area have been found by all existing space or terrestrially-operated observatories," stated Lu.

"Because we don't know where or when the next major impact will occur, the only thing preventing a catastrophe from a 'city-killer' sized asteroid has been blind luck."

The asteroid that exploded over Chelyabinsk in February 2013 exploded with an energy of around 500 kilotons. Despite having a mass of around 13,000 metric tonnes and measuring 20 metres in diameter, it entered the Earth's atmosphere undetected.

The B612 Foundation's Sentinel Space Telescope Mission aims to be our first line of defence.

Sentinel, the world's first privately funded deep space mission, will create the first comprehensive dynamic map of our inner solar system, identifying the current and future locations and trajectories of Earth-crossing asteroids.

The space telescope will take about four years to build and test, with a scheduled launch in 2018, aboard a Falcon 9 rocket. The aim is to discover and catalogue 90 percent of the asteroids larger than 140 meters in Earth's region of the solar system. The mission should also discover a significant number of smaller asteroids, down to a diameter of 30 meters.

By observing in infrared, Sentinel should be able to discover more than 20,000 asteroids in the first month of operation -- more discoveries than all other telescopes combined have managed to discover in the last 30 years. Over 6.5 years, Sentinel will locate and follow the trajectories of more than 90 percent of asteroids larger than 140 meters -- documenting 500,000 Near Earth Asteroids (NEAs) over its lifetime.

Compiling the definitive catalog of NEAs, within a few years nearly all NEAs known to humanity will have been discovered by Sentinel. The goal of the B612 Sentinel mission is to find and track asteroids decades before they hit Earth, giving us a change to come up with a way to deflect them.

How can asteroids threatening Earth be deflected? Dismissing the idea of using nuclear weapons to try and destroy or push an asteroid, Dr Lu is the co-inventor of the "gravity tractor", a practical and controllable means of deflecting asteroids by using gravitational tug to change their orbit. At the moment, it's just a theoretical defence that is yet to be built; in the interim, we'll have to make do with luck.

 

[Alex_Spider]

U.S. theme park first: Legoland Florida runs completely on renewable energy for Earth Day
http://www.wftv.com/news/events/us-theme-park-first-legoland-florida-runs-complete/nffYW/

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — LEGOLAND ® Florida and Tampa Electric kicked off a groundbreaking partnership Tuesday in a celebratory moment by making the 150-acre theme park run completely on renewable solar energy for the day in celebration of Earth Day – the first theme park to do so in the U.S. The celebration is part of existing and new conservation initiatives, including installations that will educate park guests about solar energy. As part of the partnership, LEGOLAND Florida will also permanently power a section of the park, Imagination Zone, on renewable energy.

“This is a historic day for LEGOLAND Florida,” said LEGOLAND Florida General Manager Adrian Jones. “With our new partnership with Tampa Electric, we will give guests a whole new way to learn about renewable energy while also doing something that no other theme park in the U.S. has done before.”

A celebratory moment was held just prior to park opening Tuesday, at approximately 9:45 a.m., with both Jones and Bruce Narzissenfeld, vice president of Marketing, Customer Service, Business Development and Fuel Operations for Tampa Electric, proclaiming the partnership and special green initiative. Even the confetti was eco-friendly. The focal point centered around LEGOLAND Florida running on renewable energy for an entire day, with environmental savings equal to removing three cars from the road for one year or planting six acres of trees.

The partnership also resulted in the installation of a 30-kilowatt solar panel array mounted atop the Imagination Zone attraction venue. Funded by Tampa Electric, the system supports Tampa Electric's Renewable Energy program that lets the company's customers purchase a portion of their electricity from renewable sources.

“This is a partnership built on doing the right thing for the environment,” said Narzissenfeld. “Together, we’ll teach the next generation about the benefits of investing in renewable fuels like the sun to produce electricity.

As part of the partnership, a new display will be placed inside the park starting in June, featuring an interactive 6-foot LEGO ® Earth model that educates guests on solar technologies. Located outside Imagination Zone, visitors will be able to affect the rate of LEGO Earth’s rotation with tactile solar panels. Guests will also enjoy an interactive zone that features LEGO mini model communities running on renewable energy inside the Imagination Zone.

The new areas add to the multiple educational aspects already within LEGOLAND Florida. The park gives kids a chance to learn and play with STEM-based activities such as LEGO MINDSTORMS robots, Build & Test and Power Towers.
LEGOLAND Florida has made a consistent effort for conservation since the park opened in 2011, including:
The park recycled nearly 60 tons of bottles and cans in 2013, along with 176 tons of cardboard
Throughout the park, guests can find over 180 recycled-made benches, with each made out of 800 recycled milk jugs

Each of the park’s 310 trash cans (consisting of both waste and recycle only at a 1-to-1 rate) are made out of 330 recycled milk jugs
LEGOLAND Florida has map recycling stations to avoid the waste of park maps that guests can acquire at the beginning sections of the park
The LEGOLAND Water Park holds 26 benches and 88 trashcans made entirely out of recyclable materials.

Why just for one day

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

I was born in Winter Haven. Grew up there for most of my early life. Legoland used to be a place called Cypress Gardens and it was boring as heck. From what I understand the new park is doing well but they keep cost down by not actually being open all year round.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Oberlin Professor Accuses Colleague of Murder Conspiracy

An Oberlin professor has accused another professor of trying to murder him. In response, the alleged would-be murderer is suing his accuser for sullying his good name. Life in academia can be killer.

Oberlin professor Ali Yedes filed suit last week against another professor for defamation and emotional distress. You'd be distressed, too, if your colleague accused you of plotting murder. According to the lawsuit, another professor, Samir Amin Abdellatif, accused Yedes of making threatening comments to yet another professor, Eunjung An. Yedes reportedly said that he was bringing in a relative from Tunisia to kill An, although Yedes denies making the comments.

Abdellatif also reportedly claimed that Yedes helped forge another professor's academic credentials and got involved in an interfaith campus group to "spy on Jews." And also that Yedes tried to bribe a teaching assistant to marry him. Just run-of-the-mill academic stuff.

Yedes is asking $25,000 for "loss of opportunity, humiliation, embarrassment, damage to reputation, loss of self-esteem, physical damages and emotional and psychological distress." The Council on America-Islamic Relations, which has previously denounced Abdellatif, has asked for a thorough investigation by Oberlin. Alleged victim An is also suing the college for failing to deal with the reported harassment.

http://www.morningjournal.com/gener...fessor-sues-colleague-for-alleged-murder-plot

I had no idea it goes down like that in college

 

[Alex_Spider]

http://inhabitat.com/nyc/pool-announces-new-google-drive-app-to-show-new-yorkers-the-quality-of-their-water/

+ POOL and Google Drive Unveil New App That Shows New Yorkers the Quality of Their Water

2014 is turning out to be a very “positive” year for + POOL, a project aiming to bring a floating, water-filtering pool to New York City’s East River. This morning at the new Kickstarter headquarters in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, the + POOL team announced that they have partnered with Google Drive to create an interactive tool that will keep the public informed about the quality of New York’s waters and how + POOL’s equipment is improving it. Read on for a sneak peek at the new app, which is set to launch on May 6th.

+ POOL was conceived by Archie Coates and Jeffrey Franklin of Playlab and Dong-Ping Wong of Family as an entirely new kind of floating, plus-shaped pool that would not only be a fun bathing destination for New Yorkers but also a way to clean the notoriously nasty waters of the East River. If implemented, the structure would draw in water directly from the river, remove harmful contaminants, and then allow the clean water to enter the pool. The purified water would also be pumped back into the river, improving the quality of the waterway.

Related: Own a Piece of NYC’s Amazing Floating + Pool on the East River by Helping to Make It a Reality

“It’s basically a giant strainer that you drop into the river,” explained + POOL co-founder Dong-Ping Wong. “The walls are designed and tested as [...] filtration. You can think of it sort of as walls filled with Brita.”

In order to encourage public interaction and educate people about their waterways, + POOL teamed up with Google Drive to make an app where people can see how clean (or dirty) NY waterways are, and what effect + POOL may be having on water quality in real-time. “Using Google Drive’s API we built a public water quality dashboard that allows anybody to see at any given time what the quality and health of the river actually is from the point of where we’re testing at Pier 40 at Hudson River Park,” said Coates at today’s press conference. “We want to use this dashboard to educate and start conversations about water quality and on May 6th, two weeks from today, we’ll launch at dashboard.pluspool.org.”

Related: Team Behind Floating East River + Pool Launches a Lab to Test the Proverbial Waters

According to Coates, + POOL is currently looking to finalize the location of its full-size floating pool (possibly off of Brooklyn Bridge Park) and is aiming to launch in 2016. Want to help make + POOL a reality and be immortalized on the its walls when it’s complete? Head to the website to purchase a pool wall tile engraved with your custom message.

 

[Alex_Spider]

Insane, Tubular Mixed-Use Development and Transit Hub Proposed for Woodside

http://queens.brownstoner.com/2014/04/insane-tubular-mixed-use-development-and-transit-hub-proposed-for-woodside/

Wowza. The design firm AMLGM designed these “Urban Alloy Towers” to rise above the Woodside Long Island Railroad and 7 train station. (Curbed calls this “the most exciting and completely insane thing ever proposed for Queens.” AMLGM, on the other hand, calls this “symbiotic re-purposing of the air rights above transportation corridors in New York.&#8221 These designs aren’t meant to be actually built, but it sure is fun pretending.

The facade of these tubular towers, which shift from cylindrical to triangular shapes from bottom to top, is made of metal fins with their own specific “solar orientation.” The interior holds luxury, market-rate and SRO apartments, retail, office space, a central atrium and transportation infrastructure. The idea is to bring housing close to transportation hubs, and offer “a wide range of living conditions… within the one development.” You can read all the architectural details over at Design Boom. Meanwhile, we’ll just drool over the renderings — check out more crazy images after the jump.

AMLGM Envisions Urban Alloy Tower Over Transportation Hub in New York [Design Boom] via Curbed

 

[Alex_Spider]

College Dropout Jason Padgett Becomes Accidental Mathematical Genius After Brutal Mugging

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/30/college-dropout-jason-pad_n_1464835.html

When Jason Padgett was attacked by muggers outside a karaoke club in Tacoma, Wash., a decade ago, he thought he was going to die.

The attackers, who he said were after his leather jacket, kicked him in the head repeatedly. Miraculously, he not only survived the attack, but developed a mysterious mathematical gift as a result of it, ABC News reports.


The 41-year-old does not see the world in the same way that most people do.

Everywhere he looks, he sees complex mathematical formulas -- like the Pythagorean theorem, for example. “Every single little curve, every single spiral, every tree is part of that equation,” he told ABC News. Padgett turns these formulas into intricate diagrams called fractals. He says that fractals are "shape(s) that when you take the shape a part into pieces, the pieces are the same or similar to the whole."

For instance, he can produce a visual representation of Pi, the infinite mathematical constant which begins with 3.14.

According to the Daily Mail, Padgett is the only person in the world known to have this skill.

Incredibly, Padgett has no advanced math degree: He is a college dropout who currently works at a futon store. According to Q13 Fox News, prior to the mugging, he couldn't even draw.

Neuroscientist and philosophy professor Berit Brogaard, who has run a series of tests on Padgett, told ABC News that his genius was likely obtained by sheer accident when he was brutally beaten by muggers. During the tests, two specific areas of his brain lit up -- the area that controls math and mental imagery, Q13 Fox News reports.

Brogaard explained that damage caused by the attack has forced Padgett's brain to overcompensate in certain areas that most people don’t have access to, transforming him into an "acquired savant."

"Savant syndrome is the development of a particular skill, that can be mathematical, spatial, or autistic (sic), that develop to an extreme degree that sort of makes a person super human," Brogaard said.

Padgett admits that his "super human" skill can occasionally be overwhelming. "Sometimes I would really like to turn it off, and it won’t," Padgett told ABC News. "But the good far outweigh the bad. I would not give it up for anything."

The mathematical genius, who sells his stunning drawings in both original and print form, hopes to one day take his skills and newfound love for math out of the furniture store and into the classroom to teach others, the Daily Mail reports.

We've put together a slideshow of Padgett's drawings but check out more of them on his Facebook page. Watch the ABC News video about Padgett's ability below.

Very fascinating story. I envy this man.

 

[Alex_Spider]

http://inhabitat.com/uk-student-builds-surprisingly-sturdy-stools-with-bacteria-sand-and-pee/
UK Student Builds Surprisingly Sturdy Stools With Bacteria, Sand and Pee

Edinburgh College of Art student Peter Trimble has built a ready-made machine for making compostable furniture. Called Dupe, the machine converts sand, urine and bacteria into a new biomaterial similar to concrete. Trimble’s Dupe stools are surprisingly sturdy, and at the end of their lifetime they can be broken up and used as a fertilizer.

Trimble’s machine is a mini manufacturing plant built with a pump taken from an old coffee machine, an old blender’s mixer, a (stool) mould, and a tank. It works by pouring a urine and bacteria mix (bacillus pasteurii, commonly found in soil) into a sand mould. This produces a biological reaction that results in a solid piece of sandstone furniture. An exceptionally low cost production method, Dupe takes very little energy and emits no greenhouse gases.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Iggy Azalea Can't Crowdsurf Because Her Fans Sexually Assault Her

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Australian rapper Iggy Azalea says she's had to take on new security measures for her concerts because fans think it's funny to try to finger her while she performs.

"I had to stop [crowdsurfing]... I'm only doing like 2000-seaters, but I still have to have barriers even if it's like 200 people because people try to finger me," she said during a recent interview with the New York City radio station Hot 97. Now, she says, she wears two pairs of underwear and tights underneath her outfit when she's onstage.

I will get lurk tweets for like a week before my show, like "I'm about to go to the Iggy Azalea show and I'm going to finger her," and I'll see it and be like, please don't! That's a violation. I don't actually like that stuff.

Like, they think I'm real ****ty, like "Oh, she got a song called '*****,' I know what she wants. She wants these two fingers." Why would I want a stranger to ever finger me? Buying my album for $12 doesn't mean you get to finger me when I come to your city.
Interestingly, Azalea says this type of mindset is more common among female fans.

"Girls will try to do it more than guys 'cause girls think it's cool, like, 'We both got vaginas, it's fine.' Doesn't make it okay."

http://uproxx.com/music/2014/04/igg...-recent-show-because-fans-were-fingering-her/

I know back in the day when I was going to all the punk shows lots of guys would feel chicks up as they crowdsurfed but trying to do that to the artist is beyond bizarre

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Magic tree stands back upright after being chopped down to the ground

If reading The Giving Tree as a kid didn't convince you that trees have feelings, just watch this unbelievable clip of a magical tree rising from the dead. Seriously! After getting chopped to pieces by a man with a chainsaw, the tree stands straight up as if it were never knocked down in the first place as if to say don't cut anymore of me!

[YT]0CArVzAm6WM[/YT]

Now that is cool

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Massive ice melting moves entire bridge out of its place

When it comes to the Northern countries, spring can be quite dangerous. Look at what happened when the frozen river started to melt in Sainte-Marie de Kent, New-Brunswick, Canada. They were lucky the bridge wasn't completely obliterated—it just moved it about three or six feet.

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Just one more reason I love FL

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Spotify Asks Band to Take Down Scam Album, Band Responds Hilariously

Vulfpeck's ironic Spotify record, Sleepify, which was completely silent and designed to raise money for the funk band's tour. Well, Spotify finally got around to responding to the band's attempted scam. They're not happy about it!

Vulfpeck received an email asking them to take down their Sleepify record. The band's response comes in the form of another record, appropriately titled, Official Statement. Besides including a brief summary of the Spotify email and their feelings about it, there's also a brief "#Reflect" track that's just silence, and a track that's just a cheesy piano riff.

As of publication time, Sleepify remains live on the streaming music service.

This is hilarious

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Sex Degrees of Seperation

Use this calculator to find out how many direct and indirect sexual partners you have:

http://calculators.lloydspharmacy.com/SexDegrees/

According to this calculator and the best of my ability to recall everything I have had 2,858,904 indirect and direct sexual partners. That is pretty crazy

 

[NickNitro]

According to this calculator and the best of my ability to recall everything I have had 2,858,904 indirect and direct sexual partners. That is pretty crazy

Chill out there Genghis Khan leave some for the rest of us.

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

I'm like a shark except I have to keep screwing to survive haha

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

These Newborn Kittens Miraculously Survived Being Boxed Up and Shipped

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Two kittens, so tiny and new that their umbilical cords were still attached, are recovering at the Humane Society after they were accidentally sealed in a box and shipped more than 120 miles by truck.

Mouse and Wi-Fi, now 2 weeks old, were born in Hollywood, but somehow got trapped in a box with fiberoptic equipment bound for a Cox Communication warehouse in San Diego. Humane Society workers think the kittens' mother was trying to stow them in a safe place after giving birth, but the box where she hid them was picked up before she came back.

When a Cox worker finally discovered the kittens, he took them to one of the rare shelters with around-the-clock nursery care, where they're now fat, happy, and getting ready for adoption.

http://uproxx.com/webculture/2014/0...ived-being-accidentally-shipped-to-san-diego/

Those are some lucky kitties

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

College Towns Are Pits of Income Inequality

Interesting little tidbit for all good liberals to chew over: a list of the U.S. cities with the very worst income inequality includes an inordinate number of university towns.

Bloomberg today has published a list of the 50 American cities with the greatest income inequality. The top three are Atlanta, New Orleans, and Miami, all predictable southern metropoli. But take away the major cities, and what really stands out is the fact that the second-tier cities that make the list include a ton of college towns. For example:

#5: Gainesville, FL (University of Florida)

#8: Athens, GA (University of Georgia)

#10: Berkeley, CA (University of California)

#12: Cambridge, MA (Harvard, MIT)

#16: Beaumont, TX (Lamar University)

#17: Columbia, MO (University of Missouri)

#22: Eugene, OR (University of Oregon)

#24: Boulder, CO (University of Colorado)

#25: Winston-Salem, NC (Wake Forest)

That's just the top half of the list. University towns are just as heavily represented in the rest of the list. It's interesting, that's all. I'm just the messenger here.

The revolution begins at home, professors.

http://www.bloomberg.com/visual-data/best-and-worst/most-income-inequality-us-cities

I know when I lived in Tallahassee it was a nightmare finding a job during the school year if you already didn't have one. There really was only a few main roads that had tons of shops and stuff, other than that it was pretty rural the further you got away from the school. And there was all kinds of crime but the local media would usually sweep it under the rug unless it was big news

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Notorious Troll Says He Will Create Trolly Hedge Fund Called "TRO LLC"

Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer, the infamous hacker and troll, has already come forward with his first move after being released from prison: He's starting a hedge fund. It will be called "TRO LLC."

Auernheimer was recently released from prison after a lengthy fight over whether he was properly charged with "hacking" under the much-maligned Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. (The Third Circuit vacated his conviction on the grounds that he was tried in the wrong place.)

He gave a substantial preview of his new plan to The New Republic:

"The strategy is short equities—like all short sellers, I am looking to publicize flaws in publicly traded companies," he said. "However, instead of financial problems, I will be looking for companies with poorly written software that breach the implicit promise of safety that they give when they take data from their customers. When someone affiliated with our fund identifies negligent privacy breaches at a public web service, we will take a short position in that company's shares and then tell the media about it."
Auernheimer admits he could end up making money from the scheme. But The New Republic pressed him for some higher civic purpose. What he came up with was:

... he also wants to motivate other information-security specialists to disclose security holes, presumably through his company. "Right now, the only incentive is to do something very wrong—to sell software vulnerabilities in secret to government which use them to spy on people illegally," he said. "We can already get rich doing that. I'm trying to make it so people can still pay their bills doing the right thing: coming forward and informing the public of software issues of social importance."
A financial expert tells The New Republic Auernheimer might run afoul of securities laws with this plan. Auernheimer is unfazed: "I am obviously attempting to assert my rights, regardless of seditious judicial radicals that want to try me for it."

Between the desire to profit off his own antics and his total lack of fear of the securities legislation, it seems Auernheimer will fit in just fine with other financial wizards, should he manage to get the scheme off the ground.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/...ernheimers-tro-llc-could-send-him-back-prison

The world needs more brave souls like this man

 

[KevanG]

Massive ice melting moves entire bridge out of its place

Just one more reason I love FL

That's nowhere near as bad as this which was fairly close to it.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-b...d-bridge-swept-away-by-flood-waters-1.2613311

Cherryvale covered bridge swept away by flood waters

An 87-year-old covered bridge was swept down the Canaan River near Coles Island on Wednesday by the powerful flood waters.

Residents gathered by the side of the river to watch the Cherryvale covered bridge, which was built in 1927, float away.

Many of the residents reflected on the impact of the covered bridge’s loss to their community.
Cherryvale bridge

Eleanor Guillemette took this picture of the Cherryvale Covered Bridge before it was swept away by the Canaan River. (Courtesy Eleanor Guillemette)

“It's a sad day for our community. Very sad because as we know, as every one of these covered bridges leaves, there's never a covered bridge to replace it,” said Perry Black.

Dwight Paterson said the bridge was taken from the area so quickly.

“It's been around here for 80 years, she's gone in an instant,” said Dwight Paterson.

“Nothing you can do. Just watch her go by. She'll find her resting place, somewhere.”

The bridge did finally find a resting space, roughly two hours later.

The old covered bridge was wedged under a new bridge on the Canaan River, caught by an abutment.
Covered bridge floats away

An 87-year-old covered bridge was swept down the Canaan River near Coles Island on Wednesday by the powerful flood waters. (CBC)

A piece of history lost, but also a loss with immediate consequences for people living in the area who relied on the bridge.

The people who lived across the river are now cut-off.

“We have some elderly people over there, and we're worried about access,” Black said.

“Our only access will be from on the Havelock Road coming in, and that's a dirt road through there and obviously with all the rain has made it pretty severe on that road too.”

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Maybe digital money isn't such a bad idea. Researchers recently found more than 3,000 types of bacteria growing on $1 bills, including species that linked to acne, staph infections, and antibiotic resistance. And that's just the tip of the petri dish—only about 20 percent of the bacteria was identifiable.

http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303456104579489510784385696

Umm... ewwwwww

 

[DJ_KiDDvIcIOUs]

Brooklyn DA to Stop Prosecuting for Low-Level Pot Arrests

The Brooklyn district attorney's office will stop prosecuting low-level marijuana arrests, according to a confidential memo obtained by the New York Times.

The district attorney, Kenneth P. Thompson sent the policy proposal to the New York Police Department earlier this month.

The memo states that charges against anyone arrested with a small amount of marijuana who lacks a prior conviction will be "immediately dismissed," and "the police will be directed to destroy the defendant's fingerprints." Some 8,500 people were processed last year in Brooklyn on low-level drug charges.

"We are pouring money and effort into an endeavor that produces no public safety benefit for the community," the memo reads.

From the Times:

One goal of the proposed marijuana policy, which is still in draft form, is to ensure that "individuals, and especially young people of color, do not become unfairly burdened and stigmatized by involvement in the criminal justice system for engaging in nonviolent conduct that poses no threat of harm to persons or property," according to the memo, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times.

Marijuana possession is the most common reason for arraignment in New York City: Criminal possession of marijuana in the fifth degree, which is the charge when someone is caught with small amounts of marijuana in public view, has repeatedly been the top arraignment charge in New York City, according to court records.
According to a 2013 report from the ACLU, black people are nine times as likely as white people to be arrested for marijuana possession in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton told the Times he opposed marijuana decriminalization and would continue to make arrests, though he added the department would do so with "a lot more discretion."

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/24/n...ns-for-low-level-marijuana-offenses.html?_r=0

This is weird because I can't believe someone in government actually has some common sense about this kind of thing

 

[KevanG]

8500 people last year. That's a lot of time, effort and manpower that could have gone into, oh I don't know, actual crime?

 

[Anubis]

They set that up in Chicago like a year or two ago.....didn't help the murders though.

 

[Teelie]

They set that up in Chicago like a year or two ago.....didn't help the murders though.

I doubt it would. This frees up time, money and people to investigate and prosecute those kinds of crimes however.

 

[Alex_Spider]

A Science Icon Died 17 Years Ago. In His Last Interview, He Made A Warning That Gives Me Goosebumps.

http://www.upworthy.com/a-science-icon-died-17-years-ago-in-his-last-interview-he-made-a-warning-that-gives-me-goosebumps-5?c=ufb2

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Carl Sagan inspired a generation of scientists with his work in and out of the classroom. But he didn't always present science with cheer. In this clip, he passionately defends science with a grave warning. It's something we all need to hear.