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Man in Pig Mask Arrested for Impersonating Police Officer
Steven Peers, a 46 year old father of four was recently arrested in Manchester for impersonating a police officer. Mr. Peers was not attempting to commit any crime, but was actually wearing a noticeable costume in hopes to call attention to, and raise awareness about police corruption and misconduct.
His costume did include a police hat and jacket, but the pig mask that he was wearing made it obvious that the whole thing was a joke. Unfortunately, the police didn’t find the joke very funny, and they arrested him for impersonating an officer.
A police department spokesman said in a statement that “At about 4pm on Thursday 22 May 2014, a man was arrested in Manchester city centre on suspicion of impersonating a police officer.“He was released on bail until 17 July 2014 pending further inquiries.”
The arrest has created a wave of backlash on the internet, and Mr. Peers says that the charges will never hold up in court.
After his arrest he told reporters that, “my reaction to being arrested was total disbelief. I was wearing a toy hat and a pig mask and was arrested for impersonating a police officer. It’s ridiculous….If they want to take it to court they will be a laughing stock because there is no substance to it whatsoever. I don’t think it’s antagonistic. It’s just a parody making fun of GMP. I’ve dressed like this at Barton Moss, in front of Swinton police station and in front of the force HQ in Newton Heath. Other officers have laughed it off.”
Read more at http://thefreethoughtproject.com/man-pig-mask-arrested-impersonating-police-officer/#Ox9wuLV4ClsIE4tc.99
New York Federal Judge: Tens Of Thousands Of Innocent People Have Likely Pleaded Guilty
BY NICOLE FLATOW
A prominent New York federal judge said this week that a broken guilty plea system is sending too many people innocent people to prison, coerced by the threat of long prison sentences and not enough information.
U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff said the modern American system in which 97 percent of defendants plead guilty “is totally different from what the founding fathers had in mind.” Rakoff elaborated on his concerns during an interview with the New York Daily News, a month after he first raised the issue during a speech at the University of Southern California.
Rakoff blamed draconian mandatory minimum sentences for coercing defendants into accepting plea deals, forcing defendants to “choose between Satan and Lucifer.” He cited estimates that between 1 and 8 percent of those who plead guilty are actually innocent. Even if that percentage were just 0.5 percent, that would be 10,000 people, he tells the New York Daily News.
We only know about a fraction of this population, and they are particularly difficult to identify, since many defendants their case finalized once they make the calculation to enter a plea. In 2013, 87 people were exonerated — 17 percent for false guilty pleas.
more
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2014/05/27/3441890/new-york-federal-judge-tens-of-thousands-of-innocent-people-have-pleaded-guilty/
Damn Dirty Hippies
By Mary Kelly
Hippies, Drugs and Promiscuity
Labin
1972
Dig the groovy cover? I do.
This is sort of a tell-all about the crazy world of hippies. In the context of this book, “hippy” generally refers to those folks that “reject the values of the established order.” However, they aren’t Communists (because they are too lazy to organize), or atheistic Marxists (because they like spirituality). They also aren’t cynical, like Beatnicks. They are different, because they embrace the use of “mind-bending chemicals.” (In this book, alcohol is not considered a “mind-bending chemical.”) I get the feeling that this somehow makes the hippies worse than these previous anti-establishment folks.
Labin gives everyone from the establishment a pretty good scare about those out of control kids. It reads like Richard Nixon lecturing on morality, sex and drugs. Every societal issue/problem is probably the fault of the hippies. If you are my age or older, you probably have heard most of these arguments from the older generation. It is an interesting read from a historical perspective and does belong in a collection somewhere.
more
http://awfullibrarybooks.net/damn-dirty-hippies/
Someone in San Diego deserves a round of applause for this highway sign modification along I-5
“STEVE-O DENIED ANY INVOLVEMENT WITH THE PRANK AND THE CHP SAYS HE IS NOT A SUSPECT.”
sea-world-sucks-san-diego-highway
Someone in San Diego deserves a round of applause for this highway sign modification along Interstate 5. In regards to Steve-O, the Jackass star was pulled over close to an hour after the sign had been changed to read “Sea World SUCKS,” when he showed up on the scene with a camera crew in tow to shoot a video segment.
http://www.theworldsbestever.com/2014/05/27/steve-o-denied-involvement-prank-chp-says-suspect/
Physicists Prove Surprising Rule of Threes
By: Natalie Wolchover
May 27, 2014
More than 40 years after a Soviet nuclear physicist proposed an outlandish theory that trios of particles can arrange themselves in an infinite nesting-doll configuration, experimentalists have reported strong evidence that this bizarre state of matter is real.
In 1970, Vitaly Efimov was manipulating the equations of quantum mechanics in an attempt to calculate the behavior of sets of three particles, such as the protons and neutrons that populate atomic nuclei, when he discovered a law that pertained not only to nuclear ingredients but also, under the right conditions, to any trio of particles in nature.
While most forces act between pairs, such as the north and south poles of a magnet or a planet and its sun, Efimov identified an effect that requires three components to spring into action. Together, the components form a state of matter similar to Borromean rings, an ancient symbol of three interconnected circles in which no two are directly linked. The so-called Efimov “trimer” could consist of a trio of protons, a triatomic molecule or any other set of three particles, as long as their properties were tuned to the right values. And in a surprising flourish, this hypothetical state of matter exhibited an unheard-of feature: the ability to range in size from practically infinitesimal to infinite.
“It’s a pretty wild idea,” said Randy Hulet, a physics professor at Rice University in Houston. “You get this infinite series of molecules.”
more
http://www.simonsfoundation.org/quanta/20140527-physicists-prove-surprising-rule-of-threes/
Obama admin to announce initiative on LGBT history at Stonewall Inn
Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell will announce plans Friday at the historic Stonewall Inn in New York City for a new, groundbreaking study on LGBT history, according to three sources familiar with the event.
Peggy Phalan, general manager of the Stonewall Inn, was among those who said the event will take place at Stonewall Inn on Friday, but she had limited information on the planned study that will be announced.
“They do field studies for different groups, and they’re starting one for the LGBT community,” Phalan said.
Although the nature of the study wasn’t immediately clear, sources described the initiative as “historic” in nature. An Interior Department official said the initiative would be headed by the National Park Service and ensure the agency is telling a complete story of America’s heritage and history.
- See more at: http://www.washingtonblade.com/2014/05/27/doi-announce-lgbt-study-stonewall-inn/#sthash.DLQfszSk.dpuf
NASA Mars Weathercam Helps Find Big New Crater
Researchers have discovered on the Red Planet the largest fresh meteor-impact crater ever firmly documented with before-and-after images. The images were captured by NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
The crater spans half the length of a football field and first appeared in March 2012. The impact that created it likely was preceded by an explosion in the Martian sky caused by intense friction between an incoming asteroid and the planet's atmosphere. This series of events can be likened to the meteor blast that shattered windows in Chelyabinsk, Russia, last year. The air burst and ground impact darkened an area of the Martian surface about 5 miles (8 kilometers) across.
The darkened spot appears in images taken by the orbiter's weather-monitoring camera, the Mars Color Imager (MARCI). Images of the site from MARCI and from the two telescopic cameras on Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter are at: http://go.usa.gov/8KgJ
Since the orbiter began its systematic observation of Mars in 2006, scientist Bruce Cantor has examined MARCI's daily global coverage, looking for evidence of dust storms and other observable weather events in the images. Cantor is this camera's deputy principal investigator at Malin Space Science Systems, the San Diego company that built and operates MARCI and the orbiter's telescopic Context Camera (CTX). Through his careful review of the images, he helps operators of NASA's solar-powered Mars rover, Opportunity, plan for weather events that may diminish the rover's energy. He also posts weekly Mars weather reports.
more
http://mars.nasa.gov/mro/news/whatsnew/index.cfm?FuseAction=ShowNews&NewsID=1640
Oxfam ex-fraud chief jailed for scamming charity
A former head of Oxfam's counter-fraud unit has been jailed for defrauding the charity out of nearly £65,000.
Edward McKenzie-Green, 34, of Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, was sentenced to two years and five months' imprisonment at the Old Bailey for making payments to fictitious firms.
He had pleaded guilty to the charge.
A charge against his father, Edward Green, 61, of Cumbernauld, Glasgow, who had been accused of helping him launder more than £35,000, was dropped.
The court heard McKenzie-Green had made £64,612.58 in payments from Oxfam to fictitious firms between February and December 2011.
more
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-oxfordshire-27588466
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