Boy Hit By Bird On Kingda-Ku Rollercoaster

A boy has been hit in the face by a pigeon while riding on the world’s tallest rollercoaster in the US.

Shane Matus suffered bruises and scratches on his face and neck after being struck by the bird when he was on the front of the Kingda-Ku in Jackson, New Jersey.

After at first thinking he had been hit by a ball, the 12-year-old realised it was some kind of bird when he began spitting out feathers.

He told US news channel NBC: “When it hit me I was like, did somebody throw a ball or something? When I started spitting out feathers, I was like, that was a bird.”

Further describing his experience, Shane said: “They say the bird exploded. It hurt a lot for like three seconds. People behind us had feathers and blood all over them.”

After the incident, the boy was taken to hospital and the ride, which reaches speeds of up to 128mph and claims to “catapult people 45 storeys into the sky”, was shut down for half an hour.

Shane said that if he had not heard a car alarm and turned his head towards a car park seconds before the collision, the bird would have flown straight into his eye.

A spokesman for Six Flags amusement park, where the ride – the fastest in North America – is situated, told NBC that nothing like this had ever happened before.

Shane’s father, Adam Matus, has described it as a “freak accident”.

Shane said he would be happy to go on the rollercoaster again – just not in the front carriage.

via Boy Hit By Bird On Kingda-Ku Rollercoaster.

Oregon man sentenced to jail for collecting rain water

Gary Harrington, an Oregon man, will be spending a month in jail, after being convicted on nine misdemeanor charges. His crime? “Illegally” collecting rain water on his own property.

Harrington, who lives in Eagle Point, Oregon, has been fighting for the right to collect rain water since 2002.

Now a decade later, he has been sentenced to 30 days in jail and fined over $1,500 for the man-made ponds he has built on his 170 acres of land. For filling “three illegal reservoirs” on his property with runoff water, Harrington has been convicted on nine misdemeanor charges in Circuit Court.

According to authorities, Harrington broke the law by collecting natural rain water and snow runoff, that landed on his property. Harrington said he stores the water mainly for fire protection.

According to officials with the Medford Water Commission, the water on Harrington’s property, whether it came from the sky or not, is considered a tributary of the nearby Crowfoot Creek. Thus it is subject to a 1925 law, giving Medford Water Commission full ownership and rights to the water.

Due to this, prosecutors were able to argue in court that the three man-made boating and fishing ponds on Harrington’s property have violated the law.

Harrington says he will attempt to appeal, but as long as the conviction stands, he will have to serve 30 days of imprisonment. He has further been sentenced to an additional three years of probation.

Harrington told the Mail Tribune, “Thirty days in jail for catching rainwater? We live in an extreme wildfire area and here the government is going to open the valves and really waste all the water right now, at the start of peak fire season.”

“Way back in 1925 the city of Medford got a unique withdrawal that withdrew all – supposedly all – the water out of a single basin and supposedly for the benefit of the city of Medford,” Harrington said

Harrington stated, however, that the 1925 law does not mention anything about collecting snow melt or rainwater, and he believes that he has been falsely accused.

“The withdrawal said the stream and its tributaries. It didn’t mention anything about rainwater and it didn’t mention anything about snow melt and it didn’t mention anything about diffused water, but yet now, they’re trying to expand that to include that rain water and they’re using me as the goat to do it,” he added.

On CNS News, Harrington said that others should be fearful of how they could be attacked next.

He told Associated Press, “When it comes to the point where a rural landowner can’t catch rainwater that falls on his land to protect his property, it’s gone too far. This should serve as a dire warning to all pond owners.”

He states that he was issued permits in 2003 by the state, allowing him to do what he wished with the water on his own property. And although the state Water Resources Department saw no fault at first, they shortly after revoked that license and left Harrington to fight for another nine years. …

via Oregon man sentenced to jail for collecting rain water.

Man Charged After Alligator Eats His Hand

A Florida airboat captain whose hand was bitten off by an alligator is facing charges over his attempt to feed the animal.

Collier County Jail records show that Wallace Weatherholt, 63, has been charged with unlawfully feeding the alligator and has posted a $1,000 (£640) bond.

His next court date is August 22.

Weatherholt was attacked on June 12 as he was giving an Indiana family a tour.

The family said Weatherholt hung a fish over the side of a boat and had his hand at the water’s surface when the nine-foot long animal attacked.

Wildlife officers tracked down and killed the alligator.

Weatherholt’s hand was found too, but it could not be reattached.

…

Opinion: Alligators have a brain the size of a walnut. It is almost entirely instinctual. This crocadile was not aware it attacked a human and it has not learned anything from this like a big cat of a bear would. Put anything near itand it will bite. Killing it was a waste of time as they are too dumb to learn to attack people, they simply attack everything.

via Man Charged After Alligator Eats His Hand.

Don’t bring back the dinosaurs.

Brain Imaging Can Predict How Intelligent You Are

The study is the first to provide compelling evidence that neural connections between the lateral prefrontal cortex and the rest of the brain make a unique and powerful contribution to the cognitive processing underlying human intelligence, says Cole, whose research focuses on discovering the cognitive and neural mechanisms that make human behavior uniquely flexible and intelligent.

“This study suggests that part of what it means to be intelligent is having a lateral prefrontal cortex that does its job well; and part of what that means is that it can effectively communicate with the rest of the brain,” says study co-author Todd Braver, PhD, professor of psychology in Arts & Sciences and of neuroscience and radiology in the School of Medicine. Braver is a co-director of the Cognitive Control and Psychopathology Lab at Washington University, in which the research was conducted.

One possible explanation of the findings, the research team suggests, is that the lateral prefrontal region is a “flexible hub” that uses its extensive brain-wide connectivity to monitor and influence other brain regions in a goal-directed manner.

“There is evidence that the lateral prefrontal cortex is the brain region that ‘remembers’ (maintains) the goals and instructions that help you keep doing what is needed when you’re working on a task,” Cole says. “So it makes sense that having this region communicating effectively with other regions (the ‘perceivers’ and ‘doers’ of the brain) would help you to accomplish tasks intelligently.”

While other regions of the brain make their own special contribution to cognitive processing, it is the lateral prefrontal cortex that helps coordinate these processes and maintain focus on the task at hand, in much the same way that the conductor of a symphony monitors and tweaks the real-time performance of an orchestra.

“We’re suggesting that the lateral prefrontal cortex functions like a feedback control system that is used often in engineering, that it helps implement cognitive control (which supports fluid intelligence), and that it doesn’t do this alone,” Cole says.

The findings are based on an analysis of functional magnetic resonance brain images captured …

via Brain Imaging Can Predict How Intelligent You Are | Neuroscience News.

Pepper Spray Lieutenant John Pike no longer at UC Davis

… The University of California, Davis, cop that made headlines for blasting peaceful protesters with military-grade pepper-spray last year is no longer employed by the school.

Pike, a Sacramento police officer-turned-campus cop, became the target last year of a nationwide campaign spearheaded by activists with Occupy Wall Street and Anonymous after images of him discharging bursts of pepper-spray at the faces of seated UC Davis protesters went viral and caught even the mainstream media’s attention. Outrage over the incident eventually propelled the school to launch an internal investigation into the events of November 18, 2011, and following months of paid administrative leave, a campus official confirmed this week that the school no longer employs. Lt. Pike.

“Consistent with privacy guidelines established in state law and university policy, I can confirm that John Pike’s employment with the university ended on July 31, 2012,” UC Davis spokesman Barry Shiller tells the Sacramento Bee.

Claudia Morain, UC Davis News Service Director, also confirmed the change to CNN, though it is not clear as to whether or not the officer left by his own accord.

In April, a task force established to investigate the November incident determined that Pike’s actions were “objectively unreasonable” and that the campus very well could have taken measures to ensure that the safety of students and protesters was not put at risk during a demonstration waged against tuition hikes.

“On balance, there is little factual basis supporting Lt. Pike’s belief that he was trapped by the protesters or that his officers were prevented from leaving the quad. Further, there is little evidence that any protesters attempted to use violence against the police,” the report read.

“Our overriding conclusion can be stated briefly and explicitly. The pepper spraying incident that took place on Nov. 18, 2011, should and could have been prevented,” investigators determined.

American Civil Liberties Union staff attorney Michael Risher told the Los Angeles Times earlier this year that in addition to being “just wrong,”using “military-grade pepper spray and police violence against non-violent student protesters” was a direct constitutional violation.

“When the cost of speech is a shot of blinding, burning pepper spray in the face, speech is not free,” Risher said.

Lt. Pike’s actions also prompted a campaign endorsed by members of Anonymous, who publically distributed personal details of the cop and his family on the Web.

“We have no problem targeting police and releasing their information even if it puts them at risk,” an alleged operative with the group claims in a release from November, “because we want them to experience just a taste of the brutality and misery they serve us on an everyday basis.”

The Bee reports that, at the height of the backlash, Pike received a barrage of more than 10,000 text messages and 17,000 emails after his personal info was leaked to the Web.

Pike was on paid administrative leave up until as recently as mid-July, and the Sacramento Bee reports that his 2010 salary brought him a paycheck of more than $110,000 annually. …

http://rt.com/usa/news/uc-davis-cop-pike-623/

Cop Tasers 12-year-old girl in Victoria’s Secret

http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1126592.1343843182%21/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_635/tased-web.jpg” alt=”
Dejamon Baker points out where she was tased by a police officer "I fell on the floor and I couldn’t control myself I just kept on shaking and stuff," she said.
” width=”635″ height=”166″ />A Missouri police officer fired his Taser gun at a 12-year-old girl, leaving two separate scars on the youth after he attempted to apprehend her mother inside a Victoria’s Secret store inside a St. Louis shopping mall.

Dejamon Baker, 12, tells NBC affiliate KSDK-TV that she now has two Taser wounds — one on her chest and another on her abdomen — after a police officer discharged his weapon on her July 25.

Authorities speaking to the New York Daily News say the girl “physically interceded” as a St. Louis County police officer attempted to serve an arrest warrant related to traffic tickets in her mother’s name. The preteen says that isn’t how it played out though and now her family wants to get investigators involved.

According to officials, the child intervened in an attempt to arrest the mother, 27-year-old Charlene Bratton, inside the Victoria’s Secret shop at South County Center Mall.

“I was just crying,” Baker says, though. “I guess he got mad because I was crying or something, then he just took it out and just tased me.”

“I had fell on the floor and I couldn’t control myself I just kept on shaking and stuff.”

Richard Echkhard, a spokesperson for the county police, says that the officer was acting “within his discretion.”

“No one denies this (the Taser incident) happened or when it happened,” Eckhard adds. “It’s how it transpired that is in question.”

If the officer’s story sticks, though, it’ll mean that a cop thought the best way to handle an irate child inside of a shopping mall might very well be with a weapon known to be, in some circumstances, lethal.

“He said, put your hands behind your back. I said ‘for what?’ Next thing you know he tackled me down on the ground,” Baker says.

“He (the officer) should have had enough control to tell her to get back instead of pulling out his gun. I guess he was nervous or whatever, and tasing people,” the mother adds to KSDK.

Amnesty International claims that Taser-guns, like the ones available worldwide through Taser International, have contributed to the death of more than 500 Americans in the last few years.

via http://rt.com/usa/news/girl-victorias-secret-officer-636/

He could have killed her.

James Eagan Holmes charged with murder, attempted murder from Colo. rampage

Colorado prosecutors filed 24 counts of murder charges Monday against James Eagan Holmes, the former neuroscience student accused of killing 12 people and injuring 58 others at an Aurora movie theater.

For each victim who died in the rampage, Holmes, 24, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one for allegedly intending to cause harm and another for allegedly acting with extreme indifference to human life, according to court documents.

A conviction under extreme indifference means that any life sentences would have to be served consecutively, not concurrently, said Craig Silverman, a former chief deputy district attorney in Denver.

Prosecutors also filed 116 counts of attempted murder against Holmes, who Aurora police said booby trapped his apartment with the intent to kill any officers responding there the night of the theater attack. Among the charges Monday was one count of possession of explosives and one count of a crime of violence.

Holmes, still with his hair dyed orange-red, appeared just as dazed as he did in his first court appearance last week, but at one point exchanged a few words with one of his attorneys in the packed courtroom. He did not enter a plea during the hearing. He ultimately could verbally enter a plea, or his attorneys could enter it for him.

At times, it appeared Holmes was trying to focus his eyes. When the judge asked if he approved of a delay in the bail hearing to November, he reacted as if his thoughts were disturbed. Holmes leaned to his lawyer, appeared to mouth “OK,” then responded “yeah” to the judge.

Unlike Holmes’ first court appearance July 23, Monday’s hearing was not televised. At the request of the defense, District Chief Judge William Sylvester barred video and still cameras from the hearing, saying expanded coverage could interfere with Holmes’ right to a fair trial.

Last week, Sylvester allowed a live video feed that permitted the world its first glimpse of the shooting suspect. With an unruly mop of orange hair, Holmes appeared bleary-eyed and distracted. He did not speak. …

via James Eagan Holmes charged with murder, attempted murder from Colo. rampage – CBS News.

Still drugged, or possibly permanently brain damaged from drugs someone gave him. I wonder if his mother has said anything to anyone about him being drugged.

Meet Kuratas, the million dollar four ton robot which shoots when you smile and is controlled by iPhone

A Japanese electronics company has unveiled a 13ft super-robot which can be controlled by an iPhone.

But be careful with the jokes if you are on the phone to the pilot as the robot, made by Suidobashi Heavy Industry in Tokyo, brings a whole new meaning to ‘trigger-happy’.

‘Kuratas’ is fitted with a futuristic weapons system, including a gatling gun capable of shooting 6,000 BB bullets a minute, which fires when the pilot smiles.

Kuratas, made by Suidobashi Heavy Industry, can be controlled either through the one-man cockpit or from the outside using any smartphone connected to the 3G network.

The robot, which is set will go on sale for £900,000, has around 30 hydraulic joints which the pilot moves using motion control.

As it is made to order the style conscious buyer will not have to worry about sticking to the grey exterior – it comes in 16 colours, including black and pink, and for an extra £60 they will sort you out with a cup holder.

Engineers Wataru Yoshizaki and Kogoro Kurata were saluted in front of Kuratas together with their pilot Anna when they showcased the robot at the Wonder Festival in Chiba, suburban Tokyo earlier today.

The team have been working on the robot since 2010.

The company also released a video where very attractive Anna gives step by step instructions of how to operate the Kuratas.

via Dial carefully! Meet Kuratas, the million dollar robot which weighs four tons, shoots when you smile and is controlled by iPhone | Mail Online.