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Wednesday 31 May 2017

Jelly Belly sued by woman claiming she didn't know jelly beans contain sugar

When it comes to food, it turns out you can sue over just about anything these days. 
A California woman is suing the makers of Jelly Belly jelly beans, claiming she was tricked into believing one of the company's candy products was free of sugar.
The plaintiff, Jessica Gomez of San Bernadino County, first brought the case against the candy company earlier this year, blaming "fancy phrasing" for her confusion over the ingredients, according to Legal News Line. 
Gomez purchased Jelly Belly’s Sport Beans, a product marketed as an exercise supplement containing carbohydrates, electrolytes and vitamins, which lists "evaporated cane juice" on the label instead of citing sugar as an ingredient. 
In the class action suit, Gomez claims the wording on the label is in violation of state's Consumer Legal Remedies Act, Unfair Business Practices Law and False Advertising Law and is designed to intentionally deceive the health-conscious consumers being targeted by Sport Beans,  Forbes reports. 
Jelly Belly called the case "nonsense," as stated in an April motion to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing, “No reasonable consumer could have been deceived by Sport Beans’ labeling – Gomez could not have seen ‘evaporated cane juice’ without also seeing the product’s sugar content on its Nutrition Facts panel."
But Gomez seems to have the Food and Drug administration on her side.
In May 2016, the FDA announced that the term "juice" should not be used unless referring to that of a fruit or vegetable, and that calling sugar "evaporated cane juice" is infact misleading to consumers.
The guidelines, though not law, state that "The FDA encourages firms that market sugar cane-derived sweeteners or products that contain a sugar cane-derived sweetener to review the final guidance and consider whether their labeling terminology accurately describes the basic nature and characterizing properties of the sweetener used."
But Jelly Belly, which is headquartered in Fairfield, Calif., is still arguing that the case should be thrown out for a number of reasons, primarily because "Plaintiff does not explain why an athlete—or anyone—would be surprised to find sugar in a product described as 'Jelly Beans'."

Trolling NYC Sculptor Adds 'Pissing Pug' Next To 'Fearless Girl'

New York City sculptor Alex Gardega created a purposefully poorly-made urinating dog sculpture, titled Pissing Pug, and placed it next to the left leg of the Fearless Girl statue, appearing to urinate on the feminist-hailed statue. 
Gardega was disgusted over the "corporate nonsense" move to place the Fearless Girl across from sculptor Arturo Di Modica’s Charging Bull on Wall Street; Pissing Pug was his retaliation.
“It has nothing to do with feminism, and it is disrespect to the artist that made the bull,” explained Gardega. “That bull had integrity.”
“I decided to build this dog and make it crappy to downgrade the statue, exactly how the girl is a downgrade on the bull,” the artist continued.
Gardega reiterated that he's "pro-feminism" and has never even met the creator of Fearless Girl, Kristen Visbal. This has "nothing against the sculptor whatsoever," he said. 
In the past, Charging Bull sculptor Di Modica has voiced his opposition to the sculpture placement of the Fearless Girl, too.  
"The girl is standing there like this in front the bull, saying, 'Now, what are you going to do?'" the Italian immigrant told CNN. Di Modica explained that the Fearless Girl placement "distorts the intent of his statue from 'a symbol of prosperity and for strength' into a villain, and does so for the firm's own commercial gain," notes NPR. 
"That is not a symbol! That's an advertising trick," lamented the sculptor during a March interview. 
According to The New York Post, "Di Modica is suing State Street Global Advisors, the mutual-fund company that placed Fearless Girl opposite his work, for trademark and copyright infringement." 
Feminists who have all but made love to the Fearless Girl statue, praising the artwork as a gift to feminism greater than the Seneca Falls Convention, are not happy about Pissing Pug. One angry feminist (is there any other kind?) walking past the sculpture, apparently kicked the dog and moaned, "That's an a–hole move. You call this art?”

Teacher busted with meth, heroin at school accused of stealing from students to feed habit

Oklahoma’s Board of Education issued an emergency order this week to suspend the license of an elementary school teacher who was allegedly busted at school with a purse full of drugs and admitted to stealing from students to feed her habit.

The board approved the Emergency Suspension Request Thursday for 27-year-old Holmes Park Elementary School teacher Megan Sloan, who was arrested May 1 after police allege she was bused with the drugs in class.
According to KTUL:
Sloan … left her Facebook account open on a co-worker’s computer, which reportedly showed a conversation in which she talked about using and selling heroin and pawning school property. When she was arrested, police found multiple syringes, heroin and methamphetamine in her purse, according to documents.
Police allege Sloan told officers she had two “Xanax footballs” in her purse, but they recovered numerous syringes, including some with exposed needles and one loaded up with heroin. They allegedly recovered .4 grams of meth from her purse, according to court records.
Sloan allegedly told school officials she also stole $125 from students that was meant for a field trip and pawned two school-owned iPads to fuel her addiction, KTUL reports.
State Board of Education spokeswoman Steffie Corcoran told the Tulsa World the allegations against Sloan was enough for the board to immediately suspend her teaching certificate and bar her from public schools.
The teacher will receive a copy of the signed order and notification of hearing to revoke her certificate permanently, she said.
Sloan submitted her resignation days before her arrest, on April 28, with an effective date of May 16. Superintendent Rob Armstrong told the Tulsa World he suspended her with pay and benefits on May 2, and the school board voted to accept her Sloan’s resignation on May 8.
Sloan now faces a slew of criminal charges, including felony counts of unlawful possession of a controlled substance in the presence of a minor, child neglect, and embezzlement, as well as misdemeanors for embezzlement and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.
She’s set for a court hearing in Bristow, Oklahoma on Friday.
Several news sites pointed out how Sloan’s troubles, and her mugshot, are providing a valuable lesson for students on why they should steer clear of drugs.
“Look What Meth Did To This Oklahoma Elementary Teacher Who Stole Field Trip Money For Drugs” read the headline from BustedCoverage.com, which posted Sloan recent mugshot – with greasy hair and face pocked with open sores – alongside an image of the beautiful beaming teacher from Facebook taken just a year ago.
“Here’s my big question in all of this: Was she teaching with that meth face? If so, who in their right mind would leave their kid with Meth Face? I’d probably start asking questions. I mean that’s not the normal Hey, you’re 27, zits happen, kinda face,” the site opined.

History teacher’s rifle triggers school lockdown. But there’s just one problem.

A parent dropping off his child at Florida’s Braden River Middle School last week quickly dialed 911 after seeing a man walking into the school carrying what looked like a rifle as well as bag that may have contained ammunition.


“He’s got an older-model shotgun or rifle,” the caller said on Thursday’s 911 recording, WTVT-TV reported. “He’s got a bag that looked like ammunition.”
“And where are the weapons now?” the dispatcher inquired, the station said.
“He was walking right into the school with it,” the caller answered, according to WTVT.
That prompted a lockdown at the Bradenton school, the station said.
And indeed it turns out the object was a rifle — and more than that, it was being carried by a teacher at the middle school.
Problem was, however, that the rifle is a Civil War-era replica the history teacher brought in to show students that day, the Bradenton Herald reported. The rifle can’t be fired, the station said.
The teacher previously informed a school resource officer about the rifle, the paper reported, but the officer wasn’t aware the teacher was bringing it in Thursday. Michael Barber, spokesperson for Manatee County Schools, told the Herald that administrators and office staff should have been informed about the rifle. WTVT said that the teacher has been bringing the rifle to school for several years.
The lockdown was lifted before 9 a.m. — and before the the first bell, Barber told the paper.
“If somebody sees something, they’re going to pick up the phone and call, and they should,” Barber told WTVT. “We have to handle these things in such a way that the school administration, the school staff, and the school resource officers are involved, and it’s done in such a way that would not cause any alarm to anyone.”
Barber told the Herald that the teacher should’ve placed the rifle in a case so no one would mistake it for a working weapon. District administrators are going to review the incident and determine if there should be a policy prohibiting faculty from bringing to school anything resembling a weapon, WTVT reported.
“It very much looks like a real rifle, especially if you saw an adult walking around on campus with it. It would be pretty scary,” parent Wendy Buckner told the station after looking at a photo of the rife. “I was very nervous especially for all the kids that I know that go here and that I knew were probably already at school and my daughter, fortunately, wasn’t there yet. But you think about something like that and especially with everything that’s happened — terrorist bombings and shootings in schools — it’s terrifying some days.”
Buckner told WTVT she dropped off her daughter only after learning the campus was safe.

Virginia Tech students physically block staircase because it discriminates against the handicapped

Students at Virginia Tech University participated in a “sit out” demonstration Thursday afternoon to protest a new set of stairs that are not “handicap accessible.”
For safety reasons, the university closed the old set of stairs after breaking ground on the construction of new dormitories, but built a separate staircase to allow students access to the same area during the construction. In order to be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the same area is accessible to students with disabilities via a different route, however, it lengthens the trip by about three minutes, according to Heat Street.
Some students were not satisfied with the arrangement and showed their disdain by barricading the new set of stairs in what they called a “sit out.” The protesters would not let anyone walk up the 20-step staircase, holding up signs, some of which read, “Stairs not accessible, stairs not acceptable” and “Invent a future that includes disabled people.”
Co-chair of the disability and alliance caucus Martina Svyantek said the group wanted to bring attention to the daily life of a disabled person.
“We want people to ask themselves what happens when you can’t use the stairs,” she said. “I want people to start thinking about access.”
Virginia Tech professor Ashley Shew, an amputee, said there are problems with the current layout of the campus.
“If I get tenure, I’ll spend decades walking around every building on this campus,” she said. “You feel like a second-class citizen when you have to take the long way.”
According to the Roanoke Times, university officials maintain that it wasn’t possible to build a ramp next to the stairs, citing the level of incline and the utility lines and steam tunnels making that option unworkable.
After being forced to take the longer route, some students said it helped them better understand what disabled students deal with every day.
“It’s difficult to even find a way around,” said Virginia Tech senior Samantha Spytek. “It’s revealing.”

Tuesday 30 May 2017

North Korea accuses US of provocation by sending B-1B bombers to Seoul

 North Korea on Tuesday accused the US of making a grave military provocation by sending a formation of B-1B nuclear strategic bombers to the Korean peninsula for a second time in weeks.
The formation flew over South Korea "once again to stage a nuclear bomb dropping drill" on Monday, Xinhua news agency reported.
"The formation of B-1B took off from Guam at the dawn of the day and flew over the 80 km of the east of Kangrung on the East Sea of Korea near the Military Demarcation Line," the report said.
"It frantically staged a joint drill making a precision strike against North Korea's major targets together with pursuit and assault planes on the nuclear aircraft carrier Carl Vinson, which is conducting a joint naval drill with the puppet navy on the East Sea of Korea," it said.
This was the second time for B-1B bombers to stage a nuclear bomb dropping drill in South Korea within several weeks, according to North Korean officials.

Spotted - Potentially habitable 'Super-Earth' planet found orbiting nearby star


Scientists have detected a new planet that could be habitable, located just 21 light years away.
The newly discovered planet, classified as Super-Earth, may host liquid water on its surface.
Scientists say the planet thought to be a rocky world is roughly three times more massive than the Earth, and resides at the edge of the habitable zone of its host star GJ625 (Gliese 625).
The planet was detected by scientists from Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC) in Canary Islands using the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher for the Northern hemisphere (HARPS-N) spectrograph installed at the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo at the Roque de los Muchachos Observatory in Spain.
The researchers analysed 151 radial-velocity time series from HARPS-N as part of the HArps-n red Dwarf Exoplanet Survey (HADES) radial velocity program, which resulted in the discovery of a new planet.
This is the sixth super-Earth closest to our solar system in the habitability zone of its star, while the red dwarf is among the 100 stars closest to the Sun, the researchers said.
This planet is particularly interesting because of its proximity. It is only 21 light years away, and is one of the least massive known "Super-Earths".
Red dwarfs are the most common stars in the universe and they can host planets, however, only a few hundred of them are known.
The majority have been discovered orbiting much more distant stars, using the transit method, in which the planet causes a minor "eclipse" when it passes in front of the star.
In contrast, only few rocky planets have been discovered around nearby stars with the radial velocity technique, and very few have been found in their habitability zones, researchers said.
The planet take about 14 days to complete one orbit around its star, on a very close one.
"As GJ625 is a relatively cool star, the planet is situated at the edge of its habitability zone, in which liquid water can exist on its surface," said Alejandro Suarez Mascareno from IAC.
"In fact, depending on the cloud cover of its atmosphere and on its rotation, it could potentially be habitable," he said.
"In the future, new observing campaigns of photometric observations will be essential to try to detect the transit of this planet across its star, given its proximity to the Sun," said Jonay Gonzalez Hernandez, also from IAC.
"There is a possibility that there are more rocky planets around GJ625 in orbits which are nearer to, or further away from the star, and within the habitability zone, which we will keep on combing," said Hernandez.
The planet orbits its host every 14.6 days at a distance of approximately 0.08 AU from the star, which is relatively close.

Iconic People of the Same Age (15 pics)


Martin Luther King Jr. and Anne Frank were both born in 1929.
MLK Jr. died at 39, Anne Frank died at 15; they would both have been 85 this year.

Osama bin Laden and Levar Burton were both born in 1957.
Osama bin Laden died at 54, Levar Burton will be 57 this year.

Marilyn Monroe and Queen Elizabeth II were both born in 1926.
Marilyn Monroe died at 36, Queen Elizabeth II will turn 88 this year.

Malcolm X and Margaret Thatcher were both born in 1925.
Malcolm X died at 39, Margaret Thatcher died at 87; they both would have turned 89 this year.

James Dean and Regis Philbin were both born in 1931.
James Dean died at 24, Regis Philbin will turn 83 this year.

 Dennis Rodman and Barack Obama were both born in 1961.
They will both turn 53 this year.

Kurt Cobain and Criss Angel were both born in 1967.
Kurt Cobain died at 27, Criss Angel will turn 47 this year.

Paula Deen and David Bowie were both born in 1947.
They will both turn 67 this year.

Halle Berry and Mike Tyson were both born in 1966.
They will both turn 48 this year.

John Lennon and Nancy Pelosi were both born in 1940.
John Lennon died at 40, Nancy Pelosi will turn 74 this year.

Shirley Temple and Che Guevara were both born in 1928.
Che Guevara died at 39, Shirley Temple will turn 86 this year.

Pope Francis and Buddy Holly were both born in 1936.
Buddy Holly died at 22, Pope Francis will turn 78 this year.

Elvis Presley and Woody Allen were both born in 1935.
Elvis Presley died at 42, Woody Allen will turn 79 this year.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Tom Hanks were both born in 1956.
They will both turn 58 this year.

Anderson Cooper and R. Kelly were both born in 1967.
They will both turn 47 this year.

Paper model of Boeing 777 by Luca Iaconi–Stewart (129 Pics)