School Bribes Kids to Stop Playing with Toy Guns by Offering Chance at Free Bicycle

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

An elementary school in Hayward, Calif. will sponsor a toy gun trade-in, encouraging kids to swap their harmless toy weapons for a chance to win a new bicycle.

The purpose of the trade-in is to stop children from playing with toy guns, which may make them more likely to commit violence with real guns, said Strobridge Elementary principal Chris Hill.

“Playing with toys guns, saying ‘I’m going to shoot you,’ desensitizes them, so as they get older, it’s easier for them to use a real gun,” Hill said in a statement to Mercury News.

The trade-in will take place on Saturday during the school’s “Safety Day,” which will also feature talks on safety tips from police officers and firefighters. Authorities will offer to take pictures and fingerprints of children to be used to help locate them in case they go missing.

Any child who hands over his toy gun will receive a raffle ticket. The school will raffle off four bicycles, and also hand out books in exchange for the tickets.

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Video: Tractor Trailer on Trans-Canada Highway Collides With Moose, Ignites Fireworks

Photo Credit: YouTube

Two days ago, this tractor trailer in the attached video crashed into a moose and then exploded into flames. The driver apparently escaped without injury.

According to Brenda Grundt who posted the YouTube video, the “trailer was carrying ammunition and fireworks. Here are some of the fireworks exploding while the vehicle is burning. The collision occurred 40 kilometres south of Wawa at Mijinemungshing Lake” on the Trans-Canada Highway.

Ohio Mayoral Hopeful Doles out Free ‘Weed’

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Campaigning for the chance at mayor of Cincinnati, Jim Berns doled out supposed free “marijuana plants” to potential constituents near the University of Cincinnati to receive dozens of people in line hoping to snag some dope.

The catch? He was handing out harmless, but familiar-looking tomato plants.

Berns posits that the legalization of medical marijuana could raise the city’s economy.

He explained his position by attempting to prove how the money can be saved, mainly by not using up police officers’ time. ”The state can make millions, if not billions, of dollars making this into a legal industry, and that we don’t have to have all these police chasing petty criminals around,” he said.

In an effort to rally the crowd, Berns shouted, ”How many people want to grow marijuana on their back porch?”

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Jay Leno – Scared of Big Brother? With Obama, We Actually Have a ‘Brother’ Watching Us (+video)

Photo Credit: Wonderlane

Jay Leon kept up his hits on the White House last night, poking fun at Obama and his surveillance state:

See, when I was growing up, we were always afraid of ‘Big Brother’ watching us. And now with Obama, we actually have a brother watching us. See what I’m saying. We got a brother watching us. That’s right.

And, uh, and Attorney General Eric Holder said despite all these controversies, he has no intention of stepping down. Hey Eric, I didn’t either! Sometimes it just happens! Okay? Sometimes it just happens! Welcome to show business.

GOP Senator’s Wife Warns Strippers to Stay Away from Her Husband

Photo Credit: Facebook

A Facebook post by the wife of Alabama Sen. Shadrack McGill on Monday night was prompted by incidents during McGill’s last legislative campaign, including one in which two strippers showed up at his home in the middle of the night, McGill told AL.com Tuesday.

“As we get into the campaign season, we have concern whether we’ll have to deal with that kind of thing again,” Sen. McGill told AL.com Tuesday.

On Monday, McGill’s wife, Heather, wrote in a Facebook post that women had used the social network to approach her husband “multiple times” since his election in 2010, and warned those women to stay away, or face public scorn. She asked that women stop sending pictures to her husband’s account.

“Next time everyone will know who you are!!” McGill wrote. “For I will publicly share your name before we ‘unfriend’ you.”

Sen. McGill, R-Woodville, said Tuesday that her wife’s frustrations “kind of built up from even the campaign,” in 2010, when McGill ran against and defeated then-Sen. Lowell Barron, D-Fyffe.

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Weird Science: Quadcopter Robot Controlled Using Only Brain Waves (+video)

Photo Credit: YouTube

Researchers at the University of Minnesota have demonstrated that brain waves can control the movement of a quadcopter, flying the robot up, down, forward, backward and through hoops.

Using only a skull cap with electrodes that picks up on the brain activity – not a fancy or invasive chip implanted in the brain — the researchers hope the idea could someday be used for people who don’t have the ability to speak or control their limbs.

It may even help patients with conditions like stroke or Alzheimer’s disease. We’re now studying some stroke patients to see if it’ll help rewire brain circuits to bypass damaged areas,” Karl LaFleur, first author of the study and senior biomedical engineering student who is going on to medical school, said according to the university.

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Jay Leno Scores Big with Joke: Forget Gitmo — Close the IRS

Photo Credit: AP

The audience at a taping of NBC’s “The Tonight Show” erupted in cheers and applause earlier this week when host Jay Leno joked about the need to close the Internal Revenue Service…

His exact words: “President Obama says he’s renewing his efforts to close Guantanamo Bay. Guantanamo Bay? How about closing the IRS? Why don’t we do that?”

Loud applause broke out, and then Mr. Leno continued: “How about shipping the IRS to Guantanamo Bay? That’s what we — yes. That’s how you do it.”

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Maori Legend of Man-Eating Bird is True

Photo Credit: independent.co.uk

A Maori legend about a giant, man-eating bird has been confirmed by scientists. Te Hokioi was a huge black-and-white predator with a red crest and yellow-green tinged wingtips, in an account given to Sir George Gray, an early governor of New Zealand. It was said to be named after its cry and to have “raced the hawk to the heavens”. Scientists now think the stories handed down by word of mouth and depicted in rock drawings refer to Haast’s eagle, a raptor that became extinct just 500 years ago, shows their study in The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Haast’s eagle (Harpagornis moorei) was discovered in swamp deposits by Sir Julius von Haast in the 1870s. But it was at first thought to be a scavenger because its bill was similar to a vulture’s with hoods over its nostrils to stop flesh blocking its air passages as it rooted around inside carcasses.

But a re-examination of skeletons using modern technology, including CAT scans, by researchers at Canterbury Museum in Christchurch and the University of New South Wales in Australia showed it had a strong enough pelvis to support a killing blow as it dived at speeds of up to 80kph.

With a wingspan of up to three metres and weighing 18kg, the female was twice as big as the largest living eagle, the Steller’s sea eagle.

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Harris Poll: Only a Third of U.S. Adults are Happy

Photo Credit: Candie_N (Welcome Spring)

Only a third of U.S. adults say they are very happy — minorities show particularly pronounced declines in the past two years, a U.S. survey indicates.

A Harris Poll of 2,345 U.S. adults surveyed online April 10-15 by Harris Interactive found certain groups, such as minorities, recent graduates and the disabled, trended downward in the last couple of years.

“Our happiness index offers insight into what’s on the minds of Americans today and is a reflection of the state of affairs in our country,” Regina Corso, senior vice president of the Harris Poll, said in a statement. “While the attitudes on the economy may be improving, we’re seeing that this is not translating into an improvement in overall happiness.”

Since last measured two years ago, the Happiness Index was especially low among the Hispanic-American population.

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Ex-Microsoft Manager Plans to Create First U.S. Marijuana Brand

Photo Credit: Reuters

A former Microsoft executive plans to create the first U.S. national marijuana brand, with cannabis he hopes to eventually import legally from Mexico, and said he was kicking off his business by acquiring medical pot dispensaries in three U.S. states.

Jamen Shively, a former Microsoft corporate strategy manager, said he envisions his Seattle-based enterprise becoming the leader in both recreational and medical cannabis – much like Starbucks is the dominant name in coffee, he said.

Shively, 45, whose six years at Microsoft ended in 2009, said he was soliciting investors for $10 million in start-up money.

The use, sale and possession of marijuana remains illegal in the United States under federal law. Two U.S. states have, however, legalized recreational marijuana use and are among 18 states that allow it for medical use.

“It’s a giant market in search of a brand,” Shively said of the marijuana industry. “We would be happy if we get 40 percent of it worldwide.”

Read more from this story HERE.