Teacher fired after assigning violent math problems

A Washington, D.C., charter school teacher has been fired after it was discovered the teacher had assigned third-grade students a number of math problems framed around violent and illegal scenarios.

At first, the unnamed teacher at the Trinidad Center City School claimed he had been ordered to assign the problems, but it was quickly discovered that the teacher had actually downloaded them from a free homeschooling website called "HomeschoolingParadise.com."

"I was absolutely distressed," Dr. Beverley Wheeler, the CEO of Center City PCS, which oversees Trinidad, told WUSA9.  "It doesn't follow anything we do. We are about character, excellence and service and I found them to be violent and racist."

Even more baffling, other parents at the school say the teacher in question is a minister.

I went to the Homeschooling Paradise website and took a look at the third-grade homeschooling "Worksheets" curriculum. To start, the site's own promotional slogan uses oddly harsh (and racially problematic) language, asking:

"Want your kids to sharpen their mathematical skills to a razor's edge? There is nothing better than grinding their neurons on Singapore math." You can read more about the Singapore math system here.

Here are some of the suggested math problems from the site. And to be clear, I'm not cherry-picking; almost any question picked at random will reflect the concerns expressed by Dr. Wheeler:

"I was sleeping one night when a hungry vampire sucked 3652 liters of blood from me and 1865 liters of blood from my little brother. How much blood did the hungry vampire drink that night?"

Another reads:

"I took a nap in a bog one day and woke up screaming. 3796 leeches, 2910 fleas and 1044 vampire bats were stuck to my bald head drinking my blood in ecstasy. How many bloodthirsty bloodsuckers were dining on my head?"

And check out this incredibly morbid problem:

"John's father gave him 1359 marbles on his birthday. John swallowed 585 marbles and died. 9 of John's friends came for his funeral the next day. John's grieving father gave the remaining marbles to John's friends in equal numbers. How many marbles did each friend get?"

Last I checked, most kids are warned against indulging in tobacco products. Nonetheless, Homeschooling Paradise offers this equation for children to ponder:

"John, Jack and Jim lit up their pipes after dinner and began blowing smoke rings. By the time they were finished, they had blown a total of 6437 smoke rings. If John blew 52 smoke rings and Jack blew 3896 smoke rings, how many smoke rings did Jim blow?"

Yahoo blog

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DareDevil: A man breaks world record after balancing 23 benches on just his teeth

A Chinese daredevil has broken a Guinness World Record after balancing a staggering 23 wooden benches on just his teeth in Chongqing, China.

Thirty-year-old Li Hongxiao has been balancing objects in his mouth since he was a child.

But the stuntman surpassed all his previous achievements by successfully balancing the unusual load for 11 seconds, as audiences in the Dazu district of southwest China looked on in disbelief.

With each bench one metre long, 45 centimeters high and weighing in at 3kg, the combined weight stood at a whopping 69kg - almost as much as his 75kg body weight.

Li, from Tianqiao village in Chongqing, began performing a ‘lion dance’ at the tender age of eight to earn money for his family, the Daily Mirror reported.

After years of hard work and dedication the stuntman began to refine his performance and in 2000 he began holding up bamboo poles, ladders and benches with his teeth.

But it's not always been an easy ride for Li.

The first time he attempted to balance 12 benches, Li escaped with 18 stitches in his lower lip.

The previous Guinness World Record holder had mastered just 14 benches. Still... OUCH!

Metro

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Ultimate Tazer Ball allows players to zap opponents with stun guns

 

Sport at its best is electrifying – but one new game takes the concept a little too literally by allowing players to tackle opponents by zapping them with stun guns
Ultimate Tazer Ball allows  players to zap opponents with 300,000-volt stun guns, to induce a muscle spasm which will make them drop the ball or trip over.

There have been no official games played but the sport’s creators  insist it is genuine and claim they are planning to form a league.

A promotional video has been seen by more than 1million viewers on YouTube.

The game’s US inventors say the stun guns are designed to deliver eight milliamps of current – well below the lethal dose of one amp but enough to test even the legendary ball skills of Barcelona’s  Lionel Messi.

In the video clip, one zapped player warns: ‘If you’re scared, don’t play.’ Another says: ‘It hurts, man, it doesn’t feel good.’

Only the player in possession may be zapped as teams of four compete to manoeuvre an over-sized foam ball into their opponents’ net.

There are four fledgling teams – LA Nightlight, Philadelphia Killawatts, Canadian side Toronto Terror and San Diego Spartans.

Toronto Terror look set to encounter problems at home games, as stun guns are banned in Canada.

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Bull becomes record breaker after being sold for £126,000

You might not know it to look at him but Fabio is a record breaker - the 1tonne beast has set the standard for Limousin bulls worldwide after selling at auction for £126,000

The 17-month-old was expected to fetch £40,000 before being spotted by Alan Jenkinson – one of the wealthiest breeders in the country.

The sale, in Carlisle, set a new world record for a Limousin and a new British record for a bull by £21,000.

Fabio, who gets through 18kg (40lb) of cereal a day, was raised in Machynlleth, Powys, by Welsh farmer Glyn Vaughan.

The 53-year-old denied the bull was named after former England manager Fabio Capello but said: ‘The tradition is for all our bulls born in a year to be given a name starting in the same letter. 

‘It was the turn of the letter F and I was running out of names so we decided on Fabio. I am sorry to see him go but delighted he made so much money.’

Metro

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