16-Year-Old Girl Arrested and Charged With a Felony For Science Project Mistake

Kiera Wilmot got good grades and had a perfect behavior record. She wasn't the kind of kid you'd expect to find hauled away in handcuffs and expelled from school, but that's exactly what happened after an attempt at a science project went horribly wrong.

See also:
- Florida School Responds To Criticism For Expelling Student Over Science Project: "There Are Consequences To Actions"

On 7 a.m. on Monday, the 16 year-old mixed some common household chemicals in a small 8 oz water bottle on the grounds of Bartow High School in Bartow, Florida. The reaction caused a small explosion that caused the top to pop up and produced some smoke. No one was hurt and no damage was caused.

According to WTSP, Wilmot told police that she was merely conducting a science experiment. Though her teachers knew nothing of the specific project, her principal seems to agree.

"She made a bad choice. Honestly, I don't think she meant to ever hurt anyone," principal Ron Pritchard told the station. "She wanted to see what would happen [when the chemicals mixed] and was shocked by what it did. Her mother is shocked, too."

After the explosion Wilmot was taken into custody by a school resources officer and charged with possession/discharge of a weapon on school grounds and discharging a destructive device. She will be tried as an adult.

She was then taken to a juvenile assessment center. She was also expelled from school and will be forced to complete her diploma through an expulsion program.

Polk County School released the following statement:

"Anytime a student makes a bad choice it is disappointing to us. Unfortunately, the incident that occurred at Bartow High School yesterday was a serious breach of conduct. In order to maintain a safe and orderly learning environment, we simply must uphold our code of conduct rules. We urge our parents to join us in conveying the message that there are consequences to actions. We will not compromise the safety and security of our students and staff."

So, sorry kids. Don't try any extracurricular science projects on school grounds, especially if they could result in anything resembling an explosion.

Update: Riptide spoke to the Polk County School District about why they felt expulsion was a fair punishment for Wilmot. Their response: kids should learn that "there are consequences to their actions."

We've also obtained the police report from the incident. It shows that Wilmot was mixing toilet bowl cleaner and aluminum foil. Read the full update and the police report here.

Originally Posted On: http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2013/04/florida_teen_girl_charged_with.php

___________________________________________________

"Charges dropped against Florida teen over amateur science experiment"

The Florida teenager who wasarrested two weeks ago for causing a small explosion on the campus of her high school will not be charged with a crime. Kiera Wilmot, 16, was arrested by police in Bartow, Florida, after conducting an unauthorized science experiment which lightly damaged an eight ounce plastic water bottle.

At the time, Wilmot facedpossible charges for “possessing or discharging weapons or firearms at a school sponsored event or on school property.” If she had been convicted, she could have faced up to five years in prison.

Wilmot’s arrest became a national story, as members of the press and the scientific community insisted that Wilmot was the victim of a massive overreaction from law enforcement. A crowdfunded legal defense fund netted over $8,000 to cover Wilmot’s potential legal fees, and a Change.org petition to get the charges dropped received nearly 200,000 signatures.

“Even though I don’t have the privilege of knowing Kiera, I believe we all have the responsibility to stand up with one another whenever there is injustice and felt I had to do whatever I could to make sure the unjust felony charges were dropped,” said Maggie Gilman, the creator of the petition, in a statement circulated by Change.org. “I’m very thankful to the 195,000 people who stood with Kiera and signed the petition on Change.org!”

Wilmot has already served a ten-day suspension, and is now attending another high school,according to her attorney. Per the terms under which she avoided criminal charges, Wilmot will also have to complete a diversion program outlined by the state’s Department of Juvenile Justice. The terms of the diversion plan are not public, and it remains unclear whether Wilmot’s arrest will be expunged from her record.

Originally Posted On: http://tv.msnbc.com/2013/05/15/charges-dropped-against-florida-teen-over-amateur-science-experiment/

The 6 Creepiest Lies the Food Industry is Feeding You

As we've talked about before, the food industry is based almost entirely on a series of lies that, quite frankly, most of us just prefer to believe ("'All natural?' Sounds healthy to me!"). But we have to draw the line somewhere, right? Especially when the food you buy has nothing to do with what it says on the label.

#6. Your Honey and Spices Are Fake

Getty

If you're like us and you only use spices to impress the opposite sex with the illusion that you know what to do with them, then it's possible that you don't even really know what that stuff is supposed to be made of. And that's exactly where the food industry wants you, if they're going to sell you fake bootleg spices.

The Horror:

Take honey, for example. You'd think it's a pretty straightforward product -- bees make it, bears steal it from the bees, you eat it. Or something. But the truth is that pretty much all the major players in the industry knowingly buy their honey from dodgy sources in China -- a country that, for instance, has no qualms in purveying pepper that is entirely made from mud.

Getty
Wait, does that mean that pork comes pre-seasoned?"

Bootleg Chinese honey frequently has all of the pollen filtered out of it to disguise its origin, and it's then cut like back-alley cocaine with cheap corn syrup and artificial sweeteners. The FDA says that a substance can't legally be called "honey" if it contains no pollen, and yet most of the stuff tested from the main retailers contained not a trace of it.

Soy sauce is another thing you'd assume no one would feel the need to fabricate, seeing as soy isn't exactly a rare commodity. Again, you'd be wrong. Proper soy sauce takes a pretty long time to make, so many manufacturers have started producing an imitation product that takes only three days to make and has a longer shelf life. It is made from something called "hydrolyzed vegetable proteins," as well as caramel coloring, salt, and our good old friend corn syrup. Most of the soy sauce that you get in packets with your sushi is actually this fake stuff. But at least it comes with wasabi, too, right? If by "wasabi" you mean "horseradish mixed with mustard." Let's face it, you probably weren't even served by a real Japanese person.

Getty
"I'm actually Korean as all get-out."

The worst offender is possibly saffron. The real stuff is up there with the most expensive spices at roughly $10,000 per pound. That's especially impressive, considering that a lot of "top-quality" saffron consists of roughly 10 percent actual saffron. The rest is just random, worthless plant bits, ground up and mixed with the real thing.

And that's what you get when you're lucky. If you're unlucky, you get the complete forgery:

Via Couriermail.com
See if you can taste which one has crayon shavings.

On the left, you see real saffron. On the right -- saffron-flavored gelatin. Its appearance is convincing enough, until you put it in water and it completely dissolves, leaving behind little more than a bland aftertaste and a patch of froth shaped like a middle finger.

#5. Your Chicken Is Pumped Full of Weird Liquids

Getty

There's nothing as appetizing as a nice, plump, juicy chicken carcass, roasted to a golden sheen. We're getting hungry just thinking about it. But as much as everything with a kind of indescribable taste is said to "taste like chicken," it's kind of ironic that you probably don't actually know what real chicken tastes like, because ...

Getty
"Think I'll just have some bugs tonight."

The Horror:

For decades, the vast majority of our "fresh" chicken has been infused with a whole bunch of other substances, up to and including beef and pork waste. That's bad news for Hindus, Muslims and anyone else who is choosing the chicken dish from the menu because contact with beef or pork is expressly forbidden by their religion.

But even when the chicken is untainted by cloven-hoofed contaminants, you're still likely eating a bird that's pumped full of chicken stock, brine and "flavor enhancers." It's called plumping, and it's been standard practice in chicken production since around the '70s. The industry explains that it's to add juiciness to chicken that would otherwise be too lean and chewy. Sure, they neglect to mention the fact that the chicken is stringy and inferior because they've deliberately bred it to be faster and cheaper to manufacture, but at least they're not technically lying, at least not at this point.

Getty
"Not bad. Now get it into the mold and compress it into a rough chicken shape."

But food companies often blatantly overdo the required amounts to "plump" a chicken to tenderness by pumping their fowl up until the extra substances make up as much as 30 percent of the total weight, and we're sure it's just coincidence that chicken is priced by the pound.

But the weight issue is just the beginning. The industry describes the plumping process as "completely harmless," in the same way a marathon runner's nuts could be described as "pleasantly savory." Plumping can up to quadruple the meat's sodium levels, leaving it riddled with unnecessary salts. All attempts to "improve" the plumping formula to fix the sodium problem have led to a giant spiral of more and more crap being thrown into the mix, to the point where you probably don't know what percentage of your chicken is even kind of chicken.

Of course, you can try to avoid it by only buying chicken that has "100 PERCENT NATURAL" printed on the label, and they will laugh at your cute attempts to cheat the system. Due to a technicality in regulations, all chicken -- plumped or not -- can be labelled as a completely natural product ... as long as the ingredients in the plumping solution can be described as "natural" without anyone bursting into laughter.

#4. Your Meat Might Be Made from Glued-Together Scraps

Unless you're one of those people who substitute a lump of tofu for a real turkey on Thanksgiving, meat is meat. And don't worry, we're not about to tell you that the juicy slab of rib eye that you brought home from the shady discount butcher isn't a real steak. In fact, it's quite likely half a dozen steaks ... as well as whatever else they swept off the slaughterhouse floor.

Getty
"Just take it over to Vat 12. We're making Spam."

The Horror:

There's a substance in the meat industry's bag of tricks called "transglutaminase." That's an awful lot of syllables, so most people just call it by its nickname -- meat glue. It's exactly what it sounds like. Its intended purpose is for fancy chefs who sometimes need to stick different parts of a meal together after preparation (to make crab cakes and such), but it has another, shadier purpose among renegade butchers.

It goes like this: During the heavily industrialized process of turning animals into delicious food, there tends to be a lot of pieces left over that aren't good for much but pet food. Transglutaminase can be used to glue these tiny bits together into a sort of patchwork slab, which looks a lot like one consistent cut of meat.

Via Wikipedia
"The log is actually the most natural form for meat to take in the wild."

Since the process doesn't leave a trace, and transglutaminase isn't among the substances required to be mentioned in the table of ingredients, you have fat chance of knowing it's there unless you're an expert at interpreting the seams in your meat. This process not only sells you scraps for the price of prime meat, but it also leaves you with a "steak" that might well be made from a dozen different cows, making it next to impossible to trace the source for your food poisoning, the chances for which are incidentally now tenfold, thanks to the uneven consistency of what you're trying to fry up.

Meat glue works its magic just as well on chicken and seafood, which is bad news once again for our Muslim, Jewish and Hindu readers -- transglutaminase comes from pig and cow blood. Well, at least that tofu turkey is pretty kosher.

Getty
And it can also be used as meat glue itself.

0

#3. Your Salmon Is Dyed Pink

Getty

When you think of salmon in the wild, you're usually imagining a bunch of strong, determined fish swimming upward through a waterfall, maybe while getting chased by bears. It's the blood rushing through the powerful salmon's veins that makes its flesh so pink and healthy as a bastard -- by devouring it, you also absorb its strength and the spirit of the untamed Alaskan wilderness.

Getty
"... AND THE PEAS WERE PRETTY GOOD, TOO."

The Horror:

At least, that used to be how it worked. The salmon you eat today has never swum a single damn inch upstream. Instead of the Alaskan wilderness, today's salmon only contain the spirit of the cramped, overcrowded salmon farms in which they spent their entire lives. Because the fish can't move much and their diet consists entirely of aquarium pellets, the salmon that arrives at your local Safeway is as gray as a British winter.

So how do they recapture the soul of Alaska? They pump the salmon full of pink dye, obviously. The pellets they feed to those aquatic prisoners are infused with a line of coloring agents developed by the pharmaceutical giant Hoffman-La Roche and selected according to a color fan. That's right -- just like the ones you use to choose the color of your wall paint from the hardware store. Behold, the SalmoFan:

Via Groundtruthtrekking.org
"Hey, it's our anniversary, we're allowed to splurge. Let's order neon."

This is no small-scale stuff, either. About 95 percent of Atlantic salmon is currently farmed, and pretty much all of it is dyed.

Of course, salmon is not the only thing in your grocery basket that isn't really the color you think it is. Remember Perdue chicken, Frank Perdue's famous poultry with the "healthy, golden color"? Turns out that the healthy, natural color was achieved with a mix of marigold petals and dyes. In the baked goods corner we have wheat bread, which is often dyed darker with brown sugar or molasses to make it appear more healthy. The peculiarly orange hue of cheddar cheese is also a careful mix of coloring agents, because the natural color of cheese batches varies, and being faced with variation reduces regular shoppers to confused and aggressive beasts.

"Be careful, they charge when provoked."

For the red-meat lovers out there, rest assured that your hamburger and sausage meat is often dyed to a more appetizingly red hue that can cause cancer. But hell, who wants to eat slightly inconsistent-looking food?

#2. Kobe Beef Doesn't Really Exist

Getty

Seasoned carnivores know that Kobe beef is just about the cream of the crop, if you can afford it. The Japanese Wagyu cattle it comes from are raised with a very direct set of rules, followed with the kind of strict meticulousness you'd expect from a country where making a cup of tea is an hour-long ritual.

Luckily, the international market has made Kobe beef pretty widely available. Nowadays, many restaurants keep Kobe on the menu, and many a well-equipped meat purveyor is able to get his hands on a chunk every now and then. And as the markets open, the prices plummet -- these days, you can totally enjoy a delicious Kobe burger for the relatively measly price of $81.

Via Gothamist.com
"Here's your wrong burger with a side order of french lies. Enjoy!"

Say, ever wonder where all this sudden, delicious Kobe influx comes from?

The Horror:

Nowhere, that's where. Every single restaurant and beef purveyor boasting Kobe beef is lying its ass off. You have never had real Kobe beef. Not in the U.S., not in Europe, not in Australia. Unless you actually flew to Japan and specifically sought it out, you haven't had a shadow of a chance to even sniff a Kobe steak.

Getty
Nope, doesn't count.

In fact, the strict rules that apply to Kobe production aren't in compliance with U.S. legislation, which technically makes the meat more or less illegal stateside. And there is precious little Kobe beef to go around -- so it doesn't. With the exception of Macau, for some reason, Kobe beef is exclusive to Japan, and even there it can be a bastard to find.

So wait, what are they actually feeding us when we pick "Kobe" off the menu? Whatever the hell they want. The term "Kobe beef" is only subject to regulation within Japan, so for the rest of us, it can legally apply to anything that doesn't violate the "beef" part of the description.

Getty
"That'll be a million dollars."

When you buy something labeled "Kobe beef," it's likely that you're actually buying something with a vague explanation, like it's prepared "in the style" of a Kobe steak, which probably isn't enough to warrant the $80 price tag, unless you're one of those creepy Japanophiles.

#1. Your Olive Oil Is Fake, Thanks to the Mob

Getty

Even though it's basically just fat, olive oil is one of those fabled "good fats" that sounds like "healthy cigarettes," except that the folks at Harvard will even tell you that olive oil can prevent heart disease and generally help you live longer. It's such a shame that you may never actually get to try the stuff, thanks to a shadowy global conspiracy that exists purely to keep it away from you.

Getty
"They're on to us. Pack your things -- we have to get out of town right now."

The Horror:

As crazy as it sounds, olive oil piracy is one of the Italian Mafia's most lucrative enterprises, to the extent that it appears that most olive oil on the market is either greatly diluted or completely forged by a massive shadow industry that involves major names such as Bertolli.

They've been at it for a while, too -- Joe Profaci, said to be one of the real-life dons who inspired the character of Don Vito Corleone in The Godfather, was known by the moniker of "The Olive Oil King." But evidence suggests that olive oil racketeering has been a major problem in the world for centuries. Hell, the ancient Sumerians had a fraud squad for shady olive oil peddlers.

Getty
"Hurry up, man, my salad is getting limp and wilted."

Today, the stuff that is pawned off to us as quality olive oil is often just a tiny amount of the real thing, mixed with up to 80 percent of ordinary, less than healthy, cheap as muck sunflower oil. That is, if you're getting any olive oil at all. In fact, we're so used to shitty olive oil that apparently food connoisseurs reject the real stuff because it tastes fake to them.

But why would anyone bother? It's freaking olive oil. How much money can there be in it when you can get a bottle for a few bucks at the grocery store? It turns out that, profit-wise, shady olive oil is comparable to cocaine trafficking. If anything, the reality would have really changed the atmosphere of the Godfather movies.

Originally Posted On: http://www.cracked.com/article_19896_the-6-creepiest-lies-food-industry-feeding-you_p2.html#ixzz2ZcfjMfSL

Official Says Complaining About Tap Water is Act of Terrorism

If you dare to complain about the poor quality of your tap water, you better expect a visit from Homeland Security. Because after all, as a water official has now verified on record, complaining about your tap water can be an act of terrorism.
 

Concerned about the high levels of arsenic in your water, or perhaps the known levels of radioactive contamination? Well you must be a terrorist, according to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) and Homeland Security, who consider issuing such complaints to be classified under terrorist activity.

It all started when Tennessee residents in Maury County recorded an exchange with the deputy director from the state’s environmental entity TDEC, who issued a warning that complaining about low quality tap water could put you in Guantanamo. As you can hear from the video below, deputy director Sherwin Smith explains to a group of residents that issuing a complaint over the water supply can be considered an act of terrorism by Homeland Security.

According to Smith, you better make sure your claims can be verified by the water department employees before submitting them. In the video recording, which was posted following the outrage from citizens over the entire event, Smith is heard saying:

“But you need to make sure that when you make water quality complaints you have a basis, because federally, if there’s no water quality issues, that can be considered under Homeland Security an act of terrorism.”

The group responsible for the recording, called ‘Community eMpowerment’, ended up spotlighting their work on The Tennessean publication — an article that has now gone to be picked up by USA Today and others. And for good reason. The video highlights the growing nature of the Big Brother system that has engulfed the United States over the past several years through the enactment of unconstitutional legislation like the Patriot Act/FISA, the NDAA, and of course the establishment of a 100 mile wide Constitution-free zone by DHS that runs along the entire border of the US.

The assertion made by this man in the video is simply a byproduct of this system, which labels virtually all law-abiding citizens as terrorists. It’s also a byproduct of the lazy bureaucratic system that would rather throw around the label of ‘terrorist’ against those who seek to issue complaints in order to avoid actual work. In the past, we’ve seen 400 pound union heads get paid $156,000 a year to sleep and eat for a few hours a day at ‘work’, and this is the kind of corruption that goes on all over the place.

The bottom line? No matter what you do, think, or even say, it’s likely that the DHS has a way to classify it as a terrorist act — even complaining about the poor quality of your tap water.

Originally Posted On: http://www.storyleak.com/official-complaining-tap-water-act-of-terrorism/#ixzz2Zc7jNZFr

10 Ways to Starve a Multi-National GMO Conglomerate

Monsanto seems intent on taking over the food supply of the entire world.  Their sterile, toxic seeds are in every corner of the globe.  Hungary recently made headlines for burning 1000 acres of fields of GMO crops to the ground. Dozens of nations have banned, or at the very least, regulated, GMO crops and products.  The heat is on the monolithic seed corporation, and it’s time to turn the temperature up even more in North America.  The federal government has made no secret of their support of Monsanto, so it’s up to us, the consumers, to starve them out.

The best way to do that, according to the founder of Eat Local Grown, Rick Davis, is to “Starve Monsanto, feed a farmer.”

Every dollar we put into the pockets of small farmers is a dollar that Monsanto doesn’t receive.  By cutting off the funding for Monsanto through consumer choices, we can starve this beast out.

Davis is passionate about the place of farmer’s markets in this checkout counter revolution:

 Money is all that matters. So let’s use our money more wisely to get the changes we want. First step- stop buying GMO and conventionally grown food. Move those dollars to supporting local sustainable farmers!

I realize that’s difficult and impossible for many. But if we had a shift of just 10% of peoples shopping income going to Farmers Markets it would make a HUGE difference. The sad reality is that most small family farms are required to have at least one family member work outside of the farm just to make ends meet. It’s not because they don’t do a good job growing healthy food, it’s because there’s just not enough awareness of the benefits (nutrition, helping the environment, building community, etc).

Every bite of food that you feed your family is a vote, either for Monsanto and their GMOs, or against them.  This means that every single one of us can effect the necessary change by voting with our forks and wallets.

We can all take steps to grow at least some of the food that we consume, through traditional gardens, containers on the patio or balcony, or even a sunny window.  But for city dwellers or those who live in an area otherwise not conducive to farming, it isn’t feasible to think that they can grow every single bite that they eat.  Not to worry, though, because activism is as easy as heading to your local farmer’s market instead of the grocery store. (You can find farmer’s markets in your area HERE.)

Here are 10 ways to starve a multi-national GMO conglomerate even when you don’t have room to farm – and the best news of all is that ANYONE can get started as soon as lunch time!

1. Stop shopping at grocery stores.  With farmer’s markets, roadside stands in the country, vegetable gardens,privately owned butcher shops,  and mail order sources for bulk purchases of organic grains, there is no reason you need to ever set foot in another chilly, fluorescent-lit, chemical warfare zone again!
2. Eat seasonally.  Seasonal eating has a host of benefits. It’s healthier, it’s cheaper, and it’s far easier to find in-season foods locally grown.
3. Join a CSA.  CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  Basically when you join a CSA, you are buying shares in the harvest. This is a great way to support local farmers.  You pay in advance and then as the harvest comes in, it is divided among shareholders.  Each CSA is different – some divvy up only produce, while others share eggs and dairy products as well.
4. Make the farmer’s market a weekly destination.  Grab the kids and some reusable bags and head out to your local farmer’s market.  Not only can you shop for vibrant, fresh-picked fruits and veggies, but many markets also offer home-baked goods, jams and jellies, and local meats.   Be sure that you are buying directly from farmers, though. Some vendors buy from the same markets that the grocery stores do, which defeats the whole purpose.  Talk to the vendor and learn about the origin of the offerings – you just may strike up a wonderful friendship!
5. Buy directly from the farm.  If you live in a more rural area, shopping locally can be as easy as visiting a neighboring farm.  Some set up roadside stands, others rely on the honor system, and others have small shops with their freshly harvested offerings.
6. Visit a pick-your-own farm.  A great outing for the whole family is a pick-your-own farm.  Even better, the price for fresh berries or apples is often lower when you provide your own labor.  A morning spent in the field picking strawberries is both educational and a fun way to bond with your children. You can find a PYO farm in your area HERE.
7. Learn to preserve food.  Many of us live in a climate doesn’t allow for fresh harvests year-round.  The good news is, you can acquire fresh produce in large quantities (like bushel baskets) for a far better price than a weekly supply.  Canning, freezing, and dehydrating are three great ways to preserve that fresh picked goodness to enjoy in the middle of winter, while still avoiding the grocery store and it’s Monsanto-filled shelves.
8. Join a food co-0p.  According to Localharvest.org, “Food cooperatives are worker or customer owned businesses that provide grocery items of the highest quality and best value to their members. Coops can take the shape of retail stores or buying clubs. All food coops are committed to consumer education, product quality, and member control, and usually support their local communities by selling produce grown locally by family farms.”  Food co-ops can be found HERE and HERE.
9. Support restaurants that buy locally.  The locavore movement is catching on. If you choose to go out to dinner, opt for restaurants that have seasonal menus based on local harvests.  You can find a list of such eateries HERE. 
10. Educate friends, family, and the local community.  Extend the activism beyond your own kitchen by helping to promote the local options.  Lots of people have no idea what to do with swiss chard or rutabagas.  Volunteer to teach a cooking class that focuses on seasonal foods.  Write up flyers to be inserted with co-op or CSA baskets with instructions on how to prepare that months’ harvest.  Submit seasonal recipes to your local paper. Educate, educate, educate, on the benefits and importance of locally grown, non-GMO food.

Originally Posted On: http://www.theorganicprepper.ca/10-ways-to-starve-a-multi-national-gmo-conglomerate-05302013#sthash.1KA6M4lJ.dpuf