Roberto Abraham Scaruffi

Thursday, 29 October 2015

The European Union Times


Posted: 28 Oct 2015 06:07 AM PDT

Parents outraged after student penalized for correctly answering math questions.
A Common Core math assignment posted online last week is causing outrage among parents who say their child was penalized for correctly answering a question.
A photo of the math quiz, uploaded to Imgur, shows how an unknown third-grade student received negative marks after allegedly failing to properly articulate how he correctly solved the question 5×3.
“The first question asks the student to use repeated addition to solve the question 5×3. The student answers 5+5+5=15, but is marked incorrect,” notes the Daily Mail. “Instead, the teacher writes that the correct answer should have been 3+3+3+3+3=15.”
The assignment’s second question, which similarly asks the student to use “repeated addition” to solve 4×6, is also marked wrong despite being correct.
“In the second question, students are asked draw an array to solve 4×6,” the Daily Mail adds. “The student draws six rows of four and is again marked wrong, with the teacher drawing four rows of six as the correct answer.”
Commenters on the photo, including several who claimed to be teachers in training, were outraged alongside the young student’s parents.
“People are realizing that this method of intentional confusion is testing folks’ sensitivity to the fact that the entire system is imploding,” one commenter said.
“As a future teacher, this shit pisses me off,” another added.
Such assignments have become increasingly unpopular with each passing year as schoolchildren are forced to exchange common sense for Common Core.
The controversial standards became well known in 2013 after a math teacher argued that wrong answers would be correct if students were able to explain why they provided an incorrect response.

In late 2014, a similar video stirred debate after a Common Core math teacher took nearly 60 seconds to explain how to properly add the numbers 9 and 6.

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Posted: 28 Oct 2015 06:00 AM PDT

Russian-led counterterrorism efforts are so successful that they are “unnerving” Washington, CCTV reported. As a result, last week US leadership decided to act so as to prevent Iraq from fostering ties with Moscow.
The Chinese media outlet believes that the operation to free hostages in Northern Iraq followed this new logic. Last Thursday, US and Kurdish forces managed to free 70 people from a prison located to the west of Kirkuk. The operation saw the United States lose its first soldier in combat since Obama launched the campaign to degrade and ultimately destroy Islamic State.
This mission raised questions over Washington’s plans in Iraq. On Friday, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter tried to dispel fears of the possible mission creep by saying that the US was not “assuming a combat role” and the operation was “a continuation of our advise-and-assist mission.”
However, Carter stated that similar missions, which redefine assistance if not blur the line between combat and training, could be conducted in the future.
The operation took place on the same day as Vladimir Putin’s approval rating hit a new high reaching 89.9 percent. The Russian leader is increasingly popular at home due to his efforts to help solve the Syrian crisis, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VTsIOM) explained.
However, Putin’s campaign, which has both diplomatic and military components, does not go unnoticed outside of Russia and especially in the Middle East.
CCTV believes that the US-led hostage rescue operation was a show of force aimed at Iraq’s leadership. The mission was meant to send a clear message to Baghdad, which is rumored to be planning to ask Moscow for greater assistance in its fight against Islamic State.
Iraq’s concerns are reasonable. After more than 12 months of US-led airstrikes ISIL still controls large parts of Northern Iraq, including the second largest city in the country, Mosul.
Meanwhile, extremists are reported to be fleeing from key areas in Syria largely due to the Russian-led aerial campaign, which was launched less than a month ago.
The United States, according to the media outlet, will not let Iraq leave the fold.
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Posted: 28 Oct 2015 05:40 AM PDT

After decades of berating Americans for their Constitutionally protected right to bear arms, Europeans are finally starting to wake up.
It took over a million Islamic immigrants and violence across their union to convince them, but it appears that they finally get it.
In Austria, the scramble for self defense firearms is on as reported by The Daily Sheeple:
Despite how hard it is to attain these weapons in countries like Austria, firearms are currently being sold there in record numbers much like they are in the United States. But instead of the threat of confiscation, this trend is being fueled by the refugee crisis. According to a Czech TV report, pretty much all of the long guns in the country have been sold out for the past three weeks. One gun merchant revealed that most of the buyers are women who want to protect themselves, and those who can’t buy firearms are buying up pepper spray.
Prior to the refugee crisis, most gun buyers were sportsman and hunters. Now there is a growing interest in buying weapons for self-defense. And according to Alan Gottlieb, vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation, European attitudes on firearm ownership are beginning to shift. “I just returned from a gun rights meeting in Belgium, and I can attest that all over Europe people now want the means to defend themselves. Self-defense is no longer a dirty word. In countries like Austria, where it is still legal to own a firearm, gun sales are at record levels.”
It looks like those crazy Americans aren’t so crazy anymore.
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Posted: 28 Oct 2015 05:01 AM PDT

Around 1,500 birds have died around Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran for unknown reasons, an official with Iran’s Department of Environment says.
“The reason behind this accident is not clear yet and is under investigation,” said the director of wildlife protection organization of the province of West Azarbaijan on Tuesday.
Omid Yousefi ruled out the possibility of a bird flu outbreak, and added that samples had been sent to a number of veterinary diagnostic laboratories and research centers and universities for detailed analysis.
Referring to speculations that the birds may have been poisoned by the sewage and wastewater from treatment plants in the city of Urmia and other surrounding cities, he said, “A certain answer cannot be given without the results of the tests.”
He added that there are still a large number of sick birds that may perish in the near future due to their small stature.
Yousefi noted that initial steps have been taken to set up veterinary field clinics around the area.
Located between the provinces of East Azarbaijan and West Azarbaijan, the saltwater lake, one of the largest on the planet, is on the brink of a major environmental disaster due to its highly endangered ecosystem.
Stressing the necessity to take proper measures to find a solution for the problem, Yousefi said the lake crisis has made wildlife survival difficult in the region.
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Posted: 28 Oct 2015 04:34 AM PDT

The consequences of potential US ground operations in Syria would be unpredictable, the head of Russia’s parliamentary committee on foreign affairs told RT. He added that claims Russian airstrikes have targeted civilians are part of ongoing information war.
“If there …[is] any evidence …[it] should be presented and Russia is definitely open to making further investigations,” Chairman of the Russian Upper House committee for foreign affairs, Konstantin Kosachev told RT, while on a visit to Washington. “But there is no evidence [that has been] presented by the military experts to the Russian military experts.”
Kosachev’s comments come after the Russian Ministry of Defense summoned the military attaches of NATO countries and Saudi Arabia, asking them to clarify their allegations that Russian airstrikes in Syria had hit civilian targets.
The head of the committee blamed mass media for “deliberately circulating rumors” of Russian airstrikes killing civilian population in Syria. The same “rumors,” Kosachev, said are being spread throughout social media.
“This is just an information war against Russia and nothing else,” he told RT.
Konstantin Kosachyov
Kosachev called on all nations to join the Russian led coalition against ISIS in Syria, that Russia is conducting “within the framework of international law.”
“We have no intention of joining any other coalition for the simple reason that they are outside the framework of the international law,” he said.
Commenting on the potential involvement of US ground troops against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, Kosachev once again highlighted that, when it comes to Syria, the US-led anti-ISIS campaign is already violating international law. Potential troops on the ground, Kosachev believes, will further violate international regulations
“Any operations – air based operations, ground based operations – in Syria by American forces will be illegal,” Kosachev told RT, explaining that Washington has not been invited by Damascus to take part in military operation in a sovereign country.
“They will get trapped, they will get involved in this ongoing conflict and the consequences will be absolutely unpredictable,” Kosachev said, addicting that sending US troops into Syria would be a “big mistake.”
At the same time, Kosachev, stressed that Russia would not send ground troops into Syria.
“No ground operation is possible [in Syria], because that would inevitably involve Russia in the ongoing war,” the politician told RT.
Instead Moscow is committed to finding a political solution in Syria and has facilitated a number of high level talks between Bashar Assad’s government and the opposition representatives in Moscow.
“The problem is that people who come to Moscow … claim that they represent the opposition but later on other groups deny it and we have problems with finding reliable partners,” who would facilitate the political dialogue back in Syria, Kosachev said.
“We try not to interfere but promote a political dialogue inside the country,” Kosachev told RT. “We believe there is no other way to solve the internal problems of Syria but to maintain a political dialogue.”
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Posted by Roberto Abraham Scaruffi at 11:21