Pennygate
After a tumultuous weekend of press coverage, Readington Middle School in New Jersey has apparently decided that 200 pennies do add up to $2. Parents and the American Civil Liberties Union are pleased.
The controversy erupted last week after several 7th- and 8th-graders reportedly decided that 30 minutes was not enough time to line up, purchase and eat their lunch. So on Thursday morning, these students trudged into the lunch line, weighed down by the coins pilfered from the crevices of couches, car ashtrays and piggy banks, and paid for their $2 lunch with hundreds of pennies. By the time lunch was over, the registers where filled with about 5,800 pennies. Delays in counting the money meant many students went hungry.
School officials were not impressed and began doling out detention like sloppy Joe’s. In all, 29 students received punishment. Administrators told them that what they had done was “disrespectful” not only to cafeteria staff but also to fellow students. (Yet on Friday, many of them brought bag lunches to protest on behalf of the so-called “Readington 29.”)
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Earth and Moon as Seen from Mars
The High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera would make a great backyard telescope for viewing Mars, and we can also use it at Mars to view other planets. This is an image of Earth and the moon, acquired on October 3, 2007, by the HiRISE camera on NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter.
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Oversize Truck Crash In Tunnel Caught On Tape
BOSTON (WBZ) ― A spectacular crash involving a flatbed truck was caught on tape inside the I-90 connector tunnel. The truck was too big, but the driver kept going despite alarms.
It happened Tuesday just after 4 p.m. on the westbound side.
In a video released by the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority Thursday, the flatbed truck carrying a crane is seen heading into the Ted Williams Tunnel. It triggered the overheight sensors and the warning sign before the tunnel’s entrance, but the driver didn’t stop.
Then, a latch detached and the boom of the crane became loose, causing sparks to fly.
Moments later, as regular traffic was moving through the connector tunnel, the crane’s boom gouged into the tunnel ceiling, and the truck came to an abrupt stop.
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