'Occupy Everywhere' class

On the lighter side

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

CHICAGO, USA (AP) — A Chicago college is offering a class on the Occupy movement.

Thirty-two undergraduate students are enrolled at Roosevelt University's "Occupy Everywhere" class. It's a political science course that looks at the movement that started last summer near New York City's Wall Street and spread nationwide.

The Chicago Sun-Times reports students' assignments include reading the movement's newspaper and attending Occupy Chicago's general assembly meetings held near Roosevelt's downtown campus.

Leaders from the Chicago movement may present guest lectures.

Professor Jeff Edwards studies social movements. He says the Occupy movement has been unfolding before students and the class is a good opportunity for them. He says they are reading a range of analysis on the movement concerned with corporate greed and the division of wealth.

Sheepbunny an online hit

STOCKHOLM, Sweden (AP) — Champis the bunny doesn't only hop -- he also knows how to herd his masters' flock of sheep, possibly having picked up the skill after watching trained dogs do the job.

The five-year-old pet rabbit from the small village of Kal in northern Sweden shot to online fame last week, having garnered more than 700,000 YouTube hits so far, after a clip of his sheep herding skills surfaced on a blog.

The June video shows a persistent Champis running back and forth on the farm, trying to keep Nils-Erik and Greta Vigren's sheep together.

Greta Vigren said she first noted his talent last spring when they let out the sheep to graze for the first time after the long Swedish winter.

"He just started to behave like a sheepdog," she recalled, adding that while he likes to round up the sheep, he is consistent about leaving the farm's hens alone, treating them more gently.

"He's like a king for the whole group. He thinks he rules over both the sheep and the hens. He has a very big ego."

Dan Westman, a sheepdog breeder who shot and posted the video of his friends' bunny, said he was in awe when he first witnessed the phenomenon, noting Champis does the job even better than most dogs would.

"It's really incredible, it's a herding rabbit," he said. "He rounds them up, and if they get close to escaping through the gate he sometimes stops them," he said.

"I mean I work with sheepdogs and know how hard this is. There are very few dogs that could do what this rabbit does."

Westman, who's known both Champis and its owners for years, said the beige little mix-breed bunny had never been trained for the job but seemed to have learned the ropes all on his own.

"He's probably picked some of it up from watching the dogs," he said.

Despite his tiny size, Westman said the sheep seem to pay their minder a world of respect, letting him herd them around when he feels they need some moving.

A pig in a poke

MONTPELIER, Vermont (AP) — A prison inmate who makes stationery and licence plates pulled a fast one on state police by adding the image of a pig to the state decal on their cruisers.

On the 16-inch car door decals, made by prisoners in Windsor, one of the spots on a cow in a scene with mountains and a pine tree has been changed to the shape of a pig, a derogatory term for police.

A Vermont state trooper discovered the pig while inspecting his vehicle on Wednesday. State police say they believe the decals have been added to about 30 cruisers in the past year.

About 60 altered decals were made over the last couple of years, said Andy Pallito, commissioner of the Department of Corrections, which is looking into who made the modification and when.

New decals were made by yesterday at a cost of US$780. The expense will be covered by a surplus in the revolving fund that supports the offender work programme, Pallito said.

State police Maj Bill Sheets wasn't amused by the prank.

"While some may find humor in the decal modifications, the joke unfortunately comes at the expense of the taxpayers," he said Thursday.

The Burlington Free Press newspaper first reported the pig decals.

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'Occupy Everywhere' class