Man Calls Cops After Men Call His Wife 'Fat'

What is it lately with people calling 911 over trivial things?? on Thursday May 28th 2009, I put up a posting about a guy in Hillsboro, Oregon who called the cops over a juice box, Now, there's this story from Forth Worth, Tx:

Fort Worth police were called after a woman says she was called fat by men handing out flyers to a health club.

The incident happened in a residential area, near Heritage Trace Parkway, as the woman walked down the street with her new baby.

The woman is so upset she didn't want to speak on camera, but did say while walking with her baby, on Tuesday, she was approached by two men with flyers promoting Fitness 2000's summer slim down program.

According to the police report, the woman said the men yelled at her to stop. When she simply waved and kept on going, one of the men began following her.

The report says the man told her she "was fat" and "had a fat stomach" and "ate too many donuts".

There's a Fitness 2000 gym location behind the neighborhood where the incident occurred. Those in the area have seen the flyers and say they're nothing new. Neighbor Kristina Stutz said, "I usually get about three of those a week."

After being followed and called fat, the woman reportedly became so upset that she called her husband and he called the non-emergency police line.

So was calling the police extreme? Fort Worth police say the man who did the name calling did not commit a crime; because the woman wasn't followed home, injured, and foul language wasn't used.

The husband insists that his homeowners association requires him to report solicitors.

CBS 11 News, Were the report comes from, spoke with a Fitness 2000 representative by phone and was told that the gym used a company called Excel Distributing to hire workers to pass out their flyers, but no longer does business with the company.

Later Thursday afternoon Fitness 2000 released a statement that said, in part "We are about people being healthy and fit not, frankly, obnoxious."

CBS 11 News also contacted Excel Distributing who said they were looking into the incident and certainly "don't condone" what happened.

On Thursday, women walking in the same area said they would have probably done the same thing. Neighbor Angie Seagraves said, "That is completely horrible. That should never be the way you talk to people, where you're offensive. Regardless of whether you've had a baby or you're just fat."

Thoughts?

Man Calls 911 Over Missing Juice Box

Family Says McDonald's Left Juice Box Out Of Order

A Hillsboro, Oregon man who called 911 to complain that McDonald's left a juice box out of his drive-through order was arrested on Monday, Portland television station KPTV reported.

Raibin Osman appeared before a Washington County judge Tuesday on a charge of misusing emergency services. He said he called emergency dispatchers after the drive-through employee wouldn't come back to the window to give him a juice box.

"We ordered some food and we went home and our order wasn't in there," Osman said in the 911 call. "And my little brother is crying for his orange juice."

Osman's father, Raof, said the emergency call was an innocent mistake and that it escalated when the McDonald's employee laughed at the poor English of his son-in-law.

"We came back with our receipt and said, 'Hey, can we have our order? We paid for it,'" Osman told the emergency dispatcher. "And she was like, 'Oh, no, I can't do anything about it.' And she was laughing at my brother-in-law because he ordered the food and couldn't speak English right."

Meanwhile, the McDonald's employee also called 911 after feeling threatened by the men.

"I showed them that everything was correct and they got mad and told me to give them more food," the employee said in the 911 call. "And I told them, I can't give any free food away."

When deputies arrived, Raibin Osman admitted it was not an emergency call but said he didn't know what number to use, according to the sheriff's office.

"You need help from the police, you have to call the 911," Osman's father said. "I don't have any other number."

Deputies said Osman had been using a Blackberry and could have tracked down a non-emergency line using the phone, but Osman's father said the officer simply should have provided his son with the non-emergency number.

Surprisingly, the incident hasn't stopped the Osman family from eating at the restaurant. They said they've already returned since the arrest.

"The employee made the mistake, not McDonald's," Osman's father said.

Osman posted bail and was released from the Washington County Jail on Tuesday night.

Thoughts?

Gulp! After 7 decades, Archie picks Veronica

Alas for poor Betty, sweet and loyal blond in comic book's triangle

After nearly seven decades of waffling, Archie Andrews has finally decided to end pop culture's most famous love triangle.

His bride-to-be? Snooty brunette Veronica Lodge.

Would it be her or the loyal, lovable blonde Betty Cooper? The issue was put to debate. The publishers have decided. Issue #600 will feature the long-time freckle-faced high-school klutz on bended knee with a ring in his hand. While Veronica screams out "Yes!" Betty stands wiping away a tear.

This relationship jolt leaves long-time readers of the checkout aisle comic a little lost. Wasn't Veronica forever going hot and cold on poor Archie? isn't her dad a rich "buttinsky" with strong control-freak tendencies? And wasn't sweet all-American blond Betty Cooper always there to pick up the pieces?

For those reasons, sentiment was running strongly in Betty's favour in the two weeks leading up to the pick, And it was running just as strongly on the side of proposal nullification. After all, Archie's been juggling dates for so long, he's probably not husband material.

"Why couldn't you wait until I was dead before you finally had him pick between the two?" 46-year-old fan, Valerie, wrote on the publisher's website.

In case you haven't checked for a while, Archie isn't 17 any more. He's now a college grad looking to explore vistas beyond Principal Weatherbee's office and the few last miles his jalopy can manage before backfiring her last.

But marriage? This is a big (REALLY BIG) step, And it immediately eliminates about 90 per cent of the narrative twists that have launched thousands of Archie stories.

"So is this the end of Archie Comics?" wrote another fan, Ebony, likely on a tear-streaked keyboard.

For those who fear that the magic is now gone, along with the eternal youth of all the kids at Riverdale High, there is some hope.

The title of Issue 600 is "Archie Marries Veronica, Part 1: The Proposal." That doesn't sound terribly definitive.

Could there be a Part II: Left at the Altar?

Or Part III: Betty Forgives, Again?

How about Part VII: What Happens at the Chocklit Shoppe Stays at the Chocklit Shoppe.

Thoughts? Betty or Veronica?

Amnesia victim won't agree to see her family

Found this story posted in The Houston Chronicle:

The 34-year-old Albuquerque woman suffering from apparent amnesia as a result of being struck in the head after she moved to Houston for a sales job does not recognize her own name and has chosen not to see her family because she does not remember them, police said Tuesday.

“It doesn’t register with her at all,” said Houston Police Department homicide investigator C.P. “Abbey” Abbondandolo. “She is having a little trouble understanding all the things that have happened to her.”

Police are not releasing the woman’s name to protect her privacy. They also declined to say whether she is married or has children because she asked that no details about her background be made public.

Investigators believe the injuries to her head occurred when someone struck her, but said it is unknown if any of her personal belongings were stolen. After spending two weeks at St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, she was released and is staying at an undisclosed location.

Recalled a dog

The woman was found May 3 when she walked into a St. Luke’s Medical Clinic at 6363 San Felipe, clutching only her keys.

Her car, a Buick Century with Washington state license plates, was found last week parked outside a Barnes and Noble bookstore in the 7600 block of Westheimer. Her purse was in the car.

Police turned up no missing persons reports matching her description.

Though she recalled walking a brown-and-black dog named “Bones,” the HPD found nothing in her car to indicate she owned an animal.

Brochures inside the woman’s car suggested she had been looking for an apartment, but investigators had not yet confirmed Tuesday if she had rented a place or established an address.

Hasn’t seen relatives

The woman has spoken with her family, but so far has chosen not to see them, Abbondandolo said. She is more comfortable speaking with people she has met since her ordeal.

“As bizarre as it sounds, the names of her family members and her friends are not registering with her at all,” the HPD investigator said. “She is shy when it comes to talking with strangers, and at this point — to her — her family is essentially strangers.

“What’s happening now is she’s trying to reacquaint herself with friends and family, which is difficult to say the least. That is a strange scenario to be in: ‘I don’t know who my parents are. I don’t know who anybody else is,’ ” Abbondandolo said.

A Houston couple told the Houston Chronicle they found a dog matching Bones’ description in the same parking lot where the woman’s car was found and on the same day she walked into the clinic for help.

‘A very resilient woman’

The woman does not recall the animal well enough to identify it, however, so Abbondandolo said it has been placed in a temporary home.

“At this point, she’s just got to take care of herself,” he said of the woman. “I think she’s got a long road ahead of her, but I think she’s going to be all right. I think she’s a very resilient woman.”

Best of luck to her, and hope for a speedy recovery....

She doesn't want to see her family because she doesn't remember them? Maybe if she saw them, it would trigger those memories? Maybe she moved from Albuquerque to get away from her family. Could be she remembers them just fine, but "I don't remember" a heck of a lot easier than saying "I don't want you in my life anymore".

There are also other things a little "off" about her story (to me anyways, feel free to disagree)...

She knows enough to ask that nothing be revealed - yet she doesn't want to see her family... hmmm.... When there is smoke, there is usually fire. No one reported her as missing? How many of us don't have one person that they would check in with to make sure we arrived safely to another state? I hope I'm wrong here... but it doesn't sound like it?

Something else that's not really explained is, Why her car has Washington license plates if she is from New Mexico?

Seems to me someone with true amnesia would be desperate to remember, and would jump at a chance to meet with family in the hopes of triggering something.

Speaking of which, why not send the family in anyways? You've posted her picture everywhere, see who remembers her, find her family, send them in... since "she has amnesia" she wouldn't know that her family is in the room right?

A funny part is "They have her picture plastered in the paper and on the internet but they will not release her name because they "want to protect her privacy"??? that's hilarious....

I don't mean to sound cynical here, and yes, she may really be suffering from amnesia, but there are just so many things that don't add up, if I was suffering from amnesia, I know i'd want to see my family and anyone else from my past, regardless of how I felt about them (hey, i'm suffering from amnesia, I don't KNOW how I felt about them in the past!)

But then again... I'm not a Neurologist, or any other type of doctor for that matter, and I don't know how amnesia works, I'm not even going to pretend or claim to... I've never gone through something as horrible as that... and hope I never do....

Thoughts?

Twitter looks to start making some money

Twitter Inc.’s co-founders say the rapidly growing online communications company will eventually charge fees for its services, but it’s unclear which ones and what will drive revenue.

“There will be a moment when you can fill out a form or something and give us money,” said Evan Williams, co-founder and chief executive officer.

“We’re working on it right now,” Williams said at The Wall Street Journal’s D: All Things Digital conference.

Williams and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone mentioned possible revenue-generators, including a service that would authenticate the source of information. For example, Dunkin’ Donuts could pay to make sure that impostors don’t send messages under its name.

Still, after nearly one hour of questions from journalists Walt Mossberg and Kara Swisher and from the audience, the co-founders gave no clear picture of Twitter’s business model. Stone demurred when asked what would be the company’s key revenue driver in two years.

Williams said he wasn’t opposed to banner advertising but was unenthusiastic.

“I think it’s probably the least interesting thing we could do,” he said.

Williams said one of his top priorities was hiring more people to help grow the company but he didn’t give a headcount target. San Francisco-based Twitter has 43 employees, he said, double its count in January.

Twitter allows anyone to write about what they’re doing or what’s on their mind in messages sent through the Web or cell phones, also known as “tweets,” which are limited to 140 characters. The unconventional, free service has attracted millions of users.

The co-founders said they know the hype surrounding Twitter won’t last forever.

“If you pay attention to it too much, you can run yourself off the rails,” Stone said. He added, “Pretty soon, everybody’s going to hate us.”

The privately held company has been a subject of buyout speculation by a big technology company, but Williams said he believed Twitter would remain independent.

There are plenty of ways, what about looking into the business models of the other websites that allow free access for its users? like Facebook, Myspace or Shareapic

German states ban Red Bull after discovery of cocaine in the energy drink

From a Time Magazine article:

About a year ago, the makers of Red Bull, the famous caffeine-loaded energy drink, decided to come out with a soda, unsurprisingly named Red Bull Cola. The shared name implied the same big kick. But could the cola's boost - supposedly "100% natural" - come from something else? Officials in Germany worry that they've found the answer - cocaine. And now they have prohibited the soda's sale in six states across the country and may recommend a nation-wide ban.

"The [Health Institute in the state of North Rhine Westphalia] examined Red Bull Cola in an elaborate chemical process and found traces of cocaine," Bernhard Kuehnle, head of the food safety department at Germany's federal ministry for consumer protection, told the German press on Sunday. According to this analysis, the 0.13 micrograms of cocaine per can of the drink does not pose a serious health threat - you'd have to drink 12,000 liters of Red Bull Cola for negative affects to be felt - but it was enough to cause concern. Kuehnle's agency is due to give its final verdict on Wednesday when experts publish their report. (See pictures of America's cannabis culture.)

Red Bull has always been upfront about the recipe for its new cola. Its website boasts colorful pictures of coca, cardamom and Kola nuts, along with other key "natural" ingredients. The company insists, however, that coca leaves are used as a flavoring agent only after removing the illegal cocaine alkaloid. "De-cocainized" extract of coca leaf is used worldwide in foods as a natural flavoring," said a Red Bull spokesman in response to the German government's announcement. Though the cocaine alkaloid is one of 10 alkaloids in coca leaves and represents only 0.8% of the chemical make-up of the plant, it's removal is mandated by international anti-narcotics agencies when used outside the Andean region. (Check out this story on how Bolivia is preaching the virtues of coca culture.)

Meanwhile, in Bolivia, halfway around the world and smack in the middle of the Andes, the controversy is causing chuckles. Coca is a fundamental part of Andean culture and for years, Bolivians have tried to get the world to understand that the leaf is not a drug if it's not put through the extensive chemical process that yields cocaine. Left-wing President Evo Morales, a coca-grower himself, has made coca validation a personal quest, chewing leaves in front of world leaders and press cameras during his travels. "Let's say [Red Bull Cola] doesn't take out the cocaine alkaloid. Have any of those millions of people across the world who have drunk that soda ever gotten sick or felt drugged?," asks Dionicio Nunez, a coca-growers' leader from the Yungas region. "We've always known that coca isn't harmful. Now maybe others will realize it too."

In Germany, the Red Bull spokesman insisted that his company's product, along with others containing the coca leaf extract are considered safe in Europe and the U.S. And already, some experts have come to Red Bull's defense. "There is no scientific basis for this ban on Red Bull Cola because the levels of cocaine found are so small," Fritz Soergel, the head of the Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research in the city of Nuremberg. "And it's not even cocaine itself. According to the tests we carried out, it's a non-active degradation product with no effect on the body. If you start examining lots of other drinks and food so carefully, you'd find a lot of surprising things," he says. (Read about the ANTI-Red Bull: a drink that can calm you down.)

Coca leaves, of course, have a long record in modern soda pop history. Most prominently, there was Coca-Cola whose original 19th century formula used unaltered coca leaves. In the early 1900s the company said it would only use "spent," or de-cocainized leaves though the company refuses to confirm whether leaves in any form are still used.

But the problem is when it comes to coca and cocaine, it's not just a health concern, but a legal one. Since 1961, trade of coca outside the Andean region - where people have chewed or brewed coca in tea to stave off hunger and exhaustion for centuries - has been prohibited unless, the cocaine alkaloid is removed. Few companies in the world have authorization to trade in the leaf and most are pharmaceutical companies that perform this de-cocainizing process. The most prominent is New Jersey-based Stepan Chemical Company which has been reported to supply Coca-Cola with its narcotic-free derivative.

But no one knows where Red Bull Cola's coca leaves come from or where they are processed. Red Bull did not respond to immediate requests for comment and Rauch Trading AG, the Austria-based food company that actually manufactures Red Bull Cola was quick to say that they are not allowed to speak about the product.Meanwhile, Bolivia, which has lots of coca leaves to sell, is getting a kick out of the fact Red Bull Cola admits to using coca in any form (since Coca-Cola evades the question). Ironically, the drink is not actually available yet in Bolivia. But, the locals say, this is a great opportunity to show that coca isn't harmful - with or without the cocaine alkaloid.

Thoughts? Hello? Still Here? or are you off to the store to get your Red Bull??

'Girl taught to hate'

Looks like someone skipped out on Parenting 101:

A seven-year-old girl apprehended by Child and Family Services said she believed only white people deserve to live and talked casually of how to kill black people, a court heard yesterday.

"She said 'You would whip black people with a ball and chain and they would die,' " testified a social worker who interviewed the girl after she showed up at school last year with a swastika and racist writings drawn on her body.

Child and Family Services is seeking permanent guardianship of the now eight-year-old girl and her three-year-old stepbrother, while the boy's father is fighting to regain custody of the children. A two-week trial began yesterday.

The mother and the boy's father, who are now separated, cannot be identified under terms of a publication ban.

The children's mother was not present in court yesterday. A lawyer retained on her behalf just last week asked that the case be adjourned. Justice Marianne Rivoalen rejected the request.

The social worker testified the girl told her she and her parents routinely watched "white pride" videos which discussed killing black people. She said the girl said "everyone who is not white should die."

The girl also said her parents featured her and her brother in a poster with the words "Missing: a future for white children" and then plastered it across town.

In an assessment forwarded to CFS, the social worker said the girl was taught to hate everyone who is not white, was "very knowledgeable about (Adolf) Hitler," and considered such racist beliefs as normal.

The social worker said the children's mother called her several days after they were apprehended "yelling about freedom of speech" and protesting that she and her husband were being persecuted for their religious beliefs.

'PROUD TO BE WHITE'

The social worker said the girl's mother told her she didn't wash off the racist writings and symbols "because she wanted to piss off the school" and that she was "proud to be white."

The father's lawyer asked the social worker if the children would have been candidates for apprehension if one of them showed up at school with a "sign of the cross or a Star of David" drawn on their arm.

The social worker said "it had nothing to do with what was drawn on her arm, it was what was disclosed in the interview (with the girl)."

Outside court, the girl's biological father defended her mother as a good person easily manipulated by others.

"If (she) met a priest on Wednesday she'd be a nun by Thursday," the man said. "I know there is good in her ... But she is a lost kid."

The trial continues.

Thoughts?

Twitter proposes TV competition series

Twitter, the Web site that asks what everybody's doing, says it wants to be doing a TV series.

The social-networking service said Monday it has teamed with Reveille productions and Brillstein Entertainment Partners to develop an unscripted series based on the site, which invites 140-character postings from members around the world.

The show would harness Twitter to put players on the trail of celebrities in an interactive, competitive format.

The producers call their proposed series the first to bring the immediacy of Twitter to the TV screen.

"Twitter is transforming the way people communicate, especially celebrities and their fans," said Reveille managing director Howard T. Owens, who expects the new project to "unlock Twitter's potential on TV."

No further details were made available on the show's format or when it might hit the air.

Reveille's scripted entertainment includes "The Office" (NBC), "Ugly Betty" (ABC) and "The Tudors" (Showtime), plus reality programming that includes "The Biggest Loser" and "American Gladiators" (both NBC).

Brillstein Entertainment's credits include "Real Time with Bill Maher" (HBO), "The Sopranos" (HBO), "According to Jim" (ABC) and "NewsRadio" (NBC).

The San Francisco-based Twitter, which was founded in 2007, is one of the Internet's fastest-growing sites. A recent Nielsen report found that unique visitors to Twitter skyrocketed from 475,000 during February 2008 to 7 million a year later.

Yes, You CAN Drink Too Much Water!

You've always been told "Drink plenty of water" especially if you exercise, and You? You love your exercise. In fact, you're unstoppable, no matter what the weather. Hey, you know what to do: Dress to sweat and drink lots of water — before, during and after your workout. No dehydration for you.

Your motto is drink, drink, drink and then drink some more.

But what if we told you all that H20 could be killing you?

Too much water can do just that, according to Albert Siegel, M.D., chief of internal medicine at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass., and assistant professor of clinical medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston.

Water intoxication cases on the rise
Water intoxication (called hyponatremia) — once rare — is occurring more frequently as more recreational walkers, runners, cyclists and orienteering enthusiasts conquer marathons, 24-hour mountain bike races and other long-distance events. At greatest risk are those pounding the pavement for more than four hours and, in the process, drinking so much water and sports drink that they dangerously dilute the sodium concentration in their blood, jeopardizing vital body functions, Siegel says.

"It's a real problem and it's more dangerous than dehydration," he says. "We're seeing [varying degrees] of water intoxication in 10 to 15 percent of marathon participants." Several runners have died from hyponatremia in recent years, said he adds, including a 22-year old fitness trainer and first-time marathoner who died after completing the London Marathon in April.

Signs, symptoms and how to help hyponatremia victims

You may have even witnessed hyponatremia: a runner stumbling along the race course, acting strange, complaining of nausea, headache or muscle cramps. You may have concluded the athlete was dehydrated — a reasonable assumption since the signs and symptoms of the two conditions are similar.

For this reason, stopping to give first aid to an athlete in distress gets tricky.

"If you're out on a long training run and someone on the course shows signs of hyponatremia — confusion, difficulty breathing, nausea, vomiting — you need to get him to a hospital," said Riva Rahl, M.D., director of the Cooper Wellness Program at the Cooper Clinic in Dallas. "There’s nothing you can do [on the scene] for overhydration, but the hospital can treat him with a concentrated saline solution IV," Rahl says.

"You have to prevent hyponatremia," says Ken Phillips, chief of emergency services at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona. "We see hyponatremia quite frequently here. People are exerting themselves in a hot environment and replacing what they sweat off with straight water," while they should be rehydrating fluids containing electrolytes and eating salty foods, Phillips says.

Because water intoxication looks so much like heat exhaustion in its early stages and can mimic heat stroke once seizures begin, emergency medical rangers at the Grand Canyon carry portable equipment to test the blood sodium concentration of fallen hikers before giving aid. Patients determined to be water intoxicated are taken by helicopter to hospitals for intravenous (IV) treatments, he adds.

"Unfortunately, you can't put salt back into someone once they’ve reached an altered level of consciousness or are critical. They need to go to the hospital," Phillips says. "We can fix dehydration; overhydration we can’t fix."

If you haven't been able to prevent it from happening, he says there are a few things you can do while waiting for help to arrive:

- Sit the person up — to ease intracranial pressure.
- Watch for vomit — aspirating vomit can kill.
- Increase sodium levels slowly — if possible give salt, chips, concentrated bullion. (Maybe it will help.)

- Keep the person calm — anxiety may interfere with breathing.
- Watch for seizures — if the person has a seizure, rest him gently on his side and remove hard objects from the immediate area. Don't put anything in his mouth.

To drink or not to drink?

The take-home message: Drink when you are thirsty and stay ahead of the sodium curve. During an endurance event, eat something salty like chips or pretzels as you drink, or bring along salt tablets to swallow with your regular water. Sports drinks alone won’t replenish your sodium if you have been exercising for many hours in hot conditions.

The USA Track & Field organization, which governs track-and-field events, now advises athletes to use thirst as a guide for fluid replacement. The International Marathon Medical Directors Association now advises drinking no more than about 12 to 25 ounces of fluid an hour during long-distance events.

Dunking Phenom "Jus Fly" Darlington Launches His High Jumping Career

You might remember a recent article here on Double Double Thoughts about Justin “Jus Fly” Darlington.

He’s a 20-year-old slam dunking phenom from Ajax, Ontario whom veteran track coach Daniel St-Hilaire is hoping to transform into a high jumping champion.

Well, he’s off to a good start.

In his first outdoor meet this past weekend in St-Laurent, Que., Darlington surprised St-Hilaire by jumping 2.10 metres to qualify for the national championships next month at Varsity Stadium in Toronto. He currently ranks fourth in Canada this season.

“I’m pretty excited,” said St-Hilaire. “He’s ahead of my expectations.”

St-Hilaire had projected that Darlington could jump between 2.10 and 2.20 metres in his first season in the event.

Watch "Jus Fly" Darlington’s winning jump below:

"How to Kill Classmate" Video Posted to YouTube by 11-, 12-Year Olds

What kind of sociopaths are being raised today? A group of 11- and 12-year old girls posted a video to YouTube (since removed) titled "Top Six Ways to Kill Piper."

They include such time-honored ways as shooting her, making her commit suicide, and pushing her off a cliff. Beth Smith, mother of Piper, told KING5-TV the cartoon was set to a Hannah Montana song called "True Friend" and posted on on the popular video sharing website, YouTube.

Now, some could call this just a joke, but really, it goes to show just how far kids will go in their cruelty to those they don't like in school. With the Internet, the teasing that would once be localized to a school can now go global.

Piper attends Elk Plain School of Choice in Spanaway, WA, as do the girls who made the video.

Worse, while some of the parents were shocked, others dismissed it. Smith said one man blew it off and "said he was making dinner."

The School District says it can't say how the girls were disciplined. But district spokeswoman Krista Carlson told the local TV station that the students involved "have expressed their remorse about this incident."

Here is the video below:


Thoughts??

Man punches blind woman on the bus

It's been a year since a blind woman was attacked on city bus in Seattle, Washington, and now the good samaritans that came to her rescued were honored for their actions.

It happened may of last year, just before 11 in the morning. It was an average day on metro bus number 3684 on route 18 that all changed near the corner of 15th Avenue West and West Armor Street when a man got on the bus.



He looks like a normal guy, until he paid his fare. Then, out of nowhere, he punches the victim Jeannie Square in the face.

Witness said the man shouted "The sick must die" and let punches fly at a defenseless woman.

"His initial attack was just, I mean she didn't know what hit her and she was just, she got hit pretty good." Charles Capizano was sitting in the rear of the bus. He saw what happened and wasted no time to get to the front of the bus and stop the attack.

"This guy was attacking everyone in his sight. Threatening everyone in his sight saying "The sick must die. God told me the sick must die."

Capizano eventually had to gabbed the man and hold him back. "This guy is telling me to get off of him, get off of him and I'm holding him. I got a leg wrapped underneath him and the other guy next to me is helping hold him and I believe that's when we're praying for him and we're just waiting and holding. I'm not letting go for nothing that guy was strong."

"He hit her with a full force fist to the side of her head that snapped her sunglasses. Flew off her head." Denise Gubernick was also on the bus and is counted among the heroes.

While the men restrained the bad guy, Denise hugged, covered and protected. "I'm a mother and my instinct is to protect and I just jumped forward to hold her."

There were six heroes in all that day. Sheriff Sue Rahr awarded them all for meritorious service to the community. "He walks on the bus and walks up to Jeannie and just punches her in the face. And as I watched this I said 'Oh my God!' That was my reaction. It was so startling what this guy did."

Jeannie said this to her heroes, "It really restores my faith in humanity that these people did in fact join together and protect me. And I want to thank you all for what you did. God bless you."

"From what I understand the guy had a mental past and to have somebody out there that has that kind of ability and slip through the cracks is a sad thing."

The suspect was never charged, due to his apparent diminished mental capacity. Instead, he was sent to Western State Hospital where he still remains.

Thoughts??

Twitter gone to the cats

500,000 follow cat on Twitter comic

He's one of the most popular users on Twitter. More than 500,000 follow his growing celebrity, his every adventure and, well, his cat naps.

Meet Sockington. Twitter's latest star is a microblogging cat who regales more than half a million with his musings on meal time, personal hygiene and the view from the top of the stairs.

Sockington, or "Socks" for short, is the cat of Jason Scott, a 38-year-old computer historian and computer administrator from Waltham, Mass. Since late 2007, Scott has been tweeting from Sockington's perspective — and finding a "Socks Army" of followers. (Many of his followers are pets, too.)

Dogs and cats in social media isn't anything new. Many have made Facebook pages (there are applications for both "Dogbook" and "Catbook") and Web sites for their pets.

The difference on Twitter is that the running thread of Sockington's feline commentary takes on the dimension of a comic strip. Scott has created a character with a particular voice by tweeting messages from Sockington's point of view like: "I must say no comment to the whole dining room incident. No questions please."

"He's kind of functioning like a 'Garfield' comic," Scott says. "He's like the 21st-century Garfield."

There's the risk that a tweeting cat will only further the impression that Twitter is a flash-in-the-pan success in a sea of online time-wasters. But in a way, Sockington is a parody of Twitter, where even a kitty cat's life — his daily trips to the litter box, his insignificant household travails — is beamed out to the world.

"Everybody wants this social media bubble. They want something where we're all chattering so much that we all get rich," Scott says. "And this cat makes everybody look like fools because he's got hundreds of thousands of followers. And he doesn't tend to follow anyone but other animals."

Scott's Sockington feed has benefited from being one of the accounts recommended to new Twitter users when they sign up. But the growth of the Socks Army has been gradual over the last year and a half.

Now, it's starting to potentially generate revenue. T-shirts are for sale with Sockington wisdom printed on them and Scott acknowledges he may one day accept larger, impossible-to-refuse offers to offset his credit-card debt.

"I'm happy that at the heart of it all is a funny little cat, and that's why all the attention is happening," Scott says. "There are much worse reasons to get this kind of national attention."

If you'd like to become a follower, Sockington's Twitter link is located here

Hollywood eyes $70 zombie movie wowing Cannes

A budding British director is enjoying success on a shoestring at Cannes with "Colin," a new zombie feature that cost a scarcely believable $70 to make.

Japanese distributors are currently in negotiations for the rights to the film and buzz around the no-budget zombie chiller has attracted interest from some major American distributors -- all of which is a very nice surprise for the team behind "Colin."

"We were almost fainting at the list of people who were coming [to the final market screening of the film]," said Helen Grace of Left Films who is helping the film's director Marc Price publicize the film in Cannes. "Representatives from major American distributors -- some of the Hollywood studios."

"When we say it's a low budget film, people presume a couple of hundred thousand [dollars]. People can't figure out how it's possible. What Marc's achieved has left people astonished."

It was by advertising for volunteer zombies on social networking site Facebook, borrowing make-up from Hollywood blockbusters and teaching himself how to produce special effects that thrifty director Price was able to make the film for less than the price of a zombie DVD box set.

"The approach was to say to people, 'OK guys, we don't have any money, so bring your own equipment,'" the the 30 year-old director said.

With help from a makeshift band of friends and volunteers, Price shot and edited the feature -- which ingeniously spins the zombie genre on it's head by telling the story entirely from the zombie's perspective -- over a period of 18 months while working nights part-time as a booker for a taxi company.

Online social networking was an invaluable tool in both generating buzz and cheaply sourcing the undead: "We went on Facebook and MySpace and said 'Who wants to be a zombie?'" Price said. "We managed to get 50 brilliantly made up zombies and stuff them into a living room."

In keeping with Price's beg and borrow approach, most of the zombie make-up in the make-up artists' cases was inherited from other movies. "One of our make-up people came off 'X-Men 3,' so we were having the same latex that was put on Wolverine," he said.

Price says he came up with the idea to make a no-budget film because he realized that he and his friends would never be able to scrape together enough money to make even a low-budget film.

"A couple of friends were round a few years ago watching Romero's 'Dawn of the Dead,' recalls Price. "And we were lamenting the fact that we could never make a zombie film -- we wouldn't be able to acquire a budget."

"Then I just woke up before everyone else -- I was probably a bit hungover -- and I wondered if a zombie movie from a zombie's perspective had been done before."

The end result is "Colin," a zombie film "with a heart," Price says, shot using production values cribbed from endless re-watching of making-of featurettes and director's commentaries from his personal DVD collection.

Zombie fan Web site zombiefriends.com called it "as original, compelling and thought provoking as [George] Romero's 'Night of the Living Dead,'" while horror magazine SCARS predicted it would "revolutionize zombie cinema."

Price hopes that the film will generate enough interest to kick-start his career and allow him to make another film. "Hopefully we'll be able to generate some interest and maybe try to get some kind of a budget for our next film -- maybe a bigger budget, £100, I don't know."

Price's cost-effective filmmaking may make him the envy of film executives sweating over whether their latest projects will break even, but even "Colin" may suffer at the market: "In a strange way it's kind of counter-productive." admits Price.

"Anyone involved in sales will say, 'Oh, it cost [$70], well how much do you expect us to pay for that?' but with the current economic climate it seems to be a great way to make movies."
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So, what exactly did Price spend the famous $70 on?

"We bought a crowbar and a couple of tapes, and I think we got some tea and coffee as well -- not the expensive stuff either, the very basic kind," Price said "Just to keep the zombies happy."

YouTube battling 'Porn Day' campaign

YouTube was busy deleting porn videos on Wednesday after users of forums at a rival site and an imageboard site declared a "Porn Day" campaign against the popular video service.

The forums at video site eBaum's World and 4chan organized the mass porn "carpet bombing" on YouTube, according to Ars Technica.

YouTube has been removing the videos as fast as it can, but even videos that are removed are still showing up in search results with explicit images in the thumbnails, the report said.

"It could take a couple of days for all the explicit results to be removed from the search results," Google spokesman Scott Rubin told Ars Technica.

In a phone interview with CNET News late on Wednesday, Rubin said that in addition to the porn videos were removed as soon as community members alert YouTube to them, certain channels where the posters were bragging about the campaign and listing the videos were being disabled.

"This group of pranksters thought it would be funny to load a bunch of porn to YouTube," he said. "This is an unfortunate, and I think poorly directed, prank. I think our systems are doing really well at removing content that violates the guidelines."

Clickjacking: Hijacking clicks on the Internet

What if you reached to grab a newspaper out of a news stand and you found a rock in your hand instead? How about opening the front door to a grocery store and ending up on a boat?

This sounds like a Matrix movie, but the virtual equivalent of this is real and poses one of the most serious new risks on the Internet, according to Jeremiah Grossman, chief technology officer and co-founder of Whitehat Security.

"Most exploits (like worms and attacks that take advantage of holes in software) can be patched, but clickjacking is a design flaw in the way the Web is supposed to work," Grossman said. "The bad guy is superimposing an invisible button over something the user wants to click on...It can be any button on any Web page on any Web site."

The technique was used in a series of prank attacks launched on Twitter in February. In that case, users clicked on links next to tweets that said "Don't Click" and then clicked on a button that said "Don't Click" on a separate Web page. That second click distributed the original tweet to all of the Twitter user's followers, thus propagating itself rather quickly.

At the time, Grossman called it a "harmless experiment," but the potential for harm by an attacker who isn't just having fun is huge.

In a demo at CNET offices, Grossman showed how someone could launch a clickjacking attack using Flash to spy on someone by getting them to turn on their computer Web cam without knowing it. (Grossman also appeared on CNET Live to talk about clickjacking.)

Like the name suggests, clickjacking is the hijacking of your click, unbeknownst to you. A victim may not even know that the click has been redirected, which means there could be clickjacking attacks going on that no one knows about yet.

Clickjacking attacks are accomplished by creating something called an iFrame that allows a browser window to be split into segments so that different items can be shown on each. This code is inserted into the target Web page and is invisible to the end user. When the end user's cursor clicks on the section of the page where the malicious iFrame is hiding, the attack is launched to do whatever the attacker desires.

An attacker could hide an iFrame under any innocent link on any Web page--a headline on The New York Times or a "digg this" button on Digg, for instance--and when the victim clicks on the link, the cursor is actually clicking on the hidden iFrame.

In the Web cam demo, the iFrame created contains a Flash pop-up window that asks the user to grant permission to have the Web cam turned on. When the victim clicks the link, the Web cam is turned on and secretly begins recording everything the user does in front of the computer.

One of the scariest things about clickjacking is the potential for abuse. An attacker could spy on you by turning on your Web cam or microphone, direct you to a Web page with malicious content that is downloaded onto your computer, or even rig it up so you end up clicking "buy" instead of "cancel" on an e-commerce site.

Another thing that makes clickjacking so serious is that there really is very little that end users can do to protect themselves, Grossman said.

In the Web cam scenario, the best defense is probably to put a post-it note or other item over the Web cam lens and to disable the microphone in the software, he said. Flash Player 10 provides some protection by preventing anything from obscuring the security permissions dialogue box, he said.

Web site owners optimizing their sites for Internet Explorer 8 have the ability to prevent pages from being framed in, which means visitors to their site will be safe, only on that site and only if they are using IE8, Grossman said.

People using Windows and IE should disable JavaScript to help protect against clickjacking, he said. Firefox is safer; the NoScript add-on for Firefox not only lets people selectively block scripts, but it has a ClearClick feature designed specifically to protect against clickjacking, he added.

People should also log out of Web sites, like Facebook and Twitter, when they are done using them for the time being. "You can't be forced to do something on the site if you are not logged in," Grossman said.

More details are in a white paper on the technique, written by Grossman and Robert Hansen of SecTheory and published in September 2008. Grossman and Hansen coined the term in that document.

The authors canceled their talk on the subject at the OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project) conference that month at Adobe's request because their proof of concept revealed a bug in Adobe's software, according to IDG News Service.

Teacher aide suspended for cutting boy's hair

Another article from my morning Toronto Star:

A Lakehead Public School (Thunder Bay, Ontario) Board employee has been suspended and a mother is seeking legal counsel after her seven-year-old son's hair was cut while he was at school.

The mother reported the incident to police shortly after it happened, Thunder Bay police spokesman Chris Adams said Thursday.

The boy complained to his mother that a teaching assistant had cut his hair on April 16.

Police interviewed the boy, his mother, the school principal and the teaching assistant, and then consulted with the Crown's office about the possibility of laying an assault charge, Adams said.

The mother of the boy, who is aboriginal, called the teaching assistant's actions "culturally disrespectful," according to information that outlines the incident.

David MacKenzie, an assistant Crown attorney, said the decision to not lay an assault charge was made with strict accordance to Crown policy.

That policy outlines the need for both a reasonable prospect of conviction and a public interest before a charge is laid.

The boy was in a computer lab reading when a teaching assistant observed the student having difficulty seeing due to the length of his bangs.

The teaching assistant took the boy into the hall and trimmed a small amount off his bangs with scissors.

When the boy went home after school, his mother noticed he was upset and then realized his hair had been cut.

The school employee admitted she had cut the student's bangs, and she was suspended from her job.

There was no evidence the teaching assistant cut the boy's hair for any reason other than helping him to see better.

"We view this as a very unfortunate incident," said Bruce Nugent, a school board spokesman.

The mother has hired Toronto lawyer Julian Falconer, who specializes in human rights and has handled northwestern Ontario cases before.

Falconer was unavailable for comment Thursday.

Thoughts?

Tori's mother lashes out

I was reading my morning Toronto Star and I came across this article I wanted to share

Tara McDonald complains about police who accused her of the crime and says she wants daughter's 'killers dead'

As officers searched for the body of Tori Stafford with the help of her accused abductor, Tori's mother lashed out at police and the people charged in the homicide.

In Woodstock, Tara McDonald said police targeted her and her boyfriend for 42 days.

"The three times I was interviewed by police, they said, 'We know it's you,'" McDonald told the London Free Press yesterday.

She said she could barely bring herself to think about the final hours of her "beautiful little princess."

"To think someone took my daughter and then ... I can't even think about it," she said.

"My daughter's not coming home. I want the killers dead."

Meanwhile, in a barren field south of Fergus, Terri-Lynne McClintic, 18, of Woodstock, huddled on the floor behind a back seat to hide from photographers' cameras. The accused woman was there hoping to lead police to the 8-year-old's remains.

"My understanding is that she is fully cooperating and did so (Wednesday) and (yesterday) with a view toward bringing Tori home as soon as possible," said McClintic's lawyer, Jeanine Leroy.

McDonald said that when police met her Tuesday night to tell her of the arrests, she thought they had good news about Tori. "All I kept thinking, all along, was that she's somewhere; she's fine; someone is taking care of her. They just wanted a beautiful little girl for themselves and they took my beautiful girl."

She has refused to make funeral arrangements until she sees Tori's body.

McDonald said she'd hold police accountable for how they treated her, her son, Daryn, 11, her boyfriend, James Goris, and friends.

"One officer came into my house and said, `You are my prime suspect.' He said, `I have been doing this job as long as you have been alive and I have never seen a mother behave like you.'"

Daryn was questioned without a family member present and subjected to horrible suggestions, McDonald said. "He cried all night when he come home," she said.

Told of McDonald's complaints about police behaviour, Ontario Provincial Police Det. Insp. Bill Renton – heading the investigation – said he could not comment.

Police yesterday searched the same spot officers in the company of a cadaver-sniffing dog went over on Wednesday. This time, they concentrated on the second of two collapsed buildings, now little more than a pile of rubble.

Police idled beside the pile underneath the low-hanging boughs of a tree. After about 15 minutes, the police and McClintic left the scene.

Leroy said her client has not been offered any concessions by authorities for her cooperation.

"I can tell you that's not in her mind right now," said Leroy. "And there have been no conversations between myself and the Crown. It's way too early in the process."

It's not clear if McClintic will be personally involved in the search today. The judge's order that allowed her to accompany OPP officers expired at 10 last night.

After McClintic and her escorts left, a forensics truck arrived at the site. In the early evening, one investigator could be seen gingerly digging at the pile. Another took pictures. But there was no urgency to their work, now two days old and still fruitless.

Alex Gilchrist, a local farmer who lives a few doors away, owns the field.

He and his family were aghast that their property might have become a killer's dumping ground.

"We hope they find that little girl," said Gilchrist.

"Just not here," added his wife.

That captured the attitude throughout Fergus, a picturesque town about 20 kilometres north of Guelph.

"Say if she's here – and I hope she's not – people will say this is the town where they found that poor little girl," said resident Rany O'Halloran.

"It'll just devastate this town," said Denise Seabrook.

Throughout the day, many residents sidled up to the media gathered outside the downtown OPP detachment, anxious for news. Police have said little about the search. That's forced locals to rely on gossip about the accused killers and their relationship with the area.

For now, the ground search has taken centre stage, directly in the middle of the Gilchrist field.

Police also tagged and later removed a dumpster at the side of the road about a kilometre east of the field.

However, if McClintic is wrong or unable to provide the precise location, the focus will once again return to the aerial search. The OPP helicopter was still out yesterday. McClintic was on board for a while.

From the day Tori went missing, volunteers lined up to join the search, plastering storefronts, street lamps and car windshields with flyers describing the petite young girl with golden hair and big blue eyes.

McDonald began holding daily news conferences to keep the story in the media spotlight and, on a number of occasions, vigorously denied rumours swirling in the community, including one that her daughter was kidnapped over a drug debt.

At one point McDonald was confronted with the allegation that she looked like the woman in a composite sketch released by police – a suggestion she called laughable.

Police remained tight-lipped about the investigation, but McDonald's daily briefings revealed a number of strange twists in the case. McDonald accepted a ride in a limousine to meet a mysterious benefactor in a Toronto hotel who offered to pay any ransom demand. The family also sought the help of a psychic.

Family members also spoke openly about having taken lie-detector tests.

The media spotlight also put McDonald's personal struggles on display, including her addiction to the narcotic OxyContin, which she said she's receiving treatment for.

McDonald also denied reports that she and Goris bought the OxyContin painkillers from McClintic's mother, Carol.

She said she met McClintic's mother at most three times and McClintic was in the apartment once, but she didn't talk to her.

Thoughts?

30 arrested for using fake Metropasses

An enforcement blitz in Scarborough has resulted in 30 transit riders being caught with fake TTC Metropasses.

The riders with phony passes face almost 100 charges, including fraud.

The problem of bogus tokens and passes continues to be a major problem for the TTC. The commission says it loses millions of dollars every year from these types of counterfeit schemes.

Toronto police Const. Laura Middleton said officers found the bogus passes by doing random checks.

"We had special constables and Toronto police officers riding the buses and set up at the Scarborough Town Centre. And we checked every pass that came on the bus or came through the Scarborough Town Centre," she said Thursday.

TTC special constable Mark Russell said the illegal passes were almost identical to the real ones.

"They would photocopy a colour copy of an authentic pass just on regular paper and they would use the glue sticks to adhere them to plastic card stocks," he said.

Half of the people arrested during last week's operation were younger than 20. Most are minors and cannot be identified.

The TTC says it seizes about 500 bogus passes every month.

The TTC eliminated paper tickets last fall, in part to cut down on counterfeit ones.

Metal tokens were replaced three years ago with new ones harder to duplicate but fake ones are turning up in cash boxes.

The TTC says it will take new measures to cut down on counterfeiting. Details are expected in the next few weeks.

Couple missing after bank makes $10M mistake

A Rotorua, New Zealand couple who fled the country after receiving millions of dollars in a banking error told a friend they were going on a holiday before disappearing.

Rotorua police and Interpol began an investigation yesterday into the disappearance of the money, thought to be $6 million.

It is believed they had applied to Westpac Bank for a $100,000 loan but an error by an employee mistakenly deposited $10M into their account.

Detective Senior Sergeant David Harvey of Rotorua CIB said police and Westpac were investigating the "inappropriate operation" of a Rotorua business account where money had been withdrawn.

Mr Harvey said the account holders had gone overseas and Interpol was working to find them.

He would not confirm how much money was missing but said some believed to be about $4m had been recovered.

The money's disappearance is believed to be connected to a Rotorua BP service station, part-owned by one of the missing couple, which went into receivership on May 8.

The unnamed couple, believed to be Korean Leo Gao and his Kiwi girlfriend Kara Young have not been seen since.

The service station traded as Barnett's BP and was registered in the Companies Register under Heights Services Ltd. The company directors are named as Hui Gao and Huan Di Zhang.

Leo Gao lived in a house close to the service station, with other family members. The unoccupied, furnished house has been for sale for $220,000 since October.

Helaine Aim, owner of neighbouring business St Andrews Bakery, said she was friends with the couple, who she referred to as Leo and Kara, and saw them daily.

She said she last saw them two weeks ago.

"I would go and have coffee with them at their house. They told me they were planning a holiday. I did not see them for a couple of days. I thought it was a little strange but didn't think much about it because I thought they were busy preparing for the holiday."

Mrs Aim said the couple told her they had applied for a loan to refurbish the service station which they were then going to sell.

Westpac's Craig Dowling could not say how the error occurred as the matter was under police investigation and subject to court action.

He declined to say if staff had been censured over the incident.

"I can say we've also been doing our own internal investigation and one of the outcomes ... has been to increase the checks and balances so it doesn't happen again."

The bank said a "substantial amount" of the money had been recovered, and it was "aggressively pursuing all avenues" to recover the rest.

Westpac had hired a private investigator, Mike Dingwall, to conduct inquiries, the New Zealand Herald said.

Mr Dingwall reportedly told staff of a nearby business he had proof Mr Gao had left the country and that records showed Ms Young had used his credit card in Auckland on May 6.

Chevi Lambert, manager of Andy's Cellar, said she understood Ms Young had not fled New Zealand and was with her mother in Blenheim, however police confirmed she had left the country and was still wanted by authorities.

Ms Young's mother, Suzanne Hurring, owns Michel Hair Dzine in the Queen Market Mall in Blenheim.

Old Nokia 1100s prized by criminal underground

Got an old Nokia 1100 sitting around? You may be sitting on a fortune... albeit with a catch.

Certain circles are said to be paying upwards of $32,000 for the handsets, at least those made in Nokia's Bochum factory in Germany.

Why? According to reports, the criminal underground has found a way to hack into the phones' firmware to allow for illegal bank transfers by reprogramming the phone number on the handset.

Changing the phone number would give hackers the ability to send and receive text messages via the handset, which would in turn open the door for completing basic bank transactions, particularly in Europe.

The details of the hack involve the transmittal of something called a mobile Transaction Authentication Number (mTAN), popular in many overseas countries, which are one-time codes that are sent to customers via text message and are used to complete financial transactions online. Having the mTAN gives hackers the final piece in the puzzle they need (assuming a user ID and password have already been obtained) to drain a bank account under your very nose.

Sounds like the usual criminal shenanigans, but there's a catch... according to an interview with PC World, Nokia says it has no idea why criminals want the 1100 model phones and insists that the software on the phone is not vulnerable to attack -- at least not in any way the company has been able to identify to date.

Meanwhile, Nokia continues to look into the matter, and third-party technology and security outfits are also currently baffled as to how the alleged hack is done -- but many are now also collecting Nokia 1100s for themselves to work on.

Woman finds long lost brother....Living across the street

For years, Candace Eloph had searched for her half-brother, who was given up for adoption in 1977.

She found him -- living across the street.

"I never thought it would happen like this. Never. Ever," Eloph of Shreveport, Louisiana, told KTBS.

Three decades ago, Eloph's mother gave birth to a boy at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. She was 16 and gave him up for adoption.

"They took him from me," said Eloph's mother, Joellen Cottrell. "I only got to hold him for a split second."

Cottrell searched for her son over the years, without success.

She eventually left Louisiana and had other children. But she did not keep her son a secret.

"My girls always knew they had a brother," she told KTBS. "I always told them. They knew it from the very beginning. And I've always looked for him."

Fast forward three decades.....

Eloph moved into a house in Shreveport. Across the street lived a 32-year-old man named Jamie Wheat.

"We were sitting one day, talking, and she said, 'You know what? I had a brother born January 27, 1977, that was adopted,'" Wheat said. "I was like, I'm adopted."

Surprised, Eloph mentioned that her mother was 16 at the time. His mother was 16, too, Wheat replied.

All the details fit, and Cottrell and Wheat decided to take a DNA test.

The results: There's a 99.995 percent probability that the two are related.

Wheat's adoptive parents are excited about this new stage in their son's life.

"It just almost knocked me out for the joy," Wheat's adoptive mother, Ann, told KTBS.

Added his adoptive father, Ted Wheat: "It was just surprising that they lived across the street from us for two-and-a-half years. When they told us, we said, 'This is the greatest news it could be.'"
Reunited with his birth mother, Jamie Wheat plans to make up for lost time.

"I feel like a weight has been lifted off of me," he said. "I can move forward. Like a new beginning."