Welcome to Sott.net
Sun, 10 Dec 2023
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

Bizarro Earth

The Most Bizarre Thing About The $72 Million Organization Promoting The End Of The World

Gus Lubin
Business Insider
Fri, 20 May 2011 10:34 UTC
Harold Camping
© wikimedia commons
Harold Camping
All of the talk about the world ending on May 21 comes from one organization run by one man: Harold Camping's Family Radio.

At first glance it would seem that 89-year-old Camping is running the biggest scam the world has ever seen -- racking up donations from terrified believers around the world right up until 6 PM on May 21 when... the world doesn't end... and Camping and all of those donations vanish into thin air.

But here's the surprising thing.

Most of Family Radio's revenue -- generated almost entirely by donations -- is put back into advertising and broadcasting costs.

Although Family Radio is valued at $72 million in its latest financial statements the company claims to have around $1.5 million in cash, according to an profile by CNN. It pays $56 million just in FCC broadcasting licenses.
      Read More...
Heart - Black

US: Psycho Mom Runs over teenage daughter


MSNBC
Fri, 20 May 2011 21:21 UTC
A mother has been charged with running over her daughter on purpose. The incident recently happened in a Wal-Mart parking lot, near Sandusky Ohio.


Comment: "The mother claimed she was swerving toward her daughter in an attempt to get close enough to strike the teen in her head with her hand."

Isn't either action significantly pathological? There are studies that have been conducted that show wanting to strike a person in the head is often due to the strikers desire to stop the victim from thinking a certain way; control. The idea being that the attacker wants to destroy (remove the head, kill) the mind of the person who is, in many cases, telling them the truth about themselves.

      Read More...
Palette

US: Mysterious 'Surfing Madonna' Mosaic To Be Removed By Los Angeles Art Conservation Group

Lisa Brenner
LAist
Thu, 19 May 2011 03:30 UTC
Image
© Attorneycredits via Twitpic
Some consider it graffiti, others consider it art, but Encinitas city leaders have considered it gone after unanimously voting to remove a mysteriously appearing, religious themed, stained-glass mosaic that popped up on Encinitas Boulevard between Highway 101 and Vulcan Avenue over Easter weekend, reports NBC San Diego.
After its meeting last night, the Encinitas City Council unanimously voted to spend up to $2,000 for a Los Angeles-based art conservation firm to test various removal techniques, according to our media partners the North County Times. Even it if can't be removed safely, there are too many legal issues to be able to keep it up Encinitas Mayor James Bond said Thursday.
Being called a "Surfing Madonna", the artwork, which depicts Our Lady of Guadalupe on a surfboard, has drawn onlookers and complaints. The piece was set to last -- eight panels are reportedly attached with high strength epoxy glue giving the artwork an estimated life expectancy of 10 years, notes NBC San Diego.

Local businesses from 7-11 to the historic Captain Keno's on North Coast Highway have shown interest in displaying the artwork once it is removed.
      Read More...
Wolf

Turkey: You are Bizarre - 'According to Our Beliefs'

Burak Bekdil
Hurriyet Daily News
Thu, 19 May 2011 00:00 UTC
Just when you start to think that "at least the trains run on time" in Turkey, they seem to derail one after another. Just like a piece of news that may please you - but only for an instant. Just like the feeling of sad humor that comes a second after the feeling of silent approval while and after reading the story of a heavy fine that hit a private television channel for "pairing a 15-year-old girl with a 45 year-old man in a matchmaking show."

Citing a pretext for the fine, the presumably independent but practically Justice and Development Party-controlled radio and television watchdog said that the show had broadcast an example of child abuse by fixing a marriage between an underage girl and an adult. The watchdog also noted that the show had violated the regulation that states "broadcasts must not be against society's national and spiritual values and the Turkish family structure."

After the show, we learned from the news, the watchdog was bombarded with a flurry of complaints from viewers while the girl's father issued a complaint to the prosecutor's office.

So far, so good.

But when you superimpose this nice little episode - which could have happened in any "sane" country - onto another Turkish "background," a fresh "those crazy Turks" picture will emerge: Do the heavy fine and its legal justification mean that our president had once violated society's national and spiritual values and the Turkish family structure when he married our first lady at the age of 15 (now, beat that if you can, Harry!)? Do they mean that our president once committed child abuse? I guess not - just to be on the safer side of a potential future prosecution. But questions inevitably linger in the air.
      Read More...
Attention

Australia: Woman Tells of Flood Death Nightmare

Gabrielle Dunlevy
The Sydney Morning Herald
Fri, 20 May 2011 00:00 UTC
Image

Bremer River - Ipswich
A woman whose brother drowned in January's southeast Queensland's floods has told an inquiry her family is tormented by the circumstances of his death.

Colleen Engel's brother Robert Bromage, 50, died at Karrabin, near Ipswich, on January 11, after his car was washed from a flooded road.

Ms Engel has told the Queensland Floods Commission of Inquiry that she looks forward to a police investigation into his death providing some answers.

In a victim impact statement read to the inquiry in Ipswich, west of Brisbane, on Friday, Ms Engel said she couldn't imagine her brother driving in floodwaters.
      Read More...
People

US: 16-Year-Old Girl Who Challenged Bachmann To Debate Receiving Threats Of Violence, Rape


ThinkProgress
Fri, 20 May 2011 19:35 UTC
Last week, ThinkProgress reported on high school sophomore Amy Myers, who challenged history-challenged Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) to a public debate on the basic facts of the U.S. Constitution. "Rep. Bachmann, the frequent inability you have shown to accurately and factually present even the most basic information about the United States led me" to the challenge, she wrote in an open letter to the tea party doyenne. Unfortunately, it seems some Bachmann fans haven't taken Myers' challenge kindly and are now threatening the teenage girl with violence:
After it started getting media attention last weekend, commenters on tea party websites have threatened to publish her home address and some have threatened violence.

The 16-year-old from Cherry Hill says several commenters have called her a "whore."

Her father, Wayne, says he's concerned for his daughter's safety.
      Read More...
Camera

US: Schwarzenegger's mistress photos surface, and media storm begins


Boston Globe
Thu, 19 May 2011 00:00 UTC
Image
© Reuters
Scrutiny of Mildred Patricia Baena began as soon as her MySpace photos, including this one, hit the Internet.
The revelation that Arnold Schwarzenegger has an out-of-wedlock child with a former employee turned into a tabloid frenzy yesterday, as scores of reporters and photographers swarmed a quiet suburban cul-de-sac in the middle of California farm country amid unconfirmed reports it was the home of the child's mother.

The woman, identified by The New York Times as Mildred Patricia Baena, was not at the Bakersfield house when the mob arrived. News trucks idled outside the home of Baena, who the world now knows to be the mother of the boy Schwarzenegger has admitted to fathering while she was his family's housekeeper.

The harsh scrutiny of Baena started as soon as her MySpace photos flooded the Internet.

Jackie Rozo, who identified herself as an adult daughter of Baena, said her mother had worked for Schwarzenegger until recently. She would not elaborate.

Schwarzenegger's office declined to discuss whether Baena is the mother of the former governor's child.

A photo of the boy posted on Baena's MySpace page shows a fairly strong resemblance to Schwarzenegger, particularly when the actor-bodybuilder-politician was younger.
      Read More...
Camcorder

US: Police investigate discovery of hidden camera in women's bathroom in western Pennsylvania arts theater


The Republic
Fri, 20 May 2011 05:31 UTC
Image
© unknown
Authorities in Altoona are investigating the discovery of a hidden camera in the women's bathroom at a western Pennsylvania arts theater.

State police said Thursday that the camera was found April 9 at the Mishler Theatre, attached to a sprinkler head in the basement women's restroom. The Altoona Mirror reports that the camera was removed after a dancer saw it.

The Mishler Theater is owned by the Blair County Arts Foundation.

Joseph Stevens III, who is president of the foundation's board, says he can't comment on the surrounding the discovery of the camera.

Source: The Associated Press
      Read More...
Pills

US: Florida Student Accused of Drugging Teacher's Drink


Fox News
Fri, 20 May 2011 00:00 UTC
A 13-year-old central Florida middle school student has been charged after allegedly sneaking a sleeping pill into his teacher's drink.

Osceola County Sheriff's deputies said the Discovery Intermediate School student confessed to putting Clonidine, a prescription blood pressure medication, into his teacher's drink because she yelled at him in class.

The Associated Press is not naming the student because he is a minor.

Authorities said the teacher told other teachers she felt nauseous, dizzy and drowsy and went home sick on May 16.

The student was charged with poison of food with the intent to injure. He was booked into Osceola County Juvenile Detention Center without bond.

Source: The Associated Press
      Read More...
Black Cat

10 Bizarre Deaths that Shook Sport

Chris Rattue
The New Zealand Herald
Fri, 20 May 2011 05:30 UTC
1 Michael Hogan (in 1920, at Croke Park in Dublin, aged 24)

The most politically influential death in sport. The Gaelic footballer was murdered on Bloody Sunday when British forces and police stormed Croke Park in Dublin. Shots were fired into the crowd of 5000 killing 14 people including Hogan, the one player to die.

The ground, now an impressive 80,000-seat stadium, became a shrine for Irish nationalists. The Hogan Stand, first built in 1924, is named for the fallen Tipperary footballer who had been in the Irish Volunteers, a forerunner to the IRA.

2 Andres Escobar (in 1994, outside a Medillin nightclub, aged 27)

The defender was probably murdered as an underworld reprisal for conceding the own goal against hosts America which eliminated the powerful Colombian team from soccer's 1994 World Cup. The killer, who fired 12 shots, was linked to Colombian crooks and gamblers. Escobar's funeral was attended by 120,000 people, a grief-stricken response to one of sports' saddest and sickest moments.
      Read More...
Revolt! T-shirts