Welcome to Sott.net
Thu, 04 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

X

Man survives being hit 'straight on' by Amtrak train travelling at 110mph

Rob Williams
The Independent, UK
Mon, 19 Aug 2013 15:37 UTC
Darryl See was hit by a Chicago-bound train as he walked along the tracks east of Michigan City

Image

A Michigan man has been released from intensive care after remarkably surviving being struck by an Amtrak train going at 110 miles per hour.

Darryl See, 22, was hit by a Chicago-bound train as he walked along the tracks east of Michigan City on Friday.

According to reports the train sounded its horn a number of times but Mr See, who was listening to music at the time, failed to hear it.

He underwent surgery at Memorial Hospital in South Bend to put a plate in his neck and had several crushed vertebrae.

John Boyd of LaPorte County Police, told the Northwest Indiana Times that: "The conductor said it was a straight-on hit."
      Read More...
Arrow Down

Eight feared drowned off Indonesian coast after killer whale harpooned by them drags their boat under the water

Richard Shears
The Daily Mail, UK
Mon, 19 Aug 2013 14:52 UTC
  • Four of 12 hunters swam to shore, but their companions went down
  • Search has failed to find any trace of the men, their boat or the whale
  • The incident compared to fictional story of the hunt for Moby Dick
Eight tribesmen from a remote part of Indonesia are feared drowned after a killer whale they harpooned pulled their boat down.

Four of the 12 hunters on board the wooden boat managed to swim to the shore, but their companions went down with the flimsy vessel after the whale at first dragged the vessel along - before diving.

Villagers said it was a mystery why the eight disappeared without trace because they were in an open boat when it was pulled under in the waters off the island of Lembata, in eastern Indonesia.

Image

One of few whaling villages: Lamalera village on the southern tip of Lembata, Indonesia
      Read More...
Question

Mystery spray causes evacuation, sickness at Walmart in Texas


KHOU
Mon, 19 Aug 2013 08:19 UTC
Walmart
© KHOU
It happened at the store near Highway 6 and Westpark Drive around 8:45 p.m., according to deputies with the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. Dozens of employees and about 100 to 150 customers had to be evacuated.
Harris County - - A Walmart west of Houston was evacuated late Sunday after two men sprayed a substance that made some people ill, deputies said.

It happened at the store near Highway 6 and Westpark Drive around 8:45 p.m., according to deputies with the Harris County Sheriff's Office.

Dozens of employees and about 100 to 150 customers had to be evacuated. Some of them started to experience trouble breathing and suffered burning in their eyes and throat, deputies said.

"When I was in there, I was checking out, and I saw people choking," said customer Ken Baptista. "I heard somebody was mixing chemicals in there and throwing it in the air."

"By the time I went inside I just smelled something real funny," said Farah Muhamoud. "We don't know exactly what was it."

At least four people were sent to area hospitals. Deputies said the suspects got away, but surveillance cameras may have captured the pair on video. Hazmat crews were called in and said the store was clear of the chemicals a short time later.
      Read More...
Stop

Floods in Russia's Far East cost farmers $260M


RIA Novosti
Mon, 19 Aug 2013 12:23 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti. Mikhail Voskresensky
Floods in Russia’s Far East Cost Farmers $260M
The cost to agriculture in Russia's flood-hit Far East is estimated at 8.5 billion rubles ($260 million), Russia's Agriculture Ministry said Monday.

More than 627,000 hectares of agricultural land, or 40 percent of crop areas, have been affected by the floods, the ministry said in a statement.
      Read More...
X

More train deaths: Up to 35 pilgrims killed in train crash in India


Press Association
Mon, 19 Aug 2013 12:17 UTC
At least 35 people were killed when a train ran over Hindu pilgrims crossing a railway track in eastern India today.

An angry mob then beat the train driver severely and set fire to the coaches in retaliation, officials said.

The pilgrims were crossing the tracks at the station in Dhamara Ghat, a small town in Bihar state, when they were struck by the Rajya Rani Express train, said Dinesh Chandra Yadav, a local member of parliament. Several other people were injured.
      Read More...
People

Siberian woman died in 'suicide pact' with her boyfriend in Edinburgh


The Siberian Times
Sun, 18 Aug 2013 11:27 UTC
Image
© The Siberian Times
Daria Kuchuk, Igor Pavlov with his parents Alexander and Tatiana in UK.
Daria Kuchuk, 35, born in Omsk, had followed her mother to Scotland in search of a new life, but her quest ended in tragedy.

Our exclusive pictures show Daria - who was an academic high achiever in Siberia, Moscow and at Oxford University in England - with her long-time boyfriend Igor Pavlov, 27, from Moscow. The couple died from cyanide poisoning after checking into a $500 a night room at The Scotsman five star hotel in Edinburgh, one of the best in Scotland.

It was close to a flat they shared near the Royal Mile in the heart of the Scottish capital. The couple died on 1 August but these are the first pictures of the couple, obtained by The Siberian Times. They show the couple with Igor's parents several years ago in the UK. In one, they are posing with the wax models of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip at tourist attraction Madame Tussauds.

Family friends of 35 year old Daria (Dasha) from Siberia spoke of the 'appalling shock' of her death and the 'waste of such a brilliant mind'.

'They were not officially married but it is known that they lived together as partners for a considerable time,' said a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry press centre in Moscow. 'As far as we know neither of them had children'.
      Read More...
Attention

Politicians Lie - and Reporters Can't Report That

Peter Hart
Fair.org
Thu, 23 Aug 2012 10:40 UTC
There's an interesting Politico story (8/22/12) about Andrea Seabrook, who until recently was a Capitol Hill reporter for NPR. She's moved on to a new independent reporting project, but it's what she said about her previous gig that's most revealing:
"I realized that there is a part of covering Congress, if you're doing daily coverage, that is actually sort of colluding with the politicians themselves because so much of what I was doing was actually recording and playing what they say or repeating what they say," Seabrook told Politico. "And I feel like the real story of Congress right now is very much removed from any of that, from the sort of theater of the policy debate in Congress, and it has become such a complete theater that none of it is real.... I feel like I am, as a reporter in the Capitol, lied to every day, all day. There is so little genuine discussion going on with the reporters.... To me, as a reporter, everything is spin."
      Read More...
Arrow Down

Market Watch: Is the bond bubble finally bursting? U.S. rates creep up


The Extinction Protocol
Mon, 19 Aug 2013 10:23 UTC
U.S. stocks barely moved Monday. But bond yields continued to creep higher amid chatter that the Federal Reserve could begin winding down its stimulus sooner rather than later. Worries that the central bank could taper its $85 billion a month in bond purchases, or quantitative easing, as early as September has spurred a huge sell-off in bonds. Investors have yanked nearly $20 billion from bond mutual funds and exchange traded funds so far in August. That's the fourth highest pullback ever, according to TrimTabs data.

Image
In June, investors took out $69.1 billion - the highest on record. The heavy selling has pushed long-term bond rates to two-year highs, with the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield nearing 2.87%. "As much as bond professionals say they've never really liked QE, they're trading as though they miss it already," said Jim Vogel, interest rate strategist at FTN Financial. The Fed will remain in focus this week as investors look ahead to Wednesday. That's when the Fed releases minutes from its last monetary policy meeting. The Kansas City Fed also hosts its annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyo. later this week. Concerns about the Fed tapering have hit stocks as well. The Dow Jones industrial average, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq have dropped for two consecutive weeks. But with no economic data or significant earnings reports on tap Monday, the three major market indexes were only slightly higher. -CNN
      Read More...
Water

Once Again: Lax regulations allows Nestlé free B.C. water to sell back to consumers

Paula Baker
Global News
Wed, 14 Aug 2013 07:58 UTC
Image
© worldpress.com
The Nestlé Waters Canada operates in Hope, B.C. and uses 230 million litres of fresh water every year from an aquifer in the Fraser Valley. It's the same aquifer the residents of the valley use for their water.

The food and beverage giant is not required to measure, report or pay for the water because of B.C.'s lack of regulations on its use. Nestlé then takes the 'free' water and sells it back to consumers across Western Canada.

This has left Fraser Valley residents wondering if their portion of that underground supply could soon run out.

"They weren't concerned with having to pay for water," says Sheila Muxlow, The Water Wealth Project. "But if they were going to have to pay for water they wanted to see everybody have to pay for water. That's an issue for us because corporations are not local residents."

Comment: See the world according to the Nestlé CEO.

      Read More...
Stormtrooper

Texas cops raid farm commune when mistaking tomato plants for marijuana

Arturo Garcia
The Raw Story
Wed, 14 Aug 2013 10:32 UTC
Police in Arlington, Texas are being criticized for their tactics during a drug raid on a local farm that came up empty while allegedly damaging both the property and the crops.

"They can't even tell the difference between tomato plants and a marijuana drug cartel," farm resident Quinn Eaker told KXAS-TV. "That's just really bad intel."

Eaker said to KXAS that he and several residents at the "Garden of Eden" sustainability garden were handcuffed at gunpoint by officers during the Aug. 2 raid, which also involved a SWAT team, after an undercover officer and helicopter surveillance allegedly gave authorities probable cause to believe there was marijuana being grown on the premises.

"They came here under the guise that we were doing a drug trafficking, marijuana-growing operation," owner Shellie Smith told WFAA-TV. "They destroyed everything."
      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts