Welcome to Sott.net
Sat, 04 Feb 2023
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

Info

Grandma killed by 'vicious' pet cockatiel

Fiona Keating
International Business Times
Sat, 26 Jan 2013 22:11 UTC
Cockatiel
© IBT
Symptoms of Bird Fancier’s Lung usually develop four hours after exposure, and include breathlessness and coughing.
Lilian Kershaw, aged 84, became increasingly breathless after nine years of inhaling particles from the bird's droppings and feathers when its cage was being cleaned out.

The 84-year-old grandmother was later diagnosed with the little-known disease Bird Fancier's Lung.

Despite never handling Charlie the cockatiel, the retired cotton mill worker became out of breath while exposed to the bird in her living room.

Unbeknown to her family, the ill health was partly due to the bird, which was bought for grandson Lloyd in 2002.

Mrs Kershaw's daughter Denise Bacchas told the Daily Mirror: "My mother never handled him, nobody could because he was so vicious. He would peck you to death and he would draw blood. Whoever cleaned him would have to wear gloves."

After the inquest hearing, Mrs Bacchas admitted: "If we had known we would never have got Charlie.
      Read More...
Pistol

The resistance begins: New York gun owners refuse to register

Mac Slavo
SHTFplan.com
Sat, 26 Jan 2013 19:49 UTC
Image
With emotions running high in the aftermath of the Newtown Sandy Hook shooting, politicians on the State and Federal level have begun introducing legislative actions to curtail access to firearms protected by the Second Amendment.

In Missouri, parents may soon be forced to register firearms with their child's school under threat of criminal penalties. In Massachusetts, another proposal would require storage of semi-automatic rifles at government approved storage depots.

And, in the State of New York, congressional representatives have already passed legislation that requires registration of every semi-automatic rifle and reduces maximum magazine capacity to 7 rounds of ammunition, and Governor Cuomo has floated the idea of gun confiscation.
      Read More...
Black Cat 2

67 dead cats and 99 live cats taken from filthy New York home

Paul Grondahl
timesunion.com
Sat, 26 Jan 2013 19:29 UTC
Image
© Schoharie County Sheriff's Office
Cats rescued from home in Wright
The Schoharie County woman who kept 67 dead cats in clear plastic bags in her freezer and had another 99 felines living in crates stacked floor-to-ceiling in unsanitary conditions repeatedly refused to give up any of the animals to shelter workers and rebuffed referrals to mental health professionals.

Authorities who had visited her house on Route 146 in its wretchedly befouled state - it was condemned and deemed unfit for human occupancy - said that she seemed to fit the profile of a hoarder. The excessive collecting of items, frequently animals, is also called compulsive hoarding syndrome. It is a psychological affliction often related to obsessive-compulsive disorder. In severe forms, psychological treatment is recommended.

Possible charges are being weighed against Irene Vandyke, 50, an office worker at a local Walmart store. Her husband, Russell Jack Vandyke, who worked as a cook in Schenectady restaurants, died unexpectedly at 47 in December 2010 after being stricken at home. The couple had been married for 27 years, according to a paid obituary. She has a grown son and granddaughter.
      Read More...
Footprints

Escaped inmate gone 5 days before officials knew

Gillian Mahoney
ABC News
Sat, 26 Jan 2013 19:26 UTC
Image
© ABC News
Rocky Marquez walks out of jail by pretending to be another man scheduled for release.
Police and U.S. marshals are searching for a man who allegedly escaped from a Detroit jail by posing as another inmate, and was on the lam for five days before officials even knew he was gone.

According to police, on Jan. 20, Rocky Marquez, 34, switched ID wristbands with another inmate, who was about to be freed on bond. Marquez then simply walked out of the Wayne County jail.

This was not the first time Marquez staged a jailbreak. According to U.S. Marshal David Gonzalez, Marquez pulled the same stunt in a Phoenix prison eight months ago when he switched wristbands with another inmate who he had befriended and who had a similar complexion and biuld.

"He obviously has a penchant for getting out of jail and wanting to stay out of jail, but hopefully we can put an end to that run here soon," Gonzalez said.
      Read More...
Eye 1

Friar accused of abuse in 2 states kills himself


Associated Press
Sat, 26 Jan 2013 19:22 UTC
Image
A Franciscan friar accused of sexually abusing students at Catholic high schools in Ohio and Pennsylvania killed himself at a western Pennsylvania monastery, police said Saturday.

Brother Stephen Baker, 62, was found dead of a self-inflicted knife wound at the St. Bernardine Monastery in Hollidaysburg on Saturday morning, Blair Township Police Chief Roger White said. He declined to say whether a note was found.

Baker was named in legal settlements last week involving 11 men who alleged that he sexually abused them at a Catholic high school in northeast Ohio three decades ago. The undisclosed financial settlements announced Jan. 16 involved his contact with students at John F. Kennedy High School in Warren, Ohio from 1986-90.

The Youngstown diocese previously said it was unaware of the allegations until nearly 20 years after the alleged abuse.
      Read More...
Network

Anonymous hackers take over U.S sentencing commission website


Phys.Org
Sat, 26 Jan 2013 00:00 UTC
U.S Sentencing Commission
© AP Photo
This screen shot shows the website of the U.S. Sentencing Commission after it was hijacked by the hacker-activist group Anonymous, early Saturday, Jan. 26, 2013, to avenge the death of Aaron Swartz, an Internet activist who committed suicide. The website of the commission, an independent agency of the judicial branch, was replaced with a message warning that when Swartz killed himself two weeks ago "a line was crossed."
.The hacker-activist group Anonymous says it hijacked the website of the U.S. Sentencing Commission to avenge the death of Aaron Swartz, an Internet activist who committed suicide.

The website of the commission, an independent agency of the judicial branch, was taken over early Saturday and replaced with a message warning that when Swartz killed himself two weeks ago "a line was crossed." The hackers say they've infiltrated several government computer systems and copied secret information that they now threaten to make public. Family and friends of Swartz, who helped create Reddit and RSS, say he killed himself after he was hounded by federal prosecutors. Officials say he helped post millions of court documents for free online and that he illegally downloaded millions of academic articles from an online clearinghouse.
      Read More...
Question

Mystery sickness takes over Oklahoma school, causes weird symptoms

Greg Newkirk
WhoForted?
Sat, 26 Jan 2013 12:06 UTC
Kitchen
© WhoForted?
Much like the mysterious illness that managed to shut down an entire Wal-Mart a few weeks ago, several faculty members from a school in Shawnee, Oklahoma have started to experience strange symptoms while in the building, but reasonable explanations for the sickness can't seem to be found.

"I think it raises alarms when you have more than one experiencing problems," Shawnee Superintendent Dr. Marc Moore told Oklahoma News 9.

The issues came to a head at a January 11 meeting where teachers all began to complain of a "different kind" of headache, dizziness, and a "fogginess" clouding their minds, leaving them a tired mess when they get home from work.
      Read More...
Pistol

Wisconsin sheriff says 911 no longer best option, urges residents to learn to use guns


Wisconsin State Journal
Sat, 26 Jan 2013 13:36 UTC
Image
A sheriff who released a radio ad urging Milwaukee-area residents to learn to handle firearms so they can defend themselves while waiting for police said Friday that law enforcement cutbacks have changed the way police can respond to crime.

In the 30-second commercial, Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr. says personal safety is no longer a spectator sport.

"I need you in the game," he says.

"With officers laid off and furloughed, simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option," he adds. "You can beg for mercy from a violent criminal, hide under the bed, or you can fight back. ... Consider taking a certified safety course in handling a firearm so you can defend yourself until we get there."

The ad has generated sharp criticism from other area officials and anti-violence advocates. The president of the Milwaukee Deputy Sheriffs' Association, Roy Felber, said it sounds like a call to vigilantism.
      Read More...
Eye 2

Kentucky neo-Nazis charged in gruesome murder, dismemberment

Don Terry
Salon
Sat, 26 Jan 2013 11:49 UTC
Image
© Shutterstock
The accused killers are being held without bail for kidnapping, murder and abuse of a corpse among other charges.

The 25-point manifesto of the National Socialist Movement (NSM) makes several hyperbolic "demands," such as "all non-Whites currently residing in America be required to leave the nation forthwith and return to their land of origin: peacefully or by force.''

But it appears that two Kentucky members of the neo-Nazi group and an accomplice took at least one of the over-the-top mission statements deadly serious.

Point 17 says, "We demand the ruthless prosecution of those whose activities are injurious to the common interest. Murderers, rapists, pedophiles, drug dealers, usurers, profiteers, race traitors, etc. must be severely punished, whatever creed or race."

On Jan. 9, according to the authorities, the men lured a white, 19-year-old alleged small-time drug dealer into the back seat of their car, choked him, beat him with fists and a metal pipe, dragged him out of the car, slit his throat, stabbed him in the chest, rolled his body down a hill and left him dead in the bushes, covered in brambles, in a field in Boone County, Ky., essentially a suburb of nearby Cincinnati.
      Read More...
Extinguisher

Bangladesh garment factory fire kills six workers


news.com.au
Sat, 26 Jan 2013 11:45 UTC
Image
© AP
Bangladeshi firefighters and volunteers work to douse a fire at a two-storied garment factory in Dhaka, which killed at least six workers. The blaze comes two months after a deadly fire killed 112 in Dhaka.
At least six female workers were killed after a blaze swept through a small garment factory in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka, police and fire officials said.

The latest fire comes two months after the country's deadliest garment factory blaze that killed 111 workers and put the spotlight on the industry's appalling safety and labour issues.

Fire officials said the workers, who were paid as little as $35 a month at the plant in Dhaka's Mohammadpur suburb, which employed some 300 people, died during a stampede and from suffocation after the fire broke out during a lunch break.

"We have the dead bodies of six workers in two hospitals. Most died in a stampede as they rushed to escape the fire," said Bangladesh fire brigade operations director Mahbubur Rahman.

Firefighters brought the inferno under control in about two hours and found no bodies on the charred factory floor, he said, adding that an investigation was underway to determine the cause of the fire.
      Read More...
Amazon Smile
Revolt! T-shirts