Society's ChildS


Attention

Another dead banker! "Family tragedy" cited in death of Dutch CEO, wife, and daughter

Maud van Gaal and Martijn van der Starre
Business Week
Mon, 07 Apr 2014 09:32 UTC
Jan Peter Schmittmann
© linkedinJan Peter Schmittmann, 57, and his wife and daughter were found dead at their home in the Dutch town of Laren, 32 kilometres southeast of Amsterdam.
Dutch authorities are investigating the deaths of former ABN Amro Netherlands' Chief Executive Officer Jan Peter Schmittmann, his wife and a daughter, whose bodies were discovered two days ago in their home after a possible murder-suicide.

"We are awaiting the outcome of an investigation of the bodies and on the basis of that information and other information we have gathered, we hope to be able to shed light on what has happened" within the next few days, Leonie Bosselaar, a police spokeswoman, said by telephone today.

Schmittmann, 57, and his wife and daughter were found at their home in the Dutch town of Laren, 32 kilometers (20 miles) southeast of Amsterdam, on April 5 after the police received a call from an acquaintance who said something might be wrong at the property. Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf identified the dead women as Nelly, 57, Schmittmann's wife, and their daughter Babette, 22.

Comment: For more on this suspicious rash of dead bankers see:

4th Financial Services Executive found dead; "From self-inflicted nail-gun wounds"

JP Morgan executive becomes 5th banker to die in last 2 weeks

Young banker's suicide becomes twelfth in financial world this year

Read More...
Bell

Artists install massive poster of child's face in Pakistan field to shame drone operators

Tom Boggioni
Raw Story
Sun, 06 Apr 2014 17:40 UTC
Image
An artists collective has unfurled a massive poster showing a child's face in a heavily bombed area of Pakistan in the hopes that it will give pause to drone operators searching the area for kills.

According to #notabugsplat, named after the description given to kills on the ground when viewed through grainy video footage, the artists - with help of villagers - unfurled the giant poster in a field in the Khyber Pukhtoonkhwa region of Pakistan
Read More...
Black Magic

Lacey, Washington man gets life without parole for killing and dismemberment of 3-year-old son

Matt Volz
KATU
Fri, 04 Apr 2014 13:52 UTC
Image
© KATUBroderick Cramer is seen in an undated family photo.
A Montana judge sentenced a Washington state man Friday to life in prison without parole for killing and dismembering his 3-year-old son after his wife threatened to leave him and take the child.

Jeremy Brent Cramer, 38, pleaded guilty in December to deliberate homicide in the July 8 slaying of Broderick Cramer, who was to turn 4 two days later. Cramer had taken the boy from their Lacey, Wash., home that morning after a confrontation with his wife, Nataliya, and killed him 5 miles southeast of Anaconda, Mont.

Prosecutors and Cramer's public defenders had reached a plea agreement that recommended life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years. District Judge Loren Tucker removed any option of parole, saying the brutality of the crime deserved the harshest punishment possible.

"We're dealing with ... the gruesome, horrible, dismembered butchery of a child. Your child. It's almost impossible to fathom the gravity of that crime," Tucker said.
Read More...
People 2

Ukraine romance industry scam: Men who go looking for a wife fly home alone and broke

Shaun Walker
Guardian
Sun, 06 Apr 2014 19:00 UTC
Ukraine's internet romance industry is booming - despite the unrest. But after chatting online, travelling to Odessa and wooing women on flashy dates, most men fly home alone and far poorer. Are they unlucky in love, or have they been scammed?

Image
© Gleb Garanich/ReutersA woman walks by a shop window displaying wedding gowns in Kiev, Ukraine
These are trying times for Odessa. After the annexation of Crimea, pro-Russian forces are stirring tension in this Black Sea port, and there are weekly standoffs between demonstrators who want to be part of Ukraine and those who want closer ties to Russia. But for all the political and economic chaos that has engulfed Ukraine in the past three months, one industry is still thriving: the internet romance trade.

The economies of several Ukrainian cities are boosted by the surreal and disingenuous online bride business, and Odessa is the biggest hub. It does not take long for a visitor to the city to stumble upon an "international date" - there are legions of western men in town meeting with young women they have met online, usually with the conversation facilitated by a translator. At internet cafes and homes across the city, thousands of women spend hours each day chatting to prospective suitors online.
Read More...
Snakes in Suits

6 Incredibly common misconceptions about Psychopaths

Dean A. Haycock
Huffington Post
Fri, 04 Apr 2014 07:25 UTC
Psychopathy _ word on Hollywood colline
© Inconnu
Popular culture has offered some flamboyant, unrealistic images of the psychopath: the giggling, twitchy maniac; the silent, masked slasher; the snobbish, culturally refined, highly intelligent cannibal and--depending on how much you like your job--your boss.

Another potentially misleading image appears in the recent trend to imply that anyone with some psychopathic traits is a psychopath. For example, in the eyes of some, a surgeon with a rotten bedside manner, and no inclination to weep with sympathy as he cuts you open to repair your faulty heart valve, nudges his occupation higher on the list of "professions with the most psychopaths." An alternative view suggests this person might be an ambitious, no-nonsense professional, with limited people skills, who wants you to live. He studies for years, trains diligently, and ends up operating on you to repair your faulty heart and extend your life.

A psychopath does have not a few psychopathic traits. He or she has, as the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy explains, "a constellation of traits." And the image outlined by that constellation doesn't evoke confidence over the long term: lack of empathy and guilt, an inability to form meaningful emotional bonds; narcissism and superficial charm; dishonesty, manipulativeness, and reckless risk-taking. Risk-taking is tolerable in surgeons. Reckless risk-taking is not.

Comment: For a better understanding of the psychopath, their effects on society and the distinction between primary and secondary psychopathy, a must read is 'Political Ponerology' by Andrew M. Lobaczewski. See following article for an introduction:
Political Ponerology: A Science on The Nature of Evil adjusted for Political Purposes

Read More...
Stock Down

Gas wars: Ukraine due on $2.2 bn debt to Gazprom


RT
Sun, 06 Apr 2014 19:50 UTC
Image
You bring violent fascism to the table, you pay the price.
Another potential gas war between Kiev and Moscow looms as Ukraine is due Monday to pay a $2.2 billion debt to Russia's Gazprom. Ukraine's PM has called the new gas prices 'unacceptable' and purely 'political'.

"There has been no progress," Financial Times quotes Gazprom's spokesman, Sergey Kupriyanov, speaking in Kiev. "They are not paying anything, zero."

"We cannot deliver gas for free, so they need to pay off the debt," said Aleksey Miller, Gazprom chief executive has said.

"They also need to pay for 100 per cent of current supplies," Miller said, adding that the situation "cannot continue indefinitely".

Gazprom and Kiev's Naftogaz have a rocky payment and pricing history, and past tiffs have resulted in Moscow turning off the pipes, cutting off supplies to Europe.

However, a Gazprom spokesman said Monday that Russian gas exports to Europe through Ukraine remain stable despite a standoff between Moscow and Kiev, Reuters reports.
Read More...
Nuke

Fukushima: They Knew - The Fukushima story you didn't hear on CNN

Greg Palast
Gregpalast.com
Mon, 10 Mar 2014 02:17 UTC
Image
© UnknownHandwritten log kept by a senior engineer at the nuclear power plant.
I've seen a lot of sick stuff in my career, but this was sick on a new level.

Here was the handwritten log kept by a senior engineer at the nuclear power plant:
Wiesel was very upset. He seemed very nervous. Very agitated. . . . In fact, the plant was riddled with problems that, no way on earth, could stand an earth- quake. The team of engineers sent in to inspect found that most of these components could "completely and utterly fail" during an earthquake.
"Utterly fail during an earthquake." And here in Japan was the quake and here is the utter failure.

The warning was in what the investigations team called The Notebook, which I'm not supposed to have. Good thing I've kept a copy anyway, because the file cabinets went down with my office building ....
Read More...
V

Tired of fascism: Pro-Russian protesters seize govt buildings in Ukraine's Donetsk, Lugansk and Kharkov


RT
Mon, 07 Apr 2014 01:40 UTC
Donetsk pro-Russian protest
© AFP Photo / Alexandr KhudoteplyPro-Russian supporters deploy a Russian flag and the flag of the so-called Donetsk Republica as they storm the regional administration building in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk on April 6, 2014
Thousands of people waving Russian flags flooded the streets of eastern Ukraine on Sunday. Demonstrators in the cities of Donetsk, Lugansk, and Kharkov seized state offices, while in Donetsk they also demanded an independence referendum.

Over 2,000 people gathered in Lenin Square in the center of Donetsk to petition for the Berkut officers, who - they believe - are falsely accused of using fire arms against the rioters during the Maidan standoff.

The participants in the event called on the "illegal junta in Kiev" to end political repressions and persecution of dissidents, the Itar-Tass news agency reports.

They demanded their right for self-determination to be respected, pushing for a Crimea-style referendum on independence from Ukraine.

The protesters carried Russian national flags, chanted "Russia! Russia!" and displayed banners urging the new Donetsk Region governor, Sergey Taruta, who was recently appointed by Kiev, "to get out."
Read More...
Handcuffs

Fraudsters strike 600 times a day in the UK... Here's how to avoid falling victim

Laura Shannon
Mail Online
Sun, 06 Apr 2014 21:25 UTC
Image
© Christopher CoxQuick thinking: An attempted scam was foiled by Steve and Christine Baker
The UK's fraud prevention service is warning that crimes involving fraud continue to be a major problem despite tougher action.

Police crackdowns have led to an 11 per cent fall in fraud in 2013 compared with the year before, according to the fraud prevention service Credit Industry Fraud Avoidance System. But there are still 600 frauds committed every day, half involving stolen identity.

As one scam is tackled, heartless criminals quickly come up with nasty new ways to part you from your cash.

Here are the top tricks to watch out for and what you can do to avoid being a victim:
Read More...
Target

Abducted Ukrainian journalist found killed, believed to be tortured first


RT
Sun, 06 Apr 2014 14:37 UTC
Ukraine journalist dead
© Reuters / Gleb Garanich
A kidnapped Ukrainian journalist and Maidan activist has been found dead in a forest some 150 kilometers (90 miles) from the capital Kiev. The reporter is believed to have been brutally tortured before being killed and buried, local media report.

According to the local prosecutor's office, Vasily Sergiyenko was beaten and abducted in his home city of Korsun-Shevchenkivsky, central Ukraine, on Friday evening.

"It has been established that at around 20:30 on April 4 perpetrators kidnapped Vasily Sergiyenko. Later he was killed and his body was buried in a forest in an attempt to hide the evidence," Cherkassk province's prosecutors announced in a statement on Sunday.

The nationalist Svoboda (Freedom) party, of which Sergiyenko was a member, said that according to witnesses a group of three unknown men attacked the local newspaper reporter outside his home on Friday evening. There was a fight, and Sergiyenko was forced into a white car.

This version was corroborated by the journalist's mother who called the police right after her son was attacked and abducted.

Sergiyenko's body with stab wounds and signs of beatings to his head and knees was discovered on Saturday afternoon, when a group of self-defense unit members found a freshly heaped up mound disguised as a dump.

"In the afternoon guys from local self-defense forces found a spot of freshly dug pit. They waited until police came and started digging out the rubbish-covered spot. They found a man's body lying with his face down with hand-cuffs on his wrists," the local Gazeta.ua online newspaper cited Oleg Sobchenko as saying. "After they lifted the man's body we saw the signs of terrible torture: Vasiliy's head was completely smashed, his knees fractured, [he had] several knife wounds in the area of his kidneys, a knife wound in the heart area and several knife wounds to his heart from his back, his neck was also cut."
Read More...