Society's ChildS


Bizarro Earth

When Doomsday Prophets Had San Diego in Their Sights

Randy Dotinga
Voice of San Diego
Fri, 27 May 2011 14:30 UTC
The eccentric man on a mission declared the world would end on a specific date, and the saved would be raptured. An amused media paid close attention to the prediction, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief or had a good laugh when nothing happened.

Sound familiar? Add a couple twists: it was 1925, not 2011. And the raptured - 144,000 "brides of the lamb" to be exact - would make a pit stop in the woods outside San Diego before heading to the planet Jupiter and then to heaven.

Such was the prediction of a pair of renegade Seventh-day Adventists who turned themselves into a prophet and prophetess of doom. One was a wallpaper-hanger from New York and the other a Hollywood homemaker who liked to claim visions and later tried to kill one of her former supporters.
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Blackbox

Air France Crash Sparks Pilot Mystery

Tim Hepher and Gerard Bon
Reuters
Sat, 28 May 2011 01:09 UTC
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© Reuters / Charles PlatiauThe Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), one of two flight recorders from the Rio-Paris Air France flight which crashed in 2009, is carrying to be displayed for the media before a news conference at the BEA headquarters in Le Bourget, northern Paris, May 12, 2011.
A French airliner plunged out of control for four minutes before crashing into the Atlantic in 2009, investigators said, in a report raising questions about how crew handled a "stall alarm" blaring out in the cabin.

Information gleaned from black boxes, and recovered almost two years after the disaster killed 228 people, confirmed that speed readings in the Airbus cockpit had gone haywire, believed to be linked to the icing of speed sensors outside the jet.

As Air France pilots fought for control, the doomed A330 dropped 38,000 feet, rolling left to right, its engines flat out but its wings unable to grab enough air to keep flying.

The plane crashed on June 1, 2009, en route from Rio de Janeiro to Paris. Black boxes stopped recording at 0214 GMT.

France's BEA crash investigation agency said in a detailed chronology of the crash that commands from the controls of the 32-year-old junior pilot on board had pulled the nose up as the aircraft became unstable and generated an audible stall warning.
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Video

Customers hunt for $4 DVDs as Blockbuster Canada begins closing 146 stores

Mary Gazze
The Canadian Press
Fri, 27 May 2011 16:41 UTC
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© The Canadian Press /Jonathan Hayward A Blockbuster movie rental store is seen in North Vancouver, B.C., Friday, May 27, 2011. Clearance sales are underway at many of the Canadian Blockbuster Video stores that are closing their doors.
Bargain hunters scoured shelves at many of Canada's Blockbuster Video locations Friday, as nearly 150 stores set for closure began clearing out DVDs and video games at deeply discounted prices.

The movie rental chain, which is in receivership, began liquidation sales at 146 Canadian locations that are scheduled to be shut down in June.

A steady stream of shoppers seeking first pick of stock was greeted with signs saying "Everything Must Go" at one downtown Toronto Blockbuster locations.

Another location was so busy by mid afternoon that a long lineup of customers snaked around the store - some shelves had already been stripped bare.

Deal hunters picked over the merchandise, while yellow signs emblazoned with "30 per cent off," lured them to search through more shelves and bins.

Several customers walked out with stacks of stock they could barely carry.
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Mr. Potato

NZ: Man Enjoys Inflated Reputation After Impaled on High Pressure Air Hose

Christina Ng
ABC News/Health
Thu, 26 May 2011 00:00 UTC
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© Samantha Motion/Whakatane Beacon/AP PhotoNew Zealand truck driver Steven McCormack gets treatment at Whakatane Hospital after an accident with an air hose in Whakatane, New Zealand, May 21, 2011.
A freak accident with a high pressure air hose left Steven McCormack painfully puffed up like the Michelin Man, but now safely back to normal he is enjoying an inflated reputation.

McCormack, a small town truck driver in Opotiki, New Zealand, ended up Saturday in the intensive care unit at a hospital in Whakatane, blown up to twice his normal size.

McCormack, 48, was standing on the rigging between his truck and trailer at Waiotahi Contractors when he slipped and fell onto a brass valve that was connecting the truck's brakes to the compressed air supply. The nozzle pierced his left buttock and air rushed into his body at 100 pounds per square inch.

"In a matter of minutes, my body blew to twice its size," McCormack told New Zealand's 3News.

His boss, Robbie Petersen, witnessed the accident and told ABCNews.com, "His body started to literally blow up and before we knew it, his face went up like a balloon."

Petersen's son Spike Petersen is the manager of the company and was also on hand at the time of the accident. Spike was on the phone with 111, the New Zealand equivalent of 911. He told ABCNews.com that their small town only has two ambulances and both were busy at the time of the accident. The nearest rescue helicopter based two hours away was also busy.

"We knew we needed help quick," said Spike. "The pain was unreal. Lifting him up and off the nozzle was the worse."

As the air pumped and McCormack began to scream, co-workers struggled to pull him off of the nozzle. In a life-saving move, they managed to stop the air supply and put him on his side. As McCormack struggled to breathe, co-workers tried to keep him calm by putting ice packs around his neck. It was an hour before paramedics arrived.
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Chess

'Maria Shriver Leaked Arnold Schwarzenegger Lovechild Story Because She Was so Angry'


Daily Mail
Fri, 27 May 2011 17:09 UTC
Maria Shriver
© FlynetNew claims: Maria Shriver 'leaked the Arnold Schwarzenegger lovechild story because she was so angry' it has been claimed
Maria Shriver leaked the story about husband Arnold Schwarzenegger's lovechild because she was so angry with him, it has been claimed.

Gossip website TMZ.com are reporting Shriver was 'hysterical' when she discovered that Schwarzenegger had fathered a son with Mildred Baena and wanted to call a press conference to make the story public.

But, after her friends calmed her down, the idea of leaking the story to TMZ and the LA Times newspaper then started to form.
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Stormtrooper

Georgian police used excessive force on protesters - HRW


Ria Novosti
Thu, 26 May 2011 16:34 UTC
Georgian riot police
© RIA Novosti / Andrei Stenin
Riot police in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, beat peaceful demonstrators and should be held to account, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

The international human rights group said the Georgian government should launch an immediate and impartial investigation into excessive and disproportionate use of force.

Riot police dispersed a five-day central Tbilisi protest against President Mikheil Saakashvili's rule in the early hours of Thursday.
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Top Secret

US: Tony Lazzaro testifies about knowing mysterious secret regarding Casey Anthony

Cindy Adams
Examiner
Fri, 27 May 2011 12:29 UTC
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© YouTubeAnthony Lazzaro, the former boyfriend of accused child killer, Casey Anthony, testified a second day at her murder trial on May 26, 2011.
Orlando, Fla. - On Thursday, for a second day, Anthony Lazzaro, the former boyfriend of Casey Anthony, took the stand during her murder trial. During his testimony he revealed that was told a secret by Casey prior to her arrest for killing her daughter, Caylee Anthony.

Casey, 25, is charge with murdering Caylee in the summer of 2008.

Between June 15, the last day the girl was seen by anyone other than Casey and the day Caylee was reported missing by her grandmother, Cindy Anthony, Casey told no one about the little girl's whereabouts.

The girl's remains were discovered in a wooded area near the Anthony family home on Dec. 11, 2008.

Defense attorney Jose Baez asked Lazzaro about the mysterious secret Casey told him prior to her arrest, however, because his response would have been considered hearsay, he was not allowed to divulge exactly what the secret was.
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Question

US: Witness: Casey's Relationship With Caylee Was Amazing


WFTV
Fri, 27 May 2011 10:48 UTC
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© WFTV
Orange County, Fla. -- Day 15 of Casey Anthony's murder trial began on Friday with the defense's motion to renew a motion for a mistrial, being denied, and a witness describing Casey's relationship with her daughter as, "amazing."

Casey Anthony entered the courtroom just before 8:30am, wearing dark pants and a black vest over a white shirt. She had her hair pulled back in a bun.

Chief Judge Belvin Perry quickly denied the defense's motion that Casey's lead attorney, Jose Baez, filed Thursday morning at 8:30am to renew a motion for a mistrial.

Judge Perry then called court to order at 9:00am.

The fiancee of Casey's brother, Lee Anthony, testified on Thursday that Casey had an "amazing" relationship with her 2-year-old daughter, Caylee, who she is accused of killing.

Mallory Parker testified Friday that Casey had a special bond with Caylee.
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Bandaid

Out of sight, out of mind: Obama urged to reverse policy on no condolence letters for military suicides

Adam Levine
CNN
Fri, 27 May 2011 10:13 UTC
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© Unknown
Washington - A bipartisan group of senators is asking President Barack Obama to change the current "insensitive" policy of not sending condolence letters to families of service members who commit suicide.

A letter signed by 11 senators -- 10 Democrats and one Republican -- and sent Wednesday urges the president to "take immediate steps to reverse the long-standing policy of withholding presidential letters of condolence" to families of troops who killed themselves.

The policy, which goes back several presidents, has been the subject of protest by military families. CNN first reported in 2009 about the family of Spc. Chancellor Keesling, who killed himself while serving in Iraq.

The family set up a wall to pay tribute to Keesling in their Indiana home. Along with his uniform and the flag from his burial service, a space was left for the expected condolence letter from the commander in chief.

Comment: More U.S. Soldiers Killed Themselves Than Died in Combat in 2010

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Arrow Down

US: Wife helps fly small plane over Colorado after husband suffers oxygen deprivation

Jeffrey Leib
The Denver Post
Fri, 27 May 2011 06:20 UTC
Federal aviation officials on Thursday released details of a May 17 incident in which the pilot of a small plane became incapacitated from lack of oxygen, and his wife, also in the cockpit, teamed with air-traffic controllers and nearby pilots to get the endangered aircraft lower so the pilot could recover and land safely.

The couple were flying a Cirrus SR22 from San Bernardino, Calif., to Colorado Springs at an altitude of 17,000 feet at midday when a controller in the Federal Aviation Administration's Longmont control center noticed the pilot was slurring his speech.

"I think you might be experiencing some hypoxia; would you like a lower altitude?" controller Charlie Rohrer asked the pilot, according to the FAA transcript of the incident.
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