Welcome to Sott.net
Mon, 08 Nov 2021
The World for People who Think

Society's Child
Map

Cross

Vatican charges former 'Pope's Hospital' officials with using $481k charity cash to renovate cardinal's apartment

Pope's childrens hospital, Bambino Gesù Hospital
© Gabriel Bouys / AFP
The Vatican has charged two former officials of a children's hospital with using $481,000 of fundraising cash to renovate a cardinal's apartment. One of the men has admitted to the act, but says it was done as an investment for the hospital's foundation.

The case centers on the former president of the Vatican-owned Bambino Gesù Hospital, Giuseppe Profiti, and former treasurer Massimo Spina.

The two men are accused of using €422,000 (US$481,000) from the hospital's fundraising foundation to pay for renovations of Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone's apartment when he retired as the Vatican's secretary of state in 2013.

Fish

Hagfish explosion slimes Oregon highway

slime attack
© Oregon State Police Dept.
Hagfish slime isn't actually slime—it's more like a gel made of filaments.
No, this isn't a scene from the set of Ghostbusters. On July 14, a truck carrying thousands of fish wrecked on Oregon's highway, covering the road and at least one car in slime and creating surely one of the most bizarre traffic jams in history.

The culprit? Hagfish, deep-sea scavengers that look a bit like eels and are capable of generating massive amounts of anti-predator mucus at a moment's notice. The Pacific Northwest is home to several hagfish fisheries that supply the fish to many Asian countries, including South Korea, where it is a prized dish.

Just how inconvenient is hagfish slime? Well, the Oregon Department of Transportation is currently using a small bulldozer to remove the muck from the middle of the road. (Most of the fish died in the accident.)

Of course, in its natural environment on the seafloor, the hagfish has other uses for this secret weapon. (Read seven reasons why hagfish are amazing.)

Sheriff

North Carolina cop traveling 100mph kills pedestrian

Phillip Barker
© Mecklenburg County Sheriff’s Office
Phillip Barker
A rookie police officer in Charlotte, North Carolina, has been charged over killing a pedestrian with his patrol car. The on-duty officer was driving at 100mph (160kph) when he struck the person, according to police.

Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer Philip Barker, 24, was charged with misdemeanor death by vehicle on Wednesday.

Barker fatally struck James Short, 28, as he was crossing the street early Saturday morning while traveling at 100mph in a 30mph zone, according to police.

Police said three marked patrol cars were responding to reports of a car that ran into a building when the accident happened.

Short was crossing the street against a red light when he was struck. Police said Barker had his lights and sirens on at the time.


Comment: That poor guy may have thought he could cross the street in time. If the officer had been traveling at a normal rate of speed, it's likely he would have.


Newspaper

Man confesses to the murders of four men found in a common grave

four slain men
© Bucks County District Attorney's Office via AP
The investigation of four men who went missing last week in Bucks County, Pa. — Thomas Meo (from left), Dean Finocchiaro, Jimi Patrick and Mark Sturgis — led to a common grave on Pennsylvania farm, where Finocchiaro's body was found.
A Pennsylvania man under suspicion for his connection to the disappearance of four young men who went missing in rural Pennsylvania last weekend has confessed to their murders.

Cosmo DiNardo, 20, agreed to plead guilty to four murder counts, according to his attorney Paul Lang outside the Bucks County Court of Common Pleas.

"In exchange for that confession, Mr. DiNardo was promised by the district attorney that he will spare his life by not invoking the death penalty," said Lang.

District Attorney Matthew D. Weintraub declined to comment via Twitter, although his office had retweeted media coverage of Lang's statement. Weintraub also said he expected to have more information on Friday morning.

DiNardo, of Bensalem, Pa., was being held on a $5 million cash bail after being arrested Wednesday; one day earlier, he had been deemed a "person of interest" in the missing-persons case after he was accused of trying to sell the car belonging to one of the missing men.

Heart - Black

Four y.o. girl dead after being wrapped up in duct tape by mother and her boyfriend

Desaray Thompson
© Kalamazoo County Sheriff's Office
Desaray was not breathing when she was found on Sunday.
A four-year-old "darling little girl" has died after her mum and boyfriend allegedly wrapped her up in duct tape every night for two-weeks.

Desaray Thompson was found not breathing at a home on Sunday, and officers' attempts to revive her using CPR were tragically unsuccessful.

The child's mother Kelly Ballinger, 33, and her boyfriend, Matthew Longenecker, 34, had restrained the little girl at night for a period of two weeks, detectives said.

They wrapped her up in blankets then duct tape before putting her to bed, Kalamazoo County District Court heard.

Sheriff

NYPD cop fired for throwing his semen on a female co-worker

NYPD badge
Former NYPD sergeant Michael Iscenko is facing charges of third-degree sex abuse, after he was accused of flinging his semen at a female co-worker. Not only has the victim come forward to testify against Iscenko, but there is also video and DNA evidence against him, proving that he is guilty of the crime.

The footage that has surfaced since the event shows the former officer sneaking up behind an office worker in the NYPD building, and launching some type of liquid substance onto her leg before running out of the office.

On the stand, the victim told the jury that, "I turned back because I felt someone behind me and when I turned back, Michael, he was behind me."

"I saw Mike behind me and told him, 'Ewww! Why did you do that?' in disgust, and he just looked at me and walked to his office," she said.

The victim also reported that Iscenko had sexually harassed her on multiple other occasions.

Pistol

Las Vegas police kill knife-wielding carjacker

las vegas suspect
© Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department released bodycam footage of the fatal shooting of a knife-wielding suspect who attempted to steal a car before repeatedly stabbing himself with his own weapon.

Assistant Sheriff Todd Fasulo held a press conference Thursday in which he described the incident in detail before showing security camera and bodycam footage of the entire scene. It was the 11th officer-involved shooting in Las Vegas in 2017.

This incident took place Tuesday July 11, at 1:08pm when officer William Pollock, 56, a 16-year veteran of the police force, responded to a 911 call about an attempted carjacking by a man wielding a 10-inch knife.

Blaylock fled the scene and was met by Pollock at approximately 1:26pm. Despite repeated commands to stop and drop the knife, Blaylock continued to approach the vehicle going so far as to grab the door with his free hand.

Cross

No snowflakes allowed! Pope Francis posts 'no whining' sign outside door to his residence

pope francis
© Max Rossi / Reuters
Pope Francis has made his opinion on complainers very clear, posting a 'No Whining' sign on the door to his Vatican residence. It goes on to stress that the "penalty" is worsened if done in front of children.

Underneath the 'No Whining' warning is a description of the typical symptoms experienced by those who choose to complain all the time.
"Violators are subject to a syndrome of always feeling like a victim and the consequent reduction of your sense of humor and capacity to solve problems," the sign states in Italian, as quoted by Reuters.

It goes on to state that "the penalty is doubled if the violation take[s] place in the presence of children. To get the best out of yourself, concentrate on your potential and not on your limitations.

"Stop complaining and take steps to improve your life," it concludes.

War Whore

If Trump's tweet about working constructively with Russia bothers you, you're a neocon warmonger maniac

trump putin handshake
© Whitehouse.gov
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with U.S. President Donald Trump at the G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7, 2017.
America's WWE Hall-of-Famer internet troll president — currently lurking at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue because that's how spectacularly unelectable the heiress to the Clinton dynasty was and is — has just made a series of tweets celebrating a ceasefire negotiation in Syria and calling for a constructive relationship with Russia. If you have a problem with this, it is because you are a reprehensible neocon piece of s*** with whom I should not have to share a planet.

trump tweet syria ceasefire
No offense.

No Entry

New refugees to US to face stricter vetting after 50,000 yearly limit reached

refugees trump
© Lucas Jackson / Reuters
President Donald Trump's administration has surpassed the limit of 50,000 refugees allowed into the US for this fiscal year. Incoming refugees will still be admitted into the country, if they meet stricter constraints.

Last month, the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to allow refugees to make their way into the country past the limit of 50,000 people, if those people can show a "bona fide relationship" to someone in the US, according to court documents.

The cap on refugees was met July 12, a spokesman for the US State Department confirmed, CBS News reported.

The department has also notified resettlement agencies that the cap on the limit of refugees coming into the country had already been met, but others heading into the US would still be allowed to come in.