Streetsboro, Ohio: Man walks into a bank and hands the teller a note demanding money. He leaves with money (with dye pack) and his note and flees in dark colored Escort. Police pull over a black Ford Escort and find in the vehicle a .38-caliber pistol and a wad of cash covered in red ink. Police handcuff the now suspect and escort him back to the cruiser where the dashcam picks up the action. Police empty the content of the man’s pockets on to the hood. Man sees large square of white paper (presumed bank robbery note), leans over and gobbles it up. Investigators ask for the note – police review the video and voila! mystery solved.
Seems there’s a gang of fat collectors down in Peru. They harvest fat from dead humans and then sell it. Problem is they’re not harvesting it from cadavers – they’re murdering unfortunate fat folks. Sixty people are missing from two regions in Peru.
Police arrested four gang members and charged them with the murder of Abel Matos Aranda, after one of them was caught with a container of human fat. Police had found a small container at a bus depot and picked up a suspect after he removed three bottles of the fat, which they suspect belonged to Aranda.
Other suspects: Elmer Segundo Castillejos Aguero, Hilario Cudena Simon and Enedina Estela Claudio.
They confessed to trafficking the human fat and they might also face drug charges.
There is a really weird twist involving “brujos,” the Spanish word for witches. Evidently it’s part of an “Andean mountain culture that believes bodies can be used to ward off evil and prevent disasters”.
The fat was sold in Peru and Europe for “commercial purposes”.
Still not sure what the fat was used for – cosmetics? – but they were paid $15,000 per liter of fat.
How fat are people in Peru?
Think of the market they’d have in the US.
An enterprising plastic surgeon in California, Dr C. Alan Bittner, specialized in “green liposuction”. He was recycling the lipo’d fat from his patients to use as fuel for his vehicle.
Yes, I’m a Cubfan. But being a Cubfan means you’re first and foremost a fan of the game, which includes respecting history.
On the heels of his perfect game, Mark Buehrle (11-4) went 5 2/3 more perfect innings before giving up a walk and ultimately losing the game – leaving after retiring only two more batters.
Last time out it was 27 in a row Devil Rays for the 18th perfect game in MLB history. No pitcher has ever thrown back to back perfect games and only one (s Johnny VanderMeer in 1938) has thrown back to back no hitters.
In 2007, Buehrle pitched a no-hitter and Bobby Jenks (reliever) tied the record for retiring 41 in a row. (Jim Barr 1972 also) To break it, Buehrle had he had to retire former teammate Joe Crede, who obliged by hitting a one hop grounder to short that ended with a nice scoop by Konerko. Jenks smiled and applauded.
Buehrle had the 46th batter 0-2 but ended up walking him and then gave up the no-hitter with the next batter. His shut out ended with a fly to left that should have been caught by Podsednik.
Hey PIQUANT. That’s pretty funny. No, Secretary Clinton was not required to put barry’s faux presidential campaign seal [or even the real one] on her sling. It was the State Department Seal and it was used to cover up the logo of the sling manufacturer. I don’t know firsthand how the elbow is doing but if you look here her fingers are not swollen and this pix was from weeks ago (7-7). In her foreign policy speech (7-15), she was gesturing and almost fully extended her elbow but was still not shaking hands. If you have time watch just a minute of that speech and be reminded what presidential bearing looks like and what it means to give a speech – as in having some clue what one is saying instead of just reading off a teleprompter. The substance of the speech is worth hearing as well – the text is there. She also takes unscreened questions without having to have a primetime press conference.
And, yes, I saw that video clip on hardball where she was asked about running for president. Howie and Simon go off like she brought the subject up. The question was from a woman in THAILAND and even she chuckles. I’ll track the video down.
barry came out of the dugout and went over to a golf cart where St Louis great Stan Musial was sitting. He took the ball and then jogged out to the mound. His toss was marginally better than his bowling. Albert Pujols stretched forward to catch the pitch before it bounced.
[When they interviewed Pujols - not related to barry - he looked like a kid. He looked like the old-timers did. Nice to see someone actually show a love for the game - not just the fame and money - which of course he already has. I hope he is clean.]
barry was wearing his White Sox jacket. Why?
Everyone knows I’m a White Sox fan and my wife thinks I look cute in this jacket. Between those two things – why not?
Not a very good view of the pitch.
cjk002
barry then had to go into the booth like the other presidents. Nobody can beat Ronald Reagan at Wrigley with Harry Caray.
His excuse for his lob:
I did not play organized baseball when I was a kid and so, you know, I think some of these natural moves aren’t so natural to me.
Throwing a baseball? He’s never thrown a baseball or softball around with his girls? Secret Service come in handy:
We did a little practicing in the Rose Garden. This is as much fun as I’ve had in quite some time.
barry threw out the first pitch when the White Sox played the Angels in the 2005 AL championship series. He took credit for them winning the World Series.
You know, my general strategy the last time I threw a pitch was at the American League Championship Series and I just wanted to keep it high. Now, there was no clock on it, I don’t know how fast it went — but if it exceeded 30 miles per hour, I’d be surprised. But it did clear the plate.
When you’re a senator, they show you no respect so they just hand you the ball. You don’t get a chance to warm up. Here, at least they had me down with Pujols in the batting cage, practicing a little bit.
The coolest thing was barry picked up Willie Mays and shuttled him to St Louis in Air Force One. That must have been such an experience for him. A man who lived segregation even as a Major Leaguer and played with men who came up through the Negro Leagues (Ernie Banks, for one) got to fly with barry.
Here’s Mr Mays answering a few questions on Air Force One. He talks about how he never thought a man “of his race” would be president.
What did he tell barry?
Follow through. He’ll be fine. I guarantee it.
Mark Buehrle, who grew up a Cardinal fan and still lives in the area, was the only Sox player. I’m sure they put him in in the third inning so barry could watch. 9 pitches – 7 strikes – 3 batters – 3 outs – including Pujols.
BUEHRLE: [Obama] came in and shook everybody’s hand. He said he was going to wear a White Sox jacket and I thought he was [kidding]. I was real surprised. I looked out and said, ‘Holy cow, he’s actually doing it.’ Everybody around me was giving me a hard time.
Bottom of the fourth barry took off in his motorcade.
MLB Commissioner BUD SELIG:
It’s a big thing. The players will enjoy it. The fans will enjoy it. But it’s another testament to the meaning of this sport. We are a social institution and whether we want to admit it or not, and for years I don’t think baseball wanted to admit that, we do have enormous social responsibility, and clearly that intrigued the White House and the president.
Have to say I did not see this coming. Tallon’s been GM since June 2005 and the team has gone from crap to playing well against the Stanley Cup Champs in the playoffs. Yes, he screwed up the contracts but what else? And they got signed anyway without any problems.
But he [Tallon] came under fire last week for sending qualifying offers to restricted free agents late, causing them to be delivered after the deadline set by the NHL’s Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The eight players, including Kris Versteeg and Cam Barker, were all signed to contracts, and the NHL Players’ Association withdrew its grievance.
Tallon was in the final year of his contract and last Wednesday, in his first comments after the filing snafu, said he had not asked for a contract extension.
When asked if he planned to ask for an extension, Tallon said: “I have a contract. I’m not worried about it. I’ve been here for 32 years. I don’t see any reason to have to do that. That will take care of itself.”
I guess I don’t know enough of the history. What’s John McDonough think when he’s been trying to get the old Hawks back into the picture?
Stan Bowman – son of legendary Scotty Bowman – will be the new GM. Maybe it was part of Bowman Sr’s initial deal.
Bowman, the son of legendary NHL coach and current senior advisor for hockey operations Scotty Bowman, has been with the Hawks organization for eight seasons, including assistant general manager for the past two.
You both wondered the same thing. All is fine on the production end – where the posts ended up is another matter. 3 or 4 day’s worth of posts are missing. I’ve stopped checking because it’s too demoralizing. I didn’t notice until you wondered why there were so few posts lately. No idea what happened this time. We’ve had this problem ever since we moved here in December. Posts just vanishing. WP couldn’t figure it out either. A whole bunch of “Orly Taitz” posts disappeared a while back but never so many all at once and on so many different topics.
I would guess close to 30 are missing. I have no way of knowing because there are so many different things we post on. I don’t even know where to begin to figure out what’s gone unless a link comes up missing or I go looking for a post to link.
From what you mentioned I know these are missing: Letterman apology#2 transcript/video and a couple of other posts, olbermann palin rant, maddow birther rant and 3-4 related birth certificate, several Sotomayor including her speeches and abortion, Father Weslin/Notre Dame update, a lot of Susan Boyle, John Ruff’s death, Roland Burris, Dick Durbin stocks, blago and his wife, the whole Wright Jews are keeping me away, the whole michelle/escaped gorilla, a couple of double standard essays, a bunch of flight 1549 – Doreen Welsh, Drew Peterson, Iranian women, Adam Lambert, Nadya sperm donor, barry ambassadors, transparency, lies, Gibbs press briefings…
This is beyond depressing. Especially the ones that had transcripts. Kind of wish you hadn’t asked. I don’t know even where to begin or even if I want to since a lot of it’s dated now and I hadn’t been posting everything to the old site as backup. Some might be in the cache but who knows if they were posted long enough to get picked up.
I’ll see if I can find what you asked about specifically but I don’t know how long it’s going to take. Maybe I’ll just go on vacation instead. I’m not interested in redoing anything from scratch.
The first time I saw this footage, it struck me as disturbing. Still does and I’m not sure why. Not the fact that he killed the fly. It’s more the way he went about it…the satisfaction…the pride…the look on his face…the way he kept kicking it and that he didn’t wipe his hands. And then there’s the creepy cheering like it was unusual feat of physical prowess, his demanding it be filmed and the way he spoke to Gibbs. The whole thing is off. And why would the leader of the free world want to be videotaped killing a fly, kicking it and then gloating about it? And is there no one in the White House that thought twice about this getting on the internet?
I wondered if PETA would chime in. They did but only after the media kept bugging them.
As we all know, human beings often don’t think before they act. We don’t condemn President Obama for acting on instinct. When the media began contacting us in droves for a statement, we obliged, simply by saying that the president isn’t the Buddha and shouldn’t be expected to do everything right—if not for that, we would not have brought it up. It’s the media who are making a big deal about the fly swat—not PETA. However, we took the opportunity, when asked, to point out that we do offer lots of ways in which to control insects of all kinds without harming them, including the humane bug catcher we sent President Obama.
We can’t stop all suffering, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t stop any. Our wish is for all people to act wisely and mercifully toward animals.
CNBC via REUTERS
PRESIDENTIAL FLYKILLER
That was pretty impressive, wasn’t it? I got the sucker.
Why is it he can’t act that immediately and decisively about something that matters?
At least in Minnesota it does. Talk about juries gone wild.
32 y/o woman with 4 children, who works for an Indian tribe, illegally downloaded 24 99¢ songs.
[Article doesn't specify if she went on to distribute them or make a profit off them or if it was just personal use.]
Shock one – They take it to a jury trial.
Shock two – The jury finds her guilty and sets a penalty of $220,000.
Sanity: The judge throws out the judgment because an error in jury instructions. Perhaps about the appropriateness of the fine meeting the crime?
Shock three – Judge orders a retrial.
Insanity: Did consider how much $23.76 was eventually going to cost the taxpayers with a second trial? Or was he planning to add it on to a penalty the woman cannot in a million years pay?
Shock four – Jury finds her guilty and increases the penalty to $80,000 per 99¢ song = $1,900,000.
Shock five – Spokeswoman for the Recording Industry Association of America, states, in all seriousness:
We appreciate the jury’s service and that they take this as seriously as we do.
Insanity: Spokeswoman thinks theft of $23.76 warrants two trials and a penalty of $1,900,000.
Explanation: Notoriety of first such copyright infringement trial to make it to court.
After the appeals are exhausted, how much is $23.76 going to cost the individual taxpayer? More than the original $23.76?
And after all is said and done, how much will the process have cost the Recording Industry? More than $1,900,000?
Major bummer. Madame Secretary fell on her way into the WH and fractured her right elbow. She must have fallen directly on it. She was treated at George Washington Univ Hospital but will need to have it surgically repaired.
Secretary Clinton appreciates the professionalism and kindness she received from the medical team who treated her this evening and looks forward to resuming her full schedule soon.
We get a lot of searches that concern nakedness: women,”full frontal male nudity”, unspecified gender “twins”, people who have never been mentioned on this blog and most unsettling: “underage girls”. And why would anyone want to see Chris Matthews, Keith Olbermann or Stanley Dunham, barry’s grandfather, naked? Perhaps they meant his mother.
There is not a naked picture on this website – nor has there ever been – nor will there ever be. The closest is golfer Henrik Stenson stripped down to his skivvies to play a shot off a creek bank. And the title of the Larry King/Jim Carey video was Explicit! bubblebath video as a joke, which I just changed.
And with the other search terms that cannot be mentioned I’m wondering if our site is linked to some pornography site and if there is a way to determine this. I don’t think the name of the site could possibly be close to anything pornographic – but who knows. We get occasional referrals from Facebook – once listed as “Facebook/porn” but none of us belong to Facebook and it has never even been mentioned on this blog and I can’t get in there to check – not like I would want to see what it leads to. Also, Alexa says about 40% of our visits are from outside the US, which I don’t know how they would know, and I wonder if that might have something to do with it.
None of us are computer whizzes so any suggestions on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated.. Thank you.
How weird is this. An Iowa umpire ejected the entire crowd of 100 or so fans watching a high school baseball game and then called the police. Evidently the crowd was yelling and arguing with each other but the AP doesn’t say about what – like if it started with a bad call. None of the players were involved. Unkown is the make up of the crowd or the size of the two schools – Winfield-Mount Union and West Burlington – or whether they had a history of violence. The school superintendent of the winning schoo; (12-11) was in attendenace and said the umpire overreacted. No arrests were made.
It really is the eye of a needle. British artist WILLARD WIGAN makes these microsculptures aided by a microscope, which are invisible to the naked eye and take months to create…by hand. They don’t go into his exact technique. He started as a child creating houses for ants and then made them hats and shoes. He has dyslexia (he can’t read or write) and said it was a way to escape. Last year he sold 72 pieces to gym millionaire David Lloyd for £11.2million. He’s on tour in the US and will be in Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston.
All the pix came from the Daily Mail online except for the last, which came from his Wigan’s website. If you go to the Daily Mail you can enlarge the pix. Amazing detail on the Oscar. Video.
Obama family on the night of the election. Took 3 months.
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It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
Here’s a video about Willard Wigan who makes amazing microsculptures that fit in the eye of a needle or head of a pin. Watch how steady his hands are. He plucks dust motes out of the air, carves a grain of sand and paints with a hair off the back of (an already dead) fly. Here are some pix, including the election Obama family.
Under the mattress is not the only place folks hide things. And it seems stuffing your mattress with your life savings is not just a phrase. A daughter 0f an Israeli woman thought she would do something nice for mom. She spent the day cleaning and then decided that mom should have a new mattress. She carried the new one upstairs and hauled the old one down out to be hauled away. And that’s where the trouble began. It seems the mother was quite fond of her mattress. So fond, she had been stuffing it – literally – with cash for decades. Inside the mattress was the mother’s entire life savings…approximately $1M. Now they are scouring the garbage dumps with the help of security.
The mother: The heart is crying but you know we could have been in a car accident or had a terminal disease.
The daughter: It’s a very, very sad story but I’ve been through worse. It’s a matter of proportions in life … people need to know how to accept the good and the bad in life.
