Farmville infanticide

Recently, the Supreme Court has been debating suppressing violent games. There is clear evidence that they should be taking a closer look at the "innocent" Farmville (or, better yet, do nothing). We’re looking not only at Farmville, but also at South Korean game addictions and Supreme Comedy.

We do not believe that violent games cause violence anymore than so-called “click-games” the epitome of boredom and addiction on Facebook. As if to prove this assertion in the most vile manner, a Jacksonville Florida mother entered a guilty plea in the death of her son:

Alexandra V. Tobias, 22, was arrested after the January death of 3-month-old Dylan Lee Edmondson. She told investigators she became angry because the baby was crying while she was playing a computer game called FarmVille on the Facebook social-networking website. She told investigators the baby cried loudly as she played the game, which prosecutor Richard Mantei identified as FarmVille, a simulation game in which players raise crops and livestock with the help of Facebook friends.

Furthermore,

Tobias then put the baby on the couch and stepped out for a cigarette to regain her composure, the arrest report says. When she came back in, the family dog knocked the baby off the couch. The crying started again and Tobias shook the baby a second time before calling for an ambulance, the arrest report says. (..) She told the judge she'd graduated from high school. Court papers say she went to Samuel W. Wolfson Senior High School in Jacksonville. The paperwork also said Tobias did not have a job. (..) According to court records, her child abuse arrest violated a six-month probation she began serving just a few weeks before after pleading no contest to a domestic battery charge.

Farmville may have had other, even more counterintuitive effects. A story from just a few days ago in SeattleWeekly suggests that 27 y.o. Gary A. Veldhuizen from Ferndale, FarmVille player, pleaded guilty to raping a goat (i.e., bestiality):

The billy buggering took place at a farm near Enterprise Road at Willeys Lake Road in May. Apparently a family member caught Veldhuizen in mid-shag and called sheriff's deputies who came and arrested him. Veldhuizen's Facebook page shows the pudgy Ferndalian's love of ranch life extends to the virtual world as well, as he is a big fan of the game FarmVille. One of the more recent posts says he wants to "share some grape bushels with you."

Incidentally, Farmville has also other similar “click” games, one involving Mafia and organized crime, but that game has yet to result in someone’s death.

South Korea Online

Sad as it may be, this is not the first time addictive, non-violent games were involved in the death of children. Only a few months earlier, in February-March 2010, a South-Korean couple was arrested for starving their 3-month-old prematurely born daughter.

Once a day, between 12-hour stretches at a neighborhood Internet cafe, they fed their baby.  Instead of nurturing their own daughter, they became obsessed with raising a virtual child in the popular role-playing game called Prius Online. The couple were arrested in Suwon, a suburb of Seoul, 5 months after reporting the death of their baby.  The baby’s autopsy showed that she’d died due to a long period of malnutrition. (..) This is the dirty underbelly of South Korea’s fast and cheap Internet connections.  Over the last ten years, there have been many stories of Internet addiction and compulsive gaming leading to serious consequences and even death. In 2007, South Korea established an Internet addiction camp to help people overcome their addiction to the Internet.

According to PBS, in the more than 20000 Korean “PC Bangs” (i.e., Internet cafes), the more time you spend playing, the less you pay:

• Roughly 50 percent of South Koreans play games regularly, and 75 percent of gamers prefer online games
• Currently, the most played game in Korean "PC bangs" (Internet cafes) is Aion, a massively multiplayer online role playing game. It is due for release in the U.S. in fall 2009.
• In December 2008, the Korean government announced it would invest $237 million in the game industry to help expand gaming exports, which topped $1 billion for the first time in 2008.
• The South Korean online games market is expected to exceed $1.7 billion by the end of 2009
• Korea hosted the first Global Online Game Awards in 2008
• One-third of South Korea's population of 48 million has registered to play the game KartRider at least once
• Video game consoles, such as Sony PlayStation or Nintendo Wii, are less popular than PC games, in part because of widely available broadband Internet and a previous ban on Japanese cultural imports.

In 2005, a 28-year-old Korean man died after playing Starcraft almost non-stop for 50 hours. He inspired (or was he inspired by) the South Park WoW episode. He had just been fired for playing games too much. The government solution is Jump Up Internet Rescue School, a boot camp to cure online gaming addiction. According to New York Times,

South Korea boasts of being the most wired nation on earth. In fact, perhaps no other country has so fully embraced the Internet. Ninety percent of homes connect to cheap, high-speed broadband, online gaming is a professional sport, and social life for the young revolves around the “PC bang,” dim Internet parlors that sit on practically every street corner. (..) Up to 30 percent of South Koreans under 18, or about 2.4 million people, are at risk of Internet addiction, said Ahn Dong-hyun, a child psychiatrist at Hanyang University in Seoul who just completed a three-year government-financed survey of the problem. (..) To address the problem, the government has built a network of 140 Internet-addiction counseling centers, in addition to treatment programs at almost 100 hospitals and, most recently, the Internet Rescue camp, which started this summer. Researchers have developed a checklist for diagnosing the addiction and determining its severity, the K-Scale. (The K is for Korea.)

NYT offers even insight into how such addictions get started:

One participant, Lee Chang-hoon, 15, began using the computer to pass the time while his parents were working and he was home alone. He said he quickly came to prefer the virtual world, where he seemed to enjoy more success and popularity than in the real one. He spent 17 hours a day online, mostly looking at Japanese comics and playing a combat role-playing game called Sudden Attack. He played all night, and skipped school two or three times a week to catch up on sleep. When his parents told him he had to go to school, he reacted violently. Desperate, his mother, Kim Soon-yeol, sent him to the camp. “He didn’t seem to be able to control himself,” said Mrs. Kim, a hairdresser. “He used to be so passionate about his favorite subjects” at school. “Now, he gives up easily and gets even more absorbed in his games.” Her son was reluctant at first to give up his pastime. “I don’t have a problem,” Chang-hoon said in an interview three days after starting the camp. “Seventeen hours a day online is fine.” But later that day, he seemed to start changing his mind, if only slightly.

The Supremes

In USA and especially California, addiction is not seen as a problem. The “problem” is solely violent games. Recently, the Governator signed a strict law to control game violence, a law eventually appealed by a Game producers association all the way to the Supreme Court. The hearings were, according to the Hollywood reporter, cause for comedy:

1. Justice Alito getting a sly dig at his colleague over "original intent" in the U.S. Constitution: "I think what Justice Scalia wants to know is what James Madison thought about video games. Did he enjoy them?"
2. Justice Kagan, the junior member of the high court, trying to show she's hip: "You think Mortal Kombat is prohibited by this statute? It's a candidate, meaning, a reasonable jury could find that Mortal Kombat, which is an iconic game, which I am sure half of the clerks who work for us spent considerable amount of time in their adolescence playing."
3. Justice Breyer creating, excuse the pun, a tortured metaphor about a 13-year-old playing video games depicting violence: "I have tried to take as bad a [scenario] as I could think of, gratuitous torture of children. OK. Now, you can't buy a naked woman, but you can go and buy that, you say to the 13-year-old. Now, what sense is there to that?"
4. Justice Scalia muses about whether it would be a good thing to let juries act as censors: "Juries are not controllable. That's the wonderful thing about juries, also the worst thing about juries."
5. Just about anything out of the mouth of Justice Sotomayor, including these questions:

• "One of the studies, the Anderson study, says that the effect of violence is the same for a Bugs Bunny episode as it is for a violent video. So can the legislature now, because it has that study, say we can outlaw Bugs Bunny?"
• "Could you get rid of rap music? Have you heard some of the lyrics of some of the rap music...?"
• "Would a video game that portrayed a Vulcan as opposed to a human being, being maimed and tortured, would that be covered by the act?"
• "So if the video producer says this is not a human being, it's an android computer simulated person, then all they have to do is put a little artificial feature on the creature and they could sell the video game?"
• "What happens when the character gets maimed, head chopped off and immediately after it happens they spring back to life and they continue their battle? Is that covered by your act?"

It seems to me that Schwarzenegger, though not a big fan of such a law, signed it stating “children must be protected” not because he believes that, but rather because he thinks that reason is unconvincing for parents. All hopes that such ill-conceived legislation will be stopped so that it does not push game development to Asia rest now with the Supreme Court.

Video: PBS: Digital Nation: Life on the Virtual Frontier, 1 Game Too Many, sp-mlnw, sp-s10e08-inside

Sources / More info: [yt-fv-parody], [yt-fv-tr], [yt-h8-fv], [yt-h8-fv], [yt-h8-fv], [yt-fv-prblm], [yt-h8-fv], [yt-h8-fv], [Supreme Court], SC-hearing, Jacksonville-mom, jacksonville-sentencing, huff-j, /.-exodus, /.-sc, atlantic-arnold, nxtwb-sk, st-kd, nyt-kbc, gzm-bsy, Kogia-study, wiki-lv,notwc, sw-veldhuizen, fb-veldhuizen, bbc-spanish-piglet

VerbaVolant, farmville, violence, game, games, online, online games, supreme court, supremes, mmog, mmorpg, massive multiplayer, massively multiplayer, schwartzenegger

Daul Kim – the penetrable beauty

Daul Kim, Karl Lagerfeld muse, has passed away. Requiescat In Pace, Daul!

I wish I could tell you why she did it, but I don’t know. The best I can do is try to figure it out and speculate. Her death reminds me of Ruslana Korshunova’s suicide, who was also beautiful beyond belief yet empty inside, suffered from depression and apparently chose to end her life.

There are some troubling circumstances surrounding Ruslana’s death. Her family raised questions but the police was unwilling to oblige. Her hair had suddenly become shorter, and her body was not where it would have ended up after a fall from her apartment.

Daul Kim’s death is however more likely a suicide. She is the 9th Korean celebrity to commit suicide this year. She was fascinated by kinky Klaus Kinski (the deliciously crazy German actor) and collected forks as a hobby. She was also a painter. But despite these outlets, she felt a void in her existence. She had quit school at 15.

As far back as 2007 she had left often violent posts of self angst related to self-mutilation and suicide and, exhausted in April 2007, had posted “I am going to smash my face… My life as daul was so miserable and lonely. Please join my loneliness in another world. I love you all. Daul.” She then added. “KIDDING. I'm fine. Just tired.”

Find a playlist with the soundtrack to her death below.

Sources / More info: telegraph, wiki-daul, wiki-ruslana, blog, yt-ruslana, yt-music, yt-daul

.

VerbaVolant, model, models, modeling, modelling, ruslana, daul, daul kim, ruslana korshunova, suicide, murder, mdk, beauty, inxs, michael hutchence, michael hutchense

Natalie Wood, truth drowned

I finally heard a few days ago news that I longed to hear ever since reading about the weird circumstances of Natalie Wood’s death.

Amy Winehouse, 27, found dead

Though we’re all saddened by Amy Winehouse’s joining “Club 27”, I reminisce about some of her songs and also remember other similar deaths.

2010 Darwin Awards

The Darwin website has published the results of the annual vote and accordingly gave out its prizes. As almost every year, there’s also a book: Chlorinating the Gene Pool.

The prizes are given each year to commemorate those who improve our gene pool by removing themselves from it:

DOUBLE DIP (2009 runner up - 7.4, 2074 votes)

For the first time ever, a woman--yes, a member of the safer sex--made it into the year's Top Darwin Awards Contenders! 2009 Antepenultimate Winner is the North Carolina woman who jumped into a swollen creek to rescue her drowning...moped.

On June 3, Greensboro was inundated and cars were stranded on flooded roads. Rosanne T., 50, hopped on her moped and drove the convenience store where she “possibly had a beer,”, according to her mother, to whom she said on the phone “my moped has two rubber wheels, Mom, I'll be fine”. Ms T had acquired her moped 2 years ago after a DUI conviction suspended her driving license. The roads were blocked, but she drove right past the Highway Patrol and road blocks then promptly fell into the creek. The officer rescued her, then she jumped again never to resurface. Her mother thought that it was the moped’s fault: "She loved that thing." (da)

DYING TO GO (2009 runner up - 7.8, 247 votes)

We've all been in his shoes, taking that fateful whiz at the side of the road. After all, "You don't buy beer, you just rent it." Wanting to take a leak while stuck in traffic, Shawn M. got out of the car on that fateful April 12, 2008 day near Pompano Beach, Fla. He then proceeded to jump over the low concrete wall and fell 65 feet to his death, as the car was idling on an overpass above the railroad. "Shawn didn't do a whole lot for a living. He got along on his charm, just like his father" explained his mother. Look before you leak! (da)

CRUSHING DEBT (2009 Darwin award winner - 7.7, 202 votes)

And the winner is... deceased! The city of Dinant, Belgium on September 26 is the backdrop for this rare Double Darwin Award involving two bank robbers attempting to make a sizeable withdrawal from an ATM. Overestimating the amount of dynamite needed, they actually demolished the bank building and perished in the event. In hindsight, a debit card would have been safer.(da)

PRIEST VISITS BOSS (2008 Darwin award winner)

Finally, we retroactively announce a new Darwin Award Winner from 2008, posted too late to earn that year's top spot. The most popular story of the year 2008, beloved by millions of fans, presenting the ludicrous case of the Balloon Priest, Adelir Antonio. He wanted to publicize his plan to build spiritual rest stops for truck drivers where no hookers are allowed so he tried to set a record for clustered balloon flight. Though he packed a survival suit, used a buoyant chair, had a satellite phone and GPS and could have parachuted while over land, he did not manage to set his record, as you have to survive in order to be considered. He could have parachuted while over land but didn’t. He eventually called the coast guard, but his cell phone died while he fiddled with the GPS unit. He probably did the same shortly thereafter. (da)

 

The actual votes and marks seem to be slightly different than the above:

Sparkleberry Lane 7.8 (297 votes) July 31, South Carolina

• 23-y.o. James T. painted his face gold to rob a store. He died from pain toxicity.

Saw It Coming! 7.7 (2136 votes) June 27, New York (possible urban story)

• Miecyskaw Mil, 64, angry over a power brownout, decided to cut a live powerline with his circular saw. Police and firefighters guarding it tried to stop him, but he “won”.

Tennessee Pee 7.7 (736 votes) mid-80s, Middle T State Univ

• A young frat boy gained entry to an electrical installation and seeing a wasp nest hanging from a transformer, climbed on top of it and peed. (possible urban story)

Painkiller 7.6 (574 votes) October 26, 17 - Minnesota

• Lucas William Stenning, 32, avoided registration –required for predatory offenders- by leaping from a moving vehicle and dying. He was trying to get hospitalized in order to get painkillers.

Trifecta Electra 7.4 (995 votes) October 12, Florida

• A Palm Bay couple and their 15-y.o son were putting up a ham radio antenna one evening and hit a power line lurking on top.

She Talks Faster Than She Walks 7.3 (2313 votes) May 30, Louisiana

• Tamera B, 22, claimed that he BF wasn’t driving fast enough, so she opened the door and stuck her foot out while the vehicle was on the highway at normal speed.

Wetting The Bed 6.5 (307 votes) October 27, Arkansas

• Devan LeAnn, 31 decided to “float” on a swelling lake on a egg-crate style mattress which is non-buoyant, “vanishing from sight” shortly thereafter.

Fool's Gold 6.5 (566 votes) February 5, India

• Pravin Kuse dreamed that a pot of gold is buried under his house, an abandoned 100-year-old building. He dug a 15 feet tunnel in a rather long time, which eventually caved in, burying him alive.

Race To The Bottooommm 6.2 (1578 votes) September 5, Oregon

• Jake, 18, went down Saddle Mountain in a “controlled slide” down the cliff face. His body came to rest in a steep ravine 1000 feet below.

Missed (But Not Missed By) The Bus 6.2 (280 votes) August 13, Quebec

• A 24-y.o. woman tried to flag down a bus she had just missed by jumping into a restricted area of a bus terminal. She did not succeed.

Collateral Damage 5.6 (2462 votes) April 30, York, UK

• A 41-y.o. attempted to demolish a large brick garden and succombed to a cement slab.

Nutty Putty Cave 5.5 (385 votes)

• Made of soft brown clay, this naturally formed thermal cave is 1400 feet long. John J., a veteran spelunker, went into a small cavity head-first and never came out, despite 137 trying to save him. He died after 27 painful hours.

Sources / More info: www.darwinawards.com, amazon-darwin, yt-DA-puku, yt-DA-gnooble

VerbaVolant, darwin, darwin awards, premiile darwin, prosti, stupizi, morti stupide, stupid death, deaths, accidents, accidental, accidental death, suicide

top 10 causes of die-offs

Whenever I drive around with my hunter friend watching the wild geese on Canadian roads, he tells me that "you can never go hungry in this country; look at'em!". Then the hunting season starts and I don't hear from him for a while..

Chef bowels consumed by eel

In a prank that's gone horribly wrong, a man succumbed to his own drunkenness and his friends' idiocy.

The hapless chef fell victim to a prank while drunk in the Sichuan, China. Doctors extracted the creature from the 59 year-old’s rectum after his death. The eel had devoured his bowels.

Apparently, this eel is an amazing survivor, being able to move even over dry land. It can even survive temperatures below freezing, months without water. It is mostly found in warm fresh-waters locations such as muddy ponds, swamps, canals, and rice fields. And now, in dead chefs’ rectums.

Considered a voracious predator, little is known about this fish:

Locals of Thailand report that the female swamp eel watches over the eggs until they hatch. Young swamp eels reportedly stay at the surface of the water in shallow areas and group together in dense schools as the female stands guard by observing their surroundings. Although it is unknown whether the female defends the young from predators, observations have shown that a protective nature is prevalent. This fish is known to have a hearty appetite and feed on a wide assortment of prey. The Synbranchus marmoratus, which is another swamp eel found in Central America and the northern part of South America, is known for it's interesting color changes. Aquarium observers have reported that these color changes are related to the different states of the fish and ranges from brown, blue to black with a violet sheen. Swamp eels are used for human consumption in areas where they are found and often sold live in market places since they can survive without water for extended periods of time.

Sources / More info: sun-eel, wiki-monopterus-albus, swamp-eel-FAQ, eels-what-r,

VerbaVolant, eel, fish, prank, death, mdk

Better suicides

Every month, a significant number of Afghan women choose to end their marriage and “hopefully” life through self-immolation. There is yet another way of interpreting this Al-Jazeera video..

Afghan women are so frustrated at the abuse suffered in the hands of their fathers or husbands that they choose to burn themselves rather than continue to live like that (self-immolation). This involves pouring petrol on top of their head and setting themselves on fire. This is a particularly painful way to die. The few who survive, are condemned to live a much shorter life in atrocious physical pain. Furthermore, in a failed state such as Afghanistan, it is unlikely that anybody can take care of them, so they most likely end up in the care of those whose “will to power” they were trying to escape.

While horrifying, the situation described by the Arab TV network Al-Jazeera seems to suggest a better way to die for would-be suiciders. Rather than burn yourself in a slow, painful death like Afghan women, one could choose the much more civilised Western way. It’s the way warrior westerners die – namely in long, drawn-out, vitality consuming, never-ending, Kafkaesque trials. Or the alternative reserved for Muslims: imprisonment at Gitmo, or CIA renditions to torturing states.

Sources / More info: rferl-afghan, wpr-afghan, rawa-march-8, yt-self-immolation

VerbaVolant, suicide, discrimination, sexism, afghan, status, women, woman, arab, muslim, islam, feminism, self-immolation, burning, death, kafka, kafkian, kafkaesque

Toilet brush jammed in her butt = death

A woman died in UK as a result of doctors' attempts to remove a toilet brush handle from her buttock.

The original story leaves much to the imagination (photo added by us):

Cindy Corton, 35, was left with the bizarre injury after a drunken fall in a friend's bathroom in 2005. She was twice seen by hospital staff in the aftermath of the incident and an X-ray was carried out. But an inquest heard it took Mrs Corton, of Sleaford, Lincolnshire, two years to convince doctors that the handle was lodged in flesh of her bottom. By then what should have been a routine procedure to remove it had become much more dangerous. After two unsuccessful operations in 2007, Mrs Corton underwent further, much riskier surgery and died from massive blood loss at Nottingham's Queen's Medical Centre in June last year. Recording a narrative verdict, coroner Stuart Fisher criticised Dr Killian Mbewe, who first examined Mrs Corton at Grantham hospital. After the inquest, husband Peter Corton said: "Cindy got a very poor service from the NHS. "I'm sure she would have got better treatment in foreign countries."

This seems to be a case of doctors assuming that the patient is crazy and refusing to do their job. Yet the assumption that the situation would somehow ameliorate in a pay-per-use system is false. The main problem is that MDs, like lawyers, are a self-governing profession. They have no direct responsibility to the public – only to other MDs. As long as their colleagues vouch for them and they maintain good relationships with others in their profession, it does not matter how they treat their patients or whether they serve their patients at all – they are guaranteed to carry on.

Sources / More info: telegraph, Davis

VerbaVolant, butt, ass, buttocks, toilet, brush, handle, death, doctor, doctors, MD, NHS

Arabic and Anal Sex

Today I was going to tell some bloggers important things about life, but then I thought I put it here.

Europe wealthiest, like a French suicide

If you're like me, you're almost conditioned to whisper "fries" the moment someone says French (you might also say kiss, but that usually happens when you're close to losing your virginity; I'm not).

Boston Consulting Group is elbowing out Forbes magazine with wealth statistics and hierarchies, claiming that Europe has elbowed out North America to become the wealthiest region in the world, which happens first since 2003. Here’s the numbers:

World’s wealth is down to USD 92.4-trillion in 2008 from 104.7-trillion in the previous year, trend side-stepped by Latin America, which is the only region where assets under management increased 3%. Though millionaire households fell by 17.8% to 9 million, USA still has the most millionaire households – nearly 4 million. Singapore rules in terms of concentration of millionaires, with 8.5% of households being there. Europe’s Singapore, from this perspective, is Switzerland, which also is world’s largest offshore centre. Apparently, wealth has started to grow again at the end of 2008, will increase about 4% p.a. and will catch up with pre-crisis levels in 2013.

Interestingly, Europe has become the wealthiest just as the poor narrowed the gap, say WSJ:

The crisis also narrowed the gap between the wealthy and non-wealthy, with wealth owned by households with less than $100,000 in assets increasing by 2% last year, but declining in all other segments.

Europe nudged ahead because it only fell 5.8% (which compares positively to North America’s 21.8%). This is most likely because North America (USA+Canada) have the most wealth in stocks.

You might wonder (I did!) what are the Europeans doing with their new wealth?

You wanna make it / Suicide France

There have been 22 suicides at France Telecom since 2008 and 13 attempts. This has prompted CEO Didier Lombard to claim he will do everything he could to “stop the infernal spiral”.

The unions blame chronic restructuring and work pressure at France Telecom for the wave of suicides, saying that some staffers are being left behind in the firm's transformation from a staid government agency to a private company with profit targets and intense competition. The pace of incidents at the firm which employees 102,000 staff in France, has picked up lately, with a man stabbing himself in the stomach during a staff meeting on Wednesday and a woman throwing herself out of a window on Friday, the company said. (…) France Telecom also announced other measures, such as a temporary halt to relocations and reassignments as well as 100 additional human resources staffers to monitor employees.

Suicides are definitely bad for business, unless they are a song by INXS. For example, when Gary Hoy - the Toronto lawyer who won a Darwin Award for throwing himself against windows until one gave in – died, his firm also eventually closed shop. I guess it just wasn’t the same without him.

The jump from death to sex is small. The French actually make it very often – perhaps top five in Europe – calling orgasm “the little death”. So it should come as no surprise that the Swiss (who include a sizable French and German speaking population) have combined cadavers and sex in a show..

Gunther von Hagens and his wife Angelina Whalley show corpses prepared using a technique invented by von Hagens called "plastination," that removes water from specimens and preserves them with silicon rubber or epoxy resin. "It's not my intention to show certain sexual poses. My goal is really to show the anatomy and the function," Body Worlds creative director Whalley told Reuters in an interview, adding the sex exhibition may open next year.

USA tightens the screw

While the Swiss indulge in the confluence of their national fetishes, prudish USA indulges its own favourite pastime: bacteria obsessions and denying help to the poor because of sexual hang-ups.

The guys in the image went to ACORN, a poverty advocacy group dressed like conservatives pimp & prostitute. Though they are certainly dressed weird, if I were to see them on the street I’d be thinking they’re trying their Halloween costumes early. To me, they are unconvincing, but then again, I don’t meet pimps and prostitutes all the time. If they were to walk into my office, I’d think that they’re playing a prank and it’s a test. I might even think that it’s a test done by leftists (or “liberals”, as some call them), so I’d play along accordingly

It seems that many conservatives had a beef with ACORN, whom they accused of voter fraud because this group canvassed and help many of the poor register to vote.

O'Keefe, who majored in philosophy at Rutgers University, said he and Giles funded the project themselves. This kind of undercover, guerrilla tactic is the "future of investigative journalism and political activism," he said. Inspired by "Rules for Radicals," Saul Alinsky's bible for rabble-rousing, more often associated with the left, O'Keefe said he has been targeting and exposing the "absurdities of the enemy by employing their own rules and language." "If you can make impossible demands on your enemy, you can destroy them," he said. So he began using a hidden camera "in a location I'd rather not disclose" and started visiting ACORN offices around the Northeast.

See their video below.

As for getting clean, the shower scene, so overused in horror movies, has now a newfound lease on life: germs lurking in the showerhead can give you lung infections. Apparently, an analysis of 50 showerheads from 9 US cities done by University of Colorado at Boulder found that about 30% harboured high levels of Mycobacterium avium. After scaring almost every American, they declared:

"This really shouldn't concern average, healthy people. The main concern is for people who are immune-compromised," researcher Leah Feazel told Reuters Health. The findings, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, are based on tests of about 50 showerheads taken from nine U.S. cities, including New York, Denver and Chicago. The researchers said showerheads are not the only potential bacterial dispersants in the home, however. Feazel said more research is needed to measure bacteria levels in household devices like humidifiers and evaporative coolers.

Sources / More info: france-suicide, gm-europe-wealthiest, pimp-hooker-nyp, telegraph-mit-rickrolled, wsj-europe, wiki-garry-hoy, us-showerheads, suicide-blonde-INXS

Verba Volant,europe, europa, european, wealth, economy, economic crisis, tradeoff, trading block, eec, nafta, france, french kiss, french

Michael Jackson is dead – le Roi (du pop) est mort

..vive Madonna! Unfortunately, the news, initially brought to us by TMZ and disseminated like crazy by the twittersphere, are true. He died of a heart attack at 50 years old.

He passed away in the mansion the promoters of his new concert. The paramedics, called by a staff member, found him not breathing and all efforts to resuscitate him were in vain. He was 50 and was on some sort of medication which may have acted to end his life. Michael leaves behind 3 children: Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., Paris Michael Katherine Jackson and Prince "Blanket" Michael Jackson II. He was married to Elvis' daughter, Lisa-Marie.

I too was raped by Michael!

.. but I liked it and I did not sue. I used to be electrified by his music and dance moves up until about his Bad & Moowalking albums. I liked the music on the latter, but he was nowhere to be seen – he emerged later on completely changed. Nobody knows for sure if the children who accused him of sexual assault were honest or were just trying to scam money out of him, pushed by their parents. There is a strong possibility that he was (just) sleeping with them out of a desire for affection and in a futile attempt to live the childhood he never had. This is not a behavior one would expect from a man but his childhood was wasted in endless performances. Joe Jackson, his father, is accused by some of having been obsessed to make money. He once launched his signature beverage, Joe Cola, which you can see in one of Janet's videos. In addition, his Michael’s idol, Diana Ross, whom he tried to emulate, was a motherly person.

The concert in Bucharest or'92 is considered one of the most successful broadcast on HBO and had the best ratings of that network until then. Another significant milestone (other than, of course, Thriller) was his interview with Oprah at Neverland. When asked “are you a virgin?” Michael, visibly shaken, asked in his infantile voice: “Oprah, how can you ask such a question?”. Today, Oprah is the highest rated talk show, and an appearance on Oprah virtually guarantees mainstream acceptance, but back then, it wasn’t so clear who is launching whom.

Constantly assaulted by reporters, he once said:

Why not just tell people I'm an alien from Mars. Tell them I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight. They'll believe anything you say, because you're a reporter. But if I, Michael Jackson, were to say, "I'm an alien from Mars and I eat live chickens and do a voodoo dance at midnight", people would say, "Oh, man, that Michael Jackson is nuts. He's cracked up. You can't believe a damn word that comes out of his mouth.

Paul McCartney

A few very good songs came out of the father – son collaboration between McCartney and Jackson. What few know is that Paul taught Michael how to profit from copyright by acquiring old songs and renting them out. Michael applied this knowledge to a few songs by Beatles and using them in ways that Paul did not approve. Their relationship soured and did not recover.

This is it

Known as “a millionaire who spends like a billionaire”, Michael had made huge debts. He was hoping to get back in black with the O2 - This is it concerts. His perfectionism and most likely fear of failure made him postpone them four times(!) He requested that his choir be racially equal. AEG Live, his promoter, had made a major investment, paying $5 millions to settle a lawsuit with a Bahrein prince. His concerts would've brought AEG Live $70 millions and would have kickstarted a 3 year international collaboration. 750,000 tickets at prices starting at $81 per bilet had already been sold

Condolences

His death touched quite a few celebrities:

Arnold Schwarzenegger: We lost a great entertainer and a pop icon. My thoughts and prayers go out to Michael Jackson's family, friends and fans.

Diddy: Michael Jackson showed me that you can actually see the beat. He made the music come to life!! He made me believe in magic. I will miss him!

Samantha Ronson: His music is just as relevant now as it was the day they pressed record, I'm sure it will remain so for generations to come.R.I.P.Mr Jackson.

Dane Cook: I'm dedicating my show 2night to Michael Jackson. THRILLER got me laid. Well... At least thats what I told my friends.

Heidi Montag: the world has suffered a GREAT loss today Michael Jackson my thoughts and prayers are with his family, friends, and fans God bless.

Ice T: Rest In Peace Mike. People can say what they want but you were 100% original. WE will always love , miss & remember your GREATNESS.

John Mayer: Dazed in the studio. A major strand of our cultural DNA has left us. RIP MJ. I think we'll mourn his loss as well as the loss of ourselves as children listening to Thriller on the record player.

Ashley Tisdale: So sad. Saying a prayer for Michael Jackson.

Miley Cyrus: michael jackson was my inspiration. love and blessings

Ludacris: If it were not for Micheal Jackson I would not be where or who I am today.His Music and Legacy will live on Forever.Prayers to the famR.I.P.

MC Hammer: I have no words.. I loved Michael Jackson.. RIP..

Kelly Rowland: Michael you left such a legacy on this earth, have touched SO MANY!!! We thank you for such a driving inspiration in music & our lives!! This has got to be one of the saddest days in music history!! Michael Rest In Peace! WE miss you!

Star Jones: Death comes to all. But great achievements build a monument." He IS and WAS the greatest entertainer of all times...Peace to you brother.

Lindsay Lohan: NO OMG ... sending my love and prayers out to Michael and his family ... i feel sick..

Marlon Wayans: My prayers, my love, my heart goes out to michael jackson and the entire jackson family. I pray so hard for them. I'm crushed! Please pray.

Pete Wentz: Prayers and thoughts with michael jackson ... I haven't hope in so long that news isn't true.

Kim Kardashian: Wow I am truly in shock that Michael Jackson has passed away! I love u Jackson family, my prayers are with the whole family!

Ashton Kutcher: Rip Sending love and light to family and friend but especially his kids.

Shanna Moakler: The hard thing about getting older is watching all those who inspired you pass, love to the jackson family..

Rachelle Lefevre: Rest in peace Farrah Fawcett & Michael Jackson. Condolences to their families.

Paul McCartney: It’s so sad and shocking. I feel privileged to have hung out and worked with Michael. He was a massively talented boy-man with a gentle soul. His music will be remembered forever and my memories of our time together will be happy ones.

Eugene Lambert (Ireland's best puppeteer whose son performed at J's b-day party): Michael and the kids seemed to enjoy the show equally. My son sang happy birthday to Michael, who seemed genuinely touched by the attention. Michael rang me that night to thank me for the show. He said he hoped he’d be as happy at his work as I am at my age, and of course I’m 80.

Lenny Kravitz: It was the most amazing experience I’ve had in the studio. He was funny. Very funny and we laughed the whole time. I also saw what a beautiful father he was. He was a beautiful human being. If not for him, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing. He gave me joy as a child and showed me the way to go..

Byron Garcia (security consultant at a Philippine prison who organized the famous video of 1,500 inmates doing a synchronized dance to “Thriller”, gathering 23.4 million hits): My heart is heavy because my idol died.

Imelda Marcos: Michael Jackson enriched our lives, made us happy. The accusations, the persecution caused him so much financial and mental anguish. He was vindicated in court, but the battle took his life. There is probably a lesson here for all of us.

Whatever some might think or say about him, he was undeniably an innovator, he influenced many artists and at the top of his career has simply the best. I hope that in his everlasting Neverland he’s no longer taunted by his own demons or cocky reporters..

Sources / More info: wikipedia (RO), wikipedia (EN), google news, rolling stones, yt

Michael Jackson: Live in Bucharest - The Dangerous Tour (.CA, .UK, .FR, .DE, .JP, .cn)

Jackson, Michael: Video Greatest Hits: History (.CA, .UK, .FR, .DE, .JP, .cn)

Jackson, Michael: Number Ones (.CA, .UK, .FR, .DE, .JP, .cn)

1969-2004: Ultimate Collection [Best of] [Box set] (.CA, .UK, .FR, .DE, .JP, .cn)

Verba Volant,jackson, jacksons, michael, mort, jacksons 5, jacksons five, jackson 5, another one bites the dust, rip, r.i.p., requiescat in pace, rest in peace, obituar, obituary, infarct, heart attack, cardiac arest, atac de inima, atac de cord, pr, neverland, odihneasca-se in pace, michael jackson mort, wacko jacko, jacko, youtube, videos, video clips, documentary, documentare

Was Hemingway a KGB agent or is that bull?

Recent revelations of a former KGB agent seem to suggest that Hemingway had been recruited by KGB. To add insult to the injury, he was apparently dropped because he was no good. They didn't like his prose, I assume.

Most of us know Hemingway from one of the books listed below and know little about his fantastic life. Yet he was a war hero, he fought on the left side most of the time, especially in the Spanish civil war, he enjoyed traveling for long periods of time and he committed suicide only when life had become unbearable in a body worn out by the war and more recent Kenyan (mis)adventures and accidents. The following list of documentaries, interviews and Hemingway-centered video clips attempt to cast some light on the lesser known corners of this ensemble.

 

 

It is this proximity to left-wing causes that fuelled the growing acceptance of the claim, made by a former KGB agent, that Hemingway was at one point a KGB agent, but was let go as his information was generally useless. Those who love him for his writings, raised to his defence pointing out that he was highly courageous and always open about both his past as well as his present. It is quite possible that the KGB agent thought he was listening to an informant, while Hemingway thought he is pouring his heart out to a sympathetic stranger during one of his frequent alcoholic fog episodes.

Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports ... all others are games.

"'Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bull-fighters.'"
- Chapter 2, The Sun Also Rises

To me heaven would be a big bull ring with me holding two barrera seats and a trout stream outside that no one else was allowed to fish in and two lovely houses in the town; one where I would have my wife and children and be monogamous and love them truly and well and the other where I would have my nine beautiful mistresses on nine different floors.

When we recently learned about a Spaniard being gored to death in what has been termed one of the wildest Pamplona bull races in years, and that in related news, a horse died in Canada after a race of a heart attack we could not help thinking of the old man and his sea of novels. This is also why we added the scenes of the goring and Pamplona race at the end of the playlist above.

A recent study shows that living abroad enhances creativity. So great is Hemingway’s association with being worldly that the Economist use him as an example, closing their article with claiming that merely traveling without living abroad extensively does not help much:

Packing your beach towel and suntan lotion will not, by itself, make you Hemingway.

In another book, the Spanish war is seen as a precursor to WWII:

“IN SPAIN two vast world forces are testing each other out: if Franco conquers, Europe will be black or Europe will go to war as soon as Hitler and Mussolini are ready.” That was the correct prediction in 1936 of Louis Fischer, an American journalist so convinced of the dangers of Franco’s fascist rebellion that he joined the International Brigades to take up arms on behalf of the Republican government.

As such, Hemingway was on the right side of history – though spying for Stalin would have been definitely wrong, even though at that time Stalin’s and Mao’s crimes and genocides were largely unknown.

Sources / More info: wiki-hemingway, guardian-hem, laht-hem, nyt-pamplona, telegraph-pamplona, reuters-oddly, economist-spain-war, economist-abroad, cbc-horse, yt

Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America (Hardcover) (.CA, .UK, .FR, .DE, .JP, .cn)	The Sun Also Rises (Paperback) (.CA, .UK, .FR, .DE, .JP, .cn)	The Complete Short Stories Of Ernest Hemingway: The Finca Vigia Edition (Paperback) (.CA, .UK, .FR, .DE, .JP, .cn)
A Farewell to Arms (Paperback) (.CA, .UK, .FR, .DE, .JP, .cn)	For Whom the Bell Tolls (Paperback) (.CA, .UK, .FR, .DE, .JP, .cn)	A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition (Hardcover) (.CA, .UK, .FR, .DE, .JP, .cn)

Verba Volant,hemingway, ernest, ernst, kgb, secret services, pamplona, goring, gored, bull, bullfighting, youtube, video, documentary, video clips, videoclips, bull race, stampede, sanferminas, san fermin