Category: Human Behavior

Adddicted To Tanning

On By A.P.In AddictionLeave a comment

 Tanning beds might be just as addictive to certain people as drugs and alcohol.

A new study, conducted by University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center researcher Bryon Adinoff, showed that an addictive “reward-and-reinforcement” reaction is stimulated in the brains of people who consider themselves frequent tanners.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/11/tanning-beds-addictive-drugs-booze-alcohol_n_924481.html

Thanks to Mrs. L for bringing this to the attention of the It’s Interesting community.

Chinese Couple Sells Their Children for Online Gaming

On By A.P.In Crime, gamesLeave a comment

Chinese couple Li Lin and Li Juan has been apprehended by authorities after, yes, selling their three children to pay for online games.

The couple, who reportedly met at an internet cafe in 2007, bonded over their love for online gaming, and a year later had their first child, a baby boy. In 2009 they “welcomed” their second child, a baby girl, shortly thereafter deciding to sell her to support their online gaming habit. They did so, and earned RMB 3,000 — a little under $500 — later selling their firstborn child for ten times that, at RMB 30,000 (about $4600). They later had another baby boy, and sold him at the same price.

Upon their arrest, the couple claimed that they were unaware that it was illegal to sell their children for throwaway gaming funds. When asked if they’d miss their children, they responded, “We don’t want to raise them, we just want to sell them for some money.”

http://www.gamepro.com/article/news/221445/chinese-couple-sells-their-kids-for-online-gaming-money/

Kenneth Ray Manis

On By A.P.In FuneralsLeave a comment

Kenneth Ray Manis’s wife demanded that his body be dug back up after she discovered he had been buried with the wrong set of false teeth.
 
She said “My husband is lying in his grave with this other man’s teeth and I just couldn’t let it be that way.  I knew my husband wouldn’t want it that way.”
 
She said: ‘I don’t know about the other gentleman, he doesn’t want the teeth back, but I know my husband is going to be resting a lot easier and so is our family.’
 

Billy Joe Madden

On By A.P.In CrimeLeave a comment

The Louisiana State Police said troopers arrested a Hattiesburg man after he let his 8-year-old son drive on Interstate 12 near Holden. State police said they received a call shortly after 6:30 a.m. Saturday about a green Chevrolet pickup truck driving erratically on the interstate in Livingston Parish. The caller told police that a child appeared to be the driver of the pickup. Troopers located and stopped the vehicle, and they said a boy was driving the truck while his father, Billy Joe Madden, 28, slept in the passenger seat. 

Police said that Madden’s 4-year-old daughter was riding in the backseat. 

After interviewing Madden, troopers said they found out that he was intoxicated, and he fell asleep while his son drove from Hattiesburg to Dallas.

Read more: http://www.wdsu.com/news/28716507/detail.html#ixzz1Te1GIWmL

The Computers Are Taking Over Wall Street

On By A.P.In The Singularity, Wealth and PowerLeave a comment

This past week, the Dow swung back and forth more than 400 points on four straight days.  Trading volume is at or near record levels, and the majority of  trading is now done through the phenomenon of ‘High Frequency Trading’ on large server farms based in New Jersey and elsewhere.

High frequency trading is what it name implies: buying large volumes of shares and selling them off quickly to make few cents per share or less in profit. It is also known as algorithmic trading where proprietary formulas on computers look for anomalies in a vast number of stocks and trade accordingly.  These trades happen several times a minute.

 High-frequency trading makes up 53% of all trading in U.S. stock markets, up from 21% in 2005, said Larry Tabb, president and CEO of market research firm Tabb Group. Other estimates put it even higher, at around 65%.

Gary Wedbush, executive vice president and head of capital markets at Wedbush Securities, told Bloomberg News on Friday that more than 80% of the firm’s orders since Aug. 1 have come from high-frequency trading clients, at five times the typical volume.

Nearly everyone on Wall Street is involved in algorithmic trading in some form, Tabb said, including large banks, hedge funds and mutual funds.

“These firms often piggyback on large orders, so it can amplify a stock’s movement,” Arnuk said.

The Securities and Exchange Commission in a report blamed high-frequency trading in part for the May 6, 2010 “flash crash,” when the Dow fell nearly 1,000 points in minutes.

High frequency trading is also associated with flash trading, in which traders can see incoming buy and sell orders and put in their orders milliseconds before them and accordingly profit. High frequency trading has also been linked to the related  practice of front running where an algorithm or trader sees orders before they are filled and acts on the information….sort of like insider trading. Front running is illegal.

http://money.cnn.com/2011/08/12/markets/high_frequency_trading/index.htm?source=cnn_bin&hpt=hp_bn3

Joseph W. Schexnider’s Skeleton in the Chimney

On By A.P.In CrimeLeave a comment

Skeletal remains found in the chimney of an Abbeville, Louisiana, bank two months ago have been identified as those of Joseph W. Schexnider, who vanished at age 22 in January 1984. He would be 49 now.

His disappearance was noted after he failed to show up for a court hearing on a charge of possession of a stolen vehicle. When Vermilion Parish sheriff’s deputies showed up at his home to take him in to custody, Schexnider’s mother said he had fled to avoid arrest.

Schexnider had gloves and a cigarette lighter on him, but no bag or anything to indicate he planned to carry loot from the bank. And Hardy told the TV station there was nothing to indicate that Schexnider was killed and his body dumped in the chimney.  Authorities say he likely died of dehydration and starvation.

And how could Schexnider have been missing for nearly three decades in the main branch of a bank which sits right on the main square in the town of 25,000 people?

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/07/27/why-was-skeleton-in-chimney-of-louisiana-bank/

$6.6 Billion Cash Flown From the US to Iraq for Reconstruction is Missing

On By A.P.In Crime, Human Behavior, War, Wealth and Power1 Comment

The Iraqi and U.S. governments have been unable to account for a substantial chunk of the billions of dollars in reconstruction aid the Bush administration literally airlifted into the country. If the cash proves to have been stolen, the heist could represent “the largest theft of funds in national history,” according to a report in the Los Angeles Times.

Pentagon officials determined that one giant C-130 Hercules cargo plane could carry $2.4 billion in shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills. They sent an initial full planeload of cash, followed by 20 other flights to Iraq by May 2004 in a $12-billion haul that U.S. officials believe to be the biggest international cash airlift of all time.

Special inspector general for Iraqi reconstruction Stuart Bowen told the paper the missing $6.6 billion may be “the largest theft of funds in national history.”

Iraqi officials say it was the U.S. government’s job to keep track of the funds, which were brought in as an emergency measure to keep basic infrastructure going after Saddam Hussein’s ouster. House Government Reform Committee investigators found in 2005 evidence of “substantial waste, fraud and abuse in the actual spending and disbursement of the Iraqi funds.”

Witnesses testified that millions of dollars were shoved into “gunnysacks” and disbursed to Iraqi contractors on pick-up trucks, with what seemed to be little financial controls or accounting on the part of the U.S. government.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-missing-billions-20110613,0,4414060.story

Thanks to Mr. Cuomo for bringing this to the attention of the It’s Interesting community.

“Extra Sugar” at Dunkin’ Donuts

On By A.P.In CrimeLeave a comment

In an operation known as “extra sugar,” police in Rockaway Township, New Jersey investigated and subsequently arrested a Dunkin’ Donuts employee for prostitution. Melissa Redmond, 29, worked the night shift at the Double D.

The investigation began from an anonymous tip to police that people could go to the Dunkin’ Donuts on Route 46 and arrange a liaison with Ms. Redmond. Detective Kyle Schwarzmann, stated, “She was a night time employee [working 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.], supposedly a very good one.’’

Police commenced surveillance of the scene. It was a popular assignment, because it gave police a rare opportunity to eat donuts while ON duty.

They observed that Ms. Redmond would take breaks, go out to men’s cars, and spend 10-15 minutes in the vehicle. That’s a latte time.

They overheard words like “Big ‘N Toasty,” “Stuffed Breadsticks” and “Glazed Cake Stick.”

Finally, a policeman posing as a “John” approached Ms. Redmond. They discussed sugary treats, and she may have suggested the Guayaba Burst Donut. She was arrested just a short time later for soliciting sex from an undercover officer, and for failing to alert him that for just a dollar more, he could get a full dozen.

http://www.newjerseynewsroom.com/style/dunkin-donuts-extra-sugar-for-sex-code-cracked-by-nj-police

Beware of Free Yogurt Samples at the Grocery Store

On By A.P.In CrimeLeave a comment

 

 

A 28 year old New Mexico woman was grocery shopping last January when Garcia, who worked in the store’s dairy department, approached her with a yogurt sample.

After ingesting a spoonful of the free sample, the woman immediately thought it tasted “gross and disgusting” and said, “it tasted like ‘semen.’”

In her handwritten statement, the woman said, “I spit it out on the floor many times cuz I was upset.” The woman recalled that when she talked to the store manager Catherine Flores, “she told me was a Greek yoghurt. People love it has lot of protein on it.”

Read her handwritten statement here:  http://straightfromthea.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/777yogurtsample.jpg

The woman paid for her groceries and returned home, where she told her boyfriend about the incident. She told him how Garcia had “just come with one sample just for me,” and that “he was so pushy to tell me how taste it.” The woman and her boyfriend took her suspicions (and what was left of the yogurt sample) to the New Mexico police department, who ran tests on the sample.

When police arrived at Sunflower Farmers Market to investigate the January 25th incident, they arrested Garcia on the spot after determining he was the subject of two outstanding warrants connected to a 2009 bust for criminal sexual contact with a minor.

Read more: http://straightfromthea.com/2011/02/09/semen-laced-yogurt-sample/#ixzz1Te4ChXm3