Houston Escort Service Offers Toys For Tots Special

On By A.P.In UncategorizedLeave a comment

Many toy drives at this time of year claim to be Toys for Tots, but KTRK-TV is reporting a new twist on the 64-year-old program operated by the U. S. Marine Corps Reserve.

According to KTRK,  a local escort service’s website is advertising more time with an escort in exchange for toy donations.

The site, which shows an undressed woman in provocative poses, wishes you “Happy Holidays” and claims if you pay for one hour of services and bring an unwrapped gift, your second hour will be free.

According to KTRK, the phone number in the ad belongs to Robin Jordan, 38, who was convicted last month on a charge of prostitution.

Authorities say she was running her escort service right out of her Pecan Grove home.

The Marines say they’re not endorsing this idea.

Brian Murray, Vice President of Marine Toys for Tots, told KTRK  “We don’t want to associate with any person who would besmirch the reputation of the US Marine Corps … or the Toys for Tots organization.”

http://blog.chron.com/newswatch/2011/12/escort-service-uses-toys-for-tots-in-ad/

Owner of car dealership labeled “Taliban Toyota” wins millions

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 The owner of a large southwest Alabama car dealership derided as “Taliban Toyota” by a competitor has been awarded $7.5 million in damages after a jury trial for his slander claim.

Iranian-born Shawn Esfahani, owner of Eastern Shore Toyota in Daphne, Alabama, sought $28 million in compensatory and punitive damages from Bob Tyler Toyota, claiming employees at that Pensacola, Florida-based dealership falsely portrayed him as an Islamist militant to customers.

“The feeling I received in the courtroom for the truth to come out was worth a lot more than any money anybody can give me,” Esfahani told Reuters on Tuesday.

Esfahani’s lawsuit said that Bob Tyler sales manager Fred Kenner told at least one couple considering buying from Eastern Shore Toyota in 2009 that Esfahani was of Middle Eastern descent and was “helping fund the insurgents there and is also laundering money for them.”

Esfahani, a naturalized U.S. citizen, fled his native Iran in 1980 following the Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed Shah and swept Shi’ite Muslim clergy to power, his lawsuit said. He opened his car dealership in 2007.

The Taliban, by contrast, are hardline Islamists in the central Asian nations of Afghanistan and Pakistan who follow an austere interpretation of Islamic law.

A Bob Tyler salesman was accused of telling the same couple that Esfahani was from Iraq and calling him a “terrorist” who put soldiers including the salesman’s brother in harm’s way.

“(Esfahani) is funneling money back to his family and other terrorists. I have a brother over there and what you’re doing is helping kill my brother,” the salesman told the couple when he called them on the Eastern Shore sales floor, according to the suit.

The jury deliberated for three hours before awarding Esfahani $2.5 million in compensatory damages and $5 million in punitive damages on Monday evening.

Bob Tyler’s attorney Jeffrey Ingram could not be reached for comment on Tuesday, and Tyler and Kenner both declined to comment on the verdict through a dealership spokesman.

Esfahani said the dollar amount awarded by the jury was irrelevant unless the case sets a precedent by which other business owners can seek recourse against tactics he considers “un-American.”

“This case didn’t take aim at just Mr. Tyler,” he said. “It was intended to address any other business that resorts to those kinds of actions to win at their game unfairly.”

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/02/us-alabama-taliban-toyota-idUSTRE7A104620111102

5 and 7 year old Boys Kill Hardened Criminal in India

On By A.P.In Crime, Human BehaviorLeave a comment

In a seemingly bizarre incident, two children, aged 5 and 7, hacked a hardened criminal to death in Pilibhit district and then marched to the nearby police station to confess their crime. This incident took place on Sunday evening in Piparaiya village. The boys were playing in the orchard where their father works as a guard.

The children apparently saw the criminal, Mahendra, and thought he was there to steal the fruits in the orchard. The boys, according to reports, asked Mahendra to leave the orchard or else they would call their father. Mahendra did not take the call seriously and the boys, it seems, picked up a sickles lying nearby and attacked the criminal. They kept attacking until Mahendra slumped to the ground. The boys, in their blood soaked clothes, went to the police station and innocently told the cops, “Humne Mahendra ko maar dala (We killed Mahendra).”

Initially, the cops presumed that the boys were joking but after some time when other villagers confirmed the incident, they decided go to the site of the incident where they found the body of Mahendra.

“It sounds unbelievable that such young boys, who cannot even express themselves clearly, could kill such a hardcore criminal. It seems that Mahendra was intoxicated and could not retaliate since it seems impossible that the boys would kill a grown up man with such force that he dies on the spot,” said a senior police official. The boys are too young to be kept in juvenile home and it is the court that will decide the case.

http://www.asianage.com/india/young-boys-kill-criminal-584

New World’s Shortest Woman

On By A.P.In World RecordsLeave a comment

 

Standing just over 2 feet tall, Jyoti Amge of Nagpur, India, was confirmed Friday as the world’s shortest living woman.

The title previously belonged to Bridgette Jordan, 22, of the United States, who measures 2 feet, 3 inches tall.

The record for the shortest woman in history remains with Pauline Musters, who died in 1895 at 2 feet tall even.

http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/16/world/asia/india-shortest-woman/index.html?hpt=hp_c2

The Generous Marriage

On By A.P.In Human Behavior, MarriageLeave a comment

 

From tribesmen to billionaire philanthropists, the social value of generosity is already well known. But new research suggests it also matters much more intimately than we imagined, even down to our most personal relationships.

Researchers from the University of Virginia’s National Marriage Project recently studied the role of generosity in the marriages of 2,870 men and women. Generosity was defined as “the virtue of giving good things to one’s spouse freely and abundantly” — like simply making them coffee in the morning — and researchers quizzed men and women on how often they behaved generously toward their partners. How often did they express affection? How willing were they to forgive?

The responses went right to the core of their unions. Men and women with the highest scores on the generosity scale were far more likely to report that they were “very happy” in their marriages. The benefits of generosity were particularly pronounced among couples with children. Among the parents who posted above-average scores for marital generosity, about 50 percent reported being “very happy” together. Among those with lower generosity scores, only about 14 percent claimed to be “very happy,” according to the latest “State of Our Unions” report from the National Marriage Project.

While sexual intimacy, commitment and communication are important, the focus on generosity adds a new dimension to our understanding of marital success. Though this conclusion may seem fairly self-evident, it’s not always easy to be generous to a romantic partner. The noted marriage researcher John Gottman has found that successful couples say or do at least five positive things for each negative interaction with their partner — not an easy feat.

“In marriage we are expected to do our fair share when it comes to housework, child care and being faithful, but generosity is going above and beyond the ordinary expectations with small acts of service and making an extra effort to be affectionate,” explains the University of Virginia’s W. Bradford Wilcox, who led the research. “Living that spirit of generosity in a marriage does foster a virtuous cycle that leads to both spouses on average being happier in the marriage.”

Social scientists are now wondering if this virtuous cycle extends to children too. In a study of 3-year-old twins, Israeli researchers have identified a genetic predisposition toward generosity that may be further influenced by a parent’s behavior. Preliminary findings suggest that children with more-engaged parents are more likely to be generous toward others, which may bode well for their future relationships — and their parents’ too.

“We see meaningful differences in parents’ behaviors,” said Ariel Knafo, the principal investigator and a psychologist at Hebrew University in Jerusalem. “In the long run we’d like to be able to see whether it’s children’s generosity that also makes parents more kind or the other way around. Probably it’s both.”

Do you have a generous relationship? Take our quiz to find out.

http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/12/08/is-generosity-better-than-sex/?emc=eta1

Thanks to Dr. N for bringing this to the attention of the It’s Interesting community.

Thousand of Migratory Birds Make Crash Landing in Cedar City, Utah

On By A.P.In BirdsLeave a comment

 

A flock of tens of thousands of Eared Grebes mistook the Utah town of Cedar City for a lake late Monday night and crash landed during a winter snow storm killing hundreds of the migrating birds.

Residents said the sky rained birds in Iron County about 11:30 p.m. Monday as the water-based Eared Grebes slammed into streets and parking lots all over town. “They get down through the clouds and see a lawn that is covered with snow or a parking lot that is covered with snow with lights on it thinking it’s a lake and try to land on it,” said DWR spokesman Lynn Chamberlain.

Apparently, the birds can not survive the cold or on frozen water and came down en masse to find shelter from the storm that hit Cedar City.

“They hit the pavement and many of them are injured or killed and the rest are stranded because they can’t take off from the ground. They have to have a large expanse of water in order to get airborne again,” Chamberlain said.

About 15,000 died on impact. The Division of Wild Life Resources workers and city residents scrambled to rescue the injured birds, taking them about 20 miles south to the warmer waters of Grandpa’s Pond in Washington County, where they can recover, eat insects and continue their southern migration. “Or if they are injured to the point that they can not fly they can actually survive on the pond there for an indefinite period of time,” said Chamberlain.

Chamberlain said these types of bird crashes happen frequently but he has never seen anything like this before.

Wildlife officials said the Cedar City residents did an amazing job to help collect the injured birds and take them to safety and estimate they helped rescued nearly 3,500 Eared Grebes that otherwise would have died.

http://www.abc4.com/content/news/top_stories/story/Thousands-of-migratory-birds-make-crash-landing/tXp0DLouo0aZNlWlolJhIQ.cspx?hpt=hp_c2

Oscar Wilde’s grave shielded from public kissers over fears lipstick is eroding the stone

On By A.P.In Human Behavior1 Comment

Admirers who have smothered Oscar Wilde’s grave with kisses will no longer be able to get so close to the stone memorial as lipstick marks are eroding it.

For years fans – especially women – have visited the huge memorial in Paris’s largest cemetery Pére Lachaise to pay homage to the Irish dramatist.

But expressions of love for the unconventional playwright have often spilled over into thousands of red lipstick kisses and graffiti messages which have covered the bottom half of the tomb.

In fact kissing the grave of the creator of The Importance of Being Earnest has become a cult pastime and the tomb is a regular stop-off for tourists on the trail around the French capital.

However, now it has been cleaned and restored thanks to donations from the Irish authorities

The public will no longer be able to get so close as a glass barrier has now been constructed, the Observer said.

It will re-open on Wednesday on the anniversary of Wilde’s death.

Wilde’s grandson Merlin Holland had repeatedly appealed to the public to leave the grave alone, but to no avail.

He said there was a £7,700 fine for anyone caught defacing the tomb but recognised culprits were largely tourists who left the country before police were able to track them down.

He said grease in lipstick absorbs into the stone and every time it is cleaned more stone is eroded.

He told the newspaper: ‘From a technical point of view, the tomb is close to being irreparably damaged.

‘Each cleaning has rendered the stone more porous necessitating a yet more drastic cleaning.’

Oxford-educated Wilde died in Paris in 1900 aged just 46 following ear infections and meningitis.

He wrote critically acclaimed plays including The Importance of Being Earnest and Lady Windermere’s Fan, as well as A Woman of No Importance and an Ideal Husband.

He was originally given a low grade, or sixth-class burial, by his friends as he died bankrupt following a spell in prison after his homosexuality was revealed.

Since his death his friend Robert Ross managed to annul the bankruptcy and buy a burial plot in the cemetery.

The £2,000 flying naked angel monument was designed by sculptor Jacob Epstein, paid for by Helen Carew, a friend of Ross who had known Wilde.

It was unveiled in 1914 but in the 1960s it was vandalised when the genitals were removed and stolen by vandals.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066880/Oscar-Wildes-grave-shielded-public-kissers-fears-lipstick-eroding-stone.html#ixzz1g3gCkaeN

Family sues after gravediggers ‘jumped on 91-year-old’s casket to squeeze it into hole that was too small’

On By A.P.In Empathy, FuneralsLeave a comment

 

Gravediggers jumped up and down on the coffin of an elderly woman to force it into a tight hole as her family looked on in horror, it has been claimed.

The workers at a Roman Catholic cemetery near Pittsburgh are also accused of poking the coffin with poles.

They are alleged to have carried jumped on 91-year-old Agnes Zimmick’s coffin after her funeral of on December 1, 2009.

Mr Zimmick’s family are now suing the Pittsburgh diocese and its Catholic Cemeteries Association.

Mrs Zimmic’s son, Theodore Zimmick, his daughter Lisa Carey, and granddaughter, Shannon Soxman complained after seeing ‘jumps and shoves’ on the coffin.

‘Frankly, it’s shocking this happened at a Catholic cemetery,’ the family’s lawyer, Richard Sandow told the the Pittsburgh Tribune Review.

‘You’re not dealing with lumber. You’re dealing with the deceased. There were many jumps, shoves and stomps.’

Mrs Zimmick’s body was taken to the cemetery on December 1 after a Mass of Christian Burial which had been attended by the family.

After the funeral service, the family said they went to visit the graves of other family members, and then saw workers stamping and walking on the coffin and otherwise jamming it into the grave.

Annabelle McGannon, executive director of the US cemeteries association, says the family’s claims have been investigated and are ‘unfounded.’

She said: ‘The family filed a complaint and we investigated it thoroughly. We are confident after our investigation that the allegations are unfounded.

‘Beyond that, it’s our policy not to comment on issues in litigation.’

The 14-page lawsuit was filed in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court. The family are seeking compensation for emotional distress and ‘tortious interference with dead bodies.’

Mr Sandow said the family do not want other grieving relatives to go through the same experience.

‘No member of the church was supervising the burial. It’s disappointing,’ Sandow said. ‘Her body is supposed to be handled appropriately.’
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2067775/Family-sues-gravediggers-jumped-91-year-olds-casket-squeeze-hole-small.html#ixzz1g3feQYcA

Technique for Measuring Methane Gas from Cattle Flatulence

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Recently, scientists developed a methane release measuring technique as way of tracking the discharge of the gas without disrupting the regular management of the herd. This is part of a collaborative research study conducted by researchers from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada’s Lethbridge Research Centre, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, and the University of Melbourne in Australia.

Cattle were fitted with global positioning devices to track their movements and wind speed and direction were constantly measured. Unlike previous studies in which a few cattle were handled daily and methane measurements were taken directly, this technique centered on using open-path lasers to obtain a short-term measurement of methane release from an entire grazing herd. For instance in one study, the technique was used to take repeated measurements of methane concentration every 10 minutes directly above the height of the 18 cattle in the paddock. According to the results, the technique developed so well it can account for 77% of methane release at a single point in a paddock.

Sean McGinn, the author of the study describes the technique as a “significant advancement in assessing greenhouse gas emissions from the cattle industry.”

Collaborative research is continuing to further measure methane release from other agricultural sources. The full study is published in the January/February 2011 issue of the Journal of Environmental Quality.

http://earth-climate.science.org/Technique-for-Measuring-Methane-Gas-from-Cattle-Flatulence.html