5 of Romney’s distant cousins were announced to be in support of the Paul campaign…
Comments »{MEDIA} A PSYCHOTYPOLOGY OF AVATARS
LifeLock CEO’s Identity Stolen 13 Times
Apparently, when you publish your Social Security number prominently on your website and billboards, people take it as an invitation to steal your identity.
LifeLock CEO Todd Davis, whose number is displayed in the company’s ubiquitous advertisements, has by now learned that lesson. He’s been a victim of identity theft at least 13 times, according to the Phoenix New Times.
That’s 12 more times than has previously been known.
In June 2007, Threat Level reported that Davis had been the victim of identity theft after someone used his identity to obtain a $500 loan from a check-cashing company. Davis discovered the crime only after the company called his wife’s cellphone to recover the unpaid debt.
About four months after that story published, Davis’ identity was stolen again by someone in Albany, Georgia, who opened an AT&T/Cingular wireless account using his Social Security number (.pdf), according to a police report obtained by the New Times. The perpetrator racked up $2,390 in charges on the account, which remained unpaid. Davis, whose real name according to police reports is Richard Todd Davis, only learned a year later that his identity had been stolen again after AT&T handed off the debt to a collection agency and a note appeared on his credit report.
Then last year, Davis discovered seven more fraudulent accounts on his credit report that were opened with his personal information and have outstanding debt, according to the police report.
Someone opened a Verizon account in New York, leaving an unpaid bill of at least $186. An account at Centerpoint Energy, a Texas utility, was delinquent $122. Credit One Bank was owed $573, and Swiss Colony, a gift-basket company, was seeking $312.
In addition to these amounts, Davis’s credit report showed five collection agencies were seeking other sums from accounts opened in his name: Bay Area Credit was pursuing $265; Associated Credit Services was seeking two debts in the amount of $207 and $213; Enhanced Recovery Corporation was chasing $250 and $381.
A spokeswoman for the Albany police, who investigated the AT&T/Cingular account but never made any arrest, told the New Times that Davis’ publication of his Social Security number created more victims than just himself.
“It’s unfortunate he chose to conduct business in that way,” spokeswoman Phyllis Banks said. “It’s not fair to [AT&T] because they’re losing a pretty substantial amount of money.”
LifeLock refused to discuss the issue with the New Times. The company did not respond to a request for comment from Threat Level.
The company was fined $12 million in March by the Federal Trade Commission for deceptive advertising.
Read the rest here.
Comments »Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss: The Seven Lady Godivas, His Little-Known ‘Adult’ Book of Nudes
by Maria Popova
What Peeping Toms have to do with failure and the expectations of genius.
One hundred and eight years ago today, the world welcomed Theodor Seuss Geisel, better-known as Dr. Seuss — legendary children’s book author, radical ideologist, lover of reading. Among his many creative feats is a fairly unknown, fairly scandalous one: In 1939, when Geisel left Vanguard for Random House, he had one condition for his new publisher, Bennett Cerf — that he would let Geisel do an “adult” book first. The result was The Seven Lady Godivas: The True Facts Concerning History’s Barest Family, which tells the story of nudist sisters who, after their father’s death, pledge not to wed until each of them has “brought to the light of the world some new and worthy Horse Truth, of benefit to man.”
Geisel wrote in the foreword:
A beautiful story of love, honor and scientific achievement has too long been gathering dust in the archives.”
Read the rest and see many more pages of the book here.
Comments »Gov’t Motors Halts Production of Chevy Volt
By Keith Laing – 03/02/12 03:39 PM ET
General Motors has temporarily suspended production of its Volt electric car, the company announced Friday.
GM, which is based in Detroit, announced to employees at one of its facilities that it was halting production of the beleaguered electric car for five weeks and temporarily laying off 1,300 employees.
A GM spokesman told The Hill on Friday that production of the Volt would resume April 23.
“We needed to maintain proper inventory and make sure that we continued to meet market demand,” GM spokesman Chris Lee said in a telephone interview.
Lee noted that sales of the Volt were higher in February than they were in January, and added that California recently decided to allow the electric car to qualify for High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes in the state.
“We see positive trends, but we needed to make this market adjustment,” he said.
The Chevy Volt has come under criticism from Republicans in Congress because of reports of its batteries catching on fire during testing. President Obama gave the electric vehicle a vote of confidence in a speech to the United Auto Workers union this week, promising he would buy a Volt “five years from now, when I’m not president anymore.”
But Republicans have argued that the Volt was being pushed by the Obama administration for political reasons instead of consumer demand.
“Is the commitment to the American public or is the commitment to clean energy, that we are going to get there any way we can?” Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) asked in a hearing in the House in January about the Volt’s reported battery fires.
“When the market is ready … it won’t have to be subsidized,” Kelly said.
Chevy has argued the debate about the Volt has become too political.
“We did not develop the Chevy Volt to be a political punching bag,” General Motors CEO Daniel Akerson testified before Congress in the same January hearing. “We engineered the Volt to be a technological wonder.”
Read the rest here.
Comments »Just Another Day on the NYC Subway
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMIw82pX4mA 450 300]
Comments »That Sucking Sound is not Public Education; It’s Teachers Getting Free Liposuction
Lindsey Tugman
BUFFALO, NY (CNN) — As thousands of teachers face layoffs across the country, teachers in Buffalo, New York are getting lipo? Yep. And nose jobs and whatever else they want. All on the taxpayers’ dime. How is this happening?
This Buffalo plastic surgeon has a lot of happy patients. Dr. Kulwant S. Bhangoo says, “Let’s just suppose I was a woman weighed 300 pounds, and I lost 150-160 pounds.”
Indeed, that’s what happened to Buffalo school teacher Valerie Akauloa, but it’s not just the results that make her happy, it’s the sweet deal that she gets.
The sweet deal that all the 3,400 teachers in Buffalo are eligible to get under one of their insurance plan options, they are billed nothing for any plastic surgery procedure, such as botox, liposuction, tummy tucks, and there is no deductible.
Linda Tokarz teaches second grade and says she gets regular treatments. She says, “I think its great for us. I wouldn’t want to see it taken away.”
Dr. Kulwant Bhangoo has been a plastic surgeon in Buffalo for almost four decades. He says, “I feel the teachers have paid their dues and it would be wrong to take it away from them.”
While he does have plenty on non-teacher patients, Dr. Bhangoo does say three out of every 10 are Buffalo teachers and the school district’s insurance covers every single penny. They will come in for hair removal on their face, liposuction, breast enhancement, and rhinoplasty.
Dr. Bhangoo is one of many plastic surgeons who advertise in where else the teachers union newsletter.
Last year, Buffalo’s schools spent $5.9 million on plastic surgery which is also known as a cosmetic rider. And Buffalo teachers have had this rider for nearly four decades.
Now you might think Buffalo’s school district must be flush with cash to be offering perks like free plastic surgery, right? Wrong. Louis Petrucci, the president of the Buffalo Board of Education says he is projecting a $42 million deficit in next year’s school budget.
You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to know that a plastic surgeon or a teacher would like this policy more than the typical taxpayer. But the teachers will tell you there is more to the story. They say the teachers contract with the city expired nearly a decade ago negotiations for a new one have failed.
And they add they are woefully underpaid. It is quite interesting to hear what the president of the teachers unions says about the plastic surgery benefit. Philip Rumore says, “We’ve told the district from the beginning of negotiations six or eight years ago that we’re willing to give it up, so as long the district comes back to the table with us, it’s gone.” When asked, “Do you feel as a gesture of good faith, the union should say, teachers, no more free plastic surgery?” Rumore responds, “It would be a wonderful gesture of good faith. We’re willing to give it up. All the district has to do is come to the table and negotiate with us. But not willing to do it unilaterally.”
Fact is that police and firefighters in Buffalo have similar plastic surgery programs, but those departments are not dealing with the same financial problems as the economically challenged school system.
But at least for now, the policy remains in a school district with a unique mix of brain and beauty.
Comments »Odius Fucking Twats
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q24mXJSN91o 450 300]
Comments »LOL: A Naked Man Walks into a Welding Shop…
Says he is good with his hands…
A naked meth addict gets taken down by the police after hanging around the welding shop.
Comments »{VIDEO} Poor Angela Merkel Can’t Catch a Break; Gets Beer Showered
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=QZlv9Ekb9QA
Comments »FLASH: THE NEW YORK METS FINALLY, KINDA, WIN SOMETHING
via
2013 MLB All-Star Game Reportedly To Be Played At Citi Field
It wasn’t exactly a secret, but it wasn’t official yet. Heck, it’s still not official. But if the owner says it’s just a formality, it’s probably good to run with: The 2013 All-Star Game will be played at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets. From David Lennon of Newsday:
Wilpon also said All-Star Game at Citi will be announced soon as financial details are worked out with city.
Not sure what the “financial details worked out with the city” part means. Have a guess, of course.
Wilpon: C’mon. Just a few bucks until the end of the month.City: No.
Wilpon: C’mon.
City: No.
Citi Field will have new dimensions for the 2012 season, which presumably will be the dimensions for 2013 as well. There’s no indication that’s what gave the Mets the edge over the Nationals, who were also bidding for the game, but it probably didn’t hurt. No one likes a Home Run Derby in a canyon.
This will be the first All-Star Game hosted by the Mets since 1964, the inaugural season at Shea Stadium.
WATCH: Man Shoots Himself Point Blank in Stomach to Test Bulletproof Vest
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUacUmhI7U4&feature=player_embedded#!
Comments »NEW LINSANITY ICECREAM HAS SECRET INGREDIENT: FORTUNE COOKIES
Peter Gleick: MacArthur Genius and America’s Dumbest Criminal
via Climate Audit
Steve McIntyre
Some years ago, Daniel Butler hosted a television show called “America’s Dumbest Criminals” (trailer), entry to which Peter Gleick richly deserves.
In an interview some years later, Butler said that his favorite story was the robbers who had apparently planned the perfect gas station robbery. They took the licence plates off their van, wore ski masks. When the police arrived, they asked the attendant the usual questions, but there were no clues. Just when the police were leaving, the attendant volunteered that they’d left their phone number. In the rear window of the van, there was a For Sale sign with a phone number. The attendant had written down the phone number as the van left. The police called the phone number, inquired about buying the van, went for a test drive with the robber and drove him to the station.
Jay Leno described another incident, where the would-be bank robber demanded $40 million (milllllll-yun?). The teller said that they didn’t have that much on hand and suggested that he accept a cheque for $400,000. The robber agreed and gave the teller his name. She wrote him the agreed cheque, payment on which was stopped by the bank. When the robber tried to deposit the cheque into his own account, he was arrested.
Two Aussies achieved minor celebrity as bungling bank robbers in Colorado. They wore ski masks and goggles when they robbed a ski resort, but also wore name tags. It took the cops a mere eight minutes to identify them.
In another incident, a Tennessee policeman stopped porn starlet Barbi Cummings on a traffic violation. She then provided him with sexual favors in the back seat of the police car. The policeman took pictures of the encounter on his cell phone. He then emailed Miss Cummings and asked her to post the picture on her website so that he could prove the encounter to his pals. Miss Cummings reported that she still had to pay the traffic ticket as the cop had already called in the offence.
All of these felons were dumb, but they were all convicted and served time.
The newest entrant into the hallowed ranks of America’s Dumbest Criminals is surely Peter Gleick, MacArthur Genius. Gleick, who fancied himself the scourge of climate skeptics and imagined that Heartland’s climate program was funded by fossil fuel corporations and the Koch brothers, managed to trick a Heartland administrator and obtain confidential financial information by fraudulently impersonating a Heartland director. But the actual documents didn’t show that Gleick was feared by Heartland. Nor was even he mentioned. Nor did the documents show that Heartland’s climate program was funded by fossil fuel corporations or the Koch brothers.
So Gleick forged a document placing himself as Heartland’s nemesis, garnering the recognition and praise from Andy Revkin and others that he so desired.
His forged document read like an epistle from Dr Evil. (Megan McArdle of the Atlantic used the phrase “secret villain lair”). And like the famous scene where Dr Evil’s henchmen are dumbfounded by Dr Evil’s plan to extort a mere “milllll-yun” dollars for not destroying the world, one can picture the supposed Heartland henchmen in consternation at Dr Evil’s proposed Confidential Strategy against [long Dr Evil pause ….] Peter Gleiiiiiick. #2, #3 and the rest must have been scratching their heads. Not Al Gore. Not James Hansen. Not even the Climategaters. Peeeeeeeter Gleiiiiiiick.
And like Leno’s bank robber and the snowboarding Aussies, Gleick was identified almost immediately. Within hours of the so-called Confidential Strategy being announced as a fake, Steve Mosher identified Gleick as its author. In addition to painting himself into the picture, Gleick had written parts of the document in his own distinctive style – with distinctive word choices and punctuation. And even saved the scan in Pacific time zone.
Gleick has thus far confessed only to the fraudulent obtaining of actual documents, but has claimed innocence on the forgery. He claims that he was set up. By an evil genius who had put Gleick’s name in the forged document and written portions in Gleick’s distinctive style. Possibly by Dr Evil himself (who was unavailable for comment.)
Even if this part of Gleick’s impossible story were true (and the evidence against it is overwhelming), it would not prevent his entry into the hallowed halls of America’s Dumbest Criminals, in which he has surely garnered a place of particular honor. MacArthur Genius and America’s Dumbest Criminal.
Comments »FLASH: LAMPERT RIPS OFF ZIFF FAMILY
Watch: Sheople Go Crazy Over Release of New Nike Shoes
Voice of God: Thou Shalt Not Steal
Trade Battles Buffet Europe’s Green Efforts
By JAMES KANTER
Published: February 22, 2012
BRUSSELS — During the past decade, the European Union blazed a green trail with a series of laws mandating a low-carbon economy and promises to set an example for other parts of the world.
That now seems like another era.
A succession of economic crises has pushed European governments to pare subsidies to clean-energy sectors like solar power and has undermined initiatives in other areas like energy efficiency, where member states balked at binding targets.
The E.U. Emissions Trading System — the Union’s flagship climate policy, which requires industries to acquire emissions permits — has been battered by extreme volatility, tax fraud, recycling of used credits, suspicions of profiteering and online attacks.
Many factories and utilities also received more free permits than they needed under the system, helping ensure that the price of the permits has never been high enough, for long enough, to push polluters to invest in cleaner alternatives.
The latest complication for Europe’s green agenda is the prospect of trade wars with important partners like the United States and China at a time when the Union can least afford threats to jobs and growth.
The most high-profile dispute focuses on a law requiring all airlines using airports within the Union to join the Emissions Trading System. About 30 governments met in Moscow this week to discuss barring their carriers from participating and other forms of retaliation.
There are other disputes brewing.
Read the rest here.
Comments »Beware America…We have Female Ninjas
In preparation for a possible conflict Iran has spun some home grown hilarity to accomplish who knows what…
[youtube://http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTSb9Cgt5nk 450 300] Comments »For Survival, Market Bears go into Hibernation
Man Trapped In Car for Two Months in Sub-Zero Temperatures Survives By ‘Hibernating Like a Bear’
Updated: Monday, 20 Feb 2012, 10:31 AM EST
Published : Monday, 20 Feb 2012, 8:14 AM EST
By NewsCore
UMEA, Sweden – A Swedish man who was found alive after spending two months trapped in a car in freezing temperatures survived by eating snow and hibernating “like a bear,” according to one theory.
The man, identified by various media as Peter Skyllberg, was recovering in Norrlands University Hospital on Monday after being rescued last week.
The 44-year-old was found Friday by a man on a snowmobile who sighted Skyllberg’s snow-covered vehicle on a deserted road near the northern town of Umea, just south of the Arctic Circle.
When rescuers arrived at the scene, Skyllberg was emancipated and barely speaking. He had no food or water with him, only cigarettes and comic books, the Daily Mail said. It was believed he had been eating snow.
On Sunday, medical experts were puzzling over how Skyllberg — who told police he had been in the car since December 19 — managed to survive in temperatures as low as -22F (-30C).
Dr. Stefan Branth, from Uppsala University, suggested that Skyllberg may have stayed alive by hibernating, The Guardian reported.
“A bit like a bear that hibernates. Humans can do that. He probably had a body temperature of around 31C [88F], which the body adjusted to. Due to the low temperature, not much energy was used up,” Branth said. Normal healthy body temperature is around 99F (37C).
However, that theory was dismissed by Norrlands University Hospital’s chief medical officer, Dr. Ulf Segerberg, who said that Skyllberg’s car likely kept him warm by providing insulation similar to an igloo.
“Igloos usually have a temperature of a couple of degrees below 0C [32F] and if you have good clothes you would survive in those temperatures and be able to preserve your body temperature,” Segerberg said.
Segerberg added that Skyllberg, who is estimated to have lost up to 44 pounds (20kg), was “feeling well” as he recovered from his ordeal.
While it was not immediately clear why Skyllberg had been in his car since December, reports emerged Sunday that he suffered numerous personal setbacks recently and may have been trying to take his own life.
“He had a girlfriend but she ran out. And then he also had problems paying bills and the rent,” a source close to Skyllberg said, according to Aftonbladet newspaper.
Aftonbladet’s report, cited by The (London) Daily Telegraph, added that Skyllberg’s debts totaled 1.6 million Swedish Kronor (US$238,000), and a court in December ordered the seizure of his rental properties.
Read more: http://trade.cc/anop
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