Archive for the ‘Career Limiting Move’ Category
Friday, February 29th, 2008
Employee’s suit: Company used waterboarding to motivate workers
A supervisor at a motivational coaching business in Provo is accused of waterboarding an employee in front of his sales team to demonstrate that they should work as hard on sales as the employee had worked to breathe.
In a lawsuit filed last month, former Prosper, Inc. salesman Chad Hudgens alleges his managers also allowed the supervisor to draw mustaches on employees’ faces, take away their chairs and beat on their desks with a wooden paddle “because it resulted in increased revenues for the company.”
Prosper president Dave Ellis responded that the allegations amount to “sensationalized” versions of events that have gone uncorroborated by Hudgens’ former coworkers.
“They just roll their eyes and say, ‘This is ridiculous . . . That’s not how it went down,’ ” Ellis said.
The suit claims that Hudgens’ team leader, Joshua Christopherson, asked for volunteers in May for “a new motivational exercise,” which he did not describe. Hudgens, who was 26 at the time, volunteered in order to “prove his loyalty and determination,” the suit claims.
Christopherson led the sales team to the top of a hill near the office and told Hudgens to lie down with his head downhill, the suit claims. Christopherson then told the rest of the team to hold Hudgens by the arms and legs.
Christopherson poured water from a gallon jug over Hudgens’ mouth and nostrils – like the interrogation strategy known as “waterboarding” – and told the team members to hold Hudgens down as he struggled, the suit alleges.
“At the conclusion of his abusive demonstration, Christopherson told the team that he wanted them to work as hard on making sales as Chad had worked to breathe while he was being waterboarded,” the suit alleges.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Stupidity, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Wednesday, February 27th, 2008
Teacher’s aide who had hotel party quits
A special-education aide at Highlands Senior High School resigned under pressure yesterday and faces possible drug and corruption of minors charges for a hotel party involving high school teenagers.
New Kensington police said they found suspected crack cocaine, empty beer cans and used condoms in a room that Abbiejane Swogger, 34, of Harrison, shared with minors Thursday night at New Kensington’s Clarion Hotel. The room contained drug paraphernalia and a marijuana odor when officers arrived just before noon on Friday to follow up on reports of missing teens, said Detective Dennis Marsili.
Investigators questioned Ms. Swogger at the New Kensington police station Friday afternoon, but did not arrest her. Charges could be filed as soon as today, Detective Marsili said.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Stupidity, Drugs, Fun with Alcohol, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Monday, February 25th, 2008
Pilot sacked after fly-by stunt
A British pilot has been sacked after performing a low-flying stunt with a brand new Boeing 777.
Captain Ian Wilkinson flew the Cathay Pacific plane within 28 feet of the ground with its undercarriage raised, at Boeing’s Seattle airfield.
The aircraft was on its delivery flight and packed with the airline’s VIPs.
The airline said Capt Wilkinson, 55, had not sought or obtained permission for the fly-by on January 30, and had been dismissed.
The co-pilot, Ray Middleton, has also been “subject to disciplinary actions” – understood to be suspension from training duties for six months.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Idiot Authorities, Toys! | Comments Off
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
Farting woman loses employment case
A woman who said she was relentlessly taunted by colleagues because of chronic flatulence has lost her discrimination claim, an employment tribunal confirmed today.
The woman, who cannot be named, claimed she was subjected to cruel jibes from staff at Leeds Metropolitan University because she suffered from severe irritable bowel syndrome.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, I hate it when that happens, Yuck! | Comments Off
Friday, February 15th, 2008
Arrested judge wore dress, women’s hosiery
A Boston-based federal judge wore a black cocktail dress, fish-net stockings and high heels when police arrested him for drunk driving after he rear-ended a pickup truck last week, sources said.
U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert Somma, 63, struck a plea deal with the city Wednesday in which he pleaded no contest to a first-offense misdemeanor driving while intoxicated charge in Manchester District Court. In exchange, the judge agreed to pay $600 in fines and penalties and a 12-month license suspension, which can be reduced to six months if he proves he successfully completed a driver education and alcohol awareness course, court records show.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Fun with Alcohol | Comments Off
Tuesday, February 12th, 2008
Florida Deputies Dump Quadriplegic Man From Wheelchair
A veteran Florida sheriff’s deputy is in hot water after she was caught on video dumping a quadriplegic man out of his wheelchair while he was being booked on Jan. 29, MyFOXTampaBay.com reported.
The video shows Brian Sterner, 32, out of his wheelchair and on the floor while Deputy Charlotte Marshall Jones is booking him into the Hillsborough County Jail, the Web site reported.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Saturday, February 9th, 2008
UGA professor accused of beating student
University of Georgia officials said they have removed a pharmacy professor from contact with students as they investigate whether he repeatedly punched a doctoral candidate during a drunken rage at an off-campus party. But some students claim the professor is still teaching and are outraged he hasn’t been fired.
Last semester, Shawn Holaway, a clinical assistant professor in the university’s College of Pharmacy, was accused of an unprovoked attack on graduate student Philip Almeter at a private Homecoming party in Athens. Although the alleged incident occurred Nov. 2 and Almeter said he reported it to college administrators the next day, university officials still are investigating.
“[Holaway] is contesting the allegations and being uncooperative in the university’s attempts to investigate, so it is taking longer than we would like,” university spokesman Tom Jackson wrote in an e-mail Monday to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “But appropriate measures have been taken to remove him from contact with students and to set in motion the steps necessary to reach an appropriate resolution, which could include dismissal.”
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Saturday, February 9th, 2008
Sharia law row: Archbishop is in shock as he faces demands to quit
The Archbishop of Canterbury was facing demands to quit last night as the row over sharia law intensified.
Leading bishops publicly contradicted Dr Rowan Williams’s call for Islamic law to be brought into the British legal system.
With the Church of England plunged into crisis, senior figures were said to be discussing the archbishop’s future.
One member of the church’s “Cabinet”, the Archbishop’s Council, was reported as saying: “There have been a lot of calls for him to resign. I don’t suppose he will take any notice, but, yes, he should resign.”
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Stupidity, Idiot Authorities, Politically Incorrect, T.R.O.P. | Comments Off
Sunday, February 3rd, 2008
Monkey Boiled Alive At Research Lab
A monkey, slotted to be used in a drug-product research experiment, was instead boiled alive inside an Everett laboratory, a KIRO Team 7 Investigation found.
It’s a deadly error, but not the first one KIRO Team 7 Investigators uncovered at SNBL USA.
That company is near the Boeing Plant off Merrill Creek Parkway in Everett. It houses around 2,000 primates and represents clients like Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, Eli Lilly and Seattle Genetics.
Using hidden camera footage, Investigative Reporter Chris Halsne shows you inside a facility that’s no stranger to federal animal care violations.
When it comes to scientific experiments, often the Cynomolgus Macaque monkey is the primate of choice. They weigh anywhere from about 3 to 25 pounds and make lots of barking noises. It’s hard to image how anyone could miss one sitting inside a small cage.
In early November, SNBL employees set out to clean pens full of monkeys and, at times, their babies.
Our hidden camera footage, taken inside SNBL headquarters, shows just how obvious it is to see and hear these animals jumping around in their enclosures.
Despite that, KIRO Team 7 Investigators confirmed someone placed a wire kennel, with a healthy female macaque monkey still inside, into a giant rack-washer.
The 180-degree water, caustic foam and detergent killed the primate at some point during the 20-minute cycle.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality, Mad Scientists | Comments Off
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
Flight to London makes emergency landing after co-pilot suffers mental breakdown
The co-pilot of a Heathrow-bound plane was dragged kicking and screaming from the cockpit after suffering a mental breakdown while in control of the flight.
He began yelling and “invoking God” as the Air Canada 767 flew at 37,000 feet over the Atlantic. He was held down by other crew members and a passenger, a member of the Canadian armed forces.
The co-pilot then had restraints fastened to his wrists and ankles and was handcuffed to a seat. The flight from Toronto made an emergency landing in Shannon and the co-pilot, who had been crying and screaming according to witnesses, was taken off the plane.
He was taken by ambulance to a psychiatric ward where he is being treated for a suspected nervous breakdown.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Crazy is as Crazy Does, I hate it when that happens | Comments Off
Wednesday, January 30th, 2008
Use of ‘Canadian’ as possible racial slur may be part of Texas probe
A Texas prosecutor who was accused of using the word “Canadian” as a racial slur in an e-mail could be part of the focus of an ongoing probe into the actions of another district attorney.
The e-mail, sent out in 2003 by Harris County assistant district attorney Mike Trent, has recently come to light as part of an investigation of Harris County Texas District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal, who is accused of sending racist and sexist e-mails.
In 2003, Trent sent a staff-wide e-mail congratulating his colleague Robert Freyer for winning a conviction.
In the e-mail, Trent wrote: “He overcame a subversively good defense by Matt Hennessey that had some Canadians on the jury feeling sorry for the defendant and forced them to do the right thing.”
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Stupidity, Idiot Authorities, Politically Incorrect | Comments Off
Tuesday, January 29th, 2008
Arrest in KOOP fire
A 24-year-old volunteer at community radio station 91.7 FM KOOP took his music so seriously that he set fire to the station when it didn’t play the songs on his playlist, Austin Fire Department Battalion Chief Greg Nye said.
Paul Webster Feinstein has been charged with second-degree felony arson and was being held Monday in the Travis County Central Booking Facility. If convicted, he could be sentenced to two to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.
The fire Jan. 5 at 3823 Airport Blvd., Suite B, caused $300,000 in damage. The radio station was off the air for 19 days before broadcasting resumed Friday from studio space donated by Entercom Communications, which owns several other local stations.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality, Fire | Comments Off
Thursday, January 24th, 2008
French bank finds $7.14 billion fraud
French bank Societe Generale has uncovered a $7.14 billion fraud that, combined with a write-down from its subprime exposure, will force it to seek $8.02 billion in new capital, the bank said.
France’s second-largest bank by market value after BNP Paribas SA said it detected the fraud at its French markets division the weekend of Jan. 19. A trader at the futures desk had taken “massive fraudulent directional positions in 2007 and 2008 beyond his limited authority,” SocGen said.
The trader, who was not named, used his knowledge of the group’s security systems to conceal his positions through a series of elaborate fictitious transactions, a SocGen statement said.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality | Comments Off
Friday, December 28th, 2007
Antarctic base staff evacuated after Christmas brawl
Two men, one with a suspected broken jaw, have been airlifted from the Antarctic’s most remote research facility after an incident described as a “drunken Christmas punch-up”.
The brawl happened at the US-operated Amundsen-Scott South Pole station, located at the heart of the frozen continent. The station, where staff carry out a range of scientific investigations from astrophysics to seismology, is currently being rebuilt in a £76m project.
After reports of the fight reached staff at McMurdo station, the headquarters of the US Antarctic Programme, which is located on Ross Island, a US Air Force Hercules was sent to pick up the injured man and the other worker.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Fun with Alcohol | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, December 26th, 2007
Staff Fired After Prank Call Shock Treatments
Staff members at a group home made multiple mistakes when they followed a prank caller’s direction to give dozens of electrical shocks to two emotionally disturbed teenagers, according to a report by a state agency that investigated the incident.
The report by the Massachusetts Department of Early Education and Care said six staffers at a Stoughton residence run by the Canton-based Judge Rotenberg Education Center had ample reason to doubt the orders to administer the shocks, but did nothing to stop it.
The six staff members and video surveillance worker on duty that night have been fired, Ernest Corrigan, the school’s spokesman, said Thursday.
Initial investigations showed that a former student at the Judge Rotenberg Education Center allegedly called in orders for electric shock treatments on Aug. 26 and officials at the school self-reported the prank call and unnecessary treatments the day after they occurred, Cindy Campbell, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Early Education and Care, said Monday.
After the call, the teens, ages 16 and 19, were awakened in the middle of the night and given the shock treatments, at times while their legs and arms were bound. One teen received 77 shocks and the other received 29. One boy was treated for two first-degree burns.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Doh!, Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Sunday, December 16th, 2007
Chief accused of drunk fire truck racing
A fire chief in Penobscot County has been charged with being drunk behind the wheel while driving a fire truck with its lights on and its sirens going.
Russell Banks of Burlington was arrested around midnight Saturday after a resident complained that Banks was racing a fire tanker by his home even though there was no fire in the area.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Fire, Fun with Alcohol, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Sunday, December 16th, 2007
Guilty plea in attempt to shut down state power
A Sacramento County computer technician pleaded guilty today to trying to shut down California’s power grid by pushing a button marked “Emergency Power Off,” authorities said.
Lonnie Charles Denison, 33, of South Natomas admitted in U.S. District Court in Sacramento that he went into a room at the Independent System Operator’s data center in Folsom on April 15, broke a glass cover and pushed the button, prosecutors said. Denison, a contract employee at the data center, was upset with his employer, authorities said.
The ISO oversees electricity purchases and distribution. Denison prevented the data center from communicating to the electricity market for about two hours, leaving the electrical power grid vulnerable to shortages, Matthew St. Amant, a California Highway Patrol officer assigned to an FBI taskforce, wrote in an affidavit. No blackout occurred because the incident – which cost $14,000 for 20 computer specialists to repair – happened on a Sunday, investigators said.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Idiot Criminals, Technological Travesties | Comments Off
Thursday, December 13th, 2007
fellategate
Someone likes to watch. On the heels of the so-called “videogate” incident comes breaking news of a disturbing pattern of behavior exhibited by New England Patriots Head Coach Bill Belichick. Apparently Belichick enjoyed sneaking over to the summer home of his former Assistant Coach (and current New York Jets Head Coach) Eric Mangini to watch he and his wife engage in what Belichick calls ‘playing in the red zone.’
Dr. H. S. Meltzer, a sports psychologist who grew up across the street from the Patriots’ coach isn’t surprised. “When I heard about Bill taping the Jets’ defensive signals I wasn’t exactly stunned,” said Meltzer. “You think three Superbowl rings come without controversy? To think these kinds of covert activities just flare up or are isolated incidents is ludicrous. This is just the tip of the iceberg.”
…
“Look, it started during his teen years,” Meltzer added. “Here’s how it plays out folks — you begin with an overwhelming curiosity – perhaps seeking the love of an unresponsive mother or an abusive father – followed by the accumulation of a stash of magazines like Fabulous Boobies and Jawbreakers, generally for the purpose of getting one’s rocks off – if you catch my drift. It’s all innocent dime store fun, but before you know it, you’re onto the real hard stuff, like Horse Jizz Slurpin’ Harlots, Taint Misbehavin’, and Probing for Corn. Then you apply this perverted, self-destructive method to your life’s work, and hope nobody finds out. But then, like your mother discovering your ill gotten booty of 42nd Street low-rent, pages-stuck-together smut, you’re snagged by the NFL commissioner like a sixty-two year old salesman in a raincoat pleasuring himself in the back of a porn house. That’s our Bill.”
Hat tip to John M
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Idiot Celebrities, Sexual Deviants | Comments Off
Saturday, December 8th, 2007
NYC Mailman Accused of Filching Cards
Call it a special delivery. A postal carrier pocketed dozens of greeting cards he was supposed to deliver to get at the cash inside, postal inspectors said.
He was found with more than 130 pieces of other people’s mail in his car, according to a court complaint.
Michael Olivio was released on his own recognizance Thursday following his arrest the previous day, court records show. The exact charges against him were not listed in court records available early Saturday, and a spokesman for prosecutors did not immediately return a telephone call.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality | Comments Off
Friday, November 30th, 2007
Jailings Over Ringing Cell Get Judge Ousted
A New York judge who jailed a courtroom full of people over a ringing cell phone is off the bench.
Judge Robert Restaino was removed Tuesday by a state judicial panel.
During a court session in March 2005, Restaino got upset when a cell phone went off.
He demanded that the phone be handed over, threatening to lock up everybody if no one came forward.
When nobody did, the judge ordered all 46 people in the room hauled off to the city jail, where they were searched.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Monday, November 26th, 2007
Voice of London’s Tube gets the axe
The woman behind the gentle, even voice that warns London’s subway commuters to “Mind the gap” was fired after telling a newspaper she thought the transit network was dreadful.
Emma Clarke has been recording messages for London’s sprawling subway network, popularly known as the Tube, since 1999. In addition to warning passengers to watch their step in walking between subway cars and the platform, she also reads the trains’ stops, tells Londoners how long they have to wait until their next ride, and delivers service updates.
Transport for London, the body responsible for running the subway, said Monday that Clarke, 36, was fired for telling The Mail on Sunday she avoided using the subway whenever possible.
“The thought of being stuck in the Tube with strangers for minutes on end and having to listen to endless repeated messages of my own voice fills me with horror,” she told the paper.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Sunday, November 25th, 2007
‘Satan brainwashed me,’ claims Mayor
Politicians quit their posts all the time, citing predictable reasons for stepping down.
Either they want to spend more time with their family or they have had a fling with someone instead of spending time with their family.
So respect then to the former mayor of a town in Arkansas, who has resigned because he was brainwashed by worshippers of Satan.
Ken Williams left his position in Centerton, claiming the devil lovers kidnapped him nearly 30 years ago.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Crazy is as Crazy Does, Politico Follies | Comments Off
Tuesday, November 20th, 2007
Private details of EVERY family in Britain ‘lost’ by taxman in major security blunder
Everyone who receives child benefit is under threat of fraud after a catastrophic blunder by civil servants.
Two computer discs packed with the personal and banking details of 25million people – nearly half the UK’s 60million population – have disappeared in the post.
Last night, Chancellor Alistair Darling was trying to head off a consumer panic after he admitted that nearly every family in the country is at risk. Police were ransacking offices in London and the North East for the missing CDs, but insisted there was no evidence they have fallen into criminal hands.
The discs, which include names of parents and children, their dates of birth, addresses and National Insurance and bank account numbers of all those who claim Child Benefit, had only minimal computer protection and could be easily hacked into by gangsters.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Idiot Authorities | Comments Off
Saturday, November 17th, 2007
Hoboken Disbands SWAT Team After Hooters Photos
The Hoboken, N.J., police SWAT team — which is taking heat for racy pictures showing its members frolicking with Hooters waitresses — is no more. Hoboken’s newly named public safety director disbanded the SWAT team shortly after being sworn in on Friday, authorities confirmed.
“The unit itself has been disbanded permanently,” Public Safety Director Bill Bergin told the Jersey Journal. He is a former deputy chief with the Hoboken Fire Department.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Idiot Authorities, Politically Incorrect, Sex | Comments Off
Tuesday, November 6th, 2007
Pilfering Pocket Money: German Bank Worker Raided Kids’ Piggy Banks
A bank cashier has been caught stealing from children aged between one and nine. They handed her their piggy banks full of pocket money and she credited their savings accounts with less than was in them. The case has shattered the children’s faith in banking.
A female German bank cashier has been convicted of stealing money from children’s piggy banks and ordered to pay €1,800 to a charity.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality | Comments Off
Friday, October 19th, 2007
Journalist feared killed by elephants
The herd of wild elephants that are on the rampage in the forest areas of Srikakulam and Vizianagaram districts claimed yet another victim, this time a reporter working for a Telugu daily, on Friday.
K. Nagaraju of Andhra Prabha was suspected to have been trampled to death while three other reporters narrowly escaped the wrath of the nine pachyderms which have been playing havoc in several villages.
Disregarding the advice of forest officials, the four scribes had gone to take photographs of the herd in the Hussainapuram reserve forest area, near Veeraghatam in the early hours.
Posted in A Bit of The Old Ultraviolent, Animal Rebellion Update, Career Limiting Move | Comments Off
Saturday, October 13th, 2007
Vatican Bars Gay Cleric After TV Program
An Italian monsignor was suspended from his position at the Holy See after the cleric said in a television interview he “didn’t feel he was sinning” by having sex with gay men, the Vatican and news reports said Saturday.
Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi told journalists that while the case was under investigation the monsignor was suspended from his job as a top official in the Vatican’s Congregation for Clergy, an office which aims to ensure proper conduct by priests.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Politically Incorrect | Comments Off
Monday, October 1st, 2007
Burma: Thousands dead in massacre of the monks dumped in the jungle
Thousands of protesters are dead and the bodies of hundreds of executed monks have been dumped in the jungle, a former intelligence officer for Burma’s ruling junta has revealed.
The most senior official to defect so far, Hla Win, said: “Many more people have been killed in recent days than you’ve heard about. The bodies can be counted in several thousand.”
Mr Win, who spoke out as a Swedish diplomat predicted that the revolt has failed, said he fled when he was ordered to take part in a massacre of holy men. He has now reached the border with Thailand.
Posted in Anarchy, Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality, Crazed Dictatorships, War | Comments Off
Saturday, August 25th, 2007
Motorist admits speeding at 172mph
A motorist has pleaded guilty to driving at 172mph on a rural A-road, making him the fastest speeder ever caught in Britain.
Tim Brady, 33, was caught in a random speed check on the A420 near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, driving a �98,000 3.6-litre Porsche 911 Turbo in January this year.
The current highest speed to result in a conviction is 156mph.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality, Toys! | Comments Off
Saturday, August 4th, 2007
Intel apologises for ‘racist’ computer ad
Intel, the computer chip maker, has been forced to apologise for an advertisement which has been widely criticised as racist.
The ad, which was for a new generation of micro-processors, showed six black sprinters crouched in the start position in front a white man wearing a shirt and chinos in an office.
Above the image was a slogan which read: “Multiply computer performance and maximise the power of your employees.”
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Politically Incorrect | No Comments »
Thursday, July 26th, 2007
Drunk astronauts allowed to fly, admits panel
A PANEL has found that astronauts were allowed to fly on at least two occasions despite warnings they were so drunk they posed a flight risk, Aviation Week reported today on its website.
The publication said the panel set up by NASA to study astronaut health issues reported “heavy use of alcohol” within 12 hours of launch.
It said flight surgeons and other astronauts warned that the drunken astronauts posed a flight risk when they flew on the two known occasions.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Fun with Alcohol, Space | No Comments »
Friday, July 20th, 2007
Dear Piece Of Trash
Incensed by the most recent arrest of an alleged drug dealer, a Cleveland politician wrote the perp a scathing, profanity-filled letter that referred to the man as a “crack dealing piece of trash” who should “go to jail or the cemetery soon.” In a July 12 letter, a copy of which you’ll find below, Councilman Michael Polensek, 57, tore into Arsenio Winston, 18, after learning of the teenager’s arrest earlier this month on a felony drug trafficking rap.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007
China Executes Ex-Food and Drug Chief
China executed the former head of its food and drug watchdog on Tuesday for approving untested medicine in exchange for cash, the strongest signal yet from Beijing that it is serious about tackling its product safety crisis.
The execution of former State Food and Drug Administration director Zheng Xiaoyu was confirmed by state television and the official Xinhua News Agency.
During Zheng’s tenure from 1998 to 2005, his agency approved six medicines that turned out to be fake, and the drug-makers used falsified documents to apply for approvals, according to previous state media reports. One antibiotic caused the deaths of at least 10 people.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Hard Core! | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007
Armoured Vehicle Joy Rider Is Banned
A man who took an armoured vehicle on a joy ride and flattened a car has been banned from driving.
Jack Carroll “gleefully” drove the 25-tonne Warrior at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire, in July last year.
A soldier captured the 22-year-old’s antics on a mobile phone video, which was then circulated on various websites, including YouTube.
Carroll, from Anfield, Merseyside, pleaded guilty to taking the vehicle without consent at Northallerton Magistrates’ Court.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Tuesday, July 10th, 2007
“DC Madam” Posts Phone Records Online
In a move that will certainly set into motion hundreds of bloggers and journalists eager to unearth the next Washington sex scandal, Deborah Jeane Palfrey, aka the “DC Madam,” has posted 13 years worth of phone records on her website Monday afternoon. The records cover Palfrey’s time as head of “Pamela Martin & Associates,” a Washington, D.C.-based escort service. As Yeas & Nays noted last week, U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler recently lifted the temporary restraining order prohibiting Deborah Jeane Palfrey from releasing those telephone records.
During an interview with Yeas & Nays last Thursday, Palfrey indicated that she had “every intention” of releasing her records to the public, but the move to post them on her website so quickly was not anticipated by many.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Politico Follies, Sinners in the hands of an angry God | 1 Comment »
Sunday, July 1st, 2007
Zimbabwe’s top cleric urges Britain to invade
ZIMBABWE’S leading cleric has called on Britain to invade the country and topple President Robert Mugabe. Pius Ncube, the Archbishop of Bulawayo, warned that millions were facing death from famine, unable to survive amid inflation believed to have soared to 15,000%.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Crazed Dictatorships, War | No Comments »
Tuesday, June 26th, 2007
Sore Jaw Could Undo Icon’s Hot Dog Reign
In the world of competitive eating, you can’t make it anywhere if you can’t open wide.
But the state of perhaps the most important tool in competitive eating legend Takeru Kobayashi’s toolbox is in question after he posted a blog entry Sunday loosely translated as “Vocational Disease.”
In it, Kobayashi paints a dire picture of his oral health, claiming that he has been diagnosed with a form of temporomandibular joint disorder — pain in the joint that connects the lower jaw to his skull.
Kobayashi writes that he can only open his famous hatch as wide as a fingertip without suffering extreme pain and draws a comparison to a baseball pitcher with torn elbow ligaments.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Human Oddities | No Comments »
Saturday, June 16th, 2007
Kudos, Too, to My Blankety-Blank Teacher
A music teacher is under investigation by school officials after a student stunned a concert audience with a profane tirade that she said was merely imitating the instructor’s style.
Savannah Larson, 13, gave the first performance in the spring concert attended by about 700 students, teachers, relatives and friends at Monticello Middle School. At the end of singing Rogers & Hart’s “Where or When,” she delivered what first appeared to be a verbal nod to the instructor, Constance S. “Connie” Noakes.
“I forgot to thank my wonderful choir teacher, Ms. Noakes, for all that she’s taught me these past couple of years, like always knowing what to say in any situation, like…,” Larson began, then let fly a stream of expletives and obscenities she said Noakes regularly used in class.
The next day, June 6, the eighth grade honors student was suspended for 10 school days, forcing her to miss her graduation ceremony and party.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Idiot Authorities, Teen Antics | No Comments »
Saturday, June 9th, 2007
School defends serving 6th-graders gin
An Ohio charter school that emphasizes African history and culture served gin to sixth graders at a graduation ceremony and state education officials said they plan to investigate.
Four students were given a teaspoon of gin mixed with water in a ceremony modeled on a Ghanian rite of passage event, said Kwa David Whitaker, a Phoenix Village Academy official.
The ritual was intended to teach truthfulness, said Whitaker, who oversaw the Tuesday ceremony.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Fun with Alcohol, Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Sunday, May 20th, 2007
Japanese worked to death
A record number of Japanese literally worked themselves to death last year, the Government said, despite campaigns to ease their country’s notoriously long office hours.
The 355 workers who fell severely ill or died from overwork in the year to March was the highest number on record – up by 7.6 per cent from the previous year, the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Labour said. Of that total, 147 people died, many from strokes or heart attacks.
Death from overwork grew so common during Japan’s post-World War II economic miracle that the country coined a word for it, karoshi.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Cultural Oddities, I hate it when that happens | No Comments »
Wednesday, May 9th, 2007
HBO Head Takes Leave After Arrest:
HBO chief executive Chris Albrecht said he was taking a leave of absence to regain control of his alcoholism following a weekend assault arrest in Las Vegas.
Bill Nelson, HBO chief operating officer, will take over Albrecht’s duties “pending resolution of the police incident,” the company said.
…
“Two years ago, I decided that I could handle drinking again. Clearly, I was wrong. Given that truth, I have committed myself to sobriety. I intend to take a temporary leave of absence from HBO effective today, in order to go back to working with AA.”
Posted in Career Limiting Move | No Comments »
Thursday, May 3rd, 2007
Judge sues for $65 million over pants
The Chungs, immigrants from South Korea, realized their American dream when they opened their dry-cleaning business seven years ago in the nation’s capital.
For the past two years, however, they’ve been dealing with the nightmare of litigation: a $65 million lawsuit over a pair of missing pants. Jin Nam Chung, Ki Chung and their son, Soo Chung, are so disheartened that they’re considering moving back to Seoul, said their attorney, Chris Manning, who spoke on their behalf.
“They’re out a lot of money, but more importantly, incredibly disenchanted with the system,” Manning said. “This has destroyed their lives.”
The lawsuit was filed by a District of Columbia administrative hearings judge, Roy Pearson, who has been representing himself in the case.
Unfortunately for the judge, the story has spread like wildfire and now the Washington Post is calling for his head:
IS THERE anything more absurd than someone pursuing a $65 million lawsuit over a lost pair of pants? Well, how about this same person being in a position to adjudicate the cases of other people? Or that there’s a chance of his getting a new 10-year term as judge?
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Idiot Authorities | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 1st, 2007
The Lebanon War inquiry commission hands down the equivalent of a death warrant against Olmert government for its “grave failures”:
Prime minister Ehud Olmert is accused of grave failures of judgment, responsibility and caution in his decisions to go to war in Lebanon last summer and its management. His decision was hasty and undertaken without in-depth study of the circumstances in the arena, a proper plan of action and clearly defined objectives.Full partners in these failures are defense minister Amir Peretz and former chief of staff Dan Halutz.
These are the key findings of the tensely-awaited 250-page interim report evaluating the government’s conduct of the Second Lebanon War 2006 presented by an inquiry panel led by Judge Eliahu Winograd, Monday afternoon, April 30, 2007.
…
The defense minister, lacking in military and political experience, was unable to appreciate a strategic situation, yet failed to take advice, heed alternatives proposed to him or develop an independent approach. Therefore, Amir Peretz fell down on the job and was a weak link in the government’s ability to contend with the challenges. [Emph. mine]
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Idiot Authorities, War | No Comments »
Saturday, April 14th, 2007
“Big, powerful law firms like Nashville’s King & Ballow really ought to hire someone with journalistic and new media experience to advise them on how to handle clients who complain about things published by bloggers. Then they wouldn’t do stupid things like issue threats of libel suits that they can’t win against bloggers who, it turns out, have lots of friends willing to make the law firm and its client look bad for it.
That thought occurred to me as I read that Nashville blogger Katherine Coble is being threatened by the powerful Nashville law firm King & Ballow with a libel lawsuit unless she removes from her blog something she wrote that offended one of the law firm’s clients. King & Ballow sent Coble a “demand letter” demanding she take down a post she published. K&B and the client – the headhunter firm JL Kirk Associates – are already getting blowback – and it’s only going to get worse as word of the case spreads throughout the blogosphere.”
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Saturday, April 14th, 2007
School Sex Tape Causes Furor in Chicago:
A principal and a teacher at a suburban elementary school quit amid allegations they were caught on video having sex in the principal’s office, authorities say.
In keeping with Cook County’s reputation for bare-knuckle politics, the scandal broke after copies of the sex tape were mailed anonymously to parents this week, just days before a contested school board election.
The case has also created something of a mystery: Who planted the camera that recorded the action?
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Sex | No Comments »
Saturday, April 7th, 2007
Swearing grounds NWA jet:
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a Northwest Airlines pilot who locked himself inside an airplane lavatory while screaming obscenities before the flight was scheduled to take off for Detroit from Las Vegas on Friday. As passengers boarded Northwest Flight 1190 at McCarran International Airport they heard the captain shouting curse words.
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Thursday, April 5th, 2007
Porn swap tied to Aegis info leak
Top-secret data on Aegis destroyers obtained by a Maritime Self-Defense Force petty officer 2nd class were found to have been obtained after he copied obscene images to his hard disk from a colleague’s computer, without knowing the information contained the secret data, police sources said Wednesday.
The Kanagawa prefectural police also found the secret information was leaked to another petty officer, meaning the case now involves three petty officers, including the 33-year-old 2nd class petty officer, who is a crew member of the destroyer Shirane of Escort Flotilla 1.
Hard disks and computers of each officer were found to have contained obscene images along with the secret information, the police said.
The police believe that repetitive exchanges of such images triggered the spread of the secret information.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality, Sex | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 20th, 2007
Station Fires Worker in News Porn Case
A Phoenix television station fired an employee suspected of inserting pornography into a broadcast of a news show featuring former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw.
The unnamed worker for ION Media Networks’ KPPX-TV “was immediately terminated and faces further legal action” after an investigation determined who was responsible for the March 12 incident, spokeswoman Leslie Monreal said in a statement.
Palm Beach, Fla.-based ION Media Networks, which offers family-friendly programs, called the incident “an intolerable act of human sabotage” and apologized to viewers. About 30 seconds of porn was inserted into the broadcast.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Modern Narcissism | No Comments »
Saturday, March 17th, 2007
Intern Sold Civil War Items on eBay
An intern with the National Archives stole about 165 Civil War documents – including the War Department’s announcement of President Lincoln’s death – and sold most of them on eBay, prosecutors charged Thursday.
Denning McTague, who runs a Web site that sells rare books, worked at a National Archives and Records Administration site in Philadelphia last summer, prosecutors said.
McTague, 40, of Philadelphia, has helped officials recover most of the missing items and plans to plead guilty, his lawyer said.
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Friday, March 16th, 2007
Court stenographer jailed for slow work
A court stenographer was sent to jail when she didn’t finish a trial transcript needed for the appeal of a convicted rapist.
Ann Margaret Smith was jailed Friday for contempt of court. Circuit Judge Charles Greene noted that Smith failed for months to finish the transcript and missed a final deadline in February. She also failed to produce the transcript at her contempt hearing.
Posted in Career Limiting Move | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 14th, 2007
WABC anchor snoozes and loses his job
Steve Bartelstein has run out of second chances at WABC/Ch. 7. The anchor, who has messed up several times on the job only to get another shot, was fired after sleeping through a newsbreak he was to anchor last Thursday morning on the horrific Bronx house fire. He was in his Ch. 7 office at the time.
Posted in Career Limiting Move | No Comments »
Sunday, March 4th, 2007
DRC sacking over ‘ghost minister’:
A party leader in the Democratic Republic of Congo who proposed an apparently fictitious person for a post in the new cabinet has been sacked.
The so-called case of the “phantom” government minister, Andre Kasongo Ilunga, has puzzled politicians in the war-torn African nation in recent days.
The case came to light when Prime Minister Antoine Gizenga began to appoint ministers to his new cabinet. The elusive Mr Ilunga got the post of trade but resigned before taking it up. The party’s leader, Honorius Kisimba Ngoy, leader of Unafec, a party allied to President Joseph Kabila, allegedly invented Mr Ilunga in the hope that submitting the name of an unknown along with his own would ensure he was appointed to the cabinet.
Posted in Career Limiting Move | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
Cheerleaders, Soldiers, Booze and Sex
It was supposed to be college day for the students of Ware Shoals High School in South Carolina, a chance to learn about educational prospects at a local institution.
But according to police, two of the school’s cheerleaders ditched the event (the exact date hasn’t been made public) and instead headed to a motel with Jill Moore, their coach. There, they met up for a tryst with two National Guardsmen who recruited at their school.
Moore loosened things up by allegedly providing the girls with vodka. Then, the cops say, she repaired to a room with one of the soldiers and set up a different room for the two cheerleaders and the other soldier to “hook up.”
Posted in Career Limiting Move, Concentrated Criminality | No Comments »
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
Boston Devices a Cartoon Marketing Ploy:
Nine blinking electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a marketing campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. At least one of the devices depicts a character giving the finger.
Highways, bridges and a section of the Charles River were shut down and bomb squads were sent in before authorities declared the devices were harmless.
“It’s a hoax and it’s not funny,” said Gov. Deval Patrick.
Turner Broadcasting, parent company of Cartoon Network, said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.”
Posted in Career Limiting Move | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, January 31st, 2007
The curse of the Oscar
It’s awards season in Hollywood, with all red carpets leading to the Oscars. But winning that prestigious award can sometimes lead to nothing more than bad roles and even oblivion.
“It’s known as the curse of the Oscar, which is very real. The actor’s ultimate dream can turn out to be the ultimate nightmare,” said movie pundit Tom O’Neil, awards columnist for the Web site The Envelope.
Winners like F. Murray Abraham, Brenda Fricker, Linda Hunt, Marlee Matlin and Louise Fletcher are hardly household names despite earning the film world’s most coveted award.
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Saturday, January 13th, 2007
A pornographic loop out of control
Oct. 19, 2004, while substituting for a seventh-grade language class at Kelly Middle School, Amero claimed she could not control the graphic images appearing in an endless cycle on her computer.
“The pop-ups never went away,” Amero testified. “They were continuous.”
The Web sites, which police proved were accessed while Amero was in the classroom, were seen by as many as 10 minor students. Several of the students testified during the three-day trial in Norwich Superior Court to seeing images of naked men and women.
Posted in Career Limiting Move | No Comments »
Thursday, January 11th, 2007
Have you seen Nepal? Not really, Peru says
Royal Nepal Airlines has apologized to Peru after mistakenly using a photo of the Inca ruins of Machu Picchu to promote tourism in Nepal. Peru’s foreign ministry said in a statement Wednesday the flagship carrier of the Himalayan kingdom, about half way around the world from the Andean country, had put the picture of Peru’s tourism icon, Machu Picchu, on a poster under a slogan “Have you seen Nepal?”
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