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Homeless man calls 911 from hot tub, asks for towels, hug, hot chocolate

knightmare — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:31:27 GMT

BEAVERTON, Ore. - A homeless man who called 911 from the hot tub of a suburban Portland, Oregon home and asked for towels, hot chocolate and a hug.

He didn't get any of those items - he got arrested for trespassing instead.
Beaverton police say Mark Eskelsen called 911 from his cellphone, identified himself as "the sheriff of Washington County," and asked for medical help.
He later admitted he wasn't the sheriff but informed the dispatcher he'd been in the water about 10 hours and his towels had gotten wet.
As he put it, "I just need a hug and a warm cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows in it."
The Oregonian newspaper says arriving officers arrested Eskelsen for investigation of second-degree criminal trespass and improper use of 911.

Oil rig explodes in Gulf

knightmare — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:26:16 GMT

Jerrold Litwinenko

Rescue efforts successful
Another oil rig has exploded in the Gulf of Mexico.
The U.S. Coast Guard reports that all 13 people on board the rig are safe -- though one was injured in the blast.
The rig, owned by Houston-based Mariner Energy, is located about 130 kiometres off the coast, and is west of the British Petroleum rig that spilled oil for several months and caused environmental devastation in the region.
The rig wasn't producing oil at the time of the blast.

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T-90 Dish for Sale - Local Pickup NW Georgia

Philbert — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:47:15 GMT

Guys,

I have a Wavve Frontier T-90 Super Dish that I would like to get rid of...I bought the Dish three years ago and assembled - but never intalled...The dish has been out in the weather but no signs of damage...Asking $100 or Best Offer.

Thanks,

Fake antivirus Remover!

UHAUL — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 01:21:13 GMT

this is a tool for removing most fake antivirus from your computer!it works fast too,then you can run your other proggies,no need to go into safemode. link below if you want to read alittle.

/http://freeofvirus.blogspot.com/2009/05/remove-fake-antivirus-10.html

it is made by Olzen software,you can also read about it at softpedia.

Attached Files

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Fidel Castro: Osama bin Laden is a US agent

knightmare — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 05:51:02 GMT

By Paul Haven, The Associated Press

HAVANA - Fidel Castro says al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is a bought-and-paid-for CIA agent who always popped up when former President George W. Bush needed to scare the world, arguing that documents recently posted on the Internet prove it.

"Any time Bush would stir up fear and make a big speech, bin Laden would appear threatening people with a story about what he was going to do," Castro told state media during a meeting with a Lithuanian-born writer known for advancing conspiracy theories about world domination. "Bush never lacked for bin Laden's support. He was a subordinate."

Castro said documents posted on WikiLeaks.org � a website that recently released thousands of pages of classified documents from the Afghan war � "effectively proved he was a CIA agent." He did not elaborate.

The comments, published in the Communist Party daily Granma on Friday, were the latest in a series of provocative statements by the 84-year-old revolutionary, who has emerged from seclusion to warn that the planet is on the brink of nuclear war.

Castro even predicted the global conflict would mean cancellation of the final rounds of the World Cup last month in South Africa. He later apologized for jumping the gun. Last week, he began highlighting the work of Daniel Estulin, who wrote a trilogy of books highlighting the Bilderberg Club, whose prominent members meet once a year behind closed doors.

The secretive nature of the meetings and prominence of some members � including former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, senior U.S. and European officials, and major international business and media executives � have led some to speculate that it operates as a kind of global government, controlling not only international politics and economics, but even culture.

During the meeting, Estulin told Castro that the real voice of bin Laden was last heard in late 2001, not long after the Sept. 11 attacks. He said the person heard making warnings about terror attacks after that was a "bad actor."

Castro stepped down due to ill health in 2006 � first temporarily, then permanently � and handed power over to his younger brother Raul. He has remained head of the Cuban Communist party but stayed out of view for four years after falling sick before returning to the spotlight in July.

Castro did take exception with one of Estulin's major theses: that the human race must move to another habitable planet or face extinction.

Castro said it would be better to fix things on Earth then abandon the planet altogether.

"Humanity ought to take care of itself if it wants to live thousands more years," Castro told the writer.

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Laugh of the day

MIKE — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:33:59 GMT

:congrats:

OVERDOSE: The Next Financial Crisis.

MIKE — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 07:39:49 GMT

This movie summarises in layman's terms why the economy crashed and that the worst is yet to come.

speed up computer

kaceymac38 — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 23:26:43 GMT

Hi all,
Does anyone know of a good free program to speed up my computer? It is fairly new (2008 Windows Vista) and seems like 2 to 3 minutes to open emails.
Thanks.

Coffee prices heating up, but chains avoid increases

knightmare — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 22:29:55 GMT

28/08/2010 4:32:57 PM
CTV.ca News Staff
The price for wholesale coffee has been boiling over lately, but that doesn't mean Canadians will be paying more for their take-out cappuccinos for the time being.

But coffee shops big and small admit that rising costs are a concern.
Earlier this week, the price for Arabica beans -- favoured by many coffee shops -- hit its highest point in 13 years, following a larger trend that has seen wholesale coffee prices rise nearly 45 per cent since the start of the year.

Commodities market analyst Sterling Smith said there are clear reasons for the increase.
"Coffee is on an upward move based on some sound fundamentals that are driving the price higher," he told The Canadian Press in a recent interview.
"We have tightness in bean supplies and we have some questions about the quality of beans," he said.
The rising costs will soon hit home-brewers in the pocketbook as the corporate owners of Folgers and Maxwell House plan to jack their prices about 10 per cent this fall.
Canadian coffee retailers say they won't be forcing the unforeseen costs onto their customers in the short term.
At Second Cup, president and CEO Stacey Mowbray said her company sees no change in prices on the horizon.
"We take a very strategic view of pricing, we're not reactionary," Mowbray told CTV.ca in a telephone interview from her office in Mississauga, Ont.
Second Cup uses Arabica beans for its blends, with the chain buying "the top one per cent" of the stock that is available, Mowbray said.
But the chain relies on its longstanding relationships with farms around the world to ensure it always has on hand the beans it needs for its 342 Canadian stores.
This approach has helped Second Cup deal with similar issues in the past, Mowbray said, including recent drier-than-expected seasons in Colombia where the company gets some of its beans.
Starbucks Coffee Canada says it keeps close watch on the prices of its products in its 785 company-operated stores north of the U.S. border, including what it charges for coffee.
The company has said it will be able to absorb the rising coffee costs without passing them on to Starbucks customers, in part because the Seattle-based coffee chain "has long-term relationships with farmers, traders and co-ops and has purchased the majority of its coffee for its upcoming fiscal year," the company said in a statement sent to CTV.ca.
Tim Hortons isn't raising its prices either, with company spokesperson David Morelli saying recently that the company relies on six-month coffee contracts "which protects our restaurant owners and customers from fluctuations in worldwide future markets."
Sterling said that big coffee chains are aware that increasing their prices will inevitably drive some customers away -- especially when consumers can brew coffee at home and buyers are living in a country that is still coming out of a recession.
"They will continue to buy coffee at the grocery store because it's comparatively cheap, but the willingness to pay $5 for that cup of coffee, you make it $5.50 you will cut people off," Smith said.
"So Starbucks and the upper-end coffee retailers, it will amount to a hit on earnings for them ... they're not going to move prices unless they have to."
Smaller chains say they, too, will shield their customers from any immediate price spikes.
In Toronto, Anat Davidzon says Aroma Espresso Bar Canada buys its coffee beans a year in advance, giving the chain some stability when it comes to pricing its hot drinks.
She expects coffee prices at Aroma's five Canadian stores to stay the same until the middle of the next year. After that, what happens is completely dependent on the market.
"If the trend is to continue going up, then there is no choice," Davidzon, the operating partner for the Israeli chain, told CTV.ca in a recent telephone interview.
With files from The Canadian Press

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Tiger cub found in luggage in Thai airport

knightmare — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 09:39:50 GMT

BANGKOK (AFP) - A two-month-old tiger cub was discovered hidden with a stuffed tiger toys in the baggage of a woman heading to Iran from Thailand, wildlife protection officials said Friday.

The 31-year-old Thai woman, who has not been named, was arrested on Sunday night after the tiger was spotted by X-ray staff in overweight luggage destined for the cargo hold.

An official from the Wild Fauna and Flora Protection Division said the cub was drugged and placed in the bag with the toys -- apparently to make it appear as if it were a stuffed animal.

"He was very calm, half asleep and half awake when we rescued him," he said.

The cub was found at Thailand's Suvarnabhumi Airport and has since been sent to a rescue centre.

It is not yet known whether the animal was wild or had been bred in captivity.

The woman, who admitted carrying the tiger, according to officials, faces four years in prison, a 40,000-baht (1,280-dollar) fine or both for possessing and smuggling an endangered animal.

Manop Lauprasert, of the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network applauded the successful operation.

"We are all very happy to have saved this tiger cub from entering the illegal trade," he said.

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US police seize cocaine embedded in bologna

knightmare — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 09:35:19 GMT

By The Associated Press

HOLYOKE, Mass. - A man has been arrested after a kilogram of cocaine hidden inside a hollowed-out chunk of bologna was delivered to his home.

Holyoke police say they were tipped off by postal inspectors in Puerto Rico who had been investigating similar shipments. A dog confirmed the presence of drugs and the bologna was cut open.

The meat was then repackaged and an undercover postal inspector delivered it to a Holyoke address at about 4:45 p.m. Thursday. A woman sitting on the front steps signed for it.

Police then executed a search warrant and arrested a 30-year-old man on a cocaine trafficking charge.

Police say the cocaine had a street value of $100,000. The investigation is ongoing

Flying fish knocks paddler from US river race

knightmare — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 09:32:56 GMT

By Alan Scher Zagier, The Associated Press

COLUMBIA, Mo. - A fish out of water sent a kayaker onto dry land instead of the finish line at an annual Missouri River endurance race.

Houston resident Brad Pennington was considered one of the favourites among men's solo racers in the Missouri River 340, a canoe and kayak race that began Tuesday morning in Kansas City, Kansas. At least until a 30-pound (14-kilogram) Asian silver carp jumped from the water and hit him in the head. The fish are known to panic and jump in response to passing vessels.

"It felt like a brick hit me," Pennington said Wednesday.

The 43-year-old lawyer already was having trouble steering his boat, a streamlined model built for speed but not necessarily sturdy enough to withstand a river known for commercial transport. The fish flew as Pennington was trying to return to shore to repair his kayak, assisted by a competing three-man team.

Pennington said he had to withdraw just hours into the 340-mile (550-kilometre) race because of a "pounding, pounding headache that kept getting worse." A nurse suggested further medical treatment, but he declined.

"It's definitely a risk of being out on the river," said Tracy Hill, a project leader for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's local fisheries office. "It's extremely serious. Those things can kill you."

Hill spent Wednesday volunteering at the race's Huntsdale checkpoint near Columbia. One day earlier, while conducting tests on the river, he was hit several times by flying carp.

Hill and his colleagues already wear construction hard hats while on the job. He suggested � with a straight face � that an upgrade to hockey helmets and protective netting might be in order.

Asian carp can eat up to 40 per cent of their weight a day in plankton and were imported in the 1970s as a way to control algae and plankton in fish ponds. But the fish made their way into the wild and have infested waterways including parts of the Mississippi, Illinois and Missouri rivers. Work continues to prevent the voracious fish from slipping into the Great Lakes.

Hydro prices going up like a rocket'

knightmare — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 09:28:44 GMT

Electricity prices in Ontario are "going up like a rocket," fuelled in part by the Ontario government's Green Energy Act, says a longtime observer of the province's energy scene.

"You are going to get screwed, and it's going to be painful," said Tom Adams, a Toronto-based consultant and a former executive director of Energy Probe.

"We're talking about hundreds of dollars a year out of your pocketbook that didn't need to happen. I'm livid about it. People should be outraged."

Hydro Ottawa customers have already been hit with a double-digit increase this year, thanks to rate hikes approved May 1 by the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) and the imposition of the harmonized sales tax July 1.

A typical consumer in Ottawa who uses 800 kilowatt hours of electricity now pays $116.82 a month, including tax, according to the OEB.

That's 17.7 per cent more than the $99.35 a month the same residential customer was paying in April. Half the increase is due to higher rates and half because of the HST.

Adams warned that Ontarians should expect to pay at least $110 more a year by the end of 2011 for electricity. That translates into an additional nine-per-cent increase.

After that, rates will move steadily up for four or five years, he predicted.

The OEB has already received several applications for more hefty rate increases.

Hydro One, which operates most of the province's long-distance transmission lines, has asked for a hike of 15.7 per cent in 2011 and 9.8 per cent in 2012. If approved, the increases would apply to the transmission portion of electricity bills.

Ontario Power Generation, which produces about 70 per cent of Ontario's power, has asked for a 6.2-per-cent price increase effective next March. It scaled that back from 9.6 per cent after pressure from Energy Minister Brad Duguid.

Traditionally, Ontarians have paid less for power than Americans. But now, said Adams, "we are leaving them in our dust."

He calculated that Ontario electricity rates passed the average U.S. price for the first time early this year, and are now nearly 15 per cent higher.

Adams assigned much of the blame for the rise in electricity rates to Ontario's Green Energy Act, which promotes the use of solar, wind and other alternative power sources.

The Feed-in Tariff (FIT) program, which locks in generous payments for 20 years for large green energy projects, is "just outrageous," Adams said.

The program's rates are far in excess of current electricity prices. The FIT program, for example, offers producers between 44.3 cents and 71.3 cents per kilowatt hour for solar power, and between 13.5 and 19 cents for wind power.

By contrast, the average weighted price for electricity so far this year is 4.02 cents per kilowatt hour.
Four FIT projects are already operating commercially, as are more than 700 small-scale projects under the companion microFIT program, which offers even richer incentives.

Adams said FIT projects will drive up electricity bills as they generate more and more of Ontario's power.
Because 20-year contracts have already been offered for FIT projects totalling more than 2,600 megawatts of power, Adams said, "it's now too late to avoid hundreds of dollars per year of increases."

But Tom Carpenter, a research associate at Queen's University's Institute for Energy and the Environment, said claims that green energy will drive up the price of electricity are "simply false."

Over the next two or three years, Carpenter said, the impact of FIT projects on electricity rates will be negligible, because the high-priced renewable energy will only represent a tiny fraction of the province's generating capacity.

As the program expands, he said, economies of scale will kick in and prices will come down sharply.
Another impending shift that could raise costs for residential customers is the advent of time-of-use pricing.
Unless they've signed electricity contracts, Ottawa residents now pay the Ontario Energy Board's regulated price for hydro. For the first 600 hours of consumption in summer - and the first 1,000 hours in winter - they pay 6.5 cents per kilowatt hour, and then 7.5 cents for each kilowatt hour beyond that.

But smart meters, now installed at virtually all Ottawa residences, make it possible to bill customers at three variable rates, depending on when they use electricity.

The current time-of-use rates are:
n 5.3 cents per kilowatt hour between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m.,
n 8 cents from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. and from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., and
n 9.9 cents from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Hydro Ottawa plans to shift 4,750 customers to time-of-use billing in November, a further 30,000 early next year and the balance by June 2011. Those who've signed contracts with electricity suppliers won't be affected.

While time-of-use pricing should be cost-neutral overall, Adams said, some people will pay more and some will pay less, depending on their consumption patterns.

Pilot projects in Toronto found many small businesses saved money while residential customers, on average, paid about eight per cent more for their electricity.

Adams said "substantial increases" are also on the horizon for electrical transmission and distribution.
One driver is an OEB decision last December that allowed local utilities to increase their allowed rate of profit. The decision bumped Hydro Ottawa's allowed return on equity to 9.85 per cent from 8.57 per cent.

There's some public benefit to that because the City of Ottawa is Hydro Ottawa's sole owner, but "that is going to drive the distribution and transmission components of the bill up by more than 10 per cent just in and of itself," Adams said.

Two BC men arrested in Facebook porn bust

knightmare — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 09:24:12 GMT

Sat Aug 28, 12:15 AM

By Tamsyn Burgmann, The Canadian Press

VANCOUVER - A Vancouver high school teacher who allegedly accessed child pornography from his school's computers is one of two B.C. men now linked to a global porn ring that operated through Facebook.

Christopher Ingvaldson, 40, was charged in early June with four counts relating to child exploitation, but accusations of his involvement in the exploitation network were only revealed Friday.

RCMP say a Kelowna, B.C. man was also arrested in June on similar information forwarded by Australian authorities who cracked the alleged ring. He was released, but police are still expecting to recommend charges.

"Even though the source of where this information came from is the same in both cases, the circumstances in terms of where the suspect lives is different," said Sgt. Tony Cavezza, with Vancouver Police.

Six people in Britain and three in Australia have also been arrested.

The Canadian Police Centre for Missing and Exploited Children was tipped to the investigation once it became clear there were Canadians involved, said spokeswoman RCMP Sgt. Lana Prosper.

"There are more files being investigated in Canada," Prosper said. "Whether they lead to charges or not would be up to those specific agencies."

RCMP Sgt. Steve Holmes said police executed a search warrant once they were alerted a resident may be involved.

"Items such as a computer and other materials were seized in the warrant, however, at that time there was not enough evidence to continue with a charge or support a charge, so that person was released," he said.

Police do expect to recommend charges of possession and distribution of child pornography, he said.

Canadian involvement in Project Ocean began shortly after Australian authorities launched the investigation in March. British Authorities and the FBI were also involved.

A covert Australian officer was approached by one of the suspects after establishing an identity on Facebook, ultimately leading police to the other suspects.

Australian police said Facebook deactivated the accounts of the initial suspects, but within hours, the groups appeared again under new accounts.

Prosper said there were no "hands-on" Canadian offenders identified in this particular case, which meant no children had to be immediately protected in the country. In the U.K., however, two children have been safeguarded.

Facebook released a statement saying staff for the site worked actively with the FBI and law enforcement agencies in the United Kingdom to support the investigation.

"Our message to Ian Green and people like him is: 'You will be caught and Facebook will help law enforcement to secure your capture and prosecution,'" Joe Sullivan, chief security officer for Facebook, said in reference to the 45-year-old Australian ringleader.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Green was sentenced Friday to four years in prison after admitting he shared up to 100,000 indecent images.
Following Ingvaldson's charges in Vancouver, Nigel Toy, headmaster of the all-boy's St. George's School, posted a statement on the school's website saying Ingvaldson was "immediately relieved of his duties'' in light of the police investigation.
He was arrested after a two-week investigation that included search warrants being executed at his home and at the school.
"The parents can be rest assured that there was no information that came to light where any student was at risk or anybody was victimized at the school, or in Vancouver for that matter," Cavezza said, adding the man was "acting alone."
While Cavezza said he's aware Facebook has been used to exploit children before, an Internet safety expert called the bust very rare.
Parry Aftab, executive director of non-profit wiredsafety.org, says people almost always trade illegal photos using secretive peer-to-peer networks rather than public spaces like Facebook.
"You get found when you're on Facebook. It was designed to allow people to find each other," said Aftab, whose organization advises Facebook on a volunteer safety panel.
"I can always count on the stupidity of child molesters and child pornographers because every time they do something stupid like try to use Facebook for this, these people get discovered and they go to jail."
The site has a very strong anti-child exploitation unit and reports instances of abuse to police, she said.
Technology to screen illegal photos isn't available, but even if it was, she said people might find it an invasion of privacy.
"Facebook isn't any different from Bell Canada. They make money by providing a platform that allows people to communicate with each other," she said. "Do you want Bell Canada listening to the phone calls to say which ones should be reported to law enforcement?"
The Facebook connection came as no big surprise to authorities.
"The people that are out there doing this are trying to find any medium available on the Internet," Prosper said. "It's Facebook today, it could be something else tomorrow."
� With files from Diana Mehta in Toronto

Sex video on stolen camera identifies suspects in break-in in Washington state

knightmare — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 04:10:24 GMT

24/08/2010 2:37:00 PM
The Associated Press
ELMA, Wash. - It wasn't tough to identify the suspects in a break-in at a rural home at Washington state. The bare facts were right there.

Greys Harbor County sheriff's Chief Deputy Dave Pimentel says the man and woman were caught having sex on camera Monday when someone arrived to collect the mail while the homeowner was away, according to broadcaster KXRO-AM.
The naked couple fled, leaving behind the camera, which had been stolen elsewhere.
Pimentel said Tuesday that deputies who checked the video recognized the couple from previous contacts. The woman was arrested for investigation of burglary. An arrest warrant has been issued for the man.