Random News Stories

[Raz Tech]

Also, I'm sick of their fucking ads. They are the worst targeted ads I've been subjected to anywhere on the internet, to the point where I'm having a hard time even believing that they are targeted at all, given that the SAME FUCKING TRISCUIT COMMERCIAL prefaces EVERY FUCKING CRASH COURSE BIOLOGY video. Even if you watch ten in a row. You know what's not a good idea? Showing the same commercial to the same viewer over and over again.

You think youve got it bad? Ive been getting spanish language Walmart ads for a week straight now. Before that it was japanese airliners. And I swear to god, after I googled "German Porn"(for scientific reasons) I got this for about a month.

What I don't understand is what seems to have led their targeting software to believe firmly, not for a week or so but for a solid six months, that I should be subjected to a nonstop stream of Triscuit commercials. I actually used to buy Triscuits once in a while but I've developed an aversion. Fuck Triscuits. Fuck them in the face.

Wait so those seriously are targeted advertisements? Because all they've been showing me lately is ads for progenex.  They're way off the mark if they think I'm gonna spend money on exercising, I usually spend money to do the exact opposite.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Also, I'm sick of their fucking ads. They are the worst targeted ads I've been subjected to anywhere on the internet, to the point where I'm having a hard time even believing that they are targeted at all, given that the SAME FUCKING TRISCUIT COMMERCIAL prefaces EVERY FUCKING CRASH COURSE BIOLOGY video. Even if you watch ten in a row. You know what's not a good idea? Showing the same commercial to the same viewer over and over again.

You think youve got it bad? Ive been getting spanish language Walmart ads for a week straight now. Before that it was japanese airliners. And I swear to god, after I googled "German Porn"(for scientific reasons) I got this for about a month.

What I don't understand is what seems to have led their targeting software to believe firmly, not for a week or so but for a solid six months, that I should be subjected to a nonstop stream of Triscuit commercials. I actually used to buy Triscuits once in a while but I've developed an aversion. Fuck Triscuits. Fuck them in the face.

Wait so those seriously are targeted advertisements? Because all they've been showing me lately is ads for progenex.  They're way off the mark if they think I'm gonna spend money on exercising.  I usually spend money to do the exact opposite.

Some people absolutely insist that they are targeted. If they are, it's the absolute worst targeting I've ever seen.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

This is the family in question:



I doubt they were trying to accomplish anything.

[P3nT4gR4m]

LOL, yeah, I sometimes forget - humans

[Junkenstein]

The "Disturbing implications" files 77810/S:
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/japan-bans-child-porn-bar-manga-30365139.html

Japan's parliament has passed a law which bans possession of child pornography, but excludes sexually explicit comics, animation and computer graphics.

The upper house voted today to approve the law, which was passed by the lower house earlier this month.

The law provides for prison terms of up to one year and fines of up to one million yen (£5,800) for possession of pornographic photographs or videos of children. It allows a grace period of one year for people owning such materials to dispose of them.

The law was first proposed in May 2013 as an amendment to an earlier law that banned production and distribution of child pornography but not ownership of such materials.

Police reported 1,644 cases of child pornography in 2013.

That 1600 number seems incredibly low considering the population of Japan. Then there's Japan's approach to Law and justice.

What I'm getting at here is that I'm almost certain that this is a huge fucking scandal just waiting to break.

That grace period is disturbing as fuck too, for a variety of reasons.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/06/the-seven-signs-youre-in-a-cult/361400/

Not a bad article, though it's unfortunately predictable in places. The link title is somewhat misleading as it's about a cult in Kansas City

For several years, roughly two dozen people, all younger than thirty, had been living together in Kansas City, Missouri, and following the leadership of Tyler Deaton, one of our classmates from Southwestern University in Texas. In the summer of 2012, Tyler had married Bethany; by the fall, she was dead. What started as a dorm-room prayer group had devolved into something much darker.

And the authors interactions in it.

The weeks after Bethany's death were among the blackest of my life. One of my dearest and best friends was dead, and I couldn't accept the explanation that she had killed herself two months into a marriage she had been looking forward to for years. Even the logistics of grieving were complicated; on the day of her visitation, Tyler tried to have me removed from the funeral home.

Meanwhile, IHOP sent several leaders to investigate the prayer community. It took them only a couple of hours with the group on the night after Bethany's death to conclude that Tyler was leading a cult. The boys who still lived with Tyler were asked to move out immediately, and current and former members were questioned.

And then they interrogated Micah, the person who had been charged with guarding me during one of my periods of isolation from the group. During questioning, he broke down and confessed that he had suffocated Bethany. He later said Tyler had told him to commit the murder, saying he "had it in him to do it." The next day—the day of Bethany's funeral in Arlington, Texas—he drove to the police station and turned himself in. There, he told a lurid tale: He and other men in the group had sexual relationships with Tyler, and together, they had ritually assaulted Bethany. She had been killed, Micah said, because they were afraid she would tell her therapist about the assaults.

And the sadly inevitable reaction:

Though some of the group's former members remained part of the prophetic movement, I mentally checked out after Bethany's death. I joined a church in a liturgical tradition and formed a new circle of friends, many of whom had also left IHOP. I began to rethink my views on homosexuality and other marginalized groups. I also underwent counseling with IHOP leaders. During this process, I tried to renounce what I saw as harmful beliefs, including the conviction that our group had been messengers called to battle the forces of the anti-Christ. To my surprise and dismay, they told me, "No, Tyler was right about that. You need to pray out loud for God to show you your calling."

In other words, our group's biggest crime wasn't an excess of zeal—it was not being zealous enough. It seems to me that our community was not exceptional, given the high-intensity spiritual environment we were part of. Tyler was not an isolated individual, but the product of a phenomenally twisted system.

It's a fairly long article and it's a pretty good run down of how smaller cults form and the behaviours encouraged. It's a shame that the author doesn't really seem to have learned his lesson yet though.

[Cain]

The "Disturbing implications" files 77810/S:
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/world-news/japan-bans-child-porn-bar-manga-30365139.html

Japan's parliament has passed a law which bans possession of child pornography, but excludes sexually explicit comics, animation and computer graphics.

The upper house voted today to approve the law, which was passed by the lower house earlier this month.

The law provides for prison terms of up to one year and fines of up to one million yen (£5,800) for possession of pornographic photographs or videos of children. It allows a grace period of one year for people owning such materials to dispose of them.

The law was first proposed in May 2013 as an amendment to an earlier law that banned production and distribution of child pornography but not ownership of such materials.

Police reported 1,644 cases of child pornography in 2013.

That 1600 number seems incredibly low considering the population of Japan. Then there's Japan's approach to Law and justice.

What I'm getting at here is that I'm almost certain that this is a huge fucking scandal just waiting to break.

That grace period is disturbing as fuck too, for a variety of reasons.

As I recall, the age of consent in Japan is worryingly low, around 13 or something?  Admittedly, I don't know if that's "technically thirteen" in the way it is with some European countries, where so long as you are under a certain age (16-17 normally) but above 13 you won't be prosecuted or it's just 13, but I've always had the impression that it was the latter.

Japan's political system is corrupt as hell, so no doubt that has influenced this position.  Does the Yakuza distribute child pornography?  They are heavily involved in general pornography and entertainment, so it's not impossible.

[Junkenstein]

I would have to assume that the Yakuza are not only involved, but likely to be substantial players with considerable incriminating evidence on some of the more influential figures.

There's also the cultural issue with confessions being rather important, to the point where it's rather difficult to secure a conviction without one. Naturally, this won't be a problem as paedophiles are notorious for their honesty.

[Junkenstein]

While looking at upcoming auctions on the federal Marshall site, I noticed this house for sale. Interesting backstory:

http://www.usmarshals.gov/news/chron/2013/041213.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegals_Program#Vladimir_and_Lidiya_Guryev_.28Richard_and_Cynthia_Murphy.29

The Illegals Program, as it was called by the United States Department of Justice, was a network of Russian sleeper agents under non-official cover whose investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) culminated in the arrest of ten agents and a prisoner swap between Russia and the United States on July 9, 2010.

The spies were planted in the United States by the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (known by its Russian abbreviation, SVR). Posing as ordinary American citizens, they tried to build contacts with academics, industrialists, and policymakers to gain access to intelligence. They were the target of a multi-year investigation by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation. The FBI investigation, called Operation Ghost Stories, culminated at the end of June 2010 with the arrest of ten individuals in the U.S. and an eleventh suspect in Cyprus. Ten sleeper agents were charged with "carrying out long-term, 'deep-cover' assignments in the United States on behalf of the Russian Federation."

Professor Nina Khrushcheva, who served as Vladimir's faculty adviser at The New School for three years starting in 2002, said in July 2010 that she found it difficult to figure out a purported Philadelphia native: "I was always puzzled by the inconsistency between a completely American name and completely Russian behaviour... He had a thick Russian accent and an incredibly unhappy Russian personality."

Short version is that it ends in a prisoner swap. The names and who those prisoners were spying for will give you no shocks. All in all, it seems that modern spycraft is taking a much more long term approach than in previous eras. Many involved here had children and some were being groomed to succeed the parent's roles. A crazy person might start thinking about the Boston bombing in relation to things and potential implications there, but as I said, that's just lunacy.

[minuspace]

[Junkenstein]

The "Of course" files 666122/G:
http://www.kptv.com/story/25827893/shooting-victim-drives-to-jackson-apartment-complex?autostart=true

A man with a gunshot wound was reported, Friday morning, at an apartment complex called the Pines on Watkins Drive; but he wasn't shot there.

Jackson police say, shortly before that, a guest at a nearby Motel 6 had a run in with the man in the rear parking lot.

They say the guest was approached by a man asking for cigarettes.

The hotel guest said he didn't have any cigarettes.

The man began to walk away, when , police say, he turned around and said "I bet you don't have one of these", pointing a gun in his direction.

The guest did have "one of these," and began firing at the suspect. He reportedly hit the man at least once.

[Junkenstein]

http://nypost.com/2014/06/23/marion-barry-says-he-never-smoked-crack/

"Never smoked crack — as simple as that," said Barry.
The MSNBC interviewer challenged Barry, now a DC council member, to explain the infamous 1990 FBI surveillance footage of him smoking a crack pipe at the Vista Hotel.
"The federal government never proved there was a crack pipe," Barry told the station. "Jurors didn't believe it."

Only worth noting because I expect Rob Ford to be coming out with similar hilarious things in a few years months days.

[Junkenstein]

Sheriff Joe files 6673/F:
http://www.wnd.com/2014/06/sheriff-joe-closing-in-on-obama-forger/

In an exclusive interview with WND, Arpaio explained being re-elected as sheriff is just too important, especially with the illegal immigration crisis and certain, "sensitive investigations" still in play.

"I would have had to resign the day I announced I was going to run for governor," he said. "But I'm not about to abandon my troops. We have a number of highly sensitive investigations ongoing and we have a brand new headquarters building. I still have the Justice Department after me. So, I'm not giving this job up to someone else. I'm sticking around."

Arpaio also told Rusty Humphries of the Washington Times recently one of those "sensitive" projects was his continued investigation into Barack Obama's allegedly forged birth certificate.

"If I was the governor, which I turned down a couple of weeks ago because I would have to resign, I'm not going to leave this office to somebody coming in when I have sensitive investigations going, including the president's birth certificate," Arpaio said. "I haven't finished that yet.

"I don't care where [Obama] was born. That has nothing to do with it," he continued. "I'm concerned about a forged, fraudulent government document. From Day 1 I've been investigating that, now we have to find out who's behind that. I'm getting close."

There's more of the usual Sheriff Joe insanity at the link. I'd comment further but it's not really needed, is it?

[Junkenstein]

Quickly skimmed this, but seems worth a look:
http://www.economicnoise.com/2014/06/20/country-dies/

[Junkenstein]

UK Phone hacking trials come to some kind of conclusion:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27997688

he verdicts in full are:

Andy Coulson was found guilty of a charge of conspiracy to intercept voicemails
Mrs Brooks was found not guilty of conspiracy to hack voicemails, two counts of conspiracy to pay public officials and two counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice
Former News of the World managing editor Stuart Kuttner was found not guilty of conspiring to hack voicemails
Cheryl Carter, Charlie Brooks and News International's former head of security Mark Hanna were cleared of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice

Just another miscarriage of justice in the UK. Sleep easy tabloid editors everywhere, you'll be back to business as usual in no time at all.