SURVENT

On May 23, 2007 two of the idiots involved in an attempt to sell Coke's secrets to Pepsi were sentenced for conspiring to steal and sell trade secrets. Per a press release on the DOJ website:

[Joya] Williams was sentenced to eight years in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $40,000 in restitution. Dimson was sentenced to five years in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, and also ordered to pay $40,000 in restitution. Dimson pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge on Oct. 23, 2006. After a seven-day jury trial, Williams was convicted of these charges on Feb. 2, 2007. Another co-defendant in the case, Edmund Duhaney, 43, of Decatur, Ga., will be sentenced at a later date.

I guess it is nice to know that there is a corporation in the world that still has a conscience. Thanks for turning in these idiots, Pepsi - I am a Coke drinker and would hate to drink a Coke out of a Pepsi can!

Posted by Lucent at 01:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Orin Andrew Kennedy was busted this week for some supposed inappropriate online communications with what he thought was a teenage girl. I was looking for some information on another alleged sexual predator named Randall Raar and came across this story on the website of Michigan's Attorney General, Mike Cox - here is a link to that site. Per the article:

Attorney General investigators arrested Kennedy, 27, this morning. The defendant is alleged to have been chatting online with who he thought was a 14-year-old girl that he met in a chatroom. Kennedy allegedly engaged in graphic sexual conversation with an undercover agent and propositioned the agent, who was posing as the 14-year-old girl. The defendant also asked the agent to watch a sexually explicit act. Kennedy was arrested at his home in Ypsilanti where he is alleged to live. Attorney General investigators also seized a laptop computer and webcam from his home.

Randall Raar was living in Ypsilanti when he allegedly committed crimes against a young woman years ago and was charged with those crimes back in June 2006. Seems strange to me that there are two cases of this type of crime coming out of Ypsi so close together and having happened so many years apart. Ypsilanti is a small town and it is creepy to me to know that this type of individual has been living there in one for or another for years. I wonder if Orin Kennedy and Raar knew each other? I was going to offer a possible speculation but will not.

How many more pedophiles are there in Ypsilanti that we do not know about? In a past post I did, there is a link to the Sex Offender Registry where you can see how many live in Ypsilanti that are registered offenders with the State. I can save you the time and tell you the service shows 232 offenders found - see the map below. You can also use this to check out who is living in or around your neighborhood. It is something good to be informed about.

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Also, there is also a short article on 7 Action News out of Plymouth, MI about this recent arrest. They also have a copy of the article from the Attorney General posted. I usually check out this news site for information related to things I hear going on over in the Detroit area as they are usually pretty much in the know, so check them out.

In the article posted on the Attorney General's website is this quote:

"Predators continue to lurk on the Internet, trying to approach minors," said Cox. "My office will not let up in its pursuit to track down and prosecute these predators who seek to harm Michigan's children." Kudos to Mr. Cox and the efforts of he and his staff. This is a serious issue that it is nice to see someone taking the task to address. Thank you and keep up the good work folks!

Posted by Lucent at 02:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I would put this post in the "What's the World Coming To?" category, but this is pretty straight forward that the guy who killed his wife, sister-in-law and mother-in-law with a hammer is a complete nut case. Who the heck tries to kill themselves with a hammer to their own head? This guy did. And when one strike did not work, he hit himself a few more - to no avail, obviously. Check this out:

CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- An Iranian immigrant accused of using a three-pound hammer to beat his wife, sister-in-law and mother-in-law to death and then repeatedly stabbing them told police that the women had "disrespected" him, authorities said Monday.

After the attack, Daryoush Ebrahimi, 55, struck himself several times on the head with the same hammer in an apparent attempt to kill himself, said Police Cmdr. Thomas Byrne. Police also found a 12-inch knife investigators believe was used in the attacks.

"It was a very difficult scene, and that would be indicative of that type of anger," Byrne said of the two apartments where the bodies were found Saturday on the city's far North Side.

Ebrahimi told investigators after the attacks that "the women had disrespected him and told him he was not a man," Assistant State's Attorney Sanju Oommen said.

Police found cell phone video messages and a letter that Ebrahimi left at one of the apartments, Byrne said. The FBI was helping translate the messages and letter, which are in Farsi.

"Right now I wouldn't say it's a suicide note ... but it's more about, again, how he feels disrespected, and that's pretty much a (recurring) theme in the note," Byrne said.

Ebrahimi told police at the scene and hospital officials that he had killed the women, authorities said.

A phone call to the public defender's office Monday afternoon went unanswered.

Ebrahimi was charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of his wife, Karmin Koshabeh, 44; his sister-in-law, Karolin Khooshabeh, 40; and his 60-year-old mother-in-law, Ileshvah Eyvazimooshabad. He appeared in court Monday afternoon and a judge denied a request for bail.

Koshabeh and Khooshabeh were found in an apartment in the city's West Rogers Park neighborhood, and Eyvazimooshabad was found in an apartment around the corner.

Detectives believe Ebrahimi killed his wife around 2 a.m. Saturday, then called and "lured" his sister-in-law to the same apartment around 6 a.m., Byrne said. He then went to his mother-in-law's apartment and attacked her, returning to the bodies of his wife and sister-in-law to call 911, Byrne said.

Ebrahimi also called another family member, who notified police, Byrne said.

Ebrahimi and his wife and daughter arrived in the United States on November 29, 2006 from Iran and are refugees of Assyrian descent, said Chicago Police Cmdr. David Sobczyk. [CNN]

Posted by Lucent at 01:35 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

This is a tragic story from India. The article on CNN is short, so I am quoting the whole thing below:

COCHIN, India (AP) -- A river boat carrying children on a school trip capsized in southern India on Tuesday, and at least 18 children and four teachers drowned, a local official said. Sixteen children were missing as night fell.

Three boats were carrying more than 100 students and staff down the Periyar River in the Thattekkad bird sanctuary when one boat capsized, said Mohammad Haneesh, a top official of the district. All the children were younger than 11.

As darkness fell, 16 children were still missing, and 10 had been admitted to a local hospital, he said.

It was not clear how many children were in the boat that capsized.

The Thattekkad sanctuary is about 25 miles east of Cochin, the commercial hub of the southern state of Kerala.

The United States has laws about all children on boats being required to wear life jackets for just this reason. If there had been life jackets on these kids, and I am assuming there were not due to the number of drown kids, perhaps many of them would still be alive. Children rely on adults to take the necessary actions to protect them and it seem like to many times in society lately, adults are failing the children. Accidents happen and safety devices are made for a reason. Please make sure if you are on a boat with children that they have the proper safety equipment on just in case. Sad, simply sad.

Posted by Lucent at 01:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I noticed an article from a week ago on CNN about the Mooninite sign promotion that went completely wrong for TBS and the company they hired to do the promotion. According to the article:

Turner Broadcasting System and Interference Inc. have agreed to pay $2 million to make amends for last Wednesday's guerrilla marketing scheme that led to a bomb scare in Boston, the Massachusetts attorney general said Monday.

The settlement included about $1 million to cities and state agencies for their response and another $1 million in goodwill funding.

Boston will get more than $484,590.

That is a pretty large chunk of change to have to shell out over this, but as I stated in my previous post, the exposure they have received is well worth the $2 million setllement. Now everyone all over the world knows the name of the cartoon that was being promoted as well as the name of one of the characters. While the promotion went wrong, the outcome is was still successful. Will they do it again? Probably not.

I did find the following part of the article interesting:

"Last week's events caused a major disruption in the greater Boston area on many levels -- crippling public transportation, causing serious traffic problems, negatively affecting local businesses, and perhaps most significantly, costing Boston and surrounding communities thousands of dollars," Attorney General Martha Coakley said in a written statement.

"It is our hope that these funds will cover not only the expenses incurred by the many agencies who participated in the response and investigation of the devices discovered in the Boston area last Wednesday, but they will also enable our communities to enhance homeland security, or to pursue other important community initiatives."

Interesting how Boston will get money out of this to cover the services that were utilized in the effort to determine if these were bombs - which it was great that the city took the measures they did - but where is the money for the "negatively affected local businesses"? It is great that the settlement also pays for the expenses that were incurred by other agencies who were involved so that we the taxpayers do not get stuck with the bill. However, Boston seems to have over reacted to the situation and in doing so they have been able to squeeze out an additional $1 million for "goodwill funds" as the article continues to state:

The approximately $1,000,000 in "goodwill funds" will be divided among the involved agencies for use by programs that support homeland security, community education and awareness, emergency response preparedness, training and equipment, or other appropriate community security and safety education.

One million dollars will not go all that far when shared by as many agencies as were involved, so what is the point of the extra expense?

Other bloggers are saying:

The Bostonist post concludes well - I agree with them.

Raw Story article from a link on Poor Mojo's News Show RSS

"Save Boston" game link on The Presurfer - Fun game making lite of the situation.

Posted by Lucent at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There was an article on Time.com today regarding the trial of Joya Williams who is accused of stealing trade secrets fromn Coca Cola and trying to sell them to PepsiCo. Basically, the jury is hung as to whether to find her guilty of the crime she is accused of or not. According to the article:

"We are a hung jury, have taken several polls and we feel we are unable to reach a decision," the foreperson said in a note to U.S. District Judge J. Owen Forrester.

Forrester did not declare a mistrial. Instead, he told the jury to reattempt reaching a verdict Friday in the case against Joya Williams.

The jury was already in deliberations for 9 hours and they could not make a decision. I do not understand how it is fair to the case to make these people go and discuss it further. Eventually, someone will get sick of sitting there and change their stance just to go home. If they cannot figure out a verdict, shouldn't there simply be a retrial?

Click here to read my original post about this back in July 2006.

Posted by Lucent at 11:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The two men who have been charged with placing "bomblike" electronic light boards throughout Boston pleaded Not Guilty yesterday. Peter Berdovsky and Sean Stevens came up with the promotion which placed electronic light boards displaying a cartoon character with a raised middle finger in various cities in the US. The issue is that the people of Boston are a little too paranoid and have no sense of humor. Per an article on CNN:

Assistant Attorney General John Grossman called the light boards "bomblike" devices and said that if they had been explosive they could have damaged infrastructure and transportation in the city.

This is interesting to me how the government and politicians seem to make anything into a "bomblike device" or a weapon of mass destruction. From what it sounds like and from the pictures I have seen of these displays, these things are nothing more than Lite-Brite boards. In fact, in the same CNN article, one person said just that:

Twenty-two-year-old Todd Venderlin, a design student at the Parsons School of Design in New York City, saw one of the devices two weeks ago as he left a lounge in south Boston, according to The Boston Globe. He said he was stunned when he saw bomb squads removing them.

"It's so not threatening -- it's a Lite Brite," he told the newspaper, referring to the children's toy that allows its users to create pictures by placing translucent pegs into an opaque board. "I don't understand how they could be terrified. I would if it was a bunch of circuits blinking, but it wasn't."

I understand the aggressive approach initially taken when these boards came into question. It is better to be safe than sorry given the society we live in.

What is odd to me is that Boston is the only city that these boards became an issue in. Does this mean that the people living there are out of touch with what is hip and being watched on TV? I mean, someone at some point should have been able to walk up and look at the signs and tell the police, "Hey, that looks like one of those Mooninite guys from the Aqua Teen Hunger Force cartoon." It is sad to see the amount of chaos a simple promotion can cause nowadays. I would say that the efforts of the terrorists have succeeded and we as a country have failed to be resilient as we need to be. If terrorists are going to place bombs all over the place, I highly doubt they would have the creativity to come up with a cartoon character that stands out and is easily seen. They would have simply placed C-4 or some other type of bomb in these places so they were much more inconspicuous. The old farts and uppity-ups in Boston need to relax a bit and understand the humor intended here.

What the authorities in Boston and all the other cities should be asking is "How did these signs get placed all over with no one noticing or reporting it for two weeks?" Another thing to keep in mind is that no matter how bad the folks at Turner Broadcasting System Inc. get blasted by the media, authorities or general public; no matter how much they disagree with the method of advertising that was used; and no matter what they have to pay for damages - the advertising scheme has drummed up plenty of buzz and interest in the cartoon. I do not thing that this was their ultimate goal as these things typically are happenstance, but the promotion is a success no matter how you slice it - now everyone knows about the cartoon.

Here are some links to what others are posting about the situation:

whatsnextblog.com

laughingsquid.com

Posted by Lucent at 11:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I am sure that by now you have heard of the ridiculous ban that has been implemented at Willett elementary school in Massachussetts. If not, you can find the story on CNN here.

Officials at an elementary school south of Boston have banned kids from playing tag, touch football and any other unsupervised chase game during recess for fear they'll get hurt and hold the school liable.

The principal provided the following brilliant quote while defending the ban:

Recess is "a time when accidents can happen," said Willett Elementary School Principal Gaylene Heppe, who approved the ban.

Here is yet another case where sue-happy America is hurting our society. We should not be bending to overzealous sue-happy idiots. Kids are kids and should be allowed certain unalienable rights such as the right to run and play and BE A KID! If judiciary members of society would simply bitch-slap the idiot parents who sue due to a kid getting hurt playing a "running game" and throw out the lawsuit, maybe then the nonsense would begin to stop. I think that judges should be tougher and throw out the frivolous lawsuits that plague our society today. Then, the people who bring forth these frivolous lawsuits should get jail t