`Former escort kingpin Arthur “Big Pimpin’ Pappy” Vanmoor is known for his litigious nature.
In the past decade, he has been a plaintiff or defendant in 29 lawsuits in Broward County alone. He has sued businesses that challenged him, police departments that investigated him, an assistant state attorney who prosecuted him and journalists who reported on him.
But his latest suit has stunned even veteran court watchers.
Vanmoor, 46, has filed a federal lawsuit against six former customers of his escort service. He says they broke the law after purchasing time with his escorts, and it was their illegal actions that led to his arrest, incarceration and deportation, as well as the loss of his business.’
`Three UK ex-servicemen have been given compensation after they were given LSD without their consent in the 1950s.
The men volunteered to be “guinea pigs” at the government research base Porton Down after being told scientists wanted to find a cure for the common cold.
But they were given the hallucinogen in mind control tests, and some volunteers had terrifying hallucinations.
The Foreign Office said the secret intelligence body MI6 had made the settlements after legal advice.
The out-of-court settlements are thought to be under £10,000 for each of the men.’
`A 23-year-old woman has been given a landmark payment of £20,000 for being bullied as a pupil at her south Wales primary school more than 12 years ago.
Sophie Amor won the settlement after taking action against Torfaen Council for seven years of bullying which she said destroyed her life.
Ms Amor attended St Peter’s Church in Wales School in Blaenavon and said she was bullied from the age of four to 11.
Torfaen Council agreed to an out-of -court settlement but denied liability.’
`Stress, obesity and a lonely couch-potato existence make for miserable lives. And that’s just the start of the tale of woe for the nation’s dogs and cats.
“What happens to our pets mirrors what’s happening in human lives,” says Jon Sellors of insurer More Than. “Obesity in pets is getting to be a really big issue. When we spoke to vets recently, 80 per cent of them reported seeing increasing numbers of obese pets. Yet 90 per cent of owners believe their pets are not overweight.”‘
`The huge profits reported by oil and gas companies would turn into losses if the social costs of their greenhouse gas emissions were taken into account.
That is the conclusion of research by the New Economics Foundation (Nef).
Nef found that the £10bn-plus profits just reported by Shell and BP are dwarfed by costs of emissions associated with their products. [..]
Reporting previously undisclosed figures, Nef’s policy director Andrew Simms writes: “Our new calculations from research in progress with WWF, based on Treasury statistics, show that UK government income from the fossil fuel sector – conservatively estimated at £34.9bn ($61bn) – is greater than revenue from council tax, stamp duty, capital gains and inheritance tax combined.’
`Hillsong Church’s benevolent arm has been stripped of a $414,479 federal grant following allegations it obtained the funds by exploiting and deceiving the Aboriginal community that was supposed to benefit from it.
Federal Justice Minister Chris Ellison, who approved the grant under a community crime prevention program late last year, withdrew the offer this month following exposure of the controversy by The Australian.
The backflip follows a growing row over the millions of dollars the Federal Government provides to Hillsong Emerge for a range of programs, with claims the money goes mostly into the pentecostal church’s administrative coffers.’
`It’s a little-noticed legacy of post-9/11 airport security procedures: the brisk commerce spawned by the buying, selling and disposal of the 30 million prohibited items surrendered by passengers at checkpoints.
Some of it is hazardous waste, like Chemical Mace, and is disposed of accordingly. A small portion is pure junk and gets discarded. But scissors, cigarette lighters and pocketknives have value. And, this being the USA, a lucrative market has sprung up around the buying and selling of surrendered items.
Nobody has totaled it up, but the business of disposing of or reselling items banned by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration appears to be valued in the millions of dollars a year. After a traveler leaves behind a banned item – a hunting knife, say – it can follow a strange and convoluted journey to a new owner. That journey often involves a pass through state or local government ownership, and a posting on eBay.’
`A senior military commander of the Taliban says the Taliban will give 100 kilograms of gold as a reward to anyone who killed the person responsible for “blasphemous” cartoons in Denmark, Afghan Islamic Press has reported.
“Any one who will kill the person responsible for blasphemous cartoons of Prophet Mohammed in Denmark would be rewarded 100 kilogram of gold by the Taliban,” Mullah Dadullah, chief military commander of the Taliban, said.
Dadullah also said the Taliban would give 5kg of gold as a reward to anyone who killed any military personnel from Denmark, Norway and Germany in Afghanistan.’
`A Star Trek fan has gone bankrupt after spending £12,000 turning his home into the Starship Voyager.
Tony Alleyne’s flat in Hinckley, Leics, has moulded walls, touch-panel blue lighting and a life-size model of the show’s transporter room. [..]
He took out two huge loans and ran up debts of over £100,000 on 14 credit cards marketing his idea and paying for the merchandise and has filed for bankruptcy.
Tony, who split from his wife Georgina after he replaced their fridge with a “warp coil” said: “I was convinced Trekkies all over the world would want a house like mine and pay me to do it.’
`Sydney is the Australian city most at risk of an earthquake, while Brisbane and Townsville are the most likely to be hit by a tropical cyclone, according to a global insurance company.
Swiss Reinsurance Company launched Australia’s first ever natural catastrophe bond on Monday as a way of covering against major disasters. [..]
“How real are the risk exposures covered by this capital?” said Swiss Re head of Australia and New Zealand property and casualty business Keith Scott.
“Very real,” he said.’
`President George W. Bush soon will ask Congress for another $120 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, bringing their total cost so far to about $440 billion. [..]
The vast majority of the money is for Iraq, where expenses are about $4.5 billion a month, according to administration officials. The U.S. campaign in Afghanistan is costing about $800 million a month.’
`If you can’t beat ’em … joint ’em? The City of Amsterdam has begun selling recently introduced “no toking” signs to prevent the official ones from being stolen as collector’s items, a spokesman said Friday.
The signs were created as part of an experimental ban on smoking marijuana on the street in “De Baarsjes,” one of the city’s poorer neighborhoods. The measure, which went into effect Feb. 1, was intended to reduce loitering and petty crime.
“On Wednesday we placed the first sign, and it was gone the next morning,” said Wim de Graaf. “We put up a new one Thursday, and it was taken the same night as well. That’s when the idea came to us to just sell them.”‘
`Police are staggered by the amount of money gullible Australians are losing to Nigerian investment scammers.
The long-running internet-based rort has netted more than $7 million from Queenslanders alone, and the loss Australia-wide is likely to be far higher, police say.
Among those being duped are financial advisers, lawyers and university professors, and one person had put $2.2 million into the hands of scammers over the past two years.’
`US oil giant Exxon Mobil has posted a quarterly profit of $9.9bn (£5.55bn), the largest in US corporate history, on the back of record oil and gas prices.
Profit was up 75% and revenue rose 32% to more than $100bn. [..]
Oil and gas companies have been benefiting from the rising cost of oil, brought on by the two hurricanes which hit the Gulf of Mexico in late summer, disrupting output.’
`After 145 years, Western Union has quietly stopped sending telegrams.
On the company’s web site, if you click on “Telegrams” in the left-side navigation bar, you’re taken to a page that ends a technological era with about as little fanfare as possible:
“Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact a customer service representative.”‘
`Microsoft founder Bill Gates, the world’s richest man, said the tax office in the US has to store his financial data on a special computer because his fortune is so vast.
“My tax return in the United States has to be kept on a special computer because their normal computers can’t deal with the numbers,” he said at a Microsoft conference held in Lisbon.
“So I am constantly getting these notices telling me I haven’t paid something when really it is just on the wrong computer,” he added in comments broadcast on television.
“Then they will send me another notice telling me how bad they feel they that they sent me a notice that was a mistake,” he said’
`What happened to them? Where did those stainless-steel, big E signs that came to symbolize the downfall of Enron go?
When those left to salvage Enron held an auction to raise money to pay the company’s debts, the big E’s were the star attraction. Sure, you could buy Aeron chairs in batches of 300 or so, but a big E — now that was a conversation piece.
There were four of them. The first one sold for about $17,000 in London. A standing-room-only crowd in Houston went wild when another big E fetched a price of $44,000.’
`A pastor accused of selling the town‘s oldest church pleaded guilty to embezzlement on Monday and agreed to 18 months in prison, court officials said.
Radic had preached at First Congregational Church in Ripon for nearly a decade before he sold the church last October for $525,000, allegedly using the money to buy a BMW. He also faked documents that gave him possession of his house, which was owned by the church, then used the property to take out loans, authorities said.’
‘Airhead Paris Hilton has revealed she did not know London was in the United Kingdom.
The daft blonde blurted out the admission in a statement for a £5.7million US libel case.
Her catalogue of dumb answers in the witness box gave a fascinating insight into the tiny mind of the hotel heiress, who stands to inherit £30million.
Paris revealed she can’t name some of her friends, and thinks everyone in Europe speaks French.’
`A pilot who claimed to have lost his plane when he had to ditch it in the sea has been charged with insurance fraud after it was found hidden in a shipping container.
Howard Jamison, 46, claimed to have surfed ashore on a piece of the plane’s floor after the engine on his Cessna failed six kilometres off New Zealand’s South Island coast in 2004.’
`A prostitute who bit her client’s penis so hard he required an operation has denied grievous bodily harm with intent.
Prosecutor Matthew McNiff told the jury Louise Jowett carried out the attack because Brett O’Leary, from Clare, near Haverhill, told her he had no more money to give her after already paying her for sex.
Outlining the case Mr McNiff said 22-year-old Jowett, who denies the charge, had bitten and continued to bite Mr O’Leary for up to 45 seconds during the assault. The force and determination of Jowett’s attack was said to have led to Mr O’Leary requiring an operation.’
`The Czechs do like their weed. A 2005 report by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction found that 22% of Czechs between 16 and 34 had smoked marijuana at least once during the previous year, the highest percentage in the European Union. The nation’s cannabis culture is imbued with the whimsical ethos of the hippie movement: guys growing dope in fields, on balconies and in bathrooms, and sharing with friends. [..]
“I’ve never paid for pot and I never would,” said Filip Hubacek, a university student majoring in social sciences. “I don’t mind paying for my gym, but not for my pot.”‘
`Kazakhstan is on a nationwide hunt for dozens of “radioactive dollars” circulating in the country’s financial system.
The Kazakh central bank said in a letter to financial institutions the radiation level of the U.S. dollar notes was 100 times above normal. A Kazakh citizen brought them into the country in November, it said.
“(The dollars) pose a direct threat to people’s health,” said the letter, obtained by Reuters Wednesday.’
`A family on South Australia’s west coast has discovered a rare specimen of whale vomit on the beach that is tipped to be worth over $1 million.
The specimen, known scientifically as ambergris, is sought after by perfume companies and worth about per gram.
The sample found on a beach near Streaky Bay weighs 14.75 kilograms.’
`The Vatican has been accused of trying to cash in on the Pope’s words after it decided to impose strict copyright on all papal pronouncements.
For the first time all papal documents, including encyclicals, will be governed by copyright invested in the official Vatican publishing house, the Libreria Editrice Vaticana. [..]
The decision was denounced yesterday for treating the Pope’s words as “saleable merchandise” and endangering the Church’s mission to “spread the Christian message”.
A Milanese publishing house that had issued an anthology containing 30 lines from Pope Benedict’s speech to the conclave that elected him and an extract from his enthronement speech is reported to have been sent a bill for €15,000 (£10,000). This was made up of 15 per cent of the cover price of each copy sold plus “legal expenses” of €3,500.’
Next thing you know the Bible will come with DRM.
`In this tutorial you will create a website payment gateway for content. In this example we will assume that you are selling access to a portion of a website. We will create a database to hold our login information and the payment data that Paypal returns. We will cover activation of an account within a very small system, which is a trimmed down example. To keep this tutorial brief we will not cover Paypal subscriptions or auction payments.’
One day I might start charging for access to those biphallic pictures that everyone seems to love so much. Heh. 🙂
`The adage that sex sells may have been proved this week with reports that the adult-only domain name sex.com has changed hands for the record sum of million ($18.71m).
The domain name, previously owned by entrepreneur Gary Kremen, has been snapped up by US company called Escom LLC.’
`Police arrested a man accused of faking his death more than 25 years ago to avoid paying child support.
Johnny Sterling Martin, 58, had a relative call Family Court in 1979 and report that he died during a bar fight in Alabama, authorities said. That call came a few months after he escaped from a work detail while serving a one-year jail term for failing to pay $4,120 in support for two children.
He was captured Tuesday and jailed, and now owes more than $30,000 in child support and faces an escape charge, authorities said.’
`BellSouth and Verizon have been trying to force big Web sites to pay extortion-type fees if the sites want adequate bandwidth, with Google a prime target. But Google has news for them: It won’t pay.
Google told Networking Pipeline’s Paul Kapustka in no uncertain terms that it won’t give in to the cyberextortion. And despite reports to the contrary, Google says, it isn’t talking with any carriers about the issue.
Google’s Barry Schnitt told Paul in an email: “Google is not discussing sharing of the costs of broadband networks with any carrier. We believe consumers are already paying to support broadband access to the Internet through subscription fees and, as a result, consumers should have the freedom to use this connection without limitations.”‘
`Advocacy groups and parents are suing the Nickelodeon TV network and cereal maker Kellogg Co. in an effort to stop junk food marketing to kids.
The plaintiffs are citing a recent report documenting the influence of marketing on what children eat. Ads aimed at kids are mostly for high-calorie, low-nutrition food and drinks, according to the government-chartered Institute of Medicine.’
