Travelling Police Pataya (TPP) arrested five men operating a jetski rental on the Pattaya beach. The gang had threatened foreign tourists after the jetski rented by the tourists and the jet was damaged. The gang wanted more than 200,000 THB for the damage. The tourists refused to pay and the gang threatened to beat the tourists. Later the gang was arrested.
Pattaya, September 24, 2011[PDN]; Pol. Lt. Col. Aroon Prompan (Travelling Police Pattaya) and Pol. Sub. Lt. Chaleaw Srichong were notified of the arrest of a gang of a jetski boat operators extorting money from tourists.
The five suspects detained are: Mr. Jaturong or “Jongrak”| Singhakam age 24, address 576/2 Moo 10 Tambon Nong Preu, Chonburi, Mr. Somporn or “Taem” Thongpraiwan age 27, from 116 Moo 3 Tambon Daanchang, Supanburi, Mr.Sripaiporn or ” Moo” Monto age 27, from 20/43 Moo 6 Tambon, Sattahip, Mr. Akkarin or “Tai” Thongpraiwan age 26 from 116 Moo 3, Tambon Daanchang, Supanburi and Mr. Aroon or “Pom” Choomkaew age 36, address 407/65 Moo 12 Tambon Nong Preu, Chonburi. All suspects are operating a jetski rental service in Pattaya Beach Soi 10-11. The arrest took place at the lobby of the Mariott Resort & Spa in Pattaya in Central Pattaya. The gang is accused of threat and they will be prosecuted according to Thai law.
Pol. Lt. Col. Aroon Prompan (Travelling Police Pattaya) 11.30 hrs was notified by Mr. Somsak Tanreungsri Duty Manager of Marriott Spa & Resort that eight Thai men arrived at the hotel and were threatening a to beat the hotel guests.
Upon inspection the police found five suspects trying to extort money from four foreign tourists for the damage to a jetski which was involved in a collission. The amount for the damage: 200,000 THB. The tourists refused to pay and called the police. At the police station, the jetski gang were still threatening the tourists and demanding the money.
When the police was informed about this case they immediately arrested the five suspects in order to prevent further damage to the reputation of Pattaya since threats and extortions from jetski operators are common. The five suspects confessed on all accounts.
Facebook is about to completely change the way its profile pages look as part of the website's biggest redesign so far, and only a fraction of the website's 800 million users seem to have the slightest clue.
I'm not talking about the new real-time "Ticker" at the top right of your Facebook profile. I'm not even talking about the "Top Stories" that now appear at the top of your Facebook news feed -- those are tiny, insignificant changes compared to what's just around the corner.
But boy, did some people react badly to even those minuscule improvements. Among my Facebook friends, more than half said they disliked the changes and some threatened to quit. Of course, they did no such thing. How will they react when Facebook throws away the old profiles and replaces them with something completely new?
If you use Facebook, chances are you're unaware of the major changes that are slated to begin rolling out by the end of this month. Only geeks like me are obsessed enough to have watched Facebook's 90-minute announcement of the new profile pages last week. And an even smaller percentage of Facebook users have discovered, like I did, that you can enable the new "Facebook Timeline" profile page right now so you're prepared for the launch
So what's the big change? Facebook will be switching profile pages, perhaps optionally at first, to a new format called "Facebook Timeline." I switched my profile over last week and boy was it a shock -- I immediately wanted to switch it back to the old format. I'm someone who thrives on trying new things, but this change was radical even for me. Yet I could find no way to switch my profile back, so I stuck with it for a few days.
I'm so glad I did: Facebook Timeline is the best change Facebook has ever made.
Here's what'll happen once the Timeline profiles are launched: Your Facebook profile will go from having one central column to two, with boxes of text, photos, videos and even maps of your favorite locations. Rather than just displaying your most recent activities, your profile will become a scrapbook documenting your entire life, all the way back to your birth. Facebook will become a record of your existence: All your memories, your victories and your defeats, your loves, your losses and everything in between.
You'll be shocked, as I was, when this change is made. Suddenly your life is laid out before you, the highs and lows somehow pinpointed by Facebook's algorithms. You'll wonder why the status update box is so tiny now, and where all your most recent updates went.
You'll add a big, new "Cover photo" to your page and waste a few hours preening your Timeline, choosing to feature your happiest memories, hide the inconsequential ones, and lingering awhile on the most bittersweet of moments. And you'll realize, as I did, that Facebook knows you better than you know yourself.
Through this process, you'll realize that Facebook Timeline is much more than a way to post the minutiae of your existence. While a typical social networking profile might highlight what you ate this morning, or what time you left for work, or where you had lunch, Facebook Timeline takes these thousands of seemingly inconsequential events, discards the irrelevant ones, finds the most emotive, the most visual, the most striking and emotionally touching moments and pulls them into sharp focus.
Much like our memories, Facebook Timeline understands that some moments have resonance that lasts through the years. It's a marvel of computer programming: An algorithm that comes eerily close to emulating human memory; perhaps the first algorithm to spark such a deep emotional response.
So yes, you will hate the new Facebook profile when it launches in the coming weeks. Then, like me, you'll realize that Facebook has unleashed something so remarkable that you didn't even recognize it at first: A meaningful social network. And like any other groundbreaking technology -- the PC, the smartphone, the iPad -- you'll wonder why life wasn't always this way, and how you got by without it.
A netizen disclosed on the popular Chinese forum Mop.com that a beggar in Beijing's commercial center Xidan was actually a millionaire who owns several properties and four cars, causing a sensation on the Internet.
A frame grab from the video clip uploaded to Ku6.com shows the beggar and an old woman lying on the ground beside him in Xidan, downtown Beijing. [Photo/Ku6.com]
Other netizens replied on the post that they saw this beggar many times with his frantic way of begging – kneeling on the ground and continuously kowtowing to get people’s sympathy and money while an old woman who appears to be seriously ill lies beside him.
The fraud was also found at Dongsishitiao Subway Station in Beijing. A netizen named Budangxiaobing said an old woman with gray hair was lying on the ground with a boy kowtowing, then suddenly jumped up and ran away because chengguan, or urban management officers, were coming.
The chengguan in charge of Xidan area said the man was found begging on the street several times and he was persuaded to leave. But later he kept evading the officers, escaping every time the chengguan patrols got close.
“We don’t know how much he earns, and we have no legal jurisdiction to fine him either,” said an officer from Xidan’s urban management department.
The post, attracting 100,000 hits, said the man could earn up to 4,000 yuan per hour, but that amount was highly suspect.
The beggars fled in haste when they found themselves being recorded. And to everyone’s surprise, the woman lying on the ground actually walked like a normal person, according to the video uploaded to Ku6.com.
Clinging on for dear life to the side of a vertical cliff, the tiny lion cub cries out pitifully for help.
His mother arrives at the edge of the precipice with three other lionesses and a male. The females start to clamber down together but turn back daunted by the sheer drop.
Eventually one single factor determines which of them will risk her life to save the youngster – motherly love.
Nearly two in three college-age adults have no insurance protection, despite almost half reporting belongings worth more than $10,000, according to a recent study from Allstate Insurance. The reason? Misperception of cost.
The truth is renter’s insurance is perfectly affordable; the national average is just $16 per month, according to Allstate. And the insurance protects your stuff against fire, theft and vandalism. Think of it this way: If a fire sweeps across your apartment destroying everything in it, is the ability to replace all of your stuff worth just four fancy cups o’joe a month?
2. Lease Your Apartment during Low-Season
Just like there’s a purchase season for homes, there’s a high- and low-season for renting. These seasons vary depending on your location, but typically follow demand. For example, in northern states, high season is often in the summer or when college kids are scooping up apartments. Low season, on the other hand, ordinarily occurs during the winter.
With apartment leasing, inventory dictates price, so your best bet is to lease your place during the low-season. Not only will you have a greater variety of apartments available to choose from, but you’ll be in a better position to negotiate price.
3. Don’t Be Afraid to Negotiate
You’re likely stuck with your rent payment for at least a year, so get the best deal you can! Before you start negotiations, make sure you have all the information your landlord has about you, including your credit report and score. To take a peek at your credit report and score for free, no strings attached, swing by Quizzle.com.
To be a smart negotiator, you don’t have to be a seasoned salesman. Here are five tips to help you get the best deal:
* Know Your Neighborhood: Find out what comparable apartments are going for in your area, including any specials that are running. * Know Your Apartment Complex: Is your complex completely occupied or are there a lot of units available? The more empty apartments your landlord has, the more willing he may be to negotiate. * Time It Right: Make sure to give yourself enough time to negotiate so if dealings fall through, you can find another place. * Promote Yourself: Tell your landlord why you make a good tenant and give him reasons to keep you around. * Think beyond Money: Your landlord might not be able to budge on rent, but may be willing to give you other perks like free storage, flexible move-in/out dates, premium parking or new carpet.
4. When Money’s Short, Talk to Your Landlord
This tactic doesn’t count if you spent your rent at the mall, bar or casino. But if you’re truly strapped for cash, talk to your landlord. There’s no guarantee a landlord can or will help, but if you don’t ask, you’re never giving him or her a chance. If you’ve experienced a hardship, your landlord may be willing to work out a payment plan with you, cut you some slack on your rent payment due date or help you get into an apartment that’s better suited for your situation.
5. Know Your Lease Terms and Termination Fees
Many landlords offer a variety of lease terms: six months, one year, two years, etc. Make sure you choose the lease term that fits your situation. Typically, the longer the lease term, the sweeter the deal. But, if life happens and you need to bail, breaking your lease could cost you. Before signing anything, take a look at your lease-break fee. Can you negotiate it? Is the potential cost worth it?
6. Know Your Rights
Just because you don’t own your home, doesn’t mean you don’t have rights. For example, if you rent a home from a landlord who then lets the house go into foreclosure, you may remain in your home through the end of your lease unless a home buyer purchases the home to live in, in which case you have 90 days to find a new place to live. You may get scary letters from the bank, lender and everyone who has financial interest in the house telling you to get out, but you signed a binding contract that protects you from being kicked out of your home without notice.
Different states have different protections for renters, so do your homework. If your landlord does something that feels unfair, you may have a legal recourse. There are numerous free law resources online for renters, as well as tenants’ rights organizations that you can contact for help.
7. Uncle Sam Likes Renters Too!
Many states offer a “Renter’s Credit” or “Homestead Property Tax Credit” when you do your income taxes. The credit is typically based on the difference between your household income and property taxes. As a renter, you may not directly pay property taxes, but your landlord does, and those taxes are figured into your monthly rent payment. Make sure you hang onto any receipts showing you paid your rent so you can provide the IRS with documentation should they request it.
Few things feel more terrifying and random than a stroke, which can strike without warning. And fear of stroke -- when a blood vessel in or leading to the brain bursts or is blocked by a blood clot, starving brain cells of oxygen and nutrients -- is well founded. After all, stroke is the number-three killer in the U.S., affecting more than 700,000 people each year. Here are five foods that cause the damage that leads to stroke.
1. Crackers, chips, and store-bought pastries and baked goods
Muffins, doughnuts, chips, crackers, and many other baked goods are high in trans fats, which are hydrogenated oils popular with commercial bakeries because they stay solid at room temperature, so the products don't require refrigeration. Also listed on labels as "partially hydrogenated" or hydrogenated oils, trans fats are found in all kinds of snack foods, frozen foods, and baked goods, including salad dressings, microwave popcorn, stuffing mixes, frozen tater tots and French fries, cake mixes, and whipped toppings. They're also what makes margarine stay in a solid cube. The worst offenders are fried fast foods such as onion rings, French fries, and fried chicken. Why it's bad
For years scientists have known trans fats are dangerous artery-blockers, upping the concentrations of lipids and bad cholesterol in the blood and lowering good cholesterol. Now we can add stroke to the list of dangers. This year researchers at the University of North Carolina found that women who ate 7 grams of trans fat each day -- about the amount in two doughnuts or half a serving of French fries -- had 30 percent more strokes (the ischemic type, caused by blocked blood flow to the brain) than women who ate just 1 gram a day. Another recent study, also in women, found that trans fats promoted inflammation and higher levels of C-reactive protein, which have been linked to an increased risk of diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. What to do
Aim to limit trans fats to no more than 1 or 2 grams a day -- and preferably none. Avoid fast-food French fries and other fried menu items and study packaged food labels closely. Even better, bake your own cookies, cakes, and other snacks. When you can't, search out "health-food" alternative snacks, such as Terra brand potato chips and traditional whole grain crackers such as those made by Finn, Wasa, AkMak, Ryvita, and Lavasch.
2. Smoked and processed meats
Whether your weakness is pastrami, sausage, hot dogs, bacon, or a smoked turkey sandwich, the word from the experts is: Watch out. Why it's bad
Smoked and processed meats are nasty contributors to stroke risk in two ways: The preserving processes leave them packed with sodium, but even worse are the preservatives used to keep processed meats from going bad. Sodium nitrate and nitrite have been shown by researchers to directly damage blood vessels, causing arteries to harden and narrow. And of course damaged, overly narrow blood vessels are exactly what you don't want if you fear stroke.
Many studies have linked processed meats to coronary artery disease (CAD); one meta-analysis in the journal Circulation calculated a 42-percent increase in coronary heart disease for those who eat one serving of processed meat a day. Stroke is not the only concern for salami fans; cancer journals have reported numerous studies in the past few years showing that consumption of cured and smoked meats is linked with increased risk of diabetes and higher incidences of numerous types of cancer, including leukemia. What to do
If a smoked turkey or ham sandwich is your lunch of choice, try to vary your diet, switching to tuna, peanut butter, or other choices several days a week. Or cook turkey and chicken yourself and slice it thin for sandwiches.
How to Tell if Someone Is Having a Stroke
3. Diet soda
Although replacing sugary drinks with diet soda seems like a smart solution for keeping weight down -- a heart-healthy goal -- it turns out diet soda is likely a major bad guy when it comes to stroke. Why it's bad
People who drink a diet soda a day may up their stroke risk by 48 percent. A Columbia University study presented at the American Stroke Association's 2011 International Stroke Conference followed 2,500 people ages 40 and older and found that daily diet soda drinkers had 60 percent more strokes, heart attacks, and coronary artery disease than those who didn't drink diet soda. Researchers don't know exactly how diet soda ups stroke risk -- and are following up with further studies -- but nutritionists are cautioning anyone concerned about stroke to cut out diet soda pop. What to do
Substitute more water for soda in your daily diet. It's the healthiest thirst-quencher by far, researchers say. If you don't like water, try lemonade, iced tea, or juice.
4. Red meat
This winter, when the respected journal Stroke published a study showing that women who consumed a large portion of red meat each day had a 42-percent higher incidence of stroke, it got nutrition experts talking. The information that red meat, with its high saturated fat content, isn't healthy for those looking to prevent heart disease and stroke wasn't exactly news. But the percentage increase (almost 50 percent!) was both startling and solid; the researchers arrived at their finding after following 35,000 Swedish women for ten years. Why it's bad
Researchers have long known that the saturated fat in red meat raises the risk of stroke and heart disease by gradually clogging arteries with a buildup of protein plaques. Now it turns out that hemoglobin, the ingredient that gives red meat its high iron content, may pose a specific danger when it comes to stroke. Researchers are investigating whether blood becomes thicker and more viscous as a result of the consumption of so-called heme iron, specifically upping the chance of strokes. What to do
Aim to substitute more poultry -- particularly white meat -- and fish, which are low in heme iron, for red meat. Also, choose the heart-healthiest sources of protein whenever you can, especially beans, legumes, nuts, tofu, and nonfat dairy.
5. Canned soup and prepared foods
Whether it's canned soup, canned spaghetti, or healthy-sounding frozen dinners, prepared foods and mixes rely on sodium to increase flavor and make processed foods taste fresher. Canned soup is cited by nutritionists as the worst offender; one can of canned chicken noodle soup contains more than 1,100 mg of sodium, while many other varieties, from clam chowder to simple tomato, have between 450 and 800 mg per serving. Compare that to the American Heart and Stroke Association's recommendation of less than1,500 mg of sodium daily and you'll see the problem. In fact, a nutritionist-led campaign, the National Salt Reduction Initiative, calls on food companies to reduce the salt content in canned soup and other products by 20 percent in the next two years. Why it's bad
Salt, or sodium as it's called on food labels, directly affects stroke risk. In one recent study, people who consumed more than 4,000 mg of sodium daily had more than double the risk of stroke compared to those who ate 2,000 mg or less. Yet the Centers for Disease Control estimate that most Americans eat close to 3,500 mg of sodium per day. Studies show that sodium raises blood pressure, the primary causative factor for stroke. And be warned: Sodium wears many tricky disguises, which allow it to hide in all sorts of foods that we don't necessarily think of as salty. Some common, safe-sounding ingredients that really mean salt:
*
Baking soda *
Baking powder *
MSG (monosodium glutamate) *
Disodium phosphate *
Sodium alginate
What to do
Make your own homemade soups and entrees, then freeze individual serving-sized portions. Buy low-sodium varieties, but read labels carefully, since not all products marked "low sodium" live up to that promise.
So how long will it take until you're a millionaire?
If you start with an initial $10,000 investment and your portfolio grows by 5 percent every year, here's how much you need to save each month to reach your $1 million goal by age 70, according to Bankrate.com's calculator.
* 25-year-olds have to save $450 a month. That's just $15 a day for the rest of your working years. * 35-year-olds have to save $850 a month. * 45-year-olds have to save $1,700 a month. * 55-year-olds have to save $4,000 a month. (Of course, with an average inflation rate of 3 percent, that $1,000,000 nest egg will only be worth $642,000 in today's dollars. So that means you'll likely wind up having to save even more.)
The idea of becoming a millionaire may seem like a pipe dream.
When it comes to retirement, most Americans doubt they've saved or invested enough to retire comfortably, let alone reach that million-dollar milestone. A new AP-CNBC poll finds nearly one-third (31 percent) of U.S. residents believe they would need a minimum savings of $100,000 to $500,000 if retiring this year in order to be confident of living comfortably in retirement, and 22 percent believe the minimum is $1 million or more to retire comfortably.
Only one-fifth of U.S. respondents think it's likely that their net worth with total at least one million dollars in the next 10 years, while 62 percent said that is "very unlikely." The consensus from the majority of respondents (61 percent): It is "extremely" or "very difficult" to become a millionaire in the United States today.
But many are still trying to hit that million-dollar mark—and millions of Americans have already attained that goal.
The number of millionaires in the country is growing. The U.S. has more than 10 million. Despite the European debt crisis and worries about the U.S. economy, a May 2011 report from the Deloitte Center for Financial Services projects that the number of millionaire households in the U.S. will more than double to 20.5 million in 2020, with combined wealth of $87 trillion, up from $39 trillion in 2011.
Money makes money, but it can be tough to make that money grow in these rocky financial markets. The AP-CNBC poll found six in 10 U.S. residents (62 percent) say their confidence in investing has been shaken by recent volatility in the stock market. That sentiment has increased over the past 12 months. Today, 65 percent of those who own stocks, bonds and mutual funds are less confident about investing, compared with 61 percent last year.
Respondents in the AP-CNBC poll say they're making saving and investing a top priority. The survey asked people what they would do with a million dollars and found, on average, that Americans would spend 31 percent on saving or investing; 17 percent on giving to family; 14 percent on spending; 13 percent on paying down debt; 12 percent on buying real estate and 11 percent on charitable donations. Unfortunately, the reality is that mounting expenses, lower wages and job losses require many Americans to dip into those savings to pay for household bills or pay down debt.
The reality is that investors who stayed the course and did not pull their money out of the market in the last few months may actually have fared pretty well. Despite an almost 8 percent decline since mid-July, the broader stock market, represented by the S&P 500 Index, is up nearly 8 percent over the past 12 months. Certainly it's been a rough few years with the S&P 500, down 8 percent in five years. But over the past decade, the broader stock market is up by more than 10 percent.
In most cases, the road to financial security in retirement comes with steady savings, strategic investing, and probably a later retirement date than you may have envisioned at the start of your career. Keep these three rules in mind: First, you need to live within your means. Next, you have to commit to saving a certain amount every month and stick to that goal. Then, you have to make sure your investments are in a diversified portfolio—a mix of stocks, bonds, and alternative investments (commodities and real estate) and rebalance that mix to attain your goals for growth.
Forget what's in your wallet -- beware your smartphone. It's becoming one of your most dangerous possessions.
If your phone was stolen a few years ago, the thief could make prank calls and read your text messages. Today, that person can destroy your social life -- you said what on Facebook?! -- and wreak havoc on your finances.
Now that smartphones double as wallets and bank accounts -- allowing users to manage their finances, transfer money, make payments, deposit checks and swipe their phones as credit cards -- they are very lucrative scores for thieves. And with 30% of phone subscribers owning iPhones, BlackBerrys and Droids, there are a lot of people at risk.
"It's crazy the amount of information on that phone -- it's like carrying a mini-computer around with you, except that more people know the settings on their computer than they do on their phones at this point," said Nikki Junker, social media coordinator and victim advisor at Identity Theft Resource Center. "People are incredibly at risk as technology improves."
And mobile banking use is expected to soar by nearly 55% next year, according to recent data compiled by TowerGroup, a research firm for the financial services industry.
They found that while 17.8 million consumers used mobile banking last year, 27.4 million are expected to use it this year, and 53.1 million consumers are forecast to adopt it by 2013.
"We're now past the early adopters and starting to hit the early maturity phase," said George Peabody, director of emerging technologies at Mercator Advisory Group. "So much of our screen time is shifting from PCs to smartphones, and the banks want to be there and know they have to be there." Google to power your mobile wallet?
In addition, the volume of mobile payments -- buying boots via Zappos iPhone app, for example, or paying bills -- is expected to climb to $214 billion by 2015, up from $16 billion in 2010, according to Aite Group, another financial services research firm.
And pay-by-phone is only going to get easier as our devices come embedded with Near Field Communication (NFC) devices that allow you to pay for your morning latte by waving your phone at the cash register.
Companies like Blaze Mobile and Bling Nation already let you pay major retailers by swiping your smartphone thanks to a sticker adhered to the outside of your phone. Meanwhile, an app created by mFoundry brings up an image of your Starbucks prepaid card barcode and lets you scan it in lieu of a credit card.
"A lot of players are now pushing to drive the contactless technology," said Gwenn Bezard, research director at Aite Group specializing in banking and payments. "While you're not going to wake up tomorrow and everyone is going to be using mobile payments, it's going to grow over the next years -- and from a very low base."
Watch your phone! Security attacks on smartphones climbed to an all-time high in 2010, according to AdaptiveMobile, an international mobile security firm. Specifically, attacks on Google's Android smartphones quadrupled, and smartphones running Java-based applications jumped 45%.
"Bad guys are following where the people are going -- and people are going to smartphones," said Peabody. "As smartphone prices continue to decline and even more people get them, that's definitely the new place for bad guys to go."
While storing a password and keeping your phone locked is a good start, it's not going to protect you from professional fraudsters.
"Don't think that having an initial password set on your phone can stop people from getting in there," said Junker. "It's a very low level of protection -- you can even find 30-second videos on how to crack smartphone passwords on YouTube."
If you use mobile banking or make online payments frequently, you should invest in anti-virus protection and check with your bank about any security or identity theft protection features that you can enable.
Most smartphones also offer remote wipe-out services -- like MobileMe for the iPhone -- that automatically erase the information on your phone if you claim it as lost or stolen.
If you bank with your phone by accessing its website rather than opening an app, be extra careful when typing in the address. Some identity thefts create domains with the same address as major banks with two letters switched in hopes a consumer will accidentally land on the site and enter their username and password, said Junker.
And make sure you immediately log out of any bank apps or sites where your financial information is stored as soon as you're finished. While your identity is still at risk if your phone is stolen, this will buy you time to wipe out your information as soon as you realize it's gone.
Salt Lake City police have released new security camera video footage in hopes someone will recognize the robbers of a 7-Eleven store earlier this week. The holdup occurred about 5 a.m. Wednesday when three men, one with a black semi-automatic handgun, entered the store at 1300 South and 500 East. While two suspects started loading up with beer from the cooler, the third ordered the male clerk to open the cash register. The three, described as Latino or Polynesian, fled with beer, cigarettes and an unspecified amount of money. The clerk told police the gunman has a distinctive tattoo on his lower neck and upper chest in the shape of a necklace. It had script-style text, but the clerk was unable to read it. Police ask anyone who recognizes the suspects or has any other information relating to the robbery to contact them at 801-799-3000. Tips also can be sent as text to the keyword TIPSLCPD, and a link to download the free, anonymous TipSubmit mobile application is available at www.slcpd.com.
A British judge involved in recouping money that a disgraced Toys R Us manager paid to a prostitute questioned the woman's high fees in court on Tuesday.
Prosecutors are trying to reclaim nearly $6 million that jailed Paul Hopes stole from Toys R US in Britain. They argue much of the million-plus dollars call-girl Dawn Dunbar received was given to her, not earned, and could be confiscated, the UK's Telegraph reported.
In an enforcement hearing, Judge Stephen John calculated the weekly average Dunbar was paid, which she admitted was 10 times the going rate.
"It is £20,000 ($31,000) a week. How do you manage to evaluate your services — sex — at £20,000 a week?
"How do you justify that?"
According to the Telegraph, Dunbar replied: "It wasn't me that was putting the worth on that. It was Mr. Hopes paying what he thought it was worth."
The judge ruled the leftover money could be reclaimed, along with luxury cars Dunbar bought for herself, husband and father.
Hopes, 59, is a former Toys R US purchasing manager and married father of two who admitted to theft and money laundering in December 2009. He was sent to prison for seven years and ordered to pay back millions he spent buying houses and cars for prostitutes.
Hopes spent little of the stolen money on himself or his wife, according to UK media reports. His wife has divorced him.
A hearing with another prostitute, Tanya Wieck, was expected in coming weeks.
Square, the iPhone Credit Card Machine, Goes Mainstream
I first saw Square's product when Gizmodo's Mat Honan whipped one out at a dinner in San Francisco to help us split a check. Here's how it worked: he ran my credit card through a tiny plastic doohickey (technical term) that attached to his phone. We entered the amount I owed for the pizza, inflated by the price of a couple Belgian beers, and voila, I'd paid him with a credit card. It was a subtly impressive demonstration of the alternative payment system's appeal to the tech-savvy. The whole thing was slick and easy, and Square's pricing -- a flat 2.75 percent of transactions -- seemed a small enough price to pay for the convenience of the service.
But I wondered if it had mainstream appeal. We were on Valencia Street, after all, the epicenter of the Bay's hipster world, and both of us worked (at the time) for Wired. Would people and businesses whose lives didn't revolve around technology toss away their old-school credit card machines? It didn't seem likely.
Over the last few months, I started to notice Square doohickeys popping up all along eastern seaboard. Coffee shops are using them. Food trucks (@lobstertruckdc, anyone?) are using them. Boutiques are using them. Where hipsters lurk, Square abounds. But what about everywhere else?
I asked Square to make me a map of their transactions to see where they had users. The map you see at the top of the page shows one hour of transaction volume on a Friday afternoon. The size of the bubble represents the volume of the transactions while the different colors indicate the types of users that Square has.
This map is good news for Square, which recently took in a $100 million venture investment and put Larry Summers (yes, that Larry Summers) on its board. Just about every major city and plenty of smaller places have someone using the device. I was particularly to see that the whole southeast is blanketed with Square users.
How were all these people finding out about it? I called up a few customers, one of whom I got a hold of through Square and others through Twitter.
The first business I talked with was The Tree Man nursery in Paso Robles, which is a small city north of San Luis Obispo in central California. Anthony Overturf answered the phone with a laidback vibe that made me quake with nostalgia for the West Coast. I asked him how and why the nursery made the switch to Square. It turns out that local farmers converted the nursery's owner after their standard machine broke.
"Back in the rainy season, we cover our credit card machine with plastic, but the wind blew the plastic off and the rain hit the credit card machine and we were out a credit card machine," Overturf said. "We were in the process of ordering one and we went to the Farmer's market of all places and all the guys there were using them."
Overturf said it was actually an easy decision because the Square hardware was free and the cut that Square takes was less than they'd paid before. Overturf likes the machine, particularly because it allows him to move around the nursery and make sales on the spot.
It's not like aliens put up a welcome banner or anything, but scientists now have newly identified at least one planet that could potentially sustain life.
The European Southern Observatory has just announced the discovery of more than 50 new exoplanets (planets outside our solar system), including 16 super-Earths (planets whose mass is between one and 10 times that of our own planet).
One of these planets in particular could theoretically be home to life if conditions are right. It's called HD 85512 b, and scientists say it's about 3.6 times the mass of the Earth. This planet is about 35 light years from Earth. Its location with respect to its star suggests that this planet could have liquid water under certain circumstances.
Don't get too excited, though; there's a lot more work to be done to explore whether this planet is truly fit for life, in addition to whether there are alien life forms there.
The discovery comes from High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, or HARPS. HARPS is located at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, and is part of a telescope that's nearly 12 feet long.
Here's how it works, according to ESO: When a planet orbits a star, the star move towards and away from the person who's stargazing on Earth in a regular fashion. That's called a change in radial velocity. Because of the Doppler effect, changes in radial velocity makes the star's light spectrum move towards longer wavelengths when it's moving away, and towards shorter wavelengths as it gets closer. HARPS can detect this shift in the spectrum, and infer that there is a planet present.
So far, scientists have confirmed the existence of 564 planets outside of our solar system, according to NASA's PlanetQuest website, not counting this latest batch of more than 50. Beyond that, NASA's Kepler mission has found more than 1,200 exoplanet candidates.
"In the coming 10 to 20 years we should have the first list of potentially habitable planets in the Sun's neighbourhood. Making such a list is essential before future experiments can search for possible spectroscopic signatures of life in the exoplanet atmospheres," said Michel Mayor, who led the HARPS team, in a statement.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- If you knew coworkers, former bosses or exes who cheated on their taxes, would you turn them in? The Internal Revenue Service can make it worth your while.
As tax season nears, we all want to get as much money back from the IRS as possible. And while taking advantage of this year's new tax breaks will put some extra money in your pocket, snitching on a tax cheat could make you rich.
In a recent poll from the IRS Oversight Board, 13% of those surveyed think cheating is acceptable, up from 9% in 2008. As the recession puts the squeeze on household finances, the lure of fudging on a tax return is even greater.
"In a down economy, the temptation to cheat on taxes is much stronger because people are in more desperate situations more often," said Bill Raabe, a tax expert at Ohio State University's business school.
More people may be just as desperate to turn in a business, rat out an ex-spouse or report a colleague to collect a reward.
Small-time crooks: The IRS's informant program has been around for more than 140 years. If you suspect a person is committing tax fraud and report it, you could receive up to 15% of the amount that has been underpaid, with a maximum award of $10 million.
Informants are required to complete a claim, which is available on the IRS Web site, and mail it to the agency or call the IRS tip line at 1-800-829-0433. While you must reveal your identity to the IRS, your name will not be made public.
Because there is no minimum requirement for the amount in question, anyone can file a report in hopes of making an extra buck off of a cheating boyfriend or obnoxious neighbor.
"You probably get a mix of people with the informant program. You'll have spouses -- or ex-spouses probably -- as well as ex-employees turning in their employers," said Raabe. "But you really have to think, 'is it worth my time to report that guy?'"
To weed out the bogus reports from bitter ex-husbands and disgruntled employees, the IRS requires informants to fill out a detailed form and provide intimate information about the tax evader, including the person's social security number, address and date of birth.
"That's a lot of information that I'm not sure the average person has available," said Gagnon. "They're kind of asking the person to be a detective or work for them and go hunt all this information down, and I don't know how comfortable people would feel trying to do that."
Big cheaters: In 2006, the IRS really started cracking down on big time cheaters and introduced a new whistle-blower program, in which informants are paid a minimum of 15% and a maximum of 30% of the amount owed.
But there's a catch: In order to collect a reward, the taxes, penalties and interest in dispute must add up to at least $2 million. And if the suspected tax evader is an individual, his or her annual gross income must exceed $200,000.
So far, the new incentives have been effective. The IRS has received tips from about 476 informants identifying 1,246 taxpayers in fiscal year 2008, the first full year the program was implemented.
"The program is already attracting an enormous number of quality tips," said Paul Scott, a former Department of Justice trial attorney and current owner of law firm Paul D. Scott, where he represents whistle-blowers. "The volume of claims and/or tips they have been receiving with really substantial documentation or support has increased dramatically since the inception of this program."
Scott said that since the new program began, his firm has received claims from whistle-blowers involving billions of dollars in taxes, penalties and interest.
Who snitches?: In this program, the most common informants tend to be dissatisfied middle-ranking employees in big companies, said Tim Gagnon, an academic specialist of accounting at Northeastern University.
"I think it happens more in middle management than upper management," he said. "They're workers in the middle ranks who feel frustrated about what's going on and are not advancing or don't think they have a shot of moving up, because otherwise, it's hard to break loyalty."
Stephen Whitlock, director of the IRS Whistleblower Office, said that informants have had some connection to the taxpayer but they are not always close acquaintances. They have typically been employees, investors or business associates.
He also said many claims are for substantially more than the $2 million threshold and involve businesses or very wealthy individuals.
While the names of informants aren't made public, Gagnon said that a person's identity often becomes obvious based on the proof provided.
"Certain records show up and they can figure out where they're coming from," he said. "It's gotten a lot more anonymous and there's a lot more hiding in the shadows, but can you really stay in the shadows when you come forward to claim your rewards?"
Despite the program's success and generous rewards, the exhaustive information required and fear of retaliation are still huge deterrents in recruiting IRS informants.
"Once you blow the whistle on your employer, yeah, they can't fire you for retaliation, but I'm not sure how many people are going to hire you after that," said Gagnon.
But it's not always just a hefty reward that motivates people, said Scott of his whistle-blowing clients, and not all of them are jilted employees. Some feel angry about other people being above the law and getting away with it. "They want to stop the fat cats from getting rich at the taxpayer's expense," he said.
Others simply feel morally obligated to let someone know what's going on, said Scott. "They really feel like they're doing the right thing," he said. "When they look back on their lives, they will know they made the right move." To top of page
The day after CNET reported that Apple had lost control of another valuable iPhone prototype--the second misplaced prototype handset in the past 18 months--the company began looking for people to help protect unreleased products.
David Murphy at PCmag.com made a nice catch today by noting Apple posted two job openings on Thursday for managers of "New Product Security." Maybe it's a coincidence that the positions opened up when they did, but the job descriptions certainly sound like a response to Apple's troubles of late for losing test gadgets.
"The candidate will be responsible for overseeing the protection of, and managing risks to, Apple's unreleased products and related intellectual property," said the post.
Apple representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Wednesday, the CNET report pushed the bounds of believability for some. An iPhone was taken into a San Francisco tequila bar in July by an unidentified Apple employee who somehow lost control of the device. The circumstances were strangely similar to an incident in April 2010, when another Apple employee lost an iPhone 4 prototype in a Bay Area beer garden.
Could this really happen to Apple again?
San Francisco Police confirmed on Friday that they assisted an Apple security team to search a home in the city's Bernal Heights neighborhood where Apple had electronically tracked the phone. The device wasn't found there.
While it was easy to draw parallels between those two events, there were other signs that Apple's problems went beyond iPhones. Colleague Josh Lowensohn reported last week that Apple is trying to retrieve a prototype laptop that is in the possession of Carl Frega, a North Carolina resident who said he acquired the unreleased device via a Craigslist ad. He bought the machine thinking it was only good for spare parts.
On the same day that Apple posted the job openings, an Apple store customer was given internal company media and documents by accident after taking his computer in for service in Stamford, Conn. Cult of Mac was contacted by a man who said he was given a hard drive in addition to a computer that was being repaired with the spare drive containing a backup of the store's internal file server.
This is significant because this is Apple, a company that has forged quite a reputation over the years for secret keeping and message managing. Apple execs like to spring new devices to great fanfare at very rehearsed and controlled press events. Lots of people have commented in the past week that they suspect the misplaced gadgets is thanks to some kind of Apple publicity stunt.
But the job postings last week seem to indicate that a far more plausible reason for the lost devices may be little less conspiratorial. Apple's security seems to have slipped a bit and the company is trying to correct the problem.
Try to remember when you go out that cameras are everywhere..
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This hapless sheep has become a real life 'ram-bo' after inadvertently abseiling down a hill when its horn became snagged on an electricity wire.The unfortunate sheep was spotted bleating for help more than 15 feet above the ground next to a telegraph pole. Luckily it did not catch the current from the wire.
The drama unraveled at the small town of Helgoysund on the Norwegian coast. Tourists at the scene mounted a rescue attempt and eventually roped it to pull it back to ground level. After nearly an hour, and some ingenious rope work, the German tourists managed to bring the sheep down unharmed. Spectators suggested the sheep may have been grazing on the hill, and while trying to reach a field of ewes, it got its horn stuck on the zip wire. As it got more agitated, it was pulled down the hill on the wire it was attached to and ended up more than five metres above the ground
Alex Sim-Wise makes a stop at Kabukicho, the infamous red light district of Tokyo where tourists can visit over 3,000 bars, night clubs, love hotels, massage parlors and clubs. Alex finds out if she has what it takes to be the perfect hostess!
A blonde walks into a electronic store and asks the manager, "Can I buy that TV" "No" "Why not?" "Because your a blonde." So the blonde goes out and dyes her hair red. She returned to the electronic store and said, "Can I buy that TV?" "No" "Why not?" "Your a blonde." So the blonde goes and shaves her hair off and returns to the electronic store and says, "Can I buy that TV?" "No" "Why not?" "You're a blonde" "How can you tell I'm a blonde, I dyed my hair red, then shaved it off!" "Because that's not a TV, that's a microwave!"
A blonde calls her husband at work one day and asks him, "Can you help me when you get home?" "Sure," he replies. "What's the problem?" "Well, I started a really hard puzzle and I can't even find the edge pieces." "Look on the box," he said. "There's always a picture of what the puzzle is." "It's a big rooster," she said. The husband arrives home and tells his blonde wife, "Okay, put the corn flakes back in the box."
After a bizarre cliff side accident, all eleven members of the women's outing found themselves hanging perilously from a rope over the edge of the cliff. Ten of the women were blondes and one was a brunette. After dangling there for a only a short while it became obvious that the rope would not hold all their collective weight. They decided that to prevent the rope snapping and killing them all, one of them must sacrifice themselves and let go, to save the others. Well they talked about it for a while but no-one could decide a fair way of of choosing who should jump. Finally, the brunette, exasperated by the indecisiveness of the blondes, could see that if nobody acted soon the rope was going to snap.
To save the others she bravely decided that it must be her who made the sacrifice. She plucked up a little courage and told the others that she would jump to save them.
After giving a short but very moving speech that she hoped would be remembered after she'd gone, the blondes were so moved that they all started clapping!
BRAIN TEASER
Answers below. Don't cheat.
1. A murderer is condemned to death. He has to choose between three rooms. The first is full of raging fires, the second is full of assassins with loaded guns, and the third is full of lions that haven't eaten in 3 years - Which room is safest for him?
2. A woman shoots her husband. Then she holds him under water for over 10 minutes. Finally, she hangs him. But 5 minutes later they both go out together and enjoy a wonderful dinner together - How can this be?
3. There are two plastic jugs filled with water. How could you put all of this water into a barrel, without using the jugs or any dividers, and still tell which water came from which jug?
4. What is black when you buy it, red when you use it, and gray when you throw it away?
5. Can you name three consecutive days without using the words Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday?
6. This is an unusual paragraph. I'm curious how quickly you can find out what is so unusual about it? It looks so plain you would think nothing was wrong with it! In fact, nothing is wrong with it! It is unusual though. Study it, and think about it, but you still may not find anything odd. But if you work at it a bit, you might find out! Try to do so without any coaching!
ANSWERS 1. The third. Lions that haven't eaten in three years are dead.
2. The woman was a photographer. She shot a picture of her husband, developed it, and hung it up to dry.
3. Freeze them first. Take them out of the jugs and put the ice in the barrel. You will be able to tell which water came from which jug.
4. The answer is Charcoal. In Homer Simpson's words: hmmmm... Barbecue.
5. Sure you can: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow!
6. The letter "e", which is the most common letter in the English language, does not appear once in the long paragraph.
was a year without parallel. Threat Level’s bread-and-butter themes of censorship, hacking, security, privacy, copyright and cyberwar were all represented in tug-of-war struggles with unprecedented outcomes.
Google defeated China’s censors, but caved to corporate censorship in the United States. The largest computer-crime case ever prosecuted ended in the nation’s longest prison term. A small-time Xbox modder who advertised his services online beat the federal rap. And a mysterious computer virus called Stuxnet finally put proof to decades of warnings that malware will eventually be used to kinetic effect in the real world.
A myriad of court decisions seemed to be a boon for online rights, while others clearly were a step backward. The year 2010 saw the rise of the newspaper copyright troll, and judges pushed back on absurd jury verdicts for music file sharing and outdated electronic spying rules.
And a secret-spilling website flirting with insolvency and dissolution suddenly burst onto the world stage. WikiLeaks was without a doubt the biggest 2010 development in Threat Level’s world. WikiLeaks Takes On World Powers
As the year began, the project appeared to be on its last legs — just another cypherpunk fever dream destined for the same dustbin as digital cash and assassination politics. Site founder Julian Assange had abandoned the wiki portion of the concept, after crowds of volunteer analysts failed to congeal around WikiLeaks’ impressive, but not yet explosive, trove.
Bradley Manning as he appeared in his Facebook photo.
Assange also experimented with auctioning early access to leaks for news outlets, without immediate success. By January, the site had hit financial bankruptcy, and its homepage and archive were replaced by a public plea for donations.
Then came Bradley Manning, a disaffected 22-year-old Army intelligence officer who wanted “people to see the truth.” With one disturbing video and nearly a million leaked U.S. documents later, WikiLeaks had raised more than $1.2 million, and ignited a battle over the meaning of journalism, national security and censorship.
The WikiLeaks saga began in earnest with the April release of the “Collateral Murder” video showing more than a dozen people in Iraq being killed in three U.S. Apache helicopter attacks.
Victims included two Reuters employees, one carrying a camera that was apparently mistaken for a weapon. The partial release of 92,000 reports from the war in Afghanistan followed in July. Then came 400,000 Iraq war reports in October, and finally the slow, steady disclosure of 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables that kicked off just after Thanksgiving.
The human race learned long ago that cooking meat before eating it would protect them from certain diseases. Since then this practice of cooking has grown to include all types of foods and is now considered an art. Very few meals are eaten which include raw elements, except for the leafy green salad.
One advantage of eating raw is that it brings Nature’s intentions into focus. When I speak of eating raw I am referring to fruit, nuts, and vegetables, which taste good to the majority of humankind in their basic simplicity direct from tree, bush or vine.
I realize it isn’t easy to simply abandon thousands of years of tradition and revert back to 100% raw food. Margaret Mead once said, “It is easier to change a man’s religion than to change his diet.” So to the point, there are 10 advantages to a diet of fresh, whole raw fruits, vegetables, and nuts, which may lead you to find a greater place for them in your diet.
1. Raw foods are better quality, therefore you eat less to satisfy your nutritional needs. The heat of cooking depletes vitamins, damages proteins and fats, and destroys enzymes which benefit digestion. As your percentage of raw foods increases you feel satisfied and have more energy on smaller meals because raw food has the best balance of water, nutrients, and fiber to meet your body’s needs.
2. Raw foods have more flavor than cooked foods so there is no need to add salt, sugar, spices, or other condiments that can irritate your digestion system or over stimulate other organs.
3. Raw foods take very little preparation so you spend less time in the kitchen. Even a child of 5 or 6 can prepare most items for breakfast, lunch or dinner. This gives children a sense of self-esteem and independence, not to mention the break it gives Mom or Dad.
4. When you are eating raw there’s little chance of burns, unless you’re in the middle of a forest fire or out in the sun too long. Just think! No burns to tongues, the roof of your mouth, or fingers, and many fewer house fires.
5. Cleaning up after a raw meal is a snap. No baked-on oils or crusty messes. And any inedible parts go directly to the compost pile.
6. Eating a diet of raw foods can reverse or stop the advance of many chronic diseases, including heart disease and cancer. Remember, cooking creates free radicals, which are the major cause of cancer. When you lower the number of free radicals your cells are bombarded with, you lower your risk of cancer.
7. A raw food diet can protect you from acute diseases such as colds, flu, measles, etc. Raw foods maintain a healthy body and a healthy body will not become diseased.
8. As long as you combine raw food properly according to the rules of Natural Hygiene, you will soon reach a level where you no longer suffer from heartburn, gas, indigestion or constipation.
9. It is environmentally sound. With humanity on a diet of raw foods, the food industry would close up shop and take up organic gardening. This would save us enormous amounts of natural resources used to produce power for these industries. Nuclear power would be clearly unnecessary. And think of how many trees and oil reserves could be saved without the need for the paper and plastics used in packaging our processed foods. There would also be less carbon dioxide released in to the atmosphere when all the cooking stopped and more oxygen produced from all the new orchards and gardens, thus helping to reverse the Greenhouse Effect.
10. Eating raw saves you money on food, vitamins, pots and pans, appliances, doctor bills, drugs, and health insurance.
So don’t waste your food, yourself, and our planet by cooking what you eat. Fruits, nuts, and vegetables which are whole, fresh and raw are brimming with life and have the ability to transmit their life force directly to you.
There are many types of raw food diets. A list, with descriptions, follows.
* Sproutarian - one whose diet is predominantly sprouts. Those eating only sprouts are extremely rare; most sproutarians have a varied raw food diet.
* Living Fooder - version of sproutarianism. The Ann Wigmore-style living fooder has a vegan diet centered on sprouts, raw fermented foods, and raw blended foods. Hippocrates Institute (Brian Clement) and Gabriel Cousens teach similar, yet slightly different, versions of living foods diets.
* Natural Hygiene - natural hygienists disagree sharply among themselves regarding the details of natural hygiene. A diet of raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds. The diet is usually vegan, but Tilden (co-founder of natural hygiene in modern times) encouraged use of non-vegetarian foods. Following high (%) fruit diets is discouraged by most hygienists. However, some who consider themselves to be hygienists, do advocate high fruit diets. There is very wide variation in diet and health practices among hygienists; e.g. Disagreements on the use of sprouts, seaweeds, dried fruit, etc. Some otherwise "orthodox" hygienists make occasional use of raw milk/cheese/eggs in their diet (this is discussed by Ward Nicholson in the January 1997 issue of the "Health & Beyond" newsletter). The American Natural Hygiene Society reportedly promotes a predominantly raw diet, but advocates a place for cooked grains and steamed vegetables in the diet. (Note: the preceding remarks are intended to show the wide diversity of hygienic views; it is not meant as criticism.)
* Instinctive Eating (Anopsology) - sequential mono-eating, guided by the senses (smell, and taste change = signal to stop eating). In practice, instincto diet often centers on raw fruit, seafood, meat, with some vegetables, and excludes dairy and grains. Some instinctos eat very little seafood/meat. A similar diet, the Paleolithic diet, has recently become more popular in raw food circles.
* Essene - one whose diet is based on the Essene Gospels of Peace, which claims that Jesus was a member of the Essene sect, and a raw food vegetarian. Diet consists of raw sprouts, wheatgrass, vegetables, and fruit. Use of raw dairy is explicitly authorized by the Essene gospels, so the diet is often lacto-vegetarian rather than vegan. Many Essenes use fermented dairy products, specifically yogurt.
* Fruitarian - one whose diet is predominantly fruit. As a standard, suggest using 75+% fruit as the marker for using the term fruitarian. Here 'fruit' usually conforms to the common usage of the term - the reproductive product of trees, vines, bushes, rather than the botanical definition. Some fruitarians do eat small amounts of sprouts, and many fruitarians (but not all) do eat leafy greens.
* Liquidarian - one who consumes only liquids/juices. Usually a short-term cleansing diet, extremely rare as a long term diet.
* Breatharian. Not really a diet; one who does not eat but gets energy from the air. A rare practice of an obscure Tantric sect. If you want to be a breatharian, you should go to India and try to find a genuine teacher. (This is a difficult/dangerous path - not to be pursued for frivolous reasons!)
* (Generic) Raw Fooder - one whose diet is raw foods but who doesn't fit so neatly into a category, or prefers to not be categorized. Generally a vegan diet, but can be lacto-vegetarian (those who consume raw dairy), or non- vegetarian. Suggest that the diet should be 75+% raw before using the term 'raw fooder'.
