Stupid 911 Prank Callers in Florida Keep Authorities Hopping

            Good Day World!

I never could get why people say Californians are so crazy.

Listen, if you really want crazy try living in Florida!

That humid little state with alligators and a rapidly increasing Anaconda population, is home to the con-communities boiler rooms, zombies of all ages, swamp people, and retired Mafiosi!

Not too mention world class 911 prank callers:  

Dateline Florida- A St. Petersburg man who called 911 about 80 times Sunday saying he wanted Kool-Aid, burgers and weed delivered to him instead got a trip to jail, police said.

Jarvis Sutton, 34, is facing a charge of misuse of the 911 system following his arrest Sunday, according to Pinellas County Sheriff's Office jail records.

"The defendant admitted to calling 911 because he 'wanted Kool-Aid, burgers and weed to be delivered to him,'" an officer wrote in an arrest affidavit obtained by the Tampa Bay Times.

On his way to jail, Sutton started chewing on foam attached to metal caging in the back of the police cruiser, the report said. (via NBC 6 News)

Still in Florida…

Then there’s the St. Petersburg woman being held on bond after being arrested for giving her last $50 to a drug dealer and then thinking twice about the transaction, authorities said.

Katrina Tisdale, 47, called 911 to tell officers she wanted the money she had just spent on marijuana and cocaine back, according to St. Petersburg Police.

Still in Florida…

Dateline Tampa Bay - He might be the most prolific 911 crank caller in Tampa Bay history. He made one of his last calls about 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. It lasted three minutes and 26 seconds.

"911, what is your emergency?" the dispatcher asked.

"Hello?"

No one replied.

The calls started Dec. 31, according to the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, and ended Wednesday, February 14th, 2013.

In 45 days, he made more than 1,200 calls, an average of 27 per day. All came from an unregistered phone the Sheriff's Office tracked to the area of Massaro and Tampa East boulevards.

In many, he didn't say anything. In 19, he spoke. Sometimes he cursed at the dispatcher, the Sheriff's Office said. Sometimes, like in this call, he feigned danger.

"You better put the knife down," he said 34 seconds in. "I'm telling you that right now."

"What was that?" the dispatcher asked.

"He needs to put that knife down."

"What knife?"

"Always threaten me with that knife, huh? Why do you always threaten me with that knife?"

"Sir, who are you talking to?"

(Read more here)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Robo-bugs on the wall: world's smallest bot takes flight!

  Good Day World!

 Something is bugging me.

Remember that old saying, “I wish I were a fly on the wall so I could hear what they were saying?”

The new reality of the 21st century has brought that phrase home with the introduction of robo-bugs that can not only hear what you’re saying, but can see you while you’re saying it!

(Photo-Kevin Ma, Pakpong Chirarattananon)

That kind of news creeps me out, but there’s not much I can do about it. I might go out and purchase a heavy duty fly swatter (frying pan?) just to be on the safe side. They may be small, but they’re not that small! Where’s my super magnet!

Here’s the story:

“Insect-sized robots have long held promise in the minds of sci-fi nerds. They could poke through treacherous rubble in search-and-rescue missions, discreetly snoop on the guilty and innocent alike, and sometimes, just maybe, form into giant swarms that block out the sun and do the bidding of larger, less agile, robotic overlords.

Hopefully that last bit won't come true, at least not before they invent robo-bug repellent. But on Thursday, the door to the future was kicked open when engineers at Harvard revealed a penny-sized robot that can hover like a housefly, beating its wings 120 times per second.”(rest of story here)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

Learnist: New user gives thumbs up for the popular social media platform

Learnist sure got a nice write-up at Digital Royalty! I agree with her 100%! Learnist is a great discovery!

SNIPPET:

“I used to bookmark my favorite articles and tried to keep my folders as organized as possible for future reference, but it became overwhelming and easily slipped into disarray. It wasn’t easy to refer back to articles and they were tough to share. Some articles got saved in my email, some I bookmarked in Chrome, some in Safari. Some got saved to Instapaper, Evernote, or Pocket. For lack of a better system, I had resigned myself to perpetual information chaos, until I made a great discovery: Learnist.”

Cannibalism Headline & 3 more suspects arrested in connection with the Boston bombings

       Good Day World!

Historians have known for decades that Jamestown had a terrible winter (1609-10) and that some people resorted to cannibalism to stay alive.

On a slow day in the mainstream news (if you don’t count *the arrest of three more suspects in the Boston bombings - it makes a hell of a headline:

(Doug Owsley, division head for physical anthropology at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, displays the skull and a facial reconstruction for "Jane of Jamestown" during a news conference at the museum in Washington on Wednesday. Carolyn Kaster / AP)

Grisly Evidence:Colonial Settlers Turned to Cannibalism in Tough Times! 

Experts have provided the grisly goods to back up 17th-century accounts of cannibalism during the Jamestown colony's "starving time" — including a skull that shows signs of being chopped at and pried apart.

“Our team has discovered partial human remains before, but the location of the discovery, visible damage to the skull and marks on the bones immediately made us realize this finding was unusual," Bill Kelso, chief archaeologist of the Jamestown Rediscovery Project in Virginia, said in a news release issued Wednesday. Specimens from the Jamestown site were laid out during a Washington news conference. (Read story)

* Related stories for Suspects Arrested in connection with Boston Bombings:

Boston Police Announce 3 More Suspects In Custody In Marathon Bombings

Feds arrest 3 new suspects in connection with Boston Bombings

Time for me to walk on down the road…

So you think you’re having a bad day eh?

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

It’s still a mystery how she got it up this tree!

  Good Day World!

You may or may not be having a good day today, but don’t feel alone. It happens to us all at one time or another. Some cases are just worst than others. See video on left.

Crawling the web I found some other people who wish they never got out of bed!

 Here’s the story of some guy who was dressed in a full wet suit, complete with scuba tanks on his back, flippers, and facemask when firefighter’s found his corpse in a burned-out section of a California forest. A post-mortem revealed that the person died not from
burns, but from massive internal injuries. What? Good read and there’s other stories too.

If you're having a bad day, just remember, at least you don't look like you did in middle school.

You know your having a bad day when you see your stockbroker hitchhiking out of town and other reasons!

This might make you feel better if you’re having a bad day. Here’s 19 people who are having a way worse day than you!

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Rafter’s Redemption: Chapter 6 – Deadly Harvest

      Good Day World!

It’s that time of the week when I feature a new chapter from my free Novella – Rafter’s Redemption.

If you’re a new reader, no problem. GO HERE for links to all the Chapters.

Today: Chapter 6 – Deadly Harvest

Snippet: “The car’s engine started. Smiley rose, took aim and fired three quick shots into the driver’s side. Two struck Jesus in the head and he pitched sidewise striking the horn which blared angrily as the engine raced.”

Time for me to walk on down the road… 

 

The word from the looney bin is Boston Marathon bombing happened because of marijuana!

          Good Day World!

Nuts don’t have off days…

  There’s no time for reality breaks. They’re on a ideological mission and are pissed off! Their ire dwarfs any mission to Mars, supposedly the angry red planet. 

It looks like the rightwing nut community’s latest tinfoil hat warning that Weed was responsible for the bombings at the Boston Marathon is gaining legs.

Oh yes! The younger brother was allegedly a pot dealer, and that’s why he drove around in fancy cars, not because he was being funded by extremist Muslims…so the theory goes. But wait! It goes beyond that into the Twilight Zone.

I know. Pretty crazy shit. I can’t help wondering what’s the matter with these people? Why do they hate marijuana so much? Theories abound.

Here’s a couple of links on the topic:  

Accuracy In Media Blames Marijuana for Boston Attack

Cliff Kincaid blames marijuana for Boston Marathon bombing

And today’s Hyprocrite Link is:

Medical Marijuana-Hating Assemblyman Caught With Marijuana Gets Charges Dismissed! Say hi to NY State Assemblyman Steve Katz!

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

 

 

AS IT STANDS: Unleashed: Social Media has Arrived & it’s Not Pretty!

  By Dave Stancliff/For The Times-Standard
 It’s official. Social media reached a watershed moment when diving into the mainstream media’s news pool to report on the Boston bombings and the subsequent manhunt for the suspects.
For better or worse, more Americans get their news from FaceBook, Google+, Instagram, Pinterest, 4chan, Reddit, Tumblr, and Twitter. Social media started out as a way to connect with friends and morphed into a multi-faceted platform offering everything from consumer products to breaking news.
It’s the breaking news part that worries me. I followed Twitter every day last week because it was getting news out faster than the traditional media sources. The downside of what I observed was the wild rumors spreading faster than the confirmed news reports.

  It was like the Wild West, as authorities encouraged citizens to help look for the two bombing suspects with their social media sources. Smart phone photos suddenly became viral as multiple suspect photos popped up. Chatter on  Reddit and 4chan was full of wild speculation. Traditional news sources struggled to keep the story going throughout the week and began to use what the social media offered.
  It was apparent to anyone who used the social media last week that it was in the vanguard of live videos and photos, out-scooping traditional news sources with ease. Talk about ugly. There was a lot of chaff in cyberspace and sorting it out was no easy job.
Real clues, tips and speculation flooded the web as common citizens turned into vigilantes. The legion of amateur sleuths cast suspicion on four innocent people, spread mistruths, and at times caused panic in real time and cyberspace. It was like sharks in a feeding frenzy. 

  The reason I believe this is a turning point in news coverage is because it’s the first time in the age of smart phones we’ve had a major terrorist attack. The social media’s hunt confused the authorities at times during the chase. 
A beast was released. A new threat to our privacy as common citizens emerged in the aftermath. “This is one of the most alarming social media events of our time,” said Siva Vaidhyanathan, a media studies professor at the University of Virginia in a recent interview with the LA Times.
“We’re really good at uploading images and unleashing amateurs, but not so good with the social norms that would protect the innocent,” Vaidhyanathan explained. The wild speculation that Muslim fundamentalists or right-wing extremists were responsible traveled like wildfire on the web.
I know advocates of social media and crowd-sourcing like to point out how quickly they can get information in a crisis situation. It’s true they can. The problem is the information isn’t always correct. Nor will it ever be a trusted source because of the lack of vetting stories, comments, etc. It will always be a problem regardless of what its supporters say.

The day has come when the internet has surpassed cable. But how can you tell if a source on the internet is valid? You’ve got plenty of pranksters on the web who like nothing better than causing trouble in the real world.

  My takeaway from this whole situation is that Americans are rapidly deserting traditional news sources. This is the 21st century and people are in a bigger hurry than ever. Instant news feeds that increased hunger. Experts admit this is not going to change as more smart phones come on line.
I think what worries me most is that people forget the images and names they throw out stay there forever. Corrections can be made later, but are less likely to be viewed than original content posted. Especially if some form of real world action resulted from the misinformation.
  For example, the tweet that made the stock market temporarily plunge on April 23rd when hackers got into the Associated Press (AP) twitter account and claimed bombs went off in the White House and the president was wounded. Two million AP subscribers went nuts!

  The social media also lets a mob rule mentality take away our privacy and put us on edge, wondering if we’ll be the next victim of rumors or wild speculation on a social media source. No more innocent until proven guilty. The faceless social media becomes the hunter and the judge.
  There is no controlling social media, any more than there is a way to control the internet. For better or worse, we have to learn to live with the mixed blessings that come from our social media sources.
  As far as traditional news sources go; newspaper, TV, and radio will continue to provide news with a measure of vetting not seen on the web. However, as we all know, the traditional news media outlets also have their problems. Corporations and politicians control their content so we have to be wary of their agendas.
  As It Stands, the writing is no longing on the wall, it’s on the web.

Websites carrying this column:

TwitUps : Unleashed: Social media has arrived and it's not pretty!

This entry was posted by Tom Endris on April 28, 2013 at 1:26 pm

Social media started out as a way to connect with friends and morphed into a multi-faceted platform offering everything from consumer products to breaking news. It's the breaking news part that worries me. I followed Twitter every day last week because …

• Tags:arrived, It&#39s, media, pretty, Social, Unleashed
• Categories:Cool Stuff, Social Media, Tech News

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Traditional Media – Google News

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Business Improvement & Social Media - Scooped by Ricard Lloria

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Liver transplant denied because patient was using medical marijuana - it cost him his life!

      Good Day World!

The tragic fate of Norman B. Smith is all you need to know about to see how senseless it is to make consumption of marijuana a crime.

In New York they get that:

New York Patient Advocates & Health Care Professionals Rally for Medical Marijuana Bill

Patients suffering from severe debilitating or life-threatening conditions could be treated with medical marijuana under legislation introduced by Assembly Health Committee Chair Richard N. Gottfried and Senator Diane J. Savino.  New York’s bill A. 6357/S.4406 is co-sponsored by 68 other legislators.  The bill was reported from the Assembly Health Committee today by 21-4, including 3 of the Committee’s 7 Republicans voting in favor.

“If the patient and physician agree that the patient’s severe debilitating or life-threatening condition should be treated with medical marijuana, the government should not stand in the way,” said Gottfried.  “It is cruel to deny treatment to patients who are suffering or to turn them into criminals.”

Medical Marijuana and Health Insurance

By the end of 2012, 18 states and the District of Columbia permitted the use of marijuana as a viable medical treatment option for chronic illnesses such as AIDS and cancer.

What is viewed as an alternative treatment has been gradually gaining approval for over fifteen years as an acceptable method for reducing pain and nausea, and increasing appetite. Other benefits include a lesser toll on the liver, kidneys, and other organs usually subject to failure from other medications.

Though legalization has given suffering patients assistance in various states thus far, there is still a long road ahead for those seeking to have their medication covered by health insurance. Currently, health insurance plans scarcely cover cannabis if they do so at all. With legalization comes soaring prices, and as any patient knows, medications paired with treatment costs add up quickly. Paying entirely out of pocket for medical marijuana has cost some patients several hundred dollars per month or more, depending on the severity of their illness. (Read more here)

Time for me to walk on down the road…

 

Grockit Adds BBC Content to Learnist

Will offer a BBC Earth multimedia board to users of the social learning platform

By George Winslow -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/25/2013 7:44:57 PM

Grockit is partnering with BBC Worldwide to create a BBC Earth multimedia board for the new "Earth Science" category on Grockit's social learning platform, Learnist.

The move strengthens the content on Learnist, which was launched in May of 2012 and builds on the December 2012 announcement by Discovery that it would take an equity stake in the social learning platform.

Learnist currently has around 500,000 users and gets over 1 million page views a month.

"BBC Worldwide is always seeking new opportunities to pilot our content on new, innovative social platforms in order to gain a greater understanding of how particular content is received and used by new audiences," said Jenny Fielding, head of digital ventures at BBC Worldwide, the commercial arm of the BBC, in a statement.