Greetings fellow Bizarros:
Say you're facing the prospect
of spending the night, hungry and sober, in a refrigerator box under
the expressway. Would a meal and a room for the night with a shower
be worth a little subcutaneous bruising to you? Apparently it is to
an increasing number of homeless men in St. Petersburg.
Bizarre as this scenario sounds, this is exactly what is happening
in this Florida community to men who have sold themselves as
punching bags for fetish videos.
A locally operated fetish website recruits them right off the street
for as little as $50. They sign a waiver and
 must
endure at least 12 minutes of hard physical abuse from young women
in bikinis (or sometimes semi-nude) including punches, kicks, knees,
bondage and whipping, all in front of a video camera.
The videos sell for as little as $10.
The practice is widespread enough that local homeless
advocate G.W. Rolle said for months he noticed men walking around
with black eyes, split lips and limps before he finally got someone
to tell him about the "beatdowns," as they have come to be known
among the homeless.
Southern Legal Counsel, which has represented St. Petersburg's
homeless in the past, filed the suit seeking an injunction to stop
the beatings, saying the men were vulnerable and desperate for
money. It also seeks damages for medical costs and emotional
distress.
Bizarrely,
Lewis
P.S. In case you haven't
noticed, we have a new format for Bizarre News which I hope you
like. Please drop me a note and let me know what you think!
lewis@gophercentral.com
+-------------- Bizarre Execution Facts --------------+
The last public execution in America was the hanging of a
22-year-old black man named Rainey Bethea. He was executed
at Owensboro, KY, in 1936 after being convicted of killing
a 70-year-old white women. Twenty thousand people showed
up to witness the execution.
The last person hanged in the U.S. for being a pirate was
Capt. Nathaniel Gordon, in New York City on March 8, 1862.
Gordon had been smuggling slaves into the US.
The last person to be burned at the stake was Phoebe
Harrius. Harrius was convicted of coining false money and
was burned at the stake in front of Newgate Prison in
England in 1786.
The last public execution by guillotine was on June 17,
1939. Eugen Weidman was executed before a large crowd
in Versailles, France. The last nonpublic use of the
guillotine in France, at Baumetes Prison, in Marsailles,
was the execution of convicted murderer Hamida Djandoubi,
a Tunisian immigrant, on September 10, 1977.
During WWII Private Eddie Slovik was tried by court-martial
and sentenced to death for desertion. He was shot by his
own unit, the 28th Infantry Division, in a small town in
northeast France.
-------- Long-lost twins lived 3 miles
apart --------
ROTHERHAM, England - A 67-year-old British woman separated
from her twin sister at birth says a TV show found her
sibling had been living just 3 miles away their whole lives.
Jennifer and Judith Walton, were reunited by the producers
of ITV1 series "Long Lost Family" for an episode scheduled
for air April 21, said they still live in the Rotherham,
England, homes they grew up in and never knew they shared
the same doctor and dentist, The Sun reported Tuesday. The
twins said they also found Jen worked for 40 years at the
store where Judith, who was renamed Kath by her adoptive
family, picked up her prescriptions. They have grandchildren
in the same local drama group. The sisters had been adopted
by different families at birth.
Jen said she had attempted to track her sister through
social services 14 years ago, but had no success. She said
it took researchers for the TV show four months to discover
her sister living in the same town. "I dreamed of one day
finding my sister and, because I couldn't find her, imagined
she was in Australia," Jen said. "When I found she was
'round the corner, I felt so happy. "Now we see each other
every week and pop round to each other's home for cups of
tea."
------- 54-foot height error identifies fake ID
-------
WASHINGTON, Pa. - Police in Pennsylvania said they were tipped off
to use of a fake ID when a scanner used on it read the card holder's
height as 54 feet tall. Washington police said an employee at
an alcohol distributor in the city called police Saturday night when
a card scanner read the height as 54 feet tall, instead of the
intended 5 feet 4 inches, The Observer-Reporter in Washington,
reported
Tuesday. Police said the incident led them to seize multiple fake
IDs used at the establishment and most of the young people
interviewed identified the same Web site as the source of the false
documents. Police said the investigation was ongoing and charges
were expected to be filed.
>>>>>>>>
READER COMMENTS <<<<<<<<<
Theis may not be true at all. It
is probably just Reynolds aluminum creating a demand for lots of
FOIL! -Linda
[That only works against alien and CIA mind probes.]
Charged for barking at a police dog? Here in Oz we've had people let
off at court for swearing at cops. Magistrates feel that bringing a
charge if it's just a drunk and/or idiot letting of a bit of steam
is a bit over the top and the cops shouldn't be so thin skinned.
-Steve
After reading that article about "reading someone's mind", to me
that is the ultimate in the invasion of privacy act I have ever
heard of. this should not be allowed, well, perhaps the exception in
the criminal world....one could get to the truth almost immediately.
[If you have nothing to hide what do you need privacy for?]
Hi Lewis: I don't know why I am surprised by the idea of putting
electrodes on the brain to read minds or control computers, it was
only a matter of time. If people could read what was going through
my mind most of the time, I'd either be beaten to a pulp or
permanently institutionalized in some Psych Ward somewhere. Maybe
they'd give me points for at least thinking that though. -Brad
[Now here is someone with something to hide!]
When are people going to learn. Jimmy Carter spent billions based on
the "companies like gas" conspiracy theory. His great idea was
liquid natural gas. Not only did it go nowhere. Today we know it
would be little better than gas. Let's look at the current subsidy.
Ethanol takes large amounts of energy to produce making it of
limited value at best. Interestingly the cheapest and simplest of AF
is biodiesel which there is no government subsidy for at all. And at
two dollars a litre it represents the absolute cap
for the cost of diesel fuel. So there you have it. Government
subsidies zero help and the solution is right
in front of us. -John
[Biodiesel is a great alternative, but it is limited. I have
copied a link for you here to a great video about Biodiesel.]
Using
Vegetable Oil as Gas
http://www.evtv1.com/player.aspx?itemnum=12147
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