$4,000,000 for me or you

From Donkey's mail bag . . .

Dear Friend,

My name is Sgt. Karren Rudy Jarrett, an American soldier, I was serving in the military of the 3rd Infantry Division in Iraq. I am in United Kingdom at the moment, I and my partner moved one of the boxes containing funds which we believe is belonging to Saddam Hussein in March 2003, the total fund in this box is $12,000,000.00 (Twelve million US dollars), this fund had been moved via a safe Diplomatic Courier Service to a secured security company . . .

The e-mail offers a link to a BBC story which allegedly explains how Sgt. Jarrett came to have $12,000,000 to share.

Send me $100.00 and promise to give and a $100.00 a month for life if you collect and I will give you Sgt. Jarrett's e-mail address.

Charges against a reigning Mr. Universe dropped

Doug Burns, medium class winner of the 2006 Natural Universe contest, was arrested for a scuffle he had with law enforcement personnel while he was slipping into insulin shock. (See previous post linked here.)

JJS Diabetes reports that Doug Burns beat the rap.

Mr. Universe arrested for being diabetic?

Doug Burns, the current Mr. Universe, is also a Type 1 diabetic. He was, while apparently experiencing hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) in early April 2007, mistakenly thought to be intoxicated in public. As a result of his altered mental state during this incident, he resisted attempts to control the situation by police and ended up, allegedly, assaulting an officer.

Read more at JJS Diabetes.

Amtel completes backdating probe

Amtel Corp announced (4/30/07) the completion of its independent investigation into its stock option granting records and said the backdating will cost the company some $125 million in compensation charges. Amtel pointed its finger at former CEO George Perlegos and former general counsel, Mike Ross as being "primarily responsible" for directing the decade long backdating.

The company has also received an informal request for information relating to past stock options grants from the San Francisco district office of the SEC, with which it said today it continues to cooperate fully.

Read more at EDN.

HT Pinehurst Joe

Is Tom Cruise (& others) linked to mass murder?

No, Tom Cruise didn't pull the trigger. But was Mr. Cruise's character a man Seung-Hui wished to emulate? If Mr. Gasper is correct, what does society do - realistically? I challenge you to read the entire quote . . .

Joseph Gasper, a graduate student in the Department of Sociology at The Johns Hopkins University says:

"For Seung-Hui, the shooting was a desperate final attempt to escape (by ending in suicide) from his social problems. But the shooting provided him with more than just an escape—it afforded him an opportunity to regain his manhood through lethal violence. Movies in which violence is rewarded with hero status provide the template for action for a young man with a history of rejection by women who wishes to show others that he is a man. Indeed, when viewing his 'media manifesto,' one cannot help but think that they are watching scenes from an action movie. His manifesto is purposeful in the sense that in order for the shooting to successfully recapture his masculinity, he must let the world know that he did it and that he is not a weak individual. The idea that such a killing spree and the methodical planning that goes into it will resolve one's problems and change others' perceptions does not enter a young man's head randomly; these linkages are available to us everyday in society in the form of movies, television, and video games, and they may explain why mass murders tend almost always to be men."

Mr. Gasper is teaching a course this summer on School Crime and Juvenile Justice.

Headlines at Johns Hopkins linked here.

Another DRAM price fixer agrees to prison

Il Ung Kim, vice president of marketing for the memory division at Samsung, has agreed to plead guilty to a single count of price fixing and serve 14 months in a United States prison. Kim is the sixth Samsung executive to agree to plead guilty and agree to a prison sentence in the DRAM investigation.

Kim admits that he participated in the price-fixing conspiracy by:

Engaging in communications with representatives of other DRAM producers and sellers, during which pricing information was exchanged between competitors. That pricing information was used for the purpose and with the effect of influencing the price of DRAM sold to certain OEMs;

Reaching understandings with other DRAM producers and sellers, the ultimate effect of which was to stabilize and raise the price, or limit the rate of price declines, of DRAM sold to certain OEMs; and

Encouraging the involvement of other Samsung employees in the DRAM conspiracy.

Read the Department of Justice press release linked here.

Read the indictment linked here.

Mr. Frog on the Rambus sheep

Readers regularly puruse the Rambus boards and foward some of the best and worst to Any Donkey. Today's supplement included Nictherealgreeksalad's confession of a secret "relationship" with Fraudbus.

A reader, apparently with time to kill, compared The Confession with posts by Mr. Frog about Rambus Sheep. Thanks, I had forgotten some of the lighter side of the Rambus saga . . .

" ... Yea, I heard Rambus was being put into drinking water, and that will generate a new revenue stream too. Ridiculous and so obvious. Pumping is one thing, this coordinated effort to influence the sheep prior to options is just plain wrong."

DDR chips hijacked

The 20 boxes (US$306,000) filled with DDR chips from Hynix Semiconductor were robbed while in transit (Taoyuan, Taiwan) with sources saying most of the chips were 400MHz frequency parts. This DDR chips were being delivered to distributors, though ownership of the chips is still unknown.

Read more at DigiTimes.

HT Joe.

Princess Di not murdered reports John Stevens

I do not believe that any evidence currently exists that can substantiate the allegations of conspiracy to murder; there was no conspiracy and there was no cover-up.

The Stevens report concludes Princess Diana's death was a "tragic accident." I disagree . . . when a driver is roaring drunk and driving at excessive speed, death is no "accident."

Troubling is the fact that the U.S. was recording Diana's conversations and once this was known, the collective shrugging of American shoulders. What legitmate U.S. security interest necessiated invading her privacy? More than likely, the bugging was the result of prurient curiosity.

The Operation Paget inquiry report into the allegation of conspiracy to murder linked here - Overview (9 pages) or Full Report (871 pages).

Charles Barkley on "The Juice"

On Costa Chronicles, Charles Barkley disowns O.J. Simpson.

- HT Doctorweld -

Judge Whyte - send CA sex deviant to North Carolina

This week Larry Mead, 47, of Monterey County, California, was sentenced to three years under state charges to run concurrent with the six-year prison term Judge Whyte levied on the same charges stemming from Mead's possession of 303 images and 94 videos of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct.

Mead, a former elementary school teacher, downloaded images to a school computer. Judge Whyte recommended Mead spend time at Butner Federal Correctional Complex in North Carolina, which has therapy programs for both alcohol abuse and sexual abuse and deviation.

Locate convicted sex offenders in your area linked here.

Any Donkey hoping Mead is paroled east of California.