Exxon Mobil is once again the King of Corporations. And if any others had their eye on breaking its record earnings for the second quarter of 2008 (April-June) of $11.68 billion, Exxon Mobil just moved the bar again. They just set another record for corporate profits in the third quarter (July-Sept.). Exxon Mobil earned a whopping $14.83 billion - almost $5 billion a month - a 58% increase in profits compared to the same period last year ($9.41 billion).
Oil producers are coming off a quarter during which crude prices reached an all-time high of $147.27 — and their profits have reflected it.
Exxon Mobil, which produces 3% of the world’s oil, was able to earn its record-breaking profits on reduced production. It produced about 8% less oil than one year ago. It cited disruptions caused by hurricanes Gustav and Ike, production-sharing contracts and increased maintenance activity.
Despite the upheavals in the financial and credit markets and the uncertain economic climate, Exxon Mobil continues to be confident in its future:
“Our integrated business portfolio, strong operational performance and financial discipline continued to allow us to capture the benefits of the commodity price environment,” Exxon Mobil investor relations chief David Rosenthal said on a call with analysts. “Despite recent volatility in the financial, commodity and credit markets, the fundamentals of Exxon Mobil’s business remain strong.”
If you are inclined to be skeptical or indulge in conspiracy theories; maybe President Bush and Dick Cheney, both ex-oil men, may have been looking out for the industry all along:
Here is one of those stories that leaves more questions than answers. It involves a 73-year-old unidentified man with an erotic aid (a pipe one inch long, one inch in diameter and made of quarter-inch-thick steel) stuck on his penis; a firefighter-turned-surgeon with a “Wizzer Saw“; and the staff of St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital in Newburgh, New York. This story was reported in the Times Herald-Record and is reproduced in its entirety below:
By Doyle Murphy
Times Herald-Record
October 26, 2008
CITY OF NEWBURGH — A Newburgh firefighter became an ad hoc surgeon Friday, called upon to use a pneumatic saw to cut a piece of steel pipe off a 73-year-old man’s penis.
Firefighters were dispatched to the Newburgh campus of St. Luke’s Cornwall Hospital shortly after 9 p.m. for a public service call, Assistant Chief Scott Mandoske said. Hospital personnel asked them for tools to cut off a ring. The fire department has a ring cutter used to clip wedding bands from swollen fingers, but firefighters learned that wouldn’t be enough. The pipe was an inch long, an inch in diameter and made of quarter-inch-thick steel.
Authorities said the pipe was apparently an erotic aid, but did not elaborate.
Medical personnel weren’t able to perform typical medical procedures, such as forcing blood from one side of the penis to the other in order to pull the pipe off. The man’s penis had swollen and turned purple.
Mandoske said firefighters chose a “wizzer saw” for the job. The wizzer saw is an automotive tool, powered with air bottles and adopted by emergency responders who frequently deal with car crashes. Firefighters use it more commonly to saw off mufflers.
Hospital staff prepared the man, who was unidentified, by wrapping the skin and sliding a lubricated tongue depressor between the pipe and the man’s penis to protect him. A doctor, nurses and a paramedic gathered in the Emergency Room as a firefighter — “one of the new guys” — prepared to begin the operation.
“Just don’t cut it off,” the senior citizen reportedly said.
For more than 90 minutes, the firefighter sawed bit by bit into the pipe, pausing occasionally to cool the saw. The time duration was critical, Mandoske said. Hospital staff worried the man could lose his penis if blood circulation was cut off too long.
The wizzer saw emptied the first bottle of air and then a second. Finally, after five air bottles, the saw clipped through the final bit of pipe, and they were able to free the man. He was apparently unharmed by the operation, Mandoske said, although the assistant chief didn’t press for details.
Asha Mandela, 46, is going for the Guinness World Records. Her hair, or more precisely her dreadlocks, is her pride. She has been growing them for 20 years. They are longer than she is tall. Mandela has submitted her hair to Guinness World Records as the Longest Dreadlocks, the first entry in a new category.
In order to qualify for this category Mandela had to have her three longest locks measured and verified by witnesses. One such witness was Ryan Spinella, executive assistant to Longwood’s city administrator. He watched the unfurling and measuring of Mandela’s hair.
“I couldn’t say what to compare it with. Just a lot of hair,” Spinella said. “You don’t believe it until you measure it, really.”
Her longest dreadlock was measured at 8ft 9ins - it would have been 11 inches longer if she had not accidentally stepped on it and broken off the piece that she still carries around in her purse. In fact her dreadlocks is longer than the tallest man in the world - Leonid Stadnik, who is 8ft 2ins tall.
Asha Mandela of Davenport, Polk County, Fl. started growing her dreadlocks 20 years ago when she decided that she would no longer use chemical in her hair. Mandela, who is originally from Trinidad but was living in Brooklyn at the time, shaved all the hair off her head. When it started to grow back she began corkscrewing it into curls that in turn were twisted together into dreadlocks.
Mandela is really proud of her hair but there is one person who is no fan - her own mother. As her dreadlocks started to grow she sent a picture to her mother. Her mother told her not to send anymore pictures, complaining that Mandela was spoiling her hair:
‘I took such good care of your nice curly hair, and this is what you are doing with it?’
Nevertheless Mandela is pleased with her hair. She calls it her baby, comparing it to raising a child from infancy to 20 years old. But caring for almost 9ft of hair can be burdensome. It takes one bottle of shampoo and one bottle of conditioner every time she washes her hair. She started off by washing it 3 times a week but because of the time and energy involved she now only does it once a week.
She wrings out the water as you would a wet beach towel. When the days are hot, and she takes it out by the pool in the backyard, it takes two hours to dry. When it’s humid and cloudy or cool outside, it might take all day for her wet hair to lose its dampness.
It may take a few weeks for certification from Guinness World Records. Afterwards Mandela will then have to defend her title against all the unknown contenders with dreadlocks who would just love to take the title away from her. Guess who she fears the most - the Rastafarians of Jamaica.
Joseph Fritzl, 73, is truly a living monster: After incarcerating his own daughter and brutally raping her for 24 years - fathering 7 children in the process - he now claims in interviews with a psychiatrist that he was born to rape. He is also under the delusion that what he did was not so bad and he should be commended for his restraint:
“Bearing that in mind I controlled myself for quite a long time.” He added: “I could have behaved a lot worse than locking up my daughter.”
Learn how this monster was finally caught and his daughter freed from captivity in a series of videotapes entitled: The Joseph Fritzl Story.
A court in St Poelten, Austria, which will be handling his eventual trial, commissioned Dr Adelheid Kastner, 46, of the Wagner-Jauregg psychiatric clinic in Linz to provide a psychiatric examination of Josef Fritzl, 73. Her report, conducted over six interviews, was compiled in a 130-page document. She concluded that although he was fit to stand trial, he would be “highly” likely to re-offend if he had the opportunity.
“He was not only incredibly able to lead a double life but also managed to maintain a triple life without any problems,” Dr Kastner wrote, indicating that Fritzl played down the gravity of his crimes in his mind.
“Mr Fritzl resembles a volcano; under the surface that appears almost banal there is an evil streak. He is torn apart by his desires that he cannot master,” Dr Kastner wrote.
The report declared Fritzl clinically sane and fit for trial, but also diagnosed a “severe combined personality disorder and a sexual disorder”.
“It is to be expected that Mr Fritzl would perpetrate deeds with severe consequences also in the future,” Dr Kastner concluded.
On the basis of her report the prosecution has demanded from the court that Fritzl be tried and sentenced, then committed to an institution for the criminally insane, where he would receive psychiatric care and therapy including, if deemed necessary, medication.
The psychiatric report also shed some light on the life of Fritzl and some of the factors that may have influenced him from childhood. His mother, who was strict, neglectful and abusive, beat him and isolated him from other children until he started school. He said he was an “alibi child,” and his mother only had him to prove to her partner, who was apparently cheating on her, that she was not sterile. He explains:
“I grew up in a poor family. My father was a no-good scoundrel who always cheated on her and my mother threw him out of the house when I was four – and she was quite right to do so. After that, it was only the two of us.”
However, according to the report, he was ignored by his mother, sadistically mistreated and constantly left neglected. Dr Adelheid Kastner said:
“As a child he suffered from a condition that sometimes affects boys and left him in incredible pain every time he urinated. His mother only bothered to take him to a doctor when a neighbour discovered how much the child was suffering and forced her to take him for treatment.”
“My mama was a strong woman. She taught me discipline, order and diligence. She enabled me good education and job training and she constantly worked hard and would take difficult jobs only to support the both of us. She was as strict as it was necessary. She was the best woman in the world. And I was her husband, in some way. She was the boss at home, but I was the only man in the house.”
When asked whether he was sexually abused by his mother, he said: “No, never. My mother was decent, most decent. I loved her over everything. I have admired her. I admired her very much. But I have naturally not done anything. There was nothing there.”
When asked whether there were any fantasies about her mother, he said: “Yes, probably, but I was strong, almost as strong as my mother, and I have therefore managed to suppress my urges.”
Dr Kastner says Fritzl spoke of humiliating and unprovoked attacks by his mother in childhood.
“His childhood made him susceptible to an emotional handicap,” she writes, creating the need for him “to possess an entire human being”.
Fritzl said that he had tried to escape from the horror of his childhood by burying himself in books. As an adult he said he had thrown himself into his work as a way of suppressing his sexual desires. He described himself as a “volcano” who felt “torn” and had come to the conclusion that he possessed a “mean streak“, and a “flood of destructive lava that was barely controllable“.
Shortly after puberty Fritzl began sexually attacking girls and at the age of 32 in 1967 he broke into the flat of a 24-year-old nurse and brutally raped her at knifepoint. He spent 18 months in prison for that crime.
The report says Mr Fritzl believed incarcerating his daughter, Elisabeth, meant he would have someone “just for me”. He said he had deliberately never looked his daughter in the face while he was raping her. Kastner said it had been his way of distancing himself from the situation. He said he stopped having sex with his wife, Rosemarie, on the day he allegedly sedated his daughter and took her into the cellar. “Finally I had someone who was just for me,” he said. He also believed having children with her would mean she would have to stay with him as she would “no longer hold any attraction for other men“.
“I only had so many children with her so that she would always stay with me, because as a mother of six she would no longer hold any attraction for other men.”
He was said to have a thin grasp of the gravity of his crime, after expressing a belief that he would spend his final days with his wife and pleading for a short prison sentence so that he could continue running his property business to enable him to provide for his family.
In the report, Dr Adelheid Kastner writes: “Mr Fritzl was born as a disadvantaged child, which will have consequences for his entire life. His domestic situation was uncertain and he had to suffer a mother who demotivated him, denigrated him and was prone to violence – a home situation which was absolutely devoid of security and lacking in understanding of the basic needs of a child. It was a childhood that left him emotionally crippled. The degradation left his personality “severely deformed” and he has almost no ability to empathise with others.
Because of his anger at his mother, he developed a permanent need to dominate women. Because of this loneliness that he felt, he developed a need to “own a person” and to “have that person totally for myself” and create a “totally inseparable and irremovable connection“.
His daughter Elisabeth was the terrible victim of the crippled person that he grew up to be.
Joseph S. Kelley, 52 from Canton, Mass. was lost in Upstate New York, trying to find his way back home, so he did what most of us would do - he started to look for a police station to ask for directions. It was 4 a.m. when Joseph found Troop K headquarters located in Millbrook. He got out of his car to ask for help.
One minor observation - Joseph Kelley was drunk, very drunk when he stopped to ask for directions.
While the police were giving Kelley directions, they realized that he appear to be intoxicated. They decided to check him out and discovered that he had a blood alcohol content of 0.17, more than twice the legal limit in New York (0.08). He was charged with driving while intoxicated and troopers called a taxi and released him to the driver to take Kelley to a hotel in the Town of Poughkeepsie.
While en route to Poughkeepsie, Kelley asked the cab driver to stop at an ATM so he could withdraw some cash to pay for his ride. When the cabbie stopped, Kelley got out and ran back to Troop K headquarters. He recovered his car, a Toyota Highlander, and drove north on the Taconic State Parkway while being followed by the taxi driver.
State troopers stopped him in the Town of Stanford and again arrested him on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. He was taken back to Trooper K headquarters and this time his blood alcohol content was 0.14.
Kelley was arraigned in front of Town of Stanford Justice Frank Weber Jr. and sent to Dutchess County Jail on $5,000 bail or $10,000 bond. He is due back in the Town of Stanford court to answer to the charges.
The body of Herta Auslander was found inside a freezer chest at her home in Cooks Falls, by New York State Police. Herta was at least 100 years old, police said. They believe her 69-year-old son, Roland “Jack” Auslander, stashed her body in the freezer more than a year ago and continued to cash her social security checks. Herta lived in a run-down farm house on Auslander Road. Jack lived around the corner in a small cabin.
At first police were not sure if foul play was involved in Herta’s death. An autopsy could not be performed until the woman’s body had thawed out sufficiently.
After the autopsy was performed it showed that Herta died in April 2007 of natural causes - cardiac disease. Her body had been in the freezer for more than a year.
Herta’s bank became suspicious because of unusual recent activity on her account and the fact that no one had actually seen her in a long time. They called the police asking them to investigate. The police got a search warrant.
A fire was smoldering inside a barrel and several dogs were barking at Herta’s house. A sign tied to her fence indicated that Herta rescued abandoned dogs, and that she’d be open for adoption visitors at 1 p.m. When police arrived about 30 dogs were at the house, some of them vicious, which made it difficult to retrieve the frozen woman.
Police are now looking for Jack Auslander and have spoken to his attorney. Barring a homicide charge - which is unlikely, after getting the results back from the autopsy - the fraud associated with cashing her Social Security checks will likely outweigh charges for stowing her body, which would amount to a violation of the public health law, police said. It’s believed that Jack was controlling his mom’s bank account, keeping her Social Security payments and endorsing some checks with a rubber stamp of her signature.
It’s not a manhunt, “but we’d certainly like to talk to him,” Senior Investigator Les Hyman said.
This is not the first time Jack Auslander has been in trouble. He has been locked up several times in Sullivan County Jail and in the Woodbourne Correctional Facility on drug charges. Court records show he was convicted of buying more than 3 ounces of cocaine in Livingston Manor in 1987. He was imprisoned on drug charges again in 1999 and was released in 2003.
Sometimes No just means No. This is what a man who had been stalking a woman for three months had to find out the hard way…..by literally losing his head. This incident occurred in Makkapurva village, 170 miles south east of the Indian city of Lucknow.
A 35-year-old Indian woman had been refusing the unwanted advances of an unnamed man for three months when he found her alone in the field cutting grass, with a sickle, to feed her cows. Police officer Ram Bharose describes what happened next:
‘She was getting grass for her cattle when the man came up from behind her and tried to sexually assault her,’ said Mr Bharose. ‘In a bid to save her dignity, she turned on him and during a struggle managed to chop off his head with the sickle. ‘ He continued ‘We have no doubts about her story because she had bite marks on her neck and cheek when the man tried to take advantage of her sexually.’
Having decapitated the unfortunate man, the woman decided to take his head to the local market in the village. She was determined to show the others how she had successfully defended herself against the man who had been stalking her for three months.
‘She put the head on parade,’ said Mr Bharose. ‘She walked right through all the crowds who were buying their vegetables, holding the head up high.
‘All her clothes were covered in blood, but as far as she was concerned that didn’t matter. She just wanted to make a point and she definitely succeeded in doing that.
‘Everybody scattered. It was a very terrifying sight.’ Mr Bharose said the woman had no regrets about her actions.
The crowd in the busy market fled in terror as a woman walked among them holding aloft the severed head of a man who had attacked her. Covered in blood, she held the head high like a trophy, her way of showing that she had delivered her own kind of justice to her attacker. She was promptly arrested.
‘We have to follow the letter of the law and although she says she acted in self defense she will probably be charged with culpable homicide,’ said police officer Ram Bharose.
Caylee Marie Anthony, born August 9, 2005 is now 3-years-old. She did not get to celebrate her third birthday with candles, a cake and presents. She was not even with her mother or any other family members for her third birthday. She may in fact have been dead before her third birthday. Caylee Marie Anthony is missing and her mother, Casey Anthony, 22, has been charged with her murder by the police in Orange County, Fl.
Caylee Marie Anthony was reported missing July 15th 2008 by her grandmother, Cindy Anthony, after being told by Casey - her daughter and Caylee’s mother - that the toddler had been missing since June 9th 2008.
What followed the missing child report has been a drama of lies, changing stories, a family pitted against each other, charges of forgery, a car with the “smell of death“ - but no dead body. Nevertheless police say they have enough evidence. Casey Anthony was arrested after a grand jury indicted her on charges of First-degree murder, Aggravated child abuse, Aggravated manslaughter and four counts of Lying to investigators. She appeared before Judge John Jordan, who read the charges against her and sent her to jail, without bail.
Police became involved in this case after the missing child report was filed by the toddler’s grandmother. Casey told the police that she last saw her daughter when she dropped her off at the babysitter’s. Later, when she went to pick up her daughter after work, she discovered that both the babysitter, Zenaida Fernandez-Gonzalez (Zainie), and her daughter were nowhere to be found. Casey said she spent the next month trying to find her daughter Caylee. She did not immediately report Caylee missing because she was afraid.
After investigating Casey’s story the police say Casey was not being truthful. For one thing the apartment where Zainie was supposed to live had been vacant. Also after tracking down Zainie (who is a real person) it turns out that Zainie never even met Casey. In fact Zainie has filed a defamation lawsuit against Casey Anthony, claiming that she caused her to loose her job and has caused problems in her family’s life.
Casey made bail thanks to celebrity bail bondsman Tony Padilla and was confined to her parent’s house wearing an ankle bracelet. However, police presented evidence to a grand jury and called witnesses to testify - including her own father, George Anthony - believing that Casey did in fact kill her daughter. The grand jury indicted her on charges of first-degree murder, aggravated child abuse, aggravated manslaughter and four counts of lying to investigators about the disappearance of her daughter. If convicted of first-degree murder, Casey Anthony could face the death penalty or life in prison. Prosecutors said no decision has been made on whether to seek the death penalty.
In case you missed this year’s (200 richest men in the world, here is a recap. How many can you identify? Click on the picture to find out who is who in the world of multi-billionaires.
With the way the stock market has been going lately, it will be interesting to see what next year’s list will look like. My guess is that there won’t be much of a change.
This is the kind of story that makes you wonder why there is so much evil in the world. The respect for human life (regardless of social status) should be so ingrained into our belief systems, that to willfully cause the death of a helpless individual should be anathema to every living soul.
The burning death of a homeless man for no apparent reason, other than the “pleasure” of doing it, should impress upon us the realization that there are some truly evil people living amongst us. This is the story of how “John” a homeless man, who by all accounts never bothered anyone, met his untimely death at the hands evil incarnate.
Police and Firefighters responded to a call about 9:40 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 9th on 3rd Street between Berendo Street and New Hampshire Avenue in the Mid-Wilshire area of Los Angeles. They found a homeless man who had been doused with a flammable liquid and set on fire. The man, who paramedics thought was about 50 years old, had burns over 90 percent of his body. The victim, who was taken to hospital, was later pronounced dead, authorities said.
“This is one of cruelest crimes you can imagine,” said Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz, who oversees LAPD’s Rampart Division. “Pouring gasoline on a human being and setting them on fire. As an officer who has responded to many murders over the years, this is amongst the most horrific.”
“To murder somebody who’s probably suffering from mental illness issues and not bothering anyone — just a poor wretch on the street — you’ve got to be a soulless nitwit to do something like this,” he said.
The police were canvasing the area, talking to people and looking for clues. A man in his 20s was seen throwing gasoline on the man, chasing him, throwing more on him and running from the scene, said Deputy Chief Sergio Diaz. Scorch marks stained a wall where the man was burned.
Capt. Dennis Cremins said police were looking for at least one man who was seen running from the scene. He was described as a Latino in his 20s, with short brown hair and a large black T-shirt. Cremins said police believe the man may have bought gasoline in the neighborhood and used it in the attack. A red plastic gas container was found at the scene.
Jose Antonio Gonzalez, who owns a vitamin shop near where the man was found, said some longtime residents called the man Johnny and believed he had fought in the Vietnam War and had a wealthy family somewhere. Gonzalez didn’t know whether the stories were true.
Shopkeepers said the man was a fixture in the dense residential neighborhood at the northern edge of Koreatown, and residents were shocked to hear about his violent death. The homeless man, who some called “John” and described him as Buddha-like and unassuming, had been in the area for at least 20 years but never bothered anyone or begged for money, said Young Kim, who owns a nearby dry cleaner. People gave him food, clothes and spare change.
“His priorities were cigarettes, Dr Pepper, hot Cheetos and, once a week, he would buy C batteries” for his radio, said Asit Bhowmick, the Bangledeshi owner of the Bengal Liquor store.
Regulars at the California Donut shop bought him coffee and doughnuts in the mornings, a couple of Asian men took him for showers and a haircut, and poor Central American and Mexican immigrants would give him spare change or food.
“He didn’t seem to have mental problems. He understood and spoke well. I don’t know why he lived on the street,” Kim said.
About 9:30 p.m. Thursday, Jorge Garcia, owner of La Morenita Oaxaquena restaurant, said he was at work when a woman ran inside the restaurant, screaming for a fire extinguisher. He ran outside to find the man lying on his back in a nearby parking lot, his body still ablaze.
The man’s clothes had been burned off, his face blackened and swollen, the tips of his clenched fingers sloughed off. The smell of gasoline hung in the air.
“There’s no name for what they did to him,” Garcia said.
On Friday, some of the homeless man’s belongings remained at the scene, including a bag of food from McDonald’s, a yellow pear and a gray sweat shirt and shorts. A charred jacket lay on a white cardboard box nearby. “This is one of the jackets that someone used to try to put the flames out,” said Dinora Morales, 30, a baker at the doughnut shop.
Andy Bales, chief executive of the Union Rescue Mission on downtown’s Skid Row, said the incident was “part of a long history of people attacking vulnerable homeless individuals in Los Angeles.“
“They think the person is less than human because they happen to be homeless. I don’t know how you could do that to another human being,” Bales said.
Luis Ortega, who works in the neighborhood, looked along the street full of botanical shops, ethnic restaurants and cigar shops. He said justice would prevail.
“Karma is coming,” Ortega said. “Karma is going to come and get whoever did this.”
(a pipe one inch long, one inch in diameter and made of quarter-inch-thick steel) stuck on his penis; a firefighter-turned-surgeon with a “
richest men in the world, here is a recap. How many can you identify? Click on the picture to find out who is who in the world of multi-billionaires.
