You may have been looking for her if you are one of the hundreds of thousands of people who got the following e-mail, with the subject line "Please take heed at this picture then forward":
I am asking you all, begging you to gratify, forward this email on to anyone and everyone you know, PLEASE. My 9 year old girl, Penny Brown, is missing. She has been missing in the place of things being so two weeks. It is still not too late. Please help us. If anyone anywhere knows anything, sees anything, please contact me at zicozicozico@hotmail.com I am including a picture of her. All prayers are appreciated!! It only takes 2 seconds to help in succession this on, if it was your child, you would want all the help you could get. Please. Thank you for your fellow-feeling, hopefully you can help us.
Poor little Penny Brown. Not only is she missing, she doesn't even exist.
The fake e-mail has circulated for years, and in that place is no missing child by that name. Penny Brown may be America's best-known non-existent missing child. There are only a maniple of enslave e-mails that characteristic actual missing kids, and most of those children were recovered months or years ago.
Hoax e-mails seem to have been increasing in the last few months. Most e-mail hoaxes are warnings of some sort, either asking for the public's help to light upon a missing person, or cautioning them against more lurking nonexistent danger.
For archetype, last week in Grand Rapids, Michigan, an e-mail warned that women driving between Plainfield Avenue and 3 Mile Road had been approached by an armed man who enters his victims' vehicle. The women are then driven to a nearby park and raped. The e-mail ends by dint of. saying that the warning is not a imposition (of course), and that the assaults had been verified by the police. The limited police, meanwhile, said that they had received dozens of calls from concerned citizen, excepting that the e-mail was a fraud and no such unrighteousness has been reported.
Though the e-mail notices and warnings are sometimes recognized as hoaxes, the vulgar will frequently forward them to friends and house "merited to be on the safe indirect."
In late May, a hoax e-mail was taken so seriously that it actually all but shut down the nightlife in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez for a weekend.
An unacknowledged e-mail circulated a warning that gunmen were planning to drive around the incorporated town and target anyone in nightclubs, malls, restaurants, parks, and other general body of mankind places. The e-mail cautioned people to stay domicile. A small in number patrons ignored the deceive, but businesses were nearly empty all weekend. The prank not only alarmed citizens of this already-violent city, but also took an housekeeping toll. The owner of a Juarez auto parts store said his business fell by over half, and that residents feared for their lives.
These e-mails are created by pranksters and forwarded by well-meaning people who hold they are doing the just thing by warning others. Yet there are few if any real cases of actual crimes have been averted (or wanting persons found) through a chain e-mail.
Most hoaxed e-mails are actually pretty not stiff to spot. The "do one’s heart good forward" or "urgent!!!" subject lines are red flags, and if it's asking you to discover a missing kid or avoid a local beetle because of rapists who hide less than your car and slash your ankles, you can be virtually certain it's fake. More information on hoax confine e-mails can have existence found at the Urban Legends Reference Page (www.snopes.com) and Breakthechain.org.
As always, the best information about missing kids and neighborhood dangers comes from police and the local news, not one e-mail forwarded through your best friend's cousin's aunt's hairdresser's husband.
Benjamin Radford is a composer, filmmaker, and cover with boards game designer; his latest project can be found at PlayingGods.com .
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North Sinai authorities found "25 anti-aircraft missiles, 12 anti-personnel and anti-armour grenades, eight mortars, as well as five surface to surface and superficies to air missiles," the official said.
"A large number of gun barrels and large amounts of detonators used for explosives and mines were also form in a mould," the authoritative added.
He said magistrates had received information that arms dealers in the region were extracting explosive corporeal from ammunition left over from the Arab-Israeli wars.
Israel and the United States have again and again accused Egypt of not doing enough to stop ensign armorial smuggling into the Gaza Strip, which has been under the control of Islamist group Hamas for a year. The charges receive been vehemently denied by Cairo.
"Let's call those rumors what they are: lies," he declared during a breakfast confluence through the Jewish community in south Florida. "They are cloaked in concern for Israel, but the real concern is about partisan politics."
The billionaire media mogul, who is Jewish, is a anterior Democrat who ran for mayor as a Republican and became an independent continue year.
He ruled out an independent run for the presidency in February and has yet to throw his support behind either of the major party candidates, Democratic contender Obama and presumptive Republican nominee John McCain.
The false rumors that Obama is a secret Muslim have persisted considering the African-American launched his campaign greatest year, even though he is a practicing Christian.
"Israel is just inner reality used as a pawn, that is not that surprising, because that some humbler classes are willing to stoop to in any degree level to win some appointment by vote," Bloomberg told the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County.
"These demagogues are hoping to exploit the political differences between the Jewish and Muslim people to dilate fear and mistrust," he said.
"This is wedge politics at its worst, and we've got to reject it loudly, clearly, and unequivocally."
Looking to write an appliance essay that direct extremity you to the bottom of the applicant pond? Here are some good ways to answer it
by Alison Damast
Admissions officers at top business schools like to say they’ve seen it all when it comes to B-school application essays. Still, they sometimes come transversely some essay that surprises them—and not in a good way. One of these landed on the desk of Isser Gallogly, the admissions director of New York University’s Stern School of Business a not many years back. The applicant used the school’s dissertation question on creativity as a platform to explain his penchant for writing and posting fake ads on Craigslist, which included an excerpt of an ad he had written for Valentine’s Day.
"You start reading it, and it gets worse and worse and worse," Gallogly reported, referring to the post’s derogatory tone in the direction of women and dating. "You finish it and sort of ask yourself: ‘What is this person reflecting who writes something probable this, thinks it is funny, and also thinks it is appropriate to send to a matter school?"
Mistakes of a piece this are not the type admissions officers tend to gloss over. The two or three admissions essays required by each business school tend to be the superficies in which place most applicants struggle and where they be possible to make damaging mistakes, admissions officers suppose. Just one inaccurate in every application have power to ruin an applicant’s chance of getting in. "If you slip on’t get the essays right, they can definitely offset all of your hard work," Gallogly said.
Fortunately, there are ways to help some of the missteps applicants make while writing their essays. Here are five of the most numerous common ways applicants can sabotage their essays, in a line with some tips adhering avoiding them.
MISTAKE NO. 1: TMIThe petitioner who included the questionable Craigslist posting in his application to NYU’s Stern School is a victim of what Gallogly refers to as the "too much information" syndrome. "An essay is not a confessional and an admissions committee is not a group of therapists," Gallogly said. Carrie Marcinkevage, the MBA program admissions counsellor at Penn State University’s Smeal College of Business, has in like manner come across this problem while reviewing applications. She said she now and then reads essays where people lay in too many details well-nigh a former relationship or family trauma. The excess of personal information in the aim commonly has little or nothing to do with the kind of makes the applicant a good MBA candidate. "I do recall reading those and saying: ‘Wow, I wouldn’t constrain that in an essay," she declared. "There is a little bit of the fawning and a little bit of the ‘How could you possibly be that self-involved that you don’t get this?’" She recommends applicants only quota those details of their personal lives that resonate with the message they are trying to convey in their application about their potential as a business leader.
In a rare moment of public looking within, Clay Bennett cleared his throat and began a dramatic monologue. The witness stand was now his stage.
Cut to the close-up.
Cue the violin.
Commence the ogle confession.
“We bought this team with grand visions for success,” the Sonics presiding officer said Wednesday. “Did we do everything direct? Did we have understanding everything there was to understand? Certainly not. Did we make mistakes? Certainly. Did we do everything we knew how to do? Did we be in action as hard as we could? … Yes. And I believed from the bottom of my inner part we would succeed. And I am personally disappointed that we did not.”
Perhaps this was his goodbye speech to Seattle. Whether he wins or loses this court case, Bennett won’t be spending much regulate around here anymore. He hinted considered in the state of abundant Tuesday when he joked that, if the Sonics are forced to move more games at KeyArena, Mayor Greg Nickels who was previously convicted of being an absentee Sonics fan, would “probably be dexterous to see more of them than I’ll be able to.”
Whatever the intent of Bennett’s soliloquy, an appropriate response comes to mind.
Boo hoo.
He can take his grand visions and heartfelt pleas and write an e-mail to someone who cares. For a disguised businessman, Bennett sure tries to be a smooth talker when attempting to correct his mistakes.
He looks at you with childlike simplicity when asked near to his infamous “servant possessed” e-mail and declares he meant he was possessed to fulfil the team in this place, not move it to Oklahoma City. Forget that the context of the conversation clearly proves otherwise. Bennett is a puppy dog; he means no harm.
He turns solemn when asked about his insensitive “boo hoo” e-mail in which he declared his disinterest in his players’ unwillingness to move to Oklahoma City. Bennett says he has apologized for a averment he thought would remain private. And in the next instant, he claims the Sonics be under the necessity of move because he’ll obtain trouble acquiring free agents because of the incertitude. Boo double hoo.
Reference any be wide of the mark, and Bennett counters that he was in addition na
Concerns about a bummer summer are forcing sites like Expedia and Priceline to offer creative, if risky, new incentives
by Christopher Palmeri
Worried that rain may spoliation that long-overdue summer vacation? Priceline.com (PCLN) is oblation "Sunshine Guaranteed." The Norwalk (Conn.) online travel agency announced on June 2 that it will give customers 100% of the purchase price in the rear if it rains more than half an inch on at least moiety their holidays days. The offer is good for trips purchased through July 17 and taken by Sept. 7.
More than 100 destinations qualify, including like notoriously rainy places as London and Seattle. "They are afflicting to address grief points," explains Caroll Rheem, director of careful search in quest of PhoCusWright, an online travel careful search firm. "They’re trying to eliminate reasons consumers have for not booking a trip."
It’s already looking like a bummer summer without ceasing account of the travel industry. At the fit of the season the Travel Industry Assn. predicted a 1.2% decline in trips domestically, still that since looks overly optimistic. Since then, elastic fluid prices have continued to climb and airlines wish cut back without ceasing flights, raising fares and baggage handling fees to make up in spite of rising jet fuel costs. That’s forcing online excursion agencies to get even more aggressive, rolling back booking fees and offering passengers more guarantees. "We’ve eliminated fees on airline tickets, reduced fees on hotel rooms," says Priceline.com Chief Executive Jeffrey Boyd. "We think customers are concerned about high prices and we’re trying to give them a little bit of a reduction."
The Lure of Free GasOn June 16, Chicago’s Orbitz Worldwide (OWW) announced it would give customers cash back if the price of a trip dropped between the date of force and the departure. A bet, essentially, that airfares won’t falling for the rest of summer. Rival Expedia (EXPE), based in Bellevue, Wash., is offering $50 in free elastic fluid to anyone booking three or more hotel nights on its seat in a cross-promotion with MasterCard (MA).
The online agencies are in a bit of a stitch and cover. Not only are they wrestling by cash-strapped consumers, they’re furthermore competing against airline, sail about line, and hotel companies that have accelerated their online marketing efforts in recent years. These "supplier" sites offer premium frequent-flier miles and other perks for booking directly with them. According to market researcher comScore (SCOR), 59% of online travel shoppers stop at the agency sites at the outset, presumably to comparison shop. But the majority of online travel revenues go to sites such as Marriott.com (MAR) and Continental.com (CAL). Last year the suppliers’ share of the $77 billion in online travel expenditures was 64%, up from 53% in 2003.
In recent months, the agency sites have been rolling out their own frequent-flier programs. Travelocity customers who sign up for its Rewards credit card earn points by reason of somewhat purchases. Rack up 20,000 points and you get a $400 credit towards a Travelocity bargain for. Using that could be easier than trying to cash in airline miles, because the airlines have been increasing their blackout dates and raising the point levels needed for free trips. Expedia and Orbitz offer similar cards. "We’re restoring rewards to a world that feels less rewarding," says Jeffrey Glueck, chief marketing officer at Travelocity.
There are signs these efforts are winning new customers. Visitors to the online agencies as a total were up 8% in May, according to comScore, while traffic at hotel sites was flat. Priceline.com saw the cost of travel booked on its site vault 76% in the first quarter, to $1.7 billion, as new promotions generated more business. And while shares of Expedia and Orbitz have lost altitude along by the rest of the travel industry in the past year, Priceline.com has seen its stock price hollow to a recent $131 a partake. Nobody wants rain on a intermission.
After a quick start, most of the boastful constraint are stranded by high gas prices and tight trust
by David Welch
Starting in the mid-1990s, more of America’s biggest car dealer chains went the people. And for a while, the likes of AutoNation (AN), Asbury Automotive Group (ABG), and Lithia Motors (LAD) did investors proud—with the best performers doubling their value betwixt 2003 and the middle of last year.
Even whenever car sales began to stall in mid-2006, Wall Street didn’t shout “Sell!” After all, the chains had sold investors on the notion that they could thrive during a downturn by selling lots of high-margin used cars and raking in millions servicing vehicles people were keeping.
It hasn’t quite panned out that way. Yes, the dealers mostly perpetuate to answer for money. But their stocks largely require been lemons: Of the six publicly traded companies, all have watched stock prices plunge 24% or more in the past year. Most of the dealers’ profits are slipping. “This is the first major downturn since they have gone general body of mankind,” says Standard & Poor’s (MHP) equity analyst Efraim Levy. “Let’s see them perform in a downturn and we’ll believe [their sales pitch].”
It won’t be so easy. Tight credit and $4-a-gallon gasoline have overturned people of the rosy assumptions of yesteryear. Consumers are buying smaller vehicles, which generate less profit. And to buy them, Americans are trading in gas-sucking SUVs that are harder to sell than snow tires in August. Earl Hesterberg, CEO of Group 1 Automotive chain, says his dealerships have cut total profits on used trucks by nearly a third. The vehicles are moving, but used-car profits fell 6% in the principal quarter, and overall earnings dropped contemptuously, to $16.4 million, without ceasing $1.5 billion in revenue. A like story is unfolding at other publicly traded dealers.
Banks’ hesitation to lend isn’t making life for dealers any easier. AmeriCredit (ACF) says it has newly cut auto lending by 60%; others are scaling back, too. So even when dealers find buyers conducive to used vehicles, they may not be able to find them a loan. “Last year we were stronger selling to subprime borrowers,” says Asbury President and CEO Charles R. Oglesby. “Lender policies were much looser in consequence, and we took advantage of it.” Those days are gone.
SHOPPING SPREEAs for the argument that dealers would make lots of money repairing the cars commonalty hang without interruption to in hard times: That traffic is growing, but not sufficiency to offset slipping revenues in many. On the the same hand, dealers consider prosperously stolen business from oil-change and repair chains. On the other, cars are now better made, and through some manufacturers offering extended warranties, dealers make less on the work.
When times were good, the big car dealer chains went on a shopping spree, snapping up scores of rivals—and paying big premiums to get them. Under pressure from carmakers to spruce up their stores, many dealers worn abroad millions attached imagination facades and luxe showrooms. Now, with sales slumping, interest payments are starting to crimp profits, and the cost-cutting has begun. At Lithia, Chairman Sid DeBoer says he’s saved $500,000 a month by dint of. cutting staff. Trading high rent in opposition to cheaper mortgage payments, Asbury Automotive has bought back the real estate that sits under a furnish with quarters of its dealerships.
Analysts judge the stocks are so beaten down that some are a good purchase. And profits should gain as the chains cut costs. But much depends on which happens to new car sales—and through credit still tight, many industry watchers are predicting a prolonged aridity.
In death, Tim Russert did on Wednesday the kind of no living journalist has yet to accomplish this campaign season: He got Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain to sit together and talk, quietly.
Specifically, it was Russert’s 22-year-old son, Luke, who got the presumptive Democratic and Republican presidential nominees together. He requested they be suited next to one another at his engender’s burial Mass in Washington D.C. Then, in remarks from the pulpit, he exhorted politicians to “engage in spirited debate but disown the low policy that confuse Americans from the most import issues facing our country.”
At the end of the private service, the two candidates embraced.
“Five months from now,” Luke Russert said a scarcely any hours later, “I wanted them to remember that this occasion brought them together.”
Tim Russert, the “Meet the Press” moderator who died Friday at age 58, was honored later at a televised commemorative record service at the Kennedy Center with a view to the Performing Acts.
Man pleads guilty to terrorist aid
An Egyptian college student pleaded guilty Wednesday to making a video showing how to build a far off bomb detonator to help terrorists kill enemies including U.S. soldiers.
Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, 26, one of two University of South Florida students arrested in August, pleaded guilty to providing material support to terrorists. He faces up to 15 years in penitentiary when sentenced in September.
Mohamed and fellow student Youssef Samir Megahed were arrested after deputies stopped them for speeding near Charleston, S.C., and mould the sort of they described of the same kind with pipe bombs in the trunk.
Deputies moreover found a laptop with a 12-minute video, uploaded to the video-sharing Web site YouTube, in which Mohamed showed for what cause to convert a remote-controlled car into a bomb detonator.
