BOSTON (CBS) – Six former eBay executives and employees are facing federal charges after they allegedly led a cyberstalking campaign against a Natick couple they believed was critical of the company in an online ecommerce newsletter.
U.S. Attorney Andrew Lelling said the eBay employees’ harassment included sending the couple “disturbing deliveries” that included a bloody pig mask, a box of live cockroaches, and a funeral wreath. The employees also allegedly sent anonymous threatening messages and traveled to Massachusetts to conduct “covert surveillance” of the victims.
“It was a determined, systematic effort of senior employees of a major company to destroy the lives of a couple in Natick, all because they published content company executives didn’t like,” said Lelling.
The HIDE concept by Anna Borla is fitted with huge reflective glass panels to mirror the surrounding area.
Courtesy Anna Borla
"HIDE wants to blend in with the environment around her," says Borla, explaining the aim is to "give importance" to the scenery the superyacht moves through, rather than the vessel itself.
FILE - In this March 6, 2018, file photo, “Mad” Mike Hughes reacts after the decision to scrub another launch attempt of his rocket near Amboy, Calif. The self-styled daredevil died Saturday, Feb. 22, 2020, after a rocket in which ... more >
BARSTOW, Calif. — A self-styled daredevil died Saturday after a rocket in which he launched himself crashed into the ground, a colleague and a witness said.
“Mad” Mike Hughes died after the homemade rocket crashed on private property near Barstow about 1:52 p.m. near Highway 247, the Daily Press of Victorville reported.
Waldo Stakes, a colleague who was at the rocket launch, said Hughes, 64, was killed.“It was unsuccessful, and he passed away,” Stakes told The Associated Press. He declined further comment.
Justin Chapman, a freelance journalist, told the AP that he and his wife witnessed the crash.LEADS IN NEVADA ENTRANCE
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The rocket appeared to rub against the launch apparatus, which might have torn the parachutes attached to it, Chapman said.
The rocket came straight down into the ground, Chapman said.
According to a San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department statement, deputies were called to the event.
“A man was pronounced deceased after the rocket crashed in the open desert during a rocket launch event,” the statement said. The sheriff’s department did not identify the person who died.
In March 2018, Hughes, who believed the Earth is flat, propelled himself about 1,875 feet into the air before a hard landing in the Mojave Desert.
“My story really is incredible,” Hughes told the AP at the time. “It’s got a bunch of story lines - the garage-built thing. I’m an older guy. It’s out in the middle of nowhere, plus the Flat Earth. The problem is it brings out all the nuts also, people questioning everything. It’s the downside of all this.”
Is it a way to show disbelief, a way to ask others to be quiet, or a cute gesture popularised by a K-Pop star?
It's called "pinched fingers" and depending on where you are in the world, a new emoji announced by the Unicode Consortium, which approves standard emojis worldwide, could have a completely different meaning.
Its official purpose, according to the emoji's creators, is to represent the way an Italian might ask "what do you want?".
But that has not stopped its differing interpretations worldwide since the icon was debuted in January 2020.
In a 14-page proposal for the emoji, creators of the "pinched fingers" icon suggested that the gesture would be representative of Italian culture because "everybody knows Italians speak with their hands" - but may have other meanings elsewhere.
"We expect this emoji to be widely used not only in Italy and other Mediterranean countries," it says, "but also, more broadly, worldwide because of the increasing popularity of Italian culture and way of life.
"You will find people using this particular configuration of the fingers in most cultures, it is simply a universal form of signing."
In Israel, you generally use this gesture when you're annoyed or angry with someone - it means "hold your horses," "just a minute", "be patient" or even "wtf?" Apparently, not everyone uses it this way. I'm guessing this new emoji is going to be confusing. https://twitter.com/emanuelmaiberg/status/1222639094397833219 …
In Nigeria, it was suggested the gesture could be the emoji version of "gbas gbos" - a back-and-forth argument - and in India it can be a way of asking if somebody is hungry.
In the Arab world it could be a gesture a mother would use toward her child.
This emoji represents several things in the Arab world, including two extremes: شوية شوية (slowly, wait, calm down, patience etc) or رح تشوف (you will see what will happen to you, as in a threat)... https://twitter.com/Emojipedia/status/1222635333491286019 …
There are of course various comedy interpretations which have emerged, such as one person's claim it represents eating without utensils, or another's suggestion that with a simple flip it could mean "a pinch of salt".
There are also a legion of people who will see the emoji and instantly think of K-Pop star Yuri, who is known for making a gesture with her hand in the shape of a dumpling.
It is often associated with the phrase "I mandu you" - with mandu being the Korean word for dumpling - because fans joke about the pose being her way of saying "I love you" to them.
To have an emoji created, a person must make a detailed application for it to be included in Unicode, the system which makes text and emoji function on electronic devices.
This is how the same emoji can appear across different devices, regardless of whether it is an Apple or Google product.
Keep these in mind as you contemplate the direction of the American government over the past 50 years and especially since the Obama election.
The Goals of Communism
(as read into the congressional record January 10, 1963, from "The Naked Communist" by Cleon Skousen)
1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.
2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.
3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.
4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.
5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.
6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.
7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.
8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.
9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.
10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.
11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)
12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.
13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.
14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.
15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.
16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.
17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.
18. Gain control of all student newspapers.
19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.
20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.
21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.
22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."
23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."
24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.
25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.
26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."
27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."
28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."
29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.
30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."
31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.
32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.
33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.
34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.
35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.
36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.
37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.
38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.
39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.
40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.
41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.
42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.
43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.
44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.
45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.
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