- These stories don’t only
happen on epsidoes of “CSI,” “The Mentalist” or “Scooby Doo.” There are real
people who die with millions of dollars worth of gold in their home. Just ask
the family of Walter Samaszko Jr., who lived in Carson City,
Calif. for most of his life. Samaszko was a recluse who rarely spoke to those
around him, including the Baxter family, which lived across the street from him
for more than 50 years. Samaszko died in June and at the time, he had a mere
$200 in his bank account. Because he kept to himself and didn’t seem to be
running a secret dug cartel from his basement, no one suspected he was
independtly wealthy with the sort of golden treasure trove that would make
Yukon Cornelius salivate. When the Baxters helped clear out the house, Sondra
Baxter inadvertently stumbled across one of the largest gold discovers ever
found in the Carson City area. “I can’t tell you how excited we were the day we
found it,” she said. “They were gorgeous. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen
uncirculated $20 gold coins.” In all, there was $7 million in gold coins that
Baxter found while helping her friend, a real estate agent cleaning the home
before putting it on the market. “He had stacks of these metal boxes,” Baxter
said. “We were all just absolutely dumbfounded.” Even more amazing, the coins
were from all over the world and some were minted as early as the 1840s in such
countries as Mexico, England, Austria and South Africa. Carson City Clerk Alan
Glover said the discovery was the largest he has seen. Glover is working to
notify Samaszko’s closest living relative, a first cousin living in San Rafael,
who is the rightful owner of the gold. “He kept a large amount of records,”
Glover said. “He definitely knew what he was doing in collecting gold. It was
amazing.” No one knows how Samaszko acquired the gold, but his other
possessions seem to indicate that he was something of a hoarder: dozens of cans
of tuna fish, box after box of laundry detergent, and nearly $12,000 in cash,
all in $1 bills. Sadly, no crimes were committed (yet) in an attempt to steal
the gold………
- The world is full of rage,
so full in fact that it’s virtually impossible to keep tabs on all of the angry
uprisings, revolts, riots and strikes taking place around the globe every day.
Thursday was more of the same as angry opposition workers in
India staged a daylong strike to protest rising diesel prices and the
government's decision to open the country's huge retail market to foreign
companies. While the strike itself might seem like enough to adversely affect
the day for tens of thousands of Indians, the strikers upped the ante by
carrying party flags and blocking off railroad tracks Thursday in several
cities and towns, including Allahabad, Varanasi and Patna. The protestors are
demanding that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh reverse the fuel hike and the
decision on foreign retailers because the idea of the country where tens of
thousands of tech support jobs are sent in the never-ending quest to infuriate
troubled consumers WHO JUST WANT SOME DAMN HELP FROM SOMEONE WHO FREAKING
SPEAKS ENGLISH having competition from the outside business world is simply
unpalatable. India’s main opposition group, the Bharatiya Janata Party, has
teamed up with allies and communist groups to carry out the strike and even
some of the government’s own allies also are involved. Schools, businesses and
public transportation were all shut down or affected by the strike. All of this
stems from the government’s announcement last week that it will allow foreign
investment in retail and aviation and the sale of minority stakes in four
state-run companies………
- No one should have bought
into a website claiming that Kanye
West was set to title his new studio album “Black American Psycho” and that
the album was to be release Oct. 23. The site, Blackamericanpsycho.com, has been revealed as a hoax, but the
unidentified operator of the site claimed it had been registered by West's
label Def Jam Records for West’s next studio album. While there were few clues
about the site’s veracity, one particular hint should have tipped everyone off
to the fact that it was a fraud. Namely, the fact that the alleged album title
was no nearly arrogant or braggadocious enough for the über-arrogant West
should have been the clincher. By this point in his career, this blowhard is so
arrogant and self-absorbed that anything short of “I Am the Black Jesus” would
be suspicious. For whatever reason, possibly in the interest of not being sued
for everything he or she owns, the site’s operated has finally admitted that
the whole episode was a hoax and has posted the following message: "This
website is in no way affiliated with Def Jam Records or Kanye West. The Black
American Psycho title and the 10.23.2012 release date are fictitious. I created
the website a while ago as part of a school project. I apologize for misleading
people, I did not expect the site to generate so much traffic and be taken
seriously.” West has been extremely cryptic about the actual new album,
although he did recently post a video interview talking about a separate
compilation album titled “Cruel Summer.” The project features all the acts
signed to West's GOOD Music label including Mr. Hudson, 2 Chainz, Kid Cudi and
Pusha T, with guest spots from R. Kelly, Jay-Z and John Legend. "We wanna
create music you listen to on the way to work so you can deal with your boss.
We wanna make music so if you are the boss you can listen to it and deal with
your employees,” West said of the album. Well said, Black American Psycho……….
- All iswell in the Bronx –
well, almost all. The New York Yankees seem to have averted a colossal
late-season meltdown and while they are still locked in a pitched battle with
the Baltimore Orioles for the American League East crown, the odds are high
that whichever team does not win the division will make the playoffs as a wild
card. The Yankees took a huge step in the right direction Wednesday by sweeping
a doubleheader with the Toronto Blue Jays and in that game, future Hall of
Famer Derek
Jeter recorded yet another milestone in one of the best careers in Yankees
history. The veteran shortstop led off the bottom of the first inning of
Wednesday night's game with a single, giving him 200 hits for the season. It is
Jeter's eighth career 200-hit season, which ties Lou Gehrig for the most by a
Yankee. The accomplishment is a remarkable one for the 38-year-old shortstop,
who returned to his position for the first time in a week in Wednesday's night
game, the second of the doubleheader against the Blue Jays. Of late, a nagging ankle
injury has relegated him to being the team's primary designated hitter. He did
not play in New York's 4-2 victory in the day portion of the doubleheader, but
his hit Wednesday night gave him 3,288 hits for his career. He recently passed
Willie Mays to move into 10th place on the all-time hits list and could run
down Eddie Collins for ninth place by the end of the season. Collins has 3,313
hits and passing him would add another notch to Jeter’s ever-expanding belt of
career accomplishments. It’s not as if he’s hanging on past the time when he
should have retired, not unless hitting .322 on the season and receiving some
minor MVP buzz around the mid-point of the season are indications that a player
is too old to keep going………
- Break out the aerosols,
fire up those carbon dioxide-emitting vehicles and pollute like never before,
world, because it’s time to celebrate. The annual melting
of Arctic sea ice has finally ended for the year and according to the National
Snow and Ice Data Center, this was one hell of a year. The drastic melt rate
for 2012 absolutely obliterated the previous record and has already sparked off
new warnings about the rapid pace of change in the region. Sunday was the
biggest day of the year for melting the ol’ Arctic ice, as the low point for
the year happened on that day when sea ice covered about 1.32 million square
miles, or 24 percent, of the surface of the Arctic Ocean. That was a beastly 5
percent lower than the previous record, which would mean more had the NSIDC had
satellite tracking to monitor the melt rate before the late 1970s. Back then, sea
ice at its lowest point in the summer typically covered about half the Arctic
Ocean, but it has been declining in erratic increments over the decades. “The
Arctic is the earth’s air-conditioner,” said Walt Meier, a research scientist
at the snow and ice center. “We’re losing that. It’s not just that polar bears
might go extinct, or that native communities might have to adapt, which we’re
already seeing — there are larger climate effects.” Way to go all alarmist on
the world, Walt. The agency did wait a few days before announcing the low to be
sure sea ice had started to refreeze, as it usually does at this time of year,
but the news finally leaked Wednesday. Winter is quickly descending upon the high
Arctic and for the next few months, a shell of ice will cover much of the
Arctic Ocean. That thin later will melt quickly when summer returns. As
everyone knows, the human release of greenhouse gases is to blame and it’s only
a matter of time before the collapse of Arctic sea ice wrecks global climate patterns.
On the upside, many scientists believe the Arctic Ocean could be largely free
of summer ice as soon as 2020. In other words, surf’s up in the Arctic in about
eight years, y’all. Because of the higher melt rate and other factors, the
global sea is now rising at a rate of about a foot per century, so clearly
there is nothing to worry about for a long, long time. Now pass the snorkel and
floaties………
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