Mermaid Fever Makes A Splash In Israel
11:53am UK, Tuesday August 11, 2009

Dominic Waghorn, Middle East correspondent


Israel is in the grips of mermaid fever after numerous sightings of the mythical sea creature off its coast.

One town council is taking the reports so seriously it is offering a $1m (£609,000) reward to anyone who can prove the existence of a mermaid in its waters.

Kiryat Yam municipality, near Haifa, says it has been told of dozens of sightings in the past few months.

"Many people are telling us they are sure they've seen a mermaid and they are all independent of each other," council spokesman Natti Zilberman told Sky News.

The nautical nymph is only seen in the evening at sunset, according to media reports, drawing crowds of people with cameras hoping for a glimpse.

"People say it is half girl, half fish, jumping like a dolphin. It does all kinds of tricks then disappears," Mr Zilberman said.

Asked whether a dolphin or large fish could be a more rational explanation, he insisted: "They say it is a female figure, it looks like a young girl."

The council denied its offer of a reward was a publicity stunt, but said it hoped to nurture the mermaid as something which could bring in more tourists.

Capturing a mermaid is not necessary, a verifiable photograph will do, Mr Zilberman said.

Asked if the council can afford the payout, he told Sky News: "I believe, if there really is a mermaid, then so many people and tourists will come to Kiryat Yam, a lot more money will be made than a $1m.

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Thomas, thanks for the info, but, IBM wanted way to much information before letting me dl Lotus Symphony. I put open office on my system again and played around with it. Finally got it to do what I wanted. Hopefully now I can find a good email client, so I can scrap Outlook; but, I need the calendar. Thunderbird and endora don't have a calendar. WLM does, but I can't figure out how to get the holidays on it.

She is/was infected with a rogue anti-virus. The way that rogue anti-virus's are programed there wouldn't be a conflict, though her anti-virus wouldn't pick it up as her anti-virus would more than likely be disabled. Her problem is that she ran system restore and now can't see her icons, virus shouldn't be a problem now since she is back at an earlier configuration on her PC.

Now the problem is if the restore corrupted her windows install, which is why explorer.exe and the task manager comes into play...that doesn't work, she has to reinstall windows.

Woman duped by middle-age man who acted like a child

BY REBECCA BASU • FLORIDA TODAY • August 9, 2009


Janet Schulte believed the man when he told her by phone that his 40-something, disabled brother needed a caregiver who could bottle-feed him and change his diapers.
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What the Melbourne woman can't believe is that he committed no crime, now that she said she has found out the situation was a charade: that the man and his brother were same person.

And that he didn't have the disabilities he claimed to have.

"I feel violated," Schulte said, sharing her story because she said the man has deceived other women and will try again. "I feel disgusted."

Investigators and prosecutors have refused to pursue charges, saying Schulte was paid and agreed to provide the care.

FLORIDA TODAY is not identifying him because he is not being charged.

"I consented to change his diapers, but I legitimately thought this man needed help," she said. "How can that not be a crime for him to come into my house and expose himself?"

Sgt. David Marich, head of general crimes for the North Precinct of the Brevard County Sheriff's Office, brought Schulte's case to the State Attorney's Office.

When prosecutors said there wasn't enough evidence, Marich said his office did more research to try to find some statute that was violated.

"It's a weird case," Sheriff's Lt. Tod Goodyear said. "It's really on a borderline of possibly being a fraud. He is perpetrating something there because he's doing it under a false pretense."

FLORIDA TODAY tried several times to reach the man at his Port St. John home and on a cell phone. He did not answer the door or the phone.
How it started

The deception began, Schulte said, when she placed an ad online on Craigslist.org offering child care services.

She said a man called and asked Schulte if she knew any special-needs caregivers.

And, she said, his story went on.

The man told Schulte that a car accident left his brother with physical disabilities, including weak arms, poor bladder control and the mental capacity of a 5-year-old.

He told her how an aunt and current caregiver had no patience. He offered Schulte $600 a week to look after his brother.

The man insisted that his brother could come to Schulte's house by himself because the aunt lived nearby and he knew the neighborhood.
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Schulte said "the brother" spent his days at her house watching cartoons and playing video games.

"I took care of him just like I would my kids," she said. "I rubbed his head when he was falling asleep. I waited on him hand and foot."

In the three months Schulte provided care, she said the man never slipped out of character.

"The guy played such a good role," whether pretending to be the brother or the man who hired her.
'Brother' not seen

Schulte said the man who hired her always had an explanation for any red flags. She tried to meet him in person, but their plans always fell through. But that seemed normal, given their competing schedules.

Schulte and her husband, Dominic Randall, talked to him often by phone.

Then Schulte said her husband noticed subtle changes in "the brother's" behavior, and payment to his wife was erratic.

Schulte said Randall followed him one day when he left their home: Instead of walking to his aunt's house, he got into a parked car two blocks away and drove off.

Her husband followed the man to his home and confronted him, she said, and sheriff's deputies came.

According to a sheriff's report, the man admitted to the deception and blamed post-traumatic stress disorder, without further explanation.

Schulte said his behavior was never sexual in nature. She briefly posted a warning on Craigslist, and she said five women wrote to her, saying they had nearly been taken in by the scam.

Some suggested that it might be an "adult baby" or "diaper-lover" fetish. Often, people with such fetishes want to be treated as babies and talk in barely audible voices, as the man did.
Advice on fraud

Ross Wolf, a criminal justice professor at the University of Central Florida, said the man obtained services fraudulently, but he paid for them.

"It's the opposite of what fraud statutes are set up to criminalize," he said. The laws seek to prosecute people who get money, goods or services with deception and don't reciprocate fairly.

"There is not a law for everything that we might consider improper or criminal in nature," Wolf said. "I think it's unfortunate that things like this happen to people where we don't have legislation, but we do have an imperfect system of justice, and it's constantly under revision."

Schulte can go the civil suit route, Wolf said, especially because she didn't get her full pay. And Melbourne police have reopened the case, investigating whether the man used another person's credit card illegally when he paid Schulte.

But neither would likely get Schulte what she wants: a conviction and jail time for the man she says took advantage of her in a humiliating way.

"This is not going to stop unless somebody really does something about this," she said.

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I didn't know I was the string holding it all together!!! j/k

But....I'm determined to keep this one alive too, Smartypants!!! And with that attitude, I'll meet YOU in the corner with a hickory switch!!!!

For Thomas :

Hey (((Everybody))) Miss you all!!!!