YouTube Star Who Gave Man Toothpaste-Filled Oreos Sentenced To Prison (cnet.com) 259
CNET reports on the prison sentence given to "the YouTuber who reportedly filmed himself tricking a homeless man into eating Oreos filled with toothpaste."
Barcelona prankster Kanghua Ren, 21, known to his followers as ReSet, was sentenced on Friday to 15 months in prison for his crime against the "moral integrity" of the homeless man, according to El Pais newspaper. The court also reportedly ordered Ren's YouTube and other social media channels to be shut down for five years and said he must give the victim 20,000 euros ($22,305) in compensation....
Ren was 19 when he filmed the prank in early 2017 after being challenged by one of his 1.2 million followers, according to the Times. He also gave the homeless man a 20 euro bill. Ren called the video just a bad joke, but the judge noted that he earned more than 2,000 euros in ad revenue generated from the video, the Times said.
It's unlikely Ren will actually serve time behind bars, The New York Times reports, because Spanish law usually suspends sentences under two years for first-time offenders.
Ren was 19 when he filmed the prank in early 2017 after being challenged by one of his 1.2 million followers, according to the Times. He also gave the homeless man a 20 euro bill. Ren called the video just a bad joke, but the judge noted that he earned more than 2,000 euros in ad revenue generated from the video, the Times said.
It's unlikely Ren will actually serve time behind bars, The New York Times reports, because Spanish law usually suspends sentences under two years for first-time offenders.
can the court with held his income to force him to (Score:3)
can the court with held his income to force him to pay the victim
Re: can the court with held his income to force hi (Score:2, Funny)
No but they might be able to withhold it.
'Prank' was in 2017... (Score:2, Interesting)
So it sounds like he's early plenty in the intervening years while this was going through the court system to pay for it. I assume that 20k number was calculated either based on his earned income until conviction, or as a financial penalty equivalent to his 13 months in jail.
I really do hope he gets to visit prison over this though, fucking with other people's health for the lulz should NEVER be tolerated in any civilized society. (Of course this is the home of the Spanish Inquisition, so...)
educate yourself (Score:5, Informative)
Seriously? How the FUCK do you think his health was compromised by this prank?
It says do not swallow right on the package. You're not supposed to eat toothpaste because it's toxic. Go check out videos of cows that were accidentally fed sodium lauryl sulfate instead of their usual vitamin supplements because the bulk packaging looks the same (sodium lauryl sulfate is used in hoof treatment and apparently toothpaste). Howling cattle with blood pouring out of their nose and eyes.
dog toothpaste (Score:5, Funny)
Should've used dog toothpaste, it's edible. One time my dog got on the counter and ate a whole tube, damn did his breath smell fresh.
Re:'Prank' was in 2017... (Score:5, Informative)
There are two issues here:
1) A false product was given someone to ingest - Gordon Ramsey got in trouble years ago for telling a man the food being offered was vegetarian. It wasn't. Ramsey gloated about getting a vegetarian to eat meat. The thing is, the eater wasn't vegetarian by choice. It was due to a medical condition. Even though toothpaste may be benign to 99% of the population. There's always a slim chance something could have gone wrong. Using the, "Well, no one got hurt so we'll let it pass" routine doesn't cut it anymore.
2) Mental anguish is just as bad as physical violence - The man is already having a tough time being homeless. The psychological aspect of being laughed at very much could have put him over the edge. If the homeless man pulled out a fake gun and threatened the prankster he would have gone to jail and then undergo psychological evaluation. Period. Suddenly it's no longer a prank-for-a-prank. Because society seems to think mental intimidation is less of a crime than the physical kind. Even though under the law it's not.
Years ago the Greek communities would have Loser Parties and Pig Parties. These were designed for their members to bring the ugliest/most inappropriate person they could find as their dates. These parties stopped because the victims (and yes, they were victims) started to legally fight back. The term 'under false pretenses' and 'purposeful infliction of emotional damage' was used a lot. With great success.
The judge's verdict was very much a warning to other Youtubers who are considering pulling similar stunts.
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And eating too much toothpaste can be toxic. And too much is not very much depending on the toothpase. I think the fluoride in many toothpastes is the problem.
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https://www.consumerreports.or... [consumerreports.org]
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The amount of fluoride in toothpaste is small; Based on an average fluoride toothpaste (0.76% Sodium Monofluorophosphate), a grown adult (75kg) would have to eat two-and-a-half 170 gram tubes to reach the >5 mg/KG considered toxic for fluorine ions, and would have severe stomach problems long before then.
So even if this guy managed to choke down an entire carton of toothpaste oreos before realizing something wasn't right, that's still not enough to be a toxic dose for the vast majority of people.
All that
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wrong, right on the tube says to call poison control if a pea size is swallowed.
5 mg/kg is the LD50 amount for sodium flouride. A small fraction of that amount could be fatal; it's highly unlikely, but the odds are high enough that it's still worth getting medical help.
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> 5 mg/kg is the LD50 amount for sodium flouride.
Dunno where you got that from. This article [nih.gov] says the threshold for "toxicity" is 5 mg.KG.
The LD50 for adults is 32 mg/KG. So now we're talking about eating a dozen full sized tubes of toothpaste. You would have to be extremely determined to hurt yourself to manage that.
=Smidge=
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Uh... no. No it does not.
It says to contact poison control if you swallow more than is used for brushing, and for Children 2 to 6 years old to only use a pea-sized blob "to minimize swallowing."
That's not even close to what you're saying.
And you know what poison control is going to ask? "How much did you swallow?" I'd wager that if it's less than 1/4 of a tube (which would be a literal mouthful) they'd tell you to just drink plenty of water.
=Smidge=
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Keep in mind this was in Spain, not the Southern U.S.
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"And eating too much toothpaste can be toxic"
Yup, because of the antiseptics in it. They can and will kill off your gut flora and some of the chemicals will play merry hell with the lining of your stomach.
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Then require HIM to eat Oreos stuffed with toothpaste, (force-feed him if necessary,) and a stack of cat-shit sandwiches
...and an eye-for-an-eye leaves everyone blind. I would not advocate for such an uncivilized, primitive, approach to justice.
However, pointing out that this would be his punishment under a primitive justice code can help people understand why large fines and prison time are justified. Maybe just try that next time instead of espousing that we return to primeval levels of civilization.
Other than that, good summary of the harm done to the victims.
Re:'Prank' was in 2017... (Score:4, Informative)
Years ago the Greek communities would have Loser Parties and Pig Parties. These were designed for their members to bring the ugliest/most inappropriate person they could find as their dates. These parties stopped because the victims (and yes, they were victims) started to legally fight back.
Just to clarify because the term "Greek communities" means a completely different thing to almost everybody else reading this. So, the poster is referring to the US fraternities/sororities, which are known as "Greek life", "Greek letter organizations" etc due to having Greek letters for names, otherwise completely unrelated to the country of Greece.
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Thank you for clarifying my answer! Upmost apologies to the nationality I didn't mean to slander.
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Ingesting too much flouride can be harmful. Take a few moments and look it up. Maybe you could Bing it.
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They shut down his channel so he has no income anymore.
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Running his channel was working. He now has no job, he's legally banned from following his chosen profession and he has a fine too.
Feels grossly excessive for embarrassing someone to me. I don't see entire fucking TV stations getting shut down for broadcasting Candid Camera.
Re: can the court with held his income to force hi (Score:2)
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No, I'm not. I'm also not stupid enough to think that videoing someone that's homeless is materially different to videoing someone that's not.
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Living on the street is a choice. Maybe a mental disorder or a principled stand against fucked up people who force themselves using violence or support of violent thugs like yourself via government on others. >
I cannot find anything to tell somebody who thinks a homeless person is living without a roof because he chooses to be one.
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I know, but he wont stop replying to me.
Actually (Score:5, Informative)
You can't just put videos you shoot of random people on YouTube. Since YouTube pays you for the videos, that's commercial use. Most of the developed world recognizes personality rights [wikipedia.org], which include the right to make money off of your own likeness. That means you need to CYA with a model release from everyone appearing in a video you post to YouTube. Without the releases, the people can sue for a cut of the money you make. There's an exception for newsworthy events, but for the type of crap most YouTube "stars" put out, they should be getting signed model releases.
How? (Score:2)
..., the (homeless) guy could sue him ...
How? Don't you at least need an address to sue? To meet a lawyer, to get an invitation for the hearing, etc?
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How? Don't you at least need an address to sue? To meet a lawyer, to get an invitation for the hearing, etc?
In Spain, you can sue if you are black, you can sue if you are a woman, you can sue if you are unemployed, you can sue if you are homeless. Same everywhere else in the EU.
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You can't just put videos you shoot of random people on YouTube.
Yes I can. Around 1400 so far.
Since YouTube pays you for the videos
No, they don't.
that's commercial use
No, it's not.
for the type of crap most YouTube "stars" put out, they should be getting signed model releases
I will agree with you on that one. You are however assuming that he doesn't in fact have a release form for the bloke he embarrassed.
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"Unlikely Ren to serve time behind bars" (Score:5, Funny)
eu prisons are very nice (Score:2)
https://www.businessinsider.co... [businessinsider.com]
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https://www.businessinsider.co... [businessinsider.com]
The case is in Spain, not Norway.
And I was told by a former Spanish prison agent that Spanish prisons are pretty hardcore, complete with inside drug trafficking and murders.
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The case is in Spain, not Norway. And I was told by a former Spanish prison agent that Spanish prisons are pretty hardcore, complete with inside drug trafficking and murders.
While true I'd rather spend time in any European prison rather than an US one, except maybe Russia. It's better than third world jails but in terms of doing anything for you other than keeping you locked up the US scrapes the bottom of the barrel. Does the US have anything like Aranjuez prison [boredpanda.com]? I doubt it.
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My friend's father served 5 years in a country club prison for tax evasion in the US. His son used to send him tennis rackets and polo shirts.
In America, the prisons are based on social standing.
Top tier - for people who are wealthy and are being symbolically punished. These prison are meant more as an inconvenience to the person. The purpose is punishment, but the intention is that when the prisoner is released, they want that person to continue generating jobs and tax money.
White color - for people who ar
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White color
The term is white collar and refers to the colour of the material your collar is made from.
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No. No, to suggest that is racially prejudiced. Don't be a racist cunt.
Re:eu prisons are very nice (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes... we have Anders Breivik... we had to build a special prison for him.
Well no, you didn't. He's held in Skien Prison, along with 93 other people. It's the one prison in Norway where people are kept who are unlikely to be releasable at the nominal 21 year maximum sentence.
I modded you up for the rest of your post, but felt obliged to point out that Norway does have a handful of people that are considered incorrigible even by its incredibly lenient standards.
Admittedly Norway possessing the lowest recidivism rate in the world (at 20%) is impressive, so apparently cushy prisons are very effective if your purpose is to minimize criminal activity. Considering Norway's example, your hypothesis that the American criminal system is intended to maximize criminal activity in already net negative citizens actually sounds plausible.
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Norway isn't in the EU. It is an associate member through EFTA and the EEA. [wikipedia.org]
Where's he gonna get that money from? (Score:2, Funny)
They're shutting down his YouTube channels for five years, can't he argue that this was his source of income?
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And that change the verdict in... nothing.
If he was a driver and lost his driving license because of driving mad and under alcohol/drugs, the ending would be the same: he can't any longer do "that" work. Search for another.
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Ha, youtube stars should be getting real jobs anyway. Pretty soon they'll be 23 years old and sent out to pasture to make way for new kids doing new stupid stuff.
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They're shutting down his YouTube channels for five years, can't he argue that this was his source of income?
He can argue that. Just like a drug dealer. Just like a professional shoplifter. With just as much success.
To be totally honest (Score:3)
replacing the filling probably didn't make them taste any worse.
22K buys a lot of forgiveness.
What is the nerd angle here? (Score:2)
Making and posting Youtube videos has not been a "nerd" skill since forever, if it ever was. Being an asshole was never one. So, WTF?
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Making and posting Youtube videos has not been a "nerd" skill since forever, if it ever was. Being an asshole was never one. So, WTF?
He was a bully. Bullies bully nerds. Nerds love when bullies get caught. It is called the underdog story, nerds really, really love it. There you have it. Pay at the checkout register, please.
Excellent (Score:5, Insightful)
And no, as other comment "being removed from your financial earning means" is not an obstacle, in fact in many case crime you can be removed your financial earning means and told not to work there anymore (e.g. accountant running accounting tax evasion, teacher having pedophile tendencies, hacker and an internet enabled computer etc...).
In this case I hope it will be a clear example for all others that they are adult now and should respect laws.
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Hitting one where it hurts, the money, and removing them (the 5 years ban) is a good solution. I am more ambivalent on the 15 months, but as other said it will most probably be suspended/on probation.
Hmm, where are all the freeze peach warriors complaining about corporate censorship? Surely being de-monetized on YouTube is a human rights violation or something??
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Comment removed (Score:4, Informative)
Even worse (Score:5, Informative)
I don't know how reliable the Independent [independent.co.uk] is, but they say the homeless man said, "I got sick after five minutes and threw up." But even worse:
The vlogger had previously offered sandwiches filled with his cats' excrement to children and elderly people, prosecutors claimed.
Good (Score:1)
Making money off homeless people by humilating them on camera SHOULD be a crime. The spanish courts did the right thing. Too bad that youtuber might not actually serve a prison sentence.
How About Fining YouTube? (Score:2)
So, while I get that YouTube isn't responsible for this guy's channel, they also profited off of it. Any/all of that money should be forfeit IMO. It's kinda like when someone receives stolen property...yeah, you won't go to jail, but you don't get to keep it.
This is News For Nerds because? (Score:2)
Would it have been NfN had it taken place on a TV reality show? The monetary gain on such shows is typically a lot larger tahn on YouTube.
Other news: judge started youtube cannel (Score:2)
... with practical pranks in the courtroom.
First video:
15 months for silly prank, the look on his face is priceless!
But of course that would be bullying and abuse of power.
Good (Score:2)
Send him to prison and when he gets out make him do a couple of years of community service.
Also make him post a series of videos explaining in detail why he was such a scumbag, why what he did was wrong, heartless, and cruel, and give the proceeds to the homeless person he exploited.
Then kick his ass on camera and post that too.
Sounds fair (Score:2)
I hope he enjoys the cream filled cookies in prison.
big picture (Score:2)
So this guy probably shouldn't go to prison. They should take his earnings from the video and give them to the homeless guy, and call it even.
Re:I Like This. (Score:4, Insightful)
But -- he made €2,000? Yeah, that total amount -- and any future earnings on the same video, and copyright on said video?
That would not discourage anyone from doing this kind of thing. Furthermore, if that were the only punishment, they would brag about it on social media.
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A better solution would be to make him do community service (ideally helping the homeless) and put that on YouTube so that all of his fans have an opportunity to learn better as well. I think that does more to restore the victim and rehabilitate the offender th
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You're missing the obvious thing: His Youtube channel shutdown. If he were gone for 5 weeks he'd probably become irrelevant. 5 years you've effectively knocked him out of the industry.
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That would not discourage anyone from doing this kind of thing.
Ah, so it's not that the punishment fits the crime, but that we must make an example of people we don't like. Got it.
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I thought you meant "anyone" as in anyone else (warning to others), which has become a fashionable legal argument lately.
Severity of punishment isn't a deterrent.
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Fluoride toothpaste IS toxic to humans. You hear about it more with dogs because they are more likely to eat or swallow toothpaste and since they're smaller, the amount they eat is more likely to reach dangerous levels.
Even a child swallowing the amount of toothpaste used for brushing occasionally is unlikely to be a problem, but you definitely should not eat a tube of toothpaste. 2 or 3 tubes could actually kill an adult, especially one in already in poor health (quite likely in, for example, a homeless pe
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Toothpaste without the fluoride is not less toxic. The fluoride content is minimal and fluoride is mostly-harmless; the toothpaste contains things like bleach as well.
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Toothpaste without the fluoride is not less toxic. The fluoride content is minimal and fluoride is mostly-harmless...
No, the sodium fluoride in 2-3 tubes of toothpaste is getting pretty close to the LD50 dose.
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My toothpaste contains a lot of sodium peroxide percarbonate. That's a highly-reactive compound that breaks down into sodium carbonate. It's the thing in oxyclean that makes it fizz and bubble and oxidize things. The LD50 is like 1,000mg/kg (rat) versus around 52mg/kg (rat).
Toothpastes use sodium percarbonate peroxide as a stabilizer for hydrogen peroxide, and may contain up to 10% by weight of hydrogen peroxide and 2-3x as much weight of sodium percarbonate. That means your one gram sample of toothpas
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I said it's mostly-harmless. Probably should have said it has a wide therapeutic window: it's effective at doses a fraction of the harmful dose. Other stuff is effective at concentrations close to harm (e.g. a safe dose of bleach can whiten your teeth, but it's really close to a fatally-toxic dose of bleach).
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Re:Suspend sentences for first-time offenders (Score:5, Insightful)
A juvenile prank? So you think poisoning someone as a joke is just a juvenile prank? Do you think the same about running around hitting people with crowbars, maybe some light stabbing? Fluoride toothpaste is poisonous.You're supposed to spit it out, never swallow it. Among all of the other nasty symptoms, too much of it can cause a heart attack. That kind of recklessness really does call for punishment.
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When I was a kid someone tricked me into eating soap. It was absolutely disgusting but nobody was arrested for it. I was over it within a week.
I'm sure this guy learned his lesson.
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Soap, at least the traditional soap, is less dangerous than
..something explicitly designed to be put in your mouth?
Interesting. What fucking toothpaste do you use?
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AC gets modded insightful for misinformation. Everything wrong with slashdot in one tidy package.
https://www.poison.org/articles/2015-dec/toothpaste
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Toothpaste is not THAT poisonous. And if you get an Oreo filled with toothpaste you will notice very quickly and spit it out.
For me, the part that really deserves punishment is the fact that he is playing these "pranks" on the weak that cannot defend themselves and who already have enough problems without this ass-hat.
Have the guts to do it to a 6.5 feet MMA fighter, then I might consider it a prank.
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Toothpaste is not THAT poisonous. And if you get an Oreo filled with toothpaste you will notice very quickly and spit it out.
This whole "toothpaste is poisonous" thing is pretty irrelevant. A regular Oreo could cause problems a diabetic person (or save them in the right circumstances, of course). What is potentially dangerous is giving someone any sort of 'spiked' food, especially if you know nothing about their state of health, food intolerances etc. Even if you give someone a coughing fit it could be serious if they have heart/lung problems. People have a right to know what they're putting in their mouths.
...but even that i
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Fluoride toothpaste is poisonous.You're supposed to spit it out, never swallow it
Plenty of people swallow it without dying.
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Hardly poisonous.
https://www.consumerreports.or... [consumerreports.org]
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Hardly poisonous. https://www.consumerreports.or... [consumerreports.org]
Slightly poisonous. It can be fatal, but you need to eat something like 3-5 tubes of toothpaste to get the LD50 dose of sodium fluoride.
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Isn't that a bit like saying water is poisonous? People do actually die from too much water. How many have died from too much toothpaste?
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No, I'm not talking about drowning, I'm talking about http://lmgtfy.com/?q=water+int... [lmgtfy.com]
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
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Cool the hysteria. Yes, toothpaste is toxic. It's safe to put in your mouth, but unsafe to swallow. It takes large quantity to be lethal, but nobody's saying that he was given a lethal dose. He did, however, receive enough that be became sick and had to vomit as soon as it got into his bloodstream.
His sentence took into account that this wasn't a once-off prank - he had also been tricking children into eating cat-dropping sandwiches.
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Stop looking in the mirror and talking to yourself.
Re:Wow (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes giving someone an oreo filled with toothpaste is a dick move, but come on guys.It's a pretty harmless prank.
22k in damages and 1.5 years of prison is insane. Is this really the kind of government control you want to live under?
What next? 5 years in prison for tricking someone into sitting on a whoopie cushion?
This prank is harmless, really? What is the social cost of having a homeless man, abused by this prank, no longer trust the generosity of a stranger? Perhaps now this homeless man will feel compelled to steal instead of risk a handout, or public assistance. The potential costs of allowing such 'pranks' is very, very high.
So yes, this is totally the kind of government control I want to live under. The alternatives are to live in a world where immoral assholes make profit at the expense of everyone else - in this case, the poor, elderly and weak - and get away with it. No thank you.
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Just curious what is the sentence for putting up a sign need money for food and tricking people into giving you money for drugs? Must be 10 years?
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Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Article 1. All human beings are born free and have the same rights and DIGNITY etc.
So, yeah, shitting in the Human Rights (for everybody except you and the one who up-voted your comment) is a serious crime. I'd love living under such country (not yours when with Oreo's you get guns).
Toothpaste swallowing is not exactly healthy (Score:5, Informative)
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but come on guys.It's a pretty harmless prank.
"The homeless man said he did not know Mr Kanghua had an online presence and wound up feeling concerned for his life.
“I got sick after five minutes and threw up,” he said.
22k in damages and 1.5 years of prison is insane. Is this really the kind of government control you want to live under? What next? 5 years in prison for tricking someone into sitting on a whoopie cushion?
A whoopie cushion is a harmless prank. The fact that you don't know the difference is the reason I do want to live under this kind of "government control". Actions have consequences, and the people who are unable to reconcile the two need to face appropriate punishments so they actually learn from their mistakes.
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Yes giving someone an oreo filled with toothpaste is a dick move, but come on guys.It's a pretty harmless prank. 22k in damages and 1.5 years of prison is insane. Is this really the kind of government control you want to live under?
You ever heard of "tea tree oil"? Just so you know, the tea tree is not related to the plant that provides tea that you can drink. Some natural toothpastes use this as an ingredient because it has some anti-bacterial properties. Unfortunately it also has some poison properties, which mean you aren't supposed to swallow it at all. It could have led to a major medical incident had such a toothpaste been used and the homeless man swallowed it. Death is possible. What are the odds that the YouTuber actu
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Well, it is covered in article 10 of the European Convention on Human rights "Everyone has the right to freedom of expression. This right shall include freedom to hold opinions and to receive and impart information and ideas without interference by public authority and regardless of frontiers".
Part 2 of the article enumerates various exceptions, which I guess covers this but it s
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Huh? Barcelona?
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Officially the plural of euro is euro. However, I think I've only ever heard Irish people get it "right".
Found the DeVry grad (Score:2)
Notice that there's two separate names? It's because they aren't the same thing.