A Video-Enhanced Grave Marker (VEGM) is a Western-style tombstone equipped with weatherproofed video playback that can be initiated by remote control.
The VEGM, invented by Robert Barrows of San Mateo, California, would allow its owner to record messages or have the deceased family leave messages to be played to any visitor to the site with a remote control. The stones would be equipped with weatherproofed video playback devices plus computer storage and a monitor placed within a weather-proofed, hollowed-out headstone. It could also utilize coded card swiping devices like the technology used for hotel room card keys or it can operate on a credit card or coin activated device. , Barrows estimated that the costs of the VEGMs might start at about US$8000.
was issued on The Video Enhanced Gravemarker on August 8, 2006. Barrows commented soon after its invention: "I envision being able to walk through a cemetery using a remote control, clicking on graves and what all the people buried there have to say. They can say all the things they didn't have the opportunity or guts to say when they were alive."
To prevent noise pollution, the audio can also be transmitted to wireless headsets, made available by the cemetery's office.
Jill Aebi-Mytton (also known as Jill Mytton) is a British Chartered Counselling Psychologist and researcher known for her work on the psychological effects of high-control religious groups, particularly the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church (formerly known as the Exclusive Brethren). Her research on former members of the Brethren has been reported in mainstream media and science outlets.
She was interviewed by Richard Dawkins for the Channel 4 documentary The Root of All Evil? and is referenced in Dawkins’ 2006 book The God Delusion.
Palmetto Canning is a historic jam, jelly and sauce manufacturer in Palmetto, Florida. It was established in 1927 and has operated its present plant location in Palmetto since 1945. It also has a second plant in Seffner, Florida. It produces private label products in bulk plastic containers.
Founded by Capt. John Greenlaw, yacht captain to J.P. Morgan Jr. from 1919 to 1927, Capt. Greenlaw secured a personal loan from Mr. Morgan to fund the creation of a company that could capture the demand for canning Florida tomatoes. Upon his death in 1935, his wife, Minnie, took charge and steered the company through the wake of the Great Depression and Second World War.
Today, the company is controlled by the 5th generation of the Greenlaw family.
Palmetto Canning is the parent company of De Vinco Company, a manufacturer of cooking wines based in Seffner, Florida.
The Golyanovo slaves (Russian:Гольяновские рабы) case refers to instances of human trafficking and modern slavery that occurred in the Golyanovo District of Moscow, Russia, beginning in the late 1990s and continuing until at least 2016. The victims were predominantly women from Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan, who were subjected to forced labour, [...] exploitation, torture, and severe physical abuse in grocery stores operated by a criminal network originating from southern Kazakhstan.
The operation was directed by a criminal organization led by the Istanbekov family, along with multiple accomplices. The case gained international notoriety after human rights activists and journalists freed twelve captives in October 2012. Despite extensive documentation of crimes including [...], torture, child abuse, and deaths, Russian authorities repeatedly refused to prosecute the perpetrators, issuing at least 32 decisions declining to open criminal proceedings.
In December 2024, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled that Russia had violated the prohibition of slavery and discrimination under the European Convention on Human Rights. The Court concluded that the state’s systemic procedural inaction effectively institutionalized a regime of impunity for the criminals. The case has been cited by the United States Department of State and the United Nations as emblematic of systematic failures to combat human trafficking and protect victims.