Radio in the truck tonight, gave out with a reminder of a fascinating story, that of Hayseed Stevens and his 'creation-science' oil scam ... he made off with at least usd7.5m doing a promotion based on a sea of crude under the Dead Sea, and apparently got away with it ... died, now his son or somebody is reviving the thing, and this Mariah Blake lady is writing it up for Mother Jones magazine, great stuff, it's been years since i had time to follow crapstocks but they really can be totally interesting stories, the way people get absolutely sucked into them, and of course the game of trying to distinguish the suckers from the suckees on the various threads ... but, oops Mr MacInnes-Rae, i think it's blasphemy or something to mispell Armageddon -
'Armaggedon Gusher
You've probably heard, more than once, that the end is near. But did you know there's a fortune to be made from it in Israel?
If not, you haven't been listening to the likes of Harold Stephens.
Harold, or "Hayseed", as he's known, went around preaching the gospel of profit to those who believe there's oil under the Holy Land. If someone can just find it, Jesus Christ will eventually return to walk among us again.
Hayseed just happens to own a drilling company.
listen to Hayseed's sales pitch
With his country charisma, Stephens persuaded a lot of people to invest in his company, Ness Energy International.
And lo, it was good...for Mr Hayseed. Investors didn't know that the company was bogus. They thought Ness was more.
When they finally did go looking for their money, all they found was an office and up on the roof, a big model of a Bible with an oilwell sticking out of it.
American journalist Mariah Blake has written the story of biblical oil prospecting for the magazine Mother Jones.
listen to Rick's interview '
cbc.ca
Old piece on ness.ob, or ness.pk, or whatever it was [or is] - csicop.org |
