• what A French woman, Dominique Cottrez, admitted to hiding eight pregnancies over a 17-year period and killing the babies after they were born.
• why She reportedly didn’t want to have more children, but didn’t want to use contraceptives. Her weight allowed her to hide the pregnancies. source

• The organisers have said themselves that they will not hold any more Love Parades but such large events need to be made safe and the federal states of course have the required police forces to do this.
• German Chancellor Angela Merkel • Regarding this weekend’s tragic Love Parade incident, which she says her government needs to get to the bottom of to figure out what happened. “It now needs to be very intensively investigated as to how this happened because the many young people who were delighted to be going to the event have had… terrible memories and we have to do everything to make sure that something like this does not happen again,” she said. source

• 700k number of people Love Parade 2010 was expecting
• 1.4M number of people who actually showed up today
• 18 number of people killed in the Love Parade stampede source

• 15+ people were killed at the Love Parade festival in Germany
• 40+ people were injured while in the festival’s crushing line source

• Sometimes it’s not just the crime; it’s where the crime occurs. 16-year-old Chloe Ottman was found brutally murdered at Holy Land U.S.A., a Connecticut religious site which has fallen into disrepair over the years but is still, you know, an iconic religious site. Francisco Cruz, 19, was charged with capital felony murder in the crime, which he confessed to. Awful, awful crime. (Photo by Flickr user XISMZERO) source

• It kind of freaked me out a bit. It was like he was coming back from the dead.
• Courtney Purvin • Regarding how weird she found it that Facebook was telling her to get back in touch with a family friend who recently died. Think ghosts in the machine. It’s a problem that Facebook is aware of, but admits that even it doesn’t know how to handle. “It’s a very sensitive topic, and, of course, seeing deceased friends pop up can be painful,” said company spokeswoman Meredith Chin. It was also a problem they rarely faced when their users were young and fresh-faced, but now even your grandpa’s on the site. source

• He just turned 80 the other day. Say what you will about the guy (and people had lots to say about him during his 37-year reign), but the Yankees owner knew how to win. He knew how to get the right players, put the right people in place and win the World Series, much to the chagrin of every other team out there. He died of a heart attack last night. Some key facts:

• sevennumber of World Series under Steinbrenner’s reign
• 11 number of pennants his teams won over nearly four decades
• $1.6B the amount it cost to put together that kind of record

His pop-culture place

• He was a constant figure on “Seinfeld.” Well, kinda. When George Costanza worked with the Yankees, he was a source of parody, never actually seen onscreen but always worth a laugh or two at his expense. Larry David voiced the parody Steinbrenner and Lee Bear played him. It wasn’t his only spot in pop culture, but it was his most prominent.

Key quote about the guy

• To be able to deliver this to the Boss, to the stadium he created and the atmosphere he created around here, it’s very gratifying to all of us.
• Yankees manager Joe Girardi • Talking after the team’s World Series success in the new Yankees Stadium. Steinbrenner held his teams to high standards – he had to, he paid out of the wazoo for them – but the results often proved his model correct. The manager before Girardi, Joe Torre, left after failing to win the World Series, despite yearly playoff appearances. By the end, George had given his sons Hal and Hank increasing authority over the team, but the base was all his. Still doesn’t mean Red Sox fans have to like it. source