Category Archives: Amusement

PETA wants monument honoring chickens killed in Georgia truck wreck

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GainesvilleChickenMemorialBy Mike Morris

GAINESVILLE, Ga. — We’ve all seen the wooden crosses and other roadside memorials to loved ones killed in automobile accidents. Three years ago, the Georgia Department of Transportation, deeming the makeshift memorials a distraction to drivers and a safety hazard, began offering to place state-approved memorials at the sites of fatal wrecks.

For a $100 fee, GDOT places a white sign with the name of the deceased under the words, “Drive Safely, In Memory.”

Wednesday, a member of PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, filed an application with GDOT to have a memorial placed at the Hall County site where a truck hauling live chickens overturned on Jan. 27.

Read more at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Kiss of Life

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by Rocco Morabito

thompson-67This 1967 award-winning photo entitled “Kiss of Life” shows two power linemen, Randall Champion and J. D. Thompson, at the top of a utility pole. They had been performing routine maintenance when Champion brushed one of the high voltage lines at the very top. These are the lines that can be heard “singing” with electricity. Over 4000 volts entered Champion’s body and instantly stopped his heart (an electric chair uses about 2000 volts).

His safety harness prevented a fall, and Thompson, who had been ascending below him, quickly reached him and performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He was unable to perform CPR given the circumstances, but continued breathing into Champion’s lungs until he felt a slight pulse, then unbuckled his harness and descended with him on his shoulder.

Thompson and another worker administered CPR on the ground, and Champion was moderately revived by the time paramedics arrived. Champion survived and lived until 2002, when he died of heart failure at the age of 64. Thompson is still living.

Rocco Morabito (November 2, 1920 – April 5, 2009) was an American photographer who spent the majority of his career at the Jacksonville Journal.

Morabito won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography for “The Kiss of Life”, a Jacksonville Journal photo that showed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation between two workers on a utility pole. Randall G. Champion was unconscious and hanging upside down after contacting a high voltage line; fellow lineman J.D. Thompson revived him while strapped to the pole by the waist. Champion survived and lived until 2002, when he died of heart failure at the age of 64; Thompson is still living. The photograph was published in newspapers around the world.

He served in World War II in the Army Air Forces as a ball-turret gunner on a B-17. He returned after the war and worked for the Journal for 42 years, 33 of them as a photographer, until retiring in 1982. He died on April 5, 2009 while in hospice care.—WikiPedia

SEE ALSO: The Kiss of Life, 40 years later, 10 Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photos And Their Stories

Man-in-undies sculpture causes a stir at all-girls college

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bildeWELLESLEY, MASS. — A remarkably lifelike sculpture of a man sleepwalking in nothing but his underpants has made some Wellesley College students a bit uncomfortable, but the president of the prestigious women’s school says that’s all part of the intellectual process.

The sculpture, titled “Sleepwalker,” is of a man in an eyes-closed, zombie-like trance. It’s part of an exhibit by Tony Matelli at the college’s Davis Museum. It was placed at a busy area of campus Monday, a few days before the exhibit’s official opening, and prompted an online student petition to have it removed.

The sculpture is a “source of apprehension, fear, and triggering thoughts regarding sexual assault,” says the petition, which had nearly 300 signtures Wednesday.

Read more at Detroit Free Press

Brain function ‘boosted for days after reading a novel’

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classic-novelsBeing pulled into the world of a gripping novel can trigger actual, measurable changes in the brain that linger for at least five days after reading, scientists have said.

The new research, carried out at Emory University in the US, found that reading a good book may cause heightened connectivity in the brain and neurological changes that persist in a similar way to muscle memory.

The changes were registered in the left temporal cortex, an area of the brain associated with receptivity for language, as well as the the primary sensory motor region of the brain.

Neurons of this region have been associated with tricking the mind into thinking it is doing something it is not, a phenomenon known as grounded cognition – for example, just thinking about running, can activate the neurons associated with the physical act of running.

Read more at The Independent

SEE ALSO: Lost At E Minor, 100 best novels
Get Free books at Project Gutenberg

Daniel Boone: Trailblazer. Full movie.

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YouTube: Set in 1775, Daniel Boone takes his family far West to build Fort Boone despite the extreme dangers of Indian attacks. Boone explained his courage: “It isn’t how you die, it’s what you live for.”

This old movie probably led a series of television programs hosted by Uncle Walt.

Eventually a six-year television series staring Fess Paker, Patricia Blair and Ed Ames ran from 1964. This show launched the career of many an actor. The show is currently being run on the Memorable Entertainment (ME) television network.

More movies at OldiesGoodiesCinema

Is mainstream media keeping you from the “real” story?

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alg-conan-reaction-jpgBenghazi. NSA spying. IRS targeting. Fast and Furious. Now Bridgegate.

For years “conspiracy theorists” have warned that the media has been pumping out stories in an effort to draw your attention away from other stories that we should be paying attention to?

Could that be true?

Late night investigator Conan O’Brien takes a look at several unrehearsed and unscripted news reports on a story that might have escaped your attention.

Comedians Tend to Have Psychotic Personality Traits

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Creative types tend to be a little crazy, right? Psychologists have now found that comedians actually demonstrate a lot of the same characteristics as people with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia.

As one of the researchers on the study, Gordon Claridge, told the Guardian,

“The creative elements needed to produce humour are strikingly similar to those characterizing the cognitive style of people with psychosis – both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.”

Study participants included more than 500 comedians, 350 actors (a career considered creative but not necessarily funny), and 800 non-creative types, as a control. They came from the U.K., Australia, and the U.S.

Each participant filled out a survey [doc] asking about various feelings and experiences he or she had had. The questions were designed to identify psychotic traits in people who don’t have mental illness: traits such as anti-social behavior, belief in telepathy, and difficulty in organizing one’s thoughts.

Read more at Discover

The Professor is gone.

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220px-Russell_Johnson_Black_Saddle_1960Russell Johnson, best known for his role as the Professor on Gilligan’s Island died today at his home in Washington. He died of natural causes with his wife and daughter at his side. He was 89.

Johnson began his career in 1950 as a sailor in the Fireside Theater production of A Man Without A Country. He had the role of Chopper in The Adventures of Superman in 1953 and appeared in various westerns and science fiction movies. He played Fletcher Christian in the You Are There presentation of Mr. Christian Seizes the Bounty.

He is best known for his role as high school science teacher Roy Hinckley which ran for three years but is popular in syndication today. The Memorable Entertainment network runs two episodes a night. The professor had to come up with various fixes to the equipment and create equipment for various applications. Ironically, he appeared in the popular MacGyver television series in 1986, but we’re not sure if he had to come up with any explosive devices from two bobby-pins and a can of hair spray.

According to a FOX News report, Johnson once quipped that the only thing he couldn’t figure out is how to fix the leaky boat so they could return to civilization.

Co-star Dawn Welles posted on her Facebook page:

My 2 favorite people are now gone. The Professor past away this morning. My heart is broken.

and

Russell was a true gentleman, a good father, a great friend, and “the rest”.
I love him and shall miss him. My heart goes out to Connie and his daughter Kim. I love you.

Dawn Welles and Tina Louise are the only surviving members of a group of misfit castaways marooned after a failed “three hour tour” which seems to show no sign of stopping in syndication. Probably the best tribute an actor can receive.