The Darwin Awards

I am a huge fan of the "Darwin Awards" I had a couple of these books around the house. So whenever I got bored, and wanted to feel intelligent, I would open it and find an amuzing story. Most of the stories are extremely rediculous! I will leave you with one I read this weekend. Enjoy!


Lawn Chair Larry
1982 Honorable MentionConfirmed True by Darwin

Larry Walters of Los Angeles is one of the few to contend for the Darwin Awards and live to tell the tale. "I have fulfilled my 20-year dream," said Walters, a former truck driver for a company that makes TV commercials. "I'm staying on the ground. I've proved the thing works."
Larry's boyhood dream was to fly. But fates conspired to keep him from his dream. He joined the Air Force, but his poor eyesight disqualified him from the job of pilot. After he was discharged from the military, he sat in his backyard watching jets fly overhead.
He hatched his weather balloon scheme while sitting outside in his "extremely comfortable" Sears lawnchair. He purchased 45 weather balloons from an Army-Navy surplus store, tied them to his tethered lawnchair dubbed the Inspiration I, and filled the 4' diameter balloons with helium. Then he strapped himself into his lawnchair with some sandwiches, Miller Lite, and a pellet gun. He figured he would pop a few of the many balloons when it was time to descend.
Larry's plan was to sever the anchor and lazily float up to a height of about 30 feet above his back yard, where he would enjoy a few hours of flight before coming back down. But things didn't work out quite as Larry planned.
When his friends cut the cord anchoring the lawnchair to his Jeep, he did not float lazily up to 30 feet. Instead, he streaked into the LA sky as if shot from a cannon, pulled by the lift of 42 helium balloons holding 33 cubic feet of helium each. He didn't level off at 100 feet, nor did he level off at 1000 feet. After climbing and climbing, he leveled off at 16,000 feet.
At that height he felt he couldn't risk shooting any of the balloons, lest he unbalance the load and really find himself in trouble. So he stayed there, drifting cold and frightened with his beer and sandwiches, for more than 14 hours. He crossed the primary approach corridor of LAX, where Trans World Airlines and Delta Airlines pilots radioed in reports of the strange sight.
Eventually he gathered the nerve to shoot a few balloons, and slowly descended. The hanging tethers tangled and caught in a power line, blacking out a Long Beach neighborhood for 20 minutes. Larry climbed to safety, where he was arrested by waiting members of the LAPD. As he was led away in handcuffs, a reporter dispatched to cover the daring rescue asked him why he had done it. Larry replied nonchalantly, "A man can't just sit around."
The Federal Aviation Administration was not amused. Safety Inspector Neal Savoy said, "We know he broke some part of the Federal Aviation Act, and as soon as we decide which part it is, a charge will be filed."

Brittney Spears outraged over topless pictures!

I came accross a blog site that covers celebrities lifes. This site is great because it mocks them. What caught my eye was the topic "Brittney Spears Outraged Over Topless Pictures." In the saucy shots, a grinning Spears poses outside, kneeling on a rock, while holding two flowers over her nipples.

A close pal of the singer tells British newspaper The Daily Star, "Britney's furious these photos have become public. She never dreamed they'd be leaked.She's concerned the photos will damage her credibility and just make her look trashy.


Credibility!! She lost that a long, long, time ago!
I believe the story to be fabricated due to the fact that Brittany exposed her crotch to the public a couple of months ago and didn't make a big deal about it. This is a site that I will be checking out in the future for a couple laughs.

Bacon Causes Lung Diseases?

In Food For Life editorial "Bacon Causes Lung Diseases," Dave Weston hypothesizes that frequent consumption of cured meats is associated with lower lung function and increased odds of chronic obstruction pulmonary disease (COPD). This was a cross-sectional study of 7,352 people, all people 45 years of age or greater. After adjusting for age, smoking (other factor which they do not clarify) frequency of cured meat consumption was inversely associated with lung health, and increase the risk of Chronic Obstruction Pulmonary Disease.

Ever since taking a class in Nutrition this quarter I have a growing interest and concern for my health. I chose this site for that reason. It is a site that give studies of various pros and cons to specific food choices. This site is mainly dedicated towards vegans, which I am not, but still found interesting. However, I found this site to be rather subjective in nature, since it is promoting the vegan lifestyle. The case study of "Bacon Causes Lung Disease," was rather weak to come to a conclusion because it is such a small group of people, to consider the study fact.

The Four Agreements

I just recently barrowed a book from a friend that was rather insightful. It is called "The Four Agreements", and is written by Don Miguel Ruiz. It is a practical guide to personal freedom. It is an inspiring book that helps you identify self-limiting beliefs that rob us of joy, happiness, and often times destructive habits of thinking. Don Miguel Ruiz's basis is on the Toltec Wisdom, the Four Agreements offer a code of conduct that can transform your life for the better by leading a happier, to live a new experience of freedom, and love. I enjoyed this book because is definitly something that I could improve on, now I just need to apply it day by day.


I can't post the whole book but I will post The Four Agreements.


BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD

Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using words to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.



DON'T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY

Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.

DON'T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS

Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST

Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse, and regret.

Imus is gone....so what do we do next?

As we all know Don Imus got fired from CBS last week from his insensative comment towards the Rutgers womens basketball team. If you don't remember or haven't heard, he referred to them as "Nappy headed hos" this was mindless and just stupid.

Over his 30 plus years he has continually used racist, anti-gay, anti-immigrant and anti-Semetic humor. He has been doing it to everyone and now they want to pull the plug on him. Is it because of what he said or something much different.

Why was it ok all those years? Well the truth of the matter was that these insensative comments has made lots of money or lets just say millions. Let just say that Jesse Jackson and his righteous counterpart Rev. Al Sharpton had little to do with his firing. Even though may insist it was because of thier persistance on having Imus fired. Lets face it these are some of the biggest hippocrits out thier. Again it all boiled down to money. All of the major advertisers pulled thier labels, so therefore they yanked Imus.

What about CBS's responsibility? I felt from the being that what Imus said was wrong. However, I firmly believe CBS should be responsible for thier actions as well. It took this long for them to fire him, when everyone knows that he has said much worse things in the past. To be perfectly honest CBS should be ashamed of what they were willing to do to make money, even if it was unethical.

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