Larian Studios Forums General Chat Chat (Anything) Unbelieveable but true

19 September 2003, Virginia

Hurricane Isabel tore into the East Coast, turning shallow creeks into raging rivers before she calmed down to a violent tropical storm. What better time to go canoeing? Especially at 2:30 in the morning, on a moonless night, to cap off a fun party?

Enter Christopher “Blumpkin” Ball, 21, captain of the James Madison University rugby team, a man described by a teammate as “insane, just indestructible.” This ballroom-dancing rugby player left his own party early one morning, with friends who “thought it would be all ha, ha, and funny to take the canoe” to Blumpkin’s old house, straight down Blacks Run Stream.

Winds were gusting to more than 50 mph, snapping trees like toothpicks, as nearly a foot of rain fell on the Shenandoah Valley. Rescue Squad chief Brandon Peavy told the reporter that the normally knee-deep water of Blacks Run was over a six-foot person’s head. Blumpkin’s canoe quickly capsized in the swift storm-fed stream, tossing its occupants into the churning water.

His female companion managed to reach the shore. His male companion, who knew it “wasn’t a good idea from the start,” climbed onto the bank near a railroad trestle. But our “indestructible” friend Blumpkin was sucked underwater twice, never to resurface. He was found at dawn, 100 yards downstream.

Chief Peavy was not allowed to comment on whether alcohol or drugs were involved in the accident.

But I don't have a notebook pc either <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/puppyeyes.gif" alt="" />...

Übereil

Polish medics accused of killing patients and selling the corpses to undertakers

By Anna Piekut in Warsaw

For many thousands of families whose elderly relatives died in the geriatric ward of Lodz Hospital in Poland, the staff's duty of care seemed to extend well into the afterlife.

Within minutes of their loved ones drawing their dying breaths, a doctor would wander over, offer condolences, and quietly mention that, to spare them unnecessary trouble, the hospital had rung a local funeral home.

Un known to the bereaved, however, the benign smiles on the medics' faces were not purely altruistic. Far from simply helping out with the funeral arrangements, some hospital staff were allegedly pocketing hefty bribes every time they passed on "business" to particular undertakers.

In some cases, competing funeral homes would pass them up to 1,800 zloty (£280) per corpse, a premium that the parlours could easily recoup because the average Polish family typically spends up to £800 on a funeral. Even then, accorging to prosecution claims, for some hospital staff the money they made from "skins", as they crudely dubbed corpses, was still not enough. Just as Burke and Hare, the notorious 19th-century grave robbers, took to murdering people when the supply of corpses for medical experiments ran low, so did they.

A court in Lodz was told last week that a number of ambulance drivers, with the full co-operation of some doctors, allegedly injected patients with the muscle relaxant Pavulon to hasten their deaths. The drivers would not even take patients to the geriatric ward, but whisk them straight to the undertakers.

Details of the alleged racket, which the prosecution claims had been running for more than 10 years, have emerged during the trials of two ambulance paramedics and two doctors who are accused of involvement in the killings.

Andrzej Nowocien, a paramedic, is charged with the murder of four people while his colleague, Karol Banas, is charged with murdering one patient. Janusz Kuklinski, a doctor, faces 10 charges of manslaughter and Pawel Wasilewski, also a doctor, faces four charges of manslaughter. He is further accused of illegally supplying information on people's deaths on more than 200 occasions to undertakers. All have pleaded not guilty.

Nowocien told the trial: "On one occasion we were to transport a severely ill patient from Lodz, in central Poland, to a nearby hospital in Glowno.

"We figured there was little sense in travelling all the way to Glowno because the patient was about to die any minute anyway. So we headed straight for the undertakers instead, knowing the problem would solve itself on the way. We passed on the woman's corpse to the funeral home."

Prosecutors have said the case covers about 20,000 deaths, although most relate only to the illicit payments from funeral homes for corpses.

In all, police are considering bringing charges against up to 40 paramedics, doctors, nurses and undertakers, some of whom had nicknames such as "Angel of Death" because of their prolific earnings.

One former paramedic at the Lodz hospital who left to open a funeral home in 1991, told Polish media that undertakers had originally paid bribes in the form of bottles of vodka. But as competition intensified, premiums had shot up. "The corpse quickly became a 'skin', a product for sale," he said.

The conspiracy was brought to light by Poland's Gazeta Wyborcza newspaper and has caused huge embarrassment for the country's respected medical profession.

A Lodz city councillor, said it had gone undetected because most families paid little close attention to which funeral company they chose.

"People are not usually prepared for the death of their loved ones, and are eager for someone to help them make practical decisions," he said.

The case continues.

Man peed way out of avalanche

A Slovak man trapped in his car under an avalanche freed himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and urinating on the snow to melt it.

Rescue teams found Richard Kral drunk and staggering along a mountain path four days after his Audi car was buried in the Slovak Tatra mountains.

He told them that after the avalanche, he had opened his car window and tried to dig his way out.

But as he dug with his hands, he realised the snow would fill his car before he managed to break through.

He had 60 half-litre bottles of beer in his car as he was going on holiday, and after cracking one open to think about the problem he realised he could urinate on the snow to melt it, local media reported.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/exclamation.gif" alt="" /> Why You Should Never Lick Envelopes !!!

What you don't know, wont hurt you, but this one sure is worth knowing. I used to work for an envelope company. Our plant supervisor used to work in the Chicago plant and told us not to lick the envelopes because they would often find dead rats at the bottom of the glue barrel (after thousands of envelopes had been glued and shipped).
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I work in a factory and we have 2 employees who used to work in an envelope factory. They told me that when the machine jams up, they use whatever water is handy to thin out the glue. This includes water that they just mopped the floor with. Since then, I've avoided licking envelopes!
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A woman was working in a post office in California. One day she licked the envelopes and postage stamps instead of using a sponge. That very day the lady cut her tongue on the envelope.

A week later, she noticed an abnormal swelling of her tongue. She went to the doctor, but they found nothing wrong. Her tongue was not sore or anything.

A couple of days later, her tongue started to swell more, and it began to get so sore, that she could not eat. She went back to the hospital, and demanded something be done. The doctor took an x-ray of her tongue and noticed a lump. He prepared her for minor surgery. When the doctor cut her tongue open, a live cockroach crawled out! There were roach eggs on the seal of the envelope. The egg was able to hatch inside of her tongue, because of her saliva. It was warm and moist. This is a true story reported on CNN.
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I used to work in an envelope factory. You wouldn't believe the things that float around in those gum applicator trays. I haven't licked an envelope for years!
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I used to work for a print shop (32 years ago) and we were told NEVER to lick the envelopes. I never understood why until I had to go into storage and pull out 2500 envelops that were already printed for a customer who was doing a mailing and saw several squads of roaches roaming around inside a couple of boxes with eggs everywhere. They eat the glue on the envelopes. I think print shops have a harder time controlling roaches than a restaurant. I always buy the self-sealing
type. Or if need be, I use a glue stick to seal one that has the type of glue that needs to be wet to stick.

Wow dude <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />! Thanks for makeing me paranoid for life!

Übereil

No problemo. It's my good deed for the day.
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Family Reunites With Dog Lost In 1999 Tornado

6 Years After Oklahoma Tornado Outbreak, Family Recovers Long Lost Canine

UPDATED: 12:43 pm EDT May 4, 2005

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Six years after the disastrous May 3, 1999, tornadoes that left a swath of destruction through Oklahoma City, people are still finding things they lost in the chaos -- but those stories are likely nothing compared to the story of a dog that was recently reunited with her family in Choctaw after six years.

During the events of six years ago, many things were lost in south Oklahoma City and surrounding suburbs -- including pets. Ginger, a Dalmatian belonging to the Collins family, was only a puppy when she was lost in the storm.

"All these years went by, and I always thought, 'Where would she be if she was still alive?'" said Ginger's owner, Amy Collins.

Collins said she happened to be looking on the Rocky Spot Rescue Web site and thought she saw her dog.

"I thought, 'There's no way this dog can be on there,'" she said.

On Easter Sunday 2005, Collins and her family went to the shelter -- and sure enough, it was their long lost dog.

"They say a dog never forgets a scent, and that's how she recognized us -- by our scent -- and she just went crazy when she saw us," she said.

Ginger not only survived the tornado. She was also hit by a car and had hip surgery. Then, Collins said, someone shot her.

"Right here, she has a bullet in her back," she said.

The dog was abandoned at least once after another family adopted her, moved away and left her tied to a tree. She was also attacked by a pit bull that left scars on her face.

"She's had some miles on those feet," Collins said.

Now, Ginger has a safe place to sleep in Collins' bed. Although she can't talk, Ginger is finally breathing a big sigh of relief.

Along with the buckshots in her back, Ginger also has an implanted microchip. If she does happen to get lost again, almost any veterinarian or shelter can scan her chip and bring her back home quickly.

The Collins family has two other dogs as well -- a Labrador Retriever and a Dachshund that took a while to warm up to Ginger. But after all Ginger had been through, a feisty miniature dog wasn't going to stop her from coming home.

Ginger's family said all the dogs now get along just fine.

Texas targets 'sexy cheerleading'

Legislators in the US state of Texas have voted to ban "sexually suggestive" cheerleading in schools.

The bill - which requires approval by the state Senate - would allow authorities to police routines deemed vulgar and force schools to stop them.

Texas is famous for its Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, who perform in high boots and low-cut tops.

Some lawmakers have expressed outrage at similarly suggestive performances at local schools across the state.

"Some of them are just downright vulgar, something you would see at an adult club or something," Joe Deshotel, a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives, told AFP news agency.

One of the co-authors of the bill, Republican Corbin Van Arsdale, said many parents want restrictions because they go to games to see young men clashing on the pitch, not girls shaking their behinds on the sidelines.

"You've got children seeing things that their parents would rather them not see," AFP quoted Mr Van Arsdale as saying.

However some legislators questioned their colleagues' priorities.

"Have we done anything about stem cell research to help people who are dying and are sick advance their health? No," said Democratic Representative Senfronia Thompson.

To become law, the bill must be approved by both the Senate and Governor Rick Perry.

Geeezoos! with a name like that, you figure he would legislate against that <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" />

Driver fined for 'having a face like a moron'


Driver fined for 'having a face like a moron'

A Romanian traffic cop has been demoted after he fined a driver for "having a face like a moron and being a big monkey".

Marius Vlasceanu pulled over Gheorghe Tosa as he drove through Craiova in Romania, local daily Jurnalul National reported.

But Tosa failed to see the funny side as Vlasceanu fined him £22 and handed him a ticket explaining the reason for the fine was "having a face like a moron and being a big monkey".

Head of the Romanian police Dan Fatuloiu said Vlasceanu, who claimed he had handed out the fine as a joke, had been demoted for "inappropriate behaviour and defaming the police force".

He has now been given a desk job in a remote village.

RENO, NV (AP) A burglar was busted because he made such a clatter and got stuck — in the chimney of a Lake Tahoe home. A neighbor on the lake's north shore in Kings Beach, Calif., telephoned the sheriff about 10 p.m. Wednesday when he heard screams coming from next door where the residents were away on vacation.

Sheriff's deputies and a fire rescue team found Jose Francisco Martinez, 19, wedged halfway down the chimney. He apparently had been stuck there for about two hours, Placer County Sheriff's Sgt. Brian Whigam said Thursday.

"We've had bears stuck in chimneys before but we haven't had people," Whigam told The Associated Press.

"It's crazy. The video we took is funny," he said.

Authorities were forced to dismantle half the chimney brick by brick to free Martinez, doing about $20,000 damage in the process, Whigam said.

I think I saw that one on tv a few days ago, I had a good laugh with it. What was he thinking? Santa doesn't even do that anymore (he really exist right? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/biggrin.gif" alt="" /> )

Ofcourse he exist.
Wait...
Who???
Santa?
Yep, ofcourse, there're even four of us. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shhh.gif" alt="" />
<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Pfieuw, lucky me, almost saw my childhood dream blow up in my face *euh* <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ouch.gif" alt="" />
Ok, that doesn't sound good, right? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/think.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif" alt="" />

May 03 2005

It was announced at about 9 am that I have won a in-company competition and will be going to Marbella Spain from the 16th June to 22 June 2005. 5* all expenses paid trip....

The unbelievable part did not start here though.... It started a couple of months earlier....

While i was still searching for this current job, my fiance and me, found a little chinese shop... Andrew (fiance) being MADLY obsessed about swords and weapons, bought a couple of items.... and were given fortune cookies... mine read: "Do the important things yourself". So i decided to look through newspapers myself for a career oportunity, rather than waiting for an personnel agency to do it.... and what do i find.... an Add with absolutely marvellous remuneration etc etc etc... phoned them and got the interview.... went for it, and got the job....

Over the weekend (i was supposed to start on the monday) we went back to the little chinese shop, where andrew again bought a couple of items... and again got fortune cookies... Mine read: "Great business opportunities ahead"... we had an absolute fit of laughter about the coincidence, since the job was all about business opportunities....

About 3 weeks later in the company, i got my first promotion.... and to celebrate, we went out for dinner, but on the way couldnt help but to stop at the little chinese shop.... guess what my fortune cookie read.... "Your career is becomming successful" By this time we are so amazed at the coincidence....

About 6 weeks ago we went to the little shop yet again... and again got some fortune cookies... mine read: "An overseas trip is not far off"

Just to top it all, the trip is over my birthday... making a long time wish come true.... to have a birthday in SUMMER <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" />

Well, lady, as they say, one time could be a coincidence, tho times could be a coincidence too, but three times... So it's proven, the shopkeeper spies at you <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/winkwink.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/silly.gif" alt="" />.

Glad to hear you're doing well though <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. And hope you enjoy... Spain <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />.

Übereil

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/eek.gif" alt="" />

Dems voted out of church weigh options

WAYNESVILLE, N.C. - A pastor who led a charge to kick out nine church members who refused to support President Bush was the talk of the town Saturday in this mountain hamlet, with ousted congregants considering hiring a lawyer.

Pastor Chan Chandler greeted people at the door of tiny East Waynesville Baptist Church on Saturday evening as the church choir practiced and even welcomed them to attend services Sunday morning - if there's room inside. But he was not prepared to talk about his mixing of religion and politics.

"On the advice of counsel, I've been advised not to have any comment at this time," Chandler told The Associated Press. "We will have a statement later."

Members of the congregation said Chandler told them during last year's presidential campaign that anyone who planned to vote for Democratic nominee John Kerry needed to leave the church.

Longtime member Selma Morris, who was treasurer at the church, said Chandler's sermons remained political after Bush won re-election. This past week, his comments turned to politics again at a church gathering that ended with nine members voted out.

Morris said Saturday that some of the ousted members planned to meet with an attorney on Monday to discuss their options. "We're hoping he (the attorney) will make him leave so that the church members can come back," she said.

"This is very disturbing," said Pastor Robert Prince III, who leads the congregation at the nearby First Baptist Church. "I've been a pastor for more than 25 years, and I have never seen church members voted out for something like this."

Those who are still members did not know if the church would be open for services Sunday, or if Chandler would be in the pulpit to preach.

The 100-member East Waynesville Baptist Church sits on a bluff a short distance from downtown Waynesville, a mountain town about 125 miles northwest of Charlotte. A white steeple and stain glass windows adorn the simple brick structure, built in 1965, with a view of the mountains from the front steps.

Across the street sits the church's parsonage, a small brick ranch home with children's toys scattered in the front lawn. A small wooden sign out front reads simply "The Chandlers." No one answered the phone there on Saturday.

In the days since the nine members were ousted, many more members have reportedly left the church in protest.

"He went on and on about how he's going to bring politics up, and if we didn't agree with him, we should leave," Isaac Sutton told The News and Observer of Raleigh. "I think I deserve the right to vote for who I want to."

Sutton, a deacon who worshipped at East Waynesville Baptist Church for the past 12 years, said he and his wife were among the nine voted out.

"I've been going to this church for 25 years and I've never had a problem," Sutton's wife, Lorene, told The Associated Press on Friday. "He's young and he thinks he knows everything."

Other former members of the church declined to speak with a reporter Saturday, citing the advice of their attorney. But the furor over politics at the church was the talk of Waynesville, a community of about 9,200 residents.

"It's just an outrage for something like this to happen in America," said Heidi Jenkins, 52, as she held a garage sale at her home down the street from the church.

Prince said he noticed during the presidential campaign that more pastors made endorsements - although not from the pulpit - than in past years.

"It used to be that pastors would speak about the issues and not specific candidates," he said. "I think that line is being crossed."

Wrong Woman Buried After Morgue Mixup

May 8, 8:22 PM (ET)

CHICAGO (AP) - Two grieving families were shocked to discover recently that their loved ones' bodies, which were driven to the county morgue in the same van, had been mistakenly swapped and sent to the wrong funeral homes.

One of the families buried the wrong person in their mother's grave, while the other family noticed the error when they viewed the body in an open casket.

Roger Taylor, whose sister Vivian Fairman died on April 21, said he asked an attendant at the funeral home if they were at the wrong chapel.

"I said, 'Miss, that's not my sister,'" Taylor said. "We were just confounded. It still hurts."

The fault lies with a city contractor hired to transport the dead to the morgue, said Cook County Medical Examiner Edmund Donoghue.

GSSP Enterprise Inc. of Chicago appears to have violated rules against transporting more than one body at a time, he added.

"When they arrived, we handed them the toe tag and paperwork, and they put the tags on the wrong bodies," Donoghue said.

GSSP won a $1.4 million contract last July under a city pilot program. The Chicago Police Department previously handled the job of delivering bodies to the morgue.

GSSP officials could not be reached for comment Sunday. A listing for the company could not be found in local telephone directories and a phone number found on the Internet was disconnected.

Similarities in the dead women may have contributed to the error, the medical examiner said.

"If one had been a male and if one had been white, of course, this wouldn't have occurred," Donoghue said. "But they were two black females, and they were about 10 years apart. We've told the families we were very sorry for the mistake."

Donoghue said the mix-up began when GSSP picked up the body of Vivian Fairman, 69, who had been discovered dead from a heart attack in her Chicago apartment by her brother.

The same GSSP van then answered another call to pick up the body of South Side resident Tonia Battle, 62, who also died of natural causes, Donoghue said.

At the request of Fairman's family, Spencer Leak & Sons Funeral Home picked up a body at the morgue identified as Vivian Fairman. But when the family came to view the body, they found a stranger (Battle) in the casket.

Meanwhile, A.A. Rayner & Sons Funeral Home had picked up Fairman's body, identified as Tonia Battle.

"We had the family come in and identify their loved one, and they thought that it was her," said A.A. Rayner co-owner Charles Childs. "We held a visitation, a funeral and burial. At no time did we hear from the family that this wasn't their loved one. If they thought it to themselves, it was not expressed to us. We offer both families our condolences."

After the mix-up was discovered by Fairman's family, Battle's body was returned to the morgue. Fairman's body was disinterred from Mount Hope Cemetery in Blue Island and is now buried in Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip. Her funeral was performed on May 2 without her body.

Congratuations, Lady Rain!

Have a wonderful journey and a great birthday!