IDIOTIC WAYS TO DIE

[+ Charlie]

4 hours ago, newatthis said:

Thanks to @mike carey and @Luv2play for their responses.  I did google it myself later in the day and found the explanation.  But both @mike carey and wikipedia seemed to think that "Operation Market Garden" was something I would know about.  Am I really so out of things?  Is this something well-known to the most people?

It is something that is known to most people who are interested in World War Two history. E.g., my uncle was killed in battle in Germany in 1945, so of course I know a lot about that period.

[Luv2play]

6 hours ago, newatthis said:

Thanks to @mike carey and @Luv2play for their responses.  I did google it myself later in the day and found the explanation.  But both @mike carey and wikipedia seemed to think that "Operation Market Garden" was something I would know about.  Am I really so out of things?  Is this something well-known to the most people?

During WWII major strategic operations decisions were given these quixotic names, perhaps for security reasons during the planning stages. Names like Operation Overlord ( D-Day), Operation Torch (African invasion), Operation Jupiter (Norway), etc. 

Historians and fans of reading about the war are the only people familiar with these names. 

[Luv2play]

9 hours ago, SouthOfTheBorder said:

if you’ve been to India - you would not make that statement 

I guess you haven’t taken notice of the fact that India is now part of the BRICS group of countries that over the next 20 years are expected to achieve parity with the most developed countries. At least that is the path they are on.
India with its 1.42billion people has a GDP of over $10,000 per capita. Like China if you ignore the billion or so who are mired in poverty, the rest which number in the hundreds of millions, enjoy an educational and wealth status like those in the upper reaches of the developed world. 

They left the third world quite some time ago. 

Edited January 23, 2024 by Luv2play

[mike carey]

7 hours ago, newatthis said:

Thanks to @mike carey and @Luv2play for their responses.  I did google it myself later in the day and found the explanation.  But both @mike carey and wikipedia seemed to think that "Operation Market Garden" was something I would know about.  Am I really so out of things?  Is this something well-known to the most people?

On reflection, guilty as charged, so sorry for that. At first I was only familiar with the name of the operation from the film but have read more about it since. As others have said, knowledge of the battles themselves or the film are a snapshot of a certain time now well in the past. Unconsciously I had been answering the question, 'Is the term a bridge too far really about an actual bridge that was too far away to be captured in WW2', rather than what you wanted to know.

[Luv2play]

I started it all with my remark that “inconceivable “ was “a bridge too far” 

It started with a poster calling something axiomatic. That was followed by another saying “self evident”or “unquestionable”, both synonyms to axiomatic. Then another said “incontrovertible”, another synonym. Then another poster said “inconceivable”.

That was the “bridge too far” as I saw it meaning you don’t expect us to go there, do you? OK a bit obscure. My idea of humour. 

[+ newatthis]

17 hours ago, Luv2play said:

During WWII major strategic operations decisions were given these quixotic names, perhaps for security reasons during the planning stages. Names like Operation Overlord ( D-Day), Operation Torch (African invasion), Operation Jupiter (Norway), etc. 

Historians and fans of reading about the war are the only people familiar with these names. 

I'm not a particular fan of WWII history, but Torch and Overlord are familiar to me.  Market Garden and Jupiter are a bridge too far.

[samhexum]

A Colorado teen died after he jumped into an electrified lake while celebrating on the 4th of July, according to reports.

Jesse Hamric, 18, dove into the water at Smith Mountain Lake outside Roanoke, Virginia, early Thursday, and friends immediately noticed something was wrong.

The friends jumped in after Hamric and felt themselves getting shocked upon entering the water. Despite their own injuries, they were able to pull Hamric out, according to WDBJ.

One of the friends began CPR on Hamric while another called for help.

Rescue crews arrived around 4 a.m. and rushed Hamric to a hospital, where he later died. His two friends suffered minor injuries.

No foul play is suspected in the death.

A native of Steamboat Springs, Hamric had been visiting friends with his family at the time of the freak accident.

An investigation by fire crews detected electrical currents in the water where the teen died, and police determined it was caused by stray voltage spreading from a dock at a nearby private residence.

He had just graduated in May from high school, where he excelled on the football and baseball teams.

“Ever since I first met that kid, I mean, he’s like one of a kind,” friend Alex Schwab told KDVR. “You see him and you just, like, he always has a smile on his face.”

“Still can’t even like process it. I’m so upset by it,” he added.

This is just such an awful story and I can't imagine how anyone involved is processing it.  The kid's parents' lives are shattered, his friends must be dealing with grief and survivor guilt, and the homeowners must be devastated.

[CuriousByNature]

20 hours ago, samhexum said:

A Colorado teen died after he jumped into an electrified lake while celebrating on the 4th of July, according to reports.

Jesse Hamric, 18, dove into the water at Smith Mountain Lake outside Roanoke, Virginia, early Thursday, and friends immediately noticed something was wrong.

The friends jumped in after Hamric and felt themselves getting shocked upon entering the water. Despite their own injuries, they were able to pull Hamric out, according to WDBJ.

One of the friends began CPR on Hamric while another called for help.

Rescue crews arrived around 4 a.m. and rushed Hamric to a hospital, where he later died. His two friends suffered minor injuries.

No foul play is suspected in the death.

A native of Steamboat Springs, Hamric had been visiting friends with his family at the time of the freak accident.

An investigation by fire crews detected electrical currents in the water where the teen died, and police determined it was caused by stray voltage spreading from a dock at a nearby private residence.

He had just graduated in May from high school, where he excelled on the football and baseball teams.

“Ever since I first met that kid, I mean, he’s like one of a kind,” friend Alex Schwab told KDVR. “You see him and you just, like, he always has a smile on his face.”

“Still can’t even like process it. I’m so upset by it,” he added.

This is just such an awful story and I can't imagine how anyone involved is processing it.  The kid's parents' lives are shattered, his friends must be dealing with grief and survivor guilt, and the homeowners must be devastated.

Shockingly sad

 

[samhexum]

Well, they DO say red meat is bad for you…

British officials recently determined the shocking and tragic way that a Welsh man died last year.

The Western Telegraph reported that Barry Griffiths, 57, died after accidentally knifing himself while separating frozen burgers in June 2023. Officials announced the results of the investigation at a coroner’s court hearing on Monday.

Griffiths, a resident of Llandrindod Wells, had been trying to separate the frozen burgers with a knife when he stabbed himself in the stomach. During Monday’s hearing, coroner Patricia Morgan said Griffiths had reduced mobility in one of his arms after a stroke, which likely led to the freak accident.

Tragically, Griffiths’ body remained in his apartment for several days after his death. Morgan noted that Griffiths “[had a] relatively private life with limited contact with others,” which was why it took over a week for police to conduct a wellness check.

[samhexum]

 

Horrifying video captures Hawaii cliff jumper’s final moments as he plummets to his death

Santiago Bourdieu, a 28-year-old rugby player and fitness instructor, got a running start as he catapulted toward the cliff’s edge — but then plummeted straight down the cliff’s rocky, 50-foot face.

[samhexum]

The man charged in the deadly shooting of an 11-year-old Texas boy was “waiting in the shadows” as the child and his cousin played a “ding-dong ditch” prank on his Houston home, police said. The suspect followed the boys as they ran away before he opened fire, according to Houston Police Sgt. Michael Cass, the lead detective on the case.

Cass told CBS News the suspect was “waiting in the shadows in his own side yard behind a fence” after the boy and his cousin knocked on his door Saturday night and ran away.

The boy, identified by police as Julian Guzman, was attending a family gathering about a block away in the east Houston neighborhood, and after getting bored, decided to go with his 10-year-old cousin and play ding-dong ditch, in which pranksters ring the doorbell or knock on the door of a home and then run away. Police said the two cousins had knocked three times on the suspect’s door within a span of about 15 minutes.

On the third knock, the cousins ran as fast as they could, but the homeowner was waiting behind the fence in his yard. Guzman was recording the incident on his phone, police said, showing himself knocking and running. Shots are heard on the video, police said, and there is audio of the boy gasping.

Guzman’s cousin told police he didn’t know what to do, only what he had seen in movies, so he tried to pick him up.

The boys appeared as children, “not threatening in any way,” Cass said.

Guzman was wounded when police arrived at the scene and taken to a local hospital, where he was pronounced dead on Sunday, police said.

Gonzalo Leon Jr., 42, has been charged with murder and booked into the Harris County jail, according to online records. A judge set Leon’s bond at $1 million Wednesday “due to the ongoing investigation and potential upgrade of the charges.”

Police said Leon is a former Army veteran who was deployed and spent time in the reserves. He was disabled in combat and honorably discharged, his defense attorney said at his court appearance Wednesday.

A handgun, 20 other guns and tactical and smoke grenades were found during a search of his home, police said.

“Looked like he may have been a collector of firearms,” Cass said.

Police said they found Leon at a hotel in La Porte, Texas, with a packed car. The hotel room was booked for three days, Cass said.

Leon, his wife and 2-year-old child went to the hotel because media was surrounding their home, his defense attorney said.

[samhexum]

Two Pennsylvania teens are facing charges after prosecutors said they drove their friends on dangerous TikTok-inspired stunts, killing one and causing what are expected to be lifelong injuries to another.

While the district attorney’s office called out TikTok and Instagram by name, similar videos have appeared on other apps and social media sites as well.

A TikTok spokesperson said videos involving table and car surfing violate the company’s community guidelines and that 99.8% of them are removed proactively, and 92.4% of videos removed for violating the app’s rules are taken down before anyone views them.

The incidents were unrelated to one another and involved different stunts, but both happened in Northampton County, 85 miles west of New York City and 80 miles north of Philadelphia.

In one case, a 17-year-old died on June 1 while riding on top of a folding table tied to the back of his friend’s car, according to Northampton County District Attorney Stephen Baratta.

Prosecutors said the friend recklessly drove too fast and “whipped the rider sitting on the table into another parked vehicle, resulting in [his] death,” Baratta’s office said in a statement.

The victim in that case was identified as David Nagy, 17, FOX 29 Philadelphia reported.

In the other case, a 19-year-old woman allegedly drove through a parking lot with her 20-year-old friend “surfing” on her trunk on March 18.

The woman on the trunk fell off and suffered “catastrophic head injuries that will be permanent in nature,” Baratta’s office said.

Neither teen is accused of “criminogenic thinking,” meaning they are not accused of planning to hurt their friends.

However, Baratta said, they are allegedly criminally culpable because the incidents were “so grossly negligent and reckless.”

“The families did have a closeness and a trust with these close friends — I mean they knew them very well,” Baratta told reporters at a news briefing attended by FOX 29. “That’s what’s so heartbreaking in this case.”

Baratta added that neither driver has a criminal record and neither victim’s family is “calling out for incarceration.”

As a result, he said his office won’t seek jail time for either of them if they agree to plea deals.

He said the families want to use the cases in the hope that other teens will make better decisions.

“These families are seeking accountability and hope that these charges will result in deterrence for other youth who may find themselves attracted to the thrill of mimicking dangerous social media challenges that have the potential to injure others,” his statement said.The dangerous stunts are not just limited to Pennsylvania. A similar car surfing stunt in Utah left a 15-year-old girl with a severe brain injury last year.