darwin awards winner my faverot (click here for link)
good morning
hope you are feeling warm in this cold weather, my thoughts are often turned to those who arn't fortunate like myself to have a roof over my head, i have a real heart for people without homes who have to sleep rough , the weather here is so so cold now and where i live there arn't even shelters for people to sleep in the bus stop is often every night not even a safe place for a rough sleeper. so i urge you to if you don't already to soften your hearts towards people less fortunate its so easy to just turn a blind eye but no matter where you live there will always be poverty like this. show kindness, smile say hello . it may not always be appropriate but it will be worth it and I'm sure you will be blessed by Heavenly Father for showing Christ like Love.
hope you are feeling warm in this cold weather, my thoughts are often turned to those who arn't fortunate like myself to have a roof over my head, i have a real heart for people without homes who have to sleep rough , the weather here is so so cold now and where i live there arn't even shelters for people to sleep in the bus stop is often every night not even a safe place for a rough sleeper. so i urge you to if you don't already to soften your hearts towards people less fortunate its so easy to just turn a blind eye but no matter where you live there will always be poverty like this. show kindness, smile say hello . it may not always be appropriate but it will be worth it and I'm sure you will be blessed by Heavenly Father for showing Christ like Love.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nohome/ (see link for uk info)
well I've just woke up and I'm freezing cold again its really winter here now after the rather too warm start.
there's a very funny (also abit not funny) story which has to be my favorite of all the Darwin awards.
if you've not heard about the Darwin awards its a compilation every year of the silly and sheer stupid things us humans are capable of often and mostly resulting in sadly death for the person but the one i want to share with you is from one of the very few people in the Darwin awards who didn't die from the actual story mentioned but did take his life years later very sad. its not the ending i like but how he got to the point of the award. so here goes.....
Lawn Chair Larry 1982 Honorable Mention Confirmed True by Darwin
(1982, California) 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 lawn chair. He purchased 45 weather balloons from an Army-Navy surplus store, tied them to his tethered lawn chair dubbed the Inspiration I, and filled the 4' diameter balloons with helium. Then he strapped himself into his lawn chair 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 lawn chair 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."
well I've just woke up and I'm freezing cold again its really winter here now after the rather too warm start.
there's a very funny (also abit not funny) story which has to be my favorite of all the Darwin awards.
if you've not heard about the Darwin awards its a compilation every year of the silly and sheer stupid things us humans are capable of often and mostly resulting in sadly death for the person but the one i want to share with you is from one of the very few people in the Darwin awards who didn't die from the actual story mentioned but did take his life years later very sad. its not the ending i like but how he got to the point of the award. so here goes.....
Lawn Chair Larry 1982 Honorable Mention Confirmed True by Darwin
(1982, California) 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 lawn chair. He purchased 45 weather balloons from an Army-Navy surplus store, tied them to his tethered lawn chair dubbed the Inspiration I, and filled the 4' diameter balloons with helium. Then he strapped himself into his lawn chair 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 lawn chair 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."
posted by caz @ 7:40 am
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