After their bomber crashed in Japan in 1945, eight American Airmen were taken to Kyushu University Medical School and dissected alive. (article)
The so-called experiments performed on the living prisoners at the Kyushu University medical school included the removal of a whole lung, a stomach, and a liver, as well as pieces of brain.
After taking out one prisoner’s liver, a surgeon was heard to say, “This is a removal of the liver and we are going to see how long the man would live without his liver.”
To Catch a Predator was cancelled because a Texas District Attorney committed suicide after being caught exchanging photos with an underage boy (article)
‘Band of Brothers’ strived for historical accuracy to such an extent that multiple WWII veterans were flown in from all over the world to advise on the weaponry, battle tactics, and combat situations. As a final check, the veterans screened previews of each episode prior to their release
We Stand Alone Together – Band of Brothers Documentary:
Taco Bell tried twice to enter the Mexican market. Both times failed spectacularly, locals decried the food as inauthentic and a joke. (article)
At that first Monterrey location, Taco Bell made no attempts to hide how gringo-ish its food really was. French fries and soft-serve ice cream proudly held forth on the menu; Steven Pepper, the Yum! Brands Managing Director of Mexico admitted, “Our menu comes almost directly from the US menu.” In fact, a half-page newspaper ad that ran at the time came straight out and told the public, “One look alone is enough to tell that Taco Bell is not a ‘taqueria.’ It is a new fast-food alternative that does not pretend to be Mexican food.”
Van Halen stipulated in their performance contracts that a bowl of M&M’s, with all of the brown M&M’s removed, was to be placed in their dressing room. They didn’t do this to be jerks, but as a simple test to see if more important safety and quality specifications were attended to as well.
According to David Lee Roth, this was listed in the technical portion of the contract not because the band wanted to make capricious demands of the venue, but rather as a test of whether or not the contract had actually been thoroughly read and honored, as it contained other requirements involving legitimate safety concerns. If the bowl was present, then the band members could safely assume the other, legitimate, items in the technical rider were being fulfilled to their satisfaction. Conversely, if the bowl was missing, or brown M&M’s were present, then the band members would be within their rights to have the venue inspect the work, ask that it be redone, etc. Their concern for safety was real: during their earlier tours, not only had equipment been damaged, but several members of their road crew were nearly electrocuted, both due to inadequate safety measures and preparation on the part of the local venue.
Teddy Roosevelt actually watched Abraham Lincoln’s funeral procession in 1865 when he was 6. In fact, there’s a photograph with a young Roosevelt sitting on a balcony as the casket went by.
Look at the open second-floor window between shutters in this photograph, and you will see two little boys. President Theodore Roosevelt’s widow, Edith, identified one of them as her husband at the age of 6, looking down from his grandfather’s Union Square mansion onto the coffin of the assassinated Abraham Lincoln on Broadway in New York in April 1865.
Teddy Roosevelt’s diary entry from the day his wife Alice died from child birth and his mother died of typhoid fever. He never spoke publicly about his wife again.
His diary entry from Feb 16th, 1884 and Feb 17th, 1884:
Alice Hathaway Lee, born at Chestnut Hill, July 29th 1861. I saw her first on Oct __ 1878; I wooed her for over a year before I won her; we were betrothed on Jan 25th 1880, and it was announced on Feb 16th; on Oct 27th of the same year we were married; we spent three years of happiness greater and more unalloyed than I have ever known fall to the lot of others; on Feb 12th 1884 her baby was born, and on Feb 14th she died in my arms; As my mother had died in the same house, on the same day, but a few hours previously. On Feb 16th they were buried together in Greenwood.
On Feb 17th I christened the baby Alice Lee Roosevelt.
For joy or for sorrow my life has now been lived out.
In the 1960’s the Sugar Industry funded and selectively picked skewed studies that helped blame saturated fat with causing heart disease instead of sugar (article)
The documents show that a trade group called the Sugar Research Foundation, known today as the Sugar Association, paid three Harvard scientists the equivalent of about $50,000 in today’s dollars to publish a 1967 review of research on sugar, fat and heart disease. The studies used in the review were handpicked by the sugar group, and the article, which was published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, minimized the link between sugar and heart health and cast aspersions on the role of saturated fat.
While a 20 year old Rod Serling was serving in WWII, he saw his best friend killed by a falling crate of food. Seeing the unpredictability and irony of life and death, he would later use that experience to create, ‘The Twilight Zone’
For a variety of reasons, Serling was transferred to the 511th’s demolition platoon, nicknamed “The Death Squad” for its high casualty rate. According to Sergeant Frank Lewis, leader of the demolitions squad, “He screwed up somewhere along the line. Apparently he got on someone’s nerves.” Lewis also judged that Serling was not suited to be a field soldier: “he didn’t have the wits or aggressiveness required for combat.” At one point, Lewis, Serling, and others were in a firefight, trapped in a foxhole. As they waited for darkness, Lewis noticed that Serling had not reloaded any of his extra magazines. Serling sometimes went exploring on his own, against orders, and got lost.
Serling’s time in Leyte shaped his writing and political views for the rest of his life. He saw death every day while in the Philippines, at the hands of his enemies and his allies, and through freak accidents such as that which killed another Jewish private, Melvin Levy. Levy was delivering a comic monologue for the platoon as it rested under a palm tree when a food crate was dropped from a plane above, decapitating him. Serling led the funeral services for Levy and placed a Star of David over his grave. Serling later set several of his scripts in the Philippines and used the unpredictability of death as a theme in much of his writing.
Ishi, the last native American Yahi. Due to Yahi customs a person may not speak his name until formally introduced by another Yahi. When asked for his name he’d say “I have none, because there were no people to name me.” Ishi is the name given by a anthropologist, translated as “man”.
There’s a man like him in Brazil today. He lives alone in the Amazon rainforest and avoids contact. He’s probably the only survivor of a tribe that was wiped out by loggers. Nobody knows what his name is or what language he speaks.
In light of the violence caused by kids trying to obtain limited Jordan’s, Hakeem Olajuwon released a cheap, $15 shoe and try and end the appeal of expensive shoe wear, stating: “How can a poor working mother with three boys buy Nikes or Reeboks that cost $120?” (article)
German airplanes “Stuka” did not make that screaming sound when diving because of their engine , but because they had small fans attached to the front of their landing gear that acted as siren. This will “weaken enemy morale and enhance the intimidation of dive-bombing”
The Son of Sam laws that state convicted criminals cannot profit in any way from their crimes whether it be from books, tv, film, etc. All proceeds from these deals go directly to the victims or their families.
However, courts have frequently struck down these laws on First Amendment grounds
The law required that any profits obtained from works describing a crime be withheld and made available to the victims. All monies received would be paid to the New York Crime Victims Board and held in escrow for five years. To claim the funds, the victim would have to obtain a civil money judgment against the criminal within this period.
A prison in Washington has created a program called Cuddly Catz,where prisoners are given a cat,which would otherwise probably be euthanized,to care for. (article)
I worked as a CO in a prison and we had a similar program like this but with dogs instead of cats. Every inmate that was housed in a particular dorm was given a dog for 6 weeks to train and teach a few tricks to. After the 6 weeks, the dog would be sent away for adoption and they would receive a new dog shortly after.
The dorm had a waiting list over 2 years long and there were strict requirements to be accepted and to stay (no write ups or any other disciplinary actions). The inmates that lived in that dorm very rarely got into trouble and put a lot of effort into keeping their spot.
When I got a new dog one of the inmates showed me how to use clicker techniques and what he taught me helped me teach my dog many things.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.