lazypadawan's Holocron

A student in Maryland decided to have dinner with his roommate, literally:

http://www.cnn.com/2012/05/31/justice/maryland-alleged-cannibal/index.html?hpt=hp_t3

Last night marked the 100th anniversary of the RMS Titanic's sinking after it struck an iceberg off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. Over 1500 passengers and crew either drowned or froze to death.

As with any great horrific event that captures and keeps the popular imagination, there are always subsequent stories that suggest alternate theories, curses, and conspiracies.

For the record, I don't doubt the facts surrounding the incident. The boat hit an iceberg by accident, the boat sank faster than anyone expected, even more unexpectedly it broke into two, and victims were hosed more by emergency procedures that proved insufficient than anything else.

But when have facts ever deterred anybody from finding conspiracies?

One guy wrote a book some years ago claiming White Star switched Titanic's identity with a sister ship Olympic, then planned a controlled sinking in an insurance scam. The plan went wrong when it accidentally hit a darkened rescue ship, not an iceberg. The problem is that theory goes against eyewitness accounts, markings from the wreckage, and common sense. Why would you risk the lives of thousands of people, including some of the wealthiest and most prominent people of the day, for that? It's like Cunard deciding to sink the Queen Mary 2 with Donald Trump, Richard Branson, Bill Gates, Carlos Slim, and Oprah Winfrey on board. Even though maritime law was different a century ago in regard to who was liable for a sinking, White Star took a HUGE black eye after its prized baby went down with members of New York society. The money wouldn't have been worth it.

But could there be a curse? Misfortune befell Titanic and its sister ships, Olympic and Britannic. Launched in 1911, HMS Olympic suffered breakdowns and several collisions in its 36 years of existence, though it did survive WWI as a troop transport and it was the only one of its sisters that never sank. The HMHS Britannic was also launched in 1911 but was never used as a civilian passenger ship. It was pressed into service during WWI and sunk by an explosion from a mine or a torpedo while patrolling Greek waters, killing 30 people.

Then there's my favorite, the Curse of the Mummy. Supposedly a famous journalist had smuggled a cursed Egyptian mummy he'd purchased aboard the Titanic and bragged about it to other passengers the night before the sinking. The journalist really was an ill-fated passenger on the ship but there's no evidence he ever owned a mummy or that he took it along with him on the trip.

Still, there are those who suggest a Titanic curse exists, which I guess exempts people named "James Cameron." Now, I don't know who would be nuts enough to take a commemorative cruise that will mark the Titanic's exact route--and I thought I was morbid--but said cruise had been hampered by bad weather and a BBC cameraman's heart attack.

Meanwhile, Robin Gibb, in a coma from severe pneumonia, co-wrote with his son a musical piece inspired by the Titanic that was recently performed for the first time. Curse or not, I wish Mr. Gibb and his family well.

Haunting my local airwaves is this ad for a Nissan dealership. Obviously it's aimed at teens and folks in their 20s: faux flash mobs (not the kind where people are beaten), cheesy dance routines, and the dopiest fads since swallowing goldfish, planking and owling. Some hapless employees at this dealership actually had to plank and owl throughout the ad. But you still can't take your eyes off the ad. You just have to see it to believe it, but I warn you, "I wanna plank right now" will stick in your head like glue:

So at 3:40 p.m. the electricity went off at work thanks to some Homer Simpson at a power plant in Arizona. Fortunately we have some backup generators that kept some lights on and the elevator working, but the computers and air were off, so everybody started to leave once a few phone calls verified the power was out all over the place, not just in our immediate area.

The problem was several million people did the exact same thing at the exact same time. I commute about 35 miles to work and I had just over half a tank of gas. That little fact and the knowledge I couldn't possibly get more gas if power was out everywhere made me very nervous, especially with the stop-and-go traffic jams everywhere. What also made me nervous was the possibility of still being on the road after dark with very few traffic lights working. I brought a granola bar with me but no water. What the heck was I going to do?

I listened to the fog of war playing out on a local a.m. radio station, one of the few that was operational, where the first rumor to come out was power plant explosions in Coachella and Salton Sea. Uh, not quite. But at first nobody seemed to know what was going on or why. All anyone could figure out was there was no power from Laguna Niguel in Orange County to Palm Springs to El Centro to Mexicali to Tijuana, with parts of Yuma, AZ and New Mexico also out of power. L.A. still had power and so did Temecula, a large town just over the line in Riverside County.

To make a long story shorter, it took me over three hours to get home on mostly surface roads. I figured it was better to run out of gas on a residential street in a swanky neighborhood than on the freeway. Actually, aside from the experience of going through countless intersections with no working lights, it wasn't so bad traffic-wise. It helped to save gas by avoiding a lot of stop-and-go traffic and turning off the a.c., especially when I got on the coastal roads. I got home at dusk with just over a quarter tank left.

Fortunately I had a gas stove and lots of bottled water, so I could eat something without opening the fridge. I had a little old transistor t.v. that still worked and picked up analog t.v. signals from Baja California, enjoying some Mexican soaps and some news before going to bed...with the power suddenly snapping back on at 1:15 a.m.. Th'End.

I just donated to the Heart of Missouri United Way (Columbia, MO), which is taking donations for tornado assistance...can't help it, I'm a Mizzou grad ;):

http://www.uwheartmo.org/

And if you're looking to donate to a local Red Cross, visit this link to the United Way of Kansas City:

http://www.unitedwaygkc.org/

Check with local animal shelters or Humane Societies for animal assistance:

www.animalshelter.org/shelters/Missouri.asp

I don't know if the Humane Society in Joplin is still standing, but it's a start. Also check with shelters in Kansas City, Lee's Summit, Independence, Springfield, St. Joseph, Branson, or any shelter serving the Ozarks. They may be helping with animal rescue.

The usual relief/charity organizations like Salvation Army, World Vision, Samaritan's Purse, etc. are either already in or will likely take donations soon.

When you have the late Raffaele Bendandi? Almost a century ago, Bendandi predicted an earthquake will strike Italy today May 11, 2011. Italians took this prediction so seriously, many residents of Rome stayed home or jumped town, or were planning to:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/42942338/ns/world_news-europe/t/romans-gripped-fear-quake-forecast-may/

Bendandi had predicted an earthquake to occur in January 1923 and was off by two days.

Rome is still earthquake-free, but one did hit today in Lorca, Spain, 800 miles away. The death toll now is 10 people. 5.4 isn't all that strong by SoCal standards but unfortunately for Lorca, it was a very shallow quake, only about 1 km deep (of course, that info could change as it often does). Lorca was built by...the ROMANS!!

*Cue X-Files theme.*

(Not to make light out of the poor people killed in this quake.)

The South has been getting it bad this tornado season. Hope my peeps in TN, KY, and thereabouts are okay.

I woke early this morning to see on the news the devastating 8.9 earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan. The videos look like Irwin Allen's worst nightmare or a scene from the end of the world. Japan is suffering powerful aftershocks, troubles with its nuclear plants (just what it needs...Chernobyl 2.0 thrown into the mix), and widespread destruction. Entire towns are history. As of now, over 1000 people are confirmed dead and 88,000 are missing. That includes passengers on four missing bullet trains and missing boats.

The tsunami hit Japan so fast, I don't think those poor people had much of a chance. Dopes on the West Coast who just had to head to the beach despite the tsunami warnings are missing; 8 foot waves have inflicted damage at Crescent City, CA (where ROTJ's Endor scenes were shot).

Far be it from me to believe anything about the 2012 prophecies of the Mayans, Nostradamus, or the late Jeanne Dixon. As a Catholic, I've never been an Endtimer or a believer that anyone can figure out the date of the Apocalypse (some guys are saying it's going to be May 21). But something has to be happening with the gravitational pull on the Earth with all of these big quakes over the past year. Not only is it all over obvious places like the Pacific Rim, places that either aren't known for quakes or rarely have anything noticeable are suddenly getting them. Combined with all of this crazy stuff in Middle East, I'm starting to look for the Four Horsemen.

Just as long as they hold off until after all of the SW movies have been re-released in 3D.

Seriously though, prayers for those affected by this awful disaster.

Updates: Quake upgraded to 9.1, stronger than last year's 8.8 Chilean quake. That ties it with the 2004 Sumatra quake that spawned the monster tsunami as the third strongest in modern history.

There's a reported meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear power plant but thus far it's contained within the facility.

Wow, just about everywhere in America is under a million feet of snow, except for Florida and SoCal.

Locally, it was 66 degrees and sunny. Ha ha!

(P.S....To those on my f-list in the path of Cyclone Yasi, stay safe!)

Category 3 Hurricane Earl will apparently be spending Labor Day weekend first at OBX, then up to Cape Cod/Martha's Vineyard/Nantucket, wreaking havoc and ruining the last big weekend for coastal businesses that could have used the money. That's a shame. Hopefully, residents and vacationers will have the good sense to leave. Katrina was a Category 3, after all.

Now, I'm seeing that a crazy man with a gun, a hostage, and possibly an explosive is running loose inside Discovery Communications' HQ in Maryland. Yes, the people who give you the Discovery Channel, Travel, Animal Planet, etc.:

http://www.tbd.com/articles/2010/09/discovery-communications-headquaters-in-silver-spring-evacuated-7172.html

WUSA News 9 in Washington, D.C. has many ongoing Tweets on the situation, including pix of the gunman and his alleged demands:

http://twitter.com/wusa9

Fortunately, it appears all of the employees and the onsite daycare have been evacuated, but it's not known yet if there are any injuries or deaths.

Update: Gunman shot, hostages freed unharmed.