HOME |
RSS | 
We’ve all had a string of bad luck – but Kacee Larson’s is quite unusual. The Iowa teen has earned the nickname "Deer Magnet" after hitting 5 deer in the past year:
Seventeen-year-old Kacee Larson of Conrad said her string of bad luck began last July when she was driving home from her job at an ice cream shop. She saw the deer an instant before hitting it.
Larson’s second collision happened a few months later, while she was driving to church on a Sunday morning.
The streak continued. After Larson hit her fourth deer, her pastor’s wife advised her to start praying before she got into a vehicle.
Sometimes it’s better to just walk away from an argument. Or something like that.
A 23-year-old man jumped from a moving vehicle Thursday evening after his wife refused to “shut up,” according to a Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office report.
The report by Deputy Blake Neblett says the man, who was traveling with his wife and three children to Clarksville on Guthrie Highway, was arguing with his wife and told her to shut up.
When she refused, the man jumped from the moving vehicle
Link via reddit | Photo (unrelated) from the US Department of Energy
Marion Zock, 82, knows the importance of keeping an appointment:
An elderly Michigan woman who accidentally crashed her car into a hair salon while attempting to park said she stuck around the scene to keep her appointment.[...]
Police said there were two injuries reported as a result of Zock’s crash into the store, an employee who returned to work later in the day and a young girl whose arm was bruised.
Zock said she remained at a salon to keep her appointment
Link via Stuff | Photo: Big Pond News
So. Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you know by now that Tiger Woods got into a car accident on Friday morning. A media frenzy followed, fueled by a rumor of Tiger’s infidelity and his silence over the whole thing. Today, he announced that he wouldn’t play in his own golf tournament.
Talking heads proclaim that the public is due an explanation, and that the story simply isn’t going to go away without a public accounting of who (Tiger) had done what (or whom, as it were implied).
No, this post isn’t about Tiger, his accident, alleged affair, or whatnot. I don’t care about that – but what is interesting to me is why people care about such matters. If you follow this kind of news, let me ask you: what is it about celebrities that capture your fancy? What is so interesting about Jon and Kate, or Brad and Angelina or whomever.
Jaye L. Derrick and Shira Gabriel of the Department of Psychology, University at Buffalo, SUNY, published a study that "connections" to celebrities or parasocial relationships, allow people with low self-esteem to view themselves more positively:
The current research demonstrates that parasocial relationships can have self-enhancing benefits for low self-esteem people that they do not receive in real relationships. These parasocial relationships, which have very low risk of rejection, offer low self-esteem people an opportunity to reduce their self-discrepancies and feel closer to their ideal selves.
“Even ‘fake’ relationships with celebrities, relationships without any actual contact, can have benefits for the self,” the authors conclude. “We found that parasocial relationships can sometimes have benefits for people with low-self esteem that ‘real’ relationships do not.”
Or is it genetics? Duke University Medical Center neurobiologist Michael Platt found that adult rhesus macaque monkeys would pay (by giving up their favorite drink, Juicy Juice cheery juice) to look at images of dominant "celebrity" monkey of their pack.
So here’s my question to you again: What’s so captivating about celebrities?
(Photo: Jim Epler [Flickr])
Four-year-old Turkish boy Muhammet Dirlik is one lucky boy: he was hit by a car, which sent him tumbling down a flight of stairs. But what seems like a surely fatal accident left Muhammet unscathed.
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube], and quick, someone stop M. Night Shyamalan before Signs or The Happening happens or we’re doomed!
Previously: Life Imitates Final Destination: Woman Who Missed Air France Flight 447 Died in a Car Crash 2 Weeks Later
Fifteen-year-old Jesse Jakan passed the written exam and taken a driving course, so he was excited to get his driving permit … except for one teeny tiny glitch: he caused a car accident when he was 6, and the DMV never forgets.
Jesse said the DMV asked him if he had ever driven before. He said "No." He said a DMV supervisor then told him he had a driving record and needed to have his license/permit reinstated.
"At the time, I was furious," said Chris Jakan, Jesse’s dad. "I thought it was the most absurd thing I had ever heard."
When Jesse was 6 years old he was playing around in his mom’s car and popped it out of gear. The car rolled down the driveway and crashed into another car.
"This is ridiculous. A 6-year-old should not be held accountable for his actions at that age," said Chris Jakan. "I am just wondering why a 6-year-old would have been ticketed for driving a car when he wasn’t driving. He popped it out of gear by accident."
Link – Thanks Tiffany!
Remember the adage "no good deed goes unpunished?" Well, Jim Moffett was helping two elderly women and a man cross a busy Denver street in a snowstorm when a pickup went straight at them – Jim pushed the three out of the way, but got struck himself.
His reward for being a Good Samaritan? A jaywalking ticket:
Family members said 58-year-old bus driver Jim Moffett and another man were helping two elderly women cross a busy Denver street in a snowstorm when he was hit Friday night.
Moffett suffered bleeding in the brain, broken bones, a dislocated shoulder and a possible ruptured spleen. He was in serious but stable condition Wednesday.
The Colorado State Patrol issued the citation. Trooper Ryan Sullivan said that despite Moffett’s intentions, jaywalking contributed to the accident.
Previously on Neatorama: Suing a Good Samaritan
Lee Redmond of Salt Lake City, Utah, was listed in the Guinness Book of World Records for having the longest fingernails in the world. Totalling over 28 feet long, she was once offered $10,000 by a Japanese television program to cut her fingernails:
Redmond’s nails, which hadn’t been cut since 1979, were broken in the crash. According to the Guinness Web site, her nails measured a total of more than 28 feet long in 2008, with the longest nail on her right thumb at 2 feet, 11 inches.
Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Lt. Don Hutson says Redmond was ejected from an SUV in the crash and taken to the hospital in serious condition.
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by Geekazoid.
A very brave 9 year old boy carried his friend home after he was injured by a hit-and-run driver in an SUV. This story goes to show that you don’t have to be big and strong to be a hero.
Police said the vehicle stopped long enough for someone to get out, remove the bike from underneath the car, and leave the scene.In the meantime, nine-year-old Ruben Nuncio said he threw his injured friend over his shoulder and carried him home.
