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Our earth is a dynamic place that moves and changes with no regard to humans or anyone else. Every once in a while, those changes occur rapidly and powerfully. Cracked looks at five events that left behind some serious scars, like the 1883 explosion of Krakatoa.
The blast was the equivalent of 200 megatons of TNT. For perspective, the largest explosion ever made by humans was the detonation of a Russian hydrogen bomb, which was 50 megatons. That blast broke windows in buildings 560 miles away. Krakatoa was four times that; the cloud it generated wiped entire villages off the map 25 miles away and created a tsunami that traveled all the way to South Africa. That wasn’t all Krakatoa’s neighbors got for their birthday that year; giant pieces of rock and coral reef fell from the sky as well.
Now get this: Krakatoa is only number five on the list. Link
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Lights, camera, disaster! Celebrities are like children, children with piles of cash and giant egos, and when you squeeze that many egos into one room during a highly televised music awards ceremony, something is bound to explode. From Kanye to Clay, check out these ceremonial bombs, with video evidence. Like the 2009 Tony Awards, when Brett Michaels was knocked flat off his feet.
In interviews before the show Michaels, the Poison front-man, couldn’t stop talking about how excited he was to be performing at the Tony Awards. He was definitely singing a different tune at the end of the night. At the end of his act on stage, Bret clotheslined himself on a giant prop while trying to get off stage. Michaels’ nose was fractured and he required three stitches in his lip. The Tony spokespeople claim that Michaels missed his mark, pretty much implying that it was all his fault. The Poison singer says that the production people hadn’t given him enough time to safely get off stage.
From the Upcoming 
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A century and a half ago, 20 people died and many other became ill because their local candy distributor knew a bargain when he saw one.
On October 23, 1858, William “Humbug Billy” Hardaker, sold peppermint lozenges to the good people of Bradford, England, as he usually did. This particular Saturday he had the good luck to buy his batch of mints at discount because of their substandard appearance. By the time he fell sick that afternoon, he had sold enough lozenges to satisfy some 200 peoples’ sweet tooth. The next day, still ill, Hardaker had to explain to the police why everyone who ate his candy was either getting sick or dying.
The answer makes you glad we have laws about food ingredients these days. This story is part of 5 Disasters That Could Have Been Avoided. Link -Thanks, Sami!
It’s often difficult to help children cope with crises and disasters, so FEMA came up with this idea (brilliant or silly? Your call): a children’s coloring book of disasters. Now, the coloring book has been yanked from FEMA’s website after some people complained:
The coloring book, titled “A Scary Thing Happened,” was created after the tornadoes in Glenville as a tool for children to use with a responsible parent or adult to help cope with the disaster, said Rose Olmsted, coordinator of the Freeborn County Crisis Response Team, on Wednesday. It has since been widely distributed across the country to aid children in other disasters.
Olmsted said she has not received a clear explanation from FEMA about why the coloring book is being taken down from the FEMA Web site, other than that the organization is redesigning its Web site and that there was a complaint from a parent about some of the images in the book. The cover features an image of the Twin Towers, with one tower already on fire and a plane approaching the other tower. A similar image is inside the book for children to color.
Sarah Stultz of Abert Lea Tribune has the story: Link – via On Deadline
