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President Ronald Reagan survived an assassination attempt on March 30, 1981. This picture was taken shortly before the incident.
The man in the white raincoat is Secret Service agent Jerry Parr; after the shooting, it was Parr who pushed Reagan into a limousine, noticed he was bleeding, and directed the driver to take them to a hospital, probably saving Reagan’s life.
Parr had been inspired to pursue his career by the 1939 film The Code of the Secret Service, in which dashing agent “Brass” Bancroft survives a shooting in Mexico. Bancroft was played by a 28-year-old Ronald Reagan.
You have to wonder what Jerry Parr thought of the coincidence. According to the book Rawhide Down: The Near Assassination of Ronald Reagan, Parr believed afterward that saving the president’s life was God’s plan for him. When he retired from the Secret Service, he became a minister. Link -via Nag on the Lake
Superhero Building Blocks Baby Snapsuit - $17.95
Congratulations on your new baby!
Are you ready to provide your bundle of joy with the proper superhero education? Get your little darling off to the right start by dressing him in the Superhero Building Blocks Baby Snapsuit from the NeatoShop. Your baby will recognize his DC superhero logos in no time.
Be sure to check out all super Snapsuits available at the NeatoShop.
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Captain America Be The Hero Apron – $20.95
Are you looking for an apron that fully expresses your personality? You need the Captain America Be The Hero Apron from the NeatoShop. No meal would dare to turn out bad while you are wearing this full-length apron.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Aprons!
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Are you on the hunt for the perfect gift for a super man in your life? You need the Superman Be The Hero Apron from the NeatoShop. A real man of steel knows his way around a kitchen!
More Be The Hero Aprons available.
Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more super Kitchen Stuff.
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The Humane Society of the United States named Yogi, a golden retriever, the 2011 Valor Dog of the Year for saving his owner’s life after a bicycle accident. Paul Horton of Austin, Texas, went over the handlebars on his mountain bike and landed on his head.
Horton was knocked unconscious. When he woke up, he couldn’t move and was bleeding from the nose and mouth. Yogi was at his side.
For the next 45 minutes, Horton pleaded with the 85-pound dog to go home and get help. Yogi didn’t want to leave. Horton couldn’t yell, and he was out of sight of passers-by, about 100 feet from a dead-end street.
Finally, Yogi headed back to the main road, where Horton’s neighbors Bruce and Maggie Tate were walking. The normally mellow dog barked frantically. The Tates knew something was wrong and followed Yogi to Horton. There, Yogi stood protectively by his friend.
“It’s pretty amazing that Yogi first stayed with Paul when he needed to, then recognized us and came to get us,” Bruce Tate said. “Paul was in desperate shape. He wasn’t in a place where there’s a lot of traffic.”
Doctors found that Horton’s vertebrae had pinched his spinal cord, leaving him paralyzed from the chest down. They credit Yogi with saving Horton’s life. Horton has since regained some sensation, and has limited use of his arms. And Yogi is still his best friend. Link -via Arbroath
(Image credit: Ralph Barrera/American-Statesman)
Comments Off You didn’t really believe that Arnold Schwarzeneggar was going to retire after he left the governor’s office, did you? This concept may be both a TV show and a movie, as well as a comic book. Link -via Buzzfeed
Four-year-old Andrei Pavlov was feeding ducks near his home in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, when he fell through the ice into the freezing water of a pond. A stray dog named Naida immediately began barking frantically.
“She’s not just a dog,” Tatiyana Balashova told Komsomolskaya Pravda. “She’s not a pure bred, but she’s still very special.”
Balashova who usually feeds stray dogs in Krasnoyarsk was the person who reacted to Naida’s alert.
“I heard Naida barking on the pond bank, like she was calling for help. She saw me, ran up, looked at me and ran back to the pond…”
Balashova quickly realised that a child had fallen into the water and rushed to find help from utility service workers, who were luckily close at hand.
“Because of the fact the boy was taken out of water pretty quickly and due to medics’ professionalism, this story had a happy end for Andrei, without any serious consequences,” Vladimir Fokin, the chief doctor at the hospital Andrei was admitted to, told KP.
Andrei spent a few days in the hospital recovering, and is now in satisfactory health. Naida has been adopted by a family that lives 500 km away. The canine adoption was arranged before the near-drowning incident, and the new owners are particularly proud of Naida’s heroism. Link -via Arbroath
This is the story of a dog named Hero. Hero the dog was a good dog who never barked and loved his family very much. One day the family’s house caught on fire. Hero barked as loud as he could and woke everyone up. The family soon discovered their house was on fire. The entire family was able to escape. Hero the dog saved his family. That day Hero the dog became a true hero.
The best part about the story, however, is that Hero was recently injured and was nearly put to sleep.
Their dog had been hit by a car in recent months and suffered a badly broken leg and other injuries. They were given the option to put her down, but they declined.
“She’s our hero and if we wouldn’t have saved her with her leg, she wouldn’t have saved us today,” Rankin said. “I’m getting her the biggest steak that she can eat and want.”
Augustin Zamora was walking his Great Dane Scooby in Chicago Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile, another man was following a 14-year-old girl.
The girl had just gotten off a Diversey Avenue bus near the 2800 block of North Whipple street and was walking home when she noticed a man following her, the Chicago Tribune reported. The man grabbed her as she ran up the stairs to her home, threw her to the ground and began to undress her.
Startled when Scooby and Zamora approached them, the attacker ran into an alley at George Street where he was corner by the team until police arrived.
Police charged 28-year-old Larry Smith with criminal sexual assault. Link -via Buzzfeed, where you can see more pictures of Scooby.
A 97-year-old woman owes her life to her cat Tiger. Sophie Thomas of Clare County, Michigan was caring for her lawn when a pack of dogs approached.
Thomas says, “All of a sudden these four pitbulls came marching in and they surrounded me. They kept going around and around. One of them kind of lunged for me and I hit him on the head and he backed off. Then another came towards me and I was scared stiff. I gave him a wack. All of a sudden, my cat jumped in the middle of it.”
The cat ran towards the garage and the dogs chased after giving Ms. Thomas just enough time to run inside. Fearing the worse for her pet, she waited, and washed her wounds in the sink. That’s when she spotted Tiger at the door. Thinking back she says she owes the cat her life.
Thomas says, “I always thank god that my cat came because she was the one that really helped me out.”
Ms. Thomas suffered minor injuries. The dogs are in quarantine for ten days. Link (with video) -via Arbroath
A 23-year-old Alaskan was in his workshop when a heater unexpectedly ignited some chemicals, and the building suddenly burst into flames. For help, he turned to his dog Buddy:
“I just told him, ‘We need to get help,’ and then that’s the last time I seen him,” Heinrichs told the News-Tribune. “I didn’t train him or nothing. He just took off and went and did what he did. … He was just being a good dog.”
It’s a good thing Buddy sprung into action because trooper Terrence Shanigan, who was responding to the call about a fire, was having trouble with his vehicle’s global positioning system, which wasn’t working properly, reports the News-Tribune. “Shanigan, who almost took the long way around the neighborhood, came across Buddy on Caswell Loop Road,” reports the News-Tribune. “The dog took off, and acting on a hunch, Shanigan followed the dog down a side road.”
The budding young chemist received minor flash burns. Buddy will be receiving a silver-plated dog bowl.
Listverse has ten fascinating stories about animals saving the lives of humans. Four involve dogs, and surprisingly, three stories are about life-saving dolphins!
Davide Ceci was 14 years old and couldn’t swim when he fell out of his Fathers boat in south-east Italy; he was within minutes of death when dolphin Filippo came to his rescue. Filippo had been a popular tourist attraction off Manfredonia in south-east Italy for two years. While Emanuele Ceci was still unaware his son had fallen into the waves, Filippo was pushing him up out of the water to safety. The dolphin bore down on the boat and got close enough for Davide’s father to grab him.
The heroes also include a cat, a calf, and a gorilla. Link -via Look At This
(image credit: Flickr user E-nat)
You never know when you will be called upon to act the hero. For Andy Ingham of Canterbury, England, that time came as he was dressed as a gorilla! Ingham was promoting his gym business by handing out free passes and bananas to passers-by on February 18th. Meanwhile, police were chasing a suspect over a bridge. A female officer tried to arrest the man, but he pushed her down on the bridge and fled.
Mr Ingham said: “When you are in a gorilla suit it is quite hard to see out of it to begin with. You actually have to hold someone’s hand as you walk along otherwise you fall over.
“If I had been able to see I would have rugby-tackled him, but I also had my hands full of bags. So as he ran towards me I jumped in front of him and gave him a really good kick in the legs to try and trip him up so someone else could jump on him.
“He stumbled and nearly fell over and tried to run off down the road, at which point he was apprehended by the rest of the police and taken away.”
The 24-year-old suspect was charged with assault and resisting arrest. Link -via Arbroath
(image credit: Jenny Armstrong)
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A British military pilot managed to get twenty passengers to the ground despite a bullet between his eyes. Flight Lieutenant Ian Fortune was ferrying the wounded from a battle between American troops and the Taliban in Helmand Province, Afghanistan. As he was taking off with a full load of casualties, a bullet ricocheted through the helicopter and struck Fortune in the face.
Further rounds then struck the helicopter’s automatic stabilisation system, shutting it down and making it extremely difficult to fly.
Despite blood streaming into his eyes, Flight Lt Fortune battled with the controls for eight minutes and managed to get the casualties back to Camp Bastion.
TV Presenter Mike Brewer was on the helicopter when the incident happened. He told Sky News:
“It was terrifying. We came under fire just as the ramp was closing. Then just after we’d taken off the Chinook suddenly lurched from side to side and we heard the pilot had been shot.
“The only reason we didn’t plunge straight back into the desert was because of the sheer bravery and skill of Ian and the rest of the crew. They’re all heroes.”
Lt. Fortune is expected to recover from his injuries. Link -via Fark
3-year-old Victoria Bensch wandered away from her home in Cordes Lakes, Arizona last Thursday. She was missing in the nearby mountains overnight while the temperature dipped down to 30 degrees. Fifteen hours later, she was spotted in a dry creek bad by a helicopter pilot. Victoria was accompanied by her dog, Blue. Pilot Matthew Uhl and medic Eric Tarr, who rescued Victoria, believe Blue kept the child warm and safe from predators.
The dog was protective of the child when they first approached, but when the girl smiled, the dog relaxed.
“I think once the dog realized we were there to help them out, he was very excited,” Uhl said.
“He ran around while the medic tended to the little girl, and when it was time to go, he jumped right into the helicopter and was ready to go.”
Victoria was taken to a hospital for frostbite treatment and was found to be healthy. Link -via Arbroath
If I had a Christmas tree, this would be one of the ornaments on it. It just makes sense (Spidey Sense?) that the Webslinger would be hanging out there. Get a load of this and other superhero tree-trimmers at Walyou.
Link. Photo from appaloosa‘s Flickr stream.
Stacy wrote a neat post about 5 ancient technologies that are suspiciously very, very modern but I made a mistake and published it in the past! (If you’re wondering, it’s a matter of me forgetting to update the article’s publication date). So, mea culpa, Stacy! Instead of re-publishing the piece, let me just do a meta-post
Here it is:
Jet engine
A jet engine in the first century B.C.? Perhaps. A jet engine in the first century A.D.? Definitely. The aeolipile is a rocket style jet engine that spins when it’s heated and is the first-ever device known to use steam for a rotary motion. Although it was “invented” in 1698 by Thomas Savery, the original may have been invented in the first century B.C. Roman architect Vitruvius’ De architectura, a work on then-modern architecture written around 25 B.C., includes a device called the aeolipile. However, it has never been verified that his aeolipile (which translates to “ball of Aeolus,” who was the god of the wind, so it’s kind of a generic name that could apply to various inventions) was the aeolipile that we know existed in the first century.That’s the aeolipile that Hero of Alexander wrote about, including a detailed description of how to construct one. The invention credit is usually given to Hero instead of Vitruvius.
We think we live in such modern times, with fabulous inventions that make our lives easier and provide great convenience. But some of those inventions might not be as modern as we think. Take a look at these five inventions that may have been around for thousands of years before we “invented” them.
A jet engine in the first century B.C.? Perhaps. A jet engine in the first century A.D.? Definitely. The aeolipile is a rocket style jet engine that spins when it’s heated and is the first-ever device known to use steam for a rotary motion. Although it was “invented” in 1698 by Thomas Savery, the original may have been invented in the first century B.C. Roman architect Vitruvius’ De architectura, a work on then-modern architecture written around 25 B.C., includes a device called the aeolipile. However, it has never been verified that his aeolipile (which translates to “ball of Aeolus,” who was the god of the wind, so it’s kind of a generic name that could apply to various inventions) was the aeolipile that we know existed in the first century.
That’s the aeolipile that Hero of Alexander wrote about, including a detailed description of how to construct one. The invention credit is usually given to Hero instead of Vitruvius.
That Hero was a pretty smart guy. He also invented the vending machine long before we were prying Kit Kats out of them in our office break rooms. Hero rigged it so that when a coin was dropped into a slot, it fell on a pan, and the weight of it on the pan triggered a lever that opened up a valve that let some holy water flow out to the person who dropped the coin in. The pan kept tilting until the coin fell off of it, and when that happened the valve closed and the water would no longer dispense. The first modern-day vending machine came about in the 1880s, so you could say that Hero was well ahead of his time.
We’ve long thought that the first astronomical clocks didn’t show up until the 14th century in Europe. That all changed in 1900 when a group of divers discovered shipwreck thought to date back to 150-100 BC. A lot of the loot was stuff you might expect from that era – statues, busts, instruments and utensils. But then one of the divers spotted what looked like a gear stuck in a rock, which was eventually found to be just one of many pieces of the same thing. Upon closer inspection and much analysis (decades of analysis, in fact), it was determined that the gear and its 80+ other pieces were part of a complicated mechanism that precisely calculated the position of the sun, moon, planets and other astronomical information. It was capable of predicting an eclipse right down to the hour that it would occur. Astronomer John Seiradakis has called it the “pocket calculator of its time.” Its construction was so perfect and exact that many historians and archaeologists believe that the Antikythera Mechanism was just one of many similar devices – we just haven’t discovered the other ones yet.
Here’s curator Michael Wright with his working replica of the Antikythera Mechanism – it’s pretty interesting stuff. Photo from the Antikythera Mechanism Research Project.
We’re not sure about this one – it’s just a theory. But there is some speculation that the ancient Egyptians may have understood how to harness electricity. The entire argument is based on stone reliefs inside the Dendera Temple complex in Egypt. What the etching appears to depict, to some, are bulbs, filaments and insulators. It also looks like a lotus flower and a snake. The argument could probably stop there – obviously humans are programmed to spot patterns in things and could easily see a now-everyday object in an ancient etching when it’s really not there. But English scientist J.N. Lockyer (he discovered helium) pointed out that the tombs were conspicuously soot-free – if Egyptians were using candles or torches, there would no doubt be some evidence of it on the walls or ceilings. But there is no evidence. A lot of people believe that the Egyptians used a series of mirrors to reflect the sunlight into the temple, but others say that their mirrors were too weak to do any such thing. Thus, the argument continues. What do you think? Photo from Wikipedia user Liftarn.
Along the same line as the Dendera Temple light is the Baghdad Battery. In the mid-1930s, a number of artifacts thought to date back to 200 BC were found in Khuyut Rabbou’a, a village near Baghdad. The combination of objects – a five-inch long clay jar and a copper cylinder that encased an iron rod – led researchers to believe that the ancient artifacts were actually used as batteries. Batteries for what, we still don’t know. Unlike the Dendera light though, there’s some evidence that these really were batteries – replicas have been made that did, in fact, conduct an electric current, sometimes as much as two volts. One theory is that the batteries were hidden inside of idols to give tiny little shocks to people, scaring people who didn’t understand the trick and often forcing them to give up secrets or confess to crimes. Photo from the BBC.
Joel Armstrong, a loan officer at the Sterling Savings in downtown Spokane, Washington, became known as the "Duck Man" when he saved a gaggle clutch of ducklings from plunging from their nest on a 12-foot-high ledge to the hard pavement below:
“I think she thinks it’s a safe place,” Armstrong said, though he later admitted he doesn’t think like a duck. “It gets good sun. There are no predators. If she nested in the park in the weeds, the marmots might find her.”
Just one problem. After the ducklings hatch, they have to leap off the 12-foot-high ledge onto the pavement to make their trek to the water.
Or at least they would, if Armstrong weren’t there to help. The ducklings began hatching about 5:30 p.m. Friday. The Sterling loan officer started his duck watch at 5:30 a.m. Saturday. He wanted to be there to catch the ducklings as they jumped off the ledge.
Jody Lawrence-Turner of The Spokeman-Review has more: Link | Hit play or go to Link [YouTube]
When the pilot of the twin-engine Beech aircraft passed out and died mid-flight, passenger Doug White of Archibald, Louisiana, took over the plane and landed it safely:
"We’ve had situations where passengers land airplanes before, but this is the first time I actually heard a controller actually tell the passenger to push this button and turn this knob," said Steve Wallace, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers in Miami. "It’s a heck of an Easter story."
Wallace was working in the Miami air traffic control center when his air controllers couldn’t reach the plane’s pilot at 2 p.m. Sunday. The Miami center deals with planes at high altitude – 10,000 or more feet – in South Florida.
"We tried a couple times and didn’t hear anything," Wallace said. "Then all of a sudden, we hear a passenger say, ‘This is November 55 Niner Delta Whisky and my pilot is passed out. We need help now.’"
Link – Thanks Sharyn!
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.
This went ’round the Web about a few days ago, but I just found out about it: here’s a YouTube clip of a dog risking its life to save its friend who was ran over by a car.
Translation: "These images seen from the surveillance cameras show a very common situation with our overpopulated highways. It is normal for us to see dogs run over. In the video, we can see this dog fighting for his life because he was run over by the vehicle.
"What is very touching is to see the very heroic actions of this other dog who is trying to pull him to the side of the highway. We are going to keep seeing things like this until we find a solution to the dogs living on the streets."
Hit play or go to Link [YouTube] – Thanks Larfin Jackarse!
