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Think you're tough? Probably not as tough as these Chinese soldiers, who played a lethal game of Hot Potato ... with live bombs!
During an exhibition drill in Hong Kong, last month, an elite garrison of 6,000 PLA troops staged a series of impressive exercises for the visit of the island’s chief executive, Sir Donald Tsang. Snipers shot tiny glasses, soldiers carried heavy logs and jumped through rings of fire, but nothing as incredible as a group of men playing a game of pass-the-bomb.
The lethal game is played by six soldiers standing in a circle with a dug whole in the middle. They pass an explosive satchel from one two another, counting down until it detonates. Just before it explodes, one of the soldiers throws it in the hole and they all leap away as the ground trembles and dirt starts flying from the pit. Any miscalculation could mean the end for all six players, but they don’t seem very intimidated by that. They just calmly pass the live satchel as if it were a simple bag.
Everyone in the family is happy and excited when a soldier comes home after a long deployment, but who is best at expressing that joy? Right, the dog! Mental_floss posted ten videos of dogs welcoming their soldiers home. I dare you to keep a straight face and a dry eye while watching these. Link
Army Major Phil Packer began the London Marathon when everyone else did, but his doctor will only allow him to walk two miles a day, so he is expected to finish on Saturday, 13 days after starting the race. Last year Packer was seriously injured in Iraq and was told he probably would never walk again. However, he is walking the marathon on crutches to raise money for Help for Heroes, a British organization that supports wounded veterans.
The marathon is only part of his project, he says. In February, he rowed the English Channel, and next month, he plans to climb El Capitan, one of America’s iconic mountaineering sites. It’s a 3,000-foot vertical rock formation in California.
The idea to take on the three challenges for charity came to him while he was in a hospital for more than four months last year following a serious injury in Iraq, he says.
“I needed and wanted to be able to move on in life,” he says. “I wanted to do something for other personnel who had been wounded.
“I don’t want to be helped. I want to help other people. Not that I’m not grateful, but … you know,” he says, an apologetic smile forming as he makes his way up the north bank of the Thames River, along the marathon course. “I really want to be able to help people.”
Packer’s goal is to raise £1 million; he has so far raised over half the amount. Link -via Fark
I don’t post a lot of links to eBay auctions (the links expire too quickly) but this one by jdwildlifeartistry is too weird to pass up. Behold a gray squirrel soldier holding a rifle, mounted on a plaque!
More weird eBay auctions at Urlesque’s Today in eBay feature.
