Reminds me of the scene in the Star Trek movie, The Wrath Of Khan, where Chekov gets the mind-control bug from Khan. Creepy. I've had nightmares about those things!
Without knowing any of the details, my first guess is that the SA folks saw the redirection of the money to the Greenpeace Fund as a breach of the specifics of the Di Stefano's will. Wills designating money going to organizations are usually very specific in where the money goes; it didn't likely say just "Greenpeace", but referred to a specific legal entity that existed at the time the will was drawn up. Apparently nobody saw a need to amend the will when Greenpeace dissolved.
The Salvation Army folks were in the right, following the letter of the Di Stefano's will, as the trustees of the estate had no business futzing with the details of who got what after the death of the Di Stephanos. The trustees, for whatever reason, chose to pursue the spirit of the will, and although I can't say that I would've done the same, I can see their intentions. That said, I can't fault SA for their actions; they were only trying to get the specifics of the will carried out, which to them was divvying up the money between the organizations specified in the will. Greenpeace Fund was not in the list.
Those of you who do fault them would probably fault them regardless of the circumstances, as you likely would with any Christian organization. Guess bigotry knows no bounds.
For ignorant comments like yours, Americans could care less whether you like us or not. Good grief, fluff; read the article.
The author got the card for his son, who was given a trap shooting gun from his grandfather. "Grandpa Ludwig, an avid trap shooter, explained he wanted an heirloom for his first grandson. He plans to engrave his name on the trigger guard."
There is no age restriction on owning a firearm, thus no restriction on having a license to own a firearm. FOID is short for Firearm Owner's IDentification. The Neatorama post's title is a little misleading in saying little Bubba is licensed to "carry" firearms.
I remember hearing about this in 1986, and when my wife & I visited Cameroon in 2003, people we spoke with in Wum and Bamenda still had not gotten over it. There is the scientific explanation of what happened, then there is the locals' version; an evil spirit (or spirits) living in the lake had become angered and killed everything near the lake. As logical as the real cause sounds to us, the legend is more plausible for the locals, who mostly practice native animistic religions. Even some who are Christian or Muslim & others who are somewhat Westernized have a tough time accepting the real cause of it.
Cameroon also has another active volcano; Mount Cameroon. That one erupted with a large lava flow in 2001, and when I was there we saw the tail end of the flow; it was a gigantic mound of black boulders that crossed a main highway and stopped about 20 yards past the road. In 2003, we stopped to take a look (in the dark!) and the rocks were still warm to the touch. Because of the heat and the sheer bulk of it, they haven't been able to remove it from the road, but there's now a dirt detour through the jungle to take you around it.
The satellite image available on Google Maps even shows the flow crossing the road (but unfortunately no high-res image for that area.) If you click that link, you can pan to the north-east & follow the flow to its source on the side of Mt. Cameroon. Go to the peak and you can see other recent lava flows. And the sand on the beaches near there is pitch black, most likely from all of the lava flows in the past.
And if you zoom out in the Google Earth satellite image, turn on the Map or Hybrid feature and scroll further north-east, you can pick out Wum; Lake Nyos is a fairly small lake a little further north-east of there. If you do a Google Maps search for Lake Nyos, Cameroon, it'll pinpoint it for you. The amazing/cool thing is that if you zoom out on the satellite image, it looks like the very roots of the earth are exposed in that area. Very, very, very remote, and very, very mountainous. The elevation of Lake Nyos is just under 10,000 feet (3,000 meters). The "highway" that you can see if you turn on the Map or Hybrid feature in Google Maps is little more than a dirt road. Getting the venting mechanism into Lake Nyos was a major undertaking; anything more than that, like your turbine generator, would take huge amounts of outside help; the locals don't have the money nor the need for electricity, although if it were available, they'd make use of it. But as remote a place like that is, it's amazing how many people carry cell phones!
Lots more info on the ongoing de-gassing here (also linked above.)
I just read a one of the James Herriott books, and in it he tells of treating a dog which, over a period of time, lost the use of both right legs. The owner couldn't bear the thought of putting the dog down, and the thing figured out a way to balance itself and still get around, almost as well as he did with four legs.
So it's probably not an angel, and a perfectly reasonable explanation can likely be found for it. But why the inordinately hostile reactions to it. It's a photograph that somebody thought was "neat", and it got posted on Neatorama. Get over it, people.
The Salvation Army folks were in the right, following the letter of the Di Stefano's will, as the trustees of the estate had no business futzing with the details of who got what after the death of the Di Stephanos. The trustees, for whatever reason, chose to pursue the spirit of the will, and although I can't say that I would've done the same, I can see their intentions. That said, I can't fault SA for their actions; they were only trying to get the specifics of the will carried out, which to them was divvying up the money between the organizations specified in the will. Greenpeace Fund was not in the list.
Those of you who do fault them would probably fault them regardless of the circumstances, as you likely would with any Christian organization. Guess bigotry knows no bounds.
And I guess we can't expect someone like fluff to understand how a gun can be an heirloom. Must be an American thing.
Oh wait; Grandad bought Bubba a Beretta — manufactured by an Italian company!
The author got the card for his son, who was given a trap shooting gun from his grandfather. "Grandpa Ludwig, an avid trap shooter, explained he wanted an heirloom for his first grandson. He plans to engrave his name on the trigger guard."
There is no age restriction on owning a firearm, thus no restriction on having a license to own a firearm. FOID is short for Firearm Owner's IDentification. The Neatorama post's title is a little misleading in saying little Bubba is licensed to "carry" firearms.
Cameroon also has another active volcano; Mount Cameroon. That one erupted with a large lava flow in 2001, and when I was there we saw the tail end of the flow; it was a gigantic mound of black boulders that crossed a main highway and stopped about 20 yards past the road. In 2003, we stopped to take a look (in the dark!) and the rocks were still warm to the touch. Because of the heat and the sheer bulk of it, they haven't been able to remove it from the road, but there's now a dirt detour through the jungle to take you around it.
The satellite image available on Google Maps even shows the flow crossing the road (but unfortunately no high-res image for that area.) If you click that link, you can pan to the north-east & follow the flow to its source on the side of Mt. Cameroon. Go to the peak and you can see other recent lava flows. And the sand on the beaches near there is pitch black, most likely from all of the lava flows in the past.
And if you zoom out in the Google Earth satellite image, turn on the Map or Hybrid feature and scroll further north-east, you can pick out Wum; Lake Nyos is a fairly small lake a little further north-east of there. If you do a Google Maps search for Lake Nyos, Cameroon, it'll pinpoint it for you. The amazing/cool thing is that if you zoom out on the satellite image, it looks like the very roots of the earth are exposed in that area. Very, very, very remote, and very, very mountainous. The elevation of Lake Nyos is just under 10,000 feet (3,000 meters). The "highway" that you can see if you turn on the Map or Hybrid feature in Google Maps is little more than a dirt road. Getting the venting mechanism into Lake Nyos was a major undertaking; anything more than that, like your turbine generator, would take huge amounts of outside help; the locals don't have the money nor the need for electricity, although if it were available, they'd make use of it. But as remote a place like that is, it's amazing how many people carry cell phones!
Lots more info on the ongoing de-gassing here (also linked above.)
"Hay-ay-ay-ay ewes guy-uy-uy-uys! Why ewe kep runin way-ay-ay-ay?"
Anybody hear of 2-55 air conditioning? It's another DIY project thing.