Michael Jackson, King of Pop, dead, drug abuse, 50

LOS ANGELES - As the shocking news of Michael Jackson's death began to spread Thursday, the Internet and social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook exploded with tributes and expressions of shock and grief.

On Twitter, the volume of Jackson-related messages -- up to 5,000 per minute at its peak -- slowed the site considerably.

"We saw over twice the normal tweets per second the moment the story broke as people shared their grief and memories," Twitter co-founder Biz Stone said in an e-mail.

His life was a circus. He lost his grounding in his faith and his life and it ultimately cost him his life. Celebrate the body of work this man produced and try to forget he was a creepy strange guy in the end.

Funny the Twitter nearly crashed, I didn't get a sing tweet about Michael.

Is it possible that PETA will stop talking about President Obama swatting a fly now?

Prepare of the Michael Jackson is not REALLY dead stories in 3, 2, 1....

Gotta love 4th of July

With the 4th of July right around the corner, we here at DDDN, receive many fine quality videos such as this one below that show experiments with explosives.
Enjoy the stupidity that abounds when alcohol and explosives combine.

Failed Firework Nutshot Explosion - Watch more Funny Videos

Farrah Fawcett, dead, cancer, 62

Ryan O'Neal led the tributes to his late partner Farrah Fawcett.

He said: "After a long and brave battle with cancer, our beloved Farrah has passed away.

"Although this is an extremely difficult time for her family and friends, we take comfort in the beautiful times that we shared with Farrah over the years and the knowledge that her life brought joy to so many people around the world."

She was an icon of many young men's lives. She was not my favorite Angel. I was a Jaclyn Smith fan.

Fark.com Headline: Predator drone kills 45 at a funeral for predator drone victims, sets new high score

At least 43 people have died in missile strikes by a US drone aircraft in a militant stronghold of Pakistan, a Taliban spokesman has told the BBC.

The people killed in South Waziristan had been attending the funeral of a militant commander who had been killed in an earlier strike.

The attack came as the Pakistani army prepared a new offensive in the area.

South Waziristan is the main stronghold of the Taliban leader in Pakistan, Baitullah Mehsud.

A Mehsud spokesman told the BBC that 43 people, including five militants, had been killed in the missile strikes. He said that many more had been injured, some seriously.

That's a funny headline. Nice shootin' Tex.
The pressure on these fascists is up in Pakistan and my hope is they press them until they are crushed.

Ed McMahon, dead, 86, old age

LOS ANGELES – Ed McMahon, the loyal "Tonight" show sidekick who bolstered boss Johnny Carson with guffaws and a resounding "H-e-e-e-e-e-ere's Johnny!" for 30 years, died early Tuesday. He was 86. McMahon died shortly after midnight at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center surrounded by his wife, Pam, and other family members, said his publicist, Howard Bragman.

Bragman didn't give a cause of death, saying only that McMahon had a "multitude of health problems the last few months."

From Wikipedia:
During World War II, McMahon was a fighter pilot in the United States Marine Corps serving as a flight instructor and test pilot. He was a decorated pilot (six Air Medals) and was discharged in 1946, remaining in the reserves.[5]

After college, McMahon returned to active duty. He was sent to Korea in February 1952. He flew unarmed O-1E Bird Dogs on 85 tactical air control and artillery spotting missions. He remained in the Marine Corps Reserve, retiring with the rank of Colonel in 1966 and was then commissioned as a Brigadier General in the California Air National Guard.

Another member of the golden age is gone.

Report: SC gov was in Argentina, not hiking trail

COLUMBIA, S.C. – South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford was in Argentina during a dayslong unexplained absence, not hiking the Appalachian Trail as his staff told the public when state leaders raised questions about his whereabouts, the governor told a newspaper.

The State reported that Sanford arrived Wednesday morning at Atlanta's international airport on a flight from Buenos Aires.

Sanford's spokesman Joel Sawyer declined to comment Wednesday morning to The Associated Press. The governor did not return cell phone messages seeking comment and his critics slammed his administration for lying to the public.

So he just leaves the country, no one can reach him? As the Lieutenant Governor so aptly put it, "what do we do if there is a prison riot or natural disaster?"
Does he really want to be the governor? I can imagine his chances of reelection are dwindling.

Sorry, Paul Simon, Kodak's taking Kodachrome away

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Sorry, Paul Simon, Kodak is taking your Kodachrome away.

The Eastman Kodak Co. announced Monday it's retiring its oldest film stock because of declining customer demand in an increasingly digital age.

The world's first commercially successful color film, immortalized in song by Simon, spent 74 years in Kodak's portfolio. It enjoyed its heyday in the 1950s and '60s but in recent years has nudged closer to obscurity: Sales of Kodachrome are now just a fraction of 1 percent of the company's total sales of still-picture films, and only one commercial lab in the world still processes it.

It was the basis not only for countless family slideshows on carousel projectors over the years but also for world-renowned images, including Abraham Zapruder's 8 mm reel of President John F. Kennedy's assassination on Nov. 22, 1963.

Amazing, this was a huge part of my growing up. "You mean you can take pictures in color? COOL!"
Film will be with us for decades. Digital pictures still can't capture what film can.

Injured man crawls for 16 hours to get help

A man who fell from the roof of his isolated summer home spent 16 hours crawling up a hill and into his house to call for help.

Today, Mike Donigan is being released from the Columbus, Ga., hospital where he has been recovering for three weeks. During the fall, he broke at least four vertebrae, his pelvis in two places and his right wrist. He also dislocated his clavicle and sprained his ankle.

Yes, he is tougher than you, ya big sissy.

A friend of mine's wife fell off of a ladder while at home. She broke her femur between the rungs of the ladder. She could not walk and she dragged herself to the front door and could not get anyone to answer it, her husband was napping on the couch. Her cell phone was in the house, so she dragged herself to her pickup truck, pulled herself up into the cab, and drove herself to the emergency room. Where they then called her husband to come down to the hospital.

Australia has socialized medicine

A MAN sent home from hospital and told to take some Panadol was later found to have a broken neck.

Sydney man Paul Curtis, 31, returned to the hospital after two days in agony and it was found he had a chip out of his spine that could have severed his spinal cord.

Mr Curtis was sent home when he went to Ryde Hospital on May 29 after accidentally knocking heads with a friend at a youth group activity.

After looking around the webbernets apparently Australia's social medicine system is quite good. I'm guessing this will not be a high point for the service. That's some good doctorin' there Lou.

Dolphin 56's playful antics have Jersey boaters flipping

A dolphin, known the world over simply as "Dolphin 56," has been hanging out lately on the Jersey shore.

Dolphin 56 is a wild bottlenose dolphin with a passion for freshly caught fish and a reputation for cheekily sticking his crooked snout into fishermen's boats and playing with anyone who will pet his slick skin.

Over the last 30 years, Dolphin 56 sightings have been recorded from Florida to Long Island. The bottlenose, whose dorsal fin was branded with a 56 for a research study in the 1970s, has spent his life swimming up and down the East Coast chasing down any boater or kayaker who might toss him a fish.

The dolphins were branded with numbers, released back into the wild and tracked for a government study that followed the movements of more than 100 dolphins for several years.

Dolphin 56, then an estimated 12 years old, was unusually outgoing, said Odell, a senior research scientist at Hubbs-SeaWorld Research Institute in Orlando.

Even though Mr. Buzzkill in the article says you shouldn't feed him or whatever, encountering a dolphin who is definately interested in you would be a lot of fun.