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There appears to be been quite a subgenre of killer bee movies in the '70s and '80s...
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I remember at least one of those from the late night cable channels in my youth. I think it was just "The Bees" (1978)Originally posted by Leo Enticknap View Post
I will say they have some memorable movie posters though!
MV5BZjQzYTM4NWUtYjZlMS00ODU2LThmNDktZDQ4M2UxYTI0YTRiXkEyXkFqcGc@._V1_.jpgp36668_p_v8_aa.jpgComment
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Pants on Fire?
https://www.cleveland19.com/2025/06/...rs-catch-fire/
Rocky River firefighters respond after multiple AMC theater recliners catch fire
ROCKY RIVER, Ohio (WOIO) - Rocky River firefighters responded to an AMC Westwood Town Center after multiple recliners caught fire.
Rocky River Fire Chief Aaron Lenart said the fire activated the automatic sprinkler system, extinguishing the bulk of the fire.
Fairview Park Fire assisted Rocky River Fire with the response.
Lenart did not have an estimate of the damages.
“The sprinkler system most definitely controlled and saved the rest of the building from a devastating fire,” Lenart said.
19 News is working to confirm details on any injuries and the precise time of the fire.
The fire remains under investigation.
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I wonder how this worked out
Alexander City(AL) Outlook
April 18, 1929The_Alexander_City_Outlook_1929_04_18_1 copy.jpgComment
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I wonder if anyone thought to bury film in time capsules, master negatives or otherwise. You’d have to choose your container and location wisely for preservation success though. LolComment
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image.pngDeputy’s act of kindness during speeding stop goes viral
A picture was taken of the shared moment and has since gone viral on social media, and people are sharing their own stories of kindness from deputies.
Author: Kenny Kuhn / WWL Louisiana
Published: 10:31 AM CDT June 23, 2025
ST. TAMMANY PARISH, La. — A traffic stop in St. Tammany Parish turned into a picture-perfect opportunity for a St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s deputy to show compassion.
Deputy Dustin Byers with the 4th District pulled over a driver for allegedly speeding on Highway 21. According to the sheriff’s office, the man explained he was having a ‘tough day’ and was on his way to a funeral.
The officer noticed that the man’s necktie was a mess and that he could not tie the knot correctly.
That is when Deputy Byers seized the opportunity to help and tied the man’s tie for him.
A picture was taken of the shared moment and has since gone viral on social media, with people sharing their own stories of kindness from the deputies.
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In respect of Martin's story, I find it interesting that the camera negative of The Birth of a Nation was found to be well into what would now be termed stage 2 nitrate decomposition after only 15 years. It wasn't until the late 1930s that the first anecdotal evidence emerged to suggest that cool and dry storage was beneficial to preserving nitrate, and not until the mid-1950s that the underlying chemistry was fully understood. So that negative had likely been stored in typical SoCal, Pacific coast conditions: very warm and rather humid.Comment
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And yet they kept re-releasing Birth of A Nation well into the 1950s. I have no idea what they were using to make those copies. They released the sound version in the late 20s. Guessing multi-generation copies that looked like crap. Also guessing Griffith owned the negative (as DeMille obviously did in the above story), given the film industry almost total lack of interest in preserving its past during this period.
Also interested in what happened to those alternative back up camera negatives they mention. Did they survive? I read of the "foreign" takes being used in restorations, wondering how common that is.Comment
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Aside from the obvious "tastes like kitten" jokes, this is a really horrible news story of
animal abuse. But when I saw this headline and the expression on that cat's face, I
swear I couldn't stop laughing for almost a full minute.
TacoCat_1.jpg
"Merced County officials seized over 100 cats from a U-Haul van in a Taco Bell parking lot Sunday.
A deputy was dispatched to the Santa Nella restaurant for a welfare check regarding several cats
visible through the vehicle’s windows. The deputy estimated there were at least 20 cats in distress
in the van, but when county animal control officers arrived, they found 106 “extremely emaciated”
cats inside, in addition to 28 dead felines, according to a Merced Sheriff’s Office news release."
> The complete story, including some really depressing pictures of the interior of the van can be
seen here> https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/artic...t-20417821.php
I know I've eaten at least half-a-dozen or more times at that Taco Bell, as Santa Nella is a very
popular pit stop for anyone driving along Interstate 5 between points in Northern and Southern
California. I'll probably never be able to stop there again without thinking of this poor, pissed
off puss. I hope it finds a good home!Comment
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Very relieved to read that the county has had lots of interest in adoption. So many pets were abandoned after the covid lockdowns were lifted (that's how three out of our five cats arrived) that the shelters were overwhelmed. I'm going to skip the depressing pictures of the van, and I don't think she'd appreciate them, either:
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From Wikipedia:Originally posted by Martin McCaffery
If this is actually all correct, it's surprising that the camera negative was reported as being brittle as early as 1929, yet was still in good enough condition to scan in 2015. I remember seeing the 1993 Shepard/BFI version with the re-recording of the Breil score when it came out, but haven't sat through the whole thing again since. There is one memorable outtake that either the LoC or NARA has, that I saw at a conference while an archiving student: it shows Henry B. Walthall preparing for a scene, when the wind catches his KKK costume and blows it upwards, revealing his underpants.For many years, The Birth of a Nation was poorly represented in home media and restorations. This stemmed from several factors, one of which was the fact that Griffith and others had frequently reworked the film, leaving no definitive version. According to the silent film website Brenton Film, many home media releases of the film consisted of "poor quality DVDs with different edits, scores, [and] running speeds," which were "usually in definitely unoriginal black and white."
One of the earliest high-quality home versions was film preservationist David Shepard's 1992 transfer of a 16mm print for VHS and LaserDisc release via Image Entertainment. A short documentary, The Making of The Birth of a Nation, newly produced and narrated by Shepard, was also included. Both were released on DVD by Image in 1998 and the United Kingdom's Eureka Entertainment in 2000.
In the UK, Photoplay Productions restored the Museum of Modern Art's 35mm print that was the source of Shepard's 16 mm print, though they also augmented it with extra material from the British Film Institute. It was also given a full orchestral recording of the original Breil score. Though broadcast on Channel 4 television and screened in theaters many times, Photoplay's 1993 version was never released on home video.
Shepard's transfer and documentary were reissued in the US by Kino Video in 2002, this time in a 2-DVD set with added extras on the second disc. These included several Civil War shorts also directed by D. W. Griffith.[147] In 2011, Kino prepared an HD transfer of a 35 mm negative from the Paul Killiam Collection. They added some material from the Library of Congress and gave it a new compilation score. This version was released on Blu-ray by Kino in the US, Eureka in the UK (as part of their "Masters of Cinema" collection) and Divisa Home Video in Spain.
In 2015, the year of the film's centenary, Photoplay Productions' Patrick Stanbury, in conjunction with the British Film Institute, carried out the first full restoration. It mostly used new 4K scans of the LoC's original camera negative, along with other early generation material. It, too, was given the original Breil score and featured the film's original tinting for the first time since its 1915 release. The restoration was released on a 2-Blu-ray set in the UK and US by the BFI and Twilight Time, alongside a host of extras, including many other newly restored Civil War-related films from the period.
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He didn't quite make it to a Darwin award, but this was a respectable effort!
Video: Rapper 4xtra Jokes About ‘Blowing Somebody Up’ Just Before Blowing Fingers Off with Fireworks
Rapper 4Xtra is now down a few after a gruesome fireworks accident left him with two fewer fingers over the July 4th weekend.
The rapper also posted an unfortunate video on social media ahead of the accident in which he joked, “Dead homies, who wants to get blown up today.”
“Who wants to get blown up today,” the rapper added on his video post. “I’m going to blow your ass up! I’m blowing somebody up today.”
It turned out that 4xtra did, indeed, blow someone up. Unfortunately for him, it was himself.
The joking aside, images of the rapper’s horrible injury also began circulating online showing the dangers of messing with large explosives.
The photo of what 4Xtra was holding could be M1000 fireworka, often called a “quarter stick,” which is a powerful explosive. Further, quarter stick fireworks are illegal to manufacture or possess in the U.S.A. without an ATF High Explosives Manufacturing License. They are generally for professionals, not backyard use.
The rapper’s sister, Emily, has created a GoFundMe page to help raise the money for her brother’s medical treatment.
“On the 4th of July, 4XTRA was injured in a firework accident,” she wrote on the page description. “As many of you know, medical care can be incredibly expensive and add up very fast.”
She continued, “Resan is someone who lights up every room with his humor and energy. If you’ve ever laughed with him, shared a moment, or simply care about his well-being.”
More than $7 thousand has been raised thus far.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) 14,700 people were treated in ERs across the country last year and there were 11 deaths from fireworks-related accidents. The CPSC added that 36 percent of injuries were to hands and fingers and 22 percent were to the head and face of victims.Comment
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https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saska...ttic-1.7585824
Man smashes hole in Saskatoon couple's roof to hide in attic
Police use drone to locate suspect burrowed in attic insulation
Dan Zakreski · CBC News · Posted: Jul 16, 2025 7:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 1 hour ago
Matthew Hardy thought he'd scared off the man who tried to break into his family's house in Saskatoon on Saturday night.
The man, frantic and covered with leaves and dirt, had tried to force his way into the Varsity View house through the sliding door on the deck around midnight, Hardy said.
Hardy called police. Four officers came and searched the yard and alley for the suspect. No luck.
Hardy and his wife Karen then tried to relax with a horror-comedy movie, Death of a Unicorn.
An hour later their evening went really sideways.
"All of a sudden we hear 'boom, boom, boom' out of nowhere and the house is shaking," Hardy said.
The man had returned, climbed on the deck railing, onto an elm tree and then onto their roof. He didn't stay there long.
"Then all of a sudden you can hear splintering and cracking. And I said, 'Karen, he's trying to get in the house,'" Hardy said.
"Then you could just hear crunch, like walking on leaves, plastic-covered leaves. He was in our ceiling, crawling across our insulation, and you could hear him, track him as as easy as anything through the house."
Matthew Hardy is still not sure how the man wriggled through the vent hole. (Submitted by Karen Hardy)
They called the police again. Officers got on the roof and found a hole where a vent had been torn off. They dropped a drone into the attic and found the suspect, in a corner burrowed under insulation.
Police accessed the attic through a hatch in a bedroom closet and dragged the suspect out.
"Sure enough, as he's leaving the house, he says 'Don't forget my shirt,' which was pretty funny, " Hardy said.
They found his shirt — and a sock in the roof gutter.
Police said in a news release that a 33-year-old Saskatoon man is charged with break and enter.
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Well, there's one case where persistence did not pay off. After being chased away from coming in the sliding door, why was he trying to get into THIS house?Comment
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https://nationalpost.com/news/world/...to-mri-machine
Wearing a 20 pound chain for a necklace? I've seen people with a bunch of chains and safety pins and stuff, but a single chain weighing 20 pounds? A tow chain? Takes all kinds, I guess.WESTBURY, N.Y. (AP) — A man who was pulled into an MRI machine in New York after he walked into the room wearing a large chain necklace has died, according to police and his wife, who told a local television outlet that he waved goodbye before his body went limp.
The man, 61, had entered an MRI room while a scan was underway Wednesday afternoon at Nassau Open MRI. The machine’s strong magnetic force drew him in by his metallic necklace, according to a release from the Nassau County Police Department.
He died Thursday afternoon, but a police officer who answered the phone at the Nassau County police precinct where the MRI facility is located said the department had not been given permission to release the name Saturday.
Adrienne Jones-McAllister told News 12 Long Island in a recorded interview that she was undergoing an MRI on her knee when she asked the technician to get her husband, Keith McAllister, to help her get off the table.
When he got close to her, she said, “at that instant, the machine switched him around, pulled him in and he hit the MRI.”
“I said: ‘Could you turn off the machine, call 911, do something, Turn this damn thing off!”‘ she recalled, as tears ran down her face. “He went limp in my arms.”
She told News 12 that the technician summoned into the room her husband, who was wearing a 20-pound chain that he uses for weight training, an object they’d had a casual conversation about during a previous visit.
“He waved goodbye to me and then his whole body went limp,” Jones-McAllister told the TV outlet.
A person who answered the phone at Nassau Open MRI on Long Island declined to comment Friday. The phone number went unanswered on Saturday.
It wasn’t the first New York death to result from an MRI machine.
In 2001, 6-year-old Michael Colombini of Croton-on-Hudson was killed at the Westchester Medical Center when an oxygen tank flew into the chamber, drawn in by the MRI’s 10-ton electromagnet.
In 2010, records filed in Westchester County revealed that the family settled a lawsuit for $2.9 million.
MRI machines “employ a strong magnetic field” that “exerts very powerful forces on objects of iron, some steels, and other magnetizable objects,” according to the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, which says the units are “strong enough to fling a wheelchair across the room.”
Exactly this scene was in the Final Destination movie a couple of months ago....Comment
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From the description of the necklace, he likely wouldn't have looked out of place in the celllar of a pawn shop, waiting to be rescued by Bruce Willis...
On the subject of real life emulating the movies:
image.pngDouble-decker bus driver arrested after bridge crash
At least 20 people taken to hospital as major incident declared in Eccles, Salford
Albert Tait
22 July 2025 10:45am GMT+01:00
The driver of a double-decker bus which crashed into a low bridge in Greater Manchester has been arrested.
The roof of the bus was shaved off when it struck the 11ft 6in Bridgewater Canal Aqueduct at the junction of Barton Road and Trafford Road in Eccles, Salford at 3pm on Monday.
Greater Manchester Police said that one person was ejected from the top deck.
Three people – a 19-year-old woman, a man in his 20s, and a man in his 40s – sustained serious injuries and remain in hospital in a stable condition.
The force said 17 other casualties were also treated at the scene for injuries that are described as non-life threatening or life-changing.
The driver, a man in his 50s, was arrested on suspicion of causing serious injury by careless driving and has since been bailed pending further investigations.
The force’s Serious Collision Investigation Unit (SCIU) is appealing for information and witnesses about the crash.
A police spokesman said: “At around 3pm on Monday 21 July 2025, we were called to reports that a double decker bus had collided with the Bridgewater Canal Aqueduct on Barton Lane in Eccles.
“It is believed that the bus had come off its normal expected route.
“The driver fails to comply with height restriction warnings, including hanging chains and signage, and collides with a low-level aqueduct.
“As a result, the top level of the bus is torn off and causes a member of the public to be ejected from the top deck of the bus.”
Doorbell camera footage of the crash showed passengers ducking for cover. The collision left debris from the upper deck scattered across the road.
Police, paramedics, 10 ambulances and an air ambulance were dispatched to the scene. The major incident status was ended at 4.22pm, the ambulance service said.
Vernon Everitt, the transport commissioner for Greater Manchester, said: “First and foremost, our thoughts are with everyone on board the bus. Our absolute focus has been on supporting emergency services in their response, with some people treated at the scene and some taken to hospital.
“An immediate and urgent investigation into the circumstances is under way, and we are working closely with the investigation team at Greater Manchester Police and the bus operator, Stagecoach.”
One witness told the Manchester Evening News: “I could just hear screaming coming from the top of the bus.” Another nearby resident told the newspaper: “I thought ‘what’s going on?’ so I came out, and there were ambulances and police cars just flying down the road.
“You could see the bus straight away. I believe it was coming through from the Trafford side and it looks like it’s come right through. I was shocked but not surprised, as this is the third time this has happened. Another bus and a lorry have done it. You feel for the people on the bus.”
Stacey Morley, who lives next to the scene of the crash, told the BBC it was the “third or fourth time” she had seen a bus crash into the same canal bridge. “It was horrific, I’m still in shock,” she said. “I just feel sorry for the people and their families.”
‘Lots of bleeding heads’
Szymon Hundz told the broadcaster that his girlfriend saw the bus go under the bridge and “two people fall out from the top floor onto the ground”.
Mr Hundz said: “It was a really loud explosion sound. We rushed down to bring chairs and water and stuff for people, we were trying to find any medical supplies from the neighbours while paramedics weren’t there.”
He said he witnessed one man have a seizure after the crash, and “lots of people with bleeding heads”.
A spokesman for the ambulance service said: “At 3.06pm North West Ambulance Service received a call in relation to a bus collision on Barton Lane, Eccles, and declared a major incident shortly afterwards.
“The trust dispatched a number of resources, including 10 emergency ambulances, advanced paramedics, our Hazard Area Response Team and colleagues from North West Air Ambulance. The first resource arrived on time at 3.10pm.
“North West Ambulance Service treated 15 patients, who were all taken to Salford Royal or Manchester Royal Infirmary hospitals.”
In 2023, a double-decker bus with no passengers on board had its roof damaged when it crashed into the same bridge, while three people were hurt in another crash at the same spot in 2020.
A second bus hit a low bridge in north Manchester on Tuesday, leaving rail passengers facing delays and cancellations.
Images from the scene appeared to show a Metroline Manchester driver training bus wedged underneath the bridge, which is between Manchester Victoria and Ashton-under-Lyne.
Appeal for information
A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said the force was also responding to the collision, and urged people to avoid the area because of road closures currently in place.
Transport for Greater Manchester said the double-decker bus was a 100 service, in operation at the time of the crash. A spokesman added: “Our absolute priority right now is supporting the emergency response and the people who were on board.”
The police spokesman added: “SCIU are now appealing for anyone who may have witnessed the incident to come forward.
“They are also keen to speak to anyone who may have any footage, including dashcam, mobile phone or doorbell footage, from the area in the moments leading up to the collision.”
The force urged anyone with any information to to contact police on 0161 856 4741 quoting log number 2226 of 21/07/2025.
It said that details can also be shared on its LiveChat function on its website, www.gmp.police.uk or anonymously via the independent charity, Crimestoppers, on 0800 555 111.
...and the movie (start at 2'30" if you don't want the buildup):
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