Ben Affleck met a disabled 13-year-old in an airport and has flown him to every movie set ever since, even speaking at his high school graduation. (article)
When Joe Kindregan was 13-years-old, Ben Affleck met him in an airport while Ben was filming Forces of Nature. That one short visit led to a lifelong friendship. Ben has flown Joe, who suffers from a rare disease called Ataxia-Telangiectasia, out to visit him on every one of his film sets for as long as they’ve known each other. He and Jen co-hosted an auction in D.C. benefiting AT research and Ben gave the commencement speech when Joe graduated from high school in Falls Church, Virginia.
While Erin Langworthy was bungee jumping 360 feet above the Zambezi river, the cord broke and she was forced to swim the raging waters with her feet tied together, at one point diving to free the rope from debris. (article)
When Darryl McDaniels (DMC of RUN DMC) was suicidal, the only thing keeping him from killing himself was Sarah McLachlan’s album “Angel.” He met her at a party, told her what her album meant to him, and said, “Your album is called ‘Angel.’ You sing like an angel. But to me, you are God.” (The Moth Podcast)
A 9000 member indigenous tribe in Guyana is fighting illegal logging of their land by filming the activity with a drone they built by watching DIY videos on YouTube and taking the footage to the Guyanese government. (article)
Biggie, Jay-Z, Busta Rhymes, and DMX went to the same high school and rap battled each other during lunch
JFK’s sister Rosemary Kennedy, was born mentally disabled because during her birth, the doctor was not immediately available and the nurse ordered Rose Kennedy to keep her legs closed, forcing the baby’s head to stay in the birth canal for two hours…resulting in a harmful loss of oxygen.
Her occasional erratic behavior frustrated her parents, who expected all of their children to behave appropriately, be goal-oriented, and act competitively. Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. was especially worried that his daughter’s behavior would shame and embarrass the family and possibly damage his political career
The instrument Dr. Watts used looked like a butter knife. He swung it up and down to cut brain tissue. “We put an instrument inside”, he said. As Dr. Watts cut, Dr. Freeman put questions to Rosemary. For example, he asked her to recite the Lord’s Prayer or sing “God Bless America” or count backwards….. “We made an estimate on how far to cut based on how she responded.” ….. When she began to become incoherent, they stopped.
After the lobotomy, it quickly became apparent that the procedure was not successful. Kennedy’s mental capacity diminished to that of a two-year-old child. She could not walk or speak intelligibly and was incontinent.
Florida Newscaster and TV personality Christine Chubbuck killed herself with a pistol on live TV. Her last words: “And now, in keeping with Channel 40’s policy of always bringing you the latest in blood and guts, in living color, you’re about to see another first – an attempted suicide.”
“Chubbuck’s show, Suncoast Digest, stayed on the air for several years with new hosts. Simmons, the station director, said Chubbuck’s suicide was unrelated to the station. “The crux of the situation was that she was a 29-year-old girl who wanted to be married and who wasn’t,” he said in 1977.”
In 2012 when Taylor Swift held a public vote for where she would visit and preform a free concert 4chan users voted for a childrens school for the deaf and won the vote. (article)
While Taylor Swift won’t be playing a concert there, the singer has offered to personally donate $10,000 to the school — a donation which was quickly matched by contest sponsors Papa John’s and Chegg, a textbook company. American Greetings and Cover Girl got in on the act, upping the school’s windfall to $50,000; VH1’s Save the Music program added an additional $10,000 worth of instruments.
A Russian named Vasili Arkhipov avoided causing WWIII after refusing his captain’s orders to launch nuclear torpedoes at US war ships during the height of the Cuban Missile Crisis. 2 of the 3 officers on board wanted to fire the missile, however a unanimous decision was required.
Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Hammer was purchased for $30,802,500 in 1994 by Bill Gates; 3 years later he released a digital version of the historic diary for all the world to enjoy (Codex Hammer)
Julian Lennon had to buy the letters he wrote to his father (John Lennon) at an auction, because Yoko Ono wouldn’t give them to him
From Julian Lennon’s forward to his mother’s book “John”:
I know that Dad was an idol to millions who grew up loving his music and his ideals. But to me he wasn’t a musician or a peace icon, he was the father I loved and who let me down in so many ways. After the age of five, when my parents separated, I saw him only a handful of times, and when I did he was often remote and intimidating. I grew up longing for more contact with him but felt rejected and unimportant in his life.
From Cynthia Lennon’s book, “John”:
John’s erratic behaviour around Julian continued — fun one moment and violent anger the next. And he could be like this with Sean too, reducing the little boy to tears of terror. Fred Seaman, or sometimes Yoko, would act as a buffer when John lost his temper. Julian was constantly on tenterhooks, sensing that an eruption was coming and retreating to his room in the hope of avoiding it.
One incident in particular did him lasting damage. The whole family had been having fun, making Mickey Mouse pancakes and fooling around, when Julian giggled. John turned on him and screamed, ‘I can’t stand the way you fucking laugh! Never let me hear your fucking horrible laugh again.’ He continued with a tirade of abuse until Julian fled once again to his room in tears. It was monstrously cruel and has affected him ever since. To this day he seldom laughs.
Omnism, a belief system, is the recognition and respect of all religions; Omnists say that all religions contain truths, but that no one religion offers all that is truth
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