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Monday, December 17, 2007

Slightly Suicidal Gadgets


"QUANTUM SHOT" #337
link



A healthy doze of "black humor" to set you straight

Life is not always rosy, and it's not always black. Mostly it's featureless gray with rare splashes of absurd color.

If you deliberately "paint it black", though, you may not live long:











Cheer up, however... there may be someone who feels worse, much worse than you:


(image credit: ellustrator)

Some photographers do it for fun:


(image credit: Jan Saudek)

Headshot:


(image credit: Martin Gommel)

Some "musicians" play only for the (Sicilian) "family":



Some guns are made in a way that makes you wonder... -






Some gifts are morbid enough to make your skin crawl: this ax has been given as a prized award to one of the Stalin's secret police NKVD officers:



Here is the more recent "lethal" gadget:
Bathduck Suicide Device

It has a proper disclaimer, of course: "make sure you are making the right decision"


(image credit: Nicolas Gaudron)

If your thing is to stick your fingers into electrical sockets, there is a device for this, too (an adapter for fingers) -


(image credit: Artemi Lebedev)


Some kids play this kind of the "russian roulette" quite innocently:





But even they can become new Calvins and drive multitude snowmen to despair:





For those who ever felt slightly suicidal, here is a story, well-known on the internet, but spectacular enough to keep on record.

Ronald Opus's Puzzle

Don Harper Mills actually made up this story. But it should be true because it is so good:

"On March 23 the medical examiner viewed the body of Ronald Opus and concluded that he died from a gunshot wound of the head caused by a shotgun. Investigation had revealed that he must have jumped from the top of a ten story building with the intent to commit suicide. (He left a note indicating his despondency.) As he passed the 9th floor on the way down, his life was interrupted by a shotgun blast through a window, killing him instantly. Neither the shooter nor the decedent was aware that a safety net had been erected at the 8th floor level to protect some window washers, and that the decedent would not have been able to complete his intent to commit suicide because of this...

Further investigation led to the discovery that the room on the 9th floor from whence the shotgun blast emanated was occupied by an elderly man and his wife. He was threatening her with the shotgun and became so upset that he could not hold the shotgun straight. Therefore, when he pulled the trigger, he completely missed his wife, and the bullets went through the window, striking Ronald Opus instead.

The old man was confronted with this conclusion, but both he and his wife were adamant in stating that neither knew that the shotgun was loaded. It was the longtime habit of the old man to threaten his wife with an unloaded shotgun. He had no intent to murder her; therefore, the killing of Ronald Opus appeared then to be accident, as the gun had been accidentally loaded...

But further investigation turned up a witness that their son was seen loading the shotgun approximately six weeks prior to the fatal accident. That investigation showed that the mother (the old lady) had cut off her son's financial support, and her son, knowing the propensity of his father to use the shotgun threateningly, loaded the gun with the expectation that the father would shoot his mother. The case now becomes one of murder on the part of the son for the death of Ronald Opus...

Further investigation revealed that the son became increasingly despondent over the failure of his attempt to get his mother murdered. This led him to jump off the ten story building on March 23, only to be killed by a shotgun blast through a 9th story window.

The medical examiner closed the case as a suicide."

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Category: Funny Pics, Humour

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COMMENTS::

5 Comments:

Blogger garibaldo2 said...

check this img
http://img117.imageshack.us/img117/2184/russianroullette4dummiezv5.jpg
Dark Roasted Blend rox
Garibaldo2 o/

___  
OpenID danvolodar said...

Here is the source for the surgery image.
There are other funny pics in this journal as well.

Pic with the axe is a well-known fake.

___  
Anonymous Oscar said...

I'm pretty sure this story is shown in Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 Magnolia.

___  
Anonymous jamesmarten said...

The picture of the woman with a gun in her mouth was used in 1998 (in sepia) on the cover of the Beautiful South album "Welcome to the Beautiful South". The cover was changed for some markets, for obvious reasons, so it may not have been seen everywhere.

___  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Cool story, it's been added at http://www.gearcult.com

___  

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  • Huh. That picture of the Russian ship in trees is interesting. The Russians have a lot of ships on dry land around the Aral sea because they've diverted so much of the water for irrigating crops that they've ended up beaching boats in the middle of what looks like desert (well I suppose technically it is desert). But the trees are interesting, since it seems that if there wasn't water for the lake there wouldn't be water for the trees. I guess it could be a tsunami.

    Of course in a likelihood it's probably just an old boat that was decommissioned and then moved out into the woods to serve as a party member's dacha.
    Read more

  • Excellent coast guard pics. I was stationed on a CG Cutter on the Columbia, crossed the river bar a few times in some nasty weather/surf.
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  • The large cargo ship lying almost on its side is the Cougar Ace. A great article about its rescue can be found at
    Cargo Law.

    The 47-foot motor lifeboats are self-righting under all conditions--they can be flipped completely upside down and they will right themselves quickly. While on a tour of the US Naval Academy in 1992, I saw a video of an actual test in which a lifeboat was flipped over and righted itself--maybe you can find this video around the Web somewhere.
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  • lol... "no one could take a picture of a tsunami because no one survived"
    uummmmmmm... what about the 2005 tsunami- hundreds of thousands dead, millions of videos and pictures taken-?
    Read more

  • There's a great write-up in Wired this month about saving the "Cougar Ace" boat that you have pictured under "Some ships fare worse than others:" (the one on its side)...
    Read more

  • Uh, I live in Nova Scotia and have several friends in the Canadian Coast Guard. They don't do anything like what the US Coasties go through in training in Morro Bay, California
    Read more

  • What a fantastic story, It amazes me how much power the ocean has. Some of the pictures you have posted are amazing.

    I know that it isnt on the same scale as the pictures you have posted but I once got caught going across Moreton Bay in Queensland (Australia) we had 3 meter swells in the bay and we had to try and make it back from Moreton Island to Brisbane. If you are interested here is a picture from the trip.
    http://photos.birdfamily.id.au/?p=48
    Read more

  • Got caught once in the Atlantic in December, north of 50, and got hammered by a massive winter storm. The scary thing is that waves never appear as big in photos...usually about 50% bigger in real life.

    There is a famous photograph taken in the 50's of storm swell breaking on the headland north of Faial in the Azores. The waves / swells are in excess of 10 meters. The photo was taken as one of the swells crashed into the headland - the spray makes a perfect outline of a bearded man (Neptune) with amazing detail.
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  • The Heinrich Behrmann (out of Bremen, Germany)beached herself near Ensenada, BCN, Mexico a few years back due to navigational errors. - She was unloaded by helicopters, a ditch was dug around and under her and she was successfully refloated by several tugs after about 3 months' hard work.
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  • My 30 foot sloop used to be in Morro Bay. I was moving it to Avila about 20 miles south of Morro Bay when we were caught in dense fog and high winds. We got hit from behind by a 20 foot rogue wave and it capsized my boat. We were hanging onto the rails and lifelines at a 90 degree angle to the water and the mast was in the water. She finally righted herself but we kept getting slammed by 15-20 foot waves and she finally ran aground. We were now getting battered by huge crashing waves and were completely disoriented. The coast guard of Morro Bay came to our rescue and after getting us safely to shore, managed to tow the boat back to port. It was the scariest day of my life! My boat is an old Yamaha and it was amazing how little damage she sustained during this ordeal. The total costs of repair were just under $10,000 for such a devastating hit. Definitely a well made boat. Morro Bay is one of the most dangerous harbor areas in the US!
    Read more

  • Fantastic comment, thank you Patrick!
    Read more

  • FYI, the pics of the Morro Bay Coast Guard are training exersizes. Every time there's a 'big wave' event you can bet you'll see the Coasties going in and out of the Harbor, over and over again. Nothing like training with the real thing when it shows up at your doorstep over and over again!
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  • re: the basketball picture -- I'm guessing there used to be a basketball court there, with the floor mounted on those little brick pillars. But, it was abandoned and the floor scavenged by the locals, so all you've got left are the pillars.
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  • Well done Anonymous, that's precisely that...
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  • The dragon is a fake, no surprise there, but it was created in the 1890s!
    http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/28/1075088090949.html?from=top5&oneclick=true
    Read more

  • Actually, the hoax was also a hoax - it wasn't made in 1890.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pickled_dragon
    Read more

  • More specifically, it was made by a professional firm:

    http://www.crawley-creatures.com/creatures/pickled.htm
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  • This Obi Wan Kenobi street is in Poland. And actually it is not a joke, it's a real thing :)
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  • Search the web for "femtroopers" and you will get more interesting troopers (safe for work!).
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  • I found you site via Flickr Stats. DragonCon is a blast.

    Russell Limprecht
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  • realy funny pics ! I love it ! :D
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  • haha ver funny
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  • When I lived in Tucson Az I worked with a guy who's legal name was Obi Wan Kenobi. He was an actor and he said he changed his name to something people would remember. I have a Christmas card that he gave me that he signed as Obi Wan Kenobi.
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  • am i the only one who thinks the storm trooper outfit is kinda hot?
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  • Really these are very funny pics! I love it. And a girl in Star Wars storm trooper outfit is looking cool. http://mystarwarscostume.com/
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  • That lady with the long black hair seated by the huge stone is Cher. I think that's the cover art of her album Heart of Stone, which was released in the early 90s. If I'm not mistaken, that album is where the single "Turn Back Time" is from.
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  • The third image without credit is from Jonathon Bowser: http://www.jonathonart.com/nati4.html
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  • It is Heart of Stone, and interestingly enough, that album cover was recalled because it was thought to be too morbid. That's the one I have, though, and I've never seen what they replaced it with.
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  • I grew up around that Cher album (yes it is Heart of Stone) and had never noticed the illusion until now... very groovy
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  • omg, i cant beleive it! the one where u have 2 find the F's..first i counted 3, then i read the answer..i counted again, found 4, and the 4th time, i saw 6, haha!!

    im such a blonde!!
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  • Maybe, you will like this:
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    Its from the beginning scene of the movie Hannibal and it's Hannibal Lecters face made out of pidgeons.
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  • Neat article.
    There is one f in that sentence. You meant how many are in the following sentence. You made a word illusion.
    Cool.
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  • I think that second painting credited to Jos de Mey is actually by Rene Magritte. He frequently used the juxtaposition of night and day in his landscapes, and the birdcage fellow appears in many of his paintings.
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  • oh, Did I see some Michael Jackson look alike in the graphic associated with the movie 'Alexander' ?
    its on the bottom-left of the big face.
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  • The cameraman needs a few lessons.
    I have motion sickness now.
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  • That "asteroid" is in fact a meteor. :) Asteroids are large bodies smaller than a planet, located typically in the asteroid belt, meteoroids – smaller bodies, but still in space. Once they enter the atmosphere, they produce a ball of fire and this is called a "meteor".
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  • The meteor photo has been found to be the reflection of the sun off ice particles left by a airliner's engines. Here's another photo from about 10 kilometers away http://www.space.com/php/multimedia/imagedisplay/img_display.php?pic=031013_fireball_heywood_02,0.jpg
    Still looks spectacular though!
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  • The multi-coloured Beetles ("afterlife") were sold as such from the Mexican production line. They took 4 different-colour beetles and a small team just took the various parts off and assembled them on the other bodies just as they felt inspired that day. They then were sold as "clown"-version.
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  • Here in Brazil Beetles of all ages and styles, including buses, (called the Kombi here) are seen on the streets every day. We also see VW-bases Dune Buggies every day. So the Beetle is alive and well.
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  • I think this Beetle has the right to be here (:

    http://onlycarsandcars.blogspot.com/2010/05/vw-beetle-kafer-bug-run-extreme-low.html
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  • please consider not using "[wiki]" if the link goes to wikipedia, as a "wiki" is the type of software in general that wikipedia and many other sites use. in that sense it is as useful as using "[blog]" or "[site]" or other generic terms.

    in short: "wiki" is no good abbreviation for "wikipedia".
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  • will do!
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  • That nazi aerosled is not nazi but Finnish. Finnish army was well prepared for snow operations and the use of the swastika in its armed forces comes earlier than the nazis http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika#Finland
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  • Karamazov is absolutely right. The aerosled is Finnish. The German Wehrmacht never used the swastika on their vehicles. Trucks, tanks kubelwagens, etc., always used the standard German Cross.

    Only in need, when there was aerial support, did they put a flag (with the swastika) over the tanks and trucks to signal them to Luftwaffe.

    The Finnish used a blue swastika over a white background, as can be perceived from the black-and-white photograph.
    Read more

  • in case you were wondering, the three b&w pictures with the different variants of the one snow mobile , written in russian and translated as follows : passenger variant, business
    variant, and "sanitary" variant ( or sterile).


    great stuff. i wish that last tank/ship had been made.
    Read more

  • An interesting, but topical aside is the US prewar entry for the Antarctic. The Antarctic Snow Cruiser. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antarctic_snow_cruiser

    Somewhere it now seems at the bottom deep sea buried.
    Read more

  • Great post! Don't forget Bombardier's beautiful snow buses, some of which are still used for ice fishing in Canada. http://i174.photobucket.com/albums/w90/sugarzebra/BRPBusPOTN.jpg
    Read more

  • Pobeda = BMW?

    Rubbish. Those are Plymouths. The grille styles are distinctive, even when replaced by sheet metal to avoid radiator freezing.
    Read more


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