Lance Corporal Matt Croucher threw himself over grenade to save comrades: A Royal Marine who threw himself over an exploding grenade to shield his comrades from the blast has been recommended for a Victoria Cross, Britain’s highest military honour. Lance Corporal Matt Croucher, who was on a reconnaissance mission in southern Afghanistan, escaped unscathed except for a nosebleed when his rucksack took the force of the blast. [Times]
Security guard solves 38-year-old maths poser: A mystery that has baffled the top minds in the esoteric mathematical field of symbolic dynamics for nearly four decades has recently been cracked - by a 63-year-old former security guard. [Guardian]
March 31st, 2008 at 12:07 pm
This article is filed under Blog, People.
What FBI whistle-blower Sibel Edmonds found in translation: Why is her story being covered up? Most Americans have never heard of Sibel Edmonds, and if the U.S. government has its way, they never will. The former FBI translator turned whistle-blower tells a chilling story of corruption at Washington’s highest levels – sale of nuclear secrets, shielding of terrorist suspects, illegal arms transfers, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, espionage. She may be a first-rate fabulist, but Ms. Edmonds’ account is full of dates, places and names. [Dallas Morning News]
Robert Frank’s Unsentimental Journey: Published in 1958, Robert Frank’s photographic manifesto, The Americans, torched the national myth, bringing him such comrades as Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, and—for a controversial documentary—the Rolling Stones. On a trip to China, the 83-year-old rebel of postwar film still defies expectations. [Vanity Fair]
Nails Never Fails: Mets fans of a certain age will recall a popular poster from 1986, bearing the word “Nails” in bold letters across the top, and featuring a shirtless Dykstra, wearing eye black and holding a bat against his shoulder. The nickname referred to his tenacity and also to his peculiar Southern California lexicon. [New Yorker]
March 17th, 2008 at 1:19 pm
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William F. Buckley Jr., who marshaled polysyllabic exuberance, famously arched eyebrows and a refined, perspicacious mind to elevate conservatism to the center of American political discourse, died Wednesday at his home in Stamford, Conn. Mr Buckley, 82, suffered from diabetes and emphysema, his son Christopher said, although the exact cause of death was not immediately known. He was found at his desk in the study of his home, his son said. “He might have been working on a column,” Mr. Buckley said. [NYT]
Issa Fazli says the double whammy of his transformation from a Muslim daughter into a Christian son blew his dad over the top: “He said he would make my life a living hell, and he did a good job of it.” Days before a hearing to determine his status in the U.S., Fazli sat in his New York apartment with a Bible on his knees and read verses from Matthew about the persecution of the faithful. [Village Voice]
Italian police have arrested a man they described as a “modern Robin Hood“, who carried out a series of crimes to give money to the poor. Pasquale D’Angelo, 37, used a toy gun to hold up a branch of the Banca Nazionale di Lavoro in Rimini on Thursday morning. He made off with €3,500 (£2,640), which he took to a nearby bar and started distributing among the poorer customers. [Telegraph]
February 27th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
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Danish caricaturist of Muhammad fame now homeless. Two years ago Kurt Westergaard was in his Copenhagen home drawing pictures. One of them was of the Muslim prophet, Muhammad. Now Westergaard is homeless. [Spiegel]
Gathering his years as a lacrosse star, time spent on an insurance claims review board and those rocket-ship daydreams, Downie McCarty, now 62, might have found an answer. He has improved the chisel, a tool seemingly immune to modernization. [NYT]
Mr Chamberlain was chauffeured from his wedding earlier this month in Queensland in the car that was forensically tested for his sister’s blood. [Telegraph]
Eight-limbed girl ‘will always be a Goddess.’ [Telegraph]
Dick Cavett on chess champion Bobby Fischer: “Towering genius, riches, international fame and a far from normal childhood might be too heady a mix for anyone to handle. For him they proved fatal.” [NYT]
February 20th, 2008 at 10:13 am
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