The RIP Thread

Apologies col....my attempt at a gentle piece of humor was obviously miss placed.....

 

I have you know that I'm very fond of ancient Uruguayan actresses

 

151,600 people die each day
bound to be a few out of that lot grove

 

No need.
It was me mate. Bad week.

 

Wow. It was only 40,000 when Blue Oyster Cult wrote Don't Fear the Reaper. And as the band included a demographer, a statistician and a public health expert in mortality*, I'm sure that their estimate was accurate in 1976.



*possibly, I haven't checked.

 

Quite tragic. The foolish things that young people do, and most get away with (myself included).

These lads both worked at the facility so should have been aware of the dangers of their venture, but probably not aware of that concrete wall separating the two tracks.

Canadian twin brothers killed in bobsled accident

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Evan (left) and Jordan Caldwell were killed in the accident

Canadian authorities have identified the teenage twin brothers who were killed over the weekend in a toboggan accident in Calgary.
Evan and Jordan Caldwell, 17, were killed and six other teens were injured after they rode toboggan down a bobsled track at Canada Olympic Park.
The teens had sneaked into the park after it had closed, police said.

As their toboggan sped down the track, the teens crashed into a gate that separated the luge and bobsled tracks.
The twins were pronounced dead at the scene and the others were treated at hospital.

"Our boys Jordan and Evan were bright lights to all who knew them. We are grieving their loss but confident in their new home of heaven. Our brief 17 years with them were a gift: filled with much love, laughter and fond memories," the Caldwell family said in a statement.

"They leave a huge void and will be sorely missed."

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The accident happened where the luge and bobsled converge at Canada Olympic Park

WinSport, the operators of the park, which hosted events during the 1988 Winter Olympics, told the CBC that the company was reviewing security camera footage to determine how the accident happened.

WinSport president and CEO Barry Heck called the park's security "robust" and refuted claims made on social media that teens frequently sneak into the park after hours.

"I've heard of incidents of people coming into the park," Mr Heck told the CBC. "I do not know of any incidents of anyone being on the sliding track."

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-35527420

 

'Sneaked in after the park was closed'? Darwin awards in the post.

 

I don't fear the reaper, I was married to her for over 30 years...

 

Many people will miss and lose loved ones as well as people they think they know in public life
What is daft is the public outpouring of short lived false emotion as if they need to be a part of it or even own it
I would imagine people who have lost friends or family on here or can I say had to say goodbye to them know only too well how hard that is
I also believe 100% that those who have had their time would wish those of us left to enjoy what we can

There are no excuses IMO and as lucky as we are to be born where we are I hate to see wasted lives

famous people usually leave something behind for people to enjoy

What's your excuse?

 

I get your "natural selection, survival of the fittest" POV, but I believe the world could have been a better place with these two lads in the mix going forward.

Yes, a stupid youthful lark gone wrong, they probably had done it before but weren't expecting that concrete barrier. Perhaps they were egged on by their chums to do it? Who knows, still a tragic loss for their family I think you would agree?

Calgary schools offer supports in wake of bobsled-track crash that killed twin teenagers
Jordan and Evan Caldwell were straight-A students who had earned numerous university scholarships
CBC News Posted: Feb 08, 2016 9:49 AM MT Last Updated: Feb 08, 2016 12:05 PM MT

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Jordan and Evan Caldwell 'were bright lights to all that knew them,' their family said in a statement following their deaths early Saturday at the bobsled track at Canada Olympic Park in Calgary. (Submitted by the Caldwell family)

• Family of Calgary bobsled-track accident victims shares memories of twins
• Calgary bobsled accident victims ID'd as twins Jordan and Evan Caldwell
• Calgary bobsled track operator likely not liable for crash that killed teens, lawyer says

School officials in Calgary will offer supports to students, family and staff following the deaths of 17-year-old twins Jordan and Evan Caldwell in an after-hours toboggan ride on an Olympic bobsled track.
"I think it's really important when a devastating tragedy such as this occurs for us to realize that there's a whole range of responses," said Calgary Board of Education area director Calvin Davies.

• Calgary bobsled victims' family shares about loss of twins
• Calgary bobsled accident victims ID'd as twins Jordan and Evan Caldwell

"We've put into place in our schools — both here at Westmount and at Ernest Manning — a very flexible support system so that we can respond to the range of emotions that take place."
The Caldwell twins attended Westmount Charter School since Grade 5, but Evan transferred to Ernest Manning High School last February.
Six other teenagers were injured in the crash.

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Fatal bobsled-track crash prompts school officials to provide student-support services11:54
Jordan was the student-council president at Westmount and "very active" in school affairs, said superintendent Joe Frank.
The youngest kids at the charter school, which includes about 500 students from Grade 5 to Grade 12, called Jordan "their rock star," the superintendent added.
Evan was also well known at Westmount before transferring to Ernest Manning to further his engineering studies, a field he planned to pursue at Queen's University.

'They had so much potential'
Kelsey Kaiser, 17, was a classmate of Evan's and said she'll remember "how good of a guy he was" to all his fellow students.
"I'll remember the morning announcements he did every morning and how welcoming he made everyone feel coming into the school," she said.
"You can't really think any hard things about him, because everyone makes mistakes," Kaiser added. "And you've just got to remember what he did for the community, and how good of a friend he was and how good of a kid he was to his family."
Ernest Manning student Megan Lance, 16, said the "whole school" felt the impact of the twins' deaths.
"They had so much potential," she said. "It's just horrible."

Tributes gathered for family
Frank said students are being encouraged to talk freely but stick to factual information rather than rumours, and to share their feelings.
"We have a table set up on three levels of the school for them to provide some kind of a tribute, and those tributes will be gathered in whatever form they are and provided to the family," he said.

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Tables set up inside Westmount Charter School invite students to express their feelings in writing or other forms. Tributes will be gathered and presented to the family of Jordan and Evan Caldwell.

Students are also being asked to refrain from judging the group of eight for their decision to enter Canada Olympic Park after hours and slide down the bobsled track on their own sleds.
"It's important for us to remember that the students involved in this event, they're teenagers," Frank said. "They make some decisions about the kind of activities that they want to get involved in. Sometimes it would be a bad decision, which can lead to a tragic ending."
"We need to have our students, as much as possible, think about how that can happen to anybody," he added.
"It's not about judging what decisions this group of students made."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/calgary-bobsled-fatal-crash-student-supports-1.3438538

 

Nearly (but not quite) all deaths are regrettable, and all will be hard for loved ones. But to be brutally honest if we grieved for all of them we'd never get anything done. These lads, though they were doubtless decent and I would never discourage risk taking (though not checking the course is Male Idiot Theory in action, perhaps they were pissed), are now just mildly interesting statistics (because of the way they died) except to people who knew them. The RIP stuff we have on here is usually of people we have heard of and who may have had an impact, however marginal, on our lives in some way.

 

Well known screenwriter (and as far as I am aware not a QPR fan) Norman Hudis has passed away, at the age of 93.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/p...ry-on-screenwriter-dies-aged-93-a6862836.html

Norman is best known for writing the first six Carry On films, helping to firmly establish the franchise in British comedy history. He also wrote for TV shows The Man From U.N.C.L.E. and the original Hawaii Five-0

I love the early Carry Ons, and remember watching the TV shows above with great enjoyment. He was a talented guy.

RIP, Mr Hudis.

 

Now this is a good example of Darwin at work:-

Maine man didn’t mean to launch fireworks from his head that killed him, say friends

Those close to Devon Staples, who died when he lit fireworks on his head on the Fourth of July, said Monday that the young man probably didn’t know what he was doing. They speculated that he lit the mortar accidentally or thought it was a dud.

According to local police, Staples, 22, was messing around with friends in Calais, Maine, drinking and setting off fireworks when he put a mortar on his head and lit it. Mortars are cardboard tubes holding packaged fireworks — though it’s unclear what type of firework was in the tube. The firework exploded, instantly killing Staples.

[Maine man dies after launching fireworks from his head]

Staples’s fiancee, Kara Hawley, said the whole thing was an accident.
Hawley, 30, said Staples was likely “buzzed” from alcohol and that he accidentally lit the cigarette lighter in his hand while dancing with the firework on his head, the Portland Press Herald reported.

“He would never intentionally do something like that. He was just trying to get us to laugh,” Hawley told the Press Herald.
Friends of Staples who were with him at the time said they tried to dissuade him from the stunt and were taken aback when they saw the fuse was lit. Hawley told the Press Herald that after she saw the mortar was lit, she yelled at Staples to throw it away but “it was too late.”
Kathleen Staples, Devon’s mother, said her son wouldn’t have lit the firework if he had thought it was actually going to go off.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission released a video demonstrating the hazards of fireworks before Independence Day 2015. (YouTube/Consumer Product Safety Commission)
“That would’ve been suicide. I can’t see a happy boy wanting to destroy himself,” she said according to CBS Boston.“He believed it was a dud, he stuck it over his head and he was goofing off.”
However, Maine Fire Marshal Joe Thomas said the mortar had been fired earlier and that he “can’t imagine someone would anticipate that it was a dud,” the Associated Press reported. Thomas reported the investigation into Staples’s death determined it was an accident, according to the Press Herald.
Friends and family remember Staples as a fun-loving guy, always looking to entertain. Hawley said Staples, a proven dog lover, was planning to become a veterinary technician, intending to start classes at Washington County Community College in the fall. Staples at one time lived in Orlando and worked at Disney World, dressing up as characters like Gaston from “Beauty and the Beast.”
“The kid, out of hundreds of people, ended up working for Disney World as Gaston and Goofy. He was talented and bright,” Staples said.
In the wake of her son’s death, Staples is also advocating for more strict fireworks regulations in Maine. The state just recently legalized fireworks in 2012 after a ban of more than 60 years. Staples told the AP on Monday that regulations should be similar to those for firearms or driving cars.
“At least it’d be a little bit more than, ‘Here you go,’” she said. “That’s an explosive. They didn’t just hand me a license and put me in the car.”
Maine Rep. Michel Lajoie told the AP he’s considering trying to introduce a measure to restrict the use of fireworks, though he wonders if it will increase safety.
“They’re going to say, ‘Well, you can’t regulate stupidity’ … and it’s true, you can’t. But the fact of the matter is you have to try something,” Lajoie said. “I’m not giving up.”
There were 11 fireworks-related deaths in the United States last year, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/07/07/friends-family-defend-maine-man-who-killed-himself-with-fireworks/

 

Proven dog lover

 

Here's another, reported 5 days ago, that Charles Darwin would have added to his Conclusive Proof file:

"A father of three choked to death as he tried to eat a McDonald's cheeseburger in one mouthful, an inquest has heard.

Darren Bray, 29, of Barry, Vale of Glamorgan, blacked out as he ate the 99p burger following a night out with friends in October 2015.

A Coroner's hearing was told Mr Bray shouted "Watch this! " to his friends as he squashed the burger in half, and put it in his mouth.

Friend Sam Bisgrove said: "I could see him trying to cough it up and he was making horrible coughing noises."

 

Happy 2 year old survived motor byke trip with 5 on the bike, in very heavy traffic, no helmet, but had a plastic snorkling mask She's still alive, happy and laughing, well till next time the family need a shopping run.

 

Apparently, his friends would've come to his aid, but they thought he was lovin' it.

 

Phil Gartside, chairman of Bolton has passed away. Best known for advocating the 'closed shop' Premier League when Bolton were on their way out of it...

 

Viola Beach. Never heard of them, being an old codger, but tragic nonetheless.

 

I thought you had just put up "Aston Villa" Uber...sorry I was wrong..