The Runaway Gurney (A true event, not an urban legend!)

Claim: An elderly patient met his demise when the gurney he was strapped to rolled away with him.

Status: True.

Origins: The following 1991 news story appeared long after the legend was in circulation. It's a case of ostention, or an urban legend's coming true:
A 76-year-old man died after the ambulance stretcher he was strapped to rolled down a grade and overturned, the Allegheny County coroner's office said. Edward Juchniewicz of Canonsburg was being transported from a nursing home to a doctor's office for an appointment. The ambulance attendants left the stretcher in the parking lot at the doctor's office and went to talk with the doctor's staff, authorities said. The cot rolled away and turned over, injuring the man in the head, the coroner's office said. http://auckland.blogspot.com/

Yahoo confirms: CEO Yang is gone.

SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang is stepping down as chief executive, ending a rocky reign marked by his refusal to sell the internet company to Microsoft for $47.5 billion - more than triple Yahoo's current market value.

The change in command won't be completed until Yahoo finds his replacement. The Sunnyvale, California-based company said it is interviewing candidates inside and outside Yahoo in a search led by its chairman, Roy Bostock, and the executive recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggles.

"Jerry and the board have had an ongoing dialogue about succession timing, and we all agree that now is the right time to make the transition to a new CEO who can take the company to the next level," Bostock said.

Yang, who started Yahoo with Stanford University classmate David Filo in 1994, will revert to "Chief Yahoo," a titular role he filled before replacing former movie studio boss Terry Semel as CEO in June 2007. He will also remain on Yahoo's board of directors.

"I will continue to focus on global strategy and to do everything I can to help Yahoo realise its full potential and enhance its leading culture of technology and product excellence and innovation," Yang said in a statement.

Although Yang had publicly expressed his desire to remain at the helm, Yahoo's board faced intensifying pressure to cast him aside as the company's shares plunged to its lowest levels since early 2003. The stock fell 19 cents Monday to close at $10.63 - a fraction of Microsoft's last bid of $33 per share in early May.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer huffily withdrew the offer after Yang sought $37 per share. The negotiating breakdown triggered a shareholder revolt led by billionaire investor Carl Icahn, who called for Yang's ouster in July before reaching a truce that put him and two allies on Yahoo's 11-member board.

Yang, 40, had been pursuing a strategy that he thought would prove Yahoo was worth more than Microsoft was willing to pay, but the rapidly deteriorating economy made a comeback seem increasingly unlikely. As it is, Yahoo's earnings have been eroding for three years, disillusioning investors amid a management exodus that indicated even Yang's own troops were losing faith in him. - AP

http://www.wakahuia.co.nz/?p=3092
http://auckland.wordpress.com/

Deadly Bike Accident at Tulsa, naer Admiral Exit, USA.

**WARNING** EXPLICIT ACCIDENT SCENE, YOU MUST BE ABOVE 18 TO VIEW THIS ARTICLE.

This crash was at 169 near Admiral exit. How would you like to be a truck driver, walk around back and see THAT hangin from the back end of your truck.

They said dude hit the back of the truck at about 120 mph! (Click on picture for enlarged view)

These are pictures from a motorcycle accident last week on Highway 169 here in Tulsa. The guy was going over 125 mph around 2 am when he hit the back of the Yellow truck. The truck was going normal speed and did not know what had happened. He was drug approx a mile before the truck stopped. Highway 169 is known for late night speed driving and trick driving of motorcycles. This guy's friend was killed 1 week before this on his motorcycle going 120+ on Highway 169. Please be aware of what you're doing at all times..... and watch your speed.

According to the Tulsa World:
Police said the truck driver reported hearing a bump and then seeing debris from the motorcycle going past him. When he managed to pull over, he saw that a man was embedded in the back of his trailer.

White was dead at the scene.
Brandon's family said that they hoped his unfortunate death at least would help to bring attention to the issue of motorcycle safety:
"If I can save one mother, one father from going through what I've gone through, then it's worthwhile," said Broken Arrow resident Dennis White,

Brandon White's father. "I can't be mad, but I know I have to do something. I've got to make a positive out of this."

Despite the hurt, the family members said they hope something good — a review of motorcycle safety laws — comes out of the recent death.

Helmet requirement laws, harsher penalties for speeding on a motorcycle, and community-based services to decrease drunken driving are among measures about which the family hopes the two young men's deaths spark a discussion.

Taking away a rider's motorcycle and motorcycle license for going a certain amount over the speed limit would be one way to curb speeding on bikes, said the elder White, who has ridden motorcycles for several years.

"That's the only thing that would make me think — that I'm going to lose it (his motorcycle)," he said. "I'm not a lawmaker, but I'm a biker, and that's the only thing that would work."

White said clubs that don't serve alcohol would go a long way toward helping reduce drunken-driving deaths for youths by providing them a hangout without the temptation of drinking and driving.

"We've got to do something to save these kids," he said. "We've got to do something to support them."
A few inaccuracies have crept into the text accompanying forwarded versions of these pictures. A 2008 variant carried the closing legend "He lived. Wear your helmet!", but unfortunately Brandon Lee did not survive the accident despite his wearing a helmet. Also, the friend of Brandon's who "was killed 1 week before this on his motorcycle going 120+ on Highway 169" referenced in the second example above was 21-year-old Devin Seigal, who was killed in a similar motorcycle accident five days after Brandon's death (and had, in fact, attended Brandon's funeral).

A Fish Story from Wichita Eagle Newspaper

This was a pretty interesting story from The Sunday Wichita Eagle Newspaper a couple of weeks ago. Was in a housing development around 119th st. South and Maple. Anyhow a resident in the area saw a ball bouncing around kind of strange like in the developments pond and when he went to investigate, it was a flathead catfish who had obviously tried to swallow a child's basketball which became stuck in its mouth. The fish was totally exhausted from trying to dive but unable to because the ball would always bring him back up to the surface.

The resident tried numerous times to get the ball out but was unsuccessful. He finally had his wife cut the ball in order to deflate the ball and release the catfish. (Please click on picture for larger view)

Yes, these photographs are real, taken at Sandalwood Lake in Kansas on 28 May 2004. An account of the circumstances under which the pictures were taken appeared in the Wichita Eagle on 30 May 2004:

From Panama to the Great Lakes, Bill Driver's done pretty well fishing over the past 50 years.

Now he's wondering if he'd have done even better with a different kind of bait. "I never considered using a kid's basketball," Driver said. "Maybe I should have."
Friday afternoon, Driver was standing on the deck of his house near 119th Street West and Central when he saw an eight-inch ball floating in Sandalwood Lake.

Noticing the ball wasn't floating normally, Driver wandered to his dock for a closer look. A catfish had its mouth stuck around the ball.

Driver hollered for his wife, Pam, to get a camera while he unrigged the sail from his nine-foot boat, wading into the lake and corralling the fish toward shore with the sail as a seine. Several times, the flathead tried to dive, only to have the ball buoy it back to the surface.
The fish appeared to be exhausted and offered little resistance once in the shallows.

Things may have gone easier had the fish the strength to struggle.

"I just couldn't pull that ball out of its mouth," Driver said. "I was lifting up out of the water as best I could by the ball. I finally sent my wife to the house to get a knife."

Driver carefully deflated the ball. Estimated at 50 pounds, the fish swam toward the deepest part of the lake.

Driver has no plans of targeting the fish in the near future Instead, he'll probably continue to fish for the bass and panfish that swim within the one-acre lake. "I guess I might try fishing with a golf ball," Driver said. "Smaller fish, smaller bait."