10 Refreshing Stories Of Rich People Who Gave Their Fortunes Away

It’s admirable that there are rich people out there who choose to share their blessings with the poor folk. While tycoons like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet are well known for their charitable giving, there are plenty of other dedicated philanthropists out there who decided to give their entire wealth away during their lifetime. This list shows those people who just couldn’t wait after their deaths to part with their money, and for that, they deserve a big round of applause.

10 From Mansion To Mud Hut

Jon Pedley lived the life of a swinging millionaire until an alcohol-fueled car accident in 2002 left him comatose and on the verge of death. Miraculously, he survived, and soon experienced a profound change of heart. The UK millionaire—who indulged in alcohol, womanizing, and other vices—later found God and was inspired by the charity work of his friend in Uganda.

He decided to emulate his friend, and literally gave it all away in 2010 as he sold his $1.5 million farmhouse and businesses. Pedley then used the proceeds to move to a mud hut in Uganda and start a charity for local orphans. The charity wasn’t only for the local children, either—British children with a troubled past were also sent there to help the locals and ultimately help themselves. For Pedley, it was a cathartic release from his once-decadent lifestyle—he remarked that “I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life” when asked if he really wanted to go through with it.

9 The World’s Luckiest Man

An 81-year-old Croatian music teacher named Frano Selak led what was arguably one of the most charmed lives ever. He escaped death seven times—including falling from a plane to car and train accidents—before winning nearly $1 million in a raffle draw. However, Selak felt that money wasn’t the path to true happiness, so in 2010, he decided to part with his newfound wealth.

He sold the upscale house on a private island he bought and gave it, along with the rest of his winnings, to his friends and family. He then moved back to his original home in Petrinja, where he has vowed to live a simpler life. He used his remaining money to construct a memorial to the Virgin Mary as a token of gratitude for his incredibly good luck. In addition, Selak set aside just enough money for a hip operation so he could spend more time with his wife.

8 The Millionaire Columnist

Percy Ross, who died in 2001, was the son of a junk dealer in Minnesota and lived a rather hard-knock life. In his adult years, he lost money just as easily as he made it while doing odd jobs. He finally hit it big when he bought and saved a plastic bag company from going bankrupt. By 1977, Ross had gone into the business of giving when he donated more than a thousand bikes to children at a Christmas Party. The following year, he doled out nearly $20,000 to onlookers at a local parade.

However, Ross wanted to reach a wider audience, so in 1983, he started a newspaper column. Titled “Thanks A Million,” the column—which ran in 800 newspapers for 16 years—was a massive success and saw thousands of people who write and ask Ross for money. Oftentimes, Ross gleefully handed money and checks in person to those he felt needed help, but he did not hesitate to turn down requests from people whom he thought had the means to get the money for themselves.

Ross did his last column in 1999 and stated that he had given out $30 million—all of his money. While Ross expressed no remorse for his style of philanthropy, he thanked his readers for the true happiness he experienced while he shared his fortune. It’s easy to dismiss Ross as nothing more than a publicity-hog, but he really did enjoy sharing his wealth among the less fortunate.

7 Chinese Billionaire Left Nothing To His Sons

Real estate and hotel tycoon Yu Panglin announced in 2010 that he had donated his remaining $470 million to his charity foundation, which became worth $1.2 billion. Yu stated that he did not want to leave anything to his two sons and encouraged his wealthy compatriots to do the same. To avoid abuse, Yu designated HSBC to look after the funds and gave explicit instructions no one could invest or inherit it.

Yu later explained his philanthropic views stemmed from his childhood experiences. He grew up in poverty and witnessed the hardships the poor have had to endure in life. He also explained that he left nothing to his two sons because all that money might corrupt them and expressed his belief that could they handle themselves without it. Such generosity has placed him consistently as China’s top philanthropist for several years in a row.

6 The Low-Key Billionaire Philanthropist

Most people have heard of the generosity of the likes of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates, as mentioned earlier, only a few may have heard of Chuck Feeney. That is because the Irish-American billionaire has always insisted on doing philanthropy as discreetly as he can. For the past 30 years, Feeney has secretly given as much as $6.2 billion from his vast financial empire to charities and causes worldwide.

It is estimated that the $1.3 billion he has left will be used up by 2016, with his foundation closing by 2020. Feeney, who made his vast fortune in duty-free shops, made no secret of his desire to be penniless before he dies. He hopes that his example will serve as a guide to his fellow wealthy philanthropists not to wait before their deaths before sharing their wealth. In fact, Feeney’s life served to inspire both Gates and Buffett to start their own foundations.

5 The Russian Businessman-Turned-Monk

Yevgeny Pushenko had a good thing going for him back in the 1990s. The Soviet Union had just broken up and people were free to pursue their dreams. For Pushenko, that freedom enabled him to construct a clothing factory in his hometown of Vladivostok. Soon, business was booming and he had 50 factory workers at one point. However, Pushenko felt empty. Until then, he had not really practiced his faith as an Orthodox Christian, which was suppressed for so long by the authorities.

It wouldn’t be long before he met his friends over vodka (of course) and handed them the keys to his factory. His shocked friends found out the reason from his parents the next day: He wanted to be a monk and do a pilgrimage to Jerusalem. For three years, Pushenko walked 15,000 kilometers (9,320 mi) through several countries until he finally reached his destination. Pushenko endured many trials during his journey, from battling extreme weather to fending off suspicious authorities, but remarked that his faith kept him going. After he had finished his pilgrimage, Pushenko renamed himself Athanassios and retired to Mt. Athos in Greece, where he has since resided at a monastery.

4 The Millionaire Who Fights Cancer With Charity

Although he had been already involved in various charities for a long time, it was the sight of his own wife suffering breast cancer that moved British businessman Brian Burnie to do something more. He did just that in 2009 when he sold his $26 million estate containing his home and luxurious hotel to fund his own charity, which involved accompanying and transporting cancer patients for free from their homes to the hospitals. Burnie explained that he wanted to help lessen the suffering that cancer patients often had to go through and hoped that his act would inspire other wealthy people to do the same.

That wasn’t the last of Burnie’s generosity. In 2012, he also sold his second house, which was worth nearly $1 million, where he and his wife had been residing in after he sold the estate. He then gave all the proceeds to fund his ever-growing charity and has been living frugally ever since.

3 Film Director Exchanges Hollywood Lifestyle For Simpler One

Although he lived the Hollywood lifestyle befitting the rich and famous, deep down inside, Tom Shadyac wasn’t happy. The director of hit films such as Ace Ventura: Pet Detective and The Nutty Professor felt empty amid the fame and fortune he had acquired over the years. That feeling of emptiness was only aggravated when a serious cycling accident in 2007 left him reeling and pondering about his own mortality.

As he revealed in an interview with Oprah, Shadyac discovered that the way to live a truly happy life was to live within your means and share your extras with the less fortunate. For Shadyac, that meant trading his mansions and jets for a mobile home and a bike and sharing his wealth and philosophy with the rest of the world. He remarked this year that his simple way of living has left him feeling truly happier and wealthier than when he lived in the fast lane in Hollywood.

2 The Texas Tycoon Who Died In A Small Room

George Carroll was born in 1855 and grew up in Louisiana, but transferred with his family to Beaumont, Texas, where his father started a chain of lumber companies in 1868. Carroll worked for his father and managed to become the head of the family business. In 1892, he invested in a successful oil-drilling company which made soon made him extremely rich.

However, Carroll realized the oil boom also influenced the townspeople toward a life of excess and vice. Consequently, he unsuccessfully ran for political office several times to combat town’s growing decadence. A practicing Baptist, Carroll frequently made huge donations to the local Baptist church and university. He also founded the local YMCA and became its head and benefactor. It is speculated that Carroll gave away his entire wealth while he was alive, later dying at the age of 80 in a small room inside the very YMCA building he financed.

1 Millionaire Gives Money . . . And Kidney

Zell Kravinsky knew he wasn’t cut out for the wealthy way of living. Sure, he had made millions investing in real estate in his native Pennsylvania, but Kravinsky decided his dollars had a grander purpose than just fattening his bank account. In 2001, he began donating money and land to various charities until his contributions reached $45 million dollars. By then, his family and friends thought that he was being too impulsive, but Kravinsky brushed their reservations aside and said that he could always earn more money—though he’d likely give it away as well.

However, Kravinsky still felt that donating money and land wasn’t enough. He decided up the ante and gave his kidney to a total stranger. His move was met with mixed views, ranging from praise to disbelief. Even his wife threatened to leave him, although that was later defused thanks to famous singer Pat Boone, who knew what Kravinsky did and urged her to forgive him for being too generous. As for Kravinsky, he said that he would readily give any of his body parts again for any who needed it.

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via 10 Refreshing Stories Of Rich People Who Gave Their Fortunes Away
by LCFPadmin2016

How Lucky Magazine’s John Jannuzzi Made It In Fashion

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Courtesy of John Jannuzzi

BuzzFeed Fashion’s “How I Made It in Fashion” series takes you behind the success of the industry’s most important players. Here Lucky magazine’s Senior Digital Projects Editor John Jannuzzi shares his story — proof that waiting tables to pay your way through grad school, well, pays off. (And, you know, being really good at your job too.)

When I was a kid I never really bought fashion magazines. I was very interested in, I guess, the science behind how people dress — and how they think that represents themselves. One of my earliest birthday memories is when my brother bought me this Reader’s Digest book about how people dressed [in the past]. It went all the way back to the Stone Age.

Also, I used to draw characters from Disney movies — my favorite Disney movie of all time is Hercules, I loved that — and TV and cartoons over and over. I’d change what they were wearing, design new clothes for them. The thing about Disney movies too is when you look at them and you’re a little older, you see that the art — and it’s not like I watch them all the time — it’s really true to that period in history. And I think that’s how I got really interested in design and all the different elements of it. I was really fortunate to grow up in a family that really encouraged creativity. My parents always just encouraged me to keep doing that, and as I got older, I studied art in high school and then I majored in art in college too, so I would say I approached [fashion] from a broader perspective. Also, I’m really glad I went to a liberal arts school because I took communications classes, film classes, European history classes; having that breadth of knowledge really informs a lot of your opinions. And then I graduated college with a degree in printmaking, which is like completely useless, so I figured, “Well I’m going to try and get into the fashion industry.”

All of my friends in college were accounting majors. So it’s the first semester of senior year and everyone [else] has job offers — I start to freak out. Obviously, in the creative industries, you don’t do that summer internship and your boss says, “Great we’ll see you next year for a job.” Now I went to school in Allentown, Pennsylvania. I had no connections to the fashion industry. I decided that I was going to do graduate school and I applied to Parsons. I got accepted and very shortly after I graduated I moved to the city. It was a pretty clichéd moment: I had a suitcase and arrived on a Metro-North train. I was renting an apartment in the middle of Times Square. At first I’m thinking, Wow, I live in New York City! That got really old real fast.

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My parents quickly informed me that they would no longer be supporting me financially, so I had to get a job. I feel like I work very hard now, but I have not hustled like I did in those days in forever. There are pictures of me from when I was in school floating around somewhere and I just look cracked out, like I haven’t slept in days. I was taking classes and interning and working at a restaurant at night. One night while I was working Tim Gunn came in to eat. My cousin was my boss there at the time, and she said, “You have to go to his table and you have to talk to him and you have to get his business card.”

So I talked to him and he was very, very kind. I’m sure he was probably on some level a little annoyed to have his meal interrupted, but he’s one of the nicest people I’ve ever spoken to. He’d just started at Liz Claiborne and he said, “Come into the office, meet with me, and I’ll do whatever I can to help.” Now also at this time, I have say… My clothing situation was not good. I had no money! I was pretty much wandering around the city in gym shorts and T-shirts; I’d bought a suit at H&M to wear at the restaurant. So what the hell am I going to wear to go meet with Tim Gunn?! Also, how am I ever going to get a job if I only have gym shorts?!

I went to Banana Republic and bought a look straight off a mannequin. I looked totally fine, but it’s funny because I would never do that now. Not because I don’t like Banana Republic, just because who does that? So I went in and met with him and he gave me some information about the internship program at Liz Claiborne Incorporated. I also ended up having another connection at Liz Claiborne — my father is a pediatrician and he had this one patient who just loved him, and this patient’s father was the senior vice president of human resources at the company. So I found an internship there, and it was the most valuable internship experience I had. I was there for a summer, and then summer ended and I asked if there were any jobs open. They said no.

So I thought fine, whatever. And I continued interning and working — but then a couple months later I got called for informational interview at Kate Spade, which was owned by Liz Claiborne. The human resources coordinator I had dealt with during my summer internship had recommended me. And, you know, I grew up in Connecticut so I was surrounded by girls who were obsessed with Kate Spade; I was very familiar with the brand. They said, you know, “Your résumé looks good and we might have something for you in the future, but right now we’re hiring for a marketing manager and you’re entry level.” I totally understood — I’d never had a proper job before — so I just asked them to keep me posted. Time goes by and the recession happened and suddenly their budget for a marketing manager got slashed to, like, coordinator level. My level! They called me up again, I went for another interview — oh gosh, I was wearing that H&M suit I’d wear to work at the restaurant. It was a total disaster at this point. During the day there were visible grease stains on it. (laughs)

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Jannuzzi in that H&M suit. Courtesy of John Jannuzzi

I don’t think I’ve ever been that nervous for a job interview. I remember leaving and I called my parents; I thought it went horribly wrong. I was like, “This is a mess, I’m screwed.” I did the whole thing with the thank-you notes and all that. I remember thinking, “I have to get this job somehow,” so I put together 20 pages of marketing ideas for Kate Spade based on the goals that they had mentioned in the interview. And they replied very quickly saying, you know, “This looks great, thank you so much for your effort, we’re still making our decision we’ll be in touch.” I kept in touch for months. I’m talking six or seven months. People told me to give up, saying that they wouldn’t hire me or that the position is frozen, but they were always getting back in touch. Finally, seven months later, I’m sitting in the office at another internship, for a menswear label called Gilded Age actually, and my phone rings. It’s human resources at Kate Spade and they said they had a job for me. That was one of the best moments of my entire life, although I was an idiot because I basically said whatever you want to pay me is totally fine when they started talking salary.

Now part of that document I had put together listing marketing ideas was about what the Kate Spade team could do on social media. This was 2008, so in terms of Facebook and Twitter it’s still pretty early in the game. We started paying attention to social media. Kate Spade had maybe 2,500 fans on Facebook and I saw a big opportunity — it’s Facebook, there’s a lot of college students on, people who identify with the brand. A large part of my role became developing the brand on those channels. Fortunately for me, that was right around the time that people began paying attention to brands’ social media presence. That was a big part of my success at the company.

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textbook.tumblr.com

While I was at Kate Spade I started my Tumblr, Textbook. It started as a random marketing idea — what if we could reach out to some of our favorite artists and ask them for illustrations of our favorite books or our favorite books’ characters, which we could display in-store. Such and such artist paints Holden Caulfield or whoever. Kate Spade said no, but I still thought it was a great idea, so I decided I would just do it on my own. Only instead of illustrations I decided to use runway photos. In fact the first character I picked was Holden Caulfield. What would Holden wear from the fall 2010 menswear collections? I took images from style.com, sliced them up in Photoshop and made one composite look. It started to get a lot of attention, I think because of the concept and because it was a little different than the traditional fashion blog, which at that time was very much about personal style.

A couple of months after I started at Kate Spade I had the strangest conversation with my boss. She basically said, “John, this is not the job for you.” So obviously I panicked, asking, you know, “Are you firing me?!” She said no, but that I was really into “this digital and social stuff” — she said she’d help me get another job more focused [in that field]. So strange! In the end, she said she thought I should go work for a company like Starworks Group, who Kate Spade had just hired as a digital agency. So I went over there, and continued doing basically [the same stuff] from a different desk. I actually think it was one of the reasons Starworks was really interested in hiring me out of Kate Spade was because of my blog. It was original and in fashion now — I’m not trying to say that I always come up with original ideas — an original idea in this day and age is hard to find. It’s so valuable. But I was only there for about four months before I realized that PR was just the wrong industry for me. Honestly, it felt a lot of times like I was just emailing my friends, pleading, “Hey will you write about this, even though I know you hate getting these messages.”

I got an email from Lucky magazine asking me to be on the hosting committee, I think, of a blogger conference they were running. I mean, I didn’t even know what a “blogger conference” was. So I met with Lucky’s director of online content and she explained it, and we talked about all these digital plans they were working on I thought it all sounded great. A few days later she emailed me asking if I knew anyone to fill this role they had open, which was going to be half editorial, half digital marketing. I said, “Well, what about me?” I remember she said, “Oh we hadn’t thought of that,” because I was like, “Yeah, you should think about that.”

Then I went to a breakfast at the magazine’s offices and saw [then editor-in-chief] Brandon Holley there. We’d talked briefly at that blogger conference and I thought she was nice. She said, “Oh, I hear you’re interested in that job.” Soon after that I saw her again during New York Fashion Week — and this is one of my favorite moments of all time. We’re both walking out of the Donna Karan show and I see her and it’s like, “Oh God, if I don’t say hi and she sees me it’s going to be bad but if I do say hi and it’s weird it’s going to suck.” We’re shuffling out and I think the awkward moment has passed… I turn around and we’re face-to-face. Oh shit. She grabs my arm and just says, “you’re coming to work for me, right?” I had not had like a formal offer or anything. I mean, I had a good feeling but I didn’t know. She says, “you have to work for me.” I said, “Yes, Brandon, I will totally work for you.” We hammered out all the details, I came to Lucky and have been here ever since.

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[Explaining social media] to my bosses early on was near impossible. I mentioned the timing — Facebook actually came out when I was in college so I’d already had this experience. For me it was just second nature. But it wasn’t for everyone — I got into lots and lots of trouble starting out at Kate Spade because I would post things and the copywriter wouldn’t have seen it or the web art director would freak out. I had to sit them down and explain, you know, it’s OK for a brand to have a Facebook post that reads a little casual. I remember using the brand’s email newsletters as my example. Kate Spade communicates with consumers through their email inboxes; Facebook is essentially the same thing. But people are always resistant to change and it was tough. There was a point where I would have to write one tweet a day for 30 days in advance and then have them approved and then have them scheduled… and I was losing my mind. I just went into my boss’s office and said, “Look you approve every single one of these, there’s never a problem. Please just let me run with it!” She said fine, and that, “We’ll play it by ear.” It worked out really well. I mean, it’s trial and error. Some things work really well, and some things didn’t. Fortunately, when I went to Starworks my bosses were totally onboard with it all. Take it and run with it, they said, and just do as much as you can as well as you can. And by the time I joined Lucky I was senior enough in my position that I could make those calls myself. I just said, “I’m just going to do this and this is how it’s going to be done.”

That’s the most validating part of my job. I think it’s really hard for young people in the industry to be validated. But coming to Lucky and them saying they wanted me and trusted me implicitly, that was so exciting. I felt like, wow, I’m doing something right. I was always kind of a fuck-up in high school, but I’m a grown-up now.

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luckymag.com

My favorite part of working here is, honestly, just creating content for the website. Our digital team is so strong and we get so much freedom — you know, Brandon really trusted us. Things have obviously changed at Lucky in the past few months but now Eva Chen, our new editor, who is extremely well versed in digital, really believes in us too. And we can do so much online because the magazine’s void and the magazine’s identity is so casual and friendly. We’re supposed to be that cool friend that knows about all your favorite stores and what you need to be wearing this fall and all kind of things, really. To work at a place where you can write in their voice but still maintain your own is really exciting.

And the person who picks up Lucky magazine or reads luckymag.com knows that they are going to be shopping. We’re not going to be like a random post on, you know, 20 sex positions that will make your man go crazy. That’s never going to happen with us. We know that people coming to us are coming to take action, to browse, to shop. That’s been one of our greatest success points — and the magazine’s entire history is that people who pick up Lucky are going to spend money, a lot of money.

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Courtesy of John Jannuzzi

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I love Fashion Week. I think it’s the best. I mean, it is definitely, it’s not easy, I will say that, but — and this is so cheesy — when you’re waiting for a show to start and then the lights go down, I’m always thinking, Oh shit it’s starting, oh wait I’m at Fashion Week. Whenever I’m able to go to the Marc Jacobs show I always have this moment where I get giddy. And I remember not that long ago when I’d be sitting in my apartment just watching it on a live feed, so to be able to experience that first hand is amazing. I’ve never been to a Proenza [Schouler] show but, you know, I would potentially murder someone to get in there. Yeah, if I could just get in and go to jail afterward, that would be totally fine. Prabal Gurung is also one of my favorites, and rag & bone is always great. Oh, and Jeremy Scott, because it’s always such a crazy show. I just like being there. A lot of people are like, oh my God, all that work for a 10-minute-long show? But that 10 minutes is so perfect. How can you not understand that?

I am always looking for someone with a unique point of view. Give me something I can work with. Tell me something crazy and weird. And I also think that, one of the things that I really learned in my experienced interning is that people are really impressed if you continue to demonstrate that you’re interested. And I understand that internships are hard to get and jobs are even harder, but if you’re really so invested in the fashion industry then prove it to me some other way. Do you have a blog, a meaningful blog, that is? Is there something else I can learn about you other than the fact that you’re graduating college and you really need an internship just because. I’m a firm believed that you can’t be happy in your job if you’re not truly interested in it. Also, I don’t want to work with anyone that I can’t have a decent conversation with. There are people who are great interviewers, but that doesn’t always mean that they can converse — it’s also about finding people who are on their toes. In an interview, I’ll throw out a really random interview question about Oreos. And I don’t want people to be stunned, because you have to go with the flow. That’s especially the case with digital news because you can’t just stop producing content if it’s a slow news day. You have to be nimble.

That said, our good interns always stay in touch with us and we do everything we can to help. There’s a lot of rumors about Condé Nast. People are always like, “Oh, everyone here is so mean.” No, everyone here is actually really nice. No one’s is going to bite your head off if you ask for like a quick chat. Eva Chen meets with people all the time. A lot of people here are willing to help, I think because a lot of people know how hard it is. If you find somebody that’s talented you really want to see that they get a job and get what they deserve. I always encourage that networking.

— As told to Alex Rees.

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via How Lucky Magazine’s John Jannuzzi Made It In Fashion
by LCFPadmin2016

12 Notable People Who Died By Drowning

Inspired by some other lists on The List Universe involving deaths of famous people I thought it might be interesting to write a list of well known people that lost their lives by drowning. I tried to make the list as entertaining as possible with pictures, clips and interesting facts about the drowning. It’s amazing how much one learns when you write a list!

Just a reminder to all the listversers: With summer right around the corner please be careful in the water.

Profession: Actress
Date of Birth: 09/06/1942
Date of Drowning: 01/13/1985
Age at Death: 42

Anyone who is a Johnny Carson fan is familiar with Carol Wayne. She, of course, played the funny and sexy matinee lady in the tea time movie skits. She was also in many TV shows throughout her career.

This is one item where the more I learned about the circumstances surrounding her drowning; the more suspicious it seemed. Carol Wayne and her companion, Edward Durston, were vacationing in Mexico and apparently she had an argument with him. It was reported that she left to take a walk on the beach. Her body was found three days later by a local fisherman. After the discovery of Wayne’s body, authorities discovered that Durston had checked out of the resort the day the couple argued, leaving Wayne’s luggage at the airport. An autopsy performed in Mexico later revealed no signs of drugs or alcohol in Wayne’s body.

But wait, there’s more… Edward Durston was also the friend and only person with Diane Linkletter (daughter of Art Linkletter) when she jumped to her death on 10-4-1969 from the kitchen window of her high rise apartment.

Maybe this is one of those series of unfortunate events but it just sounds kind of fishy to me.

Profession: Football player, Kansas City Chiefs running back
Date of Birth: 10/03/1958
Date of Drowning: 06/29/1983
Age at Death: 24

Of all the drownings on this list this is certainly the most heroic. Delaney dived into a pond in Louisiana and tried to save three children who were screaming for help. The children were in a water hole left by recent construction work. Delaney did not know how to swim very well but dove in anyway. He managed to save one child while two of the other children and Delaney died by drowning. Delaney always had a history of helping others. Three thousand people attended his memorial service.

Profession: British media mogul
Date of Birth: 06/10/1923
Date of Drowning: 11/05/1991
Age at Death: 68

Maxwell is presumed to have fallen overboard from his luxury yacht while cruising off the Canary Islands. His body was found floating in the Atlantic Ocean. The official verdict was accidental drowning. It came to light in early 2006 that, before his death, Maxwell was being investigated for possible war crimes in Germany in 1945. This led to renewed speculation that his death was a suicide.

Maxwell’s death triggered a flood of revelations about his business dealings and activities. It was discovered that, without prior authorization, he had used hundreds of millions of pounds from his companies’ pension funds to finance his corporate debt and his lavish lifestyle. Thousands of Maxwell employees lost their pensions.

Profession: Actor
Date of Birth: 11/08/1924
Date of Drowning: 07/19/1974
Age at Death: 49

Anyone who watches “McHale’s Navy” will know who Joe Flynn is. He also appeared in a bunch of Disney films.

This is another drowning under odd circumstances. Shortly after completing voiceover work for the Disney animated feature, The Rescuers (1977) the 49-year-old Flynn was discovered by family members in the swimming pool of his Beverly Hills home. Apparently, he had gone into the pool with a cast on his broken leg. His body was found at the pool’s bottom, held down by the weight of the cast. Some celebrity friends including Merv Griffith expressed concern about the unusual circumstances surrounding Flynn’s death, though authorities found no evidence of foul play. Many believe Flynn suffered a heart attack while swimming.

Profession: Singer-Songwriter and Guitarist, Son of singer/songwriter Tim Buckley
Date of Birth: 11/17/1966
Date of Drowning: 5/29/1997
Age at Death: 30

On the day he was scheduled to reunite with his band members to resume work on an album, Buckley spontaneously decided to take a swim, fully-clothed, in the Mississippi river; he was caught in the wake of a passing boat and disappeared. Despite a determined rescue effort that night, Buckley remained missing. On June 4, his body was discovered. An album was released posthumously in 1998 under the title Sketches for My Sweetheart the Drunk; 2007 marked the 10th anniversary of Jeff Buckley’s death. His life and music were celebrated in May and June 2007. There were tributes in Australia, Belgium, Canada, United Kingdom, Iceland, Ireland, Macedonia, France and the USA.

Profession: Jazz Saxophonist, Son of legendary jazz musician Art Porter, Sr.,
Date of Birth: 08/03/1961
Date of Drowning: 11/23/1996
Age at Death: 35

Porter traveled to Thailand to appear at the Thailand International Jazz Festival. After the festival he went boating on the Kratha Taek reservoir. Tragically, the boat Porter was traveling on overturned, and Porter, along with several others, drowned. Porter was survived by his wife and two sons. In 1998, the album For Art’s Sake was posthumously released in his honor.
Porter’s charisma and great talent are evident in the clip above.

Profession: News correspondent and anchorwoman
Date of Birth: 02/01/1947
Date of Drowning:10/23/1983
Age at Death: 36

For the Listversers that are not from the States or are too young to remember, Jessica Savitch was a very skilled reporter and anchorwoman with a great future ahead of her. I remember hearing about her tragic death. What made it worse is the way she died.

Savitch had dinner with Martin Fischbein, vice-president of the New York Post, in New Hope, Pennsylvania. After the meal, they began to drive home (around 7:15 PM). Fischbein was behind the wheel and Savitch was in the back seat with her dog, Chewy. Apparently Fischbein missed posted warning signs in a heavy rainfall, and he drove out of the wrong exit from the restaurant and up the towpath of the Pennsylvania Canal on the side of the Delaware River. The car veered over the edge into the shallow water of the canal. The car landed upside down, and sank into deep mud that sealed the doors shut. Savitch and Fischbein were trapped inside as water poured in. When the car was discovered Fischbein’s body was still strapped behind the wheel, with Savitch and her dog in the rear. After the subsequent autopsies, the coroner ruled that both had died from asphyxiation (by drowning). He noted that Fischbein was apparently knocked unconscious in the wreck but Savitch had struggled to escape. There was no finding that drugs or alcohol had played any part in the crash.

Profession: Nazi Camp Doctor at Auschwitz
Date of Birth: 3/16/1911
Date of Drowning 02/07/1979
Age at Death: 67

If there were a list of people you would most like to drown, Mengele would be on it. He is on this list because he really did but most would say not soon enough. While swimming in the sea, Mengela accidentally drowned possibly from a stroke in Bertioga, Brazil, where he was in hiding and going by the name of “Wolfgang Gerhard.”

Profession: Businessman, Inventor, Writer
Date of Birth: 7/13/1864
Date of Drowning: 4/15/1912
Age at Death: 49

This is obviously the most famous of circumstances on this list surrounding a notable person drowning. John Jacob Astor IV was the wealthiest passenger on board the Titanic and came from one of the richest families in the United States.

After the accident Astor left his suite to investigate, he quickly returned and reported to his wife who was pregnant at the time that the ship had struck ice. He reassured her that the damage did not appear serious. Even as the boats were loaded Astor appeared unbothered; he ridiculed the idea of trading the solid decks of the Titanic for a small lifeboat. He changed his mind by 1:45AM when Second Officer Charles Lightoller arrived on A deck to finish loading Lifeboat 4. Astor helped his wife to climb onto the lifeboat and then asked if he might join her, as she was in ‘a delicate condition’. Lightoller told him that no men could enter until all the women & children had been loaded.

Astor’s body was recovered on Monday April 22 by the cable ship McKay-Bennett. Reports say his body was covered in soot and blood, thus it is assumed he was struck by the first funnel when it collapsed as the Titanic made its final plunge.

Below is the official list of items found on body number 124

CLOTHING – Blue serge suit; blue handkerchief with “A.V.”; belt with gold buckle; brown boots with red rubber soles; brown flannel shirt; “J.J.A.” on back of collar.
EFFECTS – Gold watch; cuff links, gold with diamond; diamond ring with three stones; £225 in English notes; $2440 in notes; £5 in gold; 7s. in silver; 5 ten franc pieces; gold pencil; pocketbook.

Profession: Musician one-time Rolling Stone
Date of Birth: 2/28/1942
Date of Drowning: 7/3/1969
Age at Death: 27

This is another drowning under suspicious circumstances. At around midnight, Jones was discovered motionless at the bottom of his swimming pool at his home in Hartfield, Sussex, England. His girlfriend, Anna Wohlin, said he was alive when they took him out of the pool, insisting he still had a pulse. However, when the doctors arrived, it was too late and he was pronounced dead. The coroner’s report noted his liver and heart were heavily enlarged by drug and alcohol abuse. Some felt it was suicide, blaming Jagger and Richards for his mental state. His girlfriend Wohlin claimed in 1999 that Jones had been murdered by a builder who had been renovating the house the couple shared. The builder, Frank Thorogood, allegedly confessed to the murder on his deathbed to the Rolling Stones’ driver, Tom Keylock; however, there were no other witnesses.

Profession: Musician, Drummer for the Beach Boys
Date of Birth: 12/04/1944
Date of Drowning: 12/28/1983
Age at Death: 39

Wilson was on a friend’s yacht and after several drinks announced he was going for a swim. His friends thought he was nuts, because the water was so cold, he dove in, and decided to swim near the spot where his old yacht used to be docked. He emerged from the water holding a picture of his ex wife that he threw from his yacht years before. Wilson dove in again for more treasures but this time he didn’t resurface. Wilson was known for practical jokes so his friends thought he was playing around. They even checked the local bars to see if Wilson was hiding there. It took four divers working in the dark with a pole, probing the ocean floor, 45 minutes to find Wilson’s body in 13 feet of water.

Profession: Actress
Date of Birth: 07/20/1938
Date of Drowning: 11/29/1981
Age at Death: 43

If you ask people if they can name a well known person who drowned, Natalie Wood’s name would probably come up first 9 out of 10 times.

She would also be at the top or near the top of any most beautiful women in Hollywood list. I had a boyhood crush on her growing up and I remember how sad I felt when I first heard of her death. It’s hard to believe she has been gone for over 26 years. The circumstances concerning her drowning are still puzzling to this day.

After Thanksgiving, she and her husband Robert Wagner and Christopher Walken, whom she was working with on a film, went on to Catalina Island for the weekend. Apparently Natalie Wood tried to either leave the yacht or secure a dinghy from banging against the hull when she accidentally slipped and fell overboard. Later it was discovered a witness nearby heard calls for help at around midnight. She said the cries lasted for about 15 minutes and were answered by someone else who said, “Take it easy. We’ll be over to get you. “It was laid back,” the witness recalled. “There was no urgency or immediacy.” An investigation by Los Angeles County coroner Thomas Noguchi resulted in an official verdict of accidental drowning. Noguchi concluded Wood had drunk several glasses of wine and was intoxicated when she died. There were marks and bruises on her body that could have been received as a result of her fall.

Contributor: Blogball

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via 12 Notable People Who Died By Drowning
by LCFPadmin2016

Ben and Jerry’s offers a combination lock to keep people out of your ice cream

If you’re tired of people sneaking the frozen goodness which is your pint of Ben and Jerry’s, apparently there is a gadget just for you — The Euphori-lock. Just snap it around your precious little tub and no one but you will get into your ice cream…

I like that in the last two pics the combo is set with a little message to would-be ice cream thieves — 2-B-8. As in, “This is 2-B-8 by me, not you.”

(via Laughing Squid)

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via Ben and Jerry’s offers a combination lock to keep people out of your ice cream
by LCFPadmin2016

The Best Of President Obama’s Reddit AMA

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From Reddit “celebrity” Shitty_Watercolour.

President Barack Obama is doing an AMA on Reddit. Here, we’re posting all of POTUS’ answers — plus a few GIFs playing on his verification photo.

While you’re waiting for the next answer to be posted, read about how Reddit got Obama to do this.

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Obama’s verification photo… The Reddit way.

ormirian: Are you considering increasing funds to the space program?

PresidentObama: Making sure we stay at the forefront of space exploration is a big priority for my administration. The passing of Neil Armstrong this week is a reminder of the inspiration and wonder that our space program has provided in the past; the curiosity probe on mars is a reminder of what remains to be discovered. The key is to make sure that we invest in cutting edge research that can take us to the next level – so even as we continue work with the international space station, we are focused on a potential mission to a asteroid as a prelude to a manned Mars flight.

A typo!

SharkGirl: We know how Republicans feel about protecting Internet Freedom. Is Internet Freedom an issue you’d push to add to the Democratic Party’s 2012 platform?

PresidentObama: Internet freedom is something I know you all care passionately about; I do too. We will fight hard to make sure that the internet remains the open forum for everybody – from those who are expressing an idea to those to want to start a business. And although their will be occasional disagreements on the details of various legislative proposals, I won’t stray from that principle – and it will be reflected in the platform.

He’s since fixed it. (Don’t worry, we got the screencap.)

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karlfranks: Who’s your favourite Basketball player?

PresidentObama: Jordan – I’m a Bulls guy.

PartyInYourMouth: How are you going help small businesses in 2013 and 2014? and what if any bills are you going to impliment for small businesses, in 2013, and 2014?

PresidentObama: We’ve really focused on this since I came into office – 18 tax cuts for small business, easier funding from the SBA. Going forward, I want to keep taxes low for the 98 percent of small businesses that have $250,000 or less in income, make it easier for small business to access financing, and expand their opportunities to export. And we will be implementing the Jobs Act bill that I signed that will make it easier for startups to access crowd-funding and reduce their tax burden at the start-up stage.

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daveforamerica: What is the first thing you’ll do on November 7th, win or lose?

PresidentObama: Win or lose, I’ll be thanking everybody who is working so hard – especially all the volunteers in field offices all across the country, and the amazing young people in our campaign offices.

FifthSurprise: What was the most difficult decision that you had to make during this term?

PresidentObama: The decision to surge our forces in afghanistan. Any time you send our brave men and women into battle, you know that not everyone will come home safely, and that necessarily weighs heavily on you. The decision did help us blunt the taliban’s momentum, and is allowing us to transition to afghan lead – so we will have recovered that surge at the end of this month, and will end the war at the end of 2014. But knowing of the heroes that have fallen is something you never forget.

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suzmerk: What are you going to do to end the corrupting influence of money in politics during your second term?

PresidentObama: Money has always been a factor in politics, but we are seeing something new in the no-holds barred flow of seven and eight figure checks, most undisclosed, into super-PACs; they fundamentally threaten to overwhelm the political process over the long run and drown out the voices of ordinary citizens. We need to start with passing the Disclose Act that is already written and been sponsored in Congress – to at least force disclosure of who is giving to who. We should also pass legislation prohibiting the bundling of campaign contributions from lobbyists. Over the longer term, I think we need to seriously consider mobilizing a constitutional amendment process to overturn Citizens United (assuming the Supreme Court doesn’t revisit it). Even if the amendment process falls short, it can shine a spotlight of the super-PAC phenomenon and help apply pressure for change.

BEER IS COMING!!

silent1mezzo: What’s the recipe for the White House’s beer?

PresidentObama: It will be out soon! I can tell from first hand experience, it is tasty.

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hmlee: I am recent law school graduate. Despite graduating from a top school, I find myself unemployed with a large student loan debt burden. While I’m sure my immediate prospects will improve in time, it’s difficult to be optimistic about the future knowing that my ability to live a productive life — to have a fulfilling career, to buy a house, to someday raise a family — is hampered by my debt and the bleak economic outlook for young people. I know that I’m not alone in feeling this way. Many of us are demoralized. Your 2008 campaign was successful in large part due to the efforts of younger demographics. We worked for you, we campaigned for you, and we turned out in record numbers to vote for you. What can I say to encourage those in similar situations as I am to show up again in November? What hope can you offer us for your second term?

PresidentObama: I understand how tough it is out there for recent grads. You’re right – your long term prospects are great, but that doesn’t help in the short term. Obviously some of the steps we have taken already help young people at the start of their careers. Because of the health care bill, you can stay on your parent’s plan until you’re twenty six. Because of our student loan bill, we are lowering the debt burdens that young people have to carry. But the key for your future, and all our futures, is an economy that is growing and creating solid middle class jobs – and that’s why the choice in this election is so important. The other party has two ideas for growth – more taxs cuts for the wealthy (paid for by raising tax burdens on the middle class and gutting investments like education) and getting rid of regulations we’ve put in place to control the excesses on wall street and help consumers. These ideas have been tried, they didnt work, and will make the economy worse. I want to keep promoting advanced manufacturing that will bring jobs back to America, promote all-American energy sources (including wind and solar), keep investing in education and make college more affordable, rebuild our infrastructure, invest in science, and reduce our deficit in a balanced way with prudent spending cuts and higher taxes on folks making more than $250,000/year. I don’t promise that this will solve all our immediate economic challenges, but my plans will lay the foundation for long term growth for your generation, and for generations to follow. So don’t be discouraged – we didn’t get into this fix overnight, and we won’t get out overnight, but we are making progress and with your help will make more.

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He referenced the “Not Bad” meme!

gobearss: How do you balance family life and hobbies with, well, being the POTUS?

PresidentObama: It’s hard – truthfully the main thing other than work is just making sure that I’m spending enough time with michelle and the girls. The big advantage I have is that I live above the store – so I have no commute! So we make sure that when I’m in DC I never miss dinner with them at 6:30 pm – even if I have to go back down to the Oval for work later in the evening. I do work out every morning as well, and try to get a basketball or golf game in on the weekends just to get out of the bubble. Speaking of balance, though, I need to get going so I’m back in DC in time for dinner. But I want to thank everybody at reddit for participating – this is an example of how technology and the internet can empower the sorts of conversations that strengthen our democracy over the long run. AND REMEMBER TO VOTE IN NOVEMBER – if you need to know how to register, go to Gottaregister.com. By the way, if you want to know what I think about this whole reddit experience – NOT BAD!

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via The Best Of President Obama’s Reddit AMA
by LCFPadmin2016

The Disconnect Between Facebook And Its Average Shareholder Is Both Alarming And Hilarious

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Norbert Von Der Groeben / Reuters

Facebook held its annual shareholder meeting Tuesday, and the message from Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg and company has been the same as it’s been for a while now: Yes, the share price sucks, we know, we’re working on it.

More disconcerting than the generic stock price concerns, however, was the high volume of questions from individuals who didn’t seem to know how to use Facebook, let alone where its future business lies.

Facebook’s investors, if the shareholder meeting is any indication, appear to skew older than the average Facebook user (one referred to herself as a “Luddite”) and complained about such things as why the News Feed wasn’t in “chronological order” or that the stories weren’t important.

For his part, Zuckerberg did his best to humor those individuals, saying they were not alone and that the company thinks about those things on a regular basis.

But the future of Facebook’s business essentially lives with prolific share-happy smartphone users, where the age skews decidedly younger (think the Snapchat and Tumblr crowd) — a far cry from what was touched upon during the meeting today.

The social network’s “mobile only” monthly users are occupying an increasing share of its total users, which are now more than 1 billion strong. And that base is bound to get bigger, where new users in developing countries will use the cheapest device (i.e., a dirt-cheap Android smartphone or something along those lines) as the most effective way to interface with Facebook.

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Facebook’s business is now increasingly a mobile business, with more than 30% of its revenue coming from its mobile advertising products. One such product is mobile-app installs, which is finding a significant amount of traction within the developer community. Just under 4,000 developers have used these ads to drive nearly 25 million downloads, with 40% of the top 100 developers using it, according to Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg on the company’s most recent earnings call.

That is not a business that existed when Facebook went public last year and hoped to capture a valuation of more than $100 billion. Facebook, like many other companies, was caught flat-footed amid the massive transition of its users to mobile devices. Indeed, one of the biggest concerns among investors leading up to and immediately after its IPO was its ability to shift to mobile.

Now, however, a majority of its users access Facebook through mobile devices — and that requires a rethinking and retooling of the business.

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Zuckerberg made it a point to mention that he is not only involved in the typical consumer-facing products — the apps and platform, for example — but also the advertising business.

“I spend most of my time reviewing the products and on the things that our users touch. We have different groups of users — consumers, developers, advertisers — you should assume I’ve spent a meaningful amount of time both coming up with the plans and reviewing each at each stage.”

Facebook employs some of the top tech and product talent in Silicon Valley, so you can bet that the company is focusing on its future as a mobile-first company — as many other technologies are trying to transition to today. Amid that, Zuckerberg and company were urging investors to be patient, as the full value of Facebook hasn’t actualized yet. That’s hardly a decision to be left with “Luddites.”

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via The Disconnect Between Facebook And Its Average Shareholder Is Both Alarming And Hilarious
by LCFPadmin2016

14 People Who Refused To Move After Hurricane Sandy

1.

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Mike Hayes

Steve Tarpin, 56, owner of Steve’s Authentic Key Lime Pie in Red Hook, Brooklyn, baked and delivered his first pies after Hurricane Sandy just a month after the storm — one dozen pies for friends on Thanksgiving. Four months ago, they moved to a new, bigger location a block down Van Brunt Street on the waterfront. “Red Hook invited us here,” Tarpin said. “We belong here.”

2.

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Mike Hayes

Mike Dresser, 31, moved to the Red Hook section of Brooklyn three weeks before the storm, and three weeks after, he and his girlfriend still didn’t have heat and hot water in their apartment. Dresser works as a bartender at Fort Defiance on Van Brunt Street on the Red Hook waterfront and said that the day after the storm the whole bar staff was out helping clean up. “Still a neighborhood of pirates and rednecks.”

3.

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Alison Vingiano

Christine and Mike’s apartment in Jersey City was flooded, and they were without power for 10 days. “I love the view in our apartment, and I love New Jersey,” she said.

4.

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“I’m a New Yorker, born and raised, and I’m embarrassed,” said Carlos Santos, 36, owner of Brooklyn Motorworks. Santos was forced to move his business after Sandy did irreparable damage to his motorcycle repair shop, which was flooded with four feet of water during the storm. He set up on the Red Hook waterfront, 10 blocks from his old location, in the only place that would make space for him he said. Santos says he was “sold a line of bullshit” by the recovery groups promising short term loans and financial aid, and has a 390-page S.B.A. loan application he’s still waiting to get reviewed.

5.

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Alison Vingiano

Raoul has spent his whole life in Hoboken, NJ. Even though his house was flooded during Hurricane Sandy, he chose to stay in his neighborhood. Moving was never an option. “This is my home,” he said. “Even if I wanted to move, I couldn’t afford it. My money went to fixing my house after the storm.” #WhyIStayed

6.

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“I stayed to be a part of the waterfront going forward,” said David Sharps, 57, owner and operator of the Waterfront Museum, housed on the Lehigh Valley Barge #79 in Red Hook, Brooklyn. Sharps lives on the barge, which he bought for $1 in 1985. During Hurricane Sandy, he stayed aboard and kept the barge afloat as it was raised by the rising waters above his dock, a point he marks with an orange band across a steel pillar. Sharps is still rebuilding from the storm and waiting to hear about several grants to help keep the museum, which turns 100 next year, alive and running.

7.

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Alison Vingiano

Natalie, who lives and works in Hoboken, never even thought about leaving after her house was partially flooded in the storm. “When you grow up somewhere, it’s hard to leave,” she said, taking a break from her job at Hoboken’s The Taco Truck. “This is my home. I didn’t have anywhere else to go.”

8.

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Alison Vingiano

Mother of six, Terry Boyle, and her oldest daughter Megan, live on Beach 119th in the Rockaways, in a house that belongs to Terry’s great grandparents. During Sandy, the house was flooded up the first floor, their car was destroyed, and they lost electricity and heat, which still had not returned by Thanksgiving. “It really makes you appreciate everything. Last Christmas with our family was the best one we ever had,” said Terry. They received $3,000 from FEMA to rebuild, which made a full recovery difficult. “It’s been a really long haul. Especially for anybody who didn’t have money.” However, compared to the damage their neighbors saw- including houses that burned down and family members who died- the Boyles agree that they were very lucky. “The generosity of people really struck me,” said Megan. “The whole community was looking out for each other.”

9.

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Mike Hayes

Even though Nick Muller, from Manalapan, NJ, lives about a mile north, he drove down to Belmar today to walk the boardwalk and reminisce about the storm a year ago. When Sandy hit, Nick lost power for a week, but experienced nothing nearly as bad as what happened on the shore. “Jersey is home,” he said.

10.

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Mike Hayes

Jessie Tufts (left) and Taylor Deehan (right), from Point Pleasant, NJ, are spending their day out walking along the Belmar, NJ boardwalk, because they can, now that it has been rebuilt after the storm. Why they stayed in Jersey? “Everything you see behind you,” said Jessie. “There’s nothing like a Jersey Shore summer,” said Taylor.

11.

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Michael Rusch

Keyanna Silverman from Red Hook. Stayed to help people in her community that where stuck in buildings with no power and unable to leave. Delivered food, water, and supplies daily.

12.

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MIchael Rusch

Sheryl Nash-Chisholm from Red Hook said she stayed because she had “faith” in her community after Sandy.

13.

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Michael Rusch

Cheryl stayed after Hurricane Sandy because Red Hook is her home and “it is still a beautiful place.”

14.

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Michael Rusch

Whitney Lukens and her family stayed after Hurricane Sandy because she loves Red Hook, Brooklyn.

15.

LINK

Then And Now: Revisiting 12 Iconic Pictures From Hurricane Sandy

buzzfeed.com

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via 14 People Who Refused To Move After Hurricane Sandy
by LCFPadmin2016