Man crushed to death after trying to take selfie with elephant

Via Drudge:  The man, identified as 54-year-old Ashok Bharti, had been trying to take a photograph with the elephant when it “turned on him”.

Mr Bharti a resident of the city of Cuttack, in the eastern state of Odisha, was working with a private company in the Sundargarh district when he was killed.

A forest official said the elephant was already agitated before the incident.

"We were trying to drive away the tusker [elephant] with the help of local people. But suddenly a person present there among locals, went nearer to the tusker and tried to take a photograph of the elephant on his mobile phone.

“He was also trying to take a selfie with the elephant when it turned on him," the official told the India Times.  (Link to more)

Meanwhile, closer to home... "Husband thinks he killed wife in his sleep"

A North Carolina man is using the bad dream defense — telling a 911 operator he awoke from slumber to find his wife stabbed to death and drenched in blood, reports said.

Matthew Phelps, 28, told the operator in Raleigh early Friday that he fell asleep after taking too much cold medicine and may have accidentally killed his wife in his sleep, ABC 13 reported.

“I think I killed my…,” Phelps said to the operator, according to the outlet.

“What do you mean by that? What happened?” the dispatcher asked.

“I had a dream and then I turned on the lights and she’s dead on the floor … I have blood all over me and there’s a bloody knife on the bed. I think I did it. I can’t believe this,” Phelps told the dispatcher.

Sloth selfie

Link to source

"Man who sent selfie to replace mugshot is arrested"

"A man Ohio police say sent them a selfie because he didn't like the mugshot they were using has been arrested in the Florida panhandle."

"The police department has posted on its Facebook page a new mugshot of a smiling Pugh after his arrest in Florida."

"Selfies Have Killed More People Than Sharks This Year"

"Around the world, 12 people have died while trying to take a selfie, while eight have died from shark attacks."

So how are people dying while taking selfies. By Mashable's count, four died from falling, and some were hit or injured by trains. Plus, one man was gored to death while taking a selfie at the running of the bulls in Pamplona, and one woman who died in a car accident was taking selfies before the crash.

Taking risky selfies is becoming such a problem that one Colorado park had to completely shut down because people were taking selfies with bears close by. According to Reuters, governments around the world are issuing PSAs warning people about the risks of taking adventurous selfies. "A cool selfie could cost you your life," a Russian campaign warns.

Then again, ​not ​taking that selfie could cost you some valuable likes on Instagram. There are always pros and cons to anything.

It seems to me that "clock inventor kid" and "anatomical anomaly" woman make more sense in a selfie obsessed society... Get off my lawn?

Via Tweeter

Islamic Cleric Issues Fatwa Against Female Selfies

Islamic Cleric Issues Fatwa Against Female Selfies http://t.co/KAUVC40p2n pic.twitter.com/dUHz9nHAhb
— I Yam What I Yam (@Nvr4Get91101) January 29, 2015

“105 Freeway Traffic Jam Is The Perfect Place For Selfies”

Social News Daily: "It was a pretty rough commute on the 105 freeway today (April 11, 2014). Traffic was at a standstill for so long that people actually got out of their cars to take some selfies."

The 105 freeway was closed down today because a man was threatening to jump off a bridge. And while the authorities dealt with the severely serious situation at one end of the 105, Los Angeles drivers took selfies at the other.

The 105 freeway selfies raise at least one interesting question. Is there such thing as an inappropriate time to take a selfie? Earlier this week a student shared a selfie after getting stabbed. We’ve also seen  selfies taken immediately after sex, selfies taken with prostitutes, and one selfie taken with a corpse.

The Unknown Known or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Don Rumsfeld

At the beginning of a documentary trailer, two time former secretary of defense Donald Rumsfeld is asked to read. He reads "All generalizations are false" and then he adds "including this one". It turns out, Rumsfeld was given to read a partial quote attributed to Mark Twain. I looked it up.

 

While thinking about the Hitler post from yesterday morning (I didn't add to it any thoughts of my own) it occurred to me that if all generalizations are indeed 'false', then, it follows that someday, some, if not all those generalizations, which guide and shape events today, might not be so (false) then. In other words, what we think we know today, what we think we are certain of today, may not be regarded as certain and true tomorrow.

There is no more rock solid generalization of moral certainty, today, than Hitler was evil. It's incontrovertibility is tantalizing. And yet, for the truth of Hitler's evil to be irrefutable, it seems to need to be constantly proven. We need to be constantly reminded of how evil Hitler was. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it said George Santayana.

We need to be reminded that there are certain things, we know we know. And we know we know them because they are true, well beyond the selfie photo op, meant to remind people, yet again, as if they needed to be reminded, that Obama is not Bush... My goodness gracious!

Loosing sight of the certainty of what we know we know, even if only so slightly as to be mistakenly interpreted, opened the door to someone who was also watching and interpreting. Putin had reset button ideas of his own. Putin can also take selfies.

selfie

What is with our elite ruling class? They behave observably absurd self-indulgent and ridiculous. I do not recall this degree of silliness. Their motivation appears to be trivial. Cameron took a selfie of himself in conference with Obama and posted his photo to Twitter.

We are not amused. But we're pretending that we are. Hoping it is all over soon, and we can have serious people in their places. Patric Stewart satires Cameron along with many others, it's become an instant meme. Everything silly on the end of the phone. The phone substituted for something silly. A head of state discussing serious matters, photographs self, as kids do, and posts to twitter, as attention hounds do. It is not what we expect from our leaders and it is not what we want. It's embarrassing. Scanning the photos, see if you don't think these two in conference deserve each other. Two unserious people.

They did this with Bush too, reverse the cord from microphone to speaker so you had to notice Bush with the handset upside down, but that was just the usual being mean, Bush did not provide his own selfie.

On Twitter.

Twitter!

He was talking to Obama, and Obama has his own selfie image-controversy going on for those of us who are bugged by regular predictable grade D juvenile behavior from world leaders on a continuing bases as if their extraordinary positions are just rewards for having won something and the whole thing is all just a big goof.

FoxNews: "'Upskirt' ban passed by Massachusetts legislature after controversial ruling"

"Massachusetts lawmakers approved a bill Thursday to ban those who secretly take 'upskirt' photographs of women or children in public."

The bill comes one day after the state Supreme Court ruled that a man who took cellphone photos up the skirts of female passengers riding the Boston subway didn't violate state law, because the women were clothed.

"It is sexual harassment. It's an assault on another person whether it's a child or an adult," Senate President Therese Murray said moments after the Senate unanimously approved the bill. "Woman and children should be able to go to public places without feeling that they are not protected by the law." read more

The problem with these cell phones is that they can shoot for as long as the memory drive and battery capacity will last. Cellphone companies are hard at work right now expanding the duration juice of a battery charge. Why does anybody need a cellphone that can shoot thousands of photographs on a single charge? Cellphone magazines don't need to be so... long lasting.

Cellphone camera control. The next picture you don't take, maybe your own... or something.

"I am actually turned off when I look at an account and don’t see any selfies"

"But a well-stocked collection of selfies seems to get attention. And attention seems to be the name of the game when it comes to social networking. In this age of too much information at a click of a button, the power to attract viewers amid the sea of things to read and watch is power indeed. It’s what the movie studios want for their products, it’s what professional writers want for their work, it’s what newspapers want — hell, it’s what everyone wants: attention. Attention is power. And if you are someone people are interested in, then the selfie provides something very powerful, from the most privileged perspective possible."  Says James Franco, in a selfie parody for the New York Times.

***

Meanwhile, Slate has posted a cartoon from 20 years ago, it says to find "disturbingly prescient".

UPDATE: N.S.A. Phone Surveillance Is Lawful, Federal Judge Rules

Hong Kong Marathon Is Banning Selfies

"Organizers behind the Hong Kong Marathon are so annoyed with your vain selfies that they’ve decided to ban them at future events. The restriction is a result of a runner pile-up during last year’s event when a woman stopped at the beginning of the race to take a picture of herself, which triggered a domino-like effect as other participants crashed into her."

So, sick of that nonsense, organizers said Tuesday that they have banned runners from using cell phones at next year’s event.

Marathon chairman William Ko said the ban is meant to remind people that using a cell phone while simultaneously running several miles is not the smartest idea:

“What we’ve been trying to do is to get the message across to take care of yourself and to take care of other runners,” said Mr. Ko. “For the race itself we will have officials to hold some message boards to remind people not to take photos at the start, on the route or at the finish because it is dangerous.”

"In August 2013, the term selfie also made its debut in Oxford Dictionaries Online's quarterly update where it is defined as "a photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website."

BetaBeat , Jakarta Globe