Quick Links: Pregnant Man, etc.


Beijing Fake Smile Campaign
Beijing residents are being urged to practice their best fake smiles, in preparation for the 2008 Olympics: "We hope Beijing residents will join in the smile campaign to turn the city into a city of smile," Liu Jian, one of the committee members, was quoted as saying on Monday. What happens to those who refuse to smile?

Clown Crushed To Death, Audience Applauds
No reason to doubt this story isn't true, but it does seem like a real-life version of the Hippo Eats Dwarf tale (minus the dwarf and hippo), particularly the way the audience thinks the accident is all part of the act: A hot-air balloon caught fire during a circus stunt, killing a clown acrobat as dozens of children watched, police said Tuesday... Witnesses said the man, dressed in a clown outfit, was hanging from a cage suspended by ropes and a hot-air balloon inside the canvas tent. When the balloon exploded in flames, the cage fell on top of the man... many people in the audience initially thought the falling cage was part of the act.

'The Hoax' Trailer
The movie version of Clifford Irving's Autobiography of Howard Hughes hoax will be in theaters in November, and a trailer is online now. Looks like it may be pretty good. Richard Gere actually looks kind of like Clifford Irving. I think I've said before that stories about hoaxes often make very good movies.

A Pregnant Man
image 36-year-old Sanju Bhagat of India certainly looked pregnant, but while he did have a fetus growing inside him, he wasn't pregnant in the conventional sense: Bhagat, they discovered, had one of the world's most bizarre medical conditions — fetus in fetu. It is an extremely rare abnormality that occurs when a fetus gets trapped inside its twin. The trapped fetus can survive as a parasite even past birth by forming an umbilical cordlike structure that leaches its twin's blood supply until it grows so large that it starts to harm the host, at which point doctors usually intervene. So the world still waits for a true male pregnancy. (Thanks, Kathy)

Birth/Babies Death Entertainment

Posted on Wed Aug 30, 2006



Comments

Singapore has a similar 'Smile' Campaign for the upcoming IMF event.

http://www.smiles2006.com/
Posted by Nickt  on  Wed Aug 30, 2006  at  12:06 PM
Paging Dr. Venture... http://venture.mancubus.net/?ep111
Posted by Matt  on  Wed Aug 30, 2006  at  12:17 PM
An upcoming IMF event. That's sure to put a smile on anyone's face!
Posted by The Curator  in  San Diego  on  Wed Aug 30, 2006  at  02:17 PM
The fetus in fetu was the premise of a novel I read once. I don't recall the title. The guy with the condition was a Catholic Cardinal and his little guy was possessed by the devil (or was just sending him vile, evil thoughts).

Anyone know the book?
Posted by JoeDaJuggler  on  Wed Aug 30, 2006  at  03:20 PM
"Audience Applauses"?
I didn't know "applause" was a verb.
Posted by Big Gary  on  Wed Aug 30, 2006  at  04:02 PM
Same happened when the legendary British comedian Tommy Cooper died on stage from a heart attack on April 15 1984 - audience thougt it was part of the act and laughed.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Cooper
Posted by LaMa  on  Wed Aug 30, 2006  at  05:29 PM
And same happened to American comedian Dick Shawn on April 17, 1987,who also died in the middle of an act on stage due to an heart attack, with people initially thinking it was part of the act:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Shawn
Posted by LaMa  on  Wed Aug 30, 2006  at  05:34 PM
>>I didn't know "applause" was a verb.<<

Good catch. I hate it when I make mistakes like that. :red:
Posted by The Curator  in  San Diego  on  Wed Aug 30, 2006  at  07:28 PM
>> What happens to those who refuse to smile?
They get a funeral-service-with-a-smile!

I remember an X-files episode where a guy grew up with a little parasitic twin. They were in the circus. It was unhappy and didn't want to be his brother anymore, but it could detach itself from him, so it was running around digging holes in people to try and bond with them. Everyone called it the Figi Mermaid, because they didn't actually know what it was. And then it tried to attack the weird tattooed guy who eats lightbulbs and screws and raw fish, and he ate it. At the end someone commented that he looked a little gassy, and he said "Yeah, must have been something I ate."

Perfect X-files episode. Impossible in reality, insanely creepy, and cool.[/sidetracked]
Posted by Mentle  on  Wed Aug 30, 2006  at  10:40 PM
The premise of Stephen King's book The Darkhalf is slightly similar in that the main character started off like that but the under-developed twin was removed as bits when he was about 12 (they removed an eye and some teeth from his brain). The twin then ended up developing as an evil entity type thing (God knows how to describe it)...

I'm also getting sidetracked, but it was a good book, you should read it 😊
Posted by Nettie  on  Thu Aug 31, 2006  at  06:44 AM
With only the premise of the episode for that X-files episode, it's hilarious xD Sounds more like a commedy.
Posted by Mera  on  Thu Aug 31, 2006  at  01:49 PM
actually that particular episode of x files was a comedy episode... and it was good buttt then it went terribly down hill with flogged dead horses
Posted by joodd  on  Fri Sep 01, 2006  at  04:48 AM
I, too, recall reading a book when I was a lot younger about where one twin was absorbed into the other. I seem to recall that the absorbed twin only existed mentally and wanted to take over her sister's life. I don't think I managed to finish it, and can't remember what it was called or anything.
Posted by Smerk  on  Sat Sep 02, 2006  at  03:45 AM
That X-files episode was one of my favorites...oh i miss those days...
Posted by Razela  on  Mon Sep 04, 2006  at  08:43 PM
poor guy...but they should have considered the facts about what was wrong and operated when they KNEW something wrong.
Posted by Isebreakers  on  Sun Jun 10, 2007  at  10:16 AM
a similar case was recorded of a 7 year old boy.But the parents didn't even tell the poor kid.
Posted by Isebreakers  on  Sun Jun 10, 2007  at  10:17 AM
applause is a verb,hard asses.
Posted by steaknstine444444  on  Sun Jun 10, 2007  at  10:18 AM
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