Another Hollywood Death: Ronni Chasen

Longtime Hollywood publicist Ronni Chasen was fatally shot while driving in Beverly Hills, California.


From her days of being the unit publicist on The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover to her being linked to Ridley Scott's composer's work, Ms. Chasen has been on an interesting journey during her intriguing life.

Ronni Chasen, 64, a longtime Hollywood publicist, has been identified as the Mercedes Benz driver who was fatally shot in Beverly Hills early Tuesday morning, November 16, 2010, Los Angeles County coroner's spokesman Ed Winter said.

Police are still searching for the shooter.

Chasen has represented such entertainment luminaries as the late actress Natalie Wood, composer Hans Zimmer, and movie producers Dick Zanuck and Irwin Winkler.

Authorities said they arrived at Sunset Boulevard and Whittier Drive about 12:30 a.m. Tuesday and found the Mercedes-Benz E350 crashed into a light pole. Chasen had been shot multiple times in the chest. No one else was in the car.

No one could be reached for comment at her Beverly Hills public relations and marketing firm, Chasen & Co.


She had been promoting Michael Douglas for Best Supporting Actor for Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, as well as Alice In Wonderland 3D for Best Picture, according to Deadline Hollywood.

Publicist Ronnie Chasen, seen below with fellow publicist Peter Bloch (L), as they arrive at the 46th Annual ICG Publicists awards held at the Beverly Hilton Hotel on February 18, 2009 in Beverly Hills, California.

Two sources, who spoke to The LA Times on the condition that they not be named, said Chasen attended the premiere of the Cher movie Burlesque as well as a party after the screening. The premiere was at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre, and the party was at the W hotel in Hollywood. She lived in Westwood and may have been driving home when the attack occurred.

Hollywood publicist Howard Bragman, who worked with Chasen on a number of projects, described her as “a lady and a grown-up” in an industry of flash and impermanence.

“She had been doing this forever. She had a lot of class, a lot of style and a lot of intelligence. She was just very very well-respected,” Bragman said.


The homicide is the third of the year in Beverly Hills. The City had no homicides in 2009.

Diane Newlander, 73, was found dead in her home in the 400 block of South Swall Drive May 4, a victim of an apparent murder-suicide.

Katsutoshi Tony Takazato was fatally stabbed July 20, allegedly by the boyfriend of a former girlfriend.

Takazato was found dead outside his home in the 1800 block of Carla Ridge in the exclusive Trousdale Estates area. Scott Joseph Barker has pleaded not guilty in the case.


As of late Tuesday, authorities said:  

...they have no immediate motive for the slaying.

Beverly Hills Police Sgt. Lincoln Hoshino said detectives are pursuing all possibilities, including any links to her business or personal life. They are also looking into whether the shooting was a random act.

Speculation and conspiracy theories are the talk of Hollywood these days, since the media attention to the cult connections to the Heath Ledger and David Carradine deaths, due to the Randy Quaid allegations.

As reporter Wayne Madsen says in a recent story for WMR, "Don't be too quick to call Randy Quaid and his wife crazy."

Madsen writes:

Although Hollywood is not WMR's normal forté, from our sources in China comes an interesting item concerning the allegations of actor Randy Quaid and his wife Evi, who have taken up residence in Vancouver, British Columbia and are seeking asylum in Canada.

Quaid and his wife insist that they are the targets of a network of cultists who prey on the financial wealth, includng royalties, of Hollywood celebrities and eventually have them knocked off. Quaid and his wife have been deemed "crazy" by the corporate media. 

However, Chinese intelligence, which keeps a close eye on its own cults, including Falun Gong, as well as others operating in Asia, believe that when the Quaids mentioned that actor David Carradine was a victim of what they refer to as "star whackers" in Bangkok, those still investigating Carradine's bizarre death in a Bangkok hotel room took notice.

Let's see how this all unfolds.

Sally Menke, editor.

Ronni Chasen, publicist.

For two other recent related blogs, please see here and here.

G20: Immolation Attempt

Security at the G-20 summit faced its first test Thursday, November 11, 2010, as a woman tried to set herself on fire outside the conference in the host city Seoul, South Korea.
The middle-aged woman poured paint thinner over herself outside the main entrance to the summit venue, which is ringed by six-foot-tall fences, but police stopped her from lighting the liquid. Police detained the woman but said her motive was unclear.
In June 2010, An Indian man named Jasbir Singh said he would self-immolate outside the G20 summit to protest the 1984 Sikh Genocide.
"I come from Delhi, India. I am a victim and witness of November 1984 Sikh Genocide in which 26 members of my family were also burnt alive by the mobs led by Jagidh Tytler, then member parliament of party in power," he wrote in an email.
"On June 26, 2010, when Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India will be attending G-20 sumit in Toronto, Canada, I will put myself on fire as protest against the denial of justice to the victims of 1984 Sikh Genocide. I will sacrifice my life through self-immolation hoping that it will jolt the conscious of world community who will then pressurize India to prosecute perpetrators of 1984 Sikh Genocide."
No immolation occurred at the June G20 meeting, as far as can be determined.

Devil Sighting Causes 11 To Jump From Paris Window

• La Verrière is a commune in the Yvelines department in the Île-de-France in north-central France. "La Verrière" means "The Canopy."

A baby died when a family of 12 leapt from their second floor balcony in Paris claiming they were fleeing the devil. Eight more were injured, some seriously, in the tragedy when they jumped 20ft into a car park in Paris suburb of La Verriere.

The baffling incident occurred when a wife woke to see her husband moving about naked in the room, police said.

She began screaming 'it's the devil! it's the devil!', and the man ran into the other room where 11 others adults and children were watching television. One woman grabbed a knife and stabbed the man before others pushed him out through the front door.

When the man forced his way back in, they all began screamed in terror and leapt from the balcony screaming 'Jesus! Jesus!'

The naked man also leapt from the balcony, detectives said.

A four-month old baby died in his mother's arms, while a two-year-old was critically injured in yesterday’s incident.

Police said they had found no evidence of hallucinogenic drugs or unusual religious rituals.

Versailles assistant prosecutor Odile Faivre added: “A wife in the next room saw her husband moving around naked and began screaming that he was the devil.

“In the confusion following this apparent case of mistaken identity, the naked man's sister-in-law stabbed him in the hand and he was ejected through the front door of the flat.

“When he attempted to get back in, panic erupted and the other occupants of the flat fled by jumping out of the window.

“A number of points surrounding this incident remain to be cleared up,” Mr Faivre said

Source

Thanks to Chris. 

Bell Clown

The name "Bell" is one that often is found in twilight language material. Add in a clown, and this is worthy of our attention. 

There is news today from Bell, California.

An activist who often criticizes government officials while wearing a clown suit could get life in prison for allegedly threatening the Bell city clerk, reports KABC and the Los Angeles Times. 

Edwin Thomas Snell is accused of making threats at a recent Bell City Council meeting. Because he has two previous felony convictions, a judge could give the so-called "Clown-suit Activist" life in prison under California's "three-strikes" law.

Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said a Bell City Council member, whom he did not name, said Snell made threats directed at a staff member during a recent council meeting.

Prosecutors said the threat was directed at Bell city clerk Rebecca Valdez.

A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County district attorney's office said Snell would be arraigned on the criminal threats charge this week in Superior Court in Downey. The case against Snell, who has two previous felony convictions, was filed as a third-strike case that could potentially bring life in prison.

But Sandi Gibbons, spokeswoman for D.A. Steve Cooley, said on October 20th that under the district attorney's policy, which sets a high bar for any case that could bring a life sentence, the case will probably be handled as though this were Snell's second strike. She said the charge grew out of a threat related to a public records act request.

Snell, known as the "Clown-suit Activist" because he wears the costume to government meetings across the state, often disparages public officials during public comment periods.

But authorities said they there was little humor in his alleged run-in in Bell, which has been rocked by scandals over high salaries and alleged corruption.

"Clown suit or no clown suit, some things aren't funny," Whitmore said.

Snell is well-known for his governmental harassment appearances in California. For example, Edwin Thomas Snell, 63, of Apple Valley, is shown at top in 2009, in clown regalia, with a Bill Postmus mask, complete with crack pipe, prior to addressing the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors in San Bernardino. He was photographed during the Board's special meeting on January 21, 2009, to discuss options for removing Bill Postmus from the Assessor's Office. (Gabriel Luis Acosta / The Sun Staff Photographer)

Giant Butterfly-Mothman Link?

 
Frank Frazetta's Mothman.  


Yes, I am going to be so bold as to predict that an earthquake, large enough for people to feel, is going to hit Los Angeles very soon. You decide what "very soon" means. This weekend, this coming month, in the next, well, thirteen months? Everything is relative, but something big seems to be in the future of the area. 

 

“The Curse Continues” © Charles Berlin, drawn exclusively for Loren Coleman.  

All the indicators are there: Mothman-like sightings, UFO encounters, swarms of Gulf of California quakes, animal attacks (such as the mountain goat killing of the hiker), pet disappearances, and moody people (like a mother stabbing twins). I would not doubt that car chases are on the increase too.  

We certainly know from research that changes in animal behavior and the appearance of earthquake lights are predictors of earthquakes. Could there be more bizarre precusors? You name it and SoCal seems to be generating lots of strange indications of the big one shaking soon. Does Mother Earth foreshadow her events so overtly and covertly? Perhaps.  

Let's look of some of the hints.  

Grant Lawrence has reported in recent days of the sighting of what naturally sounds like a Mothman to me. In his blog entitled "'The Giant Butterfly' Returns to Los Angeles: Witness Describes Amazing UFO Experience," Lawrence notes that a Los Angeles County resident "had an amazing sighting of a giant creature that flew over his home," which was described as "having an appearance of a 'giant butterfly.'"  

The eyewitness, Tim, experienced this incident in Montrose, California, Los Angeles County, just north of the Glendale/Burbank area, between 2:30 and 3:00 pm on October 15, 2010, which was a partly cloudy-partly sunny day. Looking in his backyard, Tim noticed above the tree line, coming from his right, a sizable object that was moving at a steady, moderate pace. It was not soaring fast, but just passing from right to left in the sky. Tim told Lawrence:

It didn't take long to realize that this object was something quite unique. It is hard to deduce the distance that this object had been out in the sky but it was too large to have been a regular bird and did not look like an airplane or anything mechanical. The reason why it was so odd is that although seeing this from my angle looking up at it, I could not make out any real definition but I did see what looked like wings above this mass that flapped like the wings of a butterfly.

It looked like what a gigantic butterfly would appear to be at a great distance in the sky. It was not streamlined or had wings open like a bird soaring. This is what really knocked me over. As it kept passing over I looked at this object that I then considered to be some kind of very large 'bird' because of the 'wings' that I saw flapping but in the motion that a butterfly would flap its wings. So in my mind my first thought was a huge 'bird' because of the many sightings of enormous 'birds' and the thought of a gigantic butterfly was to me, outlandish.

Lastly, I do remember some 'color' in this mass and to the best of my memory, shades of red-orange, possibly reddish-yellow but I did see a hint of color in it. It passed and it was gone. It flew like it was in no rush at all. I went around the building to see if I could see more of it but couldn't. I could not see any real definition like a head or tail but the 'butterfly' type wings and motion were standout in my memory.

Grant Lawrence remarkably makes the connection between this new LA-area sighting and a rather dramatic account that is part of February 24-25, 1942's infamous "Battle of Los Angeles." 

 

Los Angeles Times, February 26, 1942.  

As Lawrence points out, one of the objects reported in the early morning hours of February 25, 1942, looked like a "giant butterfly," a slow moving object, bigger than a Zeppelin that traveled from Santa Monica to Long Beach.  

A total blackout of LA occurred during the 1942 scare. At 3:16 a.m. the 37th Coast Artillery Brigade began firing 12.8-pound anti-aircraft shells into the air at "reported" aircraft; over 1,400 shells would eventually be fired. Three people on the ground were killed by the shells and three people died from heart attacks due to all of the excitement and stress of the "air raid."  

The Reno Evening Gazette, dated February 26, 1942, noted the following: "Still others who watched the spectacle, if it can be called that, sighted no planes in the glare of the army's searchlights. A number, however, reported seeing 'something that looked like a giant butterfly.'"  

Months later, a 6.6 magnitude earthquake hit southern California on October 21, 1942 at 9:30 am, PWT. The Fish Creek Mountains earthquake occurred on the southern section of the Coyote Creek fault, the southernmost section of the San Jacinto fault zone, in a fairly remote area of southern California. Thus, it caused relatively little damage for its size. However, it was felt over a large area of southern California, as well as parts of Baja California and Arizona. The quake caused rockslides in Carrizo Gorge, blocking Highway 80 and the San Diego & Arizona Eastern Railroad. It caused minor damage in Brawley, El Centro, Westmoreland, and even San Diego, where at least 40 aftershocks were reported felt in the following eight days. Hardest hit was Jacumba Hot Springs, fairly close to the epicenter.  

During late October 2010, what the Los Angeles area has been experiencing are low-level earthquakes. A couple weeks ago, Santa Monica had one, and in recent days, a swarm of quakes has centered in the Gulf of California. Furthermore, predictions of the "Big One" are being pushed up, according to the local media there. 

I

Illustration by Thom Marsh. 

Is one person's Mothman another person's Giant Butterfly? Is all the activity a clue to big news around the corner? Can "Giant Butterfly" sightings serve as banshee incidents, as has been assumed with the Mothman encounter history? Perhaps only time will tell.  

Thanks to Wil, Chris, and Patrick for info shared.

Geometric Shootings

Ponder this. An individual or individuals took aim at objects related to two geometric shapes ~ a triangle and a pentagon, on Sunday and Tuesday of this week.

Shots were fired at the Pentagon early Tuesday (October 19, 2010), striking a window of the building.  Pentagon police spokesman Chris Layman said it's not known who fired the shots. Pentagon police officers heard at least five shots around 4:50 a.m., Layman added.

According to another Pentagon Force Protection Agency spokesman, Terry Sutherland, two bullets hit the Pentagon on the south side of the building -- one striking a window and the other hitting the building itself. This is an unoccupied part of the building that is being renovated. Sutherland said a fragment of one of the bullets is lodged in the window. The windows, which are bullet-proof, did not shatter.

There was a partial lockdown of the Pentagon's south parking lot and south entrance for about an hour after the shooting, and authorities briefly shut down a portion of Interstate 395 going out of the capital -- which runs along the south side of the Pentagon -- to conduct a search in the investigation.

Major Chris Perrine, a public affairs officer for Defense Press Operations, said other temporary road closures may be necessary as police conduct their investigation.

Tuesday's shooting follows a similar incident Sunday, October 17, 2010, at the National Museum of the Marine Corps in Triangle, Virginia, near the entrance of Marine Corps Base Quantico. A police statement Monday said "an unknown shooter or shooters fired shots at the National Museum of the Marine Corps, causing minor damage to the building's windowed roof and a steel wall at the base of the structure.

"The museum was unoccupied at the time of the incident, and no one was injured," the statement said.

Military police and the Prince William County Police Department are investigating that incident.

The Honeybee Killer

Law enforcement personnel are searching for an unkempt gunman who asked about honeybees before shooting three men, one of them fatally, in rural areas of Illinois and Indiana. This is being reported by the Associated Press and other news sources on October 7, 2010.

The (according to the media) random shootings began around 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, October 5, 2010, at a worksite in Illinois and ended about an hour later across the state line on an Indiana farm.



The gunman fatally shot 45-year-old Rolando Alonso and wounded 19-year-old Joshua Garza near Beecher (Will County), Illinois. The men were working at a fire-damaged home. A third worker escaped into a cornfield.

Beecher is situated in the center of Washington Township; Beecher was originally named Washington Center. The town of Beecher was named after Henry Ward Beecher (June 24, 1813 – March 8, 1887). Henry was the seventh of 13 siblings, some of whom were famous in their own right: Harriet Beecher Stowe who wrote Uncle Tom's Cabin; noted educator Catharine Beecher; activists Charles Beecher and Isabella Beecher Hooker. In addition Henry was the uncle of Edgar Beecher Bronson. Henry was famous as an advocate of Women's suffrage, temperance and Darwin's theory of evolution, as well as a foe of slavery and bigotry of all kinds (religious, racial and social).

Police believe the same man showed up 15 miles southeast, in Indiana, after the Illinois incident and shot a 64-year-old farmer. The honeybee shooter wounded farmer Keith Dahl near Lowell (Lake County), Indiana. The suspect, described as heavyset, unkempt and mentally unbalanced, is thought to be driving a 1990s Chevrolet pickup with a loud muffler.

Will County Sheriff's Department spokesman Pat Barry said the man tried to talk to all three victims about bees.

Jack The Ripper: September 29, 1888

THE NEMESIS OF NEGLECT.
There floats a phantom on the slum's foul air,
Shaping, to eyes which have the gift of seeing,
Into the Spectre of that loathly lair.
Face it--for vain is fleeing!
Red-handed, ruthless, furtive, unerect,
'Tis murderous Crime--the Nemesis of Neglect!
Jack the Ripper cartoon was published September 29, 1888 in Punch, or The London Charivai, John Tenniel.

The attempted self-immolation by David Parker, 24, at Longfellow Square, Portland, Maine, a block from the Lafayette Hotel, occurred on September 29, 2010. As I have pointed out in recent postings here, the statue dedicated to Henry Wadsworth Longfellow was unveiled on September 29, 1888.

This date is also linked to the infamous Jack the Ripper murders. The same day that Punch published a caricature of Jack the Ripper, the Ripper decided to strike again. The illustrator of that cartoon would be none other than Sir John Tenniel (28 February 1820 – 25 February 1914), who is remembered today for his illustrations for Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.



While recorded to have been found dead on September 30th, 1888, the two victims, Stride and Eddowes, would have been killed on the evening of September 29, 1988. Elizabeth Stride was found with her throat cut in Berner Street, St George’s, London, the next morning, on September 30th, as was Mrs May (sic) Eddowes, who had been murdered and mutilated in Mitre Square, Aldgate, London. The Freemasonry symbolism of these 1888 serial killings, emphasized especially by the location of Mitre Square, have been discussed at length in the Ripper literature.

Talk about going through the looking glass.

Tragedy in Longfellow Square

Longfellow Square on February 26, 1981.


Boston Daily Globe headlines of September 29, 1888 events at Longfellow Square.

The Portland Daily Sun has followed up with an intriguing editorial look at recent events...based upon research you first saw here....

Tragedy in Longfellow Square spurs questions, eerie links by Curtis Robinson, Editor of the Portland Daily Sun.

Even in a somewhat experience-hardened newsroom, Wednesday's news that somebody had set themselves on fire at Longfellow Square was a shock.

The man, who was identified yesterday as David Parker, 24, of Portland, reportedly soaked himself with gasoline in his nearby apartment, walked over to the Longfellow statue and ignited the fuel. He has reportedly been transferred to a Boston burn center.

But the ripple effect from the event continues, with police urging witnesses to seek help if they need it. One local property manager noted that witnessing the man ablaze "is going to stay with me for awhile."

In the midst of the community conversation, some odd facts were emerging. They have, frankly, nothing to do with the event except of course ... well, judge for yourself.

Now, regular readers know that Loren Coleman is no stranger to our pages or out-of-ordinary. He's been in this and other papers and newscasts as owner of the International Cryptozoology Museum on Congress Street — near Longfellow Square.

But Coleman is also a suicide prevention researcher and author, and his most recent book includes a section about "suicide self-immolation." The book, "The Copycat Effect," was published in 2004 by Simon and Schuster.

He noted a couple of oddities:

(1) The statue of American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in Longfellow Square, Coleman noted, was unveiled on the same date as the event (Sept. 29, 1888) as confirmed by a bibliography entry of the Maine Historical Society (" Exercises at the unveiling of the statue of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Portland, Maine, Sept 29, 1888.").

That means Wednesday was the 122nd anniversary of the statue's unveiling.

(2) Longfellow's second wife, Frances Appleton, died in 1861 after sustaining burns from her dress catching fire.
Random enough by any measure, but in the wake of a freak-out, it's also stuff that takes on eerie near-meaning.

Perhaps more to the point is the subtitle to the Coleman book: "How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines."

Coleman makes the oft-noted point that people seem to imitate what they've seen. He also takes some aim at media for the "if it bleeds, it leads."

Certainly there is ample evidence that suicide can bring suicide, and some of the better research is collected in the famous best-seller by Malcolm Gladwell, "The Tipping Point." So should we be concerned that the presumed suicide attempt at Longfellow Square, being so dramatic, might trigger copy-cat attempts?

By extension, does that mean we should not report on such things?

It's not acceptable in today's media environment, and casual media observers might doubt the industry's ability to make such efforts. If you're among those who think that sensationalism will always win, then two examples quickly prove you wrong.

Professional news organizations almost never disclose the name of a sexual assault victim, and we routinely do not publish the names of minors charged with crimes. So universal is this tradition that many people assume there are laws requiring the omissions — there are not.

News folks are not in the same league as police officers and other first responders when it comes to handling such things. Myself, I was once a coroner's photographer (well, a backup for when the real photographer was not available), and that was gory duty. But still, the despair one associates with setting yourself on fire is unsettling.

Hopefully, this is not going to create copycat activity. And hey, maybe even this column is "wrong."

So, what do you think? And if you e-mail an answer, please indicate if you want it published.

And, yes, there is irony in that request.

Curtis Robinson is editor of The Portland Daily Sun. Contact him at curtis@portlanddailysun.me

Self-Immolation in Maine [Identity Update]

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow statue, September 29, 2010.

+++
Thursday, September 30th update: Authorities identified the man as David Parker, 24.
+++

BREAKING NEWS: On Wednesday, September 29, 2010, in Portland, Maine, at Longfellow Square, according to eyewitness accounts, a lone man, covered in gasoline, set himself on fire beside the statue of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The individual ran screaming out into the intersection of State Street and Congress Street and then fell to the ground. Emergency crews and police rushed to the scene as immolation sourced smoke filled the air.


Law enforcement officers are investigating, at this time. Eyewitnesses described to me that the individual was in his early 20s, had a small beard or goatee, and was Caucasian. One person who talked to him said the person repeated over and over, "Just let me die."

Several strange things of interest to twilight language students are developing with this event. Longfellow's wife died in a fire. And the the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow statue was unveiled in Portland, Maine, on September 29, 1888, according to a confirmation article published in the Boston Daily Globe. (Thanks to Robert Schneck, for the heads up on these bits of info.)




The aftermath. Police interview eyewitnesses. Loren Coleman Photo.

The Portland Press Herald has this information:

Bystander describes trying to save man on fire
By David Hench
Staff Writer

PORTLAND - A man set himself on fire in Longfellow Square shortly after noon today.

Police say the man apparently doused himself with gasoline in his second-floor apartment at 675 Congress St. He then walked across the street to the statue of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and ignited himself with a lighter, police said.

Robert Michael Rodriguez was one of the first on the scene, after someone came rushing into a nearby store, yelling for someone to call 911.

"I threw myself on the flames," Rodriguez said, describing flames that were shoulder high, even as the young man lay on the ground. As he and two other bystanders struggled to extinguish the flames, Rodriguez said he held the man's hand. "I wanted him to have hope."

The man was speaking clearly as rescue workers arrived to treat him, but fire officials said serious burns can gradually compromise a person's system. His burns were serious, but police had no immediate information about his condition.

Rescue crews responded. He was taken to Maine Medical Center and his condition is unknown.

By the time the fire was extinguished the man had burns covering most of his body from the chin down, police said.

Police said it appears to be a suicide attempt. There was no political statement associated with the self-immolation.

The Portland Daily Sun has this update, for Thursday, September 30, 2010.

Robert Schneck passes on this significant historical footnote along: ‎

On July 9, 1861, tragedy again tormented Longfellow when his wife died in a fire at age 44. She and her two youngest daughters, aged five and seven, were in the library. While melting wax to seal envelopes containing cuttings of her children’s hair, Fanny dropped a match onto her dress. Longfellow tried to rescue his wife by smothering the flames with a rug only to receive terrible burns on his hands and face. Since shaving became difficult due to scars from the fire, Longfellow grew a beard. Deeply depressed, Longfellow immersed himself in translating Dante into English and returned to Europe.

Emergency vehicles and traffic swarm around the scene, just before 12:30pm. Michelle Souliere Photo.

UNOOSA Name Game: It's A Hoax

UPDATE: IT'S A HOAX!!

Mazland Othman Not Earth's Alien Ambassador, After All


Astrophysicist Denies She is UN's New 'Alien Ambassador'

(Thanks for the heads up from SMiles Lewis for fakery revision.)

Earlier details:

Someone linked this news at The Daily Grail:

The United Nations was set today to appoint an obscure Malaysian astrophysicist to act as Earth s first contact for any aliens that may come visiting.
Mazlan Othman, the head of the UN's little-known Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa), is to describe her potential new role next week at a scientific conference at the Royal Society’s Kavli conference centre in Buckinghamshire.
She is scheduled to tell delegates that the recent discovery of hundreds of planets around other stars has made the detection of extraterrestrial life more likely than ever before - and that means the UN must be ready to coordinate humanity’s response to any “first contact”.
During a talk Othman gave recently to fellow scientists, she said: “The continued search for extraterrestrial communication, by several entities, sustains the hope that some day humankind will receive signals from extraterrestrials.
"When we do, we should have in place a coordinated response that takes into account all the sensitivities related to the subject. The UN is a ready-made mechanism for such coordination.”
Professor Richard Crowther, an expert in space law and governance at the UK Space Agency and who leads British delegations to the UN on such matters, said: “Othman is absolutely the nearest thing we have to a ‘take me to your leader’ person.”
However, he thinks humanity’s first encounter with any intelligent aliens is more likely to be via radio or light signals from a distant planet than by beings arriving on Earth. And, he suggests, even if we do encounter aliens in the flesh, they are more likely to be microbes than anything intelligent.

Mazlan Othman.

M. Othman.

In some mysterious astral plane, I'm sure John Keel must be laughing his ass off right now :)

Saludos,

Miguel (red pill junkie)

NFL Suicides: 1942-2010

Kenny McKinley's suicide is the latest such event among NFL players. Here is a list of some famed, known American football players who have died by suicide.



2010

Kenny McKinley, a Denver Broncos (NFL) wide receiver who was out for the season recovering from knee surgery, was found dead of an apparent suicide September 20, 2010, Monday afternoon at his home, according to the Denver Post. The body of McKinley, 23, was found by authorities in a second-floor bedroom with what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound at around 3:25 p.m. MDT. A second-year player out of South Carolina, he had undergone season-ending surgery for a recurring knee injury in August 2010.

"Although the death of McKinley appears to be the result of a self inflicted gunshot, the investigation into this matter, conducted by the Arapahoe County Sheriff's Office and the Arapahoe County Coroner's Office, is on-going, " Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson told Denver's Fox 31 News.

The death is the third for the Broncos since 2007. Cornerback Darrent Williams died in a drive-by shooting and running back Damien Nash collapsed at a charity basketball game in 2007. The Denver Post reports that current and former Broncos were attending a fundraiser for the Boys & Girls Club of Metro Denver, site of the Darrent Williams Memorial Teen Center, when they learned of McKinley's death.

Earlier football suicides

1942

Lyle Randolph "Al" Bigbee (August 22, 1893 in Waterloo, Oregon - August 5, 1942 in Portland, Oregon) was a former outfielder and pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics and Pittsburgh Pirates and halfback for the Milwaukee Badgers. Bigbee died by suicide due to a self-inflicted shooting.

1961

John Henry Mohardt (January 21, 1898 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – November 24, 1961 in La Jolla, California) was a former professional football and baseball player. Mohardt played in the National Football League for the Chicago Cardinals, Racine Legion, and Chicago Bears from 1922 - 1925. One of Mohardt's teammates with the 1925 Bears was pro football Hall of Famer Red Grange. Mohardt also played in five major league baseball games in 1922 with the Detroit Tigers. Mohardt later earned an M.D. and served in the United States Armed Forces during World War II. He died by suicide in La Jolla, California, on November 24, 1961, the day after Thanksgiving that year. (The football games and scores that Thanksgiving were Green Bay Packers 17, Detroit Lions 9 and New York Titans 21, Buffalo Bills 14.)

1980

James Efflo Tyrer (February 25, 1939–September 15, 1980) was an American football offensive tackle in the American Football League for the Dallas Texans/Kansas City Chiefs. He also played in the National Football League for the Chiefs and the Washington Redskins. After football, a series of apparent business misfortunes culminated on September 15, 1980 when Tyrer, the father of four, shot his wife and then died by suicide by turning the gun on himself.

1982

Benjamin "Benny" Friedman (March 18, 1905 – November 24, 1982) was an American football quarterback who played for the University of Michigan (1924-1926), Cleveland Bulldogs (1927), Detroit Wolverines (1928), New York Giants (1929-1931), and Brooklyn Dodgers (1932-1934). Suffering from severe diabetes, Friedman died by suicide in 1982.

1987

Larry Bethea (July 21, 1956 – April 24, 1987) was an American football defensive lineman who played six years in the National Football League for the Dallas Cowboys. He later played for the Michigan Panthers, Oakland Invaders and Houston Gamblers of the United States Football League. He died of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound within hours of being identified as a suspect in two armed robberies.

1992

Michael Allen "Mike" Wise (June 5, 1964 – August 21, 1992) was a professional American football defensive end in the National Football League. He played five seasons for the Los Angeles Raiders (1986-1990) and the Cleveland Browns (1991). Wise was born in Greenbrae, California. He did by suicide at his home in Davis in 1992.

1993


Jeffrey Lawrence Alm (March 31, 1968 – December 14, 1993) was an American football player who played defensive tackle for the Houston Oilers of the National Football League. According to an eyewitness, Alm and his best friend, Sean P. Lynch, had dinner at a Houston-area steakhouse on December 13, 1993. At 2:45 a.m. Central Standard Time the following day, Alm’s Cadillac lost control heading south on Intrastate 610 southbound at the 59 north exit ramp and Lynch was thrown out of the car through the passenger window to his death. Alm had been speeding and lost control of his 1993 Cadillac Eldorado on a curved exit ramp. After the crash Alm ran across the ramp and looked down an embankment towards the Southwest Freeway, discovering that his boyhood friend had been thrown to his death 30 feet below. Apparently distraught by his best friend’s death, Alm took out a pistol grip shotgun, fired two shots into the air and then shot himself in the face.

1995

Thornton Steve Stonebreaker (born October 28, 1938 in Moline, Illinois; died March 28, 1995 in Metairie, Louisiana) was a professional American football linebacker in the National Football League. He played eight seasons for the Minnesota Vikings (1962-1963), the Baltimore Colts (1964-1966), and the New Orleans Saints (1967-1968). Stonebreaker died by suicide on March 28, 1995 by inhaling carbon monoxide from a car exhaust.

2000

Lawrence Morgan "Larry" Kelley (May 30, 1915 – June 27, 2000) was an American football player born in Conneaut, Ohio. He played end, for Yale University. While at Yale he was a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and Skull and Bones, and was the second winner of the Heisman Trophy in 1936, the year it was renamed in honor of John Heisman. To benefit of his nieces and nephews, Kelley sold his Heisman Trophy at an auction in December 1999 for $328,110 to the owner of The Stadium Museum, Restaurant & Bar in Garrison, New York, where it now resides. On June 27, 2000, in failing health, Kelley died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound at his home in Hightstown. It was said to be a suicide by the Hightstown police.

2005

Terry Long (July 21, 1959–June 7, 2005) was a National Football League offensive lineman. He played from 1984–1991 for the Pittsburgh Steelers. He died in 2005 from drinking antifreeze.

2006

Andre Waters (March 10, 1962 – November 20, 2006) was an NFL defensive back who played for the Philadelphia Eagles and Arizona Cardinals from 1984 to 1995. On November 20, 2006, three days before Thanksgiving, Waters died by suicide shortly after 1 a.m. on November 20, 2006 (three days before Thanksgiving), according to the Hillsborough County (Fla.) Sheriff's Office, dying of a gunshot to the head. He was at his home in Tampa, Florida where he was found by his girlfriend. No suicide note was found. Later investigations have revealed a possible link to mild traumatic brain injury, which may have resulted in post-concussion syndrome.

2009

Shane Dronett (January 12, 1971 – January 21, 2009) was an American football defensive lineman, who played for the NFL's Denver Broncos, Detroit Lions and Atlanta Falcons between 1992 and 2002. On January 21, 2009, Dronett was found dead at his home near Atlanta, Georgia. The death was ruled a suicide by the Gwinnett County Medical Examiner's office.

McNair's 2009 Death



It will be recalled that Stephen LaTreal McNair (February 14, 1973 – July 4, 2009), born on Valentine's Day, died on Independence Day 2009, when his mistress, Sahel Kazemi, shot and killed him before turning the gun on herself. Steve McNair (nicknamed "Air McNair") was an American football quarterback who spent the majority of his NFL career with the Tennessee Titans. He retired as a Baltimore Raven in 2007.