Did you remember what today is?

Today is September 11th. For those that have forgotten, six years ago the U.S. was attacked by terrorist who hijacked commercial airlines and flew them into the World Trade Center Towers and the Pentagon.



Three thousand Americans lost their lives that day.

More than three thousand, seven hundred American soldiers and civilians have lost their lives during the four years of war since then.

But what is on the front page of MSN today?



"Summer's Biggest Scandal"? Paris and Lindsey are front page news on 9/11? I'm surprised they mentioned 9/11 on the front page at all. At least they gave a small link on the left of the page to acknowledge the fact that it was 9/11.

For today, try to not read the celebrity gossip news and sports box scores. For today, think of how the world has changed in the last six years and how that's affected your life and the lives of your loved ones. Today, remember the fallen Americans that were killed six years ago today and the thousands that have died since.

Never forget.
Never forget.
Never forget.

Buried Alive

I was relaying a story to a Bulgarian about safety coffins. For those of you not in the know, people in Victorian England and Europe would get these coffins that had bells attached to strings that the departed could pull in the event that they "wake up" from an accidental burial. Sounds crazy, but I guess it happened on more than one occasion back then. Check out this passage from deathonline.net:

Fear of premature burial was widespread in 18th and 19th century Europe, leading to the invention of the safety coffin. Over thirty different designs were patented in Germany in the second half of the 19th century. The common element was a mechanism for allowing the 'dead' to communicate with people above ground. Many designs included ropes which, when pulled, would ring the church bell, or a purpose-mounted bell. Others replaced the bell with a raiseable flag, a powerful fire cracker or a pyrotechnic rocket. Some included a shovel, a ladder and a supply of food and water. An essential element, which was overlooked in some designs, was a breathing tube to provide air and occasionally even sustenance.

Weird, right? So after reading this, my first question was, "How did people get mis-diagnosed as dead?" Any suggestions, Wikipedia?

At least one report of accidental burial goes back to the 13th Century. Hundreds of instances of accidental burials were documented in the 1600s during epidemics of plague, cholera, and smallpox. Revivals have been triggered by dropped coffins, grave robbers, embalming, and attempted dissections. Fearing premature burial, George Washington, on his deathbed, made his servants promise not to bury him until three days after his death. Patients in the 1990s have been documented as accidentally being bagged, trapped in a steel box, or sent to the morgue.

Sucks to be the doctor that mistakenly pronounced someone dead when they weren't. That's got to be the ultimate "D'oh!"

I also came across this super creepy painting by Antoine Wiertz called The Premature Burial. What kind of a wacked out painter do you have to be to paint this?



Oh wait, he's Belgian. No further explanation needed.