BENOIT. Wrestling With The Horror That Destroyed A Family And Crippled A Sport (PDF)

Featuring the Canadian WWE wrestler Chris Benoit. Over a 3 day period ending on June 24, 2007, Benoit killed his wife Nancy, strangled his 7yr. old son, and subsequently hanged himself. The personal and the public remifications; the fallout for "sports entertainment" and sports in general; the role the media has played and whether professional wrestling as we know it will survive the scrutiny of fans and lawmakers alike - in this book four of the industry's most respected commentators weigh in on the horrific murder-suicide that outraged the nation, making wrestling's macho but fake cartoon world all too vulnerable and chillingly real.

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Becoming Batman The Possibility Of A Superhero (PDF)

Battling bad guys. High-tech hideouts. The gratitude of the masses. Who at some point in their life hasn't dreamed of being a superhero? Impossible, right? Or is it? Possessing no supernatural powers, Batman is the most realistic of all the superheroes. His feats are achieved through rigorous training and mental discipline, and with the aid of fantastic gadgets. Drawing on his training as a neuroscientist, kinesiologist, and martial artist, E. Paul Zehr explores the question: Could a mortal ever become Batman? Zehr discusses the physical training necessary to maintain bad-guy-fighting readiness while relating the science underlying this process, from strength conditioning to the cognitive changes a person would endure in undertaking such a regimen. In probing what a real-life Batman could achieve, Zehr considers the level of punishment a consummately fit and trained person could handle, how hard and fast such a person could punch and kick, and the number of adversaries [...]that individual could dispatch. He also tells us what it would be like to fight while wearing a batsuit and the amount of food we'd need to consume each day to maintain vigilance as Gotham City's guardian. A fun foray of escapism grounded in sound science, Becoming Batman provides the background for attaining the realizable -- though extreme -- level of human performance that would allow you to be a superhero.

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The Death Of WCW Explained

Really, the answer is Jamie Kellner. He was the one who made the call to pull the plug and kill the promotion. But, really, Kellner only made that call because WCW was losing so much money. If it was profitable, there’s a chance he never would have closed its doors. 

And why wasn’t it making money? Well, because Vince Russo made lots and lots of bad decisions. He took a company that turned a profit of $30 million dollars, and made it one that lost over $60 million dollars. 

But, Russo was only there to fix the mess that Bischoff had put the company in. Russo is an easy scapegoat, but Bischoff’s refusal to look past Hogan is a huge contributing factor to the death of WCW.

Hogan had a shelf life, and Bischoff – and Hogan – couldn’t see that. And giving Hogan creative control from the get go did lead to a lot of issues on what were supposed to be big shows.

He also spent big on contracts.

Contracts that were so big that when WWF bought WCW, they didn’t pick up a lot of the TimeWarner contracts for the likes of Hogan, Hall, Nash, Goldberg etc because it would have upset their own pay structure in the WWF.

But perhaps the person who killed WCW was the man who created it in the first place.

A lot of WCW’s problems can be traced back to Ted Turner’s decision to merge with Time Warner in 1995.

If Turner hadn’t made that merger, they wouldn’t have been involved in the AOL merger of 2000 which wouldn’t have brought in Jamie Kellner who pulled the trigger on the Death of WCW

Turner lost a lot of power after the TimeWarner merger, and even more from the AOL one.

Eric Bischoff even argues that once Turner lost his power after the TimeWarner merger, he no longer was able to have Eric’s back and sign off on his big money spending, and he had other people to answer to who didn’t like the way he spent money, like giving wrestlers big contracts.

You could make the argument for any one of these people being the ultimate reason for the downfall of WCW, but in actuality, it was all of them.

Hi Hi Puffy Amiyumi | Pilot | Cartoon Network

After Sam Register (the creator) pitched the idea of Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi having their own cartoon series on Cartoon Network, the animation studio Renegade Animation created a pitch pilot, in the hopes of swaying Cartoon Network to green-light the show's production.

The pilot was sent to Cartoon Network and they accepted it and it was to air in late 2003, but for unknown reasons, the pilot was reworked and later premiered on November 19th, 2004. The series premiere was successful and was even at the time one of the highest-rated shows to premiere on Cartoon Network.

Elderly People Seen In Titanic Film Were Based On A Real Life Couple

Not only did the film - starring none other than Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio - recall the tragic sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912 and deaths of over 1,500 passengers, but the movie also centred itself on the heart-wrenching love story between Rose and Jack too.

However, there's wasn't the only romance to board the ship.

The true story of another couple has since been revealed.

As well as featuring a scene where Jack paints Rose 'like one of his French girls' and a steamy rendezvous in the back of a car, another couple also makes a cut, spooning one another in bed as the water rushes onto the ship - ultimately deciding to die in one another's arms.

While the scene isn't entirely factually correct - the real-life couple actually deciding to hunker down for a hug on the deck opposed to back in their room - the shot is based on a real couple named Isidor and Ida Straus.

Married in 1871, the Jewish couple had seven children together. Isidor was 67 when he boarded the Titanic and Ida the age of 63.

After the Titanic was struck by an iceberg on that fateful day in 1912, the lives of women and children were prioritised on the lifeboats rescuing passengers from the sinking ship.

However, due to the Straus' status - Isidor a co-owner of Macy's Department Store located in New York - his chance to escape followed shortly after.

Despite being offered a seat due to his status and wealth, Isidor turned the opportunity down, stating: "I will not go before the other men."

Ida resolved to not leave without her husband and according to Historical Honey, said: "We have been living together for many years. Where you go, I go."

Isidor's body was recovered after the ship sunk, however, unfortunately Ida's has never been found.

However, their united love lives on in one of the scenes from the 1997 release - not only portrayed as the couple spooning on the bed, but the design for Rose's cabin room onboard the ship inspired by the Straus' actual room which was the best suite onboard the ship.