Now married and father to two, Kevin Berthia's life has changed dramatically in the 8 years since he climbed over the railing of the Golden Gate Bridge to take his own life. He probably would not have had that opportunity had it not been for the dedication of California Highway Patrolman Kevin Briggs, "
The Guardian of the Golden Gate Bridge". Following the overwhelming response to the short documentary on Briggs' efforts to reach out--sometimes literally--to would-be jumpers, he
got the opportunity to meet the young man whose life he saved in 2005.
[more inside]
posted by drlith
on May 11, 2013 -
20 comments
Sierra DeMulder is one of the most accomplished and recognizable young women in the world of slam poetry. The two-time National Poetry Slam champion has spent the past five years energizing audiences at colleges and poetry events across the nation, seamlessly weaving complex issues of identity and gender with the honesty of heartbreak. Her piece
'Paper Dolls', recently shared on
Project Unbreakable (previously), is very, very good.
TRIGGER WARNING - subject matter pertains to sexual assault.
posted by lazaruslong
on Mar 9, 2012 -
31 comments
GQ: The Man Who Sailed His House. On the third day after the Japanese tsunami, after the waves had left their destruction, as rescue workers searched the ruins, news came of an almost surreal survival: Nine miles out at sea, a man had been found alone, riding on nothing but the roof of his house. [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Oct 13, 2011 -
19 comments
The Survivor. "When your family is murdered, and the home you had made together is destroyed, and you yourself are beaten and left for dead — as happened to Bill Petit on the morning of July 23, 2007 — it may as well be the end of the world. It is hard to see how a man survives the end of the world. The basics of life — waking up, walking, talking — become alien tasks, and almost impossibly heavy, as you are more dead than alive. Just how does a man go about surviving such a thing? How does a man go on? ... Why does one man come undone while the next finds a way to make it through?" [more inside]
posted by zarq
on Jun 2, 2011 -
60 comments
802 Prisoners attempted escape from Auschwitz. 144 were successful. Kazimierz Piechowski, a Polish boy scout, was one of them. Today, at age 91,
he tells his story.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Apr 13, 2011 -
30 comments
Japan Air Raids "is an ongoing project to build a digital archive dedicated to the international dissemination of information about the World War II air raids against Japan." They have seeded it with quite a bit of material (e.g. Target Tokyo, narrated by Ronald Reagan in the
documentary and propaganda section) and promise there is much more to come. [Warning, some images may disturb]
[via]
posted by unliteral
on Dec 12, 2010 -
21 comments
Relatives of the passengers, survivors, and crew of the
RMS Titanic are planning a
Centenary Cruise on April 8th, 2012, 100 years after the sailing of the ill-fated liner. (The actual centenary of the sailing is April 10th.)
[more inside]
posted by pjern
on Aug 15, 2010 -
54 comments
Lessons from a Tailor — directed by
Galen Summer and filmed by
Ed David.
The inspiration for this film came directly from the man himself. When I first met Martin Greenfield at his factory, with the intention of interviewing him for a lifetime achievement award he was receiving for his efforts as an employer and business owner in Bushwick, Brooklyn, it became clear that there was more to his story than mere success in business. Here was a man who had pulled himself up from tragedy and hardship, who had survived one of the most horrific events of the 20th century, the Nazi holocaust, and yet still possessed a lightness of spirit. [more inside]
posted by netbros
on Jul 22, 2010 -
2 comments
This species was around seventy-six million years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and the continents were splitting. The impact of a colossal space rock wiped out the dinosaurs but did not finish them off, even though their habitat was close to 'ground zero'. They survived the super-hot "greenhouse Earth" of the Eocene, major changes in global ecosystems, and the Ice Age (take that, Scrat). They have grooved teeth which inject venom into their prey; very strong limbs which end in long sharp claws. They have only three native predators. However this
'living fossil' called the
Solenodon could soon be wiped out by mongoose, people and
wild dogs.
[more inside]
posted by Hardcore Poser
on Jun 2, 2010 -
9 comments
Menorahs glowed in almost every living room window during Hanukkah. Hasidic Jews streamed down the streets on Friday night and Saturday morning, walking to and from synagogue services. "There was total freedom," marvels Magda Brown, 81, who survived Auschwitz. But inside their homes, at night, the survivors—and their families—were roiled by their pasts. The rest of Skokie did not know the troubles that stirred behind the immaculate facades of the close-packed houses.
[more inside]
posted by scody
on Dec 14, 2008 -
5 comments
Road Closed for Tribal Council: Vunivutu Villagers Latest Beneficiaries of the Survivor Boomtown Effect
The hit "reality" TV show,
Survivor, premieres tonight on CBS
in the United States. Over the past year, a sleepy village on Vanua
Levu, the second largest island of Fiji has been hosting the
production crew—and reaping the benefits. 150 villagers have been employed by the crew to work about 10 hours a day, seven days a week, for USD 5.00 per hour (and double time on Sundays and holidays). For some it was their first experience in any form of paid employment. This
article from the Fiji Post, reposted by a Vanua Levu blogger, gives
some behind the scene details. Meanwhile the island's new eco-resort village is putting finishing touches on their community hall. Globe-trotting gap year students and reality TV junkies, look north. Vanua Levu is for lovers. [
Survivor Maps,
Vorovoro, the eco-resort with a difference,
Vorovoro's new bure (community hall),
Google's hires satellite image of the area]
posted by rschram
on Feb 8, 2007 -
3 comments
Survivor: Cook Islands' 20 castaways will be grouped by race, with competitors divided into four tribes consisting of whites, blacks, Asians and Hispanics. If your reaction is "oof," you are
not alone.
But host Jeff Probst says, "I found it to be one of the freshest ideas we’ve had going back to the beginning of this show."
posted by amro
on Aug 23, 2006 -
102 comments
Oh, the irony. This season of
Survivor (premiering tonight!), CBS will offer $1.99 video downloads of each episode on its own site, bypassing middlemen such as iTunes and Google Video. The catch? Your download "survives" only 24 hours after you buy it. Remember how well
DIVX did?
posted by mkultra
on Feb 2, 2006 -
35 comments
Let me on survivor!!!
Oh the lack of justice! Canadians make up 10% of the Survivor audience and yet the show doesn't want to allow canadians to be on the show. This
young courageous man wants to change the rules, and he thinks he
qualifies to be a good survivor. Because after all
'Canadians live in igloos 50% of the year, so we're perfect for outdoor survival reality-tv shows '.
So he's on a crusade to be the first canadian citizen on the show, and ask people to sign his
petition.
posted by Sijeka
on Dec 17, 2004 -
40 comments
The Quest announced by
LitKicks marries sudden fiction (and poetry, and nonfiction) workshop dynamics to a survivor-like competitive format, starting October 1, with six winners to be published in a book featuring the best work from the Quest. It's open to all, costs
$20 to enter, and requires a free membership in the LitKicks site, which is a thriving online literary community as it is. More info in the
FAQ. I think this may work better for me than NaNoWriMo would.
posted by xian
on Sep 16, 2003 -
4 comments
Survivor Sucks A nice little site which rips every reality show apart quite nicely, but my favorite is the
"Off Topic" section where threads on any subject offer up some of the best trolling/flamebait and some very funny comments. More inside...
posted by Mack Twain
on Apr 15, 2003 -
9 comments
Sims Survivor - 8 contestants left alone in a house. When the food runs out, who do you think will win? Follow it day by day. Great idea!
posted by Jubey
on Mar 19, 2002 -
14 comments
Survivor III Finale Flawed. If there's any doubt still that this show is a complete waste of time, check out this "news" tidbit that CBS is doing a good job of squashing. Turns out the ending was flawed; the other finalists have now been paid handsomely to behave.
posted by Fofer
on Feb 22, 2002 -
13 comments
New Survivor 4 Contestants Announced Sixteen back-stabbing, over-competitive, fame-seeking, hunger-loving castaway wannabes were announced this morning on CBS'
Survivor site. Fewer people watched the mother-of-all-American-reality-TV-shows in it's last incarnation in Africa - will this one in the Marquesas continue the ratings slide?
posted by stevis
on Feb 6, 2002 -
10 comments
The East Coast knows... Survivor Africa is over. You may not have noticed it ever starting...
But Kim, Lex, Ethan, or Tom won.
I'll let someone else spoil the surprise for those West Coast viewers.
posted by jacobw
on Jan 10, 2002 -
11 comments
CBS posts 'Survivor: Africa' cast profiles If reality TV is even marginally relevant to anyone anymore, the bios of the latest Survivor contestants have been posted. My questions are: 1. are these people representative of the American population at large? Almost all of the women list In Style magazine as their favorite and one picks "shopping and ads" as her favorite section of the newspaper... and 2. will more or less people be watching Survivor post-WTC tragedy?
posted by popvulture
on Sep 25, 2001 -
26 comments
As a sort-of follow up to
yesterday's discussion of "whatever-happened-to-the-Big Brother (UK) Housemates",
here's a funny little story about what Rudy Boesch is up to these days. We all (may) remember Rudy as the politically incorrect ex-Navy Seal from the first edition of Survivor (US), won by Richard Hatch. Nice to see fame hasn't changed him.
posted by msacheson
on Jul 12, 2001 -
0 comments
Name That Tune, Mr. Spock! Finding
two of the same unforeseeable thing online
entirely by accident raises an eyebrow. Can you name all the tunes in Glenn McDonald's
Audiotests or the equivalent faux-
Survivor task by
Ron Yeany et al.? (The latter links directly to an MP3 file. See
contest page.) ¶ Also, Glenn (
ibid.) has an hilarious
photo album. And who can explain the
reference in the title of this posting?
posted by joeclark
on Jun 17, 2001 -
4 comments
"He doesn't say please, he doesn't say thank you." Yeah, it's
Survivor, British-style. A natural leader with survival experience emerges, gets his tribe organised, and is promptly voted out in the quietest of revolutions. My American girlfriend, who'd watched Colby marshal his people through the Outback season, is visibly gobsmacked. ("I really couldn't do psychology in this country.") Different levels of
power distance at work?
posted by holgate
on May 22, 2001 -
12 comments
