WcP.Story.Teller's blog

(quote)

Disneyland, the original California park, was groundbreaking in every possible way. Prior to Disneyland’s creation, amusement parks were, by and large, dirty, dangerous places aimed almost exclusively at teenagers. Parents didn’t go on rides, they sat on benches while the kids played. As an animator, Walt Disney had already earned a reputation as a maverick, a rebel genius who was able to sell adult audiences on feature-length cartoons, something his peers had claimed would never work. Disneyland was the culmination of many of Walt’s big dreams, a different kind of park, where parents and children could have fun together. Walt Disney told stories, and Disneyland allowed guests to become a part of those stories.

Walt Disney World History Year by Year  read more »

Victoria filmaker Ian Hinkle will shoot undersea footage of Scott Cassell's potentially world-record non-stop dive Saturday, from Catalina Island's avalon Harbor to Los Angeles.

(quote)

Going to great depths to save ocean life

Scott Cassell already holds the record for longest non-stop dive but is ready to break it again while trying to preserve ocean life.

On September 17, the explorer and combat/commercial diver will attempt a 30-mile (48-kilometre) non-stop SCUBA dive from Catalina Island to Los Angeles, gathering information about shark population and what the ocean actually holds, a task that only human effort can accurately collect.

“[The ocean] is where monsters dwell,” says Cassell, who has spent more than 13,000 hours under water in his lifetime, “Where man’s imagination can become reality because it truly does have the most magnificent animals to ever have existed.”

From 1,000 ft. to 3,000 ft., he will be diving through two great white shark strike zones, and an area that has been known to contain very large Mako sharks, to calculate how many sharks there are in Southern California.

Aside from sharks, other dangers Cassell is prepared to face include hypothermia, decompression sickness, extraordinary currents, equipment failure, and physical exhaustion.

For this diver, however, his safety, although important, is not top priority. “Every dive is a mission,” says Cassell. “And the mission is always first.”  read more »

(quote)

(Reuters) - Anne Sinclair, the wealthy and popular journalist married to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, has chosen to stand by her man, even though the IMF chief faces charges of attempted rape: "I do not believe for a single second the accusations leveled against my husband."

The prize-winning, blue-eyed television interviewer first met Strauss-Kahn in 1989 at the apex of her career as a political talk-show host on French channel TFI. For years her celebrity largely eclipsed his. She became his third wife in 1996. He is her second husband.

People who know them say they are an affectionate couple who have an easy relationship and like to vacation together with friends in their holiday home in the Moroccan town of Marrakesh.

Sinclair sacrificed her career to his, giving up her popular prime-time Sunday show -- which featured guests from President Bill Clinton to Madonna and every major French political leader -- when her husband was appointed finance minister in 1997. Many on the center-left saw her as an ideal "first lady" if, as expected, Strauss-Kahn sought the Socialist nomination for the 2012 presidential election.  read more »

(quote)

List of World's Tallest Waterfalls
Ranking Name Height (sort) Tallest Drop (sort) State Country  read more »

Albert Einstein once said about intuition:
"The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift."
But apparently Nature has not -

(quote)

African Ambush: A routine trip to the water hole recently resulted in a life-or-death struggle for a pair of African elephants when they were ambushed by a hungry Nile crocodile.

Tourist Martin Nyfeler of Kloten, Switzerland, captured pictures of the wild encounter during a visit to Zambia's South Luangwa National Park in late September. "We saw a mother elephant and baby at the water hole and said [to the guides], You know, what a cute picture, let's stop here," Nyfeler told National Geographic News. "And suddenly the croc jumped out. The whole event took maybe 15 seconds."  read more »

Charlie Chaplin
Born: April 16, 1889, London, England
Died: December 25, 1977, Vevey, Switzerland

- A man's true character comes out when he's drunk.
- A tramp, a gentleman, a poet, a dreamer, a lonely fellow, always hopeful of romance and adventure.
- I remain just one thing, and one thing only, and that is a clown. It places me on a far higher plane than any politician.
- We think too much and feel too little.
- I am for people. I can't help it.
- I do not have much patience with a thing of beauty that must be explained to be understood. If it does need additional interpretation by someone other than the creator, then I question whether it has fulfilled its purpose.
- I don't believe that the public knows what it wants; this is the conclusion that I have drawn from my career.
- I have no further use for America. I wouldn't go back there if Jesus Christ was President.
- A day without laughter is a day wasted.  read more »

(quote)

Science calls these animals Eubalaena glacialis, "good, or true, whale of the ice."
Brian Skerry (photographer): "When I was at the bottom at 70 feet, and here comes this bus swimming down. It came within inches. Here’s this softball-size whale eye looking at me. But then it stops - stops on a dime. It’s just hovering there, and literally one flick of its tail, and it would have crushed me like a bug. But it doesn’t. It was just highly curious."

Brian Skerry Interview  read more »