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Wednesday, October 20, 2004

Stella Awards

The Stellas are named after 81 year-old Stella Liebeck who spilled coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's (in NM). That case inspired the Stella awards for the most frivolous successful lawsuits in the United States.

Here are this year's winners:

5th Place (tie):

Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas, was awarded $780,000 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving little toddler was Ms. Robertson's son.

5th Place (tie):

19-year-old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn't notice there was someone at the wheel of the car when he was trying to steal his neighbor's hubcaps.

5th Place (tie):

Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania, was leaving a house he had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn't re-enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, and Mr.Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner's insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of $500,000.

4th Place:

Jerry Williams of Little! Rock, Arkansas, was awarded $14,500 and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor's beagle. The beagle was on a chain in its owner's fenced yard. The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog might have been just a little provoked at the time by Mr. Williams who had climbed over the fence into the yard and was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

3rd Place:

A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink and broke her coccyx (tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.

2nd Place:

Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware, successfully sued the owner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms.Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and dental expenses.

1st Place:

This year's run away winner was Mrs. Merv Grazinski of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Mrs. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32-foot Winnebago motor home. On her first trip home, (from an OU football game), having driven onto the freeway, she set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back make herself a sandwich. Not surprisingly, the RV left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mrs.Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising her in the owner's manual that she couldn't actually do this. The jury awarded her $1,750,000 plus a new motor home. The company actually changed their manuals on the basis of this suit, just in case there were any other complete morons around!

Monday, October 11, 2004

Mt. Saint Helens Seismo-Cam

Saturday, October 02, 2004

Mount St. Helens Update

Government seismologists raised the alert level for Mount St. Helens on Saturday after its second steam eruption in two days was followed by a powerful tremor. They said the next blast could threaten life and property in the remote area near the volcano.
Complete Coverage Of Mount St. Helens from KIRO TV .

The image below is updated every 5 minutes:


A static image (updated every five minutes) of Mount St. Helens, Washington USA, taken from the Johnston Ridge Observatory. The summit of Mount St. Helens is at an elevation of 2,549 Meters (8,364 feet), at 46.20 N, 122.18 W.  The summit stood at 9,677 feet before the May 18, 1980, eruption. The Observatory and VolcanoCam are located at an elevation of approximately 4,500 feet, about five miles from the volcano. You are looking approximately south-southeast across the North Fork Toutle River Valley. The Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam is brought to you by the Gifford Pinchot National Forest, Vancouver, Washington, and Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument, Amboy, Washington USA.
Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam - Washington State, USA
Source:USDA Forest Service - Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument
U.S. Forest Service VolcanoCam