Lookout Below

Matthew Marcum was standing in Tillamook Bay in Oregon at the start of a duck-hunting trip when his dog jumped into the boat.  The Labrador named Drake accidentally landed on a 12-gauge shotgun, causing the gun to fire.  The blast blew a hole in the aluminum boat and hit Marcum in the legs and butt.

Marcum is recovering from his injuries at a Portland Hospital.  Marcum and his father Henry have nothing but kind words for the dog.  Henry said Drake is a good dog, and the shooting is “just one of those things.”

Story at FoxNews

via videosift.com

U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey collapsed during a speech at a black-tie dinner for the conservative Federalist Society.  Mukasey was about 15 minutes into his speech on terrorism when he began to slur his words and sway, then he collapsed and slumped over the podium.  Three men in suits rushed the stage and caught Mukasey before he fell to the ground.

The 67-year-old retired federal judge was rushed to George Washington University Hospital.  Mukasey was conscious and alert Friday morning and received a get-well call from President Bush.

To quote the famous Arnold Schwarteneggar line from the movie Kindergarten Cop, “It’s not a tumor!”  No, it’s something even more insidious — a worm in her brain.

Phoenix woman Rosemary Alvarez had been experiencing blurred vision and numbness in her arm.  She went to the emergency room twice and had a cat scan, though everything came up clear.  But when doctors took a closer look at an MRI, they discovered something very disturbing.

“Once we saw the MRI we realized this is something not good,” said neurosurgeon Dr. Peter Nakaji.  “It’s something down in her brain stem which is as deep in the brain as you can be.”  Alvarez went into surgery where Nakaji was expecting to remove a tumor, but they discovered a worm instead.

Doctors believe Alvarez contacted the worm by eating undercooked pork or from someone who didn’t wash their hands after using the bathroom.  “It only takes one person who is spreading it constantly to get a lot of people exposed and some of those people are going to go on to develop this problem,” Nakaji said.  Alvarez said she hopes others learn a lesson from her story:  “Wash your hands.”

More at MyFox Phoenix

A 17-year-old Utah high school student died Saturday after firing a prop gun at his own head while rehearsing for a play.  Authorities say the boy, whose name has not been released, died from head injuries.  The pistol was found in the student’s hands.  There were no bullets in the gun, but the gas it fires to create the gunshot sound has the same energy at close range as a bullet.

The boy was alone in the sound booth when the cast of the play “Oklahoma!” heard a gunshot.  “All I heard was screaming, and someone saying call 911,” a witness said.  Most people inside the theater were crying when police arrived.

The incident echoes the tragic death of actor Brandon Lee, son of famous martial artist and actor Bruce Lee.  Brandon died on set while filming the movie “The Crow.”  A stage prop gun had one real cartridge loaded because of an unnoticed malfunction.  When the gun was fired at Brandon as part of the movie, the bullet hit and killed Lee.

More at FoxNews

A group of zebras attempted to cross the Mara river in the Masai Mara game reserve in Kenya.  Suddenly a crocodile leapt from the water, biting the zebra’s head.  The zebra managed to shake off the brutal attack and head toward the shore, but two more crocs blocked its escape.  Eventually all three predators took down the zebra and enjoyed their catch on shore.

The Masai Mara is one of the most popular reserves in Africa.  The Mara river is notorious for its crocodile infestation, and animals struggling in the current are easy prey for lurking predators.  Each spring more than a million wildebeest and zebras migrate between Tanzania’s Serengeti and Kenya’s Masai Mara, and thousands of the migrating animals die in the process.

More amazing photos at DailyMail

In a sad demonstration of cosmic irony, a North Carolina teenager who studied teen highway deaths as a high school project is dead after a car crash.  Shannon Nicole Adkins, 18, graduated last spring.  Her senior project was a report about the risks young drivers face on rural roads.

Adkins was driving a pickup truck when another pickup crossed the center line and struck Adkins head-on.  The other driver, a 29-year-old woman, was hospitalized in fair condition and charged with driving while impaired.  Adkins was the 27th Johnston County, NC teen to die in a car wreck since 2006 and the second in a week.

A grieving widow in Brazil was killed by her husband’s casket while she was on her way to bury him.  Another vehicle hit the hearse in which 67-year-old Marciana Silva Barcelos was traveling while en route to the cemetery.  The vehicle hit the hearse from behind, causing the casket to slam into Barcelos’ head, killing her instantly.  Her husband, Jose Silveira Coimbra, 76, had died of a heart attack the night before while at a dance.

A Delta baggage worker got quite a fright on Halloween when she opened a jet’s cargo door and found a cheetah running loose around the luggage.  Two cheetahs were being flown from Portland to Atlanta in the cargo area of a Boeing 757 passenger jet.  One cheetah escaped from its cage sometime during the flight.

Although the passengers’ luggage was delayed while animal control experts rushed to the scene, the escaped cheetah didn’t damage any of their luggage.  Delta sought help from Zoo Atlanta.  Officials closed the airport hangar, tranquilized the escaped cheetah, and transferred both animals to the zoo.

Too bad Samuel L. Jackson was not on board to help subdue the animals.