Unusual and Strange USB Drives

Are you a little bored of your regular old, dime a dozen, USB drive? In our latest edition of our Cool and Unusual series we take a look at some USB drives that are not so regular at all.

Mix it up with one of these USB drives. Check out our collection of cool and unusual USB drives below.

The Lighter and USB Drive

You are looking at the 4GB USB stick that hides your data inside a fully functional flip-top lighter.

The Accordian Like FLX USB Drive

The FLX USB drive has an “accordion-like sheath covering it that pushes back to reveal the plug when you shove it into the USB port, and snaps back when you pull it out.”

Mixtape USB Drive

These cassette Mixtapes actually have a USB drive in them. Don’t act like you don’t remember the cassette.

Steampunk USB Drive

The USB drive steampunk style. The pictures say it all. [ Source ]

Domino USB Drive

Each dot on these domino USB drives indicates 1GB of memory used.

Tasty USB Drives from Brando

These USB drives by Brando are available in your choice of strawberry, pizza, burger, biscuits, chicken wing, chicken drum stick and more.

The Self Destructing USB Drive

This drive automatically encrypts the data stored on it. The IronKey USB drive has a “self-destruct sequence that securely and permanently erases your encryption keys and data.”

The USB Bowling Ball Drive

This custom USB drive was made to protect from accidentally putting it in the washing machine. This one definitely goes under unusual.

USB Drive in a Card

This USB drive in a card is small enough to fit in your wallet can hold up to 4GB of data.

Kronos USB Watch

This analog watch has a USB drive in the wristband. That means more free space in your pocket.

The Sawed Off USB Drive

This USB drive makes it look like a USB cable got ripped short while it was still plugged into your computer.

The USB Cork

These cork style USB drives are hand made so that each one is unique. They have life in luxury inscribed on them.

The Scented Fragrance USB Stick

These scented Fruit-A-Roma USB drives come in 4 different scents: grape, green apple, orange and strawberry.

Memory Infinite Linkable USB Drives

This USB drive has a female connector on one end and a male connector on the other allowing you to infinitely stack them together.

Wooden USB Drives

These nature themed USB sticks are made from real branches that are hand picked and made into unique USB drives.

Lego USB Drive

This USB drive will blend in with a pile of Legos. Plus their is the nostalgic feeling some people have when they get to play with Legos again.

The Ducati USB Drive

This SanDisk Ducati USB drive looks fast standing still. It also features a 20MB/sec transfer rate.

The USB Thumb, Thumb Drive

The picture explains it all for this USB ‘thumb’ drive.

USB Drive With A Memory Usage Meter

This USB drive by Lexar has a meter to let you know how much memory is used up on the drive. They are available in up to 2GB. [ Source 

Military Grade IronDrive USB Drive

The IronDrive is the ideal military grade USB drive “tested for high temperature, shock, vibration, caustic agents, submersion, EMI, and nuclear stresses.”

007 Bike Lock USB Drive

The 007 USB Flash Drive uses a lock similar to a bike lock in which the USB drive can be placed. It also has digital encryption for added security. The lock can be securely attached to a desk or large object.

Savage Streets (1984)

Savage Streets is a 1984 American Vigilante-action film starring Linda Blair. Directed by Danny Steinmann, the film premiered on October 5, 1984.

Plot

Brenda, Francine and Heather are out one evening, along with two other friends, Maria and Stella. Unable to hear her surroundings, Heather innocently wanders into the path of a 1957 Chevy Bel-Air convertible, which sees her but doesn't slow down. Brenda pulls her sister out of the way before she's hit by the vehicle.

The car stops, and its occupants are no stranger to Brenda. They're "The Scars", a gang of mid-level dope dealers that employ a number of street level hustlers to sell their product. Behind the wheel is Fargo (Sal Landi), leader Jake (Robert Dryer) is in the passenger seat, Red is in the back seat, and Vince, the gang's meek and weak-willed "pet" sits next to Red.

Rather than get an apology, Brenda instead gets propositioned for sex and drugs by Jake, which she flatly refuses. The gang takes off. Brenda and her friends then happen upon the Scars' empty vehicle parked in an alley while the gang is delivering a collection beating to Fadden (one of their pushers and a classmate of Vince's). The girls jump in the car and take off, shouting obscenities to the gang as they drive off. The gang tries to catch the car on foot, but their efforts are in vain. They later find the car in a nearby alley with garbage strewn inside.

The gang arrives at Vince's school to deliver another beating to Fadden, and while there, Red spots Heather among the crowd and suggests to Jake getting revenge for the car-trashing incident. Though Jake tells Red to shut up, he doesn't nix the idea.

As Heather is waiting in the gym for Brenda to take her home, Red sneaks into the gym. He talks to Heather and manages to gain her trust in a rather short period of time. He then tries to forcibly kiss her. She breaks away from him and tries to flee, but the other gang members have all the gym entrances covered. They drag the helpless girl to one of the locker rooms where they take turns at raping her.

Jake yanks Vince's pants down and has him go first, as a "first-time" gift. The other gang members follow. Jake, not wanting to take any chances with the local police, then kicks Heather in the side of the head. The unresponsive and bloodied girl is then left in the locker room.

Brenda returns from one of her routine Principal's office visits to the gym to collect her sister, and finds her gone. The girls spread out to search for her, and a hysterical Maria charges into the gym from the locker rooms screaming for Brenda, having made the grisly discovery.

Heather is rushed to the hospital, where she is listed in critical condition. Brenda, frustrated at the slow pace of the investigation, goes out to a bar with her friends, where she confides her fears of losing Heather to a bartending friend, Charlene. Also at the same bar are The Scars, who are collecting again from Fadden. While there, the Scars are also trying to find Vince another "date" for the evening, by pulling over any woman within reach towards their table. One of them happens to be Francine. As they continue to pass her around their table, two men witnessing the scene go to the table and tell Jake and his gang to leave her alone. A fight breaks out between the men and the Scars, and while Jake is delivering a beating to one, Francine sticks Jake in the back with a switchblade. Jake gets up and lunges towards Francine, but she is out of reach by this time.

The Scars show up at Vince's school not long after the melee in the bar. Vince tells Jake that Heather's rape is all over the school. Jake tells Vince to forget about it, but he wants to know how to find Francine. Vince gives Jake the information after extracting a promise that he won't hurt her, but simply scare her. They confront Francine on a bridge as she's walking home from a dress shop carrying her new bridal gown for her upcoming wedding to her boyfriend Richie. Francine spits in Jake's face, and he lifts her up over his head and throws her off the bridge railing and to her death. Unable to confront his conscience any longer, a hysterical Vince runs from the gang, expressing his hatred of Jake and the rest of them. He runs to Heather's hospital bedside and tries to apologize to the comatose girl for his actions, but Brenda runs him off.

Brenda, knowing that Francine is missing, fears the worst and decides it's time to take action. Dressing in a leather suit and armed with a switchblade, bear traps and crossbow, she takes off from her home. In the meantime, her mother gets the call telling them that Francine is dead. Her mother tries to stop her, but Brenda is long gone.

Brenda's first stop is at Vince's house, where she tricks her way inside by telling his father that she needs his help for a homework assignment. She makes her way to his bedroom, where she sees him packing to run. At knifepoint, Vince tells Brenda that Francine is dead and that he couldn't do anything to stop it. She spares Vince' life after he tells her where to find the gang.

Knowing that his fate is doomed if he doesn't run, Vince goes to work and gets a loan from his boss, telling her he'll be back after things cool down. What Vince doesn't know is that Jake is parked in the alley with his headlights dimmed, waiting for Vince. Jake speeds towards him, knocking him in the air and onto the pavement, presumably dead.

Meanwhile, Brenda is waiting for Fargo and Red as they return to their "home" in a warehouse. She confronts them and coerces them inside, despite Red's sense that something's wrong if she's not afraid of them. Fargo proceeds ahead with Red behind him. Fargo eventually finds Brenda, and tells her what he's going to do to her once he gets his hands on her. Brenda responds by launching a crossbow arrow into his throat. Moments later, Red finds Fargo's body, and also Brenda waiting for him. Brenda doesn't launch another arrow, as the bear traps take care of Red as he falls upon them.

Jake finally returns to the warehouse, pounding on the door for Fargo and Red to raise it. Not getting a response, he raises the overhead door and sees the two strung-up bodies of his fallen gangmates. Brenda's voice calls off from a distance, telling him he's next. Jake pulls out a pistol and fires it in every direction, hoping one of the bullets will hit her. Brenda responds by launching an arrow into both of his thighs.

Jake stumbles towards the warehouse gate, but Brenda has a snare trap in wait, suspending him upside down by his ankles. After stringing him up, she tells him his death is not going to be quick. Jake manages to distract her long enough to grab the gate's door and pull it towards her, knocking her in the head and to the ground. He manages to free himself and climb on top of her, but she frees herself and escapes to another warehouse full of paints and solvents. Armed with a can of the solvent, she manages to squirt Jake with the can's contents as he tries to strangle her. She pulls a cigarette lighter out and sets him on fire just as she's ready to pass out.

A screaming Jake, now on fire, flees the warehouse and stumbles into the parking lot, presumably dead, as police arrive on the scene. Brenda and her friends, including a fully-recovered Heather, go to Francine's gravesite. Though according to the girls, Brenda "made things right", her actions still did not bring back Francine. The film's ending also leans toward the fact Brenda was caught by the Police at the end of her vigilante-killings and therefore faced an upcoming prosecution.

Cast

Linda Blair as Brenda
John Vernon as Underwood
Linnea Quigley as Heather
Robert Dryer as Jake
Johnny Venocur as Vince
Sal Landi as Fargo
Scott Mayer as Red
Debra Blee as Rachel
Lisa Freeman as Francine
Marcia Karr as Stevie
Luisa Leschin as Maria


Reviews

Freddie Young of Full Moon Reviews said "Savage Streets is a film I had never seen before until now and I'm really ashamed by that because it rocked my socks off. Obviously a Death Wish ripoff, Savage Streets is perfect 80s exploitation, with nudity, over-the-top acting and dialogue, and plot elements that aren't subtle and are quite disturbing on paper."[1]

The Vocabulariast of MovieCynics.com said "the film is pretty damn bad in several areas. But for those that like to seek out terribly cheesy flicks that are just so damn bad that you can’t help but love them, Savage Streets is just the thing to cure your jones for classic ‘80s garbage."[2]

Ned Daigle of BMN Review disliked the film and said "Everything about "Savage Streets" is bad, from the acting, to the screenplay, to the direction, to even the horrid music score and songs performed by John Farnham who sounds like the unholy lovechild of Loverboy and Foreigner.

Deplorable is the only word I can come up with as a description. See "Savage Streets" at your own risk."[3]

Awards

Razzie Awards

1986 - Linda Blair (Nominated)- Worst Actress

Saturn Award

1985 - Linda Blair (Nominated) - Best Actress
1985 - Linnea Quigley (Nominated) - Best Supporting Actress
1985 - Danny Steinmann, Norman Yonemoto (Nominated) - Best Screenplay

Soundtrack

The soundtrack featuring the theme song "Justice For One" was never officially released to the American public but may be found on rare LP demos as well as on copied CDs. The reason for the "non-release" was a marketing one at the time. Some copies of Savage Streets LP Records complete with Linda Blair as the main character "Brenda" on the cover, have made it onto online auctions but they were stamped with "demo only" on them.

Home media release

On September 23, 2008 "Savage Streets" was released in a 2-disc set "Special Edition" by Bryanston Distributors / Motion Picture Marketing in association with BCI Eclipse / Navarre Corporation with Special Features produced by Red Shirt Productions and Code Red.

Trivia

For this film, Linda Blair learned how to fire a gun and drive a car.
Cherie Currie was originally cast as Brenda.
Brinke Stevens auditioned for the role of Heather, alongside good friend Linnea Quigley, who ended up getting the role instead. Brinke actually drove Linnea to the audition.
Linnea Quigley, who plays little sister Heather, is actually a year older than Linda Blair who plays older sister, Brenda.
Director Danny Steinmann asked Jodie Foster to star in this film, but she declined because the film had "too much nudity and sexual content".
Dana Plato auditioned for the role of Heather.
The role of Brenda was offered to several actresses including Daryl Hannah, Kim Cattrall, Bo Derek, Tatum O'Neal, Michelle Pfeiffer, Melanie Griffith, Dominique Dunne, Kristy McNichol, Jennifer Cooke, Brooke Shields, Kirsten Baker and Diane Lane. All of them turned it down due to the graphic sex and nudity.
Billy Idol was considered for the role of one of the rapist.
Jamie Lee Curtis was replaced by Linda Blair.
The song playing during the opening credits "Nothings Gonna Stand in Our Way" by John Farnham is covered by the group Spectre General on the soundtrack to Transformers: The Movie (1986)

References

1.^ http://www.fullmoonreviews.net/2009/08/savage-streets-1984.html?zx=6fe98310c8eaa41
2.^ http://www.moviecynics.com/savage-streets-1984-new-dvd-movie-reviews/
3.^ http://www.hit-n-run.com/cgi/read_review.cgi?review=40312_wyldfyr

Kidnapped Girls Agency (1983)

Kidnapped Girls Agency (1983)

Director: Ric Meyers
Writer: Ric Meyers

Tagline:

Because Strange Times Call for Strange Heroes

Cast

Ric Meyers ... Andy Baltimore
Michelle Bauer ... Tracey Tailor (as Kim Bittner)
Linnea Quigley ... Cathy Messenger (as Jessie Dalton)
Tuesday Bleu ... Tina
David Williams ... Brett
Crystal Breeze ... Vera (as Barbara Blade)
Joseph Romero ... Mr. Murphy
Simone Devon ... Ms. Janssen

Top 10 world's most expensive single objects

Here is the list of top 10 most expensive objects according to Wikipedia.It shows what some of the worlds richest countries spend their billions on and It is for the sole purpose of identifying expensive artificial objects and the respective economic costs involved in building them.note that The figures below represent the estimated cost to build these objects, not taking into account inflation.

International Space Station

Country : Canada, European Space Agency, Japan, Russia and United States

Total cost : 157 billion

The International Space Station (ISS) is an internationally developed research facilitythat is being assembled in low Earth orbit. On-orbit construction of the station began in 1998 and is scheduled for completion by 2011.The ISS serves as a research laboratory that has a microgravity environment in which crews conduct experiments in biology, human biology, physics, astronomy and meteorology.Link

Itaipu Dam

Country :  Brazil and Paraguay

Total Cost : 27 billion

The Itaipú hydroelectric power plant is the largest development of its kind in operation in the world.Located at the Brazilian-Paraguaian border and not far from the Argentinian border.In 2000, the power plant generated 93,428 GWh (gigawatthours) of electricity, a word record for hydroelectricity generation.The Itaipu dam is 7,919 meters long (counting the Hernandarias dike) with a maximum height of 196 meters, equivalent to a 65-story building. It consumed 12.3 million cubic meters of concrete, while the iron and steel employed would permit the construction of 380 Eiffel Towers.(Link)

Three Gorges Dam

is a hydroelectric river dam that spans theYangtze River in the town of Sandouping, located in the Yiling District of Yichang, at theHubei province, China. It is the world's largest electricity-generating plant of any kind.

Country :  China

Total Cost : 25 billion

From completion until September 2009 the dam has generated 348.4 TWh of electricity, covering more than one third of its project cost.The Three Gorges Dam is the world’s largest hydroelectric power station by total capacity, which will be 22,500 MW. It will have 34 generators: 32 will be main generators, each with a capacity of 700 MW, and the other two will be plant power generators, each with capacity of 50 MW.Link

James Bay Project

Country :  Canada

Total Cost : 13.8 billion

James Bay Project, a monumental hydroelectric-power development on the east coast of James Bay was initiated in 1971 and is still incomplete. The $13.7-billion project entailed massive diversions of water from the Eastman, Opinaca and Caniapiscau (KOKSOAK) rivers to dammed reservoirs on LA GRANDE RIVIÈRE.If fully expanded to include all of the original planned dams, as well as the additional "James Bay II" projects, the system would generate a total of 27,000 MW, making it the largest hydroelectric system in the world.

Gerald R. Ford class aircraft carrier

Advance construction of the CVN-21 project began on August 11, 2005 with the beveling of a 15-ton metal plate at Northrop Grumman Newport News' shipyards in Virginia. This metal plate will eventually be used in the construction of CVN-78. Advance construction will take an estimated two years before construction can begin on the actual ship herself.The keel of the first unit (CVN-78) was laid on 14 November 2009 and delivery to the Navy is scheduled for 2015.

Country :  United States

Total Cost : 8.1 billion

Trans-Alaska Pipeline System

Country :  United States

Total Cost : 8 billion

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), includes the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, 11 pump stations, several hundred miles of feeder pipelines, and the Valdez Marine Terminal. It is commonly called the Alaska Pipeline, Trans-Alaska Pipeline, Alyeska Pipeline or The Pipeline (in Alaska), but those terms technically apply only to the 800.302 miles (1,287.961 km) of 48-inch (122 cm) pipe that convey oil from Prudhoe Bay, to Valdez, Alaska, privately owned by the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.Link

Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant

Country :  Finland

Total Cost : 7.1 billion

The Olkiluoto Nuclear Power Plant  is on Olkiluoto Island, which is on the shore of the Gulf of Bothnia in the municipality of Eurajoki in western Finland. It is one of Finland's two nuclear power plants, the other being the two-unit VVERLoviisa Nuclear Power Plant.

ITER

Cut-away of a model of the ITER Vacuum Vessel showing part of the 440 Blanket modules attached to the inner wall and the Divertor cassettes at the bottom

Country :  China, European Union, India, Japan, Russia, South Korea, United States

Total Cost : 6.5 billion

ITER (originally the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) is an international tokamak (magnetic confinement fusion) research/engineering project that could help to make the transition from today's studies of plasma physics to future electricity-producing fusion power plants.

New Bay Bridge

Work is ongoing on the eastern span replacement of the San Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge. The new eastern span is currently scheduled to open to traffic in 2013.The originalSan Francisco–Oakland Bay Bridge, built in 1936, became the subject of concern after a section collapsed during the Loma Prieta earthquake on October 17, 1989.

Country :  United States

Total Cost : 6.3 billion

construction began on a replacement for the cantilever portion of the bridge on January 29, 2002, with completion originally slated for 2007. The new eastern "signature" span was to feature a pair of side-by-side, five-lane concrete viaducts linking to a single-towered, self-supporting suspension span between the viaducts. If completed, this will become the largest bridge of this type. The approach viaducts from the eastern shore are currently being constructed just north of and parallel to the existing span. The grade of the new approach to the channel span is somewhat less than that of the present structure.

Large Hadron Collider

CERN

Cost : 6.3 billion

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is a gigantic scientific instrument near Geneva, where it spans the border between Switzerland and France about 100 m underground. It is a particle accelerator used by physicists to study the smallest known particles – the fundamental building blocks of all things. It will revolutionise our understanding, from the minuscule world deep within atoms to the vastness of the Universe.

Top Ten Environmental Disasters

As the Gulf of Mexico oil spill shows much interest for everyone, its time to take a look back at history's greatest environmental tragedies.

Chernobyl

The worst nuclear power plant disaster in history. On April 26, 1986, one of the reactors at the Chernobyl power plant in the Ukraine exploded, resulting in a nuclear meltdown that sent massive amounts of radiation into the atmosphere, reportedly more than the fallout from Hiroshima and Nagasaki. That radiation drifted westward, across what was then Soviet Russia, towards Europe. Since then, thousands of kids have been diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and an almost 20-mile area around the plant remains off limits. Reactor #4 has been sealed off in a large, concrete sarcophagus, which is slowly deteriorating. While the rest of the plant ceased operation in 2000, almost 4,000 workers still report there for various assignments.(Link)

Bhopal

Around midnight on Dec. 2, 1984, an accident at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in Bhopal, India resulted in 45 tons of poisonous methyl isocyanate escaping from the facility. Thousands died within hours. More followed over the subsequent months, about 15,000 in all. In total, about half a million people were affected in some way. Those that survived suffered blindness, organ failure, and other awful bodily malfunctions. A shockingly high number of children in the area have been born with all manner of birth defects. In 1989, Union Carbide paid out about half a billion dollars to victims, an amount the afflicted say is not nearly enough to deal with the decades-long consequences. Bhopal remains the worst industrial disaster ever.(link)

Kuwaiti Oil Fires

Saddam Hussein knew the war was over. He could not have Kuwait, so he wasn't about to let anyone else benefit from its riches. As the 1991 Persian Gulf War drew to a close, Hussein sent men to blow up Kuwaiti oil wells. Approximately 600 were set ablaze, and the fires — literally towering infernos — burned for seven months. The Gulf was awash in poisonous smoke, soot, and ash. Black rain fell. Lakes of oil were created. As NASA wrote, "The sand and gravel on the land's surface combined with oil and soot to form a layer of hardened "tarcrete" over almost 5 percent of the country's area." Scores of livestock and other animals died from the oily mist, their lungs blackened by the liquid.(Link)

Love Canal

In 1978, Love Canal, located near Niagara Falls in upstate New York, was a nice little working-class enclave with hundreds of houses and a school. It just happened to sit atop 21,000 tons of toxic industrial waste, which had been buried underground in the 1940's and 50's by a local company. Over the years, the waste had begun to bubble up into backyards and cellars. By 1978, the problem was unavoidable, and hundreds of families sold their houses to the federal government and evacuated the area. The disaster led to the formation in 1980 of the Superfund program, which helps pay for the cleanup of toxic sites.(Link)

The Exxon Valdez

On the night of March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez oil tanker ran aground on Bligh Reef in the pristine waters of Alaska's Prince William Sound. The first of what would turn out to be 10.8 million gallons of oil began to spew forth into the cold waters. It would eventually spread almost 500 miles from the original crash site and stain thousands of miles of coastline. Hundreds upon thousands of birds, fish, seals, otters, and other animals would perish as a result, despite the mobilization of more than 11,000 people and 1,000 boats as part of the clean-up. While the Exxon Valdez disaster is considered to be the largest man-made environmental disaster in U.S. history, the Gulf of Mexico spill may eventually surpass it in severity. (Link)

Tokaimura Nuclear Plant

On September 30, 1999, Japan's worst nuclear accident happened in a facility northeast of Tokyo. Three workers at a uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, then the center of Japanese nuclear power industry, improperly mixed a uranium solution. A blue flash heralded the trouble. As TIME wrote, "One [worker] was knocked unconscious. Within minutes, the others were nauseated, and their hands and faces were burned bright crimson." Two ended up dying, and hundreds more were exposed to various levels of radiation. (Link)

The Aral Sea

In early April, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon traveled to Central Asia, where he lay eyes upon a "graveyard of ships" — rusting fishing trawlers and other vessels stranded in a desert that stretched for miles in all directions. It was the Aral Sea...or what used to be the Aral Sea. Situated between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan, the Aral was once the fourth-largest lake on Earth, as big as Ireland. Since the 1960's however, when Soviet irrigation projects diverted several of its source waterways, the Aral has shrunk by 90%. What was once a vibrant, fish-stocked lake is now a massive desert that produces salt and sand storms that kill plant life and have negative effects on human and animal health for hundreds of miles around. Scores of large boats sit tilted in the sand — a tableau both sad and surreal.(Link)

Seveso Dioxin Cloud

On July 10, 1976, an explosion at a northern Italian chemical plant released a thick, white cloud of dioxin that quickly settled down on the town of Seveso, north of Milan. First, the animals began to die. As TIME wrote about a month after the incident, "One farmer saw his cat keel over, and when he went to pick up the body, the tail fell off. When authorities dug the cat up for examination two days later, said the farmer, all that was left was its skull." It was four days before people began to feel ill effects — including "nausea, blurred vision and, especially among children, the disfiguring sores of a skin disease known as chloracne" — and weeks before the town itself was evacuated. Residents eventually returned to the town, and today a large park sits above two giant tanks that hold the remains of hundreds of slaughtered animals, the destroyed factory, and the soil that received the largest doses of dioxin. (Link)

Minamata Disease

For years, residents of Minamata, a town located on Kyushu (Japan's most southwesterly island), had observed odd behavior among animals, particularly household cats. The felines would suddenly convulse and sometimes leap into the sea to their deaths — townspeople referred to the behavior as "cat dancing disease." In 1956, the first human patient of what soon became known as Minamata disease was identified. Symptoms included convulsions, slurred speech, loss of motor functions, and uncontrollable limb movements. Three years later, an investigation concluded that the affliction was a result of industrial poisoning of Minamata Bay by the Chisso Corporation, which had long been one of the port town's biggest employers. As a result of waste water pollution by the plastic manufacturer, large amounts of mercury and other heavy metals found their way into the fish and shellfish that comprised a large part of the local diet. Over the decades, thousands of residents have slowly suffered and died from the disease. It has taken as long for some to receive their due compensation from the corporation. (Link)

Three Mile Island

"Nuclear Nightmare" screamed the April 9, 1979 cover of TIME Magazine. On March 28, the Three Mile Island nuclear reactor near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania partially melted down. Coming two weeks after the release of the Jane Fonda film The China Syndrome, Three Mile Island became the natural outlet for fears about the nuclear power industry. The ironic thing is, that while it has become known as one of America's worst nuclear incidents, nothing much really happened. No one died and the facility itself is still going strong. While the near meltdown is often cited as the reason that a new nuclear plant has not been built in America in the past thirty years, the industry had begun to slow down construction before Three Mile Island ever happened. (Link)

Source : http://www.time.com

Graduation Day (1981)

Graduation Day is a horror film that was released in 1981.

Plot

It's just weeks before high school graduation and members of the track team (Paula, Sally, Ralph, Tony, Dolores and Pete) are being mysteriously and gruesomely murdered, one by one. When the team's star runner, Laura Ramstead, falls dead at the championship meet, her U.S. Navy ensign sister Anne comes to town and a series of grisly murders begin. Is Anne responsible? Or is it coach Michaels, who has been fired because of Laura's death? Perhaps it is the campus policeman who is disliked because of his over-zealous drug investigations. Or is it Laura's boyfriend, Kevin, who cannot reconcile himself to Laura's death?

Cast

Actor - Role

Christopher George - Coach George Michaels
Patch Mackenzie - Anne Ramstead
E.J. Peaker - Blondie
E. Danny Murphy - Kevin Badger
Michael Pataki - Principal Guglione
Richard Balin - Mr. Roberts
Carmen Argenziano - Insp. Halliday
Virgil Frye - Officer MacGregor
Beverly Dixon - Elaine Ramstead
Hal Bokar - Ronald Corliss
Linnea Quigley - Dolores
Denise Cheshire - Sally
Billy Hufsey - Tony Fisk
Tom Hintnaus - Pete
Carl Rey - Ralph Johnson
Karen Abrott - Joanne
Vanna White - Doris
Felony - Themselves

Box office

The film was apparently a financial success due to its low budget, grossing $23,894,000 in the U.S. against its $250,000 budget.