Why You Can’t Buy Life Insurance At the Airport Anymore

If you’ve lived long enough, chances are you remember when airports had life insurance vending machines from which passengers could purchase last-minute insurance, right before boarding their flights. The machines were first installed by an insurance underwriting company in 1951. At that time, for every quarter you plugged into the machine, you would receive $5,000 worth of life insurance. The maximum you could initially buy was $25,000 for $1.25, but that eventually increased to $75,000. For your investment, you were insured for accidental loss of life, limb, sight, or other injuries on flights. Pilots’ associations lobbied against the machines for years, after a number of insurance frauds were perpetrated, and they feared that selling insurance in this way encouraged the sabotage of flights. They often cited the case of Jack Gilbert Graham, who purchased life insurance at the Denver airport, then bombed United Airlines Flight 629 that his mother was on by putting an explosive device in a wrapped Christmas gift she carried onboard. The bomb killed all 44 people onboard, with Graham expecting to collect $37,000 ($450,000 today) in life insurance. Graham was arrested, tried, convicted and given the death penalty, which was carried out in 1957. In 1968, the life insurance vending machines were discontinued at many airports, and today there are no U.S. airports that still have them.

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Man Reveals Before-and-After Photos After Attending “Fat Camp” For a Month

André Helgesen quit his job as a Systems Technician in Sweden to take a trip to Asia. While most people looking for adventure go places like Thailand, Vietnam or Indonesia, André’s first top was at a “fat camp” in China. Having learned about the Chinese weight-loss camps on social media, the 29-year-old was inspired to embark on a similar journey in an effort to lose weight. The camp — Jianfeidaren in Shenzhen — combines daily exercise, healthy meals, medical checkups, and mental health support. André revealed that the camp tested participants by giving them the opportunity to cheat, offering the same temptations they would be faced with at home. “They laid out the schedule and the meals, but if I wanted to, I could have cheated on everything. It surprised me – realizing that, just like at home, it all comes down to personal responsibility,” said André. Personal trainers completed three intensive daily workouts alongside the participants, instead of simply giving instructions. “They suffer, we suffer,” joked André. The day begins at 7:30 a.m., and all participants have to be in bed by 9:30 p.m. For André, the most difficult aspect of the bootcamp was the fasting schedule. Dinner was served at 5 p.m. and participants didn’t eat again until breakfast at 8 a.m. the following day. All participants were given a goal of 1,300 calories a day. André admitted that he couldn’t stick to the 15-hour fasting period, so sometimes he ate an apple. While he had already gone from 294 pounds to 182 pounds on his own, André lost another 60 pounds in the month he spent at fat camp, bringing his final weight down to 122. “I can finally stop thinking of myself as a big person and just be myself," said André.

 

 

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Aw, Nuts! Uncatchable Squirrel Causes Chaos At Comerica Park

Fans showed up at Comerica Park in Detroit on Monday night for a baseball game, but they stayed for a wild squirrel chase that was……..well…….pretty nutty. It's not exactly uncommon for a black squirrel to appear at the Tigers’ home park, but this bushy-tailed critter wanted to be part of the action. For about a full inning, the squirrel made its odyssey around the park, starting on the warning track where it refused to be corralled through an open fence. The adventure reached another level during the 7th-inning stretch, when the entire grounds crew came pouring onto the field with one very clear objective — catch the squirrel. They chased the bushy sprinter into the right-field corner, where at one point, it ended up jumping into the glove of outfielder Leody Taveras. If you haven’t had a laugh today, check out the video below for a replay of the wild squirrel chase.

 

 

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Rotten Fish Sauce Stinking Up a Small Canadian Town is Finally Being Removed

The residents of St. Mary’s in British Columbia, Canada, can finally breathe a sigh of relief. That’s because they’re finally getting rid of the foul smell of rotten fish that has wafted over their tiny community for years. The culprit is 110 tanks of fermented fish sauce that the Atlantic Seafood Sauce Company abandoned more than 20 years ago. The building was left to deteriorate — windows got broken, the roof blew off, and a January storm knocked out a wall. That sauce, however, kept on fermenting as the bacteria did their job, and when the wind blew just right, the entire town could smell it. Mayor Steve Ryan said the smell is hard to describe, but likened it to “the worst rotted fish you ever smelled in your lifetime, times 100.” Over the next few months, workers will drain the vats of fluid and mix it with peat moss, which will absorb the liquid. Trucks with giant hoses will then suck up the material and transport it to a pit lined with high-density polyethylene used in landfills. At the end, the pit will be covered with topsoil. Ryan said the project has cost the town $1.21 million.

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