Latest news with #MarkTwain
CBS News
19 hours ago
- General
- CBS News
Hikers' report of companion's death turns out to be greatly exaggerated
North Elba, N.Y. — Mark Twain is widely thought to have said that reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated, though the quote itself may have been greatly exaggerated. The same can certainly be said about the fate of a hiker in upstate New York. Two hikers in New York's Adirondack Mountains called 911 to report a third member of their party had died, but it turned out they had taken hallucinogenic mushrooms and were mistaken, officials said Wednesday. A state forest ranger responded to a call Saturday about a hiker who had reportedly died on Cascade Mountain, a popular summit in the Adirondack High Peaks, the Department of Environmental Conservation said in a news release. The two hikers who called 911 also told a steward on the mountain's summit that they were lost. The steward "determined the hikers were in an altered mental state," according to the agency. The supposedly dead person called and was not injured. The ranger escorted the two hikers down to an ambulance, which took them to a hospital, and brought the third to the group's campsite, where they all later met up, officials said.
CBS News
20 hours ago
- General
- CBS News
Hikers' report of companion's death turn out to be greatly exaggerated
North Elba, N.Y. — Mark Twain is widely thought to have said that reports of his death had been greatly exaggerated, though the quote itself may have been greatly exaggerated. The same can certainly be said about the fate of a hiker in upstate New York. Two hikers in New York's Adirondack Mountains called 911 to report a third member of their party had died, but it turned out they had taken hallucinogenic mushrooms and were mistaken, officials said Wednesday. A state forest ranger responded to a call Saturday about a hiker who had reportedly died on Cascade Mountain, a popular summit in the Adirondack High Peaks, the Department of Environmental Conservation said in a news release. The two hikers who called 911 also told a steward on the mountain's summit that they were lost. The steward "determined the hikers were in an altered mental state," according to the agency. The supposedly dead person called and was not injured. The ranger escorted the two hikers down to an ambulance, which took them to a hospital, and brought the third to the group's campsite, where they all later met up, officials said.
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
From Kargil to Operation Sindoor, India has scored its point — without escalation
'History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme.' — Mark Twain No two operations are fought under similar circumstances, or fought alike. There would be many differences: the Geopolitical environment, the will of the leadership in power and new weapons and equipment, which give rise to new tactics, strategies and doctrines. India and Pakistan tested nuclear weapons in May 1998. The 'nuclear haves' of the world condemned it and called us 'irresponsible', 'rogue' nations. On February 21, 1999, the prime ministers of India and Pakistan signed the Lahore Declaration. They committed to 'peaceful co-existence', 'responsibility to avoid conflict keeping in view the nuclear dimension', and to 'refrain from intervention and interference in each other's internal affairs'. Three months later, even before new nuclear doctrines were evolved, Pakistan violated the LoC to occupy the heights in the Dras-Kargil-Siachen sectors. The Pakistan army used the 'jihadi façade', not its 'sponsored proxies'. Our intelligence and surveillance systems failed to detect the intrusion, which added to the political and military surprise. In Operation Vijay, the political mandate to the armed forces was to throw the enemy out of our territory, but not to cross the LoC or international border, primarily due to nuclear fears and international disapproval. In Operation Vijay, the armed forces were poorly equipped. There was no Chief of Defence Staff, nor any integrated systems like the Integrated Air Defence Command and Control System, which exist today. However, at the operational level, the Army, Navy and Air Force did manage to coordinate their activities. But when the armed forces were on top of the conflict situation, India's political leadership decided to accept Pakistan's offer of a ceasefire. Soon after Operation Vijay, I was invited to address a seminar organised by the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses. I made the following points. One, due to the nuclear factor, economic considerations, risk of high casualties and international pressure, there is a greater likelihood of limited conventional wars in the future. A limited conventional war would be limited in time, geographical area, utilisation of force levels or weaponry. There is space available below the nuclear threshold for such wars. Two, surprise and unpredictability are basic elements of a war. A limited conventional war does not mean limited capabilities. It refers to the use of those capabilities. Three, a war can be kept limited with credible deterrence. There is a linkage between credible deterrence, escalation dominance and escalation control. Four, in any future conflict, a synergised politico-military-diplomatic approach is essential for monitoring and continuous assessment. Ever since the Kargil War, there has been much discussion on the nature of conflicts below the nuclear and conventional war threshold. A new term, grey-zone warfare, has emerged — it is described as a form of conflict that operates below the threshold of traditional warfare, utilising a combination of military and non-military tools, including state-sponsored proxies, to achieve strategic objectives without triggering an open war. It is characterised by ambiguity, deniability, and the use of unconventional tactics like cyberattacks, economic coercion, and disinformation campaigns. Briefly, the key characteristics of grey-zone warfare are: One, aggressors employ non-military or less kinetic tools which may not justify a military response; two, actions may take years, thus reducing opportunities for decisive counter-responses; three, the aggressor evades accountability, making it difficult to pinpoint responsibility and formulate responses. In the past 25 years, Pakistan has avoided a conventional or limited conventional war. But it has continued to use its sponsored proxies (like the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed) as an instrument of state policy. After the terror attack on Uri Camp in 2016, the Indian leadership, with superior kinetic capability at its disposal, dropped strategic restraint. The Army carried out a shallow 'surgical strike' across the LoC. In 2019, after the horrific incident in Pulwama, India took yet another step forward. The Air Force struck Jaish's training camp at Balakot deep inside Pakistan. As the targets were terrorist camps, these responses, although provocative, were pitched as non-escalatory. The Pahalgam attack of April 22 hurt the very soul of India. It was impossible for the Indian government not to respond. In addition to several non-military steps, Operation Sindoor, with strong political resolve and the latest defence capabilities, was launched on May 7 to destroy nine terror camps across Pakistan. India made it known that this was a measured, non-escalatory response. When Pakistan escalated the situation and targeted India's civil and military installations, Indian forces neutralised the Pakistani offensive and took the next step in escalation dominance. Eleven military installations utilised for escalation by Pakistan were destroyed with precision. And then Pakistan called for a ceasefire. It would be foolhardy to ignore the spectre of a nuclear war in the Subcontinent and assume that the nuclear factor plays no role in limited conventional or grey-zone operations. Nuclear weapons remain a significant escalatory cap that demands close monitoring of the escalatory ladder. The soldiers in us may not appreciate having to give up the opportunity to exploit and strike further when the forces are in an advantageous position. But responsible political leadership, understandably, is less prone to take a nuclear risk. Another problem here is Pakistan's nuclear bogey and attempt to blackmail. It makes the international community sit up and intervene. During Operation Vijay, US President Bill Clinton used the nuclear factor to arm-twist Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Sharif succumbed. Vajpayee did not. During Operation Sindoor, US Vice President J D Vance warned Prime Minister Narendra Modi about Pakistan's preparation for escalation. In both situations, India kept its cool, controlled escalation diplomatically and militarily, and achieved its political goal. Lesson: Escalation control requires a confident understanding of the adversary's escalation thresholds. The writer is a former Chief of Army Staff
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
17 Historical Figures Who Had Some Of The Most Brutal Deaths In History
Warning: This post discusses intense violence. They say history is always written from the perspective of the victor, even though those who have been defeated in gruesome deaths find themselves immortalized in some capacity. Their endings aren't pretty by any means, though they're remembered more vividly than those who've left this world on a less disastrous note. Recently, I did a deep dive on r/AskReddit where, in one post, someone asked users to name the "famous historical figures [who] had deaths proportionally brutal to their level of fame." Here's what people had to say: Note: Some responses have been condensed and edited for clarity. 1."Ulysses S. Grant, but it was still a noble death." "After losing all his money to a Ponzi scheme, he defied a throat cancer diagnosis in order to write his memoirs (published by Mark Twain) so that the proceeds would sustain his wife after his death. He wrote one thousand words a day, every day, until the cancer left him too weak to write. At this point, he hired a stenographer and dictated the final chapters through the pain of advanced throat cancer, for which he was denied morphine to keep his mind sharp. At the end, he was forced to wear a wool scarf for all public appearances to hide the fist-sized tumor in front of his neck. After a year's work and 366,000 words written, he gave the manuscript to Mark Twain to publish and was told that 100,000 copies had been pre-ordered. One week later, he succumbed to cancer. Julia Grant and their children received the modern equivalent of 12 million dollars. The work was such a commercial success, it outsold Twain's other work, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." –u/maejaws 2."Julius Caesar's death is pretty wild. Stabbed to death on the Senate floor by people he thought were his political allies and personal friends." –u/JackC1126 3."Blackbeard the Pirate (Edward Teach). Cornered by the British Navy, he went down fighting. When his body was examined, he had been shot five times and had 20 sword cuts. The British sailors fired another 20 shots into his body and cut off his head to be displayed as a warning to other would-be pirates." –u/Johhnymaddog316 4."Sigurd the Mighty. A Norwegian Jarl of Shetland who conquered part of Northern Scotland." "At one point, he challenged Máel Brigte the Buck-Toothed, a local leader, to a battle with 40 men to each side. Dishonorably, he brought 80 men to the battle instead of 40 and, as you might imagine, easily won. Máel Brigte was beheaded, and Sigurd rode home victorious with the head strapped to his saddle. That victory proved to be his last, however, as Máel Brigte the Buck-Toothed proved that his nickname was well earned. As Sigurd rode, the teeth of the severed head rubbed up against his leg, causing an open sore which became infected, leading to the death of Sigurd the Mighty." –u/Paige_Railstone 5."Charles of Navarre (Charles the Bad) died a quite terrible death. At 54 years old (1387), he fell seriously ill, and on the doctor's advice, they wrapped him in linen soaked in brandy. Because, you know, medieval medicine. Unfortunately, the maid tripped and dropped a candle, which set the brandy ablaze, burning the man alive." –u/MinuteCow8927 6."Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII must have actually loved her at one point, to then turn around and have her not only executed, but then erase her as much as he possibly could afterwards. He felt so betrayed (despite being the betrayer himself), he tried to erase her existence." –u/TrespianRomance 7."Jamestown governor John Ratcliffe, the villain in Disney's Pocahontas. Had his skin peeled off and thrown in a fire in front of him." –u/Pantastic_Studios 8."Joan of Arc, a 19-year-old girl being slowly burned to death by the same church she dedicated her life to, while chanting Christ's name over and over. Only to be named a Saint by that same church centuries later." –u/SemperFun62 9."Qaddafi getting sodomized with a bayonet has to be up there." –u/flightist 10."Robespierre. Shot in the jaw, unable to speak, which is what helped start the Terror in the first place — his words. Taken to the guillotine like so many others." –u/drulaps 11."Roland Freisler died a fittingly brutal death. He was a Nazi judge who oversaw a lot of torture and thousands of death sentences. Differing accounts say that he was killed either when a piece of his courtroom crushed him in an air raid, or when shrapnel hit him and he ran out only to bleed to death on the courthouse steps." –u/petitecrivain 12."Stalin lay on the ground in his office for about 11 hours after having a stroke, dying slowly in pain. The staff were too scared to enter his private office without explicit permission, so they waited until a senior person showed up." –u/unclear_warfare Luther King Jr., as the most visible leader of the Civil Rights Movement, was assassinated in a brutal act of racial violence intended to silence his powerful message. Instead, his death became a rallying cry for the movement and further elevated his status as a global icon of peace and justice." –u/Spice-Fairy04 14."Bonnie and Clyde. Holy shit, that car had a lot of bullet holes in it." –u/PreparedStatement 15."Joseph Smith." "Today, he is best known for founding the Mormon religion, but he had higher ambitions than that. He started a large cult, very similar to what you see today, where he was a godlike leader who had multiple wives and required complete adherence from his followers. But this was the 1830s in the 'Wild West,' where people were distracted with other things, so before time caught up with him, he had developed as a full-on nation-state, with thousands of members, in Western Illinois. For the second time in a 10-year span, Smith amassed a large, heavily armed militia, overthrew the government, destroyed the newspapers, imposed martial law, and declared that he was running for US president, at which point it was assumed he would attempt to take over the entire country, whether he won or lost. Smith was charged with treason and taken to an Illinois prison. Before he could face trial, hundreds of men stormed the jail, shot Smith repeatedly, at which point Smith tried to escape by jumping from the second-story window, which probably killed him, but the mob went outside and beat and repeatedly shot Smith's corpse just to be was a murder trial for some of the mob members who killed Smith, but all the defendants were acquitted, partially due to jury nullification, but also because there were so many people who shot, beat, and took credit for killing him, it was impossible to prove that one person actually did the deed." –u/Many_Collection_8889 16."William the Conqueror died of a massive infection caused by an injury he received from the pommel of his saddle." –u/MartialBob 17."Samuel Doe (21st President of Liberia). He faced 12 hours of torture (which included his ears getting cut off and some of his fingers and toes amputated) before he was finally murdered." If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE, which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here.
Buzz Feed
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
History's Most Gruesome Deaths Revealed
They say history is always written from the perspective of the victor, even though those who have been defeated in gruesome deaths find themselves immortalized in some capacity. Their endings aren't pretty by any means, though they're remembered more vividly than those who've left this world on a less disastrous note. Recently, I did a deep dive on r/AskReddit where, in one post, someone asked users to name the "famous historical figures [who] had deaths proportionally brutal to their level of fame." Here's what people had to say: Note: Some responses have been condensed and edited for clarity. "Ulysses S. Grant, but it was still a noble death." "After losing all his money to a Ponzi scheme, he defied a throat cancer diagnosis in order to write his memoirs (published by Mark Twain) so that the proceeds would sustain his wife after his death. He wrote one thousand words a day, every day, until the cancer left him too weak to write. At this point, he hired a stenographer and dictated the final chapters through the pain of advanced throat cancer, for which he was denied morphine to keep his mind sharp. At the end, he was forced to wear a wool scarf for all public appearances to hide the fist-sized tumor in front of his a year's work and 366,000 words written, he gave the manuscript to Mark Twain to publish and was told that 100,000 copies had been pre-ordered. One week later, he succumbed to cancer. Julia Grant and their children received the modern equivalent of 12 million dollars. The work was such a commercial success, it outsold Twain's other work, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."–u/maejaws "Julius Caesar's death is pretty wild. Stabbed to death on the Senate floor by people he thought were his political allies and personal friends." –u/JackC1126 "Blackbeard the Pirate (Edward Teach). Cornered by the British Navy, he went down fighting. When his body was examined, he had been shot five times and had 20 sword cuts. The British sailors fired another 20 shots into his body and cut off his head to be displayed as a warning to other would-be pirates." –u/Johhnymaddog316 "Sigurd the Mighty. A Norwegian Jarl of Shetland who conquered part of Northern Scotland." "Charles of Navarre (Charles the Bad) died a quite terrible death. At 54 years old (1387), he fell seriously ill, and on the doctor's advice, they wrapped him in linen soaked in brandy. Because, you know, medieval medicine. Unfortunately, the maid tripped and dropped a candle, which set the brandy ablaze, burning the man alive." –u/MinuteCow8927 "Anne Boleyn. Henry VIII must have actually loved her at one point, to then turn around and have her not only executed, but then erase her as much as he possibly could afterwards. He felt so betrayed (despite being the betrayer himself), he tried to erase her existence." –u/TrespianRomance "Jamestown governor John Ratcliffe, the villain in Disney's Pocahontas. Had his skin peeled off and thrown in a fire in front of him." –u/Pantastic_Studios "Joan of Arc, a 19-year-old girl being slowly burned to death by the same church she dedicated her life to, while chanting Christ's name over and over. Only to be named a Saint by that same church centuries later." –u/SemperFun62 "Qaddafi getting sodomized with a bayonet has to be up there." –u/flightist "Robespierre. Shot in the jaw, unable to speak, which is what helped start the Terror in the first place — his words. Taken to the guillotine like so many others." –u/drulaps "Roland Freisler died a fittingly brutal death. He was a Nazi judge who oversaw a lot of torture and thousands of death sentences. Differing accounts say that he was killed either when a piece of his courtroom crushed him in an air raid, or when shrapnel hit him and he ran out only to bleed to death on the courthouse steps." –u/petitecrivain "Stalin lay on the ground in his office for about 11 hours after having a stroke, dying slowly in pain. The staff were too scared to enter his private office without explicit permission, so they waited until a senior person showed up." –u/unclear_warfare Martin Luther King Jr., as the most visible leader of the Civil Rights Movement, was assassinated in a brutal act of racial violence intended to silence his powerful message. Instead, his death became a rallying cry for the movement and further elevated his status as a global icon of peace and justice." –u/Spice-Fairy04 "Bonnie and Clyde. Holy shit, that car had a lot of bullet holes in it." –u/PreparedStatement "Joseph Smith." "Today, he is best known for founding the Mormon religion, but he had higher ambitions than that. He started a large cult, very similar to what you see today, where he was a godlike leader who had multiple wives and required complete adherence from his followers. But this was the 1830s in the 'Wild West,' where people were distracted with other things, so before time caught up with him, he had developed as a full-on nation-state, with thousands of members, in Western Illinois. For the second time in a 10-year span, Smith amassed a large, heavily armed militia, overthrew the government, destroyed the newspapers, imposed martial law, and declared that he was running for US president, at which point it was assumed he would attempt to take over the entire country, whether he won or was charged with treason and taken to an Illinois prison. Before he could face trial, hundreds of men stormed the jail, shot Smith repeatedly, at which point Smith tried to escape by jumping from the second-story window, which probably killed him, but the mob went outside and beat and repeatedly shot Smith's corpse just to be was a murder trial for some of the mob members who killed Smith, but all the defendants were acquitted, partially due to jury nullification, but also because there were so many people who shot, beat, and took credit for killing him, it was impossible to prove that one person actually did the deed."–u/Many_Collection_8889 "William the Conqueror died of a massive infection caused by an injury he received from the pommel of his saddle." –u/MartialBob "Samuel Doe (21st President of Liberia). He faced 12 hours of torture (which included his ears getting cut off and some of his fingers and toes amputated) before he was finally murdered."
