LA Train Victim Makes 35 Phone Calls From Beyond the Grave

Sean Fallon — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:45:00 EDT

If you haven't been creeped out yet today, this crazy morbid story from the scene of the recent Metrolink train disaster should do the trick. Apparently, family members of passenger Chuck Peck received 35 calls from his cellphone throughout the night of the crash. There was nothing but static on the other end of the line, but Peck's fiancee used these opportunities to shout encouraging messages into the phone like "hang in there baby. We're gonna get you out. You're gonna be okay." The authorities managed to trace one of the calls which lead them to the first train and eventually to his body. Unfortunately, Peck died on impact.

It is logical to assume that the phone calls were the result of a technical malfunction and not supernatural forces. And, as far as I know, there has been no analysis of the condition of the cellphone itself. But consider this—all 35 calls were made to close family members only: his son, brother, sister, stepmother and fiancee. Plus, this is not the first time something like this has happened. OoOoOoOoh! [KTLA]

Synth Glitch Creates On-Stage Disaster for Van Halen

Charlie White — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 14:46:15 EDT

And now for a Friday musical interlude, we bring you Van Halen caught on its comeback tour, except there was one big problem and it involved gadgets. What happens when you play back a prerecorded synthesizer track at 48K instead of the intended 44.1K? The whole track plays back a little bit faster and at a slightly higher pitch, that's what. A dissonant musical mess ensues, trapping the guitarist and bassist in an on-stage musical hell with nowhere to go.

See Eddie Van Halen launch into his famous solo on "Jump," trying in vain to somehow transpose to this otherworldly key that is nowhere to be found. This travesty of a performance happened earlier this month (in my hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina), and the funny thing is, the crowd was delighted with it. I shutter to think that no one realized something was terribly amiss, but those hometown folks always were overly polite. [RW370, via BoingBoing] (Thanks, Joel Johnson!)

Gizmodo: train wreck

LA Train Victim Makes 35 Phone Calls From Beyond the Grave

Synth Glitch Creates On-Stage Disaster for Van Halen