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CHESTER, Va. (May 2) - Like many boys in the South, Sam White got hooked on the Civil War early, digging up rusting bullets and military buttons in the battle-scarred earth of his hometown As an adult, he crisscrossed the Virginia countryside in search of wartime relics -- weapons, battle flags, even artillery shells buried in the red clay. He sometimes put on diving gear to feel for treasures hidden in the black muck of river bottoms. But in February, White's hobby cost him his life: A cannonball he was restoring exploded, killing him in his driveway. More than 140...

Virginia Man Killed In Civil War Cannonball Blast May 02, 2008 CHESTER, Va. — Like many boys in the South, Sam White got hooked on the Civil War early, digging up rusting bullets and military buttons in the battle-scarred earth of his hometown. As an adult, he crisscrossed the Virginia countryside in search of wartime relics — weapons, battle flags, even artillery shells buried in the red clay. He sometimes put on diving gear to feel for treasures hidden in the black muck of river bottoms. But in February, White's hobby cost him his life: A cannonball he was restoring...

Story of recent attempt by Roy and Fyshe to break record cross-country driving record of some 32 hours known as the Cannonball Run that was set earlier by Diem and Turner. The article is quite detailed and long. It is here at Wired com. However, this does have a dark side such as this accident death from someone else's earlier try.

The Colorado State Patrol is on alert today for cars zooming west on Interstate 70, participants of the Cannonball Run, a race from the East Coast to the West Coast. The local office of the State Patrol was notified by teletype today from Denver to be on the lookout for an array of fast-moving cars. “We got people out looking for them and an aircraft up looking for them in case we have to do some speed enforcement,” said Troy Marvel, communications officer for the State Patrol. The State Patrol is looking for fast-moving exotic cars such as Porsches, Maseratis...

TOKYO -- In the background of the birth of Intelligent Design theory is the explosive increase over the past half century in our knowledge about cells. Scientists have discovered that cells are filled with tiny molecular machines not even dreamed of during Darwin’s era, when the cell’s structure was unknown. The example of a molecular machine easiest to understand, and researched for long time, is the bacterial flagellar motor. Various kinds of bacteria depend on this machine to generate propellant power. Scott Minnich, Associate Professor of Microbiology at the University of Idaho and a leading ID scientist states, “The flagellar...

Things most guys can have around the house: baseballs, basketballs, footballs, softballs. Things guys most definitely shouldn't have around the house: cannonballs. A collector in McKinney, Texas, kept an antique cannonball that he'd bought from the trunk of a man's car at a gun show in his apartment as a decoration, according to The Dallas Morning News. Responding to an anonymous tip, police seized the man's 45-pound, cast-iron cannonball on Monday and the weapons collector allowed officials to detonate it in a field close by behind McKinney High School. "It was a live cannonball," Plano police Detective Bryan Wood, a...

Anchorage -- Yale Metzger wants the Anchorage Police Department to replace his cannonball. Police officers say they blew it up to protect the public. Metzger said he called police last week to have them examine the cannonball he found in Cordova. Instead, he said, the bomb squad showed up at his home last week with a remote-controlled robot, hauled away the cast iron ball and blew it up. The police are calling Metzger "an idiot" for carrying the incendiary device around in his truck, then bringing it into downtown Anchorage, where they say it could have sent shrapnel flying for...

SAN DIEGO (AP) - David Smith Sr. holds a world record for the longest distance traveled by a human fired from a cannon. On Saturday, he plans to add to his list of cannonball coups by shooting across the U.S-Mexico border. The feat is the brainchild of Venezuelan artist Javier Tellez and is part of a series of public art projects in the two border cities. Smith will be shot from a popular beach in Tijuana, Mexico, over a rusty, corrugated metal fence into Border Field State Park in San Diego. David Smith Jr., also an accomplished human cannonball, said...

The Smiths of Halfway, Mo., are currently the world's most famous collection of human cannonballers. Those openings are only so wide, which gives the Smiths a business reason for remaining trim. The family's dedication to physical conditioning, as with cannonballing, starts with David Smith Sr. That meant the patriarch had some training ideas when his son Russell, seventh of nine children, decided he wanted to become a seriously competitive wrestler. Russell succeeded to the point that his record stands at 45-0 after three victories in Thursday's opening competition in the Minnesota high school wrestling tournament, although first there was this:...

Police Thwart Cannonball Run Road Rally Wed Sep 15, 7:54 AM ET MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish police temporarily seized luxury and sports cars driven by people they suspected of participating in an illegal road rally named after a 1981 film starring Burt Reynolds, a spokesman said on Tuesday. Police said they were tipped off by a driver of a family car who said he had been overtaken by high-powered cars bearing rally-type markings in the northeastern region of Catalonia. The managing director of Cannonball Run Europe, Tim Porter told Reuters on Tuesday that entrants in the rally of the same...

MOSHEIM (AP) Cody Pasco has found lots of nails and other small items with the metal detector he received for his 10th birthday.Then, a week ago, the 12-year-old made his biggest discovery literally about 150 feet from his Greene County home.Cody unearthed a 3-pound, solid-shot Confederate cannonball and a 150-year-old trundle hook used to chain cannon to horses during the Civil War."He's tickled to death," said his mother, Connie Melton."I'm interested in the Civil War, and really in all wars," Cody said. But he didn't expect to find such an artifact."For the past year Cody has brought home buckets of...

From the outside, it looks like another '70s muscle car. On the inside, it's a gearhead fantasy come true. Every chunk of this 1972 Ford Torino's innards has been swapped for fresh parts. An extra gas tank has been fused onto its body. Controllers for laser jammers, radar detectors, GPS sensors and video cameras now occupy areas once reserved for 8-track players and beige-tinted shades. The vehicle has been hauled 2,700 miles on a tractor-trailer, from Gibsonville, North Carolina, to San Francisco. And on Wednesday, it'll begin a five-day, helter-skelter dash to reach Miami before hundreds of other cars cross...