The Grim Reapurrrrr
Ever since he was six months old, Oscar the cat has exibited an uncanny ability to sense death. Oscar the cat was adopted from an animal shelter by the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Providence, Rhode Island for use as a therapy cat for patients. He quickly took to sitting with patients and the staff began to notice a pattern: shortly after Oscar curled up, the patients would die. Sound creepy? Thus far, oscar has accurately predicted over fifty deaths! I'm not going to tell you the whole story, I'll let you read that from the Reuters article that inspired this post. However, I will ask this... would you find the presence of this so-called therapy cat comforting or alarming were it to curl up next to you?
In the event your aircraft explodes in mid air…
One would certainly hope that the sentiment expressed in the title of this post is never actually a condition of flight, but on the outside chance that you do find yourself in freefall, it's nice to know that survival may be possible. There have been a handful of reported instances of people falling from as high as 35,000 feet and living to tell the tale, and several groups have extensively studied this phenomenon in an attempt to better your chances should the need arise. If you think you might have need for this knowledge, or are just possessed by a slightly morbid curiosity, check out this article from Popular Mechanics.