A Sea Of Red

BREAKING NEWS
Updated: 1:20 a.m. ET Sept. 4, 2006

BRISBANE, Australia - Steve Irwin, the Australian television personality and environmentalist known as the “Crocodile Hunter,” was killed Monday by a stingray during a diving expedition, Australian media said. He was 44.

Irwin was filming an underwater documentary on the Great Barrier Reef in northeastern Queensland state when the accident occurred, Sydney’s The Daily Telegraph newspaper reported on its Web site.

The Australian Broadcasting Corp. said Irwin was diving near Low Isles near the resort town of Port Douglas, about 1,260 miles north of Brisbane.

The only thing surprising is that it was a stingray. This man had walked on the edge for a L O N G time.

I'm not quite sure how I am going to explain this to a my 4-year-old.

The somewhat "funny" thing was the amount of college students calling and IMing each other around 12:30 letting each other know. You would've thought the Queen of England died.

Of all the ways you would think Irwin could have died, even considering his lifestyle, this wouldn't have even cracked my top 100. Snake venom, plane crash, mauled by a crocodile, gangrene, even mosquito-borne encephalitis maybe, but stabbed in the heart by a stingray?

no the funny thing about it was during convo when clayton king tried telling the students no one believed him and everyone started laughing, and he was like "IM NOT KIDDING, HES REALLY DEAD" people started laughing even more

Cue" "Shot through the heart and your to blame youve been stabbed by a stingray..............."

You're dating yourself, Senor Haize.

Clayton king announced it at convo today, and i thought it was a joke. I mean the whole stadium started laughing! even him, and Rob Jackson.

i bet his two children didn't think it was funny

My first respose (when my husband got my attention, yanking my nose out of the book I was reading on the way to a fair b/c he heard on the radio) was, "...by a crocodile?" Irwin did push it with his baby near the crocodile- no matter how much experience....

While I was at work today, my son overheard the story on the news and he burst into tears. I imagine he was far from the only little boy around the world with similar reactions.

LU students don't watch the news. I'm dating myself here, but I remember my freshman year at LU, when Princess Diana died. I told some friends about it, and they thought I was joking. IT WAS ALL OVER THE NEWS.

Of course, they insisted the subsequent rumor about Adam Sandler's death was legitimate, despite the fact that it garnered nary a mention on the local or national news.

My attempt to spread a rumor about Ralph Macchio's death met with limited success.

A week later, Chris Farley died. No joke.

I remember the rumor around campus about Bobby McFarrin dying. He of the famous song "Don't Worry Be Happy." It was said that he committed suicide. With no cable TV and a crappy Lynchburg newspaper, the rumor spread like wildfire.

Yes, I was up at 1:00 IMing everyone on my dorm about his death...in completely unrelated news, I can now get ESPN in my room on campus