Jet kayaking over the Niagara Falls

What kind of a lunatic would throw himself over a giant waterfall in a flimsy piece of plastic not much bigger than a child’s toy? Stand up, Shaun Baker, an extreme kayaker from Maidenhead, Berkshire.

This nine-time British whitewater freestyle kayaking champion already holds the world record for the longest freefall over a waterfall. That was a drop of almost 65ft off the Aldeyjarfoss falls on the Skjalfandafljot, a glacial river in Iceland, in 1996. Now he is looking for even higher waterfalls to leap over. Indeed, he aims eventually to take on the big daddy of them all — Niagara.

No one has gone over the top of this 167ft monster in a kayak or canoe and survived. But Baker has a secret weapon to help him stay clear of the vertical torrent that forces any object caught up in large waterfalls under the surface — usually with fatal consequences for swimmers or canoeists. It’s a 330cc two-stroke engine. He has invented the world’s first jet kayak.

“I’m planning to run some huge, record-breaking waterfalls,” says Baker, 44. “The ones I had to walk away from in the past because I simply would not have been able to clear the rocks at the bottom. This time I can stop 10 metres from the edge, fire the engine up and get a ballistic burst of speed and just fly right over the top. Fifty metres downstream — that’s where I’m going to land — literally flying.”

Baker has already recorded a top speed of 25mph in his invention and believes the jet kayak will give him the extra acceleration to tackle higher, more dangerous falls for the first time.Before this can happen, however, there’s a lot of work to do, and I joined him alongside Bray Lake, not far from his home, as he made refinements to his motorised kayak in preparation for future record attempts. …

via Jet kayaking over the Niagara Falls – Times Online.

Radio commentator Paul Harvey dead at 90

Paul Harvey, a Chicago radio man whose melodious voice and hearty “Hello America” were cherished by millions for more than 57 years on national broadcasts that were a mix of news, storytelling and gently persuasive salesmanship, died Saturday. He was 90. Harvey died surrounded by family at a Phoenix hospital, according to an ABC Radio Networks spokesman. The cause of death was not immediately available.

The “Paul Harvey News and Comment” broadcasts were consistently ranked first and second in the nation among network radio shows.

His 5-minute “The Rest of the Story” broadcasts featured Harvey telling historical vignettes with surprise endings, such as the 13-year-old boy who receives a cash gift from Franklin Roosevelt and turns out to be Fidel Castro. Or the one about the famous trial lawyer who never finished law school (Clarence Darrow). He’d end each broadcast with his signature: “Paul Harvey. (long pause) Good day!”

R.I.P. to a familiar voice:

Body Farm missing skulls, UT spokesman says : Local News : Knoxville News Sentinel

If you see any stray skulls lying around the Body Farm wants them back. University of Tennessee police want to know who stole the human skulls from UT s world-famous anthropological research center off Alcoa Highway. Other body parts might have been stolen as well UT spokesman Jay Mayfield said. Officials believe the theft happened earlier this week although it didn t become apparent until Friday afternoon. “We discovered the breach today ” Mayfield said. “It is not complete skeletons missing . That s a definite. It s too early to say whether it s just skulls.”

The acre of property off Alcoa Highway serves as home to 197 corpses in various stages of decay used by forensic anthropologists to study human decomposition. The farm and its founder professor emeritus William Bass have been the subject of books documentaries and television shows since its creation in 1981. Author Patricia Cornwell helped make the center famous with her 1994 book “The Body Farm.” Bass drew on research performed at the farm to help solve cases that have ranged from local killings to the death of J.P. “the Big Bopper” Richardson. Workers noticed a skull out of place and some body parts missing earlier in the week but assumed an animal had carried them off Mayfield said.

“They were still in the testing stages ” he said. “They were not buried.” A security check Friday discovered a tree across the farm s double fence. A chain-link and a wooden rail fence surround the property bordered by trees on three sides. Workers inspect the fence at least once a week Mayfield said. “There are no cameras just physical security ” he said. “This apparently happened sometime over the course of the past week.” The theft marks the first time someone s invaded the farm since its creation in 1981 Mayfield said. Someone stole a camera from the forensic center years ago but no one s ever tried to carry off any body parts he said. UT police asked that anyone with information in the case call 865-974-3111.

via Body Farm missing skulls, UT spokesman says : Local News : Knoxville News Sentinel.

The beginning of some new secret college club?

Driver Fills up Gas Tank, Receives Bill For $81 Billion | Consumer Energy Report

Talk about skyrocketing gas prices! One man from Richland, Washington was in for the shock of his life when he filled up the gas tank of his ‘94 Chevy Camaro.

When Juan Zamora stopped to refuel his car at a Conoco service station in Richland, the gas pump’s calculator registered a total fee of $26.

But in a freak computer hiccup, the PayPal debit card he used recorded the transaction as $81,400,836,908. Yes, you read that correctly, that’s more than 81 billion dollars.

“That’s a B, as in billions!” Zamora told the Tri-City Herald.

Zamora says that he always refuels at the same gas station during his weekly commute.

He only learned of the astounding figure when he received an email later that afternoon informing him that his debit card, which started out with $90 on it, was maxed out.

Initially, Mr. Zamora thought it must’ve been a joke. But after contacting PayPal customer service he was surprised to see that the company treated it as anything but a laughing matter.

“Somebody from a foreign country who spoke in broken English argued with me for 10 to 15 minutes,” Zamora said. ” ‘Did you get the gas?’ he asked. Like I had to prove that I didn’t pump $81,400,836,908 in gas!”

He would have needed more than 3 billion fill-ups of the amount he actually pumped into his tank in order to reach that outrageous sum.

Eventually, Zamora said, he was finally able to convince the representative that he didn’t deserve to be in the same position as General Motors, who has lost roughly 80 billion dollars since 2005.

When Zamora returned to the Conoco gas station, he said, the attendant would not believe him until he showed her the printout of the PayPal receipt.

The exact cause of the error is still unknown.

As always, there’s a lesson to be learned. “I guess the moral of this story is ‘pay cash,’ ” Zamora said.

via Driver Fills up Gas Tank, Receives Bill For $81 Billion | Consumer Energy Report.

XP Drivers for Gateway T-1631

Gateway does not provide XP drivers for it’s T-1631 laptop, but I wanted to upgrade my operating system from Vista Home Premium to the faster XP Pro.

This post is for anyone out there looking to do the same for this particular model of laptop. I’ve noticed that there are many predatory web sites that seem to offer drivers but actually just exist to rip people off.

The Gateway T-1631 support web site does not include XP drivers, but these worked for me for my “downgrade” to XP.

These work:

- Network Driver: RealTek RTL8187SE Wireless LAN PCIE Network Adapter: rtl8187b_wlan.rar
- Audio driver: here.
- Video driver: here.

Un tested / not found…
- ATI RS690T chipset

ATI SMBus

- Bios Update: Triton-K8F BIOS Update Version 90.03