Free Republic

Here’s Felix Baumgartner’s plan: Float a balloon to 120,000 feet. Jump out. Break the sound barrier. Don’t die. Simple, right? If Baumgartner, a world famous base jumper and skydiver, pulls off the feat, he’ll set the record for the world’s highest jump and become the first person to break the sound barrier with his body alone. During the jump, he’ll also collect data on how the human body reacts to a fall from such heights, which could be useful for planning orbital escape plans for future space tourists and astronauts. Dubbed the Red Bull Stratos and sponsored by the...

By Kate Wiltrout The Virginian-Pilot September 18, 2008 By Kate Wiltrout The Virginian-Pilot Carl Brashear was a man with unwavering determination to serve as a Navy diver - and to return to the water even after losing a leg. Thursday in San Diego, the Navy's top officials gathered to honor Brashear at the christening and launch of a supply ship bearing his name. Also in the crowd was Senior Chief Petty Officer John Allen, a diver from Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base. Several years ago, he spent just a few minutes with Brashear, but it made a big impression. Brashear...

(IsraelNN.com) A lifeguard diving at the Yavne-Yam antiquities site next to Palmachim beach, south of Tel-Aviv, unearthed a rare marble discus that was used 2,500 years ago to protect sea-going vessels from the evil eye. To date, only four such items have been found in the world – two of them here in Israel, one recovered from the Mediterranean Sea off the coast at Carmel in addition to the one at Yavne-Yam. The ancient white marble discus, which dates back to 400-500 BCE, was discovered by David Shalom, who handed it over to the Israel Antiquities Authority. Dror Planer, of...

Diver catches giant crab   A giant crab with a shell 12in wide has been caught by an Aylesbury diver off the UK coast. The crustacean, weighing 17lb and with a claw span of 9in, was found by diver Paul Worsley during a recent diving trip in Lyme Regis, Dorset. Douglas Lanfear, who runs the dive boat Blue Turtle, said he was amazed at the size of the crab. He said: "It was truly a monster. It was the biggest crab I have ever seen in all my years and there were fishermen who have been working here for...

Venezuela oil pimp can have UN May your prayers be answered, Señor Chavez. May the United Nations leave New York for residence in Venezuela, so very far from the diplos' lush and cushy berth on the East Side. The sorry organization isn't worth the gridlock. You're more than welcome, please, to take the atrophied, self-abasing remains of a global ideal 2,100 miles to Caracas, where you can play the messianic oil baron game to your heart's content with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, fresh in from Tehran, perhaps with a dirty bomb in his suitcase. You can take the UN, and you can...

GEORGETOWN - A shipwreck that could be the remains of a lost Confederate blockade runner, or possibly a vessel that predates the Civil War, was found Thursday near the entrance to Winyah Bay, researchers said. Divers from the Maritime Research Division of the S.C. Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology dove in about 13 feet of water and discovered a vessel that is about 90 feet long, with a wooden hull and a possible copper coating. The wreck could be the Sir Robert Peel, a blockade runner that was used by Confederate soldiers to get supplies to Georgetown during the Civil...

MIAMI (Reuters) - A Florida diver shot a large grouper with a spear gun then apparently drowned when the fish sped into a hole, entangling the man in the line attached to the spear, investigators said on Monday. The 42-year-old man, whose name was withheld, was free-diving in about 25 feet (7.5 metres) of water off the lower Florida Keys on Saturday and speared a Goliath Grouper, Monroe County Sheriff's Detective Mark Coleman said. "It looks like the fish wrapped the line attached to the spear around the victim's wrist. The fish then went into a hole in a coral...

He made history as the first African American US Navy Master Diver. Tuesday afternoon, 75-year-old Carl Brashear died at Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, His story was told in the 2000 film “Men of Honor,” and he was portrayed by actor Cuba Gooding, Jr. Brashear joined the United States Navy in 1948 at the age of 17. He became the only amputee deep-sea diver to reach the status of Master Diver and was the only black man to ever become Master Diver of the United States Navy, a position he held from 1975 to 1977, according to the Navy. He retired...

Scientists Interrupt Search for the “Mayan Atlantis" in the Caribbean. Cuban Newpaper: GRANMA Mexico City, November 6, 2004 Forwarded by David Drewelow This story updates this prior story . - A group of scientists searching for a hypothetical “Mayan Atlantis" found a pyramid of 35 meters under the waters of the Caribbean, but it had to interrupt the mission due to technical problems, as reported by the Mexican newspaper Millenium, today. After 25 days of work in the sea, near the southwestern end of Cuba, the investigations deeper than 500 meters had to be abandoned due to problems with the...

Courtesy of U.S. Army Members of the team assist Sgt. Benjamin Park, a diver searching for a machine gun in the Tigris River. Rick Scavetta / S&S When a forklift fell in the Tigris River near Tikrit, Iraq, last week, divers from the 74th Engineer Detachment decided not to risk their lives in the fast moving current. Courtesy of U.S. Army Soldiers form the 74th Engineer Detachment dive team "Poseidon" begin searching a lake northeast of Baghdad for weapons of mass destruction. Drowned soldier not left behind TIKRIT, Iraq — A few weeks ago, soldiers from the 74th Engineer...

<p>One of the U.S. Marshals Service's "15 Most Wanted" fugitives has been taken into custody by Israeli national police, captured at a scuba-diving shop he operated in the Red Sea resort town of Eilat, Israel.</p> <p>Sidney Marvin Lewis, who had eluded capture since 1990, after being charged with trying to smuggle a ton of hashish into Oregon, was arrested Oct. 9 after new leads in the case pointed to Israel, the Marshals Service said.</p>

NAVY clearance diver Troy Miles gropes blindly through murky water to search for Iraqi mines. He emerges from the Persian Gulf to hear the rattle and boom of the war above him. Back home in Cairns, his wife Ali Miles hears all Troy's horror stories over the telephone. "He said the dust storms are like cyclones and the water he is diving in is so dark he can hardly see in front of him," Mrs Miles said after speaking to her husband on Thursday. "He can hear the battle overhead. He said it was full on, pretty mad. He said...

Mystery wreck discovered in the Baltic Sea UPI Science News From the Science & Technology Desk Published 10/8/2002 3:06 PM STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Oct. 8 (UPI) -- The Royal Swedish Navy said Tuesday it has discovered an underwater mystery shipwreck with skulls littering its centuries-old wooden decks. The sailing ship, which marine archaeologists think is more than 200 years old, was found standing upright on the bottom of the Baltic Sea. The reason for why it sank is so far an enigma, because its hull and masts remain perfectly intact. "We don't have any clues whatsoever right now on what made...