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Video at link.French free diver Guillaume Nery jumped into the largest sinkhole on Earth with no scuba gear, no snorkel, no gear of any sort. Just a pair of massive, rock hard cojones. "Dean's Blue Hole" is a 663-ft deep sinkhole in the Bahamas. A couple helpful little factoids to aid you in understanding the gravitas of Guillaume's dive. The average human being can hold their breath for 45 seconds - or a minute if they have an exceptionally healthy set of lungs. After that, your body essentially starts to suffocate, as cells in your organs shut down from lack...

Advantages of forestry mulchingBy processing trees and other vegetation where they stand, mulching machines eliminate many of the steps involved in land clearing such as site prep, cutting/felling/hauling, and site cleanup. This also eliminates the need for multiple machines such as a bulldozer accompanied by some combination of excavators, tree shears, wood chippers or grinders, and hauling equipment. One simpler jobs only one mulching machine is required, reducing fuel requirements and emissions. Some mulching machines also have the ability to operate on steep slopes and in small or tight areas, in poor ground conditions, and in wet or snowy weather....

“I felt as though a vast, endless scream passed through nature,” painter Edvard Munch famously wrote. But he didn't mean it quite as literally as this. 'Scream' tree brings angst to US Christmas (04 Dec 13) Scream loses place as priciest painting (13 Nov 13) Hundreds gather to 'scream' in Munch tribute (15 Aug 13) Munch Museum sees 40 percent surge in visitors (31 Jul 13) "I was just having a walk along the river here, and I just happened to stumble over this stump," Kjell Marius Mathisen, who works with cultural heritage for Oppland county council, told The Local....

Norway's Beitstadfjord has been so severely invaded by monster deep sea jellyfish that, just two years since their arrival, they have driven out all of the local fish. The innermost arm of the Trondheimsfjord now holds an estimated 40,000 tonnes of the helmet jellyfish, only a few years after the fiery red peril first appeared in its waters. According to Norway's VG newspaper, Jarle Mork, a researcher at NTNU in Trondheim, caught vast quantities of the slimy animal in a single trawl. "We took up 3.5 tons of monster jellyfish in under ten minutes," he said. "There was a tremendous...

My grandpa turned me onto this sure-fire yellow jacket eliminator about 50 years ago when I was just a youngster. I've observed its efficiency in removing all the yellow jackets from our campsite in a matter of a single day and before the week was over the entire campground was free of these hostile pests that make camping and other outdoor activities miserable. This method is NON-TOXIC and for the most part pet and wildlife friendly due to the harmless components that are used to build the "system." There are quite a few commercial products on the market to eliminate...

Paiute Deadfall Trap The Paiute is a very quick trigger mechanism. It is also fairly easy to set. Unlike the Figure-4 trigger, it uses cordage. Examine the photos carefully and you will get an idea of how this trigger works. The bait is placed on a long thin horizontal bait stick. This bait stick is held at both ends by friction. When the bait stick is moved, it slips off of the short trigger stick that the cordage is tied to (wrapped around the vertical stick). This allows the weight to fall. Be careful to place the deadfall so that...

Thousands of people have fled their homes in northern Liberia following an invasion of caterpillars - which have overtaken houses and schools, destroyed crops and contaminated water sources. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) says these attacks are becoming more frequent in Liberia and the government needs to put in place an early warning system to stop the invasions from reaching such catastrophic levels. Residents of at least 25 villages and towns in the forested areas of Lofa and Gbarpolu counties have been fleeing en masse since early June to escape the trail of excrement that the caterpillars...

Outdoor fun!

Brazil's Ilha de Queimada Grande is the only home of one of the world's deadliest, and most endangered, snakesFrom Iguazu Falls to Lençóis Maranhenses National Park, there are some breathtakingly beautiful places in Brazil. Ilha da Queimada Grande, located about 90 miles off the São Paulo coast, seems like another one of those beautiful places—at first glance. Almost every Brazilian knows about the island, but most would never dream of going there—it's infested with between 2,000 and 4,000 golden lancehead vipers, one of the deadliest snakes in the entire world. These vipers' venom can kill a person in under an...

A herd of hippopotamuses once owned by the late Colombian drug baron Pablo Escobar has been taking over the countryside near his former ranch - and no-one quite knows what to do with them. It was in 2007, 14 years after Escobar's death, that people in rural Antioquia, 200 miles north-west of Bogota, began phoning the Ministry of Environment to report sightings of a peculiar animal. "They found a creature in a river that they had never seen before, with small ears and a really big mouth," recalls Carlos Valderrama, from the charity Webconserva. He went to look, and found...

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Talk about a big fish. An Atlanta man and his father last week caught an 884-pound sturgeon during a fishing trip to Canada. According to Great River Fishing Adventures, 19-year-old Paul Jarvis hooked the 11-foot-10 white sturgeon Thursday morning on the Fraser River. “In the first few minutes I had it on the line, I couldn’t believe the weight and power of the fish," said Jarvis, who battled the fish with the help of his father, Ron, for about an hour. "I am a big guy, and I could barely hold on to the rod let alone begin to reel...

SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY, CALIF. | First in an occasional series On a cool January day in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains, Steve Ellis culled his sick bees. The only sounds were their steady buzz and the chuffing of the smoker he used to keep them calm as he opened the hives, one by one, to see how many had survived. The painful chore has become an annual ritual for Ellis, and, hardened now like a medic on the front lines, he crowned another box with a big rock to mark it. “This one is G.A.D.,” he said. “Good...

PROVO -- On Sunday night, two people were driving on the Alpine Loop above Provo Canyon when suddenly they spotted a large object by the side of the road. They quickly did a U-turn and started recording their search. When they got their video uploaded to a computer, what they saw astounded them. It's not extremely clear, but it looks like a large, dark, figure. Bigfoot? Or something else? The Daily Herald made contact with one of the individuals involved in the recording. He refused to be identified, but said he and his cousin were going to a spot near...

Musk oxen have proven themselves harmful to dogs. Musk oxen continue to add numbers to violent deaths and injuries to dogs in the Nome area.

While little Mosca the Jack Russell terrier was being noisily killed by wolves earlier this month in Chugach State Park just above Anchorage, the dog's owner was hiking along a trail to Wolverine Peak unaware of what was going on because he was wearing headphones.

The Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center adopts a five-year-old porcupine that someone had been keeping as a pet. Because of his gentle nature and love for human contact, everyone treats the porcupine like a prickly puppy dog.

A black bear crashed a toddler's birthday party in Juneau on Saturday after it climbed onto the roof of a house, then burst through a skylight and landed in the living room.

I'm leaning toward buying one this coming winter when the prices go down. How do you like it? What mods did you have to make to make it better for you? I don't really want to buy a new bike then spend thousands extra making it road worthy. My riding will be mostly pavement. After the break in, Tulsa to Chicago, Chicago to Flint, MI, then back to Tulsa. Then Tulsa to California. For what it's worth, I'm 6'6" tall, 37 inch inseam, 200 pounds.

A group of friends were fishing off Cape May, New Jersey, this weekend when a Great White Shark started circling their 35-foot boat, eventually lunging forward to rip a basket of fish right off the side. Rather than lose their minds with horror at the sight of a chomping, many-toothed sea creature — which, at 16 feet long, was nearly half the size of their ride — some of the humans leaned over the water for a better look. "Come back," sighed Steven Clark, the foolhardy dude who shot the video below. "Steven, don't, don't, don't — what are you...