Free Republic

No human being has fallen farther than Joe Kittinger, but people keep trying. On Aug. 16, 1960, the U.S. Air Force test pilot floated in his 20-story-tall helium balloon to the edge of space, more than 19 miles up, higher than any man had ever gone. Clad in a space suit, he stood at the edge of his open-air gondola and said to himself: "Lord, take care of me now." Then he jumped. He quickly accelerated to 714 miles an hour -- becoming the first person to break the sound barrier without a vehicle -- before a small parachute opened...

Trudeau’s government was already shabby before this scandal broke—all style and no substance. But even the harshest critics of the bumptious Trudeau could not have expected to be thinking now in terms of criminal corruption Canada’s SNC Lavalin bribery scandal strikes at the heart of the legitimacy of capitalism operating presumptively under the rule of law. It also strikes at the foundations of credible accountability—read honesty and lawful conduct—in the office of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. It’s been common knowledge for years that SNC Lavalin engaged in corrupt practices, both at home and abroad. The immediate focus is the...

SASKATOON -- A French parachutist and his international team watched in disbelief Monday morning as the helium-filled balloon designed to carry the man to record-breaking heights burst during its launch at the North Battleford municipal airport. "It was over in seconds. The balloon was launched and all of a sudden it cracked open and the helium went out," said Claude-Jean Harel, the volunteer Canadian co-ordinator of Michel Fournier's Super Jump. "People had tears in their eyes. People worked really hard. It's very intense so when you have something like this happen, it's a shock." Fifty-nine-year-old Fournier, a former French...

A French is on the point of trying to cross the wall of the sound in free fall The French parachutist Michel Fournier is on the point of trying a jump of 40.000 meters above the large Canadian plains, with the ambition to become the first man to cross the wall of the sound in free fall, indicated Thursday its attached of press. Eleven months after having had to be solved to defer to 2003 its tests, for lack of favorable weather conditions, this old ordering army, 59 years old, reinstalled since August 11 its headquarters on a site...