05-17-2005, 12:26 PM | #2 (permalink) | |
Junkie
Moderator Emeritus
Location: Chicago
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story: for the clicking impaired like me...
PARIS (Reuters) - A Norwegian man died parachuting off the Eiffel Tower after his parachute became tangled up in the metal structure, a French police source said on Tuesday. The 31-year-old jumped off the second floor of the structure on Monday night, planning to descend safely to the ground. But his equipment became caught in the monument and he landed on the floor below. "The jump didn't happen quite as he wanted," the police source said. "He died on impact." It is illegal to parachute from the 300-meter (980-foot) high landmark. The police were not aware of the man's plan and have opened an investigation. Hundreds of people, most of them committing suicide, have jumped to their deaths from the tower which was built in 1889 for an exhibition celebrating the French Revolution. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Best quote from the stry... Quote:
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05-17-2005, 12:52 PM | #4 (permalink) | |
Junkie
Moderator Emeritus
Location: Chicago
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Quote:
I was just amused by the comment-- it was more like a thank you, officer, for stating the obvious
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Free your heart from hatred. Free your mind from worries. Live simply. Give more. Expect less.
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05-17-2005, 01:22 PM | #5 (permalink) |
Tilted
Location: Southern California
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What a waste of a perfectly good human. What makes people want to do crazy things like that? To take those risks. You have people who are terminally ill, praying to get well, or to receive a new heart, or liver, these people, fighting to stay alive, then this guy, taking the ultimate risk - and losing.
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05-17-2005, 01:33 PM | #6 (permalink) | |
©
Location: Colorado
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05-17-2005, 02:00 PM | #7 (permalink) |
Comedian
Location: Use the search button
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I heard an old veteran talking one time:
"We don't need all that risk taking stuff. We found out just how lucky we were when we came back from the war." I think that these extreme sports tap into a primitive need to feel that adrenaline rush. I believe that humans are wired to take risks, and when they have pushed enough limits, they can sit back the rest of their lives and remember all of the cool things they did when they were young. Thoughts?
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05-17-2005, 02:29 PM | #9 (permalink) |
loving the curves
Location: my Lady's manor
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The riskiest thing I do is drink milk from the fridge without checking the past due date. My choice. This guy knew things could go wrong. They did. He lost.
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05-17-2005, 03:35 PM | #10 (permalink) |
Pissing in the cornflakes
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Mmmmm Darwin.
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05-17-2005, 06:34 PM | #12 (permalink) |
loving the curves
Location: my Lady's manor
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That wouldn't have been the tenor of the conversation among the cleanup crew.
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And now to disengage the clutch of the forebrain ... I'm going with this - if you like artwork visit http://markfineart.ca |
05-17-2005, 06:38 PM | #15 (permalink) |
Upright
Location: New Yorker, by way of Southern California
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Risk? He jumped from the second floor. I'm not sure what he was thinking, but maybe it went something like this:
Hmm, I want to do something cool and "risky"-looking, without the actual risk. Maybe, if I jump off the Eiffel Tower (with a parachute) people will think I"m cool, and one day say I'm a hero. Anyway, if anything goes wrong, like my parachute getting tangled in the metal structure, I'll be fine since I'm only jumping from the second floor.
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05-17-2005, 07:02 PM | #16 (permalink) |
Junkie
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I am no expert at base jumping, but it seems to me that an ideal base would not flare out at the base (you would have to have a standing lateral jump like a flea to clear the tower....If I remember correctly a flea can jump 30 times its own length). It also would not be an open structure with lots of beams to snag a parachute.
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05-17-2005, 08:26 PM | #17 (permalink) | |
The sky calls to us ...
Super Moderator
Location: CT
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05-18-2005, 05:26 AM | #19 (permalink) | ||
Devoted
Donor
Location: New England
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quote from a more recent article: Quote:
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05-18-2005, 07:44 AM | #20 (permalink) | |
Smithers, release the hounds
Location: Guatemala, Guatemala
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05-18-2005, 09:17 AM | #21 (permalink) | |
I aim to misbehave!
Location: SW Oklahoma
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Tags |
eiffel, jumps, parachutist, splat, tower |
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