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How Going Over Niagara Works · Stuff You Should Know

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Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
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Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff you should know
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Speaker 1: from house Stuff Works dot com? Hey, and welcome to
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Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. With me is Chuck Bryant.
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Speaker 1: I'm doing sign language. Josh, are you do you do
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Speaker 1: have finger fumblers? Uh? No, but since you brought it up,
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Speaker 1: we have a finger fumbler good blood, bad blood, not
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Speaker 1: to jump the gun that that has nothing to do
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Speaker 1: with this podcast. Can you sign that out for him? Okay,
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Speaker 1: Well to anyone who knows sign language, give good blood,
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Speaker 1: bad blood shot. Oh and that also reminds me Chuck.
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Speaker 1: One of our listeners sent in a I guess a
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Speaker 1: um mind melt rightser size, make a clockwise circle on
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Speaker 1: the floor with your right foot while writing the number
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Speaker 1: six on a pad of paper. I tried it. It
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Speaker 1: is really tough. It made me crazy. Yeah. Things like
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Speaker 1: that really get to Chuck. So Chuck, that's a good
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Speaker 1: thing that we had this little bit of banter, because
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Speaker 1: I had like no introduction whatsoever for this one convenient
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Speaker 1: How about this? Have you ever been in Niagara Falls?
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Speaker 1: I have not? Yeah, no, I haven't. And I even lived,
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Speaker 1: you know, in the north or not the north, the Midwest,
1:16
Speaker 1: but the northern Midwest. It's not too far from Ohio. No,
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Speaker 1: it's not that far, especially Toledo. So um. But yeah,
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Speaker 1: never made it up there. And actually, the the only
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Speaker 1: time I've ever really seen Niagara Falls, um, was on
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Speaker 1: what Superman two where Clark Kent and Lois Lane Honeymoon.
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Speaker 1: If I remember correctly, that's the only time you've seen
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Speaker 1: Niagara Falls. Yeah, that's the most I've seen of it. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: it's not the only time. I don't live in a cave, chuck. Um,
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Speaker 1: So I do know a few things about Niagara Falls.
1:46
Speaker 1: You want me to lay it on you, I will
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Speaker 1: tell you this, Chuck. Every year, Niagara Falls attracts about
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Speaker 1: twelve million visitors, right, it's a huge tourist attractionation now, um,
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Speaker 1: and from what else? From research, I've also found that, Um,
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Speaker 1: if you stand there long enough, somebody's going to go
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Speaker 1: in what do you mean, hell on the Niagara River
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Speaker 1: and they're going to go over the falls if you
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Speaker 1: stand there long enough. And now we may be talking
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Speaker 1: like months years, who knows, but they do pull about
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Speaker 1: twenty bodies out of the bottom of the falls every year. Yeah,
2:19
Speaker 1: sadly it's a it's a suicide destination for for some folks. Yeah,
2:22
Speaker 1: and that was just suicide's right. Yeah, but there are
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Speaker 1: a subgroup of humans running around over the last hundred
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Speaker 1: or so years who actually go over the falls on purpose.
2:36
Speaker 1: That old cliche going over Niagara Falls in a barrel.
2:39
Speaker 1: There's actually a lot of people who have done that,
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Speaker 1: and it's usually a barrel. Yeah, yeah, especially the old
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Speaker 1: timing people. They went over in barrels. All of them,
2:47
Speaker 1: oh yeah, all of them modified. And then you know,
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Speaker 1: as we progressed further into the twentieth century, the barrels
2:52
Speaker 1: became you know, a little better, a little stronger, but yeah,
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Speaker 1: pretty much all barrels or balls spheres. Sixteen uh, if
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Speaker 1: I'm not mistaken, sixteen people have done so from two
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Speaker 1: thousand three, and as far as I could find, the
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Speaker 1: guy who did it in two thousand three was the
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Speaker 1: last one. I couldn't find anybody who's tried it more recently. Right,
3:12
Speaker 1: his is the most amazing. But we should probably save that.
3:15
Speaker 1: People don't tell it off a little bit. Yeah, we
3:17
Speaker 1: want to, we want to pay it out slowly. So Chuck,
3:20
Speaker 1: let's talk about the falls a little bit. How how's
3:22
Speaker 1: your geography terrible? You want me to handle it? Well? No,
3:26
Speaker 1: I mean I can. I can give you a few
3:27
Speaker 1: facts here and there, but geography as a whole is
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Speaker 1: not my strong suit. All right, we'll give us a
3:31
Speaker 1: few facts here there. Geographically speaking, if you've never been
3:34
Speaker 1: to Niagara Falls, you might think that it's one set
3:36
Speaker 1: of falls, and if you've seen the famous photos, but
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Speaker 1: is actually three sets of falls, which I'm sure you
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Speaker 1: know Horseshoe Falls, Yeah, that's the Canadian one, right, Uh, yes,
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Speaker 1: the American falls, that's the American American and the lesser
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Speaker 1: known and smaller bridal Veil Falls, right. And I know
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Speaker 1: you have some good numbers on these. Well, I can
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Speaker 1: tell you that this three fall set up that we
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Speaker 1: see in Niagara Falls today, or people unlike me who
4:03
Speaker 1: go to Niagara Falls see today, Um, it's actually only
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Speaker 1: about five years old. Uh. The the falls actually a
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Speaker 1: road these days because they've hit some serious bedrock. They
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Speaker 1: erode backward about four to five ft a year. Yeah
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Speaker 1: that's a lot. It is a lot, but they've eroded
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Speaker 1: much much more quickly than that over time. And also
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Speaker 1: I should say that the the the entirety of of
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Speaker 1: Niagara Falls is only about fifteen thousand years old. Uh.
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Speaker 1: It was the result of the last ice age. At
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Speaker 1: the end of the last ice age. Um. But okay,
4:34
Speaker 1: so so it's um eroding backward five five ft a
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Speaker 1: year um. And eventually it hit a point and the
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Speaker 1: river went down enough, the water flow went lowered enough
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Speaker 1: that it hit this island, which split it into two. River.
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Speaker 1: The Niagara River was split into two, and actually there's
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Speaker 1: a second smaller island, Luna Island, that split it into
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Speaker 1: three and created Bridal Veil Falls. Um. But this island,
5:00
Speaker 1: called Goat Island, is actually named after a herd of
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Speaker 1: hapless goats that froze to death on the island. Um.
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Speaker 1: In they belonged to a goat herder named John Steadman,
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Speaker 1: and that's why Goat Island is called goat Islands. The
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Speaker 1: goats were they no, they were freezing goats. Yeah. So
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Speaker 1: that's that's a little bit about Niagara Falls. Oh. I
5:23
Speaker 1: should probably give some stats here because I know everybody
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Speaker 1: loves stats. Do you have any stats? And now I'm
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Speaker 1: usually statman, but the can I take your your role today? Okay, So,
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Speaker 1: Horseshoe Falls is by far the biggest one. UM it's
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Speaker 1: a hundred and sixty seven foot drop. Then it hits
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Speaker 1: the made of the miss pool and actually goes down
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Speaker 1: about another hundred and eighty feet. So if you plunged
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Speaker 1: right down to the maid of the miss pool, UM,
5:44
Speaker 1: what is that, that's like almost four hundred feet, right,
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Speaker 1: it's quite a bit. That's a significant drop. Um, it's
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Speaker 1: a there's a twenty foot brink and the water goes
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Speaker 1: over that brink at about six hundred thousand gallons per second.
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Speaker 1: It's a lot of water. Yeah, So you know, if
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Speaker 1: you went over the falls and survived, you've still got
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Speaker 1: this water beating down on you at that kind of rate,
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Speaker 1: which you could easily die. And even though um, Horseshoe
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Speaker 1: Falls is much bigger and there the the water volume
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Speaker 1: is is much greater. That's the one that people go over,
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Speaker 1: and they go over Niagara Falls because American Falls. UM
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Speaker 1: it puts water out about a hundred and fifty thousand
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Speaker 1: gallons a second. But the hundred and seventy six ft
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Speaker 1: dropped to the bottom about a hundred and six feet
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Speaker 1: of that is rock. You dropped seventy ft right on
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Speaker 1: this huge tumble of rocks. It's not a good idea
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Speaker 1: to go over that one. It's nice to look at.
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Speaker 1: It is very pretty, especially bridal bill falls just falling
6:39
Speaker 1: in the background, Superman flying around saving people. So um,
6:44
Speaker 1: so okay, there are people who go over the falls,
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Speaker 1: Chuck and um, do you know much about Daredevil's I
6:49
Speaker 1: think is a pretty fair description to these people. Well,
6:52
Speaker 1: I wrote an article on daredevils. Was that your article?
6:54
Speaker 1: It was? It was a great article. I actually went
6:56
Speaker 1: back and referenced that and I saw that there's a
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Speaker 1: picture of the first person and you go over the
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Speaker 1: falls in your article, right? Who was a woman? Yeah?
7:04
Speaker 1: And Edison Taylor. But backtracking again, we're saving our anecdotes
7:10
Speaker 1: of the people who went over So yeah, we're talking
7:12
Speaker 1: about Daredevil's right, right, what about that one's study? Which
7:15
Speaker 1: one the one with the testosterone? Oh right, yeah, Daredevil's
7:19
Speaker 1: have a uh what is it? A higher level of
7:22
Speaker 1: testosterone but a lower level of um satisfaction. I looked
7:28
Speaker 1: it up. Serotonin. Uh, and it's serotonin one of the
7:30
Speaker 1: things that does It's a neurotransmitter and UM it ecks
7:34
Speaker 1: the curb impulsiveness. So apparently high levels of testosterone and
7:38
Speaker 1: low levels of you know, a neurotransmitter that curbs impulsiveness
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Speaker 1: equals daredevil. Right. So that's one explanation. Another explanation is
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Speaker 1: found actually in some poor lab mice who had the
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Speaker 1: UM the staffman gene bread out of them, the infamous
7:54
Speaker 1: staffman gene. Yeah, it was about to be infamous. Um.
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Speaker 1: This gene produces a protein right that allows UM nerve
8:01
Speaker 1: cells to UH to communicate with one another in the amygdala,
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Speaker 1: and the amygdala is known to UM allow us to
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Speaker 1: form fear memories. Memories from fear a version like put
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Speaker 1: your hand on a hot oven. Your amygdala is going
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Speaker 1: to be like, oh, we can't do that again. Some
8:19
Speaker 1: hot stove is what they generally say. But a hot
8:21
Speaker 1: ovens bad too. Okay, hot oven, hot stove, I know
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Speaker 1: what you mean. UM. So the so these mice are
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Speaker 1: they were actually called in this article rather sensationally UM
8:31
Speaker 1: daredevil mice. They they showed no kinds of traditional mice fear.
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Speaker 1: They explored open spaces, UM, they really didn't have much
8:38
Speaker 1: of an aversion to receiving electric shocks. Basically, these mice
8:42
Speaker 1: are leading a pretty hard life. I think up at
8:45
Speaker 1: Cornella Rutgers, right, and I know that daredevil's often say
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Speaker 1: that they don't fear things like most people do. So
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Speaker 1: it's not like they're just overcoming this thing and they
8:55
Speaker 1: just have to jump off of out of the plane.
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Speaker 1: They really it just doesn't affect them, which I can't
9:01
Speaker 1: even begin to conceive of that. I have a little
9:03
Speaker 1: bit of that to me. I used to repel and yeah,
9:05
Speaker 1: stuff like that, but there was a little bit of
9:07
Speaker 1: fear involved. But I was one of those that was
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Speaker 1: overcoming the fear as opposed to yeah, you're a self
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Speaker 1: actualized person. I was all right, well, Chuck, let's meet
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Speaker 1: some of the idiots. You've gone over Niagara Falls. Yes,
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Speaker 1: And at this point, as our attorneys would be so pleased,
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Speaker 1: I will say that you should certainly never ever ever
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Speaker 1: try to do this because it's very easy to die
9:27
Speaker 1: trying this as a stunt. Conscientious and self Actually, I
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Speaker 1: think the fact that sixteen people have gone over, eleven
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Speaker 1: of which have survived. In the nine years two people
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Speaker 1: went over and survived twice, correct, which but five people died,
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Speaker 1: So yeah, and horribly too. We'll get to some of
9:43
Speaker 1: those guys, right, So why don't we start at the beginning.
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Speaker 1: The first person to go over Niagara Falls on purpose,
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Speaker 1: as you said, was a woman Annie Edson Taylor in
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Speaker 1: one right, Yeah, which is pretty funny to think about
9:54
Speaker 1: way back then. But yeah, she did this actually on
9:57
Speaker 1: purpose as a stunt to try and make money. Yeah,
10:00
Speaker 1: fame and fortune is pretty much the dominant reason people
10:04
Speaker 1: have for um going over the faults, right, right, And
10:06
Speaker 1: she was sixty three at the time, spinster. Yeah, she
10:10
Speaker 1: didn't use listerine. She claims she was forty three and
10:14
Speaker 1: got away with that, so she must have been in
10:15
Speaker 1: pretty decent shape. But she packed a pickle barrel with
10:19
Speaker 1: a made it air tight and packed it with pillows
10:22
Speaker 1: and and stuffed herself in there and made it over,
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Speaker 1: survived and did not make a lot of money off
10:28
Speaker 1: of it. She was she was smart enough to um
10:31
Speaker 1: compress air to make it buoyant. And um she also
10:35
Speaker 1: took her cat with her, Yeah, and they both lived. Yeah.
10:38
Speaker 1: I guy took his turtle later on to someone else.
10:40
Speaker 1: We'll get to him, sonny boy. Um, But yeah, she
10:44
Speaker 1: went over. She and the cat made it. But yeah,
10:46
Speaker 1: the fortune and fame that she saw it was elusive
10:49
Speaker 1: she found and penniless, which is just sad. Yeah, I
10:53
Speaker 1: don't like that term. Though, no one's penniless. I'm sure
10:55
Speaker 1: someone does. But did she really not have a penny?
10:57
Speaker 1: Come on, I don't know, I mean openny and not
11:00
Speaker 1: teno one? Was? That's a lot? You know, they should
11:01
Speaker 1: just say she died poor. Okay, that's just a personal
11:05
Speaker 1: piece or broke, yeah, busted, Well her barrel busted. Okay,
11:09
Speaker 1: So who's up next? Um, let's see, how about well
11:14
Speaker 1: the first man was ten years later, Bobby Leech. Yeah,
11:17
Speaker 1: he's kind of a stunt man, right, Yeah, he's a
11:19
Speaker 1: circus guy. And uh, July nineteen eleven, he got into
11:24
Speaker 1: a steel barrel and uh floated, you know, eighteen minutes
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Speaker 1: downstream and went over and survived. He broke both his
11:34
Speaker 1: jaw and both of his kneecaps and spent six months
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Speaker 1: in the hospital. Not fun, No, But the the horrible
11:41
Speaker 1: ironic twist to Mr Leach's life is that fifteen years
11:43
Speaker 1: later he slipped on an orange peel, broke his leg,
11:46
Speaker 1: it became infected, it was amputated, and two months later
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Speaker 1: he was dead of complications ultimately from slipping on an
11:52
Speaker 1: orange peel. Right, and if that had been been an appeal,
11:54
Speaker 1: it would be a three Stooges episode would have been
11:57
Speaker 1: just painful to read, right it was. So he lived
12:01
Speaker 1: but perished in a odd accident, which is interesting. You
12:05
Speaker 1: know me check, I have um some fairly grizzly tastes,
12:08
Speaker 1: all right. Um, So I think the guy with the
12:11
Speaker 1: coolest death of the Niagara Falls tragedies was Charles Stevens.
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Speaker 1: He went over in Actually haven't heard this guy, so
12:20
Speaker 1: you haven't laid on you. Um. He went over in
12:22
Speaker 1: an oak barrel, all right. Uh. And it wasn't modified
12:26
Speaker 1: or reinforced in any way, but he modified the interior.
12:29
Speaker 1: He had an anvil at the bottom serves ballast so
12:32
Speaker 1: it would stay upright. Um. And he had his feet
12:35
Speaker 1: strapped to the anvil for some reason. Um. And uh,
12:39
Speaker 1: he had arm straps inside the barrel, so he was
12:42
Speaker 1: his arms were in there he he went over. Um.
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Speaker 1: Apparently when he hit the bottom, the anvil broke through
12:49
Speaker 1: the bottom of the barrel and dragged him down with it.
12:52
Speaker 1: And all they ever found of Mr Stevens was his
12:54
Speaker 1: arm still in the arm strap inside. He was left
12:57
Speaker 1: of the oak barrel. I kid, do not planning. Yeah,
13:01
Speaker 1: that's yeah, it was. It actually was his his whole
13:04
Speaker 1: his whole stunt was racked with poor planning other people
13:06
Speaker 1: who had already gone over, um, and who who lived
13:09
Speaker 1: around the river. And we're kind of old sea dogs. Um,
13:12
Speaker 1: we're begging the guy to um, you know, test it out,
13:15
Speaker 1: give it a try, reinforce it. Um, just do take
13:19
Speaker 1: all these extra precautinus. He just wouldn't do it. So
13:22
Speaker 1: as soon as you said he had an anvil in
13:24
Speaker 1: the bottom, I kind of foresaw that coming, Yeah, Josh.
13:28
Speaker 1: Another one that I thought was really sad um that
13:30
Speaker 1: parish was George Status in nineteen thirty. He is what
13:35
Speaker 1: Peter Tosh would call him mystic man. Yes, he was
13:39
Speaker 1: chef in New York. He went over with his pet turtle.
13:41
Speaker 1: Sunny Boys talked about a hundred year old turtle named
13:45
Speaker 1: sunny Boy, supposedly, and Um, this one's really sad because
13:50
Speaker 1: he actually went over, perhaps successfully, and was stuck behind
13:55
Speaker 1: the curtain of water and eighteen hours and no one
13:59
Speaker 1: could get to him. And they don't know for sure
14:00
Speaker 1: whether he survived the fall. But if he did, that
14:03
Speaker 1: means he spent um, you know, three to eight hours
14:06
Speaker 1: is all the air he had and he actually perhaps
14:10
Speaker 1: suffocated suffocated. What I took from it was that they
14:13
Speaker 1: examined him and found that yeah, he he most likely
14:16
Speaker 1: had suffocated, but the turtle made it. Yeah, sunny Boy
14:19
Speaker 1: made it. And the whole reason Mr Stapa Kiss took
14:22
Speaker 1: Sonny boy Um was so that if he died, Sunny
14:26
Speaker 1: Boy could tell the tale. And Sunny Boy never really
14:29
Speaker 1: said anything talking turtle. I think that says at all
14:32
Speaker 1: mystic man. Do you want me to do another one? Okay?
14:36
Speaker 1: I love this guy, Nathan Boya. He's the first African
14:39
Speaker 1: American to go over, and he was also he kind
14:42
Speaker 1: of bucked the trend of fame and fortune. Uh. The
14:44
Speaker 1: reason Mr Boya went over was because it was something
14:48
Speaker 1: he just had to do. He felt he had to do. Really,
14:51
Speaker 1: that's what he said. Yeah. So he goes over in
14:53
Speaker 1: nineteen sixty one, and this guy was pretty sharp. He
14:57
Speaker 1: took an oxygen tank with him filled with thirty hour
15:00
Speaker 1: is of air. Um. I believe he had a rebreather
15:03
Speaker 1: and he went over in a h I think it
15:06
Speaker 1: was a metal ball. He dubbed the Plunge of Sphere. Right,
15:09
Speaker 1: he did have a rebreather which removes carbon dioxide. Yeah,
15:12
Speaker 1: it's like scuba exactly. Yeah. So Um, he went over
15:15
Speaker 1: in the falls. He went over the falls. Uh he Um.
15:19
Speaker 1: He was successful. I think he got a little banged up,
15:22
Speaker 1: but not not too much. And he was also the
15:24
Speaker 1: first person to be fined for breaking a law that
15:27
Speaker 1: was enacted um a couple of years earlier after another
15:31
Speaker 1: guy died. Um that it's that makes it that made
15:34
Speaker 1: it illegal to go over Niagara Falls on purpose. So
15:37
Speaker 1: he paid a hundred bucks, which in two thousand eight
15:40
Speaker 1: dollars I looked up with seven five and today's dollars. Yes,
15:45
Speaker 1: as a find. But he was the first one to
15:47
Speaker 1: ever be fined for doing it, because I believe the
15:49
Speaker 1: find today is ten grand or more, yeah or more. Yeah.
15:52
Speaker 1: And it's performing a stunt without a license. Is that
15:54
Speaker 1: what it is? Yeah? And they've never given a license
15:56
Speaker 1: to anybody to do it, which it just seems like
16:00
Speaker 1: a bad idea because that's a lawsuit right there. Um.
16:04
Speaker 1: Do you want to skip ahead to the most recent
16:07
Speaker 1: and most amazing or did you have another one? You? Well,
16:10
Speaker 1: we can go back. Where do we have to do
16:12
Speaker 1: it chronologically? No, we don't. I want to talk about
16:14
Speaker 1: the most recent two thousand three. Well, let's do it,
16:18
Speaker 1: because this guy went over without anything, and he's the
16:22
Speaker 1: only person known to go in on purpose without any
16:25
Speaker 1: kind of flotation, no barrel, no nothing, just close on
16:29
Speaker 1: his back. And there's been speculation over the years whether
16:32
Speaker 1: or not he was suicidal or um wanted fame and fortune.
16:36
Speaker 1: He apparently said that he was in fact depressed for years,
16:40
Speaker 1: and his friends came out later and said, yeah, he
16:43
Speaker 1: talked about trying to commit suicide, and so when he
16:46
Speaker 1: went to Nagre, he literally stood on the other side
16:48
Speaker 1: of the rail and was contemplating it, and a woman
16:51
Speaker 1: behind him, who he did not know, sarcastically said, so,
16:55
Speaker 1: what are you gonna do? Jump? And he said, yes, ma'am,
16:59
Speaker 1: I think I will. And he did so, and he
17:01
Speaker 1: jumped in, and just a few moments later plunged over
17:04
Speaker 1: a horseshoe falls and said that it felt like I
17:08
Speaker 1: was being swallowed by a living organism. I was flying
17:11
Speaker 1: straight down at a tremendous speed, and the force was
17:13
Speaker 1: so great I thought it would rip my head off.
17:15
Speaker 1: Then it became dark, my ears popped, and I was
17:18
Speaker 1: trapped under forty ft of water. Was beating the living
17:21
Speaker 1: heck out of me. No, he didn't, and I couldn't
17:24
Speaker 1: even get to the surface, and I remember thinking, well, Niagara,
17:27
Speaker 1: I think you've beaten me. And he said, then he
17:29
Speaker 1: was pushed forward and felt the sun on his face.
17:32
Speaker 1: What's the guy's name, Kirk Jones? Cool? So Kirk survived.
17:35
Speaker 1: He told a story to Outside magazine among others, and
17:38
Speaker 1: um apparently said it filled them with the will to live.
17:41
Speaker 1: So I would imagine, so good for him, kind of
17:43
Speaker 1: like surviving a plane crash. Right, yeah, exactly, except not
17:46
Speaker 1: quite well yeah, maybe the same, you know, part of
17:50
Speaker 1: the brain, Yeah, I think so. So, okay, can we
17:52
Speaker 1: go back one because there was one other one favorite mentioned? Um, okay,
17:56
Speaker 1: so can we go back? And can I do one
17:58
Speaker 1: more venture back in time? Sure, we'll go back to
18:03
Speaker 1: heady days at the end of the Reagan era, my
18:05
Speaker 1: junior year in high school when still wow, really, I
18:09
Speaker 1: know you're always marveled at my like five years older
18:12
Speaker 1: than you get over. Okay, alright, sorry, um so. So
18:15
Speaker 1: it was the end of the Reagan era, but Nancy
18:17
Speaker 1: Reagan's influence was still very clearly um imprinted upon the
18:21
Speaker 1: National psyche. In particular, two guys named Peter Debon Hardi
18:26
Speaker 1: and Jeffrey Petkevich, right, and they decided that they were
18:30
Speaker 1: going to go over the falls in a barrel, and
18:33
Speaker 1: um they did, and I think a ten ft long
18:36
Speaker 1: metal barrel that was completely enclosed. And the reason that
18:41
Speaker 1: they wanted to do this was because they wanted to
18:44
Speaker 1: make a statement against drugs. And if you look at
18:47
Speaker 1: their barrel, there's a picture of it in the article,
18:49
Speaker 1: it says drugs kill, right, So what they're what they're
18:54
Speaker 1: saying clearly is that it's your it's smarter to go
18:57
Speaker 1: over Niagara Falls in a barrel than it is to
18:59
Speaker 1: do rugs. The problem is is that's just wholly untrue,
19:03
Speaker 1: which is why there's a two million illicit drug users
19:07
Speaker 1: worldwide and only sixteen people who've ever gone over the
19:09
Speaker 1: ragor falls on purpose and were surely endorsing anything. But yeah,
19:13
Speaker 1: going over the falls in a barrel is virtual suicide.
19:16
Speaker 1: It is that kind of struck me. That reminded me.
19:18
Speaker 1: Actually there was the other guy that was trying to
19:20
Speaker 1: raise awareness for the homeless. Yeah, what was that. Yeah,
19:23
Speaker 1: he went over in a jet ski and the plan
19:26
Speaker 1: was to leap off the jet ski and his he
19:28
Speaker 1: had a rocket parachute that was going to open. But
19:31
Speaker 1: there was some kind of malfunction and he died. I'd
19:34
Speaker 1: say the worst of all was Jesse Sharpe. He didn't
19:38
Speaker 1: even have a parachute, and he didn't wear a helmet,
19:42
Speaker 1: and he didn't wear a life preserver, and he went
19:44
Speaker 1: over in a kayak on purpose because he wanted a
19:46
Speaker 1: job in the stunt industry. So I feel very badly
19:49
Speaker 1: for Jesse's family. Yeah he perished, Oh yeah as well. Yeah.
19:52
Speaker 1: I think they found his kayak and that was it, right,
19:54
Speaker 1: So I think the lesson the takeaway, Josh is uh, daredevil,
20:00
Speaker 1: legitimate business. Uh, going over the falls in a barrel
20:03
Speaker 1: not a good idea? No, And and stay off drugs kids,
20:07
Speaker 1: So chuck Audible dot com time, Yeah, our sponsors, and
20:10
Speaker 1: then maybe a little listener mail. Can we can go
20:13
Speaker 1: to that very special listener mail I'm looking forward to
20:16
Speaker 1: And that means it's time for listener mail, not only
20:21
Speaker 1: listener mail, Josh, this is hi Ku theater, you know,
20:25
Speaker 1: Can we get a special Hiku theater sound effect? Wellbviously,
20:28
Speaker 1: I bet it's in there by the time we listen
20:30
Speaker 1: to this. I have seven high kus and they're short
20:34
Speaker 1: because they're high cous and we get them from our listeners.
20:37
Speaker 1: Sometimes they're in the form of corrections. Sometimes they're just
20:39
Speaker 1: pool hikus. Okay. Uh. This one was related to the
20:42
Speaker 1: Airprane Airprane airplane crash from Sarah and Loan, which I liked. Hello,
20:47
Speaker 1: that's my seat? Sorry? Can I squeeze by you? Wow?
20:51
Speaker 1: This is awkward? Okay? Which is do you show them
20:54
Speaker 1: the front of your body or the rear of your body? Again?
20:57
Speaker 1: It comes back to fight club a lot. That's right, Uh,
21:00
Speaker 1: workplace boredom. I will follow this under that one finger
21:03
Speaker 1: on keyboard carpal tunnel sets in slow. My cubicle life
21:08
Speaker 1: is from a boardworker Brianna j O'Sullivan. It's depressing Brianna
21:13
Speaker 1: Maggie Savage of Dover, New Hampshire. Sin this one about
21:15
Speaker 1: the hypoallergenic cats episode Cats and dogs are swell to
21:20
Speaker 1: darn their fur an odd cell, but hey, what the heck?
21:25
Speaker 1: That's in light. Our friend Mary Anne, teaching English and
21:29
Speaker 1: Thailand says this village and Thailand nothing but rice and noodles.
21:34
Speaker 1: I crave cheddar cheese. Yeah, I've read that one too.
21:37
Speaker 1: Have you checked out her blog? It's pretty good. It
21:39
Speaker 1: is very good. Uh. Aaron when sent this his podcast
21:43
Speaker 1: routine control all delete, fresh cup of coffee in hand.
21:47
Speaker 1: Together we start great maybe flo that's very hopeful. This
21:51
Speaker 1: is my favorite. This is from a sixteen year old
21:53
Speaker 1: Timothy Sinclair of Albany, California. Hikus can be strange and
21:58
Speaker 1: in unexpectedly refrigerator. That is my favorite. We have a winner,
22:04
Speaker 1: can we get what? What's the what's the hiku writer's name?
22:07
Speaker 1: The last one that was Timothy Sinclair? And I think
22:10
Speaker 1: he deserves a T shirt. I agreed, Timothy. Send us
22:12
Speaker 1: your address and T shirt size to our email. Please.
22:16
Speaker 1: But that's not all. Oh keep him coming, do not?
22:18
Speaker 1: I only have one more. And this was actually sent
22:20
Speaker 1: today by Eric Jones of Maryland. And Eric just hiked
22:23
Speaker 1: the entirety of the Appalachian Trail and we actually conversed
22:26
Speaker 1: a bit today, uh via email, sent pictures. I'm a
22:30
Speaker 1: hiker myself, so we kind of wrapped back and forth
22:33
Speaker 1: about his experience, and he seems like a very cool guy.
22:35
Speaker 1: So he wrote us a little hiku story about hiking
22:38
Speaker 1: the eight team. So here it is two thousand and eight.
22:41
Speaker 1: I took a long walk on the Appalachian Trail, started
22:45
Speaker 1: in Georgia. Seven months later finished on Mountain. Thank you,
22:52
Speaker 1: came home, bought iPhone, found you guys, then downloaded every
22:56
Speaker 1: show since March played sequentially in two weeks. I learned
23:01
Speaker 1: so much and I'm still learning. Thank you for your
23:04
Speaker 1: time and for your excellent work mentioned me on air.
23:08
Speaker 1: I like the high coups that end with the question
23:10
Speaker 1: marks or refrigerator. That's pretty good. That's the best one, Timothy.
23:14
Speaker 1: Did you find out? Did you find out if Eric
23:16
Speaker 1: hiked naked? As I hear is a trend to view
23:19
Speaker 1: on the a t Judging from the photos he sent,
23:21
Speaker 1: he did not, but they were really gorgeous pictures. You
23:25
Speaker 1: should look. Well. Thanks you hate nature, so thanks to
23:28
Speaker 1: It's not the hate nature is kind of a slug, right, um,
23:31
Speaker 1: So thank you to everybody who sent us high kus
23:34
Speaker 1: or any kind of mail. If you want to send
23:36
Speaker 1: us a high coup or a high guys, you can
23:40
Speaker 1: send that to uh stuff podcast at how stuff works
23:44
Speaker 1: dot com for more on this and thousands of other topics.
23:50
Speaker 1: Does it how stuff works dot Com brought to you
23:55
Speaker 1: by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, are
23:59
Speaker 1: you