Results tagged “niagarafalls”

The man who survived a 167-foot jump from the Horseshoe Falls into the frigid Niagara River is now in stable condition at a Canadian hospital. The 30-year-old Canadian man, who stayed in the water for 40 minutes because he refused to be helped out (he was eventually pushed ashore by a helicopter's wind into a firefighter), and a head injury. Ontario Parks Police Chief Douglas Kane told the Buffalo News, “There are very few rescues at the falls. Most of them are recoveries. That’s what is so amazing about this. And what’s really even more amazing is that he is expected to make a full recovery.” Kane also said the man would not be charged, because it was a suicide attempt and does not violate Ontario law—unlike the 2003 jump made by U.S. citizen Kirk Jones. Jones, who survived, had claimed he was suicidal but it turned out he told people he was jumping as a stunt.

Yesterday afternoon, a man jumped into the frigid Niagara River, was swept down the Horseshoe Falls—all 180 feet—and survived. The Buffalo News reports, "Naked and despondent, with a gash on his head, the man was caught in a slow-moving circle of frigid water below the falls when rescuers made it down a steep embankment shortly after 2 p. m. to a point where Firefighter Todd Brunning could enter the water."

A look at some noteworthy television this week:

Uh oh, wait till State Senator Carl Kruger hears about this! A Polish tourist was rescued from an icy patch at the "brink of Niagara Falls" on Saturday. The AP reports that 29-year-old Waldek Kubicki "slid down a hill as he tried to retrieve a dropped cell phone." Kubicki had been stranded on an "iced-over rock formation" for almost an hour. The photograph at top shows Kubicki stranded; in the photograph at left, Kubicki is behind pulled by the rope with State Parks officer behind him. Kubicki and a friend were visited Niagara Falls for the day; Kubicki has been in Lancaster, PA to study English on a six-month program.

For nerds like us, every Tuesday is like a birthday – with a new NYT Science Times section ready to be violently unwrapped, played with, and tossed aside. So here’s this week’s: Predigested and regurgitated in an owl-like fashion just for you!

The NY State Democratic Convention is taking place in Buffalo today and tomorrow (the NY State Republican Convention is in Long Island on Wednesday and Thursday), and the gloves are coming off as the Democrats are looking to grab the Governor's house. Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, the Democratic frontrunner for the gubernatorial nomination, called the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation "an abject failure". Well, of course he would say that - didn't recently resigned LMDC chairman John Whitehead claim Spitzer had threatened him on the phone? Spitzer didn't mince any words: He called what's happening downtown an "Enron-style debacle." The LMDC said that Spitzer was continuing his vendetta against Whitehead, and Governor Pataki's spokesperson also used the word "vendetta" when criticizing Spitzer's words about a World War II veteran on Memorial Day, no less. Whitehead might be a WWII veteran, but a better question would be, what got done at Ground Zero?

Holy white shoe: A tax attorney at Cravath, Swain and Moore is on the run from police who want him in New York to face various charges of paying a mother to have sex with her young teen daughters. James Colliton was caught at Niagara Falls, and the Ontario police were holding him - but somehow, he was released, much to the DA's office's dismay. The girls' mother is being held on $100,000 for promoting prostitution, and it's just heartbreaking to hear that she would make her daughters return to Colliton for sex. One daughter was 15 when her Colliton paid for her, and her sister was 13 when Colliton set his eyes on her last year.

On Jan. 29 and 30, the Museum will present a marathon of Wonderfalls, that short-lived Fox series from last fall that was cancelled after only four episodes-barely enough time to form an opinion. To refresh: set in Niagara Falls, an underachieving Brown graduate finds herself talking to inanimate objects in a local gift shop. Way quirky!

"Love Canal Declared Clean, Ending Toxic Horror" from The New York Times.

Charlie Suisman