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On the anniverary of the death of Sam Patch

I will quote liberally from Wikipedia:

Niagra Falls
In the fall of 1829, Patch gained fame by leaping into the Niagara River near the base of Niagara Falls. The stunt had been unsuccessfully attempted earlier by a man named Morgan. Patch was the star attraction at an event designed to draw visitors to the falls. A 125-foot ladder was extended over the river below Goat Island opposite the Cave of the Winds. Less than an hour before the scheduled noon jump, a chain securing the ladder to the cliff wall snapped, breaking 15 feet from the ladder. Rescheduled for 4 PM, Patch jumped on time. A boat circled near the entry point, but Patch did not appear. When he was finally spotted on the shore, a great roar went up from the crowd.

Bad weather and the delay in his arrival drew a disappointingly small crowd for this jump, so Patch announced he would repeated the feat a second time October 17. A few days later, 10,000 gathered to watch him keep his word.

Following his feat at Niagara falls, Sam Patch achieved nationwide fame. His name became a household word and his slogan, "Some things can be done as well as others," became a popular slang expression across the nation.

Rochester
Shortly after, Patch went to Rochester, New York, to challenge the 99-foot High Falls of the Genesee River. On Friday November 6, 1829, in front of an estimated 7,000 to 8,000 spectators, Patch went out onto a rock ledge in the middle of the falls. He first threw a pet bear cub over the falls and the cub managed to swim safely to shore. Patch then successfully jumped after the bear.

Last jump
His first jump into the Genesee River raised a disappointing amount of money, so he decided to repeat the stunt one week later on November 13, 1829 (Friday the 13th). This time, he increased the height of the jump to 125 feet by constructing a 25-foot stand. Accounts from the 8,000 present differ on whether he actually jumped or fell, but he did not achieve his normal feet-first vertical entry. A loud impact was heard and he never surfaced. Rumors were passed that he had hidden in a cave at the base of the falls, and was enjoying all the excitement he had created. But his frozen body was found in the ice in Charlotte (Rochester) early the next spring by Silas Hudson. Local ministers and newspapers were quick to blame the crowd for urging him to jump, and put the guilt of his death on them.

He was buried in Charlotte Cemetery, near where his body was found. A wooden board (now gone) was placed over his grave:


    Sam Patch – Such is Fame.

Moon Surrenders!

Nikon D100, 70-300mm

NASA reports that our bombing campaign has been a success. After billions of years of withholding information about the state of its water retention capabilities, the moon was forced today to reveal the truth: it is in fact in possession of a large quantity of water, though in a form that is not readily converted to the liquid water that we are most concerned about.

NASA says it will continue to investigate the data, to see if the moon is hiding anything else we should know about.

Oh iTunes, Why do you torment me so?

One of the many half-assed features in iTunes is the way it handles album artwork. If you ripped the CDs yourself, iTunes won't associate an album cover with the songs, and then you wont have anything to look at while the song plays! Oh noes. But, you can tell iTunes to go forth into the wilderness and gather the album covers unto itself. It does a terrible job of this. Just terrible.

For its latest failure, iTunes chose this cover from independent country duo, "Barrett & Smith":

...for Elliott Smith's self-titled album.

I checked out the MP3s to see if there was a chance they didn't contain enough info to identify the album. The artist is "Elliott Smith", the album is "Elliott Smith", the composer is "Elliott Smith".

On what planet does "Elliott Smith" = "Barrett & Smith", three times ?

iTunes exhibits failure.