Skydiver Falls 2K Feet, Hits Steel Roof, Lives

Felix Baumgartner will fall from 23 miles up

(NEWSER) - If you have a fear of heights, don’t read on: An Austrian adventurer plans to jump from the very edge of space later this year, falling from the dizzying height of about 23 miles. (That's 120,000 feet; for comparison's sake, consider that the average passenger plane flies at just 35,000 feet.) If he is successful, Felix Baumgartner will break the record for the highest skydive ever—and he may even break the sound barrier. He will wear a pressurized suit that will protect him and provide oxygen (unless, of course, it leaks, notes the morbid BBC ). More»

Care for some fertilizer with your burger?

(NEWSER) - Duck feathers, human hair, fertilizer: These are among the ingredients you may be ingesting every time you chow down on fast food. That's because the FDA has deemed certain additives to be "generally recognized as safe," even though it may creep you out to learn of them. On Mother Nature Network , Melissa Breyer runs down eight of the most disturbing:

• Duck feathers and human hair: These two unappealing things are the most common sources for an amino acid, l-cysteine, used to make dough easier to process. McDonald's uses l-cysteine, the duck feather kind, in its apple pie.
• Fertilizer: Ammonium sulfate is also commonly used, as "yeast food for bread," in fast food bakery products. But it can also act as a fertilizer for alkaline soils.

Squaw Valley ski resort opens first ski-thru Starbucks

(NEWSER) - Tired of having to take off your skis, trudge inside, and peel off your snow gear just to get a tall half-caff mocha with skim milk? Well, those days are over for skiers at California's Squaw Valley resort. Now they have access to the world's first ski-thru Starbucks location, perched at an altitude of 7,900 feet, OntheSnow reports. More»

Peter Kantorowski says she'd be better off in a home with 'people her own age'

(NEWSER) - Like many Americans, Mary Kantorowski has been ordered to leave her home, but it's not a bank telling her to get out—it's her own son. Kantorowski, 98, is locked in a legal battle with her eldest son, Peter, 71, who wants to sell the house she's lived in since 1953. "Mary has been living here happily paying all the expenses," her court-appointed lawyer tells the Connecticut Post , "and now her son, Peter, comes along and is telling her, 'Get the hell out,' so he can sell it." More»

Seller James Labrecque tries to get half the cash, fails

(NEWSER) - When James Labrecque listed an old safe—to which he did not have the combination—on eBay, the seller warned, "What you see is what you get, no returns, and no money back." A Tennessee man purchased it for $122.93, had a welder cut it open—and found $26,000 inside. The buyer shared the news with Labrecque via a positive review on the auction site, and Labrecque quickly attempted to convince the buyer to give him some of the cash, to no avail. In fact, WMC-TV reports, the buyer quoted Labrecque's own eBay disclaimer right back to him when turning him down. More»