Thrill-Seeking Surfer Rides Glacial Waves (VIDEO)

by Libby Zay on
Record-smashing surfer Garrett McNamara has long been known for adrenaline-seeking stunts. Always chasing what he calls “the rush,” he is perhaps best known for riding the biggest ocean wave, a 78-foot mammoth in Portugal. But in a recent CNN report, McNamara says it’s difficult to get that rush anymore now that he’s felt the thrill of riding a glacial wave, what might be one of the most death-defying extreme sports ever dreamed up.

McNamara became the first man to ride a glacial swell in 2007 with some help from Kealii Mamala, who towed him on a jet ski (it’s not technically cheating, the practice is known as “tow-surfing”). In a test of patience, the duo waited in freezing waters for 20 hours a day over the course of an entire week until a chunk of ice fell off a 300-foot glacier, creating a nine-story wave. McNamara tells CNN riding the wave was “mind-bending,” and has since found it difficult to “get that rush in the ocean.”

Watch the video above, but be warned: the videographer is in such shock that it’s happening, he can’t help but yell obscenities.

Despite Sea Of Controversy, Paula Deen Cruises Will Sail On

by Libby Zay on

As Paula Deen’s history of using racial slurs has come to light, the celebrity chef has been dropped by the Food Network, Caesars Entertainment, Smithfield, Walmart and Target. But despite a sea of controversy, it looks like two cruises boasting her name will set sail.

ABC News writes New Jersey-based Alice Travel has put together two Deen-themed cruises for 2014, one in January on the Celebrity Reflection and a second in July on the Royal Caribbean. Cruises with Deen have been organized for the past four years, and plans for 2014 were already underway before the controversy erupted – but if anything, the recent turn of events has made them even more popular.

“People are calling and saying they want to support her, even people who have never been on a cruise before. They’re saying they definitely want to go,” Phyllis Loverdi, vice president of Alice Travel, tells the news outlet.

On the Paula Deen Cruise Facebook page, a notice says the company expects both of the 500-capacity cruises will sell out. It’s a win-win for the cruise lines, too; they have no direction association with Deen since the cruises are marketed and sold exclusively through Alice Travel.

On This Tiny Island, Men Speak A Different Language

by Libby Zay on

Sure, you might have rolled your eyes and joked that men and women speak different languages, but in a tiny atoll in Micronesia men actually do.

MentalFloss charted the history of this men-only language spoken on Sapwuahfik, an island northeast of Australia in the Caroline Islands formerly known as Ngatik. In the 1800s, an Australian captain ordered his crew and some Micronesian warriors to massacre all of the men on the island so he could take control of a valuable supply of tortoise shells there. Some sailors and warriors ended up staying, claiming the widowed island women as their wives.

The island has since repopulated and formed a new culture and language, a dialect of the Ponapean language of the region. But about 700 men on Sapwuahfik and the nearby major island of Pohnpei speak a special “men’s only” language, a mixture of the language of the island and English, called Ngatikese Men’s Language or Ngatikese Pidgin. Although women and children can understand it, the language is mainly spoken when men are engaged in activities like fishing and boat building, a kind of echo of the voices of those 19th-century sailors.

Transformers Invade Orlando, Take No Prisoners

by Chris Owen on

Ever think being part of an intergalactic battle to save the Earth might be an interesting day’s work? Yes? Well head on over to Universal Studios Florida and help the Autobots fight off invading Decepticons at Transformers: The Ride, now open and ready to recruit your help.

“Transformers is one of the movie industry’s most successful franchises and Universal’s ride offers a four-minute, condensed version of all the action that people loved from those movies,” Robert Niles, editor of Theme Park Insider told NBC News. “It’s just the robots, fighting, with the audience along for the ride – literally.”

Heralded by an elaborate pyrotechnics ceremony, a Transformers song by the band Cheap Trick and a flyover of private jets, Transformers: The Ride opened last week to kick off the central Florida attractions summer season. Basically, the 4 1/2 minute ride is an interactive battle between the Autobots and Decepticons.The queue for the ride begins at the headquarters of NEST (Nonbiological Extraterrestrial Species Treaty). As the story goes, the evil Decepticons want Allspark, a source of energy nestled in NEST. Using flight simulator technology, movie screens, wind, smoke, heat and other effects, the ride takes guests after Decepticons, including Megatron, Grindor, Devastator, Sideswipe and Bonecrusher. Guests survive explosions, crashes, free falls, missiles and more as good wins out over evil, all in 3D.

JetBlue Helps Man Pull Off Proposal At 10,000 Feet (VIDEO)

by Libby Zay on
JetBlue helped a man pull off a sky high proposal when the company let him take over the plane’s in-flight entertainment system to showcase a video montage of the couple’s five years together before he wedged himself between airline seats to get down on one knee.

“I’ve been with Taryn for five years and she’s the love of my life, so I had to do something that was super special,” Adam Leisle, 28, told GoodMorningAmerica.com. “I had heard of people proposing on flights, but it was always over the PA system, and they didn’t really have a plan to it.”

According to ABC News, it took months of back-and-forth organization between Leisle and JetBlue to try and figure out how to get the video to play on the company’s internal channel without being broadcast on every other flight in the air. But in the end, everything went off flawlessly, except, perhaps, for the fact that it’s a little hard to hear his proposal over the sound of the flight. But still, kudos to JetBlue for going above and beyond on this one – they even handed out cake pops to everyone on board the plane, and then greeted the newly engaged couple when they exited the plane with a congratulatory cake and a champagne toast.