Authority has varied meanings in every context. This piece on iFilm has Iiro Seppanen explaining his view of the matter as it relates to jumping off the Stratosphere in Las Vegas. View above, or click through to Base Concepts: Authority.

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Zach saw my story about plane crashes and forwarded me a link to this video of an early parachutist he found on Damn Interesting.

The connection to yesterday’s story is that the video ends with cops measuring the depth of the crater the jumper left after falling almost 1000 feet from the top of the Eiffel Tower. It’s the sort of thing that gets you nominated for a Darwin Award.

The story at WFMU’s Beware of the Blog includes the following notes that apparently accompanied the footage:

Unused / unissued material – Paris, France. Franz Reichelt wearing the parachute that he designed and invented before ascending the Eiffel Tower. Reichelt standing on platform high up on the tower preparing to jump he hovers on the brink for some time and then eventually jumps falling straight down to his death. Police and small crowd around the body of Reichelt as it is carried away, they then measure the depth of the hole made by his fall. The film has French intertitles. Cataloguer’s Note: Old record suggests this event happened 4th February 1912.

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