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From this site:

Lecomte, born 1967, immigrated from France to Austin, Texas, at age 23. When his father died of colon cancer in 1992, it spurred him to do something extraordinary to raise awareness of and money for cancer research. With the help of Edward Coyle, director of UT Austin's Human Performance Lab, and dieticians, Lecomte trained to build his endurance, swimming and cycling 3 to 5 hours a day, six days a week for two years. On 16 July 1998 he set out from Cape Cod with 8 wet suits, a snorkel and some flippers into turning weather. Navigated through the 40th and 50th latitude by two French sailors on a 12m (40 foot) sailboat and protected by an electronic force field, Lecomte swam 6 to 8 hours a day at two-hour intervals. He mainly used the crawl stroke, switching occasionally to a mono fin and using an undulating dolphin kick to carry him over the 5 600km (3 736 nautical miles) of relentless waves. 72 days later, on 28 September, he swam ashore exhausted but heroic at Quiberon, France.

Tetzchner would not be the first. Benoit Lecomte swam the Atlantic in 1998.

In case anybody is wondering - of course that cannot be done. While the atlantic ocean has been swum, it was done by swimming six hours a day in two hour intervals (and took almost 80 days). And the person who did it was a highly trained swimmer, not a corporate CEO.

Also, going via Iceland might be a bad idea - since in the north atlantic he will freeze to death without a dry suit. And try surface swimming six hours with a dry suit some time...

I have A HREF right here that tells the brief story of the origin of BofA. Given this history, maybe Darl and friends simply just wised up at the last minute when they realized who they would be messing with and feared seeing plastic sheets covering the carpet in any rooms they might walk into at the bank.

Impractical fantasy? Japan, Germany, Britain and many others all have them... Certainly not impractical nor a fantasy; more likely mismanagement of funds?

Okay, I'm not a beer nut, but I have read that tere's an interesting story behind that slogan...

Apparently, there is a Czech town called Budweis where they have been brewing a beer called "Budejovicky" or "Budweiser"(Which means 'from Budweis') since 12th century or so. Since the 16th century, they have been called "The beer of kings", presumably because actual kings drank it. In the 19th century, the Anheuser-Busch company decided to make a beer styled after the Budweis beers, and called it Budweiser. Apparently they did not have a very creative marketing staff, so their slogan became "The king of beers", which they use to this day.

Anheuser-Busch has apparently been strongarming people over that particular trademark, as well as suing over the 'Budweiser' trademark. That second link is particularly interesting, it has facts like how American Budweiser can't legally be called a 'beer' in Germany because they use rice in brewing and so forth.

Speaking of 'Beer of Presidents', I wonder what Mr. Bush actually drinks?

Okay, I'm not a beer nut, but I have read that tere's an interesting story behind that slogan...

Apparently, there is a Czech town called Budweis where they have been brewing a beer called "Budejovicky" or "Budweiser"(Which means 'from Budweis') since 12th century or so. Since the 16th century, they have been called "The beer of kings", presumably because actual kings drank it. In the 19th century, the Anheuser-Busch company decided to make a beer styled after the Budweis beers, and called it Budweiser. Apparently they did not have a very creative marketing staff, so their slogan became "The king of beers", which they use to this day.

Anheuser-Busch has apparently been strongarming people over that particular trademark, as well as suing over the 'Budweiser' trademark. That second link is particularly interesting, it has facts like how American Budweiser can't legally be called a 'beer' in Germany because they use rice in brewing and so forth.

Speaking of 'Beer of Presidents', I wonder what Mr. Bush actually drinks?

Diamonds can burn in air at around 1560F (see here.)

Diamonds are brittle: you can smash them with a hammer! (see here.)

For example, there is the Hunley, which was effectively used to sink a ship with a harpoon-torpedo. Or even before that, in 1776 with the Turtle.

And while the first real submarines were not built before the 1890's, I doubt Vernes was the main inspiration for all the work done on them. There was even a Nautilus in 1801!

The Times article is nice and gives a good feel of what new generations trains will feel for passengers in a distant future, however the technology and the various experimental versions of high speed levitating trains are not exactly new.

Maglev research started in 1962, and by 1970 studies of electrodynamic levitation systems using superconducting magnets took shape. The first test run took place in 1979. In December 1986, a 3-car train registered 352.4 kph (220 mph). In December 1997, a manned MLX01 attained 531 kph (331 mph), and unmanned, attained 550 kph (344 mph). The following year, a test of two trains passing each other at a relative speed of 966 kph was run successfully. In March 1999, an unmanned five-car MLX01 reached 548 kph (342 mph). In April, the manned five-car MLX01 set a fabulously fast world speed record at 552 kph (345 mph).

We can see that the Japanese aren't ready for commercial deployment yet, as the article reads on:

• A Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry official said there are many problems to be resolved before the maglev can be put into practical use...

Europeans daily experience high speed trains for the last decade, with the Eurostar and the TGV cruising commercially at over 300 kph (188 mph). The German have the ICE, which reaches 330 kph (206 mph). The Spanish Talgo is in the works and will do 350 kph (218 mph).