The Whole World Is Jumpable

Not everything crazy that a lot of people do can be called a trend; it may simply be a crazy thing that a lot of people do. But it's worth noticing when an increasing number of youngish folks, more than 400 worldwide, seek to get their kicks from jumping off bridges and roofs. If this is how they behave in flush times, imagine what they would do in a depression.

Their extreme sport is called BASE jumping, whose acronymic name derives from the four types of structures that its unusual athletes leap from--buildings, antennas, spans (bridges) and earth (cliffs). Equipped with...