I'm sorry to spoil a good story, but that shark selfie was faked. It was a Photoshop combination of these two photos:

You can see the swimming pool floor in the photo on the left. Full back story is here:

http://antiviral.gawker.com/fake-shark-attack-selfie-tries-fails-to-kill-fall-out-1620360061

As for those Russian climbers, however, I think at least some of those are real. I've seen their videos on YouTube, very scary, I get sweaty palms just watching.

Otherwise, yes, I agree with your bullet list on what makes for quality content.