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Travel (General/Chat)

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  • Fascinating pictures show Delta's 10 decades

    05/14/2019 8:18:41 AM PDT · by WhoisAlanGreenspan? · 45 replies
    Daily Mail ^ | 5/14/2019 | TED THORNHILL
    Delta Air Lines flies to 370 destinations on six continents using a range of hi-tech Airbus and Boeing aircraft But it started life as a crop-dusting outfit in 1924. It expanded to passenger transportation with fiver-seaters The pictures here reveal how air travel with Delta took huge leaps forward from 1936 onwards Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines is worth $37billion (£28billion) and flies to 370 destinations on six continents with state-of-the-art aircraft. Truly, it’s a titan of aviation. But it started life as a crop-dusting outfit in 1924. And when it expanded to passenger transportation it used planes that could only...
  • Fossils from a Philippine cave may come from a new human-like species

    05/13/2019 11:38:20 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 29 replies
    Live Science ^ | April 10, 2019 | Laura Geggel
    The ancient bones and teeth of a previously unknown human relative — one that was even smaller than the so-called Hobbit — have been discovered deep in a cave on an island in the Philippines. The newfound species is named Homo luzonensis in honor of Luzon, the island where the mysterious beings lived during the late Pleistocene epoch, more than 50,000 years ago. At less than 4 feet (1.2 meters) tall, H. luzonensis is the second known dwarf human on record, the first being Homo floresiensis, also known as the Hobbit, whose remains were found on the Indonesian island of...
  • At least 6 missing after 2 Alaska floatplanes carrying cruise passengers collide in mid-air...

    05/13/2019 6:11:51 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 24 replies
    Fox News ^ | 05/13/2019 | Samuel Chamberlain
    Six people were unaccounted for Monday and 10 others were injured after two floatplanes carrying cruise passengers taking part in shore excursions collided in mid-air over Southeast Alaska, officials said. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) spokesman Allen Kenitzer told The Associated Press that the planes collided near the town of Ketchikan under unknown circumstances. Coast Guard Petty Officer Jon-Paul Rios told the AP one of the planes carried 11 people and the other plane carried five. He added that the 10 injured were from the first plane and the 11th person was among the missing. All five people on the second...
  • Space stunner: Moon is shrinking, shocking study reveals

    05/13/2019 1:30:22 PM PDT · by Candor7 · 48 replies
    Fox News ^ | 13 May 2019 | Chris Ciaccia
    Somebody alert Jeff Bezos: the Moon is shrinking. According to a new research study, the Moon may be shrinking as it experiences lunar quakes, known as "moonquakes." Researchers analyzed 28 moonquakes from 1969 to 1977 and came up with the startling observation that eight of the quakes came from "true tectonic activity — the movement of crustal plates," as opposed to impacts from asteroids or rumblings inside the celestial satellite. “We found that a number of the quakes recorded in the Apollo data happened very close to the faults seen in the [NASA’s Apollo and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter missions] LRO...
  • Doodles and poems found in Black Book of Carmarthen

    05/12/2019 9:40:50 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 14 replies
    BBC Wales News ^ | 1 April 2015 | Lucy Ballinger
    The 750-year-old Black Book of Carmarthen is the first Welsh text to include medieval figures such as King Arthur and Merlin... Now, thanks to high resolution photography and UV lighting, some of its secrets have finally been revealed... The collection of poetry and illustrations was penned by one scribe in the 13th Century who added to it over the years. It was then passed from owner to owner, with more additions being made in the margins... But 300 years after it was first written the then owner, believed to be Jaspar Gryffyth, decided to purge the pages of anything that...
  • pdate: One victim dead after Appalachian Trail machete attack, man in custody named

    05/12/2019 2:02:24 PM PDT · by buckalfa · 90 replies
    WSLS News ^ | May 12, 2019 | Lindsey Kinnett / Tommy Lopez
    WYTHE COUNTY, Va. - One of the two victims in Saturday morning’s machete attack on the Appalachian Trail has died and law enforcement has now named the suspect under arrest. A spokesman for the Department of Justice said Sunday that 30-year-old James Jordan was arrested in the early morning hours Saturday. He faces federal charges that include murder and assault with the intent to murder. The spokesman said Sunday that one of the victims has died. 10 News previously reported that investigators said one of the victims, a female, was expected to survive the attack, while the condition of the...
  • Hunt Continues For Air France A380 Engine Fragments In Greenland

    05/12/2019 12:21:21 PM PDT · by DUMBGRUNT · 16 replies
    Simple Flying ^ | 11 May 2019 | Andrea Massey
    Air France Flight 66 suffered an uncontained engine failure in September of 2017. The engine failure occurred while the aircraft was flying in the proximity of Greenland. Some of the missing engine parts are very important for the investigation into the incident. Accordingly, at this time, the hunt continues for the missing Air France A380 engine fragments in Greenland. As CNN reported, “the entire front part of the engine, including the large fan and engine’s casing, completely sheared away.” the French investigation authority BEA has stated that “Quite early in the investigation, it was established that the recovery of the...
  • Will Cook County (Ill.) be home to the next big measles outbreak? <br> Researchers think so.<br>

    05/11/2019 10:55:12 AM PDT · by Tilted Irish Kilt · 9 replies
    chicagotribune.com ^ | 5/9/19 | Katherine Rosenberg-Douglas
    A research project spearheaded by Sahotra Sarkar, a University of Chicago-educated professor at the University of Texas at Austin, revealed the 25 counties most at-risk for a widespread measles outbreak, like those seen in Washington, Oregon and New York. That’s based largely on the number of airplane flights to Chicago from global destinations where parents increasingly don’t have their children vaccinated, she said. “As we know O’Hare is a huge transfer point for travel within the United States, not to mention all of the international flights,” she said. “I’m not surprised that their modeling would’ve predicted that Cook County and...
  • Why Are 96,000,000 Black Balls on This Reservoir?

    05/11/2019 10:00:14 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 76 replies
    YouTube ^ | May 10, 2019 | Veritasium
    I took a boat through 96 million black plastic balls on the Los Angeles reservoir to find out why they're there. The first time I heard about shade balls the claim was they reduce evaporation. But it turns out this isn't the reason they were introduced. Huge thanks to LADWP for arranging this special tour for me. Next time let's put the GoPro on the submersible! The balls are made of high density polyethylene (HDPE) which is less dense than water so they float on the surface of the reservoir even if they break apart. They are 10cm (4 inches)...
  • Woman dies of rabies after bite from puppy she rescued

    05/10/2019 8:27:33 AM PDT · by SMGFan · 57 replies
    NYPost ^ | May 10, 2019
    An animal lover died after being bitten by a puppy she rescued that was infected with rabies, according to reports. Birgitte Kallestad passed away Monday — more than two months after taking in the dog she found roaming the streets of the Philippines, the family said in a statement reported by the Daily Mail. “Our dear Birgitte loved animals,” her family said. “Our fear is that this will happen to others who have a warm heart like her.” The 24-year-old Norwegian was on vacation with her pals and riding mopeds when they came across the pooch.
  • First examples of Iberian prehistoric 'imitation amber' beads at gravesites

    05/07/2019 8:22:24 AM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 9 replies
    EurekAlert! ^ | May 1, 2019 | PLOS
    Prehistoric Iberians created "imitation amber" by repeatedly coating bead cores with tree resins... Many studies have confirmed the ornamental and symbolic importance of amber to European prehistoric peoples. This study is the first to discuss potential prehistoric Iberian "imitation amber" beads made using the application of repeated resinite coatings on top of a bead core. The authors obtained beads from two prehistoric sites in Spain: two from a cave tomb at the La Molina site in Sevilla, dating from the 3rd millennium BC, and four from a burial site in Cova del Gegant near Barcelona, dating from the 2nd millennium...
  • Florida woman pulls alligator from her pants during traffic stop

    05/07/2019 6:24:35 AM PDT · by Red Badger · 56 replies
    FOX News ^ | 05-06-2019 | By Nicole Darrah
    A Florida woman pulled an alligator out of her pants during a traffic stop on Monday — a strange move that might just rank on the state's list of odd reported crimes. Ariel Machan-Le Quire, 25, was in the passenger's seat of a vehicle around 3:30 a.m. in Punta Gorda when she was pulled over, the Miami Herald reported, citing an incident report from the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office. The department said that the woman was asked if she had anything else in the vehicle, and then “proceeded to pull an alligator out of her yoga pants (about one foot...
  • Ayahuasca fixings found in 1,000-year-old bundle in the Andes

    05/06/2019 11:23:24 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 23 replies
    EurekAlert! ^ | Monday, May 6, 2019 | University of California - Berkeley
    Today's hipster creatives and entrepreneurs are hardly the first generation to partake of ayahuasca, according to archaeologists who have discovered traces of the powerfully hallucinogenic potion in a 1,000-year-old leather bundle buried in a cave in the Bolivian Andes. Led by University of California, Berkeley, archaeologist Melanie Miller, a chemical analysis of a pouch made from three fox snouts sewn together tested positive for at least five plant-based psychoactive substances. They included dimethyltryptamine (DMT) and harmine, key active compounds in ayahuasca, a mind-blowing brew commonly associated with the Amazon jungle... Miller's analysis of a scraping from the fox-snout pouch and...
  • Soviet SU-152 damage to Nazi Tanks (during World War II)

    05/06/2019 5:27:48 AM PDT · by vannrox · 88 replies
    EnglishRussia.com ^ | 7apr17 | tim
    SU-152 was a legendary Soviet howitzer canon. It was called a “Heavy Tank Destroyer” because of severe damage it caused to German “Panther” and “Tiger” tanks. Let’s see why Nazi tank drivers were so afraid of it:Those are examples of the German tanks being hit by SU-152.There was very small chance for survival for the crews. Panther tank front armor – completely crashed by SU-152.Hope you liked this story!
  • Florida plane accident: Landing feature [thrust reverser] failed on aircraft

    05/05/2019 9:46:43 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 30 replies
    BBC ^ | 05/05/2019
    "The aircraft had been in maintenance and the maintenance log noted that the left hand thrust reverser was inoperative," Bruce Landsberg, vice-chairman of the US National Transportation Safety Board, told a press conference on Sunday. Mr Landsberg added that shortly before they landed, the pilots had asked to change to a runway which had equipment set up on it, and which therefore had less space available. "We don't know what they were thinking or why that was their choice," he said. Miami Air International is contracted by the US military for its twice-weekly "rotator" service between the US mainland and...
  • DIANA ROSS: I FELT VIOLATED BY NOLA TSA!!!... Made Me Wanna Cry

    05/05/2019 2:05:33 PM PDT · by EdnaMode · 93 replies
    TMZ ^ | May 5, 2019
    Diana Ross says a TSA agent at a New Orleans airport took a pat-down search too far -- which left her feeling shaken and violated afterward. The legendary soul singer described her experience early Sunday morning in a string of tweets, explaining that while she's normally treated like royalty in NOLA ... she got the exact opposite treatment at an airport there -- saying, "I was treated like [expletive]." [snip] Ms. Ross says she's not blaming the airline she flew with -- Delta, apparently -- but instead is pointing the finger at a female TSA agent that conducted an "over...
  • What Did People Eat and Drink in Roman Palestine?

    05/04/2019 7:41:11 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 66 replies
    Biblical Archaeology Review ^ | April 23, 2019 | Megan Sauter
    In a land flowing with milk and honey, what kinds of food made up the ancient Jewish diet? What did people eat and drink in Roman Palestine? Susan Weingarten guides readers through a menu of the first millennium C.E. in her article "Biblical Archaeology 101: The Ancient Diet of Roman Palestine," published in the March/April 2019 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review. Although it is difficult to reconstruct the diet of the average person in Palestine during the Roman and Late Antique periods, Weingarten, as both a food historian and an archaeologist, is well equipped for the task. Using archaeological remains...
  • Mysterious odor forces Spirit Airlines flight to return to LAX

    05/04/2019 1:46:04 PM PDT · by BenLurkin · 29 replies
    KABC ^ | 05/03/2019 | Carlos Granda
    It was a scare for passengers on Spirit Airlines flight 630 from LAX to Denver, Colorado. About 40 minutes into the flight, the plane was forced to turn around. Some passengers in the front of the cabin said they felt ill. On the ground, firefighters opened the baggage compartment door wearing full protective gear with oxygen tanks. They entered the belly of the plane looking for anything unusual. Only one person was transported to the hospital. In a statement, the company said in part: "The aircraft in question has been taken out of service while our maintenance team inspects it....
  • Man injured after falling from cliff into volcano caldera

    05/03/2019 6:18:02 AM PDT · by sodpoodle · 42 replies
    ABC/MSN ^ | 5/3/2019 | not listed
    A man has been injured after he fell into the caldera of the Kilauea volcano on Hawaii's Big Island, according to officials. The man fell from a 300-foot cliff after climbing over a permanent metal railing at the Steaming Bluff overlook to get closer to the edge, according to a press release from Hawaii Volcanoes National Park. He was rescued by park rangers. (MORE: Satellite images show effects of Kilauea volcano's latest eruption on Hawaii's Big Island) Another visitor reported that the man had fallen around 6:30 p.m. Wednesday. Search-and-rescue crews found him alive but seriously injured on a narrow...
  • Trump easing offshore drilling safety rules from Deepwater

    05/02/2019 5:37:15 PM PDT · by Olog-hai · 5 replies
    Associated Press ^ | May 2, 2019 | Janet McConnaughey and Ellen Knickmeyer
    The Trump administration moved Thursday to give oil and gas companies more flexibility in meeting safety requirements imposed after the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon explosion, which killed nearly a dozen people and was the worst offshore oil disaster in U.S. history. The revised rules, which govern safety standards at offshore wells, come as the administration pushes to expand drilling off the U.S. coast, although court challenges and opposition from many coastal states have slowed its efforts. The new safety changes were sought by the industry but fiercely challenged by environmentalists. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said in a statement the administration...