Free Republic

God Bless Them All!

EVERETT -- With the first flight of the 787 Dreamliner only about eight months away, The Boeing Co. conducted a "virtual" rollout of the plane Wednesday before several thousand 787 workers here. On a huge screen in one of the Everett factory bays, they watched various computer simulations of how the Dreamliner will come together, ranging from parts installation to final assembly. It was no video game. The 16 terabytes of design, manufacturing and assembly data for the 787 are stored on servers in Bellevue. The digital tooling details where every screw and bolt will go and how the wings...

An Atlas Air Boeing 747 and a United Airlines Boeing 737-300 involved in a runway incursion this summer at Chicago O’Hare came within 35ft (11m) of colliding, much closer than originally believed, the US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has revealed. In the aftermath of the July 23 incident, US authorities estimated the aircraft came within 200-300ft of each other, although this was understood to be the distance between the fuselages as the 737 passed above the 747, and not the measurement between the widebody’s tail and the 737’s undercarriage. Now a three dimensional animated reconstruction of the runway incursion...

The Brazilian air force (FAB) has released photographs of the Embraer Legacy 600 business jet that collided with a Gol Linhas Aereas Boeing 737-800 on Friday killing 151 passengers and crew on board. The air force has begun its investigation into the case of the crash and has retained the Embraer aircraft. The aircraft (N600XL, pictured below) was on its delivery flight to the new owner, Excelaire, and was scheduled to land at Embraer's facility in Manaus to refuel. Following the collision, the Legacy 600 landed at the Cachimbo air force base. The FAB says the aircraft, which has a...

Yellowstone National Park officials, criticized for marring the landscape near the Old Faithful geyser with a cellular-phone tower, are preparing a plan to cover any expansion of wireless towers, antennas and TV and radio services in the park.

A man fell from a Seattle overpass early this morning onto Interstate 5 where he was hit by two vehicles and killed, police said. The man, who has not been identified by investigators, and another man, age 31, had been drinking and were trying to see who could hang above the interstate from the Olive Way overpass the longest, Seattle police spokeswoman Debra Brown said. The unidentified man struggled and could not pull himself up, Brown said. The other man tried to help him, but he slipped and fell to the traffic below. The man was hit by a semi-truck,...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Prosecutors are investigating the death of a man who was subdued by several fellow airline passengers after he became disruptive on a New York-bound flight, a spokesman said Sunday. William Lee was pronounced dead late Friday after he was removed from the American Airlines flight at Kennedy International Airport. The cause of death had not yet been determined and was under investigation. Lee, 48, of New York, stood up in his seat on American's Flight 4 from Los Angeles and "loudly demanded another beer," airline spokesman Tim Smith said. Flight attendants asked him to wait until...

Average annual return = (current value/investment) to the power of (1/number of years) - 1 excel formula: =+(cv/i)^(1/n)-1

SAN DIEGO -- A 43-foot cross is to be removed from public land after a 15-year legal battle came to an end this week when the City Council rejected a proposal to transfer the land around the cross to the National Park Service.

I found that Real Player medium worked best.

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Through 22 months of occupation and war in Iraq, the word "America" was usually the first to pass through the lips of an Iraqi with a gripe. Why can't the Americans produce enough electricity? Why can't the Americans guarantee security? Why can't the Americans find my stolen car? Last week, as the euphoria of nationwide elections washed over Iraq, a remarkable thing happened: Iraqis, by and large, stopped talking about the Americans. With the ballots still being counted, the Iraqi candidates retired to the backrooms to cut political deals, leaving the Americans, for the first time since...

I have been called old, jaded, a sourpuss. Far worse, I have been called French. A response is in order. You know the dispute. Last week I slammed the president's inaugural address. I was not alone, but I came down hard, early and in one of the most highly read editorial pages in America. Bill Buckley and David Frum also had critical reactions. Bill Safire on the other hand called it one of the best second inaugurals ever, and commentators from right and left (Bill Kristol, E.J. Dionne) found much to praise and ponder. (To my mind the best response...

EUGENE, Ore. – The University of Oregon is defending its decision to tell one of its delivery drivers to remove a "Support Our Troops" magnet from the state-owned truck he uses at work. Oregon law prohibits personal messages on state-owned vehicles, regardless of the context. Several months ago, driver Pete Baker put the yellow ribbon magnet on the back of the state truck. University officials learned of the magnet and said last week it had to come off, and Baker's story quickly found its way to radio talk shows and to several military Web logs. "I don't know how they...

Whoa!

Very Moving. Click on the link. God Bless Them All.

(snip) How is Mrs. Clinton positioning herself in terms of the issues? She is taking care of her liberal base while cherry-picking key issues on which she can get to the right of the Republican party. This is most astute and quite effective. For the liberals she produces a steady stream of base-friendly efforts (Special Committee on the Aging, education funding, help for the emotionally disturbed, extended unemployment insurance) and classic pork barrel. To get to the right of the president she talks homeland security and immigration. On homeland security she fights for increased funding, better controls at U.S. ports,...

The man at the Christmas tree tent in Malibu kept winking at me and nodding when no one else was looking. I smiled and kept looking at the trees. (In Malibu, we Jews have Christmas trees.) Finally, he motioned to me to come over to is table. He cupped his hand over his mouth and took my hand. "We won," he said. "We won." I knew exactly what he meant. "You can talk about it," I said. "This is America." "Yes, but it's also Malibu and I don't want people yelling at me." A few minutes later, I was grabbing...

Vietnam-era men offer aid in Canada to Iraq deserters VANCOUVER, B.C. -- War can turn strangers into brothers. It's true if they're fighting it, and it's true if they're resisting it, as Vietnam War resisters resettled in this Canadian province know. In an American era of "love it or leave it," they left. Now a number have joined to help peace activists here form a new "underground railway" for resisters to the Iraq war, providing food and shelter and transportation north. The new generation of resisters includes AWOL airborne soldier Jeremy Hinzman, 25, who seeks refuge in Canada. His Canadian...

The democrats just passed a $750k check to the Secretary of State for a state wide hand recount. $200k of that came from John Kerry.