Free Republic

SCOTTISH rally champion Colin McRae has been killed in a helicopter crash close to his Lanarkshire home. The Twin Squirrel helicopter registered to the former world champion rally driver came down shortly after 4pm yesterday about 200 yards from his 17th-century mansion. Police sources said the blue helicopter used by the 39-year-old multi-millionaire had exploded in a "fireball". Eyewitness David Lowry, who lives nearby, said he watched as the helicopter plunged into a valley. As many as four people are thought to have died in the crash. Jean-Eric Freudiger, McRae's agent, confirmed McRae had been piloting the helicopter. Locals said...

(CBS 11 News) DALLAS When you dial 9-1-1, how quickly do you expect a police officer to respond? Some crime victims in Dallas have waited for hours for police to arrive on scene. A CBS 11 investigation found that the problem is widespread. When a crime has been committed against you, there's usually a sinking feeling. "I opened the door, and the first thing I see was the T.V. was missing," said Dallas resident Jonathan Cardenas. "When I pulled my drapes back, the door was wide open," said another victim, a 94-year-old woman. Then there's usually an instinct to seek...

Ford Motor plans to sell Jaguar and Land Rover, its two British luxury brands, in an apparent step back from premium carmaking. Ford has asked Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and HSBC to advise on the sale, which is said to be in early stages and does not include Volvo, the third luxury brand in its Premier Automotive Group. The lossmaking car companyÂ’s share price was trading 1.5 per cent higher at $8.36 on Monday afternoon after news of the sale emerged. Ford is understood to be selling the two brands jointly. Jaguar and Land RoverÂ’s vehicles do not share common...

Developing - multiple funnel clouds spotted east of Fort Worth, tornado/CD sirens going off. Big nasty storm system heading this way. Quarter size hail reported. Live feed of radar: http://kxas.weatherplus.com/liveradar/9643426/detail.html

Mystery cat takes regular bus to the shops Last updated at 17:08pm on 9th April 2007 Bus drivers have nicknamed a white cat Macavity after it has started using the No 331 several mornings a week. The feline, which has a purple collar, gets onto the busy Walsall to Wolverhampton bus at the same stop most mornings - he then jumps off at the next stop 400m down the road, near a fish and chip shop. The cat was nicknamed Macavity after the mystery cat in T.S Elliot's poem. He gets on the bus in front of a row of...

This idiot is holding a gun (yes, I know he looks like an idiot, but please refrain from comments on his appearance) that I can't identify. Does anyone know what it is?

EMI Group will soon sell digital music with better sound quality and no digital rights management restrictions through Apple's iTunes Store. EMI's entire digital music catalog will be available in premium DRM-free form via iTunes in May, the music label said Monday at a press conference in London. Beatles tunes under EMI's control, however, are not part of the plan. Higher-quality music files, which will play on any computer and any digital-audio player, will not replace the copy-protected EMI music currently sold through iTunes. Rather, they will complement the standard 99-cent iTunes downloads and will be sold at a premium:...

DALLAS -- A DPD officer was shot and killed in West Dallas after confronting a homicide suspect. The officer died at Parkland Hospital as the suspect entered into a standoff with Dallas SWAT.

Joanna Rutkowska has always been a big supporter of the Windows Vista security model. Until she stumbled upon a "very severe hole" in the design of UAC (User Account Control) and found out — from Microsoft officials — that the default no-admin setting isn't even a security mechanism anymore. Joanna Rutkowska Rutkowska, a hacker with a track record of defeating Vista's security mechanisms, believes UAC has a major flaw in the way it automatically assumes that all setup programs (application installers) should be run with administrator privileges. "[When] you try to run such a program, you get a UAC prompt...

Ford will announce on Wednesday plans to rename its Five Hundred mid-size sedan "Taurus," according to a report by Dow Jones Newswires. The name change will be announced at the Chicago auto show. A month ago, a report in BusinessWeek suggested Ford could revive the Taurus name, but it seemed unlikely at the time. CEO Alan Mulally was quoted as saying Ford should have never dropped the nameplate in the first place. "I havent had time to do the deep dive on why we stopped investing in Taurus, but I'd like to," said Ford CEO Alan Mulally. "The Ford Five...

Due to copyright constraints, I guess we can't post any excerpts from the Detroit News - here's a link to the article: http://cmsimg.detnews.com/apps/pbcsi.dll/bilde?Site=C3&Date=20070124&Category=AUTO01&ArtNo=701240402&Ref=V4&Profile=1148Q=100&MaxW=250

PARIS - FedEx Corp. canceled its order for 10 Airbus A380 jets on Tuesday, the first customer to retract an order for the new jumbo double-decker plane that has been dogged by numerous delays. The world’s largest express transportation company cited Airbus’ production delays and said in a statement that its FedEx Express unit has ordered 15 Boeing Co. 777 freighters with a list price of $3.5 billion and taken options on an additional 15.

European aircraft maker Airbus has raised the number of A380 superjumbos it needs to sell to make a profit on the project. The A380 programme has been beset by huge cost over-runs and long delays. The firm's parent company EADS now says it needs to sell 420 A380s to break even, up from a previous estimate of 270 aircraft. To date, Airbus has sold 159 A380s and the first plane is now due in October 2007 - two years behind schedule. Long-term hopes The aircraft's biggest customer, Emirates, recently said it was considering its options in light of the delays....

BBC NEWS TV host seriously hurt in crash Top Gear's Richard Hammond is seriously ill in hospital after a crash in a jet-powered car while filming for the BBC programme. The 36-year-old presenter was taken by air ambulance to Leeds General Infirmary's neurological unit. A spokesman for the hospital said Mr Hammond was "stable". Mr Hammond had been driving a dragster-style car capable of reaching speeds of up to 300mph at the former RAF airfield in Elvington, near York. The crash will be investigated by the Health and Safety Executive and the BBC. The BBC said in a statement: "We...

LYMAN — A Lyman man who shot and killed two brothers he said were breaking into his house early Wednesday morning will not be charged, Police Chief Scott Suttles said Wednesday. The shooting happened about 2:40 a.m., according to police reports. Travis Earle Anderson, 22, and his brother, Marshall Lashaun Anderson, 28, both of Spartanburg, died after William Rodney Thomas shot them after they broke into the house and attacked his roommate, Lee Timothy Freeman. Travis Anderson died at the scene of a shotgun blast to the chest, while his brother died later at Spartanburg Regional Medical Center, Spartanburg County...

DALLAS — Dell Inc. has quietly pulled the plug on its DJ Ditty music players, less than a year after the world's largest computer maker launched the device to compete with Apple Computer Inc.'s iPod Shuffle. The company stopped selling the Ditty on Aug. 17, Dell spokesman Venancio Figueroa said Wednesday.

Searched, didn't see any posts on this. DFW-area police agencies are in pursuit of a possibly stolen tractor-trailer rig. The steer tires have been destroyed and the truck is continuing at a low rate of speed westbound on I-20 through Arlington as I write this. This apparently has been going on for several hours.

Dell laptop explodes at Japanese conference INQ reader's amazing snaps By INQUIRER newsdesk: Wednesday 21 June 2006, 13:22 AN INQUIRER READER attending a conference in Japan was sat just feet away from a laptop computer that suddenly exploded into flames, in what could have been a deadly accident. Gaston, our astonished reader reports: "The d*** [edit mine] thing was on fire and produced several explosions for more than five minutes". Should you witness such an event, his advice is, "Don't try anything courageous/stupid, stay away, away, away!" "For the record, this is a Dell machine," notes Gaston. "It is only...

The Unanimous Declaration of Independence made by the Delegates of the People of Texas in General Convention at the town of Washington on the 2nd day of March 1836. When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and so far from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression. When the Federal Republican Constitution of their country, which they have...

The Discovery Channel is running a *very* good special on the life of Ghengis Khan. It's about half over now, but it will rerun again at 11pm Central Time. It's been shown before, but it's very accurate. Well worth watching.