A large U.S. spy satellite has lost power and could hit the Earth in late February or March, government officials said Saturday.
The satellite, which no longer can be controlled, could contain hazardous materials, and it is unknown where on the planet it might come down, they said. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is classified as secret.
. Satellite tracking is an exact science and in this case one can be sure the USAF will be present when debris falls back to earth. Biggest chance is the debris will fall in the ocean or a remote area, seldom in a populated area.
(UPI) – Authorities monitoring the situation say they suspect the lunging device is an experimental imagery satellite built by Lockheed Martin and launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in December 2006 aboard a Delta II rocket.
It is common for satellites to enter Earth’s atmosphere, but most break up before they reach land, said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
He added it is often difficult to control the satellite’s trajectory or its re-entry into the atmosphere. The debris, if any survives the fiery descent, typically lands in remote areas and causes little or no harm.
They had driven or walked a half-mile up a snow-covered lane called Frost Road, then trudged past a large blue sign that explained the historic significance of the farmhouse and the cabin beyond. And now they were entering the coldness of an uninhabited place, carrying with them cases of beer, bottles of rum and a store of ignorance about things that matter here.
Over the next several hours, more than 30 teenagers and young adults toasted their post-adolescence with liquor carrying the added kick of illicitness. By early morning they were gone, leaving a wounded house watched over by winter-stripped birches and sugar maples.
The damage left in their wake reflected some alcohol-induced mischief tinged with certain anger. Broken window, broken screen, broken dishes, broken antiques. Pieces of a broken chair used for wood in the fireplace. Gobs of phlegm spat upon hanging artwork. Vomit, urine, beer everywhere. And a blanket of yellow, pollenlike dust, discharged from fire extinguishers in parting punctuation.
Before long, distressing word spread from Ripton to Middlebury and beyond that the preserved farmhouse once owned by Robert Frost had been vandalized — desecrated, some said. If these children of the Green Mountains knew this house was once Frost’s, then shame. If they did not know, then shame still; they should have. How many had been weaned on Frost? How many had tromped through here on class trips and family outings?
And get a load of the Facebook reference at the end of the article.
Voters will be asked if the two should be arrested for war crimes, perjury or obstruction of justice if they ever step foot in Brattleboro. So far, Vermont is the only state Bush hasn’t visited since he became president in 2001.
Town officials say they have no legal power to draft an indictment. But since enough signatures were collected, the select board agreed to put the question on the ballot.
MEMPHIS, Tennessee – Anticipation ran so high ahead of a stop here by Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Clinton, it seems that even the famed ducks who perform at The Peabody Memphis hotel were flustered.
Each morning at the hotel, seven trained ducks emerge from an elevator, walk across the lobby and dive into a marble fountain where they spend their day. Each evening, they make the reverse trip and ride the elevator to their quarters upstairs.
But the day before Clinton arrived late on Saturday at the hotel, where she held interviews with the press, the ducks went awry, hotel staff said. Two birds escaped upstairs, and one who fled into a banquet room was AWOL all day, a duck handler said.
[But] one hotel staffer mused that Clinton’s arrival sent the ducks atwitter.
“She must have ruffled some feathers,” he said.
animals can sense when disasters are headed their way.
An online acquaintance who is well-placed in the porn industry tells me that the two best draws for prostitutes of all flavors are the Super Bowl and the RNC. (Inevitably enough the RNC tends to draw the professional dominatrices and fetishists; the Super Bowl draws the non-specific and the less-expensive.)
I meant to ask about various religious conferences but we wound up getting sidetracked.
Humans have altered Earth so much that scientists say a new epoch in the planet’s geologic history has begun.
Say goodbye to the 10,000-year-old Holocene Epoch and hello to the Anthropocene.
Among the major changes heralding this two-century-old man-made epoch:
* Vastly altered sediment erosion and deposition patterns.
* Major disturbances to the carbon cycle and global temperature.
* Wholesale changes in biology, from altered flowering times to new migration patterns.
* Acidification of the ocean, which threatens tiny marine life that forms the bottom of the food chain.
IF MAN were to vanish from the face of the Earth today, his footprint on the planet would linger for the mere blink of an eye in geological terms.
Within hours, nature would begin to eradicate its impact. In 50,000 years all that would remain would be archaeological traces. Only radioactive materials and a few man-made chemical contaminants would last longer — an invisible legacy.
Homo sapiens has managed just 150,000 years on Earth, and his earliest — debatable — ancestor only six million. By contrast, the dinosaurs populated the planet for 165 million years.
and Marc Ambinder gets his hands on a NY NOW chapter press release bashing the endorsement of Obama by Ted Kennedy. Authenticity confirmed with the president of the organization.
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — Edgar Castorena had diarrhea for 10 days and counting, and the illegal immigrant parents of the 2-month-old didn’t know what to do about it.
They were afraid they would be deported under a new Oklahoma law if they took him to a major hospital. By the time they took him to a clinic, it was too late.
A ruptured intestine that might have been treatable instead killed the U.S.-born infant, making him a poster child for opponents of House Bill 1804 months before it was enacted as the Oklahoma Taxpayer and Citizen Protection Act of 2007.
”The sad part of it was the child didn’t have to die if House Bill 1804 didn’t ever come around,” said Laurie Paul, who runs the clinic where Edgar was finally taken. ”It was a total tragedy because the bill was there to create the myths and untruths and the fear.” – linkage
As someone who has spent 15 years studying the assassinations of the sixties, no, I’m not worried.
The mindset is different now. It’s more about money and less about fundamentalism. I believe the fundamentalists in the CIA killed Kennedy. Not the religious fundamentalists. It’s the same group author Tom Mangold described as a “cabal” within the CIA – the inner circle of criminals using the CIA for advantage not to the public, but to the business class they felt more of a connection to.
Right now – we’re just at a very different place in history. It’s not the time for that.
I’m truly not worried, for once. And Obama really genuinely is willing to listen to the other side. I don’t think they’d kill him until they first try to sway him. A few years from now, this might be a different story. But I don’t fear for his life this year. I really don’t.
because that’s classified information: MSNBC
Nice.
.
Satellite tracking is an exact science and in this case one can be sure the USAF will be present when debris falls back to earth. Biggest chance is the debris will fall in the ocean or a remote area, seldom in a populated area.
(UPI) – Authorities monitoring the situation say they suspect the lunging device is an experimental imagery satellite built by Lockheed Martin and launched from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California in December 2006 aboard a Delta II rocket.
It is common for satellites to enter Earth’s atmosphere, but most break up before they reach land, said Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
He added it is often difficult to control the satellite’s trajectory or its re-entry into the atmosphere. The debris, if any survives the fiery descent, typically lands in remote areas and causes little or no harm.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
vandalized by underage drinkers NYT
And get a load of the Facebook reference at the end of the article.
Town in Vermont Moves to Indict Bush, Cheney.
Brattleboro rocks. 🙂
Will they vote on that on primary day?
Townhall Meeting day
Hillary Clinton ruffles some feathers, the real kind.
animals can sense when disasters are headed their way.
Headline of the day: Super Bowl draws top-flight hookers
An online acquaintance who is well-placed in the porn industry tells me that the two best draws for prostitutes of all flavors are the Super Bowl and the RNC. (Inevitably enough the RNC tends to draw the professional dominatrices and fetishists; the Super Bowl draws the non-specific and the less-expensive.)
I meant to ask about various religious conferences but we wound up getting sidetracked.
This sounds ominous, though not unexpected.
.
IF MAN were to vanish from the face of the Earth today, his footprint on the planet would linger for the mere blink of an eye in geological terms.
Within hours, nature would begin to eradicate its impact. In 50,000 years all that would remain would be archaeological traces. Only radioactive materials and a few man-made chemical contaminants would last longer — an invisible legacy.
Homo sapiens has managed just 150,000 years on Earth, and his earliest — debatable — ancestor only six million. By contrast, the dinosaurs populated the planet for 165 million years.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
There is great comfort in this.
There is also the thought that perhaps the combination of high intelligence and opposable thumbs is an evolutionary dead end…..
Typical stupid human idea.
To name a geological epoch for a life-form that will not be much in evidence.
A symptom of the whole problem, really . . .
Tom Hayden just endorsed Obama, and quite eloquently:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080211/hayden
Wow!!
and Marc Ambinder gets his hands on a NY NOW chapter press release bashing the endorsement of Obama by Ted Kennedy. Authenticity confirmed with the president of the organization.
The fierce urgency of NY NOW
WOW who wrote this over the top diatribe. just go real the whole thing.
coments too.
Note to ALL women if you’re not a HRC supporter, you’re a “gender-traitor”
Just what country are we in?
Ridiculous. And NARAL has given Obama a 100% rating. So much crap about nothing!
More deaths from draconian immigration laws
the headline right now on huffpost?
JFK…..RFK……BARACK OBAMA
is anyone else getting the same creepy feeling reading that headline?
i seriously hope Obama’s secret service guys are staying sharp.
As someone who has spent 15 years studying the assassinations of the sixties, no, I’m not worried.
The mindset is different now. It’s more about money and less about fundamentalism. I believe the fundamentalists in the CIA killed Kennedy. Not the religious fundamentalists. It’s the same group author Tom Mangold described as a “cabal” within the CIA – the inner circle of criminals using the CIA for advantage not to the public, but to the business class they felt more of a connection to.
Right now – we’re just at a very different place in history. It’s not the time for that.
I’m truly not worried, for once. And Obama really genuinely is willing to listen to the other side. I don’t think they’d kill him until they first try to sway him. A few years from now, this might be a different story. But I don’t fear for his life this year. I really don’t.