Category Archives: World

Fossett Breaks Nonstop Solo Flight Record

SALINA, Kan. – Millionaire adventurer Steve Fossett on Thursday became the first person to fly around the world solo without stopping or refueling, safely touching down in his custom-built plane 67 hours after taking off. … The project was financed by Virgin Atlantic founder Sir Richard Branson, a longtime friend and fellow adventurer.

Source: Yahoo News

For information about the plane or the mission in general and for some cool pictures please visit: http://www.virginatlanticglobalflyer.com

Custom-Built Plane

Tennis on a Helipad in Dubai

Source: ATPtennis.com
Looking over the edge

Dubai, UAE: World No. 1 Roger Federer and former No. 1 Andre Agassi took tennis to new heights on Tuesday, ascending nearly 700 feet (over 320 meters) to play a friendly match on the helipad at the luxurious Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai.

“This was an absolutely amazing experience,” Agassi said. “When you first get over how high you are and start playing it’s an absolute joy and it was a great time. I had no issues with the height as long as I didn’t have to bungee jump off the side.”

The hotel’s grass helipad, which is situated 692 feet (211 meters) high covers a surface area of 1,361 square feet (415 sq meters), was converted into a tennis court for the two players. Standing 1,053 feet (321 meters) high on a man-made island, the majestic Burj Al Arab is one of the most recognizable hotels in the world.

“The view is absolutely amazing here and it was very different when I was asked to do this as I didn’t know what to expect,” Federer said. “I have been in Dubai many times and have stayed at Burj Al Arab before, but this was an absolute treat. To play tennis with Andre on top of such an amazing hotel and overlooking the whole of Dubai was absolutely spectacular.”

Both players are in town for the ATP’s Dubai Duty Free Men’s Open, a USD $1 million International Series Gold event. Federer is the reigning champion of the Dubai Duty Free Men’s Open and is making his third appearance in the tournament while Agassi is playing an ATP tournament in the Middle East for the first time.

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10 x 10

10×10â„¢ (‘ten by ten’) is an interactive exploration of the words and pictures that define the time. The result is an often moving, sometimes shocking, occasionally frivolous, but always fitting snapshot of our world. Every hour, 10×10 collects the 100 words and pictures that matter most on a global scale, and presents them as a single image, taken to encapsulate that moment in time. Over the course of days, months, and years, 10×10 leaves a trail of these hourly statements which, stitched together side by side, form a continuous patchwork tapestry of human life.

10×10 is ever-changing, ever-growing, quietly observing the ways in which we live. It records our wars and crises, our triumphs and tragedies, our mistakes and milestones. When we make history, or at least the headlines, 10×10 takes note and remembers.

Each hour is presented as a picture postcard window, composed of 100 different frames, each of which holds the image of a single moment in time. Clicking on a single frame allows us to peer a bit deeper into the story that lies behind the image. In this way, we can dart in and out of the news, understanding both the individual stories and the ways in which they relate to each other.

Very cool. It really captures the essence of the news and what’s going on in the world. I like the fact that it is totally automated…no human intervention. In that sense it is much like my often visited news.google.com.

North Korea May Have Miscalculated China

Did Kim Jung Il miscalculate?

North Korea declared itself a nuclear power on Thursday. The Stalinist state coupled a unilateral admission of possessing nuclear weapons with the assertion that it would not take part in “six-nation talks aimed at ending the [nuclear arms] crisis,” on the Korean peninsula.

Both statements appeared to catch the US by surprise, as well as China, South Korea, Japan, and Russia, despite the fact that this was the third time in two years that N. Korea pulled the diplomatic rug out from under international talks.

A consensus of the parties involved seemed to be that the next move was China’s responsibility to confront its ally with the untenable position of nuclear weapons on the Korean peninsula.

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Nassini-Huygens: Mission to Saturn and Titan

Scientists have finally looked behind the veil of gas that has shrouded Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, from human eyes for all of known history.

And they are overwhelmed with both what they’ve seen and how well they were able to see it.

“This will undoubtedly go down in history as one of, if not the, biggest single step that mankind has taken,” Bob Mitchell of the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory said.

Amateur astronomer Denis Legault echoed that wow factor Saturday, saying: “We’re looking at this object as a tiny dot in our telescopes and now we’re actually landing on it. It’s very exciting.”

[continued]

Sounds of Titan
NASA Archive Images
Cassini-Huygens Homepage

Tsunami Relief/Pictures

Please visit Google’s Tsunami Relief page to learn more about how you can help with donations. I’d recommend the Redcross, 99 cents out of every dollar goes to the relief effort that you specify. Compare this to the 90 or 91 cents out of every dollar that other aid organizations provide.

Also, DigitalGlobe has provided satellite images of the shores in the area before and after the tsunamis hit. The destructive force of nature is incredible.

http://www.digitalglobe.com/tsunami_gallery.html

For more info about the tsunami and what you can do to help, please visit: The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog

Bin Laden said to aim message at Saudis

Bin Laden said to aim message at Saudis

By DONNA ABU-NASR
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Osama bin Laden’s latest message, his first directed specifically at Saudis in years, has been widely seen as an attempt to show he is still a player in his homeland despite a security clampdown that has sharply limited al-Qaida’s field for terrorist operations in the conservative kingdom.

Robert Jordan, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, said bin Laden’s message was a reflection of how weakened he and al-Qaida had become. “He’s now resorting to political rhetoric to try to influence the people,” Jordan said.

One way bin Laden is trying to do that is by ridiculing upcoming, three-stage municipal elections in the kingdom, which begin in February and are seen as an attempt by the government to open the country to political reform.

“This hasn’t changed anything. …The best they can do is that they will go into the elections game as happened before in Yemen and Jordan or Egypt and move in a vicious circle for dozens of years. This is regardless of the fact that it is prohibited to enter the infidel legislative councils,” bin Laden said.

Jordan said bin Laden’s reference to the elections “shows he’s very nervous” about them.

“He’s trying create the same kind of divisiveness we’re seeing in Iraq about the elections, but I don’t think he’s going to succeed because Saudi Arabia is a much more homogenous society,” he said.

Jordan also said it would be hard for the militants to carry out a huge attack on oil installations in the kingdom that would significantly disrupt production or distribution. At most, isolated attacks could be launched on less-guarded areas, he said, adding that targeting the kingdom’s oil industry could backfire.

“This (oil) is the entire economic base of the country, and even those who might be critical of the West or America will be greatly offended by any destruction of their really only means of economic progress and survival,” he said.

Doctors: Yushchenko was poisoned

Yushchenko Poisoned With Dioxin
The picture combo shows Viktor Yushchenko in file photos dated March 28, 2002, left, and Dec. 6, 2004, right. The Ukrainian opposition leader and presidential candidate’s mysterious illness that scared his face was caused by dioxin poisoning, doctors said Saturday Dec. 11, 2004, in Vienna, Austria. (AP Photo/Viktor Pobedinsky/Efrem Lukatsky) Source: ABC News

CNN International Article

VIENNA, Austria — Dioxin poisoning caused the disfiguring illness afflicting Ukraine opposition presidential candidate Viktor Yushchenko, doctors at an Austrian hospital have said.

Doctors told a news conference Saturday they suspect a “third party” administered the poison, possibly by putting it in Yushchenko’s soup.

Dr. Michael Zimpfer, director of the private Rudolphinerhaus clinic in Vienna, said Yushchenko was now in satisfactory condition and that dioxin levels in his liver have returned to normal.

Dr. Nikolai Korpan added that no functional damage would remain and that Yushchenko was “fully capable of working,” The Associated Press reported.

Blood and skin tests conducted over the past 24 hours in Austria and other European clinics provided the evidence of poisoning, Zimpfer said.

“There is no doubt about the fact that Mr. Yushchenko’s disease has been caused by a case of poisoning by dioxin,” Zimpfer said.

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I support US Marines who kill terrorists

To: U.S. Congress

Friday November 12 2004

U.S.Marines were fired upon by snipers and insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades from a mosque and an adjacent building. The Marines returned fire with tank shells and machine guns.

They eventually stormed the mosque, killing 10 insurgents and wounding five others, and showing a cache of rifles and grenades for journalists.

The Marines told the pool reporter that the wounded insurgents would be left behind for others to pick up and move to the rear for treatment. But Saturday, another squad of Marines found that the mosque had been reoccupied by insurgents and attacked it again.

Four of the insurgents appeared to have been shot again in Saturday’s fighting, and one of them appeared to be dead, according to the pool report. In the video, a Marine was seen noticing that one of the insurgents appeared to be breathing.

A Marine approached one of the men in the mosque saying, “He’s [expletive] faking he’s dead. He’s faking he’s [expletive] dead.”

The Marine raised his rifle and fired into the insurgents head, at which point a companion said, “Well, he’s dead now.”

The camera then shows two Americans pointing weapons at another Iraqi insurgent lying motionless. But one of the Marines step back as the insurgent stretches out his hand, motioning that he is alive. The other Marine stands his ground, but neither of them fires.

When told by the pool reporter that the men were among those wounded in Friday’s firefight, the Marine who fired the shot said, “I didn’t know, sir. I didn’t know.”

“You can hear the tension in those Marines’ voices. One is saying, ‘He’s faking it. He’s faking it,'” Heyman said. “In a combat infantry soldier’s training, he is always taught that his enemy is at his most dangerous when he is severely wounded.”

A Marine in the same unit had been killed just a day earlier when he tended to the booby-trapped dead body of an insurgent.

NBC reported that the Marine seen shooting the Iraqi insurgent had himself been shot in the face the day before, but quickly returned to duty.

About a block away, a Marine was killed and five others wounded by a booby-trapped body they found in a house after a shootout with insurgents.

Amnesty International has noted reports that insurgents have used mosques as fighting positions, and have used white flags to lure Marines into ambushes.

The Marine who shot the insurgent has been withdrawn from the battlefield pending the results of an investigation, the U.S. military said.

These terrorists do not follow the rules of war. These terrorists kill innocent women by disemboweling them, cut of the heads of innocent truck drivers, detonate car bombs in crowds full of innocent people, and fly planes into buildings filled with innocent Americans.

It is my opinion that NOTHING should happen to this American Marine. He should be returned to his unit or be given an honorable discharge. We don’t need our young men and women taking an extra second to decide if its right to shoot an enemy terrorist when that could mean that one of our soldiers could lose their life. The lives of our soldiers should be the single most important factor in this war against terrorism. The rights of terrorists can come second.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

Sign the petition

78000 people had signed the petition when I posted this. At 1pm on November 20th, I was number 31595.

I found #86716 said to be very insightful:

written by: Rance R Stowell
I am a Vietnam veteran and was with the 101st Airborne Division. I was an infantry soldier and the first American I watched die was from a friendly young boy who put a bomb in a burn barrel that was on fire. It exploded and killed the soldier next to me.What givies anyone who is not in a combat situation the right to second guess the soldier who is making that decision so that he and his fellow solders will live another day. They are doing a job just as we do each day. Getting up and going to work.Let them do the job they are put there to do!! The solider should not be punished in any way, but honored for saving his fellow soliders Lets Unite and make this happen.