To read the tribute to SFC Marcus Muralles, please click here
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Let's Look at the News
There are a lot of little tidbits in the news... shall we have a look?
Well... that's it for now.
- A team is going to try to make it around the world... by glider.
Vladislav Zejda, 71, head of the Sport Aviation Association in the Czech town of Brno, is planning the record attempt.
Call me a chicken, but if I'm flying across the ocean, I want something powering said flight besides a strong breeze.
He said: "Until now the only round the world flight in a craft without any form of engine power has been in a balloon, never in a glider."
A team from the association is currently finishing construction of a new glider to be used for the flight. The association said its plans are top secret and has refused to release further information about the craft. - The Space Shuttle Discovery returns to space tomorrow (if the weather cooperates). Yeah... I'll be watching it. Duh...
- Members of the Wounded Warrior Project are making their way across the country.
Missing two legs he lost in the Iraq war, Heath Calhoun is nearing the end of a 4,200-mile cross-county journey by hand-propelled bicycle. His goal: to remind Americans the war is not over and that wounded soldiers are returning home with their lives changed forever.
Maybe some of those who are against the war could support WWP... without politicizing it... or is that asking too much? (Yeah, I know there are a lot of anti-war folks who do support projects like this, and I think that is awesome. I also know that some- not most, just a few- of them use the wounded soldiers as tools in their anti-war campaign.)
"More than anything, we just want people to know that their troops are coming back and they need your support, whether you support the war or not," Calhoun said as he and a band of fellow Iraq veterans arrived in Annapolis Monday. - The head of an Islamic Center in London says that it's ok to kill civilians.
Al-Siba'i, in an interview with the Arab news channel al-Jazeera, elaborated, "There is no such term as 'civilians' in the modern Western sense. People are either of Dar Al-Harb or not."
How nice. And we're trying to play by the rules with these people? If they don't like the West, if they're against everything we stand for... WHY IN THE WORLD are they in our countries? There has to be a place where they'd feel more comfortable, more at home.
Dar Al-Harb refers to the Muslim concept of the world being divided into two "houses," the House of Islam and the remaining territories, the House of War, or Dar Al-Harb. - AP had to retract yet another story because... well... it was WRONG.
The AP quickly released a statement retracting its false reporting: "The Associated Press erroneously reported that he spoke of easing the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Blair did not specifically mention the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in his interview with the British Broadcasting Corp."
And they wonder why we don't trust them? Because they can't write the truth.
The original AP article briefly ignited a political firestorm. - Carnegie Mellon University researchers/inventors/computer- geeks- with- WAY- too- much- time- on- their- hands have built a robotic Hummer for a competition.
The Sandstorm vehicle uses sensors to see and computers to drive. During the test, it covered 131 laps on a 1.5-mile racecourse at the BeaveRun MotorSports Complex 4near Pittsburgh. It averaged 28 mph and hit a top speed of 36 mph.
Hmmm... this is for a DoD competition. Think of how awesome it could be if they could send in a robot first to get rid of IEDs. This is cool... - In other science news, scientists warn about accidently making "super monkeys." Yeah... you read correctly... super monkeys.
Scientists warn that new experiments could create monkeys with brains more human than animal.
Why do I get the feeling that Darth Monkeybone has been working on this for years now???
It says the outcome of such studies cannot be predicted and could produce subjects with 'super-animal' intelligence. - And now for something serious... and disturbing.
One out of every three children is having sex at the age of 10, and 17 out of 100 will deliberately spread the virus if they know they are HIV-positive.
Granted, this is in South Africa (I would have been completely shocked if it was in the States). I just can't believe that children are throwing their childhoods away like this. I asked someone if I was naive... yeah, I guess I am. And I like my little world where kids are kids and you know exactly who the bad guys are because they look like villians.
Well... that's it for now.
