Category Archives: National

Moon with a view.

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640px-earthriseOn December 24, 1968 at about 4:38 pm—just before we took one giant leap—Apollo 8 orbited the moon snapping photos and taking reconnaissance. The small capsule held astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders.

As they orbited, they made a significant turn which brought into view the earth rising over the moon. They snapped a picture that would appear on the front cover of TIME and become an icon of the environmental movement. It was listed in LIFE magazine’s 100 photos that changed the world.

According to Business Insider, William Anders described the event in a television interview:

I don’t know who said it, maybe all of us said, ‘Oh my God. Look at that!’ and up came the Earth. We had had no discussion on the ground, no briefing, no instructions on what to do. I jokingly said, ‘well it’s not on the flight plan,’ and the other two guys were yelling at me to give them cameras. I had the only color camera with a long lens. So I floated a black and white over to Borman. I can’t remember what Lovell got. There were all yelling for cameras, and we started snapping away.

To commemorate the 45th anniversary of the event, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center created a video showing the events surrounding the historic photo. They released the video on December 20th of last year.

The video combines the photos of the moon being taken at the time, the records of the flight and the photos taken of the moon to create a simulation showing the sequence of events.

You can help connect the dots for the DOTs on Interstate 11

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freewayArizona and Nevada announce opportunity to provide feedback on the Interstate 11 and Intermountain West Corridor Study (PDF MAP)
Public can comment online in February about Level 2 Analysis

The Arizona and Nevada departments of transportation are hosting an online opportunity through the month of February for anyone interested in providing feedback on the latest Interstate 11 and Intermountain West Corridor Study results.

Today a public feedback period is being launched at www.i11study.com to provide an opportunity to comment on the Level 2 Analysis, which was recently completed by the study team. Those interested in providing input will be able to view a narrated presentation about the current status of the study and then submit comments online.

The two transportation departments have been working together since the summer of 2012 on the Interstate 11 and Intermountain West Corridor Study, which includes detailed corridor planning of a possible interstate link between the Phoenix and Las Vegas metropolitan areas, along with high-level visioning for potentially extending the corridor north to Canada and south to Mexico. Congress designated the future I-11 corridor between Phoenix and Las Vegas as part of the latest surface transportation bill, Moving Ahead for Progress in the 21st Century Act (MAP-21).

Since last fall, the study team has explored the universe of alternatives for potential routes from Mexico to northern Nevada. That broad range of possible corridor alternatives underwent an initial evaluation and screening process by the study team in October. An additional level of analysis — the Level 2 Analysis — was recently conducted for the congressionally designated portion of the corridor that would connect Phoenix and Las Vegas. This month’s online feedback opportunity will allow the public to view the results of this recent analysis and provide feedback prior to the study moving forward. Those interested in participating should visit the project website at www.i11study.com.

Online feedback for this phase of the study is being accepted through the end of February. However, comments about the I-11 study can be submitted at any time via the project website on the “Get Involved” page.

The Interstate 11 and Intermountain West Corridor Study is a two‐year, multiphase, high‐level study examining the feasibility, benefits, opportunities and constraints of a proposed new interstate highway corridor. This initial study is expected to be completed later this year. Funding to construct a potential corridor has not been identified. In addition to the Arizona and Nevada departments of transportation, the Maricopa Association of Governments, Regional Transportation Commission of Southern Nevada, Federal Highway Administration and Federal Railroad Administration are partners in this study.

There is an Interstate 11 coalition with a difficult to read web site supporting the proposed freeway extensions.

The Las Vegas Sun reported two years ago:

If it seems like there’s a hidden catch to this positive news, however, now would be a good time to recite your favorite saying about some things being too good to be true.

None of this gets done without hundreds of millions of dollars that the RTC doesn’t have. That means Southern Nevadans would be on the hook for the bulk of the $350 million Boulder City Bypass tab in the form of higher county gas taxes.

The RTC has entrusted its fortunes to the Clark County Commission, the seven-member body that will likely vote next month on whether to tie the gas tax to inflation. Such a move would increase the gas tax by about 3 cents a year, resulting in the average motorist paying about $16 more for gasoline every year until 2016, when voters can decide to freeze the tax or maintain its link to inflation.

First Native American Arizona Senator dies at age 102.

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Art_HubbardPHOENIX – Arthur Hubbard, Sr., American Navajo Code Talker and Arizona’s first Arizona State Senator, was laid to rest in Phoenix after a service at Pinnacle Presbyterian Church in Scottsdale at 102-years old.

Mr. Hubbard was born in January of 1912 in Topawa on the Tohono O’odham Indian Reservation, but was raised on the Navajo reservation with Christian, Navajo and O’odham traditions.

He joined the Marines and during World War II trained Navajo code talkers who were instrumental in success in the war in the Pacific. They used their native language to describe various Japanese military equipment and movements in their own native language which became the code the Japanese could not break.

Other Native American code talkers were deployed by the United States Army during World War II, including Cherokee, Choctaw, Lakota, Meskwaki, and Comanche soldiers. Soldiers of Basque ancestry were used for code talking by the U.S. Marines during World War II in areas where other Basque speakers were not expected to be operating.

FOX 10 News | myfoxphoenix.com

According to Indian Country, Navajo Nation President Ben Shelly said

“The Navajo Code Talkers are living treasures of the Navajo Nation. With the passing of Arthur Hubbard, Sr., we have lost a true American hero. The Nation offers our heartfelt condolences to the family during this time.”

In 1972 he became the first Native American Arizona Senator and served six terms.

Shirley Temple Black, iconic child star, dies at 85

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Shirley-temple-ca-1936-everettShirley Temple Black, who as the most popular child movie star of all time lifted a filmgoing nation’s spirits during the Depression and then grew up to be a diplomat, has died. She was 85.

Black died late Monday at her home in Woodside, Calif., according to publicist Cheryl J. Kagan. No cause was given.

From 1935 through 1938, the curly-haired moppet billed as Shirley Temple was the top box-office draw in the nation. She saved what became 20th Century Fox studios from bankruptcy and made more than 40 movies before she turned 12.

Read more at The LA Times

PETA wants monument honoring chickens killed in Georgia truck wreck

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GainesvilleChickenMemorialBy Mike Morris

GAINESVILLE, Ga. — We’ve all seen the wooden crosses and other roadside memorials to loved ones killed in automobile accidents. Three years ago, the Georgia Department of Transportation, deeming the makeshift memorials a distraction to drivers and a safety hazard, began offering to place state-approved memorials at the sites of fatal wrecks.

For a $100 fee, GDOT places a white sign with the name of the deceased under the words, “Drive Safely, In Memory.”

Wednesday, a member of PETA, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, filed an application with GDOT to have a memorial placed at the Hall County site where a truck hauling live chickens overturned on Jan. 27.

Read more at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Veterans dying because of health care delays

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(CNN) — U.S. veterans are dying because of delays in diagnosis and treatment at VA hospitals.

At least 19 veterans have died because of delays in simple medical screenings like colonoscopies or endoscopies, at various VA hospitals or clinics, CNN has learned.

That’s according to an internal document from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, obtained exclusively by CNN, that deals with patients diagnosed with cancer in 2010 and 2011.

The veterans were part of 82 vets who have died or are dying or have suffered serious injuries as a result of delayed diagnosis or treatment for colonoscopies or endoscopies.

Read more and see more video at CNN

The Kiss of Life

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by Rocco Morabito

thompson-67This 1967 award-winning photo entitled “Kiss of Life” shows two power linemen, Randall Champion and J. D. Thompson, at the top of a utility pole. They had been performing routine maintenance when Champion brushed one of the high voltage lines at the very top. These are the lines that can be heard “singing” with electricity. Over 4000 volts entered Champion’s body and instantly stopped his heart (an electric chair uses about 2000 volts).

His safety harness prevented a fall, and Thompson, who had been ascending below him, quickly reached him and performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. He was unable to perform CPR given the circumstances, but continued breathing into Champion’s lungs until he felt a slight pulse, then unbuckled his harness and descended with him on his shoulder.

Thompson and another worker administered CPR on the ground, and Champion was moderately revived by the time paramedics arrived. Champion survived and lived until 2002, when he died of heart failure at the age of 64. Thompson is still living.

Rocco Morabito (November 2, 1920 – April 5, 2009) was an American photographer who spent the majority of his career at the Jacksonville Journal.

Morabito won the 1968 Pulitzer Prize for Spot News Photography for “The Kiss of Life”, a Jacksonville Journal photo that showed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation between two workers on a utility pole. Randall G. Champion was unconscious and hanging upside down after contacting a high voltage line; fellow lineman J.D. Thompson revived him while strapped to the pole by the waist. Champion survived and lived until 2002, when he died of heart failure at the age of 64; Thompson is still living. The photograph was published in newspapers around the world.

He served in World War II in the Army Air Forces as a ball-turret gunner on a B-17. He returned after the war and worked for the Journal for 42 years, 33 of them as a photographer, until retiring in 1982. He died on April 5, 2009 while in hospice care.—WikiPedia

SEE ALSO: The Kiss of Life, 40 years later, 10 Pulitzer Prize-Winning Photos And Their Stories

Man-in-undies sculpture causes a stir at all-girls college

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bildeWELLESLEY, MASS. — A remarkably lifelike sculpture of a man sleepwalking in nothing but his underpants has made some Wellesley College students a bit uncomfortable, but the president of the prestigious women’s school says that’s all part of the intellectual process.

The sculpture, titled “Sleepwalker,” is of a man in an eyes-closed, zombie-like trance. It’s part of an exhibit by Tony Matelli at the college’s Davis Museum. It was placed at a busy area of campus Monday, a few days before the exhibit’s official opening, and prompted an online student petition to have it removed.

The sculpture is a “source of apprehension, fear, and triggering thoughts regarding sexual assault,” says the petition, which had nearly 300 signtures Wednesday.

Read more at Detroit Free Press

Brain function ‘boosted for days after reading a novel’

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classic-novelsBeing pulled into the world of a gripping novel can trigger actual, measurable changes in the brain that linger for at least five days after reading, scientists have said.

The new research, carried out at Emory University in the US, found that reading a good book may cause heightened connectivity in the brain and neurological changes that persist in a similar way to muscle memory.

The changes were registered in the left temporal cortex, an area of the brain associated with receptivity for language, as well as the the primary sensory motor region of the brain.

Neurons of this region have been associated with tricking the mind into thinking it is doing something it is not, a phenomenon known as grounded cognition – for example, just thinking about running, can activate the neurons associated with the physical act of running.

Read more at The Independent

SEE ALSO: Lost At E Minor, 100 best novels
Get Free books at Project Gutenberg

Scrapped for a penny: USS Forrestal, Navy’s first supercarrier, begins final voyage

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USSforrestalThe U.S. Navy’s first supercarrier — the long-decommissioned Forrestal — has begun its final voyage to a Texas scrapyard, after the Pentagon tried to sell it, found no takers and had to pay a penny to get rid of it.

The 1,067-foot ship, which was shut down in 1993 after more than 38 years of service, was being towed Tuesday morning down the Delaware River and along the Eastern Seaboard before crossing the Gulf of Mexico to reach All Star Metals in Brownsville. U.S. Navy officials signed a 1-cent contract with the Texas company in October to dismantle the ship perhaps best known for a 1967 incident that killed 134 and injured more than 300 others, including a young Navy aviator named John McCain.

“We started our departure from the dock at 5:31 a.m.,” All Star Metals President Nikhil Shah told FoxNews.com, adding that the trip should take roughly 17 days. “This is the largest ship that we’ve ever dismantled, and the largest ship the U.S. government has ever awarded to be dismantled. It’s a very big job to us.”

Read more at FOX News