If it's Tuesday, it must be...

Why men should not vote.

Trying to find some reason women should not take birth control.

Citizens United Repeal Amendment Goes Viral Via Reddit

Krugman talks about austerians.

Plane safety.

Our pile of guns doesn't make us safer:

It doesn't matter how many thousands of lives are lost (between 2001 and 2010, about 270,000 U.S. residents died in shootings, including homicide, suicide and accidents). And it doesn't seem to matter how many mass killings there are, like the one Friday at the elementary school in Connecticut.

Doonesbury agrees.

DNA can be changed.

Around the world

How astonishing and unexpected!! Pipeline spill sends 22,000 barrels of oil mix into Alberta muskeg

Whether she will see any of this money is another thing... Woman Who Couldn’t Be Intimidated By Citigroup Wins $31 Million

Oklahoma Rape Victim Denied Emergency Contraceptives. Doctor Cites Religious Objection As Reason. I think suing the doctor (and the nurse who also refused to help) for 18 years of child support might get her attention.

Building tiny houses.. or should I say minimalist housing.

Big corporate fat cat thinks big corporations shouldn't pay taxes like real people.

A WWII Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk is found preserved in the Sahara.

Know your rights if you photograph police.

Because the poor women need to be told what they think? In media reports on women’s issues—abortion, birth control, Planned Parenthood—men are quoted around five times more than women, a new study shows.

Oh NOES!! We're gonna crash! NASA's Hubble Shows Milky Way is Destined for Head-on Collision with Andromeda Galaxy

Compare and contrast: Republican spokesman: ‘Let’s hurl some acid’ at female Democratic senators to these articles about real acid attacks.  Really?  You want to carefully think about what you said, sir?  Are you aware of what you have actually suggested?

What getting rid of Obamacare would really mean to the Republicans:

All of which exposes how problematic the GOP’s two-year-long posture of total repeal always was. As a short-term political posture, it has served them well. But now that the Supreme Court might give them what they want, they’re forced to deal with the reality of what it would mean. And that’s a huge wake-up call for the party, especially one without a clear leader to herd the cats as they figure out their next move. As one Republican health care aide put it to TPM, “I do think some Republicans are finally starting to realize they could be the dog that caught the car.”

Be careful what you wish for... you may get it.

Just think how this would free up the freeways...

And make the skies much more dangerous....

Terrafugia Transition transforms from car to plane

(tried to post the video, but it's on autoplay and I hate that.)

This is a beautiful photo

Janis Krums/AP

In this photo taken by a passenger on a ferry, airline passengers exited a US Airways Airbus 320 jetliner that ditched in the Hudson River in New York on Thursday. A flock of birds knocked out both the plane's engines. All 155 people on board survived.

Besides being a wonderful sigh of ecstatic relief, the composition reminds me of the huge canvases painted of naval battles and seascapes.

Reminds me of that ship and that iceberg....

What was the name?....

TORONTO - Air Canada's regional carrier Jazz is removing life vests from all its planes to save weight and fuel.

Jazz spokeswoman Manon Stuart said Thursday that government regulations set by Transport Canada allow airlines to use floatation devices instead of life vests provided the planes remain within 50 nautical miles of shore.

Safety cards in the seat pockets of Jazz aircraft now direct passengers to use the seat cushions as floatation devices.

"The nature of our operations doesn't require that we carry both," Stuart said.

Stuart said Jazz is a transcontinental carrier that doesn't fly over the ocean.

Ti .. um ...tan... As I remember, it sank.

Customer service during the Bush era

Is making you sit in someone else's pee during a flight:

An American Airlines passenger says they had to sit through an entire flight in a seat soaked with urine from a previous passenger, the Fort Wayne Observed blog reports. Here's an excerpt of the complaint letter they emailed the airline:

Upon boarding this flight, my [spouse] was assigned seat 24E. Upon reaching the seat, the gentleman in seat 24F indicated that seat 24E was soaked and that it smelled badly. That kept [my spouse] from immediately sitting in the seat. In fact, the seat was soaked with urine. The flight attendant's solution was to put a couple of blankets and a plastic bag on the seat. [Your passenger] literally sat in a urine soaked seat (the seat belt was soaked also) for the duration of this 2 hour flight! [There] was offered no compensation, no alternative seating, nothing.

Hmmm... the airlines haven't learned from these incidents? Screw the customers. It's all about the money, isn't it?

Cheaper is not always better, especially at 31,000 feet

...the FAA is reporting that the newest passenger planes are held together with "substandard" parts. The oversight at several supplier factories was so shoddy that workers were caught using rulers made of scotch-tape and paper.

The report cited four engine failures in 2003 -- three on the ground, one in flight -- that were traced to "unapproved design changes made by a . . . supplier" of speed sensors on engine fuel pumps. It did not cite any more recent incidents, nor did it specify the degree to which continuing problems with parts threaten to cause similar failures.

During a visit to one parts supplier, the inspector general's office observed an employee who "used a piece of paper, scotch-taped to the work surface, as a measuring device for a length of wire on an oil and fuel pressure transmitter."

So we will now have airplanes falling out the skies because the corporations want to make more money? What happened to safety first? The lives of ... you know... the customers and crew and the people on the ground? Will these crashes be blamed on terrorists when it is actually corporate greed that causes them?

Doing just what the White House has done

Go after terrorists with no thought as to consequences:

Turkish warplanes have bombed suspected Kurdish rebel bases deep inside northern Iraq - in what appears the first time fighter jets have been used.

They targeted the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) in areas near the border, officials said. The Turkish media said up to 50 planes were used.

Iraqi officials say bombs hit 10 villages, killing one woman, while the PKK reported seven deaths.

There is nothing we can complain about, is there?

Revenge for those who fly

And are forced to listen to ads.... John Hargrave rises to the challenge:

US Airways management has to listen,
when you have their home number.

I'm on the plane, and they're trying to sell me an airline credit card.

This is a sign of desperation, an airline on its last legs: peddling us credit cards during the flight. It's not enough that they've taken our meals, our leg room, and our on-time departures. Now they take our dignity, by hitting us up for an airline credit card while we are held captive on their smelly planes.

Here's how US Airways does it: they turn one unlucky stewardess into a seat-to-seat saleswoman. She gives you the pitch, then she walks down the aisle with applications, while people try to avoid meeting her gaze. It is awkward.

[snip]

Since my previous attempts to change the US Airways policy had gotten me nowhere, I decided to call Christ at his home. At 5:30 a.m. [Click here to listen]

TRAVIS CHRIST: Hello?

JOHN HARGRAVE: Hello, may I speak with Mr. Travis Christ?

TC: Yeah, that's me.

JH: Oh, hello Mr. Christ. My name's John Hargrave, and I'm here to tell you about a fantastic new credit card offer...

TC: Do you know what time it is here?

JH: What time?

TC: Five in the morning.

JH: Oh.

TC: So take me off your list and don't call me again.

JH: See, that's funny. I was sleeping on the plane the other day, and you tried to sell me a credit card.

TC: [Hang up]

It continues. Hargrave shows wonderful persistence and illustrates the stupidity of forced credit card pitches to a captive audience with great humor.

Luke.... I am your father...

Noooooooo!

"This Helmet Mounted Display System provides the pilot with cues for flying, navigating and fighting the aircraft. It will even superimpose infra-red imagery onto the visor which allows the pilot to ‘look through’ the cockpit floor at night and see the world below," according to the UK Ministry of Defence.

Breaking a record

A lightweight solar-powered plane has smashed the official world record for the longest-duration unmanned flight.

UK defence firm Qinetiq, which built the Zephyr unmanned aerial vehicle, said it flew for 54 hours during tests.

The researchers believe it is the first time a solar-powered craft has flown under its own power through two nights.

The previous unmanned endurance record was set in 2001 by a jet-powered US Air Force Global Hawk surveillance aircraft which flew for more than 30 hours

The Zephyr's 54-hour endurance flight will not enter the record books because representatives from the world air sports federation - the FAI - were not notified about the secretive test.

However, they were informed about a second, 33-hour flight which could still become an official record.

Zephyr's development team say that whatever the result, it believes it has built a record breaker.

Cool!

Now watch our governments use it to spy on us.....

Flying while high?

Um... shouldn't this on the to do list?

Toxic fumes on planes are poisoning pilots and rendering them unable to fly safely, say pilots, who are campaigning for "aerotoxic syndrome" to be recognised as a disease.

Two official investigations are being opened after concerns that highly toxic oil contaminants are leaking into cabin air supply on commercial airliners in flight. The UK government is to fit air-monitoring equipment on board aircraft amid increasing concerns that passengers, pilots and cabin crew are being exposed. And 1500 pilots will take part in the first major health study designed to establish the extent of the problem.

"We're basically the canaries – getting knocked down by the fumes first," says Susan Michaelis, a former pilot who believes she was poisoned by fumes from leaked engine oil while flying. She and other grounded pilots launched a campaign for the condition to be recognised, at a meeting at the UK's Houses of Parliament on 18 June.

Compressed air is routinely drawn off engines and supplied to aircraft cabins. If the seal inside the engine is not secure, engine oil can leak into the cabin and contaminating air with toxic tricresyl phosphate (TCP), says Michaelis.