“Nick Griffin on question time - BikeRadar.com” plus 4 more

Nick Griffin on question time - BikeRadar.com
Police say Cleveland Browns CB Eric Wright "lucky to be alive'' - Cleveland Plain Dealer
Hawaii's moon rocks go missing - Honolulu Advertiser
Northwest pilots should have had warning of airport approach - Honolulu Advertiser
The Early Word: The Public Option Rises - New York Times Blogs

Nick Griffin on question time - BikeRadar.com

Posted: 23 Oct 2009 10:05 AM PDT

Alphablue wrote:

Griffin's near 1m votes represents about 3% of the electorate, the audience was 180 people, 3% would be less than 6 people, the remainder are most likely vehemently opposed to everything he says and stands for. The audience was probably highly representative!

Talking of ''representative'' I note from the BBC's site that as part of Griffid's complaint about the way QT was conducted...

''He also claimed the audience was not representative of the UK as a whole as levels of immigration in London meant it was "no longer a British city".''

So, there you have it: I'm no longer in a British city. Surprised

This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Police say Cleveland Browns CB Eric Wright "lucky to be alive'' - Cleveland Plain Dealer

Posted: 23 Oct 2009 10:26 AM PDT

By Mary Kay Cabot

October 23, 2009, 10:53AM

Updated at 1 p.m.

Tracy Boulian/The Plain DealerEric Wright, shown breaking up a pass against Baltimore, was back in Berea this morning after being involved in a car accident Friday morning.

BEREA, Ohio -- Browns cornerback Eric Wright is "very lucky to be alive'' after rolling over his Mercedes several times in a one-car accident early Friday morning, Cleveland Police spokesman Thomas Stacho said.

"I would venture to say that the fact Eric was wearing his lap and shoulder belt probably saved his life,'' said Stacho.

Wright was treated and released with an unknown injury at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland a couple of hours after the accident, according to police report, which is not yet complete. He then went to the Browns facility and was sent by their medical team for further tests.

He returned to Berea in the morning but only rode the exercise bike in the early, 30-minute portion of practice that was open to the media. Coach Eric Mangini said he'll start Sunday against Green Bay "if healthy.''

Stacho said "no drugs or alcohol were suspected'' in the accident. He said Wright did not undergo a field sobriety test because the responding officer did not have probable cause. He said he wasn't sure if they conducted a sobriety test at MetroHealth Medical Center.

Mangini said he was satisfied with the responding officer's assessment that no drugs or alcohol were suspected.

"The information I've gotten, which is good information, it was just an accident," Mangini said. "It was wet, there was nothing else to it.''

Wright was not cited for the accident, despite the fact the report cites "unsafe speed as a contributing factor in the crash.''

Wright told the officer he was traveling 60 mph, and the posted speed limit was also 60 mph, according to the report.

Stacho said he hasn't spoken to the officer about why he didn't cite Wright, but "if they can determine who's responsible for the crash, that person is typically cited.''

He said there's a chance Wright will still be cited once the report is complete, "but it's slim.''

Stacho said there was no indication that anyone else was in the vehicle. He also said he didn't know if reports were true that Wright had attended the Jay-Z concert at Cleveland State's Wolstein Center.

Several players had planned to attend, according to a source. Wright mentioned a concert in a post on what's believed to be his twitter account Thursday night, but didn't specify if it was the Jay-Z concert. Mangini also said he didn't know if Wright and other players attended.

"They didn't invite me,'' he said. "I like Jay-Z.''

Mangini, who is strict about personal conduct, indicated he wouldn't discipline Wright for the accident or for being out so late.

"You never want anybody to be in an accident. I wouldn't necessarily be out at 2:10 in the morning, but we don't have curfew year-round,'' said Mangini. "I'd much rather everyone be home studying and doing those types of things, but everyone's different. There are no team rules based on that."

According to the police report, Wright's white Mercedes CLS550 skidded off the entrance ramp of Interstate 490 westbound and flipped over several times at about 2:10 a.m. He was southbound on Interstate 77 when he got on the ramp. The car landed on its side. The airbags did not deploy, but the car was totaled, with severe damage all around. Wright climbed unassisted out the back window.

"I'm really hopeful that he can play and I'm really happy that he's safe,'' said Mangini.

This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Hawaii's moon rocks go missing - Honolulu Advertiser

Posted: 23 Oct 2009 10:12 AM PDT

As if the governor's office doesn't have enough headaches with teacher furlough lawsuits, budget shortfalls and plummeting tourist revenues, there's this:

A former NASA senior special agent says the state cannot account for five priceless moon rocks that were given as gifts to the people of Hawaii in celebration of mankind's age-old quest to travel to and safely return from the moon.

The missing moon rocks are encased within a pair of halved Lucite globes that are each affixed to a wooden plaque, along with a state flag, said Joseph Gutheinz of Houston. Each half-ball is slightly smaller than a tennis ball. One half-ball contains four tiny moon rocks, and the other contains one somewhat larger moon rock, he said.

Both plaques were displayed in the governor's office in July 1979, according to news reports from the time, and since then one or both had been kept on periodic display in the public reception room on the fifth floor of the state Capitol.

Now, said Gutheinz, no one seems to know where they've gone.

The governor's office did not respond yesterday to inquiries about where Hawaii's moon rock plaques might be.

But Hawaii isn't alone. Gutheinz said that only about three dozen of the 368 gift moon rocks given to countries and states can now be accounted for.

"What we have found is that many of these treasures are missing," he said.

The tracking of moon rocks is a passion for Gutheinz. Throughout the 1990s, he was a senior special agent for NASA's Office of Inspector General, and the lead agent of Operation Lunar Eclipse — a sting operation aimed at snaring con artists who were hawking fake moon rocks at astronomical prices.

In the process of that operation, his team uncovered, seized and returned a genuine moon rock that had been stolen from Honduras. The Honduras moon rock, encased in Lucite, was one of the gifts given to the leaders of 134 foreign counties during the Nixon administration.

The Honduras moon rock was essentially the same as 102 Lucite-encased moon rocks from the Apollo 11 and Apollo 17 moon missions — the first and last of America's manned lunar landing missions — that were given as gifts to the governors of each U.S. state and Puerto Rico during the same period.

Gutheinz said the Lucite-encased gift moon rocks came with a small state or country flag that had actually gone to the moon on the first and final Apollo moon landing missions.

Aloha, Astronauts

Hawaii has a special place in the moon mission saga, being the greeting place for Apollo 11 moon walkers Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin and command module pilot Michael Collins following the trio's historic first lunar landing mission on July 24, 1969. Three days later, the space heroes were plucked from the Pacific Ocean, placed in quarantine aboard the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, and taken to Pearl Harbor.

They carried a small bag of moon rocks that Armstrong snatched up the instant after he made his "one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind" statement, as a way to ensure that at least some rocks would be brought back if the mission was suddenly aborted. Thus, it was in Hawaii that the astronauts peeked into that bag and became the first Earthbound human beings to gaze on naked moon rocks.

John Hirasaki, a 28-year-old Apollo project engineer and recovery team member who spent 21 days in quarantine with Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins, peeked as well. On the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, he recalled the awe-inspiring thrill of laying eyes on matter that had been retrieved from another celestial orb.

"It's absolutely fascinating," he recalled of the experience.

The astronauts brought back a total of 47 pounds of lunar material, the first installment of a total 842 pounds of moon rocks that would eventually be retrieved by all six manned Apollo moon landing missions.

One giant price leap

In early April 1970, when the Bishop Museum exhibited a 1.5-ounce moon rock from the Apollo 11 mission, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration put the value of the moon rocks at $55 million an ounce — making single moon rocks more valuable than 10-carat diamonds.

Gutheinz placed the monetary value of each of Hawaii's two much smaller Lucite-encased moon rock gifts at $5 million — which he said was the asking price for the stolen Honduras moon rock, and the going black-market rate for moon rocks.

Gutheinz, 54, now teaches investigative techniques online for the University of Phoenix, and has assigned his graduate students to track down moon rocks around the world.

Gutheinz, who said he has personally tried to track down Hawaii's unaccounted-for gift moon rocks, hopes the two gift plaques have only been misplaced and will eventually turn up.

"I have tried the governor's office," said Gutheinz, who was told to contact the Hawaii State Archives. After contacting that office, he said, he received an e-mail Wednesday from archives branch chief Luella Kurkjian that said, "I regret to inform you that the Hawaii State Archives not only does not have the moon rocks, but we have never had them! Also, I have no idea where they are."

Gutheinz said he has also contacted the Bishop Museum and the University of Hawaii.

"But I am running into brick walls trying to find these two formal gifts," Gutheinz said. "It is important to note that Hawaii has received other moon rocks to study. But the formal Apollo 11 gift, and Apollo 17 Good Will Moon Rock, are unique.

"I am surprised that they are apparently nowhere to be found, as I am surprised that they were not on exhibit for the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.

This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

Northwest pilots should have had warning of airport approach - Honolulu Advertiser

Posted: 23 Oct 2009 10:12 AM PDT

WASHINGTON — Safety investigators said today the Northwest Airlines plane whose two pilots overflew their destination by 150 miles had an older model cockpit voice recorder that records only 30 minutes at a time.

Flight 188's pilots were out of touch with air traffic controllers for over an hour Wednesday night, flying past their Minneapolis destination at 37,000 feet. The pilots said they were distracted by a heated discussion of airline policy.

Investigators for the National Transportation Safety Board may have a hard time confirming that. It's likely the voice recorder captured only the last 30 minutes of the flight — much of that time after pilots had realized their error and turned the plane back.

Newer records are two hours long.

Air traffic controllers, other pilots and even a flight attendant on an intercom tried desperately to talk to the pilots as their plane flew 150 miles past its destination before turning back. Unable to raise Flight 188, police and FBI agents on the ground were preparing for the worst, and the Air National Guard put fighter jets on alert at two locations as the drama unfolded.

Pilots from two other planes in the vicinity were finally able to reach the pilots using a different radio frequency, a controllers union spokesman said. A flight attendant in the cabin also was able to contact them by intercom, said a source close to the investigation who wasn't authorized to talk publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

By that time, the Airbus A320 was over Eau Claire, Wis., and the pilots had been out of communication with air traffic controllers for over an hour. They turned back and landed safely in Minneapolis, the plane's scheduled destination.

The crew told authorities they were distracted during a heated discussion over airline policy, said the National Transportation Safety Board, which is investigating the incident. airport

Investigators don't know yet whether the pilots may have fallen asleep, but fatigue and cockpit distraction will be looked into, NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said today.

Investigators probably will not interview the pilots until next week, he said. The pilots have been suspended from flying by Delta Air Lines, which acquired Northwest last year, while the airline also investigates.

The plane, en route from San Diego with 144 passengers and a crew of five, passed over Minneapolis at 37,000 feet just before 9 p.m. EDT. Contact with controllers wasn't established until 14 minutes later, NTSB said.

Air traffic controllers in Denver had been in contact with the pilots as they flew over the Rockies, FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown said. But as the plane got closer to Minneapolis, she said, "the Denver center tried to contact the flight but couldn't get anyone." That was just before 8 p.m.

Denver controllers notified their counterparts in Minneapolis, who also tried to reach the crew without success, Brown said.

Controllers suspected that Flight 188's radio may still have been tuned to a frequency used by Denver controllers even though the plane had flown beyond the reach of that region's controllers, said Doug Church, a spokesman for the National Air Traffic Controllers Union. Controllers worked throughout the incident with the pilots of other planes, asking them to try to raise Flight 188 using the Denver frequency, he said

That was unsuccessful until two pilots working with Minneapolis controllers finally got through just before the plane turned around, Church said. Minneapolis controllers don't have the capability of using the Denver frequency, but pilots do, he said.

After re-establishing contact with the plane, controllers asked the pilot in charge to execute a series of turns to show he was in control of the aircraft, Church said.

"Controllers have a heightened sense of vigilance when we're not able to talk to an aircraft. That's the reality post-9/11," he said.

Passenger Lonnie Heidtke said he didn't notice anything unusual before the landing except that the plane was late.

The flight attendants "did say there was a delay and we'd have to orbit or something to that effect before we got back. They really didn't say we overflew Minneapolis. ... They implied it was just a business-as-usual delay," said Heidtke, a consultant with a supercomputer consulting company based in Bloomington, Minn.

Once on the ground, the plane was met by police and FBI agents. Passengers retrieving their luggage from overhead bins were asked by flight attendants sit down, Heidtke said. An airport police officer and a couple other people came on board and stood at the cockpit door, talking to the pilots, he said.

"I did jokingly call my wife and say, 'This is the first time I've seen the police meet the plane. Maybe they're going to arrest the pilots for being so late.' Maybe I was right," Heidtke said.

The pilots' explanation that they were distracted by shop talk "just doesn't make any sense," said Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation in Alexandria, Va. "The pilots are saying they were involved in a heated conversation. Well, that was a very long conversation."

Andrea Allmon, who had been traveling from San Diego, Calif., on business, didn't know anything was amiss.

"Everybody got up to get their luggage, and the plane was swarmed by police as we were getting our bags down from the overhead bins," she said.

She said they were kept on the plane briefly while police talked to the crew. Allmon said she was "horrified" to learn what had happened and it was "unbelievable to me that they weren't paying attention. Just not paying attention."

The FAA is updating rules governing how many hours commercial pilots may fly and remain on duty. The NTSB also cautioned government agencies this week about the risks of sleep apnea contributing to transportation accidents.

In January 2008, pilots for two go! airlines fell asleep for at least 18 minutes during a midmorning flight from Honolulu to Hilo. The plane passed its destination and was heading out over open ocean before controllers raised the pilots. The captain was later diagnosed with sleep apnea.

On the Net:

FlightAware.com tracking of Northwest Flight 188: http://bit.ly/2QV9hX

National Transportation Safety Board www.ntsb.gov

This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

The Early Word: The Public Option Rises - New York Times Blogs

Posted: 23 Oct 2009 10:19 AM PDT

The roller coaster ride that is the fate of the public option continues.

As The Times's Robert Pear and David Herszenhorn report, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, is now pushing to insert a government-run insurance option into the health bill that will eventually reach the Senate floor.

As Mr. Pear and Mr. Herszenhorn report, Mr. Reid "is taking a calculated gamble that the 60 members of his caucus could support the plan if it included a way for states to opt out."

Until recently, the public option seemed to be a long shot to make it to the Senate floor. But Mr. Reid has faced some serious lobbying from the more liberal members of his caucus, and the public option has polled well among the public in recent surveys.

Still, "as word of Mr. Reid's intention spread Thursday, centrist senators from both parties said they had come together in an informal group to resist creation of a uniform nationwide public insurance program," Mr. Pear and Mr. Herszenhorn report.

On the other side of the Capitol, Mike Allen of Politico reported early Friday morning that Speaker Nancy Pelosi does not have the votes in the House to pass the most sweeping version of a government-run plan — the so-called "robust public option." That, Mr. Allen writes, makes compromise on the public option even more likely.

On Thursday, according to The Washington Post's Lori Montgomery and Shailagh Murray, the speaker and her top lieutenants said they were "close to corralling the 218 votes they need to move forward with comprehensive legislation that would include a version of the public option prized by liberals as a fundamental pillar of reform."

Presidential Daybook: Mr. Obama ends a week of busy travel by heading north — again. After trips to New York and New Jersey on Tuesday and Wednesday, the president heads first to the Boston area on Friday. Mr. Obama will tour a research laboratory and give a speech on clean energy at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, then attend a fund-raiser for Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. He later heads to Stamford, Conn., for an event for Senator Christopher J. Dodd, one of the key figures working on the Senate health care bill.

The traveling (and the fund-raising) spills over into next week as well: Mr. Obama will headline an event in Miami on Monday for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Meanwhile, back in Washington, the first lady, Michelle Obama, and Jill Biden,the vice president's wife, will attend a Breast Cancer Awareness Month event. Mrs. Biden, a community college professor, will also deliver remarks at the Smithsonian's annual teachers' night on Friday.

Coming Home: Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. flies back to Washington from Prague on Friday, ending his three-day reassurance tour of Central and Eastern Europe.

Before flying to the Czech Republic on Thursday, Mr. Biden told Romanian leaders that the recent missile defense decision was not made as a nod toward Russia and, in a speech, commemorated the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Iron Curtain. Later, after arriving in Prague, Mr. Biden regaled his granddaughter and daughter-in-law with a personal recollection of the city, as The Times's Peter Baker recounts.

Bad Economic News: The Times's Edmund Andrews reports that Christina Romer, the head of the White House Council of Economic Advisers, predicted at a Congressional hearing on Thursday that 10 percent unemployment was almost a certainty and that job growth would be subpar through 2010.

White House v. Fox News: The battle between the network and the administration has played out, among other places, in the White House briefing room and over the airwaves. Jim Rutenberg looks a little deeper into the issue and finds a lot of people pretty satisfied: "The heated back-and-forth between the White House and Fox News has brought equal delight to Fox's conservative commentators, who revel in the fight, and liberal Democrats, who have long characterized the network as a purveyor of right-wing propaganda rather than fact-based journalism."

On a related note, Politico's Jonathan Allen and Jake Sherman report that the White House's battles with both Fox News and the Chamber of Commerce have more moderate Democrats on Capitol Hill a bit worried.

Senate Vote: By a vote of 68-29, the Senate passed the defense spending bill that included the provision expanding the hate crimes definition to include gender and sexual orientation. The bill now heads to Mr. Obama, who backs the new definition.

Kerry Call: The Washington Post's Karen DeYoung reports on the increasing role of Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on global matters — including his work lessening the recent tensions in Afghanistan, which "brought him kudos from Obama," Ms. DeYoung reports.

Fresh off that trip to Afghanistan, Mr. Kerry will sit for a teleconference with the Council on Foreign Relations.

Blaming Deeds: With the Democrats' chances at keeping hold of the governorship in Virginia looking tenuous at best, The Washington Post reports that national Democrats are calling the nominee, Creigh Deeds, a "weak candidate who ran a poor campaign that failed to fully embrace President Obama until days before the election."

Late Endorsements: Doug Hoffman, the conservative third-party candidate in a special House election in upstate New York, has captured the endorsements of two prominent conservative women: Sarah Palin, the former governor of Alaska, and Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota.

Office Transition: Politico's Manu Raju reports on the official closing of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy's office in the Russell Senate Office Building.

Israel/Iran Discussion: The American Enterprise Institute hosts a Friday discussion titled "Should Israel Attack Iran? Law, Policy and Foundations for the Debate," featuring, among others, the former United Nations ambassador, John Bolton.

Tut Tut: And speaking of discussions, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies holds one on Friday centered on cracking the mystery behind King Tut's death.

Ludacris Lunch: Finally, the rapper Ludacris, in town for the Ludacris Foundation's annual benefit dinner, appears at a Friday luncheon at the National Press Club.

This content has passed through fivefilters.org.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Travel and Leisure

Friday, October 23, 2009