Society's Child

Crumbling infrastructure: More than 61,000 bridges in the U.S. are structurally deficient and in need of repair

RT
Thu, 02 Apr 2015 17:11 UTC

More than 61,000 bridges throughout the United States are "structurally deficient" and in need of serious repair, a national association of builders has warned, citing government statistics.

New analysis of 2014 bridge database information recently released by the US Department of Transportation (US DOT) showed that there were 61,064 "compromised" bridges handling 215 million crossings every day, mostly within the Interstate Highway System. The American Road & Transportation Builders Association (ARTBA) made its analysis public on Wednesday and urged lawmakers to help extend funding for the federal program for capital investments, due to expire May 31.

61k US bridges are "structurally deficient," says new analysis - an improvement last yr's 63k http://t.co/0zHmlzYN8B pic.twitter.com/aGNlNKlHKH

— ProPublica (@ProPublica) April 1, 2015

The 250 most-frequently-crossed bridges that rate as "structurally deficient" are on urban interstate highways, particularly in California. Nearly 87 percent of these bridges were built before 1970.

"Many of the most heavily traveled bridges are nearly 50 years old," warned ARTBA chief economist Dr. Alison Premo Black. "Elected officials can't just sprinkle fairy dust on America's bridge problem and wish it away."

Comment: Maybe if the U.S. was less concerned about producing bombs, missiles, and bullets and invading other countries, there would be money to spend on repairing the country's infrastructure.

At least 56 dead after Russian fishing trawler sinks in freezing waters of Sea of Okhotsk

RT
Thu, 02 Apr 2015 17:03 UTC

© AP Photo/Russian Emergency Situations Ministry Press Service
In this undated photo provided by Russian Emergency Situations Ministry, a Russian trawler, the same type as Dalny Vostok, is seen in an undisclosed location

A rescue mission to find survivors from the Dalniy Vostok fishing trawler, which sank in the Sea of Okhotsk off the Kamchatka Peninsula, will continue through the night. Fifty-six people are confirmed dead, while 63 were rescued from the freezing waters.

One hundred and thirty-two people were confirmed to have been aboard the fishing vessel, when it sank. Of those, 117 have been accounted for, according to TASS. Around 10 of the survivors are in a critical condition, suffering from hypothermia.

The head of the Russian Emergencies Ministry, Vladimir Puchkov, says the rescue mission to try and find survivors from the Dalniy Vostok should continue through the night.

"We will continue the rescue operation in the area where the trawler went down when night falls at full capacity," said Puchkov, according to Interfax.

He added that 26 vessels are currently at the scene and helping with the rescue operation. Strong winds have hampered the rescue mission, with helicopters unable to reach the area where the vessel sank. One chopper took off from Petropavlovsk Kamchatka, but was forced to return to the city of Magadan.

Update: 147 killed in Kenya university attack - Somali group Al-Shabaab claims responsibility

RT
Thu, 02 Apr 2015 16:56 UTC

The death toll has risen to at least 147 people after the siege of Garissa University College in Kenya. The attack on the institution by masked Al-Shabaab gunmen, an Al-Qaeda splinter group, has ended, according to the government's disaster agency.

The siege lasted nearly 15 hours. When it concluded, according to Reuters Interior Minister Joseph Nkaissery told Kenyan media: "The operation has ended successfully. Four terrorists have been killed."

Comment: How could anyone describe what happened as successful when 147 have been killed?

In the early morning, about five gunmen from the Islamist militant group Al Shabaab stormed a Kenyan university campus during morning prayers, killing a number students and staff, and taking others hostage. Police and soldiers surrounded the college, and exchanges of gunfire have been going on all day.

"We are finding it difficult to access the compound because some of the attackers are on top of a building and are firing at us whenever we try to gain entry," a policeman at the university campus in Garissa said earlier.

Kenyan police have issued a dusk to dawn (from 6.30 pm till 6.30 am) curfew in four regions near the Somalia border, as a security precaution following the attack, Reuters reported.

Comment: 147 people have died, yet there is nowhere near the kind of widespread coverage over this terrible incident compared to what occurred after the shootings at Charlie Hebdo that killed far, far fewer people. A dozen or so people are killed in a Western country and the Western politicians all stop what they're doing to show the flag in Paris, but when 147 people are killed by a Western proxy army in an African country it's no big deal, go back to your regularly scheduled programming folks. The double standards are sickening, absolutely sickening!

Judge rules Connecticut teen nearing end of forced chemo not allowed to go home

Debra Goldschmidt
CNN
Thu, 02 Apr 2015 16:36 UTC

Comment: So much for a free country. The state of Connecticut has effectively imprisoned this poor woman and forced her to undergo a poisonous treatment. Such a decision should be made by the individual, and if they choose to forgo standard allopathic treatment, that's none of the state's business. That they instead force her to undergo chemotherapy and then refuse her wishes to return home to her family is criminal.

A Connecticut teen who has been forced to have chemotherapy to treat Hodgkin lymphoma will remain in temporary custody of the state for the time being, according to her attorney, Josh Michtom.

A Connecticut juvenile court judge issued a written decision Wednesday denying a motion to let the teen, identified in court documents as "Cassandra C.," go home. The judge also denied a motion for visitation.

The 17-year-old is in remission after nearly six months of forced chemo treatments. On March 16, Michtom tried to convince the court that she should be able to return to her mother's home because she was no longer at imminent risk of harm from her illness.

Michtom and attorney Michael Taylor, who represents Cassandra's mother, Jackie Fortin, released a written statement after receiving the judge's decision Wednesday: "We are disappointed in this ruling, not least of all because it draws a factual conclusion that is directly contradicted by the weight of the evidence. We're conferring with our clients now about next steps, including whether to take another appeal."

Cassandra was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma in September and medical experts gave her an 85% chance of survival if treated with chemotherapy. Without it, doctors said at the time, she was likely to die within two years.

Second black box from crashed Germanwings A320 found (or is that 're-found'?)

Sputnik
Thu, 02 Apr 2015 16:18 UTC

The second black box from the Germanwings Airbus A320 plane that crashed in the French Alps en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf on March 24 has been found Thursday, according to prosecutors.

Marseille Prosecutor Brice Robin has confirmed Thursday that the flight data recorder had been recovered from the crashed Airbus. The second recorder contains specific parameters of the aircraft during the flight, including its speed, altitude and flight direction.

Officials hope that the second black box, the flight data recorder, would unveil more details about the catastrophe that had left 150 people aboard the flight dead.

Comment: Uhm, didn't they already find it?

From found to damaged to lost: Lufthansa now says flight data recorder on Germanwings Flight 9525 'may never be found'

Oh sorry, that was the NYT reporting that it had earlier been found, the same NYT that cited - within a day of the crash - some anonymous 'senior French military official' as saying that the pilot had been locked out of the cockpit... based on sounds he heard from the Cockpit Data Recording, implying that it had been located and analyzed within 24 hours of the accident.

Germanwings co-pilot character assassination continues - Prosecutors say Andreas Lubitz researched suicide and cockpit door security

RT
Thu, 02 Apr 2015 15:17 UTC

© Reuters/Fototeam Mueller
Andreas Lubitz runs the Airportrace half marathon in Hamburg in this September 13, 2009 file photo

German prosecutors say the Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz, who is believed to have deliberately crashed Flight 9525, researched suicide methods and cockpit door security in the days before the crash.

Investigators looked into Lubitz's tablet computer searches between March 16 and 23 and discovered he was concerned about medical treatment and was studying various suicide methods, German prosecutors said on Thursday.

In the course of one day, his search queries included cockpit doors and their security measures. They added that personal correspondence and search terms on Lubitz's tablet "support the conclusion that the machine was used by the co-pilot in the relevant period."

Germanwings said on Thursday that the company had been unaware that Lubitz was suffering from depression during pilot training. Earlier this week, Germanwings parent company Lufthansa confirmed it knew Lubitz suffered from a bout of severe depression before finishing his flight training six years ago.

Also on Thursday, the French police confirmed the second black box from the plane that crashed in the French Alps last week has been found.

Based on recordings from the first black box, investigators now believe co-pilot Andreas Lubitz intentionally crashed the plane on March 24, killing 150 people on board.

Earlier, the German paper Bild reported that 27-year-old Lubitz deliberately concealed he was still flying commercial planes from doctors, telling them that he had taken sick leave.

Authorities are also examining cellphones found at the crash site for clues.

13yo Logan LaPlante shares his experience with Hackschooling, an alternative to traditional education

Logan LaPlante
TEDx
Fri, 13 Feb 2015 13:42 UTC

When 13 year-old Logan LaPlante grows up, he wants to be happy and healthy. He discusses how hacking his education is helping him achieve this goal.

Comment: It seems as if our traditional education system is designed to hamper kids' growth.

Plane diverted to Boise Airport after 'smoke smell' reported

azcentral.com
Tue, 31 Mar 2015 11:25 UTC

The flight was originally headed to Spokane, Wash., from Phoenix Monday.

A Southwest Airlines flight from Phoenix to Spokane, Wash., was diverted to Idaho after a burning electrical or smoke smell was reported in the passenger cabin.

The plane landed in Boise at about 5:30 p.m. Monday.

Southwest Airlines spokesman Brad Hawkins says the captain in command of the flight heard reports of an odor and decided to divert the plane so mechanics could make safety checks.

Hawkins says 143 passengers were aboard, and Southwest employees in Boise worked to get them all on other flights.

Source: The Associated Presss

Plane lands safely at Allegheny County Airport after smoke fills cockpit

wpxi.com
Tue, 31 Mar 2015 11:15 UTC

Plane lands at Allegheny Co. Airport after smoke fills cockpit

Fire crews responded to Allegheny County Airport Tuesday after receiving reports of smoke filling the cockpit of a plane.

According to investigators, the plane landed safely after reporting smoke in the cockpit.

All oxygen masks were deployed on the plane as a result of the smoke, investigators said. The two pilots and one passenger aboard were evacuated.

No additional information as immediately available.

Pilot's association raises serious doubts over Germanwings 4U-9525 investigation

Sputnik News
Thu, 02 Apr 2015 02:06 UTC

European pilots have expressed concern over the investigation into the crash of Germanwings flight U4-9525 en-route from Barcelona to Düsseldorf on March 24, saying the French prosecutor's role is hindering a proper accident probe.

The European Cockpit Association (ECA), which represents over 38,000 European pilots, says the role of the French prosecutor, working alongside the air accident investigation team is a blurring of responsibilities and that the prosecutor's insistence — so soon after the crash — that the plane was brought down by the co-pilot is inappropriate.

The aeroplane, registered D-AIPX, operated by Germanwings, flight 4U-9525, crashed in the Alps, killing all 150 people on board. Following examination and downloading of the Cockpit Voice Recorder, French prosecutor Brice Robin concluded that co-pilot Andreas Lubitz had locked the pilot out of the cockpit and then deliberately put the aircraft into a downwards glide path which caused the crash.

"The most plausible and probable interpretation for us is that the co-pilot, by a voluntary abstention (deliberate decision not to act), refused to open the door to the cockpit to the flight captain, and activated the button to start descent. So he activated this button to initiate loss of altitude (descent) for a reason that we completely ignore today but that can be analysed as an intention to destroy the plane," Robin told a press conference.

Comment: The pilots feel something is deeply wrong with this whole situation. Trial by media and casting immediate blame on the co-pilot does nothing to concretely enhance air safety. One might think this is one more incident designed to discourage people from traveling at all.

more misbehaving phuqqin' jewzskies starring on the sott; speaks for itself

Jibrish

Robert F. Kennedy talks about what is in his book about Fauci: [Link]

parzival

If no pause is forthcoming, then how about those behind these decisions be identified and called out - each specific individual. Publicly. Each...

Buffalo_Ken

If you don't have the right to choose what goes into your body under threat of being deemed an untouchable social and economic outcast, then you...

Artex

How about a pause on this whole give the vaccination to the kids thing? Come on really. How about that. Lets make it happen. Then better decisions...

Buffalo_Ken

Society's Child

Crumbling infrastructure: More than 61,000 bridges in the U.S. are structurally deficient and in need of repair

At least 56 dead after Russian fishing trawler sinks in freezing waters of Sea of Okhotsk

Update: 147 killed in Kenya university attack - Somali group Al-Shabaab claims responsibility

Judge rules Connecticut teen nearing end of forced chemo not allowed to go home

Second black box from crashed Germanwings A320 found (or is that 're-found'?)

Germanwings co-pilot character assassination continues - Prosecutors say Andreas Lubitz researched suicide and cockpit door security

13yo Logan LaPlante shares his experience with Hackschooling, an alternative to traditional education

Plane diverted to Boise Airport after 'smoke smell' reported

Plane lands safely at Allegheny County Airport after smoke fills cockpit

Pilot's association raises serious doubts over Germanwings 4U-9525 investigation

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