Delta Jet Blows Tire During The Landing in Atlanta

The pilot of a Delta jet that blew a tire and then caught fire as it landed in Atlanta today is being tributed with getting the plane through it with no severe wounds to any of the passengers on board.

Delta Flight 2284, an MD88, blew at least one tire on landing after arrival at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport from Pittsburgh in the present day, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

The tire burst caused the landing gear to catch fire, and the plane surged burn as it came to a halt on the runway.

When the fire department had the fire out, travelers were bused to terminal, the FAA said.

Only three people suffered small injuries, which the FAA said may have took place when they left plane.

"When we landed we could tell something was little off," passenger Peter Gitnik of Beaver, Pa., said "Pilot did a great job. It looked like the tire was on fire. It seemed really under control though. I think there were some minor scrapes but I'm not sure."

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Kitty

One of the CIA's most flakey Cold War campaigns was Operation Acoustic Kitty. In confidential documents from the CIA's super-secret Science and Technology Directorate, it was exposed that some Cold-War-era cats were surgically altered to become advanced bugging devices. The idea was that the cats would listen in on Soviet negotiation from park benches, windowsills and garbage containers. The cat was meant to just stroll up to the sensitive conversations, entirely unnoticed. The clandestine cat's electrical internals would then capture and relay the audio to awaiting agents.

The project was begun in 1961. Former CIA officer Victor Marchetti narrates the story of the Acoustic Kitty:
"They slit the cat open, put batteries in him, and wired him up. The tail was used as an antenna. They made a monstrosity. They tested him and tested him. They found he would walk off the job when he got hungry, so they put another wire in to override that. Finally, they're ready. They took it out to a park bench and said, "Listen to those two guys. Don't listen to anything else - not the birds, no cat or dog - just those two guys!"

After several surgeries and hard training, the cyborg cat was ready for its first ground test. The CIA inserted the cat to a Soviet compound on Wisconsin Avenue in Washington, D.C., and let him out of a parked van across the street. The cat ambled into the road, and was struck by a taxi almost instantly. Five years of attempt and over $15 million in spending were resulted to roadkill in a moment. Shorty after its death a CIA operative returned to the site of accident and put the cat's remaining parts into a container to prevent the Soviets from getting their paws on the sensitive and expensive listening devices.

Operation Acoustic Kitty was completely desolated in 1967, and declared an complete failure. Perhaps due to their awkward nature, the documents describing Acoustic Kitty remain partially censored even today. But one document does congratulate the Acoustic Kitty team for their efforts:
"The work done on this problem over the years reflects great credit on the personnel who guided it, particularly (censored), whose energy and imagination could be models for scientific pioneers."

While the memo says that the use of trained cats is possible, it also says that "the environmental and security factors in using this technique in a real foreign situation force us to conclude that for our (intelligence) purposes, it would not be practical."

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Jeff Conaway, Dies at 60

Actor Jeff Conaway, notable for his television and movie roles in 'Taxi,' 'Babylon 5' and 'Grease,' died Friday at age 60, the Hollywood Reporter confirms. The news comes exactly a day after reports that the star would be taken off life support.

Radar calls it "the end a long, sad road of addiction that made him one of Hollywood's exemplary storys." Conaway, known for his roles as Bobby Wheeler on 'Taxi' and T-Bird Kenickie in 'Grease,' was a New York native whose brutal battles with drugs came to define the latter decades of his fame.

Conaway was kept into an LA hospital on May 11. As of May 26, he was reported to have been experiencing no brain activity. A source told Radar that Conaway's feeding tube had been removed as of Thursday afternoon and that "Jeff is in no pain whatsoever."
Hot USA News

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Bristol Palin Dancing With The Stars

Bristol Palin Dancing With The Stars: Despite landing at the bottom of the leader board four times this season, Alaska’s abstinence-loving former First Daughter (and Mark Ballas, her dance partner) has managed to waltz her way into the finale of Dancing With the Stars. Tonight, it was revealed that Bristol and Mark beat out third-place finishers Brandy and Maksim Chmerkovskiy— even though one of the singer’s dances was awarded a perfect score on Monday. Palin, by comparison, has never garnered a perfect 30.

This relatively shocking development—well, for Dancing fans, at least—might be evidence that some viewers have been voting for Palin because of who her mother is, rather than because of her ballroom skills. For weeks now, conspiracy theorists have been accusing Tea Party supporters of gaming DWTS’s voting system to ensure that Palin doesn’t get eliminated. The craziest thing about this accusation? It might not be off-base.

Earlier today, Tracie Egan Morrissey of Jezebel took a closer look at conservative message boards, where posters reveal that they’ve been exploiting a glitch on ABC’s website that allows Dancing viewers to cast unlimited votes via email. Here’s some of what Egan Morrissey found:

    Here’s a hint: They don’t have to be VALID email addresses to register them with ABC.com, there is apparently no validation process. The just have to be formatted like a valid email address, and you must use a valid zip code and a birthdate that makes you old enough to vote. I’m voting like a democrat, all night long…

    No, it doesn’t have to be a valid email address – I had one of my anonymous ones XXX@yahoo.com that I used, and then just did the sign-up process all over again with XXX1@yahoo.com and it worked.

    Got my 80 votes in online…took 2 hours. I am beat

    I only got 42 in, I have some catching up to do!

    Lord have mercy, I voted for 3 hours online! I got 300 in.

If Palin somehow comes out on top next week, when she’ll be dancing against season MVP Jennifer Grey—the recipient of numerous perfect scores—then we might know for sure that something fishy is going on. Then again, considering all that’s at stake in this competition is a tacky mirror-ball trophy, it doesn’t exactly matter who wins. Right? Right?

See a clip from tonight’s results show below.

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Eva Longoria Divorce

TMZ reported that Tony had filed for divorce.  Two clerks at the Bexar County Courthouse in Texas had told us the case was filed and sealed by a family law judge.

But Eva's rep tells us Tony did not file and does not even have a divorce lawyer.

Another clerk at the courthouse now tells us she's in charge of sealed cases and says no such case has crossed her desk.

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New York Marathon

Running 26.2 miles is tough. Running it minus a few toenails is tougher.
I will be in the pack of 43,000 runners in the New York City Marathon Sunday, and here’s what I’ve learned in five months of training: Building endurance for the distance is only one slice of the preparation needed to finish.
Marathon runners battle bizarre physical problems and hurdles in training and on race day – things I’d never imagined until I started doing it myself..

For Datails click here................

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Zab Judah

Bill Emes was on hand in Newark for BoxingScene.com, and reports that everyone made weight for Saturday's HBO Boxing After Dark event.

In the junior welterweight main event, Zab Judah came in at 139 pounds and Lucas Matthysse was on the division limit at 140.

In the televised lightweight co-feature, both competitors were under the limit. Robert Guerrero came in two pounds light at 133, with Vicente Escobedo a pound over that at 134.

Our quick previews of both fights, and others from this weekend, are just one post below this one (or here's a direct link). Unless someone else takes the card on Saturday night, we will not have live coverage of the Boxing After Dark double-header, as we'll be focused on the superior Showtime event. The Showtime card starts at 10pm EDT, with the HBO card starting at 11:15, so there is a chance we'll be able to get the Judah-Matthysse fight covered.  Full Story..............

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