Tag: real news

  • Curves and Projectiles

    Curves and Projectiles

    SEPTA Says Commuter Train Hit By Projectile Just Before Amtrak Train Derailed »

    From CBS in Philadelphia:


    SEPTA spokeswoman Jerri Williams says they don’t know what the projectile was. It broke the engineer’s window around 9:25 p.m. Tuesday near SEPTA’s North Philadelphia station. No injuries were reported.
    Williams says the Trenton-bound commuter train was stopped and the incident was being investigated when the Amtrak derailment happened about 3½ miles away.

    There is no indication, we are told in reports, that this projectile had anything to do with the Amtrak crash in Philadelphia.. But that may not be enough to quell the numerous questions that will arise as this situation develops..

    Meanwhile the situation continues in its tragic nature.. The number of deaths have risen from 6 to 7.. And the number of injured stands near 200..

    Also, the ‘black boxes’ have been recovered and have been taken to Delaware for investigation, according to JON HURDLE and RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA of the NEW YORK TIMES..

    Wall to wall news coverage has been dominant on the cable TV stations.. The world seems glued to the Philadelphia region and Mayor Michael Nutter as people attempt to figure out what exactly caused the crash of this New York bound train in the City of Brotherly Love..

    The latest information: There are rumors swirling that the train was traveling over 100mph before the crash took place..

    MORE:
    The black boxes from the crash Amtrak train have been recovered.. they have been taken to Delaware for observation.. 

    AMTRAK stopped in Maryland.. Navy midshipman among the dead..

  • Purge Splurge

    Purge Splurge

    purgebaltimore
    When horror movies meet reality, we are there to contemplate it..

    There were lots of ‘purge’ stories making the round on Google. The word was trending since the Baltimore bedlam began.. that is because groups of teens, we are told, were posting signs saying that there would be a ‘purge’ on Monday night. We saw the riots that developed.  The BALTIMORE SUN reports about how cops think the purge notion and plans came straight from the horror movie. 

    This is not the first time the term purge has been in the news. In 2014, several ‘purge’ fears were prevalent after rumors circulated in cities across American of similar plans for violence, without any materializing.

     The movie THE PURGE, however, is now directly being BLAMED by some for the violence in the city..

    This time in Baltimore, perhaps, as opposed to the past ‘purge’ meme warnings, violence did materialize. But to blame a movie? Perhaps this is just a chance for the media to drum up more fear over the summer of hell that may be coming..

  • EASTER HELL

    EASTER HELL

    After al Shabaab gunmen massacred nearly 150 people at a Kenyan university on Thursday, singling out Christians for point-blank executions, churches in Kenya are turning to armed guards to protect their Easter Sunday congregations »

    (Image source) 

    Christians who make up 83 percent of the population of 44 million in Kenya.. This Easter Sunday they are horrified to have to worship surrounded by signs of warfare.. modern hate.. the emergence of violence in their nation stunned their souls.

    Shabab threatened to make Kenyan cities turn red with blood.. The attack on the school last week was a victory for terror.. Easter Sunday armed guards is a continuation of that win.

    Edith Honan with REUTERS reports:

    Kenya has imposed a dusk-to-dawn curfew in four crime-ridden counties along its porous 700km border with Somalia, while helicopters were deployed along its palm-fringed coastal region popular with Western tourists.

    Robert Kitur, the coastal region police chief, told Reuters extra uniformed and plain-clothes police officers have been deployed in the area, where Islamists have carried out attacks in the past.

    “It is a delicate period but we have put the best possible surveillance,” he said. “What happened in Garissa must never be seen in Mombasa or anywhere else in the region and country.”

    The al Qaeda-aligned al Shabaab said the Garissa assault was punishment to Kenya for sending troops into Somalia to fight the group alongside other African Union peacekeepers.

    Late on Saturday, 613 students and 50 staff from Garissa University College arrived by bus in Nairobi, where they were welcomed by sobbing parents and relatives. Parents of missing children were at the city’s mortuary, trying to identify the dead.

    It was the most deadly attack on Kenyan soil since al Qaeda in 1998 bombed the U.S. embassy in Nairobi, killing more than 200 people and wounding thousands of others. 

    The attack has put further strain on the historically cordial relations between Kenya’s Christian and Muslim communities, which have deteriorated in recent years due to frequent Islamist attacks on Christian priests and churches.

    X X X X

     

    THE EASTER VIGIL, 2015It is seeking a deeper meaning, an answer, and not an easy one, to the questions which challenge our faith, our fidelity and our very existenceWe need … the humility not to take ourselves so seriously, recognizing who we really are: Creatures with strengths and weaknesses, sinners in need of forgivenessTo enter into the mystery means going beyond our own comfort zone, beyond the laziness and indifference which hold us back, and going out in search of truth, beauty and lovePOPE FRANCIS, EASTER 2015

    THE EASTER VIGIL, 2015

    It is seeking a deeper meaning, an answer, and not an easy one, to the questions which challenge our faith, our fidelity and our very existence

    We need … the humility not to take ourselves so seriously, recognizing who we really are: Creatures with strengths and weaknesses, sinners in need of forgiveness

    To enter into the mystery means going beyond our own comfort zone, beyond the laziness and indifference which hold us back, and going out in search of truth, beauty and love

    POPE FRANCIS, EASTER 2015

  • 18 MINUTES OF HELL IN THE SKY

    18 MINUTES OF HELL IN THE SKY

    Germanwings plane crash: New information suggests that the descent took 18 minutes, not 8 »

    A lot of initial reporting on the Germanwings flight crash in the French Alps has been discredited as more information has surfaced.. The initial report yesterday that a mayday distress call was placed was wrong.. And then another issue was reported, that the descent of Flight 9525 took 8 minutes. Instead, new information suggests, it took 18!

    John Lichfield with the UK INDEPENDENT reports this for history:

    The French environment and transport minister, Ségolène Royal,  said that the crew of the Airbus A320 had stopped responding on radio at 10.30am yesterday when the aircraft was over the Mediterranean.
    The aircraft slammed into the sheer side of a mountain in the French Alps soon after 10.48am. For those 18 minutes, it gradually shed height from 28,000 feet to less than 2,000 feet without transmitting any form of distress signal.

    This information is also being reported: The French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, said that so-called “black box” had been damaged in the crash but was “usable”. .. For some reason, I hesitate buying into this at this point. With the number of times official stories have already changed, I wouldn’t doubt a change in this factoid either.

    At this point, the results from yesterday’s crash are horrific.. one family last three generations of people. A school lost 16 of its best and brightest children.. The heartache extends to the United States with news that two passengers on the doomed flight were from here..

    And a few more things of note as well:

    Three generations of one family dead in plane crash..
    Mystery: What happened on Flight 9525?
    Two people from the United States were on flight..
    Weather an issue in search ..

  • Germanwings crash theories abound

    Germanwings crash theories abound

    The crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 today is a story only a few hours old. But already theories are advancing online. Conspiracy theories.. One because the trip the plane was making was from Barcelona to Barcelonnette .. Strange, perhaps..

    Already, though, it’s taking ‘flight’ online.. That, along with questions of whether scientists were on board, perhaps officials or authorities that someone wanted to ‘take out’ ..

    Another theory actually says that CERN–firing up the Hadron Collider soon to full power–is the reason for the crash.

    Some are claiming terrorism.. Some aren’t..

    There is a link to a foreign news story that reports the crash–but the date on the story is March 22. Two days prior to today. That has fired up a series of theories of conspiracy as well..

    We know this:
    We don’t know.

    Already today, the news surrounding the flight crash has changed substantially.

    When it was first reported, there were news accounts that a mayday distress call was made. Now it has turned out, according to official statements, that no mayday was made. And then the plane descended for 8 minutes before the final crash into the mountains of the French Alps..

    This is a part of why, until the dust clears, I attempt to steer clear of reporting breaking news… we make readers aware, but on the details, it’s better to allow the events to play out in real time, as no news source seems to get anything correct..

    As for the events of this Germanwings crash: The theories are abounding.. This is the latest in a series of high profile crashes that have seemingly been dominating headlines over the past 14 months..
    But crashes happen..

    I don’t want to authoritatively state any theory on why this crash occurred. To the best of our knowledge, if you believe the reporting of NBC NEWS at least, there is at least one black box recovered from the scene.   In that light, the world hopefully will find out the truth as to why the plane crashed, why no mayday was called out, and why the entire event took 8 minutes. . . just imagine the horror of those 8 minutes.

    I think it’s fair and proper to question all accounts, all theories, and try to ascertain what events took place. That goes for any events that occur.. But it’s premature to conclude a conspiracy.

    Sometimes accidents do happen. Just as every crash accident is not a conspiracy, every plane crash is not either.

    I have my personal thoughts about Fligth 800 in 1996. I also have my own doubts about Flight 370.. I also think a missile took down the flight in late 2014..

    As far as this one? Time will tell.
    But there is one thing to note.. If this is not a conspiracy, not terrorism, not inflicted on humans by other humans, then it becomes scarier.. Why? Because it shows how out of luck we can be on this planet.. how cursed we often times are without knowing it.. And how at risk we all are to the dangers that pop up when least expected.

    Yes, indeed.. Just as reality is scarier than fiction, ‘chance’ is much more frightening than conspiracy. Because there’s no rhyme or reason or sympathy when you speak about ‘chance.’

  • THE MYSTERIOUS REAPPEARING VLADIMIR PUTIN ..#PutinIsNOTdead

    THE MYSTERIOUS REAPPEARING VLADIMIR PUTIN ..#PutinIsNOTdead

    All the world’s a stage.. Vladimir Putin may have just payed the entire world..

    After being gone from the scene for ten days, and internet rage took over Twitter with #putinIsDead tags and rumors that Vlad was either abducted by aliens or a coup was taking place and new leadership was on the way.. Near hysteria took over last night when, for a bit, UVB-76 went down..

    But today, as planned (and as reported by Russian state TV on Friday by accident when a script reader ill-timed the reading of news that wouldn’t take place for three days), Putin emerged..

    It was official business and a photo op worth a great caption: The meeting with the leader of Kyrgyzstan was Putin’s first public outing since a March 5 press conference with the Italian prime minister…

    Putin even made light of the rumors, saying that things would be ‘boring’ without gossip..And things are never boring with Vladimir Putin..

    He is alive and well.
    Vlad living to impale another day.

  • THE JINX

    THE JINX

    HBO dropped a bombshell on viewers–and Robert Durst was arrested because of it..

    Durst is a millionaire eccentric, and has been linked to two murders fifteen years ago. On Sunday, just before an HBO finale about his life, he was arrested.. The ASSOCIATED PRESS reports in dispatches tonight:

    Durst was arrested on a murder warrant just before Sunday evening’s finale of an HBO serial documentary about his links to three sensational killings.

    In the finale, Durst was asked about similarities in handwriting in a letter he wrote and another linked to one of the killings. Later, filmmakers said Durst wore his microphone into the bathroom.

    What followed was a bizarre rambling in which Durst said, apparently to himself, “There it is. You’re caught” and “What the hell did I do? Killed them all of course.”

    The show ended, and it wasn’t clear whether producers confronted Durst about the secretly recorded words, or what Durst meant by them.

    But the FBI swooped in and he was arrested in New Orleans.. Durst left his Houston town house for New Orleans to escape unwanted attention since the documentary’s second-to-last episode aired. The Durst family is worth more than $4 billion..

  • The day after Pam

    The day after Pam

    Much-needed aid arrives in cyclone-devastated Vanuatu »

    The situation on the island is dire—food and water and shelter are all gone for a population quickly ravaged by the storm.  Ten are reported dead.. there are hints and suggestions that the number will rise as time goes on.  One pilot who was forced to land in Tanna described pure devastation, with entire communities simply flattened.

    Many officials and also world citizens are relying heavily on social media to see just how bad things are—the world has been reading Tweets and other citizen reporting from the ground where the storm struck.. One Tweet described a 21-year-old sheltering a 1 week old baby even as the roof was ripped off by Cyclone PAM..

    And that is how natural disasters work. They come quick, they leave fast. They leave misery in the wake.. And deaths. Injuries, but also little quips and anecdotes of miracles that seem to keep humanity hopeful just enough to clean up until the next disaster..

  • WHERE’S POOTIE POOT?

    WHERE’S POOTIE POOT?

    FRIDAY THE 13TH IN RUSSIA: Putin, Said to Be ‘Perfectly Healthy,’ Is Also Nowhere to Be Seen »

    There are rumors online that Vladimir Putin is either sick, or even  dead!

    The NYT says,

    The last confirmed public sighting was at a meeting with Prime Minister Matteo Renzi of Italy on March 5 — although the Kremlin would have citizens think otherwise.

    Given that the Kremlin borrows all manner of items from the Soviet playbook these days, there appeared to be an attempt to doctor the president’s timetable to show that all was well.

    The KREMLIN is busy doing damage control..

    The mystery deepens: Where’s VLAD the IMPALER…

  • PAM’S Friday the 13th Hit

    PAM’S Friday the 13th Hit

    Cyclone Pam Hits Vanuatu: Nationwide Red Alert Issued, Officials Fear the Worst »

    The WEATHER CHANNEL has this:

    With Cyclone Pam expected to deal a major blow to the island nation of Vanuatu, officials were pleading with the population to get to safety, or risk their lives.
    The country spent Thursday stocking up and fortifying buildings for the cyclone’s strong winds, torrential rain and devastating storm surge, but experts fear the worst will happen if Pam hits Vanuatu’s population centers directly, especially the coastal capital, Port Vila.
    The country’s government issued a red alert for all six provinces as Pam closed in, BBC said. The alert orders all of the South Pacific nation’s 250,000 residents to get to shelter immediately, the report added.

    And even more intense, a tweet posted by a user Humans of Vanuatu says a few things about the storm, right now, as it hits:

    Folks, I’ll be honest. It’s really bad out there. The wind is howling with a deep roar that just doesn’t let up. Anyone not in shelter now is in mortal danger. Frankly, I don’t think our country will make it through this without some deep scars.

    And

    The shutters are groaning like ghouls, but the power is still on, and my internet is still running full bore. Not sure how I’d be feeling if not for that….

    More:

    Just got a text from some of the skeleton crew on the Tina 1, one of those ships opposite our house that you saw in the video. They’d love to get off the ship now, but they can’t. They’re stuck there for the duration.

    This is PAM as she starts the terror on land:

    [youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4dwvaPUSS0?feature=oembed&enablejsapi=1&origin=https://safe.txmblr.com&wmode=opaque]