Arlen Specter 1930-2012

Former Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Spector died this morning at his home in Philadelphia of complications from non-Hodgkins lymphoma at the age of 82.

Often described as a centrist or moderate, Spector started his political career as a Democrat, became a Republican in 1965, and switch back in 2009.  The next year, he lost the Democrat nomination in the primary.  His seat reverted to the GOP in the general election.

Spector was born in Wichita, Kansas and moved with his family to the small town of Russell, also the hometown of his eventual Senate colleague Bob Dole.  His family later moved to Philadelphia, where he would graduate from the University of Pennsylvania.  After serving in the Air Force, he earned a law degree at Yale.  He was elected to the Senate in 1980, serving from 1981 to 2011.

Read more at the New York Times, CNN, the Wall Street Journal, ABC News, NBC Politics, USA Today and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

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Felix Baumgartner Makes Highest-Ever Skydive

Austrian adventurer Felix Baumgartner has successfully completed a skydive from a record height of 128,000 feet, which is just over 24 miles.  It took him about 10 minutes to descend from his balloon capsule to the ground in New Mexico.  Whether he met his other goal of exceeding the speed of sound during the jump has not yet been determined.  The height record will not be official until it is confirmed by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale.

Baumgartner's "Capcom" (capsule commander) was none other than the man whose record he broke, retired Air Force Colonel Joe Kittinger, now in his eighties, who jumped from an altitude of 102,800 feet (about 19 and 1/2 miles) in 1960.

Baumgartner's feat gives me a chance to revive a label we used during my time at AndRightlySo, and which I certainly mean as a compliment:  Badass.

Read more at BBC News, the Telegraph, the Washington Post, USA Today and PopSci.
Space.com has this infographic with some technical details.  Blogger's video search feature has turned up this record of the jump.  During the first few minutes, you can hear the audio from Baumgartner and Col. Kittinger.

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Roll Out The Bridge

Later this month, the Maryland State Highway Administration will replace two bridges that span the Baltimore-Washington Parkway.  This operation will not involve the costly, time-consuming and traffic-clogging process of tearing them down and then building the new ones.  Instead, the old bridges will be rolled away and the new ones rolled in.  This will be Maryland's first "bridge on wheels" swap, but it has been done in other states.

Read the story at the Baltimore Sun.

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Obamaphones And Other Strange Goings On

The first item comes via iOwnTheWorld.  By now, we've all probably heard about woman in Cleveland who thinks we should all vote to re-elect President Obama because he gives out free phones (conveniently ignoring the fact that the phones were paid for, not by the president, but by taxpayers and/or whomever we're borrowing money from these days).  However, she has been seriously outdone by a woman in Baltimore, who has collected no fewer than 30 "Obamaphones".

In a related development, the phones provided to poor people are making the world's richest man even richer.  As reported by Fox News, the phones are made by TracPhone, which makes $10 for each one.  Benefiting from this is Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, whose estimated net worth is $70 billion, and who owns a controlling stake in TracPhone.  This begs some questions for the left.  Don't you guys normally have a problem when the rich get richer?  And what was that about "spreading the wealth around", Mr. President?

Meanwhile in (and above) Cape Canaveral, Space Exploration Technologies launches one of their Falcon 9 rockets into orbit.  Only trouble is, they missed by a few hundred miles.  (From Reuters)

To close on a sad note, from The Inquistr, America has produced her last glass Coca-Cola bottle, at the Winona Bottling Company in Minnesota.  For now on, the popular beverage will come only in plastic bottles and metal cans.

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Ammunition Explosion In Russia

Over 4,000 tons of bombs and shells at a military base near Orenburg, Russia exploded earlier today, creating a shock wave, a mushroom cloud and a brushfire.  The shock wave blew out windows in some houses and schools.  Two towns near the base were evacuated.  The shock wave is heard in the opening seconds of this video:



Read the story at RT Question More.

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Sandusky Gets 30-60 Years

Convicted sex offender Jerry Sandusky was sentenced today to a prison term of between 30 and 60 years.  Being 68 years old, he will almost certainly spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Read more at Fox News, CBS News, the Washington Post, CNN, Yahoo News and USA Today.

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Hugo Chavez Re-Elected

While the exit polls mentioned in yesterday's post indicated that challenger Enrique Capriles had a small lead, the official results were quite different.  Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has carried 54% of the vote with 81% of the voting places reporting, and has been declared the winner.

Read more at BBC News, ABC News, Fox News and Bloomberg.

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