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Who Will Get AsiaAir 8501s Black Boxes?

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Writer

The fate of AirAsia Flight 8501 and the 162 souls on board is a tragedy, but it will not remain a mystery for much longer.

The wreckage of the Airbus A320 has been located in relatively shallow water. The recovery of bodies is a first priority. As this gets under way the retrieval of the airplane’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders should be rapid because of the accessibility of the crash site.

This immediately raises the issue of who will lead the crash investigation. The airline is based in Malaysia. However the crash occurred in Indonesian airspace and 156 of the passengers were from Indonesia.

When foreign-owned airlines crash in U.S. airspace the investigation is led by the National Transportation Safety Board. For example, when an Egypt Air Boeing 767 plunged into the Atlantic en route from New York to Cairo in 1999, the NTSB investigated that case (the Egyptians did not accept the Board’s findings, that the pilot put the airplane into a dive in an act of suicide).

Another strong reason that the investigation should be led by the Indonesians is that their equivalent of the NTSB, the National Transportation Safety Committee has a very professional reputation and track record.

Moreover, Malaysian air crash investigators did not come out well from the first months of the investigation into the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines Flight 370. Their first and only published report was perfunctory and evasive and their work has been superseded by experts sent from many other nations.

The black boxes

Article source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/30/who-will-get-asiaair-8501-s-black-boxes.html

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Stock futures declining; Walmart unveils gift card exchange; AirAsia flight …

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Writer

Stock Market Headlines:

Stock futures are pointing to a soft start as the price of oil continues to fall. Dow futures are losing 36 points, Nasdaq futures are declining 8 points and SP 500 futures are down 6.25 points. (CNN Money)

China’s main share index ended slightly lower today with most investors reluctant to stake out fresh positions ahead of the year-end holidays, but mainland stocks looked set to end 2014 with world-beating gains of nearly 50 percent. (Reuters)

Crude oil futures dropped further to fresh five-year lows today due to oversupply concerns ahead of the release of weekly U.S. oil inventory data. (MarketWatch)

U.S. Business Headlines:

Walmart unveiled an online gift card exchange that allows consumers to swap cards from more than 200 retailers, restaurants and airlines for a Walmart e-gift card that can be used in stores and online. (Kiplinger Personal Finance)

Fiat Chrysler is recalling about 67,000 model year 2006 and 2007 pickups because of a problem that could allow the trucks to be started without the clutch being depressed. (Associated Press)

Following the congressional renewal of the “tax extenders” package of measures earlier this month, the IRS has announced it still anticipates opening the 2015 tax filing season as scheduled, accepting tax returns electronically and processing paper returns starting Jan. 20. (Tax-News.com)

The number of rigs actively exploring for or producing U.S. oil and gas reserves was down short term, but still up year-on-year, Baker Hughes reported. (UPI News)

Nicholas Schorsch, co-founder of AR Capital LLC, resigned

Article source: http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2014/12/stock_futures_declining_walmar_1.html

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The Red Baron takes to the skies again

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Writer

The plane started as a U.S. Army Air Corps trainer in World War II, then got a second life as a crop-duster.

In its third life, the biplane twisted, turned and pleased fans of flight as it hawked Red Baron pizzas for the Schwan Food Co. of Marshall, Minn.

The distinctive red-and-white paint scheme of the Red Baron Stearman is topped with graphics similar to those it wore after it was modified into a 450-horsepower formation-aerobatics showstopper.

“We were always looking for one of these airplanes. This is the hot rod of the Stearmans,” Paul Lindemann said.

The brothers, who run a crop-dusting operation as North Valley Aircraft, bought the Stearman at auction in fall 2008. Once they got other aircraft restorations out of the way, it took them 11 months to restore it, finishing in July.

The plane, No. 5 of the Stearmans flown at air shows, had been disassembled. It was being readied for a complete restoration when the Red Baron Squadron was closed down. Most of the parts were in boxes and the wire harnesses had been cut and had to be replaced, the Lindemanns said.

“From the firewall forward, everything was missing. But you can find the stuff,” Paul said.

“A lot of guys don’t know how to work on them anymore. We grew up with them,” Jarrod said.

Compared to the Pitts Special aerobatics planes the brothers fly in air shows, the Stearman is slow and not nearly as agile. But it has an aura of romance, they said. They plan to fly

Article source: http://www.jamestownsun.com/news/state/3643586-red-baron-takes-skies-again

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The Tragedy of the American Military

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Writer

In mid-September, while President Obama was fending off complaints that he should have done more, done less, or done something different about the overlapping crises in Iraq and Syria, he traveled to Central Command headquarters, at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida. There he addressed some of the men and women who would implement whatever the U.S. military strategy turned out to be.

The part of the speech intended to get coverage was Obama’s rationale for reengaging the United States in Iraq, more than a decade after it first invaded and following the long and painful effort to extricate itself. This was big enough news that many cable channels covered the speech live. I watched it on an overhead TV while I sat waiting for a flight at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. When Obama got to the section of his speech announcing whether he planned to commit U.S. troops in Iraq (at the time, he didn’t), I noticed that many people in the terminal shifted their attention briefly to the TV. As soon as that was over, they went back to their smartphones and their laptops and their Cinnabons as the president droned on.

Usually I would have stopped watching too, since so many aspects of public figures’ appearances before the troops have become so formulaic and routine. But I decided to see the whole show. Obama gave

Article source: http://www.theatlantic.com/features/archive/2014/12/the-tragedy-of-the-american-military/383516/

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Family Time: Your teen’s loud music could be permanently damaging their hearing

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Writer

Posted Dec. 29, 2014 @ 12:01 am

Article source: http://www.recordnet.com/article/20141229/NEWS/141229868/101115/A_LIFE

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The 2014 Novel of the Year

Posted on December 29, 2014 by Writer

Immigration reform is the unusual political debate in which those whose lives it most affects—the nation’s twelve million illegal immigrants—are rarely granted the opportunity to contribute. But politicians abhor a rhetorical vacuum, and they have clamored to fill it. Immigrants, Jeb Bush tells us, “cherish the values of hard work, faith, family, enterprise and patriotism that have made this country great”; on the other hand they are, according to Congressman Steve King, our heir to Ellison DuRant Smith, “mercenaries” who, if they enter illegally, are “defrauding the Department of Defense” and commit rampant homicide: “if they get their way, there will be more Americans that are actually dead.” Horatio Algers or murderers, immigration was at the center of the national conversation in 2014, an annus horribilis that saw the House Republicans repeatedly refuse to allow a vote on a comprehensive immigration reform bill that passed the Senate with bipartisan support. The House instead passed five separate bills to defund President Obama’s 2012 executive action, known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, which has granted work permits and deportation exemptions to undocumented immigrants who entered the country before turning sixteen . The Republicans’ stance was not helped by reports this summer that thousands of children from Central American countries were being detained in converted warehouses, often without access to legal representation, in violation of international law. The year ended with Obama’s memoranda to overhaul the immigration system, a

Article source: http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/29/the-2014-novel-of-the-year.html

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