Just when you think you're doing the right thing

NASA reversed its decision to bring the shuttle inside after Hurricane Ernesto began to weaken. It is expected to be making landfall about a few hours ago. The storm never returned to Category 1 strength.

In Brazil, a baby was born weighing a hefty 14 pounds! The girl also was 23 1/4" long. Apparently she has three older brothers who all weighed in at over 9 pounds at birth. The mother is well (good for her!) and is diabetic.

Following up on Sunday's fatal crash in Kentucky, the FAA acknowledged that there was a violation. Last November new regulations came down the pike stipulating that there should be two (2) controllers in the control tower to do two (2) jobs: monitoring the radar and communicating with taxiing aircraft. At the time of the crash, there was only one on duty. When there is only one, monitoring the radar needs to be handed over to the FAA's Indianopolis center. Evidently, the blame lies with the FAA.

How did I miss this one? The leader of Hezbollah Sheik Hassan Nasrallah actually admitted that he was surprised by Israel's response. He never believed that Israel would counter-attack them in such magnitude. He even went so far as to say "if I had known on July 11 ... that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not". In Israel, there has been widespread speculation that Hezbollah had been truly surprised by the reaction in Israel. He also went on to say that he and Hezbollah welcome peacekeeping troops in Lebanon. His behavior leads some to believe he is mending fences (or bridges...) with the Lebanese people and expecially, the Lebanese government. More than likely it's true. He needs people to believe he regrets the loss of life (however righteious some believe it was) and the destruction of so much property. He needs them to believe he is sorry.

On this day back in 1990, the Soviet Republic of Tatarstan (Республика Татарстан) declared independence. It was unsuccessful and remains a Russian Republic. Tatarstan is historically the land of the Golden Horde. For more information about Tatarstan and other relatively unknown Russian Republics, go here.

More People walking Free

If you don't follow the news and are unaware of two journalists that were kidnapped in Gaza two weeks ago, you have now been informed. Fox News journalists Steve Centanni, of the US, and Olaf Wiig, of New Zealand, have been released just after the deadline their captors set for releasing detainess in Guantanamo Bay (or as we in the Navy called it, Gitmo). They were dropped off at Beach-Front hotel in Gaza after being held by the relatively unknown Holy Jihad Brigades (I'd link them but there isn't a good link about them to be found). The two were forced to convert to Islam and gunpoint but were unharmed during their captivity. They're happy to be free and American Steve Centanni stated "I hope that this never scares a single journalist away from coming to Gaza to cover the story because the Palestinian people are very beautiful and kind hearted". I'm glad that turned out all right since so often things in the Middle East do not.

Latvia: Making snacking safe for schoolkids one school at a time. Well, not really one school at a time but you get the picture. Latvia's government made the decision earlier this week to ban the nutritionally poor snacks from schools because they set bad examples. It may imply that junk food is endorsed by authorities which it is not. Elsewhere, reports in Britain estimate the 1/3 of all British men will be obese by 2010. Here in the US Madeleine Albright, the former Secretary of State, has been pleading with fizzy liquid maker Coca-Cola over regulation. Even Bill Clinton is in one this with his Healthier Generation. All I can say is I could've used them when I had to sit around after school for activities and all to be gotten were zebra cakes and Dr. Pepper.

Local news for me: We had tornadoes in this here state! On thursday a line of very intense storms wreaked havoc in the Southern portion of the state affecting places like Cleveland, Nicollett and Northfield. There was one fatality: Thomas O'Brien, 90, passed away after a tree struck his home at Lake Emily. Several tornadoes were sighted including a multi-vortex tornado. Hail was reported at grapefruit size. I've even heard there may have been softball sized hail. Local Weather guy and geek Paul Douglas runs a blog (look for August 25) on TV station WCCO. It must be read. We have had little severe weather, let alone rain, this summer so I guess this made up for it. We got hammered here!

Video to the above story can be found here and here.

A plane crashed in Kentucky at 0619 EDT today. There were 46 passengers, an off-duty crew member and three crew members. At this time there is one survivor. Delta flight 5191 crashed a mile from the runway just after taking off at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington and currently there is some speculation that it took off from the wrong runway which would have been too short. The lone survivor is crew member and first officer James M. Polehinke. Please pray for his survival as he remains in surgery and in critical condition. Please pray for the souls of the 49 aboard who perished in the crash. Turn to CNN, the BBC, MSNBC, CBS or even the Scotsman for more on this developing story.