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Lockheed Martin has received a US Air Force F-16 Block 50 fighter set aside to undergo a three-year series of fatigue life tests that will play a major role in deciding the fate of hundreds of similar aircraft. Over the next 15 years, the USAF inventory is projected to dip as much as 10% below the required threshold of 2,000 fighters. As a result, service officials are considering extending the service life of as many as 300 F-16s by as much as 50%, to 12,000 flight hours. But first the USAF must find out how much service life remains among...

The Chevrolet Volt may be wearing out its welcome. General Motors has been hyping the gasoline-electric car ever since the company showed it off to the public 1,300 days ago. The company has let countless reporters into its battery labs and given interviews with its engineers, all in a very credible attempt to show that GM has smart people with good ideas. And it has worked. GM has picked up some technological credibility and fostered goodwill with the environmental crowd. Now that GM is finally, after three and a half years, getting close to selling one, the commentariat is taking...

Analysis: Dems show signs of battle fatigueDavid Espo, Ap Special Correspondent Tue Jul 13, 5:53 pm ET WASHINGTON – Four months before midterm elections, the Obama administration and congressional Democrats show signs of collective battle fatigue, ducking political fights they might once have welcomed and quarreling among themselves as they confront the likelihood of majority-threatening losses this fall. Republicans pounce on every sign of Democratic discord, seemingly confident of a political payoff after a two-year campaign to kill whatever White Houses-backed legislation they could while slowing the rest. This past weekend, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs strayed across the...

Healthcare reform fatigue has set in among Democrats, casting doubt that Congress will move much health-related legislation the rest of this session. Measures in jeopardy include bills that would require more information on healthcare prices, empower federal regulators to sign off on premium increases and strip insurers of their exemption from antitrust laws.

When the South Carolina Legislature begins its yearly session Tuesday, it will decide whether to take action against disgraced Gov. Mark Sanford. Sanford left the state without notice last summer for a secret rendezvous with an Argentine woman he referred to as his "soul mate." In the days after the affair came to light, a majority of legislators called for Sanford to resign or face impeachment. The Legislature now is merely considering a censure. ... HOCHBERG: Indeed. At the capitol yesterday, as legislators returned for this year's session, some spoke of what they called Sanford fatigue.

The reservoir of Democratic support for legislation to stimulate the economy — while adding to the deficit — is drying up. Already faced with what many economists are labeling a jobless recovery, Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill are considering passing more measures to lower the nation’s highest unemployment rate in 26 years. Most of the fixes Democrats are eyeing would add to the budget deficit, which was recently estimated at $1.4 trillion. But fiscally conservative Blue Dog Democrats and the Democratic freshman class of 2008 are raising objections. Some members of these two factions reluctantly went along with the $787...

SIX cups of coffee - that's the State Government antidote to sleep-deprived doctors killing and harming their patients in a haze of exhaustion. The astonishing remedy forms part of Queensland Health's new doctor fatigue policy, currently being rolled out in public hospitals. The Courier-Mail yesterday reported the confessions of junior surgeons and medics whose exhaustion-induced errors had killed or hurt patients during "on-call" shifts of 30 to 80 hours. But a guidelines document underpinning QH's Fatigue Risk Management System claims "solutions such as 'we need more staff' might not be achievable or effective in managing a fatigue risk."

Among the most powerful psephological tools available to political strategists and commentators is the well-known Upchuck Factor. Never heard of it? I'm surprised. The Upchuck Factor is, quite simply, the length of time it takes the US voter to decide that s/he's "had enough" of the Democrats. And it looks like this year it is hitting a new record. You may have been taught in school, for instance, that the American people loved Franklin Delano Roosevelt so much that they would have gone on voting for him forever. In fact the American people demonstrated in the mid-term election of 1938...

Perhaps it's just some Obama ally speaking out of school. But these are probably some of the most terrifying words to come from an unidentified source in some time: Sources close to the White House say Mr Obama and his staff have been "overwhelmed" by the economic meltdown and have voiced concerns that the new president is not getting enough rest. Allies of Mr Obama say his weary appearance in the Oval Office with Mr Brown illustrates the strain he is now under, and the president's surprise at the sheer volume of business that crosses his desk.A well-connected Washington figure,...

Two big stories emerged from Pres. Obama’s interview with New York Times reporters aboard Air Force One yesterday: 1. we have a whining, self-pitying president. 2. The Times scrubbed from its article the worst of the president’s comments, the ones that revealed him in that self-pitying light. Fortunately, the Today show had the tapes, and played them this morning. According to Today, when President Obama met with reporters from the New York Times yesterday aboard Air Force One, his goal was “trying to sound hopeful and reassuring.” Mission not accomplished. As ambivalent as were the president’s putatively reassuring words on...

Actually, McCain and his crew are timing this perfectly, while Obama and his camp are showing their rampant inexperience. If McCain had been ripping Obama all along, by now his attacks would have become passé; "just more of the same from McCain." But waiting until now to step up the attack has a threefold benefit ~ very, verrrry smart on JM's part: 1) It's fresh, connecting, and attention-grabbing. 2) Timing has allowed McCain to assemble an aresnal of Obama missteps, so he can keep ramping it up right through the convention. 3) By doing it from now forward (instead of...

Is America beginning to weary of “Yes we can”? THE most politically potent emotion of the past 18 months has been Obamamania. This condition allowed a neophyte senator from Illinois to seize his party’s nomination from the jaws of the formidable Clinton machine. The big question now hanging over American politics is whether Obamamania is giving way to Obama fatigue. Mr Obama has everything going for him in the race for the White House. Almost 80% of Americans think that the country is heading in the wrong direction. People are disgruntled with George Bush’s Republicans and worried sick about the...

Cars have been a huge part of our lives. We use them to get around anywhere. It might have been the best invention mankind came up with, but we all hate several common things about cars, such as the cost of gas prices and traffic. We think sometimes in our imagination how awesome it would be if cars had wings, so maybe one day we will fly through terrific! We also despise accidents, high insurance and drunk driving. Sometimes, I feel that we need other alternative means of transportation, such as a subway system in the state of Texas; maybe...

Biological Link Between Pain And Fatigue DiscoveredImage of nerve endings in mouse muscle shows that ASIC3 (red) is present in pain receptors (orange). (Credit: Masahiko Ikeuchi M.D., Ph.D., UI visiting scientist from University of Kochi in Kochi, Japan) ScienceDaily (Apr. 8, 2008) — A recent University of Iowa study reveals a biological link between pain and fatigue and may help explain why more women than men are diagnosed with chronic pain and fatigue conditions like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. Working with mice, the researchers, led by Kathleen Sluka, Ph.D., professor in the Graduate Program in Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 25, 2008 – Many servicemembers who have experienced combat, and their families, are familiar with the term “combat stress.” The effects of combat, however, aren’t limited to those directly connected to the experience. Dr. Joseph Bobrow, a clinical psychologist, addresses representatives of more than 100 troop-support groups on compassion fatigue, Jan. 25, 2008. Bobrow was one of several experts and officials to speak at the Pentagon for the third annual America Supports You National Summit. Photo by Samantha L. Quigley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Stress can affect anyone who cares for those individuals, Dr. Joseph...

NEW YORK - Two months before the 1992 presidential election, an NBC reporter cornered a man to ask whether he preferred Bill Clinton or President Bush. The man said he didn't care. He just wanted them off his TV screen. Imagine how he'd feel today? The 2008 campaign is already playing out so intensely that it dominates airtime at a point where only political junkies usually pay attention. Remember: it's 20 months before voters will make the ultimate decision. This is uncharted territory for people in both politics and television, who wonder when campaign fatigue will set in. Many Americans...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE SALERNO, Afghanistan, Feb. 22, 2007 – Long hours of stressful work faced by deployed troops, combined with little privacy and not much free time, can end up taking a mental and emotional toll. Fortunately, soldiers serving in every Brigade Combat Team in the Army will now have a greater opportunity to visit a behavioral health clinic and speak to a trained specialist. Behavioral health used to be a division-level function, but the Army’s adoption of a modular brigade combat team structure changed that, explained Spc. Alex Townsend, a behavioral health specialist assigned to the 82nd Airborne...

MANHATTAN BEACH -- Trying to fire up a lackluster crowd at a "get out the vote" rally, City Councilman Jim Aldinger asked who would be working over the weekend to get Californians to the polls on Tuesday. Only a handful of the 80 activists raised their hands at the rally Thursday for gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides. Campaign consultants reported similarly tepid responses from volunteers around the state -- even though an expected low voter turnout and an extremely tight gubernatorial primary could make this year's "get out the vote" efforts more decisive than in past statewide campaigns. Secretary of State...

After voters resoundingly rejected the entire special-election ballot in November, California's thriving initiative industry has fallen on hard times, at least momentarily. Only one citizen initiative will be on the June 6 primary-election ballot – actor-director Rob Reiner's universal preschool measure. But dozens of initiatives aimed at the ballot this fall are in the preliminary approval stages. “I think there was some fatigue among donors and everybody else after the November ballot,” said Dave Gilliard, a Republican political consultant active in ballot proposition campaigns. “I don't think it's a long-term trend.” Seventy initiatives have been approved for circulation for the...

Given Air America Radio's sleaze, scandals, disarray and overspending, who would be interested in working there? After all, constant paycheck worries must quickly get old. Sure enough, though, the liberal radio network has found their new executive vice president for syndication from an even smaller, less stable "progressive" outfit: Democracy Radio. Former CEO Tom Athans, husband of US Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), has joined the sinking ship. Beats doing nothing, one supposes.