Free Republic

Bartender Pat Sazenski was talking to a patron at Gordie's Place in Little Canada about the Twins game when he looked out the window to see a telephone pole crash to the ground. Then he saw the pickup truck. "I didn't know what was going on. ... The wall exploded, the truck came in," he said. "I'm just glad these guys are alive." "These guys" are the four patrons who ended up pinned between the bar and the truck Wednesday, May 30, after the 51-year-old driver apparently had a diabetic reaction and crashed into the tavern on Little Canada Road....

Well, it seems as though we've screwed the pooch. It's a safe bet that about 99% of the American public do not realize that what is about to happen will forever change the way they live and how they interact with the higher functions of society. In other words, how they will acquire and use any product or service that they can not provide immediately for themselves and their family. Most people have heard of Black Holes - a favorite mega-disaster staple in SiFi movies and stories. Not so many are aware of the term, "Event Horizon". The event horizon...

Richard Russell: Stay In Cash, Something, Something 'BIG' Is Heading Our Way Joe Weisenthal May 24, 2012, 6:34 AM Bearish newsletter guy Richard Russell finds the market action to be very strange and ominous. As of today's closing, Dow down 14 out of 16 sessions! This is one you can tell your kids about. And still no collapse in breadth, and still no crash. The only thing I can make out of it is that a lot of people are "standing their ground". Maybe it's just the Dow that is dying, and the rest of the market is OK. But...

The Real Crash May 22, 2012 - 5:20pm Peter Schiff I first came to national attention back in 2008 and 2009 when the housing and credit markets imploded. I became known as the guy that other market “experts” laughed at when I warned of trouble brewing in the seemingly indestructible American economy. After the wheels ground to a halt in mid-2008, people noticed that my book Crash Proof, originally released in early 2007, read like a detailed preview of many of the events that eventually unfolded. Three years later I am now catching heat from many who assume that my...

Another person has been injured after a crash involving Vice President Joe Biden’s motorcade. According to local news reports in Ohio, on Thursday morning a motorist struck a state trooper who was riding a motorcycle to clear roads for Biden’s motorcade. (RELATED: More on Joe Biden) Officials told TribLive.com that the trooper was taken to a local hospital, though the injuries aren’t thought to be life threatening. WTRF reported that the crash caused Biden to be 45 minutes late for a speech in Martins Ferry. This isn’t the first time someone has been injured in a crash involving the vehicles...

A Russian-made passenger plane crashed into a steep cliff on a long-dormant Indonesian volcano during a demonstration flight to potential buyers and journalists. Its wreckage was spotted by helicopters today, but there was no sign of survivors among the 47 people on board. Search and rescue teams are now on their way to the crash site. Family members, many of whom spent a long, sleepless night at the airport, broke down in tears on hearing the news today. Others stared blankly ahead in disbelief.

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Rescuers say they have discovered bodies near the wreckage of a Russian-made passenger plane that smashed into a steep Indonesian volcano with 45 people on board. Search and rescue spokesman Gagah Prakoso said his teams reached the remote, rugged site near the crater on Thursday afternoon. They found the Sukhoi Superjet-100 scattered along the jungly slopes. Family members, many of whom spent a long, sleepless night at the airport, broke down in tears on hearing the news the plane had been spotted on the side of a cliff Thursday morning. Others stared blankly ahead in disbelief. "From...

A Sukhoi Superjet 100 performing a demonstration flight for media, airline and aviation personnel with 46 people onboard crashed near a mountain in Indonesia on Wednesday. Their fate was not immediately known, as a search and rescue operation had to be called off due to bad weather. Contact with the 100-seat jet (registration RA-97004) was lost about 20 minutes after takeoff from Halim Perdanakusuma Airport in Jakarta, according to early reports. An official told Reuters that that radio contact was lost with the plane after it descended from 10,000 feet to 6,000 feet. It disappeared from radar near the 7,200-ft...

Nine kids were injured when a school bus got tangled up in a four-vehicle crash on State Highway 123 near Foxtrotter Road on Friday morning. (Seguin) -- Nine Seguin ISD students were injured in a multiple vehicle accident this morning on State Highway 123 near Foxtrotter Road. State troopers say the crash involved the school bus, a gravel hauling 18-wheeler and two passenger vehicles. The accident produced a fire and severe damage to all of the vehicle. SISD Public Information Officer Sean Hoffmann confirmed the injuries during an interview this morning on radio station KWED. "There was indeed a Seguin...

Pakistani airplane carrying 127 people crashed near Islamabad's international airport and rescue officials tell Fox News that they don't expect to find any survivors. Rescue crews have recovered at least 118 bodies. Emergency workers used flashlights to search among the smoldering wreckage of the fuselage, smashed seats and body parts for any sign of life at the crash site. The Bhoja Airlines flight was a commercial jet traveling to Islamabad from Karchi. Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/04/20/pakistani-civilian-airplane-crashes-with-127-onboard/#ixzz1scPweRf4

Experts Ponder Cause of N.Korean Rocket Failure North Korea's rocket exploded two minutes and 15 seconds after launch, disintegrated into some 20 fragments and fell into the West Sea. The North unusually admitted the failure. Rocket experts attribute it to a problem with the first-stage booster, failed separation of boosters or a rushed launch schedule. â—† Booster Problems The first-stage booster exploded into about 20 fragments scattered over waters west of Taean far away from the point west of the Byeonsan Peninsula where the regime had predicted they would land. About 56 percent of launch failures are caused by a...

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Two U.S. Marines were killed and two severely injured in the crash of a hybrid aircraft in Morocco on Wednesday, officials said. The Marines were taking part in joint U.S.-Moroccan military excercises located in the south of the country based in Agadir, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Rodney Ford in Rabat, who gave the toll. Capt. Kevin Schultz, a Marine spokesman at the Pentagon in Washington, confirmed that the aircraft involved was an MV-22 Osprey, which takes off and lands like a helicopter and flies like an airplane. The aircraft was participating in a U.S.-Moroccan military exercise...

More regulatory action may be needed to safeguard the money-market mutual-fund industry, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said in remarks prepared for a speech on Monday night, putting his weight behind other officials who want to toughen oversight of the $2.7 trillion industry. In an address largely focused on scrutinizing murky corners of the financial system, the shadow banking system, Bernanke emphasized the need to establish regulations that protect the system as a whole from the risks that threatened it during the financial crisis. The money-market mutual-fund industry remains prone to destabilizing panics even with new regulations already in place,...

Apparently someone should have read Risks Digest before the Preditor Control system was designed!!! (Risks Digest is an interesting site worth monitoring if you are interested in computer screwup reports and incidents and can be found at http://catless.ncl.ac.uk/RisksBelow are the sorry details of the crash due to a very screwed up control system operation design .... ********************************************************* History of Flight On April 25, 2006, about 0350 mountain standard time, a MQ-9 (Predator B) aircraft, serial number BP-101, call sign OMAHA 10, collided with the terrain approximately 10 nautical miles northwest of the Nogales International Airport (OLS), Nogales, Arizona. The...

YNDON, Kan. – A packed motor home headed from Texas to Minnesota crashed Sunday morning in northeast Kansas, killing five people and sending 13 others to hospitals. The Kansas Highway Patrol said the northbound vehicle was filled with 18 people and pulling a trailer when the driver lost control at 9 a.m. on Interstate 35.

U.S. Economy Dead Man Walking, The Crash Of 2012 Economics / US Economy Mar 23, 2012 - 03:32 PM By: Casey Research Doug Casey, Casey Research writes: In an interview with Louis James, the inimitable Doug Casey throws cold water on those celebrating the economic recovery. [Skype rings: It's Doug Casey, calling from Cafayate, Argentina. He sounds tired, but pleased with himself.]Doug: Lobo, get out your mower; it's time to cut down some green shoots again, and debunk a bit of the so-called recovery. Louis: Ah. I have to say, Doug, the so-called recovery is looking more than "so-called" to...

GENEVA — A bus smashed into a tunnel wall in the Swiss Alps, killing 22 Belgian 12-year-olds returning from a ski vacation and the six adults who were accompanying them, police said Wednesday. Another 24 students were hospitalized with injuries, Valais cantonal (state) police spokesman Jean-Marie Bornet told The Associated Press. The bus carrying 52 people, including young students from two different Belgian schools, hit the tunnel wall shortly after 9 p.m. local time Tuesday on the A9 highway near Sierre, Switzerland, in the southern Swiss canton of Valais, an area of popular ski resorts. Authorities were still identifying all...

Just when you thought unemployment was dropping and stock markets were surging back, these three analysts today sent out a stark warning to Americans to brace for another financial crash. Trend forecaster Gerald Celente advises buying a gun to protect your family, stocking up on gold if the dollar crashes and planning a getaway, so it’s no shock he’s preparing for an ‘economic 9/11’. Share prices and unemployment are posting their best figures in four years since the recession hit, but Mr Celente, along with authors Harry Dent and Robert Prechter, says the rebound won’t last.

Is Crude Oil About To Crash The Markets? Commodities / Crude Oil Feb 26, 2012 - 02:08 PM By: WavePatternTraders Do I or Don't I? I decided not to bother, what you ask? writing more of the same about the US stock markets, It don't need a genius to write that the US stock markets are in a coma and stuck in the ICU room waiting to come back into the real world. Although nothing has really changed from the current ideas I am reluctant to post more of the same stuff when nothing really has happened. I can write...

We caught up with Peter Schiff of EuroPacific Capital at FreedomFest's Global Economic Summit in the Bahamas. Peter is never shy about voicing his opinion about the impending crash of the US Dollar and the fiat monetary regime. While he's been warning us about the inevitable collapse, he's putting himself on the line now and believes that time is running short. He expects the event to occur within the next 1-2 years and believes that in addition to living on borrowed money, the government is also living on borrowed time. As he sees it, interest rates have been suppressed for...

A Chambersburg man is in jail after allegedly fleeing from police Monday at speeds up to 120 mph while driving a stolen car into Maryland, causing several crashes before finally hitting the back of a tractor-trailer. Gabriel Edward Gomez, 25, of 31 N. Franklin St., was arrested in Washington County, Md., after crashing the 1992 Toyota Camry on Interstate 81 southbound, near mile marker 9. He remains in the Washington County Detention Center in lieu of $200,000 bail. Pennsylvania State Police, Chambersburg, said a trooper checked the Toyota and learned it had been reported stolen. He attempted to stop the...

After the crashes stopped, Steven Camps said all he could hear was the sound of crying as the air, heavy with smoke, shone red from vehicle fires. He pulled his friend from their car, which wound up wedged between two semi trucks. The two were lying in the grassy median of Interstate 75, he said, praying that a car would not leave the roadway and hit them. The vehicle Camps was riding in was among those involved in a series of overnight accidents in northern Florida, blamed on poor visibility from smoke from a nearby brush fire, authorities said. Ten...

Investors Haven't Been This Worried About A Stock Market Crash In Years Sam Ro Jan. 10, 2012, 7:21 PM The Yale School of Management regularly surveys individual and institutional investors on their stock market crash confidence. Specifically, they ask the survey taker how confident he/she is that the there won't be a stock market crash within the next six months. According to the latest read (h/t Bespoke), crash confidence is at its lowest level since early 2009. In other words, investors are increasingly worried about an imminent market crash. However, this could also be a bullish contrarian indicator. Back in...

Part of article from St. Pete Times after Sept 11. "Robert C. Cooper, president of National Aviation Flight School and Aviation Rentals, stressed that the extra security cannot be done at the expense of those of Middle Eastern descent. "I don't want to get involved in profiling," he said. "I have faith in my government. I have to work on the belief that my government has basis to allow them into the country and show them proper respect." end of article. Cooper is head of National Aviation Holdings that owned A/C. Many Florida flight schools train Arab students. Wonder if ...

Three freight trains collided in Porter County, Ind. this afternoon... *** The accident involved a collision, derailment, fire and chemical spill, according to officials. No fatalities or injuries have been reported.

State police have issued Lt. Gov. Timothy Murray a ticket for speeding, not wearing a seatbelt and a lane violation in connection with a pre-dawn highway crash last year. An aide confirmed the citations Tuesday, and said police said Murray may have briefly fallen asleep at the wheel. Murray told reporters at the time that he was driving around the speed limit and wearing his seatbelt. Murray said he asked for a field sobriety test and the test showed a zero blood-alcohol reading. The Nov. 2 accident on Interstate 190 in Sterling happened at about 5:30 a.m. Murray said he...

I am surprised Nancy Pelosi wasn't riding on top.

Debunking The Chinese 'Soft Economic Landing' Myth: Short The Bubble December 19, 2011 China’s growth curve has gone parabolic in recent years. For the last couple of decades, China has typically averaged 10% GDP growth, and it has maintained that growth even as a multi-trillion dollar economy. Of course, 10% growth in an economy already worth trillions is an astounding achievement, but it can also lead to severe economic tribulations, such as soaring housing and food prices. China has incurred both of these troubles. As a growing middle class emerges, demand for beef has far outstripped supply growth, and beef...

Michael Woody O'Brien has said, "Everybody with a 100 i.q. can see the Mother of All Financial Crashes is Coming...So why are so few people foaming their runways??" Which is just Michael's way of wondering why intelligent, well educated people refuse to see, what is as obvious as the nose on their faces. But we have all been through so much in the past decade, that our capacity to accept and anticipate still more negative events is at an end. The fact is, the cruise ship is headed for the iceberg. The captain's been informed, but he refuses to take...

China-geddon: A China crash will be scarier than Europe Venky Vembu Dec 2, 2011 Say you’re at a railway station, waiting for the slow train to eurogeddon. You’ve been told that the eurozone is in deep trouble with all those piles of debt, that it will fall apart inevitably, dismembering the euro and inflicting pain and misery around the world. Months go by, and although there’s a lot of shunting and hooting, and lots of frenetic activity, the eurogeddon train doesn’t steam in. You begin to grow impatient, and wonder if the train is coming at all. And then in...

For more than two years, the disappearance of Air France Flight 447 over the mid-Atlantic in the early hours of June 1, 2009, remained one of aviation's great mysteries. How could a technologically state-of-the art airliner simply vanish? With the wreckage and flight-data recorders lost beneath 2 miles of ocean, experts were forced to speculate using the only data available: a cryptic set of communications beamed automatically from the aircraft to the airline's maintenance center in France. As PM found in our cover story about the crash, published two years ago this month, the data implied that the plane had...

Police: Womble's car crossed center line in crashUpdated: 6:19 p.m. Monday WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. — Police in Winston-Salem say a car driven by state Rep. Larry Womble crossed the center line of a local street and collided head-on with another vehicle in a wreck that killed the other driver. Authorities say 54-year-old David Allen Carmichael of Winston-Salem died in the crash. Carmichael was the son of a man who ran against Womble for his legislative seat in the 1990s.

1 dead, 16 injured in Tennessee crashes involving 176 carsFrom Dave Alsup, CNN updated 4:52 PM EST, Thu December 1, 2011 (CNN) -- One person was killed and 16 others injured Thursday in three separate chain-reaction crashes involving 176 cars north of Nashville, authorities said. Heavy fog and black ice were thought to have contributed to the crashes on State Highway 386 in Sumner County, said county emergency medical services Capt. Vincent Riley. The incidents began just before 8 a.m. ET, when a car ran off the highway and caused a chain reaction accident in "heavy, heavy fog," he said....

Following today's unprecedented POMO failure due to "system difficulties" (one would hope the Fed's POMO machine does not start and stop every time someone pulls the plug from the socket), Brian Sack's team (not to be confused with the PWG team of Eric Mindich) had to reschedule the literally failed auction. As it turns out, the first opportunity to sell $8-$8.75 billion in 2013 bonds is on December 2. And unlike the December 21 "reverse" POMO which is due to take place at 1:15pm, the rescheduled bond sale will instead occur at its usual time of 10:15-11:00am. Ironically, this is...

From the Federal Reserve website, Press Release on Monetary Policy release from September 18, 2008: Press Release Release Date: September 18, 2008 For release at 3:00 a.m. EDT Today, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank (ECB), the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan, and the Swiss National Bank are announcing coordinated measures designed to address the continued elevated pressures in U.S. dollar short-term funding markets. These measures, together with other actions taken in the last few days by individual central banks, are designed to improve the liquidity conditions in global financial markets. The central...

Occupants experience "up to 400 g" As you are likely aware, our own NHTSA test-crashes all new cars for sale in the US at speeds up to 40 mph- as do EU authorities and a few others.  One day the folks at English television show Fifth Gear (not to be confused with Jeremy Clarkson's unparelled Top Gear) wondered over tea what would happen if they had some crash-test pros set up the cement barrier and run a Ford Focus into it at 120 mph... triple normal testing speeds. So they did it... and this is what happens: Car decelerates from 120-0 in .068 seconds Occupants experience up...

While everyone was focused on the impending European collapse, the latest soon to be refuted rumors of a quick fix from the Welt am Sonntag notwithstanding, the Bank of International Settlements reported a number that quietly slipped through the cracks of the broader media. Which is paradoxical because it is the biggest ever reported in the financial world: the number in question is $707,568,901,000,000 and represents the latest total amount of all notional Over The Counter (read unregulated) outstanding derivatives reported by the world's financial institutions to the BIS for its semi-annual OTC derivatives report titled "OTC derivatives market activity...

A plane crashed in Arizona's Superstition Mountains, according to ABC News Phoenix affiliate KNXV, citing witnesses and local authorities -- but officials told ABC News that passenger flights at major local airports all were accounted for. It was not immediately clear how big a plane may have crashed or how many people were involved. Dark video transmitted from the scene appeared to show glowing areas in the mountains, possibly fires. Witnesses said they saw the plane crash and flames erupt around 6:40 p.m. local time, KNXV reported. "What we saw was a small plane," said Mark Klein, who lives at...

Posted: 7:04 PM By: Katie Fisher APACHE JUNCTION, AZ - Crews are working to access the wreckage of a plane that crashed into the Superstition Mountains east of the Valley. Pinal County Sheriff's Office spokesman Elias Johnson confirmed a plane went down in the mountain range and caused a fire visible from miles away. ABC15 viewers reported seeing the crash and flames around 6:40 p.m. Air15 video over the mountain range showed many separate areas of flames spread around the crash site. Johnson said the size of the plane and number of people involved is unknown at this time.

An experienced pilot was lucky to escape with his life when his helicopter clipped a wire while erecting a Christmas tree and slammed into Auckland's popular Viaduct wharf. Greg Gribble walked away virtually unscathed after his aircraft spun out of control and crashed on the waterfront promenade during a live-streamed event on Wednesday morning to put up the 26-metre tall Telecom Christmas tree. The helicopter had been hovering just metres from the ground when the blades caught a wire, breaking off the tail and sending the chopper to the ground. Dramatic footage of the incident, carried live on the TVNZ...

STILLWATER, Okla. — Oklahoma State University women's basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant coach Miranda Serna were killed when the single-engine plane they were riding in during a recruiting trip crashed near a wildlife management area in central Arkansas. The university said the pair died in the crash Thursday night near Perryville, about 45 miles west of Little Rock. The Winona Wildlife Management Area is in steep terrain in the eastern Ouachita Mountains. A cause of the crash was not announced. In January 2001, 10 men affiliated with the university's men's basketball team died in a Colorado plane crash. OSU...

Unidentified plane crashes in China: reports (AFP) – 21 hours ago SHANGHAI — An unidentified plane has crashed to the ground and exploded in eastern China, state media reported on Tuesday, but the accident remains shrouded in mystery and potential casualties remain unknown. The crash happened in Zhejiang province near Lishui city on Monday evening amid heavy fog, the state-run China National Radio said, but local residents told AFP police quickly sealed the site off to the public. The Beijing News quoted locals as saying they had seen something that looked like a plane crash on a hilltop and explode....

Police investigating the cause of a 34-car pile-up on a major British highway that killed seven people and injured 51 said Sunday they are focusing on a fireworks display near the accident site.

There has been a lot of articles discussing the long-term future of Social Security, and the possible alternatives. In most articles, assertions are made about the actual value of a person's contributions, in comparison to the benefits received. Part of the problem is that most people don't realize that Social Security benefits are not a simple linear calculation. There is a connection between your average wages over your entire career and your benefits, but it's not a straight line. So, I created this graph: The blue line is the Social Security benefit that you would receive, if your average monthly...

By the time the CH-47 transport helicopter descended to 150 feet above an unprotected landing zone in Afghanistan around 2 a.m. on Aug. 6, the element of surprise had been lost. Hours earlier, two other Chinooks had deposited 47 Army Rangers at another nearby landing site, undetected. The landing triggered a nighttime ground and aerial firefight that raged for several hours as a few Taliban “squirters,” as the military called them, tried to escape from the targeted compound and regrouped with other fighters. *snip* When the third chopper — carrying 38 passengers and crew, and one dog, in a reinforcement...

A chinese air force jet crashed at an air show on Friday (video below) leaving one of the pilots missing and presumed dead.

Hang Seng Index leads Asia fall, diving more than 4%. Hong Kong stocks tank as financials plunge on reports that Greek budget misses austerity targets. • Japan stocks dive, with exporters tumbling • Australian stocks fall sharply on Europe jitters

Car Plows Into House Where Marijuana Plants Grew CORYDON, Ind. -- Indiana State Police said a fatal crash near Corydon late Friday led to the discovery of a large indoor marijuana-growing operation. Troopers said a 2006 Chevrolet heading south on Old Highway 135 ran off the road and crashed into the side of a house and caught fire. The driver, whose name has not been released, was killed. Investigators said they went into the house to make sure no one was injured and found a large indoor marijuana grow site. After making sure the fire was out, investigators said they...

David Lavau, age 67, missing for six days, was found alive and well by his grown children who formed their own search party to find their father. They reported him missing to the authorities after he'd been missing for five days and on the sixth day formed their own search party. The children drove the desolate stretch of road they suspected their father had driven, stopping at the dropoffs calling their father's name, and at one place they heard a faint, "Help, help," and amazingly, it was their father! The state of his car after plunging so many feet was...

Hundreds of people were injured Tuesday when a subway train slammed into the rear of another train in a sprawling transit line that had opened just last year in Shanghai. The accident cast new scrutiny on the safety record of China’s rapidly modernizing mass transit rail systems. The state-run news media reported that 271 people were injured during the afternoon accident in the Shanghai Metro system. Xinhua, the official news agency, said that equipment failure was believed to be responsible and that the accident was under investigation. There were no deaths reported but the government said late Tuesday that about...