Emergency landing after hole in fuselage

     

 Southwest Airlines passengers describe the drop in cabin pressure after a rupture in the ceiling.

Fuselage hole forces Southwest emergency landing

PHOENIX – A "gunshot-like sound" woke Brenda Reese as her Southwest Airlines flight cruised at 36,000 feet. Looking up, she could see the sky through a hole torn in the cabin roof.
The Boeing 737 lost cabin pressure after the hole developed Friday, prompting frightened passengers to grope for oxygen masks as the plane made a terrifying but "controlled descent."
A passenger called it "pandemonium." Another watched as a flight attendant and another passenger passed out, apparently for lack of oxygen, their heads striking the seats in front of them.
Officials said Flight 812 lost pressure because of a fuselage rupture. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said the pilot made a "controlled descent from 36,000 feet to 11,000 feet altitude."
His safe emergency landing at a military base in Yuma, about 150 miles southwest of Phoenix, drew applause from relieved passengers.
No serious injuries were reported among the 118 people aboard but a flight attendant was slightly hurt, according to Southwest Airlines. The cause of the hole was not immediately known. The FBI called it a "mechanical failure," not an act of terror or other foul play.

Gadhafi son's U.S. stint stirs anger

 

The Libyan leader's youngest son abruptly left his L.A. internship to lead brutal attacks.

Until uprising, Gadhafi’s son was on U.S. internship

When unrest exploded in Libya last month, Khamis Gadhafi--the youngest son of the country's embattled leader Muammar Gadhafi--wasn't around. He was on an internship program in the United States.
Khamis, who runs Libya's special forces, quickly returned to his home country, where he has led a military unit that has brutally suppressed rebel forces.
The internship, which lasted a month, was sponsored by AECOM, a Los Angeles-based global engineering and design company that has been working with the Libyan regime to modernize the country's infrastructure. Khadis made stops in San Francisco, Colorado, Houston, Washington, and New York City, meeting with high-tech companies (including Google, Apple, and Intel), universities, and defense contractors like Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin. While in the Big Apple, Khamis even took in the Broadway show "Mamma Mia."

FBI seeks public's help to solve mystery

 

 

Two encrypted codes found at a murder scene may hold the key to a 1999 cold case.

FBI asks public for help breaking encrypted notes tied to 1999 murder

In what seems like a throwback to the still-unsolved Zodiac killings that terrorized the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970s, the FBI has sent out a public appeal for amateur sleuths to help solve a key cryptographic clue in a 1999 murder case.
On June 30, 1999, police officers in St. Louis, Missouri found the body of 41-year-old Ricky McCormick, who'd been murdered and dumped in a field. The only clues investigators recovered from the scene were two encrypted notes stuffed into the victim's pockets.
"Despite extensive work by our Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit (CRRU), as well as help from the American Cryptogram Association, the meanings of those two coded notes remain a mystery to this day, and Ricky McCormick's murderer has yet to face justice," the FBI said in a press release today. CRRU chief Dan Olson added, "We are really good at what we do, but we could use some help with this one ... Maybe someone with a fresh set of eyes might come up with a brilliant new idea."
The FBI has reached out to the public with code breaking brain teasers in the past--but they were games, not actual cases. This is the chance for want-to-be FBI sleuths to break their brains on code that is part of a current investigation. The notes are after the jump.

Channel your favorite CSI character, folks. Here are the notes:

Unwritten rule puts player in hot water

 

Baltimore's Jake Fox gets an earful after breaking a code that most fans never knew existed.

Call the baseball cops: Jake Fox violates year’s first unwritten rule

Last season may have been the Year of the Unwritten Rule in baseball, but 2011 is getting off to an awfully early start.
And Jake Fox(notes) is accused of being this year's first big violater, not only by the opposing team, but by his own manager as well.
According to Jeff Zrebiec of the Sun papers, the Baltimore Orioles catcher ruffled the feathers of the Detroit Tigers and O's manager Buck Showalter during the eighth inning of Monday's spring training game in Sarasota. His big offense? Swinging at a 3-0 pitch with no outs and runners on second and third.
That doesn't sound that egregious — especially since there were runners in scoring position and the at-bat ended in a bases-loading walk anyway — so what was the beef?
Apparently, the O's were winning 13-3 at the time and there was a minor league pitcher on the mound, so Fox's bat should have been on his shoulder. Or so some would have you believe.

New 'Thor' star way too buff for costume

 

Chris Hemsworth got an unpleasant surprise after bulking up for his upcoming role.

Chris Hemsworth Bulked Up Too Much for His 'Thor' Costume

 
Chris Hemsworth as Thor Marvel Studios/Paramount Here's a problem most people will never have to deal with: being too buff to play a god.
Chris Hemsworth did, though, as he prepared to play the title character in Thor, the next movie adaptation of a Marvel comic book character. The 27-year-old Australian actor had to get into serious shape to play the hero inspired by Norse mythology. But went a little too far.
In an interview with the Los Angeles Times at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, Hemsworth revealed that he bulked up so much to prepare for the role that he couldn't fit into his costume. When he tried on Thor's armor for a final camera test right before shooting was to begin, it was way too tight.
Hemsworth said that while wearing the restrictive, long-sleeved costume, "[My] hands started going numb... And I started getting pins and needles and you'd touch the skin and the blood wouldn't return to the area so quick." Apparently, in the three months between being measured for the costume and the final test, his added muscle made the suit so tight it cut off circulation.

See movie photos from 'Thor' >>

 
Thor (Hemsworth) in less formal attire Marvel/Paramount After that, Hemsworth said that the costume was altered along with his exercise plan. He said director Kenneth Branagh told him, "Let's try to pull it back just a little bit, otherwise it's too blocky." Hemsworth subsequently changed his diet and his workout routine, focusing more on cardio exercises instead of weight training.