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Aviation News [July 8, 2010] Swiss Plane Completes First Solar-Powered Overnight Flight
The Solar Impulse HB-SIA, a Swiss solar-powered plane, completed the first non-stop night flight on solar energy after flying 26 hours and 9 minutes. It was the longest solar flight at the highest altitude in aviation history, Solar Impulse announced on Thursday.

The Solar Impulse HB-SIA has a huge wingspan, equal to the Airbus A340’s 63.4 meters. It includes approximately 12,000 photovoltaic cells, most of them on the wing and around 880 on the horizontal stabilizer.

The plane took off on Wednesday morning from the Payerne airbase with André Borscherg, CEO and co-founder of the Solar Impulse project, at the controls. The HB-SIA flew at an altitude of 8,500 meters until 11:00 p.m., when the sun rays stop being enough to supply the solar cells.  read more »

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Mexican Lawmakers Ban Junk Food in Schools, Require Physical Education
MEXICO CITY – The lower house of Congress approved two reform measures banning the sale of junk food in schools and making physical education classes mandatory in Mexico, where 30 percent of children are obese.

A majority of lawmakers voted during a regular session Tuesday to approve the changes, acknowledging that childhood obesity tripled in Mexico in the past 20 years and federal and state officials must take action to deal with the situation.

Schools will be required to provide 30 minutes of physical education time every day to help students lose weight.

Some 70 percent of adults in Mexico, according to official figures, are overweight, while 70 percent of children between the ages of 5 and 11, or some 4.5 million minors, are overweight. Some 40 percent of Mexicans, according to the 2006 National Health Survey, are obese.

The percentage of Mexico’s population classified as overweight or obese has tripled since 1980. “Childhood obesity has become a social problem and a serious health problem,” lawmakers said.  read more »

May all World War II veterans and victims rest in peace.

(June 20, 2010) Edith Shain, the nurse in Alfred Eisenstead's famous Victory over Japan Day In Times Square photo, died in Los Angeles. She was 91.

Photos courtesy of Alfred Eisenstaedt / Getty

Original Source: hollywoodmemoir.com

Michael Jackson, King of Pop (August 29, 1958 – June 25, 2009)

(click on above image to see HOME - the documentary on Youtube)

"Earth Song"
(written & composed by Michael Jackson, released on November 27, 1995)
Lyric excerpts:
...
What about sunrise
What about rain
What about all the things
That you said we were to gain...
What about killing fields
Is there a time
What about all the things
That you said was yours and mine...
Did you ever stop to notice
All the blood we've shed before
Did you ever stop to notice
The crying Earth the weeping shores?
Aaaaaaaaaah Aaaaaaaaaah

What have we done to the world
Look what we've done
What about all the peace
That you pledge your only son...
What about flowering fields
Is there a time
What about all the dreams
That you said was yours and mine...
Did you ever stop to notice  read more »

The Nordic spokesman for the World Society for the Protection of Animals (WSPA) contrasted Danish people's response to the whale's plight to Denmark's policy on whaling. "Everyone wants to save the whale of the Vejle fjord but no one can. Everyone can save the thousands of whales brutally killed each year but no-one wants to," said Morten Rasmussen. Denmark was set to back whaling nations at a meeting of the International Whaling Commission being held in Morocco from June 21, 2010. Sea Shepherd, the exception out of 7 billion people, in 6 consecutive missions, have saved a total of 1899 whales: 83 in 2005/2006, 500 in 2006/2007, 483 in 2007/2008, 305 in 2008/2009, 528 in 2009/2010 in 31-day mission (cutting Japanese whaling fleet’s quota by half, and whalers cut anti-whaling boat Earthrace/Ady Gil in half, and skipper/anti-whaler jailed).

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A former Japanese whaler comes forward to the Guardian UK. Read 'Mr. Whale's' testimony

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Escalating: with >200 crew, Japanese whaling fleet set sail to kill. “Maybe Japanese whalers thought that their mission of slaughter would go unnoticed because this hunt is not taking place in an IWC sanctuary? Or maybe Japan believes that the deal will go through and by the time the fleet reaches port in August commercial whaling will once again be authorized by the IWC?"

A Japanese whaling fleet left port this week with a quota to kill 260 whales in the North Pacific. Three harpoon ships and two research vessels left ports in Japan yesterday, carrying more than 200 crew. The fleet aims to kill 100 minke whales, 100 sei whales, 50 Bryde's whales and 10 sperm whales before late August.  read more »