Click picture – LARGE (50MB) FILE – for WMV video.

New video release shows the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.

From NYCAviation.com:

Video cameras were not the ubiquitous devices in 1986 that they are today, so the only video footage of the Space Shuttle Challenger most of us have seen are the live network broadcasts captured by the lenses of CBS and CNN.

Optometrist Dr. Jack Moss, however, was playing with his new Betamax camcorder that chilly January morning, and recorded the sad event from his front yard in Winter Haven, Florida, about 70 miles southwest of Cape Canaveral.

Moss had never shared the tape with the media or NASA, but a week before he died this past December, he fished it out of his attic and handed it over to the Space Exploration Archive, a non-profit organization in Louisville, Kentucky. The Archive transferred the video to digital formats and released it to the public domain in time for the 24th anniversary of the disaster this past week.

“That looks like trouble,” says Moss, as the shuttle’s single smoke plume suddenly expands and then splits into a Y-shape. As Moss and other onlookers spend several moments contemplating if something had gone wrong, a neighbor checks the news inside his house, only to return and confirm “It exploded!”

h/t to The Unwanted Blog

As the first snowflakes appeared outside my window, I was happy that the window was attached to a McDonnell Douglas MD-83 (twin-jet) operated by American Airlines.

The Track Log from Flight Aware indicates that my exit reached a top speed of 516 mph today.

Sweet.

UPDATE:

Issued by The National Weather Service
Philadelphia, PA
9:07 am EST, Sat., Feb. 6, 2010

… BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM EST THIS EVENING…

A BLIZZARD WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 7 PM EST THIS EVENING.

HEAVY SNOW WAS OCCURRING ACROSS THE AREA EARLY THIS MORNING AND WILL CONTINUE THROUGH MUCH OF TODAY. THE SNOW WILL FALL HEAVILY AT TIMES… WITH RATES UP TO 1 TO 3 INCHES AN HOUR. THE HEAVIEST SNOW WILL OCCUR THROUGH ABOUT MIDDAY TODAY. THE SNOW MAY MIX WITH SLEET AT TIMES EARLY THIS MORNING MAINLY ACROSS FAR SOUTHERN DELAWARE… AND MAY BE INTERMITTENT THERE AS WELL.

STORM TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 17 TO 27 INCHES ARE EXPECTED ACROSS THE BULK OF THE AREA. AN INCREASING NORTHEAST TO NORTH WIND WITH GUSTS OF 40 TO 50 MPH INTO EARLY THIS AFTERNOON WILL CREATE EXTENSIVE BLOWING AND DRIFTING SNOW… ALONG WITH WHITEOUT CONDITIONS. THE WIND COMBINED WITH THE FALLING SNOW WILL CREATE EXTREMELY HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS INCLUDING GREATLY REDUCED VISIBILITIES TO LESS THAN ONE QUARTER MILE AT TIMES.

PRECAUTIONARY/PREPAREDNESS ACTIONS…

A BLIZZARD WARNING MEANS SEVERE WINTER WEATHER CONDITIONS ARE EXPECTED. FALLING AND BLOWING SNOW WITH STRONG WINDS AND POOR VISIBILITIES ARE LIKELY. THIS WILL LEAD TO WHITEOUT CONDITIONS… MAKING TRAVEL EXTREMELY DANGEROUS TO PERHAPS IMPOSSIBLE.

A half-inch two inch long Lego gun piece seen at school brought the Nanny State gears into full lock-down mode.

4th grader in trouble for bringing Lego policeman to school

The young boy was playing with Lego.

We can’t have that, can we?

Yes, we can!

h/t to John Lott

Just What Is The Matter With People That Reality Has No Place In the Adult World?!

Jeez.

h/t to Maddened Fowl for the picture

UPDATE:

Apology issued (after threat of lawsuit filed). h/t Conservative Scalawag

h/t to Flopping Aces.

I bring welcome news that today PUNXSUTAWNEY PHIL SAW HIS SHADOW!

This event virtually ensures us with the statistical accuracy of PROVEN SCIENCE that, despite recent mutterings, our climate remains unaltered.

Weather will indeed continue as normal. Seasons will change, seasonally.

April through September look like good months to dust off the Harley’s and storm the Capitol.

It took the World’s most famous groundhog to come forward to lay our fears of global warming to rest.

Thanks, Phil!

As I stepped out the greet the day this morning, I noticed three news helicopters hanging motionless in the sky to the East.

When I went back inside, the local channels were reporting that a small plane had made an emergency landing on the New Jersey Turnpike near Exit 4.

No injuries reported.

Happy Monday!

I, Sniper – (and everything else) by Stephen Hunter are recommended reads!

Two sides can never – nor should they ever, agree when their “first principles” differ. Where one side is “intent largely on limiting the power of government”; and the other is intent on expanding that power, there can be no compromise and “the time for passivity is over”. [My emphasis - Ed.]

In his excellent post of 10,523 words on the topic, Kevin explains.

An upgrade that – amazingly – worked!

The road-machine is a Dell XPS M1710 originally purchased with XP, re-configured with Vista and now upgraded with Windows 7 Ultimate Edition.

The upgrade process went smoothly.

Everything seems to be working fine.

I’m impressed.

May God help us all.

Update:  And just who are those clapping and cheering after every phrase?  Methinks they need to be fired by the electorate, too.