Live flight tracking site shows crash of circling plane

Live flight tracking site FlightAware shows destinations and current routes. It's everyday stuff for the most part, but around noon time today, a plane was circling above the ocean and crashed into the Gulf of Mexico.

CNN reports:

The Air Force, which had dispatched fighter jets to monitor the twin-engine Cessna 421, reported it crashed about 12:10 p.m., said Lt. Cmdr. Christopher O'Neil, a Coast Guard spokesman. The aircraft had been circling over the Gulf about 200 miles south of Panama City, Florida, another spokesman, Chief Petty Officer John Edwards, told CNN.

The plane took off from Slidell, Louisiana, en route to Sarasota, Florida, with a single pilot on board, a Federal Aviation Administration source told CNN. It had been circling at an altitude of about 28,000 feet.

First TIme Ever I Have More Points Than Sarah

Hopefully Sarah will play before she sees this post and my tiles.

Signs of Spring in Helena - A Raven and Seagull Fighting Over Scraps in a Parking Lot

Bumper Sticker of the Week

A Joke

A guy visiting in Hawaii fell asleep on the beach for several hours and got a horrible sunburn, specifically to his upper legs.

He went to the hospital, and was promptly admitted after being diagnosed with second-degree burns.

With his skin already starting to blister, and the severe pain he was in, the doctor prescribed continuous intravenous feeding

with saline, electrolytes, a sedative, and a Viagra pill every four hours.

The nurse, who was rather astounded, asked, 'What good will Viagra do for him, Doctor?’

The doctor replied, 'It won't do anything for his condition, but it’ll keep the sheets off his legs.'

We're Not Sleeping Here, There Are Dead Cows

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Officials near Conundrum Hot Springs have a literal conundrum on their hands -- what to do with several frozen cows stuck in a cabin?

The six cows are wedged inside a small cabin. The Colorado Cattlemen's Association said the cows likely wandered in seeking shelter during a storm and weren't able to figure out how to get back out and starved to death.

Two U.S. Air Force Academy cadets made the discovery while hiking Conundrum Pass between Aspen and Crested Butte in late March. The cadets tell 7NEWS they initially thought they stumbled upon a sleeping bear.

"We decided we were going to snowshoe to Conundrum Hot Springs near Aspen," said cadet Marshall Kay, 21, a junior at the Air Force Academy.

"When I walked up to the doorway there was a head," said junior Air Force cadet Cameron Harris, 20. "It scared me. I thought it was a bear initially."

"Cameron got there first and he says, 'Ah, I think we're going to have to sleep on the snow tonight, man. The cabin's full of frozen cows,'" said Kay.

"There's no way we're staying here tonight. The floor is covered," said Harris to Kay during their hike. "And he's like, 'What are you talking about?' and I was like, 'Well, there's dead cows in here.'"

"I didn't know what the heck he was talking about," said Kay.

"For us, it was quite odd. Everything was weird for us at the beginning.,” Harris said. “I mean, we're two Texas boys.”

How to get an 80 foot mast under a 65 foot bridge

20 ADULT TRUTHS

1. Sometimes I'll look down at my watch/phone 3 consecutive times and still not know what time it is.

2. Nothing sucks more than that moment during an argument when you realize you're wrong.

3. There is great need for a sarcasm font.

4. Was learning cursive really necessary?

5. MapQuest really needs to start their directions on # 5. I'm pretty sure I know how to get out of my neighborhood.

6. Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.

7. Bad decisions make good stories.

8. You never know when it will strike, but there comes a moment at work when you know that you just aren't going to do anything productive for the rest of the day.

9. Can we all just agree to ignore whatever comes after Blue Ray? I don't want to have to restart my collection ... again.

10. I'm always slightly terrified when I exit out of Word and it asks me if I want to save any changes to my ten-page technical report that I swear I did not make any changes to.

11. I keep some people's phone numbers in my phone just so I know not to answer when they call.

12. I think the freezer deserves a light as well.

13. I disagree with Kay Jewelers. I would bet on any given Friday or Saturday night more kisses begin with Miller Light than Kay.

14. I wish Google Maps had an "Avoid Ghetto" routing option.

15. I have a hard time deciphering the fine line between boredom and hunger.

16. How many times is it appropriate to say "What?" before you just nod and smile because you still didn't hear or understand a word they said?

17. I love the sense of camaraderie when an entire line of cars team up to prevent a jerk from cutting in at the front. Stay strong, brothers and sisters!

18. Shirts get dirty. Underwear gets dirty. Pants? Pants never get dirty, and you can wear them forever.

19. Even under ideal conditions people have trouble locating their car keys in a pocket, finding their cell phone, and Pinning the Tail on the Donkey - but I'd bet everyone can find and push the snooze button
from 3 feet away, in about 1.7 seconds, eyes closed, first time, every time.

20. The first testicular guard, the "Cup," was used in Hockey in 1874 and the first helmet was used in 1974. That means it only took 100 years for men to realize that their brain is also important.

Ladies.....Quit Laughing.

U.S. Teen Birthrates Are Down, But Still High in These States

Life is good.

There's an App for that?

How Animals See The World

A Story That's Been Repeated More Than Once

I'm going to buy myself a box of gold stars.

Zombie Survival Map For Your Current Location

Adele vs. Daft Punk - Something About The Fire (Carlos Serrano Mix)

National Magazine Awards 2012

ESSAYS AND CRITICISM

The Loading Dock Manifesto (John Hyduk, Esquire)
Notes from one of the best writers in Cleveland on how he makes a living.
Too Much Information (John Jeremiah Sullivan, GQ)
Reading David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King.
Paper Tigers (Wesley Yang, New York)
What becomes of Asian-American overachievers after the test-taking ends?
The Aquarium (Aleksandar Hemon, The New Yorker
A child's isolating illness.

REPORTING

Our Man in Kandahar (Matthieu Aikins, The Atlantic)
On a 33-year-old warlord’s past deeds.
What Happened To Mitrice Richardson? (Mike Kessler, Los Angeles
Searching for answers after the mysterious death of a young woman.
The Apostate (Lawrence Wright, The New Yorker)
Paul Haggis vs. the Church of Scientology
Getting Bin Laden (Nicholas Schmidle, The New Yorker)
What happened that night in Abbottabad.
Echoes from a Distant Battlefield (Mark Bowden, Vanity Fair
The battle of Wanat, seen from three perspectives: a dead soldier, his father, and his commander.

PUBLIC INTEREST

Direct Fail (Natasha Gardner, 5280)
Colorado’s policy of sending kids to adult court.
Tiny Little Laws (Kathy Dobie, Harper's)
A plague of sexual violence in Indian country.
The Big Business of Breast Cancer (Lea Goldman, Marie Claire)
Inside a $6 billion-a-year industry.
The Invisible Army(Sarah Stillman, New Yorker
For foreign workers on U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, war can be hell.

PROFILE WRITING

Game of Her Life (Tim Crothers, ESPN the Magazine)
For 14-year-old chess progidy Phiona Mutesi, chess is a lifeline
The Blind Man Who Taught Himself How to See (Michael Finkel, Men's Journal)
Daniel Kish has been sightless since he was a year old. Yet he can mountain bike. How?
Dewayne Dedmon's Leap Of Faith (Chris Ballard, Sports Illustrated)
A young basketball player's choice between his mother’s faith and his own heart
Barrett Brown is Anonymous (Tim Rogers, D Magazine)
On the young man who helped overthrow the government of Tunisia from a Dallas apartment.

FEATURE WRITING

"Heavenly Father" (by Luke Dittrich, Esquire)
The stories of two dozen strangers who survived the Joplin, Mo., tornado by hiding in a walk-in beer cooler.
The Man Who Sailed His House (Michael Paterniti, GQ)
Two days after the Japanese tsunami, after the waves had left their destruction, as rescue workers searched the ruins, news came of an almost surreal survival: Miles out at sea, a man was found, alone, riding on nothing but the roof of his house.
You Blow My Mind, Hey Mickey (John Jeremiah Sullivan, New York Times Magazine)
A journey to Disney World with kids and weed.
A Murder Foretold (David Grann, New Yorker)
In Guatemala, unravelling the ultimate political conspiracy.
Arms and the Dudes (Guy Lawson, Rolling Stone)
How two American kids became big time weapons dealers.

Celebrities at My Party

So you want to take some fun photos with your best buddy/celebrity friends - but there's just one problem - you're a nobody and have absolutely no connection with these stars...

No sweat! We've got the solution for you. Just Photoshop them in!

This hilarious set, titled "My Holiday Party," was created by ingenious man of the year, Everett Hiller. "Every year my wife and I throw a party and when I send out the photos I add famous people," he says.

Lakes and Oceans

Kinkade’s world of parody The Painter of Light's work is quaint, nostalgic and trite -- and an inspiration for satirists everywhere

It Gets Better at Brigham Young University

I Love That My Life Includes Both These Options

Obama Meets Uhura

Seen on the way to Pub Trivia tonight

This is a powerful video and should be seen by everyone with a driver's license (graphic imagery.)

Good article about the history of killer grizzly management in Yellowstone

Texas Sandals

Yes, that makes sense.

Wish I had seen this yesterday

Want It!

Bubble Roll Message Maker Make your own secret message on the bubble gum roll: simply turn the knob to the desired letter, click the button and dispense the gum Refillable with any standard width bubble tape Color/Flavor: Blue/Blue Raspberry, Green/Apple Stinger, and Pink/Strawberry Pucker

If Dogs Could Text (and were from England)

Saw some people playing Cricket today so I looked up the rules.

Just do what the sign says.

Nice Thought!

Well THAT was a fun night!

Dancing at the Fairgrounds to '80's music and drinking $3 beer from a plastic cup. Just like old times.

I forgot how many really good songs Journey had.

I used to have a malamute who followed many of these same rules with other dogs

Live Wind Map

Want It! Great Toy To Tease A Dog

I miss being twelve. Spending my time doing silly, sometimes dumb, sometimes dangerous, and usually unproductive things was so much fun.

Talking to a woman on the plane tonight on the way to Helena

Me - "So where are you coming from?"

Her - "El Paso, Texas."

Me - "So what's El Paso like?"

Her - " Like living in a giant kitty litter box full of cactus and sharp pokie things."

Yeah, that's pretty much been my impression of Texas. Wonderful people and great Mexican food, though.

The Suessabet

The Geography of Government Benefits

The share of Americans’ income that comes from government benefit programs, like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, more than doubled over the last four decades, rising from 8 percent in 1969 to 18 percent in 2009

Yeah, one of the few times I'm sad to be a Montanan. What news sites people read by state.

I Got 99 Problems . . .

How Much More Do Women Pay For Health Insurance Under Obamacare?

I'm going to make version of this and start selling it in Missoula

Brilliant!

A frozen rail on the bar to keep your beer cold!

Richmond, Virginia

I'm in Virginia for a short trip to meet with people at Virginia Commonwealth University. Went for a run to check the local places to eat supper and saw these on the sidewalk.

There's bound to be a good story there.

On the way to supper stopped off at at college bar where the young lesbian bartenders were gossiping about their weekend and who they met. Some comments (totally NSFW):

"I"d like to fork her. I say fork instead of fuck because that's how tightly we would fit together."

(Holding up hand) "You know why girls like these fingers? Because they're mine."

"I so want to fuck her! I mean like dildos and strap-ons and all that shit!"

The bartender at s@mple around the corner told me, "Yeah, they talk like that all the time. It brings in all the young college boys."

s@maple is an amazing place. Here is what I had for supper working the appetizer menu:

A pint of Highland Gaelic Ale

Spicy Crab Emanadas with smoked jalepeno, queso blanco and an avocado dipping sauce.

and then . . .

Crisped glazed pork bellies (underneath) with salty black-eyed peas, sweet stewed tomatoes and a fried onion haystack, which was onion rings cooked in pork rind. I would eat this once a week if I could.

And . . .

A Martini with Catfish brand vodka from Mississippi and a charred scotch bonnet pepper.

The Scotch Bonnet is the third hottest pepper in the world. The martini was spicy, not hot and the spice of the pepper was well balanced by a little extra olive juice in the martini.

A pretty good day, for having to get out of bed at 3:30 a.m. to catch my flights.

I had a visitor to my hot tub today

Get Up! Stand Up!

Want It!