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Fighting fires with a pop and splash
SIMI VALLEY, Calif. -- William Cleary believes aerial firefighting could become child's play. Five years ago, his son drenched him with a water balloon - and got him to thinking."He was three stories up and I was walking, and he still managed to hit me square in the head," said Cleary, a Boeing engineer. "I thought, why can't we be this accurate with water on fires?"So he started working on a system to use giant water balloons to put out wildfires.Now, Cleary has a shared patent, the support of two Fortune 500 companies and a small team of designers and engineers at his disposal on a project that could change the way fires are fought from the air.The basic concept is simple: Biodegradable plastic balloons four feet in diameter hold 240 gallons of water; they are enclosed in cardboard boxes that are torn open by the wind when pushed out the back of a cargo plane; the balloons burst in midair, making it rain in the desert.With the use of GPS coordinates and wind-speed calculations, the balloons could be dropped with precision from a safe altitude high above the flames, the developers say.The balloons - which have yet to be tested on a real wildfire - would be used in addition to the usual aerial firefighting equipment: helicopters with water buckets, and air tankers.After the inspiration from his son, Cleary started tossing water balloons off a parking garage to study their fall.
Suspicious package sent to daycare operator
STAMFORD A suspicious envelope filled with an unidentified clay-like substance was sent Tuesday to the owner of the embattled daycare closed in August due to unsafe and unsanitary conditions. Collette Barnes, of 61 Frank St., contacted police at 9:45 p.m., after her family received a suspicious package. "The package was a manila mailing envelope addressed to Collette Barnes," said Lt. Sean Cooney, spokesperson for the Stamford Police Department. He added that there were several suspicious things about the package the postage did not appear to have been canceled, there was the name of a sender a woman who had sent her child to the daycare center but no return address, and the alleged sender denied ever having sent any package to the Barnes residence. The package, said Cooney, was opened by the Stamford Police bomb squad remotely using a water cannon.
Writers guild files unfair labor practices complaint against Hollywood ...
After talks broke off last week, the alliance claimed guild leaders were trying to increase their power at the expense of members. Union leaders accused the alliance of "lies" aimed at sowing doubt and dissension in union ranks. "There are a few people who are starting to panic, but they're only a few," Erin Maher, a writer for the TV show "Moonlight," said while picketing Thursday at Paramount studio. Union sentiment so far contrasts sharply with the previous writers strike in 1988 that lasted 22 weeks, said Ross Brown, a longtime member of both the writers and directors guilds and an assistant professor at Chapman University's Dodge College of Film and Media Arts. "Nobody likes the fact that there's a strike. But I heard open complaining in 1988 about the strike, and there were meetings of open dissent," he said.
PUBLIC TRANSPORT
CONSUMER ADVICE PUBLIC TRANSPORT Since the mid-1990s, there has been a noticeable improvement in Greece's public transportation systems, including the ferry networks serving the islands. Bus and trolley routes are now served by new fleets, while a new mass transit system in Athens - the metro - has helped relieve congestion in the capital's centre. The 2004 Olympics provided the impetus for improvements in public transport, which include the reintroduction of the tram as a link between the southern coastal suburbs and downtown Athens. Tram The tram has three lines: from Neos Kosmos (metro station) to Hellenic Olympic Complex (Agios Kosmas) and from Glyfada to the Peace and Friendship Stadium (alongside the Faliro Sports Complex). The third line runs from Syntagma to Glyfada.
How to navigate the cellphone maze
I hope that the canadian government 'opens the airways' to add some much needed competition into this market. Also beware of companies that sell Rogers contracts. I do not know of others because I have not dealt with them but my experience with AIRSOURCE WIRELESS has been terrible. .
Hannah Montana mania
From the crowd of young girls outside U.S. Bank Arena this afternoon, literally bouncing up and down with excitement about seeing 15-year-old Disney Channel TV star Miley Cyrus � otherwise known as Hannah Montana � in concert, you�d never guess that anyone had a hard time getting tickets to the show. • Photos of the scene outside U.S. Bank Arena • Photos from the concert .
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