SpaceLiner: travel between Europe and Australia in under 90 minutes

By Mark Prigg For Dailymail.com

A hypersonic SpaceLiner capable of reaching 20 times the speed of sound and transporting passengers from London to Sydney in 90 minutes could be with us by 2030.

HOW IT WOULD WORK 

The two-stage, fully reusable system – consists of a passenger orbiter and a booster stage with an environmentally friendly rocket propulsion system fuelled by liquid hydrogen and oxygen. 

The engines will accelerate the SpaceLiner to more than 20 times the speed of sound in less than 10 minutes.  

Following separation the spacecraft will glide hypersonically at Mach 20-plus, at altitudes above 80 km, toward its destination.

German aerospace bosses first proposed the plan in 2007 before shelving it - but now say it could happen within decades if they can raise $33 billion.

It would mean a journey between Europe and the U.S. would be reduced to just over 60 minutes - at a price.

Martin Sippel, leader of the SpaceLiner project at DLR's Space Launcher Systems Analysis group in Bremen, Germany, told Aviation Week at the American Institute of Aerodynamics and Astronautics Space Planes and Hypersonics Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, the scheme could now move ahead.

'We want to come up with a development road map,' he said.

'We need a mission definition and this year we will do that in Phase A.' 

To make it more viable, DLR has also outlined a 100-seat version capable of 1-hr. intercontinental and transpacific missions.

It is expected tickets would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.  

'We have several hundred million passengers traveling intercontinental distances each year and we think space should have a tiny portion of that,' says Sippel. 

'But even if the share will only be 0.2% why should we do it? From a space perspective that's a potentially huge impact.'

Don McLean reveals meaning of ‘American Pie’ — and sells lyrics for $1.2 million

 Left: Don McLean in 1972. Right: McLean in Waterford, N.Y., in 1968. (Photos by AP)

By Justin Wm. Moyer / Concert photo by Ray Tharaldson
The music died because Buddy Holly merely wanted what every touring musician wants: to do laundry.

Shoved into unheated buses on a “Winter Dance Party” tour in 1959, Holly — tired of rattling through the Midwest with dirty clothes — chartered a plane on Feb. 3 to fly from Clear Lake, Iowa, to Fargo, N.D., where he hoped he could make an appointment with a washing machine. 

Joining him on the plane were Ritchie Valens and, after future country star Waylon Jennings gave up his seat, J.P. Richardson, a.k.a. “the Big Bopper.” Taking off in bad weather with a pilot not certified to do so, the plane crashed, killing everyone aboard. The toll was incalculable: The singers of “Peggy Sue” and “Come On Let’s Go” and “Donna” and “La Bamba” were dead. Holly was just 22; incredibly, Valens was just 17. Rock and roll would never be the same.

Thirteen years later, Don McLean wrote a song about this tragedy: “American Pie,” an 8½-minute epic with an iconic lyric about “the day the music died.” Now, the original 16-page working manuscript of the lyrics has been sold at auction for $1.2 million.

“I thought it would be interesting as I reach age 70 to release this work product on the song American Pie so that anyone who might be interested will learn that this song was not a parlor game,” McLean said in a Christie’s catalogue ahead of the sale. “It was an indescribable photograph of America that I tried to capture in words and music.”

That photograph was always a little bit blurry. At more than 800 words, the meaning of “American Pie” proved elusive even for a generation used to parsing inscrutable Bob Dylan and Beatles lyrics. McLean has said the song was inspired by the 1959 plane crash, but has been cagey about other details.

“People ask me if I left the lyrics open to ambiguity,” McLean said in an early interview, as the Guardian reported. “Of course I did. I wanted to make a whole series of complex statements. The lyrics had to do with the state of society at the time.”

But what state was that? It seemed like the song’s cast of characters — which include a jester, a king, a queen, good ol’ boys drinking whiskey and rye as well as “Miss American Pie” herself — were meant to represent real people. The song includes references to Karl Marx; Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (or, more likely, John Lennon); the Fab Four; the Byrds; James Dean; Charles Manson; the Rolling Stones; the “widowed bride,” Jackie Kennedy; and the Vietnam War.

What does it all mean? Just what a song about the day the music died seems like it might be about: the end of the American Dream.

“Basically in ‘American Pie,’ things are heading in the wrong direction,” he told Christie’s, as the Newcastle Herald reported. “It is becoming less idyllic. I don’t know whether you consider that wrong or right but it is a morality song in a sense.”

As ideals of the 1960s turned into the cynicism of the 1970s, this feeling was widespread enough to send the song to No. 1 in 1972.

“American Pie is the accessible farewell to the Fifties and Sixties,” Guardian music critic Alexis Petridis wrote in the catalogue. “Bob Dylan talked to the counterculture in dense, cryptic, apocalyptic terms. But Don McLean says similar ominous things in a pop language that a mainstream listener could understand. The chorus is so good that it lets you wallow in the confusion and wistfulness of that moment, and be comforted at the same time. It’s bubblegum Dylan, really.” (Perhaps of note: Dylan’s manuscript of “Like a Rolling Stone” sold for $2 million in June, besting McLean’s measly $1.2 million.)

Forty-four years after “American Pie’s” release, McLean, 69, wasn’t much more positive about the state of the world than he was a generation ago.

“I was around in 1970 and now I am around in 2015,” McLean said, as People Magazine reported. “There is no poetry and very little romance in anything anymore, so it is really like the last phase of ‘American Pie.’ ”

Nor was there romance in McLean’s decision to sell the manuscript. He did it for the dough.

“I’m going to be 70 this year,” he told Rolling Stone. “I have two children and a wife, and none of them seem to have the mercantile instinct. I want to get the best deal that I can for them. It’s time.”

Ahead of the Christie’s auction, McLean did offer some advice to all the budding Don McLeans out here.

“I would say to young songwriters who are starting out to immerse yourself in beautiful music and beautiful lyrics and think about every word you say in a song,” he said.

Here are the words of “American Pie” as transcribed by azlyrics.com, the savior of cover bands everywhere. (Note: AZ creatively transcribes what many hear as “whiskey and rye” as “whiskey in Rye.”)

[Intro]
A long, long time ago
I can still remember how that music used to make me smile
And I knew if I had my chance
That I could make those people dance
And maybe they’d be happy for a while
But February made me shiver
With every paper I’d deliver
Bad news on the doorstep
I couldn’t take one more step

‘Cause the players tried to take the field
The marching band refused to yield
Do you recall what was revealed
The day the music died?

[Chorus]
We started singin’ bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey in Rye
And singin’ “This’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die”

[Verse 1]
Did you write the book of love
And do you have faith in God above
If the Bible tells you so?
Now do you believe in rock and roll?
Can music save your mortal soul?
And can you teach me how to dance real slow?
Well, I know that you’re in love with him
‘Cause I saw you dancin’ in the gym
You both kicked off your shoes
Man, I dig those rhythm and blues
I was a lonely teenage broncin’ buck
With a pink carnation and a pickup truck
But I knew I was out of luck
The day the music died

[Chorus]
I started singin’ bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey in Rye
Singin’ “This’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die”

[Verse 2]
Now for 10 years we’ve been on our own
And moss grows fat on a rollin’ stone
But that’s not how it used to be
When the jester sang for the king and queen
In a coat he borrowed from James Dean
And a voice that came from you and me
Oh, and while the king was looking down
The jester stole his thorny crown
The courtroom was adjourned
No verdict was returned

And while Lenin read a book on Marx
The quartet practiced in the park
And we sang dirges in the dark
The day the music died

[Chorus]
We were singin’ bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey in Rye
Singin’ “This’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die”

[Verse 3]
Helter skelter in a summer swelter
The birds flew off with a fallout shelter
Eight miles high and falling fast
It landed foul on the grass
The players tried for a forward pass
With the jester on the sidelines in a cast
Now the halftime air was sweet perfume
While the sergeants played a marching tune
We all got up to dance
Oh, but we never got the chance

I went down to the sacred store
Where I’d heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn’t play
And in the streets, the children screamed
The lovers cried and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken
And the three men I admire most
The Father, Son and the Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died
And they were singin’ bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
And them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey in Rye
Singin’ “This’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die”

They were singin’ bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey in Rye
And singin’ “This’ll be the day that I die”

[Verse 4]
Oh, and there we were all in one place
A generation lost in space
With no time left to start again
So come on, Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Jack Flash sat on a candlestick
‘Cause fire is the devil’s only friend
Oh, and as I watched him on the stage
My hands were clenched in fists of rage
No angel born in Hell
Could break that Satan’s spell
And as the flames climbed high into the night
To light the sacrificial rite
I saw Satan laughing with delight
The day the music died
He was singin’ bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey in Rye
And singin’ “This’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die”

[Outro]
I met a girl who sang the blues
And I asked her for some happy news
But she just smiled and turned away
I can’t remember if I cried
When I read about his widowed bride
But something touched me deep inside
The day the music died

[Chorus]
So bye-bye, Miss American Pie
Drove my Chevy to the levee, but the levee was dry
And them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey in Rye
Singin’ “This’ll be the day that I die
This’ll be the day that I die”

Beloved ‘Baltimore Batman’ who visited sick kids killed along highway

by Jack Corrigan
HAGERSTOWN, Md.
A man who dressed as Batman to visit sick children in hospitals was killed on a highway in Maryland Sunday night.

According to The Washington Post, Lenny B. Robinson, 51, had pulled his custom-made Lamborghini “Batmobile” off to the side of the road after the car had broken down when he was coming home from a car show in West Virginia. When Robinson got out of the car to see what was wrong, another car hit the batmobile, which then struck and killed Robinson.

Robinson became a viral sensation after the dashboard video of an encounter he had with the police went viral. The cop had pulled over Robinson’s Batmobile because its plates were invalid. They displayed only the Bat symbol.

After leading a successful career in the cleaning business, Robinson saved up enough to purchase his one incredibly realistic Batmobile and Batman costume. He then devoted himself to visiting children with cancer in hospitals all across Maryland and Washington D.C., bringing smiles to the faces of the kids who got to meet their favorite superhero.

Robinson worked closely with Hope for Henry, a D.C. organization that helps sick children, the Washington Post reported. Founded by Laurie Strongin and Allen Goldberg after their son Henry died from a rare disease, the group threw super hero parties in hospitals. Batman was always the star.

“He made so many kids so happy,” Strongin told the Post. “When I asked him to do anything, he always said yes.”

Tebow runs for a score, Eagles beat Colts 36-10

(AP Photo/Michael Perez)

By ROB MAADDI

PHILADELPHIA (AP)

Tim Tebow got a warm Philly welcome.

Tebow threw for 69 yards and ran for a touchdown in his first game in two years, Kenjon Barner returned a punt 92 yards for a touchdown and ran for a score and the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Indianapolis Colts 36-10 Sunday.

Tebow got a standing ovation when he entered midway through the third quarter and the crowd roared so loud when his name was introduced he had to quiet them down because he was taking the snap in a shotgun.

"It's very humbling, a blessing. I appreciated it," Tebow said.

Tebow completed his first four passes and fans chanted "Tebow! Tebow!" during his first series.

He dove into the pylon on a 7-yard TD run late in the fourth quarter and finished with 15 yards 

rushing on four carries. He completed 6 of 12 passes and was sacked twice.

"I liked how Timmy threw it," Eagles coach Chip Kelly said.

Tebow hadn't played since the 2013 preseason with New England until the Eagles (1-0) signed him to compete with Matt Barkley for the No. 3 spot behind Sam Bradford and Mark Sanchez. Barkley was 12 of 20 for 192 yards and one interception.

"Did some things decent and some things we have to work on," Tebow said. "I have to be more consistent."

Quarterback Andrew Luck was 5 of 6 for 43 yards for the Colts (0-1).

Other observations from the game:

DEFLATED

Playing their first game since losing to the Patriots in the AFC championship game that began the Deflategate saga, the Colts didn't seem as if they prepared much for Philadelphia's up-tempo offense and they were missing several defensive starters. But making sure players get reps is more important than scheming for a unique offense they're not going to see in the regular season.

TAKE A SEAT

Several Colts starters didn't play, including WR T.Y. Hilton, RB Frank Gore and CB Vontae Davis. The Eagles were missing LBs DeMeco Ryans, Kiko Alonso and Mychal Kendricks along with Bradford and All-Pro running back DeMarco Murray.

ROOKIE WATCH

Colts: WR Phillip Dorsett had four catches for 51 yards, but lost a fumble. RB Josh Robinson ran for 44 yards and one TD.

Eagles: WR Nelson Agholor had three catches for 57 yards, including a 39-yard TD. He leaped to make the catch, spun around a defender and sprinted into the end zone. CB Eric Rowe forced a fumble.

QB COMPARISON

Colts: Matt Hasselbeck was 8 of 17 for 72 yards. Bryan Bennett was 4 of 16 for 35 yards and two interceptions.

Eagles: Sanchez was 2 for 7 for 52 yards. He underthrew a wide-open Trey Burton on Philadelphia's first play from scrimmage and later overthrew Jordan Matthews on what would've been a TD.

WELCOME BACK

Colts RG Todd Herremans and LB Trent Cole returned to Philadelphia for the first time since they were released after playing 10 seasons for the Eagles. Both received a standing ovation when shown on the video screen. One fan carried a sign that read: "Welcome back to Philly, Frank Gore." Gore had agreed to sign with the Eagles in free agency only to change his mind a day later and go to Indianapolis.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Colts: WR Andre Johnson had one catch for 9 yards in the seven-time Pro Bowl pick's first game since leaving Houston.

Eagles: WR Miles Austin had two catches for 41 yards. RB Ryan Mathews had 18 yards rushing on two carries.

INJURY UPDATE

Colts rookie CB D'Joun Smith sustained a concussion in the first half.

LOOK AT ME NOW

Eagles LB Marcus Smith, a first-round pick who barely played last year, made his presence felt in the first quarter. In one series, he helped stuff a run, got his hand in the QB's face and forced an incompletion with solid coverage on a tight end.

KICKING WOES

Eagles Pro Bowl K Cody Parkey missed one extra point and one field goal. "Let's not hit the panic button," Kelly said.

BE LIKE MIKE

Sanchez looked like Michael Vick, eluding a sack and scrambling for 10 yards on third-and-5 to keep Philadelphia's first TD drive going.

 

Morgan Freeman’s granddaughter fatally stabbed in ‘exorcism’

Morgan Freeman with Edena Hines at the Golden Globes in 2005.

Photo: Getty Images

By Kathleen Culliton, Jamie Schram and Larry Celona

The granddaughter of acclaimed actor Morgan Freeman was stabbed to death on a Manhattan sidewalk early Sunday during what law enforcement sources and witnesses described as an “exorcism” at the hands of her ranting boyfriend.

“Get out, devils! I cast you out, devils! In the name of Jesus Christ, I cast you out!” the killer yelled as he plunged a hunting knife into 33-year-old E’Dena Hines’ chest, according to George Hudacko, who witnessed the 3 a.m. attack from his apartment window in Washington Heights.

Hines, an actress who had appeared on Broadway and on red carpets at Freeman’s side, was stabbed 16 times, officials said.

“The girl was making a lot of noise, screaming,” Hudacko said, adding. “I called 911 — I was begging them to come.”

Hines — whose grandmother Jeanette Adair Bradshaw was Freeman’s first wife — was attacked on West 162nd Street near St. Nicholas Avenue, a few buildings from where she lived, cops and sources said.

Her live-in boyfriend, Lamar Davenport, 30, was in the throes of a drug-induced psychosis when he came after her, police sources said.

“Jesus Christ is born!” he shouted maniacally over her body.

A friend who’d had dinner with Davenport and Hines just hours earlier described her as “ecstatic,” the Daily Beast reported.

“I’ve never seen E’Dena as happy as she was last night,” said the friend, Ray Rosario.

By 3 a.m., Davenport was so crazed that he continued his attack even as Hines lay lifeless on the sidewalk, one police source said.

When cops wrestled him off her, he “was still making a stabbing motion with his arm, but he had nothing in his fist — the knife was jutting out of her chest,” the police source said.

Davenport — an actor and rapper wannabe whose nickname is “Lyric” — abuses cocaine, pot and booze, and has two young children, according to law enforcement sources. Hines was not their mother.

He has six prior arrests, including for marijuana and petit larceny, the sources added.

Davenport was taken to New York-Presbyterian Hospital for a psychological evaluation, sources said.

He has been charged with murder.

Freeman, 78, issued a statement soon after the attack.

“The world will never know her artistry and talent and how much she had to offer,” the Oscar winner said. “Her star will continue to shine bright in our hearts, thoughts and prayers. May she rest in peace.”

Hines was Freeman’s granddaughter because her mother had been adopted by the star.

He was so close to Hines that in 2012, he had to quash reports that they were lovers.

Hines was a graduate of NYU’s Graduate Acting Program and played Beneatha in “A Raisin in the Sun” on Broadway in 2012.

She’d left the city to teach in her hometown of Memphis, Tenn., but returned to New York in April to co-star in the indie film “Landing Up.’’

“She was an amazing, incredible, loving human being,” the film’s director, Daniel Tenenbaum, told The Post.

Additional reporting by ­Reuven Fenton, Daniel Prendergast and Beckie Strum

Filed under crime ,  manhattan ,  morgan freeman ,  stabbings

NFL Legend Frank Gifford Passes Away at 84

Bill Kostroun / AP, file

by Hasani Gittens
Pro Football Hall of Famer and veteran sports journalist Frank Gifford has died in Connecticut, his family announced on Sunday. He was 84.
In a statement, his family said:

It is with the deepest sadness that we announce the sudden passing of our beloved husband, father and friend, Frank Gifford. Frank died suddenly this beautiful Sunday morning of natural causes at his Connecticut home. We rejoice in the extraordinary life he was privileged to live, and we feel grateful and blessed to have been loved by such an amazing human being. We ask that our privacy be respected at this difficult time and we thank you for your prayers.

New York Giants halfback Frank Gifford during a workout September 1958 in New York. Rooney / AP, file

Born in Santa Monica in 1930, Gifford attended the University of Southern California on a football scholarship and went pro after being selected 11th overall in the first round of the 1952 draft.

Gifford played with the New York Giants his entire NFL career, from 1952 to 1964, with several visits to the Pro-Bowl. In 1956 he was league MVP and led the team to a championship (before it was called "The Super Bowl").

The Giants used Gifford at running back, defensive back, wide receiver and on special teams. He went to the Pro Bowl at three different positions. His 5,434 yards receiving were a Giants record for 39 years, until Amani Toomer surpassed him in 2003. His jersey number, 16, was retired by the team in 2000.


"Frank Gifford was an icon of the game, both as a Hall of Fame player for the Giants and Hall of Fame broadcaster for CBS and ABC," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said. "Frank's talent and charisma on the field and on the air were important elements in the growth and popularity of the modern NFL."

After his playing career ended, he became a sports commentator, first for CBS and then as a co-host of Monday Night Football from 1971 to 1985.

When he wasn't on the field, Gifford tried to put his movie-star good looks to use in Hollywood, appearing in about a dozen films, most notably the 1959 submarine movie "Up Periscope."

He married Kathie Lee Epstein, current TODAY show host, on October 18, 1986.

On Twitter Sunday afternoon, Kathie Lee posted: "Deeply grateful to all 4 ur outpouring of grace. We r steadfast in our faith & finding comfort in knowing where Frank is. Phillippians 4:13."

That verse states, "I can do all things through Christ, who strengthens me."

Frank Gifford and Kathie Lee Gifford attends the "Scandalous" Broadway Opening Night" After Party at Copacabana on November 15, 2012 in New York City. Steve Mack / Getty Images, file

Active shooter reported at Tennessee movie theater

DEVELOPING STORY

UPDATE: Suspect dead! Multiple shots fired, tear gas used. Two back packs found.

by Paul Choate
ANTIOCH, Tenn. — Police are responding to a call of an active shooter at a Tennessee movie theater, according to WSMV.

The incident was reported at about 1:15 p.m. at the Carmike 8 Cinemas in Antioch, southeast of Nashville.

Dispatch confirmed to WSMV three EMS units were sent to the scene.

Witnesses at a nearby business said they saw one person covered in blood.


Filed in: Breaking News
Topics: theater shooting