I Noticed This Tiny Thing On Google Maps. When I Zoomed In… Well, Nothing Could Prepare Me.

A friend told me to go to a certain latitude and longitude on Google Maps. When I noticed it seemed to be in the middle of an African desert, I thought he was just sending nonsense. But when I zoomed in, my mind was blown. I noticed a tiny icon that looked like an airplane.

So I did some more research and discovered there’s an incredibly tragic and beautiful story behind it. Here it is, from start to finish.

UTA Flight 772 was a scheduled flight operating from Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo to Paris CDG airport in France.

This is the flight path. UTA Flight 772 was a scheduled flight operating from Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo to Paris CDG airport in France. The flight never made it. All on board perished.

Eighteen years later, families of the victims gathered at the crash site to build a memorial.

Due to the remoteness of the location, pieces of the wreckage could still be found at the site.

The memorial was created by Les Familles de l’Attentat du DC-10 d’UTA, an association of the victims’ families along with the help of local inhabitants.

The memorial was built mostly by hand and uses dark stones to create a 200-foot diameter circle

The Tenere region is one of the most inaccessible places on the planet. The stones were trucked to the site from over 70 kilometers away.

The memorial was built over the course of two months in May and June of 2007.

170 broken mirrors, representing each victim, were placed around the circumference of the memorial.

The memorial is anchored by the starboard wing of the aircraft which was trucked to the site from 10 miles away. Workers had to dig up the wing and empty it of sand.

The memorial is anchored by the starboard wing of the aircraft which was trucked to the site from 10 miles away. Workers had to dig up the wing and empty it of sand.

The memorial was partly funded by the $170 million compensation package provided by the Libyan government.

The completed memorial.

The memorial can be seen from Google Earth and Google Maps.

Six Libyans were ultimately convicted of this terrorist attack. They used a suitcase bomb to blow up the plane, which resulted in 155 passengers and 15 crew members meeting their demise.

Even in the face of this tragedy, the families constructed this beautiful memorial to never forget what happened. They will live on in their hearts, in the desert, and even on Google Earth forever.

 

 

Failed CEO Carly Fiorina, with $40m retirement package, says union pensions too high

by Chris in Paris

Carly Fiorina Wants Stuff

The other day it was the CEO of a bailed out bank demanding cuts to Social Security.

But nobody whines about the fake “fiscal cliff” better than failed GOP candidate and “19th Worst CEO of All Time” CEO Carly Fiorina.

Carly Fiorina in São Paulo, Brazil. Photo: Antônio Milena/ABr.

You might remember Fiorina from the days when she worked at HP, and was sent packing in 2005 with a whopping $40 million severance benefits package. Was that “fair,” Carly?

Fiorina is widely considered one of the worst CEOs in recent years, though that didn’t stop her from receiving millions in cash, stock, benefits and pension when she was fired. It rarely does.

Carly Fiorina Says You Can’t Want Stuff Too

But no, in her entitled little world, the problem is not the fat cats like her, but the unions.

“It is not fair that public employee union pensions and benefits are so rich now that cities and states are going bankrupt, and college tuition is going up 20 and 30%… There is a lot that isn’t fair right now.”

Failed investments and drastic tax cuts by governments have nothing to do with the problem. Imagine that. As Think Progress noted, Fiorina whined on TV that she “only” received a $21 million severance, though she somehow overlooked the rest of the redundancy plan. But to be fair to Fiorina, what Republican candidate hasn’t overlooked another $20 million plus?

She starts at about 2 minutes into the video below.  More from me after the video.Other than being an expert on living off of a platinum parachute and failing as a political candidate, it’s not clear what special expertise Fiorina has to offer for NBC News or any other media outlet. She’s certainly not even considered to be a corporate jobs creator, the way Jack Welch is (wrongly) considered by the media. She has a pretty good agent though if she can get TV spots despite her awful record.

 

So tell me who is really part of the moocher class that corporate CEOs and 1%-ers keep talking about? Are they the people asking for basic healthcare or the people who have enough money to build moats and personal golf courses around their mansions? Another tip off sign of a moocher is that no matter how much they have, it’s not enough and they want more of your money.

Damn if these Republicans don’t always want stuff.

The other sign of who belongs to the moocher class is to listen to who actually believes in the so-called fiscal cliff. Anyone who believes it’s for real is probably a moocher, but a moocher who grabs a lot more money than anyone who actually needs Social Security or Medicare.

As we get closer to the end of the year, expect the moocher class to be in your face a lot more, explaining how the situation is dire and the world will end if we don’t address the “fiscal cliff” but cutting everything we hold dear while leaving the GOP tax and war machine firmly in place to kill the budget yet again another day.

Ignore them and remember, it’s not a fiscal cliff, it’s an austerity bomb.