On Friday’s CBS Early Show, co-host Harry Smith discussed a pro-Obama video created by actor/director Ron Howard with fellow co-host Maggie Rodriguez: " You ever look at the -- Will Ferrell's website?...Well, there's some pretty interesting stuff on there from time to time...Look at -- take a look at this." In the video, posted on Will Ferrell’s website Funny or Die, Howard plays some of his past well-known television roles, Opie from the Andy Griffith Show and Richie Cunningham from Happy Days:
ANDY GRIFFITH: Well, if you stay healthy and strong, avoid any felonies and stay away from the butterfly ballot, I bet you'll get a chance.
At the end of the clip, Rodriguez did her best Fonzie impersonation: "Heeey," and declared: "That's cool." Smith observed: "So you don't have to guess where -- what side of the political fence Ron Howard falls on, right?" Rodriguez replied: "Yeah, they lean left. They're Barack Obama supporters. What's cool about that is that looks like it came out of the show. They look exactly the same."
SMITH: Yeah. Well, there's some pretty interesting stuff on there from time to time. Remember the Paris Hilton for president- ?
SMITH: So you don't have to guess where -- what side of the political fence Ron Howard falls on, right?
RODRIGUEZ: Yeah, they lean left. They're Barack Obama supporters. What's cool about that is that looks like it came out of the show. They look exactly the same.
SMITH: There actually is some footage of the making of the spots. A little makeup doesn't hurt, right?
Ex-Lakeland coaches reconnect with Chris Sale, Steve Pearce - Sports - News Chief - Winter Haven, FL
Both are playing for the Boston Red Sox now and have carved out successful major league careers — Sale as a Cy Young-caliber pitcher and Pearce as a slugging infielder. It wasn’t until this summer that Nipper and Smith got the chance to see their former players together again.
“We take no credit for those guys' success at all. That’s all on them,” said Nipper, who worked as the head baseball coach at Lakeland from 1997 to 2005. “It’s just so much fun that they’re having an impact on a team that the whole country is watching.”
“That was just so cool,” he said. “We basically had the stadium to ourselves. We were literally the only fans in the park and those two guys out there, swapping old baseball stories.”
“Back when you watch these kids at whatever age — whether its sixth grade, ninth grade or 10th grade — you have no idea that somebody like Chris Sale is going to be the superstar he is,” Smith said. “It’s just surreal to see it happen. To see both of them together, that was pretty cool.
A computer fault was most probably to blame for the scrubbing of the maiden launch of Europe’s new “10 tonne” rocket just 6.8 seconds before lift-off, engineers have revealed.
It is not currently known precisely what caused the computer problem. The automated control system did not receive data indicating that all pre-launch procedures had been successfully completed and halted ignition of the rocket’s main engine.
A new launch date should be announced early next week and a spokesman for Arianespace told New Scientist the rocket would probably take off a “matter of days” later.
“It could be hardware or software,” he said, though another cause has not been ruled out. The spokesman also stressed that the affected system is not part of the rocket launcher itself.
The computer problem was related to external burners that flare off excess hydrogen. The hydrogen is used to cool the rocket’s main cryogenic engine, which runs on liquid oxygen and hydrogen, but the computer control system did not receive data confirming that the igniters were operating correctly.
On Saturday, the rocket will be emptied of fuel and moved back to its assembly hanger at the French spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana. There, engineers will carry out a full inspection and test the ignition system.
The new Ariane 5 is the first European rocket to be capable of carrying 10 tonnes into geostationary orbit. It features an expanded upper stage, designed to hold two satellites, as well as an improved Vulcain 2 main engine.
A television satellite and an experimental communications satellite will be the payload on the new Ariane’s first flight. Arianespace’s US competitors, Boeing and Lockheed Martin, are both developing launchers that will also be able to carry 10 tonnes into space.