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Ted Stevens and Sean O'Keefe In Plane Crash
necro81 writes "The NY Times is reporting that former Senator Ted Stevens was aboard a small plane with eight others that crashed in remote southwest Alaska Monday night. Some news outlets are reporting that he died, along with at least four others. Meanwhile, the North American CEO of aerospace firm EADS and former NASA administrator Sean O'Keefe was was also reported in the crash. Rescue crews from the Alaska Air National Guard reached the site about ten hours after the initial crash."
...since the internet is a series of tubes. Its not like a truck. It can get clogged.
was there a second crash?
Senator Stevens did perish in the crash. The fates of the other 8 on board have not yet been released to the public or media as of 11:10am AST.
Support FSF: Stop thinking with your wallet, and think with your imagination. (cc/non-commercial)
Update: Stevens was killed, fate of other passengers unknown.
Airplane Photos, Airline News, Planespotting Guides
Turns out the bridge goes nowhere...
.. to make friends and memories. Its a shame he and the other unlucky ones aboard that plane didn't have a chance to say a few words to their loved ones before their end. May their souls rest in peace. Condolences to their families.
We can only hope you have found the tube meant for you.
One that hath name thou can not otter
Don't you think it's a bit early for jokes?
Slashdot has really gone down the tubes these days.
Just remember, you're an asshole and will probably always be an asshole. Maybe someday you will also be old, and there will be things that are new to you, and hopefully the new generation will heap the same kinds of derision on you.
According to http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1419, Sean O'Keefe (and his son) both survived the crash, though they are "...banged up". This, per a family source.
Never underestimate the potential of Human stupidity. -Heinlein
Sean and his son Jonathon are reported banged up but okay.
http://nasawatch.com/archives/2010/08/sean-okeefe-and.html
Shortly after being elected to his second full term in 1978, he was aboard a private jet that went down at Anchorage International Airport, killing his first wife, Ann.
Big Ted
Big Ted
Every morning at the senate, you could see him arrive.
He stood 5 foot 6, weighed 145.
Kind of broad at the hips and narrow of mind.
And everybody knew you had to pay to play with Big Ted.
Big Ted
Big Ted
Big Bad Ted
Sen. Tubes: 1 packets transmitted, 0 received, 100% packet loss
%
My heartfelt sympathy goes out to those of us still living who held the perished ones dear.
Please correct me if I got my facts wrong.
Just remember, you're an asshole and will probably always be an asshole. Maybe someday you will also be old, and there will be things that are new to you, and hopefully the new generation will heap the same kinds of derision on you.
We can only hope that the next generation will not allow us to hold office so long we become totally detached from the people we represent.. That is, if we can get the last generation out of office by then.
Because you don't know any Alaska history.
Ted was pretty influential in getting the Eisenhower Administration to go along with Alaska Statehood, oh and Ted astroturfed Ike's press conferences with questions about Alaska's statehood too.
Unfortunately, since his staff didn't mail his soul until Monday, it's not going to get to where it's going until Thursday. Until then he's still technically alive.
Sendou Wave Kick!!
If only he had traveled by tube!
But really, as much as I dislike the guy, and as poor at his job as he was, if he's really dead then these comments are going to be in poor taste and my heart goes out to his family. Hopefully everyone is ok.
The plane, and the lodge it was flying to, are owned by GCI.
GCI is a large (the largest?) local cable/wireless/internet provider in Alaska.
Most likely, Ted "Series of Tubes" Stevens was prepping/being prepped for a new telecom lobbying gig; his two-year senate-lobbying exclusion window would have closed at the end of the year.
I don't want to disparage the man, not today; but I thought /. would like to know.
Those who fail to understand communication protocols, are doomed to repeat them over port 80.
"AK Senator Ted Stevens dies in a plane crash; Internet goes back to being made up of routers and fiber."
For whatever reason, it is an American custom to eulogize dead politicians essentially without regard for quality. I'm not sure why.
Farewell sir, may your journey onward be clogless in a big truck.
life is a tragedy to those who feel, and a comedy to those who think
I'm not sad because these particular guys died. I'm sad because my first thought when I heard that some former lawmakers and corporate executives died is, "Good, probably served them right."
I guess this says a lot about me, but I'm afraid it says even more about the overall state of our country.
Or you could stop worrying about your karma on a news site.
His part in the destruction of American politics for personal gain should be overlooked, after all he died and is now a saint.
Perhaps because, though he was a dipshit, he was a) human and b) may not have actively revelled in his own evil. So it seems kind of odd to be all happy that he's dead. Personally, I won't miss the guy, but I'm also not really going to say 'Good riddance.' Something about the latter is a little cold blooded for my tastes.
words, words, words, lemur, words, words words
I guess this says a lot about me, but I'm afraid it says even more about the overall state of our country.
Not really. Business owners are the same as they have always been, there are a few bad ones but a lot of decent executives simply trying to make the company work better.
Basically you have been brainwashed into thinking any executive is evil, even though you never heard the name of a single company. You have started to wake up, think long and hard about why your first thought was that it was good any given company executive should perish. You can change your preconceptions.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Civility has long since gone down the tubes, as so many comments here demonstrate. A guy makes an analogy that isn't entirely congruent with the more popular analogy. Somebody with a job that encompasses interacting with people from every walk of life is criticised for failing to be an expert in our particular walk of life. His opinions were, I assume, not in line with the majority of Slashdotters regarding some issue pertaining to the Internet. Do we even know what his opinions are, or do we just know that he was a stupid poo-poo head becasue all the other kindergardners called him that?
I feel ashamed to have anything to do with this site on a day like today.
RIP Sen. Stevens, and GWS to those who survived.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
For whatever reason, it is an American custom to eulogize dead politicians essentially without regard for quality. I'm not sure why.
It is American custom to regret needless death, even if you don't agree with, or like, the victims.
This is slashdot. We clog tubes. This unfortunately appears to have clogged the news in both directions... at least until the truck finally delivered the news.
Would you find it as hilarious if Maxine Waters died and someone posted "GOOD RIDDANCE?"
I'm a Libertarian, you insensitive clod! They can both die!
That is all.
It is American custom to regret needless death, even if you don't agree with, or like, the victims.
... as long as they're famous and/or rich. Otherwise, whatever.
Switch back to Slashdot's D1 system.
I mean for one, the "series of tubes" thing just sounds funny. It was not an eloquent way of putting it. Second, it is a rather large oversimplification. Ok I'm fine with it for children since you are trying to really simplify it, but it is a bad way to describe it overall. The relationship between my plumbing (an actual series of tubes) and my net connection is tenuous at best despite the Internet connection begin called a "pipe" in some contexts.
However the biggest reason was because from the entire explanation, it is clear he has no idea what the fuck he is talking about. What he said was:
"Ten movies streaming across that, that Internet, and what happens to your own personal Internet? I just the other day got...an Internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday. I got it yesterday [Tuesday]. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the Internet commercially.
[...] They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something that you just dump something on. It's not a big truck. It's a series of tubes. And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled and if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material."
It is clear the man understands nothing about the net. More or less he's bitching that has staffer sent him an e-mail which he calls "an Internet", and it was delayed for some reason. That he blames on people watching movies online. The amount of shit incorrect about that is just legendary.
Had it been said as part of a competent explanation, it probably wouldn't have been picked up on. However his halting, improper explanation made it seem that he probably really did think of the Internet as being just like a sewer system, which is not at all correct.
We all die, so __only__ the loss by death of the good is cause for mourning.
GOOD FUCKING RIDDANCE.
"This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
Actually, we all deserve to die and we're going to get what we deserve.
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.
b) may not have actively revelled in his own evil.
I hope you don't mean the "evil" that he was completely exonerated of.
He was railroaded for political gain, and that's it.
Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
the guy's dead, show some sensitivity
hating his politics should not be about forgetting your humanity. then perhaps you are worse than whatever you ridicule about ted stevens
I disagree. Do you show the same regard for people like Hitler? Mussolini? Stalin? No? Where's YOUR humanity? Granted Ted Stevens isn't as close to evil as those people, but he certainly did his part to increase the idiocy of congress as a whole.
Ted Stevens was aboard a small plane with eight others that crashed in remote southwest Alaska Monday night.
So, the eight others that traveled with Ted Stevens did crash. Since there are reports that he died, it seems likely that he crashed too, bringing the total up to nine.
Two things:
1) Most people have no positive connection to this guy, at all. They don't know him and don't care about him. Don't pretend like you care about every person who dies, if you did you'd be in a continual state of massive grief. To the extent he touched their lives it was to try and restrict Internet access and through criminally misappropriating tax dollars. Why the hell should they feel bad about his passing? Yes, he was a person and I'm sure had redeeming qualities and people who cared about him. Nobody here knew him in that context.
2) Humour is a great way of coping with disaster. If you can't see that, it is because you are too damn uptight. Joking about things is a way of integrating bad things in to life and moving on.
So knock it the fuck off. I hate the veneration of the dead, where suddenly because someone has died nobody can make fun of them anymore, nobody can talk about them as a real human anymore. They have to be sainted, remembered in an idealized fashion. I hope when I die, if there's anyone around that gives a shit, they talk about me as I really was, remember my flaws, have some laughs at my expense. I hope they don't turn me in to some saint I'm not and refuse to say anything about me that isn't praise. It isn't that way when I'm alive, when I actually care what is being said about me, why should it change when I die?
Aside from a few universally hated people like Hitler, we have a tendency to focus on the good in people when they die. I think there are a couple of reasons why we do this:
a.) Except in the case of the universally reviled, we tend to think of people when they die as more...human, and not so much as whatever caricature of them we've built up in our minds over the years. Death is the ultimate equalizer. When someone dies, it's easier to think of them as having been just like us, with all of our foibles and vulnerabilities, and it becomes easier to forget, or at least minimize, their bad qualities.
b.) In most cases, people leave behind mourners when they die, and it's seen as in poor taste to be overtly negative about the dead and risk causing further grief to people who are already grieving. This is probably related to the whole idea of the sins of the father not being visited upon the sons.
c.) In the immediate aftermath of a person's death, criticism of them really serves no purpose. After all, they're dead, and are therefore presumably not actively doing anything to harm anyone anymore. After the initial shock wears off, and we begin to think of that person's place in history, we tend to start criticizing again. However, even then the criticism tends to be more tempered than it likely was when they were alive.
Having said all that, I think people do tend to get unnecessarily sensitive about these things after the death of a public figure. It's to be expected after a death of this type that people are going to make jokes and snide remarks, especially while cloaked in the pseudo (or sometimes total) anonymity of the Internet. Criticizing that or seeking to stop it in any way is pointless.
Think of it this way: 1) they are dead, so they can no longer continue their idiotic policies. Therefore, there is no use continuing to sling vitriol. Bury your animosity with the dead. 2) because like them or not, they are people, and therefore they have family members that (presumably) love them despite their flaws. Out of respect for their survivors, put on a kind face.
IMHO, this is a good thing, and brings out the best in people. I really don't see the reason why people have to continue to hate so much on someone simply because they disagreed with their political stance while they were alive.*
*Yes, I live in Alaska, and no, I did not vote for Stevens since...I don't remember how long, but it's been well over a decade. I felt he was corrupt and needed to be thrown out, but (too) many of my peers disagreed with me until the last election.
MCSE? No, sir...I don't do Windows. Yes, I am an idealist. What's your point?
It's got aquatic landing gear capability, can carry a large payload, and it works as long as it's well maintained. It's Alaska so you need the older aircraft with those specifications. Given that this one was owned by a company that deals with power or cable in the state they need something that can be converted from passenger to cargo, and land on water in remote areas.
Old plane models are perfectly fine if they are well maintained, why else do you still see WWII fighters still flying?
As for this crash it could have been a mechanical failure, but given the fact weather prevented rescue for so long it may be weather related.
Dont you mean...
It is American custom to regret needless American death, even if you don't agree with, or like, the victims.
I'm here for the commentary, not news.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
Heh really? You don't understand why? Because once they are dead, they can do nothing. All the people who supported the guy are now on 'your side', even if just for a moment, and the dead guy himself can't stand in your way. Just like how all the Republicans honor Reagan while pushing an agenda that doesn't look anything like what Reagan would have done. You can say anything you want, and he can't object. It's the perfect opportunity for demagoguery.
Plus it's poor style to kick a man when he's down. You don't get much downer than dead.
Qxe4
Remember Mary Schiavo voicing concerns for ValueJet safety, and Stevens tell her to STFU and stop disparaging a corporation ?
Politics aside, if the Internet was being compared with pneumatic tubes in the pre-email era, then it actually seems like a fairly sound analogy to me. Could someone please explain what I'm missing here?
I'm pretty sure that if someone you knew died you'd be upset about it.
I probably wouldn't know them, so I wouldn't be particularly upset, as I probably wouldn't even know they were dead.
Famous people are people that a lot of people know. Lot's of people find out that they are dead and feel sorry for the loss of life.
Unless of course you're just an uncaring bastard.
Is 1563649 a prime number?
... or inspire a debate on the true meaning of "ironic" but having the head of a leading aerospace firm and the former head of NASA die on an airplane seems kind of, well, ironic.
It would seem that you are not aware that Sean O'Keefe survived the crash.
His many levels of experience in Aviation gave him the ability to take less damage from plane crashes. Alternatively, it may just be that I've played too many RPGs.
The guy died in a plane paid for by Alaska's largest telcom, who he had helped to defeat a net neutrality amendment when he was a Senator (this was his famous "series of tubes" speech, whose nasty purpose people tend to forget because of its general silliness). And, had he have lived, he would have *continued* to help them fight net neutrality. So it's not like his evil crap was done with.
One way or another, he would have been doing bad shit until the day he died (and he was). So with someone like that, I don't think it's mean-spirited to wish that day comes sooner rather than later.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
What do you know. All this time I thought you didn't have a shift key on your keyboard.
As far as the rant goes, why should we think any better of him now that he is dead then we did when he was still alive? Other than the fact that he can do us no further harm.
Respect is earned.
RESPECT.
IS.
EARNED.
(or not, as the case may be)
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
It is American custom to regret needless death, even if you don't agree with, or like, the victims.
... as long as they're famous and/or rich. Otherwise, whatever.
That's not true. Non-famous rich people don't get that treatment.
Furthermore, the famous people being overly honored is a function more of how many people have heard of famous people than celebrity worship. If a non-famous co-worker dies, we eulogize them. It's not national news for obvious reasons.
Not to defend American culture on slashdot or anything that would risk making me stand out from the cool kids, but I think this also goes on pretty much everywhere. People's natural tenancy is to honor the dead and remember them fondly. Famous people are by definition people that a lot of people know about, so when they die, of course there's more people doing that.
Even ALL CAPS can't make that vile criminal worthy of any more dignity in death than he was in life.
We have never had the mythical world of respect that you allude to, and we never will. For reference, read the newspapers of 50 years ago. Or 100. Or 150. Or 200. The "uncivil" argument is a canard sometimes thrown around by hypocrites to fool idiots.
I'll take an honest man over a polite one any day of the week, and twice on Sunday.
In comparison with you, good sir, who actually tried to paint a critical slashdot poster as a bigger "problem for the country" than one of America's most notoriously corrupt senators.
This is such a breathtaking demonstration of lack of clarity in public discourse that I can actually make a case that it is, in fact, YOU
THAT
ARE
THE
PROBLEM
WITH
THIS
COUNTRY.
(CAPS for demonstration purposes, so the poster can see how silly the textual shouting thing is, and how utterly irrelevant it is to the point being made.)
Tired of Political Trolls? Opt Out!
Aside from a few universally hated people like Hitler, we have a tendency to focus on the good in people when they die. ...
Actually one of the biggest eye-opening shocks of my life was in the 70's when I was an American student in Germany living with a German family. They were quite adamant that Hitler had done Germany a lot of good throughout much of of his tenure as their leader.
Remember these were people who had lived through the economic nightmare there after WW-I, then the 30's and 40's. They said Hitler had brought them out of the economic mess, put food on their table, made jobs available etc. etc. And all that is true for the most part.
We tend to focus on the seriously bad things he did... like I said it was a massive shock to me at that time, having been taught only a subset of the entire set of historical events.
Do NOT view this as me agreeing with their viewpoint, merely pointing out that it existed, and in some sad forms still exists.
Stupidity... has a habit of getting its way.
1) US politics has NEVER had dignity. We have had founding fathers duel with pistols. We have had a politician beaten to within an inch of ttheir life ON THE FLOOR OF THE SENATE. Dignity my ass.
2) This man did evil. Yes, I use the word intentionally. He abused power granted to him for his own gain and that of others around him, regardless of the harm he was doing to others. Just because he is dead, does not redeem him in my eyes. He still hurt every single US citizen in some way or another. 300 million paper cuts is still a lot of pain and suffering.
3) I dont know his family. I dont feel happy that they are hurting, but I do feel happy that this man can no longer harm this country.
You mean the judge with entrenched republican roots that got the prosecutors tossed out on baseless rumor and then set aside the verdict?
Please, he was guilty.
"Motion of The United States To Set Aside The Verdict And Dismiss The Indictment With Prejudice"
is not the same as exonerated.
Contrary to what he claims, we was found guilty.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Well. I'll agree that 'tubes' may be too simplified an explanation of the internet, even for children...
But you have to remember, this man was used to talking to Senators
I'm a dreamer, the world is my playpen. But hey, I'm a serious person, I can't dream all the time.
YOU. RESPECT. THE. RECENTLY. DEPARTED.
RESPECT. MUST. BE. EARNED.
It is not given freely to anyone, I don't care how or when they depart this world.
Everyone and everything dies. All that's left is their legacy of their actions. Judge a person on those actions, nothing else, and expect to be judged on yours.
"Geekoid", Nice try at repeating a lie and then spinning it. But you're lying flat out.
Try the truth per the Washington Post:
Judge Orders Probe of Attorneys in Stevens Case; Prosecutor Misconduct Alleged In Former Senator's Trial
Pretty much he was railroaded by an overzealous and lying Bush Administration US Justice Department (and corrected by the Obama Administration, nice irony). Righty or Lefty, everyone deserves a fair trial. Get that into your overly-partisan thick head. You on the left are as bad as the rightist when it comes to hating your political enemies so much you'd screw up our justice system to punish them whether they deserved it or not -- and lying and smearing people in public without regard to the truth. Liars like you, left and right, are so damnably stupid they think they can get away with it. There was serious prosecutor misconduct, not "baseless rumor" - nice try but you lied and are busted. See the part in italics in the quote above? It was the federal prosecutors (under Holder/Obama) that asked the conviction to be overturned (RTFA linked), not the judge. Care to retract your post as the lie that it is?
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo! http://goo.gl/J9bkO
It is American custom to regret needless death, even if you don't agree with, or like, the victims.
Unless they're Iraqi or Afghani women, children, and other innocent victims in the way of glorious American imperialist liberators creating puppet regimes that support Amerika.
Unless of course you're just an uncaring bastard.
Phew. Up until now I wasn't sure how I fit into all this.
And don't forget the undisputed fact that he did receive unreported income from a political supporter. The only things disputed are whether the income influenced (or was given to influence) Ted Steven's votes and whether he was aware that there was a funneling of money to him, as he didn't report it correctly on disclosure forms or IRS forms and such. But there was nobody that I saw (aside from some entertainers who run talk shows or opinion pieces on TV who people confuse with news reporters) that actually claimed that he wasn't given funds improperly. Not his own people, and not those that gave it to him.
I think he was purposefully railroaded. I originally thought they were going to push it through for a quick acquittal before the election, then found out that they convicted him, so I thought he was being railroaded to get him out, then he got the verdict set aside the next time it went in front of a judge. It was improper on many levels, so why was it done that way, and what political pressure was laid to get that outcome? I don't know enough about the details to figure it out, and it completely disappeared from interest when one of the most powerful men in the country was ousted in a few short weeks from an improper court action. He'd never have been voted out if the verdict was set aside before the election or the conviction after, so there was some specific timing to the actions. But why and who wanted that is beyond me. But to claim that so much was done against one of the most powerful people in the country without any reason behind it at all seems a little silly.
Learn to love Alaska
the guy was not adolf hitler,
So what if he was? You say that they should be revered, not punished. So why not "adolf"? At what level of evil do you draw the line? And since you imply that line exists because of the differentiation between him and someone else, how can you be sure that he isn't on the other side of that line?
so listen up, asshole: you respect the recently departed
They are dead. What do they care? I met the man. I shook his hand. I had a conversation with his wife. What right to you have to tell me what I can and can't say about him? Have you met him? I'm certainly not qualified for a eulogy, but to ban all talking is silly.
Besides, don't you know your Shakespeare? "The evil men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones." It's not a new idea.
Learn to love Alaska
"...The guy died in a plane paid for by Alaska's largest telcom..."
In addition, he was in the company of Jim Morhard, a "connections" man from Alexandria. This person openly sells his influence on Capitol Hill to all with money (enough money, I should say). His company website is a pretty interesting read.
http://www.morhard.us/about.asp
Pay close attention to the wording of the "Why choose Morhard & Associates to serve you?" section at the bottom. Scary shit when you think about it. This is a private entity claiming "We know how to analyze legislation and understand its impacts. We are expert drafters of legislation." Since when do private entities draft legislation?
This guy and Stevie were backroom-dealers if there ever was one, and GCI was footing the "expenses".
Just fucking lovely. Shame about the kids though.
Because once they are dead, they can do nothing.
They can still vote in some jurisdictions if your campaign manager knows some people.