In July of 1969, Rocky Marciano participated in the filming of the fantasy, The Superfight: Marciano vs. Ali. The two boxers were filmed sparring, then the film was edited to match a computer simulation of a hypothetical fight between them, each in their prime. The bout was aired on Tuesday, January 20, 1970. Marciano won by KO in 13.


On August 31, 1969,the eve of his 46th birthday, Marciano was a passenger in a small private plane, a Cessna 172 headed to Des Moines, Iowa. It was night, and bad weather set in. The pilot, who was not certified to fly in such dangerous conditions, tried to set the plane down at a small airfield outside Newton, Iowa, but hit a tree two miles short of the runway. The plane was out of gas as well. Rocky, the young pilot, and another passenger (alleged Iowa mob boss Louis Fratto's son) were killed on impact. He is buried in a crypt at Forest Lawn Memorial Cemetery in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. His wife, who died five years after him at the age of 46, is entombed next to him. His father died in March 1973, his mother died in early January 1986

Drivin' the Driscoll

The world's widest bridge - 15 travel lanes plus six shoulder lanes - is now the Driscoll Bridge carrying the Garden State Parkway over the shipping channel of the Raritan River in Perth Amboy NJ, 42km (26mi) southwest of Central Park in Manhattan. The bridge is located at the transition point between the beach resorts and developing areas of the Jersey Shore and the established suburbs and industrial areas of northern New Jersey.

Wider than the GWB and Verrazano
Until Driscoll, the world's widest - as measured by number of lanes - was the George Washington Bridge operated by the PANYNJ with 14 lanes. The next widest in the US is the Tribrough Authority's Verrazano Narrows Bridge of 12 travel lanes, no shoulder lanes. Third is the Bay Bridge in San Francisco of ten lanes. All these are double decked (the east span of the Bay bridge is side by side) and all are toll financed. The new Wilson Bridge presently under construction to carry the Capital Beltway over the Potomac River near Alexandria VA will be 12 travel lanes plus eight shoulder lanes - financed with taxes, thanks to the special indulgence of the DC area by Uncle Sam.

Dimensions
The Garden State Parkway's $220m project widens the Driscoll Bridge from 12 to 15 lanes and adds six shoulder lanes. All lanes are 11 feet in width. 230k veh/day presently use the bridge but this is expected to surpass 300k in the future as the Jersey Shore continues to develop. Northbound has eight travel lanes, one more than southbound because of the major exits just north of the bridge to I-287 and the Turnpike proper. The eight lanes northbound are organized into two roadways (or carriageways) of four travel lanes each and shoulder lanes each side, occupying all of the existing bridge.

The eastern roadway northbound will serve four interchanges within 10km (6mi) while the other or central roadway northbound will serve traffic continuing on the Parkway beyond the interchanges. Southbound, where interchanges beyond the bridge are smaller and further off, there is a single seven lane roadway with shoulder lanes each side.

The new span has a deck 28.3m (93ft) wide and 1,335m (4379ft) long of 27 steel plate girder spans rising to provide a navigation channel clearance under of 41m (135ft). The navigation span is 76m (250ft) long.

The existing bridge was itself built in two stages - the first of 18.3m (60ft) opened with the Parkway in 1955 and was striped for 2x2 lanes plus shoulders. In 1957 traffic caused it to be restriped to 2x3 lanes of 3m (10ft) each, no shoulder at all. In 1972 a second similar span was built alongside to bring the bridge deck to 39.6m (130ft) and each side was restriped to 5 lanes with righthand shoulder on each. In the early 1980s the shoulders were eliminated and the bridge made 6 lanes each direction, no shoulder.

Driscoll - New Jersey's great builder
The Driscoll Bridge is named after Alfred E Driscoll (1902-1975), the remarkable Jersey governor who used tolling to finance construction of almost the full length of both the Garden State Parkway and the New Jersey Turnpike - 454km (282mi) of "superhighway" as they called it then - within two terms of office half a century ago (1947-54). Driscoll was an urban planner, and a Republican state senator before running for office championing the tollroads.

Finally! Canadians talk about their health care

After listening to months of right-wing idiotic exaggerations and outright lies about their health care system, Canadians answer back!




Here's a glimpse of Canada, 'The Evil Empire', as their school children see it: Cut and paste the URL below into your address bar.

https://thefourcornersclassroom.wikispaces.com/Group+27+-+Pre-Project

Ermey Says He�ll 'Square Away' Birthers

August 21, 2009
Military.com|by Bryant Jordan

Troops challenging the legitimacy of President Barack Obama as commander-in-chief -- including at least one who is fighting deployment -- should take heed: Gunnery Sgt. Hartman wants to know your "major malfunction."

R. Lee Ermey, the Marine-turned-actor whose role as drill instructor Gunny Hartman in the late Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" has all but placed the Vietnam veteran in the pantheon of Marine heroes alongside "Chesty" Puller, Smedley Butler and Dan Daly, isn't buying anyone's political objector status.

"I haven't heard about those guys," Ermey told Military.com during an Aug. 21 interview. "If I do run across them though, trust me, I'll square them away."

Two GIs deployed to Iraq have insisted that Obama isn't a legal citizen while another Soldier, Maj. Stefan Cook, has been waging a court fight � first in Georgia, then Florida � to force the president to produce a birth certificate that will satisfy his objections.

The cases are the first known instances of some troops joining what has become known as the "birther" movement, referring to Americans who doubt whether Obama is technically qualified to be president based on the absence of a "long form" birth certificate that documents where he was born.

Cook initially volunteered for deployment, but later refused the orders on grounds that Obama cannot deploy him because he is not legally president. The 64-year-old Ermey, longtime host of the History Channel's "Mail Call," in which he answered letter-writer's questions about the military, operations and weapons, just launched a new show on the network in July. "Lock 'N Load with R. Lee Ermey" will give viewers a more in-depth look at military weaponry.

With Ermey's unabashed support and praise of American troops and his military-related screen career, it might be easy to mistake him for a zealous right-winger.

But Ermey rejects party affiliation or any extreme political leanings, as he explained in an interview with writer/blogger Paul McCormack a few years ago.

"I'm an Independent. I'm not a Republican, I'm not a Democrat," he said at the time. "I'm a middle-of-the-road guy, and I call on logic and common sense, okay?"

Ermey told McCormack that while he voted for George Bush in 2004, he would be just as supportive of John Kerry had he won the presidency, "and I wish more people would be like that."

Of Obama, Ermey said he was "a little wary at first" on how he would handle the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not now, though.

"I think our president is doing a commendable job," he said. "He picked up where George Bush left off. � We're continuing to take care of the terrorist situation."

Ermey said the terrorists have won a small victory since he has to "be strip-searched" every time he goes through an airport, and "you can't let them win any more than they already have."

Ermey found fame after playing Gunny Hartman in Kubrick's 1987 "Full Metal Jacket." Though brought onto the set as a technical advisor, he impressed director Kubrick with his steel-tough portrayal of Hartman, highlighted by a machine-gun like delivery of obscenity-laced lines that was as realistic as it was surreal.

But Ermey told Military.com that there is no truth to the story that he barked an order at Kubrick and so took him by surprise that the director complied before realizing what he had done.

"No," he laughed. "Stanley and I got along very good, very well."
Watch Gunny in his prime; click the headline. But beware, the language is definitely 'R' rated