Word: mile
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...sailing orders are sealed. Only the skipper. Commander Michael Murtagh, 40, and his executive officer, Lieut. Commander Andy Anderson, 33, know where Dauntless is headed. On this patrol, Murtagh's destination is the 135-mile-wide Yucatan Channel off Mexico's southeast coast. That is where, the captain has been told, he has the best opportunity to intercept a large shipment of U.S.-bound marijuana. Once past the channel, a smuggler has an excellent chance of reaching Florida or Louisiana, whose labyrinthine coastal waterways provide concealment for off-loading the precious cargo into smaller, speedier boats known...
...Bingo," says Murtagh. Looking through his own binoculars he finds the target, a 68-ft.-long shrimper. It is within Mexico's twelve-mile boundary waters, so Dauntless cannot take up pursuit without authorization from the Coast Guard's 7th District, headquartered in Miami. Murtagh breaks radio silence to ask permission and mutters, "John Paul Jones didn't have to put up with all of this...
They can dive to crushing depths of half a mile or more, deeper than any other air-breathing mammal. These descendants of Moby Dick are still relentlessly hunted for the waxy spermaceti and exceptionally fine oil found in their square snouts, and for an intestinal secretion called ambergris, used in making perfume. They have become an endangered species...
When the big Boeing and its high-priced hitchhiker landed on the Kennedy Space Center's new three-mile-long shuttle runway, there was none of the hoopla that marked the launch. Only 3,000 people, mostly NASA employees and their families, were on hand to greet the space voyager. No one seemed to miss the attention. As a spokesman explained, "This is routine. It's going to be coming back here many, many times...
...incurred during lift-off by ice and insulation that broke free of the shuttle's giant external fuel tank, which contained supercold liquid oxygen and hydrogen. Another puzzle is why the bulky, swept-winged "bird" showed greater lift than expected on descent, which carried it half a mile beyond its intended landing spot at Edwards Air Force Base in California. A small glitch was caused by the failure of the shuttle's zero-g toilet, an air-blown device that somehow became plugged up during the flight. Says NASA's Aaron Cohen...