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the Pentagon's "lunatic fringe" technology unit, DARPA.<br><br><<Space writer's mystery death<br>[Michael A. Dornheim, dead at 51]<br><br>Michael A. Dornheim, who spent 22 years covering the super-secret multi-billion-dollar aerospace industry in California, vanished on June 3 after having dinner with friends.<br><br>On Monday, the journalist was found dead at the bottom of a ravine inside his crushed Honda Accord. Police had been searching for Dornheim since his mysterious disappearance a week earlier. Dornheim met friends at the Saddle Peak Lodge the night of June 3, a rustic restaurant in the mountains above Malibu.<br><br>"A friend said that Mr. Dornheim was planning to take the back road home, Cold Canyon to Mulholland Highway to the 101 Freeway," the Los Angeles Police Department announced on its website last week.<br><br>From the 101, it was a quick drive to his home in nearby Westlake. But within minutes of leaving the restaurant, his car plunged over a cliff and crashed 500 feet below -- off the winding Piuma Road, which means Dornheim's car was going in exactly the wrong direction -- into Carbon Canyon toward Malibu Beach -- than he'd announced to his friends moments earlier.<br><br>Beyond the mystery of why Dornheim's car crashed on a road he had no intention of driving on, police are baffled by the crash itself.<br><br>California Highway Patrol Officer Leland Tong said he and his fellow officers were "scratching their heads" over how the editor's car got in the ravine at all.<br><br>"He navigated the turns just fine, and then, in a straightaway, for whatever reason, he went off the cliff," Tang told the Los Angeles Times.<br><br>"Not a rock was disturbed. Not even the brush was disturbed."<br><br>As for how the crash scene was missed for more than a week -- a helicopter pilot finally spotted the Honda on Monday -- the CHP says there was nothing to indicate a car had gone off the road beyond "a slight rubber scuff mark on one of the guardrails," the Times reported.<br><br>Carbon Canyon winds through the rugged Santa Monica Mountains, but it's also a busy road lined with the multi-million-dollar estates of Hollywood celebrities.<br><br>Dornheim's Honda is jammed so tight at the bottom of the ravine that cops are just going to leave it there; they say it's too heavy for their helicopter to lift it out.<br><br>Billion-Dollar Secrets<br><br>Michael Dornheim, 51, was the acclaimed West Coast editor of Aviation Week, the industry's bible.<br><br>His last cover story for the aerospace journal was a June 5 article on the Pentagon's "lunatic fringe" technology unit, DARPA, and its new Orbital Express space mission. The roving robotic spacecraft will reportedly repair and refuel Defense Department satellites while in orbit.<br><br>In recent years, Dornheim has covered DARPA taking over the X-37 space plane program from NASA and the remarkable story of Burt Rutan's SpaceShip One. He even traveled with the UFO hunters outside Area 51 in Nevada.<br><br>An engineer and private pilot, Dornheim used his expertise and skills to get outrageous scoops, such as the time he rented a single-engine plane in order to photograph the Stealth Bomber from angles the Pentagon attempted to block at the B-2's limited unveiling for aerospace reporters in 1988.<br><br>"Dornheim, who served as the magazine's senior engineering editor, was renowned for the depth of technical understanding his articles displayed on aeronautics, propulsion, avionics, systems engineering and safety," Aviation Week & Space Technology reported in Dornheim's obituary. "In addition to his work for the magazine, he often was called on to explain developments in aviation and space on television."<br><br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.sploid.com/news/2006/06/cops_baffled_by.php">www.sploid.com/news/2006/...led_by.php</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>Was Dornheim mentioned as a source in "The Hunt For Zero Point"? <br><br>Things are not getting curiouser and curiouser...the curiouser are getting deader.<br><br>Fuck the murdering fascist MIC motherfuckers and their oh so precious to-murder-for fucking secrets. <p></p><i></i>

<!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em>The Hunt For Zero Point</em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END-->? No; his name doesn't appear. Nick Cook notes that four sources were deliberately blurred: "Ameilia Lopez," "Lawrence Cross," "Daniella Abelman" and the most important, "Dr Dan Marckus."<br><br>Thanks very much for posting this. <p></p><i></i>

dan markus, for instance?<br><br>first it was microbiologists -- now aerospace.<br><br>losing it on a straightaway on 101? maaaaybe could have been an animal jumping out in front of the car. <br><br>who was the guy who was recently found dead in his sailboat? near DC... ? <p></p><i></i>

Hey Nashvillebrook. <br><br><!--EZCODE QUOTE START--><blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Sailboat in Chesapeake Bay<br>Sunday, June 11, 2006<br><br>        <br>PHOTOS<br>                        <br>Click image to enlarge<br>BALTIMORE — Rescue crews searched the Chesapeake Bay on Sunday for a prominent publisher and former diplomat whose sailboat was found sitting on the water with its engine running.<br><br>Philip Merrill, 72, an experienced sailor, had been sailing alone in breezy weather Saturday, said Tom Marquardt, executive editor of The [Annapolis] Capital, one of seven periodicals Merrill publishes.<br><br>Skies were clear with winds gusting up to 25 mph — "a condition that would probably be difficult for a single sailor alone," Chaney said.<br><br>Two boaters found Merrill's boat near Plum Point, about 25 miles south of Annapolis, and called police, officials said<br><br>State and federal agencies searched 100 square miles of the bay with aircraft and boats. But rescue crews think Merrill fell overboard since his wallet was found on board and there was no damage to the boat, officials said.<br><br>"As time goes by, chances of survival are less and less," Chaney said.<br><br>Merrill "has been an avid yachtsman since he first learned to sail at age 7. He has been actively cruising the Chesapeake since 1958," his wife, Eleanor, and children said in a statement issued by Marquardt.<br><br>(Story continues below)<br><br> ADVERTISEMENTS<br>Advertise Here <br><br>"If there was anyone who could captain a boat competently alone, it was Phil. ... He just couldn't resist a sunny day with the wind at his back."<br><br>State and federal agencies joined the search. The Coast Guard sent both aircraft and boats, and was operating under the assumption that Merrill fell overboard, said Senior Chief Steve Carleton.<br><br>Merrill is chairman of the board of Annapolis-based Capital-Gazette Communications Inc., which publishes The Washingtonian magazine, The Capital and five other Maryland newspapers.<br><br>Merrill took leave from publishing in December 2002 to be president and chairman of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. His term expired in July 2005.<br><br>He served as assistant secretary-general of NATO in Brussels from 1990 to 1992 and from 1983 to 1990 he served on the Department of Defense Policy Board. From 1981 to 1983, he was counselor to the undersecretary of defense for policy. In 1988, the secretary of defense awarded him the Medal for Distinguished Service, the highest civilian honor given by the department.<br><br>Merrill has represented the United States in negotiations on the Law of the Sea Conference, the International Telecommunications Union and various disarmament and exchange agreements with the former Soviet Union. He is a former special assistant to the deputy secretary of state and has worked in the White House on national security affairs.<br><br>The college of journalism at the University of Maryland was named for him, as was the headquarters of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation — both after multimillion-dollar donations.<hr></blockquote><!--EZCODE QUOTE END--><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,199028,00.html">www.foxnews.com/story/0,2...28,00.html</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>

Cook describes "Marckus" as an eminent scientist attached to the physics department of a prestigious UK university. <br><br>"Lawrence Cross" is an "aerospace journalist from the circuit," formerly with Jane's, and a bureau chief for a rival Australian publication. Though Cook admits to deliberately fudging their identities. <p></p><i></i>

You're welcome.<br><br>I could not check my copy of "The Hunt For Zero Point" as I lost it, and so it is now the hunt for The Hunt For Zero Point.<br><br>Thanks for checking it for me. <p></p><i></i>