Chiefs Pro Bowl player Tony Gonzalez plays a hero’s role away from the football field. » What he did

(TrendHunter.com) The Tour de France 2008 has kicked off, and thanks to Google Street View, you can be front and centre to take in the thrilling bike races. The tech twist on the sporting event is ground breaking, and…

Nicole Kidman and country star Keith Urban are proud parents of a baby girl. » Her name, other details

AP - In a break with tradition, Barack Obama will accept the Democratic presidential nomination at Invesco Field at Mile High, a 76,000-seat stadium, rather than at the site of the party’s national convention across town.

Democrats hoping to win elections this fall by racing to the center should sit down and have a conversation with Buzz Aldrin.

The second man to set foot on the moon on Apollo 11 is also one of NASA’s leading authorities on the subject of rendezvous in space. This was a key element to completing the task of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth, and also a prerequisite for assembling and docking with the International Space Station.

Buzz, by the way, was a super geek on this subject. According to fellow moon dweller Alan Bean, he was not the kind of guy you wanted to hang with at a party. While you may have been interested in the hottie across the room, all he wanted to talk about was rendezvous. But Aldrin’s obsession was a virtue that transcended the image of the party-going, jet-setting astronaut of the 60’s. Rendezvous was everything because it was the only way that NASA could land men on the moon and get them home by the end of the decade, as JFK had challenged. The moment when that challenge was finally met was one that changed the world forever.

So lets’ geek out for a moment. In order to rendezvous with another craft in space, you can’t just fly directly to it, not in zero gravity. That will exhaust all of your fuel and you won’t be able to get home. What you have to do is determine the direction your target is going and the height of its orbit. Then you launch your craft in the same direction, but at a slightly higher orbit to allow the target to catch up (or a lower orbit to catch up to the target). Then, through a series of very small and precise maneuvers, using less propellant, you intercept the target and fly alongside it at a speed of around 20,000 mph. Then you link up. Mission accomplished. But it must be done exactly right or the mission fails.

So what does this have to do with winning elections? To win an election decisively, you need to capture the center vote, but if you race straight to it you run the risk of losing your base. But what if you rendezvoused with it? Let’s say you’re Barack Obama. Your campaign is fueled by your political capital, which you have lots of having won the primary. But you risk exhausting most of this capital by moving as quickly as possible to the center. This is an especially big risk now because BushCo has managed to move the center so far to the right. But after seven years of disaster, scandal and general embarrassment, the center is now beginning to shift back to the left at a moderate speed and a low orbit. The national movement that Obama has created has launched his campaign to a higher altitude than the conventional wisdom of the swinging center. So what he needs to do is remain at this altitude, stay on message, keep making sense and let the center catch up with him. As it draws nearer, a series of subtle but sincere overtures to the center and the right will put both forces on the same course at the same speed and altitude.

Then you dock with them. At that point, history is made and the world is changed. Then you head home and land safely on the porch of the White House.

NANTES, France (AP) — Samuel Dumoulin of France won the third stage of the Tour de France on Monday while countryman Romain Feillu finished third to claim the yellow jersey. Feillu was just beaten to the line and took the overall lead from Alejandro Valverde, the Spaniard who led since winning Saturday’s first stage. William Frischkorn of the United States finished second, a fraction ahead of Feillu. Dumoulin, who had to pull out of the 2004 Tour after crashing into a dog, led a small group of sprinters to the line. “I have always dreamed of winning a stage,” Dumoulin said. “I have felt good since the start of the year.” As the race entered the last mile, Dumoulin briefly pulled ahead but Feillu passed him. Dumoulin then accelerated and moved in front again about 300 yards from the line. Feillu, who rides for Agritubel, is followed in the overall standings by Italy’s Paolo Longo Borghini, who finished the stage in fourth place and is 35 seconds behind. Frischkorn, of the Garmin Chipotle team, is 1 minute, 42 seconds back in third and Valverde is 1:45 behind in fourth. Valverde, however, is expected to win that time back in Tuesday’s time trial, the first real test for the Tour contenders. Riders were briefly delayed by a protest 36 miles from the finish. It was not immediately clear what it was about, although one banner featured a slogan about French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The banner-waving protesters stopped the front four riders but moved aside after talking with Tour director Christian Prudhomme. Spanish rider Angel Gomez needed roadside treatment after crashing with less than 20 miles left. He was taken away on a stretcher, and the extent of his injuries were not immediately known. Matthieu Sprick of France and Nicki Sorensen of Denmark were part of the spill, but both riders got up and did not appear hurt.

The nation’s most-chronically delayed flight is Southwest Flight 2709, according to data released this morning in the federal Air Travel Consumer Report (page 14). Southwest’s Houston Hobby-to-San Diego flight was late all 17 times it operated in May, the latest…

Will Smith was the box office hero, once again, this 4th of July, as the actor’s new flick, Hancock, earned $107.3 million since its opening last Tuesday.

This is my boy Will’s eighth movie to open at No. 1 — not to mention his fifth movie to debut at No. 1 over the Independence Day holiday. He is, without a doubt, box-office platinum.

The reviews for the movie weren’t so great, but neither was the weather (at least not here on the East Coast), which could have accounted for the amount of people who chose to hit the theaters instead of the beach. Regardless, you can be pretty sure that Big Willie will always have a party to attend on America’s birthday — and that he’s sure to bring the fireworks, wherever said fiesta may be.

AFP - Egypt called in Iran’s envoy in Cairo on Monday to lodge a formal protest over the airing in the Islamic republic of a documentary about the 1981 assassination of president Anwar Sadat.

NANTES, France - In a big day for French cycling, Samuel Dumoulin won the third stage of the Tour de France on Monday while countryman Romain Feillu finished third to claim the yellow jersey. “It’s phenomenal,” said Dumoulin, who rides for the French-owned Cofidis team. “I have waited for a win like that for so long.”