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Shakes on a plane aren’t all that funny to the Federal Aviation Administration. Colorado College’s ultimate frisbee team last month convinced the crew aboard a Frontier Airlines fight to let them do the “Harlem Shake.”But now that the video of their funhas gone sort-of viral, the FAA is looking into whether some safety rules may have been violated.As the college’s student-run newssite — The Catalyst — puts it:

“Something aboard a Frontier Airlines flight across the Rocky Mountain West caught the attention of federal investigators last week. Perhaps it was the passengers banging on the ceiling, walls and floor of the cabin, or maybe how most of the passengers were out of their seats, jumping up and down.

“The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating a group of Colorado College students and a Frontier flight crew for a video that was shot in the air during Flight 157 of a Airbus A320 on Feb. 15, an airline spokesperson and federal officials confirmed this week.”

According to The Associated Press, “FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer said Thursday they’re looking at what phase the flight was in during the dance in the aisles. Frontier Airlines says the seatbelt sign was off and safety measures were followed.” The flight was headed to San Diego.

The sophomore who recorded the performance, Matt Zelin, tells The Catalyst that “obviously I hope that this whole situation is solved with the FAA. … I don’t see there being any reason why this should cause any trouble. We asked the staff and they said it was safe.”

The team says it not only asked the cabin crew for permission to do the shake, but also asked the other passengers — many of whom obviously decided to get in on the fun.

If you’re not up on the Harlem Shake, the AP describes the trend this way: “In the suddenly popular YouTube videos, one person starts dancing, then the video cuts to a large group of people dancing, many in costume.”

The Catalyst, though, calls it “a fading fad.”

It’s the first time Blankenship has been publicly named as an alleged conspirator in the ongoing federal criminal investigation of the 2010 explosion at Massey’s Upper Big Branch coal mine.

The accusation is also the first public indication that Blankenship specifically is in the sights of federal prosecutors.

Blankenship’s name was not uttered by former Massey executive David Hughart as he pleaded guilty to two conspiracy counts for his role in providing advance warnings to miners underground when federal inspectors arrived on the surface for surprise safety inspections.

Ken Ward of the Charleston Gazette was in the courtroom when U.S. District Judge Irene Berger asked Hughart “to name his co-conspirators,” as Ward reports.

“Hughart said ‘the chief executive officer,'” Ward writes, which was Blankenship at the time of Hughart’s crimes.

“Finally there is a witness to Blankenship’s misdeeds who will step forward and tell what he knows,” says Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America. “Hopefully more will follow suit.”

Hughart, 54, ran a Massey subsidiary that did not include the Upper Big Branch mine but prosecutors seem to be trying to build conspiracy cases against former executives aware of allegedly illegal practices.

“Don Blankenship didn’t conspire with anybody to do anything illegal or improper,” says William Taylor, Blankenship’s attorney, in an interview with NPR. “It’s not unusual but always a little strange to see what people will say when they’re trying to get a shorter prison sentence.”

Hughart is scheduled for sentencing in June and continues to cooperate with prosecutors.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve Ruby declined to respond when asked by NPR whether Blankenship is a formal target of the federal investigation.

Prosecutors claim in court documents that Hughart participated in a conspiracy to violate mine safety laws, resulting in the kind of dangerous conditions that preceded the explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine.

Four investigations of the tragedy concluded that the corporate culture at Massey Energy put production before safety. Investigators in this and an earlier mine disaster found evidence that Blankenship kept very close tabs on coal production and delays in all of the company’s mines.

Blankenship left Massey in December, 2010, shortly before the company was sold to Alpha Natural Resources. He received a departure package worth $86.2 million according to an analysis of company records conducted for an attorney for some of the families who sued Massey for wrongful death.

The vote was 286 to 138. Eighty-seven Republicans voted in favor of the bill; no Democrats voted against it.

According to The Hill, the bill authorizes a “program meant to protect women from domestic violence.” In previous years, the bill was not controversial. But this year, Republicans had issues with provisions that provided protection for native women and protection offered to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

The bill, which was earlier passed by the Senate, will now head to President Obama for his signature.

The Washington Post explains:

“Republicans generally agree the law is needed, but many in the GOP oppose a sweeping expansion. Before taking up the broad-ranging bill approved by the Senate two weeks ago, the House will vote on a more limited GOP version. But with Democrats solidly behind the Senate bill and Republicans split over their own alternative, that version was likely to be rejected.

“In contrast to the partisan divide in the House, the Senate passed the measure on a 78-22 vote, with all Democrats, all women senators and 23 of 45 Republicans supporting it. The Senate bill goes further than some Republicans like in significantly broadening the scope of the law’s coverage.”

Right before the House voted on the Senate version of the bill, a Republican version was voted down. The Hill reports that conservatives are worried that more and more the House is simply signing on to Senate bills.

The same thing happened, for example, with the bill that averted the fiscal cliff. That time, the bill sailed through the Senate with vast bipartisan support, but passed in the House with a vote of 257 to 161 with only 85 Republicans voting with the majority.

The real issue here is that during Congress’ last term Speaker John Boehner had only brought issues to the floor that a majority of his caucus agreed with. That has changed.

The Hill explains:

“The issue underscores the difficulty Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) has had in navigating between pressure from conservatives on his right and the White House and Senate Democrats on his left.

“He has recommitted to the regular order process in the new Congress, but he has also told Republicans that the party must pick its battles with the ‘Democratic majority’ in Washington. Democrats have been hammering Republicans for months over the bill after Obama won big with women voters in the November election.”

Barely a week after a report from security firm Mandiant that an arm of the People’s Liberation Army was behind the theft of “hundreds of terabytes” of data from U.S. companies, China’s Defense Ministry said Thursday that U.S. hackers were penetrating Chinese military websites.

“The Defense Ministry and China Military Online websites have faced a serious threat from hacking attacks since they were established,” Defense Ministry spokesman Geng Yansheng is quoted by Reuters news agency as saying at a monthly press conference.

“Like other countries, China faces a serious threat from hacking and is one of the primary victims of hacking in the world,” Geng said. “Numbers of attacks have been on the rise in recent years.”

Geng said that 144,000 such attacks occurred each month last year and that an analysis of the IP addresses showed that 62.9 percent of them came from the U.S.

“We hope that the U.S. side can explain and clarify this,” he said.

According to The Associated Press:

“Geng attacked the Mandiant report … as ‘unprofessional and not in accordance with the facts.’ He also criticized the U.S. military’s cyber command for impeding international efforts at controlling hacking.

The Mandiant report was widely praised by cybersecurity professionals interviewed by The Associated Press, who said it provided the most detailed picture yet of China’s state-sponsored hacking efforts.”