Free Republic

<p>Wonder at the impressive technological prowess of the genius engineers at NASA, as brave Ares launches. Be amazed at the sheer beauty of the mighty rocket as it it breaks the sound barrier, thundering the skies of this glorious nation.</p> <p>OK, so it looks like a flying condom.</p>

Egypt walls up Gaza border By ASHRAF SWEILAM ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER RAFAH, Egypt -- Egypt is building a 13-foot high concrete and rock wall interspersed with watch towers along its narrow boundary with the Gaza Strip to prevent Hamas militants from breaching the border, an official said Thursday. The wall, set back nearly 35 feet from an existing metal barrier, has guard towers every 100 yards. With it, Egypt hopes to prevent any future breaches like one in January when Palestinians broke through to escape an Israeli blockade, a security official said on customary condition of anonymity. On Jan. 23,...

ISRAEL VS GOLIATH ARAB MUSLIMS' FASCIST CAMPAIGN OF GENOCIDE - AS SIMPLE AS THAT 1) Israel is ONLY about survival against the Goliath Arab Muslim that wants to eradicate it. 2) There are two causes of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The first is Arab racism, which rejects any presence that isn’t Arab in its neighborhood; the second is Islamic intolerance which leads to the same rejection. http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=7268 3) The big lie as IF the Arabs (that sinvce the 1960s decided to call themselves as) "Palestinians" are "natives" in the holy land the historic land of the Jews, nothing cound be...

Israeli Court: Israel must re-route barrier http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070904/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_barrier_9 By MOHAMMED DARAGHMEH, Associated Press Writer 11 minutes ago BILIN, West Bank - In an embarrassing blow to Israel, the Supreme Court on Tuesday ordered the state to redraw the route of its West Bank separation barrier near a Palestinian village that has come to symbolize opposition to the enclosure. ADVERTISEMENT Residents of the village of Bilin went to court arguing that the current route, built on village land, kept them from their fields and orchards, which remained on the other side of the barrier. Villagers and their Israeli and foreign supporters have...

Second Thames flood barrier planned By Melissa Kite, Deputy Political Editor, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 1:42am BST 26/08/2007 A new £20 billion Thames barrier to save London from a potentially disastrous flooding threat is the centrepiece of a series of measures planned by the Government. The existing Thames barrier was completed in 1983 Phil Woolas, the minister for climate change, told The Sunday Telegraph that a feasibility study into a second Thames barrier, potentially required within 25 years, was due to report in a matter of weeks. In addition, new flood defences are being planned for all major police, fire...

TUCSON, Ariz. - Construction began Wednesday on vehicle barriers that will be part of a mix of fencing along the Arizona-Mexico border to discourage illegal border crossings. The construction is part of a Bush administration initative announced last year that aims to provide a mix of high-tech virtual fencing and a traditional physical barrier. The first phase of construction will consist primarily of concrete-filled vertical tubes set into the ground to prevent vehicles from entering. Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russell Knocke said some portions of the barrier may also contain traditional fencing. The first phase will be placed along...

PALOMINAS — Unimpressed by President George W. Bush’s pledge to send 6,000 National Guard troops to the border and a Senate bill that would construct 370 miles of new border fencing, the Minuteman Project began building its own barrier Saturday at a local ranch. By early afternoon, volunteers had planted posts and strung five tiers of barbed wire along an approximately 750-foot-long stretch of Jack and John Ladd’s property in Palominas. It was the first step in an ongoing project the civilian border watch group hopes will eventually be taken over by the federal government. Minuteman Project founder Chris Simcox...

Authorities are trying to determine why two men in a pickup truck ran a checkpoint at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base this morning, crashing into a traffic barrier aimed at stopping unauthorized base entry. Terrorism is not thought to be a motive at this point, but military officials and civilian police hope to learn what prompted the pair to speed past the control gate at Swan and Golf Links roads without stopping for required identification checks. Both occupants of the 1999 Dodge truck were taken to University Medical Center with serious injuries. The men were not carrying identification and were unconscious...

HERCULES, Calif. (AP) - A proposed Wal-Mart would hinder residents who are looking for shops and businesses that offer more sophisticated and expensive goods, according to a new report. An earlier study by the world's largest retailer said the planned 17-acre shopping center would capture money Hercules residents currently spend elsewhere. But the latest report, commissioned by the East Bay town about 25 miles from San Francisco and conducted by a Berkeley-based research company, contradicted that claim. "The presence of a Wal-Mart could serve as a 'barrier' to those customers seeking a higher-end, more specialized type of retail," the report...

The Russian government is mulling the construction of a security barrier along the border with Chechnya similar to Israel's West Bank security fence as part of its efforts to combat Muslim terror, The Jerusalem Post has learned. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Internal Security Minister Gideon Ezra met on Monday with Dmitry Kozak, head of counterterrorism in Chechnya and the Kremlin's envoy to southern Russia, for talks on the effectiveness of the security fence and Israel's overall success in fighting Palestinian terror. The talks, Israeli officials said, focused primarily on the construction of a security fence. Kozak told the...

After Hurricane Betsy swamped New Orleans in 1965, President Lyndon Johnson... pledged federal protection. The Army Corps of Engineers designed a Lake Pontchartrain Hurricane Barrier to shield the city with flood gates like those that protect the Netherlands from the North Sea. Congress provided funding and construction began. But work stopped in 1977 when a federal judge ruled, in a suit brought by Save Our Wetlands, that the Corps' environmental impact statement was deficient.... Speaking for environmentalists, the Center for Progressive Reform called the charges in the Los Angeles Times "pure fiction" because the judge stopped construction only until the...

KATRINA'S AFTERMATH A Barrier That Could Have Been Congress OKd a project to protect New Orleans 40 years ago, but an environmentalist suit halted it. Some say it could have worked. By Ralph Vartabedian and Peter Pae, Times Staff Writer September 9, 2005 latimes.com In the wake of Hurricane Betsy 40 years ago, Congress approved a massive hurricane barrier to protect New Orleans from storm surges that could inundate the city. But the project, signed into law by President Johnson, was derailed in 1977 by an environmental lawsuit. Now the question is: Could that barrier have protected New Orleans from...

A suicide bomb attack at the entrance to the central bus station in Beersheva wounded at least six people at 8:30 Sunday morning. Two of the wounded, both security guards who kept the bomber from entering the bus station, were in critical condition and were evacuated to the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. The rest of the wounded were also evacuated to hospital, a spokesman for Magen David Adom said. According to witnesses, the suicide bomber attempted to enter the Beersheba bus station. The security guards at the site reportedly saw a young Arab man carrying a backpack who aroused...

Water vapor builds up around an U.S. Navy F/A-18F Super Hornet as it breaks the sound barrier during a fly-by near the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk (CV 63) in this military handout photo taken July 27, 2005. Kitty Hawk and embarked Carrier Air Wing 5 are currently conducting operations in the Philippine Sea. The Hornet is attached to Strike Fighter Squadron 102 of Naval Air Facility Atsugi, Japan. Kitty Hawk is home ported in Yokosuka, Japan. REUTERS/HO/US Navy/Petty Officer 3rd Class Jonathan Chandler

YUMA, Ariz. - Construction crews are expected to begin building a reinforced concrete barrier along sections of the U.S.-Mexico border next month. The barrier is designed to stop immigrant smugglers, drug traffickers and other illegal traffic from driving across the border. The barrier will eventually cover 123 miles from San Luis to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument south of Ajo. "Not only will it enhance our ability to gain greater control of the border, but it is a proactive effort to protect the environment, habitat and (protect) against the ravages of narcotics and alien smuggling vehicles," said Joe Brigman, a...

Light Speed a Barrier? To go, the children of tomorrow may have had to discover what is believed impossible today -- how to travel faster than light. Mel Zisfein, deputy director of the national Air and Space Museum, and an aerosynamicist amoung other things, has noted a similarity between the way most people today regard "C," the speed of light, and the way many people a generation or so ago regarded "a", the speed of sound. For this publication, he sketched the illustrations which appear on the following page, and drafted the following... "Some people used to look at...

Bush urges China to adopt market-based currency rate (Kyodo) _ President George W. Bush urged China on Wednesday to adopt a market-based currency rate and vowed to press major trading partners to open their markets as part of his efforts to reduce the huge U.S. trade deficit. "In terms of the trade deficit, it is important for us to make sure that countries treat their currencies in market fashion," Bush said in outlining his policy agenda for the second term at a press conference. "I've been working with China, in specific, on that issue." The Bush administration apparently wants China...

Busting the Sound Barrier >

The world terror supporters' club, aka the UN, has told Israel to tear down its security barrier. This follows the ruling by the terror court, the ICJ, that the barrier is illegal (see below). Neither of these decisions is binding, but they are intended to build up the global demonisation of Israel as a pariah state, the necessary prelude to its destruction. Meanwhile, in the US where Christian support for Israel is so strong, the General Asssembly of the Presbyterian Church has equated Israel with apartheid South Africa and called for universal divestment from it. These developments all signal a...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly adopted a resolution Tuesday demanding that Israel comply with a world court decision and tear down the barrier it is building to seal off the West Bank. The vote was 150 in favor, 6 opposed - including the United States - and 10 abstentions. The assembly's vote, like the opinion of the International Court of Justice, is not legally binding, but both have symbolic value as international statements of condemnation for the barrier. The 191-member world body voted after lengthy negotiations between the Arab League and the European Union which resulted...

UNITED NATIONS -- The Palestinians challenged Israel on Monday to accept the world court's ruling and destroy the barrier it is building to seal off the West Bank, warning that failure to do so will lead to "practical measures" against its construction.

The Washington Times www.washingtontimes.com Israel vows to disregard U.N. courtBy Joseph CurlTHE WASHINGTON TIMESPublished July 3, 2004 Israel's foreign minister yesterday told the Bush administration that his nation will not abide by a World Court ruling on the legality of its West Bank barrier and pressed for U.S. support to block any U.N. action against the Jewish state.     "We believe that Israel can deal with this issue by itself," Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said in the White House driveway after a meeting with U.S. National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. "We can't accept any external involvement from the International...

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel's Defense Ministry has formulated a plan to extend its security barrier into a new area of the West Bank, despite international pressure to stop construction, a senior Israeli official said Friday. Meanwhile, Palestinian gunmen killed three Israeli soldiers in a Gaza settlement. The new segment would cut off the Jordan Valley - a region on the eastern side of the West Bank where Israel has a number of settlement - and connect it to Israel. Earlier this month, the Israeli government approved a series of security barriers that would run through the West Bank, in most...

A simple, portable vehicle barrier for Military Checkpoints in Iraq. It stops car bombers and allows checkpoint personnel a safe standoff distance from exploding car bombs. This barrier was field-tested at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory after the embassy bombings of the 1990s.FULL ARTICLE: CLICK.

Sydney - Australia's Great Barrier Reef - the world's largest chain of living coral - could be devastated by global warming in the next 50 years unless drastic action was taken, a report said on Monday. The Australian Institute of Marine Science and other agencies warned that without tough restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions, sea temperatures could rise to a level that would bleach and kill vast tracts of coral. "The appearance of coral reefs and thus their amenity for tourism may be seriously compromised, and their productivity and biodiversity decimated," the report said. Coral bleaching - when colourful reefs...

Last month, police in Charlottesville, Va., charged 10 teen-agers in a series of attacks on college students. Police said the first attack, in September, was unplanned. The attackers didn’t know their victim. They just picked him out at random along the street. After that first attack came five more. In some cases, the attackers were in groups as large as eight. The victims were usually walking alone, but in a few cases, there were two or three. Almost always, they were far outnumbered by their assailants. Some of the cases turned into robberies, but in others, the only apparent goal...