Free Republic

Our Universe is an enormous place; that’s no secret. What is up for discussion, however, is just how enormous it is. And new research suggests it’s a whopper – over 250 times the size of our observable universe. Currently, cosmologists believe the Universe takes one of three possible shapes: It is flat, like a Euclidean plane, and spatially infinite.It is open, or curved like a saddle, and spatially infinite.It is closed, or curved like a sphere, and spatially finite. While most current data favors a flat universe, cosmologists have yet to come to a consensus. In a paper recently submitted...

The chart below (found also here), from Big Government contributor Veronique de Rugy clearly shows that federal employment has grown by 98,000 jobs since the start of the recession. This bears repeating, because lefty columnist Paul Krugman is furiously spinning that the increase in employment is due to Census hiring. Krugman: But anyone paying attention knew why public employment had risen — and it had nothing to do with Big Government. It was, instead, the fact that the federal government had to hire a lot of temporary workers to carry out the 2010 Census — workers who have almost all...

Over millions of years dogs have developed bigger brains than cats because highly social species of mammals need more brain power than solitary animals, according to a study by Oxford University. For the first time researchers have attempted to chart the evolutionary history of the brain across different groups of mammals over 60 million years. They have discovered that there are huge variations in how the brains of different groups of mammals have evolved over that time.

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Communications Commission began to lay the groundwork for a bigger federal role in the broadband business Wednesday, outlining the hurdles the U.S. needs to overcome to improve the availability of high-speed Internet access. The FCC identified a number of issues the government should address, including the high cost of laying new broadband lines in rural areas, a lack of airwaves for wireless Web access and ill-informed consumers. "This focus on broadband is a reflection of a recognition that the U.S. is lagging behind," FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said Wednesday at the agency's monthly meeting.

A total of $332 million would be devoted to new Internal Revenue Service (IRS) enforcement efforts, including $128.1 million to add nearly 800 new IRS employees to combat offshore tax evasion and improve compliance with U.S. international tax laws by businesses and high-income individuals. Another $130 million would go to bolster the security of the IRS information technology, improve the efficiency of its business systems and upgrade its fraud detection capabilities. Although not directly under the jurisdiction of this Subcommittee, our Budget also includes funds to meet our international obligations to help us in mounting a global response to the...

The fifth annual Israel Apartheid Week, which ended on Sunday, was a more popular, better attended, and more aggressive series of anti-Israel rallies and lectures than ever before. SLIDESHOW: Israel & Region | World "Forty-four international cities held IAW events, which is twice as much as last year, and in Toronto thousands of people attended events. Almost every building was filled to maximum capacity," Golda Shahidi, spokeswoman for Students Against Israel Apartheid, told The Jerusalem Post by phone from Toronto on Wednesday. The rise in participation was largely due to the world's reaction to the recent war in Gaza, said...

I would imagine that Generals fighting wars have to occasionally 'step back' from the individual battles they are fighting, to check on the overall progress of the total campaign against the enemy. Of course, for fiscal conservatives, the 'enemy' is growth in size and scope of spending of government at every level -- or put another way, the goal of the war is to preserve, and in fact 'win back' freedom and liberty for the people. When California voters stepped up in 2003 to ceremoniously recall now-disgraced Governor Gray Davis, that effort was led by a strong coalition of people...

In his refreshingly short State of the State speech Tuesday evening, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger boasted of his commitment to transcend partisan divides and to work together, Republicans and Democrats, toward achieving a California agenda. The state government can avoid the partisan gridlock of Washington, D.C., and move forward, he said, "because the future does not wait." While those words make for decent political rhetoric, we were less than heartened by the big and bold agenda the governor detailed. ... The mountain he has pledged to climb with the Legislature looks a lot like a mountain of debt and regulation. If...

There is always a good excuse for big government. I thought I would spend some time to catalogue some of those excuses, just to put them down on the record. Whether it is on the floor of the Senate or Assembly, in budget or other committee hearings in the Legislature, these excuses pop up from time to time. In this era of term limits, it is rare for those in decision making positions to hang around long enough to hear these excuses repeated, so this article can act as a chronicle, since I have now heard many of these excuses...

WASHINGTON, Sept. 24, 2006 – With reports circulating of a Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said quelling the Taliban is only part of the bigger response needed for a secure and peaceful country. “It’s not eliminating the Taliban. It’s ending terrorist violence in Afghanistan,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” today. “We have defeated (terrorists, but) to defeat them completely, to take them off the agenda, for us that is the purpose.” President Bush will meet in Washington with Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf later this week to discuss the best way to accomplish this....

A project aiming to create an easier way to measure cosmic distances has instead turned up surprising evidence that our large and ancient universe might be even bigger and older than previously thought. If accurate, the finding would be difficult to mesh with current thinking about how the universe evolved, one scientist said. A research team led by Alceste Bonanos at the Carnegie Institution of Washington has found that the Triangulum Galaxy, also known as M33, is about 15 percent farther away from our own Milky Way than previously calculated. The finding, which will be detailed in an upcoming issue...

Meth still No. 1 drug problem, study findsBy SAM HANANEL, Associated Press Writer 28 minutes ago A pouch containing crystalized methamphetamine and a homemade pipe are shown March 21, 2006 in Window Rock, Ariz. A survey says Meth abuse continues to fuel an increase in crimes like robbery and assault. (AP Photo/Matt York, FILE) WASHINGTON - Meth abuse continues to fuel an increase in crimes like robbery and assault, straining the workload of local police forces despite a drop in the number of meth lab seizures, according to a survey Tuesday. Nearly half of county law enforcement officials consider methamphetamine...

(March 2) -- Special Agent Frank Marwood was showing a visitor the half-mile long, 80-foot deep smuggler's tunnel his agents discovered beneath the U.S.-Mexican border at Otay Mesa when his cellphone interrupted. An agent was reporting in with a startling new find: another tunnel, this one shorter and more crudely built, but big enough to provide yet another subterranean port of entry into the USA. These are busy days for the men and women who guard the nation's border - particularly for the team of federal agents charged with rooting out border tunnels.

LOS ANGELES - Scientists say they have confirmed that a so-called 10th planet discovered last year is bigger than Pluto, but that likely won't quell the debate over what makes a planet. The astronomers who spotted the icy, rocky body — informally called UB313 — had reported only a rough estimate of its size based on its brightness. But another group of researchers has come up with what is believed to be the first calculation of UB313's diameter. By measuring how much heat it radiates, German scientists led by Frank Bertoldi of the University of Bonn estimated that UB313 was...

WASHINGTON (Army News Service, Jan. 17, 2006) – The chief of staff of the Army said he expects to see developments with base realignment and closures, an increase in modular brigades and operational force strength, and 20,000 jobs converted from the military to civilian workforce in 2006. Gen. Peter J. Schoomaker gave an overview of the direction the Army is going for the next year at the annual Institute for Land Warfare Forum Breakfast in Arlington, Va., Jan. 12. “This year is going to be the busiest year we’ve ever had,” said Schoomaker about the Army as a whole, but...

Global Warming or Terrorism: Which Is a Bigger Threat? Commentary, Syed Arif Hussaini, Pakistan Link, Dec 12, 2005 Sponsored by the UN, attended by almost 10,000 representatives from 189 countries, environmental groups, scientific organizations and businesses, the United Nations Climate Change Conference just finished in Montreal, Canada. Inaugurating the November 28-December 9 conference, Canadian Environment Minister Stephane Dion called for a “more effective, more inclusive long-term approach to climate change”. Several observers interpreted his observations as an appeal to the United States, the leading consumer of oil and gas and emitter of greenhouse gases, whose President, George Bush, had decided...

Despite an outward appearance of business as usual, significant changes have been occurring at the California Coastal Commission, the potent and autonomous agency that oversees development along the state's 1,100-mile coast. In the past 18 months, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature have made seven appointments to the 12-member commission. These new appointees, including Chula Vista Mayor Steve Padilla, have quickly emerged as pragmatic and independent voices. They have arrived while the agency has progressively toughened enforcement against scofflaws and ratcheted up protection of coastal resources. The end result is that coastline developers have never faced more scrutiny. "(The agency)...

SACRAMENTO - In what was supposed to be an off-year for statewide elections in California, the airwaves are teeming with warring political ads as groups on both sides of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's agenda spend millions to sway voters in the upcoming special election. ``Without big money, you don't get an issue on the ballot,'' said Robert Stern of the Los Angeles-based Center for Governmental Studies. And with more than a year to go until the 2006 primaries, individual candidates for office also are busy raising funds: -- The Republican governor is raising millions for a re-election bid he has yet...

What do Democrats want? Many answers, or partial answers, can be found in the 90th anniversary issue of the New Republic, in the post-election issue of the American Prospect, and in various other writings by smart Democrats unhappy with the defeat their party suffered in 2004. These writers avoid the left blogosphere's wacky claims that the election was stolen. They understand that both parties played to win and turned out many new voters. John Kerry got 16 percent more votes than Al Gore. George W. Bush got 23 percent more votes in 2004 than in 2000. Most of these Democrats...

Conceding they have no idea when or how San Jose's grand airport expansion may be fully financed, city council members on Tuesday voted anyway to increase by 60 percent the ultimate size of the facility's new terminals. The 625,000-square-foot increase -- roughly the same size as the public space in the HP Pavilion and the McEnery Convention Center combined -- would be needed, officials say, to accommodate bulky, post-Sept. 11 baggage and passenger screening, as well as amenities ranging from meditation rooms to restaurants and spacious bathrooms. Tuesday's unanimous vote came after recent revelations that airport officials have no feasible...

SACRAMENTO — The state budget Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposes in January will show that the shortfall has worsened substantially in recent months, administration sources say, and will force him to propose deeper spending cuts than previously expected. The ballooning gap reflects Schwarzenegger's limited success at reining in spending. State prisons are over budget, Indian casinos are generating less cash than expected and the governor's proposal to raise $460 million by diverting a share of punitive damages from civil lawsuits to the state has fallen flat. And a plan to borrow $800 million to pay the state's contribution into the pension...

BRUSSELS, Belgium (AP) - European Union leaders on Thursday considered taking on a bigger role in rebuilding Iraq and forging stronger ties with re-elected President Bush. At the opening of a two-day summit, incoming European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said he put together a new executive team, signaling the prospect of an early end to problems surrounding his original lineup. In a key change, Barroso said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini would be the next justice commissioner, instead of conservative Italian Rocco Buttiglione, who upset many European Parliament members with anti-gay comments in confirmation hearings in October. The EU...

Bigger breasts for free: Join the Army Reuters Posted online: Friday, July 23, 2004 at 1315 hours IST New York, July 23: The US Army has long lured recruits with the slogan "Be All You Can Be," but now soldiers and their families can receive plastic surgery, including breast enlargements, on the taxpayers' dime. The New Yorker magazine reports in its July 26th edition that members of all four branches of the US military can get face-lifts, breast enlargements, liposuction and nose jobs for free -- something the military says helps surgeons practice their skills. "Anyone wearing a uniform is...

<p>While conceding that active and reserve forces are straining to meet the potentially lengthy U.S. commitment in Iraq, the Pentagon still strongly opposes attempts to increase the number of people in uniform. As usual, it boils down to money. Even as many analysts predict U.S. forces will be in Iraq for years, defense officials are looking beyond that mission — and don’t want to be stuck with post-Iraq costs of a larger force.</p>

PHOENIX - North Korea (news - web sites)'s atomic weapons stash is a bigger threat to America than was pre-war Iraq (news - web sites), said Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) said Friday. AP Photo McCain's remarks, made to The Associated Press in an interview, came as nuclear talks with North Korea ended unresolved in Beijing. "We're in a very serious situation. You could argue, in some ways, more serious than it was with Iraq," he said. If claims are true that North Korea has nuclear weapons it might test, export or use, the country might also be...

The design of one of the world's most versatile and celebrated architects Daniel Liebeskind, is expected to be chosen as the replacement for the World Trade Centre buildings, although some of the features are likely to be radically altered or left out. Both the governor of New York State, George Pataki and the city's Mayor Michael Bloomberg, prefer Liebeskind's jagged towers design to the other shortlisted proposal, a set of latticework towers designed by a rival practice, Think.Liebeskinds proposals have also gained favour with the New York Port Authority, which owns the World Trade Centre Site and the Lower Manhattan...