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<p>A chemistry professor at Columbia University who in March retracted two papers and part of a third published in a leading journal is now retracting four additional scientific papers.</p> <p>The retractions came after the experimental findings of the papers could not be reproduced by other researchers in the same laboratory.</p>

A study released last week by the British Medical Journal's subsidiary, the Journal of Medical Ethics, seemed more designed for attacking the Catholic Church than for scientific rigour.  If that was the goal of L. Bovens' "The rhythm method and embryonic death", then the mainstream media fell for the ploy head-over-heels.  "How Vatican roulette kills embryos," screamed Australia's Sydney Morning Herald; "Rhythm method linked to massive embryonic death," was the headline of India's New Kerala, and Canada's Vancouver Sun styled it "'Rhythm' method a killer of embryos."Physicians and medical ethicists, however, have responded to the journal noting that the study...

TRENTON - A New Jersey panel on Friday awarded $5 million in grants for stem cell research, including what is expected to be the first disbursements from a state for experiments on human embryonic stem cells. Three of the 17 awards involve human embryonic cells, a controversial area of an emerging science, although existing "lines" of human embryonic stem cells would be utilized by the three recipients.  All 17 projects were approved for about $300,000 over the next two years by the New Jersey Commission on Science and Technology.Supporters believe stem cell research could bring cures for a variety of...

A proposed constitutional amendment would require Nevada teachers to instruct students that there are many questions about evolution - a method viewed by critics as an opening to teach intelligent design. Las Vegas masonry contractor Steve Brown filed his initiative petition with the secretary of state's office, and must collect 83,184 signatures by June 20 to get the plan on the November ballot. To amend the Nevada Constitution, he'd have to win voter approval this year and again in the 2008 elections. Brown said Tuesday that he hopes that volunteers will help him collect the signatures, but at this point...

House lawmakers scuttled a bill that would have required public school students to be told that evolution is not empirically proven - the latest setback for critics of evolution. The bill's sponsor, Republican state Sen. Chris Buttars, had said it was time to rein in teachers who were teaching that man descended from apes and rattling the faith of students. The Senate earlier passed the measure 16-12. But the bill failed in the House on a 28-46 vote Monday. The bill would have required teachers to tell students that evolution is not a fact and the state doesn't endorse the...

This thread is intended to be a workshop, where we can thrash out the definitions on which all the science-literate freepers can agree. When we are agreed on one final list, we can then link to it in future threads, in the hope of bringing some order to the linguistic chaos that too often prevails in the science threads. In discussions about science and philosophy, we must be careful about our terminology, so that we're all using words in the same way. Dictionaries provide multiple definitions, but not all are appropriate in a specific context. It only generates confusion to...

Increased output from the Sun might be to blame for 10 to 30 percent of global warming that has been measured in the past 20 years, according to a new report. Increased emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases still play a role, the scientists say. But climate models of global warming should be corrected to better account for changes in solar activity, according to Nicola Scafetta and Bruce West of Duke University. The findings were published online this week by the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

[State of Fear, by Michael Crichton. 603 pages. Published December 7, 2004, by HarperCollins Publishers. Hardcover, $27.95. Available at www.Amazon.com.] Michael Crichton, the author of The Andromeda Strain, Rising Sun, Jurassic Park and other block-buster thrillers, has penned a novel that could profoundly change the national and even international debate over global warming. It's long overdue. Crichton's State of Fear, with a reported first print run of 1.7 million copies, is an action thriller that doubles as a scientific primer on global warming and other environmental topics. Crichton's protagonists -- a scientist, a lawyer, a philanthropist and two remarkably athletic...

Humane Society of the United States to challenge hunting via courts U.S. Sportsmen's Alliance — Dec. 3, 2004 The nation's largest anti-hunting group has launched a new legal department to challenge sportsmen in the courts. An Animal Protection Litigation section was created in the wake of the recent merger of the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the Fund for Animals. Attorney Jonathan Lovvorn was selected to head the department. The organization intends to add four litigating attorneys by the end of the year. "The animal rights movement sees the courts as the easiest way to realize its...

Chris Giorni knows his plops. As a herpetologist, his ear is trained to distinguish the distinctive belly-flops of rare frogs landing in remote ditches, creeks and coves. But oh what a splash one of his latest discoveries has caused. Lying in wait, khakis waist deep in water, camera at the ready, Giorni says he encountered a California red-legged frog on a piece of Half Moon Bay property slated for one of the biggest developments the coast has seen in two decades. Giorni's photos of the threatened frog have put the brakes on the controversial Wavecrest Village. They've also raised suspicion...

Swedes left with a monster problem THE placing of a mythical monster on Sweden’s endangered species list, in an apparent fit of bureaucratic zeal, has caused an administrative problem for the country’s authorities. "During a routine inspection of the environment court in Jaemtland recently, we came across a decision that attracted our interest," said Nils-Olof Berggren, a Swedish parliamentary ombudsman. "The court had turned down an application from a man who wanted to search for and hatch the monster’s eggs, probably believing [the application] was just a joke." However, Mr Berggren found there was an actual decision from 1986 placing...

I have created a public register of "bump lists" here on Free Republic. I define a bump list as a name listed in the "To" field used to index articles. Free Republic Bump List Register

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court unanimously rejected a bid by the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance to force the Bush administration to limit off-road vehicle traffic in potential Utah wilderness areas -- a decision praised by off-road enthusiasts. Attorneys for the environmental group had argued that the Bureau of Land Management had an obligation to crack down on off-road vehicle use to protect several potential wilderness areas. But Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the court, said forcing the BLM to act would insert the court into the day-to-day operations of the agency. A ruling in SUWA's favor "would divert BLM's energies...

More on Environmentalism Science, Politics and Deathby Arthur B. Robinson & Jane M. OrientEnvironmental extremism kills. Millions die annually because of restrictions on DDT, and imposing the "Kyoto" regulations would kill many more.Dr. Arthur B. Robinson, a professor of chemistry, is the founder of the Oregon Institute of Science and Medicine, and editor of the newsletter Access to Energy. Dr. Jane Orient, a specialist in internal medicine, has a private practice and is the executive director of the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons. Easily usable energy is the currency of human progress. Without it, stagnation, regression and untold...

PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION TAKES PILGRIM FAMILY CASE TO THE NINTH CIRCUIT The Sierra Times PRECEDENT-SETTING CASE ASKS COURT TO AFFIRM THE RIGHTS OF ALASKANS TO ACCESS FEDERAL LANDS SAN FRANCISCO, CA; December 24, 2003: Pacific Legal Foundation filed an emergency motion and notice of appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday in a highly publicized case that pits an Alaska wilderness family against the National Park Service. PLF is asking the court to grant the Pilgrim family emergency access to the only viable road to their property, which the Park Service closed last April. The case has precedent-setting...

THE LEIPZIG DECLARATION ON GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGEAs independent scientists concerned with atmospheric and climate problems, we -- along with many of our fellow citizens -– are apprehensive about emission targets and timetables adopted at the Climate Conference held in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997. This gathering of politicians from some 160 signatory nations aims to impose on citizens of the industrialized nations, -- but not on others -- a system of global environmental regulations that include quotas and punitive taxes on energy fuels to force substantial cuts in energy use within 10 years, with further cuts to follow. Stabilizing...

THE SECRETARY-GENERAL ADDRESS TO THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY New York, 23 September 2003Koffee Annon*snip*I respectfully suggest to you, Excellencies, that in the eyes of your peoples the difficulty of reaching agreement does not excuse your failure to do so. If you want the Council’s decisions to command greater respect, particularly in the developing world, you need to address the issue of its composition with greater urgency. But the Security Council is not the only institution that needs strengthening. As you know, I am doing my best to make the Secretariat more effective – and I look to this Assembly to support...

Sharon Votaw April 21, 2003 My husband and I bought some farmland in the California Delta over 30 years ago. This is prime agricultural land with deep, rich soils, ample water and a long growing season. In the beginning we would plant a crop; either beans or tomatoes or alfalfa, hay, wheat, corn, oats or barley. Then we hoped for favorable weather and a strong market. Farming has always been gambler’s choice. Some years were good and some years were lean, but we paid our bills and enjoyed life. Unbeknownst to us, in the early 1990’s the government again became...

Conservatives have spent years battling to prevent our country from becoming part of the Kyoto Protocol, which would essentially force energy rationing on the American people. Even though President Clinton signed the treaty in 1998, it has yet to be ratified by the United States Senate. It would be comforting to think that the treaty is really dead and buried for the next few years because the Bush administration is in power. But it stands a good chance of being resurrected in the energy bill currently being considered by the United States Senate. The GOP has its own greens,...

Today, as the United Nations appears weakened by its complete failure to be a serious player in the US-Iraq war, many of our nation's leaders dismiss concerns that the organization threatens American sovereignty. However, the true threat from the UN lies between the lines of numerous, well-orchestrated treaties already in place. These treaties, protocols, and conventions, particularly dealing with environmental issues, are tools with which the UN continues to fulfill its agenda for global governance. Through those treaties, the UN intends to transform sovereign nations into feudal-like entities by making Nature the central organizing theme for their economy and...

Who are you going to believe? The Green claim of global warming or the huge piles of snow left behind by the latest record-setting blizzard? The one thing that the claim of global warming has achieved is the debasement and perversion of science. This corruption has been foisted on the world by environmentalists who hate science that does not conform to their political and social agendas. They use the facade of science to advance their ceaseless attacks on industrialization and modern technology. Their purpose is to force the reduction of energy sources, primarily petroleum, but including coal, and, surprisingly,...

Piscataway gets OK to condemn farmland December 3, 2002 By Patrick Jenkins, Star-Ledger Staff pjenkins@starledger.com 732-634-3607 To submit a Letter to the Editor: eletters@starledger.com The future of the Cornell Dairy Farm was decided yesterday when a state judge granted Piscataway the power to condemn property that has been at the center of a bitter, three-year legal battle between the Halper family and township officials. Superior Court Assignment Judge Robert Longhi rejected arguments by Halper attorney John J. Reilly to dismiss the condemnation proceeding. Longhi restated his ruling from June 2000 that Piscataway had a legitimate purpose in taking the 75-acre...

Green and animal rights organizations do not subsist on the sale of calendars, books, and stuffed animals. They are wealthy beyond the comprehension of most Americans and others who support them in the belief they are "protecting the environment" and saving animals from "cruelty" and "extinction." You will be astonished to learn that there are more than 4,000 environmental groups in America today. "And the number is growing," warns Ron Arnold of the Center for the Defense of Free Enterprise, "and they are really out to get you." Worse, they have the clout and the money to do it."...

LEONIA, N.J. -- There's a dispute going to court in New Jersey over what can politely be called the disposal of canine waste. Rick Heckman is accused of trespassing with his dog Shiner on William Ramos' narrow strip of grass in front of his home. Shiner apparently left a calling card behind. Ramos says there is an ordinance in Leonia that a dog owner must get the property owner's permission before the dog is allowed to do what it needs to do. Heckman says the strip of grass is a public right-of-way. A prosecutor says there is some logic...

<p>ITHACA -- Picture this: A single Cornell University student consumes 140 pounds of reading material and 56,000 cases of paper are used and disposed at the campus each year.</p> <p>To help people visualize these facts, one artist is inviting people to go to Cornell Arboretum and take a walk to Newman Park and inside Slim Jim Woods. There visitors will find a symbolic representation of the consequences of viewing a forest as a natural resource.</p>

Whistleblower Points to Illegal Klamath Water Decision WASHINGTON, DC, October 28, 2002 (ENS) - Documents filed by a federal whistleblower charge that the scientific determination of water levels needed to support threatened coho salmon in the Klamath River was changed without any biological analysis. That change would violate the Endangered Species Act, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a group that has posted the documents on its website. The documents were part of a whistleblower disclosure filed today by National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) fisheries biologist Michael Kelly with the U.S. Office of Special Counsel. The conclusion...

<p>ITHACA -- Richard Sabol's customers come to the Ithaca Farmers' Market to buy his potatoes and garlic because his produce is tasty and local, and because they like the farming methods he uses.</p> <p>Sabol's customers know that he doesn't use any synthetic pesticides, genetically modified seeds or sewage sludge as fertilizer. His methods don't pose a threat to the environment, and compared to much larger operations, he farms lightly on the land.</p>

Black carbon soot from coal burning, diesel engines, open fires and other sources is contributing to global warming ( news - web sites) and climate change in China and India, researchers report. A study appearing in Friday's issue of the Science magazine is based on computer modeling at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies by researchers Surabi Menon and James Hansen. "If our interpretation is correct, then reducing the amount of black carbon or soot may help diminish the intensity of floods in the south and droughts in the northern areas of China, in addition to having human health...

CNSNews.com) - Tens of thousands of people, at a cost of more than $50 million, are about to descend on Johannesburg, South Africa to address United Nations-sponsored treaties dealing with climate change and eco-friendly development. Ironically, the 60,000 people attending the United Nations World Summit on Sustainable Development are projected to create the same amount of pollution during the ten days of the summit as nearly half a million Africans do during the course of an entire year. The items scheduled to be addressed in Johannesburg between Aug. 26-Sept. 4 include climate change, efforts to control greenhouse gas emissions,...

I've completed most of the website for the local Naples Florida area organization taking part in the Sawgrass Rebellion. The Property Rights Action Committee is made up primarily of local people who live in the afflicted area and who are fighting tooth and nail to protect our property from the power hungry enviro-creeps who want to use our land and tax money to advance a political agenda. If you need more info as to what it's all about and why we're doing this, click the links below. There is lots of background information, directions to the event, accommodations and early registration...

The Green Party: Targeting Capitalism By Alan Caruba Published 08. 4. 02 at 21:48 Sierra Time The Green Party has 362 candidates running in 39 States. If they can tap into the uncertainty and resentment of voters, they are likely to draw votes from Democrats in the mid-term elections. Political analysts believe Ralph Nader's run for the presidency in 2000 took enough votes from Al Gore to give George W. Bush a narrow victory. Unless the economy totally implodes by November 2002, the far left may well contribute to insuring that the Bush White House and the Republican Party regains...

On March 14, 2002, a program to capture the Capitalist system and control it for the purpose of advancing the twisted values of environmentalism was spelled out in a presentation titled "Restructuring the Global Economy." This was a rare occasion when deliberate deception was not used to mask the Green's true intentions. According to the Greens behind this plan, "Economic globalization is the greatest single contributor to the massive ecological crisis of our time, yet this is an aspect that is often ignored by the media, NGOs, policymakers, and citizens. Its inherent emphasis on increased trade requires corresponding expansion...

Canada lynx study scientists defended Group says state biologists met code of ethics Dan Hansen Staff writer They've been vilified by some in Congress, some in the Legislature, some of their peers, and editorial writers nationwide. In the eyes of government critics, they stand as proof that "bad science" rules natural resource decisions. But two Washington biologists were cleared of wrongdoing in the eyes of their peers within an international organization of wildlife scientists. And a media watchdog group recently issued a report that the story of a lynx study gone awry was blown out of proportion by journalists...

Eco - LogicOn - Line 7/15/2002 The smoking gun... How Environmentalists Intend to Rule the World By Ron Arnold Critics have long believed environmentalists were planning global domination. The problem with making a credible case against such an ambitious plan was simple: no environmental leader had published one. Yet conflicts over global warming, world trade, multinational corporations, population control, sustainable futures, and transnational government left little doubt that environmentalists in fact shared the unspoken aim of wielding supreme power over a green future. But there was no proof. For years, critics, lacking hard evidence, were reduced to piecing together a...

Buried in an astounding amount of unconstitutional pork within the new Farm Bill (signed by President Bush May 13, 2002) is a key provision, the brainchild of Congressman Wayne T. Gilchrest, from Maryland’s 1st District. In the works for over two years, Gilchrest’s "project" would create the Delmarva (Delaware-Maryland-Virginia) Conservation Corridor(s). Ostensibly designed to "find a way to help sustain agriculture…and help guarantee the environmental integrity of the Delmarva Peninsula for generations to come", according to Gilchrest, "…the Secretary of Agriculture will be able to direct conservation funding on a priority basis to the most economically and ecologically valuable land...

Article exposes the machinations of America's most active traitor and anthrax hoaxer, Dr. Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, aka Dr. Strangelove, who has just begun yet another of her periodic agitprop campaigns.

Article shows how the notion that the anthrax killer was a "home-grown" terrorist was concocted and spread by Marxist professor Barabara Hatch Rosenberg, who stole her theory from a TV series.

You may have heard in the news, an ice shelf (called Larsen B) on the eastern side of the Antarctic peninsula has broken up into a mosaic of smaller icebergs. Global warming was immediately blamed. As has been the case with many such claims in recent years, it is not supported by the facts. First to have global warming, one needs warmer temperatures. Antarctica has not warmed as some have claimed. In fact, 98% of the continent is colder than it was 20 years ago. This is despite the fact that global warming theory predicts these polar regions should be...

In the story "Is This Warm Winter a Sure Sign of Global Warming?" we looked at a number of factors that cause changes in global mean temperatures on both the short and long term. We showed that although most of the attention in recent years has been on the greenhouse gases as the primary driver of the global temperature trends, it may still be a relative "bit player" in the climate ride we, like it or not, all find ourselves on. When I give a talk or write on the subject of climate change, I frequently get the response "How...

THREE days before Christmas 1996, Chris Van de Werken, an environment officer in the sleepy little town of Nunspeet, 40 miles east of Amsterdam, went jogging in the woods near his home. He never came back. Alerted by gunshots, passers-by found Van de Werken's body on a cycle path. Although dozens of people were questioned, no motive was established and nobody was charged. In April 1997 the inquiry was closed. Five years later it has been reopened. This weekend, as the Netherlands mourned Pim Fortuyn, the populist right-wing politician, police were investigating links between his assassination last Monday and what...

<p>By Emily Gurnon -- Bee Correspondent - (Published May 5, 2002) More than two years after anti-logging protester Julia "Butterfly" Hill descended from her redwood tree home, the Pacific Lumber Co. said it is gearing up for a new set of clashes around its plans to log in certain areas of Humboldt County.</p>

Hinton, West Virginia: Same Old Government Land Grab More Articles April 30, 2002 By Tom DeWeese Hinton, West Virginia, is a small rural community of approximately 5,000 people. Most residents have lived their entire lives in the town or surrounding countryside. Many live in the same houses built by long-departed relatives. Hinton is paradise and they don’t care to live anywhere else. Ann Roach is a new comer. Just a few years ago she discovered Hinton while on a "Mystery Tour" aboard an Amtrak train journeying through the countryside to view the Fall foliage in the valley of the New...

<p>As if home prices weren't high enough, an upcoming rule regulating radon in drinking water might raise the cost of your next home. Oddly, a provision of the 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act enables the Environmental Protection Agency's drinking water office get in the business of regulating indoor air quality.</p>

<p>A professional society of wildlife biologists is investigating its members who submitted false samples of lynx hair during a national study to determine whether the actions violated ethical standards.</p> <p>The Wildlife Society will examine the actions of three federal and state employees who submitted samples from captive and stuffed cats for laboratory DNA analysis. The lynx is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.</p>

This week’s eco-horror claim is that the most commonly used herbicide in North America supposedly deforms the sex organs of frogs. "Male frogs exposed to very low doses of a common weed killer can develop multiple sex organs, sometimes male and female, researchers in California have discovered," the Associated Press reported this week. A University of California team led by Dr. Tyrone Hayes reported in the April 16 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that concentrations of the herbicide atrazine as small as 0.1 part per billion caused the deformed sex organs. But let’s hold off on worrying about kissing...

We have seen the results of ignoring early signs of terrorist threats; why are we now disregarding the growing danger of eco-terrorism? For years Islamic terrorists attacked Americans throughout the world, and we failed to heed the warning signs: the bombings of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988, of our embassies in Africa in 1998, of the USS Cole in 2000, of the World Trade Center in 1993. This past Sept. 11 they provided undeniable evidence of their destructive hatred. As we combat them abroad, however, we must recognize the deadly threat posed by another homegrown source—one that since 1996...

<p>Once upon a time in the Land of Make Believe, a man named Scott Angus says he spotted a turtle basking in the late afternoon sun.</p> <p>After picking up the animal and seeing its reddish, orange legs and the small pyramid-shaped designs on its shell, Angus concluded the critter was no ordinary turtle, but a wood turtle -- a threatened species in New Jersey.</p>

"It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself." Thomas Jefferson. "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." Hosea 4:6 "Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master." George Washington. "The First Rule of Cheating is - - Don't Get Caught." Well, what happens when Green militants invade government, bend official policy to promote Gaia paganism, use government money and police power to enforce green corruption, hide their agenda from the public through media complicity, and then get caught?...

There is no evidence that Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) employees who charged Lin Drake of Cedar City, Utah, with violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA) ever heard this poem: “Yesterday upon the stair, I met a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today, I wish that man would go away.” Nonetheless, the poem encapsulates their case against Mr. Drake. For it was those employees who saw prairie dogs on Drake’s property, prairie dogs that were never there and that have, mysteriously, gone away. In January 1995, Drake bought property in nearby Enoch, Utah, intending to develop a...

In December 2001, The Washington Times reported that employees of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) had planted lynx fur on rubbing posts in two national forests in Washington State to make it appear as if lynx were there in order to compel closure of those forests. Western U.S. Representatives were livid; Congressman Scott McInnis (R-CO), Chairman of the House Forests and Forest Health Subcommittee, launched a congressional investigation. Months later the story is still making news, most recently when environmental groups defended the FWS employees and attacked the investigation as “a witch hunt.” Days ago, The Washington Post...