Free Republic

The next time you can be bothered enough to feed a homeless person you might find yourself at odds with the law. Yes, you have to be “bothered” because you are under no obligation to help your fellow mankind, who has fallen on hard times and on harder concrete slabs. That’s right, because if you help homeless people in cities like Daytona Beach, Florida; Raleigh, N.C.; Myrtle Beach, S.C.; and Birmingham, Alabama you could be fined, physically removed and/or be threatened with time behind bars – and they have actually done it. In fact, 33 cities across the United States...

A former Oracle sales manager is suing the vendor, alleging he was fired shortly after complaining of discriminatory actions by his superior and other company officials. Ian Spandow was a high-performing sales manager at Oracle in Europe and later California, according to his lawsuit filed last week in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. After coming aboard in 2005, he trained more than 1,000 new hires and gave skills coaching to hundreds of others, the suit states. Spandow was subsequently promoted in January 2008 to the position of coaching manager, and after continued success was promoted to...

Countries often issue travel advisories warning citizens of danger abroad: war, for instance, or a terrorist threat or an outbreak of disease. The Russian Foreign Ministry posted advice of a somewhat different nature on Monday, cautioning people wanted by the United States not to visit nations that have an extradition treaty with it. “Warning for Russian citizens traveling internationally,” the Foreign Ministry bulletin said. “Recently, detentions of Russian citizens in various countries, at the request of American law enforcement, have become more frequent — with the goal of extradition and legal prosecution in the United States.” Citing examples in Costa...

Using the same tactics used by “gay” rights activists, pedophiles have begun to seek similar status arguing their desire for children is a sexual orientation no different than heterosexual or homosexuals. Critics of the homosexual lifestyle have long claimed that once it became acceptable to identify homosexuality as simply an “alternative lifestyle” or sexual orientation, logically nothing would be off limits. “Gay” advocates have taken offense at such a position insisting this would never happen. However, psychiatrists are now beginning to advocate redefining pedophilia in the same way homosexuality was redefined several years ago.

An education technology conference this week in Austin, Texas, will clang with bells and whistles as startups eagerly show off their latest wares. But the most influential new product may be the least flashy: a $100 million database built to chart the academic paths of public school students from kindergarten through high school. In operation just three months, the database already holds files on millions of children identified by name, address and sometimes social security number. Learning disabilities are documented, test scores recorded, attendance noted. In some cases, the database tracks student hobbies, career goals, attitudes toward school - even...

Ajmal Kasab, the sole surviving terrorist from the 2008 Mumbai attacks, was hanged to death on Wednesday at Yerwada Jail in Pune. Kasab was executed at 7:30am at Yerwada jail in Pune in Maharashtra after President Pranab Mukherjee rejected his mercy plea earlier this month. Pakistan had been informed about the hanging of Kasab, home minister Sushilkumar Shinde said on Wednesday. He told reporters that President Pranab Mukherjee had rejected Kasab's mercy petition. "Pakistan has been informed but there is no demand for Kasab's body. The president rejected Kasab's mercy petition Nov 5. I had further forwarded it to the...

The U.S. was on Friday inducted as a dialogue partner in the 20-nation Indian Ocean Rim-Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC) grouping, following hectic back-door diplomacy led by India. The decision to induct the U.S. as the sixth dialogue partner was taken at the Ministerial Meeting of the grouping in Gurgaon. The other five dialogue partners are — China, Japan, the U.K., France and Egypt. The induction process came following a request from the U.S., which had applied for the status of a dialogue partner a few months back. The U.S. had also taken up the matter with India, the current...

"The people of India deeply love you," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh famously told then US President George Bush in 2008. Apparently, the love affair extends to his successor Barack Obama too. Wait, strike that. India loves America, period. A new Pew research poll has revealed that a solid 58% majority in urban India is favorably disposed toward the United States, seeing America in a more favorable light than they view other major world powers, including India's long time supporter Russia (48%) or the EU (38%). The numbers are so good for the US President that he might want to move...

PARIS --- While many observers cite technology transfer, prices and performance as being major factors in India’s selection of the Rafale as its next-generation fighter, reality is very different even if these factors obviously did play a significant role. In the same way that it is true that Rafale lost several competitions through no fault of its own, it must be recognized that its victory in India was also won, to a great extent, through no fault of its own. The real reason for its victory is political, and the long memory of Indian politicians was a major contributing factor....

A key American lawmaker from Texas has introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives to freeze all U.S. aid to “disloyal” Pakistan. The House Resolution (No HR 3013) if passed will freeze all U.S. aid to Pakistan with the exception of funds that are designated to help secure nuclear weapons. “Since the discovery of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistan has proven to be disloyal, deceptive and a danger to the United States,” Congressman Ted Poe said in a statement after tabling the resolution in the House on Friday. “This so-called ally continues to take billions in U.S. aid,...

India has upped the ante against Chinese activities in Pakistan occupied Kashmir. A few months ago, when China sent a diplomatic protest (demarche) to India regarding proposed oil and gas exploration in the South China Sea off Vietnam, India had refused to entertain it. Instead, in its reply, India told China that it should stop its activities in Pakistan occupied Kashmir (POK). In fact, India has followed up its criticism with another strongly worded representation to China, issued a few weeks ago, asking it to stop its activities in PoK. India said Pakistan was in illegal occupation of that part...

WASHINGTON: Relationship between India and the US is being among the world's most important in the coming decades, a Congressional report has told American lawmakers. "President Barack Obama's Administration has sought to build upon the deepened US engagement with India begun by President Bill Clinton in 2000 and expanded upon during much of the past decade under President G W Bush,"the Congressional Research Service (CRS) in its latest report 'India: Domestic Issues, Strategic Dynamics and US Relations.' An independent and bipartisan wing of the US Congress,the CRS prepares periodic reports on issues of interest to the US lawmakers. The 94-page...

Starting in 2012, approximately 10 Indian scientists will receive training from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta through the facility's Epidemic Intelligence Service Program. The elite two year post-doctoral training program will give the scientists special attention in field work and will train them on how to investigate and contain serious public health threats, The Times of India reports.

India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh may have one of the largest reserves of uranium in the world, the country's chief nuclear officer says. Studies show Tummalapalle in Kadapa district has a reserve of 150,000 tonnes of the mineral, Atomic Energy Commission chief S Banerjee said. India has estimated reserves of about 175,000 tonnes of uranium. Analysts say the new reserves would still not be sufficient to meet India's growing nuclear energy needs. Mr Banerjee said that studies at Tummalapalle have shown that the area "had a confirmed reserve of 49,000 tonnes and recent surveys indicate that this figure could...

History was created when the PSLV-C17 blasted off on Friday from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota to successfully launch the GSAT-12 satellite. For the first time in India’s space history, a woman scientist was in-charge of a mission as complex as this. Fifty-one-year-old Dr TK Anuradha, a resident of Bangalore, was project director of the PSLV-C17/GSAT-12 mission. She along with her team also designed and developed the GSAT-12 at the ISRO Satellite Centre in Bangalore. An elated Dr Anuradha told DNA over the phone from Sriharikota that Friday’s launch was special not just for her, but also for...

The irony couldn’t be thicker. Here are 500 million inhabitants of the European Union with a gross domestic product that is the world’s largest. Yet the U.S., dragged along by Little Napoleon, a k a Nicholas Sarkozy, flies most of the sorties -- not to speak of providing all the World War IV stuff like space-based surveillance the Europeans can’t field themselves. So Europe doesn’t want to put in its money where its mouth is, and Germany hasn’t even opened it. Unlike neutral Sweden, Europe’s No. 1 power has strictly refused to go along, mumbling that “force never solves political...

I woke up this morning first to a NOAA solar proton storm warning then an email from my office mate and helioviewer.org creator, Dr. Jack Ireland. The email was titled, ”Never seen anything like this before -- spectacular”. And he wasn’t kidding! The event had everything, a solar flare, a coronal wave, a filament eruption, a coronal mass ejection, coronal rain and a coronal mass ejection, just to name a few. Here is a quick video I made this morning just after getting up. A few points that might be helpful. The solar flare occurs at the very beginning of...

WASHINGTON -- As of today all PDF versions of books published by the National Academies Press will be downloadable to anyone free of charge. This includes a current catalog of more than 4,000 books plus future reports produced by the Press. The mission of the National Academies Press (NAP) -- publisher for the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council -- is to disseminate the institutions' content as widely as possible while maintaining financial sustainability. To that end, NAP began offering free content online in 1994. Before today’s announcement, all PDFs were...

Vietnam's foreign ministry has accused China of increasing regional tensions in an escalating territorial dispute. A rare weekend news briefing followed a confrontation in the South China Sea between a Vietnamese oil and gas survey ship and Chinese patrol boats. Vietnam says the boats deliberately cut the survey ship's cables in Vietnamese waters. China denies the allegation. China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan all claim territories in the South China Sea.