Free Republic

Before the 40s and the jumping and the throwing, Jameis Winston went through interviews with a number of teams. The results were, well, allow me to let one team's personnel man who was in the room with Winston explain. "I think he's probably the smartest player I've ever interviewed," he told me. Ever? "Ever," he responded. "Football IQ as good as I've ever seen." One scout described how Winston was so impressive with his knowledge of X's and O's that "there was a moment where we kind of looked at each other and said, 'Oh, okay, wow.'" The comparison I...

Sunshinehours reports that the Antarctic Sea Ice Extent for September 19th, 2014 is 20.11297 million square kilometers,which is 1,535,000 sq km above the 1981-2010 climatological mean.

Antarctica continues to defy the global warming script, with a report from Meteo France, that June this year was the coldest Antarctic June ever recorded, at the French Antarctic Dumont d’Urville Station. June this year also broke the June daily minimum temperature record, with a new record low of -34.9c (-30.8F).

A consensus among members of the legislative body has reportedly formed in support of legislation to allow children to choose to undergo euthanasia in certain dire cases, according to a report in the Belgian daily newspaper Der Morgen, as translated by the Paris-based news agency Presseurop. If child euthanasia is legalized in Belgium, the country would become the first in the developed world to have a law on the books allowing the practice, although the Netherlands has since 2005 not prosecuted doctors who perform euthanasia on some minors as long as the doctors act in accordance with a set of...

ABC TV is reporting their ABC/Washington Post analysis of early voting is projecting a 7 point advantage for Obama (this is early/absentee voting, not voting results from today). They noted Obama had an 18 point advantage in 2008 and said that Obama actually lost the election day vote.

A Marine reservist who was detained during a security scare near the Pentagon last week has been linked to the shootings last year at the Marine Corps museum in Quantico and several D.C.-area military recruitment stations, officials said Wednesday. Ballistics evidence appears to link Yonathan Melaku, 22, to the shootings, one official said. The two officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

FREEZING Britain will be buried by the worst ­blizzards in 100 years ­today. Drifts of up to 6ft are expected as 60mph Arctic gales batter the country....Long-range forecaster Jonathan Powell, of Positive Weather Solutions, said the freeze could last until mid-February and the temperature this winter could plummet to a record low.

Climate change could lead to colder winters in northern regions, according to a study by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research on Tuesday...."These anomalies could triple the probability of cold winter extremes in Europe and northern Asia," he said. "Recent severe winters like last year's or the one of 2005/06 do not conflict with the global warming picture but rather supplement it."

Global TC [Tropical Cyclone] Activity remains at 30-year lows at least — The last 24-months of ACE [Accumulated Cyclone Energy] at 1090 represents a decrease from the previous months and a return to the levels of September 2009. Since Hurricane Katrina (August 2005) and the publication of high-profile papers in Nature and Science, global tropical cyclone ACE has collapsed in half. Northern Hemisphere year-to-date ACE is nearing 50% below normal. The Western North Pacific is at 17% of normal (or the past 30-year average).

The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that its seasonally adjusted index of sales agreements for previously occupied homes dipped 2.6 percent to a reading of 75.7. That was the lowest on records dating back to 2001 and down nearly 19 percent from the same month a year earlier. The index has fallen by more than 40 percent from its peak in April 2005

The pace of consumer spending stalled in June and personal incomes failed to increase, further evidence that the economy slowed significantly in the spring. The Commerce Department say personal spending was unchanged in June, the third straight month of lackluster consumer demand. Incomes were flat as well, the weakest showing in nine months.

Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods fell broadly in June as the fragile recovery continued to slow. The Commerce Department says demand for durable goods dropped 1 percent in June. It is the second straight monthly decline and the largest drop since August 2009.

Home construction plunged last month and building permits also fell, the latest signs that the construction industry won't fuel the economic recovery....single-family homes fell 17 percent, the largest monthly drop since January 1991...Overall new homes and apartments were down 10 percent in May to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 593,000, the Commerce Department said Wednesday. April's figure was revised downward to 659,000.

A drop in new jobless claims came in short of expectations and factory orders rose only slightly, fresh evidence the economy is recovering at a slow, uneven pace...The four week average, which smooths out volatility, rose for the second straight week to 456,250.

A Hancock man convicted in the arson deaths of two young sisters — and recently charged with plotting to kill the girls’ mother — died Wednesday night at the North Branch Correctional Institution as a result of a possible homicide. The girls, former residents of Cumberland, died after being trapped in their second-floor bedroom of the house that was also occupied by Meyers and the girls’ mother, Melissa Wolf...He later told investigators he set the fire in hopes of receiving sympathy and donations from the community.

A downtown protest of the climate change talks in Copenhagen became a victim of Wednesday's snowstorm. "Not many people showed up because of the blizzard conditions," said organizer Clea Major, an international studies student at the University of Utah. It didn't take long for the six friends to pack up a bullhorn and posters they'd planned to use for their "scream-in," an outlet for their frustration about the failure of the Copenhagen climate talks earlier this month to curb the pollution blamed for climate change.

877 new snowfall records set or tied in the USA in the last week. And that’s not all, for the week ending Dec 13th, there were 815 new snowfall records set. December 2009 is shaping up to be quite the snowmaker.

Snowstorms and subfreezing temperatures have battered Europe, killing 15 people in Poland alone overnight and wreaking havoc on air, train and car travelers from the Nordics to Italy on the last weekend before Christmas...In Italy, where winters are generally milder, heavy snow and subfreezing temperatures were causing havoc. Italian farm lobby Coldiretti warned that the ice-and-snow-blanketed roads were delaying the distribution of milk and produce while the freezing temperatures risked damaging fruit trees, olive groves and vineyards.

The first major winter storm of the season will strike parts of Southwestern and north-central United States between Monday and Wednesday, causing widespread power outages and making travel nearly impossible, forecasters said...Dangerous Arctic air could spill southward by midweek. The Midwest and northern Plains will experience wind chills of 30 to 40 degrees below zero...Many temperatures will be below zero Thursday morning, and daytime highs will struggle to make it out of the single digits across the Upper Great Lakes, according to forecasters.

A SIGNIFICANT CHANGE IN THE WEATHER PATTERN WILL TAKE PLACE ACROSS THE EASTERN U.S. DURING THE NEXT FEW DAYS AS A DEEP UPPER TROUGH DEVELOPS IN THE MID-ATLANTIC REGION. THIS WILL RESULT IN MUCH COLDER AIR SPREADING SOUTHWARD INTO THE SOUTHEAST U.S. TONIGHT AND SATURDAY. MUCH BELOW NORMAL TEMPERATURES WILL REMAIN IN PLACE THROUGH EARLY NEXT WEEK...A FEW SNOW SHOWERS OR FLURRIES MAY OCCUR IN THE NORTH GEORGIA MOUNTAINS LATE SATURDAY AND SATURDAY NIGHT AS THE COLD AIR DEEPENS ACROSS THE REGION....