Free Republic

Too beautiful not to post. What you're looking at is a close-up shot up of the central bulge of a giant spiral galaxy viewed edge on. Can you see it? The bulge, that is? It's that glowing lens-shaped mass that's trying unsuccessfully to hide behind those dark foreground clouds. Yes, of course, it's the central bulge of our own Milky Way Galaxy! :-) We're looking at the "lens" edge-on from our vantage point here in the Orion Spur (a minor spiral arm) of the Milky Way, 30,000 light years from the galaxy's center. Some "close-up," huh? We see the central...

Amid commemorations marking 70 years since the 1941 deportation of the Russian Germans to Central Asia, there is a palpable sense that the community is disappearing. In Bishkek, roughly 30 people gather each Sunday to pray at the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Empty seats are abundant in a room that once was routinely filled to overflowing. Although the pastor is from Germany, services for the past 10 years have been held in Russian. Congregants say perhaps one-third of the worshippers have any German heritage, and only a handful can speak the language. According to the German Language Center in Bishkek, a...

A sculptor who shot a dog for an art film in the 1970s has won a $750,000 contract to create public art for the Central Subway. Tom Otterness, a Brooklyn-based artist, has created public art all over Europe, Asia, Canada and the United States, with an emphasis on New York City. But he garnered notoriety in 1977 when he adopted a black-and-white dog from an animal shelter and shot it to death with the camera rolling. The footage ended up in his avant-garde movie "Shot Dog Film." Otterness has since apologized, telling the Brooklyn Daily Eagle in 2008, "Thirty years...

Windows blown out in PM's office

If the President of the University of Central Florida (UCF), Dr. John Hitt, were arrested tomorrow for material support of terrorism, he might finally begin to understand the irresponsible and dangerous actions he continues to allow his university to take in giving terrorist supporters a platform. We can begin this discussion with the UCF Muslim Students Association (MSA). The MSA was created by the Muslim Brotherhood at the University of Illinois in 1963. The Muslim Brotherhood (MB) is an international revolutionary organization whose objectives are (1) the re-establishment of the global Islamic state (Caliphate) and (2) the global implementation of...

Ruins of a fire temple dating back to the Sassanid era have recently been discovered during a series of archaeological excavations in the Vigol region near Kashan in central Iran. The discovery was made during the latest season of excavations, which are being carried out by a team of archaeologists led by Mohsen Javeri and began in mid-June, the Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicrafts Organization announced in a press release on Monday. The cruciform temple has four entrances leading to the ruins of a fireplace embellished with unique stucco designs, Javeri said. The team has also unearthed pieces of ornate...

Last month, the Public Service Commission rejected Baltimore Gas & Electric Co.'s "smart grid" proposal. From start to finish, the whole affair demonstrated everything that is wrong with Maryland's socialized electricity industry. To begin with, BGE's plan was a dud. The whole idea of "smart grid" is to inform customers how much electricity costs in real time so that they have an incentive to use less electricity during times of peak demand (usually hot summer afternoons), when electricity is expensive to generate and transmit. There are a number of ways to achieve this price signal, but BGE chose an ill-defined,...

Around the same time they were caving in to pressure to delete all Mohammed references from an episode of "South Park," the geniuses at Comedy Central posted an online video game containing truly staggering anti-Semitic images. This abomination was originally called "I.S.R.A.E.L. Attack!" due to the lead character being a murderous robot named "I.S.R.A.E.L." -- "Intelligent Smart Robot Animation Eraser." As the game opens, the villain says, "You lied to me, Jew Producer"...

TFP Student Action is urging Comedy Central to cancel the production of a new cartoon series called JC that mocks Our Lord Jesus Christ. According to press reports, Comedy Central writers are describing the new series JC as “a playful take on religion and society with a sprinkle of dumb.” For example, God the Father is shown as someone who is lazy, plays video games and neglects his son. In turn, Jesus is distant from his powerful and lazy father, and tries to become a regular guy in New York City. Since final approval at Comedy Central for JC is...

Along with the perennial calls for “land for farmers” and “factories for workers,” Communists who marched in Moscow on the Saturday anniversary of the 1917 revolution offered a slogan of more recent vintage: “Russia without Putin.”

Energy experts generally agree that the electrical grid in the United States needs to be upgraded if the country is to increase its use of renewable-energy sources like wind power and significantly reduce emissions of greenhouse gases. But plans to string new high-voltage lines to bring wind power from the midsection of the country to the coasts, where most of the demand is, could be expensive and unnecessary, and a distraction from more urgent needs, some experts say.

Central banks are likely to launch new coordinated emergency action this week to calm panic in financial markets, which could be rocked further by data pointing to global recession. The U.S. Federal Reserve is expected to cut rates sharply following share selloffs and currency collapses in developed economies and the emerging markets of Asia and Latin America. Advance third-quarter U.S. economic growth data due on Thursday is expected to show a 0.5 percent contraction in gross domestic product after 2.8 percent growth the previous quarter. "Increasingly, the signs point to a deep and synchronized global recession," JPMorgan economist Bruce Kasman...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 7, 2007 – “Terrorists are under no illusion about the importance of the struggle in Iraq,” so freedom-loving people can’t be either, Vice President Richard B. Cheney told members of the Marine Corps League yesterday. Vice President Richard B. Cheney receives a welcome to the 84th National Convention of the Marine Corps League in Albuquerque, N.M.. Aug. 6, 2007. The Marine Corps League is the only federally chartered U.S. Marine Corps-related veterans organization and credits its founding in 1923 to World War I hero Marine Corps Maj. Gen. John A. Lejeune. White House photo by David Bohrer...

Ancient burial urns found in central Vietnam Archaeologists have discovered 30 burial jars belonging to the 2,500-year-old Sa Huynh civilization in central Vietnam. The graves together with many artifacts were unearthed at the Con Dai archaeological site in Thua Thua-Hue province’s Huong Tra district. Of the jars, 25 contained ritual offerings like small trays, agate balls, and earrings, all of them still intact. They will be displayed at the Museum of Vietnamese History and the province’s museum. The archaeologists said the excavation provided further evidence that an early Metal Age culture had once existed in central Vietnam. The Sa Huynh...

Stone Age cave in central Vietnam has neighbor Vietnamese researchers, studying a grotto discovered a decade ago in which Paleolithic period tools were found, a few days ago stumbled upon another nearby also containing ancient tools. Experts from the Vietnam Archaeology Institute and the Quang Tri Museum in central Vietnam were researching the Hang Doi (bat) cave in Cam Lo district’s Dragon mountain when they found “Hang Doi 2”. The grotto is 65 meters underground and its vault is 10-20 meter high. They found 11 stone tools inside. Hang Doi was acknowledged as a provincial relic in 1996 and recently...

Plan accordingly. We have many folks who vacation in Canada, Mexico and the Carribean. Please note, travel to these countries will require passports in the future. More detailed information on the requirements for each country and how to get a passport can be found at the State Dept website: http://travel.state.gov/index.html . New Requirements for Travelers The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 requires that by January 1, 2008, travelers to and from the Caribbean, Bermuda, Panama, Mexico and Canada have a passport or other secure, accepted document to enter or re-enter the United States. In order to facilitate...

Reuters WARSAW -- Poland will ask the United States to back efforts to reduce its dependence on Russian energy supplies in exchange for agreeing to allow a U.S. anti-missile defense system on its territory, a Polish newspaper reported Monday. Rzeczpospolita cited diplomatic sources as saying Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski would discuss ways the United States could help increase Poland's access to Central Asian supplies when he visits Washington later this month. Poland, a U.S. ally in Iraq, hopes the United States will push through a project to build a gas pipeline across the Caspian Sea that could link Kazakh and...

BANGALORE - Tajik President Emomali Rakhmonov's five-day visit to India that ended on Thursday might not have grabbed much media attention in New Delhi, but it is in Tajikistan that India is taking quiet strides toward furthering its ambition of becoming a global player: India's first military base abroad will become operational in Tajikistan soon. During Rakhmonov's visit, the two countries signed pacts on strengthening cooperation in the fields of energy, science and technology, foreign-office consultation, and cultural exchange. India also offered to rehabilitate the Varzob-1 hydropower plant in Tajikistan. [...] This cooperation is, however, just the tip of the...

A man who was shot to death inside a car early Tuesday became the city's 37th homicide victim of the year, breaking a record set in 1982, according to police. Investigators said the unidentified man died in a car off Central Boulevard and N. Dollins Avenue near Lorna Doone Park at about 2 a.m. Officers said someone drove up beside the driver and opened fire. The victim sped off after being shot and crashed his car into a wall, according to police. There was no description of the car the gunman was driving. Meanwhile, the search continues for the killer...

WASHINGTON, July 24, 2006 – Iraqi security forces are increasingly taking the lead in operations as Baghdad becomes the focal point in the fight for Iraq, a senior U.S. military officer told reporters today. Iraqi soldiers and police are at the forefront of operations "to make their capital safer, to set the stage for their capital to emerge as a center not of violence and strife, but some day for business and learning, for commerce and for culture," Army Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell IV said at a Baghdad news briefing Insurgents have blanketed Baghdad with bombings, murders and kidnappings...