Free Republic

That was the word that the Drudgereport summed up: Monster. The recent snow blizzard that hit the northeastern USA, late Sunday morning into late Monday morning, stranding people going home from Christmas family gatherings by shutting down airports as well as train and bus depots.

Old-time football players like to say they would’ve played for free in the parking lot, such was their love for the game. It might be the hyperbole of men who watched too many grainy Knute Rockne clips, but you want to believe that they believe it. You want to believe that they were so tough and so committed to the game that they would’ve sacrificed the skin on their elbows to make a tackle near the third parking stall on the left. You want to believe in someone who loved the raw violence of a sport so much that he...

When Eugene Jenkins showed up at St. Paul AME Church at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, he didn’t know he would be one of the last people to get a ticket for assistance with his heating bill. He waited in line until 7 a.m., when officials started to hand out the tickets, then went home for a few hours before returning at 10 a.m. By the time he had finished up his paperwork, it was 1:15 p.m., making for a long day. Jimmie Samuel, executive director of the agency, said the need for assistance in Bibb County has spiked, while the available...

Media Gallery: America's coldest Cities

Russia's too thin 'designer' uniform leads to pneumonia and flu The Russian army's expensive new "designer" uniform has been criticised for being too thin after hundreds of young conscripts in Siberia kitted out in it fell ill with pneumonia and flu. By Andrew Osborn, Moscow 6:00AM GMT 16 Dec 2010 Parents of the sick conscripts blamed the army's new uniform which was created, amid much fanfare, by the flamboyant Moscow fashion designer Valentin Yudashkin. Mr Yudashkin, who is famous in Russia for dressing Kremlin wives, won a multi-million pound tender to give the Red Army's successor a fashion makeover in...

I'm freezing my butt off. Even with my heater on. I'm looking at Zero 0 degrees(or lower) as far as the eye can see. And that is with no wind. I think I could do fine with a little 'Global Warming' right now. But hey, that's just me.

South Floridians woke up Tuesday morning to temperatures hovering around the very low 40s that sometimes felt like the mid-30s because of the wind chill factor. In Fort Lauderdale, a low temperature record of 42 degrees for Dec. 7 that had been in place for 169 years was broken, said Dan Gregoria, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Miami. "It was at 7:24 a.m. when the temperature reached 40 degrees," Gregoria said.

At least 60 people have died across Europe during the current cold snap, as snow plagued transport in Britain on Friday and serious flooding prompted mass evacuations in the Balkans. Seventeen people died in Central Europe in the last 24 hours from the cold, bringing the total this week to 45. A further 11 died in Russia, plus three in France and one in Germany, according to local authorities. At least 30 people, mainly homeless men, have died in Poland in the past week, and temperatures dropped to minus 15 degrees Celsius (five degrees Fahrenheit) overnight. Temperatures plunged to minus...

As metro Atlanta's temperatures grow colder, the demand for heat is, well, heating up. (snip) Eady said she is trying to start a nonprofit organization, “Babies Need Diapers,” that would provide diapers to low-income single mothers. “We have assistance for food, we have assistance for clothing, but we don’t have assistance for diapers,” she said. “That’s my biggest struggle right now.”

(WSB Radio) -- Despite the freezing temperatures, hundreds fought for a place in line in Marietta to apply for federal aid to help pay their heat and power bills this winter. Only 30 people were being let in at a time at the assistance center in Marietta. "It was freezing," applicant Linda Benefield told WSB-TV. "I was in line for three hours and 15 minutes, but I needed the help." Some needed even more help just to deal with the cold. Ambulances were cold in and took at least two people to the hospital because of the freezing temperatures ....

A super La Nina is developing. Historically, these strong La Nina events drop the Earth’s average temperature around one degree Fahrenheit, and the drop comes quickly. As a result, some of the same places that had record heat this summer may suffer through record cold this winter.La Nina is the lesser-known colder sister of El Nino. La Nina chills the waters of the tropical Pacific Ocean, and in turn cools the entire planet for one to two years or more. This chilling has the potential to bring bone-numbing cold to many parts of the world for this and the following...

Cold, San Francisco? Probably Because You Have No InsulationBy Joe Eskenazi Tue., Aug. 10 2010 @ 12:59PM No insulation in Mr. Freeze's lair either ​To folks living in actual cold-weather communities, San Franciscans' complaints about our recent chilly spell have something of a Marie Antoinette-level naivete. Face it, San Francisco: The coldest day out-of-doors here isn't that cold. Period. That being said, you may very well be shivering indoors here, because, under state law, San Francisco apartments need not have any insulation whatsoever. **SNIP** The laws are not the same for those residing in homes and apartment-dwellers, notes Ed Sweeney,...

Previously I have highlighted the benefits vitamin D has with regard to improving the immune response and helping keep infections such as flu at bay. It has been mooted that the upsurge in viral infections during the winter is connected with the generally lower vitamin D levels at this time. The traditional view is that winter infections are due to “indoor crowding.”However, research indicates that flu epidemics do not occur in the summer in crowded workplaces despite the presence of the flu virus around people who should be susceptible to infection. This is based on research by the Centers for...

The most damning thing about Obama’s response to the Gulf Crisis (the other Gulf Crisis) is not what it reveals about his lack of competence, but what it reveals about his lack of interest. And it has forced many liberals to recognize, what so many conservatives knew all along. That Obama just doesn’t care.

A tax dispute is disrupting operations at the Manas Transit Center in Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz interim government is charging tax on fuel imports for Manas, and the US government is refusing to pay, in what has the potential to develop into a major diplomatic standoff between Bishkek and Washington. Under the terms of the Manas Transit Center leasing agreement, fuel suppliers to the base are exempt from Kyrgyz customs and taxes. Article 7 of the agreement signed last year states: “Purchases of goods and services in the Kyrgyz Republic by the US government or on its behalf to implement this...

Russia Fights for World Dominance—in Wheat It may supplant the U.S. as the world's top exporter in less than 10 years By Maria Kolesnikova and Tony C. Dreibus On May 28, Egypt, the world's biggest importer of wheat, bought 180,000 metric tons from Russia for $178.50 per ton, about $13 less than the U.S. price. The deal is one of many signs that Russia is challenging America's supremacy in the global wheat market. In the past 11 months Russia has won 58 percent of Egypt's regular purchases of wheat, compared with 40 percent the year before. The U.S. share of...

Mongolia counts carcasses after harsh winter By CHARLES HUTZLER, Associated Press Writer 2 hrs 48 mins ago UYANGA, Mongolia – Before he can fully tend to his dwindling herd, Demberel has to bury the dead cows, goats and sheep in earth barely thawed from Mongolia's worst winter in decades. Fetid and fly-ridden, the carcasses lie stacked by the hundreds around a burial pit dug by Demberel and a dozen fellow herders. A truck brings dozens more carcasses. Others lie in piles or strewn in nearby valleys, potential health hazards for animals and humans alike. "We're bitter and sad that we've...

This April was the coolest one in Tucson since 1999, the National Weather Service reported Monday. The average temperature for April 2010 was 65.4 degrees, slightly cooler than the normal average April temperature, 66 degrees, the weather service reported. The official recording for rainfall also was slightly below normal. The station at Tucson International Airport received 0.23 inches of rain in April, compared to a normal of 0.28. The temperature still hasn’t officially hit 90 degrees in Tucson, which is very late compared to recent years. Since 2000, the average first 90 degree temperature has been on March 26th. The...

The New Year's cold snap devastated the state's manatee population, with more than 100 carcasses showing up in state waters in the first three weeks of 2010... Biologists report that the big chill — which brought the coldest 12-day period South Florida has seen since at least 1940 — inflicted mortal cold stress on an unprecedented scale, killing at least 77 of the 107 dead manatees found as of Jan. 23, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. The number of cold stress deaths exceeded the previous single-year record of 56, set last year. The manatees join the...

Many people, victims of the public education system, still believe that anything they buy or the doctor gives to them is safe, or that the Government is out there keeping them safe. Here's one of many examples of the FDA acting only after people are sickened or die. Perhaps people should learn how they get sick to begin with, and how to naturally prevent it, then they wouldn't need gallons of drugs a year. From Green Barbarians by Ellen Sandbeck: Some members of the American College of Chest Physicians reviewed decades' worth of studies and concluded that there is no...