Free Republic

Star Wars-style technology is about to take to the battlefield for the first time with the launch of a laser system to shoot down enemy missiles and mortars. Laser beam technology is being rushed into service to combat the threat of insurgent missiles and mortars raining down on British and American military bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. The LADS system will utilise the phalanx system and literally shoot incoming missiles and mortars out of the sky using a laser beam After decades of delay and billions of pounds spent, it will be simple commercial lasers rather than the hugely expensive...

If YouTube proved the natural home of anyone who happened to find himself in simultaneous possession of a camera phone, some Mentos, and a can of Diet Coke, then the not-yet-two-year-old LiveLeak.com is digging a foxhole for itself. It's become a meeting place for those who blow stuff up and those who like to watch it explode. Troops in the field in Iraq and Afghanistan are the most valued content providers on LiveLeak. The site's unsqueamish emphasis on raw video - it does have some rules, not that you would notice - makes it a destination spot for short...

A new state law is now in effect requiring all restaurants in Mississippi to clearly display the specific country of origin of the catfish they serve. While supermarkets have previously been required to display “Country of Origin Labeling” for catfish, restaurants have been under no such mandate until House Bill 728 went into effect Tuesday. According to a statement recently released by Roger Barlow, president of the Jackson-based Catfish Institute, “This is possibly the most significant piece of legislation the Mississippi Catfish Industry, or for that matter, the entire U.S. Farm-Raised Catfish industry has ever had. “Since Mississippi is the...

As a die-hard Padres fan, I have to say that I have a newfound love for Tommy Lasorda. Go see what he says, and you'll understand how a Dodger could bring a Padres fan to tears off the field. They are still adding videos to the site, and now anybody can upload non-political/non-partisan videos, pictures and words of gratitude and support for America's wonderful military men and women. To help get the word about Moment of Thanks out to those men and women, Soldiers' Angels (who has been giving guidance and providing contacts on this project) has been given thousands...

http://www.ok-safe.com/files/documents/1/HJR1089_int.pdf the vote was 92 to 3: http://www.okhouse.gov/51LEG/Leg_Votesxx.aspx?include=okh01983.txt

PASADENA, Calif. -- Boosted by the influence of a larger climate event in the Pacific, one of the strongest La Ninas in many years is slowly weakening but continues to blanket the Pacific Ocean near the equator, as shown by new sea-level height data collected by the U.S.-French Jason oceanographic satellite. This La Nina, which has persisted for the past year, is indicated by the blue area in the center of the image along the equator. Blue indicates lower than normal sea level (cold water). The data were gathered in early April. The image also shows that this La Nina...

Have you ever heard that McDonald’s vanilla shakes have plastic in them, or that their hamburgers contain worm meat? McDonald’s has heard those stories and others, and it’s launched a new advertising and marketing campaign to dispel misconceptions and myths about its menu items and their ingredients. “We want to get the facts out about our food quality story so that we can bust some of those myths,” said Molly Starmann, McDonald’s director of U.S. marketing. In an age where food recalls appear more prevalent, more consumers are asking questions about what they’re eating, and more books are launching assaults...

When ordering seafood, many of Russell Hohnerlein's customers have the same question: Where did it come from? Hohnerlein, manager of The 4th of May at 444 Ocean Blvd, St. Simons Island, never has to check a daily serve list to answer. "All our seafood is local. Always," he said. Should Sen. Ronnie Chance, R- Fayette, have his way, Hohnerlein won't have to field this question much longer. The answer will be visible to the eye – right there on the menu. Senate Bill 533, introduced by Chance Wednesday, would require restaurant menus to carry a label on all seafood items...

It's fairly common for restaurant staffers to place a lemon slice on the rim of a beverage glass as a flavor enhancer or decorative garnish. But who knows whether these lemons have been handled using sanitary procedures? Anne LaGrange Loving, a professor of science at Passaic County Community College, decided to find out. Loving began her investigation after she saw a waitress’ fingertips dip into her soda as the drink was being brought to her table. Although lemon juice is known to kill germs, Loving devised a study to determine whether lemon slices contain germs when they are served to...

February 25, 2008 Jumbo jet pilot sacked for ‘fly-by’ at 28 feet A British pilot has been dismissed for “buzzing” a control tower in a Top Gun-style stunt during the maiden flight of a Boeing jumbo jet. Captain Ian Wilkinson astonished passengers by taking the 230-tonne Cathay Pacific jet to within 28ft (8.5m) of the ground shortly after take-off from Boeing’s US manufacturing plant. The 322mph fly-by was cheered by onlookers, and the pilot, who is said to be one of the most senior aviators with the airline, later toasted the flight with champagne. Footage of the stunt on January...

China investigates exporter of 'contaminated eel' (Xinhua) Updated: 2008-02-22 14:41 BEIJING -- China and the Republic of Korea are to jointly investigate how Chinese frozen eel exports came to contain carcinogenic malachite green, a fungicide banned in food production in China, according to a statement from China's quality watchdog on Friday. Chinese investigators had found no information about the producer, identified by the Republic of Korea media as Jiangxi Yichun Eel Industry Development Co. Ltd, said the statement from the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine (GAQSIQ). The producer had not registered with China's import and export inspection...

The tattoo display: "Waterproof and powered by pizza." Jim Mielke's wireless blood-fueled display is a true merging of technology and body art. At the recent Greener Gadgets Design Competition, the engineer demonstrated a subcutaneously implanted touch-screen that operates as a cell phone display, with the potential for 3G video calls that are visible just underneath the skin. The basis of the 2x4-inch "Digital Tattoo Interface" is a Bluetooth device made of thin, flexible silicon and silicone. It´s inserted through a small incision as a tightly rolled tube, and then it unfurls beneath the skin to align between skin and...

BREAKING NEWS updated 9 minutes ago LOS ANGELES - The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Sunday recalled 143 million pounds of frozen beef from a Southern California slaughterhouse that is being investigated for mistreating cattle. Officials said it was the largest beef recall in the United States, surpassing a 1999 ban of 35 million pounds of ready-to-eat meats. The federal agency said the recall will affect beef products dating to Feb. 1, 2006, that came from Chino-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co., which supplies meat to the federal school lunch program and to some major fast-food chains.This breaking news story will be...

Government plans clampdown on vandalism after lobbying from biotech firms Genetically modified crops may be grown in hidden locations in Britain amid fears that anti-GM campaigners are winning the battle over the controversial technology, the Guardian has learned. Officials at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed they are looking at a range of options to clamp down on vandalism to GM crop trials, after intense lobbying by big crop biotech companies. The firms have warned that trials of GM crops are becoming too expensive to conduct in Britain because of the additional costs of protecting fields...

Now here is a Patriot Act everyone can get behind. It's called the Patriot Corporation of America Act and it rewards the companies that don't screw their employees and weaken the country by moving the jobs to China and elsewhere. In these troubled times, doesn't that sound like common sense? Government policy presently works in opposite ways. It literally assists and subsidizes the disloyal free riders who boost their profits by dumping their obligations to the home country. It's called globalization. Establishment wisdom says there is nothing politicians can do about it. But the bills introduced Thursday by three senators...

Several months ago when the news broke about poisonous pet food and lead-laden toys from China, I asked my local pharmacy to give me a letter stating it is not selling me any prescription drugs imported from China. The reply was, "We don't buy any drugs from China." I said, "I know you don't, but I want you to check with your suppliers and verify that they don't buy from China." That request was met by thunderous silence. Now we know why. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that 80 percent of the drug substances used by U.S. manufacturers to...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US grocery chain Trader Joe's said Monday it would stop selling food imported from China due to customers' concerns about the products' safety. "Our customers have voiced concerns about products from this region and we have listened," Trader Joe's spokeswoman Alison Mochizuki said in a statement. "All single ingredient food items sourced from mainland China are scheduled to be out of our stores by April 1," she said. "We will continue to source products from other regions until our customers feel as confident as we do about the quality and safety of Chinese products."

The ground-breaking of the Clark County Shooting Park at the base of Sheep Mountain in the utter northwest region of the Las Vegas Valley in October 2006 was a grand event, out in the middle of the desert. Not just because it was attended by dignitaries representing every level of government, but also because the moment represented their collaborative effort, a quarter century in the works, to make Las Vegas home of the world’s largest shooting park. Yet the 2,900-acre, $61 million project did not ignite much public debate. In fact, the Las Vegas Weekly noted this with a headline...

Last year, a German tourist traveling through China spotted a set of nested salt and pepper shakers: The slender cylinder of pepper rested perfectly in the center of the doughnut-shaped salt holder. It was a sleek design. It was also, he recognized, an almost exact copy of the successful Two-in-One salt-and-pepper set made by Geislingen (Germany)-based WMF, and he sent it to the company. As a result, the maker of the imitation—Shantou Lian Plastic Products of Guangdong, China—is one of 13 winners of the Plagiarius Award, a dubious honor bestowed on makers and distributors of the "best" (which is to...

By Bill RoggioFebruary 8, 2008 6:49 PM Gadhan.jpg Adam Gadahn. One day after a Pakistani newspaper reported al Qaeda propagandist Adam Gadahn may have been killed in the same airstrike that killed al Qaeda leader Abu Laith al Libi, the rumor remains unconfirmed. Speculation over Gadahn's presence at the al Qaeda safe house in North Waziristan began on Jan. 29, the day of the airstrike. An unnamed US official denied Gadahn was killed in the strike. But on Feb. 7, The News reported, based on statements from Western sources, that Gadahn was killed in the airstrike. Gadahn was believed to...

(COLORADO SPRINGS) — When a caterer working for the United States Olympic Committee went to a supermarket in China last year, he encountered a piece of chicken — half of a breast — that measured 14 inches. “Enough to feed a family of eight,” said Frank Puleo, a caterer from Staten Island who has traveled to China to handle food-related issues. “We had it tested and it was so full of steroids that we never could have given it to athletes. They all would have tested positive.” In preparing to take a delegation of more than 600 athletes to the...

Good Neighbor Forum is proud to announce Mr. Lyle Laverty, US Department of the Interior's Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, will speak at the: 2nd Annual Good Neighbor Forum Topic: Food in the 21st Century How policies including conservation easements, ESA, Water, Roadless, EU, precautionary principles and trade will impact your food supply. March 15, 2008 9:00 am - 4:00 pm For more information contact: Roni 970-284-6874 Featured Speakers include Mr. Lawrence Kogan, Esq. - N.J. Will address Precautionary Principle, European Union and more. Dr. Corey Ciochhetti - CO Will address Ethics and Essence of being a...

February 1, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Dr. Mark Miravalle's sobering book, The Seven Sorrows of China, gives, in heart-wrenching detail, accounts of the brutality of the one-child policy and its effects on the Chinese people.Dr. Miravalle's account of his often intense experiences as he travels through modern China provides a disturbingly realistic picture of life outside of Beijing. The following is an excerpt from Part III of Dr. Miravalle's book, entitled The Third Sorrow: Abortion Without Conscience: The Indoctrination of a Nation: "The most alarming," he writes, "the most depressing, the most Copernican revelation of all that I have been...

BEIJING — A huge state-owned Chinese pharmaceutical company that exports to dozens of countries, including the United States, is at the center of a nationwide drug scandal after nearly 200 Chinese cancer patients were paralyzed or otherwise harmed last summer by contaminated leukemia drugs. Chinese drug regulators have accused the manufacturer of the tainted drugs of a cover-up and have closed the factory that produced them. In December, China’s Food and Drug Administration said that the Shanghai police had begun a criminal investigation and that two officials, including the head of the plant, had been detained. The drug maker, Shanghai...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A video showing California slaughterhouse workers abusing dairy cows -- a violation that raises questions about U.S. food safety -- was released by the Humane Society of the United States on Wednesday. The video, which one lawmaker said raises questions about the safety of the nation's food supply, shows Hallmark Meat Packing Co. workers administering repeated electric shocks to the downed cows -- animals that are too sick, weak or otherwise unable to stand on their own. Workers are seen kicking cows, jabbing them near their eyes, ramming them with a forklift and shooting high-intensity water up...

Customs officers have seized hundreds of headless rats which were being smuggled to London So African diners could crunch into their bones and flesh. Hundreds of rat corpses - which had been smoked to improve their flavour - were found at Tilbury Docks, in London. The grisly discovery was made by customs officials as they made a routine inspection of a shipment of synthetic hair at the docks. Closer investigation revealed boxes containing the carcases of 340 kilos of headless rats. The giant cane rats, which had been smoked prior to shipping, arrived in a shipment from Ghana and are...

No one can accuse the fine public servants of California’s Department of Food and Agriculture of sitting on their hands, and letting raw milk coliforms threaten the health and safety of California consumers. No, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. The junior he-men, working on behalf of the senior he-man-terminator, are out there…fighting the common enemy, raw milk coliforms.

(DENVER, CO) -- Last summer DC Brands International (PINKSHEETS: DCBR) announced its intention to acquire Hard Nutrition, the Denver-based vitamin and supplement company, to develop a groundbreaking new line of products. This beverage line would compete with the likes of Vitamin Water for the health conscious consumer, while delivering more bang for the buck. To accomplish this, DC Brands addressed the fundamental flaw in such products: if you put enough of the vitamins and supplements that your body needs in the water itself, you end up with a product that tastes so bad you cannot drink it. As a result,...

The blue area throughout the center of this image shows the cool sea surface temperature along the equator in the Pacific Ocean during this La Nina episode.Cool, wet conditions in the Northwest, frigid weather on the Plains, and record dry conditions in the Southeast, all signs that La Nina is in full swing. With winter gearing up, a moderate La Nina is hitting its peak. And we are just beginning to see the full effects of this oceanographic phenomenon, as La Nina episodes are typically strongest in January. A La Nina event occurs when cooler than normal sea surface temperatures...

Can Russian GPS system track my dog? Putin asks Mon Dec 24, 9:18 AM ET President Vladimir Putin said on Monday he was keen to use Russia's planned global positioning system GLONASS to look after his black Labrador Koni. "When can I buy hardware to equip my dog with so that she won't run away too far?" Putin was quoted as asking First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov during a briefing on progress towards developing a competitor to the U.S. GPS system. Russia is working to expand GLONASS, a system which locates objects on the ground using orbital satellites, and...

Antibiotics in the meat, pesticide used as preservatives, mercury in the drinking water -- Chinese author Zhou Qing says China's food industry is poisoning the country in its greed for profit. If ordinary people knew, there would be a revolution, he adds. Chinese journalist Zhou Qing, a critic of the regime, unearthed political dynamite in his two-year investigation of China's food industry. He interviewed grocers, restaurant owners, farmers and food factory managers for an exposé for which he won a prize as part of the German "Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage" in 2006. His book is a...

(FUQING, China) — Here in southern China, beneath the looming mountains of Fujian Province, lie dozens of enormous ponds filled with murky brown water and teeming with eels, shrimp and tilapia, much of it destined for markets in Japan and the West. Fuqing is one of the centers of a booming industry that over two decades has transformed this country into the biggest producer and exporter of seafood in the world, and the fastest-growing supplier to the United States. But that growth is threatened by the two most glaring environmental weaknesses in China: acute water shortages and water supplies contaminated...

AUSTRALIAN scientists are trying to give kangaroo-style stomachs to cattle and sheep in a bid to cut the emission of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, researchers say. Thanks to special bacteria in their stomachs, kangaroo flatulence contains no methane and scientists want to transfer that bacteria to cattle and sheep who emit large quantities of the harmful gas. -snip- Even farmers who laugh at the idea of environmentally friendly kangaroo farts say that's nothing to joke about, particularly given the devastating drought Australia is suffering. -snip-

AP Business Writer Tyson Foods Inc. plans to revise labels that say its fresh chicken is "raised without antibiotics" after the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it made a mistake in approving labels that use that term. The world's largest meat processor said it has been in discussions with the USDA since at least September about the label it introduced this summer in a major marketing campaign for its fresh chicken. According to a Nov. 6 letter from the USDA, the agency told Tyson it had mistakenly overlooked a feed additive, called ionophores, used for Tyson's chicken when it approved...

The government has a duty to look after the health of everyone and sometimes that means guiding or restricting our choices Lord John Krebs, of the Nuffield Council on Bioethics Government ministers should shrug off media accusations that they are running a nanny state and introduce tougher public health measures, experts say. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics said the time had come to consider a whole host of interventions in the UK after the introduction of a smoking ban. Its proposes raising alcohol prices, restricting pub opening hours and better food labelling to fight obesity. The government said it was...

Trade jitters, anti-China sentiment rouse voters By Andrea Hopkins Wed Nov 14, 1:56 PM ET It could be expected that Iraq would play a big role in the 2008 U.S. election campaign. But if recent populist rallies are an indication, another country may be rousing even more anger from voters: China. In all corners of an overflowing convention room this week in the industrial Rust-Belt city of Pittsburgh, voters, union officials and company executives alike railed against unfair trade -- and demanded U.S. politicians do something. "Our government refuses to stand up to the Chinese and make a level playing...

Where are the grocers? Chicagoans have been asking that question for some time now. Supermarkets followed middle-income families out of urban areas and into the suburbs 40 years ago, said Andy Fisher, executive director of the Community Food Security Coalition, a Los Angeles-based non-profit dedicated to helping low-income people get better access to nutritious food. But, indeed, the situation is steadily improving: grocers are returning to city neighborhoods that are gentrifying. Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Strack & Van Til, Garden Fresh Market and a yet-to-be-named entrant owned by Roundy's are vying against dominant players Jewel-Osco and Dominick's. Specialty delis and...

Thailand saves pangolins bound for China restaurants Nov. 10, 2007 BANGKOK (AFP) - Thai Customs officers said Saturday they have rescued more than 100 pangolins and arrested three men attempting to smuggle the endangered animals to China, where they were destined for the cooking pot. Customs officers Friday intercepted three pick-up trucks of pangolins, or scaly anteaters, which were to be smuggled across Laos to southwest China. The pangolins, worth an estimated one million baht (29,400 dollars), were trapped in the Indonesian jungle and smuggled via Malaysia and southern Thailand. "We investigated and found out that those pangolins are from...

U.S. agriculture giant Cargill recalls ground beef Agricultural giant Cargill Inc. said on Saturday it is recalling over 1 million pounds of ground beef distributed in the United States because of possible E. Coli contamination. Cargill Meat Solutions said the 1.084 million pounds (491,700 kg) of ground beef was produced at the Wyalusing, Pennsylvania, facility between October 8 and October 11, and distributed to retailers across the country. The U.S. Department of Agriculture returned a confirmed positive for the E. coli bacteria on a sample produced on October 8, the company said. Symptoms of E. coli 0157:H7 illness, the strain...

As Congress haggles over the farm bill, it is time again to consider updating the legislation. The Agriculture Adjustment Act, passed “to relieve the … national economic emergency” of the Great Depression has been the basis for most major agricultural legislation since the 1930s. The basic emphasis of each farm bill has been to raise the prices of crops and livestock in order to help farmers. Recently, President Bush has proposed changes in farm policy that are projected to reduce spending by $10 billion over the next five years. This is a step in the right direction, but it still...

WASHINGTON - Sept. 29, 2007 - Topps Meat Company, LLC, an Elizabeth, NJ, establishment, is voluntarily expanding its Sept. 25 recall to include a total of approximately 21.7 million pounds of frozen ground beef products because they may be contaminated with E. coli, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service announced today. The recall is being expanded based on an additional positive product sample reported by the New York Health Department, reported illnesses and findings from a food safety assessment conducted by FSIS at the establishment. There are currently 25 illnesses under investigation in Connecticut, Florida, Indiana,...

(TAIPEI, Taiwan) -- Some 92 percent of Chinese made medicines examined by local health authorities in the past few years, including those promoted for weight loss, as health foods, or herbal medicines, were found to contain banned drugs, Executive Yuan's Secretary-General Chen Ching-jun said at a news conference yesterday. According to Chen, the Department of Health (DOH) conducted examinations from 2005 to 2007 on 151 medicines submitted by local courts, health bureaus, police units, and customs offices and found that 139 failed tests for containing illegal substances. Chen said Taiwan has not lifted the ban on imports of Chinese-made medicines....

WASHINGTON — Simplicity Inc., a supplier of baby furniture to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) and other big retailers, is recalling about 1 million Chinese-made baby cribs which have been linked to at least two infant deaths, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said Friday. The drop-side can detach from the crib, which can create a dangerous gap that leads to an infant being trapped and suffocated, the safety agency said in a statement. It urged parents to check all Simplicity-made cribs to ensure the drop-side is installed correctly. The cribs, priced between $100 and $300, were sold by U.S. retailers...

(WASHINGTON) -- The Food and Drug Administration responded to jitters over Chinese imports recently by banning some of that country's seafood because of contaminants, but the agency has failed to apply the same standard to seafood supplied from other large exporters that use the same chemicals and fish-farming techniques. Imports from Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia, for instance, have continued apace, even though fish-farming techniques in those countries are similar to those cited by the FDA when it issued an import alert in June targeting Chinese fish. "This is not just a China problem," said Bradford Ward, a Washington attorney who...

Local importers who chose to discuss their testing efforts said they are primarily boosting precautions they were already taking. Matthew Fass started getting panicked calls and e-mails from his customers early in the summer. Concerns about tainted seafood from China had surfaced even before federal regulators issued an order to hold and test all imports of five types of Chinese-raised fish. Fass, president of Maritime Products International in Newport News, has sold bay scallops, catfish and other seafood from China for more than a decade. He had to jump to alleviate customers' fears. "How do we know that your product...

(FOSHAN, China) - At first, it was just some of the piglets. The mother gave birth to 13, all of them stillborn. Within a few weeks, however, she and other adult pigs in neighboring stalls became feverish and died. By the end of the summer, all but a handful of the village's 300 pigs had succumbed to the mysterious disease. "It was quick, very quick. Before we knew something was wrong, they were all dead," said Lo Jinyuan, a 55-year-old pig farmer in the village of Shandi. Moving rapidly from one farm to the next, the virus has been devastating...

Sometimes a restaurant screws up a dish with too much of this or too little of that. The customer complains and maybe gets a refund. Less frequently, the cook gets jail time. That's what happened early Friday morning in Union City, a small town in the southern suburbs of Atlanta. A McDonald's worker put too much salt on a Big N' Tasty burger that was served to a Union City police officer who got sick and was briefly hospitalized. The worker, Kendra Bull, 20, was arrested, handcuffed, charged with reckless conduct at 1:30 a.m. and spent the rest of the...

Both of our dogs were very sick at once, so we suspected it could be the pet food. So my husband called the company, and they said there were no recalls at this point in time, so my husband asked if the wheat gluten still comes from China. They told him that they make it in the U.S., but will use the "global market" (code word for China, imo) if they can't make enough in the U.S. to meet their demands. I decided to start giving our dogs people food, and they are both feeling great; in fact, the old...

China could become a major exporter of beef despite concerns over health and safety and government practices that restrict imports to China, a U.S. cattle industry spokesman told the federal International Trade Commission Thursday. Eric Nelson, representing the Ranchers-Cattlemen Action Legal Fund/United Stock Growers of America, testified on how Chinese government practices and policies could affect U.S. agriculture, particularly beef and cattle. Nelson is chairman of R-CALF/USA's trade committee. With reports of China using lead-based paint on toys and including deadly contaminants in pet food as a backdrop to the hearing, Nelson said China doesn't currently export much beef to...

US and Chinese officials recently met in Beijing for agricultural trade talks. However, the two parties failed to agree with issues regarding poultry trade. China's zero-tolerance for salmonella in raw poultry was discussed in length. "How can you produce poultry without traces of salmonella? It's killed when you cook it," said USDA's Undersecretary for Farm and Foreign Agricultural Services Mark Keenum, who led the US delegation. As for China, "They simply reaffirmed their position," he stated. On the other hand, Keenum said that the USDA is working to produce rules that would allow China to export cooked chicken products to...