Free Republic

This month's features: The dangers of interspecies internet dating ... and more !

A Colorado couple researching the shroud dispute radiocarbon dating of the alleged burial cloth of Jesus, and Oxford has agreed to help them reexamine the findings. The tie that binds John and Rebecca Jackson is about 4 feet by 14 feet, woven of herringbone twill linen. It once led to their romance; years later, it still dominates their thoughts and fills their conversations. It brought Rebecca, an Orthodox Jew, to the Catholic Church; it led John to suspend himself from an 8-foot-tall cross to study how blood might have stained the cloth. Together, the two have committed to memory every...

DALLAS (ABP)—Men are disappearing from the church. According to the Barna Research Group, there are 11 million to 13 million more American women who are born again than there are born-again men. While nine out of 10 senior pastors are men, a majority of regular church attenders are women. Not only are women the majority of born-again American Christians, the Barna Group reports, “Women are the backbone of the Christian congregations in America.” Perhaps indicative of women’s sense of spirituality, 41 percent of women said they have set specific spiritual goals they hope to accomplish in the coming year or...

Magnetic fields used to date Indian artifacts June 22, 2008 REPUBLIC COUNTY - You might be surprised what you can learn from a campfire. A campfire that has been cold for, say, 300 years. Stacey Lengyel hopes she can tell, within 30 years or so, when it was used. Lengyel, a research associate in anthropology at the Illinois State Museum, is the country's leading authority on archeomagnetic dating, a process built around two phenomena: when heated, magnetic particles reorient themselves to magnetic north; and over time, magnetic north is, literally, all over the map. "They call it a 'drunken wander,'...

Pumice as a Time Witness Technische Universität WienJune 23,2008 Three different pumice samples A chemist of Vienna University of Technology demonstrates how chemical fingerprints of volcanic eruptions and numerous pumice lump finds from archaeological excavations illustrate relations between individual advanced civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean. Thanks to his tests and to the provenancing of the respective pumice samples to partially far-reaching volcanic eruptions, it became possible to redefine a piece of cultural history from the second millenium B.C. Vienna (TU). During the Bronze Age, between the years 3000 and 1000 B.C., the Mediterranean was already intensely populated. Each individual culture,...

Police were appealing for witnesses today following the attempted murder of a man who was doused in petrol and set on fire in east London. The 20-year-old, who is fighting for his life in hospital, was torched as he sat in his car in Forest Gate. It is believed the Hindi victim, who suffered 65 per cent burns in the attack, was targeted because he was dating a Muslim girlfriend. He had just parked his car, a green Honda Prelude, in St George’s Road when he was approached by the suspect or suspects and had petrol poured over him before...

So you’re a swinging single and you’ve had a one-night stand. What’s the etiquette for establishing boundaries, calling the day after and getting out without hurting feelings? We have everything you need to know here. WWhile most of us are looking for that special someone to spend our lives with, th single life dictates that sometimes the opportunity for companionship present itself in the form of a one-night stand. While a one-time roll in the hay isn’t exactl emotionally fulfilling, sex in any form can be relaxing, enjoyable, and fun So maybe it’s closing time and you haven’t found Mr....

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Forget about passing notes in study hall; some teens are now using their cell phones to flirt and send nude pictures of themselves. The instant text, picture and video messages have become part of some teens' courtship behavior, police and school officials said. The messages often spread quickly and sometimes find their way to public Web sites. "I've seen everything from your basic striptease to sexual acts being performed," said Reynoldsburg police Detective Brian Marvin, a member of the FBI Cyber Crime Task Force of Central Ohio. "You name it, they will do it at their home...

Women are increasingly rejecting a desperate, Bridget Jones-like search for a perfect partner, preferring instead to enjoy their single status and refusing to compromise by settling for 'Mr Mediocre'. Caroline Davies reports Sunday April 13, 2008 The Observer They are successful, spirited and single and their growing numbers are contributing to a major change in the make-up of the traditional British household. 'Freemales' - manless women who are happy to remain so for the present at least - are now a force to be reckoned with and are overturning the dated Bridget Jones image of the lonely woman staring despondently...

Some years ago, I was awakened early one morning by a phone call from a friend. She had just broken up with a boyfriend she still loved and was desperate to justify her decision. “Can you believe it!” she shouted into the phone. “He hadn’t even heard of Pushkin!” We’ve all been there. Or some of us have. Anyone who cares about books has at some point confronted the Pushkin problem: when a missed — or misguided — literary reference makes it chillingly clear that a romance is going nowhere fast. At least since Dante’s Paolo and Francesca fell in...

Welcome to the Weekend Singles' Thread The last thread I hosted was called "The Bucket List" and was based loosely on a movie that I'd never seen. I'm repeating the idea of threads about movies I've never seen again this week. In my defense, this one wasn't my idea. Someone else suggested a discussion of platonic friendships between men and women and the idea from the "Harry met Sally" movie that those friendships can't exist. I'm going to add an idea from a news story this week in part because the story seemed amusing and in part because I wonder...

The editors of Marie Claire advise against bad tips, blow-drying, and cleaning your gun. We'll take their word for it. 19. Reveal how much your car cost. 18. Clean your gun. 17. Polish high school trophies (which you still have displayed). 16. Refer to your mother as your best friend. 15. Rap. 14. Check out our assistant/roommate/the baby-sitter. 13. Question our footwear. 12. Blow-dry your hair. 11. Tip less than 20 percent. 10. Celebrity impressions. 09. Impressions of us. 08. Forget to carry cash. 07. Flip it, flop it, swing it around, tug on it, adjust it, scratch it, or...

There is a controversy over one UK dating agency's offer to connect men with Czech women "unspoiled by feminism." Feminist domestic violence advocates are protesting, and one politician said, "Material like this is frankly disgusting and I am certain that everyone will share my revulsion." My feeling about international dating agencies in general is that I wouldn't do it, but I wouldn't criticize it. If that's what men want, fine, it's their lives. As for the comment that has generated the controversy--women "unspoiled by feminism"--I have a few thoughts: 1) If it really is an advertisement for doormat women, then...

In the digital age, having an affair has never been easier. Author Angela Levin spent five months interviewing middle-class professionals for an extensive study that charts the rise of the no-strings-attached* relationship. In the first of a three-part investigation, she reveals why the UK is in the grip of an infidelity epidemic. 'Been left parked in the garage of marriage too long, battery getting flat and needs somebody to give it a spark of life, full tank and ready to go. "Present owner does not like going for a ride any more but am not up for sale. Seeking discreet...

Returning to Chabad headquarters in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, for a Shabbat is an exhilarating experience. Lubavitchers are arguably the most alive people in the world and there is a pulse and electricity in the air that can scarcely be found anywhere else. [A view of Crown Heights.] A view of Crown Heights. Photo: Courtesy What I did not expect, however, was to be approached by a large number of young rabbinical students of marriageable age who wanted counseling as to how to overcome their obsession with a woman's looks on dates. Some of the young men who approached me had...

Last month, a boy asked my 16-year-old daughter to his school's homecoming dance. She agreed to go, bought a new dress and made a hairdresser appointment. The boy never bought tickets to the dance. Neither did his friends. They decided that attending homecoming wouldn't be cool, and instead planned to just dress up that night, go out for dinner and then hang out with their dates at someone's house. My daughter was disappointed, as were her girlfriends. They would have loved to have been taken to the dance, to show off their dresses, to see and be seen. At 6...

The reference alludes to my old “Maureen Dowd Two Minute Mock” feature on Mensnewsdaily.com which ran in 2003 and 2004. Ms. Dowd, the ancien debutante of the New York Times, is the perfect embodiment of all things that conservatives despise. Her reflexive leftism, misandric inclinations, disdain for America, obsession with race, devout elitism, and appalling self-righteousness made her an obvious target. Yet these attributes are also why she so exhausts. As with most leftists, there’s simply no there there. Irrational garbage can only be bashed for so long before the drowsiness sets in. Eventually, her piñata disintegrated into diversity flag...

"Sometimes the names alone provided hints as to the prospects for a lasting relationship. Somehow gunilla_luvs_prozac didn’t seem quite ready, whereas cum2mama was if anything a little too ready. Messages from hysterical_hilda, katsb4men and imeldamarcos were similarly binned. But diligent research eventually brought its rewards as I discovered that beyond the mundane Majas lay clusters of intriguing Tinas, Linas and Sabrinas."

Dating Swedish men: bring your own beers Dating in Sweden: When Isabel March arrived in Sweden from America, she set out to find her own blond bombshell. But dating US-style left her ill-prepared for dealing with the strong, silent types she found in Scandinavia. Many people who move to Sweden – especially those relocating to small villages in Lappland – are beguiled by a strong, silent Nordic type or one of the members of the Swedish Bikini Team. But despite the hordes of love immigrants who have been caught in the net of a blond bombshell, it often seems easier...

eHarmony allows clients to discriminate on the race of potential mates. Even though it's only acting on the wishes of its clients, matching services that discriminate by race may violate a statute dating back to the Civil War that prohibits race discrimination in contracting. Think about it. eHarmony is a for-profit company that takes $50 from black clients and refuses to treat them the same (match them with the same people) as some white clients. A restauraunt would be in a lot of trouble if it refused to seat Hispanic customers in a section where customers stated a preference to...

In an episode of "Seinfeld" that lays bare the characters' secular sensibilities, Elaine is shocked to learn that her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Puddy, is a believing Christian. "So is it a problem that I'm not really religious?" she asks him upon realizing their differing worldviews. "Not for me," he answers. "I'm not the one going to hell." Though Elaine herself acknowledges that she doesn't believe in an afterlife, she becomes increasingly angry with Puddy for not caring more about her eternal damnation. Finally, she explodes: "You should be trying to save me!"

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Science is confirming what most women know: When given the choice for a mate, men go for good looks. And guys won't be surprised to learn that women are much choosier about partners than they are. "Just because people say they're looking for a particular set of characteristics in a mate, someone like themselves, doesn't mean that is what they'll end up choosing," Peter M. Todd, of the cognitive science program at Indiana University, Bloomington, said in a telephone interview.

Science is confirming what most women know: When given the choice for a mate, men go for good looks. And guys won't be surprised to learn that women are much choosier about partners than they are. "Just because people say they're looking for a particular set of characteristics in a mate, someone like themselves, doesn't mean that is what they'll end up choosing," Peter M. Todd, of the cognitive science program at Indiana University, Bloomington, said in a telephone interview. Researchers led by Todd report in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that their study found...

Welcome to the Weekend Singles' Thread Welcome to the thread. We're glad to have you here. This weekend's topic is online dating sites. We've all seen the ads for e-Harmony on TV and for Match.com at various places around the internet. Yahoo has a personals section. AOL has a personals section. Craig's List has a personals section (if your immune system is strong enough). The local ISPs in most major cities often have personals ads somewhere on their websites. Many specialty websites have arisen for special interest personals. ConservativeMatch.com and RepublicanPeopleMeet come to mind. The question is "Are any of...

Sex, Romance Fades At JDate As World Of Jewish Fine Tunes Dating By Carole Rubinstein Israel News Agency Jerusalem ----August 17 ....... Talk about sex appeal, then talk about the World of Jewish. Talk about boredom and tired formulas, then talk JDate. There was a time when Jewish singles looking for a match through the Internet went straight to JDate, the largest Internet based Jewish dating service. The idea was simple, fill in a short questionnaire based on your dating preferences and the JDate search engine would return a listing of all those of the opposite sex that answer to...

WELLINGTON (AFP) - They say you are what you eat, and growing numbers of vegans are shunning sex with meat-eaters because they see them as "a graveyard for animals", a New Zealand researcher says. These vegans not only refuse to eat meat or animal products but refuse to have sexual contact with meat-eaters because their bodies are made up of dead animals, the researcher was reported saying in The Press newspaper on Tuesday. Annie Potts, co-director of the New Zealand Centre of Human and Animal Studies at New Zealand's Canterbury University, said she coined the term vegansexuals during her research....

Time was when a woman had to please a man. He was her meal ticket for life. She competed to catch him, dieting, simpering, smiling. The fear for the woman was of being left on the shelf, humiliated. No more. Now women want to be stick-like and beautiful to please themselves or impress other women - not men. Women like to have partners: they don't need to have partners. And so it is the man who has to make the effort to please. He, too, diets, uses cosmetics, has his hair styled - and, in increasing numbers, as he gets...

Green Dating – Are You An Ecosexual? Heather Buchanan Friday, July 13, 2007 The “green” buzzword has infiltrated our consciousness in terms of what we eat and how we recycle and when we drive to the store or walk. Now it’s even entered the equation of “Your carbon-footprint-free place or mine?” The question is: Are you an ecosexual? The concept of green dating used to be restricted to SWM seeks SWF to share life in yurt with long walks in protest rallies and vegan restaurants. But even if you don’t throw around words in personal ads like “family oriented pagan...

A lawsuit filed by a Northern California lesbian against dating service eHarmony represents the types of excesses of the gay movement which do so much damage to their efforts to achieve public acceptance. According to the Reuters article linked above, eHarmony "has long rankled the gay community with its failure to offer a 'men seeking men' or 'women seeking women' option."

The Hill set out to test Henry Kissinger’s maxim, "Power is the ultimate aphrodisiac," by investigating whether "Democrats, newly empowered, now have an edge on Republicans when it comes to dating prowess" and concludes that "Romantic opportunities have increased for Democrats": As one Democratic campaign strategist remarked, "Taking back the majority certainly has its perks. With the shift in power has come a shift in social standing for once-shunned Democratic operatives. It seems everyone from lowly interns to nerdy policy wonks have a full dance card so long as they have a ‘D’ behind their name."The strategist added that...

One of the more delicate areas I dealt with while running a dating service for more than two decades was the issue of race, and more specifically racial stereotyping by prospective members. Stereotyping in itself is a volatile issue, and at some point during intake interviews, I often repeated the phrase “While there is some truth to all stereotypes, there are certainly many exceptions to every single one.” However, when one is dealing with a sample of more than 20,000 single, divorced, and widowed men and women, I feel confident and comfortable making certain statements in a column titled The...

How do these words/phrases grab you ? Any first hand experiences to share? Love (lust?) at first Sight.. Forgiveness.. Lets just be friends.. Soul mates.. Friday the Thirteenth Hi there Freeper Friends & TGIF! . Little hectic (understatement) on the home front.. I thought originally I would post tonight the thread I had for 4 weeks ago when my computer decided to go on vacation BUT it needed a lot of work & I had a full/crazy day & needed to go to funeral parlor this evening so just thought I would open up the conversation with some phrases...

ABSTRACT: In this meta-analysis of online dating and speed dating, we propose a corollary to the Flaw-O-Matic theory of romantic revulsion. Current research reveals that the Flaw-O-Matic, a mechanism in the brain that instantly finds fault with any potential mate, can be reoriented positively in certain conditions through a newly identified process, the Sally Field Effect. ...Just as Darwin could have predicted, the researchers have found that women are pickier than men. While men concentrate mainly on looks and will ask out a lot of women as long as they’re above a certain threshold of attractiveness, women focus on fewer...

Howdy, people! Snugs is busy taking care of her dad so I’m the host tonight. Please pray for snugs and her dad. Now, on to tonight’s topic: summer. What’s your favorite thing to do during the summer? Do you have anything you do every summer? What are your plans for this summer? Usually, I look forward to going to the beach. My grandmother lives two blocks from the beach in the Isle of Palms. However, this summer, I’m more excited about going to Vermont. Why? Because that is where my adorably newborn nephew lives. And hopefully, I get to spend...

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) - Jason Pellegrino (an 8.2 on the attractiveness scale) says the problem with Internet dating services is not enough really hot-looking people. So he and a business partner have created HotEnough.org, a sort of online version of Studio 54, the exclusive '70s disco where gaining admission was a pitiless Darwinian exercise. HotEnough.org is for "fit, good-looking" people. Prospective members must submit pictures and must be rated an 8 or higher by people already in the club. Once they're in, they are permitted to e-mail other "hotties" for $9.95 a month. "It's definitely hard to get through that...

Find a partner or grab your favorite beverage & listen to some Irish tunes .A couple of wave files - full-length, lilting, Irish melodies - they are so beautiful! I hope you can open them, or "save target as" to your hard drive and listen to them later. "My Wild Irish Rose" ~ John Gary "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" ~ John Gary MIDIS "Irish Lullabye" "The Last Rose of Summer" "When Irish Eyes are Smiling" "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen" "Danny Boy" Why Saint Patrick's Day? Saint Patrick's Day has come to be associated with everything...

NEW WORDS FOR 2007 : Essential vocabulary additions for the workplace (and elsewh404 isere)!!! 1. BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible. 2. SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager, who flies in, makes a lot of noise, craps on everything, and then leaves. 3. ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working hard 4. SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming upstream only to get screwed and die in the end. 5....

When John got divorced after 12 years of marriage, he took a deep breath and launched into the dating scene. "And wham, with my very first girlfriend, I caught herpes," he says. "You feel betrayed and all of a sudden separated from the rest of the world. I thought at the time that the girl who gave it to me and I were the only people in the world who had it." But John and his date are far from alone. And the growing number of people in similar situations has created a new industry: Internet dating sites just for...

Laughter is the BEST medicine! Humor.. takes many forms and varies with taste. Lets all share some of the things that to us might be funny.. whether they be written, grphics, links to urls (and our offerings of U-tube). Remembering PG13 or better is the guideline. Here are a few of mine to start us off Saddam's obit All the obits written about Saddam were incomplete. All left out a complete listing of all his surviving sons and daughters. A corrected paragraph follows. He was predeceased by two sons, Uday and Qusay, and is survived by 14 sons: Suflay,...

In a culture where young women take pride in having guilt-free sex with partners they barely know, Nolan and Aparicio are rarities. They have genuine boyfriends, not hook ups. "I don't know anyone else who's in a relationship, do you?" Nolan asks Aparicio. Nope, no one else. Hooking up has come to define sexual relationships for most of today's teens and young women. It can mean anything from kissing and touching to oral sex or intercourse. Vagueness is its hallmark. "A girl can say, 'I hooked up with so-and-so,' and no one knows what she did. It protects you and...

....Consider the element of choice. A generation ago, a single in search of romance might encounter a dozen or so potential partners. Today, he or she can choose from among thousands. But can all these choices add up to blissful companionship for everyone? A study of jam suggests an intriguing answer. Gourmet jam isn't much like a mate, but in a study by psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper of Columbia University and Stanford University, respectively, customers presented with only a few flavors at a supermarket display were much more likely to buy some jam and also more likely to...

Valentine’s Day approaches, but it seems consumers are being standoffish about online dating. The number of U.S. Internet users visiting dating Web sites is falling, says a report set to be released Monday. Last year, only 10% of Internet users visited at least one online dating site, down from 16% in 2005 and 21% in 2002, says the report by Jupiter Research. The decline in unique visitors hasn’t yet resulted in a decline in subscribers, the study found, but the trend likely will at some point, analysts say. Other research firms track the same trend. Traffic to seven of the...

Friends who know me weren't surprised to learn that my Zionist boyfriend and I broke up last summer shortly after Israel began dropping bombs on Lebanese children. But the friends who really knew me were surprised to learn that I had even dated a Zionist to begin with. In my defense, I thought he was just Jewish when it all began - a progressive one who was white but had tendencies for black supremacy. Politically, we aligned well, so I figured that he'd automatically agree with my stance on Israel-Palestine. (If you don't already know: It's Israel's fault more than...

New project of the Israeli Mental Health Association provides a platform for mentally disabled people to socialize without the stigma Meital Yasur-Beit Or Published: 02.05.07, 18:25 The Israel Mental Health Association, Enosh , has recently launched the "Makshivim " (listening) website - a virtual club designed to fill the social void many mentally handicapped people experience. "We realized that come 8 p.m. many of our members have no one to talk to," says Sinai Mitkin a volunteer at Enosh's Netanya branch. "One woman, for example, did not come to the meetings because she is in a wheelchair. Through the site...

On Tuesday, former president Gerald R. Ford, Jr. died at the age of 93. He led a full life beginning on July 14, 1913 in Omaha, Nebraska. The future president was a star athlete and the captain of the Grand Rapids South High School football team. He was offered contracts with the Detroit Lions and the Green Bay Packers but declined so that he could attend Yale Law School. Shortly after his graduation, an outside event changed his plans. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Gerald Ford enlisted in the Navy. Shortly after returning from the war, Ford decided to...

BANGKOK (AFP) - "I could not find anybody in the States. There was nothing in America for me. That's why I'm here," says the clean-cut 52-year-old bachelor, who bears a passing resemblance to Hollywood actor Michael Douglas. Sullivan, an emergency nurse from Florida, is one of a growing number of foreign men seeking young and beautiful Thai brides via the Internet. Speaking at the Bangkok office of Sweet Singles, a Thai bride-by-Internet company, Sullivan says he has decided to "go beyond boundaries" in his search for a wife after a futile quest in the United States. "American women in my...

Being semi-“out there” in the public eye via my Townhall.com column, ‘net presence, ministry, a little TV and my radio show, I get to hear from a lot of people. One thing I hear constantly from single girls is their dating and marital horror stories. I hear comments like, “Guys are jackasses, jerks, scum, sleaze bags, dufuses, low lifes, lazy, abusive, etc. . . .” I’ll grant that some of my male brethren can be brutish, but . . . uh . . . at the end of the day . . . unless you’re a pre-teen girl who’s part...

Recently, two friends of mine opened up to me about their virginity. "Roger," a writer, confessed that at 31 he's still waiting for the perfect girl to give it up to, while Lianne Stokes, a comedian, divulged that she only just popped her cherry at the ripe age of 30. Roger insisted on using a pseudonym, worried about the potential social damage revealing his virginal status might bring. "You'll never be considered normal; it's a label you don't want," he says. For these "hidden" virgins, who are fearful of being treated like freaks, watching sex from afar can be lonely...

Tomorrow Kate of Spice Island will be sharing her stories of the “Sixth Sense” More Linky Links Great Halloween Craft Prjoects Bobbing for apples Hangman Game Curly Bill’s Halloween Thread 2005 Curly Bill’s Halloween Thread 2006 THE HAUNTED PALACE BY E. A. POE, ESQ. In the greenest of our valleys By good angels tenanted, Once a fair and stately palace — Snow-white palace — reared its head. In the monarch thought's dominion — It stood there! Never Seraph spread his pinion Over fabric half so fair. Banners yellow, glorious, golden, On its roof did float and flow — This...

Amish Weddings Family is the core element in the Amish church, and choosing a mate is the most important decision in an Amishman's life. Boys and girls begin their search for a spouse when they turn sixteen. By the time a young woman turns twenty or a young man is in his early twenties, he or she is probably looking forward to the wedding day. But several definite steps must be taken by a couple before they may marry. Both must join the Amish church. They are baptized into the Amish faith and are responsible for following the Ordnung....