Free Republic

Is it possible that one or both of the major party presidential nominations could be, for all practical purposes, decided after just two states, Iowa and New Hampshire, have voted? This may sound crazy to the casual observer of American politics, but the answer is yes. But how can that be, with Iowa and New Hampshire being such small states and accounting for only a miniscule portion of the national delegate count in either party? The catalyst is here not the size of the states or their raw numbers of delegates, of course, but the momentum those states can provide....

Source: Northwestern University Date: July 26, 2007 Low Literacy Equals Early Death Sentence Science Daily — Not being able to read doesn't just make it harder to navigate each day. Low literacy impairs people's ability to obtain critical information about their health and can dramatically shorten their lives. A new study from Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine shows that older people with inadequate health literacy had a 50 percent higher mortality rate over five years than people with adequate reading skills. Inadequate or low health literacy is defined as the inability to read and comprehend basic health-related materials such...

WASHINGTON, July 6, 2007 – A premature withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq would leave the country at the mercy of its enemies, a senior U.S. military officer said today. Thanks to surge-provided reinforcements, U.S. and Iraqi security forces participating in Operation Marne Torch are now making “significant progress” in knocking out insurgent sanctuaries located within his battle space, Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of Multinational Division Center and the 3rd Infantry Division, said today during a satellite-carried teleconference with Pentagon reporters. However, “it would be a mess,” Lynch emphasized, if the surge forces were withdrawn as part of...

Early Humans Dug for Food, Study Suggests Ker Than Staff Writer LiveScience.com Tue May 1, 9:25 PM ET Early humans might have turned to plant roots and underground storage organs when fruit was scarce, a new study suggests. A 1999 analysis of teeth belonging to two species of hominids, Australopithecus aferensis and Paranthropus robustus, living 2 million years ago found chemical evidence that one-third of their diet consisted of grasses and sedges, or the meat of animals that ate such plants. The finding puzzled some scientists because the hominids had flat, thickly enameled molars best suited for chewing hard, brittle...

04/13/2007 BY NOBUYUKI WATANABE, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN Humans may have trekked up a mountain 35,000 years ago in what is now Tochigi Prefecture to dig up raw obsidian ore to process into stone tools, archaeologists say. Trapezoid stone tools unearthed on Mount Takaharayama in the prefecture will shed light on early human history in Japan, they added. The tools indicate human beings at the start of the Upper Paleolithic Era (roughly 35,000 years ago) were already "mining" raw stones to produce tools, not just picking them up off the ground, the researchers said. Previous finds had led experts to believe...

The earliest life on Earth might have been just as purple as it is green today, a scientist claims. Ancient microbes might have used a molecule other than chlorophyll to harness the Sun’s rays, one that gave the organisms a violet hue. Chlorophyll, the main photosynthetic pigment of plants, absorbs mainly blue and red wavelengths from the Sun and reflects green ones, and it is this reflected light that gives plants their leafy color. This fact puzzles some biologists because the sun transmits most of its energy in the green part of the visible spectrum. “Why would chlorophyll have this...

WASHINGTON, April 4, 2007 – Murders and kidnappings, the hallmarks of sectarian violence, have decreased in Baghdad since reinforcements of U.S. and Iraqi security forces began to flow into the city in mid-February as part of Operation Fahrd al-Qanoon, a senior U.S. military official said in Baghdad today. “A clear reduction in the number of kidnappings and execution-style murders” has taken place across Baghdad since Fahrd al-Qanoon, or “Enforce the Law,” was launched to secure and tamp down violence in Baghdad and western Iraq, Navy Rear Adm. Mark I. Fox, spokesman for Multinational Force Iraq, said to representatives of...

WASHINGTON, March 25, 2007 ? An early withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq would be a catastrophic mistake, Iraq?s Ambassador to the United States said here today. ?If we set out a date now for a complete withdrawal [of U.S. forces from Iraq}, you can bet your bottom dollar that the terrorists will be waiting for that date and attacking and launching their biggest attacks? on Iraqi civilians and government institutions, Samir Sumaidaie told CNN Late Edition television news show host Wolf Blitzer today. The Defense Department?s emergency fiscal 2007 supplemental requests includes $93.4 billion to help fund U.S....

Pubic lice leapt from gorillas to early humans 18:26 07 March 2007 NewScientist.com news service Roxanne Khamsi A genetic analysis of pubic lice suggests the parasites were transferred between early humans and gorillas about 3.3 million years ago. Researchers say the findings suggest close contact between our ancestors and gorillas. But they claim it is far more likely that early humans caught the lice from sleeping in abandoned gorilla nests than from having sex with gorillas. Pubic lice – also known as crabs – can leave irritating spots on the skin when they feed on the blood of their hosts....

NEW YORK - Two months before the 1992 presidential election, an NBC reporter cornered a man to ask whether he preferred Bill Clinton or President Bush. The man said he didn't care. He just wanted them off his TV screen. Imagine how he'd feel today? The 2008 campaign is already playing out so intensely that it dominates airtime at a point where only political junkies usually pay attention. Remember: it's 20 months before voters will make the ultimate decision. This is uncharted territory for people in both politics and television, who wonder when campaign fatigue will set in. Many Americans...

Early Europeans unable to stomach milk 22:00 26 February 2007 NewScientist.com news service Roxanne Khamsi Researchers analysing the DNA in Neolithic human remains claim to have uncovered the first direct evidence that modern humans have evolved changes in response to natural selection. Just 7000 years ago, Europeans were unable to digest milk, according to a new analysis of fossilised bone samples – nowadays more than 90% of this population can. Europeans must have incurred a rapid change in their genetic make-up because it held an evolutionary advantage for them to be able to digest milk, says Mark Thomas at University...

NEW YORK - A Hollywood-style brawl with the campaign of rival Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record) is the latest in a series of speed bumps tripping up Hillary Rodham Clinton's early presidential moves. From the Clinton team's decision to criticize — and therefore publicize — producer David Geffen's complaints about both Clintons to increasingly skeptical questions about Sen. Clinton's nuanced explanation of her 2002 vote authorizing the Iraq war, it became apparent even a battle-tested front-runner can fall prey to missteps. On top of that, voters were reminded of the downside of the first Clinton presidency. "Her explanation for...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Animals at a Russian zoo have started mating early this year because of steamy temperatures in the warmest Russian winter for a generation, zoo officials said on Wednesday. Temperatures have recently fallen to more arctic norms, but the unusual heat allowed pumas and camels to shrug off the winter blues and start frolicking early. "Some animals have started their mating season early this year because of the warm winter," Maxim Kozlov, the curator at Ivanovo Zoo, north-east of Moscow, told Reuters by telephone. Russia's spectacular winters came to an end this year in European Russia with little...

12/13/2006 - SAN ANTONIO (AFPN) -- The holiday season can be a time of cheer, but often is tough for many military families. Operation Homefront, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing emergency assistance to military members and their families, along with Wal-Mart, Sam's Club and America Supports You, joined forces to make the season special for some servicemembers and their loved ones. The result was Operation Christmas. Members of the Operation Homefront program visited the Texas National Guard Armory Dec. 13. This was one of several stops for them. "It's a time when we can come together to celebrate the...

FORT HUACHUCA — The Thunderbirds were treated to more than a turkey dinner Wednesday as part of a Thanksgiving event. The Thunderbird Dining Facility was deck out with the sounds, smells and sights of the holiday. Solider cooks of the 11th Signal Brigade, the unit usually referred to as the Thunderbirds, went all out in preparing food for the feast. The rations noncommissioned-officer-in-charge of the military eatery listed the amount of meat, fowl and seafood the cooks prepared for the meal. The list from Sgt. Brisher McGrath included 330 pounds of prime rib, 150 pounds of turkey, 108 pounds of...

WASHINGTON Democrats pursued their best chance in a dozen years to take control of the House from scandal-scarred Republicans on Tuesday in a midterm election marked by voter frustration with the Iraq war and President Bush. As the first polls closed, Rep. Harold Rogers, a 13-term Republican, and Rep. Ben Chandler, two-term Democrat, easily won re-election in Kentucky, as expected. Neither race was competitive. With a message of change, Democrats sought to pick up the 15 seats they needed to reclaim power after 12 years in the minority and clear the way for Rep. Nancy Pelosi of California to become...

GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas may appoint an emergency government or call early elections after the latest efforts to form a unity coalition with Hamas failed, his aides said on Tuesday. A stalemate between Abbas and the Hamas-led government over agreeing a unity cabinet has triggered the worst internal fighting in a decade and stirred fears of civil war. The Hamas Islamist movement denied talks were at a dead end, but said the latest initiative, presented in Gaza by Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, was unacceptable because it included recognition of Israel. Abbas...

Early humans followed the coast By Paul Rincon Science reporter, BBC News Coastlines were rich in resources for early humans Learning how to live off the sea may have played a key role in the expansion of early humans around the globe. After leaving Africa, human groups probably followed coastal routes to the Americas and South-East Asia. Professor Jon Erlandson says the maritime capabilities of ancient humans have been greatly underestimated. He has found evidence that early peoples in California pursued a sophisticated seafaring lifestyle 10,000 years ago. Anthropologists have long regarded the exploitation of marine resources as a recent...

BOSTON - In a change certain to shake up college admissions, Harvard University will ditch its "early action" round of applications on the grounds that it favors wealthier students over minorities and the poor. It called on other universities to follow suit. Starting next year, Harvard will eliminate its early round of admissions that allows high school students to apply by Nov. 1 of their senior year and receive a decision _ accept, reject or defer _ by Dec. 15. Applicants hoping to enter in the fall of 2008 will face a common application due date of Jan. 1. "The...

Dawn Sneaks: Old birds sing early, cuckold sleepyheads Susan Milius Among European birds called blue tits, the early bird gets more than a worm. Older males start singing some 5 or 6 minutes earlier in the dawn chorus and attract more of the promiscuous females than younger males do, researchers report in an upcoming issue of Animal Behaviour. SLY SONGS. Among blue tits, males' dawn chorus may be a networking system for encounters with wandering females. K. Delhey In Europe, the springtime dawn chorus includes the voices of male blue tits (Cyanistes caeruleus), colorful little cousins of chickadees. Those males...