Free Republic

Explorer who discovered the 'Titanic' sets out to prove that Noah's flood formed Black Sea By David Usborne 23 July 2003 The Bible tells us how the Great Flood happened, compelling Noah to herd all of animal life into his Ark. The skies opened and it rained incessantly, in fact for 40 days and 40 nights. But some scientists have another theory altogether and this week an expedition will leave for the Black Sea to try to prove it. Among the team will be Robert Ballard, the American underwater explorer who became famous when he found the Titanic beneath the...

This past weekend, my son and I went on his troop's annual father-son hike. His troop is one of many in the Robert E. Lee Council of the Boy Scouts of America, which is headquartered in Richmond, VA. On Sunday, during the church service at the end of the hike, it was announced that the Council directors had voted to change its name from The Robert E. Lee Council, which has been in use for many decades, to something else. This morning, the news broke on the local radio station: WRVA 1140 AM, Richmond's Morning News with Jimmy Barrett.

Philadelphia’s Cradle of Liberty Boy Scout Council self-destructed last week. Its executive board voted unanimously to include "sexual orientation" in its nondiscrimination code. The outrageous move came after years of intense pressure from radical homosexual and atheist rights groups in the area and nationwide. The Philadelphia Council is the third largest local council in the country, serving 87,000 boys and men. It is an unfortunate addition to a list of councils that have eagerly given the finger to the Boy Scouts of America and its associated moral codes. Last year, San Francisco and Boston became the first branches to reject...

I just downloaded and installed Mozilla and it seems to be better than the Explorer 5.5 I had been using. What is the downside to this? It seems to do everything I used explorer for, plus it has killed all unrequested popups, yet permits popups that I request (like tvguide). Is there something I'm missing here?

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2002 November 26 Name This Martian Robot Drawing Credit: Mars Exploration Rover Mission Team, JPL, NASA Explanation: NASA will launch two robots to Mars next year and you can help name them. The Mars Exploration Rovers are scheduled for launch on or near this coming June, when Mars and Earth are relatively close in their orbits. The landing craft are expected to touch down on Mars in January...

A simple way to exploit an unfixed defect in Internet Explorer has been discovered that allows malicious web sites, and possibly malicious email messages read with Outlook or Outlook Express, to take control of a computer. All you would need to do is click a web link and the owner of the web site could take almost any action they desired on your computer. Simple, working exploit software was recently published to a public mailing list. There is no patch to fix the problem. Anti-virus and personal firewall software will not prevent an exploit. It is hoped that Microsoft will...

"El Dorado" discovered in Peruvian Amazon, explorers claim Story Filed: Saturday, July 27, 2002 5:02 PM EST Lima, Jul 27, 2002 (EFE via COMTEX) -- An international team of explorers claims to have found the legendary Inca city of gold that the Spanish knew as "El Dorado," deep in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon. The quest began on June 30, when more than two dozen researchers began combing the wild and unexplored jungle region along the basin of the Madre de Dios River. El Dorado, called "Paititi" by the region's Indian population, is known as the last bastion...

<p>June 24, 2002 -- A Brooklyn woman and her 11-year-old granddaughter were killed when an out-of-control SUV jumped a curb and slammed into them as they sat in front of their building, police said yesterday.</p> <p>"It's like a nightmare. I left my kids and their grandmother and went to work, and I come home to find out they are dead," said a distraught Roslyn Patrick, 30.</p>

<p>The desert winds swept over the sands and out to the sea. Waters churned and the ships, loaded with wine from the ancient city of Tyre, tumbled in the storm.</p> <p>Swamped, the Tanit and Elissa foundered around 800 B.C., coming to rest upright some 1,300 feet under the Mediterranean, too deep for recovery.</p>

By DOUG MELLGREN, Associated Press Writer April 19, 2002, 4:42 AM EDT OSLO, Norway -- Thor Heyerdahl, the Norwegian explorer who crossed the Pacific on a balsa log raft to prove his theories of human migration, has died at 87. Heyerdahl, whose book "Kon-Tiki" on the daring 101-day voyage sold millions of copies, stopped taking food, water or medication in early April after being diagnosed with a terminal brain tumor. He died Thursday night in his sleep at home in Colla Michari, Italy, said his son, Thor Heyerdahl Jr. Heyerdahl had been hospitalized near there in late March when he...

Mar. 19, 01:00 EDT Ancient Inca town called `unparalleled' archeological find 100 structures uncovered at site high in Andes Craig Mauro ASSOCIATED PRESS LIMA, Peru — Explorers have found the extensive ruins of an Inca town, complete with human remains, sprawled spectacularly across a mountain in southern Peru, the expedition leaders said yesterday. The ancient settlement clings to the slopes of a rugged peak in a region of the Andes Mountains where the Incas hid after the Spanish conquest. It consists of more than 100 structures, including a ridge-top truncated pyramid, ceremonial platforms and an 8-kilometre-long irrigation channel. British author...