Free Republic

That headline needed to be written. Somewhere, anywhere. And it needs to stand because it's true. Glenn Beck has been without a doubt the tip on the spear here. Sure, all of us helped. From further getting the word out to digging up small tidbits. Breitbart played a major part. But it was GB with his radio show and his TV show and the never ending drum beat who made all of this happen. Thank you Glenn. May your family be safe. You are such a huge target now that we all fear for yours and your family's lives.

Archaeologists are putting some flesh on the bones of the David and Goliath myth by shifting through layers of earth at the site in the Holy Land. While little physical evidence has ever been found to support the 3,000-year-old biblical story of David and Goliath, a team from Israel and Australia has been excavating 50 kilometres from Jerusalem in the city of Tell es-Safi, where Goliath was supposedly born. According to the bible, Goliath stood around three metres tall and lived in the 10th century BC in the ancient city of Gath, which is now modern day Tell es-Safi. It...

"The 'foot' structures that we found in the Jordan valley are the first sites that the People of Israel built upon entering Canaan and they testify to the biblical concept of ownership of the land with the foot," said archaeologist Prof. Adam Zertal of the University of Haifa, who headed the excavating team that exposed five compounds in the shape of an enormous "foot", that it were likely to have been used at that time to mark ownership of territory. On the eve of the Passover holiday, researchers from the University of Haifa reveal an exceptional and exciting archaeological discovery...

A recent archeological discovery of a large basalt stone at Tel-es-Safi in Judah, dating from the middle of the 9th century B.C., contains what appears to be an editorial from the Philistine Times. Known as the Moabite Stone II, it has been translated from the Phoenician by Avraham Klein and Nasim Shephelah. *** Today is a day of mourning. We lament the passing of our hero and champion, Goliath of the holy city of Gath, on the bloody field of Shocoth. He was a man worthy of a great people, admired for his valor, innocence, and willingness to die in...

GOLIATH 'Palestinian' TERROR Why 'Palestinian' terrorism is the Goliath We are used to hear the old repeated boring slogan which Arabists propagandists 'remind' us about Israel's defense machine, that they are the poor 'powerless' murderers. Well, let's see, What 'power' does a chopper or aircraft have, when his orders are strict to minimize his aim at terror leaders-mass-murderers only, that hide among human shields? What 'power' does a tank (that is mainly for a deterrent) have if the tank is ordered to target only machine guns? Remember also the very important fact that IDF announces a head of time when...

The Iraq inner facsistic massacres are not just "sectarian". Nor is Iran's playground: Lebanon a local "conflict". http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1222824,00.htmlTIME.com:How the Hizballah Factor Will Determine an Iraq Civil ... http://onthescene.msnbc.com/baghdad/2006/03/sunni_vs_shiite.html Sunni VS Shiite, or rather, Iran VS Iraq? http://www.meib.org/articles/0404_iraq1.htm "Iran, Sadr, and the Shiite Uprising in Iraq" (April 2004) http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,124835,00.html Iran presses Shi'ites to step up Iraq attacks - Times | Top News http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/articlenews.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-08-12T045657Z_01_N12291036_RTRUK OC_0_UK-IRAQ-IRAN.xml Iranian Intel Officers Captured in Iraq - US & World http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=2310725 ABC News: US: Iraqi Shiites Get Help From Iran http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/11/business/iraq.php Iran stokes Iraq unrest, US says - Africa & Middle East ... http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/para/al-sadr.htm Iran's Al-Madi army

Wanted: small asteroid for use as slingshot to slay a Goliath Ian Sample, science correspondent Saturday July 15, 2006 The Guardian (UK) It worked for David as he squared up to Goliath, and now scientists hope a slingshot will help save the planet. Scientists at the French space agency, CNES, have calculated how to capture an asteroid and manoeuvre it into a near-Earth orbit, from where it can be flung into the path of a larger asteroid that threatens to collide with Earth. The plan joins a growing list of strategies put forward to protect our home planet should scientists...

Ha'aretz Israel is set to join the Red Cross after nearly six decadesHa'aretz, Israel - 2 hours agoIsrael is set to join the Red Cross movement after nearly six decades of exclusion, despite attempts by Muslim countries to derail a complex diplomatic ... Cross and crescent gone, 'red crystal' in OhmyNews InternationalAntigua represented at International Red Cross meeting AntiguaSun'Historic' Red Cross vote on MDA to be held Thursday Jerusalem Post Has there been one other nation on earth that was excluded in such a blatant hateful racist manner, under prresure by global Arab Muslim 'lobby' (there are hundrteds of different...

It's not every night you have a mugging on the mansion-lined streets of Pacific Heights -- but it's really unusual when the victim is a 10-foot-tall robot named Goliath, and the suspects are traced to the home of one of San Francisco's biggest names. Police are still investigating the incident and aren't saying much. But the neighborhood knows all about it, and from the looks of things, everyone involved is hoping it will all quietly go away. Here's what we know so far. About two years ago, Robert Mailer Anderson, author of the book "Boonville," installed a giant, metal robot...

Spy chief: Terrorists will try to hit Scandinavia 'Security risk' Scandinavia’s reputation for liberalism and equality also attracts Muslim radicals who may view the Nordics as a safe, soft option, he said, adding that this reputation must change.

CONTACT: Elana Oberlander, Office of the Spokesman, Bar-Ilan University Has the Biblical Goliath Been Found? Bar-Ilan University Archaeologists Unearth Earliest Philistine Inscription in Which Names Similar to Goliath Appear Ramat Gan - A very small ceramic sherd unearthed by Bar-Ilan University archaeologists digging at Tell es-Safi, the biblical city "Gath of the Philistines", may hold a very large clue into the history of the well-known biblical figure Goliath. The sherd, which contains the earliest known Philistine inscription ever to be discovered, mentions two names that are remarkably similar to the name "Goliath". Tell es-Safi/Gath is located in the southern coastal...

PITTSBURGH (AP) - A 7 1/2-year-old monster buck named Goliath, allegedly stolen in 1999 and then returned to the ranch where he was raised, has died. The massive deer died Dec. 6; tests will determine the cause. The life span of a deer is 10 to 15 years. "It could have been due to a lot of the stress that he endured from being away from here," said Diane Miller, who raised the buck with her husband at their Wild Bunch Ranch, about 60 miles north of Pittsburgh. "It's just like losing a family member." Goliath, believed to be the...

The name Goliath, like Achish, is not Semitic, but rather Anatolian (McCarter 1980, 291, Mitchell 1967, 415; Wainwright 1959, 79). Not all agree though; the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (2:524) proposes that Goliath may have been a remnant of one of the aboriginal groups of giants of Palestine who now were in the employ of the Philistines. [1. Naveh (1985, 9, 13 n. 14) states that Ikausu, the name of the king of Ekron in the seventh century b.c., is a non-Semitic name that can be associated with that of the Achish of Gath in David's time. The name in...

Next week, NASA will open a new state-of-the-art laboratory for cutting-edge research into advanced propulsion systems - technologies that one day could power space vehicles to Mars, to Jupiter or to destinations never before imagined

Recent news brings us the story of “space pioneers” launching privately funded craft into the heavens. A special prize is offered to the first private aerospace corporation who can successfully take a pilot and a “space tourist” into orbit.

Mike Melvill's exo-atmospheric excursion aboard a privately developed rocket already may have accomplished the primary goal of a new-age space race by showing that governments are not the only entities that can transport people off the planet.

The Night We Return to the Moon -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Commentary by Mark R. Whittington July 19, 2004 It is a summer evening in the year 2016 and something is about to happen that has not occurred in forty four years. Human beings are about to walk on the Moon. A person who was in kindergarten when this last took place would now be fifty years old. Most people now alive have never seen someone exploring another world. The world has changed unimaginably in those forty four years. Indeed, partly because of the effort that has led to this moment in history,...

While the details of Project Constellation have yet to be decided and NASA’s contractors are waiting for the Level 2 requirements for the Crew Exploration Vehicle to be published, one technology seems certain to be included—inflatables, or, as Robert Bigelow calls them, “expandables.”

Since the January 14th announcement of what has since become known as the Vision for Space Exploration, one of the major debates about its implementation has focused on launch capability. While some have argued that the glut of launch vehicles on the market today, along with vehicles in the planning stages, is sufficient to handle the demands of the vision, others have concluded that a new, larger vehicle is required to loft heavy payloads to the Moon and beyond. (See “The myth of heavy lift”, The Space Review, May 17, 2004, and “The cost of medium lift”, The Space Review,...

Americans embrace space exploration! Bush plan looks like a winner to me with numbers like this! CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., July 19 /PRNewswire/ -- NASA and the U.S. space program enjoy broad support and interest from the American public, according to the results of a new Gallup survey coordinated by the Space Foundation and sponsored by the Coalition for Space Exploration. More than two-thirds (68%) of the American public say they support a new plan for space exploration that would include a stepping-stone approach to return the space shuttle to flight, complete assembly of the space station, build a replacement for...

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla., July 19 (UPI) -- Thirty-five years after the first humans set foot on the moon, the United States is planning for return flights to the lunar surface. NASA's next group of moonwalkers, however, might not find the place quite as desolate as their Apollo brethren did.

The U.S. space propulsion industry, a technology linchpin for America's return to the Moon, is looking to retool and reorganize around a new but controversial "national propulsion company" concept that could help revitalize the industry

The U.S. goal of a human mission to Mars faces many hurdles, among them a shortage of space radiobiologists. It's a shortage NASA addressed in part with its first space radiation summer school, held last month at Brookhaven National Laboratory.

Publicly thanking Paul G. Allen, who admitted to investing more than $20 million in the project, Rutan appeared to physically choke up when he said, "We were able to develop a complete space program from scratch for the price of one of those government paper studies." ...Mojave Airport Manager Stu Witt... said. "Nobody's ever done anything like this before," Pearson said. "That's part of what's unique about America--nowhere else in the world. It's a great day for the country." Non-military government involvement was limited. In fact, according to Rutan, the first contact between NASA and the program participants came...

EDWARDS, CALIFORNIA -- Engineers here are on the fast-track, readying the next flight of NASA’s X-43A, a super-sleek, high-speed craft powered by a scramjet engine.

Bangalore, Jul 10 - The Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), G. Madhavan Nair, said the third-generation geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV Mk III), scheduled to undertake its first flight in 2007-08, would equip India with a rocket capable of putting a man in space.

OMAHA , Neb. (Jul. 12, 2004) The Honorable Newt Gingrich, chief executive officer of The Gingrich Group and former speaker of the House, will be a featured speaker at Strategic Space 2004, which takes place 5-7 October at the Qwest Center Omaha Convention Center and Arena in Omaha. Gen Lance W. Lord, USAF, Commander, Air Force Space Command, Lt Gen Thomas B. Goslin, Jr., USAF, Deputy Commander, United States Strategic Command, and many other national security space luminaries have also been confirmed as speakers.

SpaceShipOne will be going for the gold on its next forays to the edge of space. Scaled Composites President Burt Rutan told Wired News last week the history-making private spacecraft, whose somewhat troubled first flight on June 21 was the first privately funded, civilian-crewed space flight, will attempt three flights within a two-week span to try to claim the $10 million Ansari X PRIZE. He said they've fixed the actuator problem that caused an uncommanded 90-degree roll and sent the space plane 20 miles off course on its maiden flight. The X PRIZE requires only two flights, with a payload...

Why do parents teach pre-schoolers to share, then do an about face and try to encourage their college-age kids to get the nicest house, take the highest paying job, file patents, trademarks, and copyrights, and sign a pre-nuptial agreement? To quote Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, “Grow Up!” Let’s abandon the socialist, utopian space commons pap and develop a system that actually works. Space property rights are a great idea whose time has come. However, space near Earth can be developed without additional property rights and initial exploration and commercialization of Mars and the Moon can begin without further...

In last week’s Space News Rick Tumlinson saluted the “New American Space Age” inaugurated by the first suborbital spaceflight of SpaceShipOne. The June 21st flight did indeed mark the beginning of something new and wonderful for the space community as a whole. The goal of the X Prize founders, to recreate the excitement and the risk taking found in the early days of aviation, has been largely fulfilled. Tumlinson was absolutely right when he wrote that “it signifies the beginning of the hand off from the government monopolized Lewis and Clark phase of exploration of near Earth space to private...

Humorist P.J. O’Rourke once said that those who fail to learn from history are probably failing algebra as well. It was a joke, but one with a certain degree of truth. People and organizations rarely seem to learn from history, and those who don’t often have other problems to worry about that are more important. But the corollary to this saying is that even if they do learn from history, it is no guarantee of success

The race to get an astronaut and privately-owned rocket into space is hotting up. The Ansari X-prize will give $10m to the first team who can get a spaceship able to carry three people into space - defined as 100km above earth. They must return safely and repeat the feat within two weeks. Last month Mike Melvill was the first mere mortal in space aboard SpaceShipOne and it looked like the prize was his. But problems meant they were unable to go up again within the two weeks specified by the prize. And now there's someone on their tail.

July 8, 2004 - After announcing this week that the control problems associated with June's historic space flight were solved, Burt Rutan said that the next flights of SpaceShipOne would be official attempts to garner the $10 million Ansari X Prize. Rutan told Wired Online Tuesday (July 6) that his team plans to do three flights in two weeks, although he gave no indication as to when the flights would take place. That's one more flight than required, just in case SpaceShipOne falls short on the first or second attempts. Rutan will give EAA AirVenture attendees the latest information about...

The roar from SpaceShipOne as it blasted into the history books last month, along with the media frenzy that surrounded the first private suborbital spacecraft launch, has long since dissipated; but a ripple of hope about the future of public space travel remains

Some 120 Chinese students are reaching for the stars this summer in a once-in-a-lifetime experience. They are taking part in a 6-day-long summer camp on aeronautics and astronautics in the national capital, which started on Tuesday, according to Thursday's China Daily.

During an interview on US news network MSNBC this week, SpaceShipOne pilot Mike Melvill told Deborah Norville that Scaled Composites is planning to shortly give the required 60 days notice that it will fly back to back X Prize qualified flights in an attempt to win the $10 million X Prize.

When I walk with my head held high, I can see great distances and imagine great things. When I walk with eyes cast down, I see only my feet and the sidewalk below them. When it comes to America's vision for space, most of the commentary on President Bush's recently announced initiative is sadly sidewalk-bound.

Two major problems experienced during last month's suborbital space flight of Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne vehicle have been corrected, Wired News reported Wednesday. In an interview, Burt Rutan said that engineers have solved a problem with a roll trim actuator that SpaceShipOne experienced late in the powered portion of the vehicle's flight. While Rutan said immediately after the June 21 flight that the problem was serious, he downplayed the problem in the Wired interview, saying that the actuator had hit a mechanical stop that limited its movement. Rutan also said that the strong roll the vehicle encountered immediately after starting its...

David and Geske Core bore little resemblance to the image of the square-jawed, broad-chested space traveller of the comic books. When they left the earth's atmosphere in 2001, the silver-haired and bespectacled couple were both the wrong side of 70. They never came back.

For years, scientists have been listening for faint whispers of E.T. phoning anyone in electronic earshot. Now, some researchers are hearing sounds almost as exciting - the staccato of hammers, the crackle of arc welders, and the rumble of construction equipment - that signal the building of huge new telescopes to help answer an old question: Are we alone in the galaxy?

China is eyeing participation in new privately funded U.S. space ventures, such as the Bigelow Aerospace inflatable habitat for biotech or other space-business endeavors. A Chinese role in these ventures could challenge the U.S. government to focus more attention on space cooperation with China. This is especially so, since the U.S. State Dept. would have to rule on such commercial cooperation. Bigelow is receiving substantial technical assistance from the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC), which developed the original TransHab inflatable concept considered earlier for use on the International Space Station (AW&ST Dec. 8, 1997, p. 39). Bigelow has taken over...

Randa Milliron has a vaguely familiar face: defined jaw, prominent nose, clear pale skin and sharp blue eyes that peer directly at you from beneath a row of straight-edged, silvery blonde bangs

The latest and most serious call for a separate military space service is in this month’s issue of the US Naval Institute’s magazine, Proceedings, the US Navy’s principal professional journal. Written by Franz Gayl, a recently retired Marine Corps major, the article makes the case that the Air Force, due to perfectly natural institutional prejudices, is failing in its role as the executive agent for National Security Space or, as he refers to it, NSS. (Presumably, he does not know that there is another NSS out there.) This is an important article for several reasons. It is the first article...

One of the constants of American business is the effort made by state and local governments to lure new businesses to their regions. From automobile factories to biotech research firms to sports franchises, local governments often pull out all the stops to encourage businesses to move to their areas. Those enticements can range from a variety of tax breaks to promises of low costs of doing business to descriptions of a well-educated, available workforce.

In the late 1990s, spurred on by the crash of a comet into Jupiter, Hollywood embraced the meteor disaster movie. The films were loud, but forgettable, and Hollywood has since found other disasters to worry about. But over thirty years ago, a group of engineers in training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology designed a far more realistic defense against a doomsday rock. Their plan would have involved a half-dozen Saturn V rockets carrying some really big bombs.

In a world deeply divided over U.S. involvement in Iraq, it is reassuring that there is one subject on which the people of Earth can agree -- the importance of space exploration. Last week Americans and Europeans worked together to accomplish two notable achievements well beyond the stratosphere.

A civilian pilot's successful flight in suborbital space last week brought a rush to those who dream of one day seeing space themselves. Aided by Microsoft co-founder Paul G. Allen's millions, Michael W. Melvill was lofted 62 miles above California in a trial that lasted 90 minutes. His aircraft, SpaceShipOne, had some mechanical difficulties but nevertheless returned safely to become the first privately funded venture of its kind. The mechanical problems may keep Mr. Melvill's team from claiming the lucrative Ansari X Prize, offered by a private foundation to encourage commercial space travel. Due to expire Jan. 1, the $10...

Hubble discovers 100 new planets By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor Hubble monitored the so-called galactic bulge The Hubble Space Telescope may have discovered as many as 100 new planets orbiting stars in our galaxy. Hubble's harvest comes from a sweep of thousands of stars in the dome-like bulge of the Milky Way. If confirmed it would almost double the number of planets known to be circling other stars to about 230. The discovery will lend support to the idea that almost every sunlike star in our galaxy, and probably the Universe, is accompanied by planets. 'Most...

Amid all the acclaim for Burt Rutan, spaceship designer, and pilot Mike Melvill, who carried off their private manned expedition to suborbital space last week, the bigger miracle may have been committed by the sponsors of the X Prize. The group had been keeping up appearances since 1996, but only recently found a way to fully fund its promised $10 million prize -- a bow here to Anousheh Ansari, the Iranian-born telecom entrepreneur who devoted a small chunk of her bubble-era fortune to the cause. Peter Diamandis, the X Prize founder, expected that some $100 million would end up being...

For 43 years, America has had a single port for launching people into space: Cape Canaveral, Fla., an undeveloped, dune-lined beach that noses into the Atlantic Ocean from the peninsula's east coast.