Free Republic

In 1958, Communist Party Chairman Mao Zedong launched his “Great Leap Forward,” a plan to radically change the economy of China. Mao and his central planners cooked up an imaginative scheme designed to increase industrial and agricultural production and to make China into a workers' paradise. In agriculture, especially, there would be dramatic changes. Farms would be collectivized instead of left to individual farmers. By adopting new, scientific, government-approved approaches to farming, the collectives would be able to ensure record harvests year after year. To bring about collectivization farmers were held for hour upon hour until they “voluntarily” agreed to...

On the day Joe Knilans stood to address his Republican colleagues in a closed-door meeting, he was celebrating his sixty-day anniversary as a Wisconsin assemblyman. It was March 10, the day the assembly was set to take its final vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s controversial bill to limit collective bargaining for public employees in Wisconsin. But as the words fell out of Knilans’ mouth, it was clear he was not up for celebrating. “I just want to say that taking this vote today will probably cost me my job,” he began. “But that’s why I came to Madison — to...

Here is video of one of the finest plays you will ever see in a baseball game! It came from a Fordham University player, Brian Kownacki, who was headed around third and toward a collision at home plate with the catcher. At the last second, Kownacki makes a circus leap up and over the catcher - clearing him cleanly - and coming down with his hand touching home plate to score!

The international stocks are significantly correlated. Stocks around the globe tend to go up and down together or at the same time. If U.S. stocks are rising then international stocks tend to follow, but they may not run at the same pace. Quite often emerging economies run ahead of U.S. stocks. This article will discuss why options may be a great way to leverage growth opportunities and diversify into fast growing emerging economies. Amongst emerging market funds, those concentrating on the "BRIC" economies are the most popular. BRIC stands for Brazil, Russia, India and China. Sometimes an emerging market fund...

http://www.leap2020.eu/Open-letter-London-G20-Summit-Last-chance-before-global-geopolitical-dislocation_a3010.html This OPEN LETTER was written in March, 2009 about the G20 Summit. I just found it, and was shocked to read the small print on advice that a new global currency change from the US dollar was a step to prevent a June, 2009 collapse.

Mayor Nutter said yesterday that five of the 11 library branches once scheduled to close permanently on Thursday are instead on track to be taken over by private foundations, wealthy individuals, companies, and community development corporations. ( ... ) "Libraries are much more than repositories for books. We know this," said Nutter, who ordered 11 of 54 branches closed as part of a larger plan to address a $1 billion five-year budget gap. "They are the absolute complete nexus of community life." Nutter made his remarks at a City Hall news conference where he was loudly heckled by dozens of...

Wait a second. The start of next year will be delayed by circumstances beyond everyone's control. Time will stand still for one second on New Year's Eve, as we ring in the New Year on that Wednesday night. As a result, you'll have an extra second to celebrate because a "Leap Second" will be added to 2008 to let a lagging Earth catch up to super-accurate clocks. By international agreement, the world's timekeepers, in order to keep their official atomic clocks in step with the world's irregular but gradually slowing rotation, have decreed that a Leap Second be inserted between...

Tyler, TX (AHN) - Wanna-be drug dealers may soon have a crash course in their narcotics trade as a one-time Texas drug agent plans to market a how-to video on concealing drugs and fooling police. Barry Cooper, who has served as a police officer in East Texas for some time, was described by his former boss as perhaps the best narcotics officer in the country. According to Tyler Morning Telegraph's Thursday edition, Cooper plans to launch a Web site next week where he will sell his video, "Never Get Busted Again." More so, Cooper has also planned a promotional video...

WAR ON DRUGS A JOKE TO EX-COP In Norm Stamper's world, the "drug store" is a place that is much different from what generally comes to mind. The 28-year police veteran of the San Diego police department and former Seattle police chief wants to see all street drugs legalized, firmly regulated and sold just like we sell alcohol today. And his "shopping list" includes marijuana, cocaine, heroin, even crystal methamphetamine. "The more dangerous the drug, the more addictive and the greater the potential for health risks, the greater the justification for regulation," he said last week in a phone interview...

3/1/2006 - KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. (AFPN) -- When launched in 2010, a football-field-in-length demonstrator radar antenna, weighing more than 5 tons, will serve as the forerunner for the future of America's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets in space. Administered by the Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate here, the innovative space-based radar antenna technology, or ISAT, program focuses on developing systems to deploy extremely large (up to 300 yards) electronically scanning radar antennas flying 5,700 miles above the Earth's surface and providing improved ground target detection to the warfighter. "These huge antennas will enable the revolutionary performance...

Merkel's 'small steps' bring giant leap in popularity By Tony Paterson in Berlin (Filed: 22/01/2006) Angela Merkel, Germany's Chancellor, has confounded her critics by emerging as the country's most popular leader for more than a decade - only two months after being elected. Dismissed only six months ago as a humourless and dowdy East German, Mrs Merkel is riding a wave of unprecedented public approval that last week placed her at the top of Germany's key opinion poll rating for politicians. Angela Merkel's image has changed for good The monthly survey conducted by the ZDF television channel found voters rated...

You wouldn’t have expected it during any other week, but for a few days in mid-November, pot smoke wafted throughout the hallways and meeting rooms of the Westin Hotel in Long Beach, California. Upscale hotels aren’t typical hangouts for barefoot young hippies, recovering addicts, or a handful of self-described “harm reduction hotties” toting their own 12-month calendar and information about how to minimize disease and other damage from injection drug use. But here they were, rubbing elbows with retired police chiefs, academics, addiction specialists, attorneys, non-profit directors, religious leaders and formerly incarcerated prisoners. The occasion? The 2005 International Drug Policy...

The Texas Department of Transportation will spend more than $1 million to see if the La Entrada al Pacifico trade route can be designed to include all the features of the Trans-Texas Corridor, department officials say. La Entrada was envisioned as an overland trade route connecting the United States to Far East markets via West Texas and Northern Mexico. Its design is being revisited in light of the proposed $175 billion Trans-Texas Corridor, a megahighway paralleling Interstate 35 in Central Texas. La Entrada runs from Lamesa to Odessa-Midland along state Highway 349, then west on Interstate Highway 20 to U.S....

GET OUT OF GOLD! Head for the exits!Commentary: Gold has likely topped By Tim W. Wood, Cycles News & Views Last Update: 1:19 PM ET Dec. 9, 2004 GULF SHORES, Ala. (Cycles) -- It's truly amazing to watch the sentiment pendulum as it swings from one extreme to the other. At the 2001 bottom, everyone everywhere was totally disgusted with gold. When I suggested buying gold I was met with rejection, "Gold is dead" to quote my critics. Here we are some four years later, gold topped $458 last week - a three year high. On Wednesday, gold fell more...

WASHINGTON, Dec 11 (Reuters) - A missile from a U.S. Navy Aegis cruiser knocked out a dummy warhead over the Pacific Thursday, the fourth intercept in five such tests of a sea-based anti-missile shield, the Pentagon said. The Standard 3 missile fired from the Lake Erie off Kauai in the Hawaiian islands "successfully engaged the target with hit-to-kill technology" about four minutes after the target was launched, said Chris Taylor, a spokesman for the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency. The last test, on June 18, failed. The sea-based defense is to be integrated into a multilayered missile shield. President George W....

Cave colours reveal mental leap By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor Ochre-stained rocks have been found in the cave Red-stained bones dug up in a cave in Israel are prompting researchers to speculate that symbolic thought emerged much earlier than they had believed. Symbolic thought - the ability to let one thing represent another - was a giant leap in human evolution. It was a mental ability that allowed sophisticated language and maths. New excavations show that a red colour made from ochre was used in burials 100,000 years ago, much earlier than other examples of colour...

  Scenic Spots to See More Sanitary Restroom Spaces Xinhuanet 2001.08.15 15:11:56     BEIJING  August ¨Xinhuanet--Flush with cash to provide the city's  toilet  facilities  Beijing plans to improve every lavatory at all its  tourist attractions by the end  of 2002 according to today's China Daily.     A pot of 240 million yuan US$29 million  has been set up by the  municipal  government to build or fix toilets, a movement prompted by  constant public complaints.     Already 70 toilets have been constructed or renovated at five major  historical sites  including the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace and  the Temple of Heaven, Beijing tourism official Zhou Shuyu said.     "We also stepped our efforts to make the appearance of toilets harmonious  with the  scenic spots," Zhou said. "The toilets that sit amid ancient  architecture must also be in  the ancient style."     Zhou, who oversees public toilets, noted all facilities at historical  and scenic sites  will be free of charge.     Foreign tourists have complained vociferously about unsanitary toilet  conditions in  China.     "Of the 206 tour-related complaints received during last October's  week-long  National Day holiday 20 per cent mentioned that there were  few good toilets at tourist  attractions, " said Yang Weiyuan, an official  with the Beijing Consumers'  Association.     But the improvements that have already been made have prompted immediate  results.     "We have not received any complaints on toilets this year," Yang  said.     The new bathrooms have improved odors and better overall hygiene.     "Our goal is to make things convenient for our tourists, whether  you are a man, woman, baby, child, senior citizen or a person with  a disability," Zhou said.     One key improvement is equipping toilets with flushing devices that  do not require  human touch. The infrared trigger reduces the chance of  tourists contracting bacterial  infections, officials said.     Women's lavatories will be 20 per cent bigger than men's to provide  bigger space for  women to make up. In the pastthey were half the size  of the men's rooms.     The ladies' rooms also will have desks, beds or chairs to diaper  babies and make  mothers more comfortable while feeding.     Special lavatory pans designed for the disabled and for children will  be provided.     Zhou said workers will receive special training to ensure optimal  loos.     Tourists, too, may need some potty training. At the Summer Palace,  two  infrared devices have been destroyed through misuse, park officials  said.     More money for this effort is likely to be poured in as more toilets  are built and  renovated before the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing.