Free Republic

...Canada is, along with the United States, Great Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, part of the Anglosphere. The Anglosphere comprises the best nations, with the best records for goodness of any major powers in recorded history. Though imperfect, we've collectively been on the right side of more issues, created better societies, and liberated more people from tyranny than anyone else ever. (Example: Nearly every former British colony today has a democratic government. No other European power can say that---not even close.) Not to put too fine a point on it---we're just better. Not genetically, for goodness sake---but culturally. Who knows,...

(WCCO) Minneapolis On March 30, Minnesota Timberwolves center Eddie Griffin was drunk and masturbating when he crashed his luxury SUV into a parked Suburban outside a store in Minneapolis, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by the man whose Suburban was hit in the crash. The WCCO-TV I-TEAM obtained copies of 911 calls and store surveillance video of the incident, along with an accident report the police submitted to the state. Several of the 911 callers that night said Griffin was drunk. One witness said Griffin told him he was watching pornography in a DVD player mounted on the dashboard...

Whether you’re a free-loading virus or a meat-stealing monkey, selfishness pays. So how could cooperators survive in a cheater’s world? Thomas Flatt, a postdoctoral research associate at Brown, was part of a group that created a theoretical model that neatly solves this dilemma, which has stumped evolutionary biologists and social scientists for decades. The trick: Keep the altruists in small groups, away from the swindling horde, where they multiply and migrate. It’s a truth borne out in biology and economics: Selfishness pays. Viruses can steal enzymes to reproduce. Tax evaders can take advantage of public services to survive and thrive....

MODEL Michelle Leslie wore a burqa during her stay in a Balinese prison on drugs charges to avoid being raped... Leslie said she awoke in the Kerobokan prison one night to find a man sitting on the end of her mattress, laughing and singing: "Jiggyjig Missa Leslie. Bali holiday. Jiggyjig". "I knew jiggyjig translated into having sex," Leslie told the magazine. "He was saying Australian model and stroking my leg. I screamed: `Get out of here!'." Leslie said she was aware another woman was being taken from her cell regularly for sex, and realised her fate would be the same...

RUSTAMIYAH, Iraq, May 26, 2006 – They call it "Sandhurst in the Sand." The Iraqi military academy here is modeled after Britain's Sandhurst Royal Military Academy, in Camberley, Surrey, and it has begun turning out officers for the new Iraqi army. Danish Sgt. Maj. Warrant Officer J.H. Post speaks through an interpreter with his Iraqi counterpart during a May 24 field exercise with cadets of the Iraqi military academy at Rustamiyah, Iraq. Photo by Jim Garamone  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "The key here are the cadets themselves and what they do," British Col. Maurice Sheen, the senior...

Scientists use quantum gravity to describe the universe before the Big Bang.Scientists may finally have an answer to a "big" question: If the Big Bang was the beginning of the universe, what could have caused it to happen? Using a theory called "loop quantum gravity," a group led by Penn State professor Abhay Ashtekar has shown that just before the Big Bang occurred, another universe very similar to ours may have been contracting. According to the group's findings, this previous universe eventually became so dense that a normally negligible repulsive component of the gravitational force overpowered the attractive component, causing...

A married couple attending an international model aircraft demonstration in southern Hungary Saturday were killed when one of the planes, a model Pitts biplane, suddenly crashed into the crowd.

BERKELEY — In the early 1970s, California faced a one-two punch of doubled oil prices and soaring electricity demand, with new coal and nuclear power plants projected every eight miles along the coast from San Diego to San Francisco. The plants never got built because a motley band of physicists and state lawmakers cut energy demand down in ways as ambitious as reinventing the fluorescent light bulb and as simple as slapping energy-usage labels on refrigerators. They also retooled the electricity market so power companies spent money helping people use less energy. Utilities were investing in selling less electricity, but...

MIAMI - Former Sports Illustrated swimsuit model May Andersen was arrested after allegedly becoming unruly and striking a flight attendant on a plane from Amsterdam to Miami, police said. Andersen, 23, from Denmark continued being loud and violent after officers met Martinair Flight 643 on the ground Thursday, Miami-Dade Airport Police said. She was examined for alcohol and substance abuse at Jackson Memorial Hospital and later transported to the Miami-Dade County Jail. She has a hold for immigration, which means no bail has been set. She cannot be released until immigration lifts it, said Janelle Hall, a corrections spokeswoman.

U.S. Army Spc. Andrea Landi works on the tire of a vehicle at Forward Operating Base Caldwell. U.S. Army photo by 2nd Lt. Anthony D. Buchanan U.S. Army Spc. Andrea Landi Recruiting Efforts Attract, Retain Model Soldier By 2nd Lt. Anthony D. Buchanan 133rd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment BALAD RUZ, Iraq, April 19, 2006 - ; Spc. Andrea M. Landi, a mechanic from Headquarters and Headquarters Troop, 3rd Heavy Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division was intrigued by an Army recruiting TV commercial in her home in Anchorage, Alaska."I saw a commercial with people jumping out of airplanes and...

LINCOLN, Neb. -- A nude Internet model had another brush with the law Wednesday night in Lincoln. Melissa Harrington was ticketed at a bar for public indecency, public nudity and for having sexual contact. Lincoln police said the paint she uses to cover her nipples violates the city ordinance. They also said she touched a customer as she was accepting money. The owner and manager of Cheerleaders Bar were also ticketed for permitting sexual contact. This is the third occasion police have ticketed Harrington in the last couple years. Previous Stories: March 10, 2006: Nude Model Says Police Are Picking...

NAOMI Campbell has been charged with assaulting her housekeeper, New York police said after arresting the supermodel at her Park Avenue home today. A police spokesman said Campbell had been charged with second degree assault and the housekeeper was taken to hospital after the incident. The spokesman had no further details on the woman's injuries. Campbell, still one of the biggest names in fashion at the age of 35, was fingerprinted and photographed at a police station and was due to be taken to court later for arraignment, a police spokeswoman said. Campbell's agent, Amanda Silverman, said in a statement:...

by Leon J. Suprenant, Jr Other Articles by Leon J. Suprenant, Jr The Heart of a Father 03/18/06 In the Church we have the beautiful feasts of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with the heart symbolizing the immense love of our Lord and His Blessed Mother for each one of us. In This Article...In the Right PlaceAn Affirmation of FatherhoodMighty Love and Daily Solicitude In the Right Place The Feast of St. Joseph is usually on March 19th, but since it's a solemnity, it got moved to the 20th this year so that it wouldn't...

Scientists have long wondered why organisms bother with sexual reproduction. It makes a whole lot more sense to just have a bunch of females that can clone themselves, which is how asexual reproduction works. Turns out sex might have evolved as a way to concentrate lots of harmful mutations into individual organisms so they could be easily weeded out by natural selection, a new computer model suggests. The classic explanation for the onset of whoopee, about 1 billion years ago, is that it provides a way for organisms to swap and shuffle genes and to create offspring with new gene...

Top Czech model Helena Houdova was arrested in Cuba last week while taking photographs of Havana's slums – but she managed to smuggle out pictures she hid in her bra. Houdova – Miss Czech Republic 1999 – was arrested along with fellow model Mariana Kroftova, and Cuban police confiscated a roll of film in the women’s camera. However, Houdova concealed the memory card of her digital camera insider her brassiere. "The revolution's watchmen rose up because I was taking pictures of something they do not like," Houdova told journalists after returning to the Czech Republic. The Communist regime of Fidel...

Banknote tracking helps model spread of disease 18:15 25 January 2006 NewScientist.com news service Will Knight Tracking the movements of hundreds of thousands of banknotes across the US could provide scientists with a vital new tool to help combat the spread of deadly infectious diseases like bird flu. Modern transport has transformed the speed at which epidemics can spread, enabling disease to rip through populations and leap across continents at frightening speed. However, scientists possess few mathematical models to help them understand these movements and how this might govern the global spread of disease. To a large degree, this is...

I'm presently setting up something I had in mind for a long time, a blog exposing le Modèle-social-français-que-le-monde-entier-nous-envie (the-French-social-model-the-whole-world-is-jealous-of) in picture. I've recently been offered a new cell phone w/ camera and I started shooting at homeless people: poor guys, most of them starving because of one and only one thing: socialism. In all countries there are tramps, but lots of them choose to live that way. French tramps are mostly victims of that criminal socialism, 25% of them (officially) do have a job, 75%are choked and alienated by Nanny State. I've been hesitating, wondering if I could do that....

I am trying to do a model RR layout for Christmas. I am working with Lionel O Gauge trains. I'd like some hints or references to sites on how to do elevations, mountains, etc. I am concerned about the grade a newer Lionel set can handle. I also wonder what kind of amterial I can use to shape things like slopes, hills, mountains, etc.

Iraq the Model goes deep inside the Iraqi election By Mohammed of Iraq the Model, for Pajamas Media In spite of the wide variety of political bodies competing in the December elections, making speculations and estimations is not difficult at all when one realizes that most Iraqis will follow their emotions, rather than minds, when they vote. There will be little serious interest in exploring the platforms and programs of candidates and parties. Although we see more people and local media interviewing politicians and asking questions about programs and platforms, this increase in political awareness still cannot be considered the...

Bush adopts British colonial model for Iraq By Alec Russell in Washington (Filed: 03/12/2005) The success of British colonial forces against the Malay rebellion in the 1950s is being commended in the United States as a template for victory in Iraq. Col Andrew Krepinevich, a Vietnam veteran, has been touring congressional offices, the Pentagon and newspapers since autumn espousing an "oil spot strategy". An American soldier hands out colouring books to Iraqi children This week President George W Bush all but formally endorsed a modified version of that approach as official policy. Rather than focus on hunting down the enemy,...