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God didn't create the universe, Stephen Hawking says in his latest book, "A Grand Design." Rather, the renowned physicist writes, "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing." Everything – created from nothing? The assertion begged a reply from the author of "Nothing Created Everything: The Scientific Impossibility of Atheistic Evolution." "It is embarrassingly unscientific to speak of anything creating itself from nothing," said Ray Comfort, a best-selling author and acclaimed minister who's confronted and confounded some of the world's most accomplished atheists. "Common sense says that if something possessed the...

Overweight people are more likely to make frequent trips to their GP than smokers or those who are generally unfit, say Dutch researchers.The findings cannot be explained by overweight people having a higher risk of chronic diseases, such as diabetes, the analysis showed. Rising rates of obesity means nurses may have to take some of the pressure off doctors, they said. The research is published in Family Practice. The team from Maastricht University looked at GP data from almost 4,500 adults. Participants also filled in a questionnaire designed to find out about their lifestyles, such as their diet, whether they...

NEW YORK — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is putting electronic identification tags on men's clothing like jeans starting Aug. 1 as the world's largest retailer tries to gain more control of its inventory. But the move is raising eyebrows among privacy experts. The individual garments, which also includes underwear and socks, will have removable smart tags that can be read from a distance by Wal-Mart workers with scanners. In seconds, the worker will be able to know what sizes are missing and will also be able tell what it has on hand in the stock room. Such instant knowledge will...

Walmart Means To Spy On Clothing Use July 23, 2010 by Douglas A. McIntyre Walmart (NYSE: WMT) plans to put radio chips into clothing including underwear. The big box retailer wants to know what and how much people buy so it can order enough inventory.Walmart will be, of course, accused of spying on its customers,but the question is whether there is any harm in it.The move should certainly improve the company’s supply chain management.The new system will allow Walmart to see right down to the size level which clothing in about to go out of stock. If  it is effective,  all the...

Former President Bill Clinton and Senators John McCain and John Kerry were among the speakers at a July 15 reception in Washington, D.C., marking the 15th anniversary of the normalization of relations between the United States and Vietnam. (snip) ...McCain, who was held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam for 5 1/2 years, noted that Vietnam has become one of America’s most promising trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region.

Spotting a gun out in public can be scary if you have never seen one on a person before. There are more guns out there in the world than many of us realize. If you live in Nevada and pay attention you will see them all the time. Plenty of times I have been in that very same Costco and watched someone lean over to grab something and caught a glimpse of their holster. We can't

Libertarians need Charles Darwin. They need him because a Darwinian science of human evolution supports classical liberalism. In his review of Darwin’s Origin of Species in 1860, Thomas Huxley declared, “every philosophical thinker hails it as a veritable Whitworth gun in the armory of liberalism.” The Whitworth gun was a new kind of breech-loading cannon — a powerful weapon, then, for liberalism.

I am tired of hearing Sean Hannity use John 14:1 on his talk show and on TV. This verse has NOTHING to do with one being troubled about politics! "The disciples were troubled about hearing of His leaving. By this word He made them realize that as God He is omnipresent and is not limited by time and space." (W.L.)

PARIS (AFP) – A huge, potentially life-giving sea likely covered more than a third of Mars some 3.5 billion years ago, according to a study released Sunday. Spread over an area the size of the Atlantic Ocean, it would have straddled the north pole and contained the equivalent of a tenth of the water on Earth. For decades scientists have argued as to whether the Red Planet once harboured bodies of water big enough to help nourish a true hydrological cycle marked by evaporation and rainfall. Recent evidence suggests as much, but doubts remained. To dig deeper, Gaetano Di Achille...

Dinosaurs were wiped out by sudden drop in temperatures, not by comet striking the planet, scientists claimed. British researchers claim that a sudden plummeting in the sea temperature of 16F (9C) more than 137 million years ago was the first step towards their eventual road to extinction. While studying fossils and minerals from the Arctic Svalbard, Norway, they concluded the sudden change in the Atlantic Gulf Stream during the Cretaceous period would almost certainly have wiped out the ''abundance'' of the world's dinosaurs.

Obama's wife admits he was born in Kenya by describing it as his "home country." What other evidence would a court or the military need to charge him with fraud and treason? While giving a speech on AIDS and health care to a delegation of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) Democrats, Michelle Obama described Kenya as Obama's "home country."

Going with the new trend of adding “-er” to the end of terms describing groups of people with similar beliefs ungrounded in commonly-accepted reality, we need to add Birthright Citizenship-ers and Dual Citizenship-ers to the mix, along with the Birth-ers. The reason to group them together—they march to the same drumbeat—all apparently believe that birth in the US is all that is necessary for anyone to have US citizenship. The only point on which they seem to disagree is whether a long-form or a short-form birth certificate is sufficient proof. (Many of the so-called birthers will argue the finer point...

Tune in next season to 24 to witness one of the deadliest plots to ever be seen on televisions across America. That’s right, 24 fans! The creators of the hit television show, 24, continue to take off the gloves to bring you the most exciting action you’ve ever seen, and next season will be no different. Next season, witness a plot that only the United States Postal Service could bring you—a plot so insidious that it makes Jack Bauer shudder in fear.

China disclosed the other day that its foreign exchange reserves had increased to about $2.4 trillion in 2009, a gain of $453 billion for the year. These stupendous figures — and the likelihood that the country's reserves will rise by a comparable amount this year — have now become a financial, economic and geopolitical reality of surpassing significance. The significance is not, as many imagine, that China might suddenly "dump" the dollar and dethrone it as the world's major international currency, undermining American economic power and prestige. Two-thirds or more of China's reserves are estimated to be held in dollars....

The guy in the "Oh, no!" photo.

The traitors in Congress January 13, 2009 On January 8, 2009, with no objection being raised, Congress — House and Senate — voted unanimously to certify the Electoral College. Not one legislator, Republican or Democrat, Senator or Representative, could or did refute even one of the undisputed facts concerning the eligibility of Barack Hussein Obama to the office of president under Article II, Section 1, United States Constitution. Not one! Those undisputed facts are as follows: Barack Hussein Obama has not been vetted or certified eligible to the office of president ... The Certification of Live Birth (COLB) that Obama...

On Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano, which rises more than 13,000 feet above sea level, there is a mid-level base facility where scientists can pretend they are on the moon. Hawaii's volcanic terrain, soil and remote environment provide an ideal environment for testing instruments and equipment that someday may be used by astronauts at a lunar base. Recently, a team of scientists working for the Pacific International Space Center for Exploration Systems (PISCES) demonstrated its first field test for NASA's In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) Project. Research Operations Manager John Hamilton supported the mission simulation to show how astronauts will be...

We've seen a lot of social conservatives upset over today's intemperate attack by Kathleen Parker (Note: she was unnecessarily contemptuous, but her point that "the Republican Party -- and conservatism with it -- eventually will die out unless religion is returned to the privacy of one's heart where it belongs" is worth serious consideration).Well, I am a libertarian, so let's talk about the Kathleen Parker of the social conservative crowd: Mike Huckabee.This week, Huckabee called libertarians the "real threat" to the Republican Party... In a chapter titled "Faux-Cons: Worse than Liberalism," Huckabee identifies what he calls the "real threat" to...

MONROE – At first glance, it’s an unlikely combination. A black family seated under a tent facing a line of Civil War re-enactors, proudly holding Confederate flags and gripping their weapons. But what lies between these two groups is what brought them together: An unmarked grave about to get its due, belonging to a slave who fought for the Confederacy. Weary Clyburn was best friends with his master’s son, Frank. When Frank left the plantation to fight in the Civil War, Clyburn followed him. He fought alongside Frank and even saved his life on two occasions. On July 18, the...

PARIS (AFP) — A hundred years ago this week, a gigantic explosion ripped open the dawn sky above the swampy taiga forest of western Siberia, leaving a scientific riddle that endures to this day. A dazzling light pierced the heavens, preceding a shock wave with the power of a thousand atomic bombs which flattened 80 million trees in a swathe of more than 2,000 square kilometres (800 square miles). Evenki nomads recounted how the blast tossed homes and animals into the air. In Irkutsk, 1,500 kilometres (950 miles) away, seismic sensors registered what was initially deemed to be an earthquake....