Free Republic

A leak of highly radioactive nuclear fuel dissolved in concentrated nitric acid, enough to half fill an Olympic-size swimming pool, has forced the closure of Sellafield's Thorp reprocessing plant. The highly dangerous mixture, containing about 20 tonnes of uranium and plutonium fuel, has leaked through a fractured pipe into a huge stainless steel chamber which is so radioactive that it is impossible to enter. Recovering the liquids and fixing the pipes will take months and may require special robots to be built and sophisticated engineering techniques devised to repair the £2.1bn plant.

THE SUICIDE of Hunter S. Thompson, aged 65, according to the New York Times, or 67, according to the Washington Post, at his home in Aspen, may definitively mark the conclusion of the chaotic "baby-boomer" rebellion that began in the 1950s and crested in the 1960s, and which was dignified with the title of "the counter-culture." "Counter" it was, as an expression of defiance toward everything normal and reliable in society. "Culture" it was not, any more than Thompson's incoherent scribblings constituted, as they were so often indulgently described, a form of journalism. When a major representative of any dramatic...

NY Man Who Fell Down a Hill Inside a Portable Toilet Wins Day in Court A man who fell down a hill in a portable toilet may have a cause of action against the contractor that leased it, a state court has ruled. Looking to either buy or sell dirt, plaintiff Joseph A. Fascenelli stopped by a construction site in Katonah where defendant Eric Asher Co., Inc., was constructing three homes, according to Fascenelli v. Eric Asher Co., Inc., 1503/02. Mr. Fascenelli spoke with a laborer then asked to use the portable toilet. After entering, he felt the toilet tip...