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About 15 tons of it on a recent day, imported from China, neatly pressed into mats and ready to ship to farmers and nursery growers who swear by the horticultural benefits of Blacker's hairy wares. The mats stored in southern Miami-Dade County are part of a world marketplace for human hair. Uses range from the obvious, such as false eyelashes and wigs, to the more obscure: it's a common raw-material source for l-cysteine, an amino acid frequently used in baked goods such as pizza dough and bagels

The Washington Post had a good story on the dealings of the electronics retailer Circuit City. Unfortunately, it was buried in the business section where no one will see it. It should have been plastered at the top of the front page. The basic story is that last March, the wise men who run Circuit City came up with the brilliant idea of laying off their more senior salespeople, who get $14-$15 an hour, and replacing them with new hires who get around $9 an hour. It turns out that this move was not very good for business. One of...

Megadeth's Dave Mustaine Was A Parasite Magnet Singer had 51 parasites found in his body after tour WASHINGTON (AP) - Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine never realized when he hit the road, how much of it he brought back with him. Mustaine says he went to see a health practitioner who did an analysis of his body. She told him he found 51 parasites in his body, many of which were varieties of worms. He couldn't believe it. He says he's sure he picked all that up staying in less-than-clean hotel rooms and other hazards of being on tour. It doesn't...

Roundworms may infect close to a quarter of inner city black children, tapeworms are the leading cause of seizures among U.S. Hispanics and other parasitic diseases associated with poor countries are also affecting Americans, a U.S. expert said on Tuesday. Recent studies show many of the poorest Americans living in the United States carry some of the same parasitic infections that affect the poor in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, said Dr. Peter Hotez, a tropical disease expert at George Washington University and editor-in-chief of the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. Writing in the journal, Hotez...

Augusta, GA: A plane crash that took 10 lives in October probably could have been prevented if alleged known faults inherent with the plane had been addressed prior to the fateful flight. Two lawsuits have been launched in recent weeks at the behest of the families of two skydivers killed in the October 7th airplane crash that left no survivors. A party of nine skydivers was returning from a sky diving event in Star, Idaho when the plane went down in rugged terrain west of Yakima, in the Cascade Mountains. The pilot was also killed, and there were no survivors...

Zombie: Moronic Convergence in San FranciscoFri, Nov 2, 2007 at 3:15:32 pm PDT Last weekend in San Francisco, the moonbats, antisemites, and terror supporters turned out for another extended temper tantrum, and the indefatigable Zombie was there with a camera: San Francisco Anti-War Rally, October 27, 2007. They were supporting the troops in their own special way again. Here we see a couple of foreign policy experts displaying their treatise on war and the 9/11 attacks.

Prince William County, Virginia, supervisors early this morning voted to move forward with a nationally watched plan to crack down on illegal immigrants by increasing local police enforcement and restricting certain public services. The unanimous vote, which came at 2:30 a.m., followed a 12-hour session of emotional public testimony...More than 1,200 people gathered at the county government complex in Woodbridge... As the meeting began shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday, supporters and opponents of the measures scuffled in the street before police pulled the two sides apart, threatening to make arrests. A charged atmosphere persisted into the early morning... With Prince...

A Minnesota judge on Thursday rejected Sen. Larry Craig's bid to withdraw his guilty plea in an airport sex sting, a major setback in Craig's effort to clear his name and hang onto his Senate seat.

The Arkansas State Legislature will have a meeting to discuss the cost of illegal immigration to Arkansas. Details are below: Tuesday, September 18, 2007 10:00 AM-? Room 171, State Capitol Little Rock, Arkansas Here's a story from the AR News Bureau about the last study done in August. Arkansas News Buerau

It would cost at least $94 billion to find, detain and remove all 12 million people believed to be staying illegally in the United States, the federal government estimated Wednesday. Julie Myers, the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, gave the figure during a hearing before a Senate committee Wednesday. She acknowledged it was based on "very rough calculations." An ICE spokesman later said the $94 billion did not include the cost of finding illegal immigrants, nor court costs -- dollar amounts that are largely unknowable. He said the amount was calculated by multiplying the estimated 12 million people by...

Parasite is a growing concern for healthcare professionals One in 3,800 donors in the L.A. area tested positive for Chagas, a deadly disease that is mainly found in Latin America. By Rong-Gong Lin II, Times Staff Writer March 15, 2007 - Information on Chagas disease A little-known but potentially deadly parasite from Latin America has become one of the latest threats to the blood and organ supplies in the United States, especially in Los Angeles, where many donors have traveled to affected countries, health officials say....... according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The parasite, which is...

A human body is not the individual organism its proud owner may suppose but rather a walking zoo of microbes and parasites, each exploiting a special ecological niche in its comfortable, temperature-controlled conveyance. Some of these fellow travelers live so intimately with their hosts, biologists are finding, that they accompany them not just in space but also in time, passing from generation to generation for thousands of years. The latest organism to be identified as a longtime member of the human biota club is Streptococcus mutans, the bacterium that causes tooth decay. From samples collected around the world, Dr. Page...

What exactly does a noncitizen have to do to get deported around here? I guess Peter “Borat” Berdovsky, native of Belarus, won’t answer that because it’s not a hair question. And the Russky Rastaman is now officially a victim - a victim of Chernobyl, as his lawyer/foster father put it in court yesterday, before they went out outside to discuss his hair, which he doesn’t appear to have washed since leaving his native Third World hellhole. The subcontractor on the moronic Turner Broadcasting terror stunt arrived here as an exchange student, then sought asylum as a political refugee - stop...

A state report quietly released last spring shows illegal immigrants made up the largest single group of those giving birth at taxpayer expense in the state and in San Diego County in 2004. The May report, "Medi-Cal Funded Deliveries," states that of the 14,350 taxpayer-funded births in the county that year, 5,814, or 40.5 percent, were to illegal immigrants. That is an 18 percent increase over the 4,916 Medi-Cal-funded deliveries to illegal immigrants in San Diego County in 2001, as shown in an earlier state report. On Friday morning, Vista resident Silvia stopped to talk with a visitor as she...

HARTFORD -- Susan Schaefer LaRose quit her sales job in May after 18 years with pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co., frustrated by long work weeks that frequently encroached on weekends and vacations. And then she sued. Her lawsuit, part of a series of class action claims filed last month against nine major drug companies, seeks tens of millions of dollars in back pay for the thousands of drug company salespeople across the country. "I was told when I started with Eli Lilly that I was exempt from overtime," said Schaefer LaRose, a 50-year-old mother of two from Chittenango, N.Y.,...

A potentially fatal disease rarely seen here has popped up in Houston four times in the past two months. It's linked to tapeworms and their eggs. He ate at mobile kitchens until he found out food contaminated with eggs from a tapeworm almost killed him. "He's scared now. He's scared of any food from outside," said Marjorie, his daughter & translator. The tile worker immigrated from El Salvador 20 years ago said early symptoms were subtle. "It was a mild headache but it wouldn't go away," Marjorie explained. "It was just there and it wouldn't go away with Tylenol." Doctors...

Democrats pledge array of investigations By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer 12 minutes ago The incoming chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee is promising an array of oversight investigations that could provoke sharp disagreement with Republicans and the White House. Rep. John Dingell (news, bio, voting record), D-Mich., pledged that Democrats, swept to power in the Nov. 7 elections, would govern "in the middle" next year. But the veteran lawmaker has a reputation as one who has never avoided a fight and he did not back away from that reputation on Sunday. Among the investigations he said he...

Mummy DNA Reveals Birth of Ancient Scourge Image: © ALADIN ABDEL NABY/REUTERS/CORBIS Centuries of silence cannot keep ancient Egyptian mummies from sharing their secrets with scientists. From archaeologists determining cultural practices to chemists studying embalming, mummies have revealed libraries of information. Now such mummies are also yielding evidence about the diseases of the past by giving up the facts encoded in their preserved DNA, and new research may have pinned down the ancient homeland of a modern scourge. Leishmaniasis--a disease caused by microscopic parasites, like malaria, and transmitted by sand flies--results in painful skin sores and in its most vicious...

Shock and AweI visited the 9/11 memorial in Wesley Bolin Plaza Tuesday and I was stunned by what I saw.  Here's how the Governor describes the memorial.According to governor spokeswoman Shilo Mitchell , Napolitano described the memorial as being " unique, bold, educational and unforgettable," she said. " The memorial uses the sun to articulate words and thoughts."The memorial is an elevated flat ring with phrases cut through the metal.  Throughout the day, the sun shines through the ring and phrases become visible on the side walk.                        What kind of phrases?  Politically correct phrases that bash America.  That's what...

VIENNA, Austria -- Organizers of a campaign trying to clear Vienna's streets of dog droppings urged residents Thursday to record how many turds they see in the space of five minutes and report the figure as part of an impromptu census. The Vienna Dog-Dropping Initiative said it would compile the figures and present them to city officials on Monday as part of its stepped-up effort to pressure the Austrian capital to deal with the problem.

LONDON (Reuters) - Muslims criticised the government on Friday for publishing the names of 19 men who police sources say are under arrest for allegedly plotting to blow up passenger planes bound for the United States. The government instructed the Bank of England to publish the names on its Web site on Thursday, just hours after police arrested 24 people in connection with the suspected plot. Police have not named the 24 but a police source confirmed they include the 19 named by the central bank. Although the bank did not give the addresses of the 19, it listed their...

They Don't Support the Troops by Lisa De Pasquale Posted Jul 27, 2006 The constant mantra of the radical left is that while they don’t support the war, they do support the troops. Other than making hollow and flippant claims of support, the anti-war left has done little for the troops or their families. To the contrary, their actions show how little respect they have for the military. In a recent interview with CodePink’s Troops Home Fast cofounder Diane Wilson, she dismisses the troops by comparing their real sacrifices and efforts to CodePink’s faux fast, which includes liquids like...

CAMP AL QA’IM, Iraq (July 24, 2006) -- Iraqi nurses and Iraqi Army corpsmen will soon be able to treat patients for diseases caused by lack of clean drinking water, thanks to U.S. military physicians serving in this region along the Iraqi-Syrian border. Navy doctors provided the Iraqis with two days of training which will enable them to treat patients for parasites – such as hook worms – which have caused a variety of health problems in locals here, to include mental retardation and anemia in children. The Iraqi medical personnel were also given training in crucial life-saving skills for...

This is the pension squeeze companies aren't talking about: Even as many reduce, freeze or eliminate pensions for workers -- complaining of the costs -- their executives are building up ever-bigger pensions, causing the companies' financial obligations for them to balloon. Companies disclose little about any of this. But a Wall Street Journal analysis of corporate filings reveals that executive benefits are playing a large and hidden role in the declining health of America's pensions. Among the findings: • Boosted by surging pay and rich formulas, executive pension obligations exceed $1 billion at some companies. Besides GM, they include General...

On paper, Toxoplasma gondii looks as if it ought to be the most famous parasite on earth. This single-celled pathogen infects over half the world's population, including an estimated 50 million Americans. Each of Toxoplasma's victims carries thousands of the parasites, many residing in the brain. As if that were not enough of an accomplishment, Toxoplasma is equally adept at infecting all other warm-blooded animals, as disparate as chickens and kangaroos. Scientists are now discovering some of the secrets of Toxoplasma's success. Researchers in Sweden report that the parasite fans out through the body by manipulating mobile cells that are...

WASHINGTON — Despite record low approval ratings, House lawmakers Tuesday allowed a $3,300 pay raise that will increase their salaries to $168,500. The 2 percent cost-of-living raise would be the seventh straight for members of the House and Senate. Lawmakers easily squelched a bid by Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, to get a direct vote to block the COLA, which is automatically awarded unless lawmakers vote to block it.

By Howie Carr Boston Herald Columnist Friday, June 9, 2006 - Updated: 03:38 AM EST First of all, I’m with Lt. Gov. Muffy Healey on this pension-reform thing. But her proposal is going nowhere, and the reason can be summed up in four words: Kiss in the mail. Does anyone seriously believe that the public sector wants a private-sector pension plan? They would prefer to stick with the current “defined-benefit” plan, which is also known as the “kiss in the mail,” or “free money.” Can’t beat free money. Plus, we’re not talking about workers here, we’re talking about state workers....

Bill Day wants a second chance. Day is chief executive of WhenU.com Inc., a New York advertising company that used to smuggle its ''spyware" computer programs onto millions of Internet computers. Spyware programs have long infuriated Internet users by installing themselves without permission, generating a flood of unwanted pop-up advertisements, and even preventing users from uninstalling the offending programs. ''That's the legacy that we're trying to overcome," Day said. Battered by public outrage, WhenU hired Day in late 2004 to chart a new course for the company. Spyware is a $2 billion industry, according to Internet infrastructure and security company...

You've got to hand it to Americans. If ever there was a group of people more patient, more willing to turn the other cheek, more forgiving and tolerant – I just don't know who it would be. Every day now, it seems, hundreds of thousands of ungrateful human parasites rally in American cities condemning their host country's lack of hospitality. Think about this. Somewhere around 20 million foreigners have entered this country illegally and stayed here – taking advantage of America's health-care system, educational system, welfare system, taxing its criminal justice system and competing for jobs with those at the...

LOS ANGELES — The protests that drew national attention to the future of an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants are relaunching even though sweeping reform legislation has stalled on Capitol Hill. Weeks ago organizers picked Monday for dozens of demonstrations nationwide, a signal that what began as a string of disparate events — attracting tens and even hundreds of thousands of people — has become more coordinated. “We don’t have a leader like Martin Luther King or Cesar Chavez, but this is now a national immigrant rights movement,” said Joshua Hoyt, director of the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee...

OGI, Nigeria — Whatever secrets the turgid brown depths of the Sacred Pond of Ogi may keep, there is one they betray quite easily: why it is so infuriatingly hard to wipe even one disease off the face of the earth. Ogi is one of the last areas of Nigeria infested with Guinea worm, a plague so ancient that it is found in Egyptian mummies and is thought to be the "fiery serpent" described in the Old Testament as torturing the Israelites in the desert. For untold generations here, yardlong, spaghetti-thin worms erupted from the legs or feet — or...

Publicity about a pair of ‘affluent’ Ashland panhandlers has cut handouts for some others who say they’re lucky to get enough for food Jenah Dodge panhandled in downtown Ashland Sunday carrying a cardboard sign that declared she was pregnant. A passerby cried out, "I’ve heard that one before." Dodge, who showed her swollen stomach to prove she was pregnant, just shrugged the comment off, saying, "I never lie when I get money. I believe in karma." While the 20-year-old, who says she gets $20 to $30 a day, hasn’t noticed a drop-off in donations, other panhandlers say the publicity about...

Couple fend off public ire following news article ASHLAND — Sudden notoriety and public condemnation have surprised an Ashland couple who make a living as panhandlers and refer to themselves as "affluent beggars." Jason Pancoast and Elizabeth Johnson, who have three children, think the public has been taken aback by their unconventional image of a well-fed, well-dressed family that lives off the streets. "What has happened is that we’re going along with a lifestyle that you couldn’t imagine we should have," said 34-year-old Pancoast. A story in Sunday’s Mail Tribune about the couple, who sometimes make up to $300 a...

The first time 30-year-old Elizabeth Johnson stopped a stranger on the street to ask for money, she was really nervous. She was six months pregnant and desperate, having just spent seven days in jail for shoplifting books... Now Johnson and her 34-year-old partner, Jason Pancoast, who have been together for 14 years, support themselves and their three children, 6-year-old Seth, 3-year-old Adrianne and 3-month-old Synclair, by panhandling...

In Africa, 20 percent of the children get 80 percent of the bites from malarial mosquitoes, and an understanding of this could be central to controlling the deadly disease. Researchers have developed a mathematical model that describes the complex relationship between the proportion of people who are infected with Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria, and the rate at which people are bitten by the mosquitoes that carry it. Some people are bitten more than others because they live where mosquitoes are more common or because the mosquitoes, for various reasons, find them more attractive. Those who are bitten...

(McLean, VA) The National Policy Institute, a McLean, Virginia think tank, has called for the deportation of illegals in the U.S. A recently issued NPI paper has crunched the numbers and the Institute concludes that deporting illegal aliens would save Americans billions in annual taxes as well as increase the average income of native-born U.S. workers. The Economics of Immigration Enforcement: Assessing the Costs and Benefits of Mass Deportation, written by statistical expert Edwin Rubenstein, presents startling data and analysis of the massive costs of illegal immigration to Americans and the enormous benefits that would result from deporting illegals. The...

MEXICO CITY – The number of Mexicans leaving their country – almost all for the United States – has reached 400,000 per year and will continue to grow for several more years, the head of Mexico's National Population Council said on Friday. The increase in migration has coincided with the United States increasing security on its southern border. "The effort to increase control of the (U.S.) border has not reduced migratory flows one little bit," Council Secretary General Elena Zuniga said. "After 15 years, what we have seen is a growth in migration, and growth in a way that is...

Paris rioting spreads Friday 04 November 2005, 18:15 Makka Time, 15:15 GMT There were sporadic signs of rioting elsewhere in France Related: Timeline: Paris riots Riots engulf Paris suburbs Riots rage outside Paris Tools: Email Article Print Article Send Your Feedback Rioting on the outskirts of Paris continued into an eighth straight night on Friday as disturbances spread beyond the French capital for the first time. Police said more than 160 cars were torched in the Paris region and another 33 in riots elsewhere in the country. But they said the night seemed calmer than Thursday when 315 vehicles were...

Adding to recent scares over Chinese food products, the nation's health watchdog said yesterday that it has detected parasite eggs in imported kimchi. The Korea Food and Drug Administration said the eggs were found in nine out of 16 types of Chinese kimchi for sale over the Internet, adding Korean kimchi was found to be free of them. Around 18 percent of kimchi consumed in Korea came from China last year, the KFDA said. The health authorities alleged that the eggs were laid by parasites living in human feces used as fertilizer on soil where cabbage, the main ingredient of...

House Majority Leader Tom DeLay indicted on one count of criminal conspiracy by Texas grand jury, according to Travis County clerk's office.

Houston could have a new crime wave in the wake of Hurricane Katrina brought in by New Orleans gangs, the FBI warned Wednesday. The FBI intelligence memo obtained by KPRC Local 2 warned other law enforcement agencies that gang member evacuees might bring an "us versus them" mentality that could lead to shootings and other violence all over Houston.On Tuesday, a group of Louisiana evacuees and students from a southeast Houston high school were involved in a fight, which escalated into a riot that closed school early. "Yesterday took away the opportunity to pretend there was no problem," said Gayle...

The courageous comments of the Rev David Lacy, Moderator of the Church of Scotland, condemning the Islamist "hypocrites" who treat their hosts as "enemies" while leeching off the National Health Service,

An extreme Muslim cleric whose family have been living on benefits in Britain for 20 years says it would not be 'fair' to deport him. Speaking after the Prime Minister announced his clampdown, father-of-seven Sheik Omar Bakri said: "I have wives, children, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law. It would be hard on my family if I was deported." Since Syrian-born Bakri settled in Britain, he and his extended family have raked in benefits amounting to at least £300,000. He is registered disabled because of an injury to his leg during his childhood, and was recently supplied with a £31,000 Ford Galaxy under the...

Tiger moth caterpillars have been seen medicating themselves to treat a nasty influx of parasites. Scientists found the caterpillars' sense of taste actually changed when they became infected with parasites. Instead of avoiding certain alkaloid plants, the caterpillars actually developed a fondness for them. This change in diet helps to beat the creatures' parasite infection, the researchers report in Nature. The finding is slightly unusual because often when animals change their behaviour following a parasitic infection, it is to the invaders' benefit. "It is a new and surprising kind of interaction between organisms," said Elizabeth Bernays, of the University of...

Many argue that communism will never be possible because of "human nature". The essence of this false argument is the belief that a communist society would consist of an all-powerful central government that would tell everybody what to do--and would therefore undermine the creative initiative of individuals and the search for happiness. • This argument is based on two false assumptions: (1) It assumes that a communist society will look like the former Soviet Union, or the current China, North Korea, etc (ie: corrupt police states with a feudal-style ruling class) (2) It assumes that people will only work in...

Here is the list so far for sponcers to this hate America fest: ANSWER Code Pink UFPJ NION Al Awda World Workers Party Ruckas Revolutionary Communist party Moveon.org ACORN Campus Antiwar Network International Socialist Org Greens Party Muslim Student Association CPUSA

Storm Pusztay's small Slavic Village home looks like it's been evacuated. The first floor contains almost nothing. The second has little more than a bed, a dresser, and a TV. Everything else is gone, taken by thieves. Pusztay was in Virginia last fall, the first time his home was hit. He's a commercial roofer by trade, and travels for a living. He got a voice mail from his sister; come home right away. The bad guys had come through a back window, taking all that was immediately pawnable -- DVDs, movies, a TV, tools. "Anything you could sell real quick,"...

I don't know about you, but I'm sick and tired of all these unsolicited e-mails flooding into my e-mail box every day. Even though I have a couple of programs that allow me to filter them out, I still have to enter the ones not recognized by those programs and they can number into the 1,000's per week. I've decided (if its ok with Free Republic) to set up a page containing all known spammers. This way maybe instead of constantly having to unclog ones e-mail box every day or week, fellow Freeper's can copy these e-mail addresses and put...

Like thousands of other single women living in Bushwick, Brooklyn, Brigette, 24, collects Medicaid and food stamps. Unlike most of her neighbors, she's white and a college graduate—the kind of welfare recipient rarely considered in debates over public assistance. Brigette, whose parents and two sisters run a restaurant in rural Vermont, got her B.A. in film from Bard College, a top-tier liberal arts school in upstate New York. She moved to New York City about two years ago to pursue experimental filmmaking. As young self-styled bohemians have always done, she found a neighborhood with cheap rent and cobbled together a...

A man who either fell or jumped off the roof of his moving Mercedes-Benz in Scottsdale has been identified as an acclaimed chief financial officer for Phoenix whose struggles with a parasite might have caused his behavior Wednesday. Kevin Keogh, 55, died about 3 p.m. after he climbed onto the roof of the car he was driving east on Camelback Road with arms outstretched, similar to actor Leonardo DiCaprio in the movie “Titanic.” Police haven't determined if the death was suicide or accidental, Scottsdale detective Sam Bailey said. Keogh contracted the illness a couple of years ago while on vacation...