Free Republic

Washington, Oct 06: A meteorite, which crashed into Australia 40 years ago, is telling researchers new things about how life may have started on Earth, and how that almost universal protein left-handedness came to be. For more than 150 years, scientists have known that the most basic building blocks of life - chains of amino acid molecules and the proteins they form - almost always have the unusual characteristic of being overwhelmingly “left-handed.” The molecules, of course, have no hands, but they are almost all asymmetrical in a way that parallels left-handedness. This observation, first made in the 1800s by...

Journalist Bob Woodward discusses "secret operational capabilities" against militia and insurgent leaders in Iraq, and spying on Iraq's prime minister.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 16, 2007 – After traveling with Navy Adm. Michael G. Mullen during Mullen’s first visit to Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Joint Staff’s operations director said today that he was struck by “noticeable” security improvements throughout the theater. Army Lt. Gen. Carter F. Ham told Pentagon reporters the troop surge in Iraq that began in the spring is “having the intended effect” of better security. “That's not to say that there’s not still significant work required; there is,” Ham said. But he reported that throughout his travels with Mullen earlier...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced a health care reform bill that he wants lawmakers to consider as they meet in special session. Schwarzenegger laid out his health reform ideas in January, but Democrats ignored his plan. Instead, they passed a health reform bill the governor says he will veto. Schwarzenegger hopes his latest effort will lead to a deal with Democratic leaders. But organized labor has been negative about the governor's approach and may pressure Democrats to vote no.

PARIS: The collapse of two ice shelves in Antarctica has exposed an exquisite seabed ecosystem, including previously unknown species of crustacean and marine anemone. The hidden marine world was revealed by the breakup of the Antarctic Peninsula's Larsen A and B ice shelves, 12 and five years ago respectively. Their collapse laid bare a 10,000-square-kilometre portion of the sea bed - an area almost the size of Jamaica - that had been roofed by ice for millennia. Part of the area was explored by an unmanned robot, lowered from the German Alfred Wegener Institute's research vessel, the Polarstern (North Star),...

A judicial discipline council has voted overwhelmingly to impose sanctions on a veteran Los Angeles federal judge who improperly seized control of a bankruptcy case to protect a probationer he was supervising. --snip-- On Nov. 16, the council ordered that U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real, 82, be publicly reprimanded for his intervention in the bankruptcy almost seven years ago, permitting Deborah M. Canter to live rent-free for three years in a Hancock Park house, costing her creditors $35,000 in rent and thousands more in legal costs, according to court documents. Real's misconduct "warrants the corrective action of 'censuring or...

Body reveals its inflammation 'off switch' 18:00 01 October 2006 NewScientist.com news service Deb MacKenzie Researchers have shed light on how the body switches off its immune response, a key step towards understanding autoimmune diseases and controlling inflammation. When immune cells die, they transform into “sponges” that soak up the molecules responsible for causing inflammation, researchers have discovered. The new information may lead to better drugs to treat inflammatory disorders, such as eczema. Inflammation is characterised by a red, painful swelling around a wound caused by blood fluids, proteins and immune cells flooding into an area of the body in...

WASHINGTON - The Secret Service on Friday revealed four more visits to the White House in 2001 by disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, including one to see a domestic policy aide to Vice President Dick Cheney. The newly released records of Abramoff's access to the White House bring the total number of his known visits to seven. One Abramoff White House visit, according to Secret Service logs, was on April 20, 2001, to see Cesar Conda, at the time Cheney's assistant for domestic policy. Five days after the Conda meeting, one of Abramoff's former lobbying colleagues, Patrick Pizzella, was nominated by...

Gene reveals mammoth coat colour By Rebecca Morelle Science reporter, BBC News Woolly mammoths had both dark and light coats The coat colour of mammoths that roamed the Earth thousands of years ago has been determined by scientists. Some of the curly tusked animals would have sported dark brown coats, while others had pale ginger or blond hair. The information was extracted from a 43,000-year-old woolly mammoth bone from Siberia using the latest genetic techniques. Writing in the journal Science, the researchers said a gene called Mc1r was controlling the beasts' coat colours. This gene is responsible for hair-colour in...

WASHINGTON - The House's top tax writer revealed a proposal Monday to reduce taxes on inherited estates and rewrite a quirky law that repeals the tax for only one year. House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas, R-Calif., introduced the bill after Senate Republican leader Bill Frist of Tennessee asked House GOP leaders for help reducing the estate tax before this fall's midterm elections. Frist lost a bid this month to push forward legislation repealing the tax, unable to overcome opposition from most Democrats and a pair of Republicans. Under President Bush's first tax cut, the estate tax decreases...

Ancient city reveals life in desert 2,200 years ago (Xinhua) Updated: 2006-05-22 14:58 Chinese and French archaeologists claim to have discovered the ruins of an ancient city which disappeared in the desert in Northwest China more than 2,200 years ago. The ancient city, shaped like a peach, is located in the center of the Taklimakan Desert, the second largest shifting desert in the world, covering a total area of 337,600 square kilometers, in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The perimeter of the city walls is 995 meters, with the height ranging from three meters to 11 meters. Archaeologists found traces...

Burial find reveals ancient lives Greig Watson BBC News, Leicester A huge amount can be learnt from skeletal remains They are dust and dry bones. Hundreds of people, generation upon generation, reduced to neatly boxed scraps and splinters. But a team from the University of Leicester archaeology unit has a rare opportunity to tell us about the lives these people led. Work on the extension to a shopping centre in Leicester city centre unearthed the largest medieval parish cemetery outside London, containing more than 1,300 skeletons. As well as the sheer scale of the site, the significance lies in its...

Leak reveals official story of London bombings · Al-Qaeda not linked, says government· Internet used to plan 7/7 attack Mark Townsend, crime correspondent Sunday April 9, 2006 The Observer (UK) The official inquiry into the 7 July London bombings will say the attack was planned on a shoestring budget from information on the internet, that there was no 'fifth-bomber' and no direct support from al-Qaeda, although two of the bombers had visited Pakistan. The first forensic account of the atrocity that claimed the lives of 52 people, which will be published in the next few weeks, will say that attacks...

Pulse reveals beating heart of a supervolcano 01 March 2006 From New Scientist Print Edition Jessica Marshall "I DON'T think visitors appreciate that they're standing directly on top of the largest, most dynamic magmatic system on the planet," says geologist Daniel Dzurisin. While the supervolcano that is Yellowstone National Park won't be erupting any time soon, he and his colleagues have uncovered a surprising source of volcanic activity beneath tourists' feet, which was probably the reason trails had to be closed in 2003. The Yellowstone caldera formed 640,000 years ago in an explosion of magma more than 1000 times greater...

Lady of Wells reveals her secrets The current bishop wants to restore the throne room A mysterious medieval wall painting found beneath the floor of the Bishop of Bath and Well's bedroom has given up its secrets. The painting, which shows a partly-clad woman wearing a transparent dress, dates from between 1460 and 1470. It was part of the decoration of the throne room of Bishop Thomas Beckynton. Dr Mark Horton, of Bristol University, who researched the painting discovered it is most likely to be part of a scene representing a medieval paradise. "It was rather like something out of...

WASHINGTON - A new book on the government's secret anti-terrorism operations describes how the CIA recruited an Iraqi-American anesthesiologist in 2002 to obtain information from her brother, who was a figure in Saddam Hussein's nuclear program. Dr. Sawsan Alhaddad of Cleveland made the dangerous trip to Iraq on the CIA's behalf. The book said her brother was stunned by her questions about the nuclear program because — he said — it had been dead for a decade. New York Times reporter James Risen uses the anecdote to illustrate how the CIA ignored information that Iraq no longer had weapons of...

Straight-talking McCain reveals himself as a leader in waiting By Alec Russell (Filed: 12/11/2005) Senator John McCain has all but launched a campaign to succeed President George W Bush, calling for a new approach to the war in Iraq and savaging the Pentagon's record there. With the White House struggling to regain the initiative after a series of damaging blows and the Democrats lacking a leader, the maverick Republican has effectively taken charge of the political debate. Sen John McCain: 'We should be ramping up' In a hard-hitting speech, reminiscent of his 2000 bid for the White House when he...

Tomb scan reveals buried treasure Thursday, October 20, 2005; Posted: 1:02 a.m. EDT (05:02 GMT) Some of the terra cotta soldier statues found around Qin's tomb. BEIJING, China (AP) -- A magnetic scan of the unopened tomb of China's first emperor has detected a large number of coins, suggesting Emperor Qin was buried with his state treasury, a news report said Thursday.

Tomb scan reveals buried treasure Thursday, October 20, 2005; Posted: 1:02 a.m. EDT (05:02 GMT) Some of the terra cotta soldier statues found around Qin's tomb. BEIJING, China (AP) -- A magnetic scan of the unopened tomb of China's first emperor has detected a large number of coins, suggesting Emperor Qin was buried with his state treasury, a news report said Thursday.

One-Fifth of Human Genes Have Been Patented, Study Reveals Stefan Lovgren for National Geographic News October 13, 2005 A new study shows that 20 percent of human genes have been patented in the United States, primarily by private firms and universities. The study, which is reported this week in the journal Science, is the first time that a detailed map has been created to match patents to specific physical locations on the human genome. Researchers can patent genes because they are potentially valuable research tools, useful in diagnostic tests or to discover and produce new drugs. "It might come as...

Grammar analysis reveals ancient language treeIt's not the words, it's how you use them that counts. Jennifer Wild The languages used in Papua New Guinea have few common words, making it hard to determine their origins. When it comes to working out the relationships between ancient languages, grammar is more enlightening than vocabulary, scientists say. There are some 300 language families in the world today. Researchers have long studied similarities between the words in different languages to try to work out how they are related. But the rate of change in languages means that this method really only works back...

Ancient site reveals stories of sacrificed horses www.chinaview.cn 2005-08-24 14:15:53 BEIJING, Aug. 24 -- A trip to Zibo might leave you with the similar impression as to a trip to Xi'an, especially when you visit the relics of horses buried for sacrifice. Zibo, in east China's Shandong Province, is the location of the state of Qi's capital in the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC). During this period, five feudal lords were able to gain control over the other states, with Duke Huan of Qi the head of the five. The difference between the horse buried for sacrifice in Zibo...

Dig reveals more of isles' bloody history JOHN ROSS NEW evidence of bloody clan battles at a medieval stronghold in the Western Isles has been unearthed by archaeologists. A team from Glasgow University has revealed a fortified settlement on Dun Eistean, a sea stack on the north-east coast of Lewis, thought to have been a refuge and spiritual home for the Clan Morrison 400 to 800 years ago. The discovery of musket balls, a lookout tower and a defensive wall around the perimeter of the island points to battles with the Morrisons' fierce rivals, including the Macaulays. Rachel Barrowman and...

The nonprofit organization Superintendent Roy Romer set up to defend Los Angeles Unified's image against political attacks relied almost entirely on contributions from construction firms, textbook publishers and other school contractors, records released Tuesday showed. Friends of L.A. Schools Inc., which Romer formed in February just days after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger announced his support for plans to break up the district, received single donations of $10,000 from investment bank Goldman Sachs, DMJM building consultants, Turner Construction and publishers Harcourt Inc. and Pearson Education - all of which have contracts totaling millions of dollars with the school district. Romer defended the...

Genetic testing reveals awkward truth about Xinjiang’s famous mummiesM (AFP) 19 April 2005 URUMQI, China - After years of controversy and political intrigue, archaeologists using genetic testing have proven that Caucasians roamed China’s Tarim Basin 1,000 years before East Asian people arrived. The research, which the Chinese government has appeared to have delayed making public out of concerns of fueling Uighur Muslim separatism in its western-most Xinjiang region, is based on a cache of ancient dried-out corpses that have been found around the Tarim Basin in recent decades. “It is unfortunate that the issue has been so politicized because it...

Prehistoric jawbone reveals evolution repeating itself By Catherine Gianaro Medical Center Public Affairs A 115-million-year-old fossil of a tiny monotreme, an egg-laying mammal related to the platypus, provides compelling evidence of multiple origins of acute hearing in humans and other mammals. The discovery of a prehistoric jawbone, reported in February in the journal Science, suggests that the transformation of bones from the jaw into the small bones of the middle ear occurred at least twice in the evolutionary lines of living mammals after their split from a common ancestor some 200 million years ago. “The earbones are still attached to...

February 17, 2005 4:30 AM Alpine iceman reveals Stone Age secrets By Sophie Hardach BOLZANO, Italy (Reuters) - Some 5,300 years after his violent death, a Stone Age man found frozen in the Alps is slowly revealing his secrets to a global team of scientists. But despite more than a decade of high-tech efforts by geneticists, botanists and engineers many questions about his life and death remain unsolved. And rumours of a deadly curse on those who found him continue to swirl. German amateur mountaineer Helmut Simon and his wife spotted Oetzi, as he became known, in the mountains between...

East Bulgaria Reveals Minoan Pertainence 18 January 2005, Tuesday. The Eastern Rhodopes revealed an old-times funeral site obviously pertaining to an ancient Crete-Micenae cult dating 3,500 years ago. The demographic researcher Mincho Gumarov of Kardzhali has donated the local museum with unique finds of ceramics, bronze and silver. The artifacts from the late bronze epoch were found in the nearby Samara cave. The find's pertainence to the epoch of legendary Micenae derives from the found labris (short two-face ritual axe, characteristic of that civilisation) and a silver amulet of the cult to Mother Earth, as well as pieces of surgery...

A Justice Department lawyer may have been laying the groundwork for the Iraq invasion long before it was discussed publicly by the White House. Just two weeks after the September 11 attacks, a secret memo to White House counsel Alberto Gonzales’ office concluded that President Bush had the power to deploy military force “preemptively” against any terrorist groups or countries that supported them—regardless of whether they had any connection to the attacks on the World Trade Towers or the Pentagon. The memo, written by Justice Department lawyer John Yoo, argues that there are effectively “no limits” on the president’s...

A noble find reveals the life in the past www.chinaview.cn 2004-12-03 11:02:53 BEIJING, Dec. 3 (Xinhuanet) -- Chicken fighting, women dancing with long silk sleeves and other colourful mural portrayals of the ancient Chinese captivated archaeologists when they entered an ancient tomb in Shaanxi Province. The hostess and her female guests constitute a part of the murals found in an ancient tomb in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province. [file photo] The murals have been considered a rare find, according to Cheng Linquan, deputy director of the Xi'an Research Institute of Archaeology. They provide visual evidence for the study...

Maize reveals traces of old breeding project Emma Marris Gene suggests ancient culture selected patterns in its corn. Teosinte grass (left) compared to "reconstructed" primitive maize, created by crossing teosinte with Argentine pop corn. © The Doebley Lab The people of Mesoamerica are largely responsible for the golden corn we grow today, having domesticated tough teosinte grass thousands of years ago and bred it into modern maize. Researchers have now located the gene responsible for some of the traits that the Mesoamericans were selecting. The discovery should help scientists understand how plants develop, and reveals just how strict the ancient...

Atlantis Hunt Reveals Structures in Sea Off Cyprus Sat Nov 13, 2004 06:33 AM ET NICOSIA (Reuters) - An American researcher on the trail of the lost city of Atlantis has discovered evidence of man-made structures submerged in the sea between Cyprus and Syria, a member of his team said Saturday. Robert Sarmast, who is convinced the fabled city lurks in the watery depths off Cyprus, will give details of his findings Sunday."Something has been found to indicate very strongly that there are man-made structures somewhere between Cyprus and Syria," a spokesperson for the mission told Reuters. The mystery of...

Mummy Hair Reveals Drinking Habits By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News Sept. 23, 2004 Mummy hair has revealed the first direct evidence of alcohol consumption in ancient populations, according to new forensic research.The study, still in its preliminary stage, examined hair samples from spontaneously mummified remains discovered in one of the most arid regions of the world, the Atacama Desert of northern Chile and southern Peru. The research was presented at the 5th World Congress on Mummy Studies in Turin, Italy, this month. “ In modern human hair the levels would generally be in the ranges of social drinking, but we...

WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) on Friday unveiled his plan to deal with "Benedict Arnold" companies that he has repeatedly criticized during the campaign for reaping tax benefits while shipping U.S. jobs overseas. But his proposal to end an estimated $12 billion annually in corporate tax relief is certain to stir stiff opposition from some of America's largest multinational companies who are currently enjoying those breaks. And private economists questioned whether it would do much to halt the hemorrhaging of manufacturing jobs to foreign countries. Speaking at Wayne State University in Detroit, Kerry said...

According to the publisher's press release, Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War, by Douglas Brinkley, "was never intended as a political biography"--meaning, I suppose, that it is not meant to be confused with those ghost-written, election-year puffers and potboilers under whose weight the remainder-tables of America's bookstores are already beginning to buckle and break. Tour of Duty is intended to be a real book that makes an enduring contribution to the national letters--akin to the moving and beautifully written "Faith of My Fathers," by John McCain and Mark Salter, rather than "A Charge to Keep," by George...

<p>MODESTO - Scott Peterson's defense lawyer failed Tuesday to get murder charges thrown out against his client, but he did, for the first time, spell out just how he contends Laci Peterson and her unborn son died and ended up along the banks of the San Francisco Bay.</p>

The FBI's Terrorism Task Force is investigating an incident that occurred last month at a girls' yeshiva in Pikesville, Maryland. The Baltimore Jewish Times reports that an alert parent spotted a young man, later identified as a Saudi Arabian national, and a female companion videotaping students at Bais Yaakov School for Girls. The parent followed the filming couple for about a mile, despite their efforts to lose him. He wrote down their license plate number, called the police, and later filed a formal complaint with the FBI. The Saudi man has been questioned, his camera has been confiscated, and the...

<p>SACRAMENTO (AP) - A new U.S. Census report on California's fastest-growing cities and towns draws a portrait of a vast inland migration as residents relentlessly search for a cheaper place to call home.</p> <p>Whether to suburban Sacramento's Lincoln in the north or the Inland Empire's Beaumont and Murrieta in the south, thousands, statistics show, have taken eastbound highways to the hills and valleys of Central California.</p>

Study reveals world's most jealous men By Dr David Whitehouse BBC News Online science editor The green-eyed monster of jealousy is alive and well - and living in Brazil, according to an international study. In relationships, it is well known than men are mostly jealous about sex, while women are mostly concerned about emotional attachments. Psychologists have conflicting explanations for this, believing it comes either from evolution or from culture. The new cross-cultural research suggests the former is more important. It reveals that Brazilian men are the most jealous; Swedish men and women are more concerned about sex than any...