Free Republic

BURLINGTON TOWNSHIP -- New Jersey's education commissioner ordered a review after a YouTube video shows school children learning a song celebrating President Barack Obama. The video shows more than a dozen youngsters at B. Bernice Young Elementary School in Burlington Township. The district said the students were participating in Black History Month in February. Education Department spokeswoman Kathryn Forsyth said the commissioner has directed the school superintendent to review what happened. Forsyth said the commissioner wants to ensure that students can celebrate Black History Month without "inappropriate partisan politics in the classroom." Forsyth also said the teacher who directed the...

Neanderthals were separate species, says new human family tree A wax figure representing a Neanderthal man on display at a museum. A new, simplified family tree of humanity has dealt a blow to those who contend that the enigmatic hominids known as Neanderthals intermingled with our forebears. A new, simplified family tree of humanity, published on Sunday, has dealt a blow to those who contend that the enigmatic hominids known as Neanderthals intermingled with our forebears. Neanderthals were a separate species to Homo sapiens, as anatomically modern humans are known, rather than offshoots of the same species, the new organigram...

Stretched hospitals separate mums and babiesBy Laura Donnelly, Health Correspondent, Sunday Telegraph (UK) Last Updated: 11:54pm BST 14/04/2007 Newborn twins and triplets are being separated from their mothers and sent to different hospitals as neonatal units face growing shortages in specialist care for premature babies. Sarah Skates and Andy Scrace were separated from their twins, Kiera and Cameron It means that most hospitals have no choice but to send families in three or four different directions, says one expert. Neonatal units surveyed by Bliss, the premature baby charity, were full-up and unable to take new admissions for an average of...

Florida State University Date: January 29, 2007 Anthropologist Confirms 'Hobbit' Indeed A Separate Species Science Daily — After the skeletal remains of an 18,000-year-old, Hobbit-sized human were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores in 2003, some scientists thought that the specimen must have been a pygmy or a microcephalic -- a human with an abnormally small skull. Not so, said Dean Falk, a world-renowned paleoneurologist and chair of Florida State University's anthropology department, who along with an international team of experts created detailed maps of imprints left on the ancient hominid's braincase and concluded that the so-called Hobbit was...

Only 40 genes separate your pet dog from a wolf By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 22/11/2005) The difference between an obedient, friendly dog and a big bad wolf could be down to as few as 40 genes, according to a study into tameness. The research also found that to adapt to a life on the farm or in the home takes many more changes in gene activity than that required to love humans. A Swedish team compared two groups of farm-raised silver foxes in Siberia, one where for 40 generations the foxes have been selected for their friendly nature,...

It is not because Native Hawaiians should be cherished less but that equality under the law should be loved more that the Akaka Bill to create a race-based government should be opposed. The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs blithely approved the legislation Wednesday without seriously examining its constitutionality. The bill previously passed the House in 2000 as a "noncontroversial," like treating South Carolina's firing on Fort Sumter as a July Fourth celebration. The proposed legislation would ordain a Native Hawaiian Governing Entity cobbled together by Native Hawaiians meeting a threshold of Native Hawaiian blood. The Entity would negotiate with the...