Free Republic

I am safe on the plane now. On the way to Los Angeles International Airport this afternoon, I thought I was about to be murdered. In the run-up to a weeklong business trip, I called the car service I've been using for years to pick me up at my home. The driver arrived promptly at 1:30 p.m., the arranged time. The ride to the airport started out just fine. The driver began making small talk. I noticed he had a Jamaican flag on his dashboard, so I asked if he was Jamaican. He said he was, and he asked if...

Neanderthals and humans lived side by side 18:00 13 September 2006 NewScientist.com news service Rowan Hooper Neanderthals were thought to have died out as modern humans arrived in Europe. Now, artifacts found in a cave in Gibraltar reveal that the two groups coexisted for millenia before Neanderthals finally dwindled out of existence. Homo sapiens moved into Europe about 32,000 years ago. But the newly unearthered artefacts shows that a remnant population of Homo neanderthalensis clung on until at least 28,000 years ago, a significant overlap. Clive Finlayson at the Gibraltar Museum, and colleagues, recovered 240 stone tools and artefacts from...

Feminine Side of ADHD: Attention disorder has lasting impact on girls Bruce Bower Although hyperactive behavior often abates during the teen years for girls with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, many struggle with serious academic, emotional, and social problems related to that condition, a 5-year study finds. Compared with teenage girls who had no psychiatric disorder, those with ADHD had difficulties that included delinquency, depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, poor mathematics and reading achievement, rejection by peers, and lack of planning skills, reports a team led by psychologist Stephen P. Hinshaw of the University of California, Berkeley. "ADHD in girls is likely...

Agency calls it part of 'criminal' probeFBI agents yesterday raided a North Side residence known to many in the neighborhood and the Pittsburgh Islamic community as both an Islamic school and mosque. The agency would say only that the search was in connection with a "criminal investigation" and wouldn't elaborate. The raid began around noon when authorities shut down the intersection of Boyle and Hemlock streets, residents said. The activity centered around a three-story green house located in the 1300 block of Boyle Street. It is home to the Sankore Institute and Light of Age Mosque, which doubles as...

U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class “Lucky” sniffs for weapons and explosives while manning a traffic control point at the Sadr al Yusufiyah water treatment facility May 14, 2006. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. 1st Class Doug Pfeffer Soldiers Have ‘Luck’ On Their Side Sgt. 1st Class Lucky is a two-year-old white lab that specializes in locating weapons caches by scent. By U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Doug Pfeffer2nd Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment CAMP STRIKER, Iraq, June 13, 2006 — While deployed to Iraq, soldiers from 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division, have gained assistance in the searching of...

Contact: Skip Derra skip.derra@asu.edu 480-965-4823 Arizona State University Early human ancestors walked on the wild side Tempe, Ariz. -- Arizona State University anthropologist and Institute of Human Origins researcher Gary Schwartz, along with fellow anthropologist Dan Gebo from Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, have studied fossil anklebones of some early ancestors of modern humans and discovered that they walked on the wild side. It seems some of our earliest ancestors possessed a rather unsteady stride due to subtle anatomical differences. Schwartz and Gebo's findings will be published in the April 2006 edition of the American Journal of Physical Anthropology, but the...

AL ASAD, Iraq -- The people of Iraq voted in a general election to decide on a permanent 275-member Iraqi National Assembly, Dec. 15. Throughout the country, Marines, Soldiers and Iraqi Security Forces provided protection so Iraqis could vote in secure locations. One of the important roles in providing security for the elections was that of the female U.S. service members who searched female Iraqis at voting stations. Marines from the 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing at Al Asad eagerly volunteered to play a part in history and help the women of Iraq secure rights for themselves in a free society....

MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. (Dec. 6, 2005) -- A Baton Rouge, La. native was presented the Purple Heart Medal here Nov. 30 for injuries he suffered while deployed to Iraq in September. Lance Cpl. Ryan Cahill, an infantryman with 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, and several members of his unit had been searching for improvised explosive devices in Karmah, a city outside Fallujah, at the time he was injured. “The IED went off about five to 10 yards from the humvee I was driving,” said the 19-year-old Cahill. “There was a lot of confusion that followed, because I...

Federal health advisers are looking into the deaths of 12 Japanese children who took Tamiflu, part of their annual safety review of the anti-flu medication and seven other drugs. There are no reports of deaths in the United States or Europe associated with Tamiflu. "Based on the information we have right now, we cannot say definitively there is a causal relation between the drug and the children's death," Dr. Murray Lumpkin, the deputy commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said Thursday. The Japanese deaths were detailed in papers released in advance of a Food and Drug Administration advisory...

The other side of Aulnay By Joseph Winter BBC News website, Aulnay-sous-Bois After a week of riots during which a Renault showroom was destroyed along with the hundreds of cars inside, the Paris suburb of Aulnay-sous-Bois has become known around the world as a place of violence and poverty. Aulnay-sous-Bois is a town of contrasts And yet just a mile or so from where the menacing, dilapidated tower blocks have seen nightly clashes between angry youths armed with petrol bombs and the police, is the Vieux Pays (Old country) district of Aulnay which has the feel of picture-postcard France. People...

Think of 1958, so distant in the past that there were front-page stories about Alaska's finally being voted the 49th state. Something that didn't make headlines -- because the reality of it wouldn't become clear for years -- was the fact that 1958 was the last time Republicans controlled the California Legislature, aside from an occasional oddball year or two. It was the year California went Democrat and never went back. I mention 1958 because of the hectoring under way by California GOP hard-liners, whom pundits call the "circular firing squad" because of their corrosive effect on their own party....

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger may be down but he's not out, say an array of political experts, who predict the former action-movie hero will be able to overcome sagging poll numbers and regain his popularity. Despite talk that Schwarzenegger and lawmakers will reach a compromise on his government-reform proposals, voters will go to the polls Nov. 8 to decide the issues, experts say, and the former movie hero will portray the results -- whatever they are -- as a Hollywood ending to his battle for the common man. "If I was the governor, I'd say that passage of even one measure...

A St. Paul Police officer was shot several times and killed around 2:20 a.m. this morning near 7th St. and Forest Ave. on St. Paul's East Side. Two suspects are on the loose. The dead officer has been identified as Sgt. Gerald Vick, 41, Chief John Harrington told reporters this morning. Officers performed CPR on Vick on the scene, but Vick died as he was being taken to the hospital, Harrington explained. Throngs of police are combing the neighborhood looking for two suspects. A mile-and-a-half perimeter has been set up around the alley where the shooting happened. The Bureau of...

Always look on the bright side... By Alexis Akwagyiram BBC News Robbie's Angels, Sinatra's My Way and Queen's Who Wants to Live Forever are among the top choices of songs played at funerals. Putting aside what it says about the nation's musical tastes, is this the dumbing down of death? And it's whispered that soon,if we all call the tuneThen the piper will lead us to reasonAnd a new day will dawnfor those who stand longAnd the forest will echo with laughter Followers of those hell-raising 70s stadium rockers Led Zeppelin will recognise these words as the lyrics to the...

Attorney general nominee Alberto Gonzales' confirmation hearing this week "may become more contentious because the White House has refused to provide copies of his memos on the questioning of terror suspects." Now, folks, this is serious stuff. I want you to pay even closer attention than you normally do. (story) "Senator Richard Durbin of Illinois, the Senate's #2 Democrat said today, 'We go into the hearing with some knowledge of what has occurred because of press reports or leaks, but without the hard evidence that will either exonerate or implicate Judge Gonzales in this policy.' Durbin and other Democrats plan...

The other side of Slavery Long before the first Europeans set foot in Africa, native kings and chieftains had traded in slaves. There were white captives held in African slave markets, people who had been kidnapped by pirates during raids on the coasts of England, Ireland and France. These slaves were very highly valued by North African chieftains. The gold mining industry on the Gold Coast, modern-day Ghana, was also a magnet for the African slave trade, which continued long after the European nations agreed to its abolition. White slaves were still held in North Africa as late as 1626....

Editor's note: Readers may also be interested in Moderate Islam or Fata Morgana? and freemuslims.org Speaks Out.There is good news to report: The idea that "militant Islam is the problem, moderate Islam is the solution" is finding greater acceptance over time. But there is also bad news, namely growing confusion over who really is a moderate Muslim. This means that the ideological side of the war on terror is making some, but only limited, progress.The good news: Anti-Islamist Muslims have found their voice since September 11. Their numbers include distinguished academics such as Azar Nafisi (Johns Hopkins), Ahmed al-Rahim (formerly...

Well we've got a big barrel of money... We may look angry and funny... But we're travelin' on... Singing our song... Side by side. Through all kinds of weather... What if the polls should fall? As long as we're together, It doesn't matter at all. So we got a huge barrel of money... I'm stupid , she's DUmmy... But we're travelin' on... Singing our song... Side by side. Through all kinds of weather... Drought, flood, rain and snow, We count our money together... So it just don't matter at all... Oh we got a big barrel of money... We may...

Flooding may be a side effect of Venus' move June 20 2004 at 10:33AM Beijing - The recent spectacular transit of Venus across the face of the sun may lead to disastrous flooding along China's Yellow River, a leading scientist warned in the local media on Sunday. While millions were marvelling at the celestial show earlier this month, Geng Guoqing, an expert on natural calamities, was more worried about the consequences for China's second-longest river, the Xinhua news agency reported. He compared historical records reaching 2 187 years back and found a clear correllation between Venus transits and serious floods...

A VERY long read, skip ahead if you want to get past the Cold War history Introduction America's longest war was in a sense, not a traditional war. The United States did not engage in any direct conflict or battle with its enemy, nor were any direct shots fired. Yet this, war, which lasted for over forty years, put people in such a state of fear that was unprecedented with any previous American conflicts. Known as the Cold War, it describes the "era of doubtfulness and distrust between the Western and Eastern powers" in the post World War II world....

Immigrants from the Other Side? According to the Clovis-First theory, for decades the gospel preached by authorities on the peopling of the Americas, the first Americans walked across the Bering Land Bridge from Asia about 12,000 years ago, and after finding a corridor through the Cordilleran Ice Sheet--admittedly it wasn't an easy trip and the timing was tricky--descended into temperate North America. We know them by their classic fluted points, unlike any others in the world, they left at campsites on their journey south to populate Central and South America. [~ 45:l ~] There have been variations of the basic...

AUBURN NY--I heard from my old friend, D.J. Fulton, who came to the Y-field reunion from Atlanta, Ga. D.J. firmly believes, and rightfully so, that Phil Kent, formerly of Auburn, is mostly certainly a legend of Auburn. What about Phil Kent and why is he a legend? Phil was born Nov. 24, 1951, to Wilbur T. and Helen Andrews Kent at Auburn Memorial Hospital. The Kent family lived on North Hoopes Avenue, and Phil recalled one of his favorite activities was ice skating in the winter at Hoopes Park. Phil attended Herman Avenue School, and his favorite teacher at Herman...

Democrats and the Kennedys are once again proving to be hypocrite fools suffering from the famous case of liberal amnesia. The controversy this time stems from John F. Kennedy in advertisements that support President Bush's new tax cut plan. Senator Ted Kennedy is fuming over JFK's name and image being used to support tax cuts, something he vehemently opposes. These ads in question compare the massive tax cuts of JFK to those of Reagan and Bush, and rightfully so. This ordeal is only a small part of the larger problem; that modern day Democrats and socialists have hijacked the good...

<p>The Federal Reserve has been cutting the discount rate in fits and starts since late 2000 and yet the economy and the stock market continue to languish. Now in one grand flare of dramatic excess the Fed has cut the discount rate and the federal funds target rate by an amazing 50 basis points. The discount rate is at an unbelievable low of 0.75%.</p>