Free Republic

Life experiences provide us with an opportunity to develop an expertise in certain areas. For example, teachers develop an expertise enabling them to quickly identify students with learning issues, which the educator can then help them overcome. But what about a situation in which these roles are reversed – the rare situation in which a life experience has imbued a student with a certain expertise the teacher lacks? And, more importantly, if the student wishes to share the benefit of such expertise, will the teacher even listen?Such is the case at an Ivy League college where a student with a...

Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to his Iranian counterpart, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, at least five times Tuesday while U.S. Navy sailors were in Iranian custody, a senior State Department official told reporters Wednesday. In the course of his conversations, the official said Kerry told Zarif: "If we are able to do this the right way, we can make this into what will be a good story for both of us" and would be a way for Iran to prove it can act in a responsible manner in this type of situation. The calls, which took place over...

Obama Files has discovered a recording from 2007 of then-Senator Barack Obama ranting against U.S. gun dealers, blaming the Virginia Tech massacre that had occurred a few months earlier on 'unscrupulous' gun dealers, and throwing in for good measure gun dealers being responsible for the rampant gun violence in Chicago's public schools. This sheds light into the Obama Administration's program to demonize and falsely blame U.S. gun dealers for arming the Mexican drug cartels, while at the same time 'encouraging' them to hand over thousands of weapons to individuals that they knew were planning on transferring them over the border....

It cannot be said often enough that Washington is a city of endless fairy tales. Politicians in both parties can be found spinning these fantasies, but the yarns have been coming especially fast and furious since President Obama and his two best buddies -- Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- have been running the government. They spun two new fantasies just this week. The first was that without the latest Obama-Reid-Pelosi government bailout, at least 100,000 teachers would lose their jobs this fall. That's why the $26 billion "stimulus" bill passed by the House in...

Tales cities tell DR. T. V. PADMA According to archaeologists Indus cities had an efficient administrative system. Archaeologists have made intelligent guesses about Indus society by carefully studying the cities. Because the cities were so similar, it is reasonable to think that the people living in them shared ideas. How were the Indus cities kept in good condition for centuries? An efficient administration was probably in place to collect taxes for city maintenance. The similarities in the city layouts, home architecture, brick size, well construction and drainage systems also suggest a strong central authority. Peaceful people Yet, if hereditary kings...

<p>Ship logs and pottery show how the geomagnetic field has changed.</p> <p>Old ship records of magnetic north have helped to unravel a record of our planet's field.</p> <p>While sailors plied the Seven Seas in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, little did they know that their ships' logs would one day help scientists to reconstruct the history of the Earth's magnetic field.</p>

Old bones are telling new tales BY SANDI DOUGHTONMay 5, 2006 The Seattle Times ELLENSBURG, Wash. - Behind two locked doors at Central Washington University, what might be called Son of Kennewick Man sits inside a cardboard box. The faceless skull dates back 9,000 years - just 400 years younger than the superstar skeleton unearthed from the banks of the Columbia River. While Kennewick Man ignited a legal battle over the control of ancient bones, the skull at CWU has barely raised a ripple. "It just misses the mark in terms of people's interest," said CWU anthropology professor Steven Hackenberger....

One day in 1994, Doug Burns was leaving an appointment at Mass General Hospital when he was set upon by a thug standing over 6 feet tall and weighing more than 300 pounds. The criminal first battered Burns and when Burns protested the assault the thug threw a weapon at Burns and then charged Burns. Burns then drew his licensed handgun and shouted at the attacker to stop and then yelled at everyone nearby to call 911. Many calls were then received by 911, telling of the attack and how the victim was holding the criminal at gunpoint. When the...

Microscopic analysis, reported in the current issue of the journal Geology, revealed a 3-inch-thick layer of "shocked quartz" — a form of the mineral produced only under intense pressure like that of an impact — that dated to 35.5 million years ago, when a space rock slammed into the Earth about 120 miles southeast of present-day Washington.

IF IT had hit Central London, Britain would no longer have a capital city. The force of the meteorite that hit eastern Siberia last September destroyed 40 square miles of forest and caused earth tremors felt 60 miles away. An expedition from Russia's Kosmopoisk institute has only recently reached the site in a remote area north of Lake Baikal because of bad weather and difficult terrain, the Interfax news agency said yesterday. Fragments of the meteorite had apparently exploded into shrapnel 18 miles above the Earth with the force of at least 200 tonnes of TNT. At the time, Russian...

Is he an international man of mystery? Does he have psychic powers beyond the realm of mere mortals? Could it be possible that John Kerry truly knows the innermost secrets and desires of all world leaders? Or is he just a self-serving politician of the Kennedy brand who will do anything, say anything, obfuscate and deceive with abandon in his quest to occupy the Oval Office. Frankly, I'd bet on the latter. As time goes on, John Kerry seems to be exhibiting traits frighteningly similar to the delusions of Al "I invented the Internet" Gore. In truth, I suspect many...

Saddam the great dictator of fairy tales (Filed: 17/12/2003) Iraq's tyrant spent weeks before the war writing a novel about underground resistance, reports Jack Fairweather Saddam Hussein spent the final weeks before the war writing a novel predicting that he would lead an underground resistance movement to victory over the Americans, rather than planning the defence of his regime. Saddam's propaganda image As the war began and Saddam went into hiding 40,000 copies of Be Gone Demons! were rolling off the presses. Most were destroyed by bombing and looting but the Telegraph has obtained one of the few remaining copies...

(Repost : See Previous threads for context) After obtaining permission from Commodore Jim Robinson, I hereby dedicate this thread to 101 or more sea stories. For the innocents among us, a sea story is an experience (or a good lie) that a person associated with the Naval service either remembers personally or has had told to him at one time in the past. It has been said that the difference between a sea story and a fairy tale is that a fairy tale begins with "Once upon a time..." while a Sea Story begins with "This is a no-shi++er..." I...

<p>IRAKLIO, Greece (AP) -- Researchers on the southern Greek island of Crete have unearthed the fossilized tusk, teeth and bones of a Deinotherium Gigantisimum, a fearsome elephant-like creature that might have given rise to ancient legends of one-eyed cyclops monsters.</p>

Comets, Meteors & Myth: New Evidence for Toppled Civilizations and Biblical Tales By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer posted: 07:00 am ET 13 November 2001 "...and the seven judges of hell ... raised their torches, lighting the land with their livid flame. A stupor of despair went up to heaven when the god of the storm turned daylight into darkness, when he smashed the land like a cup." -- An account of the Deluge from the Epic of Gilgamesh, circa 2200 B.C. If you are fortunate enough to see the storm of shooting stars predicted for the Nov. 18...

New Finds Worldwide Support Flood Myths Brian Handwerk for National Geographic News May 28, 2002 Ancient stories of massive floods pass from generation to generation and in many places in the world are integral to a people's spoken history. The tales differ by locale, but commonly feature either torrential rains or a hugely destructive wall of water bursting into a valley, destroying everything in its path. In many cases, the flooding is an act of retribution by displeased gods. Scientists, historians, and archaeologists view many of these enduring tales as myth, legend, or allegoric tales meant to illustrate moral principles....