Free Republic

Although federal health officials decline to use the word “peaked,” the current wave of swine flu appears to have done so in the United States. Flu activity is coming down in all regions of the country, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday, though it is still rising in Hawaii, Maine and some isolated areas. The World Health Organization said Friday that there were “early signs of a peak” in much of the United States. On Wednesday, the American College Health Association, which surveys over 250 colleges with more than three million students, said new cases of flu...

She is a striking brunette with a decidedly outspoken attitude. She lambasts President Barack Obama as a socialist and has become the darling of America's right-wing activists who flock to her appearances. She is hated by liberals and loved by conservatives. Sarah Palin? Not quite. Meet Michele Bachmann, a Republican congresswoman from Minnesota who is being hailed as a new and increasingly powerful voice in American politics

The next wave of swine flu has arrived, and Mexicans are bracing for an outbreak that may be even larger than the one here last spring that became a pandemic.

Note: Videos and photos included. SNIPPET: "In 1967, at the Cubberley High School in Palo Alto, California, World History teacher Ron Jones was asked about the Holocaust by a student. "Could it happen here?". According to the press release accompanying the latest retelling of the events that followed, "Jones came up with an unusual answer. He decided to have a two week experiment in dictatorship. His idea was to explain fascism to his class through a game, nothing more. He never intended what resulted, where his class would be turned into a Fascist environment. Where students gave up their freedom...

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3Zb0EVKOkY "GREEN JOBS NOT JAILS - The Third Wave of Environmentalism" Video Description - Quote: eon3 January 19, 2008 Van Jones, Founder/Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights ( http://ellabakercenter.org/ ) talks about his compelling moral vision for California to abandon its 'incarceration economy' for an 'innovation economy' and do an ecolgical U-turn on the four wheels of labor, progressive business, environmentalism and social justice. As he puts it, "a rainbow city in a rainbow state in a rainbow country leading the way to a rainbow planet." Category: Education Tags: van jones ella baker center for human...

Mathematicians have proposed an alternative explanation for the accelerating expansion of the universe that does not rely on the mystifying idea of dark energy. According to the new proposition, the universe is not accelerating, as observations suggest. Instead, an expanding wave flowing through space-time has caused distant galaxies to appear to be accelerating away from us. This big wave, initiated after the Big Bang that is thought to have sparked the universe, could explain why objects today appear to be farther away from us than they should be according to the Standard Model of cosmology. "We're saying that maybe the...

Scientists in the US have made a major advance in their understanding of so-called freak waves. These monster waves present a major risk to ships and offshore platforms. A computer simulation developed by oceanographers in the US could help locate where and when these "rogue" phenomena are most likely to occur. The theoretical study shows that coastal areas with variations in water depth and strong currents are hot spots for freak waves. The history of seafaring is littered with tales of rogue waves capable of rending ships asunder.

OC Family Grateful Editor: Saturday, April 25, 2009 was a beautiful day, and it was made even more wonderful by the outpouring of affection expressed toward Captain Robert S. Craig at his Beach Memorial Service. The Craig children and family appreciate all that was done to honor our “Pop,” a man so many in Ocean City have known and loved for so many years. The Beach Memorial was truly memorable and more special than we could have possibly imagined. We have many people to thank for their efforts in making it happen. We learned very quickly that organizing such an...

A VACCINE against the Mexican swine flu sweeping the world is likely to arrive too late for most people, vaccine officials told New Scientist between a flurry of high-level industry meetings this week. >snip< ...while regular seasonal flu hits the very elderly hardest, this virus affects the young. And there are fears that it could become worse in subsequent waves like previous pandemics... >snip< "It only takes three days to grow the virus in eggs, but weeks for testing and formulating," Hessel adds. That means no vaccine until September, and no real quantities until October. Then countries have to administer...

(At right) Flanked by friends and family members, a wreath is carried down the beach to be released into the ocean in memory of Craig, "founding father" of the Beach Patrol. Carrying the wreath is the current head of the organization, Capt. Butch Arbin, who is flanked by Craig's son, Robert Craig, and grandson, Christopher Craig. (Above) Sean Williams pushes a surf board, carrying the wreath and the ashes of Capt. Craig, toward a Coast Guard boat, which released the wreath farther from the shore.

A second wave of swine flu may strike later this year, ministers warned yesterday. As hopes rose that the worst of the outbreak is over Health Secretary Alan Johnson said the tally of 18 cases in the Britain was likely to rise. US health officials last night claimed the outbreak was not as deadly as first thought and the disease is peaking in Mexico. But as three new British cases emerged over the weekend, Mr Johnson said: "At the moment all the evidence is that we can confine it, contain it, and treat it effectively. "But with pandemics you get...

News Release: April 8, 2009 Memorial Service planned to honor Captain Robert S. Craig Ocean City, MD – A memorial service for Captain Robert (Bob) S. Craig will be held 3 p.m. Saturday, April 25 on the beach at North Division Street. Captain Craig passed away on Saturday, March 28 at the age of 90. Captain Craig joined the Ocean City Beach Patrol in 1935 and served as its captain from 1946 until retiring in 1987. Captain Craig is credited with building the Ocean City Beach Patrol into the professional organization it is known as today. When Captain Craig turned...

(April 3, 2009) The man who not only epitomized the Ocean City Beach Patrol, but also built it into a serious and professional organization, passed away Saturday. When Capt. Robert (Bob) S. Craig turned 90 last July, a competition, dinner and slide show honored him for his 52 years as a town employee and member of the Beach Patrol. Thousands knew Craig from his years guiding the Beach Patrol and taking it from a small, relatively unskilled group of young men to a large group of highly skilled young men and women. Capt. Butch Arbin, the current head of the...

OCEAN CITY – Ocean City lost a treasured icon this week when Captain Robert S. Craig, who shepherded the Beach Patrol through decades of change and inspired his young charges for half a century passed away at the age of 90. Captain Craig, as he was known for decades not only by the thousands of lifeguards who worked with him and for him but also by the countless millions of local residents and visitors to the resort area, passed away last Saturday at the Coastal Hospice in Salisbury at the age of 90. A former schoolteacher and coach, Captain Craig...

A new way of fueling reactors could make nuclear power safer and less expensive, says John Gilleland. By Matt Wald Enriching the uranium for reactor fuel and opening the reactor periodically to refuel it are among the most cumbersome and expensive steps in running a nuclear plant. And after spent fuel is removed from the reactor, reprocessing it to recover usable materials has the same drawbacks, plus two more: the risks of nuclear-weapons proliferation and environmental pollution. These problems are mostly accepted as a given, but not by a group of researcher­s at Intellectual Ventures, an invention and investment company...

Any guesses on how long until he loses the war for us? When he's pres, he can do whatever he wants in this regard. Elections have consequences.

Another wave energy effort pitched for Humboldt coast John Driscoll The Times-Standard Article Launched: 12/18/2007 01:21:21 AM PST A partnership has formed to float another wave energy project off the Humboldt County coast, with an aim to produce electricity by 2012. The Pacific Gas and Electric Co. has signed a power purchasing agreement with Canadian firm Finavera Renewables to buy electricity generated by the 2 megawatt project. As conceived, the plan is to deploy about eight power buoys hitched together about 2.5 miles to sea, probably off the Eureka or Trinidad coast. The buoys would generate power from waves, and...

So there I was, standing with about 30 other hikers in boots and backpacks, jammed into a room no bigger than a double-wide in a one-story beige government building in a destitute moonscape otherwise known as southern Utah on a warm Friday morning....After a few minutes' rest, we headed south, looking to a tall, gray ridge on the horizon for a huge vertical crack that marked the entrance to the Wave.

Massive Wall of Water Expected to Slam East Coast of England Thursday, November 08, 2007 LONDON — Thousands of people along the the eastern coast of England were told to evacuate their homes and move to higher ground Thursday ahead of a potentially devasting 10-foot wall of sea water predicted to slam the island nation Friday morning. More than 10,000 homes and businesses are affected by the order, according to the British Environment Agency, which has issued seven severe flood warnings for people living on the Norfolk and Suffolk coast near Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft. Environment Secretary Hilary Benn warned...

NEWPORT, Ore. — The first wave energy test buoy deployed off the Oregon Coast is now 150 feet below the ocean surface. Mike Clark, a spokesman for Finavera Renewables, a Canadian energy developer, said the 72-foot-tall buoy began taking on water late last week and sank just one day before engineers were going to remove it. The company plans to recover the $2 million buoy next spring, when the ocean calms, Clark told The Oregonian newspaper.

NEW ORLEANS - For proof that Hurricane Katrina is transforming the ethnic flavor of New Orleans — and creating altogether new tensions — look no further than the taco trucks. Lunch trucks serving Latin American fare are appearing around New Orleans, catering to the immigrant laborers who streamed into the city in search of work after Katrina turned much of the place into a construction zone. The trucks are a common sight in barrios from Los Angeles to New York, but controversial in a city still adapting to a threefold increase in Hispanics since Katrina. Officials in suburban Jefferson Parish...

Wave Energy Bill Approved by U.S. House Science Committee Washington, DC [RenewableEnergyAccess.com] The U.S. House of Representatives Science and Technology Committee has approved, by voice vote, renewable energy legislation that would invest approximately $200 million in federal funds to advance research and development of wave energy technologies over the next four years. "America has the tools, expertise and ingenuity to harness the untapped energy found just off our shores." -- Rep. Darlene Hooley (D-OR), a member of the House Science and Technology Committee The Marine Renewable Energy Research and Development Act of 2007 (H.R. 2313) would authorize $50 million for...

Port Moresby [New Guinea] - Thousands of villagers fled their homes in the Pacific nation of Papua New Guinea after a volcanic eruption triggered a tidal wave that flattened homes and sowed panic among residents, reports said on Tuesday. No casualties were reported, but ocean surges destroyed four houses and a boat after a volcano on Ritter Island exploded into life at the weekend spewing ash and smoke over islands off eastern Morobe province, The National newspaper said.

Finavera Gains Permit in Oregon to Study Wave Energy Vancouver, Canada For Oregon's proposed 100-MW Coos County wave energy project, Finavera Renewables can now proceed with analyses of oceanographic conditions, commercial and recreational activities, and other impacts potentially associated with the planned project after receiving preliminary permit approval by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). These preliminary site specifications will be subject to several studies as part of a feasibility assessment, including oceanographic conditions, marine biological resources, marine mammal resources, commercial and recreational activities, noise, public safety, visual impacts, and fishing, crabbing and other marine uses. The proposed Coos...

Work completed by physics professors at Rowan University shows that light is made of particles and waves, a finding that refutes a common belief held for about 80 years. Shahriar S. Afshar, the visiting professor who is currently at Boston's Institute for Radiation-Induced Mass Studies (IRIMS), led a team, including Rowan physics professors Drs. Eduardo Flores and Ernst Knoesel and student Keith McDonald, that proved Afshar’s original claims, which were based on a series of experiments he had conducted several years ago. An article on the work titled "Paradox in Wave-Particle Duality" recently published in Foundations of Physics, a prestigious,...

Police investigate wave of seven letter bombs By John Steele, Crime Correspondent Last Updated: 3:51pm GMT 07/02/2007 Police chiefs today issued a nationwide warning to companies, organisations and the public after seven "viable explosive devices" were sent through the post, injuring at least seven people, over the last three weeks. The latest blast happened just after 9am today when a package exploded at the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency’s main centre in Swansea. Three woman in the postroom were injured in the blast and taken to hospital. At least three of the recent attacks have targeted organisations connected to motoring:...

It's amazing how a few weeks ago the media was talking about how the Rats were favored to win by 20% or more, which everyone here knew was a lie. Then the numbers were tightened up to a 6-8% Rat advantage right before the election. According to these numbers: "28 House seats, 22 were won by 2 percent or less ? 22 of the 28. And of those, 18 were won by less than 5,000 votes, and four of those by less than a thousand votes.? Later he went over the numbers again, and concluded, ?In other words you can...

ARLINGTON, Va. - Iran's former president decried a wave of "Islamophobia" that he said is being spread in the United States by fear and hatred of Islam in response to terror perpetrated by Muslims. "In the crime of 9/11, two crimes were committed," Mohammad Khatami said. "One was killing innocent people. The second crime was masking this crime in the name of Islam." Under smothering security, with dozens of uniformed police and plainclothes American security personnel provided by the State Department, Khatami spoke Friday night at an event sponsored by the Council on American-Islamic Relations called "The Dialogue of Civilizations:...

Texan hosts arm against crime wave By Philip Sherwell in Houston (Filed: 27/08/2006) Hurricane Katrina may not have pounded Houston, but a year later the city is reeling from an ugly aftermath of the storm - a surging crime wave. The murder rate in the Texan city has soared by almost 20 per cent since 150,000 Katrina evacuees arrived in August last year. According to police statistics, they are involved - as victim or killer - in one of every five homicides. In the gun stores and on the shooting ranges of America's oil industry capital, business is booming as...

Alfie Carter : photo Jamiescottimages.com Big Wave News Oakley/ASL Big Wave Awards Are Off to a Cracking Start Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 2 August, 2006 : - - Gold Coast, Queensland, -- The Oakley/ASL Big Wave Awards provide Australia with a premier heavy-water surf event of epic proportions. Dozens of ultra-qualified surfers on the open ocean coasts of Australia and New Zealand spend seven months in pursuit of the best and biggest waves they can find. The goals? Ultimate respect from their peers, the thrill of the chase, and $30,000 in total prizemoney. This year’s event kicked off on June...

US capital introduces curfew after crime wave Fri Jul 21, 4:47 PM ETAFP/File Photo: Washington Mayor Anthony Williams, seen here in February 2006, announced that the US capital will... WASHINGTON (AFP) - The US capital will introduce a 10:00 pm curfew for teenagers and deploy more police officers following a crime wave that saw 15 murders at the start of the month, Washington Mayor Anthony Williams said. Washington DC's crime wave included the murder of a young British national, who was slashed to death in the throat on July 9 in the upscale tourist district of Georgetown. The US capital...

'Next wave of Iraq suicide bombers' thwarted By Nigel Bunyan (Filed: 25/05/2006) Anti-terrorist police who arrested eight Libyans in a series of dawn raids yesterday believe they may have thwarted the next wave of suicide bomb attacks on British and US forces in Iraq. The suspects, picked up at the end of a year-long investigation centred on Manchester, are being held on suspicion of either encouraging al-Qa'eda or helping to fund some of its atrocities. Police remove items from a house in Manchester But intelligence sources say that some of them may have been planning to fly out to Iraq...

New Orleans residents express anger at first wave of rebuilding ideas By: CAIN BURDEAU - Associated Press NEW ORLEANS -- Angry residents expressed frustration Wednesday at the debut of rebuilding proposals for this devastated city, taking aim at a suggested four-month moratorium on new building permits in areas heavily flooded by Hurricane Katrina. "Our neighborhood is ready to come home," said property owner Jeb Bruneau of Lakeview, which borders Lake Pontchartrain. "Don't get in our way and prevent us from doing that. Help us cut the red tape." The Bring New Orleans Back Commission, appointed by Mayor Ray Nagin, released...

THE US navy wants to protect its warships with a system that will destroy incoming torpedoes by firing massive underwater shock waves at them. The ships would be equipped with arrays of 360 transducers each 1 metre square - effectively big flat-panel loudspeakers - running along either side of the hull below the waterline. When the ship's sonar detects an incoming torpedo, the transducers simultaneously fire an acoustic shock wave of such intensity that the torpedo either detonates early or is disabled by the pulse's crushing force, according to the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is funding...

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas (Army News Service, Sept. 16, 2005) -- The nation watched in horror as Hurricane Katrina ripped through the Gulf Coast region, and then countless heart-wrenching stories stirred people to open their homes, wallets and hearts to the evacuees. But, as the disaster grew in proportion, so did the wave of Internet, e-mail and phone scams designed to rip off generous people. Rather than let a few criminals deter a nation’s generosity, the best way to counter the latest rash of crime is through education, said Timothy Haight, a legal assistance attorney with the Office of the...

The wave of "Last Minute Refusals" is growing by the hour, with soldiers throughout the IDF stating they will not obey orders relating to the forced expulsion of Jews from Gaza and northern Samaria. According to Rotter.net, five IDF battalion commanders have warned of mass refusal by soldiers in a document written to Defense Minister Sha'ul Mofaz and Chief of Staff Dan Halutz last week. The letter reportedly reveals a phenomenon called "last minute refusal." The five lieutenant colonels wrote that there is a possibility that up to half of all soldiers, including officers, assigned to Disengagement duties intend to...

Extremists face fresh wave of expulsions By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor (Filed: 16/08/2005) Charles Clarke yesterday signalled a fresh wave of expulsions and exclusions of extremist Islamists once the Government has concluded its review of the law later this month. The Home Secretary visited Scotland Yard for a briefing on the terrorism threat and issued a warning that another strike in London could not be ruled out. "We remain worried," Mr Clarke said, though he conceded that there was no specific intelligence about the existence of a third cell of bombers. "It would be ridiculous to assume a further...

The Human WavePeople may have evolved fluidly, with lots of interbreeding Bruce Bower Release a drop of red food coloring into a glass filled with water. Watch the drop slowly spread until it imbues the water with a rosy tint. Then, add a drop of blue coloring and observe the boundaries of purple expand. According to Vinayak Eswaran, this process, known as diffusion, reflects how, over the past 200,000 years, people evolved to have the relatively thin bones, small jaws, and other distinctive aspects of their current physical form. A mechanical engineer at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur,...

Huge ocean wave towered nearly 100 feet Study finds giant waves are more common than first thought The Associated Press Aug. 4, 2005 WASHINGTON - Last year's Hurricane Ivan generated an ocean wave that towered higher than 90 feet at one point, says a study that also suggests such giants may be more common than once thought. Research indicates these are not "rogue waves but actually fairly common during hurricanes," said David Wang of the Naval Research Laboratory at Stennis Space Center, Miss. The giant wave was detected 75 miles south of Gulfport, Miss., by instruments on the ocean floor...

Sound from last December's huge tsunami-causing earthquake was picked up by underwater microphones designed to listen for nuclear explosions. Scientists this week released an audio file of the frighteningly long-lasting cracks and splits along the Sumatra-Andaman Fault in the Indian Ocean. The spine-tingling hiss and rumble is an eerie reminder of the devastation and death that is still being tallied in the largest natural disaster in modern times. At least 200,000 people are thought to have died as a result of the magnitude 9.3 earthquake, the tsunami, and the lack of food, drinkable water and medical supplies that followed. The...

Two Britons reported dead in resort atrocity as tourists flee Egypt fearing fresh wave of attacks By Hugh Miles in Sharm el-Sheikh and Colin Freeman (Filed: 24/07/2005) Hundreds of British tourists fled Egypt last night, fearing fresh terrorist attacks after three bombs ripped through the popular Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Hospital officials said that two Britons were among 88 dead, though last night the Foreign Office confirmed only that two men were missing. The market place in Sharm el-Sheikh after the blast A further eight Britons were among the 120 wounded, including a 14-year-old girl and a 30-year-old...

THE laws of physics seem to permit time travel, and with it, paradoxical situations such as the possibility that people could go back in time to prevent their own birth. But it turns out that such paradoxes may be ruled out by the weirdness inherent in laws of quantum physics. Some solutions to the equations of Einstein's general theory of relativity lead to situations in which space-time curves back on itself, theoretically allowing travellers to loop back in time and meet younger versions of themselves. Because such time travel sets up paradoxes, many researchers suspect that some physical constraints must...

. . . and churn up big waves, too Sid Perkins From New Orleans, at the Joint Assembly of the American Geophysical Union As Hurricane Ivan approached the U.S. Gulf Coast last September, it passed right over an array of seafloor sensors. The network detected the largest wave ever measured by instruments—one that towered more than 27 meters from trough to crest. The 50-kilometer-wide group of 14 instruments was deployed in May 2004 to measure currents on the ocean floor, says William J. Teague, an oceanographer at the Naval Research Laboratory at Bay St. Louis, Miss. Late on the evening...

SWITCH on your satellite television receiver in Tehran nowadays and something is amiss - "No Signal", the otherwise fuzzy television screen says for much of the day and night. With presidential elections just over a week away, Islamic Iran's technological guardians appear to be waging a war against enemies in the airwaves - opposition-run television channels. However, the problem is that they may also be frying people's brains. "Microwaves," explained an Iranian satellite television technician, who earns his keep by installing dishes even though they are technically banned. "They're jamming, and these signals used to block the satellites have never...

Long thought to be a myth, freak waves as high as 10-storey buildings are far more common than previously thought, the European Space Agency has found. Severe weather has been responsible for the sinking of more than 200 supertankers and container ships over the past two decades, and rogue waves are believed to be the main cause, the agency said. Three weeks of imaging data by the agency's satellites from early 2001 showed more than 10 individual giant waves around the globe of more than 25 metres in height. Previously, scientists believed that such large waves occurred only once every...

 Monday, April 18, 2005 - Page updated at 12:00 a.m. Freak wave damages cruise ship, injuring 4By The Associated Press CHARLESTON, S.C. — A seven-story wave damaged a cruise ship returning from the Bahamas over the weekend, smashing windows, flooding more than 60 cabins and injuring four passengers. The Norwegian Dawn was diverted from its route when the ship ran into rough weather on the way back to New York on Saturday. The 965-foot-long vessel docked in the Charleston harbor for repairs, and departed for New York early yesterday after a Coast Guard inspection, officials said. It was expected back...

WE HAVE written a few stories lately about how the US government was using insecure ID tags on the new breed of passports. Using this system, we said, customs people and spies will be able to read your passport in a crowded room without you knowing it. According to Wired, Homeland Security says we have got the whole thing all wrong. The US government will not use radio-frequency identification tags in the passports it issues to millions of Americans in the coming years. Instead, the government will use "contactless chips" or “contactless integrated circuits” in fact anything other than Radio...

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - More than 40 surfers cruised into the record books Saturday when they successfully rode a giant surfboard off an Australian beach, breaking the previous world record set by an English team of 14 people in 2003.

Tidal Wave Aid Dollars....An Accountability..

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A 50-foot (15-meter) Pacific wave temporarily disabled a "Semester at Sea'' ship filled with hundreds of college students, injuring two crew members as it broke windows and damaged the vessel's controls, the U.S. Coast Guard said. Coast Guard vessels and aircraft from Alaska and Hawaii were dispatched to help the 591-foot (177-meter) Explorer, about 650 miles (1,045 kilometers) south of the Aleutian Islands and about 1,600 miles (2,575 kilometers) from Honolulu. The ship for a time operated on just one of its four engines and could do little more than keep the bow headed into...