Free Republic

On a clear night in 1994, an earthquake rumbled beneath Los Angeles and caused a city-wide power outage just before dawn. Startled awake, some residents who had stumbled outside called various emergency centers and a local observatory to report a mysterious cloud overhead. That weird object turned out to be the band of the Milky Way, our home galaxy, which had long been obscured from view by the city’s lights. Arguably, the light bulb is the most transformative invention humans have introduced to this planet. By flicking a switch or pushing a button, we can push back the veil that...

In 1942, Seaman Calvin Graham was decorated for valor in battle. Then his mother learned where he'd been and revealed his secret to the Navy. With powerful engines, extensive firepower and heavy armor, the newly christened battleship USS South Dakota steamed out of Philadelphia in August of 1942 spoiling for a fight. The crew was made up of “green boys”—new recruits who enlisted after the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor—who had no qualms about either their destination or the action they were likely to see. Brash and confident, the crew couldn’t get through the Panama Canal fast enough, and their...

Click Here!

SINGAPORE -- Shares of Raffles Medical Group, the company behind the world-first operation to separate adult twins joined at the head, soared nearly 19 per cent on Monday amid hopes the high-profile surgery would succeed, analysts said. Raffles Medical Group finished at 44.5 Singapore cents, up seven cents, or 18.7 per cent, from Friday's close. Raffles Medical Group runs the Raffles Hospital in Singapore, where Laleh and Ladan Bijani, the Iranian adult twins, were into their second day on Monday of a potentially fatal operation to be separated after 29 years of being fused at the head. The sharp rise...