Free Republic

This has been a most remarkable election. The GOP has offered up its most liberal senator as its candidate. John McCain is, for all practical purposes, a democrat...its just that the paperwork hasn't been processed. Yet the Democrat machine has managed to portray him as a conservative. The Democrats have produced a manufactured candidate. Obama has no accomplishments. Literally, none. No legal opinions. Hasn't authored any legislation. Voted "present" more often than not. His associations have been brushed under the rug. Thugs, terrorists, marxists, all a bunch of "who cares". His records have been sanitized, lost, or sealed. His extremely...

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - Paul Krugman, the Princeton University scholar and New York Times columnist, won the Nobel economic prize Monday for his analysis of how economies of scale can affect trade patterns and the location of economic activity. Krugman has been a harsh critic of the Bush administration and the Republican Party in The New York Times, where he writes a regular column and has a blog called "Conscience of a Liberal." He has come out forcefully against John McCain during the economic meltdown, saying the Republican candidate is "more frightening now than he was a few weeks ago" and...

In the increasingly possible case of an electoral tie this election, the 12th Ammendment requires that Congress vote to select the next POTUS/VPOTUS. The vote is on a state-by-state basis (each state gets one vote). The House votes to select the President. The Senate votes to select the Vice President. McCain loses in this case: there are only 21 states with a majority of GOP House members and two that are tied. However. There are 17 states with 2 GOP senators, 16 states with 2 DEM senators, 2 states with a dem plus an independent and the rest have one...

A state-of-the-art module fabrication and assembly facility will be built in Lake Charles, La., by a newly formed joint venture created by The Shaw Group Inc. and Westinghouse Electric Company, L.L.C. Shaw's Fabrication & Manufacturing Group will serve as managing member of the new joint venture, named Global Modular Solutions, L.L.C. Shaw's new module fabrication facility will primarily produce structural, piping and equipment modules for new nuclear power plants utilizing the Westinghouse AP1000(TM) technology, the world's safest and most economical commercial nuclear power technology. Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal and Department of Economic Development Secretary Stephen Moret led an aggressive team...

BERLIN - Soaring oil prices combined with fears about energy security and climate change are softening Germans' hostility towards nuclear energy, a new survey showed on Wednesday. The results provide fodder for members of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) who have in the last few weeks have renewed their calls for a rethink of the planned phase out of Germany's 17 nuclear reactors by 2021. The Forsa poll for Stern weekly magazine showed that voters in Germany, Europe's biggest power market, were now evenly divided on the question of whether some of the plants should be allowed to...

Most Disney fans can tell you about "The Disney Look," the list of strict grooming standards that must be adhered to by all cast members who work "on-stage" or in view of park guests. Disney is now facing a civil rights class-action lawsuit over those standards. Sukhbir Singh Channa, a practicing Sikh, wears a turban and has a beard and long hair in keeping with his religious beliefs. According to the suit, while a student at the University of South Florida, he was hired by Walt Disney World as a seasonal college musician in October 2005, which involves parade and...

Please keep my dad (Kenneth) in your prayers. He found out that he has prostate cancer.

Eighty-two percent of Americans living in close proximity to nuclear power plants favor nuclear energy, and 71 percent are willing to see a new reactor built near them, according to a new public opinion survey of more than 1,100 adults across the United States. Only residents within 10 miles of an operating nuclear power plant—electric company employees excluded—were questioned. The survey also found that 86 percent give the nearest nuclear power plant a “high” safety rating and that 87 percent are confident that the company operating the power plant can do so safely. The telephone survey of 1,152 randomly selected...

Summary: Average Household Income of Pro-Lieberman Towns (44) = $71,008 Average Household Income of Pro-Lamont Towns (125) = $90,994 Details: TOWN Avg Household Income Lieberman N. Lamont %Lieberman Cornwall 95,727 24 243 8.988764 Canaan 74,757 19 96 16.521739 Salisbury 103,762 100 436 18.656716 Lyme 89,208 66 208 24.087591 Sharon 110,723 68 209 24.548736 Warren 114,824 28 78 26.415094 Mansfield 66,702 554 1,451 27.630923 Roxbury 92,568 60 157 27.64977 Sherman 147,226 76 195 28.04428 Essex 84,834 242 596 28.878282 Redding 186,142 255 595 30 Washington 97,666 116 266 30.366492 Kent 72,232 112 249 31.024931 Hampton 64,533 72 158 31.304348 North Canaan...

L-1 Morning Briefing At this morning's Countdown Status Briefing at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA Test Director Jeff Spaulding said, "we're tracking no issues at all that would affect Saturday's launch of Space Shuttle Discovery." Pre-launch preparations are continuing on schedule. Work on final pad closeouts will continue throughout the remainder of the night in anticipation of external tank loading at approximately 6 a.m. There will be two attempts at launch, Saturday and Sunday and then a stand down-on Monday. Two more attempts can then be made on Tuesday and Wednesday before another stand-down to reservice the on board...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) obligates the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to consider the environmental impact of potential terrorist attacks when conducting environmental reviews. The June 2 decision could affect the NRC’s decision-making processes for other nuclear facilities, and it could have far-reaching effects on decisions affecting other facilities in the nation’s infrastructure, observers say. In December 2001, Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) applied to the NRC for a license to build and operate an on-site dry storage facility for used nuclear fuel at its Diablo Canyon nuclear...

Check out the link, with pictures. Makes any American parking-lot carnival look like Disneyland

PARIS (AFX) - Instead of winning orders in China for a total of four nuclear reactors, Areva and its US rival Westinghouse will each be awarded contracts to build only one prototype, Les Echos reported, without identifying its sources. After launching in Sept 2004 an invitation to tender for four third generation nuclear reactors, the Chinese authorities may finally decide to order only two, the business daily said. The Chinese government doesn't want to choose between the two companies with the latest technology so is likely to announce that Areva and Westinghouse will build one reactor each, at Sanmen in...

CHARLOTTE, N.C., Oct. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Duke Power confirmed today it is preparing a combined construction and operating license (COL) application for new nuclear generation. The application is for two Westinghouse Advanced Passive 1000 (AP1000) reactors at a site to be named following the conclusion of its current site selection study. Pursuit of the COL application, which is expected to be submitted to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission within the next 24-30 months, is part of the company's long-term generation planning process, and will allow Duke Power to keep new nuclear generation as an option for meeting its customers' future...

Westinghouse, GE, and their nuclear rivals are chasing $50 billion in Chinese power-plant deals Power to the People's Republic! That could easily be the slogan of the nuclear power executives winging their way to Beijing these days to pitch next-generation reactor designs, downplay rivals' plans, and woo the Communist Party leadership. President Hu Jintao's government is committed to spending $50 billion to increase nuclear power generation capacity from 8.7 million kilowatts today to 40 million kilowatts by 2020. That's one of the largest buildouts in the industry's history. And by the time that $50 billion is spent, some 30 new...

NuStart Selects Grand Gulf, Bellefonte for Advanced Nuclear Plant Licenses The United States’ largest consortium of nuclear power companies yesterday selected Grand Gulf Nuclear Station and Bellefonte Nuclear Plant as the sites it will use on applications for combined construction and operating licenses for new nuclear plants, the first in 30 years. Grand Gulf, owned by an Entergy subsidiary, is near Port Gibson, Mississippi. Bellefonte, owned by the Tennessee Valley Authority, is near Scottsboro, Alabama. “The need for new, advanced nuclear energy plants that are safe, clean, dependable and can generate electric energy without emitting air pollutants is growing more...

Seventeen days after Hurricane Katrina flooded New Orleans, much of the city is still under water. In this pair of images from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer on NASA's Terra satellite, the affected areas can clearly be seen. The top image mosaic was acquired in April and September 2000, and the bottom image was acquired September 13, 2005. The flooded parts of the city appear dark blue, such as the golf course in the northeast corner, where there is standing water. Areas that have dried out appear light blue gray, such as the city park in...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - American aid to tsunami victims has produced the first substantial shift in public opinion in the Muslim world since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, reflecting more support for the United States and less for Osama bin Laden (news - web sites), according to a poll released on Friday. The poll of 1,200 adults in Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, showed backing for bin Laden has dropped from 58 percent in 2003 to 23 percent today. It also found that 65 percent of Indonesians view the United States more favorably after the superpower provided military logistic...

Despite its deceptively warm-and-fuzzy public image, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) has donated over $150,000 to criminal activists -- including those jailed for arson, burglary, and even attempted murder. In 2001, PETA donated $1,500 to the North American Earth Liberation Front, a criminal organization that the FBI classifies as "domestic terrorists." And since 2000, rank-and-file PETA activists have been arrested over 80 times for breaking various laws during PETA protests. Charges included felony obstruction of government property, criminal mischief, assaulting a cabinet official, felony vandalism, performing obscene acts in public, destruction of federal property, and burglary. And...

This map illustrates the planned imaging coverage for the Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer, onboard the European Space Agency's Huygens probe during the probe's descent toward Titan's surface on Jan. 14, 2005. The Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer is one of two NASA instruments on the probe. The colored lines delineate regions that will be imaged at different resolutions as the probe descends. On each map, the site where Huygens is predicted to land is marked with a yellow dot. This area is in a boundary between dark and bright regions. This map was made from the images taken by the Cassini spacecraft...