Free Republic

To everyone here--if you're using EarthLink ADSL in Northern California, are you having serious problems doing email and web browsing being either very slow or not able to reach web pages? I talked with EarthLink Tech Support and they told me there is maintanence going on in the Bay Area, which might be seriously affecting Internet access. :-(

Having its finger on the pulse of Americans unlike any other organization or person in the United States, the American Mustache Insitute has petitioned the National Football League to move the Super Bowl from its traditional perch on Sundays to a more sensible Saturday date. Following is AMI's socio-economic rationale for doing so, and we hope you support our position by writing and calling your favorite local and national sports reporters, your congressmen, the National Rifle Association, the Future Farmers of America, The Pork Council, The Flying Elvis' Utah Chapter #23, Planned Parenthood, and the NFL offices at (212) 450-2000.

TOKYO (AP) - Japanese electronics maker Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. said Thursday it will drop the name of its charismatic founder and become Panasonic Corp. to strengthen its global image. Matsushita President Fumio Ohtsubo acknowledged it was a tough decision to give up the Matsushita and other brand names the company has built with consumers and employees for 90 years. But he said the value of the Panasonic brand had suffered because the company had stuck with the old name. "We must create more than what we are giving up," he said, speaking from Osaka headquarters to reporters in the...

LOS GATOS, Calif. (AP) - Not a cash register is in sight. The electronics on display are all powered up and ready for use. Personal trainers, specialists and newly minted concierges in aqua blue shirts make the Apple Store feel part salon, part Internet cafe - just without the espresso. Over the past year, Apple Inc. (AAPL) has revamped its 201 stores, changing the layout, adding services and increasing its staffing. The "concierge" service that Apple launched last week is only the latest initiative designed to draw more visitors and bolster already record-breaking sales. "Apple indeed does things differently from...

Actress Lois Maxwell, who starred as Miss Moneypenny in a string of James Bond movies, has died aged 80. Maxwell starred alongside Sir Sean Connery in Bond's first movie outing, Dr No, in 1962. She played the role until 1985's A View To A Kill with Sir Roger Moore, who told the BBC she had been a "great asset" to the early Bond movies. A spokesperson for Fremantle Hospital, Western Australia, said she died there on Saturday evening.

PITTSBURGH (AP) - It was a serious contribution to the electronic lexicon. :-) Twenty-five years ago, Carnegie Mellon University professor Scott E. Fahlman says, he was the first to use three keystrokes - a colon followed by a hyphen and a parenthesis - as a horizontal "smiley face" in a computer message. To mark the anniversary Wednesday, Fahlman and his colleagues are starting an annual student contest for innovation in technology-assisted, person-to-person communication. The Smiley Award, sponsored by Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) (YHOO), carries a $500 cash prize. Language experts say the smiley face and other emotional icons, known as emoticons,...

NEW YORK (AP) — Apple Inc. escalated a dispute with NBC Universal over the pricing of television shows by announcing Friday it would not sell any of NBC's programs for this fall season on iTunes. Earlier, NBC had told Apple that it would no longer allow its programs to be sold via iTunes at the end of the year. NBC Universal-controlled television programming accounts for an estimated 40 percent of the video downloads on iTunes. "We are disappointed to see NBC leave iTunes because we would not agree to their dramatic price increase," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of...

Apple has scheduled an announcement for Sept. 5, sparking a new round of speculation that the computer maker was getting ready to unveil a line of iPods. Apple sent out press invitations late Tuesday, notifying the media that the announcement would be made at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The notification essentially confirmed reports on Apple enthusiast sites that the company planned to make a product announcement in early September. Reports on Apple's plans focus primarily on a new line of iPods. AppleInsider reported last week that the new breed would be powered by a derivative of Apple's Mac...

NEW YORK (AP) - Dave Legeret silently fumed as the man seated beside him on the plane blasted techno music on his iPod at full volume. "It was kind of rude," recalled Legeret, 38, a jewelry designer from Sandy Hook, Conn., who was forced to listen while flying from New York City to Disney World with his wife and 8-year-old son. "Listen to it at a level that just you can hear it and everyone else doesn't have to be subject to it." Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s ubiquitous iPod is best known as an instrument of solitude - unless the user...

NEW YORK (AP) - It's bad enough that a cratering housing market is leading to a slump in real estate advertising at newspapers, as a dreary series of earnings reports showed this week. What's worse is that a lot of that advertising may never come back to newspapers even if the real estate sector recovers. That's because a significant chunk of those advertising dollars are moving - you guessed, online. Exactly how much of a shift is occurring is difficult to measure in terms of dollars or market share, but several real estate executives say they are making a conscious...

In a leap forward for stem cell research, three independent teams of scientists reported Wednesday that they have produced the equivalent of embryonic stem cells in mice without the controversial destruction of embryos. They got ordinary skin cells to behave like stem cells. If the same could be done with human cells - a big if - the procedure could lead to breakthrough medical treatments without the contentious ethical and political debates surrounding the use of embryos. Experts were impressed by the achievement. "I think it's one of the most exciting things that has come out about embryonic stem cells,...

TOKYO (Reuters) - The Japanese inventor of instant noodles, a snack that has sold billions of servings worldwide since its launch, died on Friday at the age of 96, according to an official at Nissin Food Products Co., the company he founded. Born in Taiwan in 1910 while it was under Japanese occupation, Momofuku Ando ran clothing and other companies in Taipei and Osaka early in his career. He was inspired to develop the world's first instant noodle product after coming across a long line of people waiting to buy fresh "ramen" noodles from a black market stall during the...

EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) - In this age of cell phones, text messages and computer keyboards, one Scottish school has returned to basics. It's teaching youngsters the neglected art of writing with a fountain pen. There is no clacking of keyboards in most classrooms at the Mary Erskine and Stewart's Melville Junior School, although there is a full range of facilities for computer lessons and technology isn't being ignored. But the private school's principal believes the old-fashioned pens have helped boost the academic performance and self-esteem of his 1,200 pupils. "The pens improve the quality of work because they force the...

(CBS13) SACRAMENTO A sleeping Sacramento man got a rude awakening overnight when a a 4-by-4 truck blasted into his living room overnight. The CHP is looking for the man who drove a truck into the brick house. Officers say the driver was speeding and tried to take a tight turn near the house on American River Drive. The driver lost control, tore up the yard, and just missed the Santa statue that was outside the home. . The homeowner wasn't hurt.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - "Black Friday" conjures up images of crowded malls, long lines and cranky shoppers, but the day after Thanksgiving did not even rank as one of the top five busiest holiday shopping days last year, according to a report released by MasterCard Worldwide on Monday. The report also found that, contrary to popular belief, there will not be a huge surge in online shopping on the Monday after Thanksgiving -- which has been called "Cyber Monday." Instead, the report predicts that most people will likely put off their holiday shopping until right before Christmas.

NBC ripped up its fall schedule shortly after unveiling it to advertisers last spring to protect the network's hefty investment in Aaron Sorkin's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip." It looks as though the fourth-place network has been ripped off to the tune of $3 million an episode. The most-hyped show of the new TV season has become the biggest disappointment. "Studio 60" is a bust. The drama about backstage intrigue at a "Saturday Night Live"-esque show from "The West Wing" auteur Sorkin that NBC outbid its rivals to land, is dying like one of those mirthless "SNL" sketches shoe-horned...

Matt and Danny may be pulling good ratings with their fictional TV show, but in real life, NBC's "Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip" is another story. "Studio 60" stars Matthew Perry and Bradley Whitford as a bickering writing duo that presumes to rescue a once-funny late-night comedy show a la "Saturday Night Live." But it's become clear that writer Aaron Sorkin's backstage drama needs a lifeline of its own. On Monday the show slipped to its lowest rating so far in the critical adults aged 18-49 bracket, with a 3.1 rating/8 share (7.8 million total viewers), according to early...

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Google Inc. (GOOG) is converting its renowned headquarters to run partly on solar power, hoping to set an example for corporate America. The Internet search leader announced what is believed to be the largest solar project undertaken by a U.S. company during a solar energy conference in Silicon Valley on Monday. Google believes the sun eventually can deliver as much as 30 percent of the power at its 1-million-square-foot campus in Mountain View - a suburb about 35 miles south of San Francisco. The ambitious project will require installing more than 9,200 solar panels on a...

CHICAGO (AP) - Adam Brent knew his 11-year-run selling best sellers and new releases was over when mail carriers started walking into his building to deliver books from Amazon.com to the tenants upstairs. "Literally, they didn't walk downstairs or take the time to make a phone call," Brent said of the neighbors of Brent Books & Cards in the city's business district. Brent's experience is shared by scores of independent bookstores around the nation that have been knocked out of business by huge chains like Borders Group Inc. (BGP) and Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS), massive retailers like Wal-Mart Stores...

Roger Clemens, one of professional baseball's most durable and successful pitchers, is among six players allegedly linked to performance-enhancing drugs by a former teammate, The Times has learned. The names had been blacked out in an affidavit filed in federal court. Others whose identities had been concealed include Clemens' fellow Houston Astros pitcher Andy Pettitte and former American League most valuable player Miguel Tejada of the Baltimore Orioles. The discovery ends four months of speculation surrounding the possible identities of Major League Baseball figures whose names were redacted from the search warrant affidavit filed in Phoenix on May 31. The...