Free Republic

Legally speaking, corporations have the same rights as people. We asked you to imagine if there was a real person who embodied everything we know about some of the biggest companies in the world. What would they look like, what job would they have, just how punchable could a human being possibly be?

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels ordered the immediate closure of the Sherman Minton Bridge on Friday evening. Transportation officials in Kentucky and Indiana were informed Friday of the discovery of two cracks in the load-carrying element of the bridge on Thursday. Officials with the Indiana Department of Transportation said the crack is in an arch support over the Ohio River. There are two archways on the bridge; the crack was found on the underside of the roadway, near the archway closest to the Ohio River. Officials called the cracks incredibly serious and potentially catastrophic. "I would not have...

~ EXCERPT ~ The battle over the federal deficit hasn’t flipped in favor of the Democrats. The GOP isn’t suddenly at grave risk of losing its House majority. But after two years of getting pummeled over spending and the size of government, Democrats now appear to have found a political weapon that’s capable of evening out the fight: Medicare. The popular entitlement program wasn’t the sole issue behind Kathy Hochul’s upset victory in a New York special election Tuesday night, but strategists in both parties say it was an important force. And for the first time since November, the idea...

It's a running theme here at Cracked that a lot of what we think we know about history has been filtered through many centuries of utter bullshit. Our image of the past is largely made up of Hollywood inventions, propaganda and uneducated guesses.So you will probably be surprised to find that... #6. The Pyramids Were Smooth, White and Shiny The Perception:We get so busy being amazed by the Pyramids, with their massive, meticulously layered sandy golden bricks, that we forget that what we're seeing are the broken-down remnants. If you could see them new, you'd barely recognize them. They were...

Obama seems to believe that if he explains his positions slowly and clearly enough, their fundamental logic will inevitably win the day without the need for arm-twisting.

A North Carolina man who allegedly cracked the code to mentally calculate any multiplication problem is now offering to reveal his secret - for the bargain price of $33. Albert Clay said he came up with his system as a high school junior, but never showed anyone aside from a high school math teacher who shrugged off the achievement, the News & Observer reported. Now 75 years old, the retired pharmacist has copyrighted the formula, "How to Multiply Any Number by Any Number in Your Head," and hopes to demonstrate it in schools, books or even personal mailings to anyone...

Most people have already seen the following images in the ‘WTF’ sections of social bookmarking sites, in threads dedicated to badass pictures or just circulated through their inboxes by the “funny” boss. There is never an explanation for these pictures, because they seem to intrinsically defy explanation; they are just still moments in time of unbelievable scope, and epic badassery. It seems hard to imagine what brought about the extraordinary circumstances these images depict, and that’s the magic, really - letting your imagination run with these ridiculous situations. Well, I decided to do some research on what the actual explanations...

This post is slightly OT, as I am discussing print cartoons, not animated cartoons. I received several old issues of Cracked Magazine over the holidays and I couldn’t help noticing how one humor piece, predicting life in the 21st Century, was surprisingly accurate. “Today’s Swinger is Tomorrow’s Square”, illustrated by John Severin, appeared in the 1974 annual Super Cracked (It was most likely a reprint from a 1970 issue). In it, the writer predicts that young people will embrace the “skinhead” look, home computers (”Electronic Home Teacher”) and even the ipod: as “electronic brain stimulators” and a “musical computers” that...

I have suddenly noticed my link to DRUDGE takes me to a Vonage sign in page. No matter how I attempt to get to the Drudge site it takes me to the same Vonage page which asks me for my name and password. I do use Vonage but how could that have anyhting to do with a total inability to get to the Drudge site? Even if I type in DRUDGE in the search bar and go to the page of links, no matter which link to Drudge I use I go to the Vonage page. How is this possible...

So they're making a damned Monopoly movie. Is there a worse idea for a movie adaptation? Almost certainly. We asked you to plumb the darkest corners of your imaginations, and photoshop up the worst of the worst...

Scientists call it the Naked Photo Test, and it works like this: say a photo turns up of you nakedly doing something that would shame you and your family for generations. Bestiality, perhaps. Ask yourself how many people in your life you would trust with that photo. If you're like the rest of us, you probably have at most two. Even more depressing, studies show that about one out of four people have no one they can confide in.

Keros mystery cracked JOHN PSAROPOULOS A panoramic view of the excavation at Kavos on the Cycladic island of Keros ARCHAEOLOGISTS say they have discovered a 4,500-year-old ceremonial centre, the oldest ritual site in Greece. Excavations resumed for a few weeks this summer at Dhaskalio Kavos - Kavos for short - on the tiny island of Keros, after a lull of nearly 20 years. The problem with the site had been that it was disturbed by looters, who made a lucrative trade in the 1960s of the now famous minimalist Cycladic figurines. As a result, archaeologists could never be sure whether...

Britney Spears and husband Kevin Federline are being investigated after their baby son suffered a fractured skull and blood clot in a high-chair fall. The new mother-of-one, whose pop career had slowly declined since her split with super-star Justin Timberlake, rushed her son to hospital after he fell from his highchair in their kitchen, the Sun reported. The tiny tot - Sean Preston - just seven months old is said to have been in the care of a nanny when he hit the floor hard in the shock fall. After being given the all clear by a GP immediately after...

Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) greets people as she arrives for U.S. President George W. Bush's the State of the Union address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington January 31, 2006. REUTERS/Jason Reed

BizNetDaily page hijacked!

A number puzzle originating in the work of self-taught maths genius Srinivasa Ramanujan nearly a century ago has been solved. The solution may one day lead to advances in particle physics and computer security. Karl Mahlburg, a graduate student at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, US, has spent a year putting together the final pieces to the puzzle, which involves understanding patterns of numbers. "I have filled notebook upon notebook with calculations and equations," says Mahlburg, who has submitted a 10-page paper of his results to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The patterns were first discovered...

A Glimpse Ahead Timothy Snodgrass The Impossible Will Come Alive In 2005 01/28/05 In January of 2004, as we began to intercede for the New Year the Holy Spirit gave us the prophetic slogan, "The Seas will Roar in 2004". This year we were given a new slogan, "The Impossible will come Alive in 2005". As the veil of darkness begins to come down over nations and regions, along with great shakings will come great breakthroughs; signs, wonders, healings and a spectacular release of miracles in impossible circumstances. This year, although we are ultimately poised to gain much ground, there...

What's the deal with all the dead scientists?

Putin: Ally or Terrorist? by William F. Jasper Counting Vladimir Putin as an ally against terrorism ignores his career in the murderous KGB/FSB and his ongoing support for terrorist regimes and organizations. ‘‘Lena Goncharuk, aged 38, said that she was the only one to survive out of a group of six who were ordered out of the cellar where they had been hiding and shot at point blank range. Resting in her hospital bed, her voice barely rising above a whisper, she said she had survived only by pretending to be dead." So reported Paul Wood from the Chechen border...

Ralph Hallow, the chief political correspondent for the Washington Times, is a nice guy with a beautifully cultivated cynical streak, but he is a sucker for stories about impending factional wars in the Republican party. Earlier this week, he wrote an article claiming that "conservative activists" are upset about their lack of influence over the Bush administration, influence which has been lost to neoconservatives who favor big government at home and abroad. The story is built around a memo written by Donald Devine, a vice chairman of the American Conservative Union and an official in the Reagan administration (where he...