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WASHINGTON, July 12, 2006 – Iraqi police freed a kidnap victim in Baghdad, and coalition forces uncovered a large cache of bomb-making material near Mahmudiyah, Iraq, July 10, U.S. military officials reported. Iraqi policemen from 2nd Battalion, 2nd Brigade, 1st National Police Division, arrested seven men at a checkpoint and freed an alleged kidnap victim in eastern Baghdad after the men tried to bypass checkpoints in four vehicles. The police stopped them with small-arms fire and a roadblock, officials said. "This shows the effectiveness of the Iraqi national police and their ability to enforce the rule of law," said Army...

Why a Large Hadron Collider? Seed asks some of the greatest physicists alive what we hope to learn from the LHC. by Edit Staff • Posted July 6, 2006 12:32 AM View of the ATLAS detector in the experiment hall, roughly 100 meters underground. ATLAS is one of the five particle physics experiments at the Large Hadron Collider. Credit: Guido Mocafico The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) currently under construction at CERN is the greatest basic science endeavor in history. Roughly half of the world's particle physicists, 7,000 individuals, make the Collider their workplace. This single-minded group of men and women...

BAGHDAD (Army News Service, May 16, 2006) – The 506th Regimental Combat Team discovered a huge weapons cache today in the New Baghdad neighborhood of eastern Baghdad. During Operation Roll tide, a combined effort between elements from 6th Battalion, 2nd Brigade Iraqi National Police, and Soldiers from Company D, 3rd Battalion, 67th Armored Regiment, 4th Infantry Division, uncovered a huge weapons cache of land mines, rockets, explosives and documents. In one home the unit found more than 140 mines, 58 blocks of C4 explosives, 18 rockets and almost 40 mortars, as well as manuals and equipment to convert these munitions...

I have been in a lousy mood lately. I know why, but finding a way to express it without sounding like a radical extremist is difficult at best. The only way to put it is that I am completely and utterly disgusted at what has become of our political process, our government and us, The People. I thought this was a great write. I hope you think it is a great read...

BAGHDAD (Army News Service, Jan. 24, 2006) – In a series of separate incidents, multi-national coalition forces disarmed improvised explove devices, uncovered several large weapon caches, and detained four suspected insurgents. School saved from IED Jan. 24 Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 1st Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division and the1-71 Military Transition Team, 1st Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, responded to a call from an Iraqi school guard reporting a possible improvised explosive device in the school south of Khadra. The Soldiers found a 122mm mortar round booby-trapped to a door in the school and had it disabled. Coalition raid captures terrorists...

MARINE CORPS RECRUIT DEPOT SAN DIEGO (Jan. 13, 2006) -- The Department of Defense authorized the retirement of Jaco, a military working dog for 10 years, and his adoption by former handler Sgt. Jerrod M. Glass, Jan. 8. Jaco was a member of one of seven military working dog teams stationed here as a first line of defense in the protection of depot personnel and resources through explosive and narcotic detection in support of the depot's anti-terrorism efforts. In correlation with the recent retirement of the explosives detecting canine, Jaco, and Hertha, a narcotics detecting military working dog, the K-9...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 5, 2005 – Iraqi soldiers and U.S. troops found and destroyed a treasure-trove of weapons caches during a three-day period Dec. 2-4. The enemy stockpiles included everything from rocket-propelled-grenade launchers to AK-47 assault rifles to artillery shells and hundreds of pounds of explosives and munitions, officials said. Iraqi and U.S. troops discovered five weapons caches throughout north central Iraq Dec. 4. The largest cache included 27 artillery rounds, several hand grenades, a rocket-propelled-grenade launcher with six rounds, and an AK-47, officials noted. A joint patrol of soldiers from the 1st Battalion, 1st Brigade, 5th Iraqi Army Division, and...

Scientists are over the moon at the W.M. Keck Observatory and the California Institute of Technology over a new discovery of a satellite orbiting the Solar System's 10th planet (2003 UB313). The newly discovered moon orbits the farthest object ever seen in the Solar System. The existence of the moon will help astronomers resolve the question of whether 2003 UB313, temporarily nicknamed "Xena," is more massive than Pluto and hence the 10th planet. A paper describing the discovery was submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Letters on October 3, 2005. "We were surprised because this is a completely different type of...

On the flight home this morning, I was unfortunate enough to have a bleeder sit next to me. By bleeder, I mean he was invading my space because he was large and his body was spilling over into my seat. I've seen worse cases than what I had today but let's hear your experiences.

The Venona decodes, their meaning and interpretation, are too large a subject for this thread.

SAN JOSE, Calif. - The fossilized bones of a creature that might have been a mastodon were unearthed Tuesday in the creek bed of a suburban river being renovated for flood protection. The remains of what appears to be a massive pelvic bone, ribcage fragments and a tusk were uncovered along the Guadalupe River in San Jose. The river project has been cited as a model of how to integrate nature and development. The discovery prompted both wonder and frustration, as officials tried to determine the source of the remains but couldn't find experts to scour the site. "We've never...

Astronomers have recorded the most powerful eruption of energy yet observed in the universe. It comes from a gigantic black hole, a billion times more massive than our sun, which is swallowing vast amounts of material from its surrounding galaxy. The eruption was discovered with the Chandra X-ray observatory operated by Nasa, the US space agency, and is reported in the journal Nature. Brian McNamara of Ohio University, the study leader, said he had previously observed vast cosmic bubbles of hot gas extending outward from "supermassive" black holes in distant galaxies, but "what literally almost knocked me off my chair...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

U.S. and Iraqi forces patrolling Fallujah have discovered a weapons cache large enough to supply a nationwide “insurgency.” The weapons were found in central Fallujah’s Saad Abi Bin Waqas mosque, where Sunni cleric Abdullah al-Janabi preached hatred. How many times have Coalition forces been shot at from mosques or found weapons stockpiles hidden in them? Muqtada al-Sadr and his Mehdi Army used Shiite Islam’s most holy shrine, the Imam Ali mosque, to wage their campaign of murder and mayhem in Najaf. Just how are all we infidels supposed to believe that Islam is truly a “religion of peace?” Just when...

LUFKIN, Texas (AP) - A large piece of space shuttle Columbia debris was found recently in southeast Texas, a NASA official said. The 6-foot-long piece of the crew compartment was discovered two weeks ago in Newton County by a wildlife biologist, sheriffs officials said. Bruce Buckingham, a Kennedy Space Center spokesman, confirmed Wednesday that the piece discovered two weeks ago was from the shuttle's crew compartment area and contains a hinged window. NASA had not yet picked up the piece, which had bright green moss growing over one section of the window. The biologist, Jason Sebesta, said he found it...

Three crucial debates loom large By Andrew Miga Thursday, September 2, 2004 NEW YORK - Next stop, the presidential debate stage. With the two-month battle to Election Day in full roar, President Bush and Sen. John Kerry are looking ahead to their three planned debate showdowns - events that both sides say could prove pivotal in the razor-close race. The first prime-time encounter later this month will be a good opportunity for both men to win over undecided voters who hold the key to victory in 2004. ``Many of these undecided swing voters in the middle are not going to...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Many of the world's largest industrialized nations will lose population between now and 2050 as low birth rates, struggling economies and curbs on immigration stifle growth, says the author of a world population report. The annual study by the private Population Reference Bureau found that, while the world's population will increase nearly 50 percent by mid-century, Japan will lose 20 percent of its population in the next 45 years, while Russia, Germany and Italy will also see declines. The United States is the biggest exception among developed countries, with its population forecast to rise by 43 percent...

The woman in the yellow shirt stood up and told of her life-long struggle against being fat, a fight that she had clearly lost. She was enormous. 'Every time I dieted I ended up larger,' she said as she broke into tears, 'If I were anorexic or bulimic, I would get sympathy. It is so frustrating.' She was applauded by 100 other very fat men and women. 'Here, you are in an island of sanity,' said Professor Paul Campos, author of The Obesity Myth and speaker at this annual meeting of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance (Naafa) -...

I thought this was fitting for a week just before the Fourth of July. The image below is the very low resolution image. If you click it, you'll get the high-resolution (large) JPEG. If you go to the linked article page above, you can download an 11.0 MB TIFF image. I thought that the isolation of Bermuda was particularly striking in this image. Also of note (on quick perusal): White Sands National Monument, two-toned Great Salt Lake, the turquoise Bahamas Banks, strange sediment patterns in northern Lake Erie, the Painted Desert.

Large Gathering Prays With Convicted Imam Friday June 18, 2004 11:46 PM By M.R. KROPKO Associated Press Writer PARMA, Ohio (AP) - The leader of Ohio's largest mosque encouraged worshippers Friday to keep the faith in times of stress, a day after he was convicted of gaining U.S. citizenship by concealing past associations with terrorist organizations. Fawaz Damra, 41, did not discuss his trial or conviction, but spoke of the Quran's teachings about justice and faith, members of the mosque said following the closed service. Deem Alawan, a member of the Islamic Center of Cleveland, said nearly 1,500 people prayed...