Free Republic

In Mysterious Pattern, Math and Nature Converge Marco de LeijaIn Cuernavaca, Mexico, a “spy” network makes the decentralized bus system more efficient. As a consequence, the departure times of buses exhibit a ubiquitous pattern known as “universality.”  By: Natalie WolchoverFebruary 5, 2013 Comments (1) print In 1999, while sitting at a bus stop in Cuernavaca, Mexico, a Czech physicist named Petr Šeba noticed young men handing slips of paper to the bus drivers in exchange for cash. It wasn’t organized crime, he learned, but another shadow trade: Each driver paid a “spy” to record when the bus ahead of his...

Oh well, it doesn't matter where one prays, right? All prayers lead to heaven. Or do they? If the whole world prays for a common good, will no good come of it? If so, then what's the point of a National Day of Prayer? Oh ye of little faith. When it comes to whose prayers carry more weight in the heavenly realm, well, who really knows? But brain research supports the likelihood that one man's prayer is as good as any other's. Barbara Bradley Hagerty, the award-winning NPR religion reporter, participated in a peyote ceremony in Arizona, meditated while wearing...

WASHINGTON, June 13, 2006 – American troops in Iraq are bringing freedom to the oppressed and helping to secure the U.S. homeland, President Bush told U.S. troops in Baghdad during a surprise visit there today. "The mission that you're accomplishing here in Iraq will go down in the history books as an incredibly important moment in the history of freedom and peace, an incredibly important moment of doing our duty to secure our homeland," Bush said. The president traveled to Baghdad in secret overnight and met earlier today with new Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who was also unaware of...