Free Republic

Thirty-eight million years ago, tropical jungles thrived in what are now the cornfields of the American Midwest and furry marsupials wandered temperate forests in what is now the frozen Antarctic. The temperature differences of that era, known as the late Eocene, between the equator and Antarctica were only half of what they are today. A debate has long been raging in the scientific community on what changes in our global climate system led to such a major shift from the more tropical, greenhouse climate of the Eocene to the modern and much cooler climates of today.New research published in the...

They called it "dozing for dollars." Pilots with the California Air National Guard 144th Fighter Wing based in Fresno had a lucrative arrangement: After their normal day jobs flying F-16 Fighting Falcon warplanes, they often grabbed shifts on alert at full pay. Alert duty is akin to what firefighters do at the station house, waiting for an alarm to sound. Pilots must be available to "scramble" – intercept enemy air attacks, or intervene in another emergency.

The Big East's football expansion plans leave the conference with 17 universities, including non-Football members. That's a terrible number for scheduling; the only way the basketball teams can schedule an even number of games is if they play every other team only once. 18 teams would allow three divisions of six teams each. Any team would play the other five teams in its division twice, and one half of the twelve other teams in the conference. 18 sounds like worsening the problem of too many teams, but having three divisions could actually restore some rivalries, and return the conference to...

Now that Virginia Tech has conquered the Atlantic Coast Conference in back-to-back years, it’s setting its sights on a loftier goal in 2009—wire-to-wire contention for a national title. The Hokies are the class of the ACC for now, a fact that most expect to continue this fall. Heck, they wore the league crown last year, which was supposed to be a quasi-rebuilding period. However, like the local bully looking for new challenges, they’re pining for more respect outside of the neighborhood. Tech needs that kind of season that keeps them in the BCS championship right through November. And so does...

CLEMSON — The ACC has halted its plans to hold its conference baseball tournament in Myrtle Beach, citing failure to reach an agreement on the Confederate flag issue. In May, the ACC awarded the event to Myrtle Beach for 2011-13, expressing a willingness to look past the NCAA’s ban of predetermined championship events being contested in the state. On Monday, the league announced it had given the event to Durham, N.C. (for 2011, 2013) and Greensboro, N.C. (for 2012), confirming a report by The State that its plans had changed. Clemson coach Jack Leggett - Mary Ann Chastain /AP Do...

Wake Forest? Really?! Yes, the Demon Deacons were good and yes they found ways to win with timely play, a never-say-die attitude, and a fantastic offensive line that stood on its head, but let’s be honest here; if they’re winning the ACC title, the league is down. When a league’s two power programs (Miami and Florida State) are each mediocre also-rans, most will perceive the conference won’t be quite up to snuff. While that isn’t always the case, it didn’t help last season that Clemson, everyone’s mid-season darling, collapsed, Virginia Tech’s brain went bye-bye in critical back-to-back losses to Georgia...

Communion Agreement between the Anglican Catholic Church and the United Episcopal Church ANGLICAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND UNITED EPISCOPAL CHURCH SIGN COMMUNION AGREEMENT On Ascension Day, May 17, 2007, The Anglican Catholic Church (ACC) and the United Episcopal Church (UECNA) entered into a communion agreement. Archbishop Stephen Reber of the UECNA and Archbishop Mark Haverland of the ACC signed the agreement at Saint Stephen's Pro-cathedral, Athens, Georgia to restore or reaffirm the state of communio in sacris between the churches. This agreement came into immediate effect, though it still needs to be ratified by the ACC Provincial Synod and the UECNA...

Ed: Fr. Tony was invited to provide this background and guidance in hopes it might provide some assistance to the presentment case against Bp. Bill Cox. Fr. Clavier’s own previous involvement in such episcopal events included our own beloved Bp. Robert Mize, Jr., as noted in the article. It seems appropriate, thus, that this argument against presentment charges should be offered through the diocese Bp Mize claimed as his home in his “retirement” until his death a few years ago. NO DISCIPLINE The attempt to create a united church instead created fragmentation. After General Convention’s 1976 approval of the ordination...

The most telling thing lately is that Bill Cowher is discussing his future publicly. It's time. That's what Chuck Noll told me when I asked why he was retiring as Steelers coach in December 1991. He shrugged his shoulders and said, "It's time." Now it's Bill Cowher's time. I have the same feeling now as I had near the end of the 1991 season when I believed Noll was ready to hang it up. I think Cowher will "retire" soon after this season ends. First, here's some history on Noll's retirement, the only end to a head coach's career with...

COLLEGE PARK, Md. (AP) -- Wake Forest completed the finest road performance in Atlantic Coast Conference history against a team it had trouble beating anywhere. Now, after defeating Maryland 38-24 Saturday night, the No. 20 Demon Deacons will take their successful road show to Florida to play for the league championship. "Wake Forest (10-2, 6-2) will be seeking its first ACC title since 1970 next Saturday against Georgia Tech in Jacksonville. The teams did not face each other this season. The final game of a crazy ACC regular season matched two of the league's most surprising teams in a duel...

Conservative comic book publisher of Liberality For All, (which features bio-mechanically altered Sean Hannity, G. Gordon Liddy and Oliver North fighting oppressive Liberals in an alternate U.N. dominated reality), is donating all proceeds from their website to victims in Bantul, Indonesia.

Duke and Miami on now, very close! Less than a minute left!

Today is Ash Wednesday, and if recent history is any guide, once again Roman Catholic colleges will be giving up the NCAA basketball championship for Lent. It's been 21 years since a Catholic school last won the title, and since then only three Catholic colleges have even made the Final Four. But before then, Catholic schools enjoyed great success beyond their relatively small numbers and resources. Holy Cross, La Salle, San Francisco, Loyola of Chicago, Marquette, Georgetown and Villanova all won championships, and during the heyday of the National Invitational Tournament, when it was a valid rival to the NCAA,...

Reading between the lines of this Episcopal News Service story on the recent ECUSA Executive Council meeting, one detects more than a little hostility toward the rest of the Anglican world: The largest amount of debate was spent on the eventual decision to meet a request by the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) that all members of the Anglican Communion increase their giving to the Communion in the coming three years. Those increases amount to $550,000, making the Episcopal Church’s total contribution $2.350 million. The draft budget did not include those increases but instead kept the church’s contribution to the ACC...

For three astounding days, seven archbishops from the Global South ministered encouragement and grace to distressed Anglicans from across North America. Twenty-four hundred Anglicans from 73 dioceses across the continent gathered in Pittsburgh Nov. 10-12 to wait on God and hear how to be faithful as a re-formation of their church unfolds. Almost one-third of the attendees at “Hope and a Future” were clergy. The seven primates from Rwanda, Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, Central Africa, the West Indies and South East Asia represented 32 million Anglicans. These are challenging times for Canadian and American Anglicans who seek to be faithful to...

27-0!

AAC: A Report and Photos on Hurricane Katrina Relief Effort Loganville, Ga., Church Partners with the AAC to Deliver Supplies to Hard-Hit Southern Louisiana Area Holy Cross Anglican Church (Loganville, Ga.) and the American Anglican Council partnered in sending the church's bus loaded with supplies down to southern Louisiana this past Sunday morning (Sept. 4). The bus was loaded at a Wal-Mart Saturday night; left with four volunteers aboard Sunday morning; and made deliveries of water, baby formula, diapers, personal health needs, food and other supplies in some hard-hit areas. The bus is bringing back some evacuees for refuge in...

A “Facilitator for the Listening Process on Human Sexuality” is being sought by the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) in London to comply with the 1998 Lambeth Conference Resolution 1.10 on Human Sexuality. The position was advertised this week in London and seeks an individual familiar with the “Anglican Communion and its instruments” but who has “no previous public alignment on the subject of human sexuality.” The advertisement, which has not appeared outside the United Kingdom, states the 1998 Lambeth Conference “wished to establish ‘a means of monitoring the work done on the subject of human sexuality in the Communion’ and...

Despite being a Texas native, a registered voter and holder of a state driver's license, a decorated Marine has been denied lower in-state tuition at a community college because he spent too much time out of the state while serving two tours of duty in Iraq. Carl Basham says he was shocked when personnel at Austin Community College told him a few weeks ago that he didn't qualify as a Texas resident "for tuition purposes." Basham was born in Beeville, Texas, registered to vote in Travis County in 1998, holds a Texas driver's license and does his banking in Austin,...

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Wyatt Sexton, the Florida State quarterback who was found disheveled and disoriented on a city street last month, has been diagnosed with Lyme disease and will miss the upcoming season, the university said Saturday. Florida State coach Bobby Bowden said the university would seek a sixth year of eligibility for Sexton, who has already used his redshirt season. He is the Seminoles' only experienced quarterback. "It looks like Wyatt will need several months of treatment and will have to miss the season," Bowden said in a statement. A specialist in the field of Lyme disease, Dr. S....