Free Republic

WASHINGTON, March 28 –The Competitive Enterprise Institute’s (CEI) animated short film, “I, Pencil” about the free-market wonders of making the common pencil won first place at a prestigious film contest this month co-hosted by Canada’s Manning Centre and the Free Thinking Film Society. The award was presented at the 2014 Manning Networking Conference, held February 27 - March 1, 2014, in Ottawa. The films were evaluated by a three-judge panel and featured themes on conservatism, liberty, free markets, and democracy. CEI’s 6 minute long “I, Pencil” film was adapted from the 1958 essay by the late economist Leonard E. Read...

The Coens have done it again.

A lot of [the design of film and motion technology] was conceived with the idea of the best representation of white people. And I don't mean to say that it was a deliberate and exclusionary practice, but [it was] much more of a willful obliviousness, if you will. So color film in its early stages pretty much developed around trying to measure the image against white skin. ...

Marty Resnick installed his sculpture on the grounds of Kingsborough Community College before moving in 1975 to live off the land in Southeast Ohio. The origins of the scrap metal artwork puzzled faculty members for decades.Friends of an enigmatic artist have solved a Manhattan Beach whodunit that has stumped locals for four decades. A rusting sculpture on the campus of Kingsborough Community College has puzzled faculty members who long ago had lost the identity of its creator — if they had it to begin with. “When they were doing the inventory they had no record of the sculpture,” Kingsborough Art...

It’s both delightful and terrifying to watch Vinny DePonto at work — especially knowing you may be called on to have some embarrassing personal truth revealed to an audience. No matter how hard you may try to hide your secret. “I want you to lie to me,” the master mentalist tells the audience during “Charlatan,” his breathtaking one-man show. “Because sometimes the way that we lie is the most honest thing about us.” So don’t bother lying to DePonto, 27. Not only will he know it’s a lie, he also will know the ugly truth behind the lie. This is...

With luck, I put this in the right place. Though I was born in R.I., my parents moved to VA when I was 2. I lived in the Old Dominion for decades and even though I left there about 10 years ago, I consider it home. I practiced law in NOVA for a long time. I stumbled across this wonderful Facebook page entitled, "Abandoned in Virginia". It is a beautiful pictorial of abandoned old buildings all across the State. Those who live, or who have lived, in VA know how special it is. Enjoy.

"We knew the time had come to create something wondrous with pickles," Sam Bompas, one half of gin-cloud generating, wedding cake-exploding culinary masters Bompas & Parr, tells Wired.co.uk. The pickle has been overlooked for too long. Bompas is relaying the story of how the Gherkin Chandelier -- a gherkin-powered piece of lighting with an eerie glow akin to the Grinch lit up at Christmas -- came to be. "Thinking about the development still gives me goosebumps. Risking death to explore an everyday sultan of savour!" You might not associate gherkins with imminent death, but it takes rather a lot of...

The greatest work of art George W. Bush ever took part in was in 2008, when an Iraqi journalist threw two shoes at his head. “This is a farewell kiss from the Iraqi people, you dog,� screamed the journalist, Muntadhar al-Zaidi, who had been arrested twice by U.S. forces during the occupation.Bush dodged the shoes with the same ease with which he’d had dodged consequences all his life; those for drunk driving, for ruined companies, stolen elections, war crimes, the destruction of Zaidi’s country.After he dodged the shoes, Bush joked about free countries. Meanwhile, guards beat Zaidi bloody. Police tortured him...

In a traditional spring, various species of pollinating trees and flowers bloom sequentially over a period of about 2½ months, said Estelle Levetin, who has studied airborne pollen since 1980. If spring is delayed, more plants pollinate all at once, creating a shorter but more intense season that can exacerbate symptoms for people who are allergic. “This year we had an unusually cold winter that lasted longer than normal, and that set back pollen release significantly,” said Levetin, a biology professor at the University of Tulsa. “Each individual plant is not pollinating much more than normal. We’re just having a...

BBC America Series Premiere: Saturday, April 19th at 10/9c From Star Wars to 2001: A Space Odyssey, and from Jurassic Park to Doctor Who, each program is packed with contributors behind these creations and traces the developments of Robots, Space, Invasion and Time. Narrated by Mark Gatiss, Doctor Who writer, actor, and co-creator of the BBC’s Sherlock, the series determines why science fiction is not merely a genre… for its audience it’s a portal to a multi-verse – one that is all too easy to get lost in... Home | About the show | Episode Guide | Photos | Videos

These cats have eyes that are each a different color, a condition commonly referred to as “odd-eyed,” or, scientifically, “Heterochromia Iridum.” These special kitties may be odd, but they’re also some of the most beautiful and magical-looking creatures on the planet.

Let sleeping dogs lie, they say. But perhaps they should also have said something about not painting cats to look like flowerbeds. And they should have said it really loudly while in New Jersey, where the world’s largest (and most bonkers) pet-grooming summit has just taken place. Some 2,000 moggies entered Intergroom, in which they were transformed into exotic creations including lions, tigers, birds and, er, wild flowers. And they do not look very happy about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWmr0Afr4f8

At the age of 93, actor Mickey Rooney has passed away. As his many lengthy eulogies have made abundantly clear, his was a life of stratospheric highs and humiliating lows. He was one of the biggest stars in the world as a teen; he fell into bankruptcy and irrelevancy as an adult. He reinvented himself and rebounded. He crashed and burned. Few lives have had as many epic twists and turns, making his obituaries obsessively engrossing reading.

The New York City Department of Records and Information Services (aw, DORIS) has announced the addition of 30,000 photographs to its online gallery. The latest photo dump includes images from the NYPD's "Alien Squad," car accidents, airplane crashes in Park Slope, the Hindenburg crashing, the demolition of the 2nd Avenue El train, explosions... you know, fun stuff. Here's a sampling for now, and we'll be revisiting more specified areas of their archives in the future.

Everyday, our feeds on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram are flooded with the same old crap. Girls are going crazy taking pictures of EVERYTHING throughout their days, and subjecting their friends to this garbage on all the social media sites. These following 20 [sic] pictures are the most commonly posted, and the reason Zuckerberg gave us an 'unfriend' button.

Here's our '60s girl group / doo wop style remake of Ellie Goulding's "Burn," complete with a saxophone that shoots fire (called the "Flame-O-Phone," played by Stefan Zeniuk). Pay special attention to Adam's visibly uncomfortable reaction to seeing 4 foot flames come from the bell of a saxophone, and watch my security deposit go up in flames (both literally and figuratively). Warning: do not play with fire at home! Stefan is a trained professional.

Archie fans might want to brace themselves: The beloved character will die this July. Archie Comics announced Tuesday that the lovable redhead Archie Andrews will bite the proverbial dust, to cap the recent “Life With Archie” series. “We’ve been building up to this moment since we launched ‘Life With Archie’ five years ago, and knew that any book that was telling the story of Archie’s life as an adult had to also show his final moment,” said Archie Comics Publisher/Co-CEO Jon Goldwater in a statement. While details of the character’s impending death are scant, it has been revealed that Archie...

Celebrities desperate to get the Walthamstow look

Since 1941, comic book fans have followed the exploits of teenaged Archie Andrews and his friends. This July, they'll find out how he dies. "Life With Archie" #36 hits stores on July 16, and CNN can reveal exclusively that it tells the story of how Archie sacrifices himself to save a friend. Few details are known, but it seems fitting that Archie would go out a hero. The 37th issue one week later will end the series. The "Life With Archie" series has been telling the stories of possible future Archie scenarios for the past few years, and so Archie...

After being publicly sacked by al Qaeda leader Aymann al-Zawahiri and accidentally beheading a fighter from one of their main allies in Syria, it’s fair to say the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS)’s PR campaign has suffered in recent weeks. So, like any half decent group of militant extremists, they obviously want to address this slip. Unfortunately, a traditional media outreach is very difficult for them, given ISIS’s policy of kidnapping journalists. So they've turned, like many before them, to social media. Over the past few weeks, foreign fighters from ISIS and their subgroup the Muhajireen Brigade have been...

For the first time ever, a meteor has been captured on camera falling through the sky after it has finished burning. And that’s not all: the baseball-sized space rock nearly slammed into the man behind the camera.

Sabrina Paige has just about the cutest trio of pets on Instagram, and her avid followers are proof that we all love a good cuddle session among dogs and cats. Located in Washington, D.C, Paige picked up photography as a hobby as she volunteered to photograph adoptable pets at a local animal shelter when she lived in New York City. She received positive and encouraging feedback about her images, and so got more serious about photography. And who better to be models than her adorable brindle dog Skyler, her tabby cat Willie Nelson, and the beautiful grey pit bull Blue....

The brainchild of Canada-based photographer Peter Andrew and Creative Directors Simon Duffy and Derek Blais, The Point Blank project shoots handguns in close-up, portrait-style, and straight down the barrel. In doing so, the project creates large-scale, extremely detailed, and uncomfortably in-your-face frontal photographs. The images have a jarring beauty in the symmetry of design, the depth-of-field, and the level of detail—all the more powerful for their implicit violence. These subjects have, quite literally, the power to kill.

Based on a satirical piece on the McSweeney’s website, the video perfectly pans the ad campaigns and internal corporate videos filled with cliché stock footage. Images of wind farms, diverse groups of smiling people and stop-motion city landscapes are accompanied by narration with indistinguishable pablum about innovation, the environment and the global economy.

Forensic+ is new technology developed by the Image Quality and Algorithms team at Phase One. We have had many requests from certain intelligence agencies and criminal investigation agencies around the world who have seen examples on popular crime television series, to bring such features to ‘real life’. Forensic+ will help you to discover unseen detail in images with the eventual goal of solving that all-important case! “We really wanted to turn our expertise to aid those at the forefront of forensic technology. I am pleased to say we have achieved this with Forensic+. The results are truly unbelievable!”

Where the numerous Christian leaders who endorsed the film really got fooled, though, was in assuming Aronofsky's "Noah" had anything to do with God of the Old Testament or the Bible. It doesn't. "Noah" is really about "The Creator," a completely different being according to Gnostics, and an evil one. If Aronosfsly's "god" seemed a little anti-human to some of us, here's why: Except that when Gnostics speak about “The Creator” they are not talking about God. Oh, here in an affluent world living off the fruits of Christendom the term “Creator” generally denotes the true and living God. But...

Published on Mar 30, 2014 Evacuating a sample of unknown fluid (to vaporize for mass spectrometry). Pressure drop causes a decrease in temperature. The fluid simultaneously both boils and freezes? Would like some insight here...

This happened to me on SR 41 in Tampa on Monday March 24th. This pathetic excuse for a human being tailgated me for about three minutes. After about a minute, and me shaking my head, I pulled out my phone and started recording. I couldn't move over because there were trucks in the right lane, and I sure as heck wasn't going to speed on a rainy day with the roads being as slick as they were. I was turning left in about a half-mile when this happened. Now bear in mind, that this guy had already passed a truck...

Firefighter Thomas Rogers recorded this video of a tumbleweed tornado that helps spread a controlled fire beyond what was originally intended. Taken at a wildlife refuge in Denver, Colorado, several fire teams were at hand to help control the blaze. "Prescribed burn of 150 acres at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal in Denver, CO. Participating agencies: USFWS, USFS, South Metro Fire, West Metro Fire, Denver Fire, Fairmount Fire. A dust devil formed and drew the prescribed fire into it. It crossed the line and burned about 1 additional acre."

<p>As for Mara's ethnicity? She's not Native American. Folks are passing around an online petition that asks Warner Bros. to "stop casting white actors to play people of color."</p> <p>2. If you're particularly ticked off when a white character is played by a person of color, then you're probably not pleased that Michael B. Jordan (Friday Night Lights, The Wire, Fruitvale Station), who is black, was cast as the Human Torch in Fantastic Four. Human Torch is a superhero who, as his name hints, can engulf his body in flames, control nearby fires and fly. When he's not on fire (though he usually is), the comics show that he's a blonde, white guy named Johnny Storm. (There was an android Human Torch once. To the extent that androids have ethnic identities, the android's was probably Anglo-Saxon.) If casting a black actor to play a white superhero irks you, this probably will, too.</p>

In Japan, people watching events unfolding in Crimea appear to have become captivated by the region's newly-appointed attorney general. Clips of a press conference with Natalia Poklonskaya have been shared widely on Japanese platforms, says website Rocketnews24. She was appointed to the post on 11 March and formerly served as a senior prosecutor for the city of Simferopol. In particular, one video in which Poklonskaya listens to a reporter's question has been viewed nearly 300,000 times since it was posted to a Japanese YouTube channel. There is no translation of her answer. Some people appear to be so taken with...

LONDON, A U.S. scrap metal dealer intending to melt down an ornament for its gold was shocked to discover it was a $33 million Faberge egg, a British expert said. Kieran McCarthy of London jeweler Wartski said the scrap metal dealer, who wished to remain anonymous, bought the gold egg for $13,302 from an antiques dealer about a decade ago and had planned to melt it down and sell the metal, but the project was put on hold when he was unable to find a buyer, the Telegraph reported Wednesday. McCarthy said the egg stayed in the man's home until...

LANCASTER (CBSLA.com) — The U.S. Navy Blue Angels flying squadron arrived in Lancaster Thursday ahead of the first-ever Los Angeles County Air Show set for early next year. KNX 1070′s Vytas Safronikas reported it will be the first air show in 2014 for the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron after leaving their winter training base at El Centro. The L.A. County Air Show, which is scheduled for March 21-22, will be held at the William J. Fox Airfield and will feature six iconic blue and gold Boeing F/A-18 Hornet aircraft as part of the event in the wake of budget...

"In the early 1970s Michael Ford moved from Boston to Oxford, Mississippi to visit some relatives and was so smitten by it he decided to stay. The story of rural life in the hill country of North Mississippi is told in an astonishing collection of photographs taken in the early 1970s, which are now being honored with a 40-year retrospective to ensure that these images of a way of life that died out long ago may live on. The photographs also tell the story of Michael Ford, who captured them after quitting his teaching job in Boston and packing his...

BREAKING: Russia Downs American Drone

Nikon has probably had just about enough when it comes to the D600 and its sensor dust/oil issues. It started with user complaints, evolved to class action lawsuits from a number of different sources, and has now escalated to a full-on order by the Chinese government to stop D600 sales in China after a state-run television show featured a scathing exposé about the issue.

With perfect timing, photographer Lynn Terry was able to capture some truly wonderful pictures of Bumper, a rescued pit bull, and some of her other doggy friends. Source: Lynn Terry By Unknown By Unknown By Unknown By Unknown

Glenn Edward McDuffie, the young sailor from Houston who can be seen in one of the most iconic photos from the end of World War II, has died, according to family members. The Navy veteran was 86. McDuffie was 18 when he said he was captured in the famous kiss photo with nurse Edith Shain. “I heard someone running and stopping right in front of us. I raised my head up, and it was a photographer,” McDuffie told the Houston Chronicle in 2007. “I tried to get my hand out of the way so I wouldn’t block her face, and...

We'd like to give you an exclusive first look at this season's opera production, Leoš Janá�ek's The Cunning Little Vixen. Conducted by Franz Welser-Möst and featuring an internationally-renowned cast of singers, this unique, made-for-Cleveland production will feature stunning digital animation, projected behind the Orchestra on three giant 26-foot screens. This production diary is the first of four that will take you behind the scenes and immerse you in the creation of this innovative production. See YouTube link for details: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7O1T2j3PPFs&feature=youtu.be&utm_source=mail2&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=TheMakingofTheCunningLittleVixen%3AProductionDiary%231

Watching Easy Rider for maybe the 15th Time; thought I'd share this for comment. The worm seems to have turned.

Can You Spot the Snipers in These Photos?

It's a normal part of the school day for many students and teachers, but what happened Friday during the pledge and moment of silence that follows at Cy-Fair High School is creating quite a buzz, thanks to a teacher who captured the moment on camera. 

Just put of by Netflix streaming. Rush was the most solid and cool and allaround awesome band of the past half century. 'Now I didn't ask for no argument'.

A painter friend of mine is putting on a web convention of famous contemporary artists. It includes interviews with Marvin Mattelson, Albert Handell, Fernando Freitas, and many other Masters in the art world. I apologize for not posting this sooner, as it's been going on for a week now and is only available until March 26, 2014. There have been six interviews released with a new one every day. If you are an artist or art-lover, this is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to gain information and inspiration to help transform your own art or hear from the masters. This is really...

With the rise in popularity and drop in price of high speed cameras, more and more incredible footage is getting captured of events our human brain would otherwise be unable to see in such detail.

The Eisenhower Memorial is dead. Not the memorial itself, but the wildly unpopular design by Frank Gehry. The decisive blow is Congress’ 2014 budget, which denied the $49 million in construction funds requested by the Eisenhower Memorial Commission, the body charged with building the memorial. Instead, Congress allotted $1 million for operations, thereby halving the Commission’s previous annual budget. Congress also reinstated the requirement that the Commission possess 100% of construction funding before it can break ground. This sets an impossibly high bar. The Commission’s 2014 budget request estimated that it would need an additional $25 million in construction funds...

The King of Pop allegedly fathered a secret son with a DNA test claiming to give the truth Michael Jackson is alleged to have a lovechild after DNA evidence claimed to prove the superstar had a secret son - but who is he? Brandon Howard is a 31-year-old singer, songwriter and producer who goes by the stage name of B Howard. He's the son of 53-year-old singer Miki Howard, whom Jackson family patriarch Joe Jackson represented back in the 1980s. Miki met Jackson in 1982 and her son was born soon after. In 2010 Brandon released his debut album Genesis...

does someone make an adapter/cable to go from the phone port to a thumbdrive I can take to it to a photo kiosk to print?