Free Republic

Here’s an unexpected Independence Day gift for Apple.Axel Springer AG, one of Europe’s largest newspaper publishers, with 10,000 employees and more than 150 papers in 30 countries, including its flagship Die Welt, announced on Friday that it is switching its entire operation from PCs to Macs. In a YouTube video, posted below the fold, CEO Mathias Döpfner lists four reasons for the change: Most of the company’s layout work was already being done on Macs Macs are more user friendly than other computers Apple creates the most elegant computers Macs are cheaper to buy and easier to maintain than they...

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The U.S. State of Alabama will be the likely home of a new Volkswagen (VOWG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) manufacturing plant, beating two other states, German industry newsletter Automobilwoche said on Saturday, citing senior company sources. A VW spokesman said that a decision on the location of the plant had yet to be taken and that Alabama, Tennessee and Michigan remained in the running. A decision is expected by July 21, the spokesman said. Daimler's (DAIGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) Mercedes Car Group has had a manufacturing plant in Alabama for years and ThyssenKrupp (TKAG.DE: Quote, Profile, Research), an...

America has become an empire. Everyone says so. This is a surprise to most Americans, since few imagined that they were building such a thing. But, as historians such as Walter Nugent and Robert Kagan have recently taught us, Americans have been at this imperialist expansionism for quite some time — really since the beginning of the republic. How else to explain that the United States has gone from a handful of agrarian colonies to a world-spanning colossus in the space of only a few centuries? As you read this, American military might is deployed across the planet. The U.S....

Fort Wright, KY (AHN) -- To further illustrate the way rising gas prices are effecting people all over the world, police say a woman arrested in Northern Kentucky for soliciting prostitution was trading sex for gasoline. A sex sting operation by police was in effect at a Days Inn Hotel when Angela R. Eversole, 34, was arrested along with four other women for selling sex. After further investigation, police found that rather that trading sex for cash, Eversole bartered her body for $100 gas card and other gifts. The man with whom Eversole made the exchange, Kenneth A. Nowak, 50,...

After this weekend's barbeques and fireworks displays, you might wonder why some people wind up covered in mosquito welts and others are bite-free. It's not a coincidence. Each person's individual body chemistry determines how many mosquitoes will come calling. According to Joe Conlon, a medical entomologist who advises the American Mosquito Control Association, the insects can detect their targets from nearly 100 feet away. But what are they seeking? Mostly the scent of carbon dioxide and lactic acid, two compounds that indicate to the hematophagous — or blood-sucking — pests that their next landing pad is nearby. (It's worth noting...

My father-in law keeps telling me our state (PA) is deregulating electric by the end of 2011 and that we are going to see a 30% increase in rates. I can;t seem to find anything about this anywhere. I always thought deregulation was a good thing...

hursday,Do you ever wonder why America initiated and then dominated the oil exploration and discovery industry. Its because Thomas Jefferson decided that along with the monarchy, the aristocrats and landed titles, the American Revolution would also throw out the (literally) medieval notion that although a man could own his own land, what was under it belonged to the king.

You would think that this story is right out of science fiction. But the facts appear to be that the US Democrat-controlled Congress intends to destroy the Republican middle class with $11 per gallon gasoline.

VW's 282 MPG Super Fuel Efficient Car The 1-Liter car has been around in prototype form since 2002 and greens everywhere have been drooling at its 282 miles per gallon fuel economy (or 1 liter of gasoline per 100 kilometers, hence the name). VW has finally decided to make more and sell them, and a limited edition (estimated in the thousands) should start selling in 2010. 1-Liter Car Technical Specs The One-Liter car (or 1-Litre, over in Europe) weights only 660 pounds. The body is made from carbon composites and it is shaped to be extremely slippery, giving it a...

Just for purposes of curiosity: Do you plan to travel for the July 4th weekend? and why or wny not? Pesonally, i wasn't planning on it, but that's par for the course. It's been years and years since i sought to go anywhere but to the local fireworks celebration, and I think this has saved me much grief. But, if I were one to go to big amusement parks, or going to visit relatives, I still would likely not go this year, not because of panic, or being so short of funds that I could not literally buy the gas...

The smoke lingering in the air after a fireworks show doesn’t just obstruct views of the spectacular pyrotechnics — it’s also toxic for the environment. But it doesn't need to be. Scientists are finding new ways to make the rockets' red glare and bombs bursting in air more eco-friendly. "The problem is, what goes up must come down sometime," said Georg Steinhauser, a licensed pyrotechnician and a chemist at the Vienna University of Technology in Austria. "If you shoot something in the sky, that stuff can't just disappear." Steinhauser and a number of other chemists around the world are developing...

Consider the following quotation: "In Mecklenburg at this time a very primitive type of Feudalism existed, known as "Inherited Serfdom". The land owners controlled the economy and ruled their estates with absolute authority. The peasants were dependant entirely on the nobles who could even buy and sell them with or without their property, and the tax rate had to be reviewed every two to three years, and was usually increased at that time. They could not acquire any more land than they already had. Their Landlords produced crops for export from their vast estates by using the labour of these...

This is a powerful piece on what politicians have been saying about energy for 30 years! This is a fantastic video of a montage of politicians and their promises about energy and energy independence. Wow... nothing has change except the price of oil. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWZ_4EXeyaA

Dow today down 166.7, making total downside since it's peak of 14,000+ to be 20.8 percent ******************************************************* Does a bear short in the woods?

I offer here a list of spots you mught use to arm yourself and your family against current economic pressures. Please feel free. I don't work for any of these places. I just think things may tighten up before they loosen up, and would like to have a discussion aimed at helping people out.

When you're out of Schlitz, you're out of beer, according to an old ad campaign. And, as Milwaukee-area beer lovers are discovering, a lot of places are out of Schlitz, at least in the bottled form. Within days of the Schlitz 1960s formula being brought back to Milwaukee, the beer was largely sold out - snapped up by both older guys who remember the beer from back in the day, and younger drinkers curious about the fuss. A new shipment is coming to liquor stores and taverns beginning Wednesday, but it will be relatively small, said Mike Merriman, president of...

Net Applications' Operating System stats for June 2008 show Apple's Mac hit a new all-time high with 7.94% share of the operating systems visiting Net Applications' network of websites worldwide. The stats also show Apple iPhone with 0.16% share and Apple iPod with 0.04%. Net Applications noted last month, "Apple has confirmed that its online inventories for the original version of the iPhone are sold out in the U.S. and U.K. Apple appears to be clearing out its inventories in preparation for the iPhone 2.0 release. This, in conjunction with customers holding off purchasing until 2.0 is released has temporarily...

NORTH CANTON, Ohio — A simple change to the design of the gallon milk jug, adopted by Wal-Mart and Costco, seems made for the times. The jugs are cheaper to ship and better for the environment, the milk is fresher when it arrives in stores, and it costs less. What’s not to like? Plenty, as it turns out. The jugs have no real spout, and their unorthodox shape makes consumers feel like novices at the simple task of pouring a glass of milk. “I hate it,” said Lisa DeHoff, a cafe owner shopping in a Sam’s Club here. “It spills...

I know that saving accounts are federally protected if there is a bank failure, but what about my money in a 401K account? Is it also protected? If so, is there a limit?

Apple on Monday evening released Mac OS X 10.5.4, the latest significant revision to Leopard and a key part of its online strategy. Also, Security Update 2008-004 and Safari 3.1.2 for Tiger address security issues for earlier Mac OS X versions. The update (59MB for 10.5.3 users) is considered an important precursor to Mac support for MobileMe, Apple's imminent sync and hosting service. In addition to laying the groundwork for the future replacement for .Mac, the update is also key to fixing a number of major bugs identified since the release of Mac OS X 10.5.3, including an Adobe CS3...

"...coal makes us sick, oil makes us sick, it's global warming, it's ruining our country, it's ruining our world, we've got to stop using fossil fuel, we've for generations taken it out of the earth, carbon out of the earth and put it in the atmosphere, it's making us all sick, it's changing our world...."

Your states have passed significant changes in enforcement of immigration laws. What do you see around you? Have you observed changes in your schools, workplaces, markets?

'Unprecedented Pent-Up Demand' For Apple iPhone 3G, RBC Says Dan Frommer | June 30, 2008 10:00 AM More good news for Apple (AAPL) ahead of the 3G iPhone launch, scheduled for next Friday, July 11. Consumers have "unprecedented" demand for Apple's phone, according to new data from RBC's Technology Adoption Panel. From RBC analyst Mike Abramsky's note: 56% of those planning to buy a smartphone in the next 90 days plan to purchase an iPhone, up from 35% in March. 25% may buy the 3G iPhone "sometime in the future," more than twice the interest shown by the panel...

In an interview with The Financial Times yesterday, Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg had this to say when asked about the competition posed by Apple’s iPhone: “It’s very cool. And Steve Jobs eventually will get old… I like our chances.” That’s got to be one of the most indelicate utterances by one CEO regarding another. Mr. Seidenberg is about a decade older than Mr. Jobs, so he can’t possibly be referring to his age with the most unfortunate “Steve Jobs eventually will get old” phrase. He must be referring to Mr. Job’s frail appearance at the Apple WWDC in June. Apple...

I heard this on the radio going to work an overtime shift yesterday and tracked it down for this thread. Dear Senator Harkin, As a native Iowan and excellent customer of the Internal Revenue Service, I am writing to ask for your assistance. I have contacted the Department of Homeland Security in an effort to determine the process for becoming an illegal alien and they referred me to you. My primary reason for wishing to change my status from U.S. Citizen to illegal alien stems from the bill which was recently passed by the Senate and for which you voted....

Wal-Mart logo gets facelift By Jeff Mores Staff Writer // jeffm@nwanews.com Posted on Sunday, June 29, 2008 BENTONVILLE - When Wal-Mart began, the marking between the "Wal"and the "Mart "was a hyphen. Then it evolved into the star now featured on the signs above every Supercenter. On Friday, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced to its associates that the evolution continues. Sharon Weber, Wal-Mart medial relations spokesperson, confirmed the change to the Daily Record on Saturday. The star at the center of the Wal-Mart logo will soon be changing to a yellow-orange burst and will appear at the end of the Wal-Mart...

WASHINGTON -- Food prices could rise even more unless the mysterious decline in honey bees is solved, farmers and businessmen told lawmakers Thursday. "No bees, no crops," North Carolina grower Robert D. Edwards told a House Agriculture subcommittee. Edwards said he had to cut his cucumber acreage in half because of the lack of bees available to rent. About three-quarters of flowering plants rely on birds, bees and other pollinators to help them reproduce. Bee pollination is responsible for $15 billion annually in crop value.In 2006, beekeepers began reporting losing 30 percent to 90 percent of their hives. This phenomenon...

A new malt liquor campaign are considered distasteful and are causing controversy.

(remember all those "speculators"?...)

Okay, I'm waiting for Republicans to go on the attack here. If Democrats hold up drilling, aren't we then, in theory, using up more of the world's existing supplies? When is the GOP going to get clever here? This is such an easy position to take. By not drilling, we are using more of our foreign neighbor's supplies, an argument the Dems have used against us for decades. Also, ethanol taps into our food supply. If we use our food to make fuel, then we have less food to feed the poor. That's downright "evil"! Another dacades old Dem argument....

Click for movie

Enterprises love the Mac's reliability, rely on virtualization, reports Yankee GroupJune 26, 2008 (Computerworld) Nearly 80% of businesses have Macs in-house, nearly double the percentage that said they had users running Mac OS X two years ago, a research firm said today. "Then, we were talking about onesies and twosies," said Laura DiDio, a research fellow at Yankee Group Research Inc. who conducted a survey of more than 700 senior IT administrators and C-level executives. "Now the number of actual users is very significant. A number of the businesses said that they had 50 or 100 or even several thousand...

Real-estate agents have been pushing the virtues of homeownership since homes were invented. Or since real-estate agents were invented, anyway. Paying a mortgage, they insist, is a can't-miss investment (the tax breaks, the appreciation, the thrill of fixing your own roof!). Renting is for simpletons who don't like keeping their own money. But does owning a home really trump renting?

There is no place like Free Republic for getting answers, so here goes. I'm arguing away on another site about how Bush said we should drill ANWR six years ago, but the Democrats stopped us. Then someone asked, since the GOP controlled the House and Senate in 2002... how did the Dems stop us?And I realized I did not know the answer. How DID they stop us? Does anyone know?

Brace Yourselves.

Somebody on another forum is all worried about this guy's predictions for our economic future. As near as I can tell, Rupert is playing on people's fears of the unknown in order to sell his books and newsletter. What say ye?

For the purposes of this hypothetical, I will make the assumption that banning speculators on the NYMEX would cause oil prices to drop. I do not agree that this would happen, but I just want to use the "best case" scenario out there for those arguing in favor of banning speculators. Even if banning speculators would cause prices to drop in the NYMEX, the price of oil in other world markets would still remain high. Arbitrageurs would not let the price differential in the long run between markets become greater than the cost of transportation (this includes physical cost of...

I'm really thinking about using some sort of identity theft service, especially since I got married and my credit card usage went up. Questions to anyone using these services: Can Lifelock be trusted and does it work? How does it work?

HIDALGO — In a sign of the times for a federal agency that routinely announces million-dollar cocaine and marijuana busts, Customs and Border Protection has announced that a man was fined $400 because of an extra tank of fuel. The fine was levied Sunday against a 22-year-old Edinburg man who crossed the border with an extra tank of diesel in the bed of his pickup. Because of Mexican government subsidies, diesel fuel currently sells at about half the U.S. price across the border. Customs agents have noticed a sharp rise in the number of people trying to bring full containers...

Crime, I don’t condone it, but sometimes you do feel sorry for the perp. Take for instance this story of an animal lover looking to provide for his pets. ( TOKYO (AFP) - A Japanese animal-lover on welfare went to extremes to provide for his many pets by robbing convenience stores while wearing the mask of a dog, police said Monday. Takaharu Kawata — branded by Japanese media as “The Dogman” — was caught on a surveillance camera wearing an oversized black-and-white canine mask while brandishing a knife.) OK…I feel I need to step in here. Please take a look...

KEYSTONE — One afternoon in mid April, Cindy Adams heard rustling. She knew there was a swamp nearby, so she didn't pay the noise any mind. Then about 4:30 p.m., she looked up and saw what she initially thought were two big German shepherds. A closer look revealed something else. Something unshaven. Something with big ears and a furry tail. "It was the coyotes," she said. Adams didn't know if she should stand still, run or scream. "They just totally ignored me, went off the back end of the property and left," she said. It wasn't Adams the coyotes wanted....

You'll be exposed to around 6,000 marketing messages today, according to researchers. You're looking at a few right now. Glance away from your computer and you'll see another one--a label on a bottle, a logo on a t-shirt, a billboard outside the window. But as pervasive as it is now, marketers are working hard behind the scenes to make sure it's much, much worse in the future. Doing things like ...

University of Georgia researchers have developed an effective technology for reducing contamination of dangerous bacteria on food. The new antimicrobial wash rapidly kills Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 on foods ranging from fragile lettuce to tomatoes, fruits, poultry products and meats. It is made from inexpensive and readily available ingredients that are recognized as safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The new technology, which has commercial application for the produce, poultry, meat and egg processing industries, is available for licensing from the University of Georgia Research Foundation, Inc., which has filed a patent application on the new technology....

Has anyone emailed you a link to that awesome footage of the ball girl making a stunning catch in foul territory during a minor league baseball game between the Fresno Grizzlies and the Tacoma Rainiers?    The video has been making the rounds on the Internet and likely fooling a lot of people, but what we are seeing is, in fact, staged. It is actually a viral video for Gatorade titled "Ball Girl" that was created by Chicago's Element 79 Partners and directed by Baker Smith of harvest, Santa Monica.    In a cluttered environment full of viral work that isn't really...

The OSX/Hovdy-A Trojan horse, which relies on the user giving it permission to install itself, is an attempt to steal passwords, open firewall to give access to hackers, and disable security settings. The Hovdy-A Trojan horse takes advantage of a vulnerability in Apple's Mac OS X operating system, affecting the Apple Remote Desktop Agent (ARDAgent), to gain root access. Once the user has given permission and installed the OSX/Hovdy-A Trojan horse, the hacker can gain complete control of the compromised Macintosh - covering its tracks by disabling system logging. This Trojan horse relies on the user giving it permission to...

That photo of 11 weirdos in '70s clothes you may have seen on the Internet really is the original Microsoft team, snapped Dec. 7, 1978, on the eve of the company's move from Albuquerque, N.M., to Seattle. Almost 30 years later, a few weeks before Bill Gates's departure from Microsoft, the group (looking better) reconvened. Bob Greenberg (center of old photo, in red sweater), then a programmer and now a tech and financial consultant, had won a photo portrait in a contest and used it to commemorate the soon-to-be disrupted group. The picture was shot in a shopping mall. ...

20 Reasons Why I Can’t Vote for Obama with facts, figures, and references By Charles Meek June 2008 1. Barack Hussein Obama has been objectively rated the single most liberal member of the US Senate—100th out of 100. Is this just so many words, or does it mean something? Well, let’s take a look. 2. Obama has promised the abortion industry that the first piece of legislation he will sign is the Freedom of Choice Act. This act would overturn every piece of state or federal legislation that puts any reasonable restriction on abortion. For example, it would overturn partial...

Back in 1985, I'm five years old and staring into my lunchbox. All around me, children are ripping into packs of Monster Munch. I've got yesterday's quiche and a mushy tomato. And there's something soggy at the bottom, possibly a homemade rock bun, but I can't be sure. My lunchbox was a testament to my mother's thrifty habits Today, it would be celebrated as a resourceful meal made from leftovers. Back then, I didn't give a hoot about food waste and packaging. I wanted pickled onion crisps and a Penguin bar. It wasn't that my parents were tofu-munching hippies who...

For years, student activists have demanded environmentally friendly changes, prompting university officials to reevaluate how they heat classrooms, water campus greens and buy light bulbs. Frostburg State University in Western Maryland, for instance, has a wind-powered generating station. Johns Hopkins University is planning to build its own heat and power generator. Students are also driving the academic push that is infusing curriculum and research with an environmental consciousness. For those who are skeptical about global warming and think that the current trend is often too alarmist, the changes carry risk. "It discredits science," said Richard Lindzen, a professor of meteorology...

<p>Provenance Fighter Sales is benefiting from growing interest in WWII-era aircraft.</p> <p>The World War II-era P-38 fighter made an emergency landing on a Greenland ice cap in July 1942 while on a flight from Maine to England. The aircraft eventually was buried under a layer of ice and snow more than 200 feet thick.</p>