Free Republic

A ballot measure passed by voters this week is already freeing California suspects from jail as their felony charges are reduced to misdemeanors, and people previously convicted of the charges receive reduced sentences as they appear in court. Sheriffs across the state immediately began implementing Proposition 47, which calls for treating shoplifting, forgery, fraud, petty theft and possession of small amounts of drugs, including cocaine, heroin and methamphetamines, as misdemeanors instead of felonies. Two-dozen suspects who were being held on those charges walked out of Sacramento County jail two days after 58 percent of voters approved the initiative on Tuesday....

The study also uncovers a more accurate timescale for when humans and Neanderthals interbred, and finds evidence for an early contact between the European hunter-gatherers and those in the Middle East – who would later develop agriculture and disperse into Europe about 8,000 years ago, transforming the European gene pool. Scientists now believe Eurasians separated into at least three populations earlier than 36,000 years ago: Western Eurasians, East Asians and a mystery third lineage, all of whose descendants would develop the unique features of most non-African peoples - but not before some interbreeding with Neanderthals took place. Led by the...

A star mystery solved? These newfound stars could help solve the so-called "photon underproduction crisis," which suggests that an extraordinary amount of ultraviolet light appears to be missing from the universe. The intergalactic stars could also help address what is known as the "missing baryon problem." Baryons are a class of subatomic particles that includes the protons and neutrons that make up the hearts of atoms inside normal matter. Theories of the formation and evolution of the universe predict there should be far more baryons than scientists currently see. The baryons that astronomers have accounted for in the local cosmic...

That great disturbance in the force you felt this morning? It was just Disney announcing the official title of Star Wars: Episode VII. What? You think they were just going to stick with the roman numerals? ... Star Wars: The Force Awakens Cool, right? Or do you hate the title so much that you immediately went to www.nooooooooooooooo.com to press the button? Either way, we came up with a big list of alternate titles, just in case J.J. & Co. change their minds. You're welcome, Disney! Star Wars: The Force Awakens (And It's Really Cranky From Its Nap) Star Wars:...

In the last of a three-part series on getting a base ready on the moon or an asteroid, Metzger talks about the steps to get robots ready for the work and what barriers are standing in the way of accomplishing this. UT: A table in your 2012 paper talks about the steps of lunar industry, starting with tele-operation and an “insect-like” robotic intelligence and then progressing through a few steps to “closely supervised autonomy” (mouse-like) and eventually “nearly full autonomy” (monkey-like) and “autonomous robotics” (human-like). What sorts of developments and how much time/resources would it take to progress through these...

AC/DC drummer Phil Rudd was arrested in New Zealand on Thursday morning local time and charged with attempting to procure a murder, as first reported by Stuff.co.nz. A member of the Tauranga Central division of New Zealand Police confirmed Rudd's arrest to Rolling Stone, but did not provide any additional details. Rudd allegedly tried to have two as-yet-unidentified men killed, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. According to Stuff, Rudd was also charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of cannabis and threatening to kill.

State prisons officials say a San Quentin death row inmate convicted of two 1985 murders in Los Angeles has died of natural causes. California’s Department of Corrections says 74-year-old Michael Homick was pronounced dead Wednesday at 11:26 a.m. at a hospital near the prison. ... The couple was killed in an underground garage at their Brentwood condominium after a family gathering to celebrate the end of Yom Kippur.

Students are no stranger to the beans on toast diet but one university canteen in Belgium is serving up a different delicacy of insect-based foods . Insect-based food products such as mealworm spread and the worm nuggets are just a few of the items that have found their way into canteens and supermarkets in Belgium.

JURUPA VALLEY (CBSLA.com) — A toddler was severely injured Wednesday morning when the family’s pit bull attacked him, ripping off the child’s ear. The incident happened shortly before 7:45 a.m. in the backyard of a home on Pontiac Avenue in Jurupa Valley, the Riverside Department of Animal Services said. The child, who is about 1.5 years old, was being babysat by his grandmother and was supposed to be taking a nap when the attack occurred. “Somehow the boy ended up outside in the backyard with the dog and that’s when the grandmother heard the boy screaming,” Fuller said. The dog,...

Republicans rode a wave of voter discontent to secure control of the U.S. Senate and strengthen their grip on the House of Representatives in a punishing blow to President Barack Obama that will limit his power in his last two years in office. Financial markets saw the election results as a cause for optimism. Similar situations in the past have often sparked U.S. stock market rallies.

Restaurant Code Words: Crunchy, tempura, battered, crispy, breaded, crusted, golden, sizzling If you're making a healthy choice, you're probably not purposely choosing a fried food item. Look for words like crunchy, battered, crispy, breaded, crusted, golden, tempura; some of these options are a double-whammy on your caloric intake because the item is fried with an additional carb-based coating. ... Restaurant Code Words: Teriyaki, BBQ, glazed, sticky, honey-dipped Powdered doughnuts may be self-explanatory on a menu, but options labeled as Teriyaki, BBQ, glazed, sticky or honey-dipped could also be high in added sugars. It is wise to ask if sauces of...

A bloated, save-the-world sci-fi extravaganza headed by Matthew McConaughey as Cooper, a pilot with a righteous drawl and all the right stuff, Christopher Nolan’s $165 million, magnum opus “Interstellar” left me numb and almost deaf. The film, also featuring Anne Hathaway as annoying space traveler Amelia Brand and Michael Caine as her venerable NASA scientist father, is a season of “The X-Files” wrapped around an episode of “The Twilight Zone” with as many twists and turns as a whole-grain pretzel and as many guest appearances as “The Love Boat.” Vying for the right to have his movie compared with Stanley...

Imagine if you were told that the world is simple and exactly as it seems, but that there is an infinite number of worlds just like ours. They share the same space and time, and interact with each other. These worlds behave as Newton first envisioned, except that the slightest interactions of the infinite number create nuances and deviations from the Newtonian mechanics. What could be deterministic is swayed by many worlds to become the unpredictable. Schrödinger, in explaining his wave function and the interaction of two particles (EPR paradox) coined the term “entanglement”. In effect, the MIW theory is...

COACHELLA (CBSLA.com) — Several gunshots were fired Tuesday at the Islamic Society of Coachella, hitting the building and a vehicle, but no one was injured, authorities said. Police officers were dispatched to a report of shots fired shortly after 5 a.m. along the 84000 block of Avenue 49, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. The incident was being investigated as a possible hate crime. The Los Angeles Council on American-Islamic Relations office issued a statement calling for an FBI investigation. “Any time shots are fired at a house of worship, the FBI should offer its resources to local authorities...

Yesterday, Metzger outlined the rationale for establishing a base in the first place, while today he focuses on the cost. UT: Your 2012 paper specifically talks about how much development is needed on the Moon to make the industry “self-sustaining and expanding”, but left out the cost of getting the technology ready and of their ongoing operation. Why did you leave this assessment until later? How can we get a complete picture of the costs? PM: As we stated at the start of the paper, our analysis was very crude and was intended only to garner interest in the topic...

SANTA CLARITA (CBSLA.com) — Authorities believe they have arrested a prolific tagger who allegedly struck more than 750 times in the Santa Clarita Valley since 2009. Detectives announced that the graffiti artist who tagged the name “Rane” is behind bars. The vandal was identified at 23-year-old Isiah Garcia. Garcia — who authorities also believe used the tag “Kase” — was arrested and booked at the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station. Detectives served a search warrant at Garcia’s home in the 25200 block of Everett Drive in the Newhall area Thursday morning. Officials say Garcia used spray paint, permanent markers, etching...

Visitors to the Vatican’s Sistine Chapel will now be able to see its world-famous frescos in a new light – 7,000 new LED lights to be exact. ... “This type of LED lighting guarantees a homogeneous lighting, which is very precise and allows us to understand the Sistine Chapel as a whole and each fresco individually, in minute detail,” says the Director of the Vatican Museums, Antonio Paolucci. The non-intrusive, energy-saving bulbs have been concealed along the edges of the ledge which runs around the chapel. Positioned to match the frescoes’ pigments, they can be adjusted to different levels. “This...

Photons generally do not interact with each other in free space but instead one passes through the other with no effect to either one. Vienna University of Technology researchers have made a significant and groundbreaking discovery in the field of quantum mechanics. A team of researchers has developed some unique hardware, which enable photons to interact. This hardware is composed of micro-thin fiber made of glass, which in turn attached to a device called a resonator. The photon particle light can enter the resonator, moves in a circular fashion and then returns to the glass fiber. This change in pathways...

A suicide bomber killed at least 29 people in a procession of Shi'ite Muslims marking the ritual of Ashoura in northeast Nigeria's Yobe state on Monday, witnesses said. In a separate incident overnight in central Kogi state, gunmen using explosives blew their way into a prison in the city of Lokoja, killing one person and freeing 144 inmates, Adams Omale, prisons coordinator for the state, told Reuters. In the suicide bombing in Potiskum in Yobe state, a territory at the heart of an insurgency by Sunni Muslim Boko Haram rebels, the attacker joined the line of Shi'ites before setting off...

That’s what the Sun looks like reflecting off the seas of Titan, that moon of Saturn that excites astrobiologists because its chemistry resembles what early Earth could have looked like. This image represents the first time this “sunglint” and Titan’s northern polar seas have been captured in one mosaic, NASA said. What’s more, if you look closely at the sea surrounding the sunlight, you can see what scientists dub a “bathtub ring.” Besides looking pretty, this image from the Cassini spacecraft shows the huge sea (called Kraken Mare) was actually larger at some point in Titan’s past. “The southern portion...