Free Republic

A 16-year-old Texas girl who plummeted more than 3,000 feet to the ground in an Oklahoma skydiving accident survived and is recovering from her many injuries, a doctor said Tuesday. Dr. Jeffrey Bender, a trauma surgeon at OU Medical Center who treated Makenzie Wethington when she was flown Saturday from a skydiving school in Chickasha, said the girl hurt her liver and broke her pelvis, lumbar spine in her lower back, a shoulder blade and several ribs. She also has a broken tooth. "I don't know the particulars of the accident as I wasn't there. But if she truly fell...

The NSA and its British counterpart are tapping popular smartphone apps such as Angry Birds to peek into the tremendous amounts of very personal data those bits of software collect -- including age, location, sex and even sexual preferences, according to new reports from the New York Times and The Guardian. Citing confidential documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden, the reports detail efforts to supplement data collection from cell phone carriers and smartphones by tapping into “leaky” apps themselves. “Some apps, the documents state, can share users' most sensitive information such as sexual orientation – and one app recorded in...

An elephant that is an artist... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiQDPoudftE

Cookie Dough and Marshmallow Crispy next month..... http://www.oreo.com/wonderfilled/#wonderfilled_flavors

A national newspaper chain with nearly 100 publications and 1.6 million readers is considering building “state-by-state databases” on concealed weapons permit holders, according to an internal e-mail. The plan, laid out in an email from a top editor at North Carolina-based Civitas Media, could be similar to a controversial project a New York state newspaper carried out in 2012 which included an online map that identified gun owners in two counties by name and address. Civitas' database project was detailed the plan in a Jan. 19 e-mail to newsrooms in 11 states, including Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania. The newest project...

The government has accused its largest security background check contractor of defrauding the U.S. of millions of dollars by filing more than 660,000 flawed background investigations. The Wall Street Journal reported that the Justice Department made the claims in a 25-page civil complaint that joined a whistleblowers' lawsuit against US Investigations Services, LLC in U.S. District Court in Alabama. USIS was the firm that conducted background checks on NSA leaker Edward Snowden, as well as Aaron Alexis, a defense contractor who fatally shot 12 people before killing himself at the Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. this past September. Federal officials...

Five men have been taken into custody as suspects in the 1978 Lufthansa heist at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport, an FBI spokeswoman says, according to Reuters. More than $5 million in cash and $1 million in jewels were netted in the heist, which took place on Dec. 11, 1978 and was made famous in the 1990 film “Goodfellas.”

U.S. counterterrorism operatives are helping Russian security agents in the hunt for four female potential terrorists, including a "white widow" -- the wife of a dead terrorist -- who could already be inside the massive security zone set up for next month's winter Olympics. Ruzanna Ibragimova, the 22-year-old widow of a jihadist killed by Russian security forces, is believed to have traveled from Dagestan to Sochi, according to a Russian security bulletin obtained by FoxNews.com, along with photos of her. The bulletin and photos were distributed by the Russian security force FSB and Sochi security officials to U.S. and other...

A former engineer for a U.S. defense contractor has been arrested and accused of trying to ship thousands of pages of documents, blueprints, technical manuals, and diagrams of military aircraft engines to Iran. The U.S. Attorney's office for Connecticut said Mozaffar Khazaee, 59, was arrested at Newark Liberty International Airport Thursday after arriving from Indianapolis and before attempting to board a flight to Frankfurt, Germany en route to Tehran. He is charged with transporting, transmitting and transferring in interstate or foreign commerce goods obtained by theft, conversion or fraud, and faces as long as 10 years in prison and a...

A birds eye view from around the world...ENJOY

<p>LEICESTER, Mass. – Police say one of the items stolen in an armed home invasion in Leicester last weekend was a Purple Heart earned by the World War II veteran father of one of the victims.</p> <p>Two men, one of whom had a gun, entered a home on Sunday night and tied up three occupants before stealing cash, jewelry and the medal. No one was hurt.</p>

Youre in it @ 70 mph with no seat backs, no seat belts and no brakes! Can it get any better?? State of the art cotton cord tire technology. Just go for a ride back in history with NASCARS Carl Edwards.. http://www.youtube.com/embed/Ru_hC9oGVbo?feature=player_detailpage

BUFFALO, N.Y. – A collector credits a hunch with helping him land one of just 100 sheets of stamps recently issued by the United States Postal Service featuring a corrected version of its rare and famous error, the 1918 "inverted Jenny." Art Van Riper bought the stamps in Waverly, N.Y., after reading that the Postal Service had printed a new batch of inverted Jenny stamps celebrating the 95-year-old edition that, by mistake, featured an upside-down biplane. He also read that, as a way to draw more people into stamp collecting, the Postal Service randomly distributed 100 sheets featuring the plane...

Fifteen months after the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi which killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, the narrative of the attack continues to be shaped, and reshaped, by politicians and the press. But a New York Times report published over the weekend has angered sources who were on the ground that night. Those sources, who continue to face threats of losing their jobs, sharply challenged the Times’ findings that there was no involvement from Al Qaeda or any other international terror group and that an anti-Islam film played a role in inciting the initial wave of attacks. “It...

A Virginia license plate with the Tea Party-embraced “Don’t Tread on Me” logo is a big seller, suggesting the movement remains popular, at least in the state, even after a tough loss in this year’s gubernatorial election. At least five other states also sell the specialty plates: Arizona, Missouri, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Texas. But in Virginia, the tag ranks No. 2 among such plates approved in the past five years and ninth among more than 200 total. The tag was issued to roughly 21,800 Virginia-registered vehicles in just the first 20 months of sales, according to state figures reported...

A BEAUTIFUL RESTORATION of a Seafire XV.....with first flight YT from Aug 2010 http://www.youtube.com/v/TneYPcyGbbY&autoplay=1&rel=0

Beans and the dangers involved........... Enjoy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WoM2bHfr48&feature=youtu.be

Don’t say Christmas. That’s the message that was conveyed to a group of soldiers at Camp Shelby by an equal opportunity officer from the Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute, according to a soldier who attended a recent briefing. “It’s unbelievable that the Army would ban ‘Christmas’ like it’s a bad word,” said Michael Berry, an attorney with the Liberty Institute, a legal firm representing the unidentified soldier. Two weeks ago, a routine meeting was held at the Mississippi base with various leaders of the 158th Infantry Brigade. During the meeting, they discussed an upcoming Christmas football tournament. The equal opportunity...

Another year and another chance to reminisce. http://biggeekdad.com/2011/02/bob-hope-christmas/