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Articles Posted by FreedomCalls

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  • 3 Wounded, Suspected Gunman Dead After Shooting on Florida State University Campus

    11/19/2014 11:08:30 PM PST · by FreedomCalls · 53 replies
    <p>At least two people were injured by gunshots on Florida State University's campus in Tallahassee early this morning, officials with Tallahassee Memorial Health Care confirmed to ABC News.</p> <p>The patients' conditions are not known, and it's unclear whether those injured are students.</p>
  • Engadget's Darren Murph nabs Guinness World Record for most blog posts ever written!

    10/05/2010 12:17:10 PM PDT · by FreedomCalls · 20 replies
    Engadget ^ | Oct 5th, 2010 | Joshua Topolsky
    We always knew Darren Murph had oodles of talent and was extremely prolific -- but now the man has got the paper to seriously prove it. Our own Mr. Murph was just awarded the Guinness World Record for most posts ever by a blogger. Not only is this a first for Darren, it's a first for Guinness as well, creating a new category for the group. Darren joined Engadget in July of 2006 (his first post is here), and almost four years to the day (when these numbers were submitted to Guinness) he'd arrived at 17,212 individual posts (since surpassed,...
  • Sabi the Army dog returns home after 14 months lost in Afghanistan

    11/12/2009 12:21:55 AM PST · by FreedomCalls · 6 replies · 816+ views
    The Times (UK) ^ | November 12, 2009 | Sophie Tedmanson
    An Australian special forces explosive detection dog has been found after going missing in action in Afghanistan 14 months ago. Sabi, a four-year-old black Labrador, was returned to the Australian base at Tarin Kowt after she had been found by an American soldier wandering in a remote area of the southern province of Oruzgan last week. The US soldier, named only as John, knew his Australian counterparts had lost their favourite canine companion during a gun battle involving Australian, US and Afghan special forces fighting against Taleban insurgents in southeastern Afghanistan last September. Nine Australian soldiers, including Sabi’s handler, were...
  • Alexei II, the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church has passed away.

    12/05/2008 1:20:50 AM PST · by FreedomCalls · 4 replies · 413+ views
    RIA Novosti (In Russian) ^ | 05/12/2008 | Staff
    (Google Translation) The Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II has died, reported RIA Novosti on Friday from a source in the Moscow Patriarchate. Chairman of the Department for External Church Relations of the Moscow Patriarchate Metropolitan Kirill of Smolensk and Kaliningrad urgently left the meeting the World Russian People's Cathedral of Christ the Savior Cathedral, reports RIA Novosti correspondent.
  • The Rush to Save Timbuktu's Crumbling Manuscripts

    08/03/2008 11:38:38 PM PDT · by FreedomCalls · 29 replies · 316+ views
    Der Spiegel ^ | 08/01/2008 | Matthias Schulz and Anwen Roberts
    Fabled Timbuktu, once the site of the world's southernmost Islamic university, harbors thousands upon thousands of long-forgotten manuscripts. A dozen academic instutions from around the world are now working frantically to save and evaluate the crumbling documents. Bundles of paper covered with ancient Arabic letters lie on tables and dusty leather stools. In the sweltering heat, a man wearing blue Muslim robes flips through a worn folio, while others are busy repairing yellowed pages. An astonishing project is underway in Timbuktu, Mali, one of the world's poorest countries. On the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, experts are opening an...
  • Egypt to copyright pyramids

    12/25/2007 7:10:11 PM PST · by FreedomCalls · 135 replies · 341+ views
    AFP ^ | Dec 25, 2007 | AFP
    CAIRO (AFP) — In a potential blow to themed resorts from Vegas to Tokyo, Egypt is to pass a law requiring payment of royalties whenever its ancient monuments, from the pyramids to the sphinx, are reproduced. Zahi Hawass, the charismatic and controversial head of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, told AFP on Tuesday that the move was necessary to pay for the upkeep of the country's thousands of pharaonic sites. "The new law will completely prohibit the duplication of historic Egyptian monuments which the Supreme Council of Antiquities considers 100-percent copies," he said. "If the law is passed then it...
  • Italy: Emperor Augustus house reopened after restoration

    12/24/2007 2:33:06 AM PST · by FreedomCalls · 5 replies · 241+ views
    adn Kronos International ^ | Dec 11, 2007 | AKI
    Rome, 11 Dec. (AKI) - After decades of restorations, a series of well preserved frescoed rooms dating to the year 30 BC in the Roman Emperor Augustus's house are set to go on display next year in the Italian capital. The rooms are on Rome's Palatine hill, which is one of Rome's original seven hills and from which the word 'palace' is derived. Legend has it that the twin brothers Romulus and Remus founded Rome on the Palatine and its where many Roman emperors had their palaces built. Augustus's rooms were discovered in the late 1970s and were painted in...
  • Deaf demand right to designer deaf children

    12/23/2007 1:20:17 PM PST · by FreedomCalls · 105 replies · 529+ views
    The Sunday Times (UK) ^ | December 23, 2007 | Sarah-Kate Templeton
    DEAF parents should be allowed to screen their embryos so they can pick a deaf child over one that has all its senses intact, according to the chief executive of the Royal National Institute for Deaf and Hard of Hearing People (RNID). Jackie Ballard, a former Liberal Democrat MP, says that although the vast majority of deaf parents would want a child who has normal hearing, a small minority of couples would prefer to create a child who is effectively disabled, to fit in better with the family lifestyle. Ballard’s stance is likely to be welcomed by other deaf organisations,...
  • The Morality Quiz

    11/24/2007 7:59:34 PM PST · by FreedomCalls · 59 replies · 2,246+ views
    Time Magazine ^ | November 23rd, 2007 | Time
    The deepest foundation on which morality is built is the phenomenon of empathy, the understanding that what hurts me would feel the same way to you. And human ego notwithstanding, it's a quality other species share. While it's impossible to directly measure empathy in animals, in humans it's another matter. Here are some of the dilemmas used to study human morality. Take this quiz to see how you compare to other TIME.com readers.
  • Health costs to rise for working (military) retirees

    10/23/2007 3:08:10 PM PDT · by FreedomCalls · 14 replies · 144+ views
    The News/Tribune ^ | September 29th, 2007 | Tom Philpott
    Phil Peterson, a retired Navy chief petty officer working for a major defense contractor in Greenville, S.C., got word last week that his company’s TRICARE supple-mental insurance plan, which covers all costs not picked up by Peterson’s TRICARE Standard benefit, must end by Jan. 1. Peterson is among tens of thousands of working retirees who will see their health costs rise because of a law Congress enacted last year. The law prohibits companies, as well as state and local governments, from offering health plans or other incentives to encourage military retirees who work for them to drop employer-provided health plans...
  • Second Grade Student Suspended for Drawing Stick Figure Firing Gun

    10/23/2007 12:43:40 AM PDT · by FreedomCalls · 23 replies · 1,482+ views
    Fox News ^ | Sunday, October 21, 2007 | AP
    <p>DENNIS TOWNSHIP, N.J. — A second-grader's drawing of a stick figure shooting a gun earned him a one-day school suspension. Kyle Walker, 7, was suspended last week for violating Dennis Township Primary School's zero-tolerance policy on guns, the boy's mother, Shirley McDevitt, told The Press of Atlantic City.</p>
  • Court rules school officials acted properly in strip search (of 13-year old girl, 9th Circuit)

    09/30/2007 6:09:41 PM PDT · by FreedomCalls · 110 replies · 701+ views
    Eastern Arizona Courier ^ | September 26, 2007 | Diane Saunders
    Safford Middle School officials did not violate the civil rights of a 13-year-old Safford girl when they forced her to disrobe and expose her breasts and pubic area four years ago while looking for a drug, according to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling. The justices voted 2-1 in favor of the Safford School District on Sept. 21. The decision upheld a federal district court's summary judgement that Safford Middle School Vice Principal Kerry Wilson, school nurse Peggy Schwallier and administrative assistant Helen Romero did not violate the girl's Fourth Amendment rights on Oct. 8, 2003, when they...
  • Brady II: The Objectives of the Gun Control Lobby

    09/21/2007 1:21:44 PM PDT · by FreedomCalls · 34 replies · 478+ views
    The Volokh Conspiracy ^ | September 21, 2007 | David Kopel
    In the early fall of 1994, the gun control movement achieved unprecedented success in Congress. The "Brady Bill" had been enacted in November 1993, and went into effect in February 1994. After a very tough political fight, President Clinton's omnibus crime bill was passed in August 1994. The bill included a 10-year ban on so-called "assault weapons," as well as other gun controls. Handgun Control, Inc. (which later changed its name to "The Brady Campaign" promptly began to push for legislation which it called "Brady II." Although the bill was introduced, it did not receive a hearing in the final...
  • PFLP Leader: 'Arafat Died of AIDS'

    07/12/2007 12:35:26 PM PDT · by FreedomCalls · 77 replies · 5,336+ views
    Little Green Footballs ^ | Thursday, July 12, 2007 | MEMRI
    Here’s Ahmad Jibril, Secretary-General of the PFLP General Command, on Hizballah’s Al-Manar TV, publicly admitting the truth about Yasser Arafat’s death for the first time. (Courtesy of MEMRI TV.) Ahmad Jibril: When Abu Mazen came to Damascus with his team, I asked them: “What happened to the investigation into the death of Abu Ammar [Arafat]? The Israelis killed him. He was my colleague ever since 1965 and used to sleep at my home. He and I followed the same path.” Is it conceivable that when Rafiq Al-Hariri was killed, all hell broke loose, even though he was just a merchant...
  • CIA leak: Now it can be told; Novak reveals in new book how the secret unfolded

    07/08/2007 10:36:02 PM PDT · by FreedomCalls · 109 replies · 4,061+ views
    Chicago Sun-TImes ^ | July 8th, 2007 | Robert D. Novak
    When I went to my office Monday, July 7, 2003, Joe Wilson was not in the forefront of my mind. Frances Fragos Townsend was. She had just been named deputy national security adviser at the White House though her background was in liberal Democratic politics, including Attorney General Janet Reno's inner circle during the Clinton administration. Her appointment was a political mystery of the kind I had been exploring for forty years in my column. I wrote the Townsend column Tuesday morning because I had a busy schedule the rest of the day, including a 3 p.m. appointment with Richard...
  • USAREUR, DOD at odds over dwell time for unit (will be 3rd Christmas in a row in Iraq)

    07/04/2007 3:16:29 AM PDT · by FreedomCalls · 12 replies · 571+ views
    The Stars and Stripes ^ | July 4, 2007 | John Vandiver and Lisa Burgess
    BAUMHOLDER, Germany — U.S. Army Europe has not yet requested a waiver from the secretary of defense to send a Baumholder-based 1st Armored Division unit back to Iraq only nine months after its last deployment, Pentagon officials said Tuesday. Although USAREUR officials maintained Tuesday that commanders had “some leeway” to resolve dwell time issues, only Defense Secretary Robert Gates can make that decision, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said Tuesday. If a waiver is sought and granted, Company A of the 1st Battalion, 6th Infantry Regiment is facing a third straight Christmas away from home. Whitman said the policy requiring a...
  • Bradenton man arrested for pointing finger (at off-duty deputy sheriff)

    06/26/2007 9:36:27 PM PDT · by FreedomCalls · 90 replies · 2,736+ views
    WWSB Channel 7 ^ | May 1, 2007 | Amanda Stanzilis
    A Bradenton man is facing assault charges after police say he pointed his finger and yelled at an off-duty sheriff’s deputy Two things ray miller says you should know about him. One, he hates Muscovy Ducks. “Our parking garage is littered with their feces. It’s like little bombs through there,” and two, he's a law-abiding citizen. He has no criminal record at least until now. Miller says it started when he and his wife saw someone feeding the ducks. They asked the woman to stop, but she ignored them. When she finally replied, miller says she told him "I’m a...
  • 'This Is Not Right'

    06/19/2007 8:23:37 PM PDT · by FreedomCalls · 76 replies · 2,214+ views
    KOMOTV.com ^ | Jun 18, 2007 | Kevin Reece
    DES MOINES - Cecilia Beaman is a 57-year-old grandmother, a principal at Pacific Middle School in Des Moines, and as of Sunday is also a suspected terrorist. "This is not right," she told us. It's not right!" This past weekend she and several other chaperones took 37 middle school students to a Heritage Festival band competition in California. The trip included two days at Disneyland. During the stay she made sandwiches for the kids and was careful to pack the knives she used to prepare those sandwiches in her checked luggage. She says she even alerted security screeners that the...
  • Nightmare at Reagan National Airport: A Security Story to End all Security Stories

    06/14/2007 12:13:27 PM PDT · by FreedomCalls · 421 replies · 13,779+ views
    nowpublic ^ | June 13, 2007 | Bill Adler
    If you travel enough, you've seen it all -- and possibly some of the awful things that can happen while traveling will have actually happened to you. But nothing I've read about or experienced comes close to what Monica Emmerson experienced while at Reagan National Airport on June 11th while traveling with her 19-month-old toddler. This isn't one of those Catch-22 bureaucratic snafus; this isn't about rules being applied to the letter. This story is mostly about what can happen simply because the authorities in charge decide that they're going to exercise their authority because they can, regardless of whether...
  • Texas DOT to Install Federally Funded Highway Speed Cameras

    06/11/2007 2:27:22 PM PDT · by FreedomCalls · 51 replies · 1,374+ views
    theNewspaper.com ^ | 6/11/2007 | Staff
    Despite the opposition of the state legislature, the Texas Department of Transportation proposes a federally funded speed camera test. Despite the near-unanimous opposition in the state legislature to the use of speed cameras, the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) is moving forward on a proposal to deploy photo radar on state highways using federal gas tax funds. Legislation awaiting Governor Rick Perry's signature prohibited only municipalities -- like Marble Falls and Rhome -- from installing automated speeding ticket systems. It was silent on the possibility of a state-run system (read legislation). TxDOT began searching in April for a vendor that,...