Free Republic

Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) on Wednesday pressed a top Air Force official about comments a major general reportedly made that airmen who have spoken to Congress about the retirement of the A-10 committed “treason.” During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Ayotte pressed Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh if he found comments attributed to Maj. Gen James Post “acceptable.” "I support any airman's right to discuss anything you'd like to discuss with them,” Welsh replied. Welsh also said that there is an ongoing investigation, overseen by the Defense Department’s inspector general, into the matter. “My job is...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpaLgF1uLB8

“This is a unique space documentary, as it covers the space program from a policy perspective,” Hildebrandt said, “looking at the detailed reasons why the NASA budget has been cut over the years, why certain decisions were made, and what the future of our human space flight effort looks like.”

PHOENIX — The New England Patriots owner and Seattle Seahawks cornerback were trading insults while the NFL was reportedly reviewing video of a Patriots employee going into the bathroom with a bag of footballs. Just when you thought Super Bowl Media Day couldn’t get any more bizarre... Thanks to DeflateGate, though, there seems to be no limit to this theater of the absurd, which took yet another twist as the Patriots and Seahawks met a mass of reporters at the U.S. Airways Center on Tuesday. The backdrop was a report that the NFL had video of a Patriots locker room...

...Pierre-Paul Riquet, the man behind one of the 17th century's greatest works of engineering -- and some say, works of art -- remains in Vauban's shadow, despite his life's accomplishment, which was classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1996. This 150-mile long waterway was once known as the Canal Royal en Languedoc, for good reason. French revolutionaries may have removed the 'royal' from its title in 1789, yet this is a canal which remains fit for a king. Dappled sunlight streams onto its emerald-green water from between the leaves of the 42,000 plane and oak trees which line...

One New York state lawmaker believes that allowing children younger than 12 to attend gun shows increases the possibility that the youngsters will be future perpetrators of firearm crimes. Concerned that the firearms industry is making firearms and shooting sports too appealing to children, Hell’s Kitchen-area New York state lawmaker Linda Rosenthal wants to ban children from entering gun shows. “As the gun industry prepares a public campaign to broaden the appeal of guns, it is important that we establish reasonable age limits for admission to gun shows by children,” the lawmaker said in a memo attached to her proposal....

Excerpt, Few celebrities have weathered as many extreme ups and downs as Heather Mills. On one hand, the ex-Mrs. Paul McCartney is known by such tags as “Mucca” or “the most hated woman in Britain”; on the other hand, she has managed to carve out a wide-ranging career including lauded charity work, stints on reality TV, and Alpine ski racing — Mills, who lost her lower leg in an 1993 accident, is a multi-medalist for the British Paralympic ski team. Still, the 47-year-old’s acrimonious 2008 divorce with the Beatle has remained, publicly at least, the centerpiece of her life. In...

A former Stanford University swimmer who raced in the 2012 US Olympic trials has been charged with raping an intoxicated, unconscious woman on the school’s campus. The San Jose Mercury News reports Brock Allen Turner was charged Tuesday with five felony counts on suspicion of attempted rape and penetration with a foreign object. “She was lying on the ground unconscious, not moving,” Deputy District Attorney Alaleh Kianerci told the San Francisco Chronicle of the alleged victim, who was not a student at the university. Prosecutors say the attack happened Jan. 18. Two men riding bikes on campus saw an unconscious...

Just fill the ball with warm humid indoor air, then when it temperature-equalizes with the 25°F cooler outdoor air on your AFC Championship playing field some of the water vapor in the ball will condense into water, leaving less air in the ball, solving the great mystery: how did the footballs used by the Championship winning New England Patriots show 12.5 psi of inflation pressure in the official pre-game check but only 10.5 psi when checked at halftime? There is also a decrease in pressure due to the cooling of the molecules that remain gaseous. Those air molecules are not...

Devin Bonilla, the former Louisiana Army National Guardsman who says his combat experience in Iraq caused a stress disorder, was legally sane when authorities say he killed an aspiring rapper in Harvey a year ago, court-appointed doctors have concluded. Their report, which was filed in court Wednesday, contradicts Bonilla's insanity defense and means a trial jury might be asked to sort out conflicting mental health opinions. Bonilla, a 25-year-old Harvey resident, is scheduled to stand trial April 6 on a charge of second-degree murder in the Jan. 18, 2014, killing of Bowie Richard, 21. Richard, who used the stage name...

In the sparsely populated Karoo desert in the heart of South Africa's Northern Cape, the spirit of apartheid lives on. I spent a few days in Orania, a town established in 1991 where no black people live. I was part of a BBC crew, including Zimbabwean journalist Stanley Kwenda, who were accredited to visit.

Microsoft sure does like to change the way things are named! Windows CE gave way to Handheld PC and Palm PC, then to Palm-Sized PC, then Pocket PC was replaced by Windows Mobile Standard, Professional, and Classic. Windows Phone came along when Microsoft rebooted the platform in the wake of competition from Apple and Android. Windows Phone 7 was followed by Windows Phone 7.5, then 8.0, and most recently 8.1. Did I miss any? Are you confused yet? Then again, one could argue whether or not Microsoft’s naming has been more or less confusing than Android’s “sweet tooth” classification (it...

Got a smartphone and a telescope? It’s a sight now common at many star parties. Frequently, you see folks roaming through the darkness, illuminated smartphone aimed skyward. Certainly, the wealth of free planetarium apps has done lots to kindle a renewed interest in the night sky. Inevitably, after peering through the eyepiece of a telescope, the question then arises: “Can I get a picture of that with my phone?” The short answer is yes, with a little skill and patience. Now simply aiming a camera at the eyepiece of a telescope — known as afocal astrophotography — and shooting without...

Representatives from Golden State Water Co. insist that Morita’s predicament is isolated. They also say they flushed the pipes last week and, since then, the water has been clear. Morita collected the water in a jar but Golden State says they couldn’t test the sample because it has to be collected in special containers. “The water meets all drinking water standards, so it should be considered safe to drink. I understand the concern, though. I was concerned when I saw the discolored water,” said Kate Nutting, the general manager of Golden State Water’s southwest division

My generation grew up watching, being entertained by and laughing with so many of these fine people, never really knowing what they contributed to the war effort.

Five teams competing for the $30 million Google Lunar XPRIZE have just been awarded a combined $5.25 million for meeting significant milestones in developing a robot that can safely land on the surface of the moon, travel 500 meters over the lunar surface, and send mooncasts back to the Earth. A tiny startup from India, Team Indus, with no experience in robotics or space flight just won $1 million of this prize. ... What has changed since the days of the Apollo moon landings is that the cost of building technologies has dropped exponentially. What cost billions of dollars then...

Bart the cat should be renamed zombie cat after he was hit by a car, buried and then crawled out of his grave five days later. According to the Humane Society of Tampa Bay, they’ve seen many cases at their clinic but “this situation may take the cake!” They are now caring for a 2-3 year old black and white cat named Bart who was found by his owner after being hit by a car. The cat appeared to be lifeless and his owner, Ellis Hutson, buried him in a shallow grave. Five days later, the cat showed up in...

An artwork depicting high-heeled shoes on Islamic prayer mats has been removed from an exhibition after a Muslim group warned of possible violence in the wake of the Paris attacks. The French-Algerian artist, Zoulikha Bouabdellah, withdrew the work from an exhibition in a northern Paris suburb with a large Muslim population after an Islamic group told local authorities it could provoke “uncontrollable, irresponsible incidents”. It is considered disrespectful to step on Muslim prayer maps with shoes.

BOSTON (CBS) — You may have noticed that Tom Brady didn’t look himself at Tuesday’s Media Day. No, it wasn’t his bed head. And it wasn’t from a lack of sleep thanks to an early morning fire alarm at the team’s hotel. As he prepares for the biggest game of the season, the Patriots quarterback is battling a cold. And if you thought he looked rough on Tuesday, he looked a bit worse on Wednesday as he addressed the media at the team hotel in Chandler, Arizona. “It’s been lingering,” Brady told reporters as he held court for nearly 45...

I hope this question is not too personal. Does anybody have Medicare Part D and take Victoza and if so how much does Medicare Part D cover????