Free Republic

More students are expected to flunk. School districts warn they might not be ready. And parents are threatening to boycott. Ready or not — and many school boards, parents and teachers have been screaming to lawmakers that they’re not — Florida will roll out its new, much debated standardized tests on Monday. The Florida Department of Education is forging ahead, even with a host of unknowns hanging in the air. Students, for instance, don’t even know what score they’ll have to make to pass. “We need to question if we have gone too far, too fast,” Miami-Dade Superintendent Alberto Carvalho...

Dogs Don't Remember: Episodic Memory May Distinguish Humans Dogs are wonderful creatures. Our dogs recognize me and are always happy to see me. Dogs are also smart and successful creatures. Our dogs have learned several cute tricks. But dogs (and other non-human animals) are missing something we take for granted: episodic memory. Dogs don't remember what happened yesterday and don't plan for tomorrow. In defining episodic memory, Endel Tulving argued that it is unique to humans. Experience influences all animals. Most mammals and birds can build complex sets of knowledge or semantic memory. You and I also remember the experience...

A object from the very early universe is bafflingly rich with dust that theory says shouldn't have formed yet. Photograph by NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), J. Blakeslee (NRC Herzberg Astrophysics Program, Dominion Astrophysical Observatory), and H. Ford (JHU) Astronomers have spotted a surprisingly dusty little galaxy within the cluster Abell 1689, shown here in an image by the Hubble telescope. Peering back in time to find the very earliest objects in the universe, an international team of astronomers has discovered a galaxy that shouldn't be there at all. The problem, the scientists report Monday in Nature, is...

This is a quick down and dirty of the main sniper rifles that was significant from past to present and had made huge contribution to the U.S. war campaigns. View the evolution of sniper rifle infograph here.

Want a better understanding of how Photoshop’s sharpening filters work and how to best use them? Here’s a tutorial in which Photoshop expert Deke McClelland discusses using Photoshop’s features to bring out clearer details in your digital photographs. McClelland discusses all the sharpening filters found in the Sharpen menu in Photoshop (e.g. the one-click sharpening filters, Unsharp Mask, and Smart Sharpen), as well as the Sharpening panel found in Adobe Camera Raw.

I’ve seen many articles on AR’s, but few on cleaning. Over the last few years, there have been numerous tools introduced to facilitate easier cleaning of the bolts and carrier groups and I wanted to compare them side by side to see if they worked and if they worked, how well? I called Brownells (who else) and promptly received a package which included: Cat M-4 Cleaning ToolThe Otis B.O.N.E. (Bolt Operational Necessary Equipment)CRT-15 Carbon Removal Tool for AR-15Brownells AR-15 Bolt Radius ScraperMark Brown Custom AR-15 Bolt Carrier Carbon Scraper View the rest of coolest AR-15 cleaning tools and its application...

"Minnesota's Governor raised the minimum wage, signed an equal pay act, and raised taxes on the rich to fund K-12 schools and higher education. Minnesota now has the 5th highest job growth in the nation and median income is $8,000 higher than the national average. By contrast, Governor Walker in the neighboring state of Wisconsin did the opposite: he gave the rich $2.1 billion in tax breaks, busted unions, and cut school funding more than any governor. Wisconsin now ranks 37th for job growth, median income is $800 below the national average, and the budget deficit is so large Walker...

There is a close quarter shooting technique that is taught with a pistol among Law Enforcement and popular Gun/Tactics school nationwide. In this article a couple of different experts demonstrates their method conveying the difference in training on the range versus training with a live person that reacts in a lively manner. In other words, someone that resists when you're trying to go for your pistol. The main objective is to draw your pistol, but in real life at that close range you have to deal with the aggressor thats bent on hurting you. Here are a couple of views...

[Summary: Progressive education tends to celebrate creativity at the expense of knowledge and the traditional curriculum.] Creativity has been a big theme in progressive education for more than 75 years: We are constantly lectured that kids need music, art, theater, etc. This theme is now metastasizing into an oppressive dogma. But why? Ken Robinson, the guru of creativity, is famous for saying “We are educating people out of their creative capacities.” The premise seems to be: if kids do arty things, they will end up being artists. Empirically untrue. Conversely, Robinson says that if children do something rigorous and academic,...

Conservative discourse mainly features teachers' unions as the enemy when it comes to school choice, leaving others, like sociologists and other tenured intellectuals, free from public accountability as they exert their substantial influence on education policy. One thing that you should know if you follow school choice issues is that for leftist academics who oppose school choice, their dogmas take primacy over empirical evidence, and their most fundamental dogma when it comes to school choice is that it promotes racial segregation, and thus thwarts their version of equality. Racial segregation, as a policy in the United States, saw its end...

Heads up: you can currently download a free copy of onOne Software’s Perfect Effects 9. It’s a $60 program that can be used as a Photoshop or Lightroom plugin or as a standalone tool. Inside are customizable filters and hundreds of presets that allow you to quickly apply custom looks to your photos.

Ceres continues to baffle astronomers as the Dawn spacecraft gets closer to being captured into orbit around the dwarf planet. The latest images, taken nearly 29,000 miles (46,000km) from Ceres, reveal that a bright 'alien' spot that stands out in previous images lies close to yet another bright area. While Nasa has not provided an explanation, scientists suggest these spots may be frozen pools of ice at the bottom of a crater that reflect light. 'Right now, all we can say is that the material reflects 40 per cent or more of the light falling on it,' UCLA astronomer Chris...

The sniper is an incredibly efficient fighter, compared to the typical infantryman. Consider that in World War II, American infantry units fired 25,000 rounds to kill just one enemy soldier. By the Korean War, that figure jumped to 50,000 rounds, and the select-fire M14 and M16 infantry rifles of the Vietnam War only seem to have produced more misses, requiring the expenditure of 200,000 rounds to kill one enemy combatant. It is ironic that a country built on a tradition of rifle marksmanship took nearly 200 years to formally embrace the sniper, the man that represents the military apex of...

In many fields, graduate degrees offer distinct benefits for your extra years in school. Employees armed with a graduate education are often a more attractive hire and can make a higher salary than colleagues who have only a bachelor's degree. However, for some industries the benefits of going to graduate school are comparatively low and don't justify the extra investment. Using the recent "Hard Times" report from the Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce, we examined salary and unemployment data of experienced college graduates and experienced holders of graduate degrees. These are workers whose ages range from 35 to...

Richard Weikart: Should we encourage death or life? By Richard Weikart 02/23/2015 12:49 PM The California Legislature is considering Senate Bill 128 to legalize physician-assisted suicide. Perhaps some lawmakers see this as progressive, a way to promote humans rights and liberty. Oregon and Washington permit physician-assisted suicide, and Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland allow physicians to help people end their lives. Recently the Canadian Supreme Court struck down Canada’s law banning physician-assisted suicide. Is this the wave of the future? Or is it a descent into barbarism that undermines the value of human life?Debate over assisted suicide inflames passions...

Michelle Obama said Thursday that the U.S. has undergone a “culture change” in the five years since she started raising awareness about childhood obesity. But as she celebrated achievements on multiple fronts, the first lady also warned that the progress that’s been made is “incredibly fragile.” That’s because special interests “whose first priority is not our kids’ health” are “waiting for us to get complacent or bored and move on to the next trendy issue,” Mrs. Obama said at an annual health summit. She cited the fight over a recent child nutrition law as an example. “Even today, some folks...

While tens of thousands of Ontario parents are opposing the Liberal government’s updated sex-ed curriculum, the Archdiocese of Toronto headed by Cardinal Thomas Collins has stated that schools have a “responsibility to teach the curriculum set out by the Ministry of Education.” It has also been revealed that a Catholic organization in the Archdiocese has been involved in the development of the program by providing “feedback and advice.” These Catholic establishment reactions are in stark contrast to the January 31 statement of Ottawa Archbishop Terrence Prendergast regarding the program. Education Minister Liz Sandals told LifeSiteNews in a Toronto press conference...

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said Tuesday that Senate GOP leaders were making a major error by agreeing to pass a “clean” Department of Homeland Security bill that doesn’t defund President Barack Obama’s immigration plans.

These pistol shooting drills from the Russian Special Forces are off the hook. It's something that you're not going to see in the U.S. These drills are for the advanced gun toting folks that sleep and breathe carrying guns 24/7 not for the norm. Again Warning do not try these drills at home. Here's an accidental discharge while doing this crazy drill and he's a pro. See the rest of this crazy Russian SF drills here.

We all know and love the moon. We're so assured that we only have one that we don't even give it a specific name. It is the brightest object in the night sky, and amateur astronomers take great delight in mapping its craters and seas. To date, it is the only other heavenly body with human footprints. What you might not know is that the moon is not the Earth's only natural satellite. As recently as 1997, we discovered that another body, 3753 Cruithne, is what's called a quasi-orbital satellite of Earth. This simply means that Cruithne doesn't loop around...

A former student representative at George Mason University was removed from his position after tweeting about “illegals” receiving in-state college tuition which was perceived as offensive by some students. Storm Paglia assumed the position of undersecretary for university dining services last May and on Feb. 13 tweeted his disapproval of the Virginia Senate and House allowing “illegals” to have “in state tuition with an easier process than if I were to apply.” “And the next time someone tells me the word ILLEGAL is inappropriate please enlighten me on how they haven’t broken our country’s laws,” Paglia continued in a separate...

(LGBTTQQFAGPBDSM) communities and for people of sexually or gender dissident communities. The goals of Open House include generating interest in a celebration of queer life from the social to the political to the academic. Open House works to create a Wesleyan community that appreciates the variety and vivacity of gender, sex and sexuality.

This is your Hump day video on "Worse Ever Tactical Shooting". If you're into sound tactical shooting with your pistol, by all means keep learning at wherever your'e at. Watch this video to know "what not to do", it is for "Entertainment Only". With further adieu see this bizarre video on bad tactical shooting here, enjoy.

6 a.m., Wednesday, February 25 - Coverage of U.S. Spacewalk # 30 (Spacewalk scheduled to begin at 7:10 a.m. ET; Wilmore and Virts) (all channels)

MILVILLE, N.J. – A school bus aide has been charged with stealing lunch money and bagged lunches from preschoolers in New Jersey. Police in Millville say 33-year-old Rosa Rios was caught on a surveillance camera rummaging through students' backpacks. She's accused of stealing money and food from the 3- to 5-year-olds she was supervising in January and February. Authorities first reviewed the footage because the bus driver complained that someone had stolen $400 from her. Rios is also under investigation in that theft.

Anti-Semitism is on the rise not only in Europe, but in the US as well, a recent study has shown. More than 50% of American college students have been victims of anti-Semitism, according to the 2014 National Demographic Survey of American Jewish College Students, which was published by Trinity College on Tuesday. 1,157 Jewish college students over 55 campuses across the US were surveyed for the Trinity College study over the 2013-2014 academic year over a variety of topics. However, despite the control variables of topics other than anti-Semitism, a surprisingly high number of students reported being a victim of...

Richard Dawkins: Children need to be ‘protected’ from religion ‘You have to write off those people’ who put the Bible ahead of science, author says Children need to be “protected” from religious indoctrination in schools, biologist and atheist campaigner Richard Dawkins has said, backing a campaign by Atheist Ireland to overhaul our education system.Speaking to The Irish Times in advance of a public talk at Trinity College Dublin on Tuesday evening, Prof Dawkins said: “There is a balancing act and you have to balance the rights of parents and the rights of children and I think the balance has swung...

Re-entry after winter break has not been easy for him. The rules and restrictions of school — Sit Still. Be Quiet. Do What You Are Told, Nothing More, Nothing Less. — have been grating on him, and it shows. His teacher recently emailed me; she’d noticed a change in his behavior (more belligerent, less likely to cooperate) and wanted to know if there was anything going on at home. My guess, I said, was that he was upset about having to be back in school after break. I was right. The lack of movement and rigid restrictions associated with modern...

Explorer Sam Cossman recently employed the help of multiple drones to capture photos and footage of the Marum Crater in an active volcano on the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. He ended up losing multiple drones in the process, but he left the island with spectacular images that will help provide a better understanding of the volcano and the life that exists around it.

Not sure what is true anymore...but this seems appropiate....https://www.youtube.com/embed/YaxGNQE5ZLA

K-State stuns KU as fans storm court Have you seen this video? This is going to get worse. I think it is time to put an end to storming the court except for championship games.

If you've read your share of sci-fi, and I know you have, you've read stories about another Earth-sized planet orbiting on the other side of the Solar System, blocked by the Sun. Could it really be there? =========================================================== Color illustration showing the scale of planets in our solar system, focusing on Jupiter and Saturn. Credit: NASA =========================================================== No. Nooooo. No. Just no. This is a delightful staple in science fiction. There's a mysterious world that orbits the Sun exactly the same distance as Earth, but it's directly across the Solar System from us; always hidden by the Sun. Little do...

The Evolution Catechism Posted by Vincent Torley Adam Gopnik has written an impertinent piece for the New Yorker (February 19, 2015), arguing that political candidates should be put on the spot and required to affirm their acceptance of evolution before being allowed to take office. Evolution, he writes, is “an inarguable and obvious truth� which is “easy to understand,� and if you oppose “Darwinian biology,� you thereby “announce yourself against the discoveries of science, or so frightened of those who are that you can be swayed from answering honestly.� A politician who fails to publicly embrace evolution “shouldn’t be trusted...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy7hI_xRnnE

A Wisconsin father is outraged about a homework assignment given to his son that bashes the Republican Party on the issue of illegal immigration. An 8th grade social studies class at Shattuck Middle School had to complete an assignment that suggested Republicans were destroying the “pathway to citizenship” for immigrants. The teacher, Grace Davis, used a political cartoon that featured a Democrat laying bricks to build a “pathway to citizenship,” while a Republican character removed the bricks to dismantle the immigration process. …

UNIVERSITY PARK — Penn State’s THON made a statement. Again. The 2015 Penn State IFC/Panhellenic Dance Marathon, affectionately known as THON, was held this past weekend at the Bryce Jordan Center on the campus of Penn State University. After 46 hours of dancing, it was revealed that the organization raised $13,026,653.23 during the past year. THON is a year-long fundraising campaign for the fight against pediatric cancer. Money raised is donated to the Four Diamonds Fund at Penn State Children’s Hospital in Hershey. This marks the first time since 2004 that THON raised less money than the previous year. Last...

Researchers at the University of California, Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering have developed a novel paper-like material for lithium-ion batteries. It has the potential to boost by several times the specific energy, or amount of energy that can be delivered per unit weight of the battery. This paper-like material is composed of sponge-like silicon nanofibers more than 100 times thinner than human hair. It could be used in batteries for electric vehicles and personal electronics. Scanning electron microscope images of (a) SiO2 nanofibers after drying, (b) SiO2 nanofibers under high magnification (c) silicon nanofibers after etching, and (d) silicon nanofibers...

We might think of state supported health care as an innovation of the 20th century, but it's a much older tradition than that. In fact, texts from a village dating back to Egypt's New Kingdom period, about 3,100-3,600 years ago, suggest that in ancient Egypt there was a state-supported health care network designed to ensure that workers making the king's tomb were productive. Paintings on the walls of King Merneptah’s tomb in the Valley of the Kings. Workers living in Deir el-Medina would have worked on tombs like this. Credit: Asmaa Waguih/Reuters Health care boosted productivity on the royal tombs...

Kobi Sharvit of The Israel Antiquities Authority Fatimid period gold coins that were found in the seabed in the Mediterranean Sea near the port of Caesarea National Park in Caesarea, Israel, Wednesday, Feb. 18, 2015. A group of amateur Israeli divers have stumbled upon the largest collection of medieval gold coins ever found in the country, dating back to the 11th century and likely from a shipwreck in the Mediterranean Sea. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit) Israel on Wednesday unveiled the largest collection of medieval gold coins ever found in the country, accidentally discovered by amateur divers and dating back about a...

A group of astronomers from the US, Europe, Chile and South Africa have determined that 70,000 years ago a recently discovered dim star is likely to have passed through the solar system's distant cloud of comets, the Oort Cloud. No other star is known to have ever approached our solar system this close - five times closer than the current closest star, Proxima Centauri. In a paper published in Astrophysical Journal Letters, lead author Eric Mamajek from the University of Rochester and his collaborators analyzed the velocity and trajectory of a low-mass star system nicknamed "Scholz's star." The star's trajectory...

For any night owls that might want to watch something fun and uplifting. The Hockey team won the Pep Rally portion (where all the athletic teams perform skits for the dancers) - 2 hours after beating powerhouse Minnesota in overtime! Dancers stood up at 6PM yesterday and won't sit until 4PM tomorrow. Long way to go yet.

[Summary: Public schools are crippled by an abundance of counterproductive ideas.] -- Sugar is sweet and fun to eat. But too much of it will kill you, just as having sugar in the gas tank will damage your car. We see the same contradiction in education. All new ideas are sold to the public as tasty treats and nutritious as well. In fact, they invariably turn out to be poisonous. Our Education Establishment seems to operate “labs” every bit as destructive as meth labs. Let’s call these laboratories “sugar labs.” That’s where our top-level educators concoct the too-sweet gimmicks that...

Who knew an octopus could do this?

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Yellowhammer sources say the National Education Association (NEA), the national teachers’ union with which the Alabama Education Association (AEA) is affiliated, cleaned the AEA’s house late last night, ousting Executive Secretary Henry Mabry and revoking building access to former Associate Executive Secretary Joe Reed.

CLICK ON THE PICTURE FOR THE VIDEO REPORT: Video Report on the Electric Universe Explanation for the findings on 67P's Mysterious Water Production

The "War On Terror" Turns Inward – DHS Report Warns Of Right Wing Terror Threat Tyler Durden's picture Submitted by Tyler Durden on 02/20/2015 22:00 -0500 Cohen Department of Justice FBI Martin Armstrong MSNBC Obama Administration Reality Steve Cohen White House Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog, What you are about to read from CNN is just the very beginning of the intentional demonization of a growing segment of the U.S. population that rightly believes the government is run by a collective of thieving, corrupt, immoral sociopaths. This isn’t speculation either, years of content on this site serves...

A bill that would make it easier for some immigrants to teach in Nevada's classrooms is gaining momentum in the Legislature because it would help alleviate the state's crippling teacher shortage.

Education policy is taking top priority in state legislatures across the nation. Education funding formulas, opportunity scholarships, educational savings accounts and charter school reforms are just a few of the policy issues being discussed and debated. However, while all of these policy issues are imperative to the advancement of educational freedom, the Common Core State Standard Initiative (CCSSI) is quickly becoming the top concern for state legislators. The first installment, seen in the video above, was presented by Mike Petrilli from the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, Neal McCluskey from the Cato Institute and moderated by Jonathan Butcher from the Goldwater...

Ten Scientific Problems with Biological and Chemical Evolution Casey Luskin Permalink Based upon Casey Luskin's chapter, "The Top Ten Scientific Problems with Biological and Chemical Evolution," in the volume More than Myth, edited by Paul Brown and Robert Stackpole (Chartwell Press, 2014) "There are no weaknesses in the theory of evolution."1 So said Eugenie Scott, the de facto head of the Darwin lobby, while speaking to the media in response to the Texas State Board of Education's 2009 vote to require students to learn about both the scientific evidence for and against neo-Darwinian evolution. For those who follow the...

Under Proposed Law, at Least a Thousand Californians Would Commit Legal Assisted Suicide Each Year Wesley J. Smith February 19, 2015 3:19 AM | Permalink The bogus Oregon death with dignity assisted suicide statistics are out, and the numbers are up again. According to the report -- based on physician self-reporting -- in 2014, 105 people overdosed themselves with drugs obtained via a doctor's prescription (usually facilitated in some way by the suicide pushers at Compassion and Choices.)Meanwhile, in California an assisted suicide bill has been filed -- looser than Oregon's. And that got me to thinking: Suicide pushers claim that their agenda is no...