Free Republic

WILLIAMSBURG History was made without fanfare on Saturday. Jessee Vasold, William and Mary's first transgender homecoming queen, took the field at halftime of the Tribe's game against James Madison wearing a red shirt, black pants and a small silver lip ring to applause and not much other notice. Vasold, a junior, and the other members of the homecoming court were introduced to the crowd, posed for pictures, and walked off the field. "I knew I was nominated, but I was just surprised, because there were a lot of other really good candidates on the ballot," Vasold said. "I know all...

A Palestinian father hit a Danish primary school teacher and bit his ear after he shook the hand of the man's daughter, police said on Thursday.

First, not totally exactly geology, but one of the more amazing iceberg pictures I've ever seen: Next, an offering from Patrick Smith Photography (I had one of these before): this one won some awards and was on the cover of a photography magazine: Finally, Marion Island from space: click for full-size

Historians have long agreed that Russian revolutionary Vladimir Ilyich Lenin suffered a series of three strokes that eventually led to his death. But new evidence has been uncovered that appears to show Lenin actually succumbed to the sexually transmitted disease, syphilis. The Soviets made huge attempts to cover up the real reasons for Lenin's erratic behaviour and sudden bouts of rage in the years leading up to his death in 1924...

A former music teacher for Mentor Schools has admitted sexually assaulting a high school girl during a 16-month period. Barry Valentine, 35, of Mentor, pleaded guilty Thursday to 16 counts of sexual battery — one for each month the assaults occurred — in Lake County Common Pleas Court. He now faces up to 80 years in prison and/or a $160,000 fine when he is sentenced Dec. 7 by Judge Vincent A. Culotta. Valentine repeatedly sexually assaulted the victim from July 2007 through February 2008, Assistant Lake County Prosecutor Mark Bartolotta said. “At the time, she was 15 and then 16...

A 1-year-old boy whose mom noticed he was lethargic and unresponsive on his birthday earlier this month was high on marijuana, doctors determined. Now the man who was taking care of him at the time is behind bars. Vacaville police arrested Jonathan Velasquez Sr., 29, on Tuesday on suspicion of child endangerment for the Oct. 11 incident. The Police Department's Family Investigative Response Services Team and Solano Child Welfare Services investigated and discovered the infant either inhaled or ingested enough marijuana to require immediate medical attention, Sgt. Charlie Spruill said. Velasquez is the baby's father, Sacramento-area TV station Fox 40...

A publicity blitz called it "the link" that would reveal the earliest evolutionary roots of monkeys, apes and humans. Experts protested that Ida wasn't even a close relative.

Starting in 2010, an international crew of six will simulate a 520-day round-trip to Mars, including a 30-day stay on the martian surface. In reality, they will live and work in a sealed facility in Moscow, Russia, to investigate the psychological and medical aspects of a long-duration space mission. ESA is looking for European volunteers to take part. The ‘mission’ is part of the Mars500 programme being conducted by ESA and Russia’s Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) to study human psychological, medical and physical capabilities and limitations in space through fundamental and operational research. ESA’s Directorate of Human Spaceflight is...

Maglev is environmentally friendly and eliminates the need for fossil fuels in transporting goods.Cal State Long Beach was awarded in September $245,000 by the U.S. Department of Transportation to support the engineering department for research on magnetic levitation technologies. Magnetic levitation, or maglev, is a form of transportation technology that eliminates the need for any type of fossil fuel because it uses electricity and a system of powerful magnets to lift and propel. The CSULB engineering department is working with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories to develop a maglev system to be used for moving goods and other cargo. This system...

(DAVIS COUNTY)—Attorneys for a former Bountiful school teacher accused of having sex with a student presented their case in court for the first time Friday. At the conclusion of Friday morning’s preliminary hearing for Valynne Bowers, the judge ruled there’s enough evidence for Bowers to go to trial. The alleged victim, who is now 15 years old, testified Friday morning and gave mostly short “yes” or “no” answers to the attorneys. The teen admitted he initiated the relationship with Bowers, his former math teacher at Bountiful Junior High. After engaging in sex with the boy, Bowers faces first-degree felony charges...

You can divorce an abusive spouse. You can call it quits if your lover mistreats you. But what can you do if the source of your misery is your own parent? Granted, no parent is perfect. And whining about parental failure, real or not, is practically an American pastime that keeps the therapeutic community dutifully employed. But just as there are ordinary good-enough parents who mysteriously produce a difficult child, there are some decent people who have the misfortune of having a truly toxic parent. A patient of mine, a lovely woman in her 60s whom I treated for depression,...

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Angelo, look at the way your son's eyes darken now. Look how he balls up his fists and uncrosses his legs, as if he's uncomfortable, as if he suddenly remembered someplace he needs to be. Look how the smile on his face—the smile that punctuates all the stories he tells, like the one about Bear Bryant wanting a lane of traffic cleared for his team (the Pennsylvania governor said no), or the time at a coaches' convention that Dan Devine mentioned an unnamed loudmouth coach at Oklahoma, and Barry Switzer shouted, "Switzer!" and raised his hand—look how that grandfatherly smile...

Thanks to a special emailer for pointing to this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ed7p-CpQUs "Please Mr. President make a decision for the troops in Afghanistan" Video Description - quote: Obama please support the troops! Afghanistan decision now! Category: News & Politics Tags: Afghanistan war troop numbers

Teachers' unions have little impact on a school district's allocation of money, including teacher pay and spending per student, according to a study published this month in the Journal of Labor Economics. Using data from school districts in Iowa, Indiana and Minnesota, Cornell economist Michael Lovenheim compared district spending trends before and after each district became unionized. He also compared trends between union and non-union districts. Specifically, his analysis looked at teacher pay, spending per student, number of teachers employed and student-teacher ratio. "My results indicate unions have no impact on teacher pay, either in the short or long run,"...

Average tuition prices rose sharply again this fall as colleges passed much of the burden of their own financial problems on to recession-battered students and parents. Average tuition at four-year public colleges rose 6.5 percent, or $429, to $7,020 this fall, according to the College Board's annual "Trends in College Pricing" report, released Tuesday. At private colleges, the average list price for a year of coursework rose 4.4 percent to $26,273. Those figures hide wide variations — public college students in California, Florida, New York and Washington have seen double-digit percentage increases, while the University of Maryland used federal stimulus...

I am so sorry to post a vanity, but I am desperate and you guys are so smart around here... I am working in "My Math Lab" on course compass. They use Quicktime Video for instruction (some of the course is online) and for some reason the Quicktime video is now just playing the audio. When you click on the video, the box opens as if it is starting the video,the Quicktime logo will pop up, the status bar goes to the center of the box and the screen remains black while you can still hear the audio. I have...

Salve for the slavery woundKnowledge, it has been said, will set you free. It is a true statement, and should not be dismissed out of hand. Knowledge will also go a long way toward bringing American blacks and whites together as fellow countrymen, having full appreciation for what they have in common . . . as brothers, if you will. “What can be the content of this knowledge that would bring about this miracle?” you might ask. Answer: A broad knowledge of two topics:1. worldwide history of Black slaves, and 2. the images and ideas that are gained from a...

GF woman accused of showing porn from window, assaulting cop By: Archie Ingersoll, Grand Forks Herald A Grand Forks woman is accused of broadcasting pornography from the window of her home Friday morning, allowing the images and noises to be seen and heard from Lake Agassiz Elementary School. When police Cpl. Dylan Schauer arrived at Nicole Altendorf’s house on the 800 block of Stanford Road, he found a still shot of a pornography video displayed on a television. “We made contact with the suspect, who was not compliant in any way,” a police report states. “She refused to come out...

DETROIT – Like the rundown houses and shuttered storefronts in his Detroit neighborhood, bleakness abounds in LeRoy Taylor's future. He is among tens of thousands reaching adulthood in a city where the American Dream appears just outside their reach. Taylor, 20, spends empty hours on basketball courts, zoned out in front of a television or aimlessly pedaling through streets he desperately wants to leave, but doesn't have the work skills, education or money to do so. "I fill out applications. No one will call me back," said Taylor, stopping his bike long enough to hustle change for cigarettes near a...

So now we are seeing kids falling like flies from the swine flu [H1N1], and what drastic measures are being taken by the school system? Zip, zero, nadda. The dirty little secret is that schools are paid according to attendence. Kids need doctors' notes -- yadda-yadda. Bottom line -- sick kids are "noble" for toughing it out in school and spreading illness. If the safe school tsar gave half a tinker's fig, he would start fining schools that have obvious sick kids in class. Obama doesn't really care, his administration doesn't care, the teachers' union doesn't care -- it's all...

Why hang on to your emotions when you can wag them proudly with a robotic mood tail? Sure, you may never have asked that question yourself, but intrepid DIYer Wei-Chieh Tseng seemingly has, and he's done something about it. Apparently, the tail makes use of the ever dependable Arduino and an RFID reader to detect different emotion cards that set off varying degrees of tail-wagging, or you can simply control the tail yourself using a Wii nunchuck -- because, why not?

CHICAGO (CBS) ― Click to enlarge1 of 1 About one in seven girls at Robeson High School are pregnant. Officials say a variety of factors are to blame. CBS Close numSlides of totalImages Related Slideshows Hollywood's Hottest New Starlets World's Most Useless Facts Hot-Air Balloon Flies Off In Colorado Top 10 Smartest And Dumbest Dog Breeds The Tattooed Ladies of Hollywood Hottest Female Athletes Real Or Fake? Britney Spears, Then To Now Celebs Who Lean To The Right It is a Chicago public school full of energy and spirit. It has about 800 girls, and 115 of them have something...

Harvard University last year lost nearly $2 billion in the cash account it uses to pay for daily operations, by investing the money with its endowment fund instead of keeping it in safer, bank-like accounts. The loss, disclosed today in the university's annual financial report, resulted from Harvard financial executives taking the unusual step of placing a large mount of the university's cash with Harvard Management Co., the entity that runs the school's endowment and invests in stocks, hedge funds and other risky assets. Typically, companies and institutions manage their cash accounts conservatively in order to have funds readily available,...

The late inspiration for this was a book I saw in the bookstore, "Ansel Adams in Color", linked above. Very good photography (as you might expect), but not as iconic like his black-and-white images. So for fun I'm posting a picture of Vernal Falls from Adams in black-and-white and another one from nearly the same vantage in color. Which do you like better? That doesn't mean that color or B&W is really better, it's just an artistic perception. Also included are a couple of aerial shots. I didn't realize how close these falls are to Half Dome; that's because I...

A super high-speed global Internet devoted solely to science and education has just expanded to include half the countries of the world, and yes, you at home can be jealous. The Taj network, funded by the National Science Foundation, now connects India, Singapore, Vietnam and Egypt to the larger Global Ring Network for Advanced Application Development (GLORIAD) global infrastructure, and "dramatically improves existing U.S. network links with China and the Nordic region," according to an NSF statement. > GLORIAD's Taj Network is not the same as "Internet 2," a domestic project aimed at connecting U.S. scientists with one another.

Mumbai: About ten years ago, on the campus of Ahmedabad's Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Punjabi boy Chetan Bhagat fell in love with Tamilian girl Anusha. But unlike a typical 'Western' love story, theirs wasn't a simple three-step process of boy-loves-girl, girl-loves-boy, and they-got-married. Chetan Bhagat with wife Anusha and children in their home in Nariman Point Instead, they had to survive the multi-step obstacle course of an 'Indian love marriage'. The invite to the launch function of his latest potboiler, 2 States: The Story Of My Marriage, enumerates all the steps: "Boy loves girl. Girl loves boy. Girl's family...

Joe says: Gorefan - My heritage includes the Adams of Massachusetts and the Herndons of Virginia. The Adams papers I am in possession of plainly state they looked to "Vattel's Law of Nations" for guidance in determining who might be qualified as a "natural born Citizen". (Yes, they capitalized "Citizen".) Do you actually believe there was no discussion of the topic by the Founding Fathers? Are you truly that ignorant of how well the Founding Fathers understood the law and its possible impact on future generations? It is very clear you haven't a clue how well educated and intelligent...

As I understand it ..

This is a busy time of year in the Obama household. Like so many parents all across this country, I watch with a mixture of pride and anxiety as my daughters stuff their backpacks, kiss me goodbye, and move ahead in another school year without so much as a backwards glance. My girls are now making new friends, tackling challenging new subjects, and moving closer to becoming the strong, confident women I know they can be. But when I see them come home, bursting with excitement about something they have learned or someone they have met, I can't help but...

A longtime champion of homeschooling rights around the globe, Home School Legal Defense Association Senior Counsel and Director of State and International Relations Christopher J. Klicka was called home by his Lord on October 12, 2009, at age 48, following a 15-year battle with multiple sclerosis. An attorney, spokesman, lobbyist, and homeschooling husband and father, Chris is survived by his wife, Tracy, their seven children (ages 11–21), and his parents, Ardath and George Klicka. “Chris was both a people person and a goal person. He cared deeply about people, but was also driven to always do more!” says HSLDA President...

Teacher's pet inspires students at Ft. Pierce school Students having a ruff time reading have a new helper, and rather than eat their homework she's here to help with it. Abigail the golden retriever has been hitting the books hard to provide a good example for the kids at Dan McCarty Middle School in Fort Pierce. Abigail already knows how to read eight distinct terms, and her word power is proving to special needs students that anything is possible. "That’s my hope - that the kids will become more motivated, more interested in reading because having this dog that can...

First grader Zachary Christie was recently suspended for bringing a Cub Scout camping utensil with him to school. The utensil combines a fork, spoon and a knife into one tool and Christie wanted to use it at lunchtime. His school has a "zero-tolerance" policy on weapons and the camping tool violates the district's rule. He is facing 45 days in the district's reform school. Did school officials go too far?

In the 19th century, Christopher Columbus was regarded as one of the most heroic and significant figures of his or any age. The "Admiral of the Ocean Seas" was celebrated throughout the Americas as a visionary who braved the unknown on a mission of discovery that created a New World. Our national capitol district was named in his honor because he opened the door to a new era of freedom that America represents.

Complex tasks such as juggling produce significant changes to the structure of the brain, according to scientists at Oxford University. In the journal, Nature Neuroscience, the scientists say they saw a 5% increase in white matter - the cabling network of the brain. The people who took part in the study were trained for six weeks and had brain scans before and after. Long term it could aid treatments for diseases like multiple sclerosis.

While searching for the context of a surprising and fragmented presidential quote I came across this database. It had the full quote in the full context. It appears to be extensive in documenting all kinds of written and spoken presidential remarks. "The American Presidency Project is the only online resource that has consolidated, coded, and organized into a single searchable database: • The Messages and Papers of the Presidents: Washington - Taft (1789-1913) • The Public Papers of the Presidents: Hoover to Bush (1929-1993) • The Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents: Clinton - Obama (1993-2009) • Our archives also contain...

This is hilarious . . . and intriguing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lXh2n0aPyw

We Should not have to Deal with this.- When I was a teenager, my friends and I joked about NAMBLA, the North American Man/Boy Love Association. Until I was in my twenties, I thought my friends had just made it up. Surely there was no such organization that campaigned to allow open sexual relations between boys and men — a concept that did not just involve statutory rape, but offended the profound decency of a moral public. Sadly, NAMBLA is very real and today steps right out of the darkest pits of immoral human behavior and straight into the White...

I was wondering if there is an easier way to post photos here. Every time I want to post one of my own photos, I have to upload to Photobucket and grab the HTML code. Is there a program or Firefox add on that can assign HTML code when the file is saved?

MEXICO CITY – Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of being bombarded with frantic questions about the Mayan calendar supposedly "running out" on Dec. 21, 2012. After all, it's not the end of the world. Or is it?

Brian Wilson has been given the go-ahead to finish writing incomplete music by George Gershwin. The Beach Boys mainman will be given full access to the compositions by Gershwin's estate, and will release the music on a forthcoming album of Gershwin covers. Though the album has no fixed release date, it will come out on Walt Disney imprint Disney Pearl, whom Wilson has recently signed a deal with, reports The Wall Street Journal. Speaking about the album, Wilson said he has always loved the music of Gershwin, who died in 1937. "The earliest music I remember hearing is 'Rhapsody In...

A New Mexico woman kicked off an airplane at the Burlington International Airport three years ago for breast feeding her baby is suing Delta Air Lines. The Burlington Free Press says negotiations failed to reach a settlement between the Atlanta-based airline and Emily Gillette. On Wednesday Gillette filed suit in U.S. District Court in Burlington. Gillette was ordered off a Delta Connections plane by a flight attendant after twice refusing an order to cover up while she breast fed her baby prior to takeoff. Gillette's lawsuit says she felt "shame and embarrassed" after being ordered off the plane. Delta refused...

Cheddar Gorge I heard about this place recently in a news article about a bicyclist that survived falling 80 feet off the Cheddar cliffs. I guess I had heard about it several years ago when they found "Cheddar Man" and genetically connected him to a local resident. I didn't realize it was an English scenic landmark. There are also some small caves, which is where "Cheddar Man" was found. For a satellite view, can't beat Google Maps. British teacher finds long-lost relative: 9,000-year-old man" click for larger click for larger click for larger Aerial More about Cheddar (the village, and...

William Kamkwamba dreamed of powering his village with the only resource that was freely available to him. His native Malawi had gone through one of its worst droughts seven years ago, killing thousands. His family and others were surviving on one meal a day. The red soil in his Masitala hometown was parched, leaving his father, a farmer, without any income. But amid all the shortages, one thing was still abundant. Wind. "I wanted to do something to help and change things," he said. "Then I said to myself, 'If they can make electricity out of wind, I can try,...

A Cason Lane Academy teacher accused of pocketing students’ lunch money was charged with theft under $500 Monday by Murfreesboro Police. Teacher Angela M. Strube, 30, of Sky Valley Trail in Smyrna was charged with theft of the money from her third grade students after an investigation by Detective Lt. Nathan McDaniel. McDaniel’s arrest warrant accused Strube of removing the lunch money from envelopes. Murfreesboro City Schools’ spokeswoman Cheryl Harris said Strube was suspended without pay. She is a tenured teacher. Police spokesman Kyle Evans said the Murfreesboro City Schools system, not the children, was the victim because the teacher...

"We lay it down as a fundamental, that laws, to be just, must give a reciprocation of right; that, without this, they are mere arbitrary rules of conduct, founded in force, and not in conscience."

Last year, a young child named Madeline Neumann developed a treatable form of diabetes. However, her parents chose faith healing for her instead of taking her to a doctor and this resulted in her death. Today, the judge handed down a sentence of six months of jail time (one month per year for six years) in order for them to reflect on how God wants them to change and what God wants for them and their daughter. Personally, this sickens me. How is this different from criminal neglect? One thing that I find unusual is that if the parents had...

IF you want to be a great conversationalist, whatever you do don't use the word "whatever." It topped a US survey as the most annoying word. The Marist telephone poll of 938 adults revealed it was more grating to many people than "anyway" and less tolerable than phrases such as "it is what it is" and "you know". "The impetus of this poll was a casual conversation where we started discussing those words that get on your nerves," Marist media director Mary Azzoli said. "You hear them over and over again." Nearly 50 per cent of people questioned said "whatever"...

Perversion 101: Kids taught 'gay' sex, rape, bestiality High school teacher keeps job after handing out pornographic 'banned book'

Subhead: How a Malawian teenager harnessed the power of the wind. ...One day, when William was 14, he went to the library searching for an English-Chichewa dictionary to find out what the English word “grapes” meant, and came across a fifth-grade science book called Using Energy. Describing this moment in his autobiography, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind (co-written with Bryan Mealer), William wrote, “The book has since changed my life.” ...William and his windmill remained a local curiosity for a number of months, until the head of a national teacher’s organization saw the windmill and recognized the boy’s accomplishment...