Free Republic

(CNN)Stuffed beside the terrible birthday gift your grandma mailed was always the one redemption: Bubble Wrap. That instantly amusing piece of packaging is losing its pop -- literally. Sealed Air, the company that created the material in 1960, introduced a version that will no longer pop, according to the Wall Street Journal. Instead, air will shift in columns of bubbles.

A road trip down old Route 66 led to a Wild West-style motel shootout for a pioneering CNN anchor and her former-soldier hubby. Lynne Russell — the first woman to ever solo-anchor a primetime network news show — and Chuck de Caro, 65, had stopped at a Motel 6 for the night in Albuquerque when an intruder slipped into their room as Russell went to grab something from the car around 11:30 p.m. Tuesday. “I opened the door and he materialized out of nowhere; he was inside,” she told The Post. “And he pushed me into the room and onto...

Eggs! I enjoy a cheese souffle, but I don't always enjoy the work of it. This 'Sturdy Souffle' is adapted from the 1979 edition of the Fanny Farmer Cookbook, and cuts down on the work - no separating or separate beating of eggs. It won't rise as high and light, but doesn't fall as flat as a 'regular' souffle. Sturdy Souffle 4 T. butter (and some to grease the dish) 1/4 cup flour 1 cup hot milk Pinch of salt Pinch of cayenne pepper 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (plus more to sprinkle the baking dish; or just MORE in...

An armless Arizona woman became the first female to fly with her feet five years ago — and now she’s showing people what it’s like to feel limitless without limbs.

A Windows 10 feature, Wi-Fi Sense, smells like a security risk: it shares access to password-protected Wi-Fi networks with the user's contacts. So giving a wireless password to one person grants access to everyone who knows them. That includes their Outlook.com (nee Hotmail) contacts, Skype contacts and, with an opt-in, their Facebook friends. There is method in the Microsoft madness – it saves having to shout across the office or house “what’s the Wi-Fi password?” – but ease of use has to be tamed with security. If you wander close to a wireless network, and your friend knows the password,...

I've pasted the whole column below. But there is a video that can only be seen on the site/not embedded here. So please, if you support my work, visit the site. If not, no problem. "Now before you label this as a “crazy” post, I’m not talking about, nor am I predicting some doomsday scenario. Don’t expect me to be selling you seeds, food preserves or bomb shelters anytime soon. That is not what I am suggesting here. I’m also not suggesting that you need to buy yourself an AR15 to fight off an onslot of newly married gays. Okay?...

Samsung will release a patch for its computers so that they no longer kill off automatic Windows updates. On Wednesday, reverse-engineering specialist Patrick Barker blogged about a program suspiciously called Disable_Windowsupdate.exe that is bundled on Sammy machines and shuts down automatic Windows Updates – including security updates. Users have to remember to install updates from Microsoft manually, and if they opt for automatic installation, Samsung's software disables it. The firm's support staff told him that was to make sure Samsung's hardware drivers were not removed or overridden by Microsoft's upgrades. While not as serious as Lenovo's Superfish debacle – where...

From the YouTube link: Published on Apr 24, 2013 "An amazing video of Therians involving some of my close friends talking about the therian lifestyle, their lives, and a reflection of my own. My name is Alpha Blue-Eye. I'm a blue and white arctic wolf. If you have any questions for me, put them in the comment box and I'll answer them in a later video!"

Who knew? It was this easy to destroy a democracy. Elected to the highest court in the land, but no better than a crack whore.

Democratic Gov. Peter Shumlin signed a Fish and Wildlife bill last week that included language to legalize suppressors and repeal one of the oldest bans in the nation on the devices. The bill was introduced to the House in February as a standalone measure before being rolled into larger Senate economic development package and finally into the House F&W measure which passed the legislature with broad support. Vermont’s prohibition on silencers and suppressors predated the National Firearms Act. The legislation, signed by Shumlin on June 17, was introduced by Rep. Pat Brennan, R-Colchester, who championed the devices for safety and...

So I’m on vacation the other day, and I get a text message from my dad saying that he’s returning to the Lexus dealership service department for the second time in a day. This surprised me. My father would never willingly go to an automobile dealership twice in a single day. The man will sometimes go entire years without setting foot in a car dealer. He is, when it comes to cars, my polar opposite: he doesn’t care. He drives 6,000 miles a year and religiously maintains his vehicles at the dealership, documenting every service, every oil change, every fuel...

I once attended a wonderful wedding dinner given by a Greek lady for a friend of mine. The marriage was a late-life second marriage for both the bride and groom, and they just went off to the courthouse in the morning and 'got hitched'. That evening, they were feted with the first authentic Greek dinner I'd ever enjoyed, with about fifty people seated at numerous tables that were set up in the home of the hostess. This lady and her husband managed the cooking and serving of the dinner alone, in a feat of efficient, elegant hospitality that left me...

New Zealand's Duke Engines has been busy developing and demonstrating excellent results with a bizarre axial engine prototype that completely does away with valves, while delivering excellent power and torque from an engine much smaller, lighter and simpler than the existing technology. We spoke with Duke co-founder John Garvey to find out how the Duke Axial Engine project is going. The Duke Axial Engine is lighter, more compact and already slightly more powerful than a typical equivalent engine, even though this is just a prototype Duke Engines' 3-liter, five cylinder test mule is already making a healthy 215 horsepower and...

Microsoft backtracks blog post containing apparent "Free" Windows 10 upgrade promise for all preview testers Microsoft has been forced to quietly edit a misleading blog post that seemed to suggest that anyone could get their mitts on Windows 10 for free – if they first installed a test version of Redmond's upcoming operating system for PCs. The only caveat appeared to be that folk had to use a Microsoft Account (MSA) that's connected to the firm's Windows Insider program. Microsoft had said that a freebie upgrade would then be applied for anyone who has installed its latest Windows 10 preview...

Should photographers be able to include copyrighted public building and sculptures in photos without having to worry about payment or permissions? The concept is called “freedom of panorama,” and it’s currently under attack over in Europe.

Tens of thousands of people have been gathering in the Belgian countryside over the last week to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the battle of Waterloo. The bloody battle of June 18, 1815, marked the final defeat for Napoleon at the hands of a coalition of his enemies. The re-enactment is attracting history buffs, tourists and wannabe soldiers. French lawyer Franck Samson, dressed as Napoleon, takes part in a re-enactment of the Battle of Ligny in central Belgium on June 14. The re-enactment of Ligny, Napoleon's last victory, is part of bicentenary celebrations of the Battle of Waterloo. PARALLELS 200...

In this day and age of communication we have lost free speech and are losing our airwaves to the big corporate and government interests. http://radionewyorkinternational.com/archives/pirates-cove/2003-1107%20pirates%20cove%20rni%2087%20and%20caroline%2088.mp3 http://putlocker.is/watch-pirate-radio-online-free-putlocker.html https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p5PQnngPX00

After Donald Trump's Mexico-bashing comments this week, Mexicans are engaging in a little Trump-bashing of their own. Call it revenge, Mexican style. Artisan Dalton Avalos Ramirez launched a Trump pinata Friday, featuring The Donald's inimitable hairstyle and a big, big mouth. The papier-mache figure will come in a variety of sizes. The first was on display at the Pinatas Ramirez store in the border city of Reynosa. Avalos Ramirez said he created it "because of the hatred Trump expressed for the Mexican people." He said "people want to burn the pinatas, they want to break them. People are angry." During...

Tombstone, a 250-pound fighting robot that is unapologetically designed to just be one big weapon, powers up in the red corner, its large, horizontal-spinning blade gaining speed. Across the Battle Box in the blue corner, over a few buzzsaw-type booby traps and spike hazards, sits Witch Doctor, a bright-green robot with a one-toothed, vertical-spinning wheel beginning to gather momentum. The lights are on, the box is locked – it’s robot-fighting time. These are the Battle Bots, and they are programmed to kill. (Sort of). The crowd roars, having been waiting patiently inside the Mare Island Sports Complex, an old naval...

A Honduran woman carrying 3.3 lbs of liquid cocaine in her breast implants was arrested at the airport in Colombia's capital Bogota on Friday, police said. Paola Deyanira Sabillon, 22, was attempting to travel to Spain when her apparent nervousness aroused suspicion in the security line, airport police colonel Diego Rosero said. X-rays revealed a recent surgery on Sabillon's breasts and she confessed that an unknown substance had been implanted which she was meant to take to Barcelona, police added. Authorities said a preliminary investigation showed that the surgery took place at a clandestine clinic in the city of Pereira,...