Free Republic

HUNDREDS of skiers are stuck on New Zealand's Mt. Hutt after freak weather forced its closure. A combination of drifting snow and poor visibility has been blamed. While ski area management were aware of an approaching front and poor forecast, the situation deteriorated quickly, Mt Hutt ski area manager James McKenzie said. There are 316 people trapped on the mountain.

ENFIELD, Conn. (CBS Connecticut) — Lego will reportedly cease production of a popular “Star Wars” toy set after Muslim communities complained about the product. The Independent reports that several Muslim groups in Austria claimed “Jabba’s Palace” was anti-Muslim as it showed popular “Star Wars” character Jabba the Hut in a mosque-like lair with a hookah, guns and an imprisoned Chewbacca. “This sort of thing does not belong in a child’s bedroom,” Melissa Gunes, spokeswoman for Austria’s Turkish Cultural Association, told The Independent. “The game is pedagogical dynamite. It depicts Muslims as terrorists.” RT News reports that Muslim critics felt “Jabba’s...

'Nuff said.

A Probe, Not an Echo Non-Invasive and Safe, a New USC System Images and Differentiates Soft Tissue With Unprecedented Detail and PrecisionFriday, March 25, 2005 — Researchers at the University of Southern California's Viterbi School of Engineering have successfully demonstrated a novel “High-resolution Ultrasonic Transmission Tomography” (HUTT) system fthat offers 3D images of soft tissue that are superior to those produced by existing commercial X-ray, ultrasound or MRI units. Vasilis Marmarelis, a professor of biomedical engineering at the Viterbi School, presented HUTT images of animal organ tissue in San Diego at the 28th International Acoustical Imaging Symposium on March 21st....