Free Republic

Mourners at the funeral of an elderly Ecuadorian woman were startled to discover she was still alive. Bella Montoya, 76, was declared dead last week following a suspected stroke. Five hours into her wake on Friday, relatives preparing to change her clothes ahead of the burial found her gasping for air. Ms Montoya is now back in hospital in intensive care, and Ecuador's health ministry has set up a committee to investigate the incident.

Our Solar System is a pretty busy place. There are millions of objects moving around – everything from planets, to moons, to comets, and asteroids. And each year we're discovering more and more objects (usually small asteroids or speedy comets) that call the Solar System home. Astronomers had found all eight of the main planets by 1846. But that doesn't stop us from looking for more. In the past 100 years, we've found smaller distant bodies we call dwarf planets, which is what we now classify Pluto as. The discovery of some of these dwarf planets has given us reason...

"Using two Hawaiʻi telescopes—the University of Hawaiʻi Institute for Astronomy Pan-STARRS on Haleakalā, Maui and W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea, Hawaiʻi Island—a team of researchers conducting the Young Supernova Experiment (YSE) transient survey observed the red supergiant during its last 130 days leading up to its deadly detonation."

A noontime boom that was heard and felt from southern Ontario to Virginia was likely caused by a disintegrating meteor, according to an organization in western New York that keeps track of such phenomena, the AP reports. Witnesses across the area reported hearing the boom or seeing a fireball in the sky shortly after noon on Wednesday, said Robert Lunsford of the American Meteor Society in Geneseo. By 5pm, the organization had recorded 90 reports of the fireball seen in Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ontario, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Police agencies and fire departments around central New York received 911 calls...

The shaking started March 31. That’s when the Sawtooth mountain range in central Idaho trembled with a 6.5-magnitude earthquake — the second strongest ever recorded in Idaho. From that very moment, geologists rushed to the epicenter area — 45 miles west of Challis — to start collecting valuable information that could help them understand what happened. Three months later, the rumbling still hasn’t subsided as aftershocks continue to jar the area. But now scientists have a better idea of what may have led to the major earthquake — and it’s helping them uncover some other secrets buried under Idaho’s soil....

FR pulled the 56 post thread regarding the seagull that ate the woman's lobster roll in Maine..it's "under review"....WHY?

"...If they truly fear the unchecked growth of presidential power, then their best option is to come to the table and force compromise. It's the one sure way to keep Obama from going cowboy (or, in their minds, tyrant)."

CHICAGO (Reuters) – Beware of spilling drinks while flying a plane. During a United Airlines flight to Frankfurt, Germany from Chicago this week, a cockpit crew member spilled a beverage on equipment, an airline spokesman said. It prompted a chain of events that inadvertently sent an alert that the plane was being hijacked. "During a period of light turbulence, a cockpit crew member's beverage spilled, causing issues with the airplane's communications equipment," said United spokesman Rahsaan Johnson. The beverage caused a problem with one of the aircraft's radio systems, which prompted the pilot to decide to land the plane Monday...

June 11, 2008, 6:00 a.m. Obama’s Unofficial Slogan: ‘No, You’re Wrong.’Whatever happened to his ‘pang of shame’? By Jim Geraghty As Barack Obama’s campaign becomes defined by a series of embarrassments — his assessment of what small-town residents cling to, a mentor who believes the government created HIV, a friend of 20 years who takes to the pulpit and demands whites give up 401(k) accounts to atone for their ancestor’s racist sins, a wife who pledges to take away some people’s pie and give it to others, an associate who expresses no regret over planting a bomb in a...

The captain of the USS Cole, who saved his ship from sinking after an al-Qa'eda suicide attack by speedboat, has lashed out at senior Pentagon staff blocking his promotion because of allegations that he could have done more to protect the ship. Commander Kirk Lippold, who now serves behind a desk at the Pentagon, accused the head of the navy, Admiral Mike Mullen, and the navy secretary of "over-riding the judgment" of officers who had recommended his promotion. He complained he was the only officer being held to account for the attack in Aden harbour six years ago. The Cole...

PLANET-DISSOLVING DUST CLOUD IS HEADED TOWARD EARTH!Monday September 12, 2005 By MIKE FOSTER CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Scared-stiff astronomers have detected a mysterious mass they've dubbed a "chaos cloud" that dissolves everything in its path, including comets, asteroids, planets and entire stars -- and it's headed directly toward Earth! Discovered April 6 by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, the swirling, 10 million-mile- wide cosmic dust cloud has been likened to an "acid nebula" and is hurtling toward us at close to the speed of light -- making its estimated time of arrival 9:15 a.m. EDT on June 1, 2014. "The good news...

THE HAGUE (Reuters) - Slobodan Milosevic was a peacemaker who did not want to fight for a "Greater Serbia," while an anti-Serb West stoked the bloody collapse of Yugoslavia, Russia's Yevgeny Primakov said Tuesday. Primakov, former Russian foreign minister and prime minister, was testifying in defense of the former Yugoslav president, who is charged with genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes in the Balkans in the 1990s. Primakov said the Western media had portrayed Serbs as "aggressors" and after Bill Clinton was elected U.S. president in 1992, Washington became increasingly anti-Serb. "It became ever more apparent that their course...

<p>Three men who went streaking through a Denny's restaurant were chilled and chagrined when they spotted a thief drive off in their getaway car, their clothes inside.</p> <p>Naked in the 20-degree weather, the three young men huddled behind cars in a parking lot until police arrived.</p>

And this just in from our You Gotta Be Kidding Me department: Bush orders settlement to conservative GOP website by City of Fresno by Troy Montague Saturday, Jan. 10, 2004 at 11:03 PM Settlement funnels money to local conservative website on orders of president George Bush. Rightwing website "FreeRepublic" to recieve large settlement from City of Fresno. This is urgent-read and call the attorney general's office as soon as you can. We must stop this criminal give-away to GOP activists at taxpayer expense. The City of Fresno has announced it is paying a large settlement to the "FreeRepublic", a right...

I just returned from voting where I was harassed by a poll worker. Today I entered my polling place and the poll worker told me I had to take off my shirt. It was perfectly obvious that I didn't have anything on under my shirt but a bra. I said are you serious. He said yes, you can't wear that, it's electioneering. I said it's a shirt. He said I don't care, you can't wear it in this garage - take it off. I said I don't have anything else to wear. He said I don't care - take it...