Free Republic

Marc Millis, former head of NASA’s Breakthrough Propulsion Physics program and founding architect of the Tau Zero Foundation, now gives us a look at the Foundation’s current status and his thoughts on where it’s going. To those who have been waiting for the Tau Zero Foundation to begin in earnest, your patience is greatly appreciated. We are definitely making progress and this article describes that status.

Title says it all. AP...so can't post. John McCain...Hispandering 101.

TVNewser has learned America's Election HQ is returning to the Fox News Channel schedule beginning Monday. The 5pmET show will be anchored by a rotating series of anchors through election day. E.D. Hill will host next week. Just In with Laura Ingraham ends its three-week run tomorrow. Ingraham was aware the show was temporary, and she will continue as primary fill-in for Bill O'Reilly.....

Has anybody read A.N. Wilson's "biographies" Jesus and/or Paul: The Mind of an Apostle I was just cruising around Amazon books and spotted these. I wondered if they were any good.

Was just reading that congress has only a 9% approval rating. While it is true the Dems are bad, the Republicans are very close to being as useless as the Dems. Maybe we should all start voting for Independent candidates (conservatives hopefully) and get these hacks both Dems and Repubs out. A congress with a high number of conservatives would be fine by me and might put an end to these two corrupt and useless parties. What do you all think?

Is there a ping list specifically for discussions and/or news concerning or related to C.S. Lewis?

Is there a ping list specifically for discussions and/or news concerning or related to J.R.R. Tolkien? Thanks in advance for your help.

That's all: http://images.johnmccain.com/images/photos/0603_1.jpg

An argument at a south Hilton Head Island nightclub spilled over to a north-island all-night breakfast restaurant, where a group of up to 15 women fought, some using their high heels as weapons, according to a Beaufort County sheriff’s report released today. The fight occurred just after 5 a.m. Saturday in the parking of Huddle House, 40 Palmetto Parkway. Several of the women had been in an argument earlier in the evening at Club Life, 81 Pope Ave., the report stated. When officers arrived, the people involved in the fight were uncooperative with the deputies and left the area, authorities...

Would any one here be interested in a pictorial tour of the "Freedon Trail" in Boston?I live downtown and am going to take the tour and if there is enough interest, I will bring a camera and make pics available.

According to the trades, Danny Glover, Thandie Newton and Oliver Platt may be making a date with "2012." The actors are in discussions to join Columbia's epic disaster project, which Roland Emmerich is directing. "2012" centers on a global cataclysm and tells the heroic struggle of the survivors. Glover is in talks to play the president, with Newton in discussions to play his daughter. Platt is in negotiations to play the president's chief of staff. John Cusack and Chiwetel Ejiofor already are on board. Emmerich is directing a script he penned with his "10,000 BC" co-writer Harald Kloser. He is...

7/3 - DCRTV hears that Fox News has decided to end its 5 PM Laura Ingraham experiment after just three weeks. The DC-based right-leaning host has already returned to her national radio show and will continue to fill-in on Bill O'Reilly's TV show. Fox will return to "America's Election HQ" at 5 PM, with rotating hosts. DCRTV has reported that Citadel talker WMAL wants Ingraham for its late morning slot. She currently airs on talker WTNT, which was just bought by Redskins owner Dan Snyder.....

Thomas Beatie, who was born a woman but after surgery and hormone treatment lives as a man, has given birth to a girl at an Oregon hospital, People magazine reported on Thursday. Beatie, 34, who kept female reproductive organs after initiating a transgender transformation and legally changing his name from Tracy Lagondino in his 20s, confirmed the birth to the magazine. The baby, conceived through artificial insemination using donor sperm and Beatie's own eggs, was born on June 29, and Beatie and the baby are "healthy and doing well," People reported. Beatie's wife, Nancy, 46, whom he married five years...

Help!!! We are to attend my neices graduation from Marine boot camp later this month and we need ideas on where to stay. Rent a hotel, a house for two or three days? Thanks in advance!!!

I can't get cell phone service where I live because of environMENTALists' restrictions (cell towers aren't pretty), but would like to have a cell phone in my car for emergencies. Since I can't use the phone at home, I'd like the least expensive phone possible. Any suggestions?

Hey fellow Freepers. I'm going to be away for two years because of an overseas committment in a land where I will be censored and cannot visit sites like this. What will happen to my account on Free Republic? Can I let it sit inactive that long?

This Weeks Sci-Fi Thread (07/06/08) Fri: 9/8 - Dr Who - SciFi 10/9 - Stargate Alantis - SciFi

If this is a repeat post, my apologies but I did an extensive search and did not find that it had appeared on FR before. And if anyone can find the sources of this -- an email to me from a trusted friend -- please add that info. Thanks ******** SO YOU THINK YOU KNOW OIL: MAYBE NOT By: John David Powell I hang around educated and talented people. Each individual has at least one university degree. Most read, watch, or listen to more than one news source every day. They span generations with ages ranging from the 20s to...

Rafael Rivadeneira was crying a river to local news papers this past week about a report on the John McCain "Hispanic Reception in Chicago." He wanted to set the record straight! Let's look at the facts......Rafael readily admits he supports Comprehensive Immigration Reform which American taxpayers have come to know as Amnesty for illegal aliens. It has cost Americans billions of dollars, but hey Rafael could care less, he supports it! This is the same Comprehensive Immigration Reform that SHUT DOWN the White House switchboard June 2007. But who's listening? Was Rafael out of the country that he did not...

A US company claims it is ready to build a microwave ray gun able to beam sounds directly into people's heads. ray gun A company plans to create a gun that takes down transgressors with only sound. (Getty/ABC News) The device – dubbed MEDUSA (Mob Excess Deterrent Using Silent Audio) – exploits the microwave audio effect, in which short microwave pulses rapidly heat tissue, causing a shockwave inside the skull that can be detected by the ears. A series of pulses can be transmitted to produce recognisable sounds. The device is aimed for military or crowd-control applications, but may have...

A 91-year-old Greendale woman who was trapped under a vehicle in her garage for about two days this week is recovering at Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee, her niece said. Betty Borowski, who lives alone, apparently became stuck sometime Sunday when she tried to retrieve her keys, which she thought had fallen under the vehicle, Greendale Police Chief Rob Dams said. Borowski’s head appeared to be pinned under the axle, Dams said. “She was pretty well wedged in there,” Dams said. “It looks like she crawled under head-first.” The keys were in the car’s door, Dams said. On...

On Red-Eye just now Greg Gutfield did his Greg-A-Logue which was actually REALLY good. He compared the left to a crazy ex-girlfriend that Obama is now dumping. He said the left is cutting up Obama's underwear. He also said it's funny that if you're a liberal and want to get elected you have to fun from your beliefs. Then he said Obama was dropping Wesley Clark like a "Bug Infested Potato" Does Clark still work for Fox or did they drop him?

This summer, NASA plans to propel a satellite the size of a loaf of bread through space with an ultra-thin, 100-square-foot sail called NanoSail-D. Developed and constructed in just six months as the result of a partnership between Marshall Space Flight Center and Ames Research Center, NASA will ride the sail into space on an upcoming flight of the new Falcon 1 launch vehicle developed by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California. The launch is scheduled for take place from Omelek Island in the Pacific Ocean. Once in space, a Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployer, or P-POD, developed at the...

Link to videoHas anyone tried one of these? I have not, but they look kinda neat.

I've got a great idea! Let's go over to the "Smears" website and use their "PUSH BACK NOW" form letter -- except that before you mail it out, you change the verbiage from: "Friend -- You may have recently heard right-wing smears questioning Barack Obama's birth certificate and citizenship. These assertions are completely false and designed to play into the worst kind of stereotypes. You can see Barack Obama's birth certificate for yourself and help push back with the truth at: http://my.barackobama.com/fightthesmears Together we can make sure these negative and divisive attacks don't affect this campaign. Thanks for your help....

Don't really know why, but this put a smile on my face this morning..hope it works for you! WHERE THE HELL IS MATT?

My spam filter grabs a non-spam email now and then and I've been monitoring what it does so I can adjust the settings and make sure it stops doing that. One of the spam I got last night had the title 'Obama found dead in shock accident'. I'm sure if it said 'Bush' or "McCain' instead of Obama conservatives would be up in arms about it, and so I hope also see this in the same light. I'm in Canada so I'm sure if this breaks a law or not up here. Have any of you in the USA received...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Scientists with the US Phoenix lander will make their first analysis of Martian ice fragments in coming days but it could be the last done in one of the probe's small ovens, NASA said on its website Friday. ADVERTISEMENT A team of engineers and scientists were trying to get to the bottom of what caused a short-circuit on the TEGA (Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer) which has four small ovens able to heat samples of Martian soil up to 1,000 degrees Celsius. "Since there is no way to assess the probability of another short circuit occurring, we are...

OAKLAND -- The fact that fireworks are illegal and potentially dangerous did not prevent many Oakland residents from setting them off on Friday night. KTVU's Amber Lee found adults and children playing with fireworks on 100th Avenue. "I spent a hundred dollars for my kids, for the Fourth of July", said Vitalino Acabal of Oakland. He insisted it was just part of summer vacation fun. A few blocks away, a four year old girl and her 12 year old brother were setting off bottle rockets. Their 15 year old sister said their parents weren't home, but it's part of her...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY INDIGO!!! Indigo and his Mother, AnnaZ at the Treasure Island hotel in Las Vegas (for the FRiva conference, August 2002) Indigo and his older brother Hamlet

A Wax Figure of Thomas Jefferson at Tussad's Wax Museum. Very lifelike.

Actor Paul Hogan, star of the Crocodile Dundee films, has challenged Australian tax investigators to "come and get me" in the United States following reports he is under investigation. Speaking outside his mansion in Santa Barbara California, the 68-year-old said: "They should build a statue of me up there at the tax office." "Come and get me," Hogan said with a grin, in an obscenity-laced statement addressed to the Australian Taxation Office.

The nine august justices of the United States Supreme Court — or at least the five conservative Republicans — chose the wrong time to make a sea change in constitutional law, admitting the Second Amendment to our pantheon of civil liberties. By demonstrating how willing they are to toss aside decades of jurisprudence in pursuit of a conservative agenda, they sent a chill into the souls of women all across the nation and resurrected fears that Roe v. Wade is next on the chopping block.

Lou Gehrig's Farewell Speech "Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans. "Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest...

This audio was played this morning on WMAL's "Grandy & Andy Morning Show" and I was laughing so hard I almost fell over. You will totally enjoy this. Here's the YouTube blurb: "This was sent to me by a friend, its legit... following is the story from him. Okay guys here is the info on this voicemail. One of my friend's from work and her friend were out one night in the SF Marina district and were hanging outside of the bars trying to find a cab. One of the girl's, Olga ends up meeting this guy Dmitri and they...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2dfD0ryMco

Diver catches giant crab   A giant crab with a shell 12in wide has been caught by an Aylesbury diver off the UK coast. The crustacean, weighing 17lb and with a claw span of 9in, was found by diver Paul Worsley during a recent diving trip in Lyme Regis, Dorset. Douglas Lanfear, who runs the dive boat Blue Turtle, said he was amazed at the size of the crab. He said: "It was truly a monster. It was the biggest crab I have ever seen in all my years and there were fishermen who have been working here for...

When hang means, as it generally does, "to suspend," then hung is the correct past-tense and past participial form of the verb: "Yesterday, I hung a picture on the wall"; "I have hung many pictures on many walls." When hang means "to put to death by hanging," however, hanged is the correct past-tense and past participial form: "We hanged the horse-thieving varmint yesterday"; "We've hanged nigh unto forty horse thieves this year." Given that hanging has become a fairly infrequent means to a fairly infrequent end, you might think that this is an unimportant distinction. But, because of a colloquial...

Here is video of police seizing guns from citizens of New Orleans after Katrina. While looters ran wild, cops were seizing guns from law abiding citizens. This video is unbelievable and really must be seen.

My wife mentioned the other day she heard some Obama supporter state that since the military is so thin that a President Obama will have to bring back the draft. Did anyone else hear this? Can anyone supply a link to either a transcript or video of this? Thank you for your help.

Beirut, July 2: At "Buns and Guns" you can order a "Kalashnikov" sandwich from a bullet-shaped menu, prepared by chefs in military fatigues with the roar of explosions as background music. This new fast food restaurant in Beirut's southern suburbs, where the Hezbollah movement holds sway, was the brainchild of co-owner Ali Hammoud. He said the war theme was a novel concept that had nothing to do with Lebanon's bloody recent history. "It's just an idea I had, nothing more, nothing less. I could have put toys in place of the sandbags and teddy bears instead of guns. But it...

Horn Lake, MS -- The black bear spotted in the Horn Lake, Mississippi area is still out there somewhere. It was last seen in a wooded area behind the Apple Creek Subdivision. Jimmy Massey was one of the last people to see the bear. "I saw something move in the trees, and there it was about 60 yards from me. It just stopped and stood there for about 30 seconds," Massey said. Mississippi Wildlife Officials believe the bear may be lost or looking for a mate. They tried to pick up a signal from a tracking collar the bear may...

With the blankest of blank expressions on their faces, these mysterious figures have been popping up in the most unlikely of places. The faceless mutants have a penchant for A-list celebrity bashes and have been spotted at Elton John's White tie ball and Harrods summer sale, opened by Sex and the City star Kim Cattrall.

LIBERALS AND YOUR AIR CONDITIONING Time Magazine ran a piece called "Kill Your Air Conditioning" in order to denigrate you evil people who have the "luxury" of keeping your air conditioning on in the summertime. The writer Joe Klein says that the "unnecessary refrigeration of America has become a chronic disease." Hmmm sounds a bit similar to Barack Obama calling for all of us to change our thermostats based on what other countries think is OK ... But moving on ... Klein says, "Air-conditioning is bad for the planet, and for national security, and for our balance-of-payments deficit." Even though...

Iran's First Lady - Confirmed Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 11:49:20 am PDT "It’s confirmed. That really is Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s wife in that photograph I posted yesterday. Here are some more pictures of the First Bag Lady..."

Here is a great Independence Day Quiz. Click here.Be sure to think about your answers but most of all enjoy.

Well, I'm just home from the ER and my sister Michelle needs your prayers. She had a teriible headache at work today. By the time she got home she was achy all over and feverish. She drove herself to the ER about 7:30. She had to be in a LOT of pain to actually want to go to the hospital. She called my Mother when she went in and made her promise not to call me because I was planning to leave town for a weeks vacation fishing and carrying on. Thank goodness, Mom didn't listen to her. When I...

Consider the following quotation: "In Mecklenburg at this time a very primitive type of Feudalism existed, known as "Inherited Serfdom". The land owners controlled the economy and ruled their estates with absolute authority. The peasants were dependant entirely on the nobles who could even buy and sell them with or without their property, and the tax rate had to be reviewed every two to three years, and was usually increased at that time. They could not acquire any more land than they already had. Their Landlords produced crops for export from their vast estates by using the labour of these...

The Martian soil uncovered by the 'Phoenix' Mars Lander might not be that different from the dirt in your own backyard. In fact, you might even be able to grow asparagus in it, mission officials said. The UA-led mission conducted the first ever wet-chemistry experiments done on another planet yesterday. 'Phoenix' tested the soil's chemical properties, like pH and mineral content, by mixing it with water in its onboard labs. The first experiment showed that Mars' soil has some of the basic nutrients needed to support life and is, in some respects, very earth-like, said Sam Kounaves, the mission's wet-chemistry...