Free Republic

Love this game. The only space program we've got left???

The National Institutes of Health is spending over $224,000 to study how to introduce healthy child menus in an effort to alter the “ordering behavior” of kids in restaurants. A research project awarded on Nov. 26 to San Diego State University will attempt a “restaurant-based intervention,” coupled with a marketing campaign aimed at children to fight obesity. The school has been given $224,250 for an “exploratory intervention” study that will specifically target Latino children, which the researchers say have the highest rates of obesity. The project will first observe children’s “menu ordering and consumption behaviors” in 12 restaurants, followed by...

ou can't make things like this up, but this unnamed man apparently did. From AP via My Way News (12/11/2013): Mandela ceremony interpreter called a 'fake' JOHANNESBURG (AP) - A man who provided sign language interpretation on stage for Nelson Mandela's memorial service, attended by scores of heads of state, was a "fake," the national director of the Deaf Federation of South Africa said on Tuesday. Asked about the claim by The Associated Press, South Africa's government said it was preparing a statement. Three sign language experts said the man was not signing in South African or American sign languages....

Day One of the prosecution's case against two Fullerton cops accused of using excessive force in 2011 to kill an unarmed homeless man had an eerie resemblance to another trial that landed Orange County in embarrassing international headlines a decade ago. In Corona del Mar, three young men--including the son of a wealthy, corrupt assistant sheriff--got a 16-year-old girl highly intoxicated and, after she'd fallen unconscious, stripped her before videotaping themselves sexual assaulting her vagina and rectum with a Tree Top Apple Juice can, pool cue, Snapple bottle and lit cigarette. Defense lawyers put Jane Doe, that victim, on trial...

Police officers fatally shot an emotionally distressed man eight times in his Harlem apartment after one cop accidentally shot his fellow officer with a Taser, prompting the injured officer to scream "He's stabbing me, shoot him!"

They don’t teach this stuff in eighth-grade civics class: a freshman U.S. senator from the minority party provokes a shutdown of the federal government in a hopeless quest to undo the President’s signature legislative achievement. The nation flirts with a potentially disastrous default while the populace looks on in disgust. And when the instigator tries to explain himself during one of the longest speeches in Senate history, somehow he ends up reciting Dr. Seuss’s Green Eggs and Ham.

Mack Brown, who led the Longhorns to a national championship in 2005, will step down as Texas’ head coach after 16 seasons. The University would not confirm the news and denied that Brown would step down.

Circa 1911: Cat drinking from a bottle and looking through a telescope

Senior right guard John Urschel’s academic and athletic pursuits are well known in State College and beyond. The mathematics major who is working on a second master’s degree and who holds a perfect 4.0 grade point average added to his academic and athletic accolades Tuesday evening. Urschel was honored in New York City at the National Football Foundation and College Hall of Fame's annual black-tie event where he was named the winner of the William V. Campbell Trophy. The two-time All-Big Ten first team honoree was one of 16 finalists for the award, widely regarded as the Academic Heisman, and...

Did Castro tell Obama who he was? Check this video at about 7 seconds in. It makes it look like Obama had no clue who he was shaking hands with, and Raul looks like he is saying "I am Raul Castro". Any lip reading experts out there?

On Monday, the National Journal reported that "documents filed by other groups show that two labor organizations, the International Union of Operating Engineers and the Laborers' International Union of North America, directed a combined $400,000 to the Republican group [the Defending Main Street super PAC] in September and October." The Defending Main Street super PAC was organized at the end of 2012 by former Congressman Steve LaTourette (R-OH), and has very publicly declared war on the Tea Party. It is affiliated with and has offices at the same location as the Republican Main Street Project, which LaTourette currently heads and...

Link to "an edited version of the introductory chapter of a new e-book, Going Postal, by investigative journalist Peter Byrne." snip "The post office is being killed for political reasons, they assert, pointing out that the corporation with the exclusive contract to negotiate sales for the Postal Service's $85 billion real estate portfolio is C.B. Richard Ellis (CBRE). And that the company is chaired by Richard C. Blum, who is the husband of US Senator Dianne Feinstein and a member of the University of California Board of Regents. CBRE's connection to a politically powerful family with a history of accessing...

Dayna Morales, the waitress who was fired after falsely claiming that patrons denied her a tip, is not the only person to falsely claim she suffered discrimination because of virulent homophobia. Megan Thode sued to have her C+ grade raised to a B – and to be granted $1.3 million in damages – alleging that her professor at Pennsylvania's Lehigh University gave her low marks because she supported same-sex "marriage." Thode also requested a written apology from her teacher, Amanda Carr. She got a zero in the mandatory classroom participation portion of her class because, according to Carr, she did...

Jesus is Christmas.

Saudi Arabia’s feared religious police arrested an American teen ager caught harassing girls in a public park in the conservative Gulf Kingdom. Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice approached the boy, under 18 years, and asked him to come with them after they noticed he was harassing girls visiting the park in the northwestern town of Hai “The boy violently resisted arrest but they overpowered him and took him away,” the Arabic language daily Sabq said, adding that the unnamed boy lives with his mother, who teaches at Hail universit

HAMILTON COUNTY, Ind. (December 9, 2013) – A 16-year-old Noblesville girl who was shot in the chest Sunday evening died from her injuries. Noblesville Police and Hamilton County Sheriff’s deputies responded to the scene in the 8200 block of River Run Place at 11:20 p.m. They found four people inside the residence and the victim unresponsive. She was transported by ambulance to St. Vincent Hospital (Indianapolis) where she later died. The victim, Aubrey Peters, was a Noblesville High School student. FOX59 viewers may remember her for rescuing two children from a pond in March 2010, a heroic act that earned...

circa 1915: Cat on a cannon The mascot cat of HMS Queen Elizabeth on a 15-inch barrel

I wanted to go to Belzec (pronounced Biwzhets) because no one really does. One million Jews died there in the span of nine months - and hardly anyone knows about it. I felt it was a pilgrimage to a holy site: the second largest (after Treblinka) Jewish graveyard in history. Mike Tregenza was my guide. He is a non-Jewish, English historian who lectures at Lublin university. According to Sir Martin Gilbert, he is the world expert on Belzec. Belzec is a sleepy little hamlet in southeast Poland. A few thousand people live there. All seem to be related in some...

First lady Michelle Obama had all eyes on her Sunday during the Kennedy Center Honors where the achievements of singer Billy Joel, actress Shirley MacLaine and others were acknowledged. The first lady manages to look absolutely stunning in pieces by J. Crew, so it was no surprise that she looked flawless in a flowing emerald green Marchesa gown. While the bodice of the dress is similar to gowns she has worn in the past, the intricate draping details on her arms gave it an elegant flair. The arm drape also showed off the first lady’s exceptionally toned biceps as she...

Support Tuffy the Clown I'm out here at the NFR and I have talked to over 15 Rodeo Committee's about hiring me and working. Everyone has said "We can't hire you. This stuff needs to blow over first". What stuff needs to blow over? I did nothing wrong! These "Committee's" will privately tell me that I got a raw deal but they can't hire me and they won't make a statement? I'm a good rodeo clown. What are these committee's afraid of. Watch the video on my website www.tuffytheclown.com . Watch the video that started this whole thing! I did...

If you are a national reporter writing on the Girl Scouts and you call their national office in New York City, you will talk to a guy named Josh Ackley. If you are a Girl Scout wanting regular advice or information on the Girl Scouts and you turn to the Girl Scout blog, it’s Josh Ackley (pictured, center) you’ll be reading. If you are a Girl Scout mom concerned about the sometimes-troubling drift of the Girl Scouts in recent years, Josh Ackley may be the one you’ll meet with. To many key groups, Josh Ackley is the public face of...

A 90-year-old World War II veteran en route to a ceremony marking the 72nd anniversary of the attack at Pearl Harbor was booted from his flight to accommodate the weight of additional jet fuel needed for the trip. According to Hawaii News Now, Ewalt “Walt” Shatz, a WWII veteran credited with shooting down a Japanese plane during the 1941 attack, was scheduled to take a United Airlines flight direct from Los Angeles to Honolulu on Wednesday, but was re-booked on an American Airlines flight leaving eight hours later that included a layover in Maui. “I was surprised. I didn't know...

The finding could lead to “mind-reading” applications that, for example, would allow a patient who is rendered mute by a stroke to communicate via passive thinking. Conceivably, it could also lead to more dystopian outcomes: chip implants that spy on or even control people’s thoughts. Any fears of impending mind control are, at a minimum, premature, said Greely. “Practically speaking, it’s not the simplest thing in the world to go around implanting electrodes in people’s brains. It will not be done tomorrow, or easily, or surreptitiously.” Parvizi agreed. “We’re still in early days with this,” he said. “If this is...

The last time I saw a first-run movie was in England, when we watched the final Harry Potter film. What this means is that I pay very little attention to news about upcoming movies. Since I’m not going to watch them, why pay attention?I was vaguely aware, though, that Hollywood was producing a Biblical epic about Noah, of Ark fame. Since it’s not a movie by a true believer — unlike The Passion of the Christ– I didn’t have high hopes for it, but I have to say that it apparently has succeeded in sinking below anybody’s lowest expectations.To understand...

SANTA FE – The New Mexico State Police officer who fired shots at a van full of children while their mother was fleeing a traffic stop near Taos in late October has been fired. State Police spokesman Lt. Emmanuel Gutierrez said that officer Elias Montoya, who was placed on paid administrative leave Wednesday, was terminated from his position as of Friday. Gutierrez said he had confirmed the firing with State Police Chief Pete Kassetas. Gutierrez declined further comment “until all appeals have been exhausted ... The video of the incident received national media attention ... Media legal analysts weighed in,...

More young men in California rise in pitch at the end of their sentences when talking, new research shows. This process is known as "uptalk" or "valleygirl speak" and has in the past been associated with young females, typically from California or Australia. But now a team says that this way of speaking is becoming more frequent among men.

The police have knowingly exposed us to violence and aggression by angry Muslims and have only towards the end, when very many attacks had already happened, somehow done their job – but by their inaction, they have consciously put health and life of our demonstrators to a severe risk. About 50 people came to support us on this difficult matter (see announcement), which was organized in Cologne by our non-party, independent alliance against persecution of Christians. As distinguished speaker we could welcome Michael Mannheimer. In addition, councillor of the City of Cologne, Jörg Uckermann from Pro Köln, joined us for...

In Brooklyn, New York, there is a bar called Sharlene's. At Sharlene's, a Jameson-and-soda costs $7, and I was on my second of the night when a friend, Derek, told me that if I listed Sleeping Beauty among my favorite movies on OkCupid, I would attract creeps and weirdos. He went on. For instance, to list Gilmore Girls among my favorite TV shows was fine, but I should balance it with something more aggressive, like The Sopranos. My favorite foods should include something savory, not just "pie" and "jam." And I should definitely not describe what I did on a...

The Version 5.6 global average lower tropospheric temperature (LT) anomaly for November, 2013 is +0.19 deg. C, down from +0.29 deg. C in October (click for full size version): What the graph shows is that if you take the average global temperature for the lower stratosphere from 1981 to 2010, last month (November, 2013) the global temperature is .19C above this average, or just under 1/5 of one degree.

Three crises, one president, many bewildered friends. The first crisis, barely noticed here, is Ukraine’s sudden turn away from Europe and back to the Russian embrace. After years of negotiations for a major trading agreement with the European Union, Ukraine succumbed to characteristically blunt and brutal economic threats from Russia and abruptly walked away. Ukraine is instead considering joining the Moscow-centered Customs Union with Russia’s fellow dictatorships Belarus and Kazakhstan. This is no trivial matter. Ukraine is not just the largest country in Europe, it’s the linchpin for Vladimir Putin’s dream of a renewed imperial Russia, hegemonic in its neighborhood...

If you never use legal tender for any transactions, be it for business, salary, expenses, etc., would you have to pay taxes on it? For example, if you're salary was always in BitCoins and you paid for everything in BitCoins, would any of that be taxable? After all, it isn't considered fiat.

'10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty' is latest in Bigfoot craze OK, enough with the grainy footage, the first-person accounts and questionable evidence. Spike TV is looking to get to the bottom of this whole Bigfoot mystery once and for all with its next reality competition series, "10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty." Not surprisingly, the series, which premieres Jan. 10, hasn't attracted a whole lot of what you would call studious, academic types. Instead, you get a whole lot of angry, sexist rednecks yelling at each other in the woods. What better way to attract a notoriously camera-shy, quite probably mythical...

'Cannibal sandwiches' sicken Wisconsin residents MILWAUKEE — "Cannibal sandwiches," an appetizer featuring raw, lean ground beef served on cocktail bread, may be a Wisconsin tradition, but they are not safe, health officials said, noting that more than a dozen people became ill after consuming them last holiday season. Health officials confirmed four cases tied to E. coli bacteria and 13 likely cases in people who ate the sandwiches at several gatherings late last year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said a report issued this week. The meat came from a Watertown market that later recalled more than 2,500...

Recently, Kim Jong Il, Yasser Arafat, Mohamar Khadafi, Hugo Chavez, and now Nelson have died. What did these men have in common? They were all evil almost all of them were viewed positively by the Democrat Party. This seems to indicate that the Democrat party also advocates the type of rule they imposed on their nations. If this is the case, then most certainly, five down and a lot more to go...

The staff of A PRIMARY SCHOOL in Mullingar have written a letter to the parents of their pupils, urging them not to buy their children “unsuitable” video games for Christmas. The letter singled out the recently released Grand Theft Auto V as an area of specific concern, due to the extreme violence and sexual themes of the game. Principal Caroline Mhic Robin wrote to parents: We have grave concerns about certain video games that children have access to, for example Grand Theft Auto (which, we hear, is on several Santa wish lists this year). The general public have been shocked...

On a break from pretending to believe they live in a country bristling with violent white racists, the Non-Fox Media have been trying to debunk stories about the "Knockout Game," in which young black males approach random strangers and try to knock them out with one punch. The left's leading line of defense against the Knockout Game is to argue that young black males have always been violent, so, hey, this is nothing new. You're welcome, black America! In Slate, Emma Roller wearily recounted other episodes of black-on-white violence in order to announce: "The 'Knockout Game' is a myth." Reminiscing...

WASHINGTON, DC, December 4, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new report from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) shows approximately 62 percent of gay men who know they have HIV/AIDS continue to engage in sexual relations without using a prophylactic, a behavior that can spread AIDS. The report, which was released on the Friday after Thanksgiving, analyzed data gathered in 2011. According to the report, the percentage of men with HIV/AIDS having sex with other men without a condom had increased from 55 percent in 2005, to 57 percent in 2008, to 62 percent today. CDC spokesperson Nikky Mayes told LifeSiteNews.com...

I am using the same ipad I always use. I've almost never needed to log in. Now I need to log in each time I arrive. Not fun. I can't find anything that keeps you logged in. The thing marked extra convenient claims to, but it doesn't. Been a donating Freeper for 13 years, never seen a moose, and I have showered recently. And I am logged in. But sick of logging in!

Why does Santa need a fighter escort? Children's groups outraged as NORAD militarises Christmas Eve tracker • NORAD officials say the inclusion of jet fighters is a nod to the true mission of the agency - which is to track and intercept airborne threats Outraged child advocates are blasting NORAD's new 3D Santa Tracker program because it includes a fighter jet escort for jolly old Saint Nick. Some say the new online portrait could give kids the wrong impression about Santa Claus - associating him with the military and violence. But Pentagon officials argue the North American Aerospace Defense Command...

<p>The Obama's younger dog is still getting used to the spotlight as it made a major faux pas during a White House ceremony Wednesday afternoon.</p> <p>Sunny Obama jumped up on a toddler who was a guest at the unveiling of the official Christmas decorations, pushing the little girl to the ground.</p>

Iowa Governor Terry Branstad signed an executive order on Wednesday rejecting federal intrusion into the state’s education system. The order, Number 83, declares that the state, “not the federal government of any other organization, shall determine the content of Iowa’s state academic standards”. The order also states that school districts may also choose to use additional assessments to measure student progress.

Link only because "Copyright 2013 Xinhua News Agency. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed."

A sixty-seven year old proud atheist friend of mine recently interjected the sweeping statement “all religion is irrational” into one of our conversations. I replied, not with a direct rebuttal but, instead, with the unexpected question, “who is Jesus Christ?” He replied, “I don’t know.” If I were to ask some of you why I pulled that question out of left field you might also reply with a bewildered “I don’t know.” So keep reading. Please. If you have never really pondered the question “who is Jesus Christ?” then you simply cannot consider yourself to be a committed intellectual –...

Russian state TV has come up with an unusual weapon in its propaganda offensive against supporters of Ukraine's integration with the EU - a Swedish TV programme designed to help children understand their bodily functions.

(Poster's note: this is the story of a neighborhood association forcing the foreclosure of a woman's home, that she had fully paid for, because she didn't pay her neighborhood association dues. Apparently, this is legal here in KY. This is one of the most outrageous things I've heard of.) In a rare case, the Masterson Station Neighborhood Association won a court judgment this year to foreclose on a Lexington woman's home. The Urban County Council decided on Tuesday to review the situation in which Ingrid Boak's home was sold at a master commissioner's sale because she did not pay a...

Being buried alive is usually near the top of any worst-ways-to-die list. But how about being buried alive 100 feet below the ocean surface in a tiny pocket of air? For Harrison Okene, a 29-year-old Nigerian boat cook, this nightmare scenario became a reality for nearly three grueling days. The story began on May 26 at about 4:30 a.m., when Okene got up to use the restroom. His vessel, a Chevron oil service tugboat called the AHT Jascon-4, swayed in the choppy Atlantic waters just off the coast of Nigeria. What caused the tugboat to capsize remains a mystery, though...

ROWAN COUNTY, N.C. — Marcus Kaufman, 25, is fighting for his life after being shot in the head in his own home Monday. As the Rowan County Sheriff's Office continues to search for the shooter, Kaufman's friends and family are hoping he'll pull through. Marcus and Maryann Kaufman's lives changed in an instant Monday when they returned to their Cleveland home after brunch with his parents. "Marcus and Maryann had stopped to help somebody that needed help just across the street from their house," said friend and neighbor Daniel Troyer. It looked like a car was broken down, but Maryann...

Men and women's brains are connected in different ways which may explain why the sexes excel at certain tasks, say researchers. A US team at the University of Pennsylvania scanned the brains of nearly 1,000 men, women, boys and girls and found striking differences.

OAK FOREST - An assignment sent home from an Oak Forest, IL high school government class is raising eyebrows among parents who are shocked by the questionnaire they and their children are required to fill out. The questionnaire (below) has the parents identify their positions on a number of highly-charged issues, and then places them on a "political spectrum."