Free Republic

Scientists say the discovery could explain the "birth order effect," when children born earlier in families reported higher wages and education levels later in life. Economists from the University of Edinburgh, the Analysis Group and the University of Sydney closely reviewed data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. More than 5,000 children were monitored from pre-birth to age 14, each undergoing assessments every two years. Tests included "reading recognition, such as matching letters, naming names and reading single words aloud and picture vocabulary assessments."

Beating a rock statue of Buddha to wish for a good new year and an abundant harvest, villagers in China's eastern Fujian province have a unique way of worshipping the deity. The religious ceremony held Friday in Yuxi village is one of many in the run-up to the traditional Lantern Festival, which falls on February 11 this year. It is a time for colourful ceremonies in the coastal province, where the Hakka people have maintained folk traditions.

The Great Firewall just got more impenetrable.Chinese authorities block access to big-name websites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and numerous others, and to thwart these restrictions, many residents on the mainland use virtual private networks. Starting this week, that could be a crime. Use of VPNs and special cable connections in China must now be approved by the government, essentially making these services illegal in the country. China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the new rules on Sunday, as reported by the South China Morning Post. Calling it a "clean-up" of the country's internet connections, the Ministry said...

I noticed earlier several statements on Twitter and Youtube posted by people claiming to have turned in information about illegals to ICE in just the last few days. Anyone hear any rumors or information about a groundswell of citizens giving info about illegal immigrants to the authorities?

Alec Baldwin does a pretty convincing Donald Trump impersonation — just ask a newspaper in the Dominican Republic. El Nacional published an apology on Saturday after mistakenly running a photo of the actor doing his impression of the U.S. president on “Saturday Night Live” instead of Trump himself. Accompanying an article in its Friday edition headlined in Spanish: “Trump says settlements in Israel don’t favor peace,” a photo of a scowling Baldwin in a blond wig appears next to a photo of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. …

You have reached a domain that was pending verification per ICANN rules but has since been verified. It may take 24 to 48 hours for the website to come back online. As of January 1, 2014 the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will mandate that all ICANN accredited registrars begin verifying the Registrant WHOIS contact information for all new domain registrations and Registrant contact modifications.Frequently asked questions Why was my domain suspended?ICANN requires that the domain registrant's contact information or changes to the registrant's WHOIS information be verified within 15 calendar days. If the data is not...

WINNIPEG, Manitoba — Almost three months after Bashir Yussuf watched Donald Trump win the presidential election, he made his way to Noyes, Minnesota, where he set off at night into the snow-filled woods and crawled across the unmarked border into Canada. “I saw what was coming,” said Yussef, 28, who fled his home in Somalia in 2013 to make a circuitous, five-month voyage to San Diego, where he applied for asylum but was rejected. “I knew Trump was going to deport me.” After a three-hour walk, much of it through deep drifts, Yussuf arrived in Emerson, a small farming town...

Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz on Friday said a group of people booing him at a town hall meeting last week was "more of a paid attempt to bully and intimidate" than a reflection of the feelings of his constituents, the Deseret News reports. "You could see it online a couple days before, a concerted effort in part to just cause chaos," Chaffetz said Friday. "Democrats are in disbelief that they have nothing but flailing and screaming to deal with this." The Utah Republican held a town hall meeting in Salt Lake City, Utah, last Thursday where he was heckled and...

At first, I was deceived, and thought it may worthy of a re-post. Then, I read this - I imagine the group with Jesus in the mood of Godspell. There’s fun, and happiness, and careless joy in the air when they careen into the pallbearers of the dead and hear the coterie of wailing women accompanying the body, and see the mother, the widow. Whaaa?

A professor at Georgetown University is teaching his students that men do not need consent to have sex with women, and that slavery is justifiable under Islamic teachings. Islamic Studies professor Jonathan Brown recently lectured at the International Institute of Islamic Thought, where he shared his alarming beliefs with students in attendance in his lecture, “Islam and the Problem of Slavery.” Freelance writer Umar Lee expressed his shock over the 90-minute lecture, which included explicit endorsements of rape and slavery. Brown himself uploaded the lecture to YouTube. According to Lee, Brown’s lecture was supposed to revolve around slavery in Islam,...

Her eyes teared up as a North Korean soldier gripped her hand in the hardest handshake she’d ever felt. “We’re going to destroy you, America,” he said. Over the past year and a half, American traveler Cassie DePecol has visited every country in the world, and the greetings she received weren’t always gracious. She had set out to promote peace in her own small way, by meeting people from every country in the world — and she did so at a record pace. Traveling to all the world’s 196 sovereign nations in 18 months and 26 days, De Pecol made...

You have to love our new leader. He is not one to stand still and not only called out the fake judges on the 9th district political court (a court which is overturned by the Supreme Court 80% of the time due to their leftwing bias), he also calls out CNN, MSNBC and the rest of the media. Epic Tweets right to the people.

Mexico has a radical idea for a rational immigration policy that most Americans would love. However, Mexican officials haven’t been sharing that idea with us as they press for our Congress to adopt the McCain-Kennedy immigration reform bill. That’s too bad, because Mexico, which annually deports more illegal aliens than the United States does, has much to teach us about how it handles the immigration issue. Under Mexican law, it is a felony to be an illegal alien in Mexico. At a time when the Supreme Court and many politicians seek to bring American law in line with foreign legal...

A Texas family had the last laugh against a less-than-beloved relative when they published a brutally honest obituary that "proves that evil does in fact die." The family of late Galveston man Leslie Ray Charping published an obituary on the website of Carnes Funeral Home that declined to pull any punches after the man died at the age of 75 -- "which was 29 years longer than expected and much longer than he deserved." The obituary says Charping "leaves behind two relieved children" as well as "six grandchildren and countless other victims including an ex wife, relatives, friends, neighbors, doctors,...

The chairman of the US bishops’ Committee on Migration has welcomed a federal appeals court ruling that upheld a temporary restraining order against President Donald Trump’s travel ban on refugees from seven predominantly Muslim countries that also temporarily suspended the country’s refugee resettlement programme. “We respect the rule of law and the American judicial process. We remain steadfast in our commitment to resettling refugees and all those fleeing persecution,” Bishop Joe Vasquez of Austin, Texas, said in a statement. “At this time we remain particularly dedicated to ensuring that affected refugee and immigrant families are not separated and that they...

video at Link (12:12) Two weeks ago I travelled with great hope to Budapest, I had been invited by the Hungarian government. I was hopeful that the government of Hungary based on its recent statements of support for the persecuted; who refused to be bullied by the EU and because of its past history from the threat of the Islamic empire would be a beacon of light to the persecuted church, alas I was so very wrong. A darkness not seen since the 1930s and 40s has now covered Europe. The Christians of the Middle East, Far East and Africa...

President Donald Trump said his government will act anew on immigration next week, after a federal appeals court decided not to reinstate his ban on travel from seven Muslim-majority countries. "We’ll be doing something very rapidly having to do with additional security for our country; you’ll be seeing that sometime next week," Trump said at a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Friday. He offered no specifics. The president's tone was somewhat less defiant than in the immediate aftermath of Thursday’s 26-page ruling from a three-judge panel, when he tweeted that the decision was "disgraceful" and vowed...

“The two boys, aged between 10 and 12, were ordered to execute the captives in front of their families…lads refused and were punished for failing to follow orders from the caliphate. Children do not escape the cruelty of Islamic State jihadists. Some horrific examples (which may be disturbing to some people): •A one-year-old Yazidi baby was beaten in front of his mother until she gave in to all of the Islamic State jihadi’s sex demands. •A baby was blown up as part of an Islamic State explosive training exercise. •74 children were executed by the Islamic State for “crimes” that...

A woman in Texas was allegedly so dissatisfied with her taco that police say she shot her boyfriend. Investigators say the woman and a male companion were at a taco truck in north Houston about 2 a.m. Monday morning when the incident occurred.

Is this what they call Virtue Signaling? Jeeeeezzzzz...... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pTNvBNn69Is