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The political and social left’s ongoing romance with moral relativism is drearily familiar to us all. How many times have we been told there is no ultimate right or wrong, just shades of perspective? What’s anathema to one person may be the daily pit-stop to another. Of course, this is only true up to a point. The left is just as capable (if not moreso) of creating their own moral absolutes as their foes on the right. “Choice’ becomes an ultimate imperative over “Life”, for example. Remember when Al Gore’s redefined the so-called “Climate Change” crisis as a “moral issue”?...

5 hours ago ROME (AFP) — The Etna volcano in Sicily rumbled back to life on Tuesday with a "seismic event" followed by a burst of ash, volcanologists said three days after minor eruptions shook the cone. A "seismic event provoking a strong explosion was recorded Tuesday at 0424 GMT (6:42 am local) in parts of the peak of the volcano," the National Geophysics and Vulcanology Institute in Sicily's Catania region said in a statement. The explosion on Etna, Europe's tallest active volcano at 3,295 metres (10,810 feet), was followed by a rain of ash on the southeast crater, "where...

SEATTLE (AP) — Microsoft Corp. launched its WorldWide Telescope late Monday, bringing the free Web-based program for zooming around the universe to a broad audience. WorldWide Telescope, developed by Microsoft's research arm, knits together images from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-Ray Observatory Center, the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and others. Computer users can browse through the galaxy on their own or take guided tours of different outer-space destinations developed by astronomers and academics. The site lets users choose from a number of different telescopes and switch between different light wavelengths. http://www.worldwidetelescope.org

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Fashion designers are giving new life to worthless candy wrappers, newspapers and plastic bags; turning trash into trendy tote bags, purses and jewelry. From "post-consumer and industrial waste" comes durable, funky accessories reportedly worn by celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan, Cameron Diaz and Petra Nemcova. One self-described eco-fashion label, Ecoist, has partnered with Coca-Cola, Luna Bar, and Aveda to create handbags made from misprinted and discontinued packaging. "We tap into that source of waste because it is reliable and unfortunately it's abundant," said Ecoist co-founder Jonathan Marcoschamer. "We believe that for the next few years there's...

MIAMI, Florida (CNN) -- Fashion designers are giving new life to worthless candy wrappers, newspapers and plastic bags; turning trash into trendy tote bags, purses and jewelry. From "post-consumer and industrial waste" comes durable, funky accessories reportedly worn by celebrities such as Lindsay Lohan, Cameron Diaz and Petra Nemcova. One self-described eco-fashion label, Ecoist, has partnered with Coca-Cola, Luna Bar, and Aveda to create handbags made from misprinted and discontinued packaging. "We tap into that source of waste because it is reliable and unfortunately it's abundant," said Ecoist co-founder Jonathan Marcoschamer. "We believe that for the next few years there's...

Follow that fish -- threespine sticklebacks that were used in the experiments For animals that live in social groups, and that includes humans, blindly following a leader could place them in danger. To avoid this, animals have developed simple but effective behaviour to follow where at least a few of them dare to tread – rather than follow a single group member. This pattern of behaviour reduces the risk of imitating maverick behaviour of an individual as the group recognise that consensus is better than following someone that goes it alone. Love personal electronics? Link up with the like...

WASHINGTON -- Now that the presidential contest is looking ever more like a two-man race, the country can't help but marvel: John McCain, once a longshot, wouldn't lie down. Barack Obama, the new kid, charmed voters. And Hillary Rodham Clinton, an early favorite, has yet to surrender. But Arlyn J. Imberman would say clues to the nomination fight were in plain sight, every time a candidate wrote a thank-you note, inscribed a memoir or autographed a pair of boxing gloves. "Obama is very much his writing -- fluid, graceful. McCain's is angular and intense; he's a pit bull. And look...

We recently reported on the unfortunate demise of the Bajaj 3-wheeler from the American market due to slow sales. Happily, a new brand of funky 3-wheelers is set to make its debut in the U.S. by way of Thailand. Tuk Tuk North America (TTNA) reports that its vehicles are currently undergoing EPA and NHTSA testing for road-use approval, though its line of trikes is reportedly already for sale for off-road use. Available in a number of passenger, cargo and truck body styles, the Tuk Tuk comes equipped with either a 200cc or 650cc version of a newly-designed, liquid-cooled four-stroke...

US researchers say they have developed an effective way to kill unwanted plants and animals that hitch a ride in the ballast waters of cargo vessels. Tests showed that a continuous microwave system was able to remove all marine life within the water tanks. The UN lists "invasive species" dispersed by ballast water discharges as one of the four main threats to the world's marine ecosystems. The findings will appear in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. Shipping moves more than 80% of the world's commodities and transfers up to five billion tonnes of ballast water internationally each year, data...

NY man sues airline over flight spent in toilet Mon May 12, 2008 6:52pm EDT NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York man who says he was denied a seat on a five-hour jetBlue flight and was instead told to "hang out" in the plane's bathroom has sued the airline for $2 million, saying he suffered "extreme humiliation." When Gokhan Mutlu arrived to check in for a jetBlue flight from San Diego to New York in February he was told the flight was full, according to the lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court. But Mutlu was allowed to...

SENECA, Mo. - Nearly half of the 21 people killed by a tornado that smashed parts of Oklahoma and Missouri over the weekend died in cars, troubling experts who say vehicles are among the worst places to be during a twister. "It's like taking a handful of Matchbox cars and rolling them across the kitchen floor," said Sgt. Dan Bracker of the Missouri State Highway Patrol, surveying the damage in Newton County near the Oklahoma line, the hardest hit area. "This is devastating." ... Lie flat in a ditch or low spot Weather experts say motorists and their passengers should...

CULTURE WATCH by Nancy Morgan "I'll take 'DEMOCRAT and DISENFRANCHISED' for $1000, Alex." It's official. If you are a Democrat, your vote doesn't count. The Democrat presidential nomination will eventually be decided by superdelegates and the uncommitted superdelegates in Congress overwhelmingly say they won't necessarily back the candidate who wins the most primary delegates. Instead, they will vote based on which candidate will be most electable. Oh, those wacky Dems. With Hillary appearing dead in the water, the media has had time to focus on more important things, like the climate tour John McCain is planning. And polls on which...

The avalanche of bankruptcies has begun. Six US companies of substance have defaulted on bonds over the past fortnight, against 17 for the whole of last year. As a "non-believer" in the instant rebound story, I am not easily shocked by gloomy reports. But the latest note by Standard & Poor's - The Bust After The Boom - gave me a fright. The sick list is varied, though most for now are victims of the housing crash: Linens 'n Things, ($650m), Kimball Hill ($703m), Home Interiors ($310m), French Lick Resorts ($142m), Recycled Paper Greetings ($187m), and Tropicana Entertainment ($2.49bn). As...

Do you think talk radio in its current format is fair and good for our democracy? Please e-mail your answers to forum@sacbee.com and include your name and where you live. Please limit your responses to 300 words, and we'll consider them for next Sunday's Forum There's a mournful hush in Sacramento these days, the empty sound of an entire political viewpoint quieted. More than 32,000 weekly listeners who once tuned to KSAC (1240 AM) to hear partisan Democrats beat up on President George W. Bush, now hear only Christian hip-hop. But there are six other commercial radio stations licensed in...

"May we live long and die out" is the unofficial motto of a new movement that seeks to improve the Earth's ecosystem by ensuring that the human species does not survive. The Voluntary Human Extinction Movement, or VHEMT, consists of volunteers who have made active life decisions to remain childless for the benefit of the Earth, thereby preventing the extinction of millions of species of plants and animals. While no one person takes credit for being the founder, Les U. Knight created its name and is the spokesperson for the movement. "We've already exceeded Earth's carrying capacity for humans by...

Howie weekly thread starting off with Sunday Herald column

A Few of FR's Finest November 11, 2001 So many people have written me since my original Veteran's Day Tribute, asking how they, or a loved one, could be included in that tribute. Since I could no longer add the photos to the body of the thread, I have been including them here as I receive enough to make another collage. I think there's never been a better nor more appropriate time to keep the faces of our own Veterans and Active Military in front of FReepers--every day! That's why I wanted to do yet another Daily Thread .....ABOUT...

LONDON -- May 6, 2008 -- The selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) fluoxetine (Prozac) may help to curb disease activity in patients with the relapsing-remitting form of multiple sclerosis (MS). That's the finding of preliminary research published ahead of print in the journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. The research team randomly allocated 40 patients with the relapsing-remitting form of MS to treatment with either 20 mg daily of fluoxetine (Prozac) or placebo for 24 weeks. All patients underwent magnetic resonance imaging every 4 weeks to check for new areas of neurological inflammation, a hallmark of active disease. In total,...

Carol Rudes has not read her son's love letter couched in a short autobiography he has written. He's been waiting for the perfect time to give it to his mom. Today. "My name is Mathew Rudes, and this is my story. When I was brought into this world 21 years ago, doctors predicted that I had less than 24 hours to live. "They had only to look at my warped body, hands bent at odd angles, to know that something was not right. I was quickly whisked away to another room. The doctors refused to let my mother look at...

Stephen Hawking seeks 'Einsteins of Africa' By Sebastien Berger in Johannesburg Last Updated: 9:18PM BST 11/05/2008Stephen Hawking, the wheelchair-bound physicist, has launched a search for the "Einsteins of Africa" with a lecture in Cape Town. Prof Hawking: 'The world of science needs Africa's brilliant talents'Prof Hawking's speech at the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS), titled Universe, marked the expansion of the postgraduate institution in an effort to accelerate Africa's development. Two Nobel physics laureates – a prize which still eludes the author of A Brief History of Time – along with the head of Nasa, also took part. Prof...

A hilarious must-see You Tube video: Hillary's Downfall quesney posted the video yesterday, but it's worth repeating for those who haven't seen it yet. Lots of cursing (be warned), but one of the funniest things I've seen. Play with the sound up and full screen. Enjoy!

You bet your babushka, baby. But now, the red menace is kind of green. NEW YORK - The decor inside the national headquarters of the Communist Party USA, or CPUSA, is more Macy's than Marx. Glass walls rise from the floor to form state-of-the-art work spaces, nontoxic linseed oil burnishes the work surfaces, and biodegradable blue carpet is underfoot. Colorful paintings by the renowned artists Boris Taslitzky and Alejandro Romero, depicting the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps and working-class struggle, dot the walls of the expansive open-plan office. Inside their transparent cubicles, the 21-strong staff tap away on Apple...

When people look at a presidential candidate in the same way they see a pop culture figure we are all in a mess. Following the “light that is darkness” will get us someplace but it will not be where we want to be. All too often the negative aspect of the messenger or the prophet is all that is seen or heard but for those with a “cup is half full” mentality the positive side is seen as well. God loves America and he does not want to see it fall or be judged. He said it like this; how...

The most realistic way to raise global supply is to replicate the Brazilian model of large, technologically sophisticated agro-companies supplying for the world market.... There are still many areas of the world that have good land which could be used far more productively if it was properly managed by large companies... Unfortunately, large-scale commercial agriculture is unromantic. We laud the production style of the peasant: environmentally sustainable and human in scale. In respect of manufacturing and services we grew out of this fantasy years ago, but in agriculture it continues to contaminate our policies. In Europe and Japan huge public...

* Junior Bonnie Richardson was the only athlete from Rochelle High School * She won the high jump and 200 meter dash, and placed in three other events * She earned a total of 42 team points to edge runner-up Chilton (36). AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Bonnie Richardson ran. She threw. She jumped. And when it was time to hand out the team trophies, Richardson accepted the 1A team championship for Rochelle High School -- by herself. Richardson was the only Rochelle athlete to qualify for the state meet and stunningly won the team title. University Interscholastic League officials said...

Bonnie Richardson ran. She threw. She jumped. And when it was time to hand out the team trophies, Richardson accepted the 1A team championship for Rochelle High School -- by herself. Bonnie Richardson of Rochelle High School scored 42 team points to win the Texas 1A track title. Richardson was the only Rochelle athlete to qualify for the state meet and stunningly won the team title. University Interscholastic League officials said it was the first time they can remember a single athlete winning a girls' team title.

And Now, the Islamophobia Observatory Sat, May 10, 2008 at 6:08:43 pm PDT Who says Islamic nations aren’t coming up with ground-breaking, innovative research? The 57 nations of the Organization of the Islamic Conference are opening a new observatory! No, not that kind of observatory, silly. This kind: =============================================== Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Secretary-General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu has stated that a project called the Islamophobia Observatory has been launched in order to eliminate the worldwide waves of fear of Islam. [Good luck with that. – ed.] Ihsanoglu cited the commonsensical intellectual reaction of the Danish public following cartoons published...

A former college student accused of stealing people's credit to travel the world with her Ivy League boyfriend is nearing a federal plea deal, her lawyer said. Jocelyn Kirsch, 22, and Edward Anderton, 25, are due in state court in Philadelphia on Monday for a preliminary hearing. They will not appear as the case is moved to federal court, the lawyer said. "It's obviously been a difficult, taxing process for her and her family," lawyer Ronald Greenblatt told The Associated Press on Saturday. He declined to discuss details of the potential plea. But given the scope of the alleged fraud,...

Contemporary marriage leads to fewer connections in the community, say sociologists Naomi Gerstel of UMass Amherst and Natalia Sarkisian of Boston College. In their paper “Marriage: the Good, the Bad, and the Greedy,” they present evidence that married couples spend less time socializing with friends, neighbors, and families than do singles. The married couples studied were also less likely to provide emotional support and offer help with chores outside of their own households. Critics of the paper say raising children, not marriage in and of itself, cuts into time for community-oriented events.

Horror on the Beach. And in our "It's Been a Bloody Spring" Department, we present the seventh (or is it eighth?) shark attack since the beginning of March... A white pointer up to five metres (sixteen feet in real measurement) long attacked schoolteacher Jason Cull, 37, while he was swimming with dolphins at Middleton Beach, in front of the Albany Surf Life Saving Club at 7.20am yesterday. Joanne Lucas, 50, who was on the beach after arriving early for surfboat rowing practice, dived into the water after hearing Mr Cull’s screams for help. “I just saw someone thrashing in the...

Auto Safety Expert: Check Age Of Tires The tires motorists depend on every day to help get them from here to there might be holding a secret that could prove catastrophic. Not many people think about the age of their tires. Most think mileage ratings are the only determining factor in how long tires will last. Drivers should also consider how old their tires are -- not when they were bought, but when they were made, Call 6's Rafael Sanchez reported. Safety advocate Sean Kane has spent years investigating tire failures. His group, Safety and Research Strategies Inc., documented 140...

Last week on the Larry King Show, Michael Moore took the high road. He simply could not bring himself to pronounce judgment on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s tirades. “I’m a white guy,” explained the rotund film-maker. “And I mean, you have to ask yourself, Larry, what’s it like to be black in America? ….And I do not believe, as a white guy, that I am in any position to judge a black man who has had to live through that.”

What does it cost to attract first-class talent to a chief executive job in the U.S.? A lot. What does it cost to hire a clunker? Almost as much. You need look no further than Gary Forsee to see why the absurdities of compensation for U.S. executives rankle shareholders so much. In 2003 Forsee negotiated a pay package to join Sprint as its chief executive officer that promised to leave him rich--whether he succeeded or failed at turning around the troubled long-distance phone company. Sprint first paid him $6.5 million in cash and stock just to leave BellSouth, where he...

By the time authorities finally cornered the offender under a porch, it was too late. He had done enough damage that Vicki and Mark Royal and their four kids were forced to flee their house and move to a neighboring suburb as men in protective suits stripped the building to its studs and threw out most of their belongings. When the family saw the skunk that started this ruinous chain of events, they were struck by one thing: "It was actually very cute," Vicki Royal said. The situation remains dire nonetheless. A year into the ordeal, the Royals' 5-bedroom, 6.5-bath...

ROME: Silvio Berlusconi was sworn in Thursday as prime minister of Italy for the third time in his political career, after forming one of Italy's most rightist cabinets since World War II. "We're in a honeymoon period," Berlusconi said, adding that he intended to pick up where he left off in 2006, when he failed to be re-elected after a five-year term. He also served as prime minister from 1994 to 1995. "We have 100 days to avoid disappointing those who put their faith in us, and five years to change and modernize this country," he was quoted by the...

It wasn't the dinosaurs' fault the asteroid hit them. Okay, let's back up a bit. I am alluding to an hypothesis, first advanced by Luis Alvarez and son, that a large asteroid hit the earth, causing the mass die-off of dinosaur and many other species, at what we used to call "the K-T boundary" (the end of the Cretaceous geological period) about 65 million years ago. This was proposed in 1980, and given apparent confirmation by the discovery of traces of a huge impact crater in the Yucatan around 1990. It then quickly became Al-Gorey "settled science" - before being...

I still remember the day the “Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” was released; I was the first in line, with my adult son. It was a marvelous masterpiece of a movie. I know that Prince Caspian will be even better. I told Doug during our interview, that I am so excited about seeing this film that I feel like a child again. He laughed and told me I will be thrilled. He continued “...the enemy has tried to steal the film industry, but he has not succeeded. Many in our day seem to think that it is political leaders...

Postmistress, 63, who clipped yobs with rolled up parish council minutes faces police inquiry By LUKE SALKELD - More by this author » Last updated at 19:15pm on 9th May 2008 Her parish council had already voted to ban football on the village green to protect the floral displays. But when she saw a group of youths kicking a ball near her treasured blooms Alma Harding decided on more immediate action. The 63-year-old retired postmistress marched over and ordered them to go to playing fields nearby. Scroll down for more... Don't mess: Alma Harding and the offending rolled up copy...

What else is there to do on Fridays besides FReep and listen to TSN?! C'mon, eat, drink, breathe SAVAGE? TGIF! TGIS!

MAY ePOLL Do you agree that Americas push to produce more ethanol as a motor fuel is a sound policy economically and environmentally? Results To Date Yes: 50 No: 326 Don't Know 19 Total: 395

Video here

HANOVER, MD, May 8, 2008 – Research done by the U.S. Department of the Interior to determine if global warming threatens the polar bear population is so flawed that it cannot be used to justify listing the polar bear as an endangered species, according to a study being published later this year in Interfaces, a journal of the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS®). ...

BATON ROUGE, La. - A construction company owner who lost two homes in Hurricane Katrina claimed a $97 million Powerball prize, a jackpot won off a ticket he bought at a convenience store where he stopped to buy his wife a gallon of milk. When he turned in the winning ticket, Carl Hunter became the largest Powerball winner in Louisiana's history. He won the jackpot in January, but the 73-year-old small businessman waited nearly four months to claim the prize. An avid lottery player, Hunter said he already had bought a Powerball ticket on Jan. 16 at the gas station...

Carol Felsenthal's new book about Bill Clinton's post-presidential years, Clinton in Exile, is often catty, occasionally malicious, and overly reliant on unnamed sources. It's also pretty boring; when Felsenthal's not muckraking, she's content to trot out newspaper accounts of Clinton's foundation work and his appearances on the guest-speaker circuit. But don't fret—with Slate's reading guide, you can zip straight to the water-cooler-worthy gossip.

SYNOPSIS: It also has received over $3.2 million in federal funding from the DOE to develop its 3D advanced batteries. The Peoria, Ill., startup capped off a $16 million third round of funding to continue developing and marketing its carbon and graphite foam-based battery technologies for commercial and military use. Khosla Ventures and Infield Capital, which signed on as new investors to lead the deal, were joined by Stark Capital, Caterpillar and other previous investors. Firefly, which claims its lead acid batteries are cheaper, lighter and more powerful than conventional ones, will release the Oasis battery this summer. Intended for...

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 200,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world. A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in...

''Where is George Bush's bedroom?'' Oliver Stone is flinging open French doors inside an enormous brick mansion in Shreveport, La., inspecting locations for his new film about the 43rd President of the United States. ''This one is too small,'' he says. ''This one looks like George Tenet's bedroom. Where did we decide to put Bush's bedroom? It's around here somewhere, isn't it?'' Shooting begins in less than two weeks on W (or dub-ya, as it's spelled out in the initial sketches for the poster), but not everything is exactly where it should be, and not only here in the house...

Students at a California public school have written a series of letters to Chicago's Heartland Institute, which works to discover and develop free-market solutions to society's problems, attacking its members for "destroying our planet" by refusing to endorse the politics of Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth" film. According to students in the sixth-grade class of teacher Michael Steria at David A. Brown Middle School, the institute consists of "fools" and "horrible people." "I think your (sic) fools for denying G.W. you know it could kill us all & you're just adding to it. I want you to help stop G.W....

Pressured by the gun lobby and 51 US senators, the Interior Department proposes enhancing everyone's national park experience by letting people pack heat with a picnic. That's just what the nation's millions of park visitors don't need.