Free Republic

Laura makes fun of the "Intellectial Conservatives". It's only about 30 seconds.

http://www.mikefrancesa.com/wordpress/?p=1178Joe Biden, the gaffe master keeps on going. Video at the above link, here is the transcript: Joe Biden: The Republican party and some of the blogs and others on the far right, are trying very hard to paint a picture of this man, they’re trying the best as they can to mischaracterize who he is and what he stands for. All this stuff about how different Barack Obama is, they’re not just used to somebody really smart. They’re just not used to somebody who’s really well educated. They just don’t know quite how to handle it. Cause if he’s...

Bo (woof) In Commentary: Some think this dog is amazing. Me, I’m not surprised. (In case you missed this one, a Mission Viejo woman’s dog — a 9-year-old cockapoo known as Cookie Einstein — has become a celebrity of sorts for her apparent mathematical abilities, the O.C. Register’s Niyaz Pirani reported over the weekend. She [Cookie] adds, subtracts, multiplies, divides and calculates square roots and simple algebra through barking. And Cookie can answer if the question’s asked in either English or Spanish.) Bi-lingual and good in math…she must have scored well on her SATs. Cookie won’t respond to anybody but...

<p>Why are our owners so obsessed with finding out how intelligent we are? All they need to know is that we got it going on upstairs. How else to explain us living in their homes, eating their food and having them pick up our feces? And all of that without us paying them a dime.</p>

Just because, I really really like the idea! :)

WARREN, Maine — William Flynn depicts himself as a do-gooder, a member of the Jaycees who has a wife and teenage stepdaughter and likes to play softball. At least that's how he'd like to be seen by a judge, who's considering freeing Flynn early from the 28 years-to-life prison term he got for killing his lover's husband as a teenager in the notorious Pamela Smart murder case. Since going to prison nearly two decades ago, Flynn has earned a high school equivalency degree and an electrician's helper license, gotten married and raised money for charity. He says in court documents...

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Monkeys performed about as well as college students at mental addition, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a finding that suggests nonverbal math skills are not unique to humans. The research from Duke University follows the finding by Japanese researchers earlier this month that young chimpanzees performed better than human adults at a memory game. Prior studies have found non-human primates can match numbers of objects, compare numbers and choose the larger number of two sets of objects. "This is the first study that looked at whether or not they could make explicit decisions that were based...

Dogs display aspects of human intelligence By Roger Highfield, Science Editor Last Updated: 6:01pm GMT 28/11/2007 Dog lovers have long claimed that their pets are smarter than many of us realise. New evidence to back that view comes from research published today which concludes that, like us, our canine friends are able to form abstract concepts. Friederike Range and colleagues from the University of Vienna, Austria, show for the first time that dogs are able to learn how to classify complex colour photographs and place them into categories in the same way that humans do. Training stimuli: Images of dogs...

The US Navy's new stealth robot carrier plane is now "structurally complete", according to its maker, and is now being fitted out with subsystems while software tests begin. The Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator (UCAS-D) is expected to make its first flight the year after next, and its first carrier deck landing in 2011. "Once we get robust flight controls we will begin failure detection and accommodation testing, which is the real key to any unmanned aircraft," said Scott Winship, UCAS-D project chief at Northrop Grumman, talking to Flight International. Although a firm decision by the US Navy to build...

Neanderthals 'were ahead of their time' Last Updated: 2:42am BST 14/06/2007 Big, brutish and stupid - it's a commonly held view that our prehistoric predecessors were as wild and unsophisticated as the animals they hunted. Neanderthal man was 'as smart as we are' But Neanderthal man was not as slow-witted as he looked and was in reality as smart as we are, an archaeologist claims. They were actually innovators who used different forms of tools to adapt to the ecological challenges posed by harsh habitats as they spread through Europe. Although our ancestors have become the butt of jokes about...

Dogs 'as bright as a 14-month-old child' By Tim Shipman, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 12:56am BST 10/06/2007 Dog lovers have long argued that their pets are practically human. Just how close they are to the truth is revealed by research showing that the creatures have the intelligence of a toddler. As with humans, they have the capacity to decide whether to copy others' behaviour, depending if it makes sense to do so. Researchers at the University of Vienna trained a female border collie called Guinness to use her paws to push a bar that released a treat, rather than using...

War On Terror: Europe plans to investigate mosques and identify clerics who preach terrorism. As they pay for decades of foolish immigration policies, they can be thankful there's no ACLU looking over their shoulders. European Union security officials say they will analyze member-state mosques, examining the training and funding sources of imams, in a project to be completed by fall. It may be abhorrent to societies proud of religious toleration to "discriminate" against the places of worship of one particular faith. But as usually politically correct Europeans have concluded, it also amounts to simple common sense.

When the Smart Fortwo arrives in the U.S. in early 2008, parent company DaimlerChrysler doesn't want to repeat past mistakes. The first Smart hit the European market in 1998, but the brand has never been profitable. With the new Fortwo, Smart is starting anew with a car tailor-made for the United States. Standard safety features include four airbags, ABS and stability control. The U.S. Fortwo will have increased cabin and trunk space and a new 1.0-liter 3-cylinder engine making 84 bhp, mated to a refined semi-automatic transmission. Company executives claim the car will get about 40 mpg. Three models will...

WASHINGTON --In a published report, the Lovenstein Institute of Scranton, Pennsylvania has detailed findings of a four month study of the intelligence quotient of President George W. Bush. Since 1973, the Lovenstein Institute has published its research to the education community on each new president, which includes the famous "IQ" report among others. According to statements in the report, there have been twelve presidents over the past 60 years, from F. D. Roosevelt to G. W. Bush who were all rated based on scholarly achievements, writings that they alone produced without aid of staff, their ability to speak with clarity,...

Maths genius declines top prize Photos of the reclusive genius are rare Grigory Perelman, the Russian who seems to have solved one of the hardest problems in mathematics, has declined one of the discipline's top awards. Dr Perelman was to have been presented with the prestigious Fields Medal by King Juan Carlos of Spain, at a ceremony in Madrid on Tuesday. In 2002, the mathematician claimed to have solved a century-old problem called the Poincare Conjecture. So far, experts working to verify his proof have found no significant flaws. There had been considerable speculation that Grigory "Grisha" Perelman would...

I like France. The language is beautiful. The food is inspiring. And I appreciate topless beaches as much as the next guy. Still, I sometimes wonder if eating snails doesn't somehow dull one's ability to make sensible economic policy. I promised that this column, I would debunk one of the most pernicious economic ideas of the left. (In my last column, I skewered one from the right: See "Debunking One of the Worst Ideas in Economics".) I've chosen the "lump of labor" fallacy, which is the mistaken notion that the world has a fixed number of jobs and that therefore...

Mars robots to get smart upgrade By Jonathan Amos BBC News science reporter, in Baltimore Dust devils on Mars: Catch them if you can The US space agency's rovers will get a software upgrade to allow them to make "intelligent" decisions in the study of Martian clouds and dust devils. The new algorithms will give the robots' computers the onboard ability to search through their images to find pictures that feature these phenomena. Only the most significant data will then be sent to Earth, maximising the scientific return from the missions. Nasa says its robotic craft will become increasingly autonomous...

Minneapolis-St. Paul is a "cosmopolitan gem," according to a new ranking by Kiplinger's Personal Finance magazine. Granted, "the winter weather isn't for wusses," Kiplinger's June issue reports, but the seven-county Twin Cities area has so many good things to brag about: cost of living and housing, quality health care, low crime rate, education, quality of life, cultural amenities, the economy and transportation. St. Paul doesn't get short shrift either in the write-up: The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra are mentioned, among other pluses. Minneapolis is described as "progressive and hip, with a Midwestern sensibility."...

MANCHESTER, Pa. -- A cat interrupted a catnap, possibly saving two lives. Jean Poole and her 9-month-old granddaughter were dozing Tuesday in Poole's home in the Newberry Estates mobile home park. Poole's 7-year-old cat, Princess, woke them up, meowing loudly. Poole got up, smelled smoke and heard crackling flames. She went to check the wood burning stove in the living room, and saw flames at the picture window. With fire blocking the front door, Poole grabbed the baby and went out the rear door. Then she returned to get Princess. "She woke me up. I don't know if I'd have...

Clothes also make the woman trying to look smart amid disaster Leonard Pitts Jr. / Syndicated columnist New Orleans cultural ambassador, Irvin Mayfield, plays a tribute to first responders as Mayor Ray Nagin, left, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu, second from left, Lt. Gov Mitch Landrieu, and Gov. Kathleen Blanco, center, listen during an Interfaith Celebration in front of the Superdome in New Orleans, La., Sunday Jan. 1, 2006. The event was sponsored by Louisiana Rebirth celebrating the strength of those dedicated to the rebirth of Louisiana. (AP Photo/Steve Helber) Apparently, Brownie wasn't the only one. You remember the grief that...