Free Republic

Just When You Thought it Was Safe(To stop sleeping in the bathtub) Canandaiga,NY : A farmer in this Finger Lakes community decided to advertise for a second wife – but didn’t want to place a “personals” ad -for fear of being teased by his neighbors…so he planted an ad , using seed corn. Once the corn reached a height of 6 to 7 feet , the farmer’s 900 foot by 600 foot message was clearly visible from the air . 50’ letters proclaimed: SWF Got –2 (heart) Farmin’ An arrow pointed to the farmer’s house. The farmer did get a...

A strange 525 million-year-old fossil creature is baffling scientists because it does not fit neatly into any existing animal groups.The animal, from the early Cambrian Period, might have belonged to a now extinct mollusc-like phylum, academics from America and China say. Other researchers have suggested the creature could represent an early annelid or arthropod. Details are published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. The 5-10cm-long (2-4 inch) fossil, from Anning in China, had a flattened body and horizontal fins which, researchers think, could have been used to support it as it moved along the sea floor. It also had...

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - An eight-year-old boy choked to death in a Malaysian village when a live fish he was holding in his hands leapt into his mouth and lodged in his throat, a news report said Tuesday. Samiun Ahmad, the son of a rubber tapper, had scooped the fish out of a pond in a neighbour's house and was excitedly showing it around when the freak accident occurred Monday, the New Straits Times reported. The report could not be independently confirmed immediately. People around him including a neighbour, Aslinda Khan, and her sons tried to pull the fish...

ALTON -- To the surprise of tree-cutters in Alton Cemetery, a 150-year-old ash revealed a secret it had kept inside its "heart" for possibly more than a century. Jim Scroggins, 27, and Mark Brunetto, 31, both of Holiday Shores and owners of Holiday Tree and Landscape, discovered a limestone headstone dating to 1854 inside the 90-foot tree they were cutting down June 17. As it grew slowly over the years, the tree enclosed the grave marker in its middle, surrounding it with wood and bark and eventually reaching a diameter of 4 feet. The growth process of the tree also...

A historic child custody battle between a transsexual father and his ex-wife ended last Friday in a shared custody agreement that both sides have hailed as nothing short of "miraculous." A Florida judge approved the settlement Friday between Michael Kantaras, who was born Margo Kantaras, and his ex-wife, Linda Forsythe, ending a seven-year dispute that went all the way to the Florida Supreme Court and back before the intervention of "The Dr. Phil Show" raised the prospect of compromise. After two and a half days of guided mediation, the couple agreed on custody terms for Matthew, 16, Linda's child from...

Snowfall in Somalia reported Wed. June 01, 2005 10:36 am. The first snowfall on this part of the world has claimed one life and caused extensive damage to properties. Puntland, northeastern part of Somalia has never recorded snowfall before last night when snow storms with high winds destroyed homes in Rako town. The storm left a blanket of snow on the ground, something residents had never seen in their lives before. Aside from this unexplained snowfall on this tropical land, Somalia has experienced very strange weather in the past few months. Floods killed people and forced rivers to overflow banks...

Third District Judge Stephen Henriod has been judged fit to return to the bench, following three suicide-related visits by police to his home, state court officials say. Salt Lake County sheriff's deputies responded to a domestic violence report at his home in January and seized three guns. They responded to a suicide threat call in February. The most recent call was April 23, when a deputy was called to the home on a suicide attempt. The victim, identified in the heavily edited sheriff's report as a 58-year-old man, had taken pills and was taken to Cottonwood Hospital in serious condition....

A local pilot for American Airlines was in trouble with the law Monday after neighbors in his upscale neighborhood complained about his bizarre behavior. 47 year-old Roy Clemmons has been a highly-regarded pilot for American Airlines. Neighbors like Dorene Phillips said Clemmons is a family man and a hard-working professional, and said they were stunned to learn of Clemmons arrest. Wilson County Sheriff's Deputies arrested Clemmons Friday and charged him with performing lewd and obscene acts while naked, in broad daylight, and in front of his home. In the police report, a neighbor reported Clemmons fondled himself on his front...

When Part II ended last week,the Professor and the Nun were in Perilous Strains,Greece (population 837-excluding malevolent entities). The Professor lay unconscious,amid the still-falling rubble of an abandoned chapel. The Nun,rolling her eyes heavenward,was heard to cry out in anguish: "Oh,Lord ! Men are such babies !" BUT WAIT ! It's now Part III,and the Professor is tucked into a hospital bed,all comfy cozy,and the Nun is beaming with relief at his rapid recovery. The Dauntless Duo have not found the Miracle Baby yet... BUT WAIT ! The doctor casually tells them where the child's mother may be found.He...

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - A Swedish woman who photographed a swan in the river outside the royal palace in Stockholm made a grim discovery when the film was developed: a hand sticking out of the ice. Newspaper Aftonbladet said on its Web Site that Marita Larsson was walking around Stockholm's Old Town in early March and took a photo of a swan on the river as a spring thaw melted the ice. "It was only when I came home and developed the film that I saw there was something particular about the picture. When I had it blown up I saw...

Friends, We need to take immediate action to back President Bush's selection of John Bolton to serve as U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. As we informed you about yesterday, Bolton is a harsh critic of the UN. His appointment has caused an outcry in the "Blame America First" crowd because they know his presence in the UN will spell trouble for those who have backed the UN's track record of corruption and failure. In 1994 Bolton lashed out at the UN in a speech saying: "There is no such thing as the United Nations. There is an international community that...

Psalms 1 1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners. 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. 4 Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly...

At least 200 have been found, and extracted out of deep rock at the Wonderstone Silver Mine in South Africa, averaging 1-4 inches in dia. and composed of a nickel-steel alloy that doesn't occur naturally. Some have a thin shell about a quarter inch thick, when broken open are filled with a strange spongy material that disintegrates into dust upon contact with air. A complete mystery according to Roelf Marx curator of the South African Klerksdorp Museum, as the one he has on exibit rotates on its own, locked in a display case, free of outside vibrations. The manufactured metallic...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A strange and powerful burst of radio waves from near the center of our galaxy may have come from a previously unknown type of space object, U.S. astronomers reported on Wednesday. Other experts nicknamed the mysterious source a "burper" and said there would be a race to scan for similar radio bursts. "We hit the jackpot," said Scott Hyman, a professor of physics at Sweet Briar College in Virginia, who led the study. "An image of the Galactic center, made by collecting radio waves of about 1 meter (3 feet) in wavelength, revealed multiple bursts from the...

WASHINGTON (AP) - When California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger nabbed an endorsement from Common Cause for his plan to redraw political district lines, some Democrats and open-government activists were dismayed. How could the respected good government group sign on with a governor who's been criticized for his supercharged fund-raising? Why was Common Cause embracing a plan that's picked up little or no backing from other nonprofit groups? "Common Cause is star-struck and so they're lending the governor their brand," said Jamie Court, president of the Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights, a Santa Monica-based consumer group that's among Schwarzenegger's chief critics....

Can This Black Box See Into the Future? - DEEP in the basement of a dusty university library in Edinburgh lies a small black box, roughly the size of two cigarette packets side by side, that churns out random numbers in an endless stream. At first glance it is an unremarkable piece of equipment. Encased in metal, it contains at its heart a microchip no more complex than the ones found in modern pocket calculators. But, according to a growing band of top scientists, this box has quite extraordinary powers. It is, they claim, the 'eye' of a machine that...

A Glimpse Ahead Timothy Snodgrass The Impossible Will Come Alive In 2005 01/28/05 In January of 2004, as we began to intercede for the New Year the Holy Spirit gave us the prophetic slogan, "The Seas will Roar in 2004". This year we were given a new slogan, "The Impossible will come Alive in 2005". As the veil of darkness begins to come down over nations and regions, along with great shakings will come great breakthroughs; signs, wonders, healings and a spectacular release of miracles in impossible circumstances. This year, although we are ultimately poised to gain much ground, there...

WHEN Kenneth W. Jennings III, '00, first learned he had been selected to compete in the long-running television game show Jeopardy!, the Murray, Utah, software engineer had three weeks to prepare. He began by watching the program while standing behind his recliner to get the feel of a podium and working on his timing by holding a child's toy about the same size as a buzzer. That simple strategy offers a small glimpse into the seemingly mild- mannered but highly competitive player who, in an unmatched six-month winning streak, became a game-show legend, smashing a bevy of records and sending...

What's the deal with all the dead scientists?

Tony Carr wanted to pay for his burger. Instead, police say, he ended up smooshing the microwaved patty in a store clerk's face. Police have issued an arrest warrant for Carr, 37, of Berwick, Maine. He's charged with simple assault and criminal mischief, both misdemeanors. Investigators say Carr got angry on Nov. 28 when the clerk at a Cumberland Farms would not allow him to pay for a hamburger while it was heating in the store microwave. Police said the clerk, Scott Litzenberger, told Carr he had to bring the burger to the counter 15 feet away to pay for...

Dear American friend, Greetings from your neighbor to the north, Saskatchewan. Canada. I am 53 years old and at home in poor health. I am a Conservative and very much admire President George W. Bush. Please take a look at my biography at my website to see my close association with Republicans in the USA. As a hobby I love to follow American politics on the Internet and on cable TV. I also collect Republican political buttons and T shirts. (X Large) -- and brochures and bumper stickers. I would really be very grateful and honored if you would be...

Woman Moves in with Scorpions KUALA LUMPUR - Scorpions will be the bedfellows of a 24-year-old Malaysian woman for more than a month, as she tries to set a new world record for living with the venomous animals. Nur Malena Hassan moved into a glass box with 6,000 scorpions at a shopping mall in Kuantan, about 160 miles east of Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, Malaysia's New Sunday Times reported. Nur Malena showed no sign of fear as she entered the box, the paper reported, and scorpions soon began crawling over her body as she was monitored by medical staff...

Okay, tin foil hat time. I live out in a rural area on a dead end dirt road that is accessible from another dirt road. In other words, off the beaten path. My neighbor across the road has 45 or 50 acres. Most of it has been planted in corn and his house sits way back on the back edge of the property. His driveway starts on the dirt road that leads to my road and goes through the middle of the cornfield about a half mile back to his house. This morning I was driving to work about 7:30...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - It's not about sex and all about the touchy-feely experience of snuggling up to perfect strangers wearing pajamas. The grab fests are called cuddle parties, and since they started in New York in February, hundreds of people have paid $30 each to touch and embrace others in intimate gatherings. Everyone needs to be cuddled, especially in lonely New York, say creators Reid Mihalko and Marcia Baczynski who say it's a good way to meet new and interesting people.

That was just too weird ...I just had an unreal flashback after seeing Ms Kerry. Bad Acid? Mescaline ? Does anyone know where the bad trip tent is ? Send someone over to help. Where is Betty Ford when you need her ?

An Iranian newspaper has reported the controversial story of a woman who claims to have given birth to a frog. The Iranian daily Etemaad says the creature is believed to have grown from larva to an adult frog inside her body. While it is unclear how this could have happened, the paper carries quotes from medical experts who say there are human characteristics to the animal. It has been speculated that the woman, who has not been named, unknowingly picked up the larva while she was swimming in a dirty pool. The woman, from the south-eastern city of Iranshahr, is...

HANOI, Vietnam - A Vietnamese man who hasn't been to a barber in 31 years is vying to get in the Guinness World Records for having the longest hair, state-controlled media reported Monday. Tran Van Hay's hair is 20 feet long, Thanh Nien (Young People) newspaper said. Normally tied up and covered by a scarf, his hair has grown four feet in the past seven years. He last had it washed six years ago, the paper said. Hay, 67, is a traditional medicine practitioner from southern Kien Giang province, some 220 miles southwest of Ho Chi Minh City. He provides...

Humanity's Strange FaceStone Age skull stokes debate over what it takes to be human Bruce Bower In June 2003, three cave researchers prepared for what they hoped would be a return to the Stone Age. The explorers strapped on scuba gear and plunged into a lake in Romania's Carpathian Mountains. These intrepid souls, led by Stefan Milota of Pro Acva Grup in Timisoara, Romania, swam one at a time into a rocky passage that snakes up into an adjacent limestone hillside. At the top of the 80-foot-long channel, they emerged into the musky air of a pitch-dark cave that most...

UFO's over Utah? A local photographer snapped a picture this week that has people talking. Tommy Woodard is a photo librarian for the Utah Film Commission, and this past Tuesday he took this photo in Provo Canyon. Tommy Woodard, Photo Librarian, Utah Film Comm.: “Well it has the flying saucer shape that’s so familiar. A saucer, that’s all I can think of.” Tommy was in the canyon shooting still photos for a possible film location. He says when he took the shot of the mountainside, he never noticed the strange object. QUESTION: “Did you see that when you took the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – What are the limits of organic life in planetary systems? It’s a heady question that, if answered, may reveal just how crowded the cosmos could be with alien biology. A study arm of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Research Council (NRC), has pulled together a task group of specialists to tackle the issue of alternative life forms -- a.k.a. "weird life". To get things rolling, a workshop on the prospects for finding life on other worlds is being held here May 10-11. The meeting is a joint activity of the NRC’s Space Studies Board's Task...

Spooky goings-on at couple's home May 6, 2004 12:01 SPOOKY encounters are proving to be quite a mystery to a Great Yarmouth couple. Yana and Eric Johnson, of Madden Avenue, have been living with strange spectral entities for several years now and have been visited by a whole range of mediums and paranormal investigators. Mrs Johnson said: "We've been told so many different things and now we're just confused. "We don't know exactly what they are. Someone told us they were my husband's ancestors. "They look like balls of light and some of them have got wings or strands coming...

Harvey Derrick Glanton's statement that he thought he was killing a chicken when he crushed Daniel Bruce Balbaugh's skull was too much for Balbaugh's family. "He is a murderer," said Balbaugh's sister, Linda Balbaugh-Delahoyde. "He did not murder a chicken - he murdered" a man who was a brother, father, grandfather and uncle, she told Judge Herbert C. Gill Jr. in Chesterfield County Circuit Court just after Gill had found Glanton not guilty by reason of insanity. Glanton, 45, was working in Atlanta as a forklift operator when he began to unravel, according to testimony. He had lost an eye...

1:00pm Ancient Aliens TVG, CC 2:00pm Secret UFO Files TVG, CC 3:00pm UFOs: Testing the Evidence TVG, CC 4:00pm UFOs vs. the Government TVG, CC 5:00pm Roswell: Secrets Unveiled TVG, CC 6:00pm ET Tech TVPG, CC 7:00pm Crop Circle Controversy TVG, CC 8:00pm UFOs: What You Didn't Know TVG, CC 9:00pm Flying Pyramids Soaring Stones TVG, CC 12:00am UFOs: What You Didn't Know TVG, CC 1:00am Flying Pyramids Soaring Stones TVG, CC

From LGF.... Veiled Iraqi women parade in Sadr City, a northern Baghdad, Iraq, neighborhood, Saturday April 3 2004. Thousands took part in a parade of the Al-Mehdi army, a shiite group founded by Muktada Al-Sadr. (AP Photo/Samir Mizban

<p>BERLIN (AP) — German prosecutors said Thursday they are investigating a student for stealing electricity after he plugged his laptop into a train station electrical socket and used 0.2 euro cents, or a quarter of a U.S. cent's worth, of power.</p>

According to court records, four witnesses said "Randall lured subjects to his residence via the Internet for the purpose of sex and once they were at his residence he would get them high" with drugs.The report also said Randall had a sex harness in the garage and "once the subjects were in the harness, Randall and other participants would have sex with them and videotape them."Then, "Randall would inject the subjects with the syringes of tainted blood." A good reason to support the death penalty ?

<p>ROME, Italy (Reuters) -- A Sicilian town is struggling to work out why dozens of household items from fridge-freezers to furniture keep mysteriously bursting into flame, terrifying locals and sparking theories of demonic intervention.</p> <p>Since mid-January dozens of electrical goods and pieces of furniture have spontaneously gone up in flames, causing huge damage in Canneto di Caronia, a small town perched on the Mediterranean island's rocky coast.</p>

Incan Counting System Decoded? By Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery News Learn how to add 9+7 on the yupana abacus. Jan. 29, 2004 ? The Inca invented a powerful counting system that could be used to make complex calculations without the tiniest mistake, according to an Italian engineer who claims to have cracked the mathematics of this still mysterious ancient population. Begun in the Andean highlands in about 1200, the Inca ruled the largest empire on Earth by the time their last emperor, Atahualpa, was garroted by Spanish conquistadors in 1533. Long been considered the only major Bronze Age civilization without a...

<p>Chalk it up as another strange year in Florida.</p> <p>There was the defendant who mooned a jury and the bank robber who used an Easter egg defense when he was caught red-handed. There were nude park rangers and a sex-crazed emu -- thankfully not in the same place at the same time.</p>

Children Sue Medical Center After Learning Dad's Embalmed Head Was in Tool Shed for 11 Years The Associated Press SACRAMENTO, Calif. Dec. 27 — The children of a cancer patient who donated his body for research filed a lawsuit after learning their father's embalmed head was kept in a tool shed for nearly 11 years. The head of Osie K. Whitten, who died Dec. 24, 1990, of colon cancer, was among 150 pounds of human cadaver parts allegedly removed from the medical center at the University of California, Davis, by a former autopsy assistant. David Lawrence Beale, who worked for...

<p>PRINCE GEORGE, British Columbia (AP) -- A 30-year-old mystery was solved when the mummified remains of a once-unruly monkey that vanished from a store were found in an old downtown store.</p> <p>Bryon Hill, working on a renovation crew in this central British Columbia town, said he was "totally shocked" to find the mummified squirrel monkey above the ceiling this week.</p>

<p>BERLIN, Germany (Reuters) -- A German TV network's regular early morning film of a burning log is playing havoc with night owls and even tricked a woman into calling out the fire brigade.</p> <p>A spokesman for police in the northern town of Luebeck said Thursday that the woman woke up thinking her television was on fire, called emergency services and alerted her neighbors.</p>

9-Year-Old Recovering After Jawbreaker Blows Up. Candy Explodes As Girl Is About To Put It In Her Mouth. POSTED: 9:38 a.m. EDT September 17, 2003 STARKE, Fla. -- Investigators in Bradford County and several state agencies are trying to figure out what caused a piece of candy to explode in a 9-year-old girl's face. Girl May Need Cosmetic Surgery Taquandra Diggs said she was holding a large piece of candy in her hand, about to put it in her mouth, when it exploded. The girl suffered severe burns on her face, neck and arm. "It hurts a bunch," she said....

Reporters diving for cover at City Hall. Shots are coming from second floor.

As of Saturday, July 20, 2002 at 2pm in Calhoun Georgia, at the Newtown Baptist Church, Darth Sidious exchanged wedding vows with his lovely Bride, Lisa. Yours truly was there to witness the happy event. Groom cried, Bride cried, I cried (Yeah, I decided to admit that before Darth gets the chance to spill the beans on me). The day before on Friday, I arrived in Atlanta and Darth himself picked me up at the airport for our very first face to face meeting. As delightful, as a terrific person as as he is online, he is ten million times...

(Japanese) Cultists Fearing Microwave Attack Whitewash RoadsideGIFU, Japan -- Some 40 members of a bizarre cult have taken over a 200-meter stretch of road in Gifu Prefecture, covering up crash barriers and roadside trees with huge white cloths, it was learned Tuesday. Members of the 'Panawave' cult confront local residents in Gifu Prefecture. Officials of Hachiman and Yamato, the two central Japan towns that manage the Omami road, have urged members of the Fukui-based cult, the "Panawave Laboratory," to move out but they have refused to comply. "One of us fell ill while we were heading to Yamanashi Prefecture...

CANTON — The face of war was symbolically drawn on Stark County concrete Monday night three hours after President Bush gave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein a 48-hour deadline to leave the country or come under attack. Colored chalk outlines of bodies, similar to those at police scenes, appeared on sidewalks and parking lots in Canton, at Canton Centre and Westfield Shoppingtown Belden Village malls, the Strip, libraries, The Repository, hotels and other places where people will see them the first thing in the morning. Fifteen members of the Stark County Peace Coalition created the symbolic drawings in protest of the...

The newly-discovered footprints descending an inclined slope of an extinct volcano (Pic: University of Padua)  Markings in hardened volcanic ash, dubbed "devils' trails" by local Italian villagers, have been confirmed as the oldest-known footprints ever made by humans. The fossilised hand and footprints belong to three early humans who were probably climbing down the side of the Roccamonfina volcano in southern Italy about 385,000 to 325,000 years ago, report a team of Italian palaeontologists in today's issue of the journal, Nature. "We believe that these tracks are the oldest human footprints found so far," said Professor Paolo Mietto of...

ALL baby triplets in North Korea are being removed from their parents and placed in bleak state orphanages where they are fed by foreign aid. The policy has prompted concern among diplomats and aid officials, who have witnessed sets of babies kept in special “triplet rooms” in orphanages across the country. “There is no doubt that the policy is compulsory and universal,” said a seasoned diplomatic visitor to North Korea who has seen the rooms. He said he had not noticed family members visiting the children in his many calls at the orphanages. Conditions when foreigners are allowed to enter...