Free Republic

If you go take a dip off the Virginia coast this Memorial Day weekend, you could be swimming with a toothy, 3,400-pound buddy. Mary Lee, a 16-foot great white shark and an Internet sensation, is touring the Atlantic coast — sometimes close to shore.

Gurr test-driving an early prototype of his Autopia vehicle in 1955.George Clooney may get top billing in his new film, Tomorrowland, but design visionary Gurr is the real star.In his 27 years as a Disney Imagineer, Bob Gurr was known for doing the impossible: He designed a submarine fleet, the cars of Autopia, and the Monorail that soars above the park on a single beam. With the opening of Tomorrowland in 1955, Gurr shaped a vision of the future (1986 to be exact) that still feels out of reach. Six decades after Gurr began creating ride vehicles for the theme...

Potential candidate for president and former Governor of Florida JEB Bush told FOX News’ Megyn Kelly that “unlike some other GOP presidential contenders, I would not move to immediately undo President Obama’s executive action granting special privileges to illegal immigrants. Instead, I would refuse to revoke it until Congress passed appropriate enabling legislation. In any case, the American voter can count on me to see that legalizing those in this country illegally will go forward with or without legislation.” Bush acknowledged the shaky legality of Obama’s executive action, but averred that “doing the right thing is more important than confining...

In just a few years, communities that depend on the trucking industry for their vitality will be facing major economic disruption.Roscoe, Nebraska, is a good place to contemplate how the evolution of long-haul travel can change a community. This unincorporated settlement—some classify Roscoe as a “semi-ghost town”—sits about seven miles east of the city of Ogallala along U.S. 30, which follows the old Lincoln Highway route and before that, various overland migration trails to California, Oregon and Utah. Just off U.S. 30, opposite the Union Pacific freight-rail tracks, there’s an abandoned gas station with its former pump, pictured above, standing...

It’s no secret that uncurbed climate change and population growth are going to (and already have) put stress on the planet. But the situation is getting so bad that one prominent NASA scientist says we have to start thinking about terraforming Mars and that, in order for the human race to survive at current levels, we will eventually “need at least three planets.” “The entire ecosystem is crashing,” Dennis Bushnell, chief scientist of NASA’s Langley Research Center said Thursday. “Essentially, there’s too many of us. We’ve been far too successful as the human animal. People allege we’re short 40-50 percent...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK)An Amtrak employee has filed the first lawsuit in connection to Tuesday's deadly train derailment that killed eight people and injured over 200 others in Philadelphia. The Bala Cynwyd law firm Coffey Kaye Myers & Olley, which is representing Amtrak employee Bruce Phillips and his wife Kalita Phillips of Philadelphia, confirmed with NBC10 that their clients are filing a lawsuit against Amtrak. Phillips is still hospitalized at Temple University Hospital. Phillips, an Amtrak employee, was "deadheading" in one of the rear railcars of Amtrak Regional Train 188 Tuesday night when the derailment occurred, according to the lawsuit. Deadheading is a...

“Infrastructure-wise, we’re becoming a Third World country,” guest host Joy Behar says.The women of “The View” tackled a pressing issue of the week along with a decade-long argument on Thursday’s episode: the deadly Amtrak train crash in Philadelphia and America’s decision to go to war in Iraq. With Whoopi Goldberg absent from the show, Nicolle Wallace, Rosie Perez and Raven-Symone were joined by “View” veteran Joy Behar and model/actress Molly Sims. Given the diverse ideologies on Thursday’s panel, the conversation grew heated at times. The discussion about the train derailment in Philadelphia quickly turned to Republican efforts to cut funding...

* Nasa is thought to have successfully tested a revolutionary power source * Claimed it could fly for eons at the equivalent of 450 million miles an hour * It is powered by a device similar to that found in a microwave oven * Invented by now retired British scientist Roger Shawyer a decade agoAnyone who has ever watched an episode of Star Trek or a Star Wars film will know how it works. The good guys are minding their business in outer space when suddenly the Klingons or the Dark Empire bear down on them out of nowhere. There...

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Wells Fargo has confirmed that one of their executives has been confirmed as one of the seven people who died in an Amtrak train derailment on Tuesday night. The VP has been identified as Abid Gilani. "It is with great sadness that Wells Fargo confirms that Abid Gilani, a valued member of our Commercial Real Estate division, has passed away. Our hearts go out to all those impacted by this tragedy." the company said in a statement. A U.S. Naval Academy midshipman and an Associated Press staffer are also among those who are confirmed dead. ABC News...

... In January, the German government said that in 2014 it had managed to balance its books for the first time since 1969, a year ahead of target.

In a speech in Puerto Rico, former Florida Governor Jeb Bush (R) told the audience that "I am a Latino trapped inside an Anglo body." Bush lamented that "there is no ethnic reassignment protocol like there is gender reassignment therapy for a woman trapped inside a man's body. Nevertheless, I feel as if I am an illegal immigrant and want to do what I can to secure the rights of all my compatriots to enjoy the fruits of US citizenship." if you missed any of this week's other semi-news/semi-satire posts you can find them at... http://www.gopbriefingroom.com/index.php/topic,169629.0.html

The EmDrive, an experimental propulsion device, may be producing a warp field. According to posts on the NASA Space Flight forum, when lasers were fired into the EmDrive resonance chamber, it was found that some of the beams were travelling faster than the speed of light. (VIDEO-AT-LINK)If this is true, then it would mean that the EmDrive is producing a warp field or bubble. A forum post says that "this signature (the interference pattern) on the EmDrive looks just like what a warp bubble looks like. And the math behind the warp bubble apparently matches the interference pattern found in...

Six years from now a machine that makes oxygen will be in operation on Mars. The small oxygen device will be sent to the Red Planet with the NASA Mars 2020 mission. "We're going to build a small instrument that will generate oxygen on Mars. It will be the prototype of a much larger 'factory' that will provide astronauts with oxygen at some point in the future," says Morten Bo Madsen, the head of the Mars group at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen. The project is known at NASA as MOXIE (Mars OXygen In Situ resource...

I noticed that my Congressman (Roe TN-1) was in Pigeon Forge this past weekend to welcome Paula Deen. Recall that she got the business not too long ago for thoughtcrime. Thought some FReepers who might be coming to East Tenn for vacation or passing through might be interested. Menu looks mouth watering.

...The former faculty member was Warren Weinstein, who had been held hostage since 2011. He was in Pakistan working with human rights and assistance groups. Earlier in his career, he taught political science at SUNY Oswego.

Dave Ramsey always says the phrase "Live like no one else so you can live like No One Else" on his show. And anyone who listens knows it's about eating "beans and rice and rice and beans" and till you overcome the debt lifestyle. But what's not talked about is the other side - where you've made it and are living "Like No One else". What's that like and what kind of thinking happens on that side of the fence? Having just come back from Two Weeks in Oahu, I was thinking about it. How did I get to this...

In cases of international intrigues and current controversies having to do with how fictional movies can effect real-life people and events around the globe, I have yet to watch The Interview, last year’s comedy about North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un, which provoked terror threats against theaters and sensational accusations concerning the hacking of Sony. However, yesterday I had the occasion to catch the award-winning black comedy from Argentina, Wild Tales, a darkly funny and shocking cinematic masterpiece containing six short-film vignettes, all having the common theme of ordinary human characters losing their minds and acting out unexpected, violent revenge upon...

A bus union leader is saying that she is “triggered” whenever she thinks about private buses that are becoming popular in San Francisco. Leap, one such company, is gaining popularity in the city for their luxury buses and comfortable seating. Not all people are happy with such start-up businesses. The San Francisco Transit Riders Union, for example, is upset at companies like Leap. SFTRU for short, the union describes itself as “A rider-based, grassroots organization working to improve transit in San Francisco.” Ilyse Magy, a representative for the union, said that not only are private buses classist, but they are...

Daimler Trucks North America’s (DTNA) SuperTruck program has achieved 115 percent freight efficiency improvement – surpassing the Department of Energy (DOE) program’s goal of 50 percent improvement and exhibiting the best results of all reporting OEMs. Testing was also conducted at the DTNA Detroit engineering facility to demonstrate engine efficiency by achieving 50.2 percent engine brake thermal efficiency. The final SuperTruck demonstrator ran a five-day, 312-mile round trip route on Texas Interstate 35 between San Antonio and Dallas, at a weight of 65,000 lbs GVWR at a speed of 65 mph, where it achieved an average result of 12.2 mpg.Solutions...

photo WikiMedia Commons [gallery]