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Forget the ice ages you've read about. Hundreds of millions of years ago, the planet was one big frozen wasteland. But if the big chill had never happened, would any of us be here today? Gabrielle Walker reports PICTURE A WORLD ENTIRELY SHEATHED IN ICE, its oceans smothered by a freezing white blanket more than a kilometre thick. Vast glaciers creep across the continents. Nothing else moves. There are no clouds, save perhaps a handful of high wispy streaks made from frozen crystals of carbon dioxide. With the mercury barely topping -40 °C, only a few living things survive. Algae ...

Teachers, Tibetans, the topless: All object 12/01/99 By Kim Murphy LOS ANGELES TIMES SEATTLE -- "Mad river of people floods the streets of Seattle. Once in a lifetime experience. Send it to your friends," newspaper vendor Paula Rozner called out, announcing both the afternoon headline and, it seemed, a new landmark in the rocky history of American political protest. Not since the days of the Vietnam War and the civil-rights movement has the entire downtown core of a major American city been seized by popular uprising; rarely has so diverse an array of groups linked elbows against a common ...

Wednesday, December 1, 1999 BY GIL KLEIN Media General News Service [Posted for Educational/Research purposes only] WASHINGTON -- President Clinton erroneously told reporters yesterday that the Chinese will soon be running the Panama Canal. By making the mistake, the president may have bolstered arguments by some Republicans who say that the Communist Chinese government is getting control of the canal. Asked by a reporter, "You're not worried about the Chinese control- ling the canal?" Clinton responded: "I think the Chinese will in fact be bending over backwards to make sure that they run it in a competent and fair ...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Within hours of signing the final budget bill of the year on Monday, President Bill Clinton waived a provision prohibiting U.S. assistance to any international family planning group that promotes abortion, the White House announced Tuesday. The restriction was imposed as part of a compromise that the White House reached with conservative Republicans in Congress this year to pay off about $1 billion that the United States owed in U.N. dues. A White House spokesman said the Republicans agreed the compromise in the knowledge that Clinton would take steps to lift the restriction. "We made it very ...

Are all the Old Topics gone? I've tried to open several and get a "Document Not Found" message.I may have missed an announcement, but it would be a shame if they've been blasted out to the cosmos.Also, what happened to the need to login today?

KRIS KRAUS is 27, goes to grad school and works at Louie's Hot Dogs on Elmwood. He is Hillary Rodham Clinton's worst nightmare. He's just one man, one vote, but his antipathy for the all-but-announced Senate candidate reflects the mind-set of a legion. Unless she can, over the next 11 months, change the minds of at least some of the Kris Krauses, Mrs. Clinton may not be going to Washington. "What does she know about New York?" said Kraus. "She's just being opportunistic because (Daniel Patrick) Moynihan is quitting. She doesn't know anything about us, and then she goes and ...

Paid Parental Leave - Snuggling Up to Communism The President announced yesterday that he was using his executive authority to 'propose' a change to unemployment regulations that would allow states to pay parents 12 to 26 weeks of unemployment benefits following the birth or adoption of a child. The proposal will be made available for public and congressional 'comment' at the Department of Labors web site: "The Labor Department is proposing new rules that would permit states to experiment with ways the unemployment compensation program might be used to help parents who take time off for the birth or adoption ...

Keyes is on C-Span (1) now.

According to what I've read: BUSH TAX POLICY PRINCIPLES On his Internet campaign home page, Bush says he supports the following principles for tax policy: 1.-- Cuts in marginal tax rates and a "fairer" system. 2.-- Phasing-out the death tax. 3.-- Reducing the marriage penalty under which married couples pay more income tax than they would if they remained single. 4.-- Tax incentives to encourage charitable giving. 5.-- Relief for "working families on the outskirts of poverty." 6.-- Expanding education savings accounts. Answers: 1. Cut marginal rates like Reagan did that only lasted 6 years? He had a "flatter" tax ...

Live From New York Suha, Who Ha! by Jackie Mason and Raoul Felder Bill Clinton, who has been the luckiest guy in the world, must now also be the happiest. All because of Hillary. Here was this guy who repeatedly had to run home to Mama Hillary to pull his chestnuts, or whatever else you might call them, out of the fire -- or wherever else they may have been -- and grovel publicly for her forgiveness. Now, the tables have been turned. Clinton sends Hillary on a long trip, leaving him alone to be able to turn the ...

The Wanderer Issue of 8-20-98 President Caligula — Or, Bread And Circuses By GEORGE A. KENDALL In the past, I have been, at times, critical of President Clinton. Now, however, I find that he has done me a major favor. Because of his example, the next time I am in a situation requiring an apology, I will know how to apologize without saying I'm sorry, and how to take full responsibility on myself while blaming someone else. It is quite an achievement. I especially like the "legally accurate" business. The Sociopath-in-Chief has done it again. Several remarks can be ...

Iranians warned of 'unexpected incidents' from millennium bug TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - The government is warning Iranians they could face breakdowns in public services at the end of the year because of the Y2K bug. ``It is expected that with the arrival of the year 2000 some unexpected incidents may happen and some public services may be disrupted,'' Mohammad Sepehri-Rad, head of the Supreme Council for Information Technology, said Tuesday. Speaking on television, Sepehri-Rad suggested there could be breakdowns in the oil, electricity, communications, transport and health sectors, saying his team had singled out these industries for attention. Any disruptions ...

KINGSTON, Jamaica (Reuters) - A Florida woman given away by her hairstyle was sentenced by a Jamaican judge to 12 months in prison for smuggling cocaine in her hair, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. Shurwanda Brown pleaded guilty to charges of possession and dealing in nearly 2.2 pounds (1 kg) of cocaine. The court was told that Brown aroused police suspicion before she boarded an Air Jamaica flight to Orlando on Nov. 14 because she had unusually high hair. A search revealed a package of cocaine wrapped in a stocking stuffed in her hair. At the time Brown told police ...

"LIBERALISM IS MARXISM sold by the drink," said pop-philosopher wit P. J. O'Rourke. Is Pat Buchanan's "Populism" likewise fascism sold by the shotglass? Both intoxicants have revelers and rebels marching and spinning this week in the streets of Seattle, Washington, in a circus of protest unrivaled since the 1960s. "Seattle 1999 is like Philadelphia 1787," said Charles Derber, speaking Monday on my national radio show from his perch near the Space Needle. "What's being created here is the framework of laws of a new constitution for the world government of the next Millenium." Dr. Derber, whose populism is the ...

James Carville is sorry he called the mayor of New York a thug. "I really shouldn't have used that word," the Democratic strategist concedes. "There is actually a better word: goon. "I was gonna use bully. And tyrant, but that was too regal, too much like George III. Mean-spirited? The Congressional Republicans have already stolen that word. So I'm kinda left with goon." Now comes Washington's pit bull pitted against New York's pit bull. "Giuliani and I -- that's perfect," Mr. Carville exults. "He and I are at about the same level. Yeah, I'm sort of a political goon. But ...

A Clinton. Lying. About Jesus. Imagine that! Here's what the December 1 Washington Times reports about Mrs. Clinton's recent remarks in New York: "Noting that Christmas celebrates 'the birth of a homeless child,' Mrs. Clinton said the city's new homeless 'policies are not only wrong, they will not work and we can do better'" (from Inside Politics). I know Mrs. Clinton's religious background and moorings are, to be as painfully charitable as I possibly can, murky at best. Still, one would think that the First Lady would know whose birth Christmas commemorates. Who does Mrs. Clinton imagine that Christmas celebrates? ...

To Peggy:My, my, my. Yet another group thinks that they have a greater right than the owner to set the agenda for his own website. Well let's take stock of some of the groups that we've survived to date (no disrespect intended here and all of these people are welcome on Free Republic, I would just like to see some balance and don't want them dominating or controlling the thought processes). First, the attack of the vulgar vandals was defeated and they went down in flames. The South Shall Rise Again was next and they rose and fell once more. ...

Other heads up on Cronkite from worldnetdaily's feedback. And an explanation of why the FBI is focusing on so-called right-wingers. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1999 Cronkite, the one-worlder I think old Wally needs to be careful for what he wishes. The Congress of the United States received its authority after the Constitution was ratified and had no mandate to form a republic when they wrote it. If the authority which comes from the people is abdicated by Congress, then where is the profit for the people to continue the powers of Congress? If Congress tries to give authority for my life ...

If you're planning to withdraw cash from your bank before the end of the year, you might want to play with this. It will help you decide how long you can put off that trip to your bank. Y2K Cash Calculator

   China's parliamentary speaker, Li Peng, the highest ranking Chinese official ever to visit Israel, ended a six-day visit here Tuesday, after giving a discreet but firm boost to military cooperation between the two states. Officials on both sides were tight-lipped on the subject, but they did admit that Li -- the second most powerful man in China -- took a "great interest" when shown round Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) and telecommunications enterprises. The trips were fitted in around protocol visits to the president's office and parliament, and to the Yad Vashem holocaust museum. Western experts put military cooperation between Israel ...