Free Republic

The world's largest cat, the Amur tiger, is down to an effective wild population of fewer than 35 individuals, new research has found. Although up to 500 of the big cats actually survive in the wild, the effective population is a measure of their genetic diversity. That in turn is a good predictor of the Amur tiger's chances of survival. The results come from the most complete genetic survey yet of wild Amur tigers, the rarest subspecies of tiger.

PITTSBURGH – Tilesha McClurkin wanted to join other Michael Jackson fans to celebrate his life, but she knew she wouldn't be able to go to whatever official memorial celebration might be held. So she and 125 other people packed a Pittsburgh funeral home Thursday to watch videos and dance performances and sing along to the King of Pop's hits. "Turn this sucker up," someone in the audience yelled as Jackson's "Rock with You" video was played. Another woman mimicked Jackson's footwork in his "Billie Jean" video as the audience cheered her on. "This is as close as I can get,"...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans who refuse to buy affordable medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a health care overhaul bill unveiled Thursday by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Barack Obama's top domestic priority.</p>

Air America host Ron Reagan attacked Rush Limbaugh on his show as a wife-beater. In June, Limbaugh criticized Obama for hiring a new "adviser on domestic violence." This gave Reagan fodder to hit Limbaugh for his several previous marriages and to imply he abused them.

Jim Scotti takes lunar landing conspiracy theories personally because he took the Apollo missions and Apollo 11 seriously when he was growing up. Scotti followed in the footsteps of the heroic astronauts of Apollo 11 by becoming a space explorer, albeit an Earthbound one. He is a researcher at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Lab in Tucson, where he works on the Spacewatch Project.

I believe the tea parties being held on Saturday will be much larger than the ones on April 15th and there will be a lot more of them. More people are "on" to Obama and his attempted socialist takeover of the country. I'm guessing the media will try to ignore the parties like they did back in April but they're going to have a difficult time because so many more people will be participating. Anyone have any thoughts on this?

Even Big Lib Helen Thomas (2nd half) pipes in: "The point is the control from here. We have never had that in the White House. And we have had some control but not this control. I mean I'm amazed, I'm amazed at you people who call for openness ... Could this be the beginning of the end of the slobbering love affair with the press?

WASHINGTON – In a slap at President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton will headline a fundraiser for a New York congresswoman challenging White House-backed Sen. Kristen Gillibrand in the state's Democratic primary. Clinton has not endorsed in the race, but his efforts to help Rep. Carolyn Maloney could be seen as a snub to Gillibrand and the Obama White House. Matt McKenna, a spokesman for Clinton, said he will be attending a July 20 fundraiser in New York. The White House has played an active role in clearing the field for Gillibrand, who was appointed earlier this year to...

During last night's "The Curtis Sliwa Show" (Wed., 7/1/09), Curtis announced that he had suspended his longtime producer Frank Morano because of the fact that Frank had a screensaver on his own work computer that had a copy of the ObamaCrimes.com page depicting the alleged "faux" birth certificate of President Obama from the State of Hawaii. Sliwa said that Frank will be suspended for the rest of the week, or until he removes the screensaver, and he stated that the Citadel lawyers are working with Frank to get him back on the air on the grounds of Free Speech. From...

During last night's "The Curtis Sliwa Show" (Wed., 7/1/09), Curtis announced that he had suspended his longtime producer Frank Morano because of the fact that Frank had a screensaver on his own work computer that had a copy of the ObamaCrimes.com page depicting the alleged "faux" birth certificate of President Obama from the State of Hawaii. Sliwa said that Frank will be suspended for the rest of the week, or until he removes the screensaver, and he stated that the Citadel lawyers are working with Frank to get him back on the air on the grounds of Free Speech. From...

109 hours, 23 minutes, 38 seconds since liftoff: Neil Armstrong: I'm at the foot of the ladder. The LM [lunar module] footpads are only depressed in the surface about one or two inches, although the surface appears to be very, very fine-grained as you get close to it.

WASHINGTON (AP) - South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint is defending the ouster of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya and says the rule of law is working in Honduras.

...IDF sources said the decision to allow navy vessels to sail through the canal was made recently and was a definite "change of policy"....The significance of the move was debatable, but it could be interpreted as a message to Iran and a demonstration of strengthening ties between Egypt and Israel. In the event of a conflict with Iran, and if Israel decided to involve its three Dolphin-class submarines - which according to foreign reports can fire nuclear-tipped cruise missiles and serve as a second-strike platform - the quickest route would be to send them through the Suez Canal.

Americans who refuse to buy affordable medical coverage could be hit with fines of more than $1,000 under a health care overhaul bill unveiled Thursday by key Senate Democrats looking to fulfill President Barack Obama's top domestic priority. The Congressional Budget Office estimated the fines will raise around $36 billion over 10 years. Senate aides said the penalties would be modeled on the approach taken by Massachusetts, which now imposes a fine of about $1,000 a year on individuals who refuse to get coverage. Under the federal legislation, families would pay higher penalties than individuals. In a revamped health care...

The Supreme Court's decision in Ricci v. DeStefano, the case of the New Haven firefighters, was a ringing endorsement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964's ban on racial discrimination and a repudiation of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor's decision in the Second Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. While five justices flatly rejected Sotomayor's ruling, even the four dissenters wouldn't have let stand her ruling allowing the results of a promotion exam to be set aside because no black firefighter had a top score. Ricci is also something else: a riveting lesson in political sociology, thanks to the concurring opinion...

Funny Evian water commercial. And check out the making of the commercial: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7x_rh4-ruk&feature=channel

Since the crew of Apollo 17 returned from the moon in December 1972, no human has ever left low-Earth orbit. Five space shuttles, scores of Russian Soyuz capsules, the International Space Station, and more than 450 men and women have left the Earth since Apollo, but all have been bound to a small shell of space just outside our atmosphere.

Naughty monkey.

WASHINGTON -- The Major League Rules is a sprawling, dense, little-known, 254-page document, periodically updated, that governs the business side of baseball. Among other things, it lays out, in painstaking legalese, the process and guidelines for the sport's annual draft, and in recent years, these sections have provided a road map for a certain notorious agent bent on circumventing the draft itself. In 1996, agent Scott Boras exploited a loophole to help gain free agency for four draftees who did not receive contract offers from the teams that selected them within 15 days of the draft, as required. A year...

Privately-owned Chinese low-cost carrier Spring Airlines has spoken to Airbus about adding standing-seats on its Airbus A320s so it can have 40% more passengers on board. Zhang Wuan, an official at the Shanghai airline who works closely with the CEO, says: "We are planning to have standing seats" and have had "initial discussions with the Airbus side to see if the safety question can be" addressed. "We want to have it so more people can afford to fly," says Zhang, adding that the carrier estimates it can fit 40% more passengers on board its A320s. The standing seats will reportedly...