Free Republic

The government-funded Backyard Brains based in Michigan is selling a $99 DIY RoboRoach kit which allows people to use a living cockroach and treat it like a robot by remotely controlling it. ... The kit uses the same concept found in deep brain stimulation. People’s brains are stimulated by implanted electrodes which can help them control symptoms of neurological-based disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. Instead of people, the kit uses a live cockroach and instead of implanted electrodes, the latter is attached to the bug’s antennas. These electrodes would then send three-volt electricity bringing electrical shocks to the bug, making...

‘Tis the season to be gluttonous, so Frito-Lay is rolling out milk chocolate-covered “wavy” potato chips. The limited-edition $3.49 5-ounce bags will be shipped to Target stores starting today and will be on sale throughout the holiday season, a Frito-Lay spokesperson tells TIME. If consumers like them, the company will evaluate whether to make them permanent. While chocolate-covered pretzels are a familiar sight, USA Today also cites the trend of sweet and salty potato chip flavors that have been on the market like Kettle’s maple-bacon or sweet ‘n’ salty Bugles flavors, like caramel and chocolate peanut butter.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday dismissed Mitt Romney’s statement that President Obama’s second term is rotting away. Pelosi said she missed Romney’s appearance on “Meet the Press,” during which the former GOP presidential candidate said Obama’s broken promise that everyone who liked their healthcare plan could keep it has undermined Obama’s presidency. “I don’t even know why Romney was on that show myself,” she said in an interview on MSNBC. “I want to know what about the future —what about the future. But the fact is that President Obama is a president of great vision, of great...

Former Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney returned to the Sunday shows almost exactly one year since he lost the election to Barack Obama, only to attack the President and call his second term into question. The former Republican politician wasted no time attacking the President over his rocky Obamacare roll out during his appearance on NBC's Meet the Press. "The president failed to learn the lessons that came from the experience in Massachusetts," Romney said, repeating that he thinks a state-by-state healthcare plan would work better. Romney then launched into a greater attack on the President's "you can keep your...

November 03, 2013, 05:13 pm Pelosi: Obama president of 'great vision' By Mario Trujillo House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday dismissed Mitt Romney’s statement that President Obama’s second term is rotting away. Pelosi said she missed Romney’s appearance on “Meet the Press,” during which the former GOP presidential candidate said Obama’s broken promise that everyone who liked their healthcare plan could keep it has undermined Obama’s presidency. “I don’t even know why Romney was on that show myself,” she said in an interview on MSNBC. “I want to know what about the future —what about the future. But...

Submitted by James E. Miller of The Ludwig von Mises Institute of Canada, “If you like your health care plan, you can keep your health care plan.” These words, spoken by U.S. President Barack Obama in various forms and iterations, have become a running joke amidst the rollout of the Affordable Care Act. All across the country, hundreds of thousands of citizens are receiving cancellation notices in the mail. The stringent requirements for insurance plans under the new edict are curtailing many individual policies. A simpleton can grasp the economics: you prohibit something, it goes away. And yet, for years...

A suicide bombing this week at Egyptian Military Intelligence headquarters in the city of Ismailiya has been claimed by Ansar Beit al Maqdis. This organization is a Salafi Jihadi group with links to organizations of a similar kind in the Gaza Strip. Eleven people, including six soldiers were wounded in the bombing. The Ismailiya attack is the latest episode in a growing Islamist insurgency against the de facto rule of General Abd al Fatah al-Sisi and the military in Egypt. It was of particular significance because the city lies just west of the Suez Canal, outside of the Sinai Peninsula....

One thing that makes the energy sector so intriguing is the constant overlap between markets and politics. In many ways, energy security is synonymous with national security, and the supply and demand needs of the oil market can make the most unlikely bedfellows. One country that has been at the center of energy and politics for decades has been Israel. For years the country has been dependent upon foreign energy sources, but a major discovery by Noble Energy (NYSE: NBL ) and its partners has turned this situation on its head. Let's look how this massive natural gas find could...

WASHINGTON -- President Obama was assured that the healthcare insurance website was ready to launch on Oct. 1, even as private contractors and some administration officials knew the site had failed in early testing, a senior White House advisor said Sunday. Obama aide Dan Pfeiffer said the president repeatedly asked about the healthcare.gov website, a key piece of his 2010 healthcare overhaul legislation, and was told it would meet his expectations. Along with the president, Pfeiffer hyped the website in the weeks before the troubled launch, promising it would “be a consumer experience unmatched by anything in government, but also...

Although weÂ’d rather not admit it, many of us worry (or are tempted to worry) each day of our lives. One of the reasons that we worry is that we sometimes feel we are facing our problems alone. Once we meet others who are dealing with similar problems, we usually feel better. Even more comforting is when we encounter someone who has survived the issue that is troubling us. As Catholics, much can be gained by studying the lives of the saints. Far from living easy lives, these men and women have struggled with many of the same anxiety producing...

A World War II veteran married his boyfriend of 20 years in a historic ceremony at the Veterans Home of Chula Vista in California. John Banvard, 95, and 67-year-old Gerard Nadeau, who served in Vietnam, said they wanted to have their ceremony among friends, so they chose to have it at the Veteran's Home, where they’ve lived for the last three years. 'I never thought I'll be marrying a man,' Banvard told ABC News. 'It was something we were happy we could do.'

Mitt Romney isn’t including tea party favorite Ted Cruz among the Republicans’ most electable potential presidential candidates in 2016. … … Romney says New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie “stands out as one of the very strongest lights.” …

Do you know about the group called Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good? Are alarm bells ringing? Read about them HERE. And HERE. Sharing staff with catholics United… HERE.This is in from the Fishwrap (aka National Schismatic Reporter): Group steps in for US bishops, collects Vatican-requested dataWASHINGTON A Catholic nonprofit in the D.C. area is offering to collect responses from Catholics to a Vatican survey asking their opinions on church teachings on contraception, same-sex marriage and divorce. [Sure! Let them circulate the survey and then let them have the raw data. What could possibly go wrong?] The survey was...

Kathleen Murphy, a Democrat who is running for the House of Delegates against Republican incumbent Barbara Comstock, told a forum in Great Falls on Saturday that doctors should be forced to accept Medicare and Medicaid patients: FYI last night at the Great Falls Grange debate, Democrat delegate candidate Kathleen Murphy said that since many doctors are not accepting medicaid and medicare patients, she advocates making it a legal requirement for those people to be accepted.  She did not recognize that the payments are inadequate to cover the doctors' costs.  She also did not recognize there is a shortage of over 45,000 physicians...

Piantelli forms Protium Srl. to Sell Shares to the Public November 1, 2013 • 41 Comments 22Passi.blogspot.com is reporting the formation of Protium Srl, by Francesco Piantelli and his associates. The following is excerpted from a Google translation of the article on Daniele Passerini’s site. The “front” of LENR research headed by Professor Francesco Piantelli has returned to give news of him after several months of silence. He did it two days ago, a mailing list of known energeticambiente forum to which they had entered anyone interested in receiving news sull’azionariato linked to LERN Piantelli reactors. Two days ago the...

President Barack Obama cast Republican Ken Cuccinelli on Sunday as part of an extreme tea party Republican faction that shut down the government, throwing the political weight of the White House behind Democrat Terry McAuliffe in the final days of a bitter race for governor. National issues that have sorely divided Democrats and Republicans spilled into the race as Obama rallied for McAuliffe just outside Washington. As Obama tore into Cuccinelli as a compromise-averse ideologue, Cuccinelli was telling his supporters that Tuesday’s election will be a referendum on Obama’s unpopular health care law and McAuliffe’s support for it. … Even...

A new book covering the 2012 presidential campaign uncovers a series of scathing remarks from political figures, but one alleged comment has stirred controversy around President Barack Obama and his administration’s use of targeted drone strikes. Mark Halperin and John Heilemann’s book “Double Down: Game Change 2012” notes President Obama commenting on drone strikes, reportedly telling his aides that he’s “really good at killing people.”

“Walking Dead” fans were left on the edge of their seats last week with episode 3, “Isolation.”......Episode 4, “Indifference,” will air on AMC on Sunday, Nov. 3, at 9 p.m. What do you think will happen next on “The Walking Dead”? Let us know your thoughts.".....Sneak peek of short video clips of tonights episode at link...(spoilers)

Dressed in Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman Halloween costumes. A Massachusetts woman was reportedly fired after racially insensitive images surfaced online of her sons dressed as Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman for Halloween. Caitlin Cimeno reportedly posted photos of her sons, William Filene and Greg Cimeno, with the caption: "Happy Halloween from Zimmerman & trayvon (insert smiley face emoji here)," according to a piece by Myeisha Essex at BlackAmericaWeb. Following the outrageous post, members of the social media world not only tracked her down, but eventually also her employer, who told a caller that she no longer worked there, reports...