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Clay, a seemingly infertile blend of minerals, might have been the birthplace of life on Earth. Or at least of the complex biochemicals that make life possible, Cornell University biological engineers report in the Nov. 7 online issue of the journal Scientific Reports, published by Nature Publishing.

No need to bid. A marketing firm with close ties to President Obama and his political campaigns was given the lucrative job of designing Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move” anti-obesity logo without having to go through the government contract bidding route. Judicial Watch reported the firm, Shepardson, Stern & Kaminsky, was awarded the $100,000 job, in violation of federal contracting rules. And that’s not just Judicial Watch’s interpretation of law — federal officials admitted the deal was an “unauthorized commitment,” in documents obtained by the government watchdog from a Freedom of Information Act request. In a written statement, Judicial Watch reported...

How could the U.S. Government make such a mess of the roll-out of the website for ObamaCare? Actually, government computer systems incompetence is normal. The reaction to www.HealthCare.gov presupposes that our government normally does these things well. ObamaCare is high profile and under the microscope. The filibuster and shutdown confrontation brought intense attention to the roll-out on October 1. But the U.S. Government routinely bungles computer projects large and small and wastes money. Why didn't the Federal government learn anything from past fiascoes? How could President Obama imagine that the Federal Government could hijack and control one-sixth of the nation's...

Word For The Day, Wednesday, November 6, 2013-- meshugenner ; In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day". meshugenner [muh-shoo g-uh-nuh] Noun, slang Also, me•shug•ga•na, me•shug•ge•ner meshuggener Origin: 1880–85; < Yiddish meshugener, equivalent to meshuga meshuga + epenthetic n + -er -er1 Related forms adjective 1. senseless; crazy [syn: meshugge] noun 1. (Yiddish) a crazy fool [syn: meshuggeneh] Rules: Everyone must leave a post using the Word for the Day in a sentence. The sentence must, in some way, relate to the...

James L. Swanson’s Manhunt: The 12-Day Chase for Lincoln’s Killer was a New York Times bestseller, won the Edgar Award, and became mandatory reading for official Washington. Its fans included President George W. Bush, Speaker of the House John Boehner, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Now, for the 50th anniversary of the death of President John F. Kennedy, Swanson returns with End of Days: The Assassination of John F. Kennedy, a gripping account of the murder and its aftermath. JFK’s trip to Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963 set in motion a chain of...

We’re all a teensy bit mad, but how many true psychopaths do we have among us? Apparently, more than you think. “Psychopathy is a personality disorder that has been variously described as characterized by shallow emotions (in particular reduced fear), stress tolerance, lacking empathy, coldheartedness, lacking guilt, egocentricity, superficial character, manipulativeness, irresponsibility, impulsivity, and antisocial behaviors such as parasitic lifestyle and criminality,” explains Eric Barker, in The Week. Now, think about all the people who might fit that description. Then, compare it to the list psychologist Kevin Dutton compiled in The Wisdom of Psychopaths: What Saints, Spies, and Serial Killers...

Taxpayers will have a choice: settle for single-payer or bail out private insurance, which otherwise won’t survive the ravages of Obamacare. Think back to the fall of 2008. Congress was asked to pass a $700 billion taxpayer bailout for Wall Street. We were told it had to be passed, or else the economy would collapse, perhaps into another Great Depression. House conservatives voted it down. The stock market fell hundreds of points in response. In the ensuing panic, Congress went along and passed the bailout. That bailout, and the insane, nearly $1 trillion “stimulus” bill passed just a few months...

The British ambassador in Berlin has been called in to Germany's foreign ministry to respond to spying allegations. The UK's Independent newspaper says the British embassy in Berlin may house a "top-secret listening post". It cites leaked US National Security Agency (NSA) documents suggesting the UK could be using hi-tech equipment housed on the embassy roof. Any such activity would be against international law, Berlin says.

When a loyal leader on your own team says there is a “crisis of confidence” surrounding your signature initiative, you’ve got trouble. That’s the phrase Democratic Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski of Maryland used repeatedly Tuesday morning to describe the rollout of the new health care law as she questioned Marilyn Tavenner, the head of the health agency tasked with overseeing the law’s implementation. “I believe that there’s been a crisis of confidence created in the dysfunctional nature of the website, the canceling of policies, and sticker shock from some people,” said Mikulski, who has generally been a strong ally of...

Finally people are starting to wake up...

McLEAN, Va. -- Democrat Terry McAuliffe beat Republican Ken Cuccinelli in Virginia's governor race, outraising Cuccinelli nearly two-to-one and dominating in the richest part of the state. What’s going on here? First, upper-middle class, white suburbs have marched steadily toward the Democrats for several decades. Montgomery County, Md., and Arlington, Va., switched sides. So did the wealthy New York suburbs in Westchester County, N.Y., and Fairfield County, Conn. Philadelphia’s “collar counties," once Republican bastions, are now Democratic bellwethers. Why are the white-collar suburbs moving to the Dems? “I think it’s the social issues,” Bill DuBose tells me at Greenberry's coffee...

Just when you thought you had a handle on your kid's Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts comes another social media site that's causing serious concerns. Ask.fm is the latest to capture the fleeting attention spans of teens and tweens. Users post questions about themselves or others and wait for responses. What makes this site different, though, is the lack of privacy controls, and the fact that those instant responses can be completely anonymous. A quick scan of the site shows everything from insults over body image, to posts encouraging suicide. Ask.fm has about 65 million users, many of them children....

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You meet some interesting people when you hand out cards announcing that you are a member of the new media.   My new friend, Limmuel, above, caught my attention when he cautioned me against believing that "It could never happen here." Limmuel was only a young boy when it happened to him and his family in the Philippines in 1972.  His father told him the details for years afterward.  Limmuel's father was a security guard at a high school in the Philippines when Ferdinand Marcos issued this order pursuant to Proclamation No. 1081 dated September 21, 1972. "NOW, THEREFORE, I,...

<p>America’s two-party system is broken. Some, myself included, believe it is broken beyond tinkering and repair.</p> <p>“Communist Party USA endorses Obama & Democrats for 2012,” August 4, 2011.</p> <p>“Democrat ad shows Romney supporters being beheaded,” Nov. 4, 2012.</p>

Pray For the Peace of Jerusalem Children and Families In The Bible 1 Kings 1 New King James Version (NKJV) Adonijah Presumes to Be King 1 Now King David was old, advanced in years; and they put covers on him, but he could not get warm. 2 Therefore his servants said to him, “Let a young woman, a virgin, be sought for our lord the king, and let her stand before the king, and let her care for him; and let her lie in your bosom, that our lord the king may be warm.” 3 So they sought for...

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Linda R. Tripp laid out her story in a series of 23 interviews with the FBI between February and June. The excerpts show how Tripp became involved with Monica S. Lewinsky and the two began to share confidences about the White House and Lewinsky's relationship with President Clinton. Oct 3, 1998:..........Q: Did Kathleen Willey relate to you anything she told the President along the lines of "What if anybody interrupts us?"A: That was one of the main questions she said to him. She said, "What if Hillary comes in? What if someone sees?" And she repeated the Hillary question because...

Pope Francis , and with him 100 thousand people, today prayed for a little girl only one and a half years old called Naomi, who is suffering from spinal muscular atrophy. During the general audience, the Pope asked the faithful for this "an act of love." "Before I came to the square - he said - I went to see a girl of one and a half with a serious illness . Her dad and her mom are praying , asking the Lord to make this beautiful little girl healthy, her name is Naomi. She was smiling , poor little...

Robyne O'Mara and Lynne Burnett have been together 33 years, and on Tuesday they watched, almost in awe, as Illinois lawmakers cast votes that would make the couple's decadeslong relationship equal to any other. "We were just blown away," O'Mara said after the General Assembly passed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage. "I think the momentum in our nation has convinced people. It's been an amazing ride the past several years. We're so grateful the legislators took it upon themselves and recognized that every citizen has the right to marry."