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In classrooms across the country, high school students are taught the scientific method. It consists of constructing a doubtful hypothesis and designing a series of experiments to test the hypothesis with the observable facts. After a number of tests prove positive. The student can then take the facts and reach a conclusion. When a conclusion is constantly verified,it is enshrined in what might be called "established" science.There is a second kind of science that uses methods very different from those of "established" science. In fact,this science,if indeed it might be called such, uses the exact opposite method. It consists of...

Dear Reader (including those of you born in Canada), I guess we should start there. I find this birther stuff to be a lot like women's prison movies: compelling, entertaining, and totally ridiculous. Other than the presidency, there's no place in American life where the distinction between "naturalized" and "natural-born" citizenship matters. But imagine if it did? Imagine that your American-born mother just happened to give birth to you in Canada or Belize while on vacation. Your American-born mom and dad bring you home days later and raise you exactly as they would have had they been in Cleveland the...

The editors of Wikipedia, the Internet’s largest free encyclopedia, often work to include as many images as they can without running afoul of copyright laws. That’s accomplished through the use of public domain images, user-generated images uploaded to the site, and applying the fair use doctrine. Lawyers for Bernie Sanders’ insist the encyclopedia has run afoul of copyright law by using images of various Bernie Sanders campaign paraphernalia in articles about Sanders and his presidential campaign.

Cyprus no longer sees Israel as an aggressive country imposing its will by force on the Palestinians, but rather as a small nation fighting for survival in the face of much greater odds, Averof Neophytou, head of the country's center-right ruling party said on Monday. [...] For years, he said, Cyprus had the "wrong perception of Israel," partly because it was for so long an active member of the Non-Aligned Movement, before joining the EU in 2004. "For decades Israel was blamed for creating the instability in the region, but can anyone credibly blame Israel for the instability in Syria,...

The Founding Fathers’ insistence that the presidency be limited to “natural born citizens” was based on their openly expressed fear that “foreigners were disloyal,” as law professor Malinda L. Seymore has written. As Article II, Section 2 of the Constitution declared: “No person except a natural born citizen, or a citizen of the United States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the office of President ….” (Italics added) A loophole for themselves, as Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story wrote 46 years later, was created “out of respect to those distinguished revolutionary patriots, who...

Vice President Joe Biden launched a "moonshot" initiative Friday to hasten a cure for cancer, aiming to use his final year in office to break down barriers in the medical world he says are holding back progress on eradicating the dreaded disease. Biden chose Penn Medicine's Abramson Cancer Center in Philadelphia as his venue to call attention to the institute's pioneering efforts on immunotherapy, in which a patient's own immune system is deployed against cancer cells. After touring the facility's Center for Advanced Cellular Therapeutics, Biden sat down with doctors, researchers and academics to discuss recent advances. "You're on the...

Traveling around the world on the U.S. taxpayers' dime can be quite a profitable experience for federal employees, thanks to extremely generous per diem reimbursement rates set by the Department of State. Generous maximum per diems mean travelers to most countries can afford to lodge in five-star hotels and spend more than $100 a day on meals and incidentals. They can also spend up to 300 percent of their max per diem rates with advanced approval, usually for special events like the G8 Summit, which can mean more than $1,700 per day for lodging and meals. [...] Federal employees staying...

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. - Don't expect Ted Cruz's fresh assault on presidential rival Donald Trump to abate anytime soon. The Texas senator didn't unload on Trump during this week's Republican debate simply to undermine the celebrity businessman's suggestion that he is constitutionally ineligible for the presidency, although it was a factor. Rather, Cruz's attack on Trump's liberal "New York values" was the beginning of a two-prong strategy to kneecap the billionaire in Iowa and discard other competitors by framing the primary as a two-man contest between him and Trump. "This is really coming down to a two-horse race between Donald...

Top searched candidate by state, as seen in the #GOPDebate media filing center. WE WILL MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!

The Air Force said it will conduct a review to determine whether the use of "airman" is appropriate given the military's push towards full gender equality. [...] This confirms that a review of job titles, like the one initiated by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, is soon coming. Mabus' review resulted in an order to the Marine Corps to purge the word "man" from job titles, with the exception that compound words can remain the same. In other words, "infantryman" is acceptable, but "reconnaissance man" is not. That order came as part of the broader initiative to open all combat roles...

FURY was growing in Germany tonight over mounting evidence of a cover-up of migrant sex crimes after it emerged a welcome party for refugees held two months before the Cologne rapes descended into a mass groping session. Police and victims have furiously demanded to know why organisers did not warn them that refugees had committed abhorrent sexual harassment amid speculation such information could have helped avert the sickening attacks on New Year's Eve. Young women had to flee the welcome event in terror after being groped by gangs of migrant men, even though organisers repeatedly interrupted the music with messages...

Ever since Donald Trump entered the Republican presidential race, I've been a Trump-skeptic. I understood his appeal. I got why angry and alienated Republican rank-and-file voters have glommed onto his campaign. And I could even sketch out a scenario in which Trump could win. Yet, even as his poll numbers rose and he seemed immune from the political pitfalls that usually fell first-time candidates, I couldn't quite buy the notion that Trump, former reality star and full-time blowhard, could be the Republican nominee for president. It all just seemed too far-fetched. Surely, at some point Trump would implode. Those doubts...

Most people know the odds of winning the Powerball jackpot are close to impossible - some one in 292.2 million, to be exact. That said, a wise and prudent person would think the chances of anyone having pity on someone for losing their life savings - and helping them get back in the game - are nil. Apparently not, as one Tennessee woman, aka the "Biggest Powerball Loser," soon learned. Meet Cinnamon Nicole, everybody, the new GoFundMe visionary - despite her losing effort to go from rags to riches. According to an Uproxx report, the Cordova resident joined throngs of...

Ted Cruz gave the winning performance in Thursday's GOP debate, and the media called it for Donald Trump. But the media don't decide elections; voters do. LOS ANGELES, January 16, 2016 -- Senator Ted Cruz was the clear winner in last night's Republican debate in South Carolina. Cruz got in the most substantive comments, stood his ground when he was challenged, and swept aside Donald Trump's attempts to cast aspersions on Cruz's citizenship status, while still coming off as friendly and affable. You would not know this from most of the media coverage today. Either these journalists did not...

JONESBORO, GA (CBS46) - A psychiatrist was arrested after 36 of his patients died, 12 of whom passed away due to overdose on prescription medication. Doctor Narendra Nagareddy's office in Jonesorbo, just south of Atlanta, was raided by DEA agents Thursday. Dr. Nagareddy is accused of violating Georgia's Controlled Substance Act. "The search warrant [alleges] 36 of his patients have died, 12 of whom were autopsied with cause of death being overdose on prescription medication," said the Clayton County District Attorney.

Quoting Joe Namath, Jeb Bush ‘Guarantees’ Nomination WALTERBORO, SC (AP)—At a South Carolina fund raiser today republican Presidential candidate Jeb Bush reached back into history to quote one of football's great former quarterbacks, Joe Namath of the New York Jets. When asked by a supporter if he thinks he can win the party's nomination Bush replied ‘I guarantee it’ which is the same reply given by Namath to a reporter when asked if the Jets could beat Earl Morrells’ Baltimore Colts in the 1968 season Super Bowl III. At the time, Joe Namath was the most flamboyant quarterback in the...

While at odds over whether the State or the City should get to expropriate citizens' wealth, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) both agree that "there is no place in the state for 'conservative extremists.'" The extreme views deemed by Cuomo to be "not who New Yorkers are," include "opposition to abortion, refusal to accept gay marriage as the law of the land, and an anachronistic attachment to the notion that access to guns for self-defense can be tolerated in today's world." "These extreme views go beyond the bounds of civil...

January 16, 2016 « January 15 January 17 » Saturday of the First Week in Ordinary TimeLectionary: 310 Reading 1 1 Sm 9:1-4, 17-19; 10:1 There was a stalwart man from Benjamin named Kish,who was the son of Abiel, son of Zeror,son of Becorath, son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite.He had a son named Saul, who was a handsome young man.There was no other child of Israel more handsome than Saul;he stood head and shoulders above the people. Now the asses of Saul's father, Kish, had wandered off.Kish said to his son Saul, "Take one of the servants with youand go...

Conservative groups and Republican donors were supposed to spend millions to take out The Donald before things got out of hand. What happened? Donald Trump was supposed to be negotiating a new Celebrity Apprentice contract by now. For seven months, it has been an article of faith among anti-Trump Republicans that the billionaire's calamitous campaign would eventually melt down on its own before things got too serious -- and if it didn't, they assured themselves, a cash-flush coalition of conservative groups, super PACs, and presidential campaigns would chase him out of the race. Attack ads would blanket the airwaves in...