Free Republic

Test Yourself Are you smart enough to get into private kindergarten? Take this test from Bright Kids NYC and find out how you fare on AABL practice questions. Question 1 of 5 Which flag completes the pattern? MANHATTAN — Some of the city's most elite private schools will soon require 4-year-olds to take a new, harder admissions test given on an iPad and designed to assess math and literacy skills. The educational services company ERB's Admission Assessment for Beginning Learners (AABL) will be given for the first time in October and is a significant departure from the previous, IQ-like test most New York...

1. When was Ronald Reagan first sworn in as President of USA?a) 20 January 1981b) 4 November 1980c) 20 January 1989d) 4 March 1981 2. When was Ronald Reagan born?a) 6 February 1911b) 3 April 1912c) 4 July 1916d) 25 November 1921 3. Where was Ronald Reagan born?a) Honolulub) Los Alamosc) New Hampshired) Tampico 4. Which college did Ronald Reagan attend?a) Eureka Collegeb) Bethany Collegec) Trinity Colleged) Brown College 5. When did Ronald Reagan marry Nancy Davis?a) 4 March 1952b) 9 May 1956c) 6 June 1946d) 14 December 1948 6. What was Ronald Reagan's preferred nickname until the late...

This (online) one is quick and easy, yet only 7% of the US adult population get all 13 questions correct (I got 12).  Take it yourself here, you only need a minute or two... good luck! ___________________________________________________ Pew Research   The JR Experiment   -h/t Kirby-

In July of 2013, I picked up a little .380 pocket pistol (specifically a Taurus PT738 TCP), and I started researching what would be the most appropriate ammo to use with it.Turns out that pretty much nobody knew.  Well — I mean, sure, there’s lots of opinions, but I couldn’t find any comprehensive source of professional tests that were done from this particular barrel size, in ballistic gel, with a large sample size.  I found plenty of great tests from PocketGunsAndGear that were shot with a shorter 2.5″ barrel, and some tests from tnoutdoors9 that were shot with a longer barrel,...

Russia’s military carried out a flight test of a new multi-warhead intercontinental ballistic missile on Monday amid growing tensions with the United States over the crisis in Ukraine. The SS-27 Mod 2 road-mobile ICBM was launched around 2:40 a.m. EST from Russia’s Plesetsk launch facility, located about 500 miles north of Moscow. “The main purpose of the launch is to validate the reliability of a batch of this class of missiles made at the Votkinsk Plant,” Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Yegorov told state-run Interfax-AVN. An unspecified number of simulated nuclear warheads landed at an impact range on the Kura test...

The Obama administration will release 5 million barrels of sour crude from the United States’ emergency stockpile in what officials described as a “test” of the nation’s ability to respond to oil supply disruptions around the globe.

In each trial, 192 laser beams briefly fired into a half-inch-long gold cylinder. The cylinder held a tiny ball that contained the fuel, which was a mix of two kinds of hydrogen, called deuterium and tritium. The energy from the lasers kicked off a process that compressed the ball by an amount akin to squeezing a basketball down to the size of a pea, said Debbie Callahan, an author of the paper. That created the extremely high pressure and temperatures needed to get the hydrogen atoms to fuse. It was all over in the blink of an eye, with the...

An upgraded ballistic rocket was reportedly launched Tuesday from the Gaza Strip into the Mediterranean sea, presumably to test the weapon’s capabilities and range. The test caused loud explosion sounds that were audible in Israeli towns and cities adjacent to the Gaza border, Channel 2 reported. The rocket was an improved version of the M-75 missile with a slightly longer range and a larger warhead, the report said. Other Israeli news outlets, citing the army, attributed the explosion sounds to ultrasonic booms caused by Israeli jets that were participating in a drill.

<p>Republican senators were making a last-ditch bid to undo cuts to military retiree benefits in the House-passed budget deal ahead of a crucial vote Tuesday morning in the Senate.</p> <p>Alabama GOP Sen. Jeff Sessions filed an amendment late Monday to restore money that was cut from veteran and military retiree pension benefits by closing a loophole that allows illegal immigrants to qualify for child tax credits.</p>

Some drivers along a busy Fort Worth street on Friday were stopped at police roadblock and directed into a parking lot, where they were asked by federal contractors for samples of their breath, saliva and even blood. It was part of a government research study aimed at determining the number of drunken or drug-impaired drivers. "It just doesn't seem right that you can be forced off the road when you're not doing anything wrong," said Kim Cope, who said she was on her lunch break when she was forced to pull over at the roadblock on Beach Street in North...

Just seeing where posts to "blog & personel" show up.

College students who major in physical sciences tend to be smarter than those who major in psychology, judging from the 2013 SAT Report on College & Career Readiness from the College Board. The report includes data on SAT scores by intended major for the college-bound class of 2013. We've taken the liberty of ranking majors based on these scores, which are the best commonly available proxy for intelligence.

U.S. President Barack Obama says he wants to test whether Iran’s new president, Hassan Rouhani, is serious when he says he wants to open a dialogue with the United States. In an interview with Spanish-language network Telemundo on Tuesday, Obama said, "There is an opportunity here for diplomacy, and I hope the Iranians take advantage of it." "There are indications that Rouhani, the new president, is somebody who is looking to open dialogue with the West and with the United States, in a way that we haven't seen in the past. And so we should test it," Obama said in...

RAF Typhoon fighters won a mid-air showdown with two Syrian warplanes heading towards Britain’s main base in Cyprus, the Sunday People reports. The dramatic confrontation came after President Bashar Al-Assad’s air chiefs sent two Russian-made Sukhoi Su-24s to probe British air defenses, the report said. The Syrian bombers refused to respond to repeated attempts by the control tower at the UK’s Akrotiri air base to contact them. RAF pilots flying the advanced combat jet were scrambled before the Sukhois could enter our 14-mile air exclusion zone. The Typhoons – which can scream from runway standstill to seven miles high in...

FULL TITLE: To pee or not to pee: Women sell positive pregnancy tests on Craigslist for $25 each. . . and there is no shortage of motivated buyers A number of women across the country have listed their positive pregnancy tests for sale on Craigslist. One expectant mother in the Buffalo, New York area is selling her used sticks for $25 each, The Daily Dot reports. Another New Jersey mom writes: 'Wanna get your boyfriend to finally pop the question? Play a trick on mom, dad or one of your friends? Scrolling through the site, there appears to be no...

Review and test of the .45 ACP +P Hornady Critical Duty 220 gr JHP. I'm using the SIM-TEST block (plus 4 layers of denim), and shooting both an XDS 3.3 and Colt 1911 Government for chronograph velocities and the test shots. The SIM-TEST block is calibrated to be comparable with 10% ordinance gel. Follow me on Twitter: www.twitter.com/tnoutdoors9 CAMERA: Sony HDR-PJ650, 60p, 28 mbps, 1920 x 1080 HD. RENDERING: Sony Vegas Pro 12, MP4, 60p, 32 bit, 20 mbps. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI_fOpndtdY

Chemical 'fingerprint' in the blood could provide clues to health later in life Metabolites indicate future lung function, bone density, and blood pressure Could pave the way for new treatments for age related conditionsA revolutionary new blood test could tell you how long you will live, and how quickly you will age. Scientists have discovered a chemical ‘fingerprint’ in the blood that may provide clues to an infant's health and rate of ageing near the end of life. The discovery raises the prospect of a simple test at birth that could help doctors stave off the ravages of disease in...

This is a simple reaction test. I scored in the middle of the bell curve. Try it.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Food and Drug Administration says it approved a genetic test from Roche to help doctors identify patients who can benefit from a lung cancer drug made by Genentech. The diagnostic test is the first approved to detect genetic mutations found in roughly 10 percent of patients with the most prevalent form of lung cancer, known as non-small cell lung cancer. Patients who test positive for the mutation are more likely to respond to Genentech's drug Tarceva as a first-choice treatment, and the FDA expanded the drug's approval for that use in an announcement Tuesday. The drug...

"I've had more requests to test this specific ammo than anything else, ever! Nothing is even close." - tnoutdoors9