Free Republic

CANNETO DI CARONIA, Sicily (Reuters) - The gate at the entrance to this tiny Sicilian village has come off its hinges and swings in the wind as cats wander into homes abandoned after a series of mystery fires. Reuters Photo   A series of spontaneous fires started in mid-January in the town of Canneto di Caronia in about 20 houses. After a brief respite last month, the almost daily fires have flared up again -- even though electricity to the village was cut off. An endless flow of scientists, engineers, police and even a few self-styled "ghostbusters" have descended on...

A physics professor will try to turn back time in an experiment at the Miami Museum of Science. It's back to the future all over again -- at least, that's what Carlos Dolz has in mind. The Florida International University physics professor plans to take time to task at 10 a.m. Wednesday, when he presents an experiment that involves using acceleration to speed up a digital clock by four seconds. Dolz's experiment -- which takes six hours to finish -- will become part of Playing With Time, the current exhibit at the Miami Museum of Science. Dolz, who has been...

Human Events magazine has an interesting little piece called, "Could You Pass the New U.S. Citizenship Test?" Here are the ten questions and my answers: Question Number 1: What are the colors of our flag? Answer: You can't ask that question, because it's divisive. You can't ask about the flag. We have TV anchors who will not wear a flag lapel pin because they think it's divisive. And which flag do they mean? The Mexican flag, the Puerto Rican flag, the Haitian flag? Question Number 2: Who was the first president of the United States? Answer: He was a racist....

<![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]> THE SATIRICAL POLITICAL BELIEFS ASSESSMENT TEST <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]> A Humorous Political Party Quiz to Test If You're an Archconservative, Leftwing Wacko, Antigovernment Libertine or a Commie Sympathizer <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]> by <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]> Donald J. Hagen <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]> Copyright © 2002 - 2004 by Donald J. Hagen   Email: donaldjhagen@yahoo.com    <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]> <![if !supportEmptyParas]> <![endif]> INTRODUCTION     Political parties share much in common with obscenity.  Both are difficult to define, yet, to paraphrase U.S. Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart's definition of obscenity, you know a political party when you see it.  Therefore, it comes as no...

Here's a dilemma for you.... With all your honor and dignity what would you do? This test only has one question, but it's a very important one. Please don't answer it without giving it some serious thought. By giving an honest answer you will be able to test where you stand morally. The test features an unlikely, completely fictional situation, where you will have to make a decision one way or the other. Remember that your answer needs to be honest, yet spontaneous. Please scroll down slowly and consider each line - this is important for the test to work...

Putin Watches As Missile Launch Fails By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV The Associated Press Tuesday, February 17, 2004; 2:45 PM MOSCOW - A technical glitch thwarted the launch of Russian ballistic missiles in the Barents Sea on Tuesday during naval maneuvers overseen by President Vladimir Putin, who watched the massive exercise while decked out in naval officer's garb aboard a nuclear submarine. The failed launch - part of an exercise described as the largest show of Russian military might in more than 20 years - marred an event apparently aimed at playing up Putin's image as a leader attempting to restore the...

Kerry faces big test in internet storm about mystery woman By Alec Russell and David Rennie in Washington (Filed: 13/02/2004) The campaign of Senator John Kerry, the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination, faced its first media storm last night after a Right-wing website alleged that he had asked a woman to leave the country for personal reasons. Mr Kerry's campaign did not respond to the allegation on the Drudge Report, a news tipster, most famous for disclosing that Bill Clinton had an affair with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern. When contacted, the Kerry campaign had no immediate comment. Waiting...

If you tend to be a little less than honest when your doctor asks you how much you drink, beware. A battery of new tests on blood, urine and hair can reveal how much someone has drunk not only in the past days, but also in the past weeks and months. Doctors are likely to be the first to employ some or all of the new tests, to monitor patients with alcohol problems. But they are also likely to attract the interest of employers, insurance companies and forensic scientists. Airlines could, for instance, identify pilots who are heavy drinkers by...

Bob Brown, a former Black Panther and co-director of Pan-African Roots, filed a 183-page class-action lawsuit yesterday, claiming that 71 defendants owe reparations for slavery. The suit names: The King of Spain, the Queen of England, the Pontiff, President Bush, and Jaques Chirac; the governors of Illinois, Virginia, Louisiana and Texas; nine ports; several major sugar, gun, tobacco, and railroad companies; many, many banks and even Bacardi Rum. The Chicago Tribune pointed out that Brown will have difficulty with such a suit, considering that "slavery was legal, as well as the difficulty Brown and those he represents face in proving...

Dirty bomb test 'caught US police napping' US police officers failed to spot what could have been a dirty bomb planted in the heart of Washington, a report by government investigators has alleged. A suspicious package was positioned at the base of the Washington Monument, near the White House, on the second anniversary of September 11. The test was conducted at a time when the US was supposed to be on high alert against the threat of a terrorist attack. But the report alleges that police were busy chatting rather than patrolling the area and one officer positioned in an...

10 Signs You Might be A Liberal/Leftist (Opposed to The War on Terror) 1. You saw what happened on September 11th, and think America caused it. Convieninently, you forget how many have died at the hands of terrorists outside this country, with no ties what so ever to America, and that some people are just evil. 2. You think its unfair that America has such a great military, that like Madeline Albright has said, needs be turned over to a UN - comprised of countries, many of which are run by tyrants - to enforce America's safety from terror; and...

After String of Delays, Gravity Probe B Problems Continue By BRIAN BERGER Space News Staff Writer WASHINGTON — Gravity Probe B, a space-based physics experiment some 40 years in the making, is facing another potentially lengthy delay. The spacecraft was three days from rolling out to the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. when NASA decided Nov. 15 to replace an improperly wired component that threatened to interfere with the sensitive experiment. Replacing the component will entail some disassembly of the spacecraft and additional testing. The resulting delay, which could stretch into June, is expected to cost NASA...

BY MARGARET McHUGH STAR-LEDGER STAFF A drug-using shoplifter tried to outwit his probation officer by wearing a strap-on device that puts out a drug-free urine sample, but John Gatanas found out The Original Whizzinator turned out not to be as "foolproof" and "undetectable" as its creator promises. Gatanas' probation officer spotted the prosthetic penis during a Nov. 20 drug test, leading to an indictment yesterday and Gatanas' expulsion from drug court, a program that allows drug-addicted nonviolent criminals to avoid jail. In the 20 months since Morris County started a drug court, an intensive supervised drug rehabilitation program, Gatanas, 27,...

“Noam Federman is the only Israeli citizen in administrative detention today,” Attorney Naftali Wurtzberger told IsraelNationalNews.com today. “He is the test balloon gauging the effectiveness of administrative detention as a tool to quash opposition to the destruction of Yesha towns." “Noam Federman is the only Israeli citizen in administrative detention today,” Attorney Naftali Wurtzberger told IsraelNationalNews.com in an interview today. “He is the test balloon,” Wurtzberger added, as way of gauging the effectiveness of using administrative detention as a tool to quash opposition to the destruction of Yesha towns. Wurtzberger noted that the Yediot Acharonot newspaper recently carried an interview...

<p>Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was up early and on the radio Wednesday morning to promote his economic-recovery plan, but the interview wasn't sticking to the script.</p> <p>Radio host Bill Handel, who averages about 1.5 million listeners a week on his top-rated Los Angeles talk show on KFI (640 AM), also wanted to ask about driver's licenses for illegal immigrants.</p>

Source: Space News, November 10, 2003, page 3 Israel's Long Range Artillery (LORA) missile burst from secrecy's shadows last week, much sooner than the Ministry of Defense or the prime contractor had planned. It wasn't a calculated media campaign or a high-profile exhibition at an international trade show that heralded the LORAs debut. Instead, a secret Nov. 5 test of the developmental missile was inadvertently broadcast via satellite from the restrictedaccess launch control room of government-owned Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd. (LIU). To make matters worse, the missile failed miserably in the sea-launched trial, spiraling wildly out of control before plunging...

Test Achieves Cholesterol Breakthrough Wed Nov 5, 7:58 AM ET By LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer CHICAGO - An experimental treatment that seems to work like "liquid Drano" for clogged arteries stems from remarkably healthy villagers in northern Italy found to have paradoxically lousy cholesterol levels. Scientists think a genetic mutation in HDL cholesterol explains the villagers' good health. And using a synthetic version of that substance, they were able to reduce fatty artery plaque in just six weeks in patients with heart disease. Larger and longer studies are needed to determine if the experimental treatment will translate into fewer...

http://www.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200310/200310300216.html A Test Launch of Shin-Goong S. Korea: Locally Developed Shoulder-fired Missile Successfully Tested S. Korea developed its own shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missile, Shin-goong, which passed the test in flying colors. Mass production will start next year. The missile has a maximum range of 7,000m, and can reach up to 3,500m in height. In seven different tests, it showed hit ratio of over 90%. It is also equipped with two-color detector, which can guide the missile away from flares dropped to fool it. Shin-goong detonates itself when it reaches within 1.5m of the target aircraft. The explosion produces 720 fragments who...

ARDMORE, Pa. - Where do you hide a $729,000 Ferrari during rush hour? That's what police in the Philadelphia suburbs want to know, after a con man drove off with a red Ferrari F50 during a test drive. The Ferrari F50 - which can hit 60 mph in less than 4 seconds and tops out at 203 mph - hasn't been seen since. Police theorize it was hustled into a trailer and quickly shipped overseas for sale on the black market. The company made just 349 of the eye-popping Italian roadsters - described by one car-enthusiast Web site as "part...

Meet Joe Dirt Stuart K. Hayashi In 2001, comedian David Spade came out with a movie titled "The Adventures of Joe Dirt." It now appears that the film was about Joe Conason, the author of "Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda Machine and How It Distorts the Truth" and an editorialist for the liberal-biased Salon.com. In the person of Brad Pitt, you've already Met Joe Black. Now Meet the Real Joe Dirt. His book purports to expose how right-wingers harness the corporate media to brainwash society. Instead of demonstrating such, however, Joe is too busy flinging his Dirt around. In two...