Free Republic

A doomsday fungus known as Bd has condemned more species to extinction than any other pathogen. A century ago, a strain of pandemic flu killed up to 100 million people—5 percent of the world’s population. In 2013, a new mystery illness swept the western coast of North America, causing starfish to disintegrate. In 2015, a big-nosed Asian antelope known as the saiga lost two-thirds of its population—some 200,000 individuals—to what now looks to be a bacterial infection. But none of these devastating infections comes close to the destructive power of Bd—a singularly apocalyptic fungus that’s unrivaled in its ability not...

QUEENSBURY — A medical device company has gone on a hiring spree after buying Bard, which has a well-known local manufacturing plant. BD has put up signs on the bike trail, is passing out flyers and recently changed the sign at Bard on Bay Road as it tries to hire 45 new employees. The company needs engineers, supervisors, workers trained in the “continuous improvement” efficiency system and many other positions. A flyer being circulated around the region says the company is also looking for manufacturing team members, with no previous experience needed. The openings are listed at www.crbard.com/careers. The company...

“Now, many experts view it as a sexual orientation as immutable as heterosexuality ... a deep-rooted predisposition ... that becomes clear during puberty and does not change.”The above idea was expressed with respect to homosexuality decades ago and since has become left-wing dogma. The thinking is that if someone was “born that way,” if the behavior is “natural” for him and he didn’t choose his feelings, how could it be wrong?Yet the opening quoted line wasn’t penned decades ago — it’s only two years old. And homosexuality wasn’t the focus.It was about pedophilia.Here is the complete quotation, as published by...

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie was unequivocal in his condemnation of the actions taken by some of his staffers last fall to exact political retribution by closing George Washington Bridge traffic lanes and causing major backups, but he continued to deny any prior knowledge of the plot in a press conference Thursday. Christie began by apologizing to the people of Fort Lee and New Jersey, and said he would be traveling to Fort Lee later Thursday to repeat his sentiment directly to the most affected community. "I am embarrassed and humiliated by the conduct of some of the people on...

PlayStation 3 gives Blu-ray disc sales a boost Impact of new console in market "significant" by Amy-Mae Elliott Print | Email | Save | PDF Tags ps3 261 news, 20 reviews Blu-ray 64 news, 3 reviews sony 257 news, 84 reviews >> More tags 23 May 2007 - News from the Blu-ray Disc Association suggests that the impact of PlayStation 3 on sales of Blu-ray Disc movies in North America and Japan after the launch of the console last November has been "significant". Early market data sourced by the association indicates that a similar trend is developing in Western Europe....

<p>"Doonesbury" creator Garry Trudeau apologized on the strip's Web site for using an Internet hoax on presidential IQs as the basis for Sunday's strip.</p> <p>The strip, a purported conversation between an unseen President George W. Bush and an adviser in the White House, cites as fact a purported ranking of presidential IQs based on public statements and writings. In the "study," Bush is said to have an IQ half that of former president Bill Clinton and a little more than half the average presidential vocabulary.</p>