Free Republic

Wondering if any freeper can help. I've tried Fry's, HP, and Radio Shack: no joy. I gave a friend's daughter an HP laptop last year as a college-entrance present. It lasted 6 months and someone gave it a big cup of coke. We managed to save the HD. Now I am trying to put the drive in a standard desktop PC. I bought a kit which provides spacers and a special header to bring power in thru the HD pinouts. Then the big surprise. THE PINS ON THE LAPTOP PC DRIVE (and the adapter) DO NOT MATCH a STANDARD IDE...

It would be an exaggeration to say that San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom cost John Kerry the election. You don't have to read the dozens of post-mortems of the past week to know that defeat, like victory, has a thousand fathers. Still, Newsom, the impresario last February of the nation's largest, most flamboyant and most photogenic round of gay weddings, didn't help. No one was struck dead by the pictures of 4,000 couples hugging and kissing on the City Hall steps, but it sure made for great political ammunition in the Bible Belt. Maybe Ohio would have voted for President...

A vanity thread. I've been saying the Israelis have been restrained by Washington from taking out the Iranian reactors until 'after the elections.' Now I am willing to call (two) shots: Boris says (a) 25% probability that they will hit the Iranian sites within a week; (b) 90% chance before 2004 comes to an end. Right now I think 50/50 that it will be a joint attack with the U.S. versus going alone. Any other freepers with crystal balls welcome to participate. --Boris

"When you hear someone say 'X' it is time to reach for your sixgun" or words to that effect. Or perhaps, "When you see someone do 'X' it is time to reach for your gun," You get the idea. It sounds a bit like Ayn Rand but I think not her. The folks at Quoteland.com do not seem to come up with anything...

A deputy in Mexico's Congress stirred up a fuss by offering fellow lawmakers a 10% discount on chocolate massages at a posh salon, even as proposed legislation went unfinished...

Lockheed Martin will forfeit all profits associated with a U.S. government weather satellite that was severely damaged in a mishap that NASA attributed to a lack of procedural discipline throughout the company's Sunnyvale, Calif., manufacturing facility. Under an agreement with NASA and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Lockheed Martin will help cover the cost of repairing the NOAA N-Prime satellite out of the profits it had earned, or was to earn, on the pro-gram. The government will foot the rest of the $135 million repair bill, according to NASA spokesman Dave Steitz. NASA buys and launches weather...

CALIFORNIA ELECTIONS Vote Fraud Found, Official Says Riverside County and the state are studying whether some people have been registered more than once, as a candidate alleges. By Seema Mehta, Times Staff Writer The secretary of state's office is looking into allegations by Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia that voters are being fraudulently registered in a race to represent eastern Riverside County and Imperial County, a district with one of the few competitive legislative contests this year. After conducting spot-checks, Garcia (R-Cathedral City) said she found what she believed to be more than 2,000 fraudulent voter registrations in the counties, with some...

Fixing the Vote Electronic voting machines promise to make elections more accurate than ever before, but only if certain problems--with the machines and the wider electoral process--are rectified By Ted Selker Voting may seem like a simple activity--cast ballots, then count them. Complexity arises, however, because voters must be registered and votes must be recorded in secrecy, transferred securely and counted accurately. We vote rarely, so the procedure never becomes a well-practiced routine. One race between two candidates is easy. Half a dozen races, each between several candidates, and ballot measures besides--that's harder. This complex process is so vital to...

Want to control guns? Elect Democrats. Want to keep military-style assault weapons off the streets and out of schoolyards? Remove President Bush from the Oval Office. Replace U.S. House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) with Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco). Think Americans in other states should be free to buy practically any firearm that intrigues them, with a jumbo clip so they can squeeze off 50 rounds without having to reload? Then reelect the Republican president and return Republicans to power in Congress. But if you prefer California's toughest-in-the-nation state gun laws? Then you'd better keep Democrats in control of...

If there is a freeper who is a musicologist or accomplished music theorist, I have a question. Please freepmail me. I do not wish to fill up the public board with my crackpot questions. I'm an engineer; neither read nor play; thus I need schooling. Thanks-- Boris

Clams: They're Not Just For Chowder Anymore Source: Marine Biological Laboratory Date: 2004-08-27 New England's favorite summertime delicacy, the chowder clam, has just been elevated to a whole new status. An international team of scientists-who credit studying surf clam (Spisula solidissima) cells with important research breakthroughs in the study of diseases such as cancer, premature aging, and muscular dystrophy-has just convened at the Marine Biological Laboratory to begin sequencing some of the clam's active genes. The effort, called the Clam Project, is the first step toward sequencing the entire clam genome, and its goal is to provide scientists with better...

August 30, 2004 Rights Groups Take On Deportation Program Action deprives illegal immigrants of a hearing and fails to address why they come, activists say. By Ann M. Simmons, Times Staff Writer A growing protest over a voluntary repatriation program for Mexicans has spurred immigrant rights groups in Southern California to launch a campaign aimed at thwarting the initiative. The $12-million program, which started in July and is a collaboration between the United States and Mexico, targets Mexicans caught illegally crossing America's southwestern border, many of whom trek across the Sonoran Desert. The migrants are picked up and subsequently offered...

TITLE: Release of methane from a volcanic basin as a mechanism for initial Eocene global warming AUTHOR(S): Svensen, Henrik; Planke, Sverre; Malthe-Sorenssen, Anders; Jamtveit, Bjorn; Myklebust, Reidun; Rasmussen Eidem, Torfinn; Rey, Sebastian S. CORPORATE SOURCE: Physics of Geological Processes, University of Oslo, Oslo, 0316, Norway SOURCE: Nature (London, United Kingdom) (2004), 429(6991), 542-545 CODEN: NATUAS; ISSN: 0028-0836 PUBLISHER: Nature Publishing Group DOCUMENT TYPE: Journal LANGUAGE: English AB A 200,000-yr interval of extreme global warming marked the start of the Eocene epoch about 55 million years ago. Neg. carbon- and oxygen-isotope excursions in marine and terrestrial sediments show that this event...

IMAGINE transferring the population of Chicago to Southern California over the next two decades. That's the magnitude of the projected growth our region will experience, yet unlike in the past, most of that growth is expected to be home grown. For decades, the prevailing wisdom for solving traffic has focused on increasing capacity. Build more free-ways. Widen streets. Expand bus and rail service. And we're doing so. But years ago we recognized that Los Angeles needed a new, comprehensive approach to solving the traffic problem. We recognize that when someone is stuck in traffic, they want real solutions and they...

Los Angeles City Council members voted 12-1 to support state legislation that would allow illegal immigrants to receive California driver's licenses. Council members said granting driver's licenses would encourage more immigrants to get insurance and would allow authorities to identify them more readily, reducing concerns about terrorism. In addition, drivers with licenses would be less likely to flee the scene of an accident, council members said. Councilman Greg Smith dissented. He said he opposes measures that confer legitimacy upon illegal immigration.

Group says Jesus Christ would vote Democrat By Associated Press AUSTIN, Texas -- Just a few miles from George W. Bush's former office at the state Capitol, a panel of religious experts weighed a question with relevance to many people of faith: How would Jesus vote? It's a complex topic that can't be boiled down to simple political terms, said religious leaders who attended a Texas Faith Network conference in Austin on Tuesday. James C. Moore, renowned anti-Bush co-author of "Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George Bush Presidential," drew laughter and applause when he offered his view to the...

Climate disruptions predicted By Jan M. Olsen Associated Press COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Rising sea levels, disappearing glaciers in the Alps and more deadly heat waves are coming for Europeans because of global warming, Europe's environmental agency warned Wednesday. The European Environment Agency said much more needs to be done -- and fast. Climate change "will considerably affect our societies and environments for decades and centuries to come," its 107-page report said. It said rising temperatures could eliminate three-quarters of the Alpine glaciers by 2050 and bring repeats of Europe's mammoth floods two years ago and the heat wave that killed...

Heat spike warned for L.A. Scientists issue global warming report By Harrison Sheppard Sacramento Bureau If the world's population continues burning fossil fuels at the current rate, global warming could lead to more heat-related deaths in Los Angeles by the end of the century, plus severe water shortages and summers comparable to those in Death Valley, according to a study released Monday. The study by 19 leading environmental scientists, published by the National Academy of Sciences, examined the impact of global warming on California. It found that even in a best-case scenario, with a concerted effort to reduce the use...

By Maria Elena Salinas WITH very few exceptions, most Latin American heads of state come from wealthy families and have Ivy League educations. But not Tony Saca. The newly elected president of El Salvador went from rags to riches, then to power. In the 1970s, his family survived on $200 a month, sent by his older brother who lived as an undocumented immigrant in California. Ricardo Eduardo Saca still remembers every detail of the night he crossed the border from Tijuana into San Ysidro with six other men, walking six long hours through cold, arid mountainous terrain, dropping to the...

We Eat; Therefore, They Are A panel of nutrition experts has heard about sugar and salt and fatty acids ad nauseam. Now they have to rewrite the federal dietary guide. By Rosie Mestel, Times Staff Writer BETHESDA, Md. — Inside a packed ballroom at the local Holiday Inn, 13 government-appointed scientists sat regally around a table, debating servings of fish. "What do we want to recommend for children? Fish twice a week?" asked chairwoman Janet King. "Small fish," another panel member said. "Children are advised to eat smaller portions of fish than adults?" "Can we defer a vote on that?"...