Free Republic

ANCIENT ROMANS IN TEXAS? If one searches long enough and hard enough, one can discover hints that just about any ancient culture you care to name set foot in the New World well before the Vikings and Columbus. Old coins, inscriptions, language concordances, and the like are taken by many as proofs that Egyptians visited Oklahoma, the Chinese moored along the Pacific coast, the Celts toured New England, and so on. Now, according to Professor V. Belfiglio, the ancient Romans had Texas on their itineraries. Belfiglio's evidence is fourfold, and so are mainstream criticisms: Roman coins found in Texas....

CONNECTICUT "BOAT" CAIRN An unusual, large stone cairn is located atop Rattlesnake Hill in Connecticut's Natchang State Forest. At an elevation of 640 feet, it commands an almost 360° view. Its long axis is aligned with the Pole Star. The cairn seems to have been constructed according to some plan rather than just being a deposit of cleared stones. One's first impression is that it resembles a boat. Could it be a Norse "ship burial" such as found in Europe? It is impossible to prove such a conjecture without tearing the cairn apart. (Whittall, James P., II; "The 'Boat"...

STANDING STONES IN NORTH CAROLINA? A North Carolina reader recently submitted the accompanying photograph of very large, vertically oriented stones that, if found in western Europe, would be quickly assigned to the megalithic culture. Although similar upright stones are known in New England, we have not heard of any in North Carolina before. The stones in question are located in the Boone/Blowing Rock region of western North Carolina near Foscoe, very close to Grandfather Mountain (second highest peak east of the Mississippi). Although they could well be a product of natural forces, they stand out like the proverbial "sore...

<p>Ronald Mallett, a physicist at the University of Connecticut, believes he knows how to build a time machine - an actual device that could send something or someone from the future to the past, or vice versa.</p> <p>He's not joking.</p>

 MPR News  for Headlines, Weather, and Stories Searching for Bigfoot By Bob Reha Minnesota Public Radio April 1, 2002 Bigfoot or Sasquatch, the giant hairy apelike creature, is generally something associated with the northwestern United States. But a Moorhead man is convinced the creatures are alive, well and living in Minnesota. Mike Quast of Moorhead is convinced that Bigfoot is living in Minnesota. He's been researching reported sightings of the apelike creatures for years. Quast is holding a cast of a footprint he believes was made by a Bigfoot. (MPR Photo/Bob Reha)   Mike Quast grew up on a...

What are some of your favorite comedy shows of all time?For myself, I like Howard Stern's old Channel 9 show, Fawlty Towers, Police Squad, The Young Ones, et al. I'm sure other people have different ideals as to what they consider humorous....

Message From Beijing, Part 3Dr. Alexandr NemetsThursday, March 21, 2002Message From Beijing, Part 1Message From Beijing, Part 2 During the recent annual session of the Chinese Parliament, on March 5-12, Hong Kong and Taiwanese media published many reports about a huge new increase in the Chinese military budget and PLA modernization prospects. Some of these reports even claimed that China's real defense expenditures are five times greater than the ones stated officially (the author still believes that real expenses surpass the official by "only" four times). Indeed, almost unlimited financing allows the PLA to purchase hundreds of modern fighters,...

DID US PLOT TO POISON IRAQ’S WATER? Writing on The Progressive magazine’s Web page, Thomas J. Nagy quotes extensively from recently declassified Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) documents, "proving beyond a doubt that, contrary to the Geneva Convention, the US government intentionally used sanctions against Iraq to degrade the country’s water supply after the Gulf War." One document, "Iraq Water Treatment Vulnerabilities," dated Jan. 22, 1991, spells out how sanctions will prevent Iraq from supplying clean water to its citizens: "Iraq depends on importing specialized equipment and some chemicals to purify its water supply, most of which is heavily mineralized and...

EARTHFILES - Ghosts of United Flight 93 Reported in Shanksville, Pennsylvania Environment &nbsp; Ghosts of United Flight 93 Reported in Shanksville, Pennsylvania &copy; 2002 by Linda Moulton HowePhotograph taken at the public memorial that was created soon after United Flight 93 crashed into the rural field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Mysterious translucent spheres cluster around the cross. Photograph &copy; 2001 by Debbie Harris. &nbsp; February 2, 2002 Shanksville, Pennsylvania - After September 11, 2001, the nation heard about cell phone calls from some of the passengers on United Flight 93 to loved ones, warning that terrorists had taken over the ...

Who is or was the most beautiful newsbabe of all time? Surely everyone has a personal favorite that warms the cockles of their heart and other more prurient regions.....

The Chinese military is continuing to develop an anti-satellite capability in order to counter superior U.S. and Western reconnaissance technology, according to one organization that monitors Beijing's military and foreign-policy initiatives. The American Foreign Policy Council said Thursday that the People's Liberation Army is working on a four-step plan that will utilize direct and indirect means of defeating American surveillance satellites. Quoting Chinese press sources, AFPC said the PLA "describes its methods to counter satellite reconnaissance in four words: dodging, changing, deceiving and counteroffensive." "Dodging," the report explained, means evading satellites by using deception. "A satellite can only make such ...

The S-E-V-E-N-T-H G-A-T-E reader submitted by Kevin It was the night of December 21, 1992, a night that will forever be etched into memory. I would remember this night only because of the horrifying event that would soon take place. The event that would only be referred to by the spirit Agaton as "The Seventh Gate". On the night of December 20, 1992 two friends and I decided to make contact with a spirit named Agaton. We had become intrigued with Agaton, not because he was just a spirit, but because he identified himself as one of the original angels ...

Mark Goddard, Major Don West on the Old Lost In Space show, said on the Howie Carr radio show in Boston, that a new updated Lost in Space show is in the offing. It's apparently being fast-tracked, with Goddard heading off to California in the Spring to film the series.