Free Republic

When faced with a problem or complicated situation it’s not uncommon for a person to ask friends for advice. But would you allow friends to make decisions about how to live your life? In 2008 Mike Merrill decided to split himself into 100,000 shares and set an initial public offering price of $1 per share. Shareholders would get voting privileges and decide what Merrill would do on a daily basis and on a grander scale. Merrill started out by selling 929 shares to twelve of his friends. He paid $500 to a web developer to create a site with an...

Apple (AAPL) tumbled to its lowest level in over a year as investors continued to dump shares of the tech company amid worries over second-quarter iPad mini shipments. The once-darling tech giant of Wall Street shed more than 3 percent Wednesday, falling to its lowest level since last January, following a report from DigiTimes that iPad mini shipments could fall 20 to 30 percent quarter-over-quarter to 10 to 12 million in the June quarter due to "lacking demand in the market." "We continue to see risks to [Apple's] consensus estimates, primarily with respect to the June quarter," wrote Edward Parker...

(Reuters) - Private equity mogul Stephen Feinberg is exploring a bid for Freedom Group, the Bushmaster rifle manufacturer that his firm, Cerberus Capital Management LP, put up for sale after one of its guns was used in a Connecticut school shooting late last year, three people familiar with the situation said on Tuesday. Feinberg, along with other senior Cerberus partners, is putting together a consortium to make a "stalking horse" offer, or the floor bid, for Freedom Group, the sources said. Feinberg has approached other wealthy individuals to join his group, the people said, who declined to be named because...

Although it is not known yet who is responsible for Monday’s heinous bombings at the Boston Marathon that killed three and injured more than 100 people, a source within Iranian intelligence services told WND the Islamic regime was behind them and to look for trails through Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

James Woods interviewed by Fox News about being on a plane months before 911 with some of the terrorists doing a trial run. Not sure what the interview date was. Video uploaded 2010.

The Redondo Beach City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to oppose the construction of a new power plant to replace the current AES Redondo Beach generating station on North Harbor Drive in South Redondo Beach. The council also voted to appropriate $200,000 from the city's general fund to pay for the city's role as an intervenor in the California Energy Commission's new power plant permitting processes; to direct Mayor Mike Gin to explore the creation of a task force to find alternative uses for the AES property and come back in two weeks with a report; and to direct City...

Last week, the Dow (DJI) and S&P 500 (^GSPC) both beat their all-time closing highs set back in 2007. In a Sunday New York Times op-ed, David Stockman, President Reagan’s budget director and former Republican Congressman, writes “instead of cheering, we should be very afraid.”

Brussels' Naked Ambition Revealed?

It's no secret that North Dakota has been in the middle of an oil boom since about 2008, but a new chart from the North Dakota Industrial Commission, Department of Mineral Resources, shows just how steep the increase has been. As of 2006, the state was only producing about 100,000 barrels of crude oil per day, putting it on par with other mid-tier oil producing states like Kansas, Colorado and Montana. But new hydraulic fracturing techniques and the opening of the massive Bakken formation to drilling changed all that, and as of January 2013 the state was producing an average...

ABC news story. Pretty bizarre story.

A biological medication already widely used to treat plaque psoriasis may be able to slow the accumulation of amyloid plaques in the brain that are the hallmark of Alzheimer's disease, a new study has found. The same study found that in older mice with established Alzheimer's, this treatment approach, which suppresses the brain's immune reaction to beta amyloid, brought a marked improvement in cognitive function and may even halt or reverse early signs of Alzheimer's. The new study was published this week in the journal Nature Medicine. Conducted by researchers in Switzerland and Germany, the study offers a glimmer of...

In what seems a miracle of mercy, Palau has been spared the full wrath of Typhoon Bopha. While it wailed and howled and sent piercing noises through the trees and outside of our windows, at the very last minute the Typhoon turned west and its path jogged south of Palau. Early reports have the Typhoon passing more than 50 miles south of Koror, the nation’s city-centre. Surprisingly despite its thunderous whistle, there was very little rain. It is early morning here in Palau and as of yet, it has been difficult to communicate within Palau because the phone lines are...

LANSING (CBS Detroit) - It would no doubt be controversial, but the idea of dissolving the fiscally struggling city of Detroit and absorbing it into Wayne County is being tossed around in Lansing. WWJ Lansing Bureau Chief Tim Skubick reports some state Republicans are talking about giving the city the option to vote itself into bankruptcy. And mid-Michigan Senator Rick Jones said all options should be considered — including dissolving the city. “If we have to, that is one idea we have to look at. We really have to look at everything that is on the table,” Jones said. “Again,...

The U.S. is at war, a cyber war. And businesses and government are at risk, said Eric Rosenbach, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Cyber Policy in an interview with CNBC. "I read my intel brief every morning at 5:30 a.m. and it's never a very good news story at all," Rosenbach said. "There are a lot more attacks, and I hate to admit it but I fear that there will be some type of spectacular attack against the United States or one of our allies before there is comprehensive legislation and real appreciation to take this seriously." Just one...

What to you get when you go out looking for one of the daring (craziest) people on earth, give him a flying bat suit (a flying wing suit), a bunch of GoPro cameras and tell him to jump off a cliff? This video. Meet Jeb Corliss. Asked about the risk defying adventures, “I go out there expecting death”. That pretty much explains Jeb. For as long as he can remember, Jeb Corliss has dreamed of flying. One of his earliest memories came when he was 6 and sitting in the back of his aunt’s car watching birds jump from telephone...

The Manchurian Candidate Trailer with Denzel Washington and Jon Voight

If you are supposed to follow the money, look at InTrade's current numbers: 0 @ $6.71 R @ $3.33

The Coast Guard rescued 14 people from life rafts in the Atlantic Ocean approximately 90 miles southeast of Hatteras, N.C., Monday, Oct. 29, and two people remain missing. The first MH-60 Jayhawk crew arrived on scene at approximately 6:30 a.m. and hoisted five people into the aircraft, and a second helicopter arrived and rescued nine people and all were taken to Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C., with no life-threatening conditions. U.S. Coast Guard video by Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, N.C.

San Diego hotelier consolidates hold as city's new media baron, promotes conservative causes SAN DIEGO (AP) -- The new media barons of America's eighth-largest city are upfront about wanting to use their newspaper to promote their agenda of downtown development and politically conservative causes — and they are making their points in a brash, bare-knuckle style. Douglas Manchester and his partner John Lynch gave their 143-year-old newspaper a new slogan — "The World's Greatest Country & America's Finest City" — ran a front-page editorial that declared their plan to reshape the city's downtown waterfront their highest priority, and forecast doom...

Back in August, Victoria's Secret accidentally published a set of two dozen raw, unretouched images from a photo shoot with supermodel Doutzen Kroes. Although we had to take down the unretouched images from our post after some kind of legal crap from VS, we knew the publication of the retouched versions in the brand's catalog was only a matter of time. And now we can show you all the images, both before and after the VS airbrush job. Many of the differences between the retouched and raw photographs are not terribly shocking. There aren't any missing limbs, or drastic alterations...