Free Republic

2012 National Agricultural Classification Survey

WEST PALM BEACH -- A Florida teen is accused of posting a Facebook invite for a house party, killing his parents with a hammer and then hosting dozens of people while the adults' bludgeoned bodies were locked in the master bedroom.

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. -- The death toll from severe storms that roared across the South has risen to 173 across five states with Alabama and Mississippi each reporting increases in the number of deaths in their states.

Just heard some talk on the Weather Channel that tonight's game between the Vikings and the Eagles MAY get postpone because of the blizzard. Started me wondering: with this latest possible winter weather related problem, did Al Gore buy the Vikings?

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Federal agents have arrested a convicted murderer for allegedly providing the gun later used to kill ex-NFL quarterback Steve McNair. Adrian J. Gilliam Jr. was arrested by agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. A criminal complaint unsealed Friday in Nashville says that Gilliam -- who was convicted of murder and attempted armed robbery in 1993 in Florida -- admman who later shot McNair. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/football/nfl/07/17/mcnair.ap/index.html?eref=si_mostpopular

Volunteer Marc Oakland was stunned when he pulled the head of a Dalek from the murky depths of a pond he was helping to clean. The 42-year-old sales executive found part of Doctor Who’s arch nemesis as he pushed a rake along the surface while wading waist-high in water. He said: ‘I’d just shifted a tree branch with my foot when I noticed something dark and round slowly coming up to the surface. ‘I got the shock of my life when a dalek head bobbed up right in front of me.’ ... ‘After doing some research, we discovered the BBC...

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - Authorities said a man, 66, was arrested after calling 911 on Saturday to complain that a fast food restaurant ran out of lemonade. After a drive-through employee failed to respond to the man's threat of contacting the police, the irate diner called 911, a police report alleges. He spent about 5 minutes talking to the 911 operator about his complaint.

Sevier County authorities are investigating how one woman died and a man was found unconscious in a home under construction on Little Valley Road. ... The couple was found in a room with a running gas generator and a kerosene space heater. The Sheriff’s Office noted “the pair may have succumbed to carbon monoxide fumes emitted by the generator running in a closed room.” “There were also signs that the pair may have been consuming alcohol while in the home,” the SCSO release stated. ...

Transcript: Book World: Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Author of 'Know Your Power'

BBC Wales and BBC Drama has announced that BAFTA and Hugo Award-winning writer Steven Moffat will succeed Russell T Davies as Lead Writer and Executive Producer of the fifth series of Doctor Who, which will broadcast on BBC One in 2010. Moffat has penned some of the series' most unforgettable and acclaimed episodes, including Blink, with its terrifying weeping angels, for which he was awarded the BAFTA Writer Award 2008 on Sunday 11 May. His previous work on Doctor Who includes The Girl In The Fireplace for series two, which earned him his second Hugo Award. His first was for...

PASADENA, Calif. – Scientists on the Cassini mission to Saturn are poring through hundreds of images returned from the Sept. 10 flyby of Saturn's two-toned moon Iapetus. Pictures returned late Tuesday and early Wednesday show the moon's yin and yang--a white hemisphere resembling snow, and the other as black as tar. Images show a surface that is heavily cratered, along with the mountain ridge that runs along the moon's equator. Many of the close-up observations focused on studying the strange 20-kilometer high (12 mile) mountain ridge that gives the moon a walnut-shaped appearance. "The images are really stunning," said Tilmann...

HOUSTON — Shuttle astronauts spotted three pieces of debris floating in space outside Atlantis early Wednesday, a day after the discovery of two other mysterious objects forced a postponement of the landing. Atlantis commander Brent Jett described the objects as two rings and a piece of foil. He told Mission Control the first object, about 100 feet from the shuttle, was "a reflective cloth or a mechanic looking-cloth. ... It's not a solid metal structure." "It doesn't look like anything I've seen outside the shuttle," Jett said. ... http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,214645,00.html

Spongy-Looking Hyperion Tumbles Into View July 11, 2005 Two new Cassini views of Saturn's tumbling moon Hyperion offer the best looks yet at one of the icy, irregularly-shaped moons that orbit the giant, ringed planet. The image products released today include a movie sequence and a 3D view, and are available at http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov, http://www.nasa.gov/cassini and http://ciclops.org. The views were acquired between June 9 and June 11, 2005, during Cassini's first brush with Hyperion. Hyperion is decidedly non-spherical and its unusual shape is easy to see in the movie, which was acquired over the course of two and a half days....

President urged to slaughter sheep From correspondents in Jakarta 13-04-2005 From: Agence France-Presse INDONESIA'S president said he has been urged to slaughter 1000 sheep to prevent a repeat of the disastrous quakes that have hit his country, but he rejected the advice as superstitious nonsense. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said he had been bombarded with telephone text messages, or SMS, saying sacrificial lambs could calm the seismic forces that have claimed thousands of lives. "I have received many SMSs which say: 'Mr. President, please slaughter 1000 sheep'," Yudhoyono was quoted as saying by the state news agency Antara. Yudhoyono urged the...

I have never done a vanity post before, but right now, my blood is boiling over these faked documents. While most people are concentrating on Dan Rather and 60 Minutes, and rightfully so, Senator Tom Harkin must be placed in the spotlight as well, after the statements he made yesterday, when he called President Bush a liar, based upon those fraudulent pieces of paper. From:http://www.theiowachannel.com/politics/3719652/detail.html ------------------------- Harkin said these records show that the president hasn't been honest. "The documentation shows that the president was not being truthful," Harkin said. "The president lied to the American people in the Oval Office...

Donald Savage/Dwayne Brown Headquarters, Washington (Phone: 202/358-1547/1726) Jane Platt Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. (Phone: 818/354-0880) March 12, 2004 NOTE TO EDITORS : N04-040 NASA Schedules News Briefing About Unusual Solar Object The discovery of a mysterious object in our solar system is the topic of a listen-and-log-on news briefing on Monday, March 15, at 1 p.m. EST. Dr. Michael Brown, associate professor of planetary astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Calif. will present his discovery of the most distant object ever detected orbiting the sun. He and colleagues made the discovery as part of a NASA-funded research project. The...

Rare Snake Is Rediscovered in Vermont Rare Snake Is Spotted for the First Time Since 1985 in Windham County, Vermont The Associated Press BRATTLEBORO, Vt. Feb. 20 — State officials are hoping a rare snake, spotted in Putney last spring for the first time since 1985, can be placed on the state's list of endangered and threatened species. Middlebury College snake expert Jim Andrews found two live Eastern racers and a dead specimen with the help of students from a Vermont Audubon Society camp. Rest of story: http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/ap20040220_1072.html

News in Science News in Science 19/06/2003 Fried food can mutate your genes, study finds [This is the print version of story http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s882801.htm] Acrylamides, found in some fried and baked foods, can cause genetic damage Acrylamides, cancer-causing agents recently found in some fried and baked foods, can damage the DNA by causing a spectrum of mutations, researchers have reported. Swedish scientists triggered a furore in 2000 when they reported that acrylamides, used in industrial processes, can be found in a range of baked and fried foods. The chemicals seem to be formed by exposing high-carbohydrate foods to high temperatures in...

Strange tale of arson told as man pleads guilty, woman faces trial By Anne Krueger UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER March 7, 2003 DAN TREVAN / Union-Tribune EL CAJON – The power of witchcraft, a film about wildfires and magical urine were all cited by Kyle Van Epps as reasons he and a friend started five fires in the Mount Laguna area last summer. The real story behind the fires may never be known. Van Epps, 30, pleaded guilty yesterday to two counts of arson. He faces a maximum term of more than seven years in prison when he is sentenced April...

African lion reportedly sighted roaming county's mountains By Thomas Wilson STAR STAFF twilson@starhq.com The dense foliage of rural Carter County provides safe haven for a variety of wildlife. Deer, rabbits, and squirrel are a few of the indigenous creatures who call the mountains home. However, some county residents believe they have sighted another animal that has taken up residence that could lower the local deer, rabbit and squirrel population: an African lion. Poga community residents Troy Guy and his girlfriend, Ashley Clawson, were traveling on Poga Road before sundown on Monday evening when a large animal standing on an embankment...