Free Republic

    Carbon dioxide turned into hydrocarbon fuel   19:00 31 July 02   Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition   A way to turn carbon dioxide into hydrocarbons has caused a big stir at an industrial chemistry conference in New Brunwick, New Jersey. Nakamichi Yamasaki of the Tokushima Industrial Technology Center in Japan says he has a process that makes propane and butane at relatively low temperatures and pressures.   Making fuel from greenhouse gases While his work still needs independent verification, if he can make even heavier hydrocarbons, it might be possible to make petrol. It has carbon chains that...

    Obese people more likely to die in car crashes   09:30 30 March 02   Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition   Heavier people are more likely to be killed or seriously injured in car accidents than lighter people, according to new research.   That could mean car designers will have to build in new safety features to compensate for the extra hazards facing overweight passengers. In the US, car manufacturers have already had to redesign air bags so they inflate to lower pressures, making them less of a danger to smaller women and children. But no one yet knows...

My job (evihl federal employee) is sending me to DC for a couple of days, and one evening (Wednesday the 23rd). I'm arriving at 9:30 @ Reagan, I dont have to go to "work" till 1:00 pm, then I am free after 5:00. Is there anything interesting going on there tommorrow evening? No one to freep or hassle? I haven't been there in 12 years, any suggestions as to what to check out (Korean war memorial was suggested)? Are they allowing any visits to the Pentagon, or areas where I could see some damage? (not because I am a sicko, ...

Aniston mentions how musicians in the Eighties had something to be pissed off about, with Reagan in the White House. I ask her what she thinks of Bush. She vents about him in detail, eloquently, but off the record. She says she doesn't want to come off like another actor blathering about politics [emphasis mine]. On the record, she'll only say, "Bush is a f*cking idiot," and flip him a double-bird, and that Jenna Bush - the Bush daughter whose underage drinking has proved embarrassing for the administration - had a summer internship at Brillstein-Grey, the management firm where ...

MISS FRANCES CHIDES TELETUBBIES Television pioneer Frances Horwich, who launched the Ding Dong School as one of network television's first children's series in 1952 and was known to a generation of kid viewers in the '50s as "Miss Frances," has sharply criticized public television's hit show Teletubbies, one of Britain's most profitable TV exports. In an interview with Chicago Sun-Times' columnist Robert Feder, the 93-year-old Horwich, who was head of the education department at Roosevelt College in Chicago when she hosted Ding Dong School, said that she particularly objected to the baby-talk used by the characters because it "defies every ...

Russia Plans to Revive Buran Shuttle By SPACE.com Staff posted: 10:45 am ET 28 June 2001 The Russians reportedly plan to revive their Buran space shuttle, thanks to a booming business in Proton launches and the growing need to transport more heavy payloads to the International Space Station. The Buran, based on more advanced technologies than the older U.S. space shuttle fleet, flew only once and was mothballed in 1992 by a cash-strapped Russian government. Its return to service brings a vehicle capable of carrying 100-ton payloads -- five times more than any Western space vehicle. "There is a ...

Will Charles Smith, oldest U.S. veteran TALLAHASSEE -- (AP) -- The nation's oldest living veteran, Will Charles Smith, is dead at the age of 112. Smith, who was born New Year's Day 1889 at Sneads in the Florida Panhandle, became the oldest living veteran last month after John Painter of Tennessee died, also at the age of 112. Smith, who died April 19, served in the Army in France in 1918 and 1919. He took up farming when he returned home, then moved to Tallahassee in 1946 and worked as a landscaper until age 89. ``Dad always told us ...

Cycle injury toll is a `no-brainer' Gillian Hotz frames the issue as a ``no-brainer,'' a dark pun considering the brutal numbers she has compiled at Ryder Trauma Center since Florida's motorcycle helmet law was repealed. In the six months after the July 1, 2000, repeal, the neuro-clinical researcher discovered an 81 percent increase in serious motorcycle injuries treated at the Miami trauma center compared with the last six months of 1999. ``Now this is most significant,'' Hotz said. ``There was a 90 percent increase in brain injuries -- from 19 in the 1999 segment to 36 in 2000.'' Hotz ...

Ex-linebacker wins union settlement BY DALE K. DuPONT ddupont@herald.com A right-to-work group said Thursday it has won a monetary settlement from the Miami Teamsters union for Rod Carter, the former University of Miami linebacker who was beaten and stabbed during a UPS strike in 1997. The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation would not disclose terms of the agreement. Teamsters union attorneys declined to comment. The organization filed suit in September 1999 in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, seeking an unspecified amount of punitive and compensatory damages from the union. Carter, a member of Miami's 1987 national championship team and ...

Monday, November 6, 2000 11:54 P.M. BUSH 49%, GORE 40%, NADER 4% Election Day 2000 The final tracking poll was updated at 12:01 A.M, November 7.

AP Regional Pit bull attack ends with man choking and then drowning animal SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) - A 26-year-old man wrestled with a pit bull before drowning it in a pond after the animal had savaged a woman's arm and two of her small dogs. Ra'Sheen Williams from the Fulton County town of Gloversville choked and drowned the animal at Yaddo Gardens Sunday, after it tore into Samella Forte's arm, according to Saratoga Springs police. Forte was taken to Saratoga Hospital and received 20 stitches. The pit bull, which had no identifying tags or collar, spotted Forte's Pomeranian ...

I never watch this show anymore.. but for some reason, it was on TV tonight and so I began watching, and there were, apparently, three Republican types (Kevin Sorbo, some comedian, and some female Columnits (clearly the smartest), and one Democrat type(unknown guy), as guests. Sorry, I did not pay much attention to the names.. Anyways, Maher, plus the three Republican types, ripped Gore (they even brought up the "gay" thing), Liebarman (There may have been a few off the cuff anti-Cheney remarks) and the Democrat type could only mount a pathetic defense... I couldn't believe what I was hearing. ...

Inmate on Death Row presses for execution Mother files request to block `suicide' BY PHIL LONG plong@herald.com Dan Patrick Hauser, convicted of the heinous torture-murder of a strip club worker in 1995, wants to be executed. Tuesday evening, he has a date with a lethal injection at Florida State Prison in Starke. But first he has to get past his mother. Hauser is a believer in the death penalty who has fought to keep lawyers from appealing on his behalf. But on Thursday, state-funded lawyers who handle death appeals filed an emergency request with the Florida Supreme Court, claiming Hauser's ...