Free Republic

The Secret Key to Everything by Reginald Firehammer The following enthusiastic remarks were recently posted to The Autonomist Forum: "Congratulations for your site, Im so glad to find this forum. People have the possibility of success, fulfillment, and greatness. The Landmark Education Forums and other programs by Landmark Education are specifically designed to bring about positive and permanent shifts in the quality of your life. Let's make the most out of our potentials." Everything about it is a scam, including the phony post implying the poster is just so happy to have found this site, which is nothing but a...

The ERC should give a sharper focus to European research Europe has a new flagship agency to fund the brightest ideas in science. The European Research Council (ERC) has been given a budget of 7.5bn euros (£5bn) to 2013, and will focus solely on fundamental, or "blue skies", study. It is hoped the initiative can find the breakthrough thinking - and eventually new products and services - to keep the EU's economy globally competitive. The ERC was formally inaugurated at a meeting in Berlin attended by the German Chancellor, Dr Angela Merkel. She said the Council would become "a...

NEW YORK (Fortune) --For the first time ever, India has posted four straight years of 8 percent growth; since it cracked open its economy in 1991, it has averaged growth of 6 percent- not in the same league as China, but twice the "Hindu rate of growth" that had marked the first 45 years of independence. India has gone nuclear, and even gotten the United States to accept that status. Its movies are crossing over to become international hits. No wonder the idea of India as the next superpower is fast becoming conventional wisdom. "Our Time is Now," asserts The...

NEW JERSEY FLOATS DEVELOPMENT SCHEMES ON CLEAN WATER FUNDS — Golf Courses, Transit Villages and Transferable Building Rights Are Eligible Projects Trenton —The State of New Jersey is using its Clean Water State Revolving Fund to subsidize an array of developer schemes, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) which is asking the federal government to intervene. At the same time, the state claims it has lacked the resources to enforce toxic landfill standards that would force cleanup of the most dangerous sites, according to correspondence released today by PEER. Although New Jersey faces more than $12 billion in...

The oil and natural-gas industry is increasingly looking to Canada as a home for big energy projects Americans don't want in their backyards. A patch of coniferous forest near here, on Canada's Atlantic coastline, represents both the promise and the challenges of that approach. The land, owned by closely held Canadian energy company Irving Oil, is earmarked for the possible construction of a 300,000-barrel-a-day crude-oil refinery that would cost $5 billion to $7 billion -- the first new refinery in the U.S. or Canada in more than 25 years. Irving hopes a refinery, if it chooses to build one, would...

Susan Powers, associate dean for Research and Graduate Studies at Clarkson's Coulter School of Engineering, was paying special attention today when Governor Pataki announced that $24 million was being awarded to two companies for the development and construction of the state's first cellulosic ethanol plants. That's because Powers and other environmental researchers and students at Clarkson will participate in the project with Mascoma Corporation, one of the companies receiving the state funding. Mascoma, with the help of a $14 million grant from the governor, will build a 500,000-gallon-a-year cellulosic ethanol pilot facility in Greece, near Rochester. In addition to Clarkson...

Evangelical Left All Shook Up About Affordable Housing Book Review: Making Housing Happen: Faith-Based Affordable Housing Models By Jill Suzanne Shook, editor and co-author Chalice Press, 2006 $34.99 Through her new book, Jill Shook, a housing activist in Pasadena, California, has become the de facto spokesperson of the Evangelical Left's new social movement to combat the so-called "affordable housing crisis", mostly focused on the U.S situation. The book jacket contains endorsements by many leaders of the Evangelical Left - Tony Campolo, Ronald J. Sider, and oddly has a preface by Dr. John Perkins, who doesn't fit the label. Given that...

Eritrea aims to become the first country in the world to turn its entire coast into an environmentally protected zone to ensure balanced and sustainable development, officials said Tuesday. The Red Sea state intends to protect all of its 1,350-kilometer (837-mile) coastline, along with another 1,950-kilometers (1,209-miles) of coast around its more than 350 islands, according to a draft coastal policy document. "Eritrea will be the first country in the world to declare its entire coastline a protected area," said Dr Michael Pearson, an environment management specialist working with a group that has pushed the proposal. He and the Eritrea...

STUNG TRENG, Cambodia — In the dense humidity of northern Cambodia, where canoes are the common mode of transportation, a foreman from a Chinese construction company directs local laborers to haul stones to the ramp of a nearly completed bridge. [...] China’s generosity to Cambodia has caught Washington’s attention. The United States Navy is planning a port visit to Sihanoukville early next year, a first since the Khmer Rouge seized power in 1975. In the Philippines, China is also making a big splash, offering an extraordinary package of $2 billion in loans each year for the next three years [...]...

While this new world of corporate governance/ lobbyists/ privatization of the commons etc; seems difficult to understand (disguised as it is with buzz words – and meaningless jibberish), it’s really not as complex as one might think. After you learn how to ignore the superficial banalities, and get to the meat (if there is any) of the message being given. Most times you’ll hear just fluff and nutter talk – sounds important but isn’t. While we naturally focus upon local issues and concerns such as community development, roads, tons of garbage, forest access, tourism, sportsmen’s rights, lack of snow, no...

"Freedom." It's the most used, most misunderstood, most misused word in the English language. Every movement, every revolution, every special-interest campaign uses the word Freedom to explain their motives and to draw us in to their cause. Everybody wants freedom. We fight under the banner of "Live Free or Die." But, no cause ever won a campaign or a war under the banner "be happy under tyranny." But "Freedom" is also a word that can be used to enslave us. The word "Freedom," in the wrong hands, with the wrong motives or agenda can be a butcher's knife. What do...

When recently asked what his top priorities were for his country's European Union presidency, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen had just three words to say: "Innovation, innovation, innovation." Finland's willingness to embrace change, shift priorities and make tough choices has created one of the world's most competitive economies, says Ann Mettler, executive director of the Lisbon Council, a Brussels-based think tank. Taking Finland as an example, the following key lessons can be drawn: ** Education, skills and lifelong learning must be at the center of an innovative economy; far from being a consistent top performer -- in the mid-1980s, secondary...

N.Korea, Iran, Pakistan Could‘Share Missile Technology’ North Korea’s Taepodong-2 missile appears to be the same model as Iran's Shahab-5 missile, a report on North Korea's ballistic missile program by the Institute of Foreign Affairs and National Security (IFANS) under the Foreign Ministry says. The report states that Iran and China have a defense industry cooperation pact, hinting at a three-way relationship that also includes China’s long-term ally North Korea. "It cannot be ruled out that the very difficult turbo pump technology problem was solved with the help of China," it adds. The report also says North Korea's mid-range Rodong missile...

SALMON, Idaho — In a state where pine and fir outnumber residents, the loss of several privately owned spruces should hardly excite attention, let alone spark a crusade emblematic of a new trend to protect trees on private land. But in the ski community of Ketchum, Idaho, a seasonal home for the rich and famous and the last resting place of writer Ernest Hemingway, a developer's plan to cut down three towering conifers on his property spurred the city to issue an emergency order last month outlawing the felling of mature trees. Resident Lara Babalis wanted additional assurances. She spent...

California's growth patterns -- the migration to hot inland regions, construction of big new homes and paving of open space -- are contributing both to increasing temperatures and record demand for electricity. Experts say development choices can play a large role in making hot weather even hotter. "People usually talk of greenhouse gases. What's forgotten is what we've actually done to the surface of the planet,'' said Bill Patzert, a climatologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. "I call it extreme makeover warming.'' The housing boom in places like the Central Valley causes growing electricity demand during heat waves,...

Coalition forces rebuild mosque, provide medical care to villagers. WASHINGTON, July 23, 2006 — Coalition forces continue to aid and develop Afghanistan, even as they fight back terrorist extremists who are determined to stop progress, U.S. military officials reported today. Aid and reconstruction efforts include a rebuilt mosque in the Paktya province and medical and humanitarian aid to hundreds of Afghan villagers in the Kandahar province, said Combined Forces Command spokesman Army Col. Thomas Collins. " Coalition forces are not now and will not ever be dissuaded from their mission of building a free, secure, and independent Afghanistan. " Maj....

The pattern of brain growth during development may figure more importantly than overall brain size when it comes to intelligence, according to a new study. Scientists have found that the smartest kids start off with a relatively thin cerebral cortex--the outer layer of the brain associated with thought and other higher order functions--which thickens rapidly by age 12 before undergoing the same general diminishment as that of their peers of average intelligence. "Brainy children are not cleverer solely by virtue of having more or less gray matter at any one age," says Judith Rapoport of the National Institute of Mental...

The world is fast approaching the point where the majority of the human population will be found in urban areas. Somewhere, sometime in 2007, someone migrating from their rural home to begin a new life in a town or city will tip the global rural/urban balance, the UN estimates. Throughout history, the world has experienced urbanisation but the huge rise in the number of people making their homes in towns and cities is a recent phenomenon. In 1950, less than one-in-three people lived in urban areas. The world had just two so-called "megacities" with populations in excess of 10 million:...

Jack Welch gives his reasons why a company should go to China... 1. China has a vast market 2. China has low-cost manufacturing 3. China has increasingly strong technical talent. 4. Companies that 'make it' in China leap into another competitive league, leaving their competitors behind. and why a company should not... 1. China is littered with companies that went to China...just to go to China. 2. The China-or-bust mantra was invoked on them in B-school. 3. Because everyone is going.... How about your company? Should it go to China? Why? Why not? What do you think?

/begin my translationThe Crashed Plane Was a Brand-new AWACS Plane China Developed A Chinese air force plane, which recently crashed in Anhui Province, killing all crews, turned out to be 'Gongjing-2000,' a brand-new AWACS plane China recently developed. According to June 6th report of Hong Kong's Dai-gong-bao, the crashed plane is 'Gongjing-2000,' which China developed using a Russian AWACS plane as its model, and the accident would be recorded as the worst disaster for Chinese air force.China produced four Gongjing-2000 AWACS planes, and assigned them to airforce unit under Nanjing Military District early this year. They were reportedly deployed at Wushi Air base in Jiang-su Province.The...