Free Republic

HAVANA (AP) - Fidel Castro said Saturday that consumerism in the United States, the perennial enemy of his communist government, is threatening humanity's very existence. Castro used the latest of his «Reflections of the Commander in Chief» columns to lambast American capitalism, quoting a former Russian defense official who says the world must stand up to the United States and its money-grubbing ways. «Commercial advertising and consumerism are incompatible with the survival of the species,» Castro wrote in the essay titled «Hard and Obvious Realities» and published in Cuba's two leading state-controlled newspapers. Castro turns 81 on Aug. 13 and...

With two teenage daughters at home and triplets still in diapers, Angela Magdaleno's family overflowed from a one-bedroom apartment in South Los Angeles that they strained to afford. Diapers had to be changed 15 times a day, feedings held every three hours. One triplet, 3-year-old Alfredo Jr., needed special attention because he was born with liquid on his brain and partially paralyzed. Even simple events — like going to the store — required complex orchestration. And that was before the quadruplets arrived. On July 6, Magdaleno gave birth to two boys and two girls, drawing national media attention as a...

Existence of under-sea temple claimed By: Prasaad Bhosekar Visakhapatnam, July 03: Archaeologists in Visakhapatnam claim that a centuries-old temple exists two kilometers from Visakhapatnam coast, on the sea bed. While the coastal city of Visakhapatnam is steeped in history, few know that there was a temple called “Visakeswara Temple” on the coast of the city. Many centuries ago this temple went under the sea due to geological adjustments. According to Professor Gangadharam, who is working on facts regarding this temple, the temple existed centuries ago, but got submerged in the sea. ``From the research I did, I found out that...

IF A TREE FALLS IN THE FOREST The indivisible link between consciousness and existence. MAIN ARGUMENT: An old rhetorical question goes: "If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?" Well, the correct answer is "no." Since "sound" is only possible given the following conditions: 1.) That there is a listener who has the ability to hear…his ears function normally. 2.) The listener knows what the definition of "sound" is, and can correctly identify a "sound" when he hears one. If there is no "listener" then there is no...

Flying saucers and strange beings who have visited Earth aren't the typical topics reported by Peter Jennings, anchor of ABC's "World News Tonight." Jennings, whose new two-hour special tackles the subject of UFOs, admits he and his production team began the project with doubts and a dose of curiosity. "We have a lot of skeptics -- I am very skeptical -- but we seriously investigated something a lot of people are serious about," he said. "And when we come to the end, this is wonderfully interesting. "More than 80 million Americans believe intelligent beings from somewhere else have come here,"...

PETER JENNINGS REPORTING: UFO's: LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE - THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 24 (8:00-10:00 p.m., ET) -- Each year there are thousands of reports of unidentified flying objects, but the U.S. government doesn't investgate any of them. This special program will seriously examine the unexplained phenomena around the world that so many people believe is proof of the existence of UFOs.

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

<p>For more then fifty years, Israel has been a country which has caused controversy and debate all over the world. The eyes of the planet, no matter if it is for a good or bad purpose, are on Israel daily. As much as it is valid to study the conflict Israel is engaged in with militant Islam and the Islamic world, frankly it is necessary to understand Israel’s rationale for existing in the world. Through this understanding a better grasp of some of Israel’s past, present and future actions as a country can be realized.</p>

When Incrementalism Really Means Compromise I was a mere high school student when I attended my first "contemporary" church service during the "Jesus Freak" movement of the early 1970's in Costa Mesa, California.  Up to that point in my life, I was exposed to more formal type church services only.  Nevertheless, this new kind of church service shocked me very little, because I was made aware (many times, until the point was driven home), of the "logic" behind this modern type worship. The example I heard most promoting the positive aspects of this new movement was, "we are building bridges to...

Seattle Doctor Specializes In Near-Death Experiences The NBC 10 Investigators tracked down a doctor in Seattle whose research may come closer to anyone else to answering the question, is there life after death? Dr. Melvin Morse is a pediatrician who used to think that people who were interested in near-death experiences just wanted to be on television talk shows. But something happened to one of his patients that changed his opinion. Now he believes the evidence points to something after life. Most scientists will explain that near-death experiences are caused by the lack of oxygen in the brain in the...

21,781 people have fallen in battle in the service of the Jewish presence in Israel since 1860, new statistics from the Ministry of Defense show. 20, 196 soldiers and civilians fell in battle since November 1947 until April 19, 2004. IDF Memorial Day (Yom Hazikaron Lechalelei Ma'arachot Yisrael) takes place Sunday 25 April 2004. 184 people have been added to the list since last year's IDF Memorial Day.

As columnist Charles Krauthammer recently observed: "The world is experiencing the worst resurgence of anti-Semitism in 50 years. Its main objective is the demonization and delegitimation of Israel, to the point that the idea of eradicating... the world's only Jewish state becomes respectable, indeed laudable. The psychological grounds for the final solution are being prepared." Party to this grim preparation is one Tony Judt, former Oxford don and now a history professor at New York University. Accomplished in the academy, where Israel is widely vilified, he has evidently, as a Jew, suffered discomfiting criticism among his colleagues - perhaps even...

While Israel Radio reported that while the streets of Aqaba are decorated today with the flags of Jordan, U.S. and the PLO/PA, Jordan declined to put Israeli flags in the streets. Amir Weiss, the spokesman of the Israeli Embassy in Amman, took an upbeat tone in an interview on Israel Radio, noting that Israeli flags were inside the king's palace in Aqaba for the meeting. At 9:47 AM Israel Radio pointed out it is becoming embarrassing that the Jordanians have yet to permit the Israeli flag to be displayed at the press center.

Russian scientist Alexander Bolonkin develops artificial intelligence in the USA It was shown in my previous articles about the artificial intelligence and human immortality that the issue of immortality can be solved fundamentally only with the help of changing a biological bubble of a human being to an artificial one. Such an immortal person made of chips and supersolid materials (the e-man, as it was called in my articles) will have incredible advantages in comparison with common people. An e-man will need no food, no dwelling, no air, no sleep, no rest, no ecologically pure environment. Such a being...

Descartes was a geometrician. He found only in mathematics and geometry the certainty that he required. Therefore, he used the methods of geometry to think about the world. Now, in geometry, one begins with a search for axioms, simple undeniable truths – for example, the axiom that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points. On the foundations of such “self-evident” propositions, whole geometrical systems can be built. Following his geometrical model, Descartes proceeds to doubt everything – de onmibus dubitandum. He will suspend belief in the knowledge he learned from childhood, all those things “which I allowed...