Free Republic

An astonishing new image shows the moment the $300k Bentley involved in the Niagara Falls checkpoint explosion soared through the air moments before combusting. US police said on Thursday they were still investigating the fiery crash on the bridge linking New York state and Ontario the day before. The dramatic fireball incident at 11.29am Wednesday sparked a security scare and the closure of four US-Canadian border crossings on the day before Thanksgiving. A new image which emerged on X, formerly known as Twitter, shows the luxury motor twisting sideways as it hurtled through the air at break-neck speed. It was...

The spectacle of the state of Oregon blowing up a dead whale on a beach in Florence 50 years ago is known worldwide.It’s estimated the video shot by KATU photographer Doug Brazil and reported on by KATU’s former reporter and anchor Paul Linnman has been viewed upward of 350 million times. WATCH: The Exploding Whale remastered: 50th anniversary of legendary Oregon event But it may not have become the phenomenon that it is today without the help of humor columnist Dave Barry.In 1990, 20 years after it happened, Barry wrote an article about the event and the story absolutely exploded....

Scientists blasted pigs with explosives, infected monkeys with biological weapons and poisoned guinea pigs with nerve gas at the government’s top secret Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down in Wiltshire.

A coconut that was placed inside a coffin "sent fear" through staff at a crematorium when it exploded. Bolton Council has urged mourners to abide by crematorium rules and not "slip" items into coffins. Donna Ball, Assistant Director of Community Services, said a "hell of an explosion can sometimes occur". Other items of concern include mobile phones, TV remotes, e-cigarettes and bottles of alcohol. Ms Ball told the BBC: "We are asking people to be considerate regarding the items they place into coffins before the cremation process. "We have seen a rise in things like e-cigarettes, bottles of whisky and...

The world’s leading smartphone makers just can’t stop copying each other. While the company has certainly improved its image over the past few years, Samsung is likely most famous for being an Apple copycat. After all, the company was sued repeatedly by Apple for stealing its technology and designs. And as we all learned, things got so crazy at one point that Samsung even created a 132-page internal document to help its engineers copy the iPhone pixel by pixel. Of course, Apple is hardly innocent in all this. The iPhone maker has aped plenty of features from Android in recent...

The Rev. Terry Jones caved. We did not. Here's what happens when one pound of Tannerite meets the Quran. One shot from an AR15 sends this hate manual straight to Allah. After the smoke cleared, we celebrated by eating a delicious pulled pork BBQ sandwich. MMMMM PORK. This is how we do it in the hills of North Georgia, USA. Florida, not so much.

YouTube - Exploding Quran on September 11, 2010  redblooded1776 | September 12, 2010 The Florida pastor caved. We did not. The Quran meets its demise with 1 pound of Tannerite lit off by an AR15. Once the smoke settled, we celebrated with a delicious pulled pork BBQ sandwich. That's how we do it in the hills of North Georgia, USA.

Pit bull crackdown 'like racism against dogs' Elgin council advances tough restrictions on pit bulls February 25, 2010 By MIKE DANAHEY mdanahey@stmedianetwork.com By a 4-3 vote, the Elgin City Council Wednesday night approved moving along an amended animal control ordinance that puts tough restrictions on owners of pit bulls, which would be labeled "dangerous dogs." At a committee of the whole session held at The Centre to accommodate an audience of more than 100 people, Councilmen Dave Kaptain, John Steffen and Rich Dunne had wanted to table the item, asking staff to look into several issues. But Mayor Ed Schock...

A chemistry student in the Ukraine was found dead with his jaw blown off by what is believed to be exploding chewing gum, according to reports. The 25-year-old's disfigured remains were discovered at his parent's home in the northern Ukrainian city of Konotop, reports in the Eastern European country said. The young man, who studied at Kiev Polytechnic Institute, was working at a computer late on Saturday when the alleged explosion happened.

VISALIA — Fire investigators are trying to determine how powdered milk exploded at a processing plant, sparking a two-alarm fire. Seven fire engines responded to California Dairies Inc., where an explosion Monday blew a hole in the side of a powdered milk processing building and forced the evacuation of 200 employees.

Exploding asteroid theory strengthened by new evidence located in Ohio, Indiana Space & Earth science / Earth Sciences Ken Tankersley seen working in the field in a cave in this publicity photo from the National Geographic Channel. Geological evidence found in Ohio and Indiana in recent weeks is strengthening the case to attribute what happened 12,900 years ago in North America -- when the end of the last Ice Age unexpectedly turned into a phase of extinction for animals and humans -- to a cataclysmic comet or asteroid explosion over top of Canada. A comet/asteroid theory advanced by Arizona-based geophysicist...

A fleet of exploding probes could prepare the way for warding off hazardous asteroids. Several of the small spherical robots would land on a single asteroid, some exploding while others listen for vibrations that could reveal the object's inner structure. NASA has a list of more than 800 asteroids considered to be potentially hazardous because their orbits carry them close to Earth's. If one of them is found to be on a collision course, knowing its physical properties will be crucial in devising a mission to divert it.

LONDON (Reuters) - Teams of international scientists have used observations from NASA's Swift satellite and other telescopes to witness the evolution of a cosmic blast into a stellar explosion or supernova. The blast is thought to be a milder type of gamma-ray burst (GRB) -- the most powerful type of explosion known to astronomers -- called an X-ray flash. It is known as GRB060218 after the February 18 date it began in the constellation of Aries about 440 million light years away. A light year is about 6 trillion miles, the distance light travels in a year. "This extends the...

LONDON - Luckily, the exploding Smedley’s English Red Plums in Heavy Syrup were intercepted in Turkey before anyone got killed. But what of the hand grenade disguised as a chocolate bar? Or the incendiary Vichy pastille sweets? A secret file from the archives of Britain’s spy services released this week shows ingenious methods, conjured up by Germans during World War II, for disguising bombs.

A huge blast of radiation from an exploding star might have been behind one of the Earth's worst mass extinctions, some 450m years ago. In the latest issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters, scientists argue that a gamma ray burst, the most powerful explosion that occurs in the universe, was responsible for the Ordovican mass extinction in which 60% of all marine invertebrates died. Gamma ray bursts are thought to be caused either when two neutron stars collide or when giant stars collapse into black holes at the end of their lives. For around 10 seconds, intense pulses of energy...

Under threat of an initiative to scrap California's traditional public pensions, legislators and others are scrambling to craft bills to repair the system instead. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has endorsed the initiative to replace public pensions, which guarantee retirement income based on salary and years of service, with 401(k)-style investment accounts. Strong interests - especially public employee unions and their allies - oppose abandoning the existing system. Now, they're under the gun to fix it. In the recent past, proposals to rein in pension costs haven't gained much traction. This year, however, the initiative threat is leading to a bumper crop...

This is a photo my dad took right outside of his house, on Talmadge Road, in Toledo, Ohio. I'm no expert, but what do you think happened which caused this to occur AFTER the car was attached to the tow truck?

The Schwarzenegger administration has quietly shut down virtually all expansion of California's state parks -- even land paid for with private donations, the Mercury News has learned. Saying the state cannot afford new rangers, fences, signs and maintenance, Schwarzenegger officials in the state Department of Finance are refusing to buy almost any new land or accept new scenic beaches, forests and historic sites into public ownership. The policy was put into place by the state Public Works Board, an obscure panel appointed by the governor that approves funding for state buildings, college classrooms, prisons, parks and other facilities.

This year, firework enthusiasts can get their hands on some of the world's most notorious terrorists at some of the firework stands. Stars and Stripes at the corner of 23rd Street and 33rd Avenue carries the new "Exploding Terrorist Heads." These cone-shaped devices have cartoon images of Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Yasser Arafat on them - all with a fuse located atop each fountain head. "We don't show them or promote them," said Tammi Gotschall, who was in charge of sales Tuesday afternoon. "People will see them."

Beijing - Beer bottles that exploded in the hot summer weather were one of the biggest health risks Chinese consumers faced last year, Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday. Complaints about food safety rose by nearly 25 percent in 2003 as newly wealthy Chinese consumers looked for quality and spoke out if they were disappointed, Xinhua quoted a leading consumer group as saying. "Personal injury, foreign matter in food, outdated or undated food and children's food safety were the chief (causes of) complaint," said Wang Qianhu, director of the China Consumers' Association's complaint and law department. "...Beer bottle explosions were...