Free Republic

WINDSOR, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) – The oldest working barber in the world is making sure his clients look and feel their best this holiday season. He works right here in New York, in the small upstate town of Windsor, the town’s oldest resident is still at work. “How old am I? 107,” said Anthony Mancinelli. He’s in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest barber in the world. So how does it feel? “I don’t know, I am just happy I am still a barber,” Mancinelli said. He still works full time, putting in 40 hours a week. His...

The World Bank is issuing its first bonds denominated in China's yuan in Hong Kong, joining a growing number of borrowers tapping the new debt market as Beijing gradually promotes of its tightly controlled currency abroad. The World Bank said buyers of its 500 million yuan ($76 million), two-year bond were mainly Hong Kong-based financial institutions, companies and wealthy individuals. It said the money will go into its general fund, rather than being raised for a specific purpose. The yuan is not traded on global currency markets but Beijing has loosened controls and allows Hong Kong banks to use it....

“People never crumble in a day – it’s a slow fade.” This is the chorus of Casting Crown’s “Slow Fade” song. The lyrics are just as applicable to a nation as to an individual and unfortunately for America, we have been in a slow fade for some time now. When “I dream of Jeannie” made its debut on television in September of 1965 it was the most embattled show to come across the airwaves. Television rating organizations had all kinds of problems allowing “Jeannie” to show her belly button. Today, that is laughable. One evening I was forced to turn...

Just started getting the 'Storm Fade' effect from "Snowmageddon"..have lost most of my DirecTV channels to one degee or another. Still getting my local channels though (off my roof attenna no doubt, but still digital. I gotta admit i'm curious as to how long it will last (the outage) considering the intensity of the storm. But considering my usual TV fare for Friday nights, is Ghost Whisperer, Medium, and Numb3rs, that and a large list of movies at Netflix to watch instantly, i'm not all gthat put out. Shame Hulu doesn't have a deal with CBS, so that if the...

“People never crumble in a day – it’s a slow fade.” This is the chorus of Casting Crown’s “Slow Fade” song. The lyrics are just as applicable to a nation as to an individual and unfortunately for America, we have been in a slow fade for some time now. When “I dream of Jeannie” made its debut on television in September of 1965 it was the most embattled show to come across the airwaves. Television rating organizations had all kinds of problems allowing “Jeannie” to show her belly button. Today, that is laughable. Last night I was forced to turn...

PHOENIX (Reuters) - What a difference a few weeks make -- at least when it comes to the U.S. presidential campaign and the hot issue of immigration. When the White House race began in earnest with the first party nominating contests in Iowa in January, a broad field of Republican candidates vied to demonstrate their toughness on illegal immigration, pledging more border enforcement and a crackdown on illegal workers. But with a narrowing of the races to secure the Republican and Democratic nominations ahead of November's general election, the issue could slip lower down the agenda as far as the...

SAN CRISTOBAL, Mexico – Vicente Fox, the Coca-Cola executive who made history in 2000 when he won the Mexican presidency, is taking on a new challenge: remaking himself. As Fox puts the finishing touches on his memoirs and oversees construction of Mexico's first presidential library, he is shaping a new role for himself in a country that expects its former presidents to vanish from public life. He talks about riding his “horse of democracy” through South America to promote freedom. He daydreams about loading his family in an RV this summer and vacationing in California. He travels to Canada with...

Digg.com reveals news stories fade after 1 hour 16:18 24 April 2007 NewScientist.com news service Belle Dumé Online news articles can lose their appeal in as little as an hour. That is the message from two statistical physicists who analysed the way people access information on the user-driven news site Digg.com. Fang Wu and Bernardo Huberman of HP Labs in Palo Alto, California, US, studied Digg in an effort to understand the way online news readers consume stories. Through a statistical analysis of the site, the researchers discovered that just a handful of stories hog most people's attention and most...

Study Reveals Why Blue Frescoes Fade Rossella Lorenzi, Discovery NewsKeeping Blue Bright Oct. 13, 2006 — Medieval and Renaissance Madonnas will no longer risk their vibrant blue mantels turning into yellowish grey robes, according to U.S. researchers who have discovered why natural ultramarine blue sometimes fades in frescoes. Known as "ultramarine sickness," the irreversible form of discoloration has been observed in frescoes at the Church of Saint Augustine in San Gimigniano, near Siena, and in the Basilica of Assisi. "Our studies explain for the first time the process of fading in ultramarines and may lead to the design of proper...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Iran showed few signs on Tuesday that it was ready to strike a deal with Russia that would allay suspicions it is seeking nuclear weapons and stave off Western pressure for possible U.N. sanctions. After two days of talks in Moscow, Russian and Iranian negotiators said they planned more discussions this week on a Russian proposal to enrich uranium for Iran, seen as a way to ensure Tehran cannot divert nuclear fuel into bomb-making. But the two sides appeared far apart, with Iran's foreign minister ruling out any return to a moratorium on uranium enrichment, which Russia...

From a long- range, strategic point of view, did California Republicans make a mistake in backing the 2003 recall of Gov. Gray Davis? The more Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger looks like he's starring in a remake of "The Incredible Shrinking Man," the more it appears that they may have. Perhaps it would have been preferable for Republicans to let Davis twist slowly in the wind until the end of his second term, continuing on in his passive, caretaker fashion and piling up new records for incompetence and real or perceived corruption. It's inconceivable there was anything he could do in his...

Vikings' Barbaric Bad Rap Beginning to Fade Stefan Lovgren in Stockholm, Sweden for National Geographic News February 17, 2004 "Never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race. … Behold, the church of St. Cuthbert, spattered with the blood of the priests of God, despoiled of all its ornaments; a place more venerable than all in Britain is given as a prey to pagan peoples." So wrote religious scholar Alcuin of York in the late eighth century in a letter to Ethelred, king of Northumbria in England. He was describing a violent...