Free Republic

ROME–When Swedish climate change activist Greta Thunberg was 11 years old, her body had started to shut down due to severe self-starvation tied to debilitating depression. She spoke to almost no one but her immediate family. She was afraid of crowds. She was lost in her own world, and the world very nearly lost her. But thanks to the formal diagnosis of Asperger’s syndrome coupled with high-functioning autism and obsessive compulsive disorder, the now-16-year-old Swede has become quite literally the poster child for the generation that will have to deal with the destruction of our planet. Once she started receiving...

KUALA LUMPUR (AFP) - A former Malaysian snake farm worker may have set a new world record after kissing a poisonous snake 51 times in three minutes, a report said. Shahimi Abdul Hamid's feat in kissing the 4.6 metre (14 feet) long King Cobra weighing 10 kilograms (22 pounds) 51 times in three minutes and one second was a record waiting to be verified, the Sunday Star newspaper said. Records showed that Gordon Cates from Florida, the United States kissed 11 cobras without a time limit in September 1999. Cates had used an iron bar to protect himself while Shahimi...

Abuse of Authority... By Geoff Metcalf, CalNews.com September 16, 2005 "...the conduct of public affairs for private advantage." --Ambrose Bierce In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, as with previous disasters, inevitably we hear horrific stories of those who attempt to exploit the suffering of others for personal gain. Nature may require parasites and vermin to clean up the decay and corruption of biology. However, the parasites and vermin who prey on the suffering of victims is beyond contempt. Although the current news cycle may be focused on the havoc wrought by a hurricane, there is another form of parasite and...

High speed actuators enable the robot’s fingers to move through 180 degrees in 0.1 second (Image: Akio Namiki/University of Tokyo) If robots are to inherit the Earth, then they should at least be able to catch. So say the researchers behind a bot that can match the most skilled human baseball player faced with a hurtling ball. The robotic catcher, developed by scientists at the University of Tokyo, Japan, can comfortably grab a ball careering through the air at 300 kilometres per hour, or 83 metres per second, its creators say. And, of course, the robot never gets tired...