Free Republic

(CU) - “My name is Fountain Hughes. I was born in Charlottesville, Virginia. My grandfather belong to Thomas Jefferson. My grandfather was a hundred and fifteen years old when he died. And now I am one hundred and, and one year old.” “You all try to live like young people ought to live. Don't want everything somebody else has got. Whatever you get, if it’s yours be satisfied. And don't spend your money till you get it. So many people get in debt. Well, that all was so cheap when I bought it. You spend your money before you get...

We think we’ve just found our happy place. The town of Caldari di Ortona, Abruzzo, Italy, has always been a delightful destination. It’s a spot on a popular pilgrimage route, the Cammino di San Tommaso, and has glorious sights to be seen and vineyards to visit. But recently, the town has introduced a feature that takes it from ‘ooh, I’d like to visit there, maybe’ to ‘TAKE ME THERE, NOW’. If you visit Caldari di Ortona, you will find a fountain. But not just any fountain. We’re talking about a wine fountain, that dispenses free wine 24/7. The fountain sits...

A handicap ramp in front of a Fountain family's house is in the middle of a neighborhood squabble. Vincent and Heidi Giesegh say their neighbors are threatening legal action if they don't remove the ramp. They say the next door couple is worried that the ramp will hurt the value of their home. The Giesegh's say they need it for their 16 year old daughter Kirsten who has Cerebral Palsy. "As she goes into her spastic modes, we could just tumble down the stairs and both of us could get massively hurt," said Heidi Giesegh. The Giesegh's neighborhood doesn't have...

Inside a Mouse's Brain Lies a Chemical Key to the Fountain of Youth By Greg Thomas Source image via Wikipedia If a scientist came to you with a plan to tweak a gland in the center of your brain so that you may live to be 140 years old, you'd probably back out of the room slowly and go to file a police report, because that's creepy. But new research shows that it's not altogether impossible. A new report from researchers at the Albert Einstein School of Medicine in the Bronx shows that scientists can tinker with the minds of...

In this week's Appetite food and drink column in the paper, I relished the opportunity to return to a time of delicious handmade fountain drinks at Cole Valley's new Ice Cream Bar (albeit with some innovative contemporary flavor twists). In between sips of wild cherry phosphate, I got to talk to Russell Davis, the bartender who developed the fantastic soda fountain program, about the soda jerk revival -- and got him to share some of his sassafras secrets. SFBG Why is Ice Cream Bar different from other soda fountain revival spots in the US? Russell Davis There are a few...

STUPID WOMAN SUING FOR FALLING INTO FOUNTAIN BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! She could have been hit by a bus. In the mall?

New London — The city turned off the water at the new whale tail fountain over the weekend after someone reportedly defecated in the water. "People are using the tail as a latrine,'' Evelyn Louziotis said. "It's an $11 million bathroom."

Sorry again about not being circumspect about posting every week. So I'll do two in a row. The first one is reticulite. It's not a sponge, it's a rock. From the Earth Science Picture of the Day, where this was a top pick for 2010: http://epod.usra.edu/blog/vote-2010.htmlCaption: Pumice is a glassy volcanic rock that's so full of bubbles that most examples will float on water. Reticulite is an extreme form of pumice in which the bubbles have coalesced, leaving only a tenuous reticular network of glassy lava behind in the interstitial spaces between the bubbles. While pumice is more characteristic of...

This is most peculiar. No one would know who she was if she didn't come forward. View video here

Video: Woman falls into fountain while textingTuesday, 18 January, 2011 10:20 AM WE all know that you shouldn’t text and drive - but texting and walking seems to be equally hazardous if this video is anything to go by.

To commemorate almost two decades of photographing the wonders of the universe, the Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of a peculiar group of interacting galaxies that contains a "cosmic fountain" of stars, gas and dust that stretches about 100,000 light years. Over the past 19 years, Hubble has taken many images of galactic collisions and close encounters. The new image of a trio of galaxies, called Arp 194, looks as if of the galaxies has sprung a leak. The bright blue streamer seen in the image is really a stretched spiral arm full of newborn blue stars. This stellar...

Link only - 2nd 'Tea Party' at Fountain Square The first one - The Cincinnati Tea Party is underway (large turnout)

The White House fountains are dyed green this morning. No, not for the $165 million in AIG bonuses, silly -- in honor of St. Patrick's day. They were dyed this morning by White House grounds staff, ordered by White House Social Secretary Desiree Rogers in honor of the Chicago tradition of dying the Chicago River on St. Patrick's Day every year. Rogers told the Obamas her idea and the Obamas "loved it" according to a White House aide.

OK I just was watching the new IL governor Quinn. Today. Per Fox News. I was amazed frankly, by how much he resembles Vice President Cheney! So much so, I thought some other FReepers might find the resemblance humorous also, and decided to share the observation. Checked Wikipedia for an public domain photo to post, and see a photo I've seen a couple places online today: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:PQuinnIllinois.jpg Claiming, the image is four years old. Looks absolutely NOTHING like the guy on FNC just a few minutes ago. 2004?...

With sky-high gas prices, 42 cents won’t get you very far nowadays. However, it will get you a trip to jail. A 43-year-old Bonita Springs man was arrested Monday morning after Naples police say he stole 42 cents from a mall fountain. Laslo Mujzer, 43, 26801 Silverado East Drive, was charged with petty theft under $100, a misdemeanor. Around 11:15 a.m. Monday, a customer at the Coastland Center mall approached a mall security guard, and told her that a man was stealing money from a fountain outside, police reported. The security guard, Heather Watson, found the man, later identified as...

From WTNH, Channel 8 New Haven: Thief damages New Haven fountain Posted Mar. 18, 2008 6:02 AM New Haven (WTNH) _ A thief targeted the fountain on the New Haven Green and caused thousands of dollars in damage. Someone stole 32 bronze nozzles and eight bronze light fixtures from the fountain that sits across from city hall. Police think it has to do with the record-high value of scrap metal, the New Haven Register reported. The city thinks it will cost about $20,000 to repair the fountain, which is also a war memorial. http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=8031761

SAN JOSE At least seven children suffered diarrhea after playing in a popular downtown fountain, and city health officials worry the water may have infected many more. The fountain at Plaza de Cesar Chavez Park has not flowed since late last week, when tests confirmed the presence of the microscopic parasite that causes cryptosporidiosis, a diarrhea-inducing virus. The health department continued investigating Thursday whether 13 more cases of cryptosporidiosis and 15 cases of salmonella in children since mid-July were linked to the tainted fountain. One child was hospitalized but has since recovered, said Dr. Marty Fenstersheib, the county's public health...

NORTH MANKATO, Minn. --Here, the bubbles runneth over. A park fountain in this southern Minnesota town has been hit by suds-dumping pranksters at least 10 times in the past few months. And now, city officials are in a lather. "Baby-sitting a fountain just isn't a good use of our time," said police Capt. Wayne Hoffman. Every time the fountain is "soaped" -- as the police and parks workers call it -- several clean up and repair jobs must get done. The fountain has to be turned off and drained. Then the inside of it and the water-circulating lines must be...

Dada, or just gaga? Art vandal fined French court convicts 77-year-old man for taking hammer to Duchamp work PARIS -- A court has convicted a 77-year-old French man for attacking artist Marcel Duchamp's famed porcelain urinal with a hammer, rejecting the defendant's contention that he had increased the value of the art work by making it an "original." The court gave Pierre Pinoncelli a three-month suspended prison sentence Tuesday and ordered him to pay a $283,000 fine. Pinoncelli also was ordered to pay $20,318 to repair Fountain, a work worth millions of dollars that was chipped in the Jan. 4...

A Frenchman who attacked and damaged "Fountain," a urinal declared a work of art by Dada pioneer Marcel Duchamp, was ordered Tuesday to pay a fine of 214,000 euros ($262,700). ADVERTISEMENT A Paris court also gave Pierre Pinoncelli, 77, a three-month suspended sentence for taking a hammer to the absurdist artwork, the second time he has attacked it since 1993. The attack last month left the ceramic urinal slightly cracked. Duchamp was a leader of the Dada movement, an avant garde "anti-art" school of the early 20th century that mocked conventional standards, and "Fountain," made in 1917 -- is considered...