Free Republic

Of all the chambers in the Great Pyramid, the subterranean chamber is the largest, as well as the most mysterious. It is 46 feet long, 27 feet wide, hewn into the limestone bedrock, and difficult to describe. The descending passagewayÂ’s entrance to the subterranean chamber is near the floor at the northeast corner. A six-foot-wide square pit shaped like a funnel has been tunnelled in the middle of the floor, near the east wall. This square-shaped pit is actually the mouth of a shaft that is eleven feet deep, although in 1816 the Italian explorer Count Caviglia drilled into the...

Fuel-saving designs improve efficiency of hydraulic systems WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers at Purdue University have shown how to reduce fuel consumption and dramatically improve the efficiency of hydraulic pumps and motors in heavy construction equipment. The new designs incorporate two innovations: They eliminate valves now needed to direct the flow of hydraulic fluid in heavy equipment, and they also might incorporate textured "microstructured" surfaces inside pumps to improve performance. Research has shown the "valveless" design alone could reduce fuel consumption by 40 percent. Further savings could be realized by combining the valveless design with the advanced microstructured surface concept,...

We're Here to Pump You Up! OK, one more penis pump story and the New York Times style section will be running a trend piece about them. Today's news brings us the story of Mardin Amin, a hapless 29-year-old Iraqi American janitor who was stopped at Chicago's O'Hare airport on August 16 because, prosecutors say, he told officials that the suspicious black rubber device they had plucked from his backpack was a bomb. In fact, it was a penis pump, and his lawyer attributes his less-than-clear enunciation to the fact that he was traveling with his mother and two small...