Free Republic

With a stylish exterior of metallic blue and gray, the device looks like a personal digital assistant but slightly larger. Julius Mendalis, 84, a lawyer for the company that makes Arizona Iced Tea, paid $795 for this gadget, and he loves it, though he is not a man of technology, rarely uses computers and does not surf the Web. It is helping him read again. The Quicklook, an amalgamation of a tiny digital video camera and a four-inch liquid-crystal display screen, acts as an electronic magnifying glass, enlarging the text of a newspaper or a legal brief to an inch...

Last civilian lighthouse keeper had job 43 years. NEW YORK - The last living vestige of a bygone era is gone: A Brooklyn lighthouse keeper, who stood watch over New York's gateway to the Atlantic Ocean for 43 years, has died. Frank Schubert, 88, was the last of the Coast Guard's civilian lighthouse keepers in the United States, said Petty Officer Mike Hvozda. He died Thursday of natural causes at his cottage beneath the 113-year-old lighthouse on Brooklyn's Coney Island. Schubert's work earned him many fans, including former President Bush, who invited him for a White House visit. "The Coast...

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world. A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in...

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world. A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in...

A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day Free Republic made its debut in September, 1996, and the forum was added in early 1997.   Over 100,000 people have registered for posting privileges on Free Republic, and the forum is read daily by tens of thousands of concerned citizens and patriots from all around the country and the world. A Few of FR's Finest....Every Day was introduced on June 24, 2002. It's only a small room in JimRob's house where we can get to know one another a little better; salute and support our military and our leaders; pray for those in...

Bodie Island light's uncertain future means rare lens in danger The Associated Press March 24, 2003   3:40 pm BODIE ISLAND, N.C. -- With the U.S. Coast Guard taking a hard look at the future of the Bodie Island Lighthouse, local officials want action to save the facility's rare Fresnel lens.In a notice issued last week, the local Coast Guard district said it was evaluating whether the 1872 tower is still valuable as an aid to navigation. Although the lighthouse is owned by the National Park Service, the optical equipment is maintained by the Coast Guard.Possible actions could include...

NORFOLK, Va. - Check this out: Three-story living space in a 19th-century beauty, privacy assured, water view on all sides. Cast-iron construction. They don't build 'em like that anymore. Nor do they want to. The Newport News Middleground Lighthouse is up for adoption, because its owner -- the Coast Guard -- can't afford the upkeep on the Victorian-era structure. It's the only lighthouse in Virginia on the adoption list, and it has some great selling points. It's free to a good home. It's lovely. It's round. Its inside is wood- framed and its outside is deep primer red, tip to...

Aficionados can bid to preserve one of the 301 lighthouses the government is relinquishing control of. NEWPORT, ORE. – The Yaquina Bay Lighthouse looks out from the Oregon coast, as it has for 131 years. There's probably no truth to the tales that it's "haunted." But it has seen a lot of history over its time: As an aid to ships navigating the rocky coastline for passage to safe harbor, then years of neglect and disrepair, and finally rehabilitation and listing on the National Register of Historic Places. "There is a mystique to lighthouses, a drama, a history, almost...