Free Republic

Nasa comet chaser finds 'footprints' 2bn miles away By Roger Highfield, Science Editor (Filed: 18/06/2004) Giant "footprints" measuring about a mile from heel to toe have been found on a comet. The Stardust spacecraft reached comet Wild 2 in January after a six-year journey of two billion miles. Scientists expected to see a big chunk of rock and ice around three miles across, liberally coated with dark dust, obscuring any interesting features. Stardust flew less than 150 miles from the comet's heart and the first detailed analysis of the rendezvous, published today, describes the "feet" along with broad mesas, craters,...

Show your support for our brave military in yet another meaningful way. Donate your frequent flyer miles to pay for round-trip airfare for our troops returning back to US soil for R&R or emergency leave. United Airlines is one of the participating airlines: http://www.united.com/press/detail/0,1442,51434,00.html Go here for complete details: http://www.heromiles.org Pass it on... :)

In September 2003, the Pentagon started giving soldiers stationed in Iraq two-week leaves in the largest R & R program since the Vietnam War. Soldiers on R & R or Emergency Leave are flown by the military to Germany or three airports in the United States, Baltimore/Washington, (BWI), Dallas/FortWorth, (DFW), or Atlanta, (ATL ) for free. The soldiers have been responsible for flights the rest of the way in the U.S. to their destinations, until Congress provided funding for this purpose on November 3, 2003. However, this funding is not yet available and may not be sufficient for all the...

<p>Oregon wants to know more about where people are driving -- a lot more. And it's looking at some high-tech ideas to generate tax revenue by billing drivers for every mile they travel on the state's roads.</p> <p>The Oregon Department of Transportation is evaluating a scheme that uses the global positioning system to keep track of the distance every car travels in order to impose a road-use tax.</p>

SOUTH OF BAGHDAD, Iraq (Reuters) - U.S. forces smashed through elite Iraqi divisions to within 19 miles of Baghdad on Wednesday, using fearsome air power to back the swiftest advance of the war to oust President Saddam Hussein. U.S. Marines seized a vital bridge over the Tigris River and then raced along its northern bank toward the Iraqi capital, while the 3rd Infantry Division thrust northward after encircling the Shi'ite Muslim shrine city of Kerbala. A military source told a Reuters correspondent with the Third Infantry that vanguard units were just 19 miles from the southern edges of the capital....

Kurds within two miles of Kirkuk as Iraqis retreat By Patrick Cockburn outside Kirkuk 29 March 2003 Kurdish irregulars advanced past abandoned Iraqi bunkers to within two miles of the oil city of Kirkuk yesterday as the Iraqi army retreated into the city in their first withdrawal on the northern front. "They have pulled back because of the air raids so they will be in populated places where the planes cannot be used," said Shamal Ali, a Kurdish peshmerga manning a light machine-gun on top of a pick-up truck. There were only a few hundred lightly armed and raggedly dressed...

American who arranged care for Palestinian infants refused reentryBy PATRICIA GOLANIsraeli authorities have refused reentry to the country of the head of a Christian charitable fund which arranges heart surgery in Israeli hospitals for Palestinian infants. Jonathan Miles, a US citizen, founded the Israeli non-profit organization Light to the Nations to help raise funds abroad for the medical help carried out in Israel. An article about his work in conjunction with the "Save a Child's Heart" organization at Wolfson Hospital in Holon was published in The Jerusalem Post last September 21. "Save a Child's Heart" is the largest program in...