Free Republic

Researchers have discovered a protein that they claim is the missing link to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. They found that blocking this protein with an existing drug can restore memory in mice with brain damage that mimics the disease. The findings could offer hope of developing drugs to slow the degenerative illness.'What is very exciting is that of all the links in this molecular chain, this is the protein that may be most easily targeted by drugs,' said the study’s senior author Stephen Strittmatter at Yale School of Medicine.'This gives us strong hope that we can find a drug...

The new Jane's All the World's Aircraft now lists Gustave Whitehead as the first to fly a powered airplane. "...Today, it seems impossible that a vast cache of documentary evidence, such as those newspaper reports, can be overlooked by the world at large. True, there are small museums to Whitehead in both his homeland and adopted homeland (and gratitude is expressed to Flughistorische Forschungsgemeinschaft Gustav Weisskopf at Leutershausen for copyright photographs used here) but it is too easy to dismiss them as municipal monuments to a local boy. The reasons for the vanished recognition are several. The first is that...

The missing link… Commonly thought of as a hypothetical ape-like creature. This evolutionary rock star is supposed to bridge the gap between man and ape. But there are missing links all over Darwin’s evolutionary tree. And guess what… they are still missing...

For centuries, the small Muslim country has been subject to a series of Russian occupations. Expect Vladimir Putin to use the marathon bombing to further rationalize Moscow's brutal rule. Breaking reports indicate that the alleged perpetrators of the horrific Boston Marathon terrorist attack were born in Chechnya. This Russian-occupied, landlocked Muslim nation of 1.3 million is the center of a Russian war that has taken the lives of more than 200,000 people over the last two decades. It is also one of the world's most poorly understood conflict zones. On social networking profiles, the Boston bombers reveal themselves as supporters...

U.S. citizens should have a right to take jobs in Mexico under Marco Rubio’s immigration compromise, American Border Control is demanding. Florida Senator Marco Rubio and a ‘Gang of Eight’ liberal Senators are expected to announce a compromise on amnesty for illegal immigrants this week. Mexico’s unemployment rate dropped to 4 . 7 % in September 2012, reported England’s Financial Times on October 19, 2012, then dropped to 4 . 47 % in December. Yet U.S. citizens do not have the same right to work in Mexico as Marco Rubio, John McCain, and liberal Democrats are pushing for on behalf...

Scientists claim to have identified the missing link between human speech and monkey chatter. Researchers analysed the distinctive "lip-smacking" sounds made by wild gelada baboons of the Ethopian highlands and found striking similarities to human speech. Their noises are so human-like that Thore Bergman, an assistant professor with the University of Michigan, thought he heard people talking while he was hanging out with the creatures. "I would find myself frequently looking over my shoulder to see who was talking to me, but it was just the geladas," he said. "It was unnerving to have primate vocalizations sound so much...

The other samples containing the deadly H7N9 virus were collected from two marketplaces selling agricultural products in the down river Yangse delta, Shanghai. After gene sequence analysis, the national avian flu reference laboratory concluded that the strain of the H7N9 virus found on those 19 samples was highly congenetic with that found on a pigeon on Thursday. The ministry ordered Shanghai to shut down the marketplace and cull all (living poultry) chickens, ducks, geese and pigeons.

MARCH 30, 2013 The King Is Sleeping On this day between the Crucifixion and the Resurrection the whole earth keeps silence. By George Weigel (snip) On the morning of Holy Saturday, however, the Church of the first millennium kept “station” not at a particular basilica made holy by the relics of martyrs and the prayers of those who have venerated them, but in her religious imagination. There was no Mass during the day, as there was no Mass on Good Friday. (snip) • The second selection for Holy Saturday in the Office of Readings is taken from an ancient Greek...

<p>VATICAN CITY – Here is the English text of Pope Benedict XVI's Christmas Eve homily, delivered in Italian. Spelling and style are the Vatican's. ___ Dear Brothers and Sisters! Again and again the beauty of this Gospel touches our hearts: a beauty that is the splendour of truth. Again and again it astonishes us that God makes himself a child so that we may love him, so that we may dare to love him, and as a child trustingly lets himself be taken into our arms. It is as if God were saying: I know that my glory frightens you, and that you are trying to assert yourself in the face of my grandeur. So now I am coming to you as a child, so that you can accept me and love me.</p>

<p>A man who was paroled just two days earlier was ordered held without bail Saturday in the 2005 murder of a 23-year-old Cicero woman.</p> <p>Travon D. McDonald, 29, of Hickory Hills is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Nayely Murry. He is charged with suffocating Murry, hiding her body in the trunk of a car and trying to set the car on fire.</p>

Eliminate armed guards for the President, Vice-President, and their families, and establish Gun Free Zones around them Gun Free Zones are supposed to protect our children, and some politicians wish to strip us of our right to keep and bear arms. Those same politicians and their families are currently under the protection of armed Secret Service agents. If Gun Free Zones are sufficient protection for our children, then Gun Free Zones should be good enough for politicians. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/eliminate-armed-guards-president-vice-president-and-their-families-and-establish-gun-free-zones/6RDGkxLK

Editorial Obama's video game mentality when it comes to National Security. It's no big secret the the current occupant of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue always has the glowingest of things to say about our Armed Forces. You know the real 1 percenters the liberal media seems to forget about on a daily basis. But I digress, Barry-O recently heaped faux tele-zombied praise on our Warriors during the most recent State of the Union Address: "At a time when too many of our institutions have let us down they exceed all expectations." Awww... I dunno 'bout you, but I'm feeling all warm...

In May 1964, Nels and Irene Highberg bought their first and only home. It was a modest, brick rancher -- no garage -- on a pleasant cul-de-sac on the edge of East Petersburg. The Highbergs raised two sons there. They entertained neighbors there. They grew old there. After 48 years at 6312 Miriam Circle, the Highbergs -- Nels is 92, Irene is 89 -- figured they could manage a while longer. Family and friends agreed. But the county Office of Aging stepped in last summer, saying for safety reasons the Highbergs must move to a nursing home. "I ain't going...

http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/the-gop-s-biggest-loss-179849271.html ---link only----

A Lancashire man who posted offensive comments on Facebook about missing five-year-old April Jones has been jailed for 12 weeks. Matthew Woods, 20, made a number of derogatory posts about April and missing Madeline McCann. He appeared at Chorley Magistrates' Court where he admitted sending a grossly offensive public electronic communication. Woods, of Eaves Lane, Chorley, was handed the maximum sentence. Chairman of the bench, magistrate Bill Hudson, said his comments were so serious and "abhorrent" that he deserved the longest sentence they could pass, less a third to give credit for his early guilty plea. Mark Bridger, 46, appeared...

In Orlando Saturday, talk about Operation Fast and Furious is once again heating up with Friday’s revelation by CBS News that Capitol Hill investigators are looking at a subpoena for someone who declined to talk earlier, and a key whistleblower is demanding the retraction of a June 27 article published by Fortune Magazine. Fast and Furious was supposed to be just one of many issues discussed here at the 27th annual Gun Rights Policy Conference, but there are some people here who may make it a central topic. Prof. John Lott, who wrote a blistering rebuttal to the Fortune Magazine...

200 colored beads found in a bowl, and ostrich figures carved on a stone plate alongside animal figurines have been discovered on Sunday at the Ein Zippori national park, located in the Lower Galilee. Ahead of the widening of Highway 79, extensive archaeological excavations have been conducted by the Antiquities Authority. During the excavations, a variety of impressive prehistoric artifacts have been uncovered. Prehistoric settlement remains that range in date from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic period (c. 10,000 years ago) to the Early Bronze Age (c. 5,000 years ago) are at the Ein Zippori site, which extends south of Ein Zippori...

Dick Morris is right.Here's his column on "Why the Polls Understate the Romney Vote."Here's something Dick Morris doesn't mention. And he's charitable.Remember when Jimmy Carter beat Ronald Reagan in 1980?That's right. Jimmy Carter beat Ronald Reagan in 1980.In a series of nine stories in 1980 on "Crucial States" -- battleground states as they are known today -- the New York Times repeatedly told readers then-President Carter was in a close and decidedly winnable race with the former California governor. And used polling data from the New York Times/CBS polls to back up its stories.Four years later, it was the Washington...

In response to incidents of violence and cultural misunderstandings that transgendered Americans face on a day -to-day basis, the nation’s capital rolled out their #TransRespect campaign, in print ads and on Twitter and Facebook. In Washington D.C., the transgendered population is making itself heard. Their message: We’re doing fine -- why not get to know us? In response to incidents of violence and cultural misunderstandings that transgendered Americans face on a daily basis, the nation’s capital rolled out their #TransRespect campaign, in print ads and on Twitter and Facebook. The fiveads, which will appear all over D.C. in the fall,...