Free Republic

The masks were made in China. In Guangzhou, to be exact. By a company called ‘Sunrise Nursing’. And they are expiring. Slowly. A box of 50. Just your basic, disposable, three-ply mask, with “unique elastic material to reduce ear pain and bruising.” The type of mask you’d want to wear, if you want to avoid being bruised. But also, the kind of mask you would not use if they have reached their expiration date. “It is forbidden to use after expiration. Production date and batch number of the masks are stated in the packing box.” It is also forbidden to...

Change is part of human life. Our world is constantly changing and evolving to fit our needs and to keep up with technology. In years past, we have seen the typewriter replaced by the computer and the clothes line replaced by dryers. Not everything has been completely replaced though; many things have been updated such as a wooden box camera to a digital camera. Those who adapt to the change will be the ones to thrive in the changing world. All others will be left behind. Here are 10 guesses on the things that will disappear in our lifetime: 1....

When mobs tore down a statue of Ulysses S. Grant and defaced a monument to African American veterans of the Civil War, many people wondered whether the protesters had ever learned anything in high school or college. Did any of these iconoclasts know the difference between Grant and Robert E. Lee? Could they recognize the name "Gettysburg"? Could they even identify the decade in which the Civil War was fought?Universities are certainly teaching our youth to be confident, loud and self-righteous. But the media blitz during these last several weeks of protests, riots and looting also revealed a generation that...

A couple of decades ago, churches split in a grand debate over worship. Contentious arguments raged over every aspect of worship style, components, decorum, and practically everything else. Every church seemed to be choosing between opposites—organ or praise band, historic liturgy or rock liturgies, contemporary songs or historic hymns. The fallout was ugly. Assemblies erupted in dissonance and members on the losing side transferred out.Years later, the voices have calmed and the dust has settled. Some pastors declared a sort of “separate peace” by establishing rival worship services—one traditional, one modern. Others went the “blended worship” route. While this...

Nationwide, higher education enrollment has been trending down for several years. According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 2019 was the eighth straight year of decline, with an overall drop of nearly 10 percent since 2011. The reasons for this are many, including political, economic, and social factors. But the main one is demographic: Fewer students are graduating from high schools—not because graduation rates are down, but because birth rates fell by about 4 percent from 1990 to 2001. Unfortunately, it’s only going to get worse. The number of live births in this country began another steep decline in...

Just about eight months after Barnes & Noble revealed it was exploring a possible sale, the embattled bookseller has settled on a buyer. The mega-chain, which boasts 627 locations across the U.S., announced Friday that the Elliott Management Corp. has agreed to buy Barnes & Noble for about $683 million — a price tag that includes the bookseller's debt, which Elliott will take on as part of the deal. The move marks Elliott's second major splash in the world of books in the span of a year. Last June the New York-based hedge fund acquired Waterstones, which, with more than...

WASHINGTON — The world’s largest automakers warned President Trump on Thursday that one of his most sweeping deregulatory efforts — his plan to weaken tailpipe pollution standards — threatens to cut their profits and produce “untenable” instability in a crucial manufacturing sector. In a letter signed by 17 companies including Ford, General Motors, Toyota and Volvo, the automakers asked Mr. Trump to go back to the negotiating table on the planned rollback of one of President Barack Obama’s signature policies to fight climate change. The carmakers are addressing a crisis that is partly of their own making. They had sought...

The promise of higher education has become a trap for tens of millions of Americans. The promise: Every one of us and our children could go to college, earn a degree, and set off on a good career, secure in the knowledge that we had gained the tools necessary for a productive life. The trap: Years (usually more than the advertised four) of indoctrination in the classroom and, more harshly, the dormitories, followed by decades of crushing debt, all made far worse by the realization that our degrees have qualified us for very little. It wasn’t always like this. Supporters...

Cursive writing has fallen away from the curriculum in a lot of Texas schools in recent years, but the writing style is making a comeback. Austin ISD does not teach cursive to its general student body, but the district says that will change in the 2019-2020 school year, as it will for schools all over the state. The shift is due to updates to the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills, or TEKS, for language arts. The State Board of Education changed the requirements in 2017, and they go into effect next school year. Starting this fall, students will be required...

Alabama and Louisiana passed laws in 2016 mandating cursive proficiency in public schoolsCursive writing is looping back into style in schools across the country after a generation of students raised on keyboarding, texting and printing out letters longhand. Alabama and Louisiana passed laws in 2016 mandating cursive proficiency in public schools, the latest of 14 states to require cursive. And last fall, the 1.1 million-student New York City school system encouraged teaching cursive to students in the third grade. Penmanship proponents contend writing words in a single line is just a faster way of taking notes. Others say students...

It’s no huge secret that we don’t hold Microsoft’s methods of selling products in high regard. Updategate was a complete shower, and with that over, we appear to have moved into the scaremongering phase of the operation based on comments from the company’s German operation. In a blog post on Technet, we’re warned that Windows 7 “only” has three years of updates left, and even then it can’t hold a candle to Windows 10 in terms of enterprise features and security. Tell that to the 40+ percent of enterprises still using it. […] Although it would be a foolhardy business...

Modern educators are dismissive of cursive. Indeed, many are hostile to such a degree that you should immediately suspect that they are up to something. Here is an education journalist providing the Party Line: "Cursive writing is an anachronism. Spending any classroom time on it is comparable to teaching how to use an abacus: it's interesting as a history lesson, and probably offers some side benefits, but it is not at all practical as a day-to-day skill in the modern, connected world." A professor of education argues: "Cursive should be allowed to die. In fact, it's already dying, despite having...

(CNSNews.com) – At a summit by the Aspen Institute’s Project Play, first lady Michelle Obama said Tuesday that some U.S. communities are “play deserts,” because they don’t have sufficient opportunities for kids to participate in sports and other outdoor activities, compared to wealthy communities. “So many communities are becoming play deserts, but in wealthy communities, there is a wealth of resources. You can be in field hockey, or you can learn how to swim. There are aquatic centers and -- I’ve seen the difference. The disparities are amazing to me,” she said. As CNSNews.com previously reported, the Obama administration coined...

Intel's recent results suggest a slowdown in firms leaving the ancient OS behind and upgrading to new systems. Why won't they update? Most interesting detail that emerged from Intel's lackluster first quarter financial results had nothing to do with mobile, the company's white whale. Instead, it concerned something so old that it almost seems laughable in the same week that the very 21st-century Apple Watch dominated headlines. Per ZDNet's own Larry Dignan: In a statement, Intel said it cut its first quarter outlook because of "weaker than expected demand for business desktop PCs and lower than expected inventory levels across...

The federal Highway Trust Fund, which provides transportation funding to the states, is projected to run dry in August. But with a technology-driven revolution underway in the way Americans use surface transportation, applying yesterday’s solution and simply replenishing the fund won’t solve the problem. According to the Obama administration, if the fund is exhausted, states will be forced to put off 112,000 highway construction and 5,600 transit projects, resulting in the loss of 700,000 jobs. When dealing with the government, there are always plenty of zeroes to go around. The traditional source of revenue for the trust fund is the...

September 16, 2010The New O Word is 'obsolete' Jay Valentine This week was the turning point when the Republican establishment finally "got it." The Tea Party is going to make a difference; they are going to change political lives as has not been seen in a generation. An entire class of Republicans, many still in Congress, is obsolete. Obsolete has no modifiers. You are obsolete or you are not. You cannot be partially hip to a new way of thinking, a new way of doing things. Because it is so binary -- you are or you are not, so many...

Once a staple of American communications, the telegram died quietly last week. After more than 155 years during which it delivered millions of telegrams around the world, bringing news of births, deaths, weddings, wars and more, Western Union delivered its last telegram messages last Friday, ending a means of communication that began before the U.S. Civil War. Colin Wheeler, a spokesman for Denver-based First Data Corp., which owns Western Union Financial Services Inc., confirmed yesterday that the company ended its telegram services quietly on Jan. 27 by laying off 30 workers who still operated the telegram business. From a peak...

(10/17/05 - WASHINGTON) - Congress is zeroing in on early 2009 as the time for the country to make the switch to digital television broadcasts, a move that will give viewers sharper pictures and better sound. A Senate bill would set a firm deadline of April 2009, according to a draft proposal obtained Friday by The Associated Press. The draft of a House bill would end analog transmissions on Dec. 31, 2008. In addition to working out a compromise on the date, lawmakers must decide whether to keep a Senate provision calling for the federal government to pay for converter...

An online petition gathering signatures to save Microsoft’s Visual Basic 6 programming language will not change the company’s intention to cut free support on March 31, a Microsoft representative said on Thursday afternoon. Microsoft’s plan to stop support has been discussed for almost three years and the deadline already has been extended once, said the press representative, who requested anonymity. Visual Basic 6 has been supported longer than any other Microsoft product, according to the representative. “Extended” support, which is fee-based, will continue through 2008. The vendor has spent the past few years encouraging Visual Basic 6 programmers to migrate...