Free Republic

With roughly two weeks left in the open enrollment period for health insurance, some groups are trying to sell Obamacare to young people in terms they might actually understand: music, comedy, and cash. Young Invincibles, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C. that is focused on the economic issues affecting young adults, launched a sweepstakes last week where it is awarding a cash prize of $1,200 — enough to potentially cover a year's worth of health insurance premiums for a young adult — to people who download their health care app or submit a card in the mail. The contest...

I live in a land locked area so when I see news like this it makes me jealous. While I get to trek up mountains, carrying my owners lunch and drink on my back, these dogs get to go out and surf. Yeah, that’s right, surf. (This year was the 3rd Annual Loews Coronado Bay Resort Surf Dog Competition at Imperial Beach in California. These canines bring a whole new meaning to the term sea dog.) See last years winner on video...

In 1983 six businessmen in Clearwater Florida opened the first Hooters. Their simple formula of great food served in a fun atmosphere by All American Hooters Girls in Orange Shorts has proven more than successful. Since that humble beginning Hooters has grown to be a world famous brand with over 440 locations in 43 states and 25 countries. In celebration of our 25th anniversary, we are passing along some of our success directly to our customers with a $25,000 giveaway on the 25th of every month!

The government would offer a series of cash prizes for innovations in hydrogen energy under a bill the House passed Wednesday. The bill (HR 632), by Daniel Lipinski, D-Ill., would be intended to bring clean-burning hydrogen-powered vehicles closer to reality. It passed by a 408-8 vote. “The future possibilities of this energy source are enormous,” Lipinski said. The government-sponsored competition, which would be called the “H-Prize,” is modeled after the programs of the Ansari X Prize Foundation, which gives multimillion-dollar awards to teams that achieve specific scientific and engineering goals. Lipinski pointed out that such prizes continue a tradition dating...

The Lunar Robotics Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., will be staying put, at least for another six years at $20 million a year. The office was originally slated for closure by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin as part of a cost-cutting move. Unfortunately, Griffin did not reckon on the wrath of Sen. Richard Shelby, Alabama's senior senator. Shelby balked at the closure and, working with other senators and representatives of both parties, successfully prevented it. The office is currently managing the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, which is scheduled to...

"A seemingly simple challenge stumped four teams of engineers competing Saturday to be the first to build an autonomous robot capable of collecting 330 pounds of lunar soil in less than 30 minutes...[in order to win a $250,000 NASA prize].  The strict parameters - machines also could use only 30 watts of power and had to weigh less than 88 pounds as they excavated the simulated moon dirt - defeated the competitors. Two other teams dropped out before even landing at the competition... “No matter how efficient your machine is, the criteria of the challenge makes it almost impossible,” contestant Jim Greenshaw said." 

New Delhi: : Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office Prithviraj Chavan on Wednesday informed the Lok Sabha that India will send the first man to space in the next eight years, if all goes well. Though the Government has not yet sanctioned the prestigious project, as quoted by PTI, Chavan during Question Hour said, "An Indian manned mission (to space) is under preparation. Government has not yet sanctioned the mission. But, plans are being made to send a man to space. That does not necessarily mean sending a man to moon".

WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. -- An astronaut glove stitched together on a Maine engineer's dining room table won a cool $200,000 Thursday in a NASA competition. Peter Homer, an engineer from Southwest Harbor, Maine, won NASA's first-ever Astronaut Glove Challenge after a two-day competition here at the New England Air Museum near Bradley International Airport. "It feels good," said Homer, whose two home-built spacesuit gloves beat entries from two other teams to take home the top prize. "It took a lot of sitting at the sewing machine."

May 4, 2007 — An unemployed former aerospace engineer has built a better spacesuit glove, claiming the first payoff in the NASA-backed Centennial Challenges competition. Peter Homer clinched a $200,000 prize in this week's Astronaut Glove Competition with a spacesuit glove that proved more comfortable, durable and flexible than gloves currently used by spacewalking astronauts. NASA turned to cash-prize competitions in an effort to solve some of its technical problems with low-cost, innovative solutions. Homer, for example, bought most of the materials for his gloves at local shops in his hometown of Southwest Harbor, Maine, and on eBay, said Alan...

The U.S. and other modern capitalist economies rely on a handful of approaches to stimulate innovation. Big corporate research-and-development shops invest shareholders' money in the search for future profit. Small entrepreneurial start-ups do the same with venture capital. Academics toil in big universities, sometimes for profit, sometimes for glory. Open-source software wizards mend and tend shared software that no one owns, the high-tech equivalent of a barn-raising. Government steps in where private money fears to tread. Now, a proliferation of prizes is attracting bright minds to stubborn problems. InnoCentive, a company spun off six years ago by drug maker Eli...

WASHINGTON - Scientists, inventors and entrepreneurs will be able to vie for millions of dollars in prizes, including a grand prize potentially worth $50 million, under House-passed legislation to encourage research into hydrogen as an alternative fuel. Legislation creating the “H Prize,” modeled after the privately funded Ansari X Prize that resulted last year in the first privately developed manned rocket to reach space twice, passed the House Wednesday on a 416-6 vote. A companion bill is to be introduced in the Senate this week.

NASA's Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate has announced a new aeronautics competition for high school and college students. The directorate's Fundamental Aeronautics Program sponsors the competition, part of NASA's mission to inspire the next generation of engineers, scientists and explorers. High school students are challenged to put themselves 50 years into the future to describe how air transportation systems have evolved with vehicles flying at various speeds. Entries are due by Thursday, March 15. College students are invited to propose solutions for complex technical problems in hypersonic and supersonic flight; subsonic fixed and rotary wing transports; or Mars atmosphere entry, descent...

Eyes On The Prizes Competitiveness: Chemistry, medicine, physics. Three Nobel Prizes, five Americans, a clean sweep. We hear so often of the “crisis” in American education. So why do we win so many of the world’s top science awards? Just this summer, yet another report came out saying the U.S. is at risk when it comes to education. And frankly, it’s tough to argue with the evidence: On standardized tests, American schoolchildren last year finished 16th in science and 21st in math against their counterparts in 27 other wealthy nations. Not too good —mediocre at best. And yet, come Nobel...

Show Us Your Dove Recipes and Prove Anti-Hunters Wrong- (08/28) Michigan Join our e-mail alert list In their quest to ban dove hunting in Michigan by ballot in November, anti-hunters have stated repeatedly that doves are not eaten by hunters, giving the impression that they are left in the field to rot. The U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance wants sportsmen across the country to prove the anti-hunters wrong by submitting their best dove recipe and perhaps winning a sportsmen’s prize package for doing so. Anti-hunting groups in Michigan have created a campaign of misinformation designed to win the votes of urban-dwellers and...

Below is a list of open and completed Centennial Challenges technology development competitions. The list is sorted by challenge categories (e.g., Flagship, Keystone, Alliance, and Quest) and competition dates. Flagship Challenges - To encourage major private space missions - There are currently no challenges announced in this category. Keystone Challenges - To address technology priorities - There are currently no challenges announced in this category. Alliance Challenges - To leverage partnerships The following information is deemed accurate at the time of posting. Dates may change without notice. Challenge Date Challenge Name Alliance Partner Status Rules* Winner/Purse Late 2008 2008 Telerobotic...

NASA wants to teaming up with the X-Prize foundation to fund two new competitions to develop technology for sub-orbital space vehicles, as part of its Centennial Challenges program. Subject to statutory budget approval, NASA will stump up prize money of more than $250,000 for each competition, while the X-Prize Foundation will handle the business of running the contests.

After I wrote about research showing that women have less appetite for competition that men do, a number of women wrote to inform me that they're just as competitive as any guy. If the tone of their letters is any indication, I have no doubt they are. Nor do researchers doubt that such women exist. As Danica Patrick showed in the Indianapolis 500, some women can successfully compete with men at the highest level. But why aren't there more of them? Discrimination is one big reason, because men have traditionally made the rules to suit themselves and keep out women....

How do you fancy winning a cool quarter-of-a-million dollars? That's the prize on offer for the astronomical alchemist who can create breathable oxygen from moondust.

NASA has promised a cool $250,000 for the first team capable of pulling breathable oxygen from mock moon dirt, the latest award in the space agency’s Centennial Challenges program.

SCOTTSDALE, AZ -- NASA announced Wednesday the first two cash prizes offered as part of the agency’s Centennial Challenges program. Its mission is to encourage the commercialization of space transportation. The competitions should make for good fun. In the $50,000 2005 Tether Challenge, teams will compete to make the strongest tether of a specified diameter. Tethers will be stretched until they break, and winners will advance in a March Madness-like bracket system. The winner must then beat NASA's "house tether," made of existing material, to snare the cash. The 2005 Beam Power Challenge will give $50,000 to the team that...