Free Republic

A third of global glaciers located at World Heritage sites will disappear by 2050, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) warned on Thursday. Among the glaciers to vanish will be those at Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park and Mount Kilimanjaro, according to UNESCO. While those glaciers will melt regardless of efforts to limit temperature increases, it is possible to save the remaining two thirds of glaciers at these 50 sites, the organization stressed in a new report. But to do so, the authors cautioned, global heating must not exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius, or 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit,...

A polymer that self-destructs? While once a fictional idea, new polymers now exist that are rugged enough to ferry packages or sensors into hostile territory and vaporize immediately upon a military mission's completion. The material has been made into a rigid-winged glider and a nylon-like parachute fabric for airborne delivery across distances of a hundred miles or more. It could also be used someday in building materials or environmental sensors. The researchers will present their results today at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2019 National Meeting & Exposition. "This is not the kind of thing that slowly degrades over...

Eventually the TRUTH comes out. It always does. The only question becomes “is anyone paying attention to it” ? Readers will note that since the word of the border crisis hit the media our research has indicated the entire construct of a humanitarian crisis for children is a ruse. There simply are not mass influxes of Unaccompanied Alien Children. For almost two months we have been repeating that it’s all a fraud – the influx is families, or more specifically women with children.

Could you give up the internet for Lent - or even for good? Following various reports about companies stealing information and complaints about oversharing on social media, a web hosting firm has created a nine-step guide on how to disappear from the web completely. It includes deactivating accounts, removing links from search results and how to remove yourself from various lists - and for people who'd rather just stay hidden than disappear, the guide also gives tips on how to use the internet anonymously. 'Social media has made everyone’s life an open book - one that’s open a bit too...

Most voters believe the popularity boost President Obama has received following the killing of Osama bin Laden will disappear quickly, according to a new poll conducted for The Hill. Almost three in five likely voters think the “bin Laden bounce” will vanish within three months, the poll indicates. Only one in four believes that Obama will still be benefitting in six months’ time. Obama is currently enjoying a major spike in his approval ratings: A New York Times/CBS poll last week showed an 11-point jump in his approval rating compared to two weeks before. Gallup’s daily tracking poll showed Obama’s...

COPENHAGEN – New computer modeling suggests the Arctic Ocean may be nearly ice-free in the summertime as early as 2014, Al Gore said Monday at the U.N. climate conference. This new projection, following several years of dramatic retreat by polar sea ice, suggests that the ice cap may nearly vanish in the summer much sooner than the year 2030, as was forecast by a U.S. government agency eight months ago. One U.S. government scientist Monday questioned the new prediction as too severe, but other researchers previously have projected a quicker end than 2030 to the Arctic summer ice cap. "It...

If you’ve got nothing to hide there’s no need to read to any further. But if you’re worried about someone digging up something from your past – and we’re talking non-criminal here – which may influence or damage job prospects, relationships, your social or professional life, then good news is at hand. The University of Washington (UW) has developed Vanish – a prototype system that places a time limit on information uploaded to any web service through a web browser. Electronic communication sent using Vanish - such as e-mail, posts on social networking sites and chat messages - would have...

On Jan. 31, Counter Narcotics Alliance officers raided a house, seized hundreds of pounds of marijuana and arrested a man on federal probation who was also suspected of taking part in a home invasion. State and federal prosecutors pleaded with the judge to hold him without bail while they got a federal warrant for the probation violation. The judge refused and set bail at $20,000 after his attorney objected that $75,000 was too much. The man, Francisco S. Perez, posted the $20,000 and disappeared — only to be caught Wednesday with a cache of weapons, including an assault rifle, body...

VIENNA, Austria - Most glaciers will disappear from the Alps by 2050, scientists told a conference on climate change Monday, basing their bleak outlook on evidence of slow but steady melting of the region's continental ice sheets. Glaciers in western Austria's Alpine province of Tyrol have been shrinking by about 3 percent a year, meaning their mass decreases annually by roughly 3 feet, said Roland Psenner of the University of Innsbruck's Institute for Ecology. The average density of glaciers in the Alps is 100 feet, "so it seems rather certain that there won't be any more glaciers in the year...

SAN DIEGO — Two U.S. Border Patrol agents under investigation for allegedly smuggling drugs and immigrants abruptly resigned and went into hiding this week after apparently being tipped off to the probe, according to federal law enforcement sources. The agents — brothers Raul and Fidel Villarreal — were veteran officers who patrolled the border near San Diego and had been under suspicion since last year of smuggling illegal immigrants in their government vehicles, among other allegations, sources said. They did not show up for work Monday and later notified supervisors that they had quit because of a family illness. But...

At least eight prominent Chinese human rights activists have vanished after they joined one of the first overt attempts to coordinate a nationwide protest against the authorities since the 1989 democracy demonstrations. Political security police are thought to have detained the campaigners, who disappeared soon after they joined a relay hunger strike that has reportedly attracted several dozen participants in 16 provinces. No official explanation has been given. The government's propaganda department has forbidden the domestic media from reporting anything to do with the campaign, which was launched by a Beijing lawyer, Gao Zhisheng, on February 4 to protest police...