Free Republic

In a recent paper, Lubinski and his colleagues caught up with one cohort of 320 people now in their late 30s. At 12, their SAT math or verbal scores had placed them among the top one-100th of 1 percent. Today, many are CEOs, professors at top research universities, transplant surgeons, and successful novelists. That outcome sounds like exactly what you’d imagine should happen: Top young people grow into high-achieving adults. In the education world, the study has provided important new evidence that it really is possible to identify the kids who are likely to become exceptional achievers in the future,...

SANFORD, Fla. — The cries for justice in the case of slain teen Trayvon Martin was killed continue on Friday. The NAACP has planned another march for Trayvon through part of Sanford on Saturday, and some downtown business owners said they are furious. They told WFTV the rally could scare shoppers away on their busiest day of the week. The rally will start at a school and will end at police headquarters, which are blocks away from downtown Sanford. Christine Johns was happy to see her first customer of the day, but it was hours after she opened her antique...

Professor of astrophysics at Princeton University, J. Richard Gott will talk about his work with the physics of time travel and helping people quantify how vast outer space really is, as well as the "Doomsday Argument" which shows how statistically there is a 95% chance of human extinction within 9,120 years.

It sounds like the start of a bad joke: Barry Diller, Tina Brown and Sidney Harman walk into a (coffee) bar… …And walk out with a Frankenstein merger of their unprofitable media ventures. News-and-culture website Daily Beast and Newsweek magazine, which the 92-year-old Harman took off the Washington Post Co.’s hands this summer, are merging into a joint venture called Newsweek Daily Beast Company. Brown writes in a Daily Beast post that the three of them — the media-and-Internet mogul, the diva editor and the nonagenarian stereo magnate, respectively – agreed over a mug of coffee to mash together their...

President Barack Obama's party could lose its House majority in this fall's elections, his spokesman said Sunday, perhaps trying to jolt Democratic voters with the specter of GOP lawmakers rolling back White House policies. "I think there's no doubt there are enough seats in play that could cause Republicans to gain control. There's no doubt about that," press secretary Robert Gibbs told NBC's "Meet the Press." Democrats now hold a 255-178 edge in the House, with two vacancies in the 435-member chamber. Anywhere from 40 to perhaps 60 House seats could be competitive by the fall. Republicans would need to...

(RNS) As Sholom Rubashkin sits in an Iowa jail awaiting a possible life sentence on fraud charges related to his now-defunct kosher meat business, his ultra-Orthodox Jewish support base has ramped up protests over his case. Through an online petition, media outreach, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds, some rabbis have called it a "sacred obligation" for Jews to contact the Justice Department before Rubashkin's April 28 sentencing. While their grassroots efforts stop short of claiming anti-Semitism against the former CEO of Agriprocessors--the Postville, Iowa plant where a 2008 government raid found hundreds of undocumented workers--they believe some discrimination has occurred....

BEIJING (Reuters) – Premier Wen Jiabao held out the prospect of extra stimulus spending if needed to hit China's 8 percent growth goal this year and called on Washington to ease worries Beijing has about the safety of its vast U.S. assets. In his annual news conference ending the nine-day session of China's ceremonial parliament, Wen on Friday reaffirmed China's commitment to keeping the yuan broadly steady and noted that the currency, far from having depreciated, had been rising in value. Wen, who fielded questions for well over two hours, said the 8 percent growth target was a measure of...

NEW YORK – The stock market is plunging, with the Dow Jones industrials skidding 400 points as investors show their frustration with a lack of details about the government's latest bank bailout plan. Financial stocks are leading the market lower, reflecting Wall Street's growing concerns about the government's ability to restore the health of the banking industry. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner announced the broad outlines of the plan. But investors, who want to know among other things how banks' soured mortgage assets will be valued, are showing their disapproval at the lack of details by selling. The Dow is down...

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or about your body what you will wear. Life is more than food and the body more than clothes.” Luke 12:22-23 As I write this on the last day of November 2008, it is becoming more and more apparent that the United States (and many parts of the world) is headed into some financial troubles (which may prove to be the understatement of the year). Housing, manufacturing, automobile, insurance and banking industries are all struggling and it’ll probably get worse...

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Stocks dropped on Wednesday as bleak economic data fed worries that despite all the efforts to unlock credit markets, the economy is unlikely to avoid recession. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke further fueled those concerns when he said the economy faced a significant threat. The benchmark Standard & Poor's 500 stock index slid more than 7 percent to its intraday low, while the Dow shed more than 500 points to its lowest point for the session so far. U.S. retail sales in September dropped the most in more than three years, while a measure of New...

I have spent a great deal of time today on the various conservative blogs, reading up on how John McCain's vote is "the deathknell" of his campaign. I have read on various conservative blogs that Sarah Palin supposedly has no chance because the deck is stacked against her, whether from the "Ifill Tower" or the "Couric Courant". I have read the reactions of people who are willing to hold back their votes, all because John McCain voted for a bailout bill. I have becomed sickened by what I have seen in recent days, not only from those on the left...

Planning an eco-friendly wedding just underlines how committed Jamie Hanson and Mark Hamlyn are to living an environmentally respectful life. "Sometimes we choose things that are not absolutely perfect, but we do our absolute best," says Hamlyn. An operations manager at Suncor in Fort McMurray with a degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Alberta, Hamlyn, 37, met Hanson while on the job. "He wandered into my office to thank the girl I shared an office with for recommending someone to hire and we got to talking," remembers Hanson. Hanson, 32, works for TransAlta Utilities, Suncor's partner, as manager...

Freemasons open a lodge at Buckingham Palace... but the Queen isn't amused By SARAH OLIVER - More by this author » Last updated at 23:59pm on 8th March 2008 Comments A Royal Mason: The Duke of Kent is the organisation's Grand Master A branch of the Freemasons secret society is being formed by members of the Royal Household and police who protect the Royal Family. And their decision to call it The Royal Household Lodge has put them on a collision course with Buckingham Palace – as has their plan to co-opt the royal cipher – EIIR – for their...

Pervez Musharraf wants you to know that he has Pakistan's nukes under control. He doesn't need American or other international troops to keep the weapons from falling into the hands of resurgent Islamist radicals. He wouldn't mind keeping our money, however: Pakistan is increasingly alert to the possible threat of Islamic extremists seeking control of its nuclear weapons, but its security system is fail-safe despite the rising militancy in the country, a top official said Saturday. Some 10,000 soldiers have been deployed to secure the U.S.-ally's nuclear facilities as part of a command and control system headed by President Pervez...

I open my eyes with a start, like the murderous freak in the slasher movie the audience thinks is dead but isn't. The clock reads 3:55 A.M. I've awakened within six minutes of this time for the past three nights. I shut my eyes and take a breath, hoping to ease back to sleep. Too late. The anxiety is already gathering momentum, my brain roiling with thoughts that have no business being there in the middle of the night. It's like a Law & Order episode in my head: Opposing sides argue and counterargue, witnesses are badgered, lawyers shout objections....

KABUL (Reuters) - The United States is concerned over reports that Iranian-made weapons are crossing the Afghan border and reaching Islamist Taliban insurgents, a top U.S. diplomat said on Tuesday. Iran supported Afghan groups fighting the Taliban in the 1990s and played a crucial role in helping to topple the Taliban's Sunni government, ousted by the 2001 U.S.-led invasion, by supporting their Mujahideen foes. The Shiite Islamic Republic has repeatedly in the past denied accusations by U.S. officials that it is arming the resurgent Taliban, who are largely active in southern and eastern areas close to the border with Pakistan....

WASHINGTON - One in four people in the U.S. said in a recent poll that they would be less likely to support a presidential candidate who is Mormon, an ominous sign for Republican contender Mitt Romney. Yet the survey found two groups, atheists and Muslims, were even less likely to win votes. Sixty-one percent of those questioned said they would be less likely to support a presidential candidate who did not believe in God. Forty-five percent said the same for a Muslim contender. Only 5 percent or fewer said they would be likelier to support candidates who were atheists, Muslims...

Since he made California the first state to limit greenhouse gases, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has been signing agreements with other governments to address global warming. He has struck deals with Arizona, Oregon, New Mexico, New York, Utah and Washington. He signed one with the United Kingdom even before the California law came into being. And he's done them with a state in Australia and a province in Canada, where he travels this week to sign two more. But the Democrats who wrote and passed the global warming bill Schwarzenegger signed into law are hardly celebrating the governor's deal-making. While they...

SIERRA VISTA — The Kurds in Iraq are afraid they will again be left in a lurch if American troops are forced to leave next year, the Kurdistan representative to the United States said Thursday. If the U.S. leaves early and does not protect the Kurds, it will be the third time in a little more than three decades the ethnic group will have been betrayed by the United States, Qubad Jalal Talabany said during an afternoon sit-down interview with the Herald/Review. Earlier Thursday morning, Talabany spoke to nearly 350 people during the last day of a three-day Training and...

SACRAMENTO — While Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and Democratic lawmakers praised legislative victories, they didn't talk about damage to the governor's Democratic challenger and critics' assertions that sweeping new legislation may backfire. Schwarzenegger, Senate leader Don Perata, D-Oakland, and Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, forged deals on reducing global warming, hiking the minimum wage, lowering prescription drug costs for the poor — and other issues in what they are calling one of the most productive sessions in decades. But some say the lauded measure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in California — for instance — was political theater that...