Jane Harman, Joe Lieberman and Dianne Feinstein are just three lawmakers who have joined GOP lawmakers in opposing the transfer of Gitmo detainees to Yemen, citing Al Qaeda's increased activity there.
White House Aide: We Won't Step Up Terror Fight in Yemen
U.S. won't open new front in Yemen despite growing Al Qaeda presence there, Obama adviser says
Will Jobs Bill Create Jobs?
Senate debate on new bill will focus on whether it will lead to jobs and be worth drowning gov't in more debt
Falling bullet kills four-year-old boy
A FALLING bullet shot during New Year's Eve celebrations has tragically killed a four-year-old boy. The boy, Marquel Peters, was inside a church in Decatur, Georgia, playing a video game when he suddenly collapsed at his parents feet
Key Witness in Salvation Army Murder?
Ex-cop says he may have seen the suspects who gunned down Philip Wise in front of his kids on Christmas Eve
Franklin D. Roosevelt Kept Deadly Disease Hidden for Years
Some 65 years ago, as World War II raged in Europe and the Pacific, the American people faced an unprecedented constitutional crisis of which they were completely unaware — and which has remained a secret ever since. It has long been known that President Franklin D. Roosevelt, during the last year of his life, was gravely ill with serious cardiac problems: He'd been diagnosed with acute heart failure in March 1944 and suffered from astronomically high blood pressure and arteriosclerosis. But what the public did not know was that four years earlier, while still in the second of his four terms as president, FDR had been diagnosed with a deadly skin cancer, melanoma, in a lesion over his left eyebrow. This disease would metastasize to Roosevelt's abdomen and his brain, causing a tumor that eventually killed him on April 12, 1945. Which means the cerebral hemorrhage that struck him down shortly before V-E Day was not "a bolt out of the blue," as his doctors contended — and as historians have long believed — but the inevitable result of a catastrophic illness, compounded by heart problems.
Jana Rawlinson says she loved having bigger boobs, but feared they affected her performance and panicked about letting Australia down on the track
Racism blamed for fatal stabbing
A FRESH race row has erupted following the brutal murder of an Indian man on his way to work.
Rising floodwaters force 1200 to flee
STORMS have led to evacuations in NSW while thousands are without power in Queensland.
Hunt for gunman who shot 100 brumbies
POLICE hunt a gunman who continues to kill wild brumbies with a high-powered rifle.
Outrage over 'heroin for dummies' fliers
CITY health officials under fire after spending $35,000 on 70,000 fliers that tell you how to inject heroin.
Woods' wife plays hardball over payout
TIGER'S wife has taken another chunk out of the love-rat golfer - a whacking great slice of his wealth.
Mass rally for pole-sitting hunger striker
HUNDREDS of farmers from across Australia will head to Canberra to support pole-sitting hunger striker Peter Spencer.
Power to rich as poor pay for solar energy
HOUSEHOLDS and businesses that can't afford solar power will pay up to $450m to those that can under an overly generous NSW Government scheme.
A smacked child 'is a successful child'
YOUNG children smacked by their parents may grow up to be happier and more successful.
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Hole in the Moon Could Shelter Colonists
By Robert Britt
The moon may not be made of Swiss cheese, but it appears to have at least one deep hole, a vertical skylight that could serve as a protective lunar base for future astronauts.
"We discovered a vertical hole on the moon," an international team of scientists recently announced.
The gaping, dark pit on the near side of the moon is as big as a city block and deep as a modest skyscraper. It is thought to be a collapsed lava tube, created perhaps billions of years ago when the moon was warmer and volcanically active. The moon, overall, is more than 4 billion years old.
The discovery, detailed in the journal Geophysical Research Letters in October, was made using data from the moon-orbiting Japanese SELENE spacecraft. It was not widely reported at the time, and the journal announced it today. The work was led by Junichi Haruyama of the Japanese Space Agency JAXA.
Recent discoveries of water and water ice on the moon hold promise that astronauts could journey back and stay for longer periods, perhaps even establish lunar colonies. But a remaining hurdle to setting up a permanent moon base is devising shelter to shield colonists from radiation and meteor strikes that befall the gray world, which has no protective atmosphere or magnetosphere.
"Because lava tubes are sheltered from the harsh environment on the moon's surface, such tubes could one day be useful for lunar bases," the scientists said in a statement.
Similar Mars caves have found and also envisioned as potential shelters, should humans desire to return to a sort of modernized cave man existence.
Deep and wide
The hole is nearly circular, about 213 feet across with a depth of 262 to 289 feet. Here's how scientists think it was created:
Flowing lava long ago left a tunnel with a roof of somewhat fragile, cooled lava, which later collapsed. The hole is in the Marius Hills region, an area known to have been volcanic.
"Lava tubes, underground cave-like channels through which lava once flowed, are commonly found on Earth," the researchers point out. Scientists have long debated whether the moon might have such caves, but no firm evidence had been found until now.
Ancient Earth Carvings Found in Amazon Jungle
Environmentalists bemoan the clearcutting of the Amazon rainforests. But an unexpected bonus has turned up: Beneath cleared jungle archaeologists are uncovering mysterious geometric designs carved into the earth.
With the help of satellite imagery from Google Earth, Brazilian archaeologists are finding more and more of the earth carvings, called geoglyphs, in the Amazon rainforest.
According to a story on environmental blog TreeHugger, The geoglyphs are believed to have been sculpted by ancient people from the Amazon region around 700 years ago, though their purpose is still unknown. So far, nearly 300 geoglyphs have been identified, but with advances in satellite imaging — and increased clearing of the jungle coverage — scientists are hoping to discover many more of these strange, geometric designs.
The Web site cites leading geoglyph scientist Alceu Ranzi. His latest discovery consists of five sets of geometric shapes, with circles, squares and lines that measures more than a mile from one extreme to another.
Ranzi explained that the geoglyphs are hard to locate from the ground; the advent of Google Earth and ready access to satellite data has greatly facilitated his task.
"You do not see them in the field. There is a difference in the color of grass, but it is very thin. If there were no satellite images, there would be no possibility [of making these new discoveries]."
The mad scientist has been a constant feature in popular culture for decades now, and for good reason. Most scientists are completely insane.
RELIGION OF PANTS
Defending his religion against allegations of violence, a peaceful chap attempts to kill a cartoonist – but is brought down by Danish cops:
Police shot a Somali man wielding an axe and a knife as he tried to break into the home of an artist whose cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb-shaped turban outraged the Muslim world.Bombs are bad, but presumably he’d have been OK with an axe-and-knife turban. Impressively, cartoonist Kurt Westergaard was prepared for such an attack:
Westergaard, whose five-year-old granddaughter was in the home on a sleepover, sought shelter in a specially made safe room ...Local cartoonists also have a safe room. We call it “self-censorship”. Over in France, young Presbyterians celebrated the new year with traditional fireworks:
Youths burned 1,137 cars across France overnight as New Year’s Eve celebrations once again turned violent, the French Interior Ministry said on Friday …Record-ruining killjoys. Still, at least no “youths” stuffed burning cars down their pants:
The number of vehicles torched was only 10 short of the record 1,147 burned this time last year, even though the Interior Ministry mobilized 45,000 police during the night—10,000 more than 12 months ago.
On Christmas Day, a gentleman from Nigeria succeeded (effortlessly) in boarding a flight to Detroit with a bomb in his underwear. Pretty funny, huh?Click for more from Mark Steyn. The pantybomber’s overlords apparently graduated from a post-Gitmo arts college:
A cushy Saudi Arabian “rehab” center where terrorists are encouraged to express themselves through crayon drawings, water sports and video games is under scrutiny after one of its graduates re-emerged as a leader in the al Qaeda branch claiming responsibility for trying to blow up an airliner on Christmas …We’ve tried crayon. After this, all bets are off.
Some 1,500 al Qaeda terrorists have “graduated” from the program, including 108 former Guantanamo Bay detainees, the Washington Post reported.