Free Republic

They probably appeared in Poland approximately 300,000 years ago. The oldest stone tools they used, discovered on the Vistula, are over 200,000 years old, and the remains are over 100,000 years old. "On the bank of the river in Pietraszyno, we discovered an unprecedented amount of flint products - 17,000 - abandoned by Neanderthals approximately 60,000 years ago" - says Dr. Andrzej Wisniewski from the Institute of Archaeology, University of Wroclaw. Since 2018, the researcher has been conducting joint excavations with researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig in the framework of a National Science Centre...

The Nordstream 2 pipeline represents the last stand of U.S. influence over the internal affairs of Europe. Once finished it will stand as a testament to the fundamental split between the European Union and the United States. Europe will see this as its first successful defense of its newly-declared independence. And the U.S. will have to come to terms with no longer having control overseas. This is a theme repeating itself all around the world right now. Your view of Nordstream 2 depends on who you are. If you are the U.S. it is a massive rebuke of the post-WWII...

Chinese archaeologists have examined a batch of bamboo slips unearthed from a Western Han Dynasty (202 BC-8 AD) tomb and found they recorded the long-lost rules of "liubo", an ancient Chinese board game. More than 5,200 bamboo slips were excavated from the tomb of the Marquis of Haihun near Nanchang in eastern China's Jiangxi Province. Over 1,000 of them were recently confirmed to be inscribed with the rules of liubo, according to the institute of excavated text research at Peking University, which is in charge of examining the items. Liubo, literally "six sticks," is a two-player board game dating back...

Twitter engineers were caught on tape talking about shadow banning, banning "a way of talking," targeting conservatives, classifying users who tweet about "guns" and "God" as Russian bots.

A group of unmarried couples were whipped in Indonesia's Aceh province on Thursday after they were caught behaving amorously -- a crime under the conservative region's Islamic law. Flogging is common for a range of offences in the region at the tip of Sumatra island, including gambling, drinking alcohol and having gay sex. It is the only province in the world's biggest Muslim-majority country that imposes Islamic law. The five couples flogged Thursday received between four and 22 strokes from a rattan cane outside a mosque in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, after they served several months in prison. Religious...

Large crowds are anticipated in Springfield, Illinois, on Wednesday as activists gather to protest two abortion measures that pro-life champions say are both “anti-women” and “anti-children.” Bills called the Repeal of Parental Notification (HB 2467) and the Reproductive Health Act (HB 2495) have drawn busloads of Illinois residents to the capitol building. HB 2467 would strip away all parental rights to consent for a minor to obtain an abortion, and remove the requirement of medical certification by the facility for a minor’s abortion. HB 2495 would allow unregulated abortion up until the moment of birth for any reason, and “provides...

Police announce process to hand over reclassified MSSAs Thursday, 21 March 2019 - 4:10pm National News Please attribute to Police Commissioner Mike Bush Last Friday, our country was shocked by a brutal and senseless attack. We recognise our world has changed. Police focus is on ensuring the immediate safety and peace of mind of our communities. Today, the Government has made immediate changes to classifications in the Arms Act which will mean some firearms are going to be reclassified as military style semi-automatic firearms (MSSAs).

Alex Berenson .. people who think marijuana is medicine and a safe alternative to alcohol are fooling themselves... The industry’s money and political influence, along with the media’s acquiescence, have obscured the scientific links between marijuana and mental illness... “The problems are real and right in front of people,” he told a crowd at the History Colorado Center in Denver on Wednesday. It was his third Colorado talk in two days to discuss his new book, “Tell Your Children: The Truth About Marijuana, Mental Illness, and Violence.” “It’s like we all need glasses. ... The connection to psychosis is real.”...

After nearly three years and millions of tax dollars, the Trump-Russia collusion probe is about to be resolved. Emerging in its place is newly unearthed evidence suggesting another foreign effort to influence the 2016 election - this time, in favor of the Democrats. Ukraine's top prosecutor divulged in an interview aired Wednesday on Hill.TV that he has opened an investigation into whether his country's law enforcement apparatus intentionally leaked financial records during the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign about then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort in an effort to sway the election in favor of Hillary Clinton. The leak of the so-called...

The Decadence Of Godfried Danneels The shaded material on the right is a clip from Kerk en Leven (Church and Life), in August of 1984. Kerk en Leven is the weekly magazine of the Catholic Church in Flanders. This, via DeepL, is the translation of the first paragraph of the shaded copy: A few years ago, an ecumenical working group on paedophilia was established in Flanders. This working group, made up of Catholics and Protestants, aims to make the Churches aware of the phenomenon of paedophilia, to pass on information and to remove prejudices. The working group also wants to...

Former Congressman John Dingell, Jr., a partisan Democrat whose immediate family has controlled the same seat in the House of Representatives for 86 years, has some suggestions for fixing Congress. We should abolish the Senate and the Electoral College because they're undemocratic, "despite the constitutional hurdles of doing so." In 2015, Dingell retired from the U.S. House seat he's held since 1955, the seat he inherited from his father, John Dingell, Sr., who first won it in 1932. The seat has passed to John Jr.'s much-younger wife, Rep. Debbie Dingell, who was just re-elected in November. (Full disclosure: For 20...

Hope Hicks, the former White House communications director and long-time confidante of President Donald Trump, plans to turn over documents to the House Judiciary Committee as part of its investigation into potential obstruction of justice. Rep. Jerry Nadler, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, sent Hicks a detailed letter earlier this month, asking for documents on a wide-range of topics, including over former national security adviser Michael Flynn's false statements to the FBI, the firing of then-FBI Director James Comey, Trump's involvement in a hush-money scheme to silence stories about his alleged affairs and the drafting of a misleading 2017...

Just a little light gossip from Gabriel Sherman, although the timing makes sense to me. It’d be to Hannity’s advantage to start circulating rumors of his unhappiness too, even if they’re insincere, as it might give him more leverage over the direction of the network.

Nearly 400 Catholic clergy members in Illinois have been accused of sexual misconduct

Next week, Samuel Adams is bringing a taste of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to its taproom. Set to be released next week, “When There are Nine” is a Belgian Brut IPA dedicated to the judge. The beer’s name is inspired by her answer to the question “When will there be enough women on the Supreme Court?” “We wanted to name it Brut Bader Ginsburg,” an event description by Samuel Adams reads. “But our legal team, uh, dissented.”

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Wednesday Foreign Minister Winston Peters would travel to Turkey to “confront” comments made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on the killing of at least 50 people at mosques in Christchurch, Reuters reported.Australian Brenton Tarrant, 28, a suspected white supremacist, was charged with murder on Saturday after a lone gunman opened fire at the two mosques during Friday prayers.Erdoğan — who is seeking to drum up support for his Islamist-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) in March 31 local elections — said Turkey would make the suspected attacker pay if New Zealand...

Cambridge University has rescinded its offer of a visiting fellowship to Jordan Peterson, the self-styled “professor against political correctness”, after a backlash from faculty and students. Peterson, a psychology professor from Toronto who has courted controversy for his views on transgender rights, gender and race, announced on Monday via his YouTube channel that he was joining Cambridge for two months. “In October I am going to Cambridge University in the UK for two months and I will be a visiting fellow there at the divinity school and should give me the opportunity to talk to religious experts of all types...

United Nations projections indicate that over the next 50 years, the populations of virtually all countries of Europe as well as Japan will face population decline and population ageing. The new challenges of declining and ageing populations will require comprehensive reassessments of many established policies and programmes, including those relating to international migration. Focusing on these two striking and critical population trends, the report considers replacement migration for eight low-fertility countries (France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, United Kingdom and United States) and two regions (Europe and the European Union). Replacement migration refers to the international migration...

IRVINGTON, New Jersey (WABC) -- Police are investigating after a teenager was fatally shot in New Jersey Wednesday afternoon. The victim's backpack sat in the middle of street after the shooting, which happened just before 3 p.m. on Clinton Avenue in Irvington. Police responded and rushed the victim to University Hospital in Newark where he was pronounced dead. He was identified as Marquise Jenkins, a student at Irvington High School. The school is located nearby, and it is possible the victim was on his way home at the time. There was a heavy police presence in the area.

Australia’s prime minister said he would summon Turkey’s ambassador in Canberra on Wednesday to explain “very offensive” comments made by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the wake of the Christchurch massacre, AFP reported. Erdoğan, while campaigning for local elections, presented the attack as part of an assault on Turkey and Islam and that warned anti-Muslim Australians would suffer the same fate as soldiers at Gallipoli, a blood-drenched World War I battle.“I find it a very offensive comment, of course I do, and I will be calling in the Turkish ambassador today to meet with me to discuss these issues,” Scott...