Free Republic

This slumping row-house in London’s Charterhouse Square is not a “building” per se, but rather an objet-d’art from the Stunt-and-Clutter school of contemporary art called “A Week at the Knees” by one Alex Chinneck. I confess, I don’t even get the verbal gag. Seems like a non-sequitur to me. But so is most of the production from Stunt-and-Clutter Ltd. The aim is to astound the public with startling originality. Since there are no longer that many new things under the sun, this calls for ever more extreme ventures into the absurd and hallucinatory. Between the general overload of Internet-generated info...

The oboe, a double reed instrument in the woodwind family, is one of the most beautiful, important, and unique musical instruments. With a long history dating back as far as ancient Greece

This is a piece I wrote, having now moved from the city. I'm laying down some country roots and was inspired by the idea of Bach moving to the country. It's kind of humorous and hope you enjoy it.

Pfizer's Delayed Myocarditis Study A little bit of knowledge can be a dangerous thing Now for the not-so-hidden easter egg. CDC’s Captain Dr. Sarah Meyer (CDC/NCEZID), during her recent ACIP presentation titled “COVID-19 safety update” regarding long-term outcomes from COVID-19 mRNA product myocarditis, assured the nation that post mRNA vaccine myocarditis, while a real risk, resolves completely without long-term problems. Frankly, that statement was verifiably false. Whether the post-Comirnaty-associated clinical myocarditis OR the post-COVID-associated clinical myocarditis afflicting those unfortunate few who develop this disease (note the hopeful, optimistic forward-looking statement…) fully recover without long-term consequences is not known. Because the...

Former Pink Floyd songwriter Roger Waters could face prosecution after declaring his support for Palestine Action, a terrorist organization that has been banned by Parliament in the U.K. Waters posted a video to X on Saturday, in which the Rock ‘N Roll Hall of Fame inductee praised Palestine Action as a "great organization," while also giving kudos to Bob Vylan, who led the Glastonbury Festival crowd in a chant, shouting, "Death, death to the IDF." Waters said in his video that he was in his studio and was working on a piece of brown cardboard with a Sharpie. He then...

A newly analyzed inscription found in Sinai, Egypt, has stirred new debate among scholars after a language researcher claimed it may include the words, “This is from Moses.” The carving, located near an ancient turquoise mine in the south-central region of the peninsula, was photographed using high-resolution imaging technology that brought faded markings into clearer view. The markings belong to a group of rock-cut writings known as Proto-Sinaitic inscriptions. These early alphabetic characters were first documented in 1904 and are believed to date back to around 1800 BCE. The particular panel under review, labeled Sinai 357 and located across from...

The Musée Guimet, a Paris museum known for its rich collection of Asian art, is facing a lawsuit from several groups who accused the institution of trying to “erase the existence of Tibet.” According to the Agence France-Presse, which first reported news of the complaint last week, the suit centers around a gallery devoted to art from Nepal and Tibet. The museum now notes that the gallery focuses on the “Himalayan world,” not Nepal and Tibet specifically, according to the AFP. Doing so, the groups said, could create “confusion about Tibet’s cultural distinctiveness with the political aim of erasing Tibet’s...

This one really takes the biscuit: the mask is now fully off. It's official: the whole 'proscribed terrorist' routine is nothing but a bad political pantomime. It's completely insane. So as far as the British state are concerned, Al-Qaeda & ISIS are now paragon of democracy and 'Arab reform' - all thanks to Israel's trusted pair of hands in Westminster, Secretary Lammy, gleefully giving the western stamp of approval on the head-chopping self-appointed Caliph in Syria. Unreal....

This is a song first done by the band The McCoys that had the guitarist Rick Derringer, who recently died in Florida at the age of 77. It's done by Count Vlad and is more along the David Bowie's Pin Ups version from the early 70s. There is also some footage of a young Jerry Hall, who I believe was married to Rupert Murdoch at some point.

AP Photo/Chris Pizzello The latest Disney/Pixar animated film, 'Elio', has a dubious distinction. It has the worst opening weekend ever for a Pixar film, making only $21 million domestically and $14 million overseas. This is against a budget reportedly ranging from $150 million to $300 million. Yikes! Would you believe us if we told you things could have been even worse at the box office? Before some major changes, the 11-year-old title character was going to be gay ('queer-coded') and, for fun, put on fashion shows with clothing made out of trash he found on the beach. Oh, and he...

It’s lights out and away we go at the box office as “F1,” a big-budget racing drama starring Brad Pitt, impressively revs to $55.6 million in its domestic opening weekend. With great reviews and a promising “A” grade on CinemaScore exit polls, “F1” landed in the middle of expectations of $50 million to $60 million. At the international box office, the film collected a strong $88.4 million from 78 markets. Those initial ticket sales are significant given “F1” is an adult-skewing tentpole that’s not part of an existing film franchise — a rarity in today’s I.P.-dominated movie theater landscape. Directed...

This is a counrty song for people who have gone through a hard time with love, People who have had to hide their pain and have a lot of disruption and confusion in their life.... but who have to keep on going. Life sucks at times, and this song tries to keep that in mind.

NASA’s new Andromeda images unveil stunning insights into dark matter and black holes. Image credit: NASA | The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel In the latest release from NASA, stunning new images of the Andromeda galaxy (M31) have captured the attention of the global scientific community. Andromeda, located around 2.5 million light-years from Earth, is the closest spiral galaxy to our Milky Way. These new images, which include data from multiple advanced telescopes, offer fresh insights into the complex dynamics of this galactic neighbor. The images were made possible through a collaboration of some of the world’s most powerful space-based...

Entertainment giant Disney is continuing its campaign of employee layoffs with its latest round of cuts hitting its product and technology division. While Disney insists that the P&T division is critical to its future success, the layoffs nonetheless cut an additional two percent of the company’s workforce, The Wrap reported. This latest round of cost cutting is just one of a long series of cuts lasting several years. Indeed, it isn’t even the first round of layoffs this month. Early this month the company pushed out several hundred workers from its marketing for both film and television, television publicity, and...

Azealia Banks pulled out of a London festival and alleged that “the promoters” pressured her to support Palestine. The 34-year-old singer slammed festival promoters in a lengthy post shared June 24 on X. “So guys, I am cancelling Boomtown and Maiden Voyage, the promoters have been stressing me out for weeks trying to force me to say free Palestine and threatening to cut me from the bill because I won’t say free Palestine and I’m not dealing with the threats and I’m not putting on a f***ing hijab,” she wrote. Banks was slated to perform at Burgess Park, London’s Maiden...

Exoplanet TWA 7 b (Credit: ESA/Webb, NASA, CSA, A.M. Lagrange, M. Zamani (ESA/Webb)). In a groundbreaking first, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has captured its first direct image of a distant exoplanet unrecognized from past astronomical surveys. The milestone achievement was made possible with help from a special coronagraph aboard Webb’s MIRI instrument that allows Webb to capture imagery under conditions that mimic those which occur naturally during an eclipse. The discovery made in research lead by researcher Anne-Marie Lagrange with the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) and the Paris Observatory, in collaboration with Grenoble Alpes University....

Susan Sarandon and Kevin Costner had sizzling chemistry in 1988 romcom Bill Durham and a source exclusively tells Closer they’re being wooed to reprise their roles and team up for more spicy on-screen fun almost three decades later! “Kevin and Susan are incredibly different personalities on every level, but they both know they had all time great chemistry on Bull Durham almost forty years ago,” the insider says. “Over the years they have both had talks about doing a sequel or revisiting that world in some way.” The late-80s hit was a product of writer/director Ron Shelton, who found fame...

Mick Ralphs, the British rock guitarist whose career encompassed both the iconoclastic with eclectic glam rockers Mott the Hoople and iconic with melodic blues-rockers Bad Company, passed away on June 23, 2025, from complications of a debilitating stroke he suffered in 2016. Ralphs was 81. Ralphs first came to public attention with Mott the Hoople. The band, led by Ralphs and lead singer Ian Hunter, amassed a minor cult following between 1969 and 1972, primarily due to their constant touring despite all four albums released during this period flopping badly. Mott the Hoople was on the verge of dissolving when...

Hello everyone! I recently released my very first science-fiction, political-thriller novel on Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing. I've been told that the work seems to embody the writing style of a Tom Clancy or a Michael Crichton, blended with an Isaac Asimov. While this is high praise, indeed, I want to go to the next level. Enter an analysis of a very quiet, very low-action scene in the first season of Game of Thrones. That analysis is here.The analysis is stellar. The writing is stellar. The analysis talks about how: Robert Baratheon was not a lecherous drunkard, but actually a very...

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