Free Republic

In the 1968 Star Trek episode Bread and Circuses, Capt. James Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. Leonard McCoy beam down to Planet 892-IV, a parallel to Earth in almost every way—except Rome never fell. The aliens capture the Enterprise’s familiar trio. Kirk has a predictable romantic encounter. There are televised gladiatorial games that pit the crew against sword-wielding warriors named Flavius and Achilles. The episode even lampoons the cutthroat competition between television broadcasters and their search for ratings. When one of the gladiators refuses to fight with his usual vigor, the master of the games snarls, “You bring this network’s...

Danish photographer Thomas Bangsted sits on the opposite end of the spectrum from “spray and pray” photography. The Brooklyn-based artist often spends months or years completing individual pictures through researching, traveling, shooting, and post-processing. The 7-minute video above offers a glimpse into how Bangsted creates his art.

North Korean state newspaper Rodong Sinmun released images on 7 February showing a new type of surface-to-surface missile (SSM) being fired from a surface-effects ship (SES) from the Korean People's Navy (KPN) Eastern Fleet. The images, which showed North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in attendance, were accompanied by an article translated by the English-language website KCNA Watch. The article noted that the test-firing proved in a "scientific" way that the capabilities of the long-rumoured vessel and its weapons system had reached design and engineering specifications.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is asking Congress to formally authorize war against Islamic State militants, offering a draft resolution that says the Islamic State "poses a grave threat."

U.S. provision of military aid to Ukraine would be seen by Moscow as a declaration of war and spark a global escalation of Ukraine's separatist conflict, Russian defense analysts said. With Russia-backed rebels in eastern Ukraine seizing new territory from the Ukrainian army, voices in Washington are demanding that Kiev be given defensive weapons and hardware — including lethal equipment — to hold the line. But if such aid were sent, "Russia would reasonably consider the U.S. to be a direct participant in the conflict," said Evgeny Buzhinsky, a military expert at the Moscow-based PIR Center. Speaking to The Moscow...

Liberals have claimed for years that the 2nd amendment was invented in the times of mere muskets, that it doesn’t apply to today’s weapons! The only problem with that, is that weaponry was far more advanced than leftists realize, and the founding fathers addressed this a LOOOONG time ago. Watch the only rebuttal to this argument that you’ll ever need to see! ;)

Originally found on E Online! It's still there now. :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgcIBRxjBjY

Iran English Radio (2/9) reported that Iran’s Aerospace Industries Organization and the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF) have developed “the double-cockpit supersonic Saeqeh 2 fighter jet.” According to Iranian Deputy Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami, the new plane has “enhanced combat capabilities” when compared to the first generation of the Saeqeh jet.

Iran has unveiled the 'second generation' of its indigenously developed Saeghe (Thunderbolt) combat aircraft, state media announced on 9 February. The Ministry of Defense and the Armed Forces Logistics agency announced the unveiling of the Saeghe-2 jet, and its delivery to the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force (IRIAF), the Mehr news agency reported. While the original Saeghe was based on the single-seat Northrop F-5E Tiger II fighter, the Saeghe-2 is modelled on the twin-seat F-5F operational trainer. On the surface, the Saeghe-2 bears the same twin-tail modification as the Saeghe, although it is not possible to ascertain what internal...

Could not believe when someone told me this.

(Language Warning) NEGLIGENT DISCHARGES HAPPEN! I am very unlucky, but very lucky! However I am on my way to recovery!

Need info on Blue Angels and G-Force. What do they usually pull? Its my understanding that "The Blue Angels are trained to ward off G-forces without the help of G-suits, garments with air bladders that repeatedly deflate and inflate to help maintain blood supply to the brain. The suits' movements would interfere with the control stick between a pilot's legs. " What is the maximum they can handle? When taking a reporter on a flight, what is the maximum G they would do?

Williams was actually trying to honor a vet in this "lie". But a group of other vets got butthurt that he didn't recognize them instead, and went viral. Most of the "heroes" in these wars since 9/11 are a bunch of self absorbed dysfunctional losers who joined because WalMart turned down their application. And now they're back home living with mom, going to the VA weekly for counseling, and sucking on the gov't tit.

Navy photographer Ignacio Perez likes to shoot landscapes but never dreamed he'd shoot an amazing one on the deck of an aircraft carrier. But on Tuesday around 10:30 a.m., as the USS John C. Stennis cruised in the Pacific Ocean, he got the shot of a lifetime: the 115,000-ton, 1,100-foot-long warship steaming through a rainbow. "As a photographer I am used to documenting operational events like aircraft launches and recoveries," Perez, a 21-year-old mass communications specialist third class, said in an email. "But when I saw the rainbow I was excited because it was different. I knew the odds of...

In 2002, former British Army soldier Colin Berry was in Afghanistan working as an agent for MI6, the United Kingdom’s secret intelligence service. Berry’s mission was to buy as many Stinger and Blowpipe man-portable surface-to-air missiles as he could before they wound up in Al Qaeda’s arsenal. Western government had given the weapons to the Afghan mujahedeen in the 1980s to help them shoot down Soviet attack helicopters. But now governments worried the SAMs, in terrorists’ hands, could shoot down civilian airliners.

A radical new weapon that can fire a shell at seven times the speed of sound has been shown off in public for the first time. Described as 'Star Wars technology' by researchers, the railgun can fire shells at seven times speed of sound, and penetrate concrete 100 miles away. The weapon was on display to the public for the first time at the Naval Future Force Science and Technology EXPO at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C.

The U.S. Army’s preparatory course for the next Ranger School cycle ended with 5 out of 26 women completing the course. All were officers. Out of 122 soldiers to start the course, 48 percent passed. There were 43 male dropouts in addition to the 21 women, Army Times reported Wednesday.

President Obama’s 2016 budget blueprint proposes rolling back a program that gives veterans the right to receive faster care outside of the long waitlists at the troubled Veterans Affairs medical system. Obama signed the Veterans Choice Program into law in August following months of partisan wrangling on Capitol Hill that finally led to a compromise measure to overhaul the agency. The Veterans Choice Program was a key GOP provision in the deal. Authored by Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the measure provides “choice” cards to veterans that can be used to obtain medical care at designated facilities outside of the VA...

During the early morning hours on Feb. 1, the Nigerian terror group Boko Haram launched its second attack on the city of Maiduguri. The Islamist group has kept Maiduguri in its sights for a long time. It’s the capital of Nigeria’s northeast and home to a population exceeding two million people, and has a garrison of several thousand Nigerian troops and a major air force base. Nigerian troops beat back the attackers and claimed to inflict hundreds of casualties. But Maiduguri wasn’t the only battle the insurgents fought in recent weeks. They took the town of Baga, plus 16 surrounding...

News that China is building a second aircraft carrier was leaked by an overenthusiastic local government, but reports were subsequently deleted from Web sites and social media here, a development that will do little to calm nerves in neighboring countries about Beijing’s growing maritime power. The government in Changzhou, in eastern Jiangsu province, boasted Sunday on social media that a local firm had won a contract to supply electrical cabling for the carrier. It later deleted the post, but not before it had been widely circulated. A report in a local newspaper was also withdrawn.