Free Republic

When a mass shooting occurs, some people act as if the guns themselves are responsible rather than the people who use them, Other people respond with the statement: "Guns don't kill people. People do." The statement is true because guns cannot independently affect the operation of the human brain. The brain is a complex system controlled by the interaction of various chemicals. People use marijuana because it is one of the chemicals .that can affect the operation of the brain. Unfortunately, there is a dark side to marijuana. In addition to creating the sensation of feeling "high", marijuana can cause...

Despite being sexually active for over two decades,—I know, “TMI,” but you can hardly discuss sex and not have a little “TMI”—my wife and I have never spent even five seconds worrying about, or one dime preventing or treating an STD. This is chiefly due to the fact that our sexual activity exactly corresponds to our marriage years. We’re teaching our four children—ages 9, 12, 14, and 16—that if they conduct themselves similarly, they too will never have to ponder preventing or treating an STD. For us, “conducting themselves similarly” means adhering to what God has said about sexual behavior....

For the first time in public history, Iranian officials admit to facilitating the 9/11 terrorist attacks by aiding Al Qaeda operatives traveling to the United States to carry out the attacks. Mohammad-Javad Larijani, an international affairs assistant in the Iran’s judiciary, admitted in an interview broadcasted on Iranian state TV on May 30 that Iranian intelligence officials facilitated the terrorists’ travel to the U.S. “Our government agreed not to stamp the passports of some of them because they were on transit flights for two hours, and they were resuming their flights without having their passports stamped. However their movements were...

EOS says in six to nine months the manufacturing plant will be in full production. Electro Optic Systems or EOS is an Australian company that's coming to the Rocket City. The company is based out of Australia but is now opening a United States Headquarters in Huntsville. The building will produce products of the company for the defense industry. Their United States President who has been a part of the defense industry in Huntsville for years told WAAY 31 about the products they will be manufacturing. "What you can do with this system is you can stay in the vehicle,...

I'm just curious. I wouldn't mind visiting a few that are different from what I normally surf. My sites that I visit every days are: 1. www.crazydaysandnights.net - a celebrity gossip site that are often contributed to by insiders. 2. www.facebook.com 3. www.instapundit.com 4. www.newatlas.com - a gadget site 5. www.pc.com 6. www.kissanime.ru - for all your anime needs 7. www.drudgereport.com

“This is a good example of regulatory capture -- when the people being regulated win over their supervisor to their viewpoint. It happens all the time. He looks a bit of a Shlemiel anyway so was probably not hard to capture Another reason why he was quickly captured probably is that he knows nothing about science. In justifying himself, Bridenstine referred to "The Science" as having convinced him. Whenever anybody talks vaguely about "The Science" as his justification for believing in global warming that is a sure sign that he in fact knows nothing about the issues involved. He is...

A great deal of the electricity in the United States goes to waste. Much is lost in the initial generation of electricity. And much is lost through the use of inefficient devices, like incandescent light bulbs that heat up a filament to produce light. But power is also lost in between, on the grid, as it is carried along hundreds of miles of wires, repeatedly shifted between different voltages, and converted from AC to DC and back, all in the split second between the time it enters the grid and the time it powers your computer. How much power is...

Clinical trials are tentatively scheduled for 2020 at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center's new Center for Stem Cell and Organoid Medicine, where researchers are making miniature livers and pancreases, called organoids. Associate Director Takanori Takebe, MD, calls organoids a "complex recipe" of proteins, small molecules, amino acids and nutrients that enable him and his staff in the U.S. and Japan to make the organs using pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs), or so-called "master cells." Takebe sees two roles for the manmade organs: drug testing and transplantation. "It's pretty much like science fiction, but we are trying to create the miniature version...

Last week's episode was horrible. This weeks episode was just a fraction better -- but still horrible. Anybody else finding it difficult to watch and to vest any interest in it anymore?

Bank robberies aren’t as exciting as they used to be when they were the stuff of Ocean’s Eleven style, or the coarser Bonnie and Clyde. No more black balaclavas or dead president masks. No more guns, no more physical threats. This is the age of the cyber thief, and Mexico’s recent $110-million bank heist didn’t even require a criminal to touch the money at all. With a push of a button it was gone--almost. Gone, too, is the excitement of getting caught up in a bank robbery as dramatized on television. But the lack of physical excitement also means that...

A British company says it can greatly extend the range of crops grown in indoor growing formats beyond the established leafy greens and herbs. Discussions on the potential of urban and indoor farming invariably mention the need to feed a growing global population, forecast to reach 10 billion by the middle of the century, against a backdrop of climate change and depleted land and other resources. But so far, for technical and economic reasons, the movement has largely targeted leafy greens and herbs — relatively high-value but low-mass, low-calorie crops. Indeed, one successful London grower specialises in "micro-salads" sought by...

Graphene, the much-hailed wonder material, may be the solution to the world’s water crisis. One in nine people around the world do not have access to clean, safe water close to their homes and at least 2 billion people are forced to use a drinking water source contaminated with faeces. Dirty water is a serious public health concern and drinking or washing in dirty water spreads diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid. Contaminated drinking water causes over 500,000 deaths each year from diarrhoea, a leading killer of children under five. First developed by scientists at the University of Manchester...

The trail-blazing Impossible Burger, the world’s only kosher cheeseburger, created sustainably, is now officially on the Orthodox Union’s kosher database registry. The Impossible Burger entered development in 2011 and debuted in July 2016 at the fashionably erstwhile Chef David Chang’s Momofuku Nishi in Manhattan. It’s since won a 2017 Tasty Award and a 2018 Fabi Award from the National Restaurant Association - and it’s the only plant-based burger to ever have done so. “Getting kosher certification is an important milestone,” said Impossible Foods CEO and Founder Dr. Patrick O. Brown. “We want the Impossible Burger to be ubiquitous, and that...

From a first-principles perspective, the task of feeding eight billion people boils down to converting energy from the sun into chemical energy in our bodies. Traditionally, solar energy is converted by photosynthesis into carbohydrates in plants (i.e., biomass), which are either eaten by the vegans amongst us, or fed to animals, for those with a carnivorous preference. Today, the process of feeding humanity is extremely inefficient. If we could radically reinvent what we eat, and how we create that food, what might you imagine that “future of food” would look like? In this post we’ll cover: 1.Vertical farms 2.CRISPR engineered...

VIENNA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Banana trees that fit in a test tube. Burgers made without a cow in sight. Fish farmed in the desert. Robots picking fruit. Welcome to the brave new world of food, where scientists are battling a global time-bomb of climate change, water scarcity, population growth and soaring obesity rates to find new ways to feed the future. With one in nine people already short of enough food to lead a healthy, active life, supporters pushing for a Second Green Revolution argue without major changes hunger will become one of the biggest threats to national security...

Erik Gatenholm first saw a 3D bioprinter in early 2015. His father, Paul, a professor in chemistry and biopolymer technology at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, had bought one for his department. It cost somewhere in the region of $200,000. “My father was like, ‘This thing can print human organs,’” Gatenholm recalls, still awestruck. “I said, ‘Bulls#*+!’ Then it printed a little piece of cartilage. It wasn’t cartilage, but it was like, this could be cartilage. That was the moment when it was like, ‘This is frickin’ cool!’” Gatenholm, who had long owned a regular 3D printer, decided then...

The solar system just got a bit stranger. As astronomers continue their ongoing quest to find the elusive Planet Nine, a team found a space rock that lends credence to the idea that a huge super-Earth planet really exists in the outer reaches of our solar system. The newfound asteroid, called 2015 BP519, adds to a growing body of evidence about little worlds in the solar system being perturbed by something big. Astronomers detailed its discovery and description in a new paper, adding that its bizarre angle of its orbit gives more weight to the idea that a big planet...

Australian company Titomic has unveiled what it claims is the world's largest metal 3D printer at its fully automated Melbourne facility. Utilizing a patented process co-developed with Australian federal scientific research agency the CSIRO, the 3D metal printer boasts a build area 9 m long, 3 m wide and 1.5 m high (29.5 x 9.8 x 4.9 ft), however the printing process isn't constrained to this booth size, meaning it could be used to print even larger objects. The unit prints layer by layer like existing 3D printers, but rather than relying on metal powders that are fused using extreme...

EXPERTS say 3D-printed houses will be "mainstream by 2025", and could put an end to Britain's housing crisis. A new report details how Brits are less than a decade away from enjoying lower house prices thanks to a robot revolution in the construction of homes. 3D printing, or "additive manufacturing", is a process of layering up a material to build complicated structures. It works just like regular home printers – but instead of ink, a 3D printer will use materials like plastic or metal. Using giant 3D printers, it's been proven possible to quickly and cheaply build homes. Sadly the...

A group of researchers at the University of Missouri have developed a new battery breakthrough that could have a big impact on runtimes for the gadgets. The researchers have developed new material that can address the two chief complaints of batteries used in electronic devices now: relatively runtimes life and unwanted heat production. The team has applied for a patent for a magnetic material that has a unique honeycomb lattice structure that offers distinct electronical properties. “Semiconductor diodes and amplifiers, which often are made of silicon or germanium, are key elements in modern electronic devices,” said Deepak K. Singh, head...