Free Republic

Over a year into the completion of San Diego State University’s racial healing garden, few students, scholars and staff appear to be spending time within its circumference. The $250,000 Native and Indigenous Healing Garden at the public university was built amid tensions regarding the Aztec warrior mascot, accused of racism, cultural appropriation and toxic masculinity. The healing garden is meant to honor Native Americans and the Aztec culture “at a time when we need to ‘heal’ over the issue of indigenous identities,” according to a 2018 Aztec Identity Task Force report. The garden was completed in March 2020. A grand...

Shown here (from left) are the Eagle, Omega, Triffid, and Lagoon Nebulae, imaged by NASA’s infrared Spitzer Space Telescope. These nebulae are part of a structure within the Milky Way’s Sagittarius Arm that is poking out from the arm at a dramatic angle. Shown here (from left) are the Eagle, Omega, Triffid, and Lagoon Nebulae, imaged by NASA’s infrared Spitzer Space Telescope. These nebulae are part of a structure within the Milky Way’s Sagittarius Arm that is poking out from the arm at a dramatic angle. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Scientists have spotted a previously unrecognized feature of our Milky Way...

The huge shape floating above homes and businesses sparked widespread panic as people took to social media to find out if the end of the world was coming. Many in the city of Tyumen in south central Russia believed it was the beginning of a nuclear war. Photos of the ominous mushroom cloud quickly went viral in Russia. Alexander Bogdanov posted a photo on Instagram saying: "World War III has begun. "I photographed it from my window." Another, Oleg Alexeeva, tweeted: "Oh, God save us. What have they done?!!!" While MyraYer posted: "Crazy b******s!!! This is the end." The huge...

The massive structure - almost a mile long - contains a spiral design, with several rectangular spirals that form a giant structure, archaeologists say. "This structure, which has dimensions of more than 1,500 m × 600 m (about 1 mile by 1,970 feet) is the most striking discovery associated with Angkor Wat to date. Its function remains unknown and, as yet, it has no known equivalent in the Angkorian world," Roland Fletcher, a University of Sydney professor, said in a statement put out by the university. Today, the spiral structure is hard to make out on the ground, having been...

WASHINGTON — The military’s Tricare health insurance is a broken system that is now in a “death spiral” and must be replaced, a congressional review commission told the House on Wednesday. The insurance has been veering toward less choice and access since it was created and now falls far behind other networks in its number of providers and ability to incorporate new types of medical care, members of the Military Retirement and Compensation Modernization Commission testified before an Armed Services subcommittee. The testimony is the beginning of hearings on Capitol Hill so lawmakers can consider legislation to overhaul the health...

....breathtaking scenes with the Discover America’s signature song ‘Land of Dreams’ written and sung by Roseanne Cash, viewers don’t get a raincheck on the campaign’s multicultural theme and the spiral in the sand that builds the Open Society Logo in opening scenes. Such is the power of subliminal.  Discover America is $12.3 million dollars worth of free advertising for Soros. Blame Brand USA for the Open Society’s free advertising ride. Brand USA is governed by an 11-member Board of Directors appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, with headquarters based in Wa, DC. “Brand USA was established by the Travel...

As a retired computer systems manager, I am always fascinated by large, complex software systems that fail -- such as the Federal ObamaCare "insurance exchange" currently being rolled out at HealthCare.gov. This software monstrosity is now in its second week, and most people trying to use it still can't get into the system, or else they can't create an account on it, or their account information is lost. I, and you, can follow this unfolding disaster at any time in the comments section on HealthCare.gov's own Facebook page, at https://www.facebook.com/Healthcare.gov. (You do not need a Facebook account to view this...

Earth's Milky Way Neighborhood Gets More Respect Old picture: Local Arm a small "spur" of Milky Way. New picture: Local Arm probable major branch of Perseus Arm. CREDIT: Robert Hurt, IPAC; Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF. Our Solar System's Milky Way neighborhood just went upscale. We reside between two major spiral arms of our home galaxy, in a structure called the Local Arm. New research using the ultra-sharp radio vision of the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) indicates that the Local Arm, previously thought to be only a small spur, instead is much more like the adjacent major arms,...

Retailers -- Web-based and real-world -- have trained consumers to demand a bargain, and now they're living with the results. MINYANVILLE ORIGINAL A couple of guys are camped out in the parking lot of a mall outside Pittsburgh, having arrived last Friday in order to be first in line when Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) opens its doors for Black Friday sales. They had hoped to set a nationwide record, but have since learned that some people showed up even earlier at one of the stores in California. They feel that this is cheating, since winter camping is a lot easier on...

Is it hyperbolic to say the Democratic Party is in the midst of a nervous breakdown? I have been covering national politics since 1988, and I don't remember a situation quite like this. The signs of a crack-up are everywhere. Democrats still think they can somehow win a news cycle by demonizing John Boehner. Chuck Schumer goes on the Senate floor and suggests Democrats are getting the same political mileage out of "millionaires tax" that Republicans have gotten over the years from using "death tax." Politico has a story with blind quotes from Hill Democrats who are furious that the...

Displayed in all their exquisite detail, six spectacular galaxies are pictured more clearly that they ever have before. All of them are beautiful examples of spiral galaxies and were captured in images from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) at the Paranal Observatory in Chile. The pictures were taken in infrared light, using the impressive power of the HAWK-I camera, and will help astronomers understand how the remarkable spiral patterns in galaxies form and evolve.-incredible-new-detail.html#ixzz13uAfNijg

http://news.discovery.com/space/hubble-spots-ghostly-space-spiral.html

The U.S. government moves closer to a debt death spiral. Arguably, we are already in the beginning phase of this spiral as this rather scary observation points out: The nation's debt leapt $166 billion in a single day last week, the third-largest increase in U.S. history, and it comes at a time when Congress is balking over higher spending and debt has become a key policy battleground. The one-day increase for June 30 totaled $165,931,038,264.30 - bigger than the entire annual deficit for fiscal year 2007 .... The figure works out to nearly $1,500 for every U.S. household, or...

If you check in regularly with the Drudge Report, you probably remember the mysterious light spiral over Norway last year, and the multitude of explanations offered for it (I think we were finally told that it was a Russian missile experiment gone awry). Now there's a new light spiral in Australia, that isn't getting so much attention - and there aren't any Russian missile tests anywhere near there. So what gives? A quick visit to the website of Share International, a creepy, occultist, messianic New Age group headed by Benjamin Creme, says these light spirals in the sky are a...

The Illinois spiralApril 11, 2010 History often occurs with such bombast that we couldn't miss it if we tried: a climactic battle, a pivotal court decree, the inauguration of an African-American president. Other times, history evolves quietly via the Law of Accumulation: Little things add up. Illinois is suffering one of those subtler but game-changing passages today. Our state is in a downward spiral that, yes, still can be reversed. First, though, we have to admit that we are not the Illinois that was — the muscular producer and processor and manufacturer that could stare a stranger in the eye...

Turns out they're not "out there" after all. Those UFO sighting in Norway this morning weren't actually UFOs -- just a Russian missile test gone wrong. The Russian Defense Ministry admitted today that its Bulava intercontinental missile failed a test launch, following reports of unusual lights in Norway that caused an influx of UFO sightings. Russia's submarine-based Bulava (Mace), which is designed to carry multiple warheads up to 5,000 miles, failed its 13th test launch, something Alexander Khramchikhin, chief analyst at the Institute of Military and Political Analysis in Moscow, called "a catastrophe." "Billions of dollars have been flushed down...

People are freaking out all over Norway because of what you are seeing here. According to Norwegian news outlets, the spooky giant spiral was seen, photographed, and recorded on video from all over the country. Updated with video. Could it all be a hoax? Maybe it's a massive joke, but all kinds of Norwegian news sites are reporting on it. According to NKR—Norway's national TV channel—it could be related to a rocket fired from a Russian submarine in the White Sea. The Russians are denying any part on it at this at the moment. Nick Banbury, a witness located...

Bright Nebulae of M33 Credit & Copyright: Ken Crawford (Rancho Del Sol Observatory) Explanation: Gorgeous spiral galaxy M33 seems to have more than its fair share of bright emission nebulae. In fact, narrow-band and broad-band image data are combined in this beautifully detailed composite to trace the reddish emission nebulae, star forming HII regions, sprawling along loose spiral arms that wind toward the galaxy's core. Historically of great interest to astronomers, M33's giant HII regions are some of the largest known stellar nurseries - sites of the formation of short-lived but very massive stars. Intense ultraviolet radiation from the...

ST. LOUIS — As if in a cosmic hug, the spiral arms of some galaxies wrap around themselves more tightly than others. The key to the bear hug: Galaxies holding heftier black holes at their centers also have more tightly wound spiral arms, an astronomer announced today. The finding gives astronomers a way to weigh so-called supermassive black holes, which can have masses of millions to billions that of the sun, and are thought to reside at the centers of galaxies. "This is a really easy way to determine the masses of these super-massive black holes at the centers of...

Spiral wall motifs reveal Çatalhöyük migration In the course of an excavation project currently under way at Çatalhöyük, researchers have recently discovered a burial chamber and wall paintings that echo spiral motifs first seen on ancient seals and kitchen utensils. Motifs discovered in the wall paintings may shed light on the migration routes of the people who lived in Çatalhöyük, a 9,000-year old Neolithic site. Çatalhöyük is a 9,000-year-old Neolithic site in central Turkey that displays evidence of animal domestication and agricultural activities and is considered to be one of the first permanent community settlements. The excavation is sponsored by...