Free Republic

"It was suspected that a harsh drought from about 2000 to 2010 that killed tens of thousands of livestock was unprecedented in the region’s history and primarily the result of human-caused climate change. But the tree ring data show that the dry spell, while rare in its severity, was not outside the realm of natural climate variability, researchers report online March 14 in Science Advances."

A study written about in Scientific American found that during NRA conventions, injuries with guns drop. I read the headline and thought, that makes perfect sense. With the NRA making national headlines, more people are thinking about the safe handling of firearms, people have become sensitized about guns and accidents, even briefly, and they are making less mistakes.In addition, people who are considering crimes become sensitized to the danger of armed victims, and likely postpone or change their criminal behavior, if only momentarily.  Most gun injuries are intentional and related to criminal behavior. According to the study, 20% of...

Liberals have stuck to a pretty consistent strategy in dealing with American Christianity: If you repeat something often enough, people will start to believe it. With the media's help, they set out to convince the country that evangelicals were dying on the political vine. But, as so often happens, they were proven wrong on the biggest of stages when, in 2016, the church's "withering" influence proved to be anything but. Since then, teams of researchers have been trying to get a read on the state of Christianity in America -- and what they've found might surprise you. After years of...

All those media-trust studies have a tendency toward the rote. Yes, we already knew that the public had little trust in the country’s journalistic organs. Yes, we knew that finding credible sources could be a harrowing pursuit for the public. Yes, we knew that an increasing portion of the U.S. public felt that the news was biased. Yet this nugget from a new Gallup-Knight Foundation survey just about knocked the Erik Wemple Blog out of a decade-long media-research torpor: "Four in 10 [or 42 percent of] Republicans consider accurate news stories that cast a politician or political group in a...

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is abusing taxpayer dollars once again, this time by issuing a $430,000 grant for a study on the grocery store purchases of American Latino families. The study is yet another example of unconstitutional government overreach, and it raises the possibility for the government to intervene in the dietary habits of its citizens, despite its strongly negative record in this area.

A Lake County environmental group on Thursday sued the Illinois State Toll Highway Authority to stop it from spending any more money to study an extension of Route 53. The lawsuit, filed in Lake County Circuit Court in Waukegan by Livable Lake County and six area homeowners, alleges the Tollway failed to abide by state law in pursuing the controversial project. Specifically, the lawsuit claims that the Tollway violated the Illinois Toll Highway Act by failing to get proper authorization for the corridor from the Illinois legislature and not holding required public hearings. Anthony Vega, a representative for Livable Lake...

Training for armed self-defense is like preparing for a natural disaster, according to the research of two Oregon State University professors. The researchers set out to understand how Americans who keep and carry handguns for self-defense mitigate the risks involved, such as accidentally shooting oneself, inaccurately identifying a threat or being clumsy. The professors identified ways that handguns owners work to diminish those risks, including through training, mental rehearsing and routine maintenance. The researchers determined that while those efforts mitigate the physical, legal and moral risks associated with using handguns for self-defense, it does not remove all risk. “It’s...

Another day, another extremely false “academic” study. More like “epidemic” study. An epidemic of false information and bias. We’ve often talked about the efforts of the left to push an agenda by fabricating factoids. But this is just rich. This new study wants us to believe 1/3 of Californian teens are queer. Of course, it’s from California. Researchers out of the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law and the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research analyzed data from the 2015-2016 version of the California Health Interview Survey, which collected data from 1,300 households.

Are you a straight man who likes women? Do you kiss and cuddle with your male friends just for funsies? No? Well apparently, you’re the weirdo. Because according to Attitude Magazine, it is totally normal – common, even – for straight men to canoodle with their straight male friends. To the confusion of straight men and people of logic everywhere, Attitude ran a befuddling article entitled: "New Study Finds Straight Men in Bromances Often Kiss and Cuddle." (For those unfamiliar, a "bromance" is a slang term for a close friendship between two heterosexual guys.) Attitude claims:

After three years, 30 percent of the people who used mouthwash twice or more a day progressed to pre-diabetes or diabetes, compared to 20 percent of those who used the rinses less frequently. Ultimately, the very frequent mouthwash users had a 55 percent higher risk of developing one of the conditions than the less frequent users, the study notes. The impact stayed the same when the researchers controlled for age, sex, smoking, physical activity, alcohol consumption and other factors.

A trio of labor economists suggest that effort at work is correlated with race… As The Economist writes, given the long history of making racial slurs about the efforts of some workers, any study casting black and Hispanic men as lazier than whites and Asians is sure to court controversy. But, a provocative working paper by economists Daniel Hamermesh, Katie Genadek and Michael Burda sticks a tentative toe into these murky waters. They suggest that America’s well-documented racial wage gap is overstated by 10% because minorities, especially men, spend larger portions of their workdays not actually working. Uncomfortable though the...

A recently-released research study sheds light on the values of white working-class voters in the United States and the reasons these voters strongly supported Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election. Three researchers from three different universities authored the study, titled “White Working-Class Views on Belonging, Change, Identity and Immigration.” Open Society Foundations, a network of political organizations controlled by left-wing billionaire George Soros, funded the study. The trio of researchers conducted the study by visiting four places between August 2016 and March 2017: Birmingham, Alabama; Dayton, Ohio; Tacoma, Washington; Phoenix, Arizona; and — for some reason — the New...

Microscopic pieces of plastic have infiltrated tap water systems around the world, according to new research on worldwide water systems. According to Orb Media, a non-profit data journalism newsroom in Washington, 83 percent of the tap water sampled globally was contained with microscopic plastic particles. The U.S. had the highest contamination rate at 94 percent, and water sampled from Europe to India and in parts of the Middle East had plastic contamination above 70 percent, according to the Orb study. Sites sampled in the U.S. included “Congress buildings, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency headquarters and Trump Towers,” the Guardian reported....

A toll feasibility study is up in the air for the future Interstate 49 bridge over the Arkansas River with extensions connecting Arkansas 22 to Interstate 40 at Alma. Following approval last year of $10 million in I-49 project development, the Arkansas Department of Transportation solicited bids for a consultant to conduct an I-49 toll feasibility study. They are currently in a negotiation phase, according to ArDOT District 4 Construction Engineer Jason Hughey. ArDOT selected HNTB on June 23 to conduct the “I-49 Alternative Delivery Study.” The negotiations are over the scope of work and process has been “fluid,” ArDOT...

When it comes to spending and infrastructure, one of South Carolina’s great white whales rose from the deep with news last week that the Army Corps of Engineers approved a permit to begin work on the South Carolina leg of I-73. Ultimately, the interstate highway could take motorists from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula straight down to Myrtle Beach.The permit covers the whole state length, slicing across its northeastern corner, starting near Bennettsville. Construction could begin within two years, supporters say, on a project first contemplated in 1982.The southern half alone, linking I-95 to the Conway Bypass, is estimated to cost more...

A new American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study says that french fries are linked to a higher risk of death.The study looked at potato consumption for people over 45 but younger than 79. Of the 4,400 people tested over eight years, 236 passed away.

Guest Essay By Larry Kummer. Posted at the Fabius Maximus website. Summary: To boost our fear, activists and journalists report the weather with amnesia about the past. Ten year records become astonishing events; weather catastrophes of 50 or 100 years ago are forgotten. It makes for good clickbait but cripples our ability to prepare for the inevitable. California’s history of floods and droughts gives a fine example — if we listen to the US Geological Survey’s reminder of past megafloods, and their warning of the coming ARkStorm. ” A 43-day storm that began in December 1861 put central and southern...

BEIJING — Fear of mortality is one reason Americans spend so much on “antioxidant” products, including Vitamin C supplements and beta-carotene, which promise a longer healthier life. According to the National Institutes of Health, more than half of adults in the U.S. consume some kind of antioxidant product, spending $37 billion each year. But a study conducted in China – where aging is akin to a national obsession these days – claims that antioxidants don’t work as billed. The study is published in the journal Redox Biology. A new study finds that antioxidant supplements may be more harmful to the...

South Dakota narrowly overtakes Oregon, which held the top spot for the previous three years, as the nation's "Top Moving Destination." This is the first time South Dakota has held the no. 1 spot. Vermont inched out Oregon for the no 2. position, with Oregon rounding out the top three. Those are the results of the United Van Lines' 40th Annual National Movers Study, which tracks customers' state-to-state migration patterns over the past year. Retirees are continuing to move to the Mountain and Pacific West.

Research has found that being attractive influences many things in a person's life -- their salary, their popularity and grades in school, even the prison sentences they receive. So why not their politics? A recently published study in the Journal of Public Economics concludes that the attractiveness of a candidate does correlate with their politics. They find that politicians on the right are more good looking in Europe, the United States and Australia. The research also suggests that voters correctly see candidates who are more good looking as more likely to be conservative.