Free Republic

WHEN SHEILA JACKSON LEE first came to Washington in January 1995, the Texas Democrat railed against the Capitol's silk-stockinged elite. "The American people want reform, not phony but real reform," she said in her debut House speech. "They want to know that the days of free meals and free trips and special privileges are over. . . . As Members of Congress, we should not be using public office for private gain." How times change. It's about 200 paces from the awning of Jackson Lee's Capitol Hill apartment to the marbled steps of the Cannon House Office Building, where her...

It is... good for Harry Reid and his little-green-men-obsessed billionaire pal for keeping the flame of weird curiosity alive. But I also doubt that such research will ever prove that the strange lights and vessels filmed by human pilots actually belong to a starfaring species that’s come to our planet to study, experiment and eventually offer us a hand up or else ruthlessly invade.... Other sapient species may indeed be out there, but the most parsimonious explanation for all the U.F.O. encounters since Roswell is not that our nuclear testing or space program finally inspired the galaxy to come see...

A wonder material as flexible as tinfoil but hard enough to stop a speeding bullet has been created in the lab. Diamene is made using two layers of graphene, the world's first two-dimensional material which is just one atom thick, a million times thinner than human hair. Such a substance could be used for anything from water-resistant protective coatings to ultra-light bulletproof armour.

"I don't think it's plausible that there's any alloys that we can't identify," Richard Sachleben, a retired chemist and member of the American Chemical Society's panel of experts, told Live Science.... Alloys are mixtures of different kinds of elemental metals. They're very common — in fact, Sachleben said, they're more common on Earth than pure elemental metals are — and very well understood. Brass is an alloy. So is steel. Even most naturally occurring gold on Earth is an alloy made up of elemental gold mixed with other metals, like silver or copper. "There are databases of all known phases...

Initially, some people thought it may have been a UFO or the prelude to an alien invasion. There was also talk of a possible nuclear strike by North Korea. Footage of the rocket launch was captured by a viewer of KTLA-TV. 'What the heck is this weird jellyfish thing going across the sky right now!?!' tweeted actress Jenna Fischer of The Office fame. Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX, quipped on Twitter that the object in the sky was a 'nuclear alien UFO from North Korea.'

The New York Times on Saturday reported on a mysterious interaction between the U.S. Navy and what could only be called UFOs. The sighting, which took place in 2004, involved a U.S. Navy Aegis cruiser, seven Hornet and Super Hornet strike fighter jets, and a pair of unknown objects. The sighting, which was rumored but unsubstantiated for a decade remains unexplained to this day. *snip* According to the Times: For two weeks, the operator said, the Princeton had been tracking mysterious aircraft. The objects appeared suddenly at 80,000 feet, and then hurtled toward the sea, eventually stopping at 20,000 feet...

A married sandwich shop worker claims to have fathered dozens of extraterrestrial babies after bedding an alien in his teens — and has painted all of his raunchy encounters. UFO lover David Huggins claims to have lost his virginity to a busty extraterrestrial called Crescent after walking through a forest when he was just 17. Speaking for a documentary chronicling his bizarre life, he says: “I was walking in the woods and I see a woman sitting under a tree — and she gets up and she starts coming towards me.” “I become very aroused sexually; I couldn’t get my...

A company in California just proved that an exotic and potentially game-changing kind of computer can be used to perform a common form of machine learning. The feat raises hopes that quantum computers, which exploit the logic-defying principles of quantum physics to perform certain types of calculations at ridiculous speeds, could have a big impact on the hottest area of the tech industry: artificial intelligence. Researchers at Rigetti Computing, a company based in Berkeley, California, used one of its prototype quantum chips—a superconducting device housed within an elaborate super-chilled setup—to run what’s known as a clustering algorithm. Clustering is a...

That brings us to the other main character in the Times story and involves following the money (as with all things in the government). Where did the $22M budget for the Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program go? Most of it went to Robert Bigelow, who the NY Times only lists as a billionaire friend of Harry Reid’s. The article also mentions a meeting out at Bigelow’s ranch, which sounds normal enough, right? But that ranch is actually very famous in the paranormal fandom world and goes by another name… It’s Skinwalker Ranch. The place is legendary and Bigelow went after...

Retired Cmdr. David Fravor spent 18 years as a Navy pilot, but nothing prepared him for what he witnessed during a routine training mission on Nov. 14, 2004. "I can tell you, I think it was not from this world," Fravor told ABC News. "I'm not crazy, haven't been drinking. It was — after 18 years of flying, I've seen pretty much about everything that I can see in that realm, and this was nothing close." Fravor's stunning retelling of his encounter off the California coast with what appeared to be a 40-foot-long wingless object that flew at incredible speeds...

The following recounts an incident in 2004 that advocates of research into U.F.O.s have said is the kind of event worthy of more investigation, and that was studied by a Pentagon program that investigated U.F.O.s. Experts caution that earthly explanations often exist for such incidents, and that not knowing the explanation does not mean that the event has interstellar origins. Cmdr. David Fravor and Lt. Cmdr. Jim Slaight were on a routine training mission 100 miles out into the Pacific when the radio in each of their F/A-18F Super Hornets crackled: An operations officer aboard the U.S.S. Princeton, a Navy...

Astronomers are set to scan an 'alien' comet for signs of extraterrestrial signals The cigar-shaped object, named 'Oumuamua, sailed past Earth last month The mysterious comet is the first interstellar object seen in the solar system Now a team of alien-hunting scientists led by Russian billionaire Yuri Milner is scanning the object for radio signals Astronomers are set to scan an 'alien' comet for signs of extraterrestrial technology. The cigar-shaped asteroid, named 'Oumuamua by its discoverers, sailed past Earth last month and is the first interstellar object seen in the solar system. A team of alien-hunting scientists, led by Russian...

A man says he caught a UFO on camera as it flew around the Northwest Side Thursday night. The viewer told us he followed the craft at a distance all night and said he spotted three of the "massive" crafts in the air. The witness, who identified himself as a former pilot for the Air Force, said "this was no flight path approved by the FAA" and said it wasn't a helicopter "as it made no sound."

Double sonic booms heard over secretive military base Area 51 has sparked claims the CIA is hiding alien technology at the top secret site.Footage has surfaced of two loud thumping sounds as a pair of F-22 fighter jets fly over the secretive base.Conspiracy theorists claim the sonic booms show the CIA is secretly testing alien technology or hypersonic aircraft.A clip posted to YouTube by UFO Seekers, taken in the Nevada desert near where Area 51 is based, shows the F-22 craft cut across the sky at speeds of up to 1,500 mph (2,400 kph).

A MASSIVE asteroid that could have destroyed New York City skimmed past Earth – and NASA had no clue. The large space rock – dubbed 2017 VL2 – passed the planet on November 9 at an astonishing distance of just 73,000 miles, which is considered tiny in space terms. Space boffins think that if the rock measuring between 16 and 32 metres had hit, it could’ve wiped a major city such as New York off the map. The rock belongs to the Apollo group of asteroids and was first seen at ATLAS-MLO observatory in Hawaii a day later. It was...

Something VERY strange occurred tonight while my girlfriend and I were soaking in our spa in the backyard about 9:45 PM. We live in the unincorporated area between Sacramento and Rancho Cordova, CA. It was a very cool and clear night and we could, for the first time in a long while see the stars clearly. We turned off the security lights that illuminated the walkway along the garage and enjoyed to clear stars as we lay back and enjoyed a glass of brandy in the spa. Air temperature was about 46º F but the water temperature was a toasty...

A strange white object has been spotted in archive footage of a NASA shuttle launch that took place in 2011. Predictably, UFO hunters across the internet have been sent into a frenzy by the find, claiming it is evidence of an alien craft. The shimmery white spectacle can be seen in the clouds alongside the fuel tank discarded from the space shuttle Endeavour after it blasts off for its final mission in May 2011. Originally posted on NASA's official YouTube channel, the old footage has been dug up and re-examined by UFO enthusiasts. It was re-uploaded to the channel UFO...

A rash of inexplicable ground-shaking BOOM sounds being heard around the world in recent days has prompted some Israeli rabbis to suggest they are the anticipated signs of the imminent coming of the Jewish Messiah. The mysterious sounds and their shocks that have rattled both nerves and the ground were first chronicled by WND Sunday and have since received global attention. They have been accompanied by dramatic sightings of fireballs that have NASA scientists scratching their heads. While local news reports have recorded the BOOMS in Michigan, Florida, Idaho, California, Tennessee, Oregon, Minnesota, San Diego, Russia and Denmark, among other...

John Edmonds has lived at his Buckeye ranch for 20 years but is ready to leave due to a number of reportedly strange "alien encounters" he and his wife have experienced. The Stardust Ranch, also known as the "Alien Ranch," can be purchased for the low price of $5 million, according to the home’s listing. Besides a large amount of land (10 acres) and five bedrooms, the owner also gets the chance to experience contact with aliens. "Almost immediately from the day we moved in, we began to have strange experiences," Edmonds told 12 News. Edmonds posted a picture of...

On Saturday morning the Oklahoma City Thunder took a flight from Minnesota to Chicago and, after getting off the plane, they saw there was a giant dent in the nose of their plane.