Free Republic

In the pre-dawn darkness of Sept. 7, 1776 — exactly 230 years ago today — an odd-looking barrel-shaped craft silently made its way down the Hudson River from Manhattan toward a British warship, HMS Eagle, anchored in New York harbor. ... Clearly, the U.S. Navy today maintains the most technologically sophisticated submarine fleet on the planet. But it is not just a fleet of fast-attacks and big nuclear missile-armed “boomers.” To fight the war on terror, the Navy continues to develop its special-operations capable Advanced SEAL Delivery System, a super-stealthy miniature submarine bristling with electronic wizardry and capable of delivering...

The Hollow Earth Perhaps some of the most bizarre scientific theories ever considered were those concerning the possibility that the Earth was hollow. One of the earliest of these was proposed in 1692 by Edmund Halley. Edmund Halley was a brilliant English astronomer whose mathematical calculations pinpointed the return of the comet that bears his name. Halley was fascinated by the earth's magnetic field. He noticed the direction of the field varied slightly over time and the only way he could account for this was there existed not one, but several, magnetic fields. Halley came to believe that the Earth...

Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2003 February 15 Happy Birthday Jules Verne Credit: NASA Explanation: One hundred seventy-five years ago (on February 8th), Jules Verne was born in Nantes, France. Inspired by a lifelong fascination with machines, Verne wrote visionary works about "Extraordinary Voyages" including such terrestrial travels as Around the World in 80 Days, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. In 1865 he published...