Free Republic

During the 4th-century, a remarkable artifact was produced by Roman artisans that exhibits optical qualities so unique they have baffled scholars for centuries. Known as the Lycurgus Cup, it is one of the most unusual examples of glassworking ever produced by the Roman Empire, as it is made from dichroic glass—a material that appears to exhibit an entirely different coloration when light passes through it—causing it to look green when illuminated from the front but appearing a striking amber-red when illuminated from behind. The artifact’s unique name refers to its depiction of King Lycurgus, who, according to mythology, attempted to...

The award-winning actress, who has long been an LGBTQ+ ally, returns to her iconic role of Miranda Priestly in the upcoming 'The Devil Wears Prada 2'. Acting royalty Meryl Streep is returning as sharp-tongued fashion editor Miranda Priestly in the upcoming The Devil Wears Prada 2, which hits cinemas worldwide next week. During the press tour for the sequel to the 2006 film, Streep commented on the popularity of The Devil Wears Prada with the LGBTQ+ community. “It makes me so happy! Would we have fashion without gay people?” she told Out magazine. “Forgive me, would we have anything? I...

San Francisco’s Vaillancourt Fountain caught fire as it was being disassembled on Wednesday morning, sending plumes of smoke into the sky as flames licked the sculpture’s 10-ton cantilevered arms. The news comes just a couple of weeks after the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department announced it was preparing to take apart the controversial landmark ahead of a $40 million renovation of the Embarcadero Plaza and Sue Bierman Park. “Today, during torch cutting activity, debris inside the tubes ignited,” Coma Te, director of communications for the San Francisco Arts Commission, which owns the fountain, told SFGATE in an email. “The...

The album artwork for Duran Duran’s Rio is an iconic part of ‘80s history. But despite its status as one of the era’s most recognizable covers, the band never got to meet its creator. It was Patrick Nagel who came up with the distinctive image. Duran Duran was introduced to his work by their manager, and Nagel's vivid pop art style immediately caught their attention. “[Our manager] was an avid reader of Playboy magazine,” Duran Duran keyboardist Nick Rhodes recalled during a recent appearance on the Rockonteurs podcast. “Because Nagel used to do all the early illustrations around then, the...

Charlize Theron recently told The New York Times she thought it was “very reckless” for Timothée Chalamet to claim that “no one cares” about the opera or ballet... During “A CNN & Variety Town Hall Event,” Chalamet said that he doesn’t want theatrical movie going to end up like “ballet or opera,” where artists want to “keep this thing alive” even though “no one cares” about it anymore... Interviewer Lulu Garcia-Navarro then alluded to Chalamet’s now infamous statement, to which Theron replied, “Oh, boy, I hope I run into him one day. That was a very reckless comment on an...

Director Andy Serkis took the anti-communist classic Animal Farm and turned it into an anti-capitalist children’s movie complete with fart jokes. The result? Well, God bless America, it was humiliated at the box office with a catastrophic $3.4 million debut weekend, even though it opened on 2,600 screens. Woke fails again. Not even an all-star voice cast could save it. Seth Rogen, Steve Buscemi, Glenn Close, Kieran Culkin, Woody Harrelson, and Kathleen Turner all contributed to this $35 million humiliation, and that doesn’t include promotion costs. Serkis attended the Animal Farm premiere, attacking President Trump with a red hat that...

Death of a Salesman follows two days in the life of the Loman family, who live in Brooklyn and have, at long last, very nearly paid off their mortgage. But they have perhaps never felt more insecure. Bills are piling up. Willy’s job as a traveling salesman has stopped paying him a salary. In his 60s, he is beginning to feel his age, and as he works for scant commissions, he’s started to exhibit a faltering grasp on reality, and an increasingly vigorous drive toward self-destruction. His wife Linda — senses terrible possibilities just around the corner. Meanwhile, adult sons...

A 14-year-old California girl was dismembered with a chainsaw in a backyard inflatable pool after threatening to expose her alleged child predator ex-boyfriend, according to Los Angeles prosecutors. David Anthony Burke, a 21-year-old singer-songwriter known as "D4vd," faces charges of murder, child sex abuse and the unlawful mutilation of human remains after prosecutors allege he sexually abused the teen for months before killing her, cutting up her remains and allowing them to decompose in the trunk of his Tesla. He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail. The morning after allegedly killing Celeste Rivas Hernandez, he sat...

Can anyone recommend a good online resource to upload photos for discussion on this site? No NSA/CIA please, but not necessarily super-secure either. Thanks.

Today, Angel Studios releases an animated adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm in theaters across the country. Conservative parents have a far better option that costs nothing more than a library card and an afternoon of their time. Read the book to your children instead. The novella runs roughly 30,000 words and takes the average reader about two hours to finish. With a child asking questions along the way, you have a three-hour education in the nature of power, the seductions of utopian rhetoric, and the bitter arithmetic of revolution. The film offers something else entirely. The film offers a...

The five-year survey finished ahead of schedule and with more data, hinting at unexpected dark energy properties. The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) has achieved its goal. Every single area of the sky that the collaboration set out to map has been mapped, and slightly ahead of its five-year target. DESI was set to gather data on 34 million galaxies and quasars. The final tally of the survey was 47 million galaxies and quasars, the largest high-resolution 3D map of the Universe ever assembled. The ultimate goal is to understand dark energy. Dark energy is a crucial component that is...

We all know that pop culture in the '70s and '80s was a little less... supervised. Kind of like our time outside. I mean, "It's 11 o'clock... do you know where your children are?" So with little parental controls, no "technology" filters, and if you think about it, very little stuff made exclusively for kids, if it was on TV or playing at the movies, you probably saw it. And this is exactly what makes this aspect of nostalgia so fun, and even surprising. When you revisit the things we loved as kids, you start to realize just how eyebrow-raising...

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Dylan Carter, a Lowcountry musician and former “The Voice” contestant, has died at age 24, according to people close to the singer. Carter was involved in a single-vehicle crash Saturday night on a rural Colleton County road. The South Carolina Highway Patrol is investigating the accident. News about Carter’s death began to spread on social media Sunday afternoon, including a Facebook post from Moncks Corner Mayor Thomas Hamilton, who called Carter a “gifted singer,” adding that his “kindness and charm earned him immense respect.” Carter was scheduled to perform Monday night at the Town of Moncks...

NEW YORK (AP) — Alan Osmond, the eldest member of the chart-topping family act The Osmonds, died Monday after decades with multiple sclerosis. He was 76. According to a family spokesperson, Alan’s wife, Suzanne Osmond, and their eight sons were with him at his home in Lehi, Utah, at the time of his death. Prior to his passing, Alan used a wheelchair and spent a week in intensive care before returning home Thursday on hospice. A talented songwriter and performer, Alan Osmond helped write some of the Osmond Brothers’ biggest hits, including “One Bad Apple,” “Crazy Horses” and “Are You...

Gerardo Aldana is a professor at University of California, Santa Barbara. Our Living Lands producer Daniel Spaulding spoke to Aldana about Mayan astronomy, Mesoamerican culture, and the importance of Indigenous knowledge. “If we think of Indigenous cultures and their approaches, especially Mesoamerican cultures and their approaches to astronomy, it wasn't to transform and control nature,” Aldana said. “It was to find ways to open up dialogues with nature so that now your engagement with your environment can be a productive and a healthy one.”

I'm looking for good ideas on playing the guitar for beginners. Any suggestions? Starting to Play the Guitar: Chords and Notes 1. Start by learning the chords at the foot of the neck or open position. There are a limited number of chords – roughly about 12 -- but you can eventually play many songs just using these chords. 2. Get to know the names of the strings. 3. Start to play notes up the strings. The C scale is good. Start of the low E string and play the natural notes from E up to G on the high...

What I remember about it is that it is approximately a Victorian era movie or miniseries. The show aired anywhere from the late 70's to late 80's. In the show, it involves an older sister or single mother and two younger children who are taken in by a compassionate wealthy young gentleman, possibly an aristocrat. He tries to raise the children to be fit for his level of society, but the young man becomes resentful of him and ends up stabbing him in the leg when the young man reveals that he is now broke because of bad investments. I...

The Death Of ROCK These are some points to consider about the death of Rock Music. 1. Neil Young was wrong in singing that rock and roll would never die in his song “Hey, Hey, My My.” 2. The four hotels in my small home town which hosted rock bands -- the Norfolk, the GUV. The Melbourne, the Village Pump -- also died as a result of rock's death. If nobody sees bands -- no liquor sales. 3. There are no new rock bands in the Top 40, no anticipation of newly released band material. 4. Only old bands exist...

I'm wondering if there is a way to program the news in Free Republic in specific ways. Can you create your own feed? Have a feed of just good news? Or have a feed that excludes topics that you hate. Is there anyway control this or are we at the mercy of whoever posts what they post. I know there are trends in the news, for example, Epstein or trans gender topics, but sometimes you have had enough of a subject to the point of not wanting to even see the headlines... because these posts will show up. So if...

Historic Big Boy No. 4014 Steam Locomotive to Tour the East Coast Union Pacific Railroad, founded by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862, unveiled its plans today to celebrate the United States, its amazing history and the people behind its unparalleled success story with two new locomotives and the first Big Boy steam tour to the East Coast in honor of America’s 250th anniversary. Big Boy, the world’s largest operating steam locomotive, will journey to Philadelphia for Fourth of July, with stops planned in Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, New York and Pennsylvania. Our nation’s origin will be celebrated with a beautiful No....