Free Republic

Apples were among some of the first crops grown in colonial America. Potted seedlings and bags of apple seeds were brought over on the Mayflower. The Bible-thumping Puritans were not teetotalers. Apple orchards in colonial America usually meant one thing: hard cider. The apple tree is an unusual plant. It’s what’s called an “extreme heterozygote,” meaning the fruit it produces is highly varied from one plant to another. Even seeds planted from apples that fell from the same parent tree will yield offspring trees that produce completely different tasting fruit. Nowadays, we tend to think of apples as perfectly shaped,...

Depending on their status in society and where they lived, medieval people had a variety of meats to enjoy. But thanks to Fridays, Lent, and various days deemed meatless by the Catholic Church, even the wealthiest and most powerful people did not eat meat or poultry every day. Fresh fish was fairly common, not only in coastal regions, but inland, where rivers and streams were still teeming with fish in the Middle Ages, and where most castles and manors included well-stocked fish ponds. Those who could afford spices used them liberally to enhance the flavor of meat and fish. Those...

This music video shows off the theme of the Taiwanese drama, "Bromance," a series in the popular girl-posing-as-a boy genre. What's different is that the girl's parents makes her fool the world until she turns 26, on the advice of a fortune teller. Her love interest is the morally upright leader of 1 of 3 connected Triad families, who she saved as an adult AND as a child. Wonderful complexities.

I’ve been writing about the looming eviction crisis since early in the summer. This entirely predictable disaster has been obvious to anyone who has been paying attention ever since the pandemic broke out. A well-intentioned “eviction moratorium” effort by the government to prevent renters from finding themselves out on the streets after government shutdowns eliminated their jobs did little or nothing to prevent the damages sustained by landlords. It also never answered the question of what would be done about all the back rent that was going to come due when the moratoriums expired. These challenges are already taking their...

It seems that these days most people understand the troubles that come with snow. But have you ever considered how it was done before we had hundreds of trucks and fancy plows? Imagine tackling this past winter only using shovels and horse-drawn equipment. It might make you appreciate just how far we’ve come with snow removal. So where do you even begin without the snow plows of today? Well just like how a horse would have been used on a farm, they had to drag plowing equipment. Needless to say this was incredibly tedious because the horses couldn’t push the...

I received a log periodic antenna designed by ham radio operator WA5VJB from Kent Electronics. They are rated from 2 to 11 GHz, so this model will cover several of the ham bands. These antennas are made on PCB's and are ideal for use in the amateur microwave bands as compromise dish feeds. In this video I do a test of such a feed versus my patch antenna on the 3.4 GHz band. https://www.wa5vjb.com/products1.html I mounted one in place of the original dipole feed on a 2.4 GHz (13cm) gridpack at the same focal point. Whilst gain will be down...

The Chinese tech billionaire behind Asia's version of Amazon has reportedly not been seen in public for more than two months after falling foul of President Xi Jinping. Jack Ma, one of China's most successful and outspoken tycoons, criticised the country's 'pawnshop' financial regulators and state-owned banks in an incendiary speech in Shanghai in October. He called for reform of a system that 'stifled business innovation' and likened global banking regulations to an 'old people's club'. The speech angered the Chinese government, which viewed Ma's criticisms as an attack on the authority of the Communist Party, and led to its...

“I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called” (Ephesians 4:1). There can be no right living without right principles. Imagine someone saying, “I have some extra money lying around. I think I’ll send a large check to the government.” Absurd, isn’t it? But every year, honest wage-earners fill out forms and give part of their income to the government. Why? It’s not because they are generous but because there is a law— a doctrine—that says they have to. Unless people know the reason for...

Weeks before a presidential inauguration, the District of Columbia would normally be humming with construction vehicles, putting the finishing touches on preparing for thousands to flock to the nation's capital. But this week, work crews actually worked on taking some erected structures down. On Tuesday, workers broke down the reviewing stands that were put in place in front of the White House for the 2021 Presidential Inaugural Parade. President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris plan to take the oath of office in front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, but with limitations due to the COVID-19 pandemic....

"The Trump campaign had ample opportunity to challenge election results, and those efforts failed from lack of evidence. The legal process was exhausted, and the results were decisively confirmed. The Department of Justice, too, found no basis for overturning the result."

Lumberjacks, arborists and other tree professionals cut down an untold amount of trees and stumps every year. The extremely high risk associated with tree felling requires them to undertake precautions and measures to protect themselves. Despite the safety precautions, many people still get injured in the line of duty. Tree felling is extremely dangerous, that is why most people rely on professionals to get the job done. Of course, not all tree felling is performed by professionals. Hobbyists cut trees too, along with many property owners, but most of them are backed by decades of experience.Facts and figures According to...

300 B.C. Somewhere in what is now Switzerland: three Celts make camp for the night in the dark of a pine forest. One snaps branches from a nearby tree while others empty milk from crude hide bladders into a small wooden bucket. One pine branch becomes a spit to hold the bucket, the other branch a stirring rod. They stir the curds and nod approvingly to one another at the smell. They are making Swiss cheese, long before the birth of Switzerland, or even Julius Caesar, and some 2300 years before the grand opening of Foods For Living.When Julius Caesar...

@daveweigel Unexpected statement from Paul Ryan: "It is difficult to conceive of a more anti-democratic and anti-conservative act than a federal intervention to overturn the results of state-certified elections and disenfranchise millions of Americans." More...

Though an op-ed by Desmond Tutu in the Guardian is framed to makes it seem that the focus is Israel’s reported nuclear weapon arsenal, as we read through it, we learn that the South African Anglican cleric had a different goal in mind: to peddle the lie the Israel is an apartheid state. The piece (“Joe Biden should end the US pretence over Israel’s ‘secret’ nuclear weapons”, Dec. 31) evokes the Israel-South African comparison early, in arguing that Jerusalem offered to sell nuclear weapons to the apartheid government in Pretoria in the 1970s. Israel in fact is a multiple nuclear...

Thank you so much for all the well-wishes on my 18th birthday! Tonight you will find me down at the local pub exposing all the dark secrets behind the climate- and school strike conspiracy and my evil handlers who can no longer control me! I am free at last!!

October 2010 marked the 24th anniversary of Justice Antonin Scalia's appointment to the US Supreme Court. Well known for his sharp wit as well as his originalist approach to the Constitution, Justice Scalia consistently asks more questions during oral arguments and makes more comments than any other Supreme Court justice. And, according to one study, he also gets the most laughs from those who come to watch these arguments. In September 2010, Justice Scalia spoke with UC Hastings law professor Calvin Massey. Series: "Legally Speaking" [3/2011] [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 20773]

I don't think a GA desertification is far away, possibly before the 6th. Where we need work & activism is MI & PA.

1976 was rock’s annus mirabilis. America’s Bicentennial Year–which I spent patriotically popping plenty of red, white, and blue pills—saw the release of such immortal LPs as Frampton Comes Alive, Hotel California, and Fly Like an Eagle, to say nothing of such timeless singles as Paul McCartney and Wings’ “Let ‘Em In,” Gary Wright’s “Dream Weaver,” Chicago’s “If You Leave Me Now,” Barry Manilow’s “I Write the Songs,” and Leo Sayers’ “You Make Me Feel Like Dancing.”Despite the ominous pall cast by the advent of punk—that surly horde of three-chord barbarians who threatened to storm the gates and sack classic rock,...

The wife of this local Amish family will be identified as "L" and for the sake of this article, we'll call her husband "J." "L" and "J" live in house that they built from the ground up, on a 40-acre farm that was part of "J's" father's property. They have five children. The oldest (referred to as "A" in this article) is a 7-year-old boy. Their home is modest, functional and immaculate. A summer day with an Amish familyAmish families get an early start to their day, waking about 4:30 to 5 a.m. "If we oversleep, we really have to...

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) reacted to the dismissal of his lawsuit against Vice President Pence on Saturday, telling Newsmax that a court's refusal to force Pence to overturn the presidential election results essentially served as a call to Americans to incite violence in the streets. "The bottom line is the court is saying, 'We're not going to touch this. You have no remedy,'" Gohmert told Newsmax. "Essentially, the ruling would be 'You have to go to the streets and be as violent as antifa, BLM,'" he added. Gohmert was referring to protests that at times became violent over the summer...