Free Republic

Domestic dogs show many adaptations to living closely with humans, but they do not seem to reciprocate food-giving according to a study, publishing July 4 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE, led by Jim McGetrick and colleagues at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria. The researchers trained 37 domestic dogs to operate a food dispenser by pressing a button, before separating the button and dispenser in separate enclosures. In the first stage, dogs were paired with two unfamiliar humans one at a time. One human partner was helpful—pressing their button to dispense food in the dog's enclosure—and one...

"That's the Way I've Always Heard It Should Be" is a 1971 song performed by Carly Simon, and the lead single from her self-titled debut album Carly Simon (1971). Her friend and frequent collaborator Jacob Brackman wrote the lyrics and Simon wrote the music. The song reached No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. Elektra staffers were worried the single was too emotionally complex to be released as Simon's first single. With subject matter that includes "the parents' bad marriage; the friends' unhappy lives; the boyfriend's enthusiasm for marriage but controlling nature; the woman's initial resistance and ultimate...

Democratic leaders announced Wednesday that the special congressional committee created to investigate the Jan. 6 riot would hold its first hearing on July 27. The hearing will feature testimony from police officers who were at the Capitol during the riot, according to The Hill. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the committee's creation earlier this month. She created it after the Senate blocked the Democrat-backed 9/11 style commission to study the riot. Democrats have yet to announce how many or which of the officers will testify during the hearing. Approximately 140 law enforcement officers from both the United States Capitol Police...

At first consideration, it would seem like a farfetched notion – that a religious leader, and one that is supposed to represent Christianity, would wind up being the Beast, a man the Bible foretells will make his appearance during these Last Days. But after contemplating some of the characteristics attributed to this soon to be revealed entity from off the pages of prophecy, maybe a case could be made for the possibility that such a person as the Antichrist could emerge from a religious institution. And what better place to start than Rome, a city that has been very prominent...

A new study from the University of Missouri found the unanticipated transitions to virtual schooling due to COVID-19 exposed the lack of digital resources among Black families in the United States, including access to Wi-Fi and technological savviness. As two-thirds of the country's Black children are born into single-parent households, the findings help explain the extensive stress virtual schooling caused for many Black families trying to keep their children learning and engaged online while at home during the pandemic. "What we found was parents and caregivers often felt disempowered in the rapidly changing environment, as they did not necessarily feel...

General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, likened Donald Trump’s effort to hold on to power after the 2020 election to Adolf Hitler, saying the president was preaching “the gospel of the Führer” with his lies about the election being stolen, according to a new book by two Washington Post reporters. Milley was disturbed by the sight of Trump supporters rallying to his cause in November, calling them “Brownshirts in the streets.” Leonnig and Rucker wrote that Milley “believed Trump was stoking unrest, possibly in hopes of an excuse to invoke the Insurrection Act and call...

Newly unsealed court documents show the Trump Justice Department sought a court order for the communications records of three Washington Post reporters in the final days of William P. Barr’s tenure as attorney general in 2020, as prosecutors sought to identify sources for three articles written in 2017.The papers also reveal the service provider that was the recipient of the secret court order: Proofpoint Corporation, a firm that supplies data security services. Using Proofpoint as a means of trying to get the reporters’ email records suggests prosecutors were thinking creatively about where they might be able to find reporters’ data,...

Explanation: What happens when a black hole destroys a neutron star? Analyses indicate that just such an event created gravitational wave event GW200115, detected in 2020 January by LIGO and Virgo observatories. To better understand the unusual event, the featured visualization was created from a computer simulation. The visualization video starts with the black hole (about 6 times the Sun's mass) and neutron star (about 1.5 times the Sun's mass) circling each other, together emitting an increasing amount of gravitational radiation. The picturesque pattern of gravitational wave emission is shown in blue. The duo spiral together increasingly fast until the...

General Motors is telling owners of some older Chevrolet Bolts to park them outdoors and not to charge them overnight because two of the electric cars caught fire after recall repairs were made. The company said Wednesday that the request covers 2017 through 2019 Bolts that were part of a group that was recalled earlier due to fires in the batteries. The latest request comes after two Bolts that had gotten recall repairs caught fire, one in Vermont and the other in New Jersey, GM spokesman Kevin Kelly said. Owners should take the steps “out of an abundance of caution,”...

BEACONSFIELD, ENGLAND—According to sources, there's a fence standing in the middle of a local field, with no apparent reason for being there. Local progressives are suggesting it be torn down immediately. "I don't want the fence to be here, so we should just tear it down immediately," said Hercule Flambeau, a progressive activist. "As a liberated, autonomous human being, why would I allow a fence to just be in my way like that? Fences restrict people. They restrain our freedom. That's just wrong." Expert sociologists have also confirmed the fence was built a long time ago by a straight white...

“I thought I could talk about whatever I want after coming here. I thought I could show my support for democracy but I didn’t expect I actually don’t have that freedom,” she told VOA Mandarin, asking to use a pseudonym due to fear of retaliation by the Chinese government. Chen’s experience is not unique. Following the deterioration of relations between Canberra and Beijing over the past two years, there has been growing concern in Australia about China’s influence on higher education, and whether it has undermined academic freedom on campus. The concern was echoed in a recent report by Human...

Bishop Schneider: Suppression of Summorum Pontificum would be an ‘abuse of power’July 14, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – Bishop Athanasius Schneider, in a new radio interview, has commented on the rumors that Pope Benedict's motu proprio Summorum Pontificum, which freed the Traditional Latin Mass, might be soon altered so as to limit the use of this rite. The prelate thinks that such a move would be an “abuse of power” and a “great damage to the life of the Church.” Should it come, priests “can continue to celebrate this Mass because it is the Mass of the entire Church and the faithful...

A one hour flight from Las Vegas, Nevada to Stockton, California turned into a 17-hour trip Allegiant Airlines flight 161 was scheduled to land in Stockton on Monday at 9:30 pm but was not cleared for landing due to an unmanned control tower The plane was flown back to Las Vegas where it was turned away due to thunderstorms Roughly 175 passengers were eventually deplaned at LAX and made to wait in a holding room without a bathroom The flight to Stockton was then rescheduled for the next day as upset passengers were given $250 ticket vouchers and left to...

How does she do it?.....All at the same time.

This weekend, a U.S. satellite intelligence firm Simularity released a report connecting the movements of more than 200 suspected Chinese vessels in the South China Sea with massive deposits of human waste.From May 14, 2016 to June 17, 2021, Simularity tracked clusters of anchored ships operating around the Spratly Islands and matched them with concentrations of Chlorophyll-a, indicative of the ships dumping raw sewage.While Chlorophyll-a deposits can happen near shorelines due to runoff from fertilized agricultural areas, erosion of riverbanks and land clearing, Derr said the Chlorophyll-a deposits this far out in the ocean are due entirely to “ship wastewater...

Joe Biden wasn’t kidding. When his spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the Biden administration would send people door-to-door to convince people to get the COVID shot, there was a chill sent down the spines of freedom-loving Americans everywhere. Many people took it as a threat.

Organizers met at Happy Hollow Park and traveled together to Centennial Park, where the fourth day of the march began. They are doing similar walks in cities across Indiana for seven days and 300 miles. "For more than 15 years now, we have been driving in fear, driving to work without protection and it was something that once protected us from deportation, and so we're here demanding that we have that right back," says Catalan-Ruano. "It's not a luxury, it's not a privilege. We should all have the right to drive." The group is pushing state legislators to allow "driving...

A casual observation: I just find it interesting, ironic, and hypocritical that any time there is an advertisement for a pharmaceutical drug on TV, they list side effects. Yet there are no requirements for side effects to listed on the advertisements for the vaccines... Are we living in the year 2021 or 1984?

One of three counties targeted by a Pennsylvania state lawmaker for an Arizona-style “forensic investigation” of the state’s 2020 presidential election sought by former President Donald Trump will not allow third-party access to its voting machines. The three commissioners in rural Republican-controlled Tioga County announced the decision Tuesday, six days after receiving a sweeping, five-page request from Republican state Sen. Doug Mastriano for access to documents, information and equipment. The county’s solicitor, Christopher Gabriel, said Wednesday that the thrust of Mastriano’s request — under the threat of a subpoena — involves access to Tioga County’s voting machines. That could mean...

WASHINGTON - Former US vice-president Mike Pence urged President Joe Biden to keep up the pressure on China, criticising the Democratic administration for “already rolling over” for Beijing on Wednesday (July 15) in his latest speech since leaving office. Mr Pence called on Mr Biden to de-list Chinese companies that flout American accounting standards, and improve the readiness of America’s navy to protect freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific region, and among other things, demand that China come clean on the origins of the coronavirus. Mr Pence said that the Chinese government views America as an adversary and posed the...