Free Republic

Video of history of aluminum in our environment link to video

In late 2021, Elon Musk tweeted his fears about the end of humanity. “We should be much more worried about population collapse….If there aren’t enough people for Earth, then there definitely won’t be enough for Mars,” he opined. Musk’s statements brought the world’s falling birthrate to the forefront of social consciousness. For nearly a century, fertility rates have been decreasing globally. The result is what scientists are describing as a “worldwide infertility crisis.” But there’s a solution looming on the horizon — artificial wombs. In 2017, scientists created a “BioBag” that functioned as an artificial womb, and they used it...

HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank, announced Wednesday it will no longer finance new oil and gas fields as part of its updated climate strategy. Climate campaigners welcomed the moved saying HSBC provided a new baseline for other major banks but urged the bank to go further. The bank said it would still provide financing to existing fossil fuel projects “in line with current and future declining global oil and gas demand.” It would also continue to provide finance and advisory services to energy sector clients but will assess the companies’ plans to transition to clean energy. “It sets a new minimum...

The Federal Reserve on Wednesday eased up on its most aggressive economic tightening campaign in three decades, raising interest rates by 50 basis points (after four consecutive three-quarter point hikes) as signs abound that the economy is slowing down enough to help cool the nation's stubbornly high inflation.Key FactsAt the conclusion of its two-day policy meeting on Wednesday, the Federal Open Markets Committee said it would raise the federal funds rate (the rate at which commercial banks borrow and lend reserves) by 50 basis points to a target range of 4.25% to 4.5%—the highest level since early 2008. In the...

A witness at the House hearing on "Anti-LGBTQ violence" just said that parents have no right to know if their kids are going through sex changes and that the "age of consent" her non-profit @Inside_OutYS uses to transition children is 12.

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peru’s new government imposed a police state Wednesday in response to violent protests following the ouster of President Pedro Castillo. The 30-day national emergency declaration suspends the rights of “personal security and freedom” across the Andean nation. Acts of vandalism, violence and highway blockades “require a forceful and authoritative response from the government,” Defense Minister Luis Otarola Peñaranda announced. The declaration suspends the rights of assembly and freedom of movement and empowers the police, supported by Peru’s military, to search people’s homes without permission or judicial order. Otarola said it has not determined whether a curfew...

This is the letter I sent my congregation today. December 14, 2022 The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid? I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord ~ Psalm 27:1,13-14 To all the saints at Christ the King, You can probably remember where you were when you heard the news. There was a shooting at...

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that former President Donald Trump’s endorsements in important 2022 primaries contributed to the nominations of poor candidates who fell short in swing states. He made the remarks at his weekly news conference, responding to a question from NBC News about whether he intends to play a more active role in selecting candidates in the 2024 election cycle, when Republicans have a friendlier map. “We ended up having a candidate quality test,” McConnell, R-Ky., told reporters about the 2022 election. “Look at Arizona. Look at New Hampshire. And the challenging situation in Georgia, as...

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell claimed Tuesday that the Republican Party had a “candidate quality” issue in the midterm elections and blamed former President Donald J. Trump for his influence in the GOP primaries.McConnell: "Our ability to control the primary outcome was quite limited in 2022 because of the support of the former president. Hopefully in the next cycle, we'll have quality candidates everywhere." pic.twitter.com/ep0aatPWXl— Greg Price (@greg_price11) December 13, 2022“I said we had a bunch of close races, and looking at each race separately, I wasn’t making that up,” he added before blaming the lackluster election results on “candidate...

In its latest effort to make permanent pandemic-era mandates for health care workers, the federal agency regulating workplace safety has submitted a final draft of rules to the White House budget office for review. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which sees exposure to COVID-19 as a matter of workplace safety, in June 2021 issued a temporary emergency standard for health care facilities that include requirements around screening, ventilation, physical distancing, physical barriers, cleaning and disinfection, and masks. In December 2021, however, OSHA announced that it would stop enforcing all temporary emergency standard requirements except for a few related...

The head of the International Committee of the Red Cross warned Wednesday “an enormous level of suffering” awaits the world in 2023 with famine spreading. Mirjana Spoljaric, who took over at the ICRC in October, told a Geneva press conference: “We expect an enormous level of suffering. “As the world is trending at the moment we don’t see any easing of the humanitarian pressures, they will be immense potentially,” she said.

Scanned images of whole kidneys comparing a healthy contralateral mouse kidney with a kidney after ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI), with red staining indicative of fibrosis. Credit: Science Translational Medicine (2022). DOI: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abf5074 A serious condition that can cause the kidneys to suddenly stop working could be treated with existing medicines, a new study shows. In a study in mice, scientists found that medicines usually used to treat angina and high blood pressure prevented much of the long-term damage to the kidney and cardiovascular system caused by acute kidney injury (AKI). Experts hope the findings will pave the way for improved treatment...

President Trump has been executing a foreign policy, a clear doctrine of sorts, where national security is achieved by leveraging U.S. economic power. It is a fundamental shift in approaching both allies and adversaries; summarized within the oft repeated phrase: “economic security is national security.” The Trump Doctrine of using economics to achieve national security objectives is a fundamental paradigm shift. Modern U.S. history provides no easy reference.“Peace is the prize” ~ President Donald TrumpThe nature of the Trump foreign policy doctrine, as it has become visible, is to hold manipulative influence agents accountable for regional impact(s); and simultaneously work...

The actions of disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s law professor parents are under heavy scrutiny this week following the former billionaire’s arrest on an array of federal charges. Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, both professors at Stanford University, raised eyebrows on Tuesday with their behavior at their son’s extradition hearing in the Bahamas. During his testimony before the House Financial Services Committee, Ray confirmed that Bankman had given “legal advice” to his son at FTX and received cash payments from the company. “I don’t know if he actually had ‘employee’ status, but he certainly received payments, the family did receive...

Mayor Eric Adams said he was thrilled that the Democratic Party is “prioritizing Black voters” as it moved to have its first presidential primary shifted to South Carolina, calling the plan a “tectonic change in how Democrats are messaging their priorities as a party,” in a CNN-published op-ed this week. The Democratic National Committee’s rule-making arm voted earlier this month to make South Carolina, not Iowa, the site of the first presidential nominating contest in 2024 after President Biden called on the party to cater to a more diverse electorate as Democrats have been losing black voters in recent years....

Less than 1 in 5 Americans in a new poll said they believe GOP control of the House next Congress will change Washington for the better. Eighteen percent of respondents in a Monmouth University Poll released on Wednesday said that Republicans — who are set to take control of the House next month after securing a majority in November’s midterm elections — will produce a positive change in the lower chamber. Another 21 percent said they expect Washington to change for the worse under Republican leadership in the House, and about half — 51 percent — said they don’t expect...

A paper published last month in the Archives of Sexual Behavior makes an important point about the environment in which “gender-affirming” drugs and surgeries are offered to minors. Positive outcomes from hormonal interventions, argues psychiatrist Alison Clayton, the article’s author, may be attributable to placebo effects generated by clinical encounters and the social context in which they take place, rather than to the underlying psychotropic effects of the drugs themselves. Clayton’s basic intuition makes sense. If you take a teenager in emotional distress and tell her that drug X will solve her problems, while treatment Y will make them worse,...

The Washington Post will conduct layoffs in the coming year, publisher Fred Ryan told employees during a town hall on Wednesday. Video taken from the in-person town hall at the newspaper’s downtown Washington, D.C., headquarters and posted to social media shows frustrated employees peppering Ryan with questions about how the newsroom will be effected and demanding a justification for the cuts. “We’ll have more information as we move forward,” Ryan is seen saying before thanking the employees in attendance as he walks away. Kathy Baird, chief communications officer at the Post, told The Hill on Wednesday afternoon the company anticipates...

Law professor Tim Canova wrote an op-ed recently about a case before the US Supreme Court, which is yet to get much notice. Canova wrote that a ruling in this case by the high court could have a major impact- even going as far as overturning the national 2020 election. “The case of Brunson v. Adams, not even reported in the mainstream media, was filed pro se by ordinary American citizens,” Canova wrote. Here is Canova’s cred according to his bio: Canova is a Professor of Law and Public Finance at NSU Shepard Broad College of Law, with broad experience...

Its implications go well beyond the Earth itself, affecting even the future of space travel. Researchers at the National Ignition Facility in Livermore, California achieved net energy gain in a thermonuclear fusion experiment. But how great of a breakthrough is this, really? As soon as physicists realized how the Sun made its energy, they dreamed of getting the same process to work on Earth. They have worked on it since the 1950s and finally achieved success. There is still a long way to go. But we can now say with confidence that in the not-too-distant future, fusion power stations will...