Free Republic

Proposed regulation aims to prevent boats from hitting endangered right whales "This would be the greatest regulatory overreach in American maritime law" — that’s how Frank Hugelmeyer describes a proposal by the Biden administration to limit the speed of all motorboats over 35 feet from Florida to Massachusetts. "Not only are they creating a serious safety issue, they are creating a massive negative economic impact." Hugelmeyer is president of the National Marine Manufacturers Association (NMMA), and he is just one of a growing number of voices expressing outrage over the proposal put forward by the U.S. Commerce Department under the...

They say their invention offers a promising way to tap into a plentiful supply of cheap hydrogen fuel for transportation and other sectors, which could radically reduce carbon emissions and help fight climate change. By using high-frequency vibrations to “divide and conquer” individual water molecules during electrolysis, the team managed to split the water molecules to release 14 times more hydrogen compared with standard electrolysis techniques. Electrolysis involves electricity running through water with two electrodes to split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen gases, which appear as bubbles. This process produces green hydrogen, which represents just a small fraction of...

India on Thursday successfully test-fired a long-range "Agni-5" intercontinental nuclear-capable ballistic missile, a government minister said, that is expected to strengthen its deterrence against long-time rival China. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi said the missile was fired Thursday from Abdul Kalam Island in eastern Odisha state. "The missile will add great value to the defense and strengthen national security to a greater extent," Joshi tweeted, citing its range of 3,300 miles or more. Ahead of the test, Indian authorities issued a notification and declared the Bay of Bengal as a no-fly zone, said Indian media reports, adding that its range...

The location of the most distant galaxy ever detected. (NASA, ESA, CSA, M. Zamani/ESA/Webb) Light that has traveled for over 13.4 billion years to reach our neighborhood of space has been confirmed as originating from the earliest, most distant galaxy detected yet. That places the most distant of these four very young objects at the very dawn of the Universe, just a short time after the Big Bang – a time period when the Universe was still foggy and bleary and the first rays of light were penetrating the darkness. So detailed are the JWST's long spectroscopic observations that researchers...

Power outages across Wisconsin affect thousands of residents after heavy snowfallOutages could last into Friday morning in northern parts of the stateBy Rich KremerPublished: Thursday, December 15, 2022, 11:25amShare: Tens of thousands of residents in northern Wisconsin were without power Thursday morning after a winter storm dropped more than a foot of heavy, wet snow in some areas.Xcel Energy reported more than 30,000 customers were without power in northwestern Wisconsin as of 8 a.m.Xcell spokesperson Chris Oullette said the snow caused extensive damage to trees, poles and power lines — with the biggest outages near Rice Lake and Hayward. The...

Optical High Density Nanolaser Array Driver Researchers have developed a new all-optical method for driving multiple high-density nanolaser arrays using light traveling down a single optical fiber. The optical driver creates programmable patterns of light via interference. Credit: Myung-Ki Kim, Korea University New all-optical pumping chip-based nanolaser technology could aid in meeting the ever-growing need to move more data faster. A new all-optical approach for driving multiple highly dense nanolaser arrays has been developed by researchers in Korea. The method could enable chip-based optical communication links that process and move data much faster than current electronic-based devices. “The development of...

The head of Ukraine's military, General Valeriy Zaluzhny, has warned that Russia may be preparing for a renewed assault on the capital city of Kyiv after being repelled earlier this year. "The Russians are preparing some 200,000 fresh troops. I have no doubt they will have another go at Kyiv," Zaluzhny told the Economist.

THIRD WEEK OF ADVENT Luke 7:24-30Friends, let us meditate on John the Baptist. Young John, the son of the priest Zechariah, grew up in and around the temple, acquainted with its rituals. And he sensed that the true Messiah was on the horizon. And so he went away from the old temple, but he continued to act as a priest of a new Temple.John was baptizing people in the Jordan. Why this ritual? Well, in the Jerusalem temple, a pilgrim would cleanse himself in a mikvah, a ritual bath, before he entered to make sacrifice. John was acting as a...

The NCAA has selected Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker as its next president, succeeding Mark Emmert. Baker, a Republican who has been governor since January 2015 but will conclude his second term in January, will begin his new post March 1. He played power forward for Harvard's basketball team during the 1977-78 season, but has no previous collegiate administrative experience. He has spent most of his career in Massachusetts state government but spent a decade in health care administration. Baker, 66, holds degrees from both Harvard and Northwestern. In April, Emmert announced he would be stepping down. He has led the...

Bloomberg News co-founder Matthew Winkler barked that corporate America "outperforms" where pre-born baby slaughter is defended. Talk about being chronically tone-deaf. Winkler’s Dec. 14 op-ed didn’t beat around the bush with his nutty take: “Corporate America Thrives Where Abortion Is Protected.” Winkler apparently didn’t figure out that correlation doesn’t equal causation, a relevant rule of thumb he should have heeded before propagating senseless economic theories. “The US economy already is suffering the economic consequences in states that have criminalized abortion,” Winkler railed in a diatribe castigating the ripple effects of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn the infamous pro-abortion...

The U.S. Border Patrol reported more than 1.6 million encounters with migrants along the U.S.-Mexico border in the 2021 fiscal year, more than quadruple the number of the prior fiscal year and the highest annual total on record. The number of encounters had fallen to just over 400,000 in fiscal 2020 as the coronavirus outbreak slowed migration across much of the world. But encounters at the southwest border rebounded sharply in fiscal 2021 and ultimately eclipsed the previous annual high recorded in fiscal 2000, according to recently published data from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the federal agency that...

The liberal media is exulting in dancing on what it presumes to be Donald Trump's political grave. Take today's Morning Joe. Joe Scarborough, noting a poll showing Trump with a historically low approval rating, and playing off the title of the Al Pacino movie, Scent of a Woman, Joe claimed that Jonathan Lemire has a movie title for Trump: Whiff of a Loser.Hey Joe: when it comes to the Whiff of a Loser, maybe you should look—or smell—in the mirror. Morning Joe continues to get trounced in the polls by Fox & Friends! And don't try to downplay your ratings...

U.S. stocks tumbled Thursday as Wall Street reeled from another sizable rate hike by Federal Reserve officials and assessed similar moves by monetary policymakers across the Atlantic. A disappointing reading on consumer spending also weighed on sentiment. The European Central Bank and the Bank of England followed the U.S. Fed in raising interest rates by 50 basis points Thursday morning. The BoE's hike brought rates in the country to their highest since 2008. Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) DJI - DJI Real Time Price. Currency in USD Follow 33,025.93-940.42 (-2.77%) As of 01:20PM EST. Market open.

Former President Trump said Thursday that he’d ban the U.S. government from labeling any domestic speech as “misinformation” or “disinformation” if he returns to the White House. “I will sign an executive order banning any federal department or agency from colluding with any organization, business or person to censor, limit, categorize or impede the lawful speech of American citizens. I will then ban federal money from being used to label domestic speech as mis- or disinformation,” Trump said in a pre-taped video shared with the New York Post. The former president also said he’d fire federal bureaucrats who he perceived...

The former director of Agape Boarding School pleaded with a Cole County judge on Monday to keep himself off the state’s central registry of child abuse and neglect, so he can keep working with children. Bryan Clemensen was the long-time director of the Stockton-based reform school for troubled boys until last month, he testified Monday. The Missouri Department of Social Services says it substantiated five preponderances of evidence findings against Clemensen — one count of child neglect and four of physical abuse. The department is seeking to add Clemensen’s name to the state’s child abuse and neglect central registry, a...

"This is the third coin of this type found in excavations in Jerusalem, and one of the few ever found in archeological excavations," said the researchers.During the Great Revolt against Rome, the Jews in Jerusalem minted bronze and silver coins. Most of the silver coins featured a goblet on one side, with ancient Hebrew script above it noting the year of the Revolt. Depending on its denomination, the coins also included an inscription around the border noting either, "Israel Shekel," "Half-Shekel," or "Quarter-Shekel." The other side of these coins showcased a branch with three pomegranates, surrounded by an inscription in...

As part of its “Winter Preparedness Plan” announced on Dec. 15, the Biden administration will continue its free COVID virus at-home test program to address a potential surge in the winter months. U.S. households can order four free at-home tests from CovidTests.gov. The Biden administration plans to start shipping orders during the week of Dec. 19. Complimentary tests will also be available at major food banks, according to a White House statement. The program was suspended on Sept. 2 “because Congress hasn’t provided additional funding to replenish the nation’s stockpile of tests,” the CovidTest website reported at the time. This...

Melanie Leffler, a mother of two in Sydney, Australia, had four COVID-19 vaccines. But on Nov. 19, 2022, after coming down with a sore throat and a runny nose, Leffler tested positive for COVID. She said goodnight to her family—her husband, Mick Hogan, and their two daughters, Clemmie (age four) and Lottie (9 months). They would never speak to her again.

Pennsylvania lawmakers have been busy preparing memos pitching new legislation for the 2023–2024 session. Before laws are made and before a bill is written, legislative ideas start as a memo offering a rationale for the proposed legislation. A bill based on the memo is presented at the committee level and rewritten if committee discussion calls for edits. This is a good time for the public to weigh in on new laws, but the public often does not know about proposed legislation until it is presented on the full chamber floor, if it gets that far. Sometimes the same bills are...

Tesla is completely lost on Wall Street. The electric vehicle manufacturer is having a dark year in the stock market. And those difficulties worsened on Dec. 13 with another sharp drop in the stock price of almost 4%. In all, the Tesla stock lost has lost 54.2% of its value in 2022, translating into a drop in market capitalization of nearly $600 billion. Tesla (TSLA) – is down 60%, compared to its all-time high reached in November 2021. Most worryingly, on Dec. 13, shares of the Model Y maker were down while the broader market was up. This stock market...